It was too much for her to deal with at the moment. Shaky, she whispered quickly, “Would you excuse me?” and scooted herself away from the table.
In her hurry, her arm pressed against his, and the jolt of electricity made her move even faster. She rushed toward the bathroom, feeling his eyes still on her. The areas of her arm that had touched his sizzled with feeling, and some of the heat emanating off him seemed to have lodged itself firmly in her stomach.
She had loved Russ, but in a calm and comfortable way, like a good friend. Nothing she’d ever experienced had felt anything like this. This was something so new and terrifying that she didn’t know what to make of it.
In the restroom was a small sitting area with a bench. She flopped herself down on it and dropped her head to her knees, breathing in deeply, trying to get control of herself. How was she going to get through the evening around Aaron? All she wanted to do was rip off his shirt and press herself against his bare chest, but she just couldn’t do it. The only other alternative was to stay as far away from him as possible, but it didn’t seem that he’d let that happen, based on how he magically ended up sitting next to her for dinner.
She spent a few minutes sitting there until her heart had slowed, then looked in the mirror and steeled herself for the evening, reminding her reflection to behave like an adult, like the cool sexy woman she appeared to be, and not allow some guy to get her so flustered.
Then she walked briskly out the door, turning sharply toward the dining area.
And walked smack into Aaron.
Jessica bounced off his chest and would have fallen to the floor, except that his arms curled around her to catch her. She regained her balance, but his arms stayed wrapped around her body. Her stilettos made her so tall that they were eye-to-eye. Everything she’d done to gain control immediately fell apart as she felt his arms wrapped around her, saving her. She could see the shock on his face, but his eyes only showed longing. For her.
“Whoa! I was just waiting to make sure you were okay. You’d been gone awhile and—”
His husky voice and arms around her made the last of her logic and fear crumble. Without thinking about what she was doing, she leaned forward and sealed her mouth to his, cutting off the spill of words. There was a moment of stillness as he realized what was happening, and then his hands slid up her back into her hair, leaving trails of sensation in their wake.
His right hand moved forward, cupping her jaw as he deepened the kiss, his tongue slipping inside her mouth, exploring her. Her arm wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself against his body. The eagerness with which he responded, the swelling she felt against her hip, only drove her desire over the edge, clouding her mind. If he hadn’t been holding her so tightly, her legs would have given out beneath her.
Then the sound of a cell phone started, shrill and insistent, cutting through the moment.
They broke apart, and Aaron grumbled deep in his throat as he pulled the phone out of his pocket, one arm still wrapped around her. “Jeremiah,” he muttered, and she couldn’t help smiling at the tone of his voice, as if he would kill his friend if he got the chance.
She noticed that he was still holding her tight to his chest, but she couldn’t find it in her to move away.
He answered, glaring daggers at the device, “Jeremiah? Yeah, do whatever you want. I’ll message you later if I want to meet up, but if you don’t hear from me, don’t call.”
She could hear Jeremiah laughing on the other end of the phone, and flushed, embarrassed, as she realized what Aaron had implied. Was she going to be another conquest by this rugged man who clearly had several notches in his belt?
Was that a bad thing? All she knew was that being so close to him, breathing him in, electrified her. Her mind was still fuzzy from the kiss.
He shoved the phone back into his pocket and looked at her, their faces just inches from each other. Neither had let go of the other. “Jeremiah and Marilyn are taking off. I don’t know what his excuse was, something about walking around the art collection or something. They’ll catch up with your friends later. Nobody’s ordered food yet, but they decided they weren’t hungry or something. What about you?”
The question hung between them, asking about so much more than food. She couldn’t eat now if her life depended on it, but she couldn’t just leave, could she? She was intoxicated with this man holding her so close, and there was nothing to hold her back if this was what she wanted. After a short pause, she decided to be impulsive for once.
“I’m not hungry. I’ll text Cindy and let her know I’m going up to my room. She won’t mind.”
She turned her attention to her handbag, grabbing her phone and quickly sending a garbled text to that effect. She could feel him staring at her the entire time, and hardly knew what she was writing, so long as it was quick and meant she could disappear with this man. When she had finished, she looked back into his eyes, her breath catching in her throat.
She wanted to taste his lips again but had gotten enough of her mind back to realize that making out in the restroom hallway of a busy restaurant was probably not the best idea. To punctuate that thought, a woman skirted uncomfortably around them, heading toward the bathroom.
Jessica finally pulled away from him, realizing as she did so that her top had gone askew during their embrace, leaving one of her breasts exposed. She flushed and fixed herself hurriedly, suddenly feeling her modesty and embarrassment return now that she wasn’t quite so close to him.
She looked up at his face. Aaron’s eyes were staring directly at her cleavage. He had definitely noticed the clothing mishap. She flushed an even deeper red and almost changed her mind about the whole thing, but then he spoke, his voice had an even deeper huskiness than before. “You’re staying at this hotel, right?”
It sent thrills through her, and she could only answer with a “Yes.”
She waited, unsure of herself. Kissing him had made her blood rise and the bottom drop out of her stomach. It was something she’d never felt before and longed to feel again, but she wasn’t sure how to recreate the moment.
He seemed to sense her uncertainty. “Should we—”
He paused, clearly waiting for her to fill in the gap, to make a decision. She looked at his eyes again and threw caution and inhibition out the window. “Let’s go,” she said softly, stepping in to brush her lips against his once more, to remind herself why she was making this decision, more than anything else.
Her mouth paused against his for just a moment as his tongue flicked lightly against hers, and then she grabbed his hand and, on shaky legs, began leading him away from the restaurant. If she didn’t get somewhere private quickly, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to control herself any longer. His fingers threaded with hers, and each point of contact felt alive with intensity. She wanted to feel that all over her body, and didn’t want to resist that urge for any longer than she needed to.
Even if it was just one night, she had to have him. Had to feel what it would be like to sleep with this man she barely knew, but who her body reached out for with such desperation, the way a person lost in the desert would reach for a glass of water. Her mind was still arguing against it, telling her that it wasn’t a logical choice, but the voice in her head had gotten so faint and overwhelmed by her firing nerves that it was barely heard, easily dismissed.
Somehow she made it to the elevator with him in tow without falling or wrapping herself around him in the middle of the casino floor. As soon as the doors slid shut and the elevator began its ascent to her floor, they flung themselves at each other again.
As she kissed him, deeply and hungrily, his hand found its way along her stomach, then slid around to the small of her back, the friction of his hand against the material of her dress increasing her body’s tension. Her skin was so sensitive that every movement caused tremors of excitement to flow through her. She could feel that his body was rock hard against her, and his pants were barely up to the challenge of holding him back.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, but as she began to pull away to exit, the arm wrapped around her waist tightened and held her against him, her feet hovering above the floor, his lips still on her. He had lifted her enough so he could kiss along her jawline and her neck, and stepped off the elevator with her in his arms, making her feel as though tiny explosions were going off in her brain.
“What room?” he growled into her neck, letting loose waves of electricity in the spots warmed by his breath.
A tingle went down her spine as she heard the complete abandon in his voice. He wasn’t in control of himself, and she had the feeling it wasn’t something that happened to him very often. She liked it.
She looked around wildly for a second, desperate to find her room. She finally realized which door it was and pointed. He let her feet hit the floor, and she pulled him along toward the door. As she turned toward the door, grabbing randomly through her bag for the key card, he stood behind her, pressing himself against her, his hand rubbing against her stomach as his perfect teeth nibbled on one ear.
After what felt like ages, she found the card and managed to slide it home. Finally they were in the room together and the door closed behind them. Before she had even a second to think, she was pressed against the door, his lips once again on hers. The kiss was long and deep, and the feel of his tongue plundering her mouth, then his teeth biting lightly at her bottom lip, silenced any last appeals from her voice of reason.