by K. M. Scott
“You made a horrible mistake? I think you’ve made like a handful in your life, so I doubt this is that bad. I think that café you and I like is open, so meet me there in twenty and we’ll solve your life crisis over some lunch and I can tell you about my new man.”
“A new one or the one you were spending all your time in bed with the last time I talked to you?” I ask as I hail a cab.
“A new one! You have to keep up, girl. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you. Twenty minutes.”
I hang up and climb into the cab to take me to our favorite café and hopefully the solution to the mess I’ve created. If I can just figure out how to fix this, I know Ian and I can be happy.
Sienna waves to me as I stand at the hostess desk just inside Surge, a café more known for its decadent milkshakes than anything else. A hangout for us from years ago, its name has changed a few times since then but we still love it.
I walk through the maze of teakwood tables to join her at a back table and find she’s all ready for our chat with coffee and my favorite blueberry muffins. Taking a seat, I notice the chair next to hers is pushed out.
“Did you bring that new guy with you?” I ask, hoping her answer is no.
“No. He’s back at my place. Cilla is sitting here, but she had to run to the ladies’ room.”
“Sienna! I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“I’m sorry. She grabbed me as I was heading out the door. I guess she’s got some tragedy of her own she’s dealing with. But it’s okay, Kristina. We’re all friends, and she knows what’s said here stays here.”
As Sienna finishes speaking, Cilla sits down in front of me and gives my arm a gentle squeeze. “I hear you’re as unhappy as I am, honey. You know what they say. Misery loves company, right?”
“I guess. What’s wrong?” I ask, hoping to keep her focused on her own misery.
“My accountant. The fucker has embezzled almost all my money!” she answers with tears in her eyes.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Cilla. What are you going to do?”
“She’s back to sleeping with that awful ex-husband of hers is what she’s doing,” Sienna says with a tone of disgust that matches her expression. Never a fan of Priscilla’s second husband, Rafe, she’s always referred to him as “The Creeper” for how close an eye he kept on Cilla when they were together.
“I don’t have a choice,” Cilla whines. “It’s not like I can just meet a man and get him to pay all my bills. Maybe ten years ago, but now as I slog toward thirty? No way.”
“Enough about Cilla and The Creeper. Tell us about your tale of woe, Kristina. We might even be able to do something about that. Accountants with sticky fingers will have to be handled by the cops.”
Suddenly, this doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore. Sienna I can trust, but I’m not sure about Cilla. She has a nasty habit of gossiping too much. But I need Sienna’s advice, so if that means Cilla has to hear some things, so be it. As long as I keep Ian’s name out of everything, I should be fine.
I take a deep breath and say, “I need advice about a romance problem.”
Sienna elbows Cilla nearly off the chair. “See? Now this is something I can help with. Go on, Kristina. What is it?”
“I’ve been seeing someone and he had to go away for a little bit, and well, I was lonely and I…” I couldn’t say the words.
“You cheated on him. Got it. Were you two broken up at the time?” Sienna asks.
Shaking my head, I say quietly, “No. He had to go to rehab.”
“You cheated on your boyfriend while he was in rehab, Kristina? That’s not like you. You’re usually the incredibly supportive girlfriend,” Cilla says with a tone of judgment I don’t appreciate.
“It’s not like you think. Whatever. But I don’t want him to find out and have that send him back to using.”
Sienna wrinkles her nose. “I don’t think you should hold yourself responsible for him falling off the wagon, if he does. I’m just surprised you’re with someone who’s into drugs at all, though. That’s definitely not like you.”
“He isn’t. Well, he wasn’t when we got together. It’s just that when I didn’t go to Rome with him, he got back into it. So you see, I don’t want that to happen again. I don’t know what to do.”
“This is the Rome guy? I guess he didn’t take the bad news well. Wow.”
Cilla’s gaze bounces back and forth between Sienna and me as she tries to keep up with the story. “Who? What are we talking about? How about some names so I know what’s going on here?”
Turning toward her, Sienna explains, “Kristina’s been seeing this guy who wanted her to go to Rome with him. She lied to him and said she would, but she couldn’t when it came right down to it because she had to go shoot in Vancouver. When she didn’t show, he unraveled and got back into drugs.”
Cilla nods like she understands, and then Sienna turns back to face me. “What kinds of drugs are we talking about here? Prescription stuff? Oxy? Cause that stuff is a bitch to kick.”
“No, not Oxy. Heroin,” I say quietly, already hating that the conversation has become fixated on Ian’s drug problem.
“You’re dating a heroin addict, Kristina? What is going on with you?” Cilla asks, still confused but willing to give her unsolicited opinion on my love life.
“Sienna, I need to know what to do about the other problem. Could we get back to that?”
Unlike Cilla, Sienna can take a hint, so she smiles and says, “Okay, I’m sorry. The whole drug thing isn’t really the issue we should be talking about. You had a moment of weakness while he was in rehab and you don’t want him to find out, right?”
“Yes. What do I do?”
“I think you have to go to the guy you were with and tell him it’s important to keep this whole thing on the down-low. Who is it? Maybe we have some dirt on him that we can use to keep his mouth shut.”
See, this is why I knew Sienna could help. I’d never think of anything like that.
I look around to see if anyone is close enough to our table to hear what I have to say and then lean in toward Sienna. “Gavin Somers. He was the lead in that movie I was filming in Vancouver. It only happened twice, but I don’t want this to get out.”
“Our lips are sealed, Kristina,” Sienna says to assure me. “Right, Cilla?”
Cilla quickly nods. “Of course. Sealed shut.”
“So I should tell him I need him to keep this to himself? What if he won’t?”
“Then we get something on him and ruin his fucking life. Scorched earth, baby,” Sienna says nonchalantly before she takes a sip of coffee.
“I’m not really a fan of the scorched earth policy. I mean, the whole thing with him was a mistake I’d just rather put behind me and never think of again.”
Cilla walks up to the counter to get a refill on her coffee, so Sienna leans forward and whispers, “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it. But I have to know. Who is this boyfriend of yours?”
I can’t tell her Ian’s real name, so instead I give her his pen name. “T. Anderson.”
Her eyes grow wide with surprise, and the look of shock on her face tells me she’s heard of him and our book. “Do you mean to tell me you’re sleeping with the author of Silk? I picked it up after you mentioned it in that interview. Oh my God, Kristina! It’s so fucking hot!”
Blushing, I smile, knowing exactly how hot our story is. “I know. I’m his muse, and it’s about us, basically.”
“I have to know! Is he as hot in person as the male character is in the book? The things Sean does to Kate—oh my everloving God! I want a man who does that to me.”
I hear Cilla behind us, so I say, “Shhh. I don’t want anyone to know.”
She sits down and I know instantly she heard something. “Don’t want anyone to know what? Tell me.”
Sienna quickly changes the subject and asks her, “So what exactly do you have to do with The Creeper to get out of financial ruin?”
“Don’t try to
get me talking about him. I want to know who Kristina’s new boyfriend is.”
It’s only a fake name, so I say, “His name is T. Anderson. But don’t tell anyone because we want to keep our privacy, okay?”
“Okay, but who is this guy? You say his name like I should know.”
“He’s nobody, Cilla,” I say as Sienna shoots me a look across the table to tell me we’re in the clear. “Just a guy who’s dating an actress.”
She takes a sip of her fresh coffee and shrugs. “Then he better get used to the idea that privacy is a thing of the past. I told you a while back. It’s the age of TMZ, Kristina. Privacy is so last century.”
Sienna thankfully distracts her from my problems with her opinion on The Creeper, and for the first time today I’m not terrified what I have with Ian is going to be ruined by two little nights with Gavin. All I have to do is convince him that neither of our careers will benefit from anyone finding out. He’s got a good thing going with the women he parades around town, a different one to each party and premier, so he’ll probably agree that our little tryst should stay our little secret.
At least I hope he does.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ian
The sober and drug-free version of me writes even better than before I find out after realizing I’ve written an entire chapter by the time I need to begin getting dinner ready. Sitting back in my chair, I fold my arms behind my head, pleased with how Silk and Steel is already coming. I’d never planned a sequel since I’d never planned on much happening with the first book, but now that I’m back and into the story, I can honestly say I’ve never been happier writing any book.
Or happier in general. That’s all because of Kristina.
I know I still have a lot of making up to do to her. A few weeks in rehab and a reunion of mind-blowing sex is a good start, but certainly not the end. She deserves so much more, and now that I’m clean, I intend of doing everything in my power to give it to her.
Starting with a romantic candlelit dinner of my world famous risotto and then another night of incredible sex. After that, I’m thinking I will spend the rest of my life showing her how much I love her and how I don’t want to live without her.
I may be clean and sober, but the part of me that’s susceptible to addiction hasn’t gone away, and now my only addiction is Kristina.
As far as addictions go, she’s a pretty fantastic one.
My email alert dings to let me know I have a new message in my inbox, and I open up an email from an agent who’s tried to contact me three times since Silk hit the bestseller lists. This morning when I deleted all but the most urgent emails that I’d missed while I was gone to rehab, hers and those from two other agents and even some movie producer had gone into the trash, along with scores of spam emails about how I could increase the size of my penis and offers from some Irish lottery commission that seems to want to send me some winnings I had no idea about.
But now as I read her fourth email, I wonder if I should consider at least speaking to her about the potential for Silk concerning New York and foreign rights. I certainly don’t have time to be dealing with those issues, and if there’s money to be made, I’d eventually need an agent to handle the contracts. I’d thought about asking Sheila, but as I told Kristina, she doesn’t rep erotica or romance authors of any type, self-published or New York.
Dinner’s more important, though, so business will have to wait. Shutting my laptop, I head into the kitchen to make the best goddamned risotto I’ve ever created and wait for the woman I love.
Kristina stands behind me watching as I slowly add the chicken stock and stir until each ladle-full is absorbed. Turning around, I wink at her. “Now you know the secret to the world’s best risotto. You have to make sure to use Arborio rice and add the stock slowly. And you need to stir constantly.”
She leans her chin on my shoulder and kisses me on the neck. “The world’s best risotto made by the world’s best guy. How long until we eat? I’m starving and this smells fantastic.”
I add the final ladle of stock and continue stirring it into the rice. “A few more minutes. Not too long.”
Her hands slide down my sides, and she hugs me to her, purring in my ear, “I have an idea of what we could be doing instead of all this stirring.”
Turning my head, I kiss her softly, but her kiss quickly turns into something far more erotic, and for a moment I completely forget about the risotto until I feel the rice begin to stick to the bottom of the pan.
I reluctantly break the kiss, wishing dinner was done already. “Great food calls. We’ll pick that up right where we left off as soon as we finish dinner.”
She moans sweetly in my ear, “I want you to know I’m pouting, Ian.”
I look and see her mouth turned down in an adorable pout. “I promise not too long and then once we have a dinner of this delicious risotto, I’m going to fuck you slow and easy right there in front of those windows and give our friend the show of his life.”
“Yes,” she moans as her hands travel down to the front of my pants. Palming my hard cock through the fabric, she says, “But I might not be able to wait for slow and easy. I might need you to fuck me hard and fast. Is that okay?”
My stirring speeds up as she strokes me from balls to tip, and for a moment I can’t think of anything but being buried inside her tight cunt. Only when she moves her hand away am I able to think clearly again, and I look down to see the risotto is finally done.
“Dinner is served,” I announce, barely able to keep my calm as my cock demands what Kristina is offering.
I scoop the food onto our plates and sit down, prepared to eat, but Kristina has different plans. Straddling me, she lowers herself onto my lap as her skirt rides up to show the milky white skin at the tops of her thighs. In my ear, she whispers, “Dinner is lovely, but I’m hungry for something else.”
Her tongue softly glides over the shell of my ear, sending jolts of excitement through my body as she unbuttons my shirt and whispers how much she wants me to fuck her while she undoes each button.
I run my hands over the tops of those gorgeous thighs, slipping my thumbs under her skirt to feel her smooth pussy. She’s not wearing anything under her clothes, so once I remove them, she’s there sitting on my lap, naked and mine to do with as I please.
My cock already aches from being so hard, so by the time she takes it out of my pants, I’m ready for her and not as interested anymore in taking it easy.
“I’m not sure I can do slow right now,” I say looking up at her as she stares at my cock and licks her lips.
“I don’t want slow, Ian. I want wild and desperate. I want anyone who sees me after this to know your cock owned me. I want it to be obvious I’m yours.”
Her words and the way she says them in her soft, seductive voice make my head spin. My hand on the back of her neck, I pull her mouth down to mine and kiss her hard, my tongue snaking in over her lips to find her tongue. My fingers find her pussy drenched and needy for me, and she moans as I slide two into her slick cunt.
“Fuck me, please. Hurry. I need to feel you inside me.”
I grab her by the hips and position her over my cock ready for her. Looking up at her, I watch her squeeze her nipples, her eyes closed as she waits for me to lower her down onto me.
I don’t want slow anymore either.
“Open your eyes, Kristina,” I order and see her eyelids fly open. “I want you to watch when my cock slams into that pretty cunt of yours.”
She bites her pouty lower lip and nods. “Yes. Do it. I need it.”
Reaching up, I cup one of her perfect breasts and squeeze the deep pink nipple hard like I know she loves. “Harder?”
She rolls her hips so her pussy glides over my shaft and moans softly, “Yes.”
I pinch her nipple between my thumb and forefinger and see the pain register on her face, but she doesn’t want me to let up, so I do the same to the other nipple and watch as her mouth gently hangs open in ecstas
y.
“Ride my cock, baby. Let me see you take it all.”
My hands leave those gorgeous breasts to take their places on her hips, and I slam her down onto me, loving the vision of my cock disappearing into her body. I guide her pace, pushing her off me and then back down over and over. She rides me with abandon while I watch her, falling in love more every minute.
As she moves closer to her orgasm, she leans forward and kisses me like my lips possess everything she desires. Stuffing my hands into her hair, I close my fists and tug hard, loving the feel of her fucking me.
“I’m close,” she groans against my lips. “So close.”
I tilt my hips slightly so my cock glides over her G-spot and see that’s all it takes. Her walls close in around my cock, squeezing it, and she comes hard as her hips buck against me and her mouth plunders mine. She’s raw and so entirely feminine at that moment, and I love that I could give her this.
As her body slows from her release, she says quietly, “You didn’t come. Why?”
I know what she’s thinking. She’s worried it’s like the last time I couldn’t get off because of the drugs. Smiling, I shake my head. “I was so engrossed with wanting you to come that I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“Oh. I worried…” Her sentence hangs in the air unfinished, but I know what she was worried about.
“No. Nothing like that. Just me watching you and loving what I see.”
A tiny smile forms on that mouth I love, and she asks, “Anything else you like watching?”
I know what she means, and yes, I love watching her go down on me. She lifts herself off me and lowers to her knees. Pushing her hair back, I gaze down at her beautiful face. “I love when you suck me off, Kristina.”
She runs her hand up my slick cock and licks her lips. “Only you.”
I try to keep my eyes open as she slides the head into her warm mouth, but the feeling of her tongue dancing over my skin takes my breath away and I lean back to enjoy my first blowjob since leaving for rehab. All sexual positions are good, but there’s nothing like a woman you adore sucking your cock and swallowing everything you give her.