Hero (Hero 1)

“I just thought I’d stop by.” I shrugged. My gaze moved to his breakfast bar. It was covered in paperwork.

He’d been working.

“And you never thought to call first?” He stood in front of me with his legs braced and his arms folded over his chest.

Yes, there was absolutely nothing about him that said welcome.

I tried not to flinch. “It’s okay for you to drop by my place unannounced, but it’s not okay for me to do the same thing?”

“Not when you’re here looking for something.” His eyes narrowed. “What, you didn’t hear from me, so you presume the worst? Did you think you’d come over here unannounced and catch me fucking someone else?”

My eyes grew round at the accusation. It seemed to come from nowhere. “Excuse me?” I huffed. “First of all, if that had been my intention I would have come around unannounced in the morning when I would have had a better chance of catching you fucking someone else. And second of all, don’t put whatever jealous, stalkerish, creepy shit that other women have done to you on me. I came around for coffee or sex. Possibly both. Now I’m not in the mood for either.” I threw him a disgusted look and made to stride past him.

Caine wrapped a hand around my upper arm, halting me.

I looked up at him warily.

“I don’t mean to be a bastard, okay? I’m just busy today.” He nodded in the direction of his work.

I pulled gently at my arm, but Caine wouldn’t release me.

He tugged me closer, his eyes warmer. “I really want to fuck you and make you some coffee afterward, but unfortunately I have to get this work done today. There’s tonight, though.” Wickedness glinted in his eyes. “I could come to your place.”

Although my body instantly liquefied at his suggestion, I found some small satisfaction in being able to turn him down. “I can’t tonight. I made plans with an old work colleague.” And I wasn’t lying just to be peevish. Sofie had lost her internship from Benito and had called me looking for sympathy from someone who understood. I’d offered to take her out on the town to take her mind off it for a few hours. “We’re going dancing.”

Caine’s grip tightened imperceptibly. “To a nightclub?”

I gently extricated myself, not sure why the fact that I was going dancing was a cause for concern. “Possibly several.”

Caine stepped back from me. He was shutting down.

I sighed heavily. This visit had not gone at all to plan. “So we’ll talk tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

He was turning away, about to head back to his paperwork, quite ready to forget my existence already, when the impulse to pull him out from whatever wall he’d just slammed up took over me. I placed a hand on his arm and went up on tiptoes to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. As I pulled back I smiled into his now-arrested face. “Bye, Caine.”

Before I could move away I found myself tugged against him. I let out a little gasp of surprise seconds before his mouth fell on mine.

He wrapped his arms tight around me and kissed me with a passion that flooded molten heat into my blood. I held on for dear life, returning the deep kiss with my own.

It grew hotter and wetter as he crushed me as tight against him as he could. I could feel his hard-on digging into me. My skin flushed into a greater blaze.

When Caine eventually lifted his lips from mine and gently released me, I was too lost in a lust-filled fog to say anything.

The kiss had come out of nowhere.

“We’ll talk later,” Caine said, his words thick with arousal.

“Later,” I croaked, smoothing my hair with trembling fingers.

Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.

The waitress placed another mojito in front of me and gave me a knowing grin. “From the cute blond in the navy suit by the bar.” She nodded in the bar’s direction.

I glanced over and caught sight of a good-looking guy in said navy suit. As soon as my gaze hit him he smiled and raised his glass to me.

“Ooh, he is cute,” Sofie said, nudging my elbow with hers.

I pushed the drink toward the waitress. “Sorry. Can you take this back?”

She smiled and removed the mojito from our table. “Gotcha.”

“What are you doing?” Sofie narrowed her eyes on me as the waitress walked away. “You just turned that cute guy down. Why? I thought you hadn’t gotten laid in, like, a year and a half.”

I frowned at that calculation, counting back to when I’d last been in a relationship. To my shock I discovered Sofie was right. Before Caine the last guy I’d slept with had been my boyfriend Pete. We’d only dated for three months and the relationship naturally fizzled out because neither of us was that into it.

But yeah, that was eighteen months ago.

The last time I had sex, however, was of course a totally different story.

I sipped the mojito I’d paid for and avoided Sofie’s eyes, pretending to innocently inspect the bar. We were at Brick & Mortar in Cambridge and as always it was packed.

“It was a year and a half ago, right?” Sofie sounded suspicious.

“Mmm-hmm.”

She grabbed my arm, forcing me around to look at her. “Oh my God. Who are you sleeping with? You have to tell me! It will totally take my mind off the fact that I just lost my internship. Please, please, pretty please.”

“All right, all right,” I huffed. “I met someone at work, but I can’t tell you his name because there’s this whole employee fraternization thing, and plus, you know, we’re not serious. It’s just sex.”