Perplexed, I looked long and hard at the display on my screen. Unknown caller threw me for a loop. My parents wouldn’t call me. They were against technology. And everyone else like Lizzy and even Matt were programmed into my phone. For a second, I didn’t answer. There was a possibility it was Scott. I’d ignored his calls so much, he may have found a way to call me and get around the fact that I’d blocked his number.
But then I thought of my parents again. If something were truly wrong, they would call. And that call would most likely register as unknown. Answering quickly, I sounded a little breathless as I braced myself against the wall outside the subway. It wasn’t good to walk and talk. One would be distracted and a prime target for a pickpocket, so I stood vigilant right outside as the traffic, even at this time of the evening, was brisk with commuters who worked in jobs where ten- to twelve-hour days were the norm.
“Hello,” I said, my pulse racing. My parents would only call if it were a dire emergency.
“Hello, Lass,” the rich baritone of the Scotsman crooned through the phone, calling me like a siren called a wayward sailor.
“H-How did you get my number?” I asked.
A husky chuckle on the other end said exactly what his words did. “Aye, Lass, I have my ways.”
“Creepy ways,” I responded.
“It was easy enough to get your name from the doorman and the rest even easier.”
“What do you want?” I asked, feeling run down and not in the mood for him if I lied to myself. I found my body coiling tight hearing him speak.
“To see you of course. Have dinner with me tonight?” he asked.
“Is it always dinner with you?” I asked, sure I sounded stupid but didn’t care. “Why don’t you just come right out and ask for sex.” The words were out before I could take them back. It was rude, but this man left me feeling out of balance. And heat was coursing south with every word out of his mouth.
“You have to eat and so do I,” he said. His voice had changed slightly. He didn’t sound so amused. I should have done a victory dance, but instead I felt odd. I didn’t like the idea that I’d disappointed him. “As for sex, it’s always on the menu with you.”
I ignored the sex comment since I’d brought it up and was not in a position to deny that my body yearned for him. “I’m not in the mood for a fancy dinner,” I explained. I should have said that being with him in a restaurant didn’t seem to hamper our sexual need for each other. “I’ve had a rough day. What I need is comfort food.”
There was a pause before he asked, “And what’s that?”
“Pizza,” I blurted. I closed my eyes for a second because a few people passing stopped to look at me and my outburst.
“Pizza,” he repeated as if it were a foreign word.
“Yes and unless you want to have pizza, I’m going to pass on dinner with you tonight.”
“I’ll have to-,” he began, but I cut him off.
“Look, my train is coming. I’ll have to call you back.” I hung up. I didn’t mean to be so rude, but his voice was too much, doing very unexpected things for a sidewalk call to my body. I headed into the subway and made my way home.
When I rounded the corner to my place, I saw Kalen step out with a pizza box in his hand. I couldn’t stop the smile as I made my way over to the curb where he leaned on a black SUV looking dapper with an extra side of handsome on top.
“Your wish is granted,” he said, offering me a smile.
“You know, showing up on my door can be considered stalker behavior.”
A sly smile played across his lips. “Most women would consider it romantic.”
Gripping my messenger bag, I said, “Well, I’m not most women.”
“I know. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
Pushing off the car, he stepped closer. “That’s how you succeed.”
“You can’t always have what you want,” I said.
That smile of his didn’t falter. “But I always get my way.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I bet you used that same careful intimidation to get my full name.”
“Actually, I just told your doorman I wanted to send you flowers.” His eyes said he was delighted with himself. My racing pulse said I was too. That brogue of his was sexy as hell, not to mention the face straight from Roman gods he bore.
Throwing up my hands, I turned and headed towards the doorman who opened without hesitation. Kalen followed and I didn’t stop him. I couldn’t deny the chemistry we had. It was as if my body was a slave to his and was responding like a dog in heat.
When the elevator closed behind us, I muttered, “I bet you just buy all the girls flowers, so that was an easy ruse to get what you want.”
“Actually, the only other woman I’d ever bought flowers for was my mother.”
Pulling out my phone, I tried to study it and ignore the infuriating man in front of me, which was very hard to do. He just stood there holding the pizza box like it was the most normal thing he did. Frowning, I saw I had two messages, one from Lizzy, and the other from Matt.
The one from Lizzy told me she was going on a date that night. What she didn’t say was with whom. Even though I was curious, I refrained from texting her back. I didn’t want to ask in case her date was nosy and I might guess wrong. The message from Matt said pretty much the same thing. He was hanging out. I shouldn’t wait up for him. It was pretty presumptuous of him, but at the same time very sweet. What he really wanted to do was let me know so I wouldn’t worry. Still my frown deepened. I hadn’t expected to be alone with Kalen.
“You should know I’m not impressed by wealth.” I wasn’t sure why I said it, possibly to throw him off.
Only looking amused, he said, “And what’s all this.” It was clear by the exterior of my building and the interior of the elevator, that I lived in a building filled with wealthy people.
Holding my hands out, I confessed, “This is crashing at a friend’s. I’m just an ordinary girl without the shine.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. I nearly bolted out. The sexual tension between us was ratcheting up despite my efforts to squash it with truths and quips.
“I didn’t grow up with the shine either,” he said at my back, following way too close, not allowing me the space I needed to calm my body down.
Looking over my shoulder, I said, “Self-made man, Mr.-,” I trailed off. Walking to the left, I headed to the first apartment door on the right. The end of the hall bore a mirror where I was able to glimpse the dark stare of the imposing man behind me. He looked positively predatory. “I don’t even know your last name, but you know mine.”
Fumbling with my keys, he pressed into me. I felt his hardness against my back and I stifled a shutter. “It’s Brinner,” he said nipping at my neck.
Slow your racing heart, I warned myself. No man had ever elicited such sexual awareness within me. I wasn’t this creature he was making me out to be. But screw it. I needed this. I wasn’t going to fight it. It wasn’t like I was a virgin. My parents may not approve of my behavior that night or what I’d done with Scott. However, what did it matter? I was never planning to return home, not permanently at least.
Finally, when the door opened, I pushed in to get a few steps ahead of him. I left him to close the door with the pizza box in his hand. It may not have been polite, but this man was intoxicating. I was drunk off of just being near him. Maybe distance would settle things down.
That didn’t happen. Once I stepped into the main area and looked into the kitchen area at the counter, I saw the most beautiful arrangement of assorted rainbow colored tulips. Even though I hadn’t read the card, I knew it was from him. The smirk on his face told me so.
“
You really bought me flowers,” I said, not really asking a question.
“Yes.” He stood there looking completely confident.
Stupefied, I said, “But you said you only bought flowers for your mother.”
Putting the pizza box down on the table I maneuvered between us, he said, “No, I said the only other woman I bought flowers for was my mother.”
“Why me?” I asked. And the question was about more than just the flowers. I didn’t understand his interest in me.
“I like to buy beautiful things for extraordinary women.” He said it in such a way that it was hard to argue.
Still, I said, “How could you know I’m extraordinary? You don’t even know me.”
“I’m not a repeat performance kind of guy,” he said deadpanned.
Insulted even though apparently he was in an offhanded way giving me a compliment, I asked, “So you don’t sleep with women more than once?”
“Occasionally, I do. I just don’t seek them out. It gives the wrong impression,” he words were said with finality.
I searched his emerald green eyes before responding. “And what impression are you trying to give me?” I asked, striding into the kitchen, my throat all of a sudden parched. Grabbing two beers, I snagged the bottle opener on my way back. Again, a beer, I thought. But wine seemed too intimate and I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. He was trying to keep me off balance. So I would play the game and do the same to him. Beer seemed to say pal more than future girlfriend.
“That I’m interested.” He held my gaze and I swear I felt unexpectantly drawn to him. Like any moment my body would float over to him and completely surrender. I sat the beer down in front of him and popped open mine for a long swig, calculating my next words.
“You’re just in it for the chase. I present some kind of challenge to you,” I chided.
“I’ve already fucked you once, Lass. The chase is over. Yet here I stand still very much enamored by you.” With that, he opened his beer and seemed at ease with our banter.
Unable to come up with an appropriate response, I shifted open the pizza box with a little too much gusto and the lid flew open, making my displeasure apparent. Picking up a slice, I bit into it, scowling at him the whole time. The look of beguilement on his face said he was certain about me and what would happen. Eating my slice like a savage, I knew he was right and hoped that my lack of manners might throw the man off my scent.
“New York style pizza, is it good?” he asked.
“Why don’t you try some?” I tossed back.
“It’s a first for me,” he admitted.
Stopping, I put my half eaten slice down on the lid side of the box because my lack of manners meant I hadn’t gotten plates. Yet he didn’t seem at all deterred. “You’ve never had New York pizza?”
Shaking his head, he said, “No. Business dinners and quick lunches don’t often lead me to pizzerias.”
“Taste,” I said, utterly fascinated that I would witness a first for this man, because certainly there weren’t many firsts he hadn’t already experienced.
Just like at dinner the other night, this man’s simple act of biting into pizza was like an aphrodisiac. Hell on wheels, I needed to distance myself from him. No way should one man have that kind of effect on me. It only spelled trouble in capital letters.
His eyes closed and I recognized the moment of bliss on his tongue. “It looks like I might have to negotiate with you for the other slices of the meat works.” Oh, so that’s what they call the half of the pizza loaded with meat. “I wasn’t sure what you’d want so I got the other half veggie, which you haven’t touched.”
“I’m a meat and potatoes kind of girl,” I teased.
Quirking up an eyebrow, he continued to eat. By the end of it, I finished my first slice and another slice of veggie, while he polished off the entire rest of the meat lovers half.
The man could eat. I stood tightening my thighs trying not to be so affected by him. When his hand cupped my chin, I wasn’t prepared. His thumb skimmed across my lip and to the corner of my mouth. Then his hand was gone and he licked his thumb clean. “You had a spot there,” he added absently.
I stood, disappointed he hadn’t kissed me. He must have read it on my face because he moved around to my side of the table. Dipping low, he captured my mouth in a heated kiss. He tasted of cold beer and tomato sauce, and I relished it. “I have to have you, Lass. I can’t wait any longer.”
And call me weak, but damn it I was. “Have me.”
With that, he scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder, sending a shriek out of my mouth. “I’m not a sack of potatoes,” I protested.
“No, you taste better,” he said, walking down the hall like he knew where he was going. Although this apartment was large, there was only the one hallway. So I didn’t think he’d gone all stalker on me. “Which is your room?”
Having the blood rush to my head and having my head near his ass, it took me a moment to answer. “Last door on the right.”
When the door opened, he didn’t bother to close it. Setting me down, he positioned me against the wall with my hands above my head. “I can’t wait, Lass. I’ve been dying to get inside you all day.”
He was very skilled at the one hand thing. Restraining me at my wrist, he managed to unbutton my pants and have them pooling at my feet in an instant. “What did I tell you about pants, Lass?”
“It wasn’t like I was expecting you,” I groaned into the wall as his thumb rubbed slightly over the bundle of nerves at my center.
“Always expect me,” he said, tweaking my nipple. He was so smooth. I barely registered his one hand possessing my body, expertly moving from one erogenous region to the next before sensations filled me. “You’re wet for me.” And I sighed when a finger slipped inside me.
“Please,” I found myself begging. I didn’t have to ask twice. There was the sound of a zipper and a rip of a square package. Then the breath left my lungs as he filled me completely.
His hands left my wrist. “Keep your hand on the wall above your head.”
The command should have wrangled on my nerves. Instead, it sent a spike of pleasure. Gripping my waist, he lifted me like I weighted nothing. Heat flooded me. I felt boneless, like I was riding a cloud. “Fuck me, you’re tight.”
The pleasure he created in and out of me was without mercy. I longed for something to grip onto as he slammed into me again and again. He was incredibly strong, using one hand to slide from my hip to rub my nub as he continued his assault on my core, my toes barely touching the ground.
“Come for me,” he demanded. And you would have thought my body had waited for his command, because I exploded in pleasure just moments before he followed me into bliss.
When he steadied me on my feet, I nearly begged for him to stay inside me before he slid out. Words, however, were like pollen on a breeze. I could see them but couldn’t reach them. So we stood with his body still covering mine as we panted out the frenzy that had overcome us. In the silence we both heard the front door open.