“My sister owns the restaurant. Now, come on, stop being a pain in the ass.”
I see a cocktail of disbelief and desire mixing behind those wide silver-jade eyes that have me mesmerized and pussy-whipped before I even get to taste her.
“Me? I’m the pain in the ass? Bossy guys like you are usually compensating for something you know…” She nods toward crotch and her sassy spark turns into wide-eyed wonder as she catches the sight of my tented pants. “Usually, but not always I guess.”
She falls silent, her mouth dropping open, and I grab her arm and lead her the rest of the way through the restaurant as an orchestral version of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” plays on the speakers above.
I bet she is. And I’m going to find out, soon enough.
CHAPTER 5
Natalie
He drags me down a back hallway to an open door leading into the kitchen. The place is roasting hot and filled with steam and the sounds of sizzling pans, bustling movement and a ferocious-looking small woman checking plates and shouting orders at the staff.
She flicks her eyes toward us as we pass and there’s a moment of disbelief in her gaze before she nods at the guy I’m toddling behind. Before I can ask his name or where we are going, he’s barreling through a door, slamming it behind us, and flicking on the lights.
“Jesus,” I manage, breathless and dizzy as if I’d just been chased through the forest by a mountain lion. “You’re bossy and handsy.”
“My sister’s office.” He turns, spinning me toward him, and his blue eyes bore right into my now molten core. He backs me up against the desk, and I feel the wooden edge bite into my butt. “She owns the restaurant but I own the building. We’re partners.”
God, those eyes. Not just blue. Topaz or turquoise. Sort of otherworldly surrounded by dark lashes and dangerous lust.
Something is about to change. I feel it rippling in the air. Shivering inside me.
This stranger somehow is shifting the plates of my life under my feet. The longer he looks at me, the more my emotions unravel. I’m raw and exposed under the overhead lights, but it’s not just my physical being that feels under scrutiny, it’s my heart. My soul. There must have been some magical mushrooms in that panna cotta because if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was falling in love with this guy.
His jaw is set. His pupils constrict.
Such purpose. Such power.
Something about him makes me feel safe and wildly unsure at the same time. To most people, I’m sure he’s scary. Some sort of hitman or mafia enforcer in an expensive suit but to me, he’s every fantasy I never realized I had and I want to make them all come true with him.
“Your sister, huh?” I ask, desperate for a break in the intensity of the moment.
I scan the walls and the desk as he raises his arm and points. “There we are. That’s me, my sister, brother, mom and grandmother. No father. He was useless.” I squint but he’s right. It’s him.
My lips fall open as his eyes drag up and down my body.
“I’m ready for my dessert,” he whispers, and the walls feel like they are undulating around us.
“I would have shared my panna cotta.” I mutter but I already know that’s not what he means.
“You’re going to share something way better than that with me.” His smile is tense, the hint of white teeth making my belly flutter but his eyes are blazing and there’s this glow around him that warms me like a security blanket.
Something about him makes me want to please him, do things I’ve never done before.
Electric shocks and what feels like morse code tapping out SOS ignite between my legs.
He could have any woman he wants. I wonder if this restaurant is just his playground. Finding women in distress, swooping in then…I don’t want to think about that. I want to ride this dark wave of pheromones and inhibition right into the fucking wall right now.
His hands circle my waist as he presses against me. The hardness that shown clearly in his pants feels even bigger now and my breath stutters in my throat.
“You’re a goddess.” He seethes, his lips warm on the shell of my ear. “I bet you’re a naughty goddess. For me that is.”
“I’m—I’m not…” The power of logical thought is impossible right now.
He kisses me and the entire world disappears around us. If he wasn’t holding me, I’m sure I’d melt into the floor.
His tongue presses through my lips, warm and greedy as he slips a hand down and takes an entitled grip on my ass. The friction from the scruff of his short beard rakes against my skin.
My nipples harden into painful peaks. His kiss is just like him, bossy and demanding and apparently, my pussy likes that sort of thing because the pressure building downtown is about to combust and blow us both through the ceiling.