The Hottest Ticket in Town

by Kimberly Van Meter

  A witty comeback died on her lips as soon as Kane’s tongue delved between her folds, just as his finger pushed its way inside her. She groaned and lost herself to the sensation of being penetrated while his tongue manipulated and teased her clit. Oh, damn, he was good, she realized as sweat popped along her brow, and her skin became clammy as pressure began to build at a rapid clip. “Wait!” she tried to stop him, just as he’d tried to stop her, but he wasn’t listening. If anything, he just pushed her harder, and, within the moment he began strumming her G-spot, beckoning her orgasm with a crooked finger as his tongue sucked and licked that tiny, sensitive nub, she knew she wasn’t going to win this battle.

  She emitted a groan from deep within her throat and her thighs began to shake. “Ohhhh, K-Kane!” It was all she could manage before everything clenched and exploded inside her as pleasure spiraled out and staked its claim on every nerve ending. Ohhhh, God...that was...holy hell...not natural! Her head lolled to the side as she tried to recover from the shattering orgasm, but there would be no recovery time for her as Kane was ready to go, his cock as hard as ever.

  He climbed her body, the tip of his cock bouncing against her belly as a grin split his sensual mouth right before he claimed her lips in a searing kiss that smelled of her own musk and sent her arousal level back into the red-hot zone. “You’ve learned a few things,” she managed to gasp before his mouth descended on a nipple. She clutched at his head as he suckled her, losing herself again as time disappeared between them and all that mattered was her and Kane.

  He switched to the other breast and gave it equal attention, his guttural moan as he sucked, enough to send her into space. This man—he had sexy on overdrive—how could any woman be immune to him? He was her Achilles’ heel and always had been. Clutching him to her, she loved the way his back muscles flexed beneath her fingertips as he pressed her into the mattress, the springs groaning beneath their weight. He was poised above her, staring down, his gaze dark and hungry like a predator zeroing in on its next meal, and she was struck by what she saw behind the hunger, beyond the insatiable sexual need—but before she could spend another heartbeat considering the ramifications, Kane was plunging inside her with raw intensity. She gasped as her body struggled to accommodate him, but there was something so satisfying about being filled completely by Kane, knowing that their bodies joined as nature intended, like two puzzle pieces locking together, forever made for one another. She shuddered as he began to move inside her, thrusting hard, hitting that certain spot with unerring accuracy until she was crying out, bucking beneath him as a wildness took over and she was helpless to stop the orgasm coming straight for her without mercy.

  Oh God, yes! Kane! His name spilled from her lips as everything spasmed in glorious concert, curling her toes and rattling her womb. She gave in to the sensation without a second of regret. Eye-crossing pleasure blotted out everything but what her body was experiencing and soon enough Kane joined her, shuddering as his thrusts became more frenzied, and then he stiffened and groaned as loudly as she was crying out his name. There were no words for what they’d just experienced, no way to quantify the sensations rioting through her body like fireflies, igniting her nerve endings and sending tingling messages of relaxation and total satiety to her brain. Her bones melted into the mattress as she drifted in the aftermath of bliss and for that one moment, she knew complete and utter happiness.

  It wouldn’t last—but she’d take what she could get.

  * * *

  BREATHING HARD, HIS heart banging against his breastbone, Kane wasn’t quite sure what had just happened. No, that wasn’t accurate—he knew but he couldn’t believe it. After all his big talk about keeping his distance, he’d given in to his physical urges like a dumb-ass kid who didn’t have the good sense to know when to keep his dick in his pants. An expletive formed in his mind but he kept it behind his lips. An exhale escaped as he wondered what the play was now, but Laci was already talking. No surprise there—Laci had always been a chatterbox.

  “That was awesome,” she said with a happy sigh and he couldn’t help but puff up his chest a little bit at her admission—because, hey, he was a male and that was what males did when females handed out sexual compliments—but he knew he ought to set her straight about the situation.

  “Laci...”

  She turned to him, her honey-blond hair trailing on the pillow, a sweet smile curving her lips. “Yeah?”

  He could probably time his watch with how quickly her smile faded once he told her they shouldn’t be hooking up like this and, because he’d rather eat his words than watch her smile die, he did exactly that. There’d be plenty of time for disappointing conversations later, right? Likely a whole lifetime. He lifted on his elbow to crane his neck to see the small bedside clock and confirmed what he’d already figured. “Bleudell’s is closed. We missed your pickup order.”

  She shrugged, rolling to her back with another sigh as she stretched like a cat who’d just been pampered. “Oh well,” she said, unconcerned. “They’ll still be there tomorrow morning. If you don’t have time, I can just borrow your truck and get it.”

  “I’ll go get your appliances,” he said, adding with a slight tease, “like you can manhandle an appliance? When was the last time you did anything with your hands aside from grip a microphone?”

  She laughed and latched onto his cock, shocking and arousing him at the same time. “Well, I manhandled this just a few minutes ago and I seemed to do a pretty good job of it.”

  “If you don’t let go, you’re gonna get round two before you’re ready,” he warned her with a growl, but Laci wasn’t scared of him—never had been—and she knew exactly what she was doing, too, based on the coy look she gave him from beneath those lush lashes. “Laci...”

  “Shh,” she told him, pushing him back and straddling him. Her wet core fit nicely on his semihard cock and he half wondered if she’d be the death of him. She leaned into him, brushing her lips across his, her little tongue teasing the seam of his mouth with a quick dart, and he surged against her, gently gripping her ass with both hands as he rubbed her hot wetness against his shaft. He ground himself against her, drinking in her tiny gasps and groans, as he used the pressure of his cock against her swollen clit to bring her to another, shuddering end.

  “Kane!” She collapsed against him, her weight on top of him an intoxicating sweetness that he couldn’t help but drink in like a man dying of thirst. There’d never be anyone but Laci. Everything about her sparked a need inside him that wouldn’t die. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as she recovered, her heartbeat thumping against his chest, and when she finally scooted off his chest and cuddled into his shoulder to fall fast asleep, he didn’t have the heart to move her. Dark rings of exhaustion still marred her eyes and she was far thinner than he remembered. Laci had always been curvy in all the right places, with nice pillowy breasts and a perfect, round ass, but he could tell she was being run ragged by whoever was in charge of her schedule. It wasn’t his place to say anything more than he had, but it bothered him just the same.

  Tomorrow he planned to say more, too...

  He tightened his arms around her, allowing his eyelids to flutter shut, as well.

  Tomorrow would come soon enough.

  9

  KANE MADE QUICK work of the chores and then headed into town to pick up the appliances at Bleudell’s for Laci. He wasn’t sure this was the smartest thing to do, but Laci had seemed anxious to do something nice for the Bradfords, so he was willing to help her out. He knew the Bradfords would never refuse a gift given with a true heart, but he hoped it didn’t stress Cora out too much to find her kitchen messed with. People were funny that way. Didn’t matter if everything was falling down around their ears, sometimes they wanted things just the way they were, no matter what other people thought.

  The drive was easy enough—not too much traffic going to tow
n most days—but the memories that dogged him weren’t friendly. Maybe it wasn’t fair to blame a place for the shit that had happened to you while you lived there, but Kane couldn’t help scowling as he pulled into Bleudell’s. No one in this town aside from the Bradfords had lifted a finger to help them when he and Rian had been two skinny, scrawny kids bearing bruises and desperately hoping someone—anyone—would make Dale Dalton stop beating his sons.

  Maybe they’d been afraid of the son of a bitch— Dale had been one helluva bastard on his good days—but Kane still held this town responsible for being too afraid to stick up for two little kids who’d had no one to be their champion.

  Unlike Laci, he and Rian had been born in Woodsville—native Hedgehogs, if you will—but he felt no affinity for his hometown.

  Summers with the Bradfords had been his saving grace. He often wondered how his life might’ve turned out if Warren hadn’t thought to look past the angry, aloof act that Kane had perfected to give him a much-needed job. An angry sixteen-year-old was trouble just waiting to happen.

  Unless you put him to work.

  Somehow, even though Warren wasn’t any kind of self-help guru, his quiet wisdom had told him that anger was an emotion that had to be worked out of the body with physical labor. Nothing worked better to exorcise those demons than good ol’-fashioned hard work. And boy, had Warren put him and Rian to good use. Hauling hay, milking cows—even helping a calf coming into this world—Warren hadn’t soft-pedaled his expectations in any way, but he’d paid them pretty well and for the first time in their young lives, they’d felt good about themselves.

  Of course, they’d had to hide their money from the old man. They’d learned that the hard way.

  “You thought you were real smart, didn’t you? You thought I wouldn’t hear that you’re getting paid by old man Bradford,” Dale had snarled, gripping Kane’s collar and jerking him around. Kane had been working for Warren for a month and had saved all of his earnings—three hundred and fifteen dollars—and was planning on buying some much-needed clothes for him and Rian for school. Dale’s breath smelled of whiskey and rancid tomatoes, two things Kane had a hard time stomaching to this day, and the mean glint in his eye was hazed from too many days spent drinking too much and eating too little. Kane knew there was no avoiding the beating that would follow if he didn’t cough up some cash, and so he gave Dale all but a hundred bucks of his stash, lying to his dad about how much he was being paid. Dale, too drunk to do the math, just took the money and finished his bender but not before clocking Kane just because he didn’t like “the look” on his “shit-eatin’” face.

  Aw, let’s stop with the memory lane, he told himself, rubbing the bristle on his jaw. The old man is dead. Be thankful for small graces.

  He stepped outside the truck and he saw Warren in his memory, walking out of the hardware store next door to Bleudell’s, and he couldn’t help remembering that fateful day.

  “Got yourself quite the shiner, young man,” Warren had remarked, gesturing to Kane’s black eye. “Hopefully, you gave the other guy worse.”

  He was tempted to snarl at the man, to tell him to go screw himself, because he was angry and embarrassed and by that point, everyone had a low opinion of the Dalton boys anyway, but for some reason, he swallowed the hot retort. Instead, he muttered, “I wish, sir,” and started to walk away.

  He’d been planning on dropping by the Dumpster behind Olive’s Diner to see if there was anything worth salvaging. He’d learned real quick that restaurants threw away a shit-ton of food and for a starving kid, throwing away good food just seemed crazy. He’d found all sorts of stuff that would fill his and Rian’s bellies, but he had to do it on the sly because he didn’t relish anyone catching him digging through the trash.

  But everything changed that day. It was as if Warren had somehow known that Kane was at a crossroads and he had the power to do something about helping him make the right choice. “You look plenty strong,” he said to Kane’s back, causing him to turn with suspicion.

  “Yeah? What of it?”

  “Are you honest?” Warren asked bluntly and Kane nodded, not quite sure what to think of the sturdy old guy in his ranch boots crusted with God-knew-what and his dusty jeans, but he sensed that he wasn’t out to screw him over or ask him to suck his dick, and he took a wait-and-see attitude. The man nodded as if he approved and said, “Good. I need someone strong and honest for summer work. You available? Pay is decent for the right person.”

  “What do I have to do?” he asked, wary.

  “Just hard work on a ranch, son. Probably the hardest work you’ve ever done, but I’ve got a place for you to sleep and three squares made by the best little woman in the kitchen.”

  That sounded like a dream come true. Hard work never scared him none. Hell, he worked hard every day just to survive. When he wasn’t dodging his dad’s fists, he was scrounging for food and supplies to keep him and his brother alive. “I’ve got a brother,” he said, knowing that Rian would never survive without him and there was no way he was leaving his little brother behind. “He’s a hard worker, too.”

  “How old?”

  “Thirteen, sir.”

  “Strong like you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The man gave it some thought and then shrugged. “All right. We’ll see. Name’s Warren Bradford. What’s yours?”

  “Kane,” he answered, hesitating to reveal his last name. Dale Dalton was good for nothing in this town and everyone knew it. He sure as hell didn’t want to lose out on a great opportunity just because of his dickhead old man.

  “Kane...you got a last name?”

  “I do.”

  “Spit it out, son.”

  His mouth clamped shut, resisting, but he knew there was no help for it and answered glumly, “Dalton, sir.”

  “That’s what I thought. Listen here, son...I don’t make a habit of judging people based on the individuals they have the misfortune of being related to. You hear me? You make your reputation with me based on your actions. Act like a solid young man with good character and I’ll treat you as such. Steal from me and I’ll treat you like the no-good trash your father is. We clear?”

  Kane nodded. He liked this old man. There was something true and honest about him that he wasn’t used to. “When do you need us?”

  “What are you doing right now?”

  “Nothin’ much,” he answered, but his stomach growled and the old man didn’t miss it.

  “How about we seal the deal like our granddaddies did over a good meal? Sound good?” Kane wiped away the sweat from the summer sun baking his head and all he could manage was a nod, suddenly hungrier than he’d ever been in his life. Satisfied, Warren nodded. “Good. Where’s your brother?”

  “Waiting for me at Bridgerton Park,” he answered dutifully.

  “You need to talk with your pop or anything?”

  Hell no. Kane would rather shoot himself in the foot with a nail gun than tell his old man that he was getting a job. “No, sir. He don’t care what we do as long as we stay out of his way,” he told Warren.

  “All right, then. Meet me at the park in ten minutes.”

  And then Warren climbed into his truck and rumbled off, presumably to finish his errands, and Kane split for the park at breakneck speed.

  Yeah, that was the day things had changed.

  Thank God.

  He’d do anything for the Bradfords. Anything at all.

  They’d saved his sorry life and he’d spend the rest of his life looking out for them if they’d let him, so he understood Laci’s desire to do something nice for them.

  He walked into Bleudell’s and went straight to the pickup counter. “I’m here to pick up order number W34986, a stove and a refrigerator.”

  The older, blue-haired woman behind the counter adjusted her gl
asses and then smiled when she saw Kane. “My, aren’t you a tall bucket of water. Now, honey, what did you say that order number was?”

  He repeated the number and she adjusted her glasses before bending over a ledger to scan with her wrinkled fingertip. “Aha!” she exclaimed. “There it is. Now, there’s no name on here...where is this going?”

  “I’m just doing a friend a favor,” he answered, remembering Laci’s warning about letting people know it was going to the Bradford ranch. The last thing he wanted was to end up stirring the gossip pot while he was here. He left the woman wondering and said, “I’ll bring the truck around.”

  Plainly disappointed, the old lady shuffled away to bark orders at the warehouse workers and Kane walked out, already getting twitchy, and he’d only been in town for fifteen minutes.

  Good times.

  10

  LACI FOUGHT AGAINST her own indecision as she stared at her cell phone. She’d powered it down the moment she’d left the hospital because there was no one she wanted to talk to, but even more so, she wasn’t about to take the chance that someone might talk her into coming back. Being off the grid felt good—like the guilty pleasure of eating her favorite ice cream behind Trent’s back. She frowned at her own thoughts. Trent wasn’t a bad guy—he was focused. And she needed that in her life. There were always sacrifices to be made when going after a dream as big as hers, right?

  Maybe it was time to let someone know where she was before Trent put out an all-points bulletin for her whereabouts. Talk about embarrassing. She certainly didn’t want that. Laci sighed as she powered her phone on, not surprised when there were twenty voice messages and hundreds of texts. The weight and responsibility of her role in so many people’s lives threatened to suffocate her. She stared resentfully at the electronic tether and was overwhelmed by the notion that she ought to just chuck it into the creek and let the world forget about Laci McCall. But that wasn’t actually feasible—nor could she really follow through with such a drastic decision. Trent would land on his feet—as he was fond of reminding her, there were plenty of young singers who’d love to work with him—but what about Simone and Audrey? They were part of her team and they worked their fingers off for her. Audrey was a single mom and Simone was helping pay for her grandmother’s care in a nursing home. Losing a steady gig like Laci McCall’s would be a major blow to them both. She couldn’t let them down. She would go back...she would return to the hectic lifestyle. But she needed a few more days.