He looked at me for a beat, long enough for my skin to prickle with anticipation, before answering. “That depends.”
I lifted my brows, a tiny grin playing on my lips. “On?”
“On what you’re doing after this.”
Oh damn.
That flutter I’d been feeling in my belly since shortly after he walked in grew in intensity. I’d been getting vibes off the guy all night long, vibes I was feeling myself, but I hadn’t been the mood to make the first move. I was totally down for a fun, no-strings night with this guy, however, there was one thing I had to make sure of first.
“You from here?”
I felt a sharp sense of relief when he shook his head. “Not here, but I have a room at a place in the next town.”
The next town meant Whitecap, which could potentially spell problems if this guy hadn’t clearly been passing through. “You’re staying at the Boardwalk Inn?”
Those strange blueish eyes flashed with something that looked like a mixture of excitement and anticipation, and just that brief look had my blood pumping. “Yeah. You know it?”
“I do. I can meet you there once I’m done closing up here. Just give me your room number.”
Being friends with the owner of the inn might have posed a problem in regards to privacy if I didn’t know her well enough to know she’d already been in bed for the better part of four hours, so I could get in and out without detection.
The guy gave me his room number and rose from his stool, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet. He pulled out a few bills and tossed them onto the bar—far more than what he needed to cover his tab. When I reached for the cash, his hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around my wrist like a cuff. “I didn’t get your name.”
“You didn’t,” I confirmed, having no intention of revealing that bit of information. “And I didn’t ask for yours.” I shot the man a wink. “It’s more fun that way.”
His chuckle warmed my insides. “All right. I’ll play this your way. How long will it take for you to finish up here and get to me?”
Oh man, this guy was potent, and I was suddenly eager to throw every single person in here out on their ass so I could lock up and book it back to Whitecap. I gave my head a shake, letting out a long, calming exhale through my nose. “Not long. Less than an hour.”
Those incredible lips curved up into another breathtaking smile. “I’ll be waiting.”
* * *
I rolled over,my body feeling sorer than it had in longer than I could remember. My brain felt fuzzy and my eyes felt like sandpaper as I forced them open to take in my surroundings. It took a moment for me to remember what had transpired the night before—or earlier that morning, I guess—but once I did, the soreness suddenly made a whole lot of sense.
The man from the bar, the stranger I refused to trade names with, had rocked my freaking world. There had been several instances over the hours he’d worked my body like I was a musical instrument and he was part of the New York Philharmonic where I’d thought I had to have been dreaming. Then he’d nip sharply at my skin with his teeth or give my ass a stinging slap to remind me it was all very, very real.
It had been, hands down, the best sexual experience of my life, and as languid as my body still felt after such an intense workout, it was time to go.
The view from the window told me the sun was just starting to rise. The sky had gone from a deep, dark black to a grayish-purple, announcing the beginning of a new day. In no time, Gloria, my friend who ran the inn, would be awake, and I needed to get out of here before she made her way to the front desk.
If Gloria found out, it would only be a matter of time before that gossip spread like wildfire. As much as I loved her, she didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, and if she caught wind I came back to the inn with a man, I’d be hearing about this particular escapade from pretty much the entire town long after I was ready to put it behind me as a distant memory.
I forced myself from the warm, cozy confines of the bed and padded around the dark room on tiptoes as I searched for the clothes the stranger had ripped off me. I final managed to locate everything and was slipping on my last shoe when the bedside lamp flipped on unexpectedly, startling a yelp out of me as my eyes fought to adjust to the light.
“Sneaking off in the dead of night?”
“More like sneaking off at the crack of dawn,” I joked, my lips pulling up into a smirk. “Didn’t mean to wake you; sorry about that.”
He sat up, the sheets pooling at his waist, revealing a fine-as-hell slab of abs and firm, rounded pecs dusted with just the slightest bit of chest hair. Judging by the faint lines around his eyes when he smiled and the smallest bit of gray at his temples, I would have put the dude was somewhere in his late-thirties or early-forties, but it was obvious by his size and the cut of his muscles that he worked hard to stay in shape, and I couldn’t help but ogle. The man really was gorgeous, and the sex-tousled hair only made him that much hotter.
“Nah, it wasn’t you. I’m a light sleeper.” His lips turned up in a lazy, sleepy grin. “So...”
“So...” I added on a giggle. “Thanks for, you know.”
He arched a single brow. “The orgasms?”
I shook my head on a laugh. “I was going to say thanks for an incredible night, but yours works too.”