"My old friends are going to be ticked that I didn't show up tonight after promising I would. They're going to set up something else for sure. Next time you'll come with me?"
She hesitated.
"Kitty?"
Of course, with any luck, that next time might never come. "O...kay."
"Tomorrow night, then."
"What?" She was so startled, she pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine. "What are you talking about now?"
In the dashboard light his eyes were dark pools and only his cheekbones and mouth were illuminated. "A barbecue at Tony and Sylvia's tomorrow night. It's already planned. We'll go together."
"Dylan - "
"What's the problem? I'm starting to think you only like me in bed." He sounded amused. "Show me you love me for my mind too, Kitty."
Love. That was the problem. That was the heartbreak she was trying to steer clear of. Looking over at him in doubt, she sucked in her bottom lip.
He groaned. "Start the car and drive back to the dealership," he said. "Quick."
Startled, she immediately twisted the ignition key. "Why?"
His arm reached out and he traced the curve of her cheek, then ran his finger across her damp lower lip. "I've been trying to play the gentleman, honey, but something about seeing you bathed in blue light and surrounded by squeaky vinyl is obliterating my good intentions. We either get going, Miss Kitty, or we do it on the checkerboard back there."
The air instantly pulsed, alive with that sexual buzz that always ignored every barrier between them. Heat surged through Kitty's blood. She welcomed it, though. This was safe, this greedy lust that overtook her thoughts, her worries. Dylan was right. What was the big deal about being together? For now, for this time, couldn't he be hers? She spun the steering wheel to make a U-turn, her pulse starting to pound.
"You wouldn't have actually done it on the checkerboard, would you?" she said, her mouth dry.
His voice was silky. "Stop the car and find out."
"No!" She bit down on her lower lip. "I mean, someone, Jimmy, would know - "
"I'm not going to tell him."
"But on a checkerboard," Kitty protested. "It seems almost sacrilegious."
"Well, there is that," he said, amused again. "But, Kitty, I'm so hot for you right now, I'd do it on a Twister mat with a Monopoly game shoved under your hips and Scrabble letters in both my hands."
Kitty's heart knocked against her ribs as she pictured the scene. She frowned. "But what's with the Monopoly game?" she asked.
There was a heated silence. "That's it," he said, his voice deadly. "Pull off the road."
Kitty could only obey, her heart no longer knocking, but pounding inside her chest.
"Now, Miss Kitty," he said softly when the engine and the headlights were turned off, "tell me all your minivan fantasies."
She choked. "I don't have any sexual fantasies, exactly."
"Good. Then we'll just go with mine." With one swift movement he pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, his mouth moving hard and hot against hers.
Kitty melted against his chest, opening her mouth to stroke his tongue in welcome. She wound her arms around his neck and wrapped her hands in his hair, reveling in the feel of the glossy stuff between her fingers.
He shoved down the straps of her overalls and shoved up the shirt she wore underneath. Without interrupting the kiss, he adjusted her position so that she faced him, her knees on either side of his hips. "Bless the 'wide, comfortable seating,'" he murmured against her mouth, then brought her up and forward to suck her nipples through her bra.
She arched, twisting her hands in his hair. He sucked harder, and hot shards of pleasure arrowed from her breasts to her womb. She lowered herself onto his lap, grinding against the hard bulge she found there. His hips shot upward and she gasped when the pressure found her sweetest spot.
The windows of the van started to fog as he played with her. Finally he lifted his head. "Let's get in the back," he said, his breath ragged. He opened the door beside him.
She tumbled out of the van, but then he pushed her right back in via the sliding door and followed. To make room for him, she lifted the armrest of the two-person-wide middle seat, and scrambled along it until he caught her around the waist.
"Uh-uh," he said. He pulled down on her cut-off overalls, tugging them below her hips. Her panties came off too; then she was naked from