“It’s a long t-time.”
“It’s an eternity.”
“When we get to Camelot, I’m going to disappear into my house, and I’m going to be working around the clock and forgetting to eat and shave and shower, because that’s what I do when I’m deep into something like this.” His hand moved slowly up her thigh. His voice had gotten deeper, with gravel in it. “But then I’m going to finish, and I’m going to call you up.”
“I’ll bring you a pizza.”
It was an inanity, but with Sean’s hand at the junction of her legs, she counted it as a miracle that she could speak at all.
“I can’t do anything long-term,” he said.
“You mentioned that.”
“But if you want to—if you want m-me, I mean. If you still want me. I’m attracted to you. You must know that.”
“I had an inkling, but …”
“But what?”
“Well, you have to admit, you’ve been sending some mixed signals.”
He put pressure on the seam of her jeans with his knuckle and said, “Let me c-clear them up.”
“Ohh … kay.”
“I want you. I’ve wanted you for months.”
“You have?”
“I went to bed last night, and I c-closed my eyes, and all I could think about was how I’d had a chance to get you naked and I’d fucked it up.”
Katie had to pull herself together. She had to. “Really?”
“I saw myself peeling off that shirt you were wearing and touching you. Kissing you. Pushing you back on the c-couch and sinking inside you, and I have to tell you, now I c-can’t think about anything else. I want you. I want inside you.”
He glanced at her, as if to make sure what he’d said hadn’t shocked her. It had, though. It sent such a jolt of pleasure through her, she thought she might pass out.
“I wanted you in my room last night, and I want you right now, in the back of the c-car, and I want you in a bed, for hours, until neither one of us can move.”
She needed to formulate some kind of reply. Anything. But the only sound her mouth could make with his hand on her crotch and that gravelly, filthy, overwhelming speech ringing in her ears was a helpless little moan.
It didn’t matter. Sean got the idea. He put on his turn signal and started looking for somewhere to pull over.
Chapter Twenty-two
Sean needed to kiss her. That was all he was going to do until she had a chance to think about what he’d told her, but fuck, he needed to do it.
He scanned the shoulder for a place to put the truck. Privacy wasn’t an issue—the snow was coming down thick and fast, it was late, and hardly anybody else was on the road—but placement was. It had been snowing on and off for a couple of days, and plowed mounds of snow filled a lot of the territory at the side of the road.
There was hasty, and then there was just plain dumb. He was trying to stay on the right side of the line, but his pulse was racing, and it was hard to concentrate on anything but anticipating what her mouth would feel like. How she would taste.
Such a bad idea. He no longer cared. He would deal with the fallout tomorrow.
Katie raised her hips so his hand wedged tighter between her thighs. “I think … I think we need to … set some parameters.”
“I just want to k-kiss you.”
“You can’t park on the interstate.”