Tall, Dark and Charming

by Erika Wilde

  “Why?” she asked, brow raised as she reached for another strawberry and dipped it into the chocolate sitting on the tray on the bed between them. “Did I come across as deprived?”

  He didn’t miss the slight insecure note to her voice, which wasn’t his intent. “No. You came across as a woman who enjoys sex but doesn’t get enough of it, so I’m just curious why it’s been so long. I mean, even if you’re working long hours, there’s always time for sex,” he joked.

  “Spoken like a true man.” She rolled her eyes humorously as she ate the berry, suddenly looking anywhere but at him.

  He pushed a few of the pillows against the headboard and sat up in a more comfortable position, with the covers still around his hips. She still had her gaze averted, and she still hadn’t told him why she hadn’t been with a man in three years, so obviously, her reply wasn’t as simple as “I don’t have the time” or “I’m too career focused,” either of which would be totally relatable.

  “Why do I get the impression you’re evading the answer to my question?” he said point-blank.

  She sighed, the sound rife with exasperation, but at least she was now looking at him, even if her green eyes were a little annoyed at his persistence. “Maybe because I am avoiding it?”

  He knew he was pushing, but he really wanted this deeper insight to this woman who’d intrigued him for the past three years—and now the warm, willing woman she’d been with him tonight that she’d kept wrapped up in nondescript suits and behind a conservative façade.

  He wasn’t above using a little leverage to get her to talk. He smirked, trying a different tactic. “If you don’t appease my curiosity, no more orgasms for you tonight.”

  That made her laugh and lightened the moment a bit, which was what he’d been aiming for. “Wow, you drive a hard bargain.”

  It still wasn’t the answer he was waiting for. He thought back to the discussion they’d had in the bar before coming up to his room. The one where she’d set down her rules in a straightforward manner yet hadn’t been able to completely conceal the vulnerability he’d heard in her voice. The one that made him wonder if she might have been hurt in the past, and maybe that’s why she’d avoided being with a man—and opted instead to focus on her performance at work and earning her current promotion.

  He went with his gut, even knowing how intimate and personal he was making this conversation, which was something he never did after fucking a woman. “Did you break up with someone or end a relationship before coming to work at Roth Owens?”

  Her green eyes widened in surprise. Bingo. Her reaction was all the answer he needed to confirm his hunch.

  He reached across the short distance separating them and feathered the back of his hand along her soft, warm cheek. “He had to have been a real douchebag to let you go,” he said, meaning it. Even though he didn’t do commitment, it didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate the qualities a woman like Daisy would bring to a relationship.

  She abruptly laughed, but the sound lacked humor. “I let him go after finding out he was married.”

  “Shit,” he muttered beneath his breath, not missing the pained look in her eyes that reached into his gut and squeezed hard—for her, and because it reminded him too much of his father’s infidelity and how it had devastated his mother at a time when she’d needed her husband the most. “I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged her shoulders, causing her breasts to jiggle enticingly, momentarily distracting him. “It’s over and I’ve moved on.”

  He studied her for a moment—her stiff posture and how she was trying to remain composed but was obviously bothered. So, no, he didn’t think she’d moved on. Not completely, and he didn’t like that she was holding it all in when he was there to listen.

  “Tell me, Daisy,” he urged softly, not questioning why this mattered so much to him . . . maybe because he knew how that kind of betrayal could shatter a person’s trust. “I really want to know what happened.”

  It was the truth, even if it did surprise him. While he’d always avoided this kind of getting-to-know-you stuff with his one-nighters, Daisy wasn’t someone he’d never see again. They worked together, and he’d like to think they were friends who could talk to each other without her feeling as though he’d think badly of her because of what had happened with this other guy, who was a douchebag.

  After a long moment, she exhaled a deep breath and lifted her gaze back up to his, though there was still enough hesitation etched on her expression to keep her from sharing.

  “No judgment, sweetheart,” he said, just in case she was worried about that, considering she’d been involved with a married man.

  She picked up the small tray of food and set it on the nightstand next to the bed, then resettled on the mattress a little closer to him before speaking.

  “So . . . I met Troy online,” she said in a quiet voice as she absently picked at the comforter. “He contacted me on Facebook thinking I was someone he went to school with, though I’m not really sure that was the truth now that I look back on everything. Anyway, we started talking. He knew I lived in Los Angeles at the time, which is where I worked before moving to San Diego to accept the position with Roth Owens. He told me he lived in Denver and that he traveled for work a lot as a pharmaceutical rep and he had a few accounts in LA. He asked to see me the next time he flew out, and I agreed. That was the start of a nine-month long-distance relationship.”

  She drew her knees up, still covered by the sheet, and wrapped her arms around them, the gesture expressing how vulnerable she felt at that moment. “He was genuinely a nice guy who did and said all the right things to make me fall in love with him, because on the surface, he was perfect, and I really believed he loved me, too. And when he asked me to move to Denver, I put in my two-week resignation at the firm where I was working and started packing up my things to go . . . until I got a phone call from his wife, who’d seen the calls and texts to me on his phone and realized that her husband was having an affair with me.”

  She winced, as if the memory was as fresh as the day it had happened. “I was shocked and horrified, and she was so pissed because she thought I knew about her, which I didn’t, not that it mattered. She called me a home wrecker and a slew of other ugly names that I didn’t even know existed. Come to find out, Troy had been married to this woman for eight years and they had two young kids together.”

  His mother, he realized, had handled Aiden’s father’s adultery with much more grace, but that was the type of woman Felicia Stone was. Kind to a fault. Poised in the face of a scandal. And always an optimist even when she’d been dealing with the painful wreckage of her marriage and facing a battle with breast cancer—all while raising three kids. To him, his mother was a fucking rock star. And his dad was a complete piece of shit who Aiden no longer wanted to have anything to do with.

  “When you confronted this guy, what did he say?” Aiden asked, his tone a bit more agitated than he’d intended, which always happened when he thought about how his father had destroyed their family and the idyllic childhood Aiden had believed he and his siblings had.

  Daisy’s lips pursed with a hint of anger. “He said he was going to tell me, that he intended to divorce his wife and we’d work it out once I was living in Denver. As if he really thought I’d move closer to where he lived after finding out he was married with little kids.” She shook her head in disbelief, her eyes filled with self-recriminations. “How could I not know he was married? How could I have given up everything for him—my job, my apartment, my life in LA—when he wasn’t even available? Not to mention knowing I was responsible for breaking up his marriage and family. God, I was so naïve and stupid.”

  “You had no idea,” he said, more gently now, because he hated that she was blaming herself for something she’d had no control over because she’d believed the guy was single and available.

  She let out a dull laugh. “From the beginning, my mother said it was too good to be true. I should have listened to her.�
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  He frowned, not sure why her mother would be so pessimistic about the relationship before Daisy had even known that the guy had a wife. “Why should you have listened to your mother? Did she know he was married?”

  “Well, no,” she replied as she hugged her knees a little tighter. “But she spent my entire life warning me about men who’d take advantage of me. Who’d make promises and I’d end up giving everything up for them and getting nothing in return. I never really believed that, yet she wasn’t wrong with Troy, because it almost happened to me. It would have happened had I moved to Denver, then found out Troy was married.” Her gaze met his, a troubled frown furrowing her brow. “What kind of asshole does that kind of thing to their wife and family?”

  Now that was the million-dollar question for both of them, and one he’d asked himself a hundred different times. There was no explaining or justifying his father’s behavior, but as a result, he understood Daisy’s confusion and her pain.

  “I wish I knew, because my dad was one of those assholes,” he said, the confession coming much too easily with her when he never talked about his past. Ever. It was something he’d always kept locked up tight, even knowing how much it affected his views on relationships and marriage.

  She stared at him incredulously. “Your father . . . he had an affair?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. I was eighteen at the time, and it completely rocked my world because when my mom found out, she was undergoing chemo for stage-two breast cancer, and while my brothers and I were scared shitless that we were going to lose our mother and doing everything we could to take care of her, our father, who is a lawyer, claimed he was working late on a case when he was actually out fucking a woman fifteen years younger than him.”

  She sucked in a startled breath and placed a comforting hand on his arm. “Aiden . . . God, I’m so sorry. Is your mother okay?”

  He managed a smile, because Daisy’s concern went straight to his mother, who he adored. “Yeah, she’s a fucking warrior,” he said proudly. “It was hard at the time, and there were a lot of uncertainties, but my brothers and I rallied around my mom to take care of her the best we could. My mom was determined to kick cancer’s ass, and I’m grateful to say she’s been in remission for almost ten years.”

  She looked relieved. “I’m so happy to hear that. She sounds like an amazing woman.”

  “She is,” he said, picking up the hand resting on his arm for the sole purpose of touching her and feeling a connection between them. Because right now, that’s what this conversation was . . . a bond that they shared since they’d both been burned by infidelity. “As for my father, when my mother confronted him after a long day of having that chemo shit pumped into her body, the selfish prick was very cold about the situation and asked her for a divorce because the woman he was screwing around with was pregnant.”

  Daisy’s jaw dropped open. “Jesus!”

  “And you know what I said to my father when I found out? Good fucking riddance, asshole.”

  She giggled unexpectedly, the sound making him grin. “You did not.”

  “It wasn’t my finest moment, but yeah, I really did. My siblings and I took care of my mother just fine without him. I did what had to be done and I’ll always take care of my mother and be there for my family . . . even if my brothers are a pain in my ass most of the time.”

  “You’re a really good man, Aiden Stone,” she said with a soft sigh. “But just for the record, love sucks and I’ve learned it’s safer and easier to commit myself to my job than to get involved with another man when I clearly can’t trust my own judgment.”

  Now he understood why she kept herself so buttoned up and why she worked as hard as she did, clearly to the exclusion of everything else. “From what I’ve seen, I’ll have to agree. I thought maybe my brother, Leo, would get it right with his college sweetheart, but she literally jilted him the morning of their wedding day. How’s that for love fucking someone over?”

  “Poor guy,” she said sympathetically.

  “Yeah, it was not a good day,” Aiden said with humor, remembering standing next to Leo in their tuxedos as his fiancée called his cell phone to break his heart. “After it happened, me and our other brother, Dylan, took Leo to the nearest bar and got him shit-faced so he could drink away the bitterness of love.”

  She laughed as she lowered herself against his chest and propped her chin on her hand. “Okay, that’s a bit dramatic.”

  His dick got instantly hard at the feel of her breasts against his naked body and the way her stiff nipples grazed his rib cage. “Well, getting him shit-faced was true,” he said, threading his fingers through her silky hair now that she was close enough. “Unfortunately, he’s still bitter about love.”

  “With good reason. Who waits until the day of their wedding to decide that they’re no longer in love with the person they were hours away from marrying?”

  “Amanda, obviously,” he said of Leo’s ex, and decided that the two of them had better things to do than discuss his brother’s love life or lack thereof. Instead, he brought his free hand to her face and caressed along her jaw. “I think we’ve talked enough, don’t you?” They had much more pleasurable ways to spend the next few hours.

  Her eyes sparked with desire, giving him his answer as she idly traced a finger over his nipple before lightly scraping it with her nail, causing him to groan at the elicit sensation. “Did you have something else in mind?” she asked with feigned innocence. “Maybe a game of cards or watching a sappy romantic movie on demand or maybe a game of truth or dare?”

  He grinned at her last suggestion and dragged his thumb across her lower lip before sliding it into her warm, wet mouth. She didn’t hesitate to lick at his finger, and he felt that stroke all the way down to his groin. “I dare you to put this dirty, naughty mouth on my cock.”

  The corner of her mouth curved with an impudent smile, and she dared him right back. “Make me,” she whispered huskily.

  Jesus fuck, this woman was going to be the death of him tonight. Accepting her challenge, he tightened his grip in her hair until she was his to control and guide, and pulled her head down. Despite his firm hold and the force behind it, she went more than willingly, pushing the sheet out of her way while blazing a trail of hot, damp, open-mouthed kisses along his abdomen, giving him a preview of what to expect once she reached his dick.

  She settled between his spread thighs and cupped his balls in her hand, giving them a gentle, playful tug that made his thick shaft throb in anticipation as she cast her sultry gaze back up to his. Leaning forward, she deliberately blew a stream of hot breath along his shaft, teasing him mercilessly, the vixen.

  “Make me,” she said again, and the lust and need he saw in her eyes were a potent combination that had his stomach tightening in response.

  Fucking hell. She hadn’t even put her mouth on his cock yet and pre-come was already leaking from the tip and his entire body was vibrating with the urge to thrust between those soft, pouty lips. Yeah, he was going to make her, he wasn’t going to be sweet and gentle, and she was going to love it.

  “If I get too rough, pinch my thigh and I’ll stop,” he said gruffly, the only direction he gave her as he twisted her hair tighter in his fingers, then abruptly jerked her mouth to his dick.

  Without any hesitation or further preliminaries, he shoved his cock past her parted lips and didn’t stop until he was lodged against the back of her throat and there was nowhere left for him to go. She shuddered and moaned around his length and her hands grabbed on to his thighs, but she didn’t pinch or push back, thank fucking God, because he didn’t think he could let her go even if she needed him to.

  Her mouth felt too good, so wet and blistering hot cocooning him, with her throat squeezing him as deeply as her pussy had. When she relaxed a few seconds later and her initial panicked reaction eased, he dragged her lips all the way back up, giving her a moment to gasp for breath before he pushed her head back down again, giving her no choice but to
swallow him. Jaw clenched with what little restraint he had left in him, he watched his wet dick slide in and out of all that heated bliss as she let him fuck her mouth, and it was goddamn heaven. Without him having to ask, she hollowed her cheeks and added a toe-curling suction around his cock every time he guided her up, and used her soft, swirling tongue to add to the chaotic need steadily leading him toward a massive orgasm.

  It should have been that naughty, wanton mouth that pitched him over the edge, but it was the rapturous look on her face as she repeatedly swallowed him and the throaty, insanely sexy noises she made as she sucked him off that had his senses firing and his release surging through him. There was no containing his shout of gratification, followed by numerous grunts of pleasure as he came so fucking hard he saw stars, and she took everything he had to give.

  As his body gradually calmed and the fog in his head began to clear, he realized he was totally screwed, because there was no way any other woman would ever compare to this one who he was going to have to let go.

  Chapter Five

  Aiden gained consciousness in slow, gradual degrees, momentarily disoriented as to where he was . . . until he inhaled the unforgettable, intoxicating scent of the woman sleeping in front of him and remembered that he’d spent his evening having some of the best sex of his life. However, it was a foreign sensation, waking up with a woman in his bed when he didn’t do sleepovers, but Aiden couldn’t say he hated having Daisy’s backside tucked against his front as they spooned, and his morning wood wasn’t about to object, either, where it was pressed against the crease of her lush ass.

  Her cheek was resting on his bicep, her tousled hair spilling around her head while his other arm draped possessively over her waist—yes, possessively, because when she’d tried to leave his room a few hours ago after they’d used the last condom, he hadn’t been ready to let her go and had anchored her tight against his chest and ordered her to sleep. With a soft, sated smile on her lips and her body languid and exhausted from her numerous orgasms, not to mention the demanding workout he’d given her, she’d relaxed and succumbed to slumber while mumbling, “Just for a little bit.”