In my Arms Tonight (NYC Singles Book 2)

by Sasha Clinton

  She always left that thing dangling precariously on the edge of the couch, so it was no surprise that it had fallen off. Since she was in no mood to shut off the noise, Kat proceeded to the door, letting whatever was playing on TV play.

  The face on the screen of her home security system was one she didn’t expect to see.

  “Hello, I am Alex Summer. I’m running for mayor and I—” His sentence cropped itself midway when she opened the door and his chocolate eyes nailed her.

  “It’s you.” Her voice grew unnaturally husky. He was the last man whose face she wanted to see when she was on the edge of am orgasm.

  “Yes.” The monosyllable was weak. “I had no idea you lived here.”

  Kat considered slamming the door shut in his face, but he was pitiable in his drenched clothes. Plus, she considered him almost a friend after the deep conversation they’d shared that night.

  “Wanna come in? You’re wet.” She pushed open the door wider.

  Alex’s gaze grazed her ankle.

  That was when she realized that her boobs were pouring out of her top and she’d forgotten to wear a bra—something that was pretty obvious from the way her nipples protruded. Reflected in Alex’s eyes were her glazed eyes and bed hair.

  On a scale of one to ten, this would be a solid ten in terms of embarrassment factor.

  “Did I disturb you while you were doing something important?” Alex glued his eyes onto her face rather than to the other more interesting bits of her that frankly, any man would have wanted to look at.

  Give the guy some points for decency, she thought.

  “Just watching Netflix.” The TV blared in the background and saved whatever shred of dignity she had remaining.

  Alex crossed the threshold to her house. “If isn’t too much to ask, can I get a towel?”

  “Sure. And I might have a spare T-shirt your size, too.”

  The click of the door locking behind her made all the hairs on Kat’s back stand up.

  Alone with a man in her house.

  Anxious, she grabbed her phone from the coffee table. Every safety app developed in the history of humankind was installed on it. She didn’t think Alex would harm her, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

  “What were you watching?” Alex’s gaze settled on her TV screen. “Looks… interesting.”

  Kat kept a safe distance from him. “Have a seat. I’ll try to trace the whereabouts of that T-shirt I promised you.”

  Moving into her room, she grabbed a towel then battled the mess in her closet until she managed to locate the oversized T-shirt her boyfriend had left here five years ago. Yes, she still had that.

  “You have a camera in your living room,” Alex remarked when Kat handed him the towel and T-shirt.

  Not wanting to talk about the stalker thing and the home security system she had installed in response to the incident, she said, “Use my room to change.”

  Alex negotiated his way to her room and shut the door.

  Settling into the couch, Kat busied herself trying to make out a storyline from the images on TV. If he ever came back and asked her what the movie was about, she’d need an answer.

  The film was called The Capitol Game and from whatever little she could make out, it was a B-grade political thriller—one involving a fictional president who had gotten an intern pregnant. She was now out to destroy his life and have him impeached.

  Did screenplay writers never get sick of writing derivatives of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal?

  In the scene that was playing, the nutcase intern was stalking him, trying to find an opening to exact her revenge. Generally, Kat didn’t appreciate movies with such hare-brained plots, but what the script lacked in story, it made up for in its (mostly unintended) comedy. She was rolling over with laughter, tearing up within minutes. Alex cleared his throat behind her.

  “This is so funny—” Her hands stilled and the rest of her body followed as soon as she realized that Alex was bare-chested.

  And holy hell, he had tattoos.

  Alex Summer, Mr. Uptight, model citizen had tattoos. Plural.

  Starting right below his collarbone, they wound down his right arm, stopping a few hairs shy of his wrist. No wonder he never stepped out in anything but full-sleeved shirts, even in the middle of summer. If somebody saw him like this, they’d be unable to buy into the ‘responsible, dependable, clean’ image he had cultivated with the help of his army of political consultants and press secretaries.

  Warmth snaked over her body and hit her in her groin. Taylor Swift’s I Knew You were Trouble randomly started up in her head.

  Trouble, trouble, trouble.

  “My tattoos making you uncomfortable?” Alex asked, perceiving her discomfort.

  “No, but I had no clue that you were hiding this under your pristine white shirts. I’m slightly shocked.” Edging towards him, she focused on his chest.

  Gosh, those rippling, fluid muscles. How could a man past forty-five have a body like this?

  Alex shrugged like the tattoos were no big deal. “The T-shirt doesn’t fit. Do you have a bigger one?”

  His words passed in through one ear and out through the other, like mist, because she was so entranced by his body.

  “What does it mean? Aut Viam Inve’niam Aut Faciam.” She read the tattoo, murdering the pronunciation as she did so.

  “‘I’ll either find a way or make one.’” His dark eyes passed over her breasts.

  The intensity with which he devoured her visually made her heart jump.

  In all this time, Kat had only seen the cool, guarded, polite side of him. The knowledge that he had a side like this intrigued her. She liked people with layers.

  She found herself thinking of exploring his body with her hands, with her tongue, with her whole being. Panic pushed into her nerves. It was almost terrifying how strongly she was attracted to him.

  Forget about him. You two can never be.

  Alex was her news assignment. She had to maintain some semblance of professional integrity here, no matter how wet she was.

  “Um… what were we talking about?”

  “The T-shirt,” he reminded her, a little flushed.

  “Right. I’m sorry. That was the only one I had.” Switching into practical mode, Kat went over the possibilities of what could be done. “I can dry your wet shirt using my hair dryer. I tried it once when I was in a similar situation. It won’t take long.”

  “I’ll dry it myself, if you give me the hair dryer,” Alex said.

  The air was thick with flammable tension when she whipped past him to her bedroom. She could feel their chemistry in her bones. One igniting spark and that would be it.

  Kat folded the bedsheets and reached for his shirt lying on her bed right next to her pink vibrator.

  Goodness. Had she left it here? Here, where it was in plain view and Alex could see it if he walked into the room.

  Wait, he must’ve already seen it.

  Biting down her lip to prevent herself from yelling in frustration, Kat snuck a quick look backwards, hoping Alex would be on the couch watching the stupid movie and she could quickly hide her vibrator somewhere.

  But no, he wasn’t watching the melodrama involving the murder-crazed intern. He was watching her grow beet red.

  Kat could only guess what he was thinking. This was so, so mortifying.

  Gathering the hair dryer from the bathroom, she pulled a poker face.

  “Here.” She thrust it into his arms, making sure to avoid any skin contact. She couldn’t handle touching him right now. “Use any socket.”

  “Sorry for disturbing while you were in the middle of… that.” His voice changed from serious to teasing, shocking her with unwanted sexual longing.

  Kat pressed a hand onto her forehead to fight off the fuzziness in her brain. “Don’t worry about it.”

  She tried to go back to watching the hilarious movie, but with the hair dryer buzzing in the background and the awareness of Alex’s presenc
e hanging over her, she couldn’t focus. The unwanted images of his naked torso filtered into her consciousness. Kat blinked them away.

  “It’s taking a while to dry,” Alex complained, shaking his shirt while The Capitol Game chugged on. “My arms are sore.”

  He extended his arms in front of him and stretched them out.

  “Want me to take over?” Kat offered, now wanting him out of here as soon as possible.

  “No.” He narrowed his eyes at a blinking light on the wall. “I’m still curious. Why do you have so many security cameras in your house?”

  “I’m trying to be safe.” Kat folded her legs to make space for Alex on the couch.

  He sank into the black upholstery, right next to her.

  Kat inched away, although what she really wanted to do was move closer and lick those tattoos on his chest. The familiar rush of heat that she experienced every time she was in his proximity returned.

  “Alex, what do you think of romantic relationships between younger women and older men?” Kat blurted out, the filter in her brain incinerated by the strong urges she felt.

  Alex closed the space between them. His breath filled her lungs. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to answer that question.”

  “The movie we’re watching… it’s about the president and his relationship with a younger woman. What’s your opinion on that?”

  Wow, that was a smart comeback.

  “She wants to kill him,” Alex said, dryly. “That’s my opinion.”

  “But what do you think about their relationship? Do you think this type of relationship has potential?”

  “Wouldn’t bet my money on it.” Alex rocked his head in sympathy for the fictional president.

  “But does it always have to be this way? Couldn’t two such people have a good relationship?” Kat urged.

  Instead of asking a simple, Do you want to do something about this atom bomb of an attraction between us? she was asking these useless questions, hoping he’d get the idea that she was referring to him and her.

  Which he totally wasn’t, by the way.

  “A morally corrupt politician and a psychopathic killer are hardly relationship material.” Alex balked.

  Note to self: I suck at being indirect.

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” Raising her hands in the air, she clapped. “For a minute, imagine this scenario. Suppose things were different. Suppose neither of the two people involved are psychopaths or evil power-mongers. For argument’s sake, let’s assume there is a fourteen-year age gap between them. And they’re mature enough to—”

  Alex cupped her face, arresting her with his gaze. The hunger that she saw in his eyes threw her off balance.

  “Just say you want to kiss me.”

  She didn’t have to think.

  “I want to kiss you.” It was a hoarse, needy whisper that sounded as painful as it felt.

  Wrapping one arm around her waist, he pulled her into his lap. “Good, because I want to kiss you, too.”

  Pressing into her mouth, the hard lines of his lips enveloped her soft, rounded ones and his hand teased her breasts, sending sensations circling up her thighs into her core.

  The gentle suckling grew into a rough war between their tongues, then into a full-blown mouth orgasm. They fought to savor each other’s lips and tongues, but impatience made it impossible for either of them to get enough.

  She was down on the couch with him over her before she knew it. Slipping his hand under her barely-there blouse, he dragged his fingers in slow motion over her nipple. Wetness poured between her thighs and she ached for him to do the same erotic slide over her other nipple.

  His teeth swept over her lower lip, gently at first, then so roughly she had to swallow a cry.

  Alex owned her, dominated her so completely with his lips that Kat forgot to breathe, forgot to think, even forgot what she was doing. This wasn’t a man she was kissing. It was a force of nature.

  Sweeping her ass off the couch, he cradled her bottom and squeezed it, pleasuring it so thoroughly that she had to get away from him, just so the mad, overwhelming sensations would stop. Kat put her fingers on his cheek and tapped to break contact.

  “Time out,” she cried, trying to breathe through the heat.

  “No time outs. I don’t play easy.”

  Alex gave her exactly three seconds to recover before pushing into her mouth again. His palm rested against her ear, then his lips moved in, taking her mouth with his tongue. His stubble nuzzled against her cheek, making her shiver.

  God, it was so intense. He was so intense. Who’d known that Alex was hiding this volcano of passion inside him? And now that she knew, how could she not respond?

  Framing his face with her hands, she brushed her tongue against his. A growl rose from Alex’s throat, shaking her body all the way down to the wet spot between thighs.

  They both panted when they came up for breath. In a few short moments, she’d grown so accustomed to him that she couldn’t bear being away. She dragged her fingers over the ink on his body and felt the honed muscles underneath respond to her.

  Excitement buzzed in her blood. How could the simple act of touching someone be so wildly exhilarating? But Alex was so beautiful, so mysterious. Her hand contacted a raised bump of skin.

  “Don’t touch me there.” He caged her delicate hands in his large ones, pinning them to her sides.

  Kat looked closer and saw a jagged scar running under the tattoos.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “No, but I don’t like to be touched there.” Irritation clouded the blackness of his eyes.

  “How did you get this scar—” Kat’s words drowned in her throat, replaced by a sigh.

  Groping her bare breast, Alex covered her nipple with his mouth and nibbled on the throbbing bud. She shifted to accommodate the white-hot flash that scorched her body when he tugged her bud with his tongue. His teeth tugged on the strap of her blouse, pulling it away from her shoulder, scraping her skin in the process. Kat shivered at the unexpected delight.

  He peeled away her shorts next. When he pulled away her underwear, she was completely naked.

  “Shhhh. Leave the questions for later.” Alex’s voice vibrated over her breasts and made the pulsing between her thighs grow more painful. She was already impatient to have him inside her.

  He caressed her stomach, her chest, her shoulder with his cheek, his five o’ clock stubble adding a delicious hint of roughness to the motion. He dipped his head to her breasts again, and his teeth closed around her other nipple this time.

  She wrapped her legs around his powerful lower body, tickling his back with her toes.

  “Alex, just get in me already. I don’t need more foreplay.” She was primed enough after her solo sex session earlier.

  “But I need it.” He rubbed his thumb pad over her sore nipple. “I need to touch every bit of you, taste every bit of you before I can be satisfied—”

  Shutting up, he put his mouth to better use by trailing kisses along her inner thighs. It blistered her skin with heat. She was forced to dig her nails into his back to keep herself from screaming.

  “Not there, darling. That’s my scar,” he reminded her testily, pushing her wet folds apart. His breath fanned them and Kat forgot what she’d heard, driving her nails deeper into his flesh as her breath shook.

  Exploring her, he didn’t hurry, but licked her carefully, making sure it felt good for her.

  Despite being the orgasm-obsessed person that she was, she found herself having fun, taking the journey with him as he showed her little parts of herself that she hadn’t known were so sensitive.

  Intimacy with Alex had layers. It wasn’t just an all-out race to the finish line. It was… something more.

  Kat pushed her hands over his abs, feeling them, feeling the hard bones at his hip, the texture of hair on his body.

  “You’re so wet for me,” he growled into her pussy.

  “Mmmm.”

  Whe
n her legs were pushed apart and his tongue flicked her clit, Kat lost her breath, captured by the overwhelming flood of heat.

  Every lick, every brush of his tongue, every stroke of his fingers on her heightened what was building up inside her, slowly and steadily.

  When she came, it was like two orgasms in one. Ecstasy crashed through her body, drowning her. Soaking up all the pleasure, Kat rested in Alex’s arms for a few minutes. Then, she was ready for more.

  She trotted to her room and grabbed condoms.

  Alex took them with a smile. “Thanks. I was starting to get depressed at the thought of having to finish with oral sex.”

  The sound of plastic ripping was music to her ears. His pants and briefs left his body and he slid a condom over his hard length. It was such a delicious visual that her lips became damp.

  “Come inside me.” It wasn’t a whisper or a request, it was a command.

  One breath later, he was thrusting into her. He moved in and out of her in impatient strokes, until he’d built a steady rhythm they could both enjoy. Her pussy tightened around him, grabbed every ounce of pleasure he gave. Alex filled her so completely.

  Mind, body and soul.

  It wasn’t long before an orgasm started swelling inside her. When their breaths matched, she finally came.

  Shivers careened, becoming one with her cells, one with her nuclei, pouring delight over her satisfied, spent body.

  Hanging suspended in that magical place, Kat allowed every last bit of delight to wash over her.

  Alex recovered from the orgasm slowly. It took him minutes to refocus, reorient and reconnect with his senses.

  The first thing he saw was Kat, soft and content, lying under him. The creamy swells of her breasts rose and fell to the click of the clock’s hands. Her long legs, intermingling with the his, were spread in a V.

  Threads of afternoon sunlight, shyly peeking in through the shutters, painted streaks of gold on her skin. The rain was finally gone.

  Letting his left cheek fall beside her right one, Alex rolled over and away from her glorious, damp body.

  He’d been in a hurry to devour her before, but he now took his time to visually feast on her beauty.