Brandon (Members From Money Book 19)

by Katie Dowe

  She could feel his erection getting harder. She rubbed herself against him, softly, slowly, and she felt his throbbing member pressing against the wet, soft heat at the core of her.

  She felt his arms go around her, and her arms were around his neck. She moved slowly, softly, not taking him inside her.

  His hips moved, as if he needed to feel her tight wetness encasing his hard manhood, but she shook her head.

  “Not yet,” she whispered, her eyes on his, as she bent her head towards his and took his lips in a long, sweet, kiss that seemed to merge their lips together.

  She felt the kiss become more passionate as his tongue urged her to give more, to take everything he gave. She felt his hands moving over her body, and the water lapping against her skin seemed almost as sensual as his hands.

  He was sliding his hands up her sides, touching her intimately. His hands cupped her breasts, her nipples already tight and hard, ready for her lover.

  “You’re so beautiful,” groaned Max against her lips. She threw her head back and gave him the long, exposed column of her dark neck. She felt his lips and tongue move along her neck, felt his teeth graze against her collar bones.

  She looked down and saw his tanned hands on her dark breasts, and the sight was as erotic as anything he was doing to her. His fingers moved over her dark brown nipples, brushing over them again and again as she moaned and kept up the rocking motion against his cock.

  She wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

  His mouth moved down her torso, pressing soft kisses on her breasts. Her nipples seemed to get larger and harder in anticipation of his soft lips, his clever tongue.

  When he finally took her nipple in his mouth, Nicole cried out in triumph.

  “Oh yes, don’t stop,” she urged him, as her hips kept moving. She raised herself slightly to feel the tip of his cock sliding along her wet pussy lips, brushing against her swollen, sensitive, needy clit.

  His lips and tongue were driving her mad. He switched to her other breast and gave it that same attention as the cool air on her wet breasts made her tremble.

  “Sit on the edge,” she murmured.

  Max pulled away and looked at her questioningly.

  “Sit on the edge. I want to lick you, suck you. I want to feel your cock inside my mouth before I ride you.”

  A dark light came into Max’s eyes, making her shudder in welcome anticipation.

  He boosted himself up and sat at the edge. His cock was more than eager for her ministrations.

  Smiling, she wrapped her hand around his shaft and moved it lazily, stroking him softly a few times before she pressed a soft kiss to the head. She tasted the salty liquid that leaked from him and licked it up.

  She let her tongue flick out and lick him, slowly, so slowly that he moaned, “Come on, please, Nicole!”

  Still smiling, she made him wait. She took just his head in her mouth and stroked him with her hand, slowly and steadily, until she felt his hips move with her.

  Finally, she took more of him in her mouth, taking him in deeper, and deeper, until she heard him gasp. She started moving, feeling him throbbing against her tongue, and she felt his hips start moving faster, and faster with every stroke.

  She cupped his balls and felt them tighten, and she knew he wouldn’t last much longer. But she wasn’t done.

  She pulled away and looked up at him. He looked dazed.

  “Get back in,” she told him.

  When he did, she straddled him again, and this time, when she sank into his lap, she took his hard, desperately throbbing cock deep inside her tight, wet pussy.

  His hands gripped her hips as she held on to his shoulders and took him inside her.

  “You feel so good… Wait, Nicole…”

  Nicole smiled.

  “I’m on the pill. Don’t worry,” she assured him, and started moving.

  She braced herself and moved, taking him all the way in, pulling almost all the way out before sinking onto him again.

  She moved slowly, steadily, and she felt his fingers digging into her hips, urging her to move faster.

  “Slowly,” she told him, and wouldn’t go faster. She felt his desperation. She felt his impatience. But she kept that slow, steady pace until she was ready to go faster.

  When she was, she leaned towards him to take his lips in a long, hard kiss and her hips started pumping. He held her hips and moved her, harder and faster, and this time, she let him.

  She was grinding against him with every thrust, and she felt his hips move with her as she rode him, riding him harder and faster with every stroke.

  “Max,” she moaned against his lips as she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. She felt his fingers grip her hips harder, and she let him set the pace now. Every stroke reached so deep inside her that she cried out as she felt herself reaching closer and closer.

  “Max,” she screamed, as she felt her climax rip through her with shuddering force. Her body bowed as she held on to him, and her head thrown back, she let herself be taken.

  Max thought he had never seen a sight more beautiful than Nicole in the throes of passion that refused to be denied. He watched her as she rose, and fell, and he finally thrust deep inside her and let himself spill his seed in her, fill her with it.

  He held her, close to him, and they stayed like that for a while, as if they couldn’t bear to break that intimate contact.

  Finally, Nicole raised her head.

  “That’s not a bad beginning to the vacation, don’t you think?” she asked him.

  Max laughed and slowly raised her. Nicole couldn’t help gasping as she felt him slip outside her.

  She sat down next to him, and the jets suddenly felt extremely soothing.

  “I shall never look at a Jacuzzi the same way again,” he promised her.

  Nicole grinned.

  “You know, I have champagne chilling in here? You didn’t even see it. I had absolutely planned to seduce you in here. You just beat me to it,” he told her.

  Nicole’s grin turned wicked.

  “Well, why don’t you get the champagne, and maybe I’ll let you have your turn, this time,” she told him.

  Max laughed.

  “You’re insatiable,” he told her, as he kissed her and, reluctantly, boosted himself out to go and get the promised champagne. He came back with a platter of fruits, too.

  “You like that I’m insatiable. Or are you afraid you might not be able to keep up?” asked Nicole.

  Max shook his head.

  “Oh, I think I’ll manage just fine. Don’t you worry about me,” he told her.

  Nicole let the conversation turn to their plans for the rest of the weekend. She was surprised at how much she was looking forward to having two days with Max. They would have to leave on Sunday evening, but this was such a welcome break. They both needed it.

  Max had told her that he’d let it be known that he was only available for emergencies all weekend. Knowing how seriously he took his work, Nicole knew that that had been a difficult decision for him.

  He really did need to relax more, she decided. She was going to help him relax.

  But even as she thought those words, she noticed him looking around, and she knew that he was looking for his phone.

  Nicole shook her head.

  “Max, that isn’t relaxing,” she chided him gently.

  Max looked sheepish.

  “It’s just that there are a few things I just remembered..”

  “And is Noel not capable of dealing with all of them on his own?” asked Nicole.

  Max shrugged.

  “I know he is. But it’s mine.”

  Nicole sighed.

  “When’s the last time you took a real vacation?” she asked him.

  Max smiled gently.

  “I can usually leave work at home for a weekend, Nicole. It’s just not such an easy time right now.”

  With those words, the shadow of that launch that had gone so disastrous
ly was over them again. It was as if there would never be an escape from it.

  “You can’t turn it off, can you?” asked Nicole.

  Max sighed.

  “I wish I could. But, well, it’s difficult.”

  Nicole nodded slowly.

  “All right. Well then, give it a day. If you can’t have fun and stop thinking about it, then we’ll both think about it, and we’ll get to work. Now that my boss isn’t around, I can do my job much better if you like. But first we give relaxing a shot. Promise?”

  Max nodded.

  Chapter 10

  By Saturday evening, it was obvious that the weekend getaway was not a success.

  It had been a success until Saturday morning. They had slept together, made love, and reveled in simply being together.

  But through the day, Nicole had seen Max start to worry, and the worry had given way to anxiousness that would not fade away. By evening, Max was drinking a mojito and glaring at the lovely, sparkling ocean as if it meant him harm.

  The way he was staring daggers at his poor mojito made Nicole wonder if he shouldn’t have ordered his flopped ale, instead.

  Finally, Nicole decided that she’d had enough.

  “All right, Max, let’s get to the elephant in the room, shall we?”

  Max turned to her.

  “What? There’s no elephant in the room. Everything’s fine. We’re having a weekend getaway. We’re in one of the most perfect places on the planet and nothing shall ruin our time together.”

  Nicole snorted.

  “Yeah, that’s a pretty speech, but none of it is true. You’re not accustomed to dealing with failure, Max. I don’t blame you for it. You haven’t failed much, and most of that is because you’re an intelligent and very resourceful man. But I’m an expert at dealing with failure that I know I could’ve prevented.”

  Max turned to Nicole, a questioning look on his face.

  Nicole sighed, and knew she’d have to explain.

  “Well, you know that I’ve been with the firm for a while. I’ve done campaigns, too, but none of it has ever had my name. My teammates know that I can do it, and I’m pretty sure that there’s a part of Derek Anderson that knows what I can do, as well. But he chooses not to let me do anything. He expects me to follow orders, and when I tweak his orders to clients’ preferences in sometimes rather substantial ways, he never acknowledges it.”

  Max nodded slowly.

  “Yes, I can see that. He is a pompous ass. But I can’t blame the firm for what happened because I approved every aspect of the campaign personally, remember?”

  Nicole shrugged.

  “So you made a mistake. That happens. I’m an expert at fixing mistakes, but I never get the credit for it. Well, together, I’m pretty sure that we can fix this one. It isn’t as catastrophic as it seems. We need to rebrand, and we need to change the campaign – preferably, we’ll start from scratch. But Max, I’m telling you that the product itself can be sold. There’s a target audience for everything, always, somewhere. It’s just a matter of finding it and tapping it.”

  Max looked thoughtful.

  “Yes, I know that old pearl of advertising wisdom. It’s a variation of ‘there’s one born every minute’ isn’t it?”

  Nicole chuckled. It was a relief to see that his sense of humor was finally making an appearance again.

  “I suppose so. But these are suckers with serious spending power, and we can convince them to spend. First of all, our target market – we have the perfect example of that in my colleague, Jeff. Remember him?”

  Max looked startled.

  “Jeff, that’s the one…”

  Nicole grinned.

  “Yes, that’s the one I think Noel’s got an eye on. Jeff actually likes the ale. After the first sip, he told me that he would buy it. So we need to market to him, and he’s one of the most social media savvy people I’ve ever met. His friends are very like him, and his social circle is very large. That’s the demographic we should appeal to. The strategy we had was one that made Jeff’s eyes glaze over with boredom when I told him about it. So we need to find something that he will find exciting – exciting enough to get a crate of the ale.”

  Max nodded, slowly.

  “All of that makes perfect sense. So why didn’t Anderson do this?”

  Nicole shrugged.

  “Because he doesn’t think a young woman – a young Black woman, of all people – has anything worthwhile to say. He’s wrong, and it has been our clients’ loss, too. I’m tired of that. Now, Max, I need you to promise me something.”

  Max nodded.

  “Anything,” he assured her.

  “I will work on the campaign, starting now. I’ve got the skeleton of it already. We will work on it together. We’re not going to stop thinking about this, so we might as well put the time to good use, don’t you think?”

  Max nodded sheepishly.

  “But I want you to give the campaign to Anderson, get his feedback, and when he says it’s brilliant and will fix all our problems, I want you to tell him that I did the campaign. This time, I want credit for it.”

  Nicole looked fierce when she said that, her eyes flashing fire.

  Max nodded without hesitation.

  “That’s perfectly fair. But Nicole, are you sure you’re okay with this? This was supposed to be our break. We were supposed to spend the time celebrating… Well, us. Our time together.”

  Nicole smiled sweetly.

  “I know. But we are who we are. Trust me, Max, I know what it’s like to let work interfere with everything else in life. If I didn’t understand that, who would? I’m glad that work is important to you. It’s important to me, too. It has never been just a way for me to pay my bills, so I’m glad you understand this. Sometimes, there’s just no way to turn it off. I’m glad I found you.”

  Max grinned at her.

  “Two workaholics finding each other, is that really a good thing?”

  Nicole laughed.

  “We will prove that we can stop being workaholics for a while by taking a real break once we’ve done this. But this just means that we can’t set problems aside as if they don’t exist. We’re not very good at compartmentalizing. Well, that’s fine. I’m a person, not a chest of drawers, so we can live with being complicated, whole human beings.”

  Max laughed.

  “I say we have a deal, Nicole. So, when do you want to start?”

  Nicole grinned at him.

  “Don’t you think we’ve already started?” she asked him, and Max had to admit that she definitely had a point.

  They had – and not just a project. They had started something very special, because Max was falling for Nicole, and he had no desire to stop it.

  He had never met anybody who understood him so completely. Women he had dated had always wanted to be more important than everything else in life. But Nicole had been right – he wasn’t very good at compartmentalizing. Everything in his life blended into a whole, and that whole was what was important. He couldn’t set his family or his work aside for love. He couldn’t set love aside for anything else, either.

  He was beginning to realize that he was possibly the luckiest man on earth.

  “Max? Hello? Now is not the time for woolgathering,” said Nicole firmly.

  Grinning, Max got up and reached for her hand.

  “You’re right, it’s not. Let’s go in and get a couple of laptops and some notepads and pens. We’ll work out here, shall we? There’s no reason why we shouldn’t enjoy the weather and the place just because we’re working.”

  Smiling, they walked in, surprisingly in perfect harmony.

  They really were lucky they had found each other, thought Nicole, for it was very doubtful if anybody else could ever have managed to deal with them or understand them!

  *****

  By the time they had to leave, Nicole was amazed – not just by how much they had managed to get done, but also by how well they had worked together. Their minds seeme
d to work on the same wavelength. It was, to her, astounding. She only had to outline what she had in mind once, and he leapt on board with an alacrity that she thought she might never get used to.

  She was beginning to realize that for all the time they had spent together, for all the connections they had made, they hadn’t respected each other’s intelligence and wit so completely until that weekend. It was odd that the weekend, which most couples would’ve termed disastrous, had worked so well for them.

  “What’re you smiling about? Are you picturing Derek Anderson’s fall from grace? Maybe he’ll be begging you to let him polish your shoes?”

  Nicole laughed.

  “Remember, you promised. Not a word to him until you’ve given him every single detail.”

  Max sighed.

  “The woman still does not trust me. Of course I promise. Until we get every detail ironed out to our satisfaction, we’ll keep it all a secret. Including us.”

  Nicole heard the reluctance in his voice as he said that. She knew that the thought of keeping their relationship a secret was one that was abhorrent to him. He wanted her to meet his family, go with him to events as his partner – do things that couples always took for granted.

  Nicole knew that she was asking a lot of him by not agreeing to that. To be honest, she felt the strain of it, too. She wanted to shout to the world that they were together – not because he was a billionaire, but because they fit so well together, and so many people had doubted that she would ever find that as long as she gave work so much importance.

  There was also a small part of her that felt guilty about how quickly she had moved on from Fred. But she knew that it was right. She and Fred had grown apart, and perhaps it had always been inevitable that they would. Fred didn’t understand why she stuck it out at the firm. Max knew exactly why – she needed to prove herself to those who doubted her the most. She needed to be sure that there was no question as to her abilities.

  “I know that’s a lot to ask, Max. But the way we work together, we should have all the details sorted out in a week or two. I’m amazed that we work so well together, honestly.”

  Max looked surprised.

  “Are you? I thought we worked well together right from the beginning.”