“I will slap you again,” she warned through her teeth, but she wasn’t sure if she was speaking to him, or herself this time. “Fucking try me.”
“When you kiss that limp noodle at midnight, I dare you not to think about me,” he whispered and then chuckled when he caught her wrist in his hand as she raised it as if to strike him again. Bringing her palm to his mouth, he pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to the center of it, and she sucked in a shocked breath as heat spiraled through her.
“Fuck you,” she grated out, though it didn’t hold the same weight as earlier, her heart hammering so hard inside her chest it hurt.
“Is that an invitation?” he asked, then laughed when she snarled at him.
She tugged on her hand and stepped away from him, putting several feet between them. “You’re despicable.”
He slid his hands into the front pockets of his slacks and her eyes dropped to his lap involuntarily. He was hard behind the fly of his slacks, and the way his hands were shoved in the pockets pulled the fabric even tighter across the front. Damn if she didn’t want to know just what he was working with under there… She snapped her eyes to his and he grinned wolfishly, sauntering closer to her, one step, then two. The fucker was practicallyprowling.
Without touching her, he leaned in just close enough and whispered, “Don’t forget to think about me, darlin’.”
And then he brushed past her and passed through the door into the main room, leaving her alone in the dimly lit hallway, her breathing labored and her heart still hammering in her chest.
As the ball dropped on the tv screen, Shaun looped her arms around Tommy’s neck and kissed him with everything she had.
But fuck if it wasn’t Kasey’s mouth she imagined slanting over hers as the clock struck midnight.
FOUR
Kasey Corcoran shoved his fingers through his dark blonde hair before replacing the white ball cap on his head, pulling the brim down low over his eyes. He huffed an annoyed sigh into the phone perched between his shoulder and ear. “Look, Charlie, I told you I was going to be gone this weekend. Bentley is set to qualify tomorrow and Saturday, and then race on Sunday. I’m in Michigan for the weekend. I’ll be back Tuesday at the latest. He’ll do fine.”
Charlie Hoffman, his manager, grumbled on the other end of the line. “Your sponsors want you in the race on Sunday, not Bentley.”
“I’m allowed to have a life outside of that fucking car,” Kasey snapped, stretching his long legs out in front of him under the booth table of the breakfast diner he sat in, waiting for Freeman to arrive.
“They pay you for your time,” Charlie reminded him gruffly.
“And I make them a lot of damn money,” he muttered back, then took a sip of coffee from the tiny banana yellow mug the waitress had brought him. “I’m taking one weekend off, Charlie. That’s it. I think you’ll survive without me for one weekend.”
“You better be in Talladega by Wednesday, K.C.,” he mumbled sourly.
“You’ll see my ugly mug by Tuesday,” Kasey reminded him. “Give Suzie a kiss for me.”
“I am not giving my wife a kiss from you; she’d have a damn heart attack and then leave my sorry ass for you.”
Kasey laughed. “You’re probably right.”
“Fuck off, Corcoran,” Charlie grumbled, but Kasey could hear the amusement in his voice. “You can get any damn woman you want. You can’t have mine.”
Kasey scratched at his stomach idly, his thoughts immediately drifting to the fiery bombshell he’d had the pleasure of running into already that morning. He’d been in town for less than an hour, his red-eye flight into Pellston—which was the tiniest airport he’d ever flown into—had arrived half an hour ahead of schedule. He’d been driving through the small lakeside city of Petoskey, his GPS speaking to him through the speakers of his rental truck when he’d damn near crashed into the car in front of him when he’d seen Shaun climb out of a truck parked in front of a gas station he was passing. He’d swerved into the parking lot, making a passing motorist honk their horn in indignation. Forcing himself to move slower than his legs wanted him to, he entered the gas station convenience store, his eyes sweeping until they landed on her, where she stood over at the coffee station.
Her back was to him, and he watched her as he walked toward her, admiring her figure outlined in the tight jeans and the hooded sweatshirt she wore, though the fabric was more like t-shirt material as it clung to her waist and hips. Her hair was secured in a long braid that fell over one shoulder and a ball cap was on her head. She did a little wiggle after sniffing the coffee she’d just poured, and he couldn’t help the grin that lifted one corner of his mouth or the stiffening of his cock behind the fly of his jeans.
Stepping forward, he caught that hint of Japanese cherry blossom that always seemed to cling to her, and he made to touch her shoulder at the same time that she whirled around, colliding solidly with him. Her coffee fell from her fingers, sloshing all over the floor at their feet.
And that wickedly sharp tongue made its appearance and he’d nearly laughed.Christ was she feisty. All. The. Time.
He fucking loved it.
“Earth to K.C.,” he heard Charlie’s voice and refocused on the call. “Did you hear me or are you having a stroke?”
“I’m not flatlining,” Kasey mumbled, glancing around the bustling diner. He saw Free climb out of his blue F-150 out in the parking lot through the window and sat up straighter, leaning forward to clasp the tiny yellow mug in his large hand and bring it to his lips. “I’ll be there Tuesday. I gotta go, Charlie. Talk to you later.”
He hung up just as Free walked through the double glass doors at the front of the diner. Kasey waved a hand over the heads of the other patrons to get his attention, and a moment later his cousin was sliding into the booth seat opposite him. The waitress materialized out of nowhere, flipping the coffee cup that sat on the paper placemat in front of him over and filling it with coffee. She set the carafe on the table and asked if they were ready to order, and they nodded.
“The usual, Free?” she asked.
