Billionaire on the Loose by Jessica Clare Page A

it for me.”
    She gave him a faint smile. “I should really head home soon anyhow.”
    â€œI’ll walk you.” He pulled out a wad of American dollars and tossed them on the table.
    â€œI should be walking you,” she protested. “I know the city.”
    He shrugged. “If I get lost, I’ll flag down a taxi. It’ll be fine.” He put a hand to the small of her back when she got up from the table, and it felt oddly right. “Let me be a gentleman and walk you home.”
    Well, how could she argue with that? Taylor left the pub with him and they walked to the subway in silence. She still hadn’t checked her phone; she was afraid to. Nothing she did now would change anything, so there was no point in looking until she was ready to deal with the consequences.
    Luckily, her building was minutes away from her stop. Loch kept a hand on her back as they walked and then Taylor gestured at her building. “This is me. I’m sorry I didn’t show you around more—”
    He put a finger to her lips. “No apologies. I had a great time. And because I had a great time, and I think you did, too, I refuse to let either one of us feel guilty.”
    She smiled as he pulled his finger away, and jammed her hands in her pockets. “It’s just . . . complicated. It’s more than just guild stuff. It’s . . . personal.”
    â€œAn ex-boyfriend?” he guessed again.
    â€œGod, no.” She shuddered.
    â€œGood.” He leaned down and to her surprise, he looked as if he was going to kiss her. Instead, he only said, “You’re allowed to have fun, you know.”
    â€œI know,” she whispered. Damn it, why wasn’t he kissing her? His face was close enough, and he was so handsome, even this close. She could feel the warm puff of his breath against her face, and he tasted like Guinness, and for the first time in her life, she didn’t hate Guinness. “I just have a lot of obligation wrapped up in it is all.”
    â€œObligation will be there in the morning. Might as well enjoy the rest of tonight.”
    Taylor gave an unhappy little sigh. “Too bad tonight’s over.”
    To her surprise, he chose that moment to lean in and lightly brush his mouth against hers. “Doesn’t have to be,” he murmured, breathing the words against her mouth. “Invite me up.”
    And maybe she was crazy, but she was going to do it. “Okay. Got condoms?”
    â€œAlways.”
    And that should have alerted her again that they weren’t compatible. But all she could think about was his big body, and how gorgeous he was, and how very, very much she wanted to go up with him.
    Tomorrow, the world could implode on her. Tonight? She was going to enjoy the rest of her night. So Taylor grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his mouth down to hers and gave him another kiss. Not one of the fleeting, featherlight kisses he’d given her twice now, but a real, honest-to-goodness kiss with tongue and promise. If she was going to do this, she was going to go all in, damn it. There would be no half-assing her hookup with the hottest guy she’d ever seen.
    She was going to climb Thor like he was her own personal Asgardian.

Chapter Five
    Despite the scorching-hot kisses on the street, Taylor was nervous about inviting the clearly more worldly Loch up to her apartment for an evening of no-strings-attached sex. She really wasn’t the type of girl who picked up men at bars. She’d slept with three guys in her life, all of them relationships.
    Okay, four guys. There was that time with the guy at the
Excelsior
Convention, but he’d been smoking hot in his leather armor and she’d gone into it purely for a physical experience. Plus, once she’d gotten a good look at his teeth, she’d been uninterested. Dental hygiene was high on her list of boyfriend musts.
    And Loch? God, the man had