by Ruthie Knox
Want me, she thought. Want me, and I’ll so make it worth your while.
“It’s a long t-time.”
“It’s an eternity.”
“When we get to Camelot, I’m going to disappear into my house, and I’m going to be working around the clock and forgetting to eat and shave and shower, because that’s what I do when I’m deep into something like this.” His hand moved slowly up her thigh. His voice had gotten deeper, with gravel in it. “But then I’m going to finish, and I’m going to call you up.”
“I’ll bring you a pizza.”
It was an inanity, but with Sean’s hand at the junction of her legs, she counted it as a miracle that she could speak at all.
“I can’t do anything long-term,” he said.
“You mentioned that.”
“But if you want to—if you want m-me, I mean. If you still want me. I’m attracted to you. You must know that.”
“I had an inkling, but …”
“But what?”
“Well, you have to admit, you’ve been sending some mixed signals.”
He put pressure on the seam of her jeans with his knuckle and said, “Let me c-clear them up.”
“Ohh … kay.”
“I want you. I’ve wanted you for months.”
“You have?”
“I went to bed last night, and I c-closed my eyes, and all I could think about was how I’d had a chance to get you naked and I’d fucked it up.”
Katie had to pull herself together. She had to. “Really?”
“I saw myself peeling off that shirt you were wearing and touching you. Kissing you. Pushing you back on the c-couch and sinking inside you, and I have to tell you, now I c-can’t think about anything else. I want you. I want inside you.”
He glanced at her, as if to make sure what he’d said hadn’t shocked her. It had, though. It sent such a jolt of pleasure through her, she thought she might pass out.
“I wanted you in my room last night, and I want you right now, in the back of the c-car, and I want you in a bed, for hours, until neither one of us can move.”
She needed to formulate some kind of reply. Anything. But the only sound her mouth could make with his hand on her crotch and that gravelly, filthy, overwhelming speech ringing in her ears was a helpless little moan.
It didn’t matter. Sean got the idea. He put on his turn signal and started looking for somewhere to pull over.
Chapter Twenty-two
Sean needed to kiss her. That was all he was going to do until she had a chance to think about what he’d told her, but fuck, he needed to do it.
He scanned the shoulder for a place to put the truck. Privacy wasn’t an issue—the snow was coming down thick and fast, it was late, and hardly anybody else was on the road—but placement was. It had been snowing on and off for a couple of days, and plowed mounds of snow filled a lot of the territory at the side of the road.
There was hasty, and then there was just plain dumb. He was trying to stay on the right side of the line, but his pulse was racing, and it was hard to concentrate on anything but anticipating what her mouth would feel like. How she would taste.
Such a bad idea. He no longer cared. He would deal with the fallout tomorrow.
Katie raised her hips so his hand wedged tighter between her thighs. “I think … I think we need to … set some parameters.”
“I just want to k-kiss you.”
“You can’t park on the interstate.”
“Sure I c-can. It’s an emergency.”
“No, I mean, you’re not supposed to …”
She said something then, something featuring the words “illegal” and “blizzard” and “not safe,” but he was busy throwing the car in park, flipping on the hazards, unbuckling her seat belt, and dragging her across the space between the seats.
When he had her in his lap, her knees on either side of his hips, he cupped her neck in one hand and gave her one last chance to back out. “Is this okay?”
In the dim interior of the truck, her face seemed fragile, her eyes huge. She looked vulnerable and alive and real in a way Sean couldn’t quite understand. It was as if everyone else moved through his world in black-and-white, and Katie came at him in Technicolor. He wanted to know what it felt like to take a piece of her and pull it inside himself. He wanted to kiss her so bad, he ached with it.
She nodded.
With gentle pressure, he pulled her closer until their lips were just a few inches apart. The private scent of her settled around him, faded remnants of her lemony perfume, laundry detergent, shampoo. The more intimate smell of Katie’s body at the end of a long day. His dick roused to it with a throb that made him wince. “This is wuh-what you want?”
She dropped her head and brushed her mouth over his, and it was the only thing that mattered. Her warmth. Her breath against his mouth. The exploratory slide of her tongue along his bottom lip. The nip of her teeth as he held himself still and let her investigate, because it seemed important that this time Katie be allowed to take the lead. He’d stolen their first kiss. Let her have this one.
She took it with a confidence and enthusiasm he hadn’t prepared for, and his hands slipped away from where he’d told them to stay and began to memorize the territory of her body. The dip at her waist. The toned muscles of her upper arms and the delicate shape of her shoulder blades. Her hips. Her ass.
Sean angled his head and anchored his fingers in her silky hair. He took control, turning the kiss into a seduction because he wanted more of her. He wanted all of her, and this mating of their mouths wasn’t going to be enough. He needed to get lost in it, to let go of everything and be with Katie—inside Katie, on top of Katie, touching Katie for an hour. Just an hour.
She could have his control for an hour.
Gripping her hips tight, he pressed up against her heat as she put her hands on his face, smoothed her thumbs over his cheekbones, and kissed him back with a fervor that told him she wanted this as badly as he did.
They sank into it, making out like teenagers who had no idea what came next. Kissing for timeless minutes that melted the icy casing of his self-control until he couldn’t remember who he was supposed to be with Katie and didn’t care. His shameless hands roamed all over her, raking down her torso, up her thighs. Discovering the shape and weight of her breasts. She pushed into his erection, moaned and purred and set him alight.
“You are so fucking hot,” he said, his mouth against her neck as his fingers found their way to the hook of her bra and released her breasts into his palms. She made a hitching little sound in the back of her throat that completely slayed him.
“And those noises—” He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, and she gasped. “K-keep doing that, sweetheart, and I’m going to make this so worth your while.”
“Oh,” she said. “Oh … Wait, what’s ‘this’?”
“ ‘This’ is what we’re about to do in the back,” he mumbled, shoving her shirt up and out of his way so he could lower his mouth to her breast. “For a very long time.”
“See, but we’re not,” she said, cradling the back of his head and pulling him closer. “I’m—Oh, man. Oh, Sean, don’t stop doing that, because—” And then he licked her nipple and she ground against him and stopped protesting. He was too busy smelling and tasting her, too enthralled with the texture of her nipples against his tongue and the heat between her legs to worry about anything at all.
When he sucked, Katie began to grind more insistently against him, and there was way too much denim between them, way too many layers of fabric keeping him from sinking inside her. Her jeans were a tight, stretchy Fort Knox, their removal presenting a serious challenge to his sex-addled brain.
“The backseats fold down,” he said, his thumbs settling over her hipbones as he pulled her tighter, closer. As close as he could get her, but not nearly close enough.
“I’m not—Mmm … oh! Oh, for fuck’s sake, I am, aren’t I?”
“I hope so.
You’ve got to say ‘yes’ first.”
He forced himself to take his hands to neutral territory, knowing that if he pushed her into sex and she regretted it later, he’d find it difficult to live with himself.
She lifted her head. The sight of her flushed cheeks and swollen lips rolled right over his resolve. Sean kissed her again. Again. Thrusting up against her, dangling over a cliff.
“C-clark?”
“Hmm?”
“Say yes.”
She only moaned. He redoubled his efforts, sliding his hands down to splay over her taut stomach. It was when he started looking for the button on her jeans that he saw the pulsing amber light, and even then it took him the span of seven or eight seconds to figure out what was about to happen. Seven or eight seconds for the rumbling noise of the plow to become deafening as it shoved a couple feet of wet snow around them and completely blocked in the SUV.
Both of them stared out the window at the place where the plow had been.
“I told you you can’t pull over on the highway in a snowstorm,” she said. “You might get plowed in.”
“Thanks.”
She gave his shoulder a playful shove and smiled, her profile bathed in the blue light of the dashboard. “Little late to be thanking me. You should’ve listened before.”
“I had other things on my mind.”
“That’s not your mind.”
“It is when I’m around you,” he said with a grin.
Katie looked at him full-on, the impact of her smile enough to make his heart hurt.
Mine.
But even as some primitive, senseless part of him claimed her, he knew rationally it wouldn’t last. Couldn’t. He was borrowing time.
“I don’t suppose you have a shovel in the back I didn’t notice earlier,” she said.
“Nope.”
“You have Triple A?”
“Nope.”
“Me, neither.”
Sean got his phone out, determined the location of the closest tow service, and gave them a call. Katie got off his lap and went back to her own seat, which was more comfortable but less enjoyable.
When he hung up, she asked, “A few hours?” She’d been listening to the call.
“They’re busy.”
“Any point in trying another place?”
“It’s snowing all over New York.”
“So probably not much point.”
“Probably not.” He could think of a lot of fates worse than a few hours stuck here with Katie.
“About those parameters,” she said, biting her lip.
Shit.
“Yeah?”
“We’re going to have to talk them over sometime.” She leaned closer and grabbed a fistful of his sweater, pulling him close for a swift kiss. “But I’m fairly sure your car is a parameter-free zone.”
“Thank you,” he said, and he kissed her back, cupping a breast in his hand.
She smiled against his mouth. “I’m not doing you a favor. I expect you to make this worth my while.”
“I will, I p-promise.” He kissed her neck, her jaw, the space behind her ear. The last one made her shiver, and he filed that away. Useful information.
When his thumb found her nipple again, she inhaled hard. “The seats fold down, you say?”
“Mmm-hmm. And I have half a dozen c-condoms in my bag. Want me to show you all the nasty things I can do to you in a parameter-free zone?”
“Now you’re talking, Buster.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Katie waited in the front while Sean worked out how to get the seats out of the way.
“Should I find the manual?”
One knee on the floor, wedged between the driver’s seat and the bench in the back of the SUV, Sean threw her a grin that made her dizzy. “I’ll ffigure it out.”
By the time she’d checked the gas gauge—near full, thank goodness—and turned down the heat slightly, hoping it would save fuel, he had the seats stowed. She marveled at the little oasis of clean, flat carpet he’d created.
“I didn’t even know they made cars that did that.”
“Gotta love Japanese engineering.”
He handed up their luggage so she could pile it in the passenger seat. After unzipping his own bag, he unearthed a ribbon of condoms, then handed the duffel over.
“C-come here,” he said, beckoning with the crook of his finger. “I’ve got a c-couple of adolescent fantasies you’re gonna make come true.”
“Is that so?” She made her way into the back and assessed the space. Sean was on his knees. His head brushed the ceiling, and she couldn’t see any way the two of them could both lie down in such a small area, much less fit their bodies together. She was game to give it a try, though. “What fantasies are those?”
He offered her his hand, and she took it and knee-walked closer. Sean wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, hot and wet and oh, man, she just wanted to fall into his mouth and live there forever.
Something about his arms made her melty in the best possible way. He was so strong, and she couldn’t quite get over the fact that he wanted to be holding her. He wanted her close, wanted to touch her, wanted to claim her. She wasn’t accustomed to feeling wanted. She liked it so much, it kind of freaked her out.
“My number-two teenage fantasy was sex in a car,” he said, his gravelly voice in her ear as his hands found their way back inside her shirt and began inching it up her torso.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. And I’ve never done it.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t know any willing women at the time. Then when I d-did, I was a lot bigger, and the c-cars seemed a lot smaller.”
“It’s a fair point. I’m not sure how we’re going to make this work.”
“Lift your arms.”
She did, and he made her shirt disappear and eased her bra off. She shivered, crossing her hands over her bare chest. Even with the heat running, it was cool here in the back, the cold seeping through the windows on both sides and through the rear windshield. She and Sean were encased in a box of glass. With the dome light on, any passing car would get a good show.
“I think we’d better turn the light off.”
Sean took her hands and moved them out of his way, patiently but with enough force to make it clear he would brook no argument. “Sorry, Clark. The light’s p-part of my fantasy. Spread your knees wider.”
She started to tell him no, she wouldn’t spread her knees wider, not until he turned off the light, but he kissed her again, plunging his tongue into her mouth and using his own knee to open her legs. He leaned into her, pushing her down to her butt with his weight and then farther, until she was lying flat on her back and he was balanced over her, his cock heating up the cradle of her hips and making her achy.
“Want to hear my number-one teenage fantasy?” he asked with a dimpled grin.
“You’re kind of domineering,” she observed.
“Mmm. Want to hear it?”
“Sure. Enlighten me.”
“Sex with yuh-you.”
She shoved him, partly out of irritation and partly as a way to deny the pure, crystalline thrill he’d just given her. “Shut up.”
“I’m serious.”
“You’re full of shit.”
“I’m not. I’d never lie about my teenage dreams. I take them very sseriously. In fact,” he said, beginning to kiss his way down her throat, “I’ve already fulfilled most of them.” He eased his broad hands underneath her shoulder blades, the contrast of his rough palms to her soft skin, his bigness to her smallness, making her feel feminine and desirable.
“I designed an undetectable rootkit, visited Africa, went sky-diving …” His mouth traveled lower, holding her where he wanted her as his tongue traced a lazy circle around one nipple. “… studied k-kick-boxing, hiked part of the Appalachian Trail …”
He paused with her nipple held gently between his teeth, and she whine-moaned in happy frustration. �
�Really, the only things I hadn’t done were the c-car-sex thing and you. Now I get to do both at once.”
He sucked and bit, and she died and came back to life.
“That’s so romantic,” she said when she could speak again. “Getting banged in the back of an SUV so you can check me off your bucket list.”
“Want a rose, sweetie? Should I recite you a p-poem?” He eased his way lower, kissing down her stomach. The heat of his breath on her cool flesh gave her goose bumps.
“No, thanks. Though if you gave me your letter jacket, I could spread it underneath me and make this a little more comfortable.” The carpet actually wasn’t half bad, though the stowhandle for one seat bit into her lower back.
“Sorry. I’d give you my academy blazer if I’d actually guh-gone to the academy.”
“I could never have sex on a blazer. It’s against my principles.”
Sean had made it to her waist, and he tugged at her jeans. “Get these things off,” he ordered. “They’re in the way of my annihilating your principles.”
She gave it a try, pulling her legs up carefully so as not to knee him in the crown jewels, then shoving and wiggling and cursing the tight denim while he kneeled over her and watched with that fantastic, world-rocking grin on his face.
When she finally freed her ankles, she was sweaty and breathing hard. Sean reached down, worked open the button on his jeans, and unzipped.
“You don’t even have to take those off, do you? Lucky bastard.”
He pushed down the waistband of his briefs and pulled himself out, studying her naked body as he made his cock harder with slow, lazy strokes. She could actually feel her throat turn pink, the flush of arousal radiating out from between her legs and washing her skin in heat.
“I’m p-pretty sure I’m the luckiest bastard alive,” Sean agreed. “Have you been wearing those p-panties all day?”
Katie raised herself up on her elbows and looked down. She’d forgotten about the panties. There was a Union Jack on her crotch. The bra had the Stars and Stripes, but the bra was long gone.
“Why, are you an Anglophile?”
“I am now.”
His eyes had taken on a wild, predatory quality, and the thrill of being his object of interest amped up her arousal another notch. She hadn’t known what to expect sex with Sean to be like. Her experiences began and ended with one man—one and a half, if you counted what she’d done with Judah—but if she’d had to guess before she went over to Sean’s room last night, she would have predicted a certain amount of awkward fumbling in the dark.