Clutch (Custom Culture)

by Tess Oliver

  “I could totally see you in fashion. You have this amazing sense of style that I’ve always envied. Like that cute little corset style top you’re wearing tonight. I never would have thought about pairing something like that with a flouncy skirt and short boots but it’s perfect.”

  “Thanks. I made this top myself. I love to sew. My mom says I’m way too daring with my ensembles but I say tough shit. I wear what I like.” I drew the blanket over my bare legs. “But I must admit, this particular fashion statement isn’t all that practical out on a boat.”

  “You are truly talented if you sewed that yourself. If you’re cold, we could go inside,” Scotlyn suggested.

  “No, I love it out here on the water. Clears all the stuff out of my head that needs clearing. And lately, there’s been a lot of stuff.” I huddled closer to her. “So, what about you, Scotlyn? I know your earlier life took some really bad turns, but do you ever think about what you might want to do in the future?”

  She paused for a second. “I’m going to start city college in the fall. I want to go into nursing.”

  “Wow, that’s a tough profession. Good for you.”

  She gazed out at the water. There were times when she was impossibly pretty, like no one else I’d ever met in person. “After the accident, I was alone in the world. It was like this horrible black hole had swallowed me. While the doctors and social workers and my awful aunt stood around trying to figure out why I’d stopped talking and what my grim future held, the nurses were there comforting me. I could see my own despair mirrored in their expressions whenever they came in to take my temperature or bring my food tray. Nurse Frannie was so cool, she actually came into visit me on her off hours. I want to be like that. I want to be there for some kid who needs it too.”

  “I feel a little shallow now with my fashion designer dreams,” I said.

  She hugged me and laughed. “Shallow? I’ve never met anyone with more depth than you, Taylor Flinn.”

  We stayed cuddled together until loud footsteps on the dock made us turn. Nix hopped on deck with a twelve pack of beer under his arm. He hadn’t seen us tucked beneath the blankets in the dark. Scotlyn lifted her finger to her lips telling me to keep quiet. Nix leaned down to unlock the cabin.

  “I guess you’re planning on getting plenty drunk tonight, huh sailor?” Nix straightened at the sound of Scotlyn’s voice.

  “I didn’t see you sitting there.” Then he noticed me, and his mouth dropped open. “Hey, Taylor.” He glanced back down the dock and then back at me.

  Scotlyn laughed. “Who are you expecting? Your secret lover?”

  More footsteps pounded the wooden planks of the dock. Big footsteps, giant footsteps. The Zany Lucy tilted to the side slightly as he climbed on board.

  The strangest sensation always surrounded me when I stood near him as if suddenly everything else around us had been sucked away and we were completely alone standing on some empty, desolate place, just the two of us, staring at each other, with sparks of heated energy flying between us, connecting us as much as pushing us away from each other. And always when I was near him, I could sense waves of tension flowing from him as if my presence caused him pain in some way. But this time was different. His shoulders were relaxed. His strong jaw wasn’t twitching. His fingers weren’t curled into fists. The only sign of tension was in his throat as his Adam’s apple moved up and down.

  “We were thinking about going down to the beach for a bonfire,” Nix’s voice broke through the quiet.

  I looked over at Nix.

  “Can you stay, Taylor?”

  I turned back to Clutch. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of me. “Do you want me to stay?”

  At times, I forgot how massively built he was until I stood directly in front of him. His eyes looked pale and intense in the dim light. “What do you think?”

  Chapter 19

  Clutch

  We’d filled a wagon with wood and beer and dragged the heavy load across the sand. The uneven ground didn’t help my knee, and twice, I had to reach down and press my hand against it to staunch the pain. There was still a dull ache in my rib cage, and something told me the injury was going to follow me around for awhile.

  A rich, yellow light poured down from the moon, casting long streams of light along the shore. The fire erupted into tall lapping flames within minutes. Taylor had only a thin hooded sweatshirt on, and her smooth, tanned legs were bare.

  I sat down in the sand and threw a blanket over my shoulders and held up the corner. Just like the night of the accident, she slid beneath the cover without a word. I lowered my arm and pulled her against me.

  Nix and Scotlyn huddled across the pit in their own blanket. Nix threw me a beer but I hardly needed any alcohol. I was drunk already, drunk with the scent of her, the feel of her beneath my fingertips. After she’d crawled into bed with me, all I could think about was having her naked in my arms. I was tired of denying myself the one thing I wanted more than anything.

  “Too bad Dray and Cassie couldn’t come out tonight,” Nix said. “Dray’s been in a really crappy mood. I think something might be going on with them.”

  Taylor nestled even closer, and I had to fight back the urge to pull her into my lap. “I haven’t talked to him since the party. Maybe Cass is still pissed about the broken patio lights.”

  “Nah, that’s not like Cassie. She hasn’t said anything to me at work but then we both keep so busy there, we don’t really have time to talk. And I make it a point never to talk about Dray with her. Too many landmines to step on in one of those conversations.” Nix looked at Scotlyn. “Have you talked to Cassie lately?”

  Scotlyn’s profound silence crackled louder than the fire.

  “You know something,” Nix said.

  “It’s nothing, and I promised Cassie not to tell anyone. Let’s just say it has to do with her photography.”

  Nix put his arm around her and pulled her against him. “You’re not going to tell us?”

  Scotyln turned an invisible key in front of her lips.

  “Fine. The secret life of women,” Nix sighed. “So, what were you two girls up to before we interrupted your little party,” Nix asked.

  “Oh, nothing much,” Scotlyn said. “We were just about to strip and lather each other up in the shower.”

  My entire body stiffened, but Taylor laughed.

  “Holy shit,” Nix’s voice cracked like the wood in the fire.

  Scotlyn shoved him hard, and he fell sideways. “Admit it, you bum, that’s the scenario that was going through your imagination when you saw us huddled together on the bow. What do you think we were doing? Girl talk. That’s what girls do. And, unlike you guys, sex didn’t come up once.”

  Taylor reached up and poked my cheek with her fingertip. “I think they’re both catatonic now.”

  “Hell yeah, it’s going to take me months to get that vision out of my head,” Nix said. “What about you, Clutch?”

  “Huh? Sorry, I haven’t heard anything since she said ‘lather’.”

  Scotlyn laughed. Nix pulled her into his lap and suddenly the fire pit seemed crowded. Taylor seemed to have the same feeling. She pulled off her boots and peered up at me. “Want to take a walk?”

  Her mouth was just inches from mine, and I could not stop looking at it. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  I stood and then lowered my hand for her to take. As her palm crossed mine, it instantly sent waves of heat up my arm. I wrapped my fingers around her slim hand and pulled her to her feet. We trudged through the cold sand toward the water.

  “How’s your knee feeling?” she asked. “I wanted to call you this week and see how you were feeling, but my wonderful parents took my phone and computer.”

  “What is with your parents? They’ve really gone over the edge lately. And, your brother—” I started, but then decided not to step into the mi
ddle. Jason and I had not spoken since the fight, and the strain of it was slowly taking a toll on our partnership. Things had been said that could never be erased. I wondered how often Taylor’s parents had told her I wasn’t good enough for her. The thought of it had stuck like a knife in my gut all week. My only comfort came from knowing that Taylor had little respect for her parents. In fact, since I’d known her, it always seemed that she’d made a point of doing the exact opposite of their wishes.

  “That’s all right. You don’t have to say anything about Jason. He’s my parents’ third pair of eyes, and I’m getting tired of it. But I can’t understand why he’s not getting tired of it.”

  We’d reached the edge of the beach where the sand dropped down to the water.

  Taylor looked down at her bare feet. “Sand is so amazing. It stays boiling hot all day in the sun, and by night fall, it drops to near freezing. I wish I’d kept on my boots. My feet are aching from the cold.”

  Without hesitation, I leaned down and swept her into my arms. She threw her head back and laughed as her arms circled my neck. “You are feeling better.” Then her laughter subsided and she grew quiet. She laid her head down against my shoulder. “You’ve never carried me in your arms.” Her whisper soft tone was nearly lost in the sound of the waves. She didn’t lift her face from my chest. “I’m home when I’m in your arms.”

  I held her tightly and hiked back up toward the deserted bike path. I dropped her incredibly long legs, took hold of her waist and propped her on the small retaining wall that had been built to keep sand off the path. The city had gone through the trouble of putting up light posts along the bike trail, but all of the lights had been broken by vandals. Our bonfire was a good distance away, and the rest of the beach was dark and silent.

  Perched on the wall, Taylor’s face was almost directly across from mine. A strand of her long hair swept across her mouth, and I reached up and purposely dragged my rough thumb across her bottom lip before pushing the lock of hair behind her ear.

  She was uncharacteristically silent as she sat on the wall, looking at me with those unbelievable eyes. “I waver back and forth about a lot of things in my life, but, James Mason, I’ve never stopped wanting you,” she said softly. She reached up and pushed open her sweatshirt revealing the corset style top underneath. The curves of her breasts lifted and fell with each breath.

  For the first time, I stood within arm’s reach of her without my fists clenched to keep from touching her. I was done battling with myself. I was done reminding myself I couldn’t have her.

  My fingers pulled the thin ribbon that held together the two sides of her top. The two sides of the fabric fell apart as the ribbon loosened. The rough tips of my calloused fingers slid over her skin as I pushed the sides farther apart. Her perfect breasts, breasts that I’d only seen in my mind until now, stood erect beneath my heated gaze and the cool coastal breeze. Her lush bottom lip dropped as she sucked in a breath. She was still wild and impulsive and she didn’t give a damn about what anyone else thought . . . and that was why I was fucking nuts about her.

  The slow deliberation with which I moved shocked the hell out of me because more than anything I wanted to drag her off the wall and pull her down beneath me in the sand. My mouth pressed against the soft, creamy skin of her breast, and my tongue drew circles around her nipple. She tangled her fingers into my hair and pressed her breast harder against my hungry mouth. My hands slid up her bare thighs and without my coaxing she parted her legs slightly. My fingers trailed up the smooth skin of her inner thigh, and her fingers wrapped tighter around my hair as she lifted my face to hers. My mouth came down hard over hers, and she let go of me and grabbed the edge of the wall to keep from falling backward. Reluctantly, I pulled my hands away from the heat between her legs, and my arms wrapped around her. Every movement of her thin body beneath my hands, every tiny sound that escaped her, every inch of her soft skin made me hard with need.

  Her head dropped back and my mouth moved down to her throat and neck. A bell rang in the distance, and I pushed it from my mind for a minute but then voices pulled us from the brink of losing all control right there on the beach. Two people were pedaling toward us on bikes.

  Taylor’s lashes lifted slowly, and she gazed up on me. “Take me home with you, Clutch.” She’d whispered the request so softly, it drifted away on the breeze. But every word heated me to the core.

  I lifted her off the wall and pulled her behind me through the sand. Nix and Scotlyn had disappeared completely beneath the blanket. Taylor walked around the fire pit and grabbed her boots.

  “I’m taking Taylor home,” I said.

  Nix’s thumb came up out of the blanket and then disappeared again.

  We half-ran, half-stumbled back to the truck. Taylor held closed her sweatshirt with one hand and held tightly to me with the other. She pressed up against my back as I fumbled to get the keys in the door lock. She slid in across the front seat, and I climbed in behind her. Putting the key into the ignition took just as much effort as opening the door. My mind and body could think of only one thing, and I wasn’t completely sure I could get us home safely. I’d been denying myself for so long because I wanted this one girl so badly that no one else would do, and now that my self-control had been completely shattered, I was out of my mind with it.

  The engine rumbled and the cab of the truck vibrated. Without warning, Taylor slid her hand across to the buttons on my jeans. She popped open the fly and slid her hand inside my pants.

  “I’ll never make it home, Taylor.”

  Her luscious lips turned up in a sly grin. She pulled her hand away, and I nearly fell forward with disappointment. She reached up under her skirt and slid off her panties. “Exactly.”

  She climbed over to me, straddled my lap, and lowered her mouth to mine. Her sweet breath tickled my chin.

  My hands went beneath her skirt and found the bare skin of her perfect ass.

  “Do you still have a condom in your wallet?”

  I looked up at her. “How did you know about that?”

  She kissed me and pressed her smile against my mouth. “I plucked your wallet out of your pocket once. I always made it my job to keep track of everything you were up to.”

  My fingers caressed her bottom. “Brat. And I guess I have to add pickpocket to my list of Taylor adjectives.”

  Her tongue swept across my bottom lip. “You have a list of adjectives?”

  “Uh huh,” I kissed her mouth and chin and throat. “Bothersome, irritating . . .” My mouth found her breasts again, and she arched her back to push them harder against my mouth. “Irresistible,” I whispered against her smooth, hot skin, “fucking amazing.” I lifted my face and pulled her mouth toward mine.

  Car lights lit up the inside of the cab. “Let’s get out of this marina parking lot.” I was breathing so hard every word was a struggle.

  She kissed me once more and reluctantly climbed off my lap. I backed out of the spot and tore out of the parking lot at drag racing speed. Her hand found my open fly again, and she teased me with her curious fingers.

  I groaned and grabbed hold of her wrist. “There’s not going to be anything left of me if you keep doing that.” I pulled into the first empty parking lot I saw and drove straight to the darkest corner. I reached across to the glove box and pulled out my wallet. And then I looked over at her. Everything about her made me react. Even in the pitch black corner of the parking lot she lit up the interior of the truck like a thousand flickering candles. “I’ve imagined this moment a billion times but never in the front of this truck. Do you mind?”

  She brushed my long hair off my face. “I’ve imagined this moment a billion times too, and I don’t give a shit where it happens. I just want it to happen.” She straddled my lap again. Her kisses started gently at first and then increased with intensity.

  My hands went beneath her bottom and my fingers sl
id into her. A silky groan of pleasure rolled from her mouth into mine.

  Her fingers pushed back my hair, and she pressed her mouth to my ear. “Make me yours,” she whispered.

  Chapter 20

  Taylor

  The ride home seemed slightly surreal. I’d been dreaming of having Clutch all to myself for so long, I found it hard to believe that I was sitting with him, alone in his truck. And even though both his hands had been on the wheel most of the drive home, I could still feel the sensation of his mouth and hands on my skin. We were both silent as we listened to music and got lost in the fact that something had happened between us and that there was no turning back anymore. The usual tension that radiated from him when I was near had changed to hot waves of passion. Now that we’d undone the cork on all of it, it felt as if there would be no way to slow it.

  Clutch had driven home at top speed, and he flew into his driveway. Barrett’s bike was in front of the garage but the house was dark. I had to suppress a laugh as Clutch struggled again to get the key into his front door lock.

  I trailed my fingers down his rock hard back. “Hey, Viking, it’s a good thing you have better aim with other things.”

  He peered at me over his shoulder and shoved the door open. “That’s because keys are too small and other things aren’t.” He reached back, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along down the hallway to his room. Once inside the bedroom, he kicked the door shut behind us.

  I pushed the sweatshirt off my shoulders, and it puddled on the ground. I reached for the top of his jeans, but he took hold of my hand. Before I knew it, he had both of my wrists caught up in his large fingers. He nearly lifted me off my feet as he dragged me over to the wall and pressed me up against it. He held my wrists above my head and stared down at me hungrily. It sent a rush of heat through me, but my whole body shivered deliciously from the way he looked at me. “I’ve got to slow you down, my wild, little pickpocket.”