by M. E. James
"Better yet, get me a tranquilizer," she said.
The man made a noise that sounded like a mix between a chuckle and a moan.
As she groused, he disappeared down the hall. She glared at her knee, half wishing that she could will away the pain. When Sebastian reappeared a moment later, he was carrying more towels.
"I'm afraid I don't have any bandages or antiseptic," he said. "I've never had much use for them."
"You've had blood on your carpet, but you don't have a use for bandages?" She studied him, frowning.
Sebastian just chuckled. "Let's wrap a towel around your knee until it stops bleeding. After that, I'll walk you back to your car."
"That could take a while," she said. "Are you sure that's okay with you?"
"I'm in good company, so I don't mind." The guy flashed a charming, roguish smile.
Something happened to her then that hadn't happened in years—her heart thundered. To make matters worse, creatures were raging in her stomach that were much larger than fluttering butterflies. Oh no, no, no. Her heart wasn't allowed to pound for a sexy and heroic stranger. After all, he was so far out of her league that it was laughable. Though she held herself in high regard, she knew that a fish and a merman weren't adequate mates.
"Good to see you're back to normal," she muttered under her breath, desperate to distract herself from her racing heart and the animals parading around in her stomach. "You were acting pretty weird for a moment there."
"Sorry about that," he said. "I had a rather pleasant surprise and it dazed me."
Surprise? What surprise? "Care to share?"
"It's a secret." He pressed a finger to his lips.
"I hate secrets," she said. "I like to know everything about everyone."
His grin became fixed. "You also like to be extremely honest."
"Isn't it better that way?" she asked. "At least if I have a problem with you, I'm going to say it to your face and not behind your back."
"True," he said.
"And I can honestly say that you're a very strange guy," she admitted.
"I think I can honestly say that, too."
Both of them exchanged looks and laughed.
****
They ordered dinner.
Emmy's knee had stopped bleeding an hour and a half before, so she really could have gone home. Despite that, when Sebastian had suggested they order pizza, she couldn't say no. Just because she was a fish and he was a merman didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy some good quality ogling. After all, when would she have the opportunity to hang out with Mr. Handsome again?
"It's so nice that you're a woman who appreciates the benefits of ordering a pizza with extra cheese," Sebastian said, grinning.
"Well, the cheese is the best part." Even the thought of oozing mozzarella made her lick her lips.
"I think the crust is the best part."
She did a double take. "Please tell me you're kidding."
"What?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "If pizza is made right, the crust is hot and doughy."
"You're wrong," she said. "No matter how well made the pizza is, the best part is always the cheese."
"Nope." He shook his head. "The cheese is good, but the crust is better."
She draped herself dramatically over the side of the couch, feigning horror. "Here I was thinking that we were going to have a beautiful friendship, but then you go and say something atrocious like that."
"I think we'll still find a way to make this work." The man grinned.
"I don't know." She heaved a massive sigh. "Liking the crust best should be considered a felony."
He pressed his wrists together and offered them to her to handcuff. "Lock me up and throw away the key."
Groaning, she glared at him as if he was deserving of a hundred-year prison sentence. "It's no less than you deserve."
Chuckling, Sebastian rose to his feet.
"What if I give you a glass of wine?" he asked. "Will that help my case?"
"I have to drive." No way would she drive under the influence.
"Good point." Sebastian paused.
For a moment she stared up at him, and then she considered the benefits of wine drinking. Her leg still hurt, so alcohol might help ease her suffering. Besides, she liked the idea of sitting beside Sebastian, her fingers curled around the delicate stem of a glass.
"I could take a taxi," she said.
"Are you sure?" Sebastian frowned in uncertainty.
"I always say what I mean." And sometimes she considered that a fault.
His grin widened. "In that case, mademoiselle, would you prefer red or white wine?"
"Red." She shrugged. "It goes better with pizza."
"Red it is." Sebastian took a step back. "And if you're lucky, I might dig out ice cream from the freezer for dessert. That, I think, would go excellent with wine as well."
"You know what, despite your bad judgment when it comes to pizza crust, I think our relationship might work out after all," she said.
As Sebastian turned around, she swore she heard him say, "I'm counting on it."
No, that must have been her imagination.
"Great, now I'm hearing things," she muttered under her breath.
As she drummed her fingers on the table, Sebastian materialized within moments with two glasses and a bottle of wine. He took a seat and poured her a huge glass of wine. As she took what he offered, she sighed in bliss.
"I love how you don't skimp on the serving size." She sipped the bittersweet liquid.
"Well, I just hope you're not a lightweight." He poured himself a glass just as large.
"To be honest, I am," she admitted. "I don't drink much."
"Hmmm." He eyeballed her glass, his eyes dark with concern.
"Don't worry about me," she said, hoping she'd read his expression correctly. "I'm going home in a taxi, remember? As long as I can still use my legs by the end of the evening, I should be okay."
"I'll make sure that your legs are fully functioning at the end of the night." He nodded solemnly. "I'll also escort you to your place personally."
"You don't have to do that!" Escorting her would be way too much trouble.
"I'm a gentleman," he said.
She nodded in agreement. "Maybe I should take a picture of you for memorabilia's sake. I hear your kind is on the brink of extinction."
"Go ahead. Take a photo." He struck a pose. "Hell, I'll even give you an autograph."
She snorted and took a huge gulp of alcohol, thinking, Boy, Sebastian can be as charming as hell when he wants to be.
"You're so generous." She grinned at him.
The man straightened up and winked. "You have no idea."
"And so humble."
"That too." He gave a rakish grin. "But I have many other redeeming qualities."
"Such as?" She counted being unbelievably handsome as one, but she wasn't going to tell him that.
To her surprise, Sebastian touched her hand, his eyes fixed on hers. "Do you want a list?"
She shook her head. "Don't trouble yourself."
"Oh, it's no trouble at all." He began to count on his fingers. "I'm smart. I have leadership skills. I'm protective—"
"Gentlemanly," she chimed in, then drained her glass of wine.
"Gentlemanly," he agreed, then poured her another glass. He waved at her drink. "Generous, too."
"Nice to see you don't have a swelled head."
"Of course not." Sebastian chuckled, then leaned back.
Grinning, she stared down into her wine.
"Tastes good, right?" He smirked at her.
"Best wine I've ever tasted."
He pushed the bottle toward her. "Have as much as you like."
And she did too.
****
Either Emmy had drunk too much or the world had been submerged underwater in the past half hour. As she swayed on the couch, Sebastian sat across from her. She stared at him and thought, He's too damn good-looking. And unfortunately, after how much
wine she'd drunk, she'd lost her ability to keep her mouth shut.
"Do you know how handsome you are?" Emmy meant to pat his arm, but her hand somehow ended up on his chest instead. Oops. Had she done that?
"You're too kind." Sebastian studied her, grinning. "Though I'm afraid I should probably take you home. I think we've both had too much to drink."
Sebastian stood up and took a step, but she seized his arm before she even realized what she was doing. A tantalizingly sweet odor enveloped her nostrils, making her half forget why she'd grabbed him in the first place…Oh, wait, now she remembered. She didn't want to leave.
"Not yet." She buried her fingers into his arm. "I don't want to go."
"You have to work in the morning. You told me," he said, his voice laced with concern.
Wrinkling her nose, Emmy staggered to her feet. Unfortunately, if her balance was poor when she was sober, it was even worse when she was drunk. She was forced to cling to him like a barnacle to stone. Instead of pulling away like she expected—and even she had to admit that she was really close—he wrapped an arm around her, holding her against him. She'd been feeling swirls of desire the entire evening, but now those swirls became wild, spinning typhoons of molten heat. All she wanted to do was feel every inch of him beneath her fingertips. She gasped, shocked by her train of thought. She wasn't normally the type of woman who had trouble fighting her sexual urges. Sure, she ogled as much as the next person, but this was different because she wanted something besides an imaginary fling.
"I'm not going to let you call a cab." She clung to his shirt.
Sebastian tightened his grip on her. "No?"
"Nuh-uh." She shook her head, then felt her legs weaken.
He peered deep into her eyes, and she felt as though she was swimming in a sea of gray.
"You're so handsome," she whispered.
He chuckled. "I believe you've said that already."
"It's true, though." She found herself leaning closer.
The smile left his face, and he pulled back.
"You don't want to lean so close, sweetheart," he said softly.
Sweetheart? She liked the sound of that endearment. Then again, anybody could be called sweetheart—daughters, cousins, friends, and strange drunken women who he felt pity for.
"Why not?" She frowned at him.
"Because I'll have trouble keeping my hands off you."
She glanced pointedly at his hand on her waist. "Your hands are already on me."
Though Sebastian laughed, she could tell he was wary. "You know what I mean."
"Oh, puh-lease." She rolled her eyes. "Like you have to worry about losing control around me."
Unfortunately, she must have said the wrong thing because Sebastian's eyes narrowed. He seized her chin and directed her face toward his.
"And why wouldn't I have to worry about losing control around you?" he asked.
"Oh, you know." Was he really going to make her say it?
"No, I don't," he said.
"I'm me, and you're you." She motioned at his gorgeous body.
"And?"
Good God, why wasn't the man catching on?
"I'm like a can of soup and you're prime rib." Prime rib she'd very much like to sink her teeth into. "You could have a woman that looks like a supermodel. Why would you bother with me?"
His face hardened. "I happen to find you beautiful and extremely desirable."
"Do you?" She froze.
"I think it should be obvious." He sounded pained.
At first she didn't understand what he meant by obvious. That was when she followed his gaze down to his crotch. The man's arousal was causing a tent in his jeans. She wondered why she hadn't noticed it before. The wine, she thought, laying her eyes on the bottles they'd drunk. I'm not thinking clearly. Yet when she contemplated the bulge in his pants, all she felt was pleasure that he was excited because of her. She also had the deepest urge to touch him, to hold the heat of his length in her hand. A shaky breath escaped her lips as she met his gaze.
"You see why calling a cab is a good idea?" He shifted uncomfortably.
Just as he stepped away, she startled herself yet again by grabbing his wrist. His eyes widened in surprise as she held on tight.
"I want you," she said.
"We're both drunk." Yet even as he said the words, his eyes darkened with desire.
She shook her head. "I know this is what I want."
"Are you sure?" As he placed both hands on her shoulders, his gaze was intense. "I mean, are you really sure? I don't want you to wake up tomorrow regretting what we did."
"I won't regret it," she said with absolute certainty.
Though Sebastian's eyes were still filled with hesitation, he nodded.
In one swift motion, he captured her lips with his. She gasped in shock because of his sudden attack, noting that his drunkenness had not taken away from the obvious skill he possessed. As she wrapped her hands around his neck, still surprised by the turn of events, he sucked her lower lip into his mouth, teasing the sensitive skin. The action made her quake against him. Still she thrust her hands into his hair, allowing him to feast upon her mouth as much as he desired. And when his tongue pressed against her lips, begging for access, she didn't deny him entrance.
As his tongue slid inside her, she tasted bittersweet wine. She moaned against him, shocked that such a sound could erupt from her. Even though he was a man she barely knew, he captured her mouth and enveloped her body with no hesitation. She realized that this was a sign of a seasoned lover. Despite the pain she felt at the thought of his past affairs, she had to admit that she was enjoying being teased by such an experienced mouth.
When Sebastian's fierce and overpowering kiss turned her body to water, she melted against him. He scooped her up in one smooth motion, and she wrapped her legs around his muscular waist. He carried her to the bedroom and laid her on a ruby-red comforter. Before she even had time to suck in air, he crawled toward her on all fours, a primitive glint in his eye that sent a chill of desire straight through her body. The man lay down on top of her, pressing the hard plains of his torso against her soft, feminine curves.
"I'm so glad I found you," he groaned into her ear.
She opened her eyes. "What?"
Instead of responding with words, Sebastian unbuttoned the front of her lavender blouse. Once the shirt was open, he moaned in reverence and laid a kiss on the ivory skin of the top of her breast. The kiss made her skin bubble with goose bumps, and all she wanted to do was beg him to devour every inch of her body until she was writhing beneath him.
He bent his head and kissed a single brown fleck on her left breast. "I love this mole."
Her response was to arch her back, silently pleading for more.
Sebastian responded with fervor and unhooked her lacy green bra. Her breasts spilled from the confines. Her nipples, copper nubs the size of quarters, stood at attention due to her overwhelming arousal. Her chest heaved as she tried desperately to catch her breath. Murmuring her name, Sebastian kissed the beloved mole one last time before trailing a path to the aroused nub. He took the bud in his mouth and ran his tongue along the sensitive skin. As he began to suckle at her nipple, she screamed in pleasure and dug her fingers into his shoulder blades, wondering how she didn't know her breasts were that sensitive.
After he teased her nipple until the skin ached, he straightened up, but only to pull off his navy-blue T-shirt. Once his chest was bare, she was ninety-nine percent sure that she was having sex with Adonis or Zeus or…Damn it all, she was too drunk to name all the Greek gods. But all she knew was that he had to be inhuman. People simply didn't have muscles that toned or skin so flawless and smooth. She reached out, half-afraid that he might disappear like some sort of ghost, and ran her fingers along the acres of perfect skin. When she made her way past the dark hair above the waistband of his jeans, she laid eyes on his arousal yet again, noting how large his member appeared even within the confines of his pants.
His words brought a blush to her cheek. She was no virgin, but she wasn't exactly Madame du Barry either.
Before she had time to dwell on her embarrassment, Sebastian was already laying kisses along her stomach. He ran his fingers along her womanly curves, groaning as he enjoyed the softness of her skin. Though he moved his hand to her fly, he didn't immediately undress her. Instead he ran his fingers along her womanhood and then pressed his palm against the root of her femininity, causing her to stiffen in both pleasure and surprise.
"I can't wait to bury myself inside of you." He laid a kiss along the waistband of her pants.
Her response was nothing more than a blush and a loud whimper of ecstasy.
The man finally unbuttoned her jeans. He tugged the pants down her legs, laying kisses along her smooth skin as he went. Even though she really should have been focusing on enjoying his lips on her body, all she could think during that moment was, Thank God I shaved. Once he tugged off her pants, he smiled at her and then crawled upward again. She expected him to return to kissing her lips like he had before, but instead the man paused at her green undies and ran his fingers along the crook of her inner thighs.
"Do you want me to finger you?" He ran his fingers along her sensitive flesh, almost touching her feminine lips but not quite. She wasn't sure if this was pleasure or torture.
"Mmmm," was all she managed to say.
"I said, do you want me to finger you?" He kissed her pelvis. "I won't go further until you answer."
She realized he was teasing her—and she liked that.
"Yes." She was surprised she even remembered the word.
"Then tell me." He kissed her stomach.
"Huh?"
"Say, 'Sebastian, I want you to finger me,'" he said with a grin.
She sat up in alarm. "What? Why?"
"Because I like it when you blush, and you blush whenever the conversation turns dirty," he said.
Good God, the man was right. She was ninety-nine percent sure that she was as red as a cherry.
"Humph." She crossed her arms, causing her breasts to shift.
"You're not saying it." He nuzzled her between her legs.