Charmed at First Sight

by Sharla Lovelace

  “Going once,” Katrina said, holding up a hand. “Going twice—”

  Leo’s gaze landed on me, and in that microsecond we were back in the chair.

  “Six hundred dollars,” I blurted out, grabbing my unused card and holding it over my head.

  Katrina widened her eyes in a mixture of euphoria and irritation, as all eyes swerved to me. Including Leo’s, still hardwired into mine, now with a spark of amusement added.

  “Six hundred,” she echoed, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “To the lady in red at the back table.” She glanced around the room. “Anyone for six fifty?”

  There were mumblings and murmurings, but no other cards went up.

  Please, someone, bid me out.

  “Six hundred, going once,” Katrina said. “Going twice.”

  What did I do?

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I didn’t leave my table until the night started shutting down and I was physically required to go settle up my purchase.

  My purchase.

  I’d bought a man. A date. I was a john.

  “Oh, God,” I whispered, palming my phone and my wallet and starting the walk of shame.

  Leo was talking to two other men when I approached the cash-out line, and he excused himself and joined me. I couldn’t look at him. I just couldn’t. He’d be all smirky, and make some comment, and—no. I temporarily lost my mind. Let’s get it over with.

  “I assume you take credit cards?” I asked the woman softly as I held out my Visa.

  The woman gave me a look of disdain. “This was a cash event.”

  “Well, I wasn’t prepared,” I said. “And most of them went for fifty bucks and under. I don’t have six hundred on me.”

  “Then why did you bid it?” she asked.

  Question of the night!

  “Can we just focus on how to finish this?” I asked. “I have PayPal.”

  “That’s fine,” Katrina said, strolling up like a queen bee. “Send it to mine and I’ll transfer it over.” She gave Leo a seductive look from under her lashes. “Goods like this just take away a girl’s better sense. Two nights in a row, even.”

  Oh, my God. I couldn’t tap on my phone fast enough. Goods? It was mortifying. I was weak and frivolous and pathetic and just spent six hundred dollars over spontaneous jealousy.

  “Done. Let’s go,” I said, turning on my heel.

  “Thanks for your support!” Katrina called after us.

  “You okay?” Leo asked, picking up his stride to keep up. “Damn, Roman-off, slow down.”

  “I can’t,” I muttered.

  “Why?”

  “Because moving right now is keeping me sane,” I said, stopping abruptly. “What the hell are we playing with, Leo?”

  He stopped too, and his expression turned more serious. “I know.”

  “Do you?” I said. “Because I’m clueless. I just shelled out six hundred of my hard-earned dollars over—what?”

  “Why did you?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest.

  “I have no idea,” I said, flailing mine. “Except—”

  “Except what?”

  “That blonde lady,” I said.

  Damn it, why did I say that?

  His eyebrows lifted. “The blonde lady.”

  “Don’t play stupid,” I said. “It’s beneath you.”

  He huffed out a breath. “Okay, what about her? She was bidding.”

  “She was not bidding on a dinner with you, Leo,” I said.

  “I’m fully aware of that,” he said, chuckling. “I have been around the block a time or two.”

  Oh—the arrogance.

  “You are such a pig,” I muttered, resuming my walking.

  “What?” he said, following me. “I’m a guy, Roman-off. A hot woman hitting on me is not repulsive.”

  “Oh, I got that,” I said. Stop talking, Micah. I reached the end of the grass and my wedges hit the parking lot pavement. Listen to your footsteps. Stop talking. “You certainly didn’t throw me on the ground last night when I climbed aboard, so why would this chick be any different?”

  Shit. All of that fell out of my mouth. Where was a roll of duct tape when you needed it? Earplugs?

  “What? Rom—”

  Keep walking.

  It was all I could do. Keep walking and pray he would turn around. Realize what a freaky moron I was, and just turn the hell around and go home.

  The problem was home was currently the same place I was headed, and I had nowhere to detour with. I kept walking in silence, my ears keened for his footsteps behind me. I felt him more than heard him, his strong presence far outweighing his physical one. He wasn’t done, and he wasn’t going to be put off until he said his piece.

  What were the odds I could just disappear into my apartment, put on my pajamas, and crawl under my covers in shame without another word spoken?

  “Roman-off,” he said as we entered the florist shop and the stairway to our floor.

  Fuck. Pretty much what I expected. I closed my eyes and kept walking upward. Screw my apartment; it suddenly sounded too confined. I strode past it and headed down the hall toward the bathroom, except for a sharp turn to my left. I twisted the handle and pushed back out into the night air, inhaling deep gulps of it.

  “Micah.”

  “What?” I muttered, not that I was surprised.

  It halted my feet, though, and turned me around. He was standing in the open doorway, his silhouette outlined in glowing warm light, looking like something out of a movie. The kind that was likely to get me into trouble.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I at least deserve your face.”

  “Let’s not do this,” I said. “I’m not up for a conversation right now. I’m probably a little too keyed up for this to go anything other than bad, so—”

  “I don’t care,” he said. “You don’t like being controlled…Well, neither do I.”

  All my little hairs stood on end, and yet it was different. His tone wasn’t authoritative or domineering. It was standing up for himself and making us even without taking over.

  That was new to me.

  That was probably worth exploring and thinking about.

  But I was a hot mess of emotion and irritation and I was just out a shit-ton of money over something ridiculous. It wasn’t the time.

  “Okay, I hear you, and I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “And maybe that’s not a lot of money to you, but it’s a car note to me.” I closed my eyes. “Not that I have a car anymore, so I guess buying a man is totally affordable—”

  “I’ll cover the money,” he said.

  “It’s not about the money.”

  “No, it’s about feeling manipulated,” he said.

  “I—what?”

  “That asshole has you so wired to do what you’re supposed to do that you’re jumping off cliffs just to resist,” he said.

  Goose bumps trickled down from my neck as his words touched all the right nerves.

  “Don’t act like you know me just because—”

  “You didn’t like the thought of me touching her like I touched you,” he said, cutting off my words. My thoughts. My brain. Fuck, he may as well have short-circuited me completely with that sentence. He let the door shut behind him. “Or was it the kiss itself?” he added, tucking his hands in his pockets. “I’m guessing it’s been a long time since another man kissed you like that,” he said.

  Like that?

  Try never.

  But the arrogance of him saying that to me. How dare he assume that—

  “I know it has been for me.”

  I blinked and backed up a step, the fire draining from my fury.

  “What?”

  Leo shook his head as he closed the space between us. His moves were slow, yet the energy coming
off him was palpable. He pulled one hand from a pocket and tucked a rogue lock of my hair behind my ear, letting his finger trail down the side of my neck.

  I inhaled sharply, every nerve ending in my body reaching in his direction like flowers to the sunlight when I should be shutting this shit down. I opened my mouth to do just that, but then that finger traced up along my jawline, and all my breath left me.

  “What the fuck am I doing?” he asked under his breath as if it wasn’t meant to be out loud. “What the hell is it with you?” he said, his voice gravelly. “You make me crazy.”

  “I know the feeling,” I breathed.

  I wasn’t sure the words even made it out of my mouth or if they stayed lodged in my head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the entrancing heat of his fingers on my skin and the nagging memory that this was not the right direction. I was supposed to be shutting it down. Saying good night. Telling him to take his know-it-all crap and kiss my ass.

  “I can’t get you out of my damn head,” he said. “You make me—need to be near you,” he said, his brows furrowing into a frown as his gaze followed his finger along the underside of my bottom lip. “Damn it, I don’t do that. I can’t do that.”

  I was dizzy with his touch and fighting the urge to let my fingers do some walking of their own.

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “Need,” he said, his eyes finally landing on mine.

  I felt that look in my bones and everything inside me turned liquid.

  “Then why are you out here?” I asked.

  He shook his head slightly, both hands moving up to my face. Fuck, that was more than I could bear. My fingers found his shirt and tugged him closer.

  “Because I never do what’s good for me,” he said, his mouth achingly close. “I make horrible choices.”

  “So do I,” I said, drunk on his nearness, on the feel of his hands moving on my skin. “I spent six hundred dollars—”

  “So that I wouldn’t touch another woman,” he finished, his head detouring to brush his lips against my ear. Oh, God. Instinctively, I leaned my head to give him more access and he dragged light kisses down my neck while one hand dropped to pull me snugly against him. All my breath left me in a whoosh as his scruff scratched across my skin. I had no words, no utterances, no—coherent thoughts. “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed against my skin.

  “You might want to get out more,” I whispered, pulling that sinful silk shirt free of his pants.

  A laugh rumbled through him, but it turned to a growl when I slid my hands up under his shirt to feel the really good back for myself. It didn’t disappoint. Muscles rippled under my touch and his hands came up into my hair, pulling it down in a tumbled mess.

  “God help me, I should stop right now but I can’t help myself,” he said. “And I damn sure shouldn’t kiss you, but fuck if I’m not about to do it again.”

  The pull was too much. His lips were right there, his hands were hot and sliding maddeningly along my throat, and I was humming like a friggin’ power plant. I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t want to. I was too green. Too newly damaged.

  That ship had sailed. My body didn’t care.

  I pulled him to me as his mouth came down on mine and I kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Like I wasn’t tainted goods. Like I had every right to be making out with the most gorgeous man in town, just days after leaving someone else at the altar.

  I needed, too. I needed so badly.

  Leo lifted me effortlessly and I wrapped my legs around him, lost in the sensations and no longer caring about choices or rights or the way things should be. All that mattered was this man’s hands on my body and the delicious way they roamed my skin. With reverence and awe and barely restrained hunger. The low moan that escaped his throat when his hands slid up under my dress to grip my bare ass sent shivers of desire through my core.

  He sank onto one of the loungers, pulling my legs around him so tightly I could feel every straining stitch over his zipper. His mouth was hot and hungry against my skin, searching out my cleavage. His fingertips dug into the soft flesh of my ass as I moved against him, the tiny swatch of fabric from my thong no match for it, serving only as friction against an already maddening build.

  “Leo,” I breathed, unable to stop the rhythmic motion.

  “Slow down, baby,” he said, his mouth soft and wet against the inside of my right breast. “Fuck, you taste so sweet.” Unzipping my dress just enough to pull down the front and expose my tits, he palmed a breast and took my nipple into his mouth with a groan.

  Lightning shot through my body as his tongue sucked me and flicked in fast little shots, sending white-hot heat to that place rubbing against his giant hard-on. My back arched as I grabbed his head and rode him harder.

  “Fuck, Leo, that’s not slowing down,” I breathed. “Please—” I gasped as the pressure mounted almost unbearably. “Please!”

  His fingers slid from my thighs to under my soaked panties, making me cry out as his fingers mimicked what his tongue was doing on my nipple. Circling, tugging, teasing, making love to my clit with his touch.

  “Fuck, you’re so wet,” he growled against my breast, his voice sounding like he was in pain.

  My fingers fisted in his hair, pulling his mouth away from me as I arched without trying to. Nothing I was doing was a choice anymore as I gyrated against his fingers shamelessly. Primal noises escaped my throat, my body started to tremble, and my toes curled under almost uncomfortably as a fireball exploded inside of me, rushing to every surface, every nerve ending, every appendage like a speeding train, bursting from everywhere at once.

  My guttural screams filled my ears, and I didn’t care. Nothing had ever felt better than this. No orgasm I’d ever given myself could measure up, and nothing from Jeremy or anyone before him had ever come close.

  He caressed me until my release was over and I opened my eyes.

  Before me, was a rough-and-tousled-looking Leo, his shirt halfway unbuttoned, his jaw clenched, his eyes heavy with desire after giving me the screaming orgasm of a lifetime. It was possibly the sexiest view ever.

  “That is now the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, his voice gravelly.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  What does one say after having one’s mind blown? Because “thank you” just seemed a little short.

  As blood slowly reentered my brain, the checkmarks started making themselves apparent. As in—it was his turn. But when I reached for his zipper, he covered my hand with his own.

  “Not tonight,” he said, his breathing still labored.

  “What?”

  “Another time,” he said.

  I lifted an eyebrow, unable to decide if I should be confused or insulted. Me being me, panic took the lead.

  “Hey, you don’t have to make excuses,” I said, pulling my dress back up to cover my breasts. “If you don’t want to—”

  “Oh, I very much want to,” he said, catching my hands in his. Lowering one back to his bulging hard-on, he pressed my hand against it and held it there. “In case there’s any doubt.”

  Desire churned low in my belly again. I may be satisfied, but I still hadn’t seen the goods, and now that the window had been opened, it was on my agenda. And he felt so amazing.

  “Then let me make you feel as good as I just did,” I said, stroking him as I pressed a kiss against his throat.

  He gave a moment’s pause before cursing and pulling me back.

  “Not tonight,” he repeated, his voice strained. “This was for you.”

  “For me?”

  “To show you that some men enjoy doing the work,” he said, bringing my head down to his and lightly tasting my lips. Oh. My. God.

  “Leo, you don’t have to prove that,” I said.

  “I know I don’t,” he said. “But you don’t under
stand how fucking beautiful that was to watch. To see you totally let go, and not care. That was worth giving up a hundred orgasms for.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “Okay, maybe ten.”

  I laughed and kissed him again. “How about none, and you watch me ride your dick until you blow?”

  His eyes closed, and I thought I had him.

  “How about we wait until I have you warm and naked in my bed, wet and throbbing and begging me to fuck you?” he said. His eyes opened slowly, heavy with desire, and that was okay, because my power of speech was disintegrated. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it softly. “And then I will. Any way you want. Slow. Hard. Whatever will make you come apart like you just did.”

  I was there. The wet and throbbing was there. The naked could happen pretty quickly, and the begging wouldn’t be a problem. Holy fuck.

  It was the hottest, weirdest, twisted give and take. He was giving me this night of total abandon to show me how a guy can give, but taking back the reins in not letting me do him. And then telling me how our next time will be, but completely at my whim.

  I should have been put off. I was absolutely turned on.

  And there was a next time.

  Sweet Jesus.

  * * * *

  My body wouldn’t stop buzzing. All night. All morning. Getting ready to help out the diner at their Taste Test Fest booth at the Lucky Charm. Because—food. And because a tiny part of me hoped that Leo would show and he’d be nice and I’d be charming and Nick would realize that having his brother in his life was important.

  It was a long shot. But to get back to the buzzing—I had something seriously bad going for someone I had no business being bad with. And my body couldn’t wait for more.

  In other words, I was being me. Doing what I wasn’t supposed to do. Shocking. And I dressed cute in a black rhinestone-studded tank top with a matching painter’s cap over a ponytail, clunky chunky wooden slip-on wedges, and four different mismatched bracelets up my left arm. And that part made me heady when I did it.