by Claire Adams
“I like the sound of that.” She reached up and touched the side of my face. “Dinner. Bath. Sex.”
“All night long.” I leaned down and jacked up her lipstick. She might be embarrassed and have to fix it, but it was well worth it.
We both thought so.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Molly
We decided on sex before the meal, which was a much better choice than what I’d planned on doing. Alfie took my hand and held it tightly as we got out of the car and made our way to the elevator. The minute it closed, he pressed me up against the back wall and ground against me, his voice low and filled with masculine dominance.
“God, you turn me on, Mol.” He licked up the side of my neck as he squeezed my hips. “Let’s just have a quickie and then dinner. After that, I have a lovely garden tub I want to get you into.”
“I want it all.” I held him closely and kissed his face and neck, and he leaned in for a hot probing kiss.
The sound of someone gasping caused him to pull away from me. My face burned with embarrassment as several elderly couples walked on, the women looking quite appalled. The older men were chuckling like they totally understood the situation. Either way, I was mortified.
The door opened on our floor, and Alfie took my hand and led me to our room. “You okay?” he asked as he worked on the door.
“Yeah.” I brushed my hands down the front of my dress. “I just always feel bad about getting caught in things.”
“You make out with guys in the elevator often?” He laughed and opened the door.
“No.” I shook my head and walked in, losing my breath. The place was magnificent, enormous, way too much. The floor to ceiling windows ran around the entire room, and the New York skyline lit up the view. I was in awe as I walked toward the window nearest me. “Wow. This is incredible.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d like it.” He moved in behind me, pressing his strong chest to my back as he cupped my breasts and leaned down to kiss at the soft skin just beneath my ear. “I want you so much more than I can ever remember wanting anyone else.”
“Then take me.” I rubbed my ass against his erection and pressed my hands to the window. “Hard and fast. We’ll slow down later tonight.”
“You got it, love. Anything you want.” He tugged my skirt up over my hips, leaving my lacy red panties on display. “Fuck, Molly. These are beautiful.”
I watched his reflection in the mirror as he moved to his knees and dragged them down my thighs. “Good. I had hoped you might like them.”
“I love them.” He pressed a hand into the middle of my back. “Lean over a little, baby.”
I did as he said and moaned loudly as he ran his tongue through my folds, sucking and licking as I pressed my forehead against the glass. The moment was almost too much. The pressure of orgasm building in my stomach and the view just beyond the thick glass sang of the same beautiful release.
He gripped my ass and worked my pussy until I clenched and cried out in ecstasy. He didn’t stop licking at my slit until I pulled away from him and pressed myself against the glass.
“Fuck, you taste good.” He stood and pulled a condom from his pocket. “You want me from behind or what, lass?”
“Please?” I slid my hands up the glass and wagged my ass at him, feeling like a siren in the deep of the ocean. It was silly, and I was beyond turned on namely because there was love mixed into the lust, but it was what it was. I was drowning in it, and I was glad for it.
“Molly. You don’t have to say please. Not ever.” He ran his hands over my ass and locked eyes with me in my reflection. “I’d give you the world if I knew that’s what you wanted.”
“I only want you.” I pressed back as he probed my entrance with the thick head of his cock.
“Then you have me.” He pressed in, and we both groaned in tandem, the pressure of him spreading me open almost too much. He slipped his hand into my hair and gripped it tightly as he used his hold on my hip to fuck me deep and fast, pushing both of us over the edge into orgasm much faster than I’d ever experienced.
“So good,” I whimpered and pressed myself against the glass, his cock still trapped inside of me.
He flattened himself against me and kissed the side of my face softly as he nestled my neck. “I’ll spend some time worshipping every inch of you later tonight. Let’s get cleaned up and make our dinner reservation. You’re going to love this place.”
“Okay.” I let out a sigh of relief when he pulled back and walked to the bathroom. Was he like this with all of the women he slept with?
I couldn’t force myself to believe it. I had to be special. Different. Unique.
After cleaning up in the bathroom, I walked out to find him talking with a bellman at the door. They were delivering my bag.
I let out a soft laugh. “Shit. I hadn’t even realized we didn’t have it with us.”
“No bother, love.” He moved the bag to the side and extended his hand to me. “Come on. I’m starving and need more stamina for later. My lover likes it a little rough.”
I have him a look and popped his sexy butt as I moved out into the hallway. “Is that what I am? Your lover?”
“Among other things? Yes.” He closed the door and wrapped a possessive arm around my waist.
*
Dinner was going so incredibly well, and I knew I shouldn’t have, but I needed to get the burning question off my chest.
“Alfie?” I glanced up from my salmon and roasted potatoes.
“Yes, love?” He leaned back, having cleaned almost all of his plate.
“Can I ask you something without you getting upset?” I pulled my napkin to my mouth and dabbed at the corners carefully. I’m sure my lipstick was all but gone, but there was a part of me that wanted to look beautiful all night long. As if lipstick was the only way to do that. Idiot.
“Of course.” He reached out and took my hand. “And first, let me apologize for getting a little stiff the other night on our date. I shouldn’t have done that. I was processing a bit of guilt that was unfounded for sure.”
“Guilt over what?” I kept my hand in place, but my hair stood on edge.
“Over not telling the board that it was your marketing idea that we were going to implement.” He moved his hand and picked up his glass of wine. “I felt especially upset about keeping it to myself because Gary is on the board. How did your meeting go with him, anyway? I never got any word from you on that.”
Devastation rolled through me. Gary hadn’t found a position for me, but some of that had to be for lack of trying. After leaving in a hurry, I’d upset him and made myself look like an undependable ass. Alfie giving me credit for the strategy would have changed everything.
“Why didn’t you tell Gary it was my marketing idea?” I asked, trying to control the wavering in my voice.
Alfie didn’t say anything as his cheeks grew flushed. He adverted his eyes to his plate and remained quiet.
Fuck me. You have to be kidding. Did he think it didn’t matter? That I wouldn’t care about it?
With each second that ticked by, the anger steadily grew in me. I grabbed the edge of the table to keep myself motionless as possible while I waited for Alfie to speak. There was no way I was agreeing with what he had done. I’d sit there in a stony silence for the next few hours if need be.
“I just wasn’t sure if mentioning your name would’ve done anything,” he said, eventually. “These investors were focused on my business, not on anything else.”
I blinked in surprise at the chilly response. There was something else that Alfie wasn’t telling me, a reason to why he didn’t mention my name in that conference room with Gary around.
“I just had a meeting with Gary a few days before,” I said. “He said that my spot had been filled, but if he knew that marketing idea was mine to begin with, he would have carved out a new position for me.”
“He wouldn’t have fired someone to give you your old job back, Molly. That w
ould be counterproductive for his business.” He shook his head and leaned back, finally looking me in the face. This wasn’t a big deal at all to him. It might have been on our date the Wednesday night before, but it sure as hell wasn’t now. He’d processed it and made himself feel okay about dicking me over.
It hit me hard then that Peyton had been right about Alfie all along—he was just as clever and cunning as Harry when it came to business. They only cared about themselves other than the people they screwed over in the process.
“You don’t understand,” I said, blinking back angry tears. “I could’ve gotten my old job back. I know how Gary is—better than you think you do.”
“Molly—” Alfie started, shaking his head at me.
“What?” I demanded, angrily. “What is it?”
“You don’t understand. I—”
“You’re right,” I said, coldly. “I don’t understand how you could just screw me over like that without giving me any credit of the marketing technique.” I threw my napkin down on my plate of food before grabbing a hold of my purse that was draped across the back of my chair. “You’re just as bad as Harry is. You’re actually worse because Harry never pretended to be a nice guy when he screwed people over. Send my shit back to Peyton’s and give me the bill. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you pay for a damn thing of mine.”
“Molly. Love—”
“Don’t say another goddamn word.” I pulled a fifty from my purse and tossed it down on the table as a sob left me. I’d just made love to this asshole. No. I’d fucked up. Making love required love.
I let my words sink in as I stood up from the chair. Striding through the crowded dining area, I stepped out into the warm night to suck in deep breaths to calm the anger burning in my chest. I paced around the front doors, half-expecting Alfie to emerge through the glass doors, but he never came outside. And for some unknown reason, that stung even worse than the entire situation.
I hailed a cab a few minutes later. Giving the driver Peyton’s address, I sat back in the passenger seat to look up at the blur of the city lights as it passed by the cab window. Why? That single question repeated in my head. I didn’t understand why Alfie never thought to credit me for the marketing idea. It seemed as though he had planned it out for a reason, but I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
I had to figure out what to do now that Alfie had dashed my previous hopes of working for Gary without thinking about me in the process.
Fine. I didn’t need him. I didn’t need Harry, and I sure as fuck didn’t need Gary.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alfie
I’m a piece of shit, a bastard, a cold-hearted asshole.
I was no different than Harry which settled in my stomach bitterly. I knew that Molly didn’t understand why I didn’t mention to Gary that it was her marketing idea, but she was right about one thing: I had only thought about myself throughout the entire time I spent in the U.S. office.
I didn’t sleep a wink that night, but paced the floor in the living room, going from furious to devastated. I’d hoped to offer her both a job and a future with me as first my girlfriend and soon, my wife. What a joke. I didn’t even have the nerve to call her and apologize.
I should have gone after her like I did the night she disappeared from the church, leaving Harry up front, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t forgive me no matter how innocent I felt I was in the whole tainted situation.
Besides…that night I offered her a place to stay in Devon, I had nothing to lose. My heart wasn’t involved, but it was now. I had everything to lose now. I paced the floor some more until my phone buzzed. It was time to head down to go home.
I picked up her bag and mine, checking hers into the front with instructions for them to send it over to Peyton’s place. My heart ached horribly in my chest, and it didn’t help much that I kept seeing her pressed to the window, letting me fuck her so deep and slow. She was in love with me, and she had to know that I felt the same.
“Or maybe she didn’t.” I walked to the front and paused as hatred for myself raged through me. It had been a long time since I’d been the bad guy, the kind of man I was embarrassed to be. The type who I wanted to kick in the balls and beat the shit out of, but it would seem, I was once again, back to that same familiar place.
I was no different than the asshole who used women and cheated life back in University, and I certainly was no better than Harry. He’d cheated Molly out of security. I’d cheated her out of trust. Fuck us both.
Rubbing at my eyes tiredly, I sat down in a chair to wait for my driver to pull up to the front of the hotel. I had to resist the urge to pick up my phone to call Molly to remind her that I was leaving today. That I had hoped she was boarding a plane with me right now.
Never let someone get beneath your skin, Alfie. Even if you think you are in love.
My mother’s voice echoed in my mind. It had always been difficult to explain that my mother, not my father, was the one who broke my heart. Money had never been an important thing to her, but passion for adventure and life was. She couldn’t travel with my father who looked after his business every single day.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that my mother had been the one to cheat first. She didn’t deny it. She didn’t fight the divorce proceedings. All she did was tell me to never let anyone close enough to hurt me because people eventually did hurt one another. It was human nature to suffer, but to also create suffering too.
My phone buzzed from inside my coat pocket. I pulled it out to see that it was a message from my driver who was now waiting for me outside the hotel. Shoving thoughts of my mother away, I stood, grabbed my briefcase, and walked out. This would be my last venture to New York City, and it filled me with a strange pang of emotions. There was honestly no reason to come back. My American investors loved finding an excuse to come over to Europe, so they could come from now on. I took in the bustle of the crowds when I stepped outside to pack my suitcases back up in the SUV trunk again.
I was aggravated, amongst other things at the complete waste of time and money from the night before. I had paid dearly for the hotel to impress Molly only have it backfire in my face without getting a chance to explain myself to her. None of this trip to the States had gone the way I had planned it. Then again, I had never planned on getting close to Molly either. A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have had a thought of her in my head. She would’ve been settling in London with Harry if the wedding had gone through.
Everything had changed—quickly.
I took in the towering skyscrapers as we drove to the airport almost an hour away. I received a message from William asking if they needed to clean the guest room for Molly right as we pulled up to the airport drop off and terminal.
William: Do we need to clean Molly’s room up before you two come back?
I replied: No, and please make sure everyone is gone by the time I arrive back at the estate. I’m tired and don’t want to speak with anyone.
William: Of course, sir. Do let me know if there is anything that you require of us. One of us will come over and handle it with haste.
And they would. They were excellent at what they did—serving people who paid them. I leaned back and closed my eyes, thinking about how disappointed both my mother and father would be in me for the way things had gone down.
I felt like I had to explain myself, defend myself to someone, but other than Molly, I was the only one standing in opposition to my actions. There was no way I was calling her right now. The explanation for my idiocy didn’t even make much sense now that it echoed inside my skull.
The drive to the airport was faster than I’d expected, giving me a few minutes to walk to the gift shop before moving to the private hangers. I picked up a candy bar and a bottled water as my eyes moved over the cards that lined one wall of the shop.
I wanted to reach out and find the most lovey-dovey bullshit card to send to Molly. She needed to know just how much I thought of her, but it was too lat
e. At this point, I’d be pouring salt in the wound. She thought I was a greedy asshole, and it was probably better that way.
There was no way I would ever get to fully separate myself from the company. It was a pipe dream. Logan was right. I was turning into my father, and courting Molly into marriage would only end with her lonely and brokenhearted, playing second fiddle to my career. And me? It would leave me thinking she were faithful only to find out that she wasn’t at all.
I paid and walked out of the shop, trying to force myself onto some new topic. It seemed like it was couples’ day at the fucking airport. I didn’t see a single person for the rest of the long walk down to the private hangers.
The pilot stood beside my plane, at the base of the stairs, waving me over. “Here we are, sir. Everything is ready to go. Glad to see you again.”
“Thank you, Philip.” I paused at the bottom of the stairs and glanced back at the airport. “Is it couples’ day? Buy one and then get one free?” I snorted and turned back to him.
“Um, no, sir. I don’t think so.” He motioned for me to walk up the stairs.
“Sure as hell seems like it.” I walked up the stairs and moved to sit in my seat. The leather swelled around me, pulling me down and fitting me perfectly. I glanced over toward Molly’s seat, and my heart ached.
“So, I guess congratulations are in order?” The pilot walked back to where I was and stopped, crossing his arms over his chest.
“For what, exactly?” I buckled up and reclined a little.
“For the huge win on your new launch. The new product is doubling the value of your company.” He gave me a sheepish look. “I mean, of course you know this, but as a stockholder, and a small one mind you, I’m thrilled! You’re absolutely brilliant, sir. We all think so.”
I forced a smile, praying like hell that it was at least a little genuine. “Thanks so much. I have been watching it. I think after all of the hours I and my staff have put in, we’re all just a bit weary after this one.”