by Aimee Laine
“Prove it.” She jutted her chin at him. Inside, she recognized the signs of the sixth grade girl who lost her first boyfriend because he fell in love with her best friend. “Call her back with the phone you threw out the window, and let me talk to her.”
He dropped his gaze, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “I’ll admit to palming the phone. It’s an old trick. Did you really think I’d throw it out? It’d cost me six hundred bucks to replace. I’ve got enough expenses with my new house.”
“How am I supposed to know how stupid you really are?” Lexi forced herself to sound serious when in reality she wondered the same. “It sounded to me like you just called Jill, sent your undying love and lied to her about me.”
Tripp flipped his phone over. He swiped a finger across it keeping his arm movements slow and discrete, which allowed Lexi to see each action he took.
He turned the screen to face her. “See the number and the name?”
Lexi scanned it, read ‘Mom’ along with ten digits.
He hovered his thumb over the ‘call’ button and pressed. A quick slide to the speaker button activated that, too.
The voice that came through did not match the one from the beach. “Tripp? Hello? Who’s there?”
He inclined his head in Lexi’s direction.
She took the phone. “Um, hello? Who is this?”
“This is Katherine Fox. Who is this, and why are you calling from my son’s phone?”
“Ah … I’m sorry. Hang on.” She pushed it back toward Tripp, but he shook his head and waved her on. “Um … my name is Lexi Shepherd—”
“Lexi!” Katherine’s screech almost burst Lexi’s eardrum. “He’s with you? Oh, my goodness! How exciting is this! Oh, my, oh, my! Lexi! It’s you!”
Lexi didn’t even try to prevent her smile.
“Tripp did nothing but talk about you. I thought he might’ve been back with … well …”
Lexi ventured a glance at Tripp who stood with his arms crossed and a wide ‘I told you so’ smile on his face.
“You’ve got to come up to New York sometime, dear. Or, I’ll come to you. I wish he’d told me he was heading out so fast, I would have fixed him some dinner or lunch to take with him and Ian—”
“Mrs. Fox?” Lexi forced the interruption, fearing Tripp’s mom could go on for days.
“Yes, dear?”
“I thought Tripp should apologize for calling his mother at three in the morning.”
“Oh, that’s okay. He knows he can call me anytime.”
She mouthed ‘mama’s boy’ as his mother continued. Lexi let her finish, holding the phone so they could both listen.
“Ma?” Tripp stopped her constant babble.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Let me call you back sometime later, ’kay?”
“Okay. You take care, Lexi. I really do want to meet you. I mean—”
“Ma.”
“Bye now.” Her smile came through as clear as her words.
As he pressed ‘done’ and pocketed the phone, Lexi dropped her head, fixing her gaze on the floor. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”
Tripp snuck his face below hers, bumping her back to the wall. “You’ve got to learn to trust me.” His lips caressed as his tongue dipped between hers.
She scooted to the side. “We’re in a convenience store, Tripp. With an old man watching and listening to us.”
He bit at the edge of her bottom lip. “He’s asleep.”
“I paid him to fake it.” She stretched to the right, let him lay a line of kisses up to her ear, shivered as he got closer to her lobe and bit with illicit playfulness.
“He’s really asleep now.” His lips trailed to her shoulder, one hand pulling at the edge of her shirt, the other snaking up her back.
“I don’t think this is appropriate—”
He captured her mouth with his. “No?” His eyes darkened with desire. “Have you ever done anything remotely dangerous, Lexi? Besides your little incident on the beach, which might not have worked out so well without me to intervene.”
She started to shake ‘no’, but he pressed her against the cinder block wall with his body, slipping his hand from behind to the edge of her jeans.
“Let’s have a little fun.”
“Here?” The question came out a whispered worry, complete with a hand to his chest.
“If you’re with me, and I can’t get caught, I’m pretty damn sure that extends to you, too.”
“Logic and reality don’t always follow, Tripp.”
He nudged her toward the women’s bathroom door. “No, but in this, I know.”
“In here? I know this is a Mom and Pop shop, but—”
“No, we need to get something first.”
Lexi took one last peek at the clerk, his head hung low, his arms across his chest, before she followed.
• • •
A vending machine for condoms, paper towels mixed with crocheted doll plunger covers and scented candles covered in dust completed the picture of the women’s restroom.
“Take your pick.” Tripp waved a hand a la Vanna White under the dispenser.
Three options lay before her: ribbed, mint and smooth. “What exactly do they think I’m going to be doing with it?” Lexi scrunched her nose at the contraption and the necessity for it.
“Whatever you want. I don’t have any with me, and I think, given our circumstances—”
“Maybe we should—”
Tripp pulled her back into him. “Don’t think, Lexi. Feel.”
She didn’t need his directions with the pressure from his lower half against her pelvis. His lips roamed along her jaw as he bumped her backward until she hit the wall with her butt. One hand found her breast, sending a lightning bolt of need to her core.
“Okay—”
“C’mon then.”
“Where are we going?”
He dragged her back to the bathroom door, stuck his head out and snuck her between the two-liters and a rack of candy.
“There’s a window.” She giggled into his shirt, tilting her head away.
“It’s one a.m. There’s not a soul out there.” He bit at her ear, tracing the contour of her lobe with his tongue. “And the window has a small ledge which will help … me.” He boosted her up, so her butt leaned against it. “And between these two racks, our friend up there will never see us.”
He stepped back to her, drew her lips up to his with a fingertip. “There’s always the bathroom or the coolers.”
She shivered at the thought, though the idea of exposure from outside didn’t warm her.
“What about your arm?” The whisper made it past her lips right before he captured them with his again, teasing as he tilted. She took the shrug to mean he would deal with the pain if she did. “We’re going to get caught, dammit.”
“No, we’re not. Have a little … faith. Have a little … fun.” He found the button of her jeans, flipped it, pushed the zipper clasp down one tooth at a time as his lips explored.
Lexi’s hands gripped his hair. “I have a confession.”
He popped back. “Oh, god, you’re not—”
“No.” She added a light slap to his chest. “Geez. I’ve, um … never done it standing up.”
His grin told her he had. His tongue ran across hers, licking its way back and forth over her lips and taking control of her body. “Then you haven’t lived.”
He pushed at the edge of her jeans as she fought with the button of his. His hand slipped down the front of hers before she managed the same. Her own groan surprised her, reminding her it had been a while. She deserved it, and the odd location came with the man.
His button slid through, but she skipped the lazy trace of the zipper, instead yanked it down. Her hand reached for what lay hidden within.
His groan made her smile. “I can’t—”
Lexi slipped her jeans and the silk from her hip, pushing Tripp’s to his knees while his hands fisted in her hair. As she lowe
red, she tasted, noting the second star tattoo at his hip bone. She ran a finger across it, outlined its shape as she kissed a line back up to him.
Tripp handed her a mint flavored package. She hadn’t even seen him buy it. Lexi smirked as the plastic ripped apart. She rolled it on with one hand, teasing with the other. He tugged at her hair, pulling her back to his lips. His early morning scruff rubbed along her cheek as his tongue caressed.
He bit with light force over every exposed edge as his hand found her breast.
Thankful for the cool glass and Tripp’s pressure against her, the tingles and torment he coaxed into her body brought with it a pleasure she never would have imagined.
Tripp slid a hand down her thigh, tucked it under and lifted until her knee met his hips. He slid back and forth against her sending shivers to her legs and up through her center.
Their mouths tore at each other as he guided himself from front to back. Lexi’s groan and a single shove found him at just the right spot. He slid against her and connected with her body as if he were meant to be there.
His legs buckled for a millisecond as Lexi’s did the same. She reinforced herself with the wall as Tripp found his rhythm. She smiled against his lips as he set their pace.
Muscles tensed. One hand grappled for and pushed against the glass. Lexi expected an imprint of his fingers would remain—if anyone looked.
She tried to keep her hips high, to offer a free range of motion. She arched as desire stoked the flames within her, his breath growing fierce with the promise of closure.
“With me.”
His words pushed the need for surrender to the head of the queue.
“With me,” he said again.
Her lips forced an intimacy beyond that which tied them at their most basic. Her fingers gripped the side of his head as sensation took over, and they sought triumph in battle.
• • •
Tripp slowed but kept his body taut against hers. His legs wanted to melt as he broke free within her. Her whispered cry of delight pushed him over the edge, giving him the sign to let go.
Lexi relaxed, her body’s tension reduced to the after effects of satisfaction. A light sheen of perspiration dotted her neck even as her lids closed and her head lolled against the glass.
The curved lips said it all.
“Wow.” She blinked herself back to him.
“I’ll say.” Still within her, Tripp added a few more kisses to her neck as spasms still rocked him in random bursts.
She rapped her head on the glass and shivered before she lowered her head to his. “Oh, my god.”
“What?” He twisted left and right.
The parking lot remained empty, their position hidden. The refrigerators hummed around them, but otherwise, the space offered silence.
“There’s a camera.”
Tripp’s muscles flexed, and in doing so, he broke their connection and her leg fell back to the ground.
“How did we not see that?” She hiked up her pants, zipped and buttoned within a moment’s breath.
“You know it’s seeing my ass, not yours, right?”
“I don’t care whose ass it captured as long as you get the recording.”
Tripp’s lips curved as worry creased her forehead. “You know a record of our first sexual act is kinda kinky. But if I take it, then I’d be stealing.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “In this case, I make an exception. I’ll leave him a twenty to replace it.” She adjusted her hair, pulling it from the collar of her shirt.
Tripp slipped the condom off, realizing he needed a trash can. “Would you mind?”
“No way. It was on you.” She made a grimace like a child at the dinner table faced with the prospect of a plate of asparagus.
“But … it was in you.” He laced his voice with sweetness.
The on-camera episode didn’t bother him in the least. Quite the opposite. He wanted the tape for himself.
“You find a trash can,” he said, “and I’ll get your not-made-for-tv movie. Then get some Twinkies, maybe a few cans of Coke, some water—”
“You want me to grocery shop? How far are we from Savannah?”
“Only about an hour, but I’m hungry. I had a really good workout.” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Fine.” With two tentative fingers at the end of an outstretched arm, she took the symbol of their escapade. A quick check on the clerk, and she tiptoed to the bathroom door.
Tripp tucked himself back in his Jockeys, zipped up and searched for a room where the equipment might be located. He caught sight of the door behind the clerk’s counter at the back.
“Of course,” he said.
He made his way to the front, ducked under the hinged overhang only to find the handle locked. A set of keys hung on a post at the edge of the old man’s chair. As Tripp stepped over to him, he took a moment to check for signs of life, relieved to see the motion of the man’s chest.
Keys in hand, Tripp caught a glimpse of Lexi as she searched through bags of candy—for what, he didn’t know. Her body, lithe but not lanky, had fit well in his hands and around him. Even from twenty feet away, she enticed him.
She smiled up at him while he stared. Her tap on an invisible watch brought him back to his task.
Brooms, mops, supplies, inventory and a single recording device lined the equipment room. Tripp checked for other tapes, found a new pack, rewound the one in the machine, and after he confirmed the capture of his and Lexi’s debut, removed it from the machine.
“You look really nice on the video, Lexi,” he said to himself. He tucked it in a pocket before he closed the door behind him and replaced the keys.
“What took you so long?” Lexi carried various goodies in her arms and placed them one by one onto the counter.
Tripp had to smile.
Her wide-eyed, open-mouthed and mute response made him chuckle. “You watched it?” She spit the words at him.
“Only a minute. Had to make sure it was us.”
She punched him in his good arm. “Dammit. No! Why didn’t you erase it?” She flashed the whites of her eyes, groaned and dropped her head into her hand.
“’Cause we look good, if that’s any consolation.”
“It’s not.”
“Fine then. I won’t show it to you.”
“Thank you.”
Tripp ran a mental calculator, totaling up their purchase. “I’m out of cash. I already gave him my twenty.”
“I gave him two twenties. How much you wanna bet we aren’t the first to take advantage of him?” Lexi slipped to the other side of the counter. “What do you want to leave for him?”
Tripp shrugged. “I figured twenty to be safe.”
“Visa or MasterCard?”
He dug in his wallet, removed a card and handed it to her. In one swipe, the machine came to life. She typed on the keypad, handed back his card and a receipt.
“I hope he’s okay here, asleep all by himself,” Lexi said.
At the chime, the old man startled, sat upright, picked up the credit card slip and resumed his snooze.
“I think he’s going to be fine,” Tripp said.
She piled their food into the backseat of the Mini.
He popped his can of Coke and brought the fizz and flavor to his lips. “Ah.”
“You can say that again—”
“Ah,” he said and earned a laugh from her. “Ready to go?”
“I suppose, but now it’s near morning. I gotta get some sleep. You okay to drive still?”
He nodded as he sipped. “This will do the trick.”
“All yours then. Wake me when we get there. But this time, don’t sneak off into a backwoods country store to make a phone call. To anyone.”
“On that note … Ian said Emma’s pissed at you, and you better call her as soon as the sun rises.”
Lexi tucked herself into her seat. “I will. She’ll get over it.”
“Whatever you say. If I did that to my sister, she�
�d have called my mother—”
Lexi spun in his direction. “Oh, shit. She may have.” She rapped the palm of her hand against her forehead. “Dammit.”
Tripp grabbed her wrist as they both whined an ‘ouch’. “Given what Ian said, I think she’s just pissed. Let’s get to a hotel, we’ll call her, and you can explain and say … well … whatever needs to be said.”
She returned to her more comfortable position. “Yeah, okay. Wonder what she and Ian are doing.”
He smiled. “I’d say sleeping, but hey … one never knows. I mean, look at us.” He took one last look at the store, noted his handprint on the glass, and drove back out onto the two-lane highway as another car’s lights broke the black. “Thank goodness for the scenic route.”
“What?” Her sleep-infused voice reached him.
“Nothing. Go to sleep.”
Her hand found his and entwined with his fingers before going lax a few minutes later.
13
Rather than wake Lexi for the move from car to hotel, Tripp drove into the marina, faced the Mini toward the horizon, and leaned back for a few minutes of rest. The cool early morning air breezed through the vents, bringing with it the smell and memories of their first introduction.
Lexi stirred as the sun peeked over the line separating waves from sky and the black of night shifted to a dark shade of blue. She switched to her side against the chair, long lashes extending over the top of her cheek, already flushed with the sun’s warmth. Full lips blushed soft pink, and tendrils of hair fell across her brow.
“Lexi,” Tripp whispered, pushing at her knees between which her hands remained clasped.
She adjusted against the leather seat.
“Lex.” He ran a fingertip up her arm.
Goosebumps formed on her skin, but still her eyes stayed shut. The sun’s languid ascent pushed itself up over the rise, giving Tripp very little time to wake her before the day started like all others. He fished her cell from her bag, scrolled through until he found Emma’s name, pressed the call button and raised it to Lexi’s cheek.
The call connected on the first ring. “Lexi? Where the hell are you! Why didn’t you call me? I was so worried, and then I hear Tripp called Ian, but you—”
Lexi shot up from her slumber as if he held a gong at her ear. A thunk came as she hit the window with the back of her head. “Dammit.”
