It was impossible to miss the giant sexual implication in his voice. Even though my eyes were temporarily lit up with stars, I could imagine the exact, devilish smile.
“So what are you two doing now?” someone else shouted near the back.
“...now?”
For the first time, my vision cleared. The blue clouds in front of my eyes dimmed just long enough for me to see Nick staring down at me. A single eyebrow was lifted, and even standing beneath the darkened sky, it was impossible to miss that telltale twinkle in his eyes.
“Now...we’ll just see where the night takes us.”
With that—he swung me down into a cinematic dip. One so low that the tips of my hair brushed the ground. My mouth opened up in a silent scream, but there wasn’t time.
The next thing I knew, he was kissing me.
Really kissing me.
A brand new host of lights and stars erupted behind my eyes, but for whatever reason, this time, they didn’t scare me. In fact, they hardly even registered. My body was frozen, and my eyes were closed. My every thought was focused on this one thing.
Nick was kissing me.
I was kissing Nick.
...where the hell did we go from here?
Chapter 4
Sleep.
It was the only thing I required after a day like this. The only thing that would keep me sane. As my world was spinning out of control around me, as the forces that had governed me gave way to different, more whimsical things...sleep was the answer.
Sleep would keep me whole. Would allow me to see reason. Would provide me a simple anchor amidst these chaotic, confounding seas.
Unfortunately...sleep never exactly came.
“For fuck’s sake...”
I turned over again and a
gain, creating an Armageddon-worthy crater in the middle of my mattress. A cocoon of sheets in which I was the unwilling center.
It should have been easy. I should have been able to see the situation for what it was, compartmentalize it into the ‘things done for the company’ folder of my life, then move on with some sort of sense of purpose.
But that didn’t happen either. If anything, the longer I lay there—chasing the ever-elusive respite of sleep—the more I was thoroughly undone by my present situation.
Nick KISSED me.
The man who had been my client for a little over two years. The man whose exploits I had endeavored to paint more favorably to the press. The same man who I had recently set up on a date with the worst of the worst just to appease his father’s board and company.
That was the man who had kissed me. That was the man who was keeping me from sleep that night. The man whose perfect, addictive face I couldn’t seem to get out of my head.
...with good fucking reason.
The kiss itself left me speechless. The kiss itself left me completely undone.
Nick kissed the same way he did everything.
With reckless abandon. With his whole heart. Without any kind of restraint.
It caught me off guard, I’m not going to lie. No matter how I’d been bracing for it. No matter how many times I’d seen him do it to someone else. On the cover of tabloids and more legitimate magazines. At awards shows and late-night dinner dates. From princesses to super models. The passion was the same.