FAST RIDE (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

K
enny had just
shoveled in a mouthful of bran flakes when the patio door slid open.

“Good morning,” Holly said, shutting the door behind her.

Chewing his cereal, Kenny raised a hand in greeting.

Holly was wearing bib overalls with a long sleeve, faded, brown T-shirt, and flip-flops on her feet. Her face was free of make-up and her curls were secured at the nape of her neck in one of those elastic bands. She was dressed nothing like the last time she’d visited. Yet, Kenny thought she looked sexy as hell.

Boy, did he have it bad for her. Or was it simply because she was the only female he came into close contact with on a regular basis? Not that he’d seen a whole lot of her lately. It had been several days since he’d run into her at the grocery store. The day she’d told him Yoga had cured her of lusting after him.

Kenny had chalked it up to bad luck,
his
bad luck. Holly no longer wanted to have sex with him. So, what else was new? And after all the soul searching he’d done before deciding he was through fighting his attraction to her.

“Is Libby around?” she asked, closing the distance between them.

That’s when he noticed the puffy eyes and red nose.

“No, she went to Pittsburgh for the weekend. A medical conference,” he said, thinking Holly must have a cold.

“Oh.” She frowned. “I guess she mentioned it, but I must have forgotten.” She laid a small white box on the glass kitchen table.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Libby ordered a bracelet for one of the nurses at the clinic. It turned out really nice. Would you like to see it?”

“Sure.” Kenny pushed his bowl out of the way as Holly lifted the lid on the box and pulled out a bracelet made of amber glass beads and pewter spacers. “That
is
nice.”

She smiled then sniffed. “Thanks. Tell Libby she can pay me whenever. There’s no hurry.”

“Is Jordan with his father this weekend?” he asked as she started to back away from the table.

He heard another sniff. “Uh, huh.” Turning, she headed toward the door.

Disappointment settled in. Jordan hadn’t been around much either lately. And with Libby gone all weekend that meant it was going to be pretty quiet around here. And lonely.

“Holly, do you have a cold?” he asked, partly out of concern and partly because he didn’t want her to leave. Just because she’d changed her mind about wanting to sleep with him didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends.
Friends?
Where the hell had that come from?

She stopped in the middle of the kitchen and pivoted around to face him. “No, why?”

“I don’t know. You look kind of puffy-eyed and I heard you sniffling.”

Smiling sadly, she shrugged. “Maybe it’s allergies.”

“Did you take anything for them?”

She shook her head. “I’ll be fine,” she said and this time he saw her swipe at a tear. “I have to go.”

“Wait a minute! Why are you crying?”

Blinking, she pulled a wilted tissue from the pocket of her overalls and blew her nose. “I’m not crying.”

“The hell you’re not,” he said in a low grumble.

“Okay, I
was
crying, but I’m not anymore. See?” She gave him a big, toothy smile.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s nothing. No big deal.” Her tongue made a swipe across her top lip.

“Let me guess. You ran out of cucumbers.”

He expected her to at least smile over his little joke, but instead she burst into tears and started toward the door again.

“Whoa! I was only kidding.” He pushed away from the table and rolled after her. “Don’t go.”

She touched the door handle, and then turned around to face him. Her eyes were rimmed in red and her bottom lip jutted forward in a big pout.

“Holly, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I was being a jerk.” He lightly touched her hand. “Come sit down.”

She nodded, moved away from the door and followed him. Kenny pulled out a kitchen chair and waited for her to sit, then grabbed a mug from the counter and set it in front of her.

“There’s some coffee in the butler,” he said, nodding toward the center of the table. “It should still be hot.” When she didn’t reach for it, he opened the thermos and filled the mug for her. He knew she drank it black, like him.

He wheeled his chair so it was adjacent to hers. “Now, tell me what has you so upset. I promise I’ll be a good listener.”

After wiping the moisture from her cheeks with the sleeves of her T-shirt, she reached for the mug of hot liquid and gripped it with both hands. She took a small sip and swallowed. “Chloe’s pregnant.”

Chloe was Holly’s ex-husband’s girlfriend. Kenny shrugged. “Things like that happen.”

“When Greg and I were married, I wanted to have a brother or sister for Jordan, but Greg wanted to wait. He said he didn’t think he wanted any more children.”

“So, he changed his mind.”

“Yes. He dropped that bomb when he came to pick up Jordan this morning. You should have seen his face when he told me he was going to be a father again. He was so happy, he hugged me. I wanted to slap him!”

Kenny could understand that. The guy was an asshole. He didn’t want to ask, but couldn’t stop himself. “Do you still love him, Holly?”

She hesitated before answering, which tore at his insides for some reason.

Setting her coffee aside, she said, “I think I was in love with being married more than I was in love with Greg. I loved being a family, you know?”

Yeah, he knew. He missed Karen and Scott so badly he ached.

“Not that I didn’t love Greg when I first married him,” she explained. “But after I’d caught him cheating on me, and he told me he was in love with a twenty-one-year old, I was really angrier about how Jordan would feel about his father than I was about the fact that Greg didn’t love me anymore.” She looked up at him with sad brown eyes. “Does that make sense?”

“Sure. Absolutely.” He didn’t have a clue. He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. Her hand was small and dainty in his large grasp. “Greg didn’t deserve you.”

Her eyes grew huge as she met his gaze. “Are you just saying that to make me feel better?”

“No. I meant it. You’re a nice woman and a good mother.” He jerked his head toward the jewelry box. “You’re a hell of a jewelry designer. And you’re . . . sexy.” He probably shouldn’t have said that last part, but it was too late now.

“You think I’m sexy?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Kenny smiled. “Yeah, I do. Especially in that outfit,” he said, raking his gaze down the front of her. She laughed softly. “Now, I know you’re pulling my leg. How could you possibly think what I’m wearing is sexy, when you didn’t even notice the short skirts I wore over here a few weeks ago?”

“Honey, trust me, I noticed.”

“You did? You certainly didn’t act like it.”

“Just because I didn’t jump out of my wheelchair and attack you doesn’t mean I wasn’t affected.”

A look of satisfaction showed in her eyes.

While Kenny was trying to think of a few more compliments that didn’t include anything of a sexual nature, he noticed he was still holding her hand. Kneading it, was more like it, and Holly was kneading his as well.

Instinctively, his dick throbbed with sexual need. A million thoughts ran through his mind, including dragging Holly out of her chair and into his lap. He wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. He wanted to kiss her senseless. Her mouth, her neck and her breasts. Yeah, especially her breasts.

And then he wanted her to welcome him into her body, where he knew she’d be warm and slick. It had been so long since he’d made love. And although his dick didn’t seem to have any uncertainties, his mind was filled with plenty of self-doubt.

But there was no use fighting the undeniable magnetism that was building between them, and he decided to go for broke. “I want you, Holly,” he said in a low voice. “You’ve been driving me crazy for months now.”

She went still and stared at him, wide-eyed. Her chest rose and fell with every breath she took. But she didn’t say anything.

Maybe she hadn’t heard him. “Holly,” he said.

“Are you sure you--”

“Darlin’, I’ve never been surer about anything in my life.”

“Don’t you even want to kiss me first?” she asked then licked her top lip.

“Oh, yeah,” he mumbled, leaning closer until his nose bumped hers. “Oh, yeah.” His last words were smothered on her lips as he moved his mouth over hers and devoured its softness.

Parting her lips, she met his kiss, entwining her tongue with his. Tentative little slurps that sent shock waves to his insides. She smelled sweet, like vanilla, and he could taste the faint remnants of coffee.

Already he was drowning, and he couldn’t get enough of her. His hands slipped up her arms, bringing her closer, before he explored the curve of her spine and the soft globes of her behind. Her small breasts brushed against his chest, and she brought her hands up to twine around his neck.

She ran her fingers through his hair, then traced around his earlobes. Her touch was light and painfully teasing as the blood pounded in his brain.

Finding her breast, he began massaging it through her clothing, feeling her nipple turn pebble hard. She grew restless, her hands clumsily tugging at his sweatshirt until she came in contact with his bare skin.

Her hands explored his chest, stopping to circle his flat nipples, and then she moved her hands to his back. She raked her fingernails up and down his spine, driving him absolutely insane.

Their kisses grew more urgent and exploratory with every second that ticked by, until Kenny was the one to break contact.

He’d barely had time to catch his breath when Holly dragged him back by the scruff of his neck. “Don’t stop,” she wheezed, then kissed him with raw, demanding hunger. Tiny little moans escaped her lips, nearly pushing him over the edge.

His cock strained to be free. He didn’t remember ever wanting a woman this badly, and yet, in spite of telling her he was sure a few moments ago, he knew he had to remain in control. Once again, he broke the kiss.

He brushed his lips against her open mouth, across her cheeks and along her slender neck before tilting his head back.

“Holly,” he sighed with regret. He pushed the few strands of hair that had come loose away from her face. Then he looked deep into her passion-filled eyes. “We have to stop.”

Sadness and a look of confusion filled her eyes. “You don’t want me.”

Kenny glanced at his lap. “Does it look like I don’t want you?”

Holly dropped her gaze to his erection then boldly reached out to touch him.

And he almost lost it. He sucked in a huge breath, praying for control while she ran her fingers up and down the length of him. Then, to stop her from going too far, he placed his hand over hers, holding it in place, but restraining her at the same time. “You don’t want me to embarrass myself, do you?”

She met his eyes and gave him a wicked grin. The little witch. He took pleasure in seeing the bright flush that came over her face and neck. Lifting her hand away from his crotch, he kissed the palm of her hand.

“Please make love to me, Kenny,” she begged in a near whisper.

“Holly, we don’t have any protection.”

“Oh, no,” she moaned, dropping her head into the hollow of his shoulder. Small puffs of warm breath escaped her lips and teased his neck.

For what seemed like forever, they stayed locked in each other’s arms. Kenny could hear every breath she took as his heart took its good old time returning to a normal rhythm.

“Remember how I told you my Yoga class had cured me from thinking sexual things?” she asked softly, breaking the silence.

How could he forget? “Yeah, I remember.”

“I lied to you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.” She paused for a moment, and ran a fingertip across his collar bone. “In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I still think about making love with you morning, noon and night.” She lifted her head and stared into his eyes. “And if I don’t get some relief soon I’m liable to go cross-eyed.”

He found her words touching as well as a huge turn-on. Okay, so maybe he couldn’t satisfy his own needs by burying himself deep inside her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do something to help her. The thought of pleasing her, sending her over the edge, and watching her come back to earth, was all that mattered at the moment. Nudging her away from him, he said, “Stand up, Holly.”

Pausing briefly, she narrowed her eyes, then slowly stood and scraped her chair back a few feet.

“Take off your clothes,” he said.

Her eyes grew huge, but instead of protesting, her hands flew to the metal buckles and, with shaky fingers, she managed to undo them. The straps fell down over her breasts, and she shimmied the loose fitting denim over her waist and hips.

She kicked her shoes off and stepped out of the overalls, leaving them to puddle on the hardwood floor. Her small hands went to the hem of her shirt next. Then she whipped it over her head, losing the elastic band at the same time.

Her hair tumbled to her shoulders in a wave of riotous curls, and he pictured it fanned out across his pillow. It was a fantasy that would have to wait.

Her sports bra was plain and white, her bikini panties white cotton with tiny orange pumpkins, and yet she looked sexier than any half-dressed woman he’d ever seen.

He ran an appreciative glance down the front of her, stopping occasionally to check out her feminine curves. When his gaze lingered for a moment on her stomach, she placed her hands over her abdomen to cover herself.

“I’ve been trying really hard to diet, but those last ten pounds just won’t budge.”

He shot her a look. “Shut up, Holly.” Kenny reached a hand out to her. “Come here,” he said, tugging her toward him. Leaning forward, he placed a tender kiss on her belly and enjoyed the quiver that ran through her. “You’re very sexy, especially those ten pounds.”

Next, he guided her so that her butt rested on the kitchen table. She was shivering, hopefully with anticipation of his touch. He repositioned his chair and pushed her thighs slightly apart, enabling him to breathe in her womanly scent.