EIGHTEEN
GWYNETH
“You look very nice tonight, Gwyn,” Mitchell said from my side, catching me completely off guard.
Mitchell never complimented me.
Ever.
And the truth was, I wasn’t feeling very good or pretty at the moment, so he picked a bad time to try to be a decent fiancé.
Things were off and had been for a while, but it seemed to be getting worse. I had a feeling it had more to do with me now than it did with him.
I looked over at him in his suit and tie, his hair gelled back, and a slight grin on his handsome face, and it was as if I was looking at a stranger … a stranger I would be spending the entire night with for the first time in weeks.
Petrova Technologies was having a party to celebrate the newest merger with a new app software that would sweep the nation when it released in a couple of months.
My father and Mitchell were on cloud nine, which was partly to explain Mitchell’s sudden change of affections toward me—his complimenting comments, his lingering smiles. He was excited about the merger and looking forward to the party. Meanwhile, I was still feeling angry over the fact he couldn’t get as excited for my hospital fundraiser, yet he expected me to be full of joy over his merger.
He had better be happy my father owned the company; otherwise, I’d be petty and suddenly come up with an excuse of having to work. The truth was, I had no desire to leave my apartment. I wanted nothing more than to stay at home in my pajamas with a giant bowl of ice cream while reading one of my guilty pleasure tabloid magazines.
I wasn’t in the mood to play the part tonight, not with everything going on with my body and mind, but I knew I had to at least show my face since my father owned the company and my fiancé worked there.
“Thank you,” I muttered, dabbing a bit of perfume behind my ears.
I set the bottle back onto the counter and adjusted my hair once more.
“Are you okay? You’ve been acting kind of morose lately. Anything you want to talk about?”
I pushed back from my vanity and stood to collect my heels. Finally, Mitchell wanted to talk to me. Only now, I wasn’t in the mood. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to him or if I even wanted to talk to him about anything anymore.
Somehow, things in my life had spiraled out of control. Before Dylan, everything was cut and dry.
Me and Dad.
Work.
The hospital.
The kids.
Mitchell.
Everything made sense, and I knew what path I was taking.
Then Dylan came along, and now I was rethinking things and looking at other paths I never knew were options. I felt like a failure somehow. Like I had let myself and my father down by becoming the one thing I swore I never would.
My mother.
“No, Mitchell. There’s nothing.”
I wasn’t going to have a heart-to-heart talk with him about my feelings minutes before it was time to leave to attend a party.
Maybe later.
When it was just us, and we had nowhere to be.
Only then would I tell him of my doubts about us and express my feelings. Until then, I would keep my mouth zipped and pretend to have a lovely time.
The drive to the party was quiet, and I barely listened to the terrible music on the radio Mitchell insisted we listen to. Staring out the window, I watched the world pass by in a blur of lights and darkness, every now and then catching a glimpse of my reflection and the unhappy expression carved into my face.
When we entered Petrova Technologies, someone was there to take our coats before ushering us into the main lobby. The place was full of my father’s employees, all with drinks in their hands and smiles on their faces.
I took in the large lobby space, surrounded by grand pillars holding up all forty floors above us. Standing in the middle of the lobby, you could see all the way up to the skylight above us. The room was open and bright, glass walls filling the first and second floors so that you could almost see straight through the entire building.
My father had designed this building from the floor up, taking care of every detail and measurement. His company was like another child, and with every accomplishment and growth, he glowed with pride. It was a beautiful building, and I was proud of my father and everything he’d built.
It didn’t take long for my father to spot us, and he called us to him with a wave.
“Ah, here she is,” my father said, pulling me to his side as soon as I was within arm’s reach. He kissed me sweetly on the cheek.
“Now that you’re both here, we can start celebrating.” He was beaming as he handed me and Mitchell each a glass of champagne he’d grabbed from a server’s tray.
“You two look so cute together,” Glenda, my father’s secretary, said before she lifted her champagne glass to her lips.
Mitchell fitted himself against my side at her comment before looking around and taking a drink of his own champagne. This show he was putting on for these people was annoying. Rarely did Mitchell hold me to his side the way he was now, and I knew it was because people were watching and Glenda’s comment.
“And you look gorgeous tonight, Gwyn. As always,” Maria, another of my father’s employees, said.
“Doesn’t she?” Mitchell agreed, stroking my spine with his palm absently like it was something he always did.
It wasn’t.
I wanted to sidestep his touch, and my reaction scared the hell out of me. Before, I wanted nothing more than for Mitchell to respond to me this way, but now I knew it was all pretend. An act. An illusion for the guests around us and for my father, who was beaming at us like the happiest man on the planet. For some reason, I wasn’t up to putting on a show for them anymore.
I did my best to put a smile on my face. “Thank you, Maria. So do you. How are the kids?”
I asked, but for the first time ever, I found myself uninterested in her children or any of the conversations I participated in throughout the night.
My mouth was dry, and all I could think about was getting my hands on something to drink that could possibly loosen up my less-than-sunny disposition.
It wasn’t until I saw Dylan standing across the room, his shoulder leaning on a pillar and his eyes on me, that I felt any sort of spark.
I swallowed the champagne I held in my mouth, and when he nodded in my direction as if to say hello, I nodded back. I turned toward Mitchell, leaning in close so only he could hear my question.
“You invited Dylan?”
His brows furrowed. “Who?”
“Dylan.” I nodded across the room to where he was.
“Oh, yeah. Of course. He’s my best man and an investor in this project.”
“Wait, an investor? But why?”
“He’s a good businessman, Gwyn. He knows this app is going to explode.”
I nodded, taking another sip of my champagne to keep from frowning.
As I followed my father and Mitchell from one business partner to the next, I could feel Dylan’s eyes following my every step, and it was doing things to me I couldn’t quite explain.
I nodded, not really understanding or caring what people were saying as they talked to me, explaining the app and its capabilities. When my eyes drifted back toward Dylan, he was gone, leaving me with the guilty sense of longing I had been feeling a lot of lately.
An hour later, I found myself alone and looking at the time on my phone every ten minutes. A quick sweep of the room found my father and Mitchell absent. I wondered if they would even realize I was gone if I left and went home to my ice cream and magazines.
After another anxious sweep of the guests’ faces, I realized I hadn’t seen Dylan in quite some time either. I wondered if he’d already left, and if he’d left alone. Part of me hoped he had because seeing him across the room, staring at me like he was still picturing me half naked was too much to bear. And the other part of me wanted things I couldn’t even think inside my own head.
The party was too much. The conversation was too much, and my feet were killing me. I was sure no one would miss me for twenty minutes if I stole away and rested my feet for a bit.
Stepping into the elevator, I tapped my foot on the floor while I waited for the doors to close, hoping no one would get on with me. My breath caught in my throat when I caught a glimpse of Dylan watching me from across the lobby. We stared at each other, an unspoken conversation happening between us, and we didn’t break eye contact until the elevator door closed, shutting me into the tiny space alone.
I rode the elevator, leaning against the wall and watching the numbers change as I went up. My heart was beating out of my chest, and my legs felt weak and shaky. I wondered if I’d even be able to walk off the elevator and make it to my father’s office without falling.
“I won’t be like her,” I whispered out loud into the empty elevator around me. “I won’t give in to him.”
At least not any more than I already had.
Even as I was saying this to myself, I knew the only way that would be possible was if I stayed away from him. He was too good at what he did. Somehow, he knew me so well.
What I wanted.
What I liked.
What I was missing in my life as far as personal relationships.
It was scary knowing there was a man out there who knew me better than the man I would possibly marry.
Once the door opened and I was away from the party and Dylan’s dark eyes, I breathed deep, feeling at ease for the first time since we walked into the building. My father’s business was practically like a second home to me. One day, it would be mine, but it seemed ever since Mitchell began working there, it no longer felt like the comfortable place I’d always known.
Making my way toward my father’s office at the back of the building, I reveled in the silence, my heels clicking along the marble floor. His office was the only place I could be alone to think. It was the only place I wanted to be at that exact moment. Stepping inside, I closed the heavy mahogany door behind me and slumped against it.
My feet ached with relief as I slipped out of my heels, leaving them by the door as I moved toward the chocolatey leather couch across my father’s office. The worn leather hugged my body as I sat down, pulling my legs up and tucking them underneath my bottom.
His office definitely did not lack in square footage, but my father was a large man, so it suited him. His desk to my left was large and hulking with a massive chair he sat in tucked behind it. Two smaller leather chairs sat directly in front of it.
The bar cart beside where he sat was full of bottles calling to me. The brown liquids inside much more potent than the champagne I’d been drinking at the party.
Going across the room, I pulled the stopper off one of the bottles and poured myself a large glass. Downing it, I choked a bit when the burn in my throat became too much. By the time I was taking my seat again, I could feel the relaxation of my drink soaking into my body.
The sitting area where I was relaxing had a giant window that stretched from wall to wall. The city outside the window was glittering with life. Staring out from the top floor, I reveled in the complete and total calm of the city and the stars.
It was lovely.
I sat there for almost thirty minutes without anyone realizing I was gone. No one came for me, but I knew I had to go back down and join the party at least for my father’s sake.
Leaving the office, I closed his door behind me and turned to go return to the party. The hallway was dark, but I could see the glow of the light from the lobby in the center of the building. I was smiling to myself, enjoying what I had left of peace and quiet as I made my way to the elevator, but my smile slipped when I saw him standing there waiting for me.
He was leaning against one of the pillars, his ankle folded over the other and his arms crossed over his chest as if he was waiting to punish me.
I deserved to be punished, especially considering how my body reacted the second I laid eyes on him. My heart kicked up a notch, and my nipples began to tingle with the memory of his mouth. My pussy clenched with need, begging me to give in to the pleasure his expression promised me.
He stared at me, his eyes glowing in the shadows like that of a predator, and I knew I had to keep fighting against him because if I let go for even a second, he would eat me alive.
“Dylan,” I breathed, hating the way my voice sounded when I said his name.
“Gwyn.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked even though I was sure I already knew the answer.
“What do you think I’m doing here?”
I didn’t answer.
I didn’t need to.
The smirk that made his dimples pop told me he knew I knew exactly why he was there.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, pretending to be ignorant of the heat between us.
“Everything is perfect. Are you okay?”
Despite the distance between us, our voices were barely above a whisper. I was afraid to move, to close the space between us, because I didn’t know if I would be strong enough to resist him if he touched me.
I nodded, looking away because I knew when I lied he would somehow be able to see it in my eyes.
No.
Everything wasn’t okay, but seeing as he was a part of the problem, I couldn’t very well tell him that.
“Come here."
His intense demand opened a floodgate in my body, and I felt dizzy and intoxicated with desire. I blamed that intoxication when my feet began to move in his direction. It was the desire, the champagne from earlier, and whatever the potent brown liquid was by my father’s desk.
I stopped in front of him, looking up at him through my lashes.
“Dylan.” His name came out whispered and deep, the desire and passion wrapping around my voice box and changing the way I sounded completely.
“Gwyn?” Again, he repeated my name as if he was waiting for me to say the things running in circles through my mind.
I didn’t get a chance to speak. His thumb stopped anything else I would have said as he reached up and dragged it across my bottom lip.
I wanted to suck his thumb into my mouth and bite at his salty flesh, but I didn’t. I controlled the urges and closed my eyes at the tingling sensations caused by his touch.
Finally, I found my voice.
“I don’t want to be like her,” I said against his skin.
When I opened my eyes again, his eyes locked on mine.
“You could never be like her, Gwyneth.”
Wrapping his large arms around me, he turned us, pushing my back into the cold concrete pillar.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered in my ear.
I listened, closing my lids and blocking out everything but the feel of him against me.
Every part of my body throbbed for his touch, and I could feel the want I had for him sliding between my thighs. I hadn’t been this turned on since the dressing room, and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to deny him anymore.
“Feel me, Gwyn,” he said against the side of my mouth. “Listen to the sound of my voice and feel.”
I did as he said, breathing deeply and focusing on the singular touch of the tip of his finger as he moved it back and forth over my chest just above my breasts.
Swallowing a moan, I bit my lip when his finger slowly descended, brushing across my hard nipples before his palm slid down over my waist.
I clenched my eyes tighter when his hand moved lower, sliding into the slit down the side of my dress and gliding up the inside of my knee. I shook, my skin pebbling all over as he very slowly slid his palm against the skin of my thigh and around to grip my ass in his hand.
“Is your entire body this soft?” he asked, sinking his teeth into my bottom lip and tugging before releasing it and licking away the tiny bit of pain.
Instead of answering, I exhaled and swallowed another moan as his hand moved down once again, his fingertip following my panty line over my thigh and down between my legs.
“Remember how jealous I was of this lace?” he asked, tugging the lace of my panties away from my body.
Cool air rushed into the side he was tugging on, bathing my freshly shaved pussy and sending another wave of tingles over my body.
I nodded, keeping my eyes closed, and struggled to remain silent.
“I hate being jealous,” he said, pushing his finger inside my panties and sliding it over my center.
Without realizing I was doing it, I widened my stance for him, letting my knee fall to the side so I was open to his touch.
He kissed my lips softly before moving to the side of my neck and sucking my flesh into his mouth.
“Your skin tastes as sweet as it smells.”
His finger shifted, slowly moving across me back and forth, barely teasing the tip of my clit and driving me absolutely insane for more.
“Look at me, Gwyn.”
I did as he asked, opening my eyes and looking up at him. He stared down at me, grinning at his success at knocking me completely off balance.
Again, he bent his head down, softly kissing the swell of my cleavage just above my party dress. He breathed me in, growling softly with approval.
Then his finger stopped, putting just the perfect amount of pressure on my clit and making my mouth pop open in pleasure.
“That’s the spot, huh?” he asked, his lips still moving over my flesh.
His finger moved down, sliding through my crease and collecting my arousal until he was pressing at my entrance.
“You’re so wet for me. Fucking soaked.”
He moved in, running his nose across mine and kissing me sweetly on the mouth before pulling back and looking me directly in the eye.
At that moment, he pushed two thick fingers into me, his mouth opening like mine in pleasure as if I felt as amazing on his fingers as his fingers felt inside me.
A groan escaped the back of my throat, rolling across my tongue and rushing out of my mouth. The sound echoed off the concrete pillars and marble floors around us but only for our ears.
“I know you love it when I touch your sweet little clit, but I can think of an even more sensitive spot.”
As he said that, his fingers moved, pressing up into a soft space inside me I’d only ever found once in my life and pleasure shot through my body.
I cried out but not in pain. My fingers dug into the smooth hard pillar at my back, and my leg shifted on its own, wrapping around his hip.
He growled deep in his throat as the fingers of his free hand wrapped around the underside of my thigh, marking my skin with his fingertips.
His fingers moved in and out of me, never leaving the smooth inner wall of my pussy as he slid them back and forth. The friction of his fingers against my G-spot was pushing me closer and closer to the edge. It had been so long since I’d been touched at all, much less like the way he was touching me, and it didn’t take long to prime my body.
Words I didn’t usually say or much less understand slipped from my lips as I begged him not to stop. And the closer I got to coming, the more I chanted his name over and over again, pushing him to pull me over the edge.
“When you come on my fingers, I want you to imagine it’s my cock. Do you understand?”
I nodded, unable to answer him right away since my body was already beginning to climb.
As far as I was concerned, it was impossible for him to do anything to add to the pleasure I was experiencing, but again, he proved me wrong. Tugging at the fabric of my dress around my shoulders, he released my breast. Just as the cold air touched my nipple, he soothed the cold with his hot mouth as he wrapped his lips around my sensitive bud and sucked.
“Oh, God,” I moaned so loudly, I had to bite my bottom lip.
His teeth closed around my flesh, drawing another cry from me.
His thrusts quickened, making my body shake with its impending release until I finally broke. I screamed out in pleasure, the sound bouncing off every surface around me as I came on his fingers and the palm of his hand.
Closing my eyes, I imagined he was inside me just as he had asked me to, and if anything, it intensified my orgasm.
Once I was done shaking and could open my eyes again, he slowly withdrew his fingers from my body. I breathed hard, trying to catch my breath as he brought his hand up to his mouth and sucked his two soaking wet fingers into his mouth.
“Mmm.” He groaned his approval, his tongue visibly wrapping around his knuckles and lapping up all the juices he’d pulled from my body.
It was the sexiest thing I had ever seen in my entire life.
I learned two things at that moment.
One, I learned I was completely powerless against Dylan. There was no way I would ever be able to deny him if I didn’t stay away from him completely.
And two, no matter how much I hated my mother, a part of her was squatting inside me because even though guilt for what we had just done reared its ugly head and threatened to choke me to death, I couldn’t help but smile at the release and pleasure Dylan had just given me.
I loved it.
I hated it.
And I wanted more all at the same time.
I was in way over my head.
How was I going to survive this heartbreak?
How was I going to survive this man?