Page 72 of Hold on Tight

“I feel more comfortable when I’m driving.”

All the ease that had just flowed into her leached out again. What was it with men who thought they could handle things better than she could? “I’m a really good driver.”

“I know you are,” he said. “It’s just—I hate being driven by anyone else. Because of—”

“Oh,” she said.

He sighed deeply, and the tension dissipated from his shoulders. “Yeah,” he said.

“Oh, Jake,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.”

“No. You’re fine. You would have no way of knowing.”

“Why don’t you have a car?”

He sighed. “It’s part of my not getting my life together yet. I felt like there was no point if I was going to go back to active duty.”

“Buses aren’t a problem?”

“No, for whatever reason. If there are enough people, it’s distracting. But cabs are.”

“Oh, God, and you took a cab to come help Sam yesterday.”

He waved it off. “It’s crazy. I should get over it. Probably if I were still in therapy, the therapist would tell me that I have to do exposure therapy until it doesn’t freak me out to be driven by other people anymore.”

She tilted her head. “You want me to drive? You can expose yourself.” She gave him a dirty wink.

He laughed, and then the laugh twisted off.

“You okay?” she asked.

“You make me laugh. And you make things okay that I didn’t think would ever be okay again. You know?”

She nodded. Yeah, she knew.

He came close and kissed her, his mouth hard on hers, tongue instantly possessive. “If Sam weren’t down the hall …”

“Yeah?”

“I’d bend you over the bed,” he said.

An arrow of pleasure diffused in her pelvis like bright light. “Wow,” she said. “Um, hold that thought?”

“Held. Make you a deal,” he said.

“Uh-huh?”

“I’ll let you drive part of the time, but I drive in bed tonight.”

Oh, God, that turned her on, too. What waswrongwith her? She liked the whole big male dominant gorilla actwaytoo much. “I can live with that.” She could better than live with it; she’d be fantasizing about it all the way to the Oregon coast.

“Where are we staying at your mom’s house?”

“Sadly, probably with Sam,” he said. “But I will find a way. Trust me?”

“Completely,” she said. And meant it.

Oh, God, what am I doing?

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