Falling Hard (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #1) (8 page)

Theo seemed startled by how close to the
ground she was, too. At least she was wearing spiked, platform
hoochie shoes so she was around five-four. Most of the other women
were wearing slut shoes, too, so Lizzy was still one of the
shortest women on the dance floor, but at least the height
differential between her and Theo was minimized.

She was fretting about being short so much
that she almost missed that Theo was a really good dancer.

Really
good.

Lizzy had been going to clubs since she got
her first fake ID when she sixteen, so she could see the influences
of hip-hop in Theo’s feet and samba in his hips. He wasn’t doing
the white-boy shuffle or hogging the dance-floor like a show-off.
He felt the beat and let it roll through him. Theo upgraded from
from merely gorgeous to sexy-as-chocolate on the dance floor, and
Lizzy hopped closer to him, dancing with her hips.

Theo took a long look down her wiggling body,
like he could finally look, and his light hazel eyes scorched her
when they finally met hers again. He stepped closer. Only an inch
of air separated them, and warmth rolled off his body, wafting over
her bare arms and legs.

Lizzy turned her back to him while she
danced, giving him a view of her muscular ass. The skin on her back
prickled as she imagined him looking down her strong back, bared in
the light gold dress.

The warmth of his body intensified, and
Theo’s fingers alighted on her hip. He wasn’t grabbing or groping,
but the heat of his hand fell through the gauze of her dress.

The crowd swayed in front of her, and a rift
opened between Lizzy and Mr. Smolder.

Mr. Smolder was still leaning against the
wall, holding a drink, though he looked off to the left. His long,
black hair was caught behind his shoulder, and his square jaw
worked like he was mulling something over. He drank from his
highball glass, a controlled motion like his bicep was so big that
it bunched up when he bent his arm.

His chest rose and fell, a hard sigh, and his
blue eyes roved around the room.

He caught Lizzy staring at him, and he smiled
at her. His smile just curved his full lips, but it was still half
a glower.

Lizzy raised an arm and danced harder,
staring at Mr. Smolder with Theo’s fingers just grazing her
hip.

She bit her lip and swiveled to face Theo,
who was so close to her that his forehead was nearly pressed
against hers. When she turned, his hand caressed her hips, dragging
across the pale gold material of her dress.

His light eyes, always laughing before, had
sharpened with desire. She almost stepped back, unbalanced, but she
stepped forward instead, and her hands splayed against his
chest.

His white shirt was crisp under her fingers,
but through the silky cloth, muscle rounded his pecs. Her hand
slipped a little, and her fingers found hard abdominal ripples
below his ribs.

Oh, yeah. Copping a feel on Theo was
really
good.
Dang,
but he must work out a lot.

Her feet stopped moving as her hands explored
the startling bands of muscle on Theo’s body. She was accustomed to
the juiced-up club Guidos in Jersey, but Theo’s body was bound with
hard, tight,
strong
muscles.

His body swayed against hers, and she moved,
too, picking up his rhythm. Her breath stuttered in the top of her
chest.

His hand slipped around to her lower back and
pressed her against his body, a confident move. His torso felt like
poured steel against her front, and she molded herself to him. His
skin radiated heat through their clothes.

She could pull Theo back through one of those
doors, into one of those bedrooms, and screw him right now. Georgie
had told her to boink someone. Theo seemed thoroughly
boinkable.

As a matter of fact, considering that clean,
masculine scent drifting out of his unbuttoned collar, his sexy
factor had ratcheted up yet a few
more
notches, and she
couldn’t keep her hands off of him. Her palms loved the shapes of
his rippled abs and rounded pecs under his shirt. Her whole body
strained to touch him. Her head floated, turning her face up.

Yeah, holy shit. Mr. Smolder, who?
Seeing that other guy with his sub had freed Lizzy to forget him
and to see Theo for the gorgeous man that he was.

Theo bent, compressing his hard abdominal
muscles under her hands, and he kissed her.

His full lips were thick and soft against
hers, and she rose farther up on her toes to press her lips harder
against his. His other hand rubbed up her spine to cup her neck and
the back of her head, and his lips wandered over hers, kissing her
softly. If she had gone limp, he could have held her in his strong
arms, but she stretched, reaching for more.

Desire shot down her spine and spread through
her stomach, heating between her legs.

Lizzy gasped and stumbled back a
half-step.

Theo’s hands softened on her back, and he let
her pull away. Lizzy opened her eyes to find him breathing hard,
and a smile curved his lips. His eyes were drunk with desire.

Good God, had that wonderful and terrible
night with The Dom
fixed
her? She thought it was
The
Dom,
it was only
him
and it could
only
be
him,
that only he could dole out what made her pop, but
Theo’s hands and lips were winding her up.

Well, Hell’s bells. Only one way to find
out.

She grabbed Theo’s hand. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” His deep voice was half
an octave lower than it had been while they were talking at the
bar.

She tugged his hand, and he walked behind her
toward the bedroom doors that lined the back wall.

The first bedroom door was locked, but the
second knob turned under Lizzy’s small hand. She tugged him inside,
rolled against the wall, slammed and locked the door, and pulled
his head way, way down to hers.

His lips were just as pillowy as she
remembered from two minutes before, but warmer.

Theo’s mouth became more demanding, sucking
at her lips. She opened her mouth, and his tongue rubbed against
hers.

Oh,
God,
yes. She moaned and her legs
turned rubbery.

She was throwing herself at him and she knew
it, but her heart was shredded like a gossamer veil dragged behind
a horse. Theo was right here, right now, and she wanted to be held
in his strong arms.

On her arm, her purse vibrated from her phone
inside.

Fuck them. Lizzy was
getting
some.

When she tugged on his shirt, trying to slide
the buttons through the tiny holes and pull his shirt tails out of
his pants, Theo grasped her hands. “Stop.”

“I beg your pardon?” Lizzy’s cheeks stung
with blood. She leaned at him again, intending to kiss him until he
gave her what she wanted.

He held her wrists lightly in his huge hands.
“Stop. We just met.”

“So what?” She wanted to kiss him some more
but didn’t want to look like an attacking suckerfish.

Humor warmed his eyes. “I don’t do that on
the first date.”

Lizzy’s mouth dropped open. “You are shitting
me!”

Theo laughed and pulled away from her as he
straightened.

She made a grab at his shirt but missed.
“Come on! Quit fucking around, slap me up against this wall, and
screw
me.”

“I mean it. I don’t.” He stepped back.

She stepped forward and poked him in the abs.
She meant to poke him in the chest, but she was too short so she
ended up poking him in the torso. Her finger slipped off a hard
lump and slid into the deep valley that ran down the center of his
abdominal muscles under his shirt. “You don’t like me? I’m too
short?”

He grasped her chin with his thumb and
forefinger and turned her face up. His eyes seemed kind. “I like
you. You’re funny.”

“Is there something I should know?
Something,” she searched for a euphemism, “viral?”

“Nope. I’m as healthy as a thoroughly
vaccinated horse—”

Lizzy wanted to see if he was hung like one,
too.

“—but I made myself a promise a couple of
years ago. I was tired of being treated like a piece of meat.”

He looked like very good beefsteak, and Lizzy
wanted to bite him.

“So I don’t do that anymore.”

Lizzy asked, “You
know
what this party
is,
right?”

“Yes.” He dropped his head to the side.

“Then why are you here?”

“I was dragged here. It wasn’t my idea.”

Her phone in her purse buzzed again and a
horrible thought crossed Lizzy’s mind. “You’re not, like,
saving
yourself,
right?”

He laughed. “No, but I have relationships,
not one-night-stands.”

“Just how many dates does it take to get into
your pants?”

He grinned. “That’s the hard part.”

“No, evidently,
that’s
the—”

“You have to convince me that you don’t
just
want to get in my pants. Ready to give up yet?”

She looked up into his light caramel eyes
again, at the humor and intelligence and glints of gold there, and
at his strong jaw and sun-bleached hair. Her hands rose on his
shirt, tracing the contours of his chest and abs. “Jersey girls
never give up.”

“Good.” He ducked his head and kissed her
again, exploring her lips. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

“So we’re just going to neck back here?”

“We might talk.”

“I might have a heart attack and
die.”

“We could go back to the party, maybe dance
some more, or have another drink.”

Her purse strap buzzed on her wrist
again.

Lizzy scooped her phone out of her purse and
glanced at it. “Damnit. My girlfriend Rae is texting me, wanting to
know when we can leave. I guess I’m on my way out.” This would
sound sappy if she didn’t say it right, and a Jersey girl was never
fucking sappy. “So, you, um, want my number, or something? You
know?”

“Absolutely.” He tugged his phone out of a
phone-holster on his belt and handed it to her.

She typed in her number. “Yeah, you know, if
you want it. Whatever.”

He took the phone back. “I’ll call you.”

There was no fucking way she was going to say
something needy like
when,
so she shrugged. “Yeah,
whatever.”

He tapped his phone, and her cell buzzed in
her hand.

She raised the phone to her ear, staring into
his golden eyes the whole time. Surely he wasn’t calling her right
then, right? “Hello?”

Theo’s lips were close to hers, and his
breath warmed her lips. His voice felt like velvet on her lips and
tickled her ear through her phone. “God, you smell good. When can I
see you again?”

This was weird. He was supposed to wait three
days to call and she was supposed to act like she didn’t care. Of
course, he was also supposed to take every opportunity to get his
rocks off. “Um, next Friday?”

His eyebrow rose. His lips barely touched
hers, just rubbing her lower lip and sending vibrations down her
spine.

God, this was just
kissing
.

Theo pulled back a half an inch and asked,
“So long?”

“I’m a busy girl. Why, do you want to give up
on me?”

He smiled. “Give up on a woman who says that
she can see my soul? Not a chance.”

The limo rolled through the glittering city
and the cooling night, driving the three girls back to their dorm
and mundane college life. The sweaty tang from their warm bodies
rose above their floral perfumes and chemical antiperspirants, and
Lizzy’s nose twitched with the slightest salty musk of sex. Georgie
must have gotten some in one of those back rooms,
the tramp,
Lizzy thought fondly.
Lucky tramp.

Lizzy held her phone, staring at the
unidentified number glowing on the top of her recent calls list.
She had touched the number twice, almost adding Theo to her
contacts, but she had canceled the action both times. He wasn’t
really going to call.

Georgie talked over Lizzy, who once again sat
in the middle, at Rae. “So? Spill it.”

Rae watched out the window, distracted. “We
danced. He seemed nice.”

“Nice?” Lizzy wanted to shake Rae. The Dom
wasn’t
nice.
Rae had had his attention, his full attention,
and all she got was
nice?

Rae said, “You guys didn’t tell me that blond
guy was Dom. I just thought he was some guy, but I guess everything
went okay.”

Georgie rolled her eyes. “Did he talk to you
about The Devilhouse?”

“Yeah.”

“
All
about it?”

“I guess so. I’m still kind of processing. At
least it’s not selling drugs. I had drawn the line at selling
drugs.”

Lizzy and Georgie glanced at each other. Rae
seemed closed off, like she was going to bunk this chance.

Georgie asked, “Did you get an
interview?”

Rae nodded. “Yep, I got an interview.
Tomorrow.”

Lizzy asked her, “Are you willing to work at
The Devilhouse to stay in college?”

Rae sighed. “I know you guys put yourselves
out there for me. I won’t screw it up. I’ve got that interview, but
that’s all.”

Lizzy settled back in the deep car seat,
satisfied that she probably wasn’t going to be summarily fired for
even suggesting Rae to The Dom, but she was still sexed up from
dancing and necking with Theo. Her body felt like a live wire
sparking in the night.

His lips had been so soft on hers, and she
touched his glowing number on her phone again.

In the quiet of the night with the dark car
growling around them, while Rae and Georgie fell into drunken dozes
against their windows, Lizzy watched bright headlights veering past
them on the road ahead through the windshield.

Theo was gorgeous, she knew.