“Maybe.”
Fuck, that’s a sweet image. Veronica in bed, her hand between her legs and her thoughts centered on me? “Not tonight. Tonight, this is my job.” I scrape my teeth along the neckline of her tank and across the swell of her breast. “You good with that?”
Her shaky inhale skates the line between anticipation and desperation. “Just tonight. I’m focused on my kid. I can’t get involved with anyone.”
I chuckle into her neck. “Good. Because tonight is all I have to offer. Now take these off.” I snap the string of her panties against her hip, and she gasps, hesitating only a beat before shimmying them down her hips and stepping out of them. I sweep them off the ground before she can. I’m not sure what kind of untapped fetish has me shoving them in my pocket, but I don’t overanalyze it. I can’t. Not when my mind is so zeroed in on her needy breaths and the instinctive sway of her body toward mine.
“Lean back,” I whisper, guiding her away from me to lean against the side of the house. She obeys, and it takes seconds for me to drop to my knees, shove her dress around her waist, and bury my face in her pussy.
Part of my mind registers how fucking crazy this is. Ten minutes ago, Veronica was the off-limits honorary Jackson, and now I don’t want anything as much as I want to feel her come against my mouth. I’m too far gone to care.
The second I touch her clit with my tongue, she whimpers and bucks against me. “Yes.”
I nudge her legs farther apart and guide one over my shoulder, ready to lick and suck until she comes apart. God, I need this. I need to forget my own pathetic thoughts for one night. Need to lose myself in the only one of my vices I’m still allowed.
“Colton.” Hands in my hair, she tugs gently. I don’t know if she wants me to stand or give her more, so I pull back and lift my gaze to hers.
Her eyes are hazy, and she’s staring down at me like she can’t quite believe this is happening. That makes two of us. A lock of hair falls in her face. The house light several yards away makes her eyes glow and illuminates her parted lips, swollen from my kisses.
“You’re beautiful.” Turning my head toward the leg I hiked over my shoulder, I press a kiss to her inner thigh. “You want me to stop?”
She takes my shirt in both fists and tugs, dropping her leg back to the ground and pulling me up. I’m faintly disappointed that my time between her legs was cut short, but I don’t get to think about it for long before she’s unbuttoning my jeans and palming my dick in her hand.
Fuuuuuck. That’s good. Too good. My hips jerk forward, greedy for her touch. It’s been too long, and she’s . . . hell, I don’t know what to make of Veronica Maddox half the time, but right now? Tonight? She’s perfect. She’s exactly what I need.
I tug down the top of her dress, faintly aware of the sound of popping stitches but focused on baring her to me. I pull aside her bra and lower my head. I circle her nipple with my tongue while she strokes me. It’s so damn good.
I could come right here. All over her hand. It would be hot and it’d feel amazing—that intoxicating combination of pleasure and the forbidden I’ve always loved so much—but I want more than that from tonight. “Tell me what you want,” I say, already tugging at her dress again so my hand can return to that sweet heat between her thighs.
“Want?”
I circle her clit then press down lightly with my thumb. “You want this.” I slide a finger inside her, and she moans. I love the sound so much, love the way she rocks against my hand and squeezes. I slip a second finger inside her, and her grip tightens on my dick.
It’s my turn to moan. “This what you want? Maybe all you need is my hand tonight.” I’m trying to keep my mind straight. When I put my mouth between her legs, she pulled me up like she didn’t want that. I don’t want to inadvertently rush onto something else she doesn’t want. “I can make you come like this.” I bite her neck then flick the bite with my tongue to soothe it, working my fingers in and out of her. “I’d like that. Feeling you on my fingers, watching your face as you fall apart.”
She shakes her head and shoves my hand down and away. “Come on.”
I barely have time to tuck myself back into my boxers before she takes me by the wrist and leads me to the side door of the garage.
She pulls me to the family’s classic Mustang and opens the passenger door, tilting her head to the side to indicate I should take a seat.
I freeze, memories washing over me. Ellie in a soft pink dress a few Easters ago. We came out here for Easter with the Jacksons, and seeing the way Levi looked at her all through dinner, I found myself needing reassurance, needing the reminder that she was mine and no one else’s. We found that place in this garage. In this old Mustang. She rode me, and I kissed her hard and deep until we were both sated and sweaty.
This is the last place I want to fuck another woman.
Veronica pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “There’s no worry about someone walking in on us here,” she says, and when I don’t reply, she drops my wrist. “Never mind. It’s dumb.”
“Hey.” I close the distance between us and slide one hand into her hair. I don’t know this woman. Not really. But if my only job tonight is to wipe that vulnerability and loneliness from her eyes, I want to do it. I lower my mouth to hers and kiss her gently before sucking her bottom lip between my teeth. “Not dumb at all.”
“Maybe this is a bad idea.”
Maybe. Or maybe it’s a good one. I don’t ever want to lose the memories of my days with Ellie, but it’s past time for me to make new ones. That’s what Veronica’s offering me—a chance to give myself a new memory.
“If you want it, I want it,” I murmur against her lips, my greedy hands already searching for the slick heat between her thighs.
“I want it,” she whispers. She frees my cock from my boxers again, squeezing and stroking. Pleasure builds at a furious pace at the base of my spine, and I don’t want anything as badly as I want to drive inside her.
I back away, breathing heavily, and slide into the bucket seat. She straddles me, her hand returning to stroke my dick between our bodies.
“Condom,” she says between hungry kisses.
Our hands fumble as we work together to shove my jeans down. I grab the condom I keep in my wallet, and she takes it from me, rolling it on with a desperation that only makes this whole thing hotter.
Then she’s easing herself onto my dick, her hands gripping my shoulders, her lips parted.
“You feel so good.” I shake my head in wonder. There’s no way she could understand how much I needed this tonight. “So fucking good.”
I yank down a strap of her dress, revealing a perfect breast covered by thin white lace. Cupping her, I lower my mouth to the stiff peak of her nipple, sucking her through the lace. She curls her nails into my shoulder blades, riding me harder. Faster.
It’s hot in the garage, and it’s not long before our bodies are slick with sweat. Old memories flood me—Ellie riding me like this. Here. Ellie whispering she loved me and smiling as she looked into my eyes. Ellie’s heart, her goodness, how desperately I wanted to be the man she deserved, how terribly I failed.
My angst and grief have no place here. I grip Veronica’s hips, willing my mind to focus on this moment, this woman. This night.