Drifting into Darkness (28 page)

Joe shook his head. “That’s a long story, but the short of it is, Javier was big dog before Landon rolled in. He just doesn’t like the competition.”

“Well, now I hope Landon kicks his ass, just to put him in his place,” I stated and they both laughed.

“Believe me, we all want him to kick his ass,” Lisa said as she stood up from the table. We decided against swimming to stay on the patio in the cool air. “Come on,” she said to me. “Let’s get back to work.”

After lunch, the day went by quickly. I hated going to the stable on Fridays knowing that Landon wouldn’t be there, but I did the work quickly so I could get out of there.

I met Lisa at the office when I was done at the stables. “Hey.” She was sitting at Nan’s desk with her feet propped up.

“Hey, I’ve been waitin’ for you,” she said as she got up from the chair. “We can go ahead and leave. Mr. Johnson is having a problem with one of the tractors so there isn’t much for us to do. He said what little they have Layla and Marco can handle.”

I smiled. “Sounds good to me,” I said as we walked out of the office and onto the porch.

“What time is Landon pickin’ ya up?”

“He said he’d be coming around five.”

We walked out to our cars that were parked next to each other. “Okay, good. We’re meetin’ at the Shell gas station down Burkman Rd., so we can all ride there together. Be prepared for Devon and his camera skills,” she said as she opened her car door.

Oh, yeah
. I had completely forgotten about him doing that. “What should I expect?” I didn’t want to have a freak out in the car, even though I know Landon would never let anything happen.

She laughed. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I promise. I’m so excited that you’re going. It’ll be nice having another girl along.” She got into her car and started it up, turning her A/C on. “I’ll see ya later.”

I waved to her and got into my car. I had a smile on my face at the thought that I’d be seeing Landon in just a few hours. It was silly really. I just saw him the day before. It wasn’t like I’d gone days without seeing him. I laughed at myself as I pulled out onto the road.
I’ve got it bad.

~*~

Landon arrived at the house ten minutes late. I heard him pull up and was about to hop off the couch and run out to meet him, but I held myself back. He could come to the door and get me. That’s what gentlemen were supposed to do, right?

I was anxious as I waited, but thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. A few moments later, I heard a knock on the door. Quickly getting up from the couch, I made my way to the door and opened it up. Landon smiled at me as soon as he saw me, but I gave him no time to speak. I knew we were running late, but I pulled him inside. He had a stunned look on his face, but laughed as I shut the door, until I reached up and captured his lips.

I had seen him the day before, but it had felt like forever since I’d kissed his lips. Something changed between us after our conversation and it only fueled my desire for him more. The intensity of the kiss was unlike anything I’d felt before. I knew he felt the need to be closer just like I did. Pulling away from me, he turned me and pushed me up against the door, firmly pressing his lips against mine. I opened up to him again and explored his mouth. But this wasn’t some soft kiss. This was a bruising kiss with sucking and biting. His hands roamed all over my body and ended up pulling at my nipples over my shirt. The heat level skyrocketed out of control.

Grabbing my butt, he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. Then he pushed me back up against the door. He trailed kisses down my neck and I moaned in approval as I ran my hands through his hair. I had my head tilted back with my eyes closed, as his kisses got lower.

I felt like I was going to combust.

He kissed the curve of my breast and I squeezed my legs around his waist causing him to groan. Looking down at him, I could see the primal lust in his eyes as his lips captured mine once again. His hand trailed up my waist, over my breast to the top of my sparkly tank top. Then without warning, he hooked his first two fingers into my top and pulled it down along with my bra, revealing my breast and my hardened nipple. He pulled back from the kiss and immediately went for it, causing me to buck and grind myself on him. He sucked and nibbled, before pulling down the other side to give the other one the same attention. He could have ripped the thing off and I wouldn’t have cared at that moment; I was so wound up.

Grabbing his head, I pulled him back and captured his lips again. Cursing the jeans shorts I chose over the skirt I was going to wear. Then a phone started ringing. We ignored it and continued with our need to touch. His hand had just gripped the hem of my shirt, when a phone started ringing again, bringing me out of my lustful haze.

We looked at each other, breathing heavily, as it continued to ring. “Holy shit,” I mumbled through my ragged breath.

He leaned his forehead against mine as he fixed my bra and shirt, and then he gently set me down. “You can say that again,” he breathed heavily, giving a short laugh. “I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”

I laughed shaking my head. “I bet that’s someone trying to figure out where we are.” I looked over at the clock and sure enough, ten minutes had past. “We are definitely running late now.”

Tilting my chin up with a finger, he smirked down at me. “You can make me late anytime. Especially if you answer the door like that.” He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss on the lips before he pulled back and dug his phone out of his pocket.

“It’s Derek calling.” He walked to the door and opened it. “I’ll call him on the way there. Are you ready to go?”

I nodded, grabbing my satchel from the table by the door. I locked up the house and headed down to the car, biting my lip to suppress my smile. I couldn’t believe I just attacked him against my door.

I got into the car and buckled up as he left my driveway. “How long will it take us to get there?”

He looked over at me and shrugged. “Probably about forty minutes.” I looked at the dashboard for the time. “Don’t worry, city girl, I’ve got this.”

I squinted my eyes at him, giving him my evil look. “Oh, I’m sure you do, country boy.”

It didn’t take us long to meet up with everyone at the gas station. But since we were already running late, Landon honked his horn when we pulled in, and then he pulled right out as everyone else started following behind us.

Here we go.

I looked out the window as we drove toward our destination. Landon held my hand and I was content with the quiet as the trees went by and country music played on the radio. I still wasn’t a fan of most of the music. I’d catch myself singing along to some of them and Landon would smile at me like he’d accomplished something.

Ten minutes had gone by before he squeezed my hand, and then let it go to point to the glove box. “Can you open that up and grab the two-way?”

Opening up the glove box, I pulled out a two-way radio and raised an eyebrow at him in question. “What in the world do you need this for?”

He smiled at me. “You’ll see.”

I handed it over to him and he turned it on. “Rocket, ready to go,” he said into it.

“Ten-four,” said a voice. “I’m getting the camera ready now. Spider, get ready.”

“What’s going on?” I looked to my right to see Derek and Lisa in his Honda driving evenly with us.

Landon smiled and waved over at Derek. “Just a little race against brothers.”

I looked wide-eyed over at Derek, then back to Landon. “Are you serious? You’re on a highway. How are you going to race?”

“We do this all the time, Sadie, but if you aren’t okay with it, I won’t do it. I told you before; I’d never do anything to hurt you. But if you’re uncomfortable, I’ll tell them we ain’t doin’ it.”

I looked over at Lisa in the other car and she smiled at me giving me a thumb’s up. It was like she knew I was having a semi freak-out. Taking a deep breath, I looked back at him and shook my head. “No, I’m okay, but,” I said raising a finger, “if you scare the shit out of me, I’ll be driving myself from here on out.”

He laughed. “I promise, Sadie. I won’t freak you out. Actually, I bet you’ll love it and you’ll probably even laugh. The rush will get you every time.”

I sat back in the seat and prepared myself. “Okay, what exactly are you guys going to do?”

“You ready?” Landon asked into the two-way radio and then looked at me. “The roads are busy and this is a four lane highway. So what we have to do is have one car in each lane going this way. Then, in order to get enough room to race, we’ll slow down to about twenty miles an hour.”

I looked at him shocked. “Are you serious?” I looked behind me at all the cars lined up. They had already started to slow down and I could see Devon was the one directly behind us and Joe was with him. “Oh, my God, you guys are going to piss so many people off.”

He laughed. “They’ll get over it. We’ll do it for about five minutes. Just enough time for the cars ahead of us to get further away.”

“Do you guys do this every weekend?”

“Nah, not usually, but we’ll probably do it again next weekend, unless you don’t find it fun tonight.” He looked at me with a smile.

“Rocket, Spider, get ready for the count down,” came the voice from the radio.

I looked back at Devon and Joe to see that Devon was the one talking into it. Which would make sense since he was the one who was going to be recording it. Then I looked over at Derek’s car and Lisa had the biggest smile on her face. It was infectious. I couldn’t help the smile that spread on my face.

“You ready, sunshine?”

I turned to see Landon smiling. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

His smile grew and he looked ahead just as Devon’s voice came over the speaker. “Counting down to one,” he paused for a moment then continued, “three, two, one, go!” he yelled into the speaker and Landon took off.

The roads were clear up ahead and I braced myself against the seat. I squealed as the car sped up and looked over at Derek’s car that was just about equal to Landon’s. I could see Lisa in the passenger’s seat yelling or cheering at Derek, but she had a smile on her face like she was having the time of her life. It made me laugh.

“You better go fast,” I yelled over the engine. “He’s catching up to you.”

He laughed and looked over at me. “It’s not gonna happen,” he said in a cocky tone. Then he downshifted and sped up some more.

I turned, looked behind us to see Joe trying to keep up with us and Devon hanging out of the window with his camera. “Oh, my God, you guys are nuts,” I laughed. All those cars we slowed down earlier were now starting to disperse. I hoped like hell none of those cars were cops.

We were at least two car lengths ahead of Derek when Devon called it through the speaker. “And Landon wins again. Tough luck, Derek.”

“Kiss it, Devon,” came Derek’s voice.

“Only on your birthday, sweetness,” Devon retorted.

I laughed and looked over at Landon. “Is that a smile on your face, sunshine?”

I shook my head and bit my lip. “Nope.”

He laughed at me and switched lanes.

“So are you going to start calling me sunshine now instead of city girl?”

He gave me a thoughtful look as if he was really thinking about it and I slapped his arm, causing him to laugh. “I’m not sure I can retire ‘city girl’, but I’ll definitely be calling you sunshine,” he stated.

“Oh, yeah, and why is that?”

“Because that’s what you are, babe. You’re my sunshine.”

I smiled at his comment and grabbed at my cheeks. They were starting to hurt with all the laughing and smiling I did around Landon.

Leaning over, I gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “And you’re my boss,” I said and we both laughed out loud.

He looked at me, raking his eyes down my body, nodding his head. “I can definitely be your boss, Sadie. Just let me know when you’re ready,” he grinned.

I gasped and slapped his arm again, causing him to laugh some more. “No, you didn’t.”

We laughed and joked around the rest of the way to the track. Devon got some more shots of the cars as we raced down the roads. Going as far as leaning all the way out of the car, holding the camera low to record tires as they sped off.

I asked Landon about Devon’s videos and he said they were really good. He was a great editor when it came to that stuff. I’d definitely have to check some of them out.

~*~

We pulled into the parking lot of the track called Dom’s Roadways, which was just a field like what I’d seen from the other track.

“Okay, I have to go get the car signed in and tagged in line to race. Can you go hang out with Derek and Lisa, until I come find you?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He lifted our entwined hands, brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I’m happy you’re here with me tonight.”

He always managed to make me blush when he was being overly sweet. “Me too.” I smiled, and then leaned over to give him a kiss.

A loud knock sounded on the driver’s side door. “Come on, love birds,” said a feminine voice. I looked up to see Lisa, grinning ear to ear.

“She’s lucky she’s dating my brother,” he joked.

I laughed and sat back in my seat, grabbing the door handle. “Okay, well, I’ll see you in a few then, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll be just a few minutes.”

Lisa was opening my door before I had a chance to open it myself. “Come on, girl, let’s go get our seats,” she said, looking into the car.

I leaned over, gave Landon one more kiss on the lips and got out of the car. Lisa was smiling at me as she grabbed my arm and wrapped it around hers. “So,” she drawled, “things are goin’ good I see.”

I laughed. “Things are going very well.”

“Hey, Lisa, I hope you know I’m not going to cut out your ass this time,” Devon said as he jogged past us to catch up to Derek.

I looked over at Lisa confused. “What is he talking about?”

Lisa actually blushed and shook her head, while Joe laughed. “You didn’t see it?” he asked me. I shook my head. “She mooned the camera as we drove by on the way up here.”