Read Wrecked Online

Authors: Cat Johnson

Wrecked (7 page)

BOOK: Wrecked
10.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

She glanced at the kid behind the bar, who might not be old enough to drink legally himself. “I think you’re right.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Only if I can ask you something in return.”

He looked surprised. “Okay. It’s a deal.”

“Fine. Ask your question.” CeCe took another gulp of her beer. It was so cold she found it went down like water. Fast and smooth.

Wade noticed her draining her glass and held up two fingers to the waitress before he turned to CeCe. “Okay, here’s my question. Aaron Jordan?”

Those two words had her eyes widening, before her blood pressure shot high. “He told you?”

“No. Calm down, beautiful. He didn’t. I overheard Garret James mention your name in regards to Aaron. I wasn’t inclined to believe him until just now when you confirmed it.”

There was no use lying about it so CeCe lifted one shoulder. “Temporary insanity.”

“It must have been. He’s a kid.”

“So you’re saying I’m too old to be with him?” She planted her palms on the table, ready to stand up and leave. If Wade didn’t have her blocked in the booth, she would be gone already.

“No. Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m saying he’s too young to be with you.”

“That’s the same thing.” She scowled at his supposed logic.

He planted his hand over hers, holding her in place. “No, it’s not. A woman like you needs a man, not a boy. You would have been bored with him inside of a week. You need a strong man and a strong hand.”

CeCe noticed he hadn’t moved his hand off hers, even when the waitress appeared with not just two beers, but two more shots.

Even Jolie noticed. She glanced down at Wade’s big hand covering CeCe’s before she yanked her gaze away.

“Thanks, Jolie.” Wade finally removed his hold on her to lift the shot glass. “To a strong hand.”

She wasn’t sure she agreed with that toast, but she didn’t argue and did the shot anyway. It seemed she was full of bad choices lately. Might as well add tonight to the list.

“My question now. Did you have sex with her?” CeCe tipped her head toward Jolie, now standing at the bar.

Why she asked that was confusing even to her. She was curious, but underneath that, there was something else completely irrational. Jealousy.

“Who? Jolie?” Wade asked, looking surprised by the question.

“Yes.”

“Why? Do you care if I did?”

“That counts as a new question for you to me and you haven’t answered mine to you yet.”

Wade’s lips twitched. “I didn’t realize we were keeping track of questions or conquests.”

“Stop trying to talk your way out of answering.”

“No, I didn’t have sex with her.”

“Hm.” That was a surprise. “Why not? She’s obviously interested in you.”

“Is she?” He smirked.

“Yes.” That much was obvious to CeCe and to Wade too, judging by his expression and his tone of feigned ignorance.

“The God’s honest truth is I was planning on it that first night. I figured I’d insure my entertainment for the weekend. She’s close, you know location-wise. That would be convenient. And I’d probably get free drinks.”

All logical things in a man’s mind, CeCe supposed. “And what happened?”

“The bartender on Friday night told me what a rough time Jolie’s been having lately. Single mom. Deadbeat husband walked out and isn’t paying his support. A woman like that is vulnerable. Easy to hurt. She doesn’t need me waltzing into her life for three days and then leaving.” He shrugged like it didn’t matter all that much.

Kind of blown away by the crack in the smart ass armor, CeCe realized his confession had probably been a bigger revelation about himself than he’d intended to make.

“Wow. That was really decent of you.”

“Yeah, sure. And that shock in your voice didn’t negate that compliment at all.” He shot her a sideways glance ripe with sarcasm.

She cringed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound that way.”

“Quite all right.” He drew in a breath. “My turn again. Why did it matter to you if I had been with her?”

CeCe laughed. “I honestly don’t know.”

He eyed her for a moment before lifting his beer and taking a sip. “You wanna know what I think?”

“Sure. Go ahead.” They were already down the rabbit hole. This night couldn’t get much more surreal.

“I think you needed to feel in control. That’s why you chose to be with a boy.”

They were talking about Aaron again? And he was insulting her too. “He’s hardly a boy. He’s in his mid-twenties.”

“I’m not talking age, beautiful. I’m talking wisdom and experience. At about his age I was married and about to be a father. Not too much later, I was divorced and paying child support.” He cocked a brow and paused as CeCe let all that information sink in. “On the other hand, rumor has it Aaron’s mamma still does his laundry every week.”

So many more revelations about the man and his life. And as he drank another gulp from his glass, it seemed Wade hadn’t even realized he’d made them.

He glanced up, caught her looking at him and frowned. “Why’re you staring at me like that?”

“You’re not what I expected.”

“Well, that statement there is ripe with all sorts of shit I don’t think I want to hear.” He grinned and shook his head.

“You’re probably right.” She had assumed the worst about him. She wasn’t hiding her surprise very well that she hadn’t gotten it.

“So why are you here tonight, beautiful?”

“That’s a new question.”

“You didn’t give me a very satisfactory answer to the last one so this one doesn’t count.”

“Fine. Why am I here? Because I didn’t want to be home and I guess I had nowhere else to go.” She averted her eyes when she felt those damn tears threatening to rise to the surface again.

What was it about this man that had her wanting to cry all the time? She had to give him credit though. He didn’t question. Or comment.

The shock came when he squeezed her hand for the briefest second and then drank some more beer.

She lifted her glass and did the same, realizing she was getting tipsy. “I’m going to be too drunk to drive home anytime soon.”

“Hotel’s right next door.”

“You hitting on me?” she asked.

“No. Actually I was telling you there’s vacancies according to the sign out front so you don’t have to drive tonight.”

“Oh.” CeCe didn’t know what to make of that.

Was he not interested enough to hit on her? Or worse, had Wade pigeonholed her in the same category as Jolie? Too pitiful to sleep with.

She glanced up to find him watching her closely. “I think you’re right.”

“About what?” he asked.

Forcing her gaze to hold his, she said, “A boy wasn’t what I need.”

Wade’s eyes narrowed and for the first time he looked completely serious and not one bit amused. “CeCe, don’t play with the bull unless you’re looking to get stuck by a horn.”

She didn’t have to be a bull rider to understand what he was saying.
 

Her being here. Drinking with him. Talking about personal things. Alluding to sex even . . .

Wade was telling her if she wasn’t interested in going all the way with this—with him—she’d better back off now.

As much as he joked around, she had a feeling he wasn’t the type to play games when it came to the serious stuff.

She should be ordering a cup of coffee and maybe some food if they had any. She should sober up and leave. Or get a room, alone, and sleep it off.

Instead all CeCe could think was that Wade probably had a really nice horn and she wouldn’t mind being stuck by it. Not one bit.

Definitely too much to drink. She pushed her beer away.

“I see an awful lot of thinking going on in that pretty head of yours, beautiful. You need to know something while you’re doing it. I’m not looking for a girlfriend or a wife.”

That elicited a snort from her. “That’s good because the last thing I want right now is another husband.”

He tipped his head. “Fair enough. Then what do you want?”

“To forget.”

He watched her for a few seconds more before he nodded. “That I can help you with. Stay here. I’ll go settle up the tab.”

Wade stood and was gone to the bar before she could second guess her decision and tell him she’d changed her mind.

She was still debating with herself when he returned and extended his hand to her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Swallowing hard, CeCe took his hand and slid out of the booth. She was crazy. Or drunk. Or both.

Or maybe Wade was right. She’d needed to forget—her lousy marriage, her cold big empty house, her next birthday looming ominously close before her.

Wade might just be the man to help her forget all that.

“You got everything?”

“Yup.” She held up her purse. It held not much more than a cell phone, wallet, lipstick and car keys. She wasn’t exactly prepared for a night of sex in a stranger’s hotel room.

Then again, she might be overthinking things. Raw simple sex just for the sake of having it really wouldn’t require more than what she and Wade had both been born with.

Simple sex. She really liked the idea of that.

CHAPTER 7

“So I have to admit something to you.” Wade glanced back at her as they pushed through the exit of the bar.

“What’s that?”

“I never had me a redhead and I have to ask, does the carpet match the drapes?” He grinned wide as the crudeness of the question made her gasp.

“You’re a pig.” She slapped his arm, but couldn’t resist answering. “And there is no carpet.”

Maybe it was just her attempt to try and shock him, the way he had her.

He glanced sideways, brows raised. “Really?”

“Really.”
 

Wade bobbed his head. “Nice.”

“So glad you approve.” She followed as he led the way to his truck.
 

“Oh, I approve.” He clicked open the locks and opened the passenger door before turning to lift her onto the seat of the truck. “So let’s see.”

She held the bottom of her skirt down as Wade planted his palms on her knees and began to move his hands up her legs. “In the parking lot of the bar? Are you crazy?”

“Some have said that, yeah.” He’d already started to push her skirt up in spite of her efforts to stop him.

“We can’t do this here. What if someone sees?” She glanced around them, hoping the parking lot remained empty of people until she could talk some sense into this man. “What if we get arrested?”

“You said you wanted to forget everything about your life. Well, all those questions you’re firing at me will keep you too occupied to think of much else, won’t they? That is until I get a chance to distract you properly.” He managed to snake his hands up beneath her skirt.

Distracting was the right word as Wade rubbed her through the fabric of her underwear.

“We shouldn’t—”

“Wrong. We definitely should.” He slipped his finger beneath her underwear and CeCe’s breath caught as he made contact with her bare flesh.

When he parted her with one finger, his teasing forced a sound of pleasure from her.

That encouraged him more. He added another finger and doubled the speed with which he worked her. Soon, he added a thumb and she was overwhelmed by the sensations of him filling her channel while rubbing the sensitive bundle of nerves that had her hips tilting toward his touch.

He smiled. “Mm. You’re beautiful when you’re about to come.”

“I’m not going to do that here.”

“We’ll see about that.” He yanked her underwear down, all the way, pulling the lace garment over her shoes and completely off. “Damn, you have got the longest legs of any woman I’ve ever seen.”

The compliment was nice, she supposed, but she wasn’t concerned with how he felt about her legs at the moment. There was a far greater concern.

“Wade, don’t you have a room we can do this in?” She wasn’t past begging he take them somewhere more private. “Or please, at least let me book us a room—”

BOOK: Wrecked
10.26Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

2 The Judas Kiss by Angella Graff
No Escape From Destiny by Dean, Kasey
Zombie by Oates, Joyce Carol
The Guard by Pittacus Lore
Shadows Have Gone by Lissa Bryan
A Disguise to Die For by Diane Vallere
Dig Ten Graves by Heath Lowrance
Fadeaway Girl by Martha Grimes
Doc in the Box by Elaine Viets