Dirty Looks (Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap Book 1) (13 page)

Sliding his hand around her hips, he kept her pressed tight to him. Her arms came up around his neck, her fingers teasing the hair at his nape and sending shivers down to his toes. He twisted fast and dipped her low before easing her back up to meet his gaze in the darkness.

“Not bad, cowboy,” she breathed. Her lips were so close it would only take a tiny movement to press into them with his.

But he didn’t. He was softening her first. Letting her get used to his touch. Getting used to hers.

Taking her hand, he spun her out, and when she yo-yoed back to him, he held her hips so her ass was against his front.

Grinding with the rhythm of the music, he whispered in her ear, “Told you, never rode a horse. But I could certainly take you for a ride.”

He’d fed her a bad pickup line on purpose, and fully expected to hear more of that captivating laugh that was like a drug to him. Instead she leaned farther back into him, a soft humming sound coming from her throat. It resembled a purr but coarser and higher pitched.

It was her sound of contentment. He’d excited her animal, and the mere idea turned him hard as stone below the belt.

He twisted her so she was facing him again, continuing to sway their hips together in time to the sultry beat and twangy guitar.

“I feel it,” he rumbled, his thumb brushing softly along her cheek.

Her skin felt hot and he wondered if it was painted that pink color he’d seen when they first met. Her blush was his kryptonite.

“Our bond, Lexington. It’s only going to get stronger. It’s growing at the speed of light because everything about you…”

He threaded his fingers into her hair, the tips pressing gently into her temple and drawing out the tiniest moan.

“… is everything I need.”

He swallowed hard, determined to get the rest of it out.

“I haven’t felt this…
safe
… since before my parents died. How do you do that? How do you make all the bad things seem insignificant?”

She clung to his shirt as they swayed. “I do that?” she breathed, as if she was surprised. Like he’d mistaken her for someone else. But didn’t she know how he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her the entire night?

“Fuck, yes. Who else? You’re the only female I’ve been obsessed with since… well, since a long damn time. Since ever. Since ever, Lexington.”

“But you said there was someone else,” she said sadly. “And I know what I said earlier to your friend, about you being mine, but what I meant was—”

No. He wasn’t letting her finish that sentence.

Aaron slammed his lips down on hers, not holding back an inch. How could he when she was about to deny everything that was holding him together. No more adjusting. No more getting used to each other. They’d learn along the way, but he wasn’t letting her speak her denial out loud.

The song ended, and just in time because he’d stopped swaying and took her face between his hands, parting her lips and pouring everything he’d been feeling into the kiss. His tongue plunged inside, tasting and exploring. And damn if she didn’t taste like warm honey on a snowy night. His fox was decadent, making him crazy with lust. Flashes of what he could do to her invaded his mind.

She met his tongue with her own, tentative at first, soft. Questioning. Then turning urgent, twisting and jousting with his in a sexy dance. Her fingers fluttered over his cheeks and twisted in his hair, pulling him closer.

But he wasn’t going anywhere. He was there to stay.

With a soft suck to her plump bottom lip, he forced the kiss to an end. He had to say the rest or this would all be for nothing. He had to make her understand.

“Mina,” he said, and she stiffened in his arms.

Idiot!

Aaron could punch himself in the nuts for starting off like that. Her lips had his mind glitching, but his ex’s name was definitely not what she needed to hear after their first kiss.

Brutal honesty, Adam had said. Lexington required honesty, and he was right.

“She’s the one I told you about in the truck. She was killed by a group of shifters to get back at me for one of their own getting hurt. We’d only dated a little while. Less than a month, but they thought she meant more to me.”

“They though she was your mate.”

That ancient guilt threatened to strangle him, taking all the good feelings he’d just experienced and flushing them down a toilet.

“She lost her life because of me,” he choked. “Just for knowing me. But what happened to her, it wasn’t for nothing.” There was light. There was a silver fucking lining. This was how life worked, he realized. It takes those horrible things that you think you’ll never get through, digs down deep, and finds something to make it worth the pain. It has a way of exchanging the horror with beauty.

“As awful as it was, she was part of the journey. And…” Aaron let out a small laugh because, for once, he could remember Mina and it was a good memory. One that made him smile instead of flinch in horror. “…you know, she would have loved hearing what I’m about to say. She’d laugh if she could hear me now, because she always believed in that hooky kismet shit. She believed in soul mates.”

And it occurred to him, Mina had never claimed they were that. Somehow, she’d known he was for someone else even back then.

“She believed in perfect matches and love stories with happy endings.”

Lexington’s breath hitched, and he could only make out the dimmest details of her face in the darkness. He’d give anything to see her eyes right now.

“What are you saying?” she whispered.

“It was fate, Lexington. This is what I was trying to tell you before. All the bad things we’ve endured. The people we’ve known and lost. The ones we ran from. The ones we met along the way. Every heartache and struggle. Every goddamned mistake and triumph. It was for a purpose, and it’s this.” With his hand on her cheek, he pulled her close again, resting his forehead against hers. “To bring us to our final destination. This bond that won’t be broken. Our treasure,” he whispered.

He felt a wetness on his thumb where it brushed her face. She was crying.
Please let these be happy tears
.

“Damn it,” she muttered. “My eyes won’t quit leaking. You say the prettiest things, cowboy.”

Aaron breathed in relief and dropped a quick kiss to her lips before brushing away her tears like he did that first night.
Dispose of the evidence
.

“It’s not just words. I believe it, baby girl. I’ve never been so clear on anything in my life. We’re meant for each other, and nothing can change that now that we’ve found it.”

“Our treasure,” she repeated.

He nodded, his heart full to bursting. “Our treasure.”

He crushed his mate to his chest, relief and happiness pounding him harder than any fist ever had.

He was happy.

He let that sink in while he just held her. He was actually happy. And she was too. He could feel it thanks to their mating bond which was growing more and more solid by the minute.

A tiny throat cleared and Aaron jerked back, squinting to see a shadowed thigh-high form a few feet away.

“Uncle Scrooge? Is that you?”

Aaron cleared his own throat so he could speak past the weird choking glee he felt. “Uh, yeah. Whatcha need, Gracie?”

“Well, I was just-a wonderin’ if you were gonna stay around for long. Now that you found you a honey and all.”

Lexington barked out a laugh at the child’s blunt question. And Aaron pulled up a smile so big it’d be embarrassing if he weren’t shrouded in darkness.

“Artie wanted to know too, but he was too chicken to come ask. I’m not though. I’m brave. I think he’ll be brave someday too. Prolly when he gets older like me. So what’ll it be, sir? Staying or going?”

Lexington pressed her face against his shoulder, her body shaking with chuckles.

“Staying, Gracie,” he promised. “Definitely staying. You can bet on it.”

Chapter Thirteen

“That’s the last of it,” Lexington said as she handed down the remaining duffle from the bed of Aaron’s truck. They’d already unloaded all of his stuff into the log cabin on DTD’s property, and now they were moving hers.

The place had one bedroom and a wide open kitchen/living space. It was tucked away in the trees, but not so far she’d have to climb her way out with hiking boots. It once belonged to Diz and his mate, but with the triplets, they’d outgrown the place and moved into a brand new house built by Tana and the little construction crew of locals she manned. Now Aaron was renting it.

Lexington grinned wide.

Correction.
They
were renting it. The two of them, together. Her very first home with her hot
as
eff
mate.

She eyed him as he shouldered the bag, muscles flexing at his neck and biceps bulging from the sleeve of his t-shirt. Mmmm.

A week had passed since the vixens were adopted into DTD as a sister pack, and what a week it had been.

Mission Help Old Man Hubbard was in full swing down at the motel, and the girls were taking to their new tasks like pros.

Barb helped with breakfast since she was a natural morning person. She was just bright and bubbly enough to endear the early riser guests, but knew when to tone it down for the ones who were forced awake before noon and wanted to murder everything that wasn’t coffee.

Seraphina, with her proper ways, was gold at the reception desk. She did one shift a day and got plenty of compliments on how streamlined she made the check-in process.

Ragan had taken on the paper trail for OM, straightening his office and records to pristine. Barb gave him the nickname. It stood for Old Man, and he seemed to like it just fine. He really was a doll.

Sally had a certain set of skills and unfortunately, none of them were suited to hospitality. She was good with a wrench though, so she’d become the new handyman. Er, lady. She was a handylady. One only called her a handyman if they wanted a tit punch.

Lexington shuddered at the memory.

Even Mac had decided to stick around. Said he wanted to make sure things kept rolling smoothly before he and Ranger the basset hound went home. But Lexington secretly thought he had no intentions of ever leaving. He’d found his new home, and it was right here, with them. So he helped Sally with maintenance. And there sure was a lot of it. Those two wouldn’t be out of a job for quite some time.

The vixens had also patched things up with Waldo, even though Barb still held a mini-grudge for him calling her mangy. Rider had kept their shifter secret from his uncle. And at their first race, they’d wowed the audience and brought in enough money that he decided bikes were the next big thing. Still, he was giving them a month before he decided on building some jumps for them.

Fair was fair.

But in all the grind of the week, there’d been very little time for Lexington to explore her mate. There was a lot of kissing and late nights at her room, but Aaron had seemed content on taking things slow.

She didn’t want to go slow. She was a racer for fuck’s sake. She wanted to speed ahead to the claiming and secure their mating bond and have her scent all over him and… and…

Bite him
, her fox mewed.

Hell, yes. She wanted to bite him.

“Stay there,” Aaron commanded. “Don’t move. Ya hear me?”

She nodded and he gave her a wink as he hurried off to put the last of her things in their new home.

Lexington braced her palms on the side of the truck bed as she waited for him to return. Only seconds passed before he was jogging back, an excited gleam in his eye.

“You ready, baby girl?”

A laugh escaped her throat. “For what?”

She sat on the side and swung her legs over the bed. Aaron caught her around the waist and eased her down his body until her feet were on the ground. It was pure torture. She felt every masculine ridge of muscle along the way, and it had her fox humming, barely remembering what control was.

When she met his eyes, they were burning hot with desire. His grip tightened, his fingers digging in deliciously at her hips. His woodsy scent had changed, signaling to her animal that he was aroused. Lexington clamped down on her lip to hold back a moan. She’d noticed it many times over the past week, but he’d never made any move to seal the deal.

“Are you ready for what I’m about to do to you?”

He walked her backward toward the door, stalking her except they were still touching. Every move was more sliding torture. Or bliss. Either way, she was feeling his effect on her. Liquid heat that pooled in her middle and made her legs feel like noodles.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

One hand brushed back her hair and tilted her face up so his eyes could go deeper. She was being hypnotized by their blue depths. She was staring into an ocean.

“I’m saying it’s time.” Still, he walked her backward. One step, then another until they reached the little porch that led to the front door.

“Time for what?” she teased, but it came out more breathy than sultry.

Bending, Aaron lifted her into his arms and climbed the porch steps urgently.

His voice dropped, going husky. A slight tremor let her know his control was slipping just like hers was. “Time I take your tight little body and make our bond permanent.” His arousal flared when he spoke the word permanent. “Isn’t that how this works?”

She nodded, her claws peeking out to dig into his shoulder.

“I know you’ve been thinking about this,” he murmured, pushing through the door and stopping in the middle of the living room littered with all their stuff. “I have too. Dreaming of it, and that’s not a metaphor. Literal fucking dreams where I wake up hard and sweating and not able to do a damn thing about it because Rider’s couch just didn’t seem like the right place. Neither did Old Man Hubbard’s motel room.”

Aw, her thoughtful human made her heart do backflips. He wanted this as badly as she did. He’d just been waiting to make it special.

He set her back on the floor, taking her hips and grinding them over the hard ridge of his erection. She felt her face flush hot and she was dizzy with wanting him. But she couldn’t help one last tease.

“Where, cowboy? We don’t even have a bed yet.”

“Floor’s fine,” he growled, holding her chin still and nipping at her jaw. “Been waiting long enough.”

“Or the wall? The kitchen counter?” she panted. “Hell, maybe just freestanding?”

His eyes flared and then closed with a guttural groan. “Damn, woman. I like the way you think.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“Oh, there’s a will alright.”

With that, he captured her mouth, working her into a frenzy while his fingers dipped under the hem of her tank top and pushed up. The roughness of his callouses against her flesh sent chills racing all over her body. Up and up he went, cupping her breast through her lacy bra and squeezing until another moan slipped out. This time his.

“Goddamn, woman. Your skin feels good, but this…” He massaged her over and over while he tried to catch his breath. “I need to see.
Now
.”

He wasted no time looping her shirt over her head and tossing it aside. He stared at her in her bra for so long, she wanted to squirm. But his scent told her he liked what he saw, so she pushed her chest out further for his perusal. Slowly, he ran one finger from her neck, tucking it between her cleavage, and hooking around her bra to pull her closer.

“I’m going to get you out of this, and kiss and lick and suck until you cry my name. Then I’m going to do the very same thing down here.” His other hand went between her legs and cupped her pussy through her jean shorts.

Lexington gasped at the surprise contact. Unable to help herself, she moved her hips to rub against his hand. Glorious sensations. Enough to steal her breath.

A smooth sound rumbled past Aaron’s throat. “Or maybe not yet,” he mused. “Maybe this instead.”

He slid a finger past the leg of her short shorts, expertly bypassing her panties, until he found her hot skin. He pressed smoothly into her folds and discovered the wetness he’d caused.

“Aw,
fuck
,” he breathed, but Lexington couldn’t say a word. Her mouth was stuck on open, half gasping half croaking, and none of it making a sound. “You’re so wet, Lexington,” he murmured at her ear. “So soft. And it’s allllll mine. Everything, after tonight, is all mine.”

“Forever,” she managed, just to remind him how long she planned on keeping him.

“Damn straight,” he rumbled, slowly swirling his finger around her aching clit.

She was close to coming. So close, her knees went weak and she clung to his shoulders, her breath ragged and heavy.

“Aaron,” she groaned.

“That’s right. But when my mouth is here, I guarantee you’ll say it louder.”

Oh, god. His mouth. Doing what his finger was now. The mere idea had her seeing stars. Was this normal? No orgasm she’d ever had before gave her stars.

But then she didn’t care. Because with another flick of his hand, she was gasping with her release. Waves of pleasure rolled through her body like a never ending ocean. The moment she thought it was over, it started all again. Faster, her hips grinded against him. Faster, his breath skated past her ear. Faster and faster he fingered her beneath the crotch of her shorts.

Mine
, her fox sighed, happy.
Love
mine
.

When it was over, she was limp in his arms and hungry for more. And the nip of his teeth at her earlobe told her she was about to get everything.

***

Aaron’s blood was hot and pounding in his eardrums. This was the stuff his dreams were made of. His soft fox, finding pleasure in his arms. Her pleas and moans and guttural sounds were fucking ear candy.

He’d wanted this since the night of their first kiss. But something instinctual, some part of him that wanted to take perfect care of her, made him wait. He’d needed to have her settled, in every way, before claiming her body. Over the past week, they’d done it. The vixens were happy, Waldo was happy, DTD was happy. And now he had her in their new home, all to himself, where he could show her just exactly how he felt about her.

Everyday.

Maybe twice a day.

In every room of the house, and on every surface.

Hard and fast. Soft and slow. Upside down and downside up. They’d leave no position unturned.

But right now, while she twitched deliciously in his grip, he wanted to show her what his heart had been screaming at him for days. He wanted to stare into her eyes while they came together, so she could see it for herself.

He loved her.

And he didn’t know if he could say it out loud, but he was sure as hell going to show her.

Pulling his hand from her shorts, he sucked her wetness from his finger, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Mine. He understood that possessive urge some men felt now. This was his. She was his.

He found her lips, pressing in with his tongue so she’d taste herself on their kiss. With a sexy snarl, her fingers tunneled into his hair, pulling hard.

Yes. He wanted her wild.

Pulling back, he took her down to the floor. It was hard polished wood when he wanted a bed of fucking roses for her, but she didn’t seem to mind if her lust glazed eyes were any indication.

Satisfied, he unhooked her bra and yanked it aside, kissing his way across her skin to those full tits that teased him from the neck of her tank top. Licking and nipping, he teased the hard bud of her nipple, drinking in her gasps and sputters and her clenched fists that beat his back with each flick of his tongue.

Aaron grinned against her skin. She was this crazed and he’d only just begun.

Palming her other breast, he lightly pinched her nipple, causing her to jack up off the floor with a cry. So responsive.

Moving down, he unbuttoned those tiny jean shorts and tugged them down her legs, leaving her in just her panties. Pink with white polka dots. They were his new favorite thing. After he fucked her out of them, he was keeping them in this pillow case.

Sweet dreams from now on.

He dove for her.

“Aaron,” she moaned. “Wait. I want to see you.”

Well, damn. He still had his fucking clothes on.

Rising up to his knees, he jerked his shirt over his head and sent it flying across the room before working his belt and zipper open. He was so hard, he could barely get the damn thing down, and Lexington reach forward to help.

Her hands, his zipper. Hottest. Sight. Ever.

“Shit, baby,” he hissed as she eased it down and released his aching cock.

Aaron watched her as she stared at his length, her eyes sexy with hunger. She licked her lips and the thing jerked, like it was the needle of a compass and she was true north.

Lexington surged upward, pressing him to the floor with her palms on his chest. When he resisted, she found his gaze and whispered, “I’m tasting.” Her voice was firm, like she dared him to argue.