I cried out his name as John shifted his angle, finding just the right one to make me scream with desire. My entire body felt like it was singing with pleasure. God, yes. John was losing control now, and I was more than happy to go along for the ride. I felt like I was losing my mind, all rationality and sense flying out the window. Everything was gone except for the delicious feeling of John fucking me.
All I could do was writhe underneath him. He had all the power and control being on top, and he was thrusting into me like he had been possessed. I felt claimed, and it was wonderful. It was all that I’d ever wanted, to be claimed by John.
I could feel another climax building inside of me. I gasped and hung on as best I could, kissing him wildly. John kissed me back, the both of us completely abandoned in our manner and desires.
“John,” I moaned, wanting to warn him. “I’m gonna—I’m gonna—”
“Fuck yes, baby, come for me,” John groaned. He pressed his face into my neck and inhaled deeply, like he was trying to breathe me in. “I want to feel you.”
How could I possibly refuse him? I groaned and thrust my hips up against him to meet him, his cock thrusting hard and fast inside of me, creating a slick slide of pleasure that I had never known before and was swiftly getting addicted to. I wanted more, more, more—
I came yet again, gasping, and I clenched around John instinctively as the euphoria took over my body. It felt so unbelievably good, I wanted it to never stop.
John’s groan seemed to be ripped out of him and I felt him falter in his rhythm, losing all finesse as he jerked, then went stiff, and spilled inside of me.
It felt so good. Like he was marking me up, sealing us together. Creating a bond. I moaned in response, rubbing his back, and scattered kisses along his face. I couldn’t wait to do this again, and again, and again. Learning each other’s bodies until we knew every inch of one another and could wring the ultimate pleasure out of each other.
John carefully pulled out and collapsed to the side so that he wouldn’t crush me. I smiled up at him. “That was amazing.”
I was so happy I could satisfy him like this. Now that he knew how amazing we could be together in bed, I was sure I could easily convince him of the ways we’d be amazing together outside of the bedroom.
John held me tightly, and I was full of nothing but happiness as I fell asleep, overwhelmed by all that my body had just been through.
When I woke up the next morning, it was to find a distinct lack of warmth, and a lack of being held.
I blinked my eyes open. What? Where was John?
Sitting up and looking around, I saw that he was nowhere in the suite. I had been cleaned up at some point, too, all of the fluids from our lovemaking washed off of me while I’d been asleep. That was very considerate of him, but I had been hoping that we could wake up together. I’d planned to order room service for breakfast in bed, followed by a day of making love over and over. I wanted to lose myself in John, and have him lose himself in me.
He’d been so gone on me last night, so wild and abandoned in his lust, but also so considerate and worshipping. Surely, he wouldn’t just leave after that. Not once he’d really seen the connection we have.
I waited… and waited… and waited… but John didn’t come back. I ordered room service for myself because why the hell not, it was all going onto the company card, and then I took my time with a shower and doing my hair.
Still no sign of John.
I texted him at last, but didn’t get a response. What the hell? Where was he and why was he avoiding me?
There was only one thing for it, I needed to track him down.
I got dressed and went down to the convention, which was still going on. It took a couple more hours of searching, but I was at last able to find him emerging from a lecture in one of the exhibit halls.
“There you are!” I grabbed him. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
“Instead of attending the panels?” John asked.
His tone was standoffish and stern. I could feel my mouth dropping open in surprise. “Um. I—yes?”
“We’re here for work, Izzi. That’s what you should be focusing on. You’re an intelligent woman, you don’t need me to coddle you all day. You can attend the events by yourself.”
John took my hand off his arm, detaching us, and started to walk away.
Oh, hell no. I was going to find out what the fuck was going on. I strode after him. “John, wait!”
He tried to evade me, but I was too quick for him, and I cornered him in the empty hallway by the hotel gym. “What is wrong with you?” I kept my voice low so that nobody could overhear us. “I woke up and you were gone. I was hoping after last night we could have a lovely day together. You know…”
I took a step closer and looked up at him through my lashes. “Stay in bed, feed each other fruit from the room service delivery… have a repeat of last night… several repeats… take a joint shower…”
John stared at me like I was insane. “Are you really saying you thought we would spend the last day in bed goofing off instead of working? We’re here for business right before our company’s big product launch. That comes first, before pleasure and relaxation. You can do that any time, on your own dime.”
…oh. What he said really hurt me, but… he had a point. We were here to work. I felt like a stupid child, so focused on being with him that I had forgotten our original purpose for coming to LA.
“Of course.” I cleared my throat. “You’re right and I should have stayed focused. We can save the down time for… tonight?” I gave my voice a hopeful lilt.
John stared at me like I was crazy, then glanced around to double check that nobody was watching. At last, he leaned in. “Izzi, what happened last night was a mistake. A horrible mistake. I should have left the suite. I should have locked myself in the damn bathroom. We’re keeping things professional from now on, and I won’t appreciate any more shenanigans on your part. As the senior person here, I take full responsibility for what happened, but it will not happen again. Any attempts by you to make it happen will be shut down by me and I will take the steps necessary to discipline you, understood?”
He took a step back. “I found another room in the hotel, so feel free to keep staying in my suite.”
He walked off, and my heart plummeted.
I had never felt so low in my life. I struggled to keep from crying in front of everyone. John was so—so cold and distant, and so firm. I felt like a puppy that had chewed on his shows or peed on the carpet and now was getting rapped on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.
I had to get away from people before someone noticed my face and asked what was wrong. There was no way that anyone could find out John and I had any disagreement or people would gossip that there were problems with the company, that the new marketing girl couldn’t hack it.
There had to be some areas in the hotel that were empty, so I found a gym locker room that was closed and slipped inside. I couldn’t go back to the hotel suite. Not the suite where just last night we had been having the best sex of my life together. Sure, I’d never had sex before, but I still knew a good time when I had it. Where else would I find a man so attentive to my needs and pleasure as John had been?
Once I was alone, I called Emma.
“Hey, honey! How’s it going?” Emma sounded so cheerful, that the moment I heard her voice I burst into tears.
“Ah, shit, that bad, huh?” I could hear her moving around, probably getting herself seated. “Talk to me, what’s the matter?”
I explained everything that had happened last night, and then this morning. “I’d thought this would be the beginning of something beautiful between the two of us, but now that dream seems further away than ever. He’s determined not to let me near him. You should have seen the way he looked at me, Emma, like he was beyond disappointed in me. I didn’t know what to do. I felt so ashamed of myself.”
“Well, okay, first of all, cry it all out, okay h
oney? Just cry it out. You won’t be able to think straight with all of that emotion going through you, so let’s just cry first, okay?”
Boy, did I not need any encouragement on that front. I let it all go and cried harder, until I was completely wrung out. Emma, an absolute saint, just sat there patiently while I basically went through the five stages of grief on the other end of the phone.
Once my tears had died down, Emma spoke again. “Honestly, I’m not surprised that this is how he’s reacting. He’s your boss, and your father’s best friend. He’s probably feeling really guilty about this. And like he’s responsible and you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“What are you talking about? Of course, I know what I’m doing.”
“He doesn’t know that. Look, think about this from his perspective, okay? You’re a brand new, young woman, and he’s a handsome man who’s mentoring you. He looks after you, takes you under his wing, you’re in Los Angeles, at a fancy hotel… you’re flying high! He has no idea how long you’ve wanted this for or how carefully you’ve planned this. All he knows is that suddenly, you’re trying to seduce him. He probably thinks this has all gone to your head and he’s led you into feeling this way. By accident.
“And if this whole thing gets found out by anyone, he’s done. He’s screwed. He can’t have an affair or even a one-night stand with a woman who works under him, that would look terrible for him. And sure, maybe this is the first time he’s done that, anyone who knows him would attest to that, but the general public doesn’t know that. Anyone who hears the news will wonder how many times he’s done this before, and how consensual it was.”
“I… hadn’t thought about that.” It was true, if people found out we’d slept together, me being half his age… it wouldn’t look good for John.
“He’s been your father’s friend and business partner for pretty much your whole life,” Emma added. “He values your father. He’s scared to lose that friendship because of what happened with you. Wouldn’t you be scared if you were in his shoes and might lose me?”
That was fair. I would be scared. “I suppose I haven’t been thinking about it from his point of view.”
“Exactly. I know that this is hard. But he’s got a lot to process. Remember you’ve had years to come to terms with how you feel about him. This is all brand new. You need to give him time to adjust.”
“I suppose…”
“Everything you’ve told me about John indicates that he’s a stand-up guy. He’s probably feeling like he violated all of his principles in sleeping with a woman so much younger, and an employee, and his best friend’s daughter! I mean the poor guy’s head has got to be spinning!”
That was… true. And fair. “But I’m still hurt with how he treated me.”
“I know, honey. And you can talk to him about it—later. Give him time.”
“I’ll try. And thanks, Emma. I feel a lot better.”
“I’m glad. Love you!”
“Love you too.”
After I hung up, I stared at the phone. The temptation to text John again was huge, but I knew that Emma was right. I had to give him time.
I just wished I could eliminate the pain.
15
John
We got through the rest of the conference fine, and then got back to Seattle. I had never been so relieved in my life for a work thing to be over. Now there would be distance between us again, and it would stay that way.
I was also relieved to get back to Angelica and see how she was doing. I was sure that her frustrations with Penny were just teenage issues, but I wanted to double check.
Angelica seemed happy to see me for once as I stopped by Penny’s to pick her up. “Dad!”
I gave her a big hug, and she actually let me, thank God. I missed her while I was gone.
“Please can I stay with a friend next time?” she whispered to me.
After my frustrating, exhilarating, insane weekend with Izzi, I was in no mood to do more arguing. “Sure, we’ll talk about it,” I whispered back.
As much as I cared about Penny as my friend, making sure that my daughter was happy was more important.
“John?” Penny walked down from her front door. “Can we talk for a second?”
“Sure.” I let go of Angelica and passed her the car keys. “Go ahead and get in the car, honey.”
I joined Penny up at her door. “Everything good?”
“I wanted to ask you about Izzi.” Penny folded her arms. “How are things with her?”
Her tone was annoyingly knowing, but she was my best friend besides Garrett, and I obviously couldn’t talk to him about this.
“I made a mistake,” I admitted. “She was very persistent and I—I ended up sleeping with her.”
I explained the whole thing, about how we’d kissed when I’d had a couple drinks, and how that had influenced Izzi and made her want me, made her, well, lose her judgment, and then I’d lost my judgment, and one thing had led to another…
By the time I finished, Penny was looking not only unimpressed, but furious. I had to admit that I had expected her to be annoyed with me, disappointed even, but angry? That surprised me.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Penny hissed at me. “Do you have any idea of all the lines you crossed?”
“Trust me, Penny, I’m pretty damn aware of those lines,” I replied, keeping my voice low so that Angelica wouldn’t overhear us. “That’s why I told her it would never happen again, what kind of idiot do you think I am? I’m not going to keep this up. It was a mistake, and it’s a mistake I won’t be repeating.”
“Good!” Penny snapped. “I can’t believe you would do that. She’s far too young for you anyway. God. I would’ve thought when you finally were ready to move on, you’d recognize what was right in front of you, not go and hit up some young bimbo.”
“Izzi’s not a bimbo,” I replied, anger firing up in me. “She’s young, but she’s not stupid. You made plenty of mistakes when you were her age, we all did. It’s a part of being younger. But she’s far from dumb. And I don’t appreciate you talking about the daughter of my best friend, or my head of marketing that way.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Right. I can’t believe you had your head turned by a pretty face after all this time. What about us?”
“What about us?” I asked, puzzled.
“Why would you sleep with that idiot when you could have me?” Penny demanded. “I’ve been there for you this whole time, I’ve been your friend, standing by your side, waiting for the day you’d realize how good we are together, what a great team we make. But instead, you go and fuck her?”
I was—honestly, I was shocked. I’d had no idea that Penny harbored such deep romantic feelings for me. Of course, I had suspected and worried that she wanted something more, but I had also tried to chalk it up to my own paranoia. And an idle sexual attraction was one thing but to hear her speak with such anger, with such vile hatred of a woman she didn’t even really know simply because she saw her as a rival—it left a sour taste in my mouth.
“Yeah, I fucked her,” I snapped. “Once. And it’s not going to happen again. Would you like me to have an ill-advised one-night stand with you too and then never speak to you again? Because if that’s what you wanted all this time when I was giving you my friendship and valuing you in my life, Penny, you should’ve just said so.”
I could hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice, but I didn’t care. “I slept with her once and I don’t plan on doing it again. It was a mistake. So, if that’s all it takes for you to be jealous and hate someone, I think you need to take a good long look in the mirror. I value your friendship, Pen, I always have. You’ve been a real support to me. But I don’t want a relationship. I’ve made that clear to Izzi, and I’m making it clear to you. I thought I didn’t have to make it clear, I thought you understood and respected that, but clearly I was wrong.”
“No, you don’t want a relationship, you just want to fuck a twenty-something in
stead of considering being with an actual adult.” Penny was shaking with rage.
“Yeah, I’m gonna call this conversation over.” I started walking away. “Call me when you’ve remembered I’m a person and not a vending machine, you don’t just put friendship tokens in me until sex falls out!”
I got into the car full of righteous anger, but by the time I got home with Angelica, I had calmed down enough to second-guess myself. Had my blunder with Izzi ruined my friendship with Penny?
Sure, Penny having hopes that would never come to fruition was probably something we needed to address. I didn’t want her to be stuck waiting for something that would never happen. But at the same time, if I hadn’t slept with Izzi, she would’ve continued to understand that I wasn’t ready for another person in my life. She wouldn’t be so angry, and our friendship would still be intact.
But was is a true friendship if, all this time, she was hoping for something more?
My mind was all in a whirl and I didn’t know what do about it. But I did know what to do about the Izzi side of the equation. We weren’t going to be doing anything more together.
No matter how much I daydreamed about her at night. It was harder than I’d thought, putting our night together behind me. That had been mind-blowing sex and while sure, I could blame it on not sleeping with anyone for over a decade, I wasn’t so far gone that I’d forgotten what sex had been like before. And that had been insanely good.
Even weeks later I would still find myself daydreaming about her, the way she’d looked lying naked on the bed, the noises she’d made, how tight and hot she’d been around my cock, how she’d begged for me.
I had even gotten myself off in the shower once or twice, a furtive masturbation session that left my desire unsated and my guilt only stronger. I still wanted her. I could taste her on my tongue when I closed my eyes. It felt like I was losing my mind.
If I’d thought that sleeping with Izzi would get rid of my desire for her, scratch that itch, then I was horribly wrong. It only made it that much stronger.
Daddy's Best Friend (Forbidden Temptations) Page 10