This woman drove me wild enough yesterday, leaving just as things had finally rekindled between us. Memories of her body sinking into mine on the couch kept me up half the night.
And now this.
“You’re torturing me,” I reply, and I’m rewarded with a flash of a smile, before she turns away to gaze out across the sunny rooftop and the crystalline water of the pool.
“This was your idea,” she reminds me.
“And it was a terrible one,” I amend. “Let’s call it a day and get back to my place. Or, hell, the car has tinted windows, it’s downstairs…”
She laughs and fires a grin in my direction. “Now who’s torturing who?” She arches an eyebrow. “Is this revenge for when I left you hanging yesterday?”
“Oh, absolutely. But I don’t think this is quite enough payback.” I slide around on my lounge chair so I’m positioned closer to her, my knees grazing her arm where it’s draped over the side of her seat. She shivers, and I watch goosebumps rise along her arms, stifling a self-satisfied smile. “Do you know what I would do to you if we didn’t have company up here?” I ask her, my voice pitched low.
Her gaze flits toward the bar again. It’s midday, but we’re at one of the hotels in town, so there are a handful of tourists enjoying their “it’s 5’o-clock somewhere” cocktails. One of the guys, I’ve noticed, keeps glancing in Cassidy’s direction, his eyes lingering for far too long on her long legs, crossed along the lounge chair and soaking up the noon sun.
It makes me want to stride over there and confront him. Or better yet, throw Cassidy over my shoulder and whisk her out of here, away from anyone else’s leering gaze. Somewhere only I can leer at her like that.
I shake my head and focus on her again. She’s looking at me with her brown eyes wide behind her oversized sunglasses.
“What would you do?” she asks, in a voice that trembles slightly, as if she’s nervous to find out. Or excited. Maybe both.
I smirk, and bend closer, until my lips graze the shell of her ear. “First, I’d tear off that ridiculous top.” My fingertip slides up her waist, along the edge of her curves, drawing a delicious shiver out of her, before I slip one fingertip beneath the edge of her bikini top. Not far enough to draw any attention.
Yet.
She sucks in a breath, her eyes going hooded and intent. “Like you tore off my shirt last night?”
“Exactly.” I lift on eyebrow. “But this time, I’d make sure to take the bottoms, too.” My gaze drips down the soft planes of her stomach to the bikini bottoms she’s wearing. They’re high-waisted, but they hike up far enough to reveal the arches of her hipbones beneath them. “Seeing you stripped bare in the sunlight up here would begin to make up for yesterday…”
She laughs, but it sounds breathier than it did before. I can tell I’m getting to her. I glance up at the bar—creeper man isn’t looking at us anymore—and then I slide my hand fully beneath her bikini top.
She gasps and tenses. But when she looks over, she notices that no one is watching us, too. Still. “Lark,” she hisses, a hint of admonishment in her tone.
“I’m afraid there’s only so much resisting you can expect a man to do around a woman like you, Cassidy.” As I speak, I trace her nipple with my thumb. Trail my nail over that delicate, sensitive skin lightly, and then press down with the pad of my thumb, swirling gently until I feel her nipple beginning to harden under my touch.
She bites her lower lip, hard. “So that’s all you would do?” she whispers, after a pause. “Just strip me naked and leave me here?”
“Oh, no.” My smile widens. “But I would take my time with you…” I dip my head to lick her earlobe, and savor the shiver I feel. “I would make sure to taste every inch of your glorious body.” I kiss the sensitive spot just beneath her ear now, at the edge of her jaw. “Kiss, and…” I trail my tongue along her jawline. “Lick, and…” I pause at her mouth. She arches up toward me, expecting a kiss. I suck her lower lip into my mouth instead, and bite down gently. “Bite every inch of you,” I murmur when I pull back.
She groans. Probably because I’m fully massaging her hard nipple now. And my free hand is wandering down her waist toward her hips. “Okay, I get it. This is definitely payback.”
“Nonsense.” I arch an eyebrow at her. “Payback would be if I left right now on some mysterious errand I refused to tell you about.”
Her face flushes. “Lark, I—”
“It’s okay.” I shake my head. “Keep your secrets.” Then I kiss her again, softer this time, to accentuate my point. “I don’t mind, as long as I get to keep toying with you in between.” I pinch her breast, not hard, just enough to make her gasp and jump a little. Then I withdraw my hand and slide back over to my chair, reclining on it casually.
When I peek over again, she’s glaring at me. I can’t help but laugh.
“You are the worst,” she grumbles. But she’s smiling, too.
“Still against my car option?” I reply, smirking right back.
Her cheeks flush. But she darts a glance toward the bathroom—the single stall, handicap style bathroom, and I can already read where her mind is going.
“Interesting idea, Ms. Marks,” I murmur.
Her cheeks, if possible, turn even redder. “I didn’t mean—”
“Oh, but I do.” I grin. “Go on. Head to the bathroom. I’ll be right behind you in a minute.”
She hesitates, like she’s still not sure. So I dip close to her ear again. “Did I mention where my tongue would end up, after all of that kissing?”
That apparently decides it for her. She levers herself off her seat and fires a flustered look at the people by the bar again. Lord help this girl, she would not survive as a spy. Her embarrassment is written all over her face. But it only makes me want her more.
This girl who’s willing to step out of her comfort zone for me. Who’s as desperate to be with me again as I am to make her come screaming my name.
Well. Maybe not screaming, if we’re trying to be stealthy.
Then again, I wouldn’t mind if the pool-drinking crowd caught us. It would wipe the leer off the creeper’s face, at any rate. Let everyone on this rooftop know that the most beautiful, vivacious, whip-smart woman around is here with me.
I force myself to lie still and count to ten after the bathroom door closes behind Cassidy. Somewhere around eight, I decide I can’t wait anymore, and I push upright, wrapping a towel around my waist before I pad over to the stall. I knock once, twice, and wait.
Cassidy unlocks the door and opens it a crack, glaring. “I thought you were going to wait a couple minutes,” she protests.
I ignore her and pry the handle from her hands, pushing the door inward to step inside. It’s a tight space, but not cramped, plenty room for enough for two. And surprisingly clean for a poolside bathroom. I’m guessing that’s because it’s still early in the day, and the drinking crowd hasn’t needed it quite yet.
“I couldn’t wait any longer,” I tell her, and to judge by the answering flash of heat in her gaze, she knows what I mean.
I wrap my hands around her waist and hoist her onto the edge of the sink easily. At the same time, I dip my head to kiss those full, luscious lips. Cassidy sighs against me, and the whole world narrows down to this. To the heat between our bodies, the sweet, almost floral scent of her consuming my senses.
I peel her bikini top off and drop it onto the floor. Both of her nipples are hard by now, and I dip my face down to suck on one, my hands toying with the other, as she leans back against the mirror over the sink, her lips parting.
“Fuck, Lark. I couldn’t… I can’t get you out of my head. Ever.”
I draw back just far enough to read the sincerity in her eyes. The force of emotion behind her words. “Neither can I,” I tell her, suddenly serious. “Even when I thought you wanted nothing to do with me, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. You drive me fucking wild, Cassidy Marks.” I hook one thumb under her bikini bottoms.
She arches up against me, giving me enough room to tug them off. While I’m doing that, she gets one of her hands under the hem of my boxers and starts to work pushing them down my tanned thighs. “I know the feeling,” she replies. Her throat works tightly with a swallow.
She has to unhook her legs from around my thighs in order for me to finish peeling her bottoms off. When I do, they land on the ground with a wet sound, even though neither of us has been in the pool yet.
I smirk at her. “Clearly,” I say.
Her cheeks are still that sun-kissed, flushed pink. It would be adorable if it wasn’t so fucking sexy. I bend to kiss her again, stepping back between her thighs, and she hooks her ankles behind my lower back.
My swim trunks hit the ground, next, and I don’t need to look down to know that my cock is already rock hard. I can feel the blood rushing to it, every muscle in my body tightening with the need to fuck this woman. To relieve myself of the ache I’ve been feeling since yesterday—no, since I met her.
If I believed in magic, I’d be pretty sure Cassidy is a sorceress, the way she has me obsessing. I’ve never needed a woman this much; so much I couldn’t get her out of my mind even when I wanted to.
I pin her back against the sink and kiss those sun-kissed lips of hers. When we draw back, I grin down at her. “Think you can stay quiet enough not to get us caught?” I ask.
Her eyes flare with heat. “If that’s a challenge, I accept.”
I take a step closer to her, until the shaft of my cock touches her bare stomach. She breathes in again, sharp, and I trail my fingertips up her inner thighs, tracing her soft skin until I reach the spot where her hips meet her thighs. I trace those ridges, dancing around her mound, not quite touching her yet.
She squirms, just a little.
“What about now?” I reply, my smile widening. At the same time, I part her slit with two fingers and delve a third into the soft folds of her pussy, tracing her slit, not quite entering her yet.
She bites her lower lip. “It’s a good start,” she murmurs.
I laugh, and dip to kiss her jawline. Her neck. All the while, my fingertip strokes back and forth along her, collecting the juices pooled there. “You’re so wet for me, Cassidy.”
Another shiver. But she reaches up between us, and folds both hands around the hard length of my shaft. “I’m not the only one excited.”
“Mmm…” I chuckle against her throat, trailing my tongue along the edge. “You have no idea.” I press my finger into her entrance. Savor the feeling of that wet, warm pussy tightening around my fingertip.
She inhales sharply. Twists against her perch on the sink, while I slide another finger inside her.
Then I curl them, gently dragging my fingertips down her walls.
A low moan catches in the back of her throat, and I grin. “There we go.”
She meets my gaze, stubborn. “I’m… fine.”
“Really?” I lift one eyebrow. Then I add a third finger. She gasps, and I start to stroke in and out of her, gently, my fingers moving with slick ease. On my next thrust in, I graze the edge of her clit with my thumb, and she cries out faintly.
Not quite loud enough to get us caught. Yet. But I’m getting there.
She must read my self-satisfaction on my face, because she twists against me, her pussy pressing up closer into my palm as her hips rise off the sink a little. “Is that all you’ve got?” She arches an eyebrow, and I laugh again, enjoying the sight of her like this. Enthralled, and yet still stubbornly trying to resist me.
“No, it certainly isn’t,” I murmur. I slide my fingers out of her with a slick sound. Then I raise them to my lips, and suck them clean, one finger at a time, my gaze on hers the whole time. The taste of her nearly sends me wild. As heady and almost as sweet as I remember.
I position myself between her thighs again, and grip the base of my cock. “Let’s see how you deal with my cock instead,” I tell her, and her eyes flash with desire.
She spreads her legs, the pink folds of her pussy so damn inviting. “Fuck me, Lark,” she breathes.
I don’t need any more invitation than that. I press the tip of my cock against her entrance, and slowly, slow enough to drive us both wild, I push myself inside her. One inch at a time, maddeningly slow.
Another moan escapes her throat, longer and lower this time.
Finally, I push fully inside her. I wrap my hands around her hipbones for purchase, and she keeps those soft, lush thighs of hers wrapped around my waist, her ankles hooked behind me.
I pull out and thrust into her again, as her head falls back, her hair cascading over her bare shoulder. “Fuck,” she whispers.
“God, you have the most perfect fucking pussy,” I murmur, thrusting into her again. Again. Her muscles tighten around my shaft, the hot, wet heat enveloping me, going straight to my head.
“It’s yours,” Cassidy whispers, which sends a pulse of white hot heat straight to my cock. “I’m yours.”
I slide my arms up to cradle her waist, slowing to a gentle thrust now. Drawing out and pushing back inside her over and over. “And I’m yours, Cassidy Marks. For good.”
I can feel her body relax in my arms, even as she angles her hips up toward me. Surrendering. Letting me take her the way I want to.
I keep the motion slow for as long as I can stand. But there’s only so long I can resist this woman. In the end, I tighten my grip on her and fuck her faster, harder, savoring every breathy gasp until the pressure builds up in her, too much for her to contain.
She lets out a sharp cry as she comes, and I keep my gaze focused on her, drinking in her wild abandon.
I finish moments later, crushing her body tight against mine as I do. We’re both breathing hard, slicked with sweat by the time we part, and when our lips collide, I want to keep her right here forever. With me, in our little bubble away from the world.
By the time we slip back out onto the pool deck, there’s a line for the bathroom. A middle-aged woman glares at us, and a younger guy whoops when we exit. Cassidy’s face heats up bright red. I ignore them all, though. Because I have eyes only for her.
We cross back over the pool deck to our chairs. But the moment we sit down, Cassidy checks her phone, and her face pales.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She hesitates, worrying her lower lip in a way I’m coming to be familiar with. Her nervous expression.
“You can tell me,” I reassure her.
She lets out a soft sigh, and slumps back against her chair. “I… It’s kind of awkward. It’s about business.”
“All the more reason to talk to me,” I say, imitating her to lounge on my own seat. “We’re business partners, after all. You’re one of our biggest investments. Your problems are mine, too.”
She glances at her phone again for a long, quiet moment. Then she squares her shoulders, as if deciding. “Speaking of investments. I need another one.”
I blink at her for a long moment, not following. “But, I’ve been watching the budgets. You haven’t spent nearly what we gave you yet.”
“I know, it’s… It’s some old stuff. Debts that I didn’t realize I’d need to pay off already. I’m sorry, I know it’s last minute and weird of me to ask right now—”
I sit upright. “Wait a minute. How much more money are we talking?”
“I-I don’t know. A few thousand? Maybe more?”
“What are these debts? Why didn’t I hear anything about this in our initial pitch meeting?” I stare at her.
She turns her face away, unable to meet my gaze. “I was embarrassed. I thought I could get out of this hole on my own; but the money that’s come in so far hasn’t been able to cover it.”
“Hang on.” I glance from her to the bathroom and back. “Did you… wait until we’d just had sex to ask me for money?” I can’t help it. Memories claw at me.
That was always Sheryl’s favorite tactic. Any time I didn’t agree with a financial decision she made, she’d ply me wi
th sex. Wait until I was half-asleep afterward and then ambush me with the least sexy pillow talk imaginable.
I don’t want to believe Cassidy would do the same, but…
Beside me, she sits bolt upright in her chair and whips around to face me, her jaw dropping. “Is that what you think of me?”
“Well, did you?” I raise an eyebrow. “We’ve been in contact about finances for weeks. Why not ask me about this sooner?”
“I can’t believe you think I’d try to get money from you in exchange for sex.” Cassidy shoves to her feet now. “Do you think I’m some kind of gold-digger?”
“I didn’t…” I grit my teeth and shut my eyes. “Cassidy, wait. I’m sorry I leapt to a conclusion. But this is all really strange, you have to admit that.”
But she’s already shaking her head. “I thought I could trust you. I thought we could be honest with each other. But I guess we can’t.” With that, she grabs her purse and storms toward the exit from the rooftop.
I leap up to follow her, but she’s moving too fast. Already halfway across the roof before I even find my shoes. Watching her walk into the women’s changing room, without a backward glance, I give up. I sink back onto the edge of my chair and rest my forehead in my hands.
Is she just using me? Or did I just shatter the tentative peace between us for nothing?
28
Cassidy
This is just like Norman. How could I have thought things would be any different? I stare at my reflection in the mirror of the changing room. Tears streak down my cheeks, and my eyes are red and puffy from crying. I don’t know how long I’ve been standing in here, afraid that if I go back out, Lark will have followed me, or be looking for me by the elevators.
I wrap my arms around my waist, shivering. How could he think I’m a gold digger?
But then… I did ask him for money. Out of the blue. Without explaining myself. Fuck. I lean my forehead against the mirror for support, shivering.
On my phone are a string of texts from my mother. Need to go to the hospital, read the first one. A long series below it. I don’t have health insurance. I don’t know what I’ll do if this operation costs more than I can afford. Did you know hospital overnight stays alone can costs tens of thousands of dollars??
Best of Penny Wylder: Boss Romance Page 35