“It’s never been like that,” she whispered. “I love you.”
He pulled the pillows from beneath her butt, threw them aside, then came down on top of her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and locked her ankles.
“It can always be like that if we want it to be.” Braced on his elbows, Seth stroked the hair from her temples.
“Thank you, guys, that was awesome.”
Courtney had almost forgotten that Robyn was there. She turned her head. The courtesan lay stretched out beside them, her head propped on her hand.
“Thank you for letting me be part of such a beautiful moment.” She reached out, 76
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just a finger, stroking Courtney’s arm. Throughout the day and evening, she offered non-threatening touches, friendly, caring, seductive in a strange way because they were intimate yet lacked eroticism. It hit Courtney again why they were there. So that Seth could fuck Robyn. She’d somehow forgotten. After that cataclysmic orgasm, her husband was supposed to fuck another woman. In her heart she couldn’t take it. She could not watch. She could not allow this. There was something terribly wrong with her that she thought this would be the solution to her need for attention, to be wanted, to be desired.
“What’s going on, Courtney?” Seth cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. He lay a hairsbreadth above her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
She wanted him to be the one to back out. She wanted him to be the one to say he didn’t want Robyn, that he wanted only his wife. Yet, looking in his eyes, she realized he was not going to say that to her. She had arranged this, she had talked him into it, she had paid for it with her blood, sweat, tears, the Italy fund, and a little help from Devon. Courtney was the only one who could call a stop to it.
Yet she wasn’t sure how.
Devon had been so right. She should have thought more about how much she could handle. How there truly was a huge difference between fantasy and reality.
She did the only thing that came to mind—joked her way out of it. “Wow, honey, you’ve come twice tonight. Are you sure you’re capable of getting it up again for Robyn?”
Something sparked in his eyes. His face hardened. He pulled free of her and stood. She felt exposed and vulnerable in a way she hadn’t at any other point during the evening, not when she stripped off her dress, not when she sucked Seth’s cock with the courtesan. She rolled to a sitting position, wrapping her arms around her knees.
Seth grabbed his shorts, yanked them on. “You’re right, ladies. My pecker’s done for the night.” He gathered the platter and the wine bottles from the carpet. “Robyn, it’s been nice, but I’m bushed.”
Robyn still wore her caftan; she’d never undressed. Courtney wished she’d brought her own robe to cover up with. Instead, she rose to pull her sundress up 77
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her legs, then the straps over her shoulders, and reached behind to zip it. “We’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked.
Robyn merely glanced at Seth. “Talk to you later.”
He opened the door for her. Stopping a long moment as some odd and frightening nonverbal communication flashed between them, Robyn said, “Be nice,” then she was gone, the door closed, the cottage silent except for the flutter of the gas fireplace.
Courtney was left alone with her husband.
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12
HIS BLOOD HUMMED WITH EXCITEMENT, ADRENALINE, AND ANGER. What the fuck? Everything had been going according to plan. Until Courtney had challenged him to fuck Robyn.
Or insulted his virility. He was forty-eight, not freaking seventy-eight. He could get it up again, goddammit.
He’d given her the best freaking sex of their lives and she’d negated it with a flippant joke.
“Well, that was fun. What did you think?” she asked, her voice too high and falsely bright, as if she didn’t know how to gauge his mood. After twenty-three freaking years of marriage.
He found himself stomping into the bathroom like a child. “Yeah. It was great.”
She followed him to the door. “Are you mad, Seth?”
He took a deep breath, steadying himself. He was too old to play the I’m-notspeaking-to-you-right-now game. “Yep, I’m pissed.”
“I’m sorry. I was nervous. That’s why I said that about you getting it up again.”
“That was a minor technicality.”
“No, no. I shouldn’t have said that in front of Robyn. I’ll call her back and apologize. We can start again.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s only ten.”
He closed his eyes. Why the hell had he gone in the bathroom anyway? To brush his teeth, get ready for bed. Instead he started pacing. She moved out of the way before he ran her over. Slamming a hand against the switch, he shut down the gas fire, then he threw the pillows back on the bed.
“We don’t have to clean up now, Seth.”
He turned on her. “I’m not going to fuck some other woman just because you want me to.”
“I didn’t say you had to fuck her.” She’d taken two steps toward him, now she took one back. “But I thought you liked her. You seemed to love it when she was sucking your cock. Didn’t you love it?”
“You know goddamn well it was hot having two women suck my cock.”
“Good, then—”
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“This isn’t tit for tat. I’ll be goddamned if we’re going to start fucking other people. Or going out on dates. This is not a fucking open marriage.”
Her eyes widened, a flicker of nervousness flitting through her gaze. “I never said it was.”
“And I’m not watching you do another guy.” He slashed his hand in the air.
“So you can get that thought right out of your head.” He paced, his stride eating up the length of the cottage so fast he had to turn and start back the other way.
“That wasn’t what I was thinking—”
“Don’t lie to me. You’re pissed because I’ve been working too much. You want more excitement.”
“That’s not—”
“Well, I’ll give you fucking excitement.” He was on her before she could turn and run. Grabbing her beneath the armpits, he tossed her onto the bed amid the mountain of pillows. Before she could move, he was on top of her, pushing up the naughty little sundress she’d tempted him with all day. He found her pussy, delving deep, two fingers to the knuckles. “Christ, you’re wet.”
She gasped at the intrusion, and her eyes turned the color of melted dark chocolate. “Seth, please—”
“No fucking please. You want sex, you’ve got it, baby. All you can handle.” He pumped inside her, riding the ridge of her G-spot, his thumb on the nub of her clit at the same time until she writhed on the bed. The sweet scent of her sex clouded his head. He needed to taste her, show her no one could do this the way he could. “I’ll make you come until you pass out.” Christ, her pussy was hot and spicy like mulled wine, fragrant and sexy. She shoved her fingers through his hair and rode his mouth, arching, twisting, grinding.
“Seth, oh my God.” She moaned, and those were the sounds he wanted to hear.
He lifted his head long enough to order, “Say my name.”
“Seth, Seth, Seth.” She chanted and didn’t stop, her pussy clenching around his fingers, milking them as if they were his cock filling her.
“Tell me it’s never going to be this fucking good with anyone else.”
“Never, Seth, never.”
He licked her again, sucked the nub of her clit hard, worrying it with his tongue, just as she’d sucked the head of his cock in the Bacchus pool tonight. 80
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“Scream, baby. Scream loud for me.”
She panted, moaned, ooh, aahed, then he felt it, that special contraction, the beginning, then she thrust up against his mouth, clamped her legs around his ears, her body undulating. She cried out his name. Only his name.
He rode her climax until she pulled back from him, crawled mindlessly across the bed to get away from the intensity. He followed, yanking at his shorts, freeing his cock, rolling her beneath him, sliding deep into her contracting pussy, so wet, so fluid. He barely had to move, letting her aftershocks do all the work.
“Repeat after me,” he whispered next to her ear. “You are mine, and I am yours.”
“You’re mine, and I am yours.”
“I don’t want to fuck anyone else.”
“I never want to fuck anyone else.” She rocked against him. “Fuck me now, please,” she begged.
He gave her what she wanted. “You’re the best there ever was.”
She hugged him fiercely. “You’ve always been the best there ever was.” A sob threaded through her voice. “You always will be.”
He held her chin in his hand, pushing deep inside her. “Look at me, Courtney.”
She met his gaze, hers bewildered, heated, almost dazed.
“I never wanted to fuck Robyn.” He punctuated with a deep thrust. “It was always my intention to have her watch me fuck you.” When she didn’t answer, he circled her throat. “I told her that’s what I wanted. Only you.”
Her pussy rippled around him, ratcheting his tension higher, his orgasm suddenly rushing up at him.
“I love you,” he managed. “Say it.”
“Oh God, Seth, I love you. I love you.”
With one last thrust, he drove them over the edge together.
“I PLANNED IT ALL WITH HER,” SETH SAID, SNUGGLING COURTNEY close beneath the comforter. He’d pulled off her dress and tossed off his shorts. “The vibrator, the new positions, everything.”
“When?” The one word was the most she could manage.
“After you talked to Devon. I told Isabel that was the only reason I had for doing this, that I called all the shots. I never intended to fuck Robyn. Or anyone 81
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else you chose.”
It was exactly what she’d wanted to hear. And hadn’t had the courage to ask for once she’d started the game. Her husband had far more courage than she did. “I was wrong,” she murmured, playing with the matt of hair around his nipples. “I wanted to get the fire back. I wanted something to excite you and bring you back to me. When we got right down to it, though, I didn’t want to watch.” She rolled her head on his shoulder to look at him. “That’s why I said that.”
He stroked tendrils of hair from her face. “How did it make you feel watching her suck my cock, holding it for her?”
“This is going to sound strange. Like why is there a difference between watching you fuck her, versus helping her suck your cock, but there is.” She blinked, taking a second for one quick inner glance. “Maybe that’s why. It was me helping, but it was still me. Fucking her, it would have been the two of you.”
“So you’d be excluded.”
“Yeah.”
He kissed her forehead. “What we did this weekend was so damn hot, baby. You were fucking gorgeous sucking my cock in the pool.” He reached for the camera on the bedside table. Courtney hadn’t even noticed he’d put it there. He turned it on, flipped through. “Here, look at this,” he whispered in a reverent tone.
Snuggling close, she gazed at the shot. Her, eyes on the camera lens, Seth’s cock in her mouth. He was right. She was absolutely fucking gorgeous. She’d never felt more so in her life.
“I want more of that,” he said. “More of you looking so damn hot and sexy and erotic.” He set the camera aside and turned out the light. Pulling her tight into the circle of his arms, he tipped her face up to his. “It still has to be about us, not anyone else.”
“What do you mean?” She tried to read his expression in the moonlight through the cottage’s window.
“I mean that I loved being kinky. I loved having her watch us, telling us what to do. We should explore more of that.”
“You mean like same-room sex?” Oh yeah, she’d learned all the terminology while exploring the Internet.
“Yeah. Dirty pictures, sex parties, clubs, watching people, performing for 82
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others. Like we did with Robyn. Maybe even an audience. Kinky shit.” She could swear his eyes sparkled as his listed his naughty litany.
“I’m shocked.” Yet she heated clear down to her toes. He tweaked her nose. “You opened my eyes, baby.”
“Do you really want all that?” A thrill ran through her.
“I want to explore it.” He gathered her close, trapping her face against the warm, salty skin of his throat. “But I’m not letting another man touch you.” His voice rumbled against her cheek. “I’m not getting inside another woman. This will always be about us. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” Her heart beat faster, his words like ownership, possession.
“I will never let work come between us again.”
“Oh Seth, I’ve been such a bitch. I’m sorry.”
“You haven’t. I neglected your needs. Never again. I love you, baby, I always will. Kick me in the ass when I seem like I’m taking you for granted.”
“And I love you.” She pushed up onto one elbow. “Kick me in the butt if I ever start whining again.”
She settled back into his arms. Perhaps they’d needed this to figure out what their limits were, what they could do together and what they couldn’t, to remind them that marriage needed tending, it needed nurturing, and that love should never be taken for granted.
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The Stand-In
THE STAND-IN
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1
HUNTER NASH WAS INTELLIGENT, ARTICULATE, TRUSTWORTHY, ethical, and loyal.
She made him sound like a Boy Scout. Devon Parker certainly wasn’t thinking of her second-in-command as any Boy Scout. That was her whole problem. She had the hots for her tall, sexy-as-sin, black-haired, blue-eyed CFO. Watching him in action was akin to foreplay for her. Today, she was content to sit back and let him duke it out with the auditors. As CEO, Devon was here only as a show of GDN’s—Grant Digital Network’s—solidarity.
“I don’t appreciate the implication that someone on my team is being less than forthcoming.” Diplomatic, Hunter also had a will of iron. When he believed he was right, he didn’t bend under pressure. Having hand-picked each and every member, he trusted his accounting team implicitly. He would not let the outside auditors impugn their integrity—or his.
Thus the need to drive up to San Francisco to meet face-to-face with the new partner. The company had a September 30 fiscal end, and this was the new guy’s first year-end audit with them. Myron Denwal, a thin man with pale skin, a forehead marred by deep worry lines, and type-A dark circles under his eyes, spread his hands on the table. “All we’re saying, Hunter, is that Jenna has created an overhead file so complicated it may easily mask any miscalculations that could potentially overstate your inventory values.”
“Have her sit down with your lead and walk him through it.” Hunter sat back in his chair at the conference table. “Though I’m surprised he’d need the assistance.”
A slam. The spreadsheet wasn’t rocket science. With a marketing background, even Devon understood the file. Hunter had been having run-ins with Larry, their lead auditor. The kid was taking the fast-track to manager level on the backs of his clients by trying to prove negligence and fraud. When compared with Hunter’s domain, both negligence and fraud were oxymorons. And the kid, he was just a plain moron. Devon had complete faith in Hunter. If he said Jenna had nothing to hide, then she did indeed have nothing to hide. Devon also liked the girl. She’d been their cost accounting manager for more than a year.
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The corner of Myron’s eye started to twitch. “At this point, I believe we need a third-party intervention between them.” He rubbed at his lid as if that would make the nervous tic recede.
“I would be happy to explain the file, Myron.” Hunter gave him a ge
nial smile, but beneath it Devon sensed the leashed tiger. Myron clasped his hands in a tight grip, his joints cracking. “I meant thirdparty intervention from outside Accounting.”
It was tantamount to saying Hunter couldn’t be trusted, either. It appeared as if the new audit team was out for blood, creating an adversarial working relationship that would do none of them any good. After the last few years of accounting scandals, the general atmosphere between public accounting and private industry had taken a nosedive. Where once you went to your auditors for advice, you now kept everything as close to the vest as possible. In her opinion, a few bad apples had screwed the entire profession and made life with your auditors a pain in the ass. It didn’t necessarily mean the reporting was any better or more honest. Except in Hunter’s purview.
Hunter had the makings of a great CEO. She was well aware he would move on from GDN, sooner rather than later. Selfishly, though, she wanted to keep him forever. What would the company do without him? What would she do?
Devon leaned both elbows on the table and steepled her fingers. “I have the utmost confidence in both Hunter and his team, Myron. As you will learn once you’ve been through an audit with us.” Though she was fast beginning to consider they needed to find another audit firm. That, however, wasn’t the issue at hand. “I am familiar with the file.” Jenna had given a detailed presentation to management when she’d constructed the overhead rates. “I will sit down with Larry and explain the basics to him.” This was, in fact, the solution she and Hunter had devised before the meeting began. He was to be the heavy, she was the conciliator. Sort of a good-cop/bad-cop routine. Myron opened his mouth, closed it. Like a fish.
“Or do you wish to call my integrity into question also?” She pinned him with a look.
Between her steady gaze and Hunter’s hard stare, sweat gathered in the creases of Myron’s forehead. “I assure you this has nothing to do with mistrust.”
“I suggest you accept my offer then. Or do we need to discuss this further with a more senior partner?”
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