“So,” Nico began, “are we going to just pretend this is all friendly?”
“We’re not friendly?”
“We’re a little more than friendly, don’t you think?”
Megan shrugged. “I mean, I guess it depends on your definition of friendly.”
“Really?” He pulled the truck over on the side of the road, slid the stack of papers on the center console to the floor, and hooked an arm around Megan’s neck, pulling her mouth within inches of his. “I’ve been thinking of kissing you again for days.”
Okay, that was more than friendly. “Really?”
“Your mouth tastes like honey. What the hell is that? Your toothpaste? Who has honey toothpaste?”
“It’s my lip balm.” Kiss himmmmmm.
Sugar was shaking her hips and boogying down.
“Yeah, lip balm makes a lot more sense than toothpaste.”
Megan was losing patience. “Are you going to kiss me or just talk about it?”
Nico lowered his mouth to hers, pressed their lips together, and made himself comfortable. He explored her mouth, tasting each lip, dancing his tongue against hers, and stroking his thumb against the rapid pulse in her neck.
His warm hand threaded through the hair along her nape and pressed her mouth closer as his other hand ran down her side, cupping her butt and hooking her leg up.
“Center…” Kiss. Lick. “…console,” she muttered.
“Mm-hmm.” Nico slid his hands down and, in one breath-stealing move, took her hips between his palms and swung her over the center console of the truck and into his lap so she straddled his hips before their lips met again.
Holy shit. Sugar was in heaven because she was a definite sucker for casual displays of strength like that. Megan pressed her palms against Nico’s chest, loving the juxtaposition of hard muscle beneath soft flannel. She traced a single finger up behind one ear to tease a curl of his hair and felt the satisfying rumble of a groan underneath her body.
Nico’s thumbs ran tantalizing tracks from the sides of her breasts, down to the dip at her waist, and over her hips to the small of her back where he settled his callused hands, one palm on each cheek, pressing her into the hard ridge of denim below his waistband.
Megan gasped and lifted her mouth, only to have Nico attach his lips to her throat and nibble at her jawline.
“Lord have mercy, I am not having sex with you in this pickup truck.”
“I wasn’t planning on that.” His tongue made a strategic line from her cleavage, up her neck, and trailing to the edge of her mouth, which he captured again. “We both have houses.”
“With teenagers in them.”
“Our kids aren’t home all the time.”
Well, that was true. Heck, when was the last time all three of her kids had been in the same place at the same time? She couldn’t think.
Probably because she was straddling Nico Dusi and he was doing sinful things to her collarbone.
“Okay.” She tried to organize her thoughts. “I don’t know when, but this definitely needs to happen.”
“Fuck yes, it needs to happen.” His hips arched up. “Do you feel that?”
“Yes.” She groaned.
“Want to feel more?”
“Nico!” She pulled away and pressed a hand to the center of his chest. “We are not. Having sex. In your truck.”
He looked around. “I’m just saying, if we pulled another half a mile off this road, no one but wild turkeys would be watching us.”
Do eeeeeet.
Shut up, Sugar!
Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were swollen. “We’re investigating a theft and possible murder, remember?”
He nodded. “I just feel like this tension” —he waved a hand between her breasts and his chest— “might be distracting us from seeing… stuff.”
“Stuff?” The corner of her mouth turned up.
“Things.” He peppered her neck with kisses. “Clues and… stuff.”
“Right.” She ran her fingers through the curls at his neck. “So really, us having sex would be…”
“Good.” His teeth scraped against her collarbone. “Just, I mean, good for our concentration.”
“Right.” She eased away from him. “We should…” She pointed toward the road.
“Yeah. We definitely should.” His voice was pure gravel on velvet. “Wait, are you saying we should pull off the road or get back on it and catch up with everyone else?”
“The catching-up one.”
“Fuck.” He patted both his cheeks and cleared his throat. “Okay, you’re gonna need to take what I believe are two very perfect breasts right out of my face if you want me to even think about rejoining civilization.”
“Right.” She crawled back over the center console, wondering how she’d been so flexible not ten minutes before. “That was a pretty smooth move, by the way.”
Ruddy color was riding high on his cheekbones. “Oh yeah? I’ll have to remember that.”
“I mean, maybe warn me next time so I don’t pull a muscle though.”
“Warning you might kill the mood.”
“Yeah, but so will a pulled muscle.”
“Good point.”
She tried to fix her shirt, but it was hopelessly crumpled. The best she could do was rebutton the top two buttons, fix her hair, and reapply lipstick.
“I feel like a fucking teenager every time you put on lipstick in front of me.”
She paused, her hand halfway finished putting her makeup on in the mirror. “Pardon me?”
Nico reached down and adjusted the sizable bulge in his jeans. “Just saying. Maybe avoid doing that in the middle of a fancy restaurant if we’re together.”
“Putting on lipstick?”
He shook his head. “Don’t ask me. It’s been a problem since the day I met you.”
Well, that didn’t feel awful. Megan finished applying her lipstick, rubbed her lips together, and made a small popping noise as she finished.
Nico mouthed “fuck” and looked away. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Oh?” Sugar was going to have fun with this one. “I can currently think of three very good reasons why you’ll be glad you did.”
His eyebrow went up. “Three?”
“Just off the top of my head, honey. I haven’t even really started thinkin’ yet.”
Chapter 17
Val, Sully, Henry, and Toni were waiting in the parking lot of Coral Canyon when they finally showed up. Megan could tell from the looks on every single one of their faces their friends knew why they were late.
“Hey.” Val walked over to Megan’s door as soon as they stopped. “Why are you late? Did you see some deer? It was deer, wasn’t it?”
Toni pointed to Megan’s shirt. “You’re only tucked in front. Did you miss the back?”
Megan smiled sweetly. “I hate you both. Can we get going, please?”
“Oh, now you’re in a hurry?” Toni waddled toward the path. “Do you know how bad I need to pee? It’s a lot.”