ALMOST FROM THE MOMENT they’d met, Reese had known he was heading in one direction: toward Amanda Bauer’s bed.
They were going to have sex. Soon.
Reese knew it. Amanda knew it. The two of them were savoring that knowledge, building the anticipation as the evening wore on.
He’d done his bit for the business. Then, when old Mr. Braddock and his family had left for the night, he’d taken off his official Campbell’s Lager title and gone back to being Reese, the man who’d picked up his sexy personal pilot.
Every look asked and answered the same question. Every smile was a seduction, each casual word a hidden code and every brief brush of hand on hand had become the most sensual foreplay. The way they intentionally tried not to touch more intimately increased the incredible tension, each non-caress promised unimaginable pleasure when they finally did come together.
Reese couldn’t remember a time in his life when he’d been more excited by a woman. He just knew, as he stared at her across the crowded bar, that he’d never desired one more.
They hadn’t kissed again since that brief encounter in the cab. They hadn’t needed to. The want they were both feeling had been building by the minute.
When they’d danced, and his hand cupped her hip, or her thigh slid against his, the anticipation of how this night was going to end had nearly sent him out of his mind.
It had also sent him in search of something to try to calm down his body’s heated reactions.
“So, are you supposed to be, like, the president or something?”
Reese didn’t bother glancing over at the vapid little redhead dressed as a sex kitten—one of at least a dozen in the packed-to-bursting bar. She’d been trying to engage him in conversation for a full minute, but he was busy focusing on the dance floor. And frowning.
Because there, in the middle of a writhing crowd full of zombies and witches, mad scientists and vampy angels, was his sexy stewardess … dancing with another guy. He’d made his move when Reese had gone in search of a cold shower, but had had to make do with a cold glass of water.
“Or, like, a James Bond spy?”
Right. ’Cause James Bond always wore stupid navy blue uniforms and captain’s wings on his lapel.
“You’re way too hot to be an accountant or something.”
“Pilot,” he mumbled, barely paying attention. All his attention was focused on Amanda.
She looked better than any woman in the place as she shook her stuff with a man Reese recognized as one of Braddock’s low-level employees. Steve something or other.
Reese had never had a problem with him—at least not until he’d realized Steve was seriously moving in on his date.
Steve hadn’t been able to keep his covetous eyes off Amanda since the minute they’d arrived. Reese had figured the hands-off-she’s-here-with-someone-else code would prevent the other man from actually doing anything about it. But when Steve’s hand accidentally brushed Amanda’s luscious ass for a second time, Reese realized he was either too drunk, or too hot for her, to even remember the code.
He tensed, ready to stride out there and do something that could cost his company a major customer, depending on how much Mr. Braddock liked Steve, even as he wondered what this crazy, unfamiliar jealousy was all about. But before he could do anything, the redheaded feline jiggled around in front of him, purring, “Dance with me?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, just grabbed his arm and tugged him forward. He wasn’t the first man she’d been gyrating up against tonight. An hour ago, she’d been wrapped around some guy dressed as a caveman, complete with fur loincloth. Captain Caveman was now groping a woman in a Little Red Riding Hood costume cut so low it barely covered her nipples.
Was there a law somewhere that said Halloween costumes for twenty-something-year-old women had to be slutty? God, he hated parties like this. How could he possibly have forgotten?
The only good thing about tonight’s was the moment he and Amanda had hit the dance floor themselves. After he’d officially gone “off duty” they’d had a couple of drinks. Drifting into the crowd, they’d danced not to the loud music, but to the intimate, primal beat that had been thrumming between them for hours.
He should never have left her alone. He should have just lived with the hard-on, trusting that the crowd on the dance floor would ensure nobody else knew he was dying to rip his date’s hot pants off and screw her into incoherence.
“C’mon, it’s a party, in case ya haven’t noticed!”
The redhead was the one who wasn’t too observant. She obviously didn’t notice that every ounce of his attention was focused on another woman. Or else she just didn’t care. He figured that was it because she had dragged him to within a few feet of Amanda and Steve, then proceeded to pole dance against his thigh, rubbing so hard he could feel the heat of her crotch through both sets of their clothes.
Nasty.
Grabbing her shoulders to push her off, he grimaced when she reached up and clasped onto his hand. Holding tight, she then turned her head and tried to suck his thumb into her mouth.
Repeat: You hate Halloween parties. And he was so far over the bar scene, he honestly couldn’t remember why he’d once enjoyed it.
Before he could disentangle himself, he glanced over and met Amanda’s stare. Her eyes narrowed and hardened. Her pretty lips compressed as she saw the strange young woman practically riding him, the pouty suction-cup mouth trying to simulate a sex act on his thumb.
He knew how it must look—as if he was pulling the bimbo closer rather than pushing her away. Amanda obviously saw it that way, because she rolled her eyes and grimaced, her jaw rock-hard and her slim form straight and tense. Considering she had been fending off the groping hands of one of Reese’s customers, she had every right to be angry as hell.
Reese was on the verge of just sacrificing his thumb to death-by-the-jaws-of-drunk-ho and pushing over to Amanda’s side. He needed to explain, and to get her the hell out of there. But she suddenly changed the game. With a look that verged between anger and challenge, she wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck. She slid closer to him, swaying slowly to the pounding music that had everyone else gyrating and bouncing. Steve all but stumbled as her beautiful mouth came close to his neck. Over the other man’s shoulder, her stare sought out Reese’s and she lifted one brow in a deliberate taunt.
Damn. She was tormenting him. His sexy pilot had claws much sharper than this intoxicated little cat who was still trying to use his thigh as a scratching post and, now, his neck as a lump of catnip.
He should have been annoyed—he’d never liked women who played games. But somehow, as his heart started thudding hard against his rib cage and all his blood again rushed to his cock, he realized he was incredibly excited by Amanda Bauer instead.
Their stares locked, intense and hot. She licked her lips, and Steve tugged her closer, as if he’d almost felt that sweet, wet tongue. But her attention wasn’t on Steve, it was entirely on Reese. Her eyes sparkled, as if she knew he was torn between wanting to laugh at her for trying to make him jealous or pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and out-caveman the guy in the loincloth.
Reese lifted a questioning brow, silently asking her how far she was going to take this. In response, she leaned toward Steve’s ear and whispered something. The other man froze, dropping his arms and watching as Amanda turned away from him. She eased through the crowd, winding a path across the dance floor, heading toward a back hallway that led to the restrooms. A number of men turned to watch her go, and she earned more than a few glares from their dates. Just before she slipped down the short hallway, she cast one more glance over her shoulder. Her half smile taunted Reese, daring him to follow.
Reese spun the horny little cat around and pushed her toward the still-frozen Steve, who appeared almost shell-shocked. When he met Reese’s eyes, he flushed, then mumbled, “Sorry, man.”
Whatever Amanda had said, it had worked. He should have known she needed no help in taking care of herself. Still, he couldn’t help smiling tightly and saying, “I think my date and I will be leaving now. Before you do something that requires me to break your jaw.”
Not waiting for a reply, Reese moved in the same direction Amanda had gone. Easier said than done, as the dance floor swelled when the deejay put on a campy version of the “Monster Mash.” He couldn’t find an inch of clear space and had to push his way through couple after couple.
Finally, though, he reached the short hallway. A woman had just disappeared into the ladies’ room, and a guy in a toga passed him as he left the men’s. Stepping into a corner to wait, he started when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I knew you’d follow me,” a throaty voice whispered.
She’d appeared from the shadows of a storage room, ignoring the Private: Employees Only sign. Standing in the doorway, she watched him with heat in her green eyes and a pant of audible hunger flowing across her moist lips.
“I knew you wanted me to.”
He didn’t resist when she tugged him inside the small room, dark, damp, smelling of yeasty beer and booze.
“Your girlfriend isn’t going to come after us, is she?” Amanda whispered as she pushed the door shut behind him, trapping them inside.
He made sure everyone else was kept out by twisting the lock on the knob. “My girlfriend?”
She reached up and ran the tip of one index finger over his bottom lip, hissing lightly when he nipped at it. “Uh-huh. She looks very catty.” Leaning up on tiptoe, she pressed her wet lips to his throat, swiping her small tongue against the hollow. “I don’t usually go after other girls’ guys but the way you’ve been looking at me all night has me feeling a little reckless.”
He got into the spirit of her game. “She’s not the one I want.” Reese stared down at her, able to see her beautiful face more clearly as his eyes adjusted to the glimmer of moonlight spilling in from a small window. He leaned into her, knowing by her groan that she felt his raging erection pressing into the juncture of her thighs. “She’s not the one who’s had me hard and desperate for the past six hours.” Being honest now, he added, “You’re a stranger and yet I’m dying for you.”
She lifted one slim leg, tilting toward him so his cock nested against the warm seam of her silky hot pants. He swallowed hard, desperately wanting to yank down his zipper, tear her shorts off and thrust into her hard, fast and deep. But a bigger part of him wanted it slow and hot, erotic as hell, with every sensation building upon the last, until the tension of anticipation had them both ready to explode.
“Sex with a stranger is a very enticing fantasy, isn’t it?” she asked. “How lucky that we saw each other across the bar and both knew exactly what we had to have.”
Wicked. Erotic. So damned sexy.
“Aren’t you afraid your boyfriend is going to come looking for you?” He was half-curious about what she’d said to the other man before abandoning him. But not curious enough to ask, or do anything that might distract them from what was happening right here, right now.
“I don’t care,” she mumbled, her fingers tugging at his tie, slipping the top button of his shirt open. “He can’t satisfy me.”
Her fingertips brushed his bare chest and he hissed at the sensation of skin on skin. “No. He can’t. But believe me, I’m going to.”
Hearing the sexy confidence in Reese Campbell’s voice, Amanda melted a little. Okay, a lot. Coming from another guy—like the drunk ass she’d just ditched on the dance floor—the pronouncement might have come off as arrogant. But to her ears, Reese’s certainty about the pleasure he intended to give her was utterly intoxicating. There was no conceit in it; he simply knew, as she did, that their chemistry was enough to take them both to places neither of them had ever gone before.
“One thing we have to make clear up front,” she said, staring up at him, dropping the game for a moment.
“Yes?”
“This is just a one-night stand.”
Instead of taking offense, he laughed softly. “Why don’t you wait until after you’ve actually tasted something off the menu before deciding whether or not you want dessert?”
“I suspect you’re going to fill me up very nicely the first time,” she said, trying to sound seductive but knowing that had come out almost prim.
His continued laughter confirmed it.
She nibbled her bottom lip, her heart beating in excitement at all the ways she wanted to taste him. But the demands of her job, her travel, her commitment to the company and her allergy to anything resembling a relationship made her persist.
“I’m not looking for anything serious or long-term. No entanglements.”
Sounding almost relieved, he replied, “Then we’re on the same page. My life is so full of people right now, the Health Department is gonna cite me for overcrowding.”
She hammered the point home. “So we’re clear. One night, then it’s done. We’ll just enjoy ourselves because it’s a holiday and we’re both unattached and we want each other. We play all night and then walk away in the morning?”
“Sure,” he said with a half grin that promised he didn’t really mean it. But she had the feeling it was as close to a promise as he intended to give her.
“Okay. Good … perfect.”
He stared at her in the darkness, running the tip of his index finger across her cheek. “Yeah. Perfect. That’s exactly the word I’d use.”
For her? For them? For this moment and this night and this wonderful, unexpected interlude? All of the above?
Who gave a damn?
“I want you, stranger,” she said, feeling bold, crazy, wild with need and want. “I want you now.”
He groaned, sinking his hands into her hair, tugging her face to his to capture her mouth in a deep, hard kiss. Without breaking away, he maneuvered her around so her back was to the door, and he crowded her there. Every inch of her body was enveloped by his, every curve, angle and point, and she whimpered and writhed at the feeling of being so utterly in his control.
She wasn’t used to the sensations, had never been so enslaved by a person, a feeling, a need. She felt powerless, immobilized, able only to enjoy what he was doing to her, give herself over completely to his every sensual whim.
Somehow, she just didn’t care. Maybe because she had gone for so long without any kind of physical connection. Or because it was Halloween and she was dressed in a crazy costume. Or that she had never played sexy, sultry games like they were engaging in tonight and had suddenly discovered she liked them. Or simply that she found Reese more attractive and exciting than any man she had ever met. It didn’t matter.
This mattered. Just this.
“Please,” she whispered, not even sure what she was asking for.
Moving his mouth to her jaw, he pressed hot kisses to her even hotter skin. He tasted her neck, before traveling on to her pulse point and licking lightly. “Have I told you that I really like your costume?”
That mouth moved lower, down to her nape, and he scraped his teeth across her collarbone, ever so lightly. She shivered. Ever so lightly.
“I do, too,” she admitted, meaning it. Arching against him, she groaned at the feel of her own silky blouse against her hard, sensitive nipples. The hot pants had never felt so tight, and the seam did wonderfully wicked things to her highly sensitized clit.
“I think I’ll like it even more when it’s on the floor.” His strong hands moved down, brushing her shoulders, sliding the length of her arms. His fingertips brushed hers in a caress so light and delicate she shivered with the need for more.
He cupped her hips, holding her in place. Pressed against him, she almost cried with the need to see, feel, taste and be filled by the massive erection pressed into her groin.
“Don’t you think we should hurry before somebody comes looking for us?” she asked, helpless and desperate for him to go faster. Harder. Now.
“Nobody’s going to come looking for us.”
She wasn’t giving up. “Not even your girlfriend?”
He smiled a little, his white teeth gleaming in the low lighting. “Oh, we have a very open relationship. She told me to come back here and have a fabulous time with you, then tell her all about it.”
God, he was so sexy, tempting her with all that was forbidden and hot. He was still playing, but changing the rules of the game to suit his whim. He made it more taboo, more erotic.
“So does that mean you like handling two women at the same time?” she asked, intentionally trying to inflame him. She wanted him to go faster, give her more, immediately.
She should have known better. Reese merely continued to kiss her mouth, her jaw, her earlobe. “I’d like to have two yous.”
“Why don’t you have one me first before deciding whether you want a double portion?”
Though he chuckled, Reese continued to take his time, dragging this out. He was going to torture her with a slow, seductive ignition rather than just making her explode in a hot, sexual inferno the way she wanted him to.
“You evil man,” she muttered.
Reese moved his mouth back to her throat, kissing his way down, licking, nibbling. Amanda could only wriggle and moan as sensations washed over her. When his rough cheek brushed the upper curve of one breast, she instinctively arched toward him, wanting a much more intimate connection.
Reese complied, rubbing his cheek against the silky blouse as he moved his mouth to her nipple. He breathed over it, hot and anticipatory, then covered the taut peak and sucked her through the material.
“You wonderful man,” she groaned.
Her legs going weak, she sagged against him. His body in front of her and the door at her back seemed to be the only things holding her up.
As much as she wanted him to, he didn’t pull her blouse open and suckle her bare breast, seeming content to torment her through her clothes.
“Reese, touch me, please,” she whispered.
He was touching her, gripping her hips, his fingertips digging lightly into her bottom. But she wanted so much more.
Reese’s strong hands traveled up her sides in a slow, deliberate slide. The palms nestled in the indentation of her waist, cupped tenderly, then rose to her midriff, right beside her breasts.
“Beautiful,” he murmured as he tightened his hands, plumping her breasts up so the top curves almost spilled free of the blouse. Then the ancient top button gave way, popping open. He took immediate advantage, lowering his face and nuzzling against her, even as he worked the next button free, and the one below that.
When the silky blouse fell off her shoulders, Reese stepped back so he could look down at her, his appreciative stare turning into one of pure, raging hunger. This time, she didn’t have to ask him to touch her, taste her. Instead, he immediately bent down, covering a nipple with his mouth and sucking hard.
She tangled her hands in his hair, holding him there, feeling every deep pull right down to the quivering spot of sensation between her thighs. Tweaking her other breast with his hand, he rolled the tip between his fingertips. A firm pluck brought a shaky cry to her lips. Reese moved his mouth over to kiss and suck away any twinge of pain, though he knew—he had to know—that what she felt was utter pleasure.
Desperate for skin-on-skin contact, she yanked at his shirt, pulling it apart, not giving a damn that a few buttons went flying. He didn’t seem to care, either. He simply shrugged out of it, continuing the lovely, erotic attention to her breasts.
Then, once he, too, was bare from the waist up, he moved back to her mouth and kissed her deeply. Their tongues tangled and played as their bare chests sizzled against one another. She didn’t know that she’d ever felt anything as delicious as the crisp hairs on his chest scraping across her moist nipples.
Except, perhaps, for his mouth. And his hands. And, she suspected, just about anything else he chose to press against her in the next fifteen minutes.
They didn’t end the kiss, not even when they each reached for the other’s waistbands. His deft fingers easily unfastened her hot pants, and his costume was so loose on him, she only had to unbutton, not unzip, before she was able to push the trousers down over his lean hips.
He’d had something on under his clothes—boxer briefs that strained to contain an erection that literally made her suck in a shocked, delighted breath.
All that hugeness. All hers. At least for tonight.
Before he let the pants fall away, he reached into the pocket. “I hope you don’t think I was taking you for granted, but I bought this from a machine in the men’s room.”
She saw him tug the condom from his pocket and grinned. “My purse is over there. And if you look inside, you’ll see that I stopped at the airport gift shop and bought an entire box. So I think I’m the one who could be accused of taking you for granted.”
“Anytime, anywhere, beautiful.”
She liked the way he called her that, liked the way he silently repeated it with his eyes as he stared at her. His gaze was covetous as he stepped back enough to look down at her middle, her hips, the juncture of her thighs.
That look was so hungry, she should have been warned about what he was going to do. But she wasn’t. It took her completely by surprise when he dropped to his knees on the bare cement floor and pressed his mouth to the hollow just below her pelvic bone. Then his soft, seeking tongue was dipping low, licking the moisture off her damp curls.
Oral sex was, to quote the song, one of her favorite things. But she had never gotten it quite so quickly from a man. Or quite so….
“Oh, God,” she groaned when he moved lower, sliding that warm, sweet tongue between the lips of her sex and swirling it around her throbbing clit. “That’s fantastic.”
She sagged against the door, helpless to do anything else under the onslaught of such intense pleasure. And she didn’t make a sound of protest when he encircled one of her bare limbs with a big, strong hand. Without a word, he guided it over his shoulder, tilting her sex even closer to his hungry mouth.
“Reese, you don’t have to …”
“Yeah, actually I do,” he mumbled, continuing what he was doing.
She looked down at him, seeing her own booted foot resting against his back. Only now it looked incredibly hot and sexy, the ultimate do-me boots from the original era of free love.
She suddenly felt like the girl she’d been portraying. Like she was some sexy stewardess having a crazy closet interlude with a pilot, just because she wanted to. No explanations, no questions, no regrets. Live in the moment and love the one you’re with.
Sounded pretty damn fine to her.
“Stop thinking. Let go,” he ordered, not looking up.
Amanda did what he asked, giving up any effort to pretend she didn’t want him to finish what he’d started.
Finish it he did. Within moments, she felt the sparking, zinging waves of heated delight that had been focusing tightly in on her clit turn around and explode outward. They rocketed through her entire body, wave upon wave, delighting her to the tips of each strand of hair.
Amanda cried out, rocking her hips. He stayed with her, continuing to taste her as she rode the orgasm out, milking it and squeezing her muscles tight to wring out every last bit of sensation. And only after it was over did he slide out from under her leg and ease his way up her naked body.
She was panting and nearly desperate by the time his face was level with hers. His eyes gleaming, he licked at his moist lips and whispered, “Definitely want to keep ordering off this menu.”
Dying for him now, needing to be filled, she grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled his face to hers for a deep, drugging kiss. This time, she was the one who lifted her leg. Wrapping it around his thighs, she tilted her groin against that thick erection still covered by his briefs.
“Off,” she ordered, mumbling the command against his mouth.
He moved a few inches away, far enough to strip out of the last of his clothes. Far enough for Amanda to look down and take measure of the delightful present that was headed her way.
Whoa. As she’d suspected, Reese’s “present” was far greater than any she’d ever seen before. She nearly panted with the need to have all that male heat slamming into her, filling the hollow core that had practically grown dusty with disuse.
“Damn. I wasn’t exaggerating,” she whispered.
He didn’t even glance up, tearing the condom open with his teeth and rolling it onto his cock as he mumbled, “Hmm?”
“I told that jerk on the dance floor that if he thought he could measure up to you, he obviously needed to get a new ruler because his had to be broken.”
He barked a laugh, but that immediately faded when he moved between her thighs. Amanda lifted her leg again, opening for him, arching toward the massive tip and rubbing her body’s natural juices over it.
He put a hand on the door behind her head, palm flat, his strong arm just above her shoulders. She turned her head for a moment, wanting to taste his wrist, feel his blood pounding in his veins. She did so, licking the sweat off him, feeling the strength of his pulse against her tongue. His excitement merely fueled her own as she looked back up into his face, losing herself in those blue eyes.
Their stare never broke as he eased into her. He moved slowly, with utter restraint. Amanda’s mouth fell open with a tiny gasp at the feel of him as he went deeper, inch by inch. He was solid and thick, stretching her, making a place for himself within her body.
A temporary one, she knew that. But she also knew it was one she would never ever forget. This was the one-night lover every woman fantasized about at least once in her life. And for tonight, he was hers.
“Perfect,” he said, echoing his earlier claim.
This time, she knew what he was talking about. Knew as he slid home, burying himself to the hilt inside her, that he meant their connection was perfect. Being joined with him felt about as wonderful as anything on this earth possibly could.
“You okay?”
She nodded, unable to speak. Sensations battered her, his smell, the heat of his skin against hers, his warm breaths against her cheek. She even felt his heartbeat, realizing at once that its rhythm was perfectly matched to her own, as if they shared one single organ.
“Perfect,” she finally agreed.
As if he’d been waiting for her, to make sure she was really okay with his incredibly deep possession, Reese finally began to move. He dropped his hands to her hips, holding her still as he slowly withdrew, then slid into her again, making her feel so damn good she let out a tiny sob.
The next thrust was a little harder. The one after that harder still. Each wrung a louder groan from her throat.
“More,” she ordered, digging her hands into his broad shoulders, still stunned by the strength of the body he’d hidden beneath that conservative suit.
“You got it.”
He lifted her, his hands holding her bottom, controlling every thrust, every move, every sensation. Wrapping her legs around his hips, Amanda kissed his cheeks, stroked his hair and held on while he brought her to another intense orgasm.
It rocked her, hard. She threw her head back and cried out, banging into the door but not really caring. Nor did she care when Reese seemed to lose whatever remnants of control had been restraining him. As if her cries of pleasure had stripped away his every thought, he drove into her mindlessly, until finally, with a cry that was twice the volume of her own, he climaxed, too.
He held her there for a long time, still inside her, his breath sounding ragged and his heart pounding crazily against hers. Finally, though, he let her down to stand on her own two shaky legs.
He didn’t let her loose entirely, keeping his arms draped around her shoulders. Finally, after a few minutes during which her pulse dropped back from the red zone to orange, he lifted a hand to her face and cupped her chin.
“Amanda?”
“Yeah?”
“Where do you live?”
“I have an apartment not too far from here.”
He nodded, then disentangled himself from her with one last, regretful caress. “Let’s get dressed. Or, get as dressed as we can given the missing buttons.” He stared at her intently, as if he were looking for some clue to her mood. “If you really meant it, if we’ve only got one nights …”
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew what he was asking. Did she really want to stick to that original condition?
Oh, God, was she tempted to tell him to forget what she’d said. Having had him once, it seemed almost inconceivable that she wouldn’t have him again after tonight.
But a small voice inside her head—the one that kept reminding her of just how badly every one of her previous affairs had ended—wouldn’t let her do it. So she said nothing.
He nodded once, then pressed a hard kiss on her lips.
“Got it.” He handed her her clothes and began pulling on his, as well. “Let’s hurry up, then. If we’ve only got this one night, I want to spend as much of it as I possibly can in your bed … making love to you.”
Her hand shook a little. Because with those words, those sexy, tender words, a sneaking suspicion crossed her mind.
One night was not going to be enough.