Chapter 24

• Leila
• The car growled to a stop outside my house, its engine a guttural hum that vibrated through the leather seats. Darren slumped against the door, his fingers laced with mine, clinging like he could tether me to him forever. My chest tightened as I stared at the shadowed outline of my house beyond the tinted window. This was the scene I'd clawed from my dreams - a perfect date, a beautiful man delivering me home, my pulse hammering with the weight of what might come next.
• Would he kiss me goodbye? The question gnawed at me, feral and insistent.