SinCityTryst

by Kim Tiffany

  “Um, no. The thing is, Ethan…she’s not in Vegas anymore. She’s gone back home.”

  Ethan gaped at Sean, unmoving as he processed this new piece of information. “Gone? What, she left? Just like that, without telling you?” Or me? he added in silent outrage.

  “She didn’t tell anybody. She sent me a text, saying that some last-minute work thing came up and that she had to fly back to SF tonight.”

  Bullshit. He’d bet a week’s pay that it wasn’t a work emergency that had sent Sara sprinting back to the city. Ethan continued to stand there silently, looking poleaxed, as Angie continued to chatter in his ear.

  “She disappeared after dinner for a bit, came back to the club and was really quiet for the rest of the night. And the next thing I know, she disappeared. She hasn’t been answering any of my calls since.”

  At Sean’s speculative glance, Ethan absently handed the phone back to him and bit back several choice swear words. He had never been so righteously pissed in his entire life. She had flown back home without even letting him know? After that mind-blowing interlude back at the hotel room?

  Jesus, he’d been so far off the mark it wasn’t even funny. He had hoped that Sara would be receptive to his advances now and not try so hard to evade him. And he knew without conceit that she felt something more than mere affection for him. It was in every touch, every smile and every shy, fleeting glance she’d ever sent his way. Ethan needed her to know, finally and without a doubt, that those feelings were reciprocated by him a thousand-fold.

  But it seemed his stubborn little hellion, true to form, was feeling unsure and running scared. She was trying to put some distance between them again, only this time, literally. Well, he was sick and tired of the emotional stopgaps. If she was feeling vulnerable and freaked out, it was high time she starting reaching out to him instead of pushing him away.

  Sean was wrapping up his conversation with his fiancée. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell him, sweetheart. No, don’t you dare go anywhere. You’ve had too much to drink. Sit tight and I’ll be right up to take care of you, sweetie. Love you, too. See you in a few.” He hung up, sighed and looked at Ethan with an undeterminable expression.

  “Well? What are you going to do, man?” Sean asked.

  In reply, Ethan made a beeline for Alan and yanked the twenty-dollar bill from his slack fingertips.

  “Hey!” yelped Alan indignantly. Kimber looked chagrined at the loss of her potential tip.

  “Cab fare,” he tossed back over his shoulder as he hit the ground running. “I’m catching the red-eye back to San Francisco tonight.”

  Chapter Ten

  Sara yawned and morosely turned off the small television set in her bedroom. Her eyes felt gritty and swollen, testament to a short night filled with tears and self-recrimination. She stumbled into her kitchen and blinked against the early morning sunrise that stole into her one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco’s Noe Valley.

  Ugh. Her head was pounding. She needed strong, undiluted coffee after downing an entire pint of chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream by herself when she got home and watching too many reruns of The Golden Girls. Apropos, she’d thought when she found herself unable to sleep after getting home around three in the morning, since at the rate she was going she would probably find herself alone and barren into her golden years.

  She was pouring the grinds when she heard the knock on the door. Frowning, she walked over to the door and hesitated. “Who is it?” she called out, wondering who would be disturbing tenants so early in the morning. There was no reply, just another sharp, short rap. Sara reached for the deadbolt, opened the door and gaped in shock.

  “Ethan! What are you doing here?”

  He still looked glorious to her, despite his rumpled appearance and the tired set of his shoulders. He didn’t answer her right away, but devoured her hungrily with his golden eyes. Belatedly, she realized that she was wearing torn leggings and a moth-eaten, oversized nightshirt with her crazy hair in an early-morning disarray. And she still smelled like airplane. Crap. She hastily tucked her curls into an impromptu knot at the base of her neck and crossed her arms across her chest protectively.

  “What am I doing here?” His voice was incredulous. “Baby, what the hell are you doing here?”

  Sara blinked and stared down at her bare feet. “I’m…I’m…”

  “Running away again?” he supplied. Her head shot up to look at him and he glowered back at her, as if daring her to contradict him.

  “Don’t be ridiculous! W-why would I be running away?” she replied in her defense. “It’s like I told Angie, I had something important to do…here,” she said, gesturing vaguely inside her apartment.

  “I see,” he replied evenly. “More important than, I don't know, hanging around long enough to wake up beside me and finish what we started with your vibrator?”

  Sara yelped and clapped her hand over his mouth, her eyes wide and cheeks pink. “Keep your voice down! The walls here are paper thin, and my neighbors might hear you.”

  Just then, the door to Sara’s neighbor across the way opened and both of them swiveled around to see wizened and gruff old Mr. McIntyre peer out into the hallway from over his reading glasses. With a pointed harrumph, he shuffled along the corridor in his bathrobe and slippers as he was wont to do, combing the sparse hair on his head as he made his way to the mailboxes on the ground floor.

  Mortified, Sara turned her chagrined gaze back to Ethan and tried to ignore the way his warm gold eyes twinkled with laughter above her hand. “Mind if we finish this inside?” he mumbled into her palm.

  Ignoring the simmering heat in her belly at the feel of his lips against her fingers, Sara let her hand fall away as if scorched. “I, uh, really don’t think that’s necessary,” she admitted, edging back into her doorway, rocking awkwardly on her heels.

  Ethan pressed close but stopped short of actually taking a step into her place. He spoke softly, but resolutely. “Sara, please. We need to talk.”

  The simple words were somehow beseeching, and it shredded what was left of her shaky willpower. He was so big and handsome standing there in her tiny Victorian doorway, looking like an avenging Norse god, that it set her teeth—and body—on edge. Gesturing lamely into her apartment, she finally capitulated.

  “Fine. Come in.” She turned and walked back to the kitchen counter, twisting her hands nervously into her roomy shirt as he followed her inside and closed the door behind him. Immediately the room seemed twice as small, the breadth of his shoulders taking up most of the view. “I was making some coffee. You want some?” Not really waiting for a response, she resumed pouring the grinds into the base of a French press.

  “It’s industrial strength, since I hardly got any sl—eeeeep! Ethan!” Sara shrieked as she found herself lifted and airborne, and she could only clutch at a thickly muscled forearm as he spun her around and grabbed her up, plunking her unceremoniously on top of the kitchen counter and stepping between her legs. Sara’s eyes fluttered closed at the blissful, punishing pressure of his firm, masculine lips against hers. He rocked her lips open with his own, and his tongue boldly swept in to taste every soft, secret corner of her mouth, catching her startled, breathy cries with his own.

  Sara felt as though every nerve in her body was alive and singing, and kissed him back with equal fervor. The riotous sensations shimmied and sparked along her skin, and when Ethan’s warm hands left her face to curl over her full bottom and bring her pliant form flush against the hot, hard length of him, all her reservations scattered like wind-blown ash. With a small whimper of defeat, she relented and coiled her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life, wrapping her legs around his lean hips and rubbing her hot, pulsing core against his enormous tented erection.

  Without lifting his mouth from hers, he grasped her around the waist and strode over to one of the chairs around her kitchen table, settling her in his lap. There, he tore his lips away and they both sucked in some much needed air as he rocked
her tantalizingly against the huge bulge in front of his jeans while his large hands roamed over her hips and lower back.

  “Let’s get something straight right now, darlin’,” he rumbled as he smoothed back the tendrils of hair away from her face. Her eyes were wild and bright with need. “Never—ever—run away from me and think that I won’t come after you. You are mine, baby, and I always protect what’s mine.”

  Sara gulped in astonishment—and fierce, blazing joy—at the blatantly possessive statement, before her doubts kicked in. “I…didn’t think you’d really notice.”

  Ethan stiffened in shock. “How the hell can you even think that?” he said harshly, shaking her a little. “Of course I noticed! Do you know what you put me through? I thought we were finally on the same page. We make love for hours and fall asleep together, only to have you sneak away without telling anyone.” His thunderous expression was enough to have Sara bite her lip in sudden regret. “I ought to paddle that gorgeous ass of yours until you’re too sore to run away ever again.”

  “B-but, we didn’t,” she said, thrumming with desire at his words and at the same time so incredibly self-conscious and wary. “Make love, I mean.”

  His eyebrow arched and his eyes flashed dangerously. “Why do you say that, baby?” he asked with deceptive casualness.

  “Well, we didn’t actually get a chance to…we only, um, you know, with the vibrator…” Sara felt certain that she was a glowing, radioactive red from embarrassment. She couldn’t finish her sentence, couldn’t say out loud that he had plied her with her fake pink cock until she’d come like a banshee, but hadn’t given her the real thing.

  Ethan’s mouth twisted sensually as he grasped her inner thighs with his large, work-roughened hands, plying the soft, fleshy area near the crease of her thigh until Sara thought she’d go mad with the drugging sensation. “Baby, don’t you know by now that everything I do with you is making love?” he said in a low rumble, lowering his head to her navel and nudging the hem of her baggy shirt up with his face. He pulled the waistband of her leggings down along with her panties and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss against her belly, right above the small triangle of fleecy dark hair. A strangled whimper escaped Sara, and she shifted restlessly in his hands while trying to tug her shirt back down. She had a sudden flashback of the stripper’s waspish waist and miniscule shaved pubis encased in the G-string, and tried harder to tug Ethan face and fingers away from the damp curls at her pulsating core.

  “Don’t, please,” she pleaded as she began to thrash. “I’m ugly down there, Ethan…”

  “No,” he countered, shaking her a little. She immediately stilled, startled by his intensity. “No, baby, you are not ugly, anywhere.” To punctuate the point, he brought them both to their feet and claimed her slack mouth in an almost bruising, forceful kiss that made her groan deep into his mouth. When he tore his mouth away, she had her hands buried in his hair and they were both breathing like wolfhounds.

  “Will you let me show you, now?” he implored, his body radiating tension and need. “I need to have you again. It’s been too long, and I need you so badly.” Sara felt dizzy under his regard, unable to look away as she clung to him. The look in his eyes made her heart skip several beats and tremble from within.

  Burying her face in his neck to temporarily escape the disconcerting fierceness of his gaze, she nodded. She felt as though she would burst into a million pieces from the sheer joy of being in his arms again. Her defenses were shattered; he had come after her and against all odds was letting her know he wanted her, had always wanted her. She simply didn’t have the fortitude to deny him. Shielding the love for him that was no doubt shining out of her eyes, she stroked his raspy cheek and whispered ardently, “Yes, please, Ethan. I want to feel you inside me.”

  He stole her mouth again and again in deep, searching kisses, his tongue parting her lips and tangling with hers. Sara’s eyes fluttered closed in acquiescence as his dark, intoxicating flavor washed over her. His deep groan of satisfaction made her heart sing.

  Suddenly he stood with her in his arms, causing her to shriek and her legs to fold around his lean hips for leverage. “Don’t let go,” he ordered as he strode across the room while carrying her without a hint of exertion. He tumbled her on top of her queen-size comforter before she knew what was happening. He crawled toward her on all fours, looking every inch like a determined predator that had spotted its prey.

  Damp and throbbing and breathless, Sara felt herself warm even further under his appraisal, and she bit her lower lip nervously, trying not to cover herself with her hands or the decorative pillows against her headboard. Ethan’s eyes were molten with heat and fascination, and he gently pulled her plump lower lip from between her teeth with his thumb. Unable to resist, Sara’s tongue snaked out to sample the tart flavor of his skin, curling around his thumb daringly. As her mouth wrapped around the digit and suckled softly, Ethan snarled and snatched her up tightly against him again.

  She panted and moaned against his plundering mouth, and Ethan swallowed the sexy sounds while watching her through heavily lidded eyes. His mouth left hers briefly to press hot, biting kisses along the length of her neck, nuzzling into the rapidly beating pulse at the base of her throat before claiming her swollen lips once more. Sara sighed and parted her lips, allowing his rough, velvety tongue to sweep into the warm cavern of her mouth and tangle with hers. He tasted warm and addictive, and his long fingers threaded themselves in her dark tresses as he sampled her mouth hungrily, giving her no reprieve. Their mouths created a warm, wet vortex so erotic it had her practically screaming into his mouth.

  “Tell me…you want me,” he demanded in a tight voice between moist kisses, lambent desire etched into every feature of his arrestingly handsome face.

  “Oh god, I want you,” she replied, her lips a whisper away from his. He bit at her soft mouth encouragingly, claiming her lips again in a hungry open-mouthed kiss that had them both straining against each other.

  “And that you need me,” he murmured, his fingers digging into her hips as she traced his lips with the tip of her tongue.

  Sara smiled as she looked up into his dark, fathomless eyes, alight with desire and a deeper, headier emotion that she was terrified to identify. “I need you, Ethan. So much.” She was rewarded with another soul-stirring kiss as he shifted her in his lap, causing her eyes to flutter shut and her back to arch at the breathtaking sensation. She’d never been on top before, and it was a heady feeling to be sitting astride him.

  “And that you won’t run away from me again.” He gripped her tightly, almost as if he was terrified of her leaping off him.

  She shook her head. “No, I’m right here. I won’t run away.” Her legs were like jelly and weren’t likely to support her any time soon, not while he continued to grind his enormous erection into her like that…

  “Tell me you love me.”

  Huh? Stunned, Sara balanced on the precipice between mind-altering desire and disbelief, unsure of how to respond. Loved him? Of course she loved him, the big lout! But…she didn’t want him to know that, not until she was sure of how he felt first! She could only look at him with huge, unsure eyes, her breath choppy and loud, her damp palms pressing against his broad chest even as she strained to get closer to his nether parts.

  “I…I…” she gasped, unable to utter the words rising in her throat. No! She wouldn’t say it first! If he didn’t feel it back, it would destroy her, leave her defenseless and small. Her eyes stinging with regret, she wordlessly shook her head as he tried to bring her mouth under his again.

  “Say it,” he whispered hotly against her trembling lips, biting at them. As if sensing her recalcitrance, he yanked her soft shirt over her head, but stopped short of pulling it off her completely. Instead, he brought her arms back down with the fabric tangled around her elbows and forearms, effectively trapping them to her sides and causing her naked breasts to thrust up as she struggled against the sudden confinement.

>   “Ethan, please,” she pleaded, trembling with unspent desire and growing alarm.

  “Say it.”

  “I…no, I can’t…”

  “Can’t? Or won’t? You can trust me, baby. If you gave me such a gift, I’d never throw it back in your face.” He looked into her eyes, so handsome and earnest and devilishly determined.

  Torn between the desires to kick him and kiss him, Sara struggled against the impromptu binding and reached for the convenient anger that the mere mention of her former boyfriend still roused in her. And suddenly Sara was inexplicably and unreasonably pissed—pissed at Vegas showgirls with their perfectly flat abs, at Angie for being blessed with both brains and beauty, at Ethan for being so damn adamant in his pursuit of her when she herself couldn’t even figure out what about her would make a man like him not stray…

  And furthermore, she was pissed at herself for allowing herself to fall head over heels in love with the sexy brute of a man—a feeling she had never truly trusted, ever since her lying, cheating ex had found it necessary to tell her that it was her weight that was preventing him from remaining faithful to her and not his rampant hormones.

  Sara could only shake her head as she gasped for breath, the erotic sensation of having her arms bound behind her only intensifying the feelings of desperation. He couldn’t possibly want her like this, the early morning sunlight highlighting every bit of her imperfect body, from the extra pounds on her middle to the saddlebags to her floppy boobs…

  It was too much for her, and Sara felt the old familiar urge to hide under the covers. “No, let me go!” she cried, rising to her knees and finding herself unable to keep her balance. She yelped as fell sideways but Ethan had already grasped her around the legs and flipped her, yanking her leggings and underwear off in one motion so that her bare bottom was on display. With a strangled wail, she buried her face into the comforter as she realized that her grossly swollen bottom was presented in broad daylight in front of him, cellulite and dimples and all.