Storm Watch

5

IN THE SHOCKED SILENCE, with the Jeep still rocking from the sudden stop, Lizzy felt Jason whip toward her, his eyes dark and fiercely protective. “Lizzy.”

“Present,” she whispered, still staring at the big, fat, thick tree trunks. “That was…adrenaline-pumping.”

“Yeah.” He put his hands on her arm and turned her to him.

Oddly enough, her gaze went-inappropriately-to his mouth. She couldn’t help it. “Another inch, and we’d have been kissing those tree trunks.”

He let out a low laugh as his hand traveled up her spine, coaxing her even closer. “We’d have been swallowing them whole.”

She didn’t resist the pressure of his hand, but willingly shifted to him, nearly melting when his fingers swept up and then down again, this time finding their way beneath all the layers she wore.

His fingers were sure and warm, a sweet shock to cover the nasty one of the near accident.

“You okay?” he murmured.

“Yes.” And getting more okay by the second. His face was so close to hers that the roughness of his jaw brushed the skin of her cheek. She closed her eyes to better absorb it, not even trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with her that this languid sensuality could take her over here, now. “Jason?”

“Uh-huh.” His lips barely grazed hers once, and then again, and she leaned helplessly into him, seeking more than just the promise of a kiss, and getting it as his tongue took itself on an erotic foray in her mouth.

He kissed different than anyone else she’d ever kissed. He kissed as if it wasn’t the way to a prize, but the prize itself, and she could have kissed him forever. His lips were slow and searching, hard and then not, causing a rising heat within her that unbelievably, given where they were and what they had yet to do, had a languid pleasure unfurling from deep within her. She became extremely aware of the fact that she was trying to crawl into his lap just as he lifted her with astonishing ease, bringing her over him, his mouth never leaving hers, delving deeper, longer, while she did her best to swallow him whole.

In the back of her mind, she knew this was simply pent-up fear and adrenaline, but she didn’t care. She wanted his tongue, she wanted his body. Hell, she wanted to throw the seat back and feel him sink into her aching flesh. She wanted it all. It was as if something had been cut loose, and even knowing she had the storm, the craziness of the day to blame for it, deep down she also knew it was something more.

It was Jason.

For a woman who prided herself on her ready and able control, had to have that ready and able to control, she was losing it big-time here, but what was turning her on more than anything else was that she wasn’t alone.

Jason, who also lived off his famed control, was fighting for self-restraint every bit as much as she, and losing the battle. His breath was coming in short, ragged pants, his hands gripping her tight as his mouth made its hungry way along her throat. Beneath her, he was hard as a rock, and she wanted him so much, wanted this more than she’d imagined she could, and for that very reason she had to stop.

“Jason.” Her voice came out a rough whisper and she had to clear her throat and try again. “Jason.”

He went still, then slowly lifted his head, his eyes dark and slumberous as if waking from a dream. The sight of the tree trunks in the windshield sobered him up pretty quick, and she crawled off him and back to her seat.

Still eyeing the tree trunks, he caught her wrist and brought her palm to his lips. “That really was uncomfortably close.”

Yeah, it was. “Thanks for being such a good driver.”

His eyes met hers, the amusement peeking through the heat. “How do you know that I wasn’t referring to the fact that we nearly-”

“Oh. Um. Yeah, that, too.”

He let out a low laugh. “You’ve got nerves of steel, Lizzy. Are you sure you’re all right?”

Let’s see. If she discounted the fact that her body was howling, howling, for him to finish her off, then maybe, maybe she was all right. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“The roads are getting tricky.”

“Can we make it?”

“I hope so.” He craned his neck right and left, looking around them. “Going to have to move those branches blocking the road first. Wait here.”

“You’ll need help.” She hopped out into the wild storm with him, the rain and wind pummeling them as her feet sank into nearly six inches of water.

“Go back,” Jason yelled.

She eyed the grove of trees lining the road on the left where the Jeep was. On the right was nothing but a rushing river of runoff, which was rising high and fast. It wouldn’t be much longer before that rushing water overtook the road entirely. Knowing it, she ran after Jason, to where he was dragging two of the branches to the side. She reached for another and tugged.

And didn’t budge it.

She reset her feet, squinted into the rain stinging her eyes and tried again.

Nothing.

She closed her eyes and strained, putting everything into it, and suddenly the branch lifted with ease. Shocked, she opened her eyes and met Jason’s from the other side, who took the thing from her and tossed it aside as if it weighed nothing.

Then he grabbed her hand and they ran back to the Jeep. Inside, he leaned back, breathing hard. “I’m going to need more Cheez Whiz.”

“Really?” She swiped rain from her eyes. “Because that looked pretty effortless.”

He slid her a look. He had water running down his face, his eyes deep and dark as they met hers.

“I couldn’t even budge that thing,” she pointed out.

“Are you going to say thank-you again?” he asked. “Because I’d rather receive my thanks in the form of food. Or…” Without moving a muscle on his face, he somehow managed to change his expression from exhausted to wickedly naughty.

She actually laughed. “I’m not thanking you with sex.”

“Well, damn.”

She pulled out an energy bar from her bag and handed it to him. “A peace offering.”

He stuffed half the bar into his mouth, handing her the other half. “You’ve grown up, Lizzy, and toughened up. That’s going to be a good thing today.”

She looked at him, really looked, knowing he’d grown up, too. Entirely.

“Ready?” he asked quietly.

Even more disconcerting than the fact that he’d grown up and moved on? The realization that she hadn’t. Nope. She still wanted the same thing her teenage self had wanted-him. Preferably naked and on a platter.

“Lizzy?”

“Yeah. I’m ready.” For far more than she cared to admit.

JASON THRUST THE Jeep into gear and hit the gas, getting his head into the game. Or trying to. It shouldn’t have been an issue, but hearing Lizzy say his name with such easy familiarity tended to make him think of things he shouldn’t have been thinking.

But then the tires spun uselessly, bringing him back.

“Try Reverse,” she said.

He did. More of the same.

“Oh, boy.” She looked out into the storm. “You don’t by any chance have any kitty litter in the back, which we could use as traction beneath the tires?”

“Good idea, but no.” He craned his neck and looked out the window, knowing there was only one thing to do. “Come here.”

“What?”

“Scoot over here.”

“You want me to drive? Sure,” she said, game. “But I might not be able to get us out any more than you could.”

He let out a low laugh. He loved her strength, her attitude. “No, I’m going to go out and push, and you’re going to-”

“Pop the Jeep out of Neutral and into Reverse, then hit the gas and keep it moving,” she guessed. Accurately. “Bad idea, though. The Jeep might slip and hit you.”

“Yeah, if you could not do that, that’d be great.”

“That’s not funny.”

“Just get the Jeep moving, I’ll handle the rest.”

“Okay, but once I do get it going, I won’t be able to stop or we’ll get stuck again.” She met his gaze. “Run fast.”

“Will do.” He hopped out and into driving rain. Making his way through the mud to the front of the Jeep, he braced himself, then looked through the windshield and met Lizzy’s calm gaze, very glad that if he had to do this, he was with someone who could hold their own. “On three,” he said. “One. Two. Three-” He shoved, and she got it into Reverse and hit the gas, steering out of the ditch. He ran after her, slogging through the water to hop into the passenger seat. “Nice.”

“This is probably a good time to tell you, I haven’t driven a stick in ten years.”

Laughing, he swiped the water from his face. “Then extra nice.”

The water was rushing down the road with them, almost faster than the Jeep. He knew they didn’t have much longer before any car on the road wouldn’t be drivable, this vehicle included. In fact, he’d consider them damn lucky if they made it to Cece’s. “We might have to stay at the condo and ride this out.”

“Yeah.” Her attention was on the road. “If she’s not in labor that won’t be a problem.”

And if she was, and they had to evacuate quickly…“We’ll handle it,” he promised, just as he saw another huge tree, this one down across the road ahead. Lizzy saw it, too, and hit the brakes and the clutch together.

“Not so hard,” he said quickly. “Let up a little.”

Too late. The tires didn’t grab, and they went into their second slide.

“Ohmigod,” she gasped. “I’m sorry, hold on…”

“Steer into the slide, Lizzy. Steer into it-”

“I’m trying!” They spun in a full three-hundred-and-sixty circle and missed their second tree by inches.

In the ensuing silence, Lizzy blew out a breath, unhooked her seat belt and crawled over the console toward him.

His mind went absolutely blank, but his body knew what to do. It reached for her, hauling her into his arms and holding her tight. “You okay?”

“Peachy fine. Just trying to reassure you in case you’re scared.” One of her knees was dangerously close to unmanning him but when he went to shift her, she couldn’t be budged.

“Are you?” she whispered. “Scared?”

“Terrified,” he murmured, and she burrowed right in, curling into him, pressing her face to his throat as her arms snaked around his neck so tight he could scarcely breathe, and he didn’t care. He ran his hands up and down her back until she lifted her face enough to bump noses with him.

He slid his hands into her hair to hold it back so that he could see into her face, but she wasn’t freaking out as he’d thought. She was staring at him with an awareness that stirred his own, straddling him, her legs on the outside of his so that the core of her was pressed up against the part of him suddenly very happy with the arrangement.

“Jase,” she whispered, and then swallowed, staring at his mouth, her breasts mashed into his chest, her fingers in his hair. “I want to…”

He stroked a loose strand of hair from her temple and dropped his gaze to her lips, which she licked. “Want to…what?” Drive him crazy? Done. Make him hard? Also done. Make him want things he had no business wanting? Done and done.

“Trade positions back,” she said.

“Okay.” He was hard as a rock, and he knew she felt it because her hips made the slightest motion, as if she couldn’t help it.

“Jase?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re…”

“Yeah. It happens when you-God,” he expelled when she shifted her hips again. “That. When you do that.”

“I never used to turn you on in the old days.”

“I was a teenager, the wind turned me on.”

A snicker escaped her, revealing surprise and delight, which didn’t help his situation any. She really hadn’t known she could excite him, and God, the look on her face, as if she’d just discovered she’d held all the power…which of course, she did. He wanted her, God he did, but then what? It’d be amazing, and he’d want more. He’d want all the spare time they could manage until either he left, or she did, and then…then he’d hurt her. Because he was not long-term material, not in his current condition. “Lizzy-”

She did that thing with her hips again and he let out a helpless, low groan, gripping her still. “Okay, enough of that,” he said a little thickly.

“Sorry.”

But she didn’t look it. He was strong, he reminded himself. Physically and mentally. He’d had to be. He was certainly strong enough to set her away and get them back on track, before either of them took this too far.

And yet when she rocked her hips one more time, her eyes filled with marvel, he let her. Let her slide over the part of him now fully erect and straining for attention.

Yeah, because as it turned out, he wasn’t strong enough to push her away after all. No way in hell.

“Mmm,” she whispered in his ear, just a soft murmur when he hugged her in, and he nearly melted. Her hood had fallen back, leaving her hair a little wild, and her poncho gaped enough that when she leaned forward he could see down the sweatshirt she wore beneath.

She had on a pink bra with a little red heart nestled between her breasts. A pink bra with a little heart that stole his. Ah, man. “Lizzy.”

She bent her head, and the tip of her nose grazed his jaw. She inhaled deeply, as if she loved the scent of him, as if she couldn’t get enough, and his hands tightened on her. Everything tightened.

“You smell good,” she whispered so softly he could barely hear her. “How is it you smell so good?”

“I don’t know, but we-” Another arch of those hips, and God. He turned his face into her, burying it in her hair, closing his eyes, his hands running up and down her slim spine. Then they slid lower, feeling the curve of her ass through the rain gear and the sweats, and he forgot that they weren’t doing this-instead he wished like hell that they were back at his place, in his bed.

She pressed her lips to his throat, dragged them slowly upward, heading toward his ear, and his eyes actually rolled in the back of his head. “Okay, that’s-”

She nibbled on his earlobe and he sucked in a hard breath. Going to turn me on and upside down and inside out. He dropped his head to her shoulder and gulped for air like a man going under, and while he was at it, he gave in to the temptation and squeezed her sweet ass. “I can’t remember what I was going to say. Hell, I can hardly remember my name.”

She laughed. “I have a confession.”

Oh, Christ, no. Not a confession.

“In high school…” She cleared her husky throat. “You didn’t know this, but I had a big-time crush on you.”

He lifted his head and met her gaze, and realized she expected a response. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” she repeated. “You knew?”

“A little.”

“Oh.” Her smile froze, faltered. Her hips stopped their deliciously slow assault on his senses.

“Lizzy-”

She climbed over him to get back to her seat. “We should go.”

“Did you want me to lie?”

“No.” She closed her eyes. “No. Look, it was a long time ago. I had a helpless, hopeless crush on you and hid it by being rude.”

“You were never rude.”

“No? And apparently I didn’t hide it, either.” She put her hood back up, hiding. “Come on. Before it gets worse.”

He was pretty sure she didn’t mean the storm. “It was a weird time,” he said.

“Really, Jason? Were you socially awkward and gawky and geeky? Oh, wait, that was me. You were beautiful and perfect and popular.”

“And you were smart, so damn smart. No, dammit, listen.” He took her shoulders so she’d look into his eyes. “You were different-”

She snorted her opinion of that and pushed away his hands. “Different. You mean, I had a good personality.”

“You did.” He laughed when she growled at him. “And I mean you were good different. Amazing different.”

“Oh, come on. You only talked to me because I did your work for you.”

“Do you have any idea how cool I thought that was, that you were willing to help me and not want anything from me at all? You didn’t care what anyone else thought. You didn’t add up your worth by who you were sleeping with-”

“I didn’t sleep with anyone. Not in high school, which I suppose you also knew.”

Not completely stupid, he kept his mouth shut.

“Oh, my God. You said I kissed fine!”

“Actually, I said you kissed like heaven.” He still remembered that day; the hot bleachers, the oak tree…the sun shining down on her hair, her eyes wide on his as he’d lowered his mouth to hers. He remembered thinking, Damn Paul was an idiot, don’t you be, don’t screw it up for her. And then their lips had touched and he’d been unable to think at all.

After a glorious few tongue-tangling moments under that hot sun, she’d stepped back, licked her lips and politely thanked him.

Then asked him to show her the rest.

“What?” he’d asked stupidly.

“The rest,” she’d repeated in a low whisper. “Show me the rest, more of…this.”

More? When it’d already been so much deeper than anything he’d experienced? He wasn’t equipped for it, and for the first time in his life, he’d walked away from a girl. Just run off. So dumb, and so unintentionally cruel. He’d hated himself for not trying to explain it to her, for letting her think he didn’t want her. Later he’d tried, but she’d refused to talk about it, telling him that if he brought it up again, she’d kung fu him in the family jewels. He’d believed her. “I can’t tell you how many times I wished I hadn’t walked away that day-”

“You didn’t walk, you ran. But I understood. You had girls vying to give you the best blow job, and there I was, Virgin Lizzy.”

He choked out a laugh. “Vying to give me a blow job?”

“Yeah, they used to brag about it in P.E. class.”

“Lizzy, no one in high school ever gave me a blow job.”

She just looked at him.

“I never got past second base in high school. Well, one time I got my hands down Cindy Potter’s pants, but she wouldn’t put her hands down mine.”

“Everyone said you were the best kisser in the entire senior class.”

“I should have been, it’s all I ever got to do. Look,” he said, smile fading. “About that day-”

“Seriously. What did I tell you about that? I am not going to discuss it. I’ll still kung fu your ass.”

“About that day,” he said firmly, even while shifting clear just in case. “I could have had you, we both know that, but you were too good for me, and I knew that, too.”

She looked at him for a long beat. “Do you really expect me to believe that a teenage guy turned down sex because I was too good for him?”

As he had then, he felt raw and exposed in a way he rarely allowed himself. “I wanted you, Lizzy. I wanted you as badly as you wanted me. I was just afraid.”

“Uh-huh. You were afraid of the mouse.”

“You weren’t a mouse. I was afraid of what you made me feel, even back then.”

She clearly didn’t believe him, and why should she? He looked out the windshield; the storm continued to batter the car with wind and rain and debris. Inside, he felt just as battered. He’d naively thought he’d sleep the day away, maybe see his brother, eat, watch a few games, anything except think about the pain beneath his breastbone, the one that had Matt’s name all over it. Anything except feel.

Ironic, when all he’d done since Lizzy had shown up was feel. “Lizzy.”

“Please drive.” She put on her seat belt, looking pointedly ahead.

She wanted to ignore everything between them. Fine. Far be it for him to bash his head against the wall of her stubborn-ass determination and, telling himself that, he put the Jeep into gear.