by Stella Rhys
“I’ll call a car to take you home. Has everything been okay with the apartment and the job?” he asked.
“Everything’s been perfect. Until… you know.” I had told him that Jesse had followed me home yesterday afternoon, and that had been how he’d found me. “But otherwise, everything’s been perfect, actually. The apartment is beautiful. Thank you again for it. From both me and Rhode,” I said, cracking a smile as I remembered Rhode’s reaction to the French windows overlooking the quaint, gated garden of Gramercy Park. We got in with a key that day and had spent afternoon to evening sitting on charming benches surrounded by bright, beautiful flowers, all the while talking about the worst, most amazingly filthy things Rhode had done during her last hook-up. Down and dirty details in the city’s most elegant park. We hadn’t even realized that an eighty-something-year-old woman was sitting around the corner from us the entire time until she got up to leave – at which point she gave us a frail but fervent thumbs up, warbling, “I approve,” before pushing through the wrought-iron gate. Rhode and I had spent a solid ten seconds being horrified before bursting out laughing and promising each other we would grow up to be that woman. It was one of many awesome memories I’d made with her during my brief time away from the drama. I guess I did have to thank Abram for making it possible. I hadn’t even realized that my eyes had drifted out the window till I looked back to see him wearing a little half-grin on his face. “What?”
“Nothing. You barefoot and wearing a robe in my kitchen.”
“So?” I tried to fight the grin threatening my lips.
“Just an image I could get used to,” he said, taking a step closer when I finally cracked a smile.
“What, you want me cooking and cleaning for you?”
He laughed. “I’ll have the cleaning taken care of. But at some point, I want to drink my coffee at that table and watch you cook me breakfast in this robe. With your hair all tangled from how hard I fucked you before we got out of bed.”
I chewed my lip and groaned inwardly, surrendering to his touch as he wrapped his arms around my waist, breathing in the hollow of my neck. “I’ll make a note of it.”
“Good,” Abram murmured, sliding his finger into the knot of my sash, tugging gently till it unraveled. “I’m gonna need you to do this too.” He pulled my robe open, exposing my naked front. I felt my heart pound, instantly aroused but half-terrified that Nate or Jesse might walk in.
“Need me to do what?” I whispered.
“Lean against the stove with this wide open. So I can have breakfast and a nice view of these perfect tits,” Abram cupped them gently and brushed his lips down from my neck to my nipples, sucking till they pebbled stiff. “And this perfect pussy.” He trailed a hand down between my thighs, drawing a single fingertip along my wet seam. “Can’t really think of a better way to start the day.”
Damn it. I exhaled, my head rolling back as Abram drew my wetness to my clit, rubbing slow, tormenting circles. I was still half-annoyed with him but somehow, the heat of my anger mixed right in with my arousal as he teased me, his touch electrifying every part of my body and setting a fire that I desperately needed put out after last night. “Don’t do this to me again, Abram,” I pleaded.
“Do what?”
“Tease me,” I moaned quietly, sliding my hand over his so that he cupped my pussy.
“Keep doing that and I’ll fuck you over this counter,” he muttered as I grinded against his palm. I knew I should stop but I couldn’t. It was pure, dizzy bliss and it spilled through every muscle and bone. It was the break my body needed – the connection to Abram that flipped a switch in my brain and told me I was good, happy and safe.
“Let’s go upstairs,” I breathed as he wrapped my fingers around his cock, pitching a forceful tent through the heavy cotton of his sweats. And before I knew it, I was in his arms, my legs wrapped around his torso and his tongue thrust in my mouth. It claimed mine as his hands did the same with my body, his fingers parting my pussy, pushing inside me as he carried me up to his bedroom. Halfway up the stairs, he tore my robe off, tossing it aside and letting it flutter down the stairs.
“Abram,” I protested as he brought me through the door without closing it. My arm reached in to slam it shut but with one missed swipe, it was an afterthought. Tossed onto the mattress, I immediately touched myself, impatient as Abram shed his T-shirt and sweats, for a moment just standing there, naked at the foot of the bed with his thick root hanging between his muscled thighs. He was torturing me. He knew he was and he loved every second of it. “Abram…” I whispered, arching my back.
“Louder.”
“Abram, please.” I gave him his wish, the need building inside me like a storm. “I told you not to tease me, please don’t tease me,” I moaned.
“Then don’t make it so much fun for me,” he muttered, grabbing my ankles and pulling me to the end of the bed. In a single motion, he flipped me on my stomach and spread my legs wide apart, shocking me silent with his tongue thrust into my pussy. Holy. Fucking. Shit. Eyes wide, my nails dug into his sheets. The breath hitched in the dead center of my throat as he pushed deep inside me, then deeper, deeper. Oh God. My knees bent. He straightened them. Pulling me closer, his tongue laved over me, giving me every pleasure he could right there and then, as if apologizing for the teasing in the kitchen, the shower. Licking greedily, he spoiled me, threatening me with an eruption I knew I couldn’t possibly muffle.
“Door,” I moaned wretchedly, unsure if Abram was ignoring me or if the sound I’d made was nowhere close to a word. I didn’t know but I could hardly care anymore. Abram was tearing apart the foil of a condom and all I needed was that sound to lose myself entirely. “Put it in, Abram, please,” I begged, reaching under myself to rub my swollen clit. I was already on the verge, so painfully close to a screaming finish thanks to Abram’s impossibly skilled tongue. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I suppressed the volume of my pleasure as I felt his smooth helmet parting my lips, spreading my wetness and teasing me to the very edge of my breaking point.
I cried his name as he plunged inside me, fisting my hair and growling filthy words in my ear. Cupping my throat, he pumped inside me, sucking my earlobe, gently dominating me till I was at his mercy. Shaking under his weight, an orgasm ripped through every inch of me, pulsing my walls so tight around Abram’s cock that he came right after, and loud enough to tear the walls down.
chapter six
I didn’t think to be angry till I was at work that night. I could feel Rhode’s eyes on me as I stood at the end of the bar, angrily stabbing olives with a skewer.
“Right… so, I’m gonna try again,” she tossed back her blonde hair. “Why are you all cranky tonight? If I’m not mistaken, you had sex with a hot mystery guy before coming here, and it was apparently good enough that you didn’t have to put on makeup. Seriously, if I could package your sex glow right now and sell it at Sephora, I’d never have to work again.”
I laughed. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing. I’m just… kind of regretting how things happened,” I said simply, withholding the important details – those details being that it was Abram I’d slept with, and that I was realizing how he’d worked me up in a specific and deliberate way. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d missed me, that he truly wanted me this morning. But after coming back to Earth and giving myself some time to think about it, there was also no doubt in my mind that he’d left his bedroom door open on purpose. He was forcing Jesse to listen to every last bump, grunt and moan as we had sex. Basically using the sounds of my pleasure to stake his claim and say, “She’s mine.”
And I was pissed.
“Man, are you really not going to tell me how you met this guy? Are you sure it wasn’t Sean?” Rhode grinned. I snorted. Apparently, the real Sean across the hall was doing little to clear up the mystery behind our non-existent fling. I didn’t mind. I needed Rhode and the boys to think that we’d really slept together. Otherwise, they’d be forced to wonder what Sean I’d actu
ally slept with, which would in turn put me in a bad position because I had no intentions of telling Rhode or anyone about Jesse Toro. Our night in my bed was to remain a secret between the two of us. One I had no idea how to hold him to – I just prayed that I could.
“Look, Rhode… just help me forget about this. I’m redeeming my Don’t-Ask-Me-About-This-Hookup card, okay?”
“Oh, I didn’t know that was a thing. But I like it. I’m gonna need that in the future. I’ve got a feeling.”
“Right, because you’re so averse to telling me exactly who you did and where and when and for how long,” I laughed.
“True. But before you met me, I was prone to making out with bald, chubby guys.” Rhode cracked up at the look on my face. “Yeah, my friends made fun of me like crazy but I don’t know, I kind liked the combo of hefty guys who were hairless by choice. And I think I still do, so if you’re like my college friends, I’ll probably redeem that card with you the next time I stick my tongue in a dude who looks like a fat Bruce Willis.”
I covered my mouth so as to not laugh all over the drinks. “Interesting. We’re gonna have to continue this conversation when I’m done dropping these drinks,” I giggled.
But as I made my way to my table, I felt a strange but distinct heat on my skin. A stare. It bore into my backside, tracing from the nape of my neck to the dip of my spine. But with my tray of martini glasses, I couldn’t look around to confirm, and by the time I could, I turned to see nothing – just my few tables on a painfully slow night thanks to the summer heat wave.
“Alright. So tell me more about the fat Bruces,” I said, perching my tray next to Rhode’s. But she was suddenly stiff.
“I can’t,” she murmured, exchanging eyes with Lissy, the bartender. My stare darted back and forth between them.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Oh nothing, we’re just freaking the fuck out,” Rhode said, her lips barely moving.
“Why?” I whispered instinctively. When I got no answer, I looked to Lissy, who displayed all the body language of someone secretly but rapidly texting behind the bar.
“Lissy? Confirmation?” Rhode hissed.
“One sec,” Lissy brushed the jet-black bangs from her face and bent down to better look at her screen. “Yeah. Holy shit. It’s the older one.”
“Holy shit.”
“What? What?” I asked.
Rhode turned to me, a thrill dancing in her blue eyes. “Jesse Toro just walked into the bar.”
I white-knuckled the counter. His name off her tongue sent my stomach hurtling into somersaults. “You recognize him?” I asked weakly.
“How could I not? Every good New York girl recognizes her Toro boys. I just didn’t know if it was him or the younger one.”
“Stefan,” Lissy supplied.
My stomach turned again. It felt like all my secrets were being sliced open for the world to see, but I reminded myself that neither of the girls knew that I’d slept with Jesse, and neither of them knew that Jesse was about to kill Stefan. With Abram. For Christ’s sake. None of that stuff even felt real at work. Around Rhode and Lissy, I was just a normal girl. I escaped the soap opera of my life with them, one shift at a time. But now Jesse had invaded our private haven and I had no idea what he planned on doing next. “Where is he?” I asked under my breath, trying not to make it obvious that I was scanning the room.
“C-20.” Couch Twenty. I slowly turned to look at the tufted banquette in front of the arched shelf, stacked with vintage books and snuff bottles. My heart pounded. Because there he was, smoldering me from fifteen yards away. In a white T-shirt, black jeans and grey beanie, Jesse sat back, eyeing me with the smallest curl of a grin on his wicked lips. He was so relaxed and utterly pleased with himself. I couldn’t help being annoyed. “It’s your table, Isla,” Rhode said. “And unless I dropped acid, he’s mentally undressing you as we speak.”
“Oh my God, he is,” Lissy whispered giddily.
“Holy shit, Isla, go,” Rhode prodded. And with an actual kick of my ass, she gave me a head start into Jesse’s direction. But my feet were forgetting how to walk in heels and I felt suddenly too aware of how short, tight and low my uniform was. By the time I reached Jesse’s table, he’d raked his slippery gaze over every available inch of my bare skin. A final onceover and he flashed me that smirk.
“You have no idea how hard I am right now.”
I propped my tray up next to my ear. “Can I get you a drink, sir?” I asked with exaggerated professionalism.
“Sit with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because that’s not allowed and I don’t want to.”
“What, did Abram already tell you how to feel about me?”
My lip curled as I gathered my hair around my shoulder. “No. Not to shock you, but I do have a mind of my own.”
“Then why are you backing away after being perfectly nice last night?”
I swallowed. “Well, when you haven’t had your ass freshly beat into the ground and you aren’t processing life-shattering bombshells about your brother, I suddenly remember that you told me your name was Sean before tricking me into having sex with you.”
Jesse leaned back and grinned. “Oh yeah, that thing.”
“Yeah. That minor detail.”
“To be fair, I didn’t trick you into anything,” he laughed, throwing an arm over the back of the couch.
“You played sweet and innocent when you’re clearly anything but. I would’ve never slept with the real you.”
“Sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“In my defense, I hadn’t had sex in more than ten months and nothing about my reaction to you was faked. You’re hot. I’m sure you’re aware. After all, you got this job, you’re in this dress and I can’t really imagine that you’ve gone twenty some-odd years without knowing that every man whose laid eyes on you for the first time has had his dick jump a little.” Jesse watched with amusement as my face grew hot, his gleaming stare traveling from my blushing cheeks to my mouth. Only then did I realize that I had my lower lip raked between my teeth. I felt it swell upon release, my heightened pulse beating inside of it.
“I can say pretty confidently that I’ve never assumed that about any man I’ve met.”
Jesse laughed. “Maybe you should. I’m not trying to compliment the guy, but you have to be pretty fucking remarkable to throw Abram Lenox off his game and you just about knocked him on his ass, which means yes, you’re pretty fucking stunning and no, I wasn’t acting when you took off your clothes. It was all me when I looked at you like a kid whose balls just dropped and I’m man enough to admit that,” he cracked that Cheshire Cat grin. After a second of processing what he’d actually said, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“So you’re saying I made you hit puberty last week.”
“No, I’m saying you replicated that magical moment when I first jacked off to Showgirls on VHS.”
I snorted. “Okay, Jesse, good to know.” When my laugh wound down, I chewed my lip again, unsure of what to do with the weird peace we’d just made over puberty jokes. “Anyway, can I get you a drink before my coworkers call security on you?”
“Let them. Your security guys can’t be worse than Abram’s.”
“Well, lucky for you, Abram’s guys aren’t here right now,” I said, though the words sounded funny the second they left my mouth. Jesse smiled just as a frowned.
“Yeah. Had a feeling those guys at the bar were a little weird, didn’t you?”
Slowly, I turned around to look at the two men at the far end of the bar. I’d noticed them upon arriving to my shift and while I didn’t recognize them, they’d made me feel immediately and inexplicably awkward. Their eyes never met mine once, but they just felt so oddly conspicuous to me in a way I couldn’t put my finger on. So I simply ignored it. But now, with Jesse’s help, I was coming to the sudden realization.
Those two men were here for Abram, and the
y were here to watch me.
“Yeah. They got on their phones the second I walked in here so you can pretty much expect your boy and his yappy Chihuahua to come barreling in within the next fifteen or so.” Jesse sent the men a little wink. He toyed with them for a moment, waving and savoring their reactions before turning back to me. “Hope you and your girlfriends don’t chat too loudly at that bar. I got a feeling Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum report everything they hear back to big, bad Abram.”
I paused. Jesus. Hastily recounting all the conversations I’d been having with Rhode, I thanked God that I didn’t cave and say anything about “Sean” or Jesse or the one-night stand I’d recently had with my neighbor. I didn’t need Abram to know about any of that. In fact, I was almost certain that I didn’t need Abram to send his men to watch me at work and eavesdrop on every matter of my personal life. Work was supposed to be the only time I had away from all the drama – the few hours in a day that I got to be around other girls, sip on girly cocktails and talk about girly things, be it silly or serious. Clenching my jaw, I tried to shake off the irritation, to swallow the bad taste in my mouth. But I couldn’t. It felt like my entire day had been unknowingly spent as Abram’s property and suddenly, I didn’t want to be here.
“Well, hello!” Out of nowhere, Rhode interrupted my thoughts, waltzing to the table with a dazzling smile on her face. “Pardon me, sir,” she did a gentleman’s bow for Jesse, miming a hat and everything. “I just wanted to let my lovely coworker here know that I’ve taken her remaining tables and she’s free to be cut from this dead, miserable shift,” she said, turning to speak to me in a hushed voice behind her big, professional grin. “You know, so my coworker can go continue hitting it off with Jesse Fucking Toro at a real, non-work bar, ya dig?” She winked and nudged me in a not-so-subtle way that Jesse laughed at. My mouth opened and closed as I tried to figure out how to play this.
“Oh, no, no, Rhode, we’re just – ”
“I’d love to take you for a drink,” Jesse cut in, tilting his head in deference when we both turned to look at him. “That is if you’d let me, Isla.”