by Riley Ashby
He laughed. “I don’t hear that often. Lean into me.” He repeated the motions on my left foot, then gripped my forearm to hold me steady as he stood to full height. “You should stay close to your friends. There are a lot of people who would take advantage of a girl as drunk as you.”
Was that a friendly reminder or a warning? Speaking to a strange man on the sidewalk in the late-night hours should have sent my alarm bells ringing. I’d almost been left behind by all my friends. What if this man had other intentions besides helping me with my shoes? My gut was telling me he wasn’t a threat, but still, I couldn’t exactly trust myself at the moment. I needed to get away before I did something I regretted.
I coughed and moved my hand from his shoulder. “I think I can make it from here. Thank you for your help.”
“If you say so. Don’t break an ankle.” He released my arm, one finger at a time, almost as if he was trying to let his touch linger. Even after I was free, I remained rooted to the spot, staring up at the man who had swooped in to make sure my feet didn’t get too cold.
“Thanks again. I really appreciate it.” I sounded like a broken record. I forced myself to focus on his face. Thus far, I’d been fixated on those hands, his leather gloves warming against my skin the longer he held me. His dark hair was swept over the back of his head, stirring slightly in the breeze. Evergreen eyes held mine, and the nighttime noises seemed to melt away as all my blood rushed to my face. He was gorgeous, like something out of a dream. What was he doing helping me with my shoes? He should be lost on the dance floor with a woman much prettier than me, someone who could show him a good time without the baggage I dragged around like an invisible anchor. Yet he didn’t seem to want to move away from me.
“Steady.” His hand landed on the small of my back, holding me upright as I tottered in my heels. Warmth spread through my body at his touch.
I had to laugh at myself. It was the alcohol making me feel like something was pulling us together. He was no one, a nice guy who stopped to help a drunk girl who had the stupid idea to take off her shoes in near-freezing weather. That was all. “This is why I took them off in the first place.”
“Maybe you should call it a night.” He inched closer, crowding my space, but I found I didn’t mind. Even with his hand at my back, I was still unsteady, and I instinctively reached out a hand and placed it against his chest to steady myself. He closed his hand over mine, pressing my entire palm against his skin. “Do you need a ride home?”
“The limo will get me.” I bit my lip to keep from asking him to join me. “Sorry to ruin your plans to save the day.”
He smiled out of one side of his mouth. “My plans are far from ruined.” He licked his lips.
This was dangerous; he was too handsome and too warm. Katie wanted me to find a man tonight, but I was in no condition to be going home with anyone. The smart thing to do now would be to get away from him. “I should get back to my friends.” They were walking toward me again, a chattering gaggle of flighty birds coming back for the wounded member of the flock. “Thank you for your help with my shoes.”
“Any time.” With a quick squeeze of my hand, he released me and stepped back. “Enjoy the rest of your night.”
He turned and stepped away in time for Katie to swoop in and replace his hand on my back. “Was that guy bothering you?”
If he was, you certainly took your time rescuing me. “No, he helped me with my shoes.”
She nodded, eyes glassy from alcohol and cheeks red from the wind. Without the man near me anymore, the cold began to sting my face as well. “Are you ready for our final stop?”
Truth be told, I would have been happy to fall into bed, but all my friends were still amped up and ready to go. They didn’t have responsibilities waiting for them the next day, designs to review and approve on top of homework and essays. They didn’t have a mother at home watching the clock, checking her phone for updates and watching the news for crime reports in case her baby had gotten involved in anything dangerous. This had been a fun night out, but that was all it would be—one night. Tomorrow, things would go back to normal, and I would fondly remember the night I went partying with my friends and a handsome stranger helped me with my shoes.
We came to our last stop of the night—the club where my parents met so many years ago—and were enjoying the bottle service in VIP while heavy club music pounded around us. The familiar mask of exhaustion was slipping down around my eyes, and I had to force myself to sit up straight and alternate sips of water with my rum and Coke. The night should have ended two hours ago. I’d fall asleep even with the music going if they’d let me.
“Psst,” Katie said, nudging me. “That guy has been staring at you all night.” She pointed none too subtly across the room at a man standing in the crowd.
I sighed and shifted in my seat, slapping down Katie’s hand as I did so. “Don’t point, it’s rude.” But I looked in the direction she indicated, coming to a halt immediately as my blue eyes locked with a pair of startling emeralds. I sat up a little straighter. It was the man from outside! Did he follow me here? “That’s the guy who helped me put my shoes back on.”
She slapped my own hand back in retribution. “Go thank him. It’s your birthday. You deserve it.” The words slurred through her lips, and she wavered even sitting down. Looking at her made me seasick, but I doubted I looked any better. I’d caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror when we got here. My carefully crafted makeup was smeared to hell, and my hair had been whipped by the wind to look like I’d just rolled out of bed. I used some makeup wipes offered to me by the attendant to clear the mascara and eye shadow gathered in the bags under my eyes and pulled my hair into a ponytail slicked back with some hair spray. I looked less like a swamp witch and more like the girl who’d left my parents’ house hours before, but I couldn’t do anything to fix my exhaustion brought on by too much alcohol and being up hours past my bedtime. Still, the man staring at me didn’t seem put off by my appearance. Even from the corner of my eye, I could tell his gaze never strayed from me, heavy on my skin like the threat of rain before a thunderstorm.
I sneaked another look at the stranger. His slicked-back black hair had tumbled forward into his eyes, and his body was still against the masses of people swaying to the music. I averted my eyes again, trying to focus on drinking the glass of water in my hand. Despite how attractive he was, something about him was unsettling. A predatory look in his eyes that warned me I should stay away or face the consequences. And I still couldn’t shake the lingering uneasiness after our interaction on the sidewalk.
There are a lot of people who would take advantage of a girl as drunk as you.
At the same time, that warning light in my brain was dying a quick death at the hands of the raw pull between us. When I’d placed my hand on his shoulder to steady myself as he helped me put my shoes back on, something had leached into me from him, the pull of a magnet that wouldn’t let me forget his face no matter how much the alcohol tried to blur my memories. And now here he was, at the same club as me, ignoring the girls sashaying in front of him and trying to catch his attention with bare arms and skirts so skimpy they were nearly underwear. As we continued to stare at each other, he raised his chin slightly, the unspoken invitation ringing out across the room as clearly as the music pumping from the speakers.
Come.
I wasn’t in control of my arm as it reached to grab Katie’s hand, fingers closing around air a couple of times before finding her arm. “Let’s go dance.”
It was a precarious trip to the dance floor, unsteady as we were in our tall shoes, but Katie and I eventually landed in the middle of the dance floor. She wrapped her arms around my neck, giggling, and I grabbed her waist. She pulled me in closer and pushed her lips against my cheek before yelling into my ear. “I have to pee.”
No way she was leaving me alone out here. “I’ll go with you.”
“Not a chance, girlfriend.” She shoved me backward, sending my
arms flailing. I braced myself to land on my ass and give the entire dance floor a view up my short skirt in the process, but instead, I collided with a brick wall. A brick wall with hands now gripping my upper arms, helping me stay upright. I turned around and came face-to-face with my green-eyed admirer. We were nearly the same height in my heels, but the flashing strobe lights of the dance floor turned his eyes to black. I immediately took a step back, but his hand circled around my waist. He held me gently, nonthreateningly but still firm enough to keep me close.
I stood very still, unsure whether to flee or lean into him. I didn’t know who this man was, or why he was suddenly so close to me. But with us in such proximity, that magnetic pull became irresistible. Even though his eyes were dark, desire burned clearly in his gaze. My hand rose to his chest unbidden, resting gently over his heart. He placed his own hand over mine as he had outside, and a heat that had nothing to do with the number of people in the room rushed through my body.
He leaned in toward me, and I braced myself for a kiss, but he turned his head to shout into my ear.
“Dance with me.” My tongue came out to lick my lower lip, and he stared at it until I closed my mouth again. One finger brushed under my chin and tilted my gaze toward him. “Is that a yes?”
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m with my friend.” But when I turned to look at Katie, she was winking and giving me two thumbs-up. Damn her. We would have to talk about encouraging drunken bad decisions.
The stranger noticed her encouragement as well. “I don’t think she’ll mind,” he said. He took his hand off mine and cupped my nape, rubbing his thumb up and down the side of my neck. It felt nice. Soothing. His hands were rough but not callused, and I could imagine what they would feel like down my back as surely as if he was actually touching me there.
He tightened his arm around my waist and pulled me closer, then began to sway with the music. I had no choice but to move with him. The song was unfamiliar, but it didn’t seem to matter. My heavy breathing had nothing to do with the dancing. The way he held me against him was more intoxicating than anything else I had drunk. Was this what it felt like to match your soul with someone else’s? Meet a person whose body slotted perfectly against yours in the dark hours of the night when you didn’t care who might see you or what they would say? When you finally let go of years of anger for the way your life had turned out, how different it was from what you imagined, and pretended you were … normal?
One night. That’s all.
I swallowed and closed my eyes for a second, and when I opened them again, he was looking at me. “I don’t usually do this,” I confessed.
He gave me that lopsided grin again. “What’s that? Have fun?”
“No—” I cut off my denial. He was right. Fun hadn’t really been on the table for me for a long time. Even as a college student, I constantly watched my liquor intake and left parties early to go home and study or do some work before getting a full eight hours of sleep. And going home with boys? Out of the question. The fear of becoming pregnant before I was ready had paralyzed me into abstinence, and even at twenty-one, I found myself less experienced than most high schoolers. That wasn’t the kind of life I’d wanted, but it was the one I’d lived nonetheless. Trying to make up for a lost life, I made sure never to be a disappointment so my parents would never wish it had been me who disappeared instead.
I nodded. “Yeah. Fun.”
“I bet we could have a lot more fun together if you want.” His arm on my waist pulled me even closer, and my other hand went between his shoulder blades. His eyes fluttered shut, and he leaned closer to my ear. “I’d like to feel your hand there again. Later.”
The heat in his voice shot straight to my core, and I clenched my legs together as he brushed his lips against my ear. Who was this girl who drank to intoxication and let herself be seduced by strange men on the dance floor? As if sensing my reaction, the hand on my back sank lower, skirting above my butt. I moaned, low in my throat, and prayed he couldn’t hear me over the music. I had to get control of myself.
It’s only one night.
It was already late, but my parents thought I’d be going to a hotel with Katie after this, then out for lunch the next day. I wasn’t expected home until evening. My friends knew where I was. They’d all seen him. And if he was in the city this late, he couldn’t live far—maybe a twenty-minute drive at most.
Would it really be so bad?
The hand at my neck went away and reappeared in front of me, pulling my lower lip from where I’d trapped it between my teeth. We’d stopped moving completely, foregoing all semblance of dancing to simply stare at each other in the middle of the dance floor. His thumb hovered in front of my open mouth, and as we stared at each other, he pushed it forward slightly to touch the tip of my tongue.
I opened my mouth wider and pulled his thumb into my mouth. The salt on his skin burned into my taste buds as I ran my tongue over his fingerprint.
Oh, my God. Who am I?
“Jesus.” I hadn’t thought he could hold me any closer, but my hand on his chest was forced to slip around his back as he crushed me against him. There was no space between us besides our clothes, and even that couldn’t hide the bulge in his pants pressing against my sex. I was wet and hot, and it had nothing to do with the exertion of dancing or the high temperature in the club. “Let me take you home. Please.”
It was the “please” that did me in.
I buried my head in his chest, too embarrassed to look him in the eye. “Let’s go.”
“Walk with me.” He squeezed my ass so quickly I didn’t have time to protest, then grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles. “I’m barely resisting the urge to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here like a carnival prize.”
I laughed, some of my embarrassment dissipating. “I need to tell Katie where I’m going.”
He looked annoyed at the delay but nodded. “Of course.” He gestured over my shoulder, and a moment later, Katie was by my side.
“You guys look cozy.” She grinned and looked back and forth between us. “How can I help?”
“Quinn is coming home with me.” He held out his hand, palm up. “Can I program my contact info in your phone? I’ll help her meet up with you later.”
“No problem at all.” Katie handed over her phone with a new contact open for him to enter his address. He put in his name—Gunner, I saw, as his fingers flew across the screen—and typed in an address, then handed it back. He looked at me, and I was nearly knocked flat by the intensity of his gaze. “Ready now?”
I nodded mutely and waved to Katie over my shoulder as we walked out.
It was colder outside than I remembered, and I realized too late I’d left my jacket inside. I made a show of rubbing my arms, and Gunner’s arm snatched out to pull me against his side.
“The car isn’t far.”
“How did you know my name?”
“You told me.” He squeezed my arm briefly. “When I was helping you with your shoes.”
“Oh.” I didn’t remember that, but maybe that wasn’t all too surprising. I barely remembered walking into the club. “Where do you live?”
“A little north of here. Hang on.”
We stopped outside a black Maserati, smooth lines of the car blending seamlessly with the night. He paused with one hand on the roof, and he looked up and down the street for a long minute. I followed his gaze, but I couldn’t see anyone. We were totally alone.
I shivered at a gust of wind. “What are you looking for?”
“Witnesses,” he said. Then he kissed me.
I gasped, and it gave him the opening he needed. His tongue dived into my mouth as his hands found my face, holding me in the kiss as he backed me against the car. I groaned and put my hands in his hair, trying to hold myself steady against his passion. No one had ever touched me so aggressively, yet at the same time with such awareness. Every move I made, he responded in kind, tilting his head to fit his lips
better against mine and shifting his hips to press against my curves. I couldn’t help the sounds coming from me. The cold was nonexistent. I wanted to feel his skin against mine and run my fingers down his back like he’d hinted at in the club. Moving my hands down his body, I pulled at his shirt and put my hands on him. Muscles rippled beneath hot flesh. I couldn’t touch him enough.
“More,” I begged.
“You don’t have to ask.” Gunner yanked me away from the car, but his lips never left mine as he reached behind us and opened the door. “I’m going to give you everything you can handle, and then some.” He helped me into the back seat, pressing me flat against the bench and holding me down with his chest. He braced himself with one arm above my head. His other hand grabbed my breast, squeezing hard enough to hurt. I arched my hips into his. One shoe fell off my foot and tumbled to the asphalt.
“Not here.” I gasped. I didn’t want to lose my virginity in the back of a car. But we had to get moving, fast, before I combusted.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’m gonna take my time with you.” He tugged at my dress, pulling down the already low neckline and pushing aside my bra to expose my nipple. “But we both need something before we get on the road.”
I groaned louder as he sucked my flesh into his mouth, his wet tongue flicking across my tight nipple. The gentle ache between my legs had grown to full-blown agony. “Gunner. I’m going to cry if you don’t…” What? What did I want to happen right now?
“What a desperate girl.” He barely took his mouth off my breast to speak. His free hand landed on my thigh, sneaking up beneath my skirt and tugging at the string of my thong. “You need me to take care of you?”
“Yes.” I didn’t recognize anything about myself. I was lying in the back seat of a car with my legs spread as wide as I could manage, lifting my hips to press my pussy against a stranger’s cock. My body took on a life of its own, moving as it saw fit to maximize the pleasure I was so desperately seeking. Who was this girl? Since when did she get drunk in public and leave her friends to make out with strange men in the back of a car? In the morning, would I regret letting myself become this person? I hoped not. I was having too much fun.