Collide

by Juliana Stone

  He just wasn’t sure she wanted to be tied down again. At least not to him.

  The woman beside him shifted and he glanced at Bobbi. She’d long tossed her fluffy white hat and her hair haloed her head in a mess of dark silk that fell against her white jacket like shiny ink. She was chatting with Pete Tortolini’s new girlfriend, Brenda, a redhead with a gigantic laugh and a beautiful smile. New to town, Brenda had an easy way about her and Pete was a lucky guy.

  “So, Shane,” Brenda grinned up at him, “I hear you paint.”

  He stretched out his long legs and shook his head. “Not as much as I’d like to, but yeah I mess around when I have the time.”

  Bobbi frowned. “You more than mess around.” She turned back to Brenda. “Don’t let him fool you. He’s really good. He was supposed to go to the New York Academy of Art but,” she stumbled over her words.

  Shane realized that most everyone around the fire was listening as Bobbi glanced up at him. “Um, well—”

  “Spit it out Barker,” Shane said lightly. When she remained silent, kicking her booted foot into the snow he turned to Brenda. “Aside from the fact that my father absolutely hated the idea and refused to pay for my tuition, which considering I’d just flunked out of Michigan State I guess I don’t blame him, I compounded matters by ending up in jail and blowing my chance.”

  “Oh,” Brenda said, not skipping a beat. “Well at least you had a lot of time to perfect your technique.” She smiled and settled into Pete’s arms. “Though I suppose the scenery wasn’t all that inspiring.”

  “Nope.”

  “A lot of black and white stripes,” she replied.

  “Actually, plain, dull blue if you want to get specific.”

  “Zebra stripes would have been more interesting.”

  “Yep.”

  The next few moments were filled with silence, broken only by the crackle of the fire and Bobbi’s steady foot in the snow. But then Rick Lainey jumped to his feet and started the worst rendition of Jailhouse Rock anyone had ever heard, accompanied by a pathetic Elvis impersonation. No surprise really, the guy had no rhythm, and by the time he was done everyone joined in and the heaviness had vanished.

  By the time the party moved indoors it was approaching midnight. The air was still chilled, the stars still shone and the buzzing sexual tension between him and Bobbi had reached fever pitch.

  Shane glanced up at the sky and breathed in a shot of cold air as he walked across the back deck and eyed the hot tub. His body thrummed with energy and he thought that it was probably a bad idea to be thinking the thoughts that he was thinking.

  He and Bobbi had got busy in this particular hot tub on more than one occasion and he wasn’t real sure he’d be able to keep his hands to himself. Sure, the other couples were there, though Logan and Billie had left more than an hour earlier—one guess as to why—but still, the thought of Bobbi in the skimpy black bikini he’d spied in her bag, strutting around the place, had his gut tightened into knots.

  Lord knows the woman wasn’t into hiding her body and why should she? It was hot. Hell, back in the day she’d been known to doff her top on occasion and then there was that one time they’d had sex in park, in broad daylight just as church was letting out…

  But, she was different now and he wasn’t so sure he wanted anyone to see any part of her that was meant for him.

  “Shit,” he murmured as he yanked on his black swim trunks and eased the material away from his already straining erection. He really needed to stop thinking of Bobbi Jo as his.

  He glanced at the patio doors—Rick should have been out by now—and briefly wondered where everyone was, but, with a shrug took a step toward the bubbling hot tub. Brenda was a good sport and he had a feeling she would have no problem pointing out the fact that Shane was sporting one hell of a hard on.

  He sank into the hot water, hissing at the sensation as the liquid slid across every inch below his waist. With a groan, Shane settled back, grabbed his beer from the edge of the tub and took a good long drink. He heard the door open behind him.

  “About time, Lainey. I was wondering where you all got to.”

  “It’s me,” Bobbi said softly.

  He cocked his head to the side, his heart thudding at the sound of her voice. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “They’re gone.”

  “Gone,” he said softly. Shit.

  “Yes.”

  As soon as the word left her lips, Shane heard the distinct sound of the snowmobiles out front. Seconds later the noise had diminished and he knew the sleds had been swallowed by the surrounding forest.

  “It’s just you and me,” she said.

  “Why are they gone?”

  “I asked them to leave.”

  “You asked or told?”

  A pause.

  “What do you think?”

  Right.

  Shane closed his eyes and prayed for strength. He knew that tone. That underlying huskiness in her voice. It meant she wanted something, and even though his dick was doing the fucking mating dance in his shorts, he wasn’t so sure this was a good idea.

  He didn’t want this to be just about sex. Not anymore.

  Slowly, he turned around and swallowed hard.

  She was a few feet from him, standing in a pool of moonlight, as naked as the day she was born.

  Holy hell, but she was the most breathtaking thing he had ever laid eyes on. Hands down. No one came close to Bobbi Jo Barker. Not in his books. Not in this lifetime. Not in any lifetime past or in the future. It just wasn’t possible.

  She advanced on him, her long legs closing the distance between them like a dancer crossing the stage, full of grace and catlike sensuality. Her breasts bounced as she walked, the nipples erect from the cold and his gaze moved hotly over both of them.

  When she stopped, just beyond the edge of the hot tub, he croaked. It was a juvenile, angst-ridden teenage sort of sound, but what the fuck? He could barely speak.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Her eyes were shadowed, their blue depths dark and huge in her face. That hair that drove him crazy with its texture and smell was all over the place. It looked like she’d just tumbled out of his bed, and her mouth, Christ that damn, intoxicating mouth, was open enough for him to glimpse her even white teeth.

  And that tongue.

  The one that had starred in so many of his porn star fantasies.

  Bobbi ran her tongue, along her bottom lip and took one more step toward him, hands loose at her side as a smile tugged the corners of her mouth.

  Shane’s heart thudded—hard—and he exhaled. She was trying to kill him, because dammit if his eyes weren’t on level with the sweet, enticing V between her legs.

  Don’t look, man. Be strong.

  His eyes remained fixed to hers, though sweat now beaded along his forehead and his top lip. It could have been because he was sitting in water that was 102 degrees but he highly doubted it.

  He was on fire for one reason only and it was standing inches from him.

  She took two more steps up until she towered over him, forcing his neck back, and then placed one foot onto the edge of the tub. With a wicked grin that would tempt a goddamn monk to distraction, she looked down and whispered.

  “Don’t you know?”

  She angled her foot, moving her knee slightly, opening up her hips and the crevice there at her junction. He couldn’t help himself. Slowly his gaze lowered from her face, down past her breasts and the soft dip of her stomach. Lower still he went, until he stopped. Until his eyes feasted on her pink, shiny folds and her swollen clitoris that peeked through.

  Shane clenched his jaw together so tightly it was painful and he stifled the groan at the back of his throat. She was wet. So goddamn wet.

  So wet for him.

  He could smell her, and that male part of him, that caveman fucking Tarzan part of him erupted, and it took everything he had not to grab her hips and pull her down. He wanted to lick her in
to a frenzy. Watch her come. Watch her writhe beneath him and take him deep. He wanted all of that.

  And yet, he wanted more.

  “I thought,” he began hoarsely but then her fingers were on his mouth and he was silenced.

  I thought we weren’t gonna do this.

  “Don’t think, Shane.” Bobbi slid into the tub beside him. She grabbed the beer out of his hand and took a long, slow, drink.

  He watched her throat move—slowly, seductively—as she drank. And of course his thoughts went south. They went way south and it sure as hell wasn’t a bottle he envisioned those luscious lips wrapped around.

  She set the bottle on the ledge and moved closer, the steam from the hot tub forming a cloud of mist around them but Shane inched away, suddenly unsure and even though his dick was as hard as a rock, he needed to—

  Bobbi frowned. “You’re thinking.”

  “No shit,” he muttered, putting another few inches between them.

  “I told you I didn’t want you to think.”

  “You also told me that we weren’t going to do this. That our deal was off. Hell, as far as you’re concerned there isn’t any deal.”

  He pinned her with a dark look, because A) he was as confused as hell and wasn’t in the mood for surprises. And B) Why the fuck wasn’t he between her legs already? Hadn’t he decided that the best way to win her back was through sex? Because sex was the one thing they were smoking hot at?

  “Let’s forget about your silly idea,” Bobbi said slowly, her wet mouth plump and ready.

  “Forget about it,” he repeated still trying to buy some time so he could figure out where his head was at.

  Bobbi reached for him, her fingers slowly trailing along his jaw, the touch as light as a butterfly on the wind.

  Something changed then. It was in the way her breath hitched at the back of her throat. The way her chest rose and fell and her eyes widened just so. It was in the way her fingers continued to soothe and caress their way along his jaw until she cupped his face between both of her hands.

  It was in the way he saw his soul reflected in her eyes.

  “Yes,” she whispered against his mouth. Her lips slid across his, a soft touch and then they were gone. “Let’s start fresh, just two people in a hot tub.” Her voice lowered and he felt one of her hands on the waistband of his shorts.

  “One of them naked.” Her fingers slipped inside and he inhaled sharply when her fingers wrapped around his rigid shaft. “One of them soon to be naked.”

  Slowly her body floated overtop of his and she withdrew her hand from his shorts and settled onto his lap. Her breasts pressed into his chest and her eyes stared into his intently.

  “So,” he said carefully, “one of these two people has no qualms about sleeping with some random guy she meets in a hot tub?”

  “No,” Bobbi leaned forward and licked his earlobe before whispering. “No qualms at all. She’s easy from what I’ve heard.”

  His hand fisted into her hair and he pulled her head back, a little rough, but he couldn’t help it. He was fast losing control of his body and mind. Shane’s other hand wrapped around her hip, grinding her against his hard cock and with a grin, he reached for her mouth.

  “Good to know,” he whispered, before opening wide and claiming what in fact, was his.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Shane fed from her lips, his tongue sweeping over her, inside her, tasting, suckling, taking what he wanted. When she groaned in his arms, and pressed into him, he thought for one crazy second he was going to explode and ruin everything.

  How could he keep it together. She was way too soft. Too pliant. Too hot and sexy. And her scent. Summer. God damn, but she smelled good.

  He took a moment, pulled away and stared into eyes that he could lose himself in. A ragged breath escaped, he smoothed a stray bit of hair from her face and when she opened her mouth to say something, he closed it with his own.

  He kissed her slowly, thoroughly, taking his time even though his body was shouting, fast and hard. Shane didn’t want that. He wanted slow and thorough. Deep and intense. For this one perfect night, under the stars and God’s eyes, he wanted every moment to last. To stretch long and thin until he was ready to make new ones.

  She straddled him, her hands pulling on his shoulders, urging him closer, tighter, but again he strove for constraint and kissed her until his head swam. Until she moaned into him and he tasted her desire. Until her scent was inside him, infiltrating his mind and soul.

  Until she was a part of him.

  With their bodies half submerged in the hot water and the steam rising around them, it was easy to let himself go, to just lose himself inside Bobbi, but he had other plans.

  Shane broke their kiss and cradled her head in his hands. His breaths were raspy now, as were Bobbi’s. Her breasts rose and fell, their pebbled nipples dusky rose, as the water lapped at them greedily.

  “Bobbi,” he said hoarsely, taking a moment so that he could gather his scattered thoughts and say the things he needed to say.

  “We’re strangers,” she answered hoarsely. “You don’t know my name.”

  He gazed into her eyes and his heart shifted. His entire being shifted if it was possible.

  “I’m just a girl in a hot tub with a boy.” Her fingers trailed across his collarbone and he ground his teeth hard as a grin widened her bruised and thoroughly kissed lips. “Willing to do all kinds of naughty, sinful...decadent things.”

  Bobbi wriggled from his grasp, dropping a kiss next to his mouth, before trailing a line of fire to where her fingers rested on his collarbone. She nipped him there, a hard, fast bite that drew a hiss from him as she laughed throatily.

  Bobbi stood and urged him up as well, her hands in his waistband, probing, loosening and seconds later she tossed his swim trunks behind her, giggling when it landed in the snow on the other side of the deck.

  Her giggles soon dried up and she licked her lips, her gaze settling on his straining erection. If it was possible Shane grew harder, thicker, just from the look in her eyes. Gently, she pushed him backward and he couldn’t hide his groan as her fingers scaled down his chest, lingering over his abs. She bent forward and kissed the tattoo on his shoulder, tracing the lines with her fingers as her head moved downward, tongue licking, slow swirls of hotness.

  Unbidden, his hands fisted in her hair and he rested his butt on the edge of the hot tub, his lips drawn back, almost feral-like, when her intention became clear.

  Hot water rippled around his calves and she dipped her hand into the tub, sluicing water over his cock, sliding her hand along the length of him. Her touch was firm and sure—the woman knew what he liked. As she pumped him slowly with one hand she rubbed her thumb along the ridge beneath the head of his penis, once, twice, and then again.

  He strained in her grasp, his eyes never leaving hers as she continued to massage, to knead and to tease.

  When a wicked smile stole over her features he tensed, every single muscle in his legs and thighs tight, his mouth open with anticipation, his thoughts scattered.

  “Are you sure everyone’s gone?” he asked hoarsely.

  Bobbi paused, her cherry red lips a whisper away from him. “Does it matter?”

  She slid her mouth over him, moving her hands down to the base of his cock as she took him whole. Shane’s hands remained in her hair. He held her there against him as he strained into her mouth.

  Did he care? Hell the fuck no.

  He continued to watch her between his legs, letting her lick and suckle him until he knew he could take no more. If he didn’t stop her he’d blow his load early and who the hell know how long it would take him to recover. He didn’t want this. Not now. There would be time for it later.

  Right now he wanted to be over her. In her. With her eyes watching him as he drove himself as deep.

  He wanted to watch her come and he wanted to know it was because of him.

  Shane tugged on her and she glanced up, surprised when his
hands slid from her hair down to her shoulders. Overhead snow was falling, great big flakes that fell out of the sky and melted against her skin. One particularly large flake rested on the edge of her nipple and he bent forward, his mouth erasing it, his tongue teasing her as he slowly swirled his mouth over the rigid peak.

  First one and then the other.

  “Christ, Bobbi, you’re perfect.”

  “Bobbi, who?” she said hoarsely, her words ending on a squeal when he slid one of his hands between her legs.

  He smiled against her breasts, gave them one final kiss as he settled back on the edge of the hot tub and pulled up her onto his thighs. He held her away from him and with her legs spread wide everything he wanted was open to his eyes.

  He gazed at her, loving the way her eyes widened as his fingers spread her apart. As his thumb ran over her clitoris and two large, fingers settled deep inside her. A quiver rolled across her, shaking her slightly as she moved against his hand.

  “You like that?” he said roughly, smiling when she nodded.

  With his fingers deep inside, he curled them upward, the pads of his fingers rubbing the top of her. He stroked her there, gently at first, and then as he felt her clench against him, stronger and more urgently.

  “Does that feel good?” he whispered.

  “You know it does,” she gasped.

  He nuzzled her neck. “That I do, babe.”

  She bit her bottom lip and arched her body so she could watch what he was doing.

  She was so wet. On the cusp and he knew she wouldn’t be able to take much more.

  “Oh, God, Shane I’m going to come.”

  “Not yet,” he answered roughly, pulling his fingers from her warmth. She whimpered, but the sound only served to heighten his desire.

  He hauled her out of the hot tub, ignoring her shriek when he wrapped her legs around his waist. The deck was too hard, the patio doors too far away so without another thought he strode across the deck to where the snow lay just beyond, where the forest watched like silent soldiers.