26. Dove #2
Before he could get any crazy ideas of who Josh might be with, I interjected. “Hi, Eddie.”
“Hey, Birdy. Well, I can’t very well leave you stranded. Give me a sec, hold on.” A rustling sound came over the speakers as Eddie set the phone down, his voice growing farther away as he shouted something to someone in Spanish.
Josh shook his head amusedly. “Guess I’m chopped liver.”
“We’ll be here all day if we wait for Eddie,” I teased, although there was truth behind it. “He’s probably at the restaurant. We’ll be squeezed in between deliveries.”
Josh’s arm came down to rest along the steering wheel and he leaned in, keeping the phone outside the truck.
“You in a hurry, little dove?” he drawled. Something in his tone had my eyes flicking to the phone then back to him.
“No,” I answered quietly. Then, throwing caution to the wind, I added playfully, “Just wondering what we’ll do while we’re waiting.”
“Oh,” Josh’s voice grew huskier, the beginnings of an impish smile curling on his lips. “I have a few ideas.”
The air that had been light and carefree a moment ago grew heavy between us, and I inched forward, needing to know what those ideas were.
Our lips hovered centimeters apart, close enough that our shallow breaths mingled, his exhales becoming my inhales.
My tongue came out to wet my bottom lip, grazing his, and his breathe caught as his eyes darkened hungrily.
“Tease,” he whispered hoarsely, so close I felt his lips form the word as he said it.
Maybe I was teasing, just a bit, but I couldn’t help it. As if summoned by his suggestion, the throb from earlier was back, deeper and more demanding than it had been before, reminding me that it’d been days since we’d done anything more than kiss.
“Josh?” Eddie’s boisterous voice came back over the line, causing us to flinch away from each other as if he’d somehow see how close we were through the screen.
Josh cleared his throat, leaning back into the arm braced against the steering wheel. “I’m here.”
Separating did nothing to dispel the electricity that charged between us. The space just gave him room to stare, raking his gaze over me with intensity, causing me to shiver with anticipation. A thrill shot through me when his eyes landed back on mine, dark and compelling.
“One small prob. We just got an order the size of this town and we’re short in the kitchen,” Eddie explained regretfully. “Tia’s out sick and Zeke’s not here today. Fucker requested off and won’t tell us why, though we all know why. She’s a four-foot firecracker that cuts hair.”
My eyebrows rose. Reverie and I hadn’t talked since the night after the bar, where I’d given her a brief, nondescript update.
The fact I hadn’t heard from her, and she hadn’t pestered me for more details should have tipped me off, but I assumed she was busy with moving back home and starting at Betty’s salon. Not running around with Zeke.
“And breaks hearts!” someone interjected with a shout after Eddie.
“Cállate, mocoso,” Eddie hissed in Spanish, voice muffled like he was covering the speaker. “Dove’s on the phone. You know, Rev’s best friend. ”
“Shit,” the voice cursed, likely one of his brothers. “Sorry, Dove! We just don’t want Zeke heartbroken again. Makes the pizza taste weird.”
I snorted. “First off, Rev’s five foot five, don’t let her hear you calling her anything less.
Second, give Zeke some credit, I think he can hold his own.
” He had to if he wanted to be with Reverie again.
The way they’d ended before… I couldn’t imagine he’d sign up for that willingly twice.
Rev was my best friend and I’d always have her back, but what she did to Zeke? She was wrong for that.
“We hope,” Eddie said, sounding less than sure. “Anyway, I texted him on the off chance he could help you guys out. Said he’ll swing by and drop off some gas, just might be a half hour or so. Probably needs to recover from all the boning he’s doing.”
A chorus of outright disgust drifted out over the line from his brothers as Eddie snickered with glee at their reactions.
“Gross, Eddie,” I chided. But probably true.
“That’ll work,” Josh agreed, holding back laughter. “Thanks, Ed.”
“No es nada, my friend,” Eddie replied breezily. “Wish I could help, but someone’s gotta pick up the slack for the one brother actually getting some around here!”
Eddie’s laughter and his brothers’ objections carried over the line right before the call ended, the cab growing quiet without Eddie’s voice booming through it.
“ So ,” Josh drew the syllable out. “Thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes,” I echoed. “That’s not long.”
Josh set his phone on the dash while he outstretched the other until it was resting on my knee. “Long enough.” His voice was heavy with suggestion, just like it had been a minute ago.
“Josh,” I murmured his name doubtfully as his hand trailed up my bare thigh, stopping just below the hem of my shorts.
“You don’t think I can get you off in thirty minutes?” He gave my thigh a meaningful squeeze. “It didn’t take me that long before.”
A surge of heat curled through me. The throb was damn near painful now, matching the pounding of my racing pulse.
“We’re on the side of the road,” I argued weakly. “Anyone could see us.”
“I won’t let them see,” Josh promised as the pads of his fingers slipped under my shorts to caress my inner thigh. “You’re for my eyes only.”
His soft, coaxing touch made it difficult to think of why it was a bad idea. Each stroke of his fingers made me want to give in, to toss caution to the wind and climb into his lap, and?—
“We shouldn’t,” I finally managed to say, even if everything within me wanted the opposite. “What if someone drives by? The whole town will know by the end of the day.”
Josh’s hand stilled.
“You’re right,” he agreed after a beat. “We shouldn’t risk it.” His hand left my shorts to cup my face, his thumb running over my bottom lip gently. “I shouldn’t risk you,” he murmured to himself softly.
I swayed forward, following Josh’s hand as he pulled back so he could climb into the truck properly, slamming the door closed behind him as he sat behind the wheel, keeping one arm bent out the window, in an attempt, I imagined, to keep himself as far from me as he could in the small space.
While we sat in silence, waiting, my mind reeled with the thoughts he’d planted in my head. They played like a slideshow across my mind: Josh pinning me against the door, Josh kissing me into the seats, Josh slipping his hand down my pants until I was gasping against his mouth.
Somehow before I’d even decided to move, I was sitting in Josh’s lap. A surprise noise left him, but his hands settled on my hips without hesitation.
I wish I could say the same. My stomach flipped with nerves, and I was aware of just how in the open we were, how anyone could pass by at any moment and find us in this position. “You won’t let anyone see?” I hated how my voice shook with uncertainty.
Josh’s eyes turned steely with determination, and his hands tightened. “Dove, I promise you, no one will see.” They darkened with his promise. “They won’t have time to see.”
His words sparked a thrill of goosebumps to erupt across my skin.
I couldn’t hold myself back even if I wanted to.
Now that he’d suggested it, I needed his touch—needed it to quell the fire that had been smoldering like an ember under my skin since he’d been sweaty and shirtless under the truck’s hood.
His large palms glided from my hips to curve under my ass, shifting me so that I was straddling both of his broad thighs properly. His hands urged me closer, and I moaned softly as his stomach pressed against the seam of my shorts, sending a jolt of something white hot through my body.
“Take what you need,” he encouraged, his voice growing gruffer with each word.
I rocked forward tentatively, self-conscious of the fact I was all but humping him.
Josh didn’t seem to mind as he nosed at my neck, inhaling deep.
“Fuck, you always smell so good.” I gasped as he bit down on the curve where my neck met my shoulder, his lips grazing the hurt as he muttered, “Good enough to eat.” He hummed against my skin as if the thought pleased him.
“I just might do that,” he considered, “but first I want to hear you gasping as you ride my fingers, begging me for my mouth. I want to know you want it as much as I do.”
My hips faltered from the rhythm they’d gained. “Josh?—”
“Too late, little dove. You crawled into my lap. Now let me get you off.”
I gasped as he unzipped my shorts and tugged them down so fast, I didn’t even have time to protest. The position I was in made it impossible for him to take them all the way off, so they ended up rucked around my thighs, bunched up just under my ass.
I shivered, feeling exposed sitting halfway to naked in Josh’s lap even though no one would be able to see that my shorts were pulled down.
They sure would see I was in his lap, though.
His fingers had me forgetting my worries of being seen as they teased along my panty line, had my thoughts blanking altogether as his rough, short nails scraped the sensitive skin of my abdomen, coaxing a flutter from deep within.
When he nudged my hips back further against the steering wheel I obeyed easily, allowing those wandering fingers to slip under the fabric and slide through dense curls until he was circling swollen, needy flesh.
I shook with relief, burying my face into his shoulder as my fingers curled into the seat behind him as pleasure flit through me with each delicate yet firm press of his fingers. My hips gave an aborted thrust into his hand as he slid through my folds, teasing, torturing.
“Keep those hips moving,” he ordered, voice thick as smoke in my ear. “I told you I want you riding my fingers.”