Gas or Ass (6 page)

I felt silly for thinking his gesture was chivalrous. With my record for humiliating incidents in a single day already shattered before noon, I turned to look inside the car. The seat belt wasn’t normal. The buckle sprouted from a spot near the front edge of the seat. Two belts rested against the back, but they met in the middle and became one belt. I wasn’t about to hook myself into something that locked between my thighs, so I decided to risk going without a seat belt. Between my study of the safety gear and my embarrassment, I misjudged how low the car sat to the ground. The the seat was easily two inches past where I expected to land, but the padded leather sides were so high, I tumbled backward onto the console. My feet flew off the cement drive. My skirt slid to my navel, exposing my panties. I’d chosen the skirt partly because I was still so sensitive I couldn’t bear the thought of wearing jeans.

Colt didn’t even try to smother his laugh. I shoved upright and jerked my legs into the car, blinking back tears.

He squatted. Indoors, his hair was the color of dull pewter, but sunlight turned it almost white. His eyes reminded me of ripe blueberries. I had to look away. Shock rippled through me when he slid a calloused finger under my chin and turned my face toward his.

“Hey, Shelby, you should’ve seen me the first time I got in this thing. I looked like a newborn giraffe trying to poke my legs under the wheel.” Dropping his hand to my thigh, he let it linger. “Don’t be embarrassed.” He winked. “Even if I do think that blush is adorable, I don’t like knowing you’re upset. This is my bad. I should’ve held your hand, but you always act like you don’t want to be touched.”

I didn’t care that my mother was probably watching out the window. Colt’s casual touch sent a dangerous thrill through me, but the sensation glued my tongue to the roof of my mouth.

“I’m not moving till I see that pretty smile.”

His intent gaze burned away the last trace of my humiliation. I forced the corners of my lips to rise. He frowned, motivating me to try harder. When I gave him the genuine version, he squeezed my thigh. “That’s my good girl.” The tiny words of praise suffused a spot behind my breastbone with warmth.

He stood and closed the door with a snap. His giraffe analogy was hard to believe, given how easily he folded his tall frame under the steering wheel, but the fiction added another shot of warmth to the heady mix of male musk, cologne, and tobacco inside the car.

The car cranked with a roar worthy of a passenger jet before the engine settled into a steady throb. The heavy vibration filtered through the seat. I leaned my legs to the side so Colt could sling my bag into the floorboard. The pressure squeezed my clit. Experiencing the streak of pleasure while he sat so close made me grip the seat. My heart lurched when he lifted a brow. Surely he couldn’t tell? Something in his eyes said he knew a hell of a lot more about my body than I knew about his.

He turned off the blaring stereo with a sheepish grin. Snagging a pair of sunglasses dangling from the rear view mirror, he donned them with the aplomb of a movie star, before he gripped the shifter and worked the gears. I snapped forward in the seat when he released the clutch and the car jerked into reverse.

He threw his arm across my chest, the way my mother did. “Someone needs their safety belt. And a booster seat.” I couldn’t hear his next words— “And a hard ride on my cock,”—over the racing motor, but I was sure I’d read his lips correctly. He left his arm in place about three heartbeats too long. Did he feel how hard my nipples were? The slight twitch of his lips made me think he did.

He dropped his arm and gunned the motor, reversing up the sloping drive, yet still staring at me. At the top, he spun the wheel hard. The boxy rear end fishtailed on the unpaved road. I slammed my eyes closed and groped for the seat belt, sure he was about to take out the mailbox. He shifted into first and hit the gas. His arm slammed across my chest again. Thanks to his quick action, I avoided a bloody nose.

“Hear that motor throb?” he yelled. “Makes my dick hard every time.”

I knew better. I fucking knew better. But I opened my eyes and looked over the console. He slid his palm over the bulge in the faded denim and lifted his ass off the seat, thrusting into his cupped hand. The motor’s hard throb echoed inside me. 

“Now, if you get all horny again like you did this morning, starin’ at Caine’s dick, just let me know. My cock’s been hard as a rock ever since I stood outside your door, listening to your little cries while you got off. Next time, why not open the door, Shelby? No sense in jerkin’ off when we can fuck.”

My mother would kill us both. “You’re my brother,” I managed to squeak, stunned by his bluntness.

He made a derisive sound. “Last week, we were strangers. I want you. Tell me you don’t want me, Shelby.”

The casual declaration slammed into me with the force of a blow.

The time I’d gotten caught in the undertow at Myrtle Beach flashed through my head while I stared at Colt’s sculpted cheekbones and lips. The fateful swim started like any other swim in the ocean. The waves rolled to the shore and I paddled against the flow to get beyond the breakers. But an undertow makes its own path in the ocean, a contrary stream running fast toward deep water. I tried to swim back to shore, but had gone under twice by the time the lifeguard got close enough to toss me a life preserver.

The force that gripped me while I stared at Colt had the same power. I didn’t move a muscle, but all the while, a dark force tumbled me under and I couldn’t breathe.

If I said no, he’d never look at me again. If I said yes, something bad would happen. Pinned by his gaze, I just couldn’t recall what that would be.

“So it’s like that, is it?” He broke our staring match and pressed the accelerator.

While I tried to remember why sex with him was such a bad idea, he reached the end of the lane. He turned left at the stop sign, onto the paved road. When he punched the gas, the rear of the car dropped, like a big cat gathering itself, then shot forward. The scattered houses flew past in a blur.

He was pissed?

Gearing down, but hardly touching the brake, he whipped the car into another left turn. Whizzing down a side road I’d never been on, I stared out the windshield, holding my breath and wondering where he was taking me.

We slid through curve after curve. Tires shrieked, but not as loud as the voice in my mind.
Don’t be an idiot.
I just wasn’t sure which course of action the voice advocated against.

Gripped by tension, my entire body ached. The stench of burning rubber filled the car every time it slid sideways. Trees rushed closer and closer, but he spun the wheel and the vehicle straightened out before we could skid off the road. When he swooped around one last curve, we sped up a hill. The front tires left the ground when he rocketed over the crest. My stomach took a nosedive. Ahead, the lane straightened and disappeared over another hill.

We landed with a jolt that made my teeth snap together. The rear end swerved. I just knew the tires wouldn’t grip. We headed into a spin that could only end with us splattered against the trees, but he wrenched the wheel in a direction my brain screamed was the wrong direction and the car recovered. A flash of heat that had nothing to do with him raced over my skin.

“Hell, yeah!” He let out a triumphant whoop, turning a naughty grin my way. The car rolled to a stop in the dip between the two hills. My tension morphed into exultation. His delight was infectious and I couldn’t help laughing along with him. He was a bad boy, just as I’d feared.

I want you. How would that work?

Colt leaned forward, pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head, and crossed his arms on top of the steering wheel. His stare took away my ability to laugh. I could barely breathe again, but a new worry replaced my fear of dying, but I couldn’t articulate it.

“Shelby, my dick’s been hard and hurtin’ ever since I stood outside your door, listening to your moans. Baby, I need to come. And I want to look in your eyes while I do it. Don’t you wanna see how hard you make me?”

Maybe escaping certain death made me stupid, but I’d never wanted anything more. The idea of watching while he jacked off was so...beyond the pale, I blinked. And in the same breath, I wanted to see his cock. Wanted to see how his face looked when it twisted in pleasure.

Why wait till I got to college to start my exploration of the male anatomy when I had such a perfect specimen at hand? My stomach twisted with the thought, but the drumbeat between my thighs picked up speed.

“Let me show you. Please.”

I glanced around. All I saw were scrubby weeds and tree trunks, but anyone could come over either hill at any time. The primitive part of my brain said that was the point to stopping here. He had all the earmarks of an adrenaline junkie. Before I could decide whether to protest or not, he popped the button on the waistband of his jeans. He lifted off the seat and eased his zipper down.

His penis sprang through his open fly. He hadn’t lied about being hard. He was rigid. He wasn’t as long as Caine, but when he gripped his shaft, his fingers only met after he squeezed so hard, the head of his cock turned purple.

He handled himself much rougher than I’d have dared. I stared, fascinated by the violent way he jerked himself. Rolling his head to face me, he said, “You know I’m thinking about your pussy, don’t you, Shelby?”

The heated words drove spikes inside my channel. I dragged my tongue over dry lips. “Colt, please. This is wrong.” My body said this whole stepbrother thing was bogus, so why not indulge?

He groaned and changed his approach. Stilling his fist, he thrust his hips to drive his cock through the encircling fingers.
Showoff
—but the change made it easier to imagine he thrust into me. Every tender point on my body cried out to be touched.

“Are you wet? Don’t I tear you up inside, the way you do me?”

Stop. How can I resist when you say things like that?
“Colt—”

He stilled. “Is it Caine? You’d rather have him, wouldn’t you?”

“No!” I hadn’t formed a preference, because I’d never expected to have to choose.

He went back to thrusting. “Show me how wet you are, Shelby. Are your pussy lips swollen? Can you feel your heartbeat in your cunt?”

His rough words both repelled and inflamed me. My body did everything he described and more. “Shelby. Please. You see what you’re doing to me.” He choked the thick flesh again and groaned. A pearly bead swelled in the center of his cock head.

I’d pictured making this decision under far different circumstances. I’d imagined disembodied hands fumbling in the dark, teasing me out of my clothing. Not brutal carnality in broad daylight. He offered no tender words, no cajoling lies about love.

While I debated, his expression turned surly.

“Cars don’t run for free. You wanna ride with me? Then I’ll take gas or ass, little sister. You got gas money?”

He knew I didn’t have any money. I had no idea where we were. This wasn’t the route the bus took. I dropped my head and stared at my book bag. When I shook my head, he reached over the console.

The cajoling tone returned. “I wanna see if those thighs are as soft as they look.” I had no luck trying to pry his hand away.

I could find my way back to the house. Maybe Caine would drop me off at school before he took Mom to the mall.

But she’d ask about Colt. I pictured her shocked face. Imagining the conversation, I saw her eyes go wide. Then she’d tell Dale, and once that drama was over, she’d curl into a ball and cry because I’d messed up her new life.

Even if she took my side, we were stuck here until the part arrived to fix Mom’s car. Assuming the car loan or whatever was in her name and not Dale’s so we could take it and go. I didn’t know a soul in this town and neither did Mom. For that matter, no one I could think of would come and pick us up. She’d given up our apartment. With no home to go back to, what would we do?

Maybe I could talk to my new stepfather, if I could just get out of this situation.

“I’m a virgin. Please, Colt, don’t do this. We’re supposed to be a family now.” I forced myself to look at him.

Black, unfeeling lenses stared back. He’d pulled the damn sunglasses down over his face again, but his mouth twisted into a scowl. “Goddammit, now I owe Caine fifty bucks. He said you were a virgin, but I said there wasn’t a seventeen-year-old on the planet that hadn’t been fucked.”

He took his hand off his cock and released his grip on my thigh. Hope raced through me. Maybe this was just a sick game of tease the new stepsister. But my heart fell when he yanked up the hand brake.

“Cock’s too damn hard to drive,” he grunted, lifting off the seat to thrust into his fist. “What would your mama say if she knew the way you taunted me and Caine this morning, sticking your fingers into your wet pussy and moaning like a bitch in heat, knowing I stood right outside your door? Does she know she raised a goddamn cock tease?”

I stared in horror. She wouldn’t believe him, but... would he do it?

The hard thump of the door locks engaging made me jerk.

“Take your panties off. I wanna see if the hair between your legs is as red and pretty as the hair on your head.”

I didn’t know what else to do. Just thinking about telling Mom what Colt had done made my stomach knot. But if I made it through that nightmare, only for him to tell her what I’d done while he and his brother stood outside my bedroom door—

She might think I was deliberately trying to ruin her marriage. Just the fallout could mess up things between her and Dale. I was sure each parent would back their own kid. I didn’t want to find out.

I slid my hands under my skirt, hooked my thumbs in the elastic, and slid my underwear down my thighs. The act wasn’t as hard as it should’ve been. Part of me howled in outrage because this wasn’t the tender moment of my dreams. Another part said this was better than anything I’d imagined.

Don’t I tear you up inside, the way you do me
? Was that why he’d turned so mean? Not used to rejection? Or even hesitation? I could believe that.