I’ve hated these desires. I’m ashamed. My friends would be aghast and demand that I evolve beyond them immediately. I’ve tried. A lot. I even took their suggestion to buy a better vibrator.
It’s not working. Nothing is.
Maybe this stranger will cure me. He’ll either scratch my itch or prove my fantasy ridiculous. Whichever happens, I’ll be better off. Besides, if I don’t try surrendering to a man who makes every inch of my skin spark, won’t I always regret passing him by?
“I don’t want you to,” I murmur.
Something on his face changes. The hesitation in his black eyes suddenly melts in a blaze of heat. “Then there’s nothing left to talk about. Let’s go.”
When he calls out for the bartender, I lay my fingers on his arm. It’s every bit as warm and steely as I imagined. “There is. One thing.”
“What?”
“Are you married or taken?” I couldn’t live with that.
He’s not wearing a wedding ring, nor do I see a tan line where one once lay, but that doesn’t always mean anything.
“No.”
He doesn’t hesitate and he doesn’t look away. I don’t know this man at all, but every gut instinct tells me he’s being honest. “Thank you. Don’t you want to know if I’m single?”
He shakes his head. “I know your kind. You wouldn’t have said yes if you weren’t.”
“I wouldn’t,” I agree, voice trembling with anticipation.
He quickly pays the bartender, and I mull everything I’ve ever heard about safely hooking up. I’m supposed to tell someone where I’m going and with whom. I’m supposed to create check-in times and backup plans.
I don’t do any of that. My gut says I’ll be one-hundred percent safe with this sexy stranger. Maybe that’s stupid, and I’ll regret it. But for once, I’m shutting off my logic and relying on instinct.
He wraps his hand around mine, grip firm, and leads me out of the empty bar and through the smoky noise of the casino before stopping at a bank of elevators. There’s a collection of businesspeople checking in to attend a convention downstairs, as well as a family gearing up for their weekend away. Despite the fact it’s late afternoon, a pair of girls are already completely trashed and hitting on a casino attendant passing by.
When the elevator doors open, a cross-section of humanity tumbles out, then the others waiting beside us jump in. I move to follow, but the stranger tugs me back against his body. His erection prods the upper curve of my ass as he eases my hair over one shoulder and whispers in the opposite ear. “We’ll take the next one.”
As soon as the door closes, a ding a few feet away tells me there’s another car waiting. He hustles me to it, all but carrying me when my stilettoes prevent me from matching his long-legged, ground-eating pace. Once we’re inside, he sets me down and stabs a button to close the elevator door. Then he turns with a dark, burning stare, sexual intent plastered all over his face. He’s going to use me to the fullest and relish every moment of turning my body inside out.
My heart stops. My brain screams at me to exercise caution and back out.
I don’t say a word.
He wraps one arm around my waist. With his free palm, he grabs my nape, manhandling me until I look up, snaring myself in his gaze. “Last chance.”
To back out? “I said yes for a reason.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He pushes the button for the twelfth floor and the car begins to whoosh up.
I should probably ask questions or tell him I’ve never had a lover overwhelm me. Or simply plead with him for mercy. But I don’t want any. I don’t know even one man like him among the coffee-drinking, beard-growing, enlightened granola males in my circle of acquaintances. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious and excited…and ready to indulge in all my fantasies.
“Duly noted.”
His eyes turn impossibly darker as he crowds me with his big body. He’s hard and overwhelming. He smells like wood, leather, and pheromones. The way he wraps his fists around my long hair and tugs until my scalp tingles excites me. Then he pins me against the wall of the elevator and shoves his knee between my legs, my pencil skirt scraping up toward my hips. My heart races as he twists me in his big grip and settles my wriggling weight on his thigh.
“You’re in trouble, angel.”
God, I can barely breathe past my excitement. “What are you going to do?”
“Make you come for me before we leave this elevator.”
When I gasp, he swallows the sound with his mouth. He doesn’t merely lay his firm lips over mine. He surges inside my mouth, overtaking it as thoroughly as he overtakes my will. He kisses like he owns me. He makes me his with one sweep of his tongue. I can’t find a shred of will to resist.