“This is my apology for failing you twice. I’m actually a bit surprised you don’t hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” I say with more urgency in my voice than I meant to use. I swallow the lump of barbecue prematurely, but I have to get this out. There might not be another chance. “To be honest, I like our time in the car. It probably sounds stupid, but I don’t exactly get many chances to talk to people outside the office. None, actually. So while failing definitely sucks, if it means I can spend a bit more time with you, I’d say it’s worth it.”
The moment I get all of this out, I know I’ve said too much. Gone too far and too early. Now is the time when Hugh will look for the nearest exit and make a dash for it. No guy likes to be smothered, and I might as well have just pressed a down-filled pillow over his face with that pathetic confession.
“It’s funny you say that,” Hugh comes back with. He’s smiling, a splatter of barbecue sauce across his chin. “You surprised the shit out of me with how good you were driving earlier. Thought I was going to have to make up some arbitrary infraction to make you fail. Couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing you again.”
The lightness in my heart is something that I experience only once or twice a year. It’s always came randomly before, on the best of days that are good for no other reason than not being bad. Days with perfect sunshine and cerulean skies. Days spent in my apartment watching movies I’ve seen too many times with a mug of tea in hand and no place I need to be. Perfect little flecks of time that make me glad I’m alive. That makes me feel like I’ve finally got a grip on this crazy world. That I’m finally in the right place at the right time.
That’s what I’m feeling right now. And it gives me the confidence to lean forward and swipe the barbecue sauce from Hugh’s chin with my thumb. Instead of wiping it on a napkin, I’m even daring enough to lick it off. In a flash of clarity, I realize this may come off as over-the-top rather than the sexy motion I mean for it to be. Hugh’s reaction is perfect though.
“If you’re finished eating,” he says, reaching his hand across the table to grip the ends of my fingers. His hands are so much warmer than mine. Rougher too. “Maybe we can take a little drive around the town.”
The next fifteen minutes are a blur. I honestly can’t remember if we paid for the meal, but I’m assuming he did it while I excused myself to the restroom to clean myself up a bit. Then we’re in his car, him driving, explaining that it will be my turn soon enough. But that ‘soon enough’ is on the backburner. We pass through the Main Street area, quaint rows of stores on either side of the road, all harkening back to simpler times.
On a road just before the local community college, we turn into a driveway. Hugh’s driveway. He doesn’t say this because he doesn’t need to. We haven’t spoken since the restaurant. Not about anything substantial anyway. When he engages the parking brake and takes the jangling keys from the ignition, Hugh looks over. There’s a different look in his eyes now. He’s not a driving instructor. He’s a man who’s already confessed that he can’t imagine not seeing me again.
The second after he gives an excuse for stopping by his house, I’ve already forgotten what it was. Whatever it was, it was most certainly a lie. A welcome lie. Anything that gets us somewhere alone. On top of having no friends and no weekend activities since moving here, there have been other dry spells in my life not to be talked about in polite company.
Hugh hesitates once we’re inside his living room. He’s still sticking to his charade. Playing it safe. Saying that I can sit and wait on the couch if I like. But I’m not waiting anymore.
This is all too good to be true, so I half expect him to push me away when I wrap my arms around him. Instead, he meets my lips halfway. Pressurized hormones launch through our systems. I need all of him. His hands rub up and down my back, venturing to my ass. He’s pulling up my shirt, and I’m doing everything I can to help him while also getting to work on his clothes too. With a flick of his feet, his shoes soar across the room and collide into the wall. He doesn’t take a second glance at the smudge marks they leave on the pale blue paint.
Each taking turns to press the other against the wall, we manage to slide into his bedroom. By the time we fall on the thick quilt at the foot of his bed, I’m wearing nothing but my underwear. Hugh, on the other hand, is stark naked.
I’m on top, so I take this moment to look down and admire his body. He’s got the muscles you would expect from someone who does hard labor all day, but no trace of the beer belly many of his drinking buddies no doubt suffer from. By the vitamin bottles and supplement containers on his dresser, it’s obvious he takes care of himself. A fact that I appreciate in the moment.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” I say.
He smirks up at me. “Took the words right out of my mouth.”
I’m not nearly as serious about fitness as Hugh, but I was sad to leave behind my favorite gym when I moved here. Despite three days a week spent in spinning classes, there’s still a layer of fat I’ve battled with all year across my midsection, but Hugh isn’t staring at my belly.
His fingers slide up under my bra. In an instant, the fabric falls away from my body. Hugh takes a satisfied breath and then rolls us over so he’s now on top. He runs kisses all up and down my body. His fingers caress the edges of my breasts, his thumbs running little circuits up and down, getting closer and closer to my nipples each time. He holds himself over me, keeping all of his weight off except at his crotch, which he grinds against me.
My hands dig in his hair and then run down his neck and chest.
“I need you,” I gasp out as he pulls at my nipple with his lips as if he were taking off the top of a swirl of ice cream.
“And I want you,” he says, transferring his lips to the nape of my neck. A thrill runs up my spine. “But best take our time. Enjoy the journey.”
His mouth connects with mine, our tongues rushing forward to meet one another. At the same time, his hand glides down my belly and slips under my panties, the last scrap of fabric clinging to my body. His rough fingers are careful to rub just inside my pussy’s lips, pulling my natural lubricant up to my clit, which he them rubs circles around.
I press against his hand, moaning into his mouth. Hugh is driving me absolutely wild. For a split second, I realize that I’m not thinking of anything. For the first time since I moved here, I’ve left my office worries, my self-pity, and all of the shitty stress of daily life behind. Right now it’s just him and me, riding each other up the octaves of pleasure.
“Have you got a condom?” I ask. “I forgot to take my pill yesterday.”
He leans over and grabs at his jeans while never moving his hand away from rubbing around my clit. He grunts in frustration when he can’t immediately pull the condom out of his pocket. As soon as he’s got the square package in his fingers, he’s back on top of me, but I flip him over.
I slip my panties off and scoot down so I’m sitting on his thighs, his cock just inches from being at my entrance. It’s rock hard, the tip nearly touching his belly button. When I take it in my hands, Hugh groans. “Give it to me,” I say, and he hands me the condom. He probably expects me to roll it down on him right away, but the moment the package is in my hand, I take all of him in my mouth.
Chapter 6
Hugh
All the air in my lungs whooshes out in an instant. Her mouth is wrapped around my cock, her tongue tickling at the tip each time she comes up. When I look down my torso at her, she tucks an errant bit of hair behind her ear. Then she looks up at me and goes down at the same time.
My hands go to her head of their own volition. I guide her along to follow the pace of my hips rising to meet her. She’s going faster now, sucking and licking, and I’m about to explode. Just as my balls contract and my whole body tenses up, she pulls away and finishes me with her hands, spraying my semen across her chest and onto the bed.
When the quivers calm, I collapse back on the bed. Diane falls next to me, her head
on my arm.
“What was that about enjoying the journey?” she says, gliding her fingers up and down my chest.
“Sometimes it’s fun to drive as fast as you can too,” I say in my defense. “Like this.”
With that, I roll on top of her. I’m on all fours, my knees on either side of her hips, my hands beside her head. Diane looks up at me. There’s no way I can get hard again this soon, but it won’t take me longer than five or ten minutes. Even faster if I have a bit of inspiration.
This time, I don’t tease her with kisses under her ears or down the center of her chest. I go straight for her breast, sucking at one while my other hand lightly massages the other. After a satisfying gasp, I move straight down to her crotch. Not with my hands, but with my face. When Diane tries to close her legs, I open them. Before she can object, I plunge straight in, dividing her pussy lips with my tongue and going straight for her clit.
I’m more than a little satisfied to find that she is absolutely drenching, yearning to be filled by me. She’s only going to have to wait a few minutes. The moment I taste her, I feel a throb go through my cock. He’ll be ready for action again soon enough. That gives me just enough time to rev Diane’s engine up to its peak.
With my arms gripping her thighs, I slide down and off the bed until my knees hit the floor. I pull her legs off too until I have the perfect position. When I’m not sucking at her clit, I’m teasing all around her inner thighs. One hand slips up to find her breast. Her hand goes over mine, pressing my fingers into her tender flesh. With my other hand, I slip a single finger inside of her, tickling up to where the G-spot should be. I know I’ve found it when Diane squirms against me. And I know that she’s about to cum when her thighs wrap around my ears. Then comes the squeeze, the shakes that tense every muscle in her body, the moans that border on screams.
Just as she’s pushing me away, I slide the condom on over my cock and enter her. She gasps at the unexpected sensation, but then she’s pulling me down on top of her, wrapping her legs around my waist, reaching for my lips with hers.
After a minute with me on top, we roll over so she has total control. When I reach to rub at her clit once more, she swats my hand away. Instead, I move to support her breasts as she rides me. She reaches the edge faster than me this time. Her eyes are closed and she’s moaning again, her hair falling all about her face. When she cums, I pull her onto my chest and lift her butt up so her body weight is on her knees. Then I pound in and out, causing her to scream into my neck. She’s too sensitive, but she rides out this wave and catches one final one as we cum together.
We don’t talk for ten minutes after. Instead we just hold onto each other, bound together by sweat and endorphins. When she finally rises with the excuse that she needs to use the bathroom, she plants a kiss on my lips before she leaves.
I’m left on the bed, staring up at the ceiling that used to seem so lonely, but now, I imagine, is smiling back down on me.
Chapter 7
Diane
“Why couldn’t you do that during your first test?” Hugh asks. He’s in the passenger seat of his car. I’ve just made my fifth perfect three-point turn in the Wal-Mart parking lot, way in the back where there are no cars.
“It might have had something to do with the fact that I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”
Hugh reaches over and squeezes my thigh. “Don’t have that problem anymore?”
“The difference now is that I don’t have to imagine what you look like naked. I’ve got the real thing filed away.” I tap my temple and pull into a parking spot. After applying the parking brake and shutting off the car, I ask, “How was that?”
“If this were an official test, I’d pass you with flying colors. Too bad. I guess you’ll just have to meet me one last time for that test on Monday before you can be rid of me for good.” Hugh says this with a straight face, but he hasn’t moved his hand from my thigh. In fact, it’s steadily moving up.
I place my hand over his to halt its progress. “Guess we’ll have to wait until Monday to celebrate then. What I haven’t told you is that I’ve been putting about a metric ton of paperwork on hold while I tried to pass your little test. If I don’t get some work down this weekend, I might drown in all that paper.”
“No time for a quickie?” Hugh asks, his fingers slipping out of my grip.
My eyes close automatically as he brushes his fingers over my pussy. After a steadying breath, I grab his wrist. “I have to get to the office tonight. No time to stop by your place again. Or mine,” I add quickly.
Hugh looks left and right. This back corner of the parking lot is both abandoned and far from any streetlights. “There’s always the backseat.”
I slap his arm. “I’m not having sex in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Manhattan would revoke my residency for just shopping here.”
Hugh’s puppy eyes almost make me reconsider. But when I don’t budge, he finally says, “Fine. I guess I’ll drop you off at your office like a gentleman.”
After we change seats, Hugh starts the car and pulls back onto the street. The radio is tuned to NPR. There’s an episode of something called the Prairie Home Companion filtering through the speakers, the sultry tones of its host passing through me like a warm wave. With the window rolled halfway down, the clean air blowing across my face, I almost think I could get used to living here. I would never drive a pick-up truck or listen to country music, but I could be happy down here if every day was something like today.
When Hugh pulls up in front of my office building, my hand freezes on the door. We could just drive away for the week. I’m not going to get fired. Yelled at, yes, but not fired. They wouldn’t have sent me down here to set up this branch if I weren’t indispensable. Even if Hugh and I didn’t go anywhere like the coast, even if we just holed up in his apartment, only leaving the bed for food, it would be absolutely worth any amount of yelling from my higher-ups.
“I’ll see you Monday then,” Hugh says, breaking me out of my daydream. “Unless you get peckish for another round of barbecue tomorrow.”
I step out on the pavement and shut the door. Poking my head through the window, I kiss Hugh as he leans over. I catch his eyes dart down to my cleavage and smile. “Monday. We’ll celebrate after, okay?”
“There’s something to be said for rehearsing the celebration. It’s what they do for weddings.” That damn smile of his nearly causes me to leap back in the car and follow his suggestion.
“Already mentioning marriage? That’s a bold move.”
Hugh stiffens up and shifts into drive. “Hey, Diane? In all seriousness, I’m glad you got transferred here. Today was fun.”
I don’t know what to say to this, so I just blow him a kiss. A corny reaction that I regret the moment I bring my hand to my lips. But Hugh smiles as he grabs my kiss from the air. Then he’s off, his taillights disappearing down the black highway.
The office is dark and empty. After I collapse in my chair, waiting for my computer to boot up, I drop my head in my arms. Smiling into the desk, I finally release the squeal of happiness I’ve been holding in since lunch.
There’s no way I’m getting any work done tonight, but I at least have to try.
My list of unanswered emails is three pages long. The stack of papers awaiting my signature is thicker than a copy of Anna Karenina. And the coffee machine is dry as a bone. I decide that last problem should be the first issue I deal with, but before I’m even out of my office to look for a spare coffee filter, my office phone rings. It’s not something I normally answer on my own. That’s why I have a secretary. But she’s at home, tending to a vomiting child at the end of the first day she’s had where she hasn’t had to chauffeur me around town.
The phone rings four times before I finally answer it.
“Hello?” I answer stupidly, not sure how the secretaries normally answer.
“Diane?” The voice comes through. “I can’t believe I caught you.”
The voice is Mark, my supervis
or. He’s about the only guy in the head office that never hit on me. After weeks away, it’s good to hear a friendly voice.
“You know me. Midnight oil is cheap. Besides, everyone down here is too friendly. Can’t get any work done when even your secretary is chattier than Kathy. You remember her?”
“We used to count how many words she could say without taking a breath.”
“I think the record was fifty-four.”
“Well,” Mark says, his tone moving to the more serious end of the spectrum. “It’s certainly been less fun without you around. My wife keeps lamenting the fact that they sent you halfway across the country. They give me all of your old work now, so I can hardly even make it home on the weekends.”
“I’m guessing this call is evidence of that. What time is it in New York right now?”
Close to ten. Maybe I’ll be able to get out of here by midnight. But I’ll tell you what would help me sleep tonight is hearing you say yes to the question I’m about to ask.”
I actually feel my head tilt back at this sudden change. What in the hell could he be talking about? “Anything I can do to help your marriage. What’s going on?”
“We’re expanding our offices again. But this time we’re not focusing on the boondocks, but on somewhere a bit closer to home.” He pauses just long enough that I hear my heart beating in my chest. Somehow I know that what he’s going to say next is going to change everything. “They’re transferring me over there next week and we’re hoping you’ll join. It’s not Manhattan but what would you say to working in Brooklyn?”
Chapter 8
Hugh
When Monday morning rolls around, I’m more excited to head into work than I’ve ever been in my life. Although I held back from calling Diane all afternoon, when I broke down and dialed her number last night, she didn’t answer. It just rang and rang. At first I ran through everything I might have done to screw things up, but finding nothing, I just assumed that she was working late again. She hasn’t said anything to make me think she won’t take her test today, so all I can do is wait for her to show up at the DMV.
A Sweet, Sexy Collection 1: 5 Insta-love, New Adult, Steamy Romance Novellas (Sweet, Sexy Shorts) Page 15