Playin’ Cop (Heroes of Henderson ~ Prequel) (8 page)

At the sight of the exit doors, Annabelle started laughing and broke into a run. Duncan followed in chase, hitting the door along with her and bounding up a short flight of concrete steps, free at last.

After working up a sweat on the dance floor, he found cool relief in the frigid night air. Annabelle continued to laugh, saying, “I can’t believe we just ran away from them.” She turned to Duncan, walking backwards into the light cast from a street lamp at the entrance to the parking lot. “Like playing hide and seek when we were kids.”

Duncan allowed his steps to slow into a lazy gait, enjoying the scene before him. Annabelle flushed with excitement, her eyes sparkling, her cheeks rosy, that dazzling smile turned on full wattage and directed right at him. The light behind her showing through her white gossamer gown giving him a full view of just how little she wore beneath it. In two quick steps he caught her up in his arms and pressed her to him, thinking he might owe Brooks and Vance a little gratitude for forcing them out here, finally alone under the dark of night. Because he was now going to be able to do the one thing he’d been thinking about for most of the day.
 

Drive Annabelle’s car.

“Ah, damn it to hell,” he uttered shaking his head. “And it was such a clean getaway, too.”

“What?” she laughed at him. “What could possibly be wrong now?”

“Besides the fact that for the second time today you are standing in the freezing cold wearing next to nothing? We need your car keys, Danica Patrick. Unless you have them strapped to your inner thigh, I’m guessing they are back inside, tucked into some flimsy little purse.”

“Ooh,” she said, backing out of his hold and turning toward the parking lot. “There is so much you have left to learn, Officer Friendly,” she said, her voice trailing behind her. He caught up with her in time to hear, “We always leave the doors unlocked and the keys under the driver’s side mat.”

The idea left him dumbstruck as he halted and simply stared after her. Finally he shrugged, “I guess that’s good to know. In case I ever need to make a quick getaway.”

Impressed that her big bad muscle car was tucked into the end of a row, protecting at least one side from dings, he herded her around to the passenger side and opened the door, helping her in. The bitter cold was starting to seep into his awareness and he would have felt sorry for any Greek Goddess draped only in chiffon if it weren’t for the saliva-producing way her nipples responded.

He shut the door and practically growled as he headed to the driver’s side.

The inside of the machine was spacious due to its wide, low ride, but the leather bucket seats molded around his thighs, supporting him front to back. He started her up with a roar, and gave the gas a punch just to hear it again. He smiled the exhilarated smile of a kid strapping himself into the latest high-tech roller coaster. Thank God whatever weather system the newscasters had been yammering on about hadn’t started yet, because this was gonna be good.

After adjusting the mirrors and fastening his seat belt, he cautiously maneuvered Annabelle’s baby out of the parking space, down the lot and out onto the long front drive of the Henderson Country Club. He hit the gas and felt the power surge throw him back as the Camaro went from zero to sixty in one crazy nanosecond. He was braking before his thoughts could catch up to him, and sat for a moment at the end of the driveway, wondering why the hell he didn’t have one of these. Finally he turned his head toward Annabelle and said, “Awesome.” She simply nodded.

He fumbled in his jacket pocket for his cell phone and handed it to her. “Call Brooks,” he said. “Tell him I wanna open her up along Lake Road. See if any of his cop buddies are patrolling there this time of night.”

“Really? You want me to call Brooks and tell him where we are?”

“Haven’t we had enough tickets today, Little Miss Speedy Gonzales?”

“Are you kidding me? Brooks will be calling everybody on duty to nail your ass coming and going. You’d be handing him the revenge he needs after you won the bet today.”

Duncan stared at Annabelle, open mouthed.

“At least that’s what I’d do.” She flicked her shoulder. “But it’s your money,” she said, starting to dial.

Duncan grabbed the phone out of her hands. “It’s exactly what I’d do, too,” he muttered. “And what Brooks would do,” he assured her. “And did I just hear the word ‘ass’ come out of your mouth?” he said, stuffing the phone back in his pocket. “The Queen of Etiquette?” he said, putting the Camaro in gear and moving out onto the open road. “Or was that the hot babe in the Auto Mechanics Club talking?”

Annabelle just smiled into the night whizzing by her. “Take your pick,” she said.

I want both.

It was then that the thrill turned from the drive to what might be found at the destination.

Chapter Eight

Lake Road was the perfect place to open her up, but Annabelle knew that speed was one thrill, and handling another. So after Duncan hit somewhere around one hundred-twenty on the speedometer, Annabelle directed him to a winding country road leading up a small pass to a park that overlooked the lake. The back and forth turns could have been taken with a bit more speed in the light of day, but Duncan’s expressions and occasional outbursts assured her that he was having a good time playing with her car.

The road dumped into a small parking lot, which was apparently just large enough for Duncan to gun the engine, spin them around and skid into a stop. All of which was a little more daredevil than Duncan probably had intended, producing a short scream from Annabelle and some wide eyes and heavy breathing from him as the car settled beneath them.

“Oh my God!” “That was close!” they said at the same time.

“I got a little carried away,” he said sheepishly.

“Believe me, I understand,” she assured him. “Would you mind taking off your coat before we start back?”

Duncan looked down at his tuxedo jacket. “I am so sorry,” he said, quickly stripping the coat from his arms. “You must be freezing.”

“No,” she said, folding his jacket and holding it over the back seat. She let it drop behind them.

“No?” he said, his eyes shifting back and forth between hers.

She shook her head as she reached for his right hand and started to unfasten the cufflink she found at his wrist. Duncan watched in silence as she dropped it into the cup holder. But when she leaned over him and started to unfasten the other one, he dragged in a slow breath and caught the back of her head in the palm of his hand. She finished pulling the cufflink free just as he turned her face to his.

“Annabelle,” he whispered, his breath labored. “Annabelle, I….”

At a loss for words he brought his other hand up and captured the side of her face, pressing her back a little before his mouth caught up to his hands. He pressed his lips to hers in a slow, soft kiss.
 

It was just a tease, a tender touch, but oh how it shot rockets of desire through her body. He angled his head and kissed her again, this time allowing his tongue to sweep gently across her upper lip and then her lower one. He turned his head the other way and Annabelle’s hands moved up of their own volition to grab onto his wrists as his mouth toyed again with delicious tenderness.

“Annabelle,” he whispered, balancing his forehead against hers. “I was trying to hold out until midnight.”

Deliberately licking her lips, she whispered back, “I got tired of waiting.”
 

“I was trying to mind my manners,” he grunted as he hauled her over to the driver’s side, and settled her onto his lap. “Something I’m aware the Keeper of the Debutantes is all about.” With her back to the door and her legs draped over him and the center console, he hit the seat adjustment button to move them back from the steering wheel as far as possible.
 

Annabelle’s fingers started in on his bow tie, pulling it loose with expert hands. “First my jacket. Then my cufflinks. Now my tie? What am I? Your little Ken doll?”

Annabelle stopped her fingers on the second stud of his shirt, slanting her head to consider. “No. You’re more like my Officer Friendly action figure. And I’ve been dying to see you without a shirt ever since this afternoon when you wrapped me in your coat and pulled me up against this chest.” She rubbed her hands down his shirt, over his pectoral muscles and his rib cage then back up and over his shoulders. She stopped at his biceps and squeezed.
 

Duncan watched her ogle him, his grin spreading from ear to ear. “I guess a girl who drives a muscle car might have an appreciation for….” His words fell off while he moved his fingers into Annabelle’s hair. “I had this crazy urge this afternoon, too,” he said slowly, as if remembering. “I wanted to run my hand through your hair. Like this,” he said threading his fingers up the back of her scalp. “And then pull you close,” he whispered as he did. “And kiss you,” he went on as he touched her lips with short, soft kisses. “Like I meant it,” he breathed before he deepened the kiss.

The thrill of his tongue finally demanding its way into her mouth shot a branding heat throughout her chest and down the center of her rib cage. Her body grew heavy and warm and then seemed to fade away. Her mind fell into a blissful state of semi-consciousness while she kissed Duncan James.

Like rising through the fog of a dream and entering slowly back into a state of awareness, Annabelle found herself in Duncan’s arms, her body tingling in arousal, his mouth trailing its way from her lips, down her throat and over to the sensitive spot just above her clavicle. She felt his tongue swirl across the indentation there and his hands moving up on both sides of her rib cage, his thumbs brushing the underside of her breasts at first…then finally moving across the peaks of her nipples.

She heard a sound escape, though she was unaware of making it, so focused on her core being melted, tipped, and now cascading down to pool at the southernmost region of her body.
 

“I want….” she started, eyes closed, licking her lips. “I need to….” she tried again, but had no ability to find the right words. “Here,” she finally breathed, gripping the back of his seat and leveraging herself around Duncan’s legs. She pulled at her gown, gathering it high so her legs could straddle his, bringing them face to face. She eased her body down to his lap and bit her bottom lip when the throbbing aching need of her met the rock-solid heat of him.

Duncan rolled his pelvis in response. His hands slid down to grip her hips. “Jesus Christ,” he cursed as he rocked himself against her again. His hands slid under her gown and up her parted thighs, feeling their way to the soft curve of her behind, moving her forward at the same time as he ground himself against her. His mouth sought hers and she feasted on his lips, tilting her pelvis to help create more friction.
 

The deliciousness of her body moving against his, of his arms tightening around her, of the way their lips played, the way their tongues tangled, the joy of being alive and having found the One bubbled up inside Annabelle and it all came out in a yummy, humming sort of groaning approval that vibrated against his lips.

“I know,” he breathed, a hand coming up and sweeping the hair back from her face. “This feels really….” He kissed her again. “Really….” He got lost in her lips, and his hands groped around for purchase between the sides of her thighs, her lower back, sometimes skimming her aching breasts but not settling anywhere for long. Finally, he set both hands on either side of her face and put some distance between their lips. He looked at her, then closed his eyes, panting.

“This….” he started, opening his eyes and staring at her seriously. “We…” His chest heaved with a large intake of breath as he managed to continue, “are not making this a one-night stand.”

Annabelle leaned back a little. “Are you asking me out on a second date?”

He nodded, still holding his hands to her head. “Are you accepting?”
 

She nodded back.

“I’m serious,” he told her.

“I believe you,” she said.

His hands fell from her face in exasperation. “And I probably am going to have to turn in my Man Card for this, but I have no intention of making love to you for the first time in this car. It just would…” his voice began to trail off, “set the wrong tone for a relationship.” He turned his head and looked out into the darkness.

The silence pounded heavy and long, matching Annabelle’s heartbeat. She wanted to respond with a gift of words equal to what he’d just bestowed upon her. But her mind could find nothing worthy. Emotion swelled within her and before she could lean into him, he turned his face back and barked, “Don’t you debutantes have a five date rule or something?”