“More than you’ll ever know.” I tapped the screen, which showed seven minutes until we reached our destination. “If that gets to zero and you haven’t removed them, our night will take a very different turn.”

  I focused on driving while she contemplated what she wanted to do. The only sound in the car was her deep, labored breaths. She could pretend she was offended, but I’d struck a chord inside her. I’d tapped into a corner of her mind where her deepest darkest desires resided. I would bet my company that she had suspected it was there but hadn’t allowed it to develop fully. She had already admitted she wanted to please me, and by doing this, she would. She knew that. But at the same time, I was asking for something outside her comfort zone. I wouldn’t tell her as much, but it pleased me that she was contemplating her actions.

  Four minutes until we reached our destination.

  Three.

  When we arrived at the last stoplight that separated us from the pizza place she requested, Journey finally moved. I didn’t hide my interest, glancing over when she put her hand into the neckline of her dress. There must have been a front clasp because the next thing she did was pull her arms from the sleeves, one at a time, as she removed the white satin bra.

  “Good girl,” I said as the light turned green. “Put it in my pocket.”

  She wadded it in her hand and slid her hand over the console. I shifted so she could access my pocket.

  The onboard navigation announced we’d be at our destination in a quarter of a mile. The clock showed one minute.

  She was breathing heavier but managed to tug her dress up high on her thighs as she lifted her ass off the seat. I saw from the corner of my eye as she stripped her panties down her legs. She clutched them in her fist.

  “I’ll take those,” I said, holding out my hand as I pulled into the parking lot.

  Another soft gasp escaped before she placed the skimpy piece of lace in my palm. As I parked the car in a space, I brought them to my nose and inhaled. I was a master at concealing my reactions, and I did so now as her musky scent assailed me. I wanted to bury my face between her legs so I could breathe her in. I wanted to lick her pussy to see if she tasted as good as she smelled.

  I did neither of those things, nor did I let her know it was what I wanted. For now, she had pleased me, and my only job was to ensure she knew she had. And to make her want to do it again.

  I put the car in park and turned to face her. I met her gaze and smiled. “Good girl.”

  Her eyes glazed over, and a sense of profound relief gripped me by the throat.

  I couldn’t describe this driving need because I’d never felt it before. It was potent, all-consuming, and I knew with absolute certainty she was the woman I had spent my entire life dreaming about, the one I’d been waiting for. Perhaps I couldn’t love her the way she fantasized, but I could damn sure give her everything she had ever longed for and then some. And I fully intended to do that because I knew deep down that Journey Zeplyn was the one woman who could complete me on a level no one else before her and no one after ever would.

  That was the only way to explain how tied up in knots she made me feel.

  21

  Journey

  No one knew I didn’t have underwear on beneath my dress. No one but Creed and me, yet it felt like I was wearing a sign urging everyone to look at my chest.

  If they did, they’d likely see my nipples were hard because they were. Which was interesting, considering I often went without a bra, but I’d never been quite so aware of it before. Of course, the material of this dress was not one you wore without some sort of undergarment. Without that thin layer of protection from my bra, my nipples were poking at the thin spandex material. The only good thing was my nipples weren’t dark. If they were, they would’ve been visible beneath the white fabric. Granted, it didn’t make me feel any better.

  “All right, new question,” Nick prompted from his spot across from me. “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

  “That’s easy,” I said without hesitation. “A mermaid.”

  That earned me a few laughs.

  “It’s true,” I declared. “I wanted to have a tail and a fish named Flounder for a friend.” I shrugged. “As you can see, I went a different route.”

  Hawk and Nick grinned wide. Garrison merely watched me. Every now and then, I’d see a hint of a smile on his face, but it was apparent he was trying not to. I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me or bothered that I had been kissing Creed. Initially, I’d nearly panicked when I turned around to find him standing beside Hawk, but then I reminded myself he had ghosted me. Slipping out of my bed without a word and nothing to follow wasn’t cool. Not at all. So it almost seemed fair that he’d caught me kissing Creed.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t the sort who wanted to pit one person against another, so while I was pretending it didn’t bother me that he’d seen us, it made my gut churn. Fortunately, Nick had arrived with Hawk and Garrison, which gave me a reprieve. His presence made this feel like a dinner between friends, not an awkward date with three men I’d been fantasizing about for two weeks.

  “What about you?” I asked Nick.

  I’d been playing this game with them where we asked questions, and everyone answered. I’d been quick to divulge because it kept their attention on my face and not on my tits. Or at least I was hoping it did.

  “A roadie.”

  My eyebrows lifted slowly. “A roadie? Like a travel-with-the-band roadie?”

  “Yeah.” He looked a bit sheepish. “Specifically for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

  Based on their stunned expressions, I took it Nick’s friends hadn’t been privy to that information until now.

  Hawk snorted. “Seriously, man?”

  Nick tilted his beer to his lips. Before he took a drink, he added, “Or Madonna.”

  Garrison nearly fell out of his chair, which made me laugh.

  “Okay, Chuckles,” Nick said to him. “What did you want to be?”

  “A fireman.”

  “Too cliché,” Nick joked. “Moving on.” He looked at Hawk.

  “Professional athlete.”

  “Too on the nose,” I said with a grin, then fought to hide my reaction when Hawk’s foot bumped mine under the table. He had done it several times, and by the second, I realized he was doing it on purpose. Strangely enough, although I was technically Creed’s date, I liked that I got to have dinner with Hawk. And yes, even Garrison, although I wasn’t sure where things stood between us.

  “Basketball,” he tacked on.

  Garrison snorted. “You’re not tall enough.”

  “Dude, Spud Webb’s five-seven.”

  “So, an inch shorter than you?” Nick joked.

  “Fuck off. I’m six foot.”

  “In your heels, maybe,” Garrison countered.

  The thought of Hawk in heels was both ludicrous and incredibly amusing, so I couldn’t help but laugh even as Hawk rubbed his nose with his middle finger, glaring at Garrison.

  “I wanted to be an athlete at one point,” I told them, “I tried out for my high school football team.”

  All eyes locked on me.

  “What? I wanted to say I did.”

  “What position?”

  I shrugged, looking at my empty beer glass. “Kicker.”

  “Did you make the team?”

  “Fortunately, no.” I looked at Creed. “What about you? What did you want to be?”

  “A pilot.”

  “Top Gun, huh?” Nick asked without missing a beat.

  “Damn straight.”

  “Top Gun?” I said, deadpan. “What’s that?”

  All eyebrows launched skyward, and I couldn’t keep my expression schooled. “I’m kidding!”

  The waiter did a drive-by to see if we needed anything. Creed waved him off without a word.

  “So tell me, darlin’,” Garrison asked, “does this count as a second date”—he glanced at Creed—“for some of us?”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond. That was the first time Garrison had spoken directly to me since we got here. He’d answered questions but rarely looked my way when he spoke. And now it sounded like he was taunting Creed. Was that a passive-aggressive way of getting back at him? Creed was the one who had forced Garrison to take me to dinner. It didn’t matter that Garrison had said he wouldn’t have gone if he didn’t want to.

  I glanced at Creed, then Hawk, and finally back to Garrison. Since he was boring holes into Creed, I suspected he wasn’t looking for an answer.

  “Technically,” Hawk stated, “this is like date number four for us.”

  Based on his expression, he wasn’t oblivious to the tension between Garrison and Creed. He was merely trying to move things along or avoid a confrontation.

  I pursed my lips and tilted my head. “That’s a valid point.” I glanced at Nick to explain. “He bought me lunch in the cafeteria the day I met him.”

  “The free lunch?” Nick asked, glancing between us, smirking behind his beer bottle. “Not sure that counts.”

  “Oh, it does. It’s the thought that counts,” Hawk inserted, winking at me.

  Creed’s hand slid over the back of my neck, and I barely managed to hold back a gasp. The sensation was exquisite and unexpected, and it felt oddly possessive. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that part. Based on the way Garrison and Hawk were watching us, I could tell neither was pleased with the move.

  “If the thought is you’re a cheap bastard, maybe,” Garrison remarked, his gaze darting to Hawk.

  “You’re just pissed because you’re not one up on me.”

  “Technically,” Garrison drawled.

  My eyes slammed into his face. I couldn’t hide my shock at the thought of him revealing what had happened between us. It wasn’t that I wanted to keep it a secret, but I certainly didn’t think this was the time or place to relay that we’d had sex.

  He met my stare and held it as he said, “I bought her coffee, and I took her to Austere. That makes us even.”

  “The coffee was free,” I added for clarification. “But it was Valentine’s Day, so you get extra credit for that.”

  Garrison’s expression was one I didn’t recognize. “Regardless, the rule is, the clock resets after a week, and you”—he looked at Hawk—“are now a few days past due.”

  “Like hell,” Hawk retorted. “No reset button.”

  “You’re all past due,” I corrected, looking at Hawk because I couldn’t bring myself to look at Garrison. “I recall you ghosting me last week.”

  He stared at me as though considering how to respond.

  “At your request,” Hawk said solemnly, his eyes shifting to Creed.

  “No. My request was until the decision was made. After that ... that’s on you.”

  I glanced at Creed, who was sitting to my right. He seemed content to watch the interaction, though I could feel his eyes on me most of the time. It was surreal this feeling I got from knowing he was watching me. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and my brain immediately flashed memories of that kiss back at the office. The one that turned my knees to jelly and had me on the verge of climbing his enormous body in an attempt to get closer. But his dominance in the car had nearly done me in. I hadn’t expected it. I certainly hadn’t expected that submitting to his command, even for those few minutes, would somehow suffocate all the chaotic thoughts that had been plaguing me all day. Almost as effectively as him making me meditate earlier.

  Playing along with their banter, I looked at Hawk. “To answer the original question, I don’t think we can consider it a date until we learn something more ... intimate ... about each other.”

  He smirked. “Intimate, huh?”

  “You know what I mean,” I corrected. “Something private that most people don’t know.”

  “Go ahead, darlin’,” Garrison crooned in that sexy drawl that reminded me of Texas. “Tell us somethin’ intimate.”

  I was tempted to run one of the beer bottles across my forehead because I suddenly felt a tad warm. Instead, I reined in my libido and leaned back, propping my wrists on the table and glancing at each of them. “All right. Do you want shock and awe? Or, like what I did at my high school sleepovers?”

  The smirks I earned from that made my insides quiver. I couldn’t explain the ridiculousness of this moment, of having four of the hottest men on the planet giving me their full attention as though I was the only woman in the world. I mean, I wasn’t, and this wasn’t a date, regardless of how they teased me, but it was a little fun to pretend.

  “Shock and awe,” Creed said in that gruff baritone.

  I met his gaze and nodded my acquiescence. “My mom has been married to my dads for almost twenty-seven years.”

  Silence settled over the table as I glanced at each of them, waiting.

  Nick spoke up first, his eyes narrowed on me. “Plural dads? As in what? Two? Five? Nine?”

  I giggled. “Two. My mom, Cadence, is married to my dads, Roman and Ryder.” When no one questioned it, I added a few more details. “They’re identical twins. They met her in college. Love at first sight, they claim.”

  It wasn’t my imagination that the four of them shared a look. I couldn’t tell whether it was disbelief—which was usually the response I got—or something else. Maybe envy. I usually only got that kind of reaction from my female friends because, according to them, what woman wouldn’t want to be married to two hot, studly men? That was about the time the conversation started to get icky because seriously. They were my parents.

  “Not shock and awe,” Garrison countered.

  “Well, I already told you,” I said, waving him off.

  “That’s not why. I’ve got identical twin cousins who’re married to one woman. They’ve got twin daughters. Hell, I got another cousin married to a man and a woman, and they’ve got five kids. That one owns a kinky fetish resort. Another who recently got engaged to a man and a woman.”

  “Well,” I said with a huff. “Story topper, much?”

  Nick lifted his beer to get my attention. “You promised shock and awe, and since that doesn’t qualify, try again.”

  I couldn’t explain why they made me feel bold, but they did. I glanced at Creed. He was watching me intently, his storm-gray eyes roaming over my face.

  He jerked his chin in my direction. “Go on. Shock us.”

  It was a dare I couldn’t resist, so I shored up my nerve, glanced between them in turn, and admitted the one thing I’d never told anyone besides my two best friends. “I’m a member of an online kink community, and I post my dirtiest sexual fantasies on my profile.”

  If you wanted to know what shock looked like, there were four men staring at me, their jaws unhinged as they processed what I had just told them.

  One second ticked by, then two. A few more, and then Nick pulled out his phone. “What’s it called?”

  I laughed, feeling my face heat. “Nope. That’s not the deal.”

  “Awe, come on now. How do we know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Why would I lie?”

  There was no way I was telling them the name of the site, much less my profile name. Not now. Hell, maybe not ever. Certainly not until I deleted the last two weeks’ worth of entries since they would instantly know who the sexy CEO, the UFC fighter, and the smoking hot cowboy were that I’d been writing about.

  “It’s y’all’s turn now,” I said.

  Hawk spoke up, nodding toward Garrison. “He rode bulls when he was younger. Nearly lost a testicle.”

  “Oh, horseshit,” Garrison grumbled. “Yes to the bullridin’. No to the second part. The family jewels have always been intact.”

  If they were aiming to make me blush, they would have to try harder than that. My dads were certainly not saints, and they liked to tell stories to their friends. I grew up hearing far worse than that.

  I was about to ask Nick to spill, but his cell phone rang. He glanced at the phone, then excused himself to answer it.

  I looked at Hawk but noticed the way he was looking past me at Creed. His expression was ... off, although I couldn’t explain why. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were having a silent conversation. A mask fell into place when he looked back and saw me watching him.

  “Well,” he said around a fake yawn. “I think we’ve interrupted enough of your night already. I’m gonna head to the house.” He got to his feet and stared past me at Creed. “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow at the gym.”

  “I’ll be there,” he said gruffly.

  “I agree,” Garrison grumbled, standing tall. “That’s about all I can handle for one night.” His gaze slid to me. “I hope we can do this again soon.”

  “Me, too,” I told him, although I wasn’t only talking about dinner.

  He held my stare for a few heartbeats, and I wished he would say something, although this wasn’t the right time or place. I wanted to know why he’d left the way he had and why he’d avoided me since then.

  “I’ll see you back at the house,” Creed commented, effectively breaking the moment.

  Garrison glanced his way and nodded.

  And as Hawk, Nick, and Garrison left, I realized I didn’t mind that they were making a hasty exit because, although I was the one to invite them, I was looking forward to some alone time with Creed. If I were lucky, we’d pick up where we left off when he had commanded me to remove my panties and bra.

  22

  Creed

  “What should we do now?” Journey asked when we were walking to my car.

  With my hand on the small of her back, I guided her along the sidewalk, taking my time.

  “It’s probably appropriate to end the first date early,” I told her, even though I wasn’t ready to part ways with her yet.

  “So this is our first date?”

  “Unless you consider our five-minute coffee break a date.”

  A smile pulled at her mouth. “Which would make this the second.”

  “And that would mean our options are endless.”

  “True,” she acknowledged.

 

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