Lady Be Good (Wynette, Texas #2)(52)

Now!

Turning quickly, she threw herself at Kenny. He was taken by surprise, and he stumbled backward only to bang into the brick wall that separated the drugstore from a dry cleaner’s. Ignoring his grunt of pain, she smeared her body against his. Her bag of purchases whacked his thigh as she wound her free arm around his neck and kissed him as hard as she could.

His words were muffled as his lips moved beneath hers. “What ’n th’ hell’re you doing?”

“Kiss’ng you.” She kept her mouth smeared to his as she spoke and moved her body. “Put your arm ’round me.”

“Why’re you wiglin’ like that?”

“I’m slith’ring.”

“You’re what?” He started to draw his head back, but she dug her fingers into his hair to hold him in place. Their teeth banged. “Pretend you’re kiss’ng me.”

“More orders, E’ma?”

She could feel his jaw tense and knew her habit of taking charge had set him off again. Why hadn’t she been less direct? He was getting ready to push her aside, but he couldn’t do that—not when everything was going so well. She wouldn’t let him.

She softened her mouth, parted her lips, and gave him everything she had.

The seconds passed. Oh, my . . . He was really the most intelligent man. It didn’t take more than a moment for him to see things her way.

His hands settled warm against her back and his own mouth softened in response, then opened. . . .

His tongue moved, eased inside, and she forgot all about burly men and giving orders. Instead the world cracked open and swallowed her.

The knowledge that she’d been starved crashed over her as she feasted on his kiss. She wanted his mouth everywhere—at her breasts, her waist, between her legs. Yes, there! She wanted all of him loving her, filling her. She wanted to feel his weight holding her down, experience the resistance of bare skin rubbing together.

They were making noises—earthy, crude. He was hard against her, ready to penetrate, and she wanted him so badly she nearly sobbed her relief when his hand curled around her bottom.

He turned her without breaking the kiss so that she was against the brick, and his body shielded her from the street. His hand slipped under her dress to the outside of her thigh. She wore sandals and no stockings—those blessed bare legs!

His strong fingers curled around her inner thigh. She parted her legs and invited him to that place where he belonged. His hand went there, cupped her, rubbed—

A car horn blared.

Kenny whipped his hand from under her skirt and jumped back. She sagged against the brick. They both gasped for breath.

He thrust his fingers through his hair. “Shit.”

The sight of his angry face defeated her. How could he look like that after what they’d just been through?

He grabbed her elbow and began dragging her toward the car, their beautiful kiss lying in ruins around them. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again!”

She had to launch a counterattack, but she was too depleted to muster the right words. He pushed her inside the car and was still steaming as he got in himself.

“We almost did it! Right there in the middle of the busiest street in Wynette, Texas!” The Caddy shot out of its parking space. “Another few seconds, your skirt would have been up around your waist and my pants would have been unzipped, and don’t you try to deny it. Damn it, Emma! I told you yesterday that I wasn’t going to let anything keep me from getting back on the tour, but apparently you weren’t listening. Or maybe you forgot that this happens to be the commissioner’s home-town and everybody knows him.”

She said nothing.

He shot out onto the highway. “By tomorrow morning he’ll have heard every detail—how I was groping his wife’s dear, virginal friend right in the middle of Main Street. In case you’re missing the point here, this wasn’t the best way for me to establish my reputation as an athlete with a solid moral character!”

“Please stop yelling at me.” Perhaps the fact that she’d spoken softly instead of yelling in return made him glance over at her.

He frowned, sighed. “All right. I know this isn’t all your fault. I could have pushed myself away. I should have. But, damn it, Emma, I’m a man, and that mouth of yours—”

“I’ve heard more than enough about how bossy I am. If my leadership skills threaten your masculinity, then you’ll simply have to deal with it.”

He looked startled. “I wasn’t talking about your leadership skills; I was talking about your—Never mind. The thing is, if I’d known I was this irresistible to you, we could have taken care of it in private.”

He was irresistible to her, but in all the wrong ways. “This didn’t have anything to do with you being irresistible. It had to do with your being handy. The man Beddington hired was watching me, and I had to do something scandalous.”

“Someone really is following you?”

“I told you it would happen. Last night he showed up at the Roustabout.”

“What does he look like?”

“A large man with a very round head and thinning hair that’s sort of straw-colored. He might drive a dark green Taurus. Do you know him?”

He stared at her for a very long time. “I might.”