Chapter 13

Lincoln

“This wouldn’t have been my first choice for a night out,” I say to Hadley as I raise her arm and lead her through a short spin.

“Yeah, well, sometimes you just need to shimmy to a shitty Morgan Wallen cover.” She laughs, breaking from our coupled movement and joining the line dance that’s been moving in unison around us.

She follows my line of sight that’s locked onto Faye and Cortez as he guides her from their high-top to the already crowded dance floor. Faye doesn’t waste a minute leading them into a dance—she looks like she wouldn’t know how to let someone else lead. Before Hadley even opens her mouth, I cut her off and change the subject.

“Griz told me an interesting little bit of gossip from his last book club.”

She wiggles her eyebrows. “Oh yeah? I’m assuming it’s about me.”

I smile at my best friend, holding out my hand for her and bringing it around the back of me until she’s front and center. “They love talking about the ‘wild’ Hadley Jean Finch.”

“I’m wildly single, Linc. And you know, as well as anyone, that creeping into your mid-30s single means a person is actually obligated to explore.” She leans her head on my shoulder as the chorus slows. “You been doing a lot of ‘exploring’ lately?”

I don’t consciously do it, but I find Faye in the crowd again, just a handful of feet away. She’s trying really fucking hard not to glance back at me. I clear my throat, tamping down thoughts of the short blonde who has all but barreled her way back into my mind. “It’s been a little bit.”

“Getting bored with your dip-and-slip routine?”

I can’t help but smile at Hadley’s special brand of interrogation. She shifts her attention to the hand that’s holding hers and leading her through another turn.

“The girls won’t remember their mother any less if you stop wearing that all the time, you know.”

I glance at my empty ring finger. “I’m not wearing it now.”

“Alright. Then it’s a good night for you to explore with someone who is not even remotely boring.” Then she mumbles, “You can kill me later,” as she pulls me farther into the crowd. The song changes and everyone gets rowdier when the distinct plucking of guitar strings intros the cover of “Shivers.” It’s not even a country song, but somehow the band throws twang onto an Ed Sheeran song, and all of a sudden, the floor’s mobbed. “She’s a professional, Linc. Better show off a little,” Hadley says, letting me lead her in a series of spins and pass throughs.

“Cortez!” Hadley shouts, throwing herself right at Faye and Cortez, who’ve somehow ended up a few feet from us. “Come dance with me, you sexy son of a bitch.” My best friend just made tonight a helluva lot more entertaining.

I finally get a full view of Faye. She looks too fucking good in a short-as-hell skirt that reminds me of the flowers tattooed on her arm. Add the jean vest that’s framing mouth-watering cleavage.

Faye smiles at Hadley, as my best friend manages to tell this side of the room, “I need a sample of your date tonight, Faye. You’re welcome to mine.”

When she looks at me, I swear her neck takes on a pinked hue that works its way quickly up to her cheeks. She immediately shuts that idea down with a “no thanks.” She brushes right past me, and it has me biting back a smile.

Hadley’s head is thrown back, laughing at whatever Cortez is saying to her, so I follow Faye’s path through the crowd. She pulls her phone from her boot and heads toward the narrow hallway that leads to the bathroom.

The bartender steps over to me as I lean against the bar. “What’ll you have?”

“Bourbon. Neat.”

“Any preference?” she asks with a sweet smile.

“Dealer’s choice,” I tell her as my phone buzzes. I sit on the bar stool as I look at who it’s from. I stop paying attention to what the bartender is going to pour and instead open Faye’s text.

PEACH

This should hold you over until I get to play with you.

This should be good. There’s no way that message was meant for me, but it’s the video message that’s attached that has my interest piqued. When I click it open, my screen is a zoomed-in image of Faye’s cleavage, the phone propped just right as she steps back and smiles into the picture, then she turns around, bends at the waist just enough so I have a view of two perfect fucking creases right where the tops of her thighs meet her ass. Fuck. Me. My mouth waters and I rub my hand across my jaw and over my mouth. This better not be for fucking Cortez.

She lifts the sides of her skirt—the same one she’s wearing tonight. Is she doing this in the bathroom? Then she rolls down the string she had on for panties. Every part of me is screaming hell yes. My cock jabs me in the thigh, making sure I’m seeing this too. I look to my left to make sure no one else is watching, but instead of someone peering over my shoulder, Faye’s striding down the corridor to the bar, glancing around furiously for someone. Pretty sure that someone is me and I’m instantly lit up with amusement. She knows she just sent this to the wrong person. She does a double take and stalks over when she sees me already looking at her. Fuck, she’s beautiful.

“Give me your phone,” she demands, holding out her hand.

Tilting my head to the side as I look at her, I slip my phone into my back pocket and then take a sip of my bourbon. “Why would I give you my phone?”

She shuffles closer to me, wedging herself in between my spread legs. I’d be lying if I said her body this close doesn’t do things to me. Maybe it’s the little teaser I just watched, or maybe it’s just her, but I’m annoyingly turned on. She moves in closer. Her cheek brushes mine as her lips linger right next to my ear, my pulse ticking up in response. “Give. Me. Your. Phone.”

I sniff out a laugh, which has her pulling back. She’s furious. “Not going to happen,” I say as I sip on my bourbon to keep from letting another smile escape. “Did you send something to me you weren’t supposed to? Is that it?”

Now she’s glaring. “You already watched it?” And before waiting for me to answer, she sarcastically croons, “So eager, Foxx.” Her attention dips to my lap as she quips, “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

Fucking hell, this woman. I look back at the dance floor and see Cortez laughing with Hadley and another few people. “I’m more interested in who that was meant for.” I nod in the direction of Cortez. “It wasn’t for him. That’s just business, right?”

I loop my finger into the waistband of her skirt and yank her closer. Her eyes widen, and her lips part, letting a gasp escape. She hadn’t expected it, and I’m finding far too much enjoyment in surprising her. Pushing her. “Who are you teasing with a video like that?”

The question comes out sounding more possessive than I wanted.

Eyes on mine, she pouts. I’ve never craved to bite something more than I do that bottom lip.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Foxx? Are you jealous? Or are you more of a prude than everyone thinks?”

Why am I turned on by the mouth she’s got on her? She’s not far off, but she doesn’t get to know that. “Nah, Peach. I’m not jealous.” I lean into her ear, the same way she had done to me moments ago. “You and I both know that if I wanted you, you’d let me have you.” Keeping my finger hooked in her skirt, she’s not able to pull away. I run the knuckle of my finger back and forth along the slip of skin under the waistband. “Wouldn’t you?”

A slow smile curves her mouth, her tongue peeking out to wet that plush bottom lip. Waving to the bartender, she lifts my hand from her waist. She stands on her tiptoes as the bartender approaches, then leans over to say something. But it’s when she turns back, smiling at me, a wicked gleam in her eyes, that I realize she didn’t just order a drink or close out a tab.

“Faye, what did you?—”

I get cut off as the bartender pulls out a silver triangle and starts hitting it with a piece of metal. Fucking hell. Everyone within earshot knows that means a round of drinks has been paid for.

She calls out, “This round is on Lincoln Foxx!” The crowd around me and the entire length of the bar start whistling and clapping.

When I glance to my right where Faye had just been, I realize she’s gone and already halfway to the door. “Hey!” I shout.

She stops, looks over her shoulder, and then turns her full body, flips me off, and walks backward toward the door while holding up my fucking phone.

I throw down my credit card. “Cap it at five hundred,” I tell the bartender, and then I’m moving through the crowd and out the front door. I look around for a second, trying to see if she went toward the parking lot to the left of the building or across the street, but when the door to the bar closes behind me, it’s quiet. Which means I should have no problem finding her. The line that was here when we arrived is already through the door and the only other people out here are a smoker and a bouncer. A few seconds later, I hear a woman’s laugh and turn toward the small alley between the bar and the building. Cloudy plumes of warm breath billow from the same direction. There you are.

“I thought you might have liked that,” she says in a low, sexy tone just as I round the corner. “Of course. I already said I would be there.”

My boots scuff the pavement as I round the corner to interrupt.

Her head jerks up and eyes widen when she sees me. But then whoever she’s talking to makes her laugh. Who the fuck is she talking to? She hums right before she says, “But teasing is the best part.”

My entire body feels those words like a caress, especially with her eyes on me. The way she drags her bottom lip between her teeth, making it wet and reddened, makes me second guess if that was meant for me. She starts to pull the phone away from her ear so I can hear the deep voice talking on the other end.

I hold up my hand and say, “Don’t hang up.”

I wasn’t going to, she mouths. I take it as a challenge.

I take a step closer and raise my finger to my lips, signaling for her to be quiet.

She clears her throat. “Yes. I’m still here.”

I don’t know, nor do I care, who she’s lying to on that call. It’s not my problem. My problem is the five-foot-something blonde in front of me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her, maybe for even longer than I care to admit. I should walk away and keep my focus on my own life. But the lines that feel so thin between us make it difficult to tell if it’s attraction, anger, or just an unexplainable primal need drawing us together.

I move closer, forcing her to keep moving until her back hits the brick wall behind her. When I look down at her hand, her fingers still wrap around my phone.

It’s what she says next that removes any common sense that should have me ending this game right now. “Then you’ll have to tell me what you’d want me to do,” she says seductively into her phone.

With those green eyes locked on mine, I glide my hand down her forearm to her wrist until I wrap my fingers around my phone. I try prying it from her, but she grips tighter. Stepping back, I pull her with me until I move the phone behind my waist and slide it into my back pocket.

When she finally lets go, she turns her back to me with a flick of her hand, like that was the only thing I wanted from her. Fuck . It should be. I got my phone back. I can go back to the bar and find my friend. But it’s not. I scrub my hand across the stubble on my chin and over my mouth as my gaze travels over her again, now that she’s paying me no attention. There are a thousand reasons why walking away is the logical choice. But I’ve done logical and expected, cavalier and thankless. Right now, I just want her.

Fuck it.

Reaching out, I wrap my arm around her body and pull her to me. She sucks in a breath as her back connects with my front. Any sense is thrown entirely away as I keep my body pressed to hers and move my mouth to the opposite side from where she’s holding her phone.

My lips ghost along her neck, and in response, she grinds her ass back into my cock. I hold her tighter against me as a couple walking by at the end of the alley laughs. Fucking hell, this is reckless.

“Tell me to stop,” I whisper as my fingers toy with the top button of her vest.

“Keep going,” she tells me in a quiet, breathy tone.

I flick open the button and my fingers slide along the smooth warmth of her skin. Her breath catches. My palm and fingers grasp as much of her full chest in my hand as I can. She leans back, dropping her head along my shoulder, my lips brushing her cheek as my fingers play and pluck at her nipple. Rolling it with the pads of my fingers, her mouth opens and tilts into a half smile as she rubs her ass from side to side, grazing my cock with each sway of her hips.

She releases a small moan just before she says, “Keep going.” Her breath catches as she whispers, “Please, don’t stop.”

“Those panties still off?” I ask along her skin.

She nods and lets out a hum in anticipation.

I shift my weight, moving us closer to the wall and into the shadows between these two buildings. I drag my hand down the back of her thigh to lift the back of her skirt. My fingers only find her warm, smooth skin. “Tell me this is okay, Peach.”

“Don’t you fucking stop,” she says on an exhale. I don’t hear any muffled voice or see the light of her phone anymore, but she still has it pressed to the other ear. I don’t care who hears her. The only thing I care about is knowing that I’m the one about to make her come.

My cock is so hard I can feel it dampening my jeans with every roll of my hips. I run my fingers along the exact place I wanted to touch so badly when she shed her coat during her “date.” That strip of skin, the crease of her ass, that perfect spot where it meets the top of her thigh. Fuck . Her skin is soft, but the cold has it pebbling as my fingertips move closer to her pussy.

She widens her stance and leans her weight into me. I grip a pinch of her ass before I glide two fingers right between her legs and along the entire length of her pussy. She’s fucking soaked already, and I have to hold back a groan at the feeling. She hums as I slip two fingers back and forth through her pussy lips and up to her clit. I haven’t even fucked my fingers into her and she’s already shaking in my arms.

“You like this, don’t you?” I nip at the skin below her ear. “I think you more than like it. I think you want me to give you more. Do you want more?” I taunt, drawing circles around her clit as my wrist rubs against her slit. “Beg me for my fingers, Peach.”

“No,” she bites out.

My cock twitches as I grind against her. I pinch her clit and her nipple to draw out the truth.

“Oh fuck. Fine, please,” she whines, arching back.

“Please what?” I say along her neck.

“Fuck you, Foxx. You know what.”

I rotate my hand for a better angle and let my middle finger sink into her. And holy fuck , do I feel it once I do, reveling in her shuddering gasp.

“ More ,” she says on an exhale as her body sinks into me.

My low laugh has her cursing me again. “More, what?”

“You’re an asshole,” she says.

I add another finger and sink it in deeper. She melts into the pleasure I’m allowing, leaning against me and letting out a small, quiet sound that I need to hear more loudly. “You’re not being very nice,” I say teasingly.

She huffs as I keep the same slow and deep pace without increasing my speed. “You don’t want a nice girl right now, Foxx.”

“What do I want, then, hmm?”

A small moan crawls up her throat as she says, “You want someone to tell you to be a good boy and do what you’re told.”

I slow down as punishment. “Is that what you think? That I need your praise and for you to be in control?” I push my fingers in and move the tips of them just enough to hit that spot just right. She’s full and eager for more as she squirms for me to give her what she wants.

When I thrust harder, just once, she sucks in a breath. “Please, oh fuck. Please, give me more, or I’m going to do it myself.” Her free hand grabs at my forearm and she digs her nails into my sleeve.

Chuckling, I rest my cheeks against hers before I tell her exactly how much I don’t like that idea with my actions instead. I slide my fingers out, kick her stance wider, and bend her forward just enough to slap her pussy from behind. She yelps at the fast slap and lets out a small giggle before I’m pulling her back up. I turn her body, moving her a few feet toward the wall until her back is pressed against it and her eyes are on mine. One arm loops around the back of my neck while her hand grips onto my forearm. She drags her teeth across that beautiful lower lip.

“You’re not allowed to touch yourself right now. That’s what you just begged me to do.” Leaning in, I run my nose along her neck. “So you’ll take what I give you.”

She watches me, lust and need as visible as our warm breath hitting the cold air. I hike up her leg and drape it over the crook of my elbow, and with my other hand, I suck two fingers into my mouth and then lick the pad of my thumb. Rubbing circles around her clit, I let my fingers play.

“Fucking tease,” she bites out with a smile and the tiniest moan.

“Unless you want an audience or to be arrested, I suggest you keep quiet when you drench my fingers.”

She doesn’t say anything else after that. Instead, she enjoys the hell out of my fingers fucking her. Her grip along the back of my neck tightens, but I’m not ready for her to be done just yet. I pull them out and rub along her clit just enough, edging her so closely, to the point where she’s writhing against my touch. Let’s see how wet she can make this.

Her words come out gasping, “Foxx, stop, I need?—”

“I know what you need.” A third finger fucks into her dripping pussy. The lewd sounds are going to have me coming in my fucking pants right along with her. Mixed with the way she says my name on whispered breaths, I’m barely hanging on. The only thing I can smell is her, and it’s so fucking good. She’s overtaking every one of my senses.

I shift into her, hiking her leg higher, and the angle hits exactly where I want as I fuck my fingers into her, feeling the pressure of what I want to happen.

“Lincoln—” Her breath hitches. Mouth dropping open, her back arches away from the wall, her pussy pulses, and she saturates my hand. My cock wants to reap the warm-up and slide right into what I’ve just prepared as she unravels because of me.

But that’s not happening. Not in an alleyway outside of a bar. I suck on the skin right below her ear, drag my teeth along her neck as her pulse beats dangerously fast. And because I can’t help myself, I whisper against her wet skin, “You sound so pretty when you’re pissed off and moaning for me.”

I can feel her smile before I see it.

Pulling back, I look at how perfectly ravaged she is, leaning against the wall, hair messy, neck red from my nibbling, skirt hiked up, vest half unbuttoned and chest heaving, teasing the deep set of her cleavage. I can’t hold back moaning at the sight of her. Bringing my fingers that were just inside her to my mouth, I lick them clean and then give them a good smell as she watches with a dazed expression.

Voices echo as they walk by the alley, snapping us both out of this bubble of desire we’ve found ourselves in. More than a few people come pouring out of the bar, and as much as I want her hand wrapped around my cock, I’m going to settle for my own.

“Let’s go.” I hold out my hand as she rights herself. I’m not going to leave her like this at this time of night. No fucking way.

She follows behind, my hand holding hers as my mind reels at what the hell I’m supposed to do when we reach her vehicle. If I kiss her, this isn’t ending here. And it needs to.

But as we get closer to her truck, she lets go of my hand and makes the decision for me. “I’ll take it from here.” She walks ahead, turning her head to the side before she calls out, “You’re pretty when you’re pissed off too, Foxx. Too bad I couldn’t get you to moan for me this time.”

Sighing, I drag my hand through the front of my hair and remove my glasses from my coat pocket, taking a second to watch her pull out of her space and peel out of the lot. I laugh to myself and tilt my head back, looking up at the sky. She said, “this time.” Like there’s going to be a next time. My cock twitches at the thought, working against my brain.

What the hell am I doing?