Tracy Wolff - Crash Into Me

“Jamison already did that.”

As she explained how she’d bitten the jerk, Ryder tossed back a shot of tequila, then poured himself a second one. He could still feel her. Still smell her, all peaches and cream and rich, sweet honey. It should be illegal for a woman to smell that good. To feel that good.

Jared laughed as Jamison demonstrated the wimpy way Max had screamed when she’d bitten him. Then he crossed to Ryder and slapped him on the back. “It looks like the two of you really didn’t need me,” he said as he did his own shot of Patron. “Though I’m not promising not to deck the bastard the next time I see him.”

“Just let it go,” Jamison implored. “I haven’t seen you guys in almost a year. The last thing I want to do is spend the rest of the night talking about that jerk.”

“So what do you want to do?” Micah asked, draping a casual arm over Jamison’s shoulders. Ryder watched him with narrowed eyes for long seconds, then did the second shot. It seemed to him that lately Micah had been getting way too friendly with women he had no business getting friendly with. Just last week in Houston, he’d been draped all over Jared’s fiancée when the guitarist wasn’t around. They’d both had their clothes on, but still. Ryder hadn’t liked the looks of it—any more than he liked the looks of this. It took every ounce of concentration he had not to tell the jerk to back the fuck off.

Jamison obviously didn’t mind, though, as she snuggled deeper into Micah’s embrace. “What do you think? You guys killed it tonight. I want to celebrate.”

“Hell, yeah!” Wyatt said. “Let’s go get drunk.”

“Not quite what I had in mind,” Jamison told him dryly.

“Oh, yeah? What did you have in mind?” Micah asked, pushing one of her long red curls back from her face. Ryder fought the sudden, inexplicable urge to plow his fist into his bandmate’s face. Maybe Micah wasn’t the problem after all. Maybe he was, he decided as he slowly relaxed his fist. He had no reason to be thinking like this. Feeling like this. And he’d do well to remember that.

“I want you guys to take me dancing,” Jamison said.

“Dancing?” Quinn repeated incredulously.

“Yes, dancing . There are a ton of great clubs around here. It’ll be fun.” She turned to him for support, just as she’d been doing since she was ten damn years old. “Right, Ryder?”

“Yeah, sure. Big fun.” He slammed back a third shot. Jared was looking at him strangely, but Ryder ignored him. If he was actually going to have to get out on a dance floor with Jamison and all those gorgeous curves of hers—or worse, stand there while she snuggled up to the rest of the guys—he was going to be dead drunk when he did it. Anything else didn’t bear thinking about.

Sitting at the bar in the VIP section of one of the most popular clubs in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, Jamison tossed back her third shot of tequila under her big brother’s watchful eye. She knew the look on his face, knew it was only a matter of time before he demanded to know what the hell was up with her. While she enjoyed a shot of Patron as much as the next girl, she’d never been one to down three of them in a row. Never been one to over-imbibe at all, to be honest.

Which was depressing, now that she thought about it. How had she gotten to the ripe old age of twenty-three without ever being drunk? She’d gone to college, even dated a frat guy or two. Not to mention spent most of her adolescence hanging out with a rock band. How could she not have thrown caution to the wind at least once in all that time?

She was making up for her teetotaling tonight, she decided, as she gestured to the bartender for another shot. Jared started to object, but the look she sent him told him to butt out. If a girl couldn’t get drunk with five of her closest friends in the world after losing her boyfriend, her job, and her car all in the same week, then when exactly was she supposed to get drunk?

The bartender slid the shot in front of her and she reached for it. But another hand closed around it first. Highly indignant, she turned around to give whichever of the guys had stolen her drink a piece of her mind, only to freeze as she found Ryder standing behind her, his eyes dark and intense as he waited for her reaction.

The club was hot—even back here where there weren’t so many people—and she watched, helplessly, as a single drop of sweat rolled down his throat. It disappeared beneath the collar of his simple, black V-neck and for a second she wanted to go after it. To lick up the salty-sweetness of it before tracing his beautiful chest and abs with her lips. Her tongue. After so many years of wondering, she was dying to know what he tasted like.

Ryder’s eyes narrowed, almost as if he knew what she was thinking. Then he shifted closer, his hard thighs brushing against her hip, his chest mere centimeters from her own. She knew he was playing with her, crowding her just to see how she would react, as all of the guys were want to do on occasion. If it had been one of the other guys who’d stolen her drink, she would have elbowed him in the stomach or bumped him with her knee as she tried to wrestle it away from him.

But this wasn’t Wyatt or Micah or Quinn. This was Ryder and no matter how much she longed to touch him, she knew she wouldn’t do it. Not now, when she was so turned on by his proximity that she was afraid to open her mouth. If she did speak, she knew she was going to end up revealing just how much she wanted him. Not the smoothest move, especially when her very over-protective big brother was only inches away.

Under her mesmerized eyes, Ryder lifted the shot to his lips. Tilted his head back. Slammed down the clear liquid. His throat worked as he swallowed and Jamison was so tempted to grab him, to jump him, that for a second she thought about sitting on her hands, just to be safe. But then he was getting even closer to her, his muscular chest rubbing against her aching nipples and she forgot all about her no touching rule. Her hands went to his waist of their own volition, her fingers weaving themselves through his belt loops as he pressed her back against the bar.

Holy shit! Even with her brain muddled with alcohol, she couldn’t believe this was happening. Couldn’t believe that after all these years, after all this time, Ryder was doing this here. Now. With Jared only a few feet away.

Not that she cared. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was the fire exploding between the two of them. Ryder was touching her, was leaning in to kiss her, was—

Her real-life fantasy crashed down around her as he snagged a lime slice from the glass of them on the bar behind her. Then he was stepping away, biting into the tart fruit with a careless grin and an off-the-cuff comment to Jared about one of the women down the bar. Her brother ignored the woman—he was too in love with his fiancee, who also happened to be his high school girlfriend, to pay attention to any of the women buzzing around him.

Still, heat exploded in Jamison’s cheeks as she realized what an idiot she’d been. All that fire between them, all that need she’d felt welling up, had been completely one-sided. He hadn’t been brushing against her because he wanted to, but because he needed to reach something.

It was humiliating. And somehow so much worse than if he actually had realized what was going on inside of her. At least then she would know he saw her as a person, as someone beyond his best friend’s little sister. As it stood, she felt more like the band’s asexual mascot than the sexy, desirable woman she so wanted to be for him. To him. It was doubly humiliating when she considered the fact that that groupie had been so certain she could get him into bed. That she could satisfy him. What did some heavily made-up little tart have that she didn’t, Jamison wondered bitterly. Besides the ability to attract Ryder, that is?