Sweet Desire: (A Sinful Nights Short Story) by Lauren Blakely Page B

gentleman like
to go for entertainment.
    Colin wiggled his
eyebrows. “Will they be taking you there tonight to make sure you
get entertained properly and give them a sweetheart deal?”
    Ryan laughed and shook
his head. While he had nothing empirically against that form of
entertainment — he was an aficionado of the female form in all its
curves and softness — he didn’t expect he’d find the kind of
woman whose company he enjoyed at a place like that. “Not my
scene,” he said, and left it at that. He was a private man, and
didn’t care to dive into the details of his personal life…or
really, his tastes.
    He liked it the way he
liked it. Hard, rough, kinky. Call a spade a spade – he was a dirty
bastard, and he knew what he wanted when it came to a woman.
    Beautiful. Brilliant.
Witty. Sexy. Sweet.
    And someone who wanted
to surrender. Who craved giving up control to him. Confident in life,
and secure enough to hand over the reins in the bedroom, so he could
take charge of her pleasure, and deliver ecstasy beyond her wildest
fantasies.
    Ryan Sloan certainly
wasn’t on the hunt for someone special. He hardly had time for
that. But there was a part of him that longed for that spark of
connection – for a woman who had the same sinful desires.
    For his perfect match.

CHAPTER THREE
    Sophie strolled into
her walk-in closet in her penthouse apartment to confirm that
everything was in order for tonight. Her outfit hung perfectly with
every item she’d need – the black evening dress, the silk
stockings and garter, and the new black sheer panties that she’d
wear to the gala at Aria. She loved the possibility that such apparel
suggested. That intimacy could ignite at any moment.
    Yes, everything was
ready for the fete.
    But first, she had an
insanely packed day ahead of her — a final meeting with the board
for tonight’s fundraiser auction that she’d been overseeing for
the new wing at the children’s hospital, a quick run-through with
the torch singer she’d hired to croon sexy songs for the ballroom
crowd, and a lunch with one of the event’s biggest supporters —a
hotel CEO and his lovely wife who’d donated a gorgeous painting for
the auction. Then she’d need to visit her brother at police
headquarters to give him the transponder for her building’s parking
garage.
    Whew.
    Sounded like this day
called for one of her favorite pinup dresses. Pressing her finger to
her lips, she ran her hand across her vast collection of dresses —
the white one with an orange pattern, the sapphire blue number, the
red pencil skirt style one.
    So many to choose from,
some days it was hard to pick.
    “Ah, this is the
dress,” she declared, when she landed on the black pinup dress with
the cherry pattern.
    Cherries were just
so…tempting.
    She slipped into it,
zipped up the back, and struck a pose in front of the mirror. Blond
curls, red lips, sexy dress. Why yes. She was indeed ready to tackle
the day.
    Besides, today could be
the day she’d meet the kind of man who’d stare at her
unabashedly. Who’d flirt, and she’d flirt back. Who’d be bold
enough to walk right up to her.
    A frisson of excitement
raced through her, and she shuddered as she imagined her fantasy man.
But she doubted she’d meet him today. Or the next day or the next.
That was simply wishful thinking.
    What a wish it was
though.
    * * *
    A few more hours.
    The tension in him
tightened knowing he’d be seeing the detective later today. But he
was determined to get to the bottom of this. When he met with John
Winston, he’d do everything in his power to glean the information
he needed about the murder investigation, all while keeping his own
secrets about the past airtight and sealed.
    “Isn’t that right,
Johnny Cash?” he said to his dog, as they headed up the steps to
his house after a solo workout — a quick three-mile run as the sun
rose.
    The dog didn’t answer
him.
    But that was okay. He
still liked talking to his pooch about the