Flustered and trying to smooth her hair, she went to open the door, and every other thought she’d had flew from her mind. Vince stood there, leaning with one hand against the door frame, his expression amused and his eyes glittering. He had a couple of days’ growth of stubble, and that only brought out the angles of his face and emphasized his perfect chin. His jacket stretched over the tight muscles of his arm, and she wanted to melt. “Are you going to let me in?”
With a nervous laugh, she stepped back so he could enter, and she caught the subtle limp in his step. “You know, I shouldn’t do this, but I have some pain pills in my cabinet, and I can tend to the wound while you’re here.”
He turned to look at her, and Ariana knew his mind wasn’t on his injuries right now. “Maybe later.” His voice was gruff, and Ariana imagined she could smell the sex rolling off him blended with his cologne.
“If you say so.” She barely got the words out before he moved forward and took her in his arms, and his lips came down on hers much more gently than they had in the past. She opened to him easily, willingly, and she ran her hands up the back of his neck, threading her fingers through his hair. He tensed and relaxed almost instantaneously, and she felt the first signs of his arousal growing against her stomach.
It excited her, and she kissed him with more enthusiasm while his hands slipped to the front of her top, working with the buttons slowly and dragging his knuckles over her bare skin enticingly as he moved from one button to the next. She felt her mind spinning and her heart racing, and her loins turned to liquid. She spoke with her lips still pressed to his. “I think we’d be more comfortable in the bedroom.”
Vince didn’t hesitate. It didn’t matter how much his leg hurt, he picked her up so she could wrap her hands around his waist, and he carried her to the only open door in the apartment, assuming it was the bedroom. He didn’t flip on the light, just laid her back on the bed gently, and her hands came to his shoulders, brushing his jacket aside with the tenderest of touches.
It brought him to life inside, in a way he didn’t want to feel with someone like her, but he couldn’t deny his basic need. He let her push the jacket to the floor, followed by his shirt, and when she reached for his jeans, he only moved to help her avoid aggravating his wound further. As soon as she had him undressed, he pulled off her silky pants and pressed his palm to her sex, making her moan and writhe beneath him as her moisture coated his fingers.
Their bodies heated and slid along each other with the slickness of sweat as he kissed down her arms and across her stomach. She didn’t disappoint him, either, her fingers playing in the hair at his neck and tickling down his spine. And when he moved back up her body, she spread her hands over his ass, massaging and pulling him toward her as if begging him to be inside.
Swollen with need, his cock ached for the same, and he urged her knees apart so he could settle between them. He shuddered as he pushed his tip inside, and she cried out, convulsing around him. Her nails dug into his shoulders as he pushed deeper, gritting his teeth at the incredible sensation that warmed him from head to toe. He cautioned himself, pacing his movements so he remained gentle and slow, despite wanting to drill into her with all his might. He needed her to be soft and that meant showing her his softer side.
But in the end, her heels dug into his lower back, pushing him for more, and her continuous orgasms milked him, so he became frantic. With several long, hard thrusts, he came, throwing his head back and gasping at the near pain of his release. As he finished, Vince started to roll to the side, but Ariana pulled him down on top of her, caressing his back with her incredible hands.
He calmed quickly, the touch soothing, and as he started to doze, he pushed up and off her, needing his distance. “Did I do something wrong now?” she asked, sounding a bit frustrated.
Vince sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his chin with the fingers of one hand. “No, you didn’t.” He shook his head. “Christ, Ariana, what are we doing here? I mean, what is this, and why are we doing it? You don’t even really like me. I’m sure you can find a better lay.”
“First of all, I haven’t found one yet. But that’s only part of it.” He heard her sit up, felt the movement of the bed. And then her hands were on his shoulders, massaging and releasing the remaining tension there. “I don’t hate you, Vince. I don’t know you well enough to like you or hate you. And maybe that’s a good thing because I don’t want to do anything to ruin our chemistry here, in bed.”
Vince knew better than most what happened when you took a good thing and examined it too hard. He’d ruined a lot of things in his life by overanalyzing them. Maybe he should let this go and just take what he could get for now. Still, he played devil’s advocate. “You’ve hated me every time we’ve seen each other, Ariana. What’s different now?”
“Okay, you got me.” She laughed, and Vince turned to look at her confused. “I hated you on a twisted principle when I rescued you from your idiotic accident. And I hated you when you came onto me in the ambulance. And again later, when you got up and walked away after we’d had sex. That, by the way, really pissed me off, and when I get pissed off, I get hateful, like I was at your clubhouse. I even hated you when you didn’t call me back yesterday. All I could think was, how are we going to work this out if you’re always gone or don’t answer my calls?”
“You know, I was pissed off that you demanded my attention when I was busy,” he said. “I need my freedom, more than I need anything. But I also need you to not hate me like I’m some fucking piece of shit on the bottom of your Prada shoe.”
She nodded. “I’ll work on that. I still don’t know if I like you, Vince, but like I said, I barely know you. We’ve got a long way to go to figure out the logistics of this whole arrangement, and I can be a spoiled brat. There will be times when you have to put me in my place and piss me off.”
A half smile crooked one side of his mouth. “I’m sure there are times you’re going to have to remind me to soften up and not be such a hardass. But either way, I think it’s best if we keep emotion, good or bad, out of it. You couldn’t handle the life of an old lady, and I couldn’t have one that didn’t approve of my lifestyle.”
“Then we’re in agreement. No emotions, just sex.” She held out a hand, and Vince laughed as he shook it.
“Great. We’ll make the rules as we go, I guess. Right now, my leg’s got my head all kinds of muddled. You think you could take a look at it now?” He lifted it, turning so he could stretch it out on the bed as she turned on the light. He pulled the dressing off it and winced.
“Christ, Vince. That looks like shit!” She left the room, and he watched her walk, her naked rear still as enticing as it had been before the sex. When she came back, she had an armload of supplies and handed him two pills. “Swallow those.” She dumped the items on the bed and went to work, and even though it stung and Vince cursed several times, he could tell she was being as gentle as possible.
Watching her work, the way her fingers moved deftly but carefully over his leg and shot electric sparks through his body, Vince smiled. Maybe the scenario wasn’t perfect, and maybe they’d end up still hating each other enough to call it quits in a couple of weeks. But for now, he could handle all the bad blood between them to get the good. Moments like this were worth the hassle, and Vince thought that, maybe, it was the answer to healing his internal wounds as much as this little spitfire was intent on fixing the ones on the outside.