I parked and walked up the street to the restaurant. At first, I thought it would be funny to show up in my painting outfit, but as I approached the front door, I was self-conscious. Fortunately, Hunter strode out the door, turned me around and walked me across the street toward the high-end hotel.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting a room.”
I looked up at him. Normally, that sort of statement would either tick me off because he was being presumptuous, or turn me on, because we were going to have sex. But his tone lacked affect and I couldn’t decide which mood to go with.
We didn’t go to the front desk. Instead, he directed me to the elevator and we rode up to the top floor. During the ride, he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at me.
“Are you alright?” I finally asked.
“Sure. Yeah.” The door dinged and we stepped out of the car. He opened the door to a suite that was probably three times larger than my apartment.
“Want a drink?” he asked, heading straight for the bar.
“Sure.” I figured this was one of those, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em type things. “What is this place?”
“It’s a hotel. The company has a standing reservation here for out of town guests,” he said, pouring himself a fairly large glass of something potent.
He took a large gulp, refilled the glass and then brought another glass to me. He handed it to me and then sank onto the couch, scraping a hand over his face.
I sat next to him. “Is your dad okay?”
He finally looked at me. Then his gaze took in my outfit.
“I was painting. I told you I wanted to change.” I expected him to say something snarky, but he shrugged, and drank his drink.
“Dad will be okay. He has some serious rehab he’ll need to do, but he’s alive.”
Still, I could see the accident weighed on him. Perhaps it was the idea of losing his father.
“Do you want a massage?” I asked. I put my drink down on the table and maneuvered us both so I could rub his shoulders from behind him.
He finished his drink and let out a long shuddering breath. He set his glass on the table next to mine and turned to me.
“Can we fuck?”
I flinched at his question, not because I hadn’t been expecting sex, but because of how lacking in passion it was.
“Are you sure you can?”
He didn’t answer. He simply pulled me towards him and kissed me hard. I could taste tension and desperation. In one respect, this felt wrong. Sex shouldn’t be a balm for a tortured soul. At the same time, perhaps my touch would offer him some solace. So I gave in, but I took control. I pushed him back to sit, and then straddled his legs. As we undressed, I made my hands gently caress his skin. I worked to slow our kisses down.
When we were naked, and I finally took him inside me, I held him there, my pussy gently massaging him as I slowly rocked.
“Don’t,” he growled in frustration. “Don’t comfort me. Fuck me, Natalie. Take me away.”
My instinct was to fight him on that, but that was more my ego not liking that he didn’t want what I was offering. Instead, I focused on what he needed. He wanted to get lost in sexual sensation.
I placed my hands on his shoulders and then watching his face, I moved. I rode him, faster and faster, taking my cues from his face that pinched in torture as his dick grew harder, thicker inside me.
“Come on me,” he ground out, as he pulled me to him and sucked hard on my nipple. My pussy clamped tight in response, and I careened to the edge of release. “Now, dammit now…”
He pinched both of my nipples as I bounced down on him and my orgasm blasted through me. I threw my head back and cried out as pleasure endorphins raced through my body.
“Fuck…yes…right there…right there…” Then he let out a long, feral moan, and his hips bucked up as he gave into his own pleasure.
Even after our breaths returned, we simply sat there, me watching him wondering what was going on inside him. His eyes were closed and his head was back, lost in his own world. As far as I was concerned, he could have jacked off. He didn’t need me here.
“Why am I here?” The minute I asked it, I wished I hadn’t. It made me feel vulnerable.
He let out a soft breath. “I wanted to see you. Needed. Needed to see you.”
My heart warmed at his words, even as my head blared with warning bells to not read anything into his comment.
When he opened his eyes and looked at me, the lost, emptiness seemed to be gone. “I need another drink. How about you?”
I shook my head. “No thanks.” I got off of him and put on my clothes while he strode to the bar naked.
“I was thinking that maybe we could meet here or down at the hotel near the office,” he said, putting a few ice cubes in his glass.
That warm feeling in my heart dissipated although I couldn’t be sure why. Was it because sneaking to hotels for sex was sordid?
“I just thought it would be easier to maintain those boundaries we set, you know?”
He was right about that. If he was in my place or me in his, that might blur the lines. “Yes. That makes total sense.”
He downed his next drink. I watched him for a moment, and then went to the door. “I should go.”
He didn’t try to stop me. “Let me walk you to your car.”
“No. That’s okay.” I opened the door and looked back at him. His expression appeared torn. Like he felt he should walk me out, but wanted to take me up on my offer to go alone. “Really, it’s okay Hunter.”
He let out a long sigh. “I like the painting outfit.” His lips twitched up briefly and while it wasn’t a smile, it felt like the old Hunter was back.
That night when I got back to my place, I wasn't quite ready to go to bed. I went to my easel, pulled out a blank canvas, and began to sketch. At first, I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but before long, I could see the strong lines of Hunter's jaw and the fierceness yet vulnerability in his eyes that I’d seen tonight.
Soon I was sketching all of him by memory. But instead drawing the normal broody sadness of his mouth that I usually saw, I drew in the cocky, arrogant one. The one that made him so sexy.
I stood back, feeling satisfied that I’d caught the essence of Hunter. If I focused on it, maybe it could get it completed in time for the gallery showing that he was setting up for me. I wondered what he'd think if I used it as a showpiece.
15
Hunter
My first experience with the total devastation at losing a loved one could bring, was when my mother died. My brothers and I were all in agreement that dad had never ever fully recovered from that loss, and while he came around and began to live again, he still wasn’t over losing her, and he’d never let another woman in.
There are many ways to experience loss, and my mother’s death wasn't the only time I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. The day of my father's accident, I was reminded of that. I was also reminded that it was something that I needed to avoid. It was one of the reasons I lived my life the way I did.
That evening after my father's accident, when I saw Natalie in the hotel, I couldn't get a grip on all the emotions that were swirling through me. The only thing I knew was I needed help in corralling it all back together, and it seemed like the best way to do that was by drowning myself in Natalie. I wanted to escape the feelings, and instead immerse myself in touch and taste, and sexual satisfaction.
It had been working, until I got the feeling that she was being compassionate with me. She was trying to help me soothe my soul, and there was something about that that I couldn't endure. Being with her was all about the sex. That was all it could be about.
By the time we were done, I felt like I had achieved my goal, and at the same time still felt completely unsettled. Because it was important for me to maintain some distance between us, I negotiated an agreement whereby we would only see each other in hotel rooms. I wouldn't go to her
place, and she wouldn't come to mine. I also made sure that there would be no overnights. I wouldn't take her out for a meal. There would be nothing about this arrangement that might feel like a date or a growing relationship.
On the one hand, it made me feel like a complete asshole to set things up like that. Not only was it a jerk thing to do to make sure that this was only just a physical relationship, but I knew Natalie well enough now to know that she deserved better than me. Natalie was filled with light and effervescence. She was sweet and smart and creative. She was the opposite of everything that I was, and there was a part of me that worried that I would dim the light in her by being around her. Of course, that concern didn't stop me from engaging in our friends with benefits relationship.
As the weeks went by, we settled into a regular routine. At work we were able to maintain a professional distance, and as I watched her work, I acknowledged that she was very good at her job. I also realized that perhaps I'd been too focused on my own ideas and not being open to the ideas of others of my team. I'd always prided myself in not being a micromanager. I felt like I hired the top-notch people and let them do what they did best. But in watching her work, and then seeing the materials she and the team were sending my way, I realized that the team always worked within the confines of the boundaries I set for them. I had given them a free reign within the bumper rails.
Natalie managed them quite differently. She encouraged all ideas, even bad ones, some of which were tweaked into good ones. The work she and her team were producing was showing that I hadn't maximized all the talent that I had with the people I hired.
When we weren't working, we would steal an hour or two sometimes during the day, sometimes in the evening, at a hotel not far from the office. I always looked forward to these interludes. In fact, I eagerly anticipated them, and it dawned on me that it felt a little too much like an addiction. I liked sex, and I liked the semi-state of arousal in anticipation of seeing her. But after a while it didn't just feel like in anticipation of sex. It felt headier than that. More needy. More important than that. The idea that I might be getting addicted to her scared the shit out of me. So much so that I tried to take a break from seeing her, and of course, that was impossible. So, I tried to reduce the amount of time I spent with her, but that was impossible too.
If it was only sex that I was craving, I’d probably be okay with this insatiable need for her. But it wasn't just the sex. I enjoyed spending time with Natalie. Yes, most the time we were together, it didn’t involve too much talking, unless it was related to fucking. But more and more, when the deed was done, as we caught our breaths, we'd lay together and chat, and I was growing more and more attached to those moments with her.
Natalie had a body to die for and a wild spirit that made her exciting in the bedroom. That same spirit was how she lived her life, which was inspiring to watch. But at the same time there was a vulnerability about her that seemed to bring out a protective instinct in me. For a woman who seemed to glide to the world with copious amounts of self-confidence, she had moments of self-doubt that often would surprise me. I found myself looking forward to the gallery event and boosting her feelings of self-worth and confidence in her work.
But alone at night in my own bed, all these thoughts and feelings scared the hell out of me. It felt too much like I was growing attached to her and that could not happen. Not at all. Not ever. Life had given me several hard lessons on how dangerous it could be to love somebody. So no, I couldn't grow attached to her.
I was reminding myself of all of this as I stepped up to the door of the suite at the hotel where Natalie and I were scheduled to meet. Like a mantra, I reminded myself; go in, give her a couple orgasms, come myself, and then leave. Go in, give her a couple orgasms, come myself, and then leave.
I knocked on the door, and when it opened my mantra along with every single other thought, except for the one that said I needed to fuck her, left my brain. She stood there in sexy lingerie that my dick responded to full tilt. I wouldn’t be surprised if the head was pushing out of the waistband of my pants, I was so hard.
She swung the door open and stepped aside giving me room to come into the space. I let out a low growl as my hand slid low around her back and I tugged her hard against me. There would be no wine and roses or romance, no sweet words of seduction. No, we were here for one thing and one thing only; to give and get orgasms.
Thinking about that made me feel like a douchebag as Natalie deserved more than these clandestine moments. But I pushed that away as I crushed my lips against hers, feeding the sexual fuel firing in my blood.
"You are so fucking sexy," I murmured as my lips trailed along her jaw and then lightly tugged on her earlobe making her shiver.
We shouldn’t work. In most situations we didn’t. We butted heads. But when we stopped talking and instead started touching, it was perfection.
"Is this new?" I asked, my voice husky as I ran my fingers under the strap of the hot teddy she wore. I pulled the skimpy string strap down over her shoulder. I lowered my head trailing soft kisses from her neck along her shoulder, loving the soft moans she’d make, and the way her body would shudder against mine.
"Yes. I know how sometimes you need some extra help to get it up."
There it was. The banter that was the hallmark of our relationship. On the one hand, it was comforting to hear it as it assured me she was in agreement with our friends with benefits situation. But deep inside me, there was a tinge of disappointment that she hadn’t bought it as a special gift for me.
I ignored those thoughts and focused on the task at hand. My hand slipped down over her ass grabbing it and I tugged her forward, grinding my ready-to-explode cock into her belly. "This isn't up enough for you, baby?"
She moaned and in a rush, her fingers were on my buttons and working them undone. She splayed her warm hands over my chest then she leaned forward and flicked her tongue over my nipple. I hissed as erotic sensations threatened to having me coming too soon.
"You're needy today,” I said.
She reached down grabbing my dick through my slacks. "And you're not?"
With a growl I hoisted her up and carried her to the bed. I tossed her on it, and watched as I took off my shirt and quickly got rid of my pants, shoes and socks, and then tossed a condom on the bed.
"Should we go for record?" I asked as I crawled over her body. She wrapped her fingers around my cock, giving it a slow stroke, making me groan.
"The record in total between us or record for each of us?"
So far the record total of orgasms was five; three for her, and two for me. I always tried to give a woman more than one orgasm, but it was rare for me to have more than one. With Natalie, I couldn’t leave without two. It was like the first one was an appetizer, but until I had the meal, I wasn’t done. The reason for it wasn’t something I thought about. It was regulated along with all the thoughts that made this thing with Natalie so unsettling.
I tugged the straps of her teddy down exposing her breasts. Her nipples were hard as they popped out from under the silk lace.
“Mmm,” I sounded as I bent over and sucked one of her nipples deep into my mouth. She bowed off the bed. I loved how responsive she always was to my touch.
“Both,” I answered her question as I tugged on her nipple with my teeth.
I held each one of her tits in my hands and kneaded and pinched them as I kissed and licked her between them and lower. She spread her thighs and her hips rose off the bed in anticipation.
I settled my shoulders between her creamy thighs and prepared to feast on her. “You’re so wet,” I murmured as I slid my hands over her belly and down to her pussy. I used my fingers to open her pussy lips, and inhaled. “I love your pussy, Natalie. I can’t get enough. I’m fucking addicted to it.”
I dragged my tongue through her pussy, and she arched off the bed.
“You have the sweetest pussy juice.” My tongue then swirled around her clit before my mouth sucked it hard.
“Oh God, Hunter…” her hips bucked in rhythm as she fucked my face.
“You like that?” I teased her clit with little kisses.
“Yes,” she said, gripping my head and pushing it to her pussy. “More.”
“You’re so bossy,” I said with humor as I refocused on her pussy. Of course, when she was sucking me off, I got pretty demanding myself.
“Does anyone make you come like I do?” I asked using my hands to push her thighs open wider.
“No.”
“Good,” I murmured against her pussy. It was frightening how much I needed to be the man that made her feel like a goddess. I pushed my fingers inside her, fucking her deep, while I sucked her clit.
She cried out and her body shook and convulsed as her orgasm ricocheted through her body. I stayed with her, drawing it out and then used slow, languid licks to bring her down from her high.
I lifted my head, giving her a cocky grin. “One.”
“Oh God.” Her pussy spasmed like it knew more was coming. My dick was getting jealous at all the attention my fingers were getting from her pussy.
“I could stay here and eat you all night,” I said, giving light sucking kisses on her inner thigh not caring if it left a little mark.
I slid my hands along her inner thighs, pushing them up and open, as I admired her sweet, pink, wet pussy.
“Time for two, sweetheart.”
She let out a long moan, as I dove in, drove her up, and sent her soaring again. I wasn’t lying when I said I could eat her all night, but my dick wasn’t too happy about it. I either needed to fuck her, or accept that I’d come on the bedspread.
Deciding that he’d been patient and deserved some pleasure, I grabbed the condom and slipped it on.
I looked down on her, and something in my chest twisted and it stole my breath. Unable to deal with it, I gripped her hips and turned her over onto all fours. I couldn’t see her beautiful eyes from this position, which was good because they clearly messed me up inside.
Giving In To Love: A Friends with Benefits Office Romance (Strong Brothers Book 2) Page 10