Mister Tonight Read online

  “You go, girl.” Rebecca gave my butt a little slap.

  I pulled them into a quick group hug. “Love you guys.”

  “Tell us everything tomorrow,” Jessie said, shooing me toward the door.

  Hunter was out front waiting with a cab. He opened the door for me and I climbed in, thinking I’d never met someone this hot who also had manners.

  I was way too aware of how close we were as we sat in the back of the cab, tension building with the unspoken agenda that was playing out right in front of us. Unable to stop myself, I scooted next to him, my body resting closely against his. His hard chest pressed against my shoulder, and I inhaled sharply as he put an arm around me. My body reacted instantly, my lady parts firing on all cylinders.

  He ran his fingers along my shoulder and down my arm, such an innocent touch, yet it held the promise of so much more to come. My hand gently stroked his oh-so-very-muscular thigh, my gaze slipping over the rest of him as I did. If the bulge in his pants was any indication, he was very well endowed.

  I swallowed, suddenly light-headed from how much I wanted him. The liquid courage I’d consumed earlier was in full effect. If he could make me feel like this fully clothed in a cab, I couldn’t help but wonder what he could do in the bedroom.

  It was a short ride, but by the time we pulled up to Hunter’s two-story colonial, I didn’t think I could wait any longer.

  He pulled out his keys at his front door and paused. “I should probably warn you. I have to pay the babysitter.”

  “The babysitter?” My mind, a little fuzzy from all the tequila shots, wasn’t catching on. Was this some weird sex fetish?

  “I have a daughter,” he said, seeming nervous. “Is that okay?”

  Normally, I wasn’t much of a kid person. But I was drunk and had been picturing Hunter naked for the past two hours, so I wasn’t about to make a fuss about any offspring he might have.

  “Of course. That’s fine with me,” I said quickly, and he let out a sigh of relief.

  We stepped inside, and I peeked around while he paid the sitter. There were pictures of him with a small, dark-haired girl. I briefly wondered about her mother. I wasn’t here to get his life story, though; I was here to cash in on a tradition called birthday sex.

  When the babysitter glanced at me as I was looking at the photos, I did my best to seem like I belonged here, and that Hunter and I weren’t about to have a super-classy, drunken one-night stand. After speaking quietly with Hunter for a couple of minutes, she finally left.

  He pulled off his suit jacket, his well-defined chest and biceps straining against the fabric of his shirt. I walked toward him, more than ready to start my birthday off with a bang.

  If this was how I was ringing in my thirtieth birthday, it was about to be the start of a very good year.

  Chapter Two

  Hunter

  Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the fact I’d barely eaten dinner, on top of drinking, when I never drank much to begin with. Or maybe I’d just been a little pent-up after a six-month dry spell spent having tea parties and braiding my four-year-old daughter’s hair. Whatever the reason, there was only one thought running through my mind the first time I laid eyes on Kate from across the bar.

  I want her.

  And once I saw her in that skintight dress, doing a horrible job of pretending to not be checking me out? I got all kinds of ideas about how to expend that pent-up energy. And now we were here, standing in my living room, surrounded by photos of my daughter. Which was pretty much the exact opposite of an aphrodisiac.

  When we’d climbed out of the cab, I’d realized that the topic of my daughter never came up in our bar banter—and that we were about to be confronted with the babysitter. There really wasn’t any way around it.

  Casual flings didn’t tend to handle the whole single-dad thing well. Single moms, on the other hand, fucking loved it. The idea of a man devoted to his kid had them panting for days. But casual, no-strings hookups? To them, me being a dad screamed one of two things: I was either an irresponsible asshole who couldn’t properly wrap it up, or I was a total commitment addict trying to lure them in with my adorable four-year-old child in need of a new mama. Either way, it usually didn’t go over well. But so far, Kate was handling it fine.

  Then she crossed the room toward me, and a single thought pervaded my brain.

  Fuck, she’s sexy.

  All those curves and her throaty laugh, coupled with her confidence? I was a total sucker for a confident woman who knew what she wanted.

  “Happy birthday,” I whispered, placing my hands on her waist and drawing her in close.

  Just because this would most likely be a one-time thing didn’t mean I wanted to rush through it. Quite the opposite, actually. I wanted to savor and enjoy every minute of this. Starting with the perfect kiss.

  “It’s almost midnight,” she murmured, her lips just inches from mine.

  Placing one hand on her cheek, I guided her mouth to mine, sealing my lips over hers in a slow, soft kiss.

  She responded perfectly, opening her mouth in a silent invitation for my tongue to slide against hers. My hands found those curves wrapped under that black fuck-me dress I’d been admiring, and God, she felt even better under my palms than I could have imagined. Soft and warm and so inviting.

  I pressed one more slow kiss to her lips and pulled back to study her reaction. I rarely did this kind of thing. Having her here was surreal . . . and really fucking turning me on, knowing what was probably about to happen.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” I asked, slipping my hand around her waist. If she’d changed her mind or wanted to slow things down, I wanted her to know that was fine too.

  “I can think of other things I’d rather be doing with my mouth,” she replied, her voice low and sultry as she ran her fingertips over my chest.

  God, I love a woman who knows what she wants.

  Wordlessly, I placed my hand around the back of her neck, guiding her face to mine for another sweet kiss. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her hips into me, lining up perfectly with my quickly growing erection.

  As our tongues moved more urgently together, I slowly guided her down the hallway toward the stairs. Our breathing became heavy and labored, and with each step closer to my room, my cock grew harder. I was sure she could feel it pressing into her belly as we crossed the threshold into my room.

  I backed Kate up against the wall, slipping my fingers under the hemline of her dress to feel the soft, warm skin of her upper thighs. She whimpered softly, and I moved my fingers to the front of her panties, my cock twitching at the feel of her heat against my hand. Pushing her panties to the side, I found her wet already and slowly slid one finger inside, causing Kate to throw her head back in pleasure, where it collided with the wall behind her with a loud thwack.

  “Oh fuck, are you okay?” I paused, leaning back slightly to check and make sure she wasn’t injured.

  She chuckled. “Yeah, I’m fine. It didn’t hurt; it was just loud.”

  Smiling, I bent down to kiss her again.

  As the kiss grew hotter, her tongue stroking mine, she began unbuttoning my shirt with surprising ease. Within moments, she was pulling the sleeves down over my arms and tossing the shirt to the floor.

  “Impressive,” I murmured, moving my lips to her neck, sucking and nibbling on her skin. She tasted sweet and smelled faintly of vanilla.

  “Not my first rodeo.” She sighed, reaching to unbuckle my belt.

  I smiled. Two can play that game.

  Hiking her dress up over her waist, I slipped her panties off with one hand, the other returning to its previous job of pleasuring the wet, silken spot between her thighs. The desire to rub and pet her until she was writhing and mewling and out of control was so powerful, I was almost shaking with it.

  God, it’s been too long.

  As my hand moved between her legs, she bit her lip and let out a soft moan. Pulling at my belt, her fingers f
umbled briefly over the zipper of my pants before roughly pulling them down to reveal the outline of my rock-hard cock, fully outlined by my black briefs. Her breathing became more ragged, and I knew she was ready for more.

  Pausing to pull her dress the rest of the way up and over her shoulders, I dropped it to the floor. Kate reached to unclasp her bra, and then it joined the rest of our clothes. Hauling her closer, I reveled in the feel of her full breasts against my chest as her fingers tugged at the waistband of my briefs.

  Suddenly, my need to be inside her overwhelmed me. I guided her to the bed, pushing my underwear off in the two strides it took to join her. Descending on top of her, I resumed kissing her neck, aligning my hips with hers as she widened her legs to greet me. But before I could slide my aching, eager cock against all that wet flesh I was craving, she pressed her palms into my chest, prompting me to flip over onto my back.

  Did I mention I like a woman who knows when to take charge?

  I lay down, and Kate climbed on top of me.

  “This okay?” she asked.

  “I’m more than happy to let you ride.” My hands explored, caressing her breasts.

  “It is my birthday, after all,” she replied with a satisfied smirk.

  “Excellent point.” I grabbed a condom from the table beside my bed, tore the package open with my teeth, and handed it to her. “You want to put that on me?”

  “My pleasure,” she whispered, sending all kinds of chills racing down my spine.

  Her clever fingers made quick work of the condom. Placing one hand on her hip and the other on my swollen shaft, I guided myself into her snug pussy, the two of us moaning at the long-awaited pleasure. She felt like a fucking furnace around me. She was so hot and so sexy perched on top of me like this.

  We quickly found our rhythm, my hips pumping in a steady pace while she rocked above me. It was heaven, pure heaven. She felt incredible—so tight and warm and inviting. And the sexy, throaty moans she let out were destroying my stamina.

  It was the best sex I’d ever had with a one-night stand. Her moans grew higher pitched as I found that place inside her and stroked it again and again with my cock.

  Her palms flattened against my abs, and her head fell back as she lost herself in the pleasure.

  “That’s it, sexy girl. Come on my cock,” I murmured.

  But then I heard something . . . and it wasn’t another of her moans.

  No, it was something that made me freeze, my hips stilling in mid-thrust.

  The creak of a floorboard in the hallway. Bare feet on the hardwood floors.

  And then a small voice asked, “What are you doing to my daddy?”

  FUCK.

  Standing in the open doorway was my four-year-old daughter, Maddie, in her unicorn pajamas, her eyes wide as she clung to her favorite teddy bear.

  “Fuck, oh my God, fuck, I’m so sorry!” Kate quickly climbed off me, grabbing the nearest blanket to cover her naked body.

  “Hey, sweetie. What are you doing up?” I said in my calmest voice, frantically covering my quickly dying erection with a pillow.

  Kate was running around the room trying to find her clothes. Suddenly, the haphazard way we were throwing them around seemed incredibly stupid.

  “Daddy’s fine. Why don’t you go wait in your room, okay?”

  Maddie scowled but obeyed, throwing one last dirty look in Kate’s direction before turning and walking back to her room.

  Kate didn’t seem to notice, however, as she’d finally found her underwear and was getting dressed faster than I thought was humanly possible. She could have literally won the world record in getting dressed.

  I pushed my hands into my hair, letting out a deep sigh. Shit, why hadn’t I thought to lock the door? We must have been louder than I thought if we woke Maddie. She was normally a very sound sleeper.

  “Listen, Kate, I’m so—”

  Before I could finish, she ran out of the room, and twenty seconds later, I heard the front door open and slam behind her.

  I sighed, burying my face in my hands. Perfect, just fucking perfect. Another casual fling ruined by being a single dad.

  I was used to a few bad dates every now and then, like getting a your daughter just threw up phone call from the babysitter, but this? This was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I’d actually been caught in the act, doing the deed, bumping uglies—although there wasn’t one ugly part of Kate, and I was really pissed I didn’t get to see every part from every angle.

  It was official. My four-year-old was a cock-blocker.

  Sighing again, I went to my closet and pulled on some sweatpants and a T-shirt before gathering the rest of my clothes and placing them in the closet. In the bathroom, I washed my hands and checked my face in the mirror, raking my fingers through my hair so it wasn’t so obvious I’d just been caught in the middle of boning a stranger . . . by my child.

  Real classy.

  I was a dad now. I needed to be better than this. Stronger. Keep my priorities in check. And my priority was definitely my daughter.

  I opened the door to Maddie’s room to find her curled up in her bed, staring at me with wide, confused eyes.

  “Daddy, what was that lady doing to you?” she asked, rubbing her eyes with her tiny hands.

  “Daddy and that lady were just spending some adult time together, that’s all. I’ll tell you more about it when you’re older, okay?” And when it’s not the middle of the night and you just witnessed something that will inevitably scar you for life.

  Maddie furrowed her brow but nodded, and I could already tell it was something she’d remember to ask about in the morning. I hadn’t planned to even remotely have this talk with her for at least another ten years, so I mentally reminded myself to check my parenting books to find out what’s normal to tell kids her age about sex. I didn’t want her to be one of those kids who still believed storks dropped babies on doorsteps when she was fifteen, but still. Four seemed a little young to know everything about the birds and the bees.

  Seconds later, Maddie rolled over and closed her eyes. I placed a kiss on her forehead and, once I’d tucked her in, left her room to get myself ready for bed. After brushing my teeth and splashing some cold water on my face, I lay down to sleep, only to find my mind racing.

  I couldn’t believe that things had started off so damn amazing yet had ended up so horribly. It had been so long since my last casual fling, I couldn’t even tell you if I’d ever imagined something like what happened tonight actually happening. Scratch that. I definitely never imagined that my daughter would walk in on me having hot sex with someone I hardly knew.

  It just figured that the one time I put myself out there, I got burned. There were reasons single dads didn’t do things like that anymore. Crazy shit like this happened.

  Sighing, I flipped my pillow over, trying to relax and get comfortable. But I already knew I wouldn’t be sleeping well that night. I couldn’t stop myself from replaying that moment over and over again in my head, the complete shock of being in absolute ecstasy one moment, and the next . . . absolute embarrassment.

  And the worst part was, Kate seemed like a really cool person. Even if she wasn’t the love of my life, our chemistry was hard to deny, and I wouldn’t have minded making our casual hookups a regular thing.

  If nothing else, there was one thought that made me feel better as I unsuccessfully tried to fall asleep.

  At least I’ll never have to see Kate again.

  Chapter Three

  Kate

  “You’re joking, right?” Rebecca asked, gaping at me over her latte. I’d just recounted how my birthday hookup with Hunter had turned from dreamy to disastrous.

  “I wish.” I groaned, massaging my temples. Not only could I not get the image of his four-year-old daughter’s horrified face out of my head, but I had a massive tequila-induced hangover. “I probably scarred that little girl for life. Is this what being thirty is like? All the guys have kids now?”

&nb
sp; Rebecca put a hand over her mouth, unable to suppress a laugh.

  “Come on, it’s not funny,” I said, but her laughter was infectious, and I couldn’t help grinning. “Okay, it’s kind of funny. Or it will be once my head stops feeling like it’s going to explode.”

  “What did you do when she saw you?” Rebecca asked, composing herself.

  “Well, after my less-than-ladylike dismount, I ran out of there as fast as I could.” I shuddered at the memory, sipping my coffee. “Seriously, I probably broke some kind of Guinness world record.”

  “At least you’re getting an apartment today,” she said, her tone consoling.

  I nodded, glad there was an upside to this day. “Thank God. I’m so sick of apartment hunting.”

  Before this one, I’d gone to see five other places, and they’d all been disasters. One had no windows, and another was basically the size of my current closet. If this place didn’t work out, I was going to officially be in panic mode.

  I glanced at my phone. “Speaking of the apartment, we should probably head over.”

  Rebecca had agreed to come with me to check out the space and meet the landlord. I’d binge-watched enough episodes of Law & Order: SVU to know it wasn’t a good idea to do things like this alone.

  Twenty minutes later, we neared the address I’d read off the email from the property management company.

  “This is cute.” Rebecca smiled as we drove through the neighborhood, pointing out a craftsman-style home with a sprawling garden. “I love that everyone has a yard.”

  It was more suburban than what I was used to, but I didn’t mind. Actually, that was a good thing as far as I was concerned. The apartment I’d picked out was above a garage, which was different, but I wasn’t picky at this point. I’d heard a lot of young couples and new parents were moving to this area, which would make it a nice, quiet place for me to work.

  As I watched the houses go by, an uneasy feeling crept over me. I felt strange, like I’d been on this street before. Everything looked oddly familiar, which didn’t make any sense because I almost never came to this area.