Laken
Four shots become eight and by the time we stand to walk out of the bar, Niall acquires two more sets of eyes and has lips on either side of his face. Or, I might be drunk and spinning; it’s all new to me.
“You know?” I say as he places a hand at the small of my back. “You’re not such…such a dick after all.”
A chuckle trails from behind me. “You thought I was a dick?”
I nod, forgetting my head is no longer attached to my neck. It wobbles unsteadily until I hold onto a chair as I stumble to the door. “Yep. I thought you were just as much of a bully as your kid. I mean, she knocked Preston down and wailed on him. Did you teach her to fight like that or was her mom a WWF wrestler?”
A burst of warm air smacks me in the face as we walk outside. Niall still has his hand pressed against my lower back, guiding me away from the building, and my skin is tinging with the warmth of the whiskey. I can’t help but feel a little guilty. The day ends up amazing. The date is amazing. Niall is amazing.
And I’m a fucking douchebag. A shit. A lying shit. I should tell him the truth right now. Just get it all out and come clean. He’ll probably call the whole deal off, which is what I deserve. And I almost do it.
Almost.
Until he runs a hand up my arm and pulls me to him. All I can smell is the forest. Hell, he smells like the forest. It’s intoxicating and all I want to do is curl up against him and breathe him in.
“Laken, I have to be honest with you.”
My head pops up from his chest at that word. “Honest?”
“Aye,” he says, his Irish accent like a drug. “I like the way things are headed with us. I want to ask you…”
Ask me. Ask me. Ask me.
“Mackay! How the hell are you? I haven’t seen you around the office since we finished the Brower account.” I swallow hard as the same large, burly guy who’d sent me the drink barrels out of the bar and claps Niall on the shoulder.
“Feckin’ hell.” Painting a forced smile on his face, Niall shifts away from the intoxicated man’s hold and nods to him as he introduces me. “Laken, this is Bryce Holley, another project manager at Tate & Cane.”
At the mention of Tate & Cane, I immediately perk up and try my best to sober my ass up. Shit, why didn’t I just accept the damn drink? If I’m going to be working with these people, I need to put my best foot forward.
Just as I extend my hand, Niall curses under his breath and gives me an apologetic look. “Damn. I left my credit card on the table. Laken, will you please excuse me for a moment?” Throwing a warning glare at Bryce, he nods toward the door. “I’ll just be a minute.”
The moment the heavy wooden door closes behind Niall, Bryce licks his lips and takes a step toward me. “It’s not polite to turn down a drink, Laken.” His eyes trail down my dress with an inebriated hunger. “Haven’t seen you around. Are you new at the office?”
I don’t like the wild look in this guy’s eyes or the way he’s undressing me with his eyes. I step backward and end up flush against the brick wall of the bar. “No, I’m just a friend of Niall’s.”
“Any friend of Niall’s is a friend of mine,” he says, baring his stained teeth.
Ew. This guy takes the creepy vibe and amps it up to eleven.
I turn my head away and push myself further into the wall. “Yes, well, I have quite enough friends, thanks.”
Bracing his palms by the sides of my head, I’m held still by his strength and the alcohol on his breath. “Come on, baby, don’t play hard to get. You might regret it.”
“Doubtful.”
“Well, Niall’s a friend of mine and we have an arrangement. What’s mine is mine and what’s his is mine.” Pressing a knee between mine, he inhales long and hard against my neck.
Disgusted, I don’t think, I just open my mouth and react. “Way to hit on your friend’s fiancée. Go sleep it off, asshole.”
“Is there something I can help you with, Bryce?” Niall snaps, slamming the heavy wooden door behind him. “You know, other than my fiancée?”
“Fiancée?” Bryce’s bloodshot eyes waver for a minute before the cocky smirk returns. “You may want to keep this one on a tighter leash, Mackay. She was on my dick the minute you walked away.”
Niall lets out a low laugh that’s not meant to be funny, and a chill runs down my spine. “You saw me walk in with her and sent the drink over anyway. I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to prove, but touch her again, and I’ll end you, you miserable feck.” Niall takes a step forward, almost chest to chest with Bryce, his eyes wild with untamed fury as he shoves him hard in the center of his chest.
Panicked that this is about to end up in some sort of pissing contest, I hold up one hand and pull on Niall’s with the other. Although, I should be irritated he doesn’t think I can handle this on my own, but some deep-rooted part of me is turned on by his desire to protect me.
“It’s not worth it,” I whisper into his ear.
Bryce scrambles to his feet and spits on the ground in front of him. “This isn’t over, Mackay,” he mumbles as he glares at me and disappears around the corner.
We stand there in silence until Niall turns and gently touches my cheek with fire in his eyes. “Did he touch you?”
“It’s fine, I—”
His jaw tightens with every word. “Did. He. Touch. You?”
“No,” I admit as we stare at each other, the sexual electricity between us almost too much to take. His stare is heated, and if I hold it too long, I’ll get lost in it forever. “Well, thanks for tonight, Niall, I—”
An impending storm of rage flashes through his eyes as he roughly grabs my cheek and, before I can protest, claims my mouth in a heated kiss. I’ve wanted him to kiss me again for so long, but for some reason, the guilt of everything is eating at me. I push the nagging remorse down and for half a heartbeat, we stand there, tongues clashing and fingers tugging at each other’s hair before I finally come to my senses and pull away.
“I need to…this is…I need to go home, Niall.”
A half smile plays on his lips as he caresses my cheek and leaves one last lingering kiss on the corner of my mouth. “I’ll walk you.”
***
The whole way back to my apartment, the sexual chemistry is blinding. Niall is affectionate and attentive, and I battle back and forth between giving in and ending the lie right now.
The minute we reach the door to my apartment, Niall braces a hand on each side of the doorframe and boxes me in. “Sophie is at a sleepover with a neighbor tonight.”
I smile and eye him curiously. “Are you flirting with me, Mackay?”
His face flushes, but I know the minute his eyes darken, it’s not embarrassment that’s staining the skin above his beard. “No. I was flirting with you back at the bar. Now, I’m propositioning you.”
He looks so sure of himself that it unnerves me a little. “Well. That’s blunt.”
His voice rumbles as he crowds me against the door. “Aye. When there’s something right in front of me I know that I want, I see no reason to mince words.” Taking a step closer, he presses his body against me and every nerve ending blazes with electricity. “What do you want, Laken?”
There’s a right answer and a wrong answer here. One that’s responsible and one that serves my own selfish, horny needs. “You,” I whisper on a breathy exhale.
With my back pressed up against my door, Niall smiles a devilish grin that causes that adorable dimple to sink deep into his cheek, and I can almost believe our lie is real—that there is emotion behind the heat in his eyes and he feels something for me. I bite my lip, realizing I’m in over my head. The line between fake fiancée and reality has blurred so much that I can’t see this for what it really is—just simple drunken lust.
Then he kisses me again and I lose all concept of right and wrong. I can’t think, I can barely breathe. Niall Mackay’s kisses are as hypnotizing as his accent, and combined, they both flip my world inside out and upside down. The roughness of his assault and the way he commands control of my lips drowns me. I’m losing every objection I can think of to inviting him inside.
Finally breaking the kiss, Niall pulls back and cups my cheek. “Is Preston coming home tonight?”
Who?
Preston. Preston. Preston. Oh fuck! Panic squeezes my heart, so I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “Preston’s spending the night at a friend’s house too.”
Okay, technically it’s not a lie. Technically, Lollie is a friend, and technically, she lives at the Hammerles where Preston also technically lives.
Also? I’m technically full of shit.
“I’m not an exhibitionist, Laken, but if you don’t open the door, your neighbors are going to get to know a whole new side of you.” Although he laughs, there’s a serious darkness in his stare that has my palms pressing flat against the wood and my fingers twitching with restraint.
And this is where I break my neck trying to open the door.
Digging blindly in my purse for my keys, I close my hand around the bundle of metal clanging together. Finally finding the right key, I jab it into the lock a few times before it finally fits, sighing with relief when it turns. I can hear Niall breathing heavily behind me and the only thing on my mind is what he’s going to sound like on top of me. Even the thought has my palms sweating as I hurry to push the door open.
Then it hits me. I’m supposed to be a single mom. There’s supposed to be a kid living here with toys and shit a six-year-old boy would like. Not the last six issues of Vogue and the complete box set collection of Sex In The City on DVD.
“I don’t think—”
“That’s the problem,” Niall says, his accent growing heavy with desire. “You think too much. Way too feckin’ much.” Before I can object, he snakes a hand around me and turns the doorknob.
The minute I fall backward into my apartment, I lose my hold on all reservations as well as my sanity. I’m doing this. I am so doing this. Screw morals, screw what’s right. Go ahead and call me every name in the book for my deception, or bending of the truth, or whatever the hell you want to label it. Tonight, I’m going to be immoral as fuck. I’ll worry about the repercussions tomorrow.
Holding up a finger against his lips, I shake my head and take a deep breath. “One second.”
“What the hell for?”
My anxiety heightens as out of the corner of my eye, I see Shelby’s bedroom door standing wide open. Anatomy diagram posters and framed certificates and awards hang on the walls like a shining beacon to my lies. My gait falters as more lies tumble from my mouth.
“Didn’t clean. Shit everywhere. Be right back.” Running to Shelby’s door, I lock it from the inside, slam it closed, and give it a quick tug to ensure no one can get inside. I know for a fact that Shelby has a shift at the hospital until six a.m., so there’s no chance of her showing up and shitting all over my parade.
I barely turn around when Niall fists my hair and gives it a tug backward. His lips are on me before I can react and my mind blanks. It’s frantic. It’s hot. It’s about to happen right here against Shelby’s door if we don’t move.
“Bedroom,” I manage to mumble against his lips.
As soon as we stumble through the door into my room, Niall kicks it closed and our hands and mouths are everywhere. One minute I’m facing the door, and half a heartbeat later, he’s spinning me around and slamming me so hard against it, all the air rushes out of my lungs. Entwining our fingers, he lifts my arms over my head and pins them against the wood. He’s holding me immobile, and I pause, expecting my usual fight or flight instinct to rear its ugly head, causing widespread panic. Instead, all it does is amp up my already explosive desire and I press myself harder against his rigid body.
“Christ, Laken,” he mumbles against my lips. “I’m tasting every inch of you tonight.” Reaching behind him with one hand, he pulls his t-shirt over his head and tosses it aside.
I swallow hard as I roam my eyes down his body. His chest is hard. It’s defined. Hell, it’s beautiful, and I want it pressed against me in the worst way. Not waiting for a response, he dives his tongue deep between my lips again, tangling mercilessly with mine as we both fight for air.
I have no idea what I’m doing.
Okay, that’s a lie, I know exactly what I’m doing and I have no intention of stopping. What I don’t know is why that little voice inside me that normally stops me from being impulsive and irrational isn’t screaming at me in her usual shrill voice to start thinking with my head instead of my hormones.
I’m not used to casual sex. Hell, I’m not used to sex period. If I got laid on a regular basis, maybe I wouldn’t be pushed up against my bedroom door like a starving dog in heat and could think clearly.
Niall wraps his hands around my face and stares at me. My stomach flips and I feel a level of exposure that I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with, so I lower my gaze to the floor. He stops me as his grip on my cheeks tightens and he lifts my chin.
“What’s holding you back, Laken?”
“I don’t know. Before, it was…it was all pretend. Here, with you and me like this? This is real. You’re real. What we’re doing is real. We can’t uncross this line once it’s crossed, Niall.”
And there it is. What’s been bothering me since we left the bar. Once we have sex with this lie between us on the table, the game changes. It will no longer be as simple as handing the ring back to him and walking away at the end of the night.
What happens when the clock strikes twelve? Does Cinderella turn back into a pumpkin, left with only memories of one really amazing night? Or does she get the prince, the mice, the job, and the corner office?
Spreading his thumbs across my cheekbones, he runs his nose from my ear down the slope of my neck, his hot breath igniting an inferno that has been building all night. Placing a light kiss at the base of my throat, he brings my face against his until our noses are touching. “I want to cross every line with you, Laken. It’s time to drop all the bullshite. Just you and me and a question.”
“I’ve already said I’d fake marry you, what other question could you have?”
Niall lowers his hold and stares at me, his jaw twitching and heat glinting in his amber eyes. “Well, if we’re going to have a fake engagement, then I figure we should be able to bypass the fake marriage and get to the fake honeymoon.”
“I still don’t hear a question in there.”
“Oh, my mistake. Let’s make this official.” Tugging my hips hard against him, he grinds his thick erection into me as he whispers against my lips. “Do you, Laken Cavanaugh, want me to fuck you right here, to drive my cock so deep into you that you feel me for days afterward? To have and to fuck right here against this door so hard you won’t ever be able to walk through one again without screaming my name?”
Oh, hell yes, please. All that and more.
I whimper as he shoves a knee between my legs and pins me harder against the door. “I’m sorry, Miss Cavanaugh. Could you speak up? You seem to have lost that smart arse mouth of yours.”
“Yeah. I mean, I do. I will. Mmmhmm.”
And that is the exact opposite of how not to talk dirty to your man. I promise you, in my head, all sorts of naughty phrases like, “give it to me,” or “my pussy aches for you,” roll through my mind. But me being me—what comes out instead? “Yeah” and “Mmmhmm.”
“Well,” he says, grabbing the back of my thigh and hitching my leg around his waist. “By the power vested in me by the fact that I’m two seconds away from ripping that tiny scrap of lace you call panties off, I now pronounce us about to fuck like wild animals. You may now kiss the man who’s about to make you come harder than you’ve ever come in your life.”
“I, uh—” I swallow the rest as Niall crushes his lips to mine.
Men, if you want to shut a woman up, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Telling her to shut up? Wrong way. Absolute wrong way, and nine times out of ten, you should probably sleep with your hand over your dick. Quieting her with a passionate kiss that curls her toes and makes her forget her own name? That’s going to end with a happy ending for both of you. Trust me on this.
Alcohol swims through my veins and as his one hand holds my thigh tight on his hip, his other snakes under my dress and he runs a finger down my panties circling the damp fabric.
I know I said it’s technically been a while since I’ve had sex, but it’s not like you forget the mechanics of how it’s done. You especially don’t forget how the tease of a hand can send your mind racing over to the other side of crazy. And that’s how Niall Mackay makes me feel. Certifiably crazy. Losing my hold on reality and skydiving without a parachute.
Niall groans my name as his kisses get harder and more forceful. I have no idea what’s come over me to egg him on, but he’s pushed me past the point of thinking this through. All I can think of is having the cock that’s pulsing against my stomach lodged deep inside me.
As he grazes his teeth down my throat, I somehow manage to find my voice. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
His eyes widen as he lifts his head and a wicked smirk curves his lips. He doesn’t answer me, only slips a finger underneath the edge of my panties and presses it lightly over my clit. Sparks shoot across my field of vision and I ache for more. Groaning, I push against him, wanting him to touch me more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time. With a chuckle, he makes a light pass over my clit again, circling it with the tip of his finger, and before I have a chance to protest, he slides it down my wetness and drives it inside.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
As he finds his rhythm, he adds a second finger and returns attention to my throbbing clit with his thumb. I’m now clawing the door and riding his hand as pure heat incinerates me from the inside out. The minute he leans down and sucks my breast through the thin fabric of my dress, incoherent babble falls from my mouth, and honestly, I’m not even sure I’m speaking English as the voodoo he’s working causes a thunderous orgasm to buckle my knees and shatter my world. Crying out his name, I slump against him and bury my forehead into his chest.
“Jesus!” I pant.
Releasing my leg, Niall hooks a finger underneath my chin and forces my eyes on his. Once he’s positive I’m focused on his hooded gaze, he takes his fingers and sucks them deep into his mouth, swirling his tongue around them, approval rumbling deep in his throat.
“Delicious. Just like I knew you’d taste.”
Something dark shifts in his eyes and my lips part. Not sure how much more I can take, I plead with him. “Niall…”
Removing his finger from his mouth, he traces it across my own lips as he fists my hair with his other hand. Involuntarily my tongue darts out before my lips close around his finger. If he wasn’t holding me, I’d probably drop to the floor.
Stepping back, he reaches in his pocket and pulls out a foil packet and holds it up between us. “You do it.”
“Um, what?”
“Touch me, Laken. I want your hands on me.”
He doesn’t have to ask twice. I’m primed and ready for him. Reaching between us, I unhook his belt, shocked to see my hands are steady and not at all shaking. Emboldened by my own assuredness, I make quick work of his zipper and push down his jeans, gasping as my hand touches his hot length.
He’s huge. I don’t mean, “Oh, wow, that’s going to feel nice,” huge. I mean, “Holy fuck, the man should bronze it and hang a picture frame around it,” huge.
I must be staring because an impatient groan tears from his throat as I stroke him a few times. “Laken…” Quickly rolling the condom on, I barely have time to look up before he slams my back against the door and, reaching under my dress again, rips the flimsy string holding my panties together. “Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commands hotly in my ear.
Readily obeying, I hook my legs around him and his fingers dig into the flesh of my ass. Rearing back, he gives a sharp thrust upward. A tiny squeak slips out, and that’s all I can manage before he pulls out and drives back in, repeating the move over and over until I’m about to lose my mind. Our combined groans along with the sound of skin slapping are the only things I hear as the zipper of my dress digs into my back and the unforgiving wood slams against my spine.
Niall fucks like a man possessed, alternating punishing thrusts with smooth, long plunges. Sweat drips down my brow, and I feel my muscles clench around him.
“Niall! I’m coming again!”
“Do it. Come, baby,” he growls in his deep Irish accent, his teeth sinking hard into my shoulder.
Screaming, I stiffen as my orgasm rips through me with a relentless intensity that rocks me until I don’t even know my own name and the only one on my tongue is his. Niall powers inside me, spurring aftershocks that cause another round of spasms.
“Christ!” He lets out a tortured groan into the hollow of my neck and jerks inside me, bottoming out as his thrusts slow and eventually still.
Coming down from the high, I suddenly feel awkward. What we just did complicated an already bizarre situation. How would we walk away from each other now? How the hell could we possibly stage a public breakup and still work together after this?
Millions of questions float through my head as Niall shifts our bodies, still buried deep inside me, and heads toward my bed.
“Where are we going?” I ask, confused as to why he’s not getting dressed and leaving.
He chuckles as he lowers us both to the bed and climbs over me. “If you think the honeymoon’s over, Mrs. Mackay, you need to brush up on your rom coms.”
“But…”
That’s the last word I speak as Niall begins a heated trail of kisses down my stomach, and the minute he finds his destination, my world explodes for the third time.