“I won’t stand out, will I?” she asked.
Ian nodded. Slowly. “That will do,” he said, his voice slow. He crooked his elbow.
Unfamiliar with the gesture, she quickly figured out she was supposed to wind her own arm through his, appreciating the solid strength of his body.
“Technically, you’re supposed to want to stand out. You’re trying to attract men,” he said with little enthusiasm.
Ava tilted her head. “Okay to stand out. Got it.”
Like most of the attractions at Bricktown, the nightclub was on the canal, and it took only a few minutes to walk there from her apartment.
She heard the pounding synthesized beat of music long before she turned the corner to the Club Escape. Two large black doors bore the word Escape in bold, neon blue. Ian escorted her into a darkened hallway, shrouded in pale blue light. After flashing her ID and paying the cover charge, they followed the music down the hallway.
Lights overhead pulsing in beat with the music illuminated dozens of people dancing on a large floor. She’d participated in many types of ritualistic dancing, but nothing ever this…free-form. She preferred her customs a bit more scripted than this.
Ian indicated a grouping of purple couches and she followed him as he led the way, pushing through the crowd.
A waitress quickly stopped at their table and asked for their drink orders.
Ava leaned over to Ian. “What’s the normal drink for a woman to order?”
Rather than reply, he told the waitress, “She’ll have an appletini. I’ll have a beer. Domestic.”
“Draft or bottle?”
“Bottle.”
“What’s an appletini?” she asked as soon as the waitress left.
Ian shrugged. “Hell if I know. It’s what my sister always orders.”
She sat in silence beside him just digesting the sights and sounds around her. The smell of various perfumes and colognes scented the air. People grouped and clustered everywhere, trying to make conversation and laughing. There was an interesting anthropological study in this experience she was sure. Too bad she hadn’t brought her camera.
DAMN ALL THE LOCKS on her door. It took too long for Miriam to enter her apartment. She could have been using tongs to hold her keys her fingers felt so useless. Her heart raced in anticipation. She couldn’t wait to get Jeremy alone and inside her apartment.
Finally. Her door swung open, and then Jeremy took over. Except he was even slower. She wanted hard and fast. And eight times in a night.
Instead he closed the door, locked it and gently pushed her against it. He cupped her face, and she met his blue gaze. He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb.
“I’ve dreamed about these lips,” he told her. His voice gruff and full of desire.
He traced the line of her jaw. Slid his fingers down the line of her neck. A small smile touched his mouth as he found her pulse point. He leaned over and placed a light kiss there. An innocent kiss. One that would look almost chaste until he added the tip of his tongue. Then her pulse really began to hammer.
“Seeing how much you want me makes me hurt not to be inside you,” he said with a groan against her skin.
“Then why are you being so slow?” Her breasts ached for his touch.
Jeremy straightened, his expression turning serious. “Because I told myself if I was lucky enough to be with you again, I wouldn’t rush things like a horny jerk.”
“I liked horny and rushed.”
A wicked little grin appeared on his face. “You’ll like this more.”
Then his hands moved. He slid her jacket from her shoulders, making the simple act a carnal caress. She wanted his mouth on hers, his tongue at the base of her neck as he undressed her. Like before.
But now, his eyes never left hers as he began to unbutton her blouse. How intimate it felt to have him slowly undress her in the stark light of her entry.
His expression was a mask of tight concentration. His shoulders strained and tense. Jeremy Kelso was perfect. Beautiful.
Before, in Oklahoma, they’d raced to the bed. Two people in the heady throes of passion who couldn’t get their clothes off fast enough.
His deliberate movements now were far more frustratingly sexy. He clearly was a man who’d thought of nothing else but undressing her slowly, and he planned on enjoying every moment now that he had the chance. Jeremy’s eyes darkened, but never left hers. Although she couldn’t hold his gaze as he caressed her nipples poking at her bra.
She moaned when he cupped her breasts, molding them with his hands. “Take off my bra,” she said, her voice low and needy.
She hadn’t wanted to be naked with a man this much since…since the last time she’d been with Jeremy. How he could make her breasts ache without taking off the material that separated his skin from hers, she’d never know.
He finally removed her lacy blue underwire. “I’ve waited so long to see you. Wanted you for so long.”
The cool air of her apartment did nothing to soothe her need for his touch. And once again he was taking too long. Miriam opened her mouth to demand he touch her. She was done being teased.
She sucked in a breath when she opened her eyes and saw his expression. Jeremy looked at her body with intense appreciation. She watched as his breathing grew more irregular. Spotted his pulse beating wildly at his temple. Witnessing the effect she had on him made her feel strong.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said.
Miriam reached for his hands and unhurriedly placed them on her breasts. “Then touch me,” she urged.
She didn’t need to hide her lonely desire for him behind the quick, all-consuming passion. Miriam suddenly wanted to savor this, too.
She’d been imagining, dreaming, thinking of being with him as much as he had dreamed of being with her.
He kissed her then. Carnal and hungry. She opened for his tongue, the taste of him so memorable. So wanted. She twisted her hips until she cradled his erection. Her body demanding more from him. Offering more.
One quick weekend. It should have been nothing more, but she’d missed this. Missed him. The slightly rough texture of his cheek. His familiar masculine scent. The heat of his breath on her skin.
His lips left hers, running down her neck, down the swell of her breasts, stopping to give an erotic kiss to her breasts. Then lower still.
He sank to his knees, his fingers seeking out the waistband of her skirt and finding the zipper. The swish of her zipper being pulled down would be branded on her memory as one of the sexiest sounds she’d ever heard. Her thighs began to tremble.
“You make me feel so good, Jeremy.” He pulled her stockings, panties and skirt down her legs all in one move. The man had talent. She stood before him naked. Warmth flooded between her legs. Miriam grew slicker with wanting. Jeremy’s fingertips lightly guided up her calves.
“The whole weekend together, and not once did I kiss you here. How could I have missed that?”
The idea of his mouth, his tongue on the most intimate part of her body, made her knees shake in delicious expectation. It was hard for her to swallow. “We were busy doing other things,” she reminded him, desperately trying not to sound so…desperate.
She watched as he smiled. “True.”
Then he looked at the curls between her thighs. “I’m not missing this time.”
He tenderly gripped her thighs, worked his shoulders between her legs. Then she felt the warmth of his mouth. He stroked her with his tongue, gently at first, as though she was fragile. As though he wanted to tease her and make her ache for more.
She shivered as he caressed and explored her with his tongue, seeming to want to learn every curve of her, the taste of her.