Not waiting, I yanked her bra straps down, off her shoulders, and stared in awe at her amazing body—Tate’s body—laying bare and open for me.
I couldn’t get over the fact that she was here. Naked in my bed.
I’d loved her like a kid before, but we damn well weren’t kids anymore.
Kissing my way down her stomach, her hips, and her thighs, I dove for what I’d been dying to taste for weeks.
Hell, for longer than that.
With the tip of my tongue, I slowly licked the sweet length of the soft, wet heat between her legs.
Goddamn.
She gasped and jerked slightly. “Oh!”
I looked up, calm and amused, to see her wide-eyed, surprised look.
And I knew.
No one had touched her like that.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused.
I almost laughed.
Happiness spread like tingles across my cheeks, and it was a struggle to keep a straight face. “You’re a virgin,” I stated, almost to myself.
She didn’t say anything, only looked a little nervous, but excited as I dipped my head again and returned my attention to kissing her inner thighs.
“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” I murmured and moved my mouth back on her.
The wild taste of her center. The sweet smell of her heat. The smoothness of her on my lips and tongue. Everything had me starving for more.
Every squirm and every whimper she let out was because of what I was doing to her.
It was me she came undone for.
I sucked on the hard nub of her clit, taking it between my teeth gently and then releasing it only to claim it and suck it hard again. I gripped her hip with one hand and pushed her leg up with the other.
I sucked her long and slow, taking hold of her skin again and again, dragging it out slowly until she was gasping for release. I came back down, over and over, tasting and sucking her hard.
When I knew she was hot enough that there was no f**king way she’d ever tell me to stop, I licked.
Hot and wet.
I slid my tongue just a little inside of her and ran it up the length to her clit. Over and over again. In and up. Just the tip of my tongue. In and up. In and up. And then I swirled my tongue around her nub with the wetness of her body, and the heat of my mouth.
My dick was charged and rock f**king hard. I couldn’t think of anything else but the need to drive it inside of her.
But I didn’t. I was loving this part more than I wanted to admit.
She was in my hands, in my mouth, and I wanted her to know that I wasn’t thinking about myself right now. I wanted her to see that she had me on my f**king knees.
Looking up, I reveled in the sight of her panting with her eyebrows pinched together. Her lips were moist, and she looked like she was in the best kind of pain. Her n**ples were erect, and I reached up to knead a breast. The firmness complimented her skin’s softness, and it was just one more thing I wanted in my mouth, too.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered against her sex, “if you could see yourself from my view. Fucking beautiful.”
I worked her harder, sucking, licking, and then I plunged inside of her with my tongue. She jerked up off the bed, begging for more, and—shit—my body ached for release. I almost came right there.
Her body moved like we were f**king, her h*ps like small waves in an ocean against my mouth.
Her chest suddenly stilled like she wasn’t taking in air. She was completely silent for a few seconds, and then she moaned my name as her br**sts started to rise and fall again with hard, shallow breaths.
She was coming.
Elation spread through me like a windstorm, and I really hoped she knew that we weren’t done.
“Damn, Tate.” I ran my hand up and down her body from her breast to her hip. “Your beauty is nothing compared to how you look when you come.”
“That was...” she trailed off, hopefully feeling delightfully lost like me.
I laid my lower half on top of her and leaned over, looking down into her eyes. “I’ve wanted you for so long.”
She pushed her top half up off the bed and crushed her lips to mine, wrapping an arm around my neck. Reaching over to my bedside drawer for a condom that I didn’t want to f**king use with her, I immediately halted when I felt a lightning storm spread between my legs and branch across my thighs.
My hand crashed back down to the bed, because I almost f**king fell on top of her in shock.
Holy shit!
Tate had grabbed hold of me and was slowly moving her hand up and down my cock.
Jesus. I squeezed my eyes shut.
This was not good.
Tate deserved slow. She deserved sweet.
But I knew there was about as much chance of that happening tonight as me getting into West Point like her father wanted. She wasn’t getting slow and sweet.
I was going to f**k her crazy.
After I peeled her bra completely off, I pushed her back down onto the bed and went for her full br**sts, taking each one in my mouth and rocking my h*ps into her until we were both beyond ready.
“Jared, you ready yet?”
Huh?
A knock on the door and a male’s voice registered, making us both jerk our heads behind me.
Sam.
Sweat seeped out of my pores, and a sharp ache settled inside my dick.
Hell. No. This was not happening.
“I’m going to kill him,” I bit out and then yelled to the door. “Go downstairs!”
“We’re already late, man,” he pressed. “The car’s gassed up. Let’s go!”
How in the hell did I forget that he was going to be back? I should’ve locked the front door.
Dammit!
“I said wait downstairs, Sam!”
“Alright!” His shadow under the door disappeared.
Jesus Christ, my f**king heart was racing, I was so pissed. Tate held her arms over her chest, her eyes now embarrassed and alert.
I got off the bed and held my hands up to stop her.
“No, don’t get dressed,” I ordered. “I’m going to go get rid of him, and we’re finishing this.”
“You’re racing tonight?” she asked quietly, sitting up.
I slipped on some jeans. “Not anymore.”
Screw the race. I didn’t have the money to pay my father tomorrow, but right now, I felt like nothing could tear me apart or take me down.
Everything but her faded away.
“Jared, go. It’s fine,” she whispered, looking so different than she did a few moments ago as she stood and slipped back into her clothes. I wanted to know what was going on in her head, because it looked like she was thinking again.
I didn’t give her a chance to ruin this, though. Lifting her up, I plopped her back down on my dresser top where we could be eye to eye.
“Races aren’t important, Tate,” I growled softly, leaning into her lips. “There’s nowhere else I want to be than with you.”
Her eyes, a little happy and a little hesitant, shifted sideways before coming back to meet mine.
“Take me with you then,” she suggested, a smile teasing her lips.
“Take you with me?” I tossed it around in my head. I could earn the money I needed, and she’d be coming home with me afterwards. “Alright, go get something warmer on, and I’ll come get you when we’re ready.” I patted her thigh and walked towards the door. “And after the race,” I turned to look at her, “we’ll come back here and finish this.”
It wasn’t a request.
Her eyes, sparkling and warm, played me as she tried to hide a grin.
I sent Sam to the track ahead of us and squeezed in another shower before I picked up Tate.
Another cold one.
Chapter 28
“You look good there.” My voice carried over Volbeat’s Heaven Nor Hell as I glanced at Tate sitting in the passenger’s seat.
She was at my side, in my ride. It felt right.
“I look better in your seat,” she countered, and the memory of her racing my car came flooding back.
Yeah, I couldn’t argue with her on that.
And I damn well wasn’t forgetting how she’d tasted a half hour ago, either.
I couldn’t wait to get her back to my house, but then I saw all of the lights ahead, the cars and spectators, and in an instant, back at my house is exactly where I wanted to steer us.
Every f**king person in town was here from the looks of it. I chewed the side of my mouth, worrying about who we’d run into and what Tate would expect.
I’d always showed up to these things alone.
You’ll always be alone, because you know that’s better.
Girls liked public displays. Hand holding, hugs, cutesy shit I didn’t do, and while I would happily get territorial in private, I didn’t like giving the impression that I cared about anything in front of other people.
The crowd of cars, the eyes on us as we drove into the Loop, everything felt like a divider in the car between Tate and me.
The Volbeat song ended and another came on as my Boss crawled up the track, and I just let out a breath and decided to do what I always do.
Nothing.
Tate and I were still up in the air, and I hoped to clear that up later, but for now…things would remain simple.
After I put the car in neutral and pulled up the e-brake, Tate popped her seatbelt and reached for the door.
“Hey.” I grabbed her hand, and she turned to look at me. “I like to keep my head in the game here. If I don’t act very friendly, it has nothing to do with you, okay?”
Her eyes dropped for a split second, and I immediately wanted to take it back.
She looked back up and shrugged her shoulders. “You don’t have to hold my hand.”
I’d done it again.
Pushed her away. Hurt her.
And now her wall was up, just like it had been the past three years.
Shit.
With my father, I had to be guarded. I had to stand alone, strong. It became too hard after that horrible summer to act one way with people I didn’t trust and another way with people I held close, so I stayed distant as a rule.
And then after a while, I didn’t have a one goddamn clue how to be any other way.
I watched her climb out of the car, turning her back and keep whatever she wanted to say inside.
We were more alike than she thought.
Turning down the radio, I hopped out of the car and walked around to the front to talk to my opponent, Bran Davidson, and Zack.
Tate had walked off, and I shifted my eyes, scanning the crowd to see where she stood.
Son of a bitch.
Ben stood off to the side, and she went straight for him.
Something bitter swirled in my stomach, and I didn’t even feel the chill in the night air.
I shook my head, pissed off, and looked back to the two men who were talking to me.
“The odds are in my favor, man,” Bran teased and knocked me on the arm.
I tried not to let my decaying mood seep out in my tone. Bran was a good guy, and we were friends.
“Yeah, great,” I mumbled. “That means my win will pay off big.”
“I have a Camaro,” he pointed out like I was too stupid to realize what he was driving.
“A nearly thirty year old Camaro,” I specified, stealing glances at Tate and Ben.
They hadn’t gotten physically close. They weren’t even facing each other.
But she was smiling.