“I told you to send me a bill if the stain doesn’t come out. You might try the dry cleaners here. They’ve done miracles with some of my clothes. Stains are a job hazard for teachers,” she told him amiably.
It was her smile that made Evan snap. Her eyes were warm and happy, her lips curving into a beautiful expression of joy when she talked about her profession. But the grin was aimed at him, and Evan couldn’t possibly resist seizing the moment. He’d never made an impulsive move in his entire life, but he couldn’t seem to control his mind or body when she smiled at him this way.
He stepped forward without debating his options first, pinned her body against her vehicle, and without a cautionary thought in his head, he kissed her.
Evan groaned as his lips crashed down on hers, knowing that he’d just made a mistake that would probably cost him his sanity. Her body stiffened as he wrapped his arms around her, one hand threading through her hair to protect her head and keep it exactly in a position that allowed him complete access to her mouth. An unfamiliar sense of male satisfaction moved deep in his gut as the clip holding her hair fell to the ground and the dark strands tumbled around her shoulders.
She tasted like chocolate and coffee, and Evan savored the delectable softness of her lips beneath his. Out of control, he demanded access instead of asking. Finally, she became pliant beneath him, letting him in, and he inwardly released a sigh of relief as she wrapped her arms around him and met his marauding tongue stroke for stroke. Evan felt himself drowning in sensation, and it definitely wasn’t the cold of the surrounding environment. Every instinct he had was to claim the woman in his arms, make sure she remembered the heat that raged between them as they kissed each other like they were ravenous for each other. His cock strained for release as Evan explored Randi’s mouth demandingly, his body overheating from the way she returned his embrace enthusiastically.
She was panting by the time he finally lifted his head, both of them desperate for air. It took Evan a few minutes before he could manage to release her. He continued to hold her in his arms, saying nothing, their heavy, ragged breathing the only sound he could identify, the cloudy spirals of their every breath visible in the frigid air around them the only thing he could see. Slowly, reluctantly, his hand untangled from her silky hair and he finally stepped back.
“We can pretend that never happened,” Randi squeaked in a panicked voice.
The hell they could! Evan knew he’d probably have wet dreams about what else could have happened if they weren’t in the middle of the brutal cold in a damn parking lot. “I’m not certain I can,” he confided gruffly.
“We can,” Randi chattered optimistically. “We can’t stand each other. It’s just some crazy physical thing.”
It was definitely physical, but it wasn’t crazy or random. He’d wanted to bury his cock so deeply inside Randi Tyler with an unidentifiable primitive instinct he couldn’t explain since the moment they’d met, and he had a feeling that impulse wasn’t going to go away. Not after he’d tasted her, felt her willing response. She wanted him, and knowing that changed the entire game they’d been playing since the first time he saw her.
She might not like me, but she feels the same chemistry that I do.
“Do you have an escort for Hope’s party?” He ignored her suggestion that they pretend he’d never touched her. He had kissed her . . . and they had both enjoyed it.
“No.”
“You’ll go with me,” he decided, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and handing it to her. “Call your phone so you have my number. Call me when you get home safely.” He didn’t like the way the wind was starting to kick up and the snow was coming down more steadily now.
She looked dazed as she dialed her own phone number, letting it ring in her purse so his number would show up before handing it back to him. “Evan, I don’t think—”
He put a finger over her lips. “Don’t think about it. Just go with me.”
She nodded slowly as though she was still in a pleasure-induced trance. Evan decided he liked that look on her. He was determined now to see what she looked like as she came, screaming his name, his cock deep inside her, her body shuddering in climax.
She would look exquisite, and Evan was more than eager to share that experience with her. Maybe it would resolve the knot of longing that seemed to be pulling tighter and tighter in his gut right now.
Turning and walking away from her took almost superhuman strength, but he did it anyway. He wasn’t giving her a chance to think, a chance to change her mind. He paused to pick up the clip from her hair before he moved away from her and stuck it in his coat pocket.
He ambled slowly toward his car, satisfied when he saw her vehicle plow through the snowy parking lot and exit the Center.
What in the hell just happened?
Evan picked up his pace after he saw the taillights of Randi’s car disappear into the night, still more than a little shocked at his own behavior. He didn’t give in to urges or impulses, but tonight . . . he had.
He didn’t regret it. Sexual tension like he’d never experienced before had been smoldering between him and Randi Tyler since the moment they’d met. Now that he knew that she was just as attracted to him as he was to her, he understood the real truth.
She was wrong. They didn’t hate each other. What they were both feeling was desire in its most carnal form. He’d tried to ignore it because any loss of control scared the shit out of him. Maybe it unsettled her, too.
What would be the harm in spending some time together? Maybe they could fuck each other until the attraction was out of both of their systems. It was bound to happen if they acted on their fantasies. Evan had never been with a woman more than once before he got bored and was ready to go back to work. He didn’t do relationships. He sought out women who wanted the same thing he did . . . sex for one night to scratch an itch. Most of them were successful women who were busy with their own careers or businesses. Those arrangements had always suited him just fine.
Evan released a masculine sigh as he finally reached his vehicle, admitting to himself that exorcising the lust he had for Randi could take more than just one night.
In fact, it could take a very, very long time.
Strangely, he was good with that.
CHAPTER 4
The Amesport Midwinter Ball was cancelled and rescheduled for the following weekend because the area had been struck by a major blizzard.
Randi sighed and looked out the window of the small home that she’d inherited, glad that she now had five more days to try to find a way out of attending the ball with Evan.
Why in the hell did I let him kiss me? Worse yet, why did I enjoy it so damn much?
She’d been asking herself that very question for the last two days—since he’d rocked her world with the demanding, possessive, scorching-hot embrace that hadn’t left her mind since it happened.