I laughed. “Stop it. It’s only been like ten minutes! You can’t be ready to go again already.”
“Oh no?” He got off the bed and came toward me.
I shrieked and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. Knowing Lucas, he’d try to follow me into the shower for round two and make us late. But damn he’d looked good lying there with his hand in his pants. Just like I imagined him when we were on the phone. Was he really hard again already?
On second thought, we have no reservation and don’t have to be anywhere at any certain time.
I unlocked the door.
Sponfuckingtaneous was my new middle name.
Ten minutes later, I was rinsing the body wash from my skin when the lights went out in the bathroom.
I froze in the steamy blackness. “Lucas?”
The curtain slid open and his silhouette appeared. His naked silhouette.
“So.” He stepped into the shower. “If I have to share you with other people tonight, I need to get my fill of you before we leave.” He moved under the spray behind me, wrapping his arms around my stomach and pressing his erection into my lower back. “Although I don’t think that’s possible.”
I smiled. “Feel free to try.”
His wet body against mine stirred up more memories of Paris, and I leaned back against him, sliding my hands along his forearms—wait, what was in his hands? Before I could ask, he took me by the wrists and lifted my arms.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Shhh. No more talking.” He crossed my wrists and secured them to the towel bar on the wall in front of me with his tie. “I haven’t seen you for a month, you’ve been here four hours already, and I’ve only fucked you once. That is unacceptable.”
“Your tie will get wet.” But my stomach was jumping.
He yanked the knot tighter and reached between my thighs, easily slipping a finger inside me. “I like wet.” He brought his lips to my ear. “Now be a good girl and spread your legs.”
Holy fuck.
I’d been tied up by Lucas before. I’d been in the shower with Lucas before. But being tied up by Lucas in the shower was a little like being served a molten chocolate lava cake with a giant plate of tiramisu on the side.
I licked my lips. And spread my legs.
“That’s it. Now lean forward.”
I followed his instructions and he dropped to his knees, sealing his mouth on my pussy from behind.
“Oh Jesus.” Silver streaks of light shot past me in the dark. Had I closed my eyes or was it raining stars in the shower? His tongue darted inside me, his hands squeezed my ass, his lips moved up and down my slick soft folds like I was covered in frosting and he didn’t want to leave one drop behind. Oh fuck, I hoped the towel bar was soldered to the wall as tightly as his mouth was to my clit. I was pulling on it so hard I was nearly hanging from it.
Lucas stood, pressing his wet body to mine. “I crave your taste. I miss it every fucking day.” Two fingers eased inside me while his other hand slid up my stomach and closed over one breast. Leaning forward slightly, I arched my back, pressing into his hand and his cock.
“And I love when you do that,” he whispered in my ear, and I could hear more than a trace of his accent. “When you stick out your pretty little ass that way. It makes me so hard.”
He was hard, I could feel it. I was dying to get my hands on him—round one had been so fast, I’d barely touched him. I pictured his wet, naked body in the dark, rivulets of hot water running down his muscular chest, his hard stomach, his V lines.
Oh fuck, that V.
Those delicious oblique lines between his hips that made my knees soft and my nipples hard. I wanted to trace them with my fingers, then my tongue. Yes, yes, yes, I wanted to drop to my knees, slide my hands down his slick, hot skin, watch him get harder and thicker as he anticipated my mouth around his cock. I wanted his taste in my mouth.
But my hands were bound. I couldn’t move.
“Lucas, I want to suck you,” I said breathlessly. “Untie me just for a little bit.”
He laughed. “Not a chance, princess.” He moved both hands to my hips, holding me tight against him as he slid his hard length between my buttocks. “You made me chase you tonight. You ran from me. You don’t deserve to get what you want just yet.” Grabbing a fistful of my wet hair, he yanked my head back and spoke low in my ear. “You’re not going anywhere.”
My scalp tingled, but I loved that cocktail of pleasure and pain. It only made me want him more. “Please,” I begged. “You’ll like it. You can tie my hands behind my back.”
“That’s a good idea. And maybe I’ll do it later on tonight. But right now…” He let go of my hair and positioned his cock between my legs. “I’ve got you right where I want you.”
My mouth fell open as he penetrated my body, filling me completely. With slow, decadent strokes, he moved in and out, holding my hips steady. “God, I love when you go slow like that. I can feel every inch of you so deep.”
“You like it deep?” He pushed all the way in, so far he lifted me off my heels. “Like that?”
“Yes,” I breathed, feeling my pussy tighten instinctively around him. “Fuck. You’re hitting…that spot.”
“Yeah?” He began thrusting faster, harder, reaching around with one hand to rub my clit again.
“Yes. Oh my God… Right there. ” I arched back against him, my body on fire, inside and out. The way my arms were immobilized made every sensation in my lower body more intense. My insides contracted, a vise around his solid flesh, and the tiny bundle of nerves under his hand began to hum.
“You’re going to come for me,” he said roughly.
And then it was all too much, the water, the steam, the dark, Lucas’s command in my ear, his fingers between my legs, his cock buried inside me. All the pleasure coiled low within my body rocketed skyward, and I dropped my head back, wanting to say his name but unable to speak.
Lucas came moments after I did, grabbing my hips with both hands and jerking me back against him, our wet bodies slapping together, our breath leaving our bodies in strangled gasps, our desperate need to take and be taken by one another momentarily satisfied.
#
Thanks to round two, Lucas and I didn’t leave the hotel room for another hour and a half. By that time, his friends were already leaving the restaurant to meet us, so we decided to head straight for the bar and worry about getting food later. I wasn’t all that hungry anyway. My stomach was jittery at the thought of two things: meeting Lucas’s friends, and having to deal with Jessica all night. Lucas asked me repeatedly if I was OK with her being there, and I assured him I was.
“Good.” He took my arm as we made our way through the lobby. “Because you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“I know.” I tried to sound more confident than I felt. “I’m not a crazy jealous person,” I said, thinking that crazy jealous was, in fact, exactly how I’d felt when I saw her standing there in a robe. “I totally understand being friends with your ex. Just not the living in your apartment thing.”
Cringing, he hung his head. “I get it. Boy, I’m gonna suffer for that for a long time, huh?”
I elbowed him gently in the side. “Nah, I’m not one to hold a grudge. I believe in forgive and forget. Moving forward.” Moving in together.
With his hand on the small of my back, he guided me into the dark, noisy bar. “Have I told you I love you? How beautiful you are?”
“Not in the last ten minutes.”
He leaned in to whisper in my ear, and his hand slid lower. “You’re gorgeous. And I fucking adore you.”
Chills swept down my bare arms. Everything about the moment felt perfect, from his hand on my ass to his breath on my neck. My only regret was that Jessica wasn’t there to see it.
The seats along the bar were all taken, so Lucas and I ordered drinks and wandered into a large adjacent room to look for somewhere to sit. It was spacious but still intimate, lit almost sol
ely by candles and a roaring fire at the far end of the room. The couches and chairs were plush red and gold velvet, the cocktail tables were dark wood, and the walls were painted some kind of amber color that glowed like a sunset in the flickering candlelight. A jazz trio played softly in one corner.
He studied the musicians for a moment. “Hey, I know the pianist. Let’s go sit over there.” We made our way to a table near the trio, and Lucas pulled out a chair for me before lowering himself in the one to my left. I laughed when he scooted his chair closer to mine.
“I can’t get close enough.” His smile was sheepish.
“I don’t mind.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You look good enough to eat in that suit.” It was charcoal gray, and he wore it with a white shirt that I’d ironed for him after we got out of the shower. He told me I didn’t have to but I’d insisted, and the mundane task felt so personal—OK, so wifely—that I’d grinned like an idiot while I worked. It was crazy how happy it made me to do simple things for Lucas.
He was, of course, sans necktie. I didn’t think that thing would ever recover.
About ten minutes after we sat down, his friends arrived, and I stood for introductions. Besides Jessica, who conspicuously took the chair on Lucas’s other side, there were three other guys and two other women, all of whom looked to be in their late twenties. Lucas had told me earlier he knew some of this crowd from grad school and some from the college where he taught, but I forgot three of their five names almost immediately. I have a horrible memory for names. But I was pretty sure the really tall blond guy who sat across from me was Craig, and to my right was Andrea, a petite Asian woman with a blunt bob haircut.
“So this is Mia.” Andrea shook my hand and smiled. “Lucas is always talking about you.”
My heart fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings, and I shot Lucas a grateful look. He does talk about me!
“I work with Andrea.” Lucas sat at my side and picked up his scotch. “She teaches ed psych.”
“How nice.” I sat down again, crossing my legs toward Lucas, and he rested a hand on my knee. Picking up my wine glass, I hid a satisfied smile behind my Bordeaux. Maybe it was juvenile and petty, but it wasn’t enough tonight to know that Lucas adored me—I wanted people to see him adoring me.
Mostly people named Jessica.
I snuck a quick peak at her to see if she’d noticed the hand.
She had. She was staring right at it.
Yessss. I’ll drink to that!
“Well, he certainly kept her a secret from me.” Jessica smiled deviously at Lucas and gave him a slap on the shoulder. “Silly boy. And you should have told her that I was staying with you until I find an apartment.” She turned to the group. “Poor thing was shocked to find me there this afternoon when she showed up to surprise him. In my robe, no less! Can you imagine?” She laughed as if it were the funniest joke she’d ever heard, but everyone else was silent. A more awkward moment in conversation had surely never occurred in the Gramercy Park Hotel, possibly in all of Manhattan. I gripped my wine glass so hard I thought I might crush the glass to shards.
“And I was so thrilled she did.” Taking his hand from my knee, Lucas put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Best surprise ever.”
I managed a tight-lipped smile before taking a big swallow of wine. “You know me. I love surprises.”
Lucas squeezed my shoulder and kissed my cheek. “Want another glass of wine?”
“Yeah,” I whispered in his ear. “To throw at her.”
This could be a long night.
5 Annoying Things (Out of 100,
but that’s only after two hours—the real number
is probably more like 1000) About Jessica
1) She tosses her hair. A lot. Like she’s in a goddamn L’Oréal commercial.
2) She laughs at everything Lucas says, often leaning over to slap his leg or punch his shoulder.
3) She enjoys bringing up old times, inside jokes, and wink-wink anecdotes that involve Lucas, and whenever he or anyone else tries to include me in the conversation, somehow she maneuvers things so that I can’t contribute.
4) She speaks fucking French. Fluently. And she takes great pleasure in conversing with Lucas in a language I do not understand.
5) She sings. And she’s good.
At some point in the evening, the jazz trio took a break and the pianist, a wiry bald guy named Mark, came over to say hello to Lucas. Jessica knew him too, and while they played another round of Remember When, I turned to Andrea and asked where she lived in New York, and we got into a discussion about various neighborhoods in the city, and how Detroit compared to New York.
So I missed the part of the conversation when it was decided that Lucas and Jessica would get up and do a song together.
“Do you mind, Mia?”
I turned to Lucas with a blank look. “Mind what?”
“Of course she doesn’t.” Jessica was already out of her seat and tugging on his arm. “I’m sure she loves hearing you play.”
Confused, I glanced at the corner where the trio was set up and saw the guitar resting on the floor next to a wooden stool. “You’re going to sit in?”
“He’s going to do a song with me. One quick tune.” She flashed me her fake smile. “Any requests?”
Yeah, go fuck yourself.
“Mia, I don’t have to.” Lucas looked at me like he was trying to read my face, which I’m sure said Stone Cold Bitch.
I tried to warm it up a little. What good would it do to make a big deal over this? It was just a song, and I didn’t want to give Jessica the satisfaction of knowing she got under my skin. “No, no, go on, please. I love hearing you play.” Digging my fingernails into my thighs, I even smiled ghoulishly at Jessica. “How fun!”
With a triumphant smile, she sauntered toward the corner with Mark.
Lucas kissed my cheek. “Be right back.”
Over the rim of my wine glass I watched Lucas pick up the guitar and get situated on the stool while Mark returned to the piano. Jessica stood between them, and the three chatted briefly before Mark handed Jessica the mic.
She introduced herself and her “old friend” Lucas before thanking Mark for letting them sit in “for old times’ sake.” Then she fucking winked at Lucas and tossed her hair. I sipped my wine.
Nostrils. Flaring.
I glanced at Lucas’s friends to see who was picking up on the tension, but none of them made eye contact with me except Andrea, whose isn’t-this-exciting smile barely hid the note of you-poor-thing in her expression.
Did I say sipped? I meant guzzled.
As Mark played the opening chords of the song, I said a quick prayer. Dear God, I know this is not nice of me but please, please let her not be that good a singer. She doesn’t have to be awful, just unpleasant enough that I see some noses wrinkle in the crowd.
No such luck.
To my chagrin, Jessica’s voice was genuinely sweet and lovely, a marked contrast to her tart personality and saccharine smile. She sang “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and the crowd, which had been noisy a moment before, quieted from almost her very first note. I was so busy hating her I forgot to listen to Lucas’s guitar playing, but I did notice the way they occasionally looked at each other during the song. Was that really necessary? Despite the sub-zero temperatures outside, my blood was boiling. I felt like walking outside to cool off.
Calm down. She’s making eye contact with Mark too. They both are. They probably have to watch each other in order to figure out who solos when or how to end the song.
When the last notes faded, the room echoed with applause. Resisting the urge to boo, I half-heartedly clapped a few times, only so I didn’t appear rude.
“Lucas is really good,” said Andrea.
“He is,” I agreed, although I honestly hadn’t heard one note he’d played.
They returned to the table, and Lucas put his arm around me right away. “You OK?”
I forced a smile. “Sure.
That was great.” And really fucking annoying.
“We should do that more often, Luc.” Patting his shoulder, Jessica sat down and sipped her water. “I almost forgot how good you are.” She winked at him. “At everything.”
Oh, fuck that.
“I need to use the bathroom.” I lurched to my feet, my jaw tight. “Any idea where it is?”
“I know where it is.” Jessica picked up her clutch from the table and stood. “I’ll go with you.”
Lucas looked as if he wanted to protest, but what could he say? And I’d have rather gone to the bathroom with Jack the Ripper, but I couldn’t think of a polite reason to decline her offer. “OK. I’ll follow you.”
Jessica led the way into the lobby, and I followed her through the ladies room door. Neither of us spoke while we used the stalls, although I kept my lips pressed tightly together to keep from telling her to quit fucking flirting with my boyfriend. If Lucas couldn’t see the way she wanted him, he was the crazy one, not me. And we were going to have a serious conversation about her when we got back to the room. I didn’t want to argue, but I needed to hear him say that he was going to ask her to leave after this weekend, during which he’d stay with me at the hotel.
Then I needed to hear him say dirty things in my ear.
Tie my hands behind my back.
Or maybe my legs to the bedposts.
Were there bedposts on the bed our room? I hadn’t noticed, not even when scrambling across it while he chased me. God, that was so nuts. Picturing it put a smile on my face, and my mood was damn near cheerful as I washed my hands. After drying them off, I found my lip balm in my purse and began reapplying it.
A moment later Jessica came out of her stall and used the sink next to mine. Her lipstick was bright red, so thick it looked shellacked on her lips. Lucas hates lipstick, I felt like telling her.
She noticed me looking at her reflection. For the first time, the phony smile was gone from her face.
Yanked (Frenched #1.5) Page 6