by Paige North
“Challenging, but I think I can manage,” he says, then actually smiles at me.
His warmth is like a glimmer in me, and I hold onto it as I watch him handling the fruit. His long fingers rub the figs under the water, and now I have to exhale at the dizzy feeling of imagining those fingers on me.
“When you’re done, bring them over to me,” I say, realizing that I’m giving the commands to him now.
I drink more wine, hiding a little laugh.
He seems to get it, and after he drops off the figs on the cutting board, he slips his hand to the back of my bared neck. It’s only a brief touch, playful, but it jolts me all the same.
I efficiently cut the figs in half, then bring them to the stove, slipping them into the wine in the small sauce pan. I turn the burner on medium-low so the fruit will be able to simmer.
“What’re you making?” he asks.
“Something sweet and decadent, kind of like me.” I grin at him.
He laughs, and for that slightest bit of time, I think that he has a good shot at forgetting what’s dogging him with his business. I just need to help him do it completely.
“To actually answer your question,” I say, “I’m going to slice up that goat cheese, put these cooked figs on top, then dab some honey over them. The recipe made everything sound so nice and summery that I couldn’t resist. I wish I’d had a chance to make a bigger meal in here though.” I shrug at him. “Too bad you took me out for food too many times and spoiled me to death.”
“Yeah, too bad I created a greedy monster like you.”
Neither of us comment on what he’s made me greedy for—the answer is hanging there as plain as day. I’ve never been able to get enough of him.
Without being asked, he puts down his wine and begins to unwrap the cheese. As I hesitate in stirring the figs, I can almost believe that we’re in the kitchen all the time together, working in an easy rhythm, almost like a boyfriend and girlfriend…
But I’ve never experienced an official relationship before, so what do I know?
Pulling myself out of the daydream, I leave the figs on the stove as Travis takes the cheese to the cutting board.
From the other room, I think I hear the ringtone that belongs to his security team. Travis freezes, but then begins to slice the cheese.
His voice is low as he says, “Have you thought about what you’re going to do after this? I’m not referring to your general plans but the specific ones.”
Why is he asking? Does he actually give a hoot?
“Well, you know I’m not going back home,” I say. “There’s nothing there that I want.”
I think he only wants to know that, at least for now, my family and I are going to be safe. But I didn’t think he was concerned beyond that.
“Have you thought any more about how to keep your dad off your trail?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I take another sip of wine then say, “I thought maybe I’d bring my mom and brother to New York and we could get a place together, start fresh, you know? Then I’ll find a job, hope that my scholarships haven’t run out, apply to a few colleges.”
“You don’t need scholarships anymore. And you should let me know which schools you have in mind. I’ve got some strings I can pull.”
As I gape at him, he glances at me, then corrects himself.
“If you have a list of them I can make a few calls. You’ll want to work fast though.”
Ah. Yes. Because after I leave this apartment tomorrow, I’ll be old news. But I appreciate that he’s even looking out for me to this extent.
He’s about to say something else when the sound of his phone trills again. The ringtone is the same.
His security team.
I wish I knew that it was just business as usual as he excuses himself, leaving me and the wine at a low simmer for the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter 19
A couple of hours later I’m in a slight fog from the wine, but it’s more pleasant than how I felt before drinking my first two glasses. I even have a third glass resting on the ledge of the marble bathtub as I wallow in the bubbles, my hair still up, one of my feet perched on the side as I use polish remover to erase the latest color from my toenails.
I’m whiling away the time while Travis still works in the closed library, and I’m darn sure squeezing out every moment of indulgence I can while I’m still here.
I have the tub’s waterfall on low, and it trickles down the wall, providing the only music I need besides the tune I’m absently humming while rubbing the saturated cotton over my toenails. And that’s how Travis discovers me when he enters.
I look up to find him more relaxed than he was when he left me earlier, his hands stuffed into his trouser pockets while wearing an air of casual curiosity about what I’m up to.
I perk up at his change in temperament. “Did you take care of business with security?”
He stiffens up, and it seems as if his thoughts go dark. Then he huffs out a sigh, relaxing again. “They’ve got everything under control, so no need for you to worry. Forget I mentioned anything.” His eyes get more intense and hungry. “That’s why you’re here, Nova—you’re my distraction.”
I can live with that, although I hope he works things out after I’m gone. “Want more wine?”
Travis doesn’t reply. As he wanders closer to me, my pulse mocks the rhythm of the tumbling waterfall. He looks at my nearly unpainted toenails and the bubblegum-pink bottle of polish near my wine glass.
I finish wiping off the old color then toss the cotton ball at the nearest trash bin. I score. “If you’re wondering what I’m doing, I just thought I’d wear a new color for a new beginning.”
Travis sits on the ledge by my feet. It seems as if there’s still something he wants to say to me, just like in the kitchen before that phone call interrupted him. I wait him out, my heartbeat stumbling.
Then he picks up the bottle of polish and opens it. “What time does your flight leave tomorrow?”
“Four in the afternoon.”
He traces the tops of my toes with a finger, then takes the tiny brush out of the bottle of polish. He paints my big toenail, and a tickle flutters through my pussy.
I clear my throat. “Your assistant arranged everything, so she has all the travel details.”
The only sounds in the room as he continues stroking polish onto one toenail then the next is the waterfall and the loud, uneven thump of my heartbeat. I’ve never seen someone focused so raptly on such a small task, and when Travis is done, he stands. Then he takes the polish as well as my glass of wine with him to the counter where he sets them down.
He wants me now, I think. There’s a twist in my clit, agonizing yet delightful at the same time. There’s an impatient raggedness to my breathing.
He sits back down on the ledge and lifts my first foot so that my leg comes out of the water. As he blows on my nails to dry them, I wiggle slightly in the tub, the bubbles popping on my skin, the water lapping at the marble sides.
I don’t say anything as he places my foot on his thigh, then pays the same deliberate, titillating attention to my other foot.
Now I’m grasping the sides of the tub, sinking down into the water, watching him. When he looks up at me, his eyes are the most vivid green I’ve ever seen. His intensity scorches me.
“Come here, Nova,” he whispers.
A crack of lust tears through my belly, opening something in me, and heat gushes down to my sex. I gradually push myself up and out of the bath with bubbles clinging to me, water dripping. As I wait on my knees in front of him, he sends a long look down my soaked body, and I briefly think that he’s going to miss having me at his disposal.
But how much will he miss me?
As I tamp down my breathing, he rests his hands below my breasts then runs his palms up the sides. The contact is slick and smooth, and I flow with it as he continues to caress me up and down. After a while, he slips his fingers to my nipples, then rubs them between his thumb
s and fingers, arousing them. A familiar carnal buzz swallows my pussy whole.
There’s no dirty talk this time, only the mysterious depth in the center of his eyes where there’s still so much darkness. But his irises stay a feverish green as our gazes remain connected.
My temperature rises, and I make a soft, wanton sound, restlessly shifting in the water. He strokes down my breasts and over my waist, then to my back on his way down to my bottom. He cups my cheeks, his fingers kneading me there. His breaths are coming tight, as if he’s fighting his lust, but I’ve already given in to mine, gasping loudly as he separates my legs.
I blindly reach out to grasp his arms, and when he eases a finger between me then pauses before thrusting gently up and into my pussy, I pull at his shirt and bite my lip. It doesn’t stop the stifled moan that ebbs out of me.
As he finger fucks me, bringing me closer and closer to him with each pump, it feels as if I’m the water itself—formless and wet. Everything about me is reshaping itself with each sensual swirl of his finger. Tiny waves splash inside of me, rolling back and forth, getting bigger and stronger.
When Travis pulls out his finger I look up at him, hoping he’s going to stay here and not leave me like this…
Abruptly he stands, pulling off his clothing, never breaking eye contact, and then he’s looming at the side of the tub, all muscle, all male, almost ready to truly fuck me with thick, erect cock.
He steps into the tub, sinking down to his knees, wraps both arms around me—one hand over my belly, one hand cupped under my jaw to bring my face around to his. He kisses me with a passion that’s both a farewell and a hello, and I return his fervor, tangling my tongue with his and devouring him, needing him, never wanting to leave him…
When he coaxes his hand down to my clit, I groan into his mouth, but that only urges him to rub me, to massage me until I have no strength left. I’m all fizz and hum, weakened so badly that I slump forward again, my hands pasted against the wall. The waterfall sluices down my arms like a liquid caress as Travis continues stimulating me.
I feel his tip between my parted legs, probing.
“Yes,” I whisper harshly. “Give me that, Travis. Fucking give it to me…”
With a wet, aggressive thrust, he enters me, and I rise with him. As I give a full-throated moan, he slides his other hand to my pussy, too, using it to push me up to meet his every drive as his other fingers stroke my clit harder, harder…
I can’t take anymore, and the colors rush me once more, blowing apart in a spurt of ecstasy that comes once…again…and fuck again…
A series of gasps escapes me as my hands slip down the wall, my head pressed against it as the water flows over my entire body. I absorb every thrust from Travis, churning my hips as he keeps pummeling me with his cock.
“More,” I whisper over the sound of the flowing water. “More…”
When he comes, it’s with a pulsating series of blasts that hammer me. I cry out with every one of them and, afterward, he stays in me. Breathing hard, he runs his hands up the soaked front of my body then pulls me back from the waterfall.
We both slump into the tub with a splash. I’m resting my back against his rising and falling chest. The waterfall keeps up its trickling patter as the heat subsides in me.
The mild flow goes back to being the only sound in the room, taking the place of everything else.
Travis kisses my ear then wraps his arms over the front of me. As we recover, it feels as if all the time in the world passes too quickly, too ruthlessly.
There’ll be no more Travis after tonight, and numbness takes the place of everything I’d just been feeling. But there’s still something in that empty, black spot that’s faintly beating inside of me, and it urges me to say something. Anything.
“I’m never going to forget this,” I whisper.
It doesn’t even begin to describe what he’s come to mean to me. My first. My only.
Seconds pulse by, but he still hasn’t made a move to get out of the tub. Then he presses his mouth against my ear.
“There’s something I want to do that I’ve never done before,” he says.
I don’t answer right away. We’ve still got hours, and there’s still a bed that’s waiting for us. I’m not off the clock yet, and a crashing disappointment shakes me, because even after everything this is still the arrangement we started with. This is what it always was.
“Even though you’ve never done whatever it is you want to do,” I say, my old anxiety returning, “will you tell me how to do it?”
His laugh is soft against my ear. “All you have to do is clear your calendar until the end of the month, Nova.”
I shift against him. What did he just say?
He slips his hand between my legs, more possessive now than ever. “I want to extend your contract another two weeks.”
Chapter 20
It’s as if Travis knows that his surprise announcement has knocked me for a loop, because he gives me a moment, not saying anything as he coolly gets out of the tub, water spilling off of his hard body.
Maybe I just heard him wrong. Did he really say something about hiring me for an additional two weeks? It could be that I misheard. After all, I’m not exactly functioning properly after he gave me those all-consuming orgasms. I’m still dizzy and hazy even now.
As I sort everything out, I stay silent. Water drips from his chiseled physique onto the plush rug near the tub. He reaches over to yank a thick white towel down from the nearby golden rack then starts to dry himself. He’s not looking at me.
It strikes me that he’s being way too casual. Even more than usual, which is saying a lot.
Reality hits me, and I lean back in the tub. My god—I didn’t mishear anything that he said. He actually did offer me two more weeks of this arrangement, and I get the definite feeling that this is a big, big deal for him.
He wraps the towel around his hips, tucks it in, and roughly runs his fingers through his dark hair. “You weren’t expecting this.”
“Not even remotely,” I reply.
He tugs another towel off the rack then holds it out in a silent demand for me to get out of the tub. I stand, awkwardly squeezing water from my sopped hair, and then step onto the rug. He gives me the towel, and I wipe my face off then dry my hair. At the same time, I hear Travis grabbing another towel, then I feel the smooth, nubby texture of the cotton against my shoulder as he dries my skin.
Need flares in my belly, and the breath-stealing sensation isn’t exactly helping my mind to clear.
“I know your mother’s expecting you to go to her,” he says. “But if you should decide to accept my offer, the terms of our agreement would remain the same. That means another one hundred thousand dollars for your family’s future.”
“The money would be nice,” I say as he slowly dries my other shoulder. I throw away the towel I’d been using on my hair. “I told Mom that I fell into a temporary job helping to manage an estate here in New York, but she has no clue just how much I’m being compensated. I said I was taking the place of a regular employee during his vacation.”
“So this fictional employee just takes another two weeks off.”
“And maybe I just happen to invest well in the stock market to eventually explain all my earnings.”
Travis continues rubbing the water off my back with that sexy, confident detachment I’m so used to, but I’m surer than ever now that his cockiness is covering up something deeper within him. Does he want me to stick around that badly?
How badly?
It occurs to me that I might have some leverage here, and I need to know just how much. “I suppose it’s a lot less work to keep me around than to bid for another girl on the website and then break her in.”
He mutters something that I take as agreement. Then again, he’s stroking the towel over my bottom now, and there’s a good chance he’s getting turned on. I sure as heck am as I bite my lip, trying to suppress my beating lust.
Then I
swallow and say, “If I did stay on, I...I would extend my stay two more weeks under one condition.”
He stops. “A condition.” The word is a near growl of impatience and sharp surprise.
“Yes.” I want his hands on me again, but I won’t let that sway me into backtracking. “Being left alone in this apartment day after day makes me lonely and depressed, Travis.”
“You haven’t been so alone lately.”
“I never know when you’re coming and going. Unless…” I swallow again. “Unless you can guarantee your time to me.”
“Unacceptable.”
“So is staying here by myself.” I didn’t mean to ask for more of his time necessarily. I’m only maneuvering to what I really want. “This place is gorgeous, of course, but sometimes I feel as if I’m in a dollhouse, left halfway undressed until you decide you need me again.” I’m knee deep in negotiation, so I might as well get in up to my neck. Forging ahead, I say, “Living here just reminds me of how alone I really am.”
And it reminds me of his other women, too, but I’m not about to say that.
He’s staring at me, something like anger flaming in his gaze. “So exactly what the fuck is this condition, Nova?”
Just say it. “You’ll let me stay in your place…with you.”
My audacity shocks even myself.
Something shifts in his gaze. It’s a new kind of remoteness. “I’ve never done that with a woman before. The reason I put you up here is so I have some personal space.”
“And I have too much of it.”
He shakes his head, his smile bitter as he starts to turn away.
I steel myself. “I don’t want to be kept in a separate apartment anymore. That’s the only thing I’m asking for, my only condition.”
Wow, I sound firm. Where did that come from?
A muscle twitches in his jaw, and my stomach drops. I actually feel ill. Why did I have to push him? What the heck was I thinking? I want more than anything to be with him, but I think I overplayed my hand…
Stupid me. What have I done?