Adrenaline (Speed #2) (17 page)

I wanted to tell her she’d look even better naked and bent over the table with my cock buried deep inside her. But I refrained.

Shit. I’ll be hard all day if I keep thinking like this.

“Yeah, but you look great.”

She drew in a breath and clapped her hands. “I got ready faster than I thought I would. Ready to go?”

“Sure.”

It took a little effort for me to get down the stairs and to my truck. Paislie helped me get into the truck before taking the crutches and putting them in the back seat of the truck.

As she drove into Waco, I couldn’t help but keep glancing her way. I was sure she felt my eyes on her. Each time I looked at her, she gripped the steering wheel a bit stronger. “Have you ever been to Waco?”

Paislie shook her head. “Nope.”

With a jerk of my head, I looked at her. “Really?”

She shrugged. “Never had a reason to come here. Well, I take it back. I did visit Baylor, but decided it wasn’t the school for me.”

Now I was curious and wanted to know every single thing about her.

“Where did you go to school?”

“Texas Women’s University in Denton.”

I wasn’t surprised she stayed in the Dallas area especially with how close she was with Sister Elizabeth.

“So did you ever go to college? I mean, I guess you probably didn’t have time with as much as you travel.”

“I actually started taking online classes in high school. I’d like to go back and get a degree. Just never enough time.”

She nodded her head and stopped at a stoplight and turned to me. Her eyes moved over my shoulder and she threw on the blinker. “Are you in a hurry or need to be somewhere?”

“Nope, just wanted out of the house.”

Paislie pulled into the parking lot of Woodway Park and parked. She turned off the truck, got and met me on the passenger side as I opened the door. I thought she was getting the crutches, but she got out a cane instead. “Let’s get in some walking on your leg, shall we?”

My mouth dropped open as I looked at her. “What? I thought therapy was this morning.”

With a raised eyebrow, she slowly shook her head. “If I’m going to be living with you twenty-four seven, and I see an opportunity to do something, we’re doing it.”

God, those last three words made my cock stir.

“Doing it, huh? Aren’t you rushing?” I asked with a wink.

She rolled her eyes, but I couldn’t miss the flush in her cheeks.

Placing her hands on her hips, she asked, “Are we in high school, Malcolm?”

“No ma’am, we most certainly are not.”

She ignored me as she continued to talk. “Take your time walking, but the faster we build up the strength in your leg, the better.” She pointed to a bench that faced the water. “Let’s walk over there and then sit for a bit.”

The distance to the bench looked easy, but by the time we got there, my leg felt like a ten-pound bag of cement was attached to it.

I sat down and moaned under my breath.

“How’s it feel?”

“Like I just dragged a fuck ton of weight with my leg. It’s still feels numb up the side here.”

The way she was looking at me had me worried. “What? Why are you looking at me like I just lost my puppy or something?”

Her eyes lit up. “You have a puppy?”

With a frown, I replied, “No. I mean you’re giving me a fucking pity look. I don’t do those well, so if you could knock that shit off I’d appreciate it.”

She folded her arms and narrowed her left eye at me. “Listen, if we’re gonna make this work we need to get something straight right now. You’re going to be in pain and it’s not going to be fun, but if you’re going to be a complete derk when we do this, I won’t be sticking around. I don’t like being treated like that.”

“You mean jerk,” I responded.

“No. I mean derk. You’re being both a dick and jerk at the same time.”

My head flinched back slightly as I frowned. “Isn’t that the same thing?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s like double the assholeness.”

“That’s another made up word, Paislie. You can’t describe a made up word with another made up word.”

Her lips twitched as she held back her smile. “Who says so?”

With a blank look, I said, “Everyone!”

She rolled her eyes and sat down next to me. “I read through all your medical notes. I need to ask you something.”

My heart dropped as she stared at me with a concerned expression. “Okay. What?”

“Has anyone talked to you about the excessive amount of nerve damage you sustained and the possible lasting effects?”

“That explains the weird tingling sensation.”

“You’ll also have random pain as they heal.” She turned her body to face me. “I want to be one-hundred-percent honest with you, Malcolm. I don’t think anyone has up to this point and I’m not sure if it’s because they were trying to keep you positive or what the reasons are.”

I swallowed hard as my heart felt like it was about to pound out of my chest. “Jesus Christ, tell me, Paislie.”

“Don’t use God’s name in vain like that.”

She was stalling. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. “Please, tell me.”

“You’re going to keep an open mind and not fly off the handle and say something mean?”

I sighed as I looked at her and was held captive by how beautiful her emerald eyes were. “Yes.”

She looked down and fiddled with her hands before looking back at me. “With as much nerve damage as you have, coupled with the knee damage, you could have lasting effects. Such as pain that radiates in your leg, numbness on the side where a good portion of the nerve damage was, or you might not regain full strength of your leg and will need a cane to walk.”

Bile moved into my throat as I stared at her. Not one fucking person had said anything to me like this. Not one damn word.

My hands shook and Paislie noticed right away. “Are you saying I might not ever be able to drive a racecar again?”

“I swear to you, Malcolm, I will do everything in my power to get you back to one hundred percent, but I need you to know we might not be able to get past ninety.

I locked my jaw down and clenched my teeth together as I balled my fists. The anger was moving through my body at warp speed and all I wanted to do was hit something.

Hard.

Paislie saw it immediately and her next response was not one I was expecting.

She stood and then sat down on me, straddling me as her warmth pressed against my dick.

“Malcolm,” she whispered as she pressed her lips to mine and the surge I felt the first time we kissed flowed through my body again. This time it was ten times stronger. My hands gripped onto her hips as I dug my fingers into them, trying to release the anger somewhere.

“Kiss me back, Malcolm. Kiss me!” she demanded against my lips. My hand came up to her neck as I pulled her closer. Our kiss turned rough as I sucked her lip into my mouth and bit down on it while she gasped.

The moment she rocked her hips against me, everything vanished and all I could think about was her . . . sitting on me, pressing her pussy against me and both of us getting worked up.

My grip on her lessened as she ran her tongue along my lips before pulling back and leaning her forehead to mine. Her chest heaved along with mine.

“It was the only thing I could think of to take your mind away from the anger I saw building.”

“It worked,” I barely said as my voice cracked. Her eyes glanced down to where my rock-hard dick was throbbing in my jeans.

She placed her hands on my chest and pushed back as she stood up. “I’m sorry I did that. I don’t think well when I’m under pressure and I acted unprofessionally.”

My head was spinning with what she just told me and how my body wanted more of her. She’s sorry she did that? She acted unprofessionally?

I took the cane in my hand and stood up. Paislie walked behind me in silence as we made our way back to the truck. When we got in, she started it and asked, “Where are we going?”

She acted as if nothing had happened between us, and it pissed me off that it bothered me so much.

“World Cup Café.”

The only thing spoken between us was the driving directions I gave her to get to the café.

Once we ordered, Paislie tried to make small talk, but all I kept hearing in my head was what she said.

“So, what do people do for fun in this town? My friend, Annie, is coming this weekend and wants to hang out.”

My head snapped up as I looked at her. “Bars. There’s a lot of bars. Barnett’s Pub or Crickets to name a few.”

She smiled and looked away.

After paying for the check, we made our way out to the truck. “You can head back to the ranch.”

The drive was pure fucking torture. I was still reeling over the way her body felt against mine, and on top of that, I kept replaying that damn kiss. I wanted to reach over and touch her. Anywhere, I just needed to feel her soft skin anyway I could get it. Her hands held the wheel like she had a death grip on it.

When we finally pulled up to the house, I tried like hell to get out of the truck before she came around to my side.

How could she crawl on top me like that and then act like nothing had happened? I was confused, in pain, and pissed off.

She placed her hand on my arm and I jerked it away as her eyes widened in surprise. “I’m fine.”

Standing frozen in her spot, she watched me as I made my way up the stairs and into the house, slamming the front door behind me.

I’d give anything to have a mindless fucking right about now and was half tempted to call Ashley and see if she was still hanging with that douchebag.

By the time I reached my bedroom, the pain was so bad in my leg, I was sweating. My cock was still throbbing and all I wanted was some kind of relief.

Pulling my phone out, I pulled up her number and sent her a text. If I was lucky, she’d be here within the hour and I could forget the way my body was feeling, both from the pain in my leg and from Paislie’s touch.

After hitting send, I closed my eyes and tried to forget everything.

I PACED BACK AND FORTH
in my bedroom as I chewed on my thumbnail. “I can’t believe I did that.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I reached back for a pillow and buried my face and screamed into it. I knew he was getting angry and I should have just let him deal with his emotions, but I used it as an excuse to get closer to him. To feel his lips on mine.

Fucking hell. I practically begged him to kiss me while I rocked my body against his. Then I acted as if it never happened.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

I reached for my Kindle and pulled up a book I was reading. It was far from the romance books I usually read. This book was recommended by Elizabeth. The Christian-based book was supposed to help me find my true inner self. The only thing I wanted to find was how not to be attracted to Malcolm.

Two and a half hours had passed since we got back from Waco. I couldn’t take the silent treatment anymore. What we needed was to define the boundaries. Clearly, me jumping on top of the man paying me to help in his recovery was crossing a line.

I stood and dropped my Kindle onto the bed. “This is bullshit.”

Racing into the bathroom, I checked myself in the mirror and pulled my long dark hair up into a ponytail and set out to talk to Malcolm.

We were two grown adults who clearly were attracted to one another. We needed to figure out a way to keep that under control while I was here . . .
working
. . . for him.

As I made my way through the house, I knew he wouldn’t be upstairs. I checked the back porch, the front, the kitchen, game room and both living rooms. Malcolm was nowhere to be found.

I stared down the hallway that led to the master suite. I knew which door was his bedroom because it was damn near straight across from the personal gym we were in this morning, which was ten times better than the gym I belonged to at home.

Pulling in a deep cleansing breath, I headed down the hall. Checking the gym, it was empty. Turning, I passed a long table that had a beautiful sculpture on it, which I had admired this morning. They were in a small niche that was on the wall opposite Malcolm’s bedroom. Lifting my hand, I went to knock when I heard voices.

I held my breath as I leaned in closer. It was a female voice.

Did she just moan?

I slammed my hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up.

Oh. My. God.

He was fucking someone? It felt as if someone had kicked me right in the stomach as I quickly took a few steps back, bumping right into the table. Before I could stop it, the sculpture rocked and tipped right over, smashing against the travertine floor.

Fuck!

I dropped to my knees and started quickly picking up the pieces. Tears pooled in my eyes as I prayed for the strength to keep them at bay.
Please, God. Please don’t let him come out here. Please don’t let me see who he is with.
How stupid could I be to think this would work? How stupid was I to think I could work him up into a frenzy and then just walk away and he would be totally fine? He was a man. They only thought with their dicks.

The door opened and I trained my eyes onto the broken pieces of clay.