Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(20)
Author: Erin McCarthy

She held the brake, seething, and fairly certain she and Ryder had reached a new low in their relationship as he hopped into the car and glared at her. Stomping on the gas, she flew backward, braked, then went into drive and peeled out down the gravel road, all while his door was still in the process of closing.

“You wouldn’t run me over.”

“Don’t test me, buddy.”

“Why are you so pissed? I just didn’t want you driving home alone. Can’t I even express concern for you?”

“Concern is nice. Meddling is not welcome. I don’t need you telling me what to do.”

“I wasn’t telling you what to do!”

Suzanne’s wheels spun a little on the gravel and she slowed down. Just a little. It was a thirty-minute drive home and that was about twenty-nine minutes too long. Whatever patience she’d had for the day was used up on Nikki and she did not want to do this with him. “Whatever.”

The road was dark and she was shaking, she was so annoyed.

“That’s it? Whatever. Oh, that’s classic Suzanne. And you say I don’t finish what I start. You never share your emotions. Ever.”

That was it. She couldn’t fight with him and drive at the same time. She slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park. “You want emotion? I’ll give you emotion. My life sucks, okay? Aside from the money for Nikki’s wedding, which I can’t use until after the thing is over and done with, I have exactly two hundred and twelve dollars to my name and the gas and electric bill are due next week. I realize I’m lucky that I have a condo and a car, but neither one of them were paid for by me. You gave them to me. I’m thirty-three years old, I’m single with no money, I have no children, and I’ve done nothing, not one thing, that I can consider a success. Aside from my charity work, there is nothing I am proud of in my life, and I can’t even do that anymore because I can’t afford to. I’m a big, fat failure. How’s that for emotion? You like that?”

She pounded the steering wheel in frustration. “Does it make you feel good to finally get me to break down?”

He didn’t say a word and she was afraid to look at him, knowing she would see pity on his face. But she was so spitting mad, she couldn’t bring herself to regret her outburst. She would tomorrow, for certain, but for right now, she still had a thing or two to say. “So as for your concern, you can keep it. I don’t need your emotional or financial charity. I’ve been taking care of myself since I was eighteen years old, and I’ll figure this out, too. I’ll survive Nikki and I’ll make something out of this goddamn wedding-planning business if it kills me.”

Then she sat and waited for him to tell her he was sorry, that he felt bad, the sympathy dripping from his voice, making shame ooze out of her pores.

But he didn’t. Instead he just said, “I have no doubt that you will make something out of it. You are a strong woman, one that I’ve always admired. Generous, determined, a survivor.”

Suzanne glanced over at him, wary. He didn’t sound like he was feeling sorry for her.

“And you’re also the sexiest, hottest goddamn woman I’ve ever met in my life.”

Nope. No pity there. That was razor-sharp lust. Suzanne could practically smell the testosterone rolling off him, and steam might as well have escaped his nostrils, he sounded so raw and aroused.

Oh, boy. She had a sudden feeling she was about to get that kiss he’d been threatening her with earlier.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, she wasn’t sure what, but she was right about that kiss. There was no time to spit out a single word before Ryder was on her like stink on pigs. In one rapid motion, he had just eliminated any and all space between them and he was kissing the bejeezus out of her.

Suzanne did manage a startled squeak, but that was it. Then his mouth was covering hers, his tongue making teasing little inroads inside hers, his hands in her hair, gripping her tightly. It was the kind of kiss that didn’t start out slow and burn steadily. It exploded with the first touch, a hot, wet, anxious kiss that collided her frustration and passion with his, and when he started pawing at her vest to get it off, she was neither surprised nor opposed to the idea.

Goose bumps had popped up on her flesh, a shiver of desire rushing down her spine, and every inch of her body jumped on the happy bandwagon. The kiss just went on and on, their breath jagged and eager, her hands reaching out to grip his sweatshirt, to drag his sexy self closer to her.

If she had wanted him earlier in the week, she had to have him now, and there was no thought, no brakes, no reality other than him on her and how goddamn good that felt. Suzanne moaned when he kissed her neck, the tip of his tongue trailing across her bare flesh, hands sweeping down over her br**sts and tweaking at her ni**les. Leaning forward in her seat to get closer to him, she slipped her hand onto the front of his jeans, finding his erection with the ease of familiarity, regardless of how much time had passed since she had touched him there.

The sharp catch of breath he gave as she stroked emboldened and satisfied her. Ryder had the right of it. Sex between them had always been amazing, and she was going to get herself some of that right now.

“Thank you. Now make me hotter.”

Ryder didn’t even bother to stifle his groan at both Suzanne’s words and the way she could go up and down on him with just the right amount of pressure, driving him wild even through his jeans. A quick study of her eyes, glassy with desire, her posture, open and abandoned, her voice, sassy and laced with arousal, assured him she wasn’t going to change her mind this time.

He wanted her in the backseat, where they could have more room to maneuver, but he was so hot for her, it seemed like a ridiculous waste of time. Popping the snap on his jeans, he took down his zipper, and let his erection bound free. If she were going to call a halt to this, now would be the time.

But he knew immediately she wasn’t going to do anything of the kind because her eyes lit up in a way that had him gritting his teeth. When she bent over him, Ryder gripped the door handle on the car and considered himself very, very fortunate that Nikki couldn’t hold her liquor.

That first touch of her soft, warm lips over his erection had him moaning. “Suz . . . God.”

“I don’t care what you say,” she murmured, her breath dancing across his flesh. “I still think it’s awfully pretty.”

“Call it whatever you want,” he said, and he meant that most sincerely.