Shelter for Adeline (8 page)

The bucket jerked as the ladder slowly started to unfold and Adeline staggered. Crash put one arm around her waist to steady her and held on to the side of the bucket with the other. “Easy. I’ve got you. Hold on to the rail. You’ll be fine. Let me know if it gets too high.”

Adeline nodded and grabbed onto the metal rail with both hands. They slowly rose higher and higher until they reached the top of the ladder’s extension.

They were about a hundred feet in the air, way above the treetops and able to clearly see above all the buildings in the area. The skyline of San Antonio was easily visible in the distance as well.

Adeline sighed. “It’s so beautiful.”

Crash noticed she hadn’t let go of her death grip on the side of the bucket. She was enjoying the view, smiling, but it was obvious she wasn’t comfortable. It didn’t sit well with him.

Moving slowly, knowing he was overstepping the unwritten rules of firstdatedom, he did it anyway.

He came up behind her and wrapped both hands around her waist and pulled her into him. He wasn’t as tall as some of his friends, only topping out around six feet, but he was tall enough for Adeline to feel petite in his arms. Her head was about his shoulder height and she fit against him perfectly.

Crash wanted to put one arm around her shoulder to lie between her breasts and the other on her stomach, right below her belly button, but knew that would be too intimate for two people who were still getting to know each other. Instead, he settled for resting both hands at her sides along her waistline. He leaned over until his chin rested on her shoulder and their heads were side by side.

“Hang on to me if you need to. Relax. I’ve got you.”

She slowly lifted her hands from the rail and they fluttered around a moment before settling over his hands. Making a move he never would’ve guessed she’d do, she pulled his hands off her waist and wrapped them around herself until they were crossed in front of her. She then moved her hands to his waist and hooked her thumbs into the belt loops at his sides.

Damn.

His breathing hitched and Crash closed his eyes for a moment. Yes. He liked this.

He liked it even more when Adeline put her head back and rested it on his shoulder.

“Is this okay?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, beautiful. This is more than okay.”

They stood like that without speaking for at least ten minutes. Watching as the sun got lower and lower on the horizon. Cicadas started their mating song in the warm air and lights slowly came on around the city below them. Porch lights, streetlamps, headlights from cars, even the downtown buildings lit up.

As if they were in a world of their own and the slightest sound would break the mood, Adeline whispered, “That was amazing.”

“Yeah,” Crash responded in the same low voice.

“I needed this after the week I had.”

“I’m sorry you had a crap week, beautiful. But I’m glad I could end it on a high note for you.”

“Me too.” She turned in his arms until they were face to face, chest to chest, legs against legs. Looking up, she licked her lips as if she was nervous, then told him, “Thank you for asking me out.”

“Thank you for saying yes,” Crash returned, not able to take his eyes off her mouth. It was getting dark, but there was still enough light to see her clearly. Her lipstick had long since disappeared, but her lips were still red and lush. Out of the corner of his eye he could see, and feel, her breasts rising and falling against his chest. He knew if he looked down he’d be able to get quite the eyeful, but he was too fascinated by her lips.

He wanted to taste her. Needed to feel her lips moving under his. To twine his tongue with hers. They had chemistry, there was no denying it, but he wanted to take it a step further, to see if they would be as explosive together as he imagined. But it had to be her choice. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

“Do you think your friends can see us?”

The question shocked him for a moment. Crash wasn’t sure he liked that Adeline was thinking about Moose and Taco when she was standing so close to him. He shrugged. “Maybe. But they won’t be looking at us.”

“Why not?”

“Because they’re my friends. They might be serving as safety monitors, but they’re too good of friends, and men, to make you feel uncomfortable for even one second. And you knowing they were watching us would make you uncomfortable. So they won’t do it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I’d do the same thing if it was me down there, and they were up here with a pretty woman they were desperately trying to impress.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

Crash smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“Well, it’s working. I’m impressed.”

“Yeah?” This time it was a question.

“Uh huh. Know what would impress me more?”

“What’s that?”

They were both still whispering.

“If you’d kiss me.”

Crash waited one beat then without a word, dipped his head, just as she went up on her tiptoes.

Their lips met and Crash would swear he saw sparks behind his eyes. At first he lightly brushed his lips across hers, sipping and teasing. But when Adeline let out a small note of impatience…and desire…he couldn’t hold back.

One hand came up to the back of her head and the other went to the small of her back, under her shirt, seeking warm skin. He opened his mouth and ran his tongue along the seam of her lips. Without any more coaxing she opened for him. Crash’s tongue surged inside her mouth as he pressed his hand to her back and brought her flush against his body.

Without any finesse or thinking about his technique, Crash devoured her, wanting to get closer to her. Their tongues dueled together, and he growled deep in his throat when she sucked on him as if she were devouring his dick.

The thought went from his head straight to his dick, and before he could even think about trying to hold back to keep from freaking Adeline way the hell out, he was pushing her hips against his rock-hard cock. Using his tongue to show her what he really wanted to be doing to her body, he thrust in and out of her at the same time he rocked against her.

Adeline gasped and pulled back an inch, breathing as hard as if she’d run the dreaded 5k race she’d mentioned earlier. Not wanting to lose contact with her, Crash moved his lips to her neck, licking and nipping at her skin, loving how she squirmed against him.

He made his way back up to her mouth and teased her. Licking, but not entering. When she was chasing his lips with her own, he settled back in, letting her take the lead. Her tongue swept into his mouth and he moaned with the carnality of her actions, taking what she wanted and not letting shyness or their location hold her back.

Knowing he had to stop, but not wanting to, Crash ended their kiss by taking her bottom lip between his and sucking lightly. He let it go with a pop and moved his mouth to the sensitive skin below her ear.

His hand stayed behind her head, keeping her tucked into him, and his brain finally kicked in and realized that instead of warm skin, all he felt with the hand at her back was thick material.

Without lifting his head, he whispered, “What is this?”

“Corset.” Her voice was shaky and still low.

The word did the one thing he would’ve sworn he’d never be able to do—made him pull back from her.

“What?”

“It’s a corset.” Adeline looked embarrassed now. “Not like the ones from the eighteen hundreds or anything, and it’s not really all that tight, but I like how it makes me look and feel.”

Crash closed his eyes, assailed by a vision of her standing in front of him with nothing on but a sexy-as-fuck corset and a tiny pair of undies. His hand tensed at her back and he tried to bring himself under control.

“You don’t like it.” It wasn’t a question. “I know that men typically like skimpy lingerie on a woman, and I feel good in it, but if you don’t—”

“Hush,” Crash ordered.

“But—”

“Adeline. I swear to God…I’m hanging on by a thread here.” He opened his eyes and looked at her. “I’m trying to be a gentleman, but between the most amazing kiss I’ve ever had in my life, and the vision of you standing in front of me wearing nothing but a corset and a pair of panties…I just need a minute. Okay?”

She smiled then. A wide smile that he could barely see in the darkness that now surrounded them. “Okay.”

Crash took a deep breath and decided he must be a glutton for punishment. “What color?”

“What color what?”

“What color is your corset?”

“Black.”

“Damn. And it’s got ribbons holding it together?”

She shrugged. “Sorta. There are snaps in the front, which makes it easier to put on by myself, but yeah, if the ribbons are undone in the back it’ll come off.”

Crash moved the hand that had been on the back of her head and traced her collarbone with his index finger. He
really
wanted to run it over the tops of her breasts, which he could barely see, but knew a first date wasn’t the time and this really wasn’t the place. “I’ve never seen a woman in one.”

“Really?” She sounded skeptical.

“Really. I’ve seen actresses wearing them in movies, and I might’ve seen one in a porn video or two, but I imagine that you’d look very different.”

“Yeah,” she breathed harshly. “I weigh way more than any of them.”

Not liking her tone, Crash leaned over and brushed his lips over the skin his fingertips had just skimmed. She shivered under him. “I wasn’t being derogatory, beautiful. Far from it. I can picture it. Your waist nipped in by the material, your tits spilling over the top, begging to be released. You have no idea the things I want to do to you while you’re wearing that corset.”

“Dean…”

“Yeah, beautiful. And I have a good imagination. You over me, the first couple of snaps undone so your nipples have popped free, riding me—fuck!” Crash let go of Adeline so quickly she staggered. He stepped away and turned his back to her, holding on to the railing as tightly as she’d done earlier.

“I’m sorry. Jesus, I’m so sorry. I was way out of line. Shit.” Crash took a deep breath, then another, trying to get himself under control. The vision of her riding his cock as he watched her tits bouncing up and down had been so vivid he would’ve sworn it was a memory rather than a fantasy.

Crash knew to the marrow of his bones, when—hopefully not if—he saw her in the corset, she’d be the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. And he wanted it. Wanted her. More than anything he’d ever wanted before.

“Dean.”

He felt her small hand on the middle of his back and he tensed. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“It’s okay. You weren’t out of line.”

“Yeah, I was,” he countered, still not turning around.

Adeline’s arms wrapped around him from behind and came to rest on his pecs. She laid her cheek on his back. “You weren’t out of line, because I imagined your lips moving from my collarbone down my chest, as you licked and sucked your way down.”

One of his hands moved from the railing to envelope hers on his chest. He stayed silent and held on.

“Not only that, but I had a sudden vision of dropping to my knees right here, high above the ground, and seeing if you’re as big as you feel. Taking you out of your pants and sucking you off right here, right now.”

Crash closed his eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks that he hadn’t repulsed or turned her off with his earlier words.

He turned in her embrace and pulled her closer. Not trusting himself to kiss her again; now
he
had the image of her in that damn corset on her knees in front of him, his cock between her lips.

“I guess it’s safe to say we’re attracted to each other,” he said dryly.

She giggled and nodded against him. “Yeah.”

“When can I see you again, beautiful?”

Adeline looked up at that and shrugged. “Whenever you want.”

Crash brought a hand up and smoothed her hair away from her face. It was too dark to really see any details of her face anymore, but he could still picture her clear as day in his mind. “I love that you don’t play games. Thank you. Unfortunately, tomorrow I start a seventy-two hour shift. Then I have forty-eight hours off. Then I do it again.”

Crash saw a flash of her white teeth as she bit her lip. “I have a new client and next week will be busy for me. It’s always tough when I first start with someone new. Lots of phone conferences and back and forth brainstorming about ideas. I’m usually exhausted by the time I get home.”

“Fuck. Okay. We’ll figure it out. Next Sunday for sure?”

“You’ll need to sleep, won’t you?”

Crash kissed the top of Adeline’s head. She was so sweet. “Not really. We sleep when we’re on shift. Yeah, we get calls, but we usually get plenty of shut-eye between them. Besides, I’d rather spend time with you than sleep.”

“Then I’d like that,” she whispered.

“We’ll text and talk on the phone until then though.”

“Yeah?”

Crash pulled back a bit. “You think we can go over a week without talking to each other?”

He felt her shrug.

“Well, I can’t,” he said definitively. “I like you, Adeline. I want to know how your day’s been. I want to know if Douglas has been giving you shit. How you’re feeling. If you’re thinking about me. What your sister thinks about our first date, ‘cause I know you’re gonna call her tomorrow and talk to her about me and tonight.” He smiled, remembering the text Adeline had received earlier that night from Alicia. She’d shown it to him. Her sister had wanted to know if she needed to put into motion “Operation First Date Dud.”

Adeline had explained that it was code for her sister calling with a fake emergency, and she’d let him watch as she’d replied to her sister that there was no need for the drastic measures, that she was having a great time and would talk to her tomorrow.

“We’re gonna make this work, Adeline. If you think I’m gonna let you go without getting to see you in that corset, you’re crazy.”

“Okay. Sunday. But this time I get to pick where we go and what we do.”

“Deal. You gonna let me pick you up this time?”

“Maybe.”

“Adeline,” he growled.