“Yes, in just a minute,” Cora said. She’d found a man with a shaved head who’d eaten a candy off her bracelet and had decided to sign her ample cleavage instead of her arm as the instructions had indicated.
I said my goodbyes and slipped out of the bar.
Once on the street, I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t particularly close to those people, and I’d always had a hard time partaking in small talk. Once you asked someone what they did for a living and where they lived, what else were you supposed to ask? There was nowhere for the conversation to go. I was a lot more comfortable in small groups, where people were a little more open.
The city was pulsing with life as people ducked into bars and strolled down the sidewalk, enjoying the late spring night. In fact, the street was so crowded, that at first I didn’t realize someone was walking right next to me. I quickened my stride, but he matched his to mine. I glanced over, annoyed, expecting to see a homeless person, or perhaps a drunken bargoer who would try to engage me in conversation.
My stomach flipped and my heart jumped into my throat. It was the stranger from the bar. Mr. X.
“Hello,” he said. His voice was smooth, but there was a huskiness to it that I didn’t remember hearing before.
“Hi,” I said. I swallowed. Part of me was unnerved and a little scared. Obviously this man had waited outside the bar for me to leave. The other part of me was filled with excitement.
“Didn’t feel like continuing the party?” Mr. X asked me cheerfully.
“No. I, um, have to be up early tomorrow.”
“On a Saturday?” He seemed surprised by this, which didn’t make much sense. With the way he was dressed, I just assumed he was another lawyer or perhaps worked in finance. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the fact that I had to be up early on a Saturday.
“Yes.”
My original plan had been to grab a cab and take it back to my apartment. My little studio was fifteen blocks away, and I wasn’t in the mood to walk that far, even though the night was warm. My feet were killing me from the heels I was wearing. But now that this man was beside me, I didn’t want our time together to end. I was willing to keep walking if it meant we could continue our conversation.
We turned the corner onto a side street, and the crowd began to thin out. There were no bars or restaurants in this area, and most of the retail stores were closed.
A second later, the man grabbed my hand and pulled me into a space between the buildings.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he pushed his body up against mine. I reached out and tried to push him away, but he was too strong, his chest rock solid. My nerve endings were on fire, every sense on high alert as I breathed in his scent, a heady mix of alcohol and cologne.
He didn’t answer, just gave me a devilish grin before taking a few steps back. “If you want to go, go.” His tone made it clear that he knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
My breath was coming in short gasps.
He licked his lips slowly and then his gaze traveled up my body, like he was trying to decide just exactly what to do with me.
He didn’t move for what seemed like an agonizingly long time. We just stood there, our gazes locked on each other. He was biding his time, I could tell, waiting for me to leave, waiting for me to decide I couldn’t handle whatever it was he was about to do to me. My head was screaming at me to move, to run, to get away. My body was screaming the opposite. So I stood my ground. And finally, after what seemed like forever, he took a step back toward me.
He grabbed my shoulders and ran his hands down my arms and over the X he’d drawn there earlier. He smiled in satisfaction at his branding before raising his eyes back up to meet my gaze.
“Right now,” he rasped. “You are mine.”
And then his lips were on mine. The kiss was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. He tasted like mint and alcohol. His lips were soft but his skin had a rough stubble, and the difference in sensations sent a burst of heat through my whole being. My nipples tightened as he pushed his body up against mine, his tongue probing my mouth.
He broke away, then reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling my right arm up over my head. He repeated this maneuver with my left arm, until both my hands were above my head and up against the wall of the building behind me.
He held me there with one hand, and used his other hand to pull down the top of my dress, then grinned devilishly as he yanked my bra down. My nipples tightened even more as the cold air hit my skin, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
Part of me knew this was wrong, and my brain screamed at me to tell him to stop, to run, to get out of there. But my body was on fire. I had never wanted someone as much as I wanted this man, right now, in this moment.