The Secret Arrangement

by Vanessa Waltz

  “Luke! They might record—we’re in an elevator.”

  “So?"

  "Maybe we should wait 'till we get—"

  "You want me to stop?"

  His hands paused their tracing of my cotton panties. He cupped my pussy, the heat of his palm burning my body. Then he reached forward with his middle finger to stroke my clit. It was a very light touch, but it was enough to send a spasm through me. Then he slowly parted my panties aside, which were soaking wet with my arousal. He dipped into me, watching my face transform with a satisfied smirk.

  “Luke.”

  “That’s it,” he whispered. “I want to get you off.”

  There were two fingers inside me now, pumping inside my wet walls. The sounds echoed through the small elevator as Luke fucked me with his fingers.

  Another chime of the bell. Eighth floor.

  I didn't care that anyone could walk in. My walls clenched around his thrusting fingers, and I seized Luke’s head. He crushed his lips against mine as I buried my tongue in his mouth. My moans interrupted his frenzied kissing, but he kept the same steady rhythm, his fingers curling into the spot that made me groan. My pussy contracted in pleasure, and I felt my stomach clench as Luke pushed me toward my breaking point. I cried out and felt my core contracting around his fingers as he plunged them in hard one last time.

  My back hit the wall as Luke pushed me, grinding his hardness into my naked thigh as heat seared up my spine. A smile staggered across Luke's face as I came on his fingers.

  "I could fuck you right now."

  I imagined him taking me by the waist, my hands flat against the stainless steel walls.

  Bing.

  The elevator chimed, and the door opened to the top floor. The lust didn't leave Luke's eyes as he dropped his hands from me and stepped back.

  Luke paced the hotel suite. “Did anyone call?”

  “You asked me that. No.”

  Things between us were tense lately, mostly due to Luke's refusal to bend the rules.

  Just fuck me already.

  “Why hasn’t he called?”

  I watched him, my eyes flicking from the toned skin peeking out from his shirt to his eyes. I didn’t know what to tell him. “He’ll call. Maybe he’s busy.” I knew that my assurances meant nothing to him, but I didn’t know what else to do.

  Luke looked at me with heat in his gaze as he ripped off his shirt and threw it on the floor. “He’s busy harassing the nurses, I’m sure. This is just another way for him to screw with me.”

  A loud ringing filled the hotel suite and Luke stood shock still. It was coming from the office. Wow, that’s creepy. He stared at me

  “Well, answer it!” I yelled as the second ring jarred the air.

  He sprinted toward it, and I followed swiftly, hanging near the door, which Luke left ajar. Should I stay here?

  “Luke Pardini."

  I peeked inside and saw Luke hunched over the desk, shirtless, looking as though he wanted to throw up. He saw me watching and pressed the speakerphone button.

  “Hello, Luke," said an old, male voice. "I see you've been very busy these past few weeks. A new girlfriend and a drunken brawl already?”

  “Hi Dad,” he said grimly. “I wasn’t drunk. Someone was in a fight and—”

  “I’m not interested in hearing your excuses. I’m more interested in the girl. She doesn’t look like the tarts you usually date.”

  I yanked my necklace chain against my skin.

  “Well, her name is Jessica.” Luke gave me a worried look. “She has a BA in English—”

  “Useless degree. What else?”

  A ripple of anger went through me. Useless? Well, I had heard it before.

  “She—um, she volunteers at a soup kitchen every week and wants a job in editing.”

  “How quaint.”

  I was astounded at how demeaning he could sound in the few words he spoke.

  The speaker of the phone let out a garbled sigh. “Luke, I called because I’m removing you from VP of Acquisitions for a few weeks.”

  Luke’s shout of rage was enough the make the walls tremble. “You’re what?”

  “I can’t afford to get any more bad press on the company. You know that you’re a magnet for it, right? I don’t know why you like to make my life so difficult.”

  “Dad, you can’t believe everything you read in the press!”

  The explosion of anger that erupted from the speaker made me back away.

  “Do you think it matters to the shareholders? What about the board members? They see you as a loose cannon. You've attracted so much negative attention to the company, and I want nothing impeding the Hilton merger. I am sick and tired of our name being dragged through the mud because you can't fucking grow up!"

  “Then you can say goodbye to the multi-million dollar deal I made in San Francisco!”

  The voice screaming through the speakerphone drew a sharp breath and began a violent coughing fit. When it recovered, his tone was shrewd.

  “What deal?”

  "I didn't tell you, but I discovered a bed-and-breakfast chain in the city with high-profit margins and cut them a deal. They're all over California, and we have plans to expand to Oregon and Nevada. It will net us an annual thirty million dollars. I was going to tell you when it was finalized."

  I almost winced at the unspoken plea in Luke’s voice: I wanted to impress you, Dad.

  “What will make me happy is having a son that doesn’t shame me and the name he was born into. When are you visiting me?”

  Luke didn’t bother answering back. He smashed his fist down and ended the call, making the phone bounce off the table. He picked it up and hurled it again. The machine flew at the glass, but it was one of those expensive, well-constructed, sleek models and it didn’t break.

  “Luke, stop!”

  His screams seemed to be a combination of insults and unintelligible outbursts of sheer rage.

  I never saw him lose complete control like this. If I touched him, would he whirl around and unleash some of his rage on me? He kicked the phone across the room and paced in front of the glass, refusing to face me.

  “Luke!”

  He slammed his fist into the wall and crushed his hand. I saw his dark reflection. His lips were parted as if he had just finished an exhausting run. “Fuck, I hate him."

  My hand touched his trembling shoulder, and I took it as a good sign he didn't throw my hand off. I spread my fingers and stroked his shoulder. When he didn't protest, I lifted my other hand and did the same to the other side. Luke's body leaned against mine. My heartbeat was almost painful.

  I should say something. “I’m sorry that your father is such a...” Asshole? Jerk?

  Luke took one of my hands inside his and I felt a sudden flare of attraction as he traced lines in my palm. "Bastard."

  “He’s just cranky from his illness.”

  He smiled. “He’s been like this my whole life, Jessica.”

  “Well, maybe’s pissed that you won’t visit him.”

  “Hell, maybe you’re right. Maybe I need to placate him with a fucking visit.”

  His hollowed eyes shined with years of tortured anguish. Deep down, he was still a little boy desperate for his father’s approval and some scrap of affection. He knew he would never get it.

  He didn’t move from me, the same resigned expression on his face I knew deeply. His lips pulled into a bitter, half-smile and he shrugged his shoulders. He moved in closer before I could speak. “I need to feel good about something.”

  His lips came crashing down on mine, and I responded with a fervor that made his back slam against the glass wall. It was probably our first real kiss, not borne out of a desire to present an image to the press, but out of a physical need to feel better. I needed his closeness, his naked chest writhing over mine, and his lips and tongue fondling my breast. I moaned into his mouth as his hands slid underneath my shirt and groped my breasts, his thumbs slipped under my bra and grazed my flesh,
flicking my erect nipples.

  Luke's mouth pulled away only to lift my shirt, and then his lips sealed against mine once again, his hot hands wrapped around my back to search for the clasp of my bra. It snapped away with one twist of his fingers, and I felt the shock of the cold stinging my nipples. Luke closed the space between us and kissed my neck. My head tilted, and I let myself dissolve into the ecstasy that was his lips and tongue. His fingertips ran up and down my body, running up the small of my back and along the curve of my breasts. Then his hands teased the waistband of my jeans, slipping his fingers through to stroke the top of my ass, curving over my hipbones and sliding down the thin fabric of my underwear. His middle finger stroked my mound in a circular motion, both of us breathing hard. The familiar feeling of desire and anxiety reared up again, but I knew I was safe with Luke, and it was incredible. I reached down and unzipped my jeans and Luke bent down to pull my jeans and panties down my legs. I wrapped my arms around myself, now completely exposed, and gazed at Luke with a little of fear.

  He sighed in a pained voice. "You are so gorgeous and I want you so badly, but—"

  "—No." I covered his mouth with my hand, and his blue eyes cut through me. "Please, don't. I need this, too."

  My head was ringing. I was stark naked in Luke Pardini's hotel suite, overlooking the night sky of London in his office. Perhaps I was dreaming. He nodded at me, and I uncovered his lips.

  “Ok, then.”

  He grinned as he swept me into his arms and I yelped as I lifted into the air. Luke sat down in the chair with my body in his arms. I curled over his legs and chest. I liked it. It was much more intimate. His cock was like a rock under my legs, and I felt a stab in my chest, but he leaned over and kissed me, stifling my violent vortex of thoughts. Then he kissed my neck and then my breast until his tongue went for the kill and sucked my puckered nipple until it was raw.

  I moaned his name and wrapped my arms around his head, tugging at his dark locks as he sucked and tongued. His other hand groped down my hips, searching for the damp heat between my legs. His fingers found my slit, and he rubbed the ridge of his middle finger up and down; I was so wet I could hear myself all over his hands.

  Everything condensed to just us; the external sounds disappeared, and the background seemed to fall away like in a dream. His body was lean and hard, full of a powerful desire for me. He was like a furnace, chasing away every wisp of cold that clung to my skin. He stroked a finger inside me, curving it and striking just the right spot with the tip of his finger. I bucked my hips and cried out as pleasure bloomed all over my body.

  Every thought was consumed by pleasure. I cried out for more, but Luke smirked and resumed his careful rhythm. I gripped his head and forced his lips over mine. His finger slipped out, and I felt him pull back as he looked at me.

  "Jessica, you only need to say so, and we'll stop right now."

  “No, don’t stop. Never stop.”

  All common sense flew out the window. Who cared if he paid me? My body was screaming for him. My hands moved across his thighs and felt his hardness like an iron rod in his slacks. I unzipped his pants, and he fell into my hands, thick and heavy. Luke’s briefs slid to the floor as I straddled his trim waist, my breast throbbing with my heartbeat.

  “Wait.” He grabbed a little square packet from what seemed like nowhere and ripped it open, rolling the thin latex over his aching cock.

  Then he looked at me, not moving a muscle. It was all up to me, then. I felt a surge of—I don’t know what—freedom? For the first time, I had complete control. He was giving it to me. I raised my hips over his thick thighs and sunk downwards. Then his hips pressed upwards, and he was spearing me, splitting me open. I gripped his hair so hard that he grunted in pain. It was painful—shocking, almost as if I was a virgin again. For what seemed like forever, I slowly sank down, admitting more of him inside me as my walls parted.

  “Jessica,” he moaned against my breast, his cavernous mouth opening to swallow my breast. Heat exploded over my skin.

  God, he felt good. I raised my hips, feeling his cock sliding out before I plummeted back down, so suddenly that we both gasped. Every thrust made my toes curl; he held my hips and thrust upwards as he met my downward plunges. We connected with a satisfying, wet smack and our mouths met each other in a series of desperate, breathless kisses. I increased the rhythm, groaning as his cock pounded my sensitive core. All the sounds of sex and his deep voice uttering little moans all whirled inside my head, bringing me higher and higher. My nails dug into his shoulder as the pace quickened. Every nerve inside me screamed for release, and his hot hands gripping my hips and his mouth and his skin, damp under my hands—all of it combined and I cried out as I felt him plunge my depths one last time. I gripped his head, feeling his thighs flexing under me as I leaned into him and my body shattered. All the energy left me to be replaced by warm, exhausted happiness.

  Luke let out a long moan that made my heart thud against my chest and then his cock jumped inside me. I collapsed against his heaving chest, paralyzed with joy. As I looked up at him and stroked his hair, it was almost in a loving caress. He kissed me hard, his hands still moving all over my body. He broke away, breathing heavily.

  “I needed this.” He gave me another smoldering look before he kissed my neck. “You make me want to go again.”

  His words thrilled me, and for the second time, I felt afraid. I was giving too much of myself to this man. I looked at him and knew that I would be devastated when we parted ways. Was this love or was it infatuation?

  He sighed into me. “I’m getting really confused about our arrangement. I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

  “Does it feel like a bad idea?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Then why can’t we enjoy it?”

  “Because we said we’d keep things professional. I don’t want either of us getting attached.”

  “I’m already attached. It'll hurt no matter what.”

  His eyes were shining. He cupped my cheek and didn’t look away. “Jessica.”

  I hated the softness in his voice. He said nothing more, but he didn’t have to. His face was full of regret. I slipped from his lap, tears already falling down my cheeks as I bent down and gathered my clothes.

  “Jessica. Jessica, wait!”

  I ran into the bathroom to escape him. He doesn’t want me like I want him. The whole point of this was to help Luke. He was paying me a huge sum of money, and I had no right to be upset. Luke had said from the beginning that this would never be anything more than a two-dimensional relationship. I needed to accept that.

  “Jessica, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have—”

  The bathroom door ripped open as I yanked it open. Rage exploded in my stomach. I was still naked, but Luke had pulled on his pants.

  “Don’t you dare say you shouldn’t have done it. Don’t tell me it was a mistake. I’m not a mistake!”

  There was a desperate plea in my voice that made me feel sick.

  Luke looked horrified. "I would not say that. Of course, you're not a mistake. Jessica?"

  All the anger deflated from my chest. I wanted to curl in a ball under my sheets. It’s your fault for making me feel like I had a chance.

  Luke hovered near the doorway, the conflict wreaking havoc on his face. He wanted to comfort me, but he was afraid of upsetting me.

  "Look, we have to fly to Chicago tomorrow to visit my father at the hospice. I can't put it off any longer. Let's talk about this after that. I felt so overwhelmed with my father, and you made me feel good. You always make me feel good."

  His cheeks went a little pink, and I hated myself for the hope soaring in my chest. I wiped the tears staining my cheeks and nodded. “Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Luke hesitated, guilt written all over his face as he looked at me. “Okay.”

  Even if it amounted to nothing, I gained a victory tonight. I had sex with a man, and it hadn't been a disaster. It hadn't been
painful. It was awesome.

  8

  “I told you so,” Natalie said for the umpteenth time. “I said it right before you left that this would happen.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  The phone was hot on the side of my face and damp with my sweat. As I paced the hotel suite and spoke in hushed whispers, I was careful to avoid Luke in the living room. Natalie and I were long overdue for a chat. She wasted no time in telling me she was right.

  “I don’t care if you’re right. It’s worth it. I feel different, Natalie. I don’t know what it is, but he makes me feel better, even if it’s temporary.”

  Natalie’s voice was soft. “Well, he seems like a decent person,” she admitted. “I’m happy for you, but I’m worried this will blow up in your face. You won't feel so great when he ditches you.”

  “We’re not together. He can’t ditch me.”

  I could hear her rolling her eyes at me.

  “Yeah, whatever. The way you talk about him, you might as well be together.”

  Jerk. “Well, I’m flying to Chicago today.” After a beat, I added: “To meet his dad.”

  “Wow, your fake relationship is getting pretty serious.”

  I scowled at the humor in her voice. “I’m kind of losing my shit. This isn’t my territory. Do I stroke his ego? Should I be a yes-man?”

  “No. Just be polite. Be yourself.”

  Wasn’t that what Luke had told me? Be yourself, Jessica. Try as I might, I couldn't feel comfortable with the idea of Luke's father. He was an ass, and he reminded me too much of my foster parents. How would I handle it if he bullied me? My face flushed with hot anger.

  “You can handle a cranky, sick old man. Like most men his age, he just wants attention.”

  But it wasn't that simple. He wasn't just a cranky old man; he was a grumpy old man in charge of a multi-billion dollar industry. There were millions of dollars riding on this meeting. The fate of Luke’s finances depended on me. I wanted to laugh and laugh until I passed out. What if he didn’t like me?

  Natalie could sense my disquiet. “Just don’t think about it, or you’ll mess up. I don’t know what to tell you.” There was a slight pause. “I almost forgot to tell you this, but I’ve been keeping tabs on all the tabloids about you and Luke.”