Page 67 of The Player in New Zealand
She walked off. “I’m out!” she shouted over her shoulder.
Tane chuckled and I looked back at him. “We’re closing?”
“We’re closing,” he confirmed, leaning in, his voice dropping low and breathy. “And then I’m going to get you so fucking loud.”
Ishivered. I shivered there behind the bar, barely able to keep my eyes open. Tane was fucking naughty.
We worked through the rest of the night. Group by group, the customers left, and one by one, the staff went home.
Tane disappeared out back to straighten the furniture and clean while I polished and counted cash while the last of the customers paid their tabs.
“Have a good night,” I called to their backs.
A few minutes later Tane came in. “Everyone’s gone?”
I nodded.
He stalked to the front door, clicking the lock into place and bolting the top of the door.
I tried to ignore him, finishing my paperwork and leaving some notes for the morning staff. I was off for lunch, but I’d be back in the afternoon.
The warmth of Tane’s body hit me first, the soft rustle of fabric as his front touched my back. There was no press of urgency or tangle of fingers and limbs. Just his solid, steady weight, a warm gust of air on the back of my neck.
I shivered again, my hands stilling over my work.
Tane’s lips met the back of my neck, right over my icosahedron. A wet open-mouthed kiss, followed by the breeze of the air-conditioning cooling my skin. My pen clattered to the counter.
Another kiss, an inch higher, and Tane’s nose buried in my hair with a big, deep inhale.
“I have to finish this,” I whispered.
“I’m not stopping you” was his response.
“Yes,sir, you are.”
He huffed a laugh. “If I really wanted to prevent you from doing your work, I could. This is nothing.” His hands appeared on the counter on either side of me. He flattened his palms against the counter, his fingers stretching out. They were so big—proportioned to him, of course, but next to my slender ones, they seemed massive.
“Claire,” he said. “Fucking hurry up.”
I broke away from him to put the cash in the safe—the most important thing to do before I left—and then came back and did the math for the credit receipts twice, all while Tane’s kisses were moving from the back of my neck to the sides. When his tongue flicked out and his teeth caught my earlobe, I bucked against the counter, pushing my hips back and into him. He was hard.
Tane wrapped his arm around me. “Well, now you’ve fucking done it.”
I squeaked as he hoisted me up against his chest, his other arm coming around to pin my arms down. “Tane, I’m not done!”
“Don’t care.”
Tane lifted me up, my feet coming off the floor, and strode to the door leading upstairs, and I laughed and squirmed. “Put me down.”
“Nope.”
“Sir, I mean it. Put me down right now.”
To my surprise he did, and I took my own weight for a moment, my hands on Tane’s shoulders as he straightened up and spun me around to face him.
“Thank—”
Tane dipped down, this time hoisting me over his shoulder. “Hey! Sir!” I shouted, swatting his ass.
