Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) (6 page)

“Kenzie!” I turned to see Emmy and Savannah waving at me from their table. Smiling back, I made my way over to them, thankful I managed to run into someone I knew. I had already been looking forward to that burger and beer, but knowing I’d get to eat in company made it just a little bit sweeter.

“Hey, girl, what are you doing here by yourself?” Emmy asked from her perch, leaning way back against her chair, legs kicked out in front of her with her hands on her round stomach.

“My house was taken hostage by a crazy redhead. I’m under strict instruction not to return before midnight.”

“Can I take your order?” the waitress asked as she stopped at our table.

“Yeah, can I get a bacon cheese burger, extra bacon? And whatever IPA you have on tap.”

“A woman after my own heart,” a deep voice rumbled from behind me.

Wide eyed, I turned around to see the man who plagued my every naughty, debauched fantasy. Brett stood there, in all his sexy, rugged glory, looking down at me as he leaned on a pool cue, grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

“Hey there, beauty.”

The black thermal he wore stretched taut across his broad shoulders and defined chest in such a mouthwatering display of muscular deliciousness that I was rendered momentarily speechless.

“Who won?” Savannah asked as her husband, Jeremy, and Emmy’s fiancé, Luke, joined us at the table, each taking a seat next to their significant others.

“You ask that like you don’t already know the answer,” Brett scoffed as he took the only empty chair left at the table, right next to me. “I whooped their asses. I’m officially a hundred bucks richer.”

“Damn it!” Savannah declared, punching Jeremy in the arm. “I said no bets over twenty-five! You know you suck at pool. That’s our future kids college fund you’re pissing away.”

“Asshole cheated,” Jeremy grumbled as he took a drink from his beer bottle.

“How did I cheat? You were standing right there!”

“Well, looks like Mini Luke’s down fifty bucks for his college fund, baby girl,” Luke said casually as he rubbed Emmy’s pregnant belly.”

“Call him Mini Luke one more time and your P is never getting anywhere near my V again,” Emmy replied as she slapped at his hand.

Normally, I’d be laughing as I watched the back and forth banter between everyone, but I was I having trouble concentrating on anything going on around me when the heat from Brett’s thigh pressing firmly against mine felt like it was scalding my skin. I’d never in my life felt so in-tuned to another person as I was with Brett. My body was insanely aware of every movement the man made.

The waitress blessedly chose that moment to show up with my meal. As soon as the beer was placed in front of me, I snatched it up and took a couple hearty gulps.

“I think you and I started off on the wrong foot.”

Brett’s warm breath against my ear startled a jolt from me as I spun my head to the side to look at him. He was so close I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the hypnotic pull of those rich brown eyes.

“What?”

“The wrong foot,” he repeated. “I’d like us to start over.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

Brett leaned back and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Brett Halstead. It’s nice to meet you.”

I felt my lips tip up in a smile at his playful demeanor. “Mackenzie Webster,” I responded, placing my hand in his. As soon as our palms touched an electric current shot straight up my arm. “It’s nice to meet you, too,” I murmured, sinking into his gaze. The rough brush of his slightly calloused finger across the pulse point in my wrist caused my breath to hitch. I was certain he could feel its erratic thrum beneath my skin. I couldn’t describe the effect the man was having on me, but the longer I was in his presence, the more difficult it became to resist his pull, and a large part of me—the part that was heating up deep down in my belly—didn’t want to.

As the evening wore on, the conversation between everyone kept me entertained as I enjoyed my mouthwatering burger and what had to be the best onion rings I’d ever had the pleasure of eating in my life. Before I knew it, I was on my fourth beer and laughing so hysterically at Emmy and Savannah’s antics that my sorely underused stomach muscles ached. My head was fuzzy and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so relaxed.

“You have a ride home?” Emmy asked me when the night finally wound down. “If you drove, Luke and I can take you home since you’ve been drinking.”

I opened my mouth, just about to accept her offer, when Brett spoke over me. “No worries, I got her.”

I whipped my head around to argue but it was too late. “Perfect,” Emmy said with a clap of her hands. It was
not
perfect. I could barely handle sitting next to Brett for a few hours. Being locked in a car with him, no matter how short a time, was bound to make my head explode. To say the sexual tension between the two of us was stifling was an extreme understatement. It was so damn thick I worried I might choke on it.

I was so busy trying to formulate a reasonable excuse as to why I needed to ride with Emmy and Luke that I missed my chance. Everyone at the table said their goodbyes, passing out hugs, cheek kisses, and backslaps while I stood there like an idiot, booze and Brett clouding my brain and taking away all rational thinking.

Chills spread across my skin as he leaned in and spoke softly—almost seductively—into my ear, “You ready to go or you want to stay for another drink?”

It took an immense amount of willpower to pull my gaze from his soft lips. Staying for another drink with him was a horrible idea. My desire for him was growing with each minute I was in his presence. I craved him to the point of being terrified.

A quick glance at my watch showed I still had two hours before Lizzy would let me through my front door, but sitting outside my apartment was safer for me than staying with Brett. “I-I think I should probably head home.” I knew…I just
knew,
as I stared into his warm gaze, that any longer with him and I was going to end up doing something I would regret.

“All right, let’s get you out of here.”

I stood on wobbly legs and slowly made my way to the door. I’d have loved nothing more than to blame my weak knees on the alcohol, but that would have been a lie. It was all Brett. I wanted to run away and jump him all at the same time. When his warm palm landed on the small of my back to guide me from the bar, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to suppress a moan.

Note to self: never drink around Brett again.
Booze plus Brett was a recipe for disaster.

Sweet Christ, this woman is doing me in
. I’d spent the last couple of hours with a perpetual hard-on that was beginning to ache so badly I could feel it pulsing behind my fly. I wanted to be buried so deep between Kenzie’s thighs we wouldn’t be able to tell where I started and she began. The sweet smell of her skin, the way those pillowy lips curved into a stunning smile, the way her lush curves pressed into me when I leaned in a little too close to talk to her…she was driving me bat-shit crazy and didn’t even know it. There was nothing on this Earth more attractive than a sexy-as-hell woman who was unaware of her effect on men. It made her seem so…innocent. But when those hazel eyes met mine, I could see the hunger in their depths. A hunger that matched my own.

I’d watched in fascination all night as her nostrils flared every time I got close. The pulse in her neck thrummed noticeably whenever I brushed my leg against hers. If I had any doubt she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her, it quickly disappeared the moment I placed my hand on her lower back and guided her from Colt’s. Her body instantly stiffened at my touch and I heard the shallow catch in her breath before a quiet, almost silent moan escaped her lips. That was enough to put me over the edge. Images of her soft, silky body writhing under mine as she screamed my name bombarded me. I was making my move. She might have shot me down before, but her body was telling me the truth. I was going to get what I wanted. And I’d keep at her until she finally admitted she wanted me, too.

Brett led me to his jeep, never once removing his hand from my back. I kept my eyes trained straight ahead once we made it to the passenger side waiting for the beep of the door unlocking, but it never came.

“Beauty,” he whispered in my ear after several seconds. A part of me was scared to turn around, knowing what would happen if I looked into his eyes, but with that one whispered word, I lost the fight between my body and brain. My body turned of its own accord and I was transfixed in his gaze.

“Tell me not to kiss you,” he demanded. “If this isn’t what you want, you need to say so right now, because once I start, I’m not going to want to stop.”

I opened my mouth to say no, but the word doesn’t come. It was only two simple letters, but I just couldn’t say them. He stared at me for what felt like an eternity before a knowing smile tipped the corner of his mouth.

“Time’s up.”

I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, maybe for our first kiss to be a gentle, hesitant, but that wasn’t what happened. My lips parted on a gasp of surprise when his mouth crashed down on mine, hungry…dominating. The moment the kiss began, he was in complete control. His tongue darted inside, tangling with my own, commanding a response from me. A moan rumbled from deep in my throat when he pushed my back up against the side of his jeep, pressing every inch of his rock hard body against my own.

Brett wedged his thick thigh between my legs and grabbed hold of my waist as he pressed impossibly further into me, grinding the most sensitive part of me against the ridged muscles in his leg. His lips moved from my own, down to my neck, nibbling and licking at me as my hips moved against him and my nipples pebbled into hard peaks. I couldn’t remember anything ever feeling this good. We were both fully clothed and I was already embarrassingly close to orgasm. I gasped when I felt the bulge of his erection pushing insistently against my stomach and a sense of power washed through me at the thought that I affected him so much.

His tongue traced back up my neck to my ear, where he pulled the lobe between his lips and bit down lightly.

I was barely able to hear his whispered words over the blood rushing through my ears. “Come home with me.”