My hand reaches out, curling under the edge of her stool, and I drag her closer to me with a sudden jolt that makes her gasp, her hand flying to her seat to keep her balance. Her knees slot between mine, and the heat of our thighs touching has me hard behind the fly of my jeans.
“Oh wow.” She laughs. “Are you always this forward?”
“Never,” I tell her honestly. “But there’s something about you…”
Pausing for a second to consider my words, she raises an eyebrow, then leans a little closer, a hint of floral notes under the gin hitting my nose, so intoxicating, that it makes my head swim.
I stare at her lips as she whispers, "Maybe you’re not my type."
She glances around the bar, checking to see who’s watching us. Everyone is far too busy in their own little worlds to give a shit about what must look like a couple having a drink together at the bar.
Chasing her addictive scent, I scoot my stool even closer, loving how her fingers slide closer to mine along the bar without even realising. “Give me a chance, Red. I promise, I’ll beexactlyyour type by the time I’m done with you.”
Stunned at my own words, I wait a beat for her to react. I’ve never spoken to a woman like this before, but then, I’ve never been so utterly captivated by one either. She might slap my face and storm out, maybe she should, but I pray to fuck she’s as caught up in whatever this is as I am.
Instead of leaving, she continues to stare at me, blue eyes boring into mine in disbelief.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” I breathe out, sitting back, hands up in surrender, ashamed of myself for getting it so wrong. “You must think I’m a complete dick, but I swear, I’m not normally like this. I just… you just…”
Instead of cussing me out, Red snags the front of my shirt and yanks me forward, eyes blazing with an unspoken challenge. The first press of her lips against mine is heaven. It’s not tentative or careful, it’s firm and demanding.
“Fuck,” I growl, a jolt of hot possessiveness travelling straight to my cock when she inhales sharply, her free hand coming up to grip my collar.
“What the hell am I doing?” she murmurs against my lips as she melts into me and lets me take charge, cupping the back of her head and deepening the kiss. “My boss could walk in here any minute. I only work a few blocks over.”
When my fingers grip her thigh, afraid she’s going to walk away, the sound she makes, this breathy little moan that vibrates against my tongue, nearly undoes me right here at the bar.
“Fuck them,” I murmur, my fingers curling around the back of her neck as I kiss her again. “Aren’t you allowed to enjoy yourself every now and again?”
She nods and hums her agreement as I kiss along her jaw, back to her delicious mouth. When we break apart, she blinks up at me, her rosy lips flushed and swollen, looking just as stunned as I feel.
I wind a strand of her hair around my finger and watch, fascinated, as the shiny lock slides between them when I pull on it.
"I mean, wow. That was really something…" She trails off, cheeks colouring as she pushes back a loose strand of that flame red hair. “Definitely unexpected.”
"Yeah, but in a good way, I hope," I say. “Maybe good enough to make you want to see me again?” Resting my hands on my knees, I curl my fingers in tight, wrestling back the urge to pull her back to me, to not give her the chance to come to her senses. I need to let her decide.
I hold her gaze, expression serious, making sure she knows I’m not some dipshit who thinks he’s lucked out.
“Hmm,” she says, twisting on her chair before reaching out and taking a long sip of her drink. Her knee brushes against my crotch, and I bite back a groan, fists clenching harder as I battle my bear’s demands to haul her into my lap and kiss the fuck out of her again.
“I just… I don’t kiss strange men in bars, but…” When she sets the glass back down carefully, and her sparkling eyes dart to the door, my pulse quickens. She’s going to leave. She likes me, but she’s doubting herself.
“I want more,” I state plainly, suddenly anxious that she's going to bolt as self-consciousness creeps in about what kissing me just now says about her. “Of you. Of whatever the fuck thisis. Whatever you’ll give me. Let me take you on a date. Tonight, tomorrow, whenever.”
She pauses, relaxing a little, and pouts her luscious lips as she mulls my offer over in her head.
With her mischievous smile returning, one hand slides from my knee all the way up to rest on my upper thigh, while her other dips into my jacket pocket and pulls out my keycard.
I don’t dare move a muscle as she examines it and whispers the room number, and then, "Do you have a roommate?"
Our gazes lock, and inside me, even my bear goes still, afraid to move in case it breaks this spell between us. My brain spins with thoughts of what this could mean, if she could beher,but I push that to the back of my mind for now. The most important thing is getting to spend more time with her.
"Just me. I’m moving into my new place tomorrow."
Thank God the landlord needed any extra day to get the new flooring finished.
"Perfect." She slides off her stool, my keycard between her fingers, and heads for the door that leads into the hotel lobby and not the one to the street. “You coming?”