Quiet.
Polar opposite of someone else with that last quality.
My cock stirs behind the confines of my slacks as I think abouther, but I quickly push her from my mind.
“You want to get out of here?” I ask Maddie. She bites her bottom lip and pushes a strand of hair behind her ear as though my question has suddenly made her shy. As though she hasn’t been eyeing the crotch of my pants all night like she’s eager to suck on a lollipop.
“Sure,” she says, and I offer her my hand, pulling her to her feet.
“See you guys later,” I call over my shoulder to everyone up here, the leggy blonde trailing behind me with rhythmic taps of her heels.
She isn’t the exact leggy blonde I’d like in my bed, but for tonight, she’ll do.
CHAPTER THREE
“No, absolutely. I understand.” My eyes roll as I breeze through the door of my building being held open by the doorman. It’s been a week since I left my job, and I’m dying to find another to fill my days with something worthwhile. Hence me following up on the resume I left at Carell-Laughlin, an up-and-coming designer on the Upper West Side. Yet another dead end. “I appreciate your time. Please keep my resume on file for if—” But I never finish my sentence.
Instead, the phone slides out of my hand and clatters against the marble flooring as my eyes catch on the man across the lobby, sitting back against a leather chair with his legs spread wide as though he owns the place. “Javier?”
A Cheshire grin pulls over his face as he stands and saunters over to where I stand absolutely dumbfounded. The front desk attendant rushes around, stumbling over his words, but I can’t hear him over thewhooshof the blood rushing in my ears.
My vision hones in on Javier, and swirls of our night together—what I remember of it—dance through my mind.
It takes me a moment to snap out of it before I give the front desk attendant my attention. The poor older gentleman, Stu, looks flustered and out of breath. “I’m so sorry, Miss Lancaster.I’ve tried to get him to leave—I know how private you are and he’s not on your approved guest list—but he refused. I was just about to call security, but you walked in before I could.”
“It’s okay.” My voice is robotic as I stare into the eyes of the man I left naked and alone in a hotel room in Paris over a year ago. My gaze connects with the honey-brown eyes of Javier’s as he stands and walks over to me. “What are you doing here?”
“I tried calling.” He reaches out and cups my cheek with his palm. I don’t flinch, but the feeling of his skin on mine is no longer welcome. “You did not answer.”
My lips purse, realizing he was the international number I blocked. I’m not even sure how he got my number to begin with.
“I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t know, ” I quip, eyes narrowing slightly.
“Perhaps you should not have run off that morning and we could have exchanged contact information. Then you would have known it.”
“Why are you here?” I’m not particularly interested in rehashing the past. Maybe I’m being a cold-hearted bitch, but considering the last time I saw this man was ayear ago, and I never gave him any personal details about myself, my hackles are just a teensy bit raised. “How did you find me?”
“Let’s talk in private, yes?”
“No.” My answer is immediate. “We can talk here.”
“I think what I have to say you will not want an audience for.” His eyes scan the room behind me, causing me to turn and look. The lobby isn’t busy, per se, but there are a handful of busybodies trying to appear as though they aren’t listening.
“Fine.” Walking past him to the elevator, I press the call button. “You can have ten minutes of my time.”
My back is to him while we wait, and the ride up to the eighty-second floor is silent as we stand awkwardly side by side.From my peripheral, I see him stroke the scruff on his face, suppressing a smile, and it only annoys me more.
It also annoys me how devastatingly good looking this man is. The cocky air to him tells me he knows it, too.
Once we’re in the sanctity of my apartment, Javier wastes no time pressing his lips against mine. Cupping his hand against the back of my neck, he drives the kiss, demanding entry as he pushes his tongue into my mouth to deepen it.
For a moment, I’m putty in his grasp, my body recognizing his touch and the pleasure he can invoke. I lean into him, letting him take the reins for half a second, but then my mind catches up.
“No,” I say firmly, pressing my palms flat against his chest as I push away, breaking this kiss. “You had something to say. Say it.”
He smirks and rubs his thumb against his bottom lip. “So feisty. I almost forgot the fire in you.”
“Spit it out, Javier. I gave you ten minutes and you’ve already wasted”—I glance down at my watch—“four.”
