I was beginning to really enjoy my time with Rhett and his family. My talk with him the day before had eased many of the worries I’d had about staying there, leaving me more room to relax and just go with the flow. Admittedly, that wasn’t one of my strong points, but I could see its positives at the moment.
A few whistles and hollers sounded through the crowd, and my attention snapped over to where four performers were lining up on one side of the track. The bikes they sat on revved to life, competing against the cheers that soon grew to a deafening volume.
Bess looked like she was in her element. I felt bad for her since I figured she didn’t get out a lot. She’d just finished her cosmetology certificate, and from what I understood, her parents weren’t super keen on her leaving the nest anytime soon. She didn’t seem all that rushed about leaving either. That wasn’t something I understood, having jetted out of my parents’ place and into the dorms at Boston University the first chance I’d gotten. But considering how much she was glowing, I couldn’t fault her for it.
The riders threw up dirt in their wake and started circling the track. Nothing crazy at first, just getting the lay of the land. There was probably around a quarter mile of track to work with, and it had a few jumps and gullies, with one big ramp with a bypass beside it. One of them went for the big jump right away and landed it to a chorus of shouts and cheers.
I had to admit...it was pretty exciting.
And then it happened. Two riders were coming around the corner toward us, and one got a little too close to the other, clipping his back tire. It wasn’t a big hit, but it was enough that I knew the other rider was going down.
And based on even my limited knowledge of physics, he was going to take us down with him.
5
Drew
Fuck.
When the guy beside me – Dean, I think his name was – hit the corner too fast, I knew he’d end up bumping me. And I also knew that when he did, I’d end up barreling straight into the audience if I didn’t do something quick. Not only that, but the girl I’d seen in town was standing right at the curve. I noticed her just as Dean’s tire clipped mine, and I began to slide. I had two seconds to fix the problem before I ruined that pretty little face of hers.
Luckily, I had great reflexes.
I was able to flip the bike and twist my body so that it slammed into a hard stop only a few feet from those pretty legs. In the process, my helmet went flying. But at least it wasn’t my bike.
The sounds around me came back into focus; the heavy thudding of my heart against my ribs, the concerned gasps of the crowd, the distant carnival music. And the scraping footsteps she took to retrieve my helmet from where it had stopped a couple feet in front of her.
I pulled my bike off to the side, and the girl followed me, as I’d hoped she would. A couple of people came over to ask if I was okay, but I waved them off. I only wanted to talk to her.
“You should probably strap your helmet on next time.”
The kind of groupies that went after stuntmen usually didn’t open with criticism. Yet I thought I saw a spark of attraction in her sapphire eyes. Interesting.
She held the helmet out to me, and I lifted it from her hand. “Maybe that was all part of the show,” I replied.
Her little shorts revealed far more leg than the dress she’d worn yesterday, and I was pleased to see that her legs were just as sexy up close as from a distance. The way the material clung to her hips and ass was almost sinful.
“I doubt the Holmwood Fair has the resources to hire stunt performers with such coordinated tricks.” She shrugged. “But if you say it was a part of the show, who am I to argue?”
I chuckled. She was right. Holmwood was one of the smaller fairs I’d booked for this summer. All I had to do was show up and drive around their track.
“Well, you’re right. That wipe-out was the real deal,” I said, ruffling my hand through my shaggy hair. “I’m just glad I was able to stop before I messed up that beautiful face of yours. Your boyfriend would have killed me.”
The girl furrowed her brow. “Boyfriend? Rhett?” She snorted. “He’s just a friend.”
Just a friend, huh? I could work with that.
I took a step toward her, now close enough that I could lean down and kiss her if I wanted. And those cherry pink lips looked ripe and ready for me.
But not yet.
“What are you doing tonight?” I asked. “Maybe you could give me a few more...safety pointers.”
Her eyes widened, and I watched her pupils grow. Fuck. If she kept looking at me like that, I wouldn’t be able to resist having a taste right now. And I didn’t even know her name.
“I could...I could probably make time in my schedule for that,” she replied breathlessly. “As long as you’re not a serial killer or anything.”
“Only one way to find out,” I joked. “I’m Drew, by the way.”
“Jinx.” She smiled and was about to say something else when a female voice called out to her.
“Jinx? Where’d you go?”
Jinx craned her neck to see a little brunette heading toward us through the crowd. Beside her was the guy I’d thought was her boyfriend. They spotted us and started to head over.
“I gotta go,” Jinx said.
She gave me her number, and then she was gone. But this time at least I knew I’d see her again.
Jinx met me at the front gates after the fair closed, just as we arranged. She’d changed into a tight pair of jeans and a cream-colored short-sleeved shirt that hugged her waist and tits like an old friend. I couldn’t remember ever going out with a girl dressed so demurely. I couldn’t remember ever finding a girl so hot.
It made me feel suddenly self-conscious about just how sweaty and covered in dust I was. The stunt groupies usually dug it. But this chick? Who even knew what kind of shit she liked. She wasn’t like anyone I’d met before, that much I knew for sure.
“You came,” I said, slipping through the gate, and closing it behind me.
“Of course I came.” She cocked her head to the side, sending a chunk of her wavy white blonde hair spilling over her shoulder. “Did you think I was going to stand you up?”
I shrugged and shoved my hands in my jean pockets. “I thought you might chicken out.”
“Do I have reason to?” she asked, quirking a brow.
My mouth turned at the corners. She didn’t seem alarmed. If anything, Jinx was amused by the possibility that there could be some unseemly things to discover about me.
“Nah.” I gestured over to the parking lot. “Ready to go for a ride?”
She’d come wearing jeans, so I didn’t feel bad about suggesting we get on the bike. If she had come in anything less suitable, I probably would have just taken her for a walk down to the beach, which wasn’t far away. Not that I’d fuck up and crash or anything, but she didn’t seem the type to take too many risks. Yet the more I talked to her, the more I was beginning to wonder.
She nodded. “I’ve never been on a motorcycle before.”
“It’s easy,” I said. “Just hold on tight, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Jinx’s laugh was quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds. She laughed without holding back, without checking herself to make sure she was being dainty and cute. Her mouth dropped open, exposing two rows of pearly white teeth each time the musical sound escaped, and I couldn’t help thinking she must have had the prettiest smile I’d ever seen.
“I can’t believe your brother did that!” she exclaimed in reaction to me telling her how much Dallas used to pretend to be me when we were kids. “I don’t have any siblings, and I’ve always wanted one, but now I’m beginning to reconsider.”
“I’ve got three of them, which seems like a lot of fun until Thanksgiving when Derek and Delaney want to watch the game, Dallas wants to watch the fights, and I just want some peace and quiet.”
I took another draw on my beer and then nestled the bottle back in the sand. We had decided
to go to the beach after all, after a quick stop at a gas station to grab a couple beers. Now we watched the waves spill across the sand, sometimes inching up to our bare toes. And we talked.
I’d spent time with lots of women, but I’d never been able to talk to one quite so much. Maybe I was just hanging with the wrong kinds of girls. Or maybe Jinx was the wrong kind of girl, and I was out of my element here. Normally, I probably would have had her naked by now, but I hadn’t even tried.
I was enjoying myself. And that was even weirder than the fact that she was still fully clothed.
“I take it you’re not from Holmwood,” I said.
“What makes you say that?” She gazed at me through her lashes, a hint of a challenge lurking in them.
I shrugged. “Your accent, mostly.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Mostly?”
“I’ve also never been chastised for my safety at one of these fairs before,” I said, grinning. “Seems like a pretty Northern thing to do.”
She shoved my arm playfully. “Hey!”
I started to tip and had to jam my hand into the sand to steady myself. She had some arm on her.
“I never said it was a bad thing!” I defended.
She tipped her head back and laughed. “My parents would love to have heard that. I think their proudest moment would be finding out that I was outing myself as a Bostonian by criticizing strangers.”
“Boston, huh?”
In other words, far from here. Far from me.
“How long you staying?”
She grew more serious, nibbling at her bottom lip absentmindedly. The moon cast a shadow over her face, so I couldn’t quite see her expression.
“I don’t know. It’s...well, it’s been an interesting trip so far,” she finally admitted. “I’m enjoying myself, and I’ve got the whole summer to figure stuff out. I’m just going with the flow.”
I liked that.
“So does this going with the flow leave you much time to hang out with dirty bikers?” I asked. “Cause I’d like to see you again. Maybe we could do something that doesn’t involve me tossing my bike at you first.”
She smiled at the memory and took a sip of her beer. “I think I could work that.” She looked down at her phone, checking the time. “Which is good because I should be heading back to my friend’s place soon. I promised him I’d dish about the date afterward, and he’s very impatient.”
I laughed. She’d filled me in that she wasn’t exactly Rhett’s type, and it had pleased me more than I thought it would.
“Sure, I’ll drive you back.” I plucked the beer from her hand and nestled it next to mine in the sand. “But one more thing first.”
“What’s that?”
She’d barely had time to recognize the look in my eyes before I pressed my lips to hers. I was a little worried she’d pull away, but fuck if she didn’t melt against me like butter.
I took my time with the kiss, not wanting to scare her off. I kept my hands on her face and back, licking at her lower lip until she opened wider for me. My cock came to life, straining against the zip of my jeans – but I didn’t want to rush her, so I tried to ignore it.
Jinx surprised me. She slid over into my lap and pushed me back into the sand, deepening the kiss. And with that kind of enthusiasm, ignoring the ache in my pants was a lot more difficult. I groaned.
“Can I...?” She trailed off, sliding a hand up my thigh. “Can I...touch you?”
I groaned again. She was so goddamn hot, and I bet she didn’t even know it.
“Only if I can touch you first.”
The low growl in my voice made her eyes widen in surprise and her breath caught in her throat. She seemed to be at a loss for words but raised her chin in a tiny nod.
I rolled her onto her back and ground my dick against her, capturing her mouth again. I wouldn’t fuck her tonight, but I was damn sure getting a taste. She was putty in my hands as I unzipped her jeans and pulled them down just enough for me to get my hand inside.
Her slick folds parted for me like velvet. I was so turned on that I had to resist an almost overwhelming urge to just take her pants off the rest of the way and bury myself inside her. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and I nibbled at her lush mouth, parting her lips with my tongue in time with my thrusting fingers.
Her breaths came heavy and fast. She reached under my shirt and clawed at my back, and I let out a long moan against her mouth. She’d surprised me all night, and I was dying to know how she’d surprise me next.
I massaged her clit with my thumb and continued to glide my fingers in and out of her pussy, and she arched up to meet me with each thrust. Her kisses grew more erratic, her breathing even more labored. She was close, and the fact that I was about to get to see her come made my cock so hard I thought I’d burst through my jeans.
Her body seized and convulsed around my fingers, earning a curse from me. Her face contorted in ecstasy and she let out a low, hoarse moan. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
I couldn’t wait to see what she’d look like when she came on my cock.
I kissed her gently as her breathing calmed back down, slowly sliding my hand from the front of her pants. Her eyes fluttered open when I pulled back and stuck my finger in my mouth, tasting her sweet nectar. Fuck. She tasted good.
Before I realized what she was going to do, her mouth crushed against mine, and I let her roll me onto my back. Shaky hands found my zipper and tugged on it. I reached down to give her a hand, and within moments, my aching cock was out, and her hands were on it.
She fumbled at first, her nerves clear, but fell into a rhythm that sent a stream of curse words falling from my mouth. Her hands were hot, and her touch was firm, the perfect combination of pressure and friction. She didn’t seem like she’d done this a million times before, but she wasn’t exactly inexperienced either. Like when she’d responded to my first kiss, I could see that she was the sort of woman who knew what she liked and wasn’t ashamed of it. Not like some of the groupies I’d fucked who thought sexual confidence meant throwing themselves at everything with a penis and wearing shit that barely kept them covered. Jinx wasn’t like that at all.
“Fuck,” I groaned, my hips pumping up into her fist. “You’re so fucking hot.”
Her lips covered mine, tongue stroking across mine in time with her hand’s movements. I wasn’t going to last much longer, not with the heady taste of her on my tongue, the scent of her surrounding me.
The seconds seemed to slip away. I was somewhere where time didn’t matter, where the only thing that mattered was her hands on my cock and her mouth on mine. Then her teeth nipped at my bottom lip, and I buried my hand in her hair, holding her face in place as I spilled over her hand.
She didn’t look embarrassed or ashamed when I finally pulled back. In fact, she kept her eyes locked on mine as she mimicked my previous movement and lifted her hand to her mouth. I nearly came again when she licked her fingers.
Forget my bike. Jinx was the true danger.
And like every other dangerous thing in my life, I was drawn to her, consequences be damned.
6
Jinx
I spent a lot of time with Drew over the past couple of days. I still couldn’t believe I’d agreed to go out with a guy like him, much less that we’d ended up getting each other off right there on the beach. I hadn’t known what to expect with him, but that night hadn’t been it. Drew was hard to describe. One second I’d think he was pure male testosterone and walking sex, the next he’d be making me laugh like no one but Rhett ever had.
“Going out with your boyfriend tonight?” Rhett asked, breaking me from my reverie.
I jumped on the sofa, where I’d been sitting with my laptop.
“Christ, Rhett.” I placed a hand on my chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”
He smirked and slid down onto the sofa, pulling my laptop out of my hands. “What have you been doing on here all morning anyway?” After scrolling for a cou
ple minutes, he looked up at me. “The Boston Globe. I didn’t know you applied there.”
I snatched my laptop back and shut it closed. I didn’t know how many times I’d re-read the email that Rhett had just peeked at.
“I applied to a bunch of papers before we left,” I said. “I didn’t think any of them would get back to me so soon.”
He snorted. “Of course somebody got back to you. You’re a catch. Who wouldn’t want to snap you up?”
I eyed him quizzically. “You do know how difficult it is to get a job in journalism, right? Especially in a day and age where any idiot with internet access thinks they can write. And I’m right out of college.”
“Then you’re going to the interview?”
The Globe had tried to call, but I’d been out of cell range at the time – which was typical for the area, unfortunately. They’d left a message, but had also sent a follow-up email to invite me to interview at the end of the week.
“I’ve got to go.” I nodded, more as affirmation for myself than for my friend. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Rhett grabbed my laptop and set it down on the coffee table, then pulled me over into a hug. Since I’d found out he was gay, I no longer wondered during these hugs whether he was just trying to feel me up or not. He was a very touchy person, and I was grateful that I could simply appreciate the comfort now.
“I just hope Drew is as happy for you as I am,” Rhett said.
I gulped. I hoped so too. We’d been spending a lot of time together. Every night since that night at the beach in fact. Plus, I hung out with him at the fair during his breaks. Rhett and his family were busy “reconnecting” so I didn’t feel bad about not being around. And Rhett was more than happy to send me off into the arms of a hunk who he hoped would be enough to convince me to stay nearby forever.
I’d never intended to stay in North Carolina for more than a couple weeks. This job interview was just another reminder of how inconvenient it was that, despite only knowing him for a little while, I’d begun to possibly, maybe, a little bit, fall for Drew.