Page 7 of A Man After Midnight

Caroline smiled and felt the groove of her dimples. “I think it’s time romance made a comeback.”

“That’s a great tag line,” he admitted with a smile.

The singer came to the last line in the song, her hypnotic voice rising. The couples stopped dancing to applaud. She thanked the crowd before nodding to the conductor, who immediately started in on another song. Wren took her back in his arms to resume dancing. This song mostly featured a piano accompaniment to the song Baby.

“Do you play any instruments?” Caroline asked.

“Some piano,” he answered. “You?”

“My father thought music lessons were a waste of money. I regret the only thing I know how to play is a stereo.”

He laughed and their eyes clashed, held, and all amusement faded. The moments stretched, even past the current song and into the next. As their bodies moved together, his arms tightened around her. Hip to hip, thigh to thigh. His body heat enveloped her, the rich scent of his cologne wrapping around her in a sensual blanket. Her heart pounded with anticipation when his eyes fell to her lips. She wet them with the tip of her tongue. His body went rigid and they stopped dancing.

“Come with me,” he said in a deep, guttural tone, taking her hand and leading her from the dance floor.

The darkness helped hide the redness staining her cheeks as Wren led her from the dance hall room toward the area marked with restrooms. Behind the band platform was a set of stairs. Still holding tightly to her hand, Wren led her up them to a long hallway. The women’s bathroom was to the right and the men’s toward the left. However, Wren bypassed both to head toward the exit sign at the end of the hall. He turned a corner and pulled her into a secluded enclave.

Wren cupped her face, his breath fanning over her lips. Her eyes fluttered closed just as his mouth touched hers, with only the barest hint of pressure. It was the most erotic chaste kiss she’d ever experienced. A simple meshing of lips that held nothing more than a warm bond, and just when the longing for more became too much, he swept his tongue over the closed seam of her mouth. She let out a gasp, giving him the perfect opportunity to deepen the kiss. When their tongues twined together, she tasted a hint of gin lingering from the martini. Caroline wrapped her arms around his neck in an effort to get closer.

Wren ran his hands down her arms, over her hips, and finally to her rear. He gripped each ass cheek firmly as he pulled her into the crook of his thighs to rub her up and down his hard cock. Need rolled through her at his domination. God, how could she crave him so much, this stranger who had miraculously appeared when she needed him most? Never had she felt such instant lust for someone, not even her husband, and the raw compulsion for sex was something new and foreign.

He broke the kiss and eased back. They stared into one another’s eyes, even though the only light came from the exit sign over their heads.

“I’ve been wanting to kiss you since I saw you in that bar,” he said.

“Why didn’t you approach me?” Caroline responded.

“I detest bars and more specifically, all the cheesy pick-up lines I hear floating around. But with you I was willing to make an exception … and then Gil appeared. I wanted to see if you were the type of woman who’d want him.”

“Hell no,” she said emphatically. “You wanted to know why you and not him? His actions were cold and calculating, even from the beginning. Staking out women in a bar, picking his potential bed partner … I wasn’t going to be the next notch on his bedpost.”

The fingers gripping her ass cheeks tightened just a little. “And my bedpost, Caroline?”

She took a deep breath. Now was the moment to back away if she wanted. To thank Wren for the drink and dancing, and saving her from being assaulted. She could leave with all her sanity intact, retreat back behind the walls she’d built up, and enjoy the memory of being just a bit daring.

Or she could live a little. Be more daring.

Wasn’t that why she’d come to New York City after all?

Without answering him, she traced a finger down his chest to his abdomen. A little quiver in his belly let her know how she affected him. She kept going, until she reached his fly, and the impressive hard-on beneath straining against it. He groaned as she caressed him through the material, being careful to pull down the zipper. She slid her hand inside, worming her way through his boxers until her seeking fingers brushed over his hard cock.

“Christ, Caroline,” he said in a guttural tone. He released her and leaned back, allowing her to explore.

Wetness leaked from the head, so she coated her hand enough to start sliding it up and down the shaft, learning its sizeable girth and tracing the vein that bubbled from the head.

“Come here,” he said and grabbed one of her legs to lift up and hook around his hip. Her dress rode up, the cool air touching her intimately. Wren pressed his fingers against her pussy, moving aside her panties and the garter belt she wore to find her wet slit. He found her clit, lightly caressing the bundle of nerves that had her humping his hand.

Everything melted away. She forgot they were in a public place, she forgot they had just met … she even forgot her own name as her body clenched into the beginnings of an orgasm. His mouth landed on hers just as she convulsed, swallowing her cry of bliss.

Once sanity returned, she realized his cock was still in her hand, and it was still rock hard. Wanting to return the pleasure, she dropped her leg and focused on him. The shaft twitched in her hands, the skin stretched tight. Curling her hand around it, she pumped it, holding tight around the base and easing up at the top. His body rocked into her caress, seeking the ecstasy she found. He slammed his mouth onto hers and she sucked hard on his tongue, drawing it all the way into her mouth, and the combined feelings must have tipped the scale, because he moaned deep into her mouth and his body stiffened as he came. Her palm caught the hot jets of his cum as he pumped a few more times before he broke their kiss and leaned his forehead against her shoulder.

They stayed entwined like that for a couple of moments, while the pleasure slowly faded off and reality settled in. Her hand, filled with his release, withdrew from his pants. Wren took out a white handkerchief from his back pocket and held it out toward her.

She giggled as she wiped her palm. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

He kissed her lips and softly ran a finger down her cheek. “Never had sex in a public place?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never had sex with someone I just met, either.”

“I seem to be a bad influence on you.”

“Mm.” She let her head fall back against the wall and looked at him. “What would you say if I told you I wanted you to be very bad with me?”

His body surged against hers. “Spend the night with me, and you’ll get your wish.”

With her heart beating erratically again, Caroline grabbed hold of the new found boldness that had flooded through her body, and nodded.

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