A Wild Ride Read online

  Nicole was going to freaking kill him. “Well, nice of you to drop by, but we’re about to—”

  “You want to play?” Jason offered. “Three is always better than two.”

  Only if they were talking about fooling around, which Nicole doubted. Troy had never been interested in having anyone else participate while they’d fucked before, and it wasn’t likely he would start by suggesting a ménage with the newest junior member of the local law firm.

  She turned and faced her annoyance directly, offering the evilest eye she could. “Troy can’t stay,” she announced firmly.

  “Troy would love to stay,” he contradicted her, dragging his chair across the floor until he was within arm’s reach of the game. “I’m the race car.”

  “Dibs on the top hat,” Jason flashed back.

  Troy leaned back and winked. “Got any Coke, Nic?”

  She was stuck. Complaining would only make her look like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. But his ass was grass. “Sure, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal.”

  “In the can,” he ordered. He stared at her, challenging her to argue.

  They knew each other too well. Yeah, she probably would have spat in his glass.

  She mouthed the words. You. Are. So. Dead.

  The jerk just grinned before ignoring her and turning to discuss who should go first with Jason.

  The game went on for nearly two hours, at which point Nicole was fighting to keep from straight-out yawning in their faces. She’d gone bankrupt a good forty-five minutes earlier.

  The guys continued their cutthroat game, seemingly oblivious to her increasing ants in the pants.

  “Ha!” Jason howled with delight. Troy’s final roll landed him on Jason’s most expensive lot. He thrust his fists in the air, roaring as if there were a crowd cheering in the distance before returning to position and offering a cocky grin. “And that, my friends, is how the game is played.”

  Troy handed the last of his money across the board with a good-natured grin. “You got me. Well done.”

  “And that was so much fun,” Nicole announced, perkiness dripping from every word.

  Troy’s lips twitched, but Jason seemed to miss her sarcasm. “We’ll have to do it again sometime,” he suggested.

  Right after my lobotomy, Nicole thought as she gathered up empty snack bowls and glasses and carried them into the kitchen, shoving everything into the dishwasher as she fought to regain her sense of humour.

  It took a while.

  By the time she got back, the guys had the game put away and were standing by the door, deep in discussion. The Monopoly box was tucked under Jason’s arm, his coat draped over it.

  “I don’t think they got the timing belt quite right,” Jason complained.

  “Bring it by tomorrow,” Troy offered, looking thoughtful for a moment. “After lunch. I should have time to look at it.”

  Jason smacked a hand on his shoulder before turning to Nicole. “Thanks for an awesome evening. It was great.”

  She stepped closer, waiting for Troy to leave so she could at least finish the date somewhat normally. A goodbye kiss would be better than nothing at all.

  Troy didn’t budge. Just stood there, smiling innocently as if he didn’t know damn well that she wanted his ass out of the house.

  “Awesome night, as always,” he said to Nic before bumping her date with a closed fist. “Oh, hey, Jason. You mentioned you were thinking about learning to fish.” He tilted his head toward the street. “I got my new rod and reel in the truck. Wanna see?”

  “Definitely.” Jason followed him to the door, glancing over his shoulder with a final smile for Nicole. “Thanks, again. Great evening. I guess I’ll see you at the office.”

  The jerks left.

  She included both of them in that description because now Jason was in her bad books as well as Troy. She managed to wait until the door was closed and the guys were well away, standing by the tailgate of Troy’s truck. Then the words burst free.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  She wasn’t sure which of them she was yelling at.

  A truly impressive jumble of frustration wrapped around her. Boredom mixed with the sexual tension Troy had flash-fire started and then let fizzle away, and…

  What the freak had just happened?

  Chapter Two

  Troy drove off right after Jason did, turning at the first corner and doubling back. He slipped into the parking spot behind Nicole’s place.

  Time to find out what the hell was going on.

  He stomped up the back stairs and yanked open the door. “Nic?”

  No answer.

  He glanced around the kitchen before pacing into the living room. Empty—she’d vanished.

  “Nic,” he shouted louder as he headed toward the back of the house and her bedroom.

  No wonder she hadn’t answered. A faint light escaped from the bathroom where the shower was blasting at full volume. He marched forward, pausing at the door.

  The clear shower curtain allowed enough light to shine through that her body was nicely showcased from top to bottom. He folded his arms and watched in appreciation as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, bubbles slipping over her face and down her curves. Her hands danced over her skin, just the places he’d like to be touching, and Troy eased his position to relieve some of the pressure on his rising cock.

  Cool as a cucumber, without even looking his direction, she gave him shit. “Are you going to stand there all night gawking, or you are going to tell me what the hell you were thinking, coming over here and messing up my date?”

  Troy chuckled. “I like how you don’t even blink to find me in your bathroom.”

  She stepped to the edge of the bath, jerking the shower curtain back a few inches so she could glare at him more easily, water dripping down her face, her bangs hanging in her eyes. “I knew you’d show up. Kind of expected you to wait till Jason drove off and then march right back so you could annoy me faster. Jerk.”

  “I figured I should give at least the appearance of leaving.” Troy admired the view, his gaze lingering on her breasts. “What’re you so pissed off about? I had no idea some random guy was going to be here.”

  “Bullshit.” Nic cut the water, shoving back the shower curtain with a strong sweep of her arm. She shoved her hand forward in a clear demand.

  “No shit,” he insisted, grabbing the towel from beside his shoulder and shaking it out. Instead of stuffing it into her hand, he reached forward and draped it around her body, picking her up and placing her on the bathmat. “As far as I knew, we were on for the evening like usual.”

  Nicole shrugged out of his grasp, escaping into her bedroom where she rubbed the towel vigorously over tempting, wet skin. “Good lord, Troy, don’t make me go through all this again. I sent you an email and explained everything. It’s been fun, but it’s time to move to the next thing, which means I need to date. So don’t stop by to hook up anymore, yada yada yada…”

  Troy settled on her bed, confused as all get out. Watching her hadn’t made his aching cock any easier to ignore. And it didn’t help when, without a lick of embarrassment, she dropped the towel to the floor and reached into her dresser.

  He dragged his gaze off her bare ass. “Well, that would have made a difference. If I’d gotten your email, but since I didn’t, I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  She jerked a T-shirt over her head—one of his that she’d stolen at some point—then reached for her phone. “You’re so annoying. Fine. I’ll show you proof.”

  She flipped through the screens then passed it over triumphantly.

  He read through the message. “It’s been fun… Need to date… No more Netflix and chill…” Troy glanced up. “Number one, I’ve never seen this before in my life. You didn’t send it to me.”

  “I know I did,” she insisted.

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “I hope you didn’t send it to one of my brothers.”

  Her eyes widened. “Fuck,
I hope not.”

  “Or my dad,” Troy deadpanned. “That would make things real awkward the next time—”

  “Shut. Up.” She snatched the phone from him and checked frantically. “Oh my God, okay. It’s still in drafts. I guess I forgot to hit send.”

  “Apology accepted.” Troy leaned back and blinked, offering his most innocent expression.

  “Screw you.”

  “And number two,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “I still don’t get it, this sudden urge to ‘date’. What does that even mean? You have some weird compulsion to be bored to tears? I mean, I can totally understand how hot you must have been for Jason. The dude was super-enticing, with that steamy move preempting Ventnor Avenue and all.”

  “God.”

  She plopped onto the bed beside him, flinging her arms and legs out as her head hit the pillow with a thud. He held his amusement. Melodrama wasn’t usually her thing, but the flounce fit.

  “What’s up, Nic?” he asked seriously.

  “It’s…complicated.”

  Troy stretched beside her, years of familiarity between them easing the awkwardness. “Not usually. Unless you’ve decided to turn your love of unsolvable puzzles on your sex life, just to mix it up.”

  “This isn’t about sex,” she insisted, a low unhappy sound following hard on the heels of the comment. “Dammit to hell, it can’t be about sex. If it were about sex then you and me would be bouncing the mattress right now, fucking our brains out.”

  “No prob…”

  Troy rolled her under him, taking her lips and kissing her decisively. She’d sounded so confused and sad it seemed only right to give her something else to think about. Or not think about.

  A good, hard tumble should do it.

  Warm, soft curves filled his hands as he skimmed his palms up the sides of her body, their lips and tongues tangling enthusiastically.

  She was on board at the start, wrapping her legs around his hips. Digging her fingers into his shoulders. Kissing him back hungrily.

  Then her new agenda must have intervened. “We’re not supposed to do this. No more booty calls,” Nic murmured against his mouth even as she reached between their bodies, fighting to undo his top button. “I need to move on.”

  Her lips skated over his jaw, then her teeth nipped his chin the instant before she moaned. Her hips rose as she rubbed against the hard length of his cock.

  “Move on to what? God, Nic, that feels so fucking good.”

  “Hmmm, yes, right there.” A low, needy sigh escaped her followed by a curse. “Dammit, Troy. We can’t do this.”

  “We can.” He dipped his head and put his teeth to the hard point of her nipple, biting lightly through the thin cotton T-shirt. “We are.”

  Another needy groan, but this time she let go of his shoulders, sliding her hands to his chest and pushing him away instead of holding him close. “Please. Help me stop…”

  Troy rolled away, body throbbing with the need to continue, but he knew better than to keep going after a woman said stop. He stared at the ceiling for a moment and fought to steady his breathing, thinking of icy-cold things. Picturing the most boring engine tune-up ever to wipe away images of Nic naked, riding his cock.

  It took a few minutes before he could speak without groaning in frustration. “It’s complicated?” he repeated.

  “Yeah.”

  “I have time to listen,” he offered, rolling to his side and staring at her flushed face. A chuckle escaped. “It’s not as if we’re doing anything else interesting at the moment.”

  Nic crawled backward until she was propped against the headboard. “I…” She made a face. “This is super awkward.”

  “More awkward than discovering we had sex too close to the motion sensor at the wetland reserve, and now there’re pictures of my ass floating around the forestry-service back rooms?”

  She laughed. “That will only be awkward if anyone ever IDs your ass.”

  “Which we both know will happen at the most inopportune moment possible.” Troy snickered. “I should run for mayor.”

  Another burst of laughter escaped her, and something warmed inside. Maybe they weren’t fucking around like he’d hoped, but he’d still pulled her from her funky mood. He’d take any win he could, especially if it meant she was smiling instead of frustrated and upset.

  Nicole stroked a finger over his cheek, thankful he’d decided to be reasonable. “Okay, so here’s the thing. Cyndi’s expecting.”

  He waited in silence for a moment before shaking his head. “If that was a clue, it wasn’t enough,” he said. “Congrats to her and Kevin, but I don’t know why your sister getting pregnant means we’re not having sex.”

  Oops. Yeah, she’d missed a good half-dozen steps in there. “Sorry. It’s like…a chain reaction happened all of a sudden in my brain. Cyndi and Kevin already have two kids. Jodie and Dale have three, so I don’t know if they’re even going to have anymore, although they did mention four was possible. So if I want to have kids that are—”

  “You want to have kids?” he interrupted, jerking upright to stare at her in shock. “Since when?”

  “That’s what I’m explaining,” she said, the irritation in her tone noticeable even to herself. She took a deep breath and started over, more rational and calm. “Yes, I want to have babies. I’ve always been thinking ‘someday I’ll have a family’, but I’ve realized if I want to have kids that are around the same age as their cousins, I need to get rolling. Which means no more fucking around with you.”

  “And it’s vital to base your baby production on when your sisters are popping out kids?” A frown creased his forehead. “Nope. Don’t get it.”

  As confused as he sounded, he wasn’t being an ass, so Nicole tried again. “Family is important. I’ve always planned on having at least a couple kids. And yes, I want my kids to have cousins near the same age they can be friends with, so if I don’t want to miss out before my sisters hang up the baby-making gear, I need to move on to the next thing.”

  “Mike’s not having kids yet,” Troy pointed out.

  She made a face. “He’s not a kid person. He’ll probably have kids only because his wife wants them, if he gets married, which who knows how many eons from now that will be. I’m not holding my breath and waiting for either miracle to occur.”

  Troy batted his fingers against his thigh, the way he did when he was thinking hard. Or annoyed. “You want to have kids, so you need to date.”

  “Well, I’d kind of like to have them the old-fashioned way, yeah,” she said. “Which means I need to find a guy to have them with. Which means dating.”

  “What? You don’t think they’ve come up with a Studs R Us app for baby-making yet? Swipe right for ‘impregnate me now’?”

  She smacked him lightly on the arm. “Stop it. I’m not going to grab some random guy, you know. I’m also looking for someone I enjoy spending time with. Someone I want to be with forever.”

  “Awesome.”

  His entire attitude had grown unreadable. Nicole twisted to a sitting position to face him. “What’s wrong?”

  Troy shook his head. “Nothing.”

  Only he was on the edge of the bed now, straightening his clothes and grabbing his shoes from the floor.

  Nicole watched as he put them on. “Are you mad at me?”

  He made a noncommittal noise that could be a no. Or a yes. Or the result of a bad taco for supper.

  She crawled closer and laid a hand on his arm. “You knew things weren’t serious between us.”

  His fingers closed over hers, and he squeezed briefly before pulling himself free and rising to his feet. His devilish smile was back in place, eyes flashing as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Of course I knew we weren’t serious. You just threw me for a loop, sweetheart. That’s a big change you’ve got going on, but if it’s what you want, no prob. I should get out of your hair and let you make plans, or whatever you need to do.”

  “Sleep?” Nic
ole teased. “Since it’s late?”

  “Right.” Troy nodded once then turned on his heel and marched from the room.

  The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees when he left, and she sat back and stared at the empty doorframe, listening as his footsteps faded into the distance. The backdoor opened and closed firmly—but not firmly enough to be slammed shut.

  He’d been reasonable. Understanding, really, yet…

  It wasn’t as if she’d expected a goodbye kiss after sharing her decision, but his total lack of reaction left her feeling uncomfortable and disjointed.

  If he’d ranted and called her a fool, it would have hurt. Or if he’d laughed and called her an idiot, it would have offended her, but either way she could’ve gotten blazing mad at him for daring to judge her.

  Instead he’d pulled the wind from her sails and neither agreed with her, nor fought her, and she felt…

  Felt…

  Empty.

  As if a piece of her wasn’t sitting in the right order anymore.

  She should have expected it, though. Moving on affected both of them, and changes sucked.

  But her sisters had gone from being wild party girls to finding great guys they’d fallen madly in love with. Guys who were now solid, dependable husbands and proud daddies of the families they were raising.

  It was time for Nicole to step in a new direction, and that meant away from Troy Thompson. That was all.

  But if her decision was that simple, she should have rolled over and gone to sleep. Instead, she found herself rushing into the kitchen a moment later, staring out the window at Troy’s monster truck as he backed into the alley. He glanced toward her, the yard light shining off his impenetrable expression before he focused away from her and drove off.

  She wondered where he was going…

  …and the fact she wondered at all annoyed her even more than his earlier lack of response.

  Chapter Three