Naughty Little Wishes (Birthday Dare) (7 page)

They stopped dancing when the music ended. A smattering of applause delayed her response. Bob squeezed her hand. “Don’t let him fool you. He’s resilient and stubborn as hell, but he needs people who won’t toe the line. To truly care about him, challenge him into facing the unexpected. Like you.”

She wanted to correct him, but the band started playing a popular dance song and the crowd cheered. Bob escorted her off the floor, and they joined Drew, standing at the bar.

Bob checked his watch. “I hate to spoil the fun, but I’m meeting a friend for drinks. Oh, I almost forgot.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded paper. “I wanted to give you the updated list of events my daughter’s scheduled to attend. I thought you might need it.” He handed her the list and kissed her on the cheek. Silent, stubborn communication passed between him and Drew. “I’ll be in touch.”

Drew watched Bob walk away. He turned back to her and gestured to his glass. “Want one?”

“No. I’m good.” She put the folded paper in her clutch.

“I don’t get it.” He scrutinized her and she resisted fidgeting under his gaze. “Bob could have emailed the list. What’s going on with him? What did he say to you?”

You need someone who truly cares.
She’d spotted an opportunity to highlight his strengths through a change in his wardrobe. She’d stayed because she didn’t want to see him face failure over losing the contract. Truly caring meant feelings. Unlike the surgeon, the body building auditor, and the rest, she hadn’t considered investing feelings into a relationship with Drew, especially after she’d realized his hang-ups. He wasn’t just a guy with quirks that drove her crazy. Drew pushed her buttons. He had the capability to break her heart.

“Bob didn’t say anything.” She worked up a smile. “I really have to go, too, or I’ll be late for my appointment.”

“So that’s how it goes.” The angles of his face sharpened, and he tossed back his drink. “You two get to talk about me behind my back, and I have to live with it.”

“It’s not like that.”

His heavy lidded gaze swept over her. Anger, heat, desire—it was all there. “Then how is it? Do you have my back? Does Bob?”

She took a half step back. “Of course we do. We’re on your side.”

He laid a possessive hand on her hip. Tab’s heart skittered in her chest. As he leaned in, the light stubble on his face and warm puffs of air brushed her cheek. “Then why does Bob keep yanking my chain and you insist on driving me crazy? Fuck, Tab, no underwear. What are you trying to do?” He smoothed low on her hip and squeezed. “Are you trying to make me break my word or do you get off on tormenting me?”

She gripped her clutch in front of her but couldn’t resist as he tugged her close. The band launched into the same slow song she’d danced to with the cowboy in Tulsa. Just like then, she wanted to be held, and Drew knew exactly how to hold her. In his arms, she wanted more of his caresses and kisses. She easily imagined tangling in the sheets with him during a long night of lovemaking. Waking up content, safe, and finding every excuse possible to play hooky and ignore the day’s responsibilities.

Unlike Tulsa, she cared about Drew whether she wanted to or not. Escape didn’t exist at the end of the song. They had two more weeks to get through, and Corey wasn’t around to save her. She had to rely on her own strength.

Tab backed up and he let her go. The stark need and rare vulnerability filling his gaze reached out to her. She forced her feet to move. “I’m sorry, Drew. I can’t stay.”

Chapter Ten

In his dreams, it was always worse. Her screams merging with the squeal of the tires. A desperate reach for the steering wheel. The sound of crushing metal. Stillness and freezing cold. Excruciating pain as he hung helplessly trapped upside down in the car. It all vividly played back along with Shana’s weeping and cries of agony.

Drew struggled to surface, but he couldn’t find his way out. He woke up, heart pounding, but this time, instead of waking up to raging guilt, he saw mercy. “You’re safe,” he breathed.

He kissed her hard and deep. Confusion passed and he focused on the angel straddling him. Not Shana. He was holding Tab. Desire overtook remorse, and he plunged his tongue back into her mouth. Warmth and cool mint saturated his tongue and mixed with the faint taste of whiskey in his mouth. Lie awake wanting her, or fall asleep and risk facing demons. He’d come to bed with the bottle, planning to bury both problems in alcohol. He was too damn tired to make it past the first shot.

Her scent, light and feminine, inspired images of sultry nights in bed, making love until they both needed hours to recover. But was this a new cruel twist to his nightmare? Would he sink back into unrelenting hell only to wake up with the past clawing at him again, trying to tear him apart?

He made himself pull back. Caresses along her shoulders, the stroke of his fingers against her cheek, wrenched out an exhale of relief.

Tab’s long lashes lifted above her eyes. Blatant sexual hunger stole his breath. She smoothed her hands up to his shoulders, moved over him, and cradled his cock intimately between her thighs. “Don’t stop.” She kissed him, licking, sucking, teasing, tangling her tongue with his in a way that made his head reel.

Lust surged through him and his heart tripped wildly in his chest. He threaded his fingers into her hair, deepened the kiss, and exploited every crevice and hollow of her mouth.

She shifted her weight, pillowing her luscious breasts against his chest, and rocked her hips against him. He smoothed his hands down the satin fabric covering her back, wanting to smooth his palms over her skin. As he moved lower he finally discovered bare, generous curves made to fit in his hands. Drew cupped her ass and ground himself against her. She inhaled a shuddering breath, grabbed on to his shoulders, and arched her back.

Tamping down what beckoned with each tortuous roll of her hips, Drew focused on her. Head thrown back, eyes closed, giving herself over to pleasure. He slid the thin straps of the nightie down her shoulders and his mouth watered. The fantasy of her covered in strawberry ice cream paled in comparison to her round, rosy tipped breasts. He sucked her bared nipple, and the tight bead scraped over the roof of his mouth. The scent emanating from her skin, her throaty cries, they pushed him close to the edge.

She tugged the ties on his sweatpants, reached in, and fisted his cock. Tingles rained over his skin as the force of need pinned him to the mattress. She stroked him and he fed himself into her hand. Tab smiled in a way that almost stopped his heart and brushed a trail of soft kisses down his chest. As she moved lower, the muscles in his abdomen pulled, his balls tightened. If she wrapped her lips around him, he’d lose all control.

He grabbed her wrists, and she gave him a pouty look. He grew impossibly harder at the sight of her. Tousled auburn hair, swollen lips, silken straps hanging low on her arms, her nightie pushed up on her open thighs, revealing a thin strip of auburn curls.

Tab squeezed her breasts and undulated her hips. “How are we doing this? Am I riding you or are you riding me?”

Drew flipped her over on the bed and crushed his lips to hers. “I’m into equal opportunity. My turn, then yours.”

He laved and sucked her nipples, then kissed a trail over her belly as he dragged the nightie past her hips. Lust heightened at the sight of her beautiful, glistening pussy.

“What’s wrong?” Tab’s throaty whisper stroked over him like fingers brushing his skin.

He took off her nightie and fit his shoulders between her thighs. “Just taking in the view.”

More than enough reasons existed for him to stop. His concerns about where this would take them were lost in the scent of her arousal and the need to taste. He lashed, stroked, teased her with his mouth and tongue. Held her writhing hips as she cried out, gripping and pushing his shoulders as if battling an internal struggle to keep him there or push him away. Tab came and her essence flowed over his tongue. He wanted more. He couldn’t get enough, but his aching cock made the final call.

He tossed his sweat pants aside, riffled hurriedly through the nightstand and found a condom, then glided into what felt like a dream. One that would banish the demons, the shadows, the nightmares, and allow him a night of peace.

Chapter Eleven

Morning.

Tab adjusted her head on Drew’s shoulder and snuggled closer to his hip.
Just a few more minutes.
As she squeezed her eyes shut against the rays shining through the window, she embraced glimpses into rare moments in her past of almost domesticated bliss. Almost because the guy at the time never offered the completeness in the moment she’d longed for. Lying with Drew was the closest she’d ever come. No expectations but to stay wrapped in each other. Until reality stormed in.

She teased Jasmine about her inability to keep her hands off Ethan, but at least Jasmine had a good excuse. She and Ethan were falling in love. She and Drew couldn’t enter into a conversation that didn’t end in a disagreement. Last night, after dinner, she’d wondered if anger and heated words led to some weird Pavlovian-like response that drove them sexually. But that didn’t account for their off-the-charts chemistry or what happened when she woke him from the nightmare.

His shouts echoing down the hallway had prompted her out of bed. When she’d burst into his room, the bedside lamp had illuminated his eyes squeezed shut and the torment on his face. His legs were twisted in the sheets. His thrashing rattled the bed frame.

Seeing the bottle of whiskey and the half-full tumbler had frightened her even more. Memories of Corey drunk but still drowning in pain had made her shake when she’d reached for Drew. When his eyes opened, disoriented by the nightmare and not alcohol, she’d collapsed against him because of his strong hold but also out of relief.

“You’re safe.”

He’d said what was in her thoughts. She’d planned to move but then he’d kissed her. The desire to have him inside of her again toppled reason.

Drew stirred and she lifted her head. Mussed hair, a morning beard highlighting his kissable mouth, his wide, muscular chest a perfect place to snuggle into and use as a pillow. But he wasn’t her man, and this wasn’t happily-ever-after.

As if he’d had a similar thought, Drew disentangled himself and sat on the side of the bed. His phone buzzed and chimed. Releasing an exhale, he raked his fingers through his hair and stared at it spinning on the bedside table. It stopped.

“Tab.” The rasp of his voice melted places inside of her. Her sex clenched as she recalled the hum of his groans on her clit. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t.” Tab moved to get up. They’d agreed not to do this again. He planned to take the blame. She didn’t want to hear it. Yes, they’d have to talk about last night, but not like this.

Drew snaked his arm around her waist and had her flat on the mattress before she could blink. “No,
you
don’t.”

She struggled. “If you think I’m going to let you force me into hearing you make an excuse or apology about why we slept together, you’re crazy.”

He pinned her arms above her head and intertwined their legs. “I’m not sorry we slept together. I was fighting my way out of hell last night. I grabbed you. I was rough. I wasn’t completely awake because I thought you were…” He stilled. Too late, he’d already said it. The thin illusion she’d tried to keep intact, at least until she made it out of his bedroom, shattered.

“You thought I was Shana.” His ex’s name burned her throat. Tears threatened. “Let me go.”

“No.” He held her in place. “You’re going to let me finish. Yeah, I was dreaming about Shana, but when I woke up I knew exactly where I was.”

His erection nudged her opening. She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip. The urge to spread her legs and let him in was so strong she almost drew blood. She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. She wasn’t a needy woman who settled for second best.

“No. Get off me.” Tab pushed against him, and he let her up.

She snatched up her nightie, not bothering to put it on. As she hurried out the room, it felt as if she’d left her heart on the floor.

Stuck in the past.
Wherever Shana was, she hoped the woman suffered as much as he did for ruining him.

…

“I don’t like it.” The twenty-two year old, curvy blonde pouted in the mirror of the private showing room in the dress shop. “This dress makes me look dull. I want something else.”

Tab massaged her pounding temples and prayed for patience. Two hours of her client’s temper tantrums had gotten old. “We don’t have time to alter more clothes. You have what you need for your honeymoon.”

How the girl’s conservative, British fiancé had put up with Spandex and Sparkles this long was a mystery. Because he had a remote connection to royalty, the girl acted as if she wore a diamond tiara and was destined for friendship with the Duchess of Cambridge.
Please.
The guy was so distant from the throne, the closest she’d get to Buckingham Palace was through a high-powered telescope.

The girl flounced off the pedestal. “I want something classy like this.” She dug through her purse and pulled out a sheet with a photo she’d printed off the internet.

Tab rolled her eyes heavenward.
Give me strength
. Strangling clients wasn’t good for business. She’d held her tongue long enough through the girl’s insults and snippy attitude with the seamstress. “Classy? You’re delusional. That dress says you plan to keep your legs open and stay busier than a two-dollar whore on nickel night. What you have on—that’s appropriate for attending your fiancé’s grandmother’s ninetieth birthday party.”

“I’m paying you.” The girl sneered. “You have to give me what I want.”

Tab’s temper flared. “Wrong again. Your fiancé’s paying me to keep you from making an ass of yourself in front of his family, and I have a schedule. So ride the smart train with me or take your dollars and nickels and call a taxi. Your choice.”

The young woman’s mouth bobbed open and shut. She stormed to the dressing room.

Tab turned wearily to the seamstress. “Sorry.”