When Lightning Strikes (The Storm Inside Book 3)

by Alexis Anne

  The laughter rolled through the room and Marie turned red. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone’s gotta have some morals around here.”

  “And that’s why you’re the leader,” Brandon said simply.

  That’s when Marie glanced over her shoulder. Our eyes locked and for a brief moment in time I forgot how many things I didn’t know about her, or the fact that her ex had known her for so long. All I could think about was how details didn’t matter. I wasn’t surprised for one second to hear a story like that about Marie. It’s just who she was.

  She walked out of the conference room without anyone noticing since everyone was transfixed on Brandon and his game. She came straight for me, not saying a word, put her hands on my face, and kissed me. It was like she knew I needed a little bit of reassurance that everything was going to be fine.

  We’d switched places in the last twenty-four hours.

  “Time to celebrate Edward and Lucinda leaving?” she asked with a gorgeous smile.

  “Ready when you are.”

  I followed her back to her office. Joan was working away and offered to bring us some drinks. I dropped off a surprise sandwich for her, too. I couldn’t conceivably pick up the best Cubans in town and not bring one for all three of us. The fried plantains and dip alone were worth the price of admission.

  We set up shop on the coffee table and tiny couch in the corner of her office. Marie even kicked off her heels and walked around barefoot which was surprisingly sexy—like this amazing, powerful woman was getting comfortable in front of me (and only me) because I was the one person she trusted.

  Total ego boost.

  “Thank you,” she said quietly while staring down an extra curly plantain chip.

  “For lunch? Anytime. In fact, I think we should do this more often. We’re losing valuable time together eating separately.” I winked. Then I saw the look in her eyes and realized that wasn’t what she meant at all.

  “No, I mean thank you for this entire week.” She kept studying that plantain like it was the most interesting thing in the universe. I never wanted to be a fried vegetable more. “I don’t know exactly how to explain this, but I’ve never felt so normal while dealing with my parents. I think that’s your doing. You really encouraged me to keep breathing when normally I’d have sucked it all in and waited for the storm to pass.”

  The office door opened and Brandon stuck his big ugly head inside. “Hey, just wanted to let you know I’m off to see Nat. Thanks for letting me play with your staff this morning.”

  I did not make the dirty joke Brandon had just left lying out in the open for me to play with.

  “Enjoy,” Marie replied.

  I waved. And then he left, simple as that.

  “So, now that they’re officially gone, what did you think of Edward and Lucinda Bancroft?”

  It was interesting to me how she never referred to them with any affection. It was always their first names or “my father” or “my mother”. There was no warmth there at all, not that I’d seen any in person. “They’re blood suckers. I’m sure they have their reasons and all, but I call people like that vampires.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Vampires?”

  I moved closer to her. We were just picking at the remains of our food and I wanted to feel her body against mine. The simple act of touching gave me a surge of energy. Maybe I was becoming addicted to the way she made me feel or maybe this was just what it was like to be around someone you loved. Either way, I wanted to be closer any time we could.

  Always closer.

  “They suck off of other people. Energy, emotions, whatever they can get. They survive by taking it from the people around them instead of being happy with themselves. Your parents are classic vampires.”

  She looked adorably confused while she thought through my theory. It was a damn good theory. I’d been around way too many self-centered takers in my life, and after reading a particularly fun vampire novel, I’d coined the term.

  I put my arm around her waist and seriously thought about playing hooky for the rest of the day so I could concentrate on memorizing every inch of her lips. But instead I explained my theory so she could focus on me instead of my words. “The similarities seemed pretty obvious to me. I mean, a vampire sucks blood to survive, just like assholes suck away joy to get a thrill. Even when they do it to change someone into a vampire, it’s because they want them to be like them—be one of their undead minions. It’s all very selfish shit.”

  She turned into me and put her arms around my neck, leaning back just enough to give me the sexiest set of bedroom eyes I’d ever seen. “You know, Mr. Hamilton, you’re a very smart man.”

  “I’m also hella good in bed. Fancy a fuck to finish off your lunch break?” I was totally pushing my luck, but what the hell? You can’t have what you don’t ask for.

  She laughed, tossing her head back and giving me access to that gorgeous neck of hers. The skin, the hands, and the throaty laugh all combined to give me a raging hard on. I kissed her throat, sucking softly as I moved my way up to her chin.

  “You’re like a snake charmer,” she murmured.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked between kisses. I was totally lost in the moment.

  “Yeah,” she nodded, pulling me a little closer. “I know that I should say no—that I don’t ever have sex in my office, that I have a meeting in fifteen minutes—but…oh my God, do I just want to forget everything and slide underneath you.”

  I smiled and finally made it the last few inches to her mouth. I gave her a slow, deep, kiss. The kind that you can’t mistake for anything but desire and need. And then I sat us both up, brushing her hair out of her face. “It really pains me to say this, but I’m gonna be the logical one. If I fuck you right here on this couch then you’ll be no good for the rest of the day. You’ll be all satisfied and stop caring about work because my orgasm made you so damn happy…and I can’t have that. You need to get your work done.”

  She frowned. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “Don’t worry,” I stood up and adjusted myself. “I’ll make up for this tonight. Be prepared to be totally satisfied, Miss Bancroft.”

  *****

  “Oh God!” she moaned and threw her head back against the shower wall with a thud. Not so hard that I was worried, but hard enough that half the house was probably wondering what we were doing.

  That half being Brandon, of course.

  I needed to be a little bit more careful with how mind-blowingly I was pleasing her.

  I mean, we were taking the extra precaution of doing it in the shower to give us multiple closed doors and the white noise from the water, but loud thuds were probably going to raise some red flags.

  I stood up from where I was kneeling in the shower—the tile floor totally killing my knees, I might add—and picked her up. She grinned with this lazy look on her face. I loved it when she looked so relaxed because of me. Then she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist, holding herself out just enough for me to reposition and slide slowly inside.

  I’d done a damn fine job of getting her ready for me. She was wet, hot, and welcoming. It only took a few strokes until I was gliding easily in and out like I was always meant to fit inside her. “You feel damn fine, Marie.”

  She whispered a very sexy reply in my ear. “Make me come.”

  My dick twitched, like a surge of extra need was seeking her out, commanded by her words to fulfill her request. Well, lucky for me my dick and my head were all on the same page. I stroked into her at the angle I knew she preferred, and she did that perfect little shiver she always got when I was hitting the right spot, making her shudder in my arms.

  “There,” she gasped, cocking her head back but not banging it this time.

  “You got it baby. I’m all yours. Every time. I’m not done until you are.”

  She moaned in reply.

  Pleasing her made my orgasm so much better—more intense. So it was as selfish as it was selfless. Sur
e I wanted to give her anything and everything, but I also enjoyed the side benefits that went along with it.

  She was balanced between me and the wall and she was at that point so close to orgasm where her thighs were squeezing the shit out of me, so I felt pretty safe and confident in moving my right hand from her waist to her clit. It wasn’t easy to hit from this angle, but it was close enough, often enough, to do the trick.

  Her arms tightened and she gasped harder and faster until boom. It hit her like a bomb. She contracted around me so fucking hard I saw stars for a minute.

  Job done, and done well. I watched her face twist from beautiful agony to open pleasure, and finally to complete relaxation. I didn’t give my dick a second thought until I’d gotten to witness every single second of her transformation.

  Then she surprised the shit out of me. She climbed down, grabbed the body wash and soaped me up. Her hands gave me a massage that felt good, but not quite what I wanted…until she rinsed me off.

  Then she gave me exactly what I was hoping for.

  “Back against the wall. And be quiet,” she admonished with a smile.

  Damn I loved that smile. It was dirty and sweet at the same time.

  She kneeled down and took me into her mouth, sucking gently. I knew how hard that floor was, so I didn’t want her to kneel any longer than she had to, but there was a war taking place inside my body. The half that was so far gone I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t blown my load yet, and the half that was so happy I never, ever wanted to stop.

  It was probably a good thing for Marie that biology won out. I was done for the moment she slowly ran her tongue around the head of my dick and sucked me all the way into her mouth.

  Done, done, done. Like couldn’t think straight for five minutes, done.

  When we came downstairs dressed for dinner, Brandon and Natalie were laughing in the kitchen over her iPad. Apparently she was introducing Brandon to the wild world of comics on YouTube.

  “Have you seen this dude?” Brandon looked up at us as we tried to enter the kitchen without looking like we were both high as hell on orgasms.

  “Who is it?” I asked leaning over the counter to see the screen.

  Natalie turned it my way. “It’s Tobuscus doing the Password Rant.”

  I laughed. “Oh yeah. This one’s gold. Nat loves it.”

  When I looked up, Brandon had a freakishly blank look in his eyes that I normally would have made fun of, but something told me to keep my mouth shut, so I did.

  “Yeah,” he finally said. “I can see why you guys enjoy this.”

  “We ready?” Marie asked. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Brandon looked like he’d seen a ghost. Or maybe I was the one being weird. Whatever was happening must not have been that big of a deal because Natalie shoved her iPad into her bag and everyone followed Marie out to the front door.

  Dinner was normal—well it felt normal. Brandon was quiet, but I only knew the guy for five seconds, so maybe that was more normal than the gregarious dude he’d been for the last couple of days.

  And then he moved his chair closer to Marie’s and started talking in her ear.

  Oh fuck no.

  Every hair on my body stood on end. I wanted to grab Brandon by the collar of his shirt and drag his ass outside. This wasn’t some normal conversation between old friends, or even parents. This was more.

  It was in the body language. He was leaning in to her. He was smiling. He was fucking flirting with my girlfriend right in front of me. I glanced at Natalie, but she was happily reading her book and completely oblivious to everything around her.

  “Hey babe? We about ready?” I said between my teeth.

  I was not going to punch him.

  I was not going to overreact in front of Natalie.

  Marie glanced up at me and then sideways at Brandon as if she just realized how freakishly close he’d gotten to her. “Yeah. I’m ready.” She scooted out of her chair on the opposite side and quickly moved over to Natalie.

  I watched Brandon, waiting for my opportunity. He looked up and right at me because he’d been waiting for that moment, too. The fucker smiled.

  I don’t know how I kept myself in check, but I did.

  I also gave that fucker a look that told him exactly what he was messing with. I thought I saw a flicker of hesitation, but it was brief and may have been wishful thinking on my part.

  “Can you drive?” Marie asked, holding out her keys. “I had too much to drink.”

  I’d barely touched my drink. “I’m good.” But she didn’t let me have the keys. Not right away. She held on to them and forced me to look at her.

  “Are you good?”

  Not even a little bit. I felt like I was on fire. I always felt raw when it came to Marie, and sometimes the reaction I got from things was so basic, so primal, I didn’t know how to handle them. Seeing Brandon so close to Marie had triggered something I couldn’t simply stop.

  And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to.

  “I’m good.”

  She still didn’t let go of the keys. “Brandon can do whatever he wants. It won’t change the fact that I want nothing to do with him.”

  “He’s Natalie’s father.” And that was the biggest reason he got extra passes from me.

  “And that’s all he is,” she said quietly.

  I nodded. She was right. He was getting to me and I was letting him.

  But I still didn’t like where this was going. Marie might not want Brandon in her life romantically, but that didn’t mean it was all right for Brandon to mess with our heads. Not after the week she was having.

  If I needed to be an ass, I was more than willing to be an ass.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “He was hitting on you.” Greg growled. We were hiding in the bathroom and trying to keep our voices down so that Brandon and Natalie couldn’t hear us.

  I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Greg was riled up. Really, really riled up.

  “So what if he was? It doesn’t matter and it was all of what? Two minutes? Let it go.”

  “No.”

  “Shhh.”

  He glared at me but I didn’t care. I honestly didn’t understand anything that was happening other than I didn’t want Natalie hearing any of this.

  “It wasn’t just some dickhead move to piss me off, Marie. Speaking French when we first met? That was a dickhead move. This was totally different. He doesn’t want me around and he’s trying to get rid of me.”

  “Why on Earth would he do that?” Seriously, Brandon was his own brand of douchery, but he was Natalie’s father. What good would it serve him to get rid of the man in my life? Sure, it would hurt me, but it would also hurt Natalie. She adored Greg.

  None of it made any sense to me.

  “Because he’s fucking jealous!” Greg boomed. “You’re amazing and you’re mine.”

  But it didn’t make sense. There was no Brandon and me. There was almost never a Brandon and me. He didn’t want me and Natalie then and he certainly didn’t want us now. It must be some testosterone laced insanity induced by seeing something he couldn’t have in the hands of another man.

  “Marie. Baby.” Greg grabbed me by the arms. “I’ve got this amazing woman. I’m the one slipping books to his daughter. I’m the one sleeping in this house at night. He’s fucking jealous.”

  Okay, so I was giving in to the idea a little. “And what are you?”

  His eyes burned into me. They’d practically turned black his pupils were so dilated. I could feel the intensity of his feelings coming off him like radiation from a heater. It was overwhelming and borderline frightening to be so close to someone surging with so much emotion.

  But it was Greg, so I knew it was all right.

  “I’m fucking jealous,” he finally growled.

  “Of what? You have me. You have Natalie eating out of the palm of your hands. And, as you put it, you’re the one who gets to sleep in this house at night.”

  “And I co
uld still lose you,” his voice was strangled and his hands tightened on my arms.

  I grabbed him around the wrists and held him tight. “You can’t lose me to him. It’s not possible.”

  He pressed his lips so hard against mine that it hurt a little. But I didn’t mind. I was more concerned with what was happening to Greg. What had this stupid week done to us? I’d barely held it together and now he looked like he was falling apart.

  Was it too much to ask that we get through all this in one piece?

  “He leaves on Saturday and then he’s gone, babe. He’s outta here. He won’t come back anytime soon. He never does.”

  Greg nodded. “Okay.”

  But there was still that crazy look to his eyes.

  “I’m yours, Greg. I’m not going anywhere, I—” I stopped mid-sentence. I desperately wanted to tell him I loved him but I still couldn’t do it. There were too many what-if’s still hanging in the air for me to tell him how my heart felt and give him that much of my soul.

  There was still too much of a risk he couldn’t handle all of this.

  Maybe he felt it, too. He stared at me with a wild look in his eyes before he shook his head and kissed me. “No more talking about Brandon tonight. He doesn’t belong in here with us.”

  *****

  “Shouldn’t you be ruling the world?” Grace slid a coffee across the counter and nodded me toward the private room off the side of the coffee shop.

  “I didn’t sleep well. I need coffee and a friend.”

  “Well lucky for you, I stock both of those every day.”

  She closed the door and we settled on opposite sides of a two person table near the window. “You’ve been acting weird for a while, too. You ever gonna confide in me? This is supposed to be a two way street.”

  She shrugged and swirled her mug in a circle on the tabletop. “There isn’t much to say. I’m sort of, but not really, seeing someone.”

  “Excuse me?” Why was she keeping this a secret from me?