I could barely stand up straight, but the only thing I wanted to do was wash the dishes piled in the sink and clean the entire apartment from top to bottom. The sight was unnerving. I shut the door behind me, stretching and fisting my fingers at my side to hold back the urge.
“Want a drink?” Linc tossed his keys on the counter, and my eyes followed him. He set the guitar case on the couch and grabbed a half-smoked blunt from the ashtray on the coffee table. He picked up the remote from the armrest when a remix playing in the truck picked up through Bluetooth and filled the room. Guitar strings floated in the air like ribbons.
“Please,” I said, walking toward the sliding doors of the balcony and opening them wide. “Preferably something solo and strong.”
Linc joined me out on the balcony with two drinks and lit the end of the blunt with his Zippo. He took a deep, enthralling hit under squinty eyes before passing it to me, his gaze piercing me through the smoke.
The high went straight to my head next. Invisible clouds hugged me tight, and a relaxed smile warmed my face.
Routinely, I was gone.
Linc took the blunt from my fingertips and leaned over the railing at my side. His gaze dragged over the water. “A musician, a party girl, and a weak ass blunt,” Linc laughed, “I don’t know, it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
I felt Linc watching my expression from the corner of his eyes. Then his warm hand hovered the sliver of bare skin on my hip. It was more like an instinct at first, until his fingertips floated just above my skirt-line, pulling me closer and crossing my tramp stamp that stained my lower spine. Slow, teasing, relaxing.
If it weren’t for my high, I would have flinched away from his touch. Sexual impulse had never been a thing for me. To be so high and out of my mind was like soaring in a dangerous sky without ever thinking I would lose my wings. For the time being, I thought the freedom would last forever. It wouldn’t, I knew that, but I free-fell while it did.
On this night, I could fuck wildly until the high wore off and the sun came up.
On this night, I could be anyone I wanted. Not Rudy. Not Harlow.
The high had strangled the fear, and I found myself leaning into him for more.
Linc stepped behind me, erasing the distance between us.
He must have sensed I wasn’t generally like this because the coldness of his lip ring slid against my neck when he whispered, “We can stop at any time.”
I felt the thrill of his whisper, his lazy drawl, sneak into me. I understood the whispers inside the whisper.Don’t back out now. This is what we both want.I was sick and tired of being the tease, the bitch—a girl who was all talk and no play. I could do this, and Linc was making it very easy for me.
I dropped my head back, and it hit his shoulder. He moved his mouth from my neck to my cheek, turning me around to face him again.
“Heidi,” he whispered.
“Harlow,” I corrected.
Linc smiled, and his smile was a little wild, a catalyst as we stood there.
Then he touched my jawline with his fingers, his mouth coming down fast on mine.
A delicious and fierce attack.
6
#crushme
HARLOW SAINT JAMES
I didn’t hearhis moan with the song screaming in my ears, but I felt it. Goosebumps coated my flesh as soon as his tongue swiped across mine.
We took off in a slide, teeth crashing, taste buds starving. Linc’s fingers dug into my sides when he pushed and pulled until my back was against the sliding glass door. I grabbed his hair, pulling him down, pulling him closer. He gripped the back of my neck, sinking his teeth into my lip.
We both fought for control and fought to get out of our clothes. I undid Linc’s buckle with desperate fingers. He undid the clasp of my skirt. My top came off, and the cold slapped my nipples before Linc’s heated hands came over them. We were a tangled mess.
I was eager to push his jacket from his shoulders, mouths hardly separating. Only quick breaths in between. Then he pulled away just once to look at me. Eyes lazy and tired and red like a sunset with my red lipstick smearing across his lips. And I, somehow, found it sexy as hell.
I yanked on his tie until his lips were back on mine.
