Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(54)

“Maybe I don’t want you to stop,” she breathed. Her leg then came up and wrapped around my hip and I could feel the heat radiating out from between her legs through the thin fabric of her leggings. I couldn’t stop myself from pressing into her, showing her how turned on I was by her. She moaned again as I ground my erection against her, loving the way I could practically feel her melt against me.

“Are you wet?” I pressed against her again. “I bet if I reached into your panties you’d be drenched right now.” I said the words between nipping at her neck and sucking on it.

When we’d pulled into the viewpoint we’d been the only car there, but nothing was stopping anyone else from driving up. The thrill of someone coming upon us f*cking each other against the car not only shot new, hot blood directly to my cock, but it also made my hackles rise. I didn’t want anyone else to see my Kalli while she was experiencing ecstasy—just me. I wanted to be the only one to give it to her and the only one to see her face as I did it.

Public sex was a thrill and sounded good in theory, but I knew I’d never forgive myself if we were ever caught. I hated to do it, but I pulled my mouth from the sensitive skin of her neck and looked her in the eyes as I gripped the back of her neck.

“I’d like nothing more than to take you right here, baby, but I’m not going to let anyone else see what’s mine. But when we get home, I’m gonna do all the dirty things running through my mind to you and make you sorry you teased me out here.”

She smiled and winked. “I’m not teasing. If you wanted me out here, I’d let you take me.”

A growl escaped me and I kissed her again, hard, but then I turned and walked away, adjusting myself as I crossed in front of the car. I climbed in and she had on a grin that was both infuriating and adorable. Her smile said she knew she’d gotten to me, knew I was seconds away from throwing out my reservations and taking her up against the side of a car in the middle of a parking lot on the side of a highway.

“You’re going to pay for that later,” I said, starting the engine.

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said sweetly, still looking at her phone. “Okay, more questions.”

I rubbed my hand over my face, still trying to calm down and get rid of the pressure in my pants.

“What’s your favorite flower?”

Well, that’s one way to make an erection go away.

“My favorite flower?” I repeated, pulling back onto the highway and turning on my lights, as the sunlight was fading quickly.

“Yeah,” she replied, laughing.

“Babe, I don’t have a favorite flower.”

“Really?” She sounded sincere. “You don’t like any flower at all?”

I thought about her question a little harder because it seemed like it was weirdly important to her that I liked a particular flower. I searched through my memories, trying to come up with a time when I’d appreciated a flower at all. Suddenly, I had it.

“Okay, well, this is going to sound weird, but Pops’ mom lived in a retirement community after my granddad passed away. She had her own little manufactured home, but everyone who lived there was old. Anyway, she spent her days in her rose garden. Every time we visited, she would take Halah and I out in her backyard and show us all the different kinds of roses she had. There must have been twenty different kinds, at least. I was only a kid, and I wanted to be inside playing my Game Boy, but I do remember the way her backyard smelled of roses. And every time I smell that scent, I think of my grandma.”

“That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” Kalli said, her voice high-pitched and sickly sweet.

“Hey, you asked. That’s the only opinion I have about flowers at all. Roses smell good.”

“It’s still cute. You’re adorable.”

Yep. Erection gone.

“Well, I love peonies,” she added.

“Noted. I’ll remember that when I inevitably f*ck up and need to send you apology flowers.”

Kalli let out a sharp laugh. “You don’t have to send me flowers ever again, babe. I think you hit your flowers quota for life.” She gave another laugh and then thumbed her phone again. I was left completely confused.

“What do you mean? I haven’t sent you that many flowers. Just a few times when you wouldn’t talk to me after what happened at Lego Land.”

“What about all those flowers you sent to my house after Marcus died?”

All the coherent thoughts tumbled out of my head at the same time—it was completely empty. I had no idea how to respond. Someone had obviously sent her flowers and for whatever reason, she assumed they were from me.

“Kalli, I’m sorry, but I didn’t send you those. After Marcus died, you told me to go away, to leave you alone, so that’s what I did. Looking back, I wish I had sent you some flowers, but it wasn’t me.” I turned and looked at her and then reached my hand out for hers when I saw the expression on her face. It was a mixture of confusion and fear.

“The neighbor lady who lives across the street said flowers came every week.”

Whoa. That was a lot of flowers. Who would send someone flowers once a week? And how could she have no idea who sent them? “Didn’t they come with cards or anything?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, her voice faint as her hand coming up to cover her mouth with spread fingers. “The lady across the street handed me a stack of cards, but I assumed they were from you and I didn’t open them.” She looked over at me. “That was before I moved to LA. I was still in so much pain, I didn’t want to hurt anymore, so I didn’t read them. I knew it would wreck me.”