“Yes, and thanks to you, I’m getting the best of New Orleans. Brunch this morning was divine. Even though I’m still a little mortified about your parents, that spot by the river was beautiful and made it worth the embarrassment. Everywhere else you took me today was spectaular, and now we’re here for dinner.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “If you didn’t notice, I do love good food.”
“I might’ve noticed that,” I murmured. “Glad to be of service.”
Mari’s blouse wasn’t fitted, but the slip and slide of the silk when she moved to lift her margarita gave me a tease of her cleavage. I’d been hard for most of the night since we’d arrived. The place was crowded, so we’d eaten right here at the bar, sharing oysters.
My eyes tracked her motion when she tilted her chin back. I wanted to lean forward and drag my tongue along the side of her neck. Tearing my gaze away, my eyes landed on the silky skin of her thigh. Fuck me. There was nowhere safe to look. Her skirt had ridden up to rest halfway up her thighs where she sat on the stool.
Before I thought about it, I was reaching to tug her stool a little closer to mine. She lowered her drink, setting the glass on the bar. When her eyes met mine, her pupils were dilated—the blue was dark in the dim lighting of the bar.
It was crowded here, yet we were tucked in the corner, right against the wall. I watched her with my heart drumming hard and fast, and my cock swelling. I wanted her. Hell, I was near to desperation from the fierce need.
In a hot second, Mari’s plush lips were inches from mine, and her tongue swiped out to dab in one corner. Not thinking had me dipping my head and brushing my lips across hers before dusting kisses down her neck. The sound of her breath catching in her throat and a soft little gasp escaping was like a sharp spur driving in the flanks of my desire.
“Nash!” she gasped again when I nipped lightly at her ear lobe.
“Hmm?” I murmured against her skin as I slid a palm up her silky thigh.
“There are people everywhere,” she whispered when I lifted my head to look into her eyes.
“We’re just kissing.”
When I teased my fingers over the silk between her thighs, she bit her lip and shook her head slightly. “It’s not just kissing.”
“Tell me to stop, and I promise I will.”
I didn’t wait for her reply and slid my hand away, fully taking it off her warm, tempting skin.
Mari bit her lip again, driving those spurs deeper as the need in me strained to be let loose.
“I don’t want you to stop,” she rasped after a long, heavy moment.
Leaning forward, I brushed my lips across hers again and let my palms slide over her skin. I almost let out a growl at her moan when I trailed my fingers over the silk between her thighs, gratified to find it wet. As deep as my desire ran for Mari, I didn’t want to be alone in it.
Everything around us receded as I hooked a finger over the edge of her panties. I watched her when I dragged my fingers through her slick folds. Her channel rippled around me as I drove two fingers into her slick, clenching heat.
“Nash…”
“What?” My voice was tight, like the rest of my body, as I tried to hold myself back.
“I thought you were a gentleman,” she choked out as I slipped my fingers back before driving deep inside her again.
“Only sometimes.”
This was crazy and decidedly public, so I wasn’t going to drag it out. With one of my arms curled around her waist and the other shielded by her flirty skirt, I knew no one could see what I was doing, but still.
I swirled my thumb around her swollen clit, and she gasped. Her channel clamped tight around my fingers. She choked out my name as her eyes fell closed, and her orgasm rippled through her entire body.
Chapter 16
Mari
Opening my eyes, I sat there as my body rippled with the aftershocks of my climax. I was literally stunned with pleasure as Nash withdrew his touch from the very core of me and put my panties back in place. The sounds around us gradually filtered into my awareness.
Nash’s eyes ensnared mine, and prickly awareness chased over my skin. I didn’t know what to think of what was happening—with me even letting this happen. It felt as if we’d known each other for far longer than we had in terms of time.
Nash leaned forward, pressing an almost chaste kiss on my temple. “How late do you want to stay?”
My heartbeat echoed through my body. All I knew was I wanted more, so much more that it made me feel a little crazy. I finally looked away from him, taking in the people around the bar. The jazz music rolled along with a sensuous beat, and the hum of strangers’ voices punctured the haze of lust clouding my thoughts.
Looking back to Nash, I replied, “Let’s go. Now.”
His eyes searched mine, and it felt as if he were trying to suss out what I was thinking. I wished him luck on that because clarity was millions of miles away for me.
Only moments later, his hand was resting at the base of my spine as he guided me through the people crowding the streets of downtown New Orleans. Glancing up, I asked, “Is it ever not busy here?”
“For the most part, no. The weather is usually warm, so it’s a good place to visit all year round.”
As we turned down the cross street that intersected the road where Nash’s offices were, and by extension where I was staying, a sense of uneasiness crept through me. As I looked around, I saw a vehicle parked on the opposite corner. I looked up at Nash to find his eyes narrowed on the same car, his gaze quiet and assessing.
“It’s just a car,” I thought to myself.
“So it is.” It was only when Nash replied that I realized I’d spoken aloud.
Glancing up at him again, I asked, “I think I’m being weird, but that car freaks me out.”
“You’re not being weird. Trust your gut. It’s not the car that has my nerves on edge. It’s the guy standing on the opposite street corner. Don’t look.” I quickly averted my gaze as I’d almost reflexively looked in that direction as soon as he spoke.
“What is it about the guy?” I kept my voice close to a whisper.
“I’m guessing he’s from one of the gangs here in New Orleans.”
My breath hissed through my teeth in a startled inhalation. “How would you even know that?”
“Let’s talk once we get inside.”
We walked in silence as we turned onto the next block. My heart was drumming out a fast, nervous beat, and my stomach churned. I didn’t manage to take a full breath until Nash punched in the security code on my door after we were already in the building and upstairs.
I walked quickly across the room, my arms wrapping tight around my waist as I stared out into the darkness. Spinning back, I found Nash standing a few feet away, his gaze pensive as he watched me.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know.” Realizing I would be visible to anyone outside in the darkness, I tapped the button that closed the automatic shades on the windows. The very windows I had loved this morning with the bright sunlight splashing into the room felt menacing now. I felt like a fish in a bowl.
“I only told you my concern about that man because I promised myself I wasn’t going to hide things from you.”