“I’m going to explode the minute you touch me.”
“I’d like to see that.”
He shook his head. He was miserable with shame and indecision.
“And then when we do it a second time, you won’t come so quick and by the third time you’ll—”
He stopped her mouth with a too-hard kiss that pinched her lip and made her cling to him.
And now she trembled too.
NINE
Reid wasn’t fit to drive. Not with Zarley sitting in the seat beside him. Not with the way she watched him. It’d been a while since he’d driven a car, and rarely one this nice. They’d be a road statistic if they were on his bike, and her body pressed into his back, her arms around him, her thighs—
“Red.”
He stomped on the brake and the car jerked to a stop at the red light of an empty intersection. “Shit, sorry.”
“I’m not going anywhere. We have all day, and nothing bad is going to happen.”
He wasn’t five, but that’s the way she was speaking to him and okay, that made it better, because why didn’t she take the various chances he kept handing her to embarrass him, and why was she still here?
“Talk to me. Tell me why you never,” she hesitated and then said, “took care of this. Not that it’s a problem, it’s not a problem. Everyone has a first time, and it’s totally fine that you never got around to it, it’s just that you’re not the kind of man I expected—”
“To be so hard up.”
“That’s a compliment.”
He grunted. “I don’t have a deep-seated dislike of women.” The light went green and he drove through. “I’m not a closet homosexual. I didn’t have a traumatic first encounter where I failed to get it up or anything. It’s hard to explain.”
“Then you don’t have to. It’s enough that you want me now.”
He risked a look at her. “No, no, no. You cannot be that cool.”
“Having sex before I was ready for the consequences screwed up my life.”
“You’re not talking about a broken heart, are you?” There’d been a tone in her voice that wasn’t storytelling, it was regret.
“No, the whole catastrophe.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“I know. And it’s not sexy.”
“Any more sexy than me here with you, on the way to have actual sex in my actual bed and I might drive into the bay.”
“Who said anything about your bed?”
He gripped the wheel. “Jesus, do you want me to rear-end something?”
“I want you to relax.”
“Like that’s happening any time soon.” It was a good thing the traffic was light. He really needed to be out of this car or focus on something other than the fact she was just there, across the console, watching him. “I had my heart broken at sixteen. I thought Dana Masters was the stars in the sky. I thought we’d grow up and build a life together. I had no idea I was her practice warm-up for Iggy Nelson.”
“Iggy was your best friend.”
“Since day care.”