by Fiona Murphy
Shock ran over her at his words, at the burning fire in his eyes. Her hands went up to cover herself, embarrassed by the tired white bra and aching peaked nipples. He pushed her hands away cupping a breast in each hand. “I want you so badly, if it weren’t for my belief that you’ve never had another lover I would fuck you, right here in this dressing room. Has there been another man?”
She could only shake her head. Her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“I have taken cold shower after cold shower, and still I’m hard and aching to know the feel of your breasts in my hands, in my mouth. Will your nipples be the color of the blush on your cheeks or the color of your sweet ripe mouth?” His hands, big and warm, as they cupped her made her feel small and hot. A thumb toyed with a pebbled tip through the cloth and she longed to have his skin against her there.
Her head rolled back, at her core, she was molten and melting and she clenched her legs together. He knew it; shame filled her as his eyes read her so easily. His hands slid down her body, to her waist. “Your waist is smaller than your clothes let on,” his large hands spanned her waist, squeezed before moving lower, and covered the round curve of her butt. As his hands slipped below her skirt, she gasped and then he began to mold and caress her trembling flesh. “And these cheeks, these are the cheeks that have taunted me every day. I only need to think of your beautiful, full, round ass and I get hard. When you bend over, I want to become an animal and take you fast and hard from behind, with you on your knees so I can watch your ass move with my thrusts. Do you feel how hard you make me, now that I finally have you in my hands?” He pulled her to him and she felt him hot and thick against her and moaned his name, pleadingly.
“Yes, that’s what I’ve been longing for, to hear you moaning my name. Do you feel what you do to me? A week filled with wet dreams about your body. Do you know what a wet dream is, Elise? It’s when a man dreams he’s having sex and wakes up in a state of need as thick as I am and sometimes a man even comes in his sleep. That has been my week of torture, dreaming that my cock is buried deep in your pussy, wanting you so badly I come from the dream of it. I want you to say it. ‘I am so beautiful and sexy that I make Dmitri come in his dreams for me.’ Say it.” He hissed in her ear.
Her body was on overload, the feel of him hard against her was making her want to cry out in need. The lewd, graphic words he spoke excited her. His accent was again caressing her name and making it into a promise. His voice had dropped to a lower smoky timber that was vibrating down her backbone. She wanted him closer; she wanted to crawl inside his skin. “I’m so beautiful,” he pressed against her and her arms went around his neck to bring him closer to her but he resisted, whispering in her ear to repeat his words. His breath was hot against her ear and just like that, a gush of liquid spilled onto her already moist panties. “I’m so beautiful and sexy that I make Dmitri come in his dreams for me.” She panted out.
“Again, say it again.”
“I’m so beautiful and sexy that I make Dmitri come in his dreams for me.” She was breathless now.
His hands were at the zipper at the back of her skirt. He unzipped the skirt and then ripped the skirt in two, yanking it from her body. “You are a beautiful woman and anyone who doesn’t see that, including you, is an idiot. I don’t want to hear another word on this subject again. Do you understand?” At her jerky nod, he was gone.
Elise fell onto the chaise stunned; her body was still trembling with longing for Dmitri. What had just happened? He dreamed of her? His words came tumbling back to her and shock was replacing the longing. He was absolutely gorgeous, sexually stunning and he wanted her so badly he dreamed of her. It was hard to believe, but she had come to know that Dmitri would never lie to her. Harsh truth was more appealing to him than pretty white lies, even to get her into bed. Just sex though, it was just sex he wanted from her. In her mind, she saw them as he told her he wanted her, on her knees, taking him into her body. Closing her eyes, she couldn’t hold back the moan of longing it caused her.
Dmitri walked away fighting his body that was screaming for Elise. The blonde walked toward him and he spit out the words like bullets. “You’re fired. Get the hell out of here.”
Shocked, the blonde looked at the other woman, but the woman only shook her head, “We’ve discussed your attitude before, this isn’t the first time. Get your things and go, I’ll mail your last check.” Without another look at the blonde she turned to Dmitri, “I am so sorry, Mr. Markhoff.”
Dmitri nodded and waived a hand toward the dressing rooms. “She needs new lingerie as well, her current bra is ill-fitting.” He flung himself into the chair that had been set out for him. What the hell had he been thinking? He was supposed to be moving slowly, allowing her to get comfortable with him. Mauling her in a dressing room wasn’t in the plan. Yet, one look at Elise in tears had caused him to come unglued, the plan had disappeared completely. The need to reassure her of just how attractive he found her and she truly was had almost been his undoing.
Even now, he was fighting his body, flexing his hands against the memory of the feel of her skin under his fingers. He could have had her, there in that dressing room. She wanted him too. He had felt it in her trembling body, and he had smelled the wet heat of her pussy. All he had wanted to do was slide down and find out what she tasted like. Yet, her admission that there had been no one else had gutted him, and that surprised him. It was the assumption he had been operating under but the confirmation sucked him farther into his overwhelming desire for her. He had to make concessions for her lack of knowledge; he would make her first time long, sweet, and slow—not up against a wall in a dressing room.
He could hear her walking towards him and he schooled his features before he looked up. This was the way he had seen her dozens of times in his imagination. The skirt grazed her knee, he didn’t want her body on show for anyone but him, the skirt didn’t look all that different from the one he had torn from her body but this was cut better, and made of better material. There was a lift and flair to the skirt that moved with her and caressed her thighs, just like he wanted to. While the blouse she wore would have looked like the one she was wearing when they came in, again the cut of the blouse and the fact that it was pure silk turned it into something completely different on her. Her breasts were in a new bra, one that molded her curves rather than mashed them down, and he longed to know what it looked like on her.
The shop assistant intruded on his thoughts and he worked to focus on her words, “I believe this is what you were wanting her to wear for work. Am I correct?”
“Yes, it will do. Remember, keep the skirts to the knee. We will also need casual wear for the weekends and a few cocktail dresses. As far as the cocktail dresses, the longer the better and nothing that bares too much skin, but don’t let her look like a matron.”
The other woman nodded and took Elise back to the dressing room. Dmitri loosened his tie and tossed back the champagne the woman had poured when they first arrived, wishing it was scotch. This was going to be torturous.
Elise had been nervous to see Dmitri again, after what had happened in the dressing room, and had been oddly let down by his lack of response to her in the new clothes. He had nodded and shook his head for over an hour but his eyes had felt impersonal. When at last they finished, her nerves once again started humming at the idea of being alone with Dmitri. The majority of the clothes would be delivered the next day. For now, she wore a new suit, and carried a bag with a new suit, blouse, and a set of underwear that was so beautiful and sexy she had blushed when Jackie brought them to her.
Waiting as Dmitri signed the sales receipt, Elise almost fainted at the total. If she had known it would be so much, she would have put a stop to it at just a few things but he had kept going. He smiled at Jackie and thanked her for her time and good taste. Elise watched Jackie thank him and eye him enviously. She wanted to scratch out the other woman’s eyes for daring to look at Dmitri like that. Dmitri walked her to the do
or and Elise blushed at her thought. She had liked Jackie. Jackie had been so nice to her, what had made her think like that? And then he tightened his grip on her and she knew. She didn’t want anyone else looking at Dmitri because she already thought of him as hers. Shaken by the realization, Elise was quiet all the way to the hotel.
Dmitri relaxed in the back of the car, pleased by the shopping trip and the new clothes Elise wore. What had topped it all off was the feral look of hatred Elise had flashed at the shop assistant as he paid. Dmitri had felt the other woman’s eyes on him but he had been looking at Elise and the sight had instantly made him hard. Maybe he hadn’t made a mistake in the dressing room after all.
In the elevator, she seemed to come out of her thoughts, “Wait, I thought you said you were in Chicago so often you have a condo here. Why aren’t we staying there?”
“Because my brother is staying there while his is being updated, and you aren’t going anywhere near my brother.”
“Why not?”
He unlocked the room and she saw their luggage had been brought up and someone had set up the desk for him. “Misha would take one look at you and wouldn’t be able to stop flirting. I love my brother, and taking a swing at him would be bad for our relationship. I need a shower. Order dinner, I want a steak and fries.”
He needed a cold shower, right now, before he did something she wasn’t ready for.
Elise huffed as she took the menu to the small dining table in the suite. He was so infuriating at times. She wanted to meet his brother, to know something more about him. He was so closed off and hard to read. She spent every day with him but knew few things she could say were truly personal. Until five minutes ago, she had no idea he had a brother or any other siblings. He never mentioned his parents or hometown, while she knew how he liked his steak cooked, and that he had a secret sweet tooth for chocolate. Secret because she knew he wouldn’t like her knowing. He seemed to judge any need as a sign of weakness. That was the sum total of her knowledge of him.
Maybe that was what had shocked her so much in the dressing room today. That he had admitted to the cold showers and his dreaming about her, it spoke of need and was so unlike Dmitri. Then she remembered his words in the dressing room and went hot all over at the thought of him naked and wet in the shower, hard for her and fighting it. Her imagination got away from her as she wondered what his body looked like. In the past week, she had never seen him in anything less than a long sleeved shirt and slacks. Once he had rolled up his sleeves to his forearms, but that was it. She knew all his clothes were tailored to fit him, not a single shirt was store bought. There had been times though, when she watched him move or stretch and even through the undershirt could see the ripple of muscle. He worked out for an hour a day and made it clear he was off limits in that time, usually leaving the suite in a suit with a bag and returning in the suit, with the bag full of dirty clothes. At the thought of him sweating and shirtless in a gym, her whole body shuddered with desire.
Blindly, she reached for the phone and placed an order. Her cell phone rang, and not recognizing the number she answered, “This is Elise.”
“Elise? My, my, gone a week and already you’ve changed on me. Little Ellie all grown up and going by Elise. What a sophisticate you are.”
Greg’s voice was taunting and she closed her eyes, it felt vicious. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t thought of herself as Elise until Dmitri groaned her name in the dressing room today. Greg mocking her for using the name stung.
“Ellie, are you still there? I thought you would be happy to hear from me.” She could hear his pout through the phone, and forced her mind back to Greg. Of course, she was happy to hear from him, she was ecstatic, Greg was finally calling her.
“Of course, I’m happy to hear from you, Greg.” A door clicked closed and Dmitri entered the room wearing jeans that outlined the hard muscles of his thighs and a plain white tee shirt that clung to every inch of his broad chest. She could see every line of his broad muscled chest. Her mouth went dry and her eyes began to burn as she realized she hadn’t blinked.
A harsh laugh sounded in her ear, pulling her out of her daze. Turning away from Dmitri, she made her way to the window, and forced her attention back to Greg. “I’m glad you enjoyed London, it sounds like you had fun.”
“Oh, Ellie you should have been there, it was a riot. Here’s the thing though, hun, with all this drama over the takeover I’m having problems with the bank. I’m going to need you to come back to Alexandria and help me out with mortgaging the old homestead. I can’t get hold of Jasper in Africa, and I got my credit card companies bugging me. Since you’re Jasper’s power of attorney, I need you to sign off on this. The paperwork is all ready for you. I have an appointment with the bank tomorrow afternoon at two. It will only take about an hour while they lay out all the small print.”
A knock at the door confused Elise and she watched Dmitri sort out the room service. Shaking her head Elise turned her attention back to Greg. “You want me to sign off on a mortgage on Jasper’s home? Greg, I can’t do something like that. Not without Jasper’s okay. That house has been in your family for four generations and has never once held a mortgage, Jasper was proud of that fact. I don’t understand, what’s going on? I thought you had a large trust fund that paid out monthly.”
“Jesus, Ellie that trust fund got burned through two years ago. The stock market losses wiped out just about everything. Jasper promised me he’d add to it, but never did. Stingy old buzzard, made a whole lot of promises he never came through on. Come on, Ellie, he’s gonna need the money just as much as I will. This will help him, too.”
“Let me call Jasper, I know they aren’t always at the guest house but they do check in there. If he says yes, then I’ll do it.”
“Ellie, I need you. I need your help. Don’t you want to help me? I thought you cared about me. I always thought that maybe one day, you know, you and I might have something special. I was just waiting for you to grow up. I guess I was wrong about you, I always thought you would be there for me. The sharks are circling me, Ellie. I managed to save my Porsche with the sale of some stock, but it wasn’t enough. Please, Ellie.”
Elise leaned her forehead against the cool glass window and closed her eyes as her world exploded around her. Without Greg in front of her to flash his sparkling blue eyes and bright white smile, she could hear him clearly now. She heard him attempt to manipulate her, trying to twist her to his need, his wants. He knew her feelings for him and he was trying to trade on those feelings. He was holding out the promise of her dreams for over seven years, but it was an empty promise, his promises always were.
She wanted to cry for all the years she had lost loving the man she believed him to be. Greg had sold out the company his father had worked to build, to save his car. The gossip around the office was it had been employees in the factory who’d sold the stock, but she knew now it was Greg. He wanted to mortgage his father’s, and his own, home to keep himself in silk suits and champagne, without working for the means to keep up his lifestyle.
“No, I won’t do it, unless Jasper tells me to. I have to go.” The words fell like stones from her mouth. She disconnected the phone before he could respond. But she wasn’t surprised when her phone began to ring again. Turning it off, she pushed away from the window, her mind focused on making it to the safety of her room. Three steps were as far as she got before Dmitri grabbed her around her arm, swinging her to him.
Dmitri unclenched his hands from the tight fists they had become the moment he heard Elise speak Greg’s name. Everything within him had screamed to cross the room and toss the phone out the window. Elise was his, Greg had his chance and he wouldn’t get another. Waves of confusion and sadness poured from her as she hung up. When the phone rang again, he took a step forward intent on smashing it until it never rang again, but the trembling of her hands as she turned off the phone stopped him. Unshed tears glistened in her unseeing eyes and for the second time that day, his c
ontrol slipped.
“You will not cry over that bastard. I won’t allow it.”
Elise was stunned by the venom in his voice and the iron grip he had on her arm. “Won’t allow it? How dare you say something like that to me?”
“I dare because you want me. You might have thought you were in love with that worthless, sniveling boy, but you’ve wanted me since the moment we laid eyes on each other. I have felt it in the way you tremble at my slightest touch, the way you get breathless when you meet my eyes. After this afternoon, I have all the confirmation I needed in your swollen breasts begging for my mouth and the intoxicating scent of your sweet pussy preparing for my entry into your body. I have been as patient with you as I can be, but not at this. I won’t have my woman crying over another man.”
Hot with embarrassment, she couldn’t look at him, couldn’t deny what he said. Desperate to hide, she tried to pull away, “I’m not your woman!”
He dropped her arm and his hands were on her hips. His grip was punishing as he hauled her against him and his mouth was on hers. In all her dreams of her first kiss, none of them compared to the reality of Dmitri’s mouth on hers. There was no prevarication, no gentle tasting, her gasp of surprise had her lips already open for him and he swept inside without hesitation.
His lips were so very soft and his tongue, as it roamed inside her mouth, weakened her knees. Her hands went up behind his head, anchoring her to something solid as the room spun around her. His kiss was enticing, fire burning raw with need. Her kiss echoed the same need, the same fire, and his grip on her became painful. Her moan of pain reached him, he instantly lessened his hold, and then she felt something solid behind her.