His blood started to run hot, his body getting hard.
“Whatever I want?” she asked.
“Whatever you fucking want.”
He felt delicate fingertips on his thigh, and everything in him went hard. Then her fingers migrated upward, toward his arousal. He gritted his teeth, desire coursing through him like a river.
“I can’t wait to see you,” she whispered.
His breath hissed through his teeth, and he shifted his weight. And then her hand was there, over his hardness, and he was doing his best to keep his eyes on the road.
“I’m going to crash the truck,” he said.
“Well, don’t do that,” she said. “It’s a very nice truck.”
“I know it’s a nice truck,” he said. “Varmint.”
He steered the truck off the road onto the shoulder. They were in a secluded part of the highway lined with trees, and there were no other cars around. And he hauled her up out of her seat, undoing the seat belt as he did it, and brought her over onto his lap, placing either of her legs on the sides of his thighs. And then he brought her head down and kissed her.
Hard.
Poured every ounce of his desire and frustration into her.
And every bit of him didn’t want to wait until they got up north. Didn’t want to wait for that hotel room. He wanted her here, and he wanted her now. He wanted her in this truck, on the side of the road, he wanted her and he didn’t know if he could wait.
She curled her fingers in his hair, grabbing hold of him and making a little kitten sound as she kissed him, deep and hard, and this time she didn’t run away. She rocked her hips against him, she gave him as good as she got. She parted her lips and thrust her tongue into his mouth like the bold, quick study that she was.
Because she was Elsie Garrett, and she was fearless, and he should’ve known that. No nerves for his girl.
But they couldn’t. Not here. Because he had gotten that hotel. Because he wanted to make it special. Because he wanted to make it perfect. Because he wanted to rip open his chest and give her something he didn’t have a name for.
And when they parted, his heart was pounding, and he was sweating. And he was so hard it hurt. He couldn’t breathe for wanting her. And all he could do was stare at her, with the sunlight streaming into the truck, and the thick green pines as a backdrop. Elsie. Out in nature. And he knew. He needed to have her outside. Out in the field, where she would be surrounded by nature. In her element.
His body growled with desire.
“Elsie,” he said. He lifted his hand and cupped her cheek. “You are something else.”
She blushed and scrambled off his lap, breathing hard as she rested her head against the seat. “Let’s go,” she said.
“It’s for the best.”
He started the truck and eased back out onto the road, and they were quiet for a ways.
“Where are we going?” she asked when they made it to Vancouver and did not go the way they had last time.
“I thought... I thought maybe the motel wasn’t quite the order of the day.”
“Oh,” she said.
He turned onto the off-ramp that took them downtown, and they were surrounded by glass and chrome buildings, the kinds of places neither of them had much experience with.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“Like I said. I thought it should be special.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Do you hate it?” he asked. “Because if you hate it, I’ll take you to the motel. I’ll take you anywhere. Elsie, whatever you want, I’ll make sure you get it.”
And he didn’t know why those words felt so drastically short of what they should be. Because he didn’t know what the words should be.
He had never done this before. And he suddenly felt compelled to let her know that.
“I’ve never done this. I’ve never been to a place like this. I never planned on taking a woman to a place like this.”
This...
This wasn’t like anything else. She wasn’t like anyone else.
“I just wanted you to know that. This isn’t some kind of game that I run.”
“I know,” she said.
That trust, that easy belief in him, just about broke him open.
And then he pulled the truck up to the front of the hotel and let the valet take it from there.
* * *
ELSIE FELT LIKE an imposter wandering through this fancy place. She was wearing blue jeans, and a black tank top. She didn’t look anywhere near up to the standard of the high-gloss marble in the lobby. The ceiling was tall, and there were multiple seating areas all around the place. A shiny-looking bar off to the right.
“You check in online now,” he said. “Your phone can open the door.”
“That’s...that’s very strange,” she said.
“Yeah.”
She looked at Hunter, who was also wearing jeans and a black shirt, but for some reason, she didn’t think he looked out of place. He looked beautiful. And handsome. But suddenly, she was nervous. Because he had brought her to this place. He had brought her to this place with her jeans and her duffel bag, and she just wondered if he did want her to be something that she wasn’t. He had said that he didn’t.
But she...
Her chest was exploding with all of these weird underexplored feelings and she didn’t like any of them. She had never really worried about whether or not a man found her attractive. Even when she wanted to pursue Travis she was more worried about letting him know that she was interested, not him thinking that she was good enough. Not him thinking that she was pretty enough. And she knew that Hunter said that he did. He had affirmed it. Over and over again. He had been as encouraging as any man could be. And when he had pulled over earlier and hauled her on his lap like he couldn’t wait, she had been thrilled.
He pushed the door on the elevator, and let her go in first. And she was thankful when no one got on with them.
“I got a text that said we were on the twenty-fifth floor.”
“That is very high,” she said. Which was about the lamest thing that could possibly come out of her mouth.
“You ever been in a high-rise?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Me either.”
“Why are we in one now?”
“I told you.”
He had.
Tears stung her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You told me. But I have a hard time believing it.”