Page 25 of Out of Bounds
“Would you quit being so stubborn, Annie Quinn? Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“I’m not some damsel in wet weather distress, Tanner,” she snaps, in a way that’s unlike her, as if there’s something else eating her but I’ll be damned if I know what. “All you men think you know what’s best for me, that you can tell me what to do and I’ll just—” She takes a hand off the wheel to click her fingers. The car sways, again. “Poof. Bow to you.”
She’s speeding up as her temper rises for whatever unknown reason but she’s also gripping the wheel as if she’s afraid. “Annie, I’m only asking you to pull over and let me drive us back to the ranch.” I eye the road, watching as dirt sprays out from the tires. “You’re acting crazy. What’s going on?”
“Oh good, so now I’m crazy.”
“Jesus, Annie, no.” I brace myself as we lose traction, slamming my palm on the dash. “Would you stop the goddamn car?”
She looks at me and that fire, that anger, dissolves into something else. Pain? Hurt? Then she does the opposite of what she should do and slams her brake pedal to the ground. The car slides, it swings, it turns through ninety degrees. Annie takes her hands off the wheel, screams and squeezes her eyes tight shut.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! I’m going to diiiiiiie!”
“Open your eyes, Annie, for Christ’s sake.”
She does but not until the car has slid to a stop. My heart is hammering in my chest, the contents of my stomach leaping into my mouth and back down again.
What I’m thinking is…what in the eff just happened?But I have enough mental capacity to know that’s not what Annie needs. Instead, I take a breath and ask her as calmly as I can feign, “How’re you doin’, Annie Quinn?”
Her anger, her anguish, her fear, all turn into a spurt of laughter, so hard and infectious that I end up laughing with her, my sore intercostals screaming at me.
“I’m sorry,” she says eventually.
I shake my head. “What am I going to do with you? Come on, let’s switch and I’ll see if I can get us out of this mess.”
Rain still pounds on the car, loud and heavy. It bounces off the ground, kicking up dirt. And Annie… makes to open the car door. “You’ll get soaked through,” I yell above the storm. “Climb over me.”
I realize as soon as she moves that this is a terrible idea. Butt to my lap, her denim skirt rides up her thighs as she slides across me. That garment I’ve thought about too often lately. I ought to sit on my hands but I help her to my seat holding the curve of her waist.
Her foot slips, landing her right down on my crotch, and I’m silently thanking the lord that I chose to wear jeans that might hide the stirring of what’s underneath them.
Because then she shifts one leg to the side of me and winds up fully astride my thigh, back to my chest, every nerve ending in my body waking up, even as I remind myself that this woman is off limits.
My body must act of its own volition, my palm connecting with the heat of her smooth, golden thigh. I’m so fucking lost to the simple touch that I don’t clock my error until her breath catches and she rocks backward into my chest. I’m engulfed by sweet cinnamon, freshly baked bread and something brighter, floral. It’s not the darkly deep intoxicating scents I’m used to on women I meet at night. It’s all Annie. Better. More. I want to fucking devour it.
She turns across her shoulder to look at me and the heat I feel where our skin connects is in her eyes, too. God fucking damn it, I’m totally hot for Quinn’s sister. Quinn’s significantly younger sister. Who needs a friend, not a horny playboy.
But there’s a silent crackle as our gazes lock and it’s louder than the rain hammering on the roof. Dangerously loud as I stare at her lips and she fixes her attention on mine.
I want to kiss her. Fucking eat her lips and?—
I cough, killing the moment, if itwasa moment. Reminding myself thatIam the grown-ass man here, the driving instructor, the family friend. And Annie isnotin a place to be messed with. She deserves better than me lusting after her.
“All set?” I ask, voice croaking, as I help her shimmy to one side of me on the passenger seat, then take my turn to move.
I don’t dare to look down and draw attention to my member as I get behind the wheel. I only hope he isn’t as present as he feels.
I park us outside the house and we decide to sit for a few minutes to wait for a break in the deluge. We’re watching the rain bounce off the windows and pound like rattling sticks against a drum, the silence between us now deafening and awkward.
12
ANNIE – LATE SEPTEMBER
Daddy Held Up His Shotgun
I am an absolute calamity. What was I thinking back there? I got flustered by the weather, then so worked up about Pace telling me what to do, even thoughhewas the only one of us behaving like a normal human.
That can’t happen again. No touching. No looks. No wandering thoughts.
