One Last Play

by Aja Cole

  “Matthew, I don’t mean to be rude, but why do you even call yourself her amigo? I’ll be honest with you,” I sat my empty bottle down, leaning back in the bar seat and crossing my arms. I didn’t like this man. He was only her friend on the surface. “I called you because I thought you would have insight on the woman Thea is now, but you seem clueless.”

  “The thing about Thea is that even though I’d never date her, she’s the type of friend you want in your life. A hard girlfriend, but when it comes to friendships – she’s giving. And funny. And she gives good advice. And good for business. As long as there’s nothing to have conflict over, she’s perfect.”

  “Hm.” I was done with Matthew. It was clear to me that he was useless in this. I’d be better off figuring Thea out by myself. I’d done it once, and I could do it again.

  I hoped.

  16

  Theodora

  I was avoiding my own home.

  How pathetic was that?

  Starting tomorrow, I’d be with the man nearly 24/7.

  I just needed a little reprieve to shore up my defenses.

  I was still at the office, and I told my boss I’d lock up everything when I left.

  It was now 11pm and I didn’t have any more work to do. I’d done it all. I had no choice but to go home…to Luciano…to my personal weak spot…

  I looked around at the vision boards I’d done over the day, taking breaks to eat and chat with my co-workers who’d come and gone. There was nothing left to do, and I needed to woman up and just face him. I hadn’t spoken to him or seen him since the night before, when I’d decided to ignore him, and the attraction between us, unless it absolutely couldn’t be avoided.

  Was it bitchy? Yes. But it was safer than wearing my treacherous heart on my sleeve.

  The bitch had guided me wrong once; I wasn’t going to let her do it again with the same guy. I think some part of me had settled down because I had Matt around and I just figured we’d eventually date. He was out now, because next to Luc, he just didn’t hold up.

  Someone I considered an ex was back, and I didn’t have any other prospects to think about. It sucked.

  To top it off, like an idiot, I’d told the woman from Pro Gear that I was Luc’s wife. She’d probably tell her team, someone else would find out, and then everyone would know. I’d stepped in it, and I only had myself to blame since I was the one that blabbed it.

  It was one thing having to tell my parents I’d been secretly dating someone – another to reveal that I was married, and I was actually married. I could lie and say it was recent, that we’d eloped. But damn, something told me that the documentation from years ago would be found by some nosy-ass sleuth and then I’d have to tell my parents I’d lied.

  It was probably best to just put it all out in the open. Living one lie would be enough.

  BzzBzz

  My phone buzzed from across the room, and I rolled my chair over to it, pursing my lips when I saw the screen.

  It was Luciano, of course.

  I debated on pressing ignore, but I’d done that all day, so I needed to get over myself.

  “Yes, boss?” After all, he was trying to pay me for my “services.”

  “You’re not home yet, are you? I don’t have the key and I locked your door when I left.”

  “Where are you?”

  He told me his location, and he was closer to my job than to my house. He was probably using the car service. I could just tell him to pick me up here and then we could right back home together…

  For the slightest of seconds, I considered just telling him to go on and wait for me and I’d meet him at my place. But it was kind of mean to have him standing outside when there was a more convenient solution.

  Convenient for him, that is.

  I still wanted my time to regroup.

  Dammit to hell.

  I told him the address of my job, and that it wouldn’t be long before we could leave. It was super late, later than I’d ever stayed at work.

  He arrived quicker than I’d anticipated, even knowing he wasn’t far. I’d been staring at a potential layout aimlessly, not seeing the colors and placement. I let him in, locking the door behind him.

  “This is nice, Thea. Do you like it here?” He looked around at the colorful furniture in the first room, where clients could wait and look at sample set ups.

  It was well put-together.

  Comforting, without being boring. That’s what our little design firm specialized in. We took a very personal approach, getting to know our clients so we could put their personalities accurately into their spaces. If we didn’t like the clients or the vibe we got from them, we didn’t design their homes. We did well enough to be selective, and it was another part of the job that I enjoyed. I got to meet amazing people and create bonds with families that always thought of us when they needed anything design-related done. I got invited to birthday parties and gatherings and it went a long way to creating even more love in me for what I did.

  “I adore it here. Even when I start fresh, I want to keep a very close relationship with everyone here. They’re my family, and they’ve supported me from the start.”

  He nodded, walking further into the room and watching me.

  I started to fidget, picking things up and placing them down again, with no rhyme or reason. My hands just needed to do something. Something that didn’t include reaching for the hard, sexy elephant in the room.

  More like a tiger…One that I felt was watching me and waiting for me to show a little bit of weakness so he could pounce. He was just so damned silent; it wore on my nerves.

  I began tidying up, resigning myself to another restless night. Why the man wanted to sleep on my pull-out couch instead of the multiple hotel rooms he could be in – I didn’t know. It wasn’t like anyone was watching us yet. We’d be in New York tomorrow, and that’s when the real PR push would start.

  I could see him in my peripheral vision, leaning against the wall, his fitted dark blue button down doing nothing to disguise his arms. He had on light wash blue jeans with two neat rips on the knees, that were slightly rolled up, and navy low top sneakers. Something only a man as confident as him could pull off.

  It made me angry. He was interrupting my life with his…him-ness.

  “Can you go sit in the first room? I’ll be out in like, 10 minutes.”

  I didn’t turn around to see if he left, but I heard my office door close and I let out a deep breath.

  “Thank god for small miracles,” I murmured, shelving a book I’d taken down.

  “You were avoiding me today.”

  I cursed him being so damn light on his feet.

  I turned around, almost slipping because I had on stockings. “I was.”

  “Can you not stand to be around me?” He was coming near and I backed up on instinct, until I couldn’t go anywhere else because of the desk up against the wall. I stared at the smooth skin between his eyebrows to give the illusion that I was okay with looking at him full on. It was making my eyes cross a bit, but it was effective.

  “I just needed a little space.”

  “I think space is the opposite of what you need,” His perfectly shaped lips tipped up in a cocky grin. I started to slide sideways, trying to escape the trap he’d backed me into.

  “How would you know? Are you in my body to tell me what I need?”

  “I could be, very easily. In your body.” I must’ve looked ridiculous sliding around trying to avoid him. He hooked a finger into one of the slim belt loops on my skirt, stopping me. My heel started to bounce against the hardwood floor, the way my leg started to do when I was restless.

  “Don’t do this, Luc. I still want you to sign divorce papers and I still want to go back to my life in a few weeks.”

  “What if I don’t want that?” he splayed his large hands over my body, holding me just under where my bra band began. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore his words to no avail. He smelled so good. He’d been so good. W
e’d been good together.

  Most of the time.

  “Why won’t you just let me go? I’m not who you want, not really.” I could hear the underlying sadness in my words and I stopped trying to pretend anymore. I sagged against him, tired of the mental war I’d been waging. “This is just convenient for you. I don’t want to just be convenient to you.”

  “You and convenient do not go together,” he laughed.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I scowled, letting myself rest my forehead against his large chest. No one had to know about this moment of weakness but the two of us. I’d go back to building my own personal wall later.

  “It means the only reason I’m pursuing you is because I want to, not because you’re easy. You’re far from easy.”

  It sounded like a backhanded compliment if I’d ever heard one.

  “Well then go find someone easy.” Jerk. I lifted my head, intending to move away, but he gripped my hips and nudged me back so I didn’t have a choice but to sit on the desk. Yanking my rolling chair over, he dropped into it and wedged his body between my legs.

  “The person I want is right here,” he said softly, sliding his hands up my thighs.

  “How do you think this is going to work, Luc? You don’t live here. We aren’t even the same people that we were back then. I was a kid. A reckless kid, and you weren’t much better.”

  He looked down, not saying anything for a bit, then began speaking.

  “I don’t know what it meant for you when we got married. For me, it wasn’t all impulse. It wasn’t all recklessness. The night I met you and the time I spent around you, wanting you, learning about you – I had no doubt in my mind that you were the woman I wanted to spend my life with.”

  I opened my mouth but no words came out. What could I say to that? I didn’t have anything to give back to him but fear and excuses. I wasn’t ready to share myself that way with him again, but I couldn’t demean his feelings.

  “I don’t know what made you quit on us.”

  “I—,”

  “Don’t. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to dwell on that part of the past. I only want this.” The emotion brimming in his eyes stole the little breath I had left.

  “Luc,” I whispered. We couldn’t just ignore it. I wouldn’t be able to move past it until I confronted him. “We have to talk about the past if there’s any future for us.”

  “Ahora, no…Not now. I just…I want a fresh start. Give that to us. We will…we will try our relationship as the people we are now. When I must leave, we will talk. We will talk about what we mean to one another. But give us this time to explore. No games, no acting – date me.”

  “Date you?” I echoed, still astounded by everything he was saying.

  “Date me.” A slow grin slid across his lightly tanned face as he looked up at me, his hands beginning to move again.

  “We didn’t do the dating thing very well before. I think we went out like, 4 times the entire year. Then I finally agreed to sleep with you and, well..” I trailed off. He winked, his thumbs beginning to caress where they rested on my skirt.

  “Well, we can kill many birds with one stone this time. Amina won’t let us stay inside. This time, I will properly…court you. And fuck you. We will do both.”

  A warm glow settled over me even though I wanted to remain stoic inside.

  “So…we’re going to be a married couple dating for the first time while also making specific media appearances and photo ops for your image?”

  He pretended to think for a second, then nodded once. “Si.”

  “I don’t know if I can trust you again, Luc.”

  “Try. You won’t know until you try.”

  This was one of those situations where I was going to make a decision I knew I would probably regret…but that wasn’t going to stop me from making it.

  Like many of my decisions regarding Luc, I threw caution to the wind.

  Do you know what it’s like to just reach the end of a rope you didn’t realize you had? That’s how I was feeling about fighting my feelings for him. There were so many left over, so many things that I hadn’t gotten over. I’d just pushed all of them to the back of my mind to try to move on, but now, they were moving all my cynicism out of the way with full force.

  He’d given me grief, but damn, he’d given me greatness too.

  I’d never felt the same way for anyone else as I had with him, and I didn’t know if that was good or bad – but fuck it.

  I inhaled deep, shaking my head.

  It was now or never.

  “Okay, Luc. Let’s try.”

  17

  Theodora

  Before I got the words out of my mouth, we were kissing.

  Soft, but firm lips claimed mine with an intensity that sent shivers through me. I didn’t know how much I’d missed this…or I’d tried to convince myself I didn’t. My hands ran up his defined chest and I slid them into the silky darkness of his hair. I couldn’t help pulling him deeper into me and circling my legs around his heated and deliciously scented body.

  I captured his lips with mine again and angled my head to get closer. I wanted to taste him so badly. I needed to. I needed to know if he tasted the same.

  Slanting my mouth against his, I gently bit his bottom lip and felt a groan rise in his chest. Accepting my demand for entrance, his tongue wrapped around mine and they waged a playful war against each other of who could take the most, who could give the most. The teasing way he scraped his teeth against me made me arch against him.

  It was like riding a bike, finding this rhythm that we used to have.

  I was gasping and didn’t realize it, lightheaded by the combination of marathon kisses and purely intoxicated by him.

  “I can’t get enough of you,” Luc murmured, trailing his mouth over my jaw and down my neck, pulling me tighter into him. I ground my hips into his body, needing the friction, knowing it paled in comparison to his cock.

  My first lover. My only lover.

  “As much as I want to,” he pulled my earlobe between his teeth and I moaned, “As much as I want to fuck you, I don’t want it to be in an office.”

  “Please,” my voice was a near whine and I couldn’t even muster up disgust. It’d been so long since I’d been touched and while I didn’t have anything to compare it to…I knew that any other touch would pale in comparison to Luc’s.

  “You should know, bebe,” he nuzzled his prickly face against me and I loved it. My breath caught when he started to push my skirt further up my thighs, until it was bunched around my hips. “Fucking you isn’t even my favorite thing to do. Tell me what that is.”

  I swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”

  Sitting back in my chair, he parted my legs and draped them over the sides, jerking me forward so I fell back and caught myself on my arms. “Hey!”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not,” I squirmed, nearly panting as he traced teasing circles on the flimsy underwear he’d revealed. “I don’t remember. You liked everything.”

  “This is what I dream about. This,” his accent thickened as he slid my panties over my thighs and dropped them to the floor, “Sueño contigo, your cum painting my lips, holding you tight to my mouth when you want to run from the pleasure…” he trailed off and I couldn’t stop myself from watching his head drop down to my bare lips, barely breathing as I felt the hot wash of air over my clit, waiting on that first touch from his tongue.

  I wanted it bad. I bucked my hips a little, whimpering.

  “You want my mouth? You want to feel my tongue all over this sweet pussy?”

  “Oh god,” his words, I couldn’t even think.

  “Say it,” he directed me roughly, hands clenching on my thighs like he was trying to restrain himself from doing anything before I gave in.

  “I want your mouth, Luc,” I whispered, struggling to form the words when he was so close. When I was bared to him and so vulnerable. He used his grip on my upper thighs to jer
k me closer, mouth going straight to my clit like he knew I liked, making me cry out and slam my hands on the dark wood. “Ungh.”

  I lost track of everything with him worshipping between my legs like I was his last meal. The constant assault of pleasure from his determined tongue and fingers is blurring my senses and stealing every ounce of control I didn’t have in the first place. Fire is burning through my veins, and I try to push his head away. He relents for a second, kissing me fiercely and I taste my tangy taste on his lips. It’s erotic as hell and I can’t help the moans escaping me.

  “Dios, baby. You’re going to come all over my lips, and you can’t stop it. This pussy, it’s mine as much now as it’s always been, isn’t it?”

  Fuck.

  He slides a strong hand behind my neck, piercing me with his dark gaze as his other hand strokes into me.

  One finger. Two. Three.

  I’m sobbing from the intense feelings rolling over my nerves. He fucks me with his fingers, watching my face like the beautiful predator he is. I’m bucking into his fingers like a wanton, terrified of the waves rising in me but needing the release. I’m so close, and he can tell, dropping back down to lick at my clit with the most teasing rhythm.

  Gasping, I dig my hands into his hair and come on his lips, jerking against him as he leisurely laps up every bit of cum from me. I can’t even speak; I’m so shaken from the orgasm that’s so much better than any time I’ve taken care of myself over the years.

  Everything’s better with Luc.

  I’m terrified to be hurt again, but the merest taste of him and the intensity that he gives with everything he does…and I want nothing more than to take this chance.

  “Just as amazing as ever, mi cielo.” He pressed a kiss right above my clit, and even though I’d just cum, I clenched hard while I watched him lick his fingers clean. “We’ll take this slow.”