CHAPTER EIGHT
Emma
I remembered where I was even before opening my eyes. There was no confusion, no thinking I was at home, no stumbling to groggily remember last night’s events. I’d gone to bed with it all. There could be no forgetting.
I rolled over and stared at the ceiling. The main thing on my mind had been the events in the dining room. Had that been what Niall spoke about when he talked of pleasure and pain? Him holding onto me harshly, digging his nails into my skin?
No. Surely not. There had to be more.
I bit my lip, taking a moment to ask myself yet again if things had gone too far. Was it time to go back? Surely he wouldn’t stop me if I were to leave the penthouse.
But the answer was no. There was no going back. I didn’t want to. I only wanted to charge on, to discover what more the mysterious man could offer me.
After showering and doing my makeup — though it was a poor job when compared to the work done on me at the salon — I dressed in some jeans and a tank top. Remembering that it was early fall, I grabbed the one sweater I’d packed and pulled it on before creeping my way down the hall. I knew my outfit probably wouldn’t be to Niall’s liking, but I wasn’t putting on the dirty dress and uncomfortable heels from the night before.
Niall sat at the head of the table, his face buried in a newspaper. Fruits and baked goods spread out across the tablecloth, all of it arranged in a colorful way that made anything look too good to eat.
“Hello,” I said, my voice more hesitant than I wanted.
The paper fell slightly. Niall’s eyes peeked over it at me. “Good morning. Have a seat. If there’s anything you’d like that you don’t see, the chef will make you whatever you wish.”
I settled down into my chair from the night before, making sure my eyes avoided the spot on the wall where we’d screwed. “This looks good, thank you.”
He folded his paper and set it down next to his plate. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.”
With deft movements, he flipped over the upside down cup on a saucer that sat next to my plate then poured coffee from a press pot into it. I watched the bubbles pop up around the edges of the ceramic, watched the steam rise into the air. Anything was easier than looking directly at Niall, although I wanted to.
For some reason, I was just as nervous as I’d been when I’d walked into the penthouse but in a subtly different way. I couldn’t really explain it.
Once Niall finished pouring my coffee for me, he picked his paper back up and starting reading.
No talking this morning, I guess.
It was slightly disappointing. As nervous as I felt, I also wanted to continue our conversation from the night before. There seemed to be so much to the man before me, so many layers that they could never be unpeeled even if you tried. But I wanted to at least yank a couple of them back, see what was kept stored away close beneath the surface of his facade.
I picked out a bagel with cream cheese and munched slowly on it. The minutes ticked by.
I ate breakfast. He read. He seemed to intuitively know when I was finished. He folded his paper and set it back down. “Are you ready?”
“Um...” For sex? Hell, yes.
He stood up. “We’re going on a trip.”
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
He extended his hand, and I took it. Its warmth soothed me, putting me at ease and making my heart speed up at the same time. Before I knew they were going there, my eyes flicked up to Niall’s. He was gazing down at me, a softness in his face I hadn’t seen the night before. He pulled me slightly towards him, and I stood, coming to stand just a couple inches away from him.
I blinked and the softness left his features. He cleared his throat and turned away. “You won’t need to bring anything.”
“Oh. Okay. I need to grab my phone charger, at least.”
“I’ll be at the front door.”
He hurried away, leaving my head and stomach spinning.
A black SUV took us to the airport. From there, we boarded a small private jet. The whole affair was everything I imagined something like it would be. No waiting in lines. No fumbling for tickets or frantically scanning the screens to see if our flight was on time. We were at the front doors of the airport one minute and on the plane the next. A stewardess greeted us with a smile. Mimosas were served. Classical music started to play. I relaxed back into the seat that seemed more like an armchair than anything else and watched out the window as the jet lifted off, leaving Chicago behind.
Was this Niall’s private jet, or one he had rented just for the day? I thought of asking, but the question felt tacky, even given the odd circumstances we were already in.
“We’re not going far,” Niall said. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not.”
His head tilted. “You trust me?”
I thought about that. “I guess so. Even if I didn’t, there’s not much I can do about it now.”
He looked almost sad for a second. “You trust most people then?”
I looked down into my mimosa. “My mom taught me to see the good in people. Everyone’s got some of it, somewhere.”
He didn’t say anything to that. Once we were safely in the air, the flight attendant announced through the speaker that it was safe to unbuckle. I did so, eager to go to the other side of the plane to get a view. What passed far below us was the usual stuff. The ground was so far away that you couldn’t make out anything other than blocks of different greens and browns.
“It’s still beautiful,” I breathed out loud.
“What’s that?”
“Oh. I was just thinking it’s still a beautiful sight, even though you can’t see houses or cars or anything.”
“Hm.”
I looked back at him and realized I’d placed myself at the window right next to his chair. For the trip, he’d dressed the most casual I’d seen him yet, in a maroon t-shirt and khaki colored pants. Every bit of him was still tasteful though, from the pressed clothes to the shining watch on his wrist. Niall Lambert probably even used designer towels.
He went on. “I admit I don’t look at it much. I usually take flights to catch up on things.”
“Have a look then.” I shuffled sideways a bit, allowing him room to join me.
For a second, he didn’t move, but then he pushed himself up and came to stand behind me. His breath grazed the side of my neck.
“Hm. It is nice, I suppose.”
A long moment stretched on. My breathing became shallower. I could no longer look at the view in front of us. Not with Niall so close.
His breath grew hotter on my neck. I closed my eyes, anticipating what would come next. It turned out to be his lips, their kisses languidly moving up and down my neck. I sighed, my head dropping forward and hitting the plane’s wall.
Niall worked at my pants button, undoing it and then unzipping them all the way. Once they were down around my ankles, his hands traveled back up, dancing up my side and over my shoulders. His mouth pressed against my ear, tugging my earlobe in between his teeth. One hand pressed against my stomach and the other wound through my hair, pulling my loose waves into a tight twist. He yanked, making my head fall towards him and my back arch. His tongue slipped into my ear, and I shivered.
“I,” I gasped but didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I was full of a craving, but it was to experience something new, something I couldn’t put a name to.
I pressed my palms against the window glass, pushing my hips back and into Niall. His hard length grazed against me, the feel of it making my ache double. I jumped when he smacked my ass, the force of the strike so strong I cried out.
Remembering the stewardess and pilot were not more than a few yards away, I bit my lip. He struck it again, making me let out another — but this time muffled — cry.
“You’d love it if I fucked you on this plane,” Niall said into my ear.
I whimpered. It was true.
He ran his fingertips lightly over the spot where he’d spanked me. “I’m not going to though. I’m going to make you wait. All throughout the day you’ll be thinking of my hands on you, of my cock inside of you.”
He stepped backwards, putting nothing but air between us.
And he was right. The next hour and a half of the flight was pure torture. I sat in my seat, bottom burning, restlessly thumbing through the spread of magazines, peeking up at Niall every once in a while. He never glanced my way, though, instead remained busy on his tablet.
“Look out the window,” he surprised me by saying after an hour of not talking.
I did as he instructed. I knew the towering skyscrapers right away.
“New York,” I said in awe. “Why are we here?”
“There are few better places to be. At least for day trips.”
The jet landed, and we made our way through LaGuardia to a car waiting in front of the airport. From there, we went to a small boutique store somewhere downtown. The exact neighborhood eluded me, but a salesgirl seemed to be waiting exclusively for us. Upon seeing our car pull up, she hurried to unlock the door and usher us inside. The place was empty, low techno music pounding. Niall instructed me to pick out whatever I liked, but I declined. He insisted. I declined. He insisted, telling me that his taking me shopping was all a planned part of the weekend. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
So I tentatively tried on a few dresses, coming out of the dressing room to model them for Niall. He gave varying positive opinions on them all, telling me which showed off my figure best and which were suited for certain types of events. For a straight man, he seemed to know an awful lot about women’s fashion.
When the salesgirl referred to me as his girlfriend, he looked at her but didn’t correct her, and I went back into the dressing room blushing.
Niall’s girlfriend? Did a man like him even keep girls around? What would it be like, to be out with him every weekend, having dinner and discussing the events of our lives?
From the boutique, we went to another and then another. Niall bought me more clothes than I could carry, filled the back of the always waiting car with them. When he wasn’t looking, I snapped a picture of the load and sent it to Laine and Jess, both to let them know I was okay and to — shamefully — gloat.
After shopping came lunch in a hotel near Columbus Circle. He’d warmed up a bit in conversation, even going so far as to tell me a bit about his past. As a foster kid, school was important to him. He excelled thanks to his ability to remember each and every detail presented to him. Before he graduated high school, he had well-formed plans for his first business and had already submitted for patents for various inventions. From there on, it all grew. The company. The ambition.
Lunch was followed by another stop, this time at Tiffany’s. I’d only seen the place in the movies and found myself way too excited to be there. Clothes were one thing, but was Niall really about to buy me jewelry?
He had me try on several earrings that each had to cost more than a year’s worth of my rent, then made me pick one. I settled on the pink diamonds. Niall seemed to like them as well, and he declared that a matching bracelet be found. The clerks scurried about, eager to please a man who seemed so willing to spend money.
After Tiffany’s came a Broadway show with front row seats. Then dinner in a skyscraper, in a room reserved just for us. The restaurant was just as nice as the one I worked at, so I knew reserving a whole room cost a pretty penny. But I was also learning that for Niall money was an afterthought. Clearly, he fed off making it, and he clearly enjoyed spending it.
By the end of dinner, I couldn’t stop yawning. The day had been non-stop, and I was eager to go to bed. Instead of ordering a second bottle of wine, Niall requested coffee for us both. I slurped down a cup, knowing that he probably had no intentions of the night ending once we left the restaurant. I didn’t want it to either. My body vibrated each time I thought of what happened in the jet. As tired as I was, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep until I got Niall’s hands on me again.
The place we were staying in was back near Columbus Circle, in the fancy hotel where we’d enjoyed lunch. The room the porter took us to sat at the very top — but of course it did. That was Niall. A top floor kind of guy all the way.
What I thought would be a standard hotel room turned out to be more like an apartment. The main door opened into a foyer, which went into a living room, which had a bedroom on either side. I walked slowly around the red and gold decorated space, taking it all in. From the main windows, Central Park and the edge of the roundabout could be seen, the sight just another one of the great views that seemed to follow Niall around.
The clothes he’d bought me earlier had been brought up and hung in one of the bedroom’s closets. Laid out on the bed were pajamas: a black lace trimmed tank top with matching bottoms. Presumably, any toiletries I would need were in the bathroom off to the left.
“This is nice,” I said to the bed. “Really nice.”
Niall didn’t say anything, just hovered in the doorway behind me, his presence filling the whole room. I soaked it in, letting his closeness fill me up. Already my hands were shaking, the need to have Niall pressed against me making me nearly crazed.
I turned slowly to face him. He still stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets and his shoulder resting against the frame. “Is there anything else you would like?”
I laughed. “There’s nothing I can even think of. You’ve already given me more than I could even think to ask for.”
“There’s always more,” he huskily responded.
My heart skipped a beat, all of the promises he’d already given me related to the weekend coming back.
Niall’s hands slipped from his pockets as he took a slow step towards me, then another, then one more.
“You look eager,” he observed.
My chest sharply rose. “Do I?”
He smiled — a real smile. “I hope today made you happy.”
“It did,” I sincerely said, and as the words came out, I realized that the best part of the day hadn’t been all the shopping or the Broadway show. It had been getting to be with him. One day with Niall Lambert hadn’t revealed a crazy amount about him — he was still the reserved and calculating man I initially took him to be — but it had served to show me a bit more. He was a good listener, for one. And he was constantly aware of my presence, my safety. When we were out about the city he never once took his eyes off of me. At the show, he’d kept his palm on my back, guiding me through the crowd, parting it when necessary. There was a deep attentiveness to him that was calming.
When the weekend ended, I would miss it.
I bit my bottom lip. I couldn’t think about that. One weekend. That was all we had agreed to.
After that, it would probably be best if I didn’t see him again, other than when he came in for the occasional dinner at Kristopher’s. The whole situation between us was too unorthodox for me to see how it could possibly lead somewhere good.
Remember, I told myself. A man like Niall Lambert doesn’t do girlfriends.
Niall stopped right in front of me. I tilted my chin up to look him square in the face. For a moment, he gazed back but then his chin dropped as his eyes swept down my body.
“Take your clothes off,” he commanded.
I swallowed hard, anticipation rising. So what if the weekend would be over soon? Right now was what was important, and right now I wanted to discover just what else Niall could offer me — what he had to give that didn’t involve diamonds and private jets to other cities.
I did as he instructed, dropping each article of clothing at my feet. Niall growled at the sight of me fully naked in front of him, the noise making goosebumps rise all over my skin. He stepped forward, cupping my breasts in both his hands and rolling the erect nipples between his fingers.
“Lay down,” he said, his voice husky.
I went backwards onto the bed, sad to have his hands off of me, but knowing there was so much more to come.
“All the way back,” he said.
I scooted back and settled myself near the headboard. Niall went around the side of the bed and opened up the side table’s drawer to pull out a long piece of red silk.
“Hands above your head,” he said.
I followed orders, my heart thrumming away as he tied my hands to the headboard. I burned to know what was next, but also loved the mystery. Niall gave the silk a tug, making sure it was tight around my wrists. He dove his hand back into the drawer and pulled out some sort of leather whip looking thing with tassels at the end. Painstakingly slowly, he trailed it down my side, making me shiver as it got closer and closer to my hips.
Going even slower, he ran the tassels across my hips, teasing my swollen clit. I whimpered, but Niall acted like he didn’t notice, instead trailing the leather up the other side of my body. The bed shifted under his weight as he climbed on the mattress to straddle me, he fully clothed and me fully naked.
With a small but quick movement, he slapped the leather against my mound. I cried out, the sensation a combination of both pain and pleasure. I wanted him to do it again, but I also couldn’t stand for him to.
Niall seemed to read my mind. “More?”
I nodded. He complied, striking me again. And again. And again. I gasped for air, trying to stop myself from begging for him to enter me.
Niall dropped the whip and slowly began to undress, the bed creaking more as he removed his clothes and tossed them on the floor. The muscles of his arms and chest cut the air, as chiseled as the diamonds he’d bought me earlier. His cock stood to attention, thick and smooth. I longed to touch it and even wriggled some to try and move my arms. They were securely fastened, though, and there was no hope of getting away.
Niall trailed his fingers across my stomach and over my breasts, teasing one then the other. He grabbed one nipple and twisted it. I cried out, the shock of pain more than anything he’d yet given me.
Niall cocked an eyebrow, halfway questioning. But I said nothing. Instead, I just waited for more. Without warning, his hand came up and slapped the undersides of my breasts. His hand was quickly replaced by his tongue, soothing me, taking my nipple into his mouth before biting down, causing me to scream in delicious agony.
Over and over, pain danced with pleasure. Teeth replaced by tongue. Stinging slaps replaced by soothing caresses. Harsh words softened by calming whispers.
I writhed on the bed, needing to get away one instant then arching for more the next. I was nearly sobbing from it all when he leaned over me and reached into the drawer again, but instead of another toy, out came a condom. He sheathed himself, sweat already trickling down his brow, his breathing labored.
He entered me with a vicious force, driving all the way to the end of me. I cried out as he conquered my body, the action of his pummeling knocking my head against the bed board.
Niall sat back on his heels, watching his cock move in and out of me. One palm came down, and he smacked my clit. I shut my eyes and moaned, unable to take it all. With a vicious shaking, I exploded, the orgasm pummeling through me.
Niall groaned and plunged harder into me, the sounds of our bodies slapping together filling the room. With a curse, he stilled. Our heavy breathing filled the room, joining nothing else but the ticking of a clock on the wall.
Niall gazed down at me, his eyes smoldering. “You... are... more than just delicious.” His lips twitched. “You’re special.”
My heart swelled at the compliment. Since it came from him, I didn’t want it to make me feel so good.
But it did. It did, and I couldn’t help it.