The first week in my new city starts out about the way I expected. Lots of unpacking. Learning to navigate life with a new roommate. The buzz of excitement that I can be an entirely new person…and throw my restrictive past right out the window.
Who knew everything would change in one night?
Mr. Sexy Businessman and I start chatting at the local bar. Soon chatting turns in to flirting. Flirting turns into kissing…. And ends with the best sex of my life. He is so not my type, he’s far too in charge, but I can’t deny the explosive chemistry. The affair starts out normal enough, but then we’re both feeling totally out of control. Part of me wants to run for the hills… but another, secret part, wants to stay and ride the blissful insanity into the scary unknown.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
About the Author
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Chapter One
BLAKE
I twisted my beer back and forth on its coaster, trying not to notice the tacky stuff on the counter that had a good grip on my arm hair. Propping up the bar wasn’t really my thing, especially not in this sort of place—scarred tables and mismatched chairs, a beaten-up pool table, and carpet that was more stain than distinguishable color. Not one of Wellsford’s finest, and the city was famed for having some of Maryland’s top-notch establishments that were more my style. I was definitely the expensive dinner, glass of fine whiskey kind of dude.
However, needs must. I owed a debt of favors to my childhood friend, Declan, which meant I was stuck in this hormone-infested, neon-lit dive, helping him out while he lived it up on the other side of the country.
I wrinkled my nose as another wave of stale beer stink wafted over from behind the bar.
I’d been here more times than I could count, but being hit on by hot young women fresh out of college had never been my game. I preferred sophistication, or at least a little guesswork as to what was hidden under what passed for clothes these days. I held back a grimace as another set of fake tits brushed my arm. Fuck. Those things didn’t even bounce back.
“Sorry.” Plastic Doll flashed a thousand-watt smile that faltered when I turned my back on her.
In the meantime, a fresh contender had claimed the opening on my other side. Feeling much like a cornered beast, I lifted my lip to snarl out a warning, then my gaze collided with a truly gorgeous rack, all wrapped up nicely in a sensible pink shirt that clung to the curves of her breasts—yet still left a little to the imagination. Now this…this was what I was talking about. My overactive mind filled in the blanks like a dot-to-dot puzzle.
Despite my surly mood, I couldn’t stop my gaze from drifting lower. She wore a skirt that stopped two inches above her knees but was still longer than most women in here had on. It was sprinkled with flowers—the skirt. I glanced around the bar and confirmed my suspicions that she was the only person not draped in black or dull block colors. A fashion renegade. I straightened my spine from its disinterested slouch, a streak of white heat curling around my balls.
The tilt of her head brought my gaze upward. Straight black hair stopped at her chin and fell about fine porcelain features. She had light gray eyes framed by thick, curling lashes and a stare that would cut a man in half at fifty paces. No artifice. No mercy. A faint blush sat high on her cheeks, almost making me feel ashamed for ogling her breasts. Almost. Until a tiny smile flitted around her lips and she directed her own gaze downward.
I felt it hit my chest, slide like warm butter down to my navel, and lower… Each spot she lingered on sizzled with heat, my cock growing hard just from the touch of that gaze. I leaned closer, the sweet scent of vanilla and oranges teasing my senses and further stirring my libido.
“What can I get you?” The bartender stopped in front of her, and I felt the moment her attention shifted from me to him, as though I’d just stepped into shadow. I would have done anything right then to be bathed in her sunshine again.
“I’m all for a Smirnoff Tropical and a Miller, please,” she ordered, the husk in her voice like a Redbreast twelve-year-old whiskey. Smooth, but with a spicy kick I felt all the way to my toes.
I liked that. A lot. Although I didn’t think much of her fruity drink choice, a coed student special…until she lifted the beer to her lips and took a long draft, leaving the frosted bottle of pre-mix on the bar.
Definitely my kind of woman. Too bad I had other, more pressing business to attend to, or I might have been tempted to investigate the full picture of what lay behind that pink shirt and flirty skirt. I let my gaze travel up from her knees, following the line of buttons over the gentle mound of her breasts, up, up, until I stopped at her lips as they tugged at the opening of the beer bottle. She lowered her drink, leaving her mouth plump and glistening with liquor. Warmth spread from my chest, wending its way downward. Fuck. How good would it feel to have those glossy pink lips wrapped around my cock instead of that beer?
I picked up my long-neglected whiskey glass, the fiery liquid biting at my throat and pulling me back to the reason I was here in the first place. Declan had left me in charge of his little sister in his absence, and I took my job seriously.
Speaking of whom—the pain in the ass I’d been waiting for walked through the door. Mia, dressed in micro everything that left nothing to the imagination. And no, I’d never been in any way interested. Not even once.
“Hey.” The woman who’d held my rapt attention for the past few minutes raised her arm and waggled the Smirnoff in Mia’s direction.
Please, no. But my worst nightmare came true when Mia’s eyes lit up and she popped a smile.
“Over here.” She waved my bar-candy neighbor over to an empty table.
The woman tugged at the ends of her hair and flipped me a wave before hurrying over to join her.
Just like that, my wet-dream fantasy took a sharp U-turn and my scrotum shriveled. Disappointment warred with relief. If she was one of Mia’s vacuous friends, I’d had a narrow escape from major disappointment. As much as I loved Mia like a sister, and owed her family a debt of gratitude, the youngest Bancroft sibling wasn’t exactly renowned for her friend choices. Job choices. Or boyfriend choices. She preferred quantity over quality. I glanced over to the hot little piece in the flowery skirt, wondering where Mia had picked up her latest tagalong.
Whatever. I sighed and unstuck my arm from the clutches of the bar before making my way over to their table.
“Blake, what the hell are you doing here?” My welcome from Mia was somewhere between lukewarm and frosty, about what I expected. She crossed her arms and narrowed her glare. “I suppose Declan has you checking up on me?”
I tipped my glass in her direction. “Can’t it just be because I miss our special family times?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re worse than my brother.”
“And you’re worse than my nonexistent sister,” I dead-panned, taking the one remaining seat and making it clear I wasn’t going anywhere fast. “But Declan cares about you, and I care about him,” I said, ignoring the wide-eyed look of horror slapped on Mia’s friend’s face. Truth was, I cared about Mi
a, too. The trick was not to let her know that.
Another petulant scowl creased Mia’s brow. “He doesn’t have to worry. Look.” She half-raised her arms. “I’m all grown up.”
I bit back a snort. Not compared to the real woman sitting beside her, she wasn’t. But I leaned back in my seat, pretending to at least consider the idea. “I just dropped in to say hi. Why don’t you tell me about this new job of yours?” I finished, delivering the real reason I was in this godforsaken bar on behalf of her brother. Declan’s apartment—now Mia’s—was just down the street and this had been our local catch-up spot, although it wasn’t a taste I’d acquired.
“I’m Blake Hanlon, by the way.” I reached around Mia and held out my hand to her friend.
“Lila Ward.” The dark-haired woman gripped my fingers weakly, looking as though she wanted to be anywhere but at this table.
The feeling was mutual. I wished we could go back to just me and her at the bar and rekindle the spark of sexual tension that had danced and stretched between us. Natural progression would’ve led to me taking her home, popping each of those tiny shell buttons on her shirt, and stripping off her skirt and panties until she was buck naked. Then I would’ve taken all night to thoroughly and fantastically fuck her, have her screaming out my name until she was hoarse with exhaustion and the rub of my cock on her vocal cords. Tomorrow morning I would have dropped her off to her place and the itch of interest she’d raised in me tonight would be cured.
Instead, I was stuck sneaking glances across the table, unable to pull my gaze away. I readjusted my position, creating a little more room around the crotch area as she sucked on her beer. She didn’t know where to look. I wanted her to look at me. Because, despite now understanding who Lila was, I still wanted her. And from the appreciative stares she was gathering from other hot-blooded men around the bar, I wasn’t the only one. Tough shit. I’d make sure no one but me would be forming a line.
I huffed out a breath. No, I wouldn’t. I was bound by a debt I could never repay to help Declan, and by extension, his family. They’d done the same for me when I was growing up and my own family—my mother—hadn’t been in a fit state to look after me. Declan’s mother had taken me in and my friend had become like my brother. As such, Mia was also mine to look after, especially since Declan had taken a position in L.A. He hadn’t had much choice in the matter, and it wasn’t ideal timing with Mia still clinging to the last of her wild college days. She had a job now, and Declan believed his sister needed the advice of someone older and wiser. By default, that someone was me.
I glanced at Mia and had to concede something was definitely off with her. Declan said she’d been too busy to talk to him all week. She looked tired, and she’d lost weight she didn’t have to lose.
“Everything okay with the new job? Is that where you and Lila met?” I directed my gaze at the newest addition to Mia’s life, unable to hold back my curiosity. “Who, exactly, are you?”
“I could ask the same of you.” Lila didn’t back down, and the flicker of heat licking at my cock flared higher.
I stifled a groan and crossed my arms, meeting the angry stares of the two women opposite me. Lila’s glare had an extra edge that cut deep. Too bad. I wasn’t leaving until I had some answers. Starting with the lowdown on the production company currently taking over Mia’s life. Once I’d established that, I could move on to other, more interesting things. I brushed my thumb across my lips. Such as, who was Lila Ward, and exactly what did I need to do to get her into my bed tonight…
Chapter Two
LILA
The situation was nothing short of awkward, finding out the man I’d just committed eye-adultery with at the bar was a friend of Mia’s. I swiped my finger down the outside of my beer, creating stripes through the frosty condensation, counting out the seconds. One. Two. Three. Anything was better than looking up and meeting Blake’s gaze and reminding me how damn big and sexy he was. How, when he’d leaned into me earlier, my nipples had sprung to attention, heat that still hadn’t chilled pooling low in my belly. The bulge in his pants had made my eyes pop wide, and then there were his devastating dimples…
There was no way I could have guessed that Blake and Mia knew each other. I’d only blown into town two days ago and hadn’t seen Mia since tween-age summer camp. Those whole six weeks we’d been inseparable, two peas in a pod. We’d stayed connected on social media ever since, and when she’d posted that she needed a new roommate, I’d answered on a whim. I’d walked out of the job I hated, packed my belongings, and skipped halfway across the country. It had sounded like fun, and the pics she’d posted of the room were amazing. The photos, at least, had lived up to their promise. A warehouse-style apartment with generous rooms and a funky, open-plan living space.
Mia, though, had changed far more than I could have imagined. She was not the same bouncy girl I’d clicked with at camp. Instead, I’d found a workaholic spending so many hours of the day and night working that we’d barely had time to say hello. I should have asked more questions, but then, I was known for jumping in without thinking. So far, trading suggestive glances with a hot stranger at the bar was the first interesting thing that’d happened since landing in Wellsford. Sad, but true.
Maybe it was because I didn’t know anyone else in this city, but as soon as I walked in and saw Blake, it was as if no one else existed. A sense of power and confidence crackled around him, drawing me to him like lint to polyester. Ending up at his side had not been an accident. Of course, every other woman in the bar had had the same idea, and he’d been shaking a blond, big-breasted woman off his elbow when I approached. I’d turned to hide my laugh, and when I’d twisted back, his eyes had been on me, drilling through me with a heat that’d wakened hormones I’d thought long dead. His dimples were irresistible, deep creases that scored his cheeks on both sides, turning the faintest smile into an X-rated moment. Top that with dark blond hair, brown eyes, and a hint of rakish stubble…it was no wonder Blake had melted my panties at twenty paces.
If only I’d known who he was—what he was—my underwear would have remained frozen to my ass.
“What kind of hours are you working?” He was currently in the middle of browbeating Mia. A nicer tone might have gone down better, but I had a feeling Blake didn’t say anything he didn’t mean, so why bother sugar coating? He leaned in. “You know I have contacts in the industry. I can put a word in—”
“Don’t you dare say a thing.” Mia gasped. “I’m fine, aren’t I, Lila?”
Instead of answering, I swigged my beer. This was probably where I should have stepped in and supported her, but who was I to give advice on life? I didn’t even have a job, and I’d left a grade-A asshole behind me when I’d moved to Wellsford. It’d taken me two years to figure out that Austin had taken everything away from me. My friends. My confidence. My sense of self. Quitting my HR job and coming to Wellsford had been the first sane thing I’d done in a long time.
Well, that and selling the phone app that had given me a butt-ton of money.
I took another drink and waved the near-empty bottle at Blake, smiling sweetly. “I’d love another drink. How about you get this one and I’ll get the next?”
He blinked, a look of irritation pulling at his brow. “Sure.” He stood up. “Do you want anything?” He glanced at Mia.
She flashed a grateful smile. “Yes, please. Another tropical vodka.”
The moment Blake left, I turned on Mia. “Who is he? What is he? And why is he here?” I demanded.
She let out a small laugh. “He’s a bossy son of a bitch, isn’t he? Blake’s my brother’s best friend. He pretty much lived at our place when he was sixteen. Some sort of family trouble. Mom liked having him around because he kept Declan in line.” She made a face.
“So where’s Declan now? Why send Blake to do his dirty work?”
“Declan’s in L.A. I guess he asked Blake to keep an eye on me.” Mia gave an exaggerated groan. “Blake’s a pain in the ass, b
ut he’s always been pretty good to me. You know. Nice. Like another brother. Otherwise I’d tell him to fuck off.”
I glanced over at Blake. He was still waiting to be served at the bar, and still being hit on by anything with breasts. The sight of him standing there, tall and broad-shouldered, giving me a glimpse of his perfect ass, made my insides tingle.
“You should tell him anyway,” I said a little breathlessly. That would save me the trouble of having to fight my hormones over him later. They wanted hot and dirty sex. Right now. But something told me that tangling with Blake would be a bad, bad idea. She thought him bossy; I called it overbearing, bordering on controlling. No thanks. Been there. Done that.
Mia laughed. “Is that what you were telling him at the bar when I walked in? Blake was eyeing you like a big, juicy steak.”
I blushed, ducking my head so I didn’t have to look at the picturesque view Blake’s backside presented. “I didn’t know who he was then, so don’t worry. Hands off,” I said, waggling my fingers.
“Don’t bother on my account. I think you guys would be good together.” Mia winked suggestively.
“Ugh, don’t say that,” I said on a groan. I would’ve preferred she’d gotten all uptight and demanded I stay away, not given me an open invitation to temptation. Like a bee to honey, my gaze once more strayed to Blake at the bar.
No, no, no. Just because Mia had paved the way didn’t mean I had to take that path…even though I suspected it would be a hell of a ride.
I was saved from any further scrutiny when Mia’s phone started buzzing itself off the table. Frankly, I was surprised we’d been at the bar this long without it lighting up like a Christmas tree. She made an apologetic face and put it to her ear. It was her new boss, Nina, yelling down the line.
Mia squirmed in her chair, looking increasingly uncomfortable. “I’ll be there in a few moments,” she said when she could get a word in. She stood up, mouthing, “I’m sorry,” to me.
Out of Control Page 1
