Chapter 7
After dinner, she’d followed him in her car to his place. The whole ride over, it was as though something had taken over her body. Her brain kept telling her to get on the freeway and head towards downtown, but her body wouldn’t listen.
“This is your house?” Laura looked around the open floor plan. From the front door, the sight line to the canal was clear. Everything was white—fabric, marble, and glass. The pink light from the setting sun touched every surface, but it didn’t make the house look feminine.
“No, I’m taking you to someone else’s house to have my wicked way with you.” He surprised her by kissing the back of her neck and moving her with his tall frame over to the living room. Even being used to someone picking her up, a curl of pleasure worked through her at the way he moved her body. He didn’t ask, he just took. That’s not a quality she’d ever liked or looked for in a lover. The only thing she’d wanted or expected from sex in the past was a temporary physical release. Something like a massage or a satisfyingly difficult rehearsal.
This was bigger, not just because of the fact that Charlie had inserted himself into her career. If things went badly and he opened up his mouth, there would be hell to pay. No. He wouldn’t do that. Despite telling him that she didn’t trust him, something about Charlie felt safe. As safe as taking a flying leap off a cliff could be.
The frisson of anxiety buzzing through her brain was about how he made her body feel, simply by touching her casually, as though he had the right to.
He edged her over to the back of the couch and stepped back. One hand he kept curled around the back of her neck, keeping her still. She’d worn the backless dress to drive him crazy. The way he looked at her made her think he was imagining himself running his tongue all over her skin.
“I like it.” She didn’t know whether she was referring to the house or to the way he was touching her, the way she could feel his gaze all over her bared skin. Probably the latter.
“I like it, too.” He leaned close, so his hot breath touched her neck and ear. “I wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t like it.”
“I’m not doing this because you sponsored the ballet.”
His fingers tightened against her neck at her statement. “I didn’t think you were.” He paused, and ran his thumb over a knot at the side of her neck. “Has anyone ever thought that you were for sale like that?”
She shouldn’t be honest with him. It really wasn’t any of his business, and it might interfere with the heavenly way his hands were making her feel. But she couldn’t help it. His charisma was so powerful to her that he didn’t even have to prompt her openness, her honesty. “Most of those guys realize quick that they’re barking up the wrong tree with me. I’m not for sale. Especially since most of those guys are married.”
“Yeah, it’s complicated when they’re married to someone else.” He stepped close again, and the heat of his body made her knees turn to Jell-O. “But, for the moment, you’re married to me.”
“Just a few more days.” She hoped. If she could get herself to file the papers. And, if tonight worked in getting him out of her system, she could do it tomorrow.
“Doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t have married you if I hadn’t wanted to do this.” He brushed his lips against the skin at the crux of her shoulder and neck. She gasped and leaned back into him.
He moved his hands down to the hem of her dress, and he didn’t stop kissing her neck while he edged the garment up with his fingertips. The room was dark and no one would see them, even if their boat was fairly close to the dock. But that didn’t stop her from feeling exposed and vulnerable from his touch.
Fire erupted her skin everywhere he touched her, but he held her still when she tried to turn and kiss him. She still hadn’t kissed him on the mouth without the haze of Mai Tais in the way. His lush and talented mouth moved down her spine, gradually, terribly slowly.
“Your back is beautiful. So strong.”
“What are you doing?”
“Kissing you.”
She groaned in frustration when he reached her lower back and painted her lower spine with his tongue.
He chuckled. “You’re only going to give me one night, and I can’t even take my time?”
“No.” She tried to sound stern, but his hands were under her dress, and he was playing with her lace underwear. Her hope that he would get down to business, with his hands, his mouth, the cock she knew was ready for her kept her from saying something snarky.
“News flash, gorgeous.” He pushed her mid back until she leaned over the back of the couch, and her ass was right in his face. “I’m not going to fuck you until you really need it. And I just don’t believe you want it that badly right now.”
She gritted her teeth to keep from begging him to just fuck her already. When he flipped her skirt up and pulled her panties down, she squealed. He laughed again, a dark, rich sound that didn’t do anything good for her piece of mind.
He ran one finger down the center of her back and her over the crack of her ass. It was so filthy that she was sure her cheeks—both sets—were flushed. “What are you doing?”
“Be quiet.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“You’ll do what I say if you want my mouth on you.”
The way his breath felt against her core made her knees weak. She was all too ready to beg for him to do something to her. Anything but looking at her in a frankly lewd position.
When he ran his fingers up her inner thighs, she realized that she’d been quiet, so he was going to make her come. He stopped caressing when he got to the seam between her thigh and the core of her. It felt as though her skin rippled up from the shock of his touch. She wanted more, needed more.
Instead of being embarrassed, she was shoving her crotch in his face. He brought out something feral in her, and it should terrify her. But it didn’t right then. She wanted to fall into him and forget everything outside of these four walls.
Just for one night.
“Up on your toes.” For a few breaths, she didn’t respond to his command. When he pinched the back of her thigh, the sharp pain made her reach up on her toes. “Good girl.”
“I’m not a—” Her comeback got cut off when he licked her center.
“Fuck you taste good.” He said the words right into her pussy, and they vibrated through her entire body. He worked her up so fast, she had to grip the upholstery on the couch so she wouldn’t fall over. Her muscles strained, and her bones felt as though they could crack from the delicious, tight, excruciating sensations he pulled from her body.
“Oh, fuck. Like that.” She was shameless in seeking out the orgasm he was trying to pull from her almost violently.
Right before she broke apart, he stopped. He pulled back and replaced his mouth with his fingers. When she let out a lazy whine, he smacked her ass with the hand that wasn’t keeping her on the edge of a colossal, cataclysmic orgasm. He didn’t move that hand away. Instead, he gripped her flesh and opened her up further.
It was filthy and made her so conscious of how everything was just right there in his face. “If I let you come, are you going to walk out?”
His voice sounded unsure, and that surprised her. Even after their not-great first date, he hadn’t seemed to lose any of that maddeningly attractive cocksureness. Hearing him sound like he wasn’t absolutely certain he had control over every bit of what was going on assuaged some of the self-consciousness of being bent over the couch with his face in her ass.
“I’ll walk out right now if you don’t make me come.”
Instead of doing what he was told, he stood up, and pulled her up to standing. Her bare ass brushed the front of his pants. Still on her toes, she could feel his hard cock through only a thin layer of fabric. With a man as finely built as this, who had her on the edge of destruction by pleasure, she couldn’t help but sway against him.
He grunted when her body disrupted the sensitive positioning of his erection, and some weird form of feminine satisfaction floated through her. It disappeared when he pulled down the straps of her dress so roughly that she feared they might rip. Going home topless was not on the agenda.
She bit her tongue when he took her nipples between fingers of each hand and rolled them almost roughly. His mouth went back to her neck, lips still damp from her core, making her feel all the more vulnerable and open to him.
The sky had darkened completely, and the only light in the room was from a single overhead above the sink. There was only enough light for her to see them there. His dark head bent over her shoulder, his fingers plumping up and torturing her nipples until she writhed against him. He grunted again, so she rolled her body again. His grip got tighter, and she moaned.
“What are you doing to me?”
“I’d say that you’re the one doing all the doing.”
“No. You’re rolling that tease of a body against me again, torturing my cock every time you twitch that perfect ass.” As if to demonstrate, he lowered one hand to her pussy and the other he held around her neck loosely. When his fingers reached her clit, her whole body jumped. Unbelievably, she was even more primed than before. He could control her body so easily. When he held her like this, he could take whatever he wanted from her, and she would gladly give it to him.
Maybe it was that thought that finally broke her. Coming without him inside her was almost painful. Pleasure buzzed through her whole system, but she’d wanted his cock. After all it was so close, rubbing against her but not giving her what she needed from him.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Please.”
She couldn’t see the expression on his face in the reflection from the window, but she could only hope that he was as close to wrecked as she was.
* * * *
Charlie liked making Laura come. Actually, “like” wasn’t the right word. He liked cold beer on a hot day. He craved the feel of Laura’s body coming apart in his arms like he wanted water after a heavy night of drinking. He felt like he’d die without having it again and again and again.
Even though his cock demanded to be part of the next again, he stood there holding her, making soothing sounds until she settled against him, almost boneless. To know that he’d done that to her—for her—made him feel like nothing else.
Nothing in his professional life, nothing he’d ever seen travelling around the world would ever compare to having Laura claw his forearm, pushing him to give her more and somehow pulling away at the same time.
He’d pulled the pleasure out of her like a long-held secret. She was an anathema to him in a lot of ways, but every mysterious facet made him want to know more about her. After their fight at the ballet studio, he’d looked up videos of her dancing. It was hard to believe that someone as strong and as solid as Laura could make her movements look weightless. She wasn’t bigger than other ballerinas, but seeing all that power up close made him think of her other contradictions.
That first dinner, she’d looked down her nose at him. But holding her in his arms tonight, bending her over the back of his couch as though he had some sort of claim on her, making her writhe uncontrollably at the height of her pleasure made him see that she was dark and light and all extreme measures.
Now that she was laid out on his bed, almost naked—just her dress twisted and hopelessly wrinkled around her waist. Her eyes almost black; her gaze was glassy and unfocused. That wouldn’t do because he wanted her right here with him.
He grimaced and she smiled at him lazily. He loved the way she looked completely undone. Her black hair a stark contrast against his white linens, messy. He crawled up on the bed and knelt up, looming over her, memorizing how she looked like this for him. “I like your hair like that.”
“Messy?” She drew her big toe up his thigh. He caught her foot by the arch before she nudged his cock. It would be embarrassing if she tried and likely succeeded to get him off with a foot job. He was kind of a kinky bastard—after all he’d eaten her out from behind tonight and he hadn’t even kissed her on the mouth yet. But foot fetishist he was not.
“Watch it, gorgeous.”
“Watch it?” Her smile got bigger and made even more blood rush to his cock. “I haven’t even seen it yet.”
“You’ve felt it though.” He rubbed himself over his pants, but it didn’t relieve the almost unbearable ache of not being inside of her right now. “And you’ve tortured it.”
“You call a few bumps and grinds torture?”
“You’ve been torturing it ever since Bali.”
“That’s your own damned fault, though.” She wrenched her foot free from his hand and ran her shin between his legs. “I’m fairly sure I offered to take care of it.”
He caught her foot again, and pulled the dress from her waist. Naked Laura was the best Laura, and he had to take a moment to appreciate her grandeur. “You were drunk, and that wouldn’t have been right.”
“You’re such a gentleman.”
“I’m surprised to hear that after what just happened in the living room.”
“I think it’s downright chivalrous that you made me come first.”
“You think that was me being considerate?” She nodded, and he came over her on all fours. “No, gorgeous, that was pure selfishness. I wanted to taste you there so bad that I don’t even remember what we had for dinner tonight.” He palmed her between her thighs, satisfied that his hand came away wet. He pumped one finger into her and shifted his other hand to her clavicle, feeling her pulse speed up and her skin heat. “I needed to know that you would give over to me more than I want to fuck you right now.”
Her eyes dipped to his lap. “You want to fuck me a whole lot?” Her voice was breathy, and she was close again. He could feel it. She turned him into a predator, and it filled him with something he didn’t recognize. He’d never felt like he wanted to conquer a woman before. And he’d never felt this needy kind of pulling in his gut to take and dominate. It disturbed him a little, but that faded away when he realized how much it turned her on for him to take control.
“I want to fuck you so much that I’m afraid it will fall off if I don’t get inside you soon.”
“That’s not a thing.” She snaked one of her hands between his legs and undid his belt and his pants. He knelt up and pulled off his shirt. Instead of moving closer to the goal of putting him out of his misery, she trailed her hand over his stomach. He was glad he was up to her standards. When he’d seen the guy she danced with every day—how close and intimate that was—he felt like maybe he wouldn’t measure up. He’d always been tall and lean, had a hard time putting on muscle, but he wasn’t used to feeling like he might not be enough.
The way she was looking at him made him feel like he was the only thing she wanted, and he couldn’t help but lean over and kiss her. She moaned and opened to him, gave him so much in her kiss. She didn’t stop kissing him, but she pulled up her legs around his waist and pushed his pants the rest of the way down with her toes. Her high arches against his thighs were going to make him rethink the whole foot fetish thing.
He was so close to being inside her that his cock bumped against her inner thigh. They must have been thinking the same thing when he pulled back to grab protection from the side drawer.
“Condom?” she said. Her lips were swollen and almost magenta.
He rifled around in the drawer and pulled one out. “Always.”
He got the condom on faster than anyone had ever put a condom on before. “Ready?”
“I wouldn’t still be naked if I wasn’t.”
He smiled into her neck, kissed the soft skin there and sank into her. Right at that moment, the air changed around them. He became aware of nothing other than the sensation of touching her, of feeling her body against his, the smell of her mixed with him.
Jesus, she was something else. Every time he withdrew she followed him, giving everything to him right back. Her arms wrapped around him, keeping him close, filling his chest with a sensation he couldn’t name.
He moved at a steady pace until her mouth found his earlobe and she bit down. The tiny shock of pain spurred him on and she moaned with satisfaction.
“You’re a little hell cat, aren’t you?” He didn’t expect an answer, so he kept talking. “You keep everything all buttoned up and tight with bobby pins, cover up this body with sequins and feathers.” He slipped a hand down to where their bodies met and rubbed. Her eyes flew open, and she met his gaze. “That’s right. Look at me when I’m telling you that whole ‘ice queen’ thing is a front. You have so much fucking passion, and you only give it to me.”
Her eyes widened in shock before she went to close them. He couldn’t let her do that. He needed her right there with him for this. If he was going to convince her that they should be together, he had to keep her with him as she was now—wild. If he let her forget how they made each other feel, then she would retreat. The next time he saw her, she’d pretend she didn’t know him. At least not like this. She’d treat him like a stranger, and the idea of that made him see spots in his peripheral vision.
“If you can’t look in my face while I’m fucking you, I can take you from behind.” He stroked the column of her throat with his thumb. “Is that what you want?” She nodded, so he withdrew, flipped her over, and put her on her knees. “I don’t mind looking at this glorious ass and your back arched for my cock.” He reentered her, and her body curved up.
She backed up into him until he was inside her to the hilt. From this angle, he was deeper, so deep she whimpered. “Am I hurting you?” She shook her head and followed him when he tried to move away, just a little, whimpering. He threaded his fingers through the hair at the back of her scalp, not pulling. “I’m not going to hurt you, but I’m going to hold you while I fuck you.”
“Yes.” Her words were a throaty gasp.
Something about making this woman feel so much that she could hardly speak made him wild and he pumped into her so hard the bed frame moved across the floor. He was going to come soon, but she needed to come while he was inside her. “Rub your clit, Laura. I need to feel you coming around my cock before I let go.” She shook her head again, and he stilled her. “You want me to stop?”
“N—no. Don’t stop.”
“Then rub your clit, gorgeous.” He grabbed one ass cheek and rubbed one of his fingers over her asshole. She jumped and moved one of her hands between her legs. Almost immediately, her inner muscles started flexing around him. He gritted his teeth to keep from orgasming inside her right then. “Are you close?”
“Yes. So close.”
“What do you need?”
“H-harder.” He’d bet he was the only man who’d ever made her stammer and beg for it harder. One look down her nose and most would scurry away. Maybe it was because he was her husband—for about another minute—that he felt like he wanted to tear down the wall she had up in between her and everything sensual and earthy and uncontrolled. Perhaps it was just the way their two chemistries meshed. He didn’t know, but he would give her whatever she asked for in that soft raspy voice.
“I’ll give you whatever you want Laura, whatever I have.” The next day she’d forget he said that, and pretend that this was simply fucking. But he had to tell her how he really felt when he was this wide open to her, when she’d stripped off the civilized man parts of him to reveal a Neanderthal who just needed to claim, and fuck, and mark.
When she came, the arm holding her up collapsed. Between that and her pussy squeezing him, he was toast, done. His brain couldn’t work and roll over. He didn’t even have the brain power to think about making sure she didn’t leave in the middle of the night.
He didn’t black out, but he definitely came back to himself in stages. No memory of collapsing on top of her spent body while still inside her. It took him a few moments to be able to move again. He pulled out of her, and his muscles protested. Before going into the bathroom to get cleaned up and get rid of the condom, he kissed the back of her neck. She stirred, and the fear that she would leave came right back.
“Don’t move.”
“I don’t think I could if I tried.” He could see her smiling through the strands of hair that lay across her face.
“Did I break you?” He chuckled. “If I did, does that mean I get to keep you?”
When her smile faded, he walked into the en suite, moving faster because he was afraid she’d slip through his fingers.
When he returned, she was still in the same spot, and relief flashed through him like a summer storm. He stretched out next to her on the bed, placing his hand on her back as though it would hold her here. Her eyes were drooping, almost closed. Having her here and getting to see her mussed up and sleepy—satisfied—fulfilled the part of himself that she’d revealed.
He realized that he’d been a little bit asleep before. Although he’d moved to Miami to get away from the expectation that he would be the same heartless captain of industry his father was, he’d lost touch with having any real ambition at all. And, being with Laura made him realize that he had ambition, but maybe it was different than his father’s had been. She made him want to protect her, build a future with her.
The sad irony of it all was that a future with him would cost her everything she wanted.