He groaned against her neck as she shifted restlessly in his lap, and there was no hiding his state of arousal from her. He was painfully hard and impatient for relief, but no matter how much he wanted her, screwing in a truck on the side of the road was not good enough for their first time together. If he took her now, he probably wouldn't get another chance, and he could not let that happen. She'd almost slipped away from him once. So he took a deep breath and stopped moving his fingers against her mound. Removing his lips from her neck, he sat there with his face pressed against her sweet-smelling neck, trying to get his breathing under control.
"Jack? Is everything alright?" Lacey asked tentatively.
"Yeah. Everything is fine. My penis and my brain are just at war right now. It will be over in a second. Just don't move, okay?"
Lacey giggled and the motion made him groan. "Umm, is it okay if I don't want your brain to win?" She asked, delicately licking the shell of his ear.
He angled his head towards her for a moment, chills running up his neck from the the feeling of her warm breath against his ear. But then he came to his senses and jerked his ear away from her marauding tongue. "Probably not a good idea. Because if my brain loses, then you' re going to be spread-eagled, with your legs in the air and your jeans balled up on the floor faster than the speed of light. And 3 seconds after that, I'm going to be really embarrassed. So, Mr. Happy really needs to lose this battle today, but hopefully he will get a chance to fight another day. Alright?"
"Wow, what a tease your are, Jack. Don't I have any say at all in this?" She asked playfully, running a hand through the hair at the nape of his neck.
Easily, he lifted her off his lap and set her on the seat beside him. "Lacey, I'm seriously begging you to stop. I like you, and I don't want to take advantage of you like this." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew he'd said the wrong thing.
Lacey glared at him as she slid back to the passenger side of the truck. "Take advantage of me? What does that mean? I'm 32 years old, Jack. Not a silly teenage girl. If I want to boff your brains out in the front of your truck, then it's because I've been fantasizing about you for the past week, and I can't wait any longer. Not because I'm some poor lonely spinster who is too overcome with frustration to know what she's doing, okay?"
Oops. Damn it. He'd touched a nerve. But he really liked the part about her fantasizing about him for the past week. He needed to smooth this over, pronto. "What I meant was, I took you here to show you the lot of land we were talking about earlier because I knew you would be excited to see it, and I thought I would probably get a hug out of it. And since I've been trying to think of a way to touch you all afternoon, I brought you here with my own perverted agenda in mind. That's what I meant by taking advantage of you. The whole frustrated spinster thing never occurred to me, I swear."
"So, you brought me here to cop a feel?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it quite that crudely, but yeah."
Her smile was radiant as she slid back across the seat towards him again. "That is just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard," she said, and reached up to kiss him gently on the lips.
Jack returned the kiss for a moment and then pulled back to look at her beautiful face in the moonlight. He traced one finely arched eyebrow with his thumb, and drew in an unsteady breath. "Let's get you back to your car, and then we can talk about what's going to happen next, okay?"
Ten minutes later, Jack slid the truck into the slot next to Lacey's car in The Daily Grind parking lot. He had been trying to distract himself from his prominent erection by talking about plans for Lacey's place, but she seemed to have lost her enthusiasm for the idea. He sincerely hoped she was just thinking about getting naked with him as soon as possible, and couldn't concentrate on anything else. But he doubted that was the problem. She was still smiling and joking with him but otherwise seemed a bit subdued for someone who had just committed to her dream house and been kissed senseless, all within the last two hours.
He turned off the ignition, got out of the truck and quickly moved around the vehicle in time to help her down from the passenger side. The truck seat was too high off the ground for her to manage gracefully, so she scrambled down with a laugh at her clumsiness. Jack took her hand and pulled her against him as he leaned against her little car.
"Now what?" He asked, kissing her on the forehead. Was it just his imagination or had she pulled away from him a bit?
"Well, now we decide what's going to happen next."
"I was thinking that we head over to your place…to talk," Jack said, reaching down to cup her bottom with one hand.
"But Jack, you were just making plans for the cottage." She said, looking at him incredulously.
"Yeah. I think it'll be really amazing if we can get the property re-zoned so your place faces the north side. Don't you think? Then you can be looking at that little green space instead of your neighbor's jungle gym."
"But the cottage isn't going to happen. At least not with me."
He pulled back to look at her. "What the hell are you talking about, Lacey. I thought you wanted to do this. Didn't you tell Serena that you wanted to go for it?"
"But that was before."
"Before we kissed? Was it that bad? You don't want to have anything to do with me because of what happened in the truck?" Jack felt coldness starting to creep into his expression and fought valiantly against giving into it. He looked at the ground, so he couldn't see him shutting down.
"No, Jack. I want a lot to do with you because of what happened in the truck. And as soon as possible."
"I'm confused. What do you want, Lacey?"
"Jack. I want you." She reached up and put her hands on each of his cheeks and forced him to look down at her. "For a night or a week or a month. I want to be with you. For as long as you want me. That's what I want. There'll be other houses, but there won't be another chance with someone like you."
"Are you serious? Please don't be kidding, okay? I really couldn't take that." Was he dreaming or was she actually offering him exactly what he wanted? He felt the coldness ebbing away and being replaced by something relief and warmth. She wasn't rejecting him. She was just being overly cautious. He could work with that.
"Jack, why would I joke about that? I'm telling you exactly how I feel."
"I just find it hard to believe that you would want something casual. I mean, girls usually want a commitment right away, don't they?"
"Not me." Lacey shook her head and held up her hands in supplication. "Oops, that sounded bad. Like I do this on a regular basis. That's not what I meant. I've never done anything like this before, but I swear, I'm not looking for anything long term or serious. This isn't some kind of trap. We barely know each other. All I know is that I've never wanted anyone like this before, and if I don't act on it today, I know I'm going to regret it. You may meet a yoga instructor nymphomaniac with nipple piercings tomorrow and then I'll be kicking myself because I missed my opportunity. I'm sick of being boring and predictable. So, I say, screw the house. I want to be be impulsive for once in my life. And I want to be impulsive with you. What do you want, Jack?"
"Well, right now I'm a little stuck on the whole nymphomaniac thing, but other than that I feel the same way. I've been alone for a long time, granted, but I can't remember ever being so clearly obsessed with a woman before. I swear, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for the last week either. I really, really want you too. But why can't we go ahead with Serena's plan too?"
"Jack, we'd be working together. As much as I'd like to reduce this to just mind-bending hot sex between us, I know I'll become emotionally involved and that will complicate things. What if things go sour between us while the house is being built? Imagine how awful it would be if you get bored of me, and we're still forced to work together on this project? Talk about awkward."