CHAPTER 2 #2
This was unknown territory. Normally, he fucked them, then waited impatiently for whatever woman he was with to leave. But this woman … this woman had made him behave in ways he didn’t understand. Starting with bringing her up to his brother’s sanctuary.
He hadn’t even booked a room; he was set to fly home immediately after the wedding, which is why he’d asked to use Adam’s penthouse for this.
Maybe bringing her here was a mistake. Maybe …
“How about we start by taking that champagne to bed?” he heard himself asking before his brain could put the brakes on his mouth. His big mouth that had so often gotten him into loads of trouble.
She looked up at him, her green eyes sparkling. “I like that idea very much.”
Her cheeks were still flushed from what he’d just done to her. Or, what she’d done to him.
She confidently matched his stride down the hallway. For someone who had been so restrained downstairs, she sure knew what she wanted and walked with her back straight, her chin held high, stepping like a dancer.
“You took ballet lessons,” he said.
She turned surprised green eyes to his. “Since I was little and all through high school. How did you know?”
“Your walk. It’s unmistakable.” He smiled a little, keeping to himself that he’d once fucked a famous ballerina.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“As you should.”
She glanced around the room, eyes searching, and he motioned with his chin. “En suite is over there.”
“Thank you.”
She disappeared into the bathroom. He picked up a slim remote and pushed the button. With a whirr, the sheer curtains slowly parted, revealing a panoramic view of the colorful Las Vegas lights below.
He took the bottle to the small bar area, found two flutes, and filled the glasses. She’d eye fucked him from the first moment, and he’d done it right back to her, but nothing could have prepared him for the nuclear fission level of their coming together.
Literally, coming. Together.
Against the wall.
He’d never wanted anyone that badly to do it that way.
He opened the nightstand drawer, grabbed a handful of condoms, and shoved them under the pillow, starting to get hard at the prospect of taking her again and again, in every way imaginable.
He didn’t recognize himself. Lately, for him, it was one and done. Get the release, then finished. No interest in more. With her, the one time had only served to whet his appetite.
She returned smelling like soap and what he’d detected when he’d taken her against that wall, a scent uniquely hers. His nostrils flared, breathing it in as she walked by, her gaze trained on the blinking lights below. He quelled the urge to fist her hair and haul her against him.
“Oh!” She stopped before the bank of windows, and he immediately got ideas, which he vowed to make reality before the night was through.
“This is breathtaking,” she said. “I’ve never seen Vegas from so high up before.”
He came to stand beside her and offered her a flute of the excellent rosé champagne, which, thankfully, hadn’t yet gone completely flat. He ran one fingertip along the curve of her neck, down to her shoulder, eliciting a satisfying slight tremor. “Your turn to toast.”
She turned to face him fully. “To … one-night stands.”
She thought this would only be a one-night thing? Hell, no. Not in a million years would he accept that, not with this level of wild chemistry he’d never experienced before. He already knew he’d want to see her again.
He raised his glass. “How about … to tonight?”
That earned him a little smile. “Tonight.”
She clinked her glass to his, took a sip, and cast an appreciative look around the room.
“Whose place is this?”
“My older brother, Adam, owns it. You briefly met him downstairs.”
She nodded, then glanced back at the open bedroom door, her shoulders tensing slightly.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t live here anymore. No one is coming …” He set down his glass. “… but us.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders, gliding to stroke her nape with both thumbs. Her answering shudder was whole-body, and he marveled at how she responded to him. She took a big gulp of champagne.
Leaning down, he inhaled her essence, then brushed his lips where his thumbs had just been. “Ready to take more of me, Penny?”
Claire
His warm breath and soft lips on her neck made her weak-kneed, needing to lean back into his hard body for support.
Only, that made it worse. She wanted to turn around, shove him on the bed, and go all wild on him. It was as if someone had flipped switches inside her that she had no idea existed, turning on spotlights that all pointed to him.
Too quickly, she finished her champagne. Her head spun with a slight buzz that also spurred her courage.
He took the empty flute from her and set it down beside his. Even the clink of the glass made her breath quicken, with the finality of drinks being over and the promise of what would happen next.
Gripping her hips, he slowly turned her to face him. “We need to pace ourselves. Slow and steady wins the race.”
“I wasn’t aware this was a race.”
“It most certainly is. To see who comes the most times throughout the night. My chips are all on you.”
Oh God. His words sent hot tingles directly between her thighs. More than once? She hadn’t thought it possible, but he’d already easily made her come twice.
“Throughout the night, huh?” Her voice sounded strangely breathy.
He pinned her with those dark blue eyes of his. “Why not? It’s Friday. Or is there somewhere else you want to be?”
There wasn’t a place on earth she would rather be than here, with him.
His smile was smug. “I didn’t think so.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to. Somehow, I seem to be able to read your thoughts. Loud and clear.”
“What am I thinking right now?”
Why aren’t you naked and all over me already?
He searched her face, his gaze dipping to her mouth, then up again. “You’re wondering why I’m taking so damned long to make another move.”
She licked her lips. Wow, he was good.
He gave her a knowing smile. “You are also wondering what it was about me that made you come up here when you’ve never done anything like this before.”
Her lips parted. “Go on.”
“You want me. And you are curious.”
“Am I?”
“Indeed, you are. You want to know what it feels like to have my hands and mouth and body all over you.”
She drew her tongue over her lips, watching his pupils dilate.
“Coincidentally, I want to know that too. Which is why I made the decision to break my own previously ironclad rule.”
“And what rule is that?” She reached out, fingering one round onyx shirt stud.
His hands roved ever so gently over her hips, making heat spread across her thighs and converge deep inside her. “Here’s something I want you to know: this is a first for me, as well.”
Claire took one step back, letting her eyes sweep over him, blond head to mirror-polished black patent shoes. In that fitted black tux vest and pleated white shirt, he emanated sex. He really was the poster boy for one-night stands, and she didn’t believe for a minute that he hadn’t ever had one.
A corner of his mouth kicked up. He held his arms out slightly, at his sides, as if putting himself on display for her viewing pleasure. It made her breathing so shallow, she marveled that her brain was getting any oxygen at all.
“You don’t believe me. But it’s true. I may be many things, but I am not a liar. I have never picked up a woman in a bar.”
Ah, OK, in a bar. Maybe he wasn’t lying. “And why is that?”
He hesitated for a second, looking, she thought, a bit chagrined. “The truth?”
“You just said you’re not a liar.”
He chuckled. “Right. Well, it’s because I never needed to.”
Of course, women would flock to him like geese. No need for him to do a thing but show up, and they’d be virtually throwing their panties at him.
He held her gaze. “But I brought you here.”
“Why?”
He bent his head to whisper directly in her ear. “Because I had to.”
She’d come up here for the same reason. She had to have him. One fling that would happen and stay in Vegas, as the saying went. A memory she could look back upon forever. The one time she’d take what she wanted.
She grasped the points of his collar and tugged.
Too hard.
One onyx stud came off and flew onto the carpet.
Claire buried her face at the base of Ian’s throat, inhaling deeply, swallowing back a moan.
He smelled so good, of soap and something so powerfully magnetic, it set her entire body humming.
The man was a walking pheromone. And she was hopelessly attracted.
His chuckle was silent, as if he were holding his own breath while she sated her need to breathe him in.
“We have all night.” He took her hand and, gallantly lifting it, led her to the edge of the bed as if he were escorting her to the middle of a ballroom. “As a matter of fact, I’m thinking we can take all weekend.”
No. She had a plane to catch early in the morning. Tonight was all she could ever have with him, and she would make it count.
She grasped one end of his dangling dark purple bow tie and pulled, watching it slide slowly off him.
He took it from her and tossed it over his shoulder onto the bed behind him, his mouth curving into a little half-smile that, she noted up close, caused one tiny dimple to appear just below the corner of his mouth.
Leaning in, she sipped at it. He turned his head a fraction and captured her lips, his tongue delving between them slowly, then stroking in a languid, erotic tease that sent her spiraling. No one had ever kissed her this way.
Not even him.
This was a different Ian who took his time and had her breathing erratically, trembling in anticipation.
Claire threaded her fingers through his hair, finding it thick and silky. Filling her fists with it, she tugged hard.
What was it about him that made her want to get so rough?