"I can take a hint," he replied, climbing off the bed, he headed out of the bedroom. "Just come out when you’re ready, okay?"
"Okay," I mumbled.
I went through the clothes I’d brought and decided I was going to make sure everyone who saw me would know, from a single glance, that I was his wife. I wanted to match up to him and make him proud to have me on his arm. I was hired to do a job and I would do it to the best of my ability. There wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going to let anyone else look at me the way Austin had when he’d accused me of bringing Gabe down to my level of slum.
I’d discovered it was easy to look good when you were buying outrageously expensive clothes that had been designed by masters of their art using the best material money can buy. I stepped into a simple dove gray dress that had cost four months of my old salary and a pair of tan heels. Then I hung long droplets of gleaming diamonds from my ears. A slick of red lipstick finished off the look.
When I went out to meet Gabe, his eyes widened with surprise. "You look incredible.”
I slipped my arm through his. I felt suited to him when I was dressed like this. I had my mask on and I could play the part just as well as him. "Shall we?”
He nodded and smiled.
I felt myself start to loosen up a little. Maybe it really had just been the jetlag throwing me off.
We headed downstairs to a private dining room to find a long table filled with a couple of dozen people. They all sprang to their feet when they saw Gabe approaching.
I couldn’t help the way my heart swelled with pride to be on his arm, to be seen with him.
He shook hands with everyone, smiling and nodding, greeting his investors and the various people he worked with across the country. He’d tried to fill me in on who everyone was before we’d come out, but I knew I would just have to keep my conversation to a minimum and hope I didn’t call someone by the wrong name.
"And this must be the lovely wife we’ve heard so much about!” an older man exclaimed as he turned his attention to me.
I smiled and extended my hand. "I’m Willow."
He raised his eyebrows. "Willow, huh?” he remarked. "That’s an interesting name."
He was just being charming, but it reminded me of what Austin had said and I felt myself flush slightly.
Gabe put his arm around my waist and pulled me in close. "Not the only interesting thing about her, let me tell you," he said with a smile. He was smooth, but not aggressive, defending me without having to come out and stand out there to defend me.
The man raised his eyebrows even higher. "I can imagine.” His gaze swept over my body, making me shift uncomfortably.
"So, you’re the woman who’s managed to get Gabe to settle down," a woman cut in, probably sensing my discomfort.
I smiled at her and nodded.
"Never thought I would see the day," she remarked, glancing between the two of us. "It’s great to see you settled down, Gabe. I know it’s what your grandfather would have wanted."
"I’m sure it is," he replied and pulled out a seat for me to join them at the table.
Everyone else sat down around us, as though on cue; I felt like we were royalty. A girl could get used to this...
The rest of the evening was much easier than I expected it to be. I’d thought everyone would be pretty much trying to catch me out, the way Austin had, but it seemed like they were just happy Gabe had finally brought a girl along to one of these things. I did pretty well, if I did say so myself. I kept my cool and didn’t panic, even when I got asked a few questions about how we met and when we’d decided to get married. I had a couple of glasses of wine and spun the stories with ease. All the while Gabe kept his hand on my thigh beneath the table. I wasn’t sure if it was for show, or if it was because he couldn’t keep his hands off me.
I wished it were later.
By the time we headed back up to the room at the end of the night, there was a festoon of demands from people for us go visit them soon. Gabe would be at the conference with them for the next couple of days, but they seemed more interested in seeing me again, than him.
"They seemed pretty impressed by you," Gabe remarked as we rode up in the elevator.
I raised my eyebrows at him. "You a little jealous?” I felt happy and flirty. All the earlier doubt went with that second glass of wine. I just wanted him, all of him. I had been denied that on the plane by the stewardess walking in on us, and I just wanted to have the best time possible in this beautiful hotel with this beautiful man
He laughed. "Far from it. I’m proud to be seen with you. You must have noticed that you were the hottest woman in that place..."
"Can’t say I did," I preened, but the truth was I enjoyed the attention. All my life I’d been the wallflower, sitting unnoticed by myself while everyone else around me danced and laughed. For the first time in my life, I felt bright and attractive.
We tumbled back into the penthouse, the two of us groping each other in our desperation to become one. He pushed me up against the door and kissed me. I was reminded of that encounter we’d had in his office a few weeks ago, when he had called me up there just because he couldn’t resist hooking up with me. It had driven me crazy, knowing that he couldn’t wait to have me. I’d never had someone want me so deeply, so wildly.
It was intoxicating just to think about, even more so than the wine.
He slid his hand around my waist and pulled me close to him. I felt his hard cock pressing against me. I wanted him inside me, wanted him filling me up, but he seemed to have other plans in mind.
"Come with me," he murmured in my ear. "I have something I want to show you."
"Sounds exciting," I remarked and wobbled slightly in my heels as I followed him into the bedroom.
"I brought something special for us to try," he explained, as guided me on to the bed.
"Something special?” I asked curiously.
Chapter 22
Willow
He clicked open a bag I hadn’t even noticed was there. Out of it, he pulled a small object. It was bulbous at one end and flat on the other, and it had a button on the flat end. Lorraine had one of those and I was thinking about getting one.
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked curiously, my heart already beginning to beat a little faster in my chest. He always knew just how far to push me, exactly what I could take. I trusted him to read me perfectly and I wanted to see what he had in store for me.
"You want me to show you?”
I nodded at once. "I’m pretty sure I could manage that," I replied, already running out of breath. I had no idea how it was going to go, but knew it would be a lot of fun.
"Take off your panties and get on all fours," he ordered.
I did as I was told. I knew what he liked to see so I arched my back and pushed my ass towards him as he moved behind me.
Gabe ran his hand over the small of my back. "You just let me know if this doesn’t feel right, okay?” he told me softly.
I didn’t care what he was about to do to me. I was already here for it. I heard the squirt of a bottle, and then felt the cool, silky texture of lubricant being rubbed over my pussy…and then up, towards my asshole. "Ah!” I squeaked in surprise. I’d never done anything anal in all my time as a sexually active woman, but not through lack of interest. I’d just had no idea where to start, but luckily, it seemed like the man I was with right now, already had a very good idea of what he wanted to do with me.
"I’ve been thinking about your ass all night long," he murmured, tracing his finger around my puckered, virgin hole and making me squirm with desire and want. How did he always know just what I needed? He eased his finger inside me, and I groaned. He had put his finger into me many times. I guess he was starting the process of stretching me.
“Relax your muscles, baby. You’re doing just great,” he said as he withdrew his finger.
I felt something larger and fuller pressing against me. I closed my eyes and did my best to relax as he pushe
d the new toy into me. "Fuck," I gasped as the pain shot through me.
He ran his hand over my ass-cheek, squeezing my flesh. "Shh…just relax. You have the most beautiful ass I’ve ever seen in my life," he murmured. "You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to see you like this..."
I groaned again, trying to give shape to the desire pulsing in my system.
"Does it feel good?” he asked.
I managed to nod. I was lost in the sweetness of the feeling, the newness.
"Tell me," he ordered.
I closed my eyes and gathered myself. "It feels...good. Really good," I finally replied.
“Does it make you feel like a dirty girl?”
I turned to look him in the eye. “Yes.”
He touched the button on the flat end of the toy, sending it bursting to life in my asshole.
"Fuck!” I cried out. It felt like the sensations were rippling through my body, impossible to stop, to contain. It made my pussy ache for attention, attention he was lavishing on my asshole.
He began to fuck me with the toy, using it slowly inside me, filling me with the bulbous end. I knew it wasn’t that big, but it felt huge. I loved it. I couldn’t get enough. How had I waited for this long to explore this pleasure? It felt incredible, the sensations spreading through me began to build, build, and build.
"I want to fuck you while the toy is inside you," he murmured.
His words were slicing through my brain. All I could do was nod in agreement, desperate to feel as much as I could. Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the way his hand had rested on my thigh the whole night through, or maybe it was something else entirely—our chemistry, our desire, always burning bright and impossible to deny. "Yes, I want you to fuck while the toy is inside me," I gasped.
I heard the rip of a condom packet, then seconds later his cock pressed against my pussy. He rubbed the thick head over my slit for a few seconds before he pushed inside of me.
And just like that, I was double filled.
"Oh..." I groaned, as I tried to make sense of the unfamiliar feelings running through me. I’d never felt anything like it before, the mesh of his cock in my pussy and the vibrating toy in my ass. I couldn’t be sure which I liked better, but I knew they matched together. Together, they were unbeatable.
He fucked me slowly, matching his pace to the same one he was using to push that toy deep inside me. The sense of fullness felt strange and yet wonderful. I wasn’t sure I would be able to take it once he started to increase his pace, but he kept at it. Pumping, pumping, pumping into me until I smoothed out onto a wave of pleasure that carried me through any doubt I’d had about whether I would be able to take it. I was surprised I could keep up with him when it came to stuff like this, but thrilled, too. I loved knowing he had gone to all this effort to please me, to pleasure me, planning in advance to find toys that he knew would push my buttons.
Soon my brain stopped functioning and all I could take in was the way I felt, not just the physical sensation, but the emotional ones, too. A mental side existed to our connection. The way he was taking me, I knew he wanted me, desperately. He was burying himself inside me up to the hilt like he was trying to breed me, make me his forever...
When I came, it felt like the world came crashing in around me. All the doubt I had been nursing about whether or not he was slumming it with me had built into anxiousness, which he had turned into sheer sexual energy with this encounter. The way he built me up slowly, from playing with my ass to fucking me deep and hard, made the orgasm all the more intense. I grasped the bedsheets and buried my face into the pillow to make sure I didn’t disturb the rest of the hotel’s guests with my scream of pleasure.
He kept moving inside me, pushing the toy deep into my ass like he was wringing the final drops of my pleasure from my body. Finally, I felt him blow his load deep inside my pussy, grinding his hips hard into mine and letting out a shout of triumph as he found his release. My pussy was still clenching around his dick, as though my entire body wasn’t ready to give him up quite yet.
Finally, he slowly slipped both his cock and the toy out of me. I collapsed on to the bed, mewling slightly with pleasure. My dress was still wrapped around me, but haphazardly, so he pulled the covers protectively around me.
Gabe retreated out of the room to dispose of the condom, and I stripped out of my dress and stood naked in front of the mirror. My makeup was smeared and my hair looked a mess. Even though I looked ridiculous, I felt incredible.
Utterly sated. Utterly satisfied. Before Gabe, I hadn’t been confident about the way I looked, but his ardent worship of my curves left no room for doubt. He thought I was hot as hell, and who was I to deny his truth?
"Admiring yourself?" he asked as he re-entered the room, catching me looking myself in the mirror.
"Maybe..." I would never have been able to say that before I met him.
"Can’t say I blame you," he replied as he wrapped his arms around me, tracing his fingers over my hips, my thighs, and the curve of my waist. "This is a pretty impressive package, after all," he remarked, planting a soft kiss on my shoulder.
I smiled and wriggled back against him. I loved the way I felt when I was in his arms. He made me feel protected and adored all at once, a combination I was sure I would never get tired of.
Chapter 23
Willow
The rest of the trip went by far too quickly for my liking. I wished it could have lasted a little longer, but I knew the time on our relationship was ticking down, constantly, always with a time limit on how long any of this could last.
When we flew home, I peered out the window and wondered if coming back to our real lives was really the best thing for us. I wanted us to fly off to some faraway land, where it was just the two of us and we could pretend this marriage was for real.
Or at least that what we felt for each other went past raw physical attraction.
Because I was sure it did, at least on my side. I was certain what I felt for him was something real, and I wasn’t ready to give up on it yet.
"You need a hand?” Gabe asked me as I climbed out of the plane.
I shook my head. It wasn’t going to be long before I had to stand on my own again, anyway. The less I learned to rely on him, the better.
Over the next week, I started to feel a little... well, off. It was hard to say exactly what was off about me, but something was wrong, for sure. I frowned at myself in the mirror in the morning, planting my hands on my belly and trying to figure out why I looked so damn bloated. I’d been feeling crummy too, at least in the mornings. Instead of jumping out at the crack of dawn like I usually did, I wanted to just lay in bed and call on the Chef to bring me bland food.
At least Gabe was out of the house most of the time, so I didn’t have to worry about explaining any if this to him. There was something about the thought of him nursing me while I was sick that felt too intimate, even considering everything we’d done together by this time. Being sick or unwell wasn’t at all sexy and I didn’t like the thought of sharing the intimacy of my illness with him.
Still, he came in early after work most days to check on me. I would pretend to perk up and we would do things together until I started yawning. I felt disappointed too, because I simply wasn’t up to fooling around. I knew the amount of time we had left was swiftly running thin and I was desperate to make the most of the time I still had with this perfect man, but instead, I was constantly lying in bed, feeling tired and slightly depressed.
At first, I wondered if it was to do with the fact that Gabe and I weren’t real. Every day that passed brought the big stack of cash closer while it pushed Gabe further away.
After a week of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to head down to the drugstore and collect as much in the way of illness-busters as I could find. Anti-nausea pills, painkillers, anything that I thought might actually take the edge off the worst of what I was feeling. As I wandered down the aisles, my eye fell on a poster for a pregnancy test.
I stared at it.
Oh, God.
Then I started crunching the numbers, trying to remember when I’d gotten my last period. It couldn’t be. Surely not, but I decided to pick up a couple of boxes either way. If just for the peace of mind. Nothing more than that.
I headed home and went straight to the bathroom to take the pregnancy test. It’d been thumping in my brain since I had seen the poster and I needed to get it out of my brain before my panicking went any further.
Heading to the bathroom, I did what I had to do, then sat back on the bathroom floor. On the box the test had come in, a couple was jumping up and down, holding each other, their faces set with great grins. They seemed pretty happy about the outcome.
Lucky for them, I guess.
I counted down the seconds in my head, then looked down at the test in my hand. When I saw the result, I nearly tossed it across the room in alarm.
Positive.
It couldn’t be.
Oh, shit.
No…
Chapter 24
Willow
"Are you ready to go?” Gabe called.
I was standing in front of the mirror, twisting this way and that, trying to figure out if there was any kind of baby bump showing. Wondering if this dress did enough to cover it up if there was.
"Yeah, yeah," I called back. "I just need to put on some shoes. I’ll be out in a minute..." I quickly put the finishing touches to my makeup. We were headed out to some party thrown by Gabe’s company. It was a chance for Gabe to show me off and prove to anyone who was paying attention that we were a happy couple.
Of course, he had no idea about the pregnancy, which was ironic, given I knew he needed an heir to secure the business. He’d told me he was going to take care of it through a surrogate, but thanks to the failure of one of those fancy condoms we had used, I was now carrying the final part of his grandfather’s stipulation in my belly.
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