by Blue, Mel
“Now I really need to shower,” she said.
He cupped her face and kissed her. His mouth was soft but the kiss was rough. She sank deeper in the mattress, feeling boneless and hot. Yeah. She didn’t feel an ounce of shame about taking advantage of his loss of control. Too busy riding on that high, she didn’t bother to worry about the consequences either.
CHAPTER FIVE
Lucian glared at the text message Henri had sent.
If you want to see Emilie, she’ll be staying the night at the Beaudelaire.
More likely his oldest sister wouldn’t want to see him. She held it against him that he was born a mere year after her—different mother, new marriage. Along with the fact his mother had spilled the secret of Emilie’s teenage pregnancy all those years ago. He had fuck all to do with any of it.
But that irrational reasoning didn’t stop Henri from trying to mediate peace even after their altercation. The only high point was that Emilie would probably give their brother plenty of lip.
He tossed his phone on the bed without replying and continued his restless pace across the hotel room. But fuck, he’d let Henri get to him first. After storming out of the hospital, his brother’s words kept ringing in his head. “Tell Courtney I said ‘hi.’”
Lucian’s only goal had been to mark her as his, ensure no man, especially his brother, got a taste of her. He hadn’t cared about propriety, being a hypocrite, not even what an affair could mean for Courtney.
Even now that only worried at the edge of desire roaring in his veins. The fact was, he could almost taste her if he closed his eyes and breathed in deep. He had sex with his paralegal, and he’d fuck her again in a heartbeat.
His gaze strayed to the closed door. She’d put that barrier back between them. He kind of expected for the haze of her orgasms to lift and then she’d hand over a resignation.
But if she didn’t?
That’s what had him pacing. How in the hell could he concentrate on work when at any moment she could open the door and they would finish what they had started? He should be focused on whether or not he’d missed anything when he’d gone over the interrogs. But he could taste her, smell her.
And Courtney was…the only stable thing in his life, if he discounted the guarantee that his family would fight at some point. They would drift apart without contact for months, if not years. They were a fucked up, fractured family but family nonetheless. Their blood relation was the only thing he could really depend on in that equation.
Courtney had only been in his life for a year and already she was a constant. No matter how much he yelled at her. No matter the demands he’d made, she’d stayed. He paid her well, but not that well. She was loyal to her goals—that he knew. Courtney was also loyal to him. No amount of money or ambition could inspire that emotion.
He’d…never had that. It was kind of accepted most new paralegals in his firm had to work for him for at least a month. He’d break them in, drive them almost to the point of quitting and then he’d send them to another attorney on his roster. After him, any attorney seemed easy to handle.
He’d never offered her that option. She was his.
Lucian tugged a hand through his hair. This situation was so screwed up, and he didn’t know how to fix it. All he knew was that he’d worked and it was time to play. He could sleep when he was dead.
Where in the hell is she?
The doorknob twisted back and forth for a second. He held himself still. That could either mean she was unlocking or locking it. Earlier he’d only focused on the fact she had shut him out.
The door creaked open. A feverish warmth started at his head and flashed through every limb. She’d changed but still wore a flirty summer dress. This one skimmed her legs mid-thigh. He had to force himself to not launch himself at her and take her to the floor—take her on the floor.
Her scent drifted over him as she stepped into his space. Her face was an emotionless mask when she said, “Did you go over the draft?”
All he had to do was lift his hand to touch her. All he could do was call on his restraint to keep from doing just that. His body throbbed from the tension of holding himself in place, his hands at his sides. “I’ve sent them off.”
She nodded. “All of our work is completed for the day then?”
Something within him relaxed. She wasn’t about to hand over a resignation. He wasn’t about to lose the one stable thing in his life. Courtney gave him a small smile that held more than a hint of come-hither.
“Yes,” he answered, his tongue thick and dry.
Should he broach the subject of what they were doing? The pitfalls? Where they thought this led?
“Only one more thing to check off your to-do list.” Her smile widened at the bad pun.
Unease seeped into his thoughts. Was he risking this easy comfort between them? This was why he tamed his reckless nature. Every action had a consequence. Sleeping with an employee…yeah. He knew the likely outcomes, had argued about them in more cases than he could count.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and frowned at her. Her smile disappeared and her eyes widened. She had to be expecting the worse.
“Courtney…” he started and didn’t know where to go next.
Her gaze fell to the floor. “I want you, Lucian. Can that be enough right now? Soon we’ll have to prep for the conference call. Today we’re done with work. You’re not my boss. You’re Lucian B. Mostly because I still trip up on pronouncing your last name correctly sometimes.”
Lucian laughed and said, “Bo-De-Lair.”
Her eyes lit. “I’ll remember it for now. Ask me again tomorrow though and eh.”
The knot twisting in his gut loosened. Courtney was in his room, making him laugh and filling it with her sweet, seductive scent. She passed him and knelt on the bed. As though she had him on a short leash, he followed close behind her.
He knew what she felt like wrapped around his cock, but that hadn’t come close to sating him. Lucian had to see her unravel.
Make her mine.
His hands balled into fists but he took them out of his pockets to encircle her waist. He pressed into her, her feet dangling between his legs. Digging his fingers into her hips, he pulled her into him to grind his cock into her. She moaned his name.
If she wanted him mindless with want that was the way to go. He brushed his lips along her neck until he found where she spritzed her perfume.
“Do you taste as good as you smell?” Lucian asked.
She grasped his hand and placed it on her inner thigh. Lucian chuckled. Her solution was frank and to the point. That was something he’d always liked about her. She was that same woman in the bedroom. She’d been that woman in other men’s beds.
He nipped the space between her neck and shoulder and then sucked the soft skin hard enough to bruise. The urge had everything to do with his intentions to mark her. That afternoon hadn’t been enough. He didn’t know when it would be or what it would take to be enough.
He tried to stuff that emotion back in, to hide it away. She didn’t ask for his jealousy. Fuck, neither did he want it coursing through him, but she did taste as good as she smelled and that clouded his reason. He had no doubts she wanted him, just him, and not what he could give her. To her, Lucian wasn’t something she could pull out or put away when the mood struck her.
She asked, “Why didn’t you come get me when you finished?”
He trailed his fingers beneath the skirt and had to bite her again. She hadn’t worn any panties. “Waiting for you,” Lucian murmured against her warm skin.
They were so close her tremble washed over him. This was new and different. Courtney never showed him any vulnerability. Yeah, he’d picked up the sharp edge of her anger, irritation and probably homicidal wishes, but never softness. He’d demand the moon and she wouldn’t blink. And, always, always she’d bring it back as though he hadn’t just asked for the impossible. What she did for him at work couldn’t be separated from how he saw Courtne
y.
She leaned back into him. Whatever space left between them disappeared. “Touch me,” she begged.
He placed his hands on her thighs and slid his hands up, tugging at her dress with the movement. She lifted her arms and moaned when his fingertips brushed her nipples. She tossed her dress when the material reached her fingers, while he continued to glide his hands over her body. She wanted his touch, so he caressed and teased her beautiful brown skin until she panted and shook. Even then he didn’t stop.
He knew on some level this affair had an unspoken time limit…maybe not even that. As long as they stayed in the hotel, away from the outside world, this was simple.
She asked to be touched and he would. It was easy when every one of her curves was ripe for the plucking. And he plucked and bit the smooth curve at the back of her legs, her ankles, her neck—every inch of skin exposed to his greedy gaze.
His heart raced when he bent her over the bed and found she wore the jeweled anal plug he’d picked out of her goodie box earlier. The light-blue shade complimented her mocha-toned skin. He inhaled deeply and it sounded more like a hiss. If he’d known what his paralegal liked there was no way his restraint would have held out for a year.
“I see,” he said simply. His voice sounded rough. “You put on some jewelry for me.”
She threw a wanton look over her shoulder that forced him to still just so he wouldn’t do what he had the very raw urge to do. His cock started to throb.
“I like to feel full when I have sex,” she said, never breaking the heated eye contact.
Courtney was going to be his undoing and he wouldn’t care. “Let’s see if I can make you feel full. Head down. Ass up.”
She shifted at the edge of the bed, spreading her legs, bracing her arms at her sides. After she’d settled, Courtney turned her cheek against the comforter.
Seeing her like that he could understand the allure of being a Dom. This strong woman had knelt at his command, giving him the power to fulfill her every spoken and unspoken desire. He shed his clothes to do just that.
Stepping up behind her, he used two fingers to test how wet she was. Slippery enough he could slam inside her if he wanted. Instead, he closed his other hand around the base of his cock and swirled the tip in her arousal.
She moaned, her ass arching up at the tease. His attention focused on that simple action and he had to push the tip of his cock into her pussy. Just like before they both groaned as he stretched her. A tingle spread down his dick to his balls. Fuck. His toes curled at the heady sensation. He pulled out of her.
She made that sexy little whimper of hers and he pushed into her again, deeper this time. Courtney was tighter than before and he could feel the hard influence of the anal plug. If she started to come now he’d be through. With a groan of regret, he edged back. His dick glistened from her wet warmth.
Sliding two fingers down to her clit, he rubbed the nub in tight, fast circles. Her hands fisted in the covers and her hips lifted. He watched as her ass clenched and unclenched around the plug. A minute later she threw back her head and crooned his name as she came.
“Fuck,” he murmured and slammed his cock back into her.
If there were regrets or worries, he sure as hell didn’t feel them nipping at his conscience. He pounded into her. Courtney’s short pants turned into soft screams as his pelvis hit the plug with every downstroke. He reached forward and grabbed a handful of hair to get her back to bow just right.
At the crest of her next orgasm, he had to force himself to pull out. The temptation to ride it out with her made his muscles coil. But as soon as she relaxed into the mattress, he slid his cock back in and started for a third.
This had gone past marking her, making her his, smelling of him and thinking of no one else. He needed the same. For too long he wanted Courtney to mark him, to leave her scent on him and to make him hers.
She balled the sheets tighter in her hands and then used that as leverage to fuck him back. Lucian couldn’t be sure, but he suspected his eyes rolled in his head. He definitely growled. But he let sensation take over as he slid in and out her tight pussy. He closed his eyes and let her try to milk him, his hips thrusting in tandem to hers.
She closed around him tight, much harder than before and then she came. But this time…felt different. He buried deeper inside her and she shuddered. She wasn’t just wet. She was soaking. For only a moment he let himself revel in the feel, the sensation of her wrapped around him in a way he didn’t know where she started and he began. His balls tugged up. He cursed and pulled away from her. His breath rasped out, and he shook, so close to coming himself.
Lucian glanced down. From base to tip her juices covered him, even his pubic hairs looked wet. She continued to make half-sobs and tremble, trapped in a euphoric haze. His need to take care of her washed over him.
He coaxed her onto her back and nestled between her legs. She shuddered some more. He wrapped his arms beneath her, around her until there was no space left between them. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and her legs lazily wrapped around his.
He kissed her softly, murmuring platitudes. “Was that your first time coming like that?”
Her stomach jerked. “Hmm,” was all she said.
Oh, yeah. That fed his ego and he couldn’t fight the chuckle. “Breathe, sweetheart.”
Courtney tried but she was panting too hard. He pressed his lips to hers to give her something to concentrate on as her body continued to work its way through the intense orgasm. After a few minutes she relaxed and began to run her hands up and down his spine.
He was still hard as a fucking brick. That truth was pressed between them.
“You didn’t come,” she muttered, tiredly.
His mouth quirked up. “You did that enough for the both of us. If we’d been in the middle of the bed someone would be laying on the wet spot.”
Her lids were heavy but her tongue was still sharp. “How is it that you are still able to belabor the obvious while naked and hard?”
“I am a man of many talents.” He shifted and kissed her collarbone. “Up for another round?”
“Hmm.”
She tasted sweet and of sweat just like earlier. This time though he’d been the culprit. “I promise to go easy,” he said and sucked on her nipple.
She let out a small growl that sounded so feminine his stomach tightened. Courtney lifted her legs so they were around his waist. “Don’t go easy. You make the most interesting sound when you come.”
He released her nipple from between his lips and narrowed his gaze on her face. “What?”
She dragged him down to her mouth and only gave him enough room to sink into her again. In this position it felt as though the plug was tapping against the underside of his dick. Soft, wet and hard surrounded him. Heat rushed to his face. She squeezed his ass using her fingernails, urging him deeper, faster.
The ploy worked. His balls drew up, tight and full. His eyes seemed to close on their own accord and that perfect harmony sang up his spine. She moaned. The edge of her orgasm teased and tempted him to follow the pleasure coiling in his gut.
“Lucian, I’m going to come again.”
He lost hold to everything at her whispered confession as he thrust into her over and over again. His mouth parted and she took that opportunity to suck his bottom lip. He was lost in the ecstasy gripping him. She shuddered beneath him once, twice and the third time he came with her. Her nails dug into his ass then his back as she dragged her hands up. The sting of pain only registered as pleasure as another round of come spurted out. This time he was going to leave her soaking with the scent of him.
Lucian cursed and rested his head on hers. Courtney’s chuckle was husky. “You made the noise again.”
He didn’t have the piece of mind to ask what noise. He was drifting. Her delicate fingers brushed over the stinging sensation in his back.
Absently she asked, “When was the last time you went to sleep, Lucian?”
He shifted, curving his face to fit into the crook of her neck. He could sleep like this, with her, forever. “Yesterday. I don’t know. Before we got here.”
Her fingers climbed up to his hair and she played with the strands. How many times had she fantasized about doing that with him? He wanted to know. Would have asked, but the day was catching up to him.
“Lucian?”
“Hmm?”
Her lips brushed his ear, and a chuckle spilled out. “You’re going to pass out right on top of me, aren’t you?”
Darkness filled the edges of his vision. Her scent filled his every breath and her softness was better than any pillow. Her touch soothed him and before he could attempt to answer, Lucian was asleep.
CHAPTER SIX
After Lucian had fallen asleep, Courtney stayed up a long while. What should have never happened had happened, thinking about the next step kept her from sleeping.
There was too much of his skin to explore with her fingertips. Too much of Lucian’s scent in her lungs. Asleep he lost his formidable scowl. There was just an interesting face she wanted to trace and memorize through touch.
And she knew, deep in her gut, it couldn’t last. He’d wake up and put the mask back on. He’d have to order her to get him something frivolous, and that he had needed it yesterday. She couldn’t have him pulling his punches. Asshole or not, he made her a better paralegal.
He treated her as though she already had those five years of experience, and much to her surprise, she met his every high expectation. He didn’t know it, but he’d given her Teflon-like confidence. Courtney had needed that reassurance a few years ago after her ex, but Lucian had given it to her just as she had given up hope. That’s why she owed him. That’s why she couldn’t lose that feeling.
So when he rolled onto his back in the middle of the night, Courtney left his bed, his room. By the time morning rolled around, she was ready to be Lucian Beaudelaire’s paralegal again.
She found him sitting at the table in his room with his phone. He had his normal battle wear of a suit but his vest was left unbuttoned and his tie hung loose. His elbows were braced against his knees and a coffee cup was left forgotten on the table.