Never Say Never

by Taylor Holloway

  “This wasn’t how I expected this to go,” he murmured into my collarbone when I pulled off the top of my scrubs and leaned into him. “Not even close. But I’m not going to argue.”

  “Good,” I told him, “because I’m done with words. Why don’t you put something else in my mouth?” My voice had turned husky in my own ears, like I’d been chain smoking and drinking whisky. Charlie’s eyes dilated wide at the sound, however, so I don’t think he minded.

  We undressed in a hurried, frantic rush. I’d never been so ready to be naked. My clothes were much simpler than his, but I was efficient. His expensive looking suit was on the ground in seconds. Charlie looked nice in it, but he looked amazing out of it. I ran my hands up and down the ridges of his abs and back muscles, and he explored my chest in turn. We ended up near the foot of my bed right as we were both easing out of our pants.

  This was going fast. But I much too eager to slow down. Charlie looked just as overcome. He sat on the mattress at my prompting and nudged my knees apart with his own. His first touch between my thighs was slick and sweet through my soaked panties. My whimper was involuntary, and my body felt alight. But I wasn’t ready for that yet.

  I knelt in front of him on my knees and licked my lips to make sure he had no misconception about what I wanted. He handed me a pillow to kneel on and obligingly pulled down his boxers. What a gentleman. I repaid his kindness in spades, working him toward orgasm with long strokes through hollowed cheeks before backing him off again and again. He kept his hands at his sides with obvious effort until friction and pressure got the best of him.

  “Oh god,” he moaned, grasping the back of my head and holding me in place as his hips bucked wildly. His next few thrusts went deep into the back of my throat. I closed my eyes, suppressed my gag, and let myself be directed on how to serve him. When he finished a stroke or two later, filling my mouth with heat and the taste of salt, I swallowed hard in satisfaction. Opening my eyes and smiling, I gazed up to see him staring at me in wonder.

  “My turn,” he finally whispered, and his voice had become as teasing and provocative as mine had been a moment ago. I was more than ready. I sat down beside him, and he pressed me back into the mattress with eager hands, spreading my legs again before raising my thighs to either side of his ears and leaning forward to drink in the sight of me helpless and needy beneath him.

  I was still wearing my pink, lacy panties and matching bra and he kissed me through the thin fabric between my thighs with a hot, wet tongue. I rocked into him as he worked on me through the lace, allowing the additional friction to add to the experience of his mouth on my most sensitive spot. My whole body had grown hot, sensitive, and wanton under his touch. My head tipped back, and I stared blankly into the ceiling as sensation overrode any fear or hesitance.

  Divorced from any conscious inhibitions, I told him explicitly and exactly what he needed to do with his tongue and fingers to get me off. He obeyed my instructions with relish, following my orders to the letter. With two long, thick fingers stroking deep inside me and his tongue flicking rhythmically against my clit with just the right amount of pressure, I came apart beneath him within a few short minutes. His name was on my lips as I peaked, and the rush of my climax erased any insecurity, regret, or fear I felt about getting into bed with Charlie again. All I felt was pleasure and comfort in his arms.

  When he collapsed next to me on the pillow a moment later, I hoped he felt the same way. I cuddled into the soft fur on his chest and breathed in his scent, our pleasure, and the singular happiness of the moment. There was no way this could be a mistake. A mistake would never feel this good.

  15

  Charlie

  Eva had drifted off to sleep on my chest, and I leaned my head to the side to watch her eyes twitching under her thin, pale eyelids. She was dreaming about something. I hoped that she was dreaming about me, since every dream I’d been having lately had been about her. I kissed her gently on the forehead and she smiled in her sleep.

  I was telling her the truth earlier, this wasn’t at all how I expected today’s interaction to go. I had expected Eva to be standoffish and uncomfortable seeing me again. My expectation was that she would have that same look on her face that she had when she left my apartment- a mixture of pity, resolve, and disappointment that twisted my stomach and stabbed at my heart. Instead, she’d practically jumped me in the hallway.

  Not that I had stopped her. Or complained. Or even tried to slow us down. I’m only human, after all.

  She was criminally sexy in her hideous nursing clothes. I knew it was a functional uniform rather than a fashion statement, but it almost seemed like Eva picked out intentionally matronly scrubs. Perhaps it was some kind of misguided attempt to conceal how absurdly hot she was. Today’s scrubs weren’t hummingbirds, but they were just as bad. They had an abstract, swirly pattern that took me a few squinting seconds to realize were actually stylized dancing kittens. Only Eva could ever look good wearing what amounted to glorified pajamas covered in what appeared to be waltzing, cartoon kittens.

  Of course, now that she was down to just a lacy pink bra, she looked immeasurably hotter. I stroked the velvety soft, white skin of her back with my unburnt hand and she wriggled closer to me in her sleep. She really was gorgeous, and everything about her threatened to overwhelm my senses: wonderful sweet smell, delicious taste, and a voice that made me need to take a cold shower every time she said my name.

  I was in deep, I realized. Watching her breathing and sleeping soundly curled up on my chest like she owned it, with my arm wrapped around her waist like I owned her right back, I knew that Eva had totally bewitched and besotted me. Richard’s instructions to threaten her about the NDA was anathema. There was no way I was going to threaten her. I was going to tell her the truth. All of it. Consequences be damned, she deserved the truth from me.

  My commitment to the truth was tested when she woke up just a few minutes later, shattering our moment of quiet perfection.

  “I guess I’d better think about getting back to work,” she said through an adorable yawn. She stretched and rolled over to look at the alarm clock on her bedside table. “Oh shit. I really need to get going.”

  Before she sat up and started dressing, I snatched her back to me and rolled on top of her to pin her in place. She giggled.

  “Hey!”

  “No getting up yet,” I told her seriously. “I really need to talk to you first.”

  “Can it wait until this evening?” She asked me sweetly, leaning forward to tease my tongue expertly around hers in a swirling, beautiful kiss. “I don’t want anything to ruin this lunch break.”

  “I suppose it could wait until dinner,” I conceded thoughtfully. “But only if I get to stay in your bed until then.”

  She giggled again before raising her eyebrows at me. “Be my guest. But don’t you have to work?”

  “I have my laptop.”

  Eva wriggled out of my grip and spun around to set her feet on the ground and escape.

  “Well then mi casa es su casa,” she said with a shrug. Her scrubs quickly regained their hideous concealment of Eva’s gorgeous curves. “I assume you already know the WIFI password.”

  I nodded in disappointment as Eva stepped back into her shoes and straightened her ponytail in her dresser’s little mirror. The long, sleek flow of her hair was quickly returned to order before being braided neatly and tied off in a flash. “I’ll manage, but I’m going to miss you,” I told her. In all honesty, I already missed her. There was nothing I wanted more than to drag her back into bed and go for round two.

  “At least you don’t have to spend the entire rest of the afternoon knowing that I’m naked in your bed,” she replied. Her eyes rolled up my body with a possessive, heated look in their blue depths. I smirked at her.

  “I’ll be reviewing some very depressing medical and legal records,” I told her with a shake of my head. “It’s hardly sexy work.”

  “Edith’s?” Eva asked, and the
n before I could answer she shook her head and cut me off. “No. Never mind. I really don’t want to know right now. I want this to be my perfect lunch break.”

  I was fine with delaying the conversation about Edith for as long as humanly possible. I still hadn’t planned out quite what I was going to say. Especially now that I’d settled on telling her the scariest thing possible—the truth.

  “Are you going to get hungry?” I asked her as she finished up getting ready to return to work. “I could bring you something.” Anything to get more time with her.

  She shook her head. “No, I’ll just drink one of Alexander’s nutrition shakes. My work keeps me busy enough that I rarely get hungry anyway. There’s some food in my fridge if you get hungry though. I’ve got everything you need to make a sandwich, or there’s ice cream in the freezer.”

  Eating ice cream naked in Eva’s bed? Yeah, that sounded like a terrible way to pass an afternoon. I could see myself getting used to this.

  Eva breezed out a moment later, and reluctantly checked my email from the comfort of a pile of pillows that shared her sweet smell. The first message I opened was from Dylan. It was a simple message: Are you dead or something? Call me if you aren’t dead. And just like that, reality came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks.

  I called him back reluctantly.

  “Where have you been lately?” Dylan’s voice asked through my phone. I could tell he was concerned. “I was legitimately worried you were dead.”

  “Not dead,” I replied. “Just dead busy. Sorry, I haven’t been to the office in a few days. I’m working on another one of the Durant family’s dramatic mistakes.” Not a lie. Not the whole truth.

  “Do you wanna’ grab a bite later?” Dylan asked. “I wanted to ask you about your recent car buying experience. Eva just moved into town and she needs a car.”

  Be cool. Don’t tell him you’re laying in her bed right now.

  “I saw Eva recently,” I heard my voice saying. “I’ve been down at the Durant mansion more than usual.”

  “That puts you one step ahead of me,” Dylan replied. “I’ve texted with Eva, but I haven’t even been out to visit her lately. I feel like the world’s shittiest sibling. Is she doing alright?”

  I thought of her look of bliss when she’d come earlier: face flushed, nipples rock hard, back arched, and moaning my name.

  “Yeah she seems happy.”

  “Good. I was worried about her up at that creepy mansion all alone. She’s tough though. If anyone could do that job, it’s her. What were you working on that brought you up to the mansion? I thought you mostly worked with the business end of the family.”

  “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” I replied half-jokingly. “No but seriously, this one is majorly hush-hush. It’s so weird I don’t even know how to explain it.” Not a lie. Then again, there was technically no reason that I wouldn’t tell Dylan everything from a legal perspective since he was bound by the same ethical rules as me. Usually I spilled all the gory details to him. Dylan was my main professional and personal confidant and best friend. I rarely kept anything in reserve from him.

  “Riiiight,” Dylan said. “Whatever, it’s probably boring anyway.” He’d never had much patience for bullshit answers but apparently had other things on his mind today. “Just keep your drama away from Eva, ok? I don’t want her to get drawn into anything you work on, because I know it’s always insane.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Not a lie. “Trust me, I don’t want her involved.” Not a lie.

  Dylan paused while he digested that. I could tell by the quality of his silence and his lack of probing questions that I was being given some sort of a pass.

  “How’s your mom?” He asked. This was why he wasn’t probing, I realized. He thought I was too upset about mom. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

  “She’s ok. She’s got all kinds of awful drains in her from the re-reconstruction. She’s bound up tighter than Scarlet O’Hara, but she seems to be taking it all in stride. It seems like just when I think she’s out of the woods, something like this happens and it’s right back to the where I was when we were first year roommates.”

  “Maybe you should ask Eva to check in on your mom,” Dylan suggested, shocking me silent. “She’s a nurse after all. She might be able to suggest some things to make her more comfortable in her own house as she recovers. I’m sure Eva would do it if you asked her to.”

  I didn’t know how to reply to that suggestion, so I made a kind of non-committal grunt. Was Dylan telling me to seek out and talk to his sister? The idea that Dylan had finally realized that his sister was an adult woman capable of making all her own decisions was nice, but I was skeptical.

  “I gotta’ go,” I finally managed to say. “I’ve got a deadline for Richard.” Not a lie.

  “Yeah ok. Call me later. Let’s catch the game on Sunday.”

  “Deal. Bye.”

  In the ensuing silence, I considered how exactly I was going to avoid lying to either Eva or Dylan in the next week. Just that two-minute phone conversation had probably added more gray hair to my head than the entire preceding thirty-two years.

  16

  Eva

  “I don’t want to eat that,” Alexander whined like a child. He pushed the plate away from himself and pouted. “I’m not hungry. Who are you anyway? Where’s Vivian?”

  Alexander was having a very bad day. Vivian, his wife, had been dead for almost thirty-five years.

  “She’s at the hair salon this afternoon, remember?” I told him smoothly. “And then she’s got a lunch-in with the Junior League ladies at the club.”

  “Goddamn Junior League,” he grumbled. His expression was as petulant as I’d ever seen it. “Goddamn hair appointment.”

  “Just have a few bites of the sandwich. If you don’t like it, I’ll have the staff make you something else,” I told him. In reality, I knew he would forget his complaints about the food within minutes. It was better for everyone, however, to keep up some semblance of agreement with Alexander’s ever-shifting worldview. Telling him that Vivian was dead, or that this was his only option for tonight’s dinner, would only upset him. In fact, it would be horribly traumatic and cruel. But only five minutes later we’d be back at square one anyway. I don’t like to lie, but sometimes it’s the most therapeutic thing.

  “Just give it a try,” I urged when Alexander continued to stare at his BLT with scowling, grumpy suspicion. “I think you’ll like it.”

  He grudgingly took a bite, and then another. Before I knew it, he was eating properly. Thank god. This was actually one of Alexander’s favorite meals, or at least it had been in better days. Apparently, tonight his taste buds remembered better than his brain. I prayed that I never suffered for memory loss. It seemed like an incredibly unfair way to spend the twilight years.

  Once Alexander was fed and medicated for the evening, I was able to turn things over to the night crew and sign off for the night. I practically skipped up the stairs on my return trip to my rooms. I’d been missing Charlie fiercely. The thought of him waiting for me in my bed was the best motivation a woman could hope for. The afternoon had never felt so long.

  When I got back to my room I was disappointed to see that Charlie had put on boxers and a t-shirt, but happy to see that he’d also arranged a delivery of food. No Thai food this time. He’d somehow found a place that delivered cheese steaks all the way out in the suburbs. It smelled fantastic, and I was greeted with a kiss. It might not be the June Cleaver picture of domestic bliss, but I’d take it.

  “How was your afternoon?” I asked him once we’d settled across from one another in my tiny dining room. “Did you get a lot done?”

  Charlie grinned. “It wasn’t bad. I definitely prefer your bed to my office at Clark and Jeffries. One of the many joys of telecommuting is not needing to put on pants.”

  “You said you wanted to talk to me earlier,” I forced myself to ask in a casual, un-worried tone of voice. “Was it about E
dith?” In between daydreaming my horny fantasies, I’d been preoccupied about what this evening’s ‘important conversation’ might entail.

  My worries were heightened when Charlie’s face turned wary and cold. He sighed deeply and ran his fingers through his thick hair. When he met my gaze, his eyes looked more tired than they had a moment before.

  “I’ve been dreading this,” he said finally. “I need to tell you a few things. For starters, I want you to understand that the Durant family paid for my mom’s cancer treatment. Ok? Not only that, Richard Durant arranged for my mom to take part in an advanced clinical trial of genetically tailored chemotherapy. She might not be alive except for that treatment. And I never could have afforded the level of care she received with Richard’s help. She’s had world-class treatment. The very best that money could buy.”

  I blinked at him in confusion. “Ok,” I replied. I wasn’t really sure what to make of that admission. Bring up his mom was the last thing that I expected. Charlie had been speaking in an earnest, low tone that made me feel like he was almost embarrassed by the Durant family largesse. “I guess that was nice of them.”

  “It wasn’t nice,” he replied with a frown. His voice had turned bitter, and his expression matched. “It was entirely calculated. Richard doesn’t do anything just to be nice. He does things because they might benefit him later on. Helping with my mom wasn’t charity, or a favor for a friend or colleague. He knew that he could ensure my loyalty to him by saving my mother’s life. He knew that I was the sort of person who would be eternally grateful.”

  “But aren’t you supposed to be loyal to your clients anyway?” I asked him in confusion. “You have lots of lawyer rules about that, right? He hardly needed to hold anything over you.”

  He smirked. “Yes. I mean, obviously, yes. I’m bound by all kinds of complicated ethical rules. But this is more than that. The Durants require absolute loyalty. Undying loyalty.”