Crave - Part One: Aria's Song (Crave Series Book 1)

by Rhea Wilde

  I changed into the new outfit. When I stepped out of the changing room, Crosby led me down another hall and into a room that was unlike any other in the mansion.

  I looked at all of the equipment surrounding me. There were dumbbells, barbells and other weights scattered all over the floor. Treadmills, ellipticals and other machines lined the walls. There were other devices I didn’t think I’d ever seen before. And in the middle of it all, Stephen was there. He wore nothing but a loose-fitting white tank-top and a pair of black athletic pants. He was sweating hard like he’d been working for some time. His muscles glistened underneath the lights of the room. He stared at his reflection as he skipped over the jump rope with perfect strides.

  “Um, what am I doing here?” I whispered to Crosby.

  “Miss Aria, I do hope that you’re only humoring me.”

  “I’m not humoring you. Please tell me what I’m doing here.”

  “Master Stephen trains every morning at exactly this time. You will be joining him in his sessions.”

  “What?” I said as I held back my laugh. “Is this a joke?”

  “If it is, I have yet to be informed of it.”

  “But… I didn’t sign up for this. Stephen just gave me a job offer to learn how to cook. What does this have to do with anything?”

  “I suppose you can bring that up to him yourself. Enjoy your workout, Miss Aria.”

  Crosby bowed his head to me. I reached out and tried to grab his arm but he was just out of range. I turned back to Stephen and the jump rope he was using was on the ground. He breathed heavily as he made his way toward me. The perspiration on his slightly-tanned skin gave his muscles even more definition.

  “What’s this all about?” I asked as I crossed my arms.

  “You’ll be working with me,” he said. “Every morning. I need to make sure you’re in the right condition.”

  “Right condition? What does this have to do with cooking?”

  “It has everything to do with cooking.”

  “Does it?”

  “You just worked in the kitchen. You made your way around, tending to more than one thing at a time. You need to be in proper shape if you’re going to maintain that kind of activity.”

  “Right. I’m in good enough shape though. There’s no need for me to do any of this.”

  “Aria, let me explain something to you.”

  Stephen placed his fingertips together and I could feel a lecture incoming. I braced myself for a lesson I knew I wasn’t interested in hearing.

  “When you work for me, I don’t expect you to be good at just one thing.”

  “I realize that. First you have me reading books and now you have me lifting weights. When do I learn brain surgery? Is that tomorrow?”

  Stephen stared at me blankly. His chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths. I didn’t understand why he was doing any of this and going to such lengths for someone he just needed to work in his kitchen. I didn’t even understand why he hired me in the first place. But as he stared at me, I knew I couldn’t walk away so easily. Whether or not it was the fact that I was just attracted to him, I didn’t know.

  “This is for your benefit,” he said. “The betterment of my employees is not something I take lightly.”

  “And do you give all of them personal training sessions? Does Camille use this gym?”

  “Yes, she does.”

  “What about Crosby? Does the old man lift weights?”

  “Crosby is active, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “…Everybody does this then?”

  “Not everybody gets my personal attention. Let’s just say I have a vested interest in you.”

  What is this guy up to?

  I shook my head in confusion but finally relented. I wasn’t expecting to exercise and I certainly wasn’t in the mood for it. But I knew that I couldn’t just walk out. If anything, I had nowhere else to go and no other job prospects on the horizon. Maybe Stephen knew that and he was just using it to his advantage. The time and place to try and figure him out wasn’t here and now.

  “All right,” I sighed as I threw my hands into the air. “What do I need to do?”

  “When is the last time you’ve done any physical activity?”

  “I don’t know. Does sex count?”

  “No.”

  “Then it’s been a long time.”

  “Then we’ll start slow. I want you to walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes. Just to get started. Increase the intensity if it gets too easy for you.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  I hopped onto the treadmill and randomly pressed the buttons to get it started. The boredom kicked in almost immediately.

  I don’t know how anybody does this. What’s the point of this? I could walk around the city with Leigh. At least I’d have somebody to talk to.

  While I began the monotonous task of walking in place, Stephen returned to his jump rope. I watched him skip up and down effortlessly. The way his body moved was almost hypnotizing. Even though he made it seem easy, he breathed hard with every skip. The sweat dripped down his arms and onto the floor in dark spots.

  “That’s certainly not a bad thing to stare at…” I sighed to myself.

  When my journey to nowhere was over, I was surprised to see I had worked up a sweat of my own. More surprising was the fact that I didn’t collapse all over myself. I wasn’t completely out-of-shape but I certainly wasn’t fit. When I looked in the mirror, I was just fine with seeing a brunette that was nothing more than average. I assumed everybody else saw the same thing, including Stephen.

  “Now what?” I said to Stephen, a sense of satisfaction washing over me.

  “Light lifting,” he said. “This way.”

  I made my way over to the dumbbells on the side. Stephen grabbed a weight-bench and placed it in front of them. Then he effortlessly picked up a small pair of weights and held them out to me.

  “Lie down on the bench,” he said.

  “You want me to lift those weights? But they’re so tiny. How can I—”

  “Aria…”

  “Fine. Fine.”

  I sighed as I took my position on the bench. Stephen stood over me and placed a dumbbell in each of my hand. I had to hide my shock when I had to use all of my strength to hold the weight up.

  “Hold it right here,” he said as he placed his hands upon the side of my chest. “Then push up toward me.”

  “Watch… those… hands…”

  Stephen pulled his hands away as I slowly pushed the weight away from my chest. I looked up at him as he rhythmically counted and pushed me through the motions. When he got to 10, I dropped the weights on the floor from exhaustion.

  “All right,” I said as I sat up. “That’s good enough for today. I can feel it. My chest. My arms. Nothing but muscles.”

  “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Remember. I’m doing this for your benefit.”

  “…Right,” I sighed. “I remember. How could I forget? You’re gonna keep reminding me every five minutes…”

  I did my best not to complain for the rest of the workout. But every now and then, something would come out of me. I couldn’t help it. Stephen did his best to maintain his composure and force me through it. Every exercise. Every rep. Every movement I made. Stephen was there to make sure that I got through it, even if it were begrudgingly.

  One of the benefits of having Stephen there was that I had a chance to see him work just the same as me. I’d seen him naked before. But when you sleep with a man, rarely do you get the see all of him. Usually his body is so close to you that you can only catch a glimpse of him. A reflection in the mirror. The feeling of his muscles. This morning, I got to see everything. The striations and lines his muscles were like art. They all moved in perfect symmetry with every weight he pushed and pulled upon. He looked less like a man and more like a machine. Sometimes I would get so lost in gawking at him, that he would have to snap his fingers to get me out of it. I didn’t know m
uch about Stephen but I had no problem judging him from what I saw on the outside.

  The fatigue eventually began to kick in. Stephen knew it as well. He motivated me to keep going and before I knew it, I had exhausted every part of my body. Knowing Stephen, this probably wasn’t the end of it. I prayed that whatever next he had planned for me wouldn’t be so intensive.

  Chapter 13

  I collapsed onto the gym mat underneath me. Even though I had no desire to roll around in a pool of my own sweat, I thought I would give myself a moment to celebrate the end of the session.

  “Finally,” I sighed.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I feel… I don’t know how I feel. I can’t feel anything.”

  “You’re going to feel even worse in the morning.”

  “You have such a great way of putting things.”

  “I still expect you to be here to do your job. You can take comfort in the fact that your day is over.”

  I looked up at Stephen as he stood over me. Even though he had gone through the entire workout with me—and his body showed the same signs of exhaustion—he still looked like he was ready to break another sweat.

  “What time is it?” I said as I sat up.

  I looked out of one of the windows and noticed that the sun was up.

  “It’s just before noon,” he said.

  “And you’re giving me the rest of the day off?”

  “Because you just started, I don’t think I should tax you so much. The hours will be light… For now.”

  “Speaking of which, how much are you planning on paying me? I mean, I appreciate the limo rides and the lessons and the personal training sessions but I can’t exactly pay my rent with it.”

  “Do you really care about the money?”

  “What? What kind of question is that? Of course.”

  “Then why didn’t you ask me before you accepted my proposal?”

  “I… I don’t know. Wait a minute. You are going to pay me, aren’t you? You can’t just—”

  “How much were you making as a server?”

  I looked up at Stephen as he stood there with his hands upon his hips. I wondered whether or not I should actually tell him the truth.

  Maybe if I lie to him he’ll pay me a little more…

  “I was set to make… 40… dollars an hour.”

  “On your first night, you were making 40 dollars an hour?”

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Well, I’m only going to pay you a quarter of that.”

  “What? But—”

  “You know, if you weren’t so greedy, I would have agreed to pay you more.”

  “Greedy? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I know how much servers are paid. If you had said something like 20, I might have believed you. But I think you’ll do fine with 10.”

  “Great. I outsmarted myself.”

  I collapsed back onto the mat and threw my arms back. I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to recover from the workout and the fact that I was back to making as much money as I did when I was 16-years-old and working at a drive-through. I was so exhausted that I was just a few moments away from falling asleep. Getting up so early in the morning definitely didn’t help matters.

  “Are you just going to lie there and sleep?” he asked.

  “You said I had the rest of the day to myself. This is how I want to spend the next few hours.”

  “While it’s your time to waste, I’d recommend you didn’t waste it.”

  “What else can I do?”

  “You’re free to visit my library. Maybe you can take the time to find something that interests you.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything that’s more interesting than taking a nap on this mat. But thanks anyway.”

  “Very well. Feel free to stop by the kitchen. Camille will be more than happy to help you with lunch. Or perhaps you can make something for yourself.”

  “Yes. Maybe I will…”

  I sighed again. I listened to the sound of the air conditioning swirling around in the gym room. My heart raced as I tried to catch my breath. I was tired, exhausted and every other word you could use to describe someone after more than an hour of lifting and stretching. My skin felt like it was melting off of my bones and my muscles seemed to be pulsing on their own.

  I opened my eyes and sat up. I looked over to the side and Stephen was still there. I watched him remove his sweat-soaked shirt and toss it to the side. I got a better look of his body as he wiped himself off with a towel. He glanced back over at me and our eyes met. Suddenly, I remembered what happened less than 24 hours ago. It didn’t hurt that he stood there just a few meters away from me, half-naked after training the same hard muscles I was marveling at.

  I pushed myself up to my feet and slowly made my way over to him. Stephen looked away from me and began wiping the rest of himself with a towel. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to ignore me but I was overcome with the urge to do everything I could to get his attention.

  “How about you?” I asked. “What do you have planned for the rest of the day?”

  “I have some meetings. I have a conference call. I need to speak to some people about construction.”

  “Ah, boring business meetings. The life of a billionaire.”

  “They’re only boring if you think they’re boring.”

  “Well, I think they’re boring, so they’re boring.”

  “I don’t,” Stephen said as he looked up at me. “I enjoy them just the same as anything else that might amuse me.”

  “Really? I don’t believe that.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “Okay…”

  I slowly took a step back from him.

  “What is your schedule like?” I asked. “I’m sure it’s packed with nothing but meetings.”

  “You would be correct.”

  “Are you sure you don’t have any extra time?”

  “Time?”

  “Yes. Just a few minutes.”

  I grabbed underneath my sports bra and lifted it up over my head. I stood topless in front of him as he examined my body up and down with his eyes.

  “I don’t know much about you,” I began. “But I know that you think this is much more interesting than any business meeting you’ve ever been to.”

  I took one of Stephen’s hands and placed it upon my breast. He responded my squeezing the soft flesh in his palm. I gasped and my eyes fluttered from his touch.

  “One of the first things you ever told me was that you wanted to fuck me,” I said. “Have I done anything to make you look at me any differently?”

  Stephen stared at me intently. The look of desire in his eyes I saw just yesterday appeared. I tried my hardest not to smile but a devilish smirk worked its way onto my face.

  The one thing I knew about Stephen was constant. He took care of his body. From a physical standpoint, he was blessed. And I’d experienced first-hand everything he did to make sure that he remained so physically blessed. I didn’t care that we had a business arrangement. This wasn’t an office. There were no people to report to, no repercussions if anybody found out.

  “This is just between you and me,” I whispered. “I know how to keep secrets.”

  He raised his other hand and began massaging my other breast. Another gasp escaped from my lips as he took one of my nipples into his mouth. He sucked and teased the pink flesh until it swelled hard and firm. My body was covered in sweat but Stephen ravaged both of my breasts like he enjoyed the taste. The feeling of perspiration and saliva on my skin forced me to sigh in ecstasy.

  I lowered my hands down and ran them through his blond hair. I rested my hands over his broad shoulders as he devoured my breasts one by one. There were no more words to say. I couldn’t even think anything. All I knew was that I enjoyed the feeling of being so close to a man as powerful as he was.

  Stephen lowered one of his hands down and began to tug at my shorts. I lifted my legs up and he lowered himse
lf down so that he could pull my shorts off the rest of the way. He leaned back close to me and kissed me deeply. I reached my arms up then wrapped them around his neck to pull him closer. Stephen towered over me and the feeling of his broad shoulders underneath my arms reminded me of just how strong he was.

  I stood there and kissed him in nothing but a pair of sneakers. I felt his bulge push against me through his athletic pants. The two of us made-out underneath the fans in the gym as they spun over us. The fatigue and exhaustion I felt moments ago was replaced with a burning desire to experience the bliss I knew he could make me feel.

  I slowly worked my way down to my knees. I kissed his chest, down his hard abdomen and just above the lines on his waist. I gripped the sides of his pants and began to pull them down to his ankles. Stephen took his place on the ground next to me. He kissed me before gently laying me down on my back.

  He took a firm grip of my legs and forcefully spread them open. I looked down into his eyes as his face slowly made its way toward my center. He licked the inside of my thighs. My legs quivered in anticipation. I couldn’t take it any longer. Just as he neared my folds, I closed my eyes and tilted my head back.

  “Just…”

  Shit.

  I moaned before I could say anything more. The feeling of his tongue pressing against my clitoris removed any coherence from anything I might speak. With his hands forcing my legs open, Stephen devoured me. He worked his mouth up and down my folds. His tongue moved around my clit and made the nub swell within his mouth. He sucked upon it while he teased it. I writhed against the gym mat in my own sweat as another fluid began to leak from me. My hips gyrated on their own. I tried to match the rhythm at which he licked me. Stephen had a way with his tongue but I knew that this was only the beginning.

  He pulled his mouth away from me. I looked down at him as he tugged his pants off the rest of the way. His cock was thick and long as I always remembered it. The rest of his body already glistening with sweat, Stephen looked like everything I could ever wish for. I’d never wanted a man so bad in my life.