“What about you?” He asks me, lifting his glass.
“What about me?” I counter, feeling playful. I take a quick sip of the wine and, holy shit, it’s the nicest wine I’ve ever had. It tastes more like grapes than the grapes themselves.
“Where have you come from?”
“Work,” I state simply and he smiles. It’s a gorgeous smile, one that exposes his perfect white teeth and sends my heart beating in all kinds of stupid directions.
“I see. You want to keep this on a strict ‘need to know’ basis.”
“It’d be awfully silly of me to tell a stranger everything about me—including where I work. Besides, after tonight, do you really think we’ll run into each other again?”
He shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. At least tell me your name so I know who I’m sharing my wine with.”
A simple question, really. “Alix—with an ‘I’ not an ‘E’.”
“Interesting.” He extends his large hand to me. “I’m Jesse.”
I pinch my thighs together. Of course his name is Jesse! Suddenly my hopes are extremely high. They wouldn’t be if I’d never read the This Man trilogy. As if this Jesse could ever fill those shoes. I slip my hand into his and the grip he holds me with almost sucks the air from my lungs. Naturally, I imagine the same grip on other parts of my body, maybe in my hair—or on my ass. His hand is rough and big, so big it almost swallows mine and with that, I’m sick of being down here at the bar. I’m ready to be upstairs or anywhere he can take me and show me exactly how to handle a woman. I can barely contain my excitement. I’m practically bursting at the seams. If this were a romance novel, he’d say something freakishly sexy right about now and I’d blush.
“It’s getting late.”
I nod. Wait for it. “Yep.”
I wait a few seconds more. Nothing. Oh, fuck it. I don’t have the patience to wait for someone else to do the work.
“What do you say we take this wine somewhere else, somewhere… private.”
His lips curl into a mischievous smirk and it sets fire to my blood. “You won’t tell me where you work, but you want to be alone with me? That’s not very safe.”
I lean closer and reach out for his hand. I let the very tips of my fingers dance along the back of his hand. Electric pulses flow from his skin and vibrate up my arm. My lips part as energy surges through me and I slowly pull his hand to my lap.
“With your skin on mine, being safe is the last thing on my mind.” I uncross my legs and slide his hand further up my thigh, until it brushes past my incomplete pantyhose and on to the bare skin on my thigh. Jesse’s chocolate brown irises flare dangerously close to mine, his breath heating my face as he searches for an explanation to my sudden forwardness. Little does he know, I’ve wanted to jump him from the second he entered the room and, as I said, I’m not beneath going for what I want.
As if someone doused Jesse in cold water, his eyes widen and he yanks his hand back before glancing awkwardly around the room.
This asshole.
“Let me guess, you’re married?” I ask, scooping up my glass and slamming back the wine. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve flirted with someone who’s supposed to be taken.
“No.”
I peer at him and watch as he straightens his charcoal tie.
“Girlfriend?”
“No.”
Then what’s his problem? I’m offering sex and it’s not like he has to pay for it. Most men find my body appealing. While I’m not skinny, I’m not full figured either. My body is the perfect combination of soft, firm and perky. Honestly, I feel as good as I did when I was twenty-one so why did he pull his hand away like he felt a monster dick between my legs?
“Discretion is very important to me.” he says, clearing his throat. “Public displays aren’t something I’m into.”
I find myself smirking at him and he frowns, confused that I don’t share the same point of view. I lean in close again until the smell of his expensive cologne engulfs me once more.
“There are people watching… and it doesn’t excite you?”
“Should it?”
I shrug, letting my finger trail along his firm, strong thigh. Underneath my fingertip, his muscles tighten and I imagine the same reaction when I finally get to run my tongue over every inch of his long, thick body. “To some it’s thrilling.” To me it’s thrilling. “The thought of touching something everyone else in the room wants…”
I glance over his shoulder at the tiny blonde in the corner of the room who’s glaring in our direction. To spite her, I angle my head and plant a small, soft kiss against his jaw line. I bite my lip against a shudder as his slight stubble scratches my sensitive skin. I need to feel it between my thighs. “Do you have a room?”