“No,” she snapped, trying to jerk away from him.
Mike just shifted his grip. Sliding one hand around her hip, he pressed low on her belly. He skimmed his other hand up her side and cupped one breast through the silk and lace. The corset was the real thing, though. Through the layers of fabric and boning, he could barely feel her. But the action wasn’t lost on her. He could feel the reaction all through her body. “Yes, it is. You came here because you’re curious, but you didn’t come because you wanted to dominate somebody, sugar. You want to be on the other end. I can see it in your eyes, but I have to wonder if you really know what you’re getting into.”
Lori had fallen still. Her breasts rose and fell in a ragged rhythm as her breathing sped up. Slowly, Mike reached between her breasts and freed the heavy cord of wine red silk that held her corset closed. “Do you know, Lori?” he murmured, lowering his mouth to her neck as he loosened her corset.
Raking his teeth down her neck, he whispered, “Anybody could walk up and see me touching you. In a minute, I’m going to have you out of this. Anybody who walks by will see me touching you. You sure you want that?”
He turned her around slightly, moving so that he stood in front of her as he finished unlacing the corset. He slipped her out of it and tossed it toward the bench. “Does it bother you that somebody could see you?” he whispered. Reaching out, he tweaked one nipple, squeezing it between his thumb and forefinger.
The pebbled flesh was diamond hard and when he touched her, her entire body jerked. A soft, ragged moan escaped her lips. Mike stared into her face, cursing silently at the blind arousal he saw on her face.
So much for scaring her off.
Mike’s control was strained to the breaking point, though. He had to do whatever it took to get her out of here, before he lost it.
Hearing footsteps on the path, he spun her around so that she faced out. It was Trask who appeared, walking by himself. When he saw Mike and Lori, he came up short, a small grin on his mouth. His eyes dropped lower, studying Lori’s naked breasts as Mike reached around her and cupped the full globes in his hands.
“A total stranger is staring at you, Lori,” he muttered, lowering his mouth to her ear. He bit down gently on her earlobe before he rasped, “Open your eyes.”
Her lashes lifted and he saw her gaze widen as she realized they were being watched. “He likes to watch. You want to give to him a show?”
“I prefer to participate,” Trask drawled.
Mike laughed, sliding his hands down Lori’s narrow torso so he could cup her hips. “I’m not in the mood to share her,” he replied.
“Share?” Lori squeaked.
“Hmmm. Share.” Mike freed the button at the waist of her low-slung jeans and said, “Is that one of your fantasies, Lori? One of the reasons you came here? Two men at once? Or maybe you were hoping to add another woman in the mix…?”
“No.” She shook her head, still staring at Trask with a mixture of horror and arousal on her face.
The soft skin of her belly rippled under his touch as Mike lowered the zipper of her jeans. He slid the tips of his fingers under the waistband of her silk panties, just barely brushing the soft curls at her mound. “Good to hear, Lori. I’m not much interested in sharing you.”
Across the distance that separated them, Trask said, “I don’t think you’re much interested in having her here period, Mike. Honey, he’s just trying to scare you off.”
“Fuck off, Trask,” Mike said easily. He nudged his hips against the round curves of her butt, letting her feel him. “Does that feel like I’m trying to play games, Lori?”
As he spoke, he dipped his fingers lower, until he could feel the hot, wet folds of her sex. Slowly, he circled the hard nub of her clit, once, twice. Then he pushed inside the snug sheath. She was tight—damn tight—and so hot. Mike could already imagine it, stripping her jeans away, taking her to her hands and knees and working his stiff cock inside her. She’d close around him like a silk fist.
The image was almost enough to make him come inside his jeans, just thinking of it.
But this was Lori. No matter what was driving her right now, Mike knew enough about her type to know she’d regret this sooner or later. And that wasn’t a burden Mike was going to bear again.
The women he took knew the score.
Lori still believed in fairy tales. Lori wanted to settle down, get married, live happily ever after. It worked for some people—Mike knew that. But she wasn’t very likely to find her happily-ever-after here.
And as much as he wanted to, he wasn’t going to satisfy himself with her soft, pale body. Neither was he going to let her get used and tossed aside.
Hardening his voice, Mike pushed his fingers deeper and asked, “Come on, Lori. Is this really what you want?”
The soft, broken whimper he heard from her drove him nuts. Mike tried to find something else to focus on, something other than the warm weight of her body against his, something other than the sweet, seductive scent of her skin, something other than how hot and tight her sex felt around his fingers.
Mike looked over her shoulder and met Trask’s eyes. “He’s watching you, Lori. I know you. Sex is a personal thing for you, something you don’t treat casually. Standing here, in front of somebody you don’t know, while I do this—” he emphasized his words with a twist of his wrist, screwing his fingers deeper. “This isn’t what you want, Lori.”
The hell it wasn’t…the thought circled through Lori’s mind, but she couldn’t deny one thing. As much as she enjoyed having Mike’s hands on her, she didn’t want to be watched.
“Mike…”
“You want me to stop?” he murmured. “Or keep going? Because if you hang around here, you’re going to get a lot more than this.” He circled his thumb around her clit, teasing her closer and closer to orgasm and all the while Trask watched, a hot, hungry little light in his eyes.
She almost closed her eyes and tried to block him.
Almost.
But she was going to have to look at herself in the morning, and Lori wasn’t so certain she could do that if she went any farther than this.
“Stop.” Her voice sounded rusty—totally unlike her own. She swallowed and tried again, this time a little louder. “Stop, Mike.”
His hands retreated from inside her clothes and she stood there, breathing raggedly, while he adjusted her jeans and her top. His lips brushed her ear and he murmured, “That’s what I figured. Go on home, Lori. This isn’t the place for you.”
Chapter Three
His words echoed in her head for the next two days.
Lori still couldn’t believe what had happened Friday night.
She’d gone to Exposè several times since she’d kicked Dirk out on his sorry ass six weeks ago. While some of the guys hit on her regularly, most of them caught the hint pretty quickly and the few who didn’t, she just ignored until they did.
But the first time one of those guys actually caught her attention, Mike showed up.
She couldn’t have been more startled to see him there if he had shown up wearing a dog collar and nothing else.
Mike didn’t need a dog collar to make him stand out. He did it just by breathing, but then, some people were just like that. They seemed to command attention just by walking into a room. He spoke—people listened. It was just part of who he was.
And that was the only reason she kept dwelling on what he’d said.
This isn’t what you want…
He was wrong. Mike didn’t know a damn thing about what she wanted. How could he?
He’s only been one of your best friends for years…maybe that’s how?
Lori scowled. She’d been talking to herself all damn day and it looked like part of her was losing the argument. Mike did know her. Did that mean that maybe she was just out looking for excitement and after it was over, she’d regret it?
It had been one of Dirk’s arguments when she tried to talk him into taking her to Exposè. She hadn’
t listened. She’d insisted he was wrong.
But maybe…
No. “No.” Shaking her head, Lori said it aloud, hoping to convince herself. “Dirk was wrong. Mike was wrong. I know what I want.”
And it was something a little more exciting than what she had now.
Maybe she wasn’t interested in a gang bang and Mike had proven without a doubt that she wasn’t into exhibitionism. But she did want more and Lori knew she could find it at Exposè and that was exactly what she was going to do.
And when you see Mike again? What are you going to say?
“I’m a grown woman and I can do whatever the hell I please.”
* * * * *
“I’m a grown woman and I can do whatever the hell I please.”
Lori chanted it under her breath as she pulled into the parking lot of the club.
“I know what I want. I know what I want. I want…”
That. I want that. She saw him the minute she stepped through the door and her breath lodged in her throat.
Mike was leaning against the railing, a longneck held loosely in one hand, his eyes watching the dance floor. Her belly clenched with need and she had a strong urge to walk up to him and wrap herself around him. She didn’t though. Even if that was the sort of thing she might normally do, the echo of his words were still too loud in her head.
This isn’t what you want.
The way he’d said it—so certain, so sure—like he knew what she wanted, what she needed. Hell, how could he possibly know? Lori sometimes didn’t know what she wanted. She just knew that she wanted more than she had. A lot more.
Mike could give it to me.
It came out of nowhere, that certain knowledge. Mike was a good-looking guy—Lori had always known that. He was sexy, confident, and capable. More, he was funny, he could be as sweet as could be, and he was smart. Mike was never boring.
But Mike had never been more than a friend and Lori hadn’t ever wanted more.
And damn him, if he hadn’t put his hands on her, she might have been able to continue never wanting more. Lori turned away from him, sliding through the crowd and climbing the stairs to the second level. The dance floor there was smaller but suddenly Lori wasn’t interested in dancing.
What interested her was downstairs, staring at the dancers with moody eyes. But Lori was going to settle for a drink, or five. Whatever it took to forget how good his hands felt on her. And to forget how certain he was that he knew what she needed.
Five minutes later, she was seated at the far end of the bar. She took another drink of her White Russian and tried to decide if she should just go home.
“You hiding?” The words were spoken directly into her ear, warm breath kissing her flesh.
Lori jumped and spun around, bumping into Trask. He backed up just enough to let her finish turning and then he grinned at her. Lowering his head, he asked, “Mike seen you here?”
She faked a bored expression, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “How should I know?”
Wide shoulders stretched under a white T-shirt. “Well, he’s downstairs and you’re up here, hiding in the corner.”
“I’m not hiding,” she said loftily. “I’m having a drink. I don’t feel very social tonight.”
“And you came to a club? That’s certainly a way to be left alone.” He skimmed a finger down one of the skinny straps of her shirt. The layers of gauzy rose were see-through everywhere except for her breasts and sequined, so that it caught the light with every breath she took. “Especially dressed like this. You aren’t exactly saying stay away, not in that outfit.”
Then Trask paused, looking into her face. He cocked his head to the side and murmured, “Well. Maybe from the neck down. Your eyes are saying leave me alone. Guess that’s how you managed to get left alone here as long as you have.”
Lori turned back to her drink and managed to scoot just a little bit away. His hand fell to the side but he didn’t walk away. She could still feel his eyes burning into her skin. “I came for the drinks, not the company.”
His snort had her skin flushing. “You came because Mike told you not to. You don’t much care for being bossed around, do you?”
“Do you?”
He laughed a low, husky sound. “Not one bit. But somehow, I don’t think you came here expecting to top somebody, now did you?”
Blood rushed to her cheeks, hot and furious, staining them painfully red. She stared into her drink and mumbled, “Just go away, Trask.”
He didn’t, though. Instead he called out to the bartender. As a beer was pushed in front of him, he said, “And if I do that, then you’re going to have somebody else to deal with. At least I’m not going to try to talk you into going outside with me. Or into a room. Nor am I going to try and talk you into leaving. He might, though.”
He being Mike.
Lori turned her head and saw Mike working his way through the crowd. He hadn’t seen her yet and she jerked her head around, bending over her drink and trying to make herself as small as possible. Next to her, Trask was laughing. “That’s not going to work, sugar.”
“Would you just shut up and mind your own business?” Lori snapped.
“But this is so much more fun.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Trask wave at somebody. And she didn’t need to look to see who it was. She could tell. Her skin burned as Mike’s gaze came to rest on her, burning a hole into her shoulder blades.
Sending Trask a sidelong glance, she muttered, “Jerk.”
Trask just shrugged. “He would have seen you anyway. Man’s got radar when it comes to something he wants.” He reached out and skimmed his fingers down her shoulder. “You have fun convincing him you came here for just a drink.”
“I don’t have to convince him of anything,” Lori said, but Trask was already melting into the crowd. By the time Mike reached her side, Trask was lost among the masses.
“What are you doing here?”
Spinning around on her stool, Lori gave Mike a bright, false smile and lifted her drink. “Having a drink. And you?”
“I’m getting ready to haul your ass out of here.”
Lori arched her brows and studied him for a minute. Then she shrugged and took a sip, spinning back around to the bar. “No. You’re not.”
“Didn’t we already go over this, sweetheart? This isn’t your thing.”
Indignant, she spun back around to glare at him. He stood there, staring at her with a condescending look on his face that reminded her all too much of Dirk’s reaction when she tried to tell him about something she wanted. “No. We didn’t go over anything. You just decided it wasn’t my thing. Shouldn’t that be my call?”
He reached up, cupping the back of her neck in a big, warm hand. He lowered his head and spoke directly into her ear. She shivered at the feel of his warm breath dancing over her skin, even as angry indignation filled her when he said, “I’ll haul your ass out of here, Lori. Don’t think I won’t.”
She couldn’t pull away. It wasn’t that he was holding her too tightly, though he did have a good, firm grip on her neck. She just couldn’t pull away. It felt as though there was something magnetic between them, pulling her closer and closer…and closer. Lori felt the warmth of his body against hers and realized she had slid off the stool and was pressed against him.
Damn it. Why in the hell was he doing this to her? And why now? Mike was one of her best friends, they’d been friends for a long time. Granted, she couldn’t say that she hadn’t ever noticed him before on that level. She had. But lately…
The scent of him flooded her senses and it was making her lightheaded. She licked her lips and fantasized, very briefly, about leaning forward and licking him. Right there, just above the pulse she could see in his neck. Instead, she lifted her gaze and met his. “I’m a big girl, Mike. Aren’t you the one who was telling me I needed to find what made me happy? Guess what…that’s what I’m doing.”
“And you’ve suddenly decided that hanging out at a sex club make
s you happy?”
Lori lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. But I really want to find out.”
For a minute, he was quiet. He said nothing, just watched her with that intense, probing gaze. Then he reached out and closed his hands around her hips. Her skin started buzzing from that light touch and Lori swallowed her whimper before it could escape. But when he pressed his hips against hers, rubbing his swollen cock against her belly, the whimper slipped past her lips, followed by a harsh, ragged gasp.
“I can help you with that, Lori. You’re curious? You want to take a walk on the wild side? I can show you things some of the boys here can’t even dream about.” He skimmed his lips down her throat then raked the skin lightly with his teeth.
Lori shuddered in his arms but before she could completely melt against him, she pulled away. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she said, “And why in hell do you want to do that?”
A tiny grin curled up the corners of his mouth. Reaching out, he took her palm and placed it against the front of his pants, molding his fingers around hers until she cupped him through the denim then rocked against her. “Well, here’s one good reason. Another…well, you don’t know what kind of trouble you’re getting into. I can make sure it’s just the sort of trouble you’d like.”
He leaned down, taking her mouth with his. He pushed his tongue inside her mouth, tangling it with hers. Heat pressed into heat as Lori rocked against him, and for a second she almost ignored the voice of common sense in her head.
But she was damn tired of guys thinking she needed to be protected against what she wanted. Working her hands between them, she jerked her head to the side and arched away from him. His hands fell away from her hips and as soon as he let her go, she backed away. She boosted herself up onto the stool and turned back to her drink. “Go find somebody else to beat your chest for, Tarzan. I’m not Jane, lost in the big, mean jungle. I can handle myself.”
There was nothing but silence and when she looked back over her shoulder, Mike was gone.
But she could feel him watching her the entire night. And every time a guy approached her, she couldn’t work up any interest.
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