He stroked a finger down my chin. “Hey, beautiful. Couldn’t help but notice you eating dinner earlier. My name’s Rhett, and I’m the guy who’s taking you to bed tonight.”

I leaned up on my toes and skimmed my lips along his jaw. “Lucky for you, I like a cocky guy.” With my free hand, I reached out and palmed his dick through his jeans. “And you seem to be plenty cocky.”

Rhett groaned and buried his hand in my hair before covering my lips with his. His cock stiffened, and I reached for the button of his jeans.

He pulled away and shook his head. “Nah. I know exactly how this is going down. I’ve been dying to fuck you bent over this island since the morning you made me breakfast after I kissed you for the first time.”

“I wish you would’ve.”

His grin was wicked, but I only caught a glimpse before he spun me around and yanked up my skirt, baring my thong to the empty room.

Rhett’s hand cupped my ass and squeezed. “Every time you walk away from me, I can’t get enough of this sweetness. Makes me wonder what my handprint would look like on it.”

A shiver rippled through me. Spanking was definitely on my must try list.

“Possibly even better than your cock in my mouth.”

A growl filled the kitchen before his palm landed on my cheek with a sharp smack. The burn stung, but morphed into heat when he massaged it.

“You like that, Red? Because it’s turning the prettiest pink, just like your cheeks when you blush.”

My panties were officially toast. “Then you better make them match.”

He released his grip and his hand swung again, his palm connecting with my other cheek in a delicious burn. I moaned and arched into his touch.

He landed two more sharp strikes and then tucked a finger under the back of my thong. He pulled it away from my crack, sliding a finger all the way down until . . .

“Fuck, you’re soaked.” His finger dipped inside me, teasing me with shallow thrusts.

Was that moan bouncing off the walls mine? Why, yes. Yes, it was.

I parted my legs and Rhett plunged a second finger inside, dragging me closer to the edge. He moved behind me, and the hiss of his zipper met my ears.

He reached for the waistband of my thong and tugged it down my legs before stepping between them, his powerful thighs spreading mine further. I turned my head to the side, intending to lift and look back at him, but Rhett stopped me by snatching the pen from my bun and grasping my messy tresses in a strong grip.

“You’re going to take everything I give you, aren’t you, Red?”

Oh sweet Jesus. The feel of his fingers digging into my scalp sent me soaring as he notched his cock against me from behind.

When I didn’t respond verbally, he clutched my hair tighter. “Tell me you want this as fucking bad as I do, Ari.”

“I want it all.” I meant every word of it. I wanted this man, this flesh-and-blood imperfect man who was perfect for me.

He plunged inside, pinning me to the counter. Something about his dominant hold on me lit every nerve aflame, and I was consumed.

As he powered into me over and over, he kept his fingers buried in my hair, sending shock waves of sensation through every cell. When he reached around and strummed my clit, I detonated. Writhing against the kitchen island, I let out a harsh sob as I came over and over. Rhett fucked me like I’d always wanted to be taken, but had never known what to ask for.

Reality rocked.

47

Rhett

We moved our laptops to the bedroom and set up on the king-sized bed to keep working the next day. The way that Ari shifted seamlessly between sex kitten and determined partner was refreshing and amazing. I could imagine doing this for years to come and never getting bored.

I thought more about her idea about finding missing people when this was all over, and it felt right. But first, I needed closure.

I looked over at Ari, her fingers moving so damned fast, I didn’t know how she hit the right keys half the time. “What are you digging into now? Do we need to discuss not breaking federal law?”

She smiled my way. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it, Rhett. I swear it’s for a good cause.”

Anyone else who’d said something along those lines would earn a killing glare, but coming from Ari, it made me laugh. “That means you’re seven layers deep in NASA, doesn’t it?”

Her face twisted into a moue of annoyance. “NASA’s pointless. And no, I decided to go back to the beginning to figure out how all the pieces fit together.”

The humor seeped out of my body like water through a handful of sand. “Back to the beginning of what?”

She looked at me again. “Everything. There’s gotta be a connection somewhere. I met Carlos a year and a half ago at a cocktail party that Esme made me go to with a bunch of Silicon Valley CEO types. Basically, a revenge of the filthy-rich nerds get-together.”

As much as I didn’t want to hear about the guy, I was curious about her life. “And how did it start?”

“That’s what I was thinking about. We were introduced by another CEO I was friends with. He was into nanotechnology, and I was trying to find worthy startups to take equity stakes in while I messed around with my facial-recognition project.”

For some reason, listening to her talk business was sexy as hell.

“I thought that’s why he was bringing Carlos over, because he was a protégé who needed capital.”

“But he wasn’t?”

She shook her head. “No. He was a very random introduction that night, and I couldn’t figure out why he was there. He clearly had money, but he wasn’t a geek who’d made good like the rest of us. We talked for a bit and that was it. He didn’t hit on me or anything. Actually, he left with my friend to have another round of drinks elsewhere, and I passed and went home to work some more.”

I pictured the scenario playing out in my head. “When did you see him again?”

She looked at the ceiling for a minute, as if sorting through that filing cabinet in her head. “A week or so later. I was leaving the gym and literally bumped into him on the sidewalk on the way to my car. I dropped my protein shake and it splattered everywhere.”

Textbook move. “So he’d been doing his recon and figured out where you would be to stage a casual second meeting.”