Coming in 2018… read about who has been keeping Bryan busy in Kentucky…
It happened after I set my long island iced tea on the bar. It happened after I ordered another one, sipping this one a teensy bit faster because I was feeling loose and fuzzy and happy. It happened once we left our spots at the bar and began to make our way to the edge of the dance floor.
That was when I felt a tingle on the back of my neck, like someone was watching me. I looked over my shoulder into the crowd, but no one stuck out. I didn’t meet anyone’s gaze from across the room and lock eyes. None of that. I turned back to the dance floor to see Trish leading Reva onto it as the beginning bars of Crazy in Love started up.
And I felt it again. This time, there was a light touch on my elbow, just a brush of fingers, and I jerked away, then twisted my head to look up into a man’s face.
The first thing I noticed was that he had the most expressive smile. It was a good one too, big with white teeth. It took up the whole bottom of his face, but it was what that grin promised. Along with those dimples cutting into his cheeks—that grin promised banters and trouble and smartass comments…and a whole lot of orgasms. Oh yeah, a whole hell of a lot. Paired with light hazel eyes, and a rumpled head of brown hair, I lost my voice.
I just gaped. Gaped open-mouthed at this man who was grinning at me with so much promise.
“You looking for me?” he said.
I blinked at him. “I’m sorry?”
“Saw you looking around, and I thought, ah, she’s looking for me. So, I thought I’d come over. Make it easy on you.”
I was still staring at him open-mouthed like an idiot. Was this happening? Men like this—tall, lean, well-built men with charming grins—didn’t walk up to me. They looked right through me like I was invisible.
“Um—”
He leaned in closer, so close I could smell his fresh-scented cologne. “Close your mouth, peaches, before you catch a fly.”
I snapped my jaw shut with an audible clack. Peaches?
“The dress,” he said oddly. And I realized I’d said my question out loud. “Just a heads up. You walk in here wearing that color, and every man in here is wondering if you taste like peaches too.”
Now my eyes bugged out of my head. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
He shrugged, totally unbothered. “Just telling the truth.” Then he grinned again, and I realized he knew what the grin did. He knew how it made women feel, what it promised. He wielded it like a weapon. Even knowing that, I was slayed by it. At his mercy. Surrendered.
And that’s why I opened my mouth and said. “You said, every man, did that include you?”
That grin got bigger, deeper, his eyes warmed—no they didn’t warm, they ignited—and for the first time in a long damn time, I felt heat lick between my legs.
And that felt good, good in a way I hadn’t realized I’d needed.
“You want an answer to that? Then it’s one I have to show you,” he said.
And oh yeah, oh my God, I was turned on. In response, I wrapped my lips around the straw of my drink and sucked hard.
At that, he threw back his head and laughed. I hadn’t realized he could get more handsome. But when that deep rumble of laughter bubbled up from his chest and left that gorgeous mouth, I fell a little bit deeper into him.
He stopped laughing and bent his head so that his lips were at my ear, and that was where he whispered. “Baby, you just say the word and I’ll be on my knees for that taste.”
My legs began to shake.
A hand wrapped around my bicep, and his eyes darkened just a bit, slicing to whoever was standing next to me. It was Ali, and she was looking at the man in front of me with a healthy dose of caution. She was also fucking gorgeous, so I knew now was the time this man would realize there were better options on the table.
I glanced at him preparing to see him perusing Ali’s body, but that wasn’t the case. His eyes were latched on me, right on my face. I didn’t have a chance to dwell on that when Ali shouted over the music. “Come onto the dance floor. Reva wants you!”
Right, more like they’d probably seen me dumbfounded by a man way out of my league and were saving me.
“Right,” I said. I shot the man a smile and gestured toward where I saw my sister beckoning me. “Sorry, here for a bachelorette party.”
His gaze followed my gesture to my sister, and then he cut back to me, completely ignoring the younger supermodel at my side. What was that about?
“Come on,” Ali tugged on my arm again.
“Be there in a minute honey,” I said, and she let my arm go in order to saunter back onto the dance floor.
“See you ar—” I began.
His hand settled on my hip, hot and heavy, and when his fingers pressed ever so slightly into my flesh, I swore I felt those five points of contact all over my body. “Name.”
“I’m sorry?”
“What’s your name?”
“Peaches works.”
His eyes crinkled, like that amused him. Still he asked. “What’s your name, beautiful?”
“Sam.” I blurted out.
“Sam?”
“Samantha.”
“Samantha,” he murmured, and his eyes did a scan of my body. “Right.”
“I need to go…” I gestured again.
He let me go, and as I was running out onto the dance floor, I realized I hadn’t asked him his name.