Page 31 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)
Rhodes was waiting in the parking lot, quietly climbing in the passenger seat and waving at us in the backseat while Tripp headed toward the road that led south out of town.
The roads were quiet on the trip, and I sat twisting my hands in my lap while trapped between my sister and the man I wasn’t so sure she hated anymore.
Both were absorbed in their phones, but I had a sneaking suspicion they might be texting each other when my sister’s furious texting was countered moments later by a chuckle from the man on my right and a lazy response.
The two of them couldn’t be more different, but there was also undeniable chemistry between them, and there had been since they were children.
While I didn’t know adult Baker, I had known preteen and teen Baker. He and my sister had once been inseparable, and I wondered if they’d ever find their way back there.
I guess only time would tell.
“What can I get you to drink, sweetheart?” Tripp whispered in my ear, his large, warm hand resting in the middle of my back. His thumb rubbed the skin just above the neckline of my dress, and I fought the urge to shiver at his touch.
Tipping my head back, I leaned it against his shoulder. “What are you having?”
He leaned close, his lips ghosting the shell of my ear. “Just water for me tonight. I’m driving and I want to remember every second of ruining this pretty dress later.”
Well, wow … talk about sending a girl from zero to sixty-nine in 2.2 seconds.
“What if I like this dress?” I asked, unable to control my smile as I turned to look at his smirking face .
“Then I’ll buy you another one, but I have plans for this one later.”
Lifting my hand, I rested my palm on his neck, my thumb absently rubbing his scar.
He tilted his head into my touch, and I suddenly wanted to abandon my sister in a country bar with her arch nemesis and retreat to Tripp’s tiny cabin in the woods to make him fulfill the promises he’d been making all day.
“What happened to my good boy, who wanted to cherish me?”
He chuckled, tucking his face into my neck. “This good boy wants to be bad tonight and ruin you for anyone else, Rhey.”
“Too late.” He’d already done that.
“Come on, fuckers. It’s time to dance,” Baker announced, clapping loudly from his seat on the barstool next to me. “I didn’t come here to watch your foreplay. I came to have some fun tonight.”
“Dance with my sister, then,” I told him, enjoying how Tripp had wrapped himself around me possessively.
“What the fuck, Annie?” Reese practically shrieked, clearly not liking my suggestion that she dance with the man she wanted to avoid tonight.
Glancing over at her, I fought the urge to laugh at her murderous expression. “I’m going to remember this the next time you need my help with something.”
“I’m sure you will,” I replied, but maybe there was some merit to Baker dragging her out tonight. She’d forgotten how to have fun.
“If you don’t want to dance with Baker, I’ll take you out for a spin,” Rhodes offered my sister, tilting his head toward the dance floor.
“That sounds like an excellent plan,” she chuckled, sliding off her stool to take Rhodes’s extended hand. They disappeared onto the crowded dance floor, Reese laughing as she shot an arched eyebrow at the dejected man to my left.
“On that note,” Baker growled, pushing his stool back from the high-top table we’d found when we came in, and we watched him turn toward the bar. “It’s time to get fucked up. ”
Since he was taller than half the patrons surrounding us, it wasn’t hard to see him make a beeline toward the bar.
He took two shots of a brownish liquid the bartender poured for him and then scanned the occupied stools, his face lighting up briefly before he settled into the space between two women in short skirts.
He propped his elbows on the bar top behind him while he introduced himself, his eyes briefly flicking to the dance floor where his friend was spinning a giggling Reese in circles in a skilled two-step.
“While I’m enjoying the show just as much as you,” Tripp whispered, ghosting his lips across my bare shoulder. “I’m gonna need that drink order or you’re coming to dance with me.”
“You dance?” I laughed, turning to look at him.
He smiled, raising an eyebrow. “I might be a bit serious, but I know how to have fun occasionally.”
“Oh, I know exactly how much of a good time you like to have, but I wasn’t sure if those sexy hip movements of yours extended to the dance floor.”
“Why don’t you take me for a spin and find out,” he whispered, and I was once again reminded why I was falling so hard for this man. Just when I thought I had him figured out, he surprised me in the best possible ways.
Grasping my palm in his, he helped me stand, lifted my hand to his mouth, and placed a delicate kiss on the back.
Before I could anticipate his next move, he’d spun me into the empty space surrounding our table and back into his chest. His large palms grasped my waist and spun me so my back was to his chest. With his arms around my waist, he swayed his hips against mine to the fast-paced country beat coming from the band playing on the opposite side of the dance floor.
“Believe me now?” His deep voice was a teasing whisper, and as I met my sister’s eyes across the space between us, I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. She shook her head, rolling her eyes before she let Rhodes lead her back into the sea of bodies.
I was in trouble with this man with a capital T .
Baker passed us, leading both of his friends from the bar toward the dance floor, laughing loudly before he stopped near where my sister was smiling at Rhodes and spinning both ladies out before he pulled them back in to grind against his solid thighs.
And that was when I knew my sister had enough trouble of her own, her jaw dropping at the blatant display Baker was clearly putting on for her benefit.
He tipped his head at her when he noticed her looking and gyrated his hips to the beat, much to the delight of his dance partners.
But I wasn’t convinced my sister was as unaffected by him as she wanted to appear, her eyes revealing that his actions cut deeper than she wanted to let on.
“Maybe Baker needs to ride in the front seat on our way home, because I am not driving home with the two of them fucking in the backseat of Marty’s truck.”
“Ew, just no…” Laughing at his crass assessment of where the night was going, I led him toward the edge of the dance floor, ready to enjoy those fluid hip movements of his until we could leave.