Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [52]
He glanced over at the table where his four brothers sat, then back at her, meeting her gaze. “I have no idea. They tend to act ignorant while out in public. Ignore them.”
That wouldn’t be hard to do, Tara thought, since her concentration was mainly on him. “What are you doing here, Thorn? I thought with only two days left before the race you would be somewhere in seclusion.”
Thorn frowned. “Yeah, you would probably think that. But don’t worry, I’m more than ready for the race.” He met her stare and his hands moved gently down to the small of her back and drew her closer into his arms. “In fact, I’m looking forward to it being over. And I don’t want you to worry your pretty little head any, because I’m also ready for you after the race.”
His words gave her pause, and she nervously licked her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. Maybe now was a good time to tell him about her virginal state. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she would get any words out, he kissed her. In the middle of the dance floor he gave her a full-blown, nothing-held-back, full-mouth kiss, just the thing to make her lose all rational thought.
She ignored the catcalls she heard, the whistles, as well as the flashing bulbs from several sport reporters’ cameras. Instead, she held on to Thorn to receive the mind-blowing kiss he was giving her.
He reluctantly pulled away when someone tapped him on his shoulder. He glared and turned to meet Dare’s amused features. He and Shelly had returned to the dance floor. “You’re making a scene, Thorn, and your song stopped playing moments ago. Maybe you ought to take that outside.”
“No problem,” Thorn said, and without waiting for Tara to say anything, he pulled her across the room and out the door.
Tara snatched her hand from Thorn’s the moment Florida’s night air hit her in the face, returning her to her senses. “Hold on, Thorn. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Taking you somewhere,” he said, pulling her out of the doorway to a secluded area.
She refused to move an inch. “Where?”
“To show you my bike.”
Tara frowned. “I’ve seen your bike. I’ve even ridden on it, remember?”
He smiled. “Not this one. The bike I want to show you is the one I’ll be using in the race.”
For a moment it seemed as though Tara had forgotten to breathe. She had been around the Westmorelands enough to know how they joked with Thorn about not letting anyone see the bike he would race. Since he owned so many for racing, it was anyone’s guess as to which one he would use to compete in any given race.
“But I thought that other than your racing team, no one is supposed to know about which bike you’d be using.”
He gave a small shrug as he leaned one shoulder against a brick wall. “Usually that’s true, but I want you to see it.” He met her gaze. “In fact, I want you to christen it.”
Tara lifted a brow. “Christen it? You want me to hit it with a bottle of champagne or something?”
Thorn shook his head and smiled. “No, that would put a dent in it. There’s more than one way to christen something. If you come with me, I’ll show you another way.”
Indecisively, Tara just stared at him, not knowing what she should do. Being somewhere alone with Thorn was not a good idea, especially when he had told her just two days ago that he would be keeping his hands and his lips to himself. Already tonight he had touched her and had kissed her twice and there was no telling what else he had in store.
Evidently she took too long to say anything because he covered the distance separating them, took her face in his hands and lowered his head to capture her lips with his.
Kiss number three, Tara thought, closing her eyes as his mouth totally devoured hers. She shuddered when she felt his hands pull her T-shirt from her shorts and slowly began caressing her bare skin underneath. Her tongue automatically mated with his, relishing in the taste of him.
Moments later, when he released her mouth, she pressed her face to his chest and sighed deeply into his T-shirt. The manly scent of him made her groan at