are you?” Luke caught up to her at the front door.
“Soon. I’m going to get something from my car.” She tipped her chin toward the parking lot. “Wanna come with me? I hear the gravel’s really special.”
“Rock jokes,” Luke said as he followed her. “Nice.”
They reached the car in moments. This was a different kind of dance. Celia turned, meaning to make another joke, and found herself backed up on chilly metal that felt good on her hot skin. Her ass rested against the hood, Luke already between her thighs as she pulled him closer by the belt buckle and offered him her mouth. It happened as naturally as his hands had earlier fallen to her hips, as skillfully as he’d turned her on the dance floor. His tongue stroked hers and sent shivers of pleasure trickling through her like water through stones.
The kiss softened. Ended. He rested his forehead on hers, his eyes closed, and Celia noticed one of his hands had cupped the back of her head, the other her hip. She’d hooked her heel over the back of his thigh. All in the space of just over a minute, not quite two.
“Hey.” Luke looked at her.
“Hey,” she said. “You’re a good kisser.”
“Oh, I can do much better than that,” Luke said and proceeded to show her.
It went deeper this time. A little harder, but not too much. It was what Celia’d always thought of as a starburst kiss, one explosion after another. This time she gasped a little when he pulled away, and she had to blink rapidly to unblur her vision.
“You sure can,” she said. “Wow.”
“Geologists really know how to rock.”
“Oh, bad. Bad, bad joke.” She groaned, letting her head fall back against his hand. Above her, the night sky was deep and dark and alight with stars. Luke shifted between her thighs and his belt buckle pressed against her, far too delicious and tempting to ignore. “Where are you staying?”
“Motel down the road.” He leaned in as though to kiss her but kept his mouth a scant breath from hers.
“Damn it. I have to take my cousin and her friends home. I have to go,” Celia said with true regret but also a little relief. She had an excuse for not giving in to the horny devil on her shoulder.
“Don’t go just yet.” He kissed her again, slower this time.
The hand on her hip squeezed gently, slid a little higher. He rocked her against him, just enough to make her want to wiggle and press herself against his belt buckle just a little harder, and she kept herself from doing just that by the barest grasp on her self-control. Luke was a great dancer and a great kisser, and Celia hadn’t had anything this sweet between her legs in a long, long time. What better way to water her dry spell than with a handsome, sexy stranger who would be gone in the morning?
“Luke. I have to go.” Her voice rasped, rough and raw with the rush of desire she hadn’t felt in months. How long had it been since she’d even let a man turn her head? Too long. Her hands slid up the front of his chest to toy with those too-damned-sexy snaps.
His mouth breezed along her jaw to her chin. His teeth nipped softly, just the right amount of pressure. His breath, hot in her ear, sent more shivers trembling through her, peaked her nipples, pulsed her clit. Her thighs opened wider, the soft fabric of her dress shifting against her bare legs as he pressed harder against her. The hand on her hip slid down, beneath her ass, to lift her the few inches onto her hood. She clung to him with another gasp at how easily he lifted her even that short distance, at how their tongues tangled and teeth clashed.
Breathing hard, she broke the kiss. “How long will you be in town?”
He licked his lower lip. “Not long enough. We go in tomorrow, take some samples. In and out fast, so we can get them back to the lab and see what’s there before anyone else does.”
“Where do you live?” It was against hope that he’d say Harrisburg, a forty- minute drive from her house. Or Philadelphia, just over an hour.
“Pittsburgh,” he said.
“Shit,” Celia muttered. Four hours away. A little long to drive for a coffee date.
The front doors banged open, spilling light into the parking lot, then a gaggle of bachelorettes followed. Dana was with them too, at least there was that. Lisa cupped a hand to her mouth.
“Wooooo hoooo! Celia! Cuz! Where you at?”
“I guess you have to go.” Luke kissed her again before pulling back to help her get off the hood.
Celia shook the folds of her dress around her thighs and used her pinky to wipe the corners of her mouth. Her thumb pressed the pad of her lower lip, kiss-swollen and wet. She could still taste him.
“Maybe…you’ll be back?” she asked hopefully, but before Luke could answer Lisa had spotted them and was stumbling across the gravel toward them.
“Cuz! Celia! What are you doing?” Behind her, Melody and Brit were helping a staggering Dana, who tripped and dragged them down with her. The three of them went to their knees in the gravel.
“Ouch,” Luke observed. “That will sting. Let me help you get them in the car, anyway.”
Her stomach muscles had gone tight with anticipation while they were kissing, but now everything in her sagged, disappointed at being denied such a sweet treat. “Thanks.”
When she dug in her bag for her keys to use her remote to unlock the doors, Celia noticed how much lower the front of her car had settled compared to the back. She took a step back, then another, barely registering that she’d pushed against Luke. The right front tire was completely flat.
“Shit!”
“What? It’s time to go, Celia. Seely, seely, seal. Ceila. Oh, hi, it’s a cowboy.” Lisa blinked up at Luke, who put out a hand to steady her. “My Denny is not a cowboy. He’s an accountant!”
“He’s not a cowboy either.” With a scowl, Celia kicked the tire. “He’s a geologist.”
Luke threw up rock horns with both hands. “Rock on.”
Lisa didn’t get it, of course, but Celia bit back laughter. “I’m flat.”
“What? No, no, no.” Lisa shook her head. The other women were on their feet again. Barely. “You’re not flat, baby, you’re like Dolly Partons! Get it? Partons, because she has two—“
“Do you have Triple-A?” Luke asked.
“Yeah.” Celia sighed. “But that doesn’t do me any good getting these lushes home.”
“Call Denny!” Lisa waved her cell phone at Celia. “He’ll come get us! He will! Because he loooooooves me!”
Denny, as it turned out, was more than happy to come get his drunk-off-her-ass fiancée and her friends, because he was just that kind of guy. Celia had always liked Denny, even if she’d found him a little too…accommodating…for her tastes. Not that she was the one marrying him, and besides, look what falling for a bad boy had done for her in the past. Nothing but a set of divorce papers
