One Taste

by Cari Quinn

  He snapped the bottle down on the bar and cut through the dancers without breaking his stride. The minute Kendall saw him, her smile faded, but her hips didn’t stop moving. God fucking dammit, they undulated slowly. She dragged her fingertips between her breasts, and another button popped, leaving the pink cup on display.

  For everyone.

  Lon slid his hand along her stomach, and Shane lunged forward. Kendall twisted out of the shithead’s hold and switched places with the other blonde who was much happier to receive his attention.

  Lon tried to push the girl away and go for Kendall again, but she hopped off the table and cut her way through the crowd toward Shane. Knee-length boots with an unbelievable heel made her hips twitch as she walked, and his cock hardened.

  “You came.”

  He lowered his head to her ear; then his lips buzzed the shell. “Good thing you can handle yourself, Sunshine. I was just about to rip Lon’s arm off and stuff it up his ass.”

  She giggled. He jerked back. He was expecting a slap or at least a growl, but no—as usual, this woman defied all logic. Her eyes were shiny with at least a few beers, and her lips were slick with some filmy lipstick that made him think of all the things he could do to her mouth.

  She backed onto the dance floor. He stiffened, but she gripped his hands and drew him into the amoeba-like pulse of people.

  He didn’t dance. He stood still as she slithered her way around him. An old Bon Jovi song came on, leaving her bouncing and singing along to the words. His lips twitched as she tried to get him to move against her. He liked the undulation of her hips against his thigh and her aggressive touch, but she sure as shit wasn’t getting him to dance. No matter how cute she was. He grasped a handful of her wild curls and hauled her in closer.

  Doing one better, she jumped into his arms. He braced himself as her knees dug into his hips, and her arms slid around his neck. He’d started off tired and angry, and now his palms were filled with the sweet curve of her ass and the corn-silk softness of her hair teasing the backs of his hands.

  She tunneled her fingernails up the back of his neck, clutching him tighter in that way that made his knees turn liquid. Christ, she was so fucking beautiful. Life and laughter lived in her warm chocolate eyes. She mouthed the words to the song. If we stand side by side, there’s a chance we’ll get by, and I know that you’ll live in my heart till the day that I die.

  And when her lips found his, he wanted to believe it. He wished to God he was her man for more than just a few weeks. The whoop from the girl beside him brought reality crashing in on him. He let Kendall slide down his torso and set her gently on the floor. With his hands anchored in her hair, he took one last taste before finally letting her go.

  Heavy-lidded dark eyes met his. She did an about-face and reached behind her for his hand. He twined his fingers with hers and let her lead him through the crowd. She waved at Evelyn and the other girl who were still on the table holding court.

  Once they got outside, she continued to drag him along. The night air was crisp, and the moon hung nearly full and bright as a spotlight. “Is it wrong that I missed the truck?”

  “Is that right?”

  “I did.” She turned to hook her fingers into his other hand so they were completely tethered. “I would like to get into your truck right now and climb on your lap and fog up the windows until we can’t think.”

  Not thinking sounded like a damn good idea. All he’d been doing today was thinking. It was exhausting. And here she was—simple beauty with her siren’s smile. She’d allow him to shut off and bury himself inside her without promises. He could lose himself in her until sunrise. But he wanted to give her promises, and that scared the hell out of him.

  He’d been close to so few people in his life, all of them now gone save for Kain. He didn’t want to use Kendall as a scapegoat for the loneliness that had been following him around since his father’s death—and before that, if he was honest with himself.

  He hit the locks on his key fob and couldn’t stop the grin when she clambered into the truck and turned to him with a come-hither finger. Her hair curled into the barely-there blouse; her nipples jutted through the filmy bra and paper-thin texture of her shirt. He climbed inside and reached up to flick the dome light off. He settled in the middle of the bench seat, then dragged her across the seat to sit on his lap.

  She shivered in his arms.

  “Do you want me to put the heat on?”

  She shook her head and reached under his shirt, pushing it up his chest and over his head. “I’ve been thinking about this chest since I saw you this afternoon.” Her palms slid over his shoulder and across his chest. She dragged her nails through the light swirls of hair around his nipples until he hissed. She lowered her mouth to one nipple and circled the tip with her tongue. Her breath fanned across his skin, raising all the fine hairs on his arms. “Where’s the rosary?”

  He groaned, trying to wrap his mind around answering such a simple question. Except she repeated the same motion over his other nipple, followed by a tiny bite, and the answer floated away.

  She moved over to the middle of his chest and nosed along the ridge of muscle. “I like feeling the beads on my skin when you’re over me.”

  “Fuck, Sunshine. I put it away when I’m working.”

  He could feel her smile into his skin as she moved up to his clavicle to flick the little dip there before she sucked and kissed her way up his neck. “You cleaned up.”

  He tipped his head back to let her have more access. “The beard was getting too thick.”

  She swirled her tongue around his Adam’s apple before nuzzling her cheek against his jaw. “I like the scruff. It’s soft and a little prickly. When I see myself in the mirror after we make—after we have sex, I can see the whisker burn around my mouth, along my neck, and sometimes on the undersides of my breasts. I like that.”

  Her hiccup over the words gave him the first strings of focus. He grasped for a few more, dragging himself off the sensual cliff she put him on. The dangerous glitter in her eyes hardened his dick.

  Times like this he wanted to give her everything. She made him feel clumsy and rough, and yet she seemed to like that best. They had so few days left, and he wanted to offer everything he had.

  He reached between them and brought her fingers up to his mouth. He scraped his teeth over her wrists, releasing one hand. “Undo my buckle.”

  She grinned. “That’s exactly what I had in mind.”

  He nuzzled along the fragile skin of her wrist and felt her pulse flutter. She pulled the end of his belt out of the loops of his jeans and tugged to release the pin. The chink of his buckle was the only sound besides her soft breathing. He hissed as her cool fingers slid into his jeans to undo the top snap.

  “Unzip me.”

  She dragged the tab down over the bulge of his dick and sac in their strangled position. “If you let me have my other hand, it would go faster.”

  “I don’t want it to go faster. I want it to go so slow you’re screaming by the time I finish with you.”

  Her huge eyes glittered in the moonlight as he flicked his tongue over the center of her palm. He trailed his thumb along the underside of her forearm to the bunched sleeve of her shirt and across to the tiny buttons. He dragged the backs of his knuckles over her breast.

  “Pull my belt free, Sunshine.”

  She looked up at him as she grasped the end of the buckle and slowly pulled. She held it in front of him, her teeth gnawing on her lower lip.

  “I know what you want.” He took his belt and transferred it to his other hand, then removed her hand from his zipper and drew it behind her back. Her eyes went wide, and her nipples tightened under the moon-spun fabric. He’d never thought to make a woman immobile during sex until Kendall. He always liked the way a woman wiggled and squirmed under him or on top of him, but Kendall made him want to bind her so he could have his fill.

  He wanted the time to taste, to feel her tremble under
his touch. The bar was only a few hundred yards away, and people littered the front steps to smoke, but he and Kendall were in the shadows at the back of the parking lot. His truck was too big to fit in the regular spots, so he’d had to make his own.

  He’d never been so glad for his monstrous, gas-guzzling truck.

  He brought her other arm behind her. By touch, he cinched his belt around her wrists. “Lace your fingers.” She did so, and he wrapped the tail through the buckle, tucking the pin away so she wouldn’t bruise.

  As always her eyes got huge, and her chest rose with each ragged breath. He rolled the little excuse of a skirt up until it pooled at her waist. He leaned her back against the dash. Two tiny buttons held the blouse together, leaving her breasts cupped in the bright pink.

  She watched him intently as he snapped the top button open with his teeth. She jerked under him, arching closer. He tongued open the second and smiled at the front clasp of her bra. “I do love your choice in bras tonight.”

  With a shallow breath she laughed. “The look on your face earlier said otherwise.”

  “When it’s for me, I like it. When someone like Lon is drooling over you…” His mood darkened. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

  “I don’t care how he looks at me. I only care about how you look at me.” She licked her lips. “Right now you look like you’re ready to eat me alive, and that’s what I want. I don’t want to think about anyone else.”

  He released the catch of her bra, and her small breasts were freed because of the arch in her back. With an unsteady hand, he smoothed down her neck, tipping her head back so he could see the elegant lines as he felt them. He could feel her swallow under his fingertips as he slid between her breasts and down until he could grasp her hips in both hands.

  He circled the undersides of her breasts with his chin and watched her nipples bead in the dim light. Her skin looked like porcelain under the heavy moon. Smooth and perfect with raspberry-tipped breasts pouting up for him. He covered one and sucked hard.

  She bucked off his lap. He pushed her underwear aside and slid two fingers inside her. Silky wet, she coated his hand as he pulsed within the swollen tissues of her pussy. His cock strained against his underwear.

  “Fuck, Kendall.”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He tried to slow down. His jaw ached from grinding his molars together to fight back the growls. She left him stripped bare. He might as well be the one bound. He wanted to climb inside and soak in that intrinsic slice of sunshine that lived within her skin.

  He didn’t have a condom with him, so he’d have to be content with watching her fall apart around his hand. Restless hips undulated against him in sinuous circles. She was splayed across his dash, her forehead kissing the window as she writhed above him.

  Fitting a third finger inside her pussy, he hissed and hammered into her. She clenched around him, and God, he wanted it to be his cock.

  She ground down on his hand. “Harder. I need more.”

  “I didn’t plan this.” His voice came out more of a growl. “I don’t have anything.”

  She rose on her knees. “I don’t care.”

  He pressed his cheek against her chest, then pulled her upright. With his hand trapped inside her, she shifted back and forth. He brought his other hand up to cup the back of her neck until their gazes collided. “I care.”

  “I’m protected. Girl stuff,” she said on a pant. “I’ve been on an IUD since I was twenty.”

  “You can’t—”

  “I’ll chance it.” Her dark eyes were wide with intent. “I trust you.”

  He shook his head. The one thing he’d wanted was to feel her wrapped around him without any barriers. And here, he could have that. He flicked his thumb under her clit. “I want to. God, I want to. But I don’t want to take any chances with you.”

  He changed the angle of his fingers and felt her body free-falling into orgasm. She stilled completely, her thighs quivering around his wrist.

  He was already halfway gone over her; there was no way he could survive knowing just how perfect she felt. How could he ever walk away from her, then?

  She screamed out her frustration, and he took every grinding punishment she could give him until she finally shuddered to a halt. Her chest heaved, and a fine sheen of sweat slicked her beautiful breasts.

  He reached behind her to undo the belt and cradled her when her arms came up around his neck. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and sighed.

  Nothing about Kendall was what he expected. She was one of the warmest and most giving people he’d ever been in contact with. Without guile, she was everything he hadn’t known he wanted.

  The playful edge they’d started with was as distant as the little town they were headed for.

  She sat back on his lap. She brought her hands up to his face, then ran her thumbs over the hollows of his cheeks. “I’m not sure where you went at the end of that, but I just wanted to apologize. You were right. I was in the moment and shouldn’t have demanded that. You were only being safe.”

  If only it was because of safe sex. He wasn’t sure he could hand her any more of himself.

  He gently pulled her bra forward and snapped it closed in between her breasts. “I knew you’d be mad at yourself after the lust faded.”

  She quickly did up the buttons that survived. “Right. Of course.” She climbed off his lap and twisted the denim skirt around and down until she was covered.

  Already he wanted to jam it up and lap at her pussy until she screamed again. Until he could drive into her and the ache in his chest dissipated. Instead, he slid behind the wheel and dug for his keys. His belt lay discarded between them, the mangled end of the strap reminding him just how amazing she looked as she came apart in his arms.

  The ride back to the ranch was a quiet one. Kendall’s silvery profile was pensive. Their agreement to have a fun road trip was falling by the wayside. The flash of her phone’s screen lit up the interior of the truck.

  “Son of a—” She tapped the screen a few times and lifted the phone to her ear. “Bells?”

  He tried to listen but got distracted by Kendall’s body language. She curled in on herself, her arms tight across her chest as she leaned forward to listen. Most of her side of the conversation was mumbles and yeses and nos. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.

  His fingers ached by the end of the ride. As they were pulling up the drive, she finally hung up.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “How much time do you have left on this job?”

  He parked and turned to her. “If I push it, I’ll be done by Sunday.”

  “I’d appreciate anything you can do to get us on the road by Monday. The hot water heater went, and our usual handyman is working on it, but it might be above his abilities. I’ll need to get a plumber in.” She fiddled with her phone, flashing the screen on and off.

  “I’m good with them.”

  She looked up. “I can’t ask you—”

  “Ask me to what? Work on my house? We’re partners in this now, Kendall. “

  “I know, but this isn’t your problem.”

  “It is. And even if we need to buy a new one, it won’t be half as expensive if I get one from our wholesaler and do the work myself.”

  “We lost two bookings because of it. And now with the holiday…” She tipped her forehead against the glass. “I just need to get back.”

  “What will your mom do until you get home?”

  “Bells will take care of her.” She opened the door and hopped down.

  He did the same and stopped her at the front of the truck. “You’re not alone in this anymore. I don’t know how else to make you understand that.”

  “I’m not used to having someone to rely on.”

  “Not even your mother?”

  “She…” Kendall flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Let’s just say she’s not good in a crisis.” She laid a hand on his chest. “Are y
ou coming up to the house?”

  “No, I’m going back down with the men. I want to get an early start.”

  She nodded. “Thanks for listening, Shane.”

  He shrugged. “Not a big deal. We were going to have to talk about it sooner or later.”

  “Evidently sooner won that bet.”

  He tucked her hair behind both ears. “You okay to walk up alone?”

  “Just fine.” For the first time, she looked the woman he’d met at the will reading. Her shoulders were stooped a little, and her sassy, sexy walk was missing.

  Reality was here to stay, evidently.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Saturday had come and gone with Oscar in full effect. The crew was exhausted, and Shane was on the knife-edge of surly. Evelyn was at a horse show a few towns over, and Kendall had already done all her chores. There was no way she could ignore her mother’s phone call this time. Especially when it came directly after a text that demanded she answer the phone.

  Well, not without a serious case of the guilts.

  “Mom, I wanted to tell you earlier.”

  “You could have told me before shipments started arriving at the house, Kendall Marie Proctor.”

  She winced and dropped onto her butt in the field. Salina was enjoying another mild day. It was hard to remember it was almost Thanksgiving when the temperatures felt more like September. Taking advantage of the dry grass and some alone time, she stretched out and looked up at the painfully blue sky.

  How was she supposed to tell her mother that Lawrence Justice had let her down again? She didn’t believe in miracles anymore, but her mother certainly did. She’d wanted to break the news face-to-face, but as usual, she’d had to adapt. Her situation was about to crash headlong into reality in a few days anyway. Had it really only been ten days?

  “How’s the hot water heater?”

  “Broken. Now stop stalling.”

  So she started at the beginning, and her mother stayed quiet as she explained about the co-ownership, that the Justice money was as reliable as the man she knew—minus the sarcasm to spare her mother—and that they’d have another Justice under their roof.