Shimmy Bang Sparkle(14)

We hustled to the parking lot hand in hand, ducking below the projector’s beam. When we got to his bike, he yanked me into him so our bodies collided and a breath left my lungs with a whoosh.

“This is how it’s gonna be,” he said, zipping up his too-big motorcycle jacket on me and sliding his hands into my back pockets to pull my hips into his body. “I’m gonna drive you back to my place. I’m gonna take you like you deserve to be taken. Every second from now until you fall asleep in my arms is going to be me, doing my thing to you, and making your eyes roll back in your head again and again.”

Dear God: It’s me, Stella. Thank you. So, so much.

He slipped the helmet over my head. I flipped up the visor so I didn’t miss even a half-second glimpse of him. He slung his leg over the bike and looked back over his shoulder, waiting for me. I did the same, pressing my knees into him like I did before. Only now I really meant it. Now I wanted him in a way that I hadn’t planned on at all, or that I’d been much too shy to show him earlier. Now I was pretty sure my panties were already soaked, and we hadn’t done anything more than kiss.

The inside of the helmet smelled like him, rich and manly. Soap and cologne and musk.

He reached back and gripped my tush tight. “You on?”

Swoon. “Yep,” I said, and linked my arms over his chest. The engine shuddered to life underneath us, as loud as a lawn mower, only much deeper and more aggressive. He did something with the handlebars, and the engine roared. The movement made his triceps flex, illuminated by the streetlamp. Way down deep in my body was a desire so intense that it felt like a chill. I slid my right hand down his stomach. I’d always thought the idea of washboard abs was ridiculous. But not anymore.

At first, I kept my fingers on the outside of his jeans, pressing into his belt. In the side mirror, I saw him smile—a greedy aww yeah kind of a smile that he didn’t know I could see. Studying his expression, I moved my fingers an inch, placing them against the skin of his lower abdomen and his boxers. The look in his eyes went from aww yeah to hell yes in an instant, and together we sped down the empty streets under the clear desert sky, the whinny of the engine making a long, wonderful squeal that sounded a lot like Ouuuuuuuuuiiiiiii.





6

NICK

At my apartment building, I pulled into my usual parking spot, cut the engine, and gave Stella a couple of come on fingers in the air to show her I wanted that helmet off so I could see her pretty face again. She tugged it off and handed it over, pressing her chin into my shoulder, close enough for me to feel her curls brush against my ear. Her big, gorgeous eyes appeared in the side mirror. I took the hand she’d placed on my chest and gave her a long kiss on the palm. It was a crazy thing, wanting her so bad it hurt, but also being pretty content with that moment too, parked in the dark with her hanging on to me. Quiet, peaceful. Calm. But I wasn’t going to be calm for long.

I gave her left thigh a squeeze to tell her to pull that leg off first and she did, and I did the same. I put my keys in my pocket and turned to her. Her eyes were wide again, innocent almost. No pretense, no bullshit. I could tell she was nervous. Placing my thumb to her jaw, I tilted her face up. “You’re fucking beautiful, you know that?”

She sucked in a quick breath and gripped my forearm. Her fingers didn’t even come close to encircling it. Hooking one finger into her belt loop, I spun her around and pulled her into me, ass first, so I was almost spooning her right there by my bike. I inhaled the scent of her hair and got familiar with the shape of her curves against my body. She really was so damned beautiful, classically beautiful, the kind of woman who would inspire a guy to learn to paint so that he’d never forget her.

But I was no painter. I was an alpha male, and I was gonna make her know it. Staying right behind her, chest-to-back, I walked her forward. I maneuvered her past a minivan and up against the stucco wall of my apartment building. I was careful to keep her under the cover of shadows. I swept her hair off the nape of her neck, gently placing it in front of her right shoulder, then hooked my arm around her waist to keep her in position. With my other hand, I positioned her palms on the wall. Using one of my feet, I parted her legs so they were a foot and a half apart. Frisking position.

“What are you doing?” she said, her voice wet with desire.

I didn’t want to spook her, so I kept my tone playful. “I’m arresting you on the charge of being too damn sexy,” I said as I ran my hands down her stomach. Curvy and soft and feminine. Exactly how I’d hoped it would be. I’d touched my share of bodies, but that skin of hers . . . that was the skin I’d been hoping to feel every goddamned time.

She let her head fall forward and turned her feet slightly, toes in. I ran my stubble down the side of her throat and back up again, where I slid my tongue along the shell of her ear, and she shuddered. “Anything you do or say now can and will be used against you . . . in bed.”

She made a low purring growl. “Is that so, Officer?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, dark and dirty into her ear. “If you don’t have a blindfold, one will be provided for you.”

“Oh God,” she gasped, not laughing anymore. That was how I wanted her. Serious. Focused. Ready to be mine, all mine.

I ran my fingers up the inside seam of her jeans, against the soft fabric that I’d been thinking about all afternoon. I imagined her panties, wet and hot, between her legs. That triangle of cotton, damp with her wetness already. Fuck yeah. I pressed my fingers against the teeth of her fly and gave her pussy a squeeze from outside. With my other hand, I hooked my thumb over her waistband. Underneath, I felt it. Lace. I moved my hand along her hip, and the lace rolled up into a rope in my palm.