Seduce Me Tonight (14 page)

‘Hey,’ I whispered to Landon, who was snoring away in the passenger seat. He didn’t stir. ‘Landon, wake up,’ I said a little louder, punctuating my words with a poke to his ribs.

‘Huh? What?’ He sat up and yawned. ‘Still fucking raining?’

I ignored the obvious. ‘I’m tired. Want to drive for an hour?’

He yawned again and ran a hand through his tousled brown hair. ‘Not really. Why don’t you get one of them to drive?’

I jerked my thumb toward the snores coming from the back seat. ‘Listen to them. They’re not going to want to drive, either.’

Landon sighed. ‘All right. Lift up and I’ll slide over.’ He scooted closer to me. ‘C’mon, move.’

I looked at him. ‘Don’t be stupid. Let me pull over somewhere.’

‘Don’t be such a girl. It’ll only take a second,’ he argued. ‘Besides, if you pull over, they’re going to wake up and we’re going to be stuck at a truck stop somewhere while Greg hunts for something fried and Brian calls Jules for the tenth time since we left.’

He had a point. ‘Fine,’ I sighed. ‘But hurry up. I don’t want to wreck your truck.’

‘Do and die,’ he growled as he slid under me.

Thankfully, the truck had a bench seat instead of bucket seats, so it was just a matter of raising up and scooting over in synchronicity with Landon sliding under me. I let go of the wheel when he slipped under me, and our hands grappled with each other as I wriggled across his lap and plopped into the passenger seat. It wasn’t the most graceful move, but it worked and Landon was safely driving within moments. He had left a nice warm spot for me to settle into but I was having a hard time appreciating it. The warmth registered fuzzily in my brain only as a secondary thought because, in our quick exchange, I’d felt Landon’s very noticeable erection against my bottom.

The thing about having so many guy friends is that, after awhile, I stop noticing their gender. Well, for the most part. I’d never slept with the three guys I called my best friends, not that Brian and Greg hadn’t tried. But that was before Brian met Jules and before Greg realised I really wasn’t his type because I’d want a commitment. They were good guys and I would do just about anything for them, including trying to find someone who could reel Greg in once and for all, but I had never really been physically attracted to either of them. Not even after several shots of tequila and a lot of weepy hugging and proclamations of undying devotion.

Landon was another story. I had been attracted to him since he’d first flashed his Tom Cruise smile at me. But for as long as I had known him, going on five years now, he’d had the same girlfriend. Candace was a statuesque blonde with pouty lips, a perpetual French manicure and a taste for trendy restaurants and expensive shoe boutiques. I had never quite understood what Landon – sports-watching, fly-fishing, environmentally conscientious outdoorsy guy that he was – had ever seen in her. Or her in him, for that matter. He was a creative director for an advertising agency, hardly wealthy and hardly her type. But for some reason the relationship worked and I wasn’t a home-wrecker. Not that Landon had ever given me a reason to attempt a little discreet wreckage. In comparison to Greg, he was positively eunuch-like around me. Even Brian still threw me a little flirtation once in a while, sometimes while his girlfriend was around.

But it seemed like the eunuch was no more. Having felt Landon’s rather impressive erection, I was suddenly seeing him in a whole new light. Of course, he still had a girlfriend and I still wasn’t a home-wrecker, but just knowing he was
interested
was promising.

I fastened my seatbelt and tried very hard not to think about him. I was obviously suffering from sleep deprivation and caffeine withdrawal. Still, it was hard to ignore him considering he was less than two feet away from me and I’d just felt his hard on. In addition to needing sleep and caffeine, I obviously needed to get laid, but Landon wasn’t going to be the man to do the job.

Why not?
a little voice in my head asked. I didn’t bother responding. There were a half a dozen reasons why not. A full dozen, if I tried hard.

Logic did very little to quell the heat rising in my cheeks. I squirmed in my seat, trying to get as far away from him as possible.

‘You OK?’

I refused to look at him, staring out the window at the grey morning sky. ‘Yeah, great.’

‘You don’t sound great. Are you mad at me about something?’

I gritted my teeth and refused to speak. Stupid, oblivious man.

With a big, hard cock
. I wanted to slap that little voice in my head.

‘Katie? What’s up?’

‘I’m just tired,’ I lied. ‘It’s been a long drive.’

‘Uh huh.’ His scepticism was about as deep as the puddles in the potholes of the road. ‘What’s going on?’

I sighed. ‘Let it go, Landon. It’s nothing. It’s stupid.’

Most men would have taken me at my word and let it go. Not Landon. Landon is that rare combination of sensitive and analytical. Which meant, of course, that he was going to pester me until I told him the truth – like a dog worrying a bone for the last bit of meat.

Mmm … meat.
I knew I was blushing and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.

‘C’mon, tell me.’

I sighed. Heat rose in my cheeks. This was Landon, I reminded myself. I could tell him anything. Then we’d get a good laugh and all would be well again. It felt weird to keep a secret from him.

‘When we swapped places?’ I had made it a question, like some teenager unable to complete a sentence without affirmation.

‘Um – yeah? I was there. What about it?’

I licked my dry lips. That conjured up a mental picture of Landon naked. I had seen him a couple of times, by accident, of course. Once, in the shower at my apartment when his water had been turned off for maintenance. After living alone for so long, I’m not used to having other people around and had just burst in on him. The other time, when he’d been changing beside the car after we’d gone surfing. He had a towel wrapped around his waist as he stripped off his suit, but the towel slipped and I got a full frontal view. Of course, he hadn’t been aroused either time, so I could only imagine how much more impressive his assets were when he was turned on. Like now.

I thought back to those instances and giggled nervously. Landon was cute – and hung – but for some reason, this was the first time I had really considered him as anything more than a friend or contemplated those fleeting accidental moments as opportunities rather than accidental eye candy.

‘Well?’

I glanced sideways at him. What was wrong with me? I shook my head.
Just tell him
.

‘I felt you,’ I said.

‘OK?’ He drew the word out into a long sigh. ‘So?’

‘I mean, I
felt
you. You had an erection.’

‘Oh.’

That was it. He kept his eyes on the road, his expression blank. I squinted at him, willing him to say something, to acknowledge the moment with more than an ‘Oh’. With a start, I realised it wasn’t just embarrassment that made me say something to him – it was ego. I thought Landon was cute. Didn’t he think I was cute?

‘Well?’ I asked this time.

‘Well, what?’

He was deliberately playing dumb. At least, I hoped he was. ‘Isn’t that kind of … weird?’

His expression was still impassive. ‘Why would it be weird? I’m a man, I have a penis, it occasionally gets hard.’

My face had to be tomato-red by now. ‘OK, stop, stop,’ I said, holding up my hands as if to ward him off. ‘I know you’re a man. It just seemed weird that you’d be excited now, like this, with me.’

‘You mean, after I was woken up from a sound sleep?’ He slid a sideways glance at me. ‘You’ve heard of morning wood, right?’

‘What? Morning …’

I felt like an idiot. I wanted to slither out of the car and spend the rest of my life living in a roadside puddle. Landon wasn’t turned on by
me
. He was just a typical, healthy, red-blooded male who got a little
engorged
while sleeping. I’d spent the night with enough men to know the truth of his words.

‘Sorry,’ Landon said. ‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you.’

I turned my head to the window. ‘I’m not embarrassed,’ I mumbled into my fleece collar. ‘I just thought, well, figured I should, um …’

I shut up, lest I put both feet in my mouth. But while my mind was horrified at the conversation, my body was still tingling from the very masculine contact. I squirmed in my seat, pressing my thighs together in an effort to quell the ache. It didn’t help.

‘You OK?’

‘Sure, I’m great,’ I said, a little too shrilly.

‘Did you think –’ Landon broke off and I could almost see the wheels turning. ‘Oh, you thought –’

‘Stop. Don’t say it. Please.’

He didn’t stop.

‘You thought I was hard for you.’

I groaned. It sounded sexual and he was hammering home the point that it hadn’t been a sex thing at all. ‘You can let me out here,’ I said. ‘I’ll just hitchhike home.’

Landon laughed, but it wasn’t mean-spirited. ‘Oh, Katie, you’re cute.’

‘Cute, great,’ I muttered. ‘Can we drop it?’

‘OK.’

We rode in silence for a few minutes, Landon watching the road, me alternately watching the road and watching Landon. He was cute. Cute because he was unattainable, maybe? I let myself drift into a little fantasy of what it would be like if Landon wasn’t so damned committed to his high-maintenance girlfriend. This weekend in the woods might take on a whole new meaning. And why stop at Landon? Even if Brian was off the market now, Greg was still a good-looking guy, too, and he wasn’t looking for a relationship. I was in the middle of a female fantasy and I wasn’t taking advantage of it. Maybe I needed to rethink my priorities. Friendship with the opposite sex was great, but the potential of two men and a lady seemed pretty great, too. Especially considering how long it had been since I’d had sex …

‘Stop staring at me.’

‘What?’ I swear, I squeaked. ‘I’m not staring –’

‘Yes, you are.’

‘Sorry.’

I could practically peel the tension off the dashboard. I had managed to curl up so tight I was almost taking up negative space. And yet my mind kept whirring. Why had I never taken advantage of the benefits of being ‘one of the boys’? Why had I been the designated driver instead of the girl stripping on the bar and being carried to bed by one or more strapping fellows? I felt like I was experiencing an epiphany and I hadn’t even gotten to the woods yet.

Landon cleared his throat. ‘Kate?’

‘Mmm?’ I was envisioning being between two of the boys, it didn’t really matter which two – though I decided Landon needed to be part of any equation – getting happily serviced.

‘Do you think of me like that?’

I could have played it coy, but coy wasn’t going to get me anywhere. ‘I didn’t use to, but now I do.’

If he was taken aback by my bluntness, he didn’t reveal it. ‘That’s cool. Why didn’t you ever say anything?’

‘Candace.’

‘Oh.’

I felt like I had a wool sock in my throat, but I had to ask. ‘Do you – have you – ever thought of me like that?’

‘Sure.’

Whoa. That caught me by surprise. Landon thought of fucking me?

‘So why didn’t you ever say anything?’

He shrugged, waiting to answer until he passed a slow-moving truck. A spray of water flooded the windshield for a second before the wipers cleared it away.

‘Candace. And, you know, you’re my best friend.’

I snorted. I couldn’t help it. ‘Right now I’d trade a best friend for a hard dick.’

It was such a surreal situation that I didn’t quite realise I had said those words out loud until I heard Landon practically choking on his tongue.

‘What?’

‘God, would you just pull over and leave me by the side of the road, please?’ I tucked my head deeper into my hoodie. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’

We rode in awkward silence for a few minutes. I squirmed in my seat, as much from arousal as embarrassment. Heaven help me, but I was still turned on at the thought of fucking Landon. I think all those years of platonic friendship had been masking some sort of hidden desire I had for one of my best friends. That, or I really had gone too long without getting laid.

I was musing over my miserable situation when Landon pulled off the highway at one of the ‘scenic overlook’ exits. I glanced at him curiously as he slowed the Explorer to a stop next to the guardrail. The view beyond the windshield was lush evergreen-covered mountains.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked.

‘The cabin is another two and a half hours and we need to talk.
Now
.’ With that, he shut off the ignition and opened his door. ‘Come on.’

I gestured to Brian and Greg, still asleep in the backseat. ‘What about them?’

‘Let ’em sleep.’

I would have argued with him, but Landon closed the door and started walking away. With a worried glance at the boys in the backseat, I climbed out and went after Landon. A primitive set of wooden stairs had been built into the steep incline down to the creek that flowed through the foothills. I followed Landon down, though it was slower going for me. The rain had trickled down to a steady mist and the steps were treacherously wet, but Landon acted as if we were taking the escalator at the mall.

‘I’m going to fall and kill myself,’ I grumbled above him.

‘No, you won’t. I won’t let you.’

I don’t know why, but I believed him.

Landon was waiting for me at the bottom, looking like a real mountain man in his red flannel shirt and two-day scruff of beard. I stared at him, feeling like I had never really seen him before.

‘What?’

I shook my head. ‘Nothing. This is just all too weird.’

As if wanting to add to the weirdness, he took my hand. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the feeling of his strong, warm fingers threaded through mine. I looked up at him, my breath caught in my throat.

He laughed when he saw the look on my face. ‘Will you relax? I don’t want you to slip while we’re walking.’

‘Oh. Right.’

I felt like an idiot, but I didn’t want to fall on my ass in front of him, so I clung to his hand as we walked. There was an overhang carved into the hill about twenty yards from the stairs and he headed for it. A wide wooden bench had been placed there, ostensibly for tourists who wanted to stop and admire the view. I shivered, a combination of the cool, damp air and nerves. Safely at our destination, I pulled my hand from his and tucked it in my pocket.