Page 54 of Gym With Benefits

“Where’re we going?” I asked, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears.

“Not far.”

Not far? Okay. And to do what, exactly?

That kiss had torn through everything I thought I knew. An hour ago, I considered him a premier irritant, a smug gym bro with a behavioral deficit. Now, my skin buzzed with a localized electric current anywhere his shadow fell.

True to his word, the drive lasted all of ninety seconds. He looped around the block, bypassing the standard commercial storefronts, and drove straight down a concrete ramp into the subterranean belly of a luxury high-end condo complex. The Bronco climbed the spiral access ramps, tires squealing softly against the smooth finish as we left the populated residential levels behind. Dane didn’t stop until we reached the upper, deserted overflow deck near the concrete rafters.

The engine died with a mechanical click, and the silence that followed was loaded with intent.

He turned in his seat. Not reaching. Not making any kind of move. He just looked at me, his gaze dropping to my mouth before rising back to my eyes. My throat went dry. The memory of the small, helpless groan he’d let out when our lips first touched flashed through my mind, sending a heat wave straight between my thighs. My pulse ran wild, skipping beats and wreaking havoc. I felt seventeen years old again, parked behind the school gym.

“I didn’t lose my virginity on prom night,” I blurted out.

Dane blinked, his head tilting slightly as a perplexed crease appeared between his eyebrows. “What?”

I swallowed, desperately trying to assemble my scattered intellect into something resembling coherence. “I'm just saying. I'm not... particularly adventurous in this department. My life is organized by acid-free folders. I don't do things on a whim, and I’ve never even had sex in a car before.”

My brain conveniently left out the part where, in the span of just a few weeks, I’d managed to get thoroughly railed in a public shower stall and then pinned across a small desk. Also public.

I looked at him, my face burning scarlet.

Dane stared at me for three million seconds, his face hardening into an expression of profound disappointment. “Jess, I didn't come up here for sex. I wanted to talk without Brock and Hunter breathing down my neck. Jesus, what do you take me for?”

The heat in my face quadrupled, and I wished the passenger airbag would deploy and end things before I made them even worse.

“Oh, God. I'm sorry. I thought— shit. I don't know what I was thinking. Oh my god, just turn the truck around. I'm an idiot.”

“I mean, I knew you had a specific opinion of me,” Dane continued, his voice dripping with smooth, injured dignity, “but assuming I'd just drag you out here to fuck? That hurts.”

“Please stop talking,” I groaned, hiding my face in my palms. “I'm clearly out of my mind today.”

A tiny snort broke through his righteous act. I peeked through my fingers and caught the twitch at the corner of his lips, and the faint crinkling around his eyes that betrayed him.

“You’re such an asshole,” I gasped, my fist flying out to strike his shoulder.

He caught my wrist mid-swing, fingers wrapping around my bones with an effortless strength that stopped my momentum instantly. And that’s when he reached across the console to cup the back of my neck, pulling me toward him.

“Yeah, but you like it,” he murmured, his breath hitting my chin. “As we've established.”

He closed the remaining distance, his mouth devouring me with a hunger that made my previous embarrassment evaporate into nothing. His tongue slid past my lips, bold and hot, rolling over mine in a deep, possessive stroke that made me moan. I drank him in, my fingers clawing at the fabric of his shirt as the waning space caught alight.

My knee smashed into the plastic casing of the gear shift as I shifted myself over to his side. He grabbed my waist and pushed me deeper into his lap, the steering wheel digging directly into my left kidney. But the friction of his hard-on rubbing through my tights wiped out any discomfort.

His mouth left mine, tracing a path of burning kisses down my jawline to the sensitive skin beneath my ear, his teeth grazing my pulse point until I gasped. There was nothing but him and the crowded heat of this cab, and I was totally fine with that.

I rolled my hips forward, intentionally grinding my pelvis against the thick ridge in his shorts. Dane let out a choked sound, his fingers digging into my ass, keeping me close as our tongues tangled with a slippery heat.

Sensing the geometry of the cab working against us, he reached down blindly and hit a lever. The driver’s seat slid back on its tracks and with a mechanical pop, the backrest dropped into a steep incline. The extra space gave us room to breathe, though the air remained dense with the scent of mutual hunger.

I pulled my top over my head and tossed it aside, relishing the look on his face.

Dane’s gaze snagged instantly. His eyes traveled down my throat, locking onto my bare breasts with a fiery craving he couldn’t hide. He licked his lips slowly, his chest heaving with a fractured breath.

“My eyes are up here,” I murmured, the corners of my mouth tilting.

Arrogance flashed across his face. “I wasn't looking for your eyes.”