I should.
“No,” I whimper, and he growls and wraps my braid around his fingers, using it to tug my mouth back to his. His tongue drags against mine as his hips push intently against my own, his dick so thick and large that my eyes almost roll back in my head.
“You want this?” he says throatily, grinding against me.
The room is a fireball, and I have to press my palms to the wall behind me to stop myself from touching him. “We can’t.”
Those words make him loosen his hold on me, and I instantly mourn the loss of contact when his hips release mine. I quickly take hold of his back and run my palms down the ridges of muscle, stopping him from leaving. It takes all the willpower I have not to glide my hands over his perfect ass or palm the thick mound straining the front of his jeans. The temptation to undo his zipper and hike his jeans halfway down his thighs has my breaths haggard, but I find my resolve and untie myself from him, stepping sideways. I honestly can’t believe I have the strength to shut this thing down.I’m superwoman.
With me gone, Dylan’s forehead drops into the crook of his arm that’s still held against the wall, and one blue eye peeks out at me.
“I really have to get going,” I say with a great deal of reluctance. “But I hope you liked your prize.” I suck my bottom lip between my teeth for effect.
Dylan gives my mouth a hungry stare before pushing off the wall with a lamenting sigh. “You know, I heard there’s a wood-chopping convention in the next county—”
“Shhh.” I laugh and give his arm a light shove, careful not to exacerbate his pain. “You should go and rest those arms.”
“Oh, I don’t know how much rest this right arm’s gonna get tonight.”
Holy shit, if he’s talking about jerking off because of me… because of this…
Before I can let that vision suck me back into the danger zone, I shakily open the storage door and let Dylan walk out first. I’ve still got a few containers to put away, so I tell him goodnight in the lonely chill of the empty store space, thanking him again for the burrito and his help.
Dylan gives me a tight-lipped smile before disappearing out the door, and I push away a ridiculous feeling of disappointment that he didn’t try to kiss me goodnight. I made perfectly clear that I didn’t want things to go any further, so why on earth would he do that? I’ve become a head-case.
Before I can do something idiotic like find an excuse to tap on his door and undo my restraint that’s hanging on by a thread, I whip out my phone and text Ruby that I’m on my way home.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
DYLAN
I can still taste her.
The memory of it consumes me as I idly rub my thumb across my lower lip. Not only did I kiss Jade twice in one day, I fucking loved every second of it. I would’ve done more than kiss her if she’d been up for it. Too bad she shut us down because she would’ve looked like my wet dream bent over that counter in the store.
I had to relieve myself in the shower last night and again this morning because of that mental image. My poor, blistered hand is not impressed.
Ella’s screech cuts through thoughts I definitely shouldn’t be having while I’m sitting on a bench at the town playground. “Uncle Pickle! Watch this!”
“I’m watching!” I call back. Time to focus on yet another perfect descent from the twisty green slide. This time, she has her hands up in the air like she’s on a roller coaster.
Her pigtails bob and swing as she jogs over to me, her sparkly pink shoes kicking up wood chips as she goes. “Did you see?”
This kid reminds me so much of me when I was little. Maybe it was a first-born thing or a result of being the only boy, but I couldn’t get enough of Dad’s attention. “Look at me” were probably my first words. God, I miss him and Mom. What I wouldn’t give to be heading over to their place after this for a hot cup of coffee and a chat about the next vehicle Dad wants to buy.
“Sure did,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat. “You know what you should try next?”
Her eyes turn as round as saucers. “What?”
“Backwards.”
Her spaghetti-stained lips lift into a grin and she’s off, back on her favorite piece of equipment in this park. Not that there’s much of a choice when there’s only that twisty slide, four swings, a merry-go-round, monkey bars—my hands ache at the thought—and a seesaw that’s been here since I was little and makes more noise than an iron headboard in an orgy.
As Ella climbs the stairs to the top of the slide, my mind drifts back to yesterday. I stretch my weary arms toward the thick carpet of gray clouds looming in the sky. A light breeze drifts across my face, reminding me of the way Jade’s whispered words had done the same.
“What I want and what’s good for me are two different things.”
Hearing Jade say that made me feel kinda shitty, even though she’s probably right in thinking I’m not good for her. I’ll be leaving Still Springs in a couple of months, and once I’m gone, I don’t know when I’ll be back.
