You've Got Fail(41)

“No, of course not. We’re both adults, Sparky.” I wanted to go back to him, to just walk into the arms I knew would be open for me. I couldn’t.

The elevator opened.

“Friday,” I called and walked inside.

The doors almost closed before Willis wedged his foot between them.

They opened, and he walked inside and invaded my space. “Thanks for coming over.” He tilted my chin up and brushed his lips softly across mine as the elevator doors closed and we descended. The sinking feeling in my stomach had to come from the change in elevation, right? He dropped more gentle kisses on my mouth, my cheeks, and even my nose.

The doors opened on the lobby level.

“This isn’t over.” Willis stepped back, and I almost crumpled against the wall behind me.

He walked me to the doorman. “Get her a cab, would you?”

Gene smiled and perused Willis’s shirtless and shoeless exterior. “Yes, sir.”

Willis drew his wallet from his back pocket and handed me some bills. “For cab fare.”

“Thanks.”

Gene walked outside to hail a cab.

Willis kissed me again. Not soft. Not gentle. Just pure ownership, even bending me back as his tongue made a believer out of me. Setting me back upright, he said, “Friday, then.”

In a daze, I nodded my agreement. “Friday.”

Sitting in the cab on the way across the river, I tried to make sense of how I’d been so overcome by a man who wore Superman boxers. No answer came, but I resolved that we wouldn’t take it any further. No more mind-blowing orgasms, no more soul-searing kisses, no more erotic blowjobs. I was going to be a professional…well, as professional as a con-woman could be. My future—and Hannah’s—depended on it.

My phone beeped. I pulled it from my bag and checked the message.

Sparky: I can still taste you.



A delicious shiver shot down my spine. I wanted him again, and not just the third base stuff. I wanted to ride home plate bareback.

I shook my head and stared down at the turbulent river.

Yeah, real professional.





15





Willis





Again, we picked up a vixen standing on the curb in front of a high-rise condo. This time, she wore a forest-green dress, the neckline dropping in a deep V between her breasts, and the hemline just two degrees south of illegal.

My heart leapt into my throat as she eased into the limo, her pale legs closing before I could get a glimpse of the wonderland between her thighs.

“You look unforgettable.” I forced myself to not dig at my collar. Scarlet had some magic of making the air disappear the moment I saw her.

She smiled and pulled out her lipstick. “Did you practice that one, Sparky?”

Her playful tone was in place, but there was something different. She applied her lipstick and placed it and the mirror back into her bag.

I plucked a lock of her fiery red hair and slid the smooth strands between my thumb and forefinger. “I practiced in the mirror a few times. Tried out different words. But that one just came to me the second I saw you.”

Her warm brown eyes caught mine. “You’re sweet.”

“I think you know I’m more than that.” I trailed my fingertips along her smooth throat.

She flushed but grabbed my wrist. “Don’t. We need to keep this professional.”

She was one hundred percent correct, but “professional” had gone out the window the moment she came with my head nestled between her legs.

“What’s the matter?”

She shrugged and dropped her gaze. “Nothing. I’m just trying to keep this as a business arrangement.”

A sharp sting sliced through my heart, and I leaned back against the leather. I knew what she was doing. For being a mystery, she was clear as freshly Windexed glass on this point. She was afraid to get close, to open up. The stuff with Pauly was just the tip of the iceberg.

“You don’t have to be scared.”

Her head whipped around. “I’m not scared.”

“You are.” I smoothed my hands down the lapels of my suit coat.

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know lots.” I smiled at her, getting under her skin for once. “I know the sounds you make when you come on my face—”

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “That was a momentary lapse in judgment.”

I nodded as if I were entertaining her words. “Okay, so what about the cock sucking?”

Her back stiffened. “Also a lapse.”

“I think you enjoyed every minute of it, and only got scared when you realized that meant you were opening up to me.”

She smirked. “You call that thinking?”

“This is just like Aliens Versus Vampires II. Commander Reptilian meets and falls in love with an enemy in the vampire fleet, but she pushes him away because of her dark past as an alien hunter. Fangia was the one who captured his father and turned him over to the vampire overlords for his eventual execution. So, of course, she was afraid the Commander would find out and not want her anymore. But you know what he did when he found out?”

She rolled her eyes. “This is the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life, but sure, continue.”