Page 58 of Until You're Mine
He grinned like I’d given him a huge compliment. “Do I have to pull you out of the car, or what? Let’s get going.”
“As much as I love riding on the back of your motorcycle, I put effort into my hairdo”—I circled my head with a finger, lest he needed the proof—“and I also brought a case of beer, so we need to take my car.”
He opened the door, and I wondered if he was hard of hearing. “Scoot over, then,” he said. “I’m driving.”
“Oh, you think you can demand I scoot over and I’ll just—”
He ducked inside and kissed me, the perfect amount of scruff, soft lips, and tongue. He ended the kiss with a nip on my lower lip. “I’m driving, and if you’re good, I promise I’ll find creative uses for my hands while I’m doing it.”
My stubborn pride wanted to put up a fight and argue that I didn’t respond to demands, but then he slid his hand up my inner thigh and stroked me over my panties. Divine shocks of electricity danced across my skin, every other emotion fading as desire took over. I rubbed my thighs together. “Won’t that just be really frustrating?”
He nodded. “For both of us. But the build-up will make it that much hotter when we get back to my place and I focus every ounce of my attention on getting you off as many times, and in as many ways, as possible.” He punctuated his vow with another exquisite drag of his fingers.
The juncture between my thighs throbbed, aching for more as lust turned the blood in my veins into liquid fire. “You’re impossible,” I said on a shaky breath.
“You love me.”
The air shifted, heavy and tense, the oxygen whooshing out into the ether and leaving me without any. There was no way I could…Now’ssonot the time to dive intothat.
I needed to fix this before everything spun out of control. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Relax, I totally know that you were only joking. Guys always freak out at the mere mention of love.”
“You’re freaking out more than I am. You look the same way you do when you think your dad or your brothers are on to us.”
I hitched my chin. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Instead of bothering to wait for me to climb over the console, Shane slid into the seat and pulled me onto his lap. “Hey,” he said, his fingers rubbing soothing circles on my thighs. “We allow ourselves to want this a day at a time, remember?”
I nodded, but my heart tripped over its quickening beats. Ever since the ugly end of my relationship with Conrad, I’d held back in my relationships in an attempt to keep myself safe—even with Trey, and he’d been pretty much the definition of risk-free. The temptation to do so now whispered to me, but something about Shane’s reassuring yet intense gaze made it spill on out. “I try, but sometimes my brain won’t shut up about all the complications, and how the odds are stacked against us, and then it won’t stop telling me it’s a bad idea to get so close to you.”
“I’ve never been one to give a shit about the odds. According to them I should be in jail or working some dead-end job, or an alcoholic at the least, and definitely not sitting here with a girl like you, a big fight that could change everything on the horizon.”
“So basically you’re saying you eat odds for breakfast?”
A slow smile spread across his face, and affection and warmth coursed through me. I loved the way he made me feel sexy and strong, yet completely reassured that if I needed lifting up, he’d help pull me up. He nuzzled my neck, dropping a kiss on the sensitive spot underneath my ear. “God, I’m crazy about you.”
“Good. Because I’m kinda crazy about you, with an extra side of crazy.”
“Always having to one-up me.” His circling fingertips drifted closer to the top of my thighs, his touch going from soothing to arousing.
Two could play at that game—hey, if I was going to get accused of one-upping him, I might as well be guilty. I sunk farther onto him, dragging myself over the sizeable bulge in his pants, and he groaned. “Just building that anticipation,” I said, deciding the dress was the best choice I’d made all day.
His fingers dug into my hips, holding me in place as he arched against me. “Fuck that. I’m about to take you in the backseat of the car.”
My breaths sawed in and out of my mouth, so quickly it left me dizzy. “The windows are barely tinted.”
He wound his fingers through my hair and tipped my head aside, his lips going to my neck. “Then whoever happens to walk by and get a show will be one lucky bastard.”
I laughed and then reluctantly lifted myself off him and forced myself into the passenger seat before we got arrested for indecent exposure.
He readjusted himself, backed out of the parking spot, and then curled his hand around my thigh. And I accidentally wondered what would happen if I wanted more than a day at a time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Brooklyn
Shane drove south, nearly to the border of Mexico, but turned off and headed into the rougher part of Chula Vista. I hadn’t spent a lot of time down here, but I had no doubt that my overprotective brothers would warn me away from going there alone. Which probably sounded privileged, something I wasn’t going to deny. I was sure that like everywhere else, there was a mix of good people and bad people. It wasn’t a newsflash that he’d grown up in a harsher situation than I had.
I reached over and ran my fingertips through the hair at the nape of his neck. With him next to me, I felt beyond safe. “I’m sorry that we’re a little late.”
