Free Three Little Words by Lauren Hawkeye Page B

hazel eyes, the scruffy chin, the devil may care expression and look that said he got whatever he wanted, when he wanted it...
                Something churned in my gut, a kind of need that I hadn’t experienced for a long time. The kind that had once led me to approach hot guys at parties and the bar for no reason other than hot sex.
                “I’m Dorian.” He held out a hand for me to shake. I stared at it for a beat before offering my own, which he lifted to his lips for a hot, moist kiss.
                “Smooth, aren’t you?” The rustiness was receding, and I felt a hint of my old tendency to flirt pushing through the layers with which I’d surrounded myself. “I’m Adele.”
                “I try.” He grinned and kept hold of my hand, like he had every right to. The prolonged contact should have made me freak out, and instead I felt pleasant little frissons of heat radiating outward from the touch.
                I’d spent two years avoiding the males of the species entirely, and now here in one afternoon were two who not only didn’t completely freak me out, but who made my body respond.
                Maybe it was a sign. It was time for me to try to move on with my life.
                “Nice tats,” Dorian massaged the tender spot between my thumb and forefinger. I shivered, partly from the touch, and partly because my instinct was to grab my sweatshirt and hide the ink, the symbol of who I used to be.
                Fuck it . Let him look. I wanted to bring that old me back.
                “Thanks.” Not sure what, exactly, had come over me, I leaned forward and lowered my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I have more.”
                Oh my God . Where were those words coming from? Surely then weren’t mine.
                My heart thudded in my chest when Dorian whistled, long and low. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, sweetheart.”
                I couldn’t help it—I grinned. Something about this guy’s ridiculously overt style of flirtation was irresistible, though I sensed a core of steel underneath. Maybe it was the fact that I couldn’t have found someone more different from Mal if I tried.
                Or maybe I was just ready to move past that awful night, to take control of my life again. This guy was a stranger, but he made me feel relaxed, like the girl I’d once been.
                “What are you doing after practice?” The teasing was gone as Dorian looked down into my eyes, and I shivered at the intensity I read there.
                The last guy I’d been this attracted to had been... well... Mal. And though I’d admired him from afar for a bit before finally deciding to approach him, the attraction had been a slow burn compared to what I felt right now.
                Instant heat, the kind that might burn me but would be intense and amazing before it did.
                Pulling my hand free, I considered, still not able to make a snap decision like I once would have done. On a normal day I would never have considered encouraging attention from any guy, not even one as hot and overtly sexual as this one. But seeing Mal had stirred me up, and I was feeling all kinds of reckless.
                All kinds of needy.
                “You tell me.” I smiled slowly before skating backwards, away from Dorian, giving him time to peruse my body with his eyes, which he did. Blatantly. A tremor of nerves made my knees shake when I realized what I’d just done, but I set my resolve and stayed the course.
                I’d fought my way through some serious shit, and had triumphed. But I was an empty shell of what I’d once been.
                Was it so bad to welcome a little bit of recklessness back into my life? Just a bit? I’d be careful of course,