by J. D. Fox
I crossed the room after shutting the bedroom door on Sam, but he opened it as I got to the door of my suite and peered out. I waved him back furiously. The last thing I needed was the rumor going around that Sam and I were too up close and personal.
“Who is it?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Winton. It’s Susan Green, the event planner, and I have some things to discuss with you.”
“Can you come back?”
“I’m sorry. Time is getting short to tie up the details, and I do need your approval.”
I opened the door to find a brunette in a two-piece Albert Nipon suit and a strand of white pearls. I recognized the designer because I’d seen a bunch of those suits in a store that Angela had dragged me to. But when I said I’d like to buy one, Angela tsked upon looking at the four hundred dollar price tag. “Darling,” she had said. “You can do so much better than that.”
Susan Green also lugged in a huge dress box with her.
“Have you spoken to any of the Palmers? I’m sure they can help.”
“But it is your big day, after all. And Lucius -I mean Mr. Palmer- did say to talk with you in his absence, and no one has seen him for hours. Can I come in?”
With as much chutzpah as the elder Palmer but much more grace, even lugging the box behind her, Miss Green entered my suite.
“Oh, Mr. Palmer,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Damn him. Why couldn’t he just stay in the bedroom where he belonged? Or the closet? I covered my mouth, because these thoughts threatened to make me giggle.
And I never do that.
Before Sam could speak, I cut in. I didn’t want the slightest possibility that Sam would cough up secrets about us. Hotel staff always had bigger eyes than they seemed to. I knew this from an after-school job I’d had at a hotel in high school, and learned what big gossips hotel staff could be.
“He is my boss,” I said pointedly.
“Of course,” she demurred, “and soon to be your brother-in-law.”
What the hell? Who’d talked to the hotel staff? Gossips. Everyone.
With frightening efficiency, she sat on the couch and whipped out a small three-ring binder. She spoke her words with the rapidity of a horse race.
“Now, I’m sorry to say we were unable to get the required number of peonies for the arrangements. The shipment spoiled before they got here. Beautiful flowers, but extremely delicate. I know Mr. Palmer said price was no object, but I checked with the local florist and what I can get in this time frame are either hydrangeas, which are stunning in vases or alstroemeria, though I like their other name -Peruvian Lilies- better.”
She flipped through her binder to show me the arrangements pointing at them with her index finger. Her red-painted nail clicked on the plastic pages.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“As I said,” she continued. “I’m sorry that we can’t get the peonies, and I so hope that doesn’t ruin the event for you.”
What event? What the hell was this steam train of a woman talking about?
“So which one do you like better?”
“Um, the hydrangeas.”
“Lovely choice,” she murmured. Those words were probably her stock answer to anything a client says. But wait... why am I the client?”
“Now, for the dinner. I just want to confirm the choices. Now, I know what we promised New England Clam chowder since you folks are from Boston and that should be a simple enough thing to provide, but our chef absolutely insists our shrimp bisque is the better choice. It has a touch of sherry in it. Is that okay?”
I looked to Sam, who nodded. “I like shrimp bisque. Dad does too.”
“I guess.”
“Great,” she said. And as for the steaks, well, I know Lucius... I mean, Mr. Palmer ordered the filet mignon but we got in some beautiful prime rib, and I know how much Mr. Palmer loves prime rib.”
“You do?” I said to Sam.
He shrugged. “My father. When it’s done right.”
Since the Palmers will be there it must be some sort of going away dinner before we head back to Denver.
“Prime rib is fine with me.”
“Awesome. We’ll just change the béarnaise sauce to horseradish. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” What the hell did I know about high-end dinners? My most expensive menu choice was Eva’s lasagna.
The freight train event planner continued, huffing as if someone had put coal in her steam engine. “Since this is a small affair, this will work out perfectly.” She snapped her book shut. “Perfect. I’ll just finalize these arrangements.”
“I’ll walk you out,” said Sam. “I’ll catch up with you later, Talia. We have things we need to discuss,” he said pointedly.
“Sure,” I said. Dazzled by the rapid pace of Susan Green’s conversation, it barely registered that Sam was about to leave. Just as they exit I noticed the box Green hauled in.
“Wait. You forgot your box.”
“Oh, Mr. Palmer asked me to deliver it. That’s yours. It just arrived from Denver.”
Mine? What was this thing with Lucius buying me clothes? The door clicked shut, I opened the box, and gasped.
Inside was the most beautiful wedding dress I’d ever seen. The front wasn’t just lace; it was shot with crystals, and the neckline cut down to the waist. I didn’t dare pull the rest of the dress out, but pulling the front aside I see it just as completely lacy throughout.
What the hell?
I was shocked and appalled and I could barely speak. Odd snippets of conversations floated back into my head, I put two and two together and my ire rises fast. In fact, I closely resembled a volcano about to blow. Between this dress, the ring, the venue, and the clothes he’d bought me, he’d easily dropped twenty-five to thirty thousand. How dare Lucius construct this fiction? What did he hope to gain? I had to find him, and fast.
Grabbing my purse, I flew to the door and out into the hallway toward the elevator. Miss Green must have gotten into the elevator already, and I hit the call button while bouncing on my toes. I was going to kill Lucius Palmer, just as soon as I found out what was going on.
“Talia? Where are you going? I was about to come back to talk.”
I turned back to see Sam coming toward me from his room and frowned. I hit the call button again frantically.
“Talia,” he asked.
“Did you know?”
“What?”
“About these wedding plans concocted by Lucius.”
“Of course. He told me about them the day I came in.”
I don’t know who is worse. Boss number one, who wants me to pretend to be his fiancé, or boss number two, who thinks I’m engaged to his brother but tries to seduce me anyway. The elevator opens and Sam tries to step in, but I put my hand up.
“Leave me alone, Sam Palmer. In fact, never speak to me again.”
Chapter Eighteen
Sam
“Leave me alone, Sam Palmer. In fact. Never speak to me again.”
Talia’s words tore like a knife through my heart and, worse yet, I did not understand what had gotten her upset with me. Lucius, yes. I could understand that. He must have arranged this whole wedding shindig to embarrass her into a commitment. Or, in his Lucius way, thought that springing a wedding ceremony on a woman would be romantic.
But this situation would only be embarrassing for a pragmatic woman like Talia. I can understand why she wouldn’t be pleased.
But what if there was something else? Talia’s words haunted me.
What if I wasn’t engaged to Lucius?
What did that mean? Was she or was she not engaged to my brother? I needed answers and I wouldn’t let her stop me from entering the elevator. I pushed in just as the doors shut.
Talia glowered at me as if she wanted to commit an act of violence against me.
“Talia, please, tell me what’s wrong.”
“Wrong?” she said as her voice rose. “Whacked—each of you Palmer men!”
I raised my eyebrows. “We are?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “What made me think that I could trust any of you?”
“Talia, please. Slow down and tell me what is wrong.”
“Lucius. You. Your father. Can I be any plainer?”
“Yes. I don’t have a clue what’s upsetting you. Okay, maybe Lucius went overboard by planning a wedding and not telling you about it.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she snorted.
“Then tell me.”
Her nostril flared, and she lifted her chin defiantly. “What do you want to know? How devious your brother is? What an incorrigible rat he is?”
“I kinda knew that already.”
She scoffed. “Be flip about it. You guys don’t think about anyone else besides yourselves. It doesn’t matter to any of you that your actions could torpedo my career, or put in jeopardy the health care of the sweetest woman alive. Nor do any of you think I’d rather be doing anything but playing fake fiancé to a man who wouldn’t know the truth if you hit him over the head with it.”
I scrubbed my chin with my hand. Maybe it’s that she’s upset, but what she’s saying is not logical.
“Talia, please. Slow down and make sense.”
The elevator door opened, and she tried to walk out but I stood in front of the door and hit the button for our floor.
“What the hell do you think you are doing? Let me off this instant.”
“What do you mean by ‘playing fake fiancé?’”
She turned her head away. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Talia, please. Are you engaged to Lucius or not?”
Talia stared at me, breathing hard, like a wild animal caught in a trap. My heart stopped beating while I waited for an answer.
“Talia?”
“For a sales director, you have very little skill for sales. Hasn’t anyone told you not to speak until the client answers you?”
There it is- she’s deflecting. And I would be getting my answers.
“Talia,” I growled. “Answer me.”
She swallowed hard.
“No,” she squeaked.
“What do you mean, ‘no?’ I need you to be very clear.”
Her eyes widened. “I am not, nor ever have I ever been engaged to Lucius. This was a plot of his, and I still can’t figure out why he thought it was necessary. He told me it was to protect me from you, because apparently you were a bigger womanizer than him.”
“Me?” I said. What would Lucius gain by that? More questions for the future, but I wanted to be clear about her relationship with my brother.
“Have you ever shared Lucius’s bed?”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “Me? Hell no,” she said with indignation. “I threatened to cut off his balls if he so much as leered at me.”
Oh, sweet merciful Lord. My relief washes over me like a sparkling Hawaiian wave, and I reached out and grabbed her. I don’t care what the circumstances are— that’s something to talk about later. Right now there is only one thing I want to do.
She gasped before I kissed her long and hard, showing her my passion for her. Talia tasted so sweet that I could kiss her forever. Talia gave into the kiss and slid her arms around my neck.
The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened.
“Come,” I said as I took her hand and led her toward my room, but Talia pulled me to her door instead.
“Here,” she said. “You said Lucius shares your room.”
I nodded. “Does he have a key to yours?”
“I don’t think so.”
She pulled out her key card and her hands shook as she tried to put it into the slot. I put my hand over hers, and together we opened the door to her suite.
I pushed Talia against the wall and ravaged the flesh behind her ear and her neck with kisses and nibbles. Her breaths turned into soft pants, and when I squeezed her breasts she made a small noise. They fit perfectly in my hands, and I loved the pleading sounds coming from her throat.
Reaching behind her, I tugged at the zipper of her dress.
“I want your breasts in my mouth,” I said. “This is getting in the way.”
Talia bit her lower lip as I pulled the top of her dress to her hips. Her bra was composed of swirls of black lace, concealing her nipples but showcasing sections of her creamy flesh. It displayed nothing and everything. But one thing that bra did was demonstrate the depths of her naked desire and I stared at the ripe, succulent globes of her breasts. Dusky nipples peaked into hard nubs. I suck one of them into my mouth and squeezed the other between my thumb and index finger. Talia swallowed hard, and her breathing started to come in pants and mewls as I feasted on her.
This woman drives me crazy. My cock pressed against my slacks and was getting harder by the second.
I swept her into my arms and she gasped in surprise. With a few steps, I encountered a large box with a wedding dress on the floor. I kicked it aside and Talia sucked in her lips apprehensively.
“You won’t need that wedding dress, Talia,” I growled.
“No,” she said.
I took her inside her bedroom and laid her on the bed. Talia rolled over onto her side and reached for my belt.
“This has to go,” she said as she pulled my belt loose. I watched in fascination as she undid the button and pulled down the zipper of my slacks for the second time that day, pulling them aside to make the pants slide down my legs. Talia stares at the hard-on tenting my underwear.
“Tighty whities?” she smirked. “I thought of you as a boxer man.”
“My boxers are all silk,” I said. “I don’t need the extra stimulation when I’m near you.”
“Apparently not,” she said. She pulled my underpants off my hips, my cock sprang free and she licked her lips. Without warning, she palmed the head of my cock and I groaned.
“I want to taste you.”
“Talia,” I said. I want her to, but not now, because I’m burning from kissing her. “Don’t, ah—”
She didn’t listen, and I was glad because her warm mouth took my cock head and her sweet tongue conjures pure pleasure as it swirled around my throbbing member. Then she licked and nibbled at my shaft, and I didn’t think I could last long like this, because I wanted her too much.
But she was far from done, and engulfed most of my cock in her mouth. The warmth and heat surrounded me, and what her mouth didn’t take was surrounded with her hand.
She pulls off but then swiftly goes after my balls. She lavishes them with her silken tongue, and I grip the sheets because they drew up and electric sparks danced along my spine.
“Talia,” I said, “stop.”
“Don’t you like it?” she said.
“God, yes. Too much. Move over, baby.”
Talia sucked on her lips as I pulled her off her dress and panties, and knelt before her. She was perfect in every way, and my heart warmed gazing at her gorgeous body. It occurred to me to do anything I could to make this woman mine forever.
“Take your shirt off,” she said. “I want to see all of you.”
“What? The most important part isn’t enough?” I grinned at her.
She shook her head with a kittenish smile, so I yanked at my tie and cursed that I’d tied it in a double Windsor. What had I been thinking? But I got it and my shirt off as she stroked my cock, getting me harder by the second. Precum leaked from my tip and playfully she sat, grabbed the back of my thighs with her hands and swiped the tip of my cock with her tongue.
“Ah,” I said.
She licked me again with the flat of my tongue, running it over my scrotum while stroking my cock. She didn’t stop there but wandered to my ball again, sucking and licking them before taking them into her mouth— first one, then the other.
Talia raised her hand to my stomach and scratched my flesh lightly with her fingernails, sending sparks of electricity through my balls.
“Hmmm,” she said. “Everything about you is hard.” She pressed her plush lips
to my stomach and nibbled there. With my hard cock rubbing against her soft cheek and her mouth doing magical things just above it, I don’t know how long I would last. I keep thinking that I’ll lose it any second, but she manages to keep me on the delicious edge between desire and fulfillment.
I will get her back for that.
Laying my hand on her thighs, I pushed back.
“Oh,” she said with disappointment.
“I can see you’re a tease,” I said. “And just for that, we’ll do more of this later. But now—”
Inch by inch I lowered my head between her legs and kissed the top of her mound and then nuzzled inside her thigh. Her flesh was baby soft, and I lingered there as she squirmed, making little pleading noises.
I lavished attention on the other thigh and let my tongue trail to the sensitive juncture between her thigh and hip, kissing and nibbling on my journey to the folds of her flesh wet with anticipation. Her alluring taste beguiled me, and I couldn’t help but lap as much as I could of her cream. Talia moaned underneath me and clutched my head, pressing it toward her clit.
Her scent drives me wild, and I have to have more of her. My tongue finds her channel and I slip it inside.
“Oh, oh,” she whined as I stroked her. She grabbed my hair and held me in place as her juices stream over my mouth and she bucks into my face. My cock pressed into the sheets and I’m on fire, needing to come but also needing her sweet softness. I would have her after she came and pound her into tomorrow.
“Yes, yes,” she said. And then her hips arched into my face, and she gasped and moaned before she collapsed.
She lay there, gasping and I rose up to kiss her on the mouth.
“See how good you taste?” I said.
She licked her lips and sucked in a deep breath. “Sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“Holding you there.”
I smiled. “What did you think? That I minded that you used my tongue like it was my cock?”
“You didn’t?” she said with surprise.
“Baby, you can ride my face any time.”
She gave me a broad smile.
“I may take you up on that.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “May?”
“Sam Palmer, what are you saying?”