Page 4 of False Introductions

“Of course they did,” I grumbled, not quite realizing what was happening around me. All I knew was that there was my new favorite scent somewhere near me. I truly didn’t mind black licorice, but now it was bringing me back from the dark places of my mind.

“See, I’m more of a purple fan and I thought maybe we could celebrate their win instead, but then I thought you left, so I was just going to take this drink back to my room, but then I saw you,” Sophia rambled. “If you have to go, don’t worry about it, I’ll just head back to my reports—”

3 Rhea

The next moment he interrupted my words. His mouth angled over mine in a kiss that completely caught me off guard. I was tense, surprise having rooted me to the ground. The liquid in my hand, however, sloshed over the rim and coated us both in the sticky, aromatic substance.

I jumped.

Sensing my surprise, he pulled himself back only for a moment to ask, “May I kiss you?” He didn’t seem to care about the spilt Sambuca.

I swallowed hard at the sound of his gravelly voice. Placing the glass on a concrete pillar for the lamp post, he never took his eyes off me. I had barely nodded in assent before that hard mouth came back to my own. This time, as one hand snaked around my waist and one creeped up my spine to my hair, I slowly felt my body begin to melt into his.

I could tell the instant I saw him standing on the pavement that he wasn’t the same carefree man from the bar. But instead of being chased away, I felt myself drawn to his riotous energy. Now, as he dipped me back, his mouth became insistent against my own. It was as if my opening up to him would sate some deep seated agony that needed a healing balm.

So I did just that. It was so natural to reach up and lock my arms around his neck. There was a rumble in his throat that could only be described as pleasure. It was hot as fuck. I could feel my panties getting wet from just that sound alone.

Everything about that kiss felt so good. The white hot flames of lust reached out as tendrils across my suddenly too-sensitive skin. I kissed this man back for everything I was worth.

But all too soon, we came crashing back to reality. Instead of jumping apart, we broke the kiss, but stayed locked in each other’s arms for a moment longer.

“I just had to know what that would be like.” He shrugged, effortlessly raising then dropping those broad shoulders of his. “Ever since you swept into the bar—I haven’t been able to think of anything else all night.”

“Don’t you dare apologize,” I tried to hiss, but ended up panting instead. “This was what I came down here for.”

His eyes lit up at my admission, and a slow, decedent smile spread across his lips.

Oh hell, what did I just start?

But I wasn’t running. It was as if a spell had been cast over us. I was comfortable in his arms. He wasn’t like most guys, hitting on me while actually fulfilling some selfish agenda. If this went any further, he would put me first. This guy wasn’t a prick. From the little I had seen, he was genuinely fun—and holy shit the story about buying dinner for the homeless folks he had befriended! If that didn’t melt a heart of stone, I don’t think anything could.

As I stood there, his arms drawing me up and into his hard body, I was frozen under the heat in his gaze. This was another side to him. A side that if I explored further, I could get into some serious trouble.With some satisfying repercussions.My dirty mind’s helpful additions caused me to shiver in his arms.

“I should go.” The reluctance and hesitation in my voice were noticeable. Before I could do something stupid, however, I tried to rein in the hormones that had driven me back downstairs. Just that one taste left me sated—and desperately craving more.

He nodded, his hooded gaze raking over me once more. I knew that with a word, he could keep me wrapped in his arms all night. I had never been outmatched by the opposite sex, always keeping to my rule of knowing exactly what I wanted and what I was getting myself into. Tonight I had dared to go where I had never gone before. And this time, I had survived. But I knew with certainty that it might not be the same if I dared to tempt fate with this man again.

4 Karter

“Mr. Livingston,” Xavier Fields of WRX Distribution was sitting across from me, fingers steepled under his snubbed nose. “Does this sound to your liking?”

It was ten-o-five in the morning and I was still inwardly shaking from that kiss.

Get it together, Karter. But for all my mental criticism, I was struggling to focus. And Xavier, damn him, was playing games. I wasn’t in a fucking mental state to deal with this bullshit.

I nodded and gestured for the man to continue, which he mercifully did. I had been so wrecked last night. When I returned to my condo, I had fired up my lap top and gone to work. The effort had been futile. And when dawn arrived, painting the sky with her rosy fingers, I wasn’t feeling any better. The disappointment and disapproval of my boss—my own father—had me tossing and turning all night. It wasn’t about the wholesaler I had screwed up last month. It was the culmination of small slices that had been made in our relationship since I was a lad that had me in a dark mood.

There had only been one thing to cut through the darkness. It had come and gone all too quickly. Yet, I wasn’t sure if the remedy was better than the ailment. It was more than a pleasant distraction. It had been something I needed more of and soon. How could I have known what that kiss would do to me?

I wasn’t known to devour a stranger’s mouth and consume their soul like a fucking monster. But Sophia had caught me when I was raw. I had sensed something about her that would soothe me—if only for those few moments she lingered in my arms. All it had taken was one look at those plump, succulent lips and my body had let instinct take over.

Now I was facing the tasks at hand, but I wasn’t on my A-game. This was a standard acquisition, and it should have taken very little effort on my part to secure the deal. So while Xavier waxed on about his company’s first quarter earnings, I pretended to listen with rapt attention. My mind drifted off, however, to the parting last night. While Sophia had been in my arms, I had desperately been trying to decide if I was going to take the kiss further—it was a place we both clearly were craving to go. The only thing holding me back had been my upbringing. I was a gentleman. I didn’t go around kissing classy girls—especially on the street.

But then her phone had rung, and it must have been a specially set ring tone, because she jumped out of my arms and scrambled to answer the thing. And that was that. Giving me a two finger wave, she had disappeared into the hotel and presumably back to her room.

She was leaving you anyhow; she was too sophisticated to have a dirty hook-up with you,the self-deprecating part of my mind helpfully added.

When she had left, and I could barely catch my breath, I realized something was off about her. When I asked at the front desk for a Sophia, I had been told that there was no one staying there by that name. Furthermore, she had paid Milton with a card instead of charging it to her room. I couldn’t track down my mystery girl without going to a bit of trouble.Why would she give me a false name?Sure, I used my middle name at the bar. I had told Milton way-back -when that I didn’t want anyone knowing who I was, because his bar had become my solace. But for me to get a taste of my own medicine and have someone use a false name with me—well, it stung a little.

---