Taming Blake (A New Adult Romance): The Complete Trilogy

by Eve, Charlotte

  One of his hands shifted between my legs, his thumb expertly brushing my clit in just the way to make me moan, and my eyes widened as I realized he seemed to be trying to make me break my silence.

  But before I could make another sound, he moved his other hand to my mouth, muffling my moans as he worked me to orgasm, his thumb brushing my clit, his cock sliding in and out of me.

  We came together like that, bathed in the moonlight, both of us shivering, Blake’s cock pulsing inside me, his hand pressed against my mouth.

  And afterwards, although all I wanted to do was stay there with him, I couldn’t risk falling asleep and have Mom find us here in the morning, so instead I forced myself back out from underneath the sheets, pulling on my PJ’s as if nothing had happened, giving him a final, chaste silent little kiss, then turning and tiptoeing back out of the room, leaving him flushed, sweaty and grinning as I headed back down the hall, a naughty fulfilled smile on my lips ...

  CHAPTER THREE

  We set off early the next morning, after a surprisingly warm goodbye from my folks. I thought they’d be mad at me for going back to New York, especially so quickly, leaving Sylvia in the lurch, but now they’d been so charmed by Blake, it seemed as if they’d offer him the contents of the house and their whole life savings, as well as their only daughter, if he so much as asked.

  Mom and Pop had always been kind of dubious about my career, like they didn’t really understand exactly what it was I did. But as soon as Blake explained how talented their daughter was, and what an important commission it was to design Max Hirschberg and Andy Weber’s latest restaurant, it seemed like they couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. They’d even packed us some sandwiches and a flask of coffee for the road! It seemed as if everyone Blake met fell just as quickly under his spell as I had done.

  Soon we were on the highway. It was a nine hour drive back to New York, but I didn’t mind. And neither, it seemed, did Blake. I found it weird to see him actually driving, too, instead of lounging in the back of the car, letting Nathaniel do the work, the way he always did back in Manhattan.

  Sitting there in the passenger seat, I couldn’t help myself; I had to let him know just how strange I thought he looked behind the wheel, like a regular guy. “It’s funny watching you drive,” I teased. “A little part of me suspected you couldn’t.”

  I watched Blake’s right eyebrow raise, but he kept his eyes firmly on the road ahead as he spoke.

  “Let’s just say I’m full of surprises,” he joked.

  But even so, I found myself wondering ...

  There it is again - that hint that perhaps I’ve not got him quite right.

  Who are you, Blake?

  Will I ever unravel this mystery?

  “Anyway,” he continued, “nobody drives in New York unless they absolutely have to. You’d need to be a masochist to enjoy it. But the open road? That’s a different matter. You know, one of my favorite things to do is to get out of the city, take one of my cars out for a long drive through the countryside. But this is the first time in God-knows-how-long that I’ve actually had a chance to do it. A whole garage full of vintage roadsters, just sitting there, collecting dust. It’s criminal.

  “Listen, Jessica, when we get back, I’m gonna take you out for a spin. We’ll take the ’61 Ferrari. It’s a beautiful car … a design classic, in fact. You’ll love it. We’ll drive out to Rhode Island … How about it? Just the two of us, doing something really normal together.”

  I laughed at the thought. I couldn’t help myself.

  “Yeah, really normal!” I teased again. “Just a regular normal day out in one of the world’s most expensive cars …”

  We drove for a little while in silence, the road flashing past. It seemed as if we were the only two people on this huge stretch of highway, and pretty soon my thoughts had turned once more to the future, to what might happen when we got back to New York.

  And it seemed as if Blake must have been thinking the exact same thing.

  “Where do you want to go when you get back?” he asked rather cautiously. “Your apartment or mine?”

  Am I really about to say this?

  “Actually? About that,” I began, feeling the mood in the car change immediately, Blake becoming tense and silent as he waited for me to continue, his steely grey eyes fixed straight ahead. “Well, I was thinking. If I’m gonna do this, it has to be on my terms,” I explained. “All of it. And that includes where I live, and where I work. So, as soon as I get back, I’m going to start looking around for my own place.”

  There was a long tense silence. Blake swallowed, then nodded to himself.

  “I understand if you need to move out from the apartment. However, that office was my gift to you. And it’s going to stay that way. It’ll still be there for you, whenever you’re ready …”

  It was so tempting. After all, the easiest thing in the world would be to go back to my old apartment, back to Gina, and not have to worry about finding a new place to live. But I’d already made up my mind. I needed to do this on my own, and I wasn’t about to let myself get into the same mess as last time …

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll think about it.”

  Again the silence quickly enveloped us, just the steady purr of the Bentley’s engine, and the quiet hiss of its tires spinning against the asphalt.

  But even though I’d made myself pretty clear, I had one more thing to spell out …

  “Don’t worry,” I explained. “Everything I’ve just said doesn’t mean we can’t still have some fun.”

  And to illustrate my point, I let my fingers stray across towards him, slipping into his lap, enjoying hearing the sharp intake of his breath as I began to massage his crotch.

  “Just keep your eyes on the road and let me take care of this,” I whispered, hearing the faint tremble of excitement in my voice as I worked him gently, feeling that hot hard bulge grow and strain against his pants.

  I slowly unzipped him, unbuckling his belt, freeing him — his cock springing up to greet me, thick and hard and flushed a deep, delicious pink.

  I closed my eyes as I let my head fall slowly into his lap, taking him eagerly in my mouth.

  “You’re incredible,” he murmured, as I began to slowly and sensuously suck him, knowing I had all the time in the world to enjoy him at my own pace, in my own way …

  §

  It was after six when Blake finally dropped me off at my old place. I expected Gina to either be out shopping or dining as usual, but instead I found her cross-legged, right there in the middle of the living room, surrounded by about a thousand multi-colored nail varnishes.

  “Oh my god! Am I glad to see you!” she squealed, leaping to her feet when she saw me, her startling blue eyes wider than I’d ever seen them, her red hair thick and wild.

  Now don’t get me wrong, I was glad to see her too, but I have to admit, there was something about her intensity that took me aback and I wondered if it was perhaps because I’d just spent nine hours alone in a car with Blake, or six weeks in the world’s quietest town before that. But either way, Gina seemed full on — way more intense than I remembered her. And I hoped everything was okay …

  “Oh baby, baby, it’s so good to have you back,” she said into my neck, hugging me so tight that she squeezed all the air right out of me, her big breasts pressing against my own small chest. “You and I have got so much catching up to do! Where to start? Where to start? I’ve got so much to tell you! Let me think ...”

  It was as if she just couldn’t stop talking — the words rushing unchecked from her full, glossy lips.

  “Is everything okay?” I interrupted, at the first available opportunity.

  “Of course!” she gushed. “Why in the hell wouldn’t it be? I mean, Julius and I broke up of course. But that’s old news. And anyway, I’m over that man-whore already! I’ve met someone else. And this isn’t just one guy! This is a whole new group of guys. I’ll have to introduce you to them. Such fun! But what about y
ou? Tell me all about what you’ve been up to, baby. Oh my darling, it really is so good to see you. Did I tell you Julius and I broke up? That louse!”

  She just kept rattling on and on, and I just couldn’t seem to find a moment to get a word in edge ways, let alone break the news that I’d be moving out of this place at the first opportunity.

  I guess it can wait until the morning …

  “Say, I’m beat,” I explained. “I’m gonna go to my room, unpack, maybe take a little nap,” I said, turning to head to my room.

  “Sure thing, sweetie,” she said, plonking herself back down on the floorboards amongst the millions of nail varnishes once more. “But before you go, I don’t suppose you could help me find my red polish could you? I swear it’s here somewhere …”

  I looked down at the sea of varnishes.

  What is she talking about? Almost half of them are red …

  “There’s lots of red ones …” I offered, hesitantly.

  “Not the right red though!” she replied, her eyes shining wildly as she scanned her collection. “I’m looking for the perfect red.”

  Just standing there looking at her, rooting through those colorful bottles, brimming with all that manic energy, made me feel tired, and again I turned to head to my room.

  “I’ll catch you later,” I said.

  “So great to have you back! So great!” she called after me, before turning her attention once again to the nail varnishes. “Now, where are you, you little bastard …”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “This place is going to be just fabulous!” Max Hirschberg exclaimed loudly, throwing his arms out and gesturing towards the empty space we were standing in.

  This was not the cold, shrewd, keeps-his-cards-close-to-his-chest businessman that I’d met back when I pitched for this job. No, this guy was, how can I put it, a little more … flamboyant.

  And so was his partner — Andy Weber. And from the way they looked at each other, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed the first time I met them, that they were clearly ‘partners’, in the other sense of the word, too.

  “We’re so glad you found time to take on this job, sweetie,” he said, taking my arm. “You were head and shoulders above the competition.”

  “Why, thank you …” I murmured, still a little embarrassed about this little white lie.

  You see, when I’d finally turned on my iPhone and checked my emails, I saw that the job offer had been made three whole weeks previously. My first reaction was to panic. There was just no way that the job offer was still going to be there, after all that time leaving them hanging.

  But luckily, the Manhattan rumor mill had worked in my favor for once. Max and Andy couldn’t wait to tell Elizabeth O’Connor how fabulous my ideas were. And Elizabeth, in turn, had told Blake about my successful pitch. Although Blake didn’t have a clue where I was, or whether I’d ever speak to him again, he knew he couldn’t let this opportunity slip by me. So he asked Max and Andy to wait a few weeks longer, while I finished up a job for him. And of course, nobody says no to Blake Matthews.

  So I returned to New York, my reputation intact. My stay in Glenbrook Falls would remain a little secret between me and Blake.

  I took another look around the big, empty space: the various workmen bustling around, gutting the old fittings, knocking everything back to the bare brick, preparing the place for my design scheme.

  Max and Andy’s restaurant was to be a seafood place, called Mermaids, and I’d taken quite a risk with my initial pitch, going for a really kitsch, OTT vibe: plush banquet seating in pastel baby blue, these absolutely amazing chairs I’d found that looked like seashells, and mirrors with lavish mother of pearl frames. And it had obviously paid off. They just loved it. If I’m honest, it wasn’t quite to my taste. But I was realizing that this job wasn’t always about me. It was about the client, and delivering what they wanted. And maybe, in this case, toning it down just a little. Now I just had to make sure that the reality lived up to my initial sketches and suggestions …

  “You got everything you need to get started?” Andy (or was it Max?) asked me.

  “I think so,” I smiled back, trying to keep my manner cool and professional — at least outwardly.

  They didn’t need to know that inside I was kind of biting my lip and shaking my head, wondering if I really had what it took to pull this whole thing off.

  But still, I’d had a good long chat with the architect, going over all the floor plans and layouts, and I’d seen Marianne do it a thousand times before. Yeah, I was good to go …

  “Great!” Andy said. “We’ll leave you to it then!”

  I’d just began making a few notes about table arrangements, and sketching down a few ideas for art placement on the walls, when I felt my cell vibrating in my bag.

  Not now.

  I pulled it out anyway, about to cancel the call, when I caught sight of the display: Fallon. It had been weeks since I’d last spoken to her — perhaps even a month.

  So I quickly dashed outside onto the sidewalk to get away from the noise of all the building work.

  “Hey!” I said, so glad to finally catch up with her. “Guess where I am!”

  “Well,” Fallon began dryly. “It’s a Tuesday afternoon in Glenbrook Falls, so you’re probably … walking to the corner store to buy a bag of chips?”

  “Not even close,” I replied. “I’m actually standing outside what is soon to be the hottest new restaurant in town, Mermaids, working out exactly where to place the lighting scheme, after my successful pitch to design Hirschberg + Weber’s latest restaurant venture.”

  “Go Team Clark! About time too!” the excited voice on the other end of the line replied. “So you’re back in New York?! Jessica, that’s awesome! I just knew you’d find your way back, sooner rather than later.”

  Breaking it to Fallon just before Christmas that I’d left New York for good had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. I’d cried and apologized. I felt like I’d let her down somehow. After everything she’d done to show me what a cool city I was living in, I’d just abandoned it. It seemed so ungrateful. Explaining to her that I just couldn’t hack it here was one of my lowest moments. And of course, she’d tried to talk me out of it, reminding me just how much I loved the city, and that her tour would finish, and she’d be back soon and we could hang out and have fun, just like always. But after she realized I wasn’t backing down? Well, she just listened like the good friend she was, never once saying ‘Told you so,’ even after I went on to explain in great detail exactly how Blake Matthews had broken my heart.

  “Just one thing,” she cut in, snapping me back into the present. “After everything that went on before you left, just promise me you’re not back with that cheating sleazeball again. That guy didn’t even believe you when you told him about Alex, Jessica!”

  I opened my mouth, unsure whether to lie or just come out with it and tell her the truth. And as I was still deciding, the awkward pause dragging on, I heard her sigh. Fallon wasn’t stupid; she knew just what my hesitation meant.

  “Oh, not again.”

  “No, you don’t understand!” I urged, frustrated.

  I realized just how hard it was gonna be to try and talk her round to my point of view after everything that had happened. And fair enough: if it was the other way around, I’d be just as incredulous.

  “He apologized,” I explained. “And what’s more he meant it, I know he did. It’s different this time, Fallon. I promise. Not him, but me. I’m different. It’s funny but six weeks in my childhood bedroom really made me grow up. We’re both adults, I realize that now. And we can see other people. I can see other people. You understand? I’m not gonna let myself get hurt again. I just want to have a little fun, play the field, just like you said.”

  “Well, you’d better stick to that plan, missy,” she replied wearily.

  “Don’t worry, I will,” I said. “Now, enough about me, I want to hear all about your adventu
res on the road.”

  And as Fallon filled me in on her crazy antics: the partying, the drinking, the boys in the other bands, well, it really did sound like the rock and roll lifestyle she’d always yearned for, ever since I’d first met her. And I felt doubly glad that I’d told my friend the truth, too. I mean, after all, she’d been here for me whenever I’d needed her, and I owed it to her to be honest. And to follow her advice.

  I meant what I’d said, too: this time round, I was going to have fun with Blake, sure, but nothing more. And I really was going to try and see other people. That was the New York way. ‘Going steady’ was something from Glenbrook Falls. Here, people dated.

  No sooner had I got off the phone and was turning to head back inside to carry on my work when I felt my cell buzz in my fingers signifying a second incoming call:

  Blake Matthews.

  I hesitated, my thumb hovering over the touchscreen, about to swipe across in answer. But then, instead, I chose one of those automatic text messages.

  Sorry, I can’t talk right now.

  I smiled as I imagined Blake receiving that obviously automatic reply, wondering what I was up to, and why exactly I couldn’t just drop everything, the way I always had in the past. I slipped my phone back into my bag and headed back inside, a confident new swing in my step.

  Because now I was the one in charge, the one calling the shots ...

  §

  That evening, I pulled my brand new camel-colored Mulberry raincoat tight around me, shivering from the cold night air … Well, the cold and also the fact that all I had on beneath it was a pair of black hold-up stockings, a sheer black Agent Provocateur bra and a pair of matching panties so small they’d make Gina’s regular bedroom wear look conservative.

  Clicking across the lobby of Blake’s building in my blood red Charlotte Olympia heels, I was relieved to glance up at the large modernist clock face that hung above the main desk and see that it was after Collins’ regular working hours. At least I wouldn’t have to try and maintain innocent chit-chat in the elevator dressed like this.