Jesus, Hubler. Keep it in your pants.
I flipped the steaks, shut the grill off and put the top down to let the meat rest before backing up a step. She was a couple feet away on my right, probably leaning against the railing, staring out at the dark. I set down the tongs and took a step toward her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Everything in me settled. This is good. I’m doing it right. “I can’t tell you the last time I did this.”
“This?”
“Spent time outside, other than with you the other night. And canvassing. Recess, too I guess. I live in an apartment downtown, so I don’t really see much of the woods.”
“You like it?”
“Yeah. Feels good.” Her body shifted closer to mine and everything in me tightened up. Some animal part of me too long ignored reared its ugly head, telling me to touch her, to take her. I just hoped she wanted this as much as I did.
My hand went out, landed on her waist, and like we’d practiced it, she slid into my arms.
“Is this good?”
“Yeah.”
Where do you begin when it’s the first time around?
I wanted to touch her and taste her, to squeeze, pinch, and suck her into my lungs, to consume her, but also to prove that this wasn’t virtual. She was here. I forced it all down, pushed the animal, with its teeth and cock and tongue, back into its cage, and made my hands take the lead.
One wrapped around her hair—curly and thick. Soft, but strong. Like her. Fingers entwined, pulling back, just a little. Not enough to scare her, but enough to drag her face up where I needed it. My other hand reached out to explore: thumb to her forehead—sharp at the brows, smooth, and high. This is real. My fingers traced around her ear, stroked down to her neck, which I had to lean in to sniff.
And, goddamn. Ambrosia. “I want to kiss you again.”
“Do it.” It sounded almost like a challenge.
Another deep inhale and I couldn’t help a lick, a tiny bite—just to see—then a kiss for forgiveness.
I swallowed and forced words out. “You’re beautiful.”
She opened her mouth—probably to talk, though just moans came out when I angled my head to the side and nipped at her ear. Oh, hell, yes. It was good. Somehow, she’d wrapped around me, moving enough to rub my erection against her middle. I wanted it lower. Or her higher. I wanted…
Her face turned to mine, our lips met and I needed more of her, more sensation, more of this real, animal experience. I grabbed her ass and lifted her onto the porch railing, where everything was right there—laid out for me to explore.
It was almost impossible to pull away from those soft, hungry kisses, but I needed to know her.
Barely breathing, I put everything I had into my fingertips. I ran them down her nose—smooth, slender, strong—over her cheeks—plump, sweet, with a dip under sturdy bone—and then—pure, hot heaven with just a scrape of teeth—her mouth. She sucked on my finger, hard, and my cock pulsed at the idea that presented.
I could have come from fucking my thumb into her soft, willing mouth. After years of listening to porn, years of using lotion and whatever was handy to get off while my latest online girlfriend moaned in my ear, I was here, with this woman. The smell of her arousal messed with my control. It was so animal, that smell. My body couldn’t help but respond to it.
Harder than I intended, I ran my hands from small, square shoulders, over collarbones that were heartbreakingly frail, down her sharply curved sides—so different from my own straight, uncompromising lines—and then back up to her breasts which were…
“Fuck. Me. Your tits are big.” I didn’t realize they’d fill my hands.
She made an embarrassed little sound when I hefted them, but it didn’t stop her from pressing into me.
“Is that a good thing?”
A deep laugh came out of me while my thumb dragged over one hard nipple. “Like a dream.” The catch in her throat told me she liked that and I experimented with a pinch. She let out an indrawn breath, but didn’t stop me with a hand or a word.
“I want to…” I swallowed, words suddenly lost. “Can I—”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t even know what she was agreeing to. And shit, that ramped me up. I became less nerves and more excitement as she shifted on the railing.
“I’m gonna touch your pussy.”
“God, yes.” Her hands tightened on my shoulders.
Every little sound she made was a gift to me. The excitement in her voice had me close to coming. I reached down and pressed my hand to my erection to stop the throbbing, while right there in front of me, she wouldn’t stop shifting, like she needed me.
And, because I was a glutton for experience, I put a hand on one thigh, stroked up to squeeze her rounded hip and ran it back down to her knee before I delved into the place between her legs.
“You’re hot.” My face was so close to hers I could hear every little hitch in her breath. “And you smell like…sex. Exactly how sex should smell.”
“Don’t…”
I paused, set my hands on her hips, and waited, suspended. “You want me to stop?”
She huffed out a weird little laugh. “No. No, just… When you talk it makes me…”
Shit. I’d only ever been with people online. Talking was stimulation. If she didn’t like it… “Is it bad?”
“No.” Her voice was high and breathy and it sent a rush of pride running through me. I did this to her. “It turns me on. It’s just…hard to listen to.”
I wasn’t sure I got it, but I wasn’t about to question her. “I can stop.”
“Don’t. It turns me on.” She shifted and messed with something in her lap before grabbing my hand and sliding it to her waist, where…
“Ohhhhhh, yes. Fuck yes.” She’d undone her pants for me and it was easy to step to the side and slide my hand in.
With one arm around my neck, she shifted and lifted, inviting my hand to slide through curls and into hot heaven.
“You’re so slippery.” Another moan from my girl. Nothing intelligible. I pulled my hand out to put it to my nose, to lick it off and I swear I almost passed out right there on the porch. “Jesus Christ, you taste amazing. I want to finger you. Can I fuck you with my hand?”
“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Yeah, do it.”
It was all here—her lips, slick and soft. Her clit, a little bead, higher up than I’d imagined, and there… I shuddered as my middle finger slid easily inside her. I pictured my cock doing this and it didn’t seem possible. “I can’t fit in here. My cock can’t, I mean.”
She was breathing too hard to talk, her hips lifting to meet my hand as I fucked into her.
“So small.”
“It would work.”
“You think?” She shook when I flicked my thumb against her clit, so I did it again and again, quick and hard. “I don’t even think I could get the head in.”
It took me a second to realize that one of her hands had left my shoulder to slide up under her shirt. I followed it up, laid my fingers against hers and took in the way she touched herself. A hard, thorough pinching, twisting, through her bra.
It was sexy as hell, but I needed more skin. Roughly, I reached for the bottom of her bra—a stiff wire—and yanked it up.
A loud, exhaled puh left my lips. I had a hand on her pussy and another on her breast. My cock was aching to be a part of this, but I was so far from complaining. “You know how long I’ve waited for this?”
“Why?”
I tightened my hold on the tender swell in my palm, lifted it, bent down and licked her nipple.
“Don’t get out much.” I pulled back. No more mouth. If I licked or sucked or tasted her, this would end right here.
“You’ve had opportunities, though.” I could hear the smirk in her voice, along with something else. Hesitation, maybe?
“Didn’t want them.”
“You want me.”
“Hell, yes.” Her p
ussy was wet, with this area…rough, almost pebbled. “This your g-spot?”
“Not…not sure.”
I put pressure there and the noise she made told me it was.
“You want another finger?”
She nodded against my shoulder.
I slid in a second finger, slowly, so I could enjoy every second of this. “Jesus, this is hot.” The sound of my finger in her wetness was pure pornography. I could live off the memory of this for ages. Sensation after so many years of words and sounds.
“You feel amazing.” I quickened my thumb until she was just one big, moaning mess, tightening around me and then—
“Zach.”
I slowed, loving the sound of my name. Did she want me to stop?
“Faster. Please.”
I picked up speed, fingers fucking, thumb brushing, my cock pressed against the porch railing, me rutting up against it like a wild man. One of her hands worked at her tit, the other one was clenched tight in the hair at the nape of my neck.
It felt big, all of this, outside in the woods, the air cool and fresh, no sound but the occasional hoot of something nocturnal and the very distant sound of a car. I could smell grilled meat and the addictive perfume of her body, all of it working toward a climax of epic proportions. Hers, mine, it didn’t matter, but the crescendo was huge.
Finally, frantic, she yanked me toward her, hard, put her open mouth to mine, and fed me her orgasm, her body tensed up so hard it had to hurt.
After a few seconds, one of her hands went to where mine was still wrenching the pleasure from between her legs, and stopped me.
She was out of breath when she spoke, her body shaking in my arms. “Holy crap, Zach. That was…”
“Good?”
“Unbelievable.”
6
Veronica
* * *
I didn’t care that the steak was too well done. Or that the fourth glass of wine would give me a headache. I didn’t even care that there wasn’t enough light in his house. I was floating.
Dinner was over and it was getting late. I made noises to go, but he stopped me.
“Hang on. Show me what you like,” he’d said before getting up and returning with a laptop.
“What I like?” You.
“Where do I get lights?”
“Oh. Um. I don’t know. Goodwill?”
“Here.” He typed faster than anyone I’d ever seen and brought up a page of super-fancy lighting fixtures and lamps.
“You want me to pick? I can’t—”
“How many does this room need?”
I swiveled in my chair. “Maybe a couple?”
“Okay. Select your top five.”
“These are like three grand, Zach. That’s too—”
“It’s fine.”
I paused, waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, I shoved back a little twinge of disquiet and did as he asked. I was floating so high on this guy, who’d brought me to orgasm with one hand and then wouldn’t let me reciprocate. He was superhuman. He was perfect. And he wanted to spend money to make his house more hospitable? Who was I to complain?
But then my curiosity never did stay down for too long. “Tell me more about this Horde thing.”
Something shifted in the air.
“It’s just a nickname.”
“Those people the other day were awestruck by you.”
“I have no idea why.”
“Really?” He was stiff, maybe a little flushed, but nothing else that I could put my finger on.
“Huh. Weird.”
He did a funny little laugh. “Yeah, weird.”
We kissed again at his door, just to prove that none of this was a fluke. It hadn’t been the first time and it wasn’t tonight.
He pressed me to the wall and held me there while his hands swept over me, stroking me, learning me, memorizing me. Every nerve in my body was zinging with his touch.
“I’ve got to go,” I slurred.
“Yeah. Sorry.” He stepped back, ran a hand through his dark, unruly hair and nodded. “I’m addicted.”
That squished things up in my belly. This was trouble. Way beyond anything I’d experienced before.
I was at the edge of the porch when he stopped me. “You don’t have a car here, do you?”
“No.”
“How’re you getting home?”
I shrugged. “Bus.”
“Hell, no. I’m getting you a car.” He was already fiddling with his watch thingy.
“Oh. No, that’s okay. I don’t need—”
“It’s late. Car’ll be here in two minutes.”
“I can pay for it, then.” I didn’t like him getting all those lamps for me and then shelling out for my ride home. It wasn’t my style to let the guy pay for everything.
“Too late.”
I sighed. “Look, Zach. If we went on a date, I’d pay for half, okay? That’s the type of person I am. I don’t like to—”
“It’s not about me being a domineering asshole. This is about me giving a girl a ride home.”
A girl. Wow. That felt…
“A girl I’d very much like to see again. Trying to make a good impression.” He smiled, tilted his head and did that dimple thing that was driving me wild. “So she’ll come back.”
And there it went… All the excitement, right back to my belly, while my chest fluttered like crazy. This guy… I sucked in a shuddery breath and turned at the sound of a car pulling up the drive.
“Okay. Thank you, Zach Hubler.” For dinner, the ride, the help with my campaign. Not to mention the orgasm.
“Thank you, Veronica Cruz.”
I had to run back up to where he was standing in the doorway to plant a kiss on his lips because, good lord, they were kissable. His hand was right there, at the nape of my neck, holding me still while he sipped at me. I had to pull away or I’d never leave.
“Okay.” I stepped back. “Gotta go.”
“Yeah. Take care, Veronica.”
“You too. Zach.” I nodded, feeling like an idiot. “Okay. I’m going.”
“Night.”
“Night.”
As fast as I could, I ran down the steps, through the yard and to the waiting car.
We’d just turned out of his driveway when I got a text.
You home yet?
I’m in New Mexico.
That was fast.
You’re the one who’s fast, Hubler.
I regretted my words as soon as I sent them Those three dots came up, went away, came up again. Finally, a text came through.
Is that okay?
Okay? Was he kidding? I had an amazing time tonight, Zach.
Me, too.
I was staring at the phone when it rang, making me start and nearly drop it. Was it him?
The caller ID read: O’Neal Jones.
My heart sank at the sight of my friend’s name instead of his, but I picked up with a smile.
“Hey.”
“How am I the one calling you after three days without an answer?”
“Oh. Right.”
“Right? That’s it? What the what with the hot guy from the text?” As usual, O’Neal was clearly ready for details. I’d give them to her usually, but I was so raw from tonight, the excitement so new, the whole thing so fresh in my mind and my skin, I wasn’t ready to share it with anyone.
“Yeah.”
She was quiet for a second, which was very unlike her.
“Yeah? Are you being serious with me right now, V?”
“He’s good.”
“Zach Hubler. Who is he and how did you meet him?”
“I met him canvassing. And as far as who…” I swallowed, because there was something there I wasn’t sure about yet. “He’s a guy. Younger.”
“How young?”
“Early twenties.”
She fake-gasped. “Cradle robber.”
Oh gosh. I knew she was kidding, but maybe I shouldn’t get involved with someone a few years younge
r. “Is it really that bad?”
“Seriously, V. How many younger guys have I shagged?”
“Um. Too many to guess. But you are O’Neal Jones, Queen of stringless sex.”
“Ew. I know what you just meant by that, but it sounds kinda gross.” She let out a disgusted little laugh. “Anyway, I’m all for this situation. Tell me more.”
I cleared my throat. “He’s kind of a shut-in, I guess. He lives over on the edge of town in a big house in the woods. He made me dinner. We talked…”
“Uh huh. I’m looking him up right now.”
“No! No, I will not let you stalk him.”
The mad clicking in the background stopped abruptly.
“Why not?”
I didn’t know. Was it because he was too good to be true? Or maybe because I preferred to shove my head in the sand rather than let O’Neal burst my bubble. I wasn’t ready to ruin it. Whatever it was.
Softly, I appealed to the sweet side that O’Neal hid way down deep, behind the bluster and ballsiness she’d needed to get where she was in life. “Let me enjoy this, O’Neal, okay? Let me like him for him, without all the external bullshit. Just…let me get to know him, not whoever he is online.”
She harrumphed, but there was no animosity in it. By the time I hung up, the car had pulled up in front of my place. I walked up the three flights to my tiny place, then ripped off my clothes and threw them in a pile in the corner before falling into bed with a smile on my face.
My phone buzzed and I grabbed it.
I put a rush on those lamps. They’ll be here tomorrow.
Is that an invitation?
Yes.
I shut my eyes and worked hard to remember the feel of him against me, his fingers inside of me, his hot breath on my skin. That look on his face after I came, of pure male satisfaction. Just thinking about it got my body worked up. And then I remembered: I’d met him just three times. He was a stranger, practically. And he’d had his fingers in me.
I covered my face with one hand. I let a near-stranger fingerbang me on his back porch.
This all had the makings of a very bad idea—having an affair with an unknown in the midst of a campaign? Doing sexy stuff outside, where anyone could snap pictures? Trusting a man who clearly had something to hide?
Loving the Secret Billionaire Page 5