Love and Learn (Voretti Family Book 2) (12 page)

He couldn’t stop himself from touching her—not after that. He traced the column of her neck until he reached the base of her throat. He was gonna kiss her. Right there.
 

But not while her pulse was racing like she’d take off if he made the wrong move.

 
He kept his hand on her—a light touch, but he knew she could feel it. He sure could. “This is gonna be a lot like dancing. When you have a strong lead, all you have to do is follow.”

“And you’re a strong lead?”

He hoped so. Whatever she needed, that’s what he wanted to be. “Yeah, sweetheart. I’m a real strong lead.”

“Then I’ll follow you.”
 

The need in her voice made his whole body tighten.
 

“Let’s get you comfortable.” It went against every urge he had to let go instead of drawing her closer, but he somehow managed it, reaching over her so he could grasp the lever to tilt her seat back. He eased it as far down as he could.

Annabelle reclined against the leather, and he was honest-to-God shaking. He wanted her under him. Over him. Any way he could have her.

Light flashed on the screen. The coming attractions. Coming attractions for the movie at the public theater he’d taken her to so he’d remember to slow the fuck down.

He forced himself to breathe, nice and deep, like when he was coming down after an op. Finally, he got enough oxygen flowing to his brain that he trusted himself to touch Annabelle.
 

He leaned in, moving slow, giving her plenty of time to evacuate. She didn’t move. Her heart pulsed in that sweet place at the base of her neck, and she pulled him in with her gaze. Closer. Closer.
 

The gearshift jabbed his side, an inanimate chaperone, but he didn’t care because Annabelle was here with him.
 

He buried his face in the hollow between her neck and her shoulder, and—
damn
. She smelled sweet and clean, and he wanted to get her dirty.

“Annabelle? I’m gonna kiss you now.”
 

Her throat worked as she swallowed. “Okay. But I’m not a very good kisser.”

The resigned certainty in her tone broke his heart. He hated that she believed that bullshit. And he was going to do everything in his power to change her mind. “Then don’t kiss me back.”

“Don’t…?”

He lifted his head enough to see the shadowy outline of her face. “Lie back. Let me do the work.”

She thought about that for a second.
 

“Okay,” she said, finally. There was more, but watching those sweet lips form words was more than he could handle right now.

He kissed her. She was still talking, those full lips moving against his as she tried to get one last word out, pulling a groan from his chest.

He slid both hands through her hair, putting her where he wanted her.
 

Damn
, that was good.
 

Soft
, he told himself.
Sweet
.
 

His dick throbbed. All he could think about was getting some part of himself inside some part of her.

It wasn’t soft and it wasn’t sweet. It was hard and hot and more vital than breathing, generating so much heat they had to be fogging up the truck’s windows.

Annabelle trembled against him.
 

He froze, but she was pulling him closer, not pushing him away. Pushing
her
tongue inside
his
mouth.

He hadn’t thought it was possible for him to get any harder, but that did it. He rolled toward her.

The gearshift jabbed him in the stomach.
 

Gearshift. Car. Public theater.

He levered himself up.

“What…?” Annabelle’s face was beautifully flushed. “Sorry, I—”

“Don’t apologize.” He kissed her again, only vaguely aware of the light flashing on the screen. All he cared about was Annabelle—kissing his way down her neck to see which spot made her the craziest. She liked it when he nuzzled her ear, but when he nipped the place where her neck met her shoulder, she moaned, her whole body straining toward his, and he felt like he’d conquered the universe.

His hands traveled the path his lips had taken until they met her shoulders. Lacy fabric teased him, giving him a taste of the sweet, hot skin underneath. He found a faint ridge—her bra strap. Was it the same paper-thin lace as her top?

Don’t think about that.

He closed his eyes, but that only made it worse, because his mind was playing its own movie. Annabelle in a lacy black bra and panties, her arms wrapped around him, kissing him and kissing him and—

Brrring
.

He kissed Annabelle again, willing the volume of the movie way, way down.
 

Brrring
.
Brrring, brrring.

Annabelle broke the kiss. “Is that your phone?”

Damn
. It wasn’t the movie—he’d left the radio playing Amber Watts’ greatest hits instead of tuning into the station that broadcast the soundtrack. It was his phone, coming through the speakers via the Bluetooth connection, ringing over and over because whichever friend had the piss-poor timing to call now had tried again after getting voicemail.

Brrring
.

He fumbled for the phone in his pocket. He was going to throw it out the window.

“Finally.” Sean’s voice boomed through the speakers.

Annabelle jumped, the sudden movement breaking her contact with Ty.

Damn
. Ty hadn’t meant to hit the talk button.
 

“What took so long? Did you get your head stuck up your ass again?”

“I’m busy. I’ll call you later.”
 

“Don’t bother. Just wanted to tell you I’m taking a road trip. I met this guy at Hannigan’s last night, and he told me about a great cliff diving spot near Reno. So I’ll see you in a week.” The line went dead, right as Sean’s fuck-my-life monotone finally broke through Ty’s preoccupation. His friend didn’t sound excited about this spontaneous vacation to the land of blackjack and strip clubs, and Ty heard Keri’s voice in his head.
Are you really going to sit there and watch him self-destruct?
 

He shook his head, trying to clear it. He was probably imagining it. Keri had planted the idea in his head, and—

“Is it me, or did he sound…weird?” Annabelle asked.

Or maybe it wasn’t his imagination after all.
Shit
.
 

“I’d better call him back. Figure out what’s going on.” He was half way through dialing Sean’s number when Annabelle handed him a pair of headphones.
 

“Here. So you don’t have to talk on the speaker.”

“They’re broken.”

“Do you have any others?” She clawed through the mess of junk that lived in his glove compartment, like if she didn’t find a working set of headphones in the next ten seconds, the world was gonna end.
 

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You can’t talk to your friend about his private issues while I’m listening in!”

“It’s cool. I’ll introduce the two of you.”

Her eyes widened like he’d suggested she strip naked and do a lap around the parking lot. “You can’t…”

“Sean won’t care. He hates talking about his feelings to friends and strangers equally.” Ty finished dialing just as Annabelle unearthed another pair of headphones from the glove compartment.
 

She grabbed the phone from the cup holder, where he’d left it, and plugged the headphones in. The ringtone sounding in the speakers went silent.
 

He hooked one of the earbuds in. “Now I can’t introduce you.”

“No point in wasting your time. It’s not like I’m your girlfriend.”

He started to object—just because they hadn’t gotten to the boyfriend-girlfriend stage yet didn’t mean they couldn’t be part of each other’s lives—but then he remembered the agreement. This relationship was supposed to be purely physical.

Bullshit
.
 

Annabelle already had feelings for him.
 

But before he could explain that to her, Sean came on the line. “C’mon, Easy. I know you miss me when I’m gone, but it hasn’t even been five minutes.”

“Cliff diving, huh? You don’t get enough of that extreme adventure shit at work?”

“Now you’re on my case too? Are you the one who told Keri I went cave diving last week?”

“No. Except,
shit
…I might’ve mentioned—”

“Because I could’ve lived without that little chat. Tell you what. If you’re in the mood to give someone a lecture, explain to your sister that what I do with my free time is none of her business.”

“Yeah. Because she listens to me so well.”

“Better than she listens to me,” Sean muttered.

“Here’s an idea. Maybe if you seemed like you were actually having fun, she’d get off your case.”

“Of course I’m having fun. Why else would I be doing it?” Sean’s tone was grimly determined, like he was shipping out on a life-or-death mission instead of taking a vacation.

Every single one of Ty’s muscles went tight, choking off his words. Not that it mattered, because he had no idea what to say. Something was wrong—
really
wrong—and he didn’t know how to even begin asking Sean what it was.

Annabelle’s hand met his thigh. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t even look at him. She just gave him that contact she somehow knew he needed, and his throat relaxed enough to let out words.
 

“If there’s anything you want to talk about, I’m here.”

“Jesus. Is
that
why you called? So we could act out some made-for-women TV movie and talk about our feelings?”

“I want you to know. That I’m here for you.”

“I do know that. Even though I don’t—” Sean muttered a curse under his breath. “Look, man. I’m fine. I just need to blow off a little steam.”

“Okay. But if you change your mind—”

“Yeah. Got it.”

“Be safe, man. You have people who are gonna be pissed if you don’t make it back.”

“Thanks, mom. Do you want me to call every hour to check in? Or only on the even numbered ones?”

“Asshole.”

Sean laughed, and Ty cut the connection.

“Is he okay?” Annabelle asked.

“He’ll be fine. He might be an adrenaline junky, but he’s not stupid.”
Usually
.

“But you’re worried about him.”

“Yeah. No. I don’t know.” He pulled in a breath. “Something’s wrong and he’s not talking. Speaking of which, don’t think I didn’t notice what you were doing with the headphones.”

“Trying to give you privacy?”

“You want to pretend this thing between us is just physical.”

“It is just physical. We agreed—”

“Fuck the agreement!”

She jumped.

Ty lowered his voice. “I’m not asking you to give me your heart. I’m asking for the chance to earn it.”

“Why?”

“Because, when we’re together, it feels right.” He held her gaze, willing her to acknowledge at least that basic truth. “It’s always felt right.”

She tore her gaze from his. “Please. We both know that’s not true.”

“Speak for yourself, sweetheart.”

“We don’t even know each other. Not really.”

Her words slammed into him like a .45 to the chest—the kind of pain he couldn’t let himself think about or it would take him down. “I do know you. I know that you would rather read a book than watch television and you eat oatmeal with raisins for breakfast every day and your family is the most important thing in the world to you, exactly like mine is to me.”

“That doesn’t—”

“Let me introduce you to them.”

“What?”

“My family. Let me introduce you to them.” He was talking too fast.
 

He forced himself to stop. Take a breath. “Look at it this way. We only have three more lessons. Let’s see where things go. And then, if you decide we’re better as friends, I’ll respect that.”

“Only three more days?”

He gave her his best reassuring smile, which was hard, because he was swimming in adrenaline. “Three more days.”

“Okay. I can do that.”

He smiled. Annabelle might not know it yet, but they were going to be together for much longer than that. Even she couldn’t fight the power of the universe.

T
Y
TOOK
A
moment to savor Annabelle’s presence next to him. Then he hit number one on his speed dial.
 

“Wh-what are you doing?” Annabelle wanted to know.

“Calling my sister. You up for a visit?”

“I thought you meant
tomorrow
.”

“Tomorrow is our third lesson. That gives me less than seventy-two hours, and I don’t want to waste any of them. Unless you’re too tired.” He held his breath. As much as he was afraid to give her an out, he wouldn’t force her.

“I… Okay.” Two halting words, but they were a bloody, hard-won victory.

Keri’s voice came over the speakers. “Hey, Bro. How was the big date?”

“The jury’s still out. We’re on our way over to your place.” He pulled out of the lot, onto the road.

“You mean I get to meet the mystery woman? Who is she?”

“You can see for yourself in fifteen minutes.”

Keri let out an ungodly screech “I’m so excited! Should I invite Sean? I know he’d want to meet her.”

“Don’t bother. He’s on his way to Reno.”

The ensuing pause gave him just enough time to realize he’d fucked up.

“Why would he go to Reno? He hates to gamble.”

“You know. There are other things to do.”

“What is it this time? Mountainboarding? Bungee jumping?”

Ty surrendered to the inevitable. “Cliff diving. But don’t worry. Sean can handle—”

“
You let him go cliff diving
?” Keri’s voice went so shrill that even Annabelle cringed.
 

“He didn’t exactly ask my permission.”

“When did he leave? Is he driving or flying? Did he sound upset?”

“Relax. Take a breath.”

“I’m breathing fine, thank you very much.” Something crashed in the background.