Reaction Time (2 page)

“Of course,” he said, throwing her a confused glance. “Why would they do it if they didn’t enjoy it?”

Before she could think that through, “Back in Black” burst from the phone attached to her belt. She jumped, feeling twelve again, getting caught making out in the back row of the movie theater. She snatched the phone free of its clip and flipped it open. “Hey, Nate.”

“Hey, Sis. How’s it going?”

She relaxed at the sound of her brother’s voice, grateful for the interruption to this crazy conversation that had gotten way out of hand. Anxious to regain her balance, feel back in control and resume her mission of making life hell for the babysitter, she flicked a pointed gaze to the speedometer and allowed her irritation to come through in her response. “Slow.”

Nate’s boisterous laughter pulled a laugh from of her too. “Tight Ass wouldn’t let you drive, huh?”

A quick peek to her left and the raised eyebrows on Adam’s face confirmed he’d heard Nate’s comments.

She frowned. When did she start thinking of him as Adam?

Probably when we started talking about him getting it up and spankings.

She quickly pressed the volume button on the side of the phone, ensuring there’d be no more eavesdropping, intentional or not. She also squeezed her thighs tightly together, trying to suppress the thrumming that resumed with thoughts of Adam, erections and spankings.

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Alannah Lynne

“How are things at the track?” She chewed her lip and prayed Nate didn’t comment on the tremble in her voice. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Everything set up and ready to go?”

“Yep, all we need is you.”

She’d already known the answer and didn’t even know why she’d asked. She had total faith in Nate and his abilities, and probably couldn’t get in the car week after week if she had to trust anyone else with her life. “What else is going on?”

Nate sighed. “Have you talked to Mama?”

Something about the tone of his voice set off warning bells and she tensed. “No.

Why?”

A long, lingering sigh came through the phone. “She’ll be at the race this weekend.”

“What?” Nikki screeched, jerking ramrod straight. “Why?”

“I don’t know. Did you tell her about the threats?”

“No, of course not.” Every cell in her body switched from aroused to red alert. “Did she say something about them?”

“No. I’m wondering though, like you probably are, why she’d come here and put herself through the pain and agony.”

It took great effort not to clench her jaw and gnash her teeth. “Where’s she staying?”

“I don’t know, but she’s not staying with me. Amber’s coming this weekend.” He chuckled, leaving his comment open for interpretation.

“I don’t need to hear that,” she said dryly. Maybe if she had sex herself she wouldn’t be put off hearing about her brother’s very active sex life.

What would sex with Adam be like?

She shivered and suppressed the urge to look at him. “But you’ll still have an extra room because Amber will be sleeping with you.”

“Mama is
not
staying with me. Not with Amber here.”

“Well she’s not staying with me. I’ll be in my room—alone—and Adam will be in the guest bedroom.”

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“You think?” Adam asked. Nikki whipped her head around and glared at Adam. Did he actually just insinuate he’d be sleeping with her?

“What’s with the emphasis on
alone
? That for my benefit or yours?” her obviously amused brother asked before she could respond to Adam’s infuriating assumption.

She rubbed her eyes, weary and frustrated. “I meant
alone
as in, Mama isn’t sleeping with me.”

“Yeah right.” She heard from both men simultaneously.

“Bite me,” she growled, only to regret the words as Adam’s gaze shifted back to her, eyes hooded, his mouth set in a lusty grin.

Her brother laughed. “If Mama doesn’t know about the threats, how are you going to explain Guthrie’s presence? And when did you start calling him Adam? It’s always been Tight Ass.”

Nikki closed her eyes and let her head flop back against the headrest. “I don’t know.”

Which pretty much summed up her life at the moment, didn’t it? She didn’t know what to tell her mom. She didn’t know how to make Adam miserable enough to leave. And she didn’t know why the thought of him leaving made her feel empty inside.

For someone who stayed in control at all times, at all costs, she felt very out of sorts and overwhelmed. She lifted her head off the seat and announced, “You’re the one who insisted I needed a babysitter, you figure out the explanation.”

“Babysitter?” Adam asked, sounding as offended as he looked.

“Uh-oh.” Her brother laughed. “Good luck explaining that one and I’ll see you when you get here.” She snapped her phone shut with a growl and sank back down in the seat.

She was just beginning to process the conversation with Nate when “Highway to Hell”

burst from her phone. With a heavy sigh, she flipped open the phone. “Hello, Mama.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Adam’s head whip around to face her.

Obviously, he didn’t expect “Highway to Hell” to be the warning—er, ring—for her mother. She smiled and shrugged.

“Where are you?” her mother asked.

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Alannah Lynne

She’d been so caught up in conversation about handcuffs and spankings—damn it, why did those words make her sex throb—she didn’t know where they were. She glanced at the passing countryside “Somewhere on Interstate Ninety-Five headed north.”

“You’re driving to the track?”

“Yeah. It
was
a good chance to drive my new car.” She glared at the current driver while he flashed a snarky grin. Smiling made him look almost friendly and she wondered why he didn’t do it more often.

Rather than contemplate the possibility Adam might have a few good qualities, she shifted her focus back to the conversation with her mother. The gaping silence meant her mother was gearing up to drop her bomb and Nikki felt herself growing tenser by the second.

“I’m coming to the track this weekend.”

“I’ve heard.” Nikki flinched at her harsh tone and deliberately softened it. “Why would you do that to yourself, Mama?”

“What? Show my support for my children?”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “This is a little different than a mom going to a high school play. You hate me racing. And why would you choose this track, out of all of them?”

“It’s close.” Her mother cleared her throat. “It makes sense to go to the track that’s only two hours away instead of ten.”

Nikki sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. Her mother’s answer seemed logical, but her instincts told her this decision wasn’t based on logic. “Are you coming up on Sunday morning?” She tried to be hopeful and optimistic but instead sounded desperate and pleading.

“Of course not,” her mother said, sounding offended. “I’m coming on Friday. I want to have a couple of days with you and Nate.”

Nikki fought the urge to howl in frustration. “There’s a little bit of a problem.

There’s not going to be anyplace for you to stay.”

“What do you mean? Don’t you and Nate have your motor homes?”

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“Yeah, we do but…” Shit. How did she explain Mama couldn’t stay with Nate because he and his girlfriend were gonna be having wild monkey sex all over the RV?

“Nate’s got company for the weekend and you’d probably be uncomfortable staying with them.” Tact wasn’t her specialty but that’d sounded pretty good.

“What about you?”

“Me? Ummm…I’ve actually got a—” she glanced to Adam, “—friend with me too.

Both my rooms are taken.”

Adam smiled and shook his head no.

She frowned and mouthed, “No what?”

“No,” he said in a low rumble. “You’re not sleeping alone. But she should probably stay somewhere else.” Shrugging, he added, “That way she won’t hear you moaning and begging.”

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Alannah Lynne

Nikki was so shocked by his bold statement she barely heard her mother say, “Okay, I can sleep on the couch.”

His arrogant, overbearing attitude and totally inappropriate statement had Nikki’s palms sweating and her heart pounding to the point she thought it might burst.

However, she would never, ever allow him to know he affected her like that. She pulled her jaw back up into its socket and glared at him. “Are you threatening me?”

Her mother gasped. “Wha…what do you mean?”

Nikki froze.
Shit
. What had been the last thing her mother said? What was the last thing she’d said to her mother? In a small back corner of her brain, she took note of her mother’s tone. She sounded rankled and a bit defensive and that seemed out of character for her normally mild-mannered and somewhat timid mother. But it was difficult to spend too much time and effort analyzing her mother’s response when ninety-nine percent of her was erupting in flames.

Nikki scrunched her eyes closed and forced herself to focus. “I wasn’t talking to you, Mama. When I get to the track I’ll see who’s there and find some place for you to stay.

Okay?”

“All right,” her mother quietly said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” It wasn’t a statement, but instead a question. One asked by an insecure person in constant need of reassurances those she loved would still be around tomorrow.

“Of course, you will. I love you.”

Nikki snapped the phone closed and laid her head back onto the headrest. She closed her eyes and forced deep, even breaths into her body. Sometimes she got so tired of carrying the world on her shoulders she thought she’d buckle from the weight. How did it all get this out of hand?

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And when had their relationship flip-flopped so that Nikki acted as the mother and her mother the child?

“What’s the deal with your mom?” Adam’s tone was quiet and gentle.

She turned her head and watched the passing countryside. “I don’t know,” she sighed. “She never comes to the races, and why she’d pick this one is beyond me.”

“What’s wrong with this one?”

Nikki twisted in her seat and tucked one leg under her. “You really don’t know?”

His eyebrows knitted into a frown and he shook his head. “No, but apparently I should.”

“You’re not much of a detective, are you?”

Grinning, he slanted his head in a confident gesture. “We’ve already established I know more about you than you’d like to admit.”

Remembering she was supposed to be angry with him, Nikki took a deep breath and glared at him. What made him think she had some suppressed desire to be bound, gagged and beaten into submission?

The whole notion was ludicrous and if he truly knew anything about her, he’d know she was the one always in charge. Although she and Nate were equal business partners, because she drove the car, the majority of the responsibility for keeping Kincaid Racing afloat fell to her. And then there was the care of their mother. Their father had had a large life insurance policy so, financially, their mother was well taken care of. But emotionally, she was bankrupt. Probably because Nikki was the daughter, she felt the majority of the emotional care fell to her. And taking care of their mother had become a full-time job these days.

No, Nikki Kincaid did not bow down to anyone.

And yet, every time he broached the subject, something deep within her stretched and yawned and seemed to be awakening. As a naturally curious person, she did have questions. But asking them would make it appear she was interested.

Which she wasn’t.

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Alannah Lynne

No way would she let him…what? What did he do to his subs to bring them this supposed pleasure?

“Why do you keep insisting I have some suppressed desire to be…dominated?”

He flicked his gaze to her and reached for her wrist. Startled, she snatched her arm away from him.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Trust me.”

“Said the lion to the lamb.” But even as she said it, she reluctantly offered her arm.

He wrapped his large hand around her much smaller wrist and began slowly and sensually stroking his thumb along the sensitive skin of her inner wrist.

She frowned, disconcerted by the warm and gentle current running along her arm and the warm, fuzzy feeling settling low in her belly. “What are you doing?”

His utter stillness made him appear deep in thought. Finally, without answering her question, he asked one of his own. “You know what I’d do to you if you were my sub?”

Oh, God
.

She wanted to yell, “What?” but instead kept her composure and cool resolve in place. “I have no idea.”

The muscle in his jaw flexed as he continued to stroke her wrist. “I’d have you take off your clothes, leaving only your bra and panties. Then, I’d get you warmed up and ready with a light flogging.”

She commanded her breathing to be slow and calm. “Ready for what?” she asked, with a forced nonchalance she was far from feeling.

The corner of his mouth tipped into a grin. “Once I had you writhing with pleasure, I’d move on to the leather strap…no, my hand. I’d need to touch you.” His voice sounded like it had been roughened with sandpaper. “There’s no way I could have you in that position and not in some way be skin to skin.”

She swallowed hard and shifted in her seat, trying to squash the persistent throbbing and flood of moisture accompanying the desire.

His nostrils flared and his chest expanded as he took a deep breath. He let go of her wrist and cleared his throat. “But right now, tell me about your mom.”

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She should have been grateful for the frosty attitude and sudden change of subject, but instead she found herself missing the heat and strength of his hand. Although she was loath to admit it, she’d liked having his hand on her. While his touch had been stimulating, it had also been soothing and reassuring. How did that happen?