It’s happening again. If I keep moving I’m going to come.
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he whispers. He holds my face in his warm hands and he kisses me.
Oh god. He tastes so good.
It happens again. Like that first time he kissed me, I go a little crazy. His tongue licks into me and all I want is more. I open to him, my tongue gently tangling with his as I arch against his solid chest. My nipples strain against the delicate fabric of my dress.
“Fuck, Amelie, you get me so fucking hot,” he groans.
Somewhere outside our little bubble of slowly losing all control, there’s the muffled sound of my phone buzzing.
Once. Twice.
Shit.It must still be in the pocket of my work pants, which are still somewhere in this car.
I ignore it but it keeps on buzzing. Dallas slows without stopping entirely, which I appreciate, and I tip my forehead to his and breathe for a second.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I should probably see if that’s Sadie. We made a promise a long time ago that we’d always answer.” When our lives were both imploding and we needed one reliable thing. Like we both still do.
“It’s okay. I get it. I always answer my brothers too.” His voice is low and a little undone and I love this. I love that he’s as desperate as I am.
I reach for my discarded work pants without fully relocating from his lap and pull out my phone. “Hey, Sade.”
“Hey. Where are you? Your bitch of a boss told me you took the day off. Are you okay?” Sadie’s voice, at full volume, requires no speakerphone. It fills the limo. Dallas, to his credit, looks out the window, giving me as much privacy as he can.
“I’m fine. I’m good.”
“Are you in your room? Are you sick?” She’s concerned and I can’t blame her. I’ve never—ever—taken a day off.
“No. I’m …” What to say? “I just had lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Yeah. You know, that meal between breakfast and dinner?” I can’t help it. I’m buzzing.
Sadie is thoroughly stunned. “Whereare you having lunch?”
“At Maison Rêve.” Like it’s no big deal.
“You’re having lunch at Maison Rêve.” As though I just told her I was having lunch in Atlantis, which I swam to with a school of mermaids.
“Yes. Just finished, actually.”
“Who are you having lunch at Maison Rêvewith? Theman?”
“What man?”
“When I stopped at the hotel, your boss said you’d taken off with some man.”
I don’t know why I’m being cagey about this to my best friend. It just feels so fast and so … life-changing.
Actually, yes, I’m on my way to his hotel to throw all caution to the wind and, with any luck, finally cash in my V-card with an ultra-hot stranger.
Not that he’s atotalstranger. And not that Sadie would have any problem whatsoever with any of the above. So I just blurt it out. “His name is Dallas. He came into the bar last night and this morning he invited me on a helicopter ride and then to lunch.”
“Dallas?Dallaswho? You met him lastnight? How do you know this guy’s not a totalpsycho, Amelie?”
I happen to know for a fact that Sadie often—okay, notoften, but sometimes—picks up men she’s met the very same night and takes them home for “a good time.” According to her, there’s nothing wrong with letting off some steam every now and then.A girl needs what a girl needs, I believe were her exactwords. And some of those guys she had one night stands withdidturn out to be psychos. Or close enough.
