Chapter Twenty-Four
THE NEXT DAY, I CLEARmy head the only way I know how.
Under the hood of a car.
I didn’t sleep much, so I’m out in the garage a little after daybreak. I wanted to check on my Mustang, maybe finally get around to that busted taillight, but it’s not here—must still be ditched in the woods by the back gate, where LJ left it after our return, and I don’t especially feel like tramping down to get it right now, so I settle for one of Rob’s cars. I’m wearing the most work-appropriate pair of jeans I could find in my stash (no small feat, considering they’re all easily $200-plus pairs) and a loose T-shirt, my hair pulled back with one of the millions of ponytail holders Rob bought me.
I smile, thinking about it, as I hoist up the hood of the Camaro.
There’s not a lot to do here, really—a fluid flush and oil change, pretty much—but even that small routine feels satisfying to me right now, a little corner of the world that I can set right and make function properly.
That I can fix.
I putter over to the work bench for tools, and I’m crouched in front of a cabinet, rummaging around for a drip pan to put underneath, when I hear the side door open. I freeze, instinctively, wondering if it’s LJ, and dart a glance in that direction. But it’s way earlier than our agreed-upon meeting time, I reason.
Past the cabinet door and the wheels of various vehicles, I can see a pair of boots and denim-clad legs, which doesn’t really narrow it down.
But the voice does.
“Well, look who’s up and about first thing.” Rob grins, hooking his thumbs in his pocket. “Catching a lot of worms, you little early bird?”
I scoff at him. “Don’t think you can southern charm me. I’m allergic to it.”
He lifts his eyebrows, but nods. “Fair enough.” Then he cranes his neck to look past me, to the rest of the workshop. “Big project today?”
I shake my head. “Just some maintenance on the Camaro. I didn’t want to be too loud too early, in case You-Know-Who’s still asleep.” I roll my eyes in the direction of LJ’s apartment. “And I needed something...easy after yesterday.”
Rob snorts, but nods again. “Sure, I understand. Same reason I like shooting targets.” He squints one eye shut, aims, and pulls an imaginary trigger. “Simple. Straightforward. You hit it or you don’t.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “A car goes or it doesn’t.”
“Zactly. Nice change of pace for those of us with morally...complex day-to-days.” He brushes past me, sauntering over to the Camaro, and skates a gentle fingertip over its sleek surface. “Damn, but it’s a nice car. If I do say so myself.”
“Say it all you want,” I reply. “I’ll never disagree with you.”
“Bought it off a guy in California,” Rob says, studying it thoughtfully. “Glaucoma, had to give up his license.”
The mere mention of a person medically unable to drive makes me sympathize. I feel for this guy, even though I don’t know him from Adam.
“Said he’d always dreamed of having one in high school,” Rob continues, “because these things are such chick magnets. Never could get any of the cheerleaders into the backseat of his Datsun, apparently. He said a man like me should have no problem getting all the mileage I need out of this...if I caught his drift.”
I give a short, barking laugh. Rob swivels around and fixes me in his gaze.
“What?” He smiles. “You don’t think so?”
“No, no,” I say. “Not that. Just...you have a whole mansion.” And a pool, I think, flushing a little at the memory. “A car backseat’s kind of a downgrade, isn’t it?”
Rob’s smile spreads into a slow grin. “Oh, I don’t know about that, pretty lady. There’s a certain charm to the experience, isn’t there?”
I roll my eyes. “I wouldn’t know.”
Rob’s grin vanishes, replaced by a stunned open mouth that he swiftly closes.
“Apologies,” he says, and cocks his head at me. “But you’ve never...gone to the backseat of a guy’s car?”
I flush. “No. Why?” I add, defensive. “Is that some kind of character flaw?”
Rob chuckles. “Not at all. It’s just a shame you’ve never had the pleasure. But, then again...”
He takes a step towards me. Then another. Then another. Then he’s inches away, and his arms pin me in place against the side of the Camaro.
“It’s lucky for me that I could be the first to show you.”
I can feel the warmth of his body above mine, even without touching, smell the woodsy scent of his skin. It’s all I can do to stay cool.
“What about the others?” I ask. “They won’t—”
“Mind?” Rob smirks. “No, I don’t think so. We’re good at sharing around here.”
The words make my throat go dry, make a hungry heat flare in my belly.
But I don’t melt. Not yet.
I want to make you work for it, Rob.
Instead, I just arch an eyebrow. “You think you’re that good?”
He leans into my ear, so close his stubble rasps against my cheek. “I know I am, pretty lady.”
A surge of desire rides through my body. I swallow. “So show me.”
He crushes his mouth to mine, pressing me into the car with the force of his kiss. I gasp, the contrast of the cool metal at the small of my back and the salty heat of his skin like an electric shock to my system. He kisses me deep, firm, and too short, scraping his lips at my neck before pulling away and pushing me to the side.
He tugs at the latch and flings open the door, his eyes hooded.
“Get in,” he commands.
Pulse thrumming, I move to sit in the car, but he grabs my waist before I can get all the way in.
“No.” He shakes his head. “Not like that. On your back.”
Oh.
I nod, and turn, easing myself down so that my head almost hits the opposite door, my legs stretching so that my ankles are dangling out to where Rob stands, watching. I almost feel ridiculous, but the embarrassment doesn’t have time to form, because he leans forward, crouching just enough to reach my hips, and his fingers find the waistband of my jeans. In one swift motion he tears open the button and splits the zipper, then shucks the denim from my legs, leaving me in nothing but my new, lacy bottoms from the waist down.
“There we go,” comes his voice. “So beautiful.”
I find my own voice, despite the thickness in my throat. “Jack has a real eye for style,” I mumble.
A short chuckle. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Rob leans forward, farther into the car, so that I can see him, shaking his head with a smile. “I don’t care what kind of damn panties I’m looking at as long as you’re the one in them, Maren.”
The warm lilt of his voice, slightly rough with desire, all but turns me to liquid. Under the thin cotton of the T-shirt, the peaks of my nipples visibly stiffen, and I watch Rob’s gaze darken, deepen, as he notices.
Yet I still feel the urge to stay grounded, to make a joke. “So this is it?” I say. “This is what I was missing in high school?”
Rob scoffs. “Not hardly, Maren. And would you just relax, please?” He climbs all the way in, his lean arms holding his body just inches above mine, and strokes the top of my head. “Stop trying to control things with that sense of humor. Let go, for once.”
My lips feel stuck together, my whole body clumsy, but I nod. “Mhm.”
“Good.” Rob flashes a wicked grin, and dips a finger under my waistband.
“Ah!”
The sensation zigzags through me like a firebolt—and it must show on my face, because Rob smiles wide.
“Surprise,” he murmurs in my ear. “Knew you’d like that.” He slips his hand deeper, drawing lazy circles, and I arch instinctively toward him, craving more, inviting more, even as my thighs quiver around his hand. His touch is as sure and firm as I am slippery and melting. “Now kiss me.”
I do, of course I do, hard and hungry, pressing my body into his as I feel him cover my lips with his own. His hand withdraws, climbs up to push my T-shirt hem higher and expose my bare chest—because of course I skipped a bra this morning.
“Good Lord,” Rob says, gently skimming my breast with a rough palm. “Now there’s a nice surprise.”
“Just lazy,” I mumble. “Too early for bras.”
“Couldn’t agree more.” He pushes the hem the rest of the way up, exposing me, and descends with his mouth on one nipple and his fingers tight on the other, eliciting a shudder from deep in my throat.
“Knew you’d like that,” he murmurs around my taut flesh, and sucks again, pinching harder as I buck beneath his body. “The way you move, Maren...” He chuckles. “Like it or not, you know how to get a man hard.”
I can tell. I can feel his cock pressing into my hips, straining at the denim of his jeans, and it sends another electric wave of arousal vibrating through me. My underwear is soaked through, probably soaking onto the leg of his pants the way we’re pinned in here, and I can’t help but roll my hips against him, already needing that release.
“That’s it,” he whispers in my ear. “Grind against me. Get nice and wet.”
With a gasp, I obey. No one’s ever talked to me like that, and I’m not prepared for what those words do to me, the pulsing ache they send to my clit. I arch my back and grind again, and then again, and again, sending wave after wave of sensation rolling up from my hips and through my whole body.
It’s good, so good. But Rob grabs me, stills me.
“Not yet,” he says, strong hands pushing my hips still against the car seat. “I’m going get you to come on my cock, Maren.”
“Yes,” I whisper. The only thing my brain can articulate, the only reality of my body right now: yes. Yes. Please, yes.
I push up to peel off my T-shirt while Rob leans back to unbuckle his jeans. He pushes them away just as I hook my thumbs in my underwear and shimmy it away, but I don’t make it past my right ankle before he’s grabbing my hips again, positioning me.
“You want me, Maren? You want me to fill you?”
“Yes,” I say again. “Please.”
His eyes flash. “Love it when you say please.”
With a single stroke, he fills me to the hilt. I gasp again, harder this time, in shock and delight and the smallest bit of pain. But that dissipates, and then it’s just the sweet tight fit and feeling of him pumping, pumping, pumping inside me.
“Damn, you feel good,” he grunts. “Too good.” Above me, his jaw tightens. “I need to fuck you hard, Maren. I can’t—”
“Do it,” I breathe, feeling the slick heat of him sliding just to my entrance and back. “Give it to me.”
On a shudder, Rob nods, and leans into me, burying his face in my neck. His left hand finds my nipple again, working it so hard and taut that I almost come from the sensation alone. But I catch my breath, pace myself, even as he slams harder and harder into me, driving at something deep within my core that builds stronger and stronger even as it burns me from inside. The car rocks beneath us with the force of his thrusts, and I hear myself let out a mewling sound I didn’t know was hidden within me.
But Rob must like it, because I see the corner of his mouth turn up.
“Just like that. Hearing you makes me...” His jaw tightens. “God damn. You’re—”
He doesn’t finish—because I do.
The orgasm hits me like a rogue wave, a surprise, wiping me off my feet as it pulses through every nerve ending, spurting pleasure to every corner of my body. I cling to him as it rocks me, my fingers digging his back, and I gasp his name and just as I feel myself tighten and tighten around him, he drives into me hard, almost hard enough to break me, until I’m filled with his shuddering liquid warmth.
For a few moments, we just breathe—pant, really, clinging to each other.
Then Rob smiles that wicked smile of his and plants a kiss right on my forehead. “See, knew you’d like—”
“Fucking hell,” roars a voice from the corner.
It’s LJ.
Immediately, I wonder how much he saw—enough, I think, but not everything. It’s pretty hard to hide what we were doing, even as I slither back into my clothes.
“What the fuck are you doing there?” Rob says, pulling his pants on as he scrambles out of the car.
“I’m supposed to be teaching Maren how to fight,” LJ growls. “Like we agreed. Seven a.m. sharp, as I recall?”
Oh, shit. He’s right. I completely lost track of time.
LJ exhales, hard. “I’d ask what the fuck you were doing, but it’s pretty goddamn obvious.” He flashes his eyes at me. “You should hear the sounds you make when you come, Princess.”
My cheeks get hot.
“Hey,” Rob barks, and strides, still shirtless, across the floor to get up in LJ’s face. “Don’t you—”
LJ backs off, hands spread wide.
“It was a damn compliment,” he mutters. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Locksley.” He looks back at me. “Take a breather. Get some food and water in you. Come upstairs when you’re ready.”
“Okay.” I stand up fully now, dressed again and with most of my composure retained. I stare back at LJ, hard.
You don’t scare me.
“Good,” LJ says. He looks at Rob.
“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt her.”
And maybe I’m imagining it, but there’s something in the way he says it. Something I don’t quite understand.