Second Chance Romance Boxed Set: A Second Chance Romance, page 34
"Thanks, kid. I've got it from here," Dylan said to my assistant.
"This is a surprise," I said. Nothing else would come out.
Dylan smiled and came around the corner of my desk to catch both my hands. "I know you've been so busy, I have, too, but I was in the neighborhood."
My buzzer rang twice in tight succession, and I jumped about a half foot in the air. It was a proximity warning telling me the DA was on the floor and winding her way toward me.
"Sorry. Work thing." I squirmed my sweating hands out of Dylan's grasp.
"Did I really surprise you?" Dylan asked. "You didn't think we'd see each other again?"
My cheeks heated. "I wasn't sure."
I thought about how I had rubbed my calf between his legs and all but laid myself out across the menu for him. He hadn't been interested then so why was he in my office now?
It didn't help that for a week his name had been showing up in memos and reports. Dylan had connections, tenuous but real, with all our major suspects. And the DA had fallen into the daily habit of swinging by my office and trying to pump more information out of me about him.
Dylan gave me a pained look and caught my hands up again. "Bethany, I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother you during your big case. I'm not normally one of those 'wait three days and call' kind of guys. I just thought you'd be busy."
My body swayed forward then I caught myself and blinked in surprise. I could have kissed him.
Instead, I cleared my throat and said, "It's probably for the best because I really am stuck in the middle of this big case."
"What's it about?" Dylan threw a teasing glance over my shoulder to the papers on my desk.
I dodged over to block his view. "I can't say."
"Then say yes to dinner with me tonight, and I'll get out of your way until then," he said.
The DA swung into my office, followed by an apologetic Taylor trying to announce her presence.
"Oh, sorry. Hello. I'm Melinda Banner, District Attorney. Bethany's boss."
Dylan squeezed my hands and then strode over and shook my boss's hand. She gave me an approving eyebrow lift over his shoulder. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Banner. Dylan Wylde. And, don't worry, I'm all done distracting your employee."
"Dylan Wylde. Don't worry about it. In fact, I was just coming to tell Bethany she could should take the rest of the day off. We've come to a dead-end on a line of inquiry and will have to regroup with better information tomorrow," she said.
I felt like a gangly teenager being set-up by an overly aggressive mother. "I've got plenty of other things I need to tie up for you," I said.
"Nonsense. Get out, clear your head. Maybe go for a drive." My boss waved over her shoulder and headed out of my office.
Dylan turned to me with a wide grin. "Why do I get the feeling she knows who I am?"
I let him think I'd gossiped about him as I shut the files on my desk. Thankfully, he hadn't seen any names he'd recognized.
"Actually, a drive sounds good," I said. "I could use a little fresh air."
He rubbed his hands together. "Perfect! A quick stop off at my shop, and we'll be on the road in the perfect ride."
"Should I change?" I asked.
Dylan gave my cream-colored sheath dress and soft cashmere cardigan an appreciative glance. "Never," he said.
The heat from my blush radiated all over my body as I looped my arm through Dylan's and let him escort me to the elevator. It took all I had not to meet my co-workers’ curious looks. Dylan couldn't know he was rapidly becoming a person of interest in the case.
We made it out without incident, but I didn't take a deep breath until we reached Dylan's garage. Even then, it was a gasp of surprise.
"Is that a Jaguar?" I asked.
Dylan grinned as he unhooked the hard-top and left it open for us to enjoy the weather. "Yeah. Complete pain in the ass to keep up but I just can't resist its lines. Beautiful."
The exterior was classic racing green with a luxurious leather interior. I slipped into the passenger seat and sighed. The car held me softly until the engine started. It purred like the big cat it was named after, and I felt the excitement race up and down my legs.
Then Dylan's hand brushed over my bare knee. He'd been reaching for the gear-shaft but the look in his eye said he hadn't missed his target.
"Ready to let your hair down?" he asked.
I gulped and nodded. The Jaguar leapt out of the garage and cornered smoothly onto the business avenue. I was so taken away by the supple interior and the soft caresses on my knee that we were out of the city before I knew it.
"Where are we going?" I called over the wind.
"There's a great little inn just a few miles from here. Quiet, great wine cellar, and the pub burgers are mouth-watering," Dylan said. "Sound good?"
I nodded. My stomach's growl was luckily hidden by the sound of the rushing wind. I wasn't sure exactly what I was hungry for but all of a sudden, I was starving.
Dylan parked the sleek Jaguar near the front door of the quaint little inn. This time, I waited for him to run around and open the door for me. He grinned as he pulled me up to standing, and I'm not sure what would have happened right there in the parking lot if my phone hadn't rung.
"Sorry, it's my boss," I said.
"I'll just run in and get us a table and give you some privacy," Dylan said.
I nodded my thanks and answered the DA's call.
"You took the list of names, right? Has he mentioned anyone we're looking at yet?" she asked without a greeting.
"I memorized the list," I said. "And, no, he hasn't mentioned anyone."
"You sound funny. What's with you?" the DA asked.
"We just stopped for a bite to eat, some little inn. I'm just hungry," I said.
The DA laughed. "I bet you are. I saw Mr. Wylde in the flesh. Yummy."
I gasped. "I can't sleep with him. He's practically part of your case!"
"So, you do want to have sex with him." She loved being right. "Then you better get on with it."
"What?" I whipped around to the front door of the inn, worried that Dylan might somehow hear our conversation.
He waved to me from the hostess stand and then opened the front door for me.
"Sleep with him, Bethany. Get it out of your system. Nothing makes for worse investigating than sexual tension."
"Are you serious?" My voice had faded to a whisper, outdone by the sudden appetite I had.
Dylan looked so good, his dark hair wild from the wind, his top button undone, a wide inviting smile on his face. He waved his hand, the same that had teased my knee-cap so tantalizingly, and beckoned me to join him.
I felt a surge of desire and almost dropped my phone.
"Bethany? Bethany? Durham!" the DA shouted into the phone. "Do you hear me? Take the weekend. Get him out of your system. I need your head clear for this case, got it?"
"Yes, boss," I said but it was too late, she'd already hung up on me.
"She's not making you head back early, is she?" Dylan asked as I joined him at the front door.
I sucked in my breath as I stopped in front of him, squeezed close to his chest by the inn's narrow doorframe. "Nope. I'm free all night," I said.
Dylan's eyes widened, and his eyes dipped to my hungry lips before coming back to my gaze. "Their full menu is available for room service," he said quietly.
"Sounds delicious." I had no idea where my words were coming from. Who was this ravenous woman?
I thought my outrageous appetite would fade by the time he was finished explaining our change of plans to the hostess but the next thing I knew, we were heading upstairs hand in hand.
I panicked at the door and pulled back from Dylan's embrace around my waist.
"I know. I shouldn't have suggested it," Dylan said. He left the inn room locked. "I told myself I was going to take it slow. You deserve romance, courtship, all that stuff. What am I doing?"
I kissed him.
Dylan's lips seemed determined to behave gentlemanly for all of five seconds. Then he swung me against the still-locked door and fed my hunger. I tasted his lips, drank in his scent of fresh wind and expensive leather. He was intoxicating.
His hands brushed my cardigan off my shoulders, and I felt his callused palms almost afraid to touch me. I stepped into his touch, shivering with pleasure as his rough hands teased every nerve-ending alive.
Dylan groaned against my urgent kisses and fumbled to unlock our room door. We spun inside still tangled together and bumped against the door as it locked behind us.
He steered us toward the bed, tongue teasing my bottom lip as we moved together. I reached behind and fumbled with my dress zipper. Dylan growled with approval as his hands met mine there. The dress fell to the floor, and I stepped out of it to keep up with Dylan.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled me onto his lap. I straddled him, hands working quickly to undo his belt and pants. Whatever had come over me was fully in control, and it felt wonderful to let my brain take a backseat while my body drove.
"Bethany, are you sure?" Dylan breathed hard against my lips.
I nodded and before I could taste him again, Dylan had unclasped my bra. He turned me gently and laid me on the bed, one arm behind my shoulders as his other explored my eager body.
I cried out when his palms softly circled over my taut nipples. His rough hands created hot friction and had me moaning before his lips and tongue soothed it away. The heat dropped lower then, melting my body, pooling in the aching place between my naval and the apex of my legs.
I tugged off Dylan's shirt, my hands clutching his naked shoulders as he kissed both my breasts. Then I pulled him up, moaning myself, as his pants slid down and he settled between my thighs.
We dove into another kiss, our bodies pressing, exploring. I felt him there, hard but not insistent; not until I opened up and rocked my hips to welcome him in.
It felt so right, so tight a fit, and we moved together so naturally. When I came, I saw stars and Dylan's dark eyes taking in every bit of my pleasure. Then his eyes closed in ecstasy and his dark hair brush my cheek as he buried his head in my shoulder and his release came deep inside me.
Chapter Thirteen
Dylan
I was walking in a dream. Our trip out to the inn had turned into one of the hottest interludes of my life. She had been so prim and focused when we started out, but everything changed with one phone call. I thought for sure the DA was going to blow our whole potential date out of the water, so what happened was a major surprise. The DA gave her the weekend off. When Bethany got off the phone with her boss, she was suddenly a different woman.
I wondered what she was like on a full-fledged vacation.
Still, I was happy for what I had with Bethany. Our quick day trip had turned into a weekend. It didn't seem possible. I rubbed my eyes and then opened them wide. It was still true.
Bethany was asleep in my bed at home in my loft.
My mind was a blur of the times we'd made love. At the inn; in my car downstairs in the garage; and again, last night when we finally made it upstairs to my loft.
I rolled over and looked at her, smiling in her sleep, all tangled in my sheets. Did she have any idea how often I had daydreamed of just this over the years?
As a pre-teen, I hadn't known what exactly I felt. All I knew was that I wanted Bethany near me. The thought of having her in my room, much less near my bed, had been enough to make my hands shake, overwhelmed with hormones.
Then I moved away.
From there, Bethany became a mixed fantasy for me: part the home and childhood I had lost and part the first woman I had been attracted to. The thought of her was one I had returned to over and over again through the years.
So, I had to rub my eyes again and make sure it was really her next to me.
I'd always heard men talking about their first crushes, and even some telling the tale of sleeping with them later in life. They never measured up. How could a woman be everything a hormone-addled boy had once dreamed up?
Bethany was more.
She had smiled that same crooked smile, the one I remembered from before I moved away, and then she leaned in and kissed me. Though this time, we were adults and the kiss hadn't stopped. It hadn't stopped for days.
I stopped myself. I didn't want to wake her up. Not yet. She had to go back to work today, and I wanted to extend our morning together as long as possible. I settled back on my pillow and tried to steady my breathing.
It wasn't like I had saved myself for Bethany. There had been plenty of relationships, hook-ups, and screw-ups between when I moved away and when I accidentally ran into her again. The thought of my other conquests was something I had always been vaguely proud of, nothing too messy or messed up. Though not a single one of them had ever become anything more, anything real.
Unsatisfying. That's what Joey told me. I always went for the easy, the casual, or the short-term and then wondered why I was left unsatisfied.
My heart clutched as I realized what my new feeling of peace and quiet might actually be: satisfaction.
I scrubbed my hands over my face. That couldn't be right. I couldn't spend one whirlwind weekend with Bethany and suddenly have everything I never consciously knew I wanted. And yet there it was, that feeling of contentment.
My mind took a huge leap off that steady foundation. Could Bethany and I actually make things work?
It wasn't hard to imagine dating her. She was busy at work, the one person I knew that actually liked work more than me, so we wouldn't have any arguments over how our time was spent.
Albeit, Bethany was a lot more cautious than I was about her public image. Was I even good enough for her?
My mind took a sharp turn, and I thought about the kind of man Bethany was probably looking for. It wasn't me. There was no way she wanted an oil-stained B-celebrity who pandered to the rich and ridiculous. That didn't fit her image at all.
I chewed on my cheek. Was that the person I really wanted to be?
There was no reason I couldn't tame down my public image and focus more on the serious requests that came into my shop. Car designers, avid collectors, and serious connoisseurs approached me on a daily basis. I just took the other clients because I liked the flash and the fame.
But I'd give it up for Bethany.
I sat up, shocked at my own stream of thinking. It was strange how easily Bethany had made me change perspective on everything. My world seemed much clearer now, especially when I thought about making her a permanent part of it.
I slipped out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen. I needed coffee. My brain had jumped full into territory that I had avoided for years. I wasn't a long-term relationship sort of guy.
Or maybe Joey had been right all along: I just needed to meet the right woman.
I snorted out loud as I poured the coffee. I would have to make sure Joey never found out about that thought. Hearing he was right would make him way too happy.
But I'd tell him about Bethany. I needed all the help I could get sorting out my head now.
I was so tempted to call him and gossip like a girl that I quickly made myself busy in the kitchen. Mixing up my special pancake batter and squeezing oranges for fresh mimosas was enough to keep my hands busy.
But my mind kept wandering back to Bethany.
I wanted to be there when she woke up. Now I could imagine what that would be like every single day and my chest squeezed at the happy thought.
I needed a plan. Bethany would be romanced, courted, and find no possible reason to say no. I had to have her in my life, and I was ready to make that happen.
Then there was a soft knock on my front door.
I chuckled at the thought that it was Joey come to check that I was still alive and breathing. I'd talk to him through the chain because once he heard the news he'd come barging in to have breakfast with us.
I slipped the door open and peered out; there was nothing there. Then I glanced down and saw the petite blonde from the parking lot. My gut twisted.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Jasmine," she reminded me. Then she glanced both ways down the hallway like a scared rabbit. "I shouldn't be here, but I had to talk to you."
"Now's not a good time." I could smell the pancakes sizzling on the stove and knew they'd start burning soon. "Stop by my shop. And don't ever come to my home again."
Jasmine sniffed, and sudden tears soaked her cheeks. "I don't know what else to do! I have to talk to you!"
My instinct told me to shut the door in her face. There was something off about the diminutive blonde. She'd already gotten me thrown in jail once and now here she was on my doorstep. She definitely wanted something from me, but I had no idea what.
Then Jasmine started to sob and explain. Her words were garbled but the volume rose with every hitch of her sobbing breath. If I didn't do something soon, she would wake up Bethany.
I couldn't slam the loft door in her face. For all my suspicions about her, Jasmine seemed honestly upset. And I had seen the way her supposed boyfriend had bullied her. She looked up and down the hallway as if he could have somehow followed her here.
"How did you get in?" I asked. The whole point of my exclusive building was having a doorman to ensure my privacy.
Jasmine snuffled and shrugged. "I told the doorman that I wanted to surprise you this morning. He thought it sounded like a good idea. I did, too. I didn't think you'd keep me locked out in the hallway!"
Her crying rose in volume again, and I fumbled with the chain on my door. It didn't matter if I thought Jasmine might rob me or set me up again; I couldn't have Bethany waking up to this awkward scene.
I opened the door and let Jasmine in.
She stopped crying but walked so briskly into my loft that I had to catch her arm before she took herself on a grand tour.
"What are you doing here?" I hissed.
Jasmine noticed my low tones. "Am I interrupting something?"
She peered down the short hallway toward my bedroom. It was one of the only places in the open loft that had walls. I cursed the light-filled construction because I had no idea how sound-proof my bedroom was, and I worried that Bethany could hear every word.
