by Claire Adams
He let his cock sit where it belonged for a moment, then pulled out. When I turned around, he rubbed soap on his chest, then his shoulders. I couldn’t believe how big he was. He seemed smaller with his clothes on, adorable even, but that was deceptive.
He rubbed soap over my body, my shoulders, back, and hips, then moved onto my chest. When the water washed it away, he gave me a mischievous smile and bent down to suck on my nipple. He pulled the skin in and played his teeth over the tip while his hand moved down my back, over my hips. He dug his finger in between my legs and pulled it over my clit.
I already trembled, and he wasn’t done. He circled my clit, then moved up the tip. I felt my lips trembling and my legs shaking. The wave came on so fast, I wasn’t ready when it burst through me. I threw my head back. “Jesus,” I cried.
“Oh, multiples,” he said, laughing. His cock was bright red and hard when he turned the water off.
His phone sat on the vanity, playing the sound of a waterfall. He dried his hands on a towel and snatched it up. “Is it ready?” he asked, then paused for an answer. “Great, we’ll be down in a moment. He went to hang up. “Oh,” he added. “Make sure Starla’s occupied, will you? Thanks.”
“Starla?” I asked.
“She’s the cook that looked like she was ready to rip your head off.”
“Business and pleasure,” I said.
He handed me a towel. “She honestly didn’t seem like the type to get jealous.”
I started to dry off. He did get around. The women had been right about that, and he talked about it so casually. It was a little unsettling to think that he could go through women so quickly. I had to remind myself that it didn’t matter. This was business, not pleasure. No matter how good it felt. I didn’t care so much about the way he was with women. I wanted to know what drove him, what made him the man he was, and why he had such an aversion to love. I didn’t want to ask, though. He rarely talked about himself, and I knew he did that for a reason.
When we walked downstairs, the smell of boiling lobster poured out of the kitchen into the dining room, where a bottle of white wine and a basket of rolls had been set up. Jake pulled my chair out and waited for me to sit down before he took his seat.
“I’m sure you’re going to love the lobster. These ladies know what they’re doing.”
“I haven’t had lobster in years. I’m kind of excited. Thanks.” I blushed.
“I don’t mind showing you a good time,” he said, and smiled.
The talkative chef came out pushing a cart with two platters. She set them down in front of me and pulled the lid off so the smell hit me in the face. My mouth started to water. “Oh,” I groaned and broke off a piece. The meat was succulent and salty with the perfect freshly-caught taste.
He watched my expression when I took a bite. It was like he wanted me to be satisfied. He didn’t care about his food. He was barely eating. This was about giving me a taste of the finer things. I couldn’t have been more grateful. He provided me with the escape I needed.
When I was with him, I wasn’t waiting for my father to die or worrying whether my mother would lose her mind from working too much. I was able to enjoy myself and take part in things I never would’ve seen otherwise. And I loved the attention.
When he ate, he kept looking up at me, back down at his plate, and up again. He didn’t go more than a few seconds without glancing up. It was flattering. No man had ever appreciated me the way he did. I tried to quell those thoughts and focus on my food, but the wine was creeping in, and we were pulling closer. He leaned in, I scooted up, and our eyes naturally gravitated towards one another, until he stood up and walked behind me.
“You still hungry?” he asked. He kneaded my shoulders.
“Starving,” I said.
He bent down and whispered in my ear. “Good.”
I downed the rest of my wine and let him lead me up to his bedroom. He bent me over the bed and played my body like an instrument. He was a master at his craft. He drew the moment out while I laid enraptured by his touch. There was no final moment. Just one explosion after the other until we collapsed onto the bed, both of us too tired to do anything but bask in the warm afterglow.
Chapter 15
Jake
The first thing I saw when my eyes opened the next morning was Maria sleeping next to me. I hadn’t let a woman stay in my house in a long time. It was against my rules, but having her there felt comforting. I knew it was wrong, but a man couldn’t live off of sex alone. And it felt so natural, like I should’ve had her there all along.
My cock hardened while I watched her breath rise and fall. She sighed softly and turned over, revealing her naked hips from under the covers. I knew that if I waited there much longer, I’d be tearing the blanket off and pounding into her, but I didn’t want to wake her up. She looked so peaceful. I put on a pair of track pants and an old shirt and walked down the hall into the gym.
I hopped on the treadmill and turned it on to a walking pace while I focused on my breath—in my nose and out my mouth, over and over, hoping to distract myself from the way my cock swung back and forth while I walked. It rubbed against my pants. The head burned, and my blood flowed.
I wanted to run back into the bedroom and rail through her, but something told me it was a bad idea. I turned the speed up and started jogging, still clinging to the idea that I could focus on anything other than the goddess laying on my bed.
I turned the speed up higher, thinking the faster pace would clear my head as my lungs strained to keep up with the rest of my body. Beads of sweat fell down my forehead over my face. I wiped them away, but they kept coming.
I closed my eyes to block the sweat from getting into them, but when I did, I saw her in the shower with her head back and water streaming down her neck. I turned the speed up and raised the volume on the TV, but it couldn’t drown out the sound of her screaming when she came.
The treadmill wasn’t working. I needed to push myself even harder. I laid down on the bench press and started my reps. “One,” I grunted. “Two, three, four.” It sounded just like when I pushed through her. I lifted the weight up and set it on the bar.
There wasn’t any point in working out if I couldn’t work off my pent-up energy. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me, or why I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I’d spent countless hours dreaming about women, but this was different.
Normally, I thought about women so I could get off. When I thought about Maria, there was a burst of excitement and wonder. I wanted to pick her brain and find out everything about her. This was a genuine emotional interest, not a shallow fantasy.
I walked back in my room quietly to see if she was awake. She had her back turned, and her chest rose and fell. I couldn’t just kick her out like I normally would. We’d had too much fun, and I didn’t want her to leave right away. I decided to go down to the kitchen and kick the girls out so I could make us both some breakfast.
I began with eggs, scrambled with a touch of cream to get the perfect consistency. Then pancakes. Some with blueberries and others with chocolate chips. Then I fried up an entire package of bacon and sausages. I knew it was a lot, and most of it would go to feeding the staff, but I wanted to make breakfast an event.
I added some greens to garnish the platter and poured up three bottles of syrup: maple, strawberry, and blackberry. Then I walked out back to cut a rose for her. She deserved some appreciation after everything she’d put up with.
I almost felt bad. I knew she didn’t feel comfortable getting paid, but I didn’t feel comfortable using her. Any arrangement we made would have to be completely platonic. A business deal was the best way to set that boundary, and she deserved the money. I could tell that she wasn’t used to it.
Still, in a perfect world, none of this would be happening. I had fought for years to control my sex drive. I pushed it down and wore out my hand. I waited out my cravings, but it just made things worse. In the end, I’d just end up screwing the
first woman I saw, and it broke hearts. I wasn’t a predator. I didn’t want to hurt any of these women. I hated it, but I couldn’t control myself. Any woman I was with would have to take on that burden.
When I walked back upstairs to check on her, my stomach jumped. The covers had fallen down her chest, revealing a rosy swatch of nipple. I had the food waiting outside the door and laid down beside her. I wanted to stroke her face and wake her up with a kiss. I wanted to do that every morning, but it was just too dangerous. We couldn’t do this again. I’d already gone too far.
Chapter 16
Mercedes
A warm band of light streamed in through the curtains and fell on my face. I heard the sound of Jake breathing and felt his arm around me. I shot up.
“Good morning,” he said. The light beat against his ruffled, golden hair.
“Good morning.” I stretched my arms up and looked at the clock beside his nightstand. It was already 9.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’ve got to call my parents. They’re probably freaking out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I know how it sounds.” I blushed. “They’ve got a lot on their plates. Worrying is sort of a family pastime.”
“It’s perfectly understandable.” He reached down and grabbed my pants to hand me my phone.
“Thanks, I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry, I have something for you.” I’d never seen him so excited, almost innocent.
I went into the bathroom and closed the door to call my mother. She didn’t answer at first, but she called me right back as soon as I got off the phone. “Hello?”
“What happened?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I should’ve called you. I stayed the night at Loren’s.”
“Oh, thank God,” she sighed.
“How’s Dad?”
“He’s fine. I left a couple hours after you. When I got home, he was sleeping.”
“I don’t like the idea of leaving him alone like this.”
“There’s nothing we can do.”
“We’ll talk about this later. I’ll be home soon.” When I hung up and walked into the bedroom, there was a food cart sitting next to the bed with a bowl of strawberries and a mountain of breakfast food. “You rock.” I flopped onto the bed next to Jake.
“Well, I am hard.” He pulled the blanket back to show off his pup tent sticking out of his track pants.
“Yeah?” I grabbed a strawberry off the cart and tried to feed it to him, but he snagged it from me and stuffed it in my mouth.
A drop of juice fell down the side of my mouth. He licked it off, hitting the sensitive space on the edge of my lips. “We have bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes.” He leaned over to the edge of the bed. “And this.” He pulled a rose off the bottom of the cart and handed it to me.
I smelled it and set it aside on the nightstand. “Thank you,” I said.
“I had to do something.” He grabbed another strawberry and popped it in his mouth while I took one of the plates off the cart and filled it with eggs. “So I made you breakfast.”
“It’s wonderful,” I said. “Do you like to cook?”
“Oh, yeah. Normally, the kitchen is for the girls.”
“Right, a woman’s place,” I said.
“Exactly, but whenever I get a chance, I like to kick them out and make something for myself.”
“What’s your favorite thing to make?” I asked.
“Curry,” he said. “I need it in my life.”
“Really?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“Yes,” he said. “And I make it from scratch, none of that nasty paste they ship in.”
“I like paste.”
“That’s just because you haven’t tried my curry.”
“Do you like it hot?” I asked.
“That’s the whole point, but there’s a way to do it. You boil the peppers first. That way, it’ll be hot, but it won’t burn.”
“You’re a genius.” I took a bite of my eggs while he made himself a plate. He couldn’t keep his eyes off me. He made a concerted effort and tried to focus on his plate, but every time I took a bite or looked at him, it was too much. He had to take a peek.
I kept my eyes on my food and pushed down the fluttering feeling in my stomach. “I don’t understand.”
“What?” he asked.
“You’ve got everything. You can cook. You’re rich. You work out, and you’re one of the best lays I’ve ever had. Why haven’t you settled down?”
“It’s just not me.” He stuffed a pile of eggs in his mouth. I was certain he did it to keep from having to say anything else.
“I don’t understand why it has to be hookers.”
He kept chewing, a clear sign that the conversation was over before it started. I didn’t know what I was doing anyway. Things were starting to get dangerous. I’d seen the way Starla and Maddie looked at him. I couldn’t let myself turn sour like that. I wasn’t that kind of woman, but we were both enjoying ourselves too much. I was trapped.
I finished my food, then got up to get dressed. He grabbed me and threw me back down on the bed and flipped me over. By the time we were done, I was so tired that I could barely get up again, but I knew that he was getting restless.
“I’ll bet you have to get to work,” I said, still laying on the bed while he hunted down some clothes to wear.
“I always have to work. I feel like I spend more time trying to find ways to get out of it than I do working.” He popped his head out of the closet. “You’re the perfect distraction.”
“That’s how I feel.” I pulled my pants on and grabbed my shirt.
“What do I distract you from?” he asked when he walked out and zipped up his pants.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “Just life in general, I guess.”
He nodded his head. There was a clear space between us. I knew nothing about him, and he knew nothing about me. That was the way he liked it, and I wasn’t going to open up. That was one place that neither of us could move into.
We dressed silently, he handed me my money, and I left. There was something missing. We had a quick goodbye, but no hug, no kiss. It wasn’t natural. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Didn’t he want more? He seemed to. He enjoyed our time together, and he must’ve known that he didn’t have to pay me to be with him. Something was stopping him from taking that step.
I never thought I would get into something like this. I was a sensible person. I never had one-night stands. I rarely even looked at men. I had my priorities, but I had my father to think about. Maybe he had something just as compelling driving him. Why else would he give up on love?
Chapter 17
Jake
I had two financial reports to look over and a summary to write for the board. They needed it on their desk by tomorrow morning. Most of my job was trying to prove to them that I deserved their approval. Really, they were just pompous senior citizens who thought their bank accounts entitled them to my company.
I shouldn’t have taken the company public. Now everyone and their mother was entitled to a piece of what I owned. I’d made the decision because I knew it would make me rich. Now I had to work every second of my day trying to justify that decision.
I designed the report with brightly-colored bars. Red for December, blue for January, and, of course, pink for February because of Valentine’s Day. I hovered my mouse over December. “Ho, ho, ho,” a virtual Santa chuckled.
I wanted to shoot somebody. My cock was so hard it pressed up against the bottom of my desk. Every time I moved, the wood ground against the head, and it made me shiver. I leaned back, closed my eyes, and allowed myself to drift off into the constant stream of images that’d been haunting me all day.
I laid in bed and watched Maria sleep. Now I fed her a strawberry. Then I flipped her over. Then I ravaged her body. The images in my head did nothing to suppress the desire burning inside me. But they wouldn’t go away, just like
my throbbing erection.
I couldn’t touch myself to take the edge off. Not at work. It was one of my rules. I had to maintain complete professionalism at work. Even with a private office and bathroom, the risk was too great. If someone caught me with my pants down, the entire company would hear about it by the end of the day. I resisted the temptation to break my rule and held onto the arms of my chair tightly. My attention needed to be on the reports for the board. I had to focus, but my mind only wanted to focus on Maria.
I loved the way she looked when she opened her eyes and saw me lying next to her in bed that morning. She seemed surprised at first, then thrilled. I should’ve canceled everything and refused to let her off the bed.
Quarterly reports. I moved the mouse over February, and a stream of hearts fell down the screen. The sound of a sitcom audience fawning over something adorable played from the computer speakers. It was sappy and cheesy, but it made me smile, nonetheless. She was so adorable when she tried to feed me a strawberry.
Focus, dammit. I had to get this done. The board was already talking about my lack of interest in company matters. It was just petty gossip and would be easily squashed, but I didn’t like showing weakness around them.
I was weak. I could barely keep my cock down, and my heart pounded in my chest. I needed to see Maria again, but what would happen if I did? I let her sleep in my bed and made her breakfast instead of kicking her out. Now I couldn’t even work because I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I could almost feel the heat when I pounded into her. I could almost hear her voice. The sound of her screaming in ecstasy was like a drug. I needed my fix. Why wait? I would just torture myself until I called her, but this was too dangerous. I had to fight her off.
I went back to my Word document and copied March’s sales from the analyst’s graph. Maybe I could call her and just have a quick night. I didn’t have to detach completely, just enough to keep from getting trapped. I pulled out my phone to dial her number. Once I got a taste, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I knew how our night would end up. I’d have her every which way until I was too tired to stand. She’d probably fall asleep at my place again.