Taking What's His (Shillings Agency 4)

Damn it, she’d done it again. He shifted in his seat, watching her asshole ex. He started heading their way, frowning. All the reasons he had for not kissing her—her age, his impending migraine, the adorable innocence that made him want to protect her—faded away. The jerk needed to see that she was no longer his. “Do you want me to kiss you so you can get him back, or to show you’ve moved on?”

“Move on, for sure. There’s no way I’ll go back to—”

Curling his hand behind her neck, he hauled her close and melded his mouth to hers, cutting her off. As soon as their lips touched, everything seemed to fall into place. It was as if she was a pill he’d taken, and she’d cured him.

The anger, the confusion, the pain, the fear.

It all quieted inside his head, to be replaced by the way she felt against him.

He knew without a doubt, the instant his mouth touched hers, she was different from all the other women he’d kissed. She could make him different, too. That didn’t make any sense…and yet it did. It really fucking did.

Damned if she didn’t kiss like a woman who didn’t have much experience with this type of thing, and it was refreshingly sweet. She gasped into his mouth, her hands resting on his chest, and he took advantage of the opening she’d given him. Slipping his tongue between her lips, he found hers and swept across it.

Her fingers fisted his shirt, and she moaned.

It was the sexiest moan he’d ever motherfucking heard.

Deepening the kiss, he slid his hand down to the small of her back and drew her closer to him. His whole hand splayed across her from end to end, she was that damn tiny. Almost hesitantly, her hands moved up, curling over his shoulders to latch on to him for dear life. She tasted heavenly, as if she was made just for him.

And she felt like it, too.

He’d kissed a lot of women, but he’d never kissed like this. And a kiss had never made him feel so damn unsettled before. It was as if some invisible force was pushing them together, and nothing he did or said would change the fact that by the end of the night…she’d be naked in his bed. The bizarre desire to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, and carry her out of the bar, ass up in the air, hit him like a fist to the gut.

He ended the kiss, because even though he might not know her, he knew one thing for sure. She was the type of woman who deserved more than a one-night stand, and he couldn’t give it to her. So it was time to send her running away…for real this time.

She moaned in protest and strained to get closer. “More,” she whispered.

“Uh uh.” He pressed a finger to her lips, grinning at her cockily, as if she hadn’t just fucked with his head with an innocent kiss. “You want any more, you need to walk out that door with me right now. Come home with me. I swear I can give you a hell of a lot more than a chaste kiss in a bar. And it’ll make him hurt even more, too.”

He’d bet his life that she wasn’t the type to leave a bar with a strange man, so if that didn’t make her babble a few quickly strewn together reasons she had to go back to her friends, then he’d wear a pink dress to work tomorrow.

She blinked at him, her plump pink lips wet and swollen. “That was chaste? Are you kidding me?”

“Yep. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” He trailed his hand down her thigh, something he’d never usually do without a clear invitation. But he wanted to save her from himself, before it was too late, and if she didn’t reject him…he wouldn’t be able to walk away. He wanted her. “Come home with me, though, and I’ll show you, baby.”

He threw that last part in for good measure.

No woman liked being called baby.

“Uh…” Glancing over her shoulder at her ex, she pressed her lips together. This was when she would, and should, tell him to kiss her ass, then spin off of the stool and run back to her safe little friends in the corner, who he could see watching them with open mouths. “You know what? Sure. Let’s go.”

He forced a smirk. “That’s what I—” He cut himself off, her words finally registering. “Wait. What?”

She stood and held out her hand. “I said, yes.”

Well, shit. Now what the fuck was he supposed to do?

He didn’t own any pink dresses.

Chapter Two

Lydia Thomas took a deep breath and smiled at the guy who’d invited her back to his place, ignoring the voices in her head shouting at her to change her mind about this whole thing. To play it safe. Life was full of choices, and she’d always taken the straight road, instead of the one less travelled. Always made the “right” choice. But not tonight. Not here. His dark hair and scruffy face screamed of danger and passion, two things she’d never had much of in her life. But the glasses he wore…ah, they were nerdy.

And not dorky nerdy, but hot nerdy.

She normally wasn’t the type to take chances, let alone go home with strange men, but she’d never met a man who was a contradiction at its finest, who made her want to go home with him on the first night. She’d spent her whole life waiting for the perfect guy, the one who would cherish her and love her forever, and who would make her feel as if she’d die if he didn’t take her. One who would sweep her off her feet and make her feel like a princess.

After countless failed attempts at finding her Prince Charming among the Horny Harrys…it was time to stop. Just stop. She’d always been the type to fall too fast, too easily, but she’d managed to kill that habit over the last year by taking things slow. Too slow, according to her jerk of an ex. So, yeah, maybe she was taking a step backwards by going home with this guy within minutes of meeting him.