Suspended (26 page)

“Right.”

All that mattered was getting through the next few days. Not
her ridiculous epiphany, not the sexy way he stood there all confused and
unsure of how to handle her, and definitely not her stupid mood this afternoon.

She gave him another smile and monkeyed her way under the
bars to find the ladder. He gave her a quizzical look as she scrambled to the
ground and headed for the main house.

Shane kneaded the tight muscles along his neck and
shoulders. All he wanted was his bed and five hours down. Three days of
fourteen-hour shifts were getting to him. He didn’t mind pitching in,
especially with the bonus Doyle was offering to get this job done ahead of
schedule.

But the moment Kendall had left him that afternoon, he’d
been preoccupied. He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but he knew
something was up. Maybe she was just worried about the end of the trip or
explaining things to her mother, but his gut said it was more.

He swung open the heavy front door to the retro kitsch bar.
STARRLA’S in a garish pink-and-blue neon that reminded him of
Cocktail
, the movie, filled the wall as
soon as he walked in. And with the neon came hair metal that matched it.

Skid Row played at top volume, and a crush of women
dominated the dance floor with a few straggler males on the outskirts trying to
get into the action. He recognized a handful of the men from his crew.

The sharp tang of mixing perfumes and colognes exacerbated
his headache. Instead of turning around and heading to his truck, he pushed his
way to the bar. At least he could get a beer while he checked in on Kendall.

He’d lost track of the days since they’d started this trip.
Every day felt like the same with a new backdrop. The Friday crowd was dense
with people looking for a good time with a few troublemakers with short tempers
sprinkled in. When he got elbowed in the chest a third time, he decided he was
going to be one of the short tempers.

Christ, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a
bar on a Friday night. He wasn’t sure how he was going to find her in this
place. It wasn’t a large place, but it was packed with people.

The sharp stomp of boots made him turn around. Blondie’s
sultry and yet strangely crazy voice carried on a wave of girls who decided it
was time for a sing-along. A whip of blonde hair drew his attention.

A howl of bawdy laughter sharpened his focus. A group of men
surrounded a table along the edge of the dance floor. Two blondes and a
brunette were on the table singing their hearts out.

With arms stretched to the rafters, one of the blondes spun
around. A filmy white shirt with far too few buttons snapped hugged Kendall’s
lean body. A bright pink bra peeked through the material, and a denim skirt
skimmed low on her smooth belly and high on her muscled thighs.

Arousal, jealousy, and anger crashed through him in equal
parts. She laughed and flung her hair back as the music switched to another
stomp-along song that advertised all she wanted to do was dance. She bumped
hips with the brunette he finally recognized as Evelyn.

At least she was with people she knew. He downed a large
swallow of beer and reined in the anger. Until he saw Lon and his two lackeys
egging her on. When Lon reached for Kendall and she waggled a finger at him
with a teasing smile, Shane saw red.

He snapped the bottle down on the bar and cut through the
dancers without breaking his stride. The minute Kendall saw him, her smile
faded, but her hips didn’t stop moving. God fucking dammit, they undulated
slowly. She dragged her fingertips between her breasts, and another button
popped, leaving the pink cup on display.

For everyone.

Lon slid his hand along her stomach, and Shane lunged
forward. Kendall twisted out of the shithead’s hold and switched places with
the other blonde who was much happier to receive his attention.

Lon tried to push the girl away and go for Kendall again,
but she hopped off the table and cut her way through the crowd toward Shane.
Knee-length boots with an unbelievable heel made her hips twitch as she walked,
and his cock hardened.

“You came.”

He lowered his head to her ear; then his lips buzzed the
shell. “Good thing you can handle yourself, Sunshine. I was just about to rip
Lon’s arm off and stuff it up his ass.”

She giggled. He jerked back. He was expecting a slap or at
least a growl, but no—as usual, this woman defied all logic. Her eyes were
shiny with at least a few beers, and her lips were slick with some filmy
lipstick that made him think of all the things he could do to her mouth.

She backed onto the dance floor. He stiffened, but she
gripped his hands and drew him into the amoeba-like pulse of people.

He didn’t dance. He stood still as she slithered her way
around him. An old Bon Jovi song came on, leaving her bouncing and singing
along to the words. His lips twitched as she tried to get him to move against
her. He liked the undulation of her hips against his thigh and her aggressive
touch, but she sure as shit wasn’t getting him to dance. No matter how cute she
was. He grasped a handful of her wild curls and hauled her in closer.

Doing one better, she jumped into his arms. He braced
himself as her knees dug into his hips, and her arms slid around his neck. He’d
started off tired and angry, and now his palms were filled with the sweet curve
of her ass and the corn-silk softness of her hair teasing the backs of his
hands.

She tunneled her fingernails up the back of his neck, clutching
him tighter in that way that made his knees turn liquid. Christ, she was so
fucking beautiful. Life and laughter lived in her warm chocolate eyes. She
mouthed the words to the song.
If we
stand side by side, there’s a chance we’ll get by, and I know that you’ll live
in my heart till the day that I die.

And when her lips found his, he wanted to believe it. He
wished to God he was her man for more than just a few weeks. The whoop from the
girl beside him brought reality crashing in on him. He let Kendall slide down
his torso and set her gently on the floor. With his hands anchored in her hair,
he took one last taste before finally letting her go.

Heavy-lidded dark eyes met his. She did an about-face and
reached behind her for his hand. He twined his fingers with hers and let her
lead him through the crowd. She waved at Evelyn and the other girl who were
still on the table holding court.

Once they got outside, she continued to drag him along. The
night air was crisp, and the moon hung nearly full and bright as a spotlight.
“Is it wrong that I missed the truck?”

“Is that right?”

“I did.” She turned to hook her fingers into his other hand
so they were completely tethered. “I would like to get into your truck right
now and climb on your lap and fog up the windows until we can’t think.”

Not thinking sounded like a damn good idea. All he’d been
doing today was thinking. It was exhausting. And here she was—simple beauty
with her siren’s smile. She’d allow him to shut off and bury himself inside her
without promises. He could lose himself in her until sunrise. But he wanted to
give her promises, and that scared the hell out of him.

He’d been close to so few people in his life, all of them
now gone save for Kain. He didn’t want to use Kendall as a scapegoat for the loneliness
that had been following him around since his father’s death—and before that, if
he was honest with himself.

He hit the locks on his key fob and couldn’t stop the grin
when she clambered into the truck and turned to him with a come-hither finger.
Her hair curled into the barely-there blouse; her nipples jutted through the
filmy bra and paper-thin texture of her shirt. He climbed inside and reached up
to flick the dome light off. He settled in the middle of the bench seat, then
dragged her across the seat to sit on his lap.

She shivered in his arms.

“Do you want me to put the heat on?”

She shook her head and reached under his shirt, pushing it
up his chest and over his head. “I’ve been thinking about this chest since I
saw you this afternoon.” Her palms slid over his shoulder and across his chest.
She dragged her nails through the light swirls of hair around his nipples until
he hissed. She lowered her mouth to one nipple and circled the tip with her
tongue. Her breath fanned across his skin, raising all the fine hairs on his
arms. “Where’s the rosary?”

He groaned, trying to wrap his mind around answering such a
simple question. Except she repeated the same motion over his other nipple,
followed by a tiny bite, and the answer floated away.

She moved over to the middle of his chest and nosed along
the ridge of muscle. “I like feeling the beads on my skin when you’re over me.”

“Fuck, Sunshine. I put it away when I’m working.”

He could feel her smile into his skin as she moved up to his
clavicle to flick the little dip there before she sucked and kissed her way up
his neck. “You cleaned up.”

He tipped his head back to let her have more access. “The
beard was getting too thick.”

She swirled her tongue around his Adam’s apple before
nuzzling her cheek against his jaw. “I like the scruff. It’s soft and a little
prickly. When I see myself in the mirror after we make—after we have sex, I can
see the whisker burn around my mouth, along my neck, and sometimes on the
undersides of my breasts. I like that.”

Her hiccup over the words gave him the first strings of
focus. He grasped for a few more, dragging himself off the sensual cliff she
put him on. The dangerous glitter in her eyes hardened his dick.

Times like this he wanted to give her everything. She made
him feel clumsy and rough, and yet she seemed to like that best. They had so
few days left, and he wanted to offer everything he had.

He reached between them and brought her fingers up to his
mouth. He scraped his teeth over her wrists, releasing one hand. “Undo my
buckle.”

She grinned. “That’s exactly what I had in mind.”

He nuzzled along the fragile skin of her wrist and felt her
pulse flutter. She pulled the end of his belt out of the loops of his jeans and
tugged to release the pin. The chink of his buckle was the only sound besides
her soft breathing. He hissed as her cool fingers slid into his jeans to undo
the top snap.

“Unzip me.”

She dragged the tab down over the bulge of his dick and sac
in their strangled position. “If you let me have my other hand, it would go
faster.”

“I don’t want it to go faster. I want it to go so slow
you’re screaming by the time I finish with you.”

Her huge eyes glittered in the moonlight as he flicked his
tongue over the center of her palm. He trailed his thumb along the underside of
her forearm to the bunched sleeve of her shirt and across to the tiny buttons.
He dragged the backs of his knuckles over her breast.

“Pull my belt free, Sunshine.”

She looked up at him as she grasped the end of the buckle
and slowly pulled. She held it in front of him, her teeth gnawing on her lower
lip.

“I know what you want.” He took his belt and transferred it
to his other hand, then removed her hand from his zipper and drew it behind her
back. Her eyes went wide, and her nipples tightened under the moon-spun fabric.
He’d never thought to make a woman immobile during sex until Kendall. He always
liked the way a woman wiggled and squirmed under him or on top of him, but
Kendall made him want to bind her so he could have his fill.

He wanted the time to taste, to feel her tremble under his
touch. The bar was only a few hundred yards away, and people littered the front
steps to smoke, but he and Kendall were in the shadows at the back of the
parking lot. His truck was too big to fit in the regular spots, so he’d had to
make his own.

He’d never been so glad for his monstrous, gas-guzzling
truck.

He brought her other arm behind her. By touch, he cinched
his belt around her wrists. “Lace your fingers.” She did so, and he wrapped the
tail through the buckle, tucking the pin away so she wouldn’t bruise.

As always her eyes got huge, and her chest rose with each
ragged breath. He rolled the little excuse of a skirt up until it pooled at her
waist. He leaned her back against the dash. Two tiny buttons held the blouse
together, leaving her breasts cupped in the bright pink.

She watched him intently as he snapped the top button open
with his teeth. She jerked under him, arching closer. He tongued open the
second and smiled at the front clasp of her bra. “I do love your choice in bras
tonight.”

With a shallow breath she laughed. “The look on your face
earlier said otherwise.”

“When it’s for me, I like it. When someone like Lon is
drooling over you…” His mood darkened. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

“I don’t care how he looks at me. I only care about how you
look at me.” She licked her lips. “Right now you look like you’re ready to eat
me alive, and that’s what I want. I don’t want to think about anyone else.”

He released the catch of her bra, and her small breasts were
freed because of the arch in her back. With an unsteady hand, he smoothed down
her neck, tipping her head back so he could see the elegant lines as he felt
them. He could feel her swallow under his fingertips as he slid between her
breasts and down until he could grasp her hips in both hands.

He circled the undersides of her breasts with his chin and
watched her nipples bead in the dim light. Her skin looked like porcelain under
the heavy moon. Smooth and perfect with raspberry-tipped breasts pouting up for
him. He covered one and sucked hard.

She bucked off his lap. He pushed her underwear aside and
slid two fingers inside her. Silky wet, she coated his hand as he pulsed within
the swollen tissues of her pussy. His cock strained against his underwear.