“I’ve wanted to put my hands on you all night long. I got hard the moment you came up those stairs.”

My inner feminist should have been ranting at that. His words should have bothered me, made me feel objectified, used. But to my dismay, I found myself leaning back farther, a needy moan escaping my lips.

“Do you have any idea how much I want you?” he asked. From the way his hardness pressed into my back as he ground against me, I had a pretty good idea. All I could do was shake my head in response. My mouth grew dry, what remaining brain cells the alcohol hadn’t affected fried the moment Rowan put his hands on me. Forming a coherent sentence was hopeless just then. I didn’t even have it in me to utter anymore halfhearted refusals.

My buzz, combined with the lust I was feeling for Rowan, was a toxic combination. Even though my brain was screaming at me to move away, to put some necessary distance between us, all I could think as his hands skated down my thighs to the hem of my dress was how badly I wanted to feel them on my bare skin. As if he could hear my thoughts, he began to pull the skirt up oh so slowly, the rough pads of his fingertips creating goose bumps as they brushed the insides of thighs.

“All I’ve thought about for weeks is fucking you. It’s all I can think about.” I whimpered when his teeth sank into my ear lobe. “Come home with me.”

I shook my head, still unable to form words.

“Yes,” he insisted. “One night, Navie. That’s all I’m asking. I just need to fuck you out of my system.”

And that was all it took to yank me out of my stupor and straight back into reality. The fog lifted, the loud music beat against my eardrums and the throng of people continued to gyrate around us like nothing had happened. All the while, my world had shifted on its axis.

What the hell was I thinking? I mentally berated myself as I pulled from Rowan’s grasp, stepping out of the way when he reached for me again. I couldn’t let him touch me. His hands on me short-circuited my brain, and I couldn’t allow that to happen again.

“Navie.” He didn’t say my name with confusion or curiosity. It was more like a warning. When I looked into his blue eyes, my heart stalled at the way the icy color had darkened. He looked ready to pounce if I dared to take another step away from him. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the lion and I was his prey, but I couldn’t risk staying in place. I had too much self-respect, too much pride to allow myself to get wrapped up in a man who wanted nothing more than to use then toss me aside like all the other women in his life.

I didn’t say a word as I spun on my heels and pushed through the crowd. I didn’t register anything going on around me as I was bumped and jostled during my escape. My sole focus was on getting as far away from Rowan as possible. As soon as the last few people moved and my path cleared, I sucked in a much needed breath. I kept going, my body on autopilot, leading me down a dark hallway. I could have cried in relief when I hit a door marked ‘ladies room’.

Pushing through, I was shocked to see it was fairly empty, just two other women giggling as they reapplied their lipstick in the mirrors above the sinks. Once they’d finished and left the restroom, I rested my palms on the cool, granite countertop and dropped my head as I tried to level out my erratic heartbeats. After I’d managed to pull myself together, I looked up into the mirror. “What the fuck just happened?” I asked the wide-eyed reflection staring back at me. I’d just let my boss—an infamous man-whore—practically feel me up on a crowded dance floor as he tried to convince me to let him fuck me.

“Shit!” I hissed. The lingering effects of all those vodka tonics weren’t making it any easier for me to wrap my brain around the cluster-fuck that was my girls’ night out. I needed to formulate a plan. Preferably one that included a time machine and/or some serum that could wipe a person’s memory.

Also, I might need to stop watching sci-fi shows, since they gave me ridiculous ideas.

Brushing the hair back from my face, I wiped at the mascara that had smudged beneath my eyes and straightened my appearance as best I could, determined to act as though nothing had happened once I walked out of the bathroom. But then the door opened and my plans went straight to hell in a hand basket.

“What the hell? You can’t be in here!” I proclaimed as Rowan turned the lock on the door and stalked toward me. The determination etched into his features sent a combination of panic and desire coursing through my blood. My backside bumped into the edge of the countertop as I attempted to move away from him. In just a few steps, he had me trapped between his large frame and the sink. “Rowan, no,” I pleaded, my hands shoving at the hard wall that was his chest. He wouldn’t budge.

“Stop running,” he growled just before his mouth came crashing down on mine. And just like that, all thoughts of self-preservation fled from my mind and Rowan’s tongue prodded my lips, demanding entry. Of its own volition, a moan rumbled up from deep in my chest at the first taste of his mouth. The combination of mint and alcohol was as intoxicating as taking an actual drink, and I found myself diving in for more.

The second my body went pliant in his arms, Rowan unleashed an intensity I hadn’t known he was capable of. He gripped the cheeks of my ass roughly, jerking me even closer to him. I lost track of everything as his teeth sank into my bottom lip. Sparks shot through me and gathered between my legs as I whimpered, desperate for more. He kept our mouths melded together as he lifted me, planting me on the countertop and pushing his way between my thighs, letting me feel exactly how hard he was for me as he pressed impossibly closer.

Ripping my mouth from his, I sucked in a ragged breath as he rocked against me, the rigid outline of his hard cock hitting me just perfectly. My eyes closed and my head fell back as Rowan attacked my neck, biting, sucking, and licking until I thought I might go up in flames. When I said his name on a loud moan, he went crazy, growling as he moved back to my mouth, his tongue mimicking the movement of his hips as he hiked the hem of my dress up for better access. I had no choice but to move against him as heat coiled low in my belly, my panties growing damper and damper with each thrust. I was seconds away from tumbling over the edge and all I could think was that I never wanted him to stop.

“Need inside you,” he panted against my lips. I managed to peel my eyes open at his words and saw the same raw, dark passion that was undoubtedly written all over my face reflected back at me in his icy gaze. He was just as lost for me as I was for him.

“Rowan,” I gasped, falling back on my hands, granting enough space between us for him to do whatever he wanted, because I was helpless to stop this from happening. I didn’t want to stop it.

“God, I need to fuck you,” he groaned as one of his hands left my hip, running up the inside of my thigh to my center.

This was it. Holy shit, this was really about to happen.

I’d just about accepted the fact that Rowan and I were going to have sex in the ladies room of a club when a sudden pounding on the locked door pulled me back down to earth, instantly snuffing out the passion in the room like a bucket of water being dumped on a camp fire.

“Hey!” a loud voice yelled. “Unlock the damn door! I gotta pee!”

“Oh, shit,” I gasped, sliding back from Rowan and covering my mouth with both hands. “Ohshitohshitohshit!”

“Navie, just calm down,” Rowan spoke, obviously grasping that I was about to have an epic freak-out. “Don’t run from me again. I’m getting fucking tired of chasing after you tonight.”

“Then stop!” I shrieked, decidedly un-calm. When I put my hands to his chest and shoved that time, he moved back several inches. “We can’t do this, Rowan,” I spoke as firmly as my quivering voice would allow. “I can’t do this. Tonight was a huge mistake, and it’s never happening again.”