Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ethan
The room looked like my living room. The floors were an inky dark obsidian, which were so shiny, they reflected the dancing flames in the fire. There wasn’t a single thing in the room except for a white fur rug in front of the fireplace. At the top right corner of the rug was a silver tray, adorned with six chocolate dipped strawberries and accompanied by an ice bucket with champagne. Two empty glass flutes lay on their sides on the rug. They were nearly swallowed up by the plush white fur.
I peered around, wondering where all my furniture was.
I was distracted from my search when my gaze returned to the rug and found a new addition to the scene. Devon was standing in the middle of the rug. She wore a long, sheer white robe embellished with rhinestones and lace. It was done up around her waist with a silk sash.
I could see all of her through the sheer fabric, her muscular thighs, her lean stomach, perky breasts, hard nipples, and the curve of her waist and hip. She was beautiful.
She tossed her curtain of dark hair over her shoulder. Her bright green eyes glittered as she regarded me. The lust in her gaze was enough to set my soul on fire.
She undid the sash slowly and let it fall to the floor. The sheer robe slipped from her shoulders to join the sash on the rug.
Devon went slowly to her knees.
“Come,” she whispered.
I went.
When I stood before her, I realized I was naked too. My cock was hard and reaching upward. I was aware of how close she was to it. Her breath grazed my thighs as she leaned in, her mouth disappearing from view as she took my balls between her lips and sucked gently.
Her hands found my shaft, and she began working me up and down slowly.
I gathered her hair in my hands and guided her up until she lifted her gaze to meet mine. She never looked away as she opened her mouth for me. I eased my cock between her lips. Her tongue on the bottom of my shaft was warm and slick. Her lips sealed around me, and she puckered her cheeks, sucking me hard.
The tip of my dick hit the back of her throat. She held me, my hands still in her hair, until I let her breathe again, pulling out of her throat. She licked her lips and opened wide for me again.
I knew I was alone as soon as I opened my eyes. The ceiling I was staring at was not a familiar one. That’s when I remembered that I was at a hotel around the block from my office.
I remembered the fight with Devon the previous evening.
I remembered how she had waited for me to say something as I was about to walk out the door, and I recalled how no words seemed fitting enough to be spoken. So, I had left after muttering “bye” over my shoulder.
I wondered what she had done afterward. Those thoughts had kept me awake until nearly three in the morning.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. That’s when I felt the pressure in my cock. I was rock-hard and ready, and there was no warm body who smelled like coconut beside me for me to fill up with my come. It was a little unsettling to wake up with the desire to fuck the girl I had just left behind at my place.
I ripped the blankets off and went into the bathroom. I unwrapped the body lotion on the counter beside the sink, pumped a generous amount into my palm, and wrapped my fingers around my cock.
I braced myself with one hand on the full-length mirror beside the sink. I hunched over, my hand working vigorously, as I let my mind wander over the tantalizing images from my dream.
Devon, naked, waiting for me on the fur rug with those dazzling eyes of hers.
Devon, opening her mouth wide for me and letting me fuck her throat.
Devon, on her knees in front of me, her breasts full and firm, her mouth and lips feeling like velvet on my cock, the smell of sex lingering in the air around us.
My cock pulsed in my hand at the thought of fucking her tight, little pussy. There was no woman on the planet who could hold a candle to Devon. All I wanted to do was slip my cock in that wet, little slit of hers and fuck her with her legs in the air. I wanted to hold her ankles and spread those legs wide and bury my cock so deep in her pussy that she screamed my name. I wanted to feel her come on my cock as she came.
My hand was a poor substitution for Devon’s body. It lacked the softness of her and the smell of her. I ached for the way she would rotate her hips above me, pushing my cock against her walls as she clutched her breasts and looked to the ceiling in breathless ecstasy.
I gritted my teeth as I worked myself closer to the edge.
I kept the image of Devon in my mind. I carried on from where the dream ended, imagining her falling on her back on the rug and letting her knees fall open for me. I imagined settling between her legs to taste her and eat her up while she writhed and moaned in the firelight.
As the soft sounds of pleasure from my waking dream reached my ears, I let myself finish. I came up my stomach, sending warm lashes of come onto my cool skin. When I was done, it was harder to hold onto the flashes from my dream, and the images started to flicker away.
Once I was in the shower, the ache I had woken with returned.
I wasn’t well-rested enough for the meeting I was struggling through. I was meeting with four board members of a company I had purchased over two years ago to discuss the previous quarter’s growth and hear any suggestions they might have to increase productivity. It was a small company that was just gaining momentum now.
The creator of the company, Joshua Brooks, was at the front of the room giving a presentation about their projected growth for the next three months.
I rubbed my eyes and nodded along, making sure I was soaking in every word he said. These meetings were important. My son was going to inherit responsibility for this company one day, and I was committed to making sure I put in the work now, so he didn’t have to struggle twenty years from now.
“So,” Joshua was saying, “in conclusion, we anticipate a margin of six-percent growth each quarter of the next year. That will put us at a total increase of twenty-four percent by January.”
The door to the office burst open. The blinds hanging in front of the window on the door clattered against the glass, and all five of us in the conference room swung around to look at who had burst in.
Heather stood there, one hand still on the door handle, her eyes fixed on me and her mouth screwed up in a tight line I had only seen once before when I’d broken the heads off all her Barbies when she was nine.
I pushed my chair back and made to stand.
“Ethan,” Heather said, her voice shriller than I had ever heard it, “can I borrow you for a moment?”
It was clear she was doing her best to keep her composure. The four men in the room all looked at me, their wide eyes expressing their rather appropriate concern for my safety. This probably looked a lot worse than what it was. They probably thought Heather was my girlfriend.
“Heather,” I said evenly, resting my knuckles flat on the table, “I’m in the middle of a meeting. Can you wait for me in my office? We’ll be done here in fifteen minutes.”
“No, I can’t. I only need five minutes. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going to walk out of a business meeting so you can lecture me like a toddler, Heather. Go wait in my—”
“Ethan,” Heather growled, “now.”
I straightened and fixed my jacket. I gave the men in the room an apologetic nod. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, it would seem I need to speak with my sister.” I was sure to point out Heather was not, in fact, my girlfriend.
All men nodded, and I could feel their eyes on my back as I left the room and brought Heather to my office. As soon as the door was closed behind me, she spun around, jabbed a finger into my chest, and then pointed it at my face.
“How could you be such an asshole?” she hissed, stepping in even closer to me. I fell back a step. “You are a total pig. I thought you had changed. I thought your constant need to bring every woman you met home was over. I thought you had changed. So did Devon. You don’t deserve her. You never did.”
A little voice in my head told me she was right. It was a voice that had whispering that truth to me since I left my penthouse the night before.
But that didn’t matter.
“I understand you’re her best friend,” I started, “but coming in here while I’m in the middle of an important meeting is not appropriate. This isn’t going to happen again.”
“Oh, fuck off Ethan,” Heather said. “I wouldn’t have done this if you hadn’t hurt her. How could you do this to her?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I said, my own anger flaring up now, “and I can’t help it that she’s more in love with me than I am with her. I’m not going to string her along.”
“That’s a pathetic excuse, and you know it.”
“You can think what you want to think, Heather. It won’t change how I feel. This isn’t my fault,” I said, hoping that saying those last words out loud would somehow make them true.
Heather rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. “You are impossible. I can’t believe you’re going to ruin the best thing that has ever happened to you and to Devon. You’re taking something away from her that she should have. And you’re selling yourself short. The two of you …” She paused and looked away from me. “You’re a fool, Ethan.”
“You’re entitled to an opinion,” I said coldly.
“What are you? A politician?” Heather demanded. “Too afraid to commit to the real words you should be saying? How about you’re sorry? You owe Devon at least that much. You don’t get to pack up and leave her alone at your place. She has no other home, Ethan, thanks to you. Not to mention, she’s pregnant. You broke her heart walking out on her like that.”
I swallowed and looked at my feet. “I know I did.”
“But you did it anyway?” Heather asked. All the anger was gone from her voice. Now she just sounded sad, disappointed, deflated.
I nodded. “I had to.”
“No, you didn’t. You just think you did. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but I know the truth. You love her. She loves you. The two of you make each other whole somehow. You’re scared,” she said, shaking her head as she stepped around me and made for the door. “You’re scared of what will happen if you let yourself care. That’s really sad, Ethan. Really sad. And Dev shouldn’t have to be the one to pay the price for your cold feet. Such a joke,” she added under her breath before wrenching the door open and leaving me reeling in the aftermath of her words.
I knew she was right, and the truth of it all only made everything more confusing.