Her throat worked with a swallow before she looked up, hands tucking the fallen pieces of hair behind her ears and then knotting together at her stomach. She looked uneasy all over again.

After everything that had gone down Monday, were we now back to this?

We were pulled off the road at a rest stop, getting five miles from the hospital before Tori was jerking me off through my shorts and forcing me to take us off the highway before I wrecked her car.

Didn’t know what it was that had her wound up and needy like this. Straight up, it could’ve been several things.

I’d been gone one night, got Tori off over the phone, which didn’t relieve her, just worked her up even further and had her missing the real thing twice as hard.

We were finally alone after the two days with her parents in that hospital room, not having privacy to do more than kiss and not really getting time for that either.

Or it could’ve been the news of her dad’s condition after the test he had done that morning. Moods were high after that.

He had heart disease. Not typical good news, but it was good compared to what they’d been fearing. The fact that it was manageable had Tori and her mom breathing easy. That paired with Travis doing me a solid and saying he was gonna stay on top of her dad and routinely check in on him had Legs in high spirits.

I barely got us parked at the back of lot and concealed by a tractor trailer rig before she was climbing over the console, throwing my seat back, and straddling me.

Thought she was looking to give me a hand job. She wasn’t, which was fucking great, but I wasn’t prepared for what she was wanting right now.

“Babe,” I murmured against her hot, hungry mouth. I groaned when her hand slid into my shorts and wrapped around me. “Fuck.”

“I know,” she whispered excitedly. Her hand felt like the warmest, tightest glove. Form-fitting to my flesh. “Someone could see us having sex, but I don’t care. I don’t care, Jamie. Let them see us. You stayed. You stayed for me.”

I stayed.

Oh yeah. Right. Forgot about that. The other reason this was going down right now.

Tori figured I was leaving sometime yesterday to head back to Dogwood Beach. Made that known when we were getting coffees and looked ready to ride my shit right then when I told her I’d already called Dash, told him to cancel my lessons and that I wouldn’t be in until her dad was released and she was leaving with me.

That could’ve been driving her. Or maybe it was a combination of everything that was motivating her to raise my hand job to a fuck. Whatever. She was feeling this and needing it to happen.

I was feeling it, too, needing it to happen probably more than she did, but like a dumbass, I wasn’t prepared. And we hadn’t been here before.

“Legs,” I murmured, gripping tight to her hips as she stroked me.

Her skin smelled like the hospital soap she’d used this morning during her shower. Antiseptic. I missed the sweet sugared lotion she typically wore.

“I’ll keep my top on. No one will see.” Tori released me, leaned back on my thighs, and popped the button on her shorts. “Can you help me take these off?” she asked. “I need help.”

I watched her fingers glide the zipper down.

I knew she was naked under those shorts. Tori made sure I knew it.

Her panties she’d been wearing before her shower were currently in my pocket. She’d stuffed them in there. Ten feet away from her parents, the little shit.

“I don’t have a condom,” I announced before this went any further, watching her head slowly come up and her focus leave her zipper.

“You don’t?” she asked. She looked surprised.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Why the fuck would I?” I returned. “Didn’t need ’em.”

She tilted her head.

I read her question and answered it. “You weren’t in Florida, Legs. No reason to pack condoms if the only woman I’m fuckin’ is back home.”

Her mouth twitched the slightest bit. Tori liked hearing that. But it didn’t last, and remembering the reason we were paused right now, she started frowning again. “Well, um,” She bit her lip, released it, then shifted on my lap. “This sucks. I guess we’ll just have to wait the three hours then.”

I smirked. Her disappointment was cute as fuck. It also wasn’t needed.

I dropped my head back against the seat. “Babe.”

“Mm?” She was dragging her teeth across her lip again and staring at my shirt.

“Knew this talk was coming considerin’ how things are movin’ with us, though straight up, wasn’t expecting to have it on the side of the road at some dirty-ass rest stop,” I began, keeping hold of her hips.

Tori’s eyes lifted. Her thighs squeezed mine and her plum-painted fingertips dug into my stomach. She was tense. And I didn’t want her nervous.

“Fact that you want me at some dirty-ass rest stop is hot, babe. Fact that we’re havin’ this talk ’cause of you wanting me and not bein’ able to wait three hours is even hotter. Don’t think it isn’t.”

She shook her head and lowered her eyes to my chest. “I wasn’t thinking that. I just—”

“I’ve always fucked with a condom,” I interrupted, getting her attention again. “Never had any close calls. Never did any of that just feelin’ shit to see what it was like. Got tested once when I was paranoid and heard this chick had something, but other than that, I don’t have reason to be worried. I know I’m good.”

Tori’s chest was heaving now. Her breathing was filling the car.

“Nothin’ needs to happen now,” I told her, reading her apprehension. “I’m just sayin’ so you know, I’m good if you want that.”

“I know,” she replied.

“Because I want that.”

She stopped breathing.

“Never had this talk before,” I quickly added, watching her eyes grow bigger. “Not just ’cause I was screwin’ around either. Had girls I was seein’ for a while. Long enough you’d have this talk and still didn’t want it. I want it with you.”

“Jamie,” Tori whispered. She looked uneasy.

“Babe, I just don’t want you thinkin’ I’ve been here with anyone, ’cause I haven’t.”

“I have,” she revealed, worry tight in her voice.

I stared at her. Tori’s apprehension. Her reserve. It hit me like a swift blow to the gut. My jaw clenched.

That motherfucker.

“Legs,” I murmured, sitting up and taking her face between my hands, lifting it when she tried letting it drop in shame.

“I—I didn’t know,” Tori whispered, talking about that worthless piece of shit being married. “I didn’t know, Jamie.”

“I know, baby.”

“I never would’ve given him that if I’d known. I swear.”

“Shh,” I said, pulling her against me and wrapping my arms around her.

Murderous, rip-his-fucking-throat-out rage filled me. It burned in my veins and watered my mouth. I wanted to tear Wes apart. And not just ’cause he’d had Tori the way I was wanting to have her. Yeah, that was part of it. No fucking way could I ignore that right now. But the biggest thing driving me—what I was fighting the urge to hunt his ass down for—was hurting her the way he did. For the pain she was feeling now.