“Because you make me feel...”
She moved in his direction, keen desire driving away common sense. She’d dated Ty for six months and never once slept with him, yet tonight she’d gone home with a virtual stranger, proving she wasn’t the frigid bitch he’d accused her of being.
“How do I make you feel?” Oliver prompted, hunger intensifying the bold blue of his eyes.
Lust tightened deep in her belly as she tunneled her fingertips beneath his bomber. Riding the hard muscles of his chest and upper arms, she slid the jacket off his broad shoulders and let it fall to the floor.
His strong fingers fanned over her hips, drawing her firmly against his hard planes. A hot ache flared between her thighs as her lower half settled against his. The hard thrust of his growing erection bumped against her as Oliver’s lips grazed along her neck. With a moan she tipped her head to the side and pressed her breasts into his hard chest, communicating her sharp need. Where she half expected anxiousness or doubts to surface, Sammi knew only the enticing shimmer of anticipation rising inside her.
“That tour you offered me earlier,” she said, one hand gliding beneath the hem of his T-shirt and discovering the hot silk of his skin while the fingers of her other hand raked into his thick hair. “I’m ready to take it.”
Two
Her lips were impossibly soft beneath his, and Oliver lingered over their pliant sweetness for several heartbeats until she tilted her head and gave a low whimper. He hummed in pleasure even as he offered her one last opportunity to snatch at reason.
Instead, she dug her fingertips into his back, showing that her hunger matched his, and Oliver shifted closer still, claiming her lips, taking the breath she surrendered. He pushed his tongue into her mouth as need descended on him. Lashed by urgency, lost in the howling lust the kiss unleashed, he pinned her body against his and took everything she offered and more.
Oliver woke with a start, jarred awake by the insistent bleat of his smartphone. Muttering curses, he set his jaw against the shocking ache in his loins and rolled over. As he went to snatch the phone off the nightstand, it slid onto the floor under his bed. Hauling it up by the charging cable, he disconnected the power with a ruthless jerk and answered.
“What?”
“Your shoot at EW starts in an hour.” The soothing female voice on the other end of the call belonged to his assistant. “The car will be downstairs in twenty minutes.”
“Fine.” All too aware that he’d overslept, Oliver hung up without thanking her for keeping him on schedule. It wouldn’t do his reputation any favors to show up late to a photoshoot.
Following a quick shower, Oliver dressed in faded jeans and a gray T-shirt. Snatching up one of his numerous leather jackets, he slid his feet into his favorite black suede sneakers and headed for the front door.
Heidi met him in the lobby with a cup of coffee and a pair of sunglasses. He accepted both before pushing through his building’s front doors. Outside, a crisp mid-October morning slammed into his senses with the decaying scent of dying greenery and the bite of early frost. Morning sunlight slanted over the facade of his building, the lower angle another indication of the passage of the seasons. Oliver slid on the dark glasses, all too aware that he was on the verge of brooding all through October in the same way he’d done with the latter weeks of September.
Time was rushing by while Oliver wallowed in a bog of bad moods and fuming. Not only had the sender of the fishing equipment remained anonymous, but also he couldn’t find the woman he’d spent the night with six weeks earlier. As soon as that encounter popped into his mind, a memory of the following morning rose to torment him. After a night of amazing sex, he’d awakened to find himself alone in his big bed and his apartment empty. As unsatisfying as that had been, that they had unfinished business made her vanishing act that much harder to move on from.
Making no effort to stifle his ever-present frustration, Oliver stormed past the black-clad driver and slid into the back seat of the awaiting town car. He balanced the to-go cup on his knee and glared out the window as Heidi slid into the passenger seat in front of him and the driver took his place behind the wheel.
He hated to be this preoccupied with a woman he barely knew, even though they’d slept together. Especially when his prime reason for inviting her back to his studio and offering to photograph her was because he’d needed a distraction that night. Sure, Suzi fascinated him and he’d been curious to find out why she reacted the way she had to her boyfriend’s poor treatment. Or maybe he’d been drawn in because she’d been at the last runway show he ever participated in. Despite the fact that his recall of that night was hazy, the event marked a major turning point in his life.
When the evening had played out differently than he’d planned, Oliver was content to let a different sort of distraction consume him. He’d assumed that after they each satisfied their appetite for each other, he would have a better idea of what made her tick and could produce the promised photograph. He discovered, however, that his desire for her was stronger than his curiosity. They’d made love through the night, before falling asleep in the wee hours. He remembered gathering her into his arms, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck and drifting in profound contentment in the moments before he dropped off.
Most women he slept with liked to stick around. Sex relaxed him, allowing him to revel in the moment and put all his energy into satisfying whoever occupied his bed. Never in a million years had he expected that after the sexual connection he
