I gritted my teeth. “Why are you being this way? It’s just a job.”
He stiffened. “You don’t belong in a nightclub, Savvy.”
I hadn’t seen him in eleven years. He had no idea where I did or didn’t belong. “Whether I do or don’t, that’s my choice, Killian.” I hardened my tone. “I like it here. And I like the other girls.”
“I’m glad. But it’s still no.”
Shit. I was nervous about working at the other clubs. I didn’t know the owners or the rules, and the club district wasn’t the safest. But I might not have a choice. “I didn’t realize you had such a strong dislike for me, Killian.” I started for the door. “I’ll find another club.”
“You’re not working in another club either.”
I froze.
He strode toward me, and I inched back until my heels banged into the wall. When he was a foot away, he stopped, but it was close enough that his scent drifted into me and my belly whooshed.
I hadn’t had many people in my life tell me what I could and couldn’t do. And Killian saying I couldn’t work at any nightclub… that pissed me off. “If I can’t work here, I am.”
“Like hell.”
His expression was angry again, eyes dark, jaw clamped and even though he was scary looking, he was still sexy, and that softened the scariness—mildly.
“You don’t have a say.”
“You’re not dancing in a nightclub, orchid.”
I stiffened as a red flare went off inside me. “Don’t call me that.”
“You’re orchid to me. Always have been. That shit doesn’t change.”
“Well, I want it known that I don’t like the name.”
He had the nerve to grin. Grin. The heart-melting grin that turned me into a puddle of goo. “I know you liked it then and you like it now. You’re flustered and have that pink glow to your cheeks. It makes your freckles stick out.”
I did, and it infuriated me that I loved that he had a nickname for me that no one else called me. But no way was I admitting that. Killian had enough confidence to scale Mount Everest without knowing I liked his nickname.
He stepped closer, and I held my breath knowing if I inhaled, my breasts would brush against his chest.
From the twitch of his lips, the spark in his eyes, he knew exactly what I felt when my breasts brushed his. If he tilted his head down, he’d see my erect nipples pressed into my tight black sparkled top. He’d also see the goose bumps that had popped up on every inch of my body.
I was praying he couldn’t hear my heart thumping like crazy or see my pulse throbbing in my neck.
He did. “You okay, Savvy? You look a little… rattled.”
There was the urge to tell him to go fuck himself, but it wouldn’t help my case at all, and I rarely said anything so mean. “I’m fine. But I’ve been sweating for the last four hours. Need a shower and would like to go home.” I paused then added, “With a job.”
He growled low in his throat, the amused grin fading. “You know I can’t do that.”
I crossed my arms so at least his chest hit them instead of my breasts. “I don’t know. All I’ve heard is no without reason. You even said I looked good out there. Why won’t you let me dance here?”
“Jesus,” he muttered as he turned away, took two steps and then came back. This time he didn’t stop a foot away. This time he kept coming until he pressed against me. Until I had every inch of his delicious rock-hard body against mine and his hand fisted in my hair at the back of my neck.
Oh, God.
“This is why, orchid,” he said, just before his mouth slammed onto mine. My head would’ve hit the wall with the force of his kiss if he hadn’t been holding my head.
Any thought of resisting eradicated as his mouth claimed mine, roaming, searching and reigniting something that had been sampled but not fully discovered eleven years ago.
His grip on my hair tightened almost painfully, and I moaned into his mouth. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I did.
Killian’s solid thigh gently eased mine apart, and he pressed it against my sex.
Holy shit.
This wasn’t a boy kissing me for the first time. He was all man, and there was no question he controlled everything about it.
Come to think of it, he had then too, but back then I had nothing to compare his kiss to. Now I did, and no man had ever kissed me like this.
I sagged into him, hands on his chest, fingers curling into his tailored shirt. His hand slid down my side, one rib at a time until it settled on my waist, fingers tight as if to let me know that I wasn’t moving until he said so.
His swollen cock pushed up against my belly, and a parade of heated sparks danced across my skin.
Oh, God, I wanted him inside me.
I wanted to feel every inch of him.
Have him call me orchid as he thrust into me again and again and then watch his face as he came. And then I wanted to memorize every inch of his body. Trace his tattoos with the tips of my fingers. Put my mouth around his cock and…
Christ. What was I thinking?
He was distracting me from what I really needed, and that was a job dancing. A job I was desperate for as I really didn’t want to wait tables for shitty tips at an all-night diner like my mom.
But it was Killian who ended the kiss first.
“That’s why,” he stated, then spun on his heel, walked to the door and opened it. But it wasn’t Greg standing there; it was Luke, the guy who almost threw me out of the concert. “Luke,” Killian nodded. “Everyone still here?”
“In the lounge.”
“Do you mind taking Miss Grady home?”
“Wait. What?” I stammered, still flustered from the kiss and trying to wrap my head around the fact that Killian just kissed me. “We haven’t discussed this.”
“We just did.” He nodded to Luke who looked at me, eyes flicking to my mouth that was no doubt red and swollen.
“We didn’t,” I shot back. “You said no then kissed me.”
Luke cleared his throat but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah. We did,” Killian repeated.