Page 46 of Final Serenade

Outside, the loading crew rolled the last of the equipment into the truck. The air was chilled.

Two sets of bright, shimmering lights moved toward me from across the lot. A limo. For some reason, it didn’t surprise me at all. Frank was a man of grand gestures. My bag in my hand seemed heavy. The car came to a stop, back door swinging open. I searched the area to make sure no one was filming or taking photos.

“Cassy?” Frank’s voice drifted at me from the vehicle. I caught a glimpse of impatience. He didn’t want to be seen. Or he didn’t want me to be seen with him.

Come what may,I thought and slid inside. My bag thumped against my legs.

The limo was huge but unlike Dante’s, it didn’t have any party props. The lights weren’t disco and the stripper pole was missing. Glass, leather, and wood completed the sophisticated interior.

The divider was up.

“Where’s Roman?” I asked, pulling the door closed.

“Wow.” Frank’s face screwed up with fake shock. “You broke my heart faster than I broke yours. We’ve only been seeing each other for a week and you’re already after my bodyguard.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. The witty comebacks to my jokes made me like him even more. He was hot and recklessly irresistible. “I’m sorry. Roman has better hair than you.”

Frank looked directly into my eyes. He scooted closer, and everything happened so fast, I didn’t have enough time to react. His lips collided with mine, gluttonous. Neither my heart nor my ovaries were prepared for that kind of greeting. Raw heat pulsed between my thighs. My lungs were out of air and the hollow organ pumping my blood was a wicked animal wanting to jump from the confines of my chest.

He sucked hard until I gave up control. Then his mouth let up on its assault and he pulled my bottom lip between his teeth. Gently, his bite delicate. I responded with a strained moan. My hands sought his face, and I palmed his cheeks and drew him closer, wanting to feel him. Our knees banged together when the limo started to move.

“You totally ambushed me,” I whispered after I broke the kiss to get some oxygen.

“Guilty as charged.” His voice was a soft quiver against my heavy breath. He slipped his hand to the back of my neck and returned his mouth to my burning lips. This was a different kiss. Wet, hungry, and downright scandalous. His skillful tongue chased mine. Long fingers tangled in my hair. I was disoriented and didn’t care that my clothes smelled like perspiration and weed.

Mad desire for more had taken reign over my brain.

We gasped for air and paused, our cheeks brushing. Mine, hot. His, stubbly. I didn’t know where the limo was taking us and I didn’t care to ask.

“Hi,” Frank said, his mouth near my ear.

“Hi,” I whispered and trailed my lips down his neck and kissed his scar. “How was scuba?”

“Ah.” He tossed his head back. “Challenging.” I heard a sigh.

“So you decided to crash the grunge show instead?”

“Something like that.”

I had no idea what was going on between us. We’d known each other less than a week. Correction—he’d known me less than a week. And I still didn’t believe I knew much about him. He told me so little.

“Frank?” I ran my fingers down to his jaw, my eyes seeking his. “This is moving too fast.”

He licked his lips, his tongue teasing and devious. “Tell me to slow down then, and I will.”

My breathing grew deeper as he returned his mouth to my cheek.

“Tell me,” his whiskey voice said.

I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. My mind raced. It took me to strange places every woman’s mind probably took her whenever she was on a really hot date and felt a connection to a certain man. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure since it’d never happened to me before. But tonight, with Frank, it did. It went like this. Sex. Marriage. Children. I was convinced the sequence was programmed into every woman’s brain from birth, because I couldn’t explain the reason behind my thinking.

Stop, Cassy. Don’t go there. Not with him.

Frank’s lips skimmed across my neck and down to my collarbone, dragging me back to real life. To the limo.

“I thought you were asking me out for a drink,” I whimpered, fisting his hair. It smelled like sandalwood and tangerine and felt wonderful to the touch.

“We’ll get to that in a little bit,” Frank husked, moving to my mouth again. He deepened the kiss. My entire body shook. This was insanity.Wewere insanity.

---