With Hailey, the shoe is on the other foot. Any second, she's going to realize I'm not good enough for her. That I'm a professional liar and a cheat, and no amount of financial or political security will make up for that in her eyes.

Just my luck to fall for a woman with an unwavering moral compa.s.s and the internal fort.i.tude to walk away from wealth and power because it's the right thing to do.

Of course, that she did that just makes me want her all the more.

She twists in front of me, swivelling her hips through the drunken crowd. She's wearing dark jeans and knee-high boots with a sparkly tank top under a tiny jacket. I can't keep my eyes off her.

On the dance floor, I grab her close and spin her around so my front is pressed against her back.

I grind my c.o.c.k into her a.s.s as she tips her head back against my shoulder. I want to hold her here forever. I get her for a minute before she spins away. As the music pulses through the air, she peels off her jacket, baring the long smooth expanse of her arms, golden pink under the dance floor lights. I grab the loose end of the jacket, reeling her in for a quick taste of her mouth.

"This isn't dancing," she says, her face still pressed to mine, close enough I can't see the smile. But I can feel it.

"This is better," I growl, banding my arms around her waist as she slides her fingers through the short hair at the back of my neck. I move us to the heavy thump of the music, my thigh sliding between her legs, and we kiss again, over and over again until she's panting and I'm ready to find a dark corner.

But this is our first date, and I want to earn-legitimately, for once in my life-the right to a second. And a third. And a tenth. So when a couple beside us b.u.mp us apart, I keep the few inches of distance and actually start dancing.

This isn't a bad move, because although I'd rather be kissing Hailey, I actually do know how to dance.

And she's impressed, but so am I, because where I've got some moves, she's got more, and they're good.

She rolls her body, mirroring what I do, and we flow together, almost meeting at the hips each time before sliding away. I keep one hand on her at all times-my fingers grazing down her arm, then my other palm cupping her waist as she twists in the other direction.

Her gaze is glued on me. Always dark. Pleased, with an edge of wanting more. I can't keep my eyes on hers, because the rest of her is shimmying in ways that jack up my blood pressure, but every time my roving gaze finds her face again, she's still looking at me.

And her smile gets a little bit bigger. More teasing.

I spin her around, touching more of her now. She glances back at me over her shoulder, her hair swinging away. I can't resist the bare neck, and I press my face into her slightly damp skin, tasting her briefly before pulling back. "Another drink?"

She nods, and I will my d.i.c.k to hang on, but then she breathes four little words that make my night. "Back at my place?"

I have her out the door and in my waiting hired car before she can change her mind. I've never been more grateful for a privacy screen in my entire life. I tersely give the driver Hailey's address before slamming the little sliding door shut and hauling her into my lap.

"Uhhhn," she mumbles as I jerk her tank top up and her bra down, baring one breast. I kiss her hard on the mouth again before whispering that she needs to be quiet, then I dip my head and suck her nipple into my mouth in a harsh, hungry pull.

She pants my name, barely more than a breath, and it bounces around us in the quiet of the moving car. Up front, the driver is listening to something. Talk radio, maybe, or an ad. Outside, there's end of the evening traffic noise.

But right here, it's just Hailey and me, my name on her lips and my mouth on her body.

The nervous tension I'd been feeling is gone now, replaced by something more familiar-the need to possess her, to mark her soul as she's marked mine.

"You were beautiful tonight, dancing for me." I free her other breast and roll the second taut peak over my tongue, savouring the unique taste of her skin and the still fresh scent of her vanilla perfume. "You're always f.u.c.king beautiful."

"But you liked the dancing?" she whispers, sliding her hands over my shoulders, her words slurring slightly. "Maybe I'll be your private dancer when we get up to my place."

I chuckle and kiss the inside of her bare arm, pebbled with gooseb.u.mps. "Almost there. You want your jacket back on, drunk girl?"

"Nuh-uh." She shakes her head vigorously as she fixes her bra and top. "I'm going to take them all off...soon enough anyways."

She tips her head to the side, like she's thinking about the words she just said and wondering if they made sense, and I kiss her cheek, then her mouth, because it's right there.

The intoxicated cuteness continues on the slow, hip wiggling climb to her apartment, but as soon as the door closes behind her, she zips into efficiency-mode, going to the stereo on a bookshelf in her living room.

There she starts rifling through her CDs. She waves her hand over her shoulder. "You should take your clothes off, I might want to violate you after I find this alb.u.m..."

I slowly strip off my dress shirt, but I leave my jeans on, and settle on the couch. I like this bossy, drunk Hailey. I'm not going to leave her in charge for long, but as long as she's got a plan, I'm game to see where it goes.

She puts on some sultry R&B from the seventies and turns around, right hip c.o.c.ked and her b.o.o.bs deliberately on display.

"Close your eyes."

"Seriously? I want to watch you strip for me."

"Serious as a heart attack." She smiles as she slowly unzips her jeans, then stops before I get to see the good stuff. "And I'm not going to strip for you, but if you're a good boy, and close your peepers, I will dance for you."

Her warm, husky laughter surrounds me as I drop my eyelids and tip my head back against the couch. I've wanted to see her use the pole for weeks. I'll take it however she wants to dish it out. The music is a promise of something seriously good-better than good, because Hailey just hopping out of her jeans on a regular night is enough to get me hard.

She moves closer, warm air swirling around me, but then she's gone again on another laugh, leaving me a frozen statue of barely contained s.e.xual frustration. She could torture me for hours, but she doesn't. Fabric rustles, then I hear a soft sound that I a.s.sume is her jeans. .h.i.tting the floor a split second before she breathes the word I've been waiting for. "Open."

I blink twice, taking her in. She's wearing my shirt, barely b.u.t.toned, and her curvy legs are bare and she's posed against the pole like a pin-up model.

Jesus. Blood rushes through my head on its way south to my c.o.c.k. "Wow."

She plumps her lips in a naughty-as-f.u.c.k pout as the music changes to something slightly more upbeat-and decidedly dirtier. As the singer sighs and moans her way through a chorus about motions and notions, Hailey steps around the pole, one hand holding on above her head, her body angled out and away. Her hair swings wide as she launches herself into the air, twisting one leg around the pole as she slides down, twirling effortlessly.

I can't breathe.

My shirt. Flashes of white lace underneath. The music. Her d.a.m.n smile.

"I've been thinking, Cole..." She drops, inch by inch, into the naughtiest squat I've ever seen and presses slowly onto her tiptoes before rising and circling the pole again.

Flying.

"This thing between us. Maybe I didn't just want you to be my bad boy fling..." She bites her lip, and I just about lose my mind. Keeping my gaze glued on her painfully slow twirl around the pole, my shirt riding up on her hips, I ease my fly down and wrap my fist around my aching c.o.c.k. She flips her hair over her shoulder as she glides her left foot up her right leg, stretching her thigh wide open and flashing those impossibly innocent panties at me. "Maybe I like being a little bad, too."

Jesus. She's going to kill me. "Take your panties off."

She winks at me. "I will. When I'm ready."

"I want to see your p.u.s.s.y."

Another slow twirl, and this time when she comes around to face me, her free hand is working on the b.u.t.tons of my shirt. "Why?"

"Because it's beautiful."

"Mmm. Try again."

"It is," I growl.

"What else?"

"Because it's mine." Her lips part and her eyes sparkle. Good. I stand and pace around the coffee table, stopping just short of her. "You're mine. And if I tell you to show me how much you want me, you'll do it."

She slides her back against the pole, my shirt now fully open. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and belly jiggle as she works herself up and down, her mouth shiny and wet from her licking her lips. "And if I don't obey you?"

I step closer. "You like being punished far too much."

"I know," she breathes as she drops again, one arm stretched above her head, her circled fingers controlling her descent on the pole. She stops with her mouth just inches from my throbbing d.i.c.k. "It's so naughty."

f.u.c.k. Me.

"You want this?" I jerk myself in front of her face and she nods, sticking out her tongue to catch a drop of pre-come.

"Yummy."

I curse as I grab the pole above her and drive my c.o.c.k into her eager mouth. She swallows me straight into her throat, her lips sealing around me as she sucks. Hard.

It's too much and not enough at the same time. The perfect wet heat, the soft pulling of her mouth, begging for me to spill myself down her throat.

"You're so naughty," I groan, smoothing my free hand over her hair and then her cheek, ending up with my fingers stroking the soft skin of her throat. "Such a good c.o.c.ksucker, Hailey. Just for me, on your knees. So hungry for me, aren't you?"

She nods as I thrust in and out of her mouth.

"Take me deep again. I want your nose against my belly, beautiful. G.o.d, yes. Like that. f.u.c.k, you're so perfect, Hailey. Fuuuck-ck." I hold myself against her face as I come on her tongue in heavy blasts-and she swallows every last drop.

She holds me in her mouth until my c.o.c.k stops pulsing, then waits at my feet, eyes glazed as I do up my jeans again.

"Up, beautiful." She glides onto her toes, stretching as tall as she can go, and I curl my hand around the back of her neck. "Thank you."

Other words pound in my chest, words I can't bring myself to say just yet. But I feel them. I lick my way into her mouth, kissing her and tasting the faint remainder of myself on her tongue.

Peeling her panties low on her hip, I stroke my fingertips through her wetness as I keep kissing her. She whimpers as I slowly circle around her c.l.i.t, her hips shamelessly rocking against my hand.

"Tell me what you want."

"Your mouth." Barely a whisper, her request makes me hard all over again. "Lick me."

"Come with me to Miami," I murmur against her skin as I kiss her neck. She's all soft and she smells like vanilla musk and woman. Turned on woman, and I can't let go of her. Not for a night, not for a weekend.

"I have to work," she groans, tipping her head back to give me more skin to lick as I f.u.c.k her ruthlessly with my fingers.

"I bet you have a week of vacation time you have no intention of ever using," I rumble against her belly as I drop to my knees and strip her out of her panties. "Hold on."

She grips her hands tighter around the pole and watches, eyes dark and pleading, as I lift one of her legs and then the other, draping them over my shoulder.

"Ahhh," she cries out as I press my hands under her a.s.s and lift her hips, bringing her p.u.s.s.y to my mouth.

"Tell me you'll ask for a day or two off and I'll make you come."

"Mmmm." She rolls her hips and I twist my face, kissing her inner thigh. "Cole!"

"Promise me you'll ask, beautiful. Say it, and you can have my tongue buried deep inside you."

"And if I don't?" she asks, gasping as I puff hot air on her exposed c.u.n.t.

I groan regretfully, enjoying this way more than I should. "Then I might need to put you down and go find some ice cream."

"Won't you be busy with work?"

"Little bit. Lots of time to lie on the beach with you. It's not Hawaii, but it's not here, either."

"Not here sounds good." She tips her hips again, and I lick her almost where she wants it. Almost. Not quite. She growls at me.

"Hey, growling is my thing."

"Licking my p.u.s.s.y is your thing, and you're not doing it!"

"Miami."

"Yes. d.a.m.n you, yes." Before she can protest again, I close my mouth over her c.u.n.t and show her in a filthy kiss how grateful I am she's bowed to my will.

Usually I take my time. f.u.c.k that s.h.i.t. I want her come on my face and I want it now. I want this o.r.g.a.s.m, then I'm carrying her to her bed, where she's going to come again on my d.i.c.k. Make me come inside her, and then I'll hold her until she's ready for me to do it all over again.

I'm a f.u.c.king beast, devouring her, and she's humping against my face, desperate for more.

"Come on, Hailey," I croon as I slide two fingers deep inside her. "You've got the tightest, sweetest p.u.s.s.y. Jesus, yes, come for me."

She clenches my fingers as I part her p.u.s.s.y lips, giving me more s.p.a.ce to lap up her slippery sweetness. Her scent, the swollen plumpness of her c.u.n.t, the little moans as she grinds against me...it's the best thing in the entire world.

As soon as she explodes, p.u.s.s.y fluttering and legs shaking, I have her in my arms.

I lay her on her bed, spreading her luscious legs so I can be inside her, and she wraps herself around me, pulling me in deep.

I say it then, the secret I've kept inside. I say it so quietly she doesn't hear me, I'm sure of it, because she doesn't react.

"I love you," I breathe into her hair as she digs her heels into my a.s.s. She moans my name and I thrust again, this time the words just in my heart. She kisses me as I pin her down, f.u.c.king her harder and faster until we come together in a sticky, perfect mess.

-thirteen-.

Hailey.

For someone raised in a wealthy family, I don't have a lot of experience flying on private airplanes, and it's pretty sweet. We're twenty minutes away from landing outside Miami, I have a happy buzz from some very expensive champagne, and I'm sitting sideways in the comfiest chair ever while Cole's rubbing my feet. The flight attendant just cleared our plates and left us with warm, wet hand towels.