Chapter 1 #2
“Is that right?” she replied with arched eyebrows of her own. “You might be surprised by me. But there’s no way I’d be surprised by you. I’d know your type in my sleep.”
“Blossom, you could know my type in your sleep, if you asked nicely.”
She felt another tingle of excitement at his hot tone but ignored it. “You wear a suit to work every day, don’t you?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Nothing. It’s just your type. You’re one of those guys who wears a business suit like armor—going through the world as if the nameplate on your office entitles you to whatever you want. As if your bank account makes you superior.”
The words weren’t particularly gentle, but he looked interested rather than offended. “What makes you think I have anything impressive in my bank account?”
“Please. I know roughly how much that watch you’re wearing costs.”
Because of the Watsons, her adoptive parents, Kelly was in good shape financially, but not even her car cost as much as the watch he was wearing.
“And I bet you’re wondering why I would spend money on something so superficial when I could be donating it to all the homeless animals in the world.” Again he was teasing in that intimate way, as if he really did know her.
“I’m not like that.”
“Sure you aren’t.” He flashed her a grin. “What happened to your client anyway?”
Kelly had actually forgotten about her client, so absorbed in the conversation had she been. She gave a little jerk and turned back to scan the park, focusing on the entrance, but there was no sign of another man with a German shepherd. “I think I’ve been stood up. It happens sometimes.”
Just then her phone chirped with another text, so she reached in to pull it out of her bag. “Maybe that’s him.”
It wasn’t her client. Are you sure? I’d make it worth your while. Promise.
She sighed. Jesse. Why the hell wouldn’t he just give up?
“Not your client,” the man beside her said.
She glanced up. “How do you know?”
“I can read expressions. Who is it? Your boyfriend being annoying?”
His guess was actually quite close. Impressive, given that they were strangers. “No. Just a guy who won’t take no for an answer.”
“He has my sympathy.”
She sucked in a breath. “Why should he have your sympathy?”
He had that smug, heated amusement in his eyes again. “To get a taste of a hot little thing like you—and then get the door slammed in his face? Can’t help but feel sorry for him.”
“I didn’t slam the door in his face. I was nothing but honest with him. He’s the idiot who ignored what I told him and keeps bumbling on toward something he already knows he can’t have.”
The man chuckled and reached out to run his fingers gently down a long strand of her hair. “It doesn’t matter what you tell him, Blossom. You’ve got this gorgeous, untouched sweetness about you. It’s a promise and a challenge.”
Her whole body went hot at the texture of his words, at the tension and power she could feel in his hand, his shoulders, his gaze.
She knew what he was referring to. She’d been born with clear creamy skin, pink cheeks, big blue eyes, and a heart-shaped face that gave the impression of innocence. There was no way she could dress that would change her natural look even though she’d desperately tried as a teenager.
“Don’t assume the way I look is really me.” Her pulse started to throb in her wrists and her throat. She knew how to recognize the look in this guy’s eyes.
He wanted her.
And despite his smug superiority—or maybe because of it—she wanted him too.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so deeply attracted to a man. He wasn’t even her type. He was too old for her, with a dusting of silver in his hair, and she normally preferred blue-collar types. Firefighters. Construction workers. Soldiers and sailors. Men with callused hands.
Not like this guy at all.
“I know who you really are,” he said, easing even closer so that her breasts brushed lightly against his chest for a moment. “You believe in love, don’t you?”
It was so far from the truth Kelly almost laughed. She hadn’t believed in love since her father was murdered. “You are so wrong about me. I bet I believe in love even less than you do.”
“What do you believe in then?” He was touching her hair again, skimming the tips of his fingers down the length of one loose strand.
She could hardly see him as a stranger. It felt like she knew him—all the way down to the core. “I believe in being self-sufficient, just like you do.” She leaned toward him just enough to graze her nipples against his shirt before she pulled back.
“Do you?” There was a slight flush to his cheeks now, and it looked like he was breathing more quickly. He was definitely turned on. Just as turned on as she was. “What else do you believe in?”
“I believe in seeing the world as it really is and not dreaming of romantic fairy tales, just like you do.” She knew this about him, as well as she knew it about herself.
She saw the affirmation in his eyes, mingling with the blaze of desire. “And what else?”
“And I believe in sex.” They were in a public park, but she didn’t care. Responding to the challenge he posed, she slid one hand down his chest, then his belly, until she reached his groin, which she gave a brief caress.
She hadn’t been wrong. He was aroused. Hard in his jeans.
His breath hitched at her touch, and she could see he was holding himself back. “What do you believe about sex?”
“I believe people can come together for mutual gratification without all the baggage the world has built up around it.”
“Ah,” he murmured thickly, settling one hand on the small of her back. “Free love then? To go with the puppies and flowers?”
“Not love. Sex. There’s no overlap unless you make it so.”
“I don’t make it so.” He pushed her hips toward his body until she could feel his arousal against her middle.
She was fighting to catch her breath, her pussy pulsing with desire and her mind struggling to keep up with his quick wit. “Somehow I knew that about you.”
“I’ve met a lot of women who make such claims, but then they’re crying when I don’t call them the next morning.”
“I’ve met a lot of men who do the same thing.”
He shook his head, pushing his erection against her very slightly. To the people in the park, they must look like they were just hugging, but a hug was very far from what was going on between them.
To Kelly, it felt more like a battle. And she liked it. A lot. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this turned on, this invested in a conversation.
“So you don’t cry?” he asked, his brown eyes smoldering with lust, excitement, and intelligence.
“I haven’t cried since I was ten years old.”
That was true too. She hadn’t cried since the months after her father died. Her whole world had changed that year.
“I still have no proof this is nothing but pretense on your side.”
“Because I’m a woman? Because I have a sweet face? You’re old enough to know that appearances deceive. You can fuck me now, and I’d never give you a second thought. You’d never hear from me again.”
“If I fuck you,” he murmured, “I promise you’ll think of me again.”
“There’s no way you’re that good.”
“You shouldn’t say such things. You’ll only be proven wrong.”
“Your arrogance is breathtaking, but so far nothing else about you is. Do you ever actually follow through?”
“You want me to follow through?” It was a genuine question. She could see that he was waiting for an answer as he watched her, even through the growing desire.
“Oh yeah.”
She’d had sex with strangers before. All she’d ever had was sex with strangers. She didn’t normally have sex on a Saturday morning in the park, but there was no good reason not to.
She wanted this man—like he was a challenge that must be met, a battle to be won.
“We’ll see,” the man said, sounding faintly skeptical, as if he still didn’t believe she took sex as casually as he did.
“See how exactly?” She raised her eyebrows in a question, a call to action.
The man met the call, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the wooded area nearby. He snapped his fingers, and the dog stopped chewing his Frisbee and jumped to his feet to follow.
Kelly’s breath caught in her throat as they neared the trees. “The car might be more comfortable.”
“I’m not going for comfort here.” His grip was firm and strong and authoritative as he pulled her after him.
She has hit by a wave of panic as they entered the trees, not at one of the trails but in the thickly grown area closest to where they’d been standing.
The woods were dark, unknown, everything hidden—masking horrors she just couldn’t face.
When they’d gone a few feet in, she couldn’t make herself go any farther. She physically couldn’t do it, yanking her hand out of the man’s.
He turned around. “That’s what I thought.”