Page 5 of Spark

“Staying at the Amberley. Only a couple of blocks away.”

She squeezed his hand, and for some reason he felt it behind his ribs as well as behind his zipper. Fuck, she was beautiful. He hadn’t lied; she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. There was just something about her. She hit every one of his hot buttons and then some.

He glanced down at her again. Her dark hair was down and wavy and sat just below her shoulders. She was wearing jeans that hugged her round ass and thighs, and a shirt that was loose but made of that light kind of fabric that draped and still managed to cling to her shape at the same time.

Hattie was a full-figured woman, and being the big guy he was, he appreciated curves like hers. He liked soft and round—always had.

She glanced up at him again as well and smiled nervously.

This gorgeous woman had agreed to come home with him, and he hadn’t even kissed her yet. Dex wanted to kiss her right damn then. So he stopped and tugged her to a stop as well there on the street.

There was curiosity in her blue eyes, and definitely nerves, but no fear. Thank God.

“Want to kiss you, Hattie.” No, he didn’t know what it was about this woman, but she had him all twisted up. “You okay with that?”

She nodded and let Dex draw her closer.

He wrapped his arms around the soft warmth of her body. Jesus, he was shaking. Her breathing was coming out in little pants, and her lips were slightly parted. Oh fuck, just that reaction to his request was as hot as fuck.

He cupped the side of her face. Her skin was soft, delicate.

Burrowing his fingers into her thick, warm hair, he tilted her head back. When her eyes locked with his, Dex’s dick started to throb and got even harder.

He leaned over her, spreading his legs so they were kind of bracketing hers to bring him lower, then bent at the knees a little as well, since she was so much shorter. She tilted her face up and lifted on her tiptoes, trying to meet him halfway.

Fucking hell.

The words bounced around his skull when he closed the remaining gap, when he finally pressed his lips to hers. Oh God. They were soft and full and tasted tart and sweet from her wine.

Her hands went to his chest and she shuffled closer, pressing her front to his. He groaned. Christ, it’d been such a long time since he’d been this close to anyone. Women had been the last things on his mind for a long time. But fuck, he’d missed the softness, the scent, the warmth, just the closeness.

He swept his tongue into her mouth and groaned again because Hattie kissed him back just as hungrily, her tongue gliding against his. She filled his head, his senses. And somehow he knew that not just any woman could make him feel like this. He was sure of it. Only this woman: Hattie.

Only she could make him feel this way, this out of control, this hungry. Something in his gut told him that, and he didn’t doubt it. The throbbing need inside him for her grew even stronger.

He needed her under him, naked. Now.

Someone wolf-whistled, and Dex tensed, reluctantly breaking their lip-lock, and lifted his head. She looked up at him, flushed and dazed and so incredibly beautiful he actually growled. He sure as hell didn’t want anyone else seeing her like this, with her mouth swollen and dark from his kiss, need stark on her face, in her eyes, and nipples hard little points outlined through her shirt.

“You need to know, sweetness,” he said, giving her a warning or making a promise, he wasn’t sure which. “Been a while for me, and the way I want you…” He cleared his throat. “Gonna want my fill of you tonight, beautiful.”

Her tongue darted out between her lips, swiping across the lower one. “I haven’t been with anyone in two years,” she said, completely unguarded, giving him the truth without reservation. “So I’m…I’m fine with that.”

He knew she’d surprised herself with her confession as well because her pink cheeks turned red.

“Gonna make sure you don’t regret one moment of tonight, Hattie,” Dex said and meant it one hundred fifty percent. He wanted to watch this woman come so hard she shook, wanted to hear his name on her lips when he got her there over and over again. The need to make her feel good, to make her remember this night with him—remember him—was a driving need inside him he didn’t understand.

Her fingers flexed against his chest. “I know,” she said shakily.

Yeah, he liked that. He liked it a fucking lot.

Without another word, because he didn’t have any that would make any sort of sense, he took her hand again firmly in his and started back up the street, faster this time.

The place he was staying at wasn’t the nicest hotel on the block—okay, it was shitty—but the apartment he’d moved into had a plumbing emergency a few days after he unpacked all his worldly possessions—which was fuck all—and since he preferred not to shit in a bucket, he was stuck in this hotel for a little longer.

His cousins here had all offered him a place to stay while he waited on the new toilet that had to be specially ordered to fit his small bathroom, but Dex didn’t want to impose. He didn’t really know them, and the whole idea sounded awkward as hell to him.

He also liked peace and quiet, and since they all had kids or were about to have a kid, he’d said thanks but no, thanks. That was too much for him and why he chose this shit-box hotel to be his temporary home for the week instead.