Tenley’s sigh of relief echoed my own, the thin satin of her panties the only thing impeding immediate entrance. I wanted to touch all of her. I wanted her naked and spread out, but it was too cold. The dress would have to stay on, until we got home.

I rocked my hips, achieving the friction we were both looking for. She loosened my tie and popped the first few buttons on my shirt. But she was too frantic, and her hands too unsteady, to get through them all. She gave up and found the hem instead, her palm going under and up to rest over my heart.

“I can’t lose you. I need you so much, it hurts.” Her voice was high, reedy.

“It’s the same for me.”

Countless times since her return I’d woken in the night after one of the dreams, searching the bed for her warm body. Each time I found her, the promise of her constancy eased the fear. Tonight was no different. We were both looking for a way to ground ourselves in the present.

My hand traveled up her leg, over the thigh highs and lace trim, past the sexy expanse of bare skin. I slipped a finger under the garter strap and followed it to her panties, going under the elastic.

“Please, Hayden,” she whispered.

In one smooth stroke I pushed two fingers inside. Tenley’s head fell back, legs sliding off my hips. She propped herself on her arms, the pale light spilling over the contours of her delicate face. Desperation was behind her desire, and I understood the feeling only too well. I twisted my fingers, adding another. Tenley lifted her hips, her body arching. She drew one leg up, her heel coming to rest on my thigh. It slid down.

“Just put it on the car.”

Her leg quivered and goose bumps flashed across her skin. She was closer than I thought.

“But the paint . . . ,” she panted as I thrust harder and faster, rubbing her clit with my palm.

“Screw the paint.”

She grabbed on to my tie with one hand, reaching for her heel with the other. It dropped to the floor with a low thud. The other followed immediately after.

Tenley put one foot on the hood, but her nylons provided no traction. She stretched her leg up, her heel coming to rest on my shoulder. I leaned against the car as her other shin hit my forearm. She was sex and innocence, a vision in cream and pale pink, spread out on black steel.

Her teeth were clenched, the muscles in her jaw tight. I curled my fingers, and her eyes fluttered shut as she gripped my tie tighter. It bit into my neck painfully so I leaned in closer.

“Come, goddamnit,” I demanded, wanting her release so I could get mine.

She shook her head and moaned. “I can’t. I’m so close, oh, God . . .”

“I’m not fucking you until you do,” I threatened, not sure if I could follow through with the asinine declaration.

Tenley’s eyes flipped open, her lips a hair’s breadth away from mine. The emotions that clouded her half-glazed eyes were brutally intense.

I brought my lips to her ear. “Please, kitten, I need to see you come.”

She released my tie and almost set me off-balance. Her cold palm came to rest against my nape. She tilted her head giving me access to her throat. I dropped my head and kissed her neck, grazing with my teeth.

“Do that again—please.” Her voice was pained. “Harder,” she said, when my teeth pressed against the silken skin, and she bucked against my fingers.

I complied, because she was right there. She cried out, her voice echoing in the garage as her body trembled with the force of her orgasm. Then she went limp; the leg propped against my shoulder slid down into the crook of my arm.

“Are you okay?” I asked, bringing my mouth to hers.

The kiss started off slow, but as Tenley regained control of herself, the intensity increased.

With shaky anticipation I grabbed my cock, pushed her panties out of the way, and dragged the head down her slit. My body was being lit up from the inside, a meteor shooting through space, heading for impact. I should have been making love to her tonight, sweet and slow. But I couldn’t control the need to own her body if I couldn’t have the most important part of her yet.

“I need—” I thrust with more force than I meant to, and Tenley let out a shocked gasp. I kissed her penitently. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered, her nose brushing mine. “I love you in me.”

I wanted to tell her I loved her. I wanted to hear the same from her. All the things I couldn’t say kept me bound and gagged, breaking me in ways I hadn’t expected.

I cradled the back of her head in my hand as I moved, gaining momentum with each thrust. I braced one knee on the hood, my other thigh pressed against the wheel well. The metal protested and the steel caved beneath my knee, but I kept going. I could feel it coming; the tightness in the pit of my stomach became an ache as I finally surrendered and the orgasm slammed through me.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “I love the way you feel.”

Her mouth fell open as she came, too, quaking and shuddering. Two tears slipped over her temples and disappeared into her hair-line. I stilled as more pooled in the corners of her eyes.

“Shit.” I brushed them away, but new ones followed. “Kitten? Did I hurt you?”

I started to pull out, but her leg tightened around my waist. Her hands clasped behind my back to draw me in. “Stay in me, please. Don’t go.”

We remained that way until the cold began to register. When Tenley shivered and her skin pebbled, I eased out of her, pulling her dress down. My now-limp dick went back in my pants before I helped her off the hood.

Her makeup was smudged under her eyes, her cheeks blotchy, her hair a wild mess. After I fixed her up as best as I could, which wasn’t very good, I opened the passenger door. The interior light flashed brighter, highlighting the damage I’d inflicted on my car. Besides the dent from my knee, several scratches in the paint were obvious.

“Oh my God, Hayden, the hood!” Tenley exclaimed in wide-eyed horror.

I helped her into her seat and buckled her in. “No big deal. Easy enough to fix.”

I closed her door and hit the code on the garage before getting into the car and backing out into the driveway. I checked to make sure the alarm was armed before we left. Tenley’s legs were tucked under her when I got back in; she was rolling the cupcake charm over her lips.

“What’s up, kitten? You okay? Anything sore?”

She reached over and ran her fingers through my hair. “I don’t know if I would have survived today without you,” she said quietly.

“You would have found a way to get through it.”

“I’m not so sure. Maybe.”

What I’d just done came crashing down around me. I should have stopped her in the car. Or pulled over, gotten her off, and then taken her back to my place to finish the job. She meant more than a hard fuck in a cold garage.

“Hayden?”

“I should get you home. You look tired.” I started to put the car in gear.

Tenley put her hand over mine to stop me. “Are you upset with me? Did I say something wrong?”

I didn’t know what to tell her without making her feel shittier. Admitting I felt guilty for being an asshole boyfriend wouldn’t go over well.

“You haven’t said or done anything wrong. I shouldn’t have stopped here.”

“Is it about the car?”

“What? No. Fuck the car. It’s just metal and an engine.”

“It was your dad’s—”

“It’s not the car, Tenley.” I kissed the tips of her fingers. They were cold. I noted the smudges of dirt on the sleeves of her ivory coat. She’d kept it on the entire time.

“Then what?”

Tenley disengaged her seat belt and leaned across the console as if she wanted to climb into my lap. I wouldn’t have stopped her if she had. That’s when I realized what the real issue was. It had little to do with the location, or the car, or how unstable Tenley was. The sex had done nothing to ease the ache in her, or me. If anything, we were both needier now than before. Which made sense. The gratification had only been physical; it hadn’t been the connection both of us craved. The emotional piece had been missing.