by Blue, Mel
Breathe. Just breathe.
“Courtney?” This time he whispered.
“I’m fine. I’m just not used to Louisiana weather. I need water.” She moved from the door and strolled past him to the mini-fridge in the corner. Whenever he left, she’d take out a few teasers of whiskey to steady her nerves.
Her back was turned to him for maybe ten seconds, but that’s all it took for her world to narrow. The box creaked. The top was being peeled back. That noise filled the room. Courtney should have known. Being an attorney meant being nosy as hell. You couldn’t let one detail zip by unless that was your intent. You had to know everything about the opposing side. Everything.
She rested her head on the mini-fridge’s door not ready to face Lucian. In that suspended moment she could act like he didn’t make her panties wet when she let herself think about his hands, his mouth and what he could do with both. She didn’t have to acknowledge the shift in their relationship.
And then he groaned, so soft she could feel the brush of it over her sticky skin. Resigned, she straightened and turned to him.
“You’ve had an interesting day,” was all he said.
The amused response was so unexpected she laughed. “Will you please go to your room now?”
“Let’s see…” He began to rummage.
The fact he was about to dig into the box should have propelled her into motion, but that buzz of energy around him had her on high alert. She’d seen Lucian joyous after a court win. She’d seen him so pissed it would have taken a crowbar to pry apart his clenched teeth.
This Lucian had a recklessness to him that…kind of turned her on. But, Lucian…reckless? Two things she’d never put in a sentence and that kept her from crossing the room. He was more dangerous this way than any other. If Courtney were sane she’d let him dig in, make a commentary and not move one damn inch.
She tried again. “You should really go to your room, Lucian.”
He pulled out the rabbit vibrator first. It was neon green and, according to Seraphina, if handled right would have her climbing the walls. Her body started to thrum as he flipped it over and read the description. She wanted to climb the walls with it gripped in his long, masculine fingers.
Lucian made an indecipherable noise. “There’s no need for me to go to my room. I’m always on my best behavior. Today won’t be any different. No need to worry. I’m curious though,” he muttered and took out a cock ring. “Who is this for?”
After last night she could say not for him. It was too small. “What happened with your brother?”
His jaw clenched, but he took out a fox tail. On the tip was an anal plug. His gaze went to her. There wasn’t a smolder to contend with. That kind of look, maybe, she could find her breath. This look was the fire.
“Without meaning to,” he said with no inflection in his tone, “my brother reminded me how long I’ve been on the straight and narrow. How many years I’ve done everything he would never do. He would have slept with you after hiring you. He would have laid out how much he wanted you, not giving a shit how that crossed a line. Yet, somehow, you’d know fucking him wouldn’t be contingent on your employment.”
He flicked his wrist and the tail went with the rest of her discarded goodies on the mattress. A tugging sensation pulled at her nipples. How could he have that effect on her when he stood halfway across the room? When he was talking about career suicide and ruined reputations?
But damn, she wanted to know what it was like to be fucked by Lucian Beaudelaire. To know what it felt like to have all that arrogant, testosterone-laced attention fixed on making her come.
She couldn’t. They couldn’t find out. Seeing this as her last opportunity to set their relationship straight, Courtney strode to their connected hotel door. She opened it and waved as though that could actually make him move.
“It seems your brother put you in a fine mood,” she said. “You should probably come down from the high of that fight.”
His back was to her but she could hear him unwrapping something. Too late. Courtney pressed her back into the door because her knees weren’t steady anymore. What had he found that he felt needed to be unwrapped? He tossed the small plastic covering on the bed.
The clit stimulator.
“It’s ironic, really,” Lucian said before facing her. His gaze fixed on her. “He’s a dominant. He’s all about control.”
She balled her fists. “Clearly you’ve lost yours.”
He took a step forward and another until he stood in front of her. Her breath rasped out on every exhale.
“Maybe,” he admitted, his eyes dark. “But you said my name when you came. You said it so easily it makes me wonder how many times you’ve come with my name on your lips.”
She closed her eyes at the direct hit. That was the thing about Lucian. He was damned smart. It was why she’d agreed to work for him without pay that first week. To watch him in the courtroom was an honest aphrodisiac, but having that pinpoint focus directed at her, peeling at her insides and vulnerable parts…it made her wet. It…scared her.
“Courtney,” he murmured.
His breath tickled her face. She gasped and then his mouth was on her ear. His tongue feathered along the tip, squeezing a moan from her tight throat. She had to taste salty but he didn’t seem to care as he tugged her ear between his teeth. She was shaking again, refusing to move. If she did, she’d launch herself at him and tumble them to the floor until he was buried deep inside her. She probably wouldn’t stop trembling until he was.
He pressed his fingers to her throat, against her pulse. It thumped hard and fast. Her pulse told the truth of what she wanted. She wanted this, him. He shifted, moved his mouth to her neck. He tongue-kissed the sensitive skin and she could feel it right in her pussy.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He bit her, hard, and she shut up because she didn’t care. Couldn’t. Not while her blood started to rush in her veins, getting her ready for whatever he planned to do next. But this was Lucian. He never let an opportunity to overwhelm his competition pass. His fingers went on an exploration, drawing circles over her arms, her stomach and when he got to her legs he slid them under her dress.
Her brain detached from her mouth. “Why are you doing this, Lucian?” Finally, she opened her eyes.
The dark emotions swirling in his gaze said it all. He’d lied about staying on his best behavior. He had no plans to stop this or apologize.
“I’m just playing with your toys.” He curved his head to the crook of her neck. “Close your eyes again. Just feel me touching you, sweetheart.” The endearment dripped with his Southern drawl.
She couldn’t do anything but close her eyes. And those long, beautiful fingers cupped her mound. Her arousal had soaked through her panties.
He groaned, petting her through the silk. The noise he made vibrated right through her skin to her core. He stopped for a moment but there was still a buzz in her ears. It took her a second to realize the buzz was the clit stimulator. He must have put the toy on his finger and turned it on.
Courtney tried to remind herself why this was wrong, why they shouldn’t explore a sexual relationship, but anticipation had tightened her insides and made her breathing one long, moan-like rasp.
By her next shuddering inhale, he’d grabbed the right strap of her panties and was already yanking them down. He’d set the vibration on low but she jolted when the silicone brushed against her outer pussy lips.
“Steady,” Lucian whispered.
As his mouth lingered near her ear again, his breathing turned heavy and labored. For some odd reason that gave her comfort. He wasn’t doing this to feel better after his brother had, somehow, mind-fucked him. Lucian wanted her, too.
He had to touch her. The ease in which he so readily ignored his principles made her think he had wanted to do this for a while. Probably as long as she’d been moaning his name.
He rubbed the toy back and forth along the crease of her pussy li
ps, never deepening the contact. It was maddening, arousing. She was going to break apart the moment the toy touched her clit. Fuck, she was already groaning like she was.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
Without thought she obeyed. She shouldn’t have. His gaze sucked her in, coaxing her to get lost in his eyes and stay lost. That choice would be easy. She could even tell herself later she had no other option. She had to follow the promise in his eyes. His touch had shattered her resolve, and the only sane thing to do was revel at the way he’d made her so wet. To just feel the vibrator parting her pussy lips with each feather-like stroke.
And when the next stroke was more than a brush, she had to fight the urge to close her eyes to the pleasure. Placing a hand next to her head, Lucian leaned into her. She tilted her head, a quiet demand, one Courtney didn’t think about until he nipped the corner of her mouth.
Kiss me.
She parted her lips in another quiet command. That one he ignored. He kept right on giving her just enough of his touch to make her moan but not enough to appease the ache twisting in her gut.
A growl rumbled in her chest at the frustrating tease. She needed him inside her, damn the consequences. That sharp emotion freed her limbs. She reached up and parted the soft strands of his hair between her fingers and then closed her fists.
Surprise and something much starker flickered across his features. This was crazy and she didn’t want to stop him. So Courtney turned her head, forcing their mouths to line up perfectly, because if they were going to do this she wanted it all.
He groaned. Maybe at the taste of her mouth or the wanton action. She didn’t know, but he pressed the stimulator right on her clit. Yes. He caressed her in slow, concentric swirls. Light, deep. Hard. Again and again, he kissed her and touched her in that pattern.
Whenever she felt the edge of an orgasm, he’d slip back to light and slow. The hold on his hair had to hurt, but if Courtney didn’t cling to him she just might crumble to the floor in a mass of quivering nerves and moans.
She took his tongue between her teeth, hard enough he grunted. “Make me come, dammit,” she said.
His laugh, this one full of naughty promises, strummed through her. “All you had to do was ask, sweetheart.”
The change from slow and light to hard and fast made heat slam into her every limb. Courtney’s head fell back against the door. She rocked into his hand and the toy to hasten the inevitable. Her pussy clenched. She stilled.
“Just like when you’re alone, say my name when you come,” Lucian coaxed, his voice gruff and a little raw.
Everything fell out of her mind as she curled into him. “Lucian.” She moaned and let the orgasm wash over her in a heady wave of euphoria and sensation.
He murmured against her skin, petting her softly to help her come down after the intense orgasm. He was taking care of her, using words that made her want to whimper. Never had he done that. This was another side of Lucian she’d never thought to fantasize about.
She went limp against him and he caught her. Courtney didn’t even think about it, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her against him and carried her to the bed. Lucian didn’t stop there. He pressed his body to hers.
She gasped. It was one thing to know he worked out and another to have all those hard planes molded to her soft frame, his warmth spilling into her.
Lucian braced his arms on both sides of her head, giving her long, drugging kisses until he pulled away. She whimpered and then her face flushed at the desperate sound.
He ripped the stimulator off his finger, his gaze narrowing on her. That reckless edge continued to reverberate through him. What they’d done wasn’t nearly enough, but in that moment she knew, if he hadn’t fought with his brother, Lucian would have never touched her again. She could see the realization crossing his face, hardening his expression.
His jaw clenched as though to fight that truth and he picked up one of the discarded toys—a small jeweled anal plug. She’d asked for that one specifically. From the way her skin flushed, he’d now know that too. Lucian had her at a disadvantage in more ways than one. None of them in the ways she had wanted.
“Courtney?” he asked, frowning.
Her brain and mouth still weren’t on the same page. “I need to shower,” she said instead of telling him to find the lube in the box. She swallowed, regret squeezing her insides. He smiled so she added, “Alone.”
His chin tilted up. “I see.”
She did the stupid thing and let her gaze travel down his body to where his cock pressed against his pants. It took all her strength to say, “You should go over the draft. We have a week before that deadline.”
His gaze shuttered. “Right.”
Courtney had known him long enough to recognize the defensive posturing. She was screwing this up, but wasn’t sure what else she could do. They hadn’t just ignored common sense, they had lost all reason, but she wanted more, so much more. She didn’t know what he felt like buried inside her. She wanted to know what his skin felt like sliding over hers when they were both covered in sweat.
They couldn’t go back to before. It wasn’t possible. And she needed him to be sure. He didn’t just stand on his principles, preaching them—he lived them. She didn’t want to just be a thoughtless moment of desire. If she was, her future, her desires wouldn’t matter.
“Work first…” Courtney put a hand to his cheek. “If you still want to do this then we can play.”
His gaze roved over her. Her panties were lopsided, her dress bunched up to her waist and she probably looked ravished both from him and the heat of New Orleans. There was no question in the way his gaze ate her up that he wanted to fuck her. That pure emotion wasn’t the problem.
He bent over her, sliding between her legs, just like moments before she’d opened her mouth and almost ruined her chance to have him like this. He placed his hands on both sides of her head again and ground his hips into her, letting her feel the full girth of his cock.
Lucian brushed his mouth against her earlobe. “Do I still want to fuck you, Courtney?”
She couldn’t help but find his rhythm and arch into him so she wouldn’t miss one hard inch as he ground his dick into her. He drew his tongue over her chin and then nipped at her mouth.
“Do I?” he asked again, his voice gruff.
She grasped his waist and pulled him down. “Yes,” she whispered.
“I still don’t think you believe me.” He braced himself on only one hand and reached down between them. Lucian popped the catch on his slacks and then undid the zipper.
Courtney held her breath and released it on a huff when he pulled out his dick. He was thick and long. She licked her lips already wanting to know what he tasted like.
“I’m sweaty and gross,” her stupid mouth said, but she couldn’t tear her attention away from his hand.
He pressed the swollen, red tip to her panties and rubbed against the wet spot. The tip of his thumb slid along her panty line and he tugged the silk to the side. That was good enough for him, because he pushed into her. She had to close her eyes as her pussy tingled, stretching for him, taking him in with a tight embrace. They both groaned at the sensation.
He shifted and more of his weight settled onto her. His breath fluttered against her cheek. She dug her fingers into his ass. That quiet demand he followed, and sank deeper into her. Again and again.
It wasn’t enough. His common sense would kick back in, and if this was going to be their first and last time, she wanted them skin-to-skin. “Wait.”
He stilled and as she tried to work his pants all the way down, she could feel his arms trembling. Finally the hair on his legs rasped the sensitive skin along her inner thighs. She moaned. “Sorry. Go.”
His chuckle sounded strained. “Are you sure? You don’t want to make the bed first?”
She bit the skin right between his neck and chin to shut him up. He hissed his approval. She started to unbutton his shirt, licking down the e
xposed skin. He drove his cock in deeper, and pulled out slowly. She gasped and had to hold onto the shirt at the feeling of him inside her.
“Stop worrying.” He grunted and drove into her again, holding her gaze.
Again, just as deep. Again, until she didn’t care anymore. He was buried in her, rolling his hips—how could she find a complaint? He pushed into her in long, endless strokes. She tried to keep up, to match his rhythm but a heat had stolen through her body. All she could do was hang on. Her hands clutched at him as tight as her pussy did.
He made a little growl and then kissed her, mating his tongue with hers. It was just what she needed because her sex started to quiver. She had to tear her mouth away to try to pant through the beginnings of the orgasm. He thrust into her faster. Lucian closed his mouth over hers just as a cry wrenched from her throat.
His hips jerked at a quicker pace, slapping into hers. He seemed to be in a heady race to reach her plateau just as she hit it.
“Lucian,” she murmured against his mouth and came for a second time.
His thrusts grew uneven and then he let out a long groan. She shuddered as the last of the climax rippled through her.
Courtney turned her head away from his mouth and tried to suck in much needed air. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. And she wanted more. So much more.
Courtney managed to bite back the whimper when he pulled out of her.
All that arrogant, testosterone-laced attention focused on her face. “Are we clear on what I want?” he asked.
Soon it would sink in he was the kind of man who practiced what he preached. He didn’t sleep with employees. Lucian was very inch the man who set the example of every rigid rule he had. Until that conviction, that man came back to his senses, she’d take advantage.
Maybe that made her a bad person, but wanting someone for a year while working beside them day in and day out had turned her inside out. Her morals, her inner compass suffered from the same sideways logic. She’d take him any way she could have him. Didn’t matter if she worried about him holding all the power to her future. He was kissing her, touching her. He did that all so much better than she’d imagined.