Snippet Saturday

I’m late posting today. Still recovering from being at Comic-Con all day yesterday. I put up some thoughts on my Facebook fanpage about what I saw. Check it out here. On a different note, today’s snippet topic is midnight riders, which I’m taking to mean bad boys heroes. I figured this was a good time to introduce you to Rob Coleman, the hero of my new short, DOWN TO BUSINESS.

When he turned the corner, he saw Ella waiting at the elevator, head down as she shifted her weight between her destroy-a-man’s defenses spiky high heels.

The black skirt hugged every curve and stopped right above her knee, treating him to a long expanse of creamy bare leg. The bright blue sweater matched her eyes and skimmed her body like a second skin. She looked about one inch away from being too hot for the workplace.

“You’re early,” he said, careful to keep his voice even. He didn’t want to unleash his need too fast and spook her because she already looked ready to bolt.

Her head shot up and her already wide eyes grew huge. As her gaze traveled over his chest, he took the opportunity to watch her. That hair, all shiny brown with hints of red, barely hit her shoulders. He was sure women had some fancy name for the cut. He just liked the way it bounced around her heart-shaped face. Wondered how it would look as it trailed over his chest. How damp her skin would be, how messy those strands would look, after a bout of wild sex.

“I am?” she asked.

“By one minute.”

She smiled as if the doubt washed away in a burst of light with his three simple words. “Are you always this punctual?”

“Always.” He leaned over and pressed the button. As promised by the building’s owners, the elevator arrived a few seconds later. The tenants paid for promptness and got it, which was good since he lacked his usual patience today.

She stepped inside before he could touch her. “We picked a good afternoon to take a few extra minutes. My boss has been at a meeting outside the office all day. I almost fell asleep in my chair a few minutes ago.”

He knew that last part was a lie. He’d watched her on and off all day between his meetings and calls, and witnessed something other than exhaustion happening across the atrium. She swiveled in her chair, tapped her foot, got up and down for no apparent reason. He wanted to believe the promise of seeing him touched off a roaring need inside her that made it impossible to sit still.

“I’m really not thirsty,” he said. What he wanted from her had nothing to do with the coffee cart.

“You’re not?”

Hoping they were on the same wavelength, he let the doors close them in with a thud. He’d know with her next answer. His hand hovered over the floor panel. “Your choice, lobby or sixteen.”

Her smile slipped. “What?”

He’d planned this all night, spent precious minutes today going over the right words to make the suggestion. When the time had come, he’d barked out a choice that made little sense. He winced over his sudden and uncharacteristic lack of finesse but pushed on because the revving inside him didn’t give him a choice. “We can get coffee or go upstairs.”

Those sparkling eyes narrowed but she didn’t say no.

“Thoughts?” he asked.

“What’s upstairs?” She asked the question by drawing out each word an extra beat.

“Nothing.”

She stared at him. Her gaze darted to the floor panel then to the light over their heads. “I don’t get it.”

“The office space above mine is empty. We’re waiting for final permits but should break through next week on construction to make the suite a duplex.” When her gaze went to the black bubble on the ceiling a second time, he finally understood why she kept biting on her lip. “You don’t need to worry. There aren’t any security cameras up there.”

The silence continued for a few more beats.

The elevator doors opened to the fifteenth floor again. The car held in place as if joining him in waiting for a sign from her.

“Up.” Her clothing rustled as she reached across him and pressed the number sixteen.

He didn’t know he’d been holding his breath until it rushed out on a relieved exhale. Rather than jump on her in the elevator, wrap her legs around his waist and see what she hid under her clothes as he’d been dying to do for more than a week and as everything inside him screamed to do now, he leaned against the back wall and concentrated on counting to ten.

___________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Megan Hart:Read in bed!

Leah Braemel

Jody Wallace

Eliza Gayle

Mandy M Roth

Lissa Matthews

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Shiloh Walker

Delilah Devlin

Lauren Dane

Shelli Stevens

TJ Michaels