“Will you come with me?” he begged. His unabashed desire increased hers. “My place is just around the corner.”
The devilish gleam in his blue eyes emboldened her. She traced the outline of his cock with her finger. Maybe she could do this. “I will.” As she followed him to the door, April thrust a black satin bag in her arms.
When they got outside, her steps slowed as her courage faltered. April trusted him, which meant so could she. But she promised that she wouldn’t go back to being that person who leaped before she looked. “I don’t know about this.”
“This is kind of crazy, rushing out of a party with someone you don’t know.” He let go of her hand. “Maybe we could talk on the way to wherever you are performing.”
Her heart thumped when she looked at his face. His thick eyebrows bent downward in worry, and his eyes begged for forgiveness. “It’s way out at the yacht club. I couldn’t ask you to drive there.”
“You’re worth it, and, honey, you look like all my dreams wrapped up into one woman. I won’t let you go easily.”
He certainly said the right things. She’d never been anyone’s dreams wrapped together. She knew who would star in hers this night. “Sure?”
“More than sure.”
In the car, she gave directions since he’d only been in New Orleans for all of two weeks. He said the street names wrong and kept calling the space in between the streets a median. After she corrected him a third time, he laughed. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to calling it a neutral ground.”
“Sure you will.” His good-natured laughs and easy smiles relaxed her. “In another week, you’ll be ordering a debris po-boy and swigging it down with an amber.”
“What, my dear, is day-bree?”
“It’s the tiny bits of the roast that fall into the gravy as you slice it. We use all that to make a wonderful sandwich.”
“If I pass this test tonight, will you take me to get one of those after I make you melt?”
She got wet just wondering how he would accomplish that. Instead of asking him to pull over so she could jump him, she played coy. “What test is that?”
“The one where I try to last as long as possible this close to you without touching your lovely body.”
If she had a fan she would flutter it over her chest. The man made her mouth water and her mind reel, not to mention seriously turning up the heat. “This is the parking lot.”
“I thought I’d take you to the front door.”
Jess had other ideas. She planned to break her three year celibacy with this man soon, but she needed some confirmation that the man’s skills matched his innuendo. “Right here, please. I have better manners than to leave a wonderful chauffeur with just a wave.”
He parked the car and zipped out to open her door.
She took his hand as she stood. The humid air hung about them as she inched closer. She reached a hand around his neck and placed the other on the pecs she’d admired throughout the evening. He understood the signs and leaned his head over hers.
She parted her lips for a full kiss, and he gave it. Pleasure jolted through her chest and energized her limbs with every probe of his tongue. As his hands roamed across her back, a peace filled her. This and whatever else she chose to do with this man would be right. His kiss promised wickedness, and she was due for a dose of that.
A cleared throat and the alto voice of one of the other singers brought the kiss to an end. “I’m all for a good smooch to get things going, but if you two don’t stop I’m not making any money tonight. This girl has got to pay the rent.”
Jess rested her forehead on Drew’s chin as she let a laugh escape. “I’ll be right there, Yvonne.”
“Uh huh, you better. Two sets, and you know there’s a record exec here tonight.”
She straightened and a new focus captured her attention. Sexy, aroused man right in front of her or not, an industry guy meant more exposure and possibly more money. “I forgot about that.”
“You better reapply that candy apple red lipstick and bring on the pipes, girl. We’re on our way to real notoriety.”
She wiped a finger over Drew’s lips to remove the red smear. “Sorry, I messed up your fabulous mouth and can’t finish the job. Business calls.”
He kissed her lipsticked finger. “I won’t keep you any longer. I’ll have to ask April for your number?”
“Yeah, although she’ll be confused as to why I didn’t give it to you.” She longed to keep leaning against him, but money talked.
“I’ll make up some crazy story.”
“That she’ll probably understand.”
“Break a leg tonight. Want me to walk you to the door?”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” She glanced toward the yacht club. “Plus, Yvonne is waiting for me. She’s afraid I won’t leave you.”
He held her hand. “I’m tempted not to let you go.”
“You don’t want to take on Yvonne. She’s a beast.”
“Don’t ignore my call.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She would, however, be imagining him as her one man audience, lounging in front of her, while she sang this evening. Visions of a sultry striptease, complete with feather boa, filled her mind. She hadn’t felt like doing one of those for a long time. Damn, Drew flipped a naughty switch inside her. She’d have to ask the others if she could sing her favorite song and add the Italian lyrics. The idea of surrendering to him brought a fire back to life inside in her belly.
Chapter Three
Drew congratulated himself on getting control of his lust earlier when he left the party with Jess. His dick had a mind of its own from the moment he saw the goddess known as Jessica Gold. He’d wanted to wrap his hands around her waist, press her hips against his before dipping his head between her full breasts.
If he’d accepted any of the drinks available, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself. Sure, he’d given up being a cop six months ago, but he hadn’t lost his sense of right and wrong. He should have realized before propositioning her that he was out of line. Her widened eyes should have signaled to him that she wasn’t in her comfort zone.
“Hell,” he said to no one, “I wasn’t in mine either. Probably why I found that so exciting.”
“She’s a good girl, Drew,” April had said to him when she told him of her plan to set him up with a good friend of hers earlier in the day. “That’s why you two would be perfect for each other. One goody-two-shoes deserves another.”
Of course, April chose to exist in her own reality about him. Their parents might be good friends, but he didn’t share anything about his work other than he had worked for the Baltimore police department for ten years. She knew nothing about the undercover investigations and assumed the injury he’d suffered was minor when it ended his career as a detective. He’d had to pretend at being a criminal to gain access to the organized crime ring. He had to live the life, embrace it, and that included bedding prostitutes.
After the first two years of watching the lifestyle of a cop destroy his buddies’ relationships with women, Drew decided he’d stay out of any of them. You can’t end what never began. He never had sex with a woman unless she understood that was all he wanted. So, April assumed he was a good guy because he hadn’t left a string of unhappy girlfriends behind him, and he fit that definition to a point. He’d taken the job as a corporate security consultant to embrace the angelic side and keep his hands clean.
Jess made him want to take his bad side out of the dark. She’d come close to unleashing it with that kiss. Here he stood, watching her hips swing her skirt over that round backside, when he wanted to take her back into his arms and use any of those sexual aids on her. The woman sashayed. He lifted his eyes to the sky to thank the stars that women with wide hips shook them as they moved.
He couldn’t let her get away without having more of her. He’d give her one great night of sex, pour himself into his first investigation in this city, and then try to build a relationshi
p with her. First, he had to find a way into the yacht club, and he wasn’t doing that in a T-shirt and jeans.
****
“I don’t usually sing this song, but since Yvonne and Deidre are hanging it up and the band still wants to play, I’m going to give it a whirl.” Jess dropped her voice an octave so the title would spread around the bar and even reach outside where people enjoyed the lapping sounds of Lake Pontchartrain. “If any of you feel like a tango, get ready. The original version of this song had that type of flare to it, and we play it up more.” She turned to the band, nodded, and announced the song, “Surrender.”
Jess let the band get into the groove. Right before she began to sing the opening line, she made eye contact with a man in the audience and nearly missed the note. Drew, dressed in a jacket and tie with dress pants, leaned on the bar and winked.
Instantly, the song held more meaning. She didn’t know about turning a night of magic into love, but she certainly wanted the passion part. His lips, his arms, but to hell with his heart—she smiled as she sang the lyrics. He would not leave without her this evening. She kicked her leg and imagined it wrapped around his back as he thrust to the beat of the song.
Her audience shrank to just one person. With her hand, she motioned to the band to slow the tempo. In Italian, she begged to hold him with the moon shining bright. If anyone danced, she didn’t know. Nothing else mattered as she asked him to surrender to her. She only broke her gaze at Drew when she hit the high note at the end.
As the audience applauded, Jess called the people a great crowd, thanked the band, and said goodnight. As she made her way to Drew, people complimented her and asked where they could buy a CD. She handed them cards from a small pocket on the front of her dress and pointed them to registration table where the staff sold the few discs they’d brought. When she reached him, her heart beat out the rhythm of the song she just sung.
“You’re amazing.”
“Thank you.” Her hands twisted in front of her. This man made her nervous, much like the feeling she got before performing. She fed off that type of energy, and she’d not felt it from another person before.
“Loved that last song.”
She’d sung it to him. It helped to have a person in mind when belting out that tune, and she knew that Drew brought out another dimension. Surrendering to him or having him surrender to her had filled her head with images of them entwined with each other. “How many did you hear?”
“Most of the last set. It took the first one to buy this outfit.” He stepped back to show her his duds.
“It suits you.” The flat front black pants fit his slim hips. He hadn’t gone for a safe, but boring, white top. The turquoise shirt had a sheen to it, and he’d found a gray tie with just a dash of the shirt color in it. She didn’t care about the jacket. She only wished it were off of him so she could see his chest better. “Thanks for coming to hear us.”
“I didn’t want to leave you like that.” He winked.
He had said he would make her melt. She hoped that meant with his fingers dipping inside her and with his teeth tugging at her nipples. They hardened with the thought. “How would you prefer to leave me?”
He leaned so that his lips were next to her left ear. “Panting and begging for more.”
She caught his arm to keep him close to her. “I’d like that.” She’d like to feel his hands on her breasts as she unhooked her bra. A moan nearly escaped her lips when she imagined him using her corset as a handle as he took her from behind. “I’m yours for the night.”
Chapter Four
Jess was a mess of nerves and excitement as Drew took the off ramp of the interstate into Uptown. The thrill of riding with someone who made her flush with desire mixed with the worry of making a big mistake. Knowing that they had a mutual friend relaxed her somewhat. The last guy she did this with caught her as he passed through New Orleans. Drew had connections. He’d be safe.
“We don’t have to do anything.” He parked the car around the corner from her apartment building. “I can tell you’re getting nervous.” He glanced at her legs.
She hadn’t even noticed her thigh jiggling. “It’s excitement, which is embarrassing either way.”
He touched her knee. “I’d be more worried if you were nonchalant about it. Then, I’d be worried that you were a shameless temptress.”
“I’d rather be a temptress than a nervous Nellie. You’d think with all the years of performances under my belt, I’d have conquered all involuntary signs of the jitters like leg shaking and fingernail chewing.”
Drew inspected her fingers by kissing each one. “They look unchewed to me.”
She sucked in her breath as he placed his mouth lightly over her pulse. “That would make anyone’s nerves fade away.”
“Glad I’m helping.” His lips traveled further up her arm.
She leaned over the console so he could continue his journey of kisses. “In the car?”
“I think that would get restricting after a while, but if you like it.”
“That’s so high school.” An idea had her smiling and raising her eyebrows. “What about outside? There’s a secluded bench in the courtyard.”
“Won’t your neighbors see? Or is that the point?”
Very far from it. Her neighbors might say something about her bringing a man to her apartment this late, but they were used to her hanging out with one of the band members working on arrangements in the center of the U-shaped building. “Not the point. I’m not into voyeurism from either side, but to ease your mind three people are on vacation, one is a bouncer that covers a shift from ten until two, and Ms. Mae goes to bed at nine every night on the dot. She doesn’t wake up for anything. That means that we have the place to ourselves.”
He rubbed his fingers over his stubble-covered chin. “Don’t want me in your apartment?”
“My place is bland. The outside, though…” She opened the car door and stepped into the night air. When he joined her, she continued, “This is a perfect March night. I can feel just enough humidity to know that I’m here in N’awlins, and the breeze off the river is bringing warmth to the air. All we’ll need is our bodies to heat the air around us.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “If you put it that way.”
She led him to the back entrance, covered by a trellis heavy with night jasmine. The black iron gate creaked as it swung on its hinges. She leaned on the brick wall to let Drew pass into the courtyard.
“I pictured something larger.”
Jess tried to view the space from his perspective. The brick courtyard with a simple fountain in the middle allowed her and the other residents to have an outdoor space that didn’t face the street. She loved it even though it didn’t have grass and all the plants were contained in planters. Maybe he used to live in a place with big yards filled with greenery. “It’s pretty prime space for apartment dwellers.”
He turned and looked at the place. “These are apartments? It looks like a house.”
She sat on the bench nearest her door. He joined her. “It used to be a house for a pretty big family. They lived on the first floor. All the storage for food and wine was on the bottom. My apartment was where the maid lived. The owner of this place loves the history and gave me a booklet she put together about it.” He stared at the center part of the house as she talked. She wanted his gaze back on her. She’d never been jealous of a structure before. She slid a hand up his arm. “But, we didn’t come here to talk about the past.”
“Right.” He paused. “Shame on me. I’m gazing at architecture when I should be taking in all of your loveliness.”
“That kind of comment will get you a long way.”
“I’m not sure how I got this lucky, a beautiful woman with a killer voice wants me.” With each word, he maneuvered closer.
“That I do,” she whispered under his lips before tasting him again. The touch of his tongue against hers ignited her insides. A fire spread beneath her clothes as his hand tan
gled in her hair. She sucked his lower lip into her mouth, and a shudder transferred from him to her. She needed more of him, to be closer. She twisted so she could face him.
He pulled one of her legs across his lap and caressed it through her fishnets. He slid his mouth from hers and trailed kisses along her neck to the open vee of her dress. His hand traveled up her thigh and landed atop the plastic hook of a garter.
He popped the mechanism before feeling the skin above the stocking. Vibrations, like the ones she felt when the bass was on high, spread from the tips of his fingers into the sensitive flesh of her pussy. He kept his touch light, but a part of her wanted him to grip her legs to spread them open.
“You dress like a temptress.” He bent the leg in his hand to reach for the hook at the back.
“I love sexy underwear when I perform.” She wouldn’t tell him how dear these were to her. All the other sexy undies came from decidedly non-alluring places.
He popped the other hook. She shivered and bit her lip as his fingers explored the back of her thigh up to her ass. “If only your audience knew what you wore underneath, they’d pay more attention.”
“That would make me a can-can or a burlesque dancer, and I don’t have those skills.” She stood with one leg propped on the bench. “If you undo this side, I’ll show you the color of the thong I’m wearing.”
Drew thought this woman underestimated her talents. She’d make a damn fine exotic dancer if her legs looked as good as they felt beneath his fingers.
Smooth flesh stretched over taut muscles that tensed as he explored her thigh. He’d kept his grip light as he spread his hand over the top of her stocking, but he’d wanted to squeeze the muscle as he slid his hand upward. His cock came to attention as she pulled her dress above the line of her stocking.
Beautiful, a voice, and a sexy tease. He’d hit the jackpot in his new city when it came to women. If he found out she liked watching football, he might have to propose. He kissed and nipped at her thigh while unhooking the garters. “May I?”
Behaving Badly Page 2
