No Strings Read online

  At least someone might notice if this guy dragged her out by her hair.

  Emma tried to flash Happy Fun Time a conciliatory smile. “I’m sorry,” she said, though she wasn’t the least bit sorry. “But, I just don’t think there’s a spark between us. It’s just...uh, not going to work.”

  His frown deepened, and he stood there, seething, looming over her.

  “Bitch.” The word came out hard and cold and so low she almost wasn’t sure if she heard it.

  “I’m sorry?” Emma blinked fast. She wasn’t used to open hostility.

  “You heard me.” The look in his eyes was flat, cold, devoid of all emotion. Now she knew something was really off. Danger, her instincts screamed. This man was dangerous. Still, she wasn’t going to back down. And, had he called her a bitch? For what, for saying no?

  Now anger flared in her chest. She slid off her bar stool and faced him.

  “You need to go. Now.” She might be half his size, but she wasn’t about to let this guy push her around. No means no, and right now, she was saying hell, no.

  He blinked at her, rage building in his cold blue eyes. Was he going to do something? Her heart thudded in her chest. What would she do if he did?

  The whole bar seemed to go quiet, even though nobody else moved a finger to do anything. Emma felt suddenly that this man intended to hurt her, and he didn’t care who was watching.

  “I asked you to go,” Emma told the man, voice lower this time, but still firm. Be calm. Be firm. Don’t let him know he’s scaring the hell out of you.

  That’s when the furious man before her grabbed her arm, hard. “I don’t think so.” He squeezed and she let out an unintended cry. Panic gripped her as she felt the darkness in him; her instincts were right. This man wanted to hurt her. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp.

  “Let the lady go.” Mr. X stood behind the man, his voice low but clear.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE MAN WHIRLED, off guard. Her savior was about five full inches taller and far more in shape. The two men might weigh the same, but Happy Fun Time’s weight came in fat, while Mr. X was pure working muscle. He could wipe the floor with him, and both men knew it. The now angry Happy Fun Time frowned, but backed up a step, releasing Emma’s arm.

  “We were just talking,” he said, defensive.

  “Didn’t look like a very nice talk to me.” Mr. X was all business, eyes serious, shoulders tense. Emma wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that angry gaze. She glanced from one man to the other, her heart still thudding hard in her chest, her mind going a million miles a minute.

  “You’re not worth the trouble,” her assailant said, and glared at her, eyes full of menace as he turned and walked quickly out of the lounge and past the lobby. Emma watched him go, feeling a sudden whoosh of relief as she exhaled the tension she’d been holding. That was so close.

  “Wow...uh, thank you,” she managed to say, grateful now for the backup. Her savior studied her with hazel eyes flecked with gold.

  “You okay?” He reached out and touched her elbow, ever so softly. Emma rubbed her arms self-consciously. “I’m sorry I didn’t come over sooner... I thought...well, I thought maybe you’d planned the date.”

  She sighed, still feeling her hands tremble with adrenaline and fear. “I had, but that’s the last time I ever make a date with someone from Nost.”

  Her rescuer cocked an eyebrow. “He’s on Nost? What’s his name?”

  “Happy Fun Time.”

  Mr. X frowned. “Not so happy or fun.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “Ugh. Why did I even try this? I knew it was a mistake.” She sank her head in her hands.

  “We’re not all bad on Nost...Miss Kitten.” Mr. X grinned. “Come on, let me make up for that asshole. At least let me buy you a drink.”

  Emma felt shaken, and a drink was desperately what she needed. A drink, and a bit of time to stare at those golden eyes a bit longer. “Sure,” she said, though her body felt wired—nerves, fear, all the fight or flight chemicals buzzing through her veins. Her heart still thumped in her ears and she felt shaky, but she gestured to the empty bar stool. Having his big body next to hers felt good right about now.

  He slid onto the bar stool next to hers and she felt his presence, broad, next to her. The two buttons undone at his neck revealed smooth, bare skin. She was so thankful for him at that moment, she wanted to throw her arms around his neck and squeeze.

  “What can I get you?” he asked her, and she felt the gravelly baritone in her stomach.

  She felt the heat in her face intensify as her thoughts instantly went to naughty places. What can’t he get me?

  “Hendrick’s and tonic,” she managed to answer, suddenly feeling shy. What was wrong with her? She’d never felt this kind of instant attraction, the strong pull of basic, animal magnetism before. Sure, she’d found guys handsome, but this one...she could feel his strength, his pull. Every slight shift he made with his body she felt in hers, keenly aware of even the tiniest of movements. Mr. X signaled the bartender, his tanned and muscled forearm raised. He had solid hands. Strong hands. Big ones. Emma imagined what they’d feel like on her body and felt a current of electricity run down her spine. The entire effect just made her feel more rattled, more unsettled, yet in the best way possible.

  This must be just adrenaline, she told herself. A dangerous experience, coupled with a handsome guy. That’s all. It was just hormones and chemicals in her blood, making her aware of this man’s every move.

  The bartender brought the drink but she barely noticed. She was glancing at his flat stomach and the curve of his chest muscles beneath his shirt. What would the weight of him feel like on top of her?

  “Are you okay?” he asked once more. He reached out and grabbed her hands. She glanced up at him, shaken from her thoughts. “You’re trembling,” he said, voice low with concern, his eyes never leaving hers.

  He squeezed both hands tightly. “That jerk is gone. He won’t bother you again.” Mr. X made it sound like a promise. “You’re safe now.”

  Emma glanced down at his strong hands covering hers. Why did she feel anything but safe at that moment?

  “Thank you,” she said, her heart filling with gratitude. He raised his glass.

  “To a better evening,” he said and grinned.

  “To a better evening,” she echoed, and they clinked glasses.

  * * *

  Xavier Pena sipped at his drink and gazed at the beautiful blonde sitting next to him. Gorgeous, blue eyes, streaks of spun gold in her blond hair, her skin still tanned from the summer sun. From her thin frame and taut muscles, he would guess she worked out. Ran maybe? She had the body of a triathlete, someone who took her fitness seriously. Just like he did. All the men at the bar—single or attached—noticed this woman, tall, lithe, strong. He’d noticed her the second he’d walked into the bar, and when he’d pulled up Nost, was gleefully happy she’d had a profile.

  Part of him was surprised to find her there at all. A woman as drop-dead gorgeous as this one shouldn’t need an app to find a date. Or anonymous sex. Any man in this bar would be happy to oblige her, and yet...that was the beauty of Nost. Xavier remembered the hard grilling the investors had given him over the concept, especially because they thought women wouldn’t want to participate.

  “But women have the most to gain from this app,” he’d told them. “It gives them a background check and allows them to shop for the best mate, without having to weed through suitors at a bar. Women are going to find out that this is exactly what they’ve been looking for.”

  It turned out, Xavier had been right. While men slightly edged out women on Nost, it wasn’t by much.

  Xavier sipped at his whiskey and watched the beautiful woman next to him. She’d begun to relax a little. He studied the curve of her bare shoulder, revealed by her off-the-shoulder navy blu
e sweater. He’d been more than glad to scare off Mr. St. Louis, a man who had no business being in the same room with this woman, much less talking to her. He shouldn’t be anywhere near Nost, either, a fact he filed away for later. He’d created the app as a fun and safe place for women. That was why he’d written in all the background checks. Without the safety net, the app would be a playground for predators, which would be unacceptable. He made a mental note to bring up the user at the next board meeting. They might need to tweak some of their safety checks.

  Now he focused on the woman before him. She was more than a pretty face. He suspected there was a lot going on behind those intelligent blue eyes.

  He wondered if she felt the little current of whatever this was floating between them. The strong physical connection. The I feel like we’ve met before feeling. Xavier had only felt this once or twice before, once with his now ex-fiancée, Sasha.

  The minute he thought about her he pushed memories of her away. They were too painful. They were the whole reason he and a group of his fraternity brothers had created Nost in the first place. The little app had exploded over the last few weeks, taking them from a bunch of largely unknown software engineers to being propositioned by Google and Facebook for potentially millions. Xavier had nearly the whole world at his feet, but all he wanted was a little companionship. Temporary companionship, he reminded himself. He thought of Sasha, her dark eyes and cocoa skin, the way she tilted her head back when she laughed, how much she reminded him of his own mother. His mother who died when he was a kid. Sasha used to have him wrapped around her little finger. That was...until he found out she betrayed him.

  He didn’t need more pain. Not now. Probably not ever.

  Concentrate on the now. The future is too painful. That’s why you live in the moment, he reminded himself.

  “So...was that really your first date from Nost?” he asked her, which was his way of prying without prying. He got why anonymous sex wasn’t for everybody. Newbies were a wild card. But he wasn’t about putting pressure on anyone. You were in or out, as far as he was concerned.

  He watched the color bleed into her cheeks. “Yep. Happy Fun Time was it. Just signed up yesterday...and not sure it’s for me. My friend Sarah actually insisted I try it. But...I don’t know. I’m a little skeptical. What’s in it for women?”

  “Oh, everything, actually,” Xavier said, raising his glass to his lips. “You’d be surprised.”

  She quirked an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, as she set her own glass back on the bar, and played with the small black straw, pushing the slice of lime around her cup. “Casual sex was invented by men.”

  “I don’t know about that. Women want just as many partners as men do, you know. It’s just that society tells them they should be good girls. But that’s all just a construct, really, something men want.”

  “You’re saying men want women to have fewer partners,” she challenged.

  “Of course. Men want it both ways: they want to have sex with as many women as possible, but keep most women at home, under wraps. A fully realized sexual woman who isn’t afraid to go after what she needs terrifies most men.”

  A small blush crept up her pale cheek, which Xavier found a little bit adorable.

  Definite newbie. Xavier had more than a handful of women who claimed they’d never consider Nost, who suddenly wound up in his bed. And it wasn’t just his imposing physique. He knew that anonymous sex could be freeing. If you let the concept in.

  “I write for Helena, the women’s online magazine?” He knew it and nodded. “I kind of thought this would all just be fodder for my next article.”

  “Ah, so you’re going to tell your readers how terrible and sexist the whole thing is,” he teased.

  “N-no,” she countered. “I mean, I was going to research it and...”

  “But you’d made up your mind before you even tried it,” he said, reading her like the open book she was.

  “Maybe.” She stirred her drink once more, focusing on the ice cubes there. “And Happy Fun Time didn’t help.”

  “Don’t let him be the poster child for your experience,” Xavier said. “Believe me, he’s the exception not the rule.”

  “So what do you do for a living?” she asked him, blue eyes intent on an answer. She was a seeker, a collector of facts, someone who wouldn’t rest until she got all the information.

  “Work in tech,” he said, and shrugged. He glanced at the melting ice cubes in his glass.

  “Where?”

  “Here and there.” He grinned. It was the truth. He’d worked at other companies before founding Nost. He’d had a lot of practice not revealing details about himself. He’d made that mistake in the past, letting on where he’d worked, and a woman found him through a Google search with only his first name and Nost. She stalked him, showing up at work, at his apartment, asking for a relationship he wasn’t willing to give. He’d been up front with her, but after two nights with him...she’d fallen for him. It had been a whole mess, actually. Now he’d learned to be more careful. He knew exactly what to reveal—and what to keep secret. He had his rules.

  “Tell me more about this article,” he said, deftly changing the subject as he deflected interest away from him. “Am I changing your mind about Nost?”

  She glanced up at him. “Not sure yet,” she said. “I’m Emma, by the way.”

  “X,” he replied, and she laughed a little. He never gave his name anymore. Not after the other woman found him.

  “No, really.”

  “Seriously—that’s what my friends call me.” Because Xavier is too much of a mouthful for most. “But, also, no names, it just makes it simpler. On Nost.”

  “So I should just call you Mr. X?” Emma giggled at the idea. “What are you, a comic book villain?”

  Xavier leaned in closer and got a whiff of her perfume...white flowers? Something light and floral. “That depends. Do you like bad boys?”

  Now Emma just threw her head back and laughed. The sound was all light and air—music to Xavier’s ears. The only thing he loved more than making a woman laugh was making her come.

  “No. Not usually. I’m the strictly nice guy type.”

  “How’s that working out for you?” Xavier sloshed his whiskey around the ice cubes in his glass, still studying her perfect cheekbones, and the lovely tilt of her chin. He wanted to kiss the tiny dimple that lay there.

  She self-consciously played with a strand of her hair, and glanced at him sideways. Her eyes sparkled just a little. She was flirting with him. He was one hundred percent sure.

  “Not that great,” she admitted. “All the nice guys I’ve dated ended up being...not so nice.” She frowned, her full, pink lips falling into a pout that could drive most men wild. “My last boyfriend decided a promotion was more important than me. He took the job across the country without even talking to me about it first.”

  “Maybe you should just start with a bad boy and then you know what you’re getting.” Xavier flashed a grin and Emma laughed.

  “Maybe,” she conceded. “Why are you on Nost?”

  Her eyes probed him for an answer. This was the journalist at work, he realized. He liked the fire in her, the curious intelligence in her blue gaze. She wasn’t like the other women he’d met recently. This one thrived on information. Keeping it from her would be a challenge, but one he’d happily accept.

  “I love women,” he said. “Sex for me isn’t about me, it’s about them. I can’t be satisfied...unless they are. There’s nothing more beautiful...or more humbling than giving a woman pleasure.” To him, this was absolute truth. Nothing satisfied him more than seeing a woman, head back, mouth open, lost in ecstasy. Knowing that he brought her there.

  Emma shifted uncomfortably in her seat and rattled her drink. “But don’t you want...more? Don’t you want love and...a real relationship and all of it?”


  “I used to want that. I had that,” he said, feeling a wave of sadness that was stronger than he expected. “I was engaged last year. But...” He thought of Sasha, of finding the passionate text messages she’d sent to another man, of the photos she’d sent wearing the lingerie he’d bought her. Those images would be seared into his brain forever. “I found out she’d been sleeping with someone else. Actually, a lot of someones.” He took a long sip of his whiskey, the alcohol leaving a distant burning sensation down his throat. “I’d never been so blindsided. So...heartbroken.” He shrugged. “I guess I’m just not ready for any of that, anything more serious. Not right now. Maybe not ever.”

  “She did a number on you,” Emma said, her blue eyes sad, empathy radiating from them.

  He nodded and shrugged.

  “What was her name?”

  “Sasha,” he said, almost at the level of a whisper. “I thought she was the one.” He remembered her dark eyes, her throaty, sexy laugh. The fact that she’d been so free in bed, willing to try anything, game for whatever he asked. Turned out, he wasn’t the only one she was free with.

  “But she wasn’t.”

  “No,” he said, biting off the word, eager to stop talking about Sasha. “But what about you? Why don’t you like the idea of Nost?”

  Xavier moved closer, and their knees touched. Emma didn’t move away. He took that as a good sign.

  She swooped her long, shaggy blond bangs from her forehead. “It seems like it’s just what men want. Not what women want. Women want commitment, they want relationships...”

  “Yes, with the right man, but what about the freedom to indulge in a fantasy, to play with someone who’s not the right man, but then walk away the next day? There’s something more liberating in that for women than men.” Now Xavier felt like he was right back in front of the venture capitalists, telling them why Nost was worth their time, and more importantly, their money. “Look, women choose. They always choose. We men? We’re powerless over that. We wait for you to decide. The power’s all yours.”