by A. L. Zaun
“Hello, Maddy, my love. How are you? Are you here? You can come right up.”
I sighed. Here was the moment of truth. “No, I’m not there.”
“Okay, where are you?”
I could hear his impatience in his voice.
“I’m in bed,” I answered matter-of-factly.
“Really?” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Give me a second.” He paused. “I just checked under the covers and patted next to me. Hold on, maybe I missed you. You are pretty tiny. Are you hiding?” He paused again. “Nope, you’re not in bed.”
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see it. “Stop being an idiot.”
“Stop being difficult and get your ass over here.”
“Stop telling me what to do. Good night. I’ll see you at six.”
“Whatever,” he muttered. I could hear the disappointment in his voice, and it crushed me. “Have it your way. Good night.”
He hung up, and I stared at the phone for a few surprised seconds. He took that better than I expected. I should have been proud of him for respecting my space. I should have felt a little victorious for holding my ground, but I didn’t.
Instead, I felt a hollow pit in my stomach. Damn him!
Rolling over, I brought the pillow into my chest and fixed my eyes on the moon as an emptiness began to swallow me whole.
“I want you in my bed tonight.”
Who does he think I am? On command Maddy? I rolled onto my back and stretched out, trying to close my rebellious eyes.
“I’m serious. I need you tonight.”
I’m serious, too. I need sleep.
I pulled up the covers under my chin. And what was up with him groping me in front of my staff? I’d never do that to him in front of a client. I kicked them off in frustration.
His voice still haunted me. “I need you.”
I fluffed my pillows, glancing at my phone, almost wishing he would call me back and give me a hard time.
This would be the right time for him to be unreasonable. Now is when he decides to cooperate? My god! His timing is awful!
I lay my head on my pillow, bringing my forearm over my eyes, as I tried to find the sleep that evaded me. Nothing I did could make the ache go away or stop my mind from returning to him. I could have gotten up to make some tea—that always helped in the past—but I didn’t want tea. I wanted to be in bed with that godforsaken asshole.
Storming out of bed, I threw some things into a bag. “I hate you, Rick Marin,” I muttered as I grabbed my phone and keys. I slammed my door and jabbed the button to call the elevator.
I was starting to think he’d done this on purpose. Very clever, Mr. Marin. I shook my head in disbelief. He played me. He totally played me. He had known exactly what he was doing when he gave in so easily.
Blowing away a tendril of hair that had fallen across my face, I murmured, “I hate when he does this to me.” I walked out of the elevator and glared at the unsuspecting doorman who tried to open the door to the parking garage for me.
“Thank you,” I said with a mild sneer.
I slid into my car and looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror, teasing my hair with my fingers while the truth caught up to me. I wasn’t a victim of Rick Marin. It would be so easy to blame him. The truth was that I enjoyed our little power plays as much as he did. I’d always given in to him, ultimately never able to refuse him, and he knew this.
“Have it your way,” I growled to the empty space in my car.
Did he really think I couldn’t see right through him?
The city streets were asleep, like I should have been, and the ride down Biscayne Boulevard was quick. Once I pulled up to the front of his building, the sleepy valet came and took my keys before speeding away with my car. I looked up at the high-rise, shocked that I was even here.
So much for standing my ground. Fuck it.
I chuckled, acknowledging that I wanted this just as much as he had. The sliding glass doors opened to the luxurious lobby, startling the security guard from his nap. After a long stretch, he winked, eyeing me up and down, before he grinned widely and welcomed me. Asshole. I would have to talk to Rick about this because it was really unacceptable.
“I’m here to see Rick Marin in apartment twenty-four-oh-one,” I told him, signing in. “I’m on the list.”
“Let me take a look.” He smiled suggestively. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
I looked to my left and then to my right before pointing to myself. “Are you addressing me?”
“Ah, one of those.” He smirked. “No one here but the two of us. Name, darlin’.”
He couldn’t have been more than twenty with the IQ of a tadpole and the class of a buffoon. His head was three sizes too small for his steroid-grown body, and the sleeves to his shirt looked like tourniquets cutting off his circulation. This was what was standing in the way of Rick and sleep.
“Madison Stuart,” I told him, debating if I should say something. I didn’t need shit from this rent-a-cop who had taken a two-week course to carry a flashlight. I wanted to go to bed already. I looked down and realized that I was standing in the lobby in my pajamas. I just wanted to get this over with.
“Ah, yes, here it is. Can I see some ID, sweetie?” he asked, licking his lips.
“ID?” I arched my eyebrow and reached into my purse for my license.
Am I being punked? Shaking my head, I realized I’d never been more thankful for Walter. He was definitely in a class all by himself.
“Here.” I flashed my license to the mall-cop reject and turned on my heels toward the elevator for the quick ride up to the twenty-fourth floor.
The steel doors opened to the small hallway with only six units. My heart raced, and a lump formed in my throat the closer I got to his door. I was a sucker for Rick, and he had gotten me every single time. It was a two-way street, and that was what made swallowing my pride bearable as I knocked. Not to mention, this was where I really wanted to be.
He opened the door wide and stood to the side, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. I hated that he looked as good as he did. With sleep in his eyes and bed head, his lip curled to the side just enough so that his dimple popped. The motherfucker had been sleeping.
“Are you done?” he asked groggily.
“Shut up,” I responded, handing him my bag without looking at him.
“Nope, not done.”
I marched straight to his room and turned off the damn movie he had on mute. The room was now pitch-black, yet it felt anything but bleak and empty. I slipped off my shoes and crawled into his king-sized bed, breathing in his scent and letting it fill me. I lay on my side, facing away from the door as my heart threatened to burst out of my chest. I blew out a couple of deep breaths while emotions flooded over me, consuming me whole. Closing my eyes, I hugged the thick down comforter, and every muscle in my traitorous body relaxed almost instantly.
The bed dipped behind me, and his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling my back into his chest. He brushed my hair to the side and then laid a trail of kisses along my neck. “Sweet dreams, babe. I love you,” he whispered in my ear.
I laced my fingers with his, pulled both hand under my head, and kissed his forearm. “Good night.” Squeezing his fingers, I mumbled, “I love you, too.”
For someone who had always slept alone—barring those few rare occasions—I was quickly finding that I loved sleeping in his arms. It was almost as though my body craved his warmth. Everything and nothing had changed between us. Our breathing synchronized, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
No matter how hard I’d tried to resist him or fight what was happening between us, it was in these unexpected moments that I found myself slipping deeper in love with him.
How long would this last? Sooner or later, I’d have to tell him everything.
Chapter 26
Madison
I’d always thought of myself as a morning person, but when the alarm buzzed while it wa
s still dark outside, I covered my head with the pillow and cursed it. Rick’s face was buried in my neck, and I felt the vibrations of his laughter against my skin, sending a soft tremor through my body.
“I can think of other ways to get your cardio in this morning,” he said in a raspy morning voice, pressing his erection against me.
“Morning.” I rolled onto my back, looked into his hungry eyes, and smiled. “Is there ever a time when you aren’t horny?”
He looked away, closing one eye tightly and pursing his lips as though he was in deep thought, and then he returned his gaze to me. “Nope, I’m ready to go all the time.”
“Somehow”—I ran my hands along his chest and rubbed my hips against his hard-on—”I don’t find that difficult to believe.”
I arched my back in a stretch as he slipped off my top and brought his lips to my nipple, sucking and swirling his tongue around the hardening tip. My breath caught in a quick gasp, and my eyes closed, allowing myself to feel the sensation ripple through me and tingle at my core. My fingers weaved in his hair, holding his head close to me, as I placed soft kisses along his temple while encouraging him with my writhing hips.
“You do realize that we’re going to run after this?” I panted as his hands glided down my body, slipping off my pajama pants.
“You wear too many clothes to bed,” he said as his mouth followed the path that his hands had traveled, leaving a wake of goose bumps along their trail.
“And after we run, you’re drinking celery juice,” I whimpered while his teeth nipped along my inner thigh. “Fried calamari? You didn’t think I’d notice?”
His head popped up with a wide grin. “There’s no fucking way I’m drinking that shit. You were watching me the entire time. You know I didn’t have any calamari.” He sat up and ran his hands over my breasts and down my stomach, stopping right below my belly button, then back up, squeezing my nipples, and lowering his hands a little farther south each time. “You couldn’t take your eyes off of me.”
I rolled my eyes at his arrogance. “Of course I wouldn’t be doing anything else but staring at you the entire night because as everyone knows, my world begins and ends with you,” I said sarcastically.
A small moan escaped my lips when his fingers slipped between my legs, teasing me.
“Did you want me to touch you like this?” he asked, sliding his finger inside me.
I gasped at the welcome intrusion.
“Tell me, Maddy. How did you want me to play with your pussy?” He pulled his fingers away and began running his hands along my inner thigh.
“You’re so full of yourself. Who said I wanted you to touch me?” I snaked my legs around his. “I was working. I’m a prof—”
He lowered his mouth over me and sucked on my clit. My eyes rolled back while my hands fisted the sheets.
“Oh, Rick…”
He pulled back, sitting on my knees. His fingers drew circles on my thighs, causing my eyes to flutter open and fix on him staring back at me.
“What did you want me to do to you?”
Should I tell him that I hadn’t wanted him to stop touching me when he came up behind me last night? I’d wanted him to fondle my breasts and play with me, slip his finger inside me, and give me the orgasm he’d said he could give me that fateful night we’d met?
Images of the fantasies I’d had about him—the times when I’d closed my eyes and thought of him inside me, pleasuring me—over the past couple of months flashed before me. The self-induced orgasms I’d had, visualizing his touch as my hands traveled over my body.
Did I tell him how his gentle caress, the flirtatious embraces, or even the warmth of his breath against my skin would start a fire in me that nothing I did could quench?
I pulled myself up and maneuvered him off of my knees, straddling him. I then rubbed against him like a kitten.
How would I answer his question? What had I wanted then? And what do I want him to do now?
His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer into him. My body moved against him, and I felt his dick under me, long and hard.
With my hands cradling his head, I whispered, “I didn’t want you to do anything.”
“Liar,” he responded with storming eyes.
“You can’t handle the truth,” I told him, sitting back on his lap and wrapping my legs around his back.
His lip curled in a smile, and his eyes softened as he ran his fingers along the tips of my hair. “You’re beautiful.”
“You’re cheesy,” I replied, unable to help the soft blush that touched my cheeks.
“The correct response is, thank you.” He fisted his hands in my hair, pulling himself closer to me, and then he ran his nose along my chin. “You’ve been in front of me this entire time.” He nipped along my neck. “It’s always been you.”
I gasped as he pressed his dick against me.
“I need to fuck you or whatever we’re calling it.”
My hair had to have been a tousled mess. I hoped to God my breath…well, it was morning. None of these things mattered to me. Still, what caused my chest to tighten with panic was the ease in which his words flowed so effortlessly from his mouth. Could I love him this same way?
He leaned around me and pulled out a condom from the nightstand drawer. I sat back, watching him. He ripped open the packet and began rolling it over his dick. Then he looked up and caught me with my eyes fixed on it as I rubbed my lips together in desire.
“I know you want it,” he teased, wiggling his eyebrows.
My eyes crinkled, and I chuckled softly. “You’re such a dork.”
“I’ll take that as a hell yeah.” He grinned, but his eyes got serious as he laid me back against the mattress. “I don’t want anything between us.” He slipped his dick inside me, filling me and taking my breath away. “I want to make you all mine.”
He rocked into me fast and hard. My body was in a hyper-aroused state, and his words made absolutely no sense to me. My nails dug into his back as sweat beaded under my hands. Intense. Primal. Sensual. Our bodies moved together. I didn’t even try to decipher his machismo. At that very moment, when I was on an impending explosion, he could have said anything to me, but there were no more words. Moans, pants, and groans were the only sounds I heard.
I clutched him tightly as my body shattered into what felt like a million pieces, completely falling apart under him as I cried out his name. I was no stranger to the power of an orgasm. With Rick though, it was more like a thunderstorm was meeting lightning with an earthquake under the surface, sending shock waves through my body. He continued to thrust, filling me deeper. My toes curled, and my back arched. With his head buried in my neck, he pushed in two more times and found his own release, moaning his trademark profanities.
He rolled over with a Cheshire cat smile on his face and laced his fingers with mine. He brought our hands to his mouth for a kiss. “Me and you,” he breathed, laying our hands over his chest, “this is right.”
“I love your confidence.” I nuzzled my head on his shoulder.
“You’re on the pill.”
“Absolutely.” I wasn’t sure if it was a question or statement.
He rolled over on his side and wrapped a wisp of my hair around his finger. “Good.”
I placed a kiss on his chest, still a little confused by all of this. He knew I was on the pill and that I’d always used condoms as well. We’d discussed this before. With the number of sexual partners between us, neither one of us could ever be too safe.
“Where are you going with this?” I asked, getting up. “Come on, we have to run.”
“Run? We already had our cardio.” He winked. “Give me a good ten minutes, and we can go for more if you need another intensive workout.” He sat up on the bed, watching me put on his shirt.
“Get your lazy ass out of bed.” I looked over my shoulder as I walked into the bathroom with a slight bounce in my step.
“We’re not using condoms anymore,” he said, sitting up
on the side of the bed. He propped his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.
I stopped in my tracks and fully turned around. “Yes, we are.”
He pressed his lips together and shook his head in exasperation. “Madison, stop being so fucking difficult.”
“Stop being so fucking irresponsible. What’s your rush?”
“Irresponsible?” He got up and came to me. “We’ll get tested this week.” He stood in front of me, tilting my chin up. “I’ve always been safe. You know that the only woman I ever had sex with without a condom was Daniela, but we were both clean, and that was years ago.”
My stomach dropped when he said that even though it wasn’t news. The expression on my face must have reflected the sick feeling swirling inside me.
“Don’t do that. Don’t get jealous.” He kissed my forehead. “I love you, Maddy.” He pulled back. “Why are you giving me shit? We’re together. I love you.” He tapped my nose. “You love me. What’s the problem?”
I placed a hand on my hip and cocked my head to the side. “You need to slow down. Just because I’m in your bed doesn’t mean I’m a sure thing. I won’t be a guaranteed fuck.”
He arched an eyebrow and pursed his lips in a smile. “You’re full of shit. You know you’re not a fuck. What is it, Maddy? Do you want all that stuff you make fun of—going out on dates, holding hands, flowers, and chocolates?”
My eyes were steady on his. If I was going to let my guard down, open my heart to him, then I wanted to be romanced. There was nothing wrong with that. It was not pathetic or weak-minded. He needed to prove to me that I could trust him. I needed to know that he wouldn’t bail on me. I needed to know that he wouldn’t just change his mind one day. I needed to know that when the pressure came that he’d still be by my side.
“Yes, I want all of that,” I admitted honestly. “Now, leave me alone. I need some privacy.” I closed the door and stared at the reflection in the mirror. I had sex hair and swollen lips, and a glow lit up my face. I heard a small knock on the door, and my lips curved.