Page 24 of Reckless
Want to get together, fool around in the back seat like we used to? I’d make it worth your while. You can wear a skirt, and I’ll walk my fingers up your thigh, push your panties aside like I used to. Run my finger through your wetness, find every place that’s so sensitive, taste your sweet swollen bud.
“Gage, are you okay?”
I let out a strangled breath. Why was this so hard? Usually, I was so smooth with women. But then, most threw themselves at me, so I didn’t need to put any work in. “Want to go out for, I don’t know, a drink or something tonight?”
I tapped my finger on the steering wheel while I waited through the silence.
“You…you want to go out for drinks with me?”
“Yeah, I want to blow off some steam, and I enjoyed talking to you today in the gazebo. I mean just a casual beer, maybe at Independence Pub.” When she didn’t respond, I felt the strong need to negate the silence on the other end of the phone. “You don’t have to, but I don’t really have anyone else to ask, and I don’t want to be alone. Everyone I used to know from New Hope has turned into a groupie. Either that or they don’t like me anymore. A lot of people think fame has gone to my head.”
“Really?” I could hear the smile in her voice. “I can’t see that…”
“Don’t be sarcastic. I’m ashamed to say that I acted like an ass when I first made it big. I was cocky, thought the world should bow at my feet.”
I shook my head, remembering how badly I’d treated my friends. After shooting to fame, I’d been surrounded by yes men and people acting like I was a god. I stupidly allowed myself to believe it for a while. That was one reason I tried not to show my face around here, and I’d become spoiled to big city luxuries. The other reason still hadn’t given me an answer.
“You? Cocky?” I could almost hear her roll her eyes.
I snorted. “Unfortunately, that leaves me with no one to go for a drink with unless I want it plastered on YouTube, which is why I’m on my knees, metaphorically, asking you to come with me.”
“And you think I want you to get on your knees?” There was a slapping sound, as if she’d smacked her hand over her mouth.
“Do you?”
No one had been home that day, and we’d been petting pretty heavy recently, so when she gave me a goodbye peck with a hint of tongue, it was like a torrent was released. Next thing I knew, we were torso to torso, her breasts pressed against my chest, my hands taking their fill. All I could think was how badly I wanted to be inside her. But I knew she wasn’t ready, and I refused to push.
I did, however, push her down the hall to her room, shutting the door behind us. If I couldn’t have relief, one of us could. She let me kiss over her breasts and lower, past her abdomen until my mouth hovered over her mound. Through the material of her stretch jeans, I pressed my mouth into her heat, and she whimpered.
Pulling away from her body, my fingers had been shaking as I unbuttoned her pants and slowly pulled them down her lean thighs. Taking the first lick, god, that had been like tasting ice cream for the first time in my life. Heavenly. I’d looked up to see if she liked it as much as I did, and our eyes met, the amazement in them matching the gasp she gave as I sucked her clit into my mouth.
Her breathing speeded up, audible over the phone, and I wondered if she was back in the same memory.
“So, you’ll come? For a drink, I mean.” I shook my head. It would be a miracle if she actually agreed now.
“Why don’t I meet you at Independence Pub at eight? Give me some time to put this stuff away and get changed out of these scruffy scrubs.”
“I don’t think your scrubs are scruffy. You looked beautiful.” My heart stopped dead in my chest. I didn’t mean to say that. The words had fallen out of my mouth before I could think them through. They were a step too far, a tilt in the wrong direction. To tilt it back, I said, “As always. Eight sounds great. I’ll see you then.”
“Great. See you shortly.”
I put the car in drive and went to Mom’s house, the black sedan following me that had been my shadow since I got home. Bodyguards. I’d insisted they blend into the scenery while I was home and was glad for it. I didn’t want anyone to see me sweat the way I had been on that phone call. Her uncertainty killed me, but it was my own fault, and I’d brought it on with my big mouth. Why would I even say something about getting on my knees like that, bringing up what we’d used to do in lieu of sex—which was take turns getting on our knees.
Fuck.
I sucked in a deep breath, shaking out the tension in my shoulders, which needed to go if I stood even the smallest chance of acting normal tonight. I told myself that a drink in a bar was going to be far more relaxed than seeing one another in the hospital halls.
Even if I wanted something to happen with Kelly, there was far too much still-roiling water under the bridge. And Gagedwas my life. Unfortunately, New Hope and Kelly Cavendish didn’t feature in the workings.
I barely had the key in the front door lock before Mom’s neighbor popped around the bushes.
“Well, if that isn’t Gage Strickland, as I live and breathe.” The man’s hair had turned nearly white in the past seven years, but he still wore the same Chinos. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen you around here.”
“Hello, Mr. Harper. Yes, it has been a while. How are you?”
“My wife said she thought she saw you coming in late last night, but I told her that was impossible. She’ll be so pleased to see you. Let me just get her.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Harper, I’m really on my way out again and—”
