Mycah jerked straight, her head snapping to the side to meet the narrowed gaze of the bartender. Out of her peripheral vision, she caught Achilles slowly leaning back. Behaving much less “caught in the act.” Which was ridiculous on Mycah’s part since it hadn’t been her who’d been making visual promises to get naked with the bartender.
“Yes,” he said to the other woman without the least bit of guilt or regret coating his voice. “You can close out both of them.” He reached into his back pocket.
“That’s not necessary—”
He shot her a hooded glance. “Oh, it is.” Returning his attention to the bartender, he removed several bills that appeared more than enough to cover the tabs and laid them on the bar top. “Close out both and keep the change.”
Rising from the stool, he held out his hand toward Mycah, palm up. For a long moment, she stared at that big hand with its long fingers and clean nails. Not only was she about to place her hand in his, but so much more. Her body. Her pleasure. Her safety.
All of that with a man whom she’d known for less than three hours.
It was crazy. Nonsensical. So not her...
She slid her palm over his. Tangled her fingers with his.
And when he tugged her to her feet, she went, her chest brushing his, her thighs nudging his. The heavy weight of his cock branding her belly.
She closed her eyes, lust spiraling through her in a heated glide that incinerated breath and any lingering doubt.
“Let me hear you say it.” His other hand gripped her waist, squeezed it. She locked her jaw to contain the whimper that climbed her throat. With a will she hadn’t known she possessed, she forced the needy sound back down. “Use that pretty mouth and tell me this is what you want.”
“If you expect me to cry foul tomorrow, I won’t. No regrets, Achilles.” She inhaled a deep breath and tilted her head, studying him. “Now, if you’ll let me go, we can get out of here. I can grab a room at whatever hotel you’re staying at for whenever we’re...finished for the night.”
“Finished for the night,” he enunciated, a note of incredulity imbedded in his voice. But in the next instant it was replaced by a darker, hungrier tone that vibrated through her, thrumming in her breasts, low in her belly, high in her sex. “What dickless wonders had you in their bed and were satisfied with beingfinished for the night?” He snarled those words with such a healthy dose of scorn that even if she’d suddenly lost her hearing she wouldn’t have missed it.
Maybe she should’ve been embarrassed at his astonishment. But the fact that he seemed insulted on her behalf and angry at the men who’d shortchanged her alleviated some of the sting.
“I think...” She cleared her throat, but the lust thickening her voice didn’t evaporate. To hell with it. “I think you should stop talking so we can get out of here and go catch a cab.”
He made a sound low in his throat that could’ve been a laugh or a grunt.
Both had warmth spilling inside her.
Both had her chest squeezing tight.
Both had danger alarms blinking like warning signs on an unlit road.
And allowing him to guide her from the bar, she didn’t heed them.
Three
For the first time since arriving at the luxurious five-star hotel with its over-the-top decor, Achilles was thankful for the arrangements his father’s estate had made. While he still cringed at the floor-to-ceiling windows that had him itching to yank the drapes closed against the Boston skyline and terrible feeling of exposure, Mycah no doubt appreciated the panoramic view.
What would she think of his cabin? Or the mountains that surrounded it? Would she appreciate the beauty there? Or would the silence, the solitude, the lack of amenities bore her inside a couple of days?
He mentally shook his head. Why was he even entertaining those questions? They were pointless because this—Mycah in his hotel room, the sex that would happen—wouldn’t go past tonight.
But they did have tonight.
And from the moment she’d stood up from that stool, confirming every fantasy about her body, he’d been exceedingly grateful to deities both Christian and pagan for tonight.
As she glided across the sunken living area into the dining room, the lights from the crystal chandelier hitting her tight, raw-honey curls, his hungry gaze dropped to the sensual sway of her round hips. To the tight perfection of her full ass. The thickness of her thighs. And when she peeled off her suit jacket, laying it over the back of a dining room chair, his fascinated stare rose to the pull of material across her breasts. His fingers curled, straightened. He didn’t even have to close his eyes to imagine the feel of her undoubtedly firm yet tender flesh.
Unbidden, like an animal scenting its mate—there he went again with the fanciful shit—he followed her. But not to touch her, even though the need to do so rode him hard. Like a child with sticky fingers and his face pressed against a candy store window, he enjoyed looking at her. Because no matter how much he wished it didn’t, her beauty captivated him. Dark brown, heavily lashed eyes that seemed full of secrets yet brimming with a vulnerable truth. Arrogant cheekbones, a patrician nose, stubborn but delicate jaw and chin, and a carnal mouth that he couldn’t stop staring at. Couldn’t stop picturing working him over until he trembled and begged...
“Do you want me to get rid of my clothes so they don’t remind you of who I am? Would that make this easier for you?” she asked, turning away from the wall of glass, her fingers fiddling with the top button of her nearly sheer shirt.
A teasing note infiltrated her voice, but he caught the hint of stiffness beneath. The...insecurity. And he’d put it there with his words, his personal hang-ups. It was his responsibility to erase that doubt. It didn’t belong between them. Not here. Not tonight.
