chapter 1

“Arewepretendingthat we’re not going to end the night fucking in the bathroom like a couple of dogs in heat?”

My breath caught in my throat. The vulgar man sitting next to me at the bar shouldn’t have turned me on the way he did. The fact that he did was proof that I hadn’t grown up any. Not really. I was still turned on by the bad boys. “You clearly think highly of yourself.”

“I just know what I want. Would you rather I offered to buy you dinner and pretend like I’d ever like bringing you flowers?” Julian, the name he’d given me when he sat down next to me at the bar, leaned in and whispered. “We both know what this is.”

Damn him, but he was right. The moment he’d introduced himself, I’d known what he wanted and what I wanted, too. Dirty sex in a bathroom stall at a shitty bar fit the bill, but I was supposed to be waiting on my sister to show up for drinks. I’d had a long day breaking things off with a nasty ex, and I was supposed to be swearing off assholes. Yet, there I was, sitting next to a man I was one thousand percent sure was a giant asshole, thinking of all the ways I wanted him to make me come.

“Well, Cammie? What’s your answer?”

That wasn’t my name. The fact that I’d given him a fake name was evidence enough that I’d known what I wanted from him right away. Jesus, I was a monster to myself. Turning to face him, I let my knees brush against his thigh. “Do I look like the kind of woman you take into a bar bathroom?”

He grinned. “I mean…”

“Fuck you.” I found myself grinning back at him. “Not here. My sister’s showing up, and I want you gone when she gets here.”

He growled, standing up to his full height. “Come on, Red. Lucky for us, I drove my truck here tonight.”

I stood up and took the hand he offered. Ignoring the wave of warmth that came from his grasp, I followed him out of the bar, into the cold night air. It should’ve given me pause. It should’ve made me think twice about following the wild-looking man to the back edge of the parking lot. Instead, I just walked faster in my heeled boots.

Half an hour of flirting with him at the bar had been about ten times more foreplay than I’d had that year. Or maybe decade, even. I was so turned on by him that nothing else seemed to matter. Not the dirt coating his old truck, or the fact that he didn’t open my door for me. I let myself in on the passenger side and held my breath as he started the truck and drove around to the back of the bar.

In the dark, with the heater rattling, Julian looked slightly terrifying. He was so damn big that the truck shrank away around him. Broad shoulders, thick chest and thighs, he was a man who clearly worked for a living. His rough hands called to my skin. I wanted him to manhandle me and make me forget everything else. I turned to face him, taking in the thick beard and too-long hair that kept falling into his eyes. He’d absently shove it off his forehead every time, something I doubted he even realized he did so often. Pale blue eyes practically glowed at me from across the truck.

My heart kicked up a gear, and my breath came faster. “Well?”

He laughed lightly and reached out to grab me. Like I weighed nothing, he dragged me into his lap. My ass hit the horn, but it was hard to focus on anything else but the way my thighs stretched around his legs.

“You know how dangerous it is for a little thing like yourself to just get into a truck with a man like me?”

I braced my hands on his strong shoulders and scowled down at him. “Do you know how dangerous it is for a man like yourself to just let anyone in your truck like this?”

He rested his hands on my hips and his fingers flexed, lightly squeezed me. “I think I’d be safe against you.”

“Cocky asshole.” I gently pressed my palm over his throat. “Is this the part where you lecture me about my choices? Or is this the part where you fuck me?”

Growling, he leaned into my hand, into me. “I can do both.”

I lost my witty reply as he captured my mouth in a fierce kiss. The promise of it had been between us since he’d sat down next to me at the bar, but the real thing was so much better. He kissed like it was a lost art and he was doing his part to bring it back. His lips moved over mine, his tongue stroked mine, and his whiskey-tipped breath washed over my face as he inched back and stared into my eyes.

My stomach fluttered as a moment of tension passed between us. He looked at me with his brows furrowed, his eyes narrowed like I’d done something wrong. The kiss. It was too familiar, too good. It had no business being so connecting when it was a first kiss between strangers passing in the night.

“Shit.” Julian grabbed my head and pulled me back into him. Hot and hard, he kissed me until I forgot everything I’d ever known about men. Had I ever even been kissed before?

I had two handfuls of his soft T-shirt without thinking, holding him close, desperation flooding through my body. My knuckles dug into his hard chest, but he just dragged me even closer. His massive hands in my hair tangled and tugged, the sharp bite of pain doing nothing to dull my desire. I kissed him hungrily, eager to taste the whiskey and mint on his tongue. For a second, I wondered if I was getting drunk on him.

My ass set the horn off again, but if Julian noticed, he didn’t care. He kissed down my neck and sucked the tender spot just below my ear, marking my skin like he owned me. Even as I moved my hands to his hair to pull his head away, he chuckled darkly.

“Don’t mark me. You don’t own me.”

“Sure as fuck looks like I do for the moment.” With skill that should’ve been illegal, he leaned me back against the steering wheel and caught the button of my pants, popping it open with ease. “You’re sassy. I like it.”

I gasped as he slipped his hands into my jeans and cupped me through my panties. My breath caught in my throat, and I felt my core flood for him.

“Jesus, you’re so hot, Red.” Pulling me back into his chest, forcing my core even tighter against his hand, he kissed me again. Full of heat and desire, he devoured me. His beard was rough against my face, but I liked the scratch.

I arched my back and rocked my hips against him. With a jolting pleasure, Julian slipped his fingers inside my panties and thrust two of his thick digits into me. Crying out into his mouth, I grabbed his head and tangled my fingers in his hair. Full of him, I couldn’t help working my hips up and down. I took my pleasure even as he gave it.

“That’s it, baby, ride my fingers.” Voice husky with desire, he worked my shirt up with his other hand. Seeing the lace bra under my t-shirt, he swore and rolled his thumb over my clit, causing me to jerk. “Do the panties match?”

I met his heated gaze with a lust-hazed one of my own. “Want to find out?”

Pulling his fingers out of me, he brought them up to his mouth and sucked them clean with a hungry growl. “Fuck me. Jesus, I knew you’d be sweet as pie the moment I saw you from across the bar.”

I let out a surprised yelp as he pushed me off of his lap and kicked open the truck door. He was out in a flash and grabbing my ankle, pulling me across the truck bench until my legs were outside the truck and my ass was barely hanging on to the seat.

Julian tugged my pants down my legs and yanked them over my boots, revealing my plain cotton panties that definitely didn’t match my bra. He grinned up at me and then tugged them off, too. He shoved them in his pocket and winked at me before stepping between my thighs and brushing his denim-clad erection against my bare core. “You’re drenched, Red.”

I spread my legs wider for him and fought any shyness as he looked me over. “Enough foreplay. I want you in me.”

He reached over his head and pulled his t-shirt off, tossing it into the truck behind me. “What’s the magic word?”

My mind went blank as I took in all the ink and muscle he was revealing. Muscles on muscles on muscles. And ink. So much black ink that decorated his skin and drew vivid images of who he was. I sat up and ran my hand over his chest, watching as his muscles flexed under my touch.

“Cammie.”

I blinked up at him, lost in the story on his chest for a moment.

“You want to stare at them all night, or would you like to be fucked now?”

Snapping back to myself, I snarled at him. “I can do both.”

He chuckled and shifted back enough to slip his fingers into me again. His thumb lazily circled my clit as he worked his thick digits in and out of me. “You have the hottest pussy I’ve ever felt, Red. I can’t wait to destroy it.”

I sat up on my elbows and rolled my eyes, despite the pleasure rolling through my body. The motion pressed my breasts together and drew Julian’s attention to them. “That’s a lot of talk for a man who still hasn’t pulled his pants down.”