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Denyer pointed to an empty seat, silently asking her permission to sit. Cassidy sighed. He was a persistent son of a bitch, and she knew he wouldn’t back off as easily as the last man. She shook her head dismissively and carelessly motioned to the chair. “I came because I wanted to set the record straight. I want you to read my email exchange with Charles, my boss.”
“I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to see it.” She raised her voice above the thumping bass, needing him to hear every word that passed through her lips. He was vile. A slow-acting poison that had gotten under her skin and was festering. “You’ve got an excuse for everything, and I’m sick of dealing with you.” She jabbed him in the chest. “It’s like you’ve got this hard-on to see my career go down the shit chute.” Rage boiled within her like a volcano ready to erupt. Geysers of steam and ash had already exploded, but the lava flowing through her veins would incinerate everyone around her if she detonated. And the dickhead in front of her was standing there with a jackhammer, trying to break through the thin crust of her waning temper.
Cassidy had heard enough. She wasn’t sticking around anymore. Leaving him sitting at the table, she stalked onto the dance floor, stomping over to the only friend she could see.
The weight of Denyer’s stare was on her the whole time. It lit an awareness that Cassidy wasn’t prepared to acknowledge. She hated how gorgeous he was. She hated that she couldn’t see any hint in his eyes of the lie she knew he was telling. She despised how that simple touch, the brush of his stubbled cheek against hers and the whisper of his breath along her throat, sent a pulse of desire through her. Mortification slid along her spine when she catalogued the ache low in her belly. Wetness slid along the crease of her thighs between the heat of her legs with every step she took. The rub of the delicate shimmery material of her gold dress against her nipples sent jolts of electricity through her.
It coalesced to shift the tectonic plates she was standing on, grinding the pressure within until she was fit to burst.
She tapped her friend on the shoulder, but Tamara was too wrapped up in the man she was dancing with. Cassidy gripped her gently and shook, getting her friend’s attention. “I can’t do this. I’m out. Tonight is an absolute shit show. You girls are going to have to find your own way home. I’m done.”
“What? You can’t leave. You’re supposed to be driving.” Tamara was indignant. Her brows furrowed, and her lips pursed in an annoyed frown. “That was the deal.”
“That was your deal.” Cassidy pointed to her. “I called you because I needed my friends, but as soon as we got here, you all ditched me for drinks and dancing. I’m leaving.” When had Cassidy’s life turned into this? Her friends were using her, her competition was walking all over her, and no matter what she did, it all blew up in her face. She was surrounded by a sea of people, but Cassidy had never been more alone.
A warm body pressed against her back, and one hand went to her waist, the man’s thumb caressing her through her dress. He leaned in close and shifted her hair back off her shoulder. Cassidy tensed, terrified she’d completely lose control if she had to manhandle someone away from her. She pulled out of his embrace and stepped away, but the man grasped her wrist. Suddenly too tired to deal with everything, Cassidy looked up to him, ready to beg him to leave her alone. What she saw had her breath catching. Denyer’s eyes held so much heat, his lips wet as if he’d licked them. Desire radiated from him, want screaming from the fluttering of his pulse at his throat and the shallow breaths he was taking.
She looked him over for the first time since seeing him that night and swallowed. Dear God, he was handsome. His navy blue suit looked like it had been tailor-made for him, creating perfect lines and highlighting all his best assets. He’d paired it with a crisp white shirt that, even after she’d gripped and twisted it, was almost completely uncreased. But it also hinted at a long day screwing people over. His top button was undone, and the knot of the blue-and-silver check tie he wore hung loose. He probably came straight from the office, speeding across town in… whatever villain-mobile he drove.
Then she noticed the darker circles around his eyes and the pinch lines around his lips. The furrow of his brow. He swallowed, and the motion drew her gaze down to the V in his shirt where a smattering of blond chest hair poked up. It looked soft to the touch, and Cassidy instinctively stepped forward, reaching up to finger the strands. She felt more than heard the groan rumbling through his chest, but her anger spiked again when their gazes clashed.
She gripped the hair and tugged hard, and his eyes flashed, his jaw clenching.
“Have you got what you wanted? Seen me having a shitty night and watched my friends treat me like crap. Anything else you want from me?” Cassidy blinked back tears, her lip trembling as anger, frustration, sadness, and a sense of uselessness overwhelmed her. She fought to maintain her stoic façade.
Denyer wrapped his arm around her and walked her backward until shadows fell across them. They were in the corner of the room, out of the way and in the dark. He pressed her into the hard wall with his hips, and the bulge he sported had her body firing. His heat burned into her, but Cassidy wasn’t going to allow herself to be manhandled like that. She pressed her hands against his chest, readying to push him away. But he leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear when he spoke. “I want everything. But I don’t want to take anything. I want you, Cassidy, and I want you to want me just as much.”
Her chest heaved with the sharp intake of breath. She balled her hand into a fist and beat that perfect rounded pec as hard as she could—which, given she could get no purchase, was barely a tap. He was ridiculous, so damn sexy and gorgeous. Perfect in every way except for the ugliness between them. There was a yawning gap in the spot where her confidence used to be. Where her ability to trust once resided. This world that she’d immersed herself into so willingly seemed to be readying to chew her up and spit her out. Was it all another ruse to trick Cassidy into falling for him so she would give him another leg up? She grimaced and let her fist fall against his chest again. “No. I hate you.”
“Tell me to leave then. Tell me to walk away and never get in contact with you again. Tell me you don’t want me like I want you.” Denyer’s words were raw, the anguish in his voice clear even with the pounding music reverberating through her.
“You want to fuck me as well as fuck my career up?” she sneered. “How about I spread my legs and give you the password to my computer at the same time?”
“Cassidy,” he breathed, his lips trailing a line of soft kisses along her throat. Instinctively, she tilted her head, giving him more room. Her eyes fluttered closed. So good. He kept his touch light, barely-there caresses sending licks of fire along her spine. Her head screamed to push him away, but her body drew him closer. She pounded her fist against his chest again before he pinned her hands above her head, his fingers entwining with hers and holding her fast.
He rolled his hips, and his hard length pressed against her core, the delicious friction making her see stars. She sucked in a breath, her breasts straining against the silken material of the tiny dress she wore. Denyer reached up and brushed his thumb across her breast, his finger slipping under the low-plunging neck to rub the nub of her nipple. Skin on skin. That one move, the soft caress, was as powerful as a lightning bolt, electrifying her as it coursed through her veins. She arched into his touch and strained to free her hands from his grip.
“Fuck work. Fuck my career. I’ll walk away from it if it means I get you,” he growled. The possession in his tone was like a drug. The absolute certainty that settled in her gut with his words and the promise that it wasn’t a lie in his gaze was a high she could easily get addicted to. She wanted him, but she hated him too. Hated that he had so much power over her.
His hand slid down her side and slipped below the high split in her skirt, reaching around to cup her bare arse. “This, right here, is what I want. You are what I want. What do I have to do to prove it to you?”
“Kiss me,” she ordered, her mind short-circuiting as he hitched her leg up, so her stilettoed heel was resting on his calf.
The soft brush of his lips against hers was incendiary, sparking a wildfire within. Cassidy strained to close the hair’s breadth of a gap he’d put between them. She growled and forced her hand free, sliding her fingers into his silken locks and pulling him closer. Their lips crashed together in a fierce claiming. She bit down on that plump lip and sucked it into her mouth before thrusting her tongue to parry against his. Jacob’s taste exploded in her mouth, something sweet and minty at the same time. She couldn’t get enough. Ravenous, Cassidy rubbed herself all over him like a cat and purred when he slid his hand back up to her arse, gripping it in his strong hand.
She tugged her other hand free and traced her fingertips down the front of his body to the thick meaty erection straining his suit pants. His moan rumbled from deep within his chest as she pressed the heel of her palm down his length. He shuddered when she did it again and punched his hips forward as she stroked his balls through the fabric.
She wanted skin on skin. Needed it. She needed him.
Cassidy pulled back a fraction and gasped for breath, her world spinning as Jacob cupped her face and kissed her gently along her jaw. When his lips met hers again, his moves were slow and sensuous, each press and stroke of his tongue communicating what she hadn’t believed when he’d spoken the words. But she needed more. That ironclad control she prided herself with was non-existent when confronted with the man in her arms. From the moment she’d heard his name at the alumni event, it had been MIA, being replaced with a wild streak that thoroughly consumed all sense of reason.
Cassidy unzipped his pants and slid her hand into his underwear to cup the heated flesh between his legs. Satin-coated steel met her fingers, and she tugged him free, gliding her fist up his length. Her thumb dipped into his slit, gathering a pearl of clear liquid and sliding it down, circling the cluster of nerves there. The noise and throng of people surrounding them fell away as Cassidy focussed on getting her fill. Jacob’s pupils were blown, his gaze lust drunk. She gripped him harder, and his eyes rolled back, a hiss passing through his clenched teeth.
“You make me want to claim you,” he growled. “Slide inside you until you’re screaming my name and never want another man. Then we’ll find our third, and you’ll be ruined for everyone except us.”
Cassidy whimpered, and Jacob slid his hand lower, around her rear until his fingertips brushed her pussy. Wet with arousal and throbbing with need, she dragged his face closer and claimed his mouth again as he slipped his thick fingers into her. “Fuck,” she breathed against his lips as he groaned.
“Mmm, no panties. I love it. So illicit, so dirty. It’s like you were waiting for me. Hmm, you want that? You want me to slide inside you and make you mine. You want me to find us another man too.”
