by Scott, Talyn
“Yes, but -”
“Anything here,” he said, motioning to the soap and other luxurious toiletries and makeup lined up on the vanity, “is for you. I asked Tatum to have anything a beautiful woman needed sent over. She did me a favor by ordering them just for you. Along with some clothes you’ll need for our outings. I haven’t checked on those, but I’m sure they’re hanging in the closet as we speak.” She opened her mouth to protest – Azure wasn’t penniless, she was just saving for her new condo - but the words never had the chance to leave her throat. In a blurring movement, he closed his mouth over hers, licking at her lips, nibbling at the bottom one, twirling the tip of his tongue with hers without delving deep.
“Damn it,” he gasped, panting with her when they separated, “every part of you feels like heaven.” Azure thought that Gage was heaven. He was gloriously naked. With emphasis placed squarely on the glorious. His sack was so large and heavy, she shivered remembering how it felt draping across her face while he jerked his monster. Even now, without an erection, his sex hung straight down between his legs, long and formidable, with scary and exiting piercings she still couldn’t fathom. A forboding presence she couldn’t imagine inside her. And if he worked that thing the same way that he did his fingers, she would be ruined for any other man. Cliché? Yes, but true. There would be no one comparable. No one.
She wished that she hadn’t had a taste of him, wished he’d never come into her life. Wished she’d never let her inner whore out of the closet. Because there was something different at work here, a binding between them that she couldn’t shake. Just like her aching jaw from sucking off the remnants of his orgasm. She started massaging it with her fingertips, but he pushed them away, taking over instead. The bit that she had taken in her mouth made her jaw sore. But the feel of his steely flesh across her tongue – the taste of it – was an experience she would never forget.
Gage ran the tip of his moist tongue across her jawline and strange tingling sensation ensued, warming the muscles while relaxing her with a strange electrical current. But her imagination had a tendency to run amok, especially in her dreaming state, so she blew the sensation off to static and nothing more.
“Better?”
She nodded her head yes and opened and closed her mouth a few times. “Yes, thanks.” Of course, he went back to the washing, pulling one foot up to slip that incredible sponge over her arch. A mirrored twinge went straight to her core, tugging inside her vagina. If he knew what he was doing, he was playing it off. He proceeded to wash between every toe. In and out. In and out. Suds ran down, trickling the same way that moisture trickled inside her heat. He kissed her arch. “Master of seduction,” she mumbled when he went to the other foot. She’d closed her eyes against his male beauty, but she felt him smile against her inner ankle.
“No, you are the Mistress of Section. I’m clearly the one seduced, Azure. Mind. Heart. Body. Soul.” He did something dangerous with his teeth, scraping her foot from heel to toe, stopping and sucking on the little one.
“You have a foot fetish.”
He laughed around her toes, hot breaths hitting her wet foot. “If I had to own up to all of my fetishes” - a firmer bite on her instep – “you would leave tracks on my floor by your leaving.”
“That bad, huh?” She gritted her teeth against that one. Each nibble was harder than the last while he smoothed long fingers between her toes, stretching and raking. Contrasting sensations that stole her breath by every passing second, all mastered by a man who knew way too much about the female body.
“Very bad, Azure.” An open mouth kiss on her shin, a hand inched up, sliding in the soap. “I think you’ll understand what I mean when I say”- a strong grip on her ankle, tugging her closer - “that I’m so bad I’m good.”
Her stomach started twisting. Why hadn’t he nailed her yet? “Why didn’t you…”
“Penetrate you fully?”
“Well that’s your word choice. But, yeah that.” He licked her knee, slow tedious circles. As if he had all the time in the world to worship her body, a dream lover in the flesh.
“I need the night for that, Azure.” He draped that magnificent body over her, undoing her piece by piece. “Every hour I can get in order to treat you as you deserve. And since Sayer came in, we can’t stay holed up in the bedroom. We need to greet him properly.”
Her eyes popped open. “So he’s okay.”
“Quite. After dinner, I want time to explore you fully. I don’t want to rush our first time together. Some things are meant to be savored, Azure. You are one of them.”
She could imagine how he would savor her. Before she sank too deep in that thought, he delivered another eye opener.
“He’s moving in, too.”
“Sayer? Too? Well, I never said I was moving in. You said a week. And if Sayer’s safe and sound, there’s nothing to worry about as far as I’m concerned. I can stay on Nick’s couch until I find a place.” She pushed damp tendrils of hair from her eyes. “Abby even offered if, uh, things didn’t work out here.” His jaw clenched, but no words came out. A thunderstorm played over his face, his blue eyes turning into a dark dangerous sea, so she focused on Sayer. “Why is he coming here when he already lives with Nick?
“As a favor to you,” he answered tightly. “We’re offering Nick a rent free home, at least through his residency.”
“We?”
“Jordan Marketing. The company owns Sayer’s beachfront condo. I am a vital part of Jordan Marketing. A substantial part. Of course, you know that Sayer works for me.”
“Oh.” She chewed her bottom lip. “Are you two….lovers?”
“No.” He shook his blonde head, the lights dancing across platinum streaks. “But I want to be your lover, Azure. Do you want that, too?”
Just like he’d promised earlier in the kitchen - when he said she would want him more than her next breath – Gage was a man true to his word. She wanted him so much it frightened her, and they hadn’t gone all the way yet. Gage was beautiful. Any woman would take a chance with him. And that thought made her burn with jealousy.
She kept remembering something in a dream somewhere. Life had cut her off at the knees, and she regretted that she didn’t do things for herself in between taking care of others. And although she was sincere in everything she did, every hand she held, and every word she spoke to the ill or dying, she needed to live, too.
So just as anything else in life’s journey, Gage was a risk.
One she was willing to take.
“Yes.” She met his unblinking stare, nearly paralyzed by his possession. “I want to be your lover, Gage. For as long as we have one another, wherever this leads. Life’s so damn short. I want to try.”
Fifteen minutes later, Azure emerged, dressed in a Cavalli short dress with a low v scoop neck and a scarf skirt with a corresponding v splitting wide between her thighs. The Florida colors of ice blue, coral, and ocean green weren’t her typical choices since she usually veered towards darker jewel tones. Nor was the eight-hundred dollar price tag, but when Gage stemmed her protests while managing to look both sullen and frightfully dangerous, she bit her tongue and tossed it on. Now, while mixing grapefruit juice and seltzer in a kitchen inspiring her to learn how to cook the right way, she felt somewhat peppy, even girly while wearing it.
But that nervous part of her had her hands shaking when she lifted the glass for a sip. Sayer was moving in. Sayer. And she’d agreed to be Gage’s lover. He’d talked her into moving in permanently, convinced her that she could leave any time since the money was going in the bank from the sale of her mother’s house and she could find a condo for herself if she needed to later. Since she was jumping in blindly with this new relationship, she figured she’d go all the way and move in. And when she pulled him down into the tub, he didn’t even ease her. He kissed the tip of her nose, pointed out her dress, and jumped in the shower.
The moment Azure heard elevator doors swooshing apart, her whole body filled with t
ension. Sayer. Sayer was here, and he’d had his hands inside her body. Gage knew they went out, but how much did he actually know? She listened as two voices spoke quietly, filling the foyer with a soft rumble before one set of footfalls went upstairs, and the other headed straight for her.
Let it be Gage.
Please, let it be Gage.
“Hello,” said a wicked accent she still couldn’t place, but it turned her on. Way on. “I am so relieved to find you here.”
A hundred things ran through her mind when she first saw him. “Oh, Sayer,” was all that came out as her pulse raced nervously. He cocked his head as though he was listening, but she knew better. Her imagination was getting the best of her. “I was concerned when I heard you didn’t return home.” Easy steps brought him inside, a steady lope that spoke of someone entirely comfortable with his body. He wore faded jeans - though they looked as if they cost as much as her dress- and a tight-fitting, white shirt with black symbols marking the left side. “At first, I figured you were out doing whatever it is young guys do.” He stepped forward, and through his shirt, she could see the muscles cinching and releasing around his tight waist. A flash of abs peeked through, where his pants hovered on the blades of his hipbones. “But then -”
“You guys do?” His dark brows drew together when he took another step forward. “Which is?”
She shrugged, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “Girls. Parties. Things in between.”
That made him smile. “I do not like girls in such a way.” His tongue lingered over ‘way’, indicating they were talking about the same thing. Another step forward, getting into her personal space, so she backed up until she bumped the countertop. A blast of heat left his body, licking her skin and drawing her to his flame. “I like things in-between, though,” he murmured quietly, lifting his hand and grazing his fingertips over the line of her throat.
Leaning back, she pointedly distanced herself, making an effort to stay away. Keep it impersonal. “Good. That’s good.” Whatever he meant by that. She lifted her glass. “Juice?”
“You.”
“Me?” She asked while he took it from her hand, taking the slightest sip before he sat in on the concrete countertop. “Me what?”
“Have you forgotten so quickly?” A challenging glint filled his eyes, his expression purely male, followed by a warning, “Shall I remind you of what we shared?”
In a way of changing the subject, Azure blurted out, “Gage said you were moving in.”
“Yes. As of today, I have moved here.”
“Me, too,” she said with an embarrassingly husky voice. Wondering how she could have a man like Gage as her permanent lover and still want Sayer. Of course, he was gorgeous. But still, she had never been a cheater. And she would never lower those standards, especially after knowing what it felt like to be on the receiving end.
He ducked his dark head while capturing her nape in his warm hand, pulling her closer. She shifted to the left, trying to ignore that erection straining his pants. “Yeah. Well, let me know which rooms to stay out of. Your rooms, I mean.” Was he sniffing her neck? She angled the other way. “Don’t want to crowd your space.”
“If you back away one more time,” he growled in a steely tone, almost brushing their lips, but not quite.
She swallowed roughly, wishing this could keep going where it was going. A man’s man, so rough and demanding was intriguing. No. A man’s man was more than intriguing. “You’ll, um,” she breathed, “do what?”
“I will do nothing.” He flashed a boyish smile with straight white teeth. “But you will hit your head on the cabinet.” With his chin, Sayer gestured over her head toward the sharp edge. “Careful now, Azure Blue, I cannot be around to protect you all of the time.”
But his look said something far different, though she couldn’t decipher it. And just like that, he was back on his topic of choice when he said, “You were in my car” - a warm tongue snaked across her throat - “when you fell apart in my arms.” A moist drag went slower, slower, slower. He pulled her neckline to the side and licked her shoulder. “Trusted me to catch you,” he murmured against her skin, nuzzling her between playful nips.
By God, he was turning her on. She had to pull it together. Force her body away from him. Some distance was necessary, especially considering she could never betray Gage. “I’m too old for you.” A little part of her brain said ‘what’s a decade between lovers?’ A lot, she reminded herself, a whole lot. And while she was reminding herself of their age gap, she still pointed out that he’d had his hands inside her, and she loved it.
“You are too old for me,” he repeated her rebuttal with twitching lips, staring down soul deep from golden eyes encircled with onyx lashes. Mysteriously exotic eyes overpowered her senses. Just like his accent, she couldn’t place those eyes. But she knew one thing; they belonged to something on the top. A predator. Nothing that would run when faced with danger. But right now, Sayer was the danger. He exuded power behind that dazzlingly boyish, if not devilish, grin. “I would be your lover, Azure Malloy.”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
He silenced her with his fingers over her lips. “Why would age matter when you want me?”
Sure she wanted him, but he didn't have to it point out so brazenly. “It's about Gage and me.”
He didn't seem to care. With his hand still in her hair, settled firmly against her nape, Sayer kissed her frantically. Pushing. Pushing. Pushing. Until he had lifted her with one hand and placed her high on the counter, right in line with his hardened cock. The concrete countertop felt chilly, contrasting with his body heat. Push him back, she pleaded with herself. Push him away. Azure brought both hands to his chest, feeling his muscles tensing and rippling under her touch. Too strong. Too big. Too male. And when she thought she would die from lack of oxygen and a hammering heart, he whispered between kisses, “You. Want. Me. I. Want. You. Feel me want you,” he demanded, sliding his body against hers, making her want everything he was offering.
“I can feel it,” she panted, moving her hands to his shoulders. “It’s a physical response.” Don't cheat on Gage. Don't cheat on Gage. She kept chanting in her mind, but it wasn't working. “Sure, we have chemistry between us. But I need to discuss Gage with you. ”
“Not now,” he argued, thrusting his hardness against her. “Feel me.” Moving her hand from his shoulder, he forced it against the center of his chest, for Azure to feel his quickening heart.
“Desire makes the heart pound, Sayer.” He hushed her, slanting his mouth over hers, long, lingering, and wet. “But this doesn’t make sense for a woman such as me,” she said between panting breaths and furious kisses.
His intention was clear, his words an ardent conviction, “I will wear you down with your need for me, Azure Blue.” Sayer pressed his mouth against hers until she tasted blood. “Make you beg for it,” he snarled in her mouth, licking the copper tang away, growling and sucking with wild abandon. “What is the point of seduction if both parties are already seduced?”
Somewhere along the way, her legs had wrapped themselves around his waist, but she refused to admit that it was her doing. “I’m not waving a red flag in front of a charging bull, Sayer.” No matter how hot the bull in question was. “No challenges found here, okay?”
His hands reluctantly slid from her body. As he flattened them against the cabinets on either side of her head, he said, “Kiss me then.” He cleared his throat, pushing his forehead against hers. Sayer’s breaths seemed to intoxicate her, sweetly exotic, enchanting her by the minute. He makes me dizzy. “More kisses to burn out the memories of this week’s hell. Kiss me as if we will never be this way again. Touch me with your mouth if I cannot have your heart, your entire body.”
So profound a statement for man of twenty-one, and when Azure saw his stark loneliness staring back from those golden eyes, she sensed the hell he spoke of. Nick had always thought that Sayer had come from a tortured past, and by his expressio
n, she now thought so, too. Whatever had happened while he was away wholly rattled him and he needed her. Maybe not tomorrow, or the week after that, but in this moment, Sayer was reaching out to her - just a man in need.
“More kisses, huh,” she whispered with an indulgent smile, thinking they could hang out as friends the way she and Nick always did. Distances that protected their hearts, but kept them close. A true friendship they could start tonight. “Dinner and a movie might be a start. I called for pizza. Um, we were going to sit on the sofa and veg out, hoping you could join us. And soon, yeah, uh, we should have Nick over.”
The back of a strong hand brushed the curve of her throat, moving up to her cheek. She knew that hand. Gage. “Concierge brought the pizzas up; they’re waiting for us in the media room. One has hearts of palm on it with ham.” He shook his head, making a face of utter disgust. Though he didn’t seem upset with Sayer’s proximity, or what he had walked in on. “I would have preferred something more nutritious for you.”
“Well” - She edged around a tense Sayer - “you choose next time.” Azure eyed the kitchen nervously, trying to slow her heartbeat. “Maybe, I can learn to cook the right way.”
“Learn?” Gage pursed his lips, looking a little rattled. “I don’t expect you to be, well.”
“Domestic?” Sayer offered.
“Something like that.” Gage shook his head, looking sexy in jeans, bare feet, and an un-tucked oxford. She thought about those mysterious piercings, almost ceremonial in their placement, and that one astonishing tattoo that wrapped itself from his right hip all the way to his thick inner thigh. “We have a full staff coming in tomorrow, so unless you really want to cook, it’s unnecessary.”