The Blind Date (13 page)

“I’m surprised to see you here,” Jerome said stiffly. “You know Gabe?”

“You could say that. Gabe’s a great guy. We have a couple of things in common. We both grew up in farming families and it turns out he’s a fellow Okie, too. I made the conference table and credenza, and he invited me to the open house.” He turned his attention to Shawna even though he continued to speak to Jerome. “I hadn’t planned on coming, but my plans changed at the last minute, and I decided to show up so I could take care of some business.”

It was nerve-wracking the way he kept looking at her. She wished he’d stop it.

The redhead walked up beside him. “Ry, give me a couple of your business cards so I can help you hand them out.”

Ry? His name contained four letters and two syllables. Was it really so difficult that she had to shorten it?

“Pardon me, I’m Jessica.”

Names were exchanged and then Shawna politely asked, “What do you do?” Although she didn’t feel polite. She wanted to scratch Jessica’s eyes out.

Her gaze shifted to Ryan, who still stared at her. When he lowered his eyes to her bare shoulders, she experienced a sensation very much like a caress.

“I’m an interior designer,” Jessica answered. “I put all of this together.” She waved her hand in the general direction of the room and then plucked two cards out of a small purse.

Shawna didn’t take them, leaving Jessica’s hand hanging in the space between them because Ryan distracted her. The way his mouth looked. The way his eyes remained focused on her. Too late, she realized her
faux pas
, but Jerome mitigated the awkward moment and took the cards.

“How have you been?” Ryan asked.

“Well. You?”

“Same.”

“I thought you weren’t coming back for a couple more days.”

“I decided to cut my trip short.”

The intimate tone of their voices suggested they were sequestered in a corner somewhere instead of standing in the middle of a room with dates and other guests. Shawna’s pulse started an unrelenting beat in her throat. She wanted to pull him away from the other woman. She wanted to go somewhere and run her fingers through his hair, stake her claim by straddling him and peppering his skin with kisses.

Swallowing hard, her cheeks flushed with heat, Shawna lifted the hair off her neck. The room had become unbearably warm. She groaned aloud, the sound leaving her throat before she could do anything to stop it.

“You okay?” Jerome asked.

“I’m feeling a little out of it.” She fanned her face. “I’m going to run to the restroom. Excuse me.”

She hurried away as quickly as she could.

Chapter Twenty

Ryan scrubbed his hand across his jaw as he watched Shawna leave. He hadn’t intended to come to the party even though he’d received an invitation. His family had wanted him home and he’d agreed to visit while his sister was on spring break. Unfortunately, he’d barely slept a wink in Oklahoma and had not been the best company. Over his mother’s protests—and with a promise to make it up to them—he’d cut his trip short to sit at the airport on standby for hours, waiting for a flight back to Atlanta.

When he arrived at the party, Shawna had been easy to spot in a room full of dark suits and dresses because by contrast, she wore a powder-blue strapless cocktail dress. The color was striking against her beautiful dark skin and punctuated the indentation of her waist and curvature of her hips. It looked fantastic on her.

“Ryan!” Jessica’s voice sounded loud and irritated, as if she’d said his name more than once. He and Jessica had struck up a friendship about a year ago and referred business to each other from time to time. “Could you—”

“In a minute. I’ll be right back.” Without a backward glance at either Jessica or Jerome, Ryan set out in the same direction as Shawna.

When he found the ladies’ room, he pushed the door open, not caring if he startled the women who might be inside. Enough of this nonsense about space and taking things slow. Not seeing her had simply confirmed her necessity in his life.

He walked through the sitting room and pushed the other door that took him inside the bathroom. Stopping at the entrance, he saw Shawna and another woman standing in front of the mirrored wall. The woman was washing her hands and Shawna was patting her face dry, as if she’d splashed water on it.

Her wide-eyed gaze met his in the mirror. “You can’t be in here.”

Again, warm tingles rippled down his back at the sound of her voice. “I came in here to talk to you.” Actually, he wanted to do more than talk. He didn’t plan on leaving without touching some bare part of her body. He wanted a little skin-to-skin contact.

The other woman cleared her throat and muttered an “Excuse me” before walking out.

Shawna’s gaze darted to the door as it swung shut. She tossed the paper towel in the trash. “This isn’t exactly the best place or time to talk.”

“You’ll have to adjust because I want to talk now.” He walked closer and was overcome with the need to hold her. “Jessica is a friend.”

She lifted her chin. “I didn’t ask you anything about her.”

“You didn’t have to. I know you were wondering. I told you before I’ll answer any question you have. Just ask me.” He hated that guarded look in her dark brown eyes. He knew the reason for it was that he’d hurt her, and she associated him with pain. He’d been miserable the past week and a half without any contact between them, but how did she feel? “I missed you.”

Her gaze lowered, her long lashes shielding her eyes and hiding whatever she didn’t want him to see.

She moistened her lips with her tongue and his groin tightened at the slow movement.

“Shawna,” he groaned, stepping closer.

She moved backward as he heard the outer door swing open. Someone else was about to enter, and he still hadn’t gotten the answer to the question uppermost in his mind: did she want to be with him or not?

Quickly, he looped his arm around her waist and pulled her behind the louvered door of the first bathroom stall. The narrow space didn’t afford much room to maneuver.

The laughter and conversation of two females filled the bathroom. He didn’t let Shawna go, holding her close. The heat of her body seeped through the jacket and shirt and warmed his skin underneath. His breathing quickened as she pressed her palms against his chest.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Holding you,” he replied.

They listened as both women used the facilities. Ryan kept his eyes trained on her, but she avoided his gaze, looking at everything except him as an erection slowly hardened in his pants.

Minutes later, two toilets flushed and then he could hear the voices of the women again. Unable to withstand it any longer, he lowered his head to Shawna’s temptingly bare neck and took a slow drag. The scent of some floral bouquet swirled up his nostrils and almost made him groan. With his free hand he caressed the bare skin of one shoulder and trailed it up to the back of her neck. He thumbed the silky strands at the edge of her hairline.

Shawna inhaled sharply and the sound urged him to kiss the corner of her mouth.

She shivered in his arms. “Ryan, stop.” The voices faded as the women left them alone. “What do you want?”

“You know what I want.” He reached one hand up to cup her face, but she knocked it down and pushed him away.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t even want to see you.”

He gave her a measured look. “Who’s the liar now, Shawna?”

“You’re pretty confident. How do you know—” His fingertip brushed her lips, and she broke off her tirade with a gasp.

“That’s how I know,” Ryan said.

Shawna blinked rapidly and swallowed. “I hate the way you make me feel. Hate it.”

“You think I like this?” Ryan asked. “You think I like being obsessed with you? I hate it, too. I hate this power you have over me. The only thing I hate more is being without you.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “You hate being without me so much that you
left
.” She pushed him hard. Her shove did little to move him, but he stepped back anyway and braced his back against the wall.

“I did that for you. To give you time to think.”

“
You left me
.” She pounded his chest with her fists.

He didn’t stop her because he understood she needed to get it out. He took the blows, standing there, looking down at her. “No.”

“Yes.” She stopped punching him and stepped back, chest heaving.

“No.”

“
Yes
.” She came at him again, but this time, instead of attacking him, she grabbed his head and slammed her mouth over his.

It startled him at first and he froze, but it didn’t take him long to recover. When his senses returned, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her up on her toes with a firm hold. He pushed her into the opposite wall, holding on tight and devouring her mouth, dragging groans of pleasure from her.

“Over a week,” he said against her mouth. He was already out of control, the way she always made him feel. “For over a week I haven’t seen you. I haven’t touched you. I haven’t smelled you.”

He latched onto her lips again, his tongue pushing its way between them to steal her sweetness. Shawna guided his hand under her dress, and Ryan slid it across her bare derriere. She moaned, and he grew harder hearing those breathy little noises she made.

When his fingers went in search of the heat between her legs, she pushed away his hand before it reached its goal. “Wait.”

The tip of his thumb lined the seam of her lips to silence her. Her eyes darkened to a sultry hue, and her lips parted for him, exposing her irregular breathing.

“We can’t do this here. Not like this,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Then stop me.” He tasted her lips again. They were bruised and swollen.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“I can’t stop, either,” he whispered back.

Can’t. Not won’t, but
can’t
. There was a certain inevitability about it. A resignation to an inescapable fact. Incapable. Unable to do otherwise.
Can’t
. He kissed her again, his muscular body straining against hers while prodding her lips to yield to the press of his tongue.

Her ears buzzed from the manner in which he now used both hands to shove her dress up over her thighs to her hips. The lightweight fabric pooled across his forearms before he slid his fingers slowly, torturously, beneath the flimsy sheer panties she wore.

One hand found its way between her legs and her body sang under each masterful stroke. His fingers slid between the folds, coaxing more moisture from her and playing with her pebbled clit in such a way that made her thighs tighten and her legs shake from the sensual power of his touch. He’d become considerably harder and longer as their kiss deepened and their caresses became more frantic. She could feel every solid inch of him and her stomach clenched in need.

His mouth traveled down her throat, the tip of his tongue licking the soft skin at the top of her bodice. Her fingers tunneled into his satiny dark hair, anchoring him to her. She sighed with satisfaction at being so close to him again. Thousands of invisible needles of desire pricked the surface of her skin where the coarse stubble on his chin and jaw grazed the swollen crests of her breasts.

The zipper on her dress lowered and the top fell away. Ryan paused for a moment, his harsh breath showering the exposed skin with warmth.

“Please,” she whispered, cupping her breasts and offering them to him.

They were extremely sensitive and the tips tightened to stinging peaks. She was so far gone she no longer cared about where they were; she wanted relief. He obliged, but barely, choosing only to flick his tongue across one dark peak. She begged him for more, pleaded. Finally, he covered the nipple and areola with his mouth, sucking until she helplessly moaned into his hair as she clutched him.

He lifted his head so his mouth could devour hers again. Then her neck. Then her collarbone. Kissing, nipping, sucking.

He dragged her underwear past her knees. She stepped out of them while he undid his pants. After slamming down the lid on the commode, he sat down and fit a condom over his distended shaft.

Legs trembling, Shawna stood before him.

What had happened to her? Who had he made her become? This wanton with no inhibitions. Hot sex the first night they met, against the wall in an alley, and now this. Anytime, anywhere Ryan wanted her she was accessible to him.

He tugged her hand and pulled her between his legs. His eyes bored into her as he waited, letting her make the next move. It was her decision how far they would go.

Slowly, she lifted her skirt, and his nostrils flared as he watched her movements. The material gathered around her thighs and she climbed on, sinking onto his turgid flesh, letting his heat fill her. A tortured groan filled the small enclosure. Shawna had no idea if the sound came from him or her, but it embodied everything she felt inside—a need for him that was borderline painful.

Arms wound around his neck, she writhed on his hips in sweet agony. More kisses, breathless, hungry. Ragged breaths expelled from their lungs with the urgency of their desire. His hands tightened on the flesh of her bottom and her moans became louder as she edged toward release.

“Wrap your legs around me, love,” he said, his voice dark and low. “Let me get in there good.”

She did as he instructed, crossing her ankles high on his back. He leaned forward, swelling, going even deeper. “That’s it,” he rasped, his jaw tight. “Ah, you feel so good. I missed you.”

She couldn’t tear her eyes away, caught in his gaze, their connection deep and profound.

With his hand braced against the wall and one strong arm supporting her back, Ryan shifted them into a forty-five degree angle. He surged inside of her. The shoes slipped from her elevated feet and clattered to the floor, but it didn’t stop their frenzied pumping.

Her head fell back as she abandoned herself to the sexual rhythm. The ceiling light swirled with each thrust of his hips. She felt the gentle rasp of his tongue as it took turns on each of her nipples before he sucked one between his lips. The sensitive flesh throbbed with each protracted pull of his mouth, and she closed her eyes to savor the fiery sensations he ignited across her skin and through her veins.