“Who is that?” she asked Leigh.

Her friend followed her gaze. “Ooh, that’s one of the owners. They’re all freaking hot.” She waved a hand in front of her face again, this time for a different reason.

Cliff handed her the water glass and said, “Wait for me here? I’ll be right back.” After pausing to kiss her cheek, he strode away.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s interesting.”

“Forget me. He’s staring at you.”

“Who?”

“The sexy owner, that’s who.”

Stunned into silence, Scarlett shifted her stare, and sure enough, hot guy had his eyes laser focused on her. Now that he’d moved closer and she got a better look, she realized words like hot or sexy just didn’t cover this man’s rougher, rugged looks. Not a pretty boy like the bartender but an Alpha male through and through. His shoulders were wide and broad, his expression dark as his eyes drank her in. His interest was stamped all over his face, interrupted only when an employee with a drink tray stopped to talk to him.

“Now that’s some serious lust at first sight,” Leigh said into her ear, talking over the din of the crowd.

Scarlett somehow managed a laugh, because her body was in heated overload due to that chemistry. “Yeah. Too bad I have no time in my life–”

“For a good fuck?” Leigh rolled her eyes. “Come on, Scarlett. Nobody’s asking you to date and marry the man. But when was the last time you indulged?” She didn’t have to explain what she meant.

“Brian,” Scarlett admitted. Her on-again, off-again boyfriend who’d become permanently off when her work schedule increased and was too much for him to handle.

“Well, that’s a pathetically long time. And he’s staring again.”

Scarlett met his gaze and her brain buzzed with hormones she’d packed away eight months ago. And she knew the thrill racing around inside her had nothing to do with the alcohol she’d consumed and everything to do with the sizzling promise in the stranger’s eyes.

“It’s your birthday,” her friend reminded her. “Why not treat yourself? Hmm?”

Scarlett drew a deep breath, the rational, smart part of her brain telling her she was an upstanding assistant district attorney with a huge caseload and a mountain of work. She couldn’t let herself be distracted. But the female part of her mind and body reminded her of exactly how long it had been since she’d indulged. And every instinct she possessed told her she’d never had the kind of dirty sex she’d wind up experiencing with this man.

As her inner good girl warred with the bad girl inside her, Leigh whispered, “Happy birthday,” in her ear.

“That’s it. I’m going for it,” Scarlett decided. Didn’t she deserve a night off? A selfish grab of time before she dove back into her crazy life?

“Yes!” Leigh’s fist pump made Scarlett laugh.

The problem was she couldn’t remember the last time she’d come onto a man with the express intent of taking him home. Or vice versa.