Chapter 10

Alice

I felt like a mess and I hated it. Between the conversation at dinner and the wine swirling around in my head, I could feel my emotions getting the better of me. Looking out onto the sweeping cityscape beyond the balcony, part of me wished that I’d said “no” to this whole stupid lie, told my editor that I wouldn’t be able to do this particular assignment, and just accepted whatever the consequences might’ve been.

But no—I had to be the cool professional who thought that my history with Connor meant nothing more than an easy “in” for the article. And now, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was paying the price.

The balcony door opened behind me, bringing me out of my thoughts. I didn’t need to turn around to see just who was there. Connor approached me on my right and joined me in looking out into the city. For several long moments, neither of us spoke.

Finally, Connor broke the silence.

“You did good in there,” he said. “You handled that well, considering the circumstances.”

“Glad I could be a good little liar for you,” I said, the words coming out in a cutting tone, as if on their own.

Connor turned toward me, one of his dark, thick eyebrows raised.

“You are aware that this is what we agreed to, right?” he asked. “I know it’s not the most honest situation in the world, but it’s going to work out well for the both of us.”

He was right. That didn’t make me any less frustrated, however.

“And your kid?” I asked. “Could’ve used some warning about that!”

“I figured you knew,” he said, shrugging slightly. “I mean, who did you think those pictures in the apartment are of? Some kid I just thought was really cool?”

“Save the sass,” I said.

He smirked and raised a hand, conceding the point.

“Sorry,” he said. “Like I said, from here on out I’ll make sure that you’re on the exact same page as me with everything. No more surprises.”

I was happy to hear this, but it didn’t temper how I felt about the conversation during dinner.

“But I get the sense that’s not all you’re mad about.”

“I’m not mad,” I quickly spoke.

“You didn’t seem too pleased about the topic of our relationship during dinner. The true parts, at least.”

I measured my words carefully, not wanting to be overly emotional about the whole thing. After a few long moments, I spoke.

“That’s because I wasn’t,” I said. “It’s just…I know it was a long time ago, and I know I should be over it. But you were my first, you know? And girls don’t just sleep with their first guy if they think he’s just going to use them and toss them aside like they’re nothing. And I know that I should’ve known about your reputation, but I was a dumb kid just happy to have the hottest guy in school paying attention to me.”

The words blurted out, like I didn’t have any control over them.

“And then when you did just drop me, when you acted like I was stupid or something for not somehow getting that it was over between us, it hurt. It fucking hurt like nothing else.”

Connor watched me as I spoke, his expression one of careful consideration.

“And I thought I could play it cool, that I could leave all of that shit in the past, but I guess I can’t. And talking about it just opened up the wounds again. Now I don’t know what to think.”

I took another sip of my wine despite knowing that any more booze would just make me blabber even more.

Connor continued to regard me carefully, and when he figured I wasn’t going to say anything else, he spoke.

“Listen,” he said. “I know there’s nothing I can do about what I did. It’s all in the past, and I can’t change it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel terrible about what I’ve done.”

I let out a dismissive snort.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re all sorts of bent out of shape about every one of the girls you pumped and dumped back then.”

“I’m not,” he said. “But I am about you.”

I didn’t have a comeback for that. It wasn’t what I was expecting him to say.

“I’m a different man than I was all those years ago,” Connor said. “And I know there’s no way that I can prove it to you with words, so you’ll just have to see for yourself.”

“And you expect me to believe you when you say that you weren’t bothered about any of those other girls, but you were about me?”

“I don’t expect you to believe anything,” he said. “But it’s the truth. And having you bring it up during dinner like that just made it even more apparent, like it wasn’t something I could pretend wasn’t true. You meant something to me, Alice, something that those other girls didn’t. And I’m not sure what it was, but having you here in my life has made it clear that it’s not going away.”

I didn’t know what to say to any of this. On the one hand, it could’ve all just been pretty words, chosen specifically to calm me down. It’s not like Connor wasn’t known for his silver tongue.

On the other hand, he seemed sincere. There was something in his eyes, something deep and serious, something that made me feel as though this wasn’t another one of his honeyed speeches, like the ones he’d told to me and so many other girls over the years.

I went back and forth, trying to figure out what to make of Connor, this new Connor who seemed to be genuinely contrite for what he’d done. And just when I’d settled on how I felt, I’d move over to the other way of thinking, going back and forth and back and forth and back—

And then he kissed me.

Any thoughts that I’d had were obliterated the moment his lips touched mine. A warm rush flowed through my body as he pressed up against me, and I froze in place ramrod straight, my eyes wide open in shock.

At first, I didn’t know what to do. My first instinct was to fall into the kiss, to let him do with me what he clearly wanted. But I wasn’t going to let him have me that easily. After all, I’d resisted him before.

“This is bad,” I said, placing my hands on his hard shoulders and pushing him away. “We can’t…not after everything…”

“I’m not doing anything we both don’t want,” he said. “And you know it.”

He had me dead to rights. He saw my feeble protests for what they were and effortlessly swatted them out of the way. And I was bare before him, waiting for Connor to go in once more.

And that’s just what he did.

He kissed me again, this time harder and deeper. His tongue slipped past my lips and into my mouth, playing with mine. I returned his kiss, soft moans slipping from my mouth as we made out. My hands stayed on his shoulders, but now they were there to take in the sensation of his beefy muscles through his shirt, rather than push him away.

Bad, bad, bad, I thought as he kissed me, his hands moving over my body, rubbing my breasts through my dress before sliding down the curves of my hips and coming to a stop on my ass. No good at all.

“I think we need to go inside,” he said, pulling his lips away from mine for just long enough to speak.

I knew this was my last chance. If I was going to protest, to tell him this wasn’t a good idea—and mean it—this was my chance. Instead, I said:

“I think you’re right.”

Then, that little smirk of his, that subtle pulling up of the right side of his red lips, formed on his face. He grabbed hard onto my ass and lifted me up effortlessly. I wrapped my legs around him as he carried me back inside and to the bedroom.

We were right back at it once the door was shut.

“As fucking good as you look in that little party girl dress of yours,” he said, his eyes moving slowly over my body, “all I’ve been able to think about all night is just what you’re wearing underneath.”

Goddamn, he always knew just what to say to get a girl good and wet. I felt myself positively dripping as soon as the words left his mouth.

Then I decided to show him just what he’d been fantasizing about.

Turning around and reaching back, I took the zipper between my fingertips and pulled the dress down slowly. Once the zipper was down to my waist, a hint of my black lace thong showing, I shucked it off my shoulders and pulled it down, down. I threw Connor a glance over my shoulder and saw that his eyes were hard and narrow, and his cock was pressed against his pants.

He wanted it so badly that he couldn’t even speak. I had power over him, and I loved it. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want that cock deep inside of me right then and there.

“Now you,” I said, taking my hands from my dress and letting it hang down to my legs.

Connor was more than happy to play my little game. He quickly undid his tie and tossed it across the bedroom, then went to work on the buttons of his shirt. I turned, watching with hungry eyes as he exposed more and more of his incredible, shredded physique.

He took his dress shirt off and dropped it to the floor, and I took a long moment to appreciate just how fucking sexy he looked. He still had the same toned, defined muscles as he did in high school, but he must’ve been hitting the gym these days. Rather than the sexy swimmer’s body I remembered, he was big, bulky, and cut. His pecs were solid squares, his abs were lean and sinewy, and his arms were like freaking tree trunks.

I wanted that body on top of me so fucking bad I could hardly stand it.

And evidently, he was done with our little game. Stepping over to me, hunger in his eyes, he took hold of my hips and slid his hands down, peeling the rest of my dress off me. Moments later, I was in nothing but my bra, panties, and heels.

By this point I was so turned on that I was running on pure sexual instinct. I quickly undid his belt and zipper, a soft gasp slipping past my lips as I felt his cock through his pants.

“Someone’s not wasting any time,” he said, that cocky little smirk still on his lips, that look that made me want to kiss him and slap him all at the same time.

“Why wait?” I asked as I slipped my fingers under the waistband of his boxer-briefs and pulled them down along with his pants.

His massive, thick cock sprang out, already stone-solid and dripping just for me. As I bent down to take his pants off of his feet, I couldn’t help but take hold of his cock and wrap my lips around the head, sucking it slowly for several long moments, letting the salty-sweet taste of his pre-cum linger on my palate.

“How does that taste?” he asked, his voice a low growl.

I couldn’t answer right away—my mouth was a little occupied, after all. But once I finished taking all of him into my mouth and slowly sliding my lips up his shaft, my tongue lashing along his length all the while, I let his cock drop out of my mouth, a string of saliva connecting my wet lips to his prick.

“It tastes like fucking heaven,” I said.

That was all Connor needed to hear. He slipped his hands under my armpits and lifted me to my feet. He undid my bra with the expert skill of a man who’d done it thousands of times before.

“No,” he said, as I was about to step out of my heels. “Leave those on.”

Now it was my turn to smirk. I shimmied out of my thong and kicked it aside as Connor led me over to the bed. I prepared to turn around and hop back on the bed, but Connor had other plans in mind. He clapped his hands down hard on my hips and held me in place.

“No,” he said. “Just like that—your ass pointing right up at me.”

I smiled and bit my lower lip, ready for what was next. Connor moved me forward and I climbed onto the end of the bed, getting on all fours and preparing for him to mount me like a wild animal in desperate need of a rut.

Connor placed his hand on my upper back, moving his touch over my smooth skin. Next, I felt the sensation of his slick, wet head against my swollen, eager lips.

“Oh, don’t make me wait,” I said, my voice thick with arousal. “Put it in me, please.”

“Tell me how badly you want it,” he said.

I smirked again as if the fact that my round, full ass was right on his cock wasn’t a clear-enough message.

“So fucking badly,” I said, the words slipping past my lips on a hot breath.

And those were the magic words. Connor rubbed his head up and down my cunt and then drove himself right into me, full and deep. I grabbed onto the bed sheets as he entered me, the pleasure almost too much to bear. Inch by inch he penetrated me, and as he reached the end of his length a girlish little squeal shot out of my mouth. I was in heaven.

Now fully buried, right down to the hilt, Connor slapped his hands down hard on my ass, the sharp crack sounding through the bedroom. Then he started fucking me.

His thrusts were slow and deep as he moved in and out of me, each new plunge of his cock sending fresh waves of ecstasy through my body. I tensed, doing my best to not melt into a puddle of pure sexual delight as he did his work.

“Goddamn, I’d almost forgotten how good your fucking pussy feels,” he said, his words coming out on a grunt.

I would’ve said I felt the same way about his cock, but truth be told, I’d never forgotten about how good that felt.

Soon he was driving into me with full force, my breasts swaying back and forth with each collision of Connor’s hips into my ass. I was so wet that I couldn’t believe it, my pussy so slick that his cock fit into me like a key into its lock.

Connor continued to pound me hard, and soon the first stirrings of orgasm swirled inside of me. Each plunge of his cock made the pleasure tighter and tenser, and I soon felt like a bomb ready to go off.

“Oh god,” I moaned. “I’m gonna…”

“You’re gonna what?” growled Conner, now pounding me at a steady rhythm, the sounds of flesh-on-flesh filling the air.

“I’m gonna…come!”

And at that announcement, it happened. The orgasm burst through me, pleasure whipping and roiling through me like a storm-tossed ocean of pure sex. I fell forward, burying my face into the sheets in front of me, the fabric muffling my wild moans.

Then, with a grunt, Connor came. Through the pulsing of my orgasm, I felt him explode inside of me, shooting his load nice and deep into my pussy. He squeezed my ass hard, taking in the texture of my soft, smooth flesh as he came.

It was all like nothing I’d ever felt before.

Eventually, our orgasms faded and we both collapsed into a sweaty heap onto the sheets. We lay for a time in silence, the only sounds our heavy breaths.

And soon, the day caught up with me. My head resting on Connor’s hard, sweat-slicked chest. I fell into a deep sleep.