Red Hot Obsessions (42 page)

2

“To Piper!” Raising their drinks, Piper and her best girlfriends clinked glasses and downed the shots. They grimaced as the tequila blazed a path down their throats.

“Yeah, baby! Another round over here!” Lynn shouted down the bar.

Tipping his head, the yummy tall, dark and handsome behind the counter finished serving a couple of dimly attractive men then returned to their corner of the bar and poured another series of short glasses.

Lynn flashed a large bill. As the young bartender reached to take it, Piper watched in mild amusement as her friend yanked her hand back at the last-minute then knelt on the bar stool. Leaning forward, Lynn motioned him closer with a crook of her finger, said something she didn’t catch, and a moment later was locked in a searing kiss that made Piper press her own knees together. Only then did she fork over the dough.

She, like her friends, was on the prowl. Also like her friends, she didn’t mind taking what she wanted. Life was too short for anything less.

To celebrate her being hired on as an assistant to a famous—or nearly famous—author, they planned to get drunk and get laid. Hey, if men could do it, there was absolutely no reason in the world that they should have to sit home on a Saturday night eating buckets of ice cream and watching reality TV reruns when they could be getting hot and heavy with a perfect stranger.

Jules passed her another shot glass and Piper wasted no time tipping it back. Normally, she preferred the lighter taste of beer, but tonight was all about getting wasted, and there was no quicker way of achieving that goal than through multiple shots of tequila.

It didn’t take long for her body to heat and her brain to fog, but that didn’t stop her from accepting yet another drink from her bestie. Sure, the drinks were costing her a small fortune and rent was coming due, but now that she had secured herself a job and a reliable paycheck, she wasn’t the least bit worried about it.

Vacating the crowded bar, Piper tripped her way over to one of the empty booths dotting the edges of the dance floor and slid inside. Right behind her, her equally tipsy friends crowded in as they waited for another round of drinks to be delivered.

“Oh, my feet are killing me!” Shelia shouted over the thumping beats of Flo Rida.

Shelia was gorgeous at five-foot-nine with a thick mane of vibrant red hair. Tonight she shined in a silver sequined mini dress and matching six-inch heels that would be better suited to the mannequin that had modeled them. It didn’t surprise Piper in the least that they were pinching the ever-loving crap out of her friend’s feet less than two hours into what she hoped would be a very long night. By the time they left the club, they would all likely look like something out of a
Thriller
video.

“That’s why you should have worn those cute wedges I suggested,” Piper told her. She had decided on a nice pair of sensible four-inchers with a peep toe, because there was nothing cute about hobbling around the dance floor with a guy unless an overabundance of alcohol was to blame.

Shelia made a face while reaching under the table to peel off the offending shoes. “Wedges are so last season,” she said in her best Valley girl voice.

A brief hush fell over the table when one of the waiters approached. After he finished depositing their drinks in the center of the table, Lynn jumped on the opportunity to flirt, winking and smiling prettily at him. “Thanks, cowboy.”

“Cowboy?” Reaching for her appletini, Piper laughed.

Lynn shrugged. “When I picture him in my bed, I see a Stetson and a saddle.”

Something well-known among their group, ever since she watched John Travolta in
Urban Cowboy
, she was on a mission to secure herself her very own cowboy.

“I bet you see a branding iron too,” Jules snickered.

Lynn’s thoughtful, lust-filled gaze trailed after him as he returned to the bar for more drinks.

Piper grinned around her straw, loving the easy connection she shared with the women around her. As a kid, she didn’t have many girls as friends, but the few that she had couldn’t occupy the same space for longer than five minutes without tearing into each other over something petty. She was glad that in her adulthood she was able to find a classy group of women who could hang out for hours, if not days, without ripping the extensions out of one another’s head.

Patti, the smallest and arguably the prettiest of the bunch with her rich blue eyes, pale hair and flawless skin, leaned across the table. “So how hot is your new boss?”

“Seriously,” Lynn chimed, pointing the straw from her long island tea at her. “Dish. You didn’t really think we were going to let you get away with that crap detail you gave us, did you?”

Actually, she had hoped a short listing of how her interview went would be enough, because it made her slightly uncomfortable just sitting there picking apart every little morsel of yummy male hotness that was her boss when she shouldn’t be looking at him as anything other than her employer. Really. But he was hot, and she was only
slightly
opposed to a closer examination of that which was Felix Sinclair. Besides, if a girl couldn’t dish the dirt with her gal pals, then who could she dish it with?

As she divulged everything, lingering on certain details and embellishing on others, Piper couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. The fine hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she found her gaze straying toward the dance floor where the music was loudest and the sexual energy pulsed like a living thing, heavy and impatient for a body to unleash its fury on.

Warmth crept across her skin as she caught the blue-eyed gaze of a man leaning against the wall near the entrance. Even across the room, she could see the heated look flash in his eyes. The connection was instant, a visceral reaction that needed no words to convey what the other was thinking. Instant arousal spiked her blood faster and stronger than the liquid courage she had fueled herself with.

“Damn,” Lynn said, drawing the word out appreciatively. Piper wrenched her eyes back to her friends, who were now tracking where she had looked moments before. She could tell by their wide eyes that they had found their mark.

One by one, each of the women pinned her with expectant looks. Sheila spoke first. “Seriously hot piece of ass.”

“I’d do him,” Patti confessed unabashedly. “All. Night. Long.” She made an obscene gesture that Piper was glad no one else could see.

“I could see him in a cowboy hat,” Jules said cheerily.

Piper smacked her arm playfully. “You are so bad,” she stage whispered.

“Seriously, if you don’t go over there and scoop up that hottie with the body, one of us will.” Looking extremely serious, Sheila motioned to herself and the others. “Believe me, if you don’t want him, one of us will be more than willing to take one for the team. Besides,” she continued, swirling the last of her drink, “you need to get laid.”

She couldn’t disagree there. It had been ages since Piper had hooked up with a man. Not since ditching the best apartment she had ever lived in after leaving her no good, lying, cheating ex-boyfriend begging on his knees for her forgiveness while his white trash floozy and her former roommate zippered herself into a skin-tight dress that flashed her disease-ridden goodies to the world. Nearly two months ago and she still fumed when she thought back on it. What she needed was someone who was capable of pounding that particular vision into oblivion.

Peering toward the door, she was disappointed to find an empty wall where her mystery man had been.

An hour and two appletinis later and Piper and her friends were ready to hit the dance floor. As a group, the women bounced and swayed to the music, heedless of the beat and lacking any rhythm whatsoever—fun was the goal of the night.

Skin flushed and blood pumping hard, Piper soaked in the delicious feeling of a carefree night. Her head felt light and a little swimmy, her mood elevated—she was on top of the world. When the hard body mashed into her from behind, Piper went with it, grinding her ass against the hard ridge pressing against her backside.

Strong hands enveloped her waist, pulling her firmly against a broad chest. Body heat seared her back, sending shivers of excitement shooting through her. Her lungs constricted as her breaths grew shallow. She couldn’t see who she was dancing with, but she didn’t care. She was lost to the feel of the male body wrapped around her, to the heavy beat of the music vibrating in her chest, the way his hands and hips guided hers into a smooth, sensual rhythm. Leaning her head back, Piper closed her eyes and let the feeling of his arms around her and the constant pulse of the music lure her toward a state of bliss.

Existing in their own little world, the song playing overhead about an electric touch was the only thing that penetrated. Piper concentrated on the fiery sensation of strong hands drifting over the curves of her body, the spicy scent of liquor on his breath as it left his lips to caress her ear and neck. The gentle scrape of stubble against the curve of her shoulder teased her sensitive skin, and when one hand left her hip and pressed into her belly, forcing her hips to fit tighter against his, all rational thought fled from her mind.

His breathing grew heavier as Piper swirled her hips, rubbing him in all the right places. She let out a startled yelp when his teeth nipped the side of her neck, and when he followed the playful bite with a swipe of his tongue, her legs trembled. His throaty laugh did inexplicable things to her insides and she couldn’t resist reaching back to grab his firm ass and hold him to her.

This man, whoever he was, was driving her crazy. In a brief moment of clarity Piper realized that if she didn’t break their connection soon, she may never be able to.

When the upbeat music switched to something slower and more sinful—what Lynn referred to as baby making music—half the dance floor emptied out. Piper straightened, preparing to break the connection, thank her partner and head back to the table, when she was abruptly spun around. Gasping, Piper found herself face-to-face with the hottie with the body.

Up close, he was even better than she had envisioned for the last hour. Wild dirty blonde hair, crisp blue eyes, a wide jaw and a straight nose made him the perfect male specimen. And when he smiled, hot damn! The man had two perfect dimples that she had the urge to lick. She didn’t, of course, because that would be creepy, but she could do whatever she wanted in her mind, and she was licking his face like it was the last creamsicle on the planet.

He pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms securely around her waist and as he looked down at her with those piercing blue eyes, she was powerless to stop him. Draping her arms over his shoulders, they started dancing. While she didn’t recognize the song playing, it was the perfect setup to a night of drunken debauchery, and judging by the heated look in his eyes, he was thinking the same.

Wedging his knee between her thighs, Piper felt an immediate burst of heat flood through her as the denim rubbed against her exactly where she needed it to. Before she knew what she was doing, Piper was grinding against his leg and working herself into a fervor rivaling a dog in heat. Had she thought for one second that he wasn’t enjoying the spectacle she was making of herself, it was instantly dispelled by the rigid bulge riding the inside of her thigh. Like her, he was breathing heavily, and when she tipped her head back, the wild, hungry look in his eyes told her she wasn’t alone.

Stepping away from her, he took her by the hand and led her off the dance floor and down the hall toward the bathrooms.

3

Bypassing a line of women waiting outside the restroom, Piper followed hand-in-hand as the man shoved the door to the women’s bathroom open and went inside. Standing in front of the two wall-mounted sinks were a couple of women reapplying their lipstick and fixing their hair.

“Excuse us, ladies.” It was the first time she had heard him speak and the sound of his deep, rumbling voice curled her toes. “I hate to trouble you, but we need to borrow these facilities for a moment.”

The one with the dark hair sized him up, very obviously liking what she saw. Unhurried, she capped her lipstick and dropped it into her clutch. As she and her friend brushed by on their way out, they each gave Piper a knowing once-over that caused her to flush a bit.

She wasn’t naïve. She knew what they were about to do. She’d had sex in public places before—a car, a hot tub, in the back room of a restaurant after hours—but never had she done it in a public bathroom…with a line of people waiting outside and knowing exactly what she was up to. This might be a bit too much for her to handle, and yet, the idea of being taken by this man in such a public place, where anyone could walk in on them at any moment, sent a thrill of excitement down her spine.

After checking the stalls and satisfied they were alone, she watched as the man walked past her and flipped the solitary lock on the door. Why a public bathroom would have a lock, she had no idea, but this one did and the knowledge that she was now trapped in here kicked her heart rate up a notch.

Turning to her, he flashed a wolfish smile. As he stalked toward her, she swallowed hard in anticipation.

Stopping in front of her, so close his chest brushed hers, he lifted his fingers to her shoulder. Thanks to the fun strapless dress she had chosen tonight, he had yards of flesh to play with. Lightly tracing them over her collarbone, he cut a slow path down her exposed cleavage, causing goosebumps to rise in their wake. Liquid heat wet her panties and her pussy throbbed as one finger traced the swell of her breast before dipping inside to find her nipple. With a low growl of impatient need, he used both hands to yank down the cups of her dress and the bra beneath it, popping her breasts free. Palming them, he gave each a squeeze and then dipped his head to take one stiff peak into his mouth.

Holding his head in her hands, Piper threw her head back and relished the feel of this man’s hot, wet mouth on her body. His tongue circled her nipple while his hand continued kneading her other breast. She screeched her surprise when his teeth bit down. Smiling devilishly, he lavished equal attention on the other breast, continuing to pinch and squeeze and bite until she thought she might scream.

When he finally released her breast, the mound swollen and pink and glistening with wetness, she moaned her disappointment. Luckily, he had only left her long enough to unfasten his pants. His cock sprang free, its plump head swollen and red and slick with pre-cum.

Eagerly, Piper grabbed hold of it, stroking her hand from base to tip. He groaned quietly, and then stepped into her again. Reaching under her skirt, he found her saturated panties and pulled them aside. He wasted no time pushing two fingers inside her, working them in an out to the pace she set jerking his cock.

Her belly coiled as the familiar feeling of an impending orgasm bore down on her. Yet no matter how hard she concentrated on it, it refused to come into the light. And then it dawned on her what she was missing: the simple act of a kiss. It was the final piece of the puzzle, the ultimate connection between two people capable of stripping them bare.

Releasing the punishing grip she had on his bicep, Piper grasped the back of the man’s neck and drew him down to her. Jerking his head back and withdrawing his fingers from her body so fast she had no time to protest, he spun her around. With a firm grip on the nape of her neck, he bent her over the sink and tore the flimsy G-string in half.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Admittedly a little terrified of this sudden turn of events, she struggled against him. Detecting the nearly frantic hitch in her voice, his hold on her eased somewhat. Gathering her hair off her shoulders, he ran his lips over the back of her neck and down her naked back, making her shiver. Unbidden, her body relaxed, trusting him even while her mind questioned if she should still be there or running out the door.

With purposefully rough hands, he fisted her hair and pulled, forcing her to look into the mirror mounted on the wall in front of them. She met his eyes and saw the promise in them as he hiked up her skirt and kicked her feet apart to allow him a closer connection. Producing a foil packet, he tore the condom open with his teeth, winked at her, then rolled it on.

His eyes left hers and she watched him watching himself enter her. Piper sucked in a sharp breath as her body struggled to accept him. Pinning her with his sharp eyes, he pushed deeper inside, determination evident in the firm set of his chin. When he was fully seated, he gave her a moment to adjust to his size, and then withdrew slowly. He watched her in the mirror as he pulled almost all the way out, and then slammed back in. A shout of ecstasy burst free from her lips as he quickened his pace, pounding into her pussy so hard her teeth rattled. It was almost as if he had heard her earlier desire to find someone capable of pounding the taint of her ex from her mind. Well, she had to admit, it was working. She wasn’t thinking about anything beyond her next stuttered breath.

Pressing his chest against her back, he kissed and licked her skin as he reached his hand around and found her hardened nub. Taking her clit between his long fingers, he pinched and rubbed until all coherent thought went out the window. The sound of wet, slapping flesh and heavy breathing filled her ears. Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, Piper concentrated on the feeling of that hard cock rubbing her from the inside while his fingers rubbed her from the outside.

The sensation of his tongue and sometimes his teeth on the back of her neck was driving her to madness and before she could give it any consideration, the orgasm slammed into her, sending jolts of electricity zapping through her body, momentarily robbing her of sight and hearing. It went on forever and when the waves of the orgasm finally began to subside, she watched in the mirror as the man behind her captured his own release, pumping violently into her until the shudders wracking his body finally subsided.

Slumped over her, Piper braced her arms on the sink, using what little strength she had left to hold them both up. A moment passed. Two. Finally, he picked himself up off of her and withdrew from her body.

“Hello?” Someone pounded on the door. “People need to use the bathroom!”

Grinning at her, the man walked casually to the trash can in the corner to dispose of the condom and tucked himself back into his pants while she got busy righting her clothes. There wasn’t a damn thing she could do about her panties, though. Pulling off the ruined garment, she flung it into the trash. As she pulled down her skirt and made her way to the door, she caught him staring at her in amusement.

She shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to buy new underwear anyway.”

Instead of letting her pass, he looped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. A strange look passed over his face as he looked down on her. Piper felt a stirring of butterflies deep in her belly as he lowered his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly, his tongue sweeping languidly across hers. Unlike the way he took her body, he made love to her mouth, showing her without words all that he was capable of. She could get lost in the gorgeous stranger, her brain warned her, but she didn’t want to listen. Right then, she could think of nothing better than being lost.

He kissed her until her legs quaked and her bones melted, and he stopped all too soon.

The pounding on the door was more insistent now; the sharp voices of several women demanding they get out audible even over the constant thumping of base reverberating through the walls. The distraction ripped them from the moment and thrust them back into harsh reality.

Still wrapped up in each other, Piper relished the feel of his tender caress as his thumbs smoothed over her cheeks, her jaw, and her bottom lip. She wanted to kiss him again, and she knew he wanted to kiss her too.

Stepping away, she watched with disappointment as he went to the door. He paused, his fingers covering the lock. With his back to her, he asked, “You got a name?”

“Piper. How about you?” she asked, but he was already opening the door. An angry mob of women waited outside for them, and Piper hurried to follow him out. Together, they took the walk of shame past scowling, bloodthirsty, hormonal females bristling for a fight and back into the heart of the club. She came up short when he turned to face her.

Grasping the back of her neck again, he drew her up to him and brushed her mouth with a kiss. “Thank you,” he said softly, and then without a backward glance, he slipped into the crowd.

She should be angry with the way he just left her like he did. She didn’t get his name or number. Hell, she should be offended that, after what they had just done, he didn’t show any interest in wanting hers. But the moment was so perfect, so incredibly hot, that she couldn’t see fit to complain. When she crawled into bed tonight she knew she would be replaying every dirty detail, and she had no doubt he would be showing up in her dreams and starring in her fantasies for a long time to come.

With a secret smile, Piper set out to find her friends.

“Holy Jesus, you slut!” Shelia suddenly popped up in front of her face. “You totally fucked that guy in the bathroom didn’t you?”

Slapping a hand over her friend’s mouth, Piper glanced around frantically. “Quiet your mouth, you dirty whore!” she whispered loudly through a fit of giggles.

“Come on.” Tossing an arm around her shoulders, Shelia shepherded her through the crowd. “The girls are
dying
to know every gory detail.”

“Lord help me,” Piper groaned dramatically.

Back at the table, she was met with three curious and sexually frustrated women eager for a tell-all. Piper bit down on her bottom lip to repress her smile. A tremble of satisfaction still tingled between her legs as she slid into the booth, pilfered one of the women’s drinks and prepared to tell her story.