“Oh, you like that, too,” I murmur. She’s responsive, quivering as I rub on either side, finding all the spots I should explore with my tongue.
“More,” she breathes, and that’s my cue. I lean in and follow the same path with my mouth, outside first, then in, starting lower, where she’s wet for me, and so fucking delicious.
Then higher, where I need to be more gentle, because her clit is throbbing now, hard and eager but oh so sensitive.
Back and forth I go, in lazy figure eights until she starts lifting her hips to meet my tongue, my mouth, and then I kiss her deeper. I fuck her with my tongue and suck her clit into my mouth, but I don’t let her have either of those long enough to get herself off on my face.
There’s plenty of time for that in the future. Beth can ride me whenever she wants. I’m already addicted to the taste of her. But I want more tonight. I ease off and she protests, so I dive back in, playfully this time.
I love the way she squirms and tries to push my head down when I tease her clit with the tip of my tongue. All restless and desperate. I should make her come, but I want her all on edge when I finally take her.
“Lachlan, please.” She sounds desperate. Perfect.
I pull back far enough to see her face and she bangs her head against the pillow as she lets out a frustrated growl.
“Please, what?” I ask. I know what she wants, but I need to hear it. Both for my ego, and my overactive sense of responsibility that wants her enthusiastic consent to my cock in her pussy.
“Please don’t make me wait any longer. Get up here.”
Close enough.
I lean in for a final taste of her before slowly kissing my way up her body. So many sensitive places that make her squirm and giggle, and I linger in each newly discovered spot. The crease where her thigh meets her body—I’m fascinated that she only reacts on the one side. The nip of her waist—both sides.
By the time I reach her breasts, she’s writhing beneath me. I circle one nipple with my tongue as I tease the other with a finger. Her hips rock and I latch onto her and suck hard while I glide my hand down to her pussy. I dip a finger in and out, coating it in her cream.
I press my finger to her lips. “See how good you taste.” She licks and sucks at my finger, and my heart hammers in my chest. The look in her eyes nearly takes me apart as she swallows eagerly. I want to bury myself hard and deep inside her body, her soul.
Instead, I pull back, taking a moment to put on the condom and slow down.
Because this is Beth. The woman I’ve been wanting since the first moment I saw her. The woman who’s made me ache to be right here every single day for the past year. And this is my chance to show her how I feel.
Lowering myself over her, I reach down and position myself at her entrance, then, I hook my arm under her knee, easing it up and to the side—opening her as wide as possible. Our gazes lock, and Beth’s lips form a silent O as I press into her, inch by inch.
She’s snug and soft, warm and welcoming. Sinking into her body is disorientingly good, but after the first few strokes I gain the control I need to stretch out her pleasure. Our pleasure. I never want this to end.
Before long, she’s trying to tip her hips upward, but with her legs spread like this, she’s my perfect prisoner. “You want more?” I ask her as I slide into her heat again. “Tell me what you need.”
“Just this. It’s so good,” she breathes.
“Deeper?”
“Yeah. Sure.” She rocks her hips again, a helpless little pulse because she has almost no range of motion and I won’t be rushed.
On my next thrust, I flex my hips, burying myself in her body. As she takes the last of me, her breath hitches and I lean down and gently kiss her mouth.
She’s hot and tight, and now, she’s mine. It takes every bit of my restraint not to tell her that out loud. Mine.
Angling myself so I slide over her g-spot, I pump my hips at a nice, leisurely pace as I hold her gaze. And on the down-strokes, I grind against her clit. I watch her eyes light up, then get heavy. I like both reactions and I push her buttons again to zig zag her between them.
We can’t undo a year of distance. I can’t make up for three hundred and sixty-five nights of empty beds. But I can make tonight worth the wait.
I can give her so much pleasure she’ll be sore in all the right places.
As I move us together, she gives up trying to meet my thrusts, and instead of rocking her lower body, she stretches her arms over her head and writhes beneath me, brushing her nipples against my chest.
I kiss her again. I know what you’re doing, I think, but I don’t say it. Instead I release her leg and take her hands in mine, pressing her back against the bed. Her eyes darken as she tugs against my hold, and her lips curve into an ecstatic smile.
“No rushing,” I tease her as I swivel my hips, easing my cock partway out of her. She groans and tosses her head as she tries to chase the shallow strokes. Her legs crawl up my torso, urging me deeper again, and when I finally give in she gasps and presses her face into my forearm.
Inside, she clenches around me, too. Every part of her body is responding to me, and that’s so fucking heady.
That we’re doing this is still unreal.
I breathe her name to ground myself, and she turns her face again, looking right at me. “Yes,” she says. Simple as that.
I say it again. “Beth.”
“Yes. Lachlan, yes.” She arches her back, surging under me, and I release her hands, dropping my forearms to the bed. Caging her in but letting her move, too. Letting her suck me into the whirlwind of arousal. Fuck control. Fuck patience.
My thrusts grow wild and frantic as she grinds up against me. Her hands cup my shoulders, my neck, and she pulls me down, until we’re plastered together.
I realize I’m shaking as I buck into her, my thrusts starting and stopping deep inside her, more a rutting than anything else. Her teeth graze my shoulder, then her tongue follows, a slow lick that makes my balls pull tight.
“Do that again,” I growl hoarsely, and she does, squeezing me inside her at the same time, and a stream of profanity slides out of my mouth. “Need you to come with me. Fuck, I need you…”
“So close,” she whispers, her breath hot against my skin. “Harder.”
I blindly reach for her leg with one hand, going back to the position we started in, and she cries out. Yeah, that’s the stuff. Each stroke drags another gorgeous shout from her mouth, so I stick with powerful thrusts of my hips. My own release begins to churn, and there’s not much I can do about that. But even if I spill into her before she comes, I’m not stopping. I’ll get her there. I’ll fuck her forever if she wants.
She clings to me, her voice sweet and husky in my ear as I drive into her. “There, yes. Oh, Lachlan. I’m going to…”
And through some blessed luck I don’t fucking deserve, she gets there just before I do. She tightens up in my arms, shivering and clutching as an orgasm rockets through her. Her face contorts delicately, her mouth parting, her eyes squeezing tight, and it’s all so gorgeous, so private and erotic, watching her come undone, that I lose myself.
I thrust hard one last time, holding my engorged cock deep inside her. No release has ever felt this good. My thighs throb, my arms ache, and I’m coated in a thin sheen of sweat.
I should probably get off her. Even as I think that, I press my hips against hers. My cock is sensitive and softening, but she still feels amazing.
“Am I heavy?” I finally ask.
“Mmm.” She laughs lightly. “Yeah. I like it, though.”
With a sigh, I roll to the side. I need to get rid of the condom. “That was…incredible.”
She makes a contented sound. “It’s been a while, and I don’t want you to get a swollen ego or anything, but that was quite exceptional. I’m not sure it’s ever been that good.”
“No worries on my ego. You get all the credit for making that special.” I stretch out and she does the s
ame, but on her stomach. I look at her sideways and reach out to lazily touch her hair. “And it’s been a while for me, too.”
She doesn’t say anything, and I stroke my fingertips over the elegant line of her neck and around the delicate muscles in her shoulders. When I stop at the top of her spine, she twists her head to look at me. “What?”
“I want to tell you about what I did with Gavin and Ellie.”
She smiles ruefully. “Right now?”
“Yeah.” It might not make sense, except in my head, and I want to get this out. “It wasn’t about sex. That’s what I want you to know.” She doesn’t move. I trace my fingers down her spine. “Not like this. This is intimate and special and nothing like what I did with them. What I did for them. That was kink. That was service.”
She nods, a small little movement. “Okay.”
“It’s just—”
She turns and presses her fingers to my mouth. “I said okay.”
“I won’t do it again. They wouldn’t ask me to, but I’d say no if they did.”
Another bob of her head, but this one comes with a bite of her lip. “I don’t think I want more explanation there. I’ll get past it.”
My turn to slowly nod. I don’t want to turn this into some kind of confessional beyond making sure we’re on the same page. “We’re going to find our own way here.”
She leans in and brushes her lips against mine. “I’m figuring that out,” she says, her breath sweet and hot as she gives me a loose, sleepy smile. “None of this has been like what I expected. I’m sure whatever comes next will be strange and wonderful, too.”
10
Hugh
Beth: Can we have lunch?
Beth: Today?
Beth: I could introduce you to the poutine at ESD if you haven’t tried it yet…
When I wake up to three texts from Beth, back-to-back-to-back at five in the morning, there’s only one response.
Hugh: Would you rather grab breakfast? I don’t have to be on duty until seven.
Beth: Okay.
Twenty minutes later, I meet her at Elgin Street Diner, which I’ve heard of but have not yet experienced. She’s already halfway through a cup of coffee when I arrive.
She gives me a nervous smile, and I lean down and brush a kiss against her cheek. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Morning.”
“Couldn’t sleep?” I slide in across the booth from her and grab the menu. Apparently I can get poutine as a breakfast side. Perfect.
“Not really.”
I put the menu down and give her my undivided attention. “Want to tell me about it?”
She opens her mouth, then closes it and shakes her head.
I give her a gentle but disbelieving smile. “Then why did you text me?”
“I wanted to have lunch.”
“Hmm. Okay. Why don’t we say what’s on our mind together. Count of three?”
“Hugh…”
“Three…two…one.” I look at her evenly. “I slept—”
“—with Lachlan.” Her eyes go wide. “Wait, when?”
“Friday night.”
“Ah.” She licks her lips. “He kind of told me about that. Not the details, but…”
“Do you want the details?” I’m ruthless about this, but fuck it. Secrets between lovers are fucked up, and I still want to be Beth’s lover. Until they tell me they’re exclusive and I can take my perverted ways and buzz off, I’m all in with both of them.
Pink spots bloom in her cheeks, but she doesn’t look away. “Maybe not here.”
“Where were you planning on taking me for lunch?” I arch one eyebrow. “We’re the only people in here right now. The waitress can’t hear us.”
Her hand shakes as she picks up her coffee cup. “Right.”
“So that’s a no?”
She shakes her head. “No.” Her chest rises and falls raggedly. “Oh, this isn’t how I thought this would go.”
“Tell me what you want to hear.”
“I don’t want to be a problem between you and Lachlan.”
She doesn’t get it. “That’s not a concern.” It’s up to him to tell her how he feels, but between the dirty fuck-buddy connection that I have with him and his un-dying love for her, Beth isn’t the one to worry about messing things up. “If anything, I should be apologizing to you.”
Her blush deepens. “I…I don’t know if I should admit this, but I don’t have a problem with you guys fooling around.”
My eyebrow goes up again. “Fooling around? We’re not in high school.”
“Right. I mean…everything. Anything. I think…whatever makes Lachlan happy. I don’t have a claim on him.”
“Do you want one?”
“I…”
My pulse has picked up, and I know I’m pushing her now, but this is everything. “What do you mean, whatever makes Lachlan happy?”
She shrugs. “I don’t honestly know. But when I think about him and you, I don’t get jealous. You said you’re not a jealous person either, so maybe…for now…”
She trails off as the waitress realizes we’re not looking the menus and approaches. We both order the special and I ask for coffee.
When we’re alone again, I lean back and spread my arm wide across the back of my side of the booth. I’m about to tread on dangerous ground, but that’s what I do. “Do you get jealous at the thought of him with anyone else?”
She glances away. Yes.
I wait until she warily lifts her gaze back to my face. “Beth, don’t confuse being attracted to both of us with not being jealous.”
She frowns. “Well, it feels different.”
“Until the bloom falls off the rose of dating two men.” I raise my hands. “I just want you to go into this with eyes wide open.”
I hadn’t meant that as a test, but if I had, she’d have passed it with flying colours. She doesn’t even blink. “Into what?”
Into what, indeed. That was the million dollar question. “Honestly? I don’t know. But I have some ideas…”
11
Lachlan
I can’t pretend I wasn’t worried about how work would go after the weekend of Hugh and Beth and me and holy shit, but as Monday unfolds, those fears prove to be unfounded.
If anything, Hugh is more professional today than he has been in the last two months. No dirty looks, no mostly-innocent slips of the tongue that I know are anything but.
Mid-morning, he checks in with me as I hand off the PM to his team for a trip across the road to Langevin Block, where the bulk of the PMO staff work, and his expression is cool and all business.
Maybe I should have blown him sooner.
Beth doesn’t wear a mask quite as well as Hugh does, but she’s completely professional, too, even if her smiles are warmer and her eyes follow me more than usual.
I like that. A lot.
At noon I have another wedding conference call, and when I get off that, Gavin’s back and his itinerary for the week has changed. Now we need to send an advance team to Winnipeg as well as Regina for the cross-country trip he’s taking next week. It takes most of the afternoon to confirm the details from the travel office. Flights for my officers not traveling on the PM’s plane, extra hotel rooms, and a local RCMP liaison officer to get the ball rolling before they arrive.
Once all of that is done, Beth likes to be copied on the confirmation. It ticks a box on a master list she keeps. I could email her, but…
I take the stairs two at a time.
She’s doing her end-of-the-day routine when I arrive. Clearing everything off her desk, one project at a time. Carefully locking away anything sensitive, and slotting papers that staffers might need overnight if something comes up—like Gavin’s daily schedule printout, a call sheet of critical phone numbers, letterhead and envelopes—into the designated spaces. The red folder for the chief of staff’s team, blue for communications, green for special projects. She re-arranges the pens that, over the course of the day, have g
otten stuck in the wrong cups, then grabs a cloth and gives her computer a quick wipe down.
Watching her do something so ordinary shouldn’t affect me, but I love the care she takes to make things right.
She finally finishes what she’s doing, and without looking over at me, says, “Are you just going to lurk there?”
“No.”
She gives me a sideways glance. “Good.” Then she smiles, and that’s everything.
My chest swells. “Everything is organized for the advanced party to go to Winnipeg on Thursday.”
She nods. “Good.”
“I could have told you that in an email.”
Another smile. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“Do you have dinner plans?”
Her eyes flare in surprise. “No.”
“Was that too forward?” I move closer, suddenly feeling too big and oversized for the refined space. For her.
A slow, gentle shake of her head. “Not at all. Feel free to be as forward as you want with me.”
“I want to take you out for dinner.” Hugh got to do that. It’s only fair. But I keep that to myself.
“I want to go home and change first.”
“I could pick you up at seven?” I think of where I want to take her. “And dress casually. Jeans would be fine.”
For the last year, I’ve spent more hours on duty than most supervisors do. I’ve taken my role as Gavin’s chief of security seriously—and when he started seeing Ellie, that effort doubled because she didn’t ask for any of the extra exposure dating him brought down upon her.
But I sign out tonight without a second thought. There are good protocols in place and I’ve got my phone on me.
And more importantly, Beth is worth it. I’d lost sight of that, but I see it clearly now, and I want to make up for lost time.
I head home and shower and shave again, then change into jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I grab a jacket, too, but it’s warm enough I won’t need it.
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