by Stella Rhys
My stomach flipped as I spun back around in my chair, still mid-sip on Mia’s margarita as I laid eyes on Iain.
Fuck. Me.
He stood with one thick forearm resting on the bar top, and his long fingers wrapped around that neat whiskey. Up close, his gorgeousness was like smacking face-first into a brick wall. From this distance, I could admire the perfect smoothness of his sculpted lips and the smooth underside of his jaw. His wide chest was basically at the level of my eyes, and I couldn’t help but bite down on my straw as I let my gaze wander for a bit, soaking in all that pure, delicious masculinity before finally replying to his question.
“Actually, no. I’m drowning my sorrows because I got fired this week,” I said, grateful to the booze for giving me the nerve to stand up to the prick.
I tried not to squirm as Iain dropped his eyes to the smirk I couldn’t suppress from my lips.
“You don’t look all that upset.”
I gave a little shrug.
“Tequila helps,” I said blithely, looking up from under my lashes as I sucked down the rest of Mia’s drink.
His stony eyes were on my mouth as I finished, and he was standing so close, hovering so tightly above me now that I could make out the scent of soap on his skin—the same crisp, intoxicating scent I’d memorized by heart since I was thirteen.
It hit me with a sudden punch of nostalgic lust, flashing me right back to being that shy kid around the house—bumping into Iain wearing just a towel in the hall, or Iain wearing just a pair of grey sweats while grabbing a midnight snack in the kitchen. Without warning, my pussy squeezed at the memory of the time he made me a grilled cheese at 3AM—showered, shirtless, and still drunk from his wild night out with my brother.
While everyone slept, I watched his muscled back as he cooked, and as he asked me about school, I felt him rearrange everything inside my brain with just the view of his body and the rumbling sound of his voice.
It stirred something inside of me that just never went away, and that night, I wound up giving myself my first orgasm while lying in the darkness of my room, my hand slipped into my panties, and my breath hitched in my throat.
Crap.
It was an old memory, but apparently, it was all I needed to destroy the pair of grown-up panties I had on now.
With a little wiggle in my chair, I confirmed how uncomfortably wet they were, and it only got worse when I raised my hand for another drink just to feel Iain pin it firmly back down to the bar.
“She’s had enough,” he told the bartender just as he came over, staring till the poor guy nodded dutifully and walked away.
Only once he was gone did Iain turn back to me, his hand still on top of mine.
Our skin on skin had my heart beating out of control, but I refused to let it show, forcing myself to keep my composure as I looked him dead in the eye.
“I really need you to stop doing that,” I said.
“What? Making sure you don’t over-drink at parties you’re not actually invited to?”
“No. Controlling my life like you know what’s best for me,” I retorted. “I already told you, I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m not Adam’s baby sister who you wouldn’t even curse in front of. I’m an adult now. I know what I can handle and I know what I want.”
I swore I caught a dubious look in Iain’s eye, but then he was completely unreadable as he simply looked down at me, searching my face. For what felt like ages, he just stared—at my eyes, my nose, my lips, my neck.
Heat bloomed under my skin as his gaze moved a little south of my neck before he stopped himself and brought it back to mine.
“And what exactly is it that you want?” he asked.
I swallowed.
Several things.
I’d come into this night with demands. Specific ones. But with Iain standing so close to me, still touching me, they’d become afterthoughts.
Maybe it was the tequila. Or maybe it was the fact that I could feel the palpable energy thrumming between us. Whatever it was, it was what made me suddenly blurt out, “Where’s Keira?”
Oops, I thought, though I didn’t actually regret my question. Especially not when I caught the irritated look in Iain’s eye which, oddly enough, I’d come to really enjoy.
“She isn’t here,” he replied.
“And why not?” I challenged.
He was silent as he stared me down, looking unamused with my antics—like he knew well that his answer was about to embolden me.
“Because we’re not together anymore,” he finally said.
And… wow.
I’d kind of known it, yet it still managed to shock me. I mean it was a crazy thing to process.
Iain Thorn was single.
When I was a kid, he was off-limits because I was too young. Once I was of age, he was off-limits because he was taken. But now, after five years with the same girl, it was somehow all over. He was single, I was legal, and I had enough liquid courage buzzing through me to go ahead and call him out.
“I guess that explains the way you eye-banged my tits before,” I said, enjoying the deepened look of annoyance on Iain’s face.
He didn’t take his glowering eyes off of me, but he said nothing as he took a drink from his glass, watching me toss my hair back behind my shoulders and sit up straight in my seat.
“So. You asked me what I wanted,” I reminded him, feeling a slow but steady adrenaline coursing through my veins. “And honestly, I just want the truth about why you got me fired.” I pulled my hand out from under his to pinch my straw and position it just outside my mouth. “Is it because you’re that protective of me, Iain?” I asked mockingly, cocking my head to the side.
I paused for a moment, returning his unwavering stare as I wrapped my lips around the straw and sucked down the last drop of my drink.
“Or is it because you want to fuck me?”
My own words set fire to my cheeks as I gazed up at him, unblinking despite the crowd swelling around us and the strobe lights flashing in my vision. Outwardly, I was unflappable, defiant, but in secret, my breath caught in my throat, and I felt warm all over as Iain leaned into me, standing so close to me now that I could feel his fingertips graze my naked thighs.
It was the lightest touch but it still sent little bolts of pleasure coursing through my body, eventually settling into a deep, warm throbbing between my legs that made me to writhe in my seat as he finally parted his mouth to reply.
“I promise you, Holland,” he murmured, peering at my parted lips then looking back up at me. “You’re the last person in this world I would ever want to fuck.”
Oh.
The statement knocked the air straight from my lungs, but I continued to glare back up at Iain, daggers in my eyes.
He was lying and I knew it, but it still felt like a slap across the face. I could practically feel the sting of his hand on my cheek, and suddenly I was certain that I hated this man.
I hated that he’d ever come into my life.
That he’d addicted me to his kindness from day one only to disappear on me, and then come back cold-hearted and mean. He’d done nothing but insult since he walked back into my life, and still, he’d managed to pull me back into my stupid, teenaged fixation—even when I wasn’t a teenager anymore, and I knew a million times better.
I’d worked my ass off to grow up and get rid of the old Holland, and not only had he brought her back in a snap, he’d found a way to break her heart in half yet again.
For all that, I swore I despised Iain Thorn.
But I took a page from his book and gave nothing away as I looked back up at him.
“Good to know,” I said brightly, holding my stare for another second before hopping off the barstool and making a beeline for Mia.
I’d given Iain all the sass I had in me, and because of that, there were tears burning in my eyes as soon as I started walking away—which meant the plan now was to grab my roommate, grab a car, and then go the hell home.
But the second I found
Mia—the second she saw the look on my face—I knew she had plans of her own, and before I could even open my mouth to insist, “We need to leave,” she took both my hands and pulled me in to dance with her and the two guys from the bar. And before I knew what was happening, I was letting loose, saying fuck it with my whole body and dancing everything away.
First with Mia, then with her and the guys, then finally with just one of the guys as we officially paired off for the night. The hurt, the rejection, the stupid, childish tears—they all faded slowly but surely as I felt the tequila seeping into my bloodstream and the music pulsing through my body.
I could feel the laser heat of eyes pinned on me from the bar, but with my own eyes closed, I refused to look back. Instead, I reveled in my stranger’s hands rubbing up and down my sides, his fingertips teasing the bottoms of my breasts as I rolled my head back onto his shoulder. Dancing against his warm body, I let myself get lost in the feeling of being wild for once. The thrill of being treated like a woman and having my body finally touched all over like this. I was like a ball of pent-up arousal, all hot and sweaty. Thrumming with anger and desperately aching for release.
It was why I gladly agreed by the time the guys suggested we take it to some hotel.
Something about a “sick rooftop.” An infinity pool. I was barely listening because my stranger had just squeezed my ass with both hands and murmured something dirty in my ear. Mia didn’t even hear it but it made her squeal with delight, and next thing I knew, we were all staggering outside, piling into a car.
The music and AC were already blasting, and I felt a full-body rush as I slid into the back, the last one in. Right away, my stranger’s hand found my thigh, and Mia let out an exuberant whoop as I closed the car door.
But I had barely slammed it shut before it opened again.
My heart stopped like a rock in my chest as I looked to the side, processing the sight of Iain’s shiny leather shoes before I heard his two-word command.
“Get out.”
8
HOLLAND
“Iain!”
My heels scraped the pavement as he held his grip firm on my arm, marching me from the car like a teenager caught sneaking out with her friends. People stared as we passed, and my cheeks burned as he hauled me toward the side of the building.
“Iain, what are you doing?”
The second we were around the corner, he pinned me hard against the wall.
“I should ask you the same,” he growled, his chest nearly touching mine. My breath trembled in my throat as I absorbed the closeness of his body, and I did my best not to melt under the scrutinizing heat of his stare. “What the hell are you trying to do to me?” Iain demanded furiously, searching my eyes as if he could find the answer without my saying a word. “Do you even know his fucking name?”
I was speechless as for a moment, my senses drowned in his touch. His scent. The snarling ferocity in his voice, and the sight of that emerald gaze burning just inches from mine. He stood so close I could feel the heat radiating from his skin, and it was impossible not to luxuriate in it. To get lost for a moment.
But then with a curl of my lip, I forced myself back to earth.
“What do you care?” I jerked my arm, wrestling in vain against his strength. “I’m just Adam’s annoying kid sister to you right? The last girl in the world you would ever want to fuck?”
Iain glared.
“Should,” he bit out with irritation. “You’re the last girl in the world I should ever want to fuck.”
Satisfaction unfurled in my belly at the sound of that semi-confession, but I didn’t let him off the hook.
“Right. Because I’m too young and innocent and naive for you. I got that,” I said, my voice like an audible eye roll as I finally yanked my arm out of his grip. “But if you’re too scared then at least let someone else do it, because I’ve been waiting a really long time and like it or not, I don’t need your permission to have sex. I already told you. I moved out here so I could finally do whatever I want, and what I want is for someone to fuck me like I’ve never been fucked before in my life. I want someone besides me to make me come, and if it isn’t going to be you, it’s going to be that guy in the car, so either man up, Iain, or leave me the hell alone.”
My chest heaved by the time I was finished, and I forced myself to look Iain dead in the eye despite how intimidating he was as he towered over me, an entire wildfire blazing behind those green eyes. He was absolutely livid. Six feet and two inches of bottled-up fury.
But when he spoke, his voice was cold. Unfeeling.
“You want me to fuck you, Holland? Is that what you want?”
I wet my lips at the sound of those words from his mouth. I was pretty sure my thong was just a flimsy strip of soaked cotton between my legs now as I stared up and said, “Yes.”
“I don’t think you know what you’re asking for here.”
“Except I do,” I countered straightaway. “I want you to take me home with you, Iain,” I said, pausing to let the words sink in. “I want you to take off my clothes.” I held his stare for a moment before dropping my gaze down to his package. “And I want to feel your cock inside me,” I finished softly, letting myself look a little longer and imagine just how big he was under there before I finally brought my attention back up to him.
And when I did, a shiver ran up my spine, because I knew he’d just watched every second of me staring longingly at his package. Hard as stone before, his jaw has gone slack, and I was pretty sure it was dark, primal lust glinting in his eyes as he studied me, tormenting me with what felt like an eternity of silence before he finally spoke again.
“Do you think you can handle my cock inside you, Holland?”
I bit my lip at the tone of his voice when he asked. His eyes were still intense and unyielding, but his voice mimicked the soft, patient way he used to speak to me when I was younger—when he explained something confusing, or talked me through something that happened at school. It threw me off completely, but I still managed a nod in response.
Yes, Iain. I’m a big girl now, and I can handle your cock inside me.
The look of warning returned in his eyes as he studied me.
“I won’t be gentle,” he said.
“I don’t care,” I returned. “I don’t need you to be considering how crazy wet I am right now.” When Iain lifted his dark eyebrows, I rubbed my thighs together, feeling the slickness between them and the corners of my mouth twisting up with a hint of sheepishness. “I’ve literally never been this wet before in my life,” I said, almost wanting to laugh.
But Iain didn’t return my amusement. His brilliant eyes were still hard on me, and his chiseled features were unmoving, looking that much more like stone under the light of the moon. Standing in front of me in that crisp white shirt, he looked like the most perfect, flawless statue—so solemn and serious that I didn’t expect the words he said next.
“Show me then.”
I blinked.
What?
My eyebrows darted up in surprise, but I forced them quickly back down, refusing to look shaken like he wanted me to be, because it took a second, but I knew what he was doing.
He was trying to scare me off.
To prove I was just a dumb kid talking a big game. He was trying to prove to me that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, so despite my nerves—despite my breath shivering in my throat with every shallow inhalation—I forced myself to counter him.
“How would you like me to show you?”
Iain stared. He said nothing as he looked at me, and I couldn’t tell if he was pissed or pleased that I was willing to comply with his demand. His gait was relaxed, his hands slid in his pockets. But his expression remained stern, his mouth still a perfectly straight line as he took a step back and shifted his weight to his heels.
“Lift your skirt up for me.”
He said it so casually. With that natural air of authority, like it was a perfectly normal demand.
Maybe that was why I obliged.
It was either that or the fact that I didn’t have a bluff for him to call—I wanted him. I had nearly ten years of wanting him coiled up in my bones, pent up inside me, calling all the shots. So once I had my peripherals confirm that we were alone, I reached my lightly trembling fingers down the front of my dress, scrunching the material of my flared skirt into my hands before pulling it up to reveal the damp white cotton of my panties.
Once I had them flashed, I could feel myself blushing from head to toe. My pussy clenched as I felt the late-night breeze ripple up my naked thighs, and my breathing grew jagged the longer I just stood there, shoulders pressed back against the wall, obediently holding my skirt up for Iain as I returned the intensity of his gaze.
He hadn’t even looked down yet. He just kept his storming eyes on mine for another few tormenting seconds, as if testing my nerves.
But then with a languid stroke of his palm over his jaw, he took another step back.
And then with the slightest tilt of the head, he flicked his stare down between my legs.
Anticipation quivered in my stomach as my own eyes followed suit, trailing from the gleaming Rolex clasped around his wrist to his masculine hand as he reached carefully forward, hooking two long fingers into the front of my panties.
Oh…
Fuck.
My mouth fell wide open, and goosebumps erupted all over as he grazed my naked mound with his knuckles. Hot need pulsed in my clit as I processed the fact that Iain Thorn had his hand in my panties, and it only deepened, turning into a full-on screaming throb as he gently stretched them to the side to expose my bare pussy.
Holy fuck, this is happening.
I couldn’t believe this was happening.
With my back against the wall, I stared at Iain soaking in the sight of my aching wet pussy. I knew my juices had run down my thighs, but I wondered if I was legitimately dripping because I could see the thick lust eclipsing the steeliness of his gaze right now. His lip curled as he muttered something under his breath, shaking his head and looking almost angry at the sight of me.