by Cat Johnson
He frowned. Yeah, he kind of remembered saying that, but he didn’t like foul cuss words coming out of her mouth. “That is too filthy a word to be coming out of your pretty little mouth.”
“Then you’d better keep my mouth busy so you won’t have to hear it again.” She leaned low and brushed her lips over his bruised forehead. “I’m glad you have a hard head.”
His head wasn’t the only thing hard. As Tara grabbed the waistband of his shorts and pulled them down, his cock sprang free, bobbing, greeting her.
“I bought something the other day while you were buying your bad-luck underwear.” She stroked his length while she spoke, her fingers soft and cool against his heated skin.
“You did? What’d you get?” Considering how strange their situation was, talking about shopping while she stroked him didn’t seem as weird as it should.
“Lube.”
He’d been going along with her small talk and enjoying the feel of her hand on him until that single word stopped him in his tracks. Lube. God almighty, he truly had created a monster.
The thought of Tara trolling the lubricant and condom aisle at the Big Mart while he wasn’t looking had his face heating even as she reached for the drawer in the table between the beds. She emerged with a tiny plastic bottle.
“Please tell me you didn’t have that stashed in there next to the Bible.” Cheap hotels in Oklahoma didn’t provide much in the way of extras, but they always came with a copy of the Good Book.
“Um. Okay, I won’t tell you.” She flipped open the lid and looked down, concentrating on the thin stream of clear gel she drizzled over his length. Glancing up, she caught the expression of horror on his face. “What was I supposed to do? There’s only one drawer.”
That clinched it. They were going to hell for sure. “I don’t know. Keep it in the bathroom. Don’t buy it to begin with.”
“You’re going to be very happy I bought it.” Tara stroked her fist over his slick hard-on, and Jace didn’t have much breath—or incentive—to argue any further.
As it was, he was having trouble keeping his eyes from rolling back in his head. His lids drifted shut from the sensations rocketing through him. All the times he’d touched himself, and there were many since the break-up, it had never felt as good as it felt with Tara’s slick, firm hold on him.
She leaned low. He felt her breath against his ear as she said, “Feel good?”
“Yes.”
As if she had to ask.
Jace realized he wasn’t doing anything for her in return, but that was easily remedied. He slid a thumb between her lips and pressed on her clit. She made the noise in her throat that always sent tingles down his spine.
“I love when you make that sound.”
“I love when you touch me there. Don’t stop.”
“Wasn’t planning to.” Not stopping was no problem. He could continue all night, especially if she kept up what she was doing to him.
“Would it hurt you to take off your shirt?” She slipped her fingers under the hem of his T-shirt and traced a path over his stomach that had his muscles jumping beneath her touch.
“I think I can manage that without doing any bodily injury.” Jace was always willing to indulge a lady. Especially one who wanted him naked so she could touch him.
With her help, they divested him of his shirt. Once he was bare as the day he was born, Tara leaned back and pulled her T-shirt up and over her head. The sight of her naked above him had Jace moaning, even before she reached for the lube and sent another stream careening over his very happy cock. She rose above him and adjusted their position, and he felt the pleasure of stroking between Tara’s ass cheeks.
“This feel okay?” She asked the question while running her palms up his sides.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Tara lowered her mouth to tease his nipple. She drew the peak between her lips, scraping her teeth over the sensitive flesh until the fine hairs stood up on his arms.
Somewhere through the haze of pleasure Jace realized Tara was awfully concerned with his pleasure. He had a feeling her focus had nothing to do with his injury. His suspicions told him he’d better watch her or, as slick as he was from the lube, she might try to slide him into her and take what she wanted before he had a chance to stop her.
Tara ran the tip of his cock from front to back, running it over her pussy and up between the cheeks of her ass, before she reversed and then repeated the motion. It felt great and he should be happy, but it was Tara, who on a good day did the opposite of what she was told. With her on top and in control, one thrust and he’d be fully seated inside her. And damn if that didn’t have him tingling just thinking about it.
It wasn’t as if Jace had any peace of mind with all the guilt over what they had been doing, but the one thing he could still say was that he hadn’t stolen her virginity. He intended to hold on to that, at least. “Careful there, darlin’. Watch what you’re doing.”
“Relax, you prude. I’m not doing what you think I’m doing.” She leaned low to scrape his other nipple with her teeth and sent a tremor down his spine.
Fair was fair, he supposed. He’d spent a considerable amount of time torturing her with his mouth the other night on the sofa. He’d worked her into one hell of an orgasm with not much more than his mouth on her tits and a few well placed fingers between her legs.
He wrestled his mind back to their conversation. “You sure about that?” He wouldn’t put it past her to bend the truth to get what she wanted.
“Mmm, hmm. Now hush up and kiss me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like she meant it, plunging her tongue against his.
Tara’s mouth was a distraction, but not enough of one that he wouldn’t notice her breaking the rules. If that was her plan, it would fail, but, damn, the friction of sliding his cock between the globes of her ass felt so good, he could come just from that.
She pulled away from the kiss far enough to ask, “You sure you’re okay?”
“Never felt better.” That wasn’t even a lie.
“Good.” Her lids drifted low over her eyes as she rocked back against his cock.
Jace enjoyed the view as she rose over him like a sex goddess. She didn’t have the exaggerated hourglass figure of a centerfold, but her athletic build sure worked. She was long and lean and healthy, and enjoying being naked on top of him. He knew how to make her enjoy it more.
He slid two fingers inside her and located her G-spot while continuing to work her clit with the base of his palm. A low groan told him Tara approved of the change. Her breathing quickened as she moved against him while riding his hand. He had to admit as he slid between her cheeks that she was right. The lube did make it better.
Her rhythm slowed as she adjusted her angle and then he felt it—Tara pushing the head of his slick cock against the insanely tight entrance to her ass. His hand stilled on her as he tried to decide what to do about that turn of events.
“Don’t stop. I was close to coming.” A frown drew her dark brows low as she used her body weight to try to force him inside. She was right. Coming would help her.
Was he really going to let her continue? As his chest tightened right along with his balls in anticipation of what was to come, Jace knew the answer was yes. He started working her again, harder as his other hand settled on her hip and held her still. “Don’t hurt yourself, Tara. Take it slow.”
She laughed. “I notice you’re not fighting me or telling me to stop.”
God help him, no he wasn’t. He’d feel bad about that later. He considered asking if she were sure about trying this, but that question seemed stupid. Tara was clearly in charge. She was the one on top.
As he worked her with his hand, her muscles clenched, tightening for her impending release. Jace watched her expression change. He could see when she moved from pain to pleasure. Her eyes closed and her mouth opened on a breathy moan.
He knew the moment she tipped over the edge into orgasm. He surely felt it
as she slid down to engulf his length. He didn’t ease up with his hand because he sure as hell didn’t want her climax to end anytime soon as her body milked his cock with spasm after spasm that shook her.
It wasn’t easy to move his hips with her weight pressing down on him, but as she moved over him Jace managed a few small thrusts. Three times was all it took before the sensation of being sunk deep in her tight heat while her muscles gripped him was enough to send him careening to completion right along with her.
The whole thing seemed kind of surreal once it was over. She remained on top of him, panting and silent. The silent part was what made it so strange.
Spent, he softened and slipped from her body. There was going to be a mess for her to deal with shortly. In typical Tara fashion, she probably hadn’t thought that far ahead when she’d decided to do this thing with him.
He ran his hands up her back. “You go clean up in the bathroom first. I’ll wait to get in the shower until after you’re done.”
She nodded, but didn’t move. She was silent for long enough that he started to worry about her. Maybe he’d hurt her. He’d just opened his mouth to ask if she was all right when she leaned back far enough to look at his face. “Is that what it’s like? Real sex, I mean?”
He hated to tell her what they’d done had been very real, but he knew what she meant. How to answer that was the big question.
Sure, buried inside her he’d felt every pulse of her body around his as she came. And yeah, he’d gotten to see every reaction—both the good and the bad—cross her face as he sank past her pain and into her tight body. But there was a level of intimacy reached when making love that seemed so much more real, to use her word, than this had, despite how amazing what they’d done had felt. Damn, it had felt amazing. It had been so long since he’d indulged in that particular pleasure, he’d forgotten how much he enjoyed it.
As Tara watched his face, Jace decided on an answer to her question. “No. Not exactly.”
“Why not? How is it different?” She didn’t look happy with his answer.
Jace might not have taken her actual virginity, but he was certain he’d been her first in what they’d just done. That fact seemed huge. He felt the weight of it on him. It made saying the right thing seem doubly important.
Stroking her face with his thumb, he said the only thing he could think of. “It’s even better.”
Her expression softened. “Then let’s—”
“Nope.” He’d walked right into that trap. He’d have to learn to be more careful with his answers or she’d somehow trick him into agreeing to take her virginity, just as she’d somehow gotten him to agree to do everything but that the other night at Dillon’s.
She frowned down at him. “But if it’s—”
“Tara, I said no. Now go get finished in the bathroom so I can get in there.” He waited and still she didn’t move. He could see the gears working in her brain, concocting new plans and schemes to get him to have sex with her. Time to nip it in the bud and at the same time show her how real what they’d done was. “Tara, what I shot inside you is going to come out. I’d rather it not be on my bed.”
That did it. She sat up with such a deep scowl on her face, he had to hold in his laugh. But she didn’t call him a pig, which he’d totally expected her to. She got up and strode naked to the bathroom. He could have sworn she clenched her butt cheeks the entire way. He smiled as she slammed the bathroom door behind her.
She finished in the bathroom pretty quickly, and then Jace got to indulge in a long hot shower that he hoped would ease the stiffness in his neck and shoulder muscles.
When he emerged from the steam of the bathroom, he found Tara back in her own bed and in her big T-shirt, flipping through a magazine she’d bought at the store, apparently along with the lube he’d just found out about.
Things were back to normal. As if they hadn’t just come as close as two people could to having the real sex she kept pushing for. As if Tara hadn’t been the first woman besides Jacqueline that Jace had come inside in the last eight years—a pretty monumental milestone to him, adding to the stress of the already awkward situation.
Given all that, he couldn’t help thinking how weird the separate beds thing felt after what they’d done together. He didn’t like it, though it was for the best since things were confused enough without him spooning her all night in his sleep.
Damn, he missed spooning.
Reconciled to the way things were, he grabbed his shorts off the floor, pulled them on, and crawled into his own bed. He’d just settled back against the pillows when he remembered he’d forgotten something in the bathroom.
“Crap.” Jace flipped the sheets back again with a sigh and a wince as every motion sent a twinge through him. Funny, he’d managed to ignore the pain pretty good while buried inside Tara.
“What?” Tara glanced up from her magazine.
“I wanted to take another ibuprofen before I went to sleep.”
Her eyes popped wide. “You shouldn’t be taking ibuprofen. That could increase the risk of internal bleeding. You’re supposed to take acetaminophen after a severe head injury.”
“I already took some ibuprofen before. I’m fine. I don’t have any internal bleeding.”
“How many did you take before?” She kept him pinned with her stare.
“Two.” He should have lied and said none before she had him in the emergency room looking for the nonexistent bleeding she was so worried about.
“When did you take them?”
“Right before we—you know.” Jace tipped his head toward the mattress and let it go at that.
“Why do you need more so soon? What hurts? Your head? How’s your vision been?” She was up and out of her bed like a shot.
Kneeling on his mattress, she frowned at him, clearly in doctor mode. That was one way to get them both back into one bed. Not the most ideal way . . .
Time for damage control. “Tara, relax. It’s not my head. I had a dull headache when I woke up but the ibuprofen helped that. It’s my neck.”
The blue pools of her eyes widened one more time. “Could you have injured your vertebrae?”
“No, it’s muscular. I’m just sore. That’s all.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Jace had literally had a head-on collision with something that weighed as much as a small car. Of course there’d be some soft tissue damage from the impact. “It’s just my muscles. I promise.”
She paused a second while he waited for the results of the debate he could see going on inside her head. Finally, she stood. “I’ve got some Midol with me. It’s marketed to women for cramps, but it’s the formula without ibuprofen. It’ll help your muscle aches. Will you take it if I give it to you?”
“Yes, ma’am. If you give it to me, I’ll take it.”
“Yeah, I noticed that before.” Tara’s expression turned on a dime, and the she-devil was back.
The change in her demeanor was enough to give him whiplash all over again. Still, he couldn’t help but smile. He watched her pad barefoot around the room in her floppy T-shirt, getting the pills, filling a plastic cup with water from the sink, and then she was back.
“You really shouldn’t take these so close to the ibuprofen.”
Jace thrust his hand toward her. “Just give me. Do you know how many pills some riders take just to get through the day? And prescription shit, too. Not over the counter, lady cramp pills.” He waited with his hand out.
After another internal debate, she gave in. “All right, but you need something in your stomach with these.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.” The cold leftover pizza they’d had delivered as an early dinner before Tara left for the arena wasn’t looking too appetizing, but he was willing to humor her and let her think he’d eat it.
She watched him swallow the pills, and then was up and moving again. “I forgot that Dillon stopped to eat on the way back from the arena so I got you these. Your favorite cookie
s.”
He smiled as she held up the small white bag. “Aw. Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
He truly was touched. She’d remembered that every time they stopped for a sub sandwich he’d order the chain’s hot, fresh baked cookies. Sex and cookies—Tara had really perfected the travel partners with benefits role she’d invented for herself.
When she kneeled on the edge of his bed to deliver the cookies, Jace reached out, wrapped his hand around her arm and drew her to him. “You’re pretty handy to have around. You know that?”
Tara looked surprised for a second, then she leaned back and settled into the space beneath his arm. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He gave her the satisfaction of eating one of the oatmeal raisin cookies so she wouldn’t worry that her two girly pills would eat a hole in his stomach.
He spotted his cell phone on the table and decided he’d better tell her what he’d done while she’d been at the event. Jace ran his hand up and down her arm hoping to soothe the blow that he’d called the brother she’d been trying to avoid because he’d been bored and felt like talking. “So I, uh, talked to Tuck on the phone tonight.”
Tara stiffened against him. “And?”
Trying to make light of it, Jace shrugged, and then after the fact remembered how much that motion hurt. “I told him about my wreck.”
“Which means he knows you’re out until the doctor clears you to ride again.” Her lips formed a tight, unhappy line. “Did he ask if we’re coming right home?”
“Yup.” In fact, Jace had noticed how Tuck had jumped right on that assumption, sounding almost happy about the injury. No doubt about it, he hoped Jace’s being on the injured list would get Tara back in town so Logan and Emma could break her heart again with the news of their baby.
“What did you tell him?” The tension in her body increased.
Jace felt it radiate off her, but it was in his power to relieve her worry.
“I told him that it don’t matter if I’m hurt or not. You still have to finish your internship and there’s what? More than a week of it left? And I told him I wouldn’t be coming home anyway because I’m fine and I’ll be back riding in another day or two.”