“As a matter of fact, I am.” A giant liar, I added inwardly. Bad boys always had been and always would be my thing and I knew it.
“Yeah, well, let’s see what we can do about that,” he said.
Before I could even register the giant, flashing warning sign those words created in my head, his lips crashed down on mine. He even kissed like bad guys kissed: hard, punishing, greedy, unconcerned with the concept of chaste first contact, of getting to know someone else’s preferences. His lips crushed into mine, his hand going behind me to grab the base of my skull, holding me in place while he tasted me. His teeth grabbed my lower lip, sinking in hard enough for a gasp to part my lips. He took the opportunity and slipped his tongue inside to claim mine as shocks of desire sparked over every inch of my skin, making me hyper aware of the way his firm body pressed into mine, making my ass crush into the vanity. My nipples hardened as my traitorous arms went around him, pulling him closer, flattening my breasts to his chest. He made a growling noise deep in his chest as his lips claimed mine again, not giving me a second for air, for thought, for anything other than to get completely consumed in the need.
His fingers snaked out, snagging my hair, then curling into a fist and pulling hard, making me jerk back. His head dipped and his lips found the overly sensitive skin of my neck, moving over it until I felt my hips jerk against his, begging for fulfillment, pressing against the hard outline of his cock restrained by the thick jean material. His tongue slid up my earlobe, making me shiver almost violently on a quiet moan.
And of course, of freaking course, that was the moment he decided to pull back.
Forcing my eyes open, I found his a bit heavy-lidded too, but that was completely offset by the cocky smile he had in place. “I think that phase of yours is over,” he told me, releasing my hair and moving away. Damn if I didn’t need to grab the edge of the vanity to keep myself upright, a motion I was sure he caught judging by how the smile spread. “And now I know where to find you,” he added, grabbing his tool box and moving out of the room, dripping water everywhere as he went.
“Great,” I mumbled to myself when the front door slammed.
I turned slowly, looking at myself in the mirror. I was never the type who could hide their feelings well. Vocally, because I was a loudmouth. But also because my face always betrayed me. My eyes in particular. Right then, they were heavy-lidded, bedroom needy. My face was flushed.
I brought a hand up, pressing it against my heart that was still beating way too fast, forcing myself to take deep breaths and ignore the pulsing feeling of my untouched-for-a-woefully-long-time pussy.
I exhaled hard, going into my bedroom, tossing off my sopping clothes into a pile inside my bathroom and slipping into fresh panties and a new tee. I reached for my phone and called work.
“Hey, it’s Lea. Put me into Fee.”
There was a short pause before Fiona picked up. “Lea?” she asked, sounding surprised. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that your brother-in-law owns my freaking building? I mean that couldn’t have possibly slipped your mind. Like, ‘hey, Lea, nice shoes, oh and by the way… that guy you had pay you to take you on a date, yeah, he totally owns the building you live in. Just so you know.’ Something like that.”
There was a pause and I knew her well enough at that point to know she was pressing her lips together, her eyes downright mischievous. “Oh, was it a meet-cute? Tell me it was a meet-cute.”
“Don’t be a sap,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Besides, it couldn’t be a meet-cute seeing as we already met.”
“Hunter and I have a meet-cute,” she said, then went on because I gave her the space too. “He moved in next to me and I used to be up all night so I slept in and his fucking ass kept hammering early in the morning. So I went over. Meet-cute.”
“Okay, that is pretty cute,” I admitted, having seen them together and knowing how well they turned out as a couple and a family unit making it even cuter. “But you’re forgetting one big thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You were interested in Hunter. I’m not interested in Shane.”
“Yeah, okay,” she snorted. “Please. If nothing else, you want to do him. There’s not a woman eighteen to eighty who would turn down a chance at any of the Mallick brothers. So what happened? Come on, I need a little romance in my life. Becca and Izzy have the stomach flu. And no matter how much you love your partner, there is no such thing as romance between a man and a woman who have been taking turns cleaning up puke for two days.”