Taking It Off

by Claire Kent

  “Yeah!” The one word was too loud so she turned her head and raised a hand to stuff her fist into her mouth.

  “Fuck, baby, don’t try to fight it.”

  She made a whimper around her knuckles as her eyes glazed over, the coiled pressure at her center so intense now she was almost afraid.

  He was rutting like an animal now, fast and hard and so good, shaking her entire body. “Don’t fight it. Just let it come. Give in to it.”

  She wasn’t sure she could let go, let it come—not with just a wall and a door between them and everyone else. What if someone heard? What if someone knew what she was doing in here, how good Matt was making her feel?

  She made a wet sound and tried to straighten her leg but couldn’t because of Matt’s grip on it. She was felt helpless, completely under his control.

  And it was the hottest thing she’d ever experienced. She was going to come so hard she had to bite on her fist as it approached.

  He pulled her fist out of her mouth with a hand on her wrist before he braced his palm again on the desk.

  “Trust me, baby,” he murmured thickly.

  She came then, her back arching up off the desk and her mouth opening in a silent scream as the sensations overwhelmed her. Her pussy clamped down hard around his cock, holding him so tightly he couldn’t pull out. He pushed against her contractions with a few helpless groans, his eyes closing as the pleasure washed over his face.

  They were both panting desperately as they came down and he finally released her leg.

  It was stiff and sore, and she winced at the feeling. Matt pulled out of her and straightened up, his face flushed and damp with perspiration.

  Hers was too, she was sure.

  “Wow,” she said, sounding stupid because she didn’t feel capable of saying anything else.

  He gave a hoarse chuckle as he reached over to stroke a few strands of hair back from her face. “Yeah.”

  “I’m not sure I can walk.”

  He gave her a quick assessing glance as she regained her feet, her knees buckling briefly before she was able to straighten her legs.

  “I might think about participating with some of the other guys again if it gets me another orgasm like that,” she said.

  If she’d thought about the words, she wouldn’t have said them, but they came to her lips without giving them a second thought.

  She saw something tense flicker on his face for just a moment before he smiled. “The orgasm is a reward. If I see you with the other guys again, I’ll have to punish you.”

  She felt a little clench of excitement at the thought. But she said, “You don’t really expect that to work on me, do you?”

  He paused, then shook his head. “No. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that all my normal strategies don’t accomplish a fucking thing with you.”

  “Then you’ll have to think up new strategy.”

  “I’m already working it.”

  Chapter 5

  Elizabeth wasn’t quite ready to face the raucous crowd in the club, and she wasn’t entirely steady on her feet, so she moved over to the love seat and sat down.

  “You okay?” Matt asked when she winced slightly as she crossed her legs.

  “Yeah. Sure.” She smiled up at him, pleased when he came over to sit beside her, which seemed a sign he wasn’t ready to get rid of her. “I got fucked pretty hard just now.”

  He gave a low laugh and slouched a little, looking warm and rumpled and sexy as hell. “You were asking for it.”

  “I was.” She let out a long breath, wondering what was happening to her, whether it was good, whether it was crazy, whether she was the same person she’d always believed herself to be.

  She kind of liked this person she’d turned into, though. At least she was interesting—and she got to have sex with an incredibly hot man.

  “So what was going on with you tonight?” Matt asked after a moment. His eyes were resting on her face with an almost leisurely regard.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, although she knew exactly what he meant.

  “You know. The way you were acting earlier—all that squealing and humping the other guys. That wasn’t like you.”

  “How do you know what I’m really like?” She didn’t know why she was being difficult She could have just told him the truth—that she wasn’t sure what was going on herself.

  “I do know you,” he said, his voice low and strangely resonant, like the words meant more than they should. “Don’t fool yourself about that.”

  She shivered slightly and crossed her arms over her stomach, staring down at the floor. It felt like he knew her. It had felt like he’d known her from the first night he met her.

  But that didn’t mean he really did.

  “So what’s going on?” he asked, obviously refusing to be distracted from the question. He didn’t sound demanding, but he sounded entitled—like he deserved to know the contours of her soul.

  She released another long sigh. “I don’t really know. I just…”

  “You just what?”

  “I went to a wedding today. One of my good friends from college.”

  “And you suddenly felt incomplete and unsuccessful because you’re not married yet yourself?” His tone was very dry, slightly amused.

  “No!” She gave him a narrow-eyed glare. “I caught the bride cheating with a groomsman like an hour before the wedding.”

  “Whoa.”

  She was pleased to see he looked surprised and displeased by this news. No matter how much Melissa had tried to brush it off as normal and minor, Elizabeth knew it was a big deal.

  It was just wrong.

  “Anyway, it threw me into this weird state—thinking everything I’ve believed about marriage and what I wanted from life was just fake and empty. So if none of that mattered, then I might as well…”

  “Enjoy the emptiness.”

  “Yeah. That’s what you do all the time, right?”

  “I guess I do.” His face was strange, like he was thinking, like he’d realized something.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the cushion. “I suppose it was a ridiculous overreaction to discovering that about my friend. I’m not sure what got into me.”

  Matt was silent a long time before he finally said, “I like what got into you.”

  She opened her eyes to check his face, but he looked serious. “You didn’t seem too happy about me humping the other guys.”

  “No. No.” His voice got a little thick. “That part wasn’t good at all, but I like you when you’re taking risks, when you’re not afraid to take off the perfect-girl costume you always wear.”

  “It’s not a costume.”

  “So you’re saying you are perfect?” That dry humor was evident again, even though he wasn’t smiling.

  She gave a huff of laughter. “No. Of course not. Just that it isn’t really a costume. That person is really who I try to be.”

  “Why do you think you always try to be her?”

  “I thought you knew everything about me already. Isn’t that what you said?” She slanted him an ironic look to make it clear she was teasing.

  He grinned in a way that was almost naughty. “I said I know you—not that I know everything about you. So tell me this. Why do you always feel the need to be that perfect person?”

  The question hit home with unexpected intensity. “I don’t know,” she breathed, looking down at her hands.

  “Yes, you do.”

  As usual, he’d read her exactly right. Of course she knew why she’d spent her life trying to be that person. There was no reason why she should admit such a deep truth to Matt, but she heard herself saying anyway, “My parents always had all these expectations for me, and I guess I’ve always been afraid of not living up to them.”

  “What kind of expectations?”

  “You know. Make good grades. Don’t get in trouble. Keep your life under control. Be successful at whatever you do. My dad even wants me
to go into politics.”

  “Wow,” Matt muttered, his eyebrows arching. “I don’t really see you wanting to do that.”

  “I don’t.” Elizabeth sighed, feeling kind of heavy. It was strange that this guy whom she barely knew seemed to understand her better than her own father. “It’s just that he wants me to be at the top of…of the world, and that’s the way he thinks I can do it. It’s just one of those expectations that they want me to live up to.”

  “What would happen if you didn’t live up to their expectations?”

  That was an easy question. “They’d be disappointed in me.”

  “What would be so bad about that?”

  She wrinkled her forehead, genuinely thinking through the question. Then she looked up at his thoughtful face. “It would hurt them. I’m their only child. They had me when they were older—they’d thought they weren’t going to be able to have children at all, and then suddenly there I was. They’ve given me a lot over the years. They’ve always believed the best of me. I’d hate for them to see anything but the best.”

  “So you’re really putting pressure on yourself as much as they are?”

  “Yeah, of course. It’s always that way, isn’t it?”

  “Then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to give yourself a break every once in a while and not try to always be so perfect.”

  Again the words struck her strangely. She sat perfectly still for a minute, just thinking about what he’d said. “I don’t know. All I’ve ever been is this perfect girl.”

  Matt’s eyes were resting on her face with that same focus she’d felt from him before, but now they seemed to see even deeper, all the way inside, where no one else had ever seen. “But maybe you don’t have to be her all the time,” he said.

  Feeling a little too vulnerable, she gave him a half-smile to change the mood between them. “You seem to have enjoyed fucking her well enough.”

  “I do.” Matt gave her a brief, smoldering look. “But the perfect girl would never have fucked me at all. So I like it better when you take her off for a little while and try out someone a little different. Then I can get a little action.”

  She giggled. She couldn’t help it. His slight smile and clever eyes were just too compelling. She was about to reply when she heard her phone chirp with a new text message, so she reached into her purse, which she’d dropped on the floor earlier, and pulled it out.

  It was Melissa. Just making sure we’re okay.

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

  “Someone annoying?”

  “My friend. The one who got married and is heading for her honeymoon tomorrow. She wants to make sure I’m not going to spill about her messing around.”

  “And are you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t do that.”

  “You don’t do that? Or the perfect girl doesn’t do that? Because it might be kind of fun to cause some trouble.”

  Elizabeth laughed again, feeling better about everything, like maybe the situation wasn’t as much of a calamity as she was making it. “It might be fun for a few minutes, but these are real people’s lives I’d be playing around with.”

  “But she deserves it, and he’s probably better off knowing who he just married.” Matt was talking casually, like he was more making conversation than really pressing for one side of the issue.

  “Maybe. Probably. But I’m not going to do that. I don’t do that. Either me or the perfect girl.”

  Matt smiled at her, and she felt almost proud of herself, like she’d said something good.

  Feeling an irresistible compulsion, she let the phone slide from her hand onto the cushion of the love seat, and she crawled over toward Matt. Before she could reach him, he grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap and kissing her deeply.

  They were just getting into it again when there was a knock on the door.

  “What?” Matt called out, sounding rather annoyed—perhaps because he was starting to get hard again. She could feel his arousal growing in his jeans beneath her.

  “Sorry. We’ve got a problem out here.” She couldn’t recognize the voice through the door, but she assumed Matt could.

  He groaned and pulled back from her slightly. “Damn it. I should probably go see what’s going on. Robbie wouldn’t interrupt unless it was important.”

  “That’s fine,” she said easily, climbing off his lap. “I’m a little sore from before anyway, so it’s probably just as well not to get too far.”

  He frowned, as if he didn’t like that idea, but he was already standing up, so she grabbed her purse and walked with him to the office door, afraid she looked rather disheveled and that everyone could see that she’d just been fucked.

  “I’ll see you Thursday,” she told him before he opened the door.

  He reached out with one arm and drew her close to him, kissing her until she was breathless. “That’s so you’ll remember what you’re missing if you let the perfect girl take control again.”

  She was smiling as she left the office, trying to ignore Robbie’s laid-back amusement when he saw the shape they were in.

  He obviously knew what they’d just been doing.

  Elizabeth stopped to go to the bathroom before she left, and when she came out into the foyer, she heard raised voices that gave her pause. They weren’t the normal ecstatic cries and laughter from women in the club. It sounded like an argument.

  Curious, she took a few steps until she could see around the corner into the hallway they seemed to be coming from. She’d never been down this hall and it said STAFF ONLY, so she assumed it led to the back rooms and behind the stage.

  She heard Matt before she saw him.

  “I don’t give a damn about your excuses. You knew the ground rules when you took this job.”

  She blinked at the ice in his voice. Not once had she heard him sound so hard and cold.

  “It was just the one time,” came another voice, this one younger and wobbly with emotion. “My girlfriend just gave me a little so we could have fun later this evening. I’m not a user. I promise.”

  She peeked around the corner and saw Matt standing next to Robbie, his back in her direction. Facing them was a man she recognized—one of the waiters. She’d only seen him from a distance, so she didn’t know his name. He was obviously very upset.

  “I don’t care what kind of good time you wanted to have. You knew the rules from the beginning. I don’t make any exceptions. Anyone who brings drugs here doesn’t come back. Get your stuff and leave. Robbie will take care of what we owe you.”

  Elizabeth was almost breathless at how merciless he sounded—despite the waiter’s obvious regret and remorse. Even Matt’s shoulders looked tense, ruthless.

  It was so strange and surprising—that he would be so rigid about something that must be commonplace in this kind of scene. Who would have thought he’d be so puritanical about drugs when sex and alcohol were obviously second nature for him.

  She glanced at Robbie’s face, wondering if he thought Matt was being too strict.

  But Robbie just gave Matt a light slap on the back—a casual, supportive gesture—and then nodded toward the waiter. “Come on, man. I’ll take care of you.”

  Elizabeth ducked behind the corner when she saw that Matt was about to turn around.

  It was a strange side of him to see, and interesting that the rest of his staff was obviously supportive, even though he was so unyielding in this.

  Again she wondered what had shaped him, what had made him who he was. She wanted to know more about him.

  On the way to her car, Elizabeth decided she was definitely coming back to the club on Thursday.

  And there was no reason in the world not to fuck Matt again.

  —

  Matt stood outside the door of the club and watched Elizabeth drive away in her expensive German import.

  She never turned to look back, so she would have no idea that he was watching her.

 
; Just as well.

  He felt almost sick about Scott having brought ecstasy to the club. He’d been working for only six months, but he’d been a good waiter and Matt had thought he’d been a good fit.

  But there were some things he would never budge on, and one of them was that this club was never going to turn back into what it had been when his father owned it.

  He’d seen Elizabeth leaving as he walked back down the hall, so he’d followed her, but by the time he’d gotten outside, she’d already reached her car.

  After she was out of sight, he went back inside, glancing casually over to the main room, where there was a roar as the four guys on stage ripped away their pants.

  When he turned back toward his office, he caught Robbie’s eye.

  The other man shook his head before turning around to pour out a beer.

  Matt walked over to the bar. “Is there something you want to say?”

  Robbie turned back around. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “Scott knew the rules.”

  “I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about your other problem.”

  There was no sense in pretending he didn’t know what Robbie referred to now. “It’s not a problem. I’ve got it under control.”

  “A girl like that, you don’t just walk away from afterward. Not without damage to show for yourself.”

  “I know that.”

  “But a girl like that is never going to get serious with guys like us.”

  “I know that too.”

  “It’s not a safe combination. That girl adds up to trouble for you.”

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  “You know she’s just trying something out for a little while, right?”

  Matt narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t a hot-tempered man, but the last thing he wanted to hear right now was Robbie reciting all the reasons he should have walked away from Elizabeth the moment he’d seen her. “Am I a fucking idiot?”

  “Not usually.”

  Matt didn’t trust himself not to bite Robbie’s head off—which was something he tried to avoid with his staff—so he turned on his heel and walked away.

  He should have felt good after the round of great sex with Elizabeth, but he didn’t. He felt restless and kind of heavy—and it wasn’t just the confrontation with Scott. He didn’t know what he should do now.