Page 12 of Dark Verse

The sound of it laces itself around my body, pulling me further into his space.

“Finally, something positive to look forward to at forty.”

“You are not forty!” I say, amused by his expression.

“No,” he admits, “but one day I woke up, and I realized I was older than I’d like to be and every joint was more rickety than I remember.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just the human condition.”

Knox keeps speaking, responding to my comment, but my focus shifts from his words to the shape of his lips. They are bottom-heavy, with a slight downturn; his lower lip is fuller and more pinkish-red than his top lip. I suddenly want to bite his lip to see if they are as plush as they appear.

He’s tall enough that even in my heels I need to stretch up. When our lips meet, his are immediately pliant against my own, the taste of his mint gum sharp, as if he’d just chewed a piece. I nibble at his lip, and he responds by spearing my mouth with his tongue. Another heartbeat later, Knox has wrapped his arms around me, gluing our fronts together.

The logic center of my brain is telling me that making out with a total stranger is probably an unwise choice. But then he’s grabbing my ass and squeezing with just the right amount of pressure, and those thoughts are blown clean away. A rush of desire and adrenaline hits my system, reminding me it’s been months since anyone has touched me like this.

I run my hands under his jacket, feeling the ridges of his chest, shoulders, and abs. Our noses bump into each other, pushing my glasses slightly askew. Knox moans against my mouth, the sound alone making my pussy start to clench around nothing. His right hand leaves my ass and finds my clit through the fabric of my panties, my dress rising high up on my body as I lift my leg to rest on his hip.

“Goddamn, you’re soaked.”

Any twinge of embarrassment at how fast I seemed to have gone from zero to sixty is almost immediately overwritten by the potent combination that is liquor and lust. Knox begins to rub my clit, and after only a few strokes against that nub, he slips two fingers into my heat. The pressure sends a spasm up my spine, my groan loud.

At the same time, I reach down and find him as hard as I am wet. The growing hardness under the fabric of his jeans makes me shiver. The outline of his cock is obvious. His lips seal back over mine as Knox’s digits curl inside me, sending me straight into the stratosphere. The orgasm blasts through my lower body with enough force to startle me and turn my legs into jelly temporarily. I’ve never come so fast in my life, with or without a partner.

I’m already chasing after a second orgasm when a flash of light crosses my vision and interrupts my spirally lust-filled thoughts. I open my eyes in time to see a car pulling into the alleyway. Hit by the sudden realization of where we are, I pull back from Knox like he’s on fire. The car pulls past us, but the windows are too dark for me to see if the occupants saw that I had half my body wrapped around him while his fingers were buried deep inside me not fifteen seconds ago.

What the actual fuck, Raven? Were you really just riding this guy’s fingers in the alleyway?

All at once, I feel dizzy from the summer heat and the heat still wanting to fuse us back together. Knox takes a step towards me, but I shake my head. It’s hard to ignore the ravenous look in his eyes, but I do my best as I straighten my outfit.

“I should be getting back inside,” I say to fill the sudden silence between us.

I cannot read his expression, but it’s a mix of emotions.

“I like you.”

I scoff. “You don’t know me.”

“Fair. But I’d like to get the chance.”

“You can’t. I’m going home to California tomorrow morning,” I burst out, finding the easiest out for this entire situation.

He grins mischievously, “Then there are no strings attached for you. You’re leaving town.”

He takes another step towards me, his hand wrapping around my waist. He presses his lips into the soft side of my neck, the hairs of his beard pressing into my skin and adding to the sensations I’m feeling. I hate that I’m tempted, but I shake my head again, taking several purposeful steps away from him.

“Drive home safe, Knox. Thanks for your work tonight.”

I force myself to turn fully from him. I’ve made it to the bottom of the steps back into the venue when he calls, “Look me up if you’re ever back in town, Raven. We can have a drink.”

I’m not ten steps back into the building when I see Amore walking down the ramp to this level. I’m suddenly reminded that I was thinking of making out with him not thirty minutes ago.

Good God, how messy and impulsive can you get, girl? You are officially cut off.

CHAPTER FIVE

RAVEN

BORN AND raised a permanent overachiever, I have always been either the first or the second person into the office on a workday, so when I arrive at Headliner Music headquarters on Monday morning, I’m not at all surprised to see signs that Alice, the company founder and CEO, is already in. I cross over to her first-floor corner office, the lights already on and the sounds of typing noticeable. My heels click along the smooth marble tiles as I do.