Autumn in London

by Louise Bay

  Al clearly hadn’t given Anna the heads up. She looked like she might vomit at the thought.

  “Anna, why don’t you put some time in Ethan’s diary?” He paused and looked at me. “Is tomorrow morning soon enough?” I nodded. “Invite Richard as well. The two of you will be assisting Ethan.” Al then turned to me. “Then if you need more resources, we can find more people. Does that work?”

  “That’s great, Al. I’m sure I’ll enjoy working with Anna.” I tried to catch her eye but she was looking everywhere except at me. I wanted to ask Al to leave us, leave me to say hello properly, to trail my hands across Anna’s thighs, underneath her skirt, to push into her underwear. Fuck, focus Ethan.

  “I have to get back but it was nice to meet you, Anna.” She didn’t respond.

  Anna

  I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to request I work for him. What a total dick. He’d tried to call me again but I’d not picked up when I recognized the number. What could he possibly have to say to me that I wanted to hear?

  My phone rang again and it was him. Again. He needed to stop harassing me. I sent the call to voicemail and logged off. If I wasn’t in the office, he couldn’t find me. Maybe I’d call in sick tomorrow. I was going to have to find an excuse not to work with him.

  I picked up a bottle of wine on the way home and collapsed on the sofa with a huge glass. Hangover or no hangover, I needed some kind of sedative. I considered calling Leah but I couldn’t risk her babbling on about fate or the universe or something equally ridiculous, so I switched on the TV and started to open my post. My mobile started vibrating on the coffee table, I didn’t recognize the number but I answered it.

  “Anna, it’s Ethan. If you hang up, it will take me about thirty seconds to be at your front door.”

  “Are you stalking me? How do you have my home address?”

  “The Partner Booklet of associate details.”

  “Fucking hell, isn’t that a breach of my human rights or something, that’s outfuckingrageous—”

  “Let me in Anna.”

  “Where are you?” I peered through the peephole and saw him standing against the wall opposite my door.

  “You know where I am. You just checked your peephole.” He was very calm, just like I imagined a psychopath would be.

  “Why are you even here? You got what you wanted. You made a fool out of me, now just pretend I don’t exist.”

  “Let me in.”

  “No.”

  “Let me in.”

  “I said no.”

  “Do you really want to continue to have this conversation through the door for all your neighbors to hear? I’ll stay here all night if I need to. It’s not like I’m sleeping anyway.”

  What was the matter with this crazy guy? This flat was cursed. I couldn’t wait to move.

  “If I let you in, do you promise to leave after ten minutes?” I asked.

  “I told you that I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”

  “You are full of total bullshit.”

  “What the fuck Anna? What is it that has made you so angry with me? We agreed I wouldn’t call you, that we wouldn’t stay in touch. I thought that’s what you wanted.” He raised his voice—it was the first time I’d ever known him to be ruffled.

  I opened the door and looked at him, unwilling for the neighbors to further witness to my dating disasters.

  “I’m not angry you didn’t call, I’m angry because you used me.”

  He stepped toward me and I stood to the side to let him in. We might as well have this out as he was right in front of me.

  He stepped inside my flat and I closed the door and lent back.

  “I’m not a stupid guy but I’m having a hard time following your logic. We agreed it was going to be uncomplicated fun. I’m not pretending it wasn’t about sex for me but you can’t pretend it wasn’t about sex for you. I thought we were on the same page. If I’d known you’d expected me to call . . .”

  “What are you talking about? I didn’t expect you to call.” My voice had dropped to almost normal. I was exhausted from being so angry at him.

  “Then I don’t follow you,” he said.

  We stood in silence for a long minute. Thoughts were racing through my head and none of them made sense. Having him so close was not helping my clarity of thought. He was near enough to touch, to . . .

  “Do you want a drink?” I asked. He nodded and I headed to the kitchen and poured two glasses of whiskey. Another thing to be mad at him for—whiskey and Ethan were synonymous for me now.

  “Can you stop swearing at me for just a few minutes and talk to me?” he asked.

  I didn’t look at him, I couldn’t look at him as I handed him his drink and then moved past him into the living room and collapsed on the sofa.

  “Anna.”

  “You should have been honest with me from the beginning,” I said calmly.

  “About what? That I was a lawyer?”

  I glanced at him and he looked confused.

  “Jesus.” Was he being deliberately stupid?

  “Anna, seriously? What?”

  “About the fact that you knew exactly who I was, that you wanted information about Allen & Smith, that you were using what you knew about me to get laid or something.”

  “What? When?” he asked.

  “In New York.” He couldn’t think I hadn’t realized what he’d been doing.

  “You think I knew you worked for Allen & Smith when we met?” he asked, his voice lighter. I didn’t respond. “How would I have known?” he asked.

  Silence.

  “What, and I arranged for you to be in New York, at the same bar as me?” I hadn’t quite worked out how he’d managed to bump into me.

  “And at lunch the following day.” I prompted.

  “Well, yes, that’s true. I did know you were going to be at lunch at that place the next day.”

  My head snapped round to look at him.

  “I didn’t tell you because it made me look like a stalker but I wanted to see you again and the only information I got from the concierge about you was where you were going to be.”

  “Oh. My. God.” I knew it. I knew it. “And how did you know I’d be in that bar?”

  He stood up from the chair opposite me and took his jacket and tie off and came to sit next to me. I didn’t move a muscle.

  “Is that what you think? That I arranged the meeting with you to get information about Allen & Smith?”

  I stayed silent.

  “You are officially crazy,” he said softly.

  “Don’t try and make me out as crazy. You’re the one stalking me,” I huffed.

  “Think about it Anna. What information did you pass me about Allen & Smith?” I did think about it. I hadn’t even told him I was a lawyer, let alone anything about where I worked.

  “I found out you worked there during the announcement—when I saw you.”

  I looked at him sideways.

  “Then how did you know my name was Anna?”

  He reached out and pulled me onto his lap. I didn’t resist him. Maybe I should have. But I wanted to believe what he was saying.

  “I didn’t know, beautiful. I just thought it suited you.”

  My stomach fluttered as he called me beautiful. Damn you stomach.

  “And you strong-armed the concierge to find out where I was lunching the day after we met? That’s weird.”

  He nodded. “Yes, a little out of character for me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I wanted to see you again. Haven’t I told you, you’re fantastic in bed?”

  He grinned and then nuzzled into my neck and I let him.

  Ethan

  It felt so good to have her in my arms again. Too good. She’d calmed a little, but she seemed so stressed I wasn’t sure how long it would last.

  “So it was coincidence? Meeting at the bar and my name?” she recapped.

  “Yes,” I spoke into her neck, trailing my lips across her
skin.

  “And your firm’s take-over or merger or whatever of my firm is coincidence?”

  “You think I arranged the merger so I could see you again? You’re not that good in bed.”

  She laughed and I felt her relax against me.

  “So that’s a lot of coincidences,” she mused, ignoring my erection that was pressing against her hip.

  “Uhuh,” I mumbled and nodded.

  She lay her head on my chest and I stroked her hair.

  “It’s nice to see you again,” she whispered.

  “It is? I was getting the distinct impression you were thinking the exact opposite,” I teased her.

  She moved to look at me, our noses almost touching. “I’m sorry. It’s just . . .”

  “Don’t, it’s fine.” I moved my hand to cup the back of her head and she leaned forward, just a fraction. Did she want this?

  “Ethan,” she whispered so softly I wondered if I’d heard it in my head. “Ethan,” she said, louder this time.

  I pulled her head toward me took her bottom lip between my teeth.

  I had to taste her. I slipped my tongue between her lips and I slid my hand under her shirt and down the back of her skirt, under her underwear to the base of her spine. I loved the feel of her skin against mine.

  Sharply, her hands pushed against my chest forcing our lips apart but I continued stroking my fingers on her bare back. “Ethan, no. You’re my boss now. We need to have rules.”

  I knew she was speaking sensibly but I didn’t care. “Later, beautiful. We can agree to rules later. Right now, I want to taste you.”

  Her breath hitched and I knew that I would be inside her soon.

  “You don’t have roommates due back do you?” I asked.

  “Why don’t you ask the concierge?” she quipped, giggling at herself. She wasn’t going to let me get away with that lightly.

  I lifted her up and put her down next to me and slid to my knees in front of her. Roughly, I pulled her hips to the edge of the sofa and reached under her skirt. “You are looking for trouble, Miss Anna,” I said and her cheeks pinked slightly. God she looked beautiful. I hooked my fingers into either side of her underwear and pulled them down. They pooled at her feet.

  Chapter Four

  Ethan

  “I noticed something earlier,” I said as I trailed my hands flat along the front of her thighs, from her knees up underneath her skirt. I stopped as I found the garter belt. I swallowed. She wore this shit to work? Fuck. I was never going to be able to practice law again with her around. “I thought so.” Her eyelids fluttered and I removed my hands and fumbled for her zipper. I needed her skirt off so I could see what, exactly, she had on.

  I slid the tight navy crepe from her legs, exposing her naked pussy and her stockings. She was perfect. With her skirt off, I pushed her knees wide apart, and she held them there. That was what really did it to me, the way she unashamedly wanted me and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. And it wasn’t just that she wanted sex. She wanted what I did to her. And that felt fan-fucking-tastic.

  She was squirming before me, impatient for what was to come next. I watched her, eyes closed, head tilted back, lips parted. It was the best view in the world. “Ethan,” she moaned, urging me on. I trailed my fingers down the back of her thighs, up to her perfect ass. I could see her glistening already.

  “You are fucking gorgeous.” I leaned forward and lightly trailed my tongue from her opening to her clit and down again and sat back.

  “Ethan. Please. More.” Jesus, my entire blood supply surged to my dick. I plunged both thumbs inside her, twisting and stroking. Her eyes flew to what I was doing. I moved my thumbs up her folds and spread her open, her clit exposed as I flicked the hard bud with the tip of my tongue.

  “Ethan.” She bolted up onto her elbows.

  I flicked again.

  “Ethan, no.” She ground her hips into me, her body saying the opposite of her words.

  I flicked once more and captured her ass in my hands and pulled her toward me as I sucked and licked. Her fingers went to my hair and she trailed her feet down my sides. I pushed her legs apart again with my elbows and thrust my fingers into her.

  I knew she was close as she tried to push me away from her. “Ethan. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.”

  She pulsed beneath my tongue and I reduced the pressure as she arched her back and screamed my name. Fuck I’d missed watching her come - come apart so completely in front of me.

  She pulled my head from between her thighs and brought me up to face her. Instead of kissing me, she trailed her tongue across my chin, licking herself off me. Jesus, the woman should be in jail for the things she did to me.

  “I want you inside me Ethan. I mean it. Now.” She rolled over to kneel on the sofa, stripped off her blouse and gripped the cushions at the back.

  She was still so demanding.

  “Ethan,” she said, knocking me out of the daze of watching her bend over like that, offering herself to me. Jesus.

  I found a condom in my wallet, peeled off my shirt, dropped my pants in record time and positioned myself, wanting to savor this moment before I slid into her. She pushed back impatiently.

  “We have all night,” I whispered. And I thrust into her and quickly withdrew completely. She gasped. “And all of tomorrow night.” I pushed into her again. “And the night after that.” She was whimpering. Incoherent. Crazed. I pulled at her waist, pulling her away from the sofa and toward me, her back against my chest. “Feel that beautiful?” I said as I kept thrusting as deep as I could. I’d not felt her around me for so long, and I wanted to get as deep as I could.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “You’re going to have my cock inside you every day now.” I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to stay away from her. I was going to have to have her, constantly, every day.

  “Oh god yes,” she responded.

  I pushed on her shoulders, trying to get deeper. Her breaths were short and quick. It wouldn’t be long.

  I needed to see her face. I pulled out and she fell forward, limp. I picked her up and walked across the room to the dining table. Sitting her at one end, I pushed back into her, she was so tight, so perfect. She lay back and I leaned over her, scanning her face for her reaction to our bodies. Her cheeks were flushed and a sheen of sweat on her forehead captured a few strands of her hair. That sleek office look that she wore during the day was gone and the Anna only I knew was back.

  I circled my hips and she twisted away from me. She was close.

  “Don’t resist it beautiful. You don’t have to save it up. I’ll make you come as often as you want.”

  Her body juddered, her mouth parted and I saw her peak just as I poured myself into her.

  She slumped back on the table, boneless and beautiful. I grinned at her.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” she said, catching my grin.

  “Like what?”

  “Like you know something.”

  “I do know something.”

  “What do you know?”

  “I know you’re beautiful. I know that we’re going to do that again soon. And then again and again. And I know that I’m pleased to see you. I’ve missed you.”

  She turned her head to the side, not saying anything.

  “I’ve missed you fucking me too,” she said eventually.

  “That’s not what I said,” I replied as I pulled her up to sit and then helped her off the table. “I’ve missed fucking you but I’ve missed all of you. Where’s the bathroom?”

  She indicated left and I pulled my arms around her waist and walked her backward in the direction of the bathroom. “Let’s shower,” I said.

  She stood still and silent as I turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature. “Come here.” I held out my hand to her and led under the water. “We never got a chance to fuck in the shower in New York.”

  “Ethan,” she admonished.

  “Now you’re going to turn coy, after you’ve li
cked your come off my face and begged me to fuck you?”

  She reached her hands around my neck and kissed my chest.

  “I just need to understand the rules, Ethan.”

  “Later,” I replied.

  “Later?”

  “Later.” I kissed the top of her head.

  Anna

  It felt so strange but so comfortable having him in my flat, in my shower. He washed my hair for me, combed through my conditioner, covered my whole body in body wash and then rinsed me clean, all while trailing my body with kisses. We stood under the water facing each other, our tongues pressing together, exploring, kissing until the water ran cold.

  “This isn’t the Mandarin Oriental, I don’t have unlimited hot water I’m afraid,” I said as my skin puckered under the cool spray.

  He smiled at me, led me out of the shower and pulled a towel around me. “I don’t mind where I fuck you, as long as I’m inside you.”

  I dropped my towel and wrapped my hand around his erection. His eyes burned into mine and I fell to my knees. I’d given blowjobs before but it had always been to please the person on the receiving end. Right then, I wanted him in my mouth. There was a rush of liquid to my sex at the thought. I looked up at him from my knees and before my mouth had touched him, he groaned. I grasped the base of him and ran my tongue on the underside of his erection, from the very base of him right to the tip, my hand following, pulling on him. His eyes were wide with wonder when I closed mine, traced his head with my tongue and then took him deep in my mouth.

  He hands thrust into my hair and I could tell he was trying to stop himself from pushing into me. I didn’t want him to resist that urge. With him in my mouth I moved both hands to the cheeks of his bottom and pushed, urging him to fuck my mouth. He growled as he went deeper and held my head tighter. I wanted him to take from me what he needed. It was the ultimate turn on that I could give him that. I sat back on my knees and he slowed. I placed my hands over his on my head, reassuring him that this was what I wanted. He was in control. He could have whatever he wanted from me. His thrusts started in earnest, pushing in and out of my mouth. My nipples tightened as I kept my eyes on his,