“Correct. Stop stalling.”
My tone is irritated, but I can’t help it. He’s pushing all my buttons, and not the right ones. “You’ll have to sit there while I think about it, because I honestly don’t know.”
His frustration is palpable. Not only is he unused to being challenged, he’s not used to being made to wait, either.
What kind of work does he do? Probably something involving barking orders at terrified underlings.
“All right. Here it is. You’re the first man I’ve been attracted to since Chet and I broke up, and the first person who seems to understand the hell I’ve been through. Chelsea might have had a good point when she said that the only way to get over a man is to get under a new one, and I’m tired of being the only person in the room when I have sex. I know it’s not that simple, but I’ve tried everything else. Nothing’s worked. So I suppose I was thinking that maybe we could make each other forget our pain for a while.”
I clear my throat. The schoolmarm is back. “Also…I have condoms in my handbag.”
Cole stares at me with fury blazing in his blue eyes. But then his gaze drops to my mouth, and I realize I’m mistaken. That’s not anger.
It’s passion.
Suddenly, I’m dizzy.
I think he’s about to say yes.
Cole
If we were alone, I’d have already torn her clothes from her body with my hands and teeth and buried my face between her legs.
As it is, I’m having a hard time holding myself back from doing just that, even with a hundred onlookers.
I inhale slowly, savoring her scent and enjoying the feel of her pulse beating wildly under my thumb. My voice comes out gravelly. “You’d hate yourself tomorrow.”
Her lips curve upward. Her eyes flash. “Maybe. Only one way to find out.”
Fuck, those eyes. I have a bad feeling the exact gold-flecked shade of green is going to be permanently inked onto my memory.
We’re sitting close. Too close. I’ve still got her wrist gripped in my hand. Our thighs are pressed together, hip to knee. All it would take is for me to dip my head and I could slide my tongue between the cleft in her breasts.
How fucking badly I want that.
But I’m too busy trying to talk her out of doing something foolish.
“Your girlfriends wouldn’t approve.”
She laughs. It’s a happy sound, light and airy, but there’s a darkness underscoring it that resonates inside me like a lone note played on a melancholy violin.
My broken pieces make music with hers.
“Chelsea would not only approve, she’d probably pay for the room herself if I asked her to. Will you have many of these objections?”
“Why?”
“I’m wondering if I should leave now or order another drink to give you time to wrestle with your conscience.”
She looks at my mouth then. Looks at it and licks her lips, as if she’s imagining tasting me.
Then she has the fucking audacity to say, “Or are you worried you won’t be able to get an erection?”
I glower at her from under lowered brows. “Don’t test me, Shay.”
“Oh, you’re much too scary to test. I wouldn’t dare.”
She says it exactly like a fucking dare.
Okay. Game on.
I take her hand and place it on my lap, curling her fingers around my dick, stiff and throbbing under my zipper.
Her eyes widen. This time, her laugh is breathless. “Oh. That answers that.” Cheeks flushed, she glances around the bar. “Thank goodness for the tablecloth.”
“Look at me.”
When she sends me a wary, sideways glance, I lean closer and lower my voice.
“Yes, I want to fuck you. But you were right when you said I look like a lot of women’s biggest regret. You already have enough of those.”
Considering her cheeks are so red, it makes her composure even more impressive when she answers. “True enough. But the batteries in my vibrator died this morning, so the timing is actually quite good.”
I don’t know if I’m more pissed off or turned on.
What the fuck is she doing?
I growl, “You’re right. You are reckless. You’ll get yourself in trouble if you keep going around propositioning strangers.”
“You’re the first and last stranger I’ll ever proposition, so there’s nothing to worry about. May I please have my hand back now? Unless you’re about to undo your zipper, this is really awkward.”
“You can’t actually believe jerking me off under the tablecloth could be less awkward.”
“At least I’d be holding onto something other than my humiliation.”
Aroused, frustrated, and helplessly charmed, I can’t think of anything else to say but a gruff, “Fuck.”
“Is that a yes?”
She stares at me with those big eyes, her cheeks blazing red. She’s flustered and embarrassed but holding her head high, still not giving me an inch. She’s completely unapologetic.
Many months later, I’ll look back on this moment and realize I never had a chance.
I was a goner the second she sat down next to me and smiled.
Shay
This is so not my style, I might have unknowingly been taken over by one of those sex-obsessed aliens Angel was talking about.
Also, I know it’s perverse, but there’s a part of me that’s really enjoying how uncomfortable this conversation is making Cole.
That he’s used to being the one in control is obvious.
That he wants me is also obvious.
What’s not obvious is why he’s holding back. There’s got to be more to it than he’s trying to keep me from making a mistake.
No man is that unselfish. Not when nostrings sex is involved.
He says, “No, it wasn’t a yes. And stop looking at me like I’ve got a hidden motive. It’s very simple: I think you’d regret it.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“You’re emotionally vulnerable. You’ve had a few drinks. Those things never mix well.”
Okay, maybe he is unselfish. Better test him to be sure. “What I’m hearing is that you just don’t have the courage to tell me you’ve got an STD, and it’s flaring.”
He closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and draws a slow, aggravated breath.
Into his bristling silence, I say, “Cole. Please look at me. I want to say something, but I want you to be looking at me when I do.”
When he turns his gaze on me, the air ripples from the heat of it.
My pulse flutters. My mouth goes dry. I have to swallow before I can speak. “Will you please get us a room in this hotel? I would very much like to take this girthy beast under your zipper out for a ride.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, woman,” he mutters, glaring at me in outrage.
“You’re the one who put my hand on your dick. We’re way past the polite chitchat stage.”
He takes my hand off the bulge in his trousers and places it firmly onto my lap.
“Cole, will you—”
“Don’t fucking ask again,” he cuts in, his voice dark.
“Will you please get us a room in this hotel?”
“This is a game to you. Is that it? See how far you can push me before I lose my shit?”
He’s starting to look really angry. I have no idea why, but that gets me even more excited. Chet was never this exciting. He was too busy preening in front of a mirror.
“No. I’m not playing games. I’m dead serious. Here, I’ll prove it to you.”
I lean in to kiss him, but he blocks me by grasping my jaw in his hand and holding my face inches from his.
His eyes blaze. His nostrils flare. Every inch of him bristles. He wants to kiss me so badly, his hands shake. But he won’t let himself do it. He holds himself back with the kind of self-control that would be deeply impressive if it weren’t interfering with me getting what I want.
I’ve never seen a more thrilling specimen of masculinity in my life.
It’s probably all his red flags that are making me so hot. Maybe he’s right about the romance novels.
I say, “It’s not the drinks. It’s not the breakup. It’s not that the batteries in my vibrator died. It’s that you’re protective of me. You want to protect me, and you’re trying to deny yourself something you want because of it. I find that extremely sexy.”