“Erica, it’s Max.”
“Hi, how are you doing?”
“Great,” he said.
“Is everything okay? I mean, with the deal?”
“Absolutely. That’s why I called, actually. I wanted to let you know the legal prep is taking a little longer than expected, but everything is still on track.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “That’s great. Thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem. How’s everything with the site?”
“Going great. I’m actually in New York doing some networking. It’s going really well.”
“Excellent, that’s what I like to hear.” Someone was talking to him in the background. “I’ve got to go, Erica, but I’ll keep you posted, all right?”
“Wonderful, thanks again.”
“See you soon.” He hung up.
We were so close to hitting this milestone, I could taste it, but even with his reassurances, I would worry until everything was absolutely finalized. I tried to ignore all the ways it could fall through, but knowing about the rivalry between Blake and Max now added exponentially more possibilities to the list.
***
That evening, as I stood at the edge of the rooftop deck of the club, a warm breeze danced over my exposed skin. Alli had fussed over me to the point of ridiculousness before heading out together. The cut out dress we decided on was scarce in the fabric department, but the evenings were hot and the club below was even hotter.
City lights decorated the darkening sky, reminding me of the last night I’d enjoyed a view like this. I closed my eyes and Blake was behind them. A smile that left no doubt that he’d always get exactly what he wanted from me. The body that drove me wild whenever he did.
Behind me, Alli and Heath laughed quietly, their limbs tangled on one of the outdoor couches decorating this exclusive part of the nightclub. I sighed inwardly and sipped on my third martini, hoping this would be the one to make me forget Blake’s silence today.
Maybe my text had come too late. Maybe he’d written me off as too much trouble. Maybe he’d be right. I never asked for a relationship, but now that I was losing it, I couldn’t fight the crushing feeling that I was losing something precious. I’d never met someone like Blake, and no one had ever made me feel the way he did.
The intense throb of house music came and went as the deck door opened and closed behind me. I leaned forward on the metal railing overlooking the traffic below us. Car horns sounded in the distance, mingling with the quiet jazz that hummed around me.
I needed to get Blake out of my head and make the most of my time here, even as heartbroken as I’d felt these past few days. I polished off the last of my drink and decided to find Alli. Maybe she could detach from Heath for a little while and hit the dance floor with me.
I turned and froze, unable to take another step forward. Blinking, I reassured myself that the person in front of me was Blake and not the memory of the man I’d been tearing myself up over for hours.
“Erica.”
Blake’s voice slid over me, confident and full of meaning. The intensity in his eyes had me paralyzed. I took him in slowly, my fingers gripping the railing behind me as if it might anchor me down when I wanted to fly to him.
I harnessed all my willpower not to. The mere sight of him had my heart racing. A slow heat rushed over my skin, inflaming my senses as I raked him in. He was dressed head to toe in a black suit, his dark shirt casually unbuttoned at the top. Jesus, why couldn’t he be wearing one of those stupid T-shirts when he dropped in on me like this? He was a smoking hot slice of heaven, and as much as I loved him in those clothes, I could think of nothing else but taking them off.
“What are you doing here?” My voice was breathy and unsteady, betraying the riotous emotions pulsing through me right now. Maybe Alli or Heath had tipped him off. As much as I wanted to care, I didn’t. My whole body came alive knowing he was close enough to touch me, to set me off in ways that no one else ever had.
The corner of his mouth lifted as he cocked his head slightly. “I thought you missed me?”
“I—yes,” I admitted. There was no point in denying it now. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
He took a step forward, closing the distance between us. Taking his hands from his pockets, he placed them on either side of me on the railing.
“You’re lucky I’m here. If I found out you were wearing this in public without me, I’d have to punish you.”
His hand left my side, roaming, touching my skin where the dress didn’t cover it. My grip on the railing tightened and my chest heaved with my rapid breathing. A heat built in my belly at the promise in his threat.
“You like it?”
His smirk faded as he lowered, kissing my jaw. “If we had some privacy, I could show you just how much,” he murmured, licking the rim of my ear before biting gently on my earlobe.
I exhaled sharply, trying not to moan when a sweet sharp pain speared right to my groin.
“I’ve been hard since I saw you standing here.”
I sighed and leaned into him, the evidence of his desire hard against my belly. I loved that I could do that to him. Relief washed over me knowing that he still wanted me as much as I wanted him.
“Blake… I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He leaned back silently, his gaze locking with mine.
“I’m sorry for the other day. I shouldn’t have left like that.” I took a deep breath, wishing we could erase that part of the past, but knowing that I had to face it and make him understand as best I could. “I was… scared.”
He frowned. “Of me?”
“No. Of him… being real. And that you found him so easily. I can’t explain it. I guess a part of me wished that you would have asked me first.”
“A part of me wanted to, but a much more protective part of me needed to know, no matter what you would have said.” He traced a fingertip over my cheek. “I couldn’t sit there and do nothing. I can’t stand the idea of someone hurting you the way he did.”
“Knowing who he is doesn’t change what happened.”
“Maybe not. But how you choose to use the information is up to you now. Don’t you want to know who—”
“No,” I rushed. “Please, I don’t. You can’t possibly understand, Blake.”
“Okay.” He hushed me and brushed his lips over mine softly. “I didn’t come all this way to upset you.”
I kissed him back and wrapped my arms around him, wanting to feel him close. “I’m glad you came.”
He nuzzled into my neck, trailing his lips over the sensitive skin there.
“I was going to come back, you know. You didn’t have to come all the way to New York for me,” I said, grateful that he had.
“I knew you’d be back. But I have business here too, occasionally, so I thought I’d drop in on you. Call me crazy, but I missed you too.”
I melted a bit, until an unpleasant thought invaded the moment. Sophia. Could she be his reason for business? I chilled at the vision of them together, him seeing her for any reason, platonic or otherwise. She was toxic and spiteful.
“I met Sophia,” I said, trying to sound casual. I lifted my chin to catch his reaction, my gaze fixed on him. What did she mean to him? If he were planning to see her here, or God forbid, if he already had, I couldn’t take it. He had to be here for me. “She’s a real gem,” I said, unable to disguise my utter distaste for her.
I wondered if he could see past her perfect features. His jaw twitched and he stared past me out over the horizon, saying nothing.
My insides writhed with the jealousy that had been haunting me since I met Sophia. The way she waved her relationship with Blake around in front of me and that snide fucking smile. I wanted to believe Heath’s version of the story, but I couldn’t shake the worry that she meant more to him than he’d let on.
I moved sideways, feeling trapped between him and the railing, at the mercy of his hands and circumstance
s that were well beyond my control. Before I could get past him, he caught my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
His voice was hard and sent a shiver through me. I swallowed. As much as I wanted him, I wondered if I could stomach sharing him with someone else. I squeezed my eyes closed, feeling the drinks take hold of my better judgment.
I didn’t care. Not tonight. I’d wished for him for hours and here he was. We’d sort it out later.
“Let’s dance,” I said, opening my eyes to find his filled with concern.
No more talk. I wanted to lose myself in the music and in his arms. I wanted to pretend that he was mine before I could find out that he wasn’t.
His features softened for a second, along with his grasp. He laced our fingers together and took me downstairs.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
We descended into the smoky darkness of the top floor of the club. I embraced the noise, hoping to drown out the thoughts reeling through my mind.
I led us out to the dance floor, bringing us deep into the crowd through throngs of people gyrating to an especially popular Rihanna remix. I stopped and moved to face him, but he stilled me. His strong hand gripped my hip and pulled me back slightly until our bodies were flush with each other. The motion was so fluid and effortless, as if he was simply reuniting us to where we should have been all night. Together.
In an instant, my body melted into his. Everything felt right in his arms. The pounding base guided my movements as I began to sway to the beat of the music reverberating through my body. My muscles relaxed, and I got lost in the moment, in Blake.
The crowd was tight, but I didn’t care. All I could feel was Blake’s hands on me. In sync with the song, I pressed back into him, feeling a wild frenzy to be close to him, to feel that physical contact I’d been craving for days now. The song came to a close and merged into the next, slightly changing our rhythm and bringing us even closer. His erection became more pronounced, pressing against my ass, silently demanding what we both wanted. Arousal prickled my skin and my head fell back. His arm circled my waist and he kissed my neck. A hot, open-mouthed kiss that had my head spinning. Alcohol maybe, but more likely that drug that was Blake was taking over.
He spun me around to face him. Before he could speak, I grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him to me. Crushing my mouth onto his, I kissed him with a wild hunger. He met me full force. Our tongues tangled and I pulled him closer. He slipped his hand under the tight elastic of my dress, cupping my ass and grazing the edge of my panties. I moaned into his mouth, forgetting myself and our surroundings. I wanted to climb him right there among the hundreds of other hot, sweaty, and sexually charged people.
He growled a little as he pulled away. The lack of connection was abrupt, leaving me bereft, but the discomfort of not being connected was soon derailed by the knowledge that I was being led from the dance floor and down a hallway away from the chaos that once surrounded us.
We traveled farther until the hallway split. On the left, a tall thickly-built man stood guard near a door. Blake approached the bouncer and pressed some bills into his hand, who nodded toward the door. We entered what appeared to be another private VIP area. An ambient light filled the room, which was quite large and entirely unoccupied. Dark red leather couches lined the walls along two sides, and along another, a private bar lit up with everything a good party might need.
“What is this?”
Blake closed the door behind us and wasted no time pinning me to it.
“This is where I’m going to fuck you without interruptions.”
He hitched my leg over his hip and pressed against me. I gasped as he ground into me, connecting with my clit through my panties in just the right way.
I slid my hands into his hair and tugged him down, kissing him hard. His hands were everywhere, massaging my breasts through the tight thin fabric before freeing them easily from the strapless top. I spilled out of the dress and he caught my nipple in his mouth, palming my other breast with his hand. A violent craving burned inside me, so potent I would have done nearly anything with him in that moment if not for the niggling doubt that lingered.
One last time, I thought. But…
“Wait. We shouldn’t do this.”
Blake’s hand slammed against the door beside me. “Christ, Erica. Wait for what?”
I covered myself with my arms, suddenly feeling too exposed. The anger combined with the sexual energy coming off of him scared me. I’d seen him wound tight before, but not like this.
“I want you, Blake. More than anything else right now or possibly ever. But I can’t share you with someone else.”
“What?” He shoved his hands through his hair and stepped back.
“I don’t know what’s between you and Sophia, and I’m not about to tell you how to live your life. I know you must have your pick of women. I get it, but the way I feel about you… I just don’t think I can do it.” I winced at the tightness in my chest.
Blake wasn’t like the other guys I’d been with. In fact he was nowhere close to them, and being with him had turned my entire philosophy on sex and relationships upside down. Now I was falling hard for him, and the idea of him being with Sophia, now or ever, was more than I could bear. An infidelity with Blake would break me.
“You think I’m fucking Sophia?”
I stared at him. “She implied that you were—I just assumed…”
He grimaced, as if he’d just tasted something unpleasant. “I’ll be speaking with her then. But you need to know that there is absolutely nothing between us. There hasn’t been for years.”
“Yes, Heath corroborated your story already,” I said, cutting him short.
“It’s not a story. It’s the truth. What the hell do I have to do for you to believe me?”
“I don’t know,” I said, wilting against the door, wishing my conscience could just shut up and let us be.
Blake closed the distance between us, holding my shoulders and stroking the tops of my arms with his thumbs, sending waves of relief over me.
“Erica—” He tipped my face to meet his.
Our eyes met and my heart stopped.
“You are the one I’m here for.”
He kissed me deeply and slowly, exploring every opportunity to tantalize me with his tongue, making my knees impossibly weaker. He broke away and our gazes locked.
“The only one.”
“You’re mine,” I breathed back into him, drunk on his taste and scent.
“If you could stop running away from me for five goddamn minutes, I could have told you that.”
My lips lifted and I kissed him again, licking and teasing. He growled in response, lifting me up and coaxing my legs around him.
“Now let me show you.”
I nodded. I couldn’t speak for tomorrow or the day after that, but nothing else would come between us tonight. He slid his hands under my skirt, and with a sudden jerk, he ripped the delicate fabric of my panties. He tossed them to the side, carried me to one of the long leather couches, and laid me down. He lowered himself above me, caging me with his arms. I arched toward him, knowing it wouldn’t be long now before he was inside me again, where I’d wanted him ever since I left him days ago. He pinned me with his hips, rocking into me, a promise of what was to surely come. I unbuttoned his shirt quickly and my nipples dragged across the soft hairs of his chest.
He fingered me gently, gliding through my wet folds and curling up to reach the sensitive spot inside of me while kneading the hard knot of my clit with the heel of his hand. I quivered on the edge of release. He slowed and made his way south, trailing kisses along my inner thigh.
I tried to urge him back up to me with little success. “Please, Blake, don’t make me wait.”
“I want to taste you, baby,” he said, pumping into me with this fingers.
I cried out, nearly insane with desire. “I need you inside me. Now!”
My nerves were raw, and the promise of his merciless style of
fucking only spurred my craving. With that, his fingers left me and he undid the clasp on his trousers, lowering them only enough to free his cock. I caught his hard length in my hands, circling his hot skin with my own and appreciating what I knew he could do for me as I positioned him at my sex and guided him inside. Slow and deep, he rooted himself fully. The sensation was searing and intense.
Complete.
I fought the surge of emotion that came over me with the connection. My chest felt heavy, like my heart was about to burst. Desperate to distract myself from what that meant, I kissed him frantically, our tongues tangled in the heat of the moment. I need this. I need you.
I shifted restlessly beneath him, wild for the friction of his cock moving inside me. I wanted to own him and be owned, and this was the only way I knew how to make sure he couldn’t think about anyone but me. “Fuck me, Blake.”
“My pleasure.”
He drove into me, hard and deep, again and again. I came quickly with his name on my lips, tears sliding down my face as the waves crashed over me. I tried wiping them away before he could see them, but he intercepted them with his mouth. He kissed them away, his touch salve on the intensity of my release and the pain of our separation these past few days. He slowed momentarily before changing the angle and increasing the depth of his punishing strokes. I clung to the precipice of another orgasm.
“More,” I whimpered, throwing my head back, overwhelmed by every sensation yet needing more.
“More?”
“Deeper.”
He stopped suddenly and my breath hitched. He flipped me onto my belly and lifted my knees beneath me, slapping me on the ass so hard I yelped, the pain of it stunning me back into reality. Before I could protest, he shoved his cock back inside of me with a force that took my breath away.
He pulled out completely and bent over me, leaving me empty and aching. “No more running away from me, Erica. I mean it.” His voice was hoarse and his breath hot against my neck.
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