Page 28 of Reckless
His head jacked up, matching his pulse. “You think I was laughing at you?”
“I don’t know.” Zoe paused, lifting one fleece-wrapped shoulder before following him all the way into the tidy, shadow-covered space of the garage. “The captain’s socially awkward and moderately sloshed daughter who you look at like a kid sister asks you to kiss her, and well…yeah. To be honest, once I sobered up, I thought there was no way youweren’tlaughing.”
She couldn’t be serious. He’d spent the rest of that day alternating between mentally reciting baseball stats to get rid of his hard-on and kicking himself for his sudden and ill-timed attack of scruples.
Alex unshouldered his backpack, lowering it to the narrow wooden workbench nailed along the back wall of the garage. “You’re out of your damn mind.”
“The concept of a brain to mouth filter is lost on you, isn’t it?”
“I don’t see much point in trying to pretty things up. Life’s too short for bullshit.”
Zoe’s lips opened just slightly, bold fire combining with unmistakable want in her eyes, and in that instant, the thread snapped.
Pushing off from the workbench to cover the space between them in only a few steps, Alex angled closer, capturing a tendril of hair that had fallen loose from one of her low-slung braids. Without hesitation, he let his fingers glide all the way to the end of the silky length, bringing them to a stop right over her collarbone. “In fact, life’s too short for lots of things.”
“Like what?” Zoe asked, her voice no more than a husky whisper. She reached up to wrap her fingers around his hand, and that one small gesture was all the encouragement Alex needed.
“Like this.”
The space between them was gone in a breath, his mouth covering hers at the same moment she pressed forward to meet him. The kiss was the polar opposite of the way she’d claimed to be, fierce and fast and daring, and Alex gave in to the rush with a groan. Thrusting his fingers through Zoe’s hair, he parted her lips with his tongue, cupping the back of her neck and swinging her toward the workbench as he searched and tasted and took. But rather than following his lead or melting into the intensity of the kiss, she met him measure for measure. Zoe’s hands scooped up to tangle in his hair, the tug of her grip as she held him close and kissed him hard sending ripples of pleasure-pain on a straight shot to his cock.
This wasn’t impulse. It was insanity.
And Zoe felt so unbelievably hot, with her tongue sweeping over his bottom lip and her teeth following suit with just enough pressure to excite without stinging, that Alex didn’t care.
Even though a voice somewhere deep in the basest part of him growled its displeasure, he broke from Zoe’s mouth to place a string of kisses across her jaw, nudging her chin up with a rasp of stubble on sweet skin. Not only did Zoe oblige, but her grasp on him tightened. A heavy, want-soaked sigh sifted up from her chest and he lowered his mouth over the soft column of her neck.
Christ. How could this woman taste like sinandinnocence? And more importantly, why was it driving him so fucking mad?
Using his hips against hers to guide the way, he walked Zoe backward to the closed doors of the storage cabinet, not stopping until her back found the cool, flat surface. Alex bracketed the space above her shoulders with both palms, but he left just enough daylight between them that Zoe could choose to either close it or move away.
She didn’t move away.
Alex dropped his mouth to hers, coaxing the soft bow of her lips apart. “Open for me, Zoe. Let me taste more of you.”
She obliged, sending a spiral of hot, urgent want to the base of his spine. Pressing in closer, he slid his tongue against hers, stroking and searching and lingering in the places that made her sigh in the back of her throat.
“I thought you don’t mix business with pleasure,” Zoe said, her thick murmur sliding over him like silk and sandpaper and sin as she caught the sensitive spot in the center of his top lip between her teeth, and Goddamn,this woman could turn kissing into a metaphysical event.
He was going to do so much more than kiss her.
“I don’t.” Alex moved his hands to the front of her hoodie, the zipper hissing softly as he lowered it until the two halves of fleece gave way. “This is going to be all pleasure. Starting with yours.”
They didn’t so much kiss as crash together, the friction of Zoe’s lips and tongue making his cock jump. Without breaking contact with his mouth, she maneuvered her hoodie off her shoulders, shucking it to the bench beside them before gliding her fingers under the thin material of his shirt. Christ, he’d thought he was on fire for her, but her hands were warm and cunning on his skin, boldly stroking up his chest, matching him move for move.
Not to be outdone, he hooked his fingers beneath the hem of her tank top to lift the material with one swift tug. Following suit with the bottom edge of her sports bra, Alex freed Zoe’s breasts from the cotton, keeping her anchored to the cool metal surface behind them as he skimmed both thumbs over her straining nipples.
“I want to taste you here, too.”
She let out a moan of approval, arching high and greedy against his touch. But something dark and wicked flooded through him, slowing his ministrations.
“Do you want that?” Alex circled again, grinning his satisfaction at how Zoe’s nipples peaked even further beneath his fingers. “Do you want my mouth on you right here?”
“Alex.” Her head dropped to one side, and she pressed her hips forward in search of more contact. Ignoring the base demand from his cock to give her exactly what she wanted, he pulled back, stopping only when he’d caught her stare in the depth of the shadows.
“Say it. Tell me what you want.”
Alex registered the flash in Zoe’s eyes at the same time she slipped her hand into the breath of space he’d created between them, her fingers wrapping around his cock with delicious intention.
