The jolt as he nailed a pothole at eighty miles an hour rattled her teeth, but Kendall didn’t care. That tone of voice he had used, that matter-of-fact willingness to admit he wanted her, had her shifting on her seat, inner thighs moist. “I wasn’t trying to be hot.”
“Well, it was. You are. And I’m taking you home.”
“So you said.” Kendall cleared her throat, a tightness, an anticipation, closing it off. “And I believe my answer was yes, so get the lead out, Monroe. My grandma drives faster than you do.”
He laughed. “Oh, little girl, you are asking for trouble.”
“I already got me some trouble, and it’s driving my car. What I’m asking is for you to hurry on up so I can get laid.” Much as with her car, she felt the need to show Evan who was boss.
Not that she was in control of him or herself or anything else for that matter. One hour and a smoldering kiss and she was letting him nail her on the hood of her car, but why make it any easier for him than it already was?
“Yes, ma’am.” Evan slammed on the brakes as he approached the main road, and barely glanced left before jumping her car from dirt to the pavement.
Knowing she had no business saying anything after she’d just urged him to speed, Kendall bit her lip and tried not to consider the damage her shocks might be sustaining. It didn’t matter. The truth was, she was having a great time. A few hours earlier, she wouldn’t have thought she could spend five minutes with Evan without wanting to choke the life out of him, and yet he was making her laugh and loosen up more than she had in months.
This was the way she remembered what it was like to be with him—a lot of teasing and laughter and joy. And the heat. The sexual tension that had always been taut between them like a high wire.
It was all still there and it was exciting. Exhilarating. Scary as hell.
Maybe it was just the high of relief. The giddy sensation of knowing that Evan had cared about her. That he hadn’t been some kind of misogynist insulting his girlfriend.
Whatever it was, when they cruised past the grocery store and into the town house complex, Kendall was anticipating what was ahead for her in Evan’s bed more than she was looking backwards at the past.
EVAN tried to keep it under the speed limit, but it was damn hard. He was enjoying both driving Kendall’s car, and the bold looks she was shooting him. Combined, they had him eager to get her home and in his bed, and he found his foot pressure increasing repeatedly, before he got a grip and eased up again.
Thank God it was a short ride.
This was nuts. A complete twist on his day that he could have never anticipated, but he wasn’t one to turn down a golden opportunity. Not just to have sex. He was damn glad he and Kendall had cleared the air. It eased the hurt, the bitter rejection he’d felt, to hear her apology, to understand that she’d been hurt, too, and had reacted immaturely. The fact that she could admit that it had been on the childish side gave him a respect for her. If you couldn’t look back at your mistakes and take responsibility, then you were never going to grow and change. Evan could see now that he had wasted a lot of time taking his hurt over Kendall out on other women or, more specifically, on the concept of relationships in general.
That had occurred to him somewhere on turn two of that old dirt track, as Kendall had sparred with him and he’d found himself enjoying her company in the way he hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s company in a very long time.
Tomorrow meant nothing. He knew that. He knew enough about women, and Kendall specifically, to know that tomorrow she would wake up and regret that she’d had sex with him so quickly, and she would go weird. She would say they’d gotten swept up in past feelings and that they had both needed the closure.
But they’d already had sex once, and she hadn’t balked yet, so he was determined to enjoy her while it lasted. Hell, maybe those things were true. Maybe he was getting carried away. Yet when he pulled into his drive and she put her hand over his, her fingers cool and soft, gripping his fist as she shifted gears with him, he really wasn’t sure.
“Don’t trust me?” he asked. “I know how to put it in park.”
“I know. I’m just reasserting my equality. My way of saying we got here together.”
Something squeezed inside his chest at the word together. That shit had to stop if he was going to stay cool and in control. Evan took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and lifting them to his mouth. He brushed his lips across her knuckles, watching as her eyes went wide.
Pausing for a second while he nibbled at her flesh, Evan raised an eyebrow and told her, “Nice try. I was driving.”
Her mouth dropped open, then her eyes narrowed. “So that’s how you want to play? What if I just dump you here in your driveway and go home.”
“You won’t.” He hoped like hell she wouldn’t.
“I think I will.”
But Kendall’s plan to achieve this had her leaning right across Evan to try to open his door in some futile effort to kick him out.
Which meant that she was splayed all across him, her arms brushing his chest, her chest brushing his thighs, her hair tickling his arm. Her position was remarkably similar to that of a woman going down on a man, and Evan felt an erection spring to life instantly.
This was not her brightest move yet.
“Kendall?” he told her, running his hands through her hair as she wiggled and grappled with the door handle. “You do realize you’re in danger of getting your eye poked out.”
“Huh?”
She glanced up at him, then down. Suddenly going still, Kendall gave a little cough, and he could actually feel the warmth of her breath through his jeans, which didn’t help his problem at all.
“You don’t really want to kick me out, do you?” Shifting slightly, he bumped her arm. Unintentionally, of course.
Kendall lost her balance and her face fell in his lap. He really hadn’t meant for that to happen, and the unexpected contact, her mouth and nose bumping him, had him groaning before he clamped his lips closed.
“You’re a jerk,” she muttered into his crotch.
“I swear, I didn’t mean to do that.” He had his moments of being a sex-driven pig, he could own that, but he really hadn’t meant to toss her face into his dick. That went against all the rules of having a good time and respecting each other. “Let me help you up.”
Trying to scoot away from her, and having no success, Evan tried to lift Kendall up by her waist. That wasn’t working either. She was a tangle of limbs and outerwear, with the gearshift jabbing her side and the steering wheel impeding his attempts to right her body. Feeling uncomfortable, like she was going to think he wasn’t trying, Evan leaned forward, his plan to at least send the seat backwards to give them more room to maneuver. But Kendall put a hand on his chest to stop him.