Hooked

by Christine Manzari

  She stopped kissing me and bit her lower lip as if she were trying keep what we were doing a secret by being silent. Impressively, she didn’t make a sound, but the rhythm of her rocking hips and the staccato breaths she was taking told me everything I needed to know.

  She was close.

  I brought my mouth to her neck again and licked and kissed along her collarbone. Cat’s hands flew to my chest, crushing the lapels of my jacket in her fists. She started trembling as I increased the pressure of my thumb, until her body went rigid and she surrendered under my touch. My name spilled from her mouth in thankful breaths before she collapsed against me. Cat’s cheeks were flushed a beautiful pink, and I continued to stroke her skin gently as her breathing returned to normal.

  I lowered her leg and straightened her skirt for her before wrapping both arms around her waist and holding her tightly against my chest. Neither of us spoke as deep, heavy, satisfied breaths pulsed between us.

  When I leaned over to kiss her lips lightly, her eyes finally opened and the vulnerability in her gaze nearly stopped my heart.

  “What was that all about, Stone?” She tried to hide the tremor in her voice, but I heard it anyway.

  “Just an appetizer. Don’t be late for lunch,” I suggested.

  Cat reached down between us and palmed me. “That’s an awfully long wait in your condition.”

  “That’s why you better not be late.” I moved her hand off me, spun her around, and opened the door for her, pushing her through the small opening. “See you in an hour, Maverick.”

  ***

  Lunch hours would never be the same again. In fact, work hours in general would never be the same again, thanks to Cat. Because of the Christmas holiday, many of our coworkers, and most of our clients, weren’t at work Monday or Tuesday. Which meant that Cat and I didn’t have much work to do. We did, however, have too much time to find ways to be together. Desk sex? Of course I’d done it before, but desk sex with Cat had no comparison. I’d probably never be able to sit in my chair again without imagining her spread out across the top of my desk like some sort of Greek goddess.

  There was also the couch in my office, the chair in Cat’s office, and the storage room where they kept all the files and office supplies. Don’t even get me started on the service elevator we discovered in the back of the building. We almost got caught when a delivery was made to another company in the building, but thankfully, we played it off well. I’m sure the delivery guy knew we were up to no good, but he wasn’t someone we knew, so it made no difference. It had almost become a game to see which one of us could come up with the best location where we wouldn’t get caught.

  But our two days of freedom were over, and it was now Wednesday and we were on our way, with Jay, to Maryland to spend the long weekend with my family.

  “Holy shit! It’s freezing!” Cat squealed as the doors swished open and we stepped outside into the December air at BWI airport. She and Jay were both wearing jeans and lightweight hoodies. Neither of them had ever been to the east coast, or anywhere with cold weather for that matter, and had no idea what to expect. I stopped and set my suitcase upright, unzipping the front part to pull out a sweatshirt for each of them.

  “I told you to pack warm clothes,” I said, passing the sweatshirts to them.

  “These are my warm clothes,” Cat complained. “I’ve never owned a winter coat. I never needed one. I had no idea it’d be like a frozen tundra here.”

  I laughed. “It’s forty degrees, not even cold enough to snow. Come on,” I said. “Let’s get the rental car so we can get back to my parent’s place. My mom has dinner planned tonight to celebrate Christmas Eve.”

  “Your parents’ place? I thought we were staying at a hotel,” Cat said as she wriggled her way into the sweatshirt. She rolled the sleeves up until her hands were able to poke out of the voluminous sleeves. Cat was a bombshell no matter what she wore, but she looked absolutely fuckable in my clothes.

  Jay, on the other hand, handed me back the sweatshirt as a shiver wracked his body. “I have an image to uphold. No man with any sense of style would be caught dead in that thing.”

  “Suit yourself,” I said, snatching the grey Orioles sweatshirt back and stuffing it in the suitcase.

  “I thought we were staying at a hotel,” Cat repeated, rubbing her arms to stay warm.

  I led them down the sidewalk. “My mother insisted we stay with them. Their house is plenty big enough.”

  “I don’t want to stay at my boss’s house. That’s just . . . weird.”

  “We’ll only be staying there for a few nights,” I promised. “It’ll be fine. I swear.”

  Cat didn’t seem convinced, but she followed anyway.

  Almost an hour later, we had gotten our rental car and were nearly to my parents’ house.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Cat exclaimed, before dissolving into a fit of choking laughter.

  “What?” Jay asked.

  She pointed to the sign on the side of the road where I was slowing down to take the exit. “He’s from Cockeysville.”

  “Well, that explains a lot,” Jay said, laughing. “Shit. Back up, Stone. I want to take a picture of that. Brodi will never believe me.”

  “No way.”

  “Wait,” Jay said, leaning forward to tap Cat on the shoulder. “Do you think it means cocky as in over-confident, or the other kind of cocky?”

  “Probably a little of both. Oh look,” Cat said excitedly. “There’s another sign. Hurry, get your phone out.”

  I shook my head. “Please tell me you’re going to be better behaved around my mother.”

  “Behaved? Not hardly. Your mother thinks we’re a couple,” Jay reminded me. “I’m taking full advantage of that. Prepare yourself to be manhandled for the entire weekend.”

  “This is all your fault,” I told Cat, hooking my thumb over my shoulder at Jay who was happily taking pictures of the Cockeysville road sign.

  Cat put her hands up in defense. “Hey, all I told Jackie was that you came with Jay to Thanksgiving, which was true. Her devious little mind came up with the rest.” She turned in her seat to look at Jay. “Email me that photo.”

  As they began plotting social media war on me, I was seriously reconsidering the wisdom, or lack thereof, of bringing them home with me. All I’d been thinking was that I wanted to have Cat nearby for the holiday, I hadn’t really considered the ramifications of their sense of humor mixed with my uptight parents. The good thing was, at least my asshole brother wouldn’t be there. I hadn’t seen or talked to him in months, mostly because he played a huge role in my desire to move clear across the country. But my mother had promised he was going to be away for a competition, so there was no chance for a family war.

  “Oh my God,” Jay said as we turned down the long driveway that led to my childhood home. “I thought your mom’s house was extravagant, Cat. This place is just plain ridiculous. You grew up here, Huck?”

  I nodded.

  “You have horses?” Cat asked, pressing her nose against the glass to look at the wide expanse of grass on either side of the driveway. A white fence stretched around acres of pasture where a few horses were grazing with plaid jackets spread across their backs.

  “Those are my sister’s. She keeps them here because she doesn’t have space at her home. She used to compete in show jumping when she was younger. Now she just comes to ride them with her kids.”

  “You didn’t ride?”

  “No. I played lacrosse,” I said.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t want to ride horses.”

  I parked the car in front of the large four-car garage. “Do you want to go look at them?”

  Cat shook her head. “Maybe later. I don’t want to meet your parents while smelling like horse.”

  “Later then,” I promised.

  We weren’t even to the door yet before it flew open, my mother rushing out onto the porch, looking like she’d just come home from a trip to the salon. Her
hair was in a perfectly styled hairdo and looked more helmet than hair, and her makeup was as heavy as her perfume. As usual, her skirt and blouse were impeccable with matching heels and enough sparkling jewelry to require an armed guard.

  “Will!” she exclaimed, grabbing my face between her perfectly manicured fingers and kissing my cheek, then rubbing the lipstick off with her thumb. “We’re so glad you’re home.” She turned to Jay. “And this must be Jay, your special someone,” she said awkwardly as if she wasn’t sure whether she should shake his hand, hug him, or kiss him on the face too.

  “He’s special all right,” I mumbled. “But he’s just a friend.”

  “Of course, Honey,” she said with an understanding smile and a pat on my shoulder.

  She finally decided on hugging Jay, sparing him a lipstick-smeared kiss. “I’m Dana,” she said. “So nice to meet you, Jay.”

  “Nice to meet you, too, Dana,” Jay responded.

  “And who is this?” My mother turned to Cat, displaying one of her famous, megawatt smiles.

  Cat stepped forward and offered her hand. “I’m Cate Maverick, Will and Jay’s friend.”

  I cringed at the use of my given first name coming from Cat’s mouth. I’d gotten so used to hearing her say Huck or Stone that it felt wrong hearing ‘Will’ tumble from her lips. That name was only ever used at work or by my mother. I also didn’t really like the fact that she’d declared herself a friend of both me and Jay, as if to distance herself from me, but I understood why she did it. It didn’t mean I had to like it, but I understood.

  “Nice to meet you, Cate.” My mother shook Cat’s hand happily. “Come inside,” she said to us, ushering us through the front door. “We’ll be having dinner around six, so you have plenty of time to freshen up and relax before we eat. After dinner, we’re going to head out to Hampden.”

  “Is Pateley here yet?” I asked. I hadn’t seen my sister for Thanksgiving and even though I wouldn’t admit it to her, I missed her.

  “No, they’re visiting Ethan’s family tonight. But she’ll be here for the party tomorrow night. Go on up and show your friends to the guest rooms,” my mother said before giving me another gooey kiss on the cheek.

  I put my luggage in my old room and showed Cat and Jay two other guest rooms they could use. I stood in the doorway of Cat’s room and watched as she opened her suitcase and started unpacking a few things, looking for clothes to change into for dinner.

  “Want to go out and see the horses before getting ready?” I asked.

  Her answer was a genuine smile. “Really?”

  “Yeah, come on. There’s a stable out back where the rest of the horses are probably hiding.”

  “The rest of them?”

  “My sister collects horses like some women collect handbags,” I confessed.

  “The closest thing I’ve ever seen to a real horse was a pony at a birthday party when I was a kid. Can we ride one?”

  I laughed. “You’ll have to sweet talk my sister for that. I can show them to you, but I value my life too much to let anyone ride Pateley’s babies without her permission. Hey, Jay,” I said, leaning out the door to call across the hall. “Do you want to go see the horses?”

  “Do I?” Jay whispered, raising his eyebrows as if asking for my permission. I shook my head “no” so he’d understand what I really wanted was an excuse to be alone with Cat.

  “No thanks,” he said, loud enough for Cat to hear. “The only thing I like about horses are the cowboys who ride them.”

  Cat laughed in response.

  “Looks like it’s just me and you,” I told her. I walked farther into the room and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I bet we could find some hay to roll in while we’re out there.”

  Her eyes lit up and she lifted up on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. “Please tell me you have a cowboy hat somewhere.”

  — CAT —

  27. INTRODUCTIONS

  “Do you like my hat?” Huck asked. He’d found it hanging on a hook inside the stable.

  With his shirt completely unbuttoned, his jeans covered in hay, and a black Stetson on his head, I finally understood what Huck meant about fuck-me clothes, because one look at him and all I wanted to do was ride him into the sunset. My lips were already deliciously bruised from kissing him, but I wanted to brand every inch of his skin with my mouth until there was no question he was mine.

  Mine? Fuck. Where had that thought come from? Calm down, cowgirl. No need to get all clingy or make stupid decisions just because Huck looked good in a damn cowboy hat.

  Huck shoved his thumbs into the loops of his jeans, drawing my eyes to that deep, muscular ‘V’ that dipped into his waistband. I’d heard once that it was called the Adonis Belt. What a perfect fucking name. What a perfect fucking man. What a perfect fucking place to put my hands. Or my mouth. I wasn’t picky.

  I unbuttoned my jeans and wriggled them past my hips. Huck watched hungrily as I pushed them down my legs, stepped out of them, and kicked them into a pile to the side. When I reached for the button on his jeans, his hands cupped my backside, pulling me flush against him. It was chilly in the barn, but I knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Not once his mouth was back on mine.

  “This can’t even be called underwear,” he said, slipping his finger into the small string of my thong and tugging it until the fabric shifted and rubbed me just the right way. I couldn’t stop the soft moan that echoed in my throat in response to the way he was touching me. I seemed to lose all control around Huck.

  “Call it whatever you want as long as you take it off me,” I suggested.

  I barely had the button undone on his pants before he picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist. He walked forward until I felt my back press against the rough wooden walls of the nearest stall. Looking down between us, I could see that his jeans were hanging wide open and he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. I nearly convulsed right on the spot.

  “We have to get back to the house and get ready,” he said huskily, kissing my neck and pushing his hips against mine as he used his hand to push his jeans a little lower.

  “Not before you give me that roll in the hay you promised, cowboy.” Pulling his hat a little lower on his head, I tightened my leg muscles and then relaxed, causing my body to move up and down on his as I rolled my hips against him. He shifted down my thong just enough to get it out of the way and then he pushed himself inside me.

  “You feel so fucking good,” he groaned, leisurely moving in and out as his chest crushed against mine, nailing my body to the wall behind me. I was completely at his mercy, suspended against the rough wood as his hips thrust into me over and over again, picking up the pace to match his heavy breathing.

  It was such a turn-on that he was still fully clothed, screwing me senseless in the middle of a barn where anyone could accidentally walk in and see us. I think the thrill of the possibility of getting caught had become too addictive for both of us. Our last two days in the office we’d taken way too many risks and had almost gotten caught several times. And yet we just couldn’t stop. The risk was too much of an aphrodisiac for both of us.

  I could feel the smooth muscles of Huck’s stomach clench every time he buried himself into me, sending darts of pleasure through my body with every deep plunge. It didn’t take long for the desire to build until I was teetering on the edge, begging him to go harder. Deeper. Huck’s hips feverishly crashed into me, rocking the wall behind me so hard I thought the stable might collapse around us. His mouth was insistent against mine, swallowing the desperate demands that were spilling from my mouth.

  “You own me,” he groaned against my lips. He said it again as if he was surrendering to me. In the back of my mind, I knew I should be panicking at the thought of what this admission, what his surrender meant. Commitment had always felt like too much of a liability. But at that moment, my mind and body didn’t care—I wanted Huck to belong to me.

  He dropped his head until his lips touched the
spot where my neck met my shoulder. “And you are mine,” he mumbled against my skin. His fingers dug into me. “Mine,” he growled again as if it was a word of submission, as if he was giving himself to me as much as he was claiming me, the need in his words capturing my breath with the power of his desire. His hands and lips were everywhere at once, leaving my skin tingling and my body wanting more. As far as I was concerned, Huck could say whatever he wanted, as long as he didn’t stop fucking me.

  He repeated the word “mine” over and over in a gravely version of his voice. I could hear myself chanting “Oh God” repeatedly as the tidal wave of my orgasm crashed through me. Huck’s hips continued to push into me until the words “Oh God” turned into an incantation of his name. It was always his name that undid him. Huck thrust into me a final time, crushing me against the wood as his orgasm finally met the echoes of my own.

  We clung to each other as he kept me pressed against the wooden wall. Huck was still buried deep inside me, and I could feel a strange tremor move through his body, but I knew it wasn’t from the cold since we were both flushed and sweaty.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you,” he said against my neck.

  ***

  Dinner with Huck’s parents was low key—just the five of us, some good wine (or so I was told), and a delicious meal that I was surprised to learn was not prepared by his mother. It seemed she was as skilled in the kitchen as I was. Which was not at all. I kind of admired her for that.

  Huck’s father insisted on talking about all the projects I’d done for his company with Legend Records. Although we’d never actually met before, he seemed to be familiar with my work. That surprised me, seeing as how William Stone Media was just a small portion of his business portfolio. He had an army of CEOs heading his different businesses, and I always assumed I was too far down the employee totem pole to catch his attention. But William Stone seemed to be the kind of man who enjoyed control and prided himself on knowing every minor detail of his companies, including his employees. He and I got along very well.