9781618857569GettingitAllStorm (15 page)

“Still bringing in the big bucks,” she smiled smugly. “Your place seems to
be holding its own.”

“Can’t complain.
So long as you kind ladies keep my mechanics on their toes and you keep
gassing up at my pumps...uh.”

Everyone in the room tittered. He blushed at the inadvertent image of the
ladies lined up waiting for him to dispense. A clumsy tongue was not the image
he wanted to present to the meddlesome Dorothy at all.

“I’m sure Clarissa wouldn’t mind allowing dear Dot to take a minute or two
for a quick
tête-à-tête, would
you dear?”
Brunnie
peered from under her mascaraed
lashes. “And if you two want to take a bit longer, I see Amelia is right at the
point where
Nella
needs to sit for a while to let
Amelia’s color magic work so that Amelia could finish Clarissa for Dorothy, if
need be. Would that be all right, ladies?” Her sweet suggestion to the women
involved dared no countering.

“No, ma'am.”

“That’d be fine.”

“Sure.”

Matt strode purposely forward, gluing a charming grin onto his
impassive face. He would barrel this through come hell or high-inducing beauty
parlor fumes.
“Out back.
In the
parking lot, Dot?
Thanks.” At the back door, he turned. “And thank you
ladies. You all look great.” He descended the back stairs to a chorus of light
giggles and murmurings of how sweets.

Where could he give that damn woman the talking to of her life? Old
man
Mosleys
' giant-assed vans were parked in the
corner next to each other on an angle.
Plenty of private room
behind them.
Even if he had to drag her by her
well-tended, still dark hair.

Dorothy’s tentative descent down the stairs caused her hips to move
evocatively inside her loose, but still form fitting slacks. Not the
distraction he needed.

“What’s your problem?” Her voice was sharp edged. Good. He needed to
have something to fight back against. “You could have called me. We could have
talked later. Tracking me down in the middle of the morning at work? That’s a
little dramatic for you, Matt. Drama never was your big thing. You still blush too
pretty for it.”

She had her footing
back,
he had to give her
that.
Firm and solid.
She knew where she stood, even
if he didn’t. Excellent, he hated wishy-washy deaths. That was why he was here
though. To kill whatever the hell was going on. He had lived way too long with
times in his life when he didn't know where Dorothy stood. He was not going
there again.

Matt's work boots slammed into the asphalt as he started across the
lot.

“Where are you going?” she demanded.

“We need a little privacy,” he threw grim-jawed over his shoulder.

“I’m not about to go behind those goddamned things with you. Not in
your mood. You got something to say, say it out where people can see us.” She
folded her arms over her chest, her feet planted.

That surprised him. She could still read his moods. But then the
sudden awareness of his tensed jaw and pinched scowl meant anybody a block and
a half away could read his attitude.

He forced his face to relax as he spun back to confront her.

“Sure. No problem. I don’t mind the whole town knowing my so-called ‘friend
for life’ has suddenly decided she’s going to run my life for me. Decide who I
should or should not date.
Too chicken to ask me for a date
herself.
But not chicken enough to stab me in the fucking back.”

“What are you—
”

“I couldn’t figure what the hell was going on with Christy. We were
fucking our heads off, happy as two fucking clams, if clams fuck.” He began to
pace in front of her.

Cars cruising for a parking space slowly inched by them keeping a wary
eye on the obviously heated discussion in the middle of the sun-lit space.

“Then she suddenly starts yapping about darling little Lucy, sweet
little Lucy and how much I must be enjoying teaching our beloved little Lucy
how to be a woman. All the while doing everything she could to blast me with
her womanly charms as opposed to Lucy's girlish ones. Which, by the way, are
considerable.

“It took me threatening never to fuck her in the ass again,” he shoved
his face angrily into Dorothy’s. “Did you know she loves getting it crammed up
her butt? Do you even like getting it crammed…anywhere?” he brutally hissed at
her before swerving off to pace again.

“Matt!” She whipped her head around at the newly arriving cars,
then
stormed by him toward the privacy of the SUV’s.

“She told me,” he followed, his voice louder and more lethal. “Dorothy
said… Dorothy thinks… Dorothy heard… Dorothy says sweet little Lucy has her eye
on Matt and doesn’t plan to let go, so if Christy wants to win the competition
and keep her resurrected boyfriend she’d better get her ass in gear and take
out little miss lovelorn. I feel like some kind of hick prize on some goddamned
fake reality show.”

Behind the big vehicles, hidden between them and the parking lot fence,
Matt was even more encouraged to continue raving. “Dorothy! What the hell? You
don’t even give a shit about me and now you’re trying to bust up the two
relationships I’ve finally worked up the guts to try and make it work after God
knows how much time. Are you still so angry, so petty, so totally unforgiving
that you won’t allow me to have even a little hope of finally living a normal
life, again?”

“You’re fucking them like crazy. Like crazy clams, I believe was your
tender assessment. Isn’t that enough?” she snapped.

He looked at her as if she had morphed into a person he had never
known instead of a steadfast friend whom he had counted on forever.

“No,” he stated angrily. “No, it’s not enough. I’m grateful to get my
dick back into action again, but I have hopes that these women might mean
something to me and that I might mean something other than a hot lay to them.”
He shook his head. “And you don’t want to even allow me that? I thought when
Alice died…”

Her hard eyes welled. “You’re dangerous, Matt. Some people need to be
protected from you.”

“Dangerous?
How?”

“You’re everything some people think they want. That’s dangerous.
To have that much power over another human being.”

“Yeah?
Or are you maybe just trying to bust up some beautiful friendships to
give yourself a better shot at me…if you ever get the guts to try.”

Dorothy stared at his imperious glare with an open mouth.

“I’d laugh if that weren’t so pitiful. Why should I try for you? What
would it get me? What did it ever get me? And thank you very much, but I got
over waiting for you to call me a long time ago. And now you're waiting for me
to call you? Welcome to the fucking waiting party!”

He went blank for a moment,
then
grabbed her
to press her up against the side of the nearest van. “You really want to know
why you should try for
me?
Are you finally ready to be
reminded?”

She gasped. His hand was rough on her breast, fierce at her crotch.

“If you don’t like it…
show
me you don’t like
it,” Matt growled, his look boring into her. “Christy let’s me come on any way
I want. And you must have said plenty because she won’t keep her hands off me
now. She keeps me so busy
bustin
’ past her panties,
Lucy can hardly work in the time to fix me a plate of spaghetti.”

“Take your hands off me,” Dorothy hissed. “You’re grubby. And if this
is the way you show how much you care…” She grabbed the sinewy wrist of the
hand cupping the crotch of her slacks and tightened her grip.

But she didn’t pull the hand away.

“We’re not talking about ‘caring’ here, Dotty baby,” he growled into
her ear as he caught her hesitation, his breath hot against her face, his body
moving inexorably into her space. “We’re talking sex.
Doing
the deed.
Again.
Downright rutting and
screwing.
Finally.
After all these
years.”
He pushed himself against her. Intending to taunt, to tease, his
crotch pressed firmly against hers.
“If we can’t talk.
We can at least do it. Don’t need a lot of words to—”

His assault backfired.

His body fused into hers. His muscles instantly strained to blend with
the memory of her fullness, her soft receptiveness. His entire being fought to
dissolve the fabric between them, to annihilate whatever barriers there might
be, to tear down years of pain and hurt and to put in its place his affection,
his caring, all he could offer at her disposal.

In an instant Matt knew he would keep going. Not to threaten. Not to
dare and try to intimidate. Not to be angry at her, at
himself
,
discombobulated, shaken to his roots. He needed to show how he truly cared.
Right now.
And if it took taking Dot in the parking lot,
behind the SUVs, right then and there before she had a chance to think, before
he had a chance to think past the moment, past the immediate instant where they
would become lovers again… Then so be it. The play-acting, the circling, the
sniping—all stopped. Just say, this was it. This was how we were now.

His body told her the past was over and gone. Not dead, but gone.
Past.
We could bill and coo later, we could be romantic
later, we could even giggle and laugh and play stupid boy/girl games later. He
wanted her now. He wanted her to know where he stood.

Now.

He felt her heat, her breasts, her hips, their hands trapped between
their aching bodies.

If this was all he could get for the moment, he could live with that.
His body was electrified and filled with urgency, but his soul was calm,
serene. She would come to her senses and shove him away, but he’d had his
moment.
His reassurance that they were meant to know each
other again, to be buddies, to be friends with exceptional benefits.

Except she wasn’t shoving him away.

Dot moaned plaintively under his pressure. She was allowing him to
press up against her, to warm her and moisten her and reawaken her for a Matt
he knew she had longed for and then given up freely. But now he was back. His
mission had been fulfilled. His commitment completed. It was okay to take up
where they had so bitterly broken off so many years ago. They both had done
their duty. They were both older and wiser now. Now they could comfort and
instruct each other.

Her breath was ragged.
Her ripe body filled and
receptive to his, returning his urgency.

“Matt…We can’t…
not here…not now…not like this
.”

A wave of apprehension swept through him. If not
now
,
when?
Maybe
later?
Maybe
at another
different time in their lives when they were in full control of their
faculties?
They had had that time. How many years could a man mourn? How
many years could it take for a woman to bind a shattered heart?

They had all loved each other. They all had choices to make and had
made honorable ones and they had all been happy. Matt was sure of it. Dorothy
had never breathed a word against Beau. She was proud and happy in his arms.
Just as Matt had been with Alice.

But after there was no more
Beau
and there
was no more Alice, why did they not try to salve each other's hurt? Why did
they remain distant, apart, allowing the pain of their not having anyone to
fester and harden their hearts to the warmth and love they had all felt for
each other.

She was not tearing away from him. She was not pushing him away. She
was underneath, heated by him, ready.

It had to be
now
.

His hand fumbled for her zipper, clutched for the buttons of her
blouse. If she showed the slightest hesitancy, made the slightest...

But she was as frantic to rip down the wall between them as he was.

“Insane,” she breathed. “We can’t do this.” Her hands tore at his
clothes.

He almost laughed aloud he felt so light-headed and yet so heavy with
preparation. His elation filled his dick to near bursting with his offering, to
overflowing. His
pecs
emboldened themselves, his abs
rippled. Her madly digging fingers found him and his meat was out of his pants,
slinging his liquid love against her radiant, wondrous skin, down onto the
cracked asphalt.

He would seed this earth with a forest of love trees.
For all to see.
For all to know she had forgiven him.

He felt her wondrous body, the heat of her loins, the rasp of her
protective pubic hair, melding with his.

He pushed the tiny mouth in the raucous head of his driving manhood
against her giant cry for finality. He didn’t know when last she had been
entered. He would grease her, he would butter her up and before he could even
articulate the thought, he was slipping through and sliding into paradise. The
yell of joy from his burbling slit reverberated through them both as the
massive head of his euphoric dick roared into her, plunging through her perfect
gulping lips, to plant a loving kiss on the urgent nub of her clit and then
sail past to dive into more plumy, more perfect places and tunnel deep inside
her heated loins.