Sweet Sinful Nights

by Lauren Blakely

  She wanted a night that didn’t fucking hurt.

  Tomorrow. She’d deal with it tomorrow. Truths like this were best delivered in the morning, right? She could have this evening with him, spend the night together, and then in the morning she’d discover the right words.

  In the morning she’d be ready.

  As she applied blush and mascara, she focused on locking up the memories so they wouldn’t ruin her present for the next few hours. Memories had a way of sneaking up on you, and knocking you down. They could grab you by the throat and throttle you. Images of her father’s blood in the driveway, of her mother’s screams that night and then again when the detectives came to arrest her, of her own arms wrapped around a tiny person who wouldn’t live. Memories could be cruel in their ambushes.

  Heartless things.

  Reaching for her phone, she opened her picture gallery and found the shot from yesterday. Brent kissing her in the photo booth. Blurry, yet so clear. He was the pain, and he was the protection from it.

  * * *

  After Michael left, she closed her eyes and practiced one of her yoga techniques. As she raised her arms high above her head in the mountain pose, she imagined clearing her mind of all that hurt, freeing her body from the harshness of all that had gone wrong with it, and returning to the woman she had been before. The woman she used to be with Brent, and still could be. Physical, sexual, connected with him in that way. She felt connected to him in so many ways already, and maybe it was selfish, or maybe it was necessary, but tonight she wanted to be one with her body, not warring with it. Because her heart, mind and body wanted that man again.

  As she opened her eyes, she spotted the framed photo of the sunflowers on the kitchen counter. Her way to remember what she’d lost in London. She brushed her fingertips to her lips, then pressed them against the image.

  A kiss for the boy who wouldn’t be.

  * * *

  Cool white lobby. Etched glass on the double doors. Sleek blond wood floors and stairs that matched. The kind of stairs that were see-through, that almost seemed to be floating because you could look down and see the floor below. He drank it all in. Her building. Her home. She’d buzzed him in, and he still couldn’t believe he was there. It was as if he’d gained entry to a secret castle, to the tower at the top of it. Follow this path, take the fork in the road, and climb all the way up. At the top, there she will be.

  The woman he wanted.

  The only woman for him.

  The soles of his shoes echoed on the steps as he walked up the three flights to her home, staring left then looking right, inhaling everything. For so long, he’d searched for her. He’d tried to picture her, to imagine her life, her home, and her place in the world.

  Right here. He was in it now. Mere feet away from where Shannon Paige-Prince had lived for the last few years. Only a handful of miles away from his home. So damn close, and so incredibly far away. He turned the corner on the next landing, and lifted his foot on the step, then he froze.

  He didn’t move. He was stuck in a sliver of stalled time.

  Michael walked down the stairs. His eyes were razors. His jaw twitched. The sound of the other man’s shoes clanged loudly in Brent’s ears, snapping him back to attention.

  He unfroze.

  “Hey, Michael,” he said, doing his very best to keep it casual, keep it chill. “Good to see you again.”

  Brent hadn’t spoken to the guy since Michael had helped him get the ring. He hadn’t seen Michael since Christmas that same year, when he’d met him, along with Ryan, Colin, and Shannon’s grandparents. Brent and Shannon had flown back to Vegas together for the holiday break. He’d met her family and she’d met his. A few months later, he’d proposed. Her brothers had all liked him.

  Didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know the opposite was true now.

  Michael’s dark eyes raged as he stared at Brent. He raised his left hand, clapped it on Brent’s arm. But it wasn’t a friendly pat. It didn’t speak of years missed. It didn’t say good to see you too, man. His hand sent another message. Do not fuck with my family.

  Michael spoke, low, but powerful. Like a hiss. “My sister is one of the most important people in the world to me. I swear,” he said, letting his voice trail off like the smoke from a fired gun. Brent parted his lips to say something, anything, but Michael left him no room. This was not a conversation. It was a speech. “If it were up to me, you’d never get close enough to hurt her again. You have no idea what you did to her. You fucking broke her heart—”

  He held up a hand. “I know, man. And I am sorry. And I have told her that—”

  Michael didn’t even acknowledge the words. “And if you do it again, you will know a new kind of hell.” Michael’s hand moved to Brent’s collar. He smoothed it out. Brent’s collar didn’t need smoothing. “I will not hurt you with fists, because I am not that kind of a man, but I will make sure you are fucked in this town. Is that clear?”

  Brent shrugged off Michael’s hand. As much as he understood where Michael was coming from, he wasn’t going to let himself be manhandled.

  He raised his chin. “Message is loud and clear, Michael. But I want you to know I’m not the same guy I was ten years ago, and I will do whatever I have to do to prove that to your sister,” he said, then paused, because as much as he didn’t intend to get pushed around, he also knew he had to show some respect to a man who looked out for his own. “And to you.”

  Michael didn’t answer. He simply stared at him and breathed out hard. He lifted his chin slightly, a nearly imperceptible nod.

  “You better,” Michael said, then resumed his pace, walking down the stairs, the confrontation over. Each man had said his piece.

  Brent cleared the moment from his head and made his way to Shannon’s door, knocking twice. When she answered, there was no real estate in his brain for anything but her. He forgot about everything else in the world—schedules, plans, flights? Gone.

  “Wow.”

  He’d never been short of words. Never.

  But as he repeated himself, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to speak again. She knocked the breath from his lungs and stole the words from his tongue. “Wow.”

  Her eyes sparkled, and she jutted out her hip. The dress she wore had been painted on. The color of champagne, and with some kind of shimmer to the fabric, it hugged her hips, her thighs, her flat belly, and her beautiful breasts. He wished he had been there to watch her slip it on and zip it up. More than that, he hoped he’d be taking it off tonight. Feeling everything underneath. Tasting every inch of her skin. Watching her arch beneath him.

  “You like?”

  He shook his head. “I love.”

  He loved everything about her. The dress that was caressing her body. The bare legs boldly on display. The red leather shoes that he’d bought for her.

  Most of all, what she’d said about those shoes the other day. And is this your way of trying to fuck me again?

  Yes. Yes. Yes.

  Right now.

  Skip the show. Spin her around. Fuck her against the wall.

  Wait. No. Spread her on the table. Get those legs of hers where he wanted—up on his shoulders.

  She stepped closer to him, ran her hands down the front of his dark blue button-down shirt. Her touch was electric. It torched his blood. It was a bolt of lust slammed through his body. She trailed her fingernails down the buttons on his shirt, and he was sure she was reading his mind, seeing straight through him.

  “You look so handsome tonight,” she said, and there was softness in her voice, an affection that surprised him, maybe because his mind was so damn focused on the rest of her. On having her body.

  But this side, this sweet side…it worked its way through him like a good drug. He wanted this side of her, too. All of her.

  “Thank you,” he said, once again robbed of quips and wit.

  She raised a hand and cupped his cheek. “So damn handsome,” she repeated, and that tenderness turned h
im speechless. There was vulnerability in her voice tonight and he wanted to handle her with care. To shove all this lust and desire aside and give her whatever she wanted, whatever she needed.

  He threaded his hands up the back of her hair, letting the soft strands spill all over his fingers. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. Oh hell, he stood no chance. He didn’t want to stand a chance of fighting anything he was feeling for her.

  Because he felt everything.

  He whispered her name.

  She whispered something better. “Kiss me.”

  He ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. She murmured and melted into his arms. She fit him so perfectly, sliding against him, their bodies like magnets, seeking their opposite, finding their way home.

  He kissed her, soft and tender, and he could have gone on all night. Could have kissed her forever. But he wanted to take her to the theater, too. To prove he’d changed. That he could put her first. Ahead of himself.

  When he pulled away, he spotted a picture on her kitchen counter, a close-up of sunflowers, lit from the sun with a bright, golden glow around the petals.

  He tipped his chin to the image. “Did you take that?”

  “I did,” she answered without looking at him, as she gathered her purse from the table.

  “Didn’t know you were into photography.”

  “I’m not,” she said.

  In the corner of the photo, he could barely make out the edge of a stone. He was about to ask where she’d taken the picture, but when he turned around she was on the other side of the door, ready and eager to go.

  He clasped her hand and walked her down the stairs, leaving her home far behind them.

  * * *

  It worked. It always worked with Brent. His touch erased the bad. His mere presence made her start to feel good again. To feel happy. To feel hope. She loved who she could be with him. And she wanted to be that woman tonight. Not the woman who’d lost so many pieces of her family, young and old, leaving her with just memories in frames.

  Memories she’d have to share soon enough.

  For now though, for this second in time, as she slid into the town car with him, she was the woman she wanted to be.

  There would be time to say all those things.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Her mind was officially blown.

  She’d seen countless ballets and watched thousands of modern dances, but Alvin Ailey had been her favorite since she was a girl, and also her fantasy. While other dancers dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina, Shannon had pictured herself in a starring role in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The company’s modern ballet style and athleticism had always spoken to her. As a young kid on the outskirts of town, growing up in a broken-down neighborhood, she’d been determined to dance her way out of her circumstances, and to win a spot in a prestigious company.

  That had never happened, and while she’d moved on, picked herself up, and carved out a career that she loved, a small piece of her heart still longed to be the one on stage, still wished to captivate an audience as she herself had just been captivated.

  As they neared the end of the show, the dancers moved with such passion, such exuberance that her heart was full, overcome with their joy in movement. She squeezed Brent’s hand in the darkened theater. He’d been such a trooper. She knew he wasn’t innately a dance fan. Most men weren’t. Hell, her own brothers didn’t go to the theater with her. And while she doubted Brent had personally delighted in the production, the mere fact that he’d taken her, watched with her, and focused on the stage meant the world to her.

  He had stepped up from the second she’d shown up at his club last week to apologize. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he’d do whatever it took to win her back. He’d been honest, and open, and giving, and everything she’d known him to be. All the more reason for her to lay her cards on the table tonight. Well, tomorrow. Because she was pretty damn sure tonight was going to turn into an all-nighter with him. She had no desire for this date to end. She wanted it to unfurl through the darkness, and roll on into the sunrise.

  After the euphoric finale on stage, she was the first to her feet, clapping and calling out bravo. Then she threw her arms around Brent’s neck, and planted a quick kiss on his lips.

  “Thank you. I loved every second of it,” she said, standing on tiptoes. “I feel like I’m floating on cloud nine.”

  A dancer’s high.

  “I’m so happy to hear that,” he said, his expression earnest. There was no teasing, no joking. He really had wanted her to be happy, and hell if that didn’t make her heart beat in overdrive for him.

  They clapped once more during the final curtain call. She picked up the thread of the conversation as the audience started to shuffle out, the bright lights flickering on in the Luxe Theater. “Even if it did make me feel the tiniest pang of regret right here,” she said, tapping her chest.

  “I hope it wasn’t too hard for you.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. Just makes me a little sad every now and then that I can’t do that anymore. But that’s all,” she said, as she ran her fingers along his arm. She squeezed his hand as they exited the row, replaying her words—can’t do that anymore. While she might not be able to dance like those performers on stage had—leaping, stretching, soaring beyond the atmosphere—there were other ways to dance. Oh yes, there were many other ways to move.

  She tugged him close to her against the edge of the aisle seat. The crowds filtered by as she leaned in, whispering in his ear. “But I can dance for you. The way you like.”

  Noise filled the theater. The chatter and hum of the crowd. The music that ushered the patrons out the door. The sound of shoes on carpets, of seats folding up, of phones buzzing. But beneath all that, she heard the sexiest groan escape his lips, a low rumble that came from deep within his chest. It touched down in her nervous system, and sent the desire that had been on a simmer all evening to a flashpoint.

  Her pulse doubled. Her belly flipped. Want engulfed her.

  “Now,” he said, his voice a husk.

  “Do you want to come back to my—” she began, but he cut her off.

  He produced a gleaming white key card from his back pocket. “I was hopeful,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

  She adored that hope in him. She adored it for so many reasons. Because he had so much of it, because he could call on it whenever he needed to, and because he’d always freely shared it with her. His brightness, his happiness, his luck.

  “Your hope will be rewarded, you handsome man.”

  She’d take some of his luck tonight and make it theirs.

  * * *

  The elevator doors whooshed shut.

  He was a coil, tightly wound. He grasped her face and kissed her hard as he backed her into the corner, in clear view of the camera that was surely watching anyone in the lift.

  He didn’t fucking care.

  They were alone.

  She sighed, she gasped, she moaned as the elevator chugged higher into the sky. Somewhere it slowed and stopped. He glanced briefly at the number pad. Twelve. Not their floor. He returned to her lips, red and full and eager. The doors opened while he fused his mouth to hers, dropping his hand to her ass, gripping her soft flesh, with the kind of hunger that came from knowing there’d be no stopping tonight.

  “Um, we’ll catch the next one,” someone behind him said, and the doors shut again.

  “When did you get the room?” she whispered, her voice all breathy and sexy.

  “Earlier today,” he said, rewinding briefly to his call with Nate. And then, holy shit. Fuck me with a chainsaw. The call with Tanner. He heaved a sigh. He’d packed a bag, and tossed it in the trunk of the town car on the way to pick her up, but had promptly forgotten about his flight the second he’d laid eyes on Shannon.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I have to catch a flight to New York at midnight,” he said, frustration laced through every word, stringing them tog
ether.

  She stepped away, her jaw falling open. “Seriously? It’s a quarter after ten right now.”

  “The call I got earlier in the week when we were at lunch? About the New York club? They had to move the meeting to lunch tomorrow instead of dinner tomorrow, so I have to catch a red-eye tonight instead of a morning flight.”

  She inhaled sharply. “Brent. We were on a date.”

  “I thought we could fit everything in.”

  Her eyes bugged out, and she stared bullets at him as the elevator landed on the twentieth floor. “You thought you could fit it all in? Fit what in? Taking me out? Fucking me? And then flying to New York at midnight? Is that before or after the fucking?”

  The doors slid open. She dug her heels in, but he hadn’t come this far to have her pissed at him again. “Shan, let’s get out of the elevator,” he said firmly.

  She shook her head. She was like a dog grabbing grass and refusing to walk. Tension twisted in his chest, squeezing his lungs. The last thing he wanted was to fight with her, not when she’d been melting in his arms moments ago. He pressed his finger against the open button, holding it. “C’mon. We can talk in the room.”

  “We can talk here,” she countered, pointing at the floor of the elevator, then at him. “Because I’d really like to know when you were planning on telling me you were cutting our date short.”

  “It’s not like we even made official plans for a sleepover,” he said, firing right back at her, his matchstick temper getting the best of him, too.

  She narrowed her eyes, turned them into slits. “Oh, excuse me. I didn’t realize I had to book you to spend the night with me,” she said, puffing out her chest and practically spitting the words at him.

  He held out his hands wide. “It’s not as if you’ve been giving me any signs that you wanted to.”

  She gestured grandly to those red shoes that looked like sex on her. “I guess wearing the goddamn shoes you said you wanted to fuck me in wasn’t a big enough sign? Or maybe letting you finger me in front of the fountains last weekend? That wasn’t clear enough for you?”