A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(9)

I was panting, my pulse pounding. My whole body was flushed, and I was sweating.

His gaze was unsteady, and I felt a moment of triumph, because I did that to him. Not that he’d been quiet about wanting me, but he’d felt in control. This whole time, he’d been toying with me, but now he was off kilter, and I was the reason.

This wasn’t just a one-way street. I had power over him too.

His eyes glazed over, and he began to move in again.

I shot a hand against his chest. He held back, but his hands moved to my legs, where they gripped me in place. He had one holding me up against the wall, cupping half of my ass. His fingers pressed in, and he moved his pelvis into me.

I started to make a noise, to stop him, but then he was there and he was touching me, and dear god, he felt so good.

He ground against me, and I almost forgot where we were. The haze of wanting his lips on mine again was so strong, but a burst of laughter sounded on the other side of the door. It was like a bucket of water drenching us. We were brought back to reality once more.

Reality sucked.

His eyes closed, and he pried his hands off of me, forcibly taking a step back. He raked a hand through his hair, his eyes flashing an apology, one that seemed genuine. “I hadn’t intended that when I brought you out here.”

Breathing was hard around him. “What did you intend?”

“Honestly? I have no idea, so maybe I did intend for that to happen.” His gaze lingered on my mouth, and his eyes darkened.

He was about to go back in when I sidestepped him. I reached behind, finding the door handle. My chest was still rising and falling at a rapid pace, my heartbeat a loud drum in my ears. “I think”—I winced at hearing how raspy my voice was because he did that. He had that power over me—“it’s very obvious, whoever you are, that you are not good for me, or me for you, so let’s leave this behind us.” I was half whispering those words, and my heart was squeezing again because my body was screaming for the opposite of what I was saying. But I knew, I just knew, this wouldn’t end well. One night wouldn’t do it for me. He was already under my skin, and that was from one kiss. I shuddered at what would happen if we did have sex. This guy was disastrous for me.

His eyes were pained, but he was listening to me.

I paused, because this had to be final, and I hardened my voice. I hardened everything inside of me. “You should stay away.”

I didn’t give him a second to argue or, worse, touch me.

I opened the door and slipped through and pulled it shut right behind me.

I paused, one beat, but then as I felt him start to open the door, I did what I never thought I’d do.

I fled.





CHAPTER NINE


JESS


I woke early the next morning, and I was telling myself it was because I needed to check on my mom and not because I wanted to avoid Kelly. Like I’d avoided her last night. I’d taken off, sending her a text that she’d need to get a ride from one of our bowling friends.

I’d been in bed by the time she’d rolled in, which was late because I knew they liked to have a couple extra beers after, sometimes going out dancing too.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to fill Kelly in on this guy, whose name I still didn’t know, but it was that if I forgot about him, didn’t talk about him, I wouldn’t remember how he made me feel. Or how my body reacted to him, because it was too much and it was out of control, and in all of my life, I’d never felt that.

I was twenty-nine. I didn’t know if I should be sad about that or pissed off that it took this long.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Whoever he was, he was bad news.

I needed to forget him, forget the whole thing. The two meetings. The constant thinking about him. Now the continuous remembering how he felt, his kisses, his touches, how he felt pressed up and into me—on a constant loop. I needed to forget that too.

I groaned, shaking my head, because the only thing that would dash all my dreams and hopes—a visit to my mother. That’s not why I was going to see her. It was just time to check on her. I didn’t like to go longer than a couple weeks if I didn’t hear from her, and the two weeks was up. I was planning on dropping by an hour before work. That gave me time to grab coffee and also time to handle whatever needed to be handled at the house, because with my mom, there was usually something that needed to be handled.

I stopped before heading to Mom’s and got coffee from Marco’s Corner Stand, which was the most divine Cuban coffee I’d ever had in my life. Knowing Chelsea would grumble if I didn’t bring her some, I grabbed one for her as well.

We were in the same brownstone we’d been all our life. It was inherited from our grandfather’s grandfather. Since my dad died, since my brother, Isaac, went to prison, the place wasn’t being kept up. My mom lived here, but she didn’t handle any of the maintenance. I grimaced, coming to the front steps and seeing two of them cracked down the middle. The frames needed a new paint job, but that was cosmetic. I knocked, rang the doorbell, because Chelsea Montell didn’t like me walking in and scaring her. I was more under the impression she wanted a few minutes to stash her stuff, whatever it was that she knew I wouldn’t want her having. So I did it, because I’m a good daughter, despite her complaints.

I waited a little before I used my key to go inside. “Ma!”