Wildfire

Chapter 6

The night outside felt electric with possibility. With danger. With promise.

The cool evening air hit her flushed face like a badly needed wake-up call as they exited the bar, one she willfully chose to ignore in favor of chasing this feeling, this moment, this man.. Manhattan had shifted while they were inside - the streets emptier but edged with restless energy, the lights sharper and more surreal against the inky sky, everything feeling slightly tilted, like she was viewing her familiar city through a funhouse mirror. Or maybe that was just the effect he had on reality itself, bending it effortlessly to his will like he did everything and everyone else.

His car waited at the curb - black, sleek, top down. Exactly the kind of car this man in black would drive, all purring power and reckless sensuality barely leashed. Jay opened the passenger side door for her with a flourish that somehow managed to be both playfully gallant and intensely predatory

"Having second thoughts?" he asked softly, one corner of that tempting mouth curling up as he clearly caught her split second of hesitation. The knowing lilt of his voice suggested he had already divined the answer.

Lauren slid into the cold leather seat, a delicious shock against her overheated skin even through the thin barrier of her dress."About getting into a car with my own therapist in the middle of the night, driving God knows where?" She lifted a brow, trying for casual defiance even as her heart raced. "Shouldn't I be?"

"Ah, but I'm not your therapist right now, am I?" Jay countered smoothly as he moved with lithe grace to claim his place behind the wheel, the powerful engine purring to life. "And you're not the careful writer who came to my office." His hand found her knee in the darkness. "Tonight we're just two people who want the same thing."

"And what's that?"

Instead of answering, he pulled into traffic with elegant precision. The wind whipped through her hair, carrying away thoughts of deadlines and proper behavior. His hand stayed on her knee, thumb tracing small circles that sent shivers up her spine.

"Where are we going?" she finally managed to ask breathlessly as he turned the car onto a quieter side street, the towering corporate behemoths giving way to darkened storefronts and dimly lit walk-ups.

Jay glanced at her, streetlights catching his profile in a way that made her breath catch. "Somewhere perfect for tonight. Trust me?"

She shouldn't. God, she knew she shouldn't. Not this man, not this moment, not this rewriting of all her carefully crafted rules. And yet...

But as the city blurred past them and his hand moved slightly higher on her thigh, Lauren realized she'd stopped caring about 'should' the moment he'd said her name in that velvet-dark voice.

The city streamed past them, a blur of lights and possibilities. Jay handled the car with the same fluid grace he'd shown on the dance floor - confident, precise, just this side of dangerous. At a red light, he reached for the music controls.

The opening notes hit Lauren like a physical shock, resonating down to her bones with the force of deep recognition. It was her song - that one haunting melody she played on endless repeat while writing her darkest, most intensely emotional scenes, the one she had never breathed a word about to another living soul. An obscure, evocative track she had discovered quite by accident years ago that perfectly captured the seductive siren call of surrendering to something forbidden, dangerous, and utterly irresistible.

"You... you know this song?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Don't sound so surprised." Jay chided with a smile saturated in sinful promise as the light turned green and he guided the car forward, quickly gaining speed. "We might have far more in common than you realize."