Outside the truck, there’s another crash of thunder, loud enough to vibrate the hard dirt where we’re parked.
Inside the truck, we’re rearranging, laughing together at the clumsiness of our limbs as Dallas tugs my legs up one by one and coaxes me to lay back against the wheel.
BEEEEEEEEEEP.
I sit bolt upright, shrieking, and the horn falls silent. Beneath me, Dallas is weak with laughter, his body slumped and shaking. I smack his shoulder, equal parts shocked and amused.
“The horn! You did that on purpose.”
“I didn’t, I swear.” Dallas squeezes my hips, his dimples out on full display. For a man who claims he didn’t just set me up, the weatherman looks downright gleeful. Who knew there was a dormant prankster inside the charming Southern gentleman, just waiting to be let loose?
“Come on,” he says, shoving the truck door open. “We’ll have more room outside.”
“More room for what?” I ask, but I already have an inkling. My heart gallops as I swing one awkward leg over Dallas’s lap and hop down onto the packed dirt, landing with shaky muscles.
The weatherman unfolds himself out of the truck too, moving much more smoothly than I did.At least, I tell myself,he looks as flushed and bright-eyed as I feel.
Out here, the air smells like cinnamon and dry earth and rusty old pennies. The clouds rumble and churn overhead, getting ready to split open and soak the ground for miles around.
“We’re gonna get caught in the storm,” I warn as Dallas leads me around to the front of his truck and lifts me up with a hand on either side of my waist. He makes it seem easy too, with no grunting or puffing as he scoops me onto the hood. Excitement zips through me, and I smile up at the weatherman, giddy with happiness and relief.
This is it. We’re finally together.
“Oh well.” He grins back, goofy and unrestrained. “It’s just a little rain.”
Even though we’re out in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from any other people, I still glance around quickly before lifting my hips and letting Dallas tug my black pants and underwear down my thighs. He tugs them all the way to my sneakers, then mutters something to himself and stops to untie my laces, my clothes bunched up around my ankles. I bite my lip against a laugh, the truck hood warm and damp against my bare ass.
“This is one of those things,” I say, as Dallas curses quietly and tugs at a knot, “that we’ll get smoother at with practice.”
He shoots me a rueful smile, dropping one of my sneakers onto the ground and moving on to the second. “Let’s hope so.”
To cheer him up, I tug my t-shirt and bra off too, lobbing them gently at his chest. The weatherman glances up, then does the most gratifying double take of my life.
“Huh,” Dallas says. His hands have gone still on my sneaker laces, but when I clear my throat, he gets back to work with new urgency before finally dropping my second shoe to the ground.
The breeze is fresh as it gusts over my nipples.
When the city’s favorite gentleman finally straightens up and drags his hungry gaze over me from head to toe, I’m buck ass nude on the hood of his truck and freakingdesperatefor him to touch me.
Dallas stares, his chest heaving.
My pulse thuds everywhere—in my wrists, my throat, my clit.
“Please.” Gathering my courage, I drag my bare feet up onto the hood and slide my legs apart, showing the weatherman the glossy, swollen evidence of how much I want him. “Please, Dallas.”
His throat bobs.
Dallas clears his throat, plucks his glasses off, and leans around to toss them onto the driver’s seat. “Don’t let me sit on those later.”
“Dallas.”
“Okay, okay.” Stepping close, he sets a big, manly hand on each of my knees, pressing them gently but firmly wider. As he stares down between my legs, he draws in a deep inhale, then gusts out a long breath.
“This,” he says at last, “is what I’ve been waiting for.Youare what I’ve been waiting for, Shelley.”
Likewise. Oh my god, likewise.
His dark head ducks down, broad shoulders nudging between my spread legs. My hands plunge into his hair again, as my back crashes down against the still-warm hood. Like a puppet cut from its strings.
