Seduced in September (Spring River Valley Book 9) (2 page)

Concentrating on not toppling over in the three-inch heels she’d foolishly bought for the occasion, she nearly plowed into one of those masculine bodies before reaching the bar. “Sorry, my fault. I wasn’t loo—”

Quinn Preston’s deep brown eyes met hers, and she froze in place, Claudia’s words about needing a little trouble in her life rising to the surface of her frothy thoughts. “It’s all right. I was watching exactly where you were going, and you’re right where you’re supposed to be.”

With her inhibitions loosened by the booze, she was unable to stop herself from giggling. “Actually I’m supposed to be getting another round for the table.”

“I’ll tell you what, the round’s on me,” he said, leaning close to whisper in her ear. “If you’ll dance with me.”

A small voice in Lily’s brain that hadn’t yet been affected by the alcohol and the music and the proximity of the only man in Spring River Valley who made her want to break all the rules, tried to protest.
No, thanks
was a simple enough response and the one that would keep her heart safe and her inhibitions in check where they belonged. That voice might have risen above the pulse-pounding music and chilled this suddenly steamy encounter, but Sandra must have heard every word, possibly because it was impossible to actually whisper over the noise in the bar. Her friend had left the table and was nudging her toward Quinn.

“Go for it,” she said. “We’ve got this covered.”

“Got what covered?” Lily tried to direct the question over her should to the group, but Quinn had grabbed her hand and was tugging her toward the section of the restaurant that had been reserved for dancing.

Since the place was packed, there was hardly any room for them
, and within seconds she was pressed against him, enveloped in the warmth of his body and the spicy scent of his aftershave. “I meant it,” he said in the same stage whisper he’d used before, his lips perilously close to her ear. “I’ll get the next round as soon as the song is over.”

Lily glanced at the table she’d abandoned. Her friends were all lifting tiny glasses to their mouths, lime wedges at the ready. “Don’t worry about it. They’ll be fine.”

“Good, then I’ve got you all to myself?”

Rather than strain her voice to yell over the music, she nodded.
Oh, you’ve definitely got me.

* * * *

“I must be out of my mind,” Lily said, giggling as she handed the cab driver a couple of crumbled bills she’d pulled out of her purse. “Keep the change-oh!” She barely had time to finish her sentence before a warm hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the cab.

Teetering on her heels, the ones she should have left at home (since her feet were killing her) she nearly fell right into Quinn’s arms. She managed to steady herself, her palms flat on his pectorals, as the cab roared away and left the two of them standing in front of his apartment building.

She caught his gaze, the deep, hypnotic stare that he’d already used to lure her this far, and decided her mind had closed up shop and was gone for the night. After they’d circled the dance floor a few times, one more drink—a frothy pink concoction the bartender had called “Oh my god”—had chased away all of her remaining inhibitions, leaving her with just enough common sense to call Claudia and tell her she was going home from Colette’s with Quinn. She vaguely remembered a few shocked exclamations on Claudia’s part before she’d hung up and stuck her cell phone into her bra, where it remained (she knew because she kept checking just to make sure, and every time she looked down her shirt, Quinn’s primal gaze followed hers).

This was bad. So bad.

And it was so good. In the chilly, late night air—or was it early morning by now?—the heat of his skin against hers turned her insides pleasantly mushy. Under her clothes, she tingled almost everywhere when he pulled her into his embrace.

“You’re beautiful,” he told her, his tone feral and too serious for the moment.

Her breath caught. “Thank you. So are you.”

He laughed and tugged her hand, urging her to follow him toward his ground
-floor front door. Once there, he began patting his pants pockets. “Keys? Oh, I lost my keys. No, wait. I gave them to someone…to Tanner. Whew, that was close.”

“So we’re locked out?” Damn. She hadn’t wanted to take him back to her place, even though he’d offered to go there because one, Claudia would be there trying to sleep, and two, she didn’t plan on waking up in bed with him. This night was supposed to be about fun and games and no regrets, and then it was going to be over, because regardless of the excess of spirits that had her head floating a few feet above her shoulders, she hadn’t forgotten that as much as she wanted Quinn, right here, right now, this could never be a long-term thing.

“Nah…watch!” He bent over, and Lily indulged in a naughty perusal of his backside in stonewashed denim. She wanted desperately to take his shirt off so she could feast on the muscles she knew were hiding under the light blue cotton. In the middle of her lusty daydream he produced a key from under the doormat and held it up in the dim glow of the low-wattage porch light. “
Voilà
.”

“Just like magic,” she crooned and leaned in to kiss him. His shoulders tensed when she slipped her arms around his neck, and in a second he was pressing her against the still locked door.

“
You’re
magic. Your eyes are amazing.” He punctuated his praise with scorching kisses to her throat and neck.

She shivered. “The key? Let’s go inside.”

“Hmm.” Gently, he nudged her aside and unlocked the door with a lot more finesse than she’d have given him credit for in his current inebriated state. He’d told her he was tipsy, and so was she, and normally that would have been a big, flashing warning signal, but tonight it was more like an added bonus. Everyone deserved to let go once in a while, and while she had shed her inhibitions back at Colette’s just like she planned very shortly to shed her clothes, she still possessed enough of her wits to control the situation.

He flung the door open and swept his arm out to invite her in. “My castle is su castle.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be
casa
?”

“That’s what I said.”

She took a step over the threshold, but he stopped her, a hand on her arm. “We don’t have to go inside, you know. We can just stay out here and talk.”

She grinned. He was adorable one minute and irresistibly sexy the next. How was a girl supposed to cope with that? Her response was to throw herself into his arms and kiss him, full on, demanding and sweet and promising all at once.

Her method worked, because a second later she was in his apartment, and they were stumbling through the dark, heading toward the bedroom. She knew because he mumbled the word
bedroom
as they maneuvered through the living room. He then muttered the word
ottoman
before kicking a low-lying piece of furniture out of their way.

“Condoms,” she added to the narrative, and he nodded, his lips hovering over hers, hot and teasing.

“Got ’em.”

Those were the last of his words that made any sense. She dropped her purse on the floor and guided his hands to the buttons of her blouse. He worked the filmy shirt open, spilling her cell phone out of her bra. It landed on her purse, and she slid them both out of the way with her foot, then snaked one of her heels up the back of his calf. “Leave it. Kiss me.”

He obeyed, a low rumble like the purr of a satisfied lion vibrating his chest. He lifted her up to ride at his waist and turned toward the bed where he set her on the edge of the mattress. With practiced ease he unbuttoned his own shirt and took it off. Lily moaned. That’s what she’d wanted. Just a glimpse of those biceps sent her temperature soaring. She’d dreamed too often of wrapping her hands around them as she and Quinn fell together into a feather-soft bed, and now it was happening. Humming her satisfaction, she reached for him, letting her hands roam up his abs to his shoulders. He was smooth and hard at the same time, commanding and yet pliable. He moved where she guided and did everything she wanted him to just the way she wanted him to do it.

Every move was perfect. He stripped her and took his sweet time learning every inch of her tingling skin. His silky caresses left her electrified and barely able to think. When she was certain her senses were completely overloaded, he shed his own pants and briefs, produced a condom from the night stand and let her put it on him.

“Are you sure?” he asked one last time, and she nodded, speechless with desire and still not quite sure she hadn’t lost her mind. How could this moment be real? Lily Jarvis didn’t do one-night stands with drop dead gorgeous men who picked her up in bars. Lily Jarvis played by a specific set of rules that had kept her heart safe from all the pitfalls so many of her friends had endured, but Lily Jarvis was out of the building right now, and she wasn’t coming back until morning.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” she whispered, arching her back.

He hesitated for a second, squinting as if she had said something unusual. Then the moment passed and he took her, leaving her more than certain this was a night she’d never forget.

Lily opened one eye cautiously, wondering how light could make her ears ring. Clarity returned to her world on an impossibly sharp, bright sunbeam that filtered around the edge of the bedroom window shade. She stifled a moan and took a brief mental inventory. Her head hurt, and her mouth felt like she’d eaten sandpaper. There were fuzzy halos around the light- colored objects in the room…but beyond that, she seemed to be none the worse for wear.

Tentatively, she stretched and made a half-hearted attempt to focus on the navy blue sheet she clutched under her chin. Navy blue. There was something odd about that. Weren’t the sheets on her bed pale pink?

Her bed. Which this decidedly was not.

“Oh, God.” She froze, a cold tingle working its way down her spine in sync with a rumbling, very masculine sigh that escaped from the mound of covers lying next to her. The muscles in her stomach tightened, though not in a bad way, when she put two and two together and came up with Quinn Preston.

She hadn’t left his apartment like she’d planned to, and now it was daylight.

Cautiously, she lifted her head off the bunched-up pillow and peered at him. He lay facing her, deeply asleep, his breathing rhythmic, a half smile tilting his lips. Oh, those talented lips.

Heat crept up Lily’s naked body from points south. Last night had been everything she’d fantasized about and more. Those strong arms, those washboard abs, and a gluteus maximus that felt like two, firm, tight…

“
Oh, God
.” This was the part she hadn’t considered last night when she’d given herself permission to sleep with him. It had never occurred to her that there would actually be
sleep
. It was going to be wham, bam…and then wham and several more bams and then thank you, ma’am. Not that she didn’t worship commitment; she just knew the kind of man who could handle it, and Quinn Preston wasn’t that kind of man. She was fine with that, if only because she hadn’t had sex in a long time and—

Now was not the time to justify her prior justifications. Now was the time to pull a vanishing act before he woke up.

She slithered out of the bed, eyeing him with the same suspicion one would a sleeping tiger. Hadn’t she called him Tiger a few times last night?

Once she landed with a barely audible thump on his bedroom floor she began crawling around
, looking for her clothes.
Panties…check. Skirt…check. Bra…got it. Blouse? Uh-oh.
Where was her blouse?

On hands and knees she circled the bed. A sliver of pale peach fabric caught her attention, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she yanked her blouse out from under the bed. Her shoes, her purse and her cell phone lay by the bedroom door, which stood open a few inches. Good, then she wouldn’t have to make any noise as she crept out of the room, her belongings clutched to her chest like a naughty thief.

Once she made it to the living room, she rose and started shimmying into her clothes. A button was missing from her blouse, and the discovery caused another shameful bloom of heat in her cheeks. She would never forget the feel of the satiny fabric sliding off her arms, or the exhilaration as he’d inched her skirt down over her hips and the shock of awareness when he’d pressed his lips to the skin below her navel.

She almost doubled over, her intimate muscles pulsing with the memory. Only the pain of slipping her feet into her impossibly tight shoes cured her of the wishy-washy love
-struck notion that it might be okay if she just stripped down and climbed back into bed with him.

No. No strings. No expectations. They’d even discussed it last night as they swayed together on the dance floor at Colette’s. They’d both admitted to not looking for a serious relationship. She had rules that she planned to only break this one time, and he respected that. So he’d said. If he woke up to her big blue eyes blinking at him, he’d know she was going back on their agreement to just enjoy each other’s company for the night and go on with their lives.