Taking the Heat (Jackson: Girls' Night Out 3)

“Gabe.” She tugged him to a stop. “I’m not a teenager. I know what I want. Do you want it, too?”

She’d been nervous at the party. Uncomfortable. But she wasn’t nervous now. She looked up at him with challenge in her eyes. He backed her up until they were shadowed from the street lamps under a store awning. He pressed her back to the brick wall, but her expression didn’t change. She wanted him. She was daring him.

He dipped his head to kiss her neck, and just that touch made her moan. “You never told me everything, Veronica.”

“I did,” she whispered.

“No—” he pressed another kiss to her throat, then brushed his lips over her ear “—you didn’t. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to be that guy who just fumbles around and hopes I’ve got it right.”

She chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “As if you’d ever be that guy.”

He smiled at the compliment. “Tell me,” he urged. He wanted to know, but he also liked her secrets. He liked the honesty of them and the glimpses of her that no one else saw.

She finally nodded. “You won’t hurt me, Gabe. I... I’ve done things to myself. With my vibrator.” Her gaze dropped for a moment, and his heart dropped right along with it. God, he could picture her doing that. Doing to herself what no one else had done for her.

“You won’t hurt me,” she repeated, her gaze slowly rising to meet his eyes again. “You don’t have to be careful. I just really, really want to be fucked, Gabe. I want you to do that for me.”

Her words pushed inside him and squeezed out any reason. “Okay,” he whispered.

“My place?” she asked, tugging him back out to the street to make clear that she wasn’t really asking.

“Hey, what’s the rush?” he teased. “We could hang out at the party a little longer. Catch up with Dillon.”

“You’re very funny. Shouldn’t you be too turned on to joke?”

“I’m trying to take the edge off. It’s not easy to walk like this.”

Her laughter rang out in the night, a delighted sound that made him laugh, too, despite the ache in his cock.

“Good,” she said. “I’m glad I’ve made it difficult. But we’d better not go back to the party. It could be awkward. I made out with Dillon once, after all. Does that make you jealous?”

He followed her across the next intersection. “Do you want it to?”

“Yes! No one’s ever been jealous over me.”

“Then I can’t stand the thought of that guy’s hands on you. I want to knock him out. Then I want to touch you until you forget all about him.”

She grinned. “All right, but it might take a lot of touching. He’s a big real-estate guy now. Really rich. A great catch.”

He caught her at the corner and leaned down to growl into her ear. “I’ll fuck you until you can’t remember that guy’s name.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “I forgot it already.”

“Good. Let’s get you fucked, Dear Veronica.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Let’s.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

IT DIDN’T GO SMOOTHLY, of course. It wasn’t as if Veronica’s terrible streak of bad sexual luck could be broken by one glorious man. Before she’d taken two steps toward her official deflowering, her phone buzzed. She winced, offered a quick apology to Gabe and read the text from her father.

Got a text from Dillon Tettering. Says he just spoke to you. Butter him up, will you? I’m playing hardball on a new investment.

Typical. I barely know him, she sent back.

So get to know him. And tell me if he says anything about Blue Sky.

Sure, she answered, then tucked her phone away without even a twinge of guilt. She cared as little about her dad’s investments as he did about her life.