Just Marry Me Already (BWWM Romance Book 1)

by Ayo Campbell

  Hallie gave him a long look.

  “So the DJ wasn’t your choice? I thought you were very careful about all your choices for this party.”

  He shrugged.

  “When Melisande asked me to hire him as a favor, I’m afraid I, rather misguidedly, said yes. Now I wish I hadn’t. Fortunately, your food and the drinks make up for it. Everybody seems far too happy and tipsy to complain about the music.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good party.”

  “Thanks to you and your team. I’m glad I listened to you. So now, how about you do me a favor?”

  Whiskey sours always got her tipsy quickly. But she was now too tipsy to care about that. Maybe she should’ve eaten more instead of just making sure everybody else ate, but she was in her happy zone now.

  “What would you like?”

  “I would like you to dance with me.”

  It was a bad idea. There was a small part of her yelling and screaming that it was definitely a bad idea. But it was such a small part of her, and the rest of her was heading towards very happy tipsy so quickly.

  “I shall do that, if you make me another drink, just like this one. You’re quite good at it.”

  She turned that smile on him. She didn’t feel like the help now. She wished she were wearing something hotter and sexier than the plain black dress she had worn to be inconspicuous.

  But Hallie was anything but inconspicuous. The dress made her waist look tiny, and her curves glamorous. Her hair was tamed, but a couple of wisps of curls had escaped, making her look just a bit vulnerable. Her eyes were bright and large. The dress left a long line of her back exposed – its only distinctive feature. The skin it exposed was like perfect coffee. She didn’t know that every man had noticed her and wanted to run his fingers over her skin.

  Aldous Banks had definitely noticed her. She sipped her second drink, feeling her inhibitions loosening more and more.

  “Right, Hallie. I officially declare you off duty, and I’m the client. So dance with me.”

  She was smiling as she pulled her hair loose and let it tumble. She walked to the dance floor with him, and was swept away, in more ways than one.

  Chapter 3

  Hallie was buzzed. She knew she was buzzed when she thought a third whiskey sour might be an excellent idea. She really knew she was buzzed when the song – good Lord, was that Ke$ha – started sounding good.

  When Mr. Banks – no, he was Aldous now – pulled her close and led with his body, she let herself press against him, knowing he could feel her full breasts, and her nipples hardening, she was just tipsy enough to ignore her head and be just a bit reckless.

  She was a grown, strong, independent woman who was currently looking into gorgeous eyes the color of the sea, and that chin dimple looked like it definitely deserved a Twitter account of its own.

  He finally swung her away from the dance floor, but his arm was still around her. She heard Valerie, over the headpiece still clipped to her ear.

  “You’re out, Hallie. Excellent work. I’m taking you off wrap up. Have fun.”

  It didn’t occur to her that maybe, Aldous Banks had something to do with that. She was just glad she could loosen up a bit and have some fun.

  “Thanks, Val! I think I will.”

  Aldous raised an eyebrow.

  “Val has decreed that I’m done for the day, and I definitely hope I did enough for a bonus.”

  Aldous smiled, slow, lazy, almost feline.

  “As the client, I can decree that you definitely did,” he told her.

  She beamed.

  “You know, I thought you’d be a real pain to work for. I guess you’re not so bad. Just takes some getting used to.”

  Aldous fixed her another drink – he made it much milder, having noticed that Hallie was quite tipsy – and grinned. She was quite the handful. And she wasn’t particularly impressed by him, obviously.

  He was used to having women fall into his arms if he just crooked his finger. He was intrigued by this woman with her perfect skin, strong features, honest eyes and tempting lips that curved into a smile that was unexpectedly glamorous.

  “Why did you think I was a pain?”

  “Oh, you said our girls weren’t pretty enough. I mean, look at them. They’re all perfectly pretty. And you see that tray with three pitchers of beer? Do you really think your skinny models who haven’t eaten more than lettuce in weeks could even heft it?”

  His grin grew wider when she scoffed.

  “Possibly not. You did notice that I admit it when I’m wrong and take expert advice when offered.”

  She was too happy drunk to begrudge him that.

  “Yes, that’s why you’re not a pain, like I thought you would be. You thought I wasn’t pretty enough, too. I was in the folder.”

  Aldous let his eyes sweep over her curvy body with that tiny waist, and indulged himself for a moment by picturing her naked and under him. He had already decided that she was going home with him. Now he’d convince her that’s what she wanted. But he wanted her to decide that without her senses impaired. A couple of drinks to loosen inhibitions and get rid of that client-staff barrier, that was fine. More than that and it’d be the alcohol talking, not her. He had deliberately added just a sprinkling of whiskey in her last drink.

  “I guess I must’ve been having a very bad day, because you look absolutely delectable, Hallie.”

  Hallie smiled.

  “Damn right I do,” she agreed.

  “In fact, I find myself wondering just how delectable you really are,” he said, and pulled her closer to him.

  Hallie raised her face towards his, welcoming the kiss that she knew would scramble her brains.

  Her lips were parted, her eyes sparkling, when they met his. The shock of contact made her stiffen. She felt her body respond in a rush that she had never felt before. It was just a kiss, but she felt that current sing through her, jolt through her. Before she knew it, her arms were wrapped around him and she was pressing her pliant body to his.

  She felt his tongue trace the shape of her full lips and moaned. He greedily swallowed that moan as his hands became more possessive, moving along her back. Regardless of the party around them, his hands cupped her bottom and pulled her flush against him.

  He wanted her. He wanted her to know that he wanted her. She made his body hum with desire, and he would have her.

  Hallie felt his tongue slide along hers, urging hers to give him more. Reckless, she met his tongue and slipped it into his mouth, demanding that he give her just as much. Her mouth met his passion with more. She felt his hand move up her waist and cup her breast, and her back arched as she moaned and pushed it into his hand. She wanted his hands on her.

  When he raised his head, his eyes still held hers. His hand was still on her breast, possessive and insistent.

  “Come home with me, Hallie.”

  It was his party, and he shouldn’t leave. But he didn’t care.

  Hallie didn’t do things like this. She just didn’t. But she didn’t care, either. She nodded.

  He held her hand tightly and pulled her along to a side entrance that was barred for everybody but him and his most favored guests. She didn’t know how, but his limo was waiting for them. Hallie slipped inside, his hand still holding hers.

  He pressed her back into the seat even before the door was closed. She felt the length of his body, hard and strong, pressing her back and felt herself respond to that power in him. She gasped as his hand slipped under her dress and moved up her leg. She felt her legs part, as if she had no power over them.

  His lips were invading her. She couldn’t breathe for everything he was making her feel. They were moving over her neck, finding the sensitive skin along her collar bone. She felt his teeth graze against her shoulder.His hand on her back felt like heat that would sear her. She felt his fingers leave a hot trail up her back and undo the button that held her dress closed.

  She felt herself get wet as his hands moved her dress down
her shoulders, leaving her breasts exposed to his gaze.

  “You are a beautiful woman, Hallie,” he said as his mouth moved over her breast, his lips so skillful, his tongue finding places that made her tremble.

  His hand moved up her legs, curving around her thigh, stroking the incredibly sensitive skin of her inner thighs. She wanted him to touch her. Her hips moved, asking for more without words.

  His tongue touched her nipple, so softly. He moistened it, and breathed on it, making her shiver. He gave the other nipple the same attention.

  As Hallie watched, his mouth moved to her nipple and his lips closed on that hard bud. His hand slipped under her silk panties and found her hot, wet center, that nub that cried for attention, at the same time.

  She felt his fingers circle around it, finding her so wet, so hot, so needy for him. She felt him suck on her nipple and pulled his head closer to her, desperate for more.

  She felt his fingers pass over that swollen flesh and she cried out as she felt her body shudder helplessly, as she climaxed in his hand. His mouth demanded more from her, slipping his fingers inside her, stroking her, until she was lifted up and over again, arching her back, her legs trembling, her breath coming in gasps.

  Her body was limp and lax as she felt him pull her dress up.

  “You’ll need to wear it, honey, until we get to the elevator,” he whispered.

  She was dazed, drunk on pleasure, as she fumbled with the clasp and pulled it up. His hand was on hers again, and she could feel herself slick on his fingers.

  He pulled her to the elevator that took them straight to the penthouse apartment. He pulled her to him and kissed her senseless on the way up to those dizzying heights.

  She couldn’t stand. Her legs felt like jelly.

  But she didn’t have to stand. He swept her up into his arms and carried her, all the way to the bed. She had a moment to take it in – it was a bed as vast as an island, or so it seemed to be. She saw that there was a mirror on the ceiling, and she felt herself get even more turned on than she already was when she saw it.

  She wanted this.

  Aldous laid her down on that bed, his body covering hers, his lips on hers. She felt his mouth on hers, slanted over hers, and kissed him back with a desperate wantonness that she hadn’t known was in her. She felt as if she were floating. Her head was spinning. She wasn’t sure if it was from the cocktails or just him. The taste of him was as intoxicating as any cocktail she’d ever had.

  He hitched her dress up and she wrapped her legs around him, still wearing her heels. She felt free and powerful when she felt her crotch come into intimate contact with the hard evidence of his need for her.

  Her hips pumped, brushing herself against him, feeling him throb against her. She wanted him. She wanted him inside her. She wanted to shatter with pleasure when she was wrapped around him.

  She needed to touch him. She pulled at his shirt, undoing the buttons. Impatient, she tugged, ripping it, sending buttons scattering everywhere. She growled in triumph as she ran her hands over the skin of his chest. Her nails grazed his nipples and she felt his muscles tense in response. She did it again, and again, and she tore her mouth away from his to find his neck.

  She could taste him. He tasted like sex, and power, and barely contained masculinity. She let her teeth find the crook of his neck and bit down, hard, feeling his fingers clench on her arms as she did so.

  She felt her dress being pulled away. She let him pull it down as he found her nipples with her teeth and her lips. She licked, kissed and nibbled until she felt his erection grow against her, even more.

  His hands closed on her breasts. She felt his fingers on her nipples, brushing over them, pulling them lightly, and she wanted his hot mouth on her breasts more than ever.

  “Please, Aldous,” she whispered.

  “Tell me what you want, Hallie. I want to hear the words.”

  “I want… I want your mouth on my breasts. Suck on them. Like you did before.”

  Her eyes closed as his head lowered to her breast, taking her nipple in his mouth and sucking. She cried out as shock waves of pleasure crashed through her. She felt him press her breasts together and take both her dark brown, hard, large nipples in his mouth, using his tongue expertly to make her writhe against him.

  “Oh yes, oh yes, don’t stop,” she whimpered as his tongue flicked them over and over again.

  Her hands were at the waist of his trousers, pulling at his belt, undoing the snap, unzipping him. Her hand found his hard manhood. He was throbbing against her hand, throbbing for her as she cupped him and stroked him over his boxers. She slipped her hand inside and found his tip already slick with moisture and slid her fingers over him.

  She felt her world spin as he moved down her belly, his mouth leaving a trail of heat so potent she thought she’d burn. She felt him tug her dress down and off her. She felt his tongue move over her hips, up her legs, as they fell apart for him. She felt his tongue trace over the silk of her panties and felt its tip find her, unerringly, and press.

  She felt him pull her panties off and felt his eyes on her. She looked up and saw herself, legs spread, completely exposed, his head a few inches away from her. She watched as his head lowered to her and his lips found her center, where she was so desperate for more, and she felt her world spin again, over and over again.

  She felt his tongue move over her and she felt that tense coil of pleasure deep in her belly tightening. She watched as Aldous’s blonde head was buried between her legs. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders, keeping him there. She watched as her hips moved and bucked under his lips, demanding more and more.

  Her eyes closed as she reached for it again and he moved away, pushing her knees back with his arms, hooking them over his shoulders.

  She felt his hard member throbbing at her entrance and with one deep thrust, he was inside her and she was exploding. He filled her, stretched her, and her eyes glazed over as her body shuddered, trembled, over and over again. It wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t take more.

  But she could. She watched their reflections as he thrust inside her, so deep, pulling almost all the way out before doing it again. Her aftershocks turned into another peak, and she felt that she would fall apart.

  “Again. Reach for it again,” he urged, and she felt herself find it, impossibly, all over again as she watched his naked body collapse on hers as he emptied himself inside her. She felt him tremble, and she knew that she was one of few who had ever known him to tremble.

  It took a few minutes before he could roll off her. Hallie wasn’t sure just what happened, but she found herself falling asleep – passing out – her mind completely blank, for once.

  He really fucked her brains out, she thought, and she was out like a light.

  *****

  Hallie woke up with a start.

  She also woke up with the hangover of the century.

  She also didn’t wake up in her own bed.

  She was in what looked like the bachelor pad of dreams.

  It came back in a rush. She was in the bachelor pad of dreams. She was in a billionaire’s penthouse.

  She was in a billionaire’s penthouse, on a bed that looked about as big as her apartment, or maybe just a bit bigger, and… There was a mirror on the ceiling, she remembered that.

  She looked up.

  Yep, it was still there. She was naked. So was Aldous, who was fast asleep.

  So she had definitely slept with the billionaire she didn’t like. Not like she knew so many billionaires that she could categorize them into ones she liked and ones she didn’t.

  She wanted to be somewhere else. She wanted to eat a pretzel, have some banana bread, and a fried egg. Then she wanted to have lots of lemonade – the fizzy kind. She wanted to be anywhere but there.

  Maybe not quite, but she definitely didn’t want to be there.

  Now she had to do the walk of shame. She started to get up slowly, and stopped. Good God, she thought, it was a waterbed.
No wonder she’d felt like everything was spinning. It wasn’t all the tipsy.

  She got up carefully and started gathering up her stuff. She had left her purse in the limo. She had, hadn’t she?

  Panicked, she pulled her dress on, and rolled up her panties. She walked to the living area –and that was huge, too, with an entertainment center, the kind dreams are made of – and, to her relief, found her purse there. She was pretty sure she hadn’t had it when they’d made it up there. Somebody must have brought it there.

  Must be protocol, she thought, cynically. Aldous Banks had somebody to take care of the purses of girls he brought back to the apartment. And she, Hallie Holt, had become one of those girls.

  She had sunk truly low. She grabbed the purse, checked her phone, and stuffed her panties in there.

  She hoped that there was no security system to disable. It seemed like opening it from the inside wouldn’t set any alarms off. Fingers crossed, she opened the door.

  There were no sirens and no bars came crashing down. That was good, she figured.

  She made her way to the elevator and realized she hadn’t the slightest clue how to work it. It seemed to need a key card or something.

  Well, she would take the stairs. Just the thing for a hungover morning when her head was pounding and her stomach was roiling like a stormy sea.

  There was probably some kind of lesson to be learned, thought Hallie, but her head hurt far too much to think of it. Belatedly, she realized that she should’ve checked in the bathroom for aspirin. She should’ve peed, too. She really had to pee.

  She nearly whimpered in relief when she saw a 24-hour diner and she walked in there.

  “Coffee. Aspirin?” she croaked hopefully.

  The bored looking waitress pulled a bottle out of her apron. Aspirin.

  “Two,” Hallie whispered reverently.

  “Here you go. Coffee and fry-up?”

  That wasn’t what she’d had in mind, but why not?

  “Yes, please,” said Hallie.

  By the time she had the bacon, eggs, toast, tomatoes and beans in front of her, she almost lost control of her stomach.

  Well, if it doesn’t kill you...