Oh. My. G.o.d.

"I have to go," I squeak, and spin on my heel in the world's fastest and least elegant bathroom escape ever.

In the foyer, Trevor is waiting a few yards away, holding two gla.s.ses of wine. An usher opens the doors to the hall again, welcoming us back for the talk, and all of a sudden I just can't.

I fumble at my purse, pretending that it just vibrated. I quickly hand back the gla.s.s he'd just slid into my fingers, and look at my dark phone. "It's my sister, do you mind going in without me?"

He better not mind. He spent most of the first half taking work calls on a Sat.u.r.day night first date. And of course he doesn't, because whether or not I'm on his arm really doesn't matter to him.

I watch my date disappear, toss back my wine like it's water, and look for a place to stash the gla.s.s before I disappear into the sad, cold night. I feel a momentary pang of guilt, but I can text him an apology. Family emergency. He'll believe that.

Cole's hand is not the place I wanted to dump an empty gla.s.s of wine. But there it is, reached out in front of me as he comes around my body. "Long night?"

"Something like that. I need to leave, so if you could give that to a waiter," I murmur, not looking him in the eye.

Without breaking eye contact with me, he finds a surface I didn't notice and disposes of the gla.s.s. "We need to talk, beautiful."

No, I need to knee him in the groin, then go home and take off this stupid gown.

"Why does your girlfriend think she might be able to watch you f.u.c.k me?" I hiss under my breath, barely taking a beat to appreciate the way he blanches ever so slightly. Good. f.u.c.k him.

"Penny told me she said too much. She's sorry."

"She doesn't need to be sorry. You do, for kissing me. And calling me beautiful. Totally uncalled for." My words are coming out in short, sharp, staccato bursts. I wish they'd land half as painfully as they rip from me, but Cole seems unaffected.

"Fine, then I'm sorry. It was inappropriate for me to kiss you." He moves closer as he says it, and as much as I want to knee him in the junk, there's a part of me that gets warm. Stupid girl warm, with the goose b.u.mps and convenient memory loss that ensures that a.s.sholes like Cole get to keep spreading their DNA through the population.

But this isn't the first time I've mistaken attention as something more. And it wouldn't be the first time that attention would be purposefully misrepresented as something more.

"There's nothing hot about being used," I say quietly. It doesn't sound quite right as I say it, and the flare in his eyes says I'm wrong. If I am, he needs to fix that impression, because he kissed me when he had a girlfriend, and he sure as h.e.l.l acted like it was a dirty little secret.

I slap myself back. No. It doesn't matter if he had twisted good intentions when he kissed me.

His lips tighten and he clenches his jaw for a minute, like he's at war with himself. I know the feeling.

Finally he drops his chin, staring at me with his magnetic eyes. His voice, low and rough and intimate, does dangerous things to me on the cellular level. "I wasn't using you, and that kiss was f.u.c.king hot. You can't deny it."

I can't. Doesn't mean I won't try. "Wow, mixed messages much, Mr. Parker? It can't happen again, you've got a girlfriend, a convenient omission of fact the other day...but you sure seem obsessed with my mouth."

I think he's getting taller and wider and angrier as he stands in front of me, but I'm not afraid. I'm fired up, and so is he. "Not at all, Ms. Reid. I didn't realize that I needed to spell out the details of my personal life before I reacted to you eye-f.u.c.king me in your kitchen. It was a kiss. Get the f.u.c.k over it."

"Oh, I'm over it." Another lie. My nose must be a foot long.

"And if it seems like I'm obsessed with your pretty little mouth, it's because you keep licking your lips." His gaze drops to my mouth again, and I laugh.

Then I lick my lips.

"If I wasn't working for your family right now..." His voice is still low and tense, but we're starting to attract some attention. Just enough that people might wonder what we're talking about.

I should shut up. I should walk away. I don't do either of those things, because I can't let him have the last word, especially when it's a lie. "What? Nothing, Cole. You'd be working for some other sc.u.m bag. Tell me-how many murders have you covered up this week?"

Eyes dark, nostrils flaring, he looks every part the affronted party. Torn between disappointment and relief-because I've pushed him away for a reason, and not just because I'm frustrated and feeling scorned. Cole's no good for me on any level.

But his words, when they come, aren't angry. They're taunting. And he takes his sweet time delivering them. "You don't know what you're talking about, beautiful. And that's okay. You have a right to be p.i.s.sed at me, because I live in a world of secrets and lies that, G.o.d help me, you'll never understand." For a second, I think he's going to stop there. When he starts again, his voice has changed. Shifted, like he's lost a tug-of-war, and his eyes glint in a new and thrilling way. "But when you say s.h.i.t like that, it makes me want to put that mouth to work doing something more...satisfying."

Heat crawls up my neck, then down between my aching b.r.e.a.s.t.s and into my belly. Sucking him off is not a turn on. Stop it, body. You're fired from the What's Best for Hailey Committee. "Surely you can find someone else who doesn't object to you being completely amoral to give you a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b. Like your girlfriend."

"Haven't you figured out yet that I don't want anyone else?" He shakes his head, clearly frustrated, and before I can process what he's saying, he's slamming even more at me, his words coming fast and furious now. "I want you. On your knees, your lips wrapped around my c.o.c.k."

I gasp. "What the h.e.l.l happened to it was a mistake and this is nothing?"

"Oh, it's still a mistake. But I was kidding myself about one taste being enough."

He has a girlfriend. And I'm not into threesomes. Plus he'd said c.o.c.k, like that was something one just said in the foyer of the Kennedy Center. My cheeks are hot and I know that as soon as I open my mouth again, I'm going to be stammering.

But before I can react, before I can grab on to the s.h.i.tastic pile of truth he just dumped between us, he makes an amused face, as if to say, see? We're playing in different leagues, little girl, and turns on his heel, quickly striding toward the Hall of Nations.

He's pulled back behind his curtain of lies. More to the point, he's had the last word.

"Get back here," I whisper, my voice stolen by white-hot rage. I literally feel tipped sideways, but this isn't over. I get to end it, I stubbornly insist in my head, even though it feels completely laughable at the moment.

I stare at his retreating back, righteous indignation coursing through my body. I want to run after him, leap on his back and pummel him about the head, but my heels preclude the running and the fact that we're very much not alone precludes the rest.

But we are so not done with this conversation, so I follow. Slowly, but he knows I'm behind him. I can tell from the extra-square shoulders and the way he isn't looking around.

And it's not until he takes the sharp turn about ten feet in front of me that I realize this is a trap.

I slow. Eight feet. Six. If I turn that corner, he's waiting for me.

Two feet.

I take a deep breath, ready for whatever Cole has in mind, and step into an almost empty hallway. Definitely empty of Cole and his raging energy.

Spinning, I ignore the hurt slicing through my chest. He's playing a game with me, and it's not one I'm up for.

Trevor has our coat check tickets.

Maybe I don't need my coat. I step into a nook and pull out my phone. I'll just text him and beg off. Whatever. I don't care what he thinks, it's not like we're going to do this again.

I b.u.mp into the wall as I step back, but then the wall gives way in a smooth, swinging motion, because it's a door. Cole's on the other side, and he tugs me into the dimness of another concert hall.

Before I can protest or yell at him again, he has me pinned against the wall, his mouth on mine. Teeth clashing, tongues sparring, I pour as much anger into this kiss as he does. Maybe more, because I hate how good he tastes and how perfect his hands feel, one gripping my wrists and holding me against the wall. The other is tracing my collarbone, making my nipples tight from five inches away.

"I'm going to do a lot more than kiss you. Tell me to back away and I will." He devours my mouth again, making every cell in my body pulse. I lazily consider the fact that he's not actually giving me a chance to tell him anything, but his tongue is like a magic wand that makes me wet and wanting. "But you don't need to. No one will ever know. It'll be our dirty little secret that I know how sweet you come on my hand."

I swallow a moan as Cole jerks the bodice of my dress down, freeing one of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He cups it from below, his thumb teasing at my nipple in a way that makes me want to beg for his mouth right there.

Another reason we can't do this-he could have me on my knees, desperate for sc.r.a.ps of his attention, with no effort at all. That's the stuff of fantasies and dirty books, not real life.

Can't do it again, I mean. Because Cole slapped a pause b.u.t.ton on real life when he dragged me in here. We're definitely doing this. He's promised me an o.r.g.a.s.m, and I want him to deliver.

And then I'll get on my knees for him, just this once.

-six-.

Cole.

I've jerked off to the fantasy of Hailey's t.i.ts more times than I can count over the last six months. She was wearing a V-neck t-shirt that first night I saw her, and a necklace that dropped straight to the top of her cleavage. Soft and s.e.xy, they have captivated me ever since, and now I know what it feels like to have her flesh filling my hand. f.u.c.king amazing.

I brace myself tight against her body, relishing the tension in her arms as she strains against me, her creamy skin dancing under the dim pot light above us. I wish we had time for me to explore every inch of her body with my tongue, from her delicate wrists to the soft dimples I imagine are at the base of her spine.

We don't. I can't. Her weenie-a.s.sed date is going to be looking for her soon, and I just got a 911 text from Wilson that one of our clients has been busted for a DUI. He had it in hand for now, but we'd need to meet back at the office soon to put together a statement.

Stolen moments, that's all we get. But I'm done thinking that Hailey and I can't happen. We just can't happen in a healthy, functional way.

Good news is, I do dysfunctional like a f.u.c.king pro.

"Cole," Hailey pants my name as I drag my mouth down her neck. "This is crazy."

It's insane. "Tell me to stop, then."

"Don't you dare stop." She sighs and arches her back as I latch onto her swollen nipple and suck her hard into my mouth. The taste of her and the way she jerks against my body drives me crazy. Her dress is soft velvet, and it folds easily in my fist as I pull the fabric up, baring her leg. She's wearing stockings attached to a garter belt, and as my fingers. .h.i.t the pillowy skin at the top of her thighs, I curse the fact that I don't have a condom on me.

I took it out of my wallet, knowing it was the only way to keep myself from f.u.c.king her if given half a chance.

Hailey arching her hips into my eager hand definitely counts as a chance, and now I'm hating myself for not being ready for it.

I tease my finger under her garter, savouring the feel of her body bared to me. Her p.u.s.s.y is mere inches away, but as soon as I get there, it's going to be game over. I'll be lucky if I remember any of this beyond the animalistic memory of being inside her. Already I feel lightheaded and drunk on the delicate scent of her skin.

I've got a reputation as a tough guy. Ex-Navy SEAL, nothing fazes me. But if anyone wanted to undermine me, all they'd need to do is throw Hailey Reid in my tracks. This woman turns me into a simpering idiot. And if she'd have me, I'd give it all up and try to be a better man for her.

Like she knows I'm over-romanticizing this moment, she licks up my neck and sinks her teeth into my jaw. "Having second thoughts, tough guy?"

With a growl, I jerk my head down and capture her smart mouth with mine. She tastes like champagne and innocence and warm, s.e.xy woman. "Just trying to decide if I want you to come on my fingers or my face."

She whimpers at my words, pressing her face into my cheek even as her lips part and her tongue sneaks out to taste me again. I said them to be rough, to tip her sideways a bit in an effort to regain control over the situation, but it makes me hard as nails that dirty talk works for her.

Willing myself to hold my s.h.i.t together-and remember to keep my d.i.c.k in my pants-I slide my fingers up the garter to where the ribbon meets lace. Where her leg meets her hip in a crease I want to get up close and personal with, but we're in the back of a mostly dark concert hall and time is of the essence.

I find her p.u.s.s.y wet and swollen, and at the first slippery touch, all control disappears. I hike her leg up onto my hip, pressing hand between her hot, hungry c.u.n.t and my own hip as I rock my erection against her.

My hand is drenched, but I still start with one finger, gently easing into her. She's ready and willing, bucking against me, and I slide two in on the next thrust, cupping all of her wet heat in my palm. Her c.l.i.t b.u.mps against the heel of my hand as I finger her, slow and deep and hard, and with each surge her hitching breath gets more ragged.

Her hand curls around my neck, her grip alternating between tight and fluttery as she works against my body, and my d.i.c.k is f.u.c.king begging me to be let loose. It would be so d.a.m.n easy to lift her up a few inches, rip open my fly, and sink inside her. She's tight as f.u.c.k around my fingers, she'd milk my c.o.c.k like nothing else I'd ever felt.

Literally, because it would be the first time I'd ever f.u.c.ked someone without a rubber.

I need to get my c.o.c.k away from the soft cradle of her thighs.

Swallowing her moaning protest with one last, rough kiss, I slide my fingers out from her lace panties, replacing that pressure on her c.l.i.t with the iron rod in my pants-just for a minute, safely on the other side of thin suit pants. I can feel how wet she is against me, and I don't care that I'm going to smell like s.e.x when we leave or that I'll need to head out the back exit. f.u.c.king worth it to grind into her just once.

I bring my glistening fingers to our mouths, breaking our kiss just long enough to slide the taste of her over my tongue. She stares at me for a beat, her eyes wide and her chest heaving, and then her mouth crashes into mine, my hand barely getting out of the way in time. She groans into my mouth as I roll my hips and my tongue at the same time, sharing the taste of her.

In my thirty-one years, I've had a lot of s.e.x. Dirty, vanilla, familiar, anonymous. I thought I'd experienced it all, but Hailey going nuts as I lick her wetness off my fingers? Hottest thing I've ever experienced.

As of this moment, my ill-considered arrangement with Penny needs to be drowned in the Potomac, because I've tasted beautiful and I'm not letting her go.

-seven-.

Hailey.

This is so much better and so much worse than I imagined it would be. My head is swimming and I ache for more of Cole-more of his mouth, his fingers, and that impressive erection I can feel between my legs.

I want that so much, I hurt.

"f.u.c.k me, Cole," I beg, not caring that it's stupid. I want him to take me right here, hard against the wall, consequences be d.a.m.ned.

"Can't." He kisses down my neck, although kiss is a strangely polite word for the way his mouth is devouring my skin. "You're going to come on my face, beautiful. And you've got to do it fast."

Before I can protest, he drops to his knees and lifts my left leg over his shoulder. I slam my hands back against the wall, a futile effort to brace myself for the onslaught of sensations.

I'm expecting hard and fast.

I get slow and lazy, and it's so much better.

It's like he can bend time to his will, because the world ceases around us. It's just the two of us at the back of an empty concert hall, me pressed against the wall, Cole between my legs. His tongue licking me like an ice cream cone, and his hand...

Oh G.o.d.

Cole's fingers are heading up the back of my thigh, toward my a.s.s. I arch away from them, because my a.s.s is not my best feature. His hands should be on my b.o.o.bs, or my calves. I have very nice calves. Curvy, long, and delicate at the ankle. Very little about me can be described as delicate so I take extra pride in how nice my ankles are.

As if he knows I've gone into my head a bit, Cole sucks on my c.l.i.t hard, and that works. I moan and sink into his mouth a bit, relaxing.

And that's when he slides his fingers between my rear cheeks, just a tease. My face burns because I'm mortified, but it also...

"You feel amazing," he murmurs against my thigh, pressing a kiss there before covering my s.e.x with his mouth again. This time it's the hard and fast I expected, and I lose my mind. The most beautiful pressure ever builds in my lower belly, and I stop feeling embarra.s.sed about how good Cole's fingers feel as they stroke all the nerve endings between my p.u.s.s.y and my a.s.s. I don't care that his face is wet because of how wet I am, or that I'm panting and whimpering like an idiot as he tongues me to a crashing o.r.g.a.s.m.

I blank for a second, a moment of bliss after Cole pushes me into a sensational free fall, and then it's this pulsing that seems to have no end, like a perpetual motion machine in my womb, each throb rubbing those nerve endings in just the right way all over again.

In the aftermath, as my p.u.s.s.y clenches at the empty air, and the spots clear from my vision, as Cole presses the top of his head to my belly and uses his pocket square to clean me up before setting my panties back into place...in that moment, I think about inviting him back to my place.