“I know a lot of six-year-old guys.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“I do get to eat a lot of birthday cake. So you knew a guy in real estate?”
“I knew a couple of guys. But enough about me.”
Right. It’s just one night. I don’t need to know where he works.
“You want to tell me why you felt the need to get drunk tonight?”
“Um…”
“Something to do with that lame ex who never took you to bars?”
“Something to do with that. Yeah. We just broke up.” I sigh. “I ate expired pasta and cookies all weekend. And I even had food that wasn’t expired, which was weird.”
“Livin’ on the edge, huh?”
“Guess so.”
“Feel good?”
“Almost.”
“You should feel really good. We’ll have to see what I can do about that.” He winks at me, and I bet if someone asked me to recite the alphabet right now, I wouldn’t be able to. “You want to forget about your ex, Nina?”
I cover my face with my hands. Thinking about myself and my ex and my intentions for getting drunk is making me feel insecure all of a sudden. I don’t know what I’m doing here.
“Hey.”
I feel his fingertip slowly trace a trail from the V between my index and middle fingers, down the back of my hand, to my wrist, along the scalloped-edge cuff of my blouse. It sends shockwaves through my body as if his finger is touching me somewhere else entirely. I spread my fingers apart so I can peek through them. Who are you? How did you do that? What are you doing to me?
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he says. “You don’t have to think about anything you don’t want to think about right now.”
I let my hands fall from my face, and he takes my right hand in both of his, holding it gently with his big, slightly rough, very capable hands. My left hand, shockingly, rests just above one of his knees.
I can feel him coaxing some hidden stray cat part of myself out of the shadows. He doesn’t make me feel safe so much as he makes me want to know what it feels like to not care about anything other than what he has to offer. I can see it in his eyes—he registers the exact moment that I’ve decided to sleep with him, even as I’m still processing it myself.
Here’s a guy who knows more about the secret nooks and curves of my body than I do.
I have no idea how a one-night stand works, but I am one hundred percent sure that he does, and I will follow his lead. His face is so close to mine. I am staring at his mouth and biting my lower lip. Un, deux, trois…fuck…
“So…what do you do after taking a lady you just met at the liquor store to a bar for a blue drink?”
He licks his lips and looks so earnest as he says, “I can’t wait to show you.”
I tilt my head up the tiniest bit.
When his lips touch mine, I ease into him and this new person that I’m becoming with such a graceful force that it feels like the only stranger here now…is the girl I used to be.
3
Vince
For the past half hour, this totally unfamiliar voice in my head has been saying: “Don’t do this. You actually like this girl. Do not do this.” Every so often I try to figure out what the fuck that voice is talking about. But now that I’m kissing Nina, I realize that a) I do actually like this girl, b) she is hotter than I thought she would be, and c) I am definitely doing this.
Her sweet lips are so gentle and receptive at first, but once my tongue starts exploring that mouth, I feel her whole body relax for a few seconds before suddenly shifting gears. She leans into me, moaning softly, grabbing on to my T-shirt with one hand and my face with the other. There’s a hunger there. Something inside her that she’s kept locked up for a long time. Something that I am going to help her release.
My suspicions have been confirmed—this is a woman who hasn’t been kissed properly in years. Maybe ever. The fact that she’s responding to me in this way is a bigger turn-on than I was expecting. I’m going to have to slow things down. Stay in control.
When she starts sucking on my tongue, I get such a rush of blood to my dick, I have to pull away from her. Her long, pretty lashes flutter, and then her eyes go wide. She’s remembering where she is. Realizing what she’s doing, that she barely knows me. She releases my face and shirt, covering her mouth and turning away from me.
She keeps opening and closing like some flower that isn’t used to feeling the sun shine on her. I like it. I want to be the one who opens her up.
She blushes, shaking her head. “I’m not usually like this.”
“Maybe you should be.”
She gives me a sideways glance that makes me regret saying that. Her body language is telling me she’s closing off again. So much for slowing things down. I wouldn’t mind talking to her more, but it’s either going to have to be stop or go-hard-and-fast-before-she-changes-her-mind with this one.
“Hey.” I touch the tips of my fingers to her chin to get her to face me. “Whatever you’re like—I like it.”
The corners of her lips curl upwards. “You are very convincing, Vince.” She pokes at my chest. “I think you’re trying to corrupt me.”
“Filthy as charged, ma’am.” I lean in, kissing her cheek, her jaw, nibbling on her lower lip and then licking it. “Nina,” I whisper.
It takes her a moment before she can say, “Yes?”
“Let’s get out of here.”
Her eyes are closed, and she’s swaying like she’s in a trance. “Already?”
My mouth hovers near her ear. “There are a lot of things I want to do with you, and I’d rather not do them in this booth.” She smells so fucking good, and honestly, I don’t much care where we are, but I push her hair to the side because I want to make damn sure she hears this: “I think we should go to your place. I want to make you come like you’ve never come before.”
Before she can think, before she can catch her breath, I cup my hand to the back of her head and pull her in for a deep kiss. She makes a little high-pitched sound that’s so cute. I’ve caught her off guard, but she’s mine again. For the night. I can feel it. She angles her whole body toward me, even though I think she’s sitting on her hands to stop herself from grabbing me. That restraint is showing me just how much she’s holding back, and fucking hell, I want her to give it to me—all of it.
The palm of my hand barely grazes the hard nipples that have been pressing up against the thin little bra under her white blouse. That lacy white bra has been taunting me ever since I walked into the liquor store. I trace my fingertip along her collarbone and down to the top button that’s just above her cleavage.
She bites my lower lip. Not hard but not gently either.
Well hello there, naughty girl. Come out and play with me tonight.
When I look down at her, I see her smiling. Her eyes are all lit up, and she’s looking right back at me as she keeps on kissing me.
“I think you just did,” she says on an exhale.