Chapter Five
Julie’s bare feet sank into the carpeted hallway as she crept toward Logan’s room. Halfway there, she’d noticed her lack of footwear, but for the life of her couldn’t remember taking off her heels. And in her happily buzzed, slightly groggy state, going all the way back seemed like an awful lot of effort. Julie cast a look over her shoulder, looking for—what? Was she hoping someone would stop her? Give her an excuse to turn back?
She prowled down the hallway with renewed determination. A full-grown woman feeling guilty about good old-fashioned sex. Just plain pitiful. That’s all it would be. Two consenting adults blowing off a little steam.
Her head dropped forward as she failed to convince herself. If she’d been comfortable with the notion of casual sex, she would have come right out and asked Logan for it in the lounge, instead of skulking around the resort like some kind of cartoon robber. She’d never been good at this sort of thing. After consuming a bottle of champagne, the idea of sneaking in and out of Logan’s room, remaining hidden in the dark during the entire physical transaction, had seemed like a genius plan. No small talk or awkward attempts at seduction. She wouldn’t have to worry about which way to tilt her head or if she was smiling too much. In the dark, none of that would matter. She’d been so sure of her strategy, but now that the moment grew near, she felt her courage waning.
Well, that was half the reason for her hesitation, anyway.
The other half stood approximately six foot three inches tall and oozed irreverence from every pore. Reed. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her once in the lounge, except to address Regan. She’d liked being the center of his attention. Which didn’t make a darn lick of sense. Their acquaintance so far had been brief, but she was certain of one thing.
She didn’t like him. With the thought came another uneasy glance over her shoulder.
Julie would be the first to admit her life had been easy. She’d grown up privileged and given many advantages. Throughout her life, she’d encountered the look permanently etched on Reed’s face. Disdain. Mockery. He probably assumed he kept every thought hidden, but she could read him like a book. This entire wedding and all its frippery was an inconvenience to him and for some reason, he’d decided to make her the source of his annoyance.
Yet here she stood outside Logan’s door, thinking about Reed instead. All the more reason to knock on Logan’s door and put the giant bastard out of her mind. Involuntarily, she winced at thinking the word “bastard,” even if she hadn’t said it out loud. Her Aunt Sylvie would skin her alive for having such an unladylike thought. Tomorrow she would try to find Reed’s silver lining, Julie resolved with a nod. No sense in holding on to any hostility when she was determined to relax and enjoy the weekend with her rarely seen friends. If she felt any attraction for him, well, that would end tonight. Once she seduced another man in the dark…without any discussion beforehand, Reed would be out of her head. She just needed to go on in and have the sex.
Julie glanced down at the key in her palm, which she’d squeezed so hard, it had left an imprint. Stop being a coward. You’re a good girl every second of your boring life. You wanted to step outside your comfort zone? Here is your opportunity. With a fortifying breath, she slid the key into the lock. Then she hesitated. Did she want to do this? Obnoxiously, Reed’s image swam through her mind once more. It wouldn’t be right, would it? To seduce one man while thinking of another? She started to remove the key, but the door swung open.
A big hand snaked out through the opening and pulled her inside. Before she could utter a single word, the door slammed shut and her back hit the hard wood. In a split second, she’d gone from the bright hallway to complete darkness and it took her a moment to get her bearings. The quick movement made the champagne in her system kick up a bigger fuss than two grannies competing in an apple pie bake-off.
As she attempted to steady herself, she felt warm hands circle her bare ankles. At once, awareness raced up her calves and weakened her knees. Her breath hitched in her throat as those hands stroked higher up the backs of her legs, fingers dragging lightly on her skin and shooting lightning to her core. Higher, until they reached her thighs, which were already flexing in anticipation. Then she felt damp pressure trail over the inside of her knee. A mouth? When the unmistakable sensation of a tongue licked over the flesh of her inner thigh, she slumped back onto the door with a breathy moan.
Briefly, she wondered why this felt so right, when seconds ago, the idea of being with Logan had felt infinitely wrong. Rational thought fled as seeking, greedy hands followed the tongue’s path, kneading and smoothing as they went. They could have only one destination. She needed to be touched there so badly, she ached beyond the barrier of her panties, where she’d grown increasingly wet. Julie’s thighs began to part when it registered how fast they were moving. How, in mere seconds, she’d gone from seducer to seduced. Before the door opened, she’d had every intention of backing out, yet now this man’s touch had transformed her into a willing participant. His roughness felt unfamiliar, but her body responded as though it had been…expecting this kind of treatment from someone.
Just not from Logan.
From Reed, though…yes. Her heartbeat accelerated as the hands, the mouth on her legs became his. Oh, God. Lust twisted in her belly. A man like Reed would move fast, give her one choice only. To receive pleasure. She shouldn’t like it. Shouldn’t need it. And this wasn’t Reed touching her, it was Logan. Logan. Confusion shone through the growing need. They needed to slow down so she could figure out where it was coming from.
She stayed his ascending hand with her own. “W-wait. Aren’t you going to…”
His growl of frustration vibrated against her thigh and she sucked in a breath. Julie’s brow furrowed as she heard the noise. A noise so unlike the congenial best man. Was it possible she’d misjudged him? She thought they were two like-minded people, interested in polite, tidy sex, but maybe she’d been mistaken. That’s what she got for judging a book by its cover. Once again, an image of Reed popped into her mind, but she determinedly stowed it away.
“Aren’t you going to at least kiss me first?” No answer. “I’m not playing coy or anything, mind you…I just reckon, well, that it’s the decent, honest thing to do is all. Under the circumstances.”
He sighed loudly and she felt him rise to his feet. His larger frame crowded her against the door, fitting them together in a way that was blatantly indecent. She felt his arousal, thick at her belly. Her breasts flattened against his chest in a way that felt sinful and divine simultaneously. Warm breath puffed out against the top of her head.
“Kissed where?” His voice was a rough, almost inaudible whisper that bathed her in blistering heat. “Your mouth? Or the slick little p-ssy you’re hiding from me?”
Julie gasped loudly in the darkness, her entire world tilting on its axis. No one had ever dared to speak to her in such a crude manner. She opened her mouth to demand an apology when a loud sound echoing in the room brought her back to reality. She realized it was her own heavy, panting breath. No. No way. It couldn’t have turned her on. She couldn’t actually like his foul words. Could she? Her body hummed like a swarm of bees, the body she continued to press against him so very intimately. Begging for even more contact.
What are you going to do, Julie? Walk away when you’re finally feeling something with a man? When someone has finally succeeded in evoking an emotion other than mild interest?
“Both.” She swallowed hard, unable to keep the image of Reed at bay this time. His mouth. His tongue. She wanted them so bad it pained her. “Kiss me in both places.”
She felt a ripple of shock go through him, and her body answered it. With a loud groan, his mouth came down on hers, hard and punishing. He kissed her almost angrily, forcing her lips apart and sweeping his tongue inside in a way meant to provoke her. Incite her. Julie couldn’t get enough of his hard mouth moving like a brand over hers. She dug her fingers into the collar of his shirt and tugged him down as she pushed higher on her toes to meet him. They kissed furiously until breath ran scarce, pausing to draw air and bite at each other’s lips. Not one single coherent thought could be formed around the heat coursing through her, concentrated on the apex between her legs. She felt needy, out of control, hot. With a sound of frustration, she clutched his shoulders and hitched her legs up around his waist.
An animalistic sound tore from his throat as his hips notched firmly between her thighs. Julie opened her mouth to issue a demand for more pressure, but her backside slammed into the door with the force of his thrust before she could voice her need. She cried out into the encompassing darkness as he growled into her neck.
“More. More. More.”
“More what, baby?” His grated whisper sent electricity racing down her spine. “This?” He hooked his arms beneath her knees and spread her legs so wide Julie winced at the twinge of pain. Then he positioned the bulging length that pressed insistently behind his fly over her sensitive flesh and grinded her back against the door. Teeth sank into her shoulder as he drove himself against her over and over. Julie dimly registered the sounds of the door bumping and squeaking in its frame with each potent, demanding thrust. Pleasure, foreign and intense, spiraled through her system, rendering her incapable of anything but feeling. Taking what he’d correctly judged she needed. Her thighs tightened around his waist as she felt the dam inside of her giving way. She bit her lip and absorbed five more thrusts, his erection sliding with a mind-numbing friction over the sensitive part of her still shielded by silk underwear. Then she lost her grip on the present, sensations imploding within her like a ticking time bomb. She squeezed his hips between her legs and rode out her orgasm, his hands digging into the flesh of her bottom to help her get as close as humanly possible while her hips bucked.
His hard mouth worked over hers, swallowing her strangled cries, growling and thrusting his tongue deep with each of her frantic movements. When she came down from her climax, breath racing in and out past her lips, she heard his muffled whisper at her ear. “Oh baby, I could have come, just like this. With your f*ck-me thighs opened up wide for me on the door. Now?” He laughed darkly. “Nothing will satisfy me unless I taste all that heat first.”
As he levered her against the door with his body and began to strip off his shirt, a tingle of uncertainty raced over Julie’s skin, almost enough to blot out the unmistakable longing. She somehow battled the latter feeling and focused on his words. Since she’d entered the room, he hadn’t spoken above a whisper, but nothing he’d said so far had been reminiscent of the man she’d mingled with over cocktails an hour earlier, making polite small talk. Perhaps when a man this sexually intense became aroused, his voice altered slightly? She didn’t have the experience to know, but he was making it too easy for her to picture Reed in his place, when she shouldn’t be sparing him a thought. But she was. Couldn’t stop.
Julie wanted so badly for her theory to be true. That Logan became a different type of man in the dark. She didn’t want this to end. But her instincts sent her hands over his shoulders, exploring, testing. Had Logan been this big? Just beneath his shoulder blade, she felt it. A large, jagged scar. Not the kind of mark even a marginally competent surgeon would leave. Logan’s bare back had been featured in billboards for his sporting goods company…and he certainly had no scar.
“W-who are you?” No sooner had the words left her mouth than she knew. The hints and red flags she’d patently ignored flashed in front of her eyes like fireworks.
His teeth traced the column of her neck and she struggled to keep from tilting her head to give him better access. He pushed up hard against her damp center. “You know who it is. You’ve known all along, haven’t you, pixie?”
Reed. If the nickname hadn’t clued her in, she still would have known his identity beyond a shadow of a doubt as soon as he spoke above a whisper. His baritone voice resonated within her. Julie’s heart pounded wildly in her chest as she pondered his question. If she was honest with herself, she hadn’t been attracted to the successful best man, gorgeous though he might be. But the second this man’s hands had touched her legs in the dark, she’d turned into a shivering mass of hormones. Had she been aware of his actual identity? Perhaps not consciously, but deep down she knew she’d purposefully ignored the warning signals her brain had given off. She’d been too lost in the heat to let reality intrude.
Then it hit her. What Reed had done. Allowed her to sneak in and seduce him. The wrong man.
Julie shoved him with all her might and nearly collapsed onto the floor when his wall of support left her body. Her hand fumbled along the wall, searching for a light switch. When she found it, she flipped it on and spun to face him. She opened her mouth to scream every obscenity she could muster up, but his intense expression distracted her. Then her gaze dropped from dangerously narrowed hazel eyes to the body beneath…and she forgot to breathe. At least a dozen tattoos stretched over hardened muscle, some of them disappearing beneath the waistband of his low-slung dress pants. Two scars bisected his abdomen and pectoral muscles, adding to his already considerable air of danger. Big hands flexed at his sides, tightening into fists when she merely continued to stare at the most painfully masculine physique she’d ever witnessed outside of the naughty emails Regan often sent her.
“Would you like me to take off my pants now so you can really be impressed?”
His gruff question jolted Julie out of man-candy fantasyland and she dragged her gaze up from the large swell behind his fly, trying desperately to ignore the needy tightening in her belly. It enraged her that she could still feel desire for him after the stunt he’d pulled. “By all means, take the pants off. It’ll make it much easier when I castrate you.”
Julie ignored the fluttering in her chest when his full lips tilted at the ends, his amusement vanishing just as quickly. “Now that would be one hell of a shame.” He took a measured step in her direction. She refused to give up any ground when he stopped a breath away and dragged his teeth over his bottom lip, eyes tracking over her heaving breasts. “You were enjoying it so much a minute ago. When you rode it like you owned it.”
“Lord, would you please stop talking to me like that? It’s just not right.” She dragged a shuddering breath into her lungs and raised a hand to keep him backed off. Any closer and she might be tempted to lick one of those tattoos. And just where had that thought come from? Julie Piper didn’t lick tattoos. She licked the odd Popsicle on a hot Atlanta day. Maybe a cherry lollipop on Halloween. Not a depiction of a charging bull underneath the words…what was that? Latin? Huffing a frustrated breath, Julie massaged her forehead, trying to focus on anything but the pent-up sexual energy radiating from the man in front of her. It practically spilled from every inch of his skin, heating her where she stood. He needed to be put back in his place. She straightened her spine and looked him in the eye. “You knew I didn’t come here to see you. You let me think you were Logan.”
Whoa mama. That certainly worked. Reed’s demeanor transformed from ready-to-play to outrageously pissed before she could blink. He visibly reined himself in, but she could tell it wasn’t easy. She could see the effort maintaining his control cost him. “Listen to me, pixie. You can pretend all you want that you didn’t love my eyes on you all damn night when I couldn’t stop imagining your beautiful legs draped over my shoulders. You can pretend to be indifferent toward me in front of all your giggling girlfriends.” He braced a hand on the wall above her head and leaned in close. “But don’t pretend, not for one goddamn second, that you thought it was Golden Boy ringing your bell. You knew exactly who was between your thighs. You’ve wanted me there for hours. I just found a way to give us what we both wanted.” He gave a frustrated shake of his head. “Well, one of us, anyway. I’m still hard enough to cut through steel.”
“I didn’t…don’t want you,” Julie whispered shakily. Even to her own ears, it sounded like an obvious lie, but she was still reeling crazily from his provocative speech to make a better effort. “You have a wild imagination, though. Honestly, I wouldn’t have guessed it.” She cleared her throat, trying to make her suddenly hoarse voice return to normal. “I only responded that way because I thought you were someone else.”
Reed’s jaw flexed. “That so? Put your money where your mouth is, then. All the lights are on now. Let’s see how you respond when you know who’s making you come.”
Julie didn’t know what to say. No way could she take him up on such a challenge. Even if her mind insisted on denying the attraction, her body knew if Reed touched her, she’d boil hotter than a teakettle. Might even whistle. Within minutes, he would prove her claim incorrect. Have her shamefully begging and moaning up against the door once again.
She laid her hand on the doorknob. “Such a gracious and eloquent offer, but I’m going to have to pass. I wasn’t interested before and I’m certainly not interested now, especially after this little Houdini After Dark magic act.”
When she pulled open the door, his fingers curled around her elbow, bringing her to a stop. She didn’t turn around to face him, but she could feel his lips moving in her hair. “I’m going to let you get away with the lie tonight, pixie, since I made you come hard enough that I’ll be able to relax. For now. But I need to make one more thing crystal clear before you leave.” He traced her ear with his tongue. “If you need servicing while we’re stuck in this fancy-ass hotel for a week, I’m going to be the one to do it. No one else. Not Golden Boy. Not even your right hand.” He let go of her arm and she swayed, frowning when he laughed under his breath. “And when you slip between your sheets tonight, think about this. I will service you so hard you’ll be booking another week here just to recover.”
Julie slipped out into the hallway and walked toward her room down the hall without remembering a single step of her journey to get there.