Violet

I was either in the best place on earth or some weird, Stepford wives’ holiday camp. The jury was still out. I tightened the belt to my robe and headed back to my bedroom from the pool, carrying my e-reader. When I’d come to England, I’d been looking for a fresh start, a flash of inspiration. The last thing I’d expected was to be alone at a spa, counting down until the company I’d co-founded went public without me having anything to do with it.

I’d thought my stay in England would be a lot like New York, just with different architecture and accents. But it had been completely different. There’d been fewer cocktails and less sex than I imagined—although what I’d lost in quantity I’d more than made up for in quality with Alexander, even if we’d only fucked once. Nothing was what I expected.

Back in New York, I’d known something wasn’t right with my life but for the first time in a long time, I was actually giving thought to what that was and what I wanted after thirty. I hadn’t come to any conclusions, but I was thinking further ahead than the end of next week.

I passed a couple in matching robes and smiled. Were matching robes in my future? I could move to Montana and live on a farm if I wanted—maybe go to the Cordon Bleu in Paris or move back to Connecticut. There was nothing stopping me going anywhere to do anything.

I let myself into my bedroom and began to get ready for dinner, but before I could step into the shower my phone rang.

“Scarlett, you will never guess where I am! I’m literally living your very privileged life,” I told my sister.

“What, you’re standing in your kitchen, covered in spit-up, deciding whether to clean up dog shit from the yard or change your baby’s diaper?”

“Well, when you put it like that. Maybe for once, I have the better end of the bargain. I’m at the spa.”

“I wish I were at the spa. How is it?”

“Oh, pretty perfect. I went on a hike this morning and then had a full body massage this afternoon. I’m just getting ready for dinner.”

“A hike? You? Who are you? Tell me you haven’t given up alcohol.”

I lay on my bed and stared out at the huge pine tree outside my window as it became a black silhouette against the darkening sky.

“I was worried about you. I didn’t know if you’ve seen the business pages at all.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” There was nothing to say. Scarlett knew the story. Talking about it wasn’t going to change anything. I just wish she or Darcy were here to distract me. “Are you thinking you might come over to the UK while I’m in London?”

“I’ll try but I can’t promise anything. I just wish I could be there now. A massage is just what I need.”

I missed my sister. Our lives couldn’t have been more different, but she and my brother had been the few constants in my world. I hadn’t realized until the last few weeks how much I relied on her as the anchor in my life.

“That’s okay. I’ll be home soon enough.”

“You’re not going to accept the extended contract?”

“Oh, I’m not sure yet. I’m going to see what Craig thinks of my ideas first. But even if I do stay, it’s only another three months.”

“And what about the man situation? It’s so not like you to be man-free for this long.”

I hadn’t told her about Alexander—not that there was anything to tell. Even though he’d asked me to dinner, I was pretty sure he’d forget or be too busy with work. As he’d said, he rarely took an evening off. So even though he was the best sex I’d ever had, and I was completely attracted to him, there didn’t seem any point in bringing it up with Scarlett.

Mini Scarlett, or Gwendoline, as my sister insisted on calling her daughter, began to cry in the background. Scarlett groaned. “I’m going to have to go. I thought she’d sleep for longer. I’m sorry.”

I wanted to talk longer, but I understood that being responsible for a tiny human was more important. “That’s okay. Call me again soon, right?”

“I promise. I love you.”

I slung the phone on my bed and went into the bathroom to turn on the shower. Scarlett might not be here to keep me company at dinner, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t blow-dry my hair and do my makeup as if I had a date with Ryan Gosling.

Last week I’d bought a super-cute black cocktail dress from a shop in Covent Garden. I’d seen it in the window when I’d first arrived and almost pressed my nose against the glass I wanted it so badly. It had taken three weeks of paychecks, putting a little bit of money aside each week, and I’d finally been able to afford it. I couldn’t remember the last time I saved up for anything, but as I’d got it home and slipped it on, I knew it had been worth it. I wasn’t one to show off my boobs but with the neckline on this dress there was no choice, and the V thinned toward the bottom so that it hinted at something rather than shouting it to the world. The black fabric had a shimmer to it and the loose skirt and the spaghetti belt all added up to casual glam.

London had been all about new experiences. Tonight I had a date with myself.

Alexander

This was either one of my better ideas or one of my worst. Violet had told me she was coming to the spa by herself, but that could have changed—she’d have no reason to update me. I didn’t know the whole story about the company she’d been involved with, but after she left I’d read the article she’d poured over in my copy of the Financial Times. It was an IT company founded by some guy at MIT. She’d said she’d been involved with the company, but the defeated look in her eye and her slumped shoulders after she’d seen the piece made me think that there was more to the story. What had happened that she was involved with a company about to float for a hundred million dollars, but she’d been working as a waitress? She’d said she needed distraction this weekend, and she’d seemed so unlike herself that I wanted to do something. And she had invited me, even if she’d been clearly joking. I’d thought that my turning up might be a good idea. My encounter with Gabby last weekend had been swirling around my brain all week. The things she’d said about my relationship with my father had been off base, but the fact was that three years had gone by and I’d barely noticed, hardly looked up from my desk. I didn’t think I’d left London once since I’d moved into the hotel, and I certainly had no memories of doing anything that wasn’t connected to work since my time with Gabby. Taking the evening off to have dinner with a beautiful woman seemed overdue. Now I was here, waiting for Violet, it felt like a ridiculous thing to have done. I should have at least called her to ask if it was okay. It wasn’t like we were dating. Or even fucking. It was just that I’d felt something shift between us as we shared dinner in my office together. Like maybe we were friends as I’d jokingly said to her. I didn’t have many benchmarks to measure friendship by, but I liked Violet.

I shifted in my chair at the bottom of the staircase of the hotel, clasping my hands on the arms and then linking them in my lap. My plan was to intercept her on the way to the dining room and ask her whether or not she wanted to move up our date. Hopefully she wouldn’t think I was an idiot. If she did, I was pretty sure she’d tell me. I chuckled at the thought.

Who the fuck was I becoming? I’d taken the night off work when I was already behind on my preparation for court next week, and I’d worn a Prada suit for her. I should probably head off before I made a complete fool of myself. I stood, thrust my hands into my pocket, and headed toward the door.

“Knightley?” Violet called from behind me.

I was too late.

I turned and glanced up the stairs.

“Alexander, is that you?” she asked, grinning as she came downstairs, her long legs moving elegantly, her skirt hitting her mid-thigh in a teasing, tempting way.

This woman.

Her smile grew as she came toward me and I couldn’t help but smile back, her infectious positivity relaxing me.

“What are you doing here?”

The curve of her neck, just visible beneath her wavy hair, and the subtle scent of jasmine left me breathless.

She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“You said you needed distraction, so I’m here to take you to dinner—unless you have other plans. You agreed to a date, after all.”

She grabbed my wrist as her eyes widened. “Brilliant! As you’d say in England.”

I offered her my arm and we headed toward the dining room.

“You came all the way to have dinner? That’s so nice of you.”

“I think you might just be worth it,” I said. I couldn’t ever remember thinking that about a woman before. Even with my wife I didn’t remember doing anything just because I wanted to make her happy.

Violet stopped abruptly and I turned to look at her.

“I just want to say that you being here, it’s really thoughtful. Thank you.”

She didn’t think I was a lunatic. It was good to know my judgment wasn’t entirely off. “I’m looking forward to having dinner with you. As I said, I like talking with you.”

She grinned and squeezed my arm and we continued to the dining room.

“Isn’t this incredible?” she asked, glancing around as we took our seats. “I hardly read a page at dinner last night, I was so taken with this little hobbit house.”

The ceiling of the dining room was low and, like the walls, was beamed and uneven. Most likely, the building was still the original wattle and daub. To me it looked like a thousand places I’d been to before, but it was nice that Violet was enjoying it.

“Is the food good?” I asked.

“Sure. I mean, if I don’t have to serve it, food always tastes better.”

“Were you really a waitress back in New York?” I asked as I placed the napkin in my lap and took the wine list and menu from the waiter.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I believe you. I just don’t understand it.”

“For four years.” She shrugged and scanned the menu, her hair tumbling over her shoulders. “I wanted a job where I could enjoy my life.”

It seemed so strange to me that a woman as clever and charming as Violet could be happy waiting tables. “And waitressing allows you to enjoy life?” I asked.

She put her menu down and looked at me as if she were really considering the question. “Yes and . . . no. I guess I thought it would.”

There were a thousand things she wasn’t saying that were hidden just beneath the surface of her words. But I was used to getting people to tell me the truth of a situation. I wanted to uncover all those secrets.

“What did you want to do when you started college?”

“I wanted to have my own business. I majored in computer science, so it gave me a lot of options.”

“Are you ready?” I asked Violet as the waiter approached. “And of course, you’re going to pre-empt my order, don’t forget.”

Violet didn’t even look up. “Oh, you’ll go for the venison, for sure.”

I turned to the waiter. “Apparently, I’ll have the venison.”

“I think I might have that as well. I’ve never tried it. Is it good?”

“It depends.”

Violet shook her head at me. “Don’t be too enthusiastic.” She turned to the waiter. “I’ll have the same. When in Rome and all that.”

“And you’ll have some red wine?”

“Only if you get a bottle. I don’t drink it by the glass,” she said, in a put-on English accent.

I tried not to give her the satisfaction of a smile and instead ordered something that looked like it might be halfway decent. The wine list wasn’t great, but the company more than made up for it.

“So you were telling me about what you wanted to do when you were at university.”

She shook her head. “Nothing more to tell.”

“You just decided to change ambitions from computer whiz to waitress?”

“Sure.” She reached out and shifted the salt and pepper so they were touching each other. “What did you want to do at college?”

“Become a lawyer.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. Because your dad was a lawyer?”

I hadn’t mentioned my father before, which made me wonder who’d told her about him. “I always enjoyed advocacy,” I said, evading the question.

“I heard he was like the world’s best barrister or something. He had a nickname . . .”

“Alexander the Great,” I filled in for her.

“That’s the one. How’s that, following in the footsteps of a man who was nicknamed after a Greek king who conquered the world before he was thirty?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. She’d summed it up perfectly, getting to the heart of an issue as she always did. “It was how you would expect it might be.”

“Well, that’s an answer from a lawyer if ever I heard one.”

The waiter came over and poured our wine. Violet and I didn’t take our eyes off each other, as if we both wanted to maintain the moment before we were interrupted.

“Takes one to know one,” I said once he’d left us.

She frowned. “I’m not a lawyer.”

“Yes, but you answer questions like one.”

“I do not.” She took a sip. “This is good.” She lifted her chin to indicate the wine.

“It’s only okay, and you’re evading again. What happened at college that made you think that you couldn’t enjoy your life doing anything but waitressing?”

“What makes you think something happened? People can change their minds about things.”

I didn’t respond. She was talking bollocks and I wanted to know the truth. For the first time since I’d met her, Violet was something other than confident and sure of herself when she’d seen that newspaper. I wanted to know what could shake her like that.

“If you must know, my boyfriend and I developed some software. We put together a business plan in our final year and after graduation we worked hard for two years to get it to market. We were just about to start talking to investors. We had the next three years of our lives planned out and all these ideas of where we were going to take our business and how much it was going to grow. We were going to get engaged after graduation and married once turnover reached a certain level. I had a lot of plans.”

“And?”

“And I found out he was fucking my roommate and the business I thought we’d set up together was only in his name.”

I seethed. “He stole from you?”

“And he cheated on me.”

I balled my hands into fists. “That’s stealing, too. I’m so sorry, Violet.”

She shrugged as if she didn’t care, but I could tell by the way her glance sank to her lap that she still felt betrayed by it.

“And that company that you founded. That’s the one that’s floating on Monday.”

She looked up at me, frowning.

“I read the article once you left.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. On Monday when the bell strikes he’ll be a multi-millionaire.”

I sat forward in my chair. “Jesus, Violet. It’s not right. You didn’t take legal action?”

“No. I was so blindsided I just walked away. I abandoned every plan I’ve ever had. I didn’t want to think about the level of betrayal, let alone live it again through some protracted legal case.”

“So you stopped planning and became a waitress.”

“I needed a new place to live and to earn some money right away. I had nothing. And waitressing was fun.” She paused and tilted her head. “At first. And the people were all about the here and now. College is supposed to be about drinking and partying and getting laid, but I’d been too busy working toward my future. Focusing on my boyfriend. I wanted to live in the moment, to bask in the sun when it was out.”

“But eventually, you didn’t want to put your degree to good use?”

“I didn’t want anything to do with MIT. It felt toxic. Cursed. And I had no other skills. All that time and effort I’d put into the business had been wasted. I didn’t want to make that mistake again.”

“I can understand that.” It all made sense—why this clever, charming girl was meandering through life. I wanted to pull her onto my lap and tell her I’d fix it for her—I’d sue the guy and then have him killed.

“You would never be so reckless, of course. You’re a planner, right?” She adjusted her cutlery, making sure it was all set in a straight line.

Part of me wished I hadn’t brought up college, she was clearly distressed about it, but another part of me was pleased that I had—I wanted to know what drove Violet. I didn’t just want to know the woman everyone else saw. I liked the one who lay just beneath the surface even better. I enjoyed understanding why she did what she did and said what she said.

“I’m not so good at living for the moment. Not so good at basking in the sun.”

“Is there a pot at the end of the rainbow that you’re looking for? An end goal? Or is the work itself the aim?”

I didn’t have a clever answer. Perhaps an honest one would do. “I don’t know. I guess the goal is to be the best at the bar.”

“Do you enjoy the work at all?”

“Absolutely. I love my job and can’t imagine wanting to do anything else.”

“But you’re doomed to never be satisfied with yourself.”

Nausea churned in my gut. “What makes you say that?”

She paused, clearly thinking carefully about what she was going to say. “Because being ‘the best’ is subjective and your dissatisfaction with yourself drives you. You’ll always think you can be better because you always can be. No one’s perfect.”

She’d left me speechless and I could do nothing but stare at her.

“You ever thought that if you lowered the bar—no pun intended—you’d be happier? Change up your goals?”

She said it like it was easy. Like I could just click my fingers and be satisfied with mediocrity. “Mediocrity was a sin in our house when I was growing up. I was expected not just to get good grades but to be the top of my class. If I took on a sport, I had to be the best or I had to endure my father’s disdain. Perhaps I’m just programmed to want to do better—to keep that bar as high as it will go.”

“Whatever the cost?” she asked.

“I focus on the reward,” I replied.

She shook her head. “Do you ever reexamine the reward? Ask yourself if it’s worth it? I’ve seen how hard you work.”

I shuddered. I’d never thought about it. I’d just had a goal and gone after it—whatever it took. I’d made up my mind what I wanted to do when I was still a child and from watching my father, I knew what it took. I didn’t have a choice if I wanted what he’d had. I’d never once since questioned the goal itself or considered the sacrifice. I glanced up and Violet was grinning at me and her smile overrode the chill that had run down my spine.

“I’m here,” I replied. “Doesn’t that count for anything? You can poke fun at me, but taking the whole night off is a big deal for me.”

She didn’t laugh as I expected her to. She just nodded. “I know, which is why I’m taking it as a compliment.”

I grinned at her. “You should. I wanted to come tonight. To spend the evening with you. And it takes more than it should to draw my attention away from work.”

“Well then I’d better be entertaining,” she replied, her eyes sparkling.

“You could never be anything but.”

She laughed. “You are crazy. Crazy handsome, yes, but crazy nonetheless.”

Violet

“Shall I order another bottle of wine?” Alexander asked as I set my glass back down. He was looking at me as if he wanted to uncover my deepest secrets, but he’d already managed to do that tonight. I hadn’t talked about MIT or David for a long time. I’d locked away the whole experience in a waterproof chest and dropped it into my memory’s ocean. But recently it had bobbed to the surface, and tonight Alexander had retrieved it and smashed it open. For a few months now, maybe even longer, there’d been a gnawing in my gut that had told me things weren’t right, that I needed a change. Maybe it had been the news about the IPO or losing my job, or maybe it had started before that. Whatever the reason, it had brought me to England. It wasn’t that I wanted to do clerical work forever, but my job in chambers was giving me confidence to think about what I really wanted in my career, in my life. I just hadn’t quite figured that out yet.

“Before we decide, I need to tell you that I’m going to say yes to the extension of my contract.”

He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs. “Does that mean you want another bottle to celebrate?”

“Are you okay with me saying yes?” I didn’t expect him to say no. But I wanted to know what he thought.

He looked at me the way he always did when he was trying to elicit more information from me than I was giving him. “Of course, you’re doing an excellent job.”

“So it’s no big deal that we’re sitting here, but will be working together?” He was clearly a private man. I wasn’t sure he’d want anything personal with someone he worked with, but I kinda did. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted a man as much as I wanted Alexander Knightley.

“Not unless we make it a big deal.”

“In that case, can we get the wine to take back to the room?” I asked.

“Oh, yes, of course. I should get going anyway. I’ll order a cab.” He glanced around as if trying to find a waiter.

My heart sank. He was leaving? “You’re going back to London?”

“You’re ready to go, right?”

“Back to my room—with you, I’d hoped.”

His eyes widened and the corner of his mouth twitched. “I was trying to be a gentleman.”

I tilted my head and smiled. “I don’t want you to be too gentle.”

Alexander groaned. “You’re sure?”

I nodded. “Let’s stay up all night and talk and drink wine, get naked, fuck, and talk some more. We can spend the whole night enjoying the moment.”

“Another bottle of wine to go,” Alexander told a passing waiter, “and the bill, please.”

As we walked up the wide staircase, I slipped my hand into Alexander’s. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d shared so much of myself with a man. I got physically naked with men all too often but rarely did I allow them to see as much of me as I’d revealed to Knightley. I didn’t even talk to Scarlett about David anymore. She often scolded me for being flighty and unfocused, but the truth was she’d never understood why. In one conversation Alexander knew more about me than people who’d been in my life for decades.

Alexander took my key and slid it into the lock, then held the door open as I stepped inside.

I set down the wine glasses I’d carried up and Alexander poured our drinks.

“I like your suit,” I said. “It’s better than a gown.”

He handed me a glass. “It’s Prada. Because, you know, that’s what all barristers should be wearing.”

“I approve,” I said, smoothing my hand up his lapel and cupping the back of his neck.

“Thank goodness.”

I grinned at his sarcasm. Somehow he managed to be charming without being too much. He got the balance just right.

He dipped his head and pressed his lips to mine and that light, heady feeling I got when he kissed me in his office enveloped me. Too soon, he pulled back. I was impatient. I wanted more. I had to get to the part where his hands were on me, his tongue was over me and his cock was in me. I needed to understand whether it was as good as I remembered it was.

“Hang on,” he said, taking my wine and placing it on the nightstand alongside his. Then he shrugged off his jacket, arranged it on the back of the chair, and kicked off his shoes.

“Come here,” he said, circling his hands around my waist before lifting me up onto the mattress. “A bed’s a novelty for us.”

I laughed. “I guess.”

Fully clothed, he lay down next to me, his head propped up on one hand while he trailed his free fingers over my ass. He was in no rush and although I was, I knew he was setting the pace and he wouldn’t give in to me.

“Do you make time for fucking?” I asked. He was so focused on work, I wondered if he had many women, girlfriends.

“Fucking you? Yes.” He pulled me closer, the length of our bodies touching.

I traced the contours of his face with my fingers. He was all angles and his beard was rough. I hoped I’d find out how it felt between my thighs before long. “Who was before me?”

He exhaled and turned on his back. “Some girl I met in a bar.”

“You go to bars?”

He chuckled. “From time to time I do things that normal people do. I stopped in for a whiskey one night. It was late. She approached me. I went back to her place. I didn’t stay the night.”

It was the kind of sex that made sense for Knightley—convenient, fleeting, and something he didn’t spend time focusing on. He wasn’t like that with me. Not here tonight but not even in his office. It was as if I were the only thing in his mind when he fucked me and for a man who thought about so much, it was the ultimate compliment. To have that attention and intensity targeted on me made me heady, filled me right up to the top.

I undid the buttons on his shirt, and he reached beneath my dress, cupping my ass.

“I’ve wondered what you’d look like completely naked,” he said, dipping his head to my neck and pressing his lips to my skin. “Fantasized about it.”

I pushed my hand down to his pants and found him straining against the material—a perfect fit for my palm. He pushed against me and groaned. “What did you imagine?”

“Smooth skin.” He swept his hand up and down the back of my thigh. “Breasts that make me salivate.” He slid his hand between my breasts, reaching into the lace of my bra. “Just like this.” He groaned and pushed me to my back. “I’m going to have to change the order of things tonight,” he said.

“You are?”

He pressed his thumb against my bottom lip, as though he wanted me to know he was going to kiss me soon. “We’re going to fuck, then drink, then fuck, then talk. Then we’re going to hit repeat.” Pressing his lips against the corner of mine, he lay on top of me. “And we’re not going to rush any step.” He kissed me again. “I want to make sure that I know your body and mind better than anyone ever has by the time we finally leave this room.”

I shivered at the thought because I believed him. I knew by now that Alexander Knightley didn’t say things he didn’t mean.

Alexander

After what seemed like hours of kissing like teenagers, I couldn’t wait any longer—I had to get her naked, wanted to see every inch of her, choose which part to touch, rub, kiss, suck, plunder. I kneeled on the bed and peeled off her dress, revealing each part of her, allowing myself to soak into the wonder of her body. As if she were a painting, the oil still fresh, every line, every curve, was perfect and smooth. I slid my gaze to her firm, pert breasts, her rosy nipples jutting out, pointing at me as if they were begging for my particular attention. I’d get to them. Soon.

After I removed her dress, I pulled down her underwear and she was left entirely naked. Her lack of embarrassment fed my need, urging me to take the time to look, to think about what I would do to her. I pulled my shirt out of my trousers and stripped it off. “You have a beautiful body,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said, her chest heaving as she smiled.

I didn’t want to move away but I needed her skin against mine. I quickly stood, kicked off my trousers, and found the condoms in my wallet.

“You have a great body,” she said as I got back on the bed. “You must make time for the gym.”

“My mind doesn’t work well without the exercise. It sets me up for the day.”

“Thank you for that.”

I chuckled. “You’re welcome.” I kissed her on the lips, intending for it to be a quick peck, but I couldn’t pull away. I deepened the kiss, my tongue pressing against hers, her fingers in the back of my hair sending shockwaves down my body.

Every kiss with Violet felt like my first kiss. I didn’t have any memories of women before. Violet had wiped my mind free of everything in the past. I smoothed her hair back from her face as her legs slid against mine, urging me on.

She groaned and I pulled back. “You’re a really great kisser,” I said.

“Back at you.”

I pressed my lips to her taut belly, then licked my way up to the space between her breasts. “This feels decadent.” There were no other words to explain the indulgence I felt being here with her.

“Sex?”

“Having you naked. Spending time in your company.” There wasn’t much I enjoyed outside of work but being right here was exactly where I wanted to be.

“It does?”

“Yeah, better than your skirt around your waist and my trousers pooled at my feet.” She deserved more than some quick fuck against the wall, however good it was. However hard she’d come.

She laughed. “Well, that was fun, too.”

“I like being able to take my time. To savor you.”

She traced her finger over my eyebrow and smiled. “That’s a nice thing to say.”

“I mean it.”

“And you don’t say things you don’t mean—that’s why it means more.”

She was right. I enjoyed spending time with this woman—naked or with clothes on—and I liked that she knew me well enough to know it wasn’t a line.

I sighed as I glanced down her body. “I don’t know where to start.”

She opened her legs in response.

I chuckled. “Oh yeah?” I asked and she just smiled. She was confident enough to ask for what she wanted but I knew she understood that I had the control where it counted. I decided how hard, how deep, how long.

I moved between her legs and pressed her thighs wide. I glanced up and she was watching me, and my fascination with her pussy. I was prolonging the build up to when I would taste her. I sucked in a breath and I lay my tongue flat against her so the tip nudged at her opening. She smelled of jasmine everywhere—it was the perfect combination of sweet and sexy.

Her hands flew to the back of my head as I swept my tongue up and began to explore her folds. Her arching back and loud groan had blood rushing to my cock. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the curves of her body and the warmth of her skin so I could get her good and wet. When I slid my cock into her, I wanted her to be so desperate she’d do anything I demanded.

She tried to roll her hips up, but I held her in place as she bucked under me. “Alexander,” she moaned. “Alexander.”

I’d never heard anyone say my full name without flinching, but Violet owned it, made it impossible for me to feel like anything but the king of kings.

I circled and flicked her clit before delving down and then back up. I needed her to be hungry for me to focus on each and every part of her pussy. I wanted her to be needy for my tongue to arrive and desperate when it left.

Her sounds grew louder as her clit became harder against my tongue and I had to grip her hips tight as sensation overcame her. Her hands left my hair to fist the sheets, and she arched her back and screamed my name again and again and again.

Her body melted against the mattress and the aftershocks of her orgasm pulsed against my tongue.

“Jesus,” she said.

I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and crawled up her body. “One down.”

“I’ve never come like that. Not with a man going down on me.”

It didn’t surprise me. There was something that happened when we were together that I was certain wasn’t normal. Wasn’t ordinary. “That’s because I’ve never done it.”

She sighed. “Apparently.”

I kissed her on the lips and she pushed her tongue into my mouth, wanting to taste herself, as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“I want your dick inside me so badly,” she said as I pulled away.

Jesus, those words from her were almost too much—it was as if she knew the exact right thing to say but I understood by the hunger in her eyes and her breathless delivery that it wasn’t why she said it. It was how she felt. I didn’t say things I didn’t mean but Violet wasn’t so different.

“So impatient.”

“It’s been weeks,” she whined.

My straining cock agreed with her. “Flip over onto your stomach.” I reached across and grabbed one of the condoms I’d left on the nightstand, tearing the packet open and covering my dick.

She’d positioned herself on all fours but that wasn’t how we were going to start out. “On your stomach,” I said.

She glanced over her shoulder and frowned, but obediently did as I asked. Fuck, I liked this woman.

I straddled her, my weight on my elbows and forearms. I pushed inside on an achingly slow thrust, trying to tune out her whimpering, until I got as deep as I could get—she was every pleasure I’d ever denied myself all at once.

I paused, trying to get myself together, trying to steady my breathing. With each heaving breath I sucked in the scent of jasmine, and it became a part of me. I closed my eyes, taking in her heat, her intense pressure surrounding my dick, the way my fingertips seemed to find home when they pressed into her skin.

“See how perfect my cock is for you?”

She wasn’t coherent enough to form words but I enjoyed the cries, the whimpers, the moans. They told me everything I needed to know. I understood that she felt this too—this connection, this perfection. I’d thought she was the fuck of the decade when she was against the wall in my office but this was better than I remembered.

I dipped and grazed my teeth against her shoulder—I wanted her to feel me everywhere.

Pushing up on my hands, she cried out from where she was pinned beneath me at the change in angle. “It’s too good.” The vibration of her voice reverberated along my spine and down my cock. This woman only had to speak to get me to the edge.

I pulled out almost all the way and thrust again, breathless with lust. “This way, I can hear when your breathing changes. I can whisper in your ear how good it feels.” I pushed in again, sharp and determined. “And I can tell you how hard I’m going to fuck you.”

She moaned and I picked up the pace, wanting to pull another orgasm from her before I gave in to mine. She tried to move, tried to push up on her hands, but she had no hope. She was where I wanted her—completely under my control, tamed and conquered. As I pulled her arms back down beside her body, she shuddered, turned her face into the mattress, and screamed.

I continued to thrust, knowing I couldn’t last long as she spasmed around me. “Fuuuck,” I cried out as I came on the tails of her orgasm, pushing her into the mattress with every move.

I collapsed on top of her, then rolled to my back and discarded the condom. My heart was hammering through my chest and my pulse boomed in my ears.

“Violet?” She hadn’t moved a muscle.

She turned her head, still on her stomach, her arms by her side.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She blinked as if she’d just been let out into the sun after hours in darkness. “I think so. It was . . . intense.”

I reached out and she shifted to my side. “It’s been building between us for a while.”

“Maybe that’s it,” she said, trailing her fingers over my chest. “But I think it’s more than that. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it felt bigger than sex.”

I knew what she meant. I might dismiss it as being good sex but she was right, it was more than that. Maybe it was the things we’d shared at dinner, but it wasn’t just lust. I knew we had an extraordinary connection the first time in my office but tonight hadn’t been just physical. It was more intense. More connected. More profound. I’d never had this before and now that I had I wondered if I could ever get enough. Would I ever be able to let Violet go?

She stroked up my chest and tipped her body toward me, her leg falling between mine, her hot, pussy against my thigh. “I need it again,” she whispered.

The way she lingered over the word need. I knew it was more than a craving. She pushed up on her hands and straddled my body, my dick heated by her sex and she gazed at me, creating a stirring in my cock. I trailed my hands over her breasts, catching her nipples between my thumb and forefinger, lazily pinching and releasing as they swayed in front of me. Enjoying every bob and quiver. She began to move. Shit, it had only been a few minutes since I’d come and I knew it would only be a few more until I was hard again. She placed her palms flat against my chest, squeezing together her breasts—my cock appreciated it and I grabbed onto her hips, my fingertips sinking into her skin where they belonged as I encouraged the slide of her wet pussy over my growing erection.

She began to pant and her head fell forward, her glossy, black hair falling around her shoulders and over my arms, connecting us further as she moved faster and faster, urged on by my firm grip.

“You feel so fucking good,” I growled.

“I want you to fuck me,” she cried as she stopped and collapsed on my chest. “I need it, please.”

This feisty, sexy woman was begging for my dick. It couldn’t get better. Blood rushed to my cock and I flipped her over to her back in one swift movement. I kneeled and covered my dick with a condom. I needed to be inside her like I hadn’t come for Britain already this evening.

As I entered her we both cried out.

She was still so tight, like a bloody fist around me. I was going to have to work hard not to come within seconds.

Face to face I began to thrust, she was slippery wet and the drag was so fucking perfect that I had to focus on something else. But everywhere I looked it was Violet. I dipped forward to press my lips to hers, sloppily plundering her mouth and then pressing my forehead against hers, sharing breath, words, and pleasure.

Underneath me her sounds got louder, the sentences disappearing into fractured words and syllables.

I pulled up her thigh, needing to get more of her, to get deeper in her, wanting us to merge into one. She was so close and so was I—we were about to reach the peak, the rope was about to snap and release us both. One last push and the first quiver of her orgasm severed the final cord for me and we both came silently, our mouths open, our bodies connected as we stared into each other’s eyes, unable to comprehend what was happening and how anything could feel so good.

In that instant I knew I was changed. I understood everything would be different after Violet King.

Violet

“If you open those drapes, I swear I’ll find the nearest fork and stab you in the eye with it,” I said as Alexander stood totally naked in front of the window, his hands poised to welcome in the morning.

“It’s nearly half past seven.” His accent seemed more British this morning, but maybe that was just my lack of sleep.

“Which means I’ve had three hours sleep. Come back to bed and be still.” I pulled the covers up over my head.

“You want me to wake you up?” he asked as the mattress dipped.

“You kept me awake all night. I need to sleep.”

“We should go to the gym. You can’t be here naked and expect me to just lie next to you.”

I squeezed my thighs together, whimpering as the effects of his body on, over, and in mine all night came back to me. “I think I’m broken.”

“You’re perfect. Let’s go and work out. You said there’s a pool here?”

“How do you have this much energy? It’s annoying. You should be exhausted with all the hours in chambers and all the fucking last night.”

“If you don’t want more of the fucking then we need to get to the gym.”

I groaned and pushed myself up. My body couldn’t take any more. I needed at least a few hours off. I watched him for a couple of seconds. The sight of his tousled bedhead when he was always so put together in chambers was adorable. I tried to hide my grin as he began to dress.

“Hey, where did the sportswear come from?”

He glanced over at me, his eyes gleaming. “You’re too sexy.”

I frowned when he didn’t answer my question.

“My car. Where do you think?”

I stumbled across the room and shut the door to the bathroom. Nothing about last night had been expected. Not Alexander showing up. Not the conversation. And not the sex. Had it really been how I remembered? I grinned around my toothbrush as I remembered the first orgasm, then the second. The way he was so powerful and in control of my body. The third and then the fourth. I’d loved the way he’d revealed a different side of himself last night—he’d removed the stick from his ass and focused on making me come in the best possible ways.

“Come on,” he yelled from the bedroom. “Checkout’s at ten.”

I rinsed my mouth and swung open the door. “Are you always this chirpy in the morning?” I put my hand on my hip and narrowed my eyes at him.

“Are you always so irritable?”

“I’m charming,” I corrected him. “At all times.”

He chuckled. “I’ll try to remember that.” He pulled me close and took my face in his hands. “Did I tell you that you’re also completely beautiful?”

“What has happened to you? Is this weekend Knightley?”

He kissed me lightly on the lips and then released me. “Are you ready?” he asked, ignoring my question. His lightness had caught me off guard. Last night we’d escaped the world for a few short hours and existed outside reality. I’d fully expected to land back on earth with a thud this morning and be embarrassed by how open I’d been, by what I’d shared. But instead of feeling awkward, I wanted more of the same. More of Alexander Knightley.

I dressed in my running gear and pulled out my sneakers from the closet. “So what happens now?” I asked. “With you and me?”

“I thought you were all about living in the moment.”

I followed him out of the bedroom. How was I going to the gym this early? “I thought you were all about the plan. Working toward something that’s so far away you can’t see it.”

He grabbed my hand and picked up the pace.

“We’re going to go to the gym, then come back to the room to shower and fuck. Then I’m going to drive you home.” He stopped. “Where do you live?”

“Mayfair. Hill Street.”

He scowled. “Really?”

“My sister’s sister-in-law’s place. I told you.”

He nodded and started down the stairs, pulling me after him. “And then I’m going back home—”

“To the hotel?”

“Where I live,” he agreed. “Then I’ll try to make up for all the time I lost last night and today.”

I wanted to ask him about us. Would I see him again outside chambers? Were we still going for dinner this week?

Where the fuck had Violet gone and could someone please bring her back?

Maybe a run would do me good, get me to focus on right now, today, and let go of what may or may not come next week.