Need You Tonight by Roni Loren

knowing there would be no next time. That’d been their agreement, her one condition.
     Tonight could only be an escape. A fantasy.
    She couldn’t handle any more than that.
    Especially with a guy who could make her feel like this. One who could make her feel
     this wanted and sexy, this . . . special. She knew she was definitely not the latter
     for him. Van was way too smooth and confident—a seducer. She doubted his bed was ever
     cold.
    He was a playboy.
    He was a temptation she couldn’t afford.

FOUR
    Kade Vandergriff smiled when he heard soft snores coming from his left. Oh, how quickly
     a shitty day had morphed into an amazing evening. When he’d headed out tonight for
     location visits, all his frustration from a completely useless session with his attorney
     about their seemingly winless case had come along with him. It probably would’ve been
     wise to go home afterward to let himself settle down. But he hadn’t been able to stomach
     the thought of pacing the halls of his big, empty house for the night. The silence
     and space would’ve made him crazy.
    So he’d driven into Dallas to visit his restaurants, hoping to channel all the crap
     from the day into a productive evening. But after only a few hours into his drop-in
     visits, his frustration hadn’t gone away but had instead morphed into nebulous, growing
     anger. By the time he’d arrived at Barcelona and discovered three of their most popular
     dishes had been eighty-sixed because of the manager’s oversight, Kade had been on
     the verge of a Gordon Ramsay moment.
    But then Contessa had walked into the restaurant, chatting with her friend and looking
     like she wanted to be anywhere but there. Kade had stopped midsentence in his lecture
     to his manager and had forgotten why he was so damn pissed. He’d left his manager
     without another word and followed Contessa into the dating event, having no idea why
     he felt so compelled to follow her or what he was going to do once he got to her.
     But when her name hadn’t been on the list, he’d jumped at the opportunity to step
     in. A few minutes into their time upstairs, she’d made him forget every crappy thing
     that had happened that day. He’d gotten lost in the moment, lost in her.
    He glanced over at his dozing companion. Contessa had curled up on one of the sofas
     in the bar to wait while he picked up the last of the food and dishes they’d used
     on their rooftop “un-date,” but exhaustion had apparently gotten the better of her.
     Or maybe it was the six-course meal, the three glasses of sangria, and the two bouts
     of amazing sex. Even he was feeling weary on his feet, and staying up until three A.M. was not a rare occurrence with his schedule.
    Not for the first time, he wished they were back at his place where he could strip
     her down and tuck her into his bed for the night. Wake her up with his tongue between
     her thighs because damn the woman was sexy when she came. It was like each time it
     happened, she was surprised, like she didn’t think herself capable of that passionate
     of a response. And for some reason, she thought she wouldn’t like kink yet had responded
     to his commands with beautiful capitulation. Which, of course, only made him want
     to find out just how out of her mind he could drive her. They’d only scratched the
     surface tonight.
    But he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get another chance. She’d laid it all out
     up front, refreshing but brutal in her honesty. She’d wanted an escape tonight. She’d
     wanted to use him for that, and he’d been happy to oblige. Hell, the one-night fantasy
     had become his specialty lately. Not that he was complaining. He’d enjoyed playing
     the third in a few scenes with his friends’ submissives at The Ranch, the private
     BDSM resort he belonged to. And he’d had his fair share of casual encounters over
     the past few years with kinky women, as well as vanilla ones. Fun nights. Exciting
     flings.