by Quinn, Taryn
I saluted at the closed door and sighed as I turned back to Rory. “Looks like I’m off the clock.”
He was reclined against the bench, his long legs crossed in the middle of the aisle. “And?”
“Where’s your keys, Lucky Charms?”
Surprise lit his features, then his delicious eyes did this hooded thing that made me think all the impure thoughts. “No more inquiries, Ginger Fairy?”
I threw back my head with a laugh. “No. I think I’m just going on faith tonight.”
I just hoped I wasn’t being beyond stupid.
Four
He stood and came toward me. “You sure about this? A few minutes ago, I was trying to convince you I wasn’t a serial killer.”
I backed up a step. “Playing panther and prey isn’t the way to go.”
But there was no fear in my heart. Maybe a little below my non-existent belt, but it was more like I wasn’t sure what to expect. In a good way. Because a man like Rory didn’t come around very often.
Even if I didn’t know he was probably famous in some way, he didn’t quite vibe with the town. He was too restless and his brain seemed to be going a million miles an hour.
Not like the people who lived here.
The townsfolk weren’t exactly sluggish, but they definitely were not constantly looking forward. Here, it was about the moment. At least it was for me.
And this was a moment I was going to soak in like a tub full of my favorite bath bomb.
He crowded into me and I put my hand up to…touch him? Ward him off? Pretend I just didn’t touch cashmere for the first time in my damn life? Ugh. I smoothed my hand along his rock-hard belly to his chest.
I finally looked up and his eyes were carefully taking me in as I touched him. His hands were at his sides, easy as you please.
“Not here, my little fairy. I don’t think your boss wants an eyeful of all the things going through my mind.”
I swallowed. “Is that right? Who says he would know?”
He nodded lightly toward the kitchen door. “Those bushy eyebrows in the window of the door, maybe?”
“Dammit.” I really wanted to know just what his first move would be. Was he a grabber? What kind of kisser? Intense and hard? A teasing brush of dry lips?
I refused to think about him doing anything I didn’t like. This was my fantasy and I was going to think positively. Not like one of the frat boys I hooked up with in college, or my last boyfriend, whose technique in the kissing department left a lot to be desired.
As far as I was concerned, Rory was exactly the fantasy fuck I wanted him to be.
“Whatever is going on in that brain of yours, hold onto it for…like eight minutes.”
“What happens in eight minutes? And hopefully, you last longer than that.”
His laugh was harsh and delighted at the same time. Not sure how he managed that, but it made my toes curl. “Sweet mother Mary, you will be the death of me tonight.”
My smile was quick and bright. “Is that so? I don’t think I’ve been the death of any man.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
I pressed my lips together and backed out of his weird gravitational pull. Even with the platforms, he was a good head taller than me. The good kind of height that meant I could crawl up him and hang on for a good long bit of fun. “Let me just get my stuff.”
“All right.”
I swallowed and spun around, pushing through the door to the kitchen.
“Know what you’re doing, ladybug?”
I paused at the lockers. “Probably not.”
Mitch grunted. “Let me know if I have to castrate him.”
I looked over my shoulder. “Did you get a bad vibe?” I believed in vibes. It was hard to hold onto faith like my parents. They were so certain in all the things. Church, life, raising their kids. I was the youngest girl with two older brothers. August, who was just as steady and sure as my parents, and Caleb, who thought the only sure thing was how fast he could get a girl naked. Then there was me, the baby, who never really knew where she was meant to fit.
But vibes helped lead the way for everything I tried. And they hadn’t steered me wrong yet.
The first hint of doubt niggled at me.
“City boy. Isn’t that bad enough?”
I tugged my purse out of the locker, then my hat, scarf, and gloves. I tugged my hat over my pigtail braids. For a second, I thought about taking them out, but my hair was…ugh. There was so much of it and it was so damn heavy.
Nope, he seemed to like me with them, so I wasn’t going to go there.
I stopped in front of Mitch on my way out. I looped my scarf around his neck and pulled him down for a quick kiss on his beardy cheek. “Thanks for looking out for me, big guy.”
“If you don’t show up for work tomorrow, where should I start looking for you?”
I rolled my eyes. “The Hummingbird.”
“Still don’t like it.”
“I love you, Mitch.”
He grunted again. “Get.”
I tugged my scarf free and wound it around my neck as I walked into the diner. I didn’t have my good coat with me tonight, but if my neck was warm, I could manage just about anything. Central New York strong.
“Is that all you’re wearing?” Rory’s gaze narrowed as he zipped up his coat.
“As opposed to that windbreaker you’re wearing?” I laughed and headed for the coatrack.
“Yes, well, I’m a dumb guy from California, remember?”
“Oh, I do.” I tugged my puffy vest off the hanger. “But you have a car, right?”
“Actually, I walked.”
“Oh. Well, I have mine.” I tugged on my gloves. “Let’s get moving, LC.”
“That’s not going to stick, is it?”
“Maybe.” I patted his cheek with my thermal gloved hand, then sauntered out the door. “Whoa.”
Rory came up behind me and whistled. “So, maybe a bit more than eight minutes, yeah?”
I peered up at him, then at the near foot of snow on top of my car. “Let’s see what we can do about that.”
“Your feet.” He hurried after me as I stepped off the sidewalk.
“What about them?”
“Get in the car. It’s too cold.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s freezing and snowing. You are not dressed for this.”
“Baby, my blood is thick and hardy. You’re the one who is probably dying a little inside.” I’d already waded through a foot of snow from the bar to the diner tonight. My toes were just fine. Mitch was right though. No plow would be coming through for another hour or two. Easier to wait until just before work hours.
Rory grunted and brushed off snow halfheartedly with his sleeve.
“If we get stuck, we’ll just call my brother. He’s a few doors down. When it snows he crashes in his shop.”
“I don’t think your brother is going to like bailing me out to help his sister get lucky.”
I laughed. “Getting lucky with Lucky Charms.”
“Would you stop with that?”
I sliced my arm across the window of the driver’s side door as snow dropped to the ground. I opened the door and grabbed my snow brush from the floor. I slammed the door shut and another pound of snow coated my feet. With economic movements, I made short work of clearing off my car. I peered over the roof at him. “Are you magically delicious, Rory?”
He came around the car, his hands stuffed into his pockets. The dummy didn’t have gloves like I did. “The better question, my sweet fairy queen, is: are you?”
I straightened and slapped my gloves together to brush off the worst of the snow. “Wow, upgrade. Fairy queen?”
“Only the reddest of redheads are allowed the queen title.” He flicked the end of my braid. “Or is this enhanced?” His gaze dropped to my mouth then lifted to meet my gaze.
I hooked my gloved finger into his belt loop. He hissed as my snow covered fingers hit the skin between hi
s belt and sweater. “Are you asking if the drapes match the curtains, fine sir?”
“I don’t care either way.”
I peered up at him, thick snowflakes tangling in my eyelashes. I tried to blink them away, but the snow was coming down too hard. Just as I was about to step back to continue clearing off the car, he curled his arm around my back and dragged me against his chest.
There was no asking, no teasing.
He swooped down and covered my mouth with his. I could only grip his arms as I held on for the ride. I gave back just as good as I got. When his tongue brushed my bottom lip, I groaned.
Evidently, I was going to check hard and intense off on my internal checklist. He tasted of snow and dark corners that required a roaring fire to combat. I liked it.
I wanted more.
I went on my toes to get closer. My padded breasts felt too tight under the puffy vest. Too many layers, too much cold, too many minutes between us and the Hummingbird’s Nest.
The air whooshed out of my chest as he bumped me up against the car door. His mouth was hot and wild against mine. I forgot where I was, how cold it was, and how long it had been since I’d been kissed. There was nothing but his firm, talented mouth.
His cool fingers slipped under the back of my vest and shirt to find my skin. The calloused tips were almost scratchy and foreign on my flesh as he tunneled up the stretchy fabric. His long fingers practically spanned the width of my lower back. Was he going for my bra?
God, right against the car.
Was I really this far gone? This hard up?
Maybe.
God, he felt good. Tasted better.
The very obvious ridge of something impressive pressed against my middle. Please let that be him and not his phone.
“Sweet Jesus,” he said against my mouth, his accent thick and full of shadows like his kiss. “It’s been too long for me.”
“Really?” My voice was far too breathless. I definitely sounded very amateur-ish in this whole one-night stand business, but surely, I had to have misunderstood.
“Not very California of me, yeah?”
I laughed and went for his mouth again. God, he tasted divine. Better than mint ice cream. I didn’t even care if he was lying to me. I liked the idea of driving him wild.
“As much as I want this right now,” I molded my gloved fingers over his zipper and hallelujah, that was definitely not his phone, “we are on Main Street.”
“Right.” He went for my mouth again, then backed up. “Fuck, that mouth of yours is like a siren’s.” He cupped my cheeks and went in for another hot, mind-wiping kiss.
God, he was way too good at that. Obviously, he was lying about it being too long. Not if he could kiss like that. Again, I didn’t really care. I just wanted more of it.
A car slowly came down the street, red and blue lights twirling. “Shit.”
Rory’s deliciously blurry blue eyes opened and then widened. “Fuck.”
I fumbled behind me . I opened the driver’s side door and pushed him back a step. “That’s our cue.”
“Get in.” I waved to Sheriff Brooks as he slowly passed us by. Great. The only good thing about getting seen by the sheriff was that he didn’t gossip like the rest of the town.
Small favors.
Rory gripped the edge of the door. “I’ll finish—”
“Nope, get in. It takes a minute to start this thing in the winter.”
His brows snapped down. “You’ll break your neck in those shoes.”
“You didn’t seem to mind when you were kissing my lips off my face. Now get in the damn car, Lucky Charms.”
The brake lights on the cop car went on, leaving me no choice. I pushed Rory into the car and raced around the back to brush off the back window. Then I hurried around to take care of the other side.
Catching Rory’s annoyed expression, I couldn’t resist a laugh as I cleaned the worst of the snow off the wiper blades.
He rolled down the window. “Get in, for fuck’s sake.”
“You want to drive in one piece?”
“It’s freezing.”
“Stop bitching and crank the heat,” I called over the whine of the engine trying to warm up and the overworked blades.
“Get in the car, Ivy.”
I opened the door and tipped my head to the side. “Hey, you do remember my name.”
“If that cop comes back around… Tell me it’s not your dad or something.”
“Now that would be fun.” I climbed in and turned the fan grates up to warm my hands. I pulled off my wet gloves and rubbed them together.
He shook his head and took my hands between his.
“And that’s going to help? Yours are even colder.”
He lifted his sweater and yelped as my cold hands hit his skin, but he held them tight against him. His very warm, very deliciously hair roughened skin. I couldn’t exactly tell, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t at gorilla status. He was a nice in-between over some seriously yum muscles.
The console was between us, but I was tempted to push my luck again. What was it about him that made me want to do all the wrong things?
“Ivy.” His voice was deep and full of warning.
Well, that just meant I had to do it now.
I inched up farther to find his nipple, dragging my thumb across the ridge of muscle and around the tip. My other hand went down to his belt.
“Christ, you do try a man,” he said, just before we started heating up the windows.
By the time we came up for air, the car was an oven and I was ready to strip down to the skin. The whoop-whoop of a siren had us breaking apart. I laughed like a loon as he scrambled for the gear shift and his seatbelt.
“What is so funny? You want us to get pulled over for indecent exposure?”
I fastened my belt and pushed my hat off my head. “Have some experience with that?”
“No.”
His clipped voice made me laugh even harder.
He wiped at the fogged up window and grumbled something under his breath I couldn’t quite catch, thanks to the loud fan.
“Do you need me to drive, California boy?”
“I got it. I managed to get to town, didn’t I?”
“That you did.” I sat back and tried not to passenger seat drive as he made the slow trek to the Hummingbird’s Nest.
“How do you people live with this level of apocalypse?” His fingers were white-knuckled on the steering wheel and he was leaning forward with so much tension in his delicious body, I was pretty sure he was going to twang like a plucked string.
“Lake effect is always fun.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Do you really want a weather lesson?”
“No.”
I pressed my lips together at his grumpy tone. Laughing probably wasn’t a good idea. I wasn’t even sure why his grouchy tone made me want to needle him even more. It happened with my brother August too. Then again, I didn’t want to pick that apart when I was still itching to get naked with Rory.
“Easiest way to think of it is the lake is warm and adds to the moisture in the air which increases the snow totals.”
“In this cold?”
“Big lake,” I said with a shrug.
“California makes sense.”
“Oh, sure. Seismic shifts and tectonic plates that want to dump half—if not the entire—state into the ocean.”
He spared me a quick glance. “Doom and gloom much?”
I shrugged again. “You can dig out of snow.”
“Or die in a pile as tall as a building.”
“Actually—”
He held up a hand before slamming it back down on the wheel. Back to his death grip. “Never mind.”
Finally, the yellow glow from the porch light of the bed and breakfast came into view. The visibility was shit, but the swollen clouds seemed to be dissipating a bit. The storm would probably play itself out in the next few hours.
More than enough time t
o get Rory Ferguson out of my system.
I hoped.
Five
He parked along the side of the building. I reached for my door and his terse, “stay,” made my hackles rise and something a little more interesting bloom inside me.
“Ruff.”
He glowered. Seemed to be his natural state. Why did that turn me on so much? Maybe I was a little more twisted than I thought.
I laughed at him to see what would happen. This was all for science, after all.
I didn’t do one-nighters. Even in college, I just ended up hooking up with people in my circle of friends. Some stuck around, others drifted away. It had all been so light and easy.
Nothing seemed remotely light or easy with this man. And he was definitely not a boy.
“I don’t know whether to kiss you or throttle you.”
My eyes widened. I didn’t know him well enough to know if he was kidding or not, but it didn’t stop the delicious little shiver playing cross country track star down my spine. Should I be running for the side entrance to find Sage for safety?
Everything inside me screamed no.
Was I getting under his skin?
He was certainly making mine tingle and tighten in all the best places. A few others loosened and heated. I so wasn’t used to that. Or I’d forgotten what attraction felt like. I knew everyone in town—mostly. Oh, there had been a few new people now that the town was expanding exponentially, thanks to our own private little baby boom, but so far, none of the locals rang my bell.
Yet here I was with a perfect stranger who would be moving on before dawn, probably. And my bells were clanging like the end of Christmas mass.
I leaned across the console and dragged him to my mouth. Better to remind him why we were doing this. Besides, this was his idea. I’d never have been so bold if he hadn’t prompted me to wonder what he tasted like. About the accent that told stories without giving me any real information on the man.
He kissed me with the same intensity as before we got into the car, though his touch was soft. He tugged on the end of my braid, lightly playing with the end like a paintbrush. It was confusing and wonderful at the same time. Nothing made sense and yet this little moment felt righter than anything I’d experienced so far.