Chapter Twenty-Four
Ransom
“Come on--there’s only like three other people here apart from the cleaning crew,” I told Bethany.
I’d noticed that in spite of how hot and heavy we’d gotten in the closet, and how much I could tell she wanted to do more than just dance with me, she was trying to wring all the fun she could from the dance, even though it had been increasingly getting lamer the more people left.
“I guess,” she said.
We left the ballroom and when we got to the elevator, we were totally on our own for the ride up to the room.
“I thought your shoes were hurting your feet and you wanted to get one more round of sex in,” I pointed out to her as we stood there.
“I did--and they do,” she admitted. “It’s just that it hit me all at once that this was fake, and now that the roads and airport are clear, there’s nothing else. It’s over.”
I heard her voice catch and she turned away. I was pretty sure she was trying not to cry.
She continued, “I know it was fake, but it’s been the best relationship I’ve had, and I guess I’m just down about going back to my old single life.”
Without even thinking, I turned her around and pulled her into my arms and kissed her. I could feel the need in Bethany’s body, almost radiating out of her, and I wanted to do something to end the sadness I could hear in her voice.
The elevator pinged, and I broke away from her, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the little room and onto the hallway. “I need to tell you something,” I said.
“What?” She was almost as startled by what I was doing then as she’d been when I’d proposed, and I gestured for her to wait. We got into the room and I pushed her toward the bed to sit down.
“You wanted to know what I needed access to your files for,” I said, taking a deep breath. I poured myself a shot of vodka from the bottle and knocked it back. I hadn’t even been sure I was going to do this until I’d started talking.
“Okay, so you need to tell me about that?” she asked.
I poured another shot for myself--and after looking to confirm she wanted one too, I poured one for Bethany. We both knocked back our liquor and I felt a little less nervous.
“I think you know Ransom isn’t my real name,” I started. “It’s not the name I was born with and it isn’t even the name I had until a good...maybe five or so years ago.”
“I kind of figured it was some kind of moniker you made legal,” Bethany said.
“I wanted to get into your agency’s system to find out who my birth parents were,” he said. “I still have a birth father, alive nearby. But what I really want to tell you is that I was born Patrick Cartwright. And then, when I was about three or four, I became Patrick Nolan.”
Bethany’s eyes widened. “Patrick Nolan?”
I nodded. “My adoptive parents were Janice and Raymond Nolan.”
“But they’re from here--that would mean…” Bethany shook her head. “Did they send you to private school or something?”
“Eventually they did,” I replied with a wry grin. “Before that they sent me to the public school, hoping that would keep my life as normal as possible. I was about two years ahead of you, but I remember you, Bethany.”
“You remember me?” Her voice was incredulous.
“You were a freshman, and I was a junior, but I remember seeing you around campus,” I said.
Bethany shook her head again. “You’re lying,” she said.
“I’m telling the truth. I remember you. I remember you performing at the talent show that year--I hadn’t wanted to go, but one of my friends was playing in a band and I felt like I had to.”
“If you remember, then what did I perform?” She raised an eyebrow and I smiled again.
“You did a song. ‘Dear Prudence.’ I think it was your friend Jess on guitar?”
Bethany’s eyes widened again and she just stared at me for a moment.
“You--you were really there,” she said, not quite turning it into a question.
“I was there. I saw you.” I took a deep breath. “Look, I told you that to tell you this. I actually kind of like you. Not enough to be engaged right now, but I like you a lot, Beth.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do, you idiot,” I said with a laugh. “You’re gorgeous and smart and if you ever decide to go into crime, you could run a multinational syndicate without breaking a sweat--you have that much nerve.”
“I don’t know about that,” Bethany countered.
“You could,” I insisted. “On top of that, I can’t believe that there isn’t a single guy in your life who hasn’t taken the time to make you come. God--do you know how great you are when you’re turned on? Do you have any idea how big of a thrill it is to feel you shaking because you’re all sexed up and feeling so good you can’t stand it?”
I put the shot glass down and moved to kiss her. She didn’t even hesitate to kiss me back.
“I didn’t really think about it,” she said absently when she had a moment to breathe.
“Making you come is like...like winning a prize,” I told her. My hands started moving over her body, and I remembered that neither of us had managed to finish during our little closet tryst. But I had to finish what I was saying, first.
“Winning a prize, that’s original,” Bethany said sarcastically.
I kissed her again, trying to keep my head above water long enough to get out what I wanted to say.
“If you don’t want to go back to being single, don’t,” I told her when I broke away from her lips. “You know about my parents--I inherited their money. I don’t have any real job to do. I could come with you back to the city and we could see if there’s something between us. Something real.”
I’d said what I wanted to say, but I didn’t want her to answer--not just yet. I kissed her again and started teasing her. I managed to get her dress off of her, and she started stripping me, distracted for the moment by what was going on between us. I wanted to blow her mind before I gave her a chance to think about what I’d said.
I didn’t even have to think about how to go at it anymore; the two times we’d already hooked up were enough to teach me what she liked, so I got down to it, worshipping her tits with my mouth and stroking and rubbing her as soon as I thought she was ready for it. We pawed at each other like animals, getting more and more worked up, and before too long, I had Bethany moaning, writhing underneath me as I fingered her hard and fast.
I got her to the edge in what I considered to be record time, and then she pushed my hand away. “You’re way ahead of me on points,” she said breathlessly.
“What?”
“I want to get you off,” she clarified.
I laughed. I was so hard I was aching, so I was in no position to say no. I let her do what she wanted, lying back on the bed as she worked her way down from my mouth to my cock, taking her sweet time until I was sure she was setting me up for the worst case of blue balls in the history of medical science. But she wasn’t, of course.
The feeling of her mouth on my cock was amazing, just like it had been the other times she’d gone down on me. How could any guy get pleasure like that from her and not want to make her come as hard and as often as possible? I had to struggle to hold back as she sucked and licked and moaned around my cock, getting herself turned on by getting me closer and closer to orgasm.
It was my turn to stop her, and I pulled her face up to mine to kiss her. “I think we should both enjoy it, this time,” I said. Bethany looked confused for a moment and then nodded, and I had the supreme pleasure of feeling her tight, hot, wet folds wrapping around my throbbing cock, taking me inch by inch.
We moved together like we’d been made for each other, and I made myself hold back as I felt the tension mounting in Bethany’s body. I knew it would take a while--I knew that even if I’d figured out the Konami Code of her body, it was not an instant win, but a marathon, and I was more than happy to run it again.
When I felt her shaking, when I heard her moans turning into almost-shrieks of pleasure, I knew I had her right where I wanted her. The moment when she came, I had to almost bite my tongue to keep from losing myself too. I held back for a few more seconds, maybe a minute, and then I couldn’t help myself. I came, holding Bethany’s body against mine, thrusting into her hard and fast as her orgasm waned and then crested again, all around me.
We both collapsed, holding each other, gasping for breath, and it was the best argument I could have possibly made for her to agree to my proposal. The only thing I could do was wait and see if she would go through with it. If she was brave enough to take the leap.
I kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her nose, her lips, and I waited for her to recover, and I waited for her to say something about my confession and proposition.