Sin & Tonic

by Tessa Layne

  “I’m giving up on this day,” I sigh, wondering how long before I’ll have to get up.

  “I don’t know,” he hums, sounding more relaxed than I’ve heard him all day. “I’ve got a beautiful woman in my arms… seems like maybe things are starting to shape up.”

  Only Jason.

  “A ladies’ man to the end.” I press my forehead against his shoulder, giving into a giggle too light for everything that’s happened. But how can I resist when he says things like that. And he’s kind of right, because it’s not terrible being held like this. Just for a minute or two.

  It’s soothing and yet… not. Because with each breath that passes, the defenses I’ve spent months building against Jason Henley crumble just a little more. When he holds me like this, I wish we were still the friends we’d been a year ago. I wish things had gone differently that night in the bar.

  I wish I didn’t have to keep reminding myself not to wish for certain things.

  Which is my cue to get up and start dealing with the train wreck this contract has become. Only when I try to push up, Jason’s powerful arms tighten around me pulling me back down. Holding me closer.

  “Not yet,” he says, gruffly, his eyes meeting mine. Holding long enough I can’t miss the dark heat shining in them.

  This isn’t a mistake. This isn’t me misreading the moment.

  This is two adults, tangled together in a mess of our own making. Neither of us making the choice to get out of it.

  His hand is resting at my hip and my breath catches when his fingers flex, holding me closer. I should pull away. Look away. But instead, I melt closer.

  In a blink, we roll, and I end up beneath him, squished into a pillow of dessert for two-hundred-fifty. Heat pools in my belly, and every nerve dances with an electric charge across the surface of my skin. Because Jason is on top of me, our bodies aligned like lovers. Somehow my fingers have found their way into his hair and one of my legs is hooked over his.

  My lips part, shallow breaths mingling between us. “What are you doing?”

  My hushed words seem to absorb all other sound around us.

  Jason’s eyes search mine, the corner of his mouth hitching just the slightest degree. “Trying the cake.”

  It’s the perfect answer. Teasing and light. About this one moment and nothing more.

  It’s exactly what I need to let myself go.

  Jason closes the distance between us, bowing his head toward my neck. I can feel his breath along my skin, the tease of his lips, and the slow, decadent, swirling lick of his tongue followed by an approving groan I barely hear over the hammering of my heart. And when our eyes meet again, there’s more than heat there. It’s a burning desire that matches my own.

  Our lips meet in a teasing touch. Contact so light it might be considered sweet if it wasn’t for the way his breath rushes out to meet mine with a groan. Another soft brush that moves into a slow, sinking press of hard against soft. A measured rub of tender skin caressed back and forth with increasing pressure until the tip of his tongue touches the corner of my mouth and traces across the seam of my lips in a devastating assault. Desire swirls through me as I wrestle with the possibilities and repercussions. The kiss, all coercion and confidence, demands I open to him. It’s an exercise in restraint I can’t endure. My lips part on a soft gasp, and Jason’s tongue delves between, thrusting deep and then retreating in a rhythmic promise that sends shuddering need racing through me.

  The hungry, wet velvet rub of his tongue against my own pushes me over the edge, sweeping away all thoughts of consequence. I need this.

  Our heads angle, deepening the kiss. Making it hotter. Wetter. More desperate.

  I can feel the steely ridge of his cock between us. It’s thick and long, and when my hips tilt into the contact, we both moan.

  My hands splay wide across his chest, stroking over the hard muscles, the heels of my palms testing the unyielding resistance. He feels too good, far beyond my wildest, most forbidden fantasies.

  Jason presses a slow kiss against the side of my neck below my ear. “You taste so fucking good, Laine.”

  Catching my chin, he tilts my face toward his. Jason looks into my eyes and, easing the straps of my dress aside, runs his hand down the line of my arm to my fist. He kisses my knuckles, lapping at the frosting between them until my balled fingers flex open and wet heat floods between my legs.

  “Want to taste you everywhere,” he rasps against my skin, licking and kissing his way to the soft flesh of my breast. The warmth of his hands melts the frosting between us into a slippery gloss covering my skin and his fingers slide from the wide base of my breast toward the tip in one seamless caress that stops just shy of the nipple. He lowers his head and licks a slow circle, pausing mid-orbit to nip at the fleshy mound before suckling the sting away. “Laine.”

  The sound of my name on his lips, rough and desperate, pushes me beyond my senses, and all restraint breaks. Clinging to his shoulders, I rock up against him, my knee skimming up the side of his thigh and hip to ease the throbbing ache in my sex. His hips press down, shifting with a steady pressure that has me gasping with need.

  I grab at his shoulders, fumble down his back and settle against his butt. Gripping the base of muscle, I pull him against me before following the line of his belt around to the front.

  Breath coming in steady pants, I struggle with the buckle wedged between us.

  I want this. I want him.

  “Jason, please.”

  Chapter 3

  Jason

  F uck, just hearing her say my name is enough to have me fighting for control.

  This wasn’t the plan. Not when I asked her to dinner, not when I found her in this room, and not when I dotted the end of her pretty nose with frosting.

  I wanted to talk.

  Take it slow.

  See if it was even possible to get us on the same page.

  But then one thing led to another, and Christ, I’ve wanted her forever.

  I could play with her tits for hours, they’re so perfect, but the fact that she’s pulling at my fly with shaking hands says it’s time to get serious.

  Her dress is already bunched between us, but not enough. I rock back and flip it up the rest of the way, groaning when I see her pretty pink panties dark where she’s wet for me.

  For me.

  How the hell did I fight this so long?

  My cock is throbbing, pressed against the front of my slacks, but the man downstairs is going to have to wait, because I wasn’t kidding about wanting to taste her everywhere. I start behind her knee, lapping at the sugary sweet frosting and then working higher up her inner thigh to the hollow beside her pussy. With one hand stroking lightly over the damp patch of fabric, I follow with my mouth, breathing warmth through the soaked silk. Grinning when she tips her hips into me and whimpers.

  Damn, I could almost come from that greedy little plea alone. My hands slip up to the top of her panties, and I push my tongue against her opening through the fabric, my fists twist, snapping the band and earning a spasm against my mouth that sends waves of pulsing heat down to my cock. I’m never going to last. Not when it’s been nearly eighteen months since I’ve had sex.

  I pull the fabric from between us, revealing her smooth sex, shiny and glistening with need. For me. Teasing between her plump lips with my tongue, I taste the residual sweetness of cake mingling with the tang of her essence. It’s heaven. Greedy for more, I delve into her pussy, making her gasp and buck as she pulls my hair and whimpers my name.

  I slip a finger inside and stroke as I circle her clit with the tip of my tongue. And that sound she’s making is definitely approval. I add a second finger, and her tight walls hug and suck at them, making me desperate to feel her hugging my cock.

  But first I need to make her come against my mouth. She’s almost there. I can feel the tension rising in body, hear it in her soft cries. I circle faster, lapping at it with the flat of my tongue.

  “Like that,�
�� Laine gasps as I scrape over her tight little bundle of nerves with my teeth and then suck the nub between. Her hips buck and every part of her seems to move in symphony with the suction of my mouth and stroking of my tongue.

  Then she’s there. Coming in a chorus of cries and pleas against my face that have my cock pulsing and dripping with need.

  I stay with her through the end, until the fingers in my hair spiral free in search of my shirt. She yanks and tugs, showing me what she wants. I’m a man willing to accommodate. Anxious to feel the rasp of her hard nipples against my flesh, I reach back and jerk my shirt over my head, tossing it aside. Once I handle my fly and shove down my boxers, my cock springs free.

  Laine sits up, her legs spread, sex slick from my attention, and eyes still hazed as she tracks down to my cock and licks her lips.

  I’ve got a condom out in record time. I need to be inside of her, fast. My throat tightens. “Laine, I want you so bad.”

  Laine lays back, her arms twined loosely above her head, and whispers, “Have me.”

  It’s almost more than I can stand to keep from thrusting deep and hard into her right then. Muscles tense, I lean over her and press the thick head of my cock against her opening. She’s tight and wet, and her eyes search mine as I push inside. Deep. Deeper. Pull back and then sink deep again, savoring her quiet gasp as I bottom out inside her.

  I can’t take my eyes off her. Can’t stop watching the way her lashes flutter and her lips part as I thrust, taking her again and again. She’s close and I’m on the edge, but this isn’t done until she is. Running my hand down her leg, I catch her knee and bring it higher up my side.

  “Jason!”

  That’s the spot. I slide against it again and Laine cries out, her inner walls constricting with hard rhythmic pulses around my cock, as she begs me to take her harder, faster. Gasping, she spasms wildly around me, demanding my release. I’m with her. My balls contract and I tense in pleasured agony, coming harder than I ever have in my life.

  Laine

  We made love in a cake. I have no idea how much time has passed since Jason pulled me on top of him and closed his eyes. I lost track of my place in the universe the instant his mouth grazed mine. When we touched, every part of my body, every part of my mind, blurred into one driving need to merge with the man who makes me insane.

  But now that the haze of lust has lifted and my brain is back online, I’m starting to freak the fuck out. Because I’m half-naked, sprawled atop the sleeping form of Jason Henley in what could only be described as a ruined prep room at the Henley Hotel.

  The only consolation is in this literal mess is that I don’t have to wonder what it means. I already know: Nothing.

  My phone rings. The muffled digital trill of “Here Comes the Bride” sounding from somewhere beneath the mush of cake and cream, indicating that Connie is the caller.

  Shit!

  Pushing up on hands and knees astride Jason’s prone form, I try to crawl off him but my knees slide out and my elbow juts his ribs.

  “Umph…”

  “Sorry, sorry!” I squeak, trying again to extract myself.

  Jason’s warm hand presses against my back as he pulls me down to leave a wet kiss over my nipple before sucking the rosy tip into his mouth.

  “Shi—mmm,” I arch back and escaped the suction. “Jason, damn it, I need that phone. It’s Connie calling. I have to explain.”

  “Okay, okay. Find your phone. Talk to Connie.” Jason sits up and helps me get off him. “Sounds like it’s coming from that pile next to the cart.”

  I crawl through the soggy mess, feeling my way as I go until—jackpot. The slim device is covered in sugary sludge and I thank my stars for the case and removable screen protector. “Connie, I’m here.”

  “I’m not happy, Laine.” My boss’s smoke-worn voice snaps through the line with more force than her two-pack a day Virginia Slims habit should have allowed. “This is a fuck-up. The second in as many months.”

  She doesn’t need to remind me she’s got a strict policy of three strikes and you’re out.

  I swallow hard and find my voice. “Connie, you are absolutely right, and I fully understand the repercussions of what this does to our reputation.”

  She barks out some nonsense about how this kind of fuck up wouldn’t have happened on her watch and asks when I’ll be back in the office.

  I peer down at my body and the tendrils of hair smeared with frosting. “Tomorrow… Yes, it’s going to take me a while to clean up a few details here… Okay, see you then.”

  Looking back over my shoulder, I find Jason sitting up. He’s shirtless, his arms propped on his bent knees—his chiseled body streaked with soggy cake and frosting. How could a man with a glob of buttercream above his ear look this damn sexy? And how am I ever going to be able to look at him again without seeing him like this?

  Problem for another day. Today’s quota has been met.

  Or rather it will be once I figure out how to get out of here without things getting weird. Clearly, the most important thing is making sure he knows I’m on the same page about this being a casual, one-time thing.

  So, I smile and wink at him. “Thanks, I needed that.”

  His brows furrow, but then he shrugs. “Welcome. How about a shower and something in a size six, maybe, from the boutique?”

  “Wow, you really are full service. Don’t suppose you have any idea how I might get to a shower without any witnesses?”

  “Wish I could help you.” He gives me an apologetic smile—or mostly apologetic. This is Jason. “But the space we’re occupying right now is pretty much the only one in the hotel without a security feed. We’ll be on camera the second we step two feet past the door.”

  Pretty much what I expected. “No biggie. Wanna call and get me a room? Maybe have someone meet us with a key?”

  Going to his feet, he barks out a laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Holding out a hand to pull me up, he adds, “You can use the shower in my place.”

  Chapter 4

  Sunday, June 6th

  Laine

  “Sex. Actual. Sex.” Nikki asks, eyes wide and completely delighted as we pick up our coffee orders from the cute little independent place halfway between our apartments. I wait until we make it outside and start walking up the block to answer.

  “Yes. But nothing is going to change. And before you ask, I don’t even want it to.”

  Letting out a snort, she shoots me a disbelieving look. “I call bullshit. For like a year you were completely breathless every time you talked about this guy. You were into him in a way I don’t see you get about many guys. And then—"

  “And then I realized I was seeing potential where there wasn’t any.”

  There’d been a moment, but then he’d pulled back completely. The guy who’d been working his way into my heart, blinked, and was suddenly gone.

  Her eyes narrow and she leans closer. “Except… sex. Actual—”

  “Sex. Yes. But not, sex. Meaningful. Sex.”

  She doesn’t look convinced. But I’m the only one who really needs to be.

  “Okay, but I mean… did you at least talk about it? Lay down some ground rules before getting down and dirty?”

  “No and no.” I sigh and bump her shoulder with mine. “Honestly, I really just wanted to get out of there.” Yes, Jason had invited me to stay while he jumped in the shower, but I wasn’t interested in letting an awkward moment that could have been avoided ruin what had without a doubt been the best sex of my life.

  “So, are you worried about what it’s going to be like when you see him again? Because sex changes things. Even when you’re sure it won’t.”

  Nikki is speaking from experience there, but I’m not worried about what happened with her and Matt happening with me and Jason. For one, we aren’t roommates who’ve been best friends for half our lives.

  I am a little worried about making sure he knows I know exactly what this was and what it wasn’t. “Honestly, I’m p
lanning to lay low for a couple days. And when I go back, I guarantee that nothing will have changed.”

  Saturday, June 12th

  Laine

  “You’re an asshole,” I accuse, straightening the white silk guest book and accompanying plumed pen on the table by the main doors.

  “So you tell me. Keep it up, and I might develop a complex.” Jason has been following me around for half the morning, hovering near by while I worked with the florist and checked in with the band. While I stopped by the groom’s room—who’d been surrounded by his buddies, as nervous and excited as his bride to be. This guy couldn’t wait to be married. He was adorable in his fluster and exactly what I needed after last week.

  What I didn’t need was Jason distracting me while I triple checked every detail.

  Especially after what he’d done. “I can’t believe you partnered with Connie and had me assigned exclusively to your hotel.” I cut him a sharp look. “Without even having the courtesy to speak to me about it first.”

  Grabbing the tub of Jordan almond bundles in pink tulle, he follows me from setting to setting as I distribute the favors.

  “Ha!” he barks out. “I called you three times this week. I tried to talk to you when you were here on Wednesday, and again yesterday. Not my fault you’re too chicken to spend five minutes alone with me. Besides, you were already assigned to the Henley brides. Connie and I just put a few details down in ink.”

  I take a breath and try to rein in my emotions. It doesn’t work. “Why would you need to do that? And I’m not chicken, so get your ego in check.”

  I was totally chicken and flustered. The first time his name came up on my phone, I nearly flung it across the room. But then after hearing about his deal with Connie, I’d been a little embarrassed too. I’d thought what happened between us was about a moment. About a series of insane events culminating in a need for release.

  Not nailing down a business asset.

  God, I’m such an idiot. He actually brought up my working for him that day.