Sweet as Sin

by J. Margot Critch

  He smiled. “I’ll admit, I was skeptical. But I’m glad Brett offered you the job. You’re an excellent addition to the team.”

  She felt a blush color her cheeks, and she looked down at her glass of wine.

  “But Alana was right. It’s late. We should go.”

  Maria frowned. She wasn’t tired. Not in the least. But as Alex stood, she did as well. She followed him down the staircase and onto the main floor of the club. As the night had progressed, the erotic acts around her had become more brazen. Heat flushed through her, and she wondered if it would be appropriate to play at the club or if Alana’s adding her to the list was strictly for professional reasons. Alex had told her that he partook in the activities there, and just thinking about that made her desire skyrocket. She felt her panties grow moist, and she stopped walking, clenching her thighs together as a way to seek relief.

  “You okay?” He turned to face her. The flush on his cheeks made her wonder if he was similarly affected by the acts going on around them. He looked desperate, impatient, as if he were just barely hanging on himself. Maybe he wasn’t as cool as he let on. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “What’s your hurry?” she asked.

  “It’s late.”

  “Yeah, you already said that.” She smiled and twirled a tendril of hair around her finger. “But you know what, Alex, I’m not tired.”

  “Well, I am,” he told her. He clenched his fists and looked tense enough to burst free of his shirt.

  “You don’t look tired. So what’s your plan here?” She took a step closer. “Are you trying to get me out of here so you can find some other woman to suck your dick? Or do you prefer a little bondage? Or maybe you want multiple women?”

  “Stop.” His voice was low, with a hard edge, but she carried on. Provoking him, pushing him. She was playing with fire, of course, because she knew that if Alex gave her an inch, if they allowed themselves to do exactly what both of them wanted, the flames would consume them both.

  She stepped closer. They were chest to chest. “I haven’t been able to think about much else but you since we kissed. I can’t help but want more. You feel what’s happening between us, I know you do.”

  Alex sighed. “I do. I want you too goddamn much. I want you so much that it physically hurts me.”

  She laughed, a short, light sound and she thought she saw him flinch. “If you want me, what’s the problem? I want you, too, if I haven’t made that known.” She leaned closer, stepping on her toes to bring her lips within a hair’s breadth of his.

  She could tell that his restraint was razor thin. “Maria, don’t. Don’t push me,” he said, pulling her hands to his cheeks and she felt his five o’clock shadow scratch against her smooth skin.

  “Why not?”

  “You’re my best friend’s sister.”

  “So?”

  “If he found out anything—”

  “He’s not here right now, is he? Like you said, nobody talks about what happens here. He won’t find out,” she said as she unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. “He doesn’t have to. It’s none of his business.”

  Alex closed his eyes. She could see the resignation on his face. “Okay.” He took her hand in his and pulled her away from the edge of the dance floor. But he didn’t lead her to the exit. They turned a corner and stopped at a host stand in front of two sets of stairs. One that led up, the other down.

  “Any rooms free, Andre?”

  Andre handed him a plastic fob without giving her a second look. If he recognized her as Rafael’s sister, he didn’t mention it. “Number four.”

  “Thanks.” Alex took the key and led her up the staircase.

  Maria had questions, but she didn’t dare say anything lest she break him free of whatever spell he was under. He led her to a door and used the electronic fob to unlock it. He opened the door and quickly ushered her inside.

  The motion-sensor on the lights activated and the room was filled with low, muted lighting, reminiscent of candlelight. Maria looked around. They’d told her about the private rooms, but she wasn’t sure what to expect. The room was small and comfortable and held minimal furniture, just an armoire and a large king-size bed, which was flanked by nightstands. She peeked through an open door to find a bathroom that contained a stand-up shower. There was also a small wet bar on the opposite wall that looked well-stocked. Alex stood in the center of the room, and they watched each other in silence, but Maria was certain she could hear their hearts beating in tandem, connected, from several feet apart.

  They didn’t touch, didn’t speak, but she knew Alex, she had for years, and she could tell from the way he clenched his fists over and over and breathed heavily through flared nostrils that he was barely holding on to control. It finally hit her with a bolt that by the end of the night, she would know all the power that he harnessed under his tattoo-covered skin and that he normally kept retained in exquisitely tailored thousand-dollar suits. As if it were a tangible thing, she felt his intensity. The barely restrained masculinity, the strength that he possessed. He was hard, his posture rigid, and she wanted it all, even the anger, directed at her.

  She heard Alex’s deep breath as he broke away from the staring contest and walked to the small, fully stocked bar. “You want a drink?” he asked, his voice rough, turned away from her.

  “Sure.”

  He poured her a glass of wine and two fingers of bourbon for himself. He handed her drink over, his fingers grazing hers.

  He drank his bourbon in one swallow and breathed out as he looked her up and down. “What am I going to do with you, Maria?”

  Her eyes didn’t waver. She sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed her hand over the soft blanket. “What do you want to do with me?”

  He didn’t answer, just poured another drink for himself, and she considered it a victory when he joined her on the bed.

  She scooted closer and brought her knees under her, so that they touched his hard thigh. “You know, I’m not a kid. I’m a woman with my own body and my own desires. And I want you. Why is that so bad?”

  “I’ve never known you to have a boyfriend or anything. I can’t believe I’m asking this, but are you a virgin?”

  “No,” she told him, kind of surprised, although she shouldn’t have been, that he would think that. “And in fact, I haven’t been for quite a while.” She put her hand on his thigh; the hard muscle flexed and tensed under her touch. “I might have gone to an all-girls high school and college—thanks Mom and Dad—but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an opportunity to get off, hook up with guys...and girls.”

  “Girls?” He raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

  “Hey, I’m a twenty-first century woman. I know what I like, and I know I’m allowed to get it.” She waited for his next move, sipping from her glass. Her breath caught when he put his hand on her bare knee. He exhaled roughly but didn’t look at her. He rubbed her leg, and she watched his tattooed hand, the knuckles inscribed with the word play—as opposed to the one marked with work—as Alex made his way slowly up her thigh and under her skirt.

  “God, Maria.” His words were soft with his resigned sigh. “This is so goddamn wrong.”

  “Why is it so wrong? We’re both adults. We know what we want. Why not just let it happen?”

  “Fuck, if your brother finds out.”

  “Will you let it go? He doesn’t have to find out anything,” she whispered, parting her legs for him, opening up to him, allowing his fingers to travel farther upward.

  His hand was high on her thigh, under her skirt, and going farther. Anticipation and his touch had wound her so tightly that when his fingertips toyed with the edge of her lace panties, she shuddered as a ragged breath was expelled from her lungs. She looked down, his hand under her skirt, smoothing her crease through her panties. When she looked back at him and saw that his eyes were also locked on
his hand. Looking upward again, their eyes met as he sought approval, because they both knew that they could never go back. He would no longer be Alex Fischer, her brother’s best friend, one of her current bosses. He would be her lover, at least for the night. She would have intimate knowledge of his body, and he hers.

  Maria could tell that he was barely holding on, just like she was. Years of buildup of wanting him would finally be unleashed. There would be no more mysteries about the powers of Alex, and yet she remained still, afraid to move in case she broke the spell. She just wanted him to press on, venture farther. His slow, methodical fingers might kill her.

  With his other hand still holding his glass, he lifted it to his lips and drained it, and tossed the glass on the floor. “Oh what the hell,” he said, quickly grabbing her by the waist and pulling her into his lap, and then rolling over so that he was lying on top of her.

  She didn’t have a chance to say anything before his lips crashed down on hers. He inserted himself between her spread legs, which wrapped around his hips and pulled him closer. She could feel the length of his hard cock against her hip, and she shook with anticipation of finally having it inside her.

  He nipped her bottom lip before he trailed his lips across her jaw and down her throat. She let go of her grip on her wineglass and let it fall to the floor with a small thud. For only a second she thought of the remaining liquid spilling onto the carpet, but she forgot it when she pushed her fingers through his sandy-colored hair, pulling him closer, as he licked, tasted and bit his way down her chest. He took control of the buttons down the front of her blouse, opening them and then spreading her shirt open.

  Alex kissed a trail down her torso as he exposed her flesh, inch by inch. He got off the bed and knelt on the floor. Wrapping his tattooed fingers around the outside of her thighs, he pulled her toward him, and then he ventured back under her skirt. He hooked his fingers around the waistband of her panties and pulled. She lifted her hips obligingly knowing exactly what was coming next, but simultaneously not believing it. He took the opportunity to unzip her skirt, and when he pulled it down, she was naked below the waist, and she could pinpoint the second when her tattoo caught his attention.

  He smiled and looked up at her before he bowed his head to her hip bone and traced the text with his tongue. The air rushed out of her lungs as he looked up again and chuckled. “Trouble?” His eyebrow quirked at the word that she’d had permanently inked on her body.

  She shrugged and smirked. “I got it in high school. As a good girl with a wicked streak, it seemed appropriate at the time.”

  “I think it’s appropriate now. You are certainly trouble. It’s written all over you,” he said, tossing her underwear over his shoulder. “Do you have any more secrets? Or should I keep looking?”

  “I’ve got a few things up my sleeve,” she told him. “No more tattoos, but you can keep looking if you don’t believe me.”

  “Challenge accepted. But first we’ve got to get you undressed.”

  Alex straightened, still kneeling in front of her, and she sat up, facing him. He was tall enough so that they were the same height. He reached behind her, unclasped her bra and pulled down the straps at her shoulders, peeling it from her body, her freed breasts falling into his waiting palms. He squeezed, cupped her, and she arched her back into his touch. “Alex.”

  He was still dressed, and she needed to change that. She wanted to get her hands all over that hot, hard body. But he leaned away from her touch.

  “Not yet.” His eyes raked over her, and he again crouched between her legs and leaned in so that he was just inches from her core. He parted her legs, draping them over his shoulders, swiping his tongue over the seam of her pussy. He went deeper, spreading her, and licked again, his tongue hitting every nerve ending along the way. Maria inhaled deeply and fell back, letting herself fully experience the way Alex’s mouth felt on her. He moaned, and the vibration traveled from his throat into her body. He went deep and using his fingers, lips, tongue, he consumed her and she cried out, gripping his hair, pulling him close to her. Not letting him go until she began to feel the warmth start low inside her.

  The waves of heat radiated, traveled, until she felt her thighs quiver and her toes curl. She pushed his head into the crevice of her thighs, as she came with a loud cry, taking all he offered, not knowing, or even caring, how he could breathe. She just wanted more.

  When her fingers cramped, her grip on his dark blond hair loosened, and he crawled back up over her. Kissing her as he moved up her body, his fingers and lips tickling her ribs, running below the curve of her breast. He kissed her, her breasts, her throat, taking her mouth deeply, his tongue exploring hers, dancing with her. Never before had she been kissed so fully, so deeply, as if he were stealing the oxygen from her lungs.

  She tasted him; the bourbon on his tongue mingled with her own flavor and, combined with his maleness, was a powerful, debilitating, intoxicating anesthetic. Any more, she would be drunk from him. But it still wasn’t enough. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders trying to pull him closer, to get more, but he stopped and pulled back from her, looked her up and down. How she must have appeared to him, splayed on the bed, legs spread, panting for more of him—her hair and makeup must have been a mess.

  But if Alex thought so, he didn’t say as much. “Jesus, Maria,” he whispered. “You’re incredible. You’re so fucking beautiful when you come.”

  She reached for him again, hooking her index finger under the waistband of his pants, pulling him forward. His pants tented with the huge erection behind it. “You don’t know anything yet,” she told him, palming his dick through his pants. From what she could feel, he was large, thick and hard. His hand caught hers before she pulled him too close. His eyes and the frown that marred his beautiful face told her that he was still at least a little unsure and conflicted. “Come on, Alex,” she implored. “I want more.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered, allowing himself to be pulled on top of her. “As long as I’m going to hell, I might as well enjoy the ride.”

  * * *

  As Alex pressed Maria into the mattress, he knew that he was far from hell. Maria’s body was a heaven that he’d never known before. He could taste her on his lips, her flavor sat heavy on his tongue, and he couldn’t wait another second to be buried deep inside her. He kissed her, one of his hands on her cheek while the other unbuckled his belt and lowered his pants. His dick was out and then he moved his hips forward, pushing his shaft along her clit. It was glorious. She was so close to him. Too close. He was just a second away from plunging into her when he pulled his hips back.

  “Shit,” he whispered, his voice strained against the skin of her neck. Every movement was torture for him. Need clenched his chest, and it was hard to breathe.

  “What?”

  “I need to get a condom.” He’d been so consumed that he almost forgot about his number one rule—always use protection. He knew he was clean—he was young and single and enjoyed a healthy sex life, he always used a condom, and was tested regularly—but there was no way he was going to take her without protecting her.

  His gait was stiff and hurried, as he made his way to the armoire, the one that they kept stocked with onetime-use devices, anything that a guest would need—restraints, various sexual devices in their original packaging, along with a basket filled to the brim with an assortment of condoms next to neat rows of various massage oils and personal lubricant. He grabbed several condoms and returned to her on the bed.

  Maria took a condom from his fingers and knelt on the bed, straddling his thighs. She ripped the foil and slowly, torturously, rolled the latex over his throbbing length. He hissed, pulling the air between his teeth, forcing his eyes to stay open, to watch her cover him. Alex wasn’t sure why he’d waited so long to have her. This felt absolutely right. Having Maria touch him so intimately was more than he could have wanted.

  Sti
ll on her knees, she crawled closer, bracing herself on his shoulder, she wrapped her fingers around his cock and he moaned at her touch and held his breath as she lowered herself over him, guiding him into her until she was fully seated in his lap. He almost came then and there. Maria was hot, tight, and he’d never experienced anything like it.

  Maria reached behind her and put her palms on his knees and raised up using her thigh muscles, pushing her chest in his direction, until just his tip remained inside her, and then she slammed down on him again. He thrust into her, meeting her movements, knowing he wouldn’t last long. He ground his teeth, trying to hold on, and dropped a hand to where their bodies met, finding her clit. He circled it with his thumb until she cried out and tightened around him, and it wasn’t until she stilled that he let himself go. He threw his head back and squeezed his eyes shut as he came, filling the condom.

  He took her by the waist, pulling her closer, kissing her, then he eased her off his lap before he stood and got rid of the spent latex. Watching her over his shoulder, he smiled as she stood, gloriously naked, and walked to the bathroom. And even though he’d just had one of the best orgasms of his life, he was amazed when his dick stirred with need for her again.

  Fuck. He exhaled a heavy breath. He had just crossed a serious line. Crossed? He’d goddamn pole-vaulted over the fucking line. He couldn’t even see the line from where he stood. Rafael was essentially his brother, and Alex owed the Martinez family, the only real family he’d ever known, everything. And how did he repay them? By fucking their daughter. Sure, he and Maria were both adults, able to live their own lives, but something about it still felt wrong. His dick twitched to life as the word wrong passed over his mind, as if what they’d just done was salacious, dirty. He heard the toilet flush and the water run in the bathroom before Maria strode naked toward him. By the time she reached him, he was again fully erect. The things he wanted to do with her might have been dirty, but they sure as hell weren’t wrong.