Hard Ride: Powertools: Hot Rides Book #3 Read online

  Someday, when he wasn’t already on precarious footing with her, he’d talk to her about that and make sure she quit dodging them, even if it was only from time to time.

  Today, he had much more important, and more difficult, things to say.

  Van tapped his code into the bus’s keypad and entered. A sweep of the living areas left him disappointed. No Kyra.

  Damn!

  He headed toward the rear of the bus, wondering if she was taking advantage of the solitude to indulge in a bubble bath in Kason’s bathroom, which she sometimes did, calling it her spa day.

  Except the door was wide open, and no one was in there.

  Shit!

  He’d resigned himself to hanging out and waiting for her to return. As he entered the corridor between the six berths where he, Kyra, and the rest of the band slept, he realized a shadow crossed the curtain of hers. And it wasn’t his own.

  She was sleeping? Kyra despised naps. She thought they were a waste of time she could be doing any of the other things she enjoyed. And no one spent more time in their bunk than they really had to, at least not when they had the whole bus to themselves. Though they were fine for sleeping, there wasn’t a lot of room in them for much anything else. He must have hurt her even more than he’d realized if she was in here, hiding from her problems.

  Van drew a deep breath. He took a moment to compose the opening lines of his forgive-me speech as he shuffled from foot to foot. Then he tugged one corner of the curtain back as he quietly asked, “Hey, can we talk?”

  Kyra gasped and froze, her eyes wide. She had headphones in, her laptop open, and her hand in her yoga pants. His bug-eyed stare winged from where she was obviously taking care of herself to the porn playing on her screen.

  Fuck!

  Van snapped the curtain closed again. He stood there, breathing hard, unsure of whether to run away or to dive back inside.

  How could he possibly have managed to make things worse?

  Van thought about Kason. What would he do if this was Wren or Jordan? How would he show them that he cared? He’d risked his entire career for the people he loved. Maybe Van needed to do the same to prove to Kyra that she was important to him.

  “You’re just going to stand there?” Kyra shrieked from inside.

  “What else am I supposed to do?” he asked.

  Kyra yanked the curtain apart then. Her laptop was closed and tucked into the pocket on the wall along with her headphones. She rolled onto her side and leveled a glare at him. “Anything but stand there and judge me. If I don’t do something to relieve the pressure, I’m going to explode. Now get the fuck out of here so I can finish the job you obviously don’t want to do.”

  “Don’t tell me what I want,” he snarled, his rational approach out the window. It was impossible to think when she was here, horny, and questioning his desire for her. She had no idea how deeply he longed for her. Mostly because he’d been very careful not to let it show. “You might be able to get away with shit like that with Ollie, but not me. I’m not nearly as nice as he is.”

  Kyra sat up so fast she nearly decapitated herself in the limited space of her berth. She jabbed her finger toward the door. “Get out.”

  “No.” He leaned forward instead, bracing his hands on her bunk so their faces were inches apart and she had to look directly into his eyes. “I can’t lose you. Whether letting go would be the right thing or not, I just can’t. You’re my best friend.”

  “So you want to be pals again, is that what you’re saying?” Kyra tried to seem indifferent, but the fact that she closed her eyes to avoid meeting his stare despite their proximity made him certain he’d hurt her. Was still doing it, too.

  And that had to stop right then or he’d never forgive himself.

  “That would be the proper thing to do…” Van drew a deep breath, then admitted, “Except I’m tired of being responsible.”

  “Prove it.” Kyra opened her eyes, shooting him a blatant dare from their emerald depths.

  So Van did the only thing he could think of. He crawled into the bunk with her. The confined space didn’t leave much room for air. That was one reason he could think of for how hard it was to fill his lungs while Kyra’s luscious body rested beneath his.

  He met her shocked gaze, mesmerized by her dilating pupils. Rings of neon green surrounded them. From this close, he noticed there were also yellow flecks he hadn’t seen before. How many other nuances had he overlooked while deliberately trying not to scrutinize every luscious detail of her? It had been torture being so close and yet never allowing himself to fully appreciate her.

  Enough. He was done with that.

  If it meant he lost his job, so what? Jordan had walked from his for Wren and for Kason. Kason had risked his for Jordan and Wren. Shouldn’t Van be willing to do the same for the woman he adored and had for years?

  “Van?” Kyra wheezed.

  “Yeah.”

  “You going to lay there like a sack of cement or are you on top of me for a reason?” She lay perfectly still beneath him, unyielding.

  Maybe he’d read things wrong. Maybe she’d moved on and was waiting for Ollie to call.

  No! He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Van wasn’t great with words. So he showed her how he felt instead.

  He settled fully between her thighs and aligned their pelvises. There was no way she’d be able to mistake the bulge of his cock against her mound. The contact made him groan.

  Then there was no turning back. He dipped his head and slanted his mouth over hers.

  She didn’t try to kill him, so he hoped she was onboard.

  When she moaned between his lips and put her arms around him, locking him to her, he kissed her in earnest. It probably made him an asshole, but seeing Ollie doing this to her had made his instincts roar. He’d been turned on, too. But mostly jealous that he wasn’t the one making her melt.

  The memory spurred him. He had to make sure she enjoyed what they were doing at least as much as she’d appeared to be getting off on locking lips with Ollie. Or touching herself. Son of a bitch, that vision was going to be burned in his brain for the rest of his life.

  To increase his odds of beating the competition, Van let his hand wander from her shoulder inward. He lifted up just enough to allow his fingers to snake between them and cup her breast.

  He’d always wanted to feel how soft her pale skin was there. It wasn’t that he’d been trying to spy on her, but they lived together on a bus for God’s sake. He’d glimpsed her stealth-changing or getting out of the shower more times than he could count. Hell, he’d locked himself in the bathroom and jerked off to those accidental peeps often enough that they were probably one of his top five things to fantasize about.

  Sleeping directly across the aisle from her, and watching the shadows of her lithe form projected onto the curtain separating them, he’d swear he’d even seen her doing the same once or twice. At least he liked to imagine he had. Especially after what he’d just interrupted. It was going to become his new favorite thing to recall as he touched himself, he was sure.

  Or maybe what they were about to do instead.

  Because he didn’t have to pretend anymore. Van kneaded her like he’d wished he could have all those nights they spent so close and yet so far apart. His hands tingled finally being filled with her instead of only the thoughts of what it might be like to touch her intimately.

  Kyra moaned into his mouth and arched against him.

  He was glad to accommodate her unspoken request. Van increased his grip and flicked his thumb over her pierced nipples. He’d always guessed at what it would be like to suck on them.

  No wonder he’d damn near killed himself attempting to appear indifferent. Did she have any idea how difficult she’d innocently made it to concentrate on his duties by being so fucking sexy?

  Around her, his professionalism was always on the verge of collapse. And now…

  It was too late to salvage it.

  Van groaned when Kyra wrapped her legs around his hips and began to rub against him in a full-body hug. Her core cushioned his steely cock and tempted him with the lushness he was sure he’d find beneath her cotton pants.

  Kyra wrenched her mouth from his. For a moment he was terrified she was going to put the brakes on. Remind them of their careers and the millions of reasons why what they were doing was a horrible idea. Instead, she cried, “More! Van, I want more.”

  He couldn’t deny her when he needed the same things she did.

  But Kyra had obviously had enough of waiting for him to make it happen. She fisted the hem of his black tour T-shirt and dragged it over his head before flinging it to the ground between their berths. When her callused palms ran over the expanse of his back from shoulders to his ass, she reminded him of exactly how damn strong she was even if she shivered beneath him.

  It was a gift, one that meant the world to him, that she let him take charge. So he embraced his instincts and prayed she liked what she saw in him when the facade of civility and professionalism crumbled.

  Van curled his fingers in the waistband of her pants and the panties she wore beneath, yanking them both down. He used his knee even as she squirmed, freeing one of her legs. That was good enough. She was bared to him, even if her other ankle was still shrouded in her clothing.

  He gripped her hips, then shoved her upward, some part of her—either her head or her shoulder—knocking into the wall hard enough to make a distinct thunk. But she didn’t tell him to stop, so he didn’t.

  Van wormed in the opposite direction, as far as the bunk would allow. He bent his legs at the knees so he could lie on his stomach between Kyra’s thighs. The scent of her arousal made his nostrils flare. His mouth watered and his tongue flicked, lapping the fi
rst taste of her from her skin.

  Kyra flung out one hand, slapping it on the wall of the berth.

  He chuckled against her flesh, taking that as a good sign, then dedicated himself to blowing her mind. If he had anything to say about it, she’d never masturbate again. Not because he had some kind of problem with that, but because he was happy to give her as much pleasure as she could stand.

  Van buried his face in her pussy. He traced her with the tip of his tongue, memorizing the topography of her body and mapping the spots she reacted to the most. He suckled her clit in between exploratory voyages along her cleft. When she began to moan and her ragged breaths echoed in the berth, he slid his hand across the top of her thigh and inward.

  “Fuck, you’re good at that,” Kyra sighed, then stiffened as he added his hand to the mix. He probed with his middle finger, testing the opening of her pussy, finding it as tight and tempting as he’d always imagined it would be. When she finally let him in, the barest bit, he swore she scorched him. Still, he didn’t pull away, not now that he was poised on the brink of penetrating her. Neither of them could have resisted the attraction zinging between them then.

  Kyra gyrated beneath him, helping his finger drill inside her inch by inch.

  She gripped his head, unable to find purchase in his ultra-short hair. Maybe he’d have to let it grow out, like Ollie’s. Damn, why was he thinking of the other guy now?

  Van focused on Kyra and the way her body was pulling him inside, surrounding him with liquid heat. She was so soft and slick that his cock leaked in his pants. Though he wasn’t about to stop eating her long enough to give his dick what it craved, not yet, he redoubled his efforts.

  His index finger joined his middle finger inside her as he teased her clit with his tongue.

  “Van!” Kyra shouted, making him feel ten feet tall. For that matter, so did the berth, which limited his motion. Something about it also made it seem like they were tucked together away from the rest of the world, wrapped in a cocoon of pleasure he wasn’t eager to leave anytime soon. When they did, what would their relationship have evolved into?

  He couldn’t think about that either.

  All that mattered was infusing Kyra with as much rapture as possible. Showing her that he’d never meant to wound or offend her. This was what he’d always wanted instead.

  Van ate her while his fingers fucked her, spreading apart to stretch the tight rings of muscle he couldn’t wait to feel massaging his cock. He hummed as she bowed, mashing herself tighter to his mouth. Her thighs clamped around his shoulders, reminding him again exactly how powerful she was and how her performances had honed her muscles.

  He looked up her body, past the sexy-as-fuck tattoos on her abdomen that shifted as she flexed and released the tension beneath them. So he saw it when she reached the point of no return.

  Kyra gasped. Her whole body froze and her head tipped forward so that she was staring directly at him. “Van, I’m going to—”

  She never finished her sentence because he nodded, the motion stimulating her further. He pressed his fingers deep within her, curling them upward so he could press against the place that seemed to drive her wildest.

  A scream ripped from her chest as she clenched around him, threatening to break his fingers with the force of her orgasm. Van couldn’t say what made him do it, but he took his mouth from her just long enough to bite her thigh lightly before concentrating on sucking her clit as she came, shuddering beneath the onslaught of her release.

  She moaned over and over as he rubbed her from the inside, drawing out her pleasure.

  And when she finally grew silent and went limp, he knew it was only the beginning.

  Van managed to jam his hands beneath himself and undo his fly before peeling his jeans down to the tops of his thighs, barely far enough to free his cock. He didn’t bother with anything more, couldn’t stand to waste a moment on unnecessary motions.

  He cupped Kyra’s ass and yanked her toward him, equally as turned on by the crooked smile she leveled at him as she recovered from her endorphin rush as he had been by the throes of her passion.

  “You didn’t think I was done, did you?” he growled against her lips as they aligned more completely, his body blanketing her much more pliant one.

  “I hoped not, but…” She didn’t finish her thought.

  It didn’t matter, he knew what she was thinking. “I’ve let you down so often, you didn’t think I’d see this through?”

  Kyra nodded.

  “That changes now. Today.” He took his cock in his hand and stroked it a few times, mentally promising them both he’d never deny them this again. “I’m sorry, Kyra.”

  She reached for him then, shoving his hands away so she could wrap her fingers around his length now that he’d given them both permission. Her touch nearly made him erupt. Though some dirty part of his mind loved the thought of her glazed with his come, he had bigger, better plans for that moment.

  Van smiled wickedly down at Kyra. “If you want my cock, put it in you.”

  “The question has never been whether I want you.” She hesitated, then muttered, “You bastard.”

  He stared at her in shock. “If you want to see precisely how much I’ve been dying for you, go ahead. Put me inside you so I can show you.”

  Kyra stared straight at him as she aimed his cock at her opening and tugged, drawing him closer.

  The moment his dick collided with her pussy, he felt the contact throughout his entire being. Her heat and the welcome of her body made him lose his mind. He fell forward, supporting himself on his palms, which planted themselves on either side of her head so as not to crush her, then slid home.

  Or at least he attempted to. It took several passes, plunging deeper on each one, before Kyra could take all of him. He didn’t dare hold back or give her less than everything he had because he knew she’d see that as an insult.

  So he dipped his head and took her lips as he began to move, hoping he wasn’t causing her discomfort when he began to pump his cock into her.

  She encouraged him by raking her hands with their short, neat nails down his back, digging in when she reached his ass. Her pussy gloved him to perfection, whiting out rational thought and leaving him to pure instinct.

  So Van did as she directed. He plowed into her, shaking the entire bunk with the momentum of his thrusts. He fucked Kyra relentlessly, with years of pent-up lust and longing. She met him stroke for stroke, the percussive slap of their bodies coming together reminding him of the rhythms she set for the band. The reverberations rang like thunder in his ears.

  Or maybe that was the sound a bunk made as its bolts ripped out of a bus wall.

  Because next thing he knew, they were falling. Together.

  He rolled, taking the brunt of the impact as they dumped out onto the floor of the bus three feet below. Unfazed, Kyra threw her head back. She looked like a goddess as she laughed, never once faltering in her motions. She swung her hips over him, riding him to the tempo they’d set.

  Seeing her like that, rising over him and taking what they’d both craved for so damn long, Van couldn’t hold back. He growled her name, whether in warning or triumph, he couldn’t say.

  Kyra bit her lip and nodded. “I’m there too. Come with me this time, Van. Please.”

  It was that single tiny word that did him in.

  She wasn’t the sort of woman to beg for anything. And when she broke and did it, he wasn’t about to make her ask twice.

  Van clasped her hips and fucked up into her as deep as he could go. He thrust several times before she froze and compressed around him, screaming his name. He roared hers as his orgasm ripped through him, triggering his release.

  He poured himself inside of her, flooding her with every drop of his ecstasy.

  It went on for so long that when his climax ended, and they quieted, the hush rang in his ears.

  Kyra flopped onto his chest, her forehead resting on his collarbone as she struggled to catch her breath. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her as close to his heart as he could. It felt so right. Nearly perfect. He never wanted to let go.

  They might have had to talk about what had happened and decide how to move on from there. He wasn’t sure about that part now, since he’d planned to iron out all those wrinkles before sleeping with her. Except right then a beep came from the front of the bus. It was the sound of the digital keypad being unlocked. Someone was about to come onboard.