Naked Pursuit

The familiar scents of perfume and cologne and the oil used on the wooden floor of the roller rink made her stomach clench for a moment. Her most embarrassing experience had happened at a place just like this, and she preferred not to dwell on emotions that brought her down. The roller rink had never figured into any of her plans past the age of fourteen.

But she also smelled beer and gourmet pretzels. Patrons leaned against the railing surrounding the rink while sipping on martinis and gin and tonics, not sodas and fruit punch. Owen wasn’t some teenage boy interested in looking cool to his friends. And Stella definitely knew how to kiss a man now. Besides, she was all about living life tonight, not avoiding it. Roller-skating it was.

They joined Tony and Hayden in the lobby of the rink, where the pair was waiting in line.

Hayden greeted her with a smile. “Stella, it’s adult skate night. It’s like this night was tailor-made for us.”

Tony pulled out his cell phone and they laughed and posed for selfies.

“This light is doing weird things to your hair,” Hayden said. “First pink. Then blue.”

Stella fluffed her curly locks. “Try to catch one when I look blond.”

Finally it was their turn at the register. The guys paid the admission, and the four of them exchanged shoes for skates.

The music pumped, a combination of disco from the seventies, new wave from the eighties and bubblegum pop from the nineties. Their skin was awash in silver patterns from the mirrored balls above their heads and the pulsing strobe lights suspended from the ceiling.

They sat on one of the long carpeted benches that lined the skating area and put on their skates. Hayden and Tony quickly laced up, but Stella’s pace was slower so she could take this night all in. She didn’t allow herself to break out of her self-restraint that often, so she wanted to really live this moment—the sound of the music and the laughing couples around them, the thump of the bass beneath her socked feet and the steady warmth of Owen’s shoulder as he sat beside her.

Hayden gave her a wink as they skated off, and in moments Stella lost the other couple in the crowd on the hardwood roller floor.

Owen didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry, either. She snuck a peek at his profile. He looked pensive. “Everything okay?” she asked over the din of the music.

He angled toward her and flashed her that amazing smile of his. The one she’d first noticed in the PharmaTest waiting room when it had triggered some secret little voice inside her mind that said exactly.

“I’m thinking that the moment I get out on that floor in my skates, any chance of looking cool and impressing the lady I want is definitely out.”

Stella couldn’t help but laugh. This sexy hunk of a man wanted to impress her, and that made something inside her go all gooey toward him.

The prospect of her carefully honed defenses crumbling should have scared the hell out of her. Her parents had insisted she’d need a tough shell in order to have a life as an ER doctor, so she’d guarded herself from emotion for as long as she could remember.

But tonight she craved more. Her usual choice of guy leaned to the nerdier type—the kind of man who didn’t worry so much about appearing cool because he was so far away from that descriptor anyway.

With his wide shoulders and strong arms, Owen probably played sports. His easy confidence around her—and, well, everyone—suggested he was the guy who’d always been invited to the popular parties in high school. The kind of guy who saw through girls like her. But not tonight. Owen wanted her, and he wasn’t afraid of saying it or showing it.

Maybe he deserved some honesty from her. “But if you don’t go out on that floor, how will I ever be able to pretend to fall so that you can catch me?” she asked.

The smile dropped from his lips, and in a flash of strobe lighting she caught the intensity of his gaze. Just for a moment. Then the light moved and he was concealed once more.

His thumb stroked the back of her hand and tiny shivers spread through her fingers and down her arm. Imagine what she’d feel if that thumb stroked other needy places on her body? And that naughty little thought brought on a full body quake.

“What was that fantasy about darkened corners Hayden mentioned?”

Stella swiveled on the bench, searching for someplace private where she could replace her teenage roller-skating failure with a warm memory of kissing the hunky guy. Finally. The kind of memory she could think about while on those rough twelve-hour shifts that awaited her in the emergency room.

Another beam of light flashed across his face, and she caught a teasing glint in his eyes. He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Just to warn you, I’m about to throw down the worst line. Ready?”

Was she? Absolut— Wait a minute, don’t just sit there and passively let this smooth, gorgeous man lay down the moves. This is your night to live. Live it. She gave him the side eye. “It’s not the one about guessing the material of your shirt and it turns out to be boyfriend material, is it?”

He scratched at his chin. “That’s pretty good, and by good I mean terrible. But actually, I can do worse. Much worse,” he assured her.

She pretended to shake out her muscles and roll her shoulders like a swimmer readying for the block. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“When I saw you at PharmaTest earlier tonight, I knew there was no way I’d leave before finding out if your personality was as amazing as your smile.”

Her mouth dried, and she had a hard time swallowing for a moment. “That really wasn’t a bad line,” she confessed, her words rushing out on an abrupt exhalation. She’d expected some kind of teasing comment, and instead he’d dropped the mother of all flirtbombs.

“Worth that darkened corner?” he asked.

The skates slipped from her fingers as she stood. “Oh, yeah. I spotted one, right there by the lockers.” Although truth be told, he didn’t need a line. Stella had wanted to kiss Owen since he’d caught her eye when they’d been filling out the paperwork at PharmaTest. Surely he knew that.

Her heartbeat pounded as they threaded between the people around the rink, seeking the dim nook she’d discovered earlier, perfect for making out. All their other kisses had been spontaneous, moments of daring with no forethought at all. But this next kiss would be deliberate and purposeful. And because of that, this moment felt more important.

She pulled him into the corner and leaned against the smooth wall of painted cinderblock, the coolness seeping into her overheated skin through the thin layer of her shirt. Owen braced his weight on his arm above her head. His gaze moved to her mouth, and a half smile flickered on his lips that quickly changed to an intense hunger.

Yes. She wanted to feel that. Exactly that. He gently stroked her lower lip with his thumb, and her eyes drifted shut for a moment so she could savor how he made her respond. Her blood heated in her veins and anticipation rushed through her. She drew the tip of his thumb into her mouth and he groaned. The harsh sound made her body tremble.

Never had she responded to a man like this. Never had her body craved a man’s caress on her skin so much. Stella hungered for his mouth, his taste.

“I feel like I’m losing my mind over you.”

The raw wonder in his voice triggered a deep yearning inside her. Her knees grew a little shaky and warmth flooded between her legs.

“You’re not the only one,” she admitted, her voice unsteady, and he graced her with that brief half smile again.

Stella reached for him. Her fingers curled into the muscles of his shoulders and urged him closer. He lowered his mouth to hers. It was the barest of strokes, and yet she shivered from that too-slight caress. She breathed in his intoxicating scent as her eyes closed. She locked her hands behind Owen’s neck, his short hair tickling the backs of her fingers. He continued his sensual light exploration of her mouth then finally his tongue traced the seam of her lips.

Stella gasped at the sweet sensation, and then his tongue twined with hers. Exactly.

If fourteen-year-old her had experienced the worst lip-lock at a place like this, the twenty-five-year-old Stella was wiping that memory away for good with this incredible, mind-boggling kiss. This time her lips found their target and she pressed her body against the strength of his chest, her nipples tingling inside the restrictive cups of her bra. She breathed and tasted and felt only Owen. Reveled in the sensations spiraling and building inside her.

A shrill whistle sounded near her ear. And not the silly, exaggerated I-caught-you-making-out kind of whistle. But the teacher-telling-you-to-stop-throwing-dirt-on-the-playground screech that sent a wave of panic through her system even now that she was an adult. Stella broke her kiss-tender lips from his and forced her eyes open.

She had to squint and blink a few times before the picture in front of her eyes righted itself. A man sporting a black-and-white-striped referee shirt skated toward them and waved his hands. The suspect whistle hung around his neck, suspended from a lanyard.

He slid to a stop beside them. “You can’t do that in here. This is a family place.” He emphasized the word with a disgusted shake of his hand.

“It’s adult skate night,” Owen said after glancing around to confirm that no children had magically appeared in the rink. They’d shared a harmless kiss in the shadows of a darkened corner.

“This isn’t my first lap around the rink,” the referee said. “I know what comes next.”

Yeah, she did, too. Not that either of them would have indulged in such a public place. Then again, how long before her hands found that sweet curve of his ass? Or his fingers toyed with her nipples? Her breasts grew heavy at just the thought of him palming her so intimately.

“Uh, Owen. I don’t want to skate anymore.”

His gaze lowered to hers, his eyes searching in the dark. He must have sensed the sexual cravings that battered her senses, because his spine abruptly straightened and he cleared his throat. Twice.

“Neither do I.” His voice was a whispered promise, and a shiver shimmied between her shoulder blades and settled in the small of her back. Then he focused his attention to the ref. “Sorry if we disturbed anyone. We’re leaving.”