Slow Hands

“I’m so sorry. I can be such a bitch.” She swallowed and stepped toward her own car. “Why don’t I go home and you can call me later…if you want to.”
    Grabbing her arm, Jake stopped her, stepping in close and cupping her face in his hand. He pressed a quick, hard kiss on her lips. “Shut up. Just drive me there. My truck’s not big enough, and you, at least, have that little backseat. We’ll take care of Jenny, then go back to your place.” His eyes narrowed and he kissed her again, licking roughly at her tongue, then muttering against her lips, “And I’ll pay you back for your lack of faith in me.”
    So relieved that she hadn’t ruined their evening completely, she smiled tremulously. They got in the car, Maddy behind the wheel, as she started the engine and backed out of the parking lot. Before they’d even reached the street, her good mood had returned. “How are you going to pay me back?”
    “I’m going to torture you,” he replied, his tone bored, his attention out the window.
    “Torture?”
    He finally looked over, his eyes shimmering in the light thrown off the car’s dashboard. “I know it drives you crazy when I go slow. Well, tonight, I’m going so slow you’ll think I’m moving backward.”
    Her thighs quivered. “Monster.”
    “Yeah. That’s me.” He dropped a hand on her thigh. “Drive quick, okay? She sounded pretty upset.”
    “You said this is the youngest one? How old is she?”
    “Twenty. There’s an eight-year gap between her and me. My older sisters and I call her the accident.”
    Hmm…that made him twenty-eight. Just her age.
    “Funny that she called you, rather than one of your sisters,” she mused. Whenever Tabitha had a breakup, she always showed up at Maddy’s place with a bottle of tequila and a thousand dollars’ worth of cosmetics from Sephora, for the “girl’s night” she needed to get over it.
    “She’s embarrassed. My sisters can’t stand the guy she’s been dating and they’ll say ‘I told you so.’ And my parents would hold it against him, if and when they do get back together. Which, knowing Jenny, will probably be soon.”
    Her father was exactly the same way. The one time they’d run into Oliver after he’d done Maddy so wrong, her dad had called him a scum-sucking, lowlife, bootlicking coward. For starters.
    Maddy had stopped his tirade. Eventually.
    “But you like the guy?”
    “Hell, no. He’s a lazy punk and I can’t stand him.”
    “Then why did she call you?”
    “Because she doesn’t know I can’t stand him. I know how to keep my mouth shut and mind my own business.”
    “Unlike your sisters—women—is that what you mean?” she asked, not really offended but enjoying putting him on the spot.
    Not that he ever stayed there for long.
    “Your words. Not mine. Speaking of which—I don’t have to ask you to keep the details of our, uh, arrangement, private, do I? My family doesn’t know about…”
    “Enough said.” She wasn’t bothered by the question. Of course, he had to be sure. Besides, he didn’t sound as though he was truly worried she’d out him as a hooker to his kid sister. “I’m just your dinner date.” The words provided her a good opening to do a little sneaky prying, and she wasn’t about to let it go. “They won’t think it’s strange, uh, you being with me? I mean, you don’t have anyone they usually see you with?”
    He saw right through her. As usual. Laughing softly and tucking her hair behind one ear, he murmured, “I haven’t been involved with anyone for a long time.”
    Why it so relieved her that he hadn’t had a girlfriend, she didn’t want to think about.
    “And Maddy? You’re more than just my dinner date,” he whispered. “Much more.”
    Keeping her eyes on the road, Maddy couldn’t help smiling a tiny bit, if only on the inside.
    Because Jake was already ever-so-much-more to her, too.
    * * *
    “W HY ARE GUYS such assholes?”
    “Like I’ve always said, babe. A.M.A.S.,” Jake replied. “All Men Are Scum.”
    “You’re not!” Jenny scooted up from the tiny backseat, her elbows on her knees as she leaned between him and Maddy. “He’s not, right?”
    “Definitely not,” Maddy replied, entering the conversation for the first time.
    Not that she could have gotten a word in before now. They’d picked up Jenny ten minutes ago. From the moment she’d gotten into the car, she’d been crying and blowing her nose into a Taco Bell napkin she dug out