Waiting For It

by Rhyannon Byrd

  She dipped her chin, smiling a shy, beautiful smile, her cheeks going red with color, and then looked off into the distance to the apartments where she and her mother had lived and he followed her gaze. He’d hated that she’d had to live there, surrounded by drunks and drug addicts, people who her sorry-ass mother had fit right in with.

  “God,” she whispered, “I hated that place, with all the noise and fights and people.”

  “Your mother was a royal bitch.”

  She was startled by the unexpected outburst. “Um, yeah,” she replied awkwardly, wondering just how much Jake knew of her childhood.

  He shifted restlessly in his seat, muscles bulging and releasing, the inside of the cab going hot and thick with tension. “I saw you that day when she dropped you off in front of the school. You’d called Mitch to tell him not to pick you up, so I was worried and waited out in my truck for you to show up. When I saw you get out, you had blood running down your chin from your lip and your cheek was bruised.”

  His hands fisted in his lap, his knuckles white. “I had to fight to keep from getting out and smacking her pathetic ass into the ground. I’ve never hit a woman in my entire life, Taylor, but I wanted to hit her so badly I could taste it.”

  She cringed with the memory, hating that Jake had seen her like that. Hating the way her life had been. “I remember the day,” was all she could think to say, not wanting to burden him with stories from her less than stellar upbringing.

  He blew out a heavy breath, resting his head back on the seat. “Yeah, well, the only thing that kept me from reporting her to the cops was that Mitch said the school officials had already filed complaints against her.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Child Services looked into it for awhile, but she was a real charmer when she wanted to be.”

  Yeah, there weren’t many happy memories for her here, but then, it hadn’t exactly been an ideal time in her life. Not only had she had to deal with all her mother’s problems, but school had been difficult, not from a grade standpoint, but a social one. It wasn’t so much that she’d been excluded—she’d just sort of lived in her own world. When most teenage girls were poring over Seventeen and sneaking their mom’s Cosmos, Taylor had been reading Catcher in the Rye for the fortieth time or studying whatever art books she could get her hands on. She’d never been a part of their world, but she’d wanted desperately to be a part of Jake’s.

  God, how many times had she sat on the banks of that stream and sketched in her journals, dreaming of him? Agonizing over why she was so invisible to him. Trying to figure out why he seemed to hate her with such venom when she’d never done anything to him. And now that she knew the truth, knew the true extent of Mitch’s treachery, all those long, misspent hours seemed so miserably wasted and cruel. What would have happened to the course of her life if she’d ever found the courage to confront the man at her side when he’d been that beautiful green-eyed boy? What kind of woman would she be today?

  Huh. She’d probably have a hell of a lot more backbone than the pitiful wreck she’d become. She’d probably be a woman who believed in herself enough to go after what she wanted and believe that she’d be able to hold it once she got her hands on it. She’d be the kind of woman that could’ve told Jake she loved him too, instead of throwing his incredible words back in his face, refusing to acknowledge them, pretending they’d never even been said.

  God, she cried silently in frustration, screaming in her mind. Why couldn’t she just turn to him and tell him what was in her heart? Tell him that he was the one, the only one, and he always would be. Tell him she wanted to be his wife and his partner and the mother of his children. Tell him she wanted to be the best lover he’d ever known. Tell him she wanted to be the only lover he ever had again. Tell him she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and grow old with him and eventually die with him.

  Trembling with the need of it all pouring through her body, she turned to him, and he must’ve been able to read it all on her face, see it in her eyes because he groaned and grabbed for her, dragging her across his lap. Then his wonderfully rugged hands were holding her head while his mouth devoured hers, capturing her tongue, eating at her as if he couldn’t live without this tangle of lips and tongues and teeth.

  “Taylor,” he gasped into the moist cavern, his hands groping beneath the long hem of her fluttering gypsy dress, seeking her wet heat, digging beneath the edge of her panties until he was cupping her pussy, fingers seeking and playing along her swollen folds. “Please, baby. Let me have you, right here, right now.”

  “Yes,” she hissed, already helping him by settling herself astride his lap, knees bent on the seat on either side of his hips, her fingers attacking the stubborn buttons of his fly while Jake tongued her nipples through the thin cotton of her dress. “Do you know what I would have done if I’d known you were up here, watching me, all those years ago?”

  “What?” he growled, his entire body tensing, waiting, on the verge of explosion from the feel of her cool little hands on his fly and her huskily spoken words.

  “I’d have come up here, asked you to let me in, and I’d have done this,” she groaned, releasing the last button and wrapping her soft little fingers around the blistering hot skin of his cock. She stared into his eyes, loving the way they burned with so much need and emotion. “I’d have begged you to fuck me, Jake. I’d have taken your big, beautiful cock inside of me and rode you just like I always wanted to.”

  Sweat poured from his temples, into his wild eyes, over his flushed cheekbones. His throat worked, his body shaking beneath her. “I’ve never—” he grunted, so hot he could barely speak. “Never—never felt anything close to this. Close to you. I’d trade every fuck I’ve ever had just to have had one minute with you, Taylor. Thirty seconds. Five. Anything!”

  His wicked hands ripped away the insubstantial barrier of her panties, clever fingers spreading her cream, making sure she was ready for him.

  They both recognized the rightness of the moment, the beauty of it. The air inside the cab of the truck became humid with their panting breaths, the scent of their need filling the small space, flooding their senses.

  “Fuck,” he growled. “I feel like I’m eighteen again, desperate for that first time I’ll get to sink inside of you, cramming you full of me, breaking you open. How in the hell do you do this to me, Taylor?”

  “I don’t know,” she gasped, her pussy clenching in need as she watched him take his thick cock in his fist, guiding himself to her juicy slit.

  Jake’s eyes dropped down to the raunchy, beautiful sight of his hard cock prodding against her juice covered cunt. “I used to drive up here as often as I could,” he grunted roughly, pushing further between her lips, angling his hips so he could watch the head of his cock begin to penetrate that sweet little slit, stretching her so wonderfully wide. “I used to watch you and dream of carrying you up here, of taking you in my truck just like this, and making love to you until neither one of us could remember our names.”

  He dragged his eyes away from the erotic sight, grasping her hips as he rammed up into her, burying himself all the way to his balls, and looked straight into her vague, passion-glazed eyes. “Not fucking,” he growled, “but making love, Taylor. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes,” she cried out, wondering what kind of miracle made it possible for her to begin to move so sinuously above him, on him, riding his cock as if she’d done it a thousand times before, and knowing she was driving him to a wild, wonderful edge.

  It was like some inherent, seductive knowledge buried deep in her psyche that Jake had unleashed; a primitive instinct to drive him outta his mind with the lithe press of her hips and the pull and clench of her gushing pussy. The effect she saw on his hard, beautiful face filled her with an intoxicating power. It pulsed through her blood, quickening her pulse, making her drunk on pleasure.

  His cock was in fucking ecstasy, soaked in her cream, and his thumb snaked between them, swiping her clit
, collecting some to taste. Jake brought his wet thumb to his mouth, his tongue flicking for a quick swipe, making sure to save enough for her. She moaned over his feral growl of pleasure, and then he rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip, leaving a glistening smear of her cream behind.

  With one hand fisted into her hair, Jake pulled her face to his until their breaths were mingling, the tips of their noses nearly touching. “I told you before, Taylor, this is my cunt now.” His hips thrust hard, plowing his big cock up tighter into her, making them both shake with the hunger for more. “I’ve claimed it—and I’ll kill any bastard who ever tries to take it away from me again!”

  She moaned, and his mouth swallowed the sound, covering hers. His tongue licked eagerly at her lip, then filled her mouth, moving in perfect rhythm with the thrust of his cock so deep inside of her.

  And when he had to come up for air, their lungs burning, bodies on fire, he gave her one of the most shocking admissions of all. “Mitch told me how you hated living down there,” he grunted, his voice choppy from the rhythm of their bodies moving together, the sexy little way she was riding his cock, her cunt a rippling sheath of grasping muscles and liquid heat nearly driving him outta his mind. “Not that I couldn’t see it on my own, but he told me how you dreamed of designing your own house someday. Something that was yours. Something special.”

  She was locked into his eyes, wondering what he was trying to tell her, almost afraid to know the answer. She was too much under his spell as it was.

  “It’s because of you, Taylor.” His eyes were blazing now, his body hot and hard and shuddering, and she knew he was about to come. “The reason I learned to build houses—it’s because of you!” His hands found the sides of her face, pulling her mouth back to his, their breaths merging as completely as their sexes. “I did it so I could build you your dream house someday, Taylor. So I could come back and give you one of the things you’d always wanted for your very own.”

  She cried out as the meaning of his words roared through her, drenching her with love, and he swallowed the sweet sound down his throat just as they fell into that heart stopping little death and came against one another in a torrent of passion and love and need. Her arms wrapped around his head, holding him tight, while he held her hips, grinding her pelvis against his own, eating at her mouth as she shuddered and gasped and moaned.

  The earth-shattering sensations were slow to fade, and he soothed her back to reality, stroking the silky skin of her back beneath her dress, smiling as she nuzzled up against his chest and fell into a trusting slumber. Jake savored the feel of her in his arms, the tender way her cheek snuggled against his heart with the innocence of a child. His arms wound round her tighter, his hands trembling from the force of emotion flooding through him, the fear that by this time tomorrow she might no longer be a part of his life burning in his gut like a sickness.

  Christ, he couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not now. Not ever.

  “Rest now, sweetheart,” he whispered into her hair as the wind howled and another slow rain began to fall, marveling at the fact that he was holding her in his arms, his softening cock still held tight within her body. “‘Cause when we get back, you’re going to need it.”

  One hungry thought led to another, and a wicked smile was just breaking across his face as her eyes blinked lazily up at him a quarter of an hour later.

  “What?” she groaned warily, but her lips were twitching, looking forward to whatever it was he was scheming in that wicked mind of his.

  He pressed a kiss to her lips. “Let’s go for a ride.”

  “Where to?” she asked casually, trying to be cool about the fact that she was sliding off his wonderfully thick cock with their cum running down the insides of her thighs and her panties were somewhere in shreds. Somehow she didn’t think this was one of those situations covered in young ladies’ etiquette books. In fact, she was pretty bloody sure of it.

  His smile kicked up at the corner, feral and hungry and wicked.

  He was so bad, she thought dreamily as he handed her what was left of her underwear, his look clearly telling her he was looking forward to ripping the next pair off her as well. The kind of bad that a girl could never resist, and if she was smart, never even wanted to.

  “I’m gonna surprise you,” he drawled with a wink.

  Taylor crawled back over to her seat, securing her own seat belt as he twisted the key in the ignition. He laughed huskily under his breath, his mind obviously already on wherever they were going, and it was fun just to see the excitement pumping through his system. He looked like a boy of eighteen again, all giddy with wicked delight.

  More mind shattering fucking anyone?

  Yeah, she thought, feeling her own heart begin to pound in anticipation. Why not? Why the hell not?

  Chapter 13

  “No.”

  Just that one word, emphatic and absolute. And then, “Not a chance in hell.”

  “Ah, come on, Taylor. Take a walk on the wild side.”

  She laughed under her breath. “Jesus, Jake, this is my wild side.” Her finger pointed toward the dark storefront, where the sign on top elegantly scripted the name The Honey Pot. “This place is way, way past whatever wildness I have in me, big guy.”

  His eyes twinkled mischievously. “Yeah? When were you in there?”

  Her lips pressed together, fighting back a smile. “I’ve never been in there, you dolt.”

  He winked at her. “Then how do you know what they have in there?”

  “My imagination works just fine, thanks.”

  He reached over her, pulling his wallet out of the glove compartment. “All right, I guess I’ll just have to go in there by my lonesome then.”

  Taylor laughed beside him, shaking her head at his outrageousness. “You’re just gonna walk all by yourself into a sex shop and it’s not even going to bother you, is it?”

  “Naw,” he drawled, leaning over to give her a warm, wet, lingering kiss. “I want what’s in there too bad to worry about what other people think. Besides, the only person I give a shit about is you, and you already think I’m a pervert.”

  He opened his door to climb out, and she couldn’t help but eye the entrance with a jealous curiosity, wishing she was bold enough to just get out and do it. But the sidewalks were far from empty and she knew she’d never see it through. Jake gave her a warm, sexy smile, reading her thoughts as easily as his own. “How about I check it out this first time, and next time you can go in with me if you want?”

  “Deal,” she said quickly, before she could change her mind.

  “One of several,” he murmured, his eyes telling her he was talking about the other deal they had going, and she was suddenly a little worried about what he’d find in there. Whatever it was, she had to do it, according to their agreement, and that thought was as disturbing as it was exciting. The only thing that kept her from opening her door and getting the hell out of there was the fact that she trusted Jake implicitly.

  Well, she trusted him with her body. Her heart was another matter altogether.

  She watched him disappear into the modest looking storefront, and she couldn’t help but wonder at what he’d find inside. But since the front windows were tinted and she couldn’t see what was happening in there anyway, she took the opportunity to brush the tangles out of her hair and then flipped down the passenger’s side visor, hoping for a mirror to retouch her lip gloss.

  The mirror was there, but all thoughts of make-up slipped from her mind as she stared into the reflective surface.

  Her eyes opened wide, surprised to find that the overtly sexual, decadent reflection staring back at her was her own. She looked wild and wanton, like some fairy creature stolen from a primeval forest. For the first time in her entire life, she looked like one of the otherworldly beings she painted instead of the dowdy, demure painter who created them.

  For the first time ever, she looked like a satisfied woman.

  A woman who had been well-handled and fucked,
wonderfully debauched, taken hard and long and rough in the steamy cab of Jake Farrell’s truck.

  A woman who had been well and thoroughly loved.

  The wild woman inside of her wanted to curve her lips in a victorious smile, stretch her glowing, lithe little body in a sinuous, sensuous arc against the seat, and bring the beautiful male animal inside that sex shop to his knees. She wanted to bathe in the hot, blazing flame of lust she knew would be smoldering in his green eyes. Wanted to gorge herself on it until it’d stretched her skin and she had to break away from the world or burst at the seams.

  The wild woman wanted to be inside that shop with her man.

  And suddenly Taylor realized she wanted the exact same thing. She was done hiding out in the truck like the “old” Taylor, willing to sit back and watch as life passed her by, while her man went to buy sex toys by himself.

  Screw this.

  She was woman enough to go wherever she damn well pleased. Even if it was a sex shop!

  Screw being shy. Screw letting her man just walk away.

  Fired with determination, her heart pounding in excitement, Taylor latched onto the door handle, ready to fling it open, when she caught sight of him.

  She caught sight of Mitch.

  Holy shit. He was standing on the opposite side of the street, wearing his sheriff’s uniform and aviator sunglasses, making it impossible to see his ice blue eyes behind the mirrored lenses. Still, his rigid posture and the hard set of his mouth told her exactly what he was thinking.

  He’d seen who she was with and for some bizarre ass reason, he didn’t like it. All the lies he’d told came flooding back to her. All the pain caused by hearing him tell her how much Jake disliked her, the cruel things he’d made up, and for a split second she grabbed the door handle tighter, ready to jump out and slap his cocky face for all the malicious heartache he’d caused.