She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (6 page)

“Later.” She grabbed his hand. “Let’s go have some fun.”

“Uh.” Ryan didn’t move as she started for the doors. “Fun’s exactly what I have in mind.”

She looked back at him. He honestly looked confused. She turned to face him. “Fun like dancing and drinking and making out?”

“Fun like stripping you out of that thing and licking you from toes to nose.”

That wave of heat rippled through her again. They were going to do that. Exactly that. But later.

“We’re so on the same page there, Ryan.”

“Well, the licking is best done on a horizontal surface, preferably one with feather pillows and maid service to worry about cleaning up the whipped cream.”

She smiled in spite of suddenly wanting to do some licking of her own. “That is the plan. I swear.”

“Then let’s go this way.” He inclined his head toward the elevators and tugged on her hand.

“Ryan, we’ll never leave if we go up there now.”

“That’s kind of the idea.” He frowned. “Isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, after we go out.” She frowned too. Why was he frowning?

“Go out? Go out where?”

She frowned harder. “Out. Anywhere fun. I thought maybe we’d go to Frigid.”

“
Frigid
?” he repeated. “Are you kidding?”

“No.” She stepped close. “Ryan, this is my night to be wild, to do all the things that make my blood hot and my heart pound. You are on that list too, trust me. But I have twenty-four hours and I want to live it up.”

“At Frigid?”

“To start.”

Frigid was hands-down the hottest club in the city. And it didn’t get its reputation from the music, the drinks or the people who showed up. Sure, you could just drink and dance. That was fine. No one would question or pressure you to do anything more. But it was also perfectly acceptable to make out with a total stranger—or two—in the middle of the dance floor. Or lose your top on one of the couches that encircled the dance floor. Or give someone a blow job on the upper balcony. Or head all the way upstairs, grab a condom or two or three from the bowl inside the door, and find the nearest naked body. You didn’t have to have sex there, but everything went, nothing was off limits and you were guaranteed to get an eyeful no matter what
you
chose to do while inside.

What happened at Frigid stayed at Frigid. And just about everything happened there.

“Have you ever been to Frigid?” Ryan asked, still clearly stunned by her request.

“Yeah, once,” she admitted.

It had been when the club first opened and Emma had more or less blackmailed her into going. She’d been propositioned several times and had actually been talked into some dirty dancing, but that was as far as she went. She suspected Emma had made it to the second balcony while Amanda was sandwiched between two hot guys looking for a threesome for the night, but she’d never asked and Emma hadn’t volunteered the information.

They’d both made it out still wearing all the clothes they’d worn in, so Amanda counted it as a success. But she hadn’t been back since.

“You’ve been there, haven’t you?” she asked. She really wanted him to say yes, she realized. She had an image of Ryan as the wild party guy who would try anything—and had. That was who she was counting on being there with her tonight. She’d heard the rumors about Ryan and his numerous girlfriends. She’d certainly seen him in action with women at Trudy’s on more than one occasion. But she knew how stories could get blown up and tales could get taller the more they were told.

Dammit.

That hadn’t even occurred to her. She needed the Ryan from her dirty dreams. He
had
to be that guy.

“Please,” she said, slapping her hand over his mouth before he could speak. “Please tell me you’ve been there. I need a wild night out. I do. I
really
need it. And I need someone who can be there with me, keep up and keep me from doing anything I’ll regret in the morning. Please tell me that’s you.”

If it wasn’t, she had no idea who she would call.

No one. There was no one else she could go out with like this. It had to be someone who wouldn’t be scandalized, who wouldn’t try to talk her out of it, who wouldn’t judge…

Ryan pulled her hand from his mouth. “I’ve been there,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I can keep up. I can do whatever you need me to do.” He said it with a strange intensity that made her feel tingly. Then he pulled her closer. “I’m just gonna need to know exactly what it is that you want.”

“You. Right there with me. I want to do shots, but I need someone to make sure I can get home if I have too many. I want to dance and flirt and have hands all over me, and feel sexy and hot and in charge. But I need someone to make sure that it doesn’t go any farther. I need to know that you’re the only one who’s going to touch me under this dress. You’re the only one who’s going to need a condom with me tonight.”

Ryan’s voice was low and firm when he said, “I can
guaran-fucking-tee
that no one else is going to need a condom with you tonight.”

She stared up at him. He made her feel safe. At the same time she wanted to let him know she wasn’t wearing any panties. Wow. This was going to be…interesting. And perfect.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. Her three-inch heels put her closer to his mouth than last night, and she knew that she was going to be taking advantage of that a lot in the next few hours.

He put a big hand on the back of her neck as she attempted to pull back, and kept her still while he prolonged the kiss, then urged her lips open and swept his tongue along hers in an erotic, possessive gesture.

When the kiss broke, it was only because Ryan let it.

She tried to steady her heart rate. And her balance on her heels. “A couple other rules for tonight,” she said, her voice husky.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want you putting your hands under anyone else’s dress or using a condom with anyone else for tonight. Is that okay?”

His hand was still on the back of her neck, and he held her motionless as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers. “Are you asking me if it’s okay that you want to be the only one to fuck me tonight?”

Her bones melted a little.

“Yeah, Mandi, that’s okay. That’s absolutely okay.”

Well, then. Great. They were on the same page.

And their room was right upstairs. A short elevator ride to the twenty-first floor.

“Maybe we don’t need to go—”

But that was as far as she got before Ryan straightened, took her hand and started for the doors.

“Oh, we’re going,” he said as she tripped after him on her high heels. “This is something I’ve
got
to see now.”

Adrenaline surged and Amanda felt goose bumps erupt all over her body.

Happy birthday, Olivia, she thought. You are a very, very good sister.

Chapter Three

He was her fucking babysitter.

Ryan sat at the bar at Frigid—of all the fucking places—and watched Amanda dance.

She hadn’t sat for more than two minutes since they’d walked in the door.

Which didn’t surprise him one damned bit. She was easily the most beautiful woman there. Sure, she wore a green dress that hit above midthigh, left her stomach bare and plunged low in back—too low for her to be wearing a bra. But she didn’t look slutty. She looked like…sex. That was all he could think as the silky material glided over her body as she moved. The silk caressed her hips, cupped her ass, clung to her breasts and shimmered as she swiveled to the music.

It also shimmered when people ran their hands over it.

And lots of people were doing a lot of that.

A person didn’t come to Frigid—or at least they didn’t stay once they found out what the place was all about—if they didn’t want to be touched. Touching was not only accepted, it was encouraged. The seats at the bar were for those who liked to watch, but the dance floor was all about touching. And rubbing. It was for introductions, foreplay, working up to the other levels. The couches around the dance floor were for the exhibitionists. The couches in the dark corners were for a bit more privacy—and more nudity. As you moved up the levels of the club, things got wilder.

He’d never been to the fourth level and didn’t know anyone who had. But he’d heard. He liked some of the level-four activities, but preferred to have them in his own condo and bed.

The gorgeous woman who had claimed Amanda four songs ago pressed against her from behind, nudging her forward into the guy who had joined them for the past two songs. The man’s hands settled on her hips, rubbing up and down enough to lift her skirt into scandalous territory while the woman’s hands came around and cupped her breasts.

Amanda sure didn’t push them away. She let her head fall back and the man kissed her throat, then her collarbone, then her lips. Their hips continued to move in rhythm and Ryan clenched his beer bottle tighter. Amanda was into this. He couldn’t believe it. And it was hot. That he could believe. Watching her let her sexy side out was a true pleasure. A tighter-in-his-jeans, almost-couldn’t-breathe pleasure.

Watching her do it with someone else was torturous.

But that wasn’t going to last much longer. She’d had plenty of foreplay and Ryan knew that her partners were keeping track too. Rarely did anyone dance all night. Not someone who danced like Amanda was. She was letting them touch her, press against her, say who-knew-what to her. And she was clearly loving all of it. Pretty soon the brunette and her guy were going to want to move things to the couch.

Amanda’s rule was no one but him under her dress. Which he was more than okay with. He was fighting to keep his ass on his barstool even as she swayed her hips in an upright position fully covered. Or as covered as that dress would allow her to be.

The only thing that kept him from storming onto that floor and hauling her out of here—or to level two or three—was that she was so damned hot. And it was how much she was enjoying it that added to the heat.

Amanda was into every bit of this. Including the two shots she’d had at the bar before hitting the dance floor, the two the brunette had bought her and the one she’d tipped back when she’d taken her one and only break to come to the bar, give him a smile that said she was having the time of her life, kiss him—hot and long and tasting like the raspberry liqueur in her shot—and then head back to the dance floor.

So far he’d resisted joining her. For one thing, watching her was good. Really good. But also because, if he went out there and started touching her himself, it wouldn’t end until she was spread out on the nearest firm surface. Just him and her. One thing was certain—he wasn’t inviting anyone else. Not even the stunning brunette who had clearly claimed Amanda for herself.

With anyone else, he’d definitely consider it. The shorter woman was sexy and obviously into this whole the-more-the-merrier scene.

But he didn’t want to share Amanda.

It was strange and he chose not to dwell on that confusing and unexpected thought. He didn’t want to share her. Period.

So he didn’t join her dancing. Yet. She was having a great time and nothing had happened yet to risk that. Her dance partners were sexy and hot, clearly making Amanda feel the same way, but they hadn’t broken any of Amanda’s rules.

Just then the man’s hand drifted to the bare skin of Amanda’s outer thigh before sliding higher, definitely under the edge of her skirt, heading for the back of her leg and up to her buttock.

Thank God.

That was Ryan’s cue.

He was by her side in five strides. He grasped the other man’s arm. “This is where I come in.”

The guy looked up, clearly read Ryan’s claim in his eyes, and took his hand from Amanda’s leg. “Damn,” was all he said, but he moved off to another dancing pair. Whatever he wanted that night, he’d be able to find.

Amanda smiled up at Ryan and he leaned in to kiss her. He held her face in both hands and moved his mouth over hers soft and thoroughly, making sure anyone looking on would know that she was his.

But the brunette wasn’t ready to give Amanda up. She reached out and ran a hand up and over Ryan’s chest. “Ooh, now this is going to be fun.”

He pulled away from Amanda’s mouth and looked over her shoulder at the other woman. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Oh, you should.” She licked her lips and curled her fingers into his pec. “And so you know, you can have me, but I get her first.”

Ryan looked into the woman’s big brown eyes. She was gorgeous. And any other time, any other guy would have had a raging hard-on from simply looking at her, not to mention her offer.

But his eyes immediately went back to the blond between them.
She
was the one he wanted. She was the reason he was aching.

“I’m not sharing her.”

The brunette narrowed her eyes and her fingernails dug in a little. “Then maybe you need to move on.”

He gave her a little smile. “I don’t think so.”

The woman’s other hand rested on Amanda’s waist. She moved to stroke across Amanda’s stomach. “I don’t think it’s up to you,” she told Ryan.