Ryker chuckled. “Okay, I get it, you don’t plan on running. The best part doesn’t come until the afternoon.”
Jenna grimaced. “I’m almost too scared to ask.”
He moved closer, sidling his hips toward hers. Her heart picked up its pace, her breath catching. Their proximity was so near, his breath heated her face, the hairs of his arms tickling hers. “In the afternoon, beautiful Jenna, that’s when the tomato throwing starts.”
Her voice came out breathy. “Tomato throwing?”
“Oh, yes.” He stepped even closer, and leaned forward and down, his mouth against her ear. “And I can’t wait to cover you in ripe tomato juice, so you’d better not leave before then.”
She didn’t know if she should melt into a puddle or giggle. “I guess I could be persuaded.”
He turned his head and suddenly his lips pressed against hers, soft and warm and firm. Her eyes slipped shut, her arms wrapping around his neck. Ryker deepened the kiss, teasing her lips open with his tongue, the ball of his piercing brushing against her upper lip. She tasted the coffee she’d made as the kiss grew hungrier. His hands ran down her back, sliding over the curve of her ass. She kissed him back, matching his fervor, arching her back so her breasts pressed into his chest. She had to suppress a moan that threatened to burst from between her lips. A throb, low and deep in her belly, sent a pulse of pleasure though her. The sensation was like a defibrillator to her brain, reminding her of everything standing between them.
She broke the kiss, moving away. Her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry, Ryker.” She shook her head at herself. “Jesus, you must think I’m such a prick-tease.”
“Hey, don’t say that. It makes me angrier hearing you say those things than you stopping kissing me.” He pursed his lips. “Though I was really enjoying you kissing me.”
A small smile touched her lips. “You were kissing me.”
He winked at her. “Didn’t feel that way to me.”
They stared at each other and she felt the air between them crackle with tension. She’d never experienced this with anyone before, the way he seemed to so honestly want her. Even with Garrett at the beginning, when everything superficially seemed perfect, she’d never quite managed to convince herself that she wasn’t just a pity-fuck to him. In the end, her instincts had been right. Garrett had seen her as no more than a toy, and she’d allowed him to play with her.
She didn’t feel that way with Ryker. Though her brain still tried to convince her that he couldn’t possibly want a girl as big as her, her heart, and body, told her something else entirely.
Ryker stepped away, breaking the moment. “Well, my work here is done. Shall I take you back to the motel? No point in hanging around the garage all day, and my stomach is telling me it’s lunchtime.”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
They got back in Ryker’s truck, taking the route back to the motel. Only after they’d left the garage behind did Jenna realize she’d drunk out of Ryker’s mugs without cleaning them first. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that without having a panic attack. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. It did now, though, her mind starting to picture the germs and bacteria that might have been on the porcelain when she’d placed her lips to the rim.
No, no, no. Think about something else. Her heart rate began to pick up, her palms growing sweaty. She didn’t want to have a full blown panic attack in front of Ryker. A pain in her head started, and she pressed the heel of her hand at the pressure point above her eyebrow.
Distraction. She needed a distraction.
“Shouldn’t you check on Mikey?” she suggested, trying to keep the tremor from her voice.
Ryker was watching the road and hadn’t noticed anything was wrong. “Yeah, I will soon. But the way I figure things, you probably need me more than he does right now. He’ll be gaming and won’t even notice if I’m there or not.”
“Maybe you should take his computer away as punishment,” she suggested, though she had no parenting experience to speak of. Even as she spoke, her approaching panic began to retreat.
“I’ve thought about that, but Mikey’s been through so much, and it’s the only thing he has in his life. If I take that away, where will that leave him? No parents, very few friends.”
“Perhaps then he’d learn to make real-life friends.”
“What, with all the other kids his age who are also gaming?” Ryker shook his head. “I don’t know. You’re probably right, but I just can’t do it to him. He’d go off the rails even more, and then he’d end up being taken in by social services. I can’t risk that happening. We’ve only got another few years and he’ll be a grown man and free to do what he wants. Until then I just want to try to make his life as constant as possible. I’m his guardian, but I’ll never be his parent.”