“Care to join me for a spin?” Blake inclined his head toward the floor, where several couples were already swaying to the soft, jazzy tunes.
“Love to.”
Blake pulled her into his arms and draped her arms over his broad shoulders, then he placed his hands on her hips and tugged her body into his.
Asia enjoyed the feel of Blake’s hands spanning her waist and the muscles bunching on his arm. She rested her hand on his shoulder and felt her skin heat at the contact.
“You’re a surprise, Asia Reynolds.” Blake said, and she glanced up into his handsome face. Thick dark lashes fanned around hooded eyes that, right now, were peering into her brown ones.
“How so?”
“I asked you out tonight on a whim,” Blake confessed as he moved them around the dance floor with ease, “because you intrigued me. You’re very passionate about your work, about life in general. It’s extremely attractive.”
If Asia’s brown skin could blush, it would have. “I’m glad, because the feeling is mutual. I’d hate to think I was out here on the ledge all by myself, admiring you.”
He grinned. “I like your honesty, Asia. It’s very refreshing. So can I be equally honest?”
“Please.”
“I want to kiss you.”

Heat coursed through Asia’s body at Blake’s words, and she focused on the sensual line of his lips, which was surrounded by sexy stubble. How would it feel to have his lips on hers? “I’d like that.”
He grinned. “Good.” He glanced around them. “But not here. I don’t want an audience.”
Neither did she.
The first time she felt Blake’s lips on hers, Asia wanted complete privacy so she could revel in the moment, because the yearning to taste him had been building for hours. The times she’d found his eyes on hers, or those moments when his thigh had brushed hers underneath the dinner table, had been leading up to this.
“Let’s go,” he whispered, and before Asia knew it, he was leading her down a hallway, away from the crowd. Asia blindly followed because she was ready to extinguish the flames that had been sparking between them all night.
“Here.” He led her into a darkened room.
Asia’s eyes didn’t have time to acclimate to the darkness before Blake was pressing her backward against the door, but she let him. She fit her curves against the hard line of his body, and when he cradled her head, tilting her upward, her breath hitched. She couldn’t wait for him to put his mouth on hers, but instead of doing just that, he prolonged the moment, making her wait for it. His thumb trailed a slow, torturous path across her lips, and she shuddered in anticipation.
Only when he felt her surrender did his mouth find hers in a kiss so hot and heavy, Asia let out a sigh of unadulterated bliss. He tasted as good as he looked, and she wanted more. He gave it to her by slanting his mouth across hers and deepening the kiss. It was so hot, she felt as if she were melting from the inside out. When was the last time she’d felt this instant attraction to a man? The answer was never.
Blake’s tongue teased and stroked hers, dragging helpless moans from her body. Asia desperately tried to get closer to him because he was hot and warm and everything she wanted. His hands moved to her bottom, molding and squeezing her until he could put her exactly where he wanted her, against his rock-hard erection. Asia wiggled her hips and whimpered in response.
Sexual need was building inside her and Blake must have felt it, too, because then he lowered her dress over her shoulders. He rained a trail of kisses from her shoulders to her breasts. To her utter delight, he began to suck her through the lace of her strapless bra.
“Ah!” Asia threw back her head and Blake grasped her thigh, drawing her leg up to hook it around his waist. Then he pressed his hard ridge against the cradle of her sex. Asia thought she might fly apart, especially when his lips devoured her nipple.
“Jesus, you’re so responsive,” Blake murmured, lifting his head. “I want you.”
“I want you, too.”
“Then we need to move to a different location,” Blake said, lowering her leg so she could stand on both feet.
Asia glanced around and realized they were in a study lined with shelves of books. This was no place to be getting busy. As she fixed her dress, Asia thought about whether she should be rethinking the sensibility of her actions, but then she looked at Blake and saw the gleam of desire in his eyes. No way was she turning back from this moment. She took his outstretched hand and let him lead her off the edge of the cliff.