Three seconds into the shock, I forced myself into motion, jumping toward and around the car, jerking open the door, and cramming my big body inside as quickly as possible like some form of origami. I had no doubt this crazy woman would drive all the way out here only to leave without me.
“What’d I do wrong?” I asked when she didn’t even glance in my direction. I wasn’t an expert, but I’d seen a woman pissed a time or two. Each time it happened I made an effort to log information so I could prevent it the next time. Unfortunately, I’d yet to establish a pattern.
“Called me in the middle of the night and talked me into driving to upstate New York!” she snapped.
“No,” I clarified. “I got that memo loud and clear. I mean when we were talking about Wes.”
“Would I have hit him?” she asked strangely.
I wasn’t having any fucking luck following our conversation today. It was like we were constantly having two completely different ones.
“Who? Wes?”
“No! The fucker you hit! Would I have hit him?”
I couldn’t help but laugh while I pictured it. Cassie was far from a heavyweight, but I imagined Johnny still would have ended up on the ground. “Long before I did.”
She nodded, resolute. “Then you’re forgiven for that.” She backed out of the spot with ease and turned out of the parking lot in the direction from which she’d come.
A smile lifted the corners of my lips at the gift of her forgiveness. I didn’t bother telling her I hadn’t asked for it.
“Now I just want to get back to the city and climb into my bed. I’m about eight hours short on sleep.”
“Um,” I mumbled as I cringed. “I actually need you to take me to the bar.”
“The bar?” The car swerved slightly as she took her eyes off the road to look at me. I fought the urge to grab on to the “Oh shit” handle.
“The scene of last night’s crime,” I explained with a slightly rough, self-deprecating laugh. “I’ve got a car there that needs to get returned to the Kelly residence.”
She moaned, but she ultimately turned where I pointed and didn’t say anything else. We rode in silence for two minutes before she took a hand off the wheel and ran it through her hair. Her mouth started to form a yawn, but she did her best to stop it. The result was a hideously unattractive facial contortion. My chest buzzed at the sight of it.
“Tired?”
She nodded for five straight seconds before speaking. “Yeah. You should know this by now, but in case you missed it, sleep and I are really fucking tight. Like, you know how people joke all the time about offering up their firstborn?”
I nodded and then realized it’d be hard for her to look at me. “Yeah.”
“Well, when I have kids, they will be a legitimate sacrifice before sleep.”
I laughed. “From what I hear, having kids is pretty much synonymous with no sleep.”
“Fuck. So maybe I can’t have kids.”
“Nah. You just need to have them with someone who can stand to go without. It’s all a trade-off.”
Surprised eyes sought mine, and the car swerved again. I carefully avoided pointing it out. Instead, I offered the only thing I could right then.
“Want me to drive?”
She shook her head and yawned again. This time, the yawn won.
“Last night was your parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary party?”
“Yep.”
“A lot of lonely women in that crowd?” she teased.
A dot of dried blood stained the fabric of my pants, and I wiped at it even though I knew it wouldn’t come out. My mind was sluggish as I processed her question, but the answer surprised me a little when it finally did. There might as well have been no women at the party for the amount I’d noticed them. “It wasn’t exactly lively, but my parents enjoyed it, and that’s all that matters to me.”
“And I guess a phone call from their son at the local prison would put a damper on that.”
I laughed because she had no fucking idea. “Yeah, I’ve already put them through enough for a lifetime.”
As we approached the parking lot for the bar, I directed her to turn in. “This is it.”
She leaned forward to get a better look out the windshield and let out a guffaw. “The Sticky Pickle?” A huge sign shot out of the earth and up about twenty feet, declaring it just that.
I smiled. “Yep.”
“Good God, Thatcher. Not only can’t you put your boner away, but now you’ve got it all sticky. Is this ever going to end?” she asked through humor-induced near-convulsions, two loose strands of hair falling down and around her frisky eyes. They seemed to turn up at the corners like an extension of her mouth. Moisture formed at the very center of her lips with an involuntary flick of her tongue.
My cock pulsed.
Oh, Jesus.
As I watched every single page of her flipbook of motion with utter fascination, all I could do was answer her honestly. Put my boner away around her?
“Not fucking likely.”
After dropping my big-tire, 1964, sweet-as-fuck Chevy Nova SS off at my parents’ house, we were back on the road. I’d wanted her to come inside, but all it took was one self-scrutinizing glance at her T-shirt and the connotation of an early morning visit to make her refuse. “No way am I meeting your parents in a shirt that talks about petting my kitty before you have the pleasure,” she’d said. I’d started to ask if that meant there was a chance of it happening soon, but thought better of it.
I’d rather have her fall into my trap without realizing it.
And in the end, she’d made the right choice. After a night of way more excitement than they were used to, my parents were still in bed. A couple of quick kisses and apologetic good-byes from their bedside, and they were still none the wiser about my drama-filled night.
“Thank fuuuuuck,” Cassie moaned again as we crossed the Hudson River by way of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Any other time, any other place, and her moan probably would have had my titty-attuned tail wagging wildly. But not right now.
I had a serious cramp in my left thigh and my knees were about to become a permanent fixture in my chest, and still, as I glanced at my watch, I knew I had no other option but to trick my beautiful chauffeur into making another detour in this tiny fucking clown car.
After a night in the slammer, I could and would skip out on almost anything but this. There was a little girl with big eyes and a bigger heart waiting for me, and I’d have to be dead or dying to break a commitment with her.
“Um, Cass?”
“What?” she snapped. Her eyes looked like an exact embodiment of the root of all of the world’s evil.
I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip to keep from laughing and looked out the passenger side window to conceal my smile. “I know you’re not exactly happy with me right now—”
“Understatement,” she emphasized.
“But I think I’ve got a cramp in my cock. Maybe you’re not all that fond of mine, but you like them in general, right?”
Her eyes narrowed as she considered my lead-in. She wanted to ignore me completely, but Cassie couldn’t deny her affinity for the D.