He had that kind of sex appeal that made you feel like you’d met a god. His body was hard, everywhere, and as he held me, he felt like a brick wall.
I’ve lost my mind. Stop fangirling. Coming to my senses, I found my voice.
“I’d like for you to leave me alone. I’m not interested in whatever it is you think you’re doing,” I said, pulling back from him.
His grip tightened, and his eyes flared with desire. One of his hands combed through my hair as he gently tugged on the strands. He tilted my face up, and before I could even think, his mouth pressed against mine. Time stood still, the world faded away as our lips met. The sensation knocked me back.
His tongue slid across my lower lip, and my mouth parted to his. He delved his tongue inside, meeting mine, taking ownership of it. It was deep, passionate, hot, and full of something akin to desperation.
I clung to him in the afternoon sun as people walked by on the street. I stood on my tiptoes as my hands automatically moved to caress the clean-shaven parts of his head. A small moan escaped. I didn’t want him to ever stop kissing me. It was the first time I had ever been properly kissed by a man.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized how stupid this was. I didn’t know this man at all, and I was allowing him to kiss me passionately in broad daylight in the tiny town I lived in. Moving my mouth away from his, I whispered his name. I didn’t know if it was that or if he’d come to his senses, but he released me as if I scalded him.
“Leave,” he mumbled.
Without hesitation, I turned and bolted in the opposite direction.What just happened? I walked the remaining two blocks to my second job and tried to put him and his strange behavior from my mind. The only solace I had was that he seemed as confused by what happened between us as I was.
Thankfully, it was a Friday and so busy that I lost myself in serving my customers. I worked until 11 p.m. and was exhausted when I walked through my front door. After showering, I went to turn the light off when my phone rang.
I glanced down and picked it up. “Hey, what’s up?”
“We going to talk about the elephant in the room?” Sarah asked as loud background noises filtered through the speaker.
“We can. What are you doing? It’s noisy.”
“Getting ready to go out, but I have a few minutes. Since you won’t go to that new club with me, I’m having my sister come, and she’s taking forever,” she snarked, giving her older sister crap. “I’m waiting, friend, spill the beans. Since when does a hot man come to talk to my best friend, and she says nothing about it? He’s delicious looking. Does he have a brother or best friend? Who is he? Spill, girl.”
I filled her in on the little I knew, which was his name and what he told me at the café.
“He’s intense, arrogant, controlling, and has an odd fascination with how I smell. Not to mention he asked me what I use in the shower. Who does that to a stranger?” I asked, needing confirmation that I wasn’t crazy.
“Maybe he wants to shower with you,” she teased.
I rolled my eyes at her comment. “You can shower with him, then. It was mortifying being sniffed and nuzzled by a Neanderthal in front of my boss and regular customers.”
I didn’t tell her about the kiss this afternoon. Without the ability to articulate my emotions, it was easier not to mention it.
“Look, we’ll need to talk more about this tomorrow. Darla isfinallyready.”
We hung up after making plans for the next day. Turning my light off, I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I was having the loveliest dream of being surrounded by a field of honeysuckle shrubs, but I kept hearing a buzzing.
The bees were loud, and I looked around, searching for them. But I woke when I realized the buzzing was coming from my phone. Grabbing it, I saw I had four missed calls.Shit. What happened now?
“Sarah, what’s wrong?” I demanded, answering the phone. I cleared my throat, still feeling groggy.
“Not Sarah, but your friend needs you. It looks like you’re playing, after all,” the rich, smooth voice of Aleksandr King laughed in my ear.
“How the hell do you have Sarah’s phone? What happened to her? I swear if you hurt her—”
“Slow down, darling. Your friend had too much to drink, her sister left her, and she hurt her ankle. Imagine my surprise when her ride or die was you.”
Damn, Sarah. I could totally see her drinking too much. And Darla leaving her wasn’t anything new. I’d picked her up a few other times, although she was the one who always called me. I didn’t know if I should believe him or not, but one thing was for certain: him calling me darling was going to stop.
“Aleksandr, I will tell you one last time. Call me darling again, and I will cut your tongue out. You’re so unoriginal, ‘darling.’” I mimicked his voice. “Do better. Now let me talk to Sarah.”
“I’d like to see you try to cut my tongue out, dar—oh, that’s right, you want something a bit more original. You got it, kotyonok.”
My heart fluttered at the new nickname.
