One moment I was in this room with a near-stranger and the next, it’s like I know him. His gray eyes are sincere and bottomless, trained on me, pulling me closer. Making me feel safe. What I know about men, I learned from my father. And now my boss, back in Vegas. They don’t like to be criticized—like at all. But this guy took my criticism and used it to unlock something inside of himself. For me.
I have the weird urge to do the same for him.
“I thought they actually wanted to be my friends,” I say, my lips feeling numb. “I should have known better, but even if they were pretending…it felt nice. Until this morning.”
“Why don’t they want to be your real friends?” he snaps, sounding pissed.
Is he on my side? Yeah, it seems like he is. I’m enjoying having him there way more than I should. Way more than is allowed. “I got a work promotion. So to speak. And they didn’t.”
He’s already shaking his head at me. “I deal with that useless envy all the time. Guys who’d love to take my spot, but they can’t, because they aren’t half as good. They’d rather flip me off behind my back than work harder.”
My lips jump at one end. “Gosh, don’t be modest or anything.”
“You aren’t modest, either, are you?” He swaggers his way over to me, planting those hands back up on the wall, leaning down so we’re eye to eye. “You might have been a little thrown off out there, but you know you’re a badass. Don’t you? You can say it to me.”
“I’m a badass,” I whisper, my lungs expanding.
“Uh-huh.” He gives me a slow wink. “And baby, you didn’t crack once out there. They threw you into battle, but you won the damn war.”
I kiss him.
Hard.
Oh boy, now I’ve done it.
I’ve never even kissed anyone, but I can’t stop myself from lifting onto my tiptoes and pressing my lips to Aiden’s. He grunts, seemingly shocked, but wow, he isn’t thrown off for long. A split second after our mouths meet, he’s got my ass in those giant hockey player hands and he’s lifting me up. My legs sling around his hips and he groans, charging forward to flatten me against the wall. And I thought we were kissing before, but now is when it actually begins. He’s such an aggressive bruiser of a human being that I expect him to demolish me, but instead he kisses me with a sense of wonder, like he’s never experienced a woman’s mouth, the same way I’ve never experienced a man’s.
His lips move over mine, experimenting with suction and tugging on my bottom lip with his own, the tip of his tongue coming out for a slow taste. When our tongues brush, his hands flex on my butt cheeks and his erection jerks where he’s planted it between my legs.
Aiden pulls back, breathing hard. “Everything hurts.”
“What?”
He buries his face in my hair, inhaling roughly. “My cock, my chest, all of me. You’re making me ache everywhere. Christ. What the fuck do I do about it?”
I’m in the same condition, my inner walls squeezing rhythmically, my heart flip-flopping like a flapjack. How can I answer his question when I’ve never been here before? This is new to me, too. “I-I don’t know—”
Our mouths lock together in a wild tangling of tongues and moans, his hips punching upward and driving me up the wall, over and over and over. He might as well be inside me for the pleasure my body seems to be giving him. An animalistic growl rips from his throat every time our sexes grind together and that male sound, along with the hard friction against my soft flesh, is making me wet. Drenched. And my nipples are so erect, they burn.
As if my body sent him a signal, his mouth rakes down my throat to the low bodice of my dress, his teeth yanking down on my neckline, the lace of my bra. My pale breasts are loose for only a moment before his mouth finds them, his lips opening wide over the nipples and tonguing them feverishly, suckling on them like they might provide sustenance.
“Aiden…” I moan, burying my fingers in his hair.
“Never had my cock in a woman before. It’s been so easy passing on pussy until you, baby. It never mattered.” He grinds into me hard and buries his teeth in the crook of my neck. “You. You’ve owned my dick all along, haven’t you? The goddamn thing has been throbbing since I saw you and if I don’t smell and lick and fuck this little redhead cunt tonight, I’m going to break. I’m going to fucking break, do you understand?”
“I…I…” This is a bad idea. A very bad idea, but my thoughts are so fogged in lust, I can’t remember why. “Aiden…”