Ready to Fall (16 page)

“Yeah, good. I have a job and a place to live. A car. And it’s all stuff I did on my own. Well, with the help of friends, but you get my point.”

“You get by with the help of your friends.”

“I try,” she said and smiled. “Hey, speaking of butchering lyrics, I see they have karaoke here in a couple of hours. We should stay. They have prizes.”

“You sing?”

“Terribly, but I do. You?”

“What do you think?” I pretended to glare at her.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s karaoke.”

Something about her happiness and joy made me want to do things that gave her more of both.

“You’re going first,” I said.

A few hours later, people much drunker than us sang pop songs and country songs. I stopped after two beers, knowing we’d be on the bike later. Diane appeared pleasantly buzzed, but nowhere near drunk or even tipsy.

As one of her weird ideas, we swore not to tell each other our songs. I flipped through the list and ruled out most of the songs until I found one I knew I could do justice.

Her turn for karaoke arrived before mine.

Diane walked up to the stage while I clapped and whistled for her. Blushing, she waved at me while her music cued up.

When I recognized the opening notes, I cracked up. Never did I imagine Diane would pick “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar for her song. Not only did she know all the lyrics without reading the screen, but she had choreography to go with it, involving some punches and even a few kicks. It was the most hysterical and awesome thing I’d seen in a long time. The crowd, especially the guys, ate it up. This annoyed me, until I remembered she came with me and would be leaving with me.

She bowed to the clapping and the cheers before making her way back to me. I stood up and hugged her. More to congratulate her than to mark my territory, but both worked.

“That was sexy, Linus.” I smiled down at her, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“Glad you thought so.” She met my eyes and smiled back. “You better bring it if you want to beat me.”

“Oh, I’m bringing it.”

The two drunk girls finished their sloppy version of “Summer Nights” and my name was called.

“Hold onto your heart,” I said with a wink.

Diane clasped her hands over her heart before I turned to walk up on stage. Once there, I stood still and tucked my head down to study the monitor.

When I began to sing, I kept my eyes cast down and my voice low during the first lyrics.

Her laughter carried over the crowd when she figured out what song I was singing.

Yeah. I rocked some Taylor Swift.

At the chorus, I lifted my head and found Diane in the crowd. She stood next to our table, with a huge grin on her face. I smiled back, nodding my head before continuing with my version of “You Belong to Me”.

Throwing on the charm, I flirted with a few of the women near the stage, but I sang only for Diane. When the ladies clapped along, I went for it, singing the final chorus in falsetto.

No one expected a big guy with a beard, wearing jeans and flannel, to rock the teen pop. That was my ace.

I had to fight my way back to Diane through the groups of women with wandering hands, offering me congratulations. She was still standing there grinning when I reached her.

“How was it?”

She answered me by throwing her arms around my neck and jumping her legs around my hips.

Did not see that coming.

I wrapped my arms under her thighs so I could find my balance.

“Does this mean you liked it?”

She met my eyes and smiled. It wasn’t the grin she wore all through my performance. This was soft and intimate. “You have no idea,” she whispered.

“Glad to hear it. Wanna get out of here?”

“Yes,” she said, loosening her legs and sliding down. I would’ve carried her out, and frowned when her body warmth left me. “Now.”

T
HE
RIDE
HOME
was dark and much colder. I felt Diane shiver behind me and bury herself closer into my back. At least it wasn’t raining. Maybe she hadn’t jinxed us with her earlier words.

A single raindrop hit my visor when we turned onto the main road from the ferry. Unfortunately, all of its friends followed it. By the time we approached the darkened Greenbank Store, there was no denying it was more than a mist. Jinxed.

I pulled the bike off the road and we ran for the overhang of the store. Standing in the shadows next to the bagged ice freezer on the side of the building, I took off my helmet and brushed the rain from the back of my neck. Diane was dry on her front, but the back of her jacket appeared nearly soaked.

After she took off her helmet and set it on the ground, I gave her a stern look. “See what I mean about not talking about the weather? Around here it can rain when the sun’s out.”

Brushing the water off her jacket, she peered up at me with a sheepish smile. “Sorry. How long do you think we’ll have to wait it out?”

I left the dry safety of the overhang to stare up at the fast moving clouds swirling above us. “Hard to say. Might turn back to being a mist. Might not.”

“Can we ride home in the rain?” she asked, leaning against the wall. Her wet jeans clung to her legs and I found myself staring while she lifted one leg to brace it on the wall.

“Sure. Do we want to? Not really.”

“What should we do?”

I lifted my eyes to her face. Her eyes sparkled same as they did back in the bar. I swept my thumb across my lower lip and then ran it across my chin.

Since our hike at Deception Pass, I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her. The day she received the letter from the asshole wasn’t the right time. Normally, I didn’t give this much thought to making a move. If I wanted to kiss a woman, I did. As long as she gave me the right signals. Maybe that was part of the problem with Diane. I didn’t know her signals. We flirted, we teased. I caught her staring, but it never moved from thoughts to action. My hand was getting tired of all the time I spent thinking.

There was a time and place for action.

That time and place was now.

“Store’s closed. Nothing to do but stand here and watch the rain fall.” I moved closer to her along the wall, my shoulder brushing hers when I mirrored her posture. My hand dropped between us and brushed against her leg, but I faced the line of water dripping from the roof gutter.

“Nothing?” she asked, her voice more of a whisper.

“Can’t think of anything,” I whispered back while I turned to gaze down at her. “You?”

I could see everything in her eyes. I wasn’t the only one thinking about kissing. When I entwined our fingers, her breath hitched. I broke eye contact and stared down at her mouth. Her lips parted and her tongue peeked out to wet the bottom one.

“John …” Her words faded away when I leaned down. My gaze flicked up to her eyes. Her nod answered my silent question.

Our lips met, soft and slow. So slow. The sound of the rain dripping from the roof and our heavy breaths broke the silence. She moaned and reached her hand behind my head, threading her fingers into my hair. I rolled my body until I pressed her into the wall. Even on her tiptoes, she was short. Too short. I cupped her thighs and tugged her to me.

Breaking the kiss I whispered next to her ear, “Lift your legs.”

She lifted and wrapped her legs around my hips. I easily held her weight with my arms.

“Much better.”

“Mmmm,” she murmured, rubbing her cheek and chin along my jaw. “Much.”

I didn’t answer because her lips crashed into mine again. Nothing slow or gentle this time. She leaned away from me and rested her shoulders against the wall, giving me access to her neck and chest. My hand dragged along her neck and collarbone before wandering down to the zipper of her jacket. Again I stared into her eyes to make sure she wanted to cross this line.

Without opening her eyes, she moved her hand down to cover mine and pressed. Message received.

Her skin beneath her jacket felt warm and dry, an oasis in the cold rain. I traced her breast through her shirt and watched as the skin below her collarbone broke into goose bumps.

“Cold?” I asked, stroking the back of my index finger along the curve at the top of her bra.

“Yes, but that’s not why I shivered. Keep going.”

Enough talking. My tongue found hers. All words and thoughts beyond her mouth and her body left my mind. Whatever blood rational thought required thickened in my cock. I thrust into her, grinding my erection along the denim covering her warmth.

Moans came from both our mouths when we tried to catch our breath.

Fuck.

Diane felt amazing. So amazing I was practically fucking her up against the Greenbank Store while the occasional car splashed down the road, the headlights throwing our shadows along the siding.

Realization hit me like cold rain water down my back. We were making out, dry-fucking against the wall of a store, only half-hidden by the freezer. Slowing down my kisses, I pulled away from her. My hand stayed over her heart and felt the racing beat matched my own. Blood thrummed in my dick to the point of pain. We needed to stop.

“Don’t,” she said when I moved my hands to her waist to shift her down.

“I could kiss you all night standing here, but we are in public. The road is right there and anyone driving by can see us.”

“I don’t care.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. In the dim glow of a beer sign in the window I could see her flushed face and her eyes wild.

“You want me to fuck you here?”

She blinked up at me as she slid down my body. I waited for her to find her footing before releasing my grip on her waist.

“You want to fuck me?” she asked, needing confirmation of what I’d said.

“Pretty obvious I do. Only not here.”

“Okay.” She tugged my hand while reaching down to pick up her helmet. “Let’s go.”

“You sure? It’s still raining.”

“I’m sure. And I’m also pretty certain if we don’t leave right this moment, you’ll switch back into nice guy John and change your mind.”

“Nice guy? No nice guys here.” I strapped on my helmet and zipped up her jacket, intentionally brushing across her nipple. “Let’s go.”

Despite the wet roads and the rain, or maybe because of them, we arrived back to my house in record time. The moment we got inside our mouths found each other again while hands grappled to remove jackets and feet tangled. Babe wove in between us, barking and jumping. I lost my balance first and pulled Diane down on top of me when I hit the ground.

“Umph,” I said when the wind was knocked out of me and my head bounced against the floor. My body had cushioned her fall and luckily she managed to avoid kneeing me in the groin on her way down.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Great. Just great. My plans to get you horizontal worked out exactly as I imagined.” I tugged her up my body so her torso lay across mine. “See? Perfect.” My lips trailed along her jaw and she squirmed.

“Your beard tickles.”

“Sorry about that. Want me to stop and go shave?”

“Never. Every time it brushes against my skin I think of how it would feel other places.”

“Other places?” I nipped at the skin behind her ear, which caused her legs to contract around mine.

“Everywhere. I want to feel it everywhere.”

With those words I rolled us over and pinned her arms above her head.

“I love it when you tell me what you want.” I stared into her eyes before I lowered my face to the top button of her shirt. My nose ran up to the place where her shoulder met her neck and I inhaled her scent. A musk mixed with her usual citrus scent drove me wild.

Babe whined and scratched at the door.

“You need to take care of him?” She gazed up at me and smiled.

“Damn dog. First, he’s the best wingman ever and puts us in the exact position I’ve been thinking about the whole drive home. Now he’s cockblocking me.”

“No cockblocking here. Only a small delay. Point me in the direction of your room and I’ll meet you up there.”

My eyes snapped to hers. There was no doubt or hesitation in hers, and there sure as hell wasn’t in mine.