My right hand slides up to cup his neck, and I drop my left directly onto the bulge in his pants. He jolts, but I don’t let him break the kiss, not even when he moans hungrily into my mouth. Between the seat belt and his perfectly tailored trousers, I can’t get a decent grip, but I can feel enough to know I won’t be disappointed.
Because I’ve already decided I’m going to have sex with Gideon Noble. I think I knew it back on the dance floor when I let him feel me up. Or maybe when I took his hand and dragged him away from the bar.
Or maybe it was before that, the second I turned around and saw his handsome face, almost a decade older but stillfamiliar, morphing from a seductive smolder to a nearly comical expression of shock and dismay.
Before I can make a half-assed attempt to talk myself out of it, Noble chooses that exact moment to slip his hand farther between my thighs. The tips of his long fingers brush the lace covering my mound, and now I reallyamsitting with my legs wide open in the back seat of a car.
But as with his pants, the seat belt and the hem of my dress conspire against me, and all we can do is grope and make out as the car takes us over the Williamsburg Bridge, across Lower Manhattan, and up to my apartment in the West Village.
“We’re here!” a cheery voice calls out.
I pull away from Noble with a gasp. Rodrigo and Bailey grin at us over the backs of their seats. Disoriented, I blink out the window at the familiar four-story redbrick building, its stair rails twined with garlands of fir and pinecones, a large wreath hanging on the front door. Bailey hops out of the SUV and lowers his seat so we can exit.
“Ah, thanks.” I gather my coat and purse as Noble unbuckles us. “Who should I pay?”
Rodrigo chuckles. “Gideon’s paying. Aren’t you, lover boy?”
“Out, Torres.” Noble grabs my hips and propels me ahead of him. I nearly trip over his long legs.
My face must be beet red as I say goodbye. Noble climbs out and mutters something to his friends, who hoot andholler. And then the door slams shut, the SUV pulls away, and Noble’s hand is on my lower back, guiding me to the steps of my building.
The breeze chills my heated flesh. My fingers tremble, though not from cold, as I pull out my keys and let us in.
We climb one flight of steps to my unit. At my door, Noble’s hands grip my waist. His lips trace up the back of my neck.
“I’ve been wanting to do this from the first second I saw you.” He breathes the words into my skin.
My eyes flutter shut and I drop the keys. “You have?”
“Mmm.I think part of me knew it was you when I saw your neck.”
Holy shit.All I can do is stand there as he drags slow, open-mouthed kisses up and down my nape. “H-how?”
“I often sat behind you in class.” There’s a rough edge to his voice that sends a shiver down my spine, or maybe it’s from his lips moving against the sensitive spot below my ear. “I lived for the days when you wore your hair up.”
His teeth scrape lightly against the tendons of my throat, and the only reply I can verbalize is a broken moan.
“Fuck.” His curse is savage, and he pulls away to scoop up the keys. “Which one?”
“Huh?”
“Thekeys, Torres. Which one?”
“Um, silver. Old looking.”
He unlocks the door and all but shoves me inside. Our coats drop to the floor.
He backs me into the closed door and plucks the clips from my hair. His fingers tangle in the loose tresses as he nips my jaw. “I really only meant for us to talk.”
I pull his mouth back to mine. “Later. I need this, too.”
With a growl, he hikes up my dress with both hands and shoves down my thong. He hurries to undo his belt and open his pants, then freezes.
“Fuck, I don’t have a condom—”
“I have an IUD.”
I can’t believe I just blurted that out, but his eyes glow with unabashed awe. That look sets me aflame, and I don’t regret my admission.
