by Claire Kent
Ander cocked one eyebrow, looking slightly amused, albeit not in a warm way. “Why would you feel shitty? About my losing a client?”
She shifted uncomfortably, wishing Ander wasn’t being so cool and standoffish tonight. If he would just be himself, they could have gotten through this with less awkwardness. “No. I mean, not really. But we’ve been doing this for a while now. And it seemed kind of rude to just cancel your services over email.” She stared down at her hands. “I don’t know.”
“Do you want to cancel my services now? Face-to-face?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t know.” Tired of feeling like a fool, she raised her eyes and scowled at him. “You don’t have to be snotty about it anyway. It’s not that strange. I feel bad if I have to find a new hairdresser.”
Ander met her eyes evenly. “I believe you. But if you have someone at home who can do your hair to your satisfaction, you have no reason to pay a professional.”
Lori felt a little flicker of amusement at the way he’d stretched the analogy, but she understood what he was saying. “Yeah. I guess so. That’s not the case with me. Not yet anyway.”
“So you haven’t yet had the chance to practice your new experience?” Despite the smooth, indirect question, for the first time she saw something other than coolness in his eyes. “I had assumed, from what I saw—”
“It was a first date,” she explained. “A second date, actually. Obviously, if things become more serious, I’ll have to... to discontinue our engagements.”
“Of course.”
“It’s nothing personal. You know how much I respect you and your... your talents. It’s just that...”
“There’s no need for an explanation, Lori. We have a business arrangement, and it can be terminated at any time. I hadn’t expected you to be a long-term client anyway.”
She sucked in a breath, feeling oddly insulted by his impersonal words. “What does that mean?”
“It wasn’t an insult. I just meant that, of course, you would like to move on to a permanent relationship with a man you could love.”
His words were true. She wanted a healthy, committed relationship with a man she loved and who loved her. But something about the way Ander had worded his comment caused her belly to twist. “Oh. Yeah.”
Ander was silent for a minute, sitting perfectly still in his chair. Then he cleared his throat. “Did you want to proceed with our engagement tonight?”
She stared at him, wondering what had happened, why he had turned into this poised, detached stranger instead of the Ander she’d known for the last few months. He’d never been emotional or open or vulnerable, but he’d seemed real. In a way he didn’t tonight.
“Well?” he prompted, raising his eyebrows again. “I would have guessed you weren’t in the mood, but maybe my charms are simply too irresistible.”
Then he smiled at her. That smile she couldn’t stand.
“What’s wrong with you?” she snarled, nearly snapping her teeth with frustration.
Ander blinked, the smile fading abruptly. “Excuse me?”
“Why are you acting this way tonight? Totally fake.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lori. We were having a conversation. Obviously, I behave differently when I talk than I do when I provide other service—”
“Don’t give me that crap. That’s not what I’m talking about. You’re not acting like yourself. You’re all cold and... and fake.”
“I am myself. This is me.” He met her eyes with a look that was almost a challenge.
“No, it’s not. I mean, this isn’t how you’ve been with me before. And I don’t like it.” She stuck out her chin and glared at him, wishing he’d just break down and get mad at her like a normal person.
“My apologies.” He stood up and picked up his case. “In that case, I’ll just—”
Lori stood up too with a gasp. “I didn’t say you should go. I just wanted you to act like yourself again.”
Ander shook his head and started to walk toward the door, still perfectly polite, perfectly cool. “Obviously, this isn’t what you want anymore. I think it’s best if we just call it off. I wish you the best.”
And then the bastard just walked out the door.
Lori had been expecting an argument. She’d actually kind of wanted an argument—since then at least Ander would have been genuine. She certainly hadn’t expected him to just leave.
She suddenly realized that she didn’t want him to leave. She wasn’t ready for this to end yet.
She went after him, catching him just as he stepped onto the elevator. She made it onto the elevator too before the doors slid shut.
“Why are you leaving?” she demanded, glaring at him heatedly. “You’re acting like a jerk. We were having a conversation. There’s no reason for you to walk out on me.”
He lifted the eyebrows again. “The conversation was going nowhere. I understand that you feel uncomfortable about seeing me when you were with your boyfriend Saturday night. It’s perfectly natural. And you needn’t feel any guilt about discontinuing my services.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she snapped, beginning with the most irrelevant of her objections. “And none of that is the point. You’re not acting like yourself. That’s all I wanted.”
“Lori, you’re presuming too much.” He wasn’t looking at her now. He’d pressed the button for the ground floor and was staring at the numbers light up as the elevator started to descend. His voice was still cool and controlled, but his jaw and shoulders had tensed. “We’ve never had a personal relationship.”
“I’m not saying we did!” Her voice was loud, and she wished he would just get angry, show some real emotion instead of the impersonal mask he put on. “I know it was professional. But I thought we... we worked well together. And I told you I didn’t want to pretend anything, so I thought you were... were basically being yourself when we talked.”
“You presume too much.” His eyes never left the lit numbers, but she noticed that his hand was clenched around the handle of his case.
“Stop saying that,” she bit out. The hotel was built in the forties, and the elevator was one of the old-fashioned ones with a thick brass rail running across the middle of the walls and an emergency stop that didn’t require a key. Afraid the elevator would reach the bottom before they could finish this conversation, Lori pulled the emergency stop button, relieved when no alarm went off. “I’m not making this up. I’m not imagining things. I know how you normally act with me, and I know that’s not how you’re acting now. What the hell is wrong with you? Did I offend you somehow?”
“You didn’t offend me.” He reached for the emergency stop, but she planted herself in front of him to keep him from starting the elevator up again.
“Well, then why are you acting like you’re mad?” she demanded.
“I’m not mad.” His expression was still controlled, but a little muscle was twitching on one side of his jaw and his voice sounded slightly impatient. “Lori, can you please get out of the way?”
“No.” She was starting to understand now. He was mad. This coolness must be some sort of instinctive cover to mask his real feelings. She had no idea why he would be angry with her however, and the idea really bothered her. “If I offended you in some way, I’d like to know how. I never wanted to. I’ve always tried to... to be nice.”
Finally he met her eyes again. “Lori, you don’t have to be nice. You pay me for my services.”
She almost sputtered in outrage. “What the hell does that mean? Of course I have to be nice. You’re a human being, aren’t you? What the fuck did your father do to you to make you think you don’t deserve to be treated with dignity and humanity?”
She hadn’t really meant to voice that last question. Her volatile feelings and confusion got the best of her. But she had voiced it. Almost spit it out in his face.
It finally broke the iron control Ander had been using to rein in his feelings.
He turned on her abruptly, stepping forward, pressing her back against the wall with his intense presence rather than force. “Lori,” he began, his voice thick and low. He planted one hand on the wall next to her head. “I fuck you. You pay me. That’s our arrangement. That doesn’t entitle you to invade my privacy, demand to see the ‘real me,’ or pry into whatever motivations I might have for doing what I do.”
She gulped. She’d never seen him like this before. His blue-gray eyes held hers imprisoned. He was almost pulsing with some sort of intense emotion, and the force of it left her trembling and boneless. “I didn’t mean...” She had to start over when her voice cracked. “I didn’t mean I wanted you to spill your guts. I just didn’t want you to act so hard and cold. You’re mad at me, and I don’t know why.”
“I’m not mad,” he said again, although his entire body belied his words. He was coiled so tightly he was practically shuddering. His cheeks were slightly flushed, and his eyes had ignited.
Absurdly, Lori felt her body respond. She knew it was entirely inappropriate. They were in the middle of a very bizarre argument, and sex should be the last thing on her mind. But he looked so intense, almost passionate. For once, he seemed to be expressing something real—with his body language if not with his words.
Her inner muscles clenched, and she felt her nipples tighten. Hoped it wasn’t visible through the slinky silk of her camisole.
“You’re sure acting mad,” she snapped back. “You look like you want to rip my head off.”
“Lori.” His voice was even thicker than before, and it ridiculously made her think about sex. He leaned his face toward her and gritted out against her ear, “Lori, give this up. If you want to keep our appointment, we can go back upstairs. But my private thoughts are none of your concern.”
She shuddered. He wasn’t even touching her, but she felt him all over her skin. Blazing with heat and desire, she still managed to hold up her end of the argument. “I told you I don’t want you to spill your guts. Keep your private thoughts to yourself. Just tell me how I made you mad.”
“For the fourth time,” Ander rasped, still speaking into her ear. “I’m not mad.”
She shifted restlessly against the wall, dying for some sort of friction against her skin. Her squirming caused her to brush up against Ander.
She felt something. Something that shocked her so much her mouth fell open. Her lower belly had brushed against the front of Ander’s trousers.
He was hard.
He must have seen her reaction. He must know that she knew he was aroused. He didn’t acknowledge it in any way though. He’d pulled back enough to look her in the eye and ask hoarsely, “Tell me why you’ve continued to schedule engagements with me.”
She was too confused and overwhelmed and turned on and shaky to even begin to make up a lie. So she gasped out the truth. “Because I like having sex with you.”
He nodded, as if he’d known she would say that. “So why do you keep making this more complicated than it is?”
A home question. Lori had no answer for him.
His hand was still planted next to her head, trapping her against the wall. He was hard. Aroused. As aroused as she was.
Unable to hold herself back any longer, she reached out and grabbed him by the hips. Pressed his pelvis against her. Rubbed herself against the bulge she felt and almost moaned at the resulting sensations.
Then she realized how shamelessly she’d groped him when it wasn’t clear they were in the midst of one of their sessions, and she dropped her hands abruptly with a gasp. “Sorry!”
Ander put down his case, which he’d been holding in one hand all along. Then he planted his second hand on the wall on the other side of her head. “Lori?”
“I didn’t mean...” she began, her cheeks blazing. “I mean, if you didn’t want to keep the appointment tonight, I shouldn’t have—”
“We can keep the appointment,” he rasped, his eyes raking over her face. “Do you want to do this here?”
In the elevator. In between floors ten and eleven in an expensive, old-fashioned Seattle hotel.
“Yes,” she breathed, arching against the wall so she could rub her aching nipples against his chest.
Without another word, he buried his face in her neck, mouthing and nibbling and kissing in an urgent pattern she couldn’t begin to follow. His arms went around her, pressing her body tightly against his. Then he began to make small, rhythmic thrusts, rocking his erection against her middle.
She knew he was really turned on. He couldn’t possibly have done any sort of mental thing to get himself ready since he’d assumed they wouldn’t be having sex today.
He must be aroused by her. Genuinely aroused. By her. Lori. The knowledge sent a wild thrill up her spine that intensified her body’s sensations.
She moaned in his arms, grabbing at his back, trying to yank his shirttails out from his trousers. Before she could get very far, Ander had bent down farther, mouthing one breast and then the other through the silk of her camisole.
As he suckled, one of his hands dipped in at her waistband and slid down between her legs. She bit down on her lower lip as she felt his fingers stroke her intimate flesh.
He would feel how wet and aroused she already was. As aroused as he was.
Without waiting for her permission, Ander freed his hand from between her thighs and then, with one smooth move, pulled her silk lounge pants down over her hips. As he did so, she fumbled with his belt and the zipper.
They were in a public elevator. For the moment it was stopped, but they both knew they had no time to dally.
Ander straightened up and released her for just long enough to pull a condom packet out of his case. Once he’d rolled it on, he cupped her bottom with both hands and heaved her up so she was propped on the brass railing that spanned the middle of the elevator walls.
It wasn’t much support, but Ander used his body to hold her in place. He spread her legs and sank into her, pushing her back against the wall on his initial instroke.
For the first time, he hadn’t used any lubricant. He hadn’t needed any.
Lori gasped in pleasure as he penetrated her, the full substance of his cock filling her completely. Instinctively she wrapped her legs around his waist to brace herself more securely, and she clung desperately to his shoulders.
“Fast,” she said on a taken breath, tossing her head restlessly against the wall as her body screamed for friction. “Hard. Please.”
He began to thrust, his motion limited by their precarious position. His hips pumped against flesh, his cock pushing into her slippery passage with the urgent speed and force she needed to feel.
“So good,” she breathed, the words barely audible. She squeezed him with her thighs and with her intimate muscles. “So good,” she breathed again on every one of his drives inside her.
Ander had bent his neck to bury his face against the side of her throat again. She felt his hot breath on her skin. His lips and tongue and teeth. He moved his mouth along her neck, shoulder, and up to her jaw.
His mouth was so close to hers now that all it would take was a slight shift of her neck for them to kiss.
They didn’t kiss though. Ander’s thrusts grew shorter and faster, and Lori dug her fingers into the skin beneath his collar. Her position wasn’t entirely comfortable, but everything felt so incredibly good. She didn’t think she would come. She hadn’t had enough clitoral stimulation. But she didn’t even care.
Something about the intensity of their coupling felt as good as any orgasm she’d ever experienced.
Ander’s pelvis pistoned against her, and he shifted his neck again so his mouth was almost at her ear. Their cheeks were almost pressed together. His was as hot as hers felt. “Lori,” he rasped.
She didn’t know if it was a question or an expression of pleasure. She answered instinctively. “It feels so good. You come,” she panted. “I want you to come.”
His breathing accelerated even more as his
whole body started to shake. She’d never experienced anything like it. All the shuddering angst that he’d been trying to stifle earlier seemed on the verge of imploding in her arms.
Her eyes blurred over, and her nerve endings buzzed with pleasure. She wasn’t working up toward any climax, but the whole thing felt like one long high.
Ander arched his neck forward again, lowering his mouth once more to the crook of her neck. She cried out loudly when she felt his teeth bite down into her flesh. Then his whole body pulsed and jerked as he came with an extended guttural sound.
They held the position for a few moments as his body slowly started to soften. Lori’s legs felt stiff, and her feet were losing circulation, but she didn’t want to unwrap her legs. Ander hadn’t yet lifted his head. He just kept panting against her skin.
And then a scratchy voice sounded in the quiet elevator without warning. “The emergency stop was pulled. Is everything all right?”
Lori nearly jumped in astonishment, and Ander pulled back, gently extricating himself from Lori’s legs and pulling his cock out of her while taking care with the condom. When he’d set her back on the floor and she’d started to pull on her pants, he found the call button and spoke into the speaker. “Everything is fine.”
He pulled the emergency stop, and the elevator jerked into motion. They got off on the ninth floor so they wouldn’t have to face security or maintenance or whomever was probably waiting for the elevator on the ground floor. Instead, they took the second elevator back up to Lori’s room.
There, they got into bed, and Ander attended to Lori with slow, leisurely foreplay. He brought her to climax with his hand three times before he put on another condom and entered her again.
He rested most of his weight on her and taught her how, if he slid upward slightly and they made a gentle, rocking motion, they could stimulate her clit with the base of his cock. After the urgency of their fuck in the elevator, both of them could go slow, and Lori found the new position deeply enjoyable.
Their faces were close again, their cheeks brushing against each other. And the mingled texture of their breathing was the only sound besides the soft, rhythmic shaking of the bed.