HisMarriageBargain

by Sidney Bristol

  “What do you call this piercing?” he asked first.

  “Clitoral hood,” she said between clenched teeth. “Sammi.” She drew out the last syllable for several seconds, turning it into a plea.

  He couldn’t say no to that.

  Sammi grabbed the condom with one hand and used his teeth to rip it open.

  “Oh yes.” Autumn sighed and sat back on his knees. She slipped her fingers past the waistband of his shorts and tugged them down.

  Between Autumn and him they got his shorts off, leaving him buck-ass naked on the balcony. It was crazy, and he’d never thought himself the fucking-in-the-outdoors kind of guy, but he only had one life.

  Autumn watched him roll the condom on with that same half-lidded, predatory gaze.

  Sammi had seen her flirt with other men, give them big doe eyes, but this was different. He could feel it. It wasn’t a random fuck, but neither was it love. Whatever it was he’d take it.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist, urging her closer while grasping his cock with the other hand.

  Autumn tossed her hair over her shoulder and lowered onto his cock. She was tight and slick. His head fell back on the couch as she lifted and lowered, fitting their bodies together like puzzle pieces.

  “Oh. Oh that feels good.” Autumn coiled her arms around his neck and he took her mouth. Her inner muscles squeezed him.

  She rode his cock. Up and down, her breasts bobbed with the movement. He shoved the fabric and her bikini top up and caressed her nipples. The peaks were tight beads, and when he touched them Autumn’s body tensed. Her hips swiveled in a circle, grinding their pelvises together while she lowered her mouth to his for a kiss.

  He dug a hand into her hair and thrust up, swallowing her gasp of surprise.

  Sammi stared into her green eyes as their bodies moved in unison. Her mouth dropped open on a silent shout and her fingers dug into his shoulders, her nails biting so deep there were bound to be marks on him. Her spine bowed and though she stared at him she didn’t see him.

  Sammi thrust again, then once more and Autumn exploded. She tossed her head back, groaning, and her pussy hugged his cock so tight he came suddenly. The rush from his balls brought him upright, gripping and hugging her as their orgasms subsided.

  Autumn collapsed against his chest, all the sounds and smells around them coming back into focus.

  “Holy shit.” He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair down, but the breeze tossed it back in his face.

  “Is that a good ‘holy shit’?” She peeked up at him with the same mischievous smile on her face.

  “Fuck yeah.”

  Somewhere beyond the wall separating the balconies a door banged open and the squeals of children pierced the morning calm.

  Autumn met his gaze, her eyes large.

  A few seconds earlier and they might have been asking Mommy and Daddy what that noise was.

  Sammi and Autumn erupted in laughter, dissolving into a tangled heap of limbs, hair and clothing on the couch.

  It was a good day.

  Chapter Six

  Labret—This can be either a stud or a hoop that pierces below the lower lip.

  Autumn dropped onto the lounge chair and flashed a smile at a pool boy. The uniformed staff hurried to put the umbrella up over their chairs and offered Sammi and her drinks. It was seriously like having a small army of people do everything for you.

  I could get used to this.

  “Thank you.” She accepted what appeared to be water with fruit floating in it decorated with a little umbrella. It was festive and she was a sucker for the tropical fruit they’d had so far.

  Sammi dug into the tote full of their stuff she’d hauled down and pulled out the sunscreen.

  “You actually use that stuff?” She pulled a piece of orange out of the water and sucked the juice out.

  “This tan?” Sammi held out his arm and squeezed out a line of sunscreen. “It’s natural Persian, baby.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Please don’t start with the Persian stuff. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

  “Too bad. You married all this.” He slid his palms down his chest, smearing the lotion on unevenly and grinning at her ridiculously.

  “Oh my god, please don’t remind me.” She laughed and set her water on the table. “Here, let me do your back and then you can help me.”

  Like many heavily tattooed people, Autumn took good care of her skin, always using sunscreen, lotions and exfoliating to keep her tattoos as beautiful and fresh as possible. Just as the sun damaged skin, so it damaged tattoos. She was frustrated when people ignored this little fact or were completely ignorant about it, despite receiving aftercare instructions.

  “Thanks.” Sammi turned his back to her.

  Autumn kept her smile firmly in place as she ate up the sight of him. She squirted lotion into her hands and slicked it down over his skin. God, she loved touching him, and to think, he’d been inside her an hour ago. The lotion made his skin glisten, the tattoos turning glossy. Though he hadn’t asked, she slicked it up his neck and down the backs of his arms.

  Fucking him had been as good, if not better, than she’d thought it could be. With his take-charge attitude, once they got started, he’d moved her where and exactly how he’d wanted. And it had been hot.

  Her pussy tingled with the memory of how he’d felt, the way he’d learned her body so fast, playing her as though she were an instrument.

  “There you go,” she said at last, wiping the excess on her thighs.

  “Your turn.” He took the bottle from her and squirted a liberal amount of sunscreen in his palms.

  “Sammi…” She eyed the globs.

  “Relax.” Neither his tone nor his grin inspired serenity.

  Autumn scooted down her chair. “Sammi, I don’t know what you’re doing—”

  He stood, white lotion dripping off his hands.

  She jumped to her feet and backed away, visions of sunscreen covering her, matting her hair and all over her clothing. “Sammi, no.”

  “What? I’m just going to put some lotion on you.” He prowled slowly, grinning mischievously.

  Autumn backed into a member of the hotel staff taking an order from another patron. “Sorry,” she said to them while watching her husband—oh lord, he was her husband—stalk her.

  She giggled and adrenaline coursed through her veins.

  There were times to stand and fight, and there were times to run.

  Autumn grabbed the trailing bits of her cover-up, turned and bolted for the beach.

  “Hey, come back here,” Sammi yelled.

  She wove through the people set up to sunbathe, kicking up sand and earning more than a few terse words. Every few steps she glanced over her shoulder at Sammi jogging easily behind her, an evil grin on his face.

  Autumn ducked through a volleyball game, which gave her a small lead over her pursuer, who was forced to skirt the volleyball court. She took her chance and bolted down the beach, but where to go? There wasn’t anywhere to hide. Still, she laughed despite the absurdity of the situation.

  Again she glanced over her shoulder to find Sammi bearing down on her. She screamed and giggled as he swept her up and carried her into the breaking waves. They laughed and stumbled as the water battered at their legs and she tripped him up trying to get her feet back on the ground. They toppled sideways, landing in the wet sand as the ocean surged up onshore, washing over them and breaking the fall somewhat.

  They spat sand and seawater between gasping for breath.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” she vowed despite laughing.

  “Only if you make me.” He stared down at her and she wished she could see past the sunglasses.

  Water rushed around them and the sand tickled her skin as it was swept out to sea.

  “Oh I’ll make you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss just as waves surged up to lap around their bodies.

  Sammi sank against her, tak
ing her mouth in a possessive kiss. A thrill shot through her screaming, Yes!

  “Hey, this is a public beach,” a shrill voice called out.

  Shit.

  Sammi simply groaned and jumped to his feet, showing none of the previous day’s exhaustion. He helped her to her feet and they turned to a woman wearing capris, a t-shirt and a shrewish cast to her face.

  “Sorry, ma’am. Just got carried away,” Sammi said to her.

  He wrapped an arm around Autumn’s waist and ushered her back up the beach. Not twenty feet away they dissolved into laughter and giggles, leaning heavily on each other. Somehow they made it back to the chairs, worse for the dip and random patches of sunscreen everywhere.

  Autumn pulled the cover-up off and proceeded to apply her own sunscreen.

  “What? You don’t want my help now?” Sammi asked as he sipped what appeared to be a mojito.

  She stuck her tongue out at him. “Not really, but thanks.”

  “Fine. I see how it is.” He settled in and watched her unabashedly.

  What is he thinking?

  She couldn’t get her mind off repeating that morning. The way he’d thrust into her and tweaked her nipples. A shiver stole down her spine despite the heat.

  Autumn hid her reaction by clipping her hair up and continuing to slather on lotion.

  She didn’t know how to act or what to say. Though she’d had plenty of guys in her life start out as friends and turn into fuck buddies or even relationships, she hadn’t married any of them. Marriage changed everything.

  “You have the best breasts I’ve ever seen,” Sammi said, breaking into her thoughts.

  Autumn glanced up. “You do realize they’re implants?”

  If he thought they were quality he was sadly mistaken. She’d always been self-conscious of the slight size difference, and how one nipple pointed more up than the other. While she liked having bigger breasts, she didn’t like hers. Maybe she’d actually take a chunk of the money Sammi was giving her and get a proper boob job.

  He shrugged. “So? They’re pretty awesome. You should keep rubbing sunscreen on your chest for a little while longer so I can watch.”

  “You are such a guy.” She rolled her eyes and moved on to her legs.

  “I am. Thanks for noticing.”

  “Not hard to miss, thankfully.”

  He left her alone while she finished what she could. Then he wordlessly took the bottle, moved to her chair and did her back without any of the childishness they’d enjoyed earlier.

  “How are things at the shop? I haven’t been by since we finished my back.” He pulled the thin strings of her bikini around, rubbing his strong hands over her muscles, kneading them as he went.

  “Okay. Pretty routine.” She let her eyes drift shut and enjoyed his touch.

  “What are they going to think about us?” From his tone it was impossible to guess what the real intent of his question was.

  Autumn blew out a breath. Right now she didn’t want to think about the girls and all the trouble she’d be in later.

  When a girl got married, everything else took a backseat, right?

  She’d worry about the consequences later.

  “I would guess Mary will be pissed because everything I do pisses her off. Kellie will bitch about me flaking out again. Pandora won’t know I wasn’t there ’til I get back because she’s been off doing a Sucker Punch Sunday memorial with Brian. Carly will be ticked I didn’t tell her I was leaving. We were supposed to go to the movies tonight.” The four girls were Autumn’s best and only girlfriends. Sometimes it felt as though they had her in their crosshairs, waiting for her to mess up. She was always screwing up without meaning to.

  “What about the trial?”

  Autumn’s stomach clenched and she glanced around.

  There was what Sammi really wanted to know. She could tell by the way he slid the question in there when she wasn’t expecting it, asking as casually as he would if they were talking about lunch.

  A little over a year before, Autumn’s coworker and bestie Pandora had become the fixation of her ex-boss and former fiancé, Robert. It had escalated quickly from stalking to straight-up attacking Pandora, then to driving his truck into the old So Inked shop and torching it in the middle of a going-away party for Carly. The incident had left Carly partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Autumn had walked away with scratches, a dislocated arm and nightmares for weeks. How Pandora and Carly slept knowing Robert was alive, even if he was behind bars, was beyond her.

  “Fuck.” How had she forgotten? She grabbed her drink to moisten her mouth.

  “What?”

  “The pretrial shit. It started today. Fuck me.” Autumn put her glass down and ran a hand through her hair, except she had it up in a clip so she pulled locks out. Sometimes she had the brain of a goldfish. Give her five seconds and she forgot everything.

  “Damn. I knew it was coming up soon, but I didn’t realize it was this week.” His face creased in worry.

  “We were going to close the shop today and go in for whatever they were doing. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.” She pulled the clip out of her hair and wound it back up.

  Sammi reached for her hands, holding them between his. “Hey, you guys went through a lot because of that asshole. You don’t really want to be there.”

  “No, but Carly and Pandora are going to have to be part of the whole mess.” And she wasn’t going to be there to sit beside Carly.

  I’m a shitty friend.

  “Hey.” He tugged on her arms. “You can’t do anything about that now. When the trial starts we can both go. He’s going to get put away for a long time.”

  Autumn nodded. There was no doubt that Robert would be out of their lives, but the whole process just seemed to drag that inevitability out.

  “Let’s get something to eat, okay?” He grabbed a menu from their side table and held it out between them.

  * * * * *

  Sammi watched Autumn put away a whole sandwich. She’d been quiet while they ate, but the way her foot bobbed in time to the music made him think she had moved on. He hoped so. This trip was supposed to be about fun. They could figure out the details back home later. As much as he wished things could be different, trying to solve them now would only ruin the remainder of the trip.

  He ate the rest of his grilled no-frills sandwich and relaxed into the chair. Recently he had been having some nausea after eating, but it hadn’t bothered him since yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise, and he’d take it while it lasted.

  In fact, he felt pretty damn good.

  “Want to go for a walk down the beach?” he asked Autumn.

  “Sure. Should we take our stuff with us or run it up to the room?” She swung her legs off the side of the chair and dug her toes into the sand. The bikini she’d worn to the beach had more coverage than the one she’d worn that morning, and there was an iridescent quality to the pink fabric.

  Part of him was glad she was more covered up, that he was the only one who got to see those swirling tattoos around her nipples. He wanted to trace the lines with his tongue, find out just how sensitive the piercings made her and what the clit ring did for her. She certainly orgasmed harder than many women he’d been with, and he loved making her scream like that.

  Sammi cleared his throat and grabbed the beach tote. “Nah, we can leave it with the beach bellhop.”

  “Beach bellhop?” She stared at him from behind oversized sunglasses.

  “Yeah. One of the resort’s perks.” They headed toward a tiki hut where the servers were bustling around.

  Their server spotted them instantly and jogged across to them. “Can I help you?”

  “Can you check this for us? We’re going to take a walk.”

  “Absolutely, sir.” He nodded and accepted their bag.

  “What was your name? I didn’t even ask earlier.” Autumn wrapped her hand around Sammi’s elbow, sliding it up and down in a gesture she’d done a hundred times. Except now it sent prickl
es of awareness through him.

  “My name is Timothy, ma’am.”

  Autumn extended her hand. “I’m Autumn and this is Sammi. Thanks for watching the bag for us. Lunch was really good.”

  Timothy glanced at Sammi, but he merely shrugged. The hotel staff were used to affluent people who didn’t see them but used them daily.

  People like Sammi.

  Autumn was a different kind of person, and standing in her shadow made Sammi a little ashamed of himself.

  “Thanks, man.” Sammi handed the tote over and made a mental note to leave a bigger tip.

  “What’s with the face?” Autumn asked as they strolled toward the shoreline.

  “I was just thinking about how you see people.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared off to sea.

  “How I see people? Do you have a fake eye I don’t know about?” She peered at him, bits of her hair flying around her face. She’d piled most of it up in a clip on top of her head after their quick dip.

  “Like that guy back there. Timothy? I would never have asked him his name. Or Eleri and her sister? I’d have passed by them and never said a word.”

  Autumn shrugged. “I am one of those people, so I guess I see myself in their shoes and I know how I like it when people are polite to me. I’ve flipped burgers, cleaned rooms and a bunch of other crappy jobs. It’s always nice when someone asks your name and says thanks.”

  “But that’s just it.” He yanked his hands out of his pockets and spread them. “I probably walk by the same people you do and just say thanks if they do something for me.”

  “And that’s okay.” She touched his arm and he grasped her hand. “Speaking from the role of former help, even being polite is nice. You’re a fair tipper, you always tell people thank you and even when you have been unhappy with the service, you’re reasonable.”

  “I am?”

  “Yup.”

  “You notice those things?”

  Autumn smiled and it was as if the sun grew a little brighter. She was sunshine and joy. “When you’ve spent as long as I have in the service industry, those things matter in the people around you.”

  Sammi laced their fingers together and squeezed. “That’s just good manners.”