Hush (Just This Once 1)

She reaches up to touch her neck. It's a subtle sign that she wants my hand, or maybe my mouth, there. "Are you inviting me up to your room?"

Technically, I'm inviting her to a room I haven't rented yet. I was out here catching a breath of frigid nor'easter air. I did my time inside when I took the podium, ran through an off-the-cuff speech about the boatload of accolades my boss acquired in his career and then handed him a silver wristwatch courtesy of his wife. He threw the goddamn shindig on his own dime and then expected me to kiss ass in public to hold onto a job I'm not sure I want.

"If you are, I'm game," Jane tosses that jewel out before I have a chance to offer a formal invitation to get naked with me. "I didn't notice you at the ceremony. Are you a friend of the bride or the groom?"

It's the obvious conclusion to jump to. I'm dressed in a tuxedo. There's a wedding reception in the ballroom tonight. She has no clue that I was just in the hotel's five-star restaurant with a group that consists of primarily sixty-something-year-old surgeons all desperate to one-up each other with elaborate descriptions of their summer homes.

At thirty-four I'm the baby of the bunch, hence the reason I'm standing in the bitter cold with a drink in my hand contemplating why I went to medical school in the first place.

Jane marches on, nerves twitching at the edge of her words. "I'm a friend of Leanna. I'm actually one of her bridesmaids. I had to get the hell out of there when Henry started talking about how committed he is to her. It's bullshit. You know that, don't you? He totally screwed her over this past summer when he was in Vegas. She forgave him and now they're married. Can you believe that?"

"Henry is a selfish son-of-a-bitch."

Her eyes flick up to meet mine. "What's your room number?"

The snow starts again, large flakes of unwanted inconvenience. I need a condom. My gaze darts up and down the street. Other than a restaurant a block over, every other storefront and business are locked up tight.

Late Sunday night will do that to Manhattan. A snowstorm doesn't help.

"You have protection, right?" Pretty Jane reads my mind like a sensual sorceress. "I didn't bring any condoms with me."

Normally, I'd have at least a few tucked in my pocket, but I got dressed at the hospital. An emergency surgery this afternoon cut into my prep time for this hellish evening, so I had my rental tux delivered. I changed in the locker room and forgot one of the essentials. The breath mints made it into my pants pocket next to my wallet, but the condoms didn’t.

Fucking great.

I'm not sending this woman on a mission to get me a rubber. That comes with the risk of her bailing on me because she doesn't see the effort as worth the reward.

It's worth it, in spades, or in her case, orgasms.

"I've got that covered, or should I say, it will be covered," I quip with a tip of my glass before I down the last swallow. I'll go floor-by-floor and door-to-door in this hotel to find a condom if need be. "Do you need to say goodbye to Leanna before you bail?"

She blows an adorable puff of air out from between her lips. "I do. I left my purse in there. What about you?"

"I didn't have a purse that matched my outfit tonight," I joke. "I'll meet you in the lobby in thirty minutes. We can head up to the room together."

"Make it fifteen," she counters, a challenge woven into her tone. "I'll take a Bellini."

"Consider it done," I whisper as she breezes past me, the maimed umbrella dragging behind her.

The doorman jumps into action and props open the heavy glass door. Jane steps into the vestibule just as the ugly winter wind gives not only me but the doorman, the early holiday gift of an eyeful of her luscious ass.

Something tells me this night is going to be one for the record books.

Chapter 2

Evan

"Your money is no good here, sir." The obviously exasperated hotel desk clerk pushes my credit card back at me. "I told you twice already that we are booked solid for the night."

Well, shit.

On any other night, I would have tipped my hat to fate and given up. The reason for that is simple. In my world, there's never been a shortage of no-strings attached fun. If I don't get my recommended daily allowance today, I'll make up for it tomorrow, or whenever my brutal schedule allows me the good fortune of enough time for a screw.

I'm not a minute man. I take my time. I savor every second I'm with a beautiful woman because sex is my salvation. It's what keeps me sane in a world where I hold the keys to the kingdoms that are other people's futures.

Tonight I'm off the clock and tomorrow is an all-too-rare day off for me, so I'm partying like it's my birthday since I spent most of that in surgery. I fought like a warrior to save the life of a man twice my age.

He got his second chance. There's not a better birthday gift in the world than that.