He drank his beer. With his feet on the floor, he opened his knees and relaxed back in his seat. When someone bumped into her and she shifted toward him, effectively planting her hips between his legs, he smiled.

“Really? How do you know what I’m after?”

She took a drink. The ice clinked in her glass, and he caught a whiff of tart cranberries. She was sweet and sour in all the best ways—he could fucking smell it. Now if he could just taste it…

“I’m a pretty good judge of people.” She shrugged. “I can also read your mind.”

“That right?” He slung one elbow on the back of his bar seat and moved his knee enough to brush along her outer thigh. “Well, I do already have you in a house. Surely there must be bedrooms around here.”

The restaurant they were in had a unique layout. It was a massive old Victorian house turned into the local watering hole complete with bar, tables, and multiple rooms. There was even an indoor balcony. The second floor nestled right above them was meant for large parties, but it was currently closed off and dark.

“But we can talk more about bedtime later. By all means, don’t leave me in suspense with your mind-reading skills,” he finished.

Her green gaze slowly slid along his body; that sinful expression had his cock throbbing.

“You come across as casual, but you clearly like control.” She tilted her head, examining him further. “You’re strong. Hold a sense of command. You issue an order and expect it to be followed.”

He clenched his fist to keep from reaching out to touch her. She was easily pegging down details about him few people knew.

“If I issued an order, would you follow it?” he countered.

She smiled. “Nope.” She leaned in, and her mouth brushed his earlobe. “But you’d like that. You want a woman a little dirty, naughty, and able to take it rough.”

“What makes you think I’m rough?” he rasped.

She glanced at his free hand, then his chest. “Because judging by the way you’re holding your breath and grinding your teeth, you’re barely holding back from tossing me on this bar and taking me right here.” She shook her head slightly, letting the silky blond strands fall down her back. “I think you’d like a little fight in your woman.”

Every muscle he had flexed. Ready to prove her right. “Clearly you’d have some fight in you.”

She nodded. “I just don’t know if you can handle it, city boy.”

“Oh, I can bend you to my will.”

“Prove it.”

That shot his semihard cock to full attention. Her nearness was enough to make his whole body tense, ready to take her now. She was daring him to be rough with her, and she was right—he liked it hard. A little begging. A little pain. And a hell of a lot of pleasure.

The kind of power she wielded over him should drive him crazy, but it didn’t. She was different than any woman he’d ever been with. She excited him easily and made herself a challenge. And damn, did he like every second of it.

She took another drink, and condensation from her glass dripped onto her cleavage. He licked his lips—God, how he wanted to catch that droplet with his tongue. But before he came up with another witty line, she finished her vodka, turned, and walked away without a word.

No fucking way was he letting her go.

Hot on her heels, he bounded after her. He followed her into the shadows, went around the back of the bar, and strode quickly until he finally found her edging into a shadowy corner.

“You’re walking away from me, huh?” he said.

She opened a side door, arched an eyebrow at him over her shoulder, and climbed the stairs. He followed her up, and his heart pounded as they neared the closed-down balcony over the bar. Twenty-five feet below them, everyone enjoyed themselves, none the wiser that he was with a sexy woman in the dark above.

She moved to one of the booths hiding in the shadows, and he grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. A lusty hue lit up her eyes.

“You’re chasing me?” she whispered.

He moved her against the wall, kicked her feet apart with his, and pressed his body against hers. The loud crowd from downstairs echoed around them, but he held her tight in the shadows. This was it. He was going to take her right there. And she was going to let him.

More, she was going to like it. He could see it in the way she licked her lips. She was as hungry for him as he was for her.

He scraped his jean-clad knee along the insides of her spread thighs. Even with the barrier of their clothes, her heat surrounded him.

“I’ve been chasing you for a while.” He pushed her skirt up, grabbed the back of her thighs, and lifted her. She wrapped those long legs around him, and damn it felt good. Gage glanced down. She wasn’t wearing panties. He smiled and whispered against her lips, “And it looks like you missed me too, Chloe.”

“I have,” she breathed. “But I like making you work for it.”

Yeah, he liked working for it, too. These little games they played never got old. Whenever he was back in town, they pretended it was their first time. Though the stretch before they gave in to each other had dwindled down to minutes.

He couldn’t wait any longer. He had her in his arms, and it was time he properly reacquainted himself with her body.

Chloe clutched Gage. Ever since their first encounter two years ago, her life had been one wild, sex-crazed weekend at a time.

The perfect thing about Gage was he was as allergic to commitment as she was. Their sporadic rendezvous a few times a year was the kind of setup she could handle. She could commit to her life, the town she loved, and the people in it. But a man? She’d seen what her mother went through with her father. She’d loved him until the day she died, even after he’d left both of them years ago.

Chloe had tried dating men once she’d gone out on her own, and they’d all shown her the same thing. None of them had any staying power—at least not for her.

No, never commit to a man. She’d never become so attached to someone that she’d pine for them long after they were gone. Which was why Gage was so perfect.

He was a one weekend at a time kind of guy, and they had clear expectations. Sure, he was the only man she’d been with since she met him two years ago, but it didn’t mean anything. He was just so good at what he did to her that she didn’t need anyone else until he came back around again. She would never wait for him.

He was back in town, and now it was time for a fix. Simple.

Gage was strong, confident, and sexy as sin. He took her over and made her feel more than passion, more than heat, more than anything she could explain. He let her be strong while making her beg. Never in all the blissful weekends they’d spent together did he take it easy on her. She loved his dark and rough side, and he delivered every time.

She needed another taste to last her until next time he blew into town. That was all.

“You dressed for me,” he whispered against her mouth. “I like it.” Truth was, normally she was a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. But when Gage came around, she often spent an hour tearing through her closet thinking of the perfect outfit. But he didn’t need to know that.

“I didn’t dress up, just figured this was easy access. It’s all about logistics, after all.”

“Uh-huh.” He grinned, gripped her thigh harder, and bit her neck. She wove her fingers into his hair and sighed as he nibbled on her skin.

“So it’s all about the sex?” he asked.

She nodded. “Well, yeah.”

He scoffed and ran his lips along her collarbone. She tugged tightly on his hair—he grabbed her arm in a flash and pinned it to her side.

“Getting wild already, sweetheart?” he growled against her breasts, then bit her tank top.

Her breath hitched in her throat. “Maybe.” She scraped her heel against his ass like a spur. He pushed her harder into the wall and cupped her throat with his free hand.