Chapter 102 Your Lips
He grinned. “My cousin would find his way.”
Molly nodded in agreement just as Zion went through the window. She didn't see how he managed it while holding her, she just felt the cool morning air hit her legs and then they were outside on the narrow strip between the gymnasium wall and the boundary fence and she kept her face exactly where it was.
"Don't look up," he said quietly. "There are two people near the main entrance."
She had no intention of looking up.
He moved along the fence line at a pace that was faster than a walk and not quite a run, and she kept her face in his shoulder and her arms around his neck, and the morning air was cold on her bare legs and she became aware of the sound of her own heart which was substantial.
"Your heart is very loud," Zion said.
"I'm aware."
"I can hear it from here."
"I said I'm aware dammit.”
He laughed and kept going. They reached the car park and he slowed. She took a peek and looked out from under the curtain of her own hair at the school car park in the early morning, a handful of cars belonging to staff who arrived early, and near the far end, a guy was loading something into the boot of an old hatchback.
Zion walked toward the guy with the hatchback and she instantly buried her face in his neck once more.
Zion called the guy’s name causing him to turn around. He looked at Zion and then at Molly whose hands were tightening around Zion’s neck and she was trying to make herself invisible. The guy looked at her appearance and instantly smiled wildly.
"Zion," he raised a brow. "Need something?"
"I need to borrow your car," Zion said.
The guy looked at Molly again and Zion held her tighter.
"Borrow," Kofi said slowly, drawling the word out with a grin.
"Borrow," Zion confirmed, his eyes narrowing because he didn’t appreciate this guy’s wandering eyes. It doesn’t matter that he knew him, Zion was going to knock out a few teeth if he kept it up.
The guy leaned against the boot, crossed his arms, and looked at Zion with that smile growing wider by the minute. "Didn't know you had it in you man," he said. "Getting a little fuckboy era going on."
Molly felt the heat come back to her face and her grip tightened on Zion’s neck.
"The car," Zion said.
"I mean, judging from what I’m seeing, I can tell she's cute, I get it, but you could've at least—"
"I'll buy it from you," Zion said, his patience hanging by a thread. Molly slowly winced because of how tightly Zion was holding her to his chest, she was sure her thigh had begun bruising.
The guy blinked. "Sorry?"
"The car. I'll buy it. Full price, today. Give me your number and I'll transfer before noon."
The guy looked at the hatchback, which was a seven-year-old car that he had paid four thousand for, and then at Zion, before reaching into his pocket and taking out the keys.
"Deal," he said.
Zion took the keys and opened the passenger side. He was about to put Molly in, but the guy was still there. He turned to him with Molly still in his arms, identity hidden. “Leave.”
“I just wanna see her face man, I won’t—”
Zion took a menacing step towards him. “I won’t say it twice.”
“Okay man, whatever.” The guy said holding up his hands and backing up, whatever he had seen in Zion’s eyes unnerved him. So, he left.
Zion quickly put her in the car, got her comfortable, and got in himself and drove. Molly kept the jacket collar up and her face hidden until they were out of the school gates and onto the main road. Then she pulled it down and sat with her hands in her lap. She looked at the road ahead and breathed.
Zion drove and said nothing.
The car was warm, which was the main thing she needed, and the seat was comfortable, the morning outside the windows was mild grey, she let herself be comfortable and allowed her heart to slow down to something manageable.
He drove for twenty-five minutes and pulled down into an underground car park below a shopping centre that wasn't open yet, and found a bay in the empty lower level and cut the engine.
The silence was loud.
They both sat in it awkwardly. Molly looked out the passenger window at the concrete pillar in front of them. Zion was looking out the windscreen at the far wall.
"I'm sorry," he said.
She looked at him.
"For last night," he said. "The restaurant. I told you it was a social thing and it wasn't. Enzo said to find out where Grace was and I went along with it." He kept his eyes on the far wall. "That wasn't right."
Molly looked back at the pillar. "No," she said. "It wasn't."
"I should have told you."
"Yes."
Silence.
"For what it's worth," he said, "the first part of the evening was real. The conversation." He paused. "That part wasn't for Enzo."
Molly said nothing. She turned the sleeve of his jacket over in her hands, the fabric between her fingers.
More silence.
"You could make it up to me," she said.
He looked at her.
"A real one," she said, still looking at the pillar. "An actual date. That you tell me is a date before it starts."
Zion was quiet for a moment. "Yeah," he said. "I could do that."
The underground car park was very still around them. Molly could hear the faint sound of something mechanical running somewhere in the building and the distant ambient noise of the city above them and that was all.
She turned her head to look at him.
He was already looking at her, and she was aware of the distance between them which was the width of the centre console and no more, and she was aware of his eyes, the detail of his face, and the quality of his attention.
Her brows furrowed a bit as if she was having an internal argument with herself. She bit her bottom lip and slowly leaned forward.
It was a small movement, and she pressed her mouth to his and felt him go still for exactly half a second before he responded, it was a soft kiss, a brief one, then she pulled back and covered her mouth with both hands and felt the heat in her face reach a new maximum.
"Sorry," she said from behind her hands. "That was so dumb. I don't know why I did that, that was completely—" she laughed in disbelief. "Sorry."
Zion was looking at her intensely without saying a word. He didn’t look like he was breathing.
She laughed. It came out awkward and slightly too high, she shook her head and tried to look everywhere else but at him.
But without warning, Zion had grabbed her waist and pulled her to straddle him. Her gasp was cut off with his tongue already slipping into her mouth.