by Vi Keeland
“What the fuck?” Bennett roared.
If I hadn’t been so pissed off, I might’ve been distracted by the sight of a shirtless Bennett Fox standing on the other side. But I was furious, so seeing he had chiseled abs only made me angrier.
Of course he also has a perfect body. What a dick.
I marched right past him, into his hotel room.
He stood there blinking for a moment, seeming confused as to what the hell was going on. Eventually, he shook his head and let go of the doorknob still in his hand.
“Come on in. I wasn’t in the middle of getting undressed or anything.”
“You have some nerve.”
“I have lots of nerve. You’ll need to be more specific about what crawled up your ass.”
His playing dumb made me lose my cool. Not that I’d been too much in control before, but I snapped.
I got right in his face and jabbed my finger into his chest. “I’m in a committed relationship with Marina? What the hell is wrong with you!”
“Oh. That.”
“I’ve done nothing but right by you, and how do you repay me? You go and tell the client I’m having an affair with a woman in the office, so I look completely unprofessional!”
He raised his hands as if he were surrendering. “No. No. That’s not what I meant to do at all.”
“Oh really? So you accidentally told our client I was sleeping with our assistant and meant to what? Make me look professional?”
Bennett ran a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Bullshit. You knew exactly what you were doing!”
“The guy’s a dirtbag. I was trying to keep things professional. I said it so he wouldn’t hit on you.”
“You’re so full of shit that I think you actually start to believe your own lies, and that’s what makes your ridiculous excuses so believable. You’re a master of manipulating things to screw with people when they’re feeling vulnerable.”
I made a pout and mimicked his sorry-ass apologies. “I’m sorry, Annalise. I was jealous. Oh no, I was trying to protect you from the big, bad client.”
Bennett’s jaw clenched as he stared at me. “I wasn’t manipulating you.”
Frustrated, I turned to walk out. But then I thought better of it and went back for one last question. “Why are you even still here, Bennett?”
It pissed me off that he was playing games. His nostrils flared like he had reason to be pissed off.
“Answer me!”
In the blink of an eye, my back was up against the door, and Bennett was all around me. His face ducked down to line up with mine, and his forearms pressed firmly against the door on either side of my face. His bare chest heaved up and down so close to mine, I could feel the heat radiating from it. Fire turned the soft green of his eyes to a near gray.
“I’m here because I can’t fucking keep away.”
My jaw dropped. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, that makes two of us.”
Nothing made sense. One minute we got along great, and I saw slivers of a person I really liked. But then…
“Why do you keep hurting me?”
Bennett hung his head for a moment while I tried to take in what was happening.
When he looked up, his eyes were filled with remorse. “I don’t mean to hurt you. I just…you make me crazy. In thirty-one years, I’ve never wanted a woman like I want you, and of course, you’re the one woman I can’t have.”
I swallowed. My heart felt like it was ricocheting against my chest. “I don’t believe you,” I whispered.
His eyes dropped to my mouth, and he groaned. The sound shot straight between my legs, and my lips parted with a tiny gasp I hoped he didn’t hear.
But the wicked grin spreading across his face told me he’d most definitely heard it.
“You don’t believe me? What should we do about that?”
“Bennett, I—”
He reached out, wound his fingers tightly into my hair, and tugged me flush against him. His lips crashed down on mine, swallowing the rest of my words. I was shocked at how I felt it all over—my body lit up like a Christmas tree from just one simple connection. His hands slid up to cup my cheeks, and he tilted my head, dipping his tongue inside my mouth. My purse and portfolio carrier fell to the floor. Everything else around us ceased to exist.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and dug my nails into his hair. He groaned again and reached around to my ass, squeezing two handfuls while lifting me off my feet. My legs wrapped around his waist. God, I love skirts.
With me open to him, Bennett pressed his body against mine. I felt the hard length of him meet my heat, and he growled.
“Fuck. You feel so damn good.”
I whimpered when he deepened the kiss, digging my nails into his back and clinging to him. Our kiss was desperate and needy, down and dirty, and I could feel a heart beating a million miles an hour, although I wasn’t sure if it was his or mine. When we finally came up for air, we were panting, and I felt dizzy.
Bennett nuzzled into my neck while I attempted to catch my breath. He kissed his way from my collarbone up to my ear.
“There are so many things I want to do to you.”
I loved the gravelly sound of his voice.
“Like what?” I whispered.
I felt his lips curve into a smile against my neck. “I want to taste you everywhere.” He gave a slight, unexpected yank to my hair and exposed more of my neck while he kissed his way back down.
“Yes.”
“I want to bury my face between your legs until you scream out my name.”
“Yes.”
“I want you on all fours so I can be everywhere, so you can’t think or feel anything but me. One hand playing with your tits, the other one fingering your ass. My cock rocking deep inside of you.” He ground his erection against my exposed center, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head.
Oh God. It felt so good. My body began to vibrate. I started to think I might be able to come from just the feel of him against me and the sound of his sexy voice telling me what he wanted to do.
Things between Andrew and me had never been like this, not even at the beginning.
Bennett lifted and carried me from against the door into his room. I expected my back to hit the bed, but instead he set me down on my feet next to it and took a slight step back. His glazed eyes raked up and down my body, and for a few heartbeats, I thought he might be rethinking what was happening, what was about to happen.
“Undress for me.”
The assertive tone and strained sound of his voice showered goosebumps all over my body. Sometimes his confidence made me want to smack him. Apparently other times it made me want to strip naked.
I unbuttoned my blouse and looked up at him. There’d been so many times when I was unsure whether to trust him or not, but the kind of desire I saw in his hooded eyes now couldn’t be faked.
“I haven’t been able to focus on anything since the day you walked into the office,” he said. “You’ve starred in all my fantasies, even when I tried to hate you.”
I slipped my shirt from my shoulders and let it fall to the floor.
“Take off the skirt.”
It was easy to feel bold the way he was looking at me. I reached back, unzipped my pencil skirt, and shimmied it down to the ground. I was grateful I’d worn a pretty, lacy bra and thong that helped my confidence. I stood tall, wearing just my lingerie and heels.
Bennett flicked open the button of his trousers. His happy trail made me pretty damn happy. He removed his pants, and my eyes went wide at the bulge in his tight boxer shorts.
Damn. Now I know where the cocky confidence comes from.
He lifted his chin. “Bra.”
I unfastened the clasp and tossed it aside. My nipples were already hard, but they grew painfully swollen as I watched him lick his lips.
“You’re incredible.”
I loved the way he demanded things, but I wanted to
show him I was right there with him. So I took a deep breath, hooked my thumbs into the sides of my panties, and slipped off my last shred of clothing without him telling me to.
Bennett smiled like he knew exactly what I’d communicated. His eyes did a slow sweep over me and darkened, yet they sparkled with a mischievous glint.
He motioned to my heels. “Those stay on.”
He guided me to sit on the edge of the bed and dropped to his knees. The sight was pretty damn spectacular. Bennett Fox was always handsome, but half naked, with every ripped muscle on full display, while kneeling before me was an all-new level of sexy. He looked into my eyes as his hands pushed my knees open as far as they could go.
I gasped when Bennett leaned in and licked one long stroke. Unlike the strip of our clothes, there was nothing slow or teasing as he buried his entire face between my legs. It wasn’t soft and gentle. It was rough and desperate. He alternated between sucking on my clit, pushing his tongue inside of me, and licking me with long strokes that made me want to hold him there and never let him come up for air.
My head fell back, and it became difficult to keep upright. “Oh God.”
My cry made him growl and push that much farther. I began to writhe as my body trembled from the inside out and ripples of pleasure throbbed between my legs. I yanked at Bennett’s silky hair and moaned as intense waves of ecstasy hit me hard. Tears welled up in my eyes, my emotions needing to escape in some form, and I fell back on the bed, unable to withstand the weight of my own body any longer.
Through the fog of my sated brain, I heard the faint sound of foil opening. Next thing I knew, I was being hoisted up from the bottom of the bed to the headboard, and Bennett climbed over me.
I expected the frenzied pace to continue, but this was a man who’d surprised me at every turn since the day I’d met him. He brushed the hair from my face and gently leaned in and kissed my lips.
“You good?”
Not sure I could speak yet—or maybe ever again—I responded with a big grin and nodded. He smiled down at me as he pushed inside. Our gazes stayed locked, our shared smiles morphing into something more serious as we both felt the intense connection. He worked slowly—short, tempered thrusts as he eased in and out of me. Once my body had accepted his girth, he went a little deeper, pushed a little harder, until eventually he ground down, filling me completely.
Together we found our rhythm—him pumping and me meeting each thrust until our bodies were coated with sweat, and the sound and smell of sex filled the air around us. Bennett cupped behind one of my knees and lifted my leg, changing the angle of his strokes ever so slightly, but he’d found my tender spot.
“Bennett…”
His jaw flexed, the same way it often did when I’d pissed him off. Only now I realized his muscle tensing wasn’t so much an expression of anger, but rather him trying to hold something back. And this time he was trying to hold back finishing for me.
I moaned as my orgasm began to take hold, and my eyes fluttered shut.
“No way, sweetheart. Open up and give it to me.”
Bennett sped up his thrusts, and I held onto his gaze for dear life. My body trembled as I clenched down around him. The need to hide from the intensity of his watching me was strong, but I pushed through and gave him what he wanted.
He smiled down at me as my orgasm began to ebb, and then every muscle in his body hardened, and he started really fucking me—hard and wild with punishing strokes that ended in a roar that shook the room.
After, he buried his face in my hair and kissed my neck as he continued to glide slowly in and out at an unhurried pace. Neither one of us seemed to want the moment to end, so we lingered as long as we could, keeping the connection. But eventually he had to get up to deal with the condom.
Bennett climbed from the bed and went into the bathroom, leaving the cool air to hit my sweat-soaked skin and cause a chill. The jolt of cold made my mind reel at what had just transpired.
Never in my life had I been fucked like that. And I had a feeling that whatever this was between us, I was going to be fucked in a way that wasn’t half as much fun soon enough.
Chapter 26
* * *
Annalise
We were both quiet, lying side by side in the dark room.
I wondered if he already regretted it. “What are you thinking right now?” I asked.
He blew out a deep breath. “Truth?”
“Of course.”
“I was thinking about how I could manage to start the audio recorder on my phone without you noticing before I go down on you again. I need to capture that sound you make while you come to use for jerk off material after you toss my ass to the curb in a half hour.”
I laughed and turned on my side toward him. “What sound?”
“It’s sort of a cross between a moan and a scream, but it’s really throaty and fucking hot.”
“I don’t scream.”
“Oh, you so do, babe.”
I honestly had no idea what had come out of my mouth tonight. It was kind of an out-of-body experience that I had no control over.
“And what makes you think I’ll toss your ass to the curb in a half hour?”
Bennett turned to face me. He wiped a wisp of hair from my cheek. “Because you’re smart.”
I had no idea how what just happened would play out. Unlike my usual self, I hadn’t thought about the consequences of my actions. Instead, I went with what felt right in the moment. And God knows what had felt right in the moment turned out to feel pretty damn amazing. So I kept with that mindset, not letting myself overanalyze anything just quite yet.
“Andrew didn’t… He wasn’t really into oral sex. So I think the sound you heard might have been the cork coming off some really tightly bottled champagne.”
Bennett propped his head up on his elbow. “What the hell does that mean? He wasn’t really into oral sex? Are you saying he sucked at going down on you?”
“No. I’m saying it didn’t happen often. Like…pretty much never.”
“But you like it?”
I shrugged. “He didn’t.”
“And therein lies the problem in your relationship in a nutshell. I’m not just talking about sex, either. Any guy who doesn’t get over himself to do something he might not love to please his woman has an issue that goes a lot deeper than sex.”
Sadly, Bennett was one-hundred-percent right. Things with Andrew were always about what Andrew wanted and needed. He needed quiet to write his novel, so we put off moving in together. I liked a new restaurant and he didn’t, so we didn’t go back. He needed space, and I gave it to him. Yet when he wanted to go skiing on vacation and I wanted the beach, I dug out my winter clothes to make him happy. And the worst—God, I’d really missed out—Bennett was right. I do like oral sex.
I sighed. “You’re right.”
The room was dark, but I could see him smile. “I’m always right.”
Bennett brushed two fingers along the length of my arm from shoulder to hand. I seriously felt it all the way down to my toes, and it caused me to quake with a little shiver dance.
“Your body is so responsive.”
I reached out and flattened my hands to his abs, letting them feel their way around the hard plains. “And yours is so…hard.”
He chuckled and captured my wrist in his hand, dragging it a foot or so south.
“Oh. Wow. You’re….”
“Hard everywhere.”
“Indeed. That’s not very much downtime, you know.”
Bennett did some stealth move, scooping me up and rolling onto his back to lay me on top of him. “Gotta make good use of the time before the blood rushes back to your brain and you smarten up.” He lifted his hips and nudged at my opening.
“Feels like the blood hasn’t rushed back to your brain yet either.”
“How about we make a pact?” He traced his finger along my spine, slowing, but not stopping as he came to the crack of my ass. “Neither one of us thi
nks about anything until the sun comes up tomorrow.”
I brushed my lips with his. “Finally, something we can agree on.”
***
I slipped from the bed and tiptoed into the bathroom. On my way, I picked up my purse from where it had dropped near the door last night and dug out my phone. Six thirty. My flight was at nine. I scanned my emails to see if Marina had copied me on Bennett’s itinerary like she had him on mine. Sure enough, she had sent me his while I was at dinner last night. So I opened it to see if we were on the same flight. We weren’t. His was at eleven, for some reason. The thought of not having to travel with him, not having to face him in the light of day, made me feel an odd combination of bereft and relieved.
I tied up my hair and took a quick shower. When I washed between my legs, I felt an ache that made me smile. How many times had we had sex last night? Four? Five? Was that even possible? Whatever it was, I knew for certain it was my personal record. Andrew and I had never gone at it like that. In the beginning, there might’ve been a night or two that we’d done it twice, but once a week was more our average over the last few years.
My clothes were still on the floor where I’d stripped last night. Although when I put them back on, it looked more like I’d slept in them. But I couldn’t find my underwear. So I collected the rest of my things, put in for an Uber, and shook out Bennett’s clothes, thinking maybe my panties had gotten mixed up with them during our frenzy last might.
I jumped at the sound of his groggy voice. “Looking for something?”
“Shit.” I dropped my purse to the floor. “You scared me. I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was. But I woke up when you started rummaging through my clothes.”
“I wasn’t rummaging through your clothes. I’m looking for my underwear.”
He lifted an arm out of the covers and held up my panties, dangling from one finger. “Oh. You mean these?”
I laughed. “How the heck did you wind up with them?”
“I got up to go to the bathroom an hour ago, right after you fell asleep, and I scooped them up on my way.”