Mary Ellen Courtney - Hannah Spring 01 - Wild Nights Read Online Free PDF

rock riffs.
    We only stayed for a few dances, but we did great. I missed dancing. Steve danced the same way he drove, except that he had some rubbing up against me thing he did. He thought it was sexy; I thought it was embarrassing.
    I bought one of the Nancarrow CDs. I have a habit of buying CDs in the heat of the night. They’re never as good the next day. We headed back to Escondido.
    “You’re a good dancer,” I said.
    “That’s cowboy shuffling. You caught on fast. The band was good.”
    “They were great, I don’t usually like country. Do you know anything about places in Escondido? Nothing fancy.”
    “We can just head in, see what’s close to the dealership.”
     
    There was an Econo Lodge only a few blocks from where I’d parked the car. The vacancy sign was lit.
    He parked behind the loaner and killed the engine. We sat in the dark, the engine ticked; Rex dreamt a chase sequence in the back.
    I turned to him, “Thanks for doing all this.”
    He leaned over and brushed my lips with his, then ran his thumb across them with a gentle stroke.
    “I didn’t know I’d find you under the hood of my rig.”
    I felt a hot flush and then an up-suck between my legs that felt like a wild animal. Heat surged to my belly button, then fanned out around my heart. My breasts stood up and my breath caught. I know Emily would put it in more delicate terms, though she might keep the wild animal part, but that’s what it felt like.
    He kissed me again, not just a brush stroke. I knew I shouldn’t, but it was like an unstoppable force. I had never felt that with Steve. We were like teenagers trying to get at each other. Except that we knew what we were doing which made it better in form and worse for my carping conscience.
    He pushed the seat back and I climbed up straddling his lap. He unbuttoned my blouse and unhooked my bra. I could feel him pressing up under me as he held a nipple gently in his teeth. If we didn’t stop I was going to end up having sex, to put it mildly, in the front seat of a car on a side street in Escondido. If word somehow got back to my mother, she’d be relieved that at least it was a Volvo.
    It was not the moral rehabilitation I had been working toward. I had a vision of him doing it with a woman at every truck stop. I had a vision of Steve’s disappointed face.
    “Oh my god,” I said. “My god. I can’t, I can’t do this.”
    He rolled his tongue slowly around my nipple before letting it go and burying his face between my breasts. I held his head between my hands with my face in his hair.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.”
    He didn’t say anything. Rex stuck his head over the seat and nuzzled my ear then went back to lie down.
    “I’m sorry,” I said.
    “It’s okay,” he was looking up at me. “I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do.”
    “I think you know that’s not it. I just can’t.”
    “We can work around things if that’s what you’re talking about,” he said.
    “It’s not that.”
    “We’re consenting adults, Hannah.”
    I couldn’t bear to break away from him, but I knew I couldn’t go forward.
    “I know we are. But the other adults around us wouldn’t consent.”
    “We’re not married.”
    “No, I know. I just can’t,” I said.
    I don’t know how long we stayed like that. I couldn’t get enough of his scent. The car started to get chilly but the contact between us was still burning. He slid his hands up and covered my breasts then re-hooked my bra. He started to button my blouse.
    “Is this what you meant by taking whatever comes your way?” I asked.
    He froze mid-button and looked at me. His expression was so dark the whites of his eyes flashed. I felt like I was rooted to him and at the same time I was trying to insult him away. He finished buttoning my blouse, ”Yeah, that’s what I meant, but I’m not you, I don’t feel bad about it.”
    It took a lot of awkward effort to climb off him