“Don’t forget to bring your man!” he called after her.
She stopped to toss him a grin. “Jeez. I think you love him more than you love me, and you haven’t even met him.”
“Ten grand, princess. Ten grand.”
Brett was laughing as she hurried out of the shop. For all the headaches they gave her, her family was one of a kind. She was lucky to have them, which only made her feel worse that she hadn’t lived up to their expectations in the past.
But that would change. She’d already eradicated any and all bad influences from her life—first and foremost being Troy. Their relationship had made her lose focus of what mattered to her, and she still wanted to kick herself for letting him take over her life the way he had. The jerk had used her for free tattoos and a place to crash, blinding her with his gorgeous looks and winning smile.
She wouldn’t get fooled again. Nope, her next relationship was going to be with a man she could trust. Someone she could talk to, count on. Someone with substance.
Until then, she had three more weeks with AJ to look forward to. Three whole weeks to explore the mind-blowing sexual connection she hadn’t seen coming.
And God, she couldn’t wait to start exploring.
…
The male voice crackled through AJ’s earpiece as he slid two bottles of Heineken across the counter to a customer.
“You’ve got a visitor,” Jerry, who manned the club’s security booth, informed him. “I sent her up to your office.”
The way AJ’s libido roared to life, you’d think Brett was standing naked in front of him instead of tucked away in his upstairs office. Last night should have been enough to satisfy the dark, restless urges for a while, but nope, twenty-four hours of pure, carnal fucking had barely scratched the surface.
He needed more, damn it.
Ignoring the ache down below, AJ headed to the register to make change for the customer. Then he signaled to Henry that he was ducking out and took off for the narrow staircase leading upstairs.
A glance over the railing revealed that Sin was already packed—a very encouraging sight, especially considering the night was still young. In the three years Sin had been in business, the club’s clientele had tripled. These days, people lined up around the block to gain admittance, while Sin’s owners happily reaped the rewards.
AJ had brought up the club’s success to his father during their phone call earlier, hoping it might sway his parents’ less than positive opinion about his line of work, but he shouldn’t have bothered. No amount of bragging would convince them he’d made the right choice by not going to work with his dad. His stake in Sin was simply another black mark against him.
He shoved aside the reminder, not in the mood to fall into the guilt pit tonight. God knew he’d lived there every frickin’ day of his life. He worked way too hard to be the son they needed him to be, and the thought brought a twinge of irony as he realized Brett was doing the same thing. Trying to meet the high expectations set upon her, but like him, she didn’t quite fit in that saintly mold, either.
She wouldn’t be there tonight if she had.
He reached the top of the stairs, his cock throbbing in anticipation as he zeroed in on his closed door. Christ, he’d never wanted a woman so badly before. The second he walked into that office, he had a better shot of winning the lottery than of restraining himself.
But why? Why didn’t he feel the need to rein in that part of himself when he was with Brett? He had no answer for that, but he knew it was part of the reason he hadn’t run screaming in the other direction when she’d dropped the boyfriend bomb earlier.
Hell, he’d pretend to be her husband as long as he got her naked again.
AJ was halfway down the hall when a familiar strawberry-blond head popped out of the neighboring office.
“Hey!” Darcy Grant broke out in a huge smile at the sight of him, quickly running up to throw her arms around him in a warm hug.
AJ pasted on a pleasant smile as he hugged her back. Though he’d never admit it to her or Reed, being around Darcy still brought a twinge of discomfort. Sure, he’d remained friends with most of his ex-girlfriends, but it was different with Darcy. She was dating his best friend now, which meant she was part of his life whether he liked it or not. The fact that he didn’t have a choice in the matter grated slightly.
“How’s it going?” she asked. “I haven’t seen you around lately.”
“Yeah, I’ve been at my folks’ place a lot.”
Her blue eyes went serious. “How’s your mom doing?”
“Better. She’s been taking it easy ever since the heart attack. My dad is doing his damndest to make sure she doesn’t experience a second of stress. He’s taken over the cooking, cleaning, pretty much whatever he can to make life easier for her.”
Darcy nodded. “That’s good. I keep meaning to drop by and visit her, but…” There was an awkward note in her voice. “I’m still not sure if it’s, I don’t know, appropriate, I guess.”
“Why? Because we broke up?” he said lightly. “That doesn’t matter, Darce. Mom would love to see you.”
“Do they know I’m living with Reed now?”
AJ shook his head. “I don’t talk about Reed much when I’m there. You know how they are.”
She smiled wryly. “I’m not sure I blame them for disapproving of him. From what I’ve been told, he was a total troublemaker back in the day.” She gestured to Reed’s office door. “I just brought him some dinner. There’s plenty of Chinese food to go around if you’re hungry.”
“Naah, I already ate, but thanks.” His gaze strayed to the end of the hall again, but he tried not to reveal his impatience to Darcy.
They might be friends, but he definitely didn’t want his ex-girlfriend knowing what he was up to tonight.
Hey, Darce, there’s a hot chick in my office waiting for me to screw her senseless!
Yeah, he wasn’t going there. He could already picture the look of disapproval that would grace Darcy’s face, though he wasn’t sure why it even mattered to him. Darcy was with Reed now. She had no say in his life and absolutely no right to judge him.
Still, his reluctance to reveal the fling only illustrated how much had been missing from his relationship with Darcy. Darcy was sweet and funny and wonderful, yet he’d always kept a part of himself hidden from her.
“Anyway, I’m sorry I can’t stay and chat, but I have an important phone call to make.”
“Is everything okay?” she said with concern.
“Yup. Just need to call one of our liquor suppliers.”
The wary flicker in her eyes told him she didn’t believe him, but he didn’t particularly care at the moment. He’d already kept Brett waiting long enough.
As his impatience spilled over, he planted a brief kiss on Darcy’s forehead before calling out a hasty good-bye on his way down the hall. He registered her bewildered response, but didn’t turn around. A moment later, he was inside his office and locking the door behind him.
“Hi.”
Brett instantly shot up from the visitor’s chair and smoothed out her hair with one hand. She’d left it down tonight, and the silky black strands lingered right above her shoulders, providing him with a tantalizing view of her modest cleavage. She was wearing a silky black dress that stopped midthigh and the leather boots she’d had on yesterday, and with her tattooed arms exposed, she gave off a bad-girl vibe that he was totally digging.
And she hadn’t been off base earlier—she wasn’t his usual type. Normally he gravitated toward women like Darcy, girls with fresh-faced good looks, casual clothes, and down-to-earth personalities. Pixie bad-asses with ink hadn’t played much of a role in his love life before now.
“Hi.” He approached her slowly, stopping when they were two feet apart.
“So…” Brett cleared her throat. “Not to state the obvious or anything, but…I’m here.”
“Did you do what I asked?”
“What you—oh.” A crimson
blush stained her cheeks. “Yes.”
His cock twitched. “Show me.”
Despite her beat of hesitation, there was no mistaking the flare of lust in her eyes.
Without breaking eye contact, she grasped the bottom of her dress and teasingly drew it up her thighs.
AJ’s mouth went bone-dry as he watched the fabric slide higher and higher, revealing tantalizing glimpses of her smooth, fair skin. When the koi fish on her thigh became visible, he was hit with the memory of dragging his tongue over the tattoo while his fingers pumped inside her.
A groan slipped out as he focused on her bare sex. “Good girl,” he rasped. “That’s just what I wanted.” She was about to let the dress drop when his hand flew up to stop her. “No, keep holding it up.”
Her breasts rose as she sucked in a breath, but the material stayed bunched between her fingers.
“Spread your legs more,” he ordered.
She widened her stance, exposing herself fully to his hungry gaze. His cock had turned into a slab of marble, pressing painfully into his zipper, but he didn’t make a move to release it yet.
He’d never fucked a woman in his office before. He knew Gage and Reed got it on with Skyler and Darcy in their workspaces all the time, but AJ had always tried to act professional at work. Taking a woman on his desk would’ve felt like breaking the rules.
He was sick to death of rules.
“Walk over to the door,” he said softly. “Brace your hands on it and bend over. Make sure your dress stays up.”
Her breath caught. “What if I don’t want to?”
“Then you don’t get my cock.” Slanting his head in challenge, he slid his hand down his abdomen and cupped himself over his pants.
Brett’s eyes widened, lips parting seductively. Waves of arousal rolled off her slender body, and his own body responded in fervor, his erection thickening beneath his palm.
It occurred to him that they’d gone from hi to spread your legs in five seconds flat, but that only made the whole encounter even hotter. She wasn’t there so they could talk about their days.
She was there so they could make each other come.
Her breathing grew labored as she watched him rub the bulge in his pants. Then, without a single word, she walked to the door and did precisely what he’d commanded.
AJ chuckled. “That’s what I thought.”
He took a moment to admire the sexy-as-fuck picture she posed. Dark hair cascading down her back, high-heeled boots firmly planted on the ground, tight buttocks jutting out toward him.
Licking his lips, he came up behind her and cupped her bottom. Her flesh quivered beneath his palms, and when he squeezed, her entire body jerked. Chuckling again, he kept one hand on her ass and moved the other up to her breasts. He dipped his fingers beneath the neckline of her bodice and hissed through his teeth when he made contact with one naked breast. Christ, she hadn’t been kidding about not wearing bras. His head spun like a carousel at the realization that she’d been buck naked underneath her dress.
AJ leaned in and brushed his lips over her ear. “Did you think about me when you were at work today?”
“Yes.” Her voice was soft, shaky.
“Did you think about me touching you?”
“Yes.”
He caressed her ass cheeks, then moved one finger between the crease and glided it lower, until the pad of it toyed with her opening. Moisture surrounded him. Holy hell. He couldn’t wait to sink his cock into that hot, wet paradise.
“Did you think about me?” She twisted her head, bold curiosity gleaming in those amazing brown-black eyes.
A thrill shot up his spine. Each time this woman looked at him, he got the feeling she was actually seeing him. Him, and not the man he tried to be half the time. There was something seriously exciting about that. Something dark and erotic and unbelievably freeing.
“Well, did you?” she demanded when he didn’t respond.
“Every fucking second.”
He slipped the tip of his finger into her core and enjoyed the way she whimpered.
“I thought about doing this,” he rasped.
He pushed his finger deeper inside her.
“And this.”
He fingered her slowly.
“And this.”
He increased the tempo, pumping hard enough to make her cry out.
“I’ve been walking around with a hard-on all day, thinking about all the things I want to do to this sweet pussy.”
To prove it, he pressed his groin against her ass and rotated his hips, letting her feel every hard inch of him.
She moaned. “You’re such a tease.”
“Am I?” he said mockingly. “Hmmm. Does that mean you want me to stop?”
Brett cursed as he abruptly withdrew his finger. She spun around, a mixture of passion and agony flashing in her eyes. “I want you inside me.”
Despite the incessant throbbing of his cock, AJ managed a reckless grin. “Good. Because that’s exactly where I want to be.”
He nudged her back into position, idly toying with her clit as he reached into his pocket for the condom he’d stashed there. He didn’t take off his pants, just shoved them low enough to free his cock and then eased the blunt head into her opening. No foreplay needed—she was wetter than ever, so visibly aroused AJ knew she was more than ready for him.
He gripped her hips with both hands and plunged inside, filling her to the hilt. Pleasure crashed into him, the sensation so intense he swayed on his feet and had to take a second to blink through the black dots swimming in his vision.
Holy hell. He’d never felt anything like this before. Fierce need, acute pleasure. And, oddly enough, a sense of peace. He didn’t have to wear the good-guy mask with Brett. He could take her right here against this door, and to hell with anyone on the other side of it.
He shuddered when she wiggled her ass in an attempt to thrust backward against him. “Fuck me,” she pleaded hoarsely. “Please.”
His pulse sped up. So did his tempo. With every thrust and retreat of his hips, he drove deeper and harder inside her, giving in to the primal urge to claim her. Their heavy breathing and the sound of flesh slapping flesh echoed in the air, a wicked soundtrack to their wicked joining.
AJ dug his fingers into her hips and sealed their bodies tighter together. “Fuck. Feels so damn good,” he choked out, his head falling in the crook of her neck.
He kissed her, tasted her, inhaled her. The scent of roses and lavender filled his nostrils, a fragrance that seemed almost too sweet for a woman wearing leather fuck-me boots and covered in tattoos.
His mouth traveled up the graceful column of her throat toward her ear. As he sucked gently on her earlobe, he slowed down, enjoying the spectacular sensation of sliding in and out of her tight sheath.
“No,” she blurted out. “Faster. Harder, damn it.”
“No.” He teased her earlobe with his tongue. One hand left her waist to circle her body, lazily seeking out her clit. The second he made contact, she bucked like a wild horse and let out a tormented moan.
“I like you like this.” His mouth abandoned her ear to whisper into the nape of her neck, the baby-fine hairs there tickling his lips. “Pinned against the wall, letting me take you from behind. I can’t see your eyes, but I can picture the look on your face. Hazy, desperate… Are you desperate, angel?”
“No, I’m angry.” She gave another backward thrust, her inner muscles bearing down on his cock as if to trap him inside her. “You’re talking too much when you should be making me come.”
AJ laughed at her impatience. He threaded his fingers through her hair, then tugged hard to twist her head toward him. The sight of her nearly did him in. Cheeks flushed and eyes glazed with desperation, just as he’d predicted.
A sense of power washed over him, a jolt of adrenaline he’d only ever experienced in an MMA cage. He’d been with lots of women. Women who wanted him, women who loved every damn thing he did to them, but it had never been li
ke this. Brett’s face conveyed naked passion that made his heart race. She didn’t hide a thing from him. She was raw and uninhibited and had no problem telling him—no, showing him—exactly what she wanted.
Except…he suddenly wanted something else tonight.
The relentless need to come had been replaced by a stronger one—the urge to control. To push their boundaries.
Releasing a slow, unsteady breath, he slid out of her body and removed the condom.
“What are you doing?” She was practically wailing, shock and disbelief etched into her pretty features. “Why are you stopping?”
“I’m trying something out.” He tossed the condom in the wastebasket near the door and tucked his monster erection back into his pants. “I want you to go home.”
Brett stayed rooted in place, her dress still bunched around her waist, her jaw wide open. “Are you kidding me? You want me to go home? Now? Are you insane?”
The fire in her eyes brought a rueful grin to his lips. “Probably,” he admitted.
Probably? Nuh-uh. Try absolutely. His cock was as angry with him as Brett was, poking so hard into his zipper that he wouldn’t be surprised if it bore the impression of tiny metal teeth marks.
“But I’m interested in conducting an experiment,” he finished. “Call it an exercise in anticipation if you want.”
“Yeah? Well, you can take your exercise and shove it up your butt!”
He ignored her enraged shout and took another step back. “One more thing,” he added.
“You can take your ‘one more thing’ and shove it up your butt!”
A laugh popped out. “Stop threatening to put things in my ass and listen.” He folded his arms over his chest. “When you get home tonight, you’re not allowed to touch yourself.”
“Excuse me?” She glared daggers at him.
“I mean it,” he said sternly. “If you come, I’ll know.”
Her mouth closed. Then opened again. Then closed. “Oh my God. I’m this close to punching you in the face right now, you know that? You invited me here tonight, you’re throwing me out, and now you’re telling me what I can or can’t do when I get home?”
“Yup.”
“You are unbelievable.” She charged forward, her dress fluttering over her thighs, effectively covering her from view. “This isn’t cool,” she snapped, her cheeks redder than a fire engine. “I’m dying here. I want this.”