The Keys to Jericho (88 page)

I smile and hand her the rose. “Hey, Kit Kat.”

“How sweet! Thank you!”

“That’s me, apparently.”

Kat hugs me and asks, “What are you doing with the Nissan?”

“Felt like driving it.”

Not believing me, she mumbles, “More like
me
driving it.”

“Bingo.”

She rolls her eyes and lets go of me. “How’s Hadley doing?”

“Okay. She took our announcement a little hard.”

“She did? Oh. She doesn’t like me?” Kat bites on her lip, probably worried that Hadley doesn’t like her.

“No. It’s not that. She said she does. In fact, she thinks you’re pretty.”

Kat smiles. “No, she doesn’t. Did she really say that?”

“Yep, but I have to disagree.” I kiss her cheek and whisper, “You’re gorgeous.”

Kat does the humming thing and I move back to the car before I get carried away. Crossing my arms again, I say, “Hadley’s upset because she thinks it’ll never happen for her and Finn.”

“He won’t marry her? Really?”

Sighing, I say, “I have no idea, but I changed my mind about it. He can, too.”

Kat giggles. “I’m so glad you did.”

I shrug. “I wasn’t totally against the idea.”

“Your heart was locked up so tight, though. I never thought I was going to get it opened.”

“It never was locked to you. You were the only one with the key to it.”

Smiling as her gaze rakes over me in the best way possible, she asks, “Why am I meeting you down here? Can’t we go inside so you can come inside?” She giggles at her word play and I roll my eyes to hide that I want to do exactly that.

“Nope.” Handing her the keys, I nod to the car. “Drive.”

She pouts, “I’d rather be naked with you, moaning your name.” Yeah, so would I. Fuck.

I clear my throat. “Not right now. You need to focus so you can practice before your test. It’s only two weeks away. You can’t get blasé about it.”

“Can’t we let off some steam first before driving? I’ll be able to focus more then, instead of thinking about us in bed.”

I bite the inside of my cheek before saying, “No, because then we won’t want to get out of bed. Drive first. Play later.”

She sighs. “Can I at least give you a kiss?”

I shake my head. “No way. I know where that’ll lead. You. Driver’s seat. Now.”

Her eyes take on a wicked gleam. “No sex in the car?”

“Not in my grandmother’s car. I won’t even be able to get a hard-on in there.”

Smiling at me, she says, “I guess ditching my underwear was pointless.”

“Shit.” If I don’t make this her shortest drive, it will be
my
longest.

Pulling her to me, I say, “Goddamn it. Let’s get this over with. You have a fiancé to fuck.”

Kat not-so-innocently bats her eyelashes. “I’m sorry. I don’t sleep with my driving instructors.”

“You won’t be sleeping, baby. Trust me. I can go all night with you.”

“I don’t doubt you, but I only handle my fiancé’s stick.”

“You’re definitely an expert at shifting my gears.”

“What is it, 0 to 60 in 3 something?” She licks her bottom lip, enjoying how she’s turned the tables on me.

“Fuck, you’re faster than that. Why don’t we go upstairs and we can race the clock?”

“Huh-uh. I need to drive.”

She giggles and I glance over to her mother’s, and then around us, before I grab Kat’s hand and put it on my cock. “You’re good at revving engines.”

“And you said it couldn’t be done.”

“I’m not in the car yet. Now, either we go upstairs, or take me some place where we can fuck in the backseat.”

“In this car?”

“Yeah. Where I taught you how to drive and we had our first kiss. It would be wrong not to christen it, don’t you think?”

“Nope. You’re right. No sex in this car. Out of respect for your grandmother.”

I sigh. “You’re going to make this drive excruciating, aren’t you?”

Kat laughs. “Maybe. Just so you’ll want me even more.”

She dives into the driver’s seat and going to the passenger side, I get in and mutter, “I brought the wrong damn car.”

Twisting, she lightly tosses the rose onto the backseat and says, “Yep.”

Moving her hand back to my erection through my jeans, she says, “I guess you learned
your
lesson the hard way.”

“Very funny. Both hands on the wheel, student driver.”

“Yes, Mr. Beckett.”

As she strokes me, I say, “Holy fuck. Maybe you
should
practice driving with only one hand. It’s practical, right?”

Putting her hand on the steering wheel, she says, “No. My instructor says both hands on the wheel.”

I lean over to her. “Come on, Mrs. Beckett. You can handle my stick all you want. Your next orgasm is right on the tip of it.”

She gasps and reaches for the door handle. “Let’s go upstairs. Now.”

Now that the ball is back in my court, I laugh. “Nope. Drive.”

“You’re right.” She starts the car and says, “Having sex in the shower with you or on the silk sheets I put on the bed would in no way be helpful. I’m so glad you set me straight.”

“What?” I mournfully ask.

She shrugs as she puts the car in reverse. “Oh, well. It’s time to focus on traffic rules, parts of a car, and driving etiquette. Did you know the first stop sign was white with black letters?”

“Goddamn it. You just sunk my fucking battleship.”

She laughs. “What in the hell does that mean?”

Resigned to the fact that we’re doing just as I had planned to do, I sigh, which turns into a laugh. “Just drive, Kit Kat.”

“I’ll drive the car, but then I’ll drive you wild.”

Fucking hell. She’s perfect.

I think I might just marry her.

CHAPTER 33

“Let me see it.”

“This picture looks worse than on my permit!”

“No way. Impossible.”

“I tried smiling, but this is horrendous!” she whines with a pouted laugh.

Snatching it from her hand, I look at her driver’s license picture. Her shy smile makes me proudly grin. Looking over at Kat, I say, “Congratulations, Kit Kat. You’re now a licensed driver in the State of Maryland.”

Starting the car, she grins and says, “That’ll change again, though, when we move to Virginia.”

“True, but I’ll have to change mine twice, too. Just think, next time, you’ll be changing your
name
.”

She shrugs. “I might keep Merrick.”

I frown as she glances at me before looking over her shoulder to back out of the space. “Why? What’s wrong with Beckett?”

She counters, “What’s wrong with Merrick?”

“Nothing. I just thought you’d take my name.”

Kat pulls onto the road and says, “You can always take mine.”

I narrow my eyes at the windshield and shake my head. “Jared Merrick. It sounds too rhymey.”

She giggles. “Is that a word? Kat Beckett sounds funny, too, doesn’t it?”

Shifting my gaze back to her, I say, “It’s perfect.”

Kat says, “I could always hyphenate it to Merrick-Beckett.”

I scowl at the dashboard and then at her profile. “That sounds like a disease or a law firm. Have fun getting little kids to call you Mrs. Merrick-Beckett.”

She nods, laughing. “Very true.”

“So Katriona Beckett it is.” As Kat stops at a red light, I grin at her. She rolls her eyes and snatches back her license, tossing it into the console tray.

Kat asks, “When am I going to meet your grandmother? I’d like to thank her for letting me use her car for so long.”

The light turns green and I say, “Don’t forget about thanking her for having such a sexy grandson, too. And no, not my cousin Gary, either.”

Making a left turn, she laughs. “I’m all over that.”

Leaning my head against the seat, I roll my head to her and ask, “Well, can you be all over her grandson Jared, too?”

She glances at me and says, “Later.”

I heave a sigh as I tug on my bill. “I guess we can visit her, since you got off work early to get your license. Maybe she’ll even feed us.”

“Such a good grandson you are.”

Smirking at her, I say, “I have to build my strength to keep up with you.”

She incredulously laughs. “
Me
? Right. You can’t keep it in your pants.”

I boldly grin. “Yep. I’m out of control now. I guess you’d better drive me back to your place, so you can ravish me before we go eat.”

Kat laughs louder. “You are shameless! And definitely out of control!”

Reaching over, I drag my finger along her thigh. “Come on, Kit Kat. This is my last weekend before I start work Monday. I don’t want to spend all our time together in this damn car.” I grin, staring at her tits. “Unless we’re naked.”

She sighs and I look up to her surprisingly hopeful smile. “I know, but I thought you could take me car shopping.”

Sitting up, I smirk, pushing up on my cap, feeling suddenly inspired. “Oh, yeah, baby.”

Kat rolls her eyes and laughs. “Get that look out of your eyes, Sonic.”

Rubbing my hands together, I say, “I have some ideas for you.”

“I’m sure you do, but I already know what I want.”

I argue, “You do not.”

“I do, too.”

I scoff, “What? My ideas aren’t just for looks. They’re safe.” I shrug and lean back, crossing my arms. “A Dodge Charger comes in an automatic.”

Briefly peering over at me, she doubtfully asks, “You really want me driving the same car as you?”

I shrug. “Why not? We can even get
Mr. and Mrs.
or
His and Hers
scrawled across the hoods.” She glances at me, and I bite my lip to keep a straight face.

As Kat frowns, her nose wrinkles. “That’s not happening. I don’t want that car, anyway.”

The urge to smile disappears and I dejectedly ask, “Why not? What’s wrong with my car?”

“It’s you, not me.”

“Fuck. If you were writing me off, I’d hope you say it was you and
not
me,” I tease. Kat looks over her shoulder to merge with traffic and I ask, “Kind of like how blue contacts and heavy makeup aren’t you, either?”

“Yeah. Something like that.” She laughs. “But the purple hair
was
me?”

“I liked the purple. I’d want my teacher to have purple hair. It’s fucking hot.”

“And I’d be fired if you were my student.”

I grin. “You could always private tutor me. I need so much help, Mrs. Beckett.”

She giggles, but shouts, “Stop calling me that! It’s bad luck!”

“We’ll elope. No more bad juju.” Damn dog.

Kat laughs, shaking her head at the windshield. “We’re not eloping.”

I say, “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not. Do you know how many times I almost told you that I love you?”

Shaking my head back at her, I scoff, “Do you know how many times I told
you
without saying the fucking words?”

Kat sighs. “I thought maybe you were, but with everything you said about not believing in it, I kept telling myself to stop seeing what I wanted to see.”

“And I thought maybe
I
was, but I kept telling myself to stop feeling what I really wanted to feel.”

Kat slows the car to a red light, and turning to me, she says, “Stop, before I change my mind and fuck you in your grandmother’s car.”

Raising an eyebrow, I lick my lips and whisper, “Bring it on, Kitty Kat.”

“Oh, I will when we christen my new car tonight.”

“You’re going to make me wait
that
long?”

Kat pushes on my arm. “We made love last night, Jared, which sent me to work this morning with a gigantic smile on my face.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Merrick. I guess that makes me the teacher’s pet?”

Giggling, she says, “Indeed it does. You can’t wait a few hours for more of me?”

“Not when our time is limited. We need to fuck like crazy now, before we’re restricted to weekends like my sister.”

“She’s not
that
restricted. She could change it more easily than we can.”

“Yeah, I know, but she has her reasons.”

“I know, and I admire her for that, but Finn might have his, too. If one of them doesn’t give, then I don’t see how they’re going to work.”

“They’ve made it over two years like this.”

“Well, that may be a good sign or the beginning of the end if they can’t find a middle ground.”

“Yeah. She’s a Beckett, though.”

“Stubborn as hell.”

“Hey! I hear you Merricks aren’t that bendable, either.”

She nods. “Only when it counts.”

“In bed.”

“Yep.”

Sighing, I roll my eyes with a reluctant smile. “It’s going to suck having blue balls during the week.”

Taking her hand off the wheel, she pats my cheek as I pout. “I know, baby. I guess we’ll have to try phone sex then.”

“Both hands on the— What? We’ll actually do that?”

She shrugs and giggles at my gaping expression. “Why not? You scared?”

“Uh, no. Definitely not scared.” I’ll just be talking to her on the phone, while we’re both beating off, not that we didn’t do some of that before, but damn. I’m used to beating off in my shower alone, only having her voice in my mind.

Kat says, “And then during my breaks, I can stay with you during the week, so you can go to work with a gigantic smile on
your
face.”

I teasingly groan. “Baby, I’d make The Joker look depressed.”

Watching her as she stares out the windshield, she bites her lip as she grips the steering wheel tighter. Clearing her throat, she changes the subject, “You should spend some time with Dash, too, you know.”

I grin, knowing that I’m turning her on, but answer, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll help him at the shop tomorrow morning.”

“Go fishing with him or something, too.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

She glances away from the road to me. “No, but I’m taking up all your time now, and then when we get married, we’ll be moving away soon after.”

I roll my eyes. “Fine. I’m still pissed at him about what he was doing with my sister.”

“They really didn’t do anything.”

“Tell that to Finn. If he had been there, Dash wouldn’t have acted like that, and if he had, Dash wouldn’t be getting around without the use of a wheelchair.”

“You wouldn’t have hurt him.”

“I wouldn’t? If he hurt my sister?”

I can see her rolling her eyes at the windshield. “He wasn’t hurting your sister.”

“Okay, but I most likely wouldn’t have been the one putting him in a wheelchair.”

“Finn seems like a nice guy. He wouldn’t do that.”

I take off my hat, fluffing up my hair. “You, my dad, and even Hadley all think he’s a calm, laidback guy. You’d think Hadley would know her own boyfriend, but if she thinks he’s not jealous of other guys, then she doesn’t know him. Finn might appear cool and confident on the surface, and to his fans, but shit, he’s an insecure time bomb. And that’s the impression he gave me while we were just fishing. I saw it during dinner, in the car, and at the club, too. I even heard it while he was fucking my sister.”

As I put my hat back on my head, Kat shrieks, “Holy fuck, Jared! You heard them?”

I scowl as I recall that memory. “Shit, yes. I can’t believe my dad didn’t.”

“They were that loud?”

“Not really, but the walls are thin and Finn’s voice is deep. Plus, her bed squeaked in tune with them. Goddamn it, I’ll never be able to unhear the things I heard.”

“Hadley would say the same about you if she heard us, I’m sure.”

I grin at her. “Probably, since you’re such a wildcat in bed.”

She laughs, but blandly says, “Yeah, that’s me.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be. By all means, scream and growl all you want. I won’t mind. I promise.”

Kat laughs more and says, “Damn, Sonic. You’re something else.”

“I think I told
you
that before.”

“Maybe.”

I sigh before I continue, “Anyway, I guess I’m more observant about Finn than all of you.”

“How come you perceive your sister’s boyfriend’s feelings better than you could mine, or yours, even?”

I shrug. “How come shrinks can’t fix themselves or their own lives?”

“True.”

As Kat pulls into a parking lot, I look up at the dealership sign. “Are you damn serious?”

“I did my Internet research. I’m positive.”

“Unbelievable.”

Kat parks the Nissan and grabbing her purse, she walks to a row of shiny, brand new cars. Walking up behind her, as she looks one over, I put my arms around her shoulders, holding her to me. “Are you sure?”

“Yep. This is what I want.” She digs out a paper from her purse and holds it up for me. “It’s all right here.”

Taking it, I look over the printout as the salesman approaches. I smugly grin. “Black?”

“Of course.”

“They might not have it in stock.”

“I’ll wait. I’m good at waiting.”

I tilt my head and whisper in her ear, “I’ll make sure it’s a pleasant wait, Kit Kat.”

She whispers back, “You bet your ass you will, Jericho.”

Since the dealership had to prep Kat’s new car, we have even more time to kill.