Page 84 of The Love Bandits

“Oh, I’m good enough. I’ll blow Peanut Butter Cup out of the water.”

“You’d better.” She laughs, her eyes shining, then runs her hand up my thigh and rubs it directly over my dick through my jeans.

I glance at her, feral need pounding into me, and then press on the gas pedal, prompting her to laugh, especially since I almost immediately need to brake. “Adrenaline gets you hot too,” I comment, grinning. I’m on a high that can’t just be explained by Peter, or by this beautiful woman’s hand on my dick. It’s more than that. It feels like I’m soaring over the city, hand in hand with her, and I know I’m going to find myself sketching that later—the Love Bandit and the Love Fixer taking to the skies.

“Youget me hot,” she says pointedly, her hand still on me. “I wanted you to bend me over the conference table. Especially when you gave them the business cards. When did you have those made?”

“I ordered them yesterday, overnight. They came this morning.”

Something flickers in her eyes, and her hand rubs me, up and down. “That was really sweet of you.”

“I didn’t do it to be sweet,” I say between my teeth.

“You didn’t do it to get laid,” she rebuts. “You already know I want you. You could have knocked on my door last night, and I would have gladly fucked you against it.”

A swear tears out of me, because I’d spent half of the night restless, thinking about exactly that. The reason I didn’t go to her was because I still wanted to prove myself and didn’t feel that I’d done it. And because part of me worried it would change things, and I liked the way she looked at me, like she’d fooledherself into thinking I’m some kind of prize. Swallowing, I say, “I did it to please you.”

“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t sweet.”

I barely make it a few feet before I need to brake again. We’re downtown, and the traffic is thick, the foot traffic thicker, and even though we’ve blown past Peter and his married gang, we still have a while to go. Too far.

Her hand reaches for the button of my jeans, unfastening it, and desperate need floods my veins, threatening to drown the last of my ability to think logically. I’ve never wanted to sink into a woman this much, to claim her. To drive in deep and stay. I’ve wanted her since the first night she came into my apartment, before I knew the real Lainey.

And she wanted me before she knew the real Jake.

Because there’s something connecting us—some thread of understanding, of like recognizing like, and it scares the shit out of me even as it drives me insane. I’ve never been with a woman who understands me before.

I can feel her eyes on me as she slowly lowers the zipper of my jeans, my aching dick jutting out now.

I stop at a crosswalk, nodding to an old lady with a walker as she makes her way across—all while Lainey slides her hand over me, curling her fingers around to capture more of me. There’s nothing soft or gentle about her. She’s acting like she’s greedy for me, and there’s no way I could be more desperate for everything she’s offering.

“You like to drive me crazy, don’t you?” I ask, glancing at her.

Her eyes are bright with enjoyment and shiny with lust, and I’mdefinitelynot going to make it to the apartment building. Maybe I’ll just pull over on the side of the street. I’ll take her in the car in the middle of downtown Asheville, and we’ll probably get arrested, and it will be worth it because I’ll have finallyfelt her clench around me. Because I’ll know she decided I was worthy of bringing her over the edge.

“Yes,” she says, her voice breathy, her hand working me as I glide down the road. “Yes.”

And then my heart nearly beats right the fuck out of my chest because as I get the car moving again—just a few minutes, only a few minutes—she tugs my dick up out of my underwear and leans down and—

“Shit, Lainey, I can’t—”

But she can’t answer because her lips are wrapped around the tip of my dick, her tongue swirling over it like it’s a lollipop.

She’s going to kill me. She’s going to kill both of us, actually, because it’s hard to pay attention to anything but the gorgeous woman with my dick in her mouth. She bobs up and down, and I swear prodigiously, my hand finding her soft hair.

“Lainey,” I hiss through my teeth. Her response is to run her teeth lightly over my dick on her next pass, and I white-knuckle the wheel, trying to think taming thoughts as I hit another red light. A car edges up next to me, and I move the Fiesta forward by several inches, crossing the line slightly so they won’t get a view of her, bent over in that red dress, her head buried in my lap, and I’m really not going to make it. I’m not going to be able to fuck her, because she’s going to make me lose myself in her mouth.

At the same time, I’m not going to tell her to stop sucking my dick, because this is the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me.

So I think of the necklace and Roark. I think of locked doors and Ryan’s hand. I think of the pocket watch and all the many ways I’ve failed, and I find the strength inside of myself to turn off on the correct roads. To pull into the small underground parking garage beneath the old-fashioned white apartment building. To find a corner under a non-functional lightbulb, darkand therefore abandoned by the other residents, and park the car in it.

It’s about three o’clock, and the garage is empty, and I can’t wait.I can’t wait.

I’ve never unfastened my seatbelt quicker. I pull her up off my cock, and she smiles at me, her lips glistening, her eyes bright in this dark corner of the garage. Leaning in, I kiss her hard, thinking about what she said about wanting me to bend her over that conference table.

Pulling back, I say, “I can’t wait. Take your panties off.”

“But we don’t have a condom,” she objects, her eyes dilating more as she unfastens her seatbelt. I run a hand up her dress, slipping it between her thighs, which open for me, giving me the slick heat of her.

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