Autumn in London

by Louise Bay

  Lucy was the office vixen and renowned for being a terrible lawyer. I wasn’t sure how she still had a job. Probably because she flirted up a storm with all the male partners and was indiscriminate about it. Young, old, short, tall—it didn’t bother her. I’m not sure that she had any control over it. It was her nature with men. It had never bothered me, until now. I couldn’t bear the thought of Ethan being subjected to her come-ons.

  “Lucy, I’ve got tons to get done. Get lost.”

  “But I wanted to pick your brain. You’re working with him aren’t you?” Something like that. “How do I get myself that gig?”

  “I mean it, get lost.”

  “I take it back about your improved mood. You need to get lucky, sweetie.”

  Lucky was exactly what I got.

  I rummaged through my bag for my phone and scrolled through to find Ethan. He’d filed himself under “Sex God” again. Of course he had.

  I’m looking forward to seeing you this evening. It’s good to have you in London.

  He replied right away. It’s good to be here. I’m glad we found each other. See you tonight, beautiful.

  My stomach lurched.

  Chapter Six

  Ethan

  I knocked on Anna’s apartment door just after nine. It had been a long day and I was looking forward to seeing her. She relaxed me. When the door opened, I couldn’t take my eyes of her.

  “Hey,” she said.

  I didn’t reply, I didn’t want to waste a second. I walked toward her and without breaking stride, I grabbed her perfect ass and guided her backward into the hallway, at the same time, bringing the hem of her shirt up and over her head. All I could think about was being buried inside her and watching her as she came.

  “Hey Anna, how was your day?” She was mocking me.

  I ignored her and pulled down her jogging pants. She stood in her underwear, not helping but not hindering me either. Jesus she was beautiful. I tugged at my tie as she continued her conversation with herself. “It was great, thanks, Ethan. I got a lot done despite a number of office distractions. What about you? I had a good day too, Anna, thanks, I had a number of meetings—”

  “Turn around and put your hands on the wall.” I interrupted her as I dropped my pants. Without a word, she did what I said and took position. I grabbed a condom out of my wallet. I was as hard as steel and I couldn’t wait another minute. The curve of her back offering me that perfect lace-covered ass was all I could concentrate on. I moved her panties to one side and thrust straight into her.

  “Fuck,” she screamed. I pulled out and slammed into her again. My hands wanted to be on every part of her body at once—her hips, her tits, her pussy, in her hair, across her stomach. Jesus, I couldn’t get enough. I throbbed inside her—I was going to come in about ten seconds.

  “Harder, Ethan.”

  I pushed in again, relishing the feel of her around my cock. She was made for me. She grunted as I thrust in again and her fingernails pressed into the wall. I reached for her perfect tits. Her nipples puckered under my touch and I squeezed, perhaps too hard because her head snapped back onto my shoulder. There was too much of her to enjoy.

  “You were so ready for me Anna. Have you been wet for me all day?” I whispered into her ear.

  She nodded.

  “Tell me, Anna.”

  “I’ve wanted you all day. I’ve been thinking about you inside me.”

  I couldn’t hold anything back. The sound of my flesh meeting hers and the moans from her were all too much. The sight of her, the feel of her, the smell of her, the taste of her. She was everything. How could I have let her go back to London? How could I have not had her all these weeks? What had I been thinking?

  She pushed back against me and I went deeper. I gripped her shoulder, riding in and out of her. She clenched around me, and her breath shortened. I slid my fingers around her hip and down to meet her clit. She bucked underneath me. I circled the nerves and the wetness around my cock increased.

  “Yes. Just. Like. That,” she breathed.

  Her head dropped to between her arms as if she were defeated. She had given into me, into the pleasure of it all. She turned her head so her eyes met mine and she came with a look of vulnerability mixed with pure lust. That look ended me and I poured into her.

  I stood still for a few seconds, catching my breath, her head resting on the wall in front of her. I pulled out of her and she whimpered as if my cock leaving her was the last thing she wanted. Jesus. She could corrupt the Pope. I picked her up and walked us into her bedroom. I lay her on the bed and quickly stripped off what was left of our clothes, then climbed under the covers with her, pulling her ass toward me.

  I drew my arms around her waist and nestled my chin against her neck.

  “Hey, how was your day?” I asked and she giggled.

  “Oh, now you ask,” she said, stroking my arm.

  “Sorry, I just had to be inside you.”

  “I know. I like it.”

  “Like me being inside you?”

  “Yes, and that you have to be, like nothing is going to stop you, you’re going to take what you want.”

  “You make me sound like a Neanderthal.”

  “I like it,” she said simply. “But that’s why we need rules. And number one has got to be no orgasms in the office.”

  I chuckled into her neck. “You didn’t like that?”

  “Too much.”

  “I think it should be as little contact in the office as possible and certainly no physical contact. What about that?”

  “Sounds awful but yes, I agree.”

  “What next?” I asked. She’d clearly given this a lot of thought. I didn’t care what her rules were. I’d play any game she offered.

  “We can’t tell anyone at work. That frat thingy you were talking about and me not wanting to be the girl everyone thinks is sleeping her way to the top. It means we can’t tell anyone at work, and I mean anyone.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? You don’t agree?”

  I liked that she could read the slight resistance in my words. “I do, but it’s not ideal is it?”

  “But—”

  “I’ve said I agree. What’s next?”

  “That’s as far as I got.”

  I pulled her legs between mine, “Do you want to come apartment hunting with me at the weekend, and then dinner at my sister’s?”

  She pursed her lips. “So, are we dating?”

  I hadn’t really put a label on it in my head. All I’d thought about was her, and how I wanted to spend time with her and get to fuck her while I was in London.

  I shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Don’t sound so enthusiastic.” She prodded me in the thigh and I mock winced. “Okay, I have more rules,” she continued.

  I groaned and rolled to my back and she flipped over. “And then can I get a blow job?”

  “If you’re fucking me, you’re not fucking anyone else.”

  “Babe, I’ve never even mentioned a threesome.” That earned me a playful, tiny fist in my stomach but I caught her hand and drew it to my lips. “Beautiful, if I get to fuck you why would I want to fuck anyone else?”

  “I’m serious,” she whispered.

  I pulled her closer to me. “So am I. You’re gonna have to be patient with me. I’ve told you, I don’t date so I’m not going to get this right all the time. But I don’t play games and I’m not going to start bullshitting you. If I’m with you, I’m with you and that’s where it begins and ends.”

  I could see her trying to fight her smile. “So we’re exclusive?”

  “Oh my god, and you’re one of our brightest associates? Fuck, we’re toast.” She gave into her grin this time. “Yes, we’re exclusive. I don’t want any guy coming near you.”

  * * * * *

  Being inside her was going to fast become my favorite way to spend an evening.. She was asleep, and lying in the nook of my arm like she was made especially for it. A sense of excit
ement washed over me about being in London. It was the job and a fresh challenge, but it was also being with her. She was as beautiful as I remembered, as funny, as wicked, as demanding but just as breakable. For the first time in my life, I was excited to be getting to spend more time with a woman.

  Trying not to disturb her, I reached to the bedside table to get my phone, typing out a message to my sister

  Me: Dinner on Saturday sounds good. Can I bring someone?

  She texted straight back despite it being after 2a.m. That was what kids did to you. .

  Jessica: A girl?

  Me: A woman.

  Jessica: Is she a hooker?

  Me: Be nice. You’ll like her.

  Jessica: Who are you and what have you done with my brother?

  Me: I’ll see you Saturday. Love you.

  Jessica: I don’t have ransom money, so you’ll just have to keep him.

  I put the phone down and grinned to myself.

  Anna

  We were spending the day looking at apartments. Ethan was still technically checked in at the hotel, but he’d spent every night this week with me. And I liked it. I really liked it. And I really, really liked the sex, which just seemed to get better and better, but I liked him. He made me laugh. He didn’t take any of my shit, he was supremely self-confident and he seemed to like me. So far he wasn’t playing any of the games I was used to. There was no pretending, no bullshit and it felt good. It felt right. It felt free.

  Because I knew we only had three months, I wanted to squeeze every last drop out of our time together. I guess he felt the same, because he came ’round every night after work, without excuse or explanation. He’d even brought his laptop back last night and worked a little while we ate and before bed where he went back to work on my body.

  I stood by the door, waiting for him so we could head off on our apartment hunting.

  “Have you forgotten anything?” he hollered from the living room.

  “Nope.” I grinned.

  He appeared in the doorway and took in my expression. “Are you laughing at me?” He bent his head and kissed me square on the lips.

  “Maybe.”

  “You know, I can wipe that grin off your face in two seconds flat. Your little mouth will be all parted and panty in an instant if I let my fingers do this . . .” He reached down to cup my sex. Sure enough, my grin subsided and my underwear dampened. Part of me wanted to continue what he’d started, but we needed to go apartment hunting.

  “Ethan, we need to go and I don’t need to be smelling of sex while we look at these rentals.”

  Ethan shrugged and led us out. “This is only weekend two. We have ten more to go. Ten more when I’m going to keep you naked and tied to the bed all weekend. There will be no going out.”

  Had he started a countdown in his head already? Ten weekends to go? “Promises, promises,” I managed to quip, disguising the clock that had just started ticking in my head.

  “So if someone spots us together, what are we going to say?” I asked as Ethan hailed a cab to take us to the first appointment.

  “They won’t”

  “Famous last words. What if they do?”

  “Then we’ll deal with it when it happens, but this is a city of eight million people. Keep your panties on.”

  “You want me to keep my panties on? That’s a one hundred and eighty degree turn for you. Am I boring you already?”

  “As I said, naked and tied to the bed all next weekend.”

  Ethan had told me he’d changed the brief to the realtor, as he called the estate agent, and made sure that all the flats we were going to see today were close to mine. I explained to him that I was due to be moving, but he didn’t seem to care. Part of me wondered whether he wanted me to offer to let him stay with me. Part of me wanted to. But I didn’t suggest it and he didn’t ask.

  We were due to see four flats. All ten times bigger than any I’d been looking at. I’m sure any of them would be fine. Two were in the same block as each other so our hunting wasn’t going to take too long. Ethan seemed enthusiastic about the day, perhaps my poky little flat was getting to him. His apartment on the Hudson was amazing and in a totally different league from my place.

  We were a few minutes late to the first viewing and the realtor was waiting for us.

  “I’m Marie, we spoke on the phone.” She held out her hand to Ethan who shook it and then turned to me.

  “This is my girlfriend, Anna.”

  Marie gripped my hand as my stomach clenched. Girlfriend? Fear gripped me. I didn’t like the ambiguity that that word created between us. Girlfriend could mean so many things but for me it meant disappointment and heartache. I forced a toothless grin at Marie and stayed quiet.

  Marie and Ethan’s enthusiasm for flat hunting overshadowed any potential awkwardness that I might be projecting. The four flats were amazing and Ethan seemed to like all of them. I just nodded and smiled as he pointed out the great things about each flat.

  He agreed with Marie that he’d give her his decision that afternoon. I exhaled as she left. When it was Ethan and me, everything was so much easier. I didn’t need to think about a label for our relationship. I didn’t need to think about the future. I could just concentrate on him.

  “So, do you wanna go have lunch or go home and fuck?” he asked.

  I laughed at his abruptness. “You can take the man out of New York but not New York out of the man,” I replied.

  “Home to fuck it is,” he replied. He grabbed me and pulled me against him with one hand and held out his hand for a cab with the other.

  We were within walking distance of my flat. I wasn’t sure if he had his bearings or he didn’t want to waste any more time with our clothes on.

  “So, you look a bit brighter now that you’re going to get your rocks off.” He nudged me in the cab.

  “Was I looking dull before?” I asked.

  “You looked like you were going to puke there for a while when I called you my girlfriend. A man with a lessor ego could have been crushed.”

  I didn’t know what to say in response. “I’m sorry. I was just surprised.”

  “But you didn’t like it,” he pressed.

  “I struggle with the connotations the word brings with it.”

  “Hmmm,” was the only reply I got.

  “Anyway, I think you’re just trying to get a rise out of me. You’ve avoided having a girlfriend for like ever.”

  “I’m not trying to avoid anything. I think you need to ask yourself if you are,” he said and looked at me with something in his eyes that I couldn’t quite name. I leaned forward and pulled down the window of the cab, trying to find more air just as we arrived back at my flat. I jumped out and tried to pay the driver, but Ethan was already handing over cash inside the cab.

  We moved silently into my building, the tension bristling between us. I wished that what he was thinking would play out in subtitles above his head.

  When we got inside the flat I went to the kitchen and switched on the kettle. I half thought that he’d grab me and we’d be fucking this tension away as soon as we got inside, but Ethan headed straight to the living room. I shifted from leg to leg as I tried to unscramble what I was thinking at the same time as speculating on what was going through Ethan’s head. We had a few hours before we had to leave for dinner at Ethan’s sister’s. We had time.

  Ethan was hovering in the living room, looking out the window when I brought in coffees for both of us. “Thanks, but I think I’m going to head back to the hotel and call the realtor,” he said. My heart tightened. I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to have caused this.

  “I thought we were going to fuck?” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

  “Jesus, really? You’re going to pretend this all about sex?” he asked, still looking out of the window with his back to me and reaching into his pocket and retrieving his keys. I’d not seen this side of him before. Normally, nothing ruffled him. He was always calm and in control.r />
  “Ethan,” I said and walked toward him. I went to stroke his arm and he pulled away from me. Anxiety swept through me. Had I upset him? Did I have the power to upset him? I hated this feeling. “Ethan, please. I don’t want you to go.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this with you Anna, I can’t handle it when you keep things from me.” he said simply, still not looking at me.

  My heart squeezed tighter and I struggled to breathe. I nodded but he couldn’t see. I was trying to be calm, but inside I felt anything but. What could I say to make him stay? Maybe it would be better this way. Easier at work, anyway. The thought of seeing him in the office but knowing that we would be nothing to each other made my stomach clench and I clasped my fingers of one hand in the other and twisted, hoping to displace the pain.

  “I understand. It’s complicated,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady but I failed and I managed an unattractive half-breath, half-sob at the end of the sentence. It didn’t go unmissed by Ethan and he turned to look at me.

  “What is it?” he asked. “You’re upset? What’s wrong?”

  I shrugged my shoulders and a tear escaped.

  “Anna. Would you just talk to me? I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know what you’re thinking. You want to be exclusive but you get freaked out by me introducing you as my girlfriend. What’s that? And you’re distant in the cab and then all about the sex when we come up here? What’s going on?”

  “I’m trying,” I choked out. “Just because I’ve had boyfriends before doesn’t mean I’m good at it.”

  I turned away from him and covered my face with my hands. How did I feel this upset about him leaving me? What happened to the promise I’d made to myself that men were only going to be about fun from now on?

  “Then be honest with me. I can’t deal with the bullshit.”

  “I’m not bullshitting you.”

  “But you’re not being honest.”

  “I’m scared,” I bit out.

  “Of me? Of being honest?”

  I could feel him moving closer to me. I nodded but didn’t look up at him. He pulled my hands from my face and his head dipped as he tried to look me in the eye.