Free Submersed by Rachelle Vaughn Page A

alone.
                  Dillon gripped the wheel and looked over at me with a goofy grin. “This is awe some!”
                  “This car looks good on you,” I told him.
                  He didn’t say anything in return ; he just looked at me with that smile and ran his hands over the steering wheel, almost caressing it.
                  I imagined us as a couple on holiday driving through the English countryside in the spring. The car’s powerful engine would rumble beneath us. Dillon would pull over on the side of the road near the cliffs and we’d get frisky while the salty air blew in from the ocean. It would be tough to maneuver around the steering wheel and center console, but I’d manage to straddle him so our bodies could mesh together, hot and throbbing. Need would overtake us and we wouldn’t care about cars passing by on the road. Dillon would grab a fistful of my hair as I lowered onto his---
                  “ Livi ?” Dillon was asking.
                  “Huh?” I shook away the daydream and focused on Dillon’s beautiful face.
                  “I asked if you wanted to walk around some more.”
                  “Oh, yeah. Sure.” It was getting too hot inside the car anyway.
                  The image of us writhing together in the seat fogged up my mind and I walked around the rest of the cars in a bit of a daze.
                  After we’d seen every car there was to see, I started to get restless. I put my hand up to the side of my mouth to shield it from any nearby lip readers. “This is getting boring,” I whispered.              
                  “What would you rather be doing?” Dillon asked with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
                  I looked at him over my champagne glass, deciding which answer to give him. My body’s answer or my mind’s ? I went with the safest. “Honestly? I’d rather be up in my room watching a movie and eating microwave popcorn.”
                  “Well let’s go then,” he said, starting for the door.
                  “We can’t leave now,” I insisted with a sigh, pulling him back.
                  “Why not? Is there some rule that says we have to stay?”
                  “I guess not,” I answered, feeling like an eighth grader being coerced into cutting class.
                  “We made our appearance. And you’re stuck with me for the rest of the night anyway.”
                  “Oh, poor me.”
                  The idea of being “stuck” in my room with Dillon didn’t sound so bad at all. I looked around for the exit.
                  “There you two are!” Just then, Cornelia Davenport sauntered up to us with a sticky sweet smile and fused herself to Dillon’s side. “It’s so wonderful to see you made it. Have you had a chance to visit the auction area?”
                  “No, we haven’t,” Dillon replied.
                  If we had been sitting at a table, I would’ve kicked Dillon underneath it.
                  “Come on, I’ll walk over with you.” Cornelia possessively weaved her arm through Dillon’s.
                  We had no choice but to follow her.
                  “Let’s just look around for a few minutes,” Dillon coaxed me under his breath.
                  Cornelia jabbered on about the auction and all I could think about was how I was going to get out of going into that room.
                  “All proceeds are going to the Speedy Recovery Foundation,” Cornelia was saying. “It’s a great organization, Olivia. We help provide medical care for children who have leukemia.”
                  I nodded, already knowing that. That was why I decided to part