Working Stiff(73)
“I tapered off of them while I was still in hospital.”
“Just tired?”
He nodded. “Not too tired, mind you.”
“For what?”
A trace of a smiled curved his lips. “I thought they would never get out of my damn house.”
“They just got here yesterday morning.”
“Yet it seems like forever.”
Rox let him sleep through the drive home.
When she turned the corner to coast down the driveway to his house, a flash on one of the mountains distracted her. She glanced up at the sun-drenched hills as the SUV rolled around the curving driveway.
A person stood in the glare, their hands cupped near their face.
A silver glare flashed through the air again, a lens flare reflected from the sun setting into the ocean on the opposite side of the house.
Someone was glassing them, watching them pull into the garage.
Wasn’t the development’s security perimeter supposed to prevent things just like this?
She should ask Cash about that.
When they got inside the garage and the door was secured behind them, she poked him gently on the shoulder. “Work-husband, it’s time to get up. We’re home.”
He chuckled as he opened his eyes. “Good.”
“Hey, have you ever had a problem with—”
Cash grabbed her hand, the one she had been poking him with, and pulled her over the console in the middle. When Rox saw what was happening, she pushed off the steering wheel and scrambled over the seat, landing in his lap. She spun, straddled his thighs, and kissed him hard, pressing him back against the seat.
He stroked her lips with his, sucking gently, but he slid his fingers around the back of her neck. His other arm squeezed her waist. The bandage on his cheek was rough against her skin.
They necked in the car for a few minutes, but then Cash pushed her back. His lips had turned pink from her kissing him, but not from lipstick. She had eaten all her lipstick with the chips and salsa.
He whispered, his voice low and husky, “Not here. Our first time was hot and dirty because I wanted you right there, that moment. I couldn’t keep my hands off you one moment longer, not after all these years, and I wanted to make sure you came hard. This time, I want to take my time. I want you to feel me. Let’s go inside.”
His words made Rox’s head spin.
Their first time had been hot and dirty.
Cash had wanted to make sure that she came hard.
This time, he wanted to take his time.
Feel me.
Her breath was rough in her chest.
She kissed him again, holding his face in her hands, desperate to taste him.
Cash moved his mouth on hers again, but he slowed her, made her pause, and then set her back. “Inside.”
She nodded, her hair flipping around her face, but her hands didn’t move off his broad shoulders.
“Come on.” He opened the SUV’s door beside her, and cool air rushed in, brushing her arms. “Inside.”
Rox swung her leg back like she was dismounting a horse and stumbled off of his lap, catching herself on the side of her own car parked beside his in the garage.
Cash stepped out and slapped the door behind himself to close it. He looked down at her half-sprawled on the hood of her car, and his lips curved in a sultry half-smile. “Someday, lieveke. Just like that. But not tonight.”
“Wha-at?” She wasn’t thinking straight.
He stepped toward her and turned her hips, pressing her face-down onto the cool metal of the hood of her car. He grabbed her wrists, pulling them behind her back, and pressed his hips against her ass.
Near her ear, he whispered, “Someday, I will take you bent over your car like this, but not tonight.”
His words were almost sinister, but not quite. Instead, they trailed seductively over her skin with his breath on the back of her neck, a promise.
“Ah, lieveke.” He moved her hair aside and pressed his lips to the top of her spine. “Every time I look at you, all I can think of is all the ways I want to have you.”
He stepped back and let her push herself up. Her car’s hood was cold under her palms. “What does that mean?”
“You know very well what that means.”
“No, that other word. Lee-veh-kuh.”
“Lieveke. It means ‘little sweet one.’ English words feel wrong to me for that.”
Crazy lust was still fogging her brain. On the hood of her car. She was never going to look at her car the same way again. “For what?”
Cash stepped toward her again and wrapped his arms around her. He tilted his head to the side. “Love.”
“But, we haven’t even had a real date, and we’ve only screwed hot and dirty—” hot and dirty, and her breath was still too fast. She swallowed hard in order to finish her sentence. “—One time.”