Lovers by Christmas: (2 page)

“Was.”

“Is.” He tucked a hand in his pants pocket and drank more Hemingway. “He still has your heart.”

Of course he did. No one had claimed it since. A part of her heart would always belong to Ben, but he was gone, and he told her to love again. She
wanted
to love again. “I told you you wouldn’t find what you’re looking for in me.”

His eyes bore into hers, then he dragged it away toward the stage. “It’s not your heart I’ve been staring at.”

Everything about him screamed sex. It poured off him like radio waves, and somehow made
her
want it. No. It wasn’t her heart he was after. He’d been staring at her body and through to her soul. He was so casual about it too, as if she was an open book to him. She’d already shared something very personal about herself, without him asking, and now sought to put the spotlight on him. To even the playing field.

“You don’t fool me, Kenner.”

That caught him off guard. “What do you mean?”

“This—man of dark mystery act you’ve got going on. Other women might swoon over it, but I don’t.”

“I don’t act.”

“But you have a persona do you not?” She deliberately raked him from toe to head. “By the cut of your pants and shirt, I’d say you are a very particular man. Precise. Just like your expensive watch. Not a hair out of place. You speak frankly, but you do lie when it suits you, because your armor is as important as the image you like to project.” She paused. “Know what I think?”

His brows raised.

“I think your job allows you to be a family man, in a way. Your colleagues at the
ad agency
are your family, but you can leave them every night, and run to your own little fortress of solitude and sulk, when you obviously have very little to sulk about these days.”

Narrowing his eyes for a moment, he seemed taken aback by her short, judgmental speech. Good. That’d been her goal.

She brought the cocktail glass to her lips. “Have I upset you?”

CHAPTER TWO

“No,” he told her. “It takes more than blunt talk to do something like that.”

Her mouth twitched, and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “Good.”

Kenner never wanted anyone as much as he wanted Thea.

From the second she walked in, a yearning in him awoke and refused to be denied. He’d denied it many times before, but tonight, was powerless against it. While he’d come in the lounge reticent and moody, lust had energized him to the point of utterly ridiculous behavior, hitting on this woman and staring at her like a lust-crazed boy. Almost as if he was a puppet of his own desire, being taken from the comfortable seat of his booth to the bar just to be near her.

Something about her reached down to the basic core of him as a man. Yes, she was pretty, but beauty didn’t pull him from across the room anymore. A woman had to have something else, and whatever it was, she had it.

He hadn’t been seeking any company tonight. In fact, he’d been seeking the opposite. At the clinic, he was always surrounded. Before, during, and after performing surgery. Even at home, alone in his high-rise, there was a constant noise. White noise. He was going a little mad up there alone.

With Christmas around the corner, there weren’t very many places he could go without the merriment shoved down his throat. Even his other favorite bar had ornaments hanging from the ceiling and holiday music blaring from the speakers. The Dame & Dapper didn’t acknowledge any seasonal changes other than the singer belting an old holiday tune or two. It’d been the same since he could remember. Some part of him wished he could stay in here until the holiday was over.

But then Thea walked in, and she looked like Christmas with her light brown hair, white blouse and high-waisted red skirt. The skirt that hugged her beautiful legs to the knees, where he caught shapely calves and ankles. Some men went gaga over big breasts or a nice ass, but he was a leg man.

And she was no insurance agent. Maybe she knew he wasn’t an ad exec and that was why she’d lied as well, but
he
had a reason for the deception. When he told women he was a surgeon, they changed. Their eyes lit up with dollar signs, and they’d flirt aggressively, excited at the mere prospect of becoming a surgeon’s wife, and he’d be turned off. He didn’t want that to happen with Thea. He loved this reserved flirtation of hers, and how, even when he laid that line about wanting to taste what she tasted, she’d barely batted an eyelash.

She didn’t play naïve, nor innocent, but owned a guileless quality she couldn’t hide, and he found that extremely hot. Even so, a bit of cynicism clouded her eyes—were they gray or blue, he couldn’t quite tell—and a sadness he recognized so easily because he’d seen it in his own when he looked in the mirror.

He wanted to steal the jadedness from her, make her smile. She’d been so on target about his life, he’d been rapturously impressed and disturbed at her accuracy.

He didn’t have time for a family, and really, not a whole lot of interest in changing that. Of course he liked the
idea
of one, but women often remarked he was too intense.

Well, his career required intensity. An intense amount of education, skill, and concentration, so he guessed that just became a part of his demeanor, and it turned most women off.

Maybe Thea was different from most.

Scratch that. She
was
different.

“You were on point about me, by the way,” he admitted after a while.

“I know.”

“On most things. Not everything.” Knowing it would bug her to know what she’d gotten wrong, he waited for her to ask him.

She coyly cocked her head, then shook it. “Hm. I don’t think so. I was spot on.”

Well, well. The lady thinks she’s that good, does she?
“You hardly know me, and while your assessment is quite close, it’d be impossible for all of your assumptions to be right.”

“They weren’t assumptions. They were facts based on your appearance.”

He frowned. “You shouldn’t judge someone by visual alone.”

“Everyone does it.” She shrugged. “You judged me by appearances. Otherwise, you would’ve stayed in your booth.”

“I wasn’t judging you. I was drawn to you. There’s a distinction,” he quipped. “I don’t like people who make assumptions because of what I wear, what I do, and how I talk.”

“How do you expect people to form an opinion?”

“By getting to know me for more than a five minutes.”

“If you even let someone really get to know
you.
Which I doubt happens often.”

Though her tone had been teasing, she’d hit a nerve, and he made it clear by setting down his glass a little too hard on the bar. “Are you finished?”

Despite his harsh tone, she smiled. “And now you’re upset. I was just testing to see if evoking emotion out of you was possible. I’m pleased to see that it is. But don’t worry, you still have plenty of mystery left.” She gave him a subtle wink, then turned her attention to the stage.

God, he’d never met anyone like her.

How had she gotten a rise out of him like that? No one could do that with simple surface opinions and pure wit, but she had. His attraction to Thea grew to a fiery degree.

“Would you like another?” he asked as he watched her finish her drink. She had amazing lips. They weren’t full and pouting, but owned just enough plump to make him wonder about their texture. She had beautiful winged brows and a hint of a dent in her chin. He could look at her all night.

She hesitated. “One more. And then I have to go.”

Anything but that.
He nodded to the bartender Rory for another round. “There’s an incredible view on the roof of this building. I can get access, if you’d like to see it. The bartender is a friend of mine.”

Thea looked in his eyes for a moment. “Perhaps.” She knew why he’d offered her to take her to the roof. Yes. She knew.

He wanted her, and she wanted him. Simple as that. Praying she was as bold as he was, he accepted her noncommittal answer, even though his heart thundered at the potential of having her mouth on his. Their chemistry was too palpable to let it remain static between them. They should use it, play with it, and see where it took them.

When the singer returned and started a new round of songs about love and life, he and the fascinating woman next to him drank their cocktails and listened without another word exchanged.

Once the set was over, Thea set down her empty glass, and his stomach burned with dread that his time was up. She was leaving, and he didn’t know what he could say to make her stay.

“I need to use the ladies,” she said, moving off the seat. “Excuse me.”

A brief panic hit his chest. Was that an excuse to ditch him without saying good-bye? He prayed it wasn’t. He swore she felt the connection he did, and wouldn’t walk away from it just like that. But then again, women were unpredictable. Maybe he just
wanted
her to desire him like he did her.

“She’s cute.”

Kenner turned his head to Rory, who he knew well because of his frequency to the lounge over the years. Rory was younger than him, and obviously needed his eyes checked. “She’s more than cute,” he drawled.

“Want the key?” Rory asked, drying a martini glass.

“Not sure she wants to go up there yet.”

Rory shook his head, chuckling, then slid the key to the rooftop across the counter. “Just in case.”

Kenner gave him a half-smile and thanks, tucking the key in his pocket. The bartender had once bragged about how many girls he’d taken up to the roof to see the amazing view, and that the women were usually so impressed—and so comfortable with the total privacy—he usually got something out of it, like a kiss…or a blowjob.

He’d encourage Kenner to try it, by mentioning the rooftop to a woman, and so far, the two times he’d done so, both women had joined him up there. But he wasn’t some lust maniac fresh out of college. Simply kissing a woman and caressing her curves was enough for him. His heart continued to pound while he tried not to stare at the hallway leading to the restrooms.

When Thea emerged, and began to walk toward him, his pulse raced even higher.

Stuffing her clutch under her arm, she said, “I want to see this view.”

CHAPTER THREE

Thea’s heart thudded like no other while Kenner laid down cash for the drinks, took her hand, and led her to a door in the rear.

This so wasn’t like her.

To go up to a rooftop with a man she just met. She couldn’t even blame the cocktails. While she had a little buzz going on, she had all her wits, and was very aware of what was going to happen. She couldn’t
believe
what she was doing, but she
knew
what she was doing.

Following him up the stairs, she realized his large warm hand grasped hers just right. He wasn’t pulling her or forcing her; he held it like he wanted her to feel safe with him and, strangely, she did. When he opened the door and the cool San Francisco air hit her face, a renewed feeling came over her. What a night it’d been so far.

Instead of taking the time to admire the view, she tugged his hand and yanked him toward her, afraid if she didn’t do this now, she might lose her nerve.

His lips crashed on hers, and he caged her in by setting both hands flat on the wall behind her. Clutching a fistful of his shirt, she pressed her hips into him. She opened her mouth and his tongue curled in, eliciting a severe shock from her lips to her sex. His own flavor combined with the liquor of the cocktail made her starved with passion, his hard body slowly aligning with hers while he flattened her against the brick wall.

He was bigger than she’d initially estimated. Hard, taut muscles over a medium frame, but with sizable shoulders and a tapered waist. He bent a little at the knees and grazed his palms along her outer thighs, taking her skirt up as he rose. His muscular thigh pushed between her legs, and she hiked her left leg to his hip once her skirt was up to her waist. He cupped her knee and pressed his large bulge on her, then scraped his face down her neck, licking a trail of wet heat.

Thea moaned at the rough texture of his unshaven skin in contrast to the softness of his mouth. He made her feel sexy and feminine, drunk on the sexual need she evoked from him.

As he hungrily made his way down the valley of her breasts, she was eager to give him access to more. To it all. Panting, she scrambled to unbutton her top and pull it from the waistband of her skirt. Kenner groaned, licking over the white lace of her bra before shoving it aside and taking a nipple between his lips.

She let out a cry of pleasure as he sucked the peak. Before she could help him, he unhooked the front closure and he sought the other breast.

Arching, she twined her fingers in his thick hair as he took little bites from her nipples, making them hard and sore, before he kissed his way down her stomach.

“I want to taste you,” he said gruffly. Eyes hooded, she dazedly expected him to come up to kiss her again, but instead he went to his knees and pulled her lacey panties to her ankles.