Bandit was barking like crazy. I twisted the shower handle to turn off the water so that I could hear what was making him go nuts. He wasn’t generally a barker. In between his ruffs, the faint sound of the doorbell buzzing echoed under the bathroom door.
Shit.
Stepping out, I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my waist, and headed to the front door. When I looked through the peephole, no one was on the other side. But Bandit was still going crazy, so I opened the door and poked my head out into the hallway. My heart started pounding when I found Bianca standing in front of the elevator doors looking down.
“Bianca?”
She looked up. “Dex. You didn’t answer. I thought you were out.”
“I was in the shower.” The doors to the elevator she was standing in front of slid open, and she turned to face them, then glanced back at me, and then back at the waiting car. She was clearly pondering her departure. After a few heartbeats, she made her decision. “I should go. It was a mistake coming over here. I’m sorry.”
“Bianca! Wait!”
She froze with one foot inside the elevator car. I didn’t give a fuck that I was still dripping wet and only wearing a towel, I ran down the hall after her. “Don’t leave. Please.” I caught her elbow and waited as she again deliberated. When she finally nodded, I let out a deep breath. There was no way I was giving her any time to change her mind again, so I quickly steered her away from any available escape and into my apartment.
Although I’d managed to get her into my place and close the door behind her, she stayed just barely inside and looked down at her feet. “Well, this is a nice surprise,” I said.
“I shouldn’t be here.”
“I think you’re wrong. This is exactly where you should be. Where you shouldn’t have been tonight, was on that date.”
Bandit had been standing near my side and chose that moment to walk to Bianca. He sat down directly on her feet and pushed his head into her crotch. She smiled and scratched the top of his head. Good boy. Remind me to buy you a bone. From an elephant.
“Our dog seems to agree with me.”
Her head whipped up. “Our dog?”
“Yes. I feel like he belongs to both of us since he helped bring us together.”
“If I’m not mistaken, he actually helped break us apart. I saw you at the shelter. That’s how I uncovered who you really were, remember?”
I took a step closer. “I don’t see it that way.”
She scoffed. “Then you need glasses, Truitt.”
Another step. “I don’t need glasses to know you look beautiful right now.” Her hair was down and had a wavy, windblown look to it. She looked absolutely breathtaking wearing a simple, black strapless dress. Her lips were painted a blood red and when her tongue darted out to wet them, I was unable to stop staring.
“Dex…” Her voice was low but there was a warning tone to it. She must have known how much looking at her was affecting me.
“Bianca…” I mimicked her and took a hesitant step closer. When she didn’t run, not that she had anywhere to actually run with her back against the front door, I took that as a sign to keep moving in. She looked down, and I got the sense that she was trying to maintain her control. Too bad I wanted nothing more than to make her lose it. “Your date ended early. Did Eamon not do it for you, the way I do?”
She squinted. “How did you know his name was Eamon?”
Shit. “It doesn’t matter. You ended it early. What matters is that you’re here now and not with that ass-wipe.”
“He’s not an ass-wipe, and it does matter. How did you know his name?”
“My driver paid the maître de to get the name on your reservation.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know who my competition was on the chance that you’d like him enough to go out with him for reasons other than an attempt to forget me.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re so full of yourself. You think my date had something to do with you? Newsflash, Dexter Truitt, the world does not revolve around you.”
“Really? That’s a shame. Especially since mine seems to revolve around you as of late.”
We stared at each other. There were clearly a million thoughts going through her head as her eyes jumped back and forth. Unfortunately, she settled on the one I had hoped she’d rid herself of already. “I should go,” she whispered.
I felt desperate. I closed the little gap that remained between us. The heat from our bodies was radiating, and the smell of her perfume engulfed my senses. When I glanced down, I realized her chest was rising and falling as rapidly as mine. I couldn’t let her leave. I just couldn’t. “Don’t go.”
“I need to.”
Recognizing I was out of time and she was about to bolt, I used the only thing I knew was her weakness—her attraction to me. Taking her face in my hands, I cupped both cheeks, and planted my lips over hers. “Stay. Don’t leave.” Then I devoured her mouth. She opened without hesitation, and my tongue dove right in finding hers. Feeling her physically surrender to me so easily was a complete turn-on. I pressed my body into hers, pinning her between the door and my naked chest. Her tits pushed up, beckoning to be set free from her strapless little dress, and the feel of her bare skin against mine was fucking incredible. I wanted to lift her up and cradle her in my arms as I carried her back to my bedroom.
I was just about to, too, when Bianca nudged at my chest. Her voice was breathless, and she didn’t sound like she actually meant one word. “Dex. We need to slow down.”
I leaned my forehead against hers. “I’ve been trying to slow down since the day I met you. I seem to only have one speed when it comes to you, Georgy Girl.”
Her lip twitched. “Georgy Girl? Isn’t that what Jay used to call me?”
“Yes. But it’s what I’ve called you in my head since the first day I met you.”
She pondered that for a moment. “I do like it. It’s sweet.”
“There’s a first. Not sure a woman’s ever called me sweet before.”
“That’s the thing with you, Dex. On the outside, you appear to be something very different than what I keep catching glimpses of on the inside.”
Her sexy red lipstick was smeared. I rubbed it from her face with my thumb. “Oh yeah? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It’s a good thing. It means deep down inside you’re not the jerk that you show people on the outside. The one who lies to women in elevators.”
A flash of what I saw when the elevator lights flickered on that day popped into my head. “I thought you were stunning the first time I saw you.”
“I didn’t think you were so bad yourself.”
“I’m so unbelievably attracted to you. For weeks I haven’t been able to think about you without getting a hard on.”
Bianca blushed. “I think I feel that attraction digging into my hip right now.”
I grinned, but didn’t make an attempt to move. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” She shoved at my chest. “Go put some clothes on. We need to sit down and talk. And you can’t be in a towel.”
“I could take it off.”
She waved her hand in the direction of my very visible erection then shook her head and pointed down the hall to my bedroom. “That thing is distracting. Go. And don’t come back until it’s less…bulgy.”
I needed a full ten minutes to get my head screwed on straight. Not to mention get my raging hard on under control. Bianca was here instead of on her date. It was a start. If I could manage to keep my dick out of my head, maybe I stood a chance after all.
I dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain, dark t-shirt before spraying on some cologne and slicking back my wet hair. Then I double checked that my bulge was adequately deflated and headed back to the living room. Bianca was looking out the window.
“Can I get you something to drink?” I asked.
“Are you having something?”
“I was going to open a bottle of wine. Do you like red?”
“I do.”
It took me twice as long to open the damn bottle since my kitchen counter faced the living room where Bianca was staring off. I couldn’t stop looking at her. She was gorgeous—a man would have to be blind to not see that. But it was more than that. I felt a pull to her that was there the first time I’d met her, even before the lights turned on in that dark elevator. We were connected in some way; I was sure of it. I just needed to show her it was more than physical.
“Here you go.” I handed her a glass.
“Thank you.” She turned back to the window.
“You look pretty deep in thought there.”
She sipped her wine. “I suppose I am.”
“Well, I’m de-bulged and all ears.”
Bianca glanced down and sighed. “Such a shame to have wasted it.”
Trying my hardest to be on my best behavior, I bit my tongue. “Why don’t we go sit, so we can talk?”
After we sat, I waited for her to speak first. The key to getting Bianca to forgive me was going to be patience, so I figured I’d start practicing with the easy things. She traced the rim of her glass a few times with her finger and then said, “My date was a nice guy.”
I closed my eyes briefly and then opened them. “I suppose if you’re dating someone other than me, I’d like them to at least be a nice guy, for your sake.”
“Thank you.”
I couldn’t help myself. “To clarify, just because he might be a nice guy doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to beat the crap out of him right now.”
She shook her head, but smiled. “You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to go out with him again.”
I sipped my wine, watching her over the brim of my glass. “I might have just lost some of my urge to beat him senseless.”
We were sitting on the couch next to each other, and Bianca twisted her body so that she was facing me straight on. “I wanted to like him. I wanted to have the tingles as he spoke during dinner, and I wanted to want to go home with him after we ate, to have mind blowing sex.”
I know I probably deserved for her to feel that way after the shit I’d pulled, but hearing her say that really hurt. “Well that makes one of us.”
“I don’t want to want to be with you.”
“Yes, I’m getting that loud and clear.”
She set her glass down on the coffee table and then looked me in the eyes. “But as much as I don’t want to feel a certain way, I do. I’ve tried to force myself to stop thinking about you, and I’ve tried to distract myself with another man. Yet here I am at the end of my date tonight.”
I set my drink down next to hers. “Listen to me, Bianca. I fucked up. I know I did. I’ve apologized, and I’ll keep apologizing over and over again. But you can’t deny that there is something going on here that is worth taking another chance on.” I caressed her cheek. “Take a chance on me, Georgy Girl. Take a chance.”