by Gina Conkle
She gazed up at him with an openness setting his body on high alert. Her pupils spread wider in her eyes. “You seem like the dependable type, ready to listen and be a friend.”
She spoke softly, inserting the safe friend word. She was saying one thing, but Jennifer’s big brown eyes told him something else. His dick twitched. Alarms went off inside him to the tune of sizzling heat. Her mixed messages sounded a lot like she was hot for sex and in need of a platonic ear. He should be the better man, help Jennifer, and ignore the lust roiling between them, but her nipples poked her dress, the twin circles more prominent than moments ago. He was a pig for ogling her breasts.
Jennifer stopped her fake flirtation and was pouring out her heart again. “…I appreciate you helping and listening to me. Not many people just listen to me nowadays. I’ve got so much on my mind, but everyone tries to tell me what I should do.” Her brows scrunched. “Know what I mean?”
He dragged his attention off her chest. “People should listen to their friends, instead of giving unasked for advice.”
It’d strip his nerves, but he’d listen. And he’s keep his eyes focused above the neck even if it killed him. Jennifer launched into her fears about returning to work and her life before her husband died. Explaining how she used to help her late husband, she wasn’t kidding when she’d said everything was about his career. She’d practically been at his beck and call. Time passed, her voice rose and fell, as animated as her hands. She was a livewire of energy.
“…everyone says I should—”
“Stop, Blondie.” He grabbed her hands. “What do you think you should do?”
Her dark-fringed eyes spread wide. Warm feminine hands relaxed in his. He would’ve pulled her flush to him to comfort her and test those yes signals of hers.
“Oh, I like that, AJ. ‘Blondie.’” She smiled as if getting a glimpse of herself for the first time.
Her soft hands stayed clasped in his. Air was lax around them. Jennifer’s nervous jitters had unwound and come loose in the summer heat. Their corner of the lot was unlit, the night hinting at temptation. The better part of him spied the bench tucked safely in front of the bar.
“Why don’t we take a seat over there?” He pointed at the bench. “We can see the tow truck when it comes.”
“Sure. If you think that’s better.”
AJ set a guiding hand on her elbow and a shiver rippled through her body. His dick roused from Jennifer’s tits bouncing lightly as she navigated the dark in her strappy heels. The bench in front the bar was a good idea. They barely got away from her car when Jennifer lost her footing and banged into him, her tits ramming him. He grabbed her arms to steady her.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, both hands splayed over his ribs.
His sight line dropped and he froze. Abundant cleavage pillowed his abs. He could gorge on those curves. Stare at them all night. A woman’s chest was a thing of beauty. Big. Small. Flat chested. Or full and round. Nipples thin as pencil points or thick as a felt marker. He loved them all. But the sight of Jennifer’s tits plump against his T-shirt roused his dick in a hot, hard flash.
“AJ?”
He sucked in a sharp breath. Fuck. Her tits were inches from his dick and his brain wouldn’t let that image go. Throat dry, his fingers dug into her. Moonlight washed over big round doe eyes and velvet soft skin. Her lips parted. He was ready to do the right thing and help up, but Jennifer rubbed against him slowly, her eyes locked boldly on his.
That’s an invitation. Body humming, he had to have her.
One taste. That’s all he’d take.
He grazed Jennifer’s lips once, twice, a third time. She melted into him from a few soft pecks. Talk about a woman in need of kissing, deep kissing. What would happen if he started touching her? Really touching her?
She moaned into his mouth. Her tongue swept boldly across his lower lip. She tasted of warmth and spearmint gum, biting his bottom lip, his chin. Her teeth grazing him, the little bites hinted at a wilder woman beneath the mannered veneer.
Both his hands slid down smooth, slender arms. Tenderly they linked hands at their sides, his dick wedged between them. She had to feel it pressing her belly. Shockwaves pulsed inside him the longer they kissed. Jennifer wiggled. Her mouth devoured him as hot and hungry as he devoured her. Jennifer’s flimsy summer dress rasped his T-shirt her tits rubbing big blatant circles on his chest. His dick got painfully hard at the image of riding her cleavage.
“Jennifer…we should stop.” His voice scraped low.
None of this jived with the tame society woman who gave him sheepish half smiles. His dick and half his brain raced ahead, but the other half of his brain stalled on gentleman mode.
“No.” Her mouth sucked his neck.
He groaned and let go of her hands, needing to hold her. Jennifer’s hands shot up to his shoulders. Her mouth worked a lazy line under his ear lobe, nibbling and sucking. A hot shudder went up and down his spine like fingers strumming a guitar. His eyes spread, trying to focus. Blue and white neon flickered. His balls ached and his dick throbbed because a hot woman was devouring him in a parking lot. If she didn’t think clearly, he needed to…to save her the embarrassment of getting caught.
He walked them backward to the front of her car until his butt hit the hood. Jennifer never stopped kissing his neck and nibbling his ear lobe. Fuck, it felt good.
“Your mouth…” he whispered, angling back on the hood.
She went with him, sprawling between his legs, humming soft laughter against his neck, the vibration ticklish. Jennifer’s park job had pointed her car away from the bar at the far end of the lot. They were on a country road surrounded by trees. A little hot and heavy kissing wouldn’t hurt.
His hands flattened on Jennifer’s ribs. Slowly he memorized her back. The line her bra under her dress. The bump her bra hook made. Her spine and the pearled rise of each small bone, down to her narrow waist nipping above smooth, curvaceous hips. Jennifer was a pin up in a society woman’s dress. Every inch of him rioted to get her naked.
She tipped her head back, shadows and moonlight painting her features in seductive, pale light. Sex-hazed, feminine eyes searched him.
She smiled, revealing a dimple in need of kissing. “Are we good?”
A beautiful, curvy woman between his legs? “Yeah.” His thumb brushed her dimple. “We’re good.”
He rolled off the hood, kissing the tiny indent, working his way to the bottom her chin. Legs spread wide, his boots hit the ground. Jennifer stayed planted between his legs like she belonged there. Male satisfaction settled inside him. His kisses devastated her. He read Jennifer when her breath hitched from his wandering hands and when it skipped faster. Soft sighs and frenzied wiggles. He took it all in, her body language for him alone.
Jennifer’s head lolled back and moonlight touched her neck. Splotchy circles marked pale skin. Whisker scratches.
His fingertips grazed her neck. “I should slow down.”
“No. Keep going.” Jennifer gripped his waist, her manicured nails frisking dangerous territory at his waistband. One French tip almost scraped the tip of his dick. Fuck. His toes curled in his boots.
Jennifer raised her head as if by unspoken agreement it was her turn to lavish kisses on him. Dark, carnal eyes met his. Wanton. Animal. Like she’d take a bite out of him.
“I want you,” she said her tongue teasing his upper lip.
Goose bumps flowed over his skin. Jennifer rocked against him in an age old rhythm. In the shelter of darkness, he held on tight. Their kisses went from slow and tender to fast and hot. Her minty tongue rubbed his. When her hands wandered over his shoulders, he flexed from the heightened pleasure of her fingers exploring his body. He fought the throb between his legs. Through the haze, her fingernails dug into his back. The hurt was so good.
He pulled away, sucking air. “If we don’t slow down,
your skirt’ll be at your waist.”
Both his palms rubbed calming circles on her back. His calloused hands made crackling sounds on the fine fabric. When was the last time he reacted with such intensity to a woman? Jennifer couldn’t or wouldn’t stop. Her pelvis nestled into him and she wouldn’t stop her unhurried, rhythmic rocking. She nudged the base of his neck. Smelling. Sucking. Nipping.
Air hissed between his clenched teeth. His dick ached inside his jeans. Anymore of this friction and he’d come in his pants. “Watch it, Blondie. You’re playing with fire.”
“I. Don’t. Care.” She couldn’t have been more firm about wanting him.
Little by little, his hands worked the cloth up her thighs. His resolve dropped the higher her skirt went. Jennifer nuzzled his neck, and he stared down at her backside, a grunt rumbling out of him. She wore white mesh see through underwear. Two pale moons peeked at him. Smooth, toned curves and a dark cleft. A perfect pin up girl’s ass.
His fingers slipped under the sheer covering. Both hands massaged her tight globes. He pinched them, rubbed them. Jennifer couldn’t get enough. She ground her crotch harder against the bulge in his jeans. If that torture wasn’t enough, she toed the bumper, rubbing her tanned knee up his thigh.
What would make him snap first? Her body rubbing against him? The purring sounds she made? Or his hands on her ass cheeks? He needed to do something. Fast.
He squeezed her butt so hard she yelped. “Stop grinding me like that,” he growled, gripping her shoulders and putting inches between them. “Unless you’re ready to do something about it right here, right now.”
That got her attention.
“Here?” Hair fell over her eyes. She brushed it back, taking in her surroundings as if she’d forgotten where she was.
“Here and now.” He could tell his commanding tone did things to her…a subtle melting a few degrees hotter.
Jennifer licked kiss swollen lips. She breathed hard, her lashes falling half-mast over glazed eyes. “Is it awful that I don’t care?”
He stiffened. “We’re in a parking lot. Even if you’re okay with it, I’m not.”
Time to take control before they both went out of control. His hands pulled away from her skin, stretching her sheer nothing underwear. Night air on her ass would cool her ardor. Jennifer’s skirt was a wrinkled mess around her waist. Her big eyes registered the force of desire sizzling between them and his thin restraint tamping it down. She was slow to push off him. He had to shake her up.
“Keep rubbing me like you did and your sheer nothings drop to your ankles. Got it?” His clipped tone said this wasn’t up for negotiation. “We let things get outta hand.”
She untangled herself from him. He glimpsed the outline of her naked thighs against the woods behind her. Jennifer smoothed her skirt until it fell around her knees.
“You’re starved for touch, aren’t you?” he asked, gentling his voice.
The sad, soulful light in her eyes was her answer.
His heart cracked. He stroked her mussed hair, unsticking strands stuck to her cheeks and neck. Jennifer stilled, her eyelids fluttering as he tried to put her back together. Tenderly, he pulled her in for a loose hug. The moment was pure. For all the sexed-up kissing and rubbing, he wanted to hold Jennifer close and feel her heart beat against him. How long had he admired this woman, wanted her and here she was her body flush to his? He shook his head, amazed at his sudden decision not to take what could so easily be his for the night.
“You have one great ass. You know that? So tight.” It wasn’t poetic but definitely true. He kissed the top of her head.
“Thank you,” Jennifer sighed, her cheek on his chest.
He figured she decided not to question things —that she let a man she’d just met hike her skirt up in a dive bar parking lot. It was a you’ll feel better in the morning for not doing this moment. He held onto her, letting the tense storm leave her body. He needed it too. The two of them defied reason, a woman like her with a man like him. She tipped back her head to say something, when headlights splashed the lot.
“Saved by the truck,” he murmured in her ear.
The tow truck’s wheels ground to a halt, and a man jumped out.
“You folks call for a tow truck?” The man ambled toward them when he craned his neck. “That you, AJ?”
“Sure is. Howdy, Dell.”
“Am I taking this car to your shop?”
“Yep. Need any help?”
“Naw.” Dell removed his ball cap to wipe his forehead. “Done this so many times, I could do it with my eyes shut.” He squinted in Jennifer’s direction. “Sorry ‘bout bein’ so late, ma’am. Lotta calls tonight.”
Dell went back to the truck and flipped on the light bar over his cab. He maneuvered his truck around to the front of the Volvo. AJ steered Jennifer away, giving Dell room to work. They stood at the edge of a twenty foot circle of light, moths fluttering madly around the truck’s headlights. A dispatcher’s voice scratched across a two-way radio as Dell hooked a winch to the front axle.
Jennifer studied AJ some quiet seconds. “Your shop?”
He fixed his attention on the car. “Yeah. Been at McMillan’s five years now.” His arms linked loosely over his chest. He spread self-conscious fingers over his inked bicep.
What did she see? The tattoo he got as an eighteen year old? Or that it’d been a few days since he shaved? Maybe she studied his rough hands and the knuckles cracked from harsh cleaning agents? These were the hands of a working man, and she was somewhat acquainted with his working man’s body.
He was a mechanic. That’s who she’d see. It’s who he was.
Jennifer chilled in the shadows. Turning his face to the bar, he smiled thinly. Her silence told him she’d already withdrawn in mind and couldn’t wait to leave in body. Her mind probably made a list of excuses for a hasty exit. The thought stung him.
Why stand here and wait for rejection?
“I’m going to help Dell finish up.”
He grabbed some tie downs and gave Dell a hand. Soon enough, the Volvo was loaded on the flatbed. Wiping his hands on a rag, AJ approached Jennifer, his boots slamming the gravel.
“Dell can see you home,” he said curtly.
“Aren’t you…I mean, I thought…”
His jaw ticked from his clenched teeth. Jennifer shrank from him, her hands rubbing her arms against phantom coolness.
“AJ, I didn’t mean for, um, for…”
“For what?”
“I hoped we could finish talking.” She cringed.
“Talking? Yeah, that was some conversation we were having.”
He tucked the rag in his back pocket. Maybe Jennifer wasn’t about to give him the boot? She hooked loose hair behind her ear and checked for Dell’s whereabouts. Seeing he was in the truck, she still dipped close and lowered her voice.
“The kissing was fun, but I liked talking with you. Earlier, I mean.” She hesitated, her big brown eyes searching him. “I’d like to again.”
“You asking me out on a date?” His voice rumbled as he hooked his hands into his front pockets.
“No,” she hissed. “I want to spend time with you…talk some more. That’s it.”
“Does our talking include food and beer?”
“It could.”
“Sounds like a date to me.”
Her kiss swollen lips fought a smile. “Call it whatever you like.”
“Sure. I’d like to keep…talking.”
Jennifer’s smile wobbled. So she preferred the vague definition of whatever was going on between them. He could live with that. The hard on in his jeans was another story.
Go slow, walk this tight rope. See what happens.
Dell came whistling. “If I could just have you sign here, ma’am.” He pointed to a line at the bottom and handed over his clipboard
to Jennifer. “Now am I giving you a ride home? Or do you have someone picking you up?”
Jennifer’s gaze flitted to AJ. “I believe I do.”
Dell glanced at him. “You giving her a ride?”
“I’ll take care of her,” he said, locking eyes with Jennifer.
With that settled, she scrawled her signature. His brain ordered him to proceed with caution. Jennifer was a widow. If talking was her speed, that’s what he’d give her. She passed the paperwork to Dell, and he tucked it under his arm.
“Ma’am, AJ’s a trustworthy man. Known him for years. You’re safe with him.” With grease-mottled fingers, Dell tipped the frayed bill of his cap.
He trotted back to his truck and switched off the high beam, bathing them in the glow of orange and yellow safety lights. Massive wheels ground through the pebbled lot, leaving them in silence.
“Come on. Let’s get you home.” Touching her elbow, another current of awareness passed through his hand. They’d take things slow, whatever was happening, or not happening.
He guided her to his pick-up truck, a dented twenty year old Ford he’d nursed along with replacement parts as needed. In the distance, the bar door opened. Rock music throbbed. The crowd was livelier. Thoughts banged around his head, and he guessed Jennifer’s mind whirled with some questions. What would she ask first?
He settled her on the seat, clicked the seat belt for her, and tucked her skirt under her thigh with care. He probably stomped on her feminist sensibilities, but he’d soak up the contact for as long as possible.
Jennifer’s luminous brown eyes pored over him. “AJ, why did you think I’d kiss you, let you touch me like you did, and then just leave?”
That didn’t take long.
He shut the door and leaned his arms on the door. Jennifer was pretty framed by the open window. Tonight she’d stripped him raw and left him hungry. His gut told him she wasn’t a fling. Not if he could help it. Forthrightness in the right amount was the best way to go.