Taste of Lacey

by Linden Hughes

  Lacey clenched her hands into fists as her blood went past boiling. “You think this is funny? While you’re plotting to get with a man who doesn’t want you, do you know where ‘the help’ will be? With Rye, in his bed. Tonight. But I won’t be thinking about you and your little games. See, I tend to lose focus when Rye is between my legs eating my chocolate pussy like he can’t get enough. Now there’s something for you to chew on.” Lacey walked out the door.

  By the time she made it back to the table where Rye sat with Paula, several of his team members, and his parents, Lacey could barely contain her rage. Natalie was so selfish she would jeopardize Rye’s plans to develop a research and training department unless she got her way. Having Rye home on a regular basis was the only way Lacey would know if they could survive as a couple. She craved stability, which required him being around. All the time. Mostly, though, her anger was directed at herself for giving Natalie the power to reduce her to an insecure shrew who wasn’t convinced Rye wouldn’t give in to temptation.

  Natalie hit Lacey spot-on, and just like the bitch had predicted, she couldn’t stop thinking about their conversation. Lacey imagined Natalie using every trick in the book to tempt Rye. Of course, Monica was right. Lacey had to make it so good he couldn’t even look at another woman, especially Natalie Hanover. For the rest of the night, though, she refused to give Natalie any more power. Damn it, she was in control. Rye wrapped his arm around her, and the tension started to ease from her body.

  “You okay?”

  “I am now,” she replied and squeezed his thigh.

  Lacey beamed when Rye was commended for his fifteen years of service with the company; only five other employees were more tenured. His department was then recognized for being the most profitable division of the company—for the sixth year in a row. When he approached the podium, Rye refused to accept the engraved plaque until his entire team joined him onstage, including Paula and Natalie. George Hanover wouldn’t let Rye walk away until he spoke to the crowd.

  “We’re a great team, but Paula deserves all credit for keeping us on track.” Rye gave a lopsided grin as he continued. “On a personal note, I’d like to acknowledge my parents, who are here. They supported my wild ideas and never called the cops even after I blew up a few things.” He paused when the audience laughed. “My beautiful girlfriend Lacey is also here. She puts up with my crazy travel schedule and makes things a lot nicer when I get home. Thanks, baby,” Rye said in a softer, more intimate tone.

  Rye’s coworkers went crazy, laughing and applauding. Natalie was the exception. She stood on the stage with a tight-lipped expression, shooting daggers at Lacey.

  Lacey stood and applauded along with everyone else. She kissed him full on the mouth when he approached their table. “Congratulations. I’m proud of you,” she whispered.

  He grinned and laced his long fingers through hers.

  As George Hanover detailed each of the company’s upcoming projects, Lacey leaned closer to Rye and lowered her voice. “I was thinking, it’s great we make love, but we can still fuck sometimes, right?”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rye froze.

  In a nanosecond, he went from his usual semiaroused state from just being near Lacey to granite-like hardness. He couldn’t breathe, he felt winded because the blood supplying oxygen to his lungs was suddenly redirected to his cock. Damn.

  “What the fuck, Lacey?” He managed a labored growl.

  Lacey slid her hand up his thigh until it landed on his erection. In contrast to the serene expression on her face, she boldly caressed his dick as George Hanover spoke.

  “That’s the point. Tonight we won’t make love. We fuck,” she murmured, still looking straight ahead.

  Rye’s breath hissed through his parted lips, and if possible, he hardened more. His heart beat with such fierceness his masculine instincts screamed for him to bend her over the table and ram into her from behind until he deposited his seed high inside her passage. Her hand on him felt so good he was in serious danger of coming in his pants. Damn woman. He should probably be concerned by how easily she’d turned him into an animal wanting to rut while surrounded by almost three hundred people, but he wasn’t. He fucking loved the power she wielded. With a mountain of regret, he placed his hand over hers to still the mind-bending stroking.

  He bent until his lips touched her ear. “Unless you want to give my parents and everybody else a show they won’t forget, you should stop. I need to be decent enough to walk out of here in a few minutes.” Her reluctance was obvious, but she shifted her hand to her own lap. He breathed a sigh of relief.

  No sooner than George Hanover thanked everyone for coming, Rye ushered Lacey to his vehicle, offering only a polite but hurried “good night” to the people they passed. When his mother wanted to chitchat, Rye sent his father a dark look. Jackson grasped his wife’s hand and led her through another exit.

  He and Lacey beat the crowd, and before he put the vehicle in drive, she started her assault all over again. With her left hand she unzipped his slacks and pumped his cock until he could barely breathe and precum gathered at the tip.

  “I’m flattered.”

  He took his eyes off the road to glance at her. “Why? It’s yours.”

  She leaned over the center console and replaced her hand with her mouth as if she wanted to swallow him whole.

  “Son of a bitch!” Sparks of light flashed behind his eyelids, and he wished his hands were glued to the steering wheel. If they were, he wouldn’t be tempted to fuck her hot, wet mouth while he was driving.

  “Lacey…baby. You’ve gotta stop,” he heaved through parched lips. No way could he withstand her method of torture and keep them safe, but instead of pushing her away, he threaded the soft strands of hair through his fingers and asserted more pressure on her undulating head.

  She moaned and pulled harder, like it pained her to let him go. She did, but sent one last swipe of her tongue across his sensitive tip before returning to her seat.

  “You know, that’s amazing.”

  “What?” His throat was so dry the gravelly word was nearly unrecognizable.

  “Sucking your dick makes my pussy hot.”

  “Goddamn it!” Fuck the law. He pushed the gas pedal to the floor. If he didn’t get home quick, the police would find them on the side of the road, his cock in the vicinity of her spleen. There was no explaining the effect this woman had on him, but he never wanted it to end.

  When they pulled into her garage, she didn’t wait on him to open her door. She sped into the house, shedding garments with every step. He followed suit. In the bedroom, she pushed him on the mattress and, in a move out of his wildest dreams, lowered his boxers to the floor before stuffing her mouth with his dick.

  “Ah,” he moaned at the first connection of mouth to cock. So damn good.

  Like she was starved, she devoured him, pausing only to gulp air before returning to her task. The sight of her plump brown lips surrounding his manhood seemed too erotic to bear. While on her knees, pleasuring him, submitting to him, she still controlled him. His bliss began and ended with her.

  Every muscle in his body tensed as his willpower diminished. He grasped her head with both hands, guiding her movements. His knees almost gave out when her nails scored his thighs, and she hummed around his cockhead.

  “Ah, baby. It’s your dick. Suck it,” he whispered, gasping for every breath.

  She responded with an immediate increase in speed and suction. Agonizing shards of ecstasy bombarded him, starting at his sac and branching out to his whole body. Suddenly his legs tensed, and his fingers curled into her scalp. His lame attempt to displace her went unheeded. It would kill him, but she needed to move out of the way quickly or end up with a mouthful of his liquid gratitude.

  “Lacey,” came his garbled warning. “Here. I. Come.”

  “Baby,” he grunted as he spilled into her eager mouth. Lacey stayed the course, accepting every single drop. Depleted, he lay back
on the bed and tried to stay conscious.

  LACEY CRAWLED IN bed beside Rye and rested her hand on his racing heart. She counted off exactly sixty seconds before she licked a flat copper nipple. To her satisfaction, he was once again hard enough to do some damage.

  “I don’t know what bought this on, but don’t ever fucking stop.”

  She laughed as she licked her way over his diaphragm. “I’m only keeping my promise. Remember?”

  “I’m glad you are,” he growled as he pulled her into his arms.

  “Nope. Not finished yet,” she said, pushing him onto his back. She then straddled his lean hips.

  Surprise flickered in his eyes, but he didn’t complain. In fact, he let her have her way, which she did for a solid hour. Every grunt he released was proof he’d reached a new pinnacle of pleasure. She pushed him further. When he had enough of her game, he situated her on all fours and filled her to overflowing.

  “So good, so good,” the mantra falling softly from her lips. It got even better when he sank so deep into her there seemed to be no beginning and no end to them. She couldn’t help it; she screamed as pleasure ripped through her. Behind her, he pistoned into her quivering tunnel until he voiced his climax.

  She lay panting and exhausted, hoping he had enough energy to pull the sheet over them, because she didn’t.

  “It might be a good idea for you to take two pills a day,” he said as he reached to turn off the lamp.

  “Two? Why?” She frowned, almost asleep.

  “There are so many little McKays swimming inside you right now one dose may not be enough to hold them off from your puny, defenseless eggs.”

  “You are so wrong for that.” Lacey nuzzled her nose into his chest. “But you might have a point.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lacey couldn’t shake her sadness as Rye prepared to leave for the conference. More than a dozen times he asked what her problem was, but would her answer sound like whining? Like a big fat baby. Natalie wants you. If she tries to fuck you at the conference, could you kindly turn her down? Do you even want to turn her down? Is brown sugar still your sweetness of choice? Instead, she fussed over every little thing he did, rubbing, touching him until the very last second before he had to leave for the airport. When she kissed him at the door, her need bordered on desperation.

  “I’ll be back Thursday. I miss you already,” he muttered into her neck, and then he was off.

  The day progressed, and she became more and more anxious. By the afternoon, she was a nervous wreck. Rye hadn’t called, which didn’t make sense. According to his itinerary, the direct flight to Kennedy should have taken two hours. It wasn’t like he was in Podunk, USA, where wireless reception was sometimes sketchy; he was in New York City, for crying out loud.

  “If you keep obsessing over your phone, it’s going become a parakeet and fly away,” Monica said as she stood in the doorway to Lacey’s office with her arms crossed.

  “Mind your own business,” Lacey snapped and stuck the handset back to the charger.

  “You realize you’ve finally lost it, right? And don’t try to tell me I’m imagining things, because I know better. Spill. What is wrong with you?”

  Lacey frowned and began stapling new menus into booklets. “What makes you think something is wrong?”

  Monica nabbed a set of the papers Lacey had just stapled, then held them up like they were Exhibit A in a courtroom.

  “You’ve include the Thymes phone bill in the information packets.”

  Lacey looked closely at the document and gasped. Then she looked at another set, then another. Sure enough, each was filled with the company’s phone records from the previous month. With a defeated groan, she laid her head on her desk.

  “Are you ready to dish?” Monica asked.

  Lacey rehashed her conversations with Natalie, and by the time she finished, Monica was ready to find the girl and kick some ass that second. Lacey declined.

  “Then you should fly to your old stomping grounds to be with your man. Troy and I can handle things here. That trollop needs to know who she’s dealing with,” Monica said with as much attitude as a born and bred suburbanite could muster.

  The look Lacey gave Monica was meant to chill cayenne. “And prove what? She has the upper hand? I’m worried about Rye falling for her trickery?”

  Monica arched her dark brown eyebrow in challenge. “Well, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not dropping everything to get on a plane because of her,” Lacey declared. “I have to be patient and wait on Rye.”

  “That’s the logical, intelligent thing to say, but how do you really feel?”

  Lacey sat perfectly upright, and after a brief pause, words tumbled out. “I didn’t want him to leave in the first place, and it took everything in me not to beg him to stay. Exhibitionism isn’t my thing, but I would let her watch Rye and me make love so she’ll know he’s getting what he needs. I saw that bitch’s eyes; I know what she’s capable of, and she plans to do everything she can to have him. I’m scared. That’s how I really feel.” She stood and peered out her office window.

  No matter how stressed she was or how bad her day had been, the sounds of children laughing and playing in the park adjacent to the building soothed her. Today, though, nothing could calm her rattled nerves except the sound of Rye’s voice, which was glaring in its absence.

  “He’s been with me longer than he’s ever been with anyone,” she told Monica.

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But it also makes me think he’s going to wake up soon and realize it’s time to move on.” Her voice wavered. “Like he always does.”

  “Exactly when would Rye have the time to be with someone else? When he’s not on top of you or under you, he’s sniffing around you,” Monica reminded her. “Truth be told, you two make my stomach hurt a little bit.”

  Lacey allowed a wan smile to work its way to her lips. “We’re not that bad,” she scoffed.

  “No? The man helps us on our jobs, girl. He can’t even let you out of his sight long enough for you to make a living. He draws the line at going shopping or hanging out with us, but otherwise he can’t get enough of you.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Lacey said, sighing.

  “I know it’s true. I’ve known him as long as you have, and I’ve never seen him this settled or content. Now you have to believe it.”

  “I would probably be fine if it wasn’t for Natalie and the other skanks. It’s ridiculous how many women approach him or ogle him when we’re out, even when I’m right there.”

  “Because none of them expect such a fine-ass white boy to be with a beautiful sista such as yourself. It takes them a minute to put two and two together.”

  “I suppose,” Lacey muttered, recalling many such occasions. “Some of them would do anything to get with him, and I hate it.”

  Monica shrugged. “So what? Other women will always want him. As long as he has those killer blue eyes, is good-looking as sin, has a big d—”

  “Monica!”

  Monica widened her eyes in feigned surprise. “I was only going to say ‘big deposits’ going into his bank account. What did you think I was going to say?”

  “You know, heifer.”

  “Oh, you mean his boy bits. Well, is it?”

  “Is what?”

  “Is his package as…generous…as it looks?”

  “Monica! You’re always trying to trick me. And none of your business.”

  The look on Monica’s café au lait face was one of pure innocence. “You’re so easy to trick. And don’t forget I’m in a drought.”

  “You still got that mess going?” Lisa chimed as she walked in with a plate of food in her hand. Without a greeting or an explanation about her sudden appearance, she sat next to Monica, crossed her legs, and then commenced to attack her food. She bit into the lamb chop like she hadn’t eaten in years.

  Lacey’s jaw dropped, and Monica’s mirth rang through the ro
om. “Your timing is spot-on as usual. How’d you know lunch was ready?” Lacey asked her sister.

  Lisa answered around bites of the tender cut of meat, not bothering to look up. “Amanda. I gave her a list of foods I like, and she calls me when they’re ready.” No pretense, no coy answer. Just straight to the point.

  Lacey narrowed her eyes. “And she does this for you because…?”

  “I got Amanda and her husband out of a contract to purchase a new home when the people who were buying their house backed out. This is so good,” Lisa proclaimed before taking another bite. “Monica, I hope you do some pole dancing soon, because I’m tired of hearing about your drought. And sis, you need to open a restaurant in some part of this big-ass building, even if it’s just for lunch.”

  “Wait,” Lacey said, frowning. “How did Amanda’s buyers just back out of a contract with no repercussions?”

  “The man died.”

  Lacey couldn’t hide her astonishment. “So Amanda and Jack would have been off the hook anyway?”

  “Yep. But she doesn’t know it,” Lisa replied and started on her second lamb chop.

  Lacey didn’t feel like smiling but couldn’t keep a small one from forming. Lisa never changed. It was her world, and everybody else was just there to bring her nuts. “That’s a damn shame. I’m going to tell Amanda she doesn’t have to do you any more favors with my food. And just to let you know, I’m considering opening for lunch.”

  “The community development commission practically paid you to take these three buildings, so your overhead should be minimal. And Monica, please dust off your coochie and put it back to work. You will never be a virgin again,” Lisa stated with her normal bluntness.

  Monica’s face turned bright red, and she almost choked with laughter. “Lisa, you talk about me, but I haven’t seen your behind anywhere near a pole in a minute. Is the witch in the glass house throwing stones?”