Entice

  “One more dance?” she asked Lena and Rachel.

  Lena had a pinched expression on her face from the shot, and Rachel was now laughing at her.

  “Sure, one more dance, and then in a cab to head home,” Rachel told them both.

  Shelly followed them out onto the floor, thinking to herself with a giggle, Yes, Miss Rachel.

  ***

  Josh woke up to a loud knock on the front door.

  Rolling over, he looked at the clock and saw it had just turned 1:45 a.m. He was going to ignore it until the knock happened again, and this time Mutley sat up, barking.

  Great. Now, I have to get it.

  Getting out of bed, he grabbed a T-shirt and walked toward the obnoxious knocking. When he got there, he opened the door and found Shelly standing on his doorstep in an electric-blue skintight tube dress. She had a jacket dangling from her fingers, her hair was a mess, and she smelled like a bottle of tequila.

  “What are you doing here, Shelly?”

  She wobbled a little, so Josh reached out his hand and grasped her shoulder to steady her. She smiled up at him, her face lighting up, but her bleary, bloodshot, sad eyes detracted from it.

  “I can’t get you out of my head,” she slurred. “I lost your number...the...the way you told me to, but I re..rem..remembered how to get to your house.”

  Fantastic, Josh thought as she swayed again.

  “Shelly, where were you tonight?”

  She moved a step closer and looked up at him. “You were so easy to fall for.”

  Josh shook his head. Shit. Not like this. Of course he wanted to hear this, but not now, not when she was drunk.

  He was about to say something when suddenly she swayed in the opposite direction.

  “I be okay, Josh,” she told him in the worst English imaginable. “Josh?”

  “Yes, Shelly?” he asked patiently.

  “Can I come inside?”

  This was so not what he wanted right now and definitely not how he had wanted to show her his place.

  “I’m going to drive you home, Shelly,” he told her.

  “Why?” she whined, frowning.

  “Because you and I are over, remember? We just had a fling?”

  “Fling schming,” she told him with a goofy grin. “You’re sexy.”

  That’s it. Josh reached back, grabbing his wallet and keys off of the small side table, shoved his bare feet into some sneakers by the entrance, and then moved toward her, shutting the door behind him.

  Swinging her up into his arms, he carried her to the truck and opened the passenger-side door. He slid her inside and closed it with a firm hand. Walking around to his side, he saw her looking out the window at him with a sappy look.

  Boy is she toasted, Josh thought. She’s going to hate herself in the morning.

  Getting in the truck, he started it and made his way to her place. She took that opportunity to start talking.

  “I wished you were with me tonight.”

  Josh took a deep breath and asked, “Where were you?”

  “Whipped.”

  “Huh?” he asked, thinking he had misheard.

  “At Whipped. With Super Domme.”

  Josh was beyond confused and suddenly worried some guy had been harassing her—or maybe she had been harassing some guy. In that outfit, any guy would welcome it.

  “Josh?”

  He turned to look at her. She was leaning against the truck’s seat with her head back and her face turned, her eyes focusing on him.

  “I really did fall for you under my tree.”

  Josh grimaced and felt his heart crack. “Oh yeah?”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  Josh swallowed and licked his lips. But he had to ask, “Then, what happened?”

  She took a deep breath and smiled sadly at him. “Reality,” she said before she promptly passed out.

  ***

  When they arrived at Shelly’s condo, Josh woke her with a gentle nudge and helped her inside.

  Waiting by the elevator with Shelly clinging to his side, Josh asked, “Which floor are you on, Georgia?”

  She tilted up her face, giving him a lopsided smile.

  Even drunk, the woman is gorgeous.

  “Three,” she told him, holding up her fingers. “One. Two. Three. Yep, three.”

  Josh shook his head and tapped his foot impatiently. He wished the doors would hurry up and open, so he could get her inside her condo, and then go home. Finally, there was a loud ping, and the doors swooshed open.

  Securing his grip around Shelly’s waist, he moved forward, making sure she came with him. He wasn’t quite sure what the security guard would think of him, standing there in his T-shirt and boxers.

  Not to mention, Shelly looked like she had been sexed up really good. Her hair was still a royal mess, her shoes were now in his hands, and she was clinging to him as though they hadn’t had a huge ugly fight earlier in the day.

  As the doors shut and the elevator started to move, he felt her slip a hand under his shirt.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Hmm…” she cooed. “I’m playing with you.”

  “No shit,” he replied. Halting her hand, he asked, “In more ways than one?”

  Removing her palm, she pouted, and those full pink lips called to him. He was still so mad at her, yet at the same time, he couldn’t help the way his cock twitched and his heart ached just from looking at her.

  She had essentially kicked him out of her life less than twelve hours ago.

  Without even waiting for an explanation, she had decided they were done and over with. And now, here she was looking like the man-eater he had first met—batting those eyelashes, pursing those sexy-as-sin lips, and inviting him to do all kinds of wicked things to her.

  “Fine then,” she told him when the doors opened.

  She removed herself from his grip and sauntered forward with as much grace as she could manage, which wasn’t much considering she stumbled a couple of times.

  “If you don’t want me, maybe you should go back to Melanie.”

  Josh rolled his eyes and made his way over to where she was struggling to insert her key into the door. Taking it from her, he unlocked it and pushed it open.

  “Her name is Melissa. And don’t you think if I had wanted her I would be in my bed now, wrapped around her, instead of standing out here in your hallway in my shirt and boxer shorts at…” He paused, glancing at his watch. “3 a.m.?”

  ***

  Shelly had to admit that she may have drunk more than she thought she had.

  As she stood just inside her doorway, Josh was starting to sway, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with him wanting to slow dance.

  “Well, maybe you left her in your bed so she’d be there when you got back home.” She paused, and then before she could stop her stupid runaway mouth, she added, “Just like you left me to go to her this afternoon.”

  Obviously, that had not been the right thing to say because, before she could blink, Josh was through her door, gripping her arms as he pushed her back against the wall.

  “Do you even know what you did to me this morning?” he growled as he lowered his head to look her in the eye.

  Shelly tried to focus, but she was finding it hard, so she closed her eyes and licked her lips.

  “It was you I wanted in my bed tonight, Georgia—not fucking Melissa.”

  Shelly’s eyes flashed open at that, and she arched her hips toward him. He was so close, and she wanted to touch him.

  “But you decided what kind of person I was, and then you left.”

  Lifting his hands off of her, he took a step away. She watched as he turned on his heel. She knew he was about to walk out her door, and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Or maybe there was.

  “You don’t have to leave,” she whispered seductively, moving away from the wall. The room spun a little, so she steadied herself. “You can stay.”

 
He looked her over and then asked, “Why would I stay, Georgia?”

  Shelly looked him right in the eye this time. She thought she saw something, almost like defeat. She knew she had caused that, but now, she was not in the right frame of mind to deal with it. Instead, she reverted back to what she knew.

  Reaching up to the top of the electric-blue tube dress, she slowly peeled it down, revealing a blue strapless bra. Now, she had his attention.

  “Well, maybe you could stay for this.”

  Keeping her eyes on him the whole time, she continued to push the dress down, wiggling it past her hips until it fell to the floor. Stepping out of the fabric, she turned on the ball of her foot and made her way down the hall. Just before she disappeared into her bedroom, she looked over her shoulder at him.

  “Either lock the door on your way out, or lock it and come to bed.”

  ***

  Josh watched in quiet disbelief as Shelly turned and walked into what he presumed was her bedroom.

  The woman is driving me in-fucking-sane. Had she really just stood there and stripped down to the sexiest blue lingerie he’d ever seen in his life and then invited him to bed?

  What the fuck is going on? Just this afternoon, she had told him to get lost.

  Turning, he made his way to the door, determined to walk right through it and leave, but apparently, his hard-on and his goddamn heart had different ideas.

  Locking the door, he rested his forehead against it and took a deep breath. He could do this. Just go in there, keep my heart out of it, tear up the sheets with her, and walk away.

  Yes, he could do this.

  Determined to prove himself right, he turned and made his way down to her bedroom.

  However, what he saw when he got there almost blew his mind. She had turned on a side lamp and made her way onto her large plush bed. Somewhere along the way, she had stripped off the last two remaining pieces of lace, leaving them haphazardly on the floor. Looking at him from beneath her wickedly long eyelashes, she was centered on a crazy-looking comforter, lounging back against the pillows.

  She is too fucking enticing.

  “Good decision. You just going to stand there?”

  Josh finally kicked his ass in gear and made his way into the room.

  Her décor was insane.

  Pink, white, and black everywhere, but he didn’t give a shit about that at this moment. He walked toward the end of the bed, staring at her in all her perfect naked glory.

  “If we do this, you keep quiet, and we do this my way,” he told her.

  He watched as one side of her mouth tilted up while her eyes dilated. He couldn’t be sure if that was a result of alcohol or desire, but if he had to guess, he would have thought it was a bit of both.

  “Ohhhh. Want to gag and blindfold me, too?”

  Trying not to laugh at her sassy mouth, Josh stripped off his boxers, which were doing nothing but constricting him, and then he whipped off his shirt over his head.

  He took an inordinate amount of pleasure at the way her eyes zeroed in on his cock as her mouth parted. She lifted her right hand and moved it down between her thighs, pressing it firmly against her bare mound.

  Oh no, none of that tonight, Josh thought.

  Then, he moved up and over her like a panther on the prowl.

  “Move your hand, Georgia. It’s not needed down there tonight,” he told her, watching as she slowly removed her hand.

  When he was finally settled above her, he lowered his mouth to her lips and instructed, “Open your legs.”

  Her eyes slid closed, and he felt her shift, those beautiful legs of hers parting at his command. Settling his weight down between them, he rubbed his rock-hard erection up against her wet lips.

  “Hmm,” he groaned as he bit her lip. “You were so ready to just throw this all away, weren’t you, Georgia?”

  Her eyes snapped open. When he saw she was going to say something, he decided that he didn’t want to hear it.

  So, Josh took her mouth in a tempestuous kiss.

  ***

  Shelly thought she must have died and gone to heaven.

  After she had climbed into bed, she was sure she had heard her door open, shut, and then lock. But now, here was Josh—lying above her, settling between her thighs, and pressing all those rock-hard muscles against her.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, she arched her breasts up to rub against his chest. She heard a rumble in his throat as he lifted his mouth from hers, bringing a hand up to stroke her face.

  His eyes were locked on hers, and she knew she must have been dreaming when he whispered against her mouth.

  “How can you not see how perfect this is?”

  Shelly closed her eyes, hanging on to the moment like a perfect memory, and then her lips parted as the dream took an erotic turn. A delicious pressure pushed between her thighs, and then suddenly she felt full—fuller than ever before.

  Clinging on to shards of reality, she arched her hips and sighed as he thrust home, her whole body thrumming with sensation.

  Her eyes slowly opened, and there he still was, deep chocolate eyes looking down at her with so much desire and such raw emotion that Shelly thought her heart would burst out of her chest.

  Then, her dream opened his mouth and spoke to her, telling her everything she wanted to hear.

  “You feel so good, Shel. You’re so tight. So warm.”

  She felt kisses along her neck and a hardness pulsating deep between her thighs.

  “How can you not see how good we’d be together and how much I would love you?”

  His final words hurled her over the blissful edge of pleasure, and then lulled her into a peaceful sleep.

  Chapter Nineteen

  May

  Shelly had been on her feet for the past eight hours, and she saw no end in sight. She was currently bedside in the ICU, preparing to perform a bronchoscopy procedure.

  She was tired—exhausted actually.

  Over the past couple of months, she had been working extra shifts and doing everything she could to avoid having to examine her recent life choices.

  Her mother had been calling her every weekend to see how she was doing and when she would be coming back to talk.

  Honestly, all Shelly wanted to do was forget that they had ever talked in the first place. However, she knew the time would come when she would have to see them both, and she felt it would be better if she did it sooner rather than later.

  Then, there was him—the man that had somehow imprinted himself on her mind and body after such a short amount of time.

  How is it that Josh is still always on her mind?

  It had been over a month now since she had last seen him, and that had been so emotionally gut-wrenching that Shelly didn’t think she would ever recover.

  So, what do I do?

  She had worked herself into the ground to avoid dinners at Exquisite, skip late nights out with Mason and Lena, and evade working out with her friend. She had essentially disappeared. After all, that is what Josh had accused her of wanting to do. So why not live up to it?

  ***

  Shelly woke up to the sun streaming through her window and across her pillow. It was hitting her right in the eyes. As she blinked them open, she raised her hand to her face, trying to block the intruding rays. She groaned, “Oh god.”

  “Head hurts, huh?” a voice asked from the corner of her room.

  Squinting over at the comfy reading chair that she had placed under her window, she saw Josh sitting in his—wait, T-shirt and boxer shorts?

  Looking down at herself, she noticed she was in the bed with the sheet over her. Turning away from him, she slowly lifted the sheet and peeked under.

  Naked except for panties.

  She knew she must be a total mess, which didn’t help her disposition—not to mention, her throbbing head. Just as she was about to speak, Josh beat her to it.

  “Before you even start, you wanted it too.”

  Shelly bit her lip
and reached up to run a hand over her, apparently, bird nest of hair. She frowned and cleared her throat.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything.” Because, honestly, she couldn’t remember.

  Images kept flickering through her mind of him above her, inside of her, but she was too embarrassed to clarify if it had been real—or worse, if it had been a fantasy.

  Josh quietly accused, “Now, that seems more like you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Shelly snapped as dignified as she could while hung over.

  Josh stood then and walked to the end of the bed. He looked around at the outlandish décor, and then back to her. He placed his palms on the comforter on each side of her covered legs, and then made his way up and over her.

  “It means you never say what you actually mean,” he told her as he hovered above her.

  Shelly clamped her mouth shut, not wanting him anywhere near her after the things she had drunk the night before.

  He didn’t smile. He merely held himself up with strong arms as he looked over her face.

  “I think you are the most amazing woman I have ever met, Shelly.”

  Shelly clutched the sheet tighter to her, gnawing hard on her lip.

  “And that completely terrifies you for some reason. It makes you want to just disappear from the moment,” he told her, his eyes locking with her own.

  Lowering himself down, he lay on his side next to her, reaching out to gently stroke her hair. “You got upset last night when you came to see me.”

  Finally, Shelly had to say something. Swallowing once, she asked. “What did I say?”

  Josh leaned in, and she tried not to even breathe as he laid a gentle kiss on her cheek.

  He whispered in her ear, “Nothing I didn’t already know.”

  Then, he rolled across the bed and got up.

  “What does that mean?” Shelly demanded, sitting up fast.

  She clutched her head, wincing, and then remembered the sheet, which had now fallen down in her lap. She used her other hand to slowly pull it up—although why she bothered, she didn’t know. When she finally looked back at him, he gave her a sad smile.

  “You’re not ready for me, Georgia,” he told her softly. “And that’s a real shame.”