Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(24)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“That feels awesome,” he said. “But I think you’re the one who deserves a neck rub after all the maneuvering around this car you’ve been doing.”

“I’m not going to argue with that.” Ryder had amazing hands that really dug into her muscles and worked them loose. “Should you text Ty and let him know you left with me?”

“I think he can figure it out, and by now he’s probably getting busy in his tent with Imogen.”

“So the guys’ weekend turned into a sex-fest from the looks of it.”

“Indeed. I think we actually all owe Nikki a giant thank-you.” Ryder glanced over at her, but she couldn’t see his eyes in the dark. “Hopefully you thought it was worth having to put up with Nikki on the drive.”

“So far so good.” No reason to swell the man’s head. He still had all night to disappoint her.

Not that he would. She knew that. In the bedroom was never where she and Ryder had disappointed each other.

That was everywhere else in their lives, their marriage.

But damn if she was going to think or worry about that at the moment.

That reality belonged in the past and for tomorrow.

Right now she was going to live in the present. Naked.

AS they got closer to town, Ryder asked Suzanne, “Your place or mine?” He was thinking his place was closer, but then again, they had lived in his house together for four years. It had memories, good and bad. It had been the house they had picked out together, where he had carried her over the threshold, where they had planned out a nursery, and where Suzanne had packed a bag and walked out the front door the day she’d left him.

Ryder had offered the house to Suzanne, but she had bought her condo instead, a fresh start he had imagined. He had thought about selling, but he hadn’t ever gotten around to it. Two years had taken some of the emptiness out of the place, and he had gradually replaced blankets and dishes she had taken with his own choices, and he had taken over the master bathroom entirely.

Maybe he didn’t want Suzanne in his place either now that he thought about it. Awkward.

“My place, if you don’t mind. I need my pillow.”

It could mean simply that Suzanne liked her pillow, or there could be a larger meaning behind what she’d said, and suddenly it felt like there was a giant elephant sitting on the gearshift between them.

“Sure, not a problem.”

“Do you remember when we went to New York for the end-of-the-season awards ceremony that one time and they put us up in that really nice hotel and we got in a pillow fight? The people in the room next to us called and complained about us laughing and shrieking.”

Ryder smiled. He did remember that weekend well. Suzanne had been bounding around the bed in her bra and panties taking swipes at him until he’d dropped her to the mattress and kissed her breathless. “We weren’t shrieking. You were shrieking. Until you were moaning.”

“I remember.”

The tension Ryder had felt shifted, the energy in the car between them heated and sensual. Just like that, he was hard again. “It was a good weekend.”

He pulled into the parking spot in front of her condo and turned to her.

“It was a f**king great weekend,” Suzanne said, the vehemence in her voice catching him off guard. Her eyes ran over him, up and down the length of his body, the parking lot lights casting a glow over her pinkened cheeks.

Ryder felt a rush of blood down south under her scrutiny and from her words. “Get inside,” he told her. “Or I’ll take you in the car again.”

She opened the car door but paused, glancing back at him over her shoulder. “Just so we’re clear on it, this is just tonight, this doesn’t mean—”

Ryder cut her off, not wanting to hear the speech of how they weren’t together. He knew they weren’t together. He lived it every day.

“I know. I understand. I don’t expect anything.” Ryder ended that thread of conversation by getting out of the car and slamming the door shut. He came around to the passenger side and hauled her door open the rest of the way. “Now get inside, Suz.”

He took her hand and tugged her out of the car toward him.

“Well, aren’t you bossy as hell,” she said, but her voice was breathy, taking the sting out of the words. “But I can be bossier.”

“As if I ever doubted it.” He handed her the key ring. “Open your front door and get inside. Now.”

“Fuck you,” she said, yanking the keys out of his hand, her voice more turned on than angry.

“That’s the plan.” Ryder followed her up the walk, unable to resist reaching out and cupping her ass in her jeans as she paused at the front door to insert the key.

Without even looking at him, she said, “You’re really playing with fire tonight, Jefferson.”

Ryder picked up her hair and kissed the back of her neck, taking in her scent, one hand still on her backside, caressing, gliding toward her inner thigh. “We’ve already both been burned. What’s a few more flames?”

God, he wanted to be with her so bad, even more than he wanted to win a championship. He knew it was stupid to think that Suzanne would want him for more than tonight—she’d just flat-out told him that’s all it was—so he needed to be careful, to guard himself. But for now, for tonight, he was going to take whatever she was willing to offer.

“Taking risks is dangerous.” Suzanne shoved her door open.

“And when have you ever played it safe?”

She turned and shot him a look over her shoulder, one he couldn’t decipher. “Oh, I think I’ve always played it safe. I just do it with attitude.”

That puzzled him. He would have never called Suzanne cautious. But before he could question her further or turn it around in his head more than once, she peeled her sweater off and tossed it to the floor. There was a light on in her kitchen and the beam filtered down the hall, casting her head in shadow, putting her now bare back and legs in a soft glow. Suzanne unzipped her jeans and shoved them down, bending over and giving Ryder a hell of a view of her red panties.

Trying not to swallow his tongue, he said, “I’m about to have an attitude.”

“Really, why?” Suzanne turned to face him, her body fully displayed for him in a cle**age-creating bra and those scrap-of-nothing panties, and he was certain for a second that he had actually inhaled his tongue because he couldn’t speak.

As she walked toward him, Ryder enjoyed the view, his anticipation building with each step, until she skirted him, her arm barely brushing his, and walked right on past him. She slammed her front door shut and locked it.