Where There's a Will (Whiskey River Book 1) (4 page)

Her fingers worked on the buttons of his shirt while she kissed him. He cupped her bare butt in his hands pulling her closer to him and caressing her.

When she had the buttons undone, she lifted her head and sat back on her heels. She pushed the fabric out of the way and then down his shoulders.

He was all muscular male. His skin was tanned, no doubt from the hours he spent outdoors and when she ran her finger down the center of his chest, he tightened his pecs making them jump under her touch.

She looked up at him. He arched an eyebrow at her. “Impressed?

He had no idea. He was bringing laughter into this. It was more than sex and she knew that she was falling in love with him. With these little things that he did so effortlessly. “I am.”

She scraped her fingernail down his chest, slowly circling his belly button with the tip of her nail. His stomach muscles clenched and she felt his erection stirring between her legs.

She moved her finger lower, tracing his erection through the fabric of his pants. He groaned and reached between them to undo his belt and free himself.

She wrapped her hand around him. Stroked him up and down until he tangled his hand in her hair and brought her mouth down to his. He thrust his tongue deep into her mouth with passion.

She shifted, rubbing against him until she felt the tip of him poised to enter her body. She was wet and ready for him.

Aching for him would be a more accurate description. She needed Ryder inside of her. Now.

“Are you on the pill?” he asked, his voice gruff and husky.

“Yes,” she said.

Without another word, he skimmed his hands down her back, lifted the skirt of her dress out of the way and put his hands on her hips, as he positioned the tip of his cock at her entrance.

She slowly slid down his length until he was fully seated inside of her. She had never felt so full before and when she tightened around him he moaned her name.

She liked that sound.

She shifted, rocking back on him before slowly moving forward again.

He kissed her again, driving up into her, his hands on her backside kept her moving and when she felt her climax feathering through her she sucked hard on his tongue, arching in his arms as he continued to thrust inside of her. She felt him empty himself and collapsed against him. Resting her head on his shoulder as his hands caressed up and down her back.

She lay there feeling like she’d found something she hadn’t been aware she’d been looking for. Dammit.

Ryder felt like home.

She’d never thought a person could be home, she’d always believed it was the walls and the house. All her life she’d been working toward buying herself the security she’d always craved, never guessing she could find it right here in Whiskey River.

Chapter Four

‡

“W
OW.”
N
OT VERY
original but Ryder’s brain had taken a vacation into ‘that was fantastic’ land. Addison made a soft sound of satisfaction. He cuddled her closer, thinking that the only thing that would have made this better would be if they were both naked.

But they were in a shelter aka closet riding out a tornado warning and if ever there was a time to keep their clothes on it was now. He nuzzled her neck and said, “Next time we’re going to be naked in bed when we make love.”

Addison stiffened, then lifted herself off his lap and began searching for her panties. He picked them up and handed them to her, watching as she wiggled back into them. Something was wrong, but he had no clue what. He felt . . . unsure of himself. That hadn’t happened in a very long time.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t regret making love.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why did you suddenly freeze when I talked about doing it again?” Two minutes before she’d been glowing in the aftermath of great sex. Now he felt a blue norther chill emanating from her.

“I don’t regret having sex with you. But that doesn’t mean there’s going to be a next time. It doesn’t mean this is anything more than a—” she hesitated, then looked at him and finished, “a spontaneous encounter.”

“What the hell? Meaning what? We scratched an itch and that was that?” Of all the women Ryder had ever been with, Addison was the last one he’d have thought would go for a one-time quickie in a closet. Besides, there was something between them, something a hell of a lot more than just hot sex.

“Meaning there’s no point reading anything more into what just happened than there is,” she said.

Her hair was mussed from his fingers, her lips still swollen from his kisses. She looked like exactly what she was, a well-loved woman. So what the hell was going on here? “Addison, we’ve been working toward this moment for a long time. We both know it. And it was great. So why would you want to call a halt to something so good? You’re not going to deny it was good between us.” He made it a statement because he knew damn well she thought the sex was as hot as he did.

She flushed but answered. “Whether the sex was good or not is beside the point.”

“Good sex is never beside the point.”

She frowned and shifted even farther away from him. “I’m looking for a job in another city, remember? Continuing to have sex will only make it harder when I do leave.”

In the silence following her words, Ryder could hear the wind shrieking. More hail was beating on the roof, audible even in their hiding place. The storm was getting worse. Addison looked uneasy, which he assumed was due to the storm, but maybe it was due to the incredibly stupid conversation they’d been having.

“If you’re so sure you want don’t want to make love again,” he said, deliberately choosing that phrase, “then prove it.”

“Prove it?”

“Kiss me.”

“Oh, one kiss and I’ll fall into your arms again, is that it?”

“Scared I’m right?”

She frowned. “Your ego knows no bounds.”

“I’m waiting.” He tapped his lips and smiled.

She gave a frustrated sigh and muttered something he couldn’t quite make out over the noise from the storm. He suspected it was on the order of “jerk” or possibly “asshole.”

Addison leaned in and gave him a peck on his cheek. “Chicken,” he said softly. Those green eyes flashed fire. She put her arms around his neck and laid her lips over his. Her lips softened, her mouth opened, inviting him in. He stroked his tongue over hers, put his hand on her breast, kneading it gently through her clothes. Her nipple pebbled and she moaned, then slid her leg over his and perched on his lap again.

She was all in and so was he. Maybe they couldn’t take off all their clothes but he had to see her. He unzipped her dress, sliding it down her arms to pool at her waist. Unhooked her bra and slid it down as well. Her hands were trapped in her clothes, her beautiful breasts bared to his gaze. “At the risk of repeating myself, wow,” Ryder said.

Addison gave a soft gurgle of laughter. “Flatterer.” She pulled her hands free, placing them on his head as he bent and took her in his mouth. He sucked one nipple, then moved to the other. He felt her fingers in his hair, holding him close.

Thunder boomed, a loud crack that sounded disconcertingly close. Addison started, drawing back from him. He raised his head and looked into her eyes. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No. I want you to make it go away.”

“Oh, baby, I would if I could.” He hated seeing her upset. Hated having her remember the terror of that long ago storm that had torn apart her world.

“You can,” she whispered. “Make love to me, Ryder.”

That, he could do. But he didn’t want this time to be quick and hot. He wanted long, sexy, hotter than hell. “There’s a mattress right over there,” he said, motioning to it.

“I like the way you think,” she told him, smiling. Moments later she lay back on it, still half-dressed and looking sexier than the law allowed.

Ryder joined her, kissed her, then worked his way down her body. He didn’t know about Addison but the only storm he heard was the thundering of his heart as he slipped inside her.

*

I
DIOT.
I
T WAS
the only thought that kept echoing in her head. How could she have made love to Ryder not once but twice? This wasn’t part of the plan. Of course at this moment with the smell of Ryder and sex perfuming every breath she took it was hard to think clearly.

His heartbeat was steady under her ear and it took more willpower that she thought she had to force herself up and out of his embrace.

The wind had stopped howling; of course the storm inside of her still raged. Nothing had ever shaken her resolve to move away from Whiskey River. To shake the dust of this small town from her heels and her life. Nothing and no one…until this moment with Ryder.

She hated to be weak. There was a reason why she kept a picture of that old house that she grew up in taped to the wall above her vanity. She looked at it every morning as a reminder of where she’d come from and where she never wanted to go back.

And it wasn’t that an affair with Ryder would send her back to The Barrels. More that she couldn’t—wouldn’t let herself depend on a man. On something as fickle and fleeting as sex. Not love. She wasn’t going to let herself fall for Ryder. Not now, not ever.

Well, maybe in ten years when she was established in her own right. When she could come to him as an equal. Except that her heart wasn’t too sure that was an option.

Was she really the type of woman who was going to let her heart rule her head? She knew Ryder was a good guy, he dated around, but he didn’t play fast and loose with women. But she had plans to get out of here. To pursue her own dreams and suddenly he was making her doubt what she wanted.

“Where are you going?” he asked. His voice was husky and he looked relaxed as he gave her a sexy smile.

She almost returned it. But like she’d told him, she was leaving. There wasn’t a job for her here when she graduated. She knew it.

Austin
.

She had to stay focused on Austin. That was the only thing that could keep her mind off of that sexy-sweet smile of Ryder’s. Or how good it had felt to be in his arms. Even now a part of her wanted to just crawl back into his arms and stay there. Forget about the world outside of this closet.

But she wasn’t going to do that.

She cleared her throat, looking around for a distraction and spotted the radio. She picked it up, tuning it until she found local weather. Thank God, they announced that the storm cells had passed and while Gillespie County was still under a severe thunderstorm warning, the threat of tornadoes had passed. She could breathe again. Her fear and nerves ebbed along with the warning. She started to feel almost normal.

“Sounds like the storm has stopped,” she said. “Where are Johnny and Fiona? Do you think they’ll be along to check that we’re okay?”

“It’s certainly possible.” He got to his feet straightening his clothing and while she straightened her own she looked at him. No matter what she told herself, the truth was she cared about Ryder. Way more than she had thought she could. He was making her think of things that she knew couldn’t happen. Things like the two of them working together in this building and going home together each night.

Snap out of it, Addison
. She wouldn’t be like her mother, dependent on a man and his approval to find her own self-worth.

“Hey, Ryder?”

“Yeah,” he asked in that laconic way of his, drawing the word out.

“Thanks for distracting me from the storm,” she said flippantly.

She reached for the door to the closet to open it but Ryder reached over her shoulder and put his hand against it. He was pressed all along her back and though she knew she should be sexually sated a shiver of awareness slithered down her spine.

Chapter Five

‡

W
HAT THE HELL
? Surely he hadn’t heard her correctly. Had Addison called the earth-shattering, mind-blowing, hotter-than-hell sex they’d just shared a
distraction
?

“What did you say?” He breathed the words into her ear, noticing her involuntary shiver with satisfaction.

She looked over her shoulder at him, the expression in her eyes unreadable. Damn, she was going to be a good lawyer, he realized. He’d never seen her quite like that before.

“I said thank you for helping me deal with the storm.” Pushing his hand aside, she opened the closet door and slipped out.

Stunned, Ryder stood there a moment before following her. She murmured something, then headed for the bathroom. That was fine, he could use a break himself, but if she thought he wouldn’t respond to her comment, she had another think coming.

Distraction
? The very word pissed him off. Because she hadn’t said it jokingly. She’d been dead serious. Calling what they’d just shared a distraction was on par with calling a—a tornado, damn it, a little windstorm.

Fifteen minutes later, it dawned on him that she must have gone back to her desk rather than coming into his office, so he went in search of her. Sure enough, there she sat, clothes straightened, hair brushed, lipstick reapplied, and reading one of her law books. As a reminder that she didn’t plan on sticking around, the sight of that book really torched him.

He put his hand on the doorframe, as much to ground himself as anything. “Did you really call what just happened between us a
distraction
?” he asked, “Or have I slipped into an alternate universe?”

Startled, she looked up. Her expression conveyed surprise, then consternation. “I—yes, you could take it that way. But I didn’t intend to hurt your feelings.”

Ryder ground his teeth. “You didn’t hurt my feelings. You pissed me off royally.”

“Why?” she asked.

She seemed truly bewildered, which only pissed him off more. If she was trying to get under his skin she was wildly successful. “Because what happened in that closet,” he said, jerking a thumb toward it and biting out the last words, “was soul sex and you damn well know it.”