was pleasuring women, but still. The obvious conclusion was that Kenzie Fox was desperately in need of a good fuck. All this pent-up sexual energy was bad for her prana. Sitting down on a stool, she flashed a smile at the bartender, ordered her usual—a club soda with lime—and pulled out her phone. Maybe Missy was right, it was time to try online dating.
But before she had time to search for a dating app, she felt a hand graze across her lower back. It was a strong, firm hand—clearly a man’s—and the surprising touch sent a tingle up the length of her spine.
“I was hoping to see you again,” said a sultry male voice with the slightest hint of a Spanish accent.
Kenzie turned to her left and laid eyes on the arresting man she had noticed earlier. Up close, he was even more handsome than she’d previously noticed, with intense, dark eyes that made it impossible for her to look away from him. His longish dark hair was thick and full, and Kenzie imagined raking her hands through it in the heat of passion.
“Do you mind if I sit down?”
Kenzie nodded affirmatively. She wasn’t usually at a loss for words but somehow her ability to form them was suddenly impaired. She felt her cheeks get hot and hoped that he didn’t notice she was blushing.
“My name is Antonio Navedo,” he said, extending his hand to her. “I noticed you earlier, when you were checking in.”
“Yes, I noticed you, too.” Okay, there was no hiding it. She was seriously blushing now. “MacKenzie Fox. My friends call me Kenzie.”
“Where are you traveling from, Kenzie?” he asked, taking the bar stool next to her and turning his body toward her so that their knees were almost touching.
“New York,” Kenzie answered, regaining her composure. “I’m here on business,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“But there has to be a little room for pleasure, no? I find that to be very important.”
“Yes, you seemed to be enjoying yourself when I saw you earlier,” Kenzie ventured with a hint of challenge in her voice. She watched as Antonio’s face changed from amused to slightly serious. There was a flash of danger in his eyes that was incredibly sexy.
“That was my business associate,” he said in a serious tone. “I often take my meetings here.”
Kenzie let out an amused little laugh. Business associate in what? she wondered. But did it really matter? She tried her best to stop her gaze from traveling from Antonio’s sensual lips down to the small V of skin exposed at his shirt collar, but her eyes went there anyway.
Just then the bartender reappeared, placing the club soda in front of Kenzie.
“What can I get for you, Antonio?” he asked. Kenzie raised an eyebrow. Was he a regular at a hotel bar? That was a definite red flag. What kind of business was he involved in anyway?
“The Atlantico Reserva, neat. Thank you, Jose. And for you?” he said, turning to Kenzie. “Something besides the water?”
“I’m good with this,” Kenzie said, pursing her red lips around the straw and taking a long sip. She felt Antonio watching her mouth and suddenly felt downright pornographic. Removing the straw from her mouth, she smiled. “I don’t drink.”
She said it offhandedly, disguising the fact that her choice to abstain was a heavy subject. Three years earlier, Cole had been at the wheel in a drunk driving accident. When Cole didn’t survive, she had stopped drinking alcohol, thinking that it could do no good in her life.
Antonio raised an eyebrow and smiled back at her. “So, what do you do to relax? When you’re not ‘on business’?”
Kenzie thought for a second and realized she couldn’t remember a time in recent years when she wasn’t totally consumed with her business. It was the most important thing in her life now, and ever since she had found out the studio was in danger of closing, she’d had trouble sleeping. Maybe some relaxation would be just the thing to set her mind straight.
Kenzie turned her body toward Antonio’s so that her bare knee grazed the inside of his leg. “I own a yoga studio. So, I guess you could say my work is my relaxation. Do you practice?”
Antonio’s eyes lit up and he laughed loudly. “Uh, no. I prefer other forms of physical activity.”
Who was this guy? On the one hand, his smile was so warm and inviting, she felt like she already knew him. But then there was that glint in his eye, and the way he commanded the room that suggested to her that he was someone very powerful, and quite possibly, dangerous. In any case, he was oh so different from the gentle, overly-intellectual men who tried to court her back home. Antonio was such a...man!
Falling back to the hair-twirling habit that manifested itself whenever she was nervous, Kenzie twisted her hair up to the top of her head and formed a makeshift bun and exhaled deeply. Was the air-conditioning out of whack or was she just not used to all this intense heat?
Unexpectedly, Antonio reached his fingers into her glass and fished out an ice cube. Taking the slippery cube between two of his manly fingers, he reached around Kenzie and began to trace circles with it at the base of her neck.
“Better?” he asked, maintaining direct eye contact with her as droplets of water melted down her back.
“Oh yes,” Kenzie whispered. Emboldened by his move, she leaned closer to him. “Maybe I could show you some yoga poses, I’m sure you could benefit from them.”
Antonio leaned toward her, matching her body language. They were so close that she could breathe in his scent—a mixture of fresh cologne and sweat that nearly made her swoon, making the hairs on her arms stand up on end and sending electric signals straight down to her lady parts.
“I would like that very much,” Antonio said in a low, husky voice. Kenzie glanced down at his crotch and could see that he was feeling the same shock waves, too. Part of her wanted to reach out and put her hand on that sexy bulge, right there in the bar, but propriety, and the nearby table of vacationing senior citizens, stopped her.
“Should we go to my room?” Even though she was usually confident, Kenzie surprised herself with how forward she was being. Maybe being away from home was making her feel especially free.
“Yes,” Antonio responded immediately. There was an urgency to his tone that was both flattering and vulnerable.
Kenzie slid off the bar stool and tossed a bill onto the bar. As she turned and strode confidently toward the elevators, she could feel the tender area between her thighs getting wetter with every step. It had been a long time since it had happened spontaneously, and the sensation surprised her. Without needing to turn around, she could feel that Antonio was following close behind.
Pressing the up button a few more times than was necessary, Kenzie imagined stepping inside the elevator with Antonio, and thought about what he would do to her. Envisioning him pushing her up onto the side of the wall, his mouth devouring her lips and neck, she teetered on her high heels, praying for the moment when the doors would finally open.
As they did, Kenzie was dismayed to see a large family crowding the small elevator car. When they didn’t exit, she stepped inside, disappointed to see that Antonio was separated from her, forced next to the opposite wall by the family’s gargantuan stroller. Antonio made eye contact with her and shrugged. After
