The Dirty Series 1(76)

“Are you staking me out, old buddy?”

He gives me a sidelong look. “Did the international flight sap you of all your intelligence?”

I roll my eyes. Of course he knows where I’m staying, even without me giving him the address. It’s all too easy for me to forget that his experience in intelligence and security far outstrips my idiot royal sensibilities. “No. But a woman might have.”

He raises his eyebrows. “We’ve only been here three nights. You’ve already found the love of your life?”

“She’s not the love of my life, Nate, for God’s sake. She’s just…” What was she? The buzz I got from my drinks has already worn off, and I’m left with a throbbing need to see her again.

Despite the fact that soon—likely in two weeks, if Nate has his way—I’ll be going back to Saintland, never to see her again, and despite her insistence on not exchanging any information beyond first names, there’s something about her that’s sunk its claws deep into my…heart. Yes, that’s it.

“She’s a tigress?”

Back in our school days, Nate and I referred to our hottest dates as tigresses—full of spirit and deadly if you messed with them. Looking back, every other women I’ve been with is a kitten compared to Jessica.

I flash Nate a smile, giving him a nod. “She’s a tigress.”

“Are you seeing her again?”

“You know as well as I do that it would be a fool’s errand.” Nate doesn’t know all the details about what happened between Jessica and me, but he knows as well as I do that whatever there might be between us, it has to stay on this side of the Atlantic.

“Don’t be coy with me, your highness. I can tell you’re thinking about it.”

“Shut your mouth.” I temper the words with a sheepish smile.

Because the bastard is right.



I resist messaging her for one more day. By Monday morning, I can’t stop myself.

I pull out my phone, open the app, and type a message to Jessica asking her to meet me again. Friday was too much fun, I write.

Who doesn’t like to tempt fate?

To my immense shock, Jessica agrees to meet me the next night, and it doesn’t take me long to realize that my first impression of her last Friday night wasn’t a fluke. When I turn from where I’ve been waiting by the bar and see her walk through the door, heading straight for me, a shock wave jolts through me, wiping all the smooth opening lines I had come up with out of my mind.

Jessica doesn’t waste a single second. As soon as she reaches me, she’s pulling me down to her and kissing me with such heat that the bartender whistles. “Hey, lovebirds, get a room!” he shouts over the blaring music. Without breaking the kiss, I show him my middle finger and the man bursts out laughing. “At least buy some drinks, man.”

That’s where we start.

Once again, we end up in my apartment, all over each other, ravenous, insatiable, the pile of condom wrappers by the bed growing higher as the night passes by.

Just before she leaves, we fuck one more time, Jessica on top, gyrating her hips so skillfully it’s all I can do not to come within the first thirty seconds. I reach up to tweak her nipples, causing her to cry out and dig her fingernails into my chest, rocking her hips even faster, harder against my cock.

As I explode my release deep inside her, my vision blurring with its intensity, I try to burn the memory of Jessica, her rhythmic movement, her luscious curves, her intoxicating beauty into my mind, just in case this is the last chance I get to be with her.

I’m so screwed.





Chapter Nine





Jessica



I’m in way over my head.

Wednesday and Thursday at work are exercises in torture. I spent Tuesday night with Alec because I just can’t resist a situation that’s sure to backfire.

You don’t even know him, my rational half says.

I know all I need to know about him, the hopeless romantic half fires back.

I can’t deny it. Something exists between us that’s so compatible, so unbelievably in-sync, that I know what we have is one-of-a-kind.

But I know, I know, that it’s lust. I can’t betray the promises I’ve made to myself based only on desire.

Or can I?

No, I tell myself firmly. Unless he’s going to prove to you that he wants more out of this, don’t get swept away. Don’t give him the upper hand. Stay in control, Jessica.

In the office, I can hardly concentrate on the projects I’m supposed to be managing because I’m caught in an endless internal argument.

He did prove it. He messaged you back.

That was because the sex was incredible.

So what? He had to see you again. Couldn’t live without you.