Zoey
Max shows up first. His unruly brown hair lilts as he steps toward me wielding a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of wine. His scruffy jaw juts as he smiles, and he pierces me with gentle, rich chocolate-colored eyes.
“Hey, Zoey.” He extends the wine to me. “This is for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Where’s Langley?” he asks, just as Easton opens the grill on the balcony.
I tip my head. “Outside prepping the grill.”
He grins before setting his sights on Easton and heading out. I watch as he hands over the dark liquor, his chest puffed out, boasting as he nods and points to the bottle.
Zachary struts in and skips a step when his eyes land on me. His chiseled jaw shifts as he smiles and checks me out from head to toe and back. “Z, you’re looking delightful.”
My blush warms my cheeks and I quickly move to the fridge and place the wine on the top rack in a desperate measure to hide my face.
He braces against the counter, arms out, palms down. “You brighten up this place, you know that? It’s good to see a woman here.”
Slowly, I stand, socially awkward as hell. His intimidating presence doesn’t help.
He chuckles and then leaves, stepping out with the rest of the guys.
Through the glass sliding doors separating the outside from the inside, the guys stand comfortably talking with several eruptions of laughter. Right now, they don’t resemble businessmen. They look freer, unrestricted by their heavy loads, their obligations, passive from their daily stresses. They’re all dressed down—sort of. I mean, no suits and button ups. Rather, jeans and polos.
They look truer to brothers today than I’ve ever seen. Easton’s told me how close they are, and seeing it for myself warms my chest.
Growing up, I only had one true friend. Dana. She moved to our little town in the middle of third grade and sat right beside me. I was timid then too, only giving her a small smile and wave. She tapped my arm, asked to borrow a pencil, and we bonded. We were inseparable for the most part, outside of having to help on our family’s farm. Her parents owned a cattle farm and if we weren’t doing chores, we were spending time together. Most the time we sat at the edge of a little fishing pond on her parents’ land, other times at the rope swing on ours.
Even after we got our licenses and both got jobs, we still spent a fair amount of time together. That was until she met the asshole Grady and fell head the hell over heels for him. He was the jealous type and despised me taking any of her time. She was blinded by love and allowed him to pull us apart. I heard they married and have two kids somewhere still in Nebraska.
Easton catches me staring at him through the glass. One of his brows raises, his lips soften into a ghost of a smile. A bolt of electricity slams me, my fingers numbing. I could stare at him forever, ogle him in all his handsomeness. I’m falling with nothing to brace myself. I rip my gaze from him, scared my emotions are showing how I feel, and pour a glass of wine.
The guys pile back in. Easton sets the hamburgers on the counter and we all begin making our plates. Easton sits beside me on the couch as Zachary takes the leather seat on one side of the sofa and Max in the other. As we eat, they talk about how they need to plan another guy trip. Max suggests a weekend at the lake. Easton proposes a mountain hike. Zachary offers Ireland and everyone cracks up and gives him a hard time about how eccentric he’s being.
Zachary finishes first and shoves his plate onto the coffee table. He leans back with destruction on his lips. “I’m surprised I haven’t heard that you’ve gotten a phone call yet.”
Easton doesn’t look up. “Oh yeah? From who?” He shoves the last bite of his burger in his mouth.
“Ellux Hotels. Mr. Richard fucking Elliots himself.”
This gets his attention and Easton’s head perks up as he peers to Zach.
“He’s developing a second hotel in Las Vegas. It’s going to be enormous with a resort feel to it. Apparently, this all falls on Penn. All her ideas,” Zachary says.
Max loudly groans to the ceiling. “Please for the love of wine, tell us you declined.”
Zachary laughs while he nods. “I did. I can’t fit that uptight asshole in my schedule. Not this time.”
“That hotel will do well,” Easton tells him. “Penelope had some solid ideas.”
“Maybe they’ll need you for their security.” My voice remains steady.
I know he and Penelope Elliots were an item for a long time. Two years, I think. She’s everything I’m not—beautiful, flawless, rich—and I can’t help to feel begrudging insecurities.
He chortles. “Doubt that.” He grabs my plate and stands. “Edgerdale Alarms looks more enticing in his eyes.”
“Not if Penn is running the show,” Zachary adds.
“You know what you need?” Max stands, stretching his body and then slaps his stomach. “A foosball table.”
Zachary laughs. “Why? So I can kick your ass?”
“You beat me one time and now you think you’re the king shit.” Max says, following behind Zachary into the kitchen. Max gives me a wink and I know he changed the conversation on purpose…for me.
“Once? Were you drunk the last ten times?” Zachary boasts.
Easton chuckles. “Ten times? Were you the one drunk?”
They banter back and forth, and as I listen, I can’t help but laugh.
After Easton helps me clean up, Zach and Max leave. Once the elevator doors shut, Easton’s gaze cuts to me with sexy hidden intentions. He drags his finger along my cheek with a wolfish smirk.
“What type of manipulation do you need to agree to stay with me tonight?”
My teeth scrape my bottom lip. “Foot rub.”
He licks his lips and drops his chin slightly, offering the sexiest lecherous stare. “This I can do.” His voice is deep and low.
Using his forefinger, he pulls my chin to his face, but instead of kissing me, he begins backing me up with a smirk. He leads us to his bedroom before finally giving my aching lips a taste of his. His breath becomes heavy and he runs his hand through my hair, gripping a handful. The bite against my scalp heats my core and I dig my palms into his chest.
Ever so slowly, he undresses me—my shirt falling the floor, my pants pooling around my feet, my bra unclasped and my breasts perky and aching. I’m naked. Vulnerable. And feeling all types of ready for him.
I’m not as agile as he, and in a haste, I jerk his shirt over his head. He steps out of his pants, and pushes me to sit on the side of the bed. He grips his dick, stroking it up and down and then rubs the head across my lips. I suck the smooth, ribbed shaft into my mouth and he draws in a short breath.
“Damn, Zoey…” he groans low and husky.
Laying my tongue flat, I drag him in and out of my mouth, flicking my wrist and stroking him. His dick throbs as I rise and fall. He grabs my hair, almost painfully, and flexes his hips.
I’m hot from pleasing him and I moan, my eyes rolling up to him. I’m swallowed by the look on his face—heavy-hooded eyes, glazed over with a blazing feral lechery. His breaths are shallow. His jaw is tense, his lips parted. I tighten my grip and suck harder, sloppier.
When his eyes roll back and he drops his head, I almost orgasm at the sight…at me pleasuring him. I wrap my tongue around the head, circling it, and then sink back down. A guttural growl escapes his throat. Suddenly, he grabs my hands and pulls them up, pinning them against his chest as he thrusts into my mouth. Without my hands as a buffer, I have no control, unable to stop where I’m the most comfortable.
“So damn sexy…” he murmurs through gritted teeth.
And I feel it. I feel sexy, irresistible, powerful. I’m hungry to please him. Desperate to make him happy.
“Do you feel my cock begging to explode? It’s you…” he trails off pumping into my mouth.
He lets my hands go, and I slide them over the smooth skin of his stomach, feeling his ab muscles tighten and loosen as his body ripples from his building orgasm.
Suddenly, he heaves out and slams a kiss into me, forcing my back on the bed. He stretches to his night stand and plucks a condom. After sliding it on, he grasps my ankles and plunges in.
The relief of him, releasing the sexual tension throughout my body, causes me to mewl and writhe my hips.
“You’re fucking soaked, Zoey. You enjoyed me fucking your mouth?” He rams forward.
My entire body is stimulated, buzzing with so much excitement and anticipation, I crumble into my orgasm. I cry out, gripping the sheets as he slams into me, his hips slapping my thighs, so deeply the sting amplifies my climax.
His cursing shifts into a gravelly growl as he speeds into his own orgasm. His fingers dig into my calves, his hips rolling and heaving.
“Fuck,” he cusses as his body shudders, and he drops his head forward. A lazy smile tugs at his lips. “That didn’t go as planned.” He chuckles before pulling out.
My body shakes as I try moving myself up the bed. My limbs feel weak and limp on a whole new level of relaxed.
He joins me back in the bed and kisses my cheek. “I need your feet.”
A giggle bubbles out of me. “I was being facetious.”
Dismissing the comment, he moves to the end of the bed and pulls my feet out from the covers. His thumbs dig into the arch of my foot and immediately pull a moan from me.
“I relish that sound from you.” He pauses. “Matter of fact, I savor everything about you.”
My cheeks heat up.
He chuckles. “All the way down to your shyness. I think that’s what I enjoy the most. Getting those to rosy up.” He tips his chin. “Most people say your eyes are the windows to your soul, but after meeting you, I must disagree. Your cheeks tell me a lot.”
I cover my heated face with my hands. “You’re going to make me self-conscious,” I titter.
“I promise your beautiful naked ass, you have absolutely nothing to feel self-conscious about. Scarlet cheeks and all. You’re flawless.”
I swallow my argument. I’m definitely not flawless. A comfortable silence settles between us as he continues to work his magical hands on my feet. Thoughts of our earlier conversation begin creeping back to mind and before I realize what I’m saying, my mouth moves.
“What happened between you and Penelope?” I ask and then shift my view to him. “I couldn’t help but notice how Zachary’s statement about her hotel caught your attention. I’m sorry if I’m overstepping. I was just wondering.”
Several long quiet moments pass before he speaks. “We fought a lot and truth is, the relationship had run its course. We weren’t growing as a couple, only growing apart. Fighting took up the bulk of everything and after a while, there just wasn’t any long-term potential. I was done long before she was, but for some reason I stuck around.”
“Did you love her?” I’m not sure I actually want to know the answer.
His lips quirk up. “At first, yes, or so I thought. Either way, as quickly as I fell in love with her, I fell out just as fast after I realized I was being used. I was a stepping stone to make her dad happy. Someone with wealth and success to keep up his precious daughter. I was the lucky one she picked.” He falls quiet for another moment. “Besides, when you’re constantly battling rumors of infidelity…” He shakes his head. “I put up walls to protect myself and ended up pushing everything else out.”
“Did you cheat on her?” Why do I keep asking questions?
A chuckle, threaded with disbelief pushes from his throat. “No. Never. But it didn’t stop her. And regardless of how it may have been printed, it was an amicable breakup…to a sense.” His shoulder lifts up and down as he shrugs. “After finding out she really did cheat, I left. The following day, we both agreed it was over. That was more for her. I knew it was.” He exhales, moving my legs back under the covers and nestles beside of me. “Why are we discussing my ex-girlfriend after our phenomenal sex?”
I don’t respond. How do I answer that?
With the backs of his fingers, he rubs my cheek. “I enjoyed today. You being here,” he clarifies.
His voice is so tender and raw, and butterflies scurry across my skin. I want to tell him I’m in love with him. It’s right there. Right on the tip of my tongue. “I…I really like this side of you,” I say, holding back the truth.
He shoves his arm under me and rests his head on the side of mine. “Get used to it.”