Page 11 of Dirty Whispers

Leaning my back against the side of the car, I face Harper toward the valley, pulling her back to my chest. With my arms wrapped around her waist, she soon melts against me.

"You see that ridge right there, with the rocky bit?" I point slightly to the west.

"Yeah."

"Most of that land…" My finger drifts to the north, "is all Dirty." I feel her laughing against me, her firm, hot ass driving me wild whenever she moves. "Yeah, I know. Ha ha."

"What's on the land now?"

"Nothing. Just pristine forest. It's family land – we're just holding it and maintaining it. Clearing dead trees, checking the rough paths, that kind of thing."

"So it's an investment, kind of?"

"Hmm." I'd never thought of it that way. "I guess so. An investment in the future of our family, sure. Dad has thought about putting up a little cabin there in the darkest part of the forest as an autumn getaway."

Harper turns, looking up at me with her eyes shining. "I guess the families around here are timeless like the mountain, aren't they?"

"Yeah, you could say we put down roots like the trees and never leave."

"It must be nice," she sighs. "Never having to search for an apartment, and then fighting to beat out dozens of other applicants. Or thinking that you're moving into a nice neighborhood, but you haven't had time to really check how loud it gets on a Saturday night." She shudders. "Or not bothering to check if nail polish fumes drift up through the floor."

I want to tell her that she never has to worry about any of that again. That if she wants to stay here, I'll take care of her forever. No. I should keep my mouth very firmly shut about anything like that for a while longer.

"It must really suck having to move around a lot."

"It did. It does. But education always comes first." Her eyes fly wide open. "Please don't think that I believe formal schooling is the only kind of education. You said that you apprenticed with your father and brothers. That's an important education too."

"Yeah. And I apprenticed with a couple of mechanics in West Stoneburg with certain specialties. I also took two years of community college through online courses."

Her eyes light up. "Did you like that?"

"I liked some things about it. Cramming my brain full of new information is amazing. It feels satisfying, I guess you can say. Like I'm doing something productive." My eyes roll as my palms start working circles around her lower back. "Although I found some of the structure a bit frustrating. The way they felt they had to chop things up into bite-size segments and make things identical lengths when it didn't make sense to do it that way. Like it was regimented for the sake of being regimented. Does that make any sense?"

She nods slowly. "I guess I always think of a course or module as a whole, but if you're thinking of it more as piece by piece, yeah, I get it."

Harper's body fits against mine perfectly as I press one palm against her lower back, then slide my other hand up very slowly from her hip bone to her ribs. "Yeah, as a mechanic, I think of things piece by piece. Like this piece here…"

My mouth dips to trail a line of kisses along her collarbone. "And this piece right here…" Kissing slowly just under her ear, I feel her entire body shudder against me.

"And you know… Since I'm usually driving a tow truck, I have to think about things like weight and force, and how things fit together."

She squeals as I grip her hips, swinging her up to sit on the hood of the car. I stand between her spread legs, and her arms go around my neck to hold herself steady.

"Should we blame it on the moonlight again?" I love the way she quivers whenever I breathe softly against her ear.

"Maybe," she whispers back. "Or we could blame all the sugar we just had from those brownies?"

"Excellent point. We're not in our right minds."

I hitch up her dress on one side to trail my fingertips around her knee. "If it weren't for this sugar rush of insanity, I would never have the nerve to do this."

My lips hover over hers, not quite kissing, just teasing. Finally, I dip my head, pressing my mouth to hers as I feel the instant rush of adrenaline. She kisses me back with every ounce of her passion, gripping me, holding me against her as if she's hungry for me. Her breath becomes unsteady, her fingers gripping the back of my neck.

"Such a hot little firecracker," I murmur against her lips, shifting as her mouth opens to allow me to delve deeper.

It's exquisitely quiet, with nothing but the trees rustling faintly around us. Nothing to block the sound of Harper's breath, her soft little moans, the way she gasps as I slide my hand up her ribs to cup her round, firm breast. She moans softly, rolling her shoulder back to give me better access.

Every single thing about her, both words and body language, is screaming "green light". If I didn't want to fight so hard to be a gentleman instead of a true Dirty boy I might entertain thoughts about taking her in the back seat of the car.

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