A Pinch of Sugar (Lights Camera Insta-love 1)

I never expected the types of things she said to me to make my dick so hard. To make me feel like I was standing in the exact right place, with the exact right woman, but her words opened up a door inside me and there’s hunger on the other side. There’s more than that. There’s…responsibility. Alice needs a man who will touch her, speak to her, treat her a certain way—and I need it to be me.

It will be me.

With anticipation tightening my gut, I turn the corner into the area where I left Alice…

Gone.

She’s gone.

A headache roars home, right between my eyes, and the moisture in my mouth evaporates. No.

Helplessness pours into my stomach like wet cement and I turn, kicking over a garment rack. “Fuck!”

On some level, I knew she wouldn’t be here, though, didn’t I? Goddammit. Was I daft leaving her when she’d just been so brave and open with me? I don’t know where these new instincts are coming from, either, but I know with dead certainty that spanking her and walking away was a huge mistake. She needed soothing and it was my duty to provide.

Refusing to be defeated, to be without her, I find the closest grunt in a headset, grabbing him by the elbow. “The girl, Alice. The contestant. Where has she gone?”

His face is bone white. “I-I don’t know. We took care of the release forms during the first break. She had no reason to stick around, so she probably left.”

The hell she didn’t have a reason to stick around.

I was about to take her from behind against the dressing table.

I was…yes, I think I would have taken her home with me. Maybe even permanently. Which might have taken quite a lot of convincing, considering we’re in New York City and I live in London.

Am scheduled to return there tomorrow, in fact.

Dread and urgency are thorns in my side. “Release forms,” I bark. “Does that mean you have her contact information?”

He’s already shaking his head. “I’m not allowed to give out—”

“Oh. You will.”

I extricate my wallet and start counting out bills. When I press them into the young man’s sweaty palm, his eyes light up. “She used her work address on the forms. I only remember because I took a date once to the restaurant she manages.”

Impatience makes me want to shake him. “The name of it, if you please.”

“Landmark. It’s downtown. Real nice place. I had the lobster—”

I turn on a heel and walk away, cell phone in hand so I can check the time. It’s almost dinnertime. If she’s not working tonight, I suppose I’ll have to pay off someone at Landmark to give me her home address. And I’m more than willing.

You’re not going to enchant me and then disappear, Alice.

I hope you’re ready, because I’m coming to get you.

* * *

When I walk into Landmark, I immediately know it’s a well-run establishment and it pleases me to know my Alice has a hand in making it so. The low, intimate lighting is perfect, the music is the right volume, the wait staff’s uniforms are clean and starched. There isn’t a wrinkle to be found on the white tablecloths, the overhead chandelier making the silverware shine.

It’s a large restaurant. Two levels. And it’s packed full of customers.

But it only takes me ten seconds to spot Alice.

The sight of her shuts down everything around me until all I can hear is the shuddering intake of my own breath. All I can feel is my cock stiffening in my trousers. She’s magnificent in a short, black skirt that makes her legs look like sin, her tits jiggling underneath the starched white of her tucked in dress shirt. She’s making her rounds through the sea of tables, smiling and asking the patrons if everything is to their liking. To anyone looking at her, she appears to be a very intelligent, independent woman—and I’m sure she is. Secretly, though? She wants her tight ass backhanded by the man in charge.

I’m that man.

These tastes she’s woken up inside me are unexpected, but Lord, I don’t think I could deny them even if I wanted to.

“Oh my God. It’s Sebastian Cove,” someone says in a furious whisper as they pass. Heads are beginning to turn in my direction. I notice this only in my periphery, because I can’t take my eyes off Alice. When she finally notices me standing off to the side of the hostess station, she stops in her tracks, her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink. In my mind, I imagine kissing that blooming spot of color while holding her in my lap. Telling her not to be embarrassed about the wet spot on her panties that’s blooming just as fast as the two on her face.

Alice visibly gathers herself and comes toward me. Before she can reach my side, however, a man steps in between us. He takes my hand in an enthusiastic shake, trying and failing several times to form a bloody sentence. “I-I don’t believe it. It’s…you’re Sebastian Cove. In my restaurant. No one told me you were coming. Well we must get you a table immediately—”