.i.

He finds her sitting on the hood of his car when he crosses the parking lot, heels bumping against the grill as she waits. Paul nearly chastises her for potentially damaging the paint job, but he's a bit blindsided by the way her head is tilted back, skin drinking in the sun and dark hair falling across pale shoulders.

"Need something?" he asks curtly. Bella smiles at the sound of his voice, but doesn't open her eyes.

"Let's go for a drive," she says. He goes to put his stuff in the car and realizes with a start that the top is already down. When he looks back she's got his keys dangling from her fingers, her smile now a full-blown mischievous grin.

"Didn't your dad ever tell you stealing's a crime?" he asks, dropping his stuff in the back seat. He doesn't even bother to ask how she got ahold of the keys in the first place - she'll just tell him that he's losing his edge.

"You say stealing, I say borrowing."

Paul swats at her knee. "Off."

She makes a face at him but climbs down from the hood all the same - only after a long, languid stretch that pulls the hem of her shirt well above her navel, because she knows full well the effect that it has on him. He tries for a menacing glare and settles for mild annoyance.

"Where are we goin'?" he asks.

Bella shrugs. "I don't care, I just wanna drive."