Recklessly (32 page)

Wes peeled back her underwear and let his finger glide over her clit, setting off a transference of warmth from her to him, and most of it landed in his lap. “Damn, you’re so wet, Lan.”

Lana moaned softly but the pads of her fingers were pressing into his forearm. “I’ve been thinking about you doing this for the last hour. The last
fucking
hour.”

Shit.
She had been fantasizing about him touching her in public, and just the thought had turned her on
that
much. Talk about motivation. Almost involuntarily, the pace of his finger increased. She bucked against his hand just slightly, her nails pressing into his wrist as her thighs vised his hand.

“
Ooooh kay,
Deuce, you gotta slow it down,” she said in a strained giggle.

“Nope…” he said with a smile. “You’ll have to figure it out on your own.”

“Oh, you’re trouble. And I like it.”

He had to hand it to her, though; her effort to stay quiet was strenuous, and she was gasping for air, but she was trying. No way he’d be able to do that. If the situation were reversed, no one would’ve been able to hear the movie right now. Truthfully, Wes didn’t care if anyone could tell what they were doing. Apparently, neither did Lana.

Her hand suddenly clamped down on his thigh, and Lana steer his fingers herself. Wes looked at her, needing to see her face when she reached the pinnacle of pleasure before she had no choice but to let go. He had watched her come dozens of times, but the stunned look on any woman’s face before the eruption of an orgasm, made Wes feel like a titan.

Every. Single. Time.

When Lana met his eyes, she was biting her lip, eyelids fluttering.
Almost there, baby,
he thought to himself. He was so turned on he expected to combust any second, and he felt like flames were rising up from the floor. He was throbbing beneath the table and, oh God, that blessed pain, that sweet ache seeking satisfaction, made him squeeze his thighs together for a second.

Lana’s head fell back, she pressed one of her hands over her mouth and she gripped the edge of the chair until her hand blanched. Wes muttered the Lord’s name in vain when she finally fell forward with a shudder just as the applause rose around them when the film snippet ended.

Wes pressed a kiss to her cheek just as he got the signal that he had to go to the back. “Now I gotta go up there with a hard-on, and it’s all your fault.”

“I’ll take
full
responsibility for it later,” she said with a wink. “Hey, I was thinking...” Lana gripped his arm to keep him seated. “…Remember how you said we should go to Vegas soon?”

“Yeah, we’ll go next weekend,” Wes said as he stood up. “I’m completely free.”

“No! Let’s go tonight! Please? It’s only a three-hour drive. I’ll even do most of it.” She still loved her spontaneous trips, and like he could ever say no to her.

“Okay! Right after the show, all right?” He was really okay with it though. He had promised her they wouldn’t change, so they still did all the thrilling and crazy things they’d done while still casual.

“Yes! I’m so excited! I’ve had a bag packed in my closet for weeks!”

“Mine is actually in my car,” he said, smiling one last time before he walked away. He was on stage shortly thereafter, presenting the Surfing Legend-Female award with another surfer named Allison Corcoran. As soon as the applause ended following the winner’s speech, the awards girl ushered him and Allison off stage and a show coordinator directed Wes to the back of the event hall. A lot of people were hanging out outside the main hall, including Lana. He could spot his woman anywhere, even in a room full of other very beautiful women. He strode toward her, but slowed his steps when he discovered she was speaking with Brody, who had presented an award two places ahead of him. It looked like a tense conversation, and Lana’s body language, stiff and defensive, struck his protective nature, and Wes walked over quickly.
I gotta stop letting this thing between them get to me so much. I hate being jealous,
he thought.

“Hey, Elliott, we were
just
talking about you,” Brody lilted before he took a sip from his drink.

“Oh, yeah?” Wes said as he curled his arm around Lana’s waist.

Lana shook her head. “Brody—”

“Yeah, I was wondering when Lany Lan here planned to fill you in on our late night conversations—”

“Brody, stop!” Lana said, angrily. “Unbelievable! I told you if you wanted us to stay friends, you couldn’t be an asshole to Wes anymore! You
apologized
to me!”

Wes held his hands up. “Wait. Why the fuck are you calling my girlfriend?” He turned to Lana. “He’s calling you? Why? Since when?”

“Wes, can we—”

“For a while now. Hey, you told me to be nice to her… Maybe all that being nice gave me a change of heart with
the mother of my child
. Thanks, Deuce,” Brody said in a taunting tone. “Maybe now I want to fuck your girl and make another baby—”

Wes, suddenly incensed, shoved him backward, knocking Brody’s drink to the floor before shoving him again. They were soon tussling on the carpet, but neither had an opportunity to throw a punch before people were pulling them apart. Wes’ entire body seized, rage still wielding control over him to the point that he struggled in whomever’s grip he was in. There was a one-track stream of thoughts in his head.
Get to Brody. Punch. Keep punching.

“Lana’s magical box strikes again!” someone shouted.

“You! Shut the fuck up or you’re next!” Wes yelled at the instigator, and the guy who was holding him suddenly tightened his grip, preempting Wes from lunging forward to search out the speaker. “Lana…I know we’re new at this, but when your
douchebag
ex is trying to
fuck you
, you tell your boyfriend so he can give him several really painful reasons to stop.”

“I didn’t want you to do that! And, babe, he’s not telling the truth,” Lana said, her apologetic and soothing tone matching how she touched his face as she adjusted his askew clothing.

“He’s not calling you?”

“He is, but it has been about Sadie strictly and some pictures I sent him and some stuff I wanted to give him from the Olins. They were hardly over late night calls. Most of our conversations have been over text message. And he
knows
that.” She shot a look of frustration and disgust at Brody.

“But he
is
calling you.”

“I am,” Brody announced with pride.

“Yes, but—”

“How long?”

“Baby—”

“How long, Lan?”

“Two weeks!” Brody let out a loud laugh.

Wes narrowed his on Lana. “Two weeks, Lana?
Two
weeks?” Wes pointed to Brody. “Stay the fuck away from my girl.”

Lana growled at Brody. “I am
so
done helping you get to know Sadie. So done. It’s one thing to fuck with me, but don’t fuck with my boyfriend.” She turned to Wes. “Baby,” Lana said, reaching for his arm to pull him away.

“Not right now,” he said, turning away from her. He really hated that Brody now had a really great way to get under his skin, and it made him feel like he had relinquished some power to him.

“Deuce!” Christian was running toward him, suddenly the happiest person in the place. “Deuce! They’re calling you. You won Fan Favorite again, dude. They need you up on stage!” Christian wrenched him out of the situation and dragged him into the event hall. “What happened?”

“Brody just baiting me over Lana,” Wes explained. “I’m so aggravated that he’s in our lives—her life. Pisses me the fuck off.”

“I know, man. Just cool off, go get on stage, come back and work it out with your girl,” Christian said, with a reassuring pat on the back. The presenters were engaged in some forced comedic routine that wasn’t going over too well.

“I will. Wouldn’t let that asshole destroy my relationship. Thanks,” Wes said as he jogged up on stage to accept the award. After dedicating it to the fans, he stepped down and took quick steps to where Lana was waiting for him.

“Congratulations, baby!” she said, hugging him. “Three years in a row.”

“Thanks,” he said as he kissed her shoulder. He loved that she knew that. “Because it’s online, I forgot I was even nominated again, so I didn’t expect to win.”

“How could you not? Everyone I know got emails about voting for you!”

“Are you saying you singlehandedly got me the award?”

“Exactly! Hey, are you still mad? You don’t want to break up, do you?” Lana asked, her voice growing small. “You know I would never—”

“Lana, I’m still your boyfriend, and I still want to be your boyfriend.” His anger had dwindled to slight irritation. Some small part of him wanted to tell her not to see or talk to him anymore, but he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t that guy, and he didn’t want to control or dictate her actions, but he just didn’t believe Brody’s intentions were about forming a relationship with Sadie. Maybe it was mostly intuition but it was genuine jealousy, too. “I trust you, Lan, but please tell me when he’s trying to mess things up between us.” Wes sighed. “I just feel like you give him too much leeway, and I don’t like that you didn’t tell me about the calls. I want us to be able to tell each other everything.”

“But you know
why
I deal with him the way I do…”

“I get it, Lan, I really—”

“No, you
don’t,
Wes. But I just wish you would let me handle it. I don’t like fighting with you.”

“I don’t like how he’s been wedged between us since day one.” Wes pressed a kiss to her hand. “But I don’t want or like to fight with you, either. Let’s blow the rest of the show and just get out of here. We’ll go straight home and get our stuff and go!”

“Okay. I’m really sorry…” Lana kissed his hand too.

“I love you,” Wes said then dipped her back suddenly to smash a kiss to her lips. “Now, can I please take my girl and my award home?”

*

“Do you really like it?” Wes asked, sneaking up behind Lana as she leaned in the open entry of the balcony, while going over the details of his last-minute hotel deal on his phone at Caesar’s Palace for a two-night stay. These things were a saving grace when it came to dating someone like Lana.

“The easel? Are you kidding?” she said as he kissed the curve of her neck. “I would sleep with it if I could.”

“You’re allowed to cheat on me with painting.”

“Good to know, but I meant that platonically,” she said, spinning. “Who gets custody, though, if we break up?”

“You know I hate when you joke like that. We’re not back to this again, are we?”

“Sorry! I didn’t mean anything by it, babe.” Lana dropped a kiss on his nose and led him out of the house.

“But you mean
that,
though? You really mean you don’t mean anything by it, right?”

“As confusing as that is, yes. Yes, I meant that. I’m
here
!” she said, laughing. As much as they were working hard at it, sometimes he still sensed her reluctance. Not that she didn’t want to be there, but that she was still hanging on to the notion that they had taken too big of a step. She still seemed scared for some reason. It was strange to see her this way, when she was a woman who could so easily swing her leg over that death trap of a bike.

Lana insisted on taking the first part of the drive to Las Vegas, but when they stopped at Target an hour and a half into it, he demanded that she scoot over to the passenger seat, enticing her with the proposition that he wanted to hear her read from a few of the books she’d brought.

“Jesus, Wes! Will you stop debating this part under your breath?” Lana said, chuckling as she shut
Atonement
. She pressed her coffee cup to her lips after she swung her feet off his lap; she’d been sitting very precariously that way for several miles, but the road was pretty sparse of cars at this hour, and he liked being able to just reach down and stroke her leg.

“No! It’s so incredibly stupid what happens here!” Wes said, squeezing the steering wheel. “I hate Briony with a passion, Lan. I can read most books and be detached from what’s happening and still enjoy it, but I literally tossed my copy off a bridge. The little brat makes me so angry, and she feeds my irrational book rage so hard. She’s the reason I fuckin’ hate kids. I can’t even focus on anything else right now. Turn on the radio, even though I don’t think we’ll be able to catch very many stations out here.” They were on the I-15 driving through the Mojave Desert, and a little less than two hours outside of Vegas, passing thinly populated towns under a beautifully starlit sky.

Lana rubbed the back of his neck as she burst out laughing. “She was just doing what she thought was right, babe. I don’t think it’s unusual that people develop their own reasons and justifications for why they do the things they do, outside of what others would like them to do or think is right. Now, will you let me read without getting mad?”

“No. In fact, I’m tempted to toss your copy out the window. Fuckin’ kids.”

“You’ll say that until there’s a Wes Junior running around.”

“I’d chop my dick off before I let that happen.”

She laughed then said, “You really don’t think you’ll want kids down the line?”

“I don’t know. With my luck, they’ll be exactly like Abel and me. Oh, man…and twins run in my family. My maternal grandmother is a twin, too. Holy shit. I want to toss my dick out
now
with that book.” Wes dropped his hand on her knee and winced. “Oh, fuck. Here I am badmouthing kids and—”

Lana touched his face. “It’s okay! A lot of them are pretty bratty. Sadie has serious tantrums sometimes, and I just walk away because it’s so grating. And then I think to myself, ‘I’m so not cut out for this shit. I totally did the right thing.’ But I think I want them someday.”

Wes laughed. “Whoa. So, Lana Langston actually thinks about the future!”

“Sometimes. Or maybe my body is overriding my birth control, and I’m ovulating or something. Honestly, I just worry that if I have kids, one day Sadie might question why I would keep the others and give her up. That’s why I want her to know
now
she’s loved; she just came at the wrong time.”