Come and Get It (6 page)

She tipped her head back and looked at
him. “You’re crazy, you know it?”

“
Only where you’re
concerned, Rose.” He burrowed his face in her neck. “You smell
good. Let me take you home tonight.”

“
I can’t. I have church in
the morning and I’ll be busy all day, cooking for work and the
weddin’.”

“
You still need a ride home
tonight.”

“
If I let you take me home,
you’ll have me flat on my back in under two minutes, Quin
Halladay.”

“
I don’t deny that’s my
intention.” He nibbled on her neck as the song ended.

“
That’s what I’m afraid
of,” she said wryly. Her nod was barely perceptible, but Quin
caught it and carried her off the dance floor.

* * *

Dixie didn’t have much to say on the
way back to her house. The minute Quin got into the truck, he’d
pulled her across the seat, kissing her as though his very breath
depended on her mouth beneath his. “There’s a seat belt in the
middle, use that one. I want you next to me.”

“
Okay.” She drew the word
out, not understanding the urgency of the kiss or his need to have
her close to him. “Something wrong, sugar?”

He put the truck in gear and pulled
out of the parking lot. “Seems like a whole lot of people were
doing their best to keep you away from me tonight. Any idea
why?”

Dixie chuckled. “I reckon they think
you’re first cousin to the Big Bad Wolf.”

Quin snorted. “Well, that explains
some of the things that happened today.”

“
What things?”

“
Like someone stuffing dog
shit under the door handle of my truck.”

She couldn’t help it. She snickered.
“Oh, no. That’s awful.”

Quin gave her a wry smile. “Yeah, I
can see you’re all broken up over it.” He took her hand, resting it
lightly on his thigh. “Then I came out of the hotel tonight to find
someone had let the air out of all four tires.”

Dixie slapped a hand over her mouth in
an effort to hide her grin. “Oh, my,” she said. “It’s Garrett all
over again.”

Quin raised an eyebrow.
“Garrett?”

“
My husband.” She nodded.
“He had a reputation as a lady’s man, and when he first started
comin’ round, people worried his intentions might be less than
honorable. I guess folks figured if he kept comin’ around after all
the things they put him through, he was on the up and
up.”

“
And what did
folks
do to
Garrett?”

Dixie laughed. “You name it, they did
it. Banana in his exhaust pipe. Fish heads under the seat of his
truck. Somebody even managed to get blue food colorin’ in his
toothpaste. Walked around for days with blue teeth. But he waded
through it all and, eventually, they left him alone.”

“
So, these men you cook
for, they’re all trying to protect you from me because they don’t
think my intentions are honorable.”

“
Sugar, they know your
intentions ain’t honorable.” He opened his mouth to protest but
shut it again when her hand moved up to squeeze his cock. “It’s
okay. My intentions ain’t exactly honorable either.”

“
Is that so?” His voice
took on a thick, smoky tone. “You keep that up and we won’t make it
back to your place.”

“
Do tell.” She uttered a
teasing laugh and slid her hand between his legs to cup his balls
through the heavy denim fabric.

“
Rose,” he growled, a
teasing grin on his face. “I’ll pull this truck over the next dirt
road I see.”

Dixie laughed, remembering there was a
little clearing up ahead where she and her husband had stopped to
make love one night. They’d been so hot for one another, Garrett
had pulled her from the truck, bent her over the bench seat, and
taken her hard and fast from behind. “There’s one right up there on
your left, just past the fence post.”

Quin narrowed his eyes at her, then
made a quick turn where she’d indicated. The truck bounced up the
dirt road until they came to a grove of pecan trees. He pulled into
the middle of the orchard and doused the lights. “I have a blanket
folded up behind the seat.” He reached back to grab it. “Come on,
nature girl.”

Dixie unlatched her seat belt and
shrieked with laughter as Quin pulled her from the seat and quickly
carried her further into the copse of nut trees. She was still
laughing when he set her on her feet and went about spreading the
blanket on the ground.

Her laughter died as Quin kicked off
his shoes and began to unbutton his shirt. The pale moonlight
dappled his broad shoulders in silvery light as he dropped the
shirt on the blanket. When his hands moved to his waist, her breath
quickened. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Let me.”

She couldn’t stop the slight shaking
of her hands as she loosened the button on his jeans and slid the
zipper down. Her fingers hooked the waistband of his boxer briefs
and eased them down. He was already stepping out of them when her
hands reached for him, cupping his balls as she closed her fingers
around his cock. “I swear, God has got to be a woman.”

“
Now you,” Quin said. He
tugged the sexy top over her head and dropped it on top of his
shirt. Next came her jeans and purple thong.

Before she knew it, Dixie was standing
before him in nothing but her bare skin and moonlight. She’d meant
what she’d said. God had to be a woman because only a woman could
build a man like Quin Halladay. Her hands went to his shoulders,
tracing the line of them with her fingertips. Across to his
collarbone, between his pecs. Her fingers found his nipples and
traced them before flicking her tongue against one hard nub. He
stood perfectly still, letting her hands roam his body at her
leisure, but she could feel his cock twitching against her
belly.

Dixie kneeled in front of Quin and
guided him into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the sensitive
head of his cock before taking him deeper. His hands went to her
hair, stroking the soft blonde tresses as his hips gently moved to
the rhythm she set.

“
Oh, baby,” Quin sighed.
“That feels so good.”

When his breath came in short gasps as
he got closer to orgasm, Dixie sucked harder, caressing his balls.
He told her to stop, but she refused with a muffled “mmm-mm.” The
hand that grasped his cock tightened its grip as she sucked and
slurped, urging him to let go, to let her have every last drop of
him.

His hands fisted in her hair and he
stiffened. “Oh, fuck, Rose. Ah, yeah.” Dixie continued to hold him
against her, milking him until he was spent, a tiny smile of
satisfaction on her lips. She’d made him come, and the feeling was
one of pure power as he eased to his knees and pulled her
close.

Dixie was content just to hold Quin.
She’d nearly forgotten what it was like to hold a man. To have his
cock in her mouth, to have it inside her, to feel the warmth of
another body next to her in the wee small hours of the morning. He
would be leaving sooner or later and she wanted every moment left
to her. She wanted to feel his hands on her, his lips against hers,
his cock deep inside her.

“
Rose.” He whispered her
name like a prayer. He tipped her chin up and kissed her. Her lips
parted to receive him, and his tongue tangled with hers. His mouth
slanted over hers, his tongue delving deep as she felt his cock
begin to stir once more. He eased her down to the blanket and
settled himself between her legs. “You look so beautiful in the
moonlight.”

“
Ah,” Dixie sighed as he
took a turgid nipple between his lips. He nipped gently at the
tight little nub, then moved to the other one. He licked and
nibbled the sensitive underside of her breast before taking suckle.
Dear Lord, she wanted him inside her so badly she could taste it.
“Oh, please. I need you.”

Quin released her breast and moved to
place hot, moist kisses on her flat, tanned belly. “Soon, Rose.
Open your legs for me so I can have a taste of you.”

Dixie’s back arched as Quin’s strong
fingers plied her pussy. He buried his tongue inside her, lapping
at the cream he’d caused to flow so freely. “You taste so sweet,
baby. I could eat you all night.”

Her hips moved of their own volition
as he continued his slow torment, ravaging her with his mouth and
fingers. “Fuck me,” Dixie moaned. “Oh, God, I can’t take any
more.”

“
Shhh,” Quin said against
her clit, chuckling when she ground herself against his mouth. He
took the hard bud between his lips and drew on it and her hips
lifted off the blanket.

“
Ooooh!” She couldn’t help
the howling and thrashing. He was making her crazy. “If you ain’t
gonna fuck me, get off me.”

“
Oh, I’m going to fuck you,
sweetheart.”

“
Sometime this year?” she
complained, prompting a sharp bark of laughter from him.

She heard the rustle of his jeans, the
tear of a condom packet, and then he flipped her onto her stomach,
hauled her to her knees, and thrust into her, hard.

“
Yeess. Oh, God, just like
that.” Dixie’s hands clutched the blanket as Quin powered into her,
thrusting hard and deep. She couldn’t ever remember being so
thoroughly filled or so meticulously fucked. The man knew how to
use his cock. Withdraw slowly, almost to the point of leaving her,
then plunge in to the hilt. Her body shuddered and quaked as she
rose higher and higher.

With each thrust, he brought her
closer and closer but kept her teetering on the brink. When she was
sobbing for release, he quickened his pace, ramming into her hard
and fast, grunting like an animal as she shoved herself back onto
his forward thrusts. “Garrett,” she shouted as he slammed into her
one last time, bellowing his own release.

In the aftermath, they were both
silent. Dixie didn’t know what to say. She’d called her lover by
another man’s name, her dead husband’s name. At last, she sat
up.

“
I’m sorry.” She wiped
tears from her eyes.

“
It’s all
right.”

But she knew it wasn’t. She’d hurt
him. “Quin.”

He stood, tugging on his jeans. “Look,
Dixie, I said it was all right and I meant it. We both know what
this is. Two consenting adults taking pleasure in one another’s
body. I never made any secret of the fact that I wasn’t interested
in anything long term and neither did you. It’s a little unnerving
that you’re using me as a surrogate for your dead husband but, hey,
if it helps you to think of it in that way, that’s
fine.”

Dixie gasped, started dressing. “I am
not usin’ you as a surrogate for Garrett. I know full well who and
what you are, Quin Halladay.”

He turned on her, glaring. “And what
is that, exactly?”

“
Exactly?” She jerked her
shirt on over her head, not bothering to lace it up. “You’re a
spoiled, overprivileged ass who’s never wanted for a thing in his
life. Hell, you don’t even have laugh lines.”

His hands fisted on his hips. “I don’t
have . . . what the hell does that have to do with
anything?”

“
It means you don’t know
how to be happy, that’s what it means. When you’ve never had to
struggle for somethin’, you can’t know the simple feeling of joy.”
Having spoken her peace, she stomped to the truck and climbed
inside, slamming the door hard.

Chapter Five

Dixie pressed the button on her
answering machine. Quin was on his way to the airport.

“
Hey, Rose. Sorry I missed
you. I got a call from my boss last night and I’m flying back to
L.A. for a meeting with the client on this job. Not sure how long
it’s going to take but I’ll call you when I get back. And Rose? I
apologize for what I said.”

After deleting the message, Dixie
finished cleaning up from today’s run, then took Beezer out for a
game of fetch, tossing a stick for him until he became board with
the activity. She climbed the steps and slumped down onto the porch
swing, remembering that first time with Quin. He’d gone down on her
until she’d come harder than she’d ever come in her life, then he’d
stuffed her full of that big cock. Bigger than anything she’d ever
experienced. Of course, the only other man she had to compare Quin
with was her late husband.

Lord but she missed Garrett at times
like this—when she was feeling sorry for herself. She hated it when
she hurt people’s feeling and Quin had been hurt, despite his
protests to the contrary. She hadn’t meant it. The only explanation
she could come up with was the fact that they’d been making love at
the same spot where her husband had taken her. Garrett’s rough
treatment had surprised and excited her so that when Quin had
flipped her over and taken her from behind like that . .
.

She sighed and got up, deciding to run
a hot bath to relax. The pity-filled looks she’d gotten from her
customers today had gotten to her. For the first time since she’d
started feeding the men she’d felt like she had to put on an act to
make them think everything was all right. Most fell for it, but
Hugh hadn’t and neither had Allen. Grabbing the phone, she padded
to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.