He reached for her hand and linked his fingers with hers. “Whatever those numbers are, they look really good on you.”
Olivia shrugged. “They are what they are right now.”
Unable to resist, he pulled her hand toward his mouth and kissed each knuckle. “What they are, is spectacular. If you came back to my room with me tonight, I’d spend what’s left of the darkest hours showing you just how incredible you are.”
Olivia laughed as if he’d just made a joke and slipped her fingers out of his. “Nice try, but no.” She picked up the bottle of gin and placed it back onto the rack.
It had been an easy line, meant to bring her smile back. But as he watched her ass as she bent over to grab a cloth that had been dropped on the floor, he realized he really meant it.
“Olivia, look at me.” When she did, a thrill trickled through him. She looked up at him from beneath long eyelashes, her mouth ever so slightly parted. Yeah, she was coming home with him. “I’m serious. You could be my Christmas present. It’s one night. We live thousands of miles away from each other. But tonight. One night. It would be magic.”
A puzzled look flitted across her face. “I don’t need you to feel sorry for me.”
Anders stood and walked around the bar, his eyes never leaving her. She attempted to turn as he stepped behind her, but he crowded her, taking a hand in each of his and placing them on the bar in front of her. “Leave your hands on there,” he said. “If they’re on there, you’re saying yes. Remove them and I stop.”
Olivia gasped, the soft sound caught in the back of her throat. “Anders,” she whispered.
He pressed himself up behind, and gently moved her hair from one shoulder until her neck was exposed to him. The light floral scent of her teased him as he leaned forward to drag his nose along the length of her neck. Her skin was soft, smooth. Anders pressed his lips to the spot just behind her ear then flicked his tongue across her skin, repeating the action as he moved toward her shoulder.
His hands made a trail of their own, skimming her waist, wrapping around her hips, pulling her back into his hardening length.
Olivia’s knees buckled for a moment, and he held her until she found her feet again.
Firmly, he stroked his hands up her stomach until he cupped her breasts, one in each hand, savoring the weight of them, the heat of them. Slowly, he ran his thumbs over the nipples he could feel hardening beneath the silk.
With one hand, he reached for her chin, turning her face so he could just reach her lips. She looked wonderfully drunk on his ministrations, and it became imperative that he got tonight with her.
“Please, Olivia, let me unwrap you,” he said, brushing his lips across hers without properly kissing her. He wanted her desperate for him, desperate for what he could give her.
As if answering his silent prayer, she pressed back against him, rocking her ass against his dick. He groaned and slid his hand down the front of her dress until he was cupping her as much as the fabric of the dress would allow. Olivia pushed against his hand, straining. “I can feel you, Olivia. I can feel your heat, and your need. Trust me with it.”
He’d beg if he had to.
“Anders, this isn’t me,” she gasped. “This isn’t what I do with men I don’t know.”
“Let it be. Just for tonight. Take your hands off the bar and face me.” He needed to see her face, he needed her to see what she was doing to him as much as he was doing to her.
Olivia did what he asked, her eyes filled with need. He cupped her face and kissed her fully, with everything he felt between the two of them. The inexplicable chemistry that he wanted to explore. Her hands sunk into his hair, as they clung to each other.
When he pulled back, her eyes were full of lust.
“Promise you’ll take care of me, Anders.”
2
Anders took her hand and walked her to his room. He pulled the key card out of his suit pocket, but instead of using it, he turned to look at her. “Are you still okay, Olivia? I don’t expect anything from you just because you got this far. If you want to leave, I’ll walk you back downstairs and get you a ride home.”
Are you still okay, Olivia?
It was a great question. Perhaps she’d lost her mind following a man she barely knew back to his room, despite the reassurance of messaging her roommate, Natalie, with details of who she was with and where she was going. Sure, she knew Anders had eyes the color of a Colorado summer sky, and that he could build a slider faster than she could. She even knew he and his brother had spent an entire summer of their childhood camping in a treehouse.
Now she found herself wondering what he would look like with his hair down and what he’d look like out of that suit . . .
“I’m fine.” Olivia placed her hand to his cheek, his stubble prickled against her palm, and she wondered what it was going to feel like against the rest of her skin. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m here because I want to be. I have my own reasons for wanting this. It’s been a while for me, a really long while.”
“Good.” Anders gently gripped the back of her neck and pulled her close. “Because I really want this, Olivia.” His lips boldly met hers and his tongue slipped into her mouth. She could feel the heat from his body as it crowded hers in a way that made her feel both aroused and protected.
She heard the click of the door, and he reached by her hip to push it open. Anders backed her into the room, and as the door closed, he spun her around to face the large hallway mirror. He placed his hands around her waist, pulling her back against his erection.
“When you say it’s been a while . . .how long?” he asked gruffly, staring at her reflection.
Their size difference was noticeable, and Olivia suddenly felt empowered by the fact that she had the ability to turn this man on, to make him sound so needy.
“At least a year,” she said. “I stopped counting.”
Anders pulled down the zipper of her dress painfully slowly. “I’m glad you saved this year for me then.” He skimmed his fingers down her spine, making her come alive with sensation. Her eyes fluttered shut as he pressed a series of tender kisses to her exposed skin. “When there’s a mirror, you should always watch. Open your eyes, Olivia. See what we do to each other.”
She shivered as he nudged the straps of her black dress over her shoulders, sliding them down her arms, the dress over her hips, until she stood in her black lace bra and panties and heels.
“It’s even more than I imagined.”
“You imagined this?” she asked breathlessly. The flash of lust in his eyes was the only thing stopping her from raising her arms to shield herself.
“I’m a man, and you’re a beautiful woman who responded positively to my interest in you. So, yes, I imagined it. I imagined what it would feel like to run my fingers down your hips.”
His fingers traced the journey to the waistband of her panties, panties that were fast getting damp with his attention.
“I imagined how your breasts, so perfect and round, would sit in my hands,” he said, sliding his palms up her stomach until his thumbs brushed over her lace-covered nipples.
A single finger traced the line of her spine, until it ventured to her butt, where Anders let it rest at the apex of her cheeks. “I wondered how it would feel for my cock to rest here once we got naked.”