“This is gorgeous.” Bex swept her eyes out Gabe’s living room window, where Las Vegas was laid out in a glimmering sprawl. Four stories down, pedestrians stumbled home from a Saturday night of partying, but up here, Gabe’s apartment was an oasis. He was so glad she’d followed him home in her car.

Now Bex moved like a river, flowing through his apartment in that tight blue dress, her mouth pulled into a wide smile.

“Like the view?” he asked.

With her back to him, he could admire the way the thin material of the dress hugged her slim frame. She was built like a model, but not the fake-boobed, tan-skinned, hair-extensioned Las Vegas variety he was so used to. She was New York fashion, all willowy limbs and fine-boned features. And her coloring—god, she was like a painting. Red hair spilled around her shoulders, and her skin gave a new meaning to peaches and cream. He wanted to devour her.

Bex looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. “I like the photographs, too.” She gestured at the black-and-white images on the wall, one of the Brooklyn Bridge and another of the Chicago Bean, from his road trip across the country. He shouldn’t have been so proud, but he was. It felt nice to be appreciated for what he could do. “I know you said you had a good eye, but…” Her voice trailed off.

“But you thought it was a line.”

She shrugged but didn’t seem to feel bad about it. “You never can tell. Anyway, I’m glad I got to see these.” Her blue-green eyes shone. “So are you Team Canon or Team Nikon?”

“Neither, actually.” Gabe arranged himself on the couch, and Bex took a step closer to him. “I’m Team Sony.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Going rogue, huh? Breaking with tradition and all of that.”

It was his turn to shrug. “In my line of work, your tools are just as important as what you can do with them. Canon and Nikon haven’t kept their technology current. Sony, however, has innovated and adapted to the market’s demands. Their cameras give me exactly what I need.”

Bex’s eyes lit. “I love when companies innovate. It’s so important to keep moving forward.”

Who was this woman and how had she fallen into his lap? And at a nightclub, no less. Bex was so familiar, like someone he’d known before in another life. But he couldn’t place her face or her smile.

Either way, he was going to have to thank Vinny for suggesting they hit the Renegade tonight. That and for not being an ass when Gabe had texted him to say that he was bailing.

Gabe wasn’t normally the hookup type, but this girl captured his attention and wouldn’t let go. Maybe it was the way she moved in her body, so confident and secure. She could stand alone, but he’d rather they stood together. Or hopped into bed together. Whatever. He wouldn’t be choosy so long as he could have her.

He smiled at Bex. “Sounds like you know what you’re talking about.”

She blushed, and the endearing spread of pink highlighted her freckles. “I’m a product designer. So, yeah, you’re speaking my language right now.”

He grinned again, and her eyes fell to his lips. “Good to hear,” he said. “Anyway, want to know what the absolute best camera is?”

“What’s that?” Gabe reached into his pocket, and Bex laughed. “Your phone?”

“The best camera is the one you have with you.” He tapped the screen. “May I?”

She gave a mischievous smile and flashed a fake model pose, pouting her lips and making big eyes at the camera. Gabe snapped a picture, and she fell back against the couch cushions, laughing. He snapped again. The secret to photography was to wait until people thought you’d stopped taking pictures. That’s when the magic happened—when people were unprepared. When they were real. And at the end of the day, all he wanted was something real to hold on to.

Bex pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes still smiling. “Sorry, you must think I’m ridiculous.”

His voice came out like a confession. “I think you’re beautiful.”

She blushed deeper, and the air grew charged. “You may have thought I was the one sweet-talking the bartender, but I’m pretty sure you’re the one with the smooth words now.”

He shook his head. “Look.” He aimed the camera at their faces, the two of them crowding into the screen with his olive complexion next to her light skin, his black hair next to her fiery locks. He snapped another picture.

Bex sucked in a deep breath. “We look good together, don’t we?”

“We do.”

Gabe lowered the phone and turned his face to her. She was just an inch away, with her nose pressed against his and the air filling up with the smell of oranges. He was already hard for her, just hearing the tiny sounds she made as she breathed. “Ah, god, Bex, I’m going to need to kiss you.”

She held his gaze like a dare, and her mouth curved into a smile that he could feel more than see. “I’m going to need that, too.”

Gabe closed the inch between them and buried a hand in her hair to draw her to him. He claimed her mouth, desperate to taste her, needing to quake the thirst inside him.

Bex’s lips were soft and yielding, and when he pressed his lips to hers, she moaned against his mouth. He parted the seam of her lips with his tongue, and she opened for him, letting him draw languid tastes of her tongue as he slipped inside her heat.

Bex moaned again, this time shifting her dress up her thighs so she could straddle him on the couch. Gabe’s head tipped back against the cushions, and her hair fell like a curtain around them as she followed with her mouth, kissing him so breathlessly that he couldn’t breathe either. It was just the two of them in this room, Las Vegas out the window like a distant blur. Just a backdrop. The real show was inside, where Bex’s hands roamed over Gabe’s body, tracing the contours of his shoulders and his neck, tugging gently into his hair so everything from his toes to his lips stood at attention. Including one very happy member.

Bex smiled as she felt him hard between her legs, and she ground onto him, spurring him on. Her breath came out in sweet puffs, and he groaned, grabbing her ass to pull her down harder against him.

This time her eyes fluttered shut. Gabe smiled and bucked his hips higher, letting her writhe herself into a frenzy on his cock. “You feel so good,” she cried.

“That’s nothing, sweetheart.” His hard-on strained against the fabric of his pants. Dress slacks had seemed like a good idea when he picked them out tonight—so totally club-appropriate—only now they restricted him, pulling against him almost painfully. Italian-milled twill, his ass. He might as well have been wearing burlap for the way they chafed.

He needed out of these clothes. She needed out of that dress.

Gabe wrapped his hands lower and cupped Bex’s ass, then lifted her and climbed to his feet, still holding her. She was almost as tall as him, but light. Her eyes flew open, and she giggled as he walked backward toward his bedroom.

“That’s the most beautiful sound,” he said.

She pouted. “But you haven’t heard me come yet.”

Good god, this woman. “I will.” This was exactly what he needed tonight—to get out of his head and into his body. To let the stress of the past weeks give way to a night of unrestrained pleasure.

Gabe lowered Bex to the ground, her bare feet landing on the soft carpet leading into his bedroom, and there in the hall, it was too hard to wait.

He dropped to his knees, his nose around her waist. He nuzzled her stomach and dropped his mouth lower. Then he took the hem of her dress between his teeth and nudged it higher, exposing her creamy thighs and a scrap of sheer fabric that exposed her perfectly-waxed skin.

“Jesus Christ, Bex. You didn’t expect me to be able to make it into the bedroom once I discovered this underwear, did you?”

“Like what you see?” she demurred.

“Love it.”

He leaned forward, trailing a hand up her inner thigh. Bex leaned against the doorframe, and her breath sucked in. Gabe slipped a finger just under the edge of her thong, tracing a line down her hip, lower and lower over her smooth skin. Her underwear was already wet for him, like his perfect kryptonite.

“Touch me,” she begged, and he obliged, circling a finger gently over her clit. Her hips ground against him, and she arched her back into his touch.

“How’s that?” he asked, resting his chin on her stomach so he could look up at her. Bex’s eyes were half-closed, her mouth rounded in an O.

From here it was a very good view.

“That’s incredible. It would be better if I was naked.”

That was one thing they agreed on. Gabe tugged at her underwear, shimmying it halfway down her legs, but she bucked in impatience. “Tear it off.”

“If you insist.” He ripped the fabric from her with a swift snap, and then she was naked and pink and waiting. He plunged forward, his tongue on her clit before he could stop to think about anything else.

“Fuck,” he groaned against her. “You taste so good.”

She moaned, lifting a leg and wrapping it over his shoulder to give him more access. “Oh my god, Gabe, that feels amazing.”

“Good,” he growled, teasing her with his tongue. “You deserve to feel amazing.” There was no way he could keep talking and keep tasting her, and right now her pleasure was the most important thing in the world. He breathed her in, licking and sucking, tracing the goddamn alphabet over her clit to find the touch that would send her over the edge.

C was an epiphany, her leg over his shoulder tightening and pulling him closer. Gabe smiled and continued his barrage. D sent Bex spiraling higher, moaning his name. E was excellent, her breath coming in little pants, the world spinning down to his tongue on her skin, her salty-sweet taste, her hands in his hair.

And F. F for finger. Well.

He pushed his middle finger in up to the first knuckle and Bex’s legs spasmed. He steadied her with his free hand, holding the back of her thighs to keep her upright.

She was lost to his touch, her eyes closed now and her moans filling his apartment.

“I’m going to come,” she panted, and Gabe continued, his fingers beckoning inside her, his tongue tracing F for fantastic, F for fuck, F for finally. “Oh my god—” she moaned, and her legs stiffened and then her inner muscles captured his fingers, pulling him deeper inside of her hot, wet tunnel. Her climax sent more blood to his cock. It was a wonder he could even think, even function, he was so fucking hard for her.

Gabe propped his chin against her stomach until she opened her eyes and grinned at him.

F for finger. All right then. He withdrew his hand and wiped a damp trail on her thigh.

“Okay, gorgeous. That was just the warmup.”