Because I’m still fucked up. “Because you’re so pretty I forgot what you asked.”
She looked skyward and fought a smile.
“What do you want to know, pretty Tessa?” Not that he’d tell her anything, ever.
“Why do you have a lethal insect tattooed on your neck?”
He angled his head to let her get a real good look, remembering the unspeakably dark night when he’d gotten the ink in some hellhole off Balestier Road.
“Do you have a death wish or something?” she prompted.
“Something.” He slugged the rest of his scotch. “What about you?”
“Me?” She laughed softly, with a wry and ironic shake of her head. “Well, I don’t wish for death.”
He stole a look at her, lost for a second in the honesty in her eyes. Damn it, sometimes the small talk wasn’t enough. Maybe this meaningless chatter was a necessary evil before getting a woman on her back, but for one brief instant, Ian ached for…more.
More information, more revelation, more than a quick screw to kill the pain for a very short while.
But John Brown couldn’t have more. And Ian Browning best not forget that.
“Then what do you wish for?” he asked, the question proof that his mouth was ignoring the warnings in his head. Talk about sex, dumbshit. Not wishes.
“You want the truth?” She dropped her head back, her hair brushing his arm.
The truth was the last thing he wanted, or at least the last thing he was willing to give back. “Sure.”
“The fact is, I’m wishing for a man.”
Now we’re talking. At least she had some common sense about what was going down here. He threaded his finger into her silky locks, gently turning her face toward his. “Looks like you found one.”
“But I want something specific.” In her eyes, he could see the flecks of gold—and a hell of a lot more. Goodness. Understanding. Truth. All things he could never reciprocate.
“Whatever floats your boat, Just Tessa. I can do slow and sweet or hard and fast.” Her eyes flashed a little. “You can tie me up or take me down.”
Another flash, this one more than surprised. Maybe she wasn’t quite that adventurous.
“I’m yours for the night,” he finished, coming closer.
He let his lips brush hers, tasting a hint of the ale and something warm and hopeful. Too bad, but he wasn’t her hope, not by a long shot.
By the time she figured that out, he’d be long gone.
Chapter Two
Tessa closed her eyes and opened her mouth, certain the silken flick of this alluring stranger’s tongue would shock some sense into her. His scotch-flavored kiss shocked a whole lot of things, but sense wasn’t one of them.
Unless sense resided way, way low in her belly and whipped through her with a snap, crackle, and pop of arousal.
“Wanna get out of here?” he murmured.
She backed up to respond, maybe slow this train down, but he came with her, refusing to let their lips separate. Sense was derailed again.
“Or will your friends have me arrested?” he asked into the next kiss.
“Hard to say.” The way they’d been talking, the girls were likely to shove Tessa into his car and say “Call us in the morning” instead of rescuing her from doing something really impulsive and stupid and…and…
His tongue trailed the roof of her mouth, sending an avalanche of chills down her spine.
Amazing.
He finally drew away, still so close that she couldn’t focus on anything but the silvery blue of his eyes, the irises rimmed in a smoky charcoal, all fringed with thick black lashes that brushed together as he squinted at her. “I’d prefer they didn’t have me arrested.”
“I’d prefer not to take off with an ax murderer.”
He twirled her hair around one finger, thumbing the nape of her neck with a maddeningly light touch. “I’m not an ax murderer.” Though deep and rumbly, his voice had a strange flatness to it when he said that. “I’m a guy passing through town and you just admitted you’re looking for a man.”
She had, hadn’t she?
“Not exactly a man…” She said vaguely, her brain finally engaging into something close to functional since the moment he’d approached the table and decomposed her gray matter.
“Then what exactly?”
“More like the essence of a man.”
He lifted a brow and fought an amused smile. “What the hell is essence?”
Liquid gold. She tried to scoot back, but she hit the wall and he didn’t give an inch.
“Can you do complicated?” she asked.
“No.” Still holding her head with fingers tunneled into her hair, he