CHAPTER 3

          ‘Was it me? Did I just do that? Did I just go straight to that gorgeous piece of man and shoved my tongue in his mouth?’        

          Wobbling slightly, Navy returned to Paige. But it seemed that while she was gone, her friend had made a… friend of her own. Navy watched Paige as she talked to a guy who had taken up residence at their booth.

          Feeling kinda bold after two drinks and a quick session of French kissing, Navy scooted in on the far side and looked straight at the stranger. Looking at her and Paige, that guy thought he was getting lucky. He started smirking at Navy, in his head already planning a threesome.

“Not going to happen… Beat it, buddy!” Navy exclaimed.  

          She hooked a thumb over her shoulder and scowled. When he left with a confused shrug, Navy buried her face in her hands.

“Oh, my God… Paige, what did I do?! I can’t believe I kissed a stranger! I went to him, put my arms around his neck, and stick my tongue down his throat… And now I need a fucking drink!”

          Realizing that her own glass was empty, Navy reached across the table and snatched Paige’s beer bottle from her hands.

“Hey! Keep your paws away!” Paige yelled, attempting to take back her drink.

          Navy assumed that Paige was more upset about her stolen drink than she was about the newly vacated seat next to her.

“I can’t believe you dared me to do that… Why did you do it? Why, Paige?”

“Oh, my God… Would you just calm down?!” Paige said.

          Navy looked back at the bar and saw that the man she had kissed was gone, but the bartender was still there. She was suddenly parched, and she certainly couldn’t go back up there. She didn’t think she could even face him again.

          How was she supposed to get another drink? Or even pay her tab when they were ready to leave? Navy didn’t think of those damn things when she had made the stupidest, most impulsive decision of her life in kissing the stranger at the bar.

“I can’t calm down… I just can’t… And I need another drink.”

“Well, leave my beer alone and get your own drink,” Paige countered, snatching back her bottle. “But, just for the record… I cannot believe you actually kissed that guy! I’m super impressed, my friend!”

          Navy measured the distance between herself and the bar and caught the eye of the bartender, who was watching her with curiosity.

“I can’t go back up there, Paige… That guy was talking to the bartender like they were best friends or something. I just can’t do it.”

          Paige pushed herself up from the table.

“Oh, my God… Fine! I’ll get you something. You’re such a drama queen… What do you want? A bottle of vodka? Or do you want something a little crazier in celebration of your turn as a woman who kisses strange men in a bar?”

          Navy brought her forehead to the table.

“Just another vodka cran would be great,” she muttered.

          With Paige gone, Navy had a chance to think about what she had done. What if the man wasn’t single? She hadn’t seen a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean anything. He could have taken it off… If he really did that, he’s the scummiest guy in the world… Or maybe he had a girlfriend… a fiancée…

          ‘Oh, God… I just kissed another woman’s husband… or boyfriend… or fiancé…’ she thought, burying her face in her hands once again… ‘Does this make me a home wrecker? Nope… I don’t think so… Not if I haven’t actually wrecked his home.’

          And she wasn’t going to do that. She had no intention of actually seeing him again. It was a one-time thing and…

“Oh, God… I basically assaulted the guy…” she whispered.  

          Navy began to panic even more as the thought overtook her. If a man had walked up to her and just kissed her, forcing his tongue in her own mouth, she would be absolutely outraged! He would definitely be rinsing her pepper spray from his eyes and icing his groin all night.

          ‘How could you do it, Navy Remington?’

          If she ever saw him again, she would definitely have to apologize, grovel even. She felt awful. This would be the absolute last time she would follow Paige’s advice on ‘living a little’.

          She didn’t understand how Paige could do whatever she wanted without worrying about the consequences of her actions. But it certainly wasn’t how Navy chose to live her life. Not by a long shot!

          Navy was almost shaking with panic when Paige came back to the table with their drinks and pushed the pink one toward her.

“The hot bartender, whose name, by the way, is Dustin, poured you a double, 'mon amie'. One look in your direction and he absolutely knew you were going to need it.”

“Kill me now, please…” she sighed looking at Paige like a whipped dog.

          Her friend smiled and squeezed her hand.

“Maybe next week… if you ask again nicely…” Paige added. “For now, stop panicking over nothing and… bottoms up!”

          Navy took a drink and grimaced at the taste of the extra alcohol. She drank again, and this time the pink drink slid down her throat more easily. She wasn’t a big drinker, but with the strength of the drink, plus the two or three she’d had earlier, Navy started to feel her uneasiness and panic slip away. A warm sensation rose from her belly and she felt herself relax a little.

“So,” Paige said, taking a sip of her beer, “tell me every single detail about that kiss.”

          ‘The kiss...’

          Navy could still feel his lips on hers, his taste on her mouth, and the coarse stubble of the five o’clock shadow that covered that strong, broad jaw grazing roughly against the soft skin of her face.

          She could smell his cologne, a blend of citrus, sandalwood, and innate maleness. And she could still hear his manly, low, sexy groan, which had vibrated through her when his lips parted and his tongue found hers.

          Navy recalled the sense of loss she had felt when she’d pulled away. Kissing him was wrong, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to feel the dark, handsome stranger all over her body…

          To find herself naked under him… Having hot, passionate sex… Preparing for the orgasm of her life… A mind-blowing orgasm like she’d never experienced… Keeping him inside her until they both stopped shaking…

“Navy? The kiss…?”

          She looked at Paige… Her friend wanted her to tell her about the kiss… How could she put it into words? Were there any words to describe the feeling of being pressed against that gorgeous god’s perfect body? She struggled to find them, to come up with anything that would even come close to relating the experience to another person.

“It was… good,” Navy said simply, knowing that ‘good’ didn’t even come remotely close to describing the entire experience.

“‘It was good’…” Paige repeated, clearly unconvinced. “Just ‘good’?”

“Actually, it was… very, very good,” she added with a shrug.

          Paige laughed.

“Oh, please… The way you looked when you came back to this table, and how you behaved, rambling and panicking, told me that it was more than just ‘very, very good’.”

          Navy flushed, suddenly warm. From the temperature of the club? The alcohol? Her reaction to the man?

“Okay, it was AMAZING! But what does it matter, Paige?” Navy said, finishing her drink in one long swallow, dismissing the entire thing. “He’s a great kisser and I’ve never felt like that before… But it was a moment... It’s not like I’m going to see him again tomorrow…”

          Her friend smirked, pursing her cherry-red lips.

“Seattle might be the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America, but I still think it’s way too small. Amongst its over 4 million people there’s the guy you just kissed, and I’m pretty sure you’re going to see him again… and soon.”

          Navy leaned back in the booth, the back of her head resting on the plush leather upholstery. She inhaled deeply. Yeah, the alcohol was definitely pumping through her veins. She quickly put the gorgeous man at the bar out of her mind. She was now ready to have some well-deserved fun.

          When a song she loved drove through the speakers of the club’s sound system, Navy stood quickly. A little too quickly, as evidenced by her slight wobble. She grabbed Paige’s hand.

“Come on, sweetie! No more talking about kissing strangers… Let’s hit the dancefloor! I need to shake this feeling away.”

          Paige’s mouth dropped in surprise and she squealed with glee.

“It’s about damn time, Navy! Hell, I absolutely LOVE the new Navy Remington.”

          At that moment, Navy did, as well. The music pumped, as did her body to the beat. She focused on nothing else but how she felt right then and there. She dismissed all thoughts of her upcoming final exams and her 9 a.m. class, and she allowed Paige to pull her into the center of the dancefloor, something she never did.

          But neither her mind nor her body could forget the gorgeous stranger. In an attempt to shake his image from her mind and the feel of his lips burning on her own, Navy danced harder.

          She tried dancing even harder, but it was no use… He wouldn’t leave her alone. Perhaps instead of just kissing him, Navy should have talked to him, asked him his name, and gotten his number.

          Something… a movement caught her eye and Navy stopped dancing and looked around. The music went away, the people around her disappeared… What was going on? Was this an out-of-body experience?

          Navy turned slowly to her right and… It was him…

          The gorgeous stranger was standing on a staircase that overlooked the dancefloor. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest. And she was transfixed when he raised his hand to scrub along the rough bristles of his jaw, before dragging it through his brown hair.

          It would have been her chance… to go up there and talk to him. If only she had time to cross through the packed dancefloor to get to him.

          She felt a sharp pang of remorse when he turned and walked up the dark staircase, forever relegating himself to her memory as the gorgeous stranger she kissed one night.

          Navy shook her head at the events of the evening. She started to dance again, more calmly this time…

          It was fun, but it was definitely over. Tomorrow she’s going to be the old Navy Remington again…