by Erica Hobbs
“Did you recently renovate?” I asked.
He stopped and looked at me, confused. Then he realized what I was asking and smiled, shaking his head.
“I don’t usually cook. I get my chef in.”
“Why didn’t you tonight?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to make a meal for you.”
That simple gesture that he wanted to cook when he didn’t usually, that he didn’t know his kitchen, made me realize it was true. He didn’t usually do this. And it made me realize that the tabloids were wrong. They had to be. If he was just playing a game with me the same way he was playing with anyone else, he wouldn’t do this. Or if he did, he would be good at it. Instead, Jake was a stranger in his own kitchen, and he looked awkward, the way a teenage boy does when he’s around a girl he has a crush on.
It was endearing. It was the biggest compliment I’d ever gotten.
The lasagna he’d made was simple. His cheese sauce was a little too floury, and his mince was dry. It wasn’t a bad meal. Instead, it just told me more and more about what I had hoped for all along – Jake didn’t do this with everyone. It was just me. He’d singled me out. I was different.
I was special.
And it made him attractive as hell. It made me want him because he wanted me. It made me ache for him in ways I’d never ached for anyone else. And I was okay with that. This time, I wasn’t scared.
Chapter 22
Alyssa
We ate in silence for a while, each of us lost in our own thoughts. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. In fact, it was a very relaxed one.
“Have I told you that you’re the only one of brought home?” Jake asked.
I looked up at him. He had mentioned something about not usually giving out his address, but being the only woman he’d brought to his home suddenly had a different weight to it. I digested the words, chewing on them along with my food.
Being in his home had a different feel to it. I liked the idea I was the only woman who had been here. It made me feel special. It made it feel like whatever was happening between us – and wherever this was leading – was unique. I had seen all the information online, everything they said about him. And they were wrong. Every time I was with Jake, every time we spoke and spent time together, he proved them wrong. He was nothing like the person they pictured him to be. His famous personality was someone else, the person he really was sat across from me, and I was the only person who knew it.
It was like being let in on a secret.
He smiled at me, and I smiled back. I reached for him and put my hand on his. He looked down at the contact. I had made the first move. When he looked at me again, an emotion flickered across his face too fast for me to read.
“You look beautiful tonight, by the way,” he said.
I blushed again even though he’d already complimented me. Everything he did and the way he treated me, spoke to me, spoiled me, was a compliment. I didn’t think I’d ever felt this beautiful, this wanted.
And it made me want him.
Jake was a handsome man. It wasn’t just because he was so rich that he was seen as a stud. He was good looking. Really good looking. I never emphasize looks. Personality, honesty, trust, decency, genuine character, these were all important to me. But Jake was melt-into-your-panties hot. With his dark hair, offset by his emerald eyes and the natural smile that played on his lips, it was easy to feel like an object of affection around him.
And the way he was looking at me now…
I swallowed, the food in front of us was forgotten. His pupils were dilated. His lips were slightly parted. His gaze, which had held my eyes until now, slid slowly to my lips and the atmosphere in the room changed. Until now it had been warm and comfortable. Suddenly, it became hot and loaded.
Jake got up, abandoning the last of his meal and my heart fluttered when he took a step toward me and held out his hand.
“The view from my bedroom is breathtaking,” he said softly. I knew what he was asking me. I took his hand and let him pull me up so that my body was against his. My breath hitched. His cologne surrounded me, strong, masculine, and my mind grew cloudy. I wanted this man. I wanted him to take every part of me and make me his, the same way he’d been doing with my emotions.
Jake led me to his bedroom. It was designed in much the same style as the rest of the place. A plush, beige carpet stretched from wall to wall with another, smaller white rug at the foot of the bed. The bed itself was a masterpiece with a modern base and headboard that suited the rest of the room. Windows stretched from one end of the room to the other, starting just above the headboard and reaching all the way to the ceiling which was higher in places.
I noticed pictures. I noticed a plant in the corner. A door with tiles on the other end that had to lead to a bathroom. I didn’t have time to concentrate on the smaller details. Jake turned to me and pulled me against him. My body pressed against the length of his. He was all hard angles and taut muscles. I could feel his fitness through his clothes. I knew what lay underneath, but when I ran my hands over his stomach and felt his individual muscles, I shivered as if it was the first time.
Jake dipped his head and kissed me. He entered my mouth with his tongue, tasting me. He’d been with so many girls. His experience was evident. But when he kissed me I felt like I was the only one. The first one. The one who really mattered. He made me feel special with every single thing he did.
Jake lifted his hands and cupped my cheeks, making me feel delicate. His lips moved away from my mouth, kissing all over my face before returning to my mouth again and fusing our lips together. He pressed against me with his hips, and I felt his erection. My body responded with a wave of heat that pooled between my legs. My core clenched with delicious anticipation.
I searched for a warning light, a little red flag, anything that would tell me I shouldn’t be doing this. I couldn’t find it. Everything about being with Jake right here, right now, felt right. This was the feeling I’d been waiting for, for so long. This was the feeling I hadn’t even felt with James.
Jake slid one hand to the back of my head, buried his fingers in my hair. The other hand trailed down my neck. He thumbed my collarbone, indicating his direction before he slid down further still. His fingertips grazed my breast before he cupped it with his hand. My nipples tightened, straining against my bra.
Jake massaged my breast, balancing me between his lips and his two hands and I gasped into his mouth. He was slowly working me into a frenzy.
He left my breast just a moment, peeling away the top of my dress and pushing his hand under the material. The straps pulled against my shoulders, not designed for the dress to go under my breasts, but over. I didn’t care. He pulled my bra to the side to expose my bare skin, and his fingers found my nipple, tweaking it, tugging lightly and then rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. It was like a direct line to my sex, and I felt the heat building there until I thought I was going to melt.
Jake gently pushed against me with his whole body, guiding me toward the bed. Before we lay down, he hiked my dress up, baring my legs, my panties, my stomach and with both hands he pulled it over my head. I stood in front of him in my bra one breast already exposed. Jake’s eyes traveled over me, hungry, lips parted. His eyes found mine.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said softly. I felt myself blush crimson, heat flooding my neck, my cheeks, my ears. I reached for Jake’s shirt and did what he had done with me. He lifted his arms to make it easier for me to pull the shirt off and I dropped it on the floor next to the discarded dress.
God, he was hot. His muscles bulged everywhere. I traced the individual muscles, running my fingers over the valleys between them.
As if he had held out long enough, Jake grabbed me again and kissed me. He reached behind me and unclipped my bra, pulling it off so that my breasts hung free. When he pressed his chest against mine, I shuddered. His skin was hot on mine, and there was something intimate about having nothin
g between us. This was the point of no return.
I fiddled with his buckle, overcome by a sense of urgency. I ached for him. I wanted him on me, inside me, all over me. I managed with some struggle to get his pants down. His sex strained against his jocks, a wet patch telling me just how eager he was. He stood in front of me with no reserve. His body was a prime specimen – he had every right to be as comfortable in his own skin as he was.
I pulled down my underwear and stepped out of my shoes so that I was completely naked. I stood in front of him, offering myself.
Jake reached for me and touched me gently as if I might break. He didn’t have to say anything. The way he looked at me said it all.
As if he couldn’t control himself anymore, he took a quick step toward me and his body was against mine again, his hard length pressing against my lower abdomen. My breath caught in my throat. He mashed his lips against mine, and we fell backward onto the bed in a tangle of limbs. He was on top of me, holding his weight off me just enough to allow me to breathe. His hips gyrated against mine, rubbing his length against my sex. My hands were on his back, and I moaned into his mouth.
Jake’s hand slid down my body, cupping my breast first before he made his way down further and further. He found the apex of my thighs and his fingers knew what to go. When he pushed them into me, I gasped. He groaned in response. I arched my back and let him lead me to the edge of my first orgasm. He had magic fingers, and it wasn’t long before I felt like I was going to spontaneously combust. I closed my eyes and writhed underneath his body. My nerve endings were on fire. I was falling deeper and deeper into the ecstasy he was conjuring.
Just before I tipped over the edge, Jake moved. It was so quick it left me dizzy and unable to keep up. His mouth closed over my sex, and I cried out in surprise, but the orgasm tackled me, and I didn’t have time to think about being shy. It started at my core and filled my body, spreading through my body so that I fell apart. I opened my mouth in a silent scream, closing my legs around his head. My toes curled, my stomach contracted, and everything was made of light.
The orgasm slowly faded, and Jake let me go. I breathed hard, my body relaxing so that I lay normally on the bed again.
The moment was interrupted by the crackle of foil. I lifted my head. Jake rolled a condom over his sex with practiced ease and glanced up at me. His eyes were deep, lips parted, face full of hunger and purpose. When he was ready, he crawled toward me and positioned himself over me. My legs fell open for him. He positioned himself at my entrance, and I gasped. I’d barely recovered from the orgasm. He pushed into me, slowly at first, letting me adjust to his size. My walls clamped down on his sex, and the orgasm returned with less fury at the intrusion.
Jake’s eyes found mine, and they were drowning deep. I looked into them and fell, knowing I would fall forever.
He moved inside of me, pulling out almost all the way before pushing back in. Echoes of the orgasm rocked through my body, and I cried out. Jake smiled and moved in and out harder and faster. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the sensation. He was assaulting every sense, giving me more and more, not giving me a break in between orgasms. And I loved it. He paid full attention to me and what I might need. My body took what he was offering and let Jake guide me into the unknown.
Sex with this man was spectacular, and not just because he knew what he was doing. It was all about me. Alyssa. The woman inside the body he was doing so hard. It wasn’t just sex, and that was what made it so phenomenal. I came undone at the seams, unraveling beneath him, and he was there to pick up the pieces.
I felt when it was time for him to come to his own release. He picked up his pace, his rhythm changing. His strokes became harder and faster. He pressed his lips against mine and bucked his body on top of me. I felt him stiffen, jerk, and empty himself inside of me. He stopped breathing for a second, groaning, his body rigid on top of me. I felt him pulsate between my legs.
Jake breathed out in one long sigh, and then he collapsed half on top of me. We lay together in a puddle of sweat, relishing the aftermath. Finally, he slipped out of me, already softening, and lay next to me.
“You’re fantastic,” he whispered. “And you’re also really good in bed.”
I smiled. The way he’d said it made it sound like who I was, was everything to him. And the sex was a bonus. It was more than anyone had ever done for me.
I rolled toward Jake, and we faced each other. I buried my head in his neck and let him wrap his arms around me. For a while, we lay like that I silence, his arms a fort around me, keeping me safe from the rest of the world. Sleep crept into the room, and my breathing slowed and evened out. I was just about to drift away when Jake kissed my hair.
“Turn around,” he whispered. I did as he asked, rolling onto my other side. A blanket appeared out of somewhere and covered my body. I cuddled into it. Jake curled his body around mine like a question mark. The room darkened as if by magic, and I let myself go, falling into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 23
Jake
When I woke up the morning light fell through curtains we’d forgotten to draw. Alyssa’s weight against me was grounding. I looked at her, her head on my shoulder, her eyes closed. She looked younger while she was sleeping. Younger, but just as innocent. Even after everything that had happened last night.
She was something else.
I was hard again under the sheets, but I didn’t want anything. Not now. I wanted to lie here and relish in the warmth I was feeling. It was on the inside, it wasn’t just because she was lying on me.
I turned my head toward the window and sighed. I had never felt this good waking up next to a woman in bed. And not just any bed – my own. It had been the right choice to bring her home, to open this part of my life to her. She had only made me feel safe. I’d been nervous she would do what the others did – that she would only be with me for my money. That was what they usually wanted. But she seemed to only want me.
It was part of what made her so attractive.
Echoes of the sex we’d had danced across my body, and my muscles tightened with delicious memory. Being inside of her was a new kind of bliss I hadn’t felt before. And having her with me after the fact…
Alyssa was the kind of woman I wanted to share my life with. Not just for sex, not for a date, a body to fill a void. I wanted to be with her because of her.
When the thought struck, it jolted through my body. I wanted to be with her. I wanted to be with her. I had never felt like this about a woman before. The last time I had gotten this close to being with someone had been way back. And that had scared me to death. But this? This felt right.
I turned my head back to Alyssa and watched her sleep for a moment. I wanted to do something special for her. I gently shifted her body, so she wasn’t on me anymore. She sighed and turned around, allowing me to slip out from underneath her. I slid out of bed, found my boxers, and pulled them on. After a trip to the bathroom, I walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone. I was going to contact Francois.
I had cooked for Alyssa last night. The idea had been fantastic. The execution? Not so much. The lasagna had been a disappointment. That was what happened when you didn’t practice something before you needed it to be perfect.
Still, Alyssa had seemed to love it. She’d been happy, and that was all I needed. I wanted something perfect for her today, though. I wanted to bring her something great to bed.
Francois was up – he never seemed to sleep – and he offered to deliver pancakes and berries within the hour. I thanked him and hung up, walking back to the bedroom and through to the bathroom.
By the time I was done showering my phone buzzed. Francois was at the door. Alyssa stirred and looked up when I tiptoed into the room.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’ll be right back. Delivery.”
She lay back on the pillows. I found Francois at the door.
“Just as you asked, sir,” he said, and I took the si
lver tray from his hands.
“You’re great,” I said to him. He smiled and backed away from the door. I closed it with my foot and walked back into the bedroom with the tray. Alyssa sat up, clutching the sheet to her bare chest.
“Breakfast in bed,” he said.
“You had it delivered?”
“I wasn’t brave enough to attempt cooking for a second time.”
Alyssa smiled and leaned forward, kissing me. I placed the tray on her lap, and she looked at the food. It looked fantastic. I took a strawberry and held it to Alyssa’s lips. She opened her mouth, her eyes on mine. It was so erotic. I felt myself stir in my boxers again, but I wasn’t going to act on it. Not right now. I had a naked woman in my bed, and she ate strawberries from my hand like I was feeding her something divine, but I wanted to talk to her about something important.