Chapter 11 #2
He chuckled. A battle for supremacy hadn’t been on his bingo-card where Lace was concerned, but Vince liked it. He liked it a lot. Had he mentioned to her that he revered strong women? If not, she was already reading him like a book, which boded well for…
Wow. He’d just thought it boded well for them living together.
Was it possible that would turn out to be a good idea?
He had a few concerns.
One being, how would it affect their “getting to know you” stage that was now inevitable in his mind? Because Vince didn’t want to rush things. Unlike a lot of guys, he actually loved the flirting phase of a relationship. He remembered how fun that was, from way back in his school days.
In the Navy, it had been all about the fast hook-ups with frog-hogs, and he’d really missed all the tension and build-up which he recalled had once led to explosive sex.
He wanted to revisit that with Lace. With a doubling-down on the “relationship” part of things.
He really hoped it all worked out.
Hoisting himself up into the truck, Vince noted—as he buckled up—Lace’s unapologetic eyes checking out the formidable monument she’d been responsible for erecting.
His initial impulse was to grab something and cover the randy bastard, but something in the shortening of her breath and the added color at her neck, kept him from hiding his interested particulars under a bushel.
Still, he didn’t sprawl, showing off. He simply sat and let her get a nice, long look.
“Are we good?” he finally questioned, snapping her out of whatever daydream she’d been having.
He’d bet it was a doozy.
“You’re well endowed,” she finally managed, her tongue poking out as she dropped the truck into reverse and backed out.
Vince snorted. “That may have been mentioned a time or two in the past,” he muttered.
“Buck is, too,” she informed him pragmatically.
He choked on that, his eyes bugging out as he barely managed to ask, “How, exactly, do you know that?”
Now, Lace giggled. “Bobbie might have said a thing or two about being a little sore—”
“No. Stop. La, la, la, la.” Vince covered his ears and gagged. “I do not need to hear about my brother and his wife having sex.”
“Then how do you explain her being eight months pregnant?” Lace snickered.
“Immaculate conception,” he answered without missing a beat.
Lace exploded in laughter, and in a snap, Vince forgot all about his brother, his sister-in-law, and even his own cock.
This was the first time he’d seen Lace really let go.
He’d observed mild amusement, he’d glimpsed sassiness, he’d relished her impishness, but he hadn’t seen full-blown hilarity until this very moment.
He felt like he was beholding the woman Lace really was underneath all her cancer and chemo worries.
It warmed him from the inside, out.
“Pull over,” he ordered, without even thinking.
“What?” Her raucous laugh trailed off as she shot him a puzzled look.
“I said, pull over.”
“Why?” she asked, obeying but still questioning. She turned on her blinker and veered off into a drug store parking lot. “Are you okay? Are you going to be sick?”
Vince didn’t answer, but as soon as the truck was in park, he tore off his seatbelt, opened his door, and sped around to the driver side, wrenching Lace’s door free.
When Lace looked at him askance as if he’d lost his mind, he didn’t slow down even half a beat. He swiftly undid her seatbelt, and putting his hands on her waist, hauled her from the truck.
More gently then, because he didn’t want to scare or hurt her, he used his big body to ease her back against the warm chassis, where he cradled her face in his hands.
“I’m really sorry, Lace,” he apologized.
“For…?” She looked confused, searching his expression.
He didn’t leave her in suspense.
“I wanted to be romantic. I really did. I was going to wait until we got to your house to be…suave.”
Vince snorted to himself. Had he ever used that word before?
“But I can’t wait any longer. I have to kiss you.” He closed his eyes for a half second. “If that’s not okay, tell me now, because there’s a countdown going on in my head,” he warned. “Five…four…three…”
Vince got no further than three.
Lace grabbed him by his ears, his sensitive ears, and yanked him down, slamming her lips onto his in a no-holds-barred kiss.
Their connection was instantaneous.
Deep. Visceral.
Vince groaned. Or maybe Lace did, but all Vince knew was that he felt…consumed. In an extraordinary way. Shattering everything he’d thought a kiss could be.
Lace’s taste was unlike anything he’d ever experienced, and he was addicted instantly.
Time seemed irrelevant as they explored, and got to know each other. Soft and easy, then wild and hard like ravenous animals. It all worked.
It took a long time before either one of them was willing to come up for air, but eventually they did, and that was only because a car door slammed from somewhere very close by, bursting their bubble.
Vince leaned his forehead down to Lace’s and simply breathed.
He heard her sigh. A happy sound, and it swelled his chest.
Life, at least for him, had just tilted on its axis.
From now on, Vince knew there would be life before Lace’s kiss, and life after.
He’d never settle for anything less, ever again.