He frowned, his eyes glimmering. “You were drinking on an empty stomach?”
I smiled ruefully and leaned into the hand at my hip. “Not every decision I make is excellent.” Though usually it had to be, and it was exhausting. Tonight, I wanted him to be my one rash decision. If I had to waste time and money at this damn club, I wanted compensation.
He dropped his head to speak into my ear, his breath sending delicious shivers down my spine. “Staying to dance with me is a good one. I promise I’ll feed you soon.”
My breath caught. We were both on the same page: take advantage of our mutual attraction and act on it without any inhibitions. Years of responsibility melted away. It wasn’t like I was looking for a relationship. As long as he didn’t have a wife or girlfriend waiting on him somewhere, I could handle it. Death by guilt wasn’t for me.
Why shouldn’t I relish the attention of a hot guy? Letting myself go for one night wouldn’t hurt.
Wes
My erection ground into Mara’s back as she swayed against me. Her claims of being an awkward dancer were only slightly true, but that might be the effect of the wine.
Mara Jade Baranski.
I didn’t trust her as far as I could throw her. Maybe even that would be too far. She was a foot shorter than me and weighed maybe 120 pounds; I could toss her a ways. I couldn’t come up with another euphemism because her scent was too distracting. Her hair smelled like it looked—strawberries.
Asshole patrol. Everything she said had been accurate. One day, I would tell her it was deliberate and why, how she couldn’t use her looks to cruise through life on the backs of hardworking men. She could take her little shop and move it to a shittier part of Minneapolis, where no horny old man would help her.
Like every other time I thought of my dad, my heart wrenched and I brushed it off.
When my bartender had rung me in the office to say a woman was asking about me, I’d pulled up the security footage on my computer. She was smokin’—and unfamiliar, but that was unsurprising. She was just another woman with ulterior motives for a man with money. Shocker. But her appearance had been worth a look-see. Then to discover it was her; she’d upped her ante from stopping by my office. From the way her body felt against mine, it’d be worth indulging a little while I fooled her with my dad’s name.
The corner of my mouth tilted. The irony. She’d tried to scam my dad, so “Sam” would scam her. My dad and I had issues, and some days, I would love to know where they stemmed from, but I wouldn’t allow Mara to stomp on his memory.
I flared my hands at her hips and pulled her closer to nibble along her neck. She arched into me. Women weren’t welcome at my home or any of my offices—I didn’t trust a girl not to be after my money, and none of those locales would do because Mara would find out who I really was before I could uncover why she’d targeted my dad. What did Mara have that Sam’s other women hadn’t? As far as I knew, Sam had never entertained the thought of even remarrying, much less signing over property for as little as a dollar.
Mara wasn’t like any of the flings my dad had brought around. She looked barely out of college, but she was just a few years younger than my twenty-eight.
Not surprising why good ol’ Sam had never told me about her. Sam had kept the hot girl to himself, perhaps fearing that given his age, she would have set her sights on me instead.
What had my dad been thinking, drooling after a younger woman?
I dragged my tongue up to her earlobe and reveled in her shiver. “Gimme your keys and tell me where to go.”
Her dreamy gaze locked on me. She licked her lips, catching my attention. I couldn’t help the rock of my hips to ease the throbbing in my balls.
“I came here to—” She moaned when I nibbled a path down to the juncture of her neck and collarbone. Warm and salty, hinting at the sweetness I hoped to discover between her thighs.
“If he was going to show, he’d be here by now. Besides,” I nipped her soft skin, “there’s always another night.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. No big surprise she was going to acquiesce. Mara had proven with my dad how quickly she could sink her unadorned nails into a man. Only I wasn’t going to sign over part of my empire to her just because she had an epic ass.
“Come on.” She grasped my hand and we wove through the crowd until we exited into the crisp night air.
We reached her car and she stumbled in her heels. I caught her and pulled her in close. No wonder my impulsive dad had been smitten. Mara rated even higher than any of the women I had dated. Well, “dated” was a strong word.
I dropped my head and captured her mouth. Plump and soft, I had to taste. Sweeping my tongue inside, I thumbed a nipple through her shirt.
She groaned a sigh, such a feminine sound, and I wanted her to make it repeatedly.
Lost in pleasure, I let my tongue dance with hers before I realized we were rubbing against each other. If I had to wait until we got to her place, I was going to lose my mind to my blue balls.
A peculiar need rode me. Like one night might not be enough. Perhaps it was knowing she’d curse and despise me later, and I wanted to play as long as I could.
I broke away to take her keys. After I settled a flushed Mara into the passenger seat,
