Stripped Down (Tap That)

Four

Rick never took anything for granted. Growing up the way he had, he appreciated everything positive that came his way. He was sitting in the backseat of a car and Sloane O’Toole was inviting him to prove himself.

It was his fantasy sprung to life and he was going to make her so very pleased she had sent him that text.

The text he was going to screen shot and save as a trophy.

He reached out and ran his thumb over her full bottom lip. He wanted to kiss her, but he was patient. It could wait until they were alone. Hell, he’d waited over a dozen years for this. “Let me get the door.”

He opened the car and got out. He thanked the driver as Sloane slid out the same door he had exited. Her long legs in those tight jeans were an amazing thing. He felt a hint of guilt over Sullivan. They’d been best friends a long time and Sullivan clearly did not want him hooking up with Sloane. But hell, he was twenty-eight and Sloane was thirty. A grown-ass woman. She could do what she wanted.

Sullivan wasn’t thinking right, anyway. He was drinking and fucking his way through Beaver Bend, angry at the world. Maybe it was as simple as he didn’t want anyone else having fun right now. Besides, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

And maybe this kiss would go nowhere. Maybe it would be a pleasant kiss that would end there. But he had spent his adult life reading women and Sloane had made the decision to have sex with him. He could see it on her face, in her body language. It was sexual determination that if the kiss went well, she wanted him in her bed.

Which meant he was getting everything he wanted without any dating to confuse the situation. He had found that out the hard way. You take a woman out on a legitimate date, she has expectations. For obvious reasons.

This was basically the world’s most perfect scenario.

Sloane. No strings attached. Perfection.

He zipped his jumpsuit up and down methodically, wanting to touch Sloane with every bone in his body but not wanting to give the neighbors a show. In a small town there was always talk. He was notorious for bed hopping. It wasn’t something he was ashamed of at all. He and every woman he had been with had both been willing partners, with a mutually satisfying conclusion.

But this was different.

This was Sloane.

Which he had to admit, gave him pause even though he didn’t want it to. It was perfect. But… she had been drinking and he did not want her to regret anything tomorrow. His conscience started to work on him. Damn it. He’d have to proceed with caution.

“How long are you in town for?” he asked her. “Is this a temporary thing until Sullivan regroups?” He already knew it wasn’t. He’d seen the lease she had signed because his sister forwarded all electronic documents of importance to him. It had been a twelve-month lease. He wondered if Sloane knew that he owned the building and, behind the LLC name on the lease, was technically her landlord.

Sloane stopped in front of the door to the apartment building and turned to him. “I plan to stay here forever this time.” She tilted her head to the sky. “God, it’s beautiful out tonight, isn’t it? It’s the absolute perfect temperature.”

“It is perfect tonight.” But all he saw was her. She had grown even further into her beauty, something he couldn’t have imagined at fifteen. He’d thought she was perfect then. But now she moved less self-consciously, with a simple confidence instead of the haughty veneer of her teen years. She had long cheekbones, full lips, and wide, luminous eyes the color of the lake in the summer. A deep, murky blue. She’d allowed her hair to relax in gentle raven waves now, unlike the stark, pin-straight style she’d had before. Everything about her seemed softer, gentler.

Yet that signature sassiness was still there.

“You are a shameless flirt,” she told him. “But I like it. For tonight, I like it.”

“Tonight is all that matters,” he said, and he meant it. “Now let me kiss you under the moonlight.”

“Do what you need to do.” Her tongue came out and slipped over her bottom lip.

Rick fought the urge to groan. She wasn’t wearing lipstick, her makeup simple and neutral. He moved in closer to her, enjoying the way her eyes widened a little. He put his hand on the door, over her head, slightly to the right. The movement brought his chest closer to hers and she pressed herself back against the steel door as he invaded her space. She was nearly his height, with him only a few inches on her. It allowed them to gaze at each other, Rick taking in every one of her features, studying her gorgeous and expressive eyes.

He had a hard cock already and he hadn’t even touched her.

“I definitely need to do this,” he said, and he lowered his mouth to hers.

Before his lips completely touched hers, he heard her soft sigh of pleasure and it made him even harder.

The kiss did not disappoint. It was everything he remembered, but turned up. It was an adult kiss, with all the ease and skill of his years of experience. In high school, it had been chemistry. Just raw, unexpected chemistry as their mouths had moved over each other.

Now it was everything.

Sloane leaned in to him and it was a hot, scorching kiss. A perfect fit.

With his free hand, Rick reached up to Sloane’s neck and cupped her to bring her forward, even closer. He wanted their bodies brushing, touching. Her breasts teased against him as he eased his fingers into her hair at the nape of her neck. She smelled like lavender. She tasted like mint and tequila and the sugar sweetness of the syrup in her mojitos. It was amazing.