Chapter One
Sandra Gaines sighed and leaned against the bar. The Atlantis downtown was the place to be for Washington, DC’s movers and shakers. They all came here after work on Capitol Hill to grab a drink, flirt shamelessly with each other, and sometimes share secrets from each other’s respective congressional office. Oh, and it was definitely the place where they acted like junior masters of the universe and lorded it over the staff. Sandra would know. She’d been a waitress there, serving gin and tonics and shots to the lobbyists and aides, for almost three years.
Normally, she’d be anywhere but Atlantis on her night off. The clientele wasn’t really her sort. Some could be nice, but often the guys there were just too smug. However, her best friend, Tonya, had a bartending shift that didn’t end until midnight when Mitch would come to relieve her. Once she was off, they’d be hitting The Grinder down on New York Avenue to see The Grilled Lincolns.
She had to kill a couple of hours. Not a huge problem, as she already looked cute in her stilettos and short, black lace dress. However, her mood had soured considerably since that morning. Her boyfriend, Zane, had given her the short shrift. She’d gone to lunch with him, hoping that he’d agree to come with her to meet her parents for Thanksgiving in a few weeks. Instead, he’d decided that he wasn’t ready for more commitment, even after almost a year.
To say she was upset was an understatement. To say she was more depressed than she’d been in her entire twenty-four years of life might be a bit much, but she did feel like crap. If she hadn’t already spent fifty dollars on the tickets, Sandra would have called the whole thing off with Tonya and crawled under her covers with a carton of ice cream.
But she was committed now.
She was also drinking more than she usually would at a bar, starting on her third shot of tequila. Her heart hurt, and there was nothing she wanted more than to numb the pain from losing Zane.
“Hey, you should pace yourself,” Tonya said, frowning. “I know you’re not technically drunk enough for me to cut you off as a bartender, but as your friend I think you need to stop drinking till we get to The Grinder. You’ve powered that down in like thirty minutes.”
Sandra shook her head. “Zane’s an asshole.”
Tonya’s face brightened. “I’ve been telling you that for months! What changed your mind?”
“Hey, ladies, this isn’t social hour!” Daryl, the club manager, called from the floor. “Tonya, keep working. And Sandra? I hope you aren’t trying to pull ‘employee discount’ on the drinks.”
“I’d never,” Sandra replied, knowing full well that Daryl never let anyone get a discount on anything at all. “I just needed something to soothe my soul.”
Daryl twitched his mustache thoughtfully but kept his eyes narrowed on her. “Good. Don’t distract Tonya, and then you can buy whatever top-shelf stuff you want.”
Sandra laughed and held up her shot with a mock toast. “I can barely afford the stuff that burns my throat.”
“Then at least keep paying,” Daryl said before returning to work.
Sandra set her drink down and rubbed at her temples. A headache was flaring up that had nothing to do with her tequila and everything to do with the stress and sadness of the day overwhelming her. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. She barely noticed the man who sat down next to her until he spoke.
“Are you alright?”
Frowning, she picked her head up and looked at him. She expected the usual hipster-age dude with a skinny tie complementing his suit. The usual eager intern or new congressional staffer that tended to come early in the night to Atlantis.
Instead, what she saw as she turned around was a man with high cheek bones that were set in a swarthy face with just a hint of stubble at his chin. Green eyes glittered back at her with a piercing gaze she couldn’t resist, and his thick, jet-black hair was kept overly long so that it curled over his ears and down toward his chin. His classically tailored suit fit his muscular frame like a glove.
For a minute, Sandra almost forgot how to speak. “I…uh…what?”
He chuckled and then spoke again. “Are you alright? I have some aspirin if you need anything.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s just been one of those days.”
“We’ve all been there.” He extended his hand. “I’m Xavier Clifton, and you are?”
“Sandra Gaines,” she said, taking his hand and expecting him to shake it. Instead, he surprised her again by kissing the back of it. “Oh, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I find it rude not to compliment a beautiful woman. You deserve more than a handshake.”
She sighed and forced herself not to glance down at her curvier than average hips, or to run her fingers through her wavy auburn hair. Sandra had spent her whole life wishing she was a bit more…anything, really. She just wasn’t Tonya with her long legs and cascading blond hair. Frankly, it was a point that Zane had picked at with her—that she was lucky to be with him because other guys wouldn’t look her way.
She wouldn’t let herself feel like that tonight. She was already a bit more than tipsy, and she was determined to at least have a few nice words with Xavier.
Smiling back at him—hoping it approximated sultry—she spoke, “That’s very sweet of you. Not exactly like the usual guys around here.”
He nodded over to a couple of younger guys on the floor. “I usually don’t come here. I prefer some of the quieter places, like The Capitol Hill Club.”
“Then why are you here?” she asked.
“I’m here because I’ve had a bit of bad luck of late, and I wanted a change of scene.”
“I hear you. That’s about where I’m at.”
Xavier eyed her, concern coloring his green depths. “A woman as beautiful as you are shouldn’t be drinking alone. Do you want to talk about it?”
She sighed and slumped down. “It’s one of those old-as-time stories. I trusted someone and they let me down. The usual. What about you?”
“I’d say just the same, so I didn’t want to be in my usual haunts. Felt like I needed fresh air in a place I wouldn’t be recognized.”
Sandra glanced back at him. Those rakish good looks stood out even among this crowd, and in a town where image was everything, she seriously doubted that Xavier would ever just blend in.
“See,” she replied. “Then it’s just another tale that you hear every night in every bar.”
“I’ll drink to that,” he said, gesturing to the other bartender on duty, an old hand at all of it named Morris. Xavier smiled, the gesture highlighting the perfect dimples in his cheeks, and set a hundred-dollar bill on the table. “Two kamikazes please.”
Morris nodded and came back with the shots. “Thanks, man.”
“My pleasure,” Xavier replied, his voice a low, sultry rumble. For a moment, Sandra thought she’d heard the hint of an accent. “Now,” he said, turning to her. “Here’s to the same shit, different day.”
She nodded and swallowed the shot in one draught. The liquid burned down her throat and the taste tingled on her tongue. Perfect, vodka. Sandra could handle almost anything, but vodka went straight to her brain and seemed to deactivate it.
“Whoa!”
“You’re not used to a kamikaze?” he said, his tone wry.
“I don’t usually drink much. Funny, I…uh…work in a place like this,” she said, not wanting to admit she came to her actual work on her day off. “I’m just a bit of ‘wine or a beer once in a while’ kinda girl. Whatever’s cheap and on tap will do.”
“Swill,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Well, Xavier, I’m not fancy. I’m just a plain, down-to-earth girl. I don’t work for a congressman or run a big, fancy lobbying firm.”
He grinned and drummed his fingers on the bar top. “I didn’t say I was one of those either. I’m not interested in most of the wheeling and dealing around here, but I do come and see who I need to deal with in order to keep my business running.”
“Ooh, something fancy like real estate? Maybe you deal with crab fishing. What secrets do you have hiding down there, Mr. Clifton?”
“Nothing too exciting. Food distribution. That’s just what I do, but I think we all have our secrets, Sandra. Tell me something about yourself no one even knows.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not talking about something kinky. I just mean something that you can’t tell anyone else. I’ll go first,” he said, gesturing to Morris for another round of shots. “I never had any interest in going into the family business, but I also never wanted to see it fall into my brother’s hands completely. If I could do anything, I think I’d train horses. I always loved riding as a kid, and still do it when I can. But as Javier, my brother, would say, that doesn’t pay the bills.”
She quirked her head at him, intrigued by his candor. That wasn’t the kind of secret she expected someone dressed like a million bucks to tell her. Maybe he really had been having a terrible day too. He held his shoulders up high with an easy grace, but there was a slight bow to his head.
“Well,” she said, accepting the next kamikaze and this time enjoying the burn as it worked its way down her throat. Warmth flared in her gut and her head spun with the potency of the alcohol pouring through her veins. Zane who? “Is it my turn?”
“That would be tit for tat,” he said, his voice a silky purr.
God, he could get any woman to drop her panties for him with a voice like that. You add in all those knowing looks, and god help me!
“They have this test,” she said, spinning the shot glass around in her hands, “when you’re in high school, and you’re supposed to meet with the guidance counselor to figure out what you want to be.”
“I’m following.”
“It’s a thought experiment,” Sandra continued. “If you had a million dollars and never had to worry about bills again or whatever, what would you be?”
He laughed. “I don’t think a million would come close to taking care of you for your whole life.”
“Yeah, that was a few years ago. Even if it wasn’t, you know, it could be ‘what would you do if you had a billion’ sort of thing.”
He grinned. “Now that’s more up my alley.”
She just kept herself from rolling her eyes. Normally, she’d never tolerate quite a line. Whatever or whoever Xavier Clifton was, he wasn’t a billionaire. Those types didn’t go out after hours to regular DC bars, no matter how bad their day had been or what kind of sob story or breakup they might be reeling from. But he was gorgeous and charming, so it was worth still carrying on the banter with him.
“Anyway, when I was young I’d have given anything to be able to make movies. I have a YouTube channel now where I have some followers, but I review the work of others while I actually work as a waitress. I guess, and this is stupid, but I’d want to direct if I could do anything in the world.”
“Did you go to film school?”
She shrugged and stretched up in her seat. “I’m still saving up. My parents don’t have a lot of money, and it takes a lot to save up for a good film school out West or to live in NYC. It’s just slow going.”
“And no one knows that about you?”
“Oh, my friend Tonya knows about the channel but thinks I only like riffing on bad flicks. I can’t tell any of my friends about it, and even my parents think I’m just going to fall into waitressing. I guess, I dunno, it sounds so grandiose that I’m going to be the next Spielberg or something. I didn’t want people to pat me on the head and tell me that was nice but deep down pity me as being the crazy gal, you know?”
“I like your dream,” Xavier supplied. “I don’t think it would sound any odder to your family than my dream of training Arabians and riding all day would to mine.”
“If only we didn’t have to do what was expected of us,” Sandra said, surprised when Xavier put one large, warm hand over her own on the counter.
“Maybe tonight we don’t. I don’t know exactly what kind of day you’ve had, but maybe just this once we can have what we want, not worry about what everyone else is thinking.” He stared into her eyes, and those stunning emerald orbs of his took her breath away and kept her from thinking clearly. “What do you think?”
She nodded and stood up, offering him her hand. “I was wondering if you’d like to dance.”
Xavier’s grin lit up his face. God, how she wanted to taste not just his lips but his dimples. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He took her hand and led her to the dance floor. Sandra caught sight of Tonya, who spotted them from the bar. She had her thumbs up and was grinning back at them. Of course, Tonya, who was practically fearless, would be egging this on. Under normal circumstances, Sandra would be cautious, the responsible one, but the alcohol was buzzing through her system. Besides, she’d been that way with Zane. She’d been the good girl, and all it had resulted in was humiliation and sadness.
Tonight, just for once, maybe she could do what she wanted.
After all, she’d never see Xavier again.
What could it hurt?
She sauntered to the dance floor hand in hand with Xavier. The bass was beating ferociously around them, and it felt so natural to have him curl his body around hers from behind and his length pressed up against her as his arms snaked around her waist. She pressed flat against him, felt the heat of his body flowing into her own. Sandra pulled away from him and smiled seductively up at Xavier’s face. Her hips moved with a sensuous rhythm, swaying from side to side as she beckoned him back to her embrace.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she pressed her hips against his. His mouth met hers and then she found his tongue teasing her own, begging for a caress. Sandra opened her mouth so that she could be devoured by his kiss and his lips would taste her, his tongue would probe the hidden depths within her mouth. Heat flared across her belly and spread to her core. She was sure had nothing to do with her drunkenness.
No, that was all Xavier. His hands roamed the expanse of her body, pressing into her ass, and pushing her closer against his hardness.
She moaned and nibbled at his ear. Leaning up, she asked, “Do you have some place private we can go? I need to do more than dance.”
Xavier held her tightly still, but his tone was a bit less certain than it had been before. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel you have to do anything you don’t want to.”
She moved her mouth lower to graze her teeth over the stubble on his chin. “I want this. Trust me, Xavier. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
His green eyes regarded her, as if trying to ferret out any hesitation. “Good, then I have an idea. Come with me to my limo.”
“Your what?” Her eyes widened, and while she still didn’t think Xavier was a billionaire, Sandra was beginning to realize part of his story at the bar had to be true. “You have a limo?”
“I want a place more private for us than a spare room the staff still go in and out of. Now, come on,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and leading her to the back lot.
The breeze of the cool spring air hit her full on as they exited Atlantis. The early April night still felt more like March, and after coming out from the throng of bodies and the heated dance floor, she felt the temperature change acutely. Shivering a little, she burrowed into Xavier’s muscular torso.
He rubbed at her shoulder as he led her to the VIP side of the club’s parking lot. “Are you okay? You’re shivering.”
“Lace dress plus cold snap isn’t a great addition problem,” she said.
“Then I’ll make sure the driver hits the heat as soon as he can,” Xavier said, opening up the door and letting her slip inside first.
“Wait, the driver?”
“I’m not an idiot. I have the chauffeur up front.” To make his point, he first shut the door and then pressed a little button in the roof. “Rupert, please put up the heat and make sure all the barriers between here and the back seat stay up. We don’t wish to be disturbed. I’ll call you if we need anything at all.”
“My pleasure, sir,” the driver said, his voice tinged with a British accent.
She blushed. “Can he…can he hear us?”
“Not with the divider. It’s discreet, I promise.”
“You’ve had practice with this?” she asked, her voice a bit incredulous but also intrigued. If this was her once-in-a-lifetime story, then she wanted to be bold. The idea of being intimate with his driver just on the other side of the barrier was making her less anxious and a bit excited. I have a voyeur streak, who knew? “Do I want to know how much?”
“Tonight,” Xavier said, kissing her throat and letting his tongue trail over her pulse point. “Let’s just talk about us tonight. Let’s have a break with all the bad history, all those stories that are wearing us down. For right now, let’s make our own.”
She swallowed hard, knowing this was the last chance she had to back out, to be the responsible friend—the same old girl who was always the designated driver at every event. That had just led her to being twenty-four in a dead-end job, and with a broken heart. If nothing else, this would be her one night, an oasis in the crap desert of her life. What was one night of fun? After all, no one would really have to know, outside of Tonya who’d basically blessed their union.
“I think I can live with that,” she said, leaning against the leather of the bench seat. She expected Xavier to go back to kissing her. After all, that’s what they’d been doing out on the club floor.
She was surprised when he got to his knees in the limo before her. He slipped off one pump and started massaging her foot. “You’re beautiful, Sandra, did you know that?”
“Thank you,” she said, unsure how else to respond. Zane had said it so rarely to her. It was amazing to hear that from a man as gorgeous as Xavier, someone who clearly was worldly and rich. “What are you doing?”
He slipped off her other heel and gave her a grin that the devil himself would envy. “I want to show you how beautiful I thought you were, to let you know how much I want to worship you tonight.”
To her shock and pleasure, he started kissing his way up her right leg, his lips feather light as he moved up her shin and then to her knee. His hands caressed and kneaded her thigh before he let his tongue lave over her skin.
Sandra giggled a little and blushed. She’d always been ticklish, and this was something she’d never felt before. The last thing she wanted to do was to kill the mood, but she couldn’t help squirming just a little as he made his way up her leg.
“That feels amazing,” she said.
“Sounds like you’re laughing at me,” he said, his tone playful.
“I’m not! I just am a bit ticklish,” she confessed. “It’s still amazing. Don’t stop.”
“I don’t intend to,” he said as his lips met the flesh of her upper thigh. He paused after a while and put his hands on either knee. “Can you spread these gorgeous legs of yours for me?”
She hesitated. “You don’t have to.”
After all, Zane never wanted to. He always complained till I stopped even asking. Oral was such a one-way street.
“I’d love to. Have you never had a man pleasure you this way?”
She sighed. “It was usually more trouble than it was worth. I always had to beg for it, and it wasn’t…he made me feel guilty for asking.”
“There’s no guilt here,” Xavier said, spreading her legs apart and smiling at the apex of her thighs. Reaching out, he traced his fingers over the soft cotton of her underwear. “You’re already ready for me, aren’t you?”
She swallowed, unaware that the heat in her core had made her wet as well. “I didn’t know…I…”
“Lift your hips,” he commanded. “That’s all I want, just to make you feel good.”
She did as she was told, arching her hips as he slid the plain black panties down over her legs, before losing them on the floor. Now she was exposed to him. He could see the soft down of her dark curls over her womanhood. Her breath hitched, and she sat there, scared that he’d reject her. That somehow this perfect moment could go no further.
His green eyes, however, seemed to light up with a fire from within as he smiled. “You,” he said, running a hand through her curls, “are a revelation. Now I’m going to taste you.”
She nodded and hissed as his hands found their way to her secret lips. His strong fingers parted her folds and stroked the skin there. She closed her eyes and leaned back as electricity seemed to sizzle over her skin and sparks danced across her nerves.
“So beautiful, so perfect,” he said, and then his tongue was probing her, plundering deep into her channel.
Sandra mewled and thrust her hips forward, giving Xavier more access to her core. His tongue thrust deeper, and he lapped against her inner walls, devouring the juices therein. Her body shook as the sparks arched over her. His fingers found her most sensitive bundle of nerves and grazed against them, just a slow roll against her pearl. The electricity swelled within her. Then, Xavier started in on her in earnest.
His thumb and forefinger flicked eagerly at her rosebud while his tongue plumbed her hidden depths. She moaned and bucked, feeling more like a wild animal than herself. She screamed his name as his stroking grew in intensity. Then he pulled his tongue out and moved his fingers away. His lips wrapped around her pleasure button and he began to suckle her.
The orgasm hit her then like lightning. The electricity spiked over her nerves until she lay there shuddering and spent beneath him.
Xavier picked himself up and grabbed a few towels to wipe himself off. Then, he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and drank it in long gulps. She watched his Adam’s apple bob and shuddered again thinking of the power and control in just the man’s tongue.
God, what else can he do?
When he was done, he curled up onto the seat next to her and offered Sandra a fresh bottle of water. “Would you like anything else?”
Sighing, she looked down at her watch. “I promised Tonya I’d go with her to a concert, so we have maybe an hour left. Right now?”
“Yes?”
“I want to bathe in the afterglow. Then maybe I can make you scream.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’d like that very much.”