Everything about her dazzled him. Her beauty. Her style. Her wit. And she was fiery, too. More than he'd imagined after their IM on Two of Hearts. It was subtle, though. She was clearly centered in her strength, but she didn't feel a need to flaunt it. Which made her fire realer than that of the loud-mouthed, domineering types.

Another plus.

He liked a woman who didn't have a problem telling you what she wanted, but he wasn't a beta or a lap dog for a woman who at her heart just wanted to play house dominatrix-style - to compensate for a hidden inferiority-complex.

Coming off a laugh, Jackie drew back the throaty outburst that plumed like smoke between them, taking notice of how his eyes centered on the lush swell of her lips. Her gloss had worn off, and the natural flushed tint of them was calling out to him to be sucked, little did she know.

"You tat a lot of celebrities?"

"Enough. Depends on the season, really. Lately it's been more socialites than anything."

Pausing to draw a sip of port, Jackie lowered the wide-mouthed, wine flute and drew her fingers along its stem.

"Do they usually know what they want?"

Liam's brows rose.

"Socialites? Always. They're born with a list of demands," he grinned.

"What about the types who don't? Do you just sort of intuit the best ink for them?"

Drawing a bit of port himself, he lowered the glass, his eyes trained on her all the while.

"Why? You in the market for some ink?"

Shrugging, she averted her eyes shyly. And it was so damn sexy, his pants strained with his reaction for the umpteenth time that night. Did she know what she was doing to him? Probably. As smart as this cat was, she had to know exactly what sort of effect she had on a man by now.

"What would you suggest for me if I was curious but not sure?"

Yeah. She was playing coy now, fast abandoning the shy veneer.

Leaning in, Liam played fully into it.

"Where would you want it placed?"

"You tell me."

Fire.

He was playing with fire, and fuck if he cared. He liked fire. Was a fire sign, after all, and exciting women got his engine running like few things, outside of skin art and a good, bar fight after a hard day did.

"You look like the sort of woman who'd want something bold, but discreetly placed. Maybe something that lined your inner thigh, or the small of your back. Something you'd share with a privileged few who were lucky enough to get you naked."

Her eyes darkened, and he wondered for a millisecond if he'd gone too far.

"That sounds like me. But I wouldn't know what to get."

Liam leaned back, taking her in.

"A women like you? You'd want something of an inside joke between you and your intimates. An elegant message you could laugh over, like a nickname only shared between lovers."

She drew up her wine flute again.

"More?"

Coming off of her sip, she set it down and met his eyes boldly.

"If we can drink it somewhere with a view."

A grin stretched up Liam's cheek.

"Oh, we can certainly do that."

Jackie

He crashed her against the velvet, aqua padding paneling the elevator, the rippling brawn of him hot against her body.

Jackie nearly lost her breath matching his intensity, her skin fevering beneath her cocktail dress in reaction to him.

The chemistry between them was ridiculous.

She felt like an animal. Wanted to devour him, head to toe. Lick him. Bite him. Drink him. He was thrumming with sexy, his groans vibrating through her and making an instrument of her nerve endings with each note that gorgeous throat emitted.

She'd known by the second glass of wine that she was sealing the deal, and she didn't want him to be the one to ask.

This was a new era for her right? Things had to be different this time around. She wanted to meet the inner vixen within that could consume a man, and move on with her night when she was done.

She wanted to be the one to check a text and set the phone down without responding because she was too busy with other things.

Maybe it was a sort of rebound for all of the relationships where she'd been left holding the bag because she was so "sweet" and accommodating.

In her previous life.

Not anymore.

This version of Jackie was a temptress, and if Liam's reaction to her was any indication, she was starting off with a fucking bang.

Jackie growled breathily as his teeth grazed her neck, shivering with anticipation when his fingers ably found the stop button on the elevator, 36 floors up. This was the sexiest interlude she'd ever begun, and it was taking place in a fucking, 5 Star elevator, of all places.

Liam's mouth finding her, his searing tongue flicking the tip of her own, he sucked her wholly into his mouth. A million starbursts broke out under her skin, and her core fevered, dampening her panties as he pressed the heat of his length against her.

Her eyes blinked open.

He was huge.

Slipping them closed again, she forced herself back into the mind of the newer, confident version of herself. It was fine. She could take it. Or she could learn to, at least. Slipping her hands past the waistband of his trousers, her fingers slid into his briefs and down the globes of his ass. Fuck, he was sexy. She wanted him to take her right there.

Seeming to intuit that, he broke away from the kiss, nipping the skin from her neck and tugging before loosing it.

"I wanna split you in two, right here, baby."

Jackie grinned.

"What's stopping you?"

His eyes slipped over her, heavy and intent, reining back something she couldn't quite read.

"I'm like a kid in a candy store. I don't know what to do with you first."

Running her fingertip over his cheek, she nipped her lip. This one had an imagination, and she was more than ready to sample the entirety of the menu. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Far from it. It was time to answer her body like a woman. This slice of masculine perfection was exactly what she'd had in mind when she answered that match, and she didn't want to waste a second of their time together weighing options.

"Do what comes naturally."

She said it low and breathy, and it visibly spurned something in him, like a red cape drives a bull to rush forward towards its target. His mouth crushed against hers again, and she answered it with a growling moan, pressing herself hard against him, her core aching now, pulsing.

His kiss moved to her neck and she shivered at the feel of his velvet tongue along its length, the nip of his teeth tugging her earlobe, and the suction of his warm mouth. But then his hands moved to her breasts, where he ran his fingers lightly over the inky fabric of her cocktail dress, and desire dampened her panties in answer. The smoky, pink tips of her nipples tightened to points as he lowered his teeth to nip them through the black material.

Groaning, the pulse taking her sex matched the rhythm of her racing heart.

Hissing with pleasure when he wrapped his lips around them and sucked, licking and nipping her aureoles through the dress, her fingers slid into the dark gloss of his hair. Jackie's arms collapsed over his shoulders as he lowered his nipping, sucking and trailing a path to her abdomen as he reached beneath the hem of her dress. The heat of his hands seared her skin as they explored and ascended her thighs.

This man...

Her desire dripped as he caught the lace of her panties with his teeth and tugged them aside, his mouth covering her sex, making her moan gutturally in response.