“You’re talking about Daniella right now, aren’t you?”
He was such a gentleman, he didn’t answer.
“Look, I’ll keep her in line,” I said. “Well, knowing Daniella, at least I’ll try my best. But that might not be worth a damn when it comes to her...”
“I’m not worried about Daniella, Jennifer. I actually like her. She just needs the right man to settle her down—and at some point, he’ll come along. So, until tomorrow?” he said.
“As in nine o’clock tomorrow. We’ll all meet here, and then we’ll be on our way.” I stopped cold when I said that and just looked at him. “You do ski, don’t you?”
“Ski?” he said. “Wait until you see how well I can ski. When I hit the slopes? I’ll be giving all of you a run for your money.”
Cutter had never been that direct with me—but when he went there, I loved it at once. Because what it said to me was that after all we’d been through together, we were finally coming to a tipping point where he didn’t just see me as his employer, but also as his friend.
So, I decided to engage him.
“Is that a challenge?” I asked. “Because I’ve skied my entire life.”
“Then consider it a challenge.”
“Well then, bring it on, big boy. Because I’m going to beat your ass on those slopes.”
“Sorry,” he said. “But that’s just not going to happen.”
“Oh, my God! It is so game on between us!”
“Do you really want to go there?” he asked. “Because I’m that good.”
“I’m already there—because I’m fairly certain that I’m better.”
“Then you’re going to lose. Sorry, Jennifer. But you’re going down.”
“Like hell I am. But I can tell you this—shit is about to go down, and hallelujah for that! This is exactly the kind of competition I needed to go into this week. So, get your game face on, Cutter, because Jen-Jen the ski Jen is about to come after you. Now, get Blackwell home, pack if you haven’t already done so, and please get some sleep. Because—believe me when I say this, my friend—I have a feeling that you’re going to need it. When you and I go head to head on those slopes? Here’s the truth, Cookie Cutter—”
“Cookie Cutter?” he said with a laugh.
“That’s right—Cookie Cutter. You’ve challenged me, and right now? Right now, I’m trying to talk ‘street.’”
“OK, ‘street.’ So, talk.”
“All right—so, back into character. I’m going to whip your ass on those slopes!”
“Not happening.”
“Please! I started skiing when I was seven. I skied straight through high school and college. You are so about to get schooled, my Navy SEAL—and in two days, you and I are going to go head-to-head in one mother of a fight to the end!”
“Bring it on,” he said.
“Oh, it has so just been brought on. I’m coming after you. I’m the Muhammad Ali of the slopes. I will crush you.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said. “Because it’s not really about the talk, is it, Jennifer? It’s about the results. And I’ve been skiing as long as you have. I’m also built like a brick shithouse. So, we’ll see how it plays out between us. But as for now? I need to get Blackwell home before she has my ass. So, why don’t you rest up? Because I think that you’re the one who’s going to need it.”
WHEN I ENTERED OUR apartment, I saw that all of the packages had already been delivered and were stacked neatly in the foyer so they could easily be removed when we left in the morning.
“Alex?” I called out while I took off my overcoat.
“In the living room,” he said.
“I’ve missed you!”
“The question is whether you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.”
“Let’s call it a tie.”
“Done,” I heard him say.
I hung up my coat in the closet and then walked into the living room and joined him on the sofa. He was still in his suit, though his tie had been loosened and in his hand was a martini.
“Would you like a sip?” he asked.
“Indeed, I would.”
He held out the glass just in front of my lips. I took a sip, and was quickly convinced that I needed one of my own.
“Let me get one for myself,” I said.
“No need—I’ve already got you covered. Just sit where you are, beautiful. I’ll be back in a minute.”
As he got up from the sofa and moved into the kitchen area, I thought, Could I love that man any more? No. It’s an impossibility.
When he returned, he had a freshly made martini ready for me.
“That was quick.”
“It’s been waiting in the freezer for you.”
“You’re the best,” I said, touching my glass to his before we each took a sip. “My God, what a day. Shopping with Blackwell is like running a marathon.”
“So I saw when the doormen delivered the packages. I just hope that all of it fits on the plane.”
“It’ll fit.”
“I’m not so convinced. We might need to take one of the larger planes.”
“We’ll see,” I said. “How did your day go?”
“Just some final touches here and there to close out the year, but now I’m free. Tomorrow, we are out of here, and when we return, this past year will be in the rearview mirror—and we can look forward to what will hopefully be a better year.”
“Nothing can be worse than this year.”
“Agreed. So, how did the shopping go with Blackwell?”
“I might have cut into Wenn’s fourth-quarter earnings...”
He laughed at that, and drew me closer to him. “Whatever it takes for a good holiday,” he said. “I could give a damn about what any of it costs. All of us went through hell this year. The SlimPhone continues to be a success, Stephen Rowe is out of our lives, and Wenn is back on top. I say that we all deserve whatever you and Blackwell came up with.” He shot me a look. “And what I might have come up with...”
“You’ve gone shopping?”
“A few days ago, when you were having lunch with Lisa, you thought that I was having a business lunch. That was a white lie—but only because I couldn’t tip you off. Believe me—you’ll forgive me when my own gifts have been revealed. I just wanted to do things on my own without anyone knowing about it.”
“But now I do know about it.”
“Only because I don’t like holding on to a fib, even if it means no one any harm. So, now you know. And now it’s officially going to eat away at you until Christmas morning, when I show you what I’ve been up to.”
“Now I’m itching to know. But you already knew that I would be when you sprang this on me. You’re playing with me.”
“How about if I really play with you?” he asked.
I took a long pull from my martini as I noted the look of desire in his eyes, and from that look alone, I knew exactly what was coming my way. And I was happy for it. I didn’t know the exact layout of the house he’d rented and if the master bedroom was far and away from the other bedrooms, so I wanted to be as intimate with Alex as I could before we left.
“Mr. Wenn,” I said, with a hand to my breasts. “I’m not at all sure what you mean when you say that you want to ‘play’ with me. I’m just a modest girl in your employ.”
“If you’re so modest, then why did you urge me to slap you on the ass last night?”
“Surely, that must have been somebody else. It couldn’t have been me. I’m just a poor, simple girl from Maine who was raised Catholic.”
“Sorry—but I’d never forget that ass of yours. It was you.”
“I swear on my rosary beads that it wasn’t. But to be honest, Mr. Wenn, for reasons that I can’t explain, I have to say that a good-looking man in a business suit does certain things to me that I don’t fully understand. I look to God for answers, but none come. And yet still, for some reason, seeing you looking like that tends to make me feel a little, you
know, confused because I suddenly become so warm. And moist where I should never, ever be moist. And while I know that it’s a sacrilege to admit it, I might even have unwanted thoughts of becoming a little bit wild with you.”
“Then finish your drink,” he said. “Let’s get that fine Catholic ass of yours into the bedroom, and get wild.”
And we did.
After downing the rest of our drinks and placing our empty glasses on the coffee table, Alex stood, and in one fell swoop, swept me into his arms, and carried me into our bedroom.
“Are you taking me to where good girls get their presents?” I asked.
“Let’s just say that God just answered your call, because I’ve been waiting for this all day.”
When he put me down next to the bed, he removed his suit jacket and then his shirt. With the city light shining against him, I couldn’t quite make out the expression on his face, but I could hear plenty in the low growl of his voice when he told me what he planned to do to me. And because of that alone, I could feel the heat building between us as if someone had just set fire to the room.
“The joking is over,” I said to him as I undressed. “Do what you want to me.”
“Whatever I want?”
I threw my bra against his face—and then my panties. “Whatever you want.”
“You might regret that, you know?”
“And I think that you might be underestimating me.”
“Christ, I love you,” he said.
“Then show me in ways that I’ll show you.”
When we were naked, he took me into his arms, leaned me down onto the bed, and our mouths became one. I felt his hardness throbbing against my thighs in ways that thrilled me. When I kissed him, I took the back of his head, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and pressed his mouth even closer to mine, to the point that our tongues became one and intertwined.
And then Alex’s mouth was gone from mine as he smoothed his way down my body to my sex, where his tongue plunged deep within it. I let out a primal moan as he started to lick my folds to prepare me for his length and girth, which, even to this day, was still something of a challenge for me to handle.
I writhed beneath his touch and arched my back when he nearly brought me to orgasm, but before that could happen, he was back on top of me again. His mouth was on one of my nipples, and when he bit down on it, I reached out to clutch the bedspread, letting him claim me for his own.
As long as we’d been together—and as many times as we’d made love—he always found ways to make our lovemaking seem fresh, new, and exciting to me. Tonight, it was how he pressed his tongue against the entrance to my buttocks, which was new yet somehow tantalizing to me. But he didn’t go there—thank God—because I wasn’t quite ready for that. Given his size, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be, regardless of how curious I was to explore that part of my sexuality with him.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he parted my legs. “Do you have any idea how lucky I feel to be married to you? To call you my lover?”
“Show me,” I said.
When he started to enter me, he was so tender, it was if he was teasing me—which of course he was. With his thumb pressed firmly against my clit, he edged so gently into me that I had all I could do but to scream for him to take me.
“Do you want all of it?” he asked.
“Is that even a question?”
“What if I just tease you like this?” he said, nudging in and out of me without fully penetrating me. “Is that too much? Too little?” He pushed deeper inside of me, and then quickly withdrew so that the tip of his cock was throbbing against my clit. He allowed it to linger there for several unbearable moments before dipping his head down, taking my right nipple into his mouth, and flicking his tongue over it before doing the same to my left nipple. It made me want to crawl out of my body, onto the ceiling, and out one of the windows.
“Fuck me,” I said.
“What kind of good Catholic girl speaks like that?” he asked.
“This one.”
“You know, I could string you along like this all night if I wanted to.”
“You heard what I said.”
“And what if I didn’t?”
“The hell you didn’t. Fuck me.”
And he did.
With one unexpected, brutal thrust, I felt the length of him fill me as my eyes adjusted just enough to the dim bedroom lighting so that I could see the love, the passion, and the fierceness on his face.
“That’s right,” I said as I hooked my legs around his ass, and urged him to drive even deeper into me. “That’s how I want it—all of you. Every bit of you. But how long do you think you can keep that up without coming, Alex? Not long is my bet.”
“Then get ready to lose that bet,” he said as he pulled out of me—and then slammed so hard back into me that I threw back my head and gasped. “Because tonight is going to be another long night for you, my love. I’m going to ride you until you don’t know where you are, what your name is, where you came from, what church you pray at, or where you even live.”
I laughed when he said that—but it was a taunting laugh. “Please,” I said. “You’ve got nothing—”
Before I could finish my sentence, he rammed into me and my words caught in my throat. I reached out my hands to cover his firm and lightly hairy pecs, and then I just gave myself over to him.
For the next hour, Alex kept me on the edge of climax. Whenever he sensed that I was close, he withdrew from me and brought his lips to my own as my climax subsided. It was torture, but in the best way that I could imagine.
Tonight, I clearly was to be played with. Throughout our lovemaking, Alex lifted me onto his lap, he fucked me on my side, he got me on my knees so he could come up behind me, and then, when it was clear that each of us was close, he flipped me around with the sort of effortless ease that reminded me just how strong he was.
As he pounded into me, my head lolled from side to side as I moved toward the bright edges of climax. With his lips on mine, I felt completely alive, as if my skin—which was as slick with sweat as his—was thrumming with a host of nerve endings I never knew existed.
“I’m going to come,” I said.
“Then let me swallow it.”
When he said that, he bucked even harder against me, and pressed his mouth even harder against mine. And when I did come, I let out a stifled scream that Alex took into himself just a moment before coming himself.
At that moment, I wasn’t sure if we’d ever been one like this, which seemed crazy to me at this point in our relationship. But when our lips finally parted and we each gasped for air, I cupped my heavy breasts as the sensation subsided, and I stroked my fingers through his hair before he pulled out of me and lay down beside me.
With deft hands, he turned me so that my back faced him. And as he moved in close to me, his erection pulsed against my buttocks, and I said that I loved him.
“You’re part of my soul,” he said. “I hope that you know that, Jennifer, but I’m not sure that you know how deep it goes with me when it comes to you. Sometimes, it even surprises me, but I’m grateful for it and for you. I love that I’m able to call you my wife. My partner. My best friend. My lover.”
“How are we ever going to go for four days without having sex?” I said to him. “Are there hotels nearby?”
“Babe, after last Christmas, don’t you know me by now? You and I are good. I’ve already worked all of that shit out.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE NEXT MORNING, ALL of the Christmas gifts I’d purchased with Blackwell’s help—along with an alarming amount of wrapped packages that Alex had purchased on his own and somehow hidden from me in his office closet—were placed into the SUV Cutter was driving for us.
“We’re going to need another car,” I said to Cutter as the doormen placed my gifts next to the ones that Alex had bought himself. “As large as this SUV is, there’s no way in hell that all of us are going to fit into it, especially sinc
e I know what Blackwell is bringing to the party.”
“Look behind you,” Cutter said. “Madison’s former driver, Zack, is ready to follow us to Blackwell’s apartment in that SUV, which seats eight.”
“Thank you for that!” I said. “Because I’m telling you that I’ve already seen what Blackwell has purchased, and for that alone, we’re going to need two rides to get to LaGuardia. And then there’s Brock and Madison to consider,” I said. “Who knows what they’re bringing? We might need a third car.”
“If we do, I can make that happen sooner than you think,” he said. “Don’t worry about it because I already have another car on standby. So, let’s go and pick up Brock and Madison, who stayed at the Plaza last night to make picking up everybody easier for us this morning. And then we’ll pick up Blackwell and the girls.”
WHEN WE ARRIVED AT the Plaza, Brock and Madison were waiting in the lobby for us.
“We might have purchased a few things,” Madison said to me.
She was wearing a fitted, gorgeous Alexander McQueen double-breasted textured rose coat in black, which I thought looked stunning on her. She also wore a pair of dark denim skinny jeans, and a black boot I could have sworn I saw at Prada. As for Brock, he was wearing a revealing pair of Selvedge straight-slim jeans and a Marc Jacobs Bane leather jacket in black, which matched his hair and beard. I thought that he looked hot—and that these two made for one handsome couple. They were young, urban, and clearly in love.
“It’s nothing crazy, but we wanted to offer something,” Brock said.
These two were still just getting started at Wenn. They were making a good salary and receiving quarterly performance bonuses. But still, despite how they were dressed now—which I imagined had everything to do with receiving Blackwell’s approval and dodging that bullet should she fire it at them—they had to be living on a budget. Living in Manhattan was far from inexpensive.
“This is about spending time together,” I said. “You didn’t have to do anything.”
Holiday: Annihilate Him, #4 Page 4