Protecting What's His(13)
“So, tell me. Is bartending the only type of employment you could find?”
Ginger bristled. “There aren’t exactly dozens of options where I can bring home the same kind of money. Besides, I’m good at it.”
He laughed bitterly. “Oh, believe me, I know how good you are. I just witnessed it firsthand.”
“I have Willa to think about. She’ll be in college next year and I aim to see her go wherever she wants.”
“On a bartender’s salary.”
His skepticism irked her, but she kept silent. Bringing up the stolen cash would be high on the list of stupid ideas. Ginger knew how expensive college would be and held no illusions that sending Willa would be easy. But she’d see it accomplished nonetheless.
“If you need me to get a job in some lame-ass real estate office just so you feel better about sleeping with me, you’re wasting your time, honey. And mine.”
His eyes didn’t leave the road, but his jaw flexed at her words. “I assume, based on your statement, that you’ve given some thought to what I proposed last night?”
Jesus, who talked like that? “I’m considering it.”
“Is there anything I can do to speed you along?”
“I don’t know…”
“Think harder.”
Turning her face toward the window, Ginger smiled. She’d finally succeeded in rattling him a little for a change. “You’re going to have to work for it a little, Derek.”
“I’m not exactly a champagne and soft music type of guy.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I like cheap red wine and country music.”
Derek pulled into a spot outside the building and Ginger hopped out, intending to bolt inside her apartment and savor the fact that she’d finally gotten in the last word. She made it up the stairs, down the quiet hallway, and to her apartment door before she felt him come up behind her. Suddenly, the keys were snatched from her hand. She spun around in time to see Derek drop them into his pocket.
Her mouth fell open at his audacity. “What are you doing?”
“You can have them back in a minute.”
Derek’s gravelly tone called several other things into focus. The slight flush of his cheekbones, his roughened breathing, the overwhelming nearness of his hard body. Her back arched against the door, an unconscious move that drew his gaze downward, to where her breasts pressed snugly inside her halter top.
I want him to look at me.
The realization shook her and she swallowed as he took a step closer, her throat suddenly dry. “I thought I told you you needed to work for it.”
He leaned down, and his big hands came to rest on either side of her head, mouth stopping a mere inch away from hers. “I think we have two different definitions of what working for it means.”
“Oh? What’s your definition?”
“Do you want to me to tell you?” He brushed his lips along the underside of her jaw. “Or show you?”
The blistering contact of his mouth on her skin sent shock waves coursing through her system. Since meeting, she and Derek had shared two sexually charged encounters, but this moment marked the first time he’d touched her and the effect was like a drug straight to her brain. Her head fell back, inviting him to kiss her in the sensitive spot again, but he remained still, waiting for her answer.
She lifted her head and looked him in the eye. “Show me.”
His mouth came down on hers, hard and hungry. The initial contact proved so potent, they both had to pause for a shuddering breath. When she slid her hands up to his shoulders and dug her nails in his flesh, he groaned and lifted her against the door. Desperate to get closer, Ginger’s legs came up to circle his waist, and she moaned when Derek pushed against her with his hips, holding her backside in place with rough hands. She broke contact with his mouth, gasping at the hardness pressing against her damp shorts.
“Did you enjoy putting on that little show for me behind the bar?”
One hand left her bottom to travel up, over her hip and rib cage, stopping just under her right breast, eyes piercing hers with a silent question. Oh, God. She nodded, and when his palm slid up and over her breast, squeezing gently, her eyelids fluttered closed at the excess of sensations. She could feel him watching her, weighing her every reaction as he ran his thumb back and forth across her hard nipple. The arousal she’d experienced earlier tonight while Derek watched her work exploded with added intensity. A whimper escaped her lips. A sharp ache pulsed between her thighs.
“I asked you a question. Did you enjoy it?”
Derek’s words deepened the ache beating within her to a painful level. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than for him to whip off her shorts and panties to take her hard and fast against the door. She licked her lips. “Yes.”