Yearning Devotion

by Rachael Orman

  A phone started ringing from somewhere as the trio walked back down the hallway.

  “That’s me. Give me just a minute please.” Cole stepped off to the side as far from the music as he could. He returned to them a minute later, running his hand through his hair. “I’m really sorry. Business calls. I have an emergency situation that I must attend to.”

  “I guess I’ll see you on the subway.” Gwen gave him a half smile. He pulled her to him and planted a hard kiss on her lips.

  “Will you please let me take you out for dinner sometime? I need to see you again. And not for sex, although that was pretty mind blowing and I wouldn’t mind if it happened again.” Cole looked into her eyes. He had to know before he left.

  “We’ll talk about it on the subway in the morning.” Gwen gave him a soft kiss on the lips then pushed him back gently. “Go, take care of your situation.”

  Cole stepped back his eyes still on hers. Finally he turned and walked off. He stopped to look back at her once more before going out the doors.

  “I take it that went well.” McKayla asked Gwen. Gwen looked at her and laughed.

  “I suppose you could say that. Wish you could’ve stayed though.” Gwen wrapped her arms around McKayla’s waist.

  “Men do nothing for me. But seeing him with you is hotter than hell.” McKayla smiled as they walked back into the club.

  Chapter 10

  Gwen didn’t see Cole the next morning. Since she didn’t have company, she flipped out her sketch pad and feverishly ran the pencil across the paper. She couldn’t get out the design fast enough. The ideas were just crowding in on each other in her mind ever since she woke up. As soon as she got the general idea down of one dress, she’d flip to the next blank page and start another one. She had four ideas down before she got to school. The designs were very rough and needing much more time and work put into them but she could do that later.

  She had decided to wear a pale pink pencil skirt and a white ¾ length sleeved top with crisscrossing material over the bust and was tight all over. She paired it with a pair of 3 inch white pumps and a few pink and white glass bangle bracelets. She left her hair down because she hadn’t wanted to fight with it. She couldn’t lie and say that she hadn’t dressed especially nice and a bit sexy because she had been anticipating seeing Cole again, but when he didn’t show, she tried to shove it from her mind. He did say he had an emergency to deal with.

  She exited the subway and went to her class just like every other Thursday. She finally got the results from her big exam. She’d passed with an A as she had hoped. YES! Then, as she was getting ready to leave her second and final class for the day, her instructor approached her.

  “Gwen, I have something for you.” The instructor said. She held out a business card to Gwen.

  “Really? What is it?” Gwen took the card and looked it over. It was for someone at MHKR, a company that pretty much owned all those clothing brands that on shirt could cost more than some people paid in rent for a month. A vast majority of those extremely expensive brands were owned by MHKR.

  “Apparently someone from there has seen some of your designs and asked the school to get in touch with you.” The instructor told her. Gwen’s eyes widened. “I would highly recommend not letting this go unattended to. MHKR doesn’t contact design students very often. In fact, they don’t recruit ANY new designers. They normally only hire experienced designers and even that is only once every few years. I hope this goes places for you because you have some of the best designs I’ve seen from anyone, let alone a first year student.”

  Gwen nodded but didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t know how they had seen her designs. Then again, the school had a lot of her designs that she had submitted in order to get admitted plus the ones she submitted for assignments. Some of her teachers were still very close to designers in the industry, so who knows how she had been brought to their attention. No matter how she got their attention she was going to do her best to keep it. It would be a dream come true if she were to get signed with them. Even if they only bought a few of her designs, that would give her enough money to quit working and focus on her designing career. She slipped the card into her bag and made her way to McKayla’s.

  Gwen was sitting on the middle of McKayla’s bed watching her try to decide what to wear at work that night. Gwen had just showered and was waiting for her hair to air dry just a bit before she started the battle to get it into submission for the evening. Her hair was naturally wavy and could be difficult to convince to be anything else.

  “I just can’t believe he hasn’t been around the last couple days!” McKayla was saying as she dug through a drawer full of tiny panties. They had been talking about Cole since Gwen had arrived.

  “Yes, well I’ve always said, men are only interested in one thing and once they get it, they are done.” Gwen tried to say it flatly. She really did miss him though. She had grown to really enjoy his company over the time they had spent together. But she wasn’t going to admit that to anyone. She didn’t want to admit she was developing feeling for him.

  “Maybe his emergency is keeping him away longer than he planned.” McKayla held up a pair of baby pink panties and a bra, tilting her head to one side and the other debating. She dropped them and looked at Gwen, “The sex was amazing, right?”

  “Absolutely. Hell, I can count on one hand how many orgasms I’ve ever had with a man. And he just worked my body like it was so easy.” Gwen said as she threw herself back on the bed and closed her eyes. She had to get ready for her outing tonight soon. Black Tie events always took a while for her to get ready for. McKayla crawled onto the bed next to her, putting her head on Gwen’s shoulder as she slid her arm over her waist.

  “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” McKayla ran her fingers in soft circles on Gwen’s stomach. “Now get your sexy little ass up before I fuck this funk out of you and make you late for your date.”

  Letting out a loud sigh, Gwen forced herself to sit at the vanity table in McKayla’s room. She was wearing only a pair of lace thong panties and a lace backless pushup bra that made her DDs look even better than normal. She ran a brush through her hair before pulling it out of her face with a clip so she could do up her makeup. She decided on golden eye shadow with pink shadow high on her eye lids and dark green eyeliner. After a couple layers of black mascara, her eyes really popped. She dashed on just a bit of blush and pale pink lipstick and her face was done. After running her hands through her hair a few times, she went simple with her hair and swept it all back into a low ponytail on the right side of her head so her hair fell in its natural waves over her shoulder, wrapping a strand of hair around to hide the band. One carat diamond solitaire earrings, a choker that was three rows of diamonds and a bracelet that was similar to the choker on her left wrist made up her jewelry. She pulled her dress out of the closet as McKayla returned after her shower.

  “You might kill that old man looking like that.” McKayla laughed admiring the simple yet elegant look that Gwen had put together. Gwen just smiled and slipped on her dress. From the front the dress looked rather plain. It was fairly figure flattering but not too tight, black silk that fell all the way to the floor with a slight V neck showing a bit of her fabulous cleavage and thick straps that wrapped over her shoulders. However, in the back it dipped almost indecently low in a U shape.

  “I doubt it. He’s seen me naked. But that was before he got married. You know, I don’t mess with the married ones.” Gwen slipped on three inch heels that were a simple black strap over her toes and three straps that wrapped around her ankles decorated with real diamonds. She had a French manicure and pedicure done so she was all polished and dolled up. Gwen turned in a slow circle, “Ta Da!”

  “Fabulous darling.” McKayla said in a fake English accent. She pulled Gwen close for a quick ass grab and kissed her neck. “I’m sure you’ll be the prettiest lady there.”

  Gwen moaned but stepped back, no ruining all the work she’d put into get
ting ready by getting frisky with McKayla. After exchanging good byes, Gwen went out to meet the car waiting to drive her to pick up her date, Isaac. Once they were both in the car, the drive headed to the event.

  “You look fabulous, as always.” Isaac said as he ran his eyes over her. He was in his late 50s, married for a year now to a gold digging woman, who refused to go to any business events with him. So if he wanted company he normally hired Gwen, his former bed playmate, to join him. Gwen had refused to keep their relationship sexual when he got married. She never slept with married men. She didn’t have many moral standards, but this was one she had and had never broken it.

  “Thank you. As do you.” Gwen asked as she took in his standard black tuxedo for the event. He had black hair liberally scattered with white hair. She didn’t exactly know what it was that he did. She only knew that he owned his own business and made more money than he knew what to do with.

  “There has been a slight change in venue tonight. So instead of going to the yacht club we are going to a personal residence. Last minute cancellation.” Gwen simply nodded at this, she didn’t particularly care where they were going. Isaac straightened his tie a bit. They chatted about little things the rest of the drive, which wasn’t very long. They arrived at a skyscraper Gwen didn’t know the name of and took the elevator to second to top floor.

  The doors opened to a lobby where there was two doors. Gwen assumed one lead to the stairwell so the only other door had to be where the party was. Isaac pushed open the door and they walked into a large open foyer that connected to a long wide open room that was almost wall to wall windows. There was a double doors that were open leading out into a large open balcony with a small dance floor and DJ set up out there. It was September so the weather was perfect for an outdoor party. The apartment was sparsely furnished leaving plenty of space for the 50 or so people there to mingle and move about. Gwen slipped her arm through Isaac’s as they made their way around the party. She mostly looked around and nodded when socially appropriate. She wasn’t there to converse with people, just to be the beautiful woman Isaac had brought with him. She sipped on the wine that one of the passing waiters had given her. They had been at the party for over two hours before Isaac led her outdoors.

  “Gwen, I’d like to introduce you to the host of this party. He was generous enough to allow us to move the party to his apartment when the other location fell through.” Isaac said leading her to a group of men in tuxes. Gwen looked up after carefully stepping over a cord on the ground to meet a pair of green eyes. She paused right where she was standing. What was Cole doing here? “Gwen this is Cole Cressley. Cole, my date for the night, Gwen.”

  “Well, now this is interesting.” Cole’s eyes had turned a dark green as he got over his shock at seeing her here. “How very nice to meet your date, Isaac. Where is the wife?”

  “You know how she is. She didn’t want to go out tonight.” Isaac didn’t notice that Cole had not taken his eyes off Gwen.

  “Mind if I take your date for a dance?” Cole held out his hand for Gwen.

  “Sure.” Isaac just shrugged and sat down at a table before striking up a conversation. He turned his back before Gwen had even had a chance to speak.

  “Here I thought you didn’t date. It seems like you lied to me.” Cole said quietly as he led Gwen towards the dance floor.

  “And here I thought you’d run off to deal with an emergency.” Gwen retorted feeling a wide range of emotions. Cole didn’t know how she’d come to be Isaac’s date at the party and she didn’t want him to. She hadn’t heard from him in two days anyway. They stepped onto the dance floor as slow romantic song started.

  “How fitting, it’s the perfect song for such a pretty lady.” Cole said pulling her into his arms and slow dancing with her. He said softly in her ear “You look wonderful tonight. This dress is stunning and this back…” Cole growled low as he ran his hand up and down her bare back.

  “Thank you. I guess you look pretty good too.” Gwen laughed softly. Of course he did, dressed in a perfectly tailored tuxedo with black bow tie. She didn’t think he ever looked anything but perfect. However, she wouldn’t be distracted, “So, was there really an emergency?”

  “Yes, there was. And I just got back into town this afternoon.” Cole answered in her ear. He had his arms around her, keeping her body close to his, her hands on his shoulders. He wasn’t letting her get out of his question either. “Do you really go on dates with older married men?”

  “Dates? No. Accompany an old friend to a party, sure.” Gwen smiled up at him. She let her eyes run over his handsome features, resting briefly on his lips before returning to his eyes. Desire flashed in her eyes before she stamped it back down. Now was not the time to start down that road.

  They chatted quietly about nothing in particular for the rest of the song and through the next two songs before an upbeat song came on and a familiar blonde came up to interrupt them. Gwen looked over to see Leanne, another escort that was here with a different client. “Excuse me. I need to speak with Gwen please.”

  “Um, ok. Excuse me.” Gwen stepped back and followed Leanne back towards the inside of the house. “Yes, Leanne?”

  “Gwen, you’ve been out there dancing with that man for a few songs, you are here to escort another man, who paid quite well for your attention too. Don’t go getting into trouble.” Leanne whispered quietly. That was the reminder Gwen needed, she was working and needed to remember that. How many times had she been the one to remind escorts at parties to stay focused. She shook her head. This was just another reason she shouldn’t get involved with Cole. She returned to Isaac’s side and was the ever doting date for the next two hours. By that time, most of the crowd had cleared out. Figuring that they would be leaving soon, Gwen excused herself to use the restroom to freshen herself up. She was tired and ready to get away from here. She had spent a good amount of time looking at Cole and watching him interact with people. He would watch her as well but he never tried to approach her again. She watched him have what appeared to be a serious conversation with another man across the living room. She used his distraction and quickly slipped down the hallway Isaac had said the bathroom was. She relieved herself and made sure her makeup was still good. She opened the door to leave the restroom, only to see Cole standing there, leaning back against the wall, waiting for her.

  “I’m trying to do the gentlemanly thing here and leave you be with your date. But I couldn’t let you leave without giving you even one kiss.” Cole stood up and stalked towards her. Before she really had much of a chance to react, he had her pressed against the wall, his lips on hers. On its own her body reacted, tilting her head and grabbing the back of his neck to pull him closer, at the same time one hand pressed against his chest. She shouldn’t be doing this, she was working and this couldn’t become a regular thing for them. Regrettably, she pushed him away.

  “I can’t do this.” Gwen said her lips inches from his. She lowered her head and quickly pushed out from him before walking down the hall back to Isaac. Isaac could tell she was on edge and took it as her being tired.

  “Well, I guess I should get my lovely friend back home at a decent hour.” Isaac said grabbing her hand. He said a quick good bye to everyone before they left the party. In the car on the way back to her apartment, he was sharing personal stories about some of the people at the party, none of who Gwen knew but she tried to pay attention. She breathed a sigh of relief once they pulled up at her apartment. She kissed his cheek, thanked him for a nice evening and got out.

  After entering her apartment, she changed out of her expensive dress and took off all her jewelry. She brushed her hair out of the ponytail and slipped into her bed wearing a tank top and panties. It was a little after midnight and Gwen wasn’t tired at all. She tried to go to sleep but she couldn’t get Cole out of her head. What made this man any different from every other man she’d met or slept with? He was alluring to her in a way that no man ever had been. He was so sweet and
nice to her. She remembered the first kiss he gave her, how sweet and gentle he’d been. She also remembered their time at the strip club in the back room. He had been hard yet tender with her. She convinced herself it was just the environment, not the actual man that made the sex so amazing and yet conflicting.

  That had to be it! She’d been with many guys before and nothing. None had been at a strip club though. Was that it? She was going to find out for sure. Was it the man or not that made the sex so amazing? She was going to drive herself crazy if she didn’t try to at least figure it out.

  She quickly slipped into a skintight strapless dress with no bra, no panties. Might as well be easy since that’s exactly what she was going over for. As she walked out the door, she slipped on a pair of 4 inch black heels that were sitting next to the door. She hailed a cab and gave herself a pep talk the whole way. When the cab arrived she paid and headed up the elevator. She stopped and listened in front of his door. She could hear music softly playing but didn’t hear any voices. She knocked softly on the door. She waited a minute. But she didn’t hear anything. Taking a deep breath, she knocked once more, a little harder this time. Still nothing. She turned and walked the few steps back to the elevator.

  She pushed the down button berating herself the whole time. Why had she come here? What was wrong with her? This was not something she would have ever done in the past. Did she seriously think that sleeping with him in a strip club would change who she was? He probably just felt bad for her earlier when he had kissed her in his apartment. Men always wanted to have the upper hand, right? She put her forehead on the wall and told herself how stupid she was to have come back to his place.

  Chapter 11

  “Gwen? To what do I owe this pleasure?” Cole asked from his now open door. Gwen had been so busy kicking herself that she hadn’t heard the door open. She slowly turned as she took in his bare, very well defined chest and low slung gym shorts. She stepped towards him instinctively. Her hands itched to touch his chest. He had on a sexy half smile, arms crossed his chest. Those green eyes tracked over her from head to toe and back again before meeting her eyes with a cocked eyebrow.