GABE
Closing up the tailgate, I made sure all the stuff I had bought her was safely inside the picnic basket. The cab doors had locked automatically, so I decided to take a chance on being a gentleman again and didn’t press the unlock button until I had my hand on her door. I helped her inside and shut the door for her, taking one second to hold her stare through the window before I went around to my side. Once we were in, I reached behind her and unzipped my bag. I grabbed an old hardback book that I’d found at the library: The Haunted Cypress: Ghost Tales of Savannah. I flipped to a chapter I’d marked with a scrap of paper. I tapped on the page and handed it to her. She angled the book slightly to catch the light of a nearby streetlamp. “‘Chapter Seven. Mary Goodwin, the Ghost of Bluff Drive,’” she read aloud.
“Keep going,” I said, watching her closely. “Find the part where it says what you have to do to get her to show herself.”
She cleared her throat and read, “‘In 1861, William Hackett, a cooper from Savannah, brought his beloved . . .’” Lily made a little pa-pa-pa with her lips as she skimmed on, picking out key phrases. “She says yes. He goes off to war. Antietam, right, right. Here it is.” She put her fingertip on the old-fashioned typeface on the heavy paper. “‘Legend has it that if Mary Goodwin doesn’t sing for you, it’s possible to lure her out of hiding. With a kiss.’”
“I’ll be damned.”
Lily put the book down in her lap and gave me a sternly playful glare, as if to say, Oh no you didn’t!
I liked her when she was being soft, I liked her when she was being wild, and I even liked her when she was being slightly indignant. She pushed all my buttons in exactly the right way. “Just one kiss.” I held up my finger to my cheek to show her where I wanted it. “Tiny. You won’t even feel it.”
“Pffft!” She tossed her head back and slapped the book shut. “Have you kissed you lately? I’d definitely feel it.”
“Speak for yourself—you’re the one who’s going to be doing the kissing. But I think I can take it.” I tapped my cheek even more firmly and leaned toward her. “I won’t even cop a feel. Scout’s honor.” I gave her the Scout salute. “You have my word. One peck.”
She placed her hands to her mouth, giggling softly into her palms, and then peeked over her fingers at me. “I can’t give you a peck. If there is one thing we established last night, it’s that you and I are way past pecks.”
You’re goddamned right about that. “All right, I’ll meet you halfway. If you won’t give me a peck, at least hold my hand.” I put it palm up on the bench seat between us. For a long second, I thought she wasn’t going to give me even that. Just because she’d asked about the conduct clause didn’t necessarily mean she intended to break it. That would be one hell of a bummer. But the ball would always be in her court.
She let her hands slide down her cheeks and into her lap. She knitted her own fingers together, twisting them nervously. She gave me a glance and looked out the window. “I know that you’re not here to stay.”
“That’s true,” I said.
“And I don’t want to get my heart broken.”
“Lily,” I said, being as serious as I felt like I could be without going too far. “Look at me.”
Her posture stiffened, and she shook her head. “I melt when I look at you. I can’t melt right now.”
That was it exactly. Right then, I didn’t want to wreck her, I didn’t want to ruin her. I didn’t even want to be especially dirty. I just wanted to very slowly, very carefully, warm up that sensible shell until it dissolved in my hands. “You have to know that I want to melt you. So fucking badly.”
She let out a little gasp, and I watched her close her eyes while she pursed her lips.
I left it there. I kept my hand palm up on the seat. I watched the rise and fall of her chest, the curve of her neck as she turned even farther away.
But then, very slowly, without turning to face me, she let her left hand slide across the upholstery toward me.
I didn’t move a muscle until we were palm to palm. As soon as our skin touched, I felt that wave of desire tear right through me—through my chest, my stomach, my head, my cock—and I took her hand in mine. When I squeezed her hand, she took a deep breath. Still, she didn’t turn to face me and looked out into the darkness with her hand pressed to her chest. Ladylike and demure. For the moment.
I ran my thumb over the back of her hand, again and again. I watched her shoulders relax, and she leaned against the window. I tightened my grip. “Want me to beg you?” I asked. “One kiss, Lily. Please.”
Very slowly, very cautiously, she turned to look at me, her eyes sparkling by the light of the streetlamp. I wanted to pin her right up against her window and kiss her breathless. But this was her call. “You’re doing the kissing. You set the pace.”
The wait felt fucking endless. We stared at each other in the low light as her chest rose and fell with more and more intensity. Finally, she tentatively placed her other hand on the bench seat and began to lean into me. Even though I didn’t want to look away from her, I held up my end of the bargain and turned my face forward to give her my cheek. I savored every second of her getting closer. The way she smelled, the sound of her breath, the sound of her jeans sliding against the upholstery, the way her nose brushed against my cheek just before the kiss.
When her lips touched my skin, I tried to hang on to that feeling forever. Because if she was really going to stick to the contract, this might be all I was ever going to get.
But the peck lingered. She stayed there with her lips grazing my cheek and her forehead resting gently against my temple. She was so close that when she blinked, I felt her eyelashes brush against my cheek.
“You know how much I want you,” I told her. “You know how much I need to feel you again.”
Her breath came out as a shudder and I turned to face her, bringing my left hand up to caress her face. I let my fingers slide into her thick, dark hair, holding her jaw steady with my thumb. “I can’t be around you unless I get to have all of you, Lily. I’ll go out of my goddamned mind.”
At first she didn’t say anything, and I didn’t even know if she would. But finally, fucking finally, she took a breath, and said, “Kiss me. Right now.”
Christ almighty, did I kiss her. I’d been a gentleman long enough; it was time to get wild. As soon as our tongues met, we were off to the races, and we went for each other in a teeth-clashing kiss that left zero room for her to doubt how badly she and I needed to be one again. As the kiss intensified and we both got more aggressive, I brought my hands down her body and gripped her by the hips. I pulled her into me and she hooked one knee over my body, slipping herself between me and the steering wheel. With one hand, she gripped my T-shirt. And with the other, she pulled the lever to make my seat recline all the way. Goddamn, how I loved a woman who understood the fine art of making out in a pickup.
She dropped her weight onto me more firmly, and I growled as she compressed my cock between my thigh and her pelvis. She looped her arms around my shoulders, and I slid my hands under her shirt, feeling the smallness of her waist, the ripples of her rib cage, the lace-wrapped underwire of her bra.
When she came up for a breath, her eyes were glassy with desire and her lips were red around the edges from my stubble. Damn, I needed to be back inside her. “Let’s get the fuck outta here.”
She ground into me more deeply. “What about Mary Goodwin?” she said, all coy and sassy. “What about the show, Mister Powers?”
“To hell with the show.” I pulled her down into me to let her know what she was in for. She gasped a little and her hips bucked, making her pelvis drive almost painfully against my cock. Her hair brushed against my forearms and swept along the steering wheel. The hickey that I’d given her was now far less visible, and I didn’t like that one fucking bit, so I pulled her back down toward me and kissed her there, a sucking, biting kiss to show her that I’d marked her once and I’d mark her again.
She sank down onto me even more deeply and whispered up at the ceiling of the cab, “And to hell with the conduct clause.”
“Fuck yes.”