by Cynthia Dane
Over the course of their last date, Judith had sized up Seth’s potential to be more than what he already was. At one point that night she asked him if he had ever Topped or experimented in other forms of BDSM. Miguel had given her a taste… why couldn’t Seth? He had told her that the thought never occurred to him. Not that he found BDSM a turn-off. More like he never had a partner that he felt comfortable enough experimenting with. Judith had offered to train him, if he wanted. Something they could work on if and when he became her patron. Until then, she would continue to see all that potential inside of him.
She really felt it now.
“Seth…” Her voice cracked. He was on her, between her legs, holding her arms above her head and drinking in her used but available body. Even though she had been with him more times than she could count now, she still felt the stress of the situation and the emotions inside of her. I don’t know how I feel about you, Seth Christens… but I know I want this. “What are you waiting for? Don’t you know I want you to?”
“I want to hear you say it.”
That sharpness coming from his throat made her shudder beneath his weight. “Please…”
“That’s right. Beg for it, if you want it so much.”
I’ve never felt this side of him before. Not like this. “Yes. Do whatever you want to me. However hard you want to do it. I’m all yours to do with as you will.”
“Like you were that other man’s, right?”
“He’s not here now, is he? Don’t you see? When it’s you and me, you’re the only man I see and feel. You’re the only one.”
“I bet you said that to him too.”
Would she deny it? She didn’t want to lie to him, but she also didn’t want to ruin their powerful moment. “It doesn’t stop what I said from being true. Now do you want me or not?”
“Oh, I want you. It kills me inside how much I foolishly want you.”
“It’s not foolish if I feel the same way.”
“You’re good at what you do, I have to give you that.” Seth grinded against her thighs, still marred from what Miguel had done to them earlier. “You almost have me convinced sometimes.”
“Convinced of what?”
He pierced her, his whole body surging forward and forcing Judith to swallow the air crashing upon her. “That there’s even a chance in hell that you love me back.”
Of course I love you back! Judith swore she would say it. Out loud. To him. She wanted to. She wanted to as easily declare love as these men did to her. But she couldn’t. He was so fast, so strong, so demanding of her body that all her willpower had to go to withstanding him. The way he pounded into her core and made her cry out in ecstasy. The way he held her down with his own strength, extracting her submission as if that was what one simply did. Taking her to places that a man could rarely accomplish. Yes, there was sex. There was enjoying what a man could offer her in the bed and beyond. This was so different! The way they moved together, as easily as lock and matching key, was unlike most things Judith had experienced before. She could feel every drop of desire inside of Seth. How much he wanted her. Longed for her. Loved her. It wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t even their perceived notions of love, no matter how silly it felt for them to both be in their thirties and barely know what love was.
“Don’t talk.” He slapped his hand over her mouth as he pulled out of her, his cock now covered in both her and another man. Was that turning him on? Because it sure as hell turned her on! “If you talk, you won’t hear. If you can’t hear, you can’t feel what I’m telling you. Now turn the fuck over and give me your undying submission.”
Yes fucking sir!
Judith pulled against the bed, forcing herself onto her stomach, both thighs aching from what these men did to her. I was about to come. I was going to come and the bastard stopped me. She watched the way he pulled himself onto the bed, knees stealing purchase and cock so erect she yearned for him in ways she didn’t understand. He kept trying to pull her hips up to meet his, but the thought of what he was going to do to her sapped her energy.
“You hear me? The only thing coming out of your mouth is how much you want me.” He snatched her hair and pushed against her back, careful to not hurt her, but strength still coursing through her. “I’m the only man who matters right now. You will damn well make me feel like it.”
She flashed him a look of utter adoration. Yes, yes, do it! Her aches and trembles were all for him. What dripped down her skin was all her, begging him to have his fill, to fill her. She wanted both men in one day.
For fuck’s sake, she wanted both men.
“Yes!” Tingles took her feet as Seth spanked her ass. “Fuck me, Seth! Give it to me!”
He asked her who she wanted the most. You! He asked her what the key to both pleasure and pain was. You, damnit! He asked her what she would ask for, if she could ask for anything in the world. You, you, you! Who else existed in the world? Only you. What was the key to happiness? You, Seth, you!
Most of all, what did she want?
“Fuck me!” He had teased her for so long now, letting the head of his cock dip in and out of her without fully committing. “If you don’t fuck me, I’ll die!”
She really felt like that. As if not having some guy’s dick inside of her would really end her life!
When Seth delivered, he truly, unconditionally delivered. Not just in her core, but in her whole damn body… mind… heart… her fucking soul couldn’t remain untouched, no matter how much she tried to guard it.
Men had fucked her hard and rough before. They had pushed her body to limits she rarely let them do, for if she didn’t have her body functioning in top form, then what good was she at her job? This was a woman who seriously considered insuring multiple body parts sometime in the near future. Yet to have Seth treat her as if she was both nothing and everything at the same time? That was a new one. Never before had a man done this to her… and meant it.
Judith couldn’t say if she ever orgasmed. Sure she orgasmed, but it wasn’t quite the same as climaxing. There was no time, no chance for that. Every thrust of Seth’s cock was mostly meant for him. Judith would take it, and she would like it, but she didn’t even have a say in when he came. Normally, she controlled a good bit of that power. She knew how to use her muscles to stroke a guy’s cock while it was inside her. She did it to both Seth and Miguel all the time… carefully calculating when they could come around the same time, because there was nothing better than that.
Seth was above and beyond that realm of plausibility. He was using everything he had to undo both of their worlds.
When he finally did succumb to the power she still held over him, it was with Judith completely slammed against her bed, body trembling all around his and awaiting whatever it gave her.
All she knew was that when his heat hit her, it had never felt so right.
He collapsed on top of her, hands splayed next to hers and hot breath beating against the back of her neck. Exhausted, Judith slowly eased her hips to the bed, disconnecting their bodies for the first time in what felt like forever.
“Holy shit,” he groaned, thumb pulling aside her folds, because the universe knew that Judith was too tired to hold any of the excitement in. “I did that.” His hand lingered on her ass. “We did that.”
He pulled away, grunting and wrestling to put himself back together. What are you doing? You should get over here and rest with me. Did Judith want to cuddle? She really was losing her mind!
Seth sat back on his stool, eyes darting between the mess he left on the bed and the blank canvas he put back on its easel. “Don’t move. I’m painting this.”
Like she could fucking move! “Make sure you capture my good side,” she panted, too sore to move a single muscle. “That would be the side with your semen all over it, by the way.”
She closed her eyes to the tune of his pencil brushing against the canvas. She wasn’t about to unpack the mind of an artist, but she was glad to have it in her life.
&nbs
p; Chapter 27
SETH
“Thought I might find you here.”
Zack sat beside Seth on the bench, facing a Rembrandt. The city’s art gallery was not the biggest in the country, but it always valued quality over quantity. The paintings and other works of art that came through on a rotational basis both inspired and quieted Seth’s artistic side. He hadn’t been there lately. Too consumed with thoughts of his blessed muse and the way she was destroying his life.
His friend, on the other hand, didn’t care for galleries much. He liked installations, and galleries didn’t foster a lot of those. Or at least not the galleries in that area. “You look like some asshole broke your heart.”
Seth snuffed his laughter. Legs crossed, hands buckled around knees, he considered the Rembrandt in front of him – had even put on his wire-framed glasses to get a better look at it. I’ve always admired his darker colors and the use of shadow. Using light and shadow was lost on a lot of today’s artists. Seth wouldn’t say he was the best at it either, preferring to light up the world with golden, bright colors, but he appreciated the complexions of the models and the stout demeanors they possessed. His favorite painting, Danaë, was hung up as well. A pre-vandalism print, to be sure, but it was so close to the original that Seth had to seriously cross his eyes to see the issue.
“You know,” he said, gesturing to Danaë. “I was able to see that before it was vandalized. I was a little kid, but my parents decided to do the trans-Siberian railroad one summer and took me along with them.”
“I vaguely remember you telling me about that before.”
Seth nodded. Great test in a child’s patience. “We stopped in St. Petersburg for a while. It was one of my first real exposures to art. I remember my parents arguing whether or not it was appropriate for me to see nude models, even in paintings. My mother wanted me to be so sheltered, but my father said it was good to be exposed to bodies in their natural forms. Don’t you think that woman looks pretty natural?”
Zack squinted. “She is definitely naked.”
“They say that was Rembrandt’s wife. Or at least the body is. The face is his mistress’s. That pissed my mother off when she found out.” I’ll hear her ranting about it for the rest of my life. “When I was a kid, I thought she looked funny. I had never seen a naked woman that wasn’t on TV before. My mother was always cautious about me seeing her naked. I never saw my nanny naked, and I didn’t have sisters. First time I saw a woman naked in real life was when we went to a hot spring in Japan and my dad and I took a wrong turn.”
“Anyway…”
“Anyway, I’m glad my father wanted me to see this nudity. Do you see her folds? So many women have bodies that look like this, but they think they’re freaks. I saw it all the time in my practice. Women who struggled for years to have the ‘perfect’ body, and boom, they’re pregnant. How could they have a pregnancy that didn’t give them stretch marks from here to Timbuktu? How long would it take for them to deflate? Could I refer them to a plastic surgeon to ‘fix’ them? It was one of the saddest things. Some of them even outright resented the babies I had delivered for making them look like this. Instead of referring them to surgeons, I wanted to refer them to therapists.”
“That’s rough, man.”
“You may not believe it, but I’ve seen my fair share of naked women. That woman there is the beautiful average.”
“I believe you.”
I know. I’m running my mouth. Seth wanted to talk about anything but what Zack had on his mind. Ever since he left the Château the day before, Seth had searched for something to preoccupy his mind with. He didn’t want to finish his painting. Usually he rushed right home to start applying the colors that were still fresh in his mind. Yesterday, however, he put the canvas in his studio, covered it up with a sheet, and went to drink brandy while watching The Good Wife reruns on TV.
“So we’re not going to talk about how the point of that painting is that Zeus is about to golden shower himself a baby in her? What kind of sicko was that Rembrandt guy, anyway?”
Seth had to think about that before bursting out in laughter. One of the gallery security guards gave him a stink eye, stifling the laughter. It made him think of how Judith had laughed the day before. “Only a doctor would say semen!” His two sides continued to wage war.
“Is your showing still going on?” Zack asked.
Seth stared at the print a little while longer before acknowledging his friend’s words. “It’s still going. Fourth of July weekend in New York. You gonna be there?”
“I’ll be there. I’m going to tell everyone that you’re the biggest shit since big shits were invented.”
“Thanks. I think.”
Zack looked away. “Is your model going to be there?”
Seth bristled, and not because the answer was no… but because he didn’t want to be reminded of the conversation he had with Monica the day before. He had caught her as she arrived at the Château to start her work week. The first thing I noticed was that she looked two months overdue. Instead, she’s one month away. Absurd. Seth was glad she wasn’t Mrs. Warren’s doctor. He would be beside himself with worry.
“She will be there.” Seth had confirmed that the day before. Monica was more than willing to let Judith go on a holiday weekend trip to New York if it meant advertising the Château in the process. No, what had depressed Seth was what happened when he asked to take Judith as his date to Ethan Cole’s wedding in two weeks. Everyone had been given a +1, and so far Seth was still without his +1.
Monica had brusquely informed him that would be pushing things unless he was her patron by then. She then heavily implied that Judith had already been promised as Miguel Bolivar’s date for the event, to make up for Seth absconding with her to New York the following weekend. That. Sucks. It almost made him not want to go to the wedding, since there was a chance of seeing those two together. What man wanted to see the woman he loved on the arm of another?
Seth told his friend as much… or as much as he dared in a public, quiet place like a museum. There weren’t many other people wandering the hallowed halls, but that almost made it more important to be quiet.
“That’s rough.” Zack sniffed. “I don’t have a date either. I say we both go stag. Pick up some desperate bridesmaids. You ever see that movie Wedding Crashers? That could be us.”
“I might be game for that.” Seth had a second thought. “The going stag part, that is. You need to get me good and drunk in case I see Judith and Miguel together.”
“He’s not a bad guy…” When Seth glared at him, Zack held up his hands. “I’m just saying. Put aside your pissing contest bullshit and my point still stands. He’s been nothing but nice to me since he started coming down to the marina. You liked him before you found out, didn’t you?”
“Beside the point.”
“Not really. Although you never told me that Judith had such a great ass.”
“I swear I am going to ram your head through a Rembrandt.”
“From what I know about the man… he would appreciate that from his grave.”
“Don’t tell me you actually studied those photos.”
“I may… or I may not have. Like how you come in here and stare at paintings all day, I like to stare at my fair share of images.”
“Those pics were pornographic trash.”
“Yeah, but they were good pornographic trash.” Zach lowered his voice as a small group of kids wandered by. “All right. So it’s a deal. I’ll go stag with you to the wedding. That will make it easier for me to pick up chicks anyway.”
“What the hell is it like to be a merciless playboy, anyway?”
“Honestly? Kinda boring. In a way I envy you. You may be sharing your woman, but at least you have one you’re in love with. I’m getting tired of this. I’m gonna be thirty soon. Maybe it is time I start settling down…” He grinned. “Nah.”
“I’m sure you’ll find the perfect woman for you soon enough. Who knows? She might e
ven be at the wedding.” Seth sighed, dramatically – and on purpose. “I know mine will be.”
“Fucking gag.”
The security guard shot them another glare. One of the kids’ mothers gasped. Sheepish Zack apologized and pretended to be enthralled with the world of Rembrandt. Seth went back to staring at the replication of Danaë, wondering if his depictions of Judith ever came across that truthfully.
Chapter 28
MIGUEL
“I sent her measurements over,” Miguel said into his phone while enjoying his view of the marina. “If you dress her in red, I will be a very happy man. Not pink. Red.”
“Yes, Mr. Bolivar.” The woman on the other end paused while she copied down this information. “Any backup colors you would like us to consider?”
“Hmm. Black?”
“Certainly. But, if I may suggest, if your aim is to attract eyes in a place where everyone who is anyone is dressing up, you might want a brighter color.”
“Right. Purple could be good. Maybe a light blue. Otherwise, I will leave it up to you. She has blond hair and a fair complexion. I’m looking forward to how you dress her up for me.”
He hung up. Ever since it was confirmed that he could take Judith to the wedding of the year in two weeks, he thought of nothing but having a dress ordered for her. It was too late for a custom outfit, but he had the number of the best personal stylist in New York and insisted on her taking Judith as a last-minute client. The stylist and her team would work out with the Château when to come by with their wares and decide what was best for a sexy woman like Judith. Miguel didn’t need details. He wanted to be wowed the moment he saw her.
He wanted everyone else at the wedding to be wowed as well.
It was only right that his date be one of the most eye-catching there. Not only was he a man who needed to meet prospective business connections, but he liked to show off the women he loved. Rosa loved every minute I spent showing her off. Wait. Rosa who?