We stop at a quaint café for a beignet, which is a delicious little pastry. I tear off a bite and let it melt on my tongue, resisting the urge to let my eyes roll back in my head. But I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t want to have missed the sight of Jet watching me eat. His heavy-lidded eyes are trained on my mouth. As I watch him watch me, he licks his lips, sending a pang of desire shooting into my stomach. It’s a sweetness that even the delicate pastry can’t match.
I find myself warm and disconcerted after only one bite. Watching Jet watch me is incredibly erotic, something I’m far from accustomed to. But it’s heady and exciting in a way that makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before.
A few doors down from that, Jet stops to order us both a drink from a bar that has a walk-up window, a fact that I find amusing for some reason.
“The fast food of alcohol on Bourbon Street,” I say as I put my lips to the straw in the LED-lit collectible glass. The drink is fruity and a little bit salty, and it tastes like heaven in my dry mouth. I take a few more sips.
“Go easy on that. It’s definitely not a Coke, fast food-like or not.”
Over the top of my cup, I smile happily at him, thrilled with the way he watches me and the way it makes me feel. “This is New Orleans,” I finally say. “I’m supposed to loosen up and drink like the natives, right?”
Jet grins. “You can get as loose as you want to with me.”
I laugh and suggest impulsively, “Let’s find one of those little hole-in-the-wall clubs like they show on TV and dance until we’re hot and sweaty.”
“One of those places that are so crowded everybody is smashed together?”
“Exactly!”
“As long as I’m the only one you’re planning to plaster that body against.”
Spontaneously, I stretch up on my tiptoes and brush my lips over Jet’s. “I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be up against.”
“Then let’s get the woman what she wants.”
Jet guides me along the street to a little bar that’s just off the main drag. The door is open, and both music and people are spilling out into the street. Jet shoulders his way through the crowd, tugging me along behind him. Once inside, I look around at the hazy interior. Smoke hangs low and thick in the air, adding a shroud of sultry mystery to the writhing mass of bodies packed into the tight space in front of the band.
This is precisely what I had in mind.
Jet pulls me to one of the few empty places along the wall. “Finish that, and then we’ll dance.”
I glance down at my drink, ready to argue. But much to my surprise, I see that I only have a small amount remaining in the bottom of the glass. I must’ve sipped a lot more than I thought I did along the way. I haven’t been paying much attention. I didn’t even notice Jet finishing his and dumping it in the trash.
Pushing the straw to the side, I tip up the drink and let it pour into my mouth, cool and refreshing. When I hit bottom, I lower it and grin at Jet. “Ahhh, delicious.”
He takes it from my fingers and sets it on the corner of the bar behind us. “Then let’s go.”
The band is finishing up their set as we make our way into the middle of the dense crowd. They play one more song, something steamy and sensual, like the atmosphere itself. Jet moves in behind me, plastering his body to mine, as promised. I can feel every hard inch of him, dipping and swaying to the beat of the music. The heat of him at my back and the crowd on every other side makes me feel warm and relaxed.
When the band puts down their instruments to take a break, regular music is piped in overhead. The change does nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of the crowd, though.
I recognize the unique and soulful voice of Joss Stone. Effortlessly, her sultry voice and the sexy notes seep into my limbs and set my body into motion.
I lean back into Jet, letting my head fall onto his shoulder. I feel his hands come to my hips, his fingertips brushing my stomach. They tug me in closer to him. Every movement his body makes against me creates a sweet friction that I feel all the way into my core.
I arch my back and raise my arm to wind it around his neck. I tilt my head to the side when his lips tease the tender skin just beneath my ear, giving him better access. Against my butt, I feel his hardness. Gripping me with his hands, he holds me tight as he grinds against me, sending a shower of chills down my back and an ache into the V of my legs.
Instinctively, I move my hips back and forth against him. Above the music, I hear his groan at my ear as his fingers bite into my flesh.
“Don’t do that,” he murmurs.
“Don’t do what?” I ask coyly, breathlessly.
“Don’t tease me with that delicious ass and that short skirt. You may care that we’re in public, but I do not.”
“Don’t do this you mean?” I ask, unable to keep the naughty smile off my face as I arch farther and rub him with my backside.
“Violet,” Jet warns gruffly, his teeth visibly gritted. “You’re playing with fire. Are you sure you wanna do that?” As he speaks, he lets one of his hands trail down my hip to the front of my thigh where he sweeps it in toward the inside of my leg and drags it up toward my center. I gasp, feeling an almost painful sense of frustration when he stops just short of where I need his touch most.
“Are you sure you want to talk me out of it?” I ask, closing my eyes against all the people around us. No one is paying us any attention anyway. No one cares how Jet is touching me.
I could almost pretend we are alone . . . with just the music . . .
“The only thing I want to talk you out of right now are these,” he says, running his palm up to the bend of my leg, his fingertips just grazing the edge of my panties.
“You wouldn’t,” I taunt, giving myself up to the night, to the music, and to Jet.
“Wouldn’t what?”
“Wouldn’t do something like that in here.”
“Is that a dare?”
I smile, knowing I’m safe to tease him. There’s no way he would . . .
“No, it’s a fact.”
Jet slides his hand around my thigh to the outside of it, raising it to my hip and dragging the hem of my dress with it. I feel his fingers slipping under the thin band of my panties and clenching into a fist. With one quick jerk, I feel the snap of elastic. I gasp again, in desire as much as surprise.
“Still think I won’t?” he breathes against my neck.
I gave in to whatever this is between me and Jet hours ago. Now, there’s no going back. This time, I don’t want to.