It was late afternoon when they emerged to stroll past little shops. “I’m getting hungry,” Beck said, patting his belly. “How about you?”
She stopped walking. “I really need to get home.”
“You need to eat dinner.” He saw the indecision on her face. “I’ll take you somewhere quick. You’ll be home by seven.”
“I’ve wasted the whole afternoon.” She bit her lip. “And I have a really important meeting tomorrow I need to be ready for.”
“I’m sure you’re ready. And you need to change that attitude. This afternoon was not a waste of time. I know you were having fun.” They’d laughed their asses off as they’d competed against each other playing Pac-Man. “That’s not a waste, Hayden.”
She sighed. “I know, I know. Okay. Something quick, then I really have to get home.”
He knew a little burger place close by that was super casual. They ordered at a counter. Hayden picked up the old license plate with their order number on it while he carried their plastic cups full of draft beer out to the patio.
“So I get the feeling you’re not really into doing things that aren’t planned,” he said once they were seated.
“I do like to plan my spontaneity,” she admitted.
He laughed and took a gulp of his beer. “Now, tell me more about your company that’s going to cure cancer. When did you start it?”
She smiled. “About three years ago. When I was in college, I started working on research into messenger RNA made of nucleotide analogs, trying to trigger the body’s natural processes to produce proteins inside the human cell. My senior design project was sponsored by Santé Inc. When I was in grad school, I kept working on my research, and after a year, Santé was convinced it had enough potential for them to fund my start-up company. That was huge for me. I was able to rent space for my lab and offices, and hire staff. It’s been a crazy three years, but we’ve made great progress.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“Thanks. My meeting tomorrow is with the National Health Institute. We’re hoping to sign a deal with them to develop and commercialize messenger RNA therapeutics for the treatment of some cardiovascular, metabolic, and renal diseases, as well as selected targets in oncology.” She bit her lip. “We’ve been in discussions for some time and this could be millions of dollars.”
Beck lifted an eyebrow and gave a low whistle. “Millions of dollars? Wow. That’s impressive.” He could write her a check for that amount of money right now. But he didn’t say that.
“It’ll be impressive if we sign the deal.” She gave a wry smile. “I’ve learned only too well that nothing is ever certain in the business world. We’ve come close to landing big deals like this and then something goes wrong—investors chicken out or they decide to put their money somewhere else. So even though our talks have been going well, I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”
“That’s what you were preparing for?”
“Yes.”
“Great.” He sighed. “Now I feel guilty, dragging you to the beach and making you have fun when millions of dollars and a cure for cancer are on the line.”
Her face softened. “Don’t feel guilty. My friend Carrie and my aunt and uncle are always telling me I work too much. And they’re probably right. I could have stayed home and obsessed over my presentation for tomorrow, but I probably wouldn’t be much better off.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
“That’s why we were at Conquistadors last night,” she added. “Carrie convinced me to take a Saturday night off and go out. She heard about your tequila tasting evening and signed us up.” Then she dropped her eyes and her cheeks went adorably pink. “I didn’t expect what happened.”
“Neither did I. But sometimes the unexpected can be pretty damn great.”
“Yes.”
A server arrived with their burgers in baskets lined with waxed paper, accompanied by fries.
“This looks amazing.” Hayden reached for the bottle of ketchup on the table and poured ketchup neatly on the edge of her basket, then handed the bottle to him.
“Thanks.” He squirted ketchup all over his fries.
She stared at his food. “I’ve never understood how people can do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pour ketchup all over like that.”
He regarded her neat puddle of ketchup where she dipped one French fry and grinned. “OCD much?”
She shrugged. “I’m very aware of my OCD tendencies.”
“How badly does it bother you that my French fries are a mess?”
“I can handle it.”
“Okay, good.”
“Look at me dealing with the fact that my food is touching.” She nodded at her hamburger and fries. “When I was a kid, this would have freaked me out.”
She said it with self-deprecating humor that gave him a strange warm feeling in his chest. He frowned and picked up his hamburger.
There was silence for a moment as they both ate.
“Oh, this is good,” Hayden said, looking up at him wide-eyed. “So good.”
“My fave burger place.”
“Tell me about Conquistadors. How long have you worked there?”
“About a year. I own the place.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
He smirked. “Marco, Cade, and I own it. We were all SEALs, and decided to leave around the same time. None of us knew what the hell we wanted to do with our lives after that. Marco made a joke about starting a tequila bar, since the one thing we were all good at was drinking tequila, and we decided to go for it. We found the place, bought it, came up with the name, redecorated, and we were in business.”
“That’s very cool. I, uh, thought you were a bartender.”
“I got that.” He smiled. “No worries. I am a bartender. We all have things we’ve taken charge of, and I like running the bar.”
“I could tell that last night.”
“When I was flirting with all the women.” He reminded her of her comment.
Her lips quirked. “Which you denied.”
“I did admit to flirting with you, though.”
“I’m still not sure why.”
He leaned over the table. “How about because you’re gorgeous, funny, and smart? Oh, and you have a great rack.”
Her eyes closed and color washed into her face. “Oh my God.”
“Sorry to be crude, but it’s true.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I’ve been thinking about your sweet tits ever since last night.”
He thought she might have moaned.
“And that hot, tight pussy.” That familiar stirring in his southern regions made him curse. “Dammit, now you’re making me hard again.”
“I haven’t done anything.” Her desperate, breathy tone told him that she was turned on too. “You’re the one talking about it. And embarrassing me.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. Why are you embarrassed?”
“I’m just not used to…this.” She waved a hand between them. “I’m not used to talking about sex.”
“I bet you could, if it was all clinical and scientific. Like if we talked about intercourse. My penis and your vagina and all our hormones.”
She gave a strangled laugh. “You’re unbelievable. I think you’ll say anything and not even blush.”
“Yeah, you’d be right about that. Pretty sure I’ve never blushed in my life.” He took another big bite of his burger and chewed. “So even clinical terms embarrass you?”
“No. Well…But I’m not a prude! I like sex.”
“I could tell that last night,” he repeated her words back at her with a wink. “Of course it helped that you were with a sex god.”
She choked on a mouthful of beer, clapping a hand over her mouth.
He gave her his cheekiest grin, then finished off his burger. When he’d washed that down with another mouthful of beer, he wiped his mouth and hands on his napkin, then said, “I confessed I’ve been thinking about you since l
ast night. Were you thinking about me?”
She made a noise that now sounded like a whimper and dropped her gaze.
He leaned forward, satisfaction swelling in his chest. “You were, weren’t you? Attagirl.”
“You are so full of yourself.”
He smiled. “Yeah, kind of. But most people seem to like me anyway.”
She fell back in her chair, shaking her head, but smiling.
“Should I tell you more? Should I tell you all the things I’ve been thinking about doing to that sexy little body of yours?”
Her eyes went hazy and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Oh hell, that was hot. He shifted in his chair.
“I don’t think you should do that.”
She didn’t sound very sure. He liked that. “How about I take you home and tell you?”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “I think that might be dangerous.”
That wasn’t a no. “I’m used to danger.”
“I’m not.”
“Are you afraid of me, Hayden?”
She thought about that for such a long time, he started to sweat. Finally, she said, “No.”
“Good.”
“I’m just…not used to feeling these things.”
“What are you feeling?”
Her eyes shifted, then came back to meet his. “Excitement.” She hesitated. “Arousal.”
“Oh, hell yeah. Okay. Let’s go.”
He was getting stiffer by the second. Hopefully, he could walk out of there and make it to the car.
The crowd on the beach had thinned out now, although a few people remained as the sun lowered toward the horizon. The ocean sparkled and glinted, dotted with white sailboats.
“It really is beautiful.” Hayden gazed out at the ocean, a wistful tone in her voice.
Yeah, she needed to take a little more time for fun. For pleasure. He’d felt momentarily guilty for taking her away from her work, but he was pretty damn sure she needed that. He had a feeling she had an immense capacity for pleasure—her sensitive body had been so responsive to his touch, and she’d given him glimpses of a sense of humor. When she smiled, it made his heart kick. He wanted to see her smile more. He wanted to make her feel good again.
Why was he this hooked on her, someone he’d just met and barely knew? He wasn’t the type to get all involved with a woman. He’d had relationships, but it was never anything heavy or serious, mostly just fun and sex.
So that was all this was. Fun and sex. Nothing wrong with that.
Chapter 7
Hayden was pretty sure she’d lost her mind.
Maybe the tequila last night had done something to her, affected her brain cells or something so she was permanently aroused, aching and wet between her thighs, her nipples tingling, excitement buzzing in her veins. The practical part of her knew that wasn’t true. People talked about certain foods being aphrodisiacs, but she was skeptical.
The only thing that could account for this state of stimulation was…Beck.
She got that. He was hot. Gorgeous face; muscled body; bad-boy beard, hair¸ and tattoos. A sinful smile. On top of that, he made her laugh, and that was always sexy.
What she didn’t get was why he was interested in her.
He was smooth with those compliments that she wanted to believe, but some of that high school inferiority complex lingered in her. She needed to be more confident. She needed to accept that he was attracted to her and just enjoy it.
Easier said than done.
She fought with herself all the way back to her Pacific Beach condo. Was she seriously going to bring him into her home and have sex with him…again? Could she really do that? Could she just toss aside all her responsibilities, the work she’d planned to do today, preparing for her important meeting tomorrow, the grant that could provide more funding, which would allow her to continue the work she loved? There were people counting on her. This wasn’t like her. She was conscientious, orderly, and sensible. Not sandy feet in flip-flops, laughing over meaningless arcade games, impulsive beer and burgers for dinner.
He parked on the street in front of her condo, his black Jag beautiful but a little out of place among the Fords and Chevys.
She shifted in her seat and faced him. This was it. If she was going to tell him no, she had to do it now. It would be wrong to take him into her place and let him think something was going to happen if it wasn’t.
He regarded her with a warm, gentle expression, his beautiful lips lifted at the corners in a half smile. And just the fact that he waited, that he knew she was hesitating and he waited for her to decide, made her heart flip over in her chest and made her want him even more.
“Let’s go in,” she said in a husky tone.
His eyes darkened and his smile deepened, and her panties got even wetter. “Yeah.”
She led the way up to the third floor, to her unit, and unlocked the door. She knew what was going to happen. There was no point in playing coy.
Her condo was dim, since it faced east. She walked into her spacious living room/office and turned to face Beck. He shut the door and strolled toward her with a predatory gleam in his eye that excited her even more.
And yet there was a sense that he was restraining himself. The idea that he wanted her that badly but was being careful with her inflamed her. She swallowed, her throat thick.
“Show me your bedroom, Hayden.”
She nodded and led the way down the short hall and into her bedroom, also dim with the same eastern exposure. In the room he moved up behind her, pulling her back to his front. His arms wrapped around her and his face pressed to her hair. “You smell like sunshine and the sea,” he murmured.
Hot sensation poured over her at his touch and her body melted against him.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Push that hot little ass back into me.”
His mouth lowered to the spot where her neck and shoulder met, opening slowly over her skin there. Shivers worked their way down her spine.
He leisurely kissed and licked over her shoulder, pulling the wide neckline of her T-shirt aside, far enough to slip it down one shoulder. His tongue blazed over the top of her shoulder, up the side of her neck to below her ear, then he captured her earlobe between his lips and tugged.
“Oh God.” Weakness slid down her legs and she softened even more.
His hands cruised over her abdomen, one up to cup a breast, the other down, over her belly, slipping between her legs, while his hot mouth continued to lazily kiss and suck on her, even closing his teeth lightly over her skin. It was the most erotic embrace she’d ever experienced. Her back arched a little, her breast swelling into his palm. She wanted to kiss him but his hands on her like this felt so lovely. “Need my hand here between your legs, sweetheart?”
“Mmmm.” Her eyes fell closed and her head dropped to his shoulder as he caressed and petted her so intimately, squeezing her breast, rubbing her pussy through her shorts. “Yes. That feels good.”
“Good. Wanna make you feel good.”
“Oh God, you do.”
His hands slid languidly into her hair, gathering it all up into the ponytail that he used to move her head, and he shifted to kissing the other side of her neck. More shivers cascaded over her body, the sensation of him tugging her hair amplifying the thrill of his mouth and tongue on her neck.
His hands moved again, now seeking bare skin, slipping up beneath her loose T-shirt, between her breasts, and right to her throat where he curved his fingers around her, gently yet possessively, sucking on her throat. His other hand explored beneath her shorts and into her panties, fingertips brushing over the patch of curls there. Her clit quivered and her skin heated everywhere.
“You’re so sensitive.” He kissed her temple. “I love how you respond when I touch you.”
She wasn’t sure how to reply to that. Was it a compliment? Or was she embarrassing herself by being so turned on so easily? No, this was incredible. Her very bones were dissolving with lust.
Y
ep. Mind definitely lost.
His hands moved again, molding the soft flesh of her breast, dipping lower to brush over her labia. Her inner muscles pulled up tight. “Beck.”
“Right here, sweetheart.”
She felt the rumble of a groan in his chest as he stroked her. He squeezed one breast, then caught her nipple between his thumb and the side of his forefinger to pinch it, tugging a cord of sensation from nipple to pussy.
“I can feel that between my legs,” she moaned.
“Here?” He cupped her pussy.
“Yes.”
He squeezed her nipple again, then shifted to the other breast.
“Beck. I want to kiss you.”
He made a rough noise in his throat, then turned her. He dipped his knees to align their bodies and pressed his erection into her pussy, then captured her lips with his. She tasted the mints they’d both eaten on the way home and Beck’s unique, addicting taste. His tongue slid into her mouth, strong and sleek, exploring and tasting her thoroughly. They both made soft noises of need and pleasure as their kisses went on and on.
He curved one hand over her ass and pulled her up tighter against him while his other hand slid into her hair and twisted up in it. His controlling kisses seduced her into a quivery puddle of lust, his firm lips and tongue moving over hers. His strong body emanated heat and power and she was filled with an overwhelming feeling that she couldn’t get enough of him.
With a couple of steps he moved her backward to her bed, easing her onto it and coming down over her. His mouth slid over her cheek, her jaw, nipped at her earlobe, then sucked gently on the side of her neck. His ragged breathing echoed in her ears as he licked his way down her throat and kissed her wildly fluttering pulse. His nose rubbed along her upper chest above the neckline of her T-shirt.
“Want this off,” he muttered, pushing up onto his knees and reaching for the hem of the shirt. He yanked it off over her head, then paused to study her. “Goddamn,” he muttered thickly. “You’re so damn sexy. I want to sink my cock so deep inside you right now.”
Body Shot (Last Shot) Page 7
