A/N: Minor spoilers for Silence Fallen begin in this chapter. Happy reading!

Chapter Ten

"Wellllcome to the freaky zooone," I sang under my breath.

"Yup." Izzy agreed, taking a sip of her mocha. "Freakytown, U.S.A.."

Izzy and I were seated by the front window of the Bean Counter, our favorite local coffee joint, and blatantly people-watching. Or, more accurately, we were fae-spotting.

It had been three weeks since the fae had signed the treaty - which, among other things, had made the Tri-Cities a neutral zone for dealing with the fae. One of the unexpected results of this was that the fae had begun walking around without their glamours on.

Now, anywhere you went, you might encounter an un-glamoured fae who was made entirely of leaves. Or who resembled a giant grasshopper. Or who, instead of walking, simply hovered several feet off the ground at all times.

"Hey now," said the barista, as he delivered my iced chai. "Who are you calling freaky?"

"No one in particular," I said. "Although I did see a fae with arms that looked like they were made of bubbles this morning. That was pretty freaky."

"Don't be prejudiced," he said, and dropped a kiss on my forehead. Which wasn't as inappropriate as it sounds, considering the barista was also Tad.

"It's not prejudice," I said. "It's a subjective assessment of seeing someone with tentacles for arms."

"I thought you said they were made of bubbles."

"They were. They were like...weird bubble tentacle thingies."

Tad arched an eyebrow at me. "You know, to the tentacle-armed, maybe you're the one who looks freaky.

"Hmm." I held out my arms and made a show of examining them, wiggling my fingers. "That's fair," I conceded. "If I was used to having bubbly suction cups all over my appendages, I'd probably be freaked out by bones and flesh, too."

Izzy gave a snort of laughter, but Tad just shook his head at me and dropped another kiss on my head before heading back behind the counter. I watched him go, staring unabashedly as he started speeding through the pile of drink tickets that had somehow accumulated in the minute it had taken him to deliver my chai.

Maybe I was a dope, but I loved watching him work: his quick, sure movements, the steady rhythm he fell into as he worked, the way he still managed to smile and charm everyone as he handed out their drinks, no matter how backed up the Bean Counter got.

Also, every time I looked at him now, I had a tendency to get distracted, thinking about the way those hands felt when they were on my waist. The way his hair felt between my fingers. The way his smile looked when it was lit up just for me.

"Earth to Jesse," Izzy said.

"Shh," I said. "I'm fae-watching." I turned back in time to see Izzy roll her eyes.

She ate some of the whipped cream off her mocha with a spoon. "So what's the countdown?" she said.

I sighed and jabbed my straw at the ice cubes in my drink. "Sixteen and a half." Days, that is.

Just a little less than three weeks left before Tad packed up and moved across the country. Again. Now that the dust had settled between him, Zee, and the Gray Lords, Tad had a life to get back to. Classes. Friends. An Ivy League scholarship.

Thousands and thousands of miles away from me.

Not that I could blame him, of course. It would've been crazy for him to stick around here making lattes when Harvard had agreed to re-admit him for spring quarter. But it was impossible not to feel a little bummed. Especially considering things were going really well between us. Like...even more awesome than expected. Next-level awesome.

Maybe I should back up, because it's all kind of important.

"I have nothing to wear. How do I have nothing to wear?!" I wailed into the phone.

"Oh, dear," Izzy said. "I knew I should have come over in person."

"Tad's going to be here in fifteen minutes. Haaalp!"

"O-m-g. Calm down, woman. Look, I am all about helping you pick out the world's most perfect date outfit, but may I remind you that this is Tad? He's totally into you. You've already made out with him, like, ten times."

"Six times," I mumbled. Not that I was keeping track or anything.

"Whatever. My point is, Tad would be into you even if you showed up wearing a potato sack. In fact, you can probably go in whatever you're wearing right now."

"Right now I'm wearing my bathrobe."

"Oh. Well...it's not the most orthodox first-date outfit, but somehow I don't think Tad will mind."

"Izzy!"

My best friend's gleeful laughter came cackling over the phone.

"And now I only have twelve minutes," I fumed. "You're no help at all. I'm hanging up."

"Wait! No, no. I'm sorry. I'll focus. Let's think through this logically. Where are you guys going?"

"Dinner and a movie."

"Okay. So you'll be sitting in the dark half the time. Definitely something comfy-ish, then. Where are you going to eat? Someplace fancy?"

"Probably not."

"Great. Put on some jeans."

I stared at the pairs of jeans strewn all over my floor. "What kind of jeans?"

"JEANS," Izzy said. "COMFY ONES."

Sometimes I loved Izzy, and sometimes she was very bossy. And sometimes I loved her because she was very bossy. "Okay," I said. I rifled through the reject pile and put on some jeans.

"Awesome. Now put on that black sleeveless top with the V-neck and bring your black sweater so you don't freeze in the movie theater."

"The black top?" I said dubiously. I knew exactly which top she was talking about. I'd already put it on and rejected it three times.

"YES," Izzy said. "It's baller. Wear it with the gold dangly earrings and own it. LIKE A BOSS."

I dug through the pile of clothes that had accumulated on my desk chair and pulled out the black top. It had a nice gather under the bust and managed to look kind of dressy without being overly fancy. I slipped it on and it somehow looked better than all the previous times I'd tried it on. "You're right. This is a great top."

"Duh," Izzy said. "Now do something with your hair and explain to me why you are freaking out so much."

"Augh. I don't know," I groaned, even though I did. I put my phone on speaker and set it on my dresser while I ran a brush through my hair. Speakerphone was usually a mistake in my house. But I had my whole noise-canceling fan system going at full force, so hopefully if I kept my own voice down nobody would overhear much. "I just kept trying on outfits and everything felt wrong."

"Wrong?" Izzy echoed. "Wrong how?"

"I don't know," I said again, straightening out my part. "It's just that Tad's known me forever. He's seen me a zillion different ways. But tonight is different. I wanna look different. You know...date-worthy."

"Well, not to be totally obvious or anything, but Tad already thinks you're date-worthy. That is why he asked you on a date."

"I know. But...you get what I'm saying, right?"

Izzy sighed. "I do. But I'm telling you: Tad won't care what you're wearing. I was serious about the potato sack thing. I've seen the way he looks at you."

I tried to ignore the sudden familiar thwomp-thwomp in my chest. "How does he look at me?"

"Oh, you know. All shiny-eyed. Like he wants to get in your pants and build a temple in your honor all at the same time."

I let out a snort of laughter. "Izzy!"

"What? It's true. It's nauseating and adorable all at the same time."

"I think you are exaggerating," I said, as I leaned toward the mirror to inspect my make-up.

"Pfffbt. I think that you are too busy having your own goo-goo eyes to notice."

"I do not have goo-goo eyes," I grumbled, although I was pretty sure that even over the phone Izzy could tell I was blushing. Which was making it really hard to determine whether or not I needed more blush.

"Oh, really? That's what you're going with, miss I-have-nothing-to-wear?"

"Oh, shut it," I said, and touched up my mascara to the sound of Izzy snickering.

"Well, you have like two minutes left. Are you done freaking out yet?"

"Mostly."

"Good. You're gonna do great. Call me later and tell me everything."

"Thanks, Iz."

"Anytime."

We hung up, and I put the finishing touches on my makeup, attempting to take Izzy's advice and just chill out. But even though I knew my outfit looked fine and that the date would be great because I was going with Tad, the truth was...it wasn't just about wanting to look different tonight. It wasn't just about going on a date.

The reason I'd rejected a bazillion outfits and started freaking out was because I already felt different. So much had happened these past few weeks. Bridge trolls, Kid Groper, Fae attacks. Semi-suicidal missions to Underhill that I wasn't allowed to participate in; sudden, unexpected popularity at school; falling in like with Tad.

And with the fae signing the treaty and the pack somehow becoming the supernatural police force of the Tri-Cities, our whole city was different now, too.

So everything I put on these days felt like it belonged to some previous incarnation of me. One who hadn't killed a fae - or kissed one, either.

The doorbell rang, jolting me out of my thoughts, and I grabbed my purse and hurried downstairs so Tad wouldn't be stuck alone in the front hall with my dad.

As of last week, Tad and Zee weren't living with us anymore. Unfortunately. Now that all the beef between Zee and the Gray Lords had been sorted out, and the Tri-Cities had become a neutral zone, Zee was no longer required to live on the reservation. So he and Tad had moved back into their old house, which apparently Zee had never sold.

Which I knew was a good thing for them, especially in the long run. And my dad definitely approved of it, given the recent developments between me and Tad. But I'd been a little bummed about no longer having constant access to Tad. At least until I realized he was going to use "hanging out with Aiden" as an excuse to come over and see me practically every day.

To be fair, we actually did spend a lot of time hanging out with Aiden. The two-thousand-year-old kid still had a lot to learn about the modern world, and no no way I was leaving it up to Tad and the pack to be his sole source of education. Sometimes Izzy even came over and helped. You know, to lend more of a female perspective on modern times.

Aiden claimed to dislike our tutoring - "You two are always laughing at me," he'd pout, and Izzy would say, "With you, Aiden. We're definitely laughing with you." - but secretly I was beginning to think he had kind of a crush on Izzy. He never left when she was there. Unlike when it was just me, Tad, and Aiden; sometimes Aiden would get so sick of us flirting he'd make gagging noises and leave the room.

I couldn't make up my mind whether it was weird for Aiden to have a crush on Izzy because he looked like he was eleven, and was therefore way too young for her, or if it was weird because I knew he actually had a couple of millennia under his belt and was therefore way too old.

As I turned into the front hall, I saw that my fears of Tad being alone with my dad were unfounded. He was standing in the front hall with my dad, Mercy, and Aiden, and even though Tad couldn't have been inside for more than a minute, Aiden had already embroiled him in conversation. My dad was standing there with his arms crossed, exuding power in that quiet Alpha-werewolf way he had. His gaze was directed somewhat menacingly toward Tad, who was either totally unconcerned about my dad's posturing or just really good at pretending he didn't notice.

Mercy caught sight of me first and smiled. "You look great, Jesse," she said.

Tad's head snapped up, totally interrupting his conversation with Aiden. His gaze met mine, and all my jitters felt sort of zapped away by the smile that lit up his face. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," I said, taking in the sight of Tad all dressed up. For the first time in living memory he was wearing a button-down shirt and what looked like a new pair of jeans. As opposed to his usual uniform of a T-shirt and a pair of jeans that had definitely spent time in a garage somewhere. "What's with the convention in the front hall?" I asked. "Are we having a council of war or something?"

"Just here to see you off," Mercy said lightly, putting a hand on my dad's arm. He relaxed maybe a fraction.

"Have a good time," my dad said. "Be back by ten."

"Dad, it's the weekend. My curfew's midnight."

My dad's eyes were laser-focused on Tad. "Except for tonight. Your curfew's ten."

It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. I sidled up next to Tad in the hopes my dad would turn his focus on me instead of my date. "The movie doesn't start until like 8:30. We won't be able to make it home before ten."

"Fine. Ten-thirty."

Okay, now I did roll my eyes. I walked over and gave my dad a kiss on the cheek. "Love you. I'll see you at midnight."

Mercy gave me a hug. "Be safe," she said.

"See you later, pipsqueak," I said, patting Aiden on top of the head. He scowled up at me.

"You know that is not my name."

I gave him a cheeky grin. "Yep," I said, grabbing the front door handle. "Bye!"

Tad made a point of reaching over to hold open the door for me. "We'll be safe," he promised.

"Ten o'clock!" my dad said as the door shut behind us.

I turned back and glared at the door. "Midnight," I said in a perfectly normal voice, because I knew he could still hear me just fine. I thought I heard Mercy's laughter and a low murmur on the other side. I grabbed Tad's hand. "Come on, let's get out of here or we'll be arguing about this all night."

Hands clasped, we raced down the front steps toward the car. Or, I guessed it was probably Zee's car, because it was nice. Mustang. Cherry-red. I didn't know what year, but it was definitely wasn't from this decade. I let out a low whistle as we approached. "Nice wheels."

"You like?" Tad said, grinning from ear to ear.

"I mean, you could've picked me up on a moped and I would've been happy, but yeah. It's beautiful. What'd you have to sign over to Zee to borrow it? A kidney?"

"Actually, it's mine," Tad said, sounding a little smug.

"No way," I said, gaping at Tad as he opened the passenger-side door. "How long have you had this?"

"A while, actually. I bought it as a junker when I was fifteen. Mostly just to annoy my dad."

"Why would your dad be annoyed about this car? This car is amazing."

The pride on Tad's face was so adorable it made me want to keep complimenting his car indefinitely. But Tad looked over his shoulder, casting a nervous glance back at the house, and gestured for me to get in. "Why don't we get out of here and I'll tell you the story?"

"Okay," I said, biting back a smile. Well, at least I wasn't the only one feeling a little jittery.

I got in and Tad shut my door for me, then jogged around the front of the car to slide into the driver's seat.

Confession time: I'd always found the whole opening-car-doors-for-girls thing kind of annoying. Mostly because it's so inefficient. Holding a normal door open, sure. What was the point in me sitting around waiting for somebody to operate a door handle when I was perfectly capable of getting in and out of a car on my own?

But the way Tad did it made it feel like he wasn't just doing it as an empty gesture. It felt like he was doing it because he wanted to take care of me, and that brought a whole rush of warm and fluttery feelings that made me feel like the whole car-door thing wasn't such a stupid form of chivalry after all.

Tad cranked the engine, and his Mustang roared to life. A nice, throaty sound. He shot a smile over at me. "You ready?"

I grinned back, clicking my seatbelt into place. "Let's peel this baby out and give my dad a heart attack." I was pretty sure the roar of the engine was loud enough that my dad couldn't overhear. Like eighty-five percent sure.

But Tad just quirked an eyebrow at me and said, "Not on your life." I made a face at him as we pulled away from the house.

"All right, grandpa. Putz-putz-putz. Let's just drive the speed limit all the way there."

"Yes. And all the way back," Tad agreed. "Unless you want your dad to forbid me from ever going anywhere alone with you again. Then we can drive as fast as you want."

"Hmm," I said. "You're sounding pretty confident over there. Who said there's gonna be a second date?"

"Ha. Who are you kidding? You're gonna come on a second date just to see my car again."

I couldn't help laughing as we rounded the curve that took us out of sight of the house, and then it was just the two of us alone.

"Do you think your dad was serious?" Tad said. "About getting you back by ten?"

"Pffbt. No. My curfew's midnight on the weekends, as long as he knows where I am and who I'm with. We agreed on that a long time ago."

"He sounded serious."

"Did you hear Mercy say my curfew was ten o'clock?"

"No."

"Then it's midnight."

A smile crept across Tad's face. "Fair enough."

"So tell me about this car," I said, patting the dashboard. "Why'd it piss your dad off?"

"It's not German," Tad said. "Dad doesn't like working on American cars. Says they're put together wrong."

I laughed again. "Well, I guess that makes sense. I never really thought about it before, but he does own a Volkswagen shop.

"Did," Tad said, as we turned onto the main road. "It's Mercy's now."

"True. I hope she gets it up and running again soon. I can tell she misses it."

"Yeah," Tad said. He tried to sound casual, but something in his tone made me look over. I recognized the sudden tightness in his expression and frowned.

"Tad, you don't feel guilty about that, do you?"

"What? No," Tad said tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "Although, I mean, it was pretty much my fault the place got wrecked."

"What?" I said. "Tad, you were fighting a lava monster. I'm pretty sure it was the lava's fault."

Tad shrugged, fiddling with the A/C. "I guess wherever we fought would've been totally wrecked."

"Yeah," I agreed. And then, because he clearly wasn't going to say it, I added, "But it still sucks that you were one of the people who had to wreck your dad's old shop." I reached over and put my hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

To my surprise, Tad grabbed my hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing the back of it.

"Let's talk about something else," he said.

"Okay. Um...how about spelunking?"

"Spelunking?" Tad said. "Have you been spending a lot of time in caves lately that I'm unaware of?"

"No. It was just the first thing that popped into my head."

"I think you need to get your head checked."

Now I whacked him on the shoulder. "Fine. You pick the topic, if you're going to be picky."

"All right. I choose you," Tad said.

"Me? What about me?"

Tad took his eyes off the road for a second to look at me. I couldn't tell if it was his gaze or his words, but a flush went to my cheeks and a shiver ran down my spine as he said, "Everything."

As it turned out, everything was a pretty good summary of what we talked about. Tad and I had known each other for almost a decade, but until these past few weeks we hadn't spent much time together, or talked about anything other than surface stuff. We had a lot of ground to cover.

And once we got to the restaurant, it occurred to us that since we were both connected to Mercy, we shared a lot of the same stories - but with completely different perspectives. So we spent pretty much all of dinner comparing notes, piecing together various Mercy adventures that we'd both seen unfold from afar. I'd been purposely sheltered for a lot of it, and Tad had been away at college for most of it. But, to my very great annoyance, Tad seemed to know a lot more than I did about almost every Mercy adventure. Because, unlike with me, neither Mercy nor Zee had felt the need to filter what they said to him.

So over a giant pizza and an unnecessary amount of appetizers, I was finally able to fill in some gaps that had been bugging me for years. Such as how exactly Mercy had managed to defeat a river monster with a walking stick. And what all had gone on the first time Mercy had met her real dad, aka Coyote.

Tad also told me the story of how Mercy had ended up working in Zee's shop. Considering Zee had always been very nice to me (in his grumpy old man sort of way), it was beyond amusing to learn that Zee had been so opposed to working with Mercy that he'd fired her every day for like a month. Tad had to keep hiring her back until Zee caved.

No wonder Tad felt so awful about the shop. Zee may have been the one fixing cars, but Tad had clearly been the one running everything. That was back when I knew who Tad was, but hadn't known him or Mercy especially well.

And, according to Tad, that was the time in Mercy's life when everything was pretty quiet and normal. Aside from her being a coyote shifter working as a mechanic for an ancient iron-kissed fae, of course.

Part of the reason I didn't have a ton of memories of Mercy's relative normal-ness was because my family was blowing apart apart with my parents' divorce. By the time I really got to know Mercy, it seemed like her life (and my dad's life, by association) was constantly on fire. So I'd had to become a master genius spy detective to figure out what was actually going on in my dad's life.

"Nobody told me anything," I said, pulling a piece of pepperoni off my pizza and popping it into my mouth. "And I mean anything. Even when I knew for sure something was going on, my dad always told me not to worry about it. Like that was gonna reassure me," I said, rolling my eyes. "For a long time, the only person who told me actual facts was Mercy, and even then I still had to do a lot of connect-the-dots for myself. I mean, I still kind of have to do that. But at least now I have more sources of information. Did you know my dad forbid most of the pack from even being in the same room with me until I was like fifteen?"

"What?" Tad said, pulling apart a breadstick and dipping a chunk of it in garlic sauce. "Why'd he do that?"

"Fatherly paranoia, I guess." I shrugged. "I personally don't think any of the pack would have hurt me. But I guess now I can see his point. There were things I didn't understand when I was younger. Like how tenuous the pack hierarchy was at one point."

"I think I remember something about Mercy worrying that Darryl was trying to take over the pack at one point."

"Yep. That was a fun one," I muttered. Tad gave me a curious look, so I took a deep breath and said, "That was the one where I got kidnapped."

"Oh, right. That one," Tad said flatly, a dark look crossing his face. I realized this was something else Tad and I shared. We both, unfortunately, knew what it felt like to be locked up and held against your will.

I stretched my hand across the table and Tad took it, curling his hand around mine. His expression turned pained as he gave my hand a squeeze, and I knew that this was one thing we both wished we did not have in common.

"How are we doing over here?"

I jumped in surprise. It was our waitress, stopping by to check on us. I'd forgotten we were in a restaurant.

Tad recovered more quickly than I did. "We're doing great, thanks," he said, giving our waitress, a nice older lady, his most charming smile.

"Did we leave any room for dessert?" the waitress asked.

Tad looked over at me. "Actually, we should probably head over to the - oh, crap," I said, checking the time on my phone.

"What?" Tad said.

"We totally missed the movie. It's like nine o'clock already."

"What? No way," Tad said, and I held up the phone so he could see.

We looked at each other and started laughing.

"Whoops," I said, my cheeks flushing slightly. "Now what?"

"Well...do you want dessert?" Tad said, gesturing at the waitress, who was patiently standing there and waiting like we weren't wasting her time.

"Um...no, actually. I think I'm good."

Tad nodded. "Just the check then, please."

The waitress had come prepared. "Whenever you're ready," she said, and set the check down before whisking our empty plates away.

Tad grabbed the check before I could even peek at it. He tucked a couple bills inside, and tossed it back on the table with a sigh of relief. "Well, there it is. The last vestiges of hot dog man, vanquished!"

A smile quirked my lips. "We could go half and half on that, you know."

"What? Don't be ridiculous. I told you. This is a REAL date."

His indignation was kind of adorable. I attempted to mask my reaction to it by saying, "Okay."

Tad gave me a look like he thought I might argue further. When I didn't, his expression relaxed and he said, "Well, what do you want to do now? Seeing as we're totally missing the movie."

I shrugged, biting my lip, even though I knew exactly what I wanted. "I don't care," I said, and lifted my gaze to his. "I just want to be alone with you."

In the car, Tad offered me a peppermint. I took it, and tried to tell my heart to calm the eff down as I popped it in my mouth. But the thwomp-thwomp-thwomp persisted as we pulled away from the pizza joint. Because we were both sucking on peppermints. We both wanted to get the taste of pepperoni and garlic out of our mouths. We both wanted...

I twisted my purse strap between my fingers and told myself to get a grip. It wasn't like we'd never made out before, for Pete's sake.

But...we'd never been alone like this before. Even when we were out in the woods, we'd always been within walking distance of the house. And it had never been in the context of a date.

I cleared my throat. "So where are we going?"

"I told you. I know a place," Tad said mysteriously.

"A place where you take all your girls?"

"Nah. Just Lola," he said.

"Lola?" I said, raising my eyebrows. I didn't know anyone named Lola, and I was surprised at the sudden pang of jealousy that went through me.

"Yep," Tad said, patting the dashboard fondly. "Lola."

I let out a relieved laugh. "You named your car Lola?"

"Sure. Why, doesn't she look like a Lola?"

"I guess. I just didn't peg you as a car-namer, that's all."

"Don't listen to her, Lola," Tad whispered to his dashboard. "She doesn't understand." He glanced over to see my reaction, and caught my bewildered look. "You don't name a car," he explained. "A car just...has a name. If you really get to know it, you'll find out what the name is."

"Ah, I see," I said, even though mostly what I saw was that Tad was a huge dork. "Did Zee pass along this car wisdom to you?"

"No. He thinks I'm crazy. All his names for cars are Old German curse words."

"Ooh, can you teach me some of those?"

"Maybe later," Tad said, and reached over to take my hand. He laced his fingers through mine. Warmth shot up my arm and straight to my brain, bursting into that familiar tingly sensation that made it hard to focus. On anything but Tad, anyway.

"So...speaking of Lola," I managed. "Why was she in storage?"

"I couldn't bring her to college with me. The engine's okay, but not good enough for a cross-country trek yet."

"Uh-oh. We're not in danger of being stranded, are we?"

"Nah. I've been tuning her up the past couple days. She's good for city driving, but if I really wanted to take her long-distance, I'd need a new transmission."

"And I'm guessing that'd be expensive?"

"For this model? Very. But that's all part of the ten-year plan."

"You have a ten-year plan?"

"Sure. Although I got a little sidetracked, so I might have to bump it to a fifteen-year plan to give me some wiggle room."

"Probably smart. Life has a way of being unpredictable," I said softly, tracing the back of his hand.

"No kidding," Tad said, glancing over at me. He gave my hand a gentle squeeze and we fell silent for a while. I leaned back into my seat, feeling happy and full, and just listened to the radio as Tad drove out of town and into the country. Eventually, he turned onto a dirt road I'd never noticed before. It led to a little clearing that overlooked the river.

In the distance, I could see the stretch of highway where Cable Bridge should have been. Only now, instead of the shape and lights of the bridge to mark its spot, all I could see were the blinking red lights of the barricades on either side of the river, where the roads now came to a dead end above the rushing water.

Tad let go of my hand to shift the car into park. He killed the engine, and the headlights and the radio went off with it. Then it was just us alone together in the dark. I could hear the sound of crickets, and I had my gaze directed toward the wide, dark expanse of the river below us, but in truth all of my senses were attuned to the shape and radiating warmth of the person sitting right next to me. I could feel his gaze moving over me like a touch.

"Jesse..." he said quietly. His fingers gently grazed my arm, and as though I'd been waiting for a cue, I turned and grabbed for him. I latched onto the front of his shirt and dragged him the rest of the way toward me, welcoming his mouth as it collided with mine. He tasted a little bit like peppermint, but mostly he just felt like Tad. The sensation of his tongue meeting mine sent spirals of heat racing through me, and I wasn't sure if it was him or me who let out a quiet groan as the kiss got deeper. I leaned closer, wanting more, and-

Jerked to a stop. I still had my seatbelt on.

I fumbled for the latch, and when it released I flung the stupid seatbelt behind me - Tad had to let go of me for a second so I could get rid of the thing - and then I twisted around, kneeling on the seat so I could kiss Tad full on without having to strain for a good angle. Tad's hands went into my hair, and we kissed until I was half-senseless; until all the worry and angst and fear I'd been carrying around for the last few weeks felt like they'd been drained out of me, and I filled up again on heat and sweetness and desire.

We broke apart again as Tad took off his own seatbelt, and then he grabbed me by the waist and dragged me right over into his lap. Since neither of us were interested in breaking off the kiss long enough to get properly situated, I ended up laying on the horn a couple times with my butt. I giggled into his mouth as he fumbled for something with his left hand, and then suddenly his seat leaned all the way back and I went tumbling on top of him. We both stretched out, and my legs tangled with his as he hitched me up and our lips found each other again.

We kissed for I don't know how long. Long enough for us to fall into a slow, deep rhythm. Long enough for my lips to feel puffy. Long enough for us to get so wrapped up in one another that all I could taste, all I could sense, all I could think about was him.