What luck. Seriously, she’d sent out a request to the universe for a hottie to take her mind off her woes, and look what practically fell into her lap.

She scooted closer on the back seat, eager to have his hands on her once more. Or his kisses. Good Lord, those kisses.

For a dour-looking dud in a suit, this guy knew how to kiss. She had to rename him mentally. He was so not a dud. And not even dour-looking. She’d managed to get a real smile out of him back there and when he did…wow. That smile had slayed her. She’d found herself itching for a pencil and a sketchpad because that smile needed to be captured and shared.

Well, maybe not shared. Her arm wrapped around his and he turned in his seat so he could kiss her, his hand coming up to cup her cheek.

No, she decided. She didn’t want to share that smile. In fact, she was glad his smiles were so hard-won. It made it that much more special when she caught one.

As those clever lips moved over hers, making her breathless again with his unexpected passion, she marveled at her luck once more. She’d found herself the perfect one-night-stand.

It was almost a shame he couldn’t be more. But there was something about him that set off alarm bells. Not the “don’t go home with him, he might be a serial killer” alarm bells, obviously.

The opposite alarm bells. The ones that said “too earnest, too intense, too serious.” Ever since her first boyfriend, those alarm bells had started going off when she got a whiff of a nice guy.

And this guy, despite his stern expression and his rare fleeting smiles…he was nice to the core.

She could tell. The alarm bells gave it away.

But those alarm bells were currently being silenced by lips that were warm and strong, by hands that were moving over her thighs, clutching her hips as he tugged her even closer against him.

Oh boy, they must be giving the cab driver quite a show.

Oh well. No one would care in the morning. This would be one night out of time.

She grinned against his lips, a new excitement stirring in her as his control slipped one peg at a time. She lived for nights like this. For moments that existed away from reality, cut out of space and time to linger in a perfect bubble of passion.

The car came to a stop and so did his lips. Damn, she couldn’t wait to get inside and in his bed. Or on his couch. Or on his coffee table. Really, she’d have this guy any way he wanted her. Her hands smoothed over that ridiculously stuffy suit jacket as he leaned forward to pay the driver.

He had a slim build but underneath it was hard and smooth. Lithe and lean, just like she liked them.

Oh yeah, she’d caught herself the ultimate one-night-stand prize tonight.

He opened the car door and leaned down to help her out, like she was a princess in a carriage or a starlet arriving at the red carpet and not some stranger who’d thrown herself at him at a party.

God, this guy was adorable.

Sure enough, the moment she was out on the sidewalk, he wrapped an arm around her waist and escorted her inside like a true gentleman. Normally she might have laughed at his chivalrous ways, and maybe even pushed him away. She was a grown woman, after all, she didn’t need assistance walking.

Except that she did. Tonight, at least, she was fairly sure she would go splat on the icy sidewalk in these supremely unpractical heels.

But they were so pretty she didn’t even care that they rendered her temporarily helpless. Besides, this guy seemed to like playing the role of knight in shining armor.

Ooh. She bit her lip and giggled softly as a naughty image came into her head. It involved role playing and sheathed swords and maybe just a little bit of bondage.

His head dipped down toward hers. “What are you thinking about?”

She looked up to find him studying her with an intensity that was both sweet and alarming. His eyes flickered over her face, taking in her eyes, her lips, the purple hair that curled around her face, and most likely taking note of the little diamond stud she used as a nose piercing.

What she wouldn’t give to know his reaction to the sight before him, because aside from lust, she couldn’t tell.

Interesting.

She felt a tugging inside her. Curiosity, she realized. When was the last time she’d felt that around a guy? It had been a long time, that was the obvious answer. The guys she dated these days tended to be simplistic. Not simple, necessarily. They weren’t dumb—at least not all of them were dumb—but their needs were simple, as were the depths of their emotions.

They were easy.

Heartbreaking and callous, typically. But easy.

This guy? He would not be easy. There was intelligence in his eyes and she was fairly certain she could see him calculating and interpreting whatever he saw when he studied her.

She looked away quickly. She didn’t want to be studied.

He opened the door for her and led her to the elevators in the plush, elegantly lit foyer that was a far cry from her Brooklyn walk-up.

When they entered the elevator she turned to him, cozying up once more to the lean length of him, and fully hoping and expecting that he’d take advantage of this cozy setting to kiss her with that passionate intensity of his, or maybe cop a feel. She’d happily take either or both.

But instead his arms came around her gently—too gently. Where was that passionate intensity from the party and the car? He looked expectant, like he was waiting for something. “What are you thinking?” he asked again, his voice filled with an intimacy that set the alarm bells off with a vengeance.

She bit back a sigh. Oh crap, he’d actually expected an answer.

He really wanted to talk.

What. The. Fuck. Didn’t he realize that she was about to make all his dreams come true?

Irritation put a bit of a dent in her perfect timeless one-night-of-passion bubble.

She let out a small sigh. Fine. He wanted to talk? She could talk.

The top of her head reached his shoulder, even in heels, so she was forced to go up on tip-toe until her lips reached his ear. “I’m thinking of how good you’ll feel when you’re lying on top of me,” she said, her voice shockingly husky.

Well, shit. She turned herself on with that Kathleen Turner voice.

She pressed against him and felt the hard bulge of his cock against her belly. Yup, he’d liked it too. She grinned as she let her lips tease his ear. “I’m thinking of all the ways you’re going to pleasure me tonight,” she continued, mainly because talking dirty was making her hot and nicely drowning out the alarm bells.

Also, she was fairly sure her murmurs were doing the trick of distracting him from this stupid notion that they should talk first.

Or at all.

His arms tightened around her and he let out a low growl that sent shivers down her spine. Then his lips were over hers again and they were frantic, urgent. She reveled in that, savoring it and loving how it matched her own desperate desire.

This. This was what she wanted. Escape. To drown in bliss and forget that the world existed.

Just for one night.

And for that night, that was exactly what she got. Her nameless lover seemed to forget about talking entirely as he scooped her up into his arms the moment the elevator came to a stop. His lips never left hers for long as he carried her down the hall and let them into his place.

Distantly she was impressed by his ability to hold her, kiss her until she was panting, and still navigate walking and unlocking.

The man had skills.

Then they were inside the apartment and she didn’t take note of a single thing. She presumed there was a living room and a hallway, but all she was really aware of was his bed when he set her on it, his gentleness at odds with the franticness of their kissing and groping.

Then he was on top of her, just like she’d talked about, and oh holy fuck, it felt even better than she’d imagined. He was hard…everywhere. Despite their size difference when standing, they seemed to fit together like a puzzle lying down.

He hitched up the hem of her dress until it was around her waist.

Thank God she’d worn her sexy panties. Screw you, James. Someone else was getting a glimpse of the lingerie that had been so far outside her budget it had almost made her cry.

But right now it was worth it, because in the dim light from the outside street lights she watched as his gaze darkened into something so sinfully primal, it made her moan with desire.

This. This was what she’d wanted. What she’d needed. A fierce and elemental coming together—a passion that would erase the rest of the world, if only for a brief moment.

She tugged him back down to her, her hands desperate as they tugged at his suit jacket. He helped her shed his clothes even as he managed to wriggle her dress off her.

His bare chest was sculpted and beautiful. His whole body was a thing of beauty, with its perfect long lines and lithe muscles. She smoothed her hands over his chest, his back, his shoulders, trying to absorb all of him. Trying to take it all in as her body grew desperate for release.

His boxers and her thin, sexy panties were the only thing stopping them from coming together in the way that would bring her the relief, the release, the utterly blissful escape she craved.

He moved his head down so he could nip at her breasts, which he was cradling in his hands as though they were precious. Her hands clung to his hair as he licked and sucked on her nipples until she was ready to scream from the sweet torture.

“Fuck me,” she demanded as she tugged his hair until his face was level with hers.

“Are you sure we’re not moving too quickly?”

She stared at him in openmouthed shock. He couldn’t be serious. He could not be serious.

“You’re not serious,” she whispered.

What was he thinking, that he could tease her body, bring her so desperately close to oblivion…and then walk away? That they would pull their clothes back on and go out to the kitchen for a nice chat?

Yeah, I don’t think so.

His brows drew down in concern as he studied her. “I don’t want to rush you.” He licked his lips and she could feel him trying to steady his breathing. “I don’t want to rush this.”

She had a feeling her blatant confusion was written all over her face. What was he talking about. What this?

She shook her head. It didn’t matter. None of this chatter mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he finish what he started.

She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him with all the frantic urgency she felt. All the desire, all the passion, and all the pent-up frustration. Fuck me, damn it!

She felt him cave and heard his surrender in the soft groan that slipped into her mouth.

Then he was moving with the same frantic desperation, his hands tugging off her panties and then his boxers, his lips never leaving her body as he fumbled in his nightstand.

Leaning back for a hot second, she watched with mouthwatering anticipation as he rolled a condom onto his long, thick cock.

When he entered her, she cried out. Yes. This! This was everything she’d needed and more.

This…this was perfection.