God, what a way to go.
Chapter Five
For the next hour, it was Henry and Dorothy who did all the talking. We ate… and I drank. I needed the alcohol to get through this, hoping it would tame this incessant arousal burning inside me. It had been a damn mistake.
It made me hotter, needing Charlie more.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to picturing what it would be like to have him take me. He was just so big and strong that I imagined being under him as he braced his forearms on either side of my head, as he thrust those no doubt massive inches into my wet, willing body.
And God, I’d be so wet. Soaked.
“Are you sure you’re okay with us going to catch a movie?” Dorothy asked after we’d been finished with dinner for about twenty minutes.
She wore a smile on her face, a grin that told me she wouldn’t care if I was or wasn’t okay with it. She’d go regardless.
I held up my third “Santa’s Little Helper,” tilting the fancy-looking adult beverage in her direction before bringing it to my mouth and taking a long sip. “I think we’ll manage,” I said and grinned up at Charlie, who said nothing but stared at me intently.
He watched me how a lion watched a gazelle before he attacked it.
My throat tightened at the look he gave me. He’d worn it the entire dinner, only really speaking when asked a direct question. But the majority of the time? He looked at me.
God, my body was positively zinging with electricity at his close proximity. My lips and tongue were numb from the alcohol, and the buzz moving through my veins had a slow, what I knew was a sensual, smile playing across my face.
“Text me when you’re back at the room.”
I snapped my head in Dorothy’s direction and felt myself automatically nod. “Text me when you’re leaving,” I said back.
She smiled, nodded, and stood, and after Henry helped her with her jacket, she came over to me and leaned in close to whisper, “I have every intention of going back to his place, Penny, if you know what I mean.”
I scrunched up my face in disgust and looked at her as she pulled back, that mischievous smile still on her face. Dorothy might’ve been an adult, but she was still my little sister, and the very thought of her doing that grossed me out.
And then they were gone, leaving Charlie and me alone. I didn’t waste a second in ordering one more holiday-themed drink. I needed the alcohol to get through this, because I was very aware of him.
The size of his body. The warmth coming from him. The smell of his cologne. The feel of his arm pressed to mine, of his thighs parallel with mine.
I was hot and ready, primed and wet, and the more I felt that liquid courage wash through me, the more I wanted to throw caution to the wind and just tell Charlie to take me somewhere, anywhere, so he could relieve this ache.
He shifted in the seat, and I noticed it was so he could look at me better.
“You don’t talk much,” I said, my cheeks hot from the alcohol, and no doubt red. My face always flamed when I drank, a sure sign I was feeling good. “Or drink much either,” I murmured. He still didn’t say anything, but I noticed him looking at my lips then dragging his eyes up to mine before lowering them back to my lips.
I licked them on instinct. He watched the act, and I swore he groaned, swore his pupils dilated.
This was insane. I didn’t know this man from Adam, yet the instant attraction, the lust at first sight, was so strong and potent that I didn’t want to deny it.
He just seemed so… animalistic.
And when he leaned in close, so close I felt his warm breath move across my lips, I tried to force myself not to shiver. I failed, of course.
“What are your plans tonight, Penny?”
The way he said my name was filled with possessiveness. I didn’t even know that was possible, but hell, he said it like it was his, like he owned every part of it.
“My plans?” I whispered then cleared my throat and smoothed my hands over my thighs.
He nodded slowly, his gaze bouncing between my lips and eyes.
“I—I don't know. I don’t really have plans,” I lied. Well, it wasn’t a lie. My plan had been to go back to