Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(7)

“Yeah,” he answered, resting his forehead against mine as he pressed me more tightly. He smelled of smoke, beer and a fresh hint of soap. Creed lifted me then, only a few inches, but enough to crush me against his body. Shit, he was hard. He was huge.

His voice rumbled next to my ear. “We’re gonna dance, Truly. All night long.”

I swallowed, noting that the way he was handling me caused my dress to ride up indecently. I didn’t care at all.

“Then let’s go,” I whispered.

Creed’s big hands massaged my waist and his lips brushed against mine just long enough for me to nearly beg for more. The chorus of ‘Between the Devil and Me’ reached its crescendo but there was nothing else that mattered except the ache between my legs and Creed’s need to fill it.

He set me back down and quickly took my arm, pulling me through the crowd and out to the street. He paused and looked around. “You got a car?”

I was feeling a bit breathless. “Yes. It’s still parked over at Cluck This.”

Creed stopped and held me at arm’s length for a second, looking me over. He wanted me bad. I could see he was half crazy about it. After a moment he dropped his stare and started walking. He walked fast and it was a little tough to keep up in my heels. He didn’t seem to have much use for small talk but then I’d already known that, especially after listening to Saylor complain about his gruff ways. I figured there might not be anything to talk about anyway. We weren’t going to dinner and a movie. We were, presumably, going to go f*ck our brains out.

“My apartment’s empty,” I told him. “I have a roommate but she’s out of town.”

“Good,” Creed answered without stopping.

We turned down a more well-lit street within several hundred yards of Cluck This. I was getting nervous and felt the strong urge to fill the silent gap with something, anything.

“We get along okay, me and Stephanie. Mostly we stay out of each other’s way. I answered a roommate ad online and that’s how I met her. Good thing because I can’t afford my own place on waitress wages. I got my GED last year and I’d love to go to school to study textiles, fashion design. Do you go to school, Creedence?”

I didn’t know why I asked that. I already knew Creed Gentry wasn’t the academic type. He stopped walking and stood still. When he spun around and lifted me I gasped. He eased me against the wall of the nearest building as my legs went around his hips.

Creed’s lips were on my neck and his hands were suddenly all over my breasts. His voice was low and absurdly sexy, his breath hot on my neck.

“No need to talk about it, Truly. Just take it in.” He pushed my dress up and rolled his hips in slow motion, grinding against me. “Just relax and take it all in.”

He pushed against me harder and tipped my chin up, forcing me to look him in the eye.

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” I breathed. “It’s okay.”

Creed smiled and smoothed my dress down before pulling me the rest of the way to Cluck This.

“That yours?” he asked, pointing to my old Ford Escape.

I’d begun digging around in my purse for my keys. “It’s mine.” The keys were hardly in my hand before Creed reached over and grabbed them.

“I’ll drive.”

“You don’t know where I live.”

“Give me directions.”

I swallowed. “How much have you had to drink?”

He laughed. “Not nearly enough to make a dent.”

“Well, all right then.” Normally I would have argued about handing my keys over to a near stranger but normally I wouldn’t be planning on shortly screwing that same stranger. A sensible part of my brain kept screaming at my foolishness but I hushed that voice. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to do anything but take it all in, like he said. I want to take all of him in.

Creed drove where I told him to. It didn’t take long; my apartment was only about a mile away. It was also only a few blocks from the place I knew he lived with his brothers and Saylor. I thought Creed would make a grab for me whenever we stopped at a red light but he only looked straight ahead. Once, when we were about to turn into the entrance of my apartment complex, he glanced over. He smiled. It was enough to thaw whatever resistance I had left. I squeezed my knees together and waited for him to park the car.

I pointed. “My place is right back through there.”

Creed had scarcely set the brake before he rolled out of the door without a word. I sat there in the darkness for a second, my mind turning somersaults.

I shouldn’t do this.

But I wanted to do this.

I needed to do this.

Creed Gentry opened the passenger door and extended his hand. I took it.

He still had my keys so he was the one to open the door. It was better that way. I was not very steady at the moment.

Creed flipped on a light switch and a black ball of fur streaked across the floor and into the kitchen.

“My cat,” I explained needlessly. “She’s a darling but she doesn’t like strangers. Don’t go taking it personal.”

“I won’t,” Creed shrugged. He tossed my keys onto a badly scarred coffee table that my roommate Stephanie had dragged all the way from New York.

He looked at me expectantly and I realized I was at a loss over what to do. When strangers went home together did they just start humping away as soon as the door shut? From the look on Creed’s face and the noticeable bulge in his pants I could guess how he wanted things to go from here.