Radiant

by Elizabeth Hayley

  He slid in next to her and started the engine. “I don’t know,” he said as he pressed on the gas, propelling the car forward. “But they’re going to be really upset when they find out it’s missing.”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened, and she gripped Derick’s forearm. “Wait, what?”

  Keeping his eyes on the road, Derick remained silent for a moment, causing Siobhan’s anxiety to intensify. Finally, at a red light, he turned toward her, amusement on his face. “It’s mine,” he said, laughing. “You actually think I’d steal a car?”

  Siobhan thought for a moment. “I mean…no, not really.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Well, I mostly believed you wouldn’t.” Siobhan ran her hand along the smooth leather of the seat. “You had this brought out from New York?”

  Derick nodded.

  She’d never been impressed by a car before, but this one had her feeling differently. “What kind of car is it?” she asked. She’d never seen one with the driver’s seat in between two other bucket seats, which were set back a bit.

  “A McLaren F1. It has a top speed of more than two hundred thirty miles per hour.”

  Concern swept across Siobhan’s face. She could sense Derick’s excitement, but that only made her nervous. She felt her hands tighten on her thighs. “You’re not going to go that fast, are you?”

  Derick shifted gears, and Siobhan’s body pressed against the back of her seat as the car accelerated. “There’s no way we can go that fast on a public road,” he said.

  Siobhan relaxed a bit.

  “But I don’t exactly intend to obey the speed limit, either.” There was a recognizable twinkle in his eyes when he took them off the road to glance at her. His hands rested comfortably on the wheel.

  “You like driving, huh?”

  The question caused a childlike smile to spread across Derick’s face. “Is it that obvious?” he asked as he headed onto the highway and slid over to the left lane.

  “Just a little.” Siobhan let her head fall back against the headrest as she turned toward him. “It’s cute.”

  “I don’t get to drive much living in the city, so every now and then, I take one of my cars out and just cruise. When I can get out on an open road, it makes me feel free. Like I can somehow focus on everything and nothing all at the same time.” Derick put a hand on her thigh and squeezed, looking over at her. “That probably doesn’t make a ton of sense, does it?”

  Although Derick had looked back to the road, Siobhan continued to stare at him. “This may seem crazy, but I actually know exactly what you mean. It’s how I feel when I paint.”

  Despite the car’s speed, Siobhan began to relax. He seemed more than in control of the car. And it drove so smoothly she hardly noticed they were going…a hundred and five miles an hour. Jesus Christ. She was thankful they were beyond the city limits so there wasn’t any traffic or cops in sight.

  She’d never gone that fast before, but it didn’t seem to bother Derick, who changed the radio station as if he were cruising down a suburban street at twenty-five miles an hour.

  “Marnel told me about her party yesterday. You excited to go?” he asked her.

  “Yeah, it’ll be great to see the girls again. You’re coming too, right?”

  “Yup,” Derick said. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  Somehow Derick’s comfort seemed to radiate through her as he drove. Finally, her muscles relaxed, and she let her clenched fingers straighten. “So where are we going?” she asked, looking out into the clear night sky.

  Derick took a hand off the stick shift and placed it over hers, threading their fingers together. “Nowhere special.”

  Siobhan focused on the feel of Derick’s hand over hers as he rubbed her skin gently with his thumb. She recognized the familiar pull in her stomach at even such an innocent touch. And somehow she could sense that he felt it, too.

  She ran her fingernails up Derick’s arm and let out a slow breath as his hand moved to scratch the inside of her thigh over her jeans. Her hips rose slightly in a silent plea for him to move higher.

  He complied. But as his hand rubbed over the seam of her jeans, it only teased her more. The sloped angle of the seat and the fact that it was set back from his would prevent him from giving her the stimulation she so desperately craved.

  She could feel how soaked her underwear already was just from Derick’s hand toying with her over the thick fabric of her jeans. He continued the delicious pressure on her clit, and it had her moaning softly as her ass tensed and she begged for more. “Jesus, Derick, I need you to touch me,” she said, reaching over to grip his cock, which was firm against his pants.

  Derick groaned, and Siobhan could tell how difficult it was for him to focus on the road while she was massaging his shaft, stroking him a few times before moving her palm over the tip and back down again. “Are you trying to make me come in my pants, Siobhan?” he asked playfully as his head hit the headrest.

  “That depends,” she said. “Are you going to make me come in mine?”

  Derick hit the gas harder as the car in front of him moved to the right to let him by. “No,” he answered. “I thought I’d have you do it.”

  Siobhan’s stomach was nearly in her throat. Whether it was from Derick’s driving or the sexual torture he was inflicting on her, she wasn’t sure. She released a shaky breath as he withdrew his hand from between her legs and placed it back on the wheel.

  “Unbutton your jeans,” he said, nodding toward her but keeping his hands on the wheel.

  Siobhan did as he instructed and dragged the zipper down, too.

  “I want you to do to yourself what you wish I could do to you.” Derick chanced a glance at her and then directed his gaze back to the highway. “And I want you to describe it to me because I can’t look at you.”

  The sound that came out on Siobhan’s exhale sounded almost like a laugh.

  “What’s funny?”

  “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Do what?” Derick asked. “Make yourself come? Or describe it?”

  “Both. Or at the same time, maybe. I don’t know.” She shook her head.

  “I’d like you to try.” Derick’s eyes remained fixed on the road. Then he patted her on the leg and smirked. “I have faith in you.”

  “Oh.” Siobhan laughed. “Well, that’s encouraging.”

  “You’ve done it before, right?”

  “Masturbated in a car? Nope. Surprisingly, this is my first time,” she deadpanned.

  Derick gave her a chastising glance. “Stop being a smart-ass and touch yourself.”

  This time, Siobhan complied, sliding a hand under her shirt to run her fingers above her panties. She moaned as she moved the other hand up to her nipple, pulling gently.

  “What are you thinking about?” Derick asked.

  “I’m pretending it’s your hand on my stomach, your mouth on my breast.”

  “Keep going. Tell me what you’d want me to do to you.”

  She thought for a few seconds, but she didn’t feel as embarrassed vocalizing her desires as she thought she would. “I’d want you to go lower, Derick.…Put your fingers inside me.…Rub me,” she said, slipping a hand below her white lace thong. “You’d feel how wet I am for you.”

  Siobhan kept her eyes open, watching Derick as he moved a hand to his cock and pulled slowly. She moaned softly at first, but the sounds grew louder and wilder as her fingers drew small circles over herself. She shifted her position a bit and thrust upward at her own touch.

  Derick put both hands on the wheel to pass the car in front of him. “Did you touch yourself like this after you left New York?”

  She didn’t expect the question, so she answered truthfully. “Not at first.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t want to think about you when I left,” she admitted. “This would’ve reminded me of you. The way you put your hands on me, inside me,” she said, pushing a finger inside herself.

&nb
sp; “But eventually you did?”

  Siobhan exhaled heavily as her fingers slipped over herself. She was so wet she almost couldn’t give herself the friction she needed. “Yeah.”

  “What changed?” Derick asked, gripping himself again.

  She watched him tug hard on his cock under the material of his pants, and she wished she could see it. She loved the way it looked when he was ready like this, the tip nearly purple and beaded with moisture.

  “I needed this,” she answered, “and I didn’t care if it made me think of you.” The speed of her hands increased as she felt herself get closer. “I love when you move your fingers like that, when you stroke the inside of me,” she said, doing it to herself but knowing she could never replicate the feel of Derick’s fingers.

  “God, Siobhan, you’re going to make me come.” He let out a short, choppy breath as his movements slowed. “Listening to you talk to me like that…I can’t take much more.”

  Siobhan rode her own hands shamelessly now, needing the release she knew was imminent. Her eyes closed as her muscles began to tense, until finally, she clenched around her fingers, her body pulsing as her orgasm spread through her.

  She came down from it slowly, and when she had recovered, she unbuckled her seat belt and slid up to the front of her seat.

  “What are you doing?” Derick asked, as Siobhan undid his pants to let his cock spring free.

  “Giving you road head,” she said, as if the answer were obvious. It should have been. “I’ve always wanted to do this, and now seems like the perfect opportunity.”

  “Siobhan, we’re going over a hundred miles an hour.”

  She smiled at him before licking her lips. “Then I’d better make this fast. Keep your eyes on the road,” she said, before dropping her head to his lap and enveloping him in her mouth.

  Derick gasped as his tip hit the back of her throat.

  She moved over him wildly, her tongue slipping over his shaft. When his hips flexed, she knew he was close. It wasn’t long before he was coming, shooting long bursts of semen into the back of her mouth.

  Derick’s body tensed with his release. But after he’d fully emptied himself into her, his muscles loosened, and his rigid body relaxed. She lifted her head and helped him fix his pants before she settled into her seat and buckled herself back in.

  The two stared at the road ahead of them for a few minutes in quiet satisfaction.

  Chapter 16

  “Are we there yet?” Siobhan asked Derick again. She’d posed the same question every time she’d felt the driver stop the car.

  “I could get used to this,” Derick said.

  “Used to what? Me acting like a four-year-old on a road trip? I was hoping it would be annoying and you’d eventually give in and tell me where we’re going.”

  “Nope. That part’s definitely annoying. I was talking about this,” he said, tugging gently on the blindfold he’d put on her. Then he pressed his mouth to hers, parting it gently with his tongue. She hadn’t anticipated it coming, and it made the feeling even more erotic.

  “Do that again,” Siobhan said when he broke contact.

  “I can’t. We’re here.”

  By the time the car came to a stop and she heard a door open, Siobhan was bouncing with anticipation again. Derick got out first and took Siobhan’s hand to help her out of the car. “Where is here?”

  “You’ll find out in a minute.”

  “Can I take the blindfold off?”

  “Not yet,” he said. She heard him unlock a door, and then he guided her inside. She recognized the lingering smell of fresh paint but still had no clue where they were, other than that they were in an elevator.

  When it stopped and the doors slid open, Siobhan felt Derick untie the blindfold carefully and then remove it so she could see.

  He came around from where he’d been standing behind her and exited the elevator, grasping her hand so she could walk with him. “What do you think?” he asked as he gestured around them.

  Siobhan took in her surroundings—the high ceilings, the clean white walls, the floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed brick. The place was sparse in terms of furniture, but she knew exactly what this was. “Oh, my God! You rented an apartment here?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I bought it,” he said, with that disarming smile she loved.

  “You bought it? You’re only commuting back and forth. You don’t need a permanent residence here.”

  “I might. I don’t know when, or even if, you’ll decide to move back to New York.” Derick shrugged. “Plus, I got a good deal on the place.”

  Siobhan quirked a lip up. “I didn’t know you were such a bargain shopper.”

  Derick chuckled as Siobhan moved toward the kitchen. She ran her fingers along the cool light-gray granite. “I like it,” she said, thinking how much it resembled his place in New York. “I think you need more than just a couch and a TV, though.”

  He followed her over to where she’d leaned against the counter. His hands found her hips as he stood in front of her and pressed against her. “I have a bed, too.”

  Slipping her arms around him, she raised her eyes to find his. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

  “That depends. Is it working?”

  Siobhan gave him an amused grin and a sharp slap on the ass. “What part of the city is this, anyway?” she asked, disengaging herself from him and heading over toward the windows.

  “Midtown.”

  She moved across the hardwood floor of the main living space and looked down at the street below. She was surprised that they were only a few floors up and not at the top of a penthouse in a high-rise.

  But upon closer examination, there was something that surprised Siobhan even more. She recognized the surrounding buildings. She knew exactly where Derick’s apartment was located.

  “Oh, my God,” she said, her eyes wide as she brought a hand up to cover her mouth. “You bought the building so the mural wouldn’t be destroyed?”

  Chapter 17

  Derick studied Siobhan’s expression before answering, but he couldn’t discern anything from it. “I may have done that, yes.”

  That was when Siobhan showed what she was feeling. But there were many emotions flitting across her face so quickly that he couldn’t get a handle on any of them. She turned back to the window and stared down at the bustling street below with her arms crossed over her chest.

  After a couple of silent minutes, he moved up beside her. He shoved his hands into his pockets as he looked down at the street with her. “Siobhan, can you please say something?”

  He chanced a glance at her. Her brow was furrowed, and her arms were wrapped around herself.

  “I’m trying to figure it out.” Her voice was so low he wouldn’t have heard her if they hadn’t been alone in the apartment.

  “Figure what out?” He was afraid of her answer. Bone-shakingly, nail-bitingly afraid.

  She turned to face him, dropping her arms as she shifted. “I didn’t tell you about this building until after you got here. I’d been working with a group of friends to save it for months before that, before we got back together. Before you ever showed up at my door.”

  Siobhan was clearly fitting the pieces together and wasn’t liking the picture she was uncovering. Derick didn’t want to make matters worse by talking, so he waited for her to connect the remaining dots.

  She drew her shoulders back. “How did you know, Derick? How did you know I was trying to save this building?”

  Derick lowered his gaze to the floor for a moment before meeting her eyes. “I really don’t think you’re going to like my answer,” he muttered.

  “I’m pretty sure I won’t, either. But I have to know.”

  Even though Derick had known they’d probably end up having this conversation when he showed her the building, he still wasn’t sure of the best way to avoid being flayed alive by her afterward. “I made a few trips out to Detroit after you left.”

  “To spy on
me?”

  He took an involuntary step forward but stopped when she moved back. “No. Just to check in. You took off out of the blue and went to a city where you didn’t know anyone. I was worried.”

  “But you didn’t check in. I didn’t even know you were here.”

  Derick rubbed a hand through his hair. “Okay, maybe check in was the wrong term.”

  “What would the right one be? ‘Stalk’?”

  “Oh, come on, Siobhan. If you were really that concerned about disappearing, you should’ve made your Facebook profile private.”

  Siobhan’s eyes narrowed. “I use my Facebook to promote my art. I can’t do that if it’s private.” She sighed and looked back out the window. “So is that how you found me initially? By trolling my profile?”

  Derick extended his hands out to his sides and then let them fall against his thighs with a slap. “You want to know all of it, fine, here it is. I made it about two weeks before I went to Brooklyn and knocked on your door to hash things out. I didn’t want to give in, but I missed you like crazy, and I was miserable. I went to your place, but when I got there, you didn’t answer. So I waited and waited and waited, until finally, a neighbor told me you’d moved out. Imagine how I felt to know that not only had you left me, but you’d also left the city. Hell, the state.”

  Derick started pacing. The memory of it still ate at him. “So I went to the Stone Room. The girls confirmed that you had left, but they wouldn’t tell me where you went.” He stopped and pointed at her. “Those are some damn good friends. CIA operatives are easier to break.”

  Siobhan seemed to struggle to suppress a smirk at that, but he didn’t let his gaze linger long, needing to move again. “So I checked your Facebook. And there you were—in Detroit. You liked an event and commented that you’d be attending, so I flew out here and showed up. It turned out to be a rally for this building.”

  He stopped in front of her, needing her to understand what he had done and why. “My plan was to approach you and get you to talk to me. But when I got there, you looked so…happy. You were upbeat and relaxed. You never looked that way in New York. And I didn’t want to ruin it. So I watched. And the more I watched, the more I saw how much this building meant, not just to you but to everyone there. They were fighting for it because they loved the mural on it. And I figured, if it wasn’t the right time to fight for you, at least I could fight for something that meant something to you. To you and all your friends. So I bought it.”