Ryan Hunter (18 page)

The emotions playing out in her face screamed:
I’m going to kill you for this
! And I thought, okay, if I was going to die anyway, we would at least have some fun before. It was her turn to sing, and I held the microphone in front of her kissable mouth.

Her nails dug into my stomach where she clamped my shirt, and I could feel her heart hammering in her chest where she pressed against me. “Sing,” I mouthed and gave her the most encouraging look manageable.

Liza grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut. But she opened her mouth and within a few seconds her panicky croak turned into a really beautiful singing voice. Her eyes opened again, and she looked at me with wonder, like she was totally amazed about herself and how well she did. Heck, she even smiled as we sang together. Soon her clawed fingers uncurled, and she pressed her palm against my chest. I placed my hand on top of hers, trying to give her the safe feeling she needed.

When
the crowd started singing with us, her face lit up even more. I got the feeling she really enjoyed herself and figured we could do a little more than just stand poker stiff. Slipping behind her, I took her hands and lifted them over her head. Together we clapped to the beat, and our audience mirrored us. I stood very close to her, enjoying the nearness, and sang in her ear while she had the mike all to herself. She delivered an amazing show. That was my girl. Vulnerable like a kitten, but strong and brave when she needed to be.

The song’s end was drowned out by the clubbers’
whistles and shouts, prompting us to perform another song. I was totally up to it, but this time I thought it better to ask Liza first. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m going to kill you.”

Yeah, I knew that and laughed.

“No way are we doing this again.”
She grabbed my hand like I’d done with her before and made me follow her down from the stage.

I shrugged and grinned at the expectant crowed as I was dragged away.

When we reached the bar again, Rachel had switched sides and stood with Phil behind the counter now. “That was awesome!” She beamed at Liza and me together. “You’d really make a sweet couple.”

Liza laughed about that.
“Yeah, right.”

Yeah, right
? Did that mean no? I gave her a wry look and she cast me the same look back, then she stuck her tongue out at me and laughed again.

Okay, Hunter, make something of that
, I thought.

A little later, she asked me if it was okay to leave. It was almost midnight, and I remembered that I’d promised to take Cinderella back before one. I let Rachel kiss my cheek as we told them goodbye, and she whispered into my ear that she’d come home tomorrow and intended to get all the details about me and Liza.

“All right,” I surrendered. “But only if you bring cherry cake.” She made the best cake in all California, I swear.

Out in the cool air, I took a few deep breaths, getting rid of the dry smoke in my lungs,
then I turned to Liza who pressed her palms to her red cheeks. “Want to drive again?”

She shook her head
. “The way I feel right now I might very well wrap your car around a tree.”

Still shaky from the excitement, eh?
I put my arm around her shoulders like we already were a real couple. She didn’t back away. And when her shy hand moved up to rest on my hip, my stomach did a double roll of joy.

Opening the passenger door for her, I let her get in first,
then I walked around and made myself comfortable in the driver’s seat, adjusting it to my longer legs.

Since Liza was looking out the side window, I figured she wasn’t up for talking, so I switched the radio on but kept the volume low. I liked how her beautiful scent filled the interior and my head. It was hard to concentrate on driving, when my thoughts drifted to my right time and again, and I remembered how her tender lips had felt beneath mine.

After a few minutes, she turned her head toward me and studied me instead of the passing streetlamps.

I cut a quick glance toward her
. “Did you enjoy yourself tonight?” It was nice to speak in a softer tone again after shouting so much inside the club.

Liza gazed at me for a couple of seconds longer before she answered,
“It was okay.” Then after a short pause she added, “Actually, it was quite nice.”

As I cut another glance at her, she made a point at playfully narrowing her eyes at me. “
But I still hate you!”

That coaxed a chuckle from me. “I know.” And I didn’t mind as long as she stayed in this car with me. “
I’m sorry I dragged you into hell on that stage.”

“And you
should
be.”

A car passed us, and the headlights made me squint for a moment. But when the car had disappeared also from the review mirror,
I moved most of my attention away from the silent road and back to Liza. “What about the lime surprise?”

“What about it?”

“Should I be sorry about that, too?”

Liza let me wait on her answer for a couple of seconds.
I was holding my breath in that time. Then she said in a nonchalant, “Nah. I should just have heeded your warning.”

“Yeah.
Or maybe…just not.” Because as far as I was concerned, it had been one helluva hot kiss, and I didn’t want to have missed it.

With a lower voice than before, Liza drawled,
“Or maybe not…”

Heck, did she just agree?
“You liked it?” I cut a quick glance to her side and noticed the blush on her cheeks. That made me smile. “Yeah, you did.”

Liza didn’t say more to it, but after one last, shy look at me, she tilted her head the other way and continued gazing out the window. In the reflection of the glass, I glimpsed her pleased face.

We arrived at her house way too soon.

“Can you park a bit farther up this road?” Liza asked me then. “I don’t want my parents to find out I was gone missing.”

Sunshine, they already know.
But I did as she said, and as we got out of the car, I shut my door quickly to keep as much of her nice scent as possible saved inside for the ride home.

I walked her back into her garden in a casual stroll. I liked watching her as we went. Everything about her was perfect. The only thing wrong was that she wasn’t tucked under my arm right now. It was definitely worth a try, but Liza turned her head to my side at that moment, and when her lips curved up, I knew I was caught staring. For a change this made me feel awkward.
Somehow exposed. With a sheepish grin, I rubbed my neck, looking away.

In front of the little shed in her garden, I took a stance with my back to the door and waited for her to put her foot into my laced hands to help her up. She grabbed my shoulders and stepped in, but before I lifted her, I took a second to look into her apple eyes.
“What do you say, Matthews? Shall we do this again sometime?”

Liza glanced up to her room and back at me.
“Maybe we should. But let’s wait until my detention is over. I really hate sneaking in and out like a criminal.”

I could live with that.

With a strong push, I hoisted her onto the roof and waited until she’d made it to her feet. Sneaking back into her room, she whispered, “Good night.”

“Later ’gator,” I said back.

Heading back to my car, I could have slapped myself for missing the opportunity to steal a goodnight kiss before I’d shot her up on that roof. By now I was pretty confident she wouldn’t have slapped me for it. Damn, what if she’d even expected it and I just screwed that chance.

I climbed into the car and banged my head on the steering wheel. I was such an idiot. Maybe I should send her a goodnight text at least. Just to tell her that I really loved spending this evening with her. And maybe making plans to see her again tomorrow?

Shifting in the seat, I fished in my pocket for my phone then I stared at the screen. Suddenly I had a better idea. Way better…

Chapter 11

THE WARM NIGHT coated my neck with a layer of moist as I jogged back to Liza’s house. Underneath her window, I lifted my Indian’s cap, raked a hand through my hair, and put the cap on again. This was my chance at Liza, and I wasn’t going to ruin it. Not after waiting half my high school years on it.

The light in her room was already off. I could call her to the window now then talk her outside again. Or I could give a damn about being a gentleman and behave like a man my age. Turning around, I took a short run toward the tree, jumped, and hoisted myself onto the thickest branch. From there it was only a large step onto the shed’s roof. I didn’t hesitate a second but strode directly at Liza’s room and ducked through the window.

At that moment the light went on, and a sharp voice said, “Hunter. What are
you
doing here?”

I looked up and found Liza standing barefoot and in that amazing, hot boy shorts, just a couple of feet away from me. “I forgot something.”

She quirked her brows like she questioned my sanity. “You can’t just come up here. I’m already in my jammies.”

Hell yeah, that was one of the reason why it had to be
now
and not any other time. “I’ve never seen anything sexier than those shorts on you.” Seizing every inch of her skin with my gaze, I prowled toward her. The longer I looked at her legs, the more of a goose bump dusting she got.

Liza took a step back for each I took toward her. She wouldn’t escape. Finally she was stopped by her bed and I had still one foot of distance to overcome. But I stopped when she did, and hooked my finger into the waistband of her mouthwatering shorts instead. Pulling her toward me, I locked gazes with her. Liza’s eyes were wide and shiny. Her mouth hung slightly open as she moved her hands up and placed them flat on my chest. My pecs twitched in response to this intimate touch, and I was all set for ripping my shirt open, so I could feel her warm hands on my skin.

Liza’s breathing hitched noticeably. “You forgot something?” It was a shy croak. “What?”

Seriously, we had talked enough tonight. Now was the time of satisfying a deep need within me. I pulled my Indian’s cap off and tossed it on the bed, never breaking eye contact with her. With one arm around her delicate waist, I pulled her into me and thrust my other hand into her silky hair.

Liza’s breath came fast against my skin. My gaze dropped from her eyes to her lush lips. I knew I was going to die, if I couldn’t sample them again this minute. Slowly, I leaned down and rendered her mine.

Pressing a feather-light kiss on her lips, I waited to see if she kept breathing this time. Oh yes, she did.
And more. Her soft, little hands moved up and around my neck, her fingers threading through my hair. It made me go crazy and wild about her. Growling, I pulled her tighter against me and invaded her sweet mouth with my tongue. The Coke and lime taste was gone, replaced by the taste of minty toothpaste.

In slow strokes, I started playing with her tongue. Liza shivered in my arms. She rose on her toes to match my height just a little more, rubbing her boobs in a dangerously seductive way against my chest. If there really could be butterflies in one’s stomach, there was
definitively one playing havoc in mine now.

She didn’t like it when I broke the kiss, but I inched back anyway then leaned my brow against hers, getting a grip on myself or I’d toss her onto that bed and make love to her.
As I gazed into her bottomless green eyes, I remembered the diary again, and thought I could make up for it by giving her a little truth about me, too. Something she might like to know.

“By the way,
” I said softly. “I’ve known your name since the very day that you first came to watch Mitchell’s soccer training in third grade, Liza.”

A smile tugged hard on the corners of her lips, but apparently she didn’t want to let it come.
Instead she teased, “Have you, really?”

If she wasn’t going to smile, then I wasn’t either, so I pressed my lips together, but I knew it wouldn’t work
. I nudged her nose with the tip of mine. “Um-hm.”

The next instant, I found my lips on hers once more. A low moan escaped her, which I cupped with my mouth, and it took me to the edge of self-control.
To hell with
gentle
. Raking back her hair, I tilted her face farther up and ravished her mouth with a deep, ferocious kiss.

She stood only at the beginning of learning, but she was quick and took up with the lust I breathed. In sensual moves, her tongue brushed against mine. She suckled and nipped my bottom lip, groaning when I did the same to her. Gone wild with longing, I stroked down her neck and spine, finding an easy way underneath her tank
top, and explored every little bit of her.

All the shyness abandoned, Liza utterly melted into my embrace. I placed my hands on her bottom, ready to lift her up so she would wrap her naked legs around my hips. But a hard pull at my collar made me stumble backward, and Liza slipped away from me.

It was the shock in her eyes that made me realize who had come even before I heard the sharp bellow behind me.