Placing his free hand on the mirror, he leaned his weight against that arm and relaxed his knees. His skin tingled and the almost immediate quickening in his balls told him it had been way too long.
Conscious of the time restraints, he fast-forwarded through peeling off her jeans and pushing aside the crotch of her white lace panties. Definitely white. His strokes quickened as he positioned the head of his cock against her welcoming cunt.
And she let loose with an unholy, wall-shaking scream of terror.
Ethan jerked his head up and his hand froze. That wasn’t right.
Chapter Three
What the hell was he thinking? He wasn’t the kind of guy who jerked off in slimy gas station bathrooms.
Jill yelled again and he shook off his lingering need. After hurriedly tucking his twitching cock back into his pants, he yanked open the door and ran the few steps to her door.
“Help!” she screamed, pounding on the other side.
“Jill? What’s the matter?” Had she hurt herself? The bus would have a first aid kit, not that he had any clue what to do with it. He hoped like hell the driver did.
“It’s stuck! The door is stuck!” He could hear a note of hysteria creeping into her voice. “Ethan? It’s dark! The light blew when I hit the button for the hand dryer. I can’t see!”
That was it? The door was stuck? He took a quick second to tamp down his laughter, then leaned close to the door. “I’ll get you out, so calm down. And back away.”
There was silence for a few seconds before she called, “I’m clear!”
Ethan backed up several paces and eyed the door. The wood was ancient, no doubt the reason it was stuck. No sweat.
He took a deep breath and started to run, dropping his shoulder at the last second.
He hit the door.
Bounced. Dropped like a stone.
Pain exploded in his shoulder. Groaning, he clutched his arm to his chest and stared up at the door. It hadn’t budged.
“What was that?” Jill called. “Ethan? Ethan?”
“Give me a minute!” he shouted. The agony was already abating to a throbbing ache—hopefully a sign nothing was broken.
“Ethan Ulysses Cooper!” Jill shouted and he snarled at the door. Yet another thing he was going to get even with his mother for someday. “You get me out of…oh, wait.”
He heard a metallic click and the door swung open. Jill almost stepped on him. “What are you doing on the ground?”
“Don’t ever call me that again,” Ethan growled, pushing himself to his feet with his uninjured arm.
“Why are you just sitting—” He saw understanding dawn in her eyes. “Good grief! You tried to break the door down with your shoulder?”
Ethan glared at Jill, daring her to laugh. The battle not to waged on her face, but she managed to press her lips together and restrain herself to a smile.
“Thanks for trying,” she said. “I guess you’ll be mad when I tell you there were two locks on the door, and I only remembered to undo one.”
Damn right he would. He rolled his eyes and started walking back around the building. There was probably one hell of a bruise blossoming on his upper arm and shoulder thanks to her stupidity. A physical reminder to keep his eyes off her ass and his mind out of the gutter where Jill Delaney was concerned.
“The lights went out and I panicked,” she called after him, and he could hear her hurrying to keep up.
Ethan only shook his head and kept walking—until he turned the corner. His gaze swept the parking lot as disbelief surged through him.
Jill stopped next to him and he heard her gasp. “The bus is gone!”
* * * * *
“I can’t believe they left without us.” Jill looked up at Ethan. He didn’t look back. There was not a doubt in her mind he was placing all the blame for this latest turn of events in her lap. “The driver will come back for us, right?”
The glare he gave her could have chilled Death Valley at high noon. “I don’t think so.”
Fear curled into a tight ball in her stomach. “Don’t be ridiculous. He can’t strand us here. How could he even leave without us?”
“I told him we were going out back and he waved. He must have forgotten.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Everybody else on the bus was asleep,” he continued. “And we didn’t hear the bus leaving because you probably chose that moment to practice your Jamie Lee Curtis imitation.”
Jill folded her arms across her chest and stared at her feet. “I was scared. There was no light, and…it’s pretty nasty in there.”
Ethan said nothing. He just rubbed his shoulder and stared up the road in the direction the bus would have taken. Jill sighed. Things seemed to go from bad to worse when they were together and she wasn’t sure which of them was the jinx. Probably her.
“Maybe your mom will wake up before they get too far,” she said hopefully.
“That would be nice, sunshine,” he said. “But my mother took a pill to help her sleep. She’s a nervous traveler, which is why she dragged me on this cursed trip. And this wasn’t a scheduled stop. By the time he’s gone a few miles up the road, the driver probably won’t even remember what exit he took.”
The small knot of fear tightened like strings of Christmas lights. “You mean I’m stuck here? For how long?”
“No, we are stuck here,” he gave her a tight smile, “but not for long, I hope.”
“Do you have a cell phone?” Problem solved. Everybody had a cell phone. Except her, of course, because she kept losing them.
“No, but there’s a pay phone over there. What’s the name of the motel we’re supposed to stop at tonight?”
How the hell did the only two people on the planet without cell phones wind up stranded together? She must have done something pretty horrible in a past life.
Jill looked over at him and shrugged. “I don’t know. My itinerary’s in my suitcase—on the bus.”
He shook his head slowly. “Of all the people to be—”
“Hey! I didn’t memorize the damned thing. That’s the driver’s job. And why don’t you know?”
He stared at her for what seemed like minutes, but she didn’t look away from his dark eyes. His sudden burst of laughter took her by surprise. “Touché, sunshine.”
Relief swept through Jill and she smiled. At least he wasn’t going to strangle her right here at the gas station.
His laughter tickled her, easing the knot of anxiety in her belly. It wasn’t deep and rumbling, as she’d expected, but a little higher and very infectious. Maybe this wouldn’t turn out so badly after all.
“So…now what?” she asked when his amusement faded.
“Now we see if that pay phone has a directory with it and you can call all the motels until we find them.”
Jill groaned as they walked across the parking lot. It was her fault they missed the bus, she supposed, but she hated making phone calls.
“I bought a prepaid phone card so I could call home for my messages,” she said, digging it out of her purse. “I’ll use that.”
Fortunately, they found a tattered, oil-stained phone book and flipped through the motel pages. None sounded familiar. Ethan sat on the curb and leaned back against a tree. “Have fun.”
She cast him a sour glance before she began the endless task of dialing numbers. The 800 number to access the card, then 1 for English directions, then the twelve-digit card number, then the motel number. “Do you have reservations for a senior tour group tonight?”
No luck. She repeated the entire process again. And again and again. Ethan emitted a tiny snore and Jill reached her foot out to nudge him. If she had to this, the least he could do was stay awake.
She dialed the next number in the directory, beginning to fear that the tour group was probably out of the area the book covered. Trying to get more listings from information wasn’t her idea of fun.
The line was picked up with a curt “hello,” followed by a rapid-fire
recitation of what she assumed was his name and the hotel name. She didn’t catch a word of it, but she had the listing in the book marked with her thumb.
“Do you have reservations for a busload of senior citizens tonight?” she asked without much hope.
He grunted something unintelligible, followed by computer keys clicking in the background. A pause. More clicking.
“Yup. Got ‘em.”
Jill almost squealed in the poor man’s ear. “You do?”
Ethan sat upright and watched her intently as she spoke. “I need the name of your hotel and driving directions, please. We were separated from them.”
She scribbled down the directions he gave her on an old receipt and thanked him profusely.
“You found them?” Ethan asked when she had replaced the dirty receiver and wiped her hands on her jeans.
“No, I thought we’d just stop in and say hi.” His lips thinned into a grim line and she regretted her sarcasm. “Yes, I found them. Sorry.”
They stood and looked around for a minute, finding only darkness in every direction. Without thinking, Jill took a step closer to Ethan. She was glad he was with her—even if he was being a jerk.
Aii-eee…aii-eee.
Jill jumped a foot. “What the hell was that? Was that an alligator?”
“I don’t think alligators chirp.”
“Have you ever talked to an alligator, Mister Know-it-All?”
Ethan rested his hand on the small of her back. Every nerve in her body snapped to high alert, focused on that slight hollow just above the waistband of her jeans. His palm radiated a heat that funneled straight from the point of contact up her spine and then back down to the sorely neglected area between her thighs.
Ohmigod. She focused all her energy on not doing something stupid, like throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him until his toes curled. He was just trying to comfort her, and she couldn’t repay him by attacking him. Could she? No, that would probably be rude.
He looked down at her and she prayed he wouldn’t notice the effect his touch had on her. If he was going for a calming effect he’d missed by a mile or two.
“So…how do we get there?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Jill whispered, thankful her voice seemed to be in the proper working order considering how the rest of her body was going haywire. “I found them—you figure out how to get there.”
She followed his gaze to the row of junks lining the parking area, awaiting repair or the tow truck to the junkyard. “What? You can’t be… We can’t steal a car!”
“Relax, sunshine. Even if I wanted to it wouldn’t be one of those. Grab that phone book again and let’s call a cab or something.”
His hand left her back, and Jill sighed. It was for the best, she thought. Another few seconds and she might have knocked him to the ground and had her way with him. Considering the fact he didn’t like her very much, she couldn’t see that making his night any better.
After punching in another round of numbers, she discovered the only cab company in the directory was closed. According to the answering machine recording, they wouldn’t reopen until seven the next morning.
“Guess we’re not in the big city anymore,” Jill said, sitting down on the curb with an air of defeat. “Now what?”
The words had barely left her mouth when they heard the purr of an approaching engine. Ethan sprinted to the road and waved his arms. At the last second a small, red convertible veered into the parking lot.
Jill walked over to stand next to Ethan, who was talking earnestly with the driver, a tall man wearing a polo shirt and a skeptical look.
“I’m headed that direction,” he was saying thoughtfully. “And it’s only about a half-hour out of my way.”
“We’ll pay you,” Ethan insisted. He looked at Jill. “How much cash do you have on you?”
“Um…forty dollars, I guess,” she replied, privately fuming. She didn’t know why it surprised her that she would have to pay the guy. After all, Ethan blamed her for everything, so he probably figured it was her responsibility.
They looked back at the guy, but he was looking at Jill—or rather looking her over. She moved closer to Ethan, trying to send the guy a message, even if it was the wrong one.
“Only got the two seats,” the man said, waving at the empty passenger seat in what Jill now saw was an old MG. “Your ol’ lady will have to ride on your lap.”
“She’s not my—” Ethan paused. “That’ll be fine.”
Jill took a step back. “I am not sitting on your lap.”
Just the feel of his hand pressing against her back had triggered an intense hunger for an orgasm, but Ethan was not on the menu. There was no way in hell she could survive this without making a fool of herself. She took another step back, shaking her head.
He grabbed her elbow to stop her retreat. “We’ve been here at least an hour. Maybe even longer, and how many cars have you seen go by?”
He had a point. She could either sit on his lap or camp out in front of a rundown gas station—alone. There was no doubt in her mind Ethan was leaving in the MG, with or without her.
“Maybe we could…”
“There is no maybe, sunshine,” he interrupted. “I’m leaving. Are you coming with me or not?”
She cast him a sullen look. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”
The man in the car took the two twenties Jill handed him and tucked them into his pocket without a word. She wasn’t surprised. Even though he was only going a half-hour out of his way he was charging them forty dollars, so a thank you was probably too much to expect.
“I’m Rip, by the way,” he did say. He caught her questioning look and grinned. “Slept a lot when I was a young’n.”
She watched Ethan lower himself into the tiny car and shook her head. This is not a good idea, she thought to herself over and over. She would barely fit, and after the way her body had reacted to his hand simply touching her back…
Ethan extended his hand, not looking any happier about the prospect of her on his lap than she felt. Well, he deserved it after the way he had treated her, didn’t he? She hooked her leg over his and lowered herself over him.
* * * * *
Ethan bit back a groan when the full weight of her bottom nestled over his crotch. She twisted on his lap, pulling her other leg into the car. Suddenly, spontaneous human combustion didn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
She yelped when he grabbed her hips and shifted her roughly, moving her off of his frustrated, half-hardened cock and onto his thigh. The last thing he needed was for her to feel how much their present predicament aroused him.
Despite their predicament, it was taking every ounce of his willpower to keep his hands off Jill. He’d been doing fairly well, too, other than touching that sweet little hollow at the base of her spine, but he wasn’t sure he’d make it out of this car still able to walk.
Jill closed the door and Rip fired up the engine. The old car roared to life, sending a vibration through his body that didn’t help in the least. He closed his eyes and tried to think about his mother—how she would react to discovering she had lost him. Then he tried to picture his ex-wife. Anything that was anti-sex.
It didn’t help. He hadn’t noticed until this moment how good Jill smelled. Even after a day on the bus, surrounded by myriad of aromas, she still carried a hint of spicy and tantalizing perfume. Her shampoo was faintly fruit-scented and the combination made him think of the tropics…
Palm trees, rolling waves. Endless stretches of white sand. Jill’s naked body stretched before him on a beach towel, sand clinging to her pale skin. He imagined Jill’s tongue licking the ocean salt from her lips while her hands ran over her breasts, offering them to him. He tipped the umbrella drink in his hand, dribbling piña colada over her nipples. The chill of the drink would harden them, making them perfect targets for his lips, his tongue. The gentle scrape of his teeth. He imagined her fingers tightening in his hair while she moaned his name.
Ethan moved down her body, marking the trail for his tongue with his drink, until finally he reached her pussy. He poured the cocktail over her swollen clit, then pressed his mouth to her. The piña colada mingled with her sweet cream, and he lapped at the paradisiacal drink like a man dying of thirst.
When she came, flooding his mouth with coconut-flavored ambrosia, he pulled away from her and poured the sweet island drink over his throbbing cock. “Lick it off, baby.”
“Did you say something?” Jill’s voice jerked him out of the delicious daydream like a verbal bungee cord.
He muttered something in the negative and thanked his lucky stars she couldn’t see his face.
Enough of that. The woman was nothing but trouble—a kind of trouble he didn’t need. What kind of idiot didn’t even recover from one woman’s fickleness before considering a tryst with another just like her?
The kind of idiot he saw in the mirror every day, apparently. That surprised him. Walking into trouble with his eyes wide open wasn’t his usual style. Better safe than sorry. That was him.
They hit a bump in the road and Jill shifted, landing squarely in his lap again. This time he couldn’t hold back the moan. Luckily, he didn’t think it could be heard over the roar of the British racing engine.
“Sorry,” Rip said in his direction. “These beauties ain’t Cadillacs, you know?”
“Yeah,” Ethan responded through gritted teeth.
Jill squirmed, trying to regain her former position, but he stopped her with a hand on her back. “Just sit still,” he hissed.
“I’m trying,” she said, and he could hear the tension in her voice.
Pity outweighed common sense. This couldn’t be any more comfortable for her than it was for him. He slid his hand up her back and over her shoulder to pull her back against him.
She stiffened for a moment, and then relaxed against his chest. “Are we almost there?”
Twice Upon a Roadtrip Page 4
