“The other day, at the diner. I told you to ask me out.” She fixed her gaze onto me firmly. “And you said no. Why not?”

“I already told you. There’s no fun in asking out a girl who has to say yes.”

“What if I wanted to say yes?” she insisted. “Regardless of what Ihaveto do?”

“Well, now, that certainly changes things,” I said.

A slow smile spread across her face. “Then ask me.”

“Maybe I will… when all of this is over,” I said. “We have work to do tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t ask me tonight.” She batted her eyelashes at me. “Right now.”

Fuck me. She was giving me the biggest set of bedroom eyes I’d ever seen. And it’s not like I hadn’t thought about Veronica that way. Far from it.

I’ve thought about her every time I land at the private terminal in Houston. And every night before I go to bed.

“You’re drunk,” I made myself say. “Maybe we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

“I’m not.” She stood up and balanced on one foot with her eyes closed. “See? I’m as sober as a nun.”

She was right. I had been watching her closely all night, and she had gotten nice and tipsy—but never crossed the line into drunkenness.

“I could take a sobriety test right now.” She spread her arms wide, then bent her elbow until she was touching the tip of her nose. “See? I’m totally—ahh!”

She lost her balance and stumbled to her side. The wire metal railing was sturdy, but she hit it at her waist and started leaning over the edge. Before I could think about it, I was on my feet and pulling her away.

“You’re not drunk, but you’re not sober,” I said, savoring the way she felt in my arms.

Veronica gazed up at me. “Maybe you’re right. But I’m sober enough to do this…”

She stood on her tip-toes to kiss me, and I found myself leaning down into her lips. I hadn’t realized how much I had wanted this until that very moment, feeling her mouth churning against mine hungrily. She pressed her petite body against mine and I felt my resistance failing, my inhibitions melting away like ice on the wing of a plane.

We stumbled into the bedroom, falling onto the bed without our lips ever losing contact. I felt like I would die if I stopped touching her, and based on the tiny little whimpers coming from her throat, she felt the same way. The only time we stopped kissing was when I pulled her shirt up over her head, and when she removed mine.

The warmth pulsing through her jeans was impossible to ignore as I sank in between her legs. My cock was throbbing for Veronica, desperate to feel her from the inside, but I made myself hold back. A good chef knew to make his table wait a little bit longer for their meal, and a good lover knew when to draw things out. I tore my lips from Veronica’s, dragging my fingertips across her bra and the bare skin of her belly before unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them off her legs. She was wearing the sexiest pair of white cotton panties, dark with moisture where she was wet with desire. I removed those too, one slow inch at a time, sliding them down her legs and tossing them aside.

As I gazed up at her, she squirmed underneath me, moaning with desire. A voice whispered in my head:you’re doing it again. You’re falling for a woman without thinking it through.

But I didn’t care. I couldn’t resist. My desire was too strong.

Gripping Veronica’s legs tightly, I slowly leaned in and gave her pussy a tentative lick. She jolted at the touch, but I held her firmly as I rolled my tongue up and down, just the tip making contact. She was completely drenched, and I couldn’t help but imagine how those pink lips would feel wrapped around my cock. It took all of my willpower to continue eating her out rather than taking her immediately.

I devoured her pussy while she squirmed and moaned. She tasted so wonderful, soft and warm on the inside, a blossoming pink flower for me to please. As she arched her back and gripped my hair she began making more noise, so I ran one hand up her chest, brushing past a hard nipple until I found her mouth, then clamped my hand over it.

This made her go wild; she let out louder moans, muffled properly by my hand, and her pussy quivered and contracted around my tongue. Finally she let out one long cry of pleasure and arched her back so violently I was certain it would snap. She gripped the down comforter, fingers squeezing until they turned white.

Slowly, like a balloon deflating, she sighed back into the sheets.

I gave her inner thigh a final kiss before sliding up next to her, kissing her gently on the lips to allow her to taste herself. Her eyes were closed like she was already in a deep sleep, and she kissed me back so softly I wondered if she would really pass out then and there.

“That. Was. Amazing,” she whispered.

“Thought your back was going to snap,” I said as I curled up against her body. It was hot like a furnace as she folded herself up against me.

“I would have died happy.”

“If you insist…” I slipped a hand underneath her ass and another by her neck, preparing to snap her in half like a twig. She squealed and pulled away, laughing softly in the darkness.