Designed by Desire

by Pamela Yaye

  When traffic crawled to a stop, Brianna noticed a large, young crowd and pointed at the sleek, modern nightclub at the end of the block. “Wow, look at the line outside of Nouveau. It’s down the street and around the corner.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Collin said. “Rashad J always draws a huge crowd wherever he goes, and tonight’s his one and only show in Paris.”

  “I wish I had known. I would have loved to see him perform.”

  Collin raised an eyebrow. “You like Rashad J?”

  “Of course I do. He’s incredibly talented.”

  “Most women I know think his music is raunchy.”

  “I don’t. I was so anxious to get my hands on his latest, The Bedroom Maestro, that I harassed my friend at Billboard until she sent me an advanced copy!”

  “Do you like his single, ‘Between Your Thighs’?”

  Brianna leaned into him and brushed her lips against the curve of his ear. “I love it,” she whispered, resting a hand on his leg. “In fact, it’s my favorite track.”

  Collin surged to his feet. “We’re going to that concert,” he announced. “I’ll get the driver to drop us off in front of the club.”

  “There are already hundreds of people waiting in line. There’s no way we’ll get in.”

  “Don’t worry. We will.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I know people,” he said, winking at her. “And, they’d never dare turn me away.”

  Brianna stared down at her ruffled scarf, fitted sweater and boot-cut blue jeans. “The bouncers aren’t going to let me in like this,” she said, shaking her head. “Paris nightclubs have a strict dress code.”

  “You’re stunning, Brianna, and I couldn’t be more proud to have you on my arm.”

  His words floored her. All night Collin had been showering her with compliments, and even though Brianna knew she’d never be permitted inside in her casual attire, his praise made her confidence soar.

  “Let’s get going. I don’t want you to miss the show.”

  But Collin didn’t lead her off the bus. He kissed her hard on the lips with such heat and passion Brianna felt her body tingle in a hundred different places. He stroked her cheeks, the length of her neck, her shoulders. And when he cradled her tightly to his chest in a passionate lover’s embrace, Brianna knew.

  Tonight, when she returned to her cozy seventh-floor suite at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, she wouldn’t be returning alone.

  Chapter 5

  “Collin, darling, how wonderful to see you again,” gushed the hostess standing at the entrance to Nouveau, her slender hands outstretched in greeting. Smiling from ear to ear, she leaned in and kissed Collin on both cheeks. “The VIP area is jumping tonight.”

  Collin addressed the hostess, but his eyes were glued to Brianna. “We want to be alone. The farther away from the crowd, the better.”

  “I could set you up in one of our themed party rooms, if you’d like,” she proposed. “Would you prefer the disco room or the safari room?”

  “The disco room sounds like fun,” Brianna said, raising her voice above the music playing in the lounge.

  The hostess led them past the bar, down a narrow corridor to a door left of the coat check room. She opened it and pushed aside the beaded curtain. Brianna stepped inside, took one look at the strobe lights and shag carpeting and felt as if she’d stepped back in time. Amused, Brianna moved slowly around the room, taking everything in.

  A glittering, metallic disco ball hung from the ceiling and large potted candles cast a soft glow across the room. Glass bowls filled with condoms sat on one end table, and a bucket of Cristal sat on the other. Incense sticks were burning inside a boot-shaped vase, and the heady eucalyptus scent overwhelmed her senses.

  I hope incense is the only thing that’s burning, Brianna thought, admiring the framed poster-size photographs on the wall near the pool table. I am way too old to be getting high for the first time.

  “This is some room.” Collin opened the minibar, grabbed two wine coolers and, after unscrewing the cap, handed one to Brianna. “I’m glad you talked me into coming here. I would’ve hated to miss all this.”

  Brianna raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is that what happened?”

  “It sure did. I was perfectly happy sitting on the tour bus sightseeing, but you just had to see Rashad J.” Mischief glimmered in his deep-brown eyes. “I didn’t have the heart to disappoint you.”

  “You’re as noble as a saint. I wish there were more people in the world just like you.”

  Collin tossed his head back and chuckled a hearty laugh.

  “I still can’t believe we’re here.” Brianna shook her head. “This is crazy and so not me. I haven’t been to a club since I was a teenager—”

  “So it wasn’t that long ago then.”

  “I’ll be thirty-one in a couple months.”

  “I don’t believe you,” he said, his tone stern, his grin playful. He stuck out his hand. “I need to see some ID”

  Brianna laughed.

  “You’re an incredibly attractive woman, and now that I know you’re legal, I don’t have to feel guilty about seducing you.”

  “You’re too slick for your own good,” she teased. “And with lines like that, I bet you have women throwing themselves at you left, right and center.”

  “I wish. The last woman to ask me out was a therapist at the women’s sex show, and she was in her sixties and way too freaky for me!”

  Cheers, applause and whistles exploded across Nouveau.

  Brianna watched from the window overlooking the club as Rashad J rushed the stage in his trademark sunglasses, black tuxedo jacket and blue jeans. When the Memphis native sang the opening bar of his chart-smashing hit “Between Your Thighs,” the women in the crowd lost their collective minds.

  The beat of the music was infectious, so affecting that Brianna felt herself getting swept up in the sensuous mood. The lyrics were suggestive and filled with need, longing and passion. Brianna closed her eyes and moved in time with the music. Slowly, provocatively, without a care in the world. The R&B singer’s soulful voice stirred something inside Brianna, something she was helpless to control, and when she felt Collin’s hands on her hips, caressing and stroking her, she purred.

  He leaned over and brushed his lips across the slope of her ear. The chemistry between them was electric, the most powerful sensation Brianna had ever experienced, and feeling his mouth on her skin made her shiver. “You know what I love most about this room?”

  “The free minibar?” she teased, hiding a smirk.

  “No, the one-way glass. We can look out over the club, but no one can see us.”

  “Really?” Brianna turned around and faced Collin. The look on his face crippled her willpower and aroused every cell in her body.

  The air changed in the room. It grew heavy, charged with lust. Brianna had never felt this way and struggled to control her hunger, her need, the yearning that overpowered her weak flesh. “So, the crowd can’t see this?”

  Brianna stood up on her tiptoes and kissed the corners of his mouth.

  “Nope,” he rasped, wetting his lips with his tongue, “they didn’t see that.”

  “What about this?” Massaging his chest through his navy-blue shirt, she backed him up against the pool table and wrapped her arms around his neck. She had a crushing desire to do all the raunchy, explicit things Rashad J was crooning about on stage, and when Collin smashed his lips against her mouth, she boldly kissed him back.

  His lips were a drug, and one kiss—one sensuous, lingering, passion-filled kiss—had left her hooked and craving more. Brianna lost herself in the music, in the intoxicating scent of his cologne. His caress was rife with urgency, hunger, desperation. They moved together, swayed to the sensual, erotic rhyth
m of the music playing in the club. Her body was alive, throbbing from the tops of her ears to the tips of her toes, and so damn hot she felt like she was standing inside a sauna.

  They kissed and touched, nibbled and teased. Her thirst for him was unquenchable, impossible to fulfill. She’d never ever wanted a man this much. Collin was a rare find, and everything he said and did aroused her. The more he gave of himself, the more she wanted. Tonight was her escape, her chance to finally do something wild, and just the thought of making love to Collin made her wet.

  Her hands were trembling, but she quickly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it over his ripped, muscled shoulders. Lowering her mouth, she dropped light, soft kisses across his torso. He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen, a man whose body was so smoking hot he deserved a spread in GQ. And, as she moved her lips hungrily over his physique, she realized Collin tasted even better than he looked.

  It had to be the incense, had to be the music that was causing her to act this way. This wasn’t her. When she was married, she never once initiated lovemaking with her husband. Then again, her ex had never made her feel this way, had never kissed her so passionately her head spun and pleasure exploded throughout her body. That’s why Brianna was now stroking Collin’s erection through his dress pants, why she was licking his neck, why she wanted to do things that would make a dominatrix blush.

  Brianna didn’t throw herself at men, or ever do anything out of character, and if she ever told her girlfriends she’d had one-night stand in Paris, they’d double over laughing. But there she was, in a private room, on the verge of having sex with Collin, a guy she’d met at the hotel bar less than twenty-four hours ago.

  Unless she listened to that voice in the back of her head urging her to stop. To quit rubbing on his chest and kissing his abs and grab her purse and leave. But she couldn’t. She’d wanted Collin from the moment she’d spotted him inside the Carrousel du Louvre and if not for Evangeline interrupting them at the bar hours later, there was no doubt in Brianna’s mind they would have slept together last night.

  At the thought, a tingle tickled her spine. She was in Paris, a city driven by the pleasures of the flesh, so why not do something wild and outrageous just this once? She’d heard of people having sex in public, but Brianna never imagined in a million years she’d be one of them. This was exactly what she wanted. What she needed. What she craved.

  “Damn, baby, you taste so sweet...so damn good...”

  Collin couldn’t get enough of Brianna. Her lips were moist, perfumed with wine and as lush as tropical fruit. Her kiss was rife with such need Collin had to restrain himself from ripping off her panties and thrusting himself inside her. How would that make him look? There was nothing cool about a man losing control in front of a woman he wanted to impress. Sure, he did have it bad for her, but Collin didn’t want Brianna to know he was hornier than a sex addict in rehab.

  This is really happening. I can’t believe it, Brianna thought, raking her hands through Collin’s smooth, short hair. I’m in a private room at the hottest nightclub in Paris, making out with a sexy, gorgeous guy I just met. And I don’t even know his last name!

  Collin slid his tongue between her lips, swirling it hungrily around inside her mouth. Brianna groaned and tried fruitlessly to control the vibrations shooting through her body. This was crazy. Insane. It went against her morals and everything she stood for. Her parents hadn’t raised her this way, and if her mom could see her now she’d probably snatch her up by the ear and wallop Collin with her Birkin bag.

  Guilt and desire waged a war inside Brianna. She was torn between doing the right thing and doing what felt right. But the more Collin kissed and caressed her, the more she craved and ached for him. Her appetite for him was insatiable, greater than anything she’d ever experienced, and Brianna was so overcome by her body’s response she was groaning and panting and rubbing her hips boldly against his erection.

  “I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you.”

  Collin’s words gave Brianna a rush, and his deep, urgent kiss made the room spin around her.

  Not knowing Collin’s last name made their rendezvous mysterious, romantic, like something out of a movie. Their no-strings-attached, no-holds-barred affair was steamy and passionate and destined to end in a few more days. That’s why tonight Brianna wasn’t going to hold back. She was going to do what felt good, what her body craved.

  Blowing out a deep, ragged breath, she kicked off her high heels. Brianna knew her hair was a tangled, disheveled mess, but for the first time in her life she didn’t care how she looked or about doing the right thing. Screw it. All that mattered tonight was Collin. Pleasing him, sexing him, doing him in every position imaginable.

  Collin grabbed the back of her head and with a playful tug, drew her face to his. Devouring her, he loved her with his lips, his teeth and his tongue. Like his mouth, his hands were everywhere. Stroking her shoulders, palming and tweaking her nipples, probing the slick, wet treasure between her legs.

  Closing her eyes, Brianna reveled in the moment, in his touch, his scent, how damn good his lips tasted. It felt amazing to be with a guy who was totally into her, a guy who wanted her just as much as she wanted him. It was the first time since her divorce that she’d been intimate with anyone, but any qualms she had about being with Collin disappeared when he touched a hand to her cheek and said, “I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

  Oh, God, now I really want you!

  “I’d hate for you to do something you’ll regret in the morning,” he continued.

  “I know what I’m doing, and I know what I want,” she said, leaning in and giving him a slow, lingering kiss on the lips. “And tonight, I want you.”

  Collin pushed up her dress, yanked down her panties and grinded himself hard against her. He wanted to carry her over to the couch, so she would be more comfortable, and he would, as soon as she stopped licking and sucking his nipples. Tremors racked his body, and each sweet, delicious flick of her tongue caused his erection to grow, to throb with need.

  There was no turning back now. Even if Brianna wanted to stop, she couldn’t. She wanted Collin in ways he couldn’t imagine. Panting, she unbuckled his belt, unzipped his pants and pushed them down his hips. His erection was bulging from inside his black boxer briefs. She massaged it, gently at first, taking great care in touching him. But stroking Collin through his boxer briefs wasn’t enough. Wetting her lips with her tongue, she tugged down his boxers and captured his thick, hard length in her hand.

  The moment Brianna touched his erection, Collin lost all self-control. He snatched a condom out of the glass bowl, tore it open and had it on in seconds. Gripping her hips, he positioned himself between her legs and slowly eased his erection inside her. Collin was dying for release, dying to thrust himself so deep inside her she cried out, but he cautioned himself to go slow, to be a patient, controlled lover who put his woman first.

  Brianna clamped her legs around Collin’s waist to hold him inside her. He moved his hips in slow, sensual circles. Panting, she tossed her head back and released a torrent of moans and groans.

  To pull him closer, even deeper still, Brianna gripped his butt. Hard. The muscles in her legs contracted and shook, and when he increased his pace, she matched him thrust for thrust.

  Brianna lost all sense of time and place. The room swirled, whipped around her faster than an amusement park ride. Her mind spun out of control, jumping from one explicit thought to the next. Collin hiked her legs so high in the air and plunged so deep inside her, Brianna thought she wouldn’t be able to walk straight for a week. To keep from screaming out, she dug her nails into his back and bit down on his shoulder.

  “Come,” he urged, his tone a husky growl. “I want to see and feel your pleasure....”

  Her breath caught and a hundred colors exploded behind her eyes. Her skin pr
ickled until she was panting with need. Collin didn’t give her a moment’s peace. He buried his hands in her hair, nipped at her bottom lip and licked and sucked the corners of her mouth. His kiss stole her breath, her rationality, every lucid thought in her mind.

  All Brianna could do was relish the pleasure of making love to the man plunging fiercely inside her. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her mind went blank. She was floating, climbing high above the clouds, in another world, another hemisphere.

  “Dammit,” Collin grumbled, slowing his pace and the intensity of his thrusts. He didn’t want to come, not yet, but he couldn’t stop the electric current ripping through his body. A groan erupted out of his mouth. Then another. And another.

  To stave off his orgasm, he pressed his eyes shut and slowed his pace. It didn’t work. An explosive orgasm struck, hit him like a thunderbolt hurtling down from the sky. He clutched her hips, cursed himself inwardly for his lack of self-control and exploded inside her.

  Tightening her hold around Collin’s neck, she tossed her head back and cried out as her orgasm spilled over her. She bucked hard against him, rotating, thrusting and swiveling her hips.

  Time stopped, and for several seconds she didn’t move. Couldn’t. Not after loving Collin with everything she had. Brianna was sprawled out on the pool table, naked, her legs spread open, but she didn’t have the strength to get dressed. Breathing was hard enough and required the little energy she had left.

  Collin held Brianna to his chest, and when her tremors finally subsided, he wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

  “Can’t say I’ve ever done that before,” Brianna confessed, wearing a sheepish smile. She tried to pull herself up to a sitting position, but her arms were weak and her legs were aching. Her body was still tingling, hot all over, and when Collin roughly cupped her breasts and flicked his thumb over her nipples, a moan escaped her lips.