Page 7 of Just This Once

Once outside, I pointed in the direction of my car, parked only a block or so away. His arm banded around my shoulders, helping to ward off the February chill.

I shivered. “Are you sure you’re not cold?”

He looked down at me, his eyes flicking to my lips for only a fraction of a second. “I’m perfect.”

The walk was too short, and my stomach muscles tensed as I gestured toward my car. “Well... this is me.”

Whip walked me to the driver’s side, and I slipped off his coat before handing it back to him. “Thank you. I think this might have been the best, most surprising Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had.”

Whip scrubbed a hand across the back of his neck, and the grin he shot me wobbled my knees. “Better than Dickie Johnson?”

I grinned at him. “Dickie who?”

Intensity darkened Whip’s eyes as he leaned in close, wrapping me in his heat. “Emily, do you think I could call you sometime?”

My insides were screaming. The last thing I wanted to do was go home to a lonely, still-unpacked apartment. Whip inched impossibly closer. I lowered my lashes, then gathered every ounce of courage before looking into his steel blue eyes.

I’d wasted so many years doing the good thing. The right thing with the wrong men. Whip may not have been the right man, either, but there was something about him that was pulling me in.

I didn’t give a damn if it was wrong.

I wanted it.

Craved it.

“You know, I really appreciate you not calling the cops on me. I’m thinking I can thank you for that...” I swallowed hard and willed my voice not to tremble. “Maybe at your place.”

FOUR

WHIP

My knuckles werewhite from my grip on the steering wheel. My eyes flashed to the rearview to make sure Emily was safely following me on the short drive away from downtown toward my house.

This woman is altogether surprising.

The last thing I expected was the shy, unassuming woman asking to take things back to my place.

I had struggled to keep my dick in check ever since feeling her soft curves as I swayed with her to the music. There was no way she didn’t feel how hard her closeness had made me.

Just out of town, I pulled down the unmarked country road, watching in the rearview to make sure she made the turn. Dirt and gravel flew beneath my truck’s tires. It had been a minute since I had been with a woman, and I willed my nerves to settle, butgod how I wanted her.

Her car pulled next to mine, and I rushed to hold her door open for her.

Emily stood by her car, glancing up at my house. It had been built on the outskirts of my small town, and I prided myself on its function and design. It may be a bachelor pad, but it was classy, damn it. The Craftsman-style ranch home sprawledacross three acres and was surrounded by woods and blueberry fields.

Away from the curious eyes of my neighbors, it was the only place where I could escape.

“I don’t know, pal... the minute we pulled down that dark road, I thought maybe you were trying to murder me.” A nervous giggle tumbled out of her. “I want you to know I don’t usually do?—”

In two long strides, I cut off her laugh as my mouth crashed to hers, swallowing up the rest of her sentence.

She moaned into me, her tits pressing into my chest as I pulled her closer. I bent at the knees and gripped the backs of her thighs, hauling her up against me. My cock ached and pressed against the fly of my jeans.

She moaned and moved higher, climbing me like a fucking tree as my hands roamed over her ass.

The harsh February wind didn’t register as fire burned through my veins. I stomped up the porch steps and held her weight with one arm, digging my keys from my pocket.

“I never do this,” she panted.

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