by Piper Page
“Looks like we’re both safe,” joked Adrian as the man handed me back my ID.
“What about you?” I challenged him. You’re not drinking. “How do I know you’re of age? I could be robbing the cradle and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”
I watched as a fleeting expression of pain crossed his face, and then he laughed. “Darling, I’ve been a delinquent for a while. Don’t think you could corrupt me if you tried. But you’re more than welcome to,” He winked. He leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “I’m twenty-five.”
The touch of his breath on my ear made me quiver. If I knew what it meant to swoon, I was sure that was exactly what I was doing. I dabbed my cloth napkin at my mouth and neck, suddenly a little warm. Adrian didn’t move his mouth from my ear.
“You smell so fucking good.”
I turned my face to keep him from seeing the blush coloring my cheeks. Thank god the man came back with our drinks. I had half my glass empty before he managed to set Adrian’s down on the table. “Your waitress will be right with you. Enjoy your evening.”
I gave my attention to looking for the menus as a distraction from facing Adrian. A woman dressed in a tight black skirt that left noting to the imagination and a sheer white blouse approached our table with two salads. She set them down in front of us and looked at Adrian, giving him her full attention, while I felt like an orphan on the side of the road, in winter, covered in garbage grime.
“Good evening Mr. Maxwell. Here are your salads. Can I get you anything else at the moment?” Her eyes never left Adrian’s face. I didn’t think she even saw me sitting there beside him in my fictional pile of garbage. The smile she had on her mouth was skilled, and her shadowed lids heavy. She licked her mouth unconsciously as she waited for him to respond.
“Mallory, is your salad alright for now, or do you need anything else?” He kept his eyes on my face, every bit as unwavering as the waitress’s was on his.
I smirked with a self-satisfied feeling I had never felt before. Adrian was ignoring this flirtatious woman for me. I looked right at her, bursting out of the frozen tundra in all my glory. “Mr. Maxwell and I are all set for right now, thank you.”
Her smile faltered, and she spun around and walked away. At that point, I figured she was going to spit in my food. I cleared my throat and pushed my fork through my salad. “Do they always bring a salad before you order?” I felt embarrassed; maybe I was uneducated in fine dining. I looked around the establishment. I couldn’t consider this place fine dining, exactly. Sure, it was upscale, but no more so than any of the restaurants I had gone to with my father in the city to make business collections.
“I ordered for us already.”
I raised my eyes brows. “So what, you’re now Richard Gere in Pretty Woman?”
“Who?”
I shook my head. “You weren’t an avid movie watcher as a kid, were you?”
Adrian pressed his lips together. “More like an avid sports buff. I played a lot of sports, not much time for television.”
“Hmm, I may have to school you in some movie trivia then.” I teased.
“Ohh, I like the thought of you trying to school me, Mallory.”
I tried not to blush. “Were you a good student?’
“I passed.”
I nodded and started on my salad, feeling a little more at ease. Fifteen minutes later, the waitress made another attempt when she brought out plates of chicken cordon bleu and mixed vegetables. She placed the warm plates in front of us and collected our empty salad dishes. I watched as she blatantly brushed her hand over Adrian’s as she moved. I pictured my fork sinking into her skin. He didn’t flinch, or even so much as give her a second glance. Instead, I felt his hand rest gently on my knee beneath the table. I took in a sharp breath and sat up straight in my seat.
“That’s all,” he announced, dismissing her with a wave of his fork.
“Do you know her?” I asked.
“Who?”
“That waitress.”
“Nope.”
I tried not to scowl. I wondered if Adrian got hit on like this everywhere he went. Most girls would be jealous, but to me, it was a challenge thrown down. This was my date and my time, and she needed to back off. I felt my New Jersey, Italian blood bubble. I could probably take her if I needed. By the time a single slice of cheese cake was served, the waitress had given up the fight. Adrian was making it very clear he had no interest in her antics. He spooned a forkful of rich cake into my mouth, and I closed my eyes, savoring the delight.
“I wish I was that cake right now.” he whispered.
I covered my mouth with my napkin and dropped my eyes.
Adrian’s fingers tilted my chin back upward, forcing me to look at him. “Never be ashamed to enjoy the pleasures of life, Mallory, especially with me.”
I swallowed so hard there was an audible sound of the lump going down my throat. I was a quivering mess of stimulated senses. “We should probably head back,” I said with a nervous smile. “I have work in the morning.”
When we pulled out of the parking lot, I got lost in thought, keeping quiet even when Adrian turned the music from his playlist on again.
“Mallory?”
I looked at him with wide eyes in the dim lights of the dashboard.
“I didn’t offend you, did I?”
“What? No, no not all! Thank you for dinner, it was very nice.” My mind was a rollercoaster of doubt and desire. Yes, I suggested we leave the restaurant, but did that mean I wanted Adrian to leave? Should I invite him in for an after-dinner drink of some sort, or was that cheesy? Maybe he would want to just let me go at the curb. No, I couldn’t believe that—we had fun, we laughed, and we touched. He wouldn’t walk away, would he? I clenched my hands together and released my fingers, trying to let the stress of doubt dissipate through my body.
“I had a very nice time too,” he said in the darkness of the car. But he didn’t say he wanted to see me again, I noticed. I needed to accept the fact that Adrian Maxwell was going to be added to the “one and done” list. I’d be polite enough to let him give me the obligatory date kiss, then kindly excuse myself from his vehicle before he could open his own door. It would save us both a lot of uncomfortable embarrassment.
The Lexus sailed up to the curb to the front of my house. This was it, this was the parting moment. How did I want to leave it? Did I want to let him think I wasn’t worth a second date, or did I want to show him how much my body yearned to feel his hands on my skin?
“Mallory, thank you, I had-”
I cupped his face with both my hands and landed my mouth square on his with a pent-up aggression that shocked me as well as Adrian. Several sweet seconds later I pulled away, mortified by my actions and breathless. “Oh my God, I am so sorry.”
Adrian starred at me with those glorious green eyes. His face was stoic at first, then it melted into a subtle smile warm with life. “Looks like you do like me.”
“Ugh” I said, rolling my eyes. Why did he have to get cocky? “No, I…”
Adrian’s mouth covered mine. His fingers snaked beneath the length of my hair to the back of my neck, and the soft pads of his fingertips stroked the line at the of back of my neck. I moaned into the hollow of his mouth. I began to draw away, and his teeth caught my lip and pulled me back into a longer kiss. I sighed through our moving lips. Okay, so I definitely wanted him to come in.
My hand reached behind me to unlatch the handle of the car door. His weight pushed me back, and I nearly fell out onto the pavement.
“Are you leaving me in this condition?” he snickered.
I shook my head and bit my lips where his teeth had just been. “Come in, please.”
Adrian was out of the car in a flash. He got his hands on either side of my face, and he was walking me backward toward the porch as we continued to make out. I stumbled, but he held me firm, guiding me with his strength. Was I going to do this? Was this actually happening? How was this happening?
This was me, Mallory Basso, real life twenty-one-year-old virgin. Maybe it was Leslie’s taunting voice in my head or revenge for all those girls that laughed at me in high school, or maybe it was the fact that this god of a man was strumming every sexual string in my body, and I wanted him to play me hard and make me sing.
I managed to not only keep Adrian’s hands on my body, but open my front door as well, without missing a single kiss. When the door latched behind us, we stumbled into a whole new world. A world of intense physical pleasure I couldn’t resist, and in reality, I had no desire to. For a fleeting moment, I thought I would mention my “innocent” flaw to him, but as his mouth nipped and lapped at the side of my throat, I abandoned that idea by throwing it down a mental crevasse it would never escape. I was going to summon every movie scene, every book chapter, and every story from Leslie’s escapades I had ever sat through and use it for my own personal library of resources that would tell Adrian I was into him and that I wanted this moment to be one neither one of us would ever forget.
I started to mimic Adrian’s movements. He let the tip of his tongue travel over my throat. I lapped at his and added a nip to his shoulder. The small bite earned an animalistic growl form his lips that released warm moisture between my legs. He slid his hands down my arms, and I scratched down his chest. Again the growl emanated between us. He was wild. Our communication was reliant on physical touch, moans, and sighs, no words.
He bit my lip. I bit his. He licked my exposed collar bones. I nibbled on his muscular shoulders. His fingers twined through mine, and I folded them together, reveling in the meshing of our hands. I gasped when Adrian lifted my hands up over my head and pressed me against the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. His height had me stretching up on my tip-toes as he attacked my mouth, letting his tongue dart deep over my teeth and dance with my own. I never imagined kissing could feel like this. I wanted to give him all of me.
Adrian kept my hands captured over my head with a single one of his. His free hand traced the line of my face, fingers dragging down over my throat past the dipping collar of my dress and beneath the fabric of my camisole. I moaned a low, sultry groan when the tingle from his touch radiated downward. Without conscious thought, I felt my hips press forward and rub the aching mound hidden beneath my dress and my panties, against his thigh.
“Mmm, that’s my sweet kitten.”
Yes I wanted to be his kitty. Make me purr Adrian Maxwell.
His hand left my breasts wanting more of his touch. He had worked my nipples into pert, hard peaks. I pouted and gave an audible whine.
“Oh, so needy.”
I nodded and sucked my full, pouty lip into my mouth. “Please don’t stop.”
My words were like speaking a spell. Adrian moved me with such swiftness that I was on the couch with him on top of me before I realized what had even happened. The weight of his body on mine sent me into a haze of bliss. He was hard, firm, toned, and heavy, and I felt safe and secure. When his hand slid beneath my dress and the pad of his thumb brushed over the swollen numb of my sex, I thought I might scream out with the sheer pleasure of it. It was as if an electric shock shot through me and woke up every nerve ending, every sexual cell in my body.
“Say it again,” I begged.
His mouth was by my ear as he continued to tease me under my dress. I moaned again and lifted my hips off the couch, pressing myself into his hand. “What do you want, Mallory?”
“Call me your kitten.” I barely recognized my own voice begging him.
“Tell me what you want, my kitten.” He let the words vibrate off the side of my neck, his fingers having moved into the silk of my panties.
“You, Adrian, I want you.”
“Good girl.”
The tingles were like rising waves on the ocean inside me, and I didn’t know how much longer it’d be before they drowned me. Would it always be like this, or was it just Adrian? I opened my mouth to ask, and at that moment I felt a single finger break though the wetness of the waves, and I shook. A tremor coursed through my muscles that had me quivering and squirming away, but wanting more.
“Oh, yeah kitten, so quick. Shh, let it go.” His free hand was stroking my hair as he spoke the words over my lips. I could hear my moans echo in the valley of his open mouth. “You want more, don’t you?”
I think I lost my ability to speak, to comprehend. This was a dream, and I was dying.
“Say it kitten, tell me you want more.” His tone was authoritative, yet sensually gentle.
I did want more. I wanted everything he’d give me. “Yes, more,” I whimpered.
“You are so fucking beautiful.” His hands pulled my dress off my trembling body. He kissed the soft flesh of my stomach, and I didn’t even care that he had exposed it. My camisole joined my dress on the floor, and his hot mouth was suckling my nipples through the lace of my bra. How was it possible that he was bringing those crazy tingling waves back up to a raging tsunami?
I opened my eyes to see his bare chest, rippled and lined at the edge of every muscle. When had he lost his shirt? My eyes traveled down the smoothness of his skin. It was flawless. I gasped when I realized his pants were missing as well. What magic sex wand did this man have, and when had he cast his spell? I swallowed. Not only was he tall, taut and gorgeous, he was perfect from bare head to naked toe. My stare of approval must have awoken something more in him. He scooped me up and laid me face down over the coffee table. I yelped out, more from sudden surprise at his sheer strength to pick me up and toss me like a rag doll than the new position we had taken.
His fingers rode down my bare spine, and my body involuntarily arched. When my hips lifted from the table I felt Adrian’s hand catch me at my hip bones. He held my bottom up off the coffee table with one hand and I felt him slide the material of my panties to one side of my bottom. There was a wetness that cooled when the air of the room met my skin. Adrian took his time to tease my exposed sex with the tip of his from behind before he pushed forward and slid with minor difficulty inside me. I let the longest, lowest moan escape my lips.
“That’s it, kitten”
He started to move at a slow pace until I was pressing back to meet his gentle thrusts.
“More?’
I nodded against the smooth, cold surface of the table beneath my cheek.
“Say it, kitten.”
I reached back behind me to scratch down his chest with my nails. “More.”
Adrian grabbed my wrist, using it as leverage as he held my hips up with one hand and began to drive into me at a quick, deep pace. My insides flooded with an intense sensation I couldn’t believe was coming from the body I thought I knew. I took shallow breaths between groans and what seemed like sobs. It felt better than anything I had ever imagined—there were no words. I could feel that point of no return mounting up in a tidal wave.
“Adrian, oh my fuck.” The words were coming from my mouth, yet they seemed foreign to my ears.
‘Yes, yes,” his voice rumbled in a low growl.
I cried when the sensation washed over me like it had before, but ten times better. I heard Adrian groan between clenched teeth, and then he was lying on top of me, both of us breathless as he kissed my neck and my hair. My body was gelatin—sensual, tingling, sex-flavored gelatin.
“Mmm, you’re fucking amazing.” I heard him whisper.
I felt him get up, and I whimpered, “Don’t go.”
“Never.” I felt him lift me from the table and carry me down the hall to my bedroom. He set me down and stroked my face while he did the same, and soon, we were both drifting off into sleep.
Chapter Six
Adrian
I heard her footsteps coming down the hallway, and I could not hide my smile. Leaving her alone in bed had been hard—she looked so sweet, laying there with her hair a mass of shimmering amber across the pillow, her bare shoulder and smooth leg sticking out from under the sheet. It took all my effort not to attack her body right then and the
re. She felt perfect as she slept curled up next to me all night. and she drove me into overdrive. I held back last night, I didn’t want to intimidate her or scare her off, but god, I wanted to do sinful things with her.
I flipped the bacon and set a plate on her kitchen table moments before she appeared in the doorway. Her hair was a sexy mess of bed head and after-sex hair, and when she flipped it to the side and ran her fingers through, it I about lost my shit. She had on a threadbare t-shirt and some white cotton panties. He face was rosy with natural morning color, makeup washed off. When the sun from the living room bay window behind her outlined her body in the doorway, I couldn’t resist. I wrapped her in my arms and tasted her morning mouth. Her body went limp in my arms.
“Good morning, beautiful.”
She dropped her eyes and her chin, covering her mouth with her fingers. Her cheeks warmed with embarrassment.
I lifted her chin and looked into the bright, blue seas of her eyes. It was taking more strength than I had not to fuck her right there on the kitchen floor. “Hey, you beautiful, amazing, and so fucking sexy girl.”
She smiled and pulled away with a shy smile. “You don’t have to say that.” Mallory moved to the round kitchen table and sat down. She looked at the plates of western omelets, bacon and home fries. “Did you make all this?”
“I can’t lie, I did, and I’m sorry, I used the last of your vanilla,” I frowned, “and your half and half.”
She took a bite and swallowed. “Now that is inexcusable.”
My heart dropped for a split second until I saw her smile around a slice of bacon. Turnaround was fair play. “Well I’ll just get my shirt and go,” I sighed, pretending to walk away.
“What, no wait,” she called after me.
I turned around and smiled broadly at her. ‘Kidding.” I ducked before the piece of bacon flying across the room could hit me. It bounced off the wall and fell to the floor. “Gee, if you don’t like my cooking, just say so.”
Mallory used her foot to push out the chair across from her. “Come join me. This is delicious. How did you learn to cook like this?”