Still Into You by Roni Loren

accused.
    He tilted back and laughed. She grinned and took her losing shot. The warmth of the alcohol burned a bit less than it had the first three times, and her jagged emotions seemed to blur and soften around the edges after an hour with Kade.
    Thoughts of Seth tried to push into her consciousness and tighten her chest, but she tamped them down. He’d left. He’d made her place in his life crystal clear. She didn’t have the strength to face that grief tonight. Tonight she just wanted to be mindless and numb. To forget her heartbreak for a while.
    She sank back against the arm of the couch, watching Kade watch her.
    He gave her an easy smile. “What are you thinking about over there?”
    She set her empty glass on the side table behind her, the buzz of the alcohol fueling a bolder question than she’d normally ask. “I was wondering what you come here for. What’s your thing?”
    The humorous gleam in his eyes darkened a bit. “I’m a dominant and a sexual sadist.”
    She tilted her head. “Really? I can see the dominant thing, but you seem too nice to want to hurt anyone.”
    He smirked. “Well,
hurt
is a relative term when the person receiving the pain gets off on it. And I’m not that nice of a guy, Leila.”
    She rolled her eyes and got up so she could get some water from the kitchen. “Right. Because taking the sad, lonely girl whose husband bailed on her to your room for drinks and eighties trivia is a real asshole thing to do.”
    He grabbed her wrist as she walked by him, halting her. She looked down at him in surprise.
    “Don’t paint me to be that chivalrous. I’ve spent the last forty-five minutes trying to talk myself out of making a move on you.”
    She sucked in a breath, and after a long, stretched pause with no protest from her, he pulled her down onto his lap.
    “I would love nothing more than to untie this corset of yours with my goddamned teeth and taste my way over every inch of you.” He gazed at her with hungry eyes. “Since the night you left my house, I’ve been cursing the lucky bastard that is your husband. But now knowing that he’s willing to walk away from you makes me feel less sorry for coming on to you that night and for having you here now. You deserve someone who knows how good he has it.”
    She blinked at him, her heart hammering and her mind whirling. She wanted to defend Seth and tell Kade that her husband was a good man, that he did love and appreciate her. But how could she be so sure of that anymore? How could she reconcile the Seth she saw last night and today with the one who’d been a near stranger to her this last year?
    Kade pushed a lock of hair off her forehead and brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. And before her slow-on-the-uptake tequila brain could process what that look he was giving her meant, he cupped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down for a kiss.
    Warm lips moved over hers, gentle but coaxing, opening her to him. His tongue stroked over hers and his grip tightened against her neck. Her body responded to his obvious skill, but her mind seemed to snap back in place like a tape measure. She was kissing another man. Not Seth.
    A beautiful, unfairly sexy man. But
not
Seth.
    Seth, her gorgeous, dark-haired husband. The boy who used to make her mix tapes and surprise her with new paint supplies in college. The man who wept the first time he held their daughter. The guy who made love to her underneath a tree by the lake this afternoon with the passion of a man in love.
    Leila stiffened. Suddenly Kade’s hand against her waist felt all wrong and the hardening erection beneath her bottom put her in a near panic. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want Kade. Or any other man for that matter.
    Illicit fantasies were exciting to conjure, but now that she had one in the making, she realized that fantasy had nothing on the sparks that zipped between her and the man she loved when they were focused on each other. She put her palms