Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(11)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Suzanne put her hand on her belly and concentrated on taking deep breaths as Ryder overpaid the bill and declined the offer to wait for change.

What the hell had just happened? She hadn’t even given one second’s thought to deliberating the pros or cons of having sex with her ex-husband. A few kisses, and she was ready to sheet dive.

Which scared the shit out of her.

So even as she stared at Ryder, thinking it was possible she would curl up into a ball and die if she didn’t get to feel his penis inside her in the next ten minutes, she was also thinking that the very second her body had been satisfied and he pulled out, regret was going to come crashing in on her like a flaming meteor.

It had been a while since she’d had sex, that was true. Her body would be very, very happy if she threw caution to the wind and let a man at her who knew all the right ways to please her.

But . . .

Ryder stood up. “Let’s go.”

Suzanne followed suit, grabbing her purse off the bar and slinging it on her shoulder. Damn, she was so outrageously aroused, even walking did funny things to her hoohah.

But . . .

“You can either ride with me or follow in your car,” Ryder said. “I’d love the company of having you in the truck with me, but truthfully, you probably shouldn’t leave your car here overnight. You should probably follow me.”

Overnight. Gak. Suzanne wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was still pre-primetime. And Ryder was already concluding she was spending the night. She gripped her purse tighter as they stopped in the parking lot in front of his truck.

“Suz?” Ryder studied her face and then sighed. “Hell, you’re not going to do either one, are you?”

“No.” She mentally slapped herself, hating what she had just done. “Shit, I’m sorry. It just seems like a really bad idea, but you know what I think of a dick tease, and I wasn’t trying to tease, honestly. I really meant yes when I said yes.”

“But now you mean no?”

Her inner thighs gave a whimper of protest, especially when she couldn’t stop herself from glancing down and seeing his erection straining against his jeans, but she nodded. “Yes, I mean no. I just think it’s a bad idea, especially when it’s so impulsive.”

“What if we plan it?” he asked, looking slightly hopeful.

Suzanne gave a soft laugh. “Nice try, Jefferson.” Feeling a lump crawling up her throat like a scurrying crab, she reached out and touched his hair, running her fingers through the short dark strands. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

A cool mask had slid back into place on his face. “Sure, babe. But if you get lonely before then, you know how to reach me.”

For the second time that day he turned his back on her.

And both times she had pretty much given him no choice.

RYDER stared at his computer screen blankly. He couldn’t even process the words in front of him, he was so distracted by thoughts of Suzanne.

That kiss.

It had lit a fire in him that was still smoldering and he was really damn annoyed by that fact. He only had a few weeks off before the new season started up and he didn’t want to spend it with his hand.

Next season promised to be brutal and challenging, given that he had finished a heartbreaking second place in the race for the cup this season. He would be damned if he didn’t win next year, and he wasn’t about to let Suzanne distract him from the time he needed to relax and regroup before the hard work commenced.

But he couldn’t help it.

His thoughts were stuck on her and the way she had opened her mouth and pressed inside him with passion and enthusiasm. When they had been together, that’s the way it had always been, but it had been two years since he’d kissed Suzanne. To be honest, he had expected her to stop him. Smack him. Act indignant and huffy. Tell him to take his tongue to the nearest bimbo, or something similar.

Not to kiss him back.

He had been so shocked, he had actually paused for a split second before recovering and kissing her back with everything in him.

Man, he wanted to make love to her again. Just one last time.

He could remember the last time they’d had sex, and it had been a stilted, angry affair, not the way he would have wished their last time to be. But he hadn’t known that was it. He had still been fooling himself that they could work things out.

He wanted to do it right, to hold Suzanne in his arms with all the good memories intact and the bad tossed. To lay her down and give her pleasure. To bury himself inside her, and feel that connection again, just one more time.

But he wasn’t going to beg, and she had changed her mind, leaving him feeling like a jackass.

Ryder abruptly turned off his computer without even shutting down the browser. He just flicked the off switch, annoyed with himself. What had he expected? It had been something of a mystery why Suz had even kissed him. She wasn’t going to have sex with him.

Frankly, she didn’t even like him all that much most days, and she probably had men crawling all over her. Why the hell would she need him to get her off?

Just thinking about giving her an orgasm had Ryder groaning out loud. His erection throbbed like he was fourteen and had stumbled across a Playboy. He stomped away from his desk and toward his bedroom. He was going to sleep, and he was not going to do a damn thing about his prize boner, no matter how much it was demanding attention.

Sullen mast***ation was not his style.

Laying in bed staring at the ceiling and feeling sorry for himself was much more his style.

Feeling like a total dumb ass, Ryder stripped down to his briefs and slid underneath his sheets, feeling so surly he consciously skipped brushing his teeth, something he never, ever did. Bad breath would teach her.

He should have kissed Suzanne again in the parking lot. At least tried to get her to come home with him. But as soon as she had changed her mind, he’d cut and run, like a big giant weenie.

Not that he wanted to think about that particular word. Flipping onto his side, he punched his pillow.

He could have tried to coax her all he wanted. If she had changed her mind, she’d changed her mind. Suzanne was never coaxed into anything.

So it had been stupid to kiss her in the first place.

Yet he didn’t regret it.

He regretted that she wasn’t naked on top of him at the moment, but he didn’t regret the kiss.

Which made him one hell of a glutton for punishment.

SUZANNE lay in bed, completely unable to sleep, condemning herself as the biggest damn fool ever to reside in the state of North Carolina.