Winnie lifts her arm and waves at the waitress. As our second round comes, the bar starts to fill up, the music gets louder and Eli is suddenly standing next to my stool. He smiles down at me with his ruggedly handsome face and warm green eyes. “Hi again.”
“Hi,” I squeak out, embarrassed about the text he thinks I sent.
He looks over at Winnie and Sadie. “Which one of you two charmers lured me here pretending to be Dixie?”
Sadie raises her hand gleefully. “Guilty!”
“But I fully support my sister,” Winnie pipes up, trying hard to look serious, but she keeps slipping into a grin. “I’m the oldest sister, and it’s my job to look out for these two. And Dixie tends to get a little obsessive and hyper-focused when she has a goal in mind. We decided she needs to relax and get a little more of this in her life.”
Before I can stop her, Winnie has reached for Sadie’s phone, and she’s holding up the bathroom selfie of Eli in nothing but a well-placed towel. He looks horrified for a split second, and then he bursts out in that deep, vibrating laugh of his that’s so sexy it makes my pussy pulse.
“Let me buy you nosy Nellies a drink,” he says and calls over the waitress, resting a lazy arm across my shoulders. Oh God, this is seven hundred kinds of wrong, but it’s the best feeling I’ve had in ages.
I cut myself off after that round because I have to work in the morning, but we stay at the bar another two hours laughing and telling embarrassing childhood stories, mostly about Jude and Levi, so it’s extra enjoyable, and daring each other to ride the mechanical bull. Finally I let rational thought take over. “I have to get to bed, guys. Work tomorrow.”
“You and that damn job.” Sadie sighs dramatically.
“We’re not leaving until someone rides that bull,” Winnie declares, slapping the table with her palm. “And if it’s Eli, preferably shirtless.”
“He can’t get on that bull shirtless,” I warn. “If you think I work a lot now, wait until I’m dealing with those photos all over the internet.”
Eli shrugs and starts to lift his shirt by the hem. Winnie and Sadie start to whistle like they’re at a strip bar. I grab his hands and stop him before he reaches his nipples. He gives me a devilish smile. “Trying to keep it all for yourself?”
I don’t answer him. Instead I turn to my sisters. “Listen, Slutty Spice and Skanky Spice, I am going home, no bull, mechanical or otherwise.”
I grab my coat off my stool and suddenly Eli is helping me put it on while my sisters pretend to fan themselves and sigh dramatically. I look up at Eli. “I am so sorry. Now I know why Jude wishes he was an only child.”
“Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Eli offers and puts a hand on the small of my back as we weave our way out of the place with Winnie and Sadie following behind. It’s raining now, so we huddle under the awning out front and I hug my sisters good-bye. The both hug Eli too before climbing in the back of a cab. As they drive away Winnie rolls down the window and calls out, “Hey, Dixie, save a horse, ride a goalie!”
Sadie lets out a “Woo-hoo!”
I bury my face in my hands as Eli’s laugh rumbles up beside me. He holds my shoulders, giving them a squeeze. “Your family is amazing.”
“That’s not the adjective I would have gone with,” I reply. He takes my hand and starts leading me down the street. I try to stop him, but it’s impossible. “It’s raining!”
“So? Are you made of sugar, sweet Dixie?” he asks and keeps pulling me down the street. “Live a little. Be a little reckless.”
So we walk, on a Sunday night in the pouring rain, down the dark, almost abandoned streets. And somehow, for the first time in a very, very long time—since before my father’s diagnosis, since before my double life working in PR, since before I decided I had to be a glass-ceiling-busting corporate badass—I feel completely at peace. And maybe it’s the rain. Maybe it’s slipping down over my soaked hair and dripping into my ears and drowning my common sense or washing away my very well thought-out life goals, but all I want to do is kiss him.
As we start to walk by an alley I step into it, pulling him with me, and then with all the strength I have I grab him by the front of his jacket, shove him against the damp brick wall, rock up on my toes and kiss him. My lips cover his the way they have since the elevator—perfectly. And our tongues move together with matching need and urgency. He reaches up and cups the side of my face as his lips pull away just enough to talk. “Do you know what you’re doing here, sweet Dixie? What about the rules?”
“I’ve played by the rules enough today.” I let my hand slip between us and palm the front of his jeans. “I think it’s time to give this reckless thing a chance. Just for tonight.”
I start to lower his zipper, and the way his eyes widen makes me smile. I kiss him again, tugging on his plump bottom lip for just a second as it ends, and I slip my hand into his open fly. My fingers brush against his shaft, and he punches his hips forward. “You should come home with me,” I say.
He wraps his arm around my waist and lifts me, spinning us around so it’s my back against the wet bricks. “We’re supposed to be reckless here.” His breath tickles my neck and then I feel his lips on my earlobe. “There’s nothing reckless about fucking at home.”
“Everything about us is reckless,” I remind him in a whisper.
“Then let’s act like it,” he responds, his hand slipping up under my trench coat and skirt. He cups my pussy in his palm, his fingers grazing over my slit through my lace thong. “Let me have you now. Here.”
A ripple of desire rolls down my spine. I pop the button of his jeans to give my hand more access, and then I reach for his cock again, wrapping my hand around it. He lets out the hottest deep, dark noise from the back of his throat. And it does me in. “Fuck me, Eli.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice.
As I walk into work the next morning, I try not to smile too brightly but I can’t help it. Wild sex in a public place really leaves an afterglow. The way he tugged my underwear aside so forcefully they tore. The way I moved my skirt up my legs, just enough to show him where he needed to go. The forceful way he held me close, pinned between his body and the wall, and pushed into me as I rolled my hips. It was insane—we were insane—and it was insanely satisfying. We’d stumbled back to his hotel, which was closer than my place, and fell into bed soaking wet and exhausted. I woke up at four in the morning, quietly got dressed and headed home.
Now, as I make my way to my desk, I try not to think about last night at all. The less I think about it in the harsh light of day, the longer I can pretend it wasn’t a colossal mistake. I hate letting people down or appearing unprofessional. I sit down at my desk, and as I shrug out of my coat I realize Nadine wasn’t at her desk. Mr. Carling’s office door opens, and Ann walks out. Our eyes meet, and she’s wearing that same grim expression from last night. She walks over, smoothing the front of her gray slacks with her hands. “Thanks again for staying last night and getting things done. Are you an aunt?”
