Dare Me Tonight (The Knight Brothers 3)

As a normal rule, he wouldn’t be interested in anything she’d had to say. He’d expected conversation to be forced and stilted, but he had a hunch this woman could discuss nail polish color and he’d be listening and drooling as she spoke.

He glanced at the open terrace, where people had congregated. “Let’s go outside,” he said, needing some fresh air that might dissipate her scent and its effect on his body.

“Sure. It’s a beautiful night,” she said, as he gestured for her to walk ahead of him.

Big mistake, he thought, his stare on her long legs and high heels that he imagined wrapping his hips while he fucked her.

So he lifted his gaze to her trim waist. She was thinner than the women he usually went for, her body more delicate, and yet that didn’t stop him from imagining the things he could do as he pounded into her.

Yeah. This was a fucking bad situation. “So tell me about yourself,” he said when they finally reached the balcony and he could breathe in the outside air, free of her scent.

“I graduated summa cum laude in management and business from Florida State University.”

She rolled her shoulders as if it were no big deal. He knew for a fact just how hard she’d had to work to accomplish those things.

“I’m just tired of studying,” she admitted, leaning in as if telling him a secret.

Too close and her fragrance was back in his nostrils, filling his body, making him harder. “But you have an offer for a full scholarship to attend Columbia’s exclusive Digital Business Strategy program. It’s elite, you know.”

She blew out a breath from those lips. “I do. Which is why I feel guilty considering turning it down. And I realize that no matter what business you’re in, a big part of any strategy is digital. You want to be able to reach consumers and businesses online where they live and observe their behaviors and figure how to tap into their market.” She sighed. “But I’d rather live it than learn it, if that makes any sense.”

He admired that she understood things about herself most people struggled to discover. She was also clearly bright, something that everyone in this room could claim, but she was enchanting, as well.

“On the other hand,” she went on, “if I want to succeed, I need the education.”

“And do you want to succeed? In digital business strategy or anything like it?”

A secretive smile pulled at her lips as she placed both hands out and shrugged. “I’m unsure, Mr. Knight–”

“Ethan.” He let out another little growl, not wanting the formal distance between them.

“Right. Ethan. Part of me just wants to dive in and just … do.”

Far be it from him to push her to go to school when she wasn’t sure what her path should be. “One thing I’m certain of, you’ll put one hundred percent into whatever it is you choose to do. I can tell that from this one conversation alone.” She was an excited ball of energy and drive but one without direction, he thought.

He’d like to direct that enthusiasm, he mused, thinking of her on her knees in front of him. He shook his head and refocused on the task at hand. Discussing the courses offered at Columbia, doing his job as someone who both funded and hired from this school.

But all the while, his mind kept drifting to Sienna Dare, not as a potential student or employee, but as the first woman who had interested him sexually in longer than he cared to remember. He had the distinct feeling she would be incredibly difficult to forget, and as the evening came to an end, he found himself reluctant to part from her, something he never could have anticipated.

It was everything about her, how she went from youthful free spirit to bright businesswoman capable of having a serious conversation about topics that would have most people’s eyes glazing over. The way she spoke, so animated and excitedly, as if everything she said had great importance. She alone had taken him away from the burdens that consumed him day in and day out, making him forget everything but the joy of being with her.

He’d allowed her the freedom to talk to other trustees, donors, and CEOs who could enlighten her on the program and the benefits of furthering her education here, despite hating every second of her focus being on other people and not him.

At the moment, another man had captured her attention, an older gentleman who was clearly interested not just in what she had to say about social media marketing strategy, but was also inching nearer to her the longer they talked.

Ethan might not be much better than this man when it came to noticing Sienna’s charms, but there was no way he was going to let the man monopolize her attention or behave inappropriately on his watch.