by KB Jacobs
My cell phone rang, and I answered it. “Hello?”
“Nice job, Triple B.”
I frowned. “Drake? What are you talking about?”
“You played it perfectly. The photos from the ski slopes yesterday are epic. The sponsors are eating it up. You look like you have that girl eating out of your hand.”
My stomach clenched. I thought we’d gotten rid of the photographer yesterday. That time hadn’t been for public consumption. “Did you send that photographer up there?”
“Uh, yeah,” Drake said. Voices murmured in the background of wherever Drake was at this week. “I have to go. I just wanted to congratulate you. Keep up the good work.”
Before I could respond, the call disconnected. I quickly opened the internet on my phone and found the photos he called about.
In the photo, Melissa and I stood very close together, the expressions on our faces intent and serious. But it was more than that. It was like looking at a photo of someone else. The expression on my face matched hers, and the combination of the two of us together took my breath away even as my cock hardened. We looked like something described in the books spread around me...passionate.
I’d sat by and watched my best friend, Simon, fall in love with his wife, Nicola, and I had been jealous of what they had. No, I definitely wasn’t in love with Melissa, but I liked her...a lot. Yeah, I liked playing the field, too, but maybe it was time to explore the possibility of something else...something real. My heart sped up as I looked at her tiny form leaning into mine. There was something real between us. This photo proved it.
It didn’t have to be forever, but we could definitely be something more.
I wanted to be angry at Drake for arranging this when it was supposed to be my private time, but as I looked at the picture, I couldn’t. This heat between Melissa and me needed to be explored.
I glanced down at the books again. In fact, we had a lot of exploration to do. It was time for some more research, and then I had some shopping to do.
Chapter 22
Melissa
I deleted the message and blocked Brad’s number, but the words were still seared in my mind. Those aren’t the kind of games I want to play with you.
As I parked William in Anthony’s drive, a chill ran up my back that had nothing to do with the dropping temperatures. How had Brad gotten my number? It wasn’t as if they ran my contact information during the press conference. Only the girls and my family had my info.
I banged my fist on the steering wheel. “Oh, sorry, sweet prince.”
My family. If Brad had asked my sister how to get in touch with me, Melinda would have given him my email and cell number. If he had asked my mom, she would have offered to fly him here. When you’re the only single kid in a family of seven siblings, everyone just assumes you need a little helping hand. The twins were only twenty, and even they both had serious girlfriends. Anyone in my family would have thought they were just nudging my romantic life along.
None of them knew what happened six years ago. No one did, and I planned to keep it that way.
For six years, I’d let what happened with Brad color my romantic life. I wouldn’t allow him to have that power over me any longer. I had a chance at something else now, something better, and I didn’t plan to let this opportunity slip by.
I pushed thoughts of Brad aside and glanced out the window at Anthony’s house. Alex’s words echoed in my head. Inside that ginormous house, a hot-blooded hunk of a man who had shown plenty of signs of interest waited for me.
It had been easy enough at the store, picking out some new clothes. Underwear was a necessity, though I was pretty sure the ridiculously expensive satin and lace bra and panty set I wore now was a bit more than a necessity. I imagined stripping off my new dress and letting Anthony see the tiny strips of fabric underneath. My mouth watered as I pictured him stripping down to nothing but the suit he was born in. All that dark skin and rippling, thick muscles, his dyed dreadlocks pulled back to show off his square jawline.
I let out a heavy breath. The car was cold without the engine on, and if I didn’t go in soon, Anthony would come out to see why I was just sitting in my car, staring at the house.
It’s now or never. I slid out of the car, leaving my purse and shopping bags there. If I took them with me, I’d be forced to go up to my room to drop them off, and then I might just hide in there all night. Reading. Imagining the things I wanted to do instead of doing them.
My impractical heels clacked across the stone driveway to the front door. I gave myself a slow count to ten before pushing it open and stepping inside.
The lights were off downstairs. All the lights. I walked through the game room, living room, and the kitchen, but Anthony was nowhere to be seen. I walked back to the front door and peeked out the window. His car was in the driveway. Maybe a friend had picked him up?
“Anthony?” My voice echoed around the rock and marble entrance.
A speaker crackled from the ceiling. “Melissa, can you come upstairs?”
Of course, this place had an intercom system. When you have three stories, your own fairytale turret, and a rooftop party deck, an intercom was practically a requirement.
“Okay,” I shouted at the ceiling, with no way to know if I was talking to Anthony or the empty rooms.
I took the marble staircase up to the second floor and fished my elaborate skeleton key out of my bra. Without any pockets in the skintight dress and my bag still in the car, I had to find someplace to put it. I turned the wrought iron key, opened the door, and gasped.
Rose petals covered the winding staircase in front of me. My belly clenched. It was just like the scene from Sometimes a Lady when Carter seduced Morgan. It was one of my favorite scenes, and my dog-eared copy was highlighted and underlined with little stars in the margins.
I took a wobbly step up the stairs, my heels clearly not meant for narrow staircases. The lights on the landing were all out, but hundreds of candles cast a warm glow from nooks inset in the curved walls. Vanilla and warm cinnamon scented the air and instantly calmed my nerves despite my fluttering heart.
When Jake had made love to Katie for the first time in Sins of the Father, he’d bought every candle in town. Anthony might have raided every town in the county.
“In here,” Anthony called from my bedroom.
Oh god, he’s in my bedroom. Never mind that was exactly where I’d planned to lead him when I walked in the door five minutes ago. I sucked in a deep breath and let it go slowly. My big girl panties were on and already damp. Show time.
I pushed open my bedroom door and lost my ability to breath. More candles lit the room with soft, yellow light, and rose petals dotted the floor and bed. But the best part was Anthony. He stood at the end of my bed, dressed in a suit that was cut to his precise measurements. The rich fabric hugged his muscular thighs and showed off his broad shoulders. I licked my lips, imagining peeling him out of it piece by piece.
“Wow,” Anthony whispered.
He stood with his mouth open, his gaze raking up and down my body, most of it exposed courtesy of the skintight red dress hugging all my non-existent curves.
“I was going to say the same thing.”
Anthony tore his eyes away from my legs and smiled down at me, his pearly white teeth sparkling in the candlelight. “Champagne?”
I nodded and took the glass he held out to me with a shaky hand. The bubbles tickled my throat on the way down. “What is all of this?”
Anthony took a long sip from his glass and set it down to take my empty hand. “Don’t be mad, okay?”
“I’m having a hard time imagining a scenario where I get mad right now.” I smiled up at him and took another drink of champagne.
Anthony’s shoulders lifted with his deep breath. “I read some of your books.”
I stared at him, unable to form words. He read my books. Ice ran down my spine. The secret books no one knew I had? I nodded once and polished off the rest of my drink.
“You’re not...concerned?”
“Concerned?” Anthony wrinkled his nose and tilted his head to the side. “Why would I be concerned?”
“Is there more champagne?”
Anthony grabbed the bottle from an ice bucket on the dresser and refilled my glass. I barely waited for him to finish pouring before I tilted it back and drained the whole thing. If I was having this conversation, I was going to do it fortified.
“Melissa, are you okay?” Anthony took the empty glass from me and rubbed his big hands up and down my arms. The steady rhythm helped calm my racing pulse.
“I’m fine, it’s just...you don’t think I’m weird...for liking...what’s in those books?”
Anthony smiled at me, and my pulse kicked into another gear. I could get lost in that smile.
“Weird? Are you kidding me?” He took a step closer so his knee pushed between mine, and his mouth dropped to rest millimeters from my ear. “I happen to find it unbelievably sexy.” His voice had dropped to a low tone that rumbled straight from my ear and down through my core, leaving zings and tingles of aroused nerves in its wake.
He found it not weird. Sexy. My core clenched.
“Melissa.” His voice was a husky whisper, his breath warm and tingly on my cheek. “Have you ever done the things in your books?”
I shook my head. I’d tried once, and it had ended in disaster, but he didn’t need to know that.
He leaned in closer so his lips brushed against my ear, sending tiny shivers racing down my spine. “Would you like to?”
I sucked in a breath and bit my lip. God I wanted to, but I couldn’t. Knocking boots with Alex’s blessing was one thing, but blindfolds, handcuffs, rope...I couldn’t go there. If it all hit the fan again, there would be no running away to college. I was stuck here. Not just in the same town. In the same castle turret in the bedroom next door. There was nowhere else to run.
Anthony leaned back so he could look me in the eyes. “You’ve been such a help with my PT, Miller took away my crutches today. And you’re helping me clean up my image.” He ran one finger up each of my arms, to my shoulders, and under the thin straps of my dress. He pulled them down slowly exposing my bare shoulders where his breath brushed over my heated skin, taunting me, teasing me with anticipation.
When his lips finally touched my shoulder, I almost cried out, my body a taut wire, ready to snap. My heart rate pounded a staccato beat within my chest. I wanted him.
I reached for him, needing to touch him somewhere. As I wound my hand around behind his neck, he raised his gaze to meet mine.
“Is this okay?” His voice had turned husky with desire.
I nodded, my throat too tight to utter a sound. I couldn’t fight this any longer. I didn’t want to fight it any more. I’d probably regret it when it blew up in my face, but for now, I couldn’t say no.
“I want to make all your fantasies come true, to show you that real guys can be just as good as the guys in those books. But if it ever doesn’t become okay, I need you to tell me. I will stop at any point if you want me to, okay?”
Was this really happening, or would I wake up in the morning with echoes of a fantastical erotic dream? It didn't matter anymore.
“Okay,” I whispered and touched my fingers to his lips. I wanted those lips on me. Everywhere.
Anthony leaned in and stole a kiss, hot, fast, and filled with desire. “Let me help you get dirty in all the best ways.”
My knees threatened to give out on me, and my desire soaked through my silk panties. I nodded because a kiss like that left me no other option.
Anthony pulled my straps back to my shoulders and stepped back a few steps to the end of the bed. “Remember, if there’s anything you don’t want to do, or if you want to stop doing something, just tell me. Okay?”
“Okay.” The word came out as a huff of air. This was really happening. My nipples hardened under my bra, and I had to wipe my damp palms down my thighs. Now what?
Anthony stalked closer to me, and panic raced through my gut.
“Wait.” Alex’s voice rang in my head. If I didn’t say this now, I never would.
Anthony’s shoulders slumped like I knocked all the breath out of him.
“If we’re going to do this”—I waved to the candles, rose petals, and waiting bed—“we need to be clear. This doesn’t mean there’s an us except what we have to do to keep your sponsors happy. It’s not real.” I gestured back and forth from his chest to mine.
Anthony’s mouth pulled into a thin line, but he nodded. “Noted. Now take off your dress.” All the softness was gone from his voice. The words were a command, and his tone made it clear he expected obedience. Oh, god, that was a Dom voice.
My body reacted without any direction from me. My fingers flew to the tiny zipper hidden in the back of my dress and whipped it down in one quick motion. I slid the straps off my shoulders and let the silky red material drop to the floor.
Anthony hissed in a breath as I kicked the dress to the side.
In my limited previous sexual experiences, the lights had always been off as we fumbled with each other’s clothes in the darkness. The lights were out now, but the candles gave off enough illumination that Anthony could see all of me, standing there in my almost non-existent lingerie and four-inch heels.
“Sweet mercy, you are gorgeous.”
My skin tingled as if his words branded me. He slid out of his jacket and loosened his tie but stopped there. My fingers itched to strip him out of the rest of his clothes, but this wasn’t my show. I waited patiently for him to look his fill.
He slowly stepped around me in a circle, looking at me from every angle. He hadn’t said I couldn’t watch him, so I followed his movements. Desire more powerful than anything I had experienced before lined his face, mixing with pure, raw need.
Because of me.
He grabbed a piece of silk off the nightstand and came to stand behind me. Lightly, he trailed the fabric over my shoulders and across my back. Goosebumps erupted on my skin behind the soft fabric. He lowered his mouth to my ear. “I’m going to tie this over your eyes so you can’t see. Are you okay with that?”
In theory, yes, but if I couldn’t see, then I wouldn’t be able to see him when he got naked, and I really wanted to be able to see him. “Yes, but...” Would questioning him put a halt to this game? I didn’t want it to end.
He stilled. “But what? Never be afraid to speak up with me. This is a safe place. My number one priority is to satisfy you, to make you feel good, and that means you need to talk to me.”
“I want to do this. I do, but I also want to be able to touch you and see you, too. I want it all.”
He laughed and pulled me against him so my ass cupped his very long, very thick erection. Holy royal jewels. I arched into him.
“Aw, Juliet, you continue to surprise me in the very best ways. We can do this however many times in as many different ways as you want. Almost nothing is off limits, at least not for me, but this first time, let’s try it my way and see if it works for you.”
I nodded, tingling erupting and surging under my skin in anticipation of his erotic touch.
He tied the silk around my face, the fabric cold against my skin. “Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
He pulled the long tails of the silk and teased the tops of my breasts with them. “You are so gorgeous like this. Mine.” He shackled my wrists with his hands and pulled them behind me. “I’d planned to tie up these pretties, too, but you’ve made me rethink that. I have fantasies about these hands touching my skin. It’s not something I can live without tonight. I want your hands on me.”
I moaned at the picture he painted and wanted that, too.
He moved around to the front of me, lifted my hands to his face and slowly, seductively, sucked each finger, one by one, into his mouth and kissed it.
The silk of his tie rasped along his dress shirt as he removed it. That sensuous glide of sound echoed over the quiet of the room. “I
think I need you to take off my shirt now.”
He stepped closer so I could work. My fingers fumbled on the buttons. The heat from his body soaked into me, leaving me aware of how close together we stood, how much closer we’d be before the end of the night. My knees shook.
As I slowly peeled away the buttons on his shirt, he cupped my cheek. His touch was light, almost reverent. He lowered his head and trailed a line of kisses along my jawline, seemingly unaware of what I was doing.
But then I spread his shirt open and laid my palm on top of the thick mass of his pectoral muscle. His heart raced, and his nipple pebbled under my touch. I ran my nail across the hard nub, and he hissed in a breath.
He liked that, but instead of letting me continue, he grabbed my hands again. “And now I understand why they always want to tie up a woman’s hands in those books. If you continue to touch me like that, this is all going to be over long before either one of us are ready.”
I laughed, a heady concoction of power and desire coursing through me.
“Minx,” he muttered. “Lay down on the bed. I didn’t plan to spank you tonight, but I may have to rethink that.”
My movement halted at his words. Anthony spanking me, heating my ass, and then soothing it with his tender touch and tongue. A shudder rippled through me.
“You like that idea.” He sounded both surprised and intrigued. No horror, thank god.
I nodded.
A sharp slap to my ass made me hiss an indrawn breath. Pleasure arced from my ass to my core, clenching with need. I hadn’t been expecting it. He rubbed the heated skin, and I pushed back against his warm, calloused hand with a moan. So good. I tried to push back the embarrassment that flooded me because of my reaction.
He chuckled. “Oh yeah, you definitely like that. But Juliet, you forgot what you were supposed to be doing.” While one palm caressed the hot handprint on my ass, the other reached around to play with my nipple.
Was I supposed to be doing something other than melting into a throbbing puddle of need?
“Get on the bed,” Anthony reminded me, his voice once again strong and thick with demand.