Test Drive (The Bachelor #1) (16 page)

"Beth!" I yelled in a whispered voice. "Where are you going?" She was practically jogging in her heels as they clicked down the marble hallway. She abruptly stopped spotting a door to her left. She jiggled the handle which easily opened. I had no idea where this door led, but I was willing to follow this chick anywhere.

Once inside the pitch-black room, she reached for my hand and pulled me close. My mind was swirling, and I couldn’t quite grasp the reality of the situation until I felt her lips meet mine. I was leaned against a cold, steel wall and her body was pressed against mine.

The warm, sensual kiss seemed to go on for days, and I was happy to be lost in it. When she pulled back a little, I ran my hand through her silky hair. "I have wanted to do that for a while now," she whispered.

I rubbed my thumb across her swollen lips, and in the quiet darkness, I could hear her shallow breathing. I leaned in and the sweet smell of her hair crept into my nose. Pulling out my cell phone, I shined the light around looking for any furniture. There was a steel information desk sitting a few feet away with some leather chairs around it.

I picked her up on the tall desk bringing us face to face. "You look so beautiful tonight, Beth. I have been trying to hold back, but I don’t know if I can . . .” I ran my hand up the slit leading up her leg. "And this dress isn’t helping my self-control."

"Is that a good thing?" She giggled.

"Well, that depends . . . on your expectations for this evening."

"What do you mean?" All hint of laughter had left her throat; instead there was a raspy voice.

"It depends on whether you want me as much as I want you and all that comes with that."

"I do," she breathed.

I didn’t second guess her answer this time.

Our kiss lingered on my lips even when her lips had moved on to my neck. My hands caressed her lower back and butt. I pulled her closer to me, and I heard her breath exhale from her body. I was totally digging the soft biting and sucking she was doing on my neck. I could barely take much more of this teasing and the way she had been working me up for the last few days I was ready for some release.

"Beth, I want you right here," I said in a deep voice I barely recognized.

I couldn't see her face or whether she was nodding, but when she spoke, I could tell that she was mulling the idea over in her head. "I want you too."

That was all I needed to know. I spun her around and gently laid her down on the desk. She screeched out when her back touched the cold metal, but she quickly hushed herself. I was thankful for the high slit in her dress, which allowed me easy access to the smooth flesh beneath. I slipped her panties to the side and undid my pants. I ripped the foil packet I kept in my wallet and pulled her legs around my hips.

I leaned over her and kissed her deeply. "Are you ready?" I felt like a high school kid getting it on after a dance; it was exhilarating.

"Yes!" she breathed out. I slid inside her and let myself focus on the soft velvety skin. Beth let out the sexiest moan, and I struggled to keep my focus off the growing urge to explode. Her sequined dress scratched and scraped my arm giving me some sort of distraction, but even that seemed to exasperate the sensation flowing through me. I longed to see her face as I thrust my way to ecstasy.

Damn, she felt good.

I was getting so close, but I wanted to feel her go first. Her legs climbed higher and higher up my torso until they were neatly tucked beneath my arms. The soft moans had turned into focused ahhs, and then her body tensed up beneath me.

"Yes!" she yelled way too loud. I did the only thing I could think of to keep her quiet. I covered her mouth with my own. She arched and writhed towards me. Our lips smashed together, and I felt the slow burn rise up in my stomach. She wrapped her fingers around my arms and squeezed. When I finally let go, I could barely breathe through the waves of ecstasy. I held on to her shoulders, still buried inside her. I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want the connection between us to end, but we couldn’t risk being caught in a public place. I kissed her forehead, and we both got up to put ourselves together; proving to be a daunting task in the pitch black darkness. I snuck out of the room first, and Beth slowly followed. We made a mad dash to the restrooms on the other end of the hall.

I stood in the hallway outside the bathrooms and waited for her to come out. She was still adjusting her dress and the redness in her cheeks was a continuous reminder that
it
just happened. I hadn't dreamed it or imagined that. Only a few moments earlier I was buried deep inside her.

My smile was plastered on my face, although she seemed more relaxed and a bit dazed. People were beginning to leave the conference room, and we fell in line following them out.

I felt a tap on my shoulder as we ascended the concrete stairs. "Where did you two run off to?" Beth grasped onto my arm as I spun around ready to face the arrogant prick from Carter Transportation.

"And why would you think that is any of your business?" I crossed my arms and watched as he tossed up his hands, stumbling over the stairs.

The smell of alcohol permeated with each word as he muttered, "This fine lady owes me a dance." Turning away from me, he set his smoldering eyes on Beth.

"I don’t think the lady owes you anything. You should go sleep it off. Have a good night, Carter." Beth and I turned to walk away hoping to avoid any more confrontation, but the sorely rejected Carter wasn’t planning to take
no
for an answer.

"Why don’t you stay out of it, pretty boy? Come on, honey, you should dance with a real man," Carter slurred, pulling Beth’s arm right out of mine. I spun around completely ready to punch him, but Beth beat me to it. Without a word of warning she turned, her hand connecting with his cheek in an epic slap. The stinging blow across his face echoed through the steel and concrete entranceway. A dozen or so patrons turned to witness the assault and a very stunned, very embarrassed Carter boy only shook his head before retreating to his SUV.

"Beth, are you all right?" I pulled her close. Okay, it was an excuse to pull her into my arms. She had already kicked ass, and I knew that she could handle herself.

"Yeah . . . let’s just get out of here." Our limousine pulled up, and we hurried inside.

Once in the safety of the car, we were free to snuggle up close together. With her forehead on my shoulder, I held her in my arms for a moment. "There is something about you, Beth. I would like to get to know you better. I want to know everything."

"I am just worried about how that would affect my job, Drew. What if it didn’t work out and you wanted me gone? I can’t risk losing my job."

"You know you are a bigger asset to that company than I will ever be. If anyone left, it would be me, but I don’t see that happening. We are both adults, and we could go into this with both eyes open. I feel something for you."

The elevator ride and the walk to the room were agonizingly long and as soon as we made it through the doors, her lips met mine, and I didn't let her go for the rest of the night. She fell asleep in my arms, and I was completely infatuated with the way that felt.

THE TRIP WAS OVER,
but the way I felt about Beth was anchored deep within me. Even the plane ride home was almost bearable. We hadn't touched on the topic of how life would be when we got home, but joining the mile high club in the "luxury" king sized bed was all the confirmation I needed that things were all good between us. Beth checked off everything on my list, even some things I hadn't seen at first glance.

We had done our best to conceal our smiles when asked why we dipped out so early. Beth had feigned an illness, too much champagne maybe.
Yeah, something like that.

She was anxious to get back home when we landed, and I could use a break to deal with the events over the last few days.

"So I’ll see you tomorrow?" I said in between kisses as we stood hand in hand at the entrance of the plane.

"Yeah." She smiled. "Tomorrow."

One long lingering kiss later, I was headed off the runway, dragging my suitcases to the parking lot. Beth had stayed behind to go over instructions with the pilot, and I was waving like a fool at the empty plane. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and the only thing on my mind was a selfish wish that I could fast forward to the next moment she would be in my arms.

I tossed my keys on the dresser and stripped down to my boxers. I flopped down on the bed and checked my email. There were two emails waiting for me. The first was a follow-up with Victoria. She was going on about how nice it was to meet me and how I should contact her if I wanted to see her again sometime. The other was from a new girl, well one I hadn't recognized. Her name was Georgia, and she claimed to be a cowgirl. Her profile said that she was the daughter of a horse farmer and animals were her passion.

Her message said, "Hi Drew, I'm sorry my message was so late. This season is always busy for us with the shows and all. I'd love to meet ya sometime. You could come out to see the farm or maybe I could meet you in the city. Alrighty see you soon!"

I could hear the country accent in her words, and it was very charming. There wasn't a single regret when I deleted the emails. I did hate leaving Victoria after such a nice first meeting, but I couldn't imagine not seeing where this thing with Beth was going.

We had planned to have lunch the next day at work. I grabbed my phone and spent the next few seconds flipping through the pictures we had snapped during the conference. Beth in that outrageous bikini, and Beth in the jaw dropping banquet dress, and then there was my favorite . . . Beth sleeping on my shoulder in the massive hotel bed. I fought the urge to call her to see what she was up to. I wanted to know if she was feeling anywhere near as eager as I was. I didn't want to spend a moment away from her, but I didn’t want to come across as the hormonal teenager I had channeled over the last few days, so I decided to call my buddy Matt. It had been weeks since we'd hung out, and I was curious to see what he would think about my progress.

"Hey man! What are you up to? I said.

"Nothing, just chillin' at the house." He sounded bored out of his mind.

"You wanna hang out? You could come to my place or we could head out?"

He opted for my place. There was plenty to do here anyway—pool table, hot tub, fully stocked bar. He had crashed here so many times I couldn't keep track. In fact, he lived in the guest bedroom for about a year after college.

Matt was the terminal bachelor type. He dated, sure, but he hadn't found the one and swore he never would. Matt said he would pick up Jason on the way. It would be a makeshift boys’ night. Man, I was getting old.

When they arrived with a couple boxes of pizza, I instantly felt better. Beth wasn't far from my mind, but I could focus on something else, anything else. After a few rounds of pool and several alcoholic beverages, we got down to business.

"So Drew . . .” Matt slurred. "How has your online dating thing working out?"

"Oh man, are you on one of those?" Jason laughed.

"Yeah, I mean I was, but I think I found the one." We all high fived and the guys were dying to hear about this broken road. I pulled up my profile and received a few elbows and jokes about my answers. But when I showed them the girls I had been dating, they shut up real fast.

"Damn!" they said in unison when we got to Jenna's picture. "Please tell me she's the one."

"Nah! Not even close." I took a swig of beer and continued down. I gave them the breakdown of my dates. They thought the rave chick was super-hot. I may not have mentioned that she sent me packing, but that's not important.

When Matt got to Victoria, he asked me about her. He bent down to look more closely at the screen, and even with her daughter in the picture, he didn't look deterred. "Dude, if she is not the one then I want to meet her." He was mesmerized. I told him what I knew about her, and he didn't seem the least bit worried about having a kid in his life. I didn't quite know how to tell her that she wasn't for me, but my friend liked her. I decided to leave that to fate. He had her name and her profile information so he could contact her on the site and maybe it wouldn't be so awkward for her. By the end of the night, we were all still laughing and joking about me being Mr. Playboy.

"So Mr. Playboy, which one of these fine ladies is the ‘one,’" Matt said, with one sleepy eye open.

"Her name is Beth." I murmured, with a dreamy
I’m in love
look on my face.

"Whoa, whoa. Beth? Like your dad’s assistant Beth? Are you out of your mind?" Matt screeched, sitting straight up from his lying position on my couch. "Your dad is going to
freak!
" he sang.

"Yeah . . .” I agreed, as the wind was sucked from my chest. I took another swig of the room temperature beer and tossed it in the trash. "But it’s cool, man." I tried desperately to reassure them, but really myself. Jason sat quietly staring into space as I continued, "I’ll just have to convince him that I am serious."