Chirp(84)

His rough hands slid down her back, and she lost her train of thought for a second. Then he pressed his lips to hers. Long, slow kisses that made her hot and wet as she rocked against him. “Will you?”

“What?”

“Move. To Houston.”

“Do we have to talk about this now?”

He leaned her against the handlebars and thrust into her harder, and she couldn’t think anymore. Only feel. His tongue against hers. His fingers clamped to her butt, pulling her closer. Burying himself deeper. All that and the throb of the bike made her crazy. He nuzzled in her ear. “Say something dirty.”

She stilled. “Like what?”

“Use your imagination.”

Her mind raced. No anatomy terms. He didn’t allow those. She swallowed hard. She’d never talked dirty in her life.

He picked up his rhythm, and every nerve in her body caught fire. With him wide-eyed and pumping into her, she fisted the grips of the handlebars.

His upper lip curled, and he gritted his teeth as if holding back a scream. “One thing, Chirp. One dirty little sentence.”

He licked into her mouth as if to coax the words out, and all that heat flared to full flame. She’d do or say anything he wanted. Panic clutched her, then she regained her wits, lowered her voice, and spoke in French.

Even if he didn’t understand that she’d said, “I’m so glad we have a dog. I think he’ll need a bath,” her delivery affected him, because now he was going at her with a vengeance. He rose from the seat, grasped her thighs with both hands, pulled her forward, and pounded into her like a madman. He grunted and growled her name against her throat. Suddenly he grabbed a handful of her hair, jerked her head back, put his mouth to her breast, and sucked the nipple in hard.

A low guttural rumble came from deep in his chest, and he plunged one last time as he released.

Resting his head against her shoulder, he caught his breath and killed the engine. “I’m never getting rid of this bike. Damn, I’m sorry, Chirp. I didn’t even let you come, but that French talk did something to me. I don’t know what you said, but it sounded nasty. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, and I did kind of have an orgasm from the motor vibration.”

“First one today? Or was that happening the whole trip?”

She ignored the question. She was done with dirty subjects. At least for now. “What about Houston? Can you live there?”

He closed his eyes, then opened them and heaved for oxygen. Even before he answered, her heart cracked.

“No, I . . .”





38


Wren


Wren flung her leg over the seat, barely missing Rance’s cheek. She grabbed the clothes, stomped across the yard, and let herself into the house with the hidden key. Within seconds, he was right behind her, yelling.

How could he do this? Come all the way to Austin, aware of her obligations, and propose marriage with no intention of living there?

As she reached the bedroom, he caught up and spun her around. She shoved against his chest. “I don’t want to hear any more taradiddle from you.” She slammed the bathroom door behind her.

“Not sure what that word means, but it has diddle in it, so it can’t be all bad.”

“Stop talking. Go away.”

“Not happening. You know I keep a key right here, so I’m coming in.” He turned the lock and stepped inside. “You didn’t let me finish. I can’t live in Houston all the time. But since you’re the boss, I figured you could set your own hours and it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

She looked at him. Big mistake. Defined muscles and broad shoulders. In spite of her anger, she wanted to touch him. He reached out and pulled her close.

“I love you, Chirp, and if I have to live there to be with you, I will. But you’ve got to understand. Every bad thing that ever happened to me, happened there. My dad leaving. Mom dying. Losing my scholarship. My friends. My freedom. Any good memories I had of that place have disappeared.”

“We’ll make new ones. I’m a hairdresser. You have a business degree. I need you to help me.”

“We’ll work it out. Split our time between here and there. Can we do that?”

She nodded, loving the way his arms felt around her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m glad you need me.” He reached over and started the shower. “Now, once that gets warm, we’ll get in and I’ll let you taradiddle me all you want.”

Even after Wren explained the word meant lying or fibbing, Rance still concentrated on the diddling part, which was fine with her since she reaped serious benefits from it. Later, when he fell into a sex coma, she pulled the laptop onto her thighs and looked at wedding dresses.

After narrowing her search to four, she texted Uncle Bill to tell him of her plans and ask him to give her away, and to use his credit card, since she didn’t have one. That many dresses in two sizes, shipped overnight, tallied to a chunk of money. But she wasn’t sure about the size. She’d never tried on wedding dresses. After deciding, she’d return the other three, but still, he was a conservative man and spending that much cash might cause him to have a stroke.

Then she contacted Helga. Wren wanted her at the ceremony. Her nanny was the closest thing she had to a mother. After that, she closed the laptop, snuggled close to Rance, and tried to think about how they’d split their time between Bluebird and Houston.