Chapter Forty
I really can’t believe you got my truck back.”
As Denne let out a little awkward laugh, Allhan allowed his head to loll in the direction of the driver’s seat.
Man, he liked the way her hands looked on that thick wheel.
If he did nothing else tonight, he could watch her tighten and release her grips as she made lefts and rights and be a happy male.
“I mean, just so we’re clear,” she continued, “this is the most game shit you could possibly game.”
“Really?”
“Oh, hell yeah.” She glanced over again and then refocused on the road. “Are you even kidding me? Screw flowers. You got me… well, my truck back. But not only that, you’ve made it so I can drive it and don’t have to worry about being dive-bombed by a helicopter.”
“I’m glad this pleased you.”
There was a pause and her eyebrows dropped down. “It truly did—does, whatever. In fact, this is one of the nicest things anybody’s ever done for me.”
In a hungry way, that he did what he could to hide, his stare traveled to her slender neck. “You deserve to have all the nice things.”
Hell, at this point, he would give her the world if he could find enough gift wrap.
“We aren’t far from where we’re going.” She looked over again. “I promise.”
“You could drive around in circles all night if you want. I don’t mind.”
“Nowhere pressing to go?”
In the glow from the dashboard, her face was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Whether it was those braids that were so precisely done, or the waves of black curls that fell over her shoulders…
the curve of her lips or arch of her brows…
or the way her eyes traveled back and forth between him and the road…
he couldn’t get enough of staring at her.
And every time their eyes met, it was like an electric bolt went through his body.
“Try nowhere I’d rather be,” he whispered.
As they came up to a red light, she hit the brakes and shook her head. “Now, why you gotta say things like that.”
He glanced out his own window so he didn’t seem like the lovesick sap he actually was. “Sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Oh, you do.” Her voice lightened some. “Or maybe you just have good instincts when it comes to me.”
“If that’s the case, I’m okay with it.”
They fell into a silence that was easier than it should have been considering they were all but strangers, and the only thing he was thinking of was how long until he could kiss her again. And what do you know, he went back to looking at her.
“Denne.”
“Yeah?” When he didn’t immediately respond, those black eyes returned to him. “What.”
“Thank you for the best night of my life.” As he felt his cheeks flush, he was the one to break the contact. “It’s been… wonderful.”
The chuckle that came back at him went right into his bloodstream. “We haven’t done anything.”
“It doesn’t matter. Just being around you is enough for me.”
He had no conception of where they were going as they left the city, but he had the sense they were heading north toward the mountains.
In any other circumstances, he would have liked watching the winter landscape pass by, but he had a much better view to enjoy, didn’t he.
And when the first of the hills arrived and they headed up a steady ascent, he played magical thinking and imagined the Ford truck taking to the air and flying over the Adirondacks, all Santa’s sleigh.
Just with vampires. And no Christmas presents.
A rustic-looking sign announcing they’d entered the Sugarloaf Mountain State Park flared at the side of the road, and shortly after that, they started up a two-lane rise that zigzagged back and forth. No other cars. No houses or ambient lights. Nothing but pine trees and snow.
The crest came without preamble, just a turn and there it was. The top.
Denne piloted them over to a parking area that had been plowed, the truck’s headlights washing over another sign that read “Sugarloaf Scenic Lookout.” When they were in place against the guardrail, she turned off all their lights along with the engine.
And that was when the sky came alive.
Allhan sat forward into the windshield. “Look at all the stars.”
The velvet darkness with its swaths of galaxies brought the infinite right down to earth and into the cab of the Ford.
“It’s… overwhelming,” he said. “In a good way.”
Denne tilted into the steering wheel. When she stayed silent, he had to press. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, even though she seemed lost in her own thoughts. “I just wanted you to see this view. Plus privacy for the win, right?”
Before he could think better of it, he reached for her hand. “I’ll help you with anything I can. Just let me know what I can do.”
“It’s too complicated to go into.”
“Try me.”
“Well, for one thing… you have any experience with eminent domain?” she said dryly.
He popped his brows. “You mean about land being taken by the government? I can learn whatever I have to. Is your family having a problem?”
“Why are you so good to me.” She cleared her throat as she focused on their intertwined fingers. “Are you always like this?”
“No.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You don’t really know me.” As soon as he said the words, he wanted to take them back. “What I mean is—”
“And you don’t know me. We’re strangers, and sometimes that’s easier.” Abruptly, she looked him right in the eye. “Are you with anybody, Al? Girlfriend, mate. Mate-to-be?”
“No.” He had to laugh. “You look so surprised.”
“I guess I am.” She waited. “You’re not asking me that back?”
He shook his head. “I don’t care if you’re with someone.
You’re here with me now and I’ll take whatever I’m given.
If that makes me look desperate? Fine. I have nothing to hide when it comes to that.
Tonight I feel like I won the lottery, got a liver transplant, and wasn’t struck by lightning all at the same time. ”
Denne had to laugh again. “Wow, Al. Quite a winning streak there, huh.”
“Sorry, is that not very romantic?”
“Better than throwing a pass next to a crime scene.” When he winced, she squeezed his arm. “I’m just kidding with you. And I mean, it’s a weird way of putting how you feel, but I like weird.”
The smile he sent her way was tentative. “So here we are, strangers. In the best truck on the planet.”
“You have excellent taste in vehicles, have I mentioned that?” Denne laughed some more. “And we’re in front of the best view. But how ’bout we not spend any more time looking at it.”
They faced each other.
“Strangers really isn’t bad,” she whispered. “Not for me.”
“I agree.”
“You do?” When he nodded, she exhaled as if she were relieved. “It makes this…”
“The only thing we need to think about.” He squeezed her hand. “When we’re here, together, this is all we have—and it’s all I need right now.”
Her eyes drifted down to his lips. “Me, too.”
Bless him, Al didn’t need more of an invitation. But he was clearly going to put things on Denne’s terms, and she appreciated it: Leaning into the console, he stretched over and touched her chin.
“I’m going to kiss you now. Unless you want to just enjoy the night sky instead?”
“Fuck no,” she said. “I’m sick of stars. I don’t want to look at them ever again.”
As Al surged forward, he could barely wedge his broad shoulders across the build-out between the seats and wasn’t that fantastic—and the instant their mouths melded, Denne knew that she was going to drag him into the backseat and turn his lap into the best fucking saddle on the planet.
Except there was no rush. And no need to crank the engine back on and add a little heat to the cab. Nope, they were their own thermal unit.
God, his hair was so smooth and silky in between her fingers as she drew him in even tighter, and as his hand moved up and down her back, she released her seatbelt and shrugged out of her parka.
To cut short any confusion about where she wanted to take this, she angled his palm right where she wanted it—
She gasped as he cupped her breast.
And on his side, there was no fumbling. Al just pushed forward even more as he explored the swell that—
Chunk.
Chunk.Chunk.Chunk—
“Motherfucker,” he muttered as he twisted around like he was going to yank his seatbelt out of the truck’s main frame.
While he jabbed at the release as if it were trying to come up and bite him, she had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing.
And then the second the belt snapped out of the way, he was back on her.
Talk about fast learner once again. He might not have done this before, but the overwhelming mating urge clearly turned him into a Casanova.
Straining to get on her, his mouth grinding against hers, he was all in and then some as his palm found her breast again and—
Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk—
They both jumped back.
As he ripped his elbow away from the steering wheel, he flashed his fangs and hissed at the thing. And now she really did laugh. Taking his face in her hands, she turned his head to her and kissed him. Kissed him again. Licked her way into him.
When she eased off a little, her eyes flashed and bathed him in a pale green glow. “How about we take this into the backseat?”
Al nodded like she was offering him the map to the promised land, and that was when the cramming started.
Somehow he thought he could squeeze his six-foot-five, broad-chested, heavy-shouldered body between the seats.
She opened her mouth to point out there was a more conventional way of changing proverbial chairs, but he was clearly having none of the get-out-and-walk-around thing.
Groaning, straining, he forced himself headfirst, and then shit got bad.
His torso went down, his ass went up, and he became totally stuck.
“Oh, my God,” Denne said through her laughter. “Are you okay?”
“Well…” He cleared his throat and flopped his one free arm around. “I’ve been in better situations.”
With a muffled grunt, he tried to go back. With a strangled curse, he tried to push himself forward.
“Pivot.” She coughed. “Pivot, pivot—”
“This is not a Friends episode.”
“You’re a fan, too? I didn’t think anybody watched the old school stuff anymore.”
“Memes—” Grunt. Curse word. More grunt. “Only from memes.”
But he gave it a good shot, rolling to the side, one of his Converse All Stars bracing at the juncture between the windshield and the dash. And what do you know, that change in position… changed everything.
She was face to face with the front of his hips.
And there was nothing like getting an eyeful of everything she had suspected he had in those jeans.
The outline of his arousal could have given a tree trunk a run for the money.
Okay, that was hyperbole.
But not by much.
Denne just had to reach out and touch—and the instant she brushed her hand against that rigid length pushing at the denim, that big male body straightened every single joint it had. As a dull thump and an Ow! rippled forward from the back, she had a feeling his head had knocked into the door.
“Oh, shit, sorry—”
“Don’t stop,” he said. “Oh, fuck—”
No reason not to follow instructions, right?
With a blissful feeling of control, she moved her hand up and down, exploring his shaft, the blunt head, what was below the arousal. In response, his hips jerked toward her, then started rolling like he would when he was inside of her.
“You like what I’m doing to you?”
“Yes, Jesus, yes.”
“Good.” She smiled as she cupped his sack and he moaned again. “So I’m not hurting you?”
“No! Don’t stop yet—”
Popping her brows, she paused her explorations and tried to see into the rear. There was no way of looking past all the muscle in the way.
“Can you even breathe?” she asked with a grin.
“Who the fuck cares,” he countered hoarsely. “Just don’t stop!”
As if to prove how serious he was, he arched his spine to push his erection into her palm, even as something let out a squeak that sounded like metal fatigue in the seatback.
Hell, maybe it was the engine mount, with the way he was straining.
And then he started pumping against her hand and there was only one thing she could do.
She released that top copper button and unzipped the—
His arousal exploded out like it was gunning for her mouth, and there was no question what to do next.
Denne parted her lips and took him in. All the way to the base.
The roar Allhan let out shook the truck. Or maybe that trembling was because his body was seizing.
“Please,” he begged. “Please… Denne, oh God…”
Wasn’t that the nicest sound. Better even than the engine on this frickin’ Ford.
Retracting herself, she popped him out of her mouth, and then licked him like the ice cream he was, savoring his taste. Another deep-throat. Annnnd out. Down to his base again. Meanwhile, Al was panting like he was running at a full tilt.
And he also didn’t seem to be worried that he was having the head rush to beat all head rushes, no doubt.
A rhythm was easily found, easily followed, and the pleasure she was giving him rebounded into herself.
His sawing breaths, the way that foot kicked against her windshield, how his hand grabbed on to the headrest with the veins straining down to his fingertips.
All of it was so raw and hungry, so desperate and impatient, that his pleasure wiped out everything that was going on in her own mind.
And that was a gift, it really was.
“You gotta stop—”
“Why?” she said against the slick tip of his erection. “You’re not into this?”
“I’m gonna come—”
“And I’m going to swallow.”
The second those words registered, he locked against her face and started to orgasm. And just like she promised, she milked him, suckling every ounce he gave her, and she loved it. The whole fucking thing. Especially the taste of him.
As well as the scent of dark spices that suddenly filled the truck.
Even though she knew what it meant.
And him bonding to her was the worst complication they could both have.