A million sounds swirled all around me, the most noticeable my heels clacking on the sidewalk. Downtown was a completely different place at night, and I rarely experienced it. People walked casually, no one in a hurry to get to their next client meeting, and the streets held far less traffic.
I spotted the restaurant Ethan had told me to meet him at up the road about a block. I clutched the folder with my analysis to my chest and strode toward it. It was the first project I’d been given that was baseball-related. Seeing as it was last-minute notice, I’d busted my ass on it the whole day, until I was satisfied.
I tilted my head up to the night sky. The air smelled like fresh rain from a short-lived thunderstorm, and everything felt new and alive downtown in the later hours. Lights sparkled off the shiny buildings that jutted into the night sky.
A host greeted me outside the entrance when I finally made my way to the place. The menu was displayed in a frame covered in thick glass on the brick wall, and the smiling woman opened the giant glass door. It wasn’t too packed when I walked inside. Ethan had told me it was a nice place and that I should dress up.
Kelsey and I had spent an hour going through my closet while she scolded me about my wardrobe. This is nothing but schoolteacher and baseball clothes, she’d said. Finally, she’d picked out a skimpy (in my opinion) black dress that I’d worn to a charity event with my last boyfriend years ago. I’d forgotten all about it.
It had thin straps that crisscrossed up my back and a V-cut in the front, showing off a little more skin than I was usually comfortable with. Kelsey said it was smoking. I wasn’t so sure.
I raised up onto my toes and peered around at the white linen-covered tables that were arranged in an undecipherable pattern, searching for Ethan. My fingers trembled around the folder holding all of my work inside, and a hint of anxiety crept into my stomach. Did I have everything he needed? Was it good enough? What if he yelled at me like he did everyone else?
I couldn’t afford to lose my job now. A young man, maybe early twenties, walked toward me from the host stand. He wore a white buttoned-down shirt and tie, standard uniform for an Italian restaurant employee. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
“I’m just—” I spotted a sparkling set of white teeth and then Ethan’s face.
My heart rate clicked up a notch. He was gorgeous, dressed in a perfectly cut suit with a narrow black tie. Jesus.
“Ma’am?” The host stared at me, wide-eyed, while I breathed in Ethan.
Snapping out of my daze, I turned to the host. “Huh? W-what?”
He laughed. “Do you need some help?”
Ethan started toward me and the room began to spin. How did he steal the air from my lungs like this? How did he render me incapable of forming coherent thoughts?
“No, no. I see my party.”
“Very good, ma’am.” The host smiled and turned back around toward the podium.
“Wow.” Ethan stopped about five feet away and looked me up and down from head to toe. More than once.
I was certain I would melt into the floor from the heat in his eyes. He licked his lips and a devilish grin formed on his face. I was a goner. I was sure of it.
“You look—just—you look beautiful.”
I glanced away, as if it could stop him from seeing me blush. It was impossible, seeing as his eyes were glued to me like a lion hunting a gazelle.
“Thank you.” The words came out more like a soft whisper. After several more moments of intense staring, my brain decided it would function again. I held out the folder. “I have the numbers you asked for.”
He finally released me from the stranglehold of his stare, and his gaze dropped to the floor. Ethan’s hands went into his pockets, and he looked back up at me. “About that…”
Sometimes it seemed like I could sense when someone was about to disappoint me; it was like a feeling of impending doom would squeeze my heart. This was one of those moments. The heat in my veins started to cool, and I didn’t know if I could take what he was about to say. Something about his attitude threw up every red flag in my brain.
“What is it? You don’t need the numbers anymore?” I knew these types of things could happen sometimes. Plans were often altered or schedules rearranged.
Ethan walked over and took me gently by the forearm. His thumb brushed back and forth along my skin and sent tiny goosebumps rippling up the backs of my arms. His touch manipulated my emotions. A warmth rushed back through me and straight between my legs. My eyes fluttered and when I opened them he was still staring down at the floor.
“It’s complicated,” he mumbled.
What did that mean?
“I’m a pretty sharp girl, I think I can figure it out. What are you not telling me?”
He released my arm and I wanted his hand back on me. I wanted him touching me everywhere, all at once. My body needed it but my brain was sick of all the games and secrets.
His head tilted up and I finally got an up-close glimpse of his warm brown eyes, the same eyes that owned me the first day we met. “There wasn’t a meeting.”
There it was. Finally, the truth. I took a step back and glared. “What do you mean there wasn’t a meeting?” My nails dug into the folder.
“I made up the meeting because I wanted to have dinner with you.”
My breath halted and my brain decided to close up shop for a moment. My first reaction was to smile because he wanted to take me to dinner. Then I thought about all the work I’d done all day long, for nothing. I’d planned on hanging out with Kelsey tonight and canceled on her last minute because of this. She still came over to help me pick out an outfit. Blood rushed into my face and my jaw clenched tight. “You made this up?”
He held both hands up, his palms facing me. “I’m sorry. Maybe we can just sit—”
I shook my head, trying not to say something that might get me fired on the spot. “I busted my ass on this report for you. I wanted it to be perfect.” I looked away, hoping if I didn’t see his pretty-boy face that I’d be able to think clearly. It didn’t work. My stomach grumbled when a waiter walked by with fresh breadsticks and a plate of fettuccini Alfredo.
“Jenny, please, just come—”
I shoved the folder into his chest. “Go to hell.”
I turned on my heels and bolted for the door. Once outside on the pavement I inhaled a huge breath of air and whipped my head back and forth on a swivel. I glanced down at my dress and all I could think about was how much time I’d spent getting ready for his fake meeting. What the hell did he mean he just wanted to spend time with me? How was I supposed to take that? Why not just say it?
I couldn’t take the lying, the manipulation. Too much shit was going on in my life and I didn’t have time for someone to mess with my head and my emotions like this.
My natural reaction was anger because my time away from work was precious to me and the gorgeous asshole in a suit had stolen some of it from me. I took off down the sidewalk, weaving between pedestrians, heading the opposition direction of where I’d parked.
I was in no mood to drive anywhere. Alone. That’s what I wanted. To be left alone for a bit. A break from reality.
Halfway up the block the buildings ended. It was where the river ran through the city and I’d seen a park near there in the past that led down to the water. Bikers and joggers always used it during the day and it had a path that ran along the water.
I took off in that direction and cut across the street when there was a break between the cars. A blister started to form from the nice black pumps I’d pulled from the top of my closet that weren’t ever fully broken in. “Fuck you, Ethan.” I cursed his name under my breath for that blister. For everything.
When I got to the riverbank I folded my arms across my chest and stared out at the water, hoping it would cool down the rage washing over me. The moon sparkled over the surface of the water like someone had skipped a million tiny diamonds across it.
“I’m sorry.” His voice. Behind me.
Everything rushed back to the surface and I whipped around to lay into him again, but the words couldn’t form in my mouth. He stood there, huffing and puffing like he’d just sprinted a four-minute mile.
He chased after me?
I wanted to smile at the thought of him running after me, but still, nothing made sense. He wasn’t being logical. I wasn’t about to let him off the hook either, not after putting me through the emotional wringer and playing stupid games with my head.
“What do you want?”
“You can’t just run off into the dark city like that. It isn’t safe.”
“Cut the shit, Ethan. I’m not an idiot. Your deflections get you nowhere here.”
A grin started to form on his lips, but when my face tightened it disappeared.
“I’m sorry, okay.” He looked up at the stars and then back down to me. “Matt was giving me shit about you. So I sent the text and—” He pulled at the tie on his neck.
Whatever this was about, it had embarrassed him because his face was bright pink. Not in an angry way. More like humiliation mixed with a side of frustration. He was vulnerable and seemed to hate that fact.
“I don’t give a shit what you two assholes do on your own time. I had plans tonight. My friend had plans. I couldn’t hang out with my dad either because of this ‘meeting.’ ”
“Jesus, I said I was sorry.” He paced back and forth, looked at me, then looked away and raked his hand through his hair and pulled on it before letting go. “What the hell are you doing to me, Jenny?”
It was sort of cute, but I pushed that thought aside and gasped. Like this was my fault. “Well, I don’t know, Ethan! You’re too much of a pussy to spit it out.”
He froze and turned to me, his eyes wide, the moonlight glinting off them. They narrowed and he stalked toward me. “You want to know?”
My heart was a jackhammer on my ribs, in my ears. A nod was the best I could give him with the way he stared, looking like he wanted to devour every inch of me.
Fuck.
He got closer.
My knees struggled to hold me upright.
“I wanted a date with you.”
Closer.
What was he doing?
Shit.
“I wanted you.”
Gravel. His voice was gravel.
Two steps away.
Eyes. Hair.
Jesus.
“To myself. Alone.”
His palms clutched my cheeks. I started to speak and his mouth was on mine, catching everything I had to say until my voice gave. His hands snaked through my hair, and every synapse in my body fired in tandem, nerves skittering through my body like the moonlight on the water.
He pummeled through my apprehension with his hard kiss, practically demanding reciprocation on my part. I melted into his body. Weeks of frustration, attraction, tension—all of it rushed between my legs and swirled in my clit. His velvet tongue snaked and danced across mine and his hands ran down to my ass, cupping each cheek and squeezing. I moaned into his mouth and my back arched, grinding me up against his hard cock in his dress slacks.
He groaned and bit my lip, digging the tips of his fingers into my hips hard enough to leave marks.
“Is that what you wanted?” I whispered into his ear.
He nodded against my neck as he sucked my throat. I gripped his head with both hands, dragging my nails through his scalp, wanting to push his head down to where I needed it. I didn’t care who was there, or who was watching. I wanted his mouth on me, and I never wanted it to leave.
He cupped a hand over my breast, rolling my hard nipple between his index finger and thumb through the thin fabric of my dress. I gasped. “Fu—” The half word barely trickled from my lips, replaced with a breathy exhale.
His mouth was hot and heavy in my ear. “I want you in my bed. Now.”
He yanked me up from my feet and I wrapped my legs around him, my dress riding way farther up my ass than what I’d usually be comfortable with in public. I didn’t give a shit though. His mouth was on mine the whole way through the park. Where he was taking me, I didn’t know. Didn’t care either. I ground my hips against him, crossing my legs at the ankles and squeezing him with the insides of my thighs, kissing him furiously, in desperate need of release. He had me and he knew it.
The sound of engines roaring grew louder in my ears, and he shoved me into the backseat of a car. He was on top of me in a millisecond. His hands were everywhere, trying to touch every inch of me at once.
“My place.” His voice was a growl.
It confused me for a second until I heard, “Yes, sir.”
I looked up and a little motorized window went up between the front and back seats. I thought those only existed in cars in the movies. “Seriously? You have a fucking driver?”
Ethan’s hand ran through my hair and then he gripped it tight. My head shot back and his hot tongue was on my neck again. “Seems pretty convenient right about now. Doesn’t it?”
I nodded, his knuckles still digging into my scalp. Hands in my hair was a weakness of mine, and Ethan seemed to instinctively know every one of them.
He exhaled his scalding breath into my ear and his free hand went up between my legs, seemingly to test what his actions did to me. “I don’t know if we can make it to my house. I may not be able to stop myself from fucking you right here.”
Shit!
My brain turned to a discombobulated pile of mush at his words. His hand slid over the top of my panties, his fingers gliding through my slick folds over the thin fabric. He could’ve blown on my clit and I would’ve come instantly. He pressed his hand over my entire pussy, cupping my heat in his palm, his mouth still in my ear, as if he knew I was about to convulse in his hand. “Not yet.”
I bucked my hips against his palm, my body practically begging him to let me come. His hand slipped down through my hair and gripped the back of my neck, his forehead pressed against mine. My eyes closed, and I tried to experience every point of contact vividly in my mind.
“Look at me.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command. And it worked. I was a slave to his words and his touch. He shifted my panties to the side and rubbed up and down the length of me, parting my lips. Two fingers slid inside of me and my eyes jolted open to meet his, a coo escaping my lips.
My breath left my body as I experienced the most intimate moment of my life. He was in control and I was holding on for dear life as he drew his fingers in and out of me. His thumb brushed against my clit and my back arched from the seat into him, taking him deeper.
“Not yet. When I say.” He smirked and that devilish grin formed on his lips.
He pressed his forehead harder into mine, and his fingers clamped down on my neck. “You ready?”
I nodded furiously against his head, panting uncontrollably as he sped his fingers up to a punishing pace, drawing my wetness from my core. “Please.” His face started to blur and my eyes rolled up into my head. It was sensory overload like I’d never experienced before. His thumb moved to my clit and started to circle. I was on the verge of a blackout if he didn’t let me come soon.
My fingernails dug into his shoulders, probably hard enough to draw blood through his suit jacket.
“Come for me.”
His mouth was on top of mine, his tongue down my throat as I finally let loose and gave in, moaning his name into his mouth. His fingers went to the hilt and he gripped up with his fingertips, finding my secret spot that sent me to another world. My ass and hips shot up from his leather seats. Fuzzy stars filled my vision and my orgasm rolled through my body, working its way through my tightly curled toes.
The car came to a halt as Ethan’s fingers slipped out of me. He leaned back and let go of my neck. I started to come to my senses when he stuck his glistening fingers up to his tongue, tasting me on them, his eyes still locked on mine. I squirmed in the seat and my pussy heated right back up to where it had been just moments before. Through a pant I managed to get a few words out. “How do you do this to me?”
Before he could speak I lunged at him, straddling his waist. His cock was rock hard and I grinded my clit against it, needing another orgasm from him as soon as possible. I never came from a man’s touch before. My ex-boyfriend had convulsed on top of me more than once and then rolled over, leaving me to fend for myself. Ethan was on a mission to ruin me for anyone else with only his fingers. I kissed him hard and long, his hands squeezing my hips and shoving me down against his dick.
My phone went off in my handbag on the floorboard of the car. I groaned and bit his lip. “Fuck. I have to get that.”
“Bullshit.” He gripped me tighter and tried to claim my mouth again with his.
I pulled back. “I’m sorry. I have to.”
I rummaged through my bag, Ethan’s eyes burning my skin wherever he looked. I yanked the phone from the messy assortment of random crap that had accumulated. It was Kelsey. I slid my finger across the screen to answer. “I’m a little busy.”
There was a silence, but I could hear her breathing into the receiver.
“Kelsey? What is it?”
“It’s your dad. He’s in the hospital.”