Quinn was too busy cursing to answer her, and the truck gave a death knell as he guided it to the side of the road. Aubry just sat there for a minute, trying to process the reality that they were, in fact, broken down on the side of the highway in Texas in the middle of June. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and then opened them again, but nothing changed. “Please tell me this isn’t happening.”
“Oh, it’s happening.” He threw open the door, letting in a blast of heat that threatened to melt her on the spot, and moved around the truck to open the hood. She watched a cloud of white smoke escape and groaned. What were the odds of this happening to her right when she was the most desperate to be anywhere but in the same vehicle as Quinn?
Oh, right. They were in the junker he’d insisted was reliable. The odds were fantastic.
She waited a minute, and then five, but when Quinn didn’t come back around with an update, she climbed out of the truck. It shouldn’t have been possible to be hotter outside than it was in the truck, but it was just this side of searing. She shoved her hair out of her eyes and marched over to where he was talking into his cell. “What’s going on?”
He held up a finger. “Yeah, on Highway 10 just east of Clint. Yeah, that works. Thanks.” He hung up and turned to face her. “The tow truck will be here in ten.”’
“Tow truck.” She looked around. There was nothing as far as the eye could see. “If we’d taken a rental, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Now’s not the time for ‘I told you so.’”
“On the contrary, there was never a better time. You said this thing was reliable.” She marched over and kicked the wheel, and then cursed when her foot screamed in pain. “I hate you, and I hate your truck, and I wish I’d never agreed to this stupid plan.” She made a beeline for the passenger door. “In fact, I’m going to call Jules and tell her what a shitty plan this is, and that I fully expect pie to make me feel better when I get back into town.”
“Whoa, hold on.”
“There will be no holding onto anything.” She batted at him when his arm came around her waist, bringing her up short. “Get your paws off me.”
“You can’t call Jules.”
“I can and I will.” She tried to take a step but ended up just scraping off what felt like half her flip-flop on the asphalt. “Let go.”
“She’s with Adam on a plane right about now.”
Just like that, all the fight went out of her. He was right. She couldn’t call Jules, not when her friend was going to be focused on Adam and grieving. I am possibly the worst friend ever. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “If I say you’re right, am I ever going to live it down?”
He didn’t answer, and she opened her eyes. Their reflection was slightly distorted in the passenger window, but even she could see he had a seriously tense look on his face. She belatedly realized that they were pressed together, her back to his front, and that he was…
Oh my God. She couldn’t resist leaning back into him, just a little. Yep, that’s not a micro penis. A shiver worked its way through her, leaving goose bumps in its wake, and her nipples perked right up, showing through the thin fabric of her T-shirt. There was no way he didn’t feel her reaction, not with his arm creating a band across her ribs, his forearm against the underside of her breasts.
Even as she noticed, he started to release her, his hand sliding over her stomach, but he stopped when he hit her hip, his pinkie finger dipping below the waistband of her shorts, just a little. It wasn’t anywhere near anything vital, but that little intrusion made her moan all the same.
“Fuck.” The word was barely audible, but she felt it in the way his body tensed behind her.
She shivered again, torn between telling him to back off and getting the top button of her jeans all undone for him. If she didn’t make a decision—and fast—he was going to back off again. It was written all over the tension she could feel emanating from his body.
Aubry started to reach for his hand, still undecided on whether she wanted to encourage or threaten him, but he moved, bending down to brace one hand on the truck in front of them, the other still on her hip. The move brought his mouth against her ear, and his harsh exhale made her shake.
She arched against him. She couldn’t help it. Her body took over, a primal part of her knowing he could give her all the pleasure she could handle, and was only too happy to extend an invitation by rubbing her ass against his hard length.