“Thanks for dinner.”
“Sit down.” He took her shoulders and gently pressed her back in the chair, then kneeled in front of her. “If that was your version of a Hail Mary pass to finish things with me, sorry—I happen to like kids.”
She stared down at him, a confused look on her face. “The women you date are young and single, and I’m sure they don’t have teenagers.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have any idea what they have at home. Most of them have those annoying little yippy dogs.”
Tara laughed. “I don’t have any dogs, though Nathan would love one. A big one, like a Lab or a retriever or a German shepherd.”
“Smart kid. Nathan, huh?”
“Yes.”
Mick returned to his chair now that he was fairly sure Tara wasn’t going to bolt. “Tell me about him.”
“He’s fourteen—almost fifteen, really. His birthday is next month. He just finished up his freshman year in high school, and he’s cocky as hell. He—you really don’t want to hear about my kid, do you?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I told you, I like kids.”
“You have any of your own?”
“No. I’d like to someday. And in case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t fathered any that I’m paying child support for. I’m very careful with women.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“But you thought it.”
“Okay, I did think that, you being a superstud with women and all.”
He snorted. “Yeah, right. I don’t believe in getting a woman pregnant and leaving her. Not my style and not the way I was brought up.”
“Well, aren’t you just a saint.”
He leveled his gaze at her, wanting her to know just what he was. And what he wasn’t. “I never said I was a saint, Tara. Just that I’m responsible.”
She looked down at her lap. “Sorry. I’m being a bitch.”
“No, you’re not. I handled this badly. I’m pushy, I know. I backed you into a corner.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “No, you didn’t. If you want to date me, or whatever it is you want to do with me, then you needed to know about Nathan. I’m not trying to hide him. I’m not ashamed of him. It’s just that most men don’t want the baggage. And we haven’t really even dated, so I understand if you want to head out.”
What kind of assholes did she go out with? “You must pick some real losers if they bail as soon as they find out you have a kid.”
Her lips curled. “You haven’t met Nathan. He’s ... challenging.”
Mick laughed. “He’s a boy. And a teenager. We’re all challenging at that age. I was.”
She studied him. “I can only imagine.”
“I need to keep you away from my mother. She has stories about me and my brother that will send you running away screaming. We kept her busy when we were kids.”
There was a look on her face that Mick didn’t understand. Kind of a sadness that didn’t make sense when he mentioned his mother and his brother. “Hey, we were good kids. Honest.”
“I’m sure you were. Anyway, thank you for dinner. I really need to get home.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She plastered on a smile, but there was no light in her eyes. “I had a great time tonight, but I have some paperwork to do.”
He knew an end around when he saw one. Mick signaled for the waiter. “Put it on my account, Tim.”
The waiter nodded, and Mick led Tara outside, but not to her car, to his instead.
“Where are we going?”
“For a ride. I’ll bring you back to your car. I’d like to spend a little more time with you.”
He opened the door on the passenger side and held her hand while she climbed in, admiring the way she hiked up her skirt to climb in. She turned to him. “Somehow you struck me as a sports car kind of guy, not an SUV.”
“I’m too big for sports cars, and the SUV has enough room for all my gear.”
He went around and got in, started the car up, and drove away from the restaurant, taking a drive up into the hills. Typical for summer, the fog had rolled in, so there wasn’t going to be much to see while they drove. He let her settle and drove to the top of one of his favorite hills, where it was clear and on top of the fog.
“It’s like a sea of white,” Tara said as he put the car in park. The lights from his car cast out over the fog.
“It’s better in the daytime when the fog first starts rolling in. But I still like it up here. It’s quiet. Good place for thinking and for being alone.”
“And for parking?” She slanted him a quizzical look.
“Well, we are parked, but I didn’t bring you up here for that.”
She unbuckled her seat belt and turned to face him. “I kind of like the idea.”
“Of what? Making out in my car?”
“We could start with that, and see where it goes.”
“I think you’re using sex to avoid having an honest conversation.”
She paused. “Isn’t that a woman’s line?”
They looked at each other, and both of them laughed. Tara kicked her heels off and crawled over the console. Mick had to admit he liked watching her maneuver in that tight skirt as she straddled him. He pushed the button and slid the seat back as far as it would go, giving her room. She settled over his lap and laid her hands on his chest. “So we’re having a role reversal. Does this mean I get to seduce you?”
He’d lost all train of thought since all the blood in his head had rushed to his dick. “Honey, you’re sitting on my cock. I’m pretty sure you can do whatever you want with me.”
She smoothed her palms over his chest, then leaned back, letting her hands travel down his stomach toward where his brains currently resided. His dick twitched, and he rocked upward against her. “Do you really want to do it here?”
She lifted a half-lidded gaze to his. “I really want to do it here. Oh. Provided you have protection. I didn’t even think about that. I mean, I usually don’t run around having sex in cars.”
He opened the center console and pulled out a condom.
She grinned. “Ever prepared, aren’t you?”
“I try to be.”
She took the condom from his hand and laid it down, then leaned over him and pressed her lips to his. Any conversation he’d wanted to have with her drifted away with the first taste of her mouth. He caught the scent of wine on her lips, but it was
her
flavor he was mainly interested in. More intoxicating than any alcohol, she drifted into his senses until he was lost. He dove his hand under her blouse so he could feel her skin.
She moaned against his lips when his hands moved up her back and found her bra. With practiced skill he undid the clasp, then traveled around to the front to slide his hand under the cup, finding her nipple.
Her breasts were small, but her nipples were sensitive, and he could tell she liked when he touched them, because her breath caught when he slid the pad of his thumb over one. The swell of her nipple against his thumb made his cock jerk against his zipper.
Tara drew back, her eyes already gone in that sexy way that seemed to turn them to amber glass.
She leaned back and shrugged out of her jacket, then began to unbutton her blouse. Silk seemed to fit her. She was classy, from the long column of her throat to the way her hair curled at the nape of her neck. She’d worn her hair up again, and he liked taking it down, pulling the clip out, and shaking the curls with his hand, transforming her from buttoned-up businesswoman to sex goddess before his eyes.
Her blouse unbuttoned, her bra opened, and he pulled it over her breasts.
“This is the way I like you,” he said, reaching for her breasts, sliding his fingers over her nipples. “All out of sorts. Your nipples hard, you rocking your pussy against my dick.”
She reached for her skirt and hiked it up over her thighs, revealing sexy pink panties that matched the satin bra. She let her hand drift down and palmed his cock. “This is the way I like you,” she said, her voice dark and breathless. “Hard and ready for me.”
She reached for his zipper and tugged it down, freeing his cock. They maneuvered so he could pull his slacks down over his hips. Tara grabbed the condom, taking a few seconds to stroke him, sliding her thumb over the crest, capturing the fluid that spilled there and licking her fingers after.
“Christ. You’re going to make me come before I get inside you if you keep teasing me.”
“Then let’s not tease anymore, because I need you to fuck me.”
She tore open the condom package and fit it over his shaft, then pulled her panties aside and straddled him. He watched his cock disappear inside her, holding her hips as she settled on him.
Now, that was a sight to make his balls tighten.
When she was fully seated on him, she dug her nails into his shoulders and focused on his eyes, her pussy pulsing around him. She didn’t move at all, just looked at him.
“Feel that?”
He nodded.
“Oh, God, Mick, that feels so good. I could stay here just like this and feel you inside me.”
He squeezed her flesh. “I’m not going anywhere, honey.”
He liked that she wasn’t in any hurry to show him her great prowess in the sack. Every woman that ever took him to bed seemed to want to impress him with how good they were, but there’d always been a remoteness about them, like fucking was a performance or an audition.
With Tara, she was in it with him, sharing it with him. He liked that she made eye contact with him. She wasn’t pleasuring just him; she pleasured herself, too. She dragged her clit against him and paused, her eyes drifting closed, her lips opening as she let out a low moan.
There was nothing that turned him on more than a woman out for her own pleasure. Because she wasn’t here trying to score points in her own game to land him. In fact, he was pretty damn sure that was the last thing on Tara’s mind.
She dug her nails into his arms and lifted, then slid down on him again, every slow inch an agony of sweet sensation. He didn’t know where to look—down at where they were joined or at her face, her ragged pleasure there for him to see.
He reached down and stroked her clit, felt how wet she was, knew this wasn’t a performance for her at all, knew it from the way her pussy squeezed his cock every time she moved, knew it from the way her eyes got hazy and her lids half closed, knew it from the sounds she made and the way the car smelled like sex. No, she was in it to win the game for herself, and he was part of the team.
He lifted into her, stroked her with both his cock and his fingers, needing to feel her come apart around him. Her nipples dangled just out of reach of his mouth. He rectified that by pulling her toward him, flicking his tongue over one, then the other, before taking one between his lips and sucking.
Tara pressed herself further into his mouth. “Yes, Mick, yes. Suck it. Harder.”
He did, and she pushed against him, lifting and dropping down on him, then rocking toward him and riding him faster.
“That’s going to make me come.”
Exactly where he wanted her—in the red zone and headed for the goal line. He left one nipple and went for the other, sucking it hard like she wanted. She shrieked as she came, her pussy clamping down on his dick like a vise. He held tight to her as he jettisoned a hard come into her, jamming his feet into the floorboards and shuddering while his orgasm rocked him.
Touchdown, point after, game winner. He laid his head between her breasts, feeling her heart pound.
“You made me sweat all over my good suit,” she murmured.
He smiled. “Uh ... sorry?”
She laughed and leaned back to smile down at him. “You aren’t sorry at all.”
“No, I’m not.”
They disentangled and righted their clothing while Tara made a decent attempt to climb over into her seat. “This is not my finest moment. I can’t believe we had sex in your car. I’m hardly sixteen anymore.”
“So?” He buckled his pants. “There’s nothing wrong with acting like it once in a while.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I should know better.”
“So you’re supposed to act like a stuffy grown-up all the time?”
She reached down for her shoes and shrugged. “I have a kid. And yes, I should. You’re a bad influence on me.”
He pulled her toward him and kissed her, making sure she understood just what kind of influence he was. When he finished, her lips were swollen, her eyes dazed. “I like to think I’m a good influence on you.”
They drove back to the restaurant and to Tara’s car. She reached for the door handle and paused.
“Thank you again for an ... interesting night, Mick. But I’m going to have to be up-front and tell you we can’t have any kind of relationship.”
He wasn’t buying it. “Because you don’t like me.”
She looked out the window instead of at him. “That’s not it.”
“Because you’re embarrassed to be seen with me.”
“That’s not it, either.”
“Because you’re ashamed of your son.”
She snapped her gaze to his. “Of course not.”
“Then I want to meet him.”
“Oh, hell no.”
He arched a brow. “So there’s either something wrong with me or with him. Which is it?”
She rubbed her temple. “Neither. I don’t know. You confuse me.”
His lips quirked. “Good confuse or bad confuse?”
She blew out a breath. “I don’t know. You just confuse me.”
He wasn’t going to give her an opportunity to walk away this time. “I’ll call you.”
She waved her hand and opened the car door. “Yeah, you do that.”
“Good night, Tara.”
She slammed the door shut and got into her car. Mick waited until she left, then followed her through the fog, making sure she made it to the highway safely.
It wasn’t until he made the turn to go back to his place that he realized he only had her office number, not her personal one. And he didn’t know where she lived.
He could fix that, though.
Tara was someone he wanted to know better. And she could put up whatever defensive line she wanted, but Mick wasn’t the kind of guy to back down from a good defense.