The Expert's Guide to Driving a Man Wild (9 page)

“We won’t move,” Grant said, leaning in and nipping at her ear in a way that made her entire body rock with shivers.

“This is me, not moving,” Brenna chimed in. She glanced over her shoulder at Grant’s face, so close to her own. “I didn’t bring a pole with me.”

He shrugged and she could feel the ripple of his muscles. His voice was a low murmur in her ear. “I guess you could hold
my
pole.”

Had he just made a joke? A joke filled with innuendo? Stiff, proper Grant? She couldn’t resist a response. “Won’t your mother be scandalized?”

“Only if you don’t catch something.”

“Huh?”

Reggie returned at that moment, holding four fishing rods. “I’ve only got four on the boat. Brenna, you can use Grant’s.”

Ah. His
pole.
Her brain must have been frozen.

“That’s fine. My hands are full at the moment anyhow.” Grant’s voice sounded easier than she’d ever heard it. Relaxed, even. And she could have sworn that he’d lightly tickled her through the pockets of his jacket.

This was not normal for Grant. Not in the slightest. A bit weirded out, Brenna reached an arm out of the jacket and took the pole that Reggie offered her. “I don’t know how to fish.”

One of Grant’s hands wrapped around hers over the pole. Brenna blinked as she realized how big his hands were, and how warm. Not that she hadn’t noticed last night. But she was really, really noticing it right now.

“Here,” he murmured in her ear, and that small sound shot her body full of hot, wet longings. “Let me show you how to grip that.”

And just like that, her mind went to dirty, dirty places.

He was doing it on purpose; she knew that. It was obvious that Grant was determined to make her suffer since her scheme had gotten him into this, and since she’d declined to be his little woman. So he was clearly intending on showing her what she was missing.

Normally she’d just smirk and go right on with her life, enjoying perverse pleasure of thwarting his wishes more than anything else. Normally. Except right now? Right now she wanted to crawl back into his bed and play games with him.

If he wanted to fool around? She’d show him that two could play this game. Brenna leaned back against Grant, feeling his warm arms around her. She sighed and wiggled her bottom, circling her hips in a subtle motion that wouldn’t be noticed by anyone but the man she was pressed up against, and then leaned forward to cast the line, making sure her ass pressed up along his best parts.

By the time they got off the boat he’d be just as hot and bothered as her.

 • • • 

The afternoon of family time? Sheer torture for Brenna. She didn’t understand wanting to spend endless hours just hanging out with family. To her, family were people you tolerated because you had to, and you escaped at the first chance. But Grant seemed to love spending time with his parents and his sister, and no one seemed in a rush to leave the boat.

No one but Brenna, of course.

She was turned on. She couldn’t help it. Grant was sitting there, so very Grant-ish in his dark sweater and glasses, his hair mussed by the wind on the lake. He’d given her attention, solicitous to the bone. Polite, attentive, and utterly different from the man she normally encountered. Oh sure, Grant was nice and pleasant to all the visitors they had at the survival school, but to her? He was a scowling, nasty-tempered beast who was never pleased with a thing she did. This whole “nice” Grant thing? It was throwing her. She kept waiting for him to nitpick how she held the fishing pole or the way she stood. But he didn’t. He simply kept his arms wrapped around her to keep her warm, nuzzled her neck upon occasion (as if he couldn’t help himself), and was generally pleasant.

And he watched her like a hawk, too. That was probably her fault, since she’d decided to even the odds between them and had begun to brush her body against his, pressing her breasts to his chest when she said she was cold, and making sure her bottom was nestled against his cock when she fished. Running her hands all over him as if she couldn’t help herself, either . . . and she couldn’t.

She just kept thinking of the hours when she’d be able to get him alone again.

When the sun began to set, they finally left the fishing behind and the boat pulled back up alongside the dock. Brenna breathed a sigh of relief. She was ready to go home and strip Grant naked. When he took her hand to help her out of the boat, she couldn’t help but brush her thumb over his knuckles, and she enjoyed seeing his eyes darken with pleasure.
Good.
Now he was thinking along the same lines that she was.

The Markhams had rented a car after driving back from the airport in her tiny Sunfire. Which suited her just fine. It meant that she could have Grant all to herself by the time they shut the car doors. If she played her cards right, she could have her hands under that sweater of his in a matter of minutes, and then he wouldn’t take much convincing after that.

“Shall we go out to dinner?” Reggie asked as they all departed from the boat. “I’m famished.”

Brenna gave what she hoped was a convincing yawn. “I’m really tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

To her surprise, Grant’s wind-reddened cheeks turned bright pink. Was the man blushing? Over that innocent comment?

“But we were going to go out for a lovely dinner,” Justine protested. “It won’t be the same if you don’t go.”

“Brenna’s exhausted, so I think I’ll just take her home,” Grant said, looping a casual hand around her waist and pulling her close. “We’ll order a pizza.”

The small movement made her body sing with anticipation.
Soon, my hormones. Very soon
. And she slid her hand into Grant’s back pocket and lightly caressed his ass through the fabric of his slacks, enjoying the way he jerked in response to her touch.

But to her dismay, Elise gave them an expectant look, her hands stuffed into her jacket. “I’ll just hitch a ride back with you guys, then. Pizza sounds fine to me.”

Thwarted by the well-meaning sister. Damn it.
They couldn’t exactly turn her down since she was sleeping on the lodge couch.

Grant’s smile was a bit tight at the edges as he nodded at his sister. “That’s fine.”

It was?
Brenna’s brows drew together and she studied his crotch. She was pretty sure he was about to break free with a tent in the front of his slacks, so why not tell his sister to buzz off and give them some alone time? She would have done that and paired it with a smile to let Elise know that she didn’t mean anything by it.

But not Grant.
Damn him.
Now he was just doing this shit on purpose. Did he not want to be alone with her because she didn’t want a relationship? If that was the case, she’d have to be persuasive when she got him alone. Because right now? She was really, really turned on and she wanted him in a bad way. Not the relationship, just the sex.

And what kind of man didn’t want some no-strings-attached sex?

They said their good-byes to Grant’s parents, promising to give them a tour of the survival school in the morning. All the while, Brenna yawned and tried to look fatigued.

And then they got in Brenna’s car. Grant had wanted to drive, but Pop was still stymied by the Audi’s mysterious malfunction the other day and wanted to tinker with the engine a bit more. Grant had shot her a few exasperated looks, but no one had wanted to be the one to tell Pop that most of the items he’d been repairing had been deliberately broken . . . so the Audi remained unusable and they’d driven in her junker.

She jammed the keys in the ignition, irritable with arousal. Elise slid into the backseat, and then Grant got in the passenger side. They waved a polite good-bye to Grant’s parents as Brenna pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the highway, speeding back to Bluebonnet.

The car was silent. No one spoke for long minutes, and the interior was dark and shadowed. Brenna glanced in the rearview mirror. Elise had her head back, eyes closed, and it looked as if she was napping. Brenna looked over at Grant.

He was watching her, his eyes dark behind his wire-rimmed glasses. His hair was still tousled from the lake. That was sexy. When she shifted gears again, instead of putting her hand back on the steering wheel, she moved it casually to his knee to see what he’d say.

He adjusted in his seat, his leg twitching under her grip, but he said nothing. Didn’t push her hand away, didn’t speak and wake up his sister. It was like he was watching and waiting to see what she’d do.

Oh, little did he know. She’d do plenty.

Her hand slid a bit higher up his thigh.

He shifted.

Brenna kept her eyes on the road, but her hand went to cup his cock. Through his trousers, she could feel the stiff length of him, and memories flooded back of just how well equipped he’d been. Grant was the perfect size for her, all thick, blunt-tipped cock and smooth length, just wide enough to rub her in all the right places. She stroked her hand over his length.

His fingers covered hers, and she heard the sharp inhale of his breath.

Was he trying to get her to remove her hand? She shot him another look, but he was watching her. Brenna’s gaze flicked to the backseat, but Elise was still out of it, eyes closed, breathing even. Perfect.

She ignored the palm covering hers and wrapped her fingers around the length of him. She could feel the bulge of his cockhead through his pants and she squeezed it, then ran her hand over the length of him again. Then stroked once more.

The silence in the car was almost oppressive with tension. Brenna could feel her pussy getting slick with excitement, Grant’s flesh hot and practically throbbing under her grip. She shifted in her seat, practically squirming with her own need. Her pulse pounded low in her hips, all her nerve endings lit up, and she had to bite back her own groan when she stroked him again. Grant’s head fell back against the seat’s headrest. His hand still rested over hers, but now it seemed more of a guide than an admonishment. He certainly wasn’t protesting. He could have pulled her hand away at any time.

And just to test that theory, she wrapped her fingers around his length and then didn’t move, waiting.

His response came a moment later, when he realized she wasn’t going to lift her fingers. His hand curled around hers, and he roughly dragged her hand, forcing her up and down his length, the movement made awkward through the fabric. But damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell. He wanted this. She practically purred with her own excitement and began to stroke him again, her hand moving harder and faster, her touch becoming bolder.

Too soon, she saw their turnoff.
Damn it.
Just when she was starting to have fun. Poor Grant was going to have blue balls, she thought, swallowing her wicked giggle as she carefully removed her hand from his lap and put it on the steering wheel.

His eyes opened then, and he gave her a hot, incredulous look as if to silently say
why the fuck did you stop
?

She turned on her blinker, the clicking sound overloud in the darkness. “Almost home,” Brenna called out, her voice deliberately cheerful.

Elise started awake and rubbed her eyes. “I always forget how long the drive back to Bluebonnet is,” she said sleepily.

Brenna smiled at her in the rearview mirror and looked over at Grant again. He was staring out the passenger side window, and she noticed he’d carefully adjusted his coat so it covered up his erection. Lucky for him he had that coat.

She pulled into the nearly empty gravel parking lot of the survival school and was surprised to see a motorcycle parked in her usual space.

“Who drives a bike?”

Brenna frowned at Grant’s question. “Don’t know. One of Dane’s friends, maybe? Or Colt’s brothers?”

“Colt’s brothers drive trucks,” Grant answered, his voice strained just a bit. “We might have company.” And he sounded dismayed at the prospect, which pleased her all the more.

Was it weird that she found it arousing to torment him? Probably.

They got out of the car, and she noticed that Grant was careful to keep his hip-length coat buttoned in the front, despite it being a fairly mild night. Her mouth twitched with amusement when he scowled at her, as if somehow needing someone to blame for his problem.

It wasn’t her fault that he’d gotten turned on, now was it?

Well, maybe just a
little
bit her fault.

Brenna led the way into the main lodge, Grant walking a fair distance behind them. The lights were on, which told her that someone was up and hanging out. The lodge tended to be a bit of a rec center for all of them, since the cabins were small and didn’t have much room for stretching out. Her own cabin was small, so she could only imagine how Miranda and Dane or Beth Ann and Colt felt in their own tiny cabins. A lot of evenings, she’d slip into the main lodge to make a sandwich and find both couples cuddled up on the couches, watching TV or playing video games. The two women were best friends, and the two men were, too, so it was natural that they all hung out together.

Brenna was a little envious of their clique, but the girls never forgot her when they were having a girls’ night. She’d been dragged to have her hair and nails done by Beth Ann and Miranda more times than she could even think about. It was nice to have girlfriends after years of just hanging out with guys. Shy Elise could do well with some girl time, she suspected, glancing at Grant’s sister. Elise seemed awkward and out of place at all times, unless she was with family. If she wasn’t, she just tried to quietly blend into the background. And that sort of thing was foreign to Brenna.

She opened the cabin door and headed inside, surprised to see Pop sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, their new employee Rome sitting nearby. Uh-oh. “Hey, Rome,” she called out cheerfully, waving at him. She shot a glance at Grant. “I thought I told you to come by in the morning?”

“In the morning? Is he the carpenter?” Grant looked at Brenna curiously.

“He might be,” she said quickly, giving Rome a meaningful look.

Rome stood up, all black T-shirt and arms covered in tattoos. Even his neck was covered in tattoos, and he had gauges in his ears. His face was pensive as he watched her and the others as they entered the cabin behind her. “I’m sorry. Am I intruding?”