Page 6 of Flirting in Traffic

“I have a truck.”

Why did he give her that sharp, knowing look when he said that, Esa wondered, like he suspected she was thinking—oh, of course a truck, big dumb construction worker that he was. Which she hadn’t been thinking at all, or at least not the part about him being dumb. Something about Finn’s incising gaze called to mind the polar opposite of stupidity.

“But I gave my keys to Jess. He lives in Bucktown and we can walk to my place,” he added.

She glanced around in surprise. They were in the midst of Streeterville, just a block off Michigan Avenue, one of the most expensive, sought-after places for real estate in the city.

“You live around here?”

“A few blocks up. You familiar with the area?” he asked as he dragged her across a traffic-laden street.

“Sure, I’ve lived in Chicago my whole life.”

“Me too,” he said with quick grin. Esa stared, wondering if she shared ten thousand one-night stands with him the potency of his smile would fade. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the expression of his face was usually quite serious…intense. The appearance of his white smile was like the unexpected drawing of a blade, piercing straight through a woman’s typical defenses.

“I grew up on the South Side.”

“South Side Irish?” Esa asked.

“You got it. There probably isn’t a stereotype in existence about a Chicago Irish South Sider that the Madigans don’t completely embody.”

“Lots of brothers and sisters?” Esa queried as she walked rapidly to keep up with him. She found his undisguised haste to resume their sexual exploration of each other to be sort of endearing.

“Yep. Seven of us.”

“Die-hard Sox fans, one and all?”

“Is there any other baseball team in Chicago?”

Esa laughed, knowing quite well what her south suburban male patients thought of the Cubs. “And do all of your brothers besides Jess work in construction as well?

Once again there was that gleaming sidelong glance. Esa’s grin wavered slightly.

“I’m the oldest. Two of my brothers are still in college. But Jess works construction and one of my sisters does too,” he replied casually enough despite a censorial glance as he swung open a glass door for her. “Mary Kate was always one to thumb her nose at stereotypes.”

Esa glanced around the luxurious lobby. Talk about thumbing your nose at stereotypes. She felt like everything was moving so fast with Finn…and in such unexpected directions. Unlike the lobby of her modern, Near West Side loft this place screamed of old, established money.

“Good for Mary Kate,” was all Esa had the opportunity to say before Finn grabbed her hand again and pulled her across the lobby. The doorman greeted him warmly by name. A sedate buzz accompanied the opening of the security door. The elevator slid open immediately when it was called. Finn hit the button for the twenty-third floor.

The next thing Esa knew he was pushing her back against the wall of the elevator.

“You’re not changing your mind, are you?” he asked softly just inches from her parted lips.

“No, of course not,” she answered, recalling that Finn expected her to be a wanton who didn’t blink twice at the idea of bedding a man she’d just met. The type who didn’t fuss about the fact that they were being surveilled by a security camera while they were in a clinch in the elevator either, Esa assumed.

He dropped a slow, sultry kiss on her upturned lips and Esa forgot what the words “security camera” even meant. He raised his head to study her after a breathless few seconds.

“Good, ‘cuz I’m gonna make you purr, Kitten.”

He sank his blond head again for a kiss that made Esa’s toes curl in her boots. His hand cupped her jaw possessively on both sides as he penetrated her mouth again and again. He kissed her as though he believed without a doubt that she would submit to every single one of his desires.

And Esa had to admit, Finn had the rare ability to make her believe it too…to make her want it desperately.

That must have been why she didn’t protest when he removed one hand from her jaw and slid it boldly beneath her coat and blouse while he continued to kiss her silly. He filled his palm with her breast, shaping and massaging her before he flicked his forefinger against a nipple that strained against tight nylon. His hand was large, his fingers long. Esa felt strangely satisfied that her breast overflowed it.

She moaned into his marauding mouth when he gently pinched the stiff bud. He heard the plaintive sound and lifted his head. Esa stared up at him helplessly as he teased and flicked and agitated her hypersensitive flesh. She bit her lower lip to keep from crying out in acute pleasure when he angled his long body, sliding and pressing his cock into the juncture of her thighs.

His nostrils flared.

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