Sunset Thunder

  ***

  AS VIOLET CAME down from her high, panting, hot, and never remembering a sexual encounter that had ever been that good, the stark reality hit her: she just had sex with Ryder.

  In a bathroom, at the resort, and down the hall from her ex-husband...who was waiting for both of them. Not to mention Violet’s entire family was on the premises and...and the list of reasons why this was a bad decision went on and on inside her head.

  Oh crap!

  For some unexplainable reason, even though her brain told her to pull away from Ryder and without delay, put distance between them, Violet didn’t want to leave the warmth of his skin. She could feel every single area of her skin that was flesh-on-flesh with his, like jolts of scorching electricity forming at each spot.

  Violet’s elbows rested on his brawny, thick shoulders, as her arms wrapped up around his head, clasping above his hair and forcing his face to tuck deep against her shoulder. The roughness of his five o’clock shadow rubbed against her skin and the coarse touch ignited a want to kiss him again. Her naked middle touched his solid muscle wall and because he’d managed to unfasten the snap on the front her bra, her breasts were pushed so hard against him it felt like they’d molded into one.

  Oh crap! 

  She was late. They were both late. Not to mention, their outfits were going to be wrinkled, looking like they just had...

  She almost gasped out loud at the thought of everyone knowing what had occurred within these four walls, but she knew the sound would pull Ryder away from her and right now she wanted to feel his hair against her cheek, his hands around her back, and his body flanked between her legs.

  Would they look like they’d just had sex? Game face. You just need to get your game face on and no one will know what you just did. 

  Violet would know. Violet had the awakening feeling that she was never going to forget the rendezvous in this bathroom. From this day forward, each time she walked down this hall, between the lobby and her office, and passed this door, she would see Ryder’s naked chest, feel his pounding heart against hers, and remember the feel of his mind-blowing kisses.

  Oh crap!

  Ryder’s breathing was just as heavy as hers and with every breath she took, the wonderful smell of his designer cologne wafted into her nose. 

  Pull away.

  “That was an incredible surprise.” His low, deep voice sent another rumble of desire through her with the inclination to start again from the beginning. 

  Oh no, no, no! Violet, stop it this instant. Pull away. 

  “This is going to be on the higher scale of awkward for the rest of the afternoon.” He was so beyond right, this was going to be sooo awkward.

  What had she been thinking?

  She hadn’t, that was the problem. Everything about today had been carelessly not thought out. She needed a reassessment. 

  His arms weren’t loosening their grip either, and she tried to fight how much she liked that he was as content as she was. She could actually feel one of his fingers swirling a design against her back...and oh it felt good. 

  How had this happened? How had this happened! Why was she not nearly as concerned, worried, or panicked as she should be? Why did she feel like she could spend the rest of the day, right here, wrapped up in his arms?

  “I think I should leave first.” His whisper was daunting.

  How was he planning their escape when she couldn’t even register the entirety of what had just occurred, still reeling in how wonderful it felt, and how much she wanted to do it again.

  “Since you’re in the guys washroom.” 

  The guy’s washroom? She was?

  “I can go down there first, distract them and text you when the coast is clear,” Ryder continued his plan. “I would need your cell phone number first.”

  He was being so sweet, trying to save her reputation...a reputation she had worked her life to uphold to perfection and this one run-in with Ryder could squash it in a heartbeat. She knew all of this, and didn’t need the reminder from Ryder, yet, she still didn’t move. Didn’t want to move.

  Ryder’s finger stopped and she felt his hands move to her front. When she thought he was going to cup her breasts again...and heaven knew, she wouldn’t stop him...he snapped her bra back together. In a quick motion, he lifted her like she was weightless, pulling the hem of her skirt from under her bum and down to her knees.

  Suddenly, like the sound of a balloon popping and leaving you stunned for a second, Violet remembered exactly who she’d just had sex with. And how many times he’d likely been in this exact situation: naked from the waist down with woman on a counter top.

  Ryder wasn’t taken aback like Violet was, or unwinding from the naughty game they’d just played and considering how to plan another round. Violet craved to start the next round, while he was making escape plans and snapping her bra into place because this casual sex was a customary part of his life.

  Violet might have initiated this play time, but he was clearing the air, reminding her it was exactly what she’d walked across the floor thinking...a onetime thing and he would walk away without any attachments.

  Wasn’t that what she wanted? A manipulating womanizer...even if she had walked to him. 

  Why did her heart suddenly plummet?

  There was no way in hell her heart just plummeted. For one, she’d given up on her heart a long time ago when Joel crushed it and the better reason there was no way her heart was playing plummeting games, this was Ryder. Ryder Carlex!

  Violet pulled away and shoved his chest back at the same time, startling him a bit in the process, but he managed to keep his balance and send her a questioning look.

  “Oh please, don’t look all shocked.” She wasn’t about to let him treat her like the nobody. Screw him. She used him. He was the nobody. “Get dressed and get out.” 

  She reached across the counter for her blouse and stared at it appalled. Wrinkled. Ugh. At least it was under her blazer. She could tightly tuck it in and no one would ever know.

  You will know, her body teased, ready for another round with Ryder, while her head needed to put distance between them.

  Ryder’s pants were up, buckled and he was buttoning up his shirt as he reached down and picked her blazer off the floor, handing it to her.

  His spectacular eyes didn’t waver from her the entire time, like he was trying to read her. Why couldn’t he back off and just worry about himself? She could dress herself. She did it every single morning. 

  Violet snatched the blazer away. “Can you hurry up so we can get out of here?”

  His eyebrows arched in what initially appeared to be kindness, but she was sure she misread it as the look shifted to questioning.

  Ryder straightened. Damn his body was amazing, like a wall of sparking gold. “Woman, I will leave when I damn well feel like it. If I want to stand here and watch you get dressed, after touching every piece of your hot body, then I will stand here and watch you get dressed.” The way he said “hot body,” low and sensual, made her swallow hard. Did he say this to all his women? Did they all just sit back, bat their fake eyelashes and allow him to speak to them like a Neanderthal? 

  Violet slid off the counter, furious. Who did he think he was talking to her like that? She shrugged into her blazer and tucked her shirt into the high waist of her skirt.

  Violet stepped toward him, erasing every last inch of lust across her expression and substituting it with her flawless emotionless face. There was no way she was letting him see that she would rather have stayed on that counter all afternoon, when he was dismissing her like cheap wine.

  “Stay in here then and stare at my ass as it walks away because it’s the last time you are touching any part of this hot body.” That was such a lie. Touch me now. She stood a second longer than she should have, just in case he reached for her, then she turned on her heel and scolded herself for thinking he would.

  Violet stepped into the hallway, not ca
ring who was on the other side of that door. She needed to get away from Ryder’s smoldering eyes before she pulled him back into her arms. She glanced both directions. She really did care.

  Standing tall, smoothing her dress, she was about to head down the hall, when her hands felt empty...and not for Ryder. Her iPad was in her office.

  Thank the stars. She needed a moment anyway. She turned away from the foyer and right toward her office.

  She had officially made this “finalize a room meeting” one hundred times worse.