She was barely even aware of the words she was saying. She was very, very aware of the scenery passing however. The closer they got to her house, the more aware she became of their impending goodbye. Was he just gonna pull up to her house and launch her out of the car? She wouldn’t blame him with the way her mouth was motoring.
Was he going to kiss her goodbye? Text her later? If he didn’t text her, should she text him? Or call him? It wasn’t like they hadn’t talked on the phone before. Should she just woman-up and ask him on a date? But what would a man like Sequence enjoy doing on a date? She couldn’t exactly picture him at an Italian restaurant with a white tablecloth and a rose on the table. Nor could she picture herself at a dive bar. But they were complicated, nuanced people! They could definitely find someplace they both enjoyed!
But what was she doing? Planning a date that wasn’t even in the books? Meanwhile, she was still chatting like she was going for the gold in small talk.
She chatted while they drove just past the entrance to her building and Sequence pulled around the block. The line between her brows appeared while Sequence found a parking spot and parallel parked the SUV. She chatted while he turned off the car. She stopped chatting when he walked around the hood, but she kept chatting when he opened her door for her.
Naomi talked while his shoulder brushed hers as they walked along the sidewalk together. She told him about the bodega on the corner as they passed it. She told him about her neighbors’ divorce as one of them stomped past her in the lobby. She explained about all the broken buttons in the elevator as he held the doors open for her and followed her in. She found herself talking again about the elevator in the One World Observatory as the two of them raced upwards through her building.
Sequence tilted his head toward her neighbor’s door when they got off the elevator on her floor and a dog started barking like crazy.
“That’s just Ralph,” she told him and he smiled, like he finally understood something. “I always offer to walk him, but my neighbor never takes me up on it. I love dogs. I’ve always wanted one but it didn’t seem fair when I was working such long hours. Now that I’m working for myself, maybe I’ll be able to swing it. I hope so. Sometimes I spend hours scrolling through the animal shelter websites for NYC. Those people sure know how to market those sweet little animals. I swear, I’d bring every single one of them home if I could. Even the cats. And I’m not really a cat person. My mother is though. She has two cats. Did I tell you that yet?”
She turned back to Sequence and realized that she’d opened her front door and inputted the code into her keypad without even really noticing. Now, he stood on her welcome mat, the door swung wide, with his hands on the door jamb over his head.
“You gonna invite me in, Fancy?”
“Oh! Um…” She was a smart woman. She knew that he was asking her a whole bunch of questions wrapped up in that one question. Her stomach flipped down to her feet and then battened down into a tight little ball. Her spooled-up giddiness latched down on itself and wound even tighter. At this rate she was going to have a heart attack. “Yes! Of course. Please come in.”
She closed the door after him and tried not to think about just how small her front entryway looked with the new addition of his shoulders.
“Don’t worry about your shoes. Please, make yourself at home. This is the living room, obviously, kitchen is through there and the bathroom is across the hall this way. Beyond that is my, um, bedroom. So yeah. Mi casa and all that.” She cleared her throat. “Would you like something to drink?”
He nodded and put his hands in his pockets as he surveyed her area. Naomi’s stomach flipped again. No one had ever looked at her space with such scrutiny before. She tried for a second to see it through his eyes. The walls were painted a rather intense, crisp white. There were colorful watercolor paintings of gemstones framed in juicy colors on the walls. The furniture was basic in design, but also bright in color. Her rug was the same. Plush and a mismatch of color and design. In her windows, dozens of prisms hung, spinning slightly in the air and throwing rainbows all over the room in the afternoon sun.
Sequence’s lips quirked in a smile and she wondered if he thought her space ridiculous. It was a little over the top, she could admit, just the sheer amount of color was a little intense. She looked at his face for a long second, trying to interpret his expression. After a minute though, she just gave up.
“Water? Beer? Juice? Iced tea?”
He just shrugged and stepped over to her bookshelf to investigate it. A little stymied, Naomi went into her kitchen and pulled down two glasses. If he wasn’t going to answer her, he was just going to have whatever she was having.
She forewent the iced tea, deciding she didn’t need the caffeine, and chose cherry seltzer instead. She popped ice cubes in the glasses and brought them out to the living room.
She almost lost her footing when she came upon him sitting in an armchair, his hands crossed over his stomach and his feet planted firmly on the ground, his legs spread. His hair was a short, burnished blonde in the afternoon light, but somehow he looked dark sitting there. Like he was a magnet for all the energy in the room. She felt like the floor was tipping toward him, that if she wasn’t careful, she’d slip right into him, like a marble on the deck of a ship.
“Here you go!” she said brightly, handing him his glass. He set it on the side table without sipping it, and without removing his eyes from her.
Naomi wandered to the window and looked out. She searched the street for his SUV and found it. All the blood ran out of her face. “Oh my god!” She whirled, her hand at her throat and her glass almost slipping from her hand. “I forgot to bring my equipment back up here. I left it in your car. I have to go—”
She was charging forward but stopped altogether when Sequence simply pointed at her entryway, showing her where he’d apparently set her bag of gemology tools.
Jeez. She’d been so discombobulated that she’d left her equipment behind. And she hadn't even noticed when he’d been the one to carry it upstairs. That had never, ever happened to her before.
“God! Wow. That took about ten years off my life. I can’t believe I did that.” She paced a few steps one way and then the other. “I always know exactly where my equipment is. Without fail. No question. I guess I just—”
“Fancy.”
It was his first word since he’d entered her apartment. His voice was like a drop of midnight blue dye in a glass of water. It was stunning in its contrast as it swirled around her.
Naomi suddenly felt as if she were a tremulous violin string and Sequence was one good twang of a bass note. She felt the reverberations of his calmness all the way across the room.
“Yes?” she turned and faced him. He was sitting in that chair like it was a throne, his legs spread so far, his feet planted so firmly.
“Come over here.”
She did as she was told, but she didn’t stop talking as she did so. “Seriously, I can’t believe that happened. I’ve worked so hard for that equipment. I’ve never left it laying around before and—”
She cut off as she came level with the chair and Sequence took her glass from her and set it next to his. Next, he took her by one hand and firmly tugged her onto his lap.
“Oh! Sorry! I…” She had no idea why she was the one apologizing when he was the one who’d yanked her down in the first place. Naomi’s eyes were wide as she took in their positions. She was splayed across his lap, one of his hands around her hip, his eyes staring into hers. She jumped a little when she felt his free hand at her feet. “And there you are taking my shoes off again. I swear, you must have a thing for feet. Not that I’m judging. To each his own. I once read that—”
Sequence took her by the chin and she cut off speaking.
“Shhhh, baby,” he told her. “It’s okay. I’ll make this real easy for you.”
Slowly, one hand on her chin, he leaned forward and took a sip from her lips. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her li
ps and then to her neck. He tasted her quick below her ear and then his lips were back on hers.
This time his hand slid around and tangled in her hair, fastening her to him for just two breaths before he released her and leaned back. His eyes bounced between hers, reading her. Naomi vaguely wondered what he would see. She felt like he’d just pulled some lusty cloud over her. Everything was fuzzy and bright and warm.
She watched his eyes drop to her mouth again and realized it was because she was licking her lips. Trying to draw his taste into her mouth. Her tongue made a second pass and when he pressed his lips there again, this time, they slid against one another.
He made a gruff, growly sound and Naomi wanted to taste that too. Her lips opened and their tongues met. She made a soft sound and it made his hands shift on her, grip her in new places.
Her hands found his shoulders as she twisted toward him, hindered by her legs thrown to one side.
Naomi shifted to straddle him, coming up on her knees and for a moment, he dropped his head all the way back to keep kissing her. He took two great handfuls of her hair as it cascaded all around them, dropped them into a ruby cave, lit by sunlight on one side.
Naomi settled in, dropping her weight to his lap and fully straddling him. She gasped into his mouth when her heat encountered something very hard in his lap. Either he was carrying a gun in his front pocket or he was enjoying this as much as she was.
His hands were hot and firm and traveled up her thighs, straight to her ass and back down to her knees. Naomi reflexively opened her mouth wider and she could have sworn that Sequence was smiling against her mouth. But when she blurrily opened her eyes he was serious again, his eyes half open.
He was kissing her into delirium. Naomi dimly felt like an autumn leaf spinning down to earth. He deepened the kiss, his tongue pushing insistently into her mouth and she couldn’t stop her soft little noises.
She caught his lip between her teeth and Sequence grunted. Naomi pulled back suddenly, her chest heaving. Sequence’s head was tipped back onto the chair and he eyed her lazily, his lips open. That thrumming, spooled-up anxiety was within her again. She felt like Sequence was some sort of rare, mythical beast that had somehow wandered into her apartment. Urgency rose within her. If she wasn’t careful he was going to flutter out the way he’d come in. She needed to make sure he stayed. How could she make sure he stayed?
Inspiration hit and Naomi reared back. His hands came to her hips to steady her as she untucked her black silk blouse from her trousers. Why had she worn this shirt today? It was tailored tightly to her and hard as hell to get on and off. Sleeveless, with a row of tidy buttons on the back, it wasn’t the most alluring shirt she owned, which was, she realized, exactly why she’d chosen it. She’d been trying to put off Bastone.
But she didn’t want to think about him right now. She wanted to think about the golden beast she was pinning to the chair with her lady business. Naomi scrabbled at her back, attempting to loosen the buttons.
Sequence’s hands came around, stilling her. Gently he kissed his way up the inner arm she had up around her ear.
“Easy, baby. We got all day.” His lips traveled back down, almost to her armpit, before she gasped and squirmed away.
He chuckled and Naomi wanted to bottle the sound of it. The rich timbre that was so unique to him. She caught the rarest glimpse of a smile at the corner of his lips as he pinned her arm in place and dropped his lips to her inner arm again.
Once again, he kissed down toward her armpit and Naomi fully squirmed again, laughing and yelping.
“Quit kissing my armpit, you weirdo!”
“Anything to keep you wiggling on my lap, Fancy.”
She realized then that she was basically full-on gyrating her heat against his hardness and she blushed in delight. She thrust her hips forward and he dropped her arm, his eyes darkening as she put her arms around his neck and shifted her weight against him, taking special care to travel the whole length of him and back.
Sequence grunted and let his hands fall to her ass again. She reveled in his firm grip, the audacious press of his fingers. They jammed themselves together like they were two water droplets trying to pop themselves into one.
Their mouths found one another again and despite the way she’d begun to rhythmically ride him, their kisses remained lazy and unhurried. He seemed to be content to taste every corner of her mouth. To drag his tongue against hers in a dozy, spiraling pattern that made Naomi feel like he was hypnotizing her.
Long moments passed before Sequence’s hands came to her hips and he firmly lifted her off his lap and set her on her feet. One hand on her hip to keep her steady, he reached over and picked up his glass of seltzer, draining it to the bottom in three insatiable gulps.
Naomi looked confusedly at her own feet on the floor, at his lap. She couldn’t make A follow B. “Are we… are we done?”
“Hell no,” he told her, standing up and pulling his shirt off over his head. He didn’t bother with the buttons, just yanked it over his head, revealing a very yummy white undershirt that stood out starkly against his tattoos. She hadn’t realized that the tattoos she’d seen on the backs of his hands walked themselves all the way up his arms and, from the looks of it, across his chest as well. Rainbows from the prisms twirled over Sequence’s face and Naomi couldn’t help but gasp at the beauty of him. His features were so stark. So blunt. His nose was sharp and his brow was low and intense. The neat edge of his beard drew an abrupt line across his cheeks and chin.
He stepped forward and traced his arms down her back, over her ass and down the backs of her legs. He lifted her, easy as pie, and walked them to her royal blue couch, laying her down on her back. He lay on his side next to her, as if he were blocking her off from the world.
Rainbows and bright dust motes swirled in the air between them, casting everything in a dreamy vibe.
It was then that his hand snaked around her back and undid the delicate buttons marching down her spine. He slipped the shirt up her body and they laughed when it got caught on her jaw, her ear.
He breathed as he yanked it free. “Your hair. Jesus.”
It must have fallen in a cascade when the shirt came off. She looked down and saw she was caught in a shaft of sunlight, her hair a glowing ruby against her skin. She watched his eyes skitter from her face down the highway of her hair and down to the red lacy bra she wore.
He grunted and just kind of dove in. Naomi laughed as she clamped her arm around the back of his head.
Whatever gentle, delicate finesse he’d been using over on the armchair seemed to have fled him completely as he buried his face in her breasts. He was a stubbly, rubbing, nipping monster and he chuckled into her softness as she yelped and wiggled and slid to get away from the onslaught.
They ended up with her legs around his waist again and her breasts conveniently removed from the cups of her bra. When his hot, slick mouth closed over the tip of one breast, she stopped laughing and arched instead. Her breath caught in her throat as he slowly pulled her nerve endings tight.
“That’s… wow…oh, that’s nice.” She was barely aware of what she was saying until he lifted his head and scowled.
“Nice?” He redoubled his efforts and one of his hot, calloused hands slid down her stomach, unbuttoning her pants. He paused. “Naomi, can I touch you?”
“Please, yes!” And in case he didn’t get the message, she spread her legs open.
Sequence chuckled again and actually clamped her legs back closed to be able to strip her pants off of her. Then he opened her legs and slid his fingers underneath her matching red panties.
His fingers slid through her wetness, finding her immediately and Naomi was dimly aware of speaking. She could feel her mouth moving, but she couldn’t hear her words, had no earthly clue what she was saying.
“Quite a mouth you got, Fancy,” he said against her lips as he curled his fingers inside her and had her clinging to him, begging him for things that she desperately
wanted.
Sequence pulled away from her all at once and he was standing next to the couch. She was scared for a second that he was having second thoughts, that he was pulling away from her. But no, he was just wrenching his undershirt off, revealing a ridiculous body. He looked like someone had sprinkled miracle-gro on his muscles. Even in the bright light, he was heavily shadowed, lined, ridged. Naomi had always been into slim guys but wowzers. Yeah. There was no unseeing this kind of raw beauty.
He undid the zip on his slacks and paused, his thumbs in his waistband. She flicked her eyes up to his to see what the delay was all about.
“Yeah?” he asked her.
Gawd. He was checking to make sure taking his pants off was cool. Naomi felt something flutter in her chest. “Yes.”
And then he was kicking out of his shoes and socks, dropping his pants, and standing there in just his tight black boxer briefs looking like an underwear model.
“Holy Mother,” she said, her eyes wide as she took in his muscular calves, the tattoos that arced down his stomach and under the line of his underwear, the smattering of hair on his chest and thighs.
He just laughed as he crawled over her, slicking her flat against the couch again. Naomi automatically threw a leg over his hip, opening herself to him. His fingers were back inside of her, pressing insistently against a spot she wasn’t sure she’d formally met before this. She arched against him and begged for more. He teased at her swollen bud with his thumb, his mouth clamped to hers.
Naomi tightened and clamped down on his fingers as she tore her mouth away to gasp and cry her pleasure out into the sunny room. Her body convulsed with the crest of her pleasure, it was acute and sharp and unforgiving. She couldn’t have run from it if she’d tried. As her mind spun back to earth, she tried to make sense of how such gentle touches could have created such violent pleasure within her.
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