Free #Swag (GearShark #3) by Cambria Hebert Page A

inside her, it wasn’t going to happen.
    Fucking wrong.
    I stepped back, and she slid down my front like Jell-O.
    “What should I call you?” she asked, her voice still breathless.
    I glanced down. The intense, clover green of her eyes pierced me. Her lips were swollen and slick with my kiss.
    I wanted to kiss her again.
    I couldn’t.
    “Jace,” I bit out. My voice was made of gravel. “Call me Jace.”
    I picked her up and moved her away from the door, then nearly ripped it off the wall as I rushed outside into the summer sun.
    People looked up, surprise on their faces.
    I gave them all a look like they were imagining things and went casually toward my car to get the T-shirt I’d showed up in.
    I’d told her to call me by my first name.
    No one called me by my first name.
    That’s the way I’d always wanted it.
    Until now.

 
    Joey
    Why did all the dickheads have to kiss so good?
    He issued a challenge.
    I replied in turn.
    I wanted to rile him up. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Serve him up a slice of tasty humble pie.
    Yet I was the one standing here with aching, heavy breasts. My lips still tingled from the way he devoured me. My ears still echoed from when he called me baby.
    I wasn’t a girly girl. I didn’t get all dressed up or spend hours on my hair and makeup. I didn’t bat my eyes or bite my lip to get a man’s attention.
    Men were pigs. I didn’t want their attention anyway. I wanted their respect.
    But he called me baby.
    For a moment there, I’d forgotten about the photographer. For a moment, it had been just him and me. My body and his. God, the way it felt to curl up at his back and press against him.
    I’d never felt like that before.
    Small. Protected. Desired.
    Yes, desired. I’m not talking about the desire every woman saw when a man looked at her rack, whistled as she walked past, or even propositioned her with or without a dinner date.
    That wasn’t desire, not really. It was lust. Want.
    Desire was wholly different; at least just then it was. Desire became tangible. It transcended the physical; though, the physical pull was definitely there. For it wasn’t just his body that was present in that moment; it was part of him I’d never seen or felt before. A part I felt him wanting to share, as if while, yes, he might lust for my body, part of him whispered for a piece of my heart.
    He told me his name. The one I’d never heard before. It was like that piece of him, the one whispering to my heart, wanted to be recognized. By me and only me.
    A girl could get high on thoughts like that.
    It was dangerous, and it shook me.
    This was Lorhaven, the guy who, when we first met, literally tried to run the car I was in off the road. He and Drew were always at each other’s throats, and Trent seemed to hate him for some unidentified reason.
    He was a snob. A racing snob. He hated the pros because he was an indie.
    Call me Jace.
    Quickly, I stripped off his shirt and left it right there on the floor. It carried his scent. I liked it, so I left it behind.
    The second I stepped out of the makeshift studio, I was surrounded. Trent, Drew and Hopper all stood there with worried looks on their faces.
    “What?” I snapped.
    “I was about to come in there,” Drew intoned.
    “And?” I motioned with my hand. So what?
    Drew’s blue eyes narrowed. “Did something happen between you and Lorhaven?”
    “Besides him being his usual mule’s ass? No.”
    I felt Drew’s stare, like he was trying to decide if I was lying. I looked him right in the eye.
    He relented after a minute.
    “It was hot in there. I was just freshening up.” It was a lie veiled in truth.
    I felt Trent’s watchful gaze and glanced up. He didn’t say a word, but I saw. He knew I lied. He somehow sensed a storm churning inside me.
    “Emily’s ready for you,” Hopper told me, drawing my attention away from Trent.
    His light-blue eyes were piercing. It was like he, too, was trying to read me. But he wasn’t as good at