by Larkin Rose
The woman must have politely declined whatever pathetic offer they had concocted as she gave them all a radiant smile and then made her way toward the bar, leaving them to watch her walk away.
Marci held the woman tight in her sights as Tina gave a hungry growl behind her.
“I sure could like that one for a little while,” Marci confessed.
Tessa slowly walked across the room, searching for the one who made her lick her lips in heated lust.
Tonight, she needed flesh on flesh, strangled moans, all from raw, never going to see you again sex. For the next eight weeks of her life she was going to insert every bit of her soul into winning this contest, and then a new world was going to swallow her whole.
Nothing could stand in the way or knock her off track. Not Michelle. Not even Monty, who had already called her twice since her plane landed four hours ago. She didn’t have the balls to tell Monty she was going to play one of her tricks tonight. Fuck them without even bothering to ask for their names or their marital status.
Tonight, names would not be required. She wanted sweaty skin against her, fingers inside her, and a scream penetrating out of her.
Nothing more. Absolutely nothing less.
She needed to be driven sexually out of control. Just for tonight. Even if it was against her own morals.
And the hottie perched on a stool at the counter could hold the golden ticket.
The woman had a tight grip around a mixed drink, a clench to her jaw, and was holding Tessa tight in her view. Exactly where Tessa wanted to be.
“Would you like to dance?” A woman approached. Tall. Handsome. One second too late now that Tessa had her attention set on someone else.
As tempting as the offer was, Tessa already had a mission, and that mission was still watching Tessa with a curious glint in her eye.
“No, thanks,” Tessa politely declined and continued walking toward the bar.
No use wasting precious time when there were so many more delicious alternatives than eye-fucking each other.
Normally, she wouldn’t be hell-bent for a piece of ass. That behavior was out of character for her. That was Monty’s domain.
But she was no longer in her safe place. Tonight, she wanted to take one of these butches up on their offer. Quickly and without hesitation. She was on vacation, after all. She deeply believed in one-night stands. For tonight. No rules applied here. So tonight, she was looking for something different. Someone who wasn’t willing to throw themselves at her feet. She didn’t want to shun those looking for love. To each their own. But truth be told, love was for suckers. For those who thought love was everlasting. Fact was, love wasn’t everlasting. It only lasted until someone snuffed out the candle.
She didn’t want a candle tonight. She didn’t want a twinkle of love in their eyes or fake promises. She wanted a growl on their lips and nothing but pure sex on their mind.
Her gaze stumbled over the remaining women at the bar, likely the single ones, until that one face, still watching her, made her walk faster. Those eyes were making all the right promises. Promises that said no talking would be required.
Sexy brown eyes followed her as Tessa moved down the line of stools. Chiseled jawline. Firm posture. And all alone, bellied up to the bar. Exactly how Tessa needed tonight’s fuck to be. All alone.
Marci reminded herself to breathe as the woman passed her by, gave a slight smile, and took a stool three spaces down. Jesus. She was gorgeous. A complete package. From that sexy stride to those fuck me eyes, she was perfect.
Time seemed to slide by as Marci watched several women approach the beauty, all leaving empty-handed, thankfully. None seemed offended. Disappointed, sure. Who wouldn’t be?
Marci dared a glance in the woman’s direction and found she had moved onto the empty stool beside her, and she was watching Marci with a curious expression.
“The mental conversation between you and that drink must be riveting. You haven’t taken your eyes off the glass since I sat down.”
Marci wanted to correct her. She most certainly had taken her eyes off the glass. She knew because she’d had to pry them off this woman and force them back onto the drink.
She was more intrigued that the woman had noticed anything other than the blatant invitations every few minutes.
“How could you notice with so many interruptions?”
The woman shrugged. “Great offers, I must admit. Amusing to hear what tipsy women will come up with to get in my pants. None were my type, I’m afraid.”
Marci struggled not to look at her cleavage. Normally, she wouldn’t care. The more direct she was, the better. But something about this woman made Marci want to hold that eye contact.
“What exactly is your type?”
“What? Or who?”
Marci considered her question. “Who?”
A smile lifted the corners of her lips, exposing bright teeth. “You. You are my type.”
Marci resisted the urge to swallow. Pure lust danced in those serious eyes.
“Does he give you good advice?” The woman nodded toward Marci’s drink. “The spirit in your alcohol.”
Marci grinned and looked back down at her glass. Her third glass. “Jim Beam. And yes, sometimes he gives great advice.”
The woman leaned in and Marci inhaled her floral fragrance. “Yet, sometimes he doesn’t give the greatest advice?”
Marci was caught off guard. She took another sip. No doubt, she’d had too many. She should have left after the first, definitely after the second. The third, in her hand, was making her warm and fuzzy. Or was it those penetrating eyes? Maybe it was the unsettled need for sex that had brought her to this bar to begin with.
“True. Sometimes he doesn’t give the greatest advice.”
The woman reached out and wrapped her hand around the glass, overlapping their fingers. “Do you mind?”
Shocked by the contact, Marci pulled her hand from beneath the warm touch.
With her gaze locked on Marci, the woman put the glass to her nose and inhaled, then swirled the liquid. “Ahh. I hear him. He has a sexy, northern accent.”
Amused, Marci turned on her stool to face the woman, wishing she knew her name. “Oh really? What’s his advice to you?”
She almost regretted the inquiry. Truth was, she didn’t want the answer. Not even the conversation. She didn’t need the playful banter. She just needed the woman to lead her out of this bar, to a bed, where she could spend the next few hours pretending her life hadn’t fallen apart a year ago. That it wasn’t still a tattered disaster. That no matter how pretty this woman was, or how direct she was, she didn’t trust a single thing that was about to slip off her tongue.
The woman took a sip and closed her eyes.
Marci suddenly couldn’t wait to hear the answer. Knew it would be something sexy. Something hot. Something that would finally make her get up off this stool and take this woman out of here.
The woman opened her eyes.
“He thinks that you should come back to my room, slowly take off my clothes, kiss some very wet and heated body parts, then wrap my naked flesh all around you, and fuck me, until neither of us can breathe.”
Marci’s insides tightened while parts of her anatomy ignited.
The woman slid the glass back across the distance, her pretty eyes focused and determined.
“Question is, will you take Jim’s advice?” She rose and leaned closer to Marci. “I’m pretty sure we’re both looking for the same thing tonight. Sex. Just sex. I don’t even need to know your name.” She leaned back and studied Marci. “So, stud, you have about two minutes for me to walk back across this bar and likely get stopped by a few more delicious offers, one of which I will be obliged to accept if I find you still sitting on this stool. Because even though I’d rather grind against you, I’m not against settling for a handsome second place.”
Marci swallowed hard. She’d never had anyone lay out a choice for her quite so smoothly. Fuck me or someone else wil
l, although I’m choosing you, is what that choice said.
“Is that so?”
The woman gave a sultry wink. “The choice is all yours, sexy. Tick tock.”
She started across the room while Marci sat dumbfounded. Her insides clenched with need. Her gut curled tight. And her common sense screamed to stay rooted to her seat, that a woman that breathtaking, who didn’t hesitate to voice her needs and desires, could wield devastating power.
Marci watched her move farther away, her heart-shaped ass strutting in those too-tight jeans and, as predicted, she got stopped twice, each woman walked away empty-handed, before she reached her coat. Then another woman came to assist with the wardrobe. A butch. Taller than her by a good few inches. More than likely her type. She’d want her women stronger. To handle her. Oh, how Marci wanted to handle her.
“How in the hell are you still sitting in that seat right now after that delicious offer?” Tina scolded. “Are you a complete idiot?”
Marci couldn’t tear her gaze away as the beauty pulled the folds of her coat together and smiled up at her new admirer.
Marci imagined herself on her knees, at the woman’s feet, her face buried between the woman’s thighs.
Her need was too great. The prize too golden. Truly, how was she still sitting in this chair?
The woman turned a steady glance on Marci. She angled her head, gave a slight shrug, then turned back to the woman waiting with a smile.
Marci held back a grumble as she watched the woman’s new escort tuck her hand at the small of her back and lead them to the front door.
A knot formed in Marci’s gut. Need, maybe jealousy, maybe downright want, whatever it was, it was tightening a firm grip until Marci growled.
The front door opened and then the night swallowed both women.
“Fuck!” Marci shoved off the stool and stilled herself from charging across the room.
She had no idea what she was going to say. Or what she was going to do. She didn’t brawl. No woman was worth a bar fight. If so, she would have started with Ashley’s new pup. A woman ten years younger. A twat. A fucking adolescent. Ashley had ripped her heart to pieces for someone who had barely learned how to drive a car. Fine, so she was exaggerating, but it all felt the same. Ten years younger. Fifteen. Twenty. Did cougars care? Is that what Ashley had become?
It was disgusting. Humiliating. Yet, here she was, all this time gone by, still letting thoughts of them together get the best of her.
She could have lost her shit. She could have gone into a rage. And she would have enjoyed it beyond measure. But what good would it have done? What good would come of her in handcuffs? No damn way she could have given either Ashley or her fuck toy the satisfaction.
Yet she wasn’t satisfied with the alternative ending either. Simply walking away and never looking back.
Marci pushed away from the bar and started across the floor. She was charging toward a woman with no clue what was going to come out of her mouth, no clue how the night was going to end.
For once, she didn’t care. God, it felt great not to care.
She pushed through the front door and barged into the night to find the woman leaned against a Jeep Liberty. Alone.
A smile lit her face as she cocked her head to study Marci.
Marci was going to make a very bad mistake. And she was going to enjoy every minute.
“I was beginning to think Jim had given you very bad advice.” The woman fisted her fingers into Marci’s shirt and pulled her forward.
Their mouths met in heated passion. Lips parted with groans and tongues invaded.
Chapter Three
Tessa was shoved against the back of the hotel room door. The rental car key hit the carpet with a soft thud as the woman’s mouth crushed against her own.
A moan slipped past her lips as the woman’s tongue invaded, swirling and tasting and driving Tessa’s knees to buckle.
She draped her arms around the woman’s neck to disguise her weakness, overcome with heat and wet need.
She suddenly wished she knew this hottie’s name. So she could scream it. Why, she wasn’t sure. Monday would begin a new life for her. An eight-week fight for that new life. There was no reason to know this woman’s name. She wasn’t part of Tessa’s future equation.
Yet, the need to know remained the same even though she had no desire to share her own. This was her new adventure. Her new world. She wanted to keep it private. Keep it all to herself for just a little while longer.
No one knew her here. No one knew her name. She liked the mystery of the game.
The woman roughly bucked into her and Tessa cried out. Their tongues danced while the woman unhooked Tessa’s arms from around her neck and shoved her coat down and off her arms. She impatiently began working the buttons of Tessa’s shirt, and finally the material fell apart. Cool air feathered across her stomach and then warm hands fanned around her ribs, climbing higher until she thumbed Tessa’s hard nipples through the thin lace of her bra.
Those hands memorized her as they curved down around her hips and then reversed their path, stalling once again to tease their pebbled creation.
Her insides tightened as the woman pulled the lace away to expose a hardened nipple.
“What’s your name, sexy?” The woman ducked and captured a nipple between her lips.
“Call me anything you want.” Tessa ground her hips as fire whipped a path to her crotch.
The heat was incredible. The mystery of the games even more wicked.
She’d never had sex with someone who didn’t know her name. It was kind of hot.
“Sexy it is.” The woman pressed herself against the whole length of Tessa. Tessa needed to feel the heat from her, needed her to be inside. Deep inside.
She fumbled with the button of the woman’s jeans, her fingers snaking down inside the denim.
The woman grabbed her arm and pinned it above her head. “My name is Marci.”
“Marci,” Tessa whispered.
Marci groaned which only fueled Tessa’s desperation to get her naked, to come against those lips. She needed to be tasted. Fucked. Wanted rushed sighs ripped from her chest.
She also wanted to scream at the woman for revealing her name, to tell her that there was an inferno scorching her from the inside out, that a sexual emergency was teetering on the horizon if she didn’t hurry the fuck up, and that she’d screwed up the mystery of this entire moment by saying her name.
Instead, she ran her tongue along Marci’s bottom lip and settled into the sexy way Marci was hovering over her. The way she was pinning Tessa in place with her strong grip.
With her free hand, the woman pinched Tessa’s nipple, twisted, and then smiled when Tessa hissed and bucked into her.
Heat. Dear God, the heat was going to burn her alive. She wanted Marci inside her, bucking and fucking and driving her to climax. She didn’t want to take things slow. She didn’t want to savor this moment or make it last. She just wanted to fucking come.
“Well, Marci, now that you’ve broken an unspoken, never going to see you again, so names do not apply, one-night stand, rule,” she pulled one of her wrists free and fisted her fingers into Marci’s hair, “you are required to make me scream it.”
With a firm grip, she pushed Marci down to her knees.
Marci didn’t know there was an unspoken rule in the tag and release world of one-night stands. Obviously, she was out of the loop. Obviously, she’d been playing house too long.
Regardless, playing by the rules of this beauty was going to be a piece of cake. Was going to be her ultimate pleasure.
Marci snagged open the button of the woman’s jeans and pulled down the zipper. She watched those lips part in heated expectation.
With her gaze locked on those green orbs, she lowered the denim and the dainty pink underwear down her legs, waiting while the woman lifted her feet so Marci could discard the material, and then nuzzled her face into the alcove of lean thighs.
The woman�
��s chest rose and fell as Marci watched her, awaiting her invitation. A plea would be even better. But she’d settle for a simple nod. “Yes,” she whispered.
Marci licked her lips, pushed the woman’s legs apart, and deliberately inhaled.
She stared back up at her and asked, “May I?”
The woman nodded, her breaths now ragged.
Marci pushed a single finger into the alcove and teased the woman’s clit.
The woman flattened her hands against the door, her body stiff, anxious, and prepared.
A smile threatened Marci’s lips. This goddess was fighting self-control. She wanted her to beg.
Her gaze dropped back to the woman’s crotch, her finger still teasing and caressing. “I’m waiting, Sexy.”
“Do it,” the woman begged her.
“Do what?” Marci asked.
“Put your lips on me. Make me come.”
Marci slowly dragged her tongue along the length of the woman’s clit before she gave a single suckle against the tip.
The woman sharply inhaled and Marci’s insides clenched down hard.
She was almost desperate to give this woman relief. To hear her cry out her name. To make her cry it.
She repeated the motion all over again, teasing the woman’s clit, taunting her into incoherent sounds, before she smothered her face into the woman’s crotch and captured her clit.
Fire whipped through her insides as the woman fisted her fingers in Marci’s hair. She pulled harder, holding Marci in place.
Marci nursed fast, then faster, before she slowed her pace, giving the woman a second to catch her breath before she started again, this time with long, barely there suctions. The kind that made the woman hitch her hips forward in angst, in search of the pressure, of Marci’s lips.
“Oh, God.” The woman hissed through clenched teeth.
Her knees quivered as she rose onto the tips of her toes.
“No, ma’am,” Marci growled.
Marci rose and lifted the woman up and around her hips by the cheeks of her ass. Three long strides took them to the bed. She laid the woman back across the bed, pinning her to the comforter.