Man Cave, page 18
“Thanks.”
She went to the driver’s side.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, crossing over to her and blocking her from opening the car door.
“What?”
The hot wind ruffled her hair, which was pulled up in a sloppy bun. Since Mallory had driven her car to the courthouse with the intention of leaving from there to drive back to Montana, it had made it easy for us to get on the road. But her wardrobe hadn’t been a comfortable option. She entered the truck stop like she was ready for a middle management job interview and came out looking…like Mallory. She was dressed down in another pair of those stretchy yoga pants and a short-sleeved Silvermines t-shirt. Fuck, those pants and her ass. And that shirt and her tits.
“You’re not driving.”
“It’s my car.”
“You’re not driving.”
She stared at me. I stared at her. And waited.
She huffed, then turned on her sneakered heel to go around the car. “Fine.”
We were back on the road, and she was breaking open a tube of formed potato chips. Horrible music blasted from the stereo. I pushed the scan button. Radio stations were few and far between. The next one that came up was a religious sermon. I hit scan again. It circled all the way around to the original station.
“I can’t believe Bridget told you about my arrest.” With her ridiculous flexibility, she put her feet up on the dash. I imagined them like that but wrapped around my waist. Inwardly, I groaned. This drive was going to be fucking long for so many reasons.
“She didn’t,” I said as I checked in the rearview mirror so I didn’t keep ogling those toned thighs.
She froze with a chip halfway to her mouth. “Then how did you know I was in Vegas?”
“She told me you had a court appearance. Nothing more. I think it’s time for you to fill in some blanks.”
Shoving a few chips in her mouth wouldn’t stall her for long. The canister was only so deep and we had hours to go.
“Fine,” she said finally.
I was quickly learning that fine didn’t mean that anything was actually fine.
She handed me the canister. “If we’re going to do this, then you need some chips.”
If it would get her to talk, then I’d eat some heart clogging chips. I stuck my hand in, grabbed a small stack and set them on my jean-clad thigh.
The blue sky was crisscrossed with contrails from planes going in and out of Las Vegas. I had to wonder if one of them was the James Corp jet returning to Hunter Valley without us.
“I flirted with a guy who turned out to be an undercover cop. He arrested me,” she explained.
“Flirting doesn’t indicate you’re a hooker.”
“I prefer call girl. It’s much more high-class,” she countered.
I couldn’t help but grin. I shoved a chip in my mouth. The salty taste was… really good.
I shoved in another.
“Fine. Call girl,” I said with a mouthful of chips.
She went on to detail how she’d pushed the guy on his price, and it made me laugh. When Mallory realized I was laughing with her instead of at her, she smiled too.
“The undercover officer must have been blind. No way he’d mistake you for a hooker.” If she dressed up that night as she did for her court appearance, I couldn’t imagine how the guy would ever even walk up to her in a sting.
“Hey!” She grabbed her cell out of her purse, slid her finger over it for twenty seconds or more. “Here.”
She held out the phone so I could glance at it while driving. It was a photo of Mallory and three other women. It had clearly been taken in a casino, with slot machines in the background. All four were in dresses leaning toward slutty on the appropriate meter. I glanced at the road, then at Mallory in the image. She looked gorgeous in the dark green sleeveless dress and she in no way looked like middle management.
Fuck, she was pretty. And now I was hard. I shifted in the seat as Mallory put her cell away.
“The officer wasn’t blind,” I admitted. “You definitely looked like a call girl. A high-class one at that.”
“Hey!” she said again, as if I’d insulted her again.
“Easy, tiger. You get mad when I don’t think you look like a call girl, and you get mad when I say you do.”
She huffed, shoved a chip in her mouth, then grudgingly said, “You’re right.”
She opened a bottle of some kind of iced tea and handed it to me. I gave the label a quick peek before taking a sip. Peach. Not bad.
“Let me get this straight,” I said, handing the bottle back where she took a swig herself. “You were in a holding cell and befriended two hoo– call girls and they gave you sex tips which you used on me.”
“Yes.”
“The blow job,” I said, then got instantly hard thinking about how insanely fucking incredible it had been.
“Oh, look!” she pointed at a swiftly approaching billboard. “A dinosaur site in five miles. Let’s stop.”
We were talking about her sex talents, and she wasn’t even focusing.
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” I asked.
“Why? Because it was my problem.”
I frowned. “So? So I’d have offered the plane and we wouldn’t be out in the middle of nowhere.”
“Exactly. This was a mess I needed to fix on my own. Besides, the less people who knew about what happened the better. If it got out what happened, I could have been fired.”
“I’m not people, I’m–” I was going to say your man, but that was wrong. “I’m a doctor. I can keep things confidential.” Like chlamydia patients.
She shook her head. “I won’t be beholden.”
“Beholden? Was that blind date of yours an English Lit teacher?”
She rolled her eyes.
“I won’t be like my mother.”
Oh. Well, I hadn’t met the woman, but I really didn’t like her.
“She still bothering you?”
A shrug and a swig of tea was all the response I got. It seemed I couldn’t help her with that, either.
As she said, fine.
“Ooh, I love this song!” she cooed, reaching for the volume and turning it up, tapping her toes on the dash as she sang along. I’d never heard it before in my life.
This woman was a complete dichotomy. Junk food eating, sweet first-grade teacher with attachment issues, a fascination for weird side-of-the road tourist traps who sucked dick like a porn star and was just all around… happy. Maybe it was avoiding jail time that helped with that.
I took in the terrain. It looked like Mars, but hot. No one was around. A car was ahead of us about a half mile. Glancing in the rearview mirror, there was an eighteen-wheeler cruising a way behind us.
This stretch of road was deserted as hell and I had the cruise control set to eighty-five. I imagined Mallory driving this all alone and clenched the steering wheel. Instead of blowing past the exit–which seemed like nothing more than ranch access–I blinkered, for no other reason than abiding by the law, and took it.
She swiveled her head around. “This isn’t the exit for the dinosaur thing.”
I didn’t say a word, only turned right off the top of the exit ramp, then pulled over on the side of the dirt road about a quarter mile down. Shut off the car and the radio fell blissfully silent. I took off my seatbelt.
“I’ll stay in the car while you pee,” she offered.
I shifted my leg to face Mallory, grabbed the canister of chips and set it on the floor at her feet, screwed the lid on the tea, then unclipped her belt.
“I don’t have to pee.”
I didn’t know why I was brooding or bothered that she could’ve been out here all alone. Or that she hadn’t confided in me about her arrest. This was Mallory and this was just about sex. With sex, we were in agreement. We liked it hot. We liked it often. We liked it really fucking dirty.
“Ever fuck in a car before?”
Her eyes widened–I could tell even behind her sunglasses–and she glanced around, then back at me.
She shook her head and a sly smile spread across her face.
“Show me what else you learned from your friends,” I ordered.
“You really want to know?”
“Show, not know, tiger.”
She tapped her lip as if she had multiple possibilities she was considering. “Push your seat back.”
Reaching down between my legs, I grabbed the metal bar and did as she requested.
Then she crawled over the center console and into my lap.
“Get ready, doctor, to have your world rocked.”
50
MALLORY
* * *
Theo pulled into Lindy’s driveway after midnight. I was exhausted and my ass was numb. I climbed out, reached my arms overhead and stretched. Compared to Las Vegas, the air in Hunter Valley was crisp and biting cold. I shivered as Theo came around the car.
“Thanks for driving. The entire way.” I hadn’t wanted him to join me. I hadn’t even wanted him to show up in Vegas. Or know anything about what happened. But I had to admit, he made the drive easier. And the sex had certainly been a fun break.
He nodded. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”
I looked at him, then the front door, then him again. Maybe my brain was too tired to understand. “You want to stay here?”
He’d never slept over before. Or me in reverse. Not once.
“My car’s not here,” he explained. “I’m not walking and I’m more tired than I remember ever being in residency. Then I stayed up for thirty-six hours straight.”
Oh. Well, that made un-romantic sense. He was staying with me out of necessity, not desire.
Like the house. Like his appearance in Vegas. Like right now. But somehow, even with all that, I felt closer to him. Road trips didn’t give anyone a choice in that. It was really a dangerous feeling.
“Road trips take it out of you,” I replied like I did with a student’s parents who sucked at their role, but I couldn’t outright tell them.
He grunted, slung a heavy arm over my shoulder and walked with me to the door.
I let us in, climbed the stairs and pointed to Bridge’s bed. He was already toeing off his shoes.
“If you’d let me drive at all, you wouldn’t be so tired,” I reminded.
He only grunted in response.
As I closed the door to the bathroom to brush my teeth and at least wash the miles off my face, Theo yanked back the covers and fell face first onto the bed. He groaned in satisfaction–a very similar sound to the one I pulled from him when I rode his dick, reverse cowgirl, in the car earlier.
Five minutes later, I climbed in with a sleeping Theo. With him on his stomach, he was a bed hog. I pushed at him, and he turned, reached out and tucked me into his side. All without really waking up.
He was warm and cozy, and I took a moment to enjoy the feel of him. We never lingered in bed. I’d never been able to just… be with him. I took in his scent. A hint of his cologne still lingered along with stale coffee from when he’d spilled some on his shirt somewhere in Idaho. His heart thumped beneath my hand.
This man was solid. Sturdy.
He’d come to Las Vegas for me. Even, perhaps especially, because he didn’t know why I had a court appearance. He up and flew to me.
I smiled against his chest. I didn’t know what was up with him, but all I felt was relief. No longer the chance of being a convicted hooker. No longer a homeowner of a place I hadn’t gotten myself. From what Annalynn had said, the house was now in Theo’s name. It didn’t belong to me any longer. I wasn’t beholden to him.
I felt like things had changed. I felt… more. A glimmer. Something more than just sex. I was getting my shit together, one thing at a time. No more possible criminal record. No more owing Bridge.
So I didn’t have Mrs. Jonsdottir’s house. I’d had it and it felt wrong. Like it wasn’t mine. It wasn’t. I’d move my things out of Maggie’s apartment and put them in Lindy’s garage. For the time being, I’d save a little on having no rent while I found just the right place, socking more money into the down payment fund. I could maybe… let someone in. Maybe?
I’d been angry at Theo when he’d magically appeared at the courthouse. Stuck with him in a car all day made that go away. The orgasms in the car had helped. So was being in his arms right now.
Theo sniffled, then twitched once. I couldn’t help but smile. This moment of quiet made me want to open my heart to him. To have more times like this–perhaps when he was conscious–when he held me solely because he wanted to.
I fell asleep for the first time in a man’s arms. All I knew was that I was glad it was Theo.
51
THEO
* * *
I woke up with Mallory’s ass against my dick and her hair in my mouth. Both were a first. Mallory, yes. But waking up to a woman in my bed, that was new, especially close enough to feel her lush curves and choke on her silky strands. I took women to bed, but they never stayed in mine. Or I in hers.
This was actually Bridget’s bed, so perhaps it was like the Switzerland of sleeping. Neutral turf.
Except I was fully clothed, and Mallory was in a long shirt which had ridden up. She was warm and soft and silent.
No fine. No loud singing every lyric to every song across the state of Utah. No laughing. Or moaning. Just her.
My arm was slung over her waist and my nose was buried in her soft hair. I didn’t want to move my hand, but I had to clear my mouth. I kissed the top of her head. I… liked this. Liked holding her. Ridiculously enough, I’d liked the road trip. I felt a connection. A change in us. That she was beginning to understand our dynamic.
So we had sex in the car when it wasn’t scheduled. So I ate some deliciously bad for me food. I was learning how to have fun.
I was actually, strangely, having fun.
This could work, me and Mallory. She’d come over later for sex o’clock. I smiled at my play on time. She wouldn’t be stressed or worried about a thing. She had her house, no arrest looming. I fixed her problems. I–
Her cell phone’s alarm clock blared, as loud as the music from the car ride.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
She jolted, then groaned. Then froze. Then tried to wiggle, which only brought her ass against my dick.
“Easy, tiger.”
When she moved again, I lifted my arm and she popped from bed.
“I have school.”
I glanced up at her, hair a mess, eyes more asleep than awake. The pale blue nightshirt that may have covered her tits but didn’t do a thing to hide the full swells or the plump tips. Even though I knew exactly what they looked like, there was something unbelievably sexy about this look. Intimate.
Fuck, I was hard. So hard it hurt. I knew what could fix that.
“I know you usually come over at six, but how about six am instead of six pm?” I asked, reaching down and rubbing my dick through my jeans.
Her gaze dropped to watch what my hand was doing. I was fully clothed in my day-old outfit and she looked at me as if I was one of those male revue dancers.
She shook her head, as if to clear away cobwebs. “I have to shower.” Lifting her sleep shirt up and over her head, she tossed it aside so she was only in a pair of pale pink panties. With a glance over her shoulder, she added, “But I can multitask.”
I hopped from the bed and followed her across the hall into the bathroom while I tugged down the zipper on my jeans. “I’m a trauma surgeon. Multitask is my middle name.”
52
THEO
* * *
“What’s wrong?” Verna asked.
I froze, patted my stethoscope around my neck automatically. Looked around. “Nothing. Why?”
“You’re smiling,” she said, her voice laced with suspicion.
I laughed.
“Now you’re laughing.” She stood from her seat at her desk and came around the counter. She held an instant read thermometer.
I held up my hands to ward her off, forcing the smile from my face. “I’m fine.”
“You were gone for a day and a half and now you’re… happy.”
I wasn’t sure about that. “No one’s died this week.”
“That’s what makes you happy?” she asked, clearly concerned.
I frowned. “Aren’t you glad no one’s died?”
She shrugged. “Sure, but it’s not something I take time to consider. I mean, it’s really low on my list.”
“It’s high on a trauma surgeon’s list,” I replied. “Can’t mess with the quota.”
She frowned, set her hands on her hips and slowly shook his head. “And he’s back.”
I frowned in return.
“Jeff took your patients yesterday so you’re not double booked. However, you’ve got a patient in room one and Mrs. Krase is up next, so be prepared.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Oh, Mac called about lunch again today. It seems he’s smitten with you. I told him you can’t because of patient appointments but you’re free at four for happy hour.”
“I appreciate you scheduling my social life.”
“Your calendar shows you booked every day at six, so I figure four would work.”
I looked down at the industrial carpet and adjusted the stethoscope and tried not to smile. I wasn’t planning on telling her what happened every day at sex o’clock.
53
MALLORY
* * *
I was being silly. Like a sixteen-year-old, but I didn’t care. I felt like I needed an excuse to see Theo but delivering him his jacket he’d forgotten at Lindy’s house this morning was flimsy. I was content with flimsy.
Maybe it was because I was in a good mood. I was back in Hunter Valley a free woman. I was getting sex on the regular. This morning in the shower with Theo had been a first. When he said he loved pussy, he hadn’t been joking.
Right now, my clit throbbed with eagerness for more of his mouth.
