"Thanks," I said, sipping my martini. "Perfect."
Finn smiled and went back to polishing glasses. The man sitting next to me slid over casually. "Hi. I'm Jackson."
I took his extended hand and shook. "Olivia. Nice to meet you, Jackson."
"Pleasure's all mine." Jackson looked me up and down, his slow perusal making me flush. "So, are you an actress?"
I shuddered. "God no."
Jackson grinned. "Sorry, I just assumed someone who looks like you in L.A. is an actress."
I laughed. He was cute. Typically I'd be thrilled that he was flirting with me, but a certain someone was dominating my thoughts these days, and there wasn't much room for anyone else. "Smooth. How often does that line work for you?"
Jackson rubbed his neck sheepishly, smiling still. "About half the time. Is it working on you?" He looked at me hopefully over the rim of his martini glass.
"No." I raised my martini to him and took a sip of my own.
"So, Olivia. Olivia No-Last-Name, where are you from?" Jackson turned his knees towards me, leaning forward on the bar.
"Olivia Holman, Bettisville, Maryland. Is it obvious that I'm not from here?" I asked. I guess I didn't fit in as well as I thought.
"No one is from here. Don't worry. It's a good thing that you seem new in town. You don't want to be smarmy and jaded like Angelenos," Jackson said, winking.
"In that case, thank you." I drained the last of my martini and nodded to Finn, who started making me a new one. "Where are you from, Jackson?"
"Here." He grinned.
"So you're smarmy and jaded, then?" I ate the olives from my empty martini glass before Finn replaced it with a fresh cocktail.
"Oh no. I'm the exception. You'll come to find that out."
"I doubt it," came a voice from behind us.
Tyler. He was standing there, weary-eyed but fierce. There was a barely-restrained annoyance in his eyes that I wasn't used to as he slid into the stool between Jackson and me. He looked at me with his back turned to Jackson. "Hello, Olivia."
"Excuse me," Jackson protested.
"This one's taken," Tyler said without looking back. "Beat it."
Jackson slid off his stool, muttering something about rude pricks, slapped some cash on the bar, and disappeared somewhere near the elevators. I looked at Tyler indignantly. "That was rude. We were having a nice conversation."
Tyler leveled me with a look. "He was trying to get into your pants.'
I rolled my eyes. "That wasn't going to happen. You don't need to caveman your way into my life and chase away any man who talks to me."
"It seems to be the only way for me to get you to myself," Tyler murmured, pulling my stool so that it was right up against his. "What, you got what you wanted from me, and now you're on to the next one? Bit hypocritical, don't you think?"
"It's not like that at all."
"Sure seems that way. It's not like you're exactly scrambling to be in a relationship with me." Tyler took a hearty gulp of the draft beer that Finn had placed in front of him.
I frowned, not knowing where this was coming from. "I'm just cautious. You know that." Tyler didn't say anything. "Looks like this glass has a hole in it!" I joked to the bartender. Finn smiled politely, probably having heard that joke at least once a shift for his whole career. He placed another martini in front of me, and I smiled apologetically for the lame joke.
"Cautious about what?" Tyler asked. His face was dark and threatening, and I searched for the right words to tread this new territory carefully. I didn't want to exacerbate this bad mood that had come from nowhere.
"Well, I know that we've been doing...stuff." Tyler raised an eyebrow. I sighed, trying again. "I am having a great time with you. I just don't want to get invested and fall in love with you, then be heartbroken when you leave me for someone like Vanessa. It's happened to me before, and I don't know if I could take it again."
Tyler knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "Why would I leave you for Vanessa? She's an old friend, practically my sister. Nothing is or has ever gone on between us, I've told you that before."
"You know why. Because she's a beautiful exotic giraffe and I'm like a squirrel." I looked at him knowingly. "Everyone prefers giraffes to squirrels."
"I happen to like squirrels," Tyler said. "Giraffes freak me out. And you're insane."
I smiled at Tyler. He was right. "Nobody prefers squirrels to giraffes."
"Tell me about what happened to you." Tyler placed his hands on my knees.
"It's not a big deal. It happened a long time ago."
"Yes, it is. It's affecting me. I want to know what happened." Tyler looked at me solemnly as he sipped his beer.
I exhaled. "Whew. Okay. Here goes. I was with my boyfriend, Dave, for seven years. We were happy. Everything was fine. Just fine. He didn't want kids, and I accepted that, and he didn't want to get married, and I accepted that too. He worked a lot, which I accepted, and he went to a lot of out of town conferences, which-"
"You accepted," Tyler said wryly.
I nodded. "Dave met Fiona at one of those out of town conferences. Fiona is younger and gorgeous, and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Why wouldn't Dave have left me for her, then propose to her and decide to have a baby within the first year of their relationship?" I threw back the rest of my martini and signaled for another. "Get this. Fiona isn't even old enough to drink yet."
Tyler eyed my empty martini glass but didn't comment on how quickly I was throwing them back. "You dodged a bullet, Olivia. Dave is a fucking idiot, and a creep to boot. Anyone who can't see that you're the total package, that you're perfect, has to be mentally damaged in some way."
I smiled wobbily at Tyler. "Thanks. You too."
"So this is why you've been pulling back from me so hard." Tyler pulled his mouth to the side. "I am nothing like Dave."
"Oh please," I snorted. "You're a total womanizer. Everyone knows it." I started on my fourth martini now.
Tyler pulled back from me, offended. "I date around, sure. But once I'm committed to someone, I stay faithful. No exceptions."
I laughed humorlessly. "You want to date me?"
"Yes." Tyler took my hand in his. "I do."
I sobered up a bit, slightly alarmed. Was he serious? I searched his face, trying to gauge his sincerity. Finally, I burst into laughter. "Good one, Ty."
His mouth set into an angry line. "I'm serious. What about the way I've been around you has given you any other impression?"
I took a sip of my new martini, my head swimming now. Finn placed a glass of water in front of me, looking at Tyler knowingly, and I drank it greedily, trying to focus my mind. Tyler couldn't be serious, could he? This is something he says to get into women's pants. Well, if that's what he wanted, that's what he was going to get.
"Take me to your room," I said, standing suddenly on shaky legs.
"Whoa," Tyler's hands shot out to steady me, but I swatted them away. "Wait, what?"
"Let's do it," I announced. "Let's have sex."
"Ssh." Tyler looked apologetically at a smirking Finn and motioned for our check. "Olivia, you're drunk."
"Duh." I leaned forward seductively and kissed him with a wet squelch. "Ravage me, sire."
Tyler wrinkled his nose. "All right, princess. Let's get you to bed."
"No, we're not doing the princess thing. We're doing the duke and the maid thing." How was he not getting this?
"You have very specific fantasies that I'd love to explore further when you're sober. Maybe after we have a chat about your rather low opinion of me," Tyler grunted. He draped my arm over his shoulder, and I slumped against him on the short walk to the elevator, noisily kissing his neck. I leaned my head on his chest, using Tyler as my anchor against vertigo in the dizzyingly fast ride up. Tyler kissed the top of my head, smoothing my hair back. I burped a little in response and giggled at Tyler's sigh.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open on a floor I hadn't been to before. Tyler swiped
his key card at the first door on the left, and I realized with excitement that this was really happening. I was going to have sex with Tyler. He ushered me into a palatial hotel room and the door shut behind us.
"Holy shit." I ran my fingers along the edges of one of two end tables that were decorated with fresh flowers. "And I thought my hotel room was nice. Why do you have a room so much nicer than mine?"
"I'm the talent." Tyler sat me down in the armchair in front of the fireplace and reappeared with a tablet and a glass of water. "Drink all of this, and take this ibuprofen so that you feel human in the morning."
I did as I was told, then stood up and found my way into the massive four-poster in the adjacent room. "You coming?" I called, peeling off my clothes and lying seductively in my underwear on the comforter.
Tyler eyed me as he entered the room and groaned. "God, Olivia. What are you doing to me?" He threw a blanket over me, then took his shirt off, giving me a full view of the deep V of his hips and the seemingly endless abs above it. He was an Adonis. I gawked as he discarded his jeans and climbed into bed clad only in boxer briefs.
Tyler's scent overwhelmed my senses, enveloping me in a haze of sandalwood and musk, the redolence of someone who'd been working hard and was begging for a little release. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my neck from behind. "Go to sleep, baby, we'll talk in the morning."
I pouted. "What about ravaging me?"
Tyler shifted behind me. "You have no idea how much I want to be inside you right now. This is killing me, and in the morning, I promise to fuck you left, right, sideways, and to the fucking moon, but right now you're too drunk to function. It's not my style to take advantage of drunk women."
I harrumphed, but I knew somewhere rational deep, deep inside me that he was right. The incredibly drunk, horny part of me, however, was not in agreement and thought he was being a little self-righteous. I pushed my butt out so that it made contact with Tyler's erection, eliciting a gasp from him. He snaked a hand around my hips to still me.
"Ssh. Sleep." He put his head back down on mine and pulled my body flush against his.
I was asleep within minutes.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up bleary-eyed and cotton-headed and shielded my eyes against the golden sunlight streaming in from an undraped floor to ceiling window. Last night felt a million miles away, like a bad dream. Maybe I was just hoping it had only been a dream and I hadn't thrown myself at Tyler after diving headfirst into a pile of martinis. Judging by how beautiful this suite was and the arm slung casually over me, however, last night was incredibly real.
Something hard was pushing insistently against my ass, and Tyler's tanned, muscular hands moved to my waist, repositioning me so that we were perfectly aligned. I stirred a little to let him know I was awake, and Tyler's cock sprung up excitedly. I turned in his arms to face his already open eyes and sleepy smile.
"Good morning, gorgeous," Tyler said softly. "We need to talk, but first, I believe I made a promise to you last night, one that I intend to keep right now." He flipped himself on top of me, the muscles in his arms and shoulders bulging with the effort, and dropped his head to pull me into a deep kiss. Being under Tyler, kissing him, being touched by him, was a divine experience, one that had no right to feel so right. He nipped and prodded at me, drawing my desire out of me, taking his time as his hands explored every inch of my body.
My disappointed cry when he broke our kiss was supplanted by a low sigh when he moved his mouth to my breasts, which were covered only by a thin lacy bralette. His mouth covered the mound of my nipple, sucking through the silky fabric and sending shots of arousal straight to my groin. I melted into his arms as he used the tip of his thumb and forefinger to tweak my nipple. He blew on the wet fabric of my bra, sending frissons of desire from the hard nubs to my core.
I writhed under him, lost in pleasure, needing so, so much more than he was giving me. I decided I'd had enough foreplay and I grabbed his head, pulling it up to look him straight in the eye. "I need you in me now."
Tyler grinned and reached over to the nightstand, where he ripped a condom off the perforated edge of a row of foil packets. "Yes, ma'am." He expertly rolled the condom onto his pulsating hard-on, then resumed his position above me, poising himself at my entrance.
I lifted my hips, urging him to enter me. I was throbbing for him, almost crying with arousal, but still he went at a glacial pace, driving me insane. He entered slowly, inch by glorious inch, stretching me wide and filling me to the brim. I moaned with delicious discomfort. Tyler was easily the biggest guy I'd ever been with.
"You okay?" he asked, his face straining with the effort to keep from unleashing himself fully.
I nodded. "Faster."
"I don't want to hurt you," he growled through gritted teeth.
I pumped my hips up, my eyes rolling back in my head as Tyler hit my cervix and kept pumping, trying to get Tyler to match my pace. He growled again and grabbed me by both ass cheeks, holding me against him as he started going at it with wild abandon.
"That's it, baby, let go." I reached between our joined bodies and rubbed my clit. As soon as my finger made contact, pressure and heat roared around my ears, signaling a quick release. I broke apart, gyrating against Tyler, my inner contractions milking him, pulling his orgasm from him to pulse with my own as we laid there, still connected.
Tyler slumped over and pulled me on top of him, wrapping his arms around me protectively. Something about being in his big arms made me feel so small and so female. I laid there on his sweat-slicked chest, reveling in the afterglow of one of the most intense orgasms of my life. I listened as the staccato of Tyler's heartbeat slowed to a regular pace, and his breathing slowly returned to normal. He let out a light snore, and I giggled.
As the afterglow faded and my hangover came over me with a vengeance, panic set in. I'd done it. I'd slept with Tyler. Sure, he'd had pretty words for me last night, but now that he'd finally gotten what he wanted, I was afraid. Afraid that he was going to want to talk this to death. Afraid that I hadn't been all he'd been expecting. Afraid that he'd move on to bigger and better things, leaving me to pick up the pieces in his wake. Well, I wasn't going to let a guy affect me like that again. I stiffened and gently tried to extricate myself from Tyler's arms, but his hold on me tightened, and he awakened.
"Trying to sneak out?" He chuckled, sitting up next to me. "I need a shower. Care to join me?"
I shook my head. "I just need to lie here for a few minutes. My head is pounding."
"You did pound back those martinis like they weren't twenty bucks a pop," Tyler said. He stood up, unabashed by his nakedness, and strutted to the adjoining bathroom and within seconds, steam started pouring through the bathroom door that Tyler hadn't shut all the way.
I did lie there for a few minutes, debating what to do next. I could either stay here and confront my issues head-on, or I could run from my problems. After weighing my options, I threw my dress on, picked up my shoes and purse, and exited the suite, letting the door latch softly click behind me. I padded down the carpeted floor in my bare feet, walking quickly and not turning around for fear of seeing Tyler behind me. Once I was safely in the elevator, I exhaled loudly, trying to rationalize what I had just done.
I entered my room and latched the lock behind me before flopping down on my bed, grabbing a pillow, and screaming into it. I picked up the phone and called Kat, who would know what to do.
"Hello darling," she said. "How's it hanging?"
"I'm not entirely thinking straight, and I just did a thing." I groaned.
"Good thing or bad thing?" Kat asked with concern etched in her voice.
"I don't know. I did two things, and one is unquestionably a bad thing. The jury's still out on the other one."
"Tell me so I can fix it for you," Kat said firmly.
"I slept with Tyler." I slapped my hand to my forehead.
"You slept with Tyler Motherfucking Sutton, and you
think that's a bad thing?" Kat scoffed. "Can I slap you through the phone? I would kill to have your kind of problems."
"That's the thing that I'm not sure is bad or good," I said. Kat was not going to be so glib when she found out I'd bailed immediately after the sex.
"How was he? Is he a sex god? Oh no, don't tell me he's got a small pecker." Kat was horror-stricken.
"No. The opposite. Tyler is amazing in every way."
"I'm confused then. How could sleeping with him be a bad thing? And if you think having sex with the world's sexiest man might be a bad thing, I cannot imagine what you've done that you think is bad."
"I snuck out of his room right after sex, while he was in the shower," I said quickly. "I did it because he wanted to talk about our relationship, and I'm not sure that I want a relationship with someone who's such a player. I don't want to get any more emotionally invested than I already am." I sullenly played with the edge of my still-damp bra, willing images of Tyler's golden face to leave my brain.
Kat whooped with laughter. "Well, you sure figured out how to end it before feelings get any deeper."
"It's not funny," I protested.
"You are overthinking this. First of all, you're worried Tyler is a player, but you're the one sneaking out of hotel rooms after getting some booty because your sex partner wanted to discuss your relationship." I hated when Kat chided me in that no-nonsense tone. "Why don't you give Tyler a chance to prove you wrong? He seems genuinely into you. No one works as hard as he did to get you to like him if they're only trying to fuck. He even put up with being grilled by Nicky for you."
"Nick told you about that, huh?" I said.
"Yeah, it seems you and Nick were worried about the same thing with Tyler. And you know what? Nick told me that he thinks Tyler is the genuine article." I could practically see Kat's disapproving face over the phone.
I closed my eyes, mortification and regret washing over me. "I just snuck out a few minutes ago. You think I should sneak back in through the window?"
Smooth Operator Page 12