“You started the list in Sanibel, remember?” he murmured and bit lightly at the soft skin of her throat. “Fantasy places to have sex. This is one of mine.”
She pressed her body closer as his lips moved up to her ear, letting him nip gently while his free hand slid inside the light silk of her jacket to curve around her breast. Every part of her became sensitized as she felt him stiffen against her stomach. He pushed her gently back against the cool walls. She wound her arms tightly around his neck, dizzy with arousal, needing to feel and taste his skin. They both knew she was saying yes and his lips found hers, easing them effortlessly apart with his tongue.
He tasted like heaven and she moaned into him, fumbling with his shirt buttons, desperate to feel his hot, bare skin beneath her fingertips. It was like being back in Sanibel all over again where physical sensation overrode all sense of caution or restraint. Except this time it was even better because she knew what hard-muscled strength and sensuality lay beneath the fine fabric of his clothes. It was impossible to hide her eagerness when he squeezed her breast through her thin top and his hand moved from her hair to find the hem of her camisole. “Quickly,” she muttered and helped him lift it over her chest.
She heard his breath catch. “Front-fastening bra…” His heartbeat was strong beneath her palm and she felt a rush of sensual power at being able to arouse such a powerful and attractive man with so little effort. “It’s almost as if you planned this yourself.”
Her voice was tight and breathy. “Did you plan this all along?”
His answer was another kiss, a stronger one as he undid the clasp of her bra and her breasts broke free of their lacy confines. His quick fingers dealt with the side button and zipper of her pants, which slithered like melting ice cream onto the elevator floor. She was beyond caring about the world outside her erotic prison already and trembled with anticipation as her silk panties were eased aside.
“God…” She groaned, her voice laced with lust as his fingers slid smoothly in. She arched and flexed, wordlessly encouraging him with her body to go harder, deeper, and higher.
“More?” His tone was forceful and wicked, matching the movement of his fingers, and she cried out as his other hand found her nipple and squeezed.
She could smell the gallery event clinging to his skin—alcohol, perfume, paint, and new carpet as her muscles clenched tightly around him. “Yes,” she gasped, sensation zinging through her body at the intense pleasure he was inflicting. And then his hand fell away, his mouth closing over her tight red peak to suck and lick gently. He was prolonging her agonizing arousal and it was like riding an erotic wave, knowing that she would eventually crash but he was keeping her on the crest with his skillful touch. It was heaven letting him take control, but she wouldn’t let his sweet punishment make her come before she wanted to. Not yet. This was too good and she was feeling greedy.
His hot fingers slipped out and upward over her sensitized bud, pausing for a second to swirl his fingertip over the most intimate part of her body. He ran that fingertip over her lipstick-smeared bottom lip, from left to right. “Taste how good you are,” he whispered hoarsely, and she felt his erection kick into her belly. She flicked out her tongue to test the tip of his middle finger, his words having sent another intense surge of arousal coursing through her body. Rioting endorphins heightened her senses to the point that she could feel tingling in her toes and she went to kick off her red shoes.
“No, keep them on.” He pushed away the hand trying to ease them off, neatly gripping her wrist and folding her hand behind her neck. She threw back her head and relished the feel of the cold glass on her knuckles as he shifted to press his thick erection between her thighs. The smooth material of his trousers with the rock hard promise of release underneath was sheer torture as her sex throbbed with intense need. She ached to unleash him, but he held her firm, turning his mouth to her breasts once again.
“Please,” she panted as his fingers joined forces with his mouth, expertly manipulating each engorged bead until she was on the edge. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I want you to—”
He eased back, but she could still feel his warm breath on her skin. “Keep your eyes shut and touch your breasts for me.” She followed his direction and her jaw dropped open to let out soft, eager breaths, knowing that he was watching her. “That’s good.” She heard rustling and the sound of his zipper being lowered. She was ready to come right there and then as she teased her own flesh, but she wanted the ultimate prize. “Come on, Matt,” she insisted. “Please.”
His body connected with hers in seconds, pushing hot and hard against her and gripping both her arms above her head as her kissed her fiercely. She was so ready for this and relished the feel of the cold, rough edge of his zipper on the skin of her thighs and stomach. They chafed like small teeth as he maneuvered himself and she hoped they would leave a mark on her pale skin, like a love bite, a possessive branding all his own.
“Open your eyes now,” he said in a low voice. Her eyelids flickered open and took a moment to adjust to the bright light of the elevator, reflected in mirrors all around them, above and below.
“For God’s sake,” she uttered at the sight of him reflected in profile to her right. How had she blanked out the memory of how hot he was? He was going to make her come so fast and hard… “Don’t make me wait—”
Her head fell back against the cold glass, like ice and snow against her hot flesh, and she opened herself wider, willing him to take her. One of his hands fell, leaving the other to bind her against the glass and steel, and his fingers parted her honey-wet lips with ease. She felt the hot tip of him between her thighs, hard and intense, and tried to wriggle herself onto it. But he held her steady, teasing her with butterfly kisses of sensation.
“You want?” he whispered and lifted one of her legs to wrap it around his body. She nodded silently as his arousal pushed at her hot entrance and a dart of erotic shock zipped through her as she felt how wet she already was. She wrapped the other leg around his hips as he slid easily into her, panting eagerly as his girth stretched and invaded her completely.
“I so need this,” she moaned and threw her head back to find she had a perfect view of their coupling from the ceiling mirror above. She let out a sharp cry as he thrust into her roughly, but the sensation and the startled look on her own face in the mirror was the most erotic sensation she had ever experienced. It was like being a virgin all over again, but this time it felt good. This time she knew she would have an orgasm that would blow her mind.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Sh.” She tipped her pelvis into him and clenched around his hard flesh. “Don’t stop.” Her voice was hoarse and desperate sounding. “Do it.”
He eased back slowly before plunging back in, burying himself to the hilt, and she responded to him greedily, sucking him in further with each powerful, narcotic thrust. He moved faster and their eyes met before he threw his head back and caught their reflection in the mirror as well. Both their mouths were full and red, their eyes wide like hidden voyeurs pleasuring themselves at the forbidden scene unfolding before them. “Bad girl,” he said and increased his speed, tight balls pummeling against her as he drove harder into her.
“Yes.” She bucked violently against him, the base of her spine feeling the punishment of the glass like her shoulders and wrists. “Bad girl.”
“Let go,” he grunted, his rigid length driving in and out. The feel of him swelling to even greater proportions, the tension of his muscles and the unmistakable knowledge that they had gone beyond the point of no return tipped her over into climax, ripping into her nervous system with waves of ecstasy and sweet erotic poison that had her screaming out his name like a mad woman.
Matt collapsed against her, spent and shaking, as the intercom crackled into life: the receptionist asking in sugary tones if everything was okay. Piper felt his grip loosen on her hands and her muscles clenched him firmly in defiance because sh
e wasn’t ready to let the best ride of her life go just yet.
“Everything is perfect,” he said and took a long slow breath toward recovery. “A mechanical hitch, that’s all,” he said and shot Piper a devilish grin.
Chapter Eleven
Piper closed her front door and leaned back against it in the darkness as fatigue threatened to overwhelm her. She’d been very firm with Matt about not seeing her back to her apartment, but had allowed him to have a driver bring her home from the heliport. It had seemed a little rude to be so adamant about parting on the tarmac like that, especially after what had happened between them in the elevator, but she could instinctively tell that he would be very persuasive if she let him within five feet of her front door.
This place wasn’t a palace, and it was mortgaged so it didn’t even really belong to her. But it was her home and her sanctuary, and nobody got to invade it and make themselves at home unless they were going to stick around for a decent period of time. Ten more days in her life didn’t count as a decent amount of time at all, so Matt was not coming in—this was the space where she would put her life back together when things got back to normal.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes before flicking on the light and throwing her purse down onto the sofa. And then her blood ran cold as she heard a key turning in the lock. She was frozen to the spot as the front door opened and her worst nightmare began.
“Hi, Red.” Stanley was inside and shutting the door behind him before she could react, and he slumped back against the door with a can of cheap beer in his hand. “Good party. Didn’t bring your new loverboy back with you tonight?”
Adrenaline gave her a voice even if fear had paralyzed her body. “He’s…he’s in the bathroom,” she said quickly. “So you’d better get out of here fast. And that key was for emergencies, so give it back immediately.”
“Forgot I still had it, didn’t you?” He smirked. “This qualifies as an emergency, baby. I want you back and I’m here to get you.”
“Matt!” she screamed and took a step backward, hoping to scare Stanley off. Her mind was racing, but she couldn’t think clearly for sheer terror.
“Nice try, but we both know there’s nobody else here. I watched you come in alone.”
She felt sick. “You watched me?”
“I watched, I waited, and…” He made a tutting noise that unnerved her. “I forgot to knock. Sorry.”
“I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve by all this because we’re not getting back together. Give me back my door key and go.”
He eased himself away from the door. His jacket was disheveled and smelled of stale cigarette smoke. Her heart thumped painfully as he threw himself onto the sofa, stretched out, and made himself comfortable. “But, baby, it’s cold outside.”
“I’m serious, Stan. I’m asking you to leave.” She spoke as slowly and calmly as she could, but she was beginning to feel helpless. “And give me the key back.”
Her breath caught as he fished it out of his shirt pocket and twirled it in his fingertips, the metal glinting in the lamplight. “You’ll have to come and get it.”
“If you don’t do as I say, I’ll call the cops.”
“They won’t be interested in a domestic argument, sweetheart. They have much more important work to do, rescuing real damsels in distress.”
“Domestic argument? You’ve broken into my house and you’re threatening me!”
He shook his head sadly. “Poor, naïve little Piper. I have a key, a key you gave me. And I’m your boyfriend. They’ll charge you for wasting police time.”
“You are not my boyfriend. You dumped me, remember?” Indignation overrode her fear. “The police will take my word over yours. You really must be drunk.”
He stumbled to his feet and lurched toward her. “I made a mistake. Just seeing you looking like you did tonight made me realize what an ass I’d been and how much I miss you.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “Don’t you remember all the things you said to me on Christmas Eve? The list of reasons why you couldn’t stand to spend another minute as my boyfriend?”
“Heat of the moment, babe. I don’t know what got into me.”
“No, Stan, no. It wasn’t heat of the moment because you’ve been running me down and making me feel small almost since we first met at college.” She raised her voice in the hope that the neighbors might hear the sound of arguing and counted the words off on her trembling fingers. “Stupid. Fat. Ugly. Embarrassing. Difficult. Deluded. Low class—”
He raised his voice, too. “Your mom’s a cleaning woman and your dad drives a school bus.”
“How did I ever put up with you?” She exhaled angrily and motioned to the front door. “Just get out. I have nothing more to say to you. Ever.”
The sofa creaked and his hand grabbed her by the throat. “We’re not done,” he grunted into her ear, his hot nicotine breath making her flesh crawl. Then he reached around her to grab a breast. “I’m going to remind you what you’ve been missing these last few months and you’re going to damn well enjoy it. We were going to make babies together some day. Remember that?”
“No! Stop it.”
The breath left her body as he twisted her round and kissed her neck with hot, slippery lips. “I know you’ve missed me,” he grunted as she wriggled and tried to push him away. “Stanley’s here to give it to you big time, baby, you know you want to—”
He froze at the sound of the doorbell ringing and then slammed his hand over her mouth before she could call out. She kicked out at his shins, but couldn’t hurt him enough without her shoes on—it just had the effect of making him angry as well as surprised.
“Quiet,” he whispered harshly, pushed her against the wall and shoved her legs wide by jamming his feet against her ankles so she couldn’t kick him further. “Sh.”
Her heart hammered with fear and hope as the doorbell rang again, and then came the sound of a fist banging on it. She spluttered against his clammy hand and tried to bite his flesh, but his grip was too tight and she was struggling to breathe. The lights were on, thank God, so whoever it was would know there was someone inside. Or at least she hoped they would.
She prayed silently that whoever it was wouldn’t just walk away and leave her alone with Stanley. She wriggled and thrashed like a trapped eel and tried to make as much noise as she could, but Stanley’s ever-tightening grip and the weight of his body pinning her to the wall meant she couldn’t get out more than a muffled squeal.
The bell rang again and this time the person outside didn’t take their finger off it. That wasn’t the behavior of teenagers fooling around, so maybe help was just a few feet away. Stan had never been this crazed before and she was scared, really scared.
“Piper, I know you’re in there, so open up!” shouted Matt. Her heart leaped and Stan’s grip became even more vicious.
Silence.
Seconds ticked by, and she could feel confusion and hesitation pulse from Stan’s hot fingertips as she swallowed in the thick silence. Then heavy blows raining down on the door startled him and his grip slackened for a second—long enough for her to seize her chance and bite his palm as hard as a she-devil.
Stan screamed with pain and jumped back cursing. “You bitch!”
“You bastard!” she yelled back, twisting out from under him and grabbing a table lamp to fend him off. She was able to breathe properly now, but was seeing stars from lack of oxygen, and the taste of Stan’s blood in her mouth made her want to puke. “Get out!”
Then there was a click, the sound of fast, heavy footfalls on the carpet, a blur of black, red, and white, and Stanley’s yelp as a fist crunched into his jaw. He fell backward with a crash into her bookshelf. A black-suited hulk Piper had never seen before picked him up by the neck like a garbage bag, and Stanley’s feet dangled pathetically as he was manhandled out of the front door.
Matt held her by the shoulders before she could catch her breath again. “Are you okay?” Black fire blaze
d from his eyes.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” Piper said and shakily pulled her jacket around herself. “The blood is his.”
Matt pulled a silk handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket. “I’ll call a doctor to check you out.”
“No really, I’m just shaken up, he didn’t get a chance to…to actually do anything.”
Matt pushed the front door shut with one finger. “I knew he’d be trouble. You should’ve let me come back with you. Let’s lock up here and I’ll run you down to the hospital so you can get checked over.”
“Seriously, no, I don’t want that. I’m okay.” Piper leaned weakly on a chair back and just stared at him for a few moments. He was still looking like the ultimate socialite in his black suit but for a few stray hairs after that undignified scuffle. He still made her heart beat faster, maybe even more so after saving her. But maybe she was just in a state of shock.
“If you’re sure…”
“I am.” She rubbed the back of her hand over her neck where she’d been held. “How did you know? How did you get in?”
Matt bent to pick up a strip of plastic from the floor. “One two-liter soda bottle and thirty seconds is all it takes with a crappy front door like yours. You need a deadbolt fitted. And that security chain won’t work unless you actually secure it from the inside when you get in.”
“You did that? You broke in with a plastic bottle?”
“Not me. Frank.” He nodded his dark head toward the cheap door. “The big guy who’s about to throw your ex, the jerk off, into the garbage dumpster, unless you want me to stop him and call the police instead? Or arrange for something more permanent?”
Maybe she should call the police. “No, no, the dumpster is fine.”
“I knew you’d say that.” He shook his head. “Anyone would think he still had you wrapped around his little finger the way you protect him.”
“I’m not protecting him.” She felt indignation rising as her heart rate slowed. “But there’s nothing much they can do now. You and your ‘friend’ did a much more effective job, I’m sure. He won’t be back now, not after being humiliated twice in one night.”
Blackmailed by the Billionaire Brewer Page 11