Page 26 of Playing for Keeps

What I wanted greeted me at Vivian’s door. He stood before me, his gorgeous body draped in a fine, blue silk button-up and pressed, dark gray slacks. His high cheekbones and full lips lifted in one of his heart-stopping smiles. Pale blue eyes twinkled as he reached for my hand. He pulled me to him, pressing his lips to my fingers as his arm wrapped around my waist. My skin lit up at every touch of his body against mine, my hair standing on end as if currents of electricity arced between us. The gentle press of his thumb against my lip sent a subtle chill down my spine, and it was chased as the pad of his thumb smoothed down my chin and neck and desire pooled deep inside me.

There was never any comparison, in my mind, when it came to Vinny. From the minute he hovered over me, his lips teasing against the skin of my ear as he asked me to dance, I was his. Our bodies melded as if they were made to be together. All thoughts of the people we came to the bar with disappeared; everything but he and I ceased to exist.

The gentle press of his lips against mine stole my breath. “I missed you,” he whispered, “so much.” His lips on mine were pure heaven, his taste manna as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. I not only let him, my tongue greeted his. The year since we last touched, since we last kissed, evaporated to nothing, our bodies and minds synced as if we were never apart.

A moan escaped my throat, and the quiet sound startled me awake. I grabbed my phone out of the center console of my car and checked the time.

“Shit!” I was late. Somehow, I fell asleep. The amazing fire burning inside of me was nothing but a dream. I grabbed my purse and raced toward Vivian’s apartment, feeling as if I just crawled out of the rabbit hole while my mind was lost in limbo down below.

At her door, I paused to catch my breath. I pulled my hair off my neck to cool down, then draped it over my right shoulder, tugged my purse up higher on my left. I rapped hard on the door.

Only seconds passed before the door swung open. A gorgeous smirk greeted me as my stomach dropped to the floor.

My hand was raised to his lips.

My body was tugged into his.

He buried his face into the crook of my neck.

“How’s it going, darlin’?” Mitch, Vivian’s sexy-as-sin boyfriend asked, his deep voice rumbling straight through me.

The man was all muscle and sex appeal, the kind you could watch doing something mundane, like folding laundry, and end up drooling all over like a damn fool. I liked him; this man who grew up poorer than me, who knew the value of hard work and what it meant to be hungry.

He was my kind of people.

But he wasn’t my type. I'd never been one for thick muscles, instead preferring a slimmer, leaner man.

One exactly like Vinny.

Mitch pulled back and looked at me, his dark eyes stripping me of every wall I’d ever built up around myself until I was left feeling naked and bare in front of him. He hadn't released me, and if I didn’t know better, I'd find his closeness either extremely off-putting or completely sensual.

It wasn’t like that for him. Mitch was the biggest flirt I’d ever met. I was sure he’d talked his fair share of women straight out of their soaking wet panties. I also knew he’d never go there with me. He was Frankie’s best friend and, by extension, one of my brother’s as well. Even before I knew he was madly in love with Vivian, I knew he’d never come after me. He’d never treated me with anything but the utmost respect. In fact, the way he read me, like I was some kind of open book, made me feel like I didn’t have to speak a word to him and he’d know every last one of my thoughts.

My throat tightened as I stared up at him, his head cocked to the side as he read my face. His lips twitched up and he gave me a gentle squeeze.

“You almost missed him.”

I was taken aback by his words, and I nearly fell to the floor as he started to release me. Mitch’s grip tightened around me and I dug my nails into the thick muscles of his arm. I didn’t see his face, didn’t see if he winced or grimaced or gave a silent scream.

Because my eyes were locked on Vinny’s.

The man who had tormented my every waking hour and afflicted my nightly dreams, stood before me in Vivian's apartment. He was as beautiful as I remembered. A man who could walk the runways of Paris or New York, who could grace the cover of every men’s magazine, every billboard, every ad in print or television, and the world would never see enough of him.

I could never see enough of him.

And it’d been nearly six months since I last saw him. I swore, he’d only gotten more beautiful in that time.

Mitch smoothed a hand across my back and tugged his arm away from me slowly, as if he knew I needed his support. When I was standing on my own two feet, he stepped into the apartment, patting Vinny on the shoulder as he went.

The skin beneath Vinny’s eyes, now dark where it never used to be, twitched minutely.

“Hi, Vinny,” I said, my voice barely loud enough for him to hear.

He released a long breath and tugged at the sleeves of his light blue button-up. “Hey.” He hesitated, then took a single step toward me. My heart thumped erratically in my chest. I wanted to run to him. To jump into his arms and never let him go. I wanted him to want me, to need me as much as I needed him.

“I... was just leaving. I’ve got a thing...”

My breath caught and I silently cursed my stupidity. He wasn't stepping toward me, he was stepping toward the door, which I was standing in front of. Another step toward me had my body coming alive, that electricity arcing between us, drawing me to him, wanting to fit against him once again.