of power she earned from their no-strings encounters. If she focussed on the sex, she wouldn’t think about anything else. Her doubts, her past, her bad decisions.
She nodded, her belly twisting with delicious spasms.
Ash’s stare bored into hers while he clearly mulled over her suggestion. This bold, uninhibited demand was so unlike her. But this was what he did to her, what he brought out in her. And what she hoped like hell he’d embrace. She’d been turned on all day, all week. It was his fault—time to atone.
Because right now she barely recognised the wanton woman he drew out. Hormones raged through her. She pressed her thighs together to ease the persistent thrum of her clit.
Ash scooped his arm around her shoulders, nodded briefly to the bouncer manning the foot of the stairs and escorted a tingling-from-head-to-toe Essie to the upper balcony.
Essie tottered alongside his determined strides, grateful he, too, saw the merits and timeliness of her risqué plan.
At the top of the stairs, he swooped on her, hauling her up with an arm around her waist and his hot and greedy mouth, demanding an uninhibited kiss. Essie clung, losing herself to the thrusting power of his tongue sliding over hers and his strong arms banded around her back, connecting them from shoulder to thigh. Her head spun. This was happening.
Ash released her. ‘You sure about this?’
She nodded, too turned on for speech. And too enthralled for doubts.
He strode ahead, tugging her behind. Now they’d established the ground rules, he was all action. Thank goodness. She didn’t want to have to resort to begging and pawing at him. So tacky.
The balcony overlooked the writhing mass of bodies on the dance floor below. To the left was a row of discreet curtained-off booths, each lined with low, banquette-style sofas and featuring an LED illuminated coffee table. Ash led the way to the last booth in the row, the one closest to what Essie guessed was a door leading to a fire escape.
Adrenaline slammed through her, shunting energy to every part of her body until her pulse thrummed right down to her fingertips. Her senses heightened, her skin buzzing under the glide of fabric, the music vibrating through the floor and into her bones and her vision eclipsed by the virile, determined man in front of her.
Ash tugged her by the hand and flicked the gossamer curtains closed behind them. If someone came close enough, they’d see through the filmy barrier. But the angle from the ground floor provided sufficient privacy to keep Essie invested in her reckless, spur-of-the-moment idea.
He kept hold of her hand, his body close, taut with energy.
‘You’re astounding, do you know that?’ He scanned her features with heated eyes.
She shook her head, her throat hot. If he didn’t touch her soon, or allow her to touch him, she’d disintegrate into a million pieces.
He flared his nostrils, sucking in a breath, and then said, ‘Take your underwear off.’ A husky command. He held up his hand, palm flat, waiting for her offering. If that was his lawyer voice...he probably sealed every deal he touched.
Essie’s blood turned to melted wax. Ignoring the liquidity of her limbs, she tilted her head, eyebrows arched. Who knew she housed such a perverse streak? He couldn’t get his way all the time, even when his demands benefited her.
‘You’re a long way from Kansas, counsellor.’ But she obliged, because this daring tryst had been her idea. No time for coyness now, not when she was finally getting what she’d craved since the day after she’d met him, when she’d foolishly raised the stakes with her secret scribblings about Illegally Hot. Time to be all in, or get the hell out of Dodge.
She braced herself steady with one hand on Ash’s forearm, while she shimmied her panties down her thighs and then stepped out of them, one foot at a time.
Holding his self-satisfied stare, she dropped her damp thong in the centre of his palm, with as seductive a smile as she could manage. Why deny the effect he had on her? That he’d agreed to this told her he was equally affected.
Whatever else they were, physically they worked.
Ash glanced at the lace and then grinned, tucking it inside the back pocket of his jeans. With one tug he brought their chests and thighs and mouths back together.
‘You—’ he cupped her face and slanted his mouth over hers, eyes open, bold stare pinning her immobile ‘—have been driving me out of my mind for days.’ He took her hand and pressed it to the steely length of him, guiding her to stroke him through his jeans, his hand over hers.
‘I could say the same about you.’ He was rock hard. She squeezed her thighs together, seeking a modicum of relief.
‘With the exception of this rather unorthodox and public time, we’ll be taking this slow. I intend to get my fill of you. To taste every part of you, over and over until neither of us can walk.’
‘Another new experience. I can’t wait.’ Essie clung to him, her eyes just shy of rolling back. ‘I thought you’d never break.’ She looped her arms around his neck and tugged his mouth down to hers once more as she pushed him backwards towards the low upholstered seats lining the booth.
Through kisses, she fumbled with the button fly on his jeans until she’d freed his thick erection behind. He hissed, his hand covering hers to still her frantic fingers.
‘This time, it’s your rodeo.’ He cupped her breast through the fine silk of her halter dress, his thumb stroking the nipple to a hard peak. ‘Next time, and the multiple times after that, will be my way. Understood?’
She nodded, ready to promise anything to get what she wanted—him, inside her, losing his phenomenal control.
Ash fished a condom from his pocket with a wry twist of his mouth.
‘I was a Boy Scout.’ He handed the foil square to Essie and sat back on the banquette, his arms stretched along the back and his stare flitting between her bare legs, her pebbled nipples and her face.
Essie’s mouth filled with saliva. He was hers to play with. Sprawled out beneath her, hard, ready and willing.
Forcing herself to sidle slowly with a seductive sway of her hips, rather than bound onto his lap with embarrassing eagerness as was her natural inclination, she sauntered close until her thighs slotted between his, which were spread wide, the prod of his manhood rising above his open fly.
Essie placed the condom on the seat next to him and lifted her dress above her knees. When his gaze left hers to follow the path of the hem, she slowed the progress down, enjoying the way air gusted from his nose with every rise and fall of his broad, sculpted chest.
As payback for torturing her with his impressive stamina, she stopped just short of showing him everything, instinct telling her Ash was a man who always got what he wanted in the end. She might as well draw out the anticipation. Keep him on his toes. Drip-feed him, until he snapped and took what he wanted.
With her thighs bracketing his, she straddled his lap, rising up on her knees to force his head back on the cushion so she could kiss him the way she’d longed to since this morning.
She traced his lips with hers and then repeated her path with the tip of her
