by Alex Lucian
While I buzzed in the delivery guy, I gave her a dry look, but the teasing from her didn’t feel dry in the slightest. It felt so strangely natural, like we’d been born to do this. Maybe that bordered on thoughts of destiny and fate, which I didn’t believe in for a fucking second, but they tumbled through my head regardless.
They didn’t stop while I unloaded the Italian food, opting to keep everything in its containers rather than dirty plates. Had I been directed by some unseen force to Ruby’s pictures on the website? It felt laughable. Except it wasn’t. A woman who soaked up knowledge like a fucking sponge, who studied cultures and religions but had never been able to experience them firsthand, was now sitting in my living room so I could ask if she wanted to join me across the world. How could that be anything but fate?
I joined her, keeping my thoughts to myself, and we ate baked ziti and a penne vodka over wine and small talk. She laughed when I told her how Grace and Jack had woken me up the day before, and she told me about drinking with her friend.
When there was a lull in the conversation, I took a sip of my wine and watched her. “I got a call yesterday from an editor that I’ve freelanced for in the past.”
“Yeah? Did you like working with him?”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Yeah, Donovan is a good guy. Works too much, but I can’t exactly judge him for that.”
“Me neither.”
We both smiled when she said that. “He needs a photographer to be in Amsterdam next week to cover a festival.”
Ruby blinked, taking a slow bite of her pasta before speaking again. “What kind?”
“Kwaku Summer Festival.” I smiled at her blank look. “At its core, it’s a celebration of multiculturalism. Food, music, everything you could want. They started it to celebrate the abolition of slavery, and it’s a massive draw in the summers.”
Her eyes lit up while I spoke, the sociology degree probably screaming in her head how fascinating it would be to witness. “It sounds wonderful.”
“Should be.”
“So you’re going?”
I nodded slowly and I could visibly see her process.
“You’ll be so lonely while you’re there,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “You better not visit the red light district during your visit.”
Bingo.
When I laughed, she narrowed her eyes. “No worry about that happening.”
“Why not?”
I leaned forward over the coffee table, gripping her chin in my hand. “Because you’re coming with me.”
Chapter Nineteen
“I am?” Thrill sped through my body. Thrill and anxiety. I’d never flown, never traveled somewhere as incredible sounding as Amsterdam.
“Of course. Remember I asked you about having a passport?”
“Right.” He let go of my chin and I thought for a moment. “I’m going with you?”
“As I said.” He drained his glass of wine. “I’m going to be gone eight days. That’s eight out of thirty days of our agreement. You’d be crazy to think I’m not bringing you with me.” He set his glass down on the table and leveled me with his gaze. “So. Want to go to Amsterdam?”
A smile tickled the corner of my lips and I drained my own glass of wine before answering. “I certainly won’t object. I’d love to.” I leaned over to press my lips to his mouth, a reaction that took me aback the moment our lips met. Was it too much? Kissing him in gratitude, in a way that wasn’t directly sexual, or a lead-in to sex?
Elias held my face in his hands, returning the kiss with all of himself, so I took that opportunity to hook my fingers in the front of his jeans, rubbing my nails gently against the skin behind his zipper.
“Let me show you how much I appreciate this,” I said after pulling my lips from his, wanting to translate that kiss directly into sex, so that I didn’t have to think about the fact that I hadn’t kissed him with sex in mind.
“I won’t object,” he said, echoing the words I’d said to him as I tugged him down the hall to the bathroom he’d shown me on the tour. It was all black marble, from the vanity to the shelves above the toilet. But my eyes were on the generously sized shower, with three different shower heads.
I spun around and grabbed a fistful of the front of his shirt, pulling him down so that he bent to kiss me again, his hands tangling in my hair. “Want to clean off?” he asked against my lips. His large hands slid out of my hair and down to cup my ass, squeezing and bringing my face to his ear.
“Something like that,” I said, “Start the shower.”
Elias opened the glass door and leaned in as I kicked off my heels and peeled the jeans off of my body. But before I could take off my shirt, Elias bent over in front of me and threw me over his shoulder, kicking off his own jeans as he carried me, both of us still wearing our shirts and underwear, into the shower.
I laughed as he brought me down so my bare feet were on the cool tile, both of us soaking through our clothes under the spray.
Elias pulled my silk shirt from my body and gave me a sheepish look. “I didn’t ask if this was expensive.”
“It’ll be fine,” I told him as the water poured off his head and splashed onto me. “As long as you take it off right away.”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” he told me, his fingers already slipping the buttons free of their holes one by one, before he peeled it off my shoulders and tossed it over the top of the shower on the other side. “Ah,” he breathed, running his finger over the curves of my breasts in the simple demi bra I wore. “This is nice.”
“It’s also expensive,” I said throatily.
“I better remove it, quickly,” he said with a raise of his eyebrow. “We wouldn’t want this to be ruined.”
“Definitely not,” I agreed, turning around so that his fingers could more easily find the clasp in the back. The shower was dark because of all the black marble, but the light over the bathroom sinks provided enough light so that I could look over my shoulder and see Elias. Gently, he pushed my hair over my shoulder and dragged the flat of his palm down my spine before he stopped at my bra strap. It took very little effort for him to unsnap the bra, which I then let slide down my arms before I tossed it out of the shower too.
His lips came to my shoulder and he said against my skin, “I’d say it’s a shame that I don’t get more time to appreciate these.” He ran his hand over my front, pressing against the soaked fabric of my panties before he slipped beneath the fabric and caressed my opening. “But I much prefer no limitations when it comes to this.” As one finger slid inside of me, his other hand came up and pinched my nipple. The sensation of both at once was enough to cause me to jolt back against him.
He chuckled softly against my skin before pulling out and then moved me so that the primary showerhead was sending water down my back. My hands were on the tile, like how I’d been in the hotel the last time we’d had sex. But the sensations were different this time, especially when he pulled the back of my thong from my crack and ran a finger down the skin between my cheeks.
I’d engaged in back door action before, but I’d never preferred it over vaginal penetration. But Elias just explored the skin there, up and down, before the pad of his finger lightly pressed against the hole. A shiver went up my spine and I tightened up completely, but not in repulsion. “Yes,” he hissed against my skin, his warm breath prolonging the shiver down my spine, before moving his hand away. I had a feeling that he wanted to be in control this time, and as he tore my panties off of my body, I didn’t have it in me to object—even if I’d wanted to.
Turning around, I saw he was still wearing his t-shirt and boxer briefs. “Are these expensive?” I asked with a quirk of my mouth as my fingers slid under the soaked tee and pulled up.
“Extremely.” A smile curved into his cheeks as he looked down at me. “They come in a pack of six.”
I laughed as I tugged the shirt up and Elias helped me tear it off his head since he was so much taller. I dragged my nails d
own his chest, scraping against his nipple and dipping into the line that separated his abdominal muscles from one side to the other. When I ended at his underwear, I dipped my hands under the elastic waistband and pulled down, freeing his exceptional dick in the process.
“Condom?” I asked him as he kicked his briefs to the other corner of the shower.
Elias tapped the shower inset, where his shampoo and body wash were, and true enough, a foil-wrapped condom rested. I was more than willing to let Elias take the lead this time, but I didn’t want to lose myself so much that I forgot how important protection was.
Wrapping one arm around my waist, Elias pulled me toward the center of the shower so we stood together under the middle spray. With his mouth back on mine, his hands slid down my ass, cupping it in his hands and lifting me so that I had to wrap my legs around his waist. I trusted him completely, I realized, not worrying that he’d drop me at all as he backed us to the other side of the shower. When my bare back met the cold tile, I gasped in his mouth and he pulled away, just slightly.
“Let me warm you up,” he said huskily. With my legs still wrapped around his waist, he anchored me against the wall with the angle of his hips as his fingers slipped between us. He held my eyes when his fingers found my pussy, and watched the way each place he touched me changed the expression on my face.
I felt languid in his arms as his fingers dipped in and out of me, and played with my lips. Pinching and pulling, and gliding along them in an erotic exploration. When he hooked his thumb inside me, I felt his fingers reach behind and dip into my other hole. Instantly, I clenched down in reaction and a triumphant grin spread Elias’ cheeks. “I like that,” he said, his voice low and echoing off the marble around us. It felt forbidden with Elias, as he gently pulled out before dipping in again. “You like that too, don’t you?” he asked, and I felt myself shudder from the feeling of having him in both holes at once. I could do nothing but nod and bite on my lip when he did it a third time. It was like my body seized up, and I felt both surprised and eager for more.
Suddenly, he pulled out of both and lifted me higher on the tile so that he could capture my breast in his mouth. As I watched his cheeks hollow as he sucked on me, I felt a thousand sensations of sheer pleasure illuminating me from the inside out.
Slowly, his mouth loosened its grip on my breast, letting it pop out of his mouth before he moved to the next one, sucking hard enough to send a sharp spurt of pleasure through me. My eyes closed and I savored the feeling just when I felt a spray of water under my ass.
I popped my eyes open and watched as Elias displayed the handheld shower head in his hand. He brought it over my front, replacing his mouth with the warm spray of shower. The shower had fogged up considerably, so he was all I could see.
He let me back down on my feet but tapped on my inner thigh, so that I spread my legs for him again. The handheld shower head disappeared as he brought it between my legs, spraying warmth all over my tingling parts. It wasn’t enough; I wanted more. I wanted Elias to bend me over and take me roughly. To use me so that I could use him.
“Please,” I begged breathlessly. The sensations were too much to have just a taste of, over and over—I needed all of it, all of him. “God, Elias.”
“Turn around,” he ordered, his voice firm. I turned immediately, pressing my hands against the tile as Elias adjusted the other showerheads so they poured over my body. Still, I shivered in anticipation.
“Just take me,” I said against the cool tile wall, in a voice that didn’t sound like mine.
“I’m going to,” he said roughly. I was barely aware of the empty foil packet that fell beside my feet in the shower before I felt the full force of his dick slamming into me from behind.
I screamed, something unintelligible as he slammed into me again.
He moved punishingly fast, so fast that I felt the quake surge up within me. I was seconds away from collapsing, I knew, when Elias barked, “Touch yourself, Ruby.”
I reached a hand down between my legs as Elias repeatedly slammed into me, and found my clit with my thumb. My fingers reached further back, brushing against his dick as it slammed into me. I heard a grunt from him before he said, “Brace yourself on the wall, but don’t stop touching yourself.”
My arms felt weightless, completely free of muscle. But I willed my hand to hold firm to the tile when I felt his fingers at my ass, spreading my cheeks. He never stopped his rhythm, even my legs trembled beneath the two of us. I was so close, so close.
He must have known, because he pressed a finger into my other hole which, once again, caused me to clench down hard. My mouth opened but no sound came out. The distinct and sharp pleasure of feeling so full made me want to cry out, but my voice box seemed broken. He pulled his finger in and out in time with his dick in my cunt and finally, it was all so much that my voice returned and I screamed loud enough to feel it vibrate through the shower as heat flooded through me and spots dotted my vision.
Elias’ pumps moved faster right at the top of my orgasm and then he grunted, long and low, muttering “Fuck” over and over as we came together.
Slowly, I became aware of my surroundings. My knees, which were locked, were the only things keeping me from collapse. As if he sensed it, Elias wrapped an arm around my waist and picked me up, carrying me out of the shower. A fog poured out of the shower as he carried me to his sink. I felt completely empty, in the very best possible way.
Wordlessly, he wrapped me in a towel and then pushed my hair from my face, gently tucking it behind my ears before he disposed of the condom.
Then his arms came around me, and I felt myself lean into him. Time was inconsequential as he held me in the bathroom, but he held me long enough that I started feeling my brain working again.
In that moment, as Elias just held me in the silence of his bathroom, I realized he wasn’t just a regular client. It wasn’t just the exceptional sex, it was a combination of that and the fact that he’d actually cared enough about me to try to help me with an introduction to someone who might give me direction in my career path. So when Elias pulled back and looked at me, I gave him a kiss on the lips that I knew, in a place I didn’t want to acknowledge, wasn’t at all about sex … but was about something else. Something I wasn’t ready to examine too much.
Chapter Twenty
My cell phone vibrated on my nightstand while I rolled the last pair of socks into my basic black suitcase. When I saw my parents’ home number come up, I groaned a little, but still hit the screen to answer.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Sweetie,” she chirped happily and I cringed at the name. “Dad just told me about your trip to Amsterdam tomorrow. That’s so exciting.”
I smiled, thinking she didn’t know the fucking half of it. “Should be. What’s up?”
“I was thinking you could come out tonight to see us before you leave.” In the background, I could hear the sound of cupboard doors closing.
Even though I didn’t have plans with Ruby before meeting her at the airport at the ass-crack of dawn, I grimaced down at my bed when I thought about the four-hour drive to my parents’. The fact that I owned a car and lived in New York made me a fucking unicorn to most people, but public transit wasn’t my thing. I did enough of it overseas that when I was back home, I wanted to be able to drive wherever the fuck I wanted without having to pay someone or wait for someone else’s schedule.
“Sorry, I need to get to bed early. My flight is at six, so I can’t really afford to be driving back too late.”
“Oh,” she said after a loaded beat of silence. It didn’t take much for me to be able to envision the disappointed pinch of her mouth. I’d seen it enough in the years since Diana died. They were left with me, the gruff one who got annoyed when she used a nickname and made it seemingly impossible to imagine they’d ever become grandparents.
I pinched the bridge of my nose while a wave of guilt swamped me. “I’ll come and see you as soon as I’m back.”
&
nbsp; “Okay, sweetie.” She cleared her throat in the awkward silence that followed. “Have a safe trip. We love you.”
“Love you too,” I said gruffly before disconnecting the call. It felt out of the realm of possibility that I’d ever not feel guilty that I was the only one they had left, the only person they could pin their hopes on. It might explain why I went the opposite route in my relationships, actively seeking women who I knew would never want more. It was their job to be able to let me walk away. That had always been the appeal of escorts.
Until Ruby.
The rest of our time together felt like a noose around my neck, and every day that passed tightened it further and further. The idea that it was there, coarse and thick around my skin made me rub at my throat when I laid down in bed later that night just to be sure that I was imagining things. When I drifted off to sleep, I dreamt that I was swinging beneath a platform, clawing at a thick, impenetrable rope that Ruby held clasped in her hand.
“And you’re sure you’re not nervous?” I asked her for the third time while we waited at the gate to board our plane.
Someone had replaced my calm, collected Ruby with one so jittery that she hadn’t stopped moving since the moment we met outside of LaGuardia.
“Just excited,” she assured me, fidgeting with the purse in her hands. “Did you know that there are more canals in Amsterdam than there are in Venice?”
“I did know that,” I told her with an amused smile. Her eyes were bright in her face, like she’d mainlined coffee into her veins before arriving. “They’re beautiful.”
“And that the Red Light District is actually one of the safest areas in Amsterdam? That surprised me, I don’t know why. Have you ever been there?” Then she shook her head. “Never mind. That’s none of my business.”
While her eyes flitted around the cramped gate, I pulled out my camera and snapped a few pictures of Ruby when she smiled at a young couple sitting across from us.