Imperfect Penelope (Wild Crush)

by Sami Lee

  “You’ve abandoned your date,” Penny said.

  “Yours abandoned you,” Greg countered.

  “He’s not—” Penny cut herself off before she admitted the truth. At least if he thought someone else wanted her, it might save her some face. “He’s not the jealous type.”

  She felt Greg scrutinizing her profile and couldn’t stop herself blushing. She wasn’t the most accomplished liar at the best of times. Under Greg’s watchful gaze she was ready to crumble and admit her every secret.

  At length he said, “Mrs. Burgess is my client. We’re both here alone so I spoke to her for a while. Does that answer your question?”

  “I didn’t ask a question.” No way is he having a red-hot affair with someone he still calls Mrs. Burgess, a little voice in Penny’s head whispered excitedly. She ignored it. “Your love life is none of my business.”

  “Nor is yours mine.” His hand flexed on her hip, and his voice lowered an octave as he bent his head to her ear. “I still want to know who that guy is.”

  It was arrogant of him to assume he had the right to know who she was or wasn’t dating, but his statement made Penny’s heart flutter. She tried to tamp down the reaction. “His name is Jet,” she provided evasively.

  “Jet,” he repeated.

  “You say that like you’re spitting a wad of gum into the gutter.” Not that Penny could imagine Greg ever doing that. It would be littering. She very much doubted he chewed gum anyway. “He’s a nice guy, you know.”

  “But he’s not serious about you.”

  Penny shot him a withering look. “Why? Because I couldn’t get a guy like him to fall in love with me? Not with my inconsequential assets, right?”

  He looked at her like she was speaking gibberish. “Pardon?”

  “It’s fine, Greg,” Penny said tautly. “No hard feelings. But just FYI, I kinda like my boobs. I don’t have to wear a bra all the time and I never have trouble finding clothes that fit. Emily’s always complaining that she has to buy tops two sizes larger than her jeans. That’d be a pain.”

  “What in God’s name are you talking about?” he demanded.

  What indeed. Had she lost her mind bringing up the thing she wanted to talk about the least? “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “Impossible,” Greg drawled. “Talk to me, Penny.”

  “It was a moment, okay? The other morning. It was a stupid spontaneous moment, I know that. But when a girl spontaneously rips off her shirt for a guy, the very last thing she wants to happen is for him to run from the building like his hair is on fire.”

  She saw a muscle tic in Greg’s jaw. He stared at her while Florence and the Machine sang about the heart’s language. When had the song changed? Penny hadn’t meant to give Greg more than one dance.

  When he spoke, he enunciated his words with fine precision. “You kicked me out of your house. I assumed it was because I had so much trouble controlling myself.”

  “You have trouble controlling yourself? That’s a laugh. You’re the most controlled, restrained, uptight man I’ve ever met. If you were any more restrained, you’d be in a straitjacket.”

  “That sounds like a complaint,” he observed in a way that would have been casual if it weren’t for the thread of steel underpinning the words. “Am I to assume you’d rather I acted on my every impulse?”

  “That’s generally how spontaneous things happen, and I tend to find they’re the times in life you remember most fondly.” Penny wondered if Greg had ever behaved spontaneously in his life. She doubted it. He was too rigid, too scheduled. “But that moment has definitely passed for us, so don’t be impulsive on my account.”

  Penny stopped dancing and extricated herself from his arms, blaming the cold chill that washed over her on the air conditioning and not on the stark look on Greg’s face. She turned away from that look because it made her chest feel tight and sore. Whirling around on her heeled sandals, she stormed off the dance floor, past the bar and out to the car park.

  Outside, the cool night air brushed over her hot face. Penny walked along the fence that bordered the car park from the beach. A half-moon cast its silver-blue light onto the roiling ocean below. She inhaled a lungful of fresh, salt-scented air and willed herself to calm down.

  What had gotten into her? She’d argued with Greg in front of everyone. She’d used the word boobs. That was not normal behavior. Admittedly, neither was showing him her boobs so freely a few days ago. She could call it impulsive or spontaneous or whatever, but ultimately it had been abnormal. And Greg had rejected her so it had also been humiliating.

  She was embarrassed, that’s why she’d acted like such a crazy person. And now she was going to have to be embarrassed all over again when she went back in there to face everyone. Emily was bound to grill her like a B-grade cop-show detective about what had happened. No way did Penny want to admit the truth.

  What a mess.

  “Penny.”

  She whirled around to see Greg standing there, his shoulders a tense silhouette against the lights beaming out from the club. He held up her silver purse. “Your unofficial brother-in-law thought you might need this.”

  She heard the accusation in his voice and flushed at having been caught in the lie. Nice work, Jet, she thought, immediately feeling bad for mentally berating him. There was no way he could know she’d lied. That was all on her.

  Declining to make admissions, Penny went to take her handbag. Greg held it out of her reach. She huffed in irritation. “Well that’s mature.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You said my love life was none of your business, remember?” Her skin tingled, the way it had inside when she’d lied about being involved with Jet. There was no longer any value in avoiding the whole truth. There was a point where you couldn’t be any more mortified. “And because I didn’t want you to think I was some pathetic ninny who threw myself at lawyers because she couldn’t get a date for her friend’s wedding. There. Are you happy?”

  He dipped his head, and Penny flinched, her heart hammering. Instead of kissing her he merely peered into her face to more closely examine her expression. Penny could see his face, too, and the way one eyebrow arched. “Not really. Are you drunk?”

  “I was getting there but arguing with you seems to have sobered me up.”

  “Good.”

  Abruptly, he grabbed her hand and started walking. He didn’t drag her along after him, exactly, but Penny had to maintain a brisk pace to keep up. She thought he was taking her back inside, but when he passed the entrance to the club Penny spoke up. “Hey.” When he said nothing she tried again. “Hey.”

  He took a set of keys out of his pocket and pressed the fob. The orange lights on his Alfa Romeo lit up. He yanked open the passenger door. “Get in.”

  Penny’s jaw dropped. “I will not.”

  He moved like lightning. Before Penny knew what was happening, he had her up against the side of his car, his lean, solid body pressing her into the cool steel. He speared one hand into her hair and kissed her.

  Penny sucked in a breath at the shock of contact, at the primal need that arrowed through her when his tongue brusquely entered her mouth. The kiss was raw and unpolished and so unlike Greg’s exceedingly polished surface that she was too surprised to pull away. Actually, it was more like she didn’t want to. She’d wanted his kiss since the moment he’d ended their last one.

  Penny felt drunk once more by the time Greg relinquished her mouth. He kept a hold of her head, kept it still, while he left a trail of kisses over her cheek, her jaw, her earlobe. He tilted her head, burying his face in the curve of her neck and inhaling the scent of her skin in one long, deep breath.

  The tension radiated off his body. Beneath her fingers, his shoulders were as hard as rocks. Other parts of him were hard too. The ridge of his erection was unmistakable where it pr
essed against her mound. Penny’s clit pulsed with the need for closer contact. During the kiss, her nipples had grown stiff, and they pressed into the lace of her push-up bra, begging for attention.

  When he spoke, Greg’s voice was thick and raspy. “Just so you know, I’ve decided to make it my business.”

  Penny’s brain tried to reengage. “Huh?”

  “Your love life.”

  For some reason those three words stole her breath more effectively than his ravenous kiss had. “Oh.”

  He drew back to look into her face. “Any objections?”

  About a hundred and fifty, Penny thought. She looked into his eyes, which were dark and determined and glittering with steely desire. Desire for her. Her pulse leapt and she said, “No.”

  Since when had her clit started talking for her?

  “Good,” Greg said gruffly. “Now, get in the car before we get arrested.”

  Greg shifted until she could move, and on wobbly legs Penny all but fell into the soft leather passenger seat.

  Greg shut his door with a thud. The soundtrack of waves tumbling onto sand was suddenly muted, while Penny’s rapid breaths—and his—grew preternaturally loud in the confined space of the Alfa. It remained that way, silent save for their breathing, for long moments while Greg gathered his thoughts.

  Who was he kidding? He didn’t have a hope of finding coherent thought when he could smell the gentle drift of Penny’s perfume underpinned with the tangy scent of her arousal. He’d kissed her, and she’d responded with such fire that he could barely remember his own name.

  “What’s the plan, lawyer man?”

  Greg stared out the windscreen, not game to look at her. If he looked at her and the moonlight was caressing her face in just the right way he’d lose his mind and kiss her again before he said what he needed to. “We talk.”

  “Really?”

  He did look at her then, because he couldn’t decide if her tone was sarcastic or surprised. She was sitting with her back to the passenger door, studying him. The moon cast its beams only far enough that he could see the right side of her face, the lean length of her bare right arm and the gentle swell of her cleavage. The dress had a deep V neckline, deep enough that he’d seen a flash of white lace inside it while they’d danced. He saw it now, that tantalizing glimpse of white against her creamy skin, and it made the ache that had taken up residence inside him intensify to a sharp pang of unadulterated need.

  “Come here,” he rasped, and that hadn’t been what he’d planned to say at all.

  “Fat chance. I’m not going to throw myself at you again.”

  Such an annoying woman. Greg shouldn’t have enjoyed her objection but he felt his lips curve as he slid a hand around her wrist and tugged until she tilted forward. The pose made the V of the dress expose more of her cleavage, of that white lace. It was a demi-bra if he didn’t miss his guess. Barely enough flimsy fabric to cover her nipples.

  He groaned.

  “I think I should clear something up,” he said as he touched a finger to her throat and trailed it downward, all the way into that deep V until he encountered the underwire of that bra. “When I kissed you the other morning, it was the hottest, sexiest kiss I’ve ever experienced.”

  She held her breath as Greg outlined the swell of her breast with his finger. “You expect me to believe that?”

  “Yes. I have my faults but I’m not a liar. I wanted you, Penny. I wanted you badly, and I had to stop myself or I would have taken you.”

  “Oh. Well, since we’re being honest with each other…I’ve never been kissed the way you kissed me. I kind of lost my head.”

  Greg traced the line of her lace bra and enjoyed the way Penny’s breath quickened. “I liked it. Hell, you almost made me lose mine.”

  “Almost doesn’t count.”

  “It does to me. I don’t go crazy like that. I’m not impulsive. You do something to me.” Like make him want to shuck all his gentlemanly principles and indulge in something he simply wanted for once, without thinking it through all the way. Like make him crazy jealous because she’d danced with some other guy. He hadn’t experienced jealousy like that before, and he hadn’t liked it.

  She wasn’t in another man’s arms now. She was here with him. Greg decided it was high time he took proper advantage of the fact. Do something impulsive, without thinking it through all the way. He slipped his hand fully inside Penny’s dress and cupped her neat little breast in his hand.

  Penny gasped. Greg had to close his eyes on the pleasure of touching her that way, of knowing she liked it because her nipple grew rigid in his palm. God he wanted her. Determination filled him, and a strange possessiveness too. “Are there any other fake or real suitors I should know about?”

  “Suitors?” Her lips twitched even as her breaths fell hard and fast. “You say the funniest things, Dan—”

  Greg swooped across the scant space separating them and covered her mouth with his. He liked her acquiescent whimpers better than her smartass remarks, although to be honest he kind of liked those too. As much as a man could like being teased, aggravated and aroused at the same time.

  Penny parted her lips, and Greg kissed her deep and hard, massaging the flesh in his hand as he did. He drew her forward, needing her closer, pulling her until she was lying across his lap, wedged between him and the steering wheel. She didn’t complain about it, not that he gave her a chance to. He devoured her mouth, his hunger relentless.

  Her fingers went to his scalp, digging in as she accepted his invasion. Her rough eagerness added a sharp edge to Greg’s lust. That at last gave him the motivation to drag his mouth from hers because he didn’t know how far that edge would take him. He groaned as he released her lips because it almost killed him.

  He dropped his forehead to hers and drew in huge lungfuls of air. “Dear God, Penelope. You’re torturing me, you know that?”

  “Is this your way of talking?” she panted. “You kiss me, then complain about it?”

  Greg thought about kissing her to quiet her annoyingly accurate observations. But her words also reminded him that he was supposed to be talking. There were things he had to clarify. “Answer my question, damn it, woman. Are there any other men you’re dating, or pretending to date, or kissing in cars or—”

  She put her fingers to his lips. He stilled, watching her face. He saw the answer in her soft smile even before she spoke. “There’s no one.”

  Thank God, Greg thought, closing his eyes as she brought his mouth down to hers. He sighed with relief when he tasted her, as though those few seconds without her kiss had been months. He kissed her like her breath was his oxygen and touched her through her dress. Everywhere. He caressed the soft swell of her breasts, the gentle indent of her waist and the rounded angle of her hips. He wasn’t sure if he’d urged her legs apart or if she’d opened them, but before he knew it his hand was on her there too, cupping her mound.

  He added pressure with the heel of his hand, and Penny gasped into his mouth, her hips rocking. Greg gathered the material of her dress and yanked it up her thighs, far enough that he could reach under the hem and find her panties. They were drenched.

  An uncontrollable pulse of satisfaction, of need, shuddered through him. His cock throbbed. He already felt the precome leaking out. He had to stop or he was going to embarrass himself. Any sensible man would stop, but the impression of Penny’s wet, lace-covered folds made on his fingers scorched all common sense. He pressed two fingers to her clit, massaging the spot with a slow, deliberate motion.

  Penny cried out and tore her mouth to the side. There was a bang as the heel of her shoe hit something. She was too tall for the cramped front seat of an Alfa Romeo. He needed a bed.

  He needed a bed yet he couldn’t stop rubbing his fingers over her. “You have to come home with me.”

  Penny whimpered and undulated her hips,
as much as she could in the space she had. “Why?”

  Greg met her gaze and his heart stopped. She wasn’t asking why because she didn’t know. She was asking because she wanted to hear him say it. She made him so hot he could barely breathe, let alone speak, but he growled his intentions like a warning. “Because I’m going to fuck you tonight, and I need a bed to do it properly.”

  “Oh God.”

  Greg felt her damp, swollen clit shudder beneath his fingers. He could make her come right here in the front of his car, and the idea gave him a heady sense of power.

  She got off on frank speech too. Greg considered that very useful information.

  “Is that a yes?” he asked. “Do you want me to fuck you?”

  “Yes!”

  She rocked her hips, his words making her seek a release more urgently than before. He rubbed her clit harder, faster. Penny jerked and the heel of her shoe scraped over his dashboard. Greg didn’t even think to care that she might have caused damage to his car, but when she winced as though she’d been hurt he stopped the motion of his fingers.

  “Are you all right?”

  “No. I’m so close to coming I’m in pain, and I think I’ve twisted my ankle.”

  Incongruously, Greg laughed. She thought she was in pain? His balls felt like they were in a bear trap. He dropped his head back against the car seat and counted to ten as Penny sat up and pushed her dress down over her legs. Which was a damn shame, because she had spectacular legs.

  “Do you think you can stop ogling me long enough to drive?”

  Greg’s eyes shot from her legs to her face. She was smiling. It felt weird to smile when everything else in his body hurt, but Greg did. It reminded him of that moment on the beach when some kind of emotional electricity had fused between them. That unbidden warm energy had scared the hell out of him. It probably would have now as well if he hadn’t been too turned on to care.

  Drive, Danvers. Just drive.

  Chapter Eight

  The engine roared to life and the tires squealed when Greg reversed out of the parking space. As he left the surf club behind, he heard the soft tinkle of Penny’s laughter. “I would never have picked you for a rev head.”