Manaconda(28)

Hunter settled his hand at my lower back, his thumb teasing the dip along the edge of my dress.

Okay, so maybe the spotlight wasn’t so bad.

No.

No. That was the wine talking. And a long stretch of lonely nights.

He played with my zipper. “I’m all for project girlfriend.”

I frowned up at him. “I thought I’d be able to count on you to veto this ridiculous idea.”

Hunter’s dimple winked as his lips tipped up in a smirk. “Why?”

“I can’t believe you’re even asking me that.”

“It’s not a hardship to hang out with you, Kenny. And personally, I could use a break from the constant flow of women.”

“Nice,” I muttered. “Such a hardship.”

He dropped his gaze to my mouth, then back to my eyes. “It gets old when you’re wondering if a woman is chatting you up to get her picture on Instagram, or if she actually wants to talk to you.”

I frowned. Most of my clients were looking for exactly that. They wanted the digital footprint. The fear of becoming irrelevant was as terrifying as aging. I didn’t want to be intrigued by him.

I wanted to shrug him off, but I’d been craving his touch since the tunnels. I had just enough wine in me that I couldn’t even pretend to be unaffected.

“It wouldn’t be a long-lasting relationship. We’d rather just see how it works out with a few of Hunter’s upcoming engagements.” Lila nodded to someone to our left and held up a finger. She smiled at me. “I’ll get his itinerary to you, Kennedy. Now, Dex and I have to go put out another fire.”

I nodded.

I really didn’t know what else to do. I’d screwed up, so now I had to fix my mess. Was it wrong to want to fix it with my panties around my ankles?

Possibly.

Too bad I didn’t really care at the moment.





11





Hunter





I waited for Dex and Lila to move out of earshot before gliding my fingertips up Kenny’s soft skin to tease the ends of her fist-worthy hair. She’d done something with it that made me think of twisted sheets and empty bottles of wine.

She lifted her glass and emptied it. I took it from her and set my bottle and her glass on a passing waiter’s tray. I turned her toward me. “Kenny.”

She wouldn’t look above my chin, a little line puckering between her eyebrows. I toyed with a lock of her hair, and waited her out. Her amber eyes were troubled and just a little lost. She’d played up her eyes so they were dark and smudged. Again, reminding me what the morning after could look like.

What I wanted it to look like.

Her rolling over, messy hair and fuzzy eyes with her unpainted mouth soft from sleep and my kisses. Or from taking me in her mouth. I nearly groaned, unable to stop myself from swiping my thumb along her lush lower lip. The deep wine color was gone, now it was soft and pink—just a few shades deeper than her skin.

Was that the pink I’d find when tasting her nipple?

My dick hardened. Or lower, when I tasted her pussy?

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said hoarsely.

“Like what?”

Her fingers curled around my forearm. “Like that.”

I lowered my head, my nose brushing hers. Her usual orange blossom scent was darker. A hint of spice that lured me closer. Her gaze darted around to the party.

“Kenny.”

Her eyes cut to mine. “Stop calling me that.”

I grinned against her mouth. “Kenny. Kenny…” I nipped her top lip. “By the end of the night, you’ll love it.”

She jerked her head back. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

I laughed. “There’s no doubt we’ll be good. Every time I touch you I get so hard I can’t think about anything but pushing you up against the nearest available surface. I have no doubt that when we finally get naked, it’ll be incredible.”

“When,” she said with a spiked eyebrow.

I dragged her closer. “When.” My knee sliding between her legs. “This dress is a helluva lot more accessible. Did you do that on purpose, Kenny?”

She arched away from me, but her nails dug into my side. I didn’t mind playing the game this first time. She didn’t want to want me. I understood that. I’d made a ton of mistakes in my twenties under the haze of lust and the power of celebrity. I knew the difference now, but a lot of stupid had happened in the interim.

I had a feeling that Kennedy McManus didn’t let herself cut loose too often.

“It doesn’t have to be more than this.”

She frowned at me.

“If you want it to just be a game for the cameras, I’ll abide by that. But if you want more. If you want to see where this will go tonight. To see if this thing between us is more than just a quick storm with some laughs and an orgasm or seven…”