Page 50 of Save the Last Dance
He would have gotten her back to his place faster, buthe had to make a drugstore run for condoms. Amazing how the purchase still seemed illicit, especially when he had to buy them from the same old guy who used to sell him root beer barrels when he was ten. The package of condoms rested inside Nina’s purse now, even though she’d been too chicken to enter the corner store with him.
He pulled into the access road that led to the converted barn at the back of his family’s property.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.” Nina stared up at the turn-of-the-century white dairy barn that used to be a part of the Finley farm as he parked the car on the gravel driveway. “I’d forgotten how pretty these old barns are.”
“Are they?” Mack noticed only her. Could think about only her.
He levered open his car door and jogged around the hood to get her door while she stared up at the massive structure in the twilight.
“They really are. Look at the big shutters and sliding doors. And the stone foundation adds a lot of character, too.” She took his hand and he drew her out of the car, her long, lean body a feast for the eyes.
“I’ve got a better view right here.” He wanted to kiss her then and there, to lay her down on the long hood of the El Dorado. He’d love to see her like that, her honey-blond hair spilling over the white paint.
“Oh?” Nina twirled a strand of hair around one finger. “Keep talking like that and we’ll never make it to your room.”
His thoughts exactly.
“Come on.” He slid an arm around her waist and walked her to the main doors. There was a regular entrance to the building on the other side, but he lethimself in the side by sliding one of the huge doors on the metal track.
Her vanilla scent went straight to his head. She wore some kind of lightweight, gauzy blouse that had distracted him all damn day, his eyes roaming the fabric for hints of her skin beneath.
“Wow.” Nina’s eyes went wide in the dim glow from a cast iron pendant lamp, her voice echoing in the empty expanse of concrete flooring and wooden walls. “Where did everything go?”
“Scott sold most of the equipment.” Mack stepped around her toward the door which led to what had once been the field hand’s quarters. “It’s odd to think the dairy barn was built for cows but hasn’t had an animal in here besides Luce for over fifty years.”
“This would make a great bar, wouldn’t it?” She spun in a slow circle, staring up at the massive wooden frame of the building beneath the tin roof. “You’d put Lucky’s to shame with this place.”
He laughed as he opened the door and flipped on the light switch. “I’m not sure there are enough residents of Heartache to fill it. Come on in.” Stepping aside, he gestured for her to enter the small living quarters, careful not to touch her yet. Once he did, there’d be no stopping and he wanted to seduce her thoroughly. “Keep in mind I wasn’t expecting company.”
Turning on her heel, she stalked toward him with slow strides. Or maybe it only seemed slow to him because he couldn’t wait to close that door behind them and have her all to himself for the night. The moment seemed too damned good to be real.
“I’m having major déjà vu,” she admitted, pausing just a step before the threshold.
He could almost feel the tension thrumming from her as her fingers shifted positions on her handbag, her breath escaping in a rush. How he going to wait until they got upstairs?
“Yeah, big-time.” His pulse slugged hard through his veins, every heartbeat demanding he touch her. “Except now, I think I’m a whole hell of a lot more nervous.”
She edged closer, as if maybe she was going to walk through the door. But her gaze held his. Then, before he knew what hit him, she flung both arms around his neck and kissed him.
Oh, yeah.
All the nervous tension shifted, channeling into desire as full awareness made him appreciate the nuances of having her body all over his. Her lips nipped and licked his in a sexy assault on his senses that left him reeling. She tasted like cinnamon mints, her tongue playing over his while his brain fought to catch up.
He reveled in the return of this side of her—the wild, impulsive, in-with-both-feet Nina who’d burned a swath through this small town and turned heads wherever she went with her infectious laughter and passion for everything she did. She’d changed in eight years, and she’d obviously made an effort to tamp down this side but…wow. She’d set it free now, though, as she pressed against him as if she couldn’t get close enough.
Then his body took over. He wrapped both arms around her waist and lifted her, carrying her into the converted apartment while the door closed shut behind them. He fumbled to find the handle and lock it, and then his attention was all on Nina. Setting her down, he gently pried her handbag out of her fingers then set it on a hallway table, grabbing the bag of condomsfrom inside.
“I’ve missed you,” he told her between kisses, walking backward with her toward the stairs to the loft, the creaking boards of the old planked floor newly refinished and still smelling faintly of sealant even after a week.
“I’ve missed us.” Her words, so damn honest and real because she never could be anything else, shot right to his chest and lodged an ache there.
They got as far as the stairs when he stopped to cup her face in one hand, trace her cheekbone with his thumb. He dropped the bag with the condom on the stairs, needing to touch more of her.
“Nina?” He studied her in the light reflected from a lone lamp in the living area behind them. “I hope you can stay all night.”
He knew one time wouldn’t possibly be enough to satisfy them. His hands already traveled her body in a fast, restless scramble to memorize every new curve and hollow, every sensitive spot he’d forgotten.
“You’ll have to kick me out of that bed.” She looked over her shoulder, the movement shifting her featherweight blouse to expose a new expanse of lightly tanned skin below her collarbone. “Assuming you have one somewhere?”
