I’d dropped in on Abbie most days. Sam and I moved our normal Friday drinks to Abbie’s flat. And I’d spent all day Saturday with Abbie. She’d become more and more stressed because she hadn’t found another job yet. She would, I knew it; she just needed patience, but in the meantime it was difficult to help her. She was so depressed, and I couldn’t fix it. I wished I could kiss her and make everything better.
When I finally got home, my body gave out from exhaustion. I managed to make myself a chamomile tea and headed to bed.
* * *
I jolted awake and screamed, my heart thumping so hard I thought it would give out. A hand flung across my mouth, silencing my scream. I tried to bite it.
“Shh, baby. It’s just me.” Collin’s voice relieved me. I wasn’t about to be murdered in my bed.
He took his hand away from my mouth and caressed my arm while I tried to slow my heart and breath. Collin had climbed into my bed and lay behind me, spooning me.
“What the fuck are you doing here? How did you get into my apartment?” I asked, my voice frazzled. I glanced at the clock, two twenty in the morning.
“I didn’t want to wake your neighbors again, so I let myself in.”
“What? How?” Why on earth did he think breaking into my apartment and crawling into bed with me in the middle of the night was acceptable?
“You need better locks.” His baritone voice was quiet, his lips brushed my ear as he spoke.
“Fuck, Collin, you cannot let yourself in and climb into bed with me!” I tried to sit and turn on the lamp but Collin held me tight to him.
“I just wanted to see you, baby. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He nuzzled his nose into my hair. He released his grip on me, and his hand moved back and forth between my hip and waist.
I relaxed back into the bed, letting the scent of his cologne float over me. Was this the price of paying for my mother’s treatment? His hand moved across the front of my hips, waking me further. It’s not a bad price to pay. Sex with an ex who always did know how to make me scream. No, this couldn’t be the payment; payment has to be something I don’t actually love. Like a root canal.
His hand continued, never touching me anywhere intimate. His touch varied between soft and firm as it roved my body. My skin tingled under his hand, and my pussy became so wet I thought I’d dissolve into a puddle.
It was absurd that he’d picked my lock and climbed into bed with me in the middle of the night, but he was here now. His touch intoxicated me. I couldn’t send him away, not without some fun first.
I reached my arm behind me, searching for his erection. Unbelievable, he wasn’t wearing anything. I could not believe his audacity. I wondered why I was not kicking him out right that second. He should have known he couldn’t do this. It’s not acceptable, is it?
Collin hooked his finger in my panties and tugged them down my thighs. His fingertips brushed up my thighs and I moaned, approving of whatever his plans were.
He plunged his finger into me without warning and I gasped. The thick digit poked against my front wall, making me drip with desire and forget all about my outrage at him.
I kept my grip on his cock, stroking it in my fist. Wanting more, I started to roll over to face him but he held me in place.
“Don’t move, I’m going to set your body on fire.”
I stopped fighting him and let the excitement his hand created between my legs take over.
It became so intense I had to let go of his cock, to pull my hands to my face and think and feel nothing else but what he was doing to me with his fingers.
My body started wiggling and squirming, the intensity taking over every cell of my body. Collin moved his thumb, gliding it through my folds and stopping at the tip on my clit.
“I owe this sweet pussy a come or two.”
He added another finger inside me, and continued their movement, his thumb circled my clit and within moments an orgasm crashed through me. My body tried to writhe and thrash, but he held me in place by hooking his leg over mine and siding his other arm underneath me and holding me tight with it.
“That’s hardly enough,” he said, his voice low against my ear.
His hand did not stop. Even as my orgasm subsided, he probed my g-spot and his thumb stimulated my clit. Just as I was catching my breath, another orgasm ripped through me and I screamed.
“That’s what I want to hear.”
My orgasm calmed but his hand continued. What the fuck was he doing to me? Out of nowhere another orgasm pushed through me and my body bucked.
“Collin!” I screamed as wave after wave burst from my core.
My eyes rolled back in my head at the ecstasy he’d caused within me. His hand didn’t pause, let alone stop. I stopped trying to make sense of things, I couldn’t think of anything at all. He’d turned my mind into a complete blank left with only the ability to enjoy his touch.
How was he doing this to me? This wasn’t possible. My back muscles tightened and writhed. I wasn’t sure if it was a series of orgasms, or one big long one. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Not even when we were together before, and he’d always left me breathless.
“That’s still not enough.” His voice was low and in control, and sent tingles rushing down my back.
Time and place seemed to vanish and I drifted along between peaks of ecstasy as if I were in a dream world.
I don’t know how much time passed, but he rolled me over, yanked my panties the rest of the way off and placed himself between my legs. His lips found mine, but I struggled to kiss him back.
“Your pussy is so unbelievably fucking wet,” he said, his cock at my entrance. I whimpered. How much more could my pussy take?
Collin drove his hard cock into me, its size stretching and filling every part of me. Each thrust excited me all over again, my heart raced and my toes curled until a final, massive peak crashed over me. He grunted beside my ear and released himself into me.
A weak mass of jelly, I couldn’t find the strength to move. When Collin pulled out and rolled off me, I stayed stationary, vaguely aware of the wet spot on the bed underneath me and his cum trickling down my thigh. My chest heaved, struggling to normalize.
Collin put his arm around me and kissed my shoulder.
“Did you like that, babe?”
“Uh-huh.” Unable to force my tongue to work, it was the best I could manage even though I wanted to say my mind was blown and I’d never be able to walk again.
“I figured I owed you a whole bunch of those.”
The comment alarmed me, making me feel both sad and vindicated, but I was too weak and tired to respond.
* * *
“Morning, babe.” I opened my eyes to see Collin standing beside my bed, holding a cup of coffee.
“What time is it?” I asked rubbing my eyes and sitting up.
“Ten.”
“Ten!” What was happening to me lately? That’s the second time I’ve slept in past nine since college.
I stood, wearing only a cami. My panties were wherever Collin had put them last night when he yanked them off me. Collin didn’t step away to give me room. Instead, he placed the back of his hand on my face and ran his fingers down my cheeks.
“You’re beautiful.”
I swallowed, finding it hard to pull my eyes from his. He’d dressed, wearing the dark suit I can only assume he came in the night before.
“Collin, I…”
“Babe, don’t worry.” Huh? What was he talking about?
“About what?”
“About your mom, she’s got the best doctors in the world now.” The comment threw me. It wasn’t where my head was at in that moment.
I was trying to tell him this was just sex, and nothing more. Then he went and put a big relationship-caring type comment out there and because it was about my mom and my needing him to pay for my mom’s treatment, I couldn’t very well turn around and tell him there was nothing between us.
“I don’t know how to
thank you for what you’re doing.”
“I don’t need thanking. She’s a great woman. She deserves the best.”
Collin placed the mug in my hand and kissed my forehead. For a moment my heart fluttered before I caught myself. I was thirty and on a mission to find a husband to give me babies. Collin was most definitely not that man.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Same time next week?”
Unsure what to say, I shrugged. Did I really want to tell the most incredible man I’ve ever slept with not to come and do what he did to me last night? I reasoned that it didn’t do any harm, and that it would only last until I found a match on the online dating site.
It was only sex. It would end once I found a potential husband on Chicagodates.com. Besides, I felt warm and fuzzy towards him since he was helping my mom.
Collin
As much as I knew better, I couldn’t stay away from Jenny. Her scent, her laugh, the way her hips moved when she walked. Every weekend since she’d turned up back in my life drunk, I showed up at her place in the middle of the night and she opened her legs for me.
Sweet Jenny. Pure Jenny. She couldn’t get wrapped up with me.
At least she was letting me take care of her mother. I instructed Daniel to free up my jet to ferry Jenny’s mother, Sandra, between Maine and Houston and to arrange for priority treatment of her as a VIP at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
I only hoped that Jenny wouldn’t take it as a sign I wanted a relationship with her. I’d do anything for her, but there’s no way I’m dragging her into my fucked-up life. She’d better not get the wrong idea.
My phone rang, and it was Jenny. She’d never phoned me before. All her arrangements had gone through Daniel. I wanted it that way, to keep some distance between us.
“Hello.”
“Collin. Hi,” Her voice didn’t have its usual confidence.
“Is everything okay? How’s your mother?”
“Don’t worry, she’s doing well, thanks to you. My family still doesn’t know how to thank you enough.”
“I keep telling you, stop thanking me. It’s the least I can do.” I didn’t want to tell her the medical cost was chump change to me. She obviously knows I have money, but I don’t think she realizes just how much I actually have. At least she doesn’t even seem to care how much I have, unlike that psycho Raylene.
“I just wanted to ask a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“Well, Abbie’s finally got a job.”
“That’s good.” Why is she telling me this?
“We wanted to go out Friday to celebrate, and I wondered if…”
“You girls want a good night out at Luscious? No problem, I’ll put your names on the door. Just skip the line and talk to the bouncer.”
“Thank you!” The excitement in her voice made my dick twitch.
“No problem.”
“Okay, I’ll talk you later.”
“Yeah, one more thing, be sure to come find me when you get there.” That wasn’t a request. She’d better have picked up on the demand in my voice.
“Of course.”
I hung up and tossed the phone in my hand. I was so looking forward to Friday night. Jenny coming to me in my office to be fucked was much more civilized than me having to wake her up in the middle of the night to mess around in her little one-bedroom apartment.
I hadn’t even broken in my new office in yet. Somehow no other woman in Chicago has done a damn thing to interest me. None were anywhere near as alluring as Jenny.
Shit. Part of me was more excited to show Jenny my office so she could see what I made of myself. We always talked about it in college. For that year afterwards, when I was trying to get on my feet, Jenny was my biggest cheerleader. Every little success I had back then was made so much sweeter when I shared it with her.
Now I’m thinking I’ll get a bit of that feeling again. For old time’s sake.
I couldn’t help but be so fucking pissed off that I fucked up my life so fucking much that I couldn’t have her. I knew one thing for sure: I would never bring her down to my level.
Jenny
“Hi sweetie, I wanted to call to let you know we’re all ready to fly down to Texas tomorrow and visit the cancer center. The nurse got here earlier today and she’s a real sweetheart.” My father hadn’t sounded so happy in over a year.
“That’s fantastic, Dad. I really hope the doctor can offer her something promising.”
“Well, we’ll find that out this week. Right now we have to think positive and hope for the best.” The sheer joy in his voice brought a tear to my eye. They’d been married for nearly forty years and he’d be utterly lost without her.
“We can hope, right? This is a whole new chance most people never get.”
“True. Not many people get flown down from Maine to see the best stomach cancer doctor in the world.”
“Fingers crossed, right?”
“Absolutely. Your mom is here, grabbing the phone from me.”
“Hi, sweetie.” Her voice was steadier than I’d heard it in months. The hope alone must be doing her some good.
“Hi, Mom. All set for your trip tomorrow?”
“Absolutely, I won’t be able to sleep tonight. I feel like a kid going to Disney World in the morning.” I laughed, at both her words and the happiness her joy caused in me.
“Keep me posted, I want to know everything that happens.”
“Tell Collin how much what he’s doing means to us.”
“I have. Repeatedly.”
“Does this mean you’re back together? I hope you’re back together, you were always such a good couple. I never got over his moving away.” You and me both, I thought but didn’t dare say that to her.
“No, we’re not. We’ve only seen each other a couple of times as friends.”
“That’s it? And he’s doing all this for me?” Disbelief filled her voice.
“Crazy, isn’t it? Apparently, he’s very rich now and I get this impression this is all pocket change to him.”
“But still, it must mean he’s carrying a torch for you.”
“I don’t think so.” I couldn’t keep the laughter out of my voice.
“Don’t be silly, sweetie. Even if all the money this is costing him is nothing to him, you don’t hear of any billionaires handing out jets and private nurses and treatment at the world’s best hospital. Trust me, this means something.”
“No, trust me. He always liked you better than me and he was upset when I told him about your situation. He’s not heartless and you’re not some random stranger on the street.”
“Well, you can argue all you want, but you’re wrong. It’d be amazing if you married a billionaire and finally gave me a grandbaby.” Here we go.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Mom. I keep telling you, we’re not together. I’m dating other people.”
“You are?” Her voice perked up.
“Yes, why, just today I found someone on an online dating site. He’s handsome and, works in advertising and…”
“Sure, dear, as long as you find someone.” She could always tell when I was lying. It made life as a teenager very difficult for me.
“Oh, the nurse wants me.”
“Good luck tomorrow, Mom. Keep me posted.”
“Thanks, sweetie, I love you.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
* * *
As soon as I hung up the phone I logged onto Chicagodates.com. My heart skipped at the notification of a message in my inbox. It quickly sank when I saw his profile. His profile picture was a dick. I clicked away and tried to rid the image from my head. Why would he put a photo of it when it had a near right angle turn in it and his balls looked like they belonged to Sasquatch? To get the embarrassment out of the way up front?
Maybe I needed to stop waiting for people to contact me and send some messages of my own.
I scrolled through a few pages of men the dating site had recommended to me.
None of them interested me enough to even click into their full profiles. I tried doing a search on men who worked in advertising; at least then I could give my mom a ‘told you so’. But still none of them interested me. A handful looked okay, mediocre really, but I sent them short messages anyway.
It was probably my profile that was the problem. I spent another forty-five minutes updating mine. Including a note that I wasn’t interested in snake photos of any type. Fingers crossed, I hoped I would get some better action from it.
Collin
Raylene didn’t let up all week. At least I knew not to answer my phone, but I still had to wait the three seconds before I could delete each of her zillion voicemails.
I needed to put a block on her number. Which seemed like a wrong thing to do to the mother of your child. Especially when she has current custody of the child. Not that it mattered, I’d hear any emergency from the nanny before her anyway, since Raylene would be too drunk or too disinterested to know herself.
There’s no good reason she should get a penny of my money, we’d been married less than a year, for fuck’s sake. The things I did for my son. He’s the only reason I married the bitch in the first place.
Thank fuck I had Daniel to do all the dealings for me. All I really had to do was stress and say, ‘no fucking way.’ At least I could if I could bring myself to relax enough. The mere mention of her name made my shoulders tense.
There were two new private investigators following her, building a case of her being an unfit mother, along with a nanny we’d planted to care for Harlan who was documenting all Raylene’s shit.
The idea was I’d get Harlan removed from her custody. As his father, he’d automatically be given to me. That should take most of the divorce settlement away and discredit her for any claims about my clubs that she might make public.
My phone beeped with a text message from Raylene.
I hear you got yourself some old pussy action, does she know about me?
My mouth hung open as I read the text several more times. To forget her was exactly what I intended to do, however much it was going to cost me. Old pussy? Raylene had to be talking about Jenny. But how in the fuck did she know when she spent her days partying in Honolulu?
Billionaire's Secret: The Complete Series Page 37