Page 27 of Heated Rivals
He kept up that delicious rhythm that had her spiraling closer and closer to the edge with each thrust. “Next time you’ll be coming against my mouth. I’m going to fucking worship your pussy with my tongue until you’re begging.” He slammed into her. “You want that.”
It wasn’t a question, but it didn’t matter.She answered anyway. “Yes. Oh God,yes.” Her mind shattered into a million pieces, scattering to the wind, and she clung to him as he kept going until his rhythm faltered and he followed her over the edge with a curse.
She slowly came back to herself one sense at a time. The sound of his rough breathing. The intoxicating smell of sex and leather. The way he held her like she was something precious. Her heartbeat picked up.I’ve just made a terrible mistake.
* * *
Everything had changed.
James rolled over, taking Carrigan with him, so that she was sprawled across his chest—as much as a person could sprawl in this backseat. She’d gone tense, so he figured it was only a matter of time before she bolted. Though, considering where they were, she wasn’t going to get far. He stroked a hand down her hair. “Breathe, lovely.”
“Iambreathing.” She started to move off him but stopped when she must have realized there was nowhere to go but the floorboard. “You’re not going to toss me into the trunk, are you?”
Guilt threatened to choke him, but he forced it down. “Don’t throw that in my face. We’re past it.”
“You might be. Maybe I’m not.” She reached around and came up with her dress. “Please take me home.”
She was lying. Just like it had before, this thing that flared between them scared the shit out of her. He’d seen it on her face the first time they had sex, which was why he’d demanded her name—so he could find her again. How things played out after that… yeah, it wasshitty. But shewaspast it. She wouldn’t have called him tonight if she hadn’t finally accepted that he never would have let his father and brother hurt her. Which meant she was in panic mode again right now. He could force her to sit here and talk it out.
Or he could let her go.
Really, it wasn’t much of a dilemma. If he’d learned anything about Carrigan, it was that she’d go for a person’s throat if they backed her into a corner. People had been putting her in cages her entire life. He wasn’t about to be one of them.
So he sat up. “Okay.”
She froze in the middle of shimmying into her dress. “What?”
“I said okay. I’ll take you home. Just give me a second to get my pants.” He didn’t want tonight to end with her running from him, because he wasn’t done with Carrigan O’Malley. Not by a long shot. James pulled on his jeans and shoes and then pushed the front seat up so he could climb out into the night. He offered his hand to help her out, but she ignored it. So that was how it would be. Fine. He pushed the seat back into place and held the door so she could take the passenger seat. It was going to be a long ride back if the way she crossed her arms over her chest was any indication. He’d need the distraction of driving.
Once he got the Chevelle started and the windows defrosted, he headed back toward the city. He didn’t speak, and neither did she. James could actually feel her building up walls between them. Retreating. A part of him even understood. He’d had sex before. Hell, he’d gone out of his way to keep things atjustsex in the past. It was simpler. His life didn’t lend itself to being able tobuild a healthy relationship—he wasn’t even sure if he was capable of it. Easier to keep things at a strictly physical level. That way both parties left satisfied, and the chance of someone getting hurt was virtually nonexistent.
That being said, this thing with Carrigan wasn’t just sex.
He’d known that four months ago, and it was only becoming clearer the more time he spent with her. He admired her fire. He liked that she never hesitated to get in his face and put him in his place if she thought he was out of line. He liked how nothing her family had done to date had broken her. Fuck, he just plain liked her.
He took the exit that would spit them out near Beacon Hill, and wound his way up to the block just down from her town house. “You want me to—?”
“This is good.” She already had the door open.
“Carrigan.” He waited for her to look back. “Next time you need to forget—or need anything, period—I’m here.”
She flinched like he’d raised a hand to her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“How much time do you have before you need to make a decision?” He kept his tone low and even, though all he wanted to do was haul her ass back into the car and get the hell out of here—spend a week lost in each other and ignoring the call of the real world.
“A month. Less than that now.”
Not long enough. Fuck, he was beginning to think that twenty years with this woman wouldn’t be close to enough. But he’d take what he could get. “Every time you go on one of these dates, the noose is going to tighten around your neck. I can help you forget, lovely. You know it and I know it.” He didn’t wait for a response, needingto get this out before she bolted. “So when the pressure gets too much to handle—and it will—call me. I’ll be there. I promise.”
She hesitated, and then shut the car door and walked away. He waited until he saw her enter a brownstone down the block, and then he put the car in gear and drove away. She’d call. She might tell herself that she wouldn’t—she might even convince herself that she was through with him—but when her back was against the wall, she’d call him again.
He was sure of it.
James headed back into Southie, the upper-crust neighborhood that Carrigan lived in slowly replaced by smaller and smaller houses, each in worse repair than the next. Even the ones that obviously had owners who cared about upkeep showed decades of wear and tear. The O’Malleys and Hallorans might fight like dogs over the bone that was Boston, but they really came from different worlds. The outward evidence of it in the neighborhoods they lived in was just the beginning.
But none of that seemed to matter when he was with Carrigan.
He forced himself to set aside the feel-good sensation being around Carrigan brought him. There was nothing he wanted more than to dwell on how amazing she’d felt squeezing his cock, and how much he wanted to get inside her again at the soonest available opportunity. But he couldn’t afford to be any more distracted right now than he already was.
