Unrequited

If I could ever forget my heartache, it’s right here, right now.

“I’m sorry, I was miles away. Forgive me.”

Dex looks at me with a curious, heavy-lidded stare. “I can’t figure you out, Alicia,” he says softly, my name drawling like honey from his lips. It’s a sexy sound, possessive, and it sends a shiver down my spine.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“I usually know where I stand with a woman,” he says, with a wry grin. “Especially one who kissed me like you did.”

I blush.

“But I don’t know if you came with me because you want to spend time with me, or because you just didn’t want to be there,” Dex continues, still watching me.

I feel a flicker of guilt. “Can’t it be both?” I ask, wanting to be honest with him. I don’t even know him, but I feel like I can tell him the truth. “After all, you kissed me for a reason too. You wanted to forget something just as much as me.”

Dex’s eyes flash with something that looks like respect.

He lets out a low chuckle. “We’re a fine pair,” he remarks, moving to stand beside me. His arm brushes mine, and I shiver again. “Are you cold?” he asks immediately. “Here.”

He shrugs off his jacket and drapes it around my shoulders.

“Thank you,” I murmur. It’s warm from his body, and I can smell him; his clean, manly scent mingling with the leather in an intoxicating fragrance. It surrounds me, and suddenly I realize in a flash.

He’s real.

I’ve never faced it so starkly, but wrapped up in Dex’s presence, I have no choice. My fantasies are just that: figments, dreams, empty wisps of nothing floating on the breeze. But Dex is a real man -- in every possible sense of the word. And I know from the way he pressed me up against that wall and kissed me, devoured me, that he wants me, the way a man wants a woman.

The way I ache for him.

That knowledge surprises me with confidence, a feminine awareness of my power right now. I’ve been so used to watching, waiting, that it’s almost a thrill to know that I have a say in what’s about to happen. We stand a moment, watching the lights, and slowly, my self-consciousness melts away. I’m still on edge, but it’s a different kind of tension, a knot of anticipation in my stomach, the heady skitter of my heartbeat in my chest.

I can’t remember the last time I felt this way, so close to the edge.

Dex’s fingers slowly cover my own. I glance down, memorizing the sight of his hand curled around mine; his callused, strong fingers against my slim pink hand.

I force myself to look up at him. He’s gazing at me with a hungry expression in his eyes, his desire clear to see. My heart catches in my throat.

I can’t remember the last time a man looked at me this way.

“How about we make a deal?” he asks, his voice gravelly, sending a pool of heat right to my core. “Whatever it is that brought us here, we forget about it. Just for tonight, all that bullshit doesn’t exist. It’s just you and me.”

I take a hopeful breath. “Is it really that easy?”

Dex doesn’t look away. “It could be, if you want.”

What do I want?

I thought I knew for sure. For years, only one name has filled my heart, one man occupying all my happily-ever-after fantasies. But now, that fairytale ending belongs to somebody else, and I’m still exactly where I started.

Staring at a man who could show me everything I’ve been missing out on. Waiting for me to take that leap.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I reach up and kiss him.

Yes.

6.

DEX

Her kiss is all the agreement I need.

With a growl, I pull her body tight against mine, losing myself in her intoxicating sweetness. Alicia lets out a sigh and melts against me, and damn, if the world doesn’t all falls to ashes around us.

If the kiss in the alleyway back there was fireworks, this is a goddamn inferno.

I probe deeper, hungry for more, sliding my tongue deep into her mouth and drinking in the taste of her, sweet and sharp and every good thing in the universe.

This, f**k, this right here. This is what drives men to madness; fells empires and starts epic wars. The swell of her lush curves against me, the moan she sounds as I lick into her mouth; the way she presses closer, eager, sending lust ricocheting through my body and blood rushing to my cock.

This heat, this passion, it’s better than anything I’ve ever known, and dammit if I can’t get enough.

I lean her back against the railing, feeling every inch of her body sway against me. I need to touch all of her, and I don’t even know where to start: tangling my fingers in her silken hair, running my hands down over the curve of her back and the delicious roundness of her ass. I can’t help grinding against her, already hard and hungry, the friction driving me crazy as I gorge on those pink, honeyed lips.

“Dex,” she gasps, as I tear myself from her mouth and kiss a blazing path down her throat. I flick my tongue into the hollow of her collarbone, and her words melt into a breathy moan.

The sound shatters through me. I want to hear that moan for the rest of my life, gasping, begging, crying out with ecstasy as I plunge deep inside her.

She sways against me, her legs giving way, and I realize, the railings won’t hold her for what I’ve got in store. I back away, rasping a heavy breath.

“Come with me,” I order, grabbing her hand and yanking her back towards the elevator. I push her inside, up against the wall, claiming her mouth again as the doors slide shut. Alicia surrenders willingly, stealing tiny kisses, entwining her fingers through my hair. God, she’s responsive, so willing under my hands it drives me crazy. I kiss her harder, devouring her, sliding my hands over the silk of her dress and around her peach of an ass to cup and knead at the delicious flesh.