I laugh. “That’s an interesting reason to dump somebody.”
“There were little clumps of cold coffee sugar all the time. I even made a jar of sugar that was just for her. But that was sort of the tipping point where I started to notice everything else that made us completely incompatible, you know?”
I nod. “What else?”
He shrugs. “She didn’t brush her teeth until bedtime some days. She was a mess in the bathroom, make-up and hair shit everywhere. Oh, plus she was manipulative as fuck.”
“She sounds awful.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, she pretty much was.”
I glance over at him. “Are you over her?”
“Yeah. It had been over a long time. You know?” He shrugs. “My buddies tonight told me I need to get laid. I just guess I’m not ready to jump back into something after the mess my last relationship turned out to be.” He’s quiet for a beat, and then he says, “Your turn for the hot seat. Why are your friends trying to get you laid?”
“Apparently I’m the only one of them who hasn’t had a one-night stand,” I admit.
“I could definitely help you out there now that I know your name.”
I giggle. “Oh, and I should probably also tell you, this past Tuesday, I was dumped and lost my job on the same day.”
He sits up and swings his legs so he’s facing me. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands in front of him. “Now this is a story I want to hear.” His eyes twinkle. They glow at me, actually, and I get a little lost in them for a beat.
I know this is only meant to last one night, but for just a second, I think there could be more with someone like him. I realize I’m not ready for all that after starting fresh in a new city, but my chest aches for a second as the connection we seem to share plows into me.
I twist my lips and debate how honest to be, and then I go for it. Hell, everyone else knows the story by now. I may as well be honest with a stranger. “I seduced the guy I was seeing while we were in his office and our boss caught us.”
“Oh God, that had to be awkward.”
“It gets worse. I was just about to, you know...” I trail off, and he looks confused, so I spell it out even though my cheeks are burning with embarrassment. “Orgasm. I was about to orgasm when she walked in. And then he shifted when he heard the door, and it shot me over, and then I had an orgasm while my boss watched. And then she fired us both.”
“At least tell me you had your clothes back on when she fired you.” His voice holds just a hint of teasing, and I can’t help my laugh.
“Yeah, I did. I was wearing a dress so I hadn’t taken anything off. She gave us a minute to compose ourselves.”
“Did he finish?” he asks, genuinely curious and invested in my story at this point.
I throw up both hands. “No! He didn’t even want to!”
“That guy is fucking insane. He was banging a girl as hot as you in his office and he didn’t even finish?”
I shrug nonchalantly but it doesn’t escape my attention that he just called me hot.
Me.
Hot.
He thinks I’m hot.
That’s right.
And he used my word.
“Good use of bang. And right?” I ask, somehow maintaining my cool as I let the word slide by. “So the boss comes back in, fires us both, leaves, and then he tells me something about how this isn’t working for him.”
“Ouch.”
“It’s fine,” I say with the flip of a hand. “We’d only been casually dating a couple months. It’s not like I was in love with him or anything.”
“So you’re over him, and I’m over my ex, and we’re just two single people sitting by the pool and dancing around the fact that we want each other just for tonight while I try to prove to you that I’m not a bad guy.”
I smirk. “I think you’ve proved it. You didn’t even try to kiss me in the club, not even when I was practically humping your leg.” Yeah, alcohol tends to make my filter disappear. I’d never say that to someone if I was totally sober. Particularly not to someone as gorgeous as this guy. I wouldn’t have given him all those details about Todd if I was sober, either.
I mean, probably not, anyway. My brain to mouth filter has been known to malfunction upon (frequent) occasion.
We’re quiet for a beat, and then he says in a voice so husky it’s dripping with sex, “Oh, Sexy Ellie. I wanted to. I was just trying to prove I’m a good guy.”
My chest swells and the ache between my thighs pulses.
“I wanted you to." My voice is low and it’s a clear invitation.
He unclasps his hands and stands, and then he moves with caution toward my chair. I look up at him, and maybe he should look dangerous out here since he’s a total stranger, but he doesn’t. There’s something intrinsic between the two of us that makes me trust him. I feel it deep in my bones. He’s not a bad guy, and I want this. He wants this. We’re two consenting adults.
I’m still stretched out on my chair, and he reaches down with both hands. I set my hands in his, and he pulls me up to standing.
Then he sits, and he pulls me back down so I’m straddling his lap. All memories of straddling Todd in a desk chair are easily replaced with this, the new memory I’ll have of the hottest moment I ever straddled someone. He looks up at me, and I look down at him, and it isn’t just the Vegas heat that’s passing between us.
The sexual tension drips thickly all around us, too thick to cut with a knife. It’s this palpable thing I can feel, and then he reaches a hand under my hair as he cups my neck with his big palm.
His eyes are still hot on mine, and I read all the lust that surely he must see reflected back at him. And then he pulls my neck down until our lips touch.
I move both hands to his jaw, at once out of passion and to hold his face and feel the roughness and remind myself that this moment is really happening.
His lips are firm and tender at the same time, and when he opens his mouth and his tongue brushes against mine, I lose all sense. From out of nowhere comes this sudden feeling like I need this kiss in order to breathe, like if it stops so will my oxygen.
His hand remains on my neck, big and warm, and his other holds me at my waist. His fingers dig into me there, like he wants to feel my skin but my dress is in the way—like he’s trying to rein in the passion but he just can’t.
His body is warm and hard beneath mine, and all this kiss is serving to do is make me want this one night with him more than anything in the world.
I shift my hips down, and he shifts his toward me, too.
He wants this. He wants me.
The brush of his tongue turns into something hotter and more intense, and even though it’s just a kiss on a patio by a pool, it feels like so damn much more. It’s melting me into a puddle of lust for this man, and the way he’s kissing me back tells me he feels it, too.
I finally pull apart from his mouth. Our eyes meet, and his are hooded with lust.
God do I want him.
“Come up to my room with me,” I murmur, mostly because it would be indecent to do the things with him that I want to do right here on this pool lounge chair even though it’s deserted out here.
His lips are swollen as he nips another kiss to my mouth, and then he pulls back with a lazy smile. “Let’s go.”