With that in mind, when we’d walked out of the bar at closing time into the coolness of the night, I’d pinned her against the side of my truck and kissed her. Things had gotten heated fast. It had taken all my willpower to drive her back to her apartment and say goodnight without begging to be allowed to come in. Within a month, though, we were spending all our time together, including nights.
We’d been good together. For a while, at least.
While we ate, we talked about old friends and new happenings. I filled her in on the gossip around town and the upcoming rodeo until the bar started to empty out.
“I should get going,” she said with a glance around. “It’s getting late and I need to get some sleep before I drive back to Austin tomorrow.”
“Yeah, probably time to call it a night. I’ve got the early shift tomorrow. I’ll walk you out.” I settled the bill and walked out of the bar with her. It was still spring, but already the nights werestaying warmer, headed toward the scorching temperatures of the summer.
“This is me.” She pointed to a small SUV, parked a row away from my truck. “It’s been good seeing you, Brian,” she said when she turned around to face me. “I mean that.” She put her hands on my shoulders and leaned closer to kiss my cheek. Her lips brushed against my skin, sending a shiver through me. “You always were one of the good guys.”
I knew I should say goodnight, step back, and prove that I was still agoodguy. Yet everything in me wanted more. What could it hurt just this once? I put my hands on her waist, lightly so she could easily pull away, but still standing close enough to make it clear that I was interested in something more. “A real kiss for old times’ sake?”
Her lips quirked up and she slid her arms around my neck in answer. I pressed my mouth to hers, and just like the first time, a simple kiss went nuclear. What was it about Caitlin Baker that set my pulse to racing at the thought of her? I brushed my tongue along the seam of her lips and she opened to me. When I felt the tip of her tongue touch mine, I went hard instantly and pushed her up against the car, well aware that we were repeating the past. Her body fit tight against mine as I continued the kiss, and I lost all sense of time until I had no choice but to pull away to gasp in some breath.
“Backseat?” she whispered. “I want you. I need…I need to remember how good it can be, Brian.”
The way she said it made me wonder what she was trying to forget. And what about my own memories? Was I letting them control me? We weren’t kids anymore. I should walk to my truck and drive away. That would be the smart thing to do, becauseit had taken me way too long to get over her the first time. Did I want to reawaken those feelings? Just spending time with her had already cracked the vault open, but making love to her would bring all those feelings to the surface.
I shouldn’t.
“I’m too old to have sex in a car, darling,” I said, hoping to defuse the situation with a little humor.
She chuckled, a sexy sound. “I doubt that.” She started the kiss this time, flooding me with need. I might still have resisted if she hadn’t whispered, “please.”
Ah, hell. I could never say no to her, and my body was screaming to be inside hers. I reached for the rear door and yanked it open.
TWO
CAITLIN
As soon as we were in the backseat, I straddled his lap, my skirt riding up on my thighs as we kissed again. His hands cupped my butt, pulling me to him, and I could feel his erection through his jeans. God, I wanted him.
I knew I shouldn’t use Brian to forget that my life had gone to shit lately, but it felt so good to be with him again that I let my body overrule my common sense. My fingers went to the snaps on the front of his shirt, popping them open so I could explore his body. His muscles were even firmer than they had been before, and a coating of hair now covered his chest. I’d thought he’d been sexy when we were in college. He was twice as hot now. That had been my first thought when I’d first seen him in the bar.
My second, I’d attempted to squash down. At least, until I’d invited him into my car.
I worked my hands lower and he moaned when I undid the top button on his jeans. He shifted to help me and swore when his knee connected with the center console.
“Your car’s small, darling,” he said. “I don’t think this is going to work.”
He’d always called medarlingwhen we made love. Maybe he said that to all the women he took to bed. I didn’t want to know if that was true given how much the little endearment mattered to me. Even now, it was stirring something inside me I wasn’t prepared to face, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
“It will.” I cupped him through his jeans, determined to convince him, worried that he’d give up and leave me. “Give it a chance.” I shed my shirt, bashing my elbow into the ceiling in the process. The pain was easy to ignore when he focused on my breasts. His head dipped and he ran his tongue along the edge of my lace bra before swirling it around my nipple. “So good,” I whimpered as I rocked back and forth against his erection. The need to get rid of our clothes and have him inside me rose to a feverish height when his clever fingers stroked the inside of my thighs. I became completely unaware of our surroundings.
“Wait.” He stilled beneath me. His hands clamped around my thighs, holding me in place. Even though my brain was foggy with need, I heard people laughing and talking nearby. The lights of a car came on in the next row, and Brian tucked me down out of sight when the headlights swept across us. “I can’t do this, darling,” he said when it was dark again. “I need room to love you right, and I can’t get a public indecency charge in my position.”
I liked his position, directly under me, but I heard what he was saying. I dropped my head against his shoulder, coping with the disappointment. I’d become used to that emotion lately. I told myself I’d catch my breath and try to tamp down my desire before getting in the front seat and driving away.
“There’s a motel a mile or so down the road,” he suggested, and my mood lifted immediately. “You could follow me there.” He wasn’t saying “no,” he was just saying “not here.” He found my shirt in the dark and helped me pull it over my head before lifting me off him. “If you still want to, that is.”
He was leaving it open for me to refuse him. Like I could. Not now. “I want to. So much.”
“Me, too.” His voice was soft, and he kissed me again before I slipped off him and got in the front seat.
With a wave, he jogged off and climbed into a pickup truck. I put my car in gear and followed him when he left the lot. I didn’t let myself think of why this was a bad idea. Instead, I focused on how much I needed it. I needed to feel good. I needed to remember that there were good men in the world who treated women right. I needed to know I was worthy of being treated right.
I pinched my lips together as I remembered everything that had gone wrong in my life in the past month—starting with my dumbass boyfriend cleaning out my savings account and taking off. It wasn’t as if I’d thought Seamus was any sort of catch, but I hadn’t thought he’d steal from me. And not only me. Melody’s money had been in that account, too, since we’d pooled together the startup money for the tattoo business we’d planned to open. Mel was so pissed I’d trusted Seamus that she wasn’t speaking to me. After all that, was it so wrong to want to feel good for a little while?
