“Want to talk about it?”
She shakes her head, her finger toying with the delicate edge of her glass. “Not even a little bit. The last thing I want to do right now with a hot stranger is think about life stuff and even less to talk about myself.”
“Now I’m a hot stranger?”
“Just sayin’ it like it is. My nana, rest her soul, would have tanned my hide for doing otherwise. Plus, this delicious cocktail is loosening my lips.”
I blink at her, leaning in. “Wanna know a secret?”
“Sure.”
“I like sexy, confident, hot women. It’s why I came and sat down beside you.”
A hint of a blush blooms across her cheeks as her eyes darken. She gives me a flirty smirk that goes straight to my dick. “Then I guess we have something in common.”
“Guess so. I take it you’re visiting Boston?”
She laughs sardonically. “Just moved here actually. As in tonight. New town, new job, new life. How did you know I wasn’t from around here?”
Now it’s my turn to laugh at her teasing lilt, my gaze dragging hungrily across her. “Exactly how Southern are you?”
“Very Southern. So Southern my home state is practically its own country and only a hundred miles separate where I grew up from Mexico. But you’re asking me questions about myself, Luca, and I believe I already clarified that’s not a subject I want to chat about.”
“That doesn’t give me much to work with.”
She raises a challenging eyebrow at me, angling her head in my direction. “We could always talk about you.”
My finger drags along my lower lip. “What do you want to know?” I ask cautiously. I can’t tell if she already knows something personal about me and is trying to play the game where she pretends she doesn’t or if she’s genuinely curious.
“Do you come here often?”
I grin at her cheeky line, taking a sip of my drink to hide it. “I’ve been known to.”
She reaches for her glass and does the same with her own smile. We do that staring thing again, unable to look away. It’s just us, nothing else, the bar floating into the background, and I’m captivated.
“Because this is where you pick up women?”
I lean in a little more. “Does that bother you?”
She thinks about this, her gaze dancing around my face, so I return the favor, taking in every detail. The way her hair tumbles around her in thick, glossy waves of smooth honeycomb. The innocence to her large, round eyes, almost too big for her face. The light dusting of freckles adorning the bridge of her petite nose only visible up close. The delicate beauty of her high cheekbones kissed with a heart-shaped freckle just beneath her right eye. Then there are her lips. Lush and bow-shaped and insanely kissable.
Each of these features individually isn’t anything all that impressive, but on her they flawlessly coalesce, giving her stunning beauty a seductively sweet look. The all-American girl next door with a siren’s temptation. A total vixen.
“Surprisingly, it doesn’t,” she declares after a quiet beat. “I could go for being picked up. It’s been a while. Is this how you typically do it? Judging by the women at the end of the bar staring at you like you’re a juicy steak, I’m guessing you don’t have to work all that hard for it.”
“It depends,” I muse, setting my glass down on the bar and dropping my hands in between us. They flirt with the gap between our legs, so close to her bare knees, testing the waters. “Sometimes I do have to work for it. Others not so much.”
She cocks a playful eyebrow, her lips curving up, making her eyes sparkle against the dim overhead lights. “Hmmm. And where do I rank on that scale? Am I making it too easy for you, Luca? It’s been a while since I played this particular game. I’m not quite sure how it all works.”
I grunt, staring down at my hands for a beat, the small smile and the thrill of the chase I had going plummeting as a fresh wave of guilt slams into me. I should have told her the truth from the start, corrected her when she called me Luca, but it’s too late for that now.
“Nothing about you is too easy. It took all my nerve to come and sit beside you.”
Her eyes widen at that, incredulous, but her honesty seems to draw some of my own to leak out. She’s real. I don’t know her, but somehow, I know that. She’s not those women and maybe that’s what drew me over to her despite her sadness I want no part of.
“Is this all you wanted to do? Sit beside me and chat?”
“No. Not even close. I don’t come here for the conversation.”
My eyes coast along her face, watching her with an uneasiness that wasn’t there before. I just basically set my cards on the table, waiting to see if she’ll pick them up and play a round with me.
She sucks in a rush of air. “And you sat beside me?”
A ghost of a smile teases my lips. “I did.” I blink at her deer-in-headlights expression. “Did I insult you?”
“No,” she sputters. “Does it make me a total hussy if I admit I like that more than I know I should? You have no idea how long it’s been since a man looked at me the way you are.”
“You’re beautiful. Any man who doesn’t look at you this way is a fool.” I shift ever so slightly on my stool with a purpose that makes her breath hitch. Her scent reaches me first, light and floral as it curls around me, forcing me to take a deeper inhale than I’d like. My cock jerks in my pants, my insides quickening with anticipation.
I want this woman. More than I can remember wanting anyone in a very long time.
Desire burns a path through my body, warning me to walk away before I do something I can’t undo. But the devil in her eyes keeps me rooted in place. It’s playing with my own, reminding me how long it’s been since I’ve lost myself in a warm, willing body.
Here goes nothing.
My lips skirt past her face, heading directly for her ear. A shiver courses through her as she does everything she can not to squirm. “How much have you had to drink tonight, Elle?” I whisper, my warm breath brushing her sensitive skin.
“The one your friend just poured is my second drink.”
“Do me a favor then?” I swallow, releasing a shuddered breath that would be embarrassing if I wasn’t so keyed up by her proximity. “Don’t have any more.” My face slips back, hovering a few inches away from hers as I stare into her eyes. “I want to take you upstairs and fuck you all night. And I need you sober for that.”
She swallows. Hard. “And this is something you want to do now?”
A dirty smile spreads across my face. “Yes. If that’s what you want?”
2
Luca’s words zip around in my head over and over like a deranged pinball as I stare at him, a little surprised. I expected him to flee with his good sense the moment I unleashed a touch of my crazy. Instead, he studies me with a barely-there smirk and a dark gleam to his wicked, half-mast eyes that can only be described as flagrant lust.
I’m not even sure that makes sense, but that’s still how he’s looking at me. Like there are no other women in this bar—there are dozens, all staring at him, might I add. Like I’m the most beautiful and interesting woman he’s ever encountered—I highly doubt that, though I have always considered myself a catch. Like there’s nowhere else he’d rather be right now than sitting beside me—I already know that’s not true since he just propositioned me for sex and told me he’s not here for the conversation.