Page 13 of The Businesswoman and the Bartender

She nodded shyly, and he plucked the bobby pins out, tossing them to the side. Soon enough, her hair fell around her shoulders, a bit tangled and messy, considering it had been coiled for hours. He gently ran his hands through the strands, and she heard his chest rumble.

“This hair of yours,” he groaned, leaning in to nuzzle the tresses. “I spent hours thinking about doing this. Running my hands through it.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Then he clutched her backside. “Your ass is also fantastic,” he admitted, his tone and expression lacking a hint of shame.

Flushing with happiness, she gave him a peck on the lips and said, “Watching your large hands work the pepper mill that first night had me all hot and bothered.”

Nick threw his head back and howled with laughter. She followed suit, and they stumbled from the foyer back over to the main area of the room, unable to keep their hands off each other. She worked at the buttons on his shirt, and he pulled at her blazer, tossing it to the side.

“What do you like?” he murmured against her mouth.

I like you, she almost whispered back. But instead, she hummed, “Hmm?”

“In bed. What do you like?”

April tried to remember if any man had ever asked such a question. Her first time with her ex had been following a frat party their junior year. They’d both been buzzed, and the sex had been spontaneous and admittedly lackluster, but they’d eventually figured out the physical aspect of their burgeoning relationship. Years later, after the breakup, she remained celibate for years, allowing herself time to mourn the end of her most substantial romantic relationship. Since then, she’d slept with two more people—a guy she’d casually dated for four months before realizing he bored her to tears, and a messy one-night stand with a friend of Lucy’s fiancé after their engagement party.

“Oh, you know,” she hedged. Slipping her sneakers off, she reached over to the bedside lamp and turned it down, shrouding the room in mood lighting.

“No, I don’t know,” he needled flirtatiously. “That’s why I asked.”

By this point, his shirt was completely unbuttoned, and she was rendered speechless by the sight of his bare chest. The tattoos on his left arm snaked all the way up over his shoulder and to his pectoral. A thin layer of brown hair covered his upper body, trailing down his abdominal muscles. He wasn’t cut and sculpted like a male model, but he was solidly built and beautifully normal. Unable to resist, she skimmed her hands up his chest and guided the shirt all the way off.

Lust took control of her tongue. “I like a bit of good, old-fashioned roughness. Nothing crazy. Maybe a hair pull here and an ass slap there. Give me a thorough pounding and call me a slut once or twice if you’re into that sort of thing, but then in the next breath, tell me how pretty I am and kiss me gently, you know?”

Oh my God,whywas she like this? Before she could die of embarrassment, he cupped her face in his hands and gave her a look that made her knees weak.

“Oh, I do know.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against her own. “And you’re very pretty.”

The soft and sensual timbre of his voice created a ripple of bliss in her belly. And that ripple grew into a wave of fervid anticipation when he untucked her T-shirt and pulled it over her head, his hands immediately moving to the button of her dress pants. Considering how she’d given up on this fantasy coming to fruition, her undergarments were mismatched and simple—a white bra and lavender thong that was frayed along the top hem. But Nick didn’t appear to mind, because seeing her undressed pulled a deep hum from his throat, and he tilted her head, capturing her mouth once more.

She fumbled with the button of his trousers, and he moved to plant kisses down her neck, sucking against the skin enough to make her whimper. “I forgot to ask what you like,” she said breathlessly.

“I like you,” he answered, the reply simple and sure, and like he’d pulled it directly from her own mind.

Her eyes stung with tears, but she swallowed down the emotion. He was too busy removing his pants to notice her maudlin moment, and her aroused awareness returned when he stood before her in a pair of black briefs. She realized then that his lower body had been concealed, thanks to the bar he always stood behind, and she gawked at his muscular thighs, which were particularly impressive.

As was the stiff length straining against the fabric of his briefs.

“Did you…play football or something?” she asked, still eyeing his strapping legs.

“Rugby.”

“Shit, that’s hot.”

He chuckled under his breath and guided her down onto the bed. His brawny body bearing down on hers made her mewl with lust, and his erection pressed against her left hip bone as they found a comfortable position lying horizontal across the expansive bed. Their mouths reconnected, and he ran his hands up and down her body as if desperate to touch every inch of her.

She hissed in pleasure when he grasped her breasts, massaging the flesh through the cotton of her bra. Then he muttered something that sounded likefuck itbefore he frantically slipped his hands behind her back. He pulled at the clasp, and April arched her body to help him undo the undergarment. Soon the bra was chucked aside, and he bent his head to lavish attention to her breasts.

But before he could, she stopped him, placing her hands against his shoulders to hold him still. “I just realized—do you have a condom?” she asked worriedly.

His eyebrows furrowed in thought, but then his expression loosened. “Yeah. In my wallet.”

“Oh, thank God.”

Her wheeze of laughter turned into a shameless moan when he clasped one nipple between his lips and pulled relentlessly. Sparks danced across her skin, starting at where he sucked and hurtling down to her wet core.

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