Sparked (Heartbreaker Trades #3)

1. He’s All Wrong for Me It’s Perfect

He’s All Wrong for Me; It’s Perfect

ELLIE

SIXTEEN MONTHS AGO

Iwas going to throw up, and surprisingly, it wasn’t because I’d just invited a man back to my hotel room. It wasn’t because we’d had a drink too many, either. I was going to hurl because I was laughing so hard.

“Tell me they let him back in,” I said, gasping for air. My stomach ached. Tears streaked down my cheeks.

“No!” Sam said. “Banned for life.”

I screamed. Even though we were nearly at my room, I had to stop to press my hands onto my stockinged knees. It took me internally talking myself down to stop laughing. When I stood back up again, I let out a long breath.

This man was cute, definitely, despite him being a little too charming for my liking.

It’s why I’d responded to his flirtation downstairs at the conference social.

But I hadn’t counted on him being so hilarious.

He’d just finished telling me about a story he’d been told about a guy banned from his seaside hotel in Victoria, BC, because he left packages of gourmet sausage he’d bought in his room.

When he left, fifty aggressive seagulls invaded the hotel, brawling over preserved meat.

“They completely trashed the whole room. Torn sheets, garbage everywhere. Shit everywhere. And the way they screamed, the neighbors thought a murder was going down.” Sam imitated a seagull’s squawk, flapping his arms.

The reenactment was incredible. Remembering it had me losing it again. “I had no idea seagulls even ate sausage,” I said when I could finally breathe.

“Oh, they’ll eat anything. They’re sky rats.”

“You know,” I said as we rounded a corner, “a seagull ate a hot dog right out of my hand once on the Santa Monica pier.”

He laughed—this full-body, carefree laugh of genuine happiness, which made me laugh, too. Who was this happy? And why did this stranger bring the same joy out in me?

When he looked back down at me, his face still split into a grin, I realized telling myself he was just cute was a trick I’d played. A ruse to keep me from making this a big deal. This man was beautiful.

It’s fine. This was fine. We lived on opposite sides of the country.

More than that, we had nothing in common: Sam cavorted around the world and was only at this building conference to ‘explore his options’ for a career moving forward.

I’d spent my twenties changing diapers, doing school pickup, and building my business.

These days, I worked, worked some more, and had the high school on speed dial with all the trouble my son got into.

Still, I daresay this past hour with Sam had been the best sixty minutes I’d had in a long time. As long as I could remember, actually, save my favorite moments with my son, before he started hating the world. And me.

Still, I liked this guy. And we’d reached my room.

Sam leaned against the wall, his head turned sideways to look at me with that dangerously sexy smile. This was no longer theoretical. This man—a man I could no longer deny I found deeply attractive—was about to see me naked. If I went through with this.

A click sounded, startling me.

“Shit.” I’d dropped my key card. I didn’t even remember fishing it out of my bag.

Sam dropped down to pick it up. But instead of getting up again right away. He just hovered down there, holding the card.

“Hey,” he said, tipping his face up at me. “We don’t have to do anything, Ellie. We could just hang out.”

Having him down there was doing something to my insides.

“Stand up,” I said. “Please.” I hoped I could think straight again when he stood.

But I was wrong, because the whole time he rose, he kept his eyes locked on mine.

God, those eyes. They were so blue they looked like a tropical ocean.

What did you call that? Aquamarine? Cerulean? I had no idea, but I had to look away.

“Ellie?”

“Yup!” What was happening to me? I didn’t get intimidated by men. But those eyes, his proximity, his clean, soapy scent…and what I’d brought him up here for—my heart was pounding so hard I couldn’t think.

Sam’s fingers grazed the back of my hand, sending a jolt of electricity through me. We hadn’t touched since we left the bar. Was he trying to hold my hand?

Then I felt the cool press of plastic in my palm.

He was handing me my card.

“Sorry,” I said, “were you going to ask me something?”

“Just whether you were having second thoughts,” Sam said gently. “If you are, I can go. It’s totally fine.”

“No,” The word came out fast. Embarrassingly fast. “No, I want you to come in.”

I swiped the card over the lock before I could change my mind. When the light turned green, I pushed the door open and walked in quickly, giving me a few feet of space from him.

Elizabeth Marie James. Get your shit together. You’re an independent woman. You’re a thousand miles from home. You’re allowed to do irresponsible things.

Sam was still standing by the door, eyeing me carefully.

He was giving me my last opportunity to back out.

Why did he have to be so sweet? Before he started talking to me downstairs, he’d been crowded by a group of women who were laughing a little too loudly at whatever it was he’d been saying. I’d pegged him from the dance floor as arrogant. Egotistical.

But then he was there, smiling at me, his expression open and easy. Looking at me like I was an extremely welcome surprise. Like I was his favorite dish on a menu.

I wished he was a hot jerk. I’d be less nervous that way.

You’re never going to see him again.

Right. It didn’t matter if I embarrassed myself. Tomorrow, this would be a distant memory. I might as well be honest.

“Okay.” I dropped my purse on the bedside table and flipped on the lamp. “I’m nervous. It’s not like I’ve never done this before, but it’s been a long time. Having a kid kind of limits my sex-with-strangers opportunities.”

Oh fuck, did I really say sex?

But Sam wasn’t fazed. His eyes twinkled. I didn’t know eyes could actually do that.

He leaned against the hallway wall. “I think you’re lying.”

My stomach lurched. “What do you mean?”

“About your son being 14.”

Relief washed through me, because I’d been lying about having done this before.

I hadn’t dated at all when Tommy was young.

Then I’d had two boyfriends back to back, both of which didn’t work out.

The last one in a big way. So I was done with that now.

I would not let my bad luck with men impact my son’s life, ever again.

But Sam wasn’t a boyfriend. And Tommy was on the other side of the country.

I smiled. I could do this. I was going to do this.

Besides, he wasn’t a total stranger. My friend Sarah knew him.

She introduced us downstairs, whispered Sam was a sweet guy and that I should ‘go for it’. And it was just for tonight.

“I don’t regret my life choices,” I said. Not anymore, anyway. “But I do have some fun to catch up on.”

Sam’s lips twitched up.

Heat flooded my insides.

He was so sexy with his rumpled shirt and hair. That upturned mouth that had turned into a playful smile.

“I like fun. What are you thinking, Crazy Eights or something?”

I closed my eyes, laughing. God this guy was an absolute flirt. Probably with a phone full of women’s numbers with reminders of how he met them instead of last names.

He was all wrong for me.

It was perfect.

But when I opened my eyes again, Sam was looking at me with something else in those crystalline eyes. Something more to the point of why we were here.

“Ellie, were you lying about the other thing, too? It’s okay if you were.”

Nerves twisted in my belly. He was talking about the other thing I’d said: that I’d done this before. I was caught. There was no way I could bluff my way through it.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“Because you look like you can’t decide if you want to bolt or jump my bones.”

I covered my face with my hands. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“You’re cocky.”

“No way. I’m just trying to figure you out.”

He tapped the wall, three long taps, like he was trying to get me to stop hiding.

I dropped my hands, feeling nearly sick at how much I wanted him.

Maybe he saw it in my eyes, because he crossed the room then, in just a few short strides.

He stood in front of me now, within touching distance. “Which one do you want, Ellie? Tell me the truth.”

I folded my arms to hide my shaking hands. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Lies. I’d do anything right now. I wanted this man so much I’d drop to my knees if he told me to.

I hadn’t had sex in way too long.

Sam took a step closer, forcing me to tilt my face up to keep my eyes on his. He was nearly touching me now. My pulse ratcheted up dangerously high.

Sam’s eyes dropped from my eyes to my mouth.

His bottom lip sucked between his teeth.

Then his hands were sprawling across my generous hips, the heat of his touch shooting liquid heat through me.

“Do you want me to tell you what I’m thinking?” he asked. His fingers grazed tantalizingly close to my ass. It was all I could do not to lean into him, wrap a leg around his thigh, and start doing something absolutely unhinged.

“Yes.” I breathed.

He dropped his head so his mouth was near my ear. “I was thinking,” he husked, “that I’d very much like to fuck you.”

A rocket of tingles exploded across my skin. He’d just put it out there.

“And I’d hate to influence your decision, but I think I could make you feel very”—his teeth dropped down onto my earlobe, his tongue following in a hot stroke, making me full-body shiver before releasing me—“very good.”

“You are cocky,” I said, trying very hard to keep my voice steady.

“No. I just like you.” He fully sucked on my earlobe then. Pulled it right into his mouth, toyed at it with quick flicks of his tongue, which of course I felt in all the other places he knew I’d think of. “And,” he added, “I know what I want.”

This Sam was very different from the charming sweet guy from a moment ago. He was dangerous. The kind of man who could take over my brain. If I’d known he’d have this effect on me, I’d never have invited him up.