Sweet Attraction (Slow Seduction) Read online

  He nodded, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Okay. What is it you do for a living, Red?” His gaze traveled over her mane of bright red hair, looking pleased with himself.

  “Original,” she muttered.

  He sent her another wink. “I’m a simple man, what can I say.”

  She thought about how to answer his question without being too specific, and went with, “I’m an entrepreneur. I own my own business.”

  His eyes turned thoughtful, though he didn’t press. “I have a feeling that’s all I’m going to get about that, so we’ll move on. And since I know you’re going to ask, I’m in construction.”

  Sounded about right. His body sure as hell showed the fruits of his manual labor.

  “You like your job, Bob?” she asked.

  He choked on his beer. “Bob?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. You know, like Bob the Builder?” She flicked her wrist in an absent wave, feeling the effects of the alcohol. “Plus, it rhymed with job.”

  His expression turned wary. “I’m not sure what it says about me that I remind you of a children’s toy.”

  She giggled—not the giggle, Jade!—and abruptly stopped. She let her gaze briefly roam down his body before coming back to rest on his face.

  Where she saw the biggest shit-eating grin.

  Yep. He’d definitely seen that.

  She shrugged as if to say Can you blame me? His grin got bigger. But she wouldn’t let herself be embarrassed just because she’d checked him out. She’d felt him checking her out earlier, after all, so she was simply returning the favor.

  “I don’t think anything about you could ever be described as childlike,” she said, hearing the involuntary drop in her voice.

  Bob’s eyes darkened, noticeably heating. “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  She nodded, returning her attention to her drink. “You should.”

  “I feel a little better, then. Bob, it is.”

  The air between them sparked with tiny jolts of electricity. She could practically see the way the mood had shifted, ever so slightly, in a different direction. A sexier, more naked one. Damn martinis, putting thoughts of sex into her head. She was not having sex with this guy. She didn’t do one-night stands. Never had a single one before in her life. Sex with someone she hardly knew made her nervous—it just wasn’t her thing.

  She maintained her fascination with the two olives submerged in her drink. “You never answered my question. Do you like your job?”

  He hesitated for a second before he responded. “Most days. There are highs and lows just like any other job, but overall I enjoy the work. Do you like owning your own business?”

  What a loaded question. And one she couldn’t really answer. “We’ll see.”

  His brow furrowed in question, but the bartender approached them before he could speak again. “Another round?”

  They both looked at their empty drinks, and Bob raised an eyebrow to her. “What do you think? Can I buy you one more?”

  What the hell.

  She’d never see this guy again, and she was enjoying the conversation. What could one more hurt?

  “Sure.”

  Half an hour later, she almost had vodka coming out of her nose.

  They were telling each other stories from their jobs, resulting in fits of hysterical laughter.

  “I kid you not,” she said, struggling to catch her breath. “The mother actually wanted the cake to say ‘Congratulations on Getting In, Dick.’ Her son’s name was Richard, went by Dick, and he had just gotten into law school. I tried to talk her into something else, but to her, it made complete sense.”

  Bob was clutching his stomach as he wiped tears from the corners of his eyes.

  “And when the sister came to pick it up,” Jade added, “she just looked down at it with a sigh, shook her head, and said, ‘Not again, Mom.’”

  They burst into another round of guffaws.

  Jade had mentioned that her last job had been as a baker, so she was pretty sure he now assumed the business she owned was a bakery. She wasn’t about to correct him.

  “Okay, okay, I got one,” he said after he collected himself. “When I was in high school, a buddy of mine asked me to help him with a job of putting polyurethane on the floors of a house. So we start rolling it on—mind you, neither one of us had ever worked with the stuff before—and after a while, we realize that we’re both feeling weird. Lightheaded, a little dizzy, and really spacey. We stop for a minute to go outside and get some fresh air, when it hits us.”

  “What?” she asked, riveted. “You got sick?”

  Bob shook his head, stifling a smile. “We were both high as fucking kites. We should have been wearing masks the whole time around that stuff, but we didn’t think about it. The rest of the day, we were stumbling around everywhere, our eyes glazed over. Hell, I was afraid to go home because I didn’t want my parents thinking I was on drugs or something.”

  “Nope,” she mused. “Just huffing chemicals.”

  “Then I got all paranoid that I was going to get drug tested and not be able to play football. Of course that was ridiculous, because it’s not like they test you for polyurethane exposure.” His eyes crinkled with restrained laughter when he looked at her. “I still pissed like a pregnant woman, though, thinking I needed to get it all out of my system. I was a complete dumbass.”

  She about fell off her stool from laughing so hard, knowing full well she looked like the dumbass. At some point between her hunching over to catch her breath and trying to keep from spitting her drink all over the man, her hand had drifted down to his thigh.

  Which did not go unnoticed by him.

  He stared at her hand with a clenched jaw, his nostrils flaring. She knew she should remove it, but the alcohol was slowing down her reaction time. Majorly. She could tell herself she had grabbed him for balance, needing purchase to keep from face-planting on the floor. It was probably half true.

  But somewhere in her subconscious, as she’d been delighting in his stories and reveling in his humor, she decided she wanted to touch him. Really, really wanted to touch him.

  If she had been schooled in the ways of seduction, she could have transformed herself into a confident sex kitten, turning him on by purring sweet nothings into his ear.

  Instead, she felt like a frazzled alley cat, aimlessly wandering around, waiting for someone to show her the way home.

  Real sexy.

  As he slowly lifted his head, his gaze trailed up the length of her body, scanning over every inch of skin as if searing it to his memory. She let out a heavy breath when their eyes finally connected.

  Lust.

  That was all she saw on his face.

  All she felt in her body.

  “You have a room, Red?” he said on a rasp.

  She nodded. Yes, she did.

  “You want to take me there?”

  She nodded again. Yes, she did.

  He gave her a curt nod. “Let’s go.”

  He paid their tabs and practically shoved her toward the door.

  The whole elevator ride up to her floor was fraught with tension. The good kind. The kind where two people knew they were about to get naked with each other, and they couldn’t decide where they wanted their mouths to go first.

  They stood close, arms rubbing against each other as they faced forward. For her, being that close and maintaining her self-control until they reached the privacy of her room intensified the moment.

  She tried really hard not to be nervous, but hell, she had never done this before. Rather, she had never done this before. Sex, yes. Sex with a complete stranger? No.

  People do it all the time, she told herself.

  She could be one of those people tonight. Because if she didn’t do it, she would have to go back and drink a lot more alcohol until she eventually passed out. Otherwise, her overactive mind would keep her up the entire night.

  So, there you have it. One-night stands had many practical pur
poses and could be easily justified. This way, instead of contemplating her future, she could contemplate the number of orgasms she was going to have.

  Plural?

  Could she have more than one? Was that possible?

  Focus, girl.

  When they entered her room and she shut the door behind them, it felt as though they had fallen into a black hole. Like nothing else existed in the world outside that little room. The only sounds filling the silence were their labored breaths. The only light in the room was coming from the bathroom, casting a small beam across the floor through the crack in the door. The rest of the room was bathed in darkness.

  There was enough light to see his face, though.

  And his body.

  The way his broad chest rose and fell as he slowly turned to face her. The way his head was slightly lowered and his eyes undressed her from head to toe. The way his hands were forming fists at his sides. And damn, the way he licked his lips when he focused on the sliver of skin exposed by her crop top.

  “Christ Almighty, you’re stunning.”

  She wasn’t sure why the compliment jarred her, but it did. He was just so…sincere about it. Maybe it was the Southern accent. It made him sound so harmless, as if he would never have the power to break a woman’s heart.

  Oh, but she knew better.

  This guy had heartbreaker written all over him.

  Not that it mattered. He wasn’t getting near her heart. Because no man ever would. That was a promise she had made to herself long ago.

  One she planned on keeping.

  He took a step toward her, eyes intent, but stopped before he reached her. His forehead creased, head tilting to the side as he assessed her expression. “You sure about this?”

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yes, I’m sure. Why do you ask?”

  “You’re biting your lip.”

  Her teeth released her lip. She hadn’t even realized she was doing it.

  “We don’t have to do this,” he said. “I can leave.”

  Panic shot through her. Oh hell no. She needed him, in more ways than one. “No, stay. Really. I want this.”

  He looked skeptical but slowly nodded. “Okay. You don’t have to worry, you know. We can go as slow as you want. I’ll make you feel good. I promise.”

  She believed him, but she also didn’t want to take it slow. Truthfully, it had been too long since she’d slept with anyone. And she had a lot of sexual frustration built up that she needed to purge.

  She threw her purse to the floor. “How about we stop talking now?”

  His eyes darkened, hearing the permission in her voice. He stalked toward her and brought their bodies closer together. He framed her face in his hands, touching her with reverence, as if afraid she would crumble under his touch.

  “I’ve wanted this from the second you strutted that hot little body up to the bar,” he said in a low voice. “But only if you do, Red.”

  She went up on her tiptoes and mirrored him, grasping both his cheeks. “Well, I’ve wanted to get that shirt off of you ever since I saw how big your arms are. So, that should give you some insight into what I want, Bob.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut as though in pain. “Do me a favor and don’t scream out that name while I’m fucking you.”

  Her insides caught fire at his confident tone. “Who says I’m going to be screaming?”

  He huffed, like the question offended him. Then he leaned down and got right up in her face, until their noses were touching. Against her mouth, he whispered, “I do.”

  Then he smashed their lips together. It was tentative at first, yet insistent. More like a kissing exploration. To figure out how their tongues moved together, the techniques they preferred.

  Oh man. He was definitely good at it—and totally knew what he was doing. Obviously experienced in the ways of pleasing a woman. She could tell he was used to taking the lead by the way his tongue demanded entrance, the urgent way his lips sucked at hers.

  She moaned.

  When she pressed her lower body against his, right up against the hardness in his jeans—

  That was when he snapped.

  All of a sudden, the kiss wasn’t gentle or tender anymore. With a rumbled growl, he turned it into something hot and hungry and wild. He backed her up against the wall, pinned her arms above her head, and started to grind that hardness into her barely covered mons. Her shorts had ridden up, and it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to shove them aside and take her right there.

  His goal seemed to be getting her naked, though.

  Fine with her.

  As long as he was, too.

  He ripped his mouth away and clutched her waist, guiding her movements against him. His eyes went to where their bodies were connected. The contrast in their sizes couldn’t have been greater. She was barely five two with narrow hips. And he was like…Goliath. No further explanation necessary.

  “Yeah, Red,” he muttered. “Work yourself on me. Roll those sexy hips against me.”

  His voice was sending her arousal levels through the roof. Her panties were already soaked through.

  “That feels good,” she murmured.

  “Yeah?” he asked on a grunt. “You like getting yourself off like that? Rubbing your pussy against my dick?” His mouth latched onto the skin of her neck. Sucking, biting, soothing. “Fuck, I need to see you.”

  No sooner had he said it than he had her top off and on the floor. He gazed at her breasts in her hot-pink bra. It wasn’t lacy or super sexy—she hadn’t planned on getting laid tonight—and was more of a comfort bra, though the color was pretty. And it fit her B cups perfectly.

  She suddenly felt a little self-conscious. Maybe he was a big boobs guy. Which meant he was probably disappointed in hers, since they were barely big enough to be handfuls.

  Whatever fears she had were obliterated when he reached around and unclasped the bra, revealing her pale flesh to him. He covered both of her breasts with his large tanned hands. The calluses on his fingers scraped against her sensitive nipples as he rubbed over the puckered tips, forcing more moans from her.

  “These are perfect,” he said with awe in his voice. “So soft. Just the right size for my hands.”

  The next thing she knew, he put his mouth on her. Kissing her nipple, flicking his tongue over it before sucking it into his mouth with breathtaking force.

  She snaked her hand to the back of his head, holding him there. “Oh my God.”

  Too soon, he pulled his mouth away, carried her over to the bed, and pushed her gently onto her back. She looked up to see her hands had made his hair stick out in every direction. And his eyes had gone so dark they were practically black.

  He looked dangerous.

  With that mouth, he was.

  Without breaking their eye contact, he kicked off his boots, stood up, and removed his shirt, revealing a hard, masculine abdomen. He didn’t have a clearly defined six-pack. He wasn’t perfectly toned like an underwear model. And he definitely didn’t manscape.

  What he had going on was so much better.

  He had thick ropes of muscle across his shoulders and down his arms that were evident of someone who actually put his body to work every day. And he had chest hair. Real chest hair. Not just a thin happy trail leading down to his goods. She had never liked a man with a shaved chest. They always looked too much like boys, and she wanted a man.

  This man was built like the gladiators of ancient Rome.

  And she so wanted to see his sword.

  “Look all you want, Red,” he managed. “It’s all yours tonight. Look, touch, do whatever you fucking want.”

  Obliging, she leaned forward and slid her hands up his torso, across his chest, over his pecs, and back down to the top of his jeans. His breath hitched as she began to slide his belt through the buckle. When she looked up through her lashes, she noticed his eyes had fallen closed, as if savoring her touch.

  But she was having trouble releasing the buckle.
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br />   “I can’t do everything I want if I don’t have full access,” she purred.

  He covered her hands with his and took over. “Allow me.”

  He shoved his jeans down his thighs, making them disappear in seconds, along with his briefs and socks. Every last bit of him was exposed, and it knocked the breath out of her.

  Holy. Shit.

  He was beautiful.

  Perfect size. Perfect shape. His manhood jutted out, long and hard and clearly eager to be inside her. Moisture coated the tip, and she had to lick her lips as she imagined how it would feel inside her. Arousal pooled between her legs—

  “You might want to close your mouth, Red,” he said on a tortured groan. “Unless you plan on putting my cock in there. Right now, you’re just teasing me.”

  She snapped her jaw shut.

  Looking more impatient by the minute, he flipped open the button of her shorts and roughly pulled them down her legs. As soon as he got her panties off, he lowered himself to the floor and knelt between her spread legs. He acted as though he couldn’t be bothered with anything aside from staring at her bare sex. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was shooting laser beams at it, from the rising heat she felt accumulating down there.

  “Jesus, that’s a pretty pussy.”

  Her hands grasped the sheets beside her, her hips arching up as he ran a single finger down her slit.

  “Smooth and wet. God, you’re beautiful.”

  She was just getting used to the circles he was rubbing around her clit when he suddenly flattened his tongue against her and licked all the way up her folds.

  “Oh shit.”

  He picked up speed.

  He lapped at her slick flesh with furious swipes of his tongue, and sucked her into his mouth as he had with her nipples. The way he was moaning against her skin was driving her crazy. He acted like he was enjoying doing it as much as she was enjoying having it done to her.

  That was hot.

  “You taste even sweeter than I thought you would,” he mumbled. “Fuck, you’re every man’s fantasy woman come to life.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was speaking the truth or if he was just caught up in the frenzied moment. Not that it mattered…