by Mya Black
A wide smile crossed his face. “Oh I plan to.”
***
“So, you really eat simple foods like barbecue and wings?” she asked, her voice laced with skepticism.
“Yep, but I also enjoy gourmet foods, too.” He scooted closer to her on the couch. “You know these things aren’t mutually exclusive, don’t you?”
“Of course I do, but people like you often forget that. Your friends at that gala couldn’t care less that they were being served tap water in real crystal or that the overcooked salmon and chicken were bought at the Ralph’s a few miles from here.”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said as he held her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Those people are not my friends. Some are business associates and others are acquaintances. I have very few friends and none of them were at the gala.” He leaned in and quickly took her lips in a passionate kiss that quickly lowered her defenses, as evidenced by the way she leaned into his body and the moan that sounded in the silent room. “Got it?”
She nodded. “And, now I want some more.” The gold in her eyes was so prominent that when she smiled, they glowed and she looked like a tigress. She smiled at him like he was her prey and pounced on his lap. “This is happening now, Alessandro.” Before he could answer, she was taking charge of the kiss. Taking possession of his tongue and his lips, her body began to move back and forth against his growing arousal.
Alessandro was so absorbed into her, the only thing he could do was hold on to her hips and enjoy the ride. At least, until his brain started functioning again. Eve’s tongue was masterful as it swept in and out of his mouth, teasing and taunting. She kept him on edge, guessing what she would do next until he was so out of his mind with lust, he stood with her body wrapped around his. “Bedroom,” he rasped out. His voice was thick with his desire.
“Down the hall,” she said and licked his neck. “Last door on the right.” She licked the other side and punctuated it with a hard bite. “Go,” she panted and took his mouth again.
Inside the bedroom, Alessandro tossed her on the bed. “Remove the robe,” he grunted and watched as she revealed even more delicious skin to his view. “Keep the rest on.”
She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Bossy. I like it.” She spread her legs just a bit wider so he could see through the dampness she felt growing.
“Eve,” he groaned a warning before sliding up her body. “You are so beautiful.” His hands traced over her body from her hips up until he cupped her head and took a rough passionate kiss from her. “So fucking sweet, too.”
Her hands coasted over his chest and tried in vain to open his buttons. “Fuck it,” she whispered roughly and tore the shirt open. “Much better,” she said once his smooth golden muscles were finally revealed to her. “I knew you’d be beautiful,” she spoke softly, unwilling to break the spell.
Alessandro groaned at her words and the look in her eyes. He ripped his shirt off and then her panties. “Take this thing off,” he commanded and she quickly obeyed. He took in her naked body – her dark red nipples topping the most perfect tear-shaped breasts he’d ever seen. Her waist was small, but her hips, her ass, and her thighs were strong and soft. He leaned down and took one of the dark berries in his mouth and swirled his tongue around until she writhed underneath him. He bit down and she cried out.
“Alessandro, yes!” It was sweet torture when he moved back and forth between her sensitive buds. It felt good, but it wasn’t enough. She needed more. “Alessandro,” she pleaded.
He looked up, his brown eyes nearly black with desire. “Tell me what you want. What you need.” He kissed and licked down her stomach, his eyes never leaving hers as he sank lower and lower.
“I want you, Alessandro, to suck my pussy.”
He groaned at her words. Her words turned him on and he was eager to get out of his jeans. “Gladly,” he smirked before his face disappeared between her legs. He lapped at her clit and pulled her lips into his mouth with loud sucking noises that vibrated her entire body.
“Alessandro, so good.” She knew her words were incoherent, but who needed to be understood when a fine man like Alessandro was working her over like he was born to do it? Certainly not Eve. “Oh!” she screamed when his tongue slipped inside her and pulled out, over and over until she felt chills wash over her. “Alessandro,” she whispered, as though his name were a prayer.
“You have such a pretty pussy, ma cherié.” Now was not the time for please and thank you. He licked the length of her sex and then sucked her clit deep into his mouth until she squirmed under him and clamped her legs tight against his head. Two fingers plunged in and out, in and out, until a low keening noise sounded and her body tightened like a bow. Convulsions rocked her body as she floated on a cloud of lust back to earth. She was falling down when he took her in his mouth again, ratcheting up her arousal all over again.
“Alessandro, I need you. Need you inside me. Now. Please.”
It was the please that did it. That made him rear up and shuck off his pants and underwear and crawl up the length of her, enjoying every inch along the way. “Taste how good you are.” He stuck out his tongue and felt himself harden when she sucked it into her own mouth. She moaned and he bucked against her, making her moan. “I like the taste of us together,” she said with a sated smile on her face.
Rearing up on his knees, Alessandro used her juices to lubricate his cock. She was so hot and slick he wasn’t sure how long he could last. “You feel incredible,” he grunted as his tip breached her opening. He exhaled a hiss when he was fully seated, looking down into her sparkling golden gaze. “Okay?”
“I will be if you move,” she complained, still sassy.
“As you wish,” he replied and pulled nearly all the way out before slamming deep inside of her.
His strokes started off long and slow, torturing her until she wanted to flip him over and ride him to completion, as if she could. She lifted her legs until they rested just below his ribs, changing the angle for deeper penetration. “Oh yes,” she rasped out when he hit that special spot that caused temporary blindness. “Faster,” she urged, using her feet to nudge him deeper.
“You’re so fucking wet,” he growled and picked up the pace. The new angle gave him deeper access and made her wetter. His inner animal was unleashed. “Ah,” he grunted and pulled almost all the way out before he hammered into her. Faster and faster he pounded until Eve was scoring his back and screaming his name. He felt the sweat trickle down his back, between her breasts, and he knew. She was close. Her walls squeezed him tight, so damn tight he saw spots swirling around his vision.
“I’m coming, Alessandro,” she shouted just moments before her vice squeezed so tight he was only capable of short, hard strokes that quickly sent him right over the edge with her. She cried and screamed as her body shook uncontrollably for long minutes before she was able to gain some sense of control. “Wow.”
He pumped into her one final time and shook as his seed poured into her body. “Oh, oh. Oh!” He collapsed on top of her, kissing her neck as his breathing slowed.
“It’s a good thing you brought a double helping of fuel,” she chuckled while he was still deep in her and he groaned. She laughed harder.
Chapter Six
Eve was in trouble. Deep trouble. What was supposed to be one night of incredibly hot, mind blowing sex had turned into…more. Specifically, it had turned into twenty-one nights of world-rocking bliss. He came to her place after work, most nights with dinner, and proceeded to treat her body to the most delicious form of torture imaginable. That part was great.
The problem was that it was more than just sex. They spent time talking about their day and about his businesses and hers. They shared bad relationship stories, ugly childhood photos, and even random likes and dislikes. She smiled reluctantly at a recent game of “either or” where she learned he preferred pie to cake – blasphemous – and tacos to burritos. It was weird to her, but he gave her a ver
y naughty thank you after she made fish tacos for him.
The fact that she cooked for a man was what troubled her most. The last man she’d cooked for had left her high and dry before cleaning out her bank account. She needed to put an end to this. Today. Tonight. After dinner. Yep, after dinner she would tell Alessandro they had burned out their desire and could no longer see each other.
With that settled, Eve changed into her simple silk nightgown that barely skimmed her thighs. It was a cream color that highlighted her skin and he loved white on her. “One last night,” she whispered more to strengthen her resolve than as a reminder. Who was she kidding? She was freaking out. She picked up her phone and waited. “Carla.”
Carla heard the needy whimper in her best friend’s voice right away. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Eve took in a deep breath and she explained everything on one long exhale. She told Carla that Alessandro had slept at her place for the past three weeks, that she had cooked for him, and that she was developing more than carnal feelings for him.
“That doesn’t sound so bad, Eve.”
“Seriously, Carla?”
“What? I think it’s great you’ve finally found a man to scale those mile high walls you put up to protect yourself.” Carla smiled to herself. Her friend was finally in love and when she realized it, she wasn’t going to take it well.
“That’s the problem. I don’t want anyone scaling or breaching my walls. I put them there for a reason.”
Carla sighed in frustration. “Okay, well, what do you want to do?”
“I want to end it of course!” Liar, her heart chimed in.
“Then do it.”
“You know it isn’t that simple. Alessandro won’t take no for answer, and I’m not strong enough to resist him.” The last part sounded almost like a cry even to her own ears.
“You love him,” Carla told her – better to just rip off the Band-Aid.
“What? No, I can’t.”
“Why not,” Carla prodded.
“Why not? Because it’s too soon. We don’t really know each other. I can’t be.”
Carla heard the panic in her friend’s voice and tried to soothe her. “Well, I’m pretty sure you’re capable of the emotion.”
“Maybe I am, Carla, but I don’t do love.”
“Obviously, you do, sweetie.”
Eve hated the pity she heard in her friend’s voice. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t love him. It won’t end well for me, it never does.” Her resolve was strengthening. “I don’t have time for a broken heart right now, so enough about this. I can’t love Alessandro.”
“Can’t doesn’t mean you don’t already.”
“Goodbye, Carla.”
“Bye, sweetie. Good luck.”
She hung up. “Yeah, I’ll need it.”
***
Alessandro tiptoed back to the front door and quietly opened it before slamming it loud enough for Eve to hear. The conversation he’d heard had left him gutted. His heart hurt and his vision was starting to blur. The words ran around in his head on an endless loop. She was in love with him, and she didn’t want to be.
A bitter smile crossed his face. Eve would forever be the woman who did the unexpected. She never asked him to stay the night, it just happened. She didn’t begrudge him going out with his two closest friends for their secret billionaire boys meeting, just told him to have a good time. She had even made him fish tacos – he smiled thinking of how he’d thanked her that night. She never asked for anything other than her pleasure in the bedroom.
Until this moment, he didn’t even realize how little she asked of him. She was independent as hell and would never use his connections or money to help herself. Shit, how hadn’t he seen it before? Somehow, they had found themselves in a relationship. A real, solid, and functional relationship. Incredible.
He hadn’t been looking for anything more than a few nights and fun, and Eve had only wanted one night. They’d had twenty-two, including the first night and she had fallen in love with him, albeit reluctantly.
“Hey, Alessandro, how’s it going?” The false cheer in her voice was like a kick in the stomach.
“It’s going okay,” he said reluctantly. “A long day. There were problems with the building in Macao.”
“You need to pay off more locals or are there real problems?”
He wanted to bang his head against the wall. This woman was perfect, but more importantly, she was perfect for him. He came up behind her in the kitchen. “Everything is fine, but the locals know a cash cow when they see one. The quicker this building is built, the better it will be.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to get it done ahead of schedule.”
The words were right, but something was off. “Hey, are you okay?”
Her smile was watery as she shook her head. “I’m fine, just feeling a bit stressed.”
He knew it wasn’t a lie, just as he knew she would never tell him the reason for her stress. He kissed her neck. “Let me run you a bath.” He escaped to the bathroom and poured lavender and basil salts and let the hot water run over it. She needed to relax, to get out of her head and stop worrying about the future.
He wanted a future with her, but it wasn’t possible. Not now. That’s why he kept his relationships simple and based on sex. He couldn’t explain it to her, she wouldn’t understand. So, he would have to step back.
Even if it killed him.
***
It was over. Eve could feel Alessandro pulling back, even if neither of them had the courage to say the words. He’d spent thirty five days straight sleeping in her bed, loving her body. And, on the thirty-sixth day he had gone home. He came over for dinner and stayed for sex, but he rarely stayed the night. In fact, he’d only stayed the night three times in the past two weeks, so yeah, it was safe to say they were over.
She was fine with it, or she would be if they could just have a clean break. She didn’t want a lingering death that would be painful during the months it faded away and then the time it would take to heal her heart again. The next time she saw him, she would tell him not to bother coming back. And, she would mean it. She was feeling under the weather, so she would text time to go home, not that he planned to see her today, anyway. He had business in Seattle and would be gone for a few days. She needed this break. Hell, they both did. When he came back, she would have his things packed and waiting and he could just have his assistant mail her few items to one of her salons.
It would be easy. She could handle this. Affairs ended all the time. There was no reason her life should fall apart simply because she was dumb enough to fall. She sent him a message and of course, he immediately called back.
“What’s wrong?” his voice was frantic with worry.
She coughed so he could hear it. “Nothing is wrong, I just have a bug. You have to travel, so you should just stay at your place tonight.”
He was silent for a moment, and she could imagine his stern face looking for a loophole before he said, “I’ll see you when I get back, then.”
“I’ll let you know,” she said and hung up. When she was feeling better, she would handle him and their relationship. Until then, life would be all about her.
Chapter Seven
A week later, Alessandro was still in Seattle. The problems at the hospital were taking longer to resolve than he’d anticipated and his presence was required. He’d spent so much of the past two days scraping his fingers through his hair that it stood up like he’d been electrocuted.
Worst of all, he missed Eve something fierce and she hadn’t returned his calls in three days. He knew something was wrong even before he boarded the J.C. Scotti jet. The nights he spent in her bed had dwindled and their conversations had grown stilted. The easy conversation was gone and the only thing that remained was passion. It was normal for his relationships, but this time it left him cold.
He needed to see her, dammit – to talk to her and hold her in his arms. He wanted to tell her his
secrets, all of them, so they could be together properly. So he could stop breaking her heart. He knew he was, even if she never said a word. He saw it in the sadness lurking in her eyes and heard it in the soft defeated sound of her voice. He felt it when she gave him every ounce of herself in the bedroom.
His time with Eve were singularly the most satisfying and most excruciating moments of his life. And, he couldn’t wait to experience it again and again – for as long as she would have him.
He picked up and dialed her number. Voicemail. He listened, like a lovesick puppy, to the cheery message that no longer matched the woman. He hung up before the tone, unwilling to leave a message and let her hear his weak, pleading voice.
“Sir, you can go in now.”
He nodded at the pretty nurse and stood, stretched his limbs from the hours spent sitting. Then, he slipped into the room, mostly unnoticed.
***
Sleep did not come easy to Eve over the past week and she knew at least part of the reason. She had been avoiding Alessandro and his constant calls. They both knew where this was heading, so there was no reason to drag it out. He was still in Seattle and she was still sick, so talking now would only prolong the agony.
Her dreams were littered with thoughts, images, and scents of Alessandro. He was everywhere she turned, from her salons to her dry cleaners and even her gynecologist. Escaping him was impossible, even in slumber. But last night’s dream had tortured her the most.
Alessandro walked into the bedroom, fire burning in his eyes, but he said nothing. He strode to the bed where she lay naked under the sheet, eagerly anticipating his touch. When he leaned over, he kissed her lips so softly tears sprang from her eyes. His touch was feather light everywhere – on her breasts, her stomach, and the backs of her knees. He tortured her with faint kisses that increased her passion and her need for him.
She reached out to him and took a step back with a smile. “This is for you,” he told her.