Had I drunk that much last night? No wonder I still had a bit of a hangover. There’s no way I could’ve gotten all these girls home.
Maybe Rico would be a big help after all. I grabbed my phone.
You busy?
Melody tried to drag me out onto the dance floor, but I resisted and pushed her toward her friends. She went without much resistance.
When I sat back down, I had a reply from Rico.
Not at all. What’s up?
Any chance you’d like to come help me be a DD for my sister’s drunk friends?
He responded within a minute. At the same bar?
Yep.
To my intense relief, he said he’d be right down. Fifteen minutes later, he walked into the bar, and I had to pretend I didn’t notice as I stamped down the excitement I felt at seeing him walk through the door. Stupid nerves. We already agreed we weren’t doing this with him.
When he sat down beside me, I looked over at him as if just noticing he’d arrived. “Hey, thanks for coming!”
“No problem.” He looked closely at me. “Are you feeling better?”
I ducked my head and covered my face. “Yes, and so embarrassed. I can’t thank you enough.” I peeked through my fingers at him to find him staring at me with a fond expression. “You kicked Tye’s ass for me, then made sure I got home. I’m so mortified I got that drunk.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Anyway, thanks for coming, then and now.”
Rico smiled and reached up. He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. Pleasant chills ran all across my skin. I caught myself leaning into his touch when it lingered too long and abruptly pulled away.
“Frankly, I don’t think I kicked it enough, but you can call on me anytime.” His voice had that deep, growly quality again, making a blush spread across my skin.
“Okay, let me round up the girls. I’ve sort of figured out what route for you to take.” I was sending the girls with him that I knew already where they lived. I’d wrangle the ones I didn’t know. Worst came to worst, I’d let them crash on my living room floor.
We rounded them all up and as he stuffed two into the cab of his truck, he smiled at me.
“Thank you,” I whispered. He saluted me, then ran around the truck.
“Okay,” I called. “The rest of you pile in my truck!” I had a big cab with a small backseat, so I managed to get the rest in and buckled, with my sister so close she put her head on my shoulder.
“Thanks, sis,” she said in a faint voice. I knew she wasn’t long before passing out, so I made all the girls give me their addresses before plugging them into my GPS on my phone.
I managed to get them all home. It helped that two of them were staying with Melody. When it was finally just me, I headed home, suddenly exhausted.
To my surprise, Rico’s truck sat in my driveway. He stood resting casually against the passenger door, hands tucked in his pockets. His dark brown hair looked black in the waning moonlight, but his eyes still sparkled.
“Hey.” I slid out of my truck and looked at him quizzically.
“I just wanted to make sure you got home okay.”
It was so strange how my heart raced at the thought of him coming to check on me. What the hell did I care that he’d cared enough to come to check on me? He walked closer, and my heart nearly beat out of my chest.
“I can hear your heart pounding,” he whispered. I barely heard him. All the blood was in the process of rushing straight to my head. Well, some of it had gone directly south. It was torn, really, and it was making me dizzy.
Rico put his hands on both my cheeks and stared into my eyes. “Breathe,” he whispered. “You don’t have to be nervous. I’d never do anything without your consent.”
I consented. Oh, I consented. But my lips wouldn’t move to tell him I wanted him to kiss me. Damn, but I wanted him to kiss me silly.
Rico smirked like he knew exactly what I was thinking. Leaning in, he pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth. My skin lit up at the tiny contact, and the rest of the blood went south.
Then he pulled back, leaving me aching for more.
“Goodnight,” Rico whispered as his hands fell away from my face.
Oh, hell no. No fucking way. I reached out and snagged his arm, tugging him back to me and cupping his face the way he had mine. Pressing my lips firmly to his, I gave him a real kiss goodnight. His body molded to mine, pressing me against the truck, and his lips parted enough that I slipped one of mine between and sucked his bottom lip into my mouth with a moan.
When Rico returned my moan, and I knew he was just as turned on as I was, I let go of his face. “Goodnight,” I whispered with a smirk.
If I was going to spend the night turned on and unsatisfied, so was he.
12
Rico
Having Monday off turned out to be a pain in my ass. I was restless, on edge, and incredibly irritable. All I could think about was Kara. Her lips, her body. How she’d pulled me back to her to give me the world’s most amazing goodnight kiss.
My skin crawled all day and half the night until I finally fell asleep. That’s how eager I was to get back to work.
I was so worried about how things were going to go. What if it didn’t work out? What if she thought it was an enormous mistake? What would I do then?
Oh, damn it. I didn’t even care about the inheritance. Not anymore. They could fucking keep it. If I screwed things up with Kara,
