All You Can Handle (Moments In Maplesville Book 5) (3 page)

A genuine smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Yes,” she answered. “I’d like it very much if you were to walk me to my car.”

Taking him by the hand, they made their way off the dance floor and through the bar’s double doors. Ian’s friends had left over an hour ago, The Hulk, whom he’d introduced as Dale, had to help the other friend, Sam, out of the bar.

“I’m parked over there,” Sonny said, pointing towards the graveled parking lot to the right side of the building. The number of cars crowding the lot had thinned considerably since she’d first arrived. Her vintage VW Bug sat nearly hidden against the seven-foot-tall wooden fence, the branches of an oak tree on the other side of the fence reaching over to create a canopy for her car.

“That your car?” Ian asked, speeding up his steps. He let go of her hand as he rounded her VW. “What year is this? Looks like a ’62.”

“You know your cars,” Sonny said.

“This is a classic. You buy it already restored, or did you have it done?”

“It was a rusty pile of junk when I bought it,” she said.

“No kidding?” He looked up at her. “Original engine?”

Sonny nodded.

He let out a low whistle as he peered inside the car through the driver’s side window. “Can’t be easy finding parts for this baby.”

“It’s a nightmare.” She laughed. “I had no idea it would be so ridiculously expensive to maintain, but I love it.” Sonny walked over and unlocked the driver’s side door. “Get in,” she said.

He looked up at her again. “You sure?”

She nodded. “I can tell how much you want to see it.”

His lips quirked. “Now, if we’re talking about what I
really
want to see…”

A coy smile drew across her lips.

“It’s not what you think,” he said. He tipped his head toward the rear of the car.

Sonny thought for a moment then burst out laughing. She went around to the back of the car and lifted the latch on the rear engine.

“Oh wow,” Ian said. He reached for the engine, then pulled his hand back. “Can I?”

“Go ahead.” She loved the pure awe in his voice. Anyone who could appreciate a classic VW Bug was gold in her eyes.

Ian placed his palm on the camshaft and released a deep moan. “This makes up for no sex.”

Her head flew back with her laugh.

“I’m serious,” Ian said. “This is like touching history. Not that touching you wouldn’t have been historic, but this…
this
is a ’62 Beetle.”

“You’re actually comparing sex with me to touching my car?”

“I should stop while I’m ahead, shouldn’t I?”

“I think so,” Sonny said, laughing again. She couldn’t help it. He was way too adorable. And sexy. And funny.

A pall stretched over her at the thought of leaving him, and she suddenly could think of nothing more than extending their time together.

“Do you want to see the inside?” Sonny asked.

His eager nod wrenched another laugh from her. He ran over to the driver’s side and got in.

Sonny lifted the duffle bag from the passenger-side floorboard and tossed it in the backseat with her other luggage before getting in the car.

Ian sat behind the wheel, caressing the restored leather steering wheel with a reverence reserved for historical relics. They switched sides, with Sonny getting behind the wheel while Ian checked things out from the passenger side.

She thought about Douglas’s reaction when she told him she wanted to buy this car. He’d called her ridiculous and told her—no
demanded
—that she get a car more suitable for a grown woman.

How could she have compared Ian to Douglas? Attire aside, they were nothing alike. Sonny could tell after just a few hours with him.

Ian ran his hand along the dash, and then he caressed the inside of the door. Sonny’s skin tingled with the need to have him do the same to her.

“It’s nice to find someone who appreciates a classic when he sees it,” she said.

He looked over at her. The searing heat in his hooded eyes was enough to scorch her. If her body wasn’t burning hot already.

“I know a good thing when I see one,” he said.

She pulled in a breath and let it out with a rush. “Do you now?”

Ian nodded. The desire that pulsed between them was a living, breathing thing, occupying every available space within the small confines of the car.

To hell with awkward moments at the post office. After a lifetime of playing it safe, she was ready to be a little reckless.

Sonny climbed over the gearshift and straddled his lap, attacking his mouth with a desperation she’d never experienced before. Stripping his jacket off, she dove for Ian’s neck, sucking just under his jaw.

He reached up and turned the interior light off. She hated that he did—she wanted to see him—but she knew it was better, just in case someone entered the parking lot. The tree branches provided some shelter, but not enough to shield them completely.

His hands caught her at the waist and started to run up and down her spine with the same reverence he’d shown to the car’s interior. He brought his hands to the front and untied the knot under her breasts. His fingers trembled as he undid the buttons of her shirt.

When he spread the shirt open, he released a moan.

“How did I not realize you weren’t wearing a bra?” he asked. He leaned forward and sucked her nipple into his mouth.

Sonny’s head pitched back as she cradled his head between her palms and held him to her aching breasts.

“Are you sure about this?” Ian asked.

“Are you carrying a condom?” she panted. He nodded. “Then I’m sure.”

The awkwardness of the narrow space did nothing to detract from the heat pulsating between them. She lifted from his lap and unzipped her jeans. As she worked the tight denim over her hips, Ian pulled a condom from his wallet, opened the fly of his pants and pulled out a frighteningly hard erection.

“That must have been uncomfortable,” she said.

“I’ve been dying here,” Ian said. He covered himself with the condom, captured her hips, and brought her down on his hardness.

Sonny bit her lip to stop herself from screaming with pleasure. With her shirt still on but the front open to him, she rode his lap with fevered strokes. Ian’s mouth went from one breast to the other, his tongue and teeth whipping her into a frenzy.

It was raw and rough, this meeting of their bodies, and it was exactly what she needed. Sonny lost herself in the sensation of his solid length penetrating her. Every desperate grunt that escaped Ian’s mouth urged her on. She gripped his shoulders, using him to leverage her up and down, her pace increasing.

Her stomach tightened as all-consuming pleasure gripped her. Ian’s hands found her ass, his fingers digging into her tender flesh as he clutched her backside and held her down against him. His hips worked like a piston, pumping up and down in rapid succession.

Pleasure tore through her as her body went up in flames.

Even as the orgasm rippled through her body, Sonny felt another building within her belly. In seconds the pleasure erupted again, with Ian joining her this time. He growled against her, his mouth clamping on her nipple as her inner muscles milked his erection.

She collapsed against his chest, her breaths coming in shallow pants. Sonny stole a few moments to collect her breath and savor the feeling of him inside of her before lifting her body off of him.

“That was...mind-blowing,” she said.

“Made me forget all about touching your engine.”

Sonny laughed against his chest. “God, you’re such a charmer.” She pushed back and stared at him. “Not that it should matter, but I don’t want you to think I do things like this all the time. In fact, I
never
do things like this. You’re my first ever one-night stand.”

“So, that’s what this was?” Ian asked. “A one time thing?”

She nodded. “Yes.” It had to be.

She’d had one thing in mind when she came to this bar tonight, to let her hair down and have a little fun. And once she spotted him, her definition of fun had become a bit clearer. But this was as far as she was willing to let it go.

“I know this is a small town,” Sonny continued. “But I’m hoping Maplesville is big enough for us not to run into each other.”

“It can be,” he said. “If that’s what you want.”

“I’m new here, Ian. And I don’t expect to be in Maplesville for very long. You can turn into a complication I don’t need.”

He shoved his fingers into her hair at the base of her head, massaging her scalp. “Or I can be your new best friend who shows you around town and gives you regular orgasms.”

She laughed even as a delicious shudder rolled through her at the thought. “I think I’ll have to pass.”

Ian released a deep breath, along with her head. He lifted a couple of fast food napkins from the stow away rack mounted behind the gearshift and used them to clean up the mess from the condom. Sonny’s skin grew tight with the awkwardness suddenly suffusing the confines of the car. This was one byproduct of her boldness she hadn’t foreseen.

Fitting himself back into his pants, Ian pulled up the zipper and straightened his shirt. He looked over at her and said, “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

Sonny nodded, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. Ian’s fingers went to her mouth. He stroked her lips, gently tugging it free from her teeth.

“Please don’t do that. You do that and it just makes me want another taste.”

She went liquid again. She wanted another taste just as badly as he did, which is why she needed to end this right now.

Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to his lips. “Thank you for tonight. It’s exactly the kind of welcome I needed.”

“Are you sure tonight will be enough?”

“Yes. We should end this right here. It’s for the best.”

Ian’s sigh matched hers. “If that’s really what you want,” he said. He cupped her cheek, his thumb caressing her skin. “Take care of this car.”

Sonny laughed. “Your concern over my car is touching. And weird.”

“Well, I don’t have to tell you to take care of yourself. I have a feeling you know how to do that already.”

He stroked his thumb along her jawline once more before pulling her head closer and capturing her lips in a slow, deep kiss. “But, just in case, take care of yourself,” he said. He kissed her again, then opened the door and slid from underneath her.

Sonny pulled her jeans over her hips and redid the buttons on her shirt. Amazingly, it only felt slightly awkward to be doing this while Ian stood outside her car, staring at her.

Okay, so it was way awkward. It was exactly the kind of awkward she was hoping to avoid if they ever met up at the post office, or the bank, or the supermarket’s bakery counter.

Sonny climbed back into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It purred. She laughed when Ian covered his heart and closed his eyes as if in ecstasy. Their eyes caught and held as she shifted the car into drive. Several pulse beats passed before she gave him a small wave and pulled out of her parking spot.

She looked at him in the rearview mirror as she drove out of the lot. He remained standing there, one hand in his front pocket, his shirt askew.

Hmm…maybe running into Ian again wouldn’t be the most horrible thing in the world. Sonny wondered if Monday nights at The Corral were a regular thing for him.

A naughty smile drew up the corners of her lips.

“I think I’m going to like it here.”

Chapter Two

Sonny checked the readout on her phone, making sure it matched the numbers above the door of the two-story French Colonial that sat back a good fifty feet from the street. The white clapboard on the front façade stood stark against the home’s deep red brick. She spotted the detached garage just to the left, at the end of a single-car driveway that widened into enough space for two closer to the garage.

It was the apartment above the garage that had brought her here.

When she’d called the number listed in the Craigslist ad, the real estate agent had informed her that the owner was eager to get the place rented. Sonny had quickly emailed the required paperwork for the background and credit check, and explained that she would be here Tuesday afternoon to see the apartment and to please, please,
please
not rent it to anyone else. She’d added an extra please after her name for good measure.

If the owner had been honest in the ad, this place fit her needs perfectly. For one thing, according to the real estate agent, it was fully furnished. When she left Houston a year ago, she’d left the stuff from her old life behind. Most of what she had fit in the backseat of her car, although she also had a couple of boxes of items she couldn’t part with stored in the tiny bedroom she’d been staying in at her old college roommate’s house in Baton Rouge. If all went well, Sonny would soon be able to get her things from Karen’s and bring them to her new crib.

She needed all to go well because she
needed
this apartment. In addition to being fully furnished, this place was less than a ten-minute drive to Catering by Kiera, the local catering company where tomorrow she would start as the new pastry chef. She and the owner, Kiera Coleman-Watson, had agreed to a trial run, which suited Sonny just fine. The thought of being tied down in a job—even one she liked—made Sonny’s skin crawl. She needed flexibility, to know that freedom wasn’t far out of reach.

And it was that flexibility that was, by far, the apartment’s biggest draw. It was the only one she could find in Maplesville that offered a month-to-month lease.

Shutting off the ignition, Sonny got out of the car and walked up the walkway leading to the porch. It was cozy and quaint, with two white wooden rockers on either side of the door. The rockers seemed like a requisite for this kind of house. The Society of French Colonials would probably levy a fine on anyone who didn’t put white wooden rockers on their porches.

She rang the doorbell and took a step back, looking both left and right off the side of the porch at the pink and white begonias flourishing on either side of the house. Her mother called begonias the landscaper’s friend, because they were so easy to maintain.