by S. Van Horne
“Yes. Keep going. It feels good,” she confided, wrapping her arms around my neck as I sank a few more inches of my considerable length inside her.
“No, not just good, bella. You feel like heaven,” I praised as I thrust even deeper, her gasp of pleasure music to my ears. It was a sound I was quickly learning to love, and I wanted to hear it again and again. Sliding a hand between us to rub her clit, I set a hard, but steady pace as I sank my cock inside her tight heat.
Feeling her channel rippling around my cock, I hooked my arms underneath her knees, drawing her legs and opening her up for my cock. Fucking into her with smooth, sure lunges of my dick, I enjoyed every cry that left her lips as her body strained beneath me, her hips lifting for every plunge.
“Please, more, Lucca!” she begged frantically as I felt her body quickening around mine.
“You want more, bella? I’ll give you more,” I promised against her ear as I moved my hand to palm her ass, lifting her to me as I lengthened my thrusts. “Take that cock, baby. Take it all. Every fucking inch,” I growled before I captured her lips with mine. Groaning as her mouth captured my tongue, suckling deeply, I felt the first ripple of her release squeeze my dick.
“God, yes!” she wailed as she tore her mouth away from mine. “I love your cock, Lucca,” she whimpered desperately. “Do it! Right fucking there!” she screamed as her hips lifted violently to meet mine and her legs contracted around my waist, pulling me impossibly closer.
Her hot words and sinful body nearly undid me. Clenching my jaw as her pussy clenched around my thrusting dick, I rode her through another orgasm, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs as my body strained to keep up with hers. She was desperate…wanton…and it was the sexiest thing I’d ever witnessed. Even as one orgasm ended for her, another began. It was as if her body had been starved for pleasure and now that she’d found it again, she was going to gorge herself on sensation. It was everything I could do to keep from filling the condom I wore with my seed, but I wanted her to milk every ounce of bliss she could from our first time together.
Fighting my way in and out of her convulsing pussy, I grunted as I felt my balls begin to throb. “Baby, I’m close,” I warned tightly as I rubbed a circle around her clit with my thumb. “Give me one more, angel. Let’s go to paradise together,” I urged as I quickened my thrusts, our grunts of pleasure mingling as each of us hovered at the edge of something beautiful.
Time lost meaning as our bodies searched for bliss. Each of us was slick with sweat, burning up with desire. And suddenly as her body contracted around mine, she threw me into a pleasure so acute it blinded me, her shout of completion echoing with mine.
As my body heavily blanketed hers, I met her sated eyes with mine. “That was….”
“Incredible,” she panted with a joyous laugh.
And since there was no better word to describe what I’d just experienced with her, I simply nodded and buried my face in her neck.
CHAPTER SIX
ESSEX
GOD, I FEEL GOOD, I thought to myself happily as Lucca’s heavy body covered mine, his mouth pressed to my neck as he regained his strength after the most amazing fuck of my life.
I’d been married before and was certainly no virgin, but I’d never felt anything like what I’d just felt with him. It had been beyond anything in my limited knowledge knew. And now I felt free. Pure. Born again. Even if this was the only time we were ever together, he’d given me a precious gift that I’d never forget. He’d somehow managed to show me that I wasn’t dead inside…that I could feel…I could respond…I could enjoy a man’s touch.
At least with this man.
I was freaking thrilled.
And it was all because of the man lying on top of me. The man that was, unfortunately, growing heavier by the minute.
“Lucca, honey…” I grunted as I squirmed underneath his weight. “I can’t breathe.”
“Shit, sorry, bella,” he grunted as he rolled to my side, wrapping one arm around my waist and tugging me to him. I lay silently beside him for long moments as we caught our breath and came back down from our high. As the minutes wore on, though, I grew more uncertain.
What did I do now?
Did he want me to leave now that we’d concluded our weekend together?
Did I leave a check beside the bed?
With each question my mind asked, my body grew more tense beside his.
Because I didn’t want this to be over between us. What I’d found with Lucca this weekend had felt real. Genuine. Authentic.
It didn’t feel like a business arrangement.
And I did not want it to be over.
I liked him. Hell, I more than liked him. I wasn’t exactly sure how to define what I felt. It was too soon to love him, but something existed! Something real in a way I’d never known. And I wanted to explore it. Because he was everything any sane woman would want in her life.
“Bella, you are thinking much too hard. After that exceptional loving, your mind should be mush,” I heard him chuckle from beside me a second before his lips found my bare shoulder, kissing the skin gently. “What’s wrong, Essex? This will only work if you talk to me.”
Chewing my lower lip, I deliberated how to respond to him. Finally, I decided honesty was probably my best recourse. “I was thinking that I don’t want to leave here. I don’t want what just happened here between us to be the end.”
“What the hell gave you the idea that it would it be?” I heard Lucca growl as he abruptly sat up in the bed to loom over me.
“I only hired you for the weekend, Lucca.” I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “And it’s Sunday. The weekend is over. Our arrangement…it’s over after I pay you, right?” I asked, hating how small and vulnerable I felt in that moment.
“Pay me?” he echoed incredulously, his brown eyes darkening with pain. “Are you serious right now? I told you I didn’t want your money.”
“But—”
“Just be quiet for a second, Essex. I need a moment.” I watched as Lucca inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, almost like he was trying to gain control of himself. Bracing myself for pain as he opened his eyes again, I saw no anger, only sadness. Sadness that I never wanted to see in a man as passionate as Lucca.
“Listen,” he began. “I know you hired me for this weekend. I know that’s how we began, but from the moment that Jason showed me your file and I saw your face staring back at me, I knew this would be no ordinary job. In my soul, I knew you were going to be special to me. In that second, Essex, you stopped being an assignment for me. I’d die before I accepted a dime for what just transpired between us. I need you to get that through your head. Quickly,” he stressed as he stared at me with blazing eyes.
“Okay,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say to him. “Then what is this then?” I was unable to resist asking as I gestured weakly between us.
“I want this to be our beginning, bella,” Lucca shared solemnly before shooting me a boyish smile. “Look, I’m not a man that’s ever believed in love at first sight before, but from the moment I looked into your face, I felt a connection, a pull that I can’t explain. It’s strong, too, Essex. So strong that the thought of fighting it is painful.”
Blinking back tears, I nodded. “I feel it, too,” I confessed shakily as he reached out to take my hand, lacing our fingers together.
“I know you’re wounded, baby. I know you’ve been hurt and you need time to trust and believe that this is real between us. I know I have to prove that I’ll never use this connection to hurt you. And I’m ready and willing to jump through whatever hoops you need me to tackle, but just tell me you want to try, Essex.”
I caught my breath at the vulnerability I saw shining in Lucca’s eyes. Yeah, this man could hurt me. Perhaps even worse than Foster had. But, in those moments, I knew that I could hurt him, too, if I wasn’t careful. And that was something I never wanted to do.
He was offering me a chance to have something wonderful. Somethin
g beautiful.
And all I had to do was try.
Try to believe.
Try to have faith.
Try to succeed.
No choice for me had ever been easy.
Until now.
“I’ll try, Lucca. I want to try with you.”
And as his arms enfolded me in his secure embrace, I knew I’d made the right decision.
The End…For Now
CHAPTER ONE
JASON
SITTING IN THE BACK OFFICE, I look over the financial papers my accountant sent over and smile. Relief flows through my veins. The Meat Market, which has been in my family since the nineteen hundreds, is safe from bankruptcy and finally financially sound.
Inheriting it from my grandfather hadn’t been part of my plan, but life has a way of throwing you curveballs and leaving you blindsided. I was raised by a single mom and my grandfather was the closest thing I had to a dad, since my sperm donor couldn’t seem to stay in our lives longer than a couple months at a time. That is, until Mom told him she was expecting my little brother Jax, and he went out for milk one day and never came back.
Lucky for my sorry ass, the old man was one of the best men I’ve had the honor of knowing.
The frame sitting on my desk next to my laptop catches my attention. I pick it up and stare, tempted to talk to it. The frame and the picture came with the shop, along with more debt and headaches than I knew what to do with. But the image I hold in my hands helped make the decisions I felt I needed to at the time. All to make the man in it proud. It was my attempt at making up for all the times I let him down while he had been alive.
The picture reminds me of a great moment in time. We went on a family vacation to the lake, and my mom snapped the shot without either of us noticing. We’re laughing at something, his arm draped over my shoulder despite the fact I was taller by three inches.
Every time I look at the photograph, a knot forms in my throat.
Regret is a hideous thing, to say the least. After college, I started working, paving my own way on Wall Street. Too young and too hungry to make a buck, I became a man I hardly recognized, taking whatever shortcuts and using whatever connections I could to get ahead.
I broke so many promises to the old guy, I lost count and knew, without anyone telling me, I let him down.
The call from my broken-hearted mother ten years ago changed the course of my life, and I knew I wouldn’t be returning to New York.
Sighing as I continue to stare at the photo, my thumb grazes the deep lines on his face before I place the frame down. No matter what happens in life, Jason, find someone who can make you laugh, his voice reminds me. His words of wisdom had been replaying constantly in my head recently. Hell. More than just recently, only one face came to mind as the answer to his words.
Rocio.
But between the bad economy and the debt my grandfather had accumulated, I was over my head with the shop and about to call it quits on a place that meant so much to our family. Then an idea hit—an idea that made having her impossible.
My younger brother was in the shop, when I overheard two women talking about how they would happily buy “his meat” for the night. Since I dabbled one summer, escorting and keeping older women at a country club company, I already knew it was an easy way to make quick cash. I wasn’t ashamed of my past at the time—a young, twenty-something guy getting laid and paid. But now older, and what I hoped was wiser, I helped create a whole other side to my grandfather’s business, and just like that, The Meat Market was reborn.
And it had been a lot more successful than any of my wildest dreams. It helped not only myself but each of the men who put themselves out there as one of the meaty specials offered to our female clientele.
But it has served its purpose, and the doors to that side of the business are now closed. For good.
Not only had my guys all dropped like flies—one by one, willingly handing their balls over to their women, leaving me with one less “special” to serve—but financially, I had The Meat Market where I needed it to move forward. So, I wasn’t complaining.
Between us, I was relieved.
I even traded my butcher’s apron in to play matchmaker for some of my guys, happily setting them up with women they’d quietly had their eye on, but for whatever reason, hadn’t had the balls to take a chance on.
Now, maybe I can take a chance on the one woman I’ve always compared everyone else to.
My phone rings, and I grin at the image of her smiling face flashing on my screen.
Rocio Padilla.
“Hey, Row your boat,” I answer, calling her the nickname I like to tease her with.
“You know you’re forty now. Right?” she asks, full of sass. I must be a sick fucker for liking it.
“I remember someone sneaking around, helping my mom throw a surprise party and there being a cake that should have had the fire department on standby,” I tell her, leaning back on my desk chair, unable to hide the smile on my face. Fuck, she’s perfect.
“Glad in your old age you aren’t forgetting much other than acting your age, not your shoe size.”
“Cute.” I chuckle.
“I try.” And she more than succeeds, but I can’t straight-up say that. Not yet. But I will. Soon.
“What’s up? There’s a reason you called more than to remind me of how old I am?”
“Shut up, you’re not old. And yes, I called for more than to tease you.” I know by the tone of her voice, I’m starting to frustrate her.
“So?”
“What are you doing tonight?” If I’m lucky, you.
“Umm.” I clear my throat at the images bombarding me. “Nothing planned, what’s up?”
“Can you meet me at The Brown Bottle?”
“Sure.” I’d meet her at the ends of the Earth. “Any reason in particular?”
“Kind of,” she responds hesitantly. Not liking the uncertainty in her tone, a frown covers my face.
“Kind of? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I just…we need to umm…talk.” Talk. That was never good.
“Talk about?”
“Brown Bottle. Tonight. Whenever you can get here.” Something about her tone is off.
“You’re already there?” I ask, looking up at the clock on the wall. “Babe—”.
“And Jason?”
“Yeah?” I ask, wondering what the hell is up with her.
“Don’t let me chicken out,” she whispers, and I frown.
“Chicken out?” I ask. But she’s already hung up.
I step into The Brown Bottle and immediately spot her sitting at the bar.
Ink black hair whispers across her bare shoulders, and I take a long moment to soak in the beautiful sight. I can tell by her outfit that she came straight from the jewelry store where she works. Her emerald green satin tank flows down her torso, accentuating every perfect curve as do the black dress pants hugging her long legs and perfect ass. If I know her, she’s switched whatever sexy-as-hell high heels for strappy sandals that shows off her petite painted toes. Next to Rocio is her huge purse, where I know she has everything she could ever need and then some, making it weigh a ton, and her signature black blazer.
She shifts slightly, and I get a peek of her profile, and fuck me, without fail, it’s like seeing her for the first time all over again.
She is breathtaking.
ROCIO
Sipping my beer, I try to relax, but I can’t. Now or never, I remind myself, but it does nothing to help the nerves that settled into the pit of my stomach the moment I ended the call.
With my fortieth birthday on the horizon, it’s time to put it all on the table. I’ve tried to ignore the way I feel about him throughout the years. Dating other men, some great, some not so much, never helped. Jason Somers is the one no one else could ever measure up to. Not that my lifelong buddy is perfect, by any means. He isn’t. The heart wants what it wants, my mother’s voice rings in my head and makes me want to la
ugh.
At my age, I’m a realist. Any fairytale notions about the man who had been my best friend for over half my life were gone. The thing about him is that I know him. I really know him. I know the bad, the good, the ugly, and then some. Yet, I still find myself in love with him. In love.
I’ve always been in love with him, no matter how much I tried to talk myself out of it. But something about this milestone birthday makes me feel like I’m at a point in my life where I should take a chance. I refuse to waste any more time, waiting for him to see me as more than a friend.
I glance at my wrist watch, then immediately look around to the front of the bar. I try to stop my heart from going into overdrive at the sight of the man who unknowingly owns my heart—never even had one inkling of it.
God, I’m pathetic.
Jason Somers. My best friend.
One of the easiest-going, down to Earth, kindest men I have ever known. He’s also the one man who doesn’t seem to bother caring I’m a woman.
I had a foolish schoolgirl crush on him in high school and the first couple of years in college. But when he confessed, in more details than I needed, about his summer job his sophomore year and how he was entertaining women right and left, hope died inside me. I was the one he always went to, yet he didn’t see me. That was the green light I needed to start dating, and I did.
I threw myself into making something out of my life. I went to school, I tried to find someone else. Before I knew it, life ticked by, and now I find myself here. Still in love with the same boy, now a man.
Though, around the same time I declared I was done dating six months ago, something changed between us. There has been a shift from Jason’s end. He’s touchy-feely, almost flirtatious.