Wicked Flower Page 4

  She nodded to answer him. Yes, his spicy taste carried her to someplace else. She liked it. Too much.

  He sucked more of her lips into his mouth then and she didn’t know how long she could last with him. They were merely kissing and her tummy was already swirling, her legs already weak. Blankly she remembered they were in a truck stop bathroom so this couldn’t last long. Somewhere, he had a life to get back to, the same as her.

  With time seeming to both stand still and tick by at extraordinary speed, Dani accepted this could all be over before she was ready for it to end. Before she’d proved to herself Thom was wrong.

  “Make the most of it,” she said, barely making sense.

  He pulled his face back the second the words left her mouth but still cupped her ear on the one side and jaw on the other in his warm and tattooed, calloused hands. Everything else she’d noted about him seemed so refined, except for those callouses. She wondered what a well-off guy like him did with his hands for a living but refused to ask. It wouldn’t matter. Pressure from his thumbs rubbed tiny circles that served to both relax and electrify her. He was so good with those hands, maybe he was a millionaire masseuse.

  Dark chocolate brown eyes, so deep she nearly missed the gold flecks mixed in, dared her to make another slip like that.

  “You don’t know what you’re asking, sweetheart.” His sincerity gave her a chill.

  Clearly he was right. But right now, she didn’t care.

  ****

  She had no idea what she was dangling in front of him right now.

  Every second she stuck it out, he could bet she was daring herself. He’d have to be a dumbass not to know this meant something to her. Her determination, that amping up she had to be doing to have stayed in here with him, kept her skin hot and smelled so fucking good.

  Stefan leaned into her, testing space and need.

  She was no petite little thing. The areas he liked smaller were deadly so, like her wrists and her waist. The others, where he liked a woman ample, she promised to be plenty. Her thighs kept distracting the shit out of him.

  Fuck it that they were in a goddamned public shitter.

  He gave her more of his weight and pressed his chest to hers. She should know he was all man and she should have at least a few seconds to decide if this was what she really wanted. Her back arched, her hips moved. Shit, he needed a few seconds, which wasn’t the norm.

  “Yes, I do know. Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t,” she said to him. “Just don’t squeeze me.”

  Everyone had their pet peeves. He didn’t particularly like that ultra-sticky lip gloss women wore nowadays. He would remember hers. “No squeezing,” he told her. Then her hands reached around and dipped to his ass. Her breasts had nowhere to go but to press into his chest. She rolled her rib cage just then and angled her neck, granting him complete access. Okay, maybe she did know what she wanted. Didn’t mean he wasn’t gonna make her say it.

  “Tell me what you want, sweetheart. Exactly,” he said into her mouth, nibbling some of that plump decadent lip between his teeth. “What you want … and I promise I’ll do it for you.” Then he whispered his long-standing caveat. “If you’ve changed your mind and we’re done, then we’re done. No harm, no foul.” He caressed her cheek softly, knowing she wouldn’t leave. Her need to be touched flamed between them. His cock thickened at that display of need she couldn’t help or hide.

  She breathed out and the rest of his body tensed, ready to take and claim and satisfy her.

  “Whoever you are, make me feel like I’m the only one.”

  There was only one way Stefan knew how to do that.

  He let both hands drop to her waist and then followed the curve back out to her hips. “Make you feel it here?” He rubbed the soft lemon velour covering her ass cheeks and then slid his hands under the material, bypassing the panties she wore as they were short on time. Her skin was soft and filled his hands as he squeezed. “Sorry, you said no squeezing,” he let out. Hers might have fluttered closed but keeping his eyes open and on her face was essential. He’d know the exact moment he crossed a line.

  “There is okay,” she said with more breath than voice. Her eyes were half hooded, a sign he was doing a good job, as he kept one hand on her supple cheek and moved the other around to caress her hip. The warm skin and womanly bone pleased him. What he wouldn’t give to have her naked and mounted on all fours.

  She leaned forward and whimpered into his shoulder. “I just want to forget.”

  Fuck, why did that make his chest tighten? But it was all he needed to keep going. He watched her get lost when his one hand trailed up the zipper line of her hoodie and then back down to her pants’ drawstring.

  His body primed to provide for her. He relented and finally let his cock become completely full and hard. What he wouldn’t give to be naked with her too, enjoying her gifts.

  She blinked a couple quick times as he came to life against her thigh.

  “Fuck sweetheart, if I had more time, this would be so much better.” His hand left her ass cheek and tugged her hair gently from behind then pushed her head to his so he could kiss her.

  “I believe you,” she let out as they kissed slower now. Less like complete strangers, more like new lovers.

  With his other hand, he found her moist and warm as he stroked the outside front of her panties. She rubbed his hip over his pants with the backs of her knuckles. “Mmm, I like that.” He bit her lip and then kissed it in case he’d hurt her. “Sweetheart,” he whispered into her mouth. His brain failed him when he told her the rest, “I want to fuck you.”

  “I don’t do that with strangers,” she said, but her voice lied. Yes she would. With him at least. Maybe it was just the words she didn’t like. At any rate, he was glad she’d said it. Imagining her doing this with anyone but him pissed him off.

  But this wasn’t making love. He wouldn’t be a dick and lie to her.

  “What about this?” he asked and kissed down her neck until he found the hollow of her throat. He circled the area with his tongue, over and over, wanting to make up for his crude comment, until he felt her nails gouge into his back. He didn’t stop and she whimpered.

  “Please, you can’t give me an orgasm,” she said quickly like it was a stipulation she’d failed to mention.

  “I assure you, I can. If that’s what you want.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean,” she said and pulled her neck away.

  All of a sudden, Stefan’s arms felt oddly heavy. What was he doing to this girl? How was this good for her? And what exactly did she want from him?

  But then her fingers left his hip bone and a second later he felt them cup him. Her grasp started soft and then became harder, firmer. “Just be nice. Okay?” she asked, killing him with her game. How did he fuck her and not make her come? There was something he wasn’t getting.

  “I promise,” he said, but decided in that second that being nice to her meant something else. Something the new him decided to risk and try out. Clearly the air out here had affected him, not just Will. What he was about to do was crazy, especially when all he wanted was to hold and fuck and please her.

  He kept his mouth on hers while he dug his hands into his pockets. She was going to have to understand, well learn fast anyway, that he cherished a woman’s body like he did breathing air. This stall was too cramped for the ways he’d like to adore her and he was short on time right this second but he was in town for two weeks and would like to see her again. “Have dinner with me,” he said into her ear, taking a small break from their kiss.

  Shit. She didn’t answer. Stefan grabbed for his cell phone which was wedged tight against his wallet in his back pocket. He wasn’t willing to give up yet.

  He nearly had it out when she unbuttoned the first button of his fly and tried to wedge her hand down the front of his pants but it was too tight, filled with his cock she’d left throbbing.

  “Dinner? I, I don’t know.” She moaned more deeply now. The sex dr
ipping sound surprised him and his wallet fell to the ground with his phone. Was she really saying yes to crazy hot bathroom sex but no to dinner with him?

  Shit, that was smooth.

  Distracted, he reached down to pick them up but she had the same idea. Being shorter, she was closer and got to his wallet first.

  The damn wallet was old and worn and barely held anything anymore. He’d bought it from an inflight magazine once on the advice of a flirtatious flight attendant. It was supposed to have lasted forever. His driver’s license fell out and she grabbed that for him too. She handed him the wallet and the phone but held onto his ID. That was fine. He didn’t have anything to hide from her.

  “Yes, dinner. And if you still want that proof, that too,” he said and kissed her cheek. “I actually have a house not too far from here. It’s uh, in Moonlight. We could eat, talk. Have amazing sex.” He ran his fingers up the back of her neck and massaged. “Whatever you want.” Why was his heart pounding so hard and why did she look like she’d like to disappear right now? Her face lost its pretty pink wash of passion from minutes ago. She’d really wanted him to pound her in here?

  The look in her eyes a second later branded him. She’d obviously been ripped out of their zone. Dammit, and new-him was the ripper. Fuck.

  “Stefan Calderon?” she asked.

  His license fell from her hands to the ground. The kitten was out of the bag and the pussy did not look happy.

  She ran smooth, lightly tanned fingers over her black hair and her fleshy lips, like she was trying to wipe away his touch.

  That had never happened before. And damn, it didn’t feel good.

  “Yes, that’s me,” he said. He’d give a million dollars to know what she was thinking and a few more to be told why.

  She backed out of the bathroom stall so fast, she literally became a bright yellow blur.

  What the hell? It was all he could think at her abrupt reaction.

  “Hey, wait,” he called after her and leaned down to pick up his license, reading his name and wondering why it had been so offensive to her. Did she have a thing against musicians? Read one too many articles about the dick lead singer of Sin Pointe? Been just toying with him this whole time? Until just then, he was sure she really hadn’t known who he was.

  Just like that, she was gone.

  His lips were swollen from their kiss, no doubt he’d left hers just the same. She’d wanted it, been into it as much as him. He picked up their uneaten licorice and his shades.

  At a total loss, Stefan left the bathroom as a girls basketball team filed in. Half of them eyed him suspiciously but the others gave him flirty looks he’d rather not have seen on such young faces.

  Stefan kept his eyes alert, searching out the bright yellow but nothing matched her as he passed through the crowd. He ran into Will whose hands were full of food and drink and a thin plastic bag that looked to be filled with CD’s and DVD’s. He sat on a giant silk flower planter with all his goods.

  “Hey man, sorry it took me so long but the pizza crew were fans. They wanted pics and asked me to sign a few things. They gave me way more pizza than I can eat alone. So, you’re welcome. And, we should probably get going.”

  Stefan glazed over most of what Will had just said. “Did you see that girl in yellow from pump five come through here?” He should have gotten her name.

  “Nah man. Why?”

  Stefan looked around some more as they walked out the truck stop doors to where Will had parked the car.

  “You hooked up with her, didn’t you? Where? In the bathroom?”

  “Not exactly.” Stefan wished. “Something spooked her.”

  “Shit man, maybe stranger danger? Smart girl after all.”

  “No, it was more than that. We were vibing. I actually asked her to dinner. Then she just left.”

  Will’s eyebrows shot up. “She bolted on your dinner invitation? What did you do to her before that? Had to be something, man.”

  “Nothing. She saw my driver’s license, said my name, then took off.”

  It didn’t make sense and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d left her worse off than when he’d found her. The feeling sank into the pit of his stomach and brought up memories of how he’d been forced to leave things with his teenage girlfriend twenty years ago. Mom had jumped so fast to believing Amanda’s parents over him. No matter how much he’d tried to stand up for himself and get Mom to believe the truth, Mom never took his side. From the moment the Coopers accused him of getting their daughter pregnant and then not taking responsibility, Mom’s eyes had never seen him the same way.

  “Hey, it just wasn’t meant to be. She wasn’t your type anyway. What’s gotten into you?”

  Will got his attention back but he was wrong. That one, that woman could have been exactly his type. He’d never felt that way. Unfortunately, now he’d never know. “Nothing,” he said. “I guess you’re right, it was nothing.”

  With her taste still in his mouth, Stefan climbed into his car and pulled out of the lot toward his mom’s house, clenching the steering wheel and picturing what might have been if he hadn’t tried to be something he sucked at. Noble. Let Jaxon and Marion and Will be the good ones. All good had gotten him just now was gone.

  “You gonna eat that?” Will asked and pointed at the package of licorice setting on Stefan’s lap. “Grape. Never had that before. Is it any good?”

  Will’s small talk shouldn’t surprise Stefan. He’d never given Will any reason to believe that one single woman could affect him like this.

  “I don’t know, I guess,” Stefan said, sad for the absence of her. Why did he feel like this? “Shit. I’m so screwed.”

  “What?” Will asked with a mouth full of her candy, her taste, her smell.

  “Nothing. It was nothing.”

  “Yeah, you said that already.”

  Stefan’s foot hit the gas pedal hard.

  On to the next hurdle. Mom’s.

  Chapter Four

  Dani sat in her car, pissing off the horn-happy Volvo owner who wanted her parking space. They honked again and she continued to ignore them. It was warm out and her tracksuit had already absorbed too much sweat today.

  At some point she’d have to go inside the drugstore and get the stuff she needed for Mrs. Calderon.

  The name made her head throb and she grabbed it with both hands and rubbed.

  How in the world had she not put two and two together? Granted, she’d never seen him live and in person as a grown man. Which was really strange considering her mom and his mom had been best friends. Hard as she tried, no memories of him came to mind. What surprised her was that she couldn’t even remember overhearing the moms talk about Stefan. There were a handful of pictures he’d been in from when she was a very little girl and the high school graduation photo that hung on the wall at his mom’s, but those looked nothing like the lethally sensuous bear of a man she’d just encountered.

  “I’m such a dummy.” Mrs. C’s well-off son was due to visit, in drives a ritzy Mercedes from Tennessee, and her first thought wasn’t Stefan Calderon has shown up? Her scalp stretched to its limits and even her ears felt the tension.

  She shook her head at her thickness.

  Well he’d arrived to one hell of a welcoming committee. Dani sighed and finger massaged her temples.

  Making out with him in a public bathroom? There was no point in lying to herself … she’d have had sex with him. Not to the point of climaxing but close enough. If, she thought. If she hadn’t just found out he was Mrs. C’s son. She wouldn’t now that the chaotic situation had slapped some sense back into her. Or some embarrassment and humility. But back there, in the stall? It would have happened, even in the face of all the reasons it would have been the worst mistake.

  He was a musician who was never home. Dani was his mom’s caretaker in his absence. She didn’t know much more about him but that was enough.

  Her feelings about that were mixed to call it lightly. How many tim
es had she thought lowly of him for not coming around more? For financing his mom’s care but not caring enough to come home more often? But that uncommitted jerk didn’t sound like the man she’d just spent time with.

  Real, significant problems began to mount the more implications she thought of.

  She’d never finished her medical assistant degree because she’d quit school to care for her own mother. And then Mom had passed and Mrs. C had fallen, breaking her arm and needing surgery. The natural option had brought the both of them together. Gina Calderon needed someone to help her around the house. Her son had sent word that he was going to hire a live-in caretaker, basically a nanny for seniors. Gina had responded that she would put his money to good use and hire someone reliable. Two weeks of post-surgery help around the house had turned into two years and a permanent live-in situation. One Dani cherished with all her heart.

  Oh this was not good.

  It hit her hard just then. The money Mrs. C paid Dani came from her son.

  Dani hunched onto the steering wheel and rolled her forehead over its hard plastic, begging her headache to subside.

  Mrs. C’s son, the one I just degraded myself in front of, pays my bills, buys my food, puts gas in my car.

  Any sense of “sexy” she’d run away with from their encounter turned quickly to “dirty”.

  As a final reminder of what a fool she’d just been, Dani’s hands fell to her stomach. The money she saved by not having to pay rent went directly to the hospital for the self-pay birthing plan she qualified for.

  Someone honked long and loud and then sped past, presumably to find another spot. Finally, Dani found the wits to ease her foot off the brake. Her ankle cramped as she stretched it out and prepared to drag herself into the pharmacy. It hit her just then as she rummaged for and found Mrs. C’s list of prescriptions to be picked up.