Embrace (Evolve Series #2) (26 page)

“And we’re
positive
it’s her?” Dane tries
again, looking at me and Bennett. “It could very well be Kirby.”

Zach just stands there, staring, so we let him. The
second there’s a break in the music, he screams, “Avery!”

The blonde pressed against the back wall, skirt
hiked indecently and sucking the skin off some dude’s neck, breaks and looks out
of reflex.

“I’m positive,” Zach mumbles.

Dane and I wave to Bennett and follow him out. I
give Zach the front seat and keep them talking about the work they did at
Whitley’s the whole ride to drop him off. It sounds like a little wonderland
what they’ve set up. Evan never ceases to amaze me with his grandiose acts of
romance, but the desolate vibe in the car simply cannot be lifted.

I hug Zach when he exits, me climbing out to take
the front seat, and whisper, “if you change your mind about the beat down, you
just let me know. She fucking sucks and you’re amazing. I’d consider it a
personal favor if you let me make her hurt too.”

“Love you, Laney.” He kisses the top of my head,
shoulders slumped as he walks away.

“How drunk was she?” Dane asks me when I’m settled
and buckled.

“I don’t know, they left the table to dance.” I push
the button to let the top down on the Camaro, by far my favorite of his cars.
Right now I’m just craving the rush, the escapism of the warm night air blowing
through my hair. “How drunk did she need to be? I don’t think you can get drunk
enough to cheat on your boyfriend, let alone be dry humped publicly.”

“Glad you feel that way, baby, and totally agree.” He
takes my hand and kisses it. “Dumb question, forget I asked.”

“Let’s just drive for a while,” I suggest, my voice
lazy, “I love this car.”

“I have something I want to show you; we’ll drive
there. I wanted to show you in the daylight, but this works too.”

“K,” I sigh, not caring at all. He can drive me
anywhere and I’m good with it. “We need to find someone to set Zach up with,
soon. I don’t want him unhappy. You have any more hot girls like that Jenee
that work for you? How about one of them?” If he thinks I missed the shift in
his shoulders or the frown that flashed across his brow, he’s wrong. “What?”

“Nothing, yeah, I’ll think about it.”

Nothing my ass.

“Nice try, Dane. What?”

“Baby, nothing,” he replies, kissing my hand. “I
love you and I love how you look out for your friends. I’ll tell Sawyer to work
on it.”

“I knew it! You slept with her.” I knew the minute I
met her, and yes, I used the line of conversation to my advantage to confirm
the suspicion that’s been eating at me.

He doesn’t say anything. Why would he? He can’t deny
it and he damn sure doesn’t want to affirm it, but he doesn’t have to.

“How long ago?”

“Before I knew you.”

“Well obviously,” I snarl, “how long before you knew
me?”

“Laney, why are we talking about this? I don’t ask
you—”

“You don’t? Really? I seem to recall reciting a play
by play for you in the hot tub. Not that I had any actual sex buddies to tell
you about. I can’t even describe to you my joy at the thought of you being with
her like you have me.” I sniffle and wipe a fake tear. “And the fact that she
works for you, is still in your life, just warms my fucking heart. Now, HOW.
LONG?”

He stops the car and turns abruptly in his seat,
trying to pull me in his lap, but I slap away his hands.

“Stop it!” I snap at him but he overpowers me and
has me in his lap effortlessly despite my squirming and feeble attempts to
escape, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him.

“This isn’t about us and you know it. You’re mad at
Avery and sad for Zach and you’re taking it out on me. Just because he couldn’t
trust her doesn’t mean our relationship is doomed.”

I’m not kidding anymore—how does he do that?
In-fucking-furiating.

“I was never, ever, with her, or any other girl,
like I am with you. Not even close. Yes, I fucked Jenee, maybe four times, the
last time probably a month before I met you. She’s attractive, she’s discreet,
and she was there. But I
never
made love to her, or anyone, and I will
never be with another woman for the rest of my life.”

I should be okay now, quit throwing a tantrum and
realize he’s right; I’m not mad at him tonight. I shouldn’t care a bit about
his past and should bask in the fact that I know he loves me and speaks the
truth.

Coulda woulda shoulda.

“I am the luckiest man in the world that no one has
ever loved you like I have, that I never have to think about that. When we’re
eighty, I will still be the only man who has ever been inside your sweet body,
and I realize how amazing that is. And if I’d known you were on your way to me,
I would have waited for you. If I could take it back, I would. But I can’t, so
you tell me something I
can
do to make it better.”

Fire Jenee.

Just kidding.

Except not at all.

“How often do you interact with her? She works for
you…do you see her every day?”

“I almost never see her. And as of right this
minute, I will never see her again. I can fire her, transfer her, anything you
want. Anything for you,” he rubs the back of his hand down my cheek, “you know
that. Just say the word.”

“Was she the last one before me?”

“Yes.”

This is where I resolve it in my mind and move on.
Except the whole part about me not doing that.

“Was she good? Better than me?”

Oh shut up, you know damn good and well you’d be
wondering the same thing.

“She was exactly like any other person I was with;
anatomically the same, pleasant and purpose-serving and cool about the
situation. Jenee was actually the only one who meant it when she said she
didn’t need more, there was no stalking me or bugging me for more afterwards.
But Laney, simply kissing you is better than sex with anyone else. So when I’m
inside you, completely in love with you, nothing will ever fucking compare. My
God, baby, you have to know I’d die if it was the only way to get to love you
again, even just one more time.”

He means it, and it works, unleashing in me the
Laney who wants to own this man, wants him to own me. I glance around, no idea
where we’d stopped, and see no one, no lights, just some dark street.

“Raise the top,” I boss him, running my tongue along
his neck.

I’m about to remind him what it feels like to be
with me. And show him it doesn’t always have to be sweet lovemaking either. I
can be his love, delicate and gentle, or anything else he needs, but right now I’m
about to alpha mama all over him.

I unbutton his shirt, kissing every glorious inch of
his chest as it’s exposed, his fingers digging into my hips with more and more urgency.
A rumble starts growing in his throat and he pushes himself up into me as hard
as I grind myself down onto him.  Aroused and tingling from scalp to toes, I
moan brazenly and feel a rush of heated moisture between my legs from our
taunting game of up and down, push and pull, cat and mouse. Next is the button
on his jeans, and when he tries to still my hand by covering it with his, I
defiantly flick my wrist, and his hand, off mine.

“Yes,” I bite out, deadly serious. I dare him,
meeting the fire in his brown eyes with my own, to even think about stopping me
again.

“Laney, we—” he starts, chest rising and falling
with his invigorated breaths.

Using my knees, I raise myself off him, not-so-sexily
working off my pants but leaving on my panties, then quickly tugging his pants
and boxers to his hips. He raises himself, not really putting up the fight
despite trying to stop me with his words.

“We are gonna do this, right here, right now.” I
nibble on his bottom lip and run my hands up his bare chest, circling my index
fingers around his nipples and giving him my best “come fuck me” eyes.

“You sure, baby?” he moans, taking his hardness in
hand and running the tip up and down the soaked crotch of my panties, teasing
me, giving me the chance to change my mind…or to beg for it.

“God, yes,” I’m lost, hands tugging at his hair,
mouth moving rhythmless and crazed over his neck, trekking down slowly to his chest,
now covered in a slight sheen of anticipation and fragrant of musky, virile man.

“Back pocket, wallet,” he pants, “grab it for me.
Hurry.”

He tears my panties apart and off in one masterful
move, tossing them on the dash and enflaming me with that conceited wink of his,
using his nimble, seeking fingers to make it impossible for me to successfully
retrieve anything from anywhere. Instead, I bow my back, head touching the
steering wheel now.

“Grab my wallet, Laney, or my hand’s gotta leave
you.”

The threat of losing his touch snaps me back into
reality. As fast as possible, I reach around him and dig out the condom, but
then realize he has yet again taken control…and I’m taking it back, showing him
what his woman can do.

“Scoot the seat back; give me room to work,” I
demand.

He follows my direction, using the hand not
currently driving me mad with its punishing in and out pursuit, all the while staring
at me with a wild curiosity in his eyes. His tongue trails over his bottom lip in
wicked invitation. I slink backwards, sliding to my knees on the floor board,
my heels digging into my ass. Leaning forward between his legs, I grip under
his thighs, just a hint of fingernails, and yank him forward, never breaking
our connected stares.

“This time,
you’re
gonna be a good boy.” I
lean in and give him a one long base-to-tip preview lick. “And you’ll do
exactly as I say.”

The guttural noise that escapes him may be the
sexiest thing I’ve ever heard. “For you,” he throws back his head and groans,
“anything.”

“Put your hands behind your head,” I trace one
finger under his boys, back to front, “move them and I stop. Understand?”

“Mmm, for you,” he hums, looking down, intent on
catching every second of the show.

One finger becomes my whole hand, rolling his balls
with enough roughness to satisfy him, to make sure he
knows
I’ve got
him. Unable to help himself, he takes himself in one hand, rubbing up and down
slowly, so as promised, I lean back, depriving him of all contact from me. My
brows raise and I tilt my head to the side, waiting for him to move that hand
or tell me we’re done.

 “You better get that sweet mouth on me soon or I’m
taking back the reins,” he warns, his voice low, throaty, and very menacing.

“Get that hand back up then.”

With a sexy but warning pout, he inches his hand
back behind his head in slow motion. The storm brewing in his eyes tells me my
sexy as hell control freak is about to lose his ever-loving mind.

Feeling empowered, I pooch out my duck lips, kissing
up one side of his dick and down the other, wet, sloppy kisses. “Now what?” I
ask innocently, trying to let him have some facet of authority…but low and
behold, I see one hand creeping back down from my periphery.

 “Uh, uh, uh, Mr. Kendrick, no hands.
Tell me
.”
I turn his sexy language on him.

“Suck all of me down, baby,” he whines, shifting in
his seat, just dying from this transfer of power. “Laney! Fuck!”

He moans then shouts as I take him in all at once,
tightening my lips around him and hinting with my teeth on the upstroke. It
stretches the corners of my mouth impossibly, leaving the faintest hint of
saltiness at the back of my tongue and I suck with abandon, bobbing up and down
like a dashboard doll, wanting
for once
to be the one setting the pace,
driving
him
mad, making
him
shake uncontrollably and shriek
my
name.

I’m pulled off him, catching my bearings and breathing
as he pants down into my face, an almost painful grip on my upper arms.
Oh
yeah
. He’s at that place he always takes
me
to…Fuck Me ‘Fore I Die
Town. Using my teeth to rip open the condom, I grin, reveling in this moment,
and begin to roll it over him.

 “You ready for me?” I blink flirtatiously,
wondering if I can actually get fire to come out of his nose.

He laughs, deep and loud, almost evilly, and grabs
under my arms, pulling me up on his lap at the speed of light.

“Spread those legs and straddle me.” His voice
leaves no room for argument. He has hit ground zero and my role as chief is
over. My legs go apart and slide down on either side of his hips. “Soak my hand
first,” he demands, two fingers mercilessly gaining entrance as his thumb rubs
circles right where it needs to. “You drive me crazy, baby, teasing me. Now be
my good girl.” He kisses me, biting and tugging my lip painfully, then
apologizing with a smooth lick. “Move with it; fuck my hand just how you want,”
he croons as he ambidextrously uses his left hand to pull down my shirt and bra
cup, sucking one painfully hard nipple into his mouth. “Give it to me, Laney. Come
for your man.” He bites down on the point and I explode, screaming his name
through the shakes of my body and trembling of my thighs.

“Dane,” I moan, coming down from the high only he
can send me on, “so good. So good.”

He pulls his fingers out, licking me deliberately
off him. “Mmmmm baby,” he rumbles, then grips that hand around his base, “take
me there too, baby. Get on this,” he demands, his voice low and gritty, “and slide
down real slow.”

Teasingly, euphorically, I take him in me, the
physical connection shadowed only by the emotional one. It doesn’t matter where
we are, it always feels right. When my body is flush against his, I whimper as
he growls, kneading the breast he’d bared manically.

“There’s my girl.” He thrusts up into me,
emphasizing his murmured point. “Kiss me, hard.”

Gladly, my lips fly to his, tasting his lust for me.
A quake runs through him and I feel him throb inside me as he purrs in my
mouth, “so close, with me, again baby.” He uses his grip on my hips to show me
what he wants. “Roll ‘em down and hard, yeah, fuck yeah, like that.”