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He reacquainted himself in a series of fast, hungry sweeps and long, deep plunges, desperate to devour everything at once like a starving man at a feast. Manners finally kicked in when she moaned again, this time a little desperately. He forced himself to slow down. Let her have oxygen. But she closed those plush lips around his tongue, applying suction as he withdrew, and he felt the pull all the way to the base of his cock. It slowed him down considerably. When he eventually lifted his head, they were both breathing heavy. He waited until she blinked her eyes open and focused on him.
“Does that answer your question?”
“What question?”
He laughed, despite the brutal pressure in his balls. “You wanted honest, Sinclair. I can’t be more honest than this. Your turn.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth. She dragged her lip between her teeth, worrying the soft pink flesh until he thought he’d pass out from the blowjob those lips were giving him in his mind. But her eyes—they were the eyes of a woman at war with herself. So much so, she backed up a step, letting the cool air get between them. “What if I say I meant what I told you before, about how I’m not going to sleep with you?”
I’d say you’re lying to both of us. But she wanted the lie, for now, and he played by her rules. Always. Which didn’t mean they couldn’t still play. He put his hands in his pockets and shot her a grin. “Slow your roll, baby girl. Last time I checked, there was a lot of road between all and nothing. And for us, the Lookout was always about the journey.”
Chapter Five
For us, the Lookout was always about the journey.
The words echoed around Sinclair. Shane stood against the dramatic sky in his respectable white shirt and suit pants, with his hands in his pockets as if to suggest he posed no risk. No risk? Ha. The confident grin, the gleam in his eyes, and the assembly of hard, vital muscles covered by the facade of professional clothes told a different story. He was the very definition of risky. He always had been.
And yet, damn her, she was tempted to take the journey. His mouth on hers produced a complicated set of responses—a shockingly strong rush of desire. Curiosity. Caution, because old feelings left a painful weight in her chest, as if she’d swallowed too much of something. God only knew what was going on in her head. More than she could unpack right here and now, so she took another step back and gave him a deliberately obtuse answer. “What journey? We both know where this road ends.” He could interpret that any way he chose.
“You have a terrible memory.” He strode to the passenger side of the Rover and opened the door for her. “Get in, and I’ll refresh it for you.”
How should she interpret that? It wasn’t lost on her that he’d shifted the burden of clarifying things back to her. She walked over, her strides unhurried, but her mind raced back to another time—a time when the sight of him standing by his truck would send her shimmying down the tree outside her bedroom window, hurrying across the moonlit front yard, and flinging herself into his waiting arms.
She didn’t do that kind of reckless abandon anymore. These days she walked into things with her eyes open, and always, always, with a clear path for how she intended to walk out.
Maybe tonight wasn’t so different? She could walk in easily enough. No explanations necessary, and nobody had to know. He’d take care of the exit. Despite what he said, she had no doubt about that. Only one uncertainty remained. Sex was off the table, so exactly what was she walking into?
The flash of his smile dared her to find out, and she’d never been one to back down from a dare. Gathering every ounce of calm at her disposal, she stepped up into the SUV and settled herself in the passenger seat. He closed the door, came around, and climbed into the driver’s seat. And then, for a long moment, he just faced forward. She followed his gaze out the window. Lights in the valley below twinkled to life in the unfurling dusk. The top corner of the crescent moon shone from above a fringe of pine tops. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted.
The call seemed to spur him into action. Nature hadn’t been the soundtrack of their nights at the Lookout. He hit the button on the dash to fire up the battery, and then tuned the radio until he found a station. Sam Hunt flowed from the speakers and warned some unnamed girl he was going to make her miss him.
Shane turned to her, relaxed as could be with one arm braced against the steering wheel and the other resting on the back of the seat. Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, he leaned in and kissed her again. “Remember now?”
Of course she remembered. She remembered kisses so long and deep and melding she felt as if they’d absorbed each other. She remembered yearning to be even closer. Crawling into his lap to make it happen, and sighing with gratitude when he’d undone her blouse, peeled her bra away, and touched her breasts. He’d been the first boy to see them, much less handle them, but he’d been so reverently gentle, and then so exquisitely rough, her body still reacted whenever she thought of it.
Another night, his hands had gone on to bring her another first. This one so overwhelming he’d had to muffle her bewildered cries of pleasure. And that had only been the beginning. His mouth…those patient lips and that tireless tongue, had driven her beyond pleasure. They’d introduced her to desperation right before they’d introduced her to an orgasm so shattering it had reduced her to tears. One of many. Nobody had ever made her lose herself the way he did.
Would he still? Her heart pounded hard at the prospect, but glancing around the burled wood and hand-stitched leather interior of the Rover offered a big, bracing dose of reality. They definitely weren’t kids anymore, and letting a guy get to third base in a car was the kind of insanity reserved for sixteen-year-old girls who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. “Are you serious? I’m twenty-six years old.”
“Is there an age limit on vehicular necking?”
“We did a hell of a lot more than neck.”
His smile turned downright triumphant. “See?” He leaned over and nuzzled her ear. “It’s coming back to you.”
Clean, expensive cologne teased her nose at the same time his lips teased her skin. “I’d do this…” He eased his body closer, surrounding her until he could run his thumb up and down her arm, brushing the swell of her breast in the process.
Under her sweater, nerve endings tingled. Muscles in her abdomen tightened as heat centered there and then seeped lower. She squirmed in her seat. “That was a long time ago. We’re both experienced adults, and adults don’t do this. It’s more all-or-nothing after a certain age.”
“Not tonight.” He switched his hold to the back of her neck and kissed the line of her jaw. “Tonight, we get reacquainted with everything in between. Starting here…” He covered her mouth with his and delivered another kiss—the kind of long, persuasive kiss that took what was offered and asked for more at the same time. The kind of kiss that said nothing was a foregone conclusion, because every moment was a destination unto itself.
The kind of kiss she could never resist. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, and kissed him back. He used his lips to part hers, but then her tongue set its own agenda, racing along the edge of his teeth until he bit down, deliberately trapping it. Other parts of her body tingled in anticipation of the same treatment. His taste filled her mouth. Past and present blurred while she drank him in.
Long, suspended moments passed while his mouth moved over hers. Eventually, he eased back just enough to let her breathe, but his hand at the back of her neck kept her close. So close their lips stayed in contact while she dragged in a lungful of oxygen. The touch-and-go brush of his mouth against her kiss-dampened lips took her back in time, while simultaneously holding her firmly in the moment.
They’d left “nothing” in the dust as soon as he’d pulled into her drive. She’d taken “all” off the table before she’d gotten in his car and figured that would be that, but he was proving her wrong. And she didn’t want him to stop.
