She looked him over, those stern emeralds pausing on his chest, then lower. She might be playing coy now, but there was heat in her eyes. He felt it with every sweep of her gaze. And boom! There it was. The lip bite.
She tugged that plump bottom flesh between her teeth so quickly he almost missed it. She was definitely sizing him up right back. And judging by the way she wet her lips, she liked what she saw.
The bartender placed her drink in front of her.
“Put it on my tab,” Gage said, and the bartender nodded.
“Dishing pretty compliments and buying me a drink won’t get you what you’re after,” she said.
He drank his beer. With his feet on the floor, he opened his knees and relaxed back in his seat. When someone bumped into her and she shifted toward him, effectively planting her hips between his legs, he smiled.
“Really? How do you know what I’m after?”
She took a drink. The ice clinked in her glass, and he caught a whiff of tart cranberries. She was sweet and sour in all the best ways—he could fucking smell it. Now if he could just taste it…
“I’m a pretty good judge of people.” She shrugged. “I can also read your mind.”
“That right?” He slung one elbow on the back of his bar seat and moved his knee enough to brush along her outer thigh. “Well, I do already have you in a house. Surely there must be bedrooms around here.”
The restaurant they were in had a unique layout. It was a massive old Victorian house turned into the local watering hole complete with bar, tables, and multiple rooms. There was even an indoor balcony. The second floor nestled right above them was meant for large parties, but it was currently closed off and dark.
“But we can talk more about bedtime later. By all means, don’t leave me in suspense with your mind-reading skills,” he finished.
Her green gaze slowly slid along his body; that sinful expression had his cock throbbing.
“You come across as casual, but you clearly like control.” She tilted her head, examining him further. “You’re strong. Hold a sense of command. You issue an order and expect it to be followed.”
He clenched his fist to keep from reaching out to touch her. She was easily pegging down details about him few people knew.
“If I issued an order, would you follow it?” he countered.
She smiled. “Nope.” She leaned in, and her mouth brushed his earlobe. “But you’d like that. You want a woman a little dirty, naughty, and able to take it rough.”
“What makes you think I’m rough?” he rasped.
She glanced at his free hand, then his chest. “Because judging by the way you’re holding your breath and grinding your teeth, you’re barely holding back from tossing me on this bar and taking me right here.” She shook her head slightly, letting the silky blond strands fall down her back. “I think you’d like a little fight in your woman.”
Every muscle he had flexed. Ready to prove her right. “Clearly you’d have some fight in you.”
She nodded. “I just don’t know if you can handle it, city boy.”
“Oh, I can bend you to my will.”
“Prove it.”
That shot his semihard cock to full attention. Her nearness was enough to make his whole body tense, ready to take her now. She was daring him to be rough with her, and she was right—he liked it hard. A little begging. A little pain. And a hell of a lot of pleasure.
The kind of power she wielded over him should drive him crazy, but it didn’t. She was different than any woman he’d ever been with. She excited him easily and made herself a challenge. And damn, did he like every second of it.
She took another drink, and condensation from her glass dripped onto her cleavage. He licked his lips—God, how he wanted to catch that droplet with his tongue. But before he came up with another witty line, she finished her vodka, turned, and walked away without a word.
No fucking way was he letting her go.
Hot on her heels, he bounded after her. He followed her into the shadows, went around the back of the bar, and strode quickly until he finally found her edging into a shadowy corner.
“You’re walking away from me, huh?” he said.
She opened a side door, arched an eyebrow at him over her shoulder, and climbed the stairs. He followed her up, and his heart pounded as they neared the closed-down balcony over the bar. Twenty-five feet below them, everyone enjoyed themselves, none the wiser that he was with a sexy woman in the dark above.
She moved to one of the booths hiding in the shadows, and he grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. A lusty hue lit up her eyes.
“You’re chasing me?” she whispered.
He moved her against the wall, kicked her feet apart with his, and pressed his body against hers. The loud crowd from downstairs echoed around them, but he held her tight in the shadows. This was it. He was going to take her right there. And she was going to let him.
More, she was going to like it. He could see it in the way she licked her lips. She was as hungry for him as he was for her.