squeezed her hand and released it. “We’re giving each other the jitters, sitting here thinking about it. We’ll be better off once we get started.”
“You’re probably right. So here goes.” She turned on the seat and started hunching down so she could fit on the floor. “Take a look and make sure nobody’s around to see me doing this.”
He scanned the tidy little neighborhood. “I don’t see anybody. Most people are probably inside having dinner right now.”
She tucked herself down onto the blue blanket. “Punch it, cowboy.”
And so it began. He took a deep breath and put the truck in Reverse. He’d done some wild things in his life, but this had to be the granddaddy of all risks he’d ever taken. He hoped that this time he hadn’t finally bitten off more than he could chew.
CHAPTER FIVE
KNEELING ON THE BLANKET on the floor of the truck, Tess felt more wild and crazy than she had in years. She had developed a taste for reckless adventure after tagging along after her brothers and Mac when she was a kid. Lately she’d been missing that adrenaline rush.
She rested her arms on the seat and pillowed her head on her arms. She had two choices—either she could look at the passenger-side door on her left or Mac’s thigh on her right. With her feeling of adventure still running strong, she looked to her right.
His muscled thigh flexed as he stepped down on the gas, making the denim of his jeans move in subtle and tantalizing ways. Just beyond was the ridge of his fly. Her pulse quickened as she contemplated the ramifications of her decision. Of course, if they discovered they had no talent for making out with each other, they could call a halt to the whole program.
Mac clicked on the radio and a soft country tune filled the cab. She’d ridden in Mac’s truck with the radio on hundreds of times. They’d sung along with the music, even rolled down the windows and turned up the volume when they were feeling really rowdy and wanted to stir up the neighborhood. She realized now that she’d always felt more alive when she was with Mac.
She certainly felt alive right now. Every nerve ending was checking in and registering the soft blanket under her knees, the tweed fabric of the seat beneath her arms, the waft of the air-conditioning over her bare back. The scent of Mac’s aftershave used to be a comforting presence, letting her know her friend was nearby. Now it signaled something else entirely. The man who would soon take her in his arms was sitting very close to her.
“We’re going to be on a dirt road in a minute,” he said. “I’ll try not to jolt you too much. Once we’ve gone a ways, you can probably sit up again.”
“Where are we going?”
“A little road I found a couple of years ago. It goes out to the edge of a plateau where you have a nice view of Anvil Peak. Hold on. Here’s comes the turnoff.” He touched his booted foot to the brake, causing the denim to ripple again.
Watching Mac drive from this vantage point was quite an erotic experience, Tess decided.
He turned the wheel with one hand and reached over with the other to grip her shoulder as the truck bumped down off the pavement and onto the dirt. His hand was warm and sure as he held her steady. There was nothing seductive in his touch, and yet her heartbeat began to thunder in her ears and her whole body reacted to that point of contact. When he took his hand away, she wanted to have it back. Maybe his embrace wouldn’t feel as awkward to her as she’d feared.
“Okay, I think you can sit up now. Nobody ever comes out here.”
“Except you. You seem pretty familiar with the place.” She crawled up to the seat and straightened her dress.
“I’ve been here a few times.”
“Making out?”
“Now don’t start asking me questions like that, Tess. You’re going to spoil the mood for sure.”
“Making out,” she concluded.
He sighed and switched on the headlights.
“Well, I’m not dumb, you know. I understand the reason guys search for lonely roads.” She looked around. Sure enough, there were no signs of civilization, just a road stretching to a point in the distance where the scrub-covered ground dropped away. Across the green swath of the river valley, Anvil Peak was silhouetted against a brick-red sky. To the right of that, the smokestack of the Arivaca Copper Mine sent a gentle plume into the air. “This is very pretty.”
“I think so.”
“So who did you bring out here?”
“Tess!”
“You pestered me about movie stars.”
“And I shouldn’t have. When two people are together, they should be concentrating on each other.”
“Unless they want to explore the fantasy angle.”
“Could we forget the fantasy angle? For all you know, being out here with you is my fantasy!”
She caught her breath and stared at him. “Is it?”
“No. Or at least I don’t think so. I don’t know what made me say that. Forget it.”
But of course she couldn’t forget it. And she remembered a dream she’d had about five years ago, one she’d put out of her mind as being silly. “Have you ever dreamed about me?”
“Of course I’ve dreamed about you. We see each other all the time. I dream about all the people in my life. Everybody does that.”
“No, I mean, have you ever dreamed of me in a sexual way?”
He hesitated. “Yes. Once.”
“So have I. About you.”
He kept his attention on the dirt road. “That’s probably normal.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t. What did you dream?”
“I… I can’t remember.”
“I don’t believe you. Are you going to tell me what it was?”
“Nope.”
“Do you want to know what I dreamed?” When he didn’t answer, she smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes. We’d gone out for ice cream at Creamy Cone one summer night, and mine was melting all over the place, and you’d forgotten to get napkins, like you always do.”
“Not always.”
“Most of the time. Anyway, I was a mess, and I didn’t want to go home like that, so you decided the only solution was to lick the ice cream off me. We’d magically gotten down to the river by that time, and we were sitting on the sand in our special place. You started cleaning me up, like a cat would, and then…you started kissing me instead of licking, and…then you took my clothes off…” She wondered how much detail to include, but she felt dishonest leaving anything out.
“You kissed my breasts,” she continued quickly, “and I said I was surprised you wanted to do that. You said you’d always wanted to, and you kissed them some more, and then you kissed me…all over.” She decided to leave some details to his imagination. “Then right at the moment you were finally going to…well, you know… I woke up.”
Her heart was pounding by the time she finished, and she had total recall of what she’d felt like in that dream, all warm and melting like the ice cream. She was definitely in the mood for a kiss. For more than a kiss.
Mac stopped the truck and switched off the lights and the engine. “That’s…quite a dream.” His voice sounded strained.
“Now you tell me yours.”
“Maybe later.”
“Was it anything like mine?”
“No.”