I spun around to see her long, dark hair flying as she danced with abandon out on the floor, shimmying against the cute guys who’d been sitting next to us at the bar and doing her best to lure me over. Come to me, she mouthed, drunkenly beckoning me with both hands when I caught her eye.
I shook my head with a laugh, opting instead to taunt her by stealing her margarita.
But as soon as I wrapped my fingers around the cold glass, I felt a shiver move up my spine.
And as soon as I took a drink, I heard that low voice sound behind me.
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
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.