With an animated sigh she turns to rejoin the group. Her silence is a clear indicator that he'll need to do damage control once he's said goodnight to me.
"You don't need to do this," I say as I walk towards the crowded curb.
He leans into me, his hand circling my waist. "We'll have more luck if we walk a block over."
I study his face, taking in the smooth lines. His dark eyes are warm. His mouth is curved into an easy smile.
"Are you settling into life in New York?" He pushes his hands into the front pockets of his dark jeans as he slows to walk at my pace.
I nod, "I am." I don't see the benefit in adding more details. He's being a gentleman. I knew it was part of the fabric of who he was the moment he held the door of the car open for me at the airport.
"You found a place to stay?" It's a question that isn't grounded in curiosity about my current address. The way his eyes are darting over the faces of the people we pass speaks of how little he's invested in my answer.
I motion towards a cab barrelling down Lexington Avenue. "I'll grab that one."
His hand is on my elbow before I can take a step towards the street. "Not yet."
"Not yet?" My heart quickens in my chest. "Why?"
He stops mid step, leaning in close to me. I feel his lips brush over mine in a lush, intimate kiss. The moan the escapes him flows into my body.
On that crowded street in the center of the city, with people rushing around us, I pull my hand into his hair, and kiss him back. It's everything I remember from my first night back in the city. My sex clenches when his tongue pushes between my lips. My body aches when his hand floats along my back to the curve above my ass and my heart stops when I feel his hard cock press into my stomach.
"Come back to the hotel with me." The words fall from him in a heated rush as his lips trail over my neck. "I need to taste you."
I exhale sharply, my breath flowing out in jagged spurts. "I can't." I shake my head.
"You can." His mouth is on my skin again, trailing along my cheek. "I want to be inside of you."
"Mickey," I say her name. "You have a girlfriend."
I feel his hand clench into a fist on my back. "No. She's not that."
I push against him to no avail. My hands rest on his chest. "She's your girlfriend."
"No," he repeats the protest. "Mickey is just a woman I sometimes…"
I don't want to hear the word. I don't want the image floating into my thoughts the next time I'm in the bed touching myself while I think about him. "I need to go home."
"Let's go for a drink." He pushes his hands into my hair. "Please don’t go. I've thought about you for weeks. Tonight is the first night I've been out since then. It's fate that we're here together."
I want the words to have truth woven into them. I stare at him. He knows what he's doing to me. He knows that his hands bring up needs that only he can satisfy. He sees the untethered desire that I feel for him floating over my expression. It's there. It's not hidden or veiled beneath anything.
"Kayla," he says my name into my lips. "I can't let you go yet."
I lean forward knowin
g that I should get in the next taxi that passes by us. I push my lips into his fearing that after tonight I'll never see him again. I cup his cheek in my hand as I give in to the desire and the desperate need that is inside of me to taste him one last time.
"What the hell are you doing, Ben?" I hear her voice behind me. It's shrill, it's loud and it penetrates the one moment in time I want to last.
"Shit," he says through a nervous chuckle. "Let's get out of here."
He reaches for my hand, pulling it into his. I fumble with my clutch trying to keep up with him as we both laugh out loud at Mickey's curse filled rant wafting through the air behind us. I turn to look back. I feel my heel catch in a sidewalk grate. My hand escapes his, as my purse flies into the air and my face hits the pavement with a dull and empty thud.
Chapter 7
"Kayla. Kayla, can you hear me?" A woman's voice tears through the immeasurable pain in my head. It sounds as though she's screaming at me. What the hell is her problem?