by Cat Johnson
“Well, Tara, Logan’s not here to see you doing that, and it sure as shit won’t impress me.” Jace drew in a breath, more frustrated than he thought she’d be capable of making him. She was enough to make him want to tear out his own hair. “You really think letting some kid kiss you is the way to prove to everyone you’re grown up? Is that what all this shit in the closet with Klint was about?”
“Yes!” She stamped her foot and proved his point that she was behaving like an adolescent.
“Then that just proves what a foolish child you are, Tara. You don’t go to a boy to do a man’s job.”
“I had no one else to go to. You’re like a watchdog, chasing everyone away.”
The stupidity of Tara putting herself in a compromising position on a whim pissed him off. Deep down, Jace knew she’d do it again—probably every chance she got—just to teach him a lesson for trying to stop her.
“You really wanna be kissed that badly?” Jace’s anger made his voice sound husky. Deep and intense.
“Yes, I do.” Her eyes flashed with defiance.
“Fine.” Jace leaned closer until a crease furrowed Tara’s brow.
If she insisted on putting herself into a closet with a kid she knew nothing about because she wanted a damn kiss, Jace would give her a kiss. One she’d never forget. One that would make those rookies seem like kindergarteners. And he wouldn’t scrape her face raw the way Klint had doing it. Jace shaved every night before the competition because real men didn’t have anything to prove by showing the world they could grow some hair on their chin.
He grabbed the back of her neck with one hand, much as he had when he’d hauled her out of the bar, but his intentions were very different. He pulled her closer until their faces were inches apart.
Her lower lip trembled as her big blue eyes widened. For once, she focused on his face. Jace didn’t ask her again. He brought his other hand up, cupped her cheek and took possession of her lips, determined to kiss the childish pout right off them.
It started out hard. He wanted to punish her. Teach her a lesson. Scare the stupid out of her so she didn’t try anything so risky again. But she didn’t back off like he thought she would. Instead, she kissed him back.
He’d expected her lips to be hard and unyielding, just like her attitude toward him most days. They weren’t. They were soft and giving, receptive to his taking. He took a step closer. With one booted foot between her feet, his thigh fit perfectly between her legs.
Angling his head, he changed the kiss, worked her lips as he marveled at how different it felt to kiss a mouth he didn’t know intimately. It had been quite a while since he’d kissed anyone other than his ex.
Exploring the new sensations, Jace moved his right hand down Tara’s back, landing on the slender curve of her hip. At the same time, Tara had gone from bracing against his chest, to wrapping her arms around his waist. When she slipped her hands into the back pockets of his jeans, he had a feeling she was planning on being there for a while. Fine. A girl as stubborn as Tara needed a long, thorough lesson.
She opened her lips beneath his. Jace didn’t ignore the silent invitation, but he also wasn’t going to rush to give her what she wanted. She needed a lesson in patience as much as—more, actually—than a lesson that she shouldn’t go into closets to kiss men.
He drew her lower lip between his and scraped it with a good bit of teeth. She drew in a shuddering breath that had him smiling against her mouth, thinking that Klint probably hadn’t gotten that reaction from her. Stroking her face beneath his thumb, Jace decided to give her a bit of what he knew she wanted. He ran just the tip of his tongue along the inside of her lower lip, and then repeated it with the upper one.
Tara opened farther for him and he didn’t deny either of them. He plunged into the wet heat of her mouth. She met his tongue with her own, stroking against him in an erotic dance that had him pressing his lower body against hers before he realized what he was doing.
Somewhere, somehow it had gone from Jace proving a point, to him being rock hard in his jeans and ready to take whatever Tara wanted to give.
That realization had him breaking the kiss. But damn the devil inside him, he didn’t pull back. He stayed pressed up against her, his mouth a breath away from her face. “That kiss good enough for you?”
“Yes.” Tara’s gaze moved from Jace’s lips to his eyes.
Had her eyes always been such an intense color? As deep as the indigo sky. Jace dragged his attention away from the desire still showing in them and forced his focus back to the situation at hand. “You going to stop this foolishness about hooking up with all the bull riders on the circuit?”
“Yes.” She dipped her head in the slightest of nods.
In the small part of his brain that was still functioning, he knew he should be very concerned she was being so agreeable. But with a considerable amount of his blood currently in his cock, there wasn’t much oxygen left for thinking.
“I’m going to step away now, and then wash this arena dirt off me and get some rest.” Why he was telling her this rather than doing it wasn’t clear to him. Maybe it was because he had no desire to step away. “Okay?”
“No.” Her compliance had come to an end.
“No?” Jace asked. “Why not?”
“I’m not done yet.” Tara pressed her body closer against his.
With her arms clamped around his lower half like a vise, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Not that he tried. She leaned in and rose just enough to nip at his lower lip, like he had hers before.
Tara ran the tip of her tongue along the seam between his lips, sending a shudder through him. The student had learned too well. That was just a passing notion before Jace lost his train of thought as Tara kissed him, plunging her tongue between his lips.
On some level he knew he was treading all over the rules. He shouldn’t be kissing his best friend’s little sister, any more than he should be kissing his traveling partner. His intentions had been good to start—kissing her to save her from acting a fool with the other riders.
That initial rationale had kind of become a moot point when he’d started to enjoy it. He’d deal with the gray areas in his conscience later. It was just nice to know he still had it in him to kiss someone who wasn’t Jacqueline and like it. He had begun to doubt that was possible.
Hell, parts of him liked kissing Tara very much. Particularly the part that Tara was rubbing against as she rode his leg. It was making the lesson feel much too real.
Jace pulled back from her mouth. “Tara.”
“What?” She sounded breathless.
He realized he was getting a bit breathless himself. “We should stop.”
“No.”
“But—”
“Jace, if you stop now I’m just going to—”
“Shut the hell up, Tara.” He didn’t let her finish her sentence. Didn’t need to. He knew what the threat was going to be—that she’d go find Klint or some other guy to kiss.
Jace gripped her face harder between his fingers and crashed his mouth into hers.
Kissing was innocent enough. Hell, he’d been kissing girls since middle school. Even the dry humping Tara was doing with his leg wasn’t so far over the line he shouldn’t cross. As long as their clothes were still on, it meant nothing.
A small sound of pleasure came from her. It cut straight through Jace. Another few minutes and she’d be coming apart. His male pride swelled with the knowledge that he’d caused it.
Jace pulled away from her mouth and brushed his lips against her ear. “I bet Klint didn’t make you feel like this. Was he even man enough to make you come?”
Her breath came fast and shallow. “Not sure. Don’t think so.”
“You’re not sure?” He laughed. It couldn’t have been very good then.
“No. What does it feel like?”
That panted question stopped Jace dead. He pulled back from working her earlobe with his mouth. “What do you mean, what’s it feel
like?”
“I never have, so I don’t know.”
“Never have what? Had an orgasm?” The conversation was ramping up his guilt another notch, while at the same time making him grow harder.
“I don’t think so. Would I know if I had?”
Jace cursed under his breath. “Yeah. You’d know.”
What the hell kind of men had this girl been with that not one of them had brought her to orgasm? No wonder she was a big ball of need, willing to go to anyone to satisfy her. And Jace could be the first to do it for her.
If he’d thought breathing had been difficult before, it was impossible now. He swallowed hard.
“Unzip your jeans.” Even as he thought how bad an idea it was, the words escaped his mouth.
Reaching between them, she did, faster than he’d imagined was possible. Then she went a step further. She pushed her jeans down her thighs and let them fall to the ground where they pooled around her booted feet.
There went his excuse that it was okay as long as they were both fully clothed. Though her shirt still covered her—mostly—and he was dressed. He made a decision. He’d be quick and efficient. Get her off and then go take a nice long shower alone.
Plan set, Jace slipped one hand beneath the hem of her shirt and over warm bare skin until he reached her panties.
He repeated the details to himself. She was mainly covered. So was he. This was no big deal. One quick orgasm to satisfy her and keep her away from the other guys. That’s it. With that excuse assuaging his guilt, Jace ran one finger over the cotton covering the juncture of her thighs.
Her eyes closed, Tara leaned her head back against the wall. Ready. Waiting.
It would go faster without the panties in his way. Getting it done quick seemed his only saving grace. His pulse pounding, Jace slid his hand between the flat of her stomach and the cotton of her underwear and kept going until he connected with the heat between her lips. With the tip of one finger he separated her flesh. The moment he touched the sensitive spot hidden there she sucked in a sharp breath.
No turning back now. Setting a slow pace to start, he circled her, first one direction, and then the other. She tipped her hips forward as her mouth opened on a breath. Apparently none of the guys she’d been with before now knew how to find a clit.
Lucky for Tara, Jace was intimately familiar with where it was located and what to do with it. He watched her face as he worked her. As the momentum of his touch built, she reacted. A frown creased her brow as her palms flattened against the wall behind her. All this, from just one finger. How would she react if he dropped to his knees and used his mouth on her? Jace pushed that image away, but not before the wrongness of it hit him hard. Just not hard enough to make him stop what he was doing or make his hard-on go down.
Her mouth opened wider as the furrow in her brow deepened. Jace knew a woman’s orgasm face when he saw it. She was close, but not over the edge yet. He leaned close and dipped his tongue into the whorls of her ear. That caused the reaction he was hoping for. A visible shudder ran through her.
He smiled against her ear and said, “Come on, darlin’. Almost there. Just let go.”
The soft words had her releasing a moan. Jace heard as well as felt when her orgasm broke. Tara let out a breathy cry as she began to shake. Her hips bucked as she pressed against his hand and came hard. He kept working her, through the first wave, through her strangled breaths and soft cries until she was a writhing mass before him.
If it was going to be her first orgasm, and her last by his hand, he’d make sure she didn’t forget it—or go looking to another guy for more anytime soon. He didn’t slow down, even when she pulled her hips back. He knew she’d be so sensitive the pleasure could border on pain, but he needed her to feel it. All of it.
He kept direct contact with her clit, but eased off a bit on the pressure. Still, he kept working her until another smaller climax hit. Finally, when she was twitching and gasping for breath, he gentled his touch to let her come down slow and easy.
Feeling the need to recover from Tara’s orgasm, Jace braced his left forearm on the wall above her head and let his head fall against it. He tried to regain some semblance of sanity. His dick was so hard he’d come if she even breathed near it.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not now. Not ever. Though he didn’t miss the fact his hand still seemed to be on her pussy. He pressed her clit one more time and felt how swollen it was from the attention he’d shown it.
A tremor ran through her from the touch.
Enjoying the reaction, Jace smiled and stroked a finger over her one more time before he left her pussy alone and moved to rest his palm against her belly.
He didn’t know how long after, Tara let out a shaky breath. “Wow.”
He laughed. It seemed she wasn’t mad at him anymore and she’d been reduced to one word sentences. If it lasted, what he’d done would have been well worth it.
Still, as much as Jace prided himself on being good in bed—or while standing next to it—he never assumed he was the only man capable of making a woman come. He couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the concept that Tara had never experienced an orgasm before. “I can’t believe all the guys you’ve been with haven’t been able to get you off.”
“I haven’t been with any guys.” Her words were spoken so low, Jace couldn’t believe he’d heard them correctly.
He leaned back enough to see her face. “You’re kidding, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Why would I lie to you?”
Jace’s mouth opened but he had no words. Tara was a virgin at twenty-one? No, older than that. She was twenty-two. He’d always known she had a huge schoolgirl crush on Logan, but never in his wildest dreams had Jace imagined she’d saved herself through four years of college.
She’d saved herself for twenty-two freaking years, but after just a few days traveling with him, she’d already been alone in a closet with a random bull rider, and was standing in a hotel room with her jeans around her ankles and his hand in her underwear. He corrected that situation right quick, pulling his hand away and bracing it against the wall so he could push back from her.
“So now you think I’m a child again?” She scowled at him.
“No. But God almighty, Tara, you should have told me that before, not after.”
“Then you would have stopped.”
“You’re damn right I would have stopped.”
“Why? You wouldn’t be preserving my chastity or whatever. I already told you. If it wasn’t you, it would’ve been someone else.”
Small consolation, that was. Somebody else wouldn’t have been betraying the trust her brother had placed in him. How had things spiraled so out of control? The one woman besides Jacqueline he’d touched in over a year and he chose his best friend’s virgin little sister. Talk about feeling like a piece of crap. He was truly messed up. He’d managed to justify what he was doing while in the midst of the act, but now that it was done, he couldn’t seem to.
“I gotta get out of here.” Jace reached for the dresser and grabbed his keys, and then turned for the door.
“Where are you going?” Tara kicked off her boots, freed herself from the tangle of pants around her feet and took a step after him.
“Hell if I know.” There was nowhere he could run from his own thoughts. He yanked open the door, and then spun back to her as a new concern hit him. “Please, Tara, don’t go anywhere.”
Not that she ever listened to what she was told, but he couldn’t have her wandering around town again, slipping into closets with strange men to prove a point.
Standing before him in just a shirt, she nodded.
His shame doubled at the sight of her. Jace closed the door on the vision of Tara post-orgasm. All bright eyed, pink cheeked and looking concerned as she watched him go. He knew he couldn’t drive away and leave her all alone in a cheap hotel in a strange town. He didn’t trust her to stay put any more than he trusted himself not to teach her another lesson i
f she disobeyed him.
The image of putting Tara over his knee and spanking her for her disobedience and for making him worry hit him hard. It ramped up the horror over his own behavior another notch, even as the appeal of the scene sent a tingle through him.
A freaking virgin. Of all the many things Tara was—obstinate, stubborn, bitchy, contrary, and tempting as all hell sexually—why did she have to be a virgin, too?
He clicked the door locks open and hoisted himself into the driver seat of his truck. There he sat, not moving, not driving. He just sat.
It seemed as if he’d spent a lot of hours in the cab of the truck hiding from a woman, but he never imagined he’d be there with an erection hard enough to drive nails from watching Tara come at his touch.
He’d have thought the virgin revelation would have done in the hard-on from hell. It hadn’t. Nope. Now he was horrified and horny, and there was nothing he could do about either feeling.
Jace groaned. “Just great.”
Chapter Twelve
Tara peeked between the window curtains. The truck remained parked in front of their room, and Jace was still behind the wheel, but the engine wasn’t running. He didn’t seem to have any plans to go anywhere.
How long was he going to sit out there? Until morning? He’d slept in his truck the night he’d had it out with Jacqueline in Stillwater. How could kissing her seem as bad to him as that blowout?
She let the curtain fall back into place and made a decision. She’d let him stew for a little while longer, but then she was going out there and getting him.
What the hell was all the hiding about anyway? Men were supposed to want any sort of sex they could get. She obviously didn’t know all that much about men, which was the whole point of doing that with Jace.
And holy crap, had he been right about going to a man instead of a boy to get the job done right. Jace had done things to her with the tip of one finger she didn’t think seven hours in the closet with Klint could have. Forget about the seven minutes they’d planned on.