Insatiable

by Lucy Lambert

  The room seemed to shrink, then. All the people disappeared, all the cameras. There was only Vaughn and me. I searched his eyes, looking for any sign of hesitation, any pause, anything held back.

  “Please don’t tell me I’m too late,” he said.

  I swallowed. My throat and chest kept getting tighter. He means it. He really means it.

  “You’re not,” I said.

  Then he kissed me. I missed the touch of his lips so much. His hands clasped at the small of my back and pulled me against him.

  That protective voice in the back of my mind had nothing to say, either.

  Someone in the crowd whistled. More cameras flashed. I remembered that we weren’t alone. We moved apart, my cheeks burning. I wanted to kill him for doing this so publicly and I wanted to kiss him again at the same time.

  He always did like to surprise me. And this was nothing if not shocking.

  Part of me started wondering what the senior partners at the firm watching this might be thinking. The rest of me didn’t care.

  “That private island sounds really great about now,” I said, low enough so that the microphone didn’t pick it up.

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” Then he did kiss me again.

  EPILOGUE

  QUINN

  Vaughn was waiting for me in his car at the front of my building. He’d insisted that I could buy anything I needed after we left, but I still wanted to pack a few things. Besides, he owned the jet we were going in. It wasn’t going to take off without him.

  Also, I wanted to let Mary and the kids know I was going away for a while. I knocked on her door.

  She answered and there were tears on her cheeks, her eyes red and puffy.

  “Mary? What is it? What happened? Are the kids all right?” I said, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong.

  She hugged me, her whole body trembling. I hugged her, then forced her away from me so I could look into her face.

  “What is it? Please tell me the kids are okay!”

  “They’re fine, they’re just fine,” Mary said.

  “Then what is it?”

  She grabbed my arms. “Quinn, someone from the bank called me this morning.”

  Every organ in me seemed to sink to the ground. She worked so hard; she didn’t deserve to have her home taken from her. “Oh, Mary…” I started. I meant to tell her that she and the kids could stay with me until she found something else.

  “Quinn, someone paid off my mortgage. All of it. Differential interest and everything. I said there had to be some kind of mistake. You know, like when someone checks their balance and discovers a million dollars they didn’t have before? They said there was no mistake. And they wouldn’t tell me who paid it or why, only that it was, in fact, paid. Isn’t that amazing? Who could have done that? And why?”

  It was happy crying, I saw then. Joyful tears. Without that massive mortgage payment she could cut back her hours and spend more time with Alex and Charlie.

  “I don’t know,” I said, “But it is so amazing. I am so happy for you.” I pulled her into another hug.

  I told her that I was going on vacation and that I’d be gone for a while. Alex and Charlie heard us and came to the door, too.

  “Are you going with your boyfriend?” Charlie asked.

  “Yes, I am,” I said, smiling. Then I looked back to Mary. “You’re still going to let me babysit for you, right? I insist.”

  She smiled at me, then wished me a happy vacation.

  Vaughn popped the trunk for me when I came down and I loaded my suitcase into it. I got into the passenger seat and we started towards Logan Airport. He reached over and gave my knee a light squeeze.

  “Did you pay off Mary’s mortgage?” I asked.

  He kept his eyes on the road, stopping us at a red light. “She’s the one with the two cute kids in your building, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. Did you?”

  The light turned green and we started off again. He shrugged. “I may have looked into her situation.”

  “You’re wonderful,” I said.

  “No. You are.”

  ***

  VAUGHN

  The island was beautiful, and being there reminded me of why I’d bought it. Quinn and I stayed in the beach house, spending every morning and evening watching the sun rise and fall.

  It was nice and private, which I liked. We could be as loud as we liked. It was so freeing, too. We both felt like new people. I knew I was, and it was because of her.

  I had half a mind to ask her if she just wanted to stay here in this tropical paradise with me forever. And I got a giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought she might say yes.

  I had a great bed in that house, too, and we took advantage of it at every opportunity.

  I slid my lips down Quinn’s throat, leaving a trail of kisses between her heaving breasts. She tasted so good.

  Beads of perspiration dotted her lovely body like dew on a leaf in the morning. Just thinking about how I’d made her work up that sweat left me tingling, wishing I could recharge even faster.

  She grabbed my face and pulled it back up so we could kiss. When we parted, she looked into my eyes and said, “I love you, Vaughn.”

  I put my hand on her chest, feeling the heavy beat of her heart. “I love you, too.”

  THE END

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  The Pretend Girlfriend

  Confident. Brilliant. Rich. Devastatingly handsome. Aiden Manning seemed to have it all. As naive as I was, when he seemed interested in me, I fell head over heels immediately.

  But Aiden Manning’s life held a dark side, one that he needed to hide at any cost. That’s where I would come in. My trusting nature had caused me to owe money to the wrong people, and Aiden was right there and ready to help, if only I’d help him out as well. Just one signature on a piece of paper, and suddenly I was bound to him. The ground rules I had laid out at the beginning quickly melted away, and I found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into Aiden’s life.

  However, someone couldn’t handle that. An even more powerful figure in Aiden’s life would stop at nothing to break the two of us apart. It soon became clear that I might have to sacrfice everything I had to keep the two of us together.

  The real question was: How long could I pretend?

  ***

  “Winning is hardly the term I would choose. More like fought to a draw. Or maybe a fighting retreat… Why won’t you go home, Gwen?”

  Something hitched in Gwen’s throat. She forced herself to breathe, evenly and deeply. “I told you. I wanted to make sure you were all right…” She reached out to touch his shoulder, but Aiden grabbed her wrist. He squeezed, almost to the point of pain, before relaxing his grip.

  “That’s not why. Don’t lie to me,” he said. He still hadn’t let go of her wrist. She didn’t try to pull it free.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied.

  She gasped as he pulled her hand close to his mouth. His hot breath washed over her fingers. Gooseflesh crawled up and down her body. Her lips parted. Why was his apartment so hot all of a sudden?

  “You do know. And I know. Gwen, I’ve had to try so hard to hold back. You have no idea how hard it’s been.”

  Gwen barely breathed the word, “What?” All she could concentrate on was how close her fingers were to Aiden’s lips.

  “But I can’t do it anymore. I don’t have the strength… Why did you have to insist on staying with me tonight?” he said. His thumb started gently massaging the sensitive skin on the bottom of her wrist. Her heart started thumping in her chest.

  Am I asleep? Gwen thought. I must be asleep.

  “Don’t have the strength for what?” she asked.

  “To keep myself from doing this…”

  Aiden kissed the tip of her forefinger. Then the next, and the next. His lips slid up the back of her hand, leaving a hot trail behind. When he stopped, he placed her
hand against his cheek. His stubble tickled at her palm. His eyes seemed to sparkle in the warm lamplight, and his lips glistened invitingly.

  She couldn’t help leaning in and kissing him. Her whole body committed to the action, and she felt drawn to him. Some part of her wondered if he would break away, as he had so many times before.

  But this time he didn’t.

  No, this time he pulled her up onto his lap, and she straddled him. The temperature in the room, and inside of her, both already at an all-time high, ratcheted up another ten degrees or so.

  His lips relished her mouth, then slid down her chin, and from there, her neck. His stubble prickled her smooth skin, adding another element to the sensation.

  “You always smell so nice…” Aiden said, “I need to know how you taste…” His fingers pulled the straps of her sundress and bra down, leaving her shoulders bare so that he could kiss those too.

  Heat blossomed in Gwen’s stomach and moved down. She couldn’t get enough of his kisses. While his mouth busied itself exploring her shoulders, his hands dropped down to the small of her back. Even through the thin material of the dress, she could feel the heat from him soaking into her skin.

  And then his hands dropped lower, cupping her bottom, squeezing her with need and appreciation.

  About the Author

  Lucy just loves to write romantic stories filled with steamy scenes. She hopes her audience enjoys reading them as much as she enjoys writing them.

  You can sign up for her newsletter to receive the latest updates on new releases and promotions here: http://mad.ly/signups/77009/join (copy and paste into your browser’s address bar if you cannot click on the link).

  You can contact Lucy at: lucylambertauthor@gmail.com

  Also, check out her official blog at: https://lucylambertauthor.wordpress.com/

  Read more at Lucy Lambert’s site.

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