by Lexi C. Foss
Evan’s amused chuckle went straight to my lower abdomen. Our kiss for the cameras earlier wasn’t enough. I needed more. So much more. “Trust me, the jet was a minor incentive compared to seeing you.”
“Sweet talker.” I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Will you finally tell me where we’re going?” The show’s producers wanted it to be a surprise. There were worse things in life than hopping on a private jet to an unknown location, but the planner part of me wanted to know where we were headed.
“Nope. You have to open something first.”
“Well, that sounds kinky.” We were the only ones on the jet aside from the pilots. We could have some serious fun in this large, luxurious space. Hopefully we were in for a long flight. I had quite a few things I wanted to do to him. “I’m surprised Paul didn’t demand to be on the plane with five cameras to catch all the action.”
His grin was wicked. “Yeah, he doesn’t know we’re on the jet yet.”
I brought the flute away from my lips and cocked an eyebrow. “He doesn’t know I’m here?”
“He thinks you’re meeting him at the airport and flying with the crew in a few hours.”
I gaped at him. Paul announced the travel schedule to the crew after filming in the mansion’s foyer ended, but I assumed when the driver showed up that Paul wanted footage of me traveling, so I rolled with it. Then I stopped thinking when I saw Evan standing outside the airport, waiting for me.
“So yeah, the driver will be delivering a note, instead of you, to Paul in a few hours. As we’re already in the air, it’ll be too late to stop us when he reads it.” His brown eyes glowed with self-satisfaction.
I laughed. “Oh, he’s going to be pissed.” Not that I cared.
“Yeah, well, it seemed sufficient payback for all the crap that asshole pulled in Paris. He had it coming.”
“Do I even want to know what he did?”
The light vanished from his eyes. “No, you don’t.”
The silence that followed was deafening. He wouldn’t look at me. Not a good sign. Neither was the tick in his jaw.
“Oh.” You don’t have to talk about it, was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t force it out. I wanted him to tell me what happened. Five days without speaking to him left my brain running with all sorts of scenarios I wanted clarified. It was ridiculous to worry about it, not when the parameters of our relationship were so clearly defined, but I couldn’t help the irrational part of me that needed to know.
He took a healthy sip of his champagne and set it down. “They forced us to share a suite, Sarah. Since I owned the hotel we stayed in, I upgraded us to a penthouse setup with two bedrooms, but Amber was, well, persistent.” He still wouldn’t look at me. “Despite what the show is going to imply, nothing happened beyond kissing.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what else to say to that.
He got up and retrieved a bottle of dark liquor from a cabinet. I couldn’t see the label, but I guessed it was bourbon. That was his preferred drink. He poured a glass and sipped it with his back to me. “I feel like I spent the last week cheating on you, yet here I am whisking you off on a romantic getaway like everything’s fine. It’s fucked up.”
“This entire situation is fucked up, Evan.” I joined him in the kitchen area and leaned against the cabinet, arms folded. It put me in his direct line of sight, but his gaze was on the brown liquor in his glass. “It’s what we make of it that matters. Stop dwelling on the negatives and enjoy the moment instead. We’re alone on your gorgeous jet. Surely there are better ways to spend our time?” I don’t want my final memories of you to be about the show. I want to remember you.
He rested his forearm on the wood panel over my head, caging me between him and the cabinet. The scent of leather lingered on his maroon sweater, tantalizing my senses. This was what I wanted to remember. Not the sadness or the guilt, but the desire radiating between our bodies.
He crowded my personal space and sipped his bourbon while studying me. Chocolate was my kryptonite, and his eyes reminded me of molten fudge. A woman could melt under that intense gaze. “I’m brooding.” His voice was deep and rolled over my skin like a caress.
“Yes, you are.” Not that I was mad. I would rather he feel guilty about spending time with Amber than feel no remorse at all. It meant he cared. And knowing all they did was kiss while in Paris helped calm my nerves.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured
“For brooding?”
“For everything.”
“I can think of a few ways you could make me forgive you.”
“Yeah?” He placed the rim to my mouth and tipped the glass just enough to give me a taste. The smoky liquid flowed over my tongue to my throat, warming me inside. I licked my lips to savor the flavor, and he followed the motion with his fervent gaze. He took another sip before setting the cup down on one of the shelves and grabbed my hip. His touch burned through my jeans to the bare skin beneath, making me shiver. One hard thigh slid between mine.
“Do you have any idea how much I missed you?” It was a breath against my lips.
“Probably about as much as I missed you,” I whispered, angling my head to kiss him.
“Debatable.” He kissed me with a force I felt all the way down to my toes. This was nothing like our embrace in the house’s foyer a few hours ago. It was too public to be what we wanted. There was nothing public about this. I twined my fingers in his thick hair, pulling him closer. His talented tongue was doing all sorts of wickedly delicious things in my mouth. I swallowed a moan as he plunged deep, taking control and showing me just how he intended to extract his forgiveness.
He popped the button open on my jeans and slid down the zipper. The act alone left me wet and aching for him. He lowered the fabric, exposing my silky black thong and traced the inky hem along the inside of my thigh. His light caress sparked a white-hot passion inside me. My experience wasn’t vast, but I knew without an inkling of a doubt that Evan Mershano had ruined me for other men. And I couldn’t bring myself to care, not when he was touching me like this.
His lips kissed a path along my jaw to my ear, and he nibbled the lobe. “I’m going to show you how much I missed you by devouring every inch of you.”
“No complaints here.”
“Good.” He grazed his teeth down my neck before going to his knees in front of me. I trembled under the force of those chocolate eyes. Possession lied in their depths. He was about to make me fully and truly his, and I didn’t have the willpower to deny him.
He slid my jeans down inch by slow inch, kissing and nipping the exposed skin along the way. My socks and boots disappeared with the pants, leaving my lower half exposed. His dark gaze went to my silky thong, admiring the view as he pulled it down to join my clothes on the floor. His palms went to my inner thighs, pushing them apart and granting him better access to my burning arousal. He licked my seam—light enough to taste and tease at the same time. My fingers tightened in his hair as my opposite palm went to the cabinets behind me for support.
“Mmm, I certainly missed this.” His hot breath against my sensitive flesh made tension coil at the base of my spine. I nearly lost my balance when the flat of his tongue hit my clit. The unexpected pressure coupled with five days of Evan withdrawal had me closer to orgasm than I ever thought possible.
“Fuck.” My voice trembled as the word traveled from my lips and into the humid air of the cabin.
“Soon.” He sucked my sensitive nub into his mouth, causing me to cry out. My nipples strained against my bra. My sweater needed to go, but if I moved my hands, I would fall. The palm against the cabinet was the only thing keeping me upright while he destroyed me below. I wanted to marry his tongue. The wicked things it did in my mouth were nothing compared to what he was doing to the sensitive bundle of nerves between my thighs.
His fingers teased my entrance, prolonging the anticipation. Then he thrust two of them deep into me and hit a spot I didn’t know existed. It tipped me over the edge into an orgasm so
consuming that I thought for sure the plane was going to combust around me. His free hand went to my lower abdomen to hold me against the wall, while his body kept my legs upright. Without his support, I would have collapsed. No question.
My limbs shook, and my breathing came in pants. The quickness combined with the force of pleasure made it one of the strongest orgasms of my life. I was still catching my breath when his mouth captured mine. His jeans and boxers were gone faster than I could blink, and then he was lifting me into the air and wrapping my legs around his waist. He entered me in one thrust, his member hot and pulsing inside of me. I shuddered around him. Yes, this is what I want to remember. Every. Single. Thrust.
My arousal was thick on his tongue, adding to the moment. Renewed desire licked fire through my veins and pooled deep in my belly. Not even minutes after an earth-shattering orgasm and I was ready to have another. It was the heat below, so intense, so new. His cock was on fire inside of me. I’d never felt anything like it. If five days without him could do this to me, what would a few months feel like? Would I ever get over this?
Our position allowed him to drive deep, stroking me in places that sparked sensations low in my abdomen. His hands were on my hips, holding me tight against him as he thrust harder and harder. I panted his name, encouraging him as the bundle of nerves grew into a flame.
“Oh God,” I breathed. I was going to come again from his thrusts alone. Impossible.
I screamed his name as ecstasy overwhelmed my senses, sending me into a foreign abyss. He followed soon after, his pleasure hot and wet inside of me. I grasped his shoulders for support, my body incapable of moving anywhere but down. If he let go, I would be on the floor for a long time. His forehead rested against mine as we collectively caught our breath.
Sweat beaded down my spine and pooled between my breasts. I really needed the sweater to come off and maybe a shower. Especially with the wetness between my legs. It was thicker and hotter than usual, no doubt a compliment to Evan’s skill. I tried to move my arms to remove the wool from my skin, but my limbs shook too much.
As my euphoric high subsided, rational thought started to inch its way into my mind. His hard cock pulsed deep inside. The heat radiating from him down there was too natural. The wetness between my legs took on a new meaning.
“We forgot to use a condom.” Five days apart removed reason from the equation.
“Yeah, we did.” His burning gaze held mine. “Want to do it again?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
31
A Flashy Gift
We took a shower together and had sex again without a condom. It was slower, more intimate, and ended with my legs around his waist as he braced me against the wall. My spine would be decorated with some questionable bruises tomorrow, but I had no regrets. None at all.
“You’ve ruined my relationship with condoms,” Evan murmured as he wrapped me up in a plush towel. He wore a matching one low on his hips.
“Seems only fair, as you’ve ruined my relationship with travel.” The bathroom on his jet rivaled the one in my suite at his house. It was twice the size of the one in my Chicago apartment and way nicer. The marble floors, glass shower doors, and oversized sinks were to die for. “Can I live on your jet?” Despite all the rocking we were doing, I barely registered that we were moving. This was so much better than traveling in cattle class on the airlines.
He chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t give me any ideas, Sarah.”
I slid my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his bare chest. “And what ideas are you having, Mister Mershano?”
“Hmm.” He kissed my forehead and returned my hug. “You living naked on my jet would certainly make business travel more interesting. It would inspire me to travel more for work, but I might have issues making meetings on time.”
“Ah, so I would have to trade my clothes for residence on your jet?” I pretended to consider. “Yeah, I could accept that deal. I would need a wardrobe for off the jet, you know, to attend my client appointments, but I have no qualms about working naked. Would the pilots mind?”
His eyebrows pulled down. “The pilots would have to be locked indefinitely in the cockpit. If you lived on this jet, you would be exclusively mine.”
“Oh yeah? And would you be exclusively mine?”
The mood shifted between us from light and easygoing to something serious. He tucked a damp lock of hair behind my ear. “Would you like me to be exclusively yours, Sarah?”
Yes, but . . . “Only if you want to be.”
“And if I did?”
“Then yes, I would.” I nuzzled his jaw. I loved the way his unshaved chin felt against my skin. So sexy.
“Come, I have a gift for you.”
“The package I was supposed to open a few hours ago?”
“That would be the one.” He led me into the main cabin, where our clothes were in a pile on the floor.
“You’ll finally tell me where we’re going when I open this, right?” Not demanding he tell me earlier was a testament to how much I trusted him.
“I will.” He walked over to one of the cabinets near the television and returned with a neatly wrapped ten-by-ten-inch box. “So I stopped in New York on my way to you. I thought you might like this for our trip.” He rubbed the back of his neck and handed me the gift. “I don’t know much about these, but my research indicated this to be one of the best. You might already have one, too; I don’t know.”
Nervous Evan was endearing and so very human. I smiled at him. “I’m sure I’ll love it.”
He folded his arms over his bare chest and gestured with his chin. “Go on. Open it.”
“Okay.” I started on the edges of the gold paper and tore it across the middle. Abby and I used to make the biggest mess during the holidays, shredding gift wrap all over the living room. It was a competition as to who could make the best pile. I refrained from doing that now and removed the paper in a civilized fashion. The back of the box didn’t tell me much, but the front had my lips parting in awe. “Holy crap, Evan.”
“Well, no, it’s a camera.”
“Yeah, an expensive fucking camera. The resolution and shooting speed on this thing . . .” I tore open the box to admire the gorgeous machine. It was one of the top name brands, too, and the best in the market. “I definitely don’t have one of these.” I couldn’t afford it.
“That’s good, then.” His cheeks reddened. “You’re always talking about good lighting and taking pictures, so I thought you might want a camera for our trip. It’s April, so I don’t know if we’ll get to see much of the Northern Lights, but we should be able to get around the roads in Iceland pretty easily to take photos during daylight. I hear the sights along the Golden Circle are gorgeous, and the glaciers will be covered in snow.”
I lowered the camera. “We’re going to Iceland?” My travel bucket list wasn’t extensive due to my work schedule and lack of extra funds, but Iceland was in my top five. I never mentioned it to him. “What made you choose Iceland?”
“Uh, was it a bad choice?”
“Hell no. It’s an amazing choice, but why Iceland? I’ve always wanted to go there, but it’s not common, is it?”
“Well, no, but it’s the only European country I haven’t visited and also the only European country Mershano Suites isn’t located. I’m considering changing that, but I wanted to experience the country for myself first. And knowing you love photography, I thought it would be a fun place for you to play with the lighting you’re always talking about. Not to mention the stars at night.”
I set the camera down on the table so I could throw my arms around him. He caught me around the lower back and lifted me into a hug, laughing. “I take it you approve, then?”
“Of course I approve. Iceland?!”
He kissed my temple. “They wanted me to take you to Spain, but that didn’t suit. I wanted to experience something new with you, and we’re starting with the hot springs. That’s where we’re going t
o meet the crew, but I planned it so we could have half a day alone as a normal couple before they show up. I rented a car and everything. Should be fun.”
“Where are you thinking you’ll want a hotel? In Reykjavík?”
“Maybe. I have a few locations in mind, but that’s not what this trip is about. I want to experience the country and culture, see if it’s worth investing in, and go from there.”
“Why not make it about both? We could explore some of the locations along the way, see what you think, and sightsee at the same time. I could even take photos for you and be the official Mershano Suites photographer.” With the amazing camera he bought me, I could easily pass as a professional.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. “You wouldn’t mind scouting a few places?”
“Why would I mind?”
“Because this is supposed to be a romantic trip for two that has nothing to do with work?”
“Your work is a part of who you are, Evan. I respect that and would be honored to be part of it.”
He was quiet a moment, studying me. “You mean that.”
“I mean what I say, Evan.” It was becoming our catchphrase.
“Careful, Miss Summers.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “I might have to keep you.”
My heart fluttered at the softly spoken words. “I think I can handle that.”
He tucked my hair behind my ear again, and his gaze took on a mischievous light. “What do you say we forget the show and just enjoy each other?”
“I doubt Paul will approve.” Not that I cared.
“We’ll smile for his cameras but do our own thing. They can follow us around and capture real moments instead of fabricated ones. We’ll decide the schedule, and they can either roll with it or miss the show. I’m done playing by his rules. I want to have some fun.”