Beside her, Mari had already strapped in. Glenn kept her eyes face front. She wasn’t quite ready to look at her again without broadcasting every damn thing she was feeling. “All set?”

“Yes, fine.”

Mari’s thigh pressed against the outside of Glenn’s, but she had nowhere to move to escape the soul-singeing pressure. She needed to keep her foot on the gas if they were going to go anywhere, but even the slightest movement reminded her that Mari was next to her, very close. She could smell shampoo or perfume or something—a flowery sweet spicy scent that twisted her up and made her want to rub her face over the soft skin that smelled so good. She gripped the wheel until her fingers ached, and even then she could still feel them trembling. She hadn’t been hungry before, but she was ravenous now. And she couldn’t be. Couldn’t do anything about satisfying the need clawing at her insides. Hell, she couldn’t convince herself she wanted to.

Chapter Twenty

Mari watched the fields blur by, an artist’s palette of gold and yellow beneath patches of brilliant blue and gleaming white. The truck bounced rapidly along over ruts and dips in the cracked macadam road, throwing up clouds of dust that coated the windows and slowly hazed the view. On one side of her, Margie and Blake chattered on about their soon-to-be first day in the ER. Mari only half listened, and the two teens didn’t seem to notice they were the only ones talking, oblivious to the rest of the world as only the young could be. On her other side, Glenn had turned to stone. If she became any more rigid, she’d shatter like a statue left unshielded from the elements for so long its substance had begun to crumble. Mari wanted to touch her, to ease the festering tension, but instinct warned that was exactly the wrong thing to do. Instead, she clenched her hands together in her lap and stared out through the windshield, seeing nothing.

A cluster of long barns, random shed-like buildings, and an oval track with a grandstand climbing upward beneath a half roof came into sight. Handmade cardboard signs written with black Magic Marker posted on stakes in the driveways of houses along the way offered parking for five dollars. Glenn passed them all by and turned into the fairgrounds, stopping to pay a woman wearing a Rivers Hospital T-shirt holding a big white plastic collection bucket. A line of signs with arrows proclaiming Parking directed them to the five-acre lot behind the fairgrounds buildings. The grassy lot was three-quarters full, and Glenn drove slowly down a narrow lane between two rows of parked vehicles, following the directions of a line of teenagers waving orange batons to a free spot between a minivan and a pickup truck.

“Thanks, Glenn,” Margie said.

Before the truck had even come to a complete stop, Blake pushed open the door and jumped out. Margie hopped out on his heels.

“Take it easy out there,” Glenn called.

“Thanks, see ya,” they yelled in unison and jogged off in the direction of a cloud of smoke that smelled of roasting meat and hickory.

In an instant the two had disappeared, and Mari and Glenn were alone. Mari’s entire being focused on the spot where her leg still pressed against Glenn’s. She had no excuse to be so close and didn’t want to move away enough to break the contact. Glenn looked straight ahead, her fingers loosely clasping the wheel.

“What shall we do,” Mari asked after a moment that stretched forever.

“I thought we’d walk around a little bit, and I could introduce you to some of the people you’ll be working with.”

“That would be great, thanks.” When Glenn made no move to get out, Mari said softly, “Are you all right?”

Glenn turned to her, eyes glinting feverishly. “I’m not exactly sure.”

Mari’s heart double-timed in her chest. A breathless, light-headed sensation made her feel as if she might be about to float away. Glenn’s eyes bored into hers as if she was trying to read her soul. Glenn’s gaze fixed on her mouth. Glenn looked anything but calm and controlled. Mari swallowed. “Have I done something to upset you?”

“You have no idea,” Glenn muttered.

“I’m sorry,” Mari whispered, and she was. She hadn’t a clue what she’d done, but she would never want to—

“You don’t need to be sorry. I should be”—Glenn cupped the back of Mari’s neck, ran her thumb over the delicate column of her throat—“but I’m not.”

Glenn couldn’t be sorry for desire so pure it felt like a prayer. The air in the cab of the truck was still and hot. Glenn’s pulse beat in her ears like the rattle of machine gun fire. She held completely still, her fingers pressed to supple flesh, waiting for Mari to pull away.

But she didn’t.

“Yes?” Glenn whispered.

“Yes.”

Glenn pulled her closer. Mari’s skin was smooth and soft and warm, like her mouth promised to be. The pressure in her chest pushed up into her throat and her breath stopped. But she didn’t need to breathe. She just needed to kiss her.

Mari’s lips were as sweet and soft and hot as she’d imagined. A low groan churned in her chest. She wouldn’t take much. Wouldn’t presume she was welcome to more. Just a brush of her lips over Mari’s, just a second’s taste to dull the ache of hunger. The whisper of lips turned into something longer, something fuller and firmer and deeper. Mari whimpered and her fingers feathered into Glenn’s hair. Glenn dragged her against her chest, and the kiss wasn’t soft anymore. Her mouth wasn’t nearly as gentle as she wanted it to be but Mari met her, stroke for feverish stroke.

Glenn kissed her until there was no room for breath. She didn’t care if she died just like that, with Mari’s hands on her and the hot taste of her in her mouth. Mari was so pliant in her arms, so wild and welcoming. She needed more. She was starving.

Mari pushed a palm against Glenn’s chest and pulled a little away. Glenn froze.

“Glenn.” Mari’s voice trembled. She shivered, her breathe ragged. “Glenn, we’re sitting in the parking lot. Anyone can see us.”

“I don’t care.” Glenn leaned closer, respecting the space Mari had made between them, until she could kiss just the corner of her mouth. “God, you taste so good.”

Mari’s fingers brushed over Glenn’s mouth. “You have the softest lips.”

Glenn flicked her tongue over the tips of Mari’s fingers. Mari’s eyes widened.

“I feel so strange,” Mari murmured. “Like I’m flying apart, and if I don’t kiss you again, I’m going to go wing off in a thousand directions.”

“Will you come with me somewhere private where I can kiss you again?”

Mari wasn’t thinking, couldn’t think, was so tired of thinking. Her lips tingled, her skin vibrated, and a huge aching ball of need filled her. So many sensations pulled at her—thirst, hunger, want. Want. Oh yes, she wanted that kiss. “Yes, oh yes, let’s go.”

Glenn reached across Mari, grabbed the handle on the open door, and yanked it closed. Only when Glenn gunned the engine, backed out into the narrow lane, and headed toward the exit did Mari manage a coherent thought. “What about the others. Aren’t we supposed to meet them? So you can drive them all home?”

“They’ll be fine. If any of them need me, they’ll text me.”

Mari didn’t argue. Glenn would never slough off a responsibility, and if she wasn’t worried about Flann and the others, Mari wasn’t either.

“Don’t worry.” Glenn’s voice was low and husky.

“I won’t.”

“Good.”

Glenn drove at the speed limit, but it felt to Mari as if they were crawling. She pressed close to Glenn again, even though there was plenty of room in the cab now, and this time she gave in to her urge and put her hand on Glenn’s leg. She needed the contact, needed to know Glenn was real, needed to believe the untamed energy swirling between them was real. Glenn dropped a hand over hers and pressed Mari’s fingers into her thigh.

Mari squeezed and hard muscles flexed beneath her fingers. The quick hitch in Glenn’s breath cut through her like a scalpel slash, sharp and swift and terrifyingly wonderful. She immediately wanted to feel the rush of erotic power again. Pressing closer into Glenn’s lean form, her breast against Glenn’s arm, she swept her palm up and down the length of Glenn’s thigh. Glenn twitched as if she’d been shocked.

“Fuck,” Glenn whispered. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”

“No, tell me.”

Glenn shot her a swift glance and then cut her gaze back to the road. Her mouth had been tight, the smoldering fire in her eyes leaping into flames. “You’re making me so crazy I can’t think.”

“Neither can I.” Mari wanted things she’d never imagined wanting. Her secret fantasies had been nothing like this. “I’ve never felt this way.”

Something in her voice must have betrayed her uncertainty.

Glenn looked at her again, the fire banked, tempered by concern. “Are you afraid?”

“No, no.” Mari gripped Glenn’s leg tighter than she intended and Glenn’s hips flexed. Heat flared between Mari’s thighs. “Never afraid of you.”

“Then you don’t have to think.”

Glenn swung the truck down a narrow alley and pulled in behind a building. Mari finally focused on their surroundings and recognized the rear of Glenn’s apartment building. She caught her breath.

“All right?” Glenn murmured as she turned to her, her fingers tracing the edge of Mari’s jaw.

Mari swallowed. If she went inside, what was she saying? What did she want? She still didn’t know, but she wanted to find out. She nodded.

Glenn cut the engine, jumped out, and ran around the front of the truck. She jerked open Mari’s door and reached for her hand. “Come on.”

Mari slid over and started to climb out. Glenn’s hands grasped her waist, and she was lifted to the ground. When her feet touched the earth, Mari wrapped her arms around Glenn’s shoulders and, cleaving to her, pressed her mouth to Glenn’s throat. She tasted salt and heat and desire. “You have a beautiful throat. You are beautiful.”

With a faint groan, Glenn tilted her head back, offering herself. She buried her fingers in Mari’s hair and pressed Mari’s mouth closer. “If you keep that up, I won’t get up the stairs.”

Mari touched the tip of her tongue to the delicate skin over Glenn’s racing pulse. Glenn trembled, a fine shudder rippling through her body. Mari’s heart leapt and a fierce thrill raced through her. Mari laughed. “Then we should go upstairs now, because I want to do that again.”

With a low growl, Glenn grabbed Mari’s hand and tugged her up the winding staircase, across the narrow deck outside her door, and into a small, neat apartment.

Glenn stopped just inside the door and framed Mari’s face with both hands. She kissed her softly. “Bedroom?”

“I…yes,” Mari whispered. What should she say…what could she say? I’ve never done this before, I don’t know what I want, I want everything and so much more? “But I’m not sure…”

“It’s okay, I just really, really need to kiss you again. Whenever you want to stop, you just tell me.” Glenn’s jaw tightened, the hands cradling Mari’s jaw flexing as if holding back a storm. “Please, I need you.”

Mari nodded. She couldn’t imagine wanting to stop, not when she’d never felt as alive as she did in that instant. “Yes. Show me.”

Wordlessly, Glenn took her hand again and led her through the small neat kitchen, across an equally neat but sparsely furnished living room, and into a bedroom with a single bed against one wall, a dresser with a row of precisely arranged bottles and other objects, and a slatted wooden chair beside it. Sunlight slanted through a single window across the foot of the bed, and hazy air blanketed the room. Glenn kicked off her boots and sat on the side of the bed, drawing Mari between her spread thighs. She wrapped both arms around Mari’s waist and pressed her cheek to Mari’s stomach. “We’ll go as slow as you want.”

Mari stroked the back of Glenn’s neck and shoulders. “I don’t know what I want, except I want to feel you.”

“Go ahead.”

Mari edged closer between Glenn’s thighs and caressed the length of Glenn’s back, tracing the tight muscles along her spine and between her shoulders. She slid her hands inside Glenn’s collar and dipped her fingertips into the delicate hollows above her collarbones.

Quivering, her insides in knots, Glenn stayed as still as she could, letting Mari explore her, every muscle so tight she felt as if they might shred from her bones. When Mari lowered her head and kissed the angle of her jaw, Glenn’s vision wavered.

“Can we lie down?” Mari asked almost dreamily.

Glenn couldn’t refuse her, as dangerous as that would be. She could never remember need so powerful her insides hurt. She swung around, guided Mari down to the bed, and stretched out beside her. Turning on her side, she rested her hand on Mari’s hip. Mari inched nearer, her lips flushed and swollen from their kisses, her eyes wide and dark and moist. Glenn kissed her.