Just A Kiss: A Club Temptation Novella (Club Temptation Collection)

by J. H. Croix

  Chapter 12

  Eva

  Zane captured both of my hands in his when I reached to push his jeans down. “Not yet.”

  His raspy voice held an edge of command to it. God, this man turned me into a puddle of need. Fortunately, I was already sitting on my bed or my knees certainly would have given out. Lacing his fingers between mine, he rested our joined hands beside my hips on the bed.

  The mattress dipped slightly with his weight as he shifted closer and dropped hot kisses along my neck. Every place his lips touched felt like flames licking across the surface of my skin. My breath was coming in shallow pants, and my entire body was trembling. I felt caught in a net of sparks that sent sensation in wild spins through my body.

  I cried out when his mouth closed over a nipple, shivering as his teeth scraped when he bit down lightly. In another moment, he released one of my hands and flicked my bra open where it slid down my arms to rest against the mattress.

  Zane was already moving on, his palm coasting over my belly and then dipping between my thighs. I shifted, restless to relieve the throb there. I felt as if I were already teetering on the edge of release.

  I’d been turned on since I opened my door and laid eyes on him tonight. Then we worked. Of all things. Working together felt like foreplay. Now, after kisses and kisses and more kisses and having his hands on me, I just needed relief.

  I was used to my mind wandering during sex. Now, all I could think about was how impatient I was to have him inside me.

  “Zane, please, I need—”

  Whatever I meant to say broke with a gasping moan when he shoved my panties to the side. The blunt tip of his finger was at my entrance, circling in my slick arousal. I whimpered, and he sank two fingers inside, knuckle deep.

  My hips bucked toward him. I was bereft when he withdrew, then moved away. My eyes flew open wide in dismay.

  “I promise it’ll be worth it,” he answered my unspoken protest. He hooked his fingers over the edge of my panties, murmuring, “Lift your hips.”

  Zane could’ve ordered me to do anything at this point. Without hesitation, I lifted my hips and shimmied them as he dragged my panties off and tossed them to the floor.

  Then I felt his palms sliding up the insides of my calves, pausing when he kneeled on the floor before me. When his eyes lifted, the hot and intense look he gave me caused me to quiver all over.

  His eyes fell again just as his hands reached the juncture at the top of my thighs. He pushed them farther apart, and his fingers trailed in my folds. “You’re so hot. You make me crazy.”

  My pussy clenched at his words, and I shifted my hips restlessly. “So wet,” he murmured as he lowered his head and blew on my sex. That subtle gust of air over my clit elicited a ragged whimper.

  “Zane.” His name came out in a broken moan.

  My next cry was sharp when he brought his mouth to me, dragging his tongue through my cleft in a long, lazy lick. My fists gripped the comforter as he settled in to tease me beyond coherence.

  His tongue and fingers were magic. I had no idea how much time passed before I heard myself begging him again. In response, he swirled his tongue around my clit, then gave it subtle suction as he buried his fingers in me. I came in a noisy burst as pleasure ricocheted everywhere in my body.

  In my sated daze, I felt him rise and heard the rustle of his jeans. When I dragged my eyes open, I saw him smoothing a condom on. He moved fluidly, lifting me farther back on the bed, then I felt his knees coming between my thighs. He rolled over, and I was sitting astride him. He leaned back against the headboard as he caught one of my nipples with his teeth, and I shivered all over. I was so sensitive.

  I settled my weight over him, savoring the hot, thick length of him nestled against my core.

  “Look at me, Eva.”

  Opening my eyes, I found his dark eyes waiting, his gaze intent. Just the look had me throbbing, and it had been mere minutes since I had an intense orgasm. I felt as if we were caught in an erotic haze.

  His fingers sank into my flesh as he gripped me by the hips, lifting me and guiding me down over him. The feel of him filling me was so intense I could hardly bear it. My forehead fell against his shoulder as I took shuddering breaths.

  He was thick and full, creating a slight burn because it had been a while for me. A sudden worry slammed into me. Lifting my head, I said apologetically, “I can’t come like this.” I didn’t know why I felt the need to explain, but I didn’t want to let him down, and I’d never actually succeeded at coming with a guy inside me. It just didn’t work, and I wasn’t good at faking things, so I wanted him to know.

  Zane’s gaze went serious as he searched my face. “Don’t worry.” Then I felt the warm suction of his mouth on my neck while he adjusted the angle of our hips and set a rhythm.

  Even though I was the one riding him, I felt at his mercy and savored the surrender. There were slow, subtle nudges deeper into my core. I was so slippery wet, the friction over my clit had me chasing for release again and thinking it had to be impossible.

  It wasn’t. “Come for me, Eva. Now.”

  Chapter 13

  Zane

  Eva’s eyes widened in surprise just as I felt her channel convulse around me. I waited, watching as her eyes fell closed while she trembled all over. Finally, I let myself go, gripping her as my release tightened in my balls and then sizzled up my spine. I came with a rough cry of her name.

  I held Eva against me. I needed to feel her—her dewy skin, the ragged heaves of her breath, and the feel of her heart beating out a staccato rhythm in tune with mine.

  After a few moments, she lifted her head. It took an effort to open my eyes and look at her. We were silent for a moment, and I just absorbed her. Her dark hair was mussed, and a whimsical pink lock fell forward on her cheek.

  She was flushed, and her breath still came in shallow heaves. I was buried inside her, and I didn’t ever want to be anywhere else. My heart felt as if it had tripped and fallen inside my chest. I thought Eva was hot, unbearably sexy with a brainy twist I’d never known could turn my crank this hard. She was all of that, but so much more. I was pretty sure I was in over my head, solely due to my own overconfidence and miscalculation.

  I had intended to blow her mind while fulfilling my hottest sexual fantasy. Doing the brilliant intern had been hands-off until now. Eva had done what I thought impossible. She shimmered like slivers of sunshine along the edges of shades and windows of long darkened rooms in abandoned homes. The sun kept pressing through until light reclaimed the space in my heart.

  My heart kept on beating as I gradually caught my breath. I didn’t know what to say. In lieu of words, I looked at her hair, catching a pretty lock of pink and spinning it around my forefinger. “You added pink this week.”

  Eva nodded. “Uh-huh.”

  Just then, the door to her bedroom popped open, and I gave her a puzzled look. She smiled sheepishly. “George knows how to open the door. It’s an older house, and the latch isn’t great, so if he pushes hard enough, it opens.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I feel like he’s our chaperone.”

  “He probably thinks he is,” Eva said with a glint of laughter in her eyes.

  Then her stomach growled. Her eyes widened comically, and she slapped her hand over her belly between us. My head fell back against the pillows with a hearty laugh this time. “I’m starving too, and I owe you dinner.”

  Eva considered me quietly. “Don’t you dare make me wait until next Friday.”

  As soon as she spoke, her lashes fell, and I sensed she wished she hadn’t said that. I nudged my knuckles under her chin. “I won’t. We can have dinner tonight and tomorrow and the next night if you’d like.”

  Her lashes swept upward, and her eyes met mine. “That would be nice.”

  “Nice?” I countered.

  Chapter 14

  Eva

  “I don’t know.” I leaned forward and clicked on the keyboard to expand the
view Zane was showing me. I felt his eyes on me and glanced sideways toward him. “What?”

  “You can’t make it too difficult. If you do, you lose a whole segment of gamers. I think it’s a better move to create tiers of difficulty. Those who want to be more challenged will move through faster, and that’s fine.”

  He lifted another piece of pizza from the box resting on my desk by his elbow and tore off a bite. After George’s interruption and my stomach making its hungry state well-known, we’d gotten dressed. Zane had offered to call and get us another reservation at the restaurant where he’d planned to take me. But when he’d seen the hesitation in my eyes, he’d suggested pizza.

  After a mere two dates, I was dangerously close to falling for this man. On second thought, I didn’t even know if this counted as an actual date.

  I looked at the screen and the spreadsheet showing the staggered levels of difficulty for the game I was working on. Catching his eyes again, I felt my lips tugging into a reluctant smile. “You’re right. I know you’re right. That’s my biggest weakness, always wanting to start at a higher level.”

  “It’s because you’re brilliant, and you’re a woman.”

  I started to bristle inside, but then I saw the look in his eyes. Uncertainty flickered there but also empathy. “I’m a man, so I’m not going to pretend I understand what it’s like to be a woman in the world. That would be remarkably oblivious, as well as arrogant. But I do know women have to work ten times as hard to prove their worth. In the tech world, it’s even worse. Totally sexist field,” he muttered, sounding disgusted. “In the gaming world within the tech world, it’s particularly difficult for women. Of course, you want to prove you make smart games. And you do. You absolutely do. But you also want to broaden your customer base. You can still make it challenging with a high level of difficulty to achieve, just also make it accessible for everyone.”

  I took a bite from the slice of pizza I’d set on a paper plate, considering his observation as I chewed. “I knew there was a reason I wanted to do an internship at your company,” I finally said with a slow smile.

  “It’s not because you had a crush on me and thought I was hot?” he teased.

  My cheeks went pink, but I decided to be honest. “Of course, I had a crush on you. But that wasn’t why I wanted the internship. I wanted a chance to work in your coding department, and I ended up learning a lot. You’re also known for not being a total asshat.”

  His eyes searched mine for a moment before he bit his lip and laughed. “That’s high praise. I’m not an asshat.”

  “Toward women,” I elaborated. “I did kind of think you were cold, though, and totally cocky. I still can’t believe I’m sitting here with you.”

  This entire night had blown all my expectations into smithereens. Zane had taken the map of the man I had in mind and torn it to pieces. Now, I was trying to put it back together and understand him. I was also trying to grasp the fierce need that beat with its own heart between us, and the raw tenderness and carnal eroticism with which he touched me.

  Zane took another bite of his pizza, and we ate quietly. I was surprised at how comfortable it was to be with him. I just wished I didn’t feel so insecure, so uncertain and floundering in relationships. I mean, my God, the only reason I was sitting here with him tonight was because we had a chance encounter. I was certainly out of my depth.

  I turned to look back at the computer screen, idly running calculations in my brain when I felt Zane’s palm curl on my shoulder and slide down my arm. His fingers tangled with mine when I looked his way.

  “I’d never use the word crush to describe the way I felt about anyone, but you can bet I knew exactly who you were and never forgot your name. The only reason I didn’t make a move on you before was because you were an intern. I even have policies about that in HR at my company,” he said with a wondering laugh.

  “You mean you don’t chase after all the hot interns? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t one of them.”

  The look he gave me sent licks of fire over the surface of my skin. “Eva, hot doesn’t even come close to doing you justice.”

  Our self-appointed chaperone, George, leaped onto the desk then. Zane was lightning fast and closed the pizza box before George climbed in and helped himself.

  “Do you need to check on your George?” I asked as my eyes flicked to the clock on the computer screen. I didn’t quite know how, but it was approaching midnight. Zane seemed to have magical powers, and I lost all sense of time with him.

  “I already texted Danny. He checked on George for me.” For just a second, I thought I saw uncertainty flicker in his eyes. The moment passed.

  He brought his eyes back to the screen, and we lost ourselves in technical talk and debating the various merits of different games.

  Chapter 15

  Zane

  Seven weeks later

  “Oh, it’s on!” Eva arched a dark brow. “You think you can beat me? You are so wrong.” She gave me a saucy smile from across the room.

  It was Friday night, and we’d both had long days at work. We’d fallen into a pattern of spending every weekend together. Both of us had pretty relentless and busy work schedules, so getting together during the week was hit or miss. It was on the tip of my tongue every Monday morning to ask her to just move in with me, but a tiny corner of my heart and my mind hesitated.

  I knew I was in love with Eva. But I found myself wondering if maybe she didn’t return my feelings with the same intensity. As she crossed the room, my body hummed with tension. She was so fucking gorgeous. She was wearing a pair of boy shorts that hugged her curvy bottom and a loose tank top. I’d already stripped her bare and assuaged the fierce need I’d been holding at bay all week.

  We’d eaten dinner and were busy bouncing between work projects. Aside from the sex, which was incredible and mind-blowing, working on projects together was the best part about hanging out with her. Business was never boring, and she got just as bogged down in the nitty-gritty of computer coding as I did.

  I patted the couch beside me. “We’ll see who’s better. When I was a kid, I played this game with my friends all the time.”

  Eva plopped down on the couch beside me, hooking a foot under her knee and taking the controller I handed to her.

  Within minutes, the basketball game was a dead heat. At one point, she distracted me when I felt the silky skin of her thigh press against mine as she deftly blocked me from scoring. She let out a laugh, raising her fist in the air when she won that game.

  “We’re tied now, right?” Her cheeks were pink, and her eyes wide with excitement when she glanced my way. My heart tripped and fell again.

  “Oh, yeah. It’s tied. Another round.”

  When Eva moved again, I decided I would take control of my distraction problem. “Let’s change the rules.”

  She turned and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Can you play sitting here?” I patted the couch between my knees.

  It felt as if sparks flew between us as her liquid brown eyes held mine. “That might not be an advantage for you,” she teased.

  “We’ll have to see, won’t we?”

  With a grin, she rose, sliding her hips between my knees. My cock nestled just against the curve of her bottom, and she gave a little wiggle, purely to torture me.

  “Don’t forget,” I murmured in her ear, “I’ll get you back.” I nipped her earlobe and trailed my fingertips down the side of her neck, loving how her skin pebbled under my touch.

  I had no idea how much time passed, but we both sucked at the game after that. I had my fingers in her slick pussy as she rocked back against my arousal. When I drew a circle around her clit before delving into her channel, she threw her controller to the floor. “I forfeit.”

  Before I could even react, she had turned around and pulled down my shorts. In a hot second, the warm suction of her mouth drew me in, and I tangled my hand in her hair.

  “No, really, I think we should try aga
in,” I insisted. “We can make it a real thing, like a tournament.”

  We were in my bed with my George purring away at the foot of it. Eva’s skin was dewy against mine where she rested on my chest. She laughed. “Oh, my God, you’re too perfect.”

  That, that right there, made something crazy happen in my brain. Eva was perfect, and I didn’t want to play this cool anymore.

  She curled her hand into a fist, resting her chin on it on my chest. “Why so serious all of a sudden?”

  For a few seconds, I thought about playing it off, but I didn’t. I smoothed my hand over her hair, my palm coming to rest between her shoulder blades where I sifted my fingers through her silky locks. “We’re pretty perfect together.”

  Her eyes widened. “Yeah?”

  “Don’t you think? Here’s the thing, Eva. When this all started, I didn’t know where it would go. It’s turned into more than I expected. I don’t think it’s just me. I’d like to make, well, I guess to make it official that we’re exclusive.”

  Her brow knitted as she regarded me. “I’m not the kind of girl who would date more than one person at a time anyway.”

  “I’m not the kind of guy who usually dates,” I said, offering more honesty than was perhaps helpful.

  Eva was still looking at me, and the silence felt loaded. “Zane, what do you want?”

  Puzzled, I lifted my brows in question.

  “With life, with relationships,” she clarified.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said. “Well, except for work.”

  Anxiety pricked my thoughts. I was facing up to the feelings I had for her, but I sensed she was asking for more definition. Seeing as I didn’t know how to find it in my own mind, I wasn’t sure what else to say.