by Scott, Talyn
Payton gasped. “I think my retinas are burned.” Appreciative laughter answered her, and she couldn’t believe these vultures thought she was joking. Her eyes were killing her, and she couldn’t see a thing. A sense of being corralled was what she felt, as though she were a circus animal loading on a train for the next stop.
Dylan answered a few inquiries about an upcoming resort in South Beach, but ignored questions about Payton. When the night air moved over her skin, she realized they were outside, and she heard the hum of a very expensive engine running next to her. The door of the car must have been open, since she felt cool air hitting her side. A kiss touched her cheek and then she recognized Evan’s voice whispering in her ear. “You’re home free, beautiful girl. Oh, and if you get bored with them, I can make your life interesting.”
She blinked a few times and her vision returned. “I think it’s interesting enough, but thanks for the offer.”
When Dylan made to help her in the low riding car, which resembled a black Lamborghini - but she was too ignorant about cars to make a guess, a dreaded comment stopped all bustling activity. The night vultures surrounding them went stock still with anticipation.
“Payton Calloway,” a woman called out from the back, “It appears negotiation tactics are your specialty. Sleeping with the enemy should roll things in favor for our locally upcoming Sarasota Firehouse. What’s your comment?”
Chatter picked up, cameras flashing in order to capture Payton’s utter humiliation. She opened her mouth to tell that bitch exactly what she thought of her. Then Dylan stepped in front of Payton, half-shielding her from this nasty side of his high-society world.
With a firm, smooth-as-whiskey voice, Dylan demanded, “You will direct all your questions to me.”
“Has litigation stalled, Mr. Easton?”
“You can phone Drake or Trey Easton’s office for any inquiries on that subject. They handle our resort division.”
“Yet you’re handling negotiations.”
His body stiffened, the heat of his back seeping into Payton’s chest. She reveled in his warmth, needed it about now. “As a woman yourself,” Dylan responded, “I’m sure you’re not proposing that another woman has to leave her brain at home and deign to use her body in conducting modern-day business.”
To Payton’s surprise, the woman laughed. “I wouldn’t assume that, but we are talking about you, Mr. Easton. Miss Calloway is tailing a long line of your conquests and that speaks for itself.”
Payton pressed her hand against his back, when she heard a low rumble leave his chest. The needed to leave, but what happened next was shocking.
“Payton Calloway is a respected member of the community.” Dylan reached around and brought her forward, wrapping his big arms around her shoulders. “I would appreciate all of you showing respect for my future wife.” He dipped her then, in an old-Hollywood-movie swoop, threading his tongue in her mouth easily since she’d gasped her last breath and parted her lips wide. Snap. Flash. Snap. Question after question after question buzzed all around her head.
When finally he relinquished his claiming kiss, he hovered above her lips, still holding her over the ground with her back arched and red hair sliding over his tuxedo-clad arm. She flashed him a mega-watt smile, murmuring against his mouth, “I’m going to kill you.”
He laughed at that, sliding his mouth across her cheekbone until it landed on her ear. “That’s not the first time I’ve been threated by an angry woman, but it’ll be the last. So you see, I’m not too worried.” In an impressive hustling move, he had her in the passenger’s seat of his car all buckled in. He waved at the vultures with well-practiced ease while he walked around the front, tipping his lips in his patented playboy smile. “Goodnight, ladies and gentlemen, we have a wedding to plan.”
Payton’s heart was beating all wrong, skipping and thumping all over the place. She said nothing when he slid his big body behind the steering wheel, wrapped those long sexy fingers over the gearshift and glided from the buzzing vultures nest. A massive black SUV drove in front of them, with an identical one pulling up the rear.
“Are you always flanked by this much security?” She waved her arms back and forth between the large vehicles, calculating the price tag on Dylan Easton driving wherever he needed to go. It was astounding.
“On bad hair days,” he said, running his free hand through his golden halo, the other tapping out a beat on the steering wheel. She huffed, but then he qualified, “After that mess you just encountered, can you blame me? That was nothing compared to what it could have been.”
“Do you deal with this every day?”
“No.” He stopped at a red light, peering over at her. “They’ve found a story in us.”
“Why would you say we’re marrying?” She wanted to scratch his pretty, pretty face. “The media sniffs out lies, and it will be obvious how big of a whopper the one you just told was.”
He shifted after the light changed, gliding them into traffic. “I know that must have been shocking for you, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“Shocking?” The whole night had been shocking, and she wondered where Avery was, but now wasn’t the time to ask. “If you’d pulled a gun on me, it wouldn’t have shocked me more.” Then she caught hold of the last part of his declaration. “What do you mean, it doesn’t have to be?”
“Let’s get married.”
Payton didn’t find anything about this amusing, yet she started laughing at the absurdity of it all.
“That was a shitty proposal.” He winced. “I get it.”
She banged her head on the soft, leather headrest. “Not that I’m taking you seriously, but we just met.”
“People just meet in Vegas all the time, marry a few hours later.” He looked over at her again, delivering a panty-scorching smile. “I have a jet always waiting on the tarmac. I’ll buy you the whitest wedding dress a virgin ever wore.” He raised a pointed eyebrow at her, letting her know the virginity conversation was coming soon. “And you’ll wear the largest, flawless diamond I can get my hands on. All I have to do is take another left at this next light.”
Her hands fisted on her lap. “Don’t take that left, then.”
He wasn’t deterred. “I own a beautiful resort there in Vegas that holds weddings on the grounds. You could be Mrs. Dylan Easton by morning.”
She was beginning to think he was serious. “If you have an Elvis impersonator to officiate, then count me in.”
His face screwed up. “I don’t have Elvis impersonators at my hotel. I’ve got to draw the line somewhere, sweetheart.”
“Speaking of drawing the line, enough with this line of conversation.” They were passing the Unconditional Surrender statue, an enormous, three-dimensional replica of The Kiss photograph, which was taken in Times Square after World War II had ended. “No matter how many times I drive by that gigantic statue, it always seems to pop up out of nowhere.” And it hit her heart with that achy sort of sensation. The sailor had the nurse in his arms, swooping her in the way Dylan had Payton only moments ago, kissing her just as deeply, hungrily. “They’re always celebrating,” she mused, “frozen in time.”
“A lot of people around here don’t see it that way,” he said, taking the next right. “I’ve privately donated to keep that statue right where it is, in the heart of Sarasota where it belongs.”
She’d heard of this. “War protesters? I don’t see a celebration of war in that statue. I see a celebration of peace and…”
“Love,” he finished, “at first sight.”
“Well, that wasn’t their story, was it?” She shot a text to Libby, telling her she was okay. “I don’t think the sailor was in love with the woman, but the idea of it.”
“So you’re a cynic?”
“What are you driving at?”
“I’m going to marry you, Payton, so it’d be easier if you accepted it.”
She was assaulted with sudden, cold sweats. “Nothing you say makes sense.” After her con
versation with Trey, she figured nonsense ran in the family.
“It doesn’t make sense to you yet, but you’ll settle in with it. After holding you, tasting you…I’m on board with keeping you forever. I want a legally binding agreement between us. One that says your mine and you can’t one day walk away.” He passed another car, his security detail easily keeping pace with him. “We’ll aptly name it the unconditional surrender.”
“People walk away all the time.” She thought of her parents. “It’s called divorce.”
He snorted. “I would never break a commitment to you, Payton. Never.”
“Where is this coming from?”
“Me,” he said simply. “Just me.”
They drove in silence for another ten minutes, and Payton couldn’t wrap her head around this powerful man wanting to marry her, wasn’t sure how serious he was. “Avery,” she muttered under her breath, leaning her head against the cool glass.
“He’s waiting for us at a family residence in The Easton.” Dylan drove through a short tunnel, the lights flickering over his face like an old black and white movie.
When they emerged from the tunnel, she stared out the window, catching the expanse of The Easton Hotel in all its pompous, old-world charm. The structure’s lights magnificent in the night, the gaslights flickering over sidewalks where lovers currently strolled. “Avery lives at the hotel?”
“We both do, though it’s temporary. We just moved back a couple weeks or so from New York.” They entered a parking garage, and he easily maneuvered them into a private space. “I’m hoping to set up permanent residence in my father’s old estate.” He switched off the car, cupping her face with both hands. “You’ll have fun decorating it.”
She swatted at him, but he caught her hand and placed it on his face, mirroring his placed on her face. She trailed her fingers over his flaxen stubble, recalling how it felt skimming her breasts. Her fingertips moved to his lips. “Why are you turning my life upside down?” Dylan was gorgeous, definitely crazy, and she wanted him to finish what he started with her, wanted to lose her virginity to him. But what about how she wanted Avery?
“That’s what I want to know.” He drew her finger into his moist mouth, flicking his tongue beneath her nail. She slid it out, and the sensation as it skimmed his tongue tickled her thighs. He moved his hand from her face, curling it around her nape. With his free hand, he trailed the backs of his knuckles over her left nipple, stroking the tightened fabric-covered bud. “Why would you offer up something so precious to me?” He shook his head in disbelief, but his eyes stayed hot in that smoldering way. “And you were going to take my cock from behind, allowing me to bend you over for your first time.”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t going to until we started touching each other, and I couldn’t stop.”
“I’ve never taken a virgin. You knew I couldn’t tell, since I was teasing you by not penetrating you with my fingers. Naughty, naughty girl.” He closed his eyes in regret. “Have you any idea how that would have pained me, when I realized afterwards.” Those eyes flashed open, the aqua luminous in the low lighting of the garage. “How it would have pained you to be taken over a table like that?”
“I was embarrassed to tell you.”
“That’s not an excuse I ever want to hear from you again.” He tightened his hold on her nape, when her body turned to jelly, his stroking of her nipples opening something wickedly hot between her thighs, something she realized she’d saved exactly for this moment. “I want you, and I demand an open, honest communication between us. You haven’t any idea how important that is to me, but I’ll gladly teach you.” He kissed a line from ear to ear, leaving a hot trail in his wake. “Starting tonight.”
She moaned when his mouth fastened to hers. His lips delving deep while he sucked her tongue into his mouth, hard. Need took over and she could think of nothing other than putting out the fire, but her dress was too restricting, the car confining. She started to squirm in frustration. He gripped her hip, holding her steady and pulling away from their kiss. “You are incredibly responsive, eager but untrained, and a virgin yet untamed. Oh, the things I’m going to do to you.” He pinched her nipple then, tweaking it sharply. She yelped out her surprise right as he lowered her seat back all the way. “But I’m not going to take you in a car, so don’t worry about that. Considering, I left you unsatisfied back at the Hytel Plume and you’re trembling for release, I’m going to help you out by taking the edge off before we go upstairs.” She bucked against him, pulling his hair where he cupped her mounds, squeezing them firmly in his large hands. “Do you want to go to my bed, Payton?”
Hell, yes, she wanted to go to his bed. “Yes.”
“It’s Avery’s bed, too.”
She stilled. “What?”
“When we take a woman together, he shares my bed and my woman.”
“That’s why neither of you care when the other is touching me.” She gasped once his pull on her nipple clinched her womb impossibly.
“Settle down, now.” He sucked her bottom lip, tugging, before biting. “Believe me. We care.” She squeezed her thighs, unable to get the right friction. “Neither of us could stay away, so we care enough about you that we want to share.” Her zipper lowered, his hand moving between the fabric of her dress and her thong. “If you didn’t care about the two of us, you wouldn’t have experienced mixed feelings, tonight at supper.”
“I can’t think about that right now.” She was beyond horny, so she pushed up into his hand, wanting him to touch her there again.
“There you are,” he groaned against her lips as he eased her thong to the side. “Spread your legs a little wider, sweetheart.”
She complied, the pressure building and building as he grazed her slick heat with two fingers, the friction tight. “Please.”
“Hush now.” He stopped at her virginal barrier, swirling his fingers as much as her dress allowed his wrist to move. “Let me take you there, Payton.” His thumb found her clitoris, pressing in and down, holding steadily while his fingers twirled and twirled. “Can you imagine my cock here, making love to you for the first time while Avery touches you everywhere with his tongue and his hands?” He lowered his head, inhaling. “You are so close, I can smell it.” When she tensed, he soothed her, “In a good way, a tantalizing way. I want you so badly that my cock is popping my zipper. I’m in agony for you, and only you. Damn, you feel good.”
He ratcheted the strokes of his fingers, going faster and faster - maintaining that pressure hold on her clitoris - as he kissed her throat with a frenzied recklessness that spoke of his raw desire. “Think about it, Payton. Those gorgeous naked breasts of yours pressed against my chest.” He nipped her stiff peak sharply, and her first ripple hit, convulsing around his fingers. “My heavy balls sliding between your thighs, while I drive my dick into you deep and hard, inch by inch. And Avery’s right there, whispering in your ear, licking you.”
The lights came on in the car right when her orgasm started. “Oh, uh!” A cool breeze hit the side of her leg. A hand gripped her ankle yet both of Dylan’s were occupied.
Dylan moaned long and hard. “I would come in you so hard, Payton, so fucking hard.”
The hand trailed up her calf as she gasped for air, her mouth opening and closing. It was too much to take. She’d never accomplished this intensity of a climax with her handheld shower massage.
“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful, Dylan,” Avery purred. “Look at her porcelain skin, how it pinks up when she climaxes.”
Her eyes popped open. “Avery?”
“Right here.” He dipped his head inside the car, his eyes flaring with need and marked trepidation. “Congratulations on your engagement, Dylan, you lucky fucking bastard.”
“That’s right.” Dylan cupped her soaked core after withdrawing his fingers. “I’m claiming this forever.”
Payton removed her fingers from Dylan’s shoulders, stretching them one by one. Her head spun, her stomach churned, and n
ow she faced Avery. She worked her mouth, but nothing came out. Weirdly, her throat was a little raw. Had she screamed that much?
When Dylan pulled his hand from her dress, Avery snagged it and swiped his tongue down Dylan’s middle finger. Closing his eyes in delectation, he praised her flavor. “Salty honeysuckles, could anything taste better?”
“I seriously doubt it.” Dylan lowered his hand, zipped her up, kissed her nose, and leaned away. “Let’s get upstairs. She needs to eat.” He leered at her in that horny-man-style. “And so do I.”
“Food’s on its way.” Avery eased her from the car, helping her steady her feet on the pavement.
“Food,” she echoed in bewilderment, glancing between them. “You just licked me off his hand and you’re discussing food?”
11
Avery growled low in her ear. “You didn’t touch your meal.”
Could they blame her? “I’m not hungry.”
Avery raised a disapproving brow. “I don’t think I believe that.”
“Well, believe it!” She felt a nerve under her eye twitching. “Dylan has the world thinking I’m marrying him.”
“You are,” he said factually, making a phone call.
“Oh, really?” All she could do was gape at him. “You’re that sure of yourself.”
Dylan shot the old finger-pistol at her. “Start practicing those vows, sweetheart.” He held a calmness she didn’t remotely feel.
“How’s he going to dig us out of this mess?”
Avery laughed as he led her to a private elevator, sliding a card key next to the operating panel once they stepped inside. “I don’t think Dylan considers it a mess.” He pulled her against his chest, slowly, as Dylan handled his phone conversation. When she stayed quiet, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She stalled a minute, and then wrapped her arms around him, scooting her hands behind his back. Inside his coat, his body heat seeped into her, a lulling antidote to Dylan’s fierceness. “I will be once this blows over.”