Follow Me Darkly (Follow Me #1) - Helen Hardt Page 0,8
with some other stuff thrown in. I did one of those doggie DNA kits on her.”
And just like that, Braden Black is even more attractive to me.
“She’s beautiful.” I give his phone back.
“How about you? Any dogs?”
I shake my head. “I love them, but my apartment complex doesn’t allow them.”
“Then move.”
“It’s not that easy when you don’t have millions sitting around collecting dust like you do.”
I freeze, my fork halfway to my plate. Did I really say that? I probably just ended our dinner date.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “That wasn’t called for.”
He shakes his head. “No worries. I’m used to it. But, Skye, I’m not any different from the next person.”
“Except that the next person can’t buy whatever he wants.”
“I can’t, either.”
“Exactly what do you want that you can’t buy?”
“You,” he says. “In my bed.”
Chapter Five
Nice. He knows he can’t buy a woman like me. His words are the first sign all night that he’s not the douchebag Addie says he is. Well, that and the fact that he rescued a dog.
“No,” I say. “I’m not for sale.”
“That’s why you’ll come willingly.” He lowers his gaze to my mouth.
He’s right. I’ll go willingly. As soon as he said he wanted me in his bed, I knew I’d do it. Something about Braden calls to me. I doubt I’m alone. He probably has this effect on every woman he comes across. Does he bed all of them? He isn’t known as a womanizer. He had a pretty public relationship with a lesser-known model named Aretha Doyle for a while, but that ended more than a year ago.
Probably he just wants a fuck, and I’m the lucky squeeze du jour.
He’s still staring at my mouth. I grab my napkin and wipe away whatever piece of offending food he may be gawking at, and then I gather all my courage. Two can play this game. Braden Black wants me in his bed? I’ll show him who has control.
“Let’s go,” I say.
He eyes my plate. “You didn’t finish your dinner.”
“I’m suddenly not hungry. You want to fuck me? Let’s go fuck.”
His eyelids lower slightly. “Works for me.” He motions to Cory. “We’re ready for the check.”
…
Braden’s lush downtown penthouse is decorated all in black and forest green. A black lacquer grand piano sits in one corner. A pretty black, brown, and white dog scurries out from under the piano, running to greet him. She’s even more gorgeous than in the photo he showed me.
“Hey, Sasha.” He pets her head.
“She’s beautiful.” I kneel down to scratch her behind the ears. “Hi there, Sasha. You’re so pretty.”
Sasha licks my face for a few seconds but then grows bored with me and heads somewhere else in the penthouse.
I nod toward the piano. “Do you play?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have a piano?”
“I hire a pianist for my parties,” he says. “Guests love it. Do you play?”
I shake my head. “We didn’t have a piano. My dad plays the guitar, though.”
He leads me to the piano, where a guitar also sits. “I do, too. Just dabble really. But I love playing classical guitar and then of course some folk songs. All acoustic stuff.”
I’d ask him to play something if I weren’t shaking from the top of my head all the way down to my toes. Rather, keeping myself from shaking.
I’m standing in Braden Black’s home.
Yeah, I came to a virtual stranger’s home—a home with so much security, no one could find me here. A home where he can do anything he wants to me, and I have no way to stop him.
Anything he wants.
So much for me staying in control.
The thought makes me shudder, and again a jolt arrows between my legs.
Yeah, he has security, but he hasn’t done anything to make me feel unsafe so far tonight. I can always leave. I don’t have to do this.
Except I want to do this more than I want my next breath.
I want to go to Braden Black’s bed.
I want him to fuck me until I can’t walk.
As if reading my mind, he closes the distance between us and gazes down at me, zeroing in on my mouth again. He trails a finger over my upper lip and then my lower. “I’ve wanted to kiss those full pink lips since I saw you at Addie’s office. You have the sexiest mouth I’ve ever seen.”
I have a sexy mouth? Before I can contemplate further, he crushes his mouth to mine.
My lips are already parted, and he thrusts his tongue between them.