by Sophia Lynn
"At the event the other night, I was playing your little accessory," she told him on the ride over. "And that's all very well and good. That's what you needed me for, and I certainly do not mind. However, I'm invested now, and I want to be all-in. That means that I want to help, and fortunately for us, this is exactly where I have a lot of experience."
Mikal nodded. "I trust you," he said simply. "If you say you can help, I believe you."
"You better," she said teasing. She didn't fault him. She knew what her reputation said about her, that she was a party girl who cared more about style than substance, but sometimes, that was exactly what made her so effective. After all, if a self-centered little fashion plate could understand something, why couldn't some big important politician?
When they got to the luncheon, she immediately got to work. She greeted older politicians with just the right degree of deference and excitement, she got them talking, and then she linked them up with each other. The research that Viviana had done earlier had told her who would get on well with each other, and her excellent memory prevented her from making any serious mistakes.
She reminded herself that she wasn't working solo this time, and she made it a point to return to Mikal on a regular basis, showing herself to the perfect love-struck fiancée. He saw what she was doing right away, and after giving her a startled, grateful look, he got to work himself, presenting his legislation and his reforms as earnestly and as truthfully as she knew he could be.
The luncheon lasted a good four hours, and over the course of it, she thought that she and Mikal were only seated for about half an hour of it. Otherwise they were on their feet, lobbying for their interests and doing what good they could.
At the end, Viviana was a little disappointed to head back to the palace on her own. Mikal was wrapped in a post-lunch session that seemed distinctly men only. She did her best not to pout as he waved her on.
Ah well, he can't say that I'm not earning my keep …
The luncheon had been a great success as far as she was concerned, but it was a relief to get back to the quiet of her rooms. She stripped off her wrap and her dress, enjoying the air-conditioned cool of the room in her lacy bra and her silky tap pants. Viviana stretched a little to loosen her joints, and she was just looking at getting back to work when she heard a rapid footstep in the hallway.
Without even a knock, Mikal burst into her room. He crossed the floor with a few giant strides, and before she knew what he was about, he had snatched her up in his arms, giving her an enormous hug, and planting a big kiss on the crown of her head.
"You are a miracle," he crowed. "I have never seen anyone work a room like you have, and you are absolutely nothing short of a saint …"
"My hair, compliment my hair, too," she teased, her eyes sparkling with humor.
"A gorgeous flame that humiliates all that try to compete with it," he promised, letting her back down. "But seriously, do you have any idea what you did?"
"Of course I do," Viviana said smugly. "This is my job, remember?"
It wasn't, really. Until this point, her skills had been all about getting women to purchase the products that she was selling or to improve a reputation that had been tarnished in some way. This time, it felt as if she was doing good in a way she never had before, but she didn't want to bring that up to Mikal for some reason.
"You're so good at it," Mikal said, nuzzling at her neck. "I can't even believe it …"
"Believe it, handsome man," she breathed, sighing as he nuzzled the sensitive skin behind her ear. "And if you want me to keep it up, you better keep me happy …"
"I am pleased to sacrifice myself to the cause," he said, lifting her up and carrying her to the bed.
She sighed with pleasure as he stripped her underwear from her body. Ever since their pact, he had been in her bed and spending the nights with her. She had wondered if they would grow tired of each other, but there was no sign of that happening yet. Every encounter was like discovering each other anew, and each night that passed, they were only more intoxicated with each other.
"Oh my god, you feel so good," she murmured, as he ran clever hands down her hips and along her thighs.
"I want you to feel better than that," he said, and he raked his nails lightly over her sensitive flesh.
She growled with impatience. She wanted more and faster, but today he seemed content to tease her, eager to make her beg for the final climax that he could give her so easily and with such enthusiasm.
When he brushed his fingers across the taut skin of her belly, she could no longer take the fact that he hadn't stripped at all. She reached for his clothing, all but tearing them off in her haste. When he laughed and tried to help her, she brushed his hands away, intent on doing it herself.
When Mikal was as naked as she was, she wasn't done. Instead, she pushed him onto his back on the bed, straddling his thighs as she looked down at him. With her eyes wild and her vivid russet hair streaming down her back, she knew that she must look like a wild woman. From the wide-eyed, appreciative look that Mikal gave her, she could tell that it was something he liked rather a lot.
"I think that I'm done being teased for a little while," she said softly, watching the way his green eyes dilated black with pleasure. "I think that I want to be the one to make you squirm, the one to make you lose control."
Mikal's eyes danced with pleasure, but when he spoke, his tone was affectionately condescending. "If you'd like," he said. "If you think you can …"
She stroked her had down his cock, pumping it to full hardness with just a few motions. When she pulled her hand away, he groaned, arching up towards her.
"Oh, I don't think you're going to give me much of a problem …"
She leaned down to press her weight against his body. She was far lighter than he was, and she knew that if he truly wanted to, he could have shoved her off easily. The fact that he wanted to obey was intoxicating.
"That's beautiful," Viviana sighed. "You're so beautiful …"
It was tempting to take him right now. She could do it. She was already slick from the eagerness of being so close to him. In just a few moments, she could lean over him, and slide him inside her with just a single squirming motion.
No. That wasn't what she wanted, not after everything he had put her through.
Instead, she squirmed over his body, pressing his cock tight between their bellies as she slowly writhed and twisted above him. When his hands came up to clasp her hips, she grasped him by the wrists and pinned them down onto the mattress.
"Not yet," she whispered, and when he might have protested, she started kissing his face, running sweet kisses along his jawline and his chin before kissing his mouth. There was something desperate there, something needy and wild, but for now he was willing to stay with her, to obey as she worked herself on top of him.
After a few moments, she hitched herself higher on his body, her humid crevice caressing the hot skin of his cock. Now she felt his hips flex against her wildly, but still he was obedient to her needs, giving her what she demanded even as she felt the bonfire of desire course through him.
"I can't get enough of you," she whispered, grinding down on him. "Never. I want this … I always want this …"
"Let me have you," he groaned. "Please, please, Viviana, I want you so damn much …"
"Soon," she replied, and she delighted in his needy moan.
She started to kiss her way down his body, squirming deliberately as she did so. She explored him with her mouth, tasting his skin, nuzzling in spots that she knew were sensitive. He caught his breath as she touched her sharp teeth to his nipples, and he held himself brutally still as she kissed the curve of his hip. She could smell herself on him, and that turned her on more than she thought it would. There was need there, and it was all for her.
"Please," he begged again, and this time, she couldn't deny him.
It had been her thought to get on top of him and ride him, but now she discovered that it wasn't what
she wanted. Instead, she knelt down on the bed, sinking to her elbows.
"I want you to ride me," she murmured, astonishing even herself with her boldness. "Put on that condom, and come inside me, hard and deep."
He moved far faster than she thought he could. In a matter of seconds, he was taking his position behind, hands on her hips, and the head of his cock brushing against her hot entrance. She growled when she felt him press against her experimentally.
"Now," she demanded, and he complied.
The first deep stroke drew a long cry from her throat. It wasn't painful, but it was intense. He didn't stop until he was buried in her to the hilt, pushed flush against her body.
"Oh yes, please!" she wailed, and that was all the signal he needed.
Suddenly, he was thrusting into her hard and fast because she was everything he needed in the world, everything that they both needed. He was thrusting into her so hard that she nearly went down on her face until she braced herself to push back nearly as hard.
Viviana knew that she was going to be sore later, she knew that her voice would be hoarse from calling his name, but at the end of it all, she simply didn't care. All she wanted was this, this man buried deep inside her, his pleasure carrying hers further and further.
She wasn't focusing on her climax at all. The sensations that he was giving her were so intense that she simply allowed herself to be carried away by them. Without her being aware of it, she felt herself growing hotter and hotter, pushed towards an orgasm without her will at all.
Viviana fought it for a moment, wanting more of the intense feelings that were coursing through her. Then as her body started to shake, she gave up, because it was too much, it was all too much. She let the fire take her, and as she clung to the sheets, she started to cry out in pleasure that seemed to take her far beyond what she should be able to feel.
She was still shaking, her entire body exhausted and worn, when he thrust into her one last time, crying out as he attained his own release.
He collapsed on top of her, and she felt herself buckle as well. Joined as one, they sunk to the bed. After a moment, Mikal rolled to his side while still holding her tight.
"You're lovely," he whispered, nuzzling the back of her neck. "I am not sure that I have ever met a woman like you."
"And you won't again," Viviana said with a tired chuckle.
With a slight wince, she pulled away from him, rolling over onto her back. Her entire body still felt oversensitive, raw after all the pleasure.
"Are you all right?" Mikal asked, immediately concerned.
"I am," she said with a smile. "I'm just a little winded, I guess. To be honest, I've never met anyone like you either."
"Ah. Not quite the geek you thought I was, then?"
Viviana groaned. If she had had the energy, she would have bopped him with a pillow.
"No, and if you would be so kind as to remember that I thought you were a geek years ago, when we were back in school. That should hardly count against me. I was barely more than a child. I mean, look at the way I was dressed, for god's sake."
Mikal chuckled, brushing his hand across her loose hair lovingly.
"No, I'll let it go. At the very least, I'll let it go when it stops being funny to me."
Viviana shook her head in mock dismay.
"You better be glad that you're so darned good in bed," she said. "Otherwise, I think you would be completely insufferable."
***
As much as Viviana would have loved to spend every day in bed with Mikal, they were swept up in a round of lobbying, lunches, and other occasions where the goal was always to further the legislation he had put forth. When she looked up, she realized that it had been three weeks straight of campaigning, and now her assistant was getting frustrated with her.
"Viv, you are in high demand, and if you don't start meeting some of that, it's going to start falling. I'm pretty sure you can survive being off the market for a while, but we both know …"
"But we both know that if you stay out of the public eye for too long it’s a special kind of career suicide, yeah …"
Viviana chewed on her thumbnail as she paced. She looked up as the door opened, and she waved at Mikal to keep quiet as she talked.
"Look, it's your career, and I'm going to be the last one to tell you what to do—"
"That's a lie and we both know, Marnie."
"Yes, well. Basically, decide what you're going to do so I have something to tell these people who want to work with you. You have the assignments that are coming up? If you could just pick even one of them, that would be good. Just one. Doesn't have to be a long one, though I have my own opinions as to how public it should be. Just look them over, Viv."
"Gotcha. I'll call back in twenty-four hours, and we'll figure something out."
After hanging up her phone, Viviana threw herself backwards on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"Tough call?" asked Mikal, coming to pat her shoulder.
"Dumb call," she said. “Marnie wants me to do an appearance of some sort somewhere. She thinks it's hurting my image to stay off the radar for so long. I'm telling her that it doesn't matter because I've been doing so much work with you, but she disagrees."
Mikal made a thoughtful sound as he rubbed her shoulder gently. Viviana moaned a little as his touch grew firmer. She flipped over onto her stomach, and without paying much attention, he started to massage her tight shoulder muscles. She hadn't realized how tense that message had made her.
"Well, is she telling the truth?"
Viviana thought for a moment, and then sighed. "Honestly? Yeah, she probably is. Marnie might be completely tactless, but she's definitely someone who has my best interests at heart. If she tells me something's good for my career, she's usually right."
"Hmm, then you should definitely do an appearance."
For some reason, the idea that he wanted her to go do an appearance made something in her crack a little. It was a strange feeling, and an unwelcome one, and she shied away from it.
"I don't know," she said. "Isn't there a lot of work to do here? I mean, I hate leaving a project half done."
"No, as it turns out, we're just coming up on a break. We have almost six days free before we need to start hitting things before the big vote. Even if we wanted to get out there, people are probably sick to death of hearing us. That means that we need to take a break and maybe lie low for a little bit. I was thinking about taking a trip somewhere."
"Oh," she said, feeling an unwanted blush coming up her face. She wasn't a woman who was used to feeling foolish, and she didn't believe that she cared for it.
"Why don't you take a job," he said, dropping a gentle kiss on the small of her back. "If you don't mind, I might like to come with you, to see what you do when you're not at my beck and call."
It might have been simply curiosity on his part, but she couldn't deny that that sounded far better. The idea of her pitching a product in London while he enjoyed Lisbon or Barcelona was disturbing to her in a way that she didn't care to think about.
"All right," she said. "I'll give Marnie a call back and see what she has for me in a suitably exciting location."
***
Mikal watched Viviana get up for her phone call with her assistant, so many emotions tumbling through his body. He took a deep breath and concentrated on keeping a calm look on his face, because the last thing that he wanted was for Viviana to get the idea that he was some kind of jealous monster, despite the fact that that seemed to be exactly what he was.
The idea of her leaving Khutal, even for a short job, stabbed him straight through the heart. In that moment, he wanted to come up with another handful of expos and luncheons she had to go to, one after the other, and he knew that she was good enough and decent enough that she wouldn't have left. That would have been one of the most unworthy things he could have done, however, and he kept silent.
At least she hadn't objected to him coming with her. It felt a little like a cold
comfort, a bone a careless woman might toss a starving dog.
Or that the prom queen tossed to the geek, he thought with a wince, but he squared his shoulders against that thought before it could take root. He was a different man now. He knew he was.
Now he only wished that she could see it.
CHAPTER SIX
Viviana had expected to simply make her own way to Paris. After all, it was for her job, and it should have been all on her dime. When she had started to make the arrangements though, Mikal stepped in with that calm control and confidence that seemed to be second nature to him.
"I have an appearance to maintain," he said with a grin. "After all, I can't have my wife-to-be flying in anything less than style."
Viviana had grinned at the time, but she was getting a bigger and bigger twinge whenever he started talking about the charade that they were putting on. The issue, she decided, was that he was simply too good at it. When he looked at her with those bottomless green eyes, and when he smiled at her like that, it was just too easy to think that it was a permanent thing that would end in a wedding.
She was an independent girl who never went in looking for the wedding ring or the bells and whistles, but there was definitely something strange about all of this for her.
However, Viviana pushed her fears aside because, after all, she had a job to do, and never let it be said that Viviana Johns backed down from fun.
She had to admit, flying to Paris in Mikal's jet was fun. There was no masseuse this time, but there was a fine five-star meal cooked by Mikal's chef, and when she grew a little sleepy, there was a closed compartment that was basically a wall to wall bed. There had been time for an excellent nap, and after that, when Mikal came to sleep next to her, there had been time for some other fun …
In her mind, Viviana was starting to call Mikal the one-night stand that was lasting for weeks at a time. She knew that eventually the ride would end and they would both get off to go on with their lives, but perhaps they could stay on for just a little longer.