My head shot up, searching the club for him. Even with people between us, Nathan’s gaze caught me like a grappling hook. He wore a black button-up shirt, black pants, and a very… fucking… serious expression. Now he looked like he was going to a funeral, and I had a sinking feeling it would be mine.

My Inner Voice began pleading with me: Come on, I’m begging you. Don’t let me hear ‘I told you so,’ even if it’s deserved. Distract him! Shake your tits or something. There must be some way we can get Nathan off our back—and onto our front.

Tom muttered something about seeing a man about a horse and scurried away, leaving me alone in the line of fire. I didn’t blame him. Every step Nathan took toward me stole a little bit more of my breath and my bravado.

By the time he swooped down on me like Dracula, my thighs were squeezing together in reaction to his proximity and the power of his promise.

“Nathan, I’m so sor—”

His hand whipped up to cut off my apology. I remained silent as he moved around the low table and sat down next to me. My body buzzed with our thighs pressed together and his head touching mine.

“You didn’t listen,” he said in a low, steely voice in my ear.

“I did! I just…”

“Forgot. Did you think I would forget, too?”

I shook my head.

He leaned back against the couch, spreading his arms out like Tom had done. But where Tom looked like a gangsta wannabe, Nathan looked sleek, powerful, and like he belonged in a place surrounded by noise, music, women, and excess.

He said nothing as he took it all in. Being lectured wasn’t nearly as unnerving as waiting to be lectured.

My heart pounded in my chest as I watched him watch everyone else. He was quiet, observant, taking it all in—the dancing, the drinking, the drugs surely being passed around in places. My muteness was due to my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. I eyed the tequila shots that Tom had poured then abandoned, but knew that more alcohol was not the answer.

Nathan was a shimmering drink of water, but I was scared that the oasis was just a mirage. If I reached out for it, I might end up with a mouthful of sand.

“Where are your friends?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the crowd.

“Um, dancing?

“So, you don’t know exactly where they are, and they probably don’t know where you are. That doesn’t sound very safe.”

Well, when he put it that way…

“Now, Zoe, you’re done.” He swiveled on the couch, his attention now on me like a magnifying glass in the sun. “Let’s finish up this club experience and take the party back home.”

It was ironic how dry my mouth was, considering how damp other parts of me were becoming.

“When was the last time you did body shots?” he asked.

“Uh, never?” Licking a stranger’s body had never appealed to me. I’d politely declined Tom’s proposal to do it earlier. Hopefully he thought my wince and shudder was from downing the straight alcohol.

He tilted his head at me. “How’d you get through college without that pre-requisite?”

“I guess I had all the wrong friends.”

“Or the right ones,” he mused. “Okay, baby, where do you want it?”

My mind raced. There weren’t too many parts of me exposed, other than my arms and back. I’d seen people lapping tequila out of other’s navels before. Was he going to pour it on me?

Nathan frowned. “No, that’s disgusting.”

My inner voice had become my outer voice once again.

“And a waste of tequila, even with this lower shelf crap. But,” he said as he leaned into me, “I’m willing to bet your skin is salty enough right now from all that dancing. I can’t wait to suck it off you. When I get you home I’m going to get drunk on your pussy, before I lick every other part of you. I want to cover your body like a whole new skin.”

My breath caught in my chest. All the little hairs on my body were already standing on end, and I wanted to crawl out of my skin and into his. We were halfway there already.

“Seeing as we’re pressed for time, though…” With a sudden burst of movement he hauled me closer and put me facedown over his lap. His hands held me down like the safety bar on a triple loop rollercoaster.

I craned my neck to glare at him. “You can’t spank me here!” Seriously?

“Oh yes, I can. And nobody would stop me.” I opened my mouth to protest, when he continued, “Not even you, Zoe.” He slid his hand up between my legs and under the hem of my skirt.

Would he finger me in the middle of the club? Was this “Bottle Service” couch really the Very Important Pussy area? Oh my god… My stomach flipped and I couldn’t help squirming, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was because I was afraid or because I really, really wanted him to do it.

I stiffened as he delivered a sharp smack to my ass. “Stay still.”

Yes, sir.

The buttons on his shirt scraped against my bare back as he leaned over to get the saltshaker and a wedge of lime from a bowl on the table. His left hand, that had been stroking my inner thighs, moved up and over my curves to deftly undo the button and zipper of my skirt. I gasped as he peeled me open, pulling my panties down to expose the top of my ass crack.

My face blazed with embarrassment while the rest of my body burned with arousal and anticipation.

With more flexibility than I knew he possessed, he bent over me to lave his tongue over the small of my back, then shook salt on it. His erection was like steel underneath me, my tight, hard nipples pressing against his thighs.

I flinched as he carefully balanced the lime on my crack. Oh fuck.

“Steady,” he warned.

I twisted my neck to look at him. “Easy for you to say.”

“Ah, there’s that smart mouth I was waiting for.” And he promptly stuck his thumb in it like a cork, compounding my humiliation and excitement.

How could I be this hot, this wet, lying over his lap like an errant child awaiting a spanking? How could my body pulsate, on the edge of coming, from lime juice dripping into my panties and his hard, broad thumb pressing into the roof of my mouth?

His head snapped back as he swallowed the tequila. With a sharp exhale and just as swiftly, he lapped up the salt in the curve of my back. His hot breath branded me as his tongue trailed downward, just dipping into the top of my crack before he took the lime in his mouth.

I rolled my tongue around his thumb, and a groan escaped him as he sucked on the lime and met my gaze. His eyes, at times that particular shade of green, were almost black with lust.

Holy. Shit.

My neck aching too much from trying to see what he was doing, I lowered my forehead to the cool leather couch in submission. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was still a shock when he wiggled his left index finger between my cheeks, under my soaked panties, and dipped into my core before ghosting up to press lightly against the tight pink rosebud above.

The intensity of the moment… the movement… the momentum, all conspired against me to render me helpless against a violent orgasm. The throbbing in my body echoed the vibration of the bass in the music, and the rippling wave of people on the dance floor. A high-pitched moan burst from my mouth.

“Oh my—! Fuck!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, dizzy from the fact that I was still coming. Nathan was silent as I rode it out, only his breathing and his hands heavy on me until I was limp on his rock hard lap.

“I think I’ll let you do your shot at home,” he decided.