Page 13 of Forbidden Ride
“Hiding from me?”
“Don’t take it personally. I don’t think she’s used to people. I found her out by my woodpile a few months ago,” he explains, petting her gently. “Luckily the weather was still pretty mild. I think she was abandoned.” He gives me a mischievous grin and carries her to me. “I couldn’t leave an abandoned pussy walking around out there all by herself, could I?”
“No. That wouldn’t be good at all, now would it?” I let my hand glide over her soft fluff and hear a contented purr. “No doubt about it,” I coo, chuckling. “This pussy needed rescuing.”
“I think yours might need some rescuing too.”
My jaw drops—any further and it would hit my chest. I break into a sweat as our eyes lock. “Oh my God, are we talking about my pussy now?”
He carefully places the kitty on the floor, where it scampers to the scrap of cheese it left behind.
William approaches me, and I back up all the way to the couch. “We’re talking aboutallof you. You’re a beautiful woman, Jenny West.”
I cover my face with my hands, embarrassed.You haven’t seen my saggy tits and stretch marks.“No, William, I’m afraid you’re sadly mistaken. That boat sailed a long time ago. I’m just a mom. I’ve got kids. I haven’t been with—I mean, I’m not sexy. I’m—”
“Hot as fuck is what you are.” His heated gaze rakes over me. “I can’t stop thinking about last night.”
My heart lurches. I wasn’t ready to talk about getting myself off in front of him. Truth is, when it comes right down to actually having sex, I’m all talk and waaay out of my league here. “Please don’t get the wrong impression. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”
I plunk down into the cushions on the side of the couch that’s farthest away from him, mostly out of fear. Because God knows, even though my brain is telling me to hold back, my body’s about to break into Marvin Gaye and bust out “Let’s Get It On.”
“You’re not leading me on, Jenny, and there’s nothing you could say or do that would embarrass me.” He sits beside me, taking up every bit of my personal space.
I sigh, gathering the courage to be honest. There’s nowhere to run. “Look, it’s been so long since I’ve been with anyone, I’m not sure I even remember how to do it anymore.” I sound pathetic, but it’s true.
“Doit?” He laughs, making his dimples wedge deeply into his cheeks. Damn, he reads me like a book. “There’s no need to be nervous around me.” Before I know what’s happening, his massive rippling arms are around me and I’m melting in his hold.
I let my cheek rest against his broad chest. “But Iamafraid,” I admit softly.
William runs his hand along my jawline and tips my head up. “Let me show you what it’s like to be kissed by a man who wants to fuck you so badly he can’t think of anything else,” he whispers against my lips.
I gasp at his words, at the same time as red-hot heat rushes between my legs. And just like that, my qualms disappear and a raw need takes over. I can’t keep track of my emotions here, and it’s no use trying. Maybe there’s a reason William found me. What’s wrong with me wanting him? I’m only human.I lick my lips, readying for—dyingfor—his kiss.
“But I need to tell you something first.”
“Oh God.” I drop my head, remembering. “You’re young,” I say, coming to grips with the fact that not only am I out of practice, I’m probably a perv. “You’re younger than me.” I meet him head on. “Is that what you want to tell me? Because I know. Trust me I know. I’m thirty-two. Please tell me you’re at least twenty-one.”
“Twenty-seven.” His eyes soften. “There’s hardly a difference, and it isn’t a problem for me. Age doesn’t matter.”
“Then what is it?”
A knock on the door jolts us. The back of the couch is tall and faces the front window, so whoever it is can’t see we’re only about fifteen feet away.
Another knock. Louder this time. Kitty—I refuse to call her Pussy—flies across the kitchen and jumps up next to me. “Stay here,” William whispers. I scoop the kitty into my arms and peek up over the back of the couch.
William searches out the window. His shoulders tense as he goes to the door and opens it. “What can I do for you, officer?”
“I need to ask you a few questions, William.”
Although I can’t make him out clearly, I recognize Sheriff Gunner’s gruff voice immediately. Gunner’s one of those hot Marlboro Men. He’s around my age, not my type, but the moms at my school go nuts for him. We all have a soft spot for him, though. He lost his wife a few years ago in a bad car accident.
I sneak another quick glimpse of him and duck, holding my breath. I’ve never seen Jackson Gunner in full-tilt serve-and-protect mode. He looks scary-pissed.
“We’ve got a bad scene out there, William. And I don’t like the looks of it. Not one bit.” I peek again, just as the sheriff whips out a notepad. “Jenny West’s abandoned SUV was found approximately seventy-five yards from where I’m standing.” His voice is jagged ice.
The snarky way he scopes out William makes me think they’ve had a run-in of some kind before. I shift with an uneasiness about William I haven’t felt before now. “You don’t happen to know anything about Jenny West’s disappearance, do you?”
I gulp. I’m a missing person now?
