Asking For A Friend

by Parker, Ali

  “What about your mom?” Marissa asked. “Could there be a clue there?”

  My spine stiffened on instinct, but I forced myself to relax. I needed to be able to talk to Marissa about these kinds of things. No holds barred. “I doubt it. I wouldn’t know where to start looking even if there was.”

  “I could help you look if you wanted me to,” she offered, lacing her arms around my shoulders.

  “I think my dad got rid of most of her stuff years ago. There are a few of her things in storage, but I doubt she would have known anything. She passed when I was so young, I don’t remember much about her.”

  “Okay,” she said, winding her fingers into the hair around the back of my collar. “If you think of anything, let me know. I’ll help you however I can.”

  Looking into her eyes, I could see her offer was sincere. She wasn’t one of those people offering to do something when she had no intention of coming through if you asked to take her up on it. The thought I had while talking to Craig came back to me—she was exactly who I wanted and needed in my life right now.

  “I’ve been thinking, and maybe my dad simply thought you would be a good fit with me,” I told her.

  Surprise flashed in her eyes. I wasn’t the guy who said stuff like that often, but I meant it.

  Smiling, she pressed her lips to my throat, brushing them over my skin, saying, “I like the sound of that.”

  Pulling my head back, I lifted her chin and brought my mouth to hers to kiss her properly. She responded immediately, her lips parting as she made a contented noise in the back of her throat. “Hmmm.”

  I held her tighter to me and deepened the kiss. Kissing Marissa was like a drug to me. As soon as I took a hit, it could never be enough. After opening myself up to her the way I did by showing her that video, I needed her more than ever.

  Unless I was very much mistaken, she felt the same way. Threading her fingers into my hair, I felt her mold them to my scalp, holding me to her. I ran my hands along her back, down her sides. The resulting shiver through her body made me long to feel her shivering and shaking for a different reason. Whenever I felt her lips on mine, I was hard in an instant. Add in the noises she made and the way her body felt pressed up against mine and I was ravenous for her. Desperate and breathing hard, ready to take her and give her orgasm after orgasm—until I had no choice but to follow her over that edge.

  Devouring her like a dying man in the desert being given a glass of water, I planted my hands on her ass and lifted her onto my desk. She parted her legs to accommodate me between her knees.

  I stepped into place, never breaking our kiss. My desk was just about the right height for my erection to be pressing into her heat. We both let out low moans when I hit her there, which was when my brain turned off and my body took over.

  Chapter 43

  Marissa

  When Layton got going, he really got going. Every. Single. Time.

  The man was a machine in bed, against a wall or, as I was fast learning, on a desk. He kissed me with purpose, burrowing his hands into my hair and touching me like he wanted me. Really, really wanted me.

  It sent heat rushing through me, pooling right between my legs. By the time I started aching there, he was already there making me moan and rub up against him.

  “God, Marissa. You drive me crazy with those noises.” He hissed between kisses, punctuating his words with thrusts of his hips that made me let out more noises—which was probably the reason he did it.

  Hands trailing up and down my sides, he reached for the buttons of my shirt and started sliding them out. The heavy breathing got deeper and every time he brushed his hands over one of my nipples, I sucked in a gasp that momentarily broke our feverish kisses.

  My hips arched, pressing me harder against him. Layton hissed, rolling his hips to brush against me again and again. It felt like it took forever until he pushed my shirt from my shoulders and while I pulled it all the way off and dropped it somewhere on his office floor, he lowered his head to suck a nipple into his mouth.

  I was still covered by my bra, but that made me feel somehow hotter. The lace became wet and warm, feeling heavier on my skin. My nipple puckered and begged for more attention. He nipped it and moved on to the other one, working me into a state before I felt his hands on my thighs.

  Managing to free my button and my zipper, he tapped my butt to get to me lift it while he yanked my pants down. If only it was as easy as it always sounded in romance novels or looked in movies, but it wasn’t.

  My pants got caught on my shoes and he had to move too far away to keep kissing me. I wound my fingers around his leather belt and was busy with the clasp when he gave a frustrated huff. “I want you naked underneath me too much to waste it on this.”

  Without waiting for an answer, he scooped me off the desk like I weighed absolutely nothing—which was so not true—and carried me to his bedroom. He kicked off his pants on the way and as soon as he lay me down, got rid of my shoes and panties in the process.

  Before following me onto the bed, he grabbed his shirt by the nape of his neck and pulled it off, crawling over me on all fours. He placed his elbows next to my head and came back in to kiss me. “That’s better, isn’t it?”

  “Much,” I whispered between kisses, my hands sliding up and down the toned muscles in his back. “So what do you plan on doing with me now that you have me here?”

  “Oh, that. I don’t know, I was thinking we could write a review of my new sheets, or possibly watch the fan spin,” he teased back, the broad tip of his cock nudging right at my entrance while he talked.

  I squirmed and held back a whimper, biting my lip. “If we’re watching the fan, you’re in my way. I can’t see it with you above me.”

  “I’d better get out of your way then.” Bending down, he started trailing kisses down my neck and chest. Licking at my nipples, his hands finally went back to my thighs. “Can you see better yet?”

  Vaguely aware of the movement against his ceiling, I couldn’t quite remember what I was supposed to be seeing. I nodded anyway. “Uh huh. Perfect view.”

  In truth, the only perfect view I had was of the top of his head as he kept planting kisses all around my hard nipples. His hands traveled up from my thighs until his fingers brushed against my dripping wet slit.

  My hips rocked into his hands and he grinned at me while moving those infuriating hands right along with my hips. “Make sure you keep an eye on that fan. I gave you back your view so you can see if it does something exciting.”

  “I’m right on it,” I groaned, gasping as one of his fingers sank into me. “Oh, God! Layton—”

  Moving his mouth lower, he kissed around my belly button as his fingers delved into me. Touching places deep inside me I had never managed to reach, he swirled and plunged into me until I couldn’t even see the movement of the fan anymore. My eyes squeezed shut, white light exploding behind my eyelids.

  “Come for me, baby,” he urged, his lips closing around my clit. I hadn’t even been aware they traveled further down since I’d been busy trying to absorb the sensations his fingers were eliciting. When he sucked my sensitive nerves into his mouth, I gave him what he asked for.

  I exploded all over his fingers, milking them and trying to suck them deeper as my muscles cramped and jerked. Layton moaned when I did, the vibrations from his mouth catapulting me into powerful aftershocks that sent my brain scattering to the four corners of the globe. I started coming down after an indeterminable amount of time, but he didn’t stop.

  “One more, Marissa. Give me one more. It’s been too long since I’ve tasted you.” His voice was hoarse and needy, much like I was sure mine would have been if I could say anything.

  Before I met Layton, I never exactly thought of myself as multi-orgasmic. Girls in books and movies managed it all right, but I never really did. With him though, it seemed like anything and everything was possible.

  Besides, the sexiest man I’d ever met had his head between my legs
and was practically begging to give me another orgasm. Who the hell was I to argue? “Yes!”

  Layton withdrew his mouth from me and I nearly protested out loud, until I realized it was so that he could use his tongue to draw lazy but rhythmic circles around my clit. He was in no rush and took his time, handling me gently while I was still coming down before he slowly started building me back up again.

  Never staying in one sensitive spot for long enough to overstimulate it, he alternated between his fingers and his mouth. He massaged my thighs and my breasts, teasing me until I was ready to beg for release again.

  I never had to do it, though. Layton knew my body well enough to know when I was ready and amped up his efforts at the perfect time. Bringing his mouth back to me, he repeated his earlier motions and sent me flying right off the edge again.

  When I surfaced this time, I was desperate to do something for him. Tiny beads of sweat and tense muscles told me he was more than ready for his own turn, but when I tried to push him back onto the bed he said, “No. I’m too close. I’ll go off if you touch me and I’m pretty sure I can get another one out of you before then.”

  I had every intention of arguing until he hastily grabbed a condom from his nightstand and rolled it on. When he sank into me, I saw stars once more. I was so swollen and sensitive by then that it felt like he was touching every part of me at the same time.

  He started moving with jerkier movements than usual, a sign that he was dangerously close to losing control. I would never get over it that someone like him could be like this because of me, so turned on that he could hardly help himself.

  Thrusting my hips up to meet him each time, I saw his brow furrow just before his lips crashed down onto mine. He was fighting to hang onto his self-control until I dropped my hands to his ass and dug in, helping to guide his every thrust into me.

  His breathing became choppy and his movements uneven. Lifting his head from mine, he gritted out, “You have to stop that if you want me to last.”

  “Stop what?” I breathed as innocently as I could manage, but then a sudden idea popped into my head as I reached down to feel between us.

  My fingers brushed his shaft and his eyes opened wildly before he groaned loudly, uttering, “Fuck, Marissa. Fuck.”

  The mere sight of him coming undone was enough to push me over again, even if I hadn’t been super sensitive and had this gorgeous, incredible man doing unspeakably sexy things to me. But I was super sensitive and I did have him doing all those things to me. And so I caved and gave over to the tension building inside.

  This time when I surrendered, Layton did too. My walls gripped his twitching cock and he let out an almost feral groan as his hips moved in shorter, staccato bursts. It felt like forever until my breathing started evening out and the blasted fan finally came back into focus.

  “I knew you were worried about the report you would have to give me about that fan all this time,” Layton grinned and rolled over, bringing my head down on his chest. “Oh, and I promised you chicken pie. I just realized I never got around to feeding you before I dragged you to bed. Are you hungry? We could make an almost midnight feast out of it.”

  Lazily, I stretched out my jellylike limbs. “I’m way too wobbly to trust my legs right now.”

  “I’m taking that as a compliment,” he chuckled, dropping a kiss on top of my head. “I can go get the food and we could eat right here.”

  Jerking his head at the TV mounted on his walls, he added, “We could eat in bed and watch a movie.”

  “As you pointed out, it’s almost midnight. It’s probably not a great idea to watch a movie now,” I told him, though I liked the idea of having a lazy movie night naked in bed with him sometime.

  Naked movie nights felt like something a real couple would do, so I made sure he knew it was no for now, not a no-no. “Could we take a raincheck on the movie? My boss will be so angry if get to work and I’m uselessly tired.”

  Layton snorted softly as he chuckled. It didn’t seem possible that a man like him would snort while he laughed and I knew it wasn’t something he did often, but him doing it now made me feel like I knew something personal about him. Something not many people got to see about him.

  More personal than that video? A gnawing voice inside me whispered just loudly enough to get my attention. The video bothered me more than I let on to him earlier.

  It was plain to see he’d been worried about showing it to me, but I knew his dad well enough not to be surprised by the bits about his business. The man had lived for his work. It didn’t surprise me in the least that his penchant for giving business advice lived on after his death.

  What bothered me was the part where he mentioned me. As I listened to that part, the same voice that whispered to me now had asked whether my less-than-professional relationship with Layton was a mistake.

  I wondered if Mr. Bridges had purely wanted me for Layton’s business because he thought I would be good for it, but not for him. An even smaller voice that whispered a little more quietly but a little more insistently had demanded to know whether Layton thought so too.

  The way things were going between us felt too good to be true somehow. Unfortunately, I had learned from experience that when things felt too good to be true, they probably were.

  Chapter 44

  Layton

  Whenever I spent the night with Marissa, I woke up feeling like a billion bucks. She had that effect on me, making me feel sated and wanted. After everything she heard straight from the horse’s mouth on that video last night, I didn’t think that would be possible for me today.

  As it turned out, I was right. I knew before I opened my eyes that my bed was empty. When I rolled over I was met with cold sheets instead of a warm body.

  My eyes flew open to confirm what I already felt, and sure enough, she was gone. I sat up, rubbing my eyes before calling out. “Marissa? Where are you, babe?”

  Dead silence met my ears. Aside from the near silent hum of the fan, there was no noise in my apartment. No toilet flushing, no shower running, no clanging coming from the kitchen and no soft padding of footsteps from the window.

  Dread washed over me. I jumped out of bed, naked as the day I was born, and didn’t bother to put on clothes as I carried out a search of my place. As I suspected, she was gone.

  Nowhere to be found.

  Jogging to my study, I found my phone where I left before the mad dash for my bedroom and pulled up her number. I was half afraid she wouldn’t answer, relief flooding my senses when she did. “Good morning, Layton.”

  “Marissa, thank God. Are you okay?” I was struggling to keep my voice even, panic rising up from inside. “Is Annie okay? Did Denise call?”

  That was the only thing that made sense to me. She left because of some kind of emergency with Annie. I already knew from previous experience that when Annie needed her, she dropped everything and ran. As she should, but I wished she would have woken me up so I could have gone with her. “What happened?”

  “Nothing happened,” she assured me calmly, her voice sounding strangely detached. “Annie’s fine. I just had to take off early to see her.”

  “Are you sure she’s okay?” It didn’t make sense to me why she would have cut and run without even saying goodbye if there was nothing wrong with Annie. I replayed our night together in my head, trying to pinpoint what, if anything, had gone wrong. I came up empty.

  “She’s really fine,” Marissa said. “It’s nothing, really. I’ll see you at work.”

  The same sense of dread from earlier washed over me when she disconnected the call straight after that. Marissa wasn’t like that at all, nor was she so cold or businesslike when we spoke over the phone.

  Worried and somewhat dazed, I got ready for work after the call. All through my shower, breakfast and getting dressed, I wondered what the fuck had happened. When we fell asleep, she seemed fine. Happy, even.

  And yet—I got to the office and went straight to hers, but her lights weren’t o
n yet and it was clear she hadn’t been in. I checked my office and the break room for any sign of her, but there was none. Her coffee mug was on the counter in the break room, washed and unused this morning.

  Marissa’s routine when she got to the office was the same every morning. She went to her office to drop off her bag and start her computer, then she went to get coffee and pop into my office before she went to work.

  No bag, no light and clean coffee mug meant she wasn’t here and hadn’t been to the office at all this morning. My eyes dropped to the watch on my wrist. There were only five more minutes until the day officially started.

  Most of the others who she usually beat getting into work in the morning were already there. I chatted to a few of them to ascertain if there were holdups with the traffic, but a few people mentioned how light it had been coming in.

  Before I’d even consciously made the decision to do it, I was in my car and on my way to her house. I needed to know what had happened to make her take off and I needed to see with my own two eyes that she was okay.

  True to what the others had said, traffic was uncharacteristically light. The host on the radio show I had on in my car even commented on it. Apparently, this was the only day in recent history that people weren’t driving like fools. There had been no incidents all morning.

  The knowledge added to the pit of dread forming in my stomach. Traffic, I could understand. Why Marissa had taken off at the crack of dawn when there was nothing wrong with her or Annie and then not come into the office on time, I couldn’t understand.

  In no time, I was pulling up in front of her house. It was a beautiful day, crisp and clear with birds singing in people’s yards, yet I was wound up tighter than a base drum and annoyed with even the birds.

  Knocking on Marissa’s front door, I waited longer than ever for her to open up. She looked stunned to see me there, frowning before she schooled her expression. “Layton? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the office?”