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  Everyone laughed, including Anthony’s boyfriend Demarcus.

  “Don’t make it too memorable,” he warned.

  Anthony made a big show of making Connor turn in a circle as he pretended to ponder on a place on his body to pour the salt.

  “Hurry up,” Georgette, one of Cherry’s coworkers urged. “If you don’t lick that hot body soon, I will.”

  More laughter, from everyone but me. My smile was tight as I glanced over at the blonde. She eyed Connor with an open hunger that made me want to punch her in the back of the head. Then again, I had no right to feel that way. I had friend-zoned him, but that didn’t stop me from inwardly cringing when Connor winked at her and told her to wait her turn.

  Finally, Anthony just poured the salt on the back of Connor’s hand. The spot was innocent enough, though the lick itself took an unusually long time. Connor batted his eyes after Anthony took his shot of tequila and then went for the lime wedged between Connor’s lips. When the deed was done, there was a round of applause.

  As Anthony went back to his boyfriend, Connor held up a hand, looking forlorn. “Call me?”

  There was more laughter, even as Georgette began to move toward Connor. I knew he saw her out of the corner of his eye, I saw the very quick flick of his eyes, but he pretended to not know and sauntered over to me. He had just reached me and put a hand on my elbow when she caught up to him with a hand on his bicep.

  He grinned at her as he casually moved beside me and slipped an arm around my waist. Even though I knew I was being used as a deterrent, his touch still made a warm feeling rush up and down my spine.

  Georgette was undeterred, however. Connor had been introduced as just a visiting friend and nothing more. It didn’t matter that he had an arm around me. He was fair game to her and the rest of the single, straight women in the room.

  “Would you like to be the licker or the lickee?” she asked with a smile that even I had to admit was sexy.

  Before either of us could respond, Cherry swept in.

  “Georgie, come over here. You have to tell everyone what happened at work the other day. They won’t believe me.”

  Apparently, whatever the story was seemed to be far more interesting than doing body shots with Connor. The two women started to laugh. Georgette turned away without a second glance at Connor, but Cherry gave us a wink before she followed.

  “Oh, come on,” I teased. “It wouldn’t have been that bad. She woulda licked you good, or so I’ve heard.”

  “Oh, you’re so funny,” he said dryly, giving my waist a little squeeze. “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  His eyes traveled the length of me before he asked in my ear, “Where can I lick you?”

  I suppressed a shiver. “You do realize that you don’t have to lick salt off of anyone to take a shot of tequila.”

  “I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous,” he said, guiding me over to the kitchen counter that had become our makeshift bar.

  He released me to ready three shots, slices of lime included.

  I shook my head, even as my heart galloped. “I’m not doing it, you know.”

  Connor’s diabolical smile as he turned back to me made my knees weaken.

  “No, but I am,” he purred. He held the lime in front of my lips. “Open up.”

  “Maybe we’ve both had a little too much to drink already,” I said in a rush of words.

  He moved so close to me that we shared the same breaths.

  “I am really thirsty, Darla,” he murmured.

  “Water,” I breathed. “It prevents dehydration. You should probably have a glass of water for every one or two shots anyway. You’re just a little dehydrated. Water will be the best thing for you. Not more tequila. We have filtered water in the fridge. I can get you some water right now. Then you won’t be so thirsty. I can—”

  My rambling was cut off by a lime being placed in my open mouth.

  Connor smiled and softly said, “You were rambling.”

  Gently, he tilted my head to one side, exposing my thumping jugular. I held my breath as he ducked his head and licked where my neck meets my shoulder. I didn’t move, not even an inch as he sprinkled the salt there.

  Slowly, so damn slowly, his tongue ran over my skin as one hand landed gently on my hip. I closed my eyes and tried not to moan when his teeth grazed me. He licked me once more before he pulled back. My eyes flickered open just in time to watch him throw the shot back. Then he came for the lime.

  His tongue swept across my lips, and the lime tucked firmly between them.

  “Mmm,” he murmured.

  Carefully, with his mouth against mine, he took the lime between his teeth and pulled away. He grinned at me as he sucked on the lime. I could only stare back at him as I tried to rediscover how to breathe.

  “One down, two more to go,” he said.

  I blinked and started to take a step back, but his hand was still on my hip. He drew me closer, close enough so that I could feel him hard and thick beneath his jeans.

  “I told you I just wanted to be friends,” I blurted out in a whisper so no one else could hear. I knew people were watching us. How could they not watch the way he had devoured me like a hungry vampire?

  “We are friends. I’m just friends with Anthony, and he licked salt off of me.”

  I frowned. “That was different.”

  His thumb snaked under my shirt and stroked my hipbone. “I'm just really, really friendly.”

  I opened my mouth to object, but once again he pushed another lime wedge into my mouth. Then his tongue was high on my neck, just below my ear, and my objections flew out of my head. I did moan very softly then. With music and voices all around us, I was sure that only Connor heard it. He backed off only long enough to sprinkle some salt on me and then…

  Then I was deaf to every sound but Connor’s soft hums of desire and my own obscenely heavy breathing. I didn’t hear the music that made the floors vibrate. I didn’t hear the other people laughing, talking, and singing. I didn’t even hear the banging on the front door. My eyes were closed again, and I was lost in sensation as Connor kissed and nibbled at my neck. At some point, I lost the lime, but I didn’t know that right away either.

  Connor’s lips skimmed leisurely over my jaw and across my cheek. Brow to brow, nose to nose, our lips barely touched as we breathed each other in. His chest rose and fell just as rapidly as mine.

  I opened my eyes and met his. He took a breath as if he were about to say something, but the voices, the other noises, penetrated through our bubble. It popped entirely when I realized that the music was off, and there was a new voice talking in the room.

  “We have the right to congregate,” I heard Anthony say, making a few people snicker.

  “Yeah, but you don’t have the right to disturb the peace of others,” someone said in an authoritative tone. “You know this since it seems like I am out here once a month. What kinda party is it this time? Chips, Dicks, and Blowjobs?”

  Connor and I broke apart and took in the scene. Two officers were standing in front of the open door. They were very familiar since they had indeed been by more than once when our parties got a little crazy.

  “That is Chips, Dips, and Blowjob Shots,” Cherry corrected. “But that’s not what this is tonight. Tonight is a Taco Margarita party. Except we ran out of tacos. And margarita mix.”

  “Whatever, Maria,” Office Bryant said with a roll of his eyes. “Keep it down or move the party somewhere else. You’re gonna give poor old Mrs. Redd a coronary.”

  Cherry put a hand on her curvy hip. “Maybe Mrs. Redd needs a margarita.”

  “The woman is ninety-three years old. Maybe she just wants to rest without feeling like your Tits and Margarita party isn’t going to come crashing through the floor into her bedroom.”

  “Taco Margarita party and she can rest when she dies.”

  “Cherry,” I admonished as I walked over to her and the officers.

  K
en Bryant sighed heavily. “Maria, don’t make me fine you again.”

  She started to say something, but I slapped her arm. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and crossed her arms. “Okay, fine. We’ll keep it down or move it somewhere else.”

  “Thank you,” he said curtly before speaking to the room as a whole. “I hope everyone will be traveling safely tonight.”

  There was a murmur of various responses. The men looked satisfied and started to leave. Just before Cherry closed the door, however, Officer Bryant turned to her and spoke softly, only loud enough for the two of us to hear.

  “I’m done at seven. Why don’t you meet me for breakfast?”

  She leaned toward him. “I don’t call what we do breakfast, Ken.”

  Then he said something about her body and eating that wasn’t meant for my ears.

  An hour later, everyone was gone, either somewhere else to continue their nights or home. Cherry, Connor, and I cleaned up for a few minutes before we realized that we were either too tired or had too much tequila to really care. I was too distracted by what had happened between me and Connor before the police interrupted, and what could have happened if they hadn’t.

  “We’ll clean it tomorrow,” Cherry said, grabbing her keys off of the peg.

  My eyes widened. It wasn’t that I was nervous about being left alone with Connor, but…I was nervous about being left alone with Connor…

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “I’m going to Ken’s,” she said as if it were obvious. “If I don’t go over there now, I’ll fall asleep and miss…breakfast.”

  With that, she grinned and left the apartment, leaving Connor and me alone. I didn’t dare look at him.

  “I guess I better take Mrs. Redd an apology cake tomorrow,” I said as I knelt to pick up a few margarita glasses from the floor. “Her favorite is carrot. She’ll give me a speech about being a respectable young woman and how things were back in her day. Then she’ll call Cherry a red-headed hussy. She don’t mind saying it to her face either. One time she said it and—”

  When I’d sensed, more than saw, that Connor was coming for me, I had convinced myself that if I didn’t look, it wouldn’t be true. If I kept on talking, he would have stayed on his side of the room, but he didn’t do that. He cut me off in mid-ramble when he put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me.

  I didn’t even have time to take a final breath before his mouth crushed against mine. Then breathing became the last thing on my mind.

  The glasses slipped from my hands. At least one of them shattered on the hardwood floor around us. There was a small bite of pain as a chunk of glass rolled over the top of my bare foot, but I didn’t care about that. I only cared about Connor’s mouth on mine, the feel of his beard on my skin, and his arms wrapped tightly around me.

  He lifted me, up and away from the broken glass. I wrapped my legs around him, trusted him implicitly as he carried me away.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Connor sat on my bed with his back against the wall. I sat astride him with my hair flowing down my back, across my shoulders, and over the slopes of my breasts, just the way he liked it. His fingers combed through the long locks with reverence as I slowly rocked my hips.

  My hands moved up his chest, over his shoulders, and my fingers locked together on the back of his neck. Our gazes met, and there was a fluttering in my chest. His hands caressed my bare back as he planted small, soft kisses on my shoulder. One hand dropped to my butt and squeezed as the other hand cupped the side of my neck.

  I brushed my lips against his and pulled away when he tried to kiss me. My smile was wicked as his brow came down and his eyes narrowed. I teased him again and again, offering a kiss just to take it away.

  “Temptress,” he growled.

  He clamped a hand on the back of my head and took every kiss I had teased him with, and then some. As we kissed, his free hand wandered over my hip, my thigh, and anywhere else he could reach. He hadn’t stopped touching me since he kissed me in the living room. Connor couldn’t seem to get enough of my body. He explored every inch with his eyes, his hands, and his lips.

  My own hands wandered, too, and he never stopped me. He seemed to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it when he touched me. I loved how his eyes closed whenever I touched his face, felt his beard on the palms of my hands, smoothed my fingers across his lips.

  “So,” he started softly after kissing my fingertips. “What are you making me for breakfast?”

  I laughed, and gasped, and laughed again. “Has this all been a setup for more cinnamon rolls?”

  He ducked his head and took a nipple into his mouth. I groaned and rocked against him harder.

  “Don’t try to avoid answering the question,” I growled.

  He released my nipple and kissed me gently, smiling against my lips. “You’ve got me all figured out, beautiful. I drove all the way up here, drank way too many girly drinks, let another man do a body shot on me, and brought you to bed so that I could go home with cinnamon rolls.”

  I grinned. “That’s what I thought.”

  Then I kissed him, softly and leisurely as my hips rotated slowly. Our pace had been slow from the time he brought me into my room. We used every moment, every minute and second to the fullest. There was never even a fraction of a second when we weren’t touching. No time passed without us soaking in pleasure from each other.

  “So,” Connor said again some time later. “What are you making me for breakfast?”

  I peered into those amazing brown eyes. “Why don’t you make me breakfast?”

  “I’m a basic man that makes a basic breakfast. I don’t have a wow factor like you do.”

  “If you make me some basic eggs with some basic bacon and basic toast and basic butter and jelly, I will basically be happy.”

  He looked skeptical.

  “I will,” I insisted. “I won’t judge you.”

  He kissed the tip of my nose. It was such a sweet gesture, and he had been doing things like it since we’d begun.

  “You will judge me,” he said.

  I groaned as his fingers brushed over my nipples. “You’re right. I will judge you, but I will eat it, and I will be happy and appreciative. Anything is more edible than that convenient store packaged garbage you tried to purchase right in front of me.”

  He chuckled, his lips vibrating against my throat. “How about we just go out for breakfast? You won’t have to slave in the kitchen, and I won’t have to embarrass myself and be judged.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I breathed as his thumbs flicked over the hard peaks of my breasts.

  We kissed again, even though our lips were swollen and sore. His mouth was the cause and the cure for me. It didn’t matter how swollen and sore my lips got, it was always Connor’s kiss that soothed and healed.

  “I have a confession,” he murmured against my throat, minutes later. Maybe hours. I didn’t know and didn’t care how long we’d been lost in the kiss.

  “Hmm?” My eyes were closed, my fingers in his hair as I rode him slowly.

  One hand tangled in my hair as he kissed a path to my ear. He pulled my earlobe between his teeth and gently bit down, making me moan. Then his lips were against the shell of my ear.

  “I’m still so damn drunk on you, Darla. So intoxicated. So high.”

  I smiled lazily. “That’s the tequila.”

  “Look at me, Darla. Open your eyes and look at me.”

  It was the roughness of his voice that made my eyes open instantly to meet his.

  “It’s you, Darla. Not the tequila, not anything else or anyone else. Only you.”

  And I knew that he meant it.

  Before I could formulate a response, he grabbed my hips and thrust. I let out a loud groan and wrapped my arms around his neck as his hips rose again and again. A minute later I was on my back with my legs spread wide as Connor moved inside of me.

  “Darla,” he groaned as his eyes closed for a long moment. When he ope
ned them again, there was something so heavy, so deep in his eyes that my heart skipped several beats as the fluttering in my chest intensified. “What are you doing to me?”

  It wasn’t a question. It was a plea, a beseeching for mercy.

  The bed creaked beneath us as he moved faster and harder. My fingers twisted in the sheets as our moans and the sound of our bodies slapping together filled the room. There was another, wetter sound where we were joined, and I couldn’t help peering down between our bodies to see, to watch him slide in and out of me.

  That electric current that had been present between us before crackled now. With each thrust, each kiss, and with each second we peered into each other’s eyes, the electricity built, powered up between us and inside of us.

  The energy that surged through me as I came made me feel like Fulgora, the Roman goddess of lightening. I could feel the power in my fingertips, my toes, and in my veins. I felt as if my hair was a halo of blue flame and I had the sensation of rising high into the sky, a body made of electricity and lust.

  My heart skipped a beat, then another before it seemed to stutter and stop. I didn’t feel it pumping again until Connor’s body was heavy on mine as he chanted my name against my neck.

  With only enough energy left to breathe, my eyes closed. I felt a soft kiss on my lips just before I was lost to the silence and darkness of sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  When I woke up before Connor, and long before I’d had enough rest, I carefully untangled myself from him, quickly put on some clothes and slipped out of the room without disturbing him. I needed a few minutes of solitude to think.

  As I began to clean up—starting with the shattered glass—I realized that I didn’t regret sleeping with Connor again. I was free to do so since I was unquestionably single, unlike the first time we’d slept together. I didn’t regret it, but I was worried that I may hurt him—again.

  Aside from the fact that Caden and I were in a state of limbo, I needed my single time. I needed to live my life for myself and not for another person. Connor wasn’t as greedy as Caden, as far as giving me the space I needed to breathe, but I wasn’t ready to be shackled to someone again, not yet. Even if Cade and I managed to fix what was broken between us the next day, I would still demand more time for myself. Selfish? Perhaps, but maybe it was time for me to be a little selfish.