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“Wait,” I whisper, pulling back from the kiss as I suck in air, my chest heaving. I see a flash of disappointment in his eyes, and everything in me scrambles to make sure he understands that I’m not stopping, not turning him down. That I want this—just nothere.
“Can we go back to your place? Your—hotel, I guess? I just want to be somewhere more private. I want—” the words come to my lips, but it takes a second to force them out, to push aside my nerves and get to the point of no return. “I want you.”
The disappointment is gone in a flash, replaced with that dark urgent heat that my body answers to instantly, like a primal call and response between us without words. “Hell yes,” Niall growls in that deep burr of an accent, leaning in to capture my lips once more before breaking away and taking my hand. His mouth is reddened by my lipstick, but he doesn’t seem to care. “Come with me.”
His fingers lace through mine, leading me away from the wall, away from the bar. My heart leaps into my throat with nervous anticipation, and I can’t keep the slight tremor out of my voice as I speak. “Where are you parked? Or are we walking?”
“No, it’s too far to walk. I’m parked just around the corner, here.” He leads me around the other side of the bar, where there’s a paved lot pocked with holes from heat and use, and when he stops, it takes a second for my mind to come around to what I’m seeing.
We’re standing next to a sleek black motorcycle, gorgeous and dangerous-looking, just like Niall. My heart stutters in my chest as he reaches out for the helmet hooked to the side of it.Do I want to do this?ShouldI do this?
Inwardly I’m more than a little terrified at the unknown of it all, but the answer in my head is a resoundingyes. I want this, more than anything. He’s the answer to everything I hoped for when I came out tonight, like a sign telling me that this was the right decision. The motorcycle is unexpected and scary—but it’s all just a part of the thrill,I tell myself as he hands me the helmet.
“I don’t have an extra,” Niall says apologetically. “I wasn’t expecting to have someone on the back of it. I’ll drive carefully, of course, and I haven’t had much to drink. But better my skull than yours in danger, just in case.”
Something in me thrills to that idea, that he hadn’t come out here looking for just anyone, that he wantsme. That he’s so drawn to me that he can’t help himself. It sends a flood of excitement through me, and I have to will myself not to tremble as he helps me with the helmet, buckling it under my chin as he reaches for his keys.
“Ready to go, lass?” he asks with a crinkle around his eyes as he smiles, and I nod breathlessly. “Up ya go, then.” He helps me on, steadying the motorcycle until I’m settled on the back of it. Then he straddles it smoothly, the engine roaring to life and blocking out everything else around us with the sudden noise.
“Put your arms around my waist,” he instructs. “Lean close, and let me guide us, but move with me if you can. It’s not a long ride, don’t worry, and I won’t open her up on the highway. I won’t scare you, lass, I promise.”
Lean close, let me guide us, but move with me if you can.I know he didn’t mean for it to be sexual, but itdoessound like that to my ears, intensely so, and it brings to mind what we’ll likely be doing very soon in the privacy of his room. I don’t know how I’m going to keep him from realizing just how innocent I actually am, but I plan to do my best. My mother has always said that men can tell, but I’m not sure I believe that. I’d heard a story years ago about a girl from one of the other cartel families who married well, only for her husband to discover much later that she wasn’t a virgin. It had shamed her entire family and resulted in a terrible punishment for her. The story was relayed to us as a warning. But what I’d picked up on was that the husbandhadn’trealized right away. He’d had to be told. Which means that if I’m careful, Niall might not realize Iam—and my future husband won’t realize that I’mnot, either.
I tighten my arms around his waist as he starts to drive away from the bar, the vibration of the engine spreading through me and making my heart race. The nerves are shedding away, leaving only excitement. I focus on every sensation, wanting to commit every single second of tonight to memory. The softness of his jacket under my arms, the scent of leather and smoke and his skin, faintly scented with a woodsy, spicy cologne. The wind whips past us as we pull out onto the main road, the bike picking up speed, but I can tell he’s not goingtoofast, just as he’d promised.
Niall Flanagan is a man who keeps his promises.With every moment that passes, I’m realizing just how lucky I was that he walked into the Sangre de Ángel tonight, that he’s the one I found for my adventure. It could have all turned out so much differently. Instead, I’m out here with him, the desert wind whipping at my cheeks as we speed towards the inevitable climax of the night. A man that I couldn’t have dreamed up better if I’d tried—and oh, how I’ve tried, over so many long and fretful nights.
My pulse is fluttering in my throat as he parks in front of a small motel. It’s nothing fancy, but it doesn’t look run-down or particularly sketchy, either. It’s the kind of place I assume someone looking to vacation without spending too much might pick—never having traveled myself—and when Niall leads me inside, I can see that it’s clean and well-kept.
We walk up two flights of stairs to a row of heavy doors set in stucco walls. Niall turns to me at the door suddenly, his face taut with an uncertainty that makes my heart flutter nervously in my chest all over again.Surely we didn’t come this far just for him to turn me down now?
“I want you to tell me yes here, now, lass,” he says in a gravelly voice. “If this is what you want. I know you’ve had a drink or two, and—” he runs one hand through his soft-looking dark hair, making it look even more messily sexy.
“Niall—” I move towards him, reaching out, but he catches my hands in his.
“I want you, lass,” he admits gruffly. “It’s been a—minute since I wanted someone so much. I’m not too proud to admit that. If we go into that room, I can’t promise I can stop myself once we get started. I—want you badly. So tell me now if you’re unsure, and we’ll wait. We’ll go downstairs, have a drink and talk it over. I’ll take you home or call you a cab. Anything you need. I—”
“Niall,” I repeat his name, my heart racing at his admission, at the gentleness in his words, even as roughly spoken as they are. I feel almost dizzy with want, hearing him say how badly he wantsme, and I know there’s no turning back now.
It’s him. He’s the one I want to give everything I can to, to have one scorching night that I can remember for the rest of my life, as I walk forward into the yawning nothingness of a future that awaits me.
Mychoice. Just this once.
“Yes,” I whisper, moving forward so that my hands, caught in his, are pressed between us. “I want you. So please, Niall—unlock that door, so you can kiss me again.”
A sudden, fierce heat flares in his eyes, his jaw tightening as his hand tangles in my hair, his other hand pulling me close as his mouth comes crashing down onto mine again, hard and so full of need that it takes my breath away.
He fumbles with his key with his other hand, dropping mine so I can clutch at his shirt. I feel like I can’t get close enough to him, aching to press my heated skin to his so we can burn up together. His tongue tangles with mine, searching, thrusting, and I moan against his lips as the door suddenly opens, and he half-lifts me up and sets me inside the room.
“Gabriela—” He groans the false name against my lips, the door slamming shut as he spins me back against it, one hand beside my head on the heavy wood as he devours my mouth again. “Fuck,lass—”
“I love when you say that,” I breathe out against his lips, and then I lose all speech as he deepens the kiss, his body pinning mine to the door as his hips rock against me.
Lass.I’ve never heard anyone use that term before, certainly never been called it, and I feel a sweet ache in my chest because no one else ever will. Only Niall, only tonight, and somehow that seems perfectly poignant for what we’re doing here.
His hand cups the side of my face as his lips drag over my cheek, down the edge of my jaw, and a shiver of pleasure ripples through me. A tiny moan slips from my mouth as his hips grind against me again, his heavy erection pressed between my thighs, and I feel like I’m drowning in sensations I never knew existed. Lust, pleasure, desire, want,need—I’d never expected to know anything about those outside the pages of books. I feel overwhelmed by it all, like an exquisitely pleasurable quicksand drawing me down.
Niall groans, a shudder passing through him, too. “Make that noise again for me, lass,” he murmurs against my skin, and then his mouth is on my neck, lightly sucking as the hand in my hair falls to my ribs, just below my breast.
