by Selena Scott
She jingled her keys in one hand, went up on her tiptoes to see over a crowd of people dispersing into the lot. And nearly swallowed her tongue.
Like something out of a movie, there was Anton. He leaned against the side of her truck, his hands jammed in the pockets of his battered jeans, a worn, flannel button-up open at the neck. He wore mirrored aviators, reflecting the world back away from him, one ankle crossed over the other. The sun slanted down over him, turning his ash brown hair a hundred shades of mahogany.
The students in the parking lot were either goggling at him, if they were into dudes, or giving him a wide berth if they weren’t. He looked like the Belarusian James Dean, scowling at the world and not giving a fuck.
The world seemed to move in slow motion and then in hyperspeed as the breath backed up in her chest.
He was so goddamn beautiful. With his five-o’clock shadow and his tight, scowling mouth. Jesus. He towered over the students who scuttled through the parking lot.
Even though she couldn’t see through his silvered sunglasses, AJ felt the second - the exact second - that he spotted her. She knew because her stomach pulled tight and her panties went instantly wet.
Basically the same reaction she got whenever she was within 100 feet of him.
“AJ? You alright?” Mark asked from beside her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
She shook the cobwebs out of her head. She kind of felt like she had. Anton never picked her up from school. Or hung around with her. Why was he here?
And what the hell was she gonna do with Mark now that Anton was liquefying her panties from twenty paces?
She knew she’d promised the girls that she would take Mark on a date. But there was no fucking way she was gonna let this guy third wheel alone time between her and Anton. Not that she thought anything would happen. But still. Come on.
They were still ten or so feet away from Anton and he smirked as he watched her fumble with her words. He wasn’t walking over to them. Like he knew she would come to him. Smug asshole.
He was right.
AJ stumbled toward him, well aware that Mark was following behind. “Yeah, I’m fine, Mark. I just didn’t expect to see my…” Now they were right in front of Anton and she was forced to find a word to define his place in her life. Friend? Not really. Savior? Maybe, but that had been a decade ago. Lover? Yeah, right. Dream on, AJ. “Brother,” she finally choked out.
Anton’s face went hard but his eyebrows raised up above his sunglasses.
“Um. Mark, this is Anton. Anton, this is Mark.”
“Oh, cool. I didn’t know you had siblings. Nice to meet you, man.” Mark held out his hand to Anton, but Anton completely ignored it. Ignored Mark.
His lips tightened into a thin line. “Get in car, Autumn.”
He was the only person who ever called her Autumn. Usually it gave her a little thrill. But right now, it bothered the crap out of her. Suddenly her desire to be alone with Anton dissolved in the heat of wanting to annoy him. How dare he order her around, call her by her full name like she was a child? If he was gonna treat her like a little sister, then she was gonna go ahead and treat him like a brother.
“Do you need a ride somewhere, Anton? Because Mark and I were just gonna-”
“Da pabačennia, Mark,” Anton snapped, his eyes never leaving AJ’s.
“Um. What?” Mark asked, looking back and forth between the two sets of glowering eyes before him. He suddenly had the feeling he was missing something.
Anton finally turned to Mark. He slowly, menacingly, raised his sunglasses. Mark had to force himself not to take a step back from what he saw there. Rage. Rage about to come out of the cage. Jesus, this guy was whacked.
“Goodbye, Mark,” Anton translated slowly, enunciating each syllable.
“Yeah, uh.” Mark did step back now, his hands in his pockets. “Seems like you guys are busy. So, uh, another time then, AJ.”
AJ’s mouth dropped open as she looked at Mark’s traitorous, retreating back. What the hell? He’d been wanting to ask her out for a long time and then he turns tail the second Anton frowns at him? Damn it. Not that she wanted to go on a date with him, really. But she was suddenly so irritated at Anton that she wouldn’t have minded giving Mark a ride home.
“Get in car, Autumn,” Anton repeated, opening the passenger side door for her in a way that was more threatening than chivalrous. There was definitely an unspoken ‘or else’ somewhere in that gesture.
AJ fought herself not to throw her hands up in frustration. Because even that, the unstoppable, rude ass bossiness, got her wet. Her body was a flipping masochist.
AJ tossed her bag onto the floor of the truck and slammed her way into the passenger seat. He had to be kidding with all this. She hadn’t asked him to come pick her up, had she? No. And now he was all angry and scaring her date away?
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window as he pulled smoothly out of the parking lot. He rolled the windows down and kicked the truck into gear. The wind tossed her hair all around and whipped the smell of him across the car. The world whizzed past, reflected in his sunglasses, the breeze tugging at his short hair and billowing up one of the sleeves of his shirt.
Part of her, the part that didn’t care about tomorrow, could almost pretend that he’d picked her up from school because he loved her. Because he wanted to be near her. And now he was driving them off somewhere they could be alone. He was driving them away from the setting sun, off somewhere he would lay her down, make her beg, show her everything she’d ever wondered about.
The seatbelt was tight across his chest and his wrist, casual on top of the steering wheel, was twice the size of hers. Everything about him, from the chest hair peeking out of the open part of his button-up, to the scowl on his face, was just so male. She shifted against her seat.
This was so ridiculous. She was certain she was giving herself away. That she was acting like a middle schooler with a crush. But. God. Those boots. Half laced and competently working the pedals.
He’d been rude, she reminded herself. She was not going to watch his big, handsome hand on the stick shift. She was not going to smell his outdoorsy scent. She was mad at him. Sort of.
Crap.
She was already melting. Just being this close to him. She was like an ice cube next to a forest fire. She never stood a chance.
CHAPTER THREE
“You do this for him?” Anton suddenly asked as he pulled off the highway and onto a little gravel road. He was taking the back route home. She knew he liked to avoid crowds at all costs. Even when he was in the car.
“What?”
“This,” he waved his hand at her tight blue dress, at the makeup on her face. “You do all this for Mark?”
He made the name sound like a curse word falling off his tongue but he couldn’t help himself. The boy she was dating had been a nothing. Even less than a nothing. He’d basically been clear. Nothing there. Insubstantial. Anton had pretty much been able to see straight through him. If it was possible to see through the plainest, least interesting slice of white bread on earth. And he hadn’t put up one second of a fight when Anton had dismissed him. He wasn’t going to at least try to fight for AJ? I mean, sure. Anton would have put him down like a stray dog. But this was a woman worth trying for.
And she’d done herself up. She was wearing a tight blue dress that hugged her the way a man’s hands might. And it was the same color as her goddamn eyes. Which were all smoky and sexy and her mouth looked like she’d been sucking on a raspberry popsicle. And that fucking Mark had just let her get in the car and drive away? What an absolute jackhole.
“I - not exactly,” she grumbled, her cheeks going pink.
“You do not dress up for your boyfriend?”
A surprised little noise squeaked out of her. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
He glanced at her, one hand on the steering wheel and the other out the window he’d rolled down. Her coconut scent was invading his brain and maki
ng him act irrationally. He knew that. Not her boyfriend. Interesting. “So if not for him, then who?”
“Anton,” she started.
“Who did you dress up for, Autumn?”
She threw her hands up in the air and her dress strained against her breasts. They were perfect, swollen handfuls that literally made his mouth water.
“I was just trying something new, Anton! So, sue me. And stop calling me Autumn.”
He was quiet for a second, his eyes on her face as he cruised the truck down the road. They hadn’t passed another car in minutes.
“Eyes on the road!” she yelped.
He glanced forward, trained his eyes back on her. “Why do you say this?”
“What? Eyes on the road? Because you’re gonna get us in an accident, you psycho.” She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted out her lips in frustration. She didn’t know it made Anton imagine that pout closing over his cock.
He swallowed hard. “No. Why do you say do not call you Autumn?”
She said nothing, just stared forward.
“It is your name, no?” he prodded her.
“You’re the only one who calls me that and it bothers me. Just call me AJ like everybody else does.”
They turned onto an even smaller road, lined with trees on either side. The setting sunlight peeked through the leaves and the forest almost glowed with it, a peachy gold. Anton frowned. “I do not like to call you AJ. It is boy’s name.” He glanced at her. “You are not boy.”
AJ scoffed and tightened her arms over her chest. “Might as well be,” she grumbled.
“What?” He must not have heard her right.
“I said,” AJ turned to him, enunciating each word carefully, “that to you, I might as well be a boy. When you look at me, it’s not like you see a woman. So I might as well be a boy with a boy’s name.”
She thought what?
Anton slammed on the brakes, yanking the truck over to the side of the road and kicking up a tornado of dust behind them. He scrubbed both hands over his face and muttered in angry Belarusian.
She was doing it again. The same thing she’d done when he’d pulled her up onto the washing machine. She was saying one thing and meaning another. She wasn’t doing it on purpose, he knew. But his heart couldn’t take it. Was she saying that she wanted him to see her as a woman? There was no way. He muttered again.
“Excuse me?” AJ asked, looking wildly around at the stand of trees he’d just parked them in. “You know I can’t understand when you speak in Belarusian.”
“I said that you know nothing, bahinia.” He spit the words at her as if they were cutting him on the way out of his mouth.
“Excuse me?” she repeated, sucking at her teeth as her temper obviously rose. “Nothing? Real nice, Anton.”
“I mean that you know nothing of what I see when I look at you.”
She gestured tightly with her hands. He’d never seen her so agitated before. “Well, tell me, then!” she yelled at him. “What is it you see?”
He didn’t stop himself. For the first time in the decade since he’d met her, he didn’t stop his body from doing what it wanted with her. Leaning toward her, Anton gripped her chin tightly in his hand, made her look right at him, their faces a few scant inches apart.
“You want to know? I see a little piece of fruit. Juicy little plum. That needs all the juice sucked right out.”
AJ’s eyes dilated instantly. Fear, was his first thought and he almost unhanded her. But then her tongue came out, slow and firm against her lower lip. Anton tracked it with his eyes. Her breath washed over his face. She was panting. Something leaped in his chest. This wasn’t fear. This was… arousal.
“W-what?” she asked, her eyes dropping to his mouth.
He pulled his aviators off and tossed them on the dash. He needed to see her clearly right now. This was a moment. This was a hell of a moment and his entire life balanced on the tip of it. Like a marble on a needle.
Was she attracted to him right now? Could she possibly want him the way he wanted her? No. Not possible. But even if she wanted him a tenth of that…
He could barely finish the thought. But there were words tumbling out of his mouth.
“I say I want to suck on you. On your sweetness.”
“I,” AJ started to speak but didn’t finish it. She shifted in her seat and Anton caught a scent. One he’d never smelled before. It was suddenly thick on the air between them. Sweet and salty and the way she smelled after her skin had been in the sun all day.
“You are wet,” he said bluntly, his mouth opening against the flavor of her on the air.
AJ blushed fiercely and ducked her head, pulling from his grip.
A thought occurred to Anton that made him want to drive back to campus, find Mark and decapitate him. “It is for him then. I smell you. Wet. And it is for him.”
AJ snapped her head up instantly, a look of surprise and confusion almost completely wiping away her embarrassment. “No!”
He paused, let her gather herself while she took a deep breath. She let it go in a thin, concentrated stream through her lips. When she looked up at him, the color was still high on her cheeks, and her hair fell over one eye. But her gaze was direct. Honest. “It couldn’t be for him. I can’t-” she broke off, took another breath. “I don’t get wet for anyone but…”
He was dimly aware of her putting a noose around his neck right now. And of himself raising one foot, about to step off the platform. There was nowhere to go from this moment except death.
“For who?” he growled. Because if he was about to fuck his entire life, then maybe he should get to taste that pretty mouth at least once before he did it.
“You,” she whispered, her eyes on his.
He deftly unbuckled both their seat belts, shoved the bench seat back from the steering wheel and dragged her onto his lap all within less than three seconds. She straddled him, up on her knees, her breath coming fast and hard, her eyes almost completely black. The blue was damn near eaten up by her arousal. For him.
She leaned over him, her hands so lightly on his shoulders. Anton’s hands landed on her knees. She wore tights. He could feel the heat of her skin. The light sprinkling of soft hair on her thigh. It made him groan in delight. She hadn’t shaved her legs for that dipshit. Because she hadn’t been planning on getting laid. Thank God. Thank sweet baby Jesus.
He let his hands trail up a bit further. Up her thighs, over the hem of her dress, straining to accommodate her spread legs.
AJ gasped as his hands landed firmly on her ass. And, oh Christ, apparently God hadn’t rested on the seventh day, he’d created AJ’s perfect, juicy ass. She was soft and made of curves and spilling out of his hands everywhere. Somewhere, he was dimly aware of not deserving this, but his body silenced that voice as he pressed her down against him.
Even through his jeans he could feel the wet heat of her. She gasped again and the sound ended on the sweetest little moan. It was a sound he could get used to. A sound that needed to be swallowed.
He ground her against him and let one hand trail up to her hair. It was silky and fragrant and he was lost in it instantly. Knotting a hand at her scalp he drew her face to his. Waited a beat. A breath. A hot, tense second.
And then he sucked her lower lip into his mouth.
Fuck, she tasted good. Like lip gloss and hibiscus tea and AJ. She tasted exactly the way she smelled. He let his tongue trace that lip. That smudgy, fuckable lip. And she moaned again, this time grinding herself into him. He was sure she could feel his cock. There was no hiding it at this point. Hard as a baseball bat and trying to tear its way through his jeans to get at her.
He couldn’t help but lift his hips the tiniest bit into her as he tugged her gently back by the hair. Staring into her eyes, so there would be no confusion, he leaned forward and completely covered her mouth with his.
Her mouth was hot and wet and a thousand times more than he’d ever imagined. Anton had never been that into ki
ssing, it was more of a means to an end for him, but in that moment, he thought he could kiss her for the rest of his life and it wouldn’t be enough.
He was dimly aware of being too intense. His tongue was everywhere inside her mouth, pressing and challenging her soft little tongue. But he couldn’t stop himself. The little strokes she was giving him were driving him insane. Her tongue stroked his so softly, sweetly. He wondered if that was how she would ride him, too. Gently. Innocently. It was like a red flag to a bull.
His hand tightened in her hair and her thighs correspondingly tightened at his hips. Her hands fisted in his shirt and he felt her soft little fingers trail along the collar, tracing a line over the skin of his throat.
She pressed herself against him again as he was drowning himself in her flavor. And then she pressed again. AJ tore her lips to one side, moaned hard as she worked herself against his jean-clad cock.
God. She was gonna make herself come just by rubbing against him. Fuck that. That orgasm was his and his alone. He held her hips up off of him and she groaned in frustration. With one hand he dragged her mouth back to his and he let the other trail up her leg, underneath the hem of her dress. Her palmed her over top of her tights and she shivered.
“Yes,” she whispered into his mouth.
Well. That was just about everything he’d been born to hear. Anton slid her tights down over her ass, but her legs were too far spread for them to go much further. He pulled his hands from her for the briefest of seconds while he unzipped one of her boots and then the other, tossing them behind him.
He pulled her up off of him just long enough to strip her tights off her before he slammed her back down over him. He was sure his jeans were rough on the sensitive skin of her thighs, but he didn’t trust himself to take them off right now.
So instead, he dragged his hands up her thighs, pushing her dress up to her hips as he went.
“Fuck,” he groaned, letting his head fall back for a second.
“What?” AJ asked, lust and anticipation warring across her face.
“You wear white panties,” he groaned. “I always picture you in white panties.”