TWENTY
SIX A.M.
Woken by pounding on her front door, it took a few seconds to register what was going on. Wait, what was going on?
After cake and more than one coffee, Baer brought her home. Okay, she remembered that. The all-night diner meant no impetus to say goodnight. She’d have stayed forever if Baer hadn’t declared they were leaving around three a.m.
Pounding. Right. The door.
Something may have happened to her grandfather or one of her foundation kids. She grabbed her robe and ran to the door, heart hammering.
She opened it and—was brought up short.
The man standing on her threshold, hands braced on each side of her doorframe, head drooped, was the same one she’d said goodnight to less than three hours ago.
Confusion instantly became fear. “Baer,” she said, overwhelmed by panic. “Oh my God, is it the boys? I’ll authorize whatever you need. Let me get dressed and—”
She started to turn, but he grabbed her arm, holding her there.
The strain on his expression came with no words, not for ten seconds, not for twenty, until…
“I have to… I have to know what it’s like.”
“What what’s like?” she asked, stroking his hair from his temple. “What’s wrong, Hound?”
“I have no clients today,” he said, showing her his watch. “And I waited until six… No one’s paying me to be here.”
What did that mean? “I don’t know what you… How did you get in here?”
The building was supposed to be manned by security twenty-four hours a day. Only Truman and Roxie were allowed to just stride up to her apartment. Not that she had a problem with Baer visiting.
“I never left,” he said. “I wanted you to get some rest. It’s been less than three hours; I didn’t mean to keep you out so late. But I waited until after six…”
He’d wanted to take her home from Squires, she’d pushed for the dessert. If anyone should be sorry for them being out late—none of that explained his presence. After six. Her rules. After six. No one paying him. Not being with anyone else on the same day…
“Sex,” she whispered, catching up with his train of thought.
“Yes, please,” he said, trying to smile through his taut tension. “Lil’, if you just let me hold you…”
“I don’t have protection. I haven’t—”
He dug a hand into his pocket to produce a strip of condoms. Hmm, prepared, impressive.
She breathed out a laugh. “It’s wrong that I find that sweet,” she said and cocked a hip. “I’ll let you come in here and take whatever you want from my body on one condition.”
He groaned, teeth clenched. “Goddamn your conditions.”
She just laid a disapproving eye on him. “Did you hear me say you could take whatever you want from my body?”
“Okay,” he said. “Yes. Condition. What condition?”
Gathering his hands in hers, she walked backward, leading him into her apartment. “You keep doing it until midnight.”
“Midnight?”
When he kicked the door closed behind him, she heard it lock and pushed his jacket from his shoulders.
“Yes.” Friday was a workday, he had clients, meaning they couldn’t do it after midnight. “I don’t want a quickie. I want you all to myself all day. No money.” She kept on going, the bedroom not far behind her. “Be mine today, Baer. For free. Just us.”
“Just us,” he said, tugging her forward so hard they collided. “Those are conditions I like.”
Loosening her robe, he dropped his eyes to her body when the material fluttered open. Of all the hundreds of naked females he must’ve seen, she had to believe she was special, and she did. Some part of her did believe that. With complete conviction. As he slipped his fingers under the fabric on her shoulders to ease it off, she wasn’t self-conscious.
Naked under his scrutiny, desperate to pause the moment forever, she didn’t want to breathe. The hunger in his devouring gaze whipped her arousal into a frenzy.
“I need you, Frey,” he murmured in an almost growl. “Goddamnit, I’ve never needed anything more in my life.”
She edged forward to unbuckle his belt. “I’m right here, Hound Dog.”
He’d showered and changed into his jeans and tee-shirt at Squires before they went for coffee. That he was still wearing the same outfit confirmed he really hadn’t left her building since bringing her home. He’d known this would happen. Wanted this. Planned this. He’d been in the damn corridor outside her apartment thinking about it for three hours. Wow. Now that was dedication. And she talked about resolve?
“Goddamn, baby.”
Need stretched his restraint. The man could get laid twenty-four seven, yet she had that effect on him. Flattering. Humbling. Arousing. This wasn’t sex for the sake of sex, he could get that anywhere. Hell, he was paid for it almost every day.
“I’m right here,” she said, pushing his jeans and underwear down. “And I’m all yours.”
Sinking onto her knees, she took him into her mouth. Most women probably wouldn’t elect to do this for him. Some might. But he was paid to take care of his clients’ needs. She wasn’t a client, not there in that moment.
Doing her best to pleasure him, she licked and sucked, tasting him, learning him—he bent to grab her up and tossed her onto the bed.
“Please don’t make me embarrass myself,” he said, shedding the rest of his clothes, so he was naked when he crawled onto the bed above her.
“What does that mean?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck when he bowed to kiss her. “Being with me is embarrassing?”
“Losing my wad within two minutes of you putting your mouth on me,” he said, running his lips down her chin. “Yeah, that’s embarrassing… Let me worship you a while.”
“You haven’t slept since yesterday, if you want to rest before…”
Raising his mouth from her throat, he glared at her. “You think I’m missing a minute of this, you’re insane, Little Skit. This is all I’ve thought about… all I want.”
Stroking his face, she ran her hands into his hair. “All you want?”
“All I want,” he said and kissed her. “You’ve gotta know I’m falling hard for you, baby… And if life was different… if my life was different—”
Laying a straight finger on his lips, she silenced him. “We’ll get there, baby. We will.”
“We will… God, you’re amazing,” he said and kissed her again.
His tongue didn’t linger in her mouth, he slid it to her chest, pampering her breasts before descending to the apex of her thighs. Appreciating the skill of his mouth and the sensations of his talented tongue, she let him tease and arouse her just enough. Until, curling her fingers in his hair, she started to close her thighs as she pulled him up.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his mouth above her stomach.
“You’re not working, Hound,” she said, smiling at him, caressing his face.
“I know,” he said on an exhale. “I want to. Let me—”
“No.” She tightened her grip on his head and flattened her feet on his back, closing her thighs around his head for a second. “I am the one woman on the planet you are not obliged to eat on demand.”
“I want to,” he said, growing frustrated. “Would you trust me to know what I want, please?”
“You don’t want to be inside me? Because that’s what I want… I want my man inside me, deep inside me.”
Pushing her legs from his shoulders, he rose over her, touching his lips to hers. “Because you’re determined to race to the finish. I want to enjoy this.”
“You promised you’d be here until midnight,” she said, stroking any part of him within reach. “We have time for that later… Get a condom… Please… I want you… I need you.”
Gritting his teeth, he growled. “You’re too damn good at this.”
Boosting away from her, he shifted to the end of the bed and dug in his pocket for the condoms. She was too good at it? This was his job and she’d never been undone by a man so quickly. If she’d let him finish her, not only would she have felt guilty, but she probably wouldn’t have had the energy to participate in what came after.
“You’re going to regret this,” he said as he flipped back over on top of her, rolling the condom on as he did.
“I am?” she asked. “Why would—” Her words disappeared into the sharp gasp that filled her lungs when he plunged into her. “Oh, fuck!” A sinister kind of laugh warmed her lips; she smacked his shoulder. “What happened to gentle?”
“Don’t have to be gentle with you,” he said. “Isn’t that what you keep telling me? You’re not a client I can offend, who I have to worry about switching to a different guy if I don’t live up to their standards.”
Panting through the pulse of painful pleasure engorging her, she might split in two and he hadn’t even got all the way inside her yet.
“So because…” she hissed, sucking in another breath. “Because I’m crazy about you… I get nothing but the raw Baer experience?”
One side of his mouth curled. “Got it in one, baby,” he said, pushing deeper then bowing to kiss her when she puffed out another breath. “I’m not interchangeable for you like I am for them… You get me and nothing but me.”
There was nothing, and no one, else she wanted.
Her nails bit into him. “Promise me,” she said, wrapping her legs around him. “Promise me, Hound.”
“I promise.
“Oh, thank God! Fuck me, Baer… Make me yours…”
“All mine,” he said, plunging his tongue into her mouth as he forced himself deep into her.
Lost in the most intense sexual experience of her life, the burn of need pounded. He’d be the last man to ever occupy her like this. It was nuts to think it during their first sexual encounter, and maybe she’d change her mind in the light of a new day, but this was what she wanted. He was what she wanted. Him and nothing else.