Innocence Burned(7)

I turned and met his intense gaze again. Those vibrant blue eyes mesmerized me as much inside as they did outside. “Thank you.”

“You were going to tell me your name.”

I focused on his full mouth and imagined all the decadent things he could do to my body with those gorgeous lips. And the marks he’d leave with the stubble on his cheeks and chin. I barely bit back a moan as the heated thoughts swept through me. This is not where my head was supposed to be. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life tomorrow let alone what I was going to do with a badass tonight.

“Isabella.” The minute the word left my mouth I wanted to recall it. Shit. “Although I prefer Izzy.” I amended quickly, repeating the long forgotten nickname in my head a few times. Yeah. That sounded much better.

“I can work with that.” He grabbed my hand and covered it with his much larger one. “Houston,” he returned.

“What?” I couldn’t think with his hand touching me, rubbing his thumb back and forth along the side of my hand.

“Name’s Houston. And you’re Izzy,” he repeated.

The way my new name rolled off his tongue and sizzled across my skin made my nerve endings light up as more heat flared between my legs. I didn’t think a stranger was supposed to have this kind of an effect on me.

We stared at each other as the waitress dropped off two beers and four shots of tequila, complete with a bowl of cut limes and a shaker of salt.

“I guess if we’re going to do it, we should do it right.”

He continued to stare at me as if he saw straight through to my soul. And judging by the devilish smile on his face, the double meaning of my words did not go unnoticed.

Two shots later I slammed the glass down on the table, shoved the lime in between my lips and sucked hard. For a few intense seconds the alcohol burned before giving way to the heat I savored. I peered up at my mystery badass and studied him. He’d removed his leather jacket and there were interesting tattoos peeking from his shirt sleeves. Interesting as in I wanted to know what they were and if I could lick them.

He met my gaze. Houston knew exactly what was going on in my brain. That little smirky smile had returned, leaving him looking quite pleased.

“Here, chase it with this.” He handed me one of the beers and I dropped the lime onto my napkin.

At least while I drank I didn’t have to figure out what to say next. And the ice-cold brew felt great after the burn of tequila.

“You hungry? We could order some food.”

I shook my head. There had been no time to eat since breakfast, but the thought of food right now did not make my stomach feel great. My body was still processing the stress of the day. And for some stupid reason I couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than him and whether or not he would touch me again. Or kiss me. Or…

I must have been giving off some kind of weird vibe because he paused with his beer at his mouth and studied me for a second. “You okay?”

“Yes,” I answered out of breath.

“You don’t drink much do you?”

I went with his excuse and shook my head. He didn’t need to know I was crashing and all I wanted to do was climb all over him and just—

Shit. My body has a mind of its own and it was losing it.

“C’mere.” He dragged my chair away from the table and pulled me into his lap. “You need to take a breath and relax.”

That wasn’t possible with his hands on me, he was making it worse. “I—I can’t—” The sensations of his touch were on the verge of starting a firestorm right there in my panties and it was beginning to rival the nice buzz going in my head.

I needed to do something to distract myself. “Are you from around here?”

“Close enough. A couple of hours northeast,” he said, stroking his hand up and down my back.

“What brought you to the city?” I hated the breathless tone of my voice. Could I possibly appear more unsophisticated? If I was going to make it on the run I needed to get my shit together. Tonight would be my first night as someone new though and I was free to do whatever the hell I wanted. If that happened to be a one-night stand with a sexy, strong badass then I’d embrace it and not feel bad about it for a second.

“Change of scenery,” he whispered at my ear. “I just got on my bike and rode. This is where I landed. You?”

A bike? A shiver worked up my spine. His level of badass continued to increase by the second.

“Born and raised. But thinking of taking a nice long vacation as far away as I can get. Have a little fun.”

His hand paused on my back for a second before he continued his easy strokes. He might have taken that last statement the wrong way and then again, he might not have. Why couldn’t I take a night for fun? No one would look for me here.