Page 25 of My Heart Before You

After learning their names were Bree and Katherine and that they worked in a personal relations firm downtown, he and Justin bought them vodka martinis, and they had a lively conversation about the different places they were from. Bree poured the attention on thick, keeping at least one part of her body attached to him as they chatted. About an hour to close, she shot a look to her partner in crime before stretching her body and faking a yawn.

“I’m getting tired, boys, and I need to be up early in the morning.” She directed her gaze coyly at him. “I only live a few blocks from here. Why don’t you walk me home?”

Justin winked at him. “That sounds like the gentlemanly thing to do.”

“Will you?” She tilted her head.

“Of course.”

She had been flirting with him senselessly for the last few hours. Over that time, each caress reminded him how much he missed a woman’s touch and since he couldn’t hold the one he wanted to, finding a little comfort in the arms of another even if it was just a doorstep makeout didn’t seem unreasonable.

“See you on Monday, Kat.” She shoulder hugged her friend before they left the bar.

Bree leaned heavily on his arm chatting the two blocks to her apartment complex, and gestured to the building when they arrived. “Why don’t you come up?”

By this time, he couldn’t see a reason to say no. He nodded a hello to the doorman as she took his hand and led him to the lobby elevator. Bree shimmied around him to push the button marked fourteen and as soon as the doors closed, she pressed him with her body and crushed her lips on his.

He’d been with a few forward women in his life, but no one this direct. Frankly, it was refreshing not to make all the decisions at the moment. All he did today was make choices, often life or death choices, and give orders telling others what to do.

Her strong perfume stung his nose as he widened his legs so she could press between them. When he returned her feverish kiss, letting his fingers graze her protruding shoulder blades, she wove her hands inside his blazer, and pulled them closer.

As soon as they were in her sleek apartment, she pulled off his jacket and made fast work on the buttons of his dress shirt. Her vodka stained tongue swiped wildly in his mouth, and he felt himself returning her unrestrained kisses. It had been so long since he had been with anyone, and she was so very willing. She stopped him at the foot of her bed, flipped around, and pulled her long hair over her shoulder.

“Unzip me.” She tossed a heated look over her shoulder, the two fingers of her raised hand pinching a condom between them.

He did as he was told, and they collapsed onto her silken bed in a tangle of limbs.

???

Bree stretched her body, propped up on one elbow, and winked. “That was just what I needed.”

Putting his hands behind his head, his body still reverberated from their athletic activity and the copious alcohol he’d consumed.

She slid from beside him, her strappy heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she swaggered to a tall dresser. The obnoxiously sharp sound alerted him to the fact that she’d left them on the whole time. An annoyed breath left his lips as she grabbed something off the dresser before picking up his shirt, pants, and boxers. She stood over him completely naked and unashamed as she held out his clothes to him—on top of the clothes pile was a business card.

“That was great, really, but Idohave to get up early in the morning.”

He kept his face even as he sat up. “Of course.” After running his hand through his tousled hair, he took the clump of clothes from her outstretched arms.

“There’s my card if you ever want to meet up again.” Bree cocked her hip. “I work crazy hours, and all my time goes into my job. You get it. You’re in finance, right?”

He was about to correct her, but she kept talking, “If you ever need a release again, I could probably work you in, Carl. You were fun . . .” She pushed a twisting hand through his chest hair as he started to button his shirt. “. . . and hot.”

Not even trying to correct her on his name, he just let a fake smile cross his face and stood. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading towards her ensuite bathroom.

“I’m going to get cleaned up. Make sure the front door shuts, okay?” She tossed one last hooded glance over her shoulder and closed the bathroom door.

As he gathered his blazer on the way out, he dropped her card on the hallway table. There had been a few one-night encounters in his youth, but he never pushed a woman out of his bed like that. He couldn’t say that he was truly hurt; he’d gotten what he had wanted out of the interaction after all.

When he exited the building, the doorman gave him a knowing smirk. Colin stepped into his Uber and was silent on the ride home. Something nagged at him. He found himself irritated when he should have been excessively happy having just had sex with an attractive woman, but everything about tonight gave him a sour taste in his mouth like too much bourbon burning at the back of his throat.

He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to be the guy that had meaningless one-night stands. He didn’t want to hold women like Bree in his arms. He wanted to hold one chestnut-haired woman whose laughter lit up his chest from the inside out.

Not that what he wanted mattered anyway. The stigma of getting involved with someone from work, a nurse no less, was not something he needed right now.

He pushed the thoughts away as they arrived at his building, thanked the driver, and exited the car. As he walked through the revolving door, he heard women laughing from within the elevator as the metal doors closed. Letting out a loud exhale, he headed towards the stairs.

?Chapter 11?

---