She blushed as memories of her forwardness came flooding back.
"How about you come home with me, Dylan?" she'd asked.
His handsome face had expressed a blend of desire and concern. "Are you sure, Ari?"
She'd placed a flirtatious hand on his arm. "Why not?"
"I'm only looking for some fun, Ari," he'd replied warily.
Dylan's cautious reaction made her more determined to get him to go home with her. No doubt the alcohol was mainly responsible for such brazen behaviour, but more than that, she didn't want to feel like a reject all over again.
"Great. So am I," she'd responded.
Dylan's eyes had flared with heat that had made her heart pound hard in her chest. "I'd love to go home with you tonight, Ari. But are you sure you don't have a problem with just a one-night stand? You're Jasmine's friend and I'm Kane's brother. It could be real awkward if we can't handle it."
"No, I don't have a problem with it. Do you?" she asked breezily.
"Absolutely not."
After hasty goodbyes to their group, they got into a taxi. Dylan's hands were incredibly naughty during their trip to her apartment, creeping way up her thigh and burrowing under her top—at one point, successfully unhooking her bra. She lost count of the times she laughingly swatted a wandering hand away, conscious of the driver watching them from the rear-view mirror. She wondered if taxi drivers were used to having couples make out in the backseat of their cabs.
Their night together had been...amazing. Dylan was incredible and insatiable. So was she—insatiable, that was. Their morning sex had proven that.
Then he was gone.
Was it normal for someone to feel empty and at the same time have unstoppable fluttering butterflies in the stomach after a one-night stand? She hadn't done it before, so she didn't have anything to compare this reaction with.
Oh, well. She wasn't doing herself any favours by dwelling on the feelings swirling within her. Better to get on with her day than re-live her hot night with a hunky guy. There was no point stoking a desire that couldn't possibly be satisfied by the same man again.
*******
"Hello, darling. We've been waiting for you. We've already started dinner, like you told us to."
"Hi, Mum," Dylan said as he enfolded his mother Linda in a warm embrace. "Sorry I'm late. I was at a friend's birthday party and she wouldn't let me leave. I had to wait until she was drunk enough to not notice that I was gone."
"Dylan! Honestly, I don't know why you surround yourself with immature friends. You're already thirty-two, in case you've forgotten. Don't you think it's time to tone down your social activities a little bit? Maybe find someone to settle down with?"
He playfully rolled his eyes at his mother's censuring tone, used to this mini-lecture for being the second-oldest of five siblings and having never taken a girl home to introduce to his parents.
He couldn't help it that he wasn't as romantically inclined as his three brothers and only sister. Wasn't there usually one in every family who went the opposite way from everyone else? It didn't bother him in the least that, in his family's case, he was the odd one out—the one who didn't want to settle down in a permanent relationship.
"Mum, you know I'm your black sheep," he said, putting an arm around Linda as they walked to the dining room. "But you have to admit that my social life is the only thing you could complain about. In every other way, I'm the perfect son," he joked, giving his mother a kiss on her forehead.
"I complain about some of your friends and I complain that you don't want a steady girlfriend. So that's two things I'm not happy with, not just one," Linda retorted.
"Aww, but you love me anyway."
This time his mother rolled her eyes at him. But she had a resigned smile on her face.
"Hello all!" he said to everyone squeezed around his parents' big dining table. He went around to give the women a kiss on the cheek and the men a pat on the shoulder. Everyone was there: his parents, his sister Faye and her fiancé Ray, his twin brothers Riley and Bradley and their girlfriends, and his older brother Kane and his girlfriend Jasmine.
Seeing Jasmine brought back memories of the night he'd had with a beautiful, chestnut-haired woman with expressive brown eyes. Phew, last night was easily one of the most incredible nights he'd ever had. Just thinking about it made him hot and bothered. If Ari Mitchell wasn't Jasmine's friend, he wouldn't think twice about propositioning her for another tumble or two.
But experience had taught him he couldn't remain friends with girls he'd had sex with for more than one night. For whatever reason, his track record was quite consistent: he didn't have problems developing friendships with women he'd had one-night stands with, but once it went beyond the one time, maintaining the friendship became difficult. So a repeat of last night with Ari was not in the cards, not if they would have to continue being friendly with each other because of Kane and Jasmine.