What game is she playing?
I follow her, my blood boiling, heart racing. She doesn’t stop, doesn’t turn as she heads out of the main room and takes a door that leads down a corridor to the private rooms. I don’t know if she thinks she’s lost me, or that I won’t follow, or if she’s doing a Eurydice and Orpheus, leading me down to the underworld rather than away from it.
“Wait,” I call.
She turns, her chest heaving, and it’s the only sign that she’s moved by this situation. “Are you stalking me?”
I balk at the question. “Fuck, no.”
She reaches out and curls my tie about her hand, tugging on it gently. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She tugs gently on my tie again. “Do you want me?”
“Yes.”
Fire burns through my torso, laying everything to waste, propelling me towards her.
She gasps as I slam one hand against the wall near her head, caging her in.
A mistake, because her scent invades my nostrils, and I’m flooded with an intoxicating mix of Oud and Amber that transports me back to the last time we were here, when my hand glided up her thigh, finding her sweet pussy soaked and ready.
But layered on top of it is the memory of Diana, hesitantly pressing her lips to mine.
I grit my teeth to focus on the now; on the woman gazing up at me. “Don’t walk away from me again.”
She arches off the wall, her breath hot against my lips, her gaze locked on mine. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t fucking want you to,” I growl, feeling more strung out by this encounter than I should. The music is loud, and the corridor is dark, pierced only by a flickering strobe.
Her hand lands on my chest, neither pushing me away nor pulling me in.
“Tell me your name,” she purrs.
For a second, I contemplate not sharing it, and then I say, “Rafe. My name is Rafe.”
She edges up on her tiptoes, whispering her words into my mouth. “Good boy. That’s what I’ll scream when you make me come, Rafe.”
The sound of my name on her tongue sends arousal spiralling through me, and I take a deep inhalation of her scent.Diana’s scent. It messes with my head, but if I can’t have Diana, this is the next best thing. I feel a pull to this woman I can’t explain. “Jesus,fuck,” I curse.
She hums, amused, her beautiful mouth curved into a smirk. Her lips are painted darker than Diana’s ever are. “Tell me you want me.”
“I already told you.”
“Tell me again.”
I groan, and she leans in, swiping her tongue over my bottom lip, and it’s a lightning strike right to my dick.
“Tell me why you followed me out here, when there are plenty of other women next door.”
“Because you’re the only woman I want.” The words come quickly, but my torso burns like something radioactive is harbouring inside my ribcage. I’m lying, and I don’t want to lie, but when I speak again, I’m no longer talking to this woman. I’m talking to my daughter’s best friend, and I let the words fall because I can never say them to the person I wish could really hear them. “Because I’ve wanted you for months. Because you’re all I think about. Because I’m going fucking crazy not being able to have you.”
She slides her hand to the back of my neck, urging me closer. “Me too. I touch myself and think of you. I moan your name in the darkness.”
“My name?” I ask. She didn’t know my name before tonight.
Her pause is long enough to have tension wringing my insides. “Stranger,” she whispers.
