Hell on Wheels

by Karen Kelley

  She held the bottle above him and tilted it just slightly until the warm liquid ran onto his chest. “Close your eyes. Let your mind go free.” She set the bottle to the side and began massaging the oil into his chest, leaning forward and rubbing her breasts over him.

  Cupping her butt, he drew her against his erection and almost lost it when the heat of her body enveloped him in a sensual cocoon. He couldn’t stop his groan when she rubbed her breasts against him.

  He moved his hands lower, stroking her bottom without really thinking about what he was doing. She’d wrapped him in a haze of pleasure, pressing her sex against him and slowly rotating her hips.

  If she didn’t stop, he wouldn’t be able to hold back, and he hadn’t finished with her yet. He snaked a hand between her legs and began to massage.

  “Oh, yes,” she cried out, jerking her body forward. She closed her eyes, her teeth biting her lower lip.

  When she clutched his shoulders, he slipped two fingers inside her. She was hot and wet.

  “You’re not playing fair again,” she moaned, moving against his fingers.

  He watched the expression on her face. There was something so fucking sexy about watching a woman in the throes of passion.

  Their gazes met and locked. He was on the edge and she didn’t look like she’d last much longer, either. He reached for his pants and quickly tore open the foil pack with his teeth. He slid the condom on.

  Before he could do much else, she’d straddled him, lowering herself onto his erection. He sucked in a deep breath as her wet heat surrounded him. She moved her body and he slid in deeper.

  “Oh, damn,” she said. “This feels so fucking good.”

  Her words sent fire racing through him. He raised his hips; she met his thrusts. When he thought he couldn’t hold back another second, she drew in a deep breath and cried out.

  It felt as if the world exploded around him. He grabbed her hips, pulling her in tight to his body. She collapsed on top of him, her breasts crushed against his chest.

  It took him a few minutes to catch his breath. When he did, realization set in. “Ah, hell,” he moaned. “I didn’t think it could get any better than the last time. I was wrong.”

  Cody hadn’t thought so, either. This could get really complicated.

  Her head rested on Josh’s chest. Damned if she didn’t like listening to the steady rhythm of his heart and the tropical scent that floated up to her nose.

  She liked being enveloped in the quiet of the room.

  “You drove my car,” he said after a few minutes, breaking the silence.

  She chuckled. Boy, Red had hit him a good one with that bottle.

  “How the hell can you laugh at a time like this? You drove the Mustang! No one drives the Mustang.”

  “You’re the one who tried to fight my battle. What was I supposed to do? Leave it parked in Joe’s parking lot? I couldn’t take a chance it would be stripped come morning.”

  “Besides the fact you’ve always wanted to get under the wheel. You can’t deny it. I’ve seen that hungry look in your eyes.”

  She nodded her head toward him. “Touché.”

  “You’re not going to deny it?”

  “We both know I’d be lying.”

  He opened his mouth, then snapped it closed. “I like you this way.”

  “What way?”

  “When you talk about cars…your Harley. You’re more…relaxed. You’re always so blasted stiff. Hell, here lately, that’s been a chronic complaint of mine. In fact, every time I’m around you.”

  “Ah, what a shame you’ve suffered.”

  “I like it when you laugh.”

  She snuggled closer to his warmth, even though the room wasn’t cold. She just liked being near him. Silence settled over them, and she remembered why she’d gone into the living room in the first place.

  “You want to talk about it?” He would know she meant his nightmare. She didn’t have to explain.

  “Nothing to talk about.”

  “Sometimes talking helps.”

  “I don’t have them very often. It goes with the territory sometimes.”

  When she raised her head, her gaze met his. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” A brief smile touched her lips before she stood and made her way to the bedroom.

  You’re getting in over your head, her inner voice warned. He’ll hurt you.

  No, I won’t let him.

  As Cody struggled to push away the cobwebs that clouded her mind, she tried to think what made this day different from the day before. Nothing came to mind. Maybe she’d had a weird dream and that’s why everything seemed strange this morning.

  She yawned and stretched.

  Something clattered in the other room.

  She jerked to a sitting position. Someone was in her apartment. Leaning over, she eased open her nightstand drawer and brought out her gun, pulled the clip back and checked, already knowing it was loaded. Better safe than sorry.

  As the doorknob turned, she aimed. The door burst open, banging the wall behind it.

  “I thought you might want some coffee.” Josh glanced up from the tray he carried. One eyebrow rose. “If you shoot me, the cup will fall and break, the coffee will stain the carpet, and you’ll have to get the next cup yourself.”

  “Funny. Have I mentioned you’re a fuckin’ comedian?” But the tone of her voice had changed around him. Even she heard the soft timbre. That wasn’t good.

  When he grinned, those blasted tingles spread right down to her toes.

  “A time or two,” he told her, then nodded toward her gun. “Mind putting that away before you accidentally pull the trigger?”

  “How do you know it would be an accident?” She wished he’d quit looking at her like that. He had a very lethal smile.

  “I take it you’re feeling better,” she said. “I mean, no headache?”

  “Never better.”

  Tucking the sheet more securely under her arms, she replaced her gun. “You know, there is such a thing as knocking before you enter a room, even calling out. I could’ve blown your head off.”

  The coffee smelled good, though. After last night, she desperately needed a cup. She needed all her faculties when Josh was around. Hell, just being near him wasn’t a good thing.

  Her gaze skimmed over him.

  Nope, not a good thing at all. He looked like he’d made use of the shower down the hall. His hair was a little damp. He hadn’t shaved, though. His scruffy appearance only added to his sexy good looks. No, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing waking up next to Josh every morning.

  “You going to bring the coffee over here or am I just supposed to inhale it?”

  “Are you always this grumpy first thing in the morning?” He ambled over and set the tray on the bedside table.

  “You caught me on a good morning. I’m usually worse.” She reached for the coffee, added a good portion of creamer and two scoops of sugar. When she looked up, he was staring at her. “What?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I figured you’d drink it black. Who’d have thought you’d have a sweet tooth?”

  She ignored him and brought the cup to her lips. Closing her eyes, she took her first drink of the day. It slid down her throat, leaving a nice warm feeling in its wake. He made a damn good cup of coffee. Not too strong, not too weak.

  But when he pulled up a chair and reached for the other cup on the tray, she warily eyed him. It almost felt comfortable having him in the room. She could get used to having him around. This wouldn’t do. Not at all. There was something about making love at night that changed in the cold light of day.

  “Don’t you have someplace to be or somewhere to go?” Like out of her apartment and out of her life?

  He took a drink of his coffee and settled deeper into the chair, raising his feet to the ottoman. “Nope.”

  Her forehead wrinkled.

  “Don’t make such a production over it. All I’m doing is having a cup of coffee with you. No big d
eal.”

  She squared her shoulders, but had to grab the sheet as it slipped, then almost sloshed coffee over the side of her cup. “I’m not making anything out of it.” She glared at him. “Did I say anything?”

  “Didn’t have to. I could see it on your face. You had your way with me and now you’re ready for me to go.” He looked over the rim of his cup. “Do I make you nervous?”

  She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. “Entertaining men in my bedroom is not something I do.” She’d never had a man in her apartment, in fact. She liked to be the one who left.

  “Good.”

  It was too damn early to have a sparring match with Josh. “I didn’t say I never have men in my bedroom. After all, you were here last night.”

  “I wouldn’t mind being there tonight, too.” His gaze started at her face, caressed her bare shoulders, and lingered on her breasts before moving back to her face.

  She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Don’t get too friendly, the voice inside her head warned.

  “I have work to do,” she hedged.

  “What did you think about the Mustang?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.

  This was a safe enough topic. She exhaled. “It’s a nice car.”

  “Only nice?”

  “I like my Harley better.” She shrugged. “But yeah, you have a nice car.”

  She almost laughed at his disgruntled expression. You’d have thought she’d told him that his mother was ugly or something. He raised his eyes, his forehead puckering.

  “Just nice? That’s all you felt?” A totally dumbfounded look crossed his face. “Just nice?”

  Red must’ve really clobbered Josh good for him not to remember that she’d practically drooled all over the black leather seats. She should probably tell him the truth and put him out of his misery.

  “The Mustang is the sweetest car I’ve ever driven. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

  He brightened. “Really?”

  She nodded. “How long have you had her?”

  He sat forward. “Since high school. I bought her from an old man who’d parked the Mustang in his garage. He hadn’t started it in years and was glad to get rid of her. I practically stole the car. Then it took all the money from after-school jobs and working during the summer for three years to get her into this condition. Only the best would do.”

  Josh transformed from the bounty hunter, from the man who changed women more often than he polished the chrome on his Mustang, to that young man he’d once been. She found herself fascinated listening to him talk about the car.

  “My dad helped me hoist the rebuilt engine into the cavity beneath the hood. It took us all week and the weekend to get it bolted down and ready to run.” He smiled, a faraway look in his eyes. “I think my father was more nervous than I was when I turned the key for the first time. It was the most beautiful sound in the world when it purred to life.”

  He’d painted a picture so vivid it was almost as if she was there. Then again, she’d been tinkering with engines most of her life so it wasn’t hard to imagine Josh working to restore his car.

  “So what’s your story?” he asked.

  His words startled her for a moment. She didn’t want to get friendly or anything. Yeah, right, like sitting in the middle of her bed with only a sheet tucked under her arms wasn’t getting friendly. The next thing she knew, they’d be making love again. She stifled a moan at the thoughts that conjured.

  “With the Harley, I mean,” he explained, breaking into her thoughts.

  At least this was a much safer topic, and she was proud of the Harley. “It belonged to Joe at one time.”

  “The owner of The Blue Eagle?”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll be damned.” He set his empty cup on the tray and leaned back in his chair. “I never expected Joe to be the motorcycle type.”

  “He used to run with a gang back in the sixties. He wrecked the bike. That’s how he met Sarah. She was a nurse at the hospital. He fell instantly in love. They married a few months later and he never bothered fixing the bike. I was hunting for some tools he said I could have when I lifted a dusty green tarp and there she was. That’s when I fell in love.”

  “You’re not going to tell me you restored her all by yourself.”

  “Don’t you think I could have?”

  The look on his face told her he was groping around for a nice way to answer. Laughter bubbled out of her. She couldn’t stop it even if she’d tried—which she didn’t—but it came to a halt when he narrowed his gaze on her. A flush of heat crawled up her face. His look made her more aware just how naked she was beneath the sheet. She tugged the covers firmly under her arms.

  “Okay,” she admitted. “I had help.”

  “I knew it.”

  “I’ll have you know, I did most of the work.”

  “Joe helped, right?”

  She put her cup down and brought her legs up, crossing them Indian fashion beneath the sheet. “It wasn’t Joe.”

  “Not Joe?”

  She shook her head. Her thoughts wandered back. She could see Rodney as if he stood at the end of the bed. His craggy, lined face, the soft brown eyes that always looked so sad. She’d wanted to remove his pain. She could’ve been the daughter he’d lost, if he’d only let her, but there had been a part of him that he’d kept locked away, and deep down inside her, she’d known she was only pretending he cared more than he had. Why else would he have left without a word of good-bye?

  “You did have someone helping, right?”

  For a moment, she’d forgotten Josh was in the room. She looked at him. “His name was Rodney. He lived with my…my mother for a while. Rodney knew a lot about different stuff. Motorcycles, for one. We worked on the Harley together. Then when it was finished, he left.”

  Pain ripped through her. Damn it, she’d been seventeen and he’d been like a father to her for four years. It wasn’t supposed to still hurt this much. Damn, damn, damn. He should’ve said good-bye. Why the hell hadn’t he said good-bye?

  “I really do need to get down to the office today. I think it’s time you left. Your keys are on the table by the front door.”

  “I’m sorry.” He spoke quietly.

  She raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

  “For the pain he caused you.”

  She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t talk about her past. Josh wasn’t Dr. Phil, and she didn’t want or need his apologies.

  “Just go, okay.” She clamped her lips together and kept her eyes focused forward. When he closed the bedroom door, her shoulders slumped.

  Maybe there was another reason she didn’t want Josh around. It was almost as if he could see inside her, that he knew her deepest, darkest secrets. She’d been alone so long now that she was afraid to let anyone get close enough to see what was inside her. What if they found her repulsive? Or what if she grew to like them and they left…like her father? Like Rodney? Like the men she’d dated?

  It was better to keep to herself and not let anyone in. Have sex, but not let them get near her heart.

  She heard the front door close.

  It didn’t matter. Better to end it here and now before things went any further. Before she began to care too much.

  Chapter 7

  Josh took the elevator down to the garage, absently turning his car keys over and over in his hand. What had happened? One moment they were having a casual conversation. Cody had actually laughed.

  Not that she never laughed, just not like that. Usually it was a sarcastic chuckle or a laugh that followed a snide remark. No, this was different. More like she was actually enjoying herself. That might have been a first, he wryly thought to himself.

  But just as quickly as the laughter came, the relaxed moment vanished and Cody shut down. What had soured the mood? Damn it, she’d looked so forlorn sitting on the bed, the sheet pulled close to her body.

  As he stepped out of the elevator and walked across the garage to
his car, he realized he’d never seen Cody with anyone. A loner.

  They were a lot alike.

  Hell, even he knew he wasn’t that close to the men who were at the bar last night. He only shot pool with them. Superficial friends.

  But that wasn’t the way his life used to be. His friendship with Wade had been deeper, stronger, but even that had waned. People grew up, drifted away from each other. It happened.

  Cody said Rodney had left one day. From her expression, he could tell it still bothered her.

  He stopped at his car, letting his gaze slowly sweep over her, noting that the Mustang looked the same as when he’d parked it at The Blue Eagle. As much as Cody worshipped her Harley, he hadn’t really thought she’d put a scratch or dent on his baby.

  No, she was a woman who appreciated a nice set of wheels. Her eyes always sparkled when she talked about the Harley. Some women had that same light in their eyes when they walked past a jewelry store. Cody’s eyes shone when she talked about rebuilding engines.

  He grinned. She was definitely one of a kind.

  Opening the car door, he climbed inside. The muscles in his shoulders relaxed.

  He had to get over her. They’d had great sex a couple of times. It was time he stopped thinking about her so much. His life suited him. He didn’t need someone like Cody messing with his head. Hell, he could tell she had problems. What right did he have to try to fix her? None. None whatsoever. Especially when he couldn’t fix his own life.

  Resting his hands on the steering wheel, he closed his eyes. This was his comfort zone. He breathed in, he breathed out.

  His gut clenched.

  The scent of coconut and tropical breezes swirled around him. Her scent. It lingered in the car, transporting him to a fantasy of Cody lying naked on the beach, the sun caressing her skin. She’d told him that she’d never been to the ocean, never seen the waves crashing against a concrete jetty. Never felt the salt spray kissing her face.

  Maybe someday they would just take off and head down to the coast…

  Great, how the hell was he supposed to concentrate with her scent lingering and making him fantasize about what it would be like to have sex with her on the beach? Hell, he had a hard enough time when he’d joined her in her bedroom. At the time, he’d thought taking her coffee sounded pretty good.