by Aja Cole
I couldn’t help my hoarse laughter. “Slow? Eating me out in my office is slow to you?”
“Anything that’s not me fucking you until we both collapse is slow to me.” He shrugged, and I licked my lips, thinking of the visual. I had it bad, once again.
I should’ve known better.
My body was still tingling when he intertwined our hands and pulled them around his neck, making me press against him. I rested my forehead on his, just breathing him in.
“I want this to work, Teodora. I don’t have all the answers, but I have that one.”
“Well then, I guess we try it and see.” I pressed a kiss to his lips, feeling like nothing had ever ended. I wasn’t completely as naïve as I’d been before. Yes, he was here with me saying he wanted these things, but I couldn’t just blindly trust that.
I’d just have to keep better tabs on him, make sure he wasn’t doing anything dirty on the side and he doesn’t have someone waiting for him when this was over. This time, I wouldn’t be in the dark and at least there wouldn’t be a full ocean between us.
Even if a lot of American women didn’t know who he was, he was hot as sin. It wouldn’t take long before he’d have the same groupies here that he had there. What would I do then? What would I do if he slept with someone else? What would I do if his eye wandered? If I wasn’t enough for him again?
The doubts hit me hard and quickly and I suddenly felt the weight of them so much more. Did I want to put myself through this?
“Hey, you with me?” Luc pressed small kisses all over my face, making me giggle like a schoolgirl.
That feeling. That light feeling like everything was right and happy and good and exciting. I’d do anything for that feeling.
“I’m with you.”
18
Luciano
I watched Thea from where I was sitting in a makeup chair. I preferred not to think about the fact that I was getting goop added to my face and someone else was styling my hair that wasn’t me.
So, I focused on her.
She was hard to miss.
Wherever she was, my eyes were drawn there. Even amidst models in skimpy clothing, she was the only one I wanted to see. She was talking to the creative director for the brand, her hands flying around as she spoke animatedly and laughed with the young woman. She was dressed in a white halter tank top that fit her body and left her back bare, and a floor length deep plum skirt made of some flowy material that looked like almost sheer gauze. Whatever it was, the way it moved around her when she walked made it look like she was floating on air. I wanted to fill her closet with them. And more of the backless shirt things. Or maybe it was a bodysuit, even better.
I remembered that I was only wearing a robe over underwear, and a hard-on wouldn’t be professional. It’d take away from the brand if my hard dick was clearly outlined. I wasn’t shy or self-conscious, but the models had already been hitting on me, and I saw the way Thea watched. Whatever she was thinking, I didn’t want to encourage it. Even if it was all for her.
“Close your eyes for me, please,” the dark-skinned artist with short hair who strangely didn’t look like she was wearing any makeup at all murmured the command, and I obeyed while she drew on my eyelids. Should I have been offended that I felt like I’d been sitting in the chair forever? Did I need a lot of help or something? Que locura.
When I opened them, blinking rapidly because she’d put some thick shit on my eyelashes too, Thea was standing in front of me with a huge grin.
“Que?” I questioned, my irritation lessening the tiniest bit seeing obvious amusement light up her face.
“All you’re missing is some lipstick, stud. I’ve got a nice purple in my purse, Kyra. It would really bring out his eyes.” She spoke conspiratorially to the makeup artist, who shook her head with a small laugh.
“I like the color you’re wearing better,” I leaned closer to her.
“Oh really? You want me to grab it for you?” I took her hand and tugged her even nearer, making sure there’d be no doubt about what I was about to say.
“How about you get those lips around my dick so we can see what it looks like on my skin, hm? A ring around my cock from your mouth sounds like the perfect sample.” Swatting her firmly on the hip as I pulled back, I enjoyed the shock on her face as I stood up from the chair and let the stylist take my robe. I enjoyed it even more when Thea’s eyes dropped to my bare torso and that pink tongue peeked out just slightly.
She wanted to tease me? We’d both play.
“Arms out and legs spread a bit. We just need to do a little bit of contour then we’ll be ready to start.” The damn artist was back and I narrowed my eyes as she pulled a small stool up and got comfortable.
“What the hell kind of contour?” I bit out, raising my arms and feeling a little on display.
“Ab contour,” she threw out dismissively and I couldn’t contain my huff of outrage.
Ab contour?!
“No necesitaba músculos falsos! ¡Esto no tiene sentido!”I argued, stepping away from whatever contraption she was holding. “Dile que mis abdominales son perfectos!” I gestured to Thea, frowning.
“Uh, what did he say?”
“He’s saying he doesn’t need fake muscles. And I think he wants you to tell her that his abs are perfect,” a laughing voice came from behind me, and I turned, seeing a short woman holding a camera.
“Si. Yes. That,” I pointed at the little machine the makeup artist had, “is not needed.”
“Luc, it’s not because your body isn’t amazing. It definitely is,” there were rumbles of agreement when Thea spoke and I stood up a little straighter.
Damn right it was.
“But depending on the lighting and camera and angles, a little contour will help things really pop. You don’t need it, but think of it as like, an insurance policy in case you lean the wrong way or something.”
“This contour isn’t because my body isn’t up to par, no?” I narrowed my eyes, confirming. Thea walked her fingers up my abdomen slowly, pecking me on the lips before she answered.
“You know you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen,” she spoke low, and I searched her face. She meant it. Or she looked like she did. “Now get it together so these people can do their jobs.” She stepped back, smoothing her hands down my body before taking them away with what seemed like reluctance. “The sooner we finish here, the sooner we can have some time alone.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice.
I stepped back over to the makeup artist, standing docilely while she contoured my chest and a little bit of my arms. It killed me, but my driving thought was finishing the shoot so I could continue going slow with an amazing woman.
“Ready, Machina?” The photographer, the woman that’d translated when I’d gone into Spanish, stepped up beside me where I was standing next to lighting stands.
“You know who I am?” I asked her. She snorted in response, shaking her short, dark brown curls.
“Of course I do. And with my skills and your looks, everyone else will too.”
“You’re confident.”
“I’d say the same about you even with your mini meltdown. So, ready?” she teased.
I scowled and nodded, crossing my arms as I watched guys arrange a velvet settee in the middle of the white draping.
“Tell me where you want me.”
19
Theodora
There was an ugly green monster boiling up inside me and I didn’t like it one bit. See, this was going to be the thing about dating (being married to??) a hot as hell man…there was little I’d be able to control about who looked at him and was around him. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me nearly as much in the past to worry about the women around him like I did now. I’d believed him unconditionally.
He slid his hands under my ass, lifting me up against the door and plunging his tongue into my mouth. I tightened my legs around him, groaning into those silky lips. I wanted to just say yes to having sex with him so badl
y…what was I holding out for?
“Te necessito,” he murmured, squeezing my ass. It felt amazing.
“I don’t know what that means, but it sounds hot,” I smiled against his mouth, grinding my body into his while he held me up effortlessly. He was so strong.
“It means I fucking need my cock inside you or I’m going to go crazy.” He pressed himself into me to underline his words and I arched.
“How crazy?” I whispered, smoothing my hands over his large shoulders. I didn’t need to worry about holding on.
“Do you have some type of no sex before marriage rule you’re not telling me about, bebe? Because right now, I’d do just about fucking anything.”
“You’d marry me just to have sex with me? Jesus, how long has it been for you if you’re that hard up?”
He exhaled hard with a laugh, urging me to drop my legs so I was standing and he was caging me with his hands against the wall.
“Esto es loco,” he mumbled, shaking his head.
“English, please.” I said sweetly, playing with the bottom of his athletic shirt.
“I think I’d marry you even if you didn’t have sex with me.” He confessed and my jaw dropped before I made myself close it.
“But you don’t…we don’t even know each other that well.” I protested.
“I know what I need to know. You…you’re special. I’ve never felt this way about any girl and I haven’t looked sideways at anyone else since I saw you that night at the club. You’ve snared me like a bruja, and I want you all for myself.”
“You really haven’t thought of another girl?” I couldn’t think about the other things he’d said. I wasn’t quite ready to face those.
“Only you, mi cielo. Only you.” He captured my lips again and for long moments, we kissed and whispered words I couldn’t remember afterwards. All I knew was that I wanted the dream he spun, and I wanted it bad.
“He is one perfect man,” I jerked out of my memories, glancing at the model that was speaking. She wasn’t one of the ones that’d been draped all over him so far, so I had no beef with her. Who knew what the hell they were whispering and giggling about in that damned open shower?
Watching the water cascade strategically over his body was as arousing as it was infuriating. It felt like they were shooting soft porn, with the way the models kept creeping their hands onto him more than they needed to. It was torturous just standing on the sidelines. The one saving grace was that he looked annoyed every time he had to subtly move a wandering hand, and a little smugness replaced some of my jealousy.
“He’s alright,” I smiled, shaking my head as I watched him shake a lock of damp hair out of his eyes and smolder at the camera. God, how was one man so potent? And for all intents and purposes…he was all mine.
“If I leaned that way, I’d have all eyes for him…instead of you.” I swung my head to her in surprise. Wow, was she hitting on me?
“Are you hitting on me?”
“Don’t sound so shocked hon, you’re stunning. I’d love to see you up there instead of them. Those curves on you?” She whistled low and I was still in too much shock to say anything. This was a very new feeling for me, being faced with a woman being so blatant about her interest.
“I uh…thank you? I’m Thea,” I laughed nervously, looking at her more. She had beautiful golden tanned skin and was at least six feet tall. She completely dwarfed me. The difference in body composition of tall people and people my height was fascinating. She was just bigger. She had honey blonde hair and full lips. She was attractive, just not in the way Luc was attractive to me.
“You’re welcome. If you ever decide you don’t want hot soccer players, give me a call. Or, you know, if you want a new friend, I’m Cassandra.” She tucked what I assumed was a card with her information on it into the waistband of my skirt and sauntered away. I watched her, a little turned on.
What an odd turn of events. I wasn’t looking to switch sides any time soon, but wow, it was kind of hot to have a hot person think you were hot. I wondered what Luc would say when I told him, if he’d be jealous like I was jealous watching him pose with scantily clad girls like they had a right to him.
Finally, they were wrapping up the shoot after a few underwear switches and Luc was bussing a towel over his body and hair. He motioned for me to come closer and I glanced at the photographer Teresa, who nodded to it being okay to step on set.
“You enjoy all the attention?” I kept my voice light, nonchalant. He shrugged, slinging the towel around his neck and grabbing my hands.
“It’s nothing new.”
“It’s new to me,” I retorted, avoiding his gaze. “Seeing it so up close, even if it was just for a promo spread…they were touching you a bit more than Teresa and Rose directed.”
“You jealous?” He raised an eyebrow, bringing our hands up to his chest.
“Yes.” I admitted, going for transparency.
“You think I didn’t see how that model’s been looking at you since we got here?” he questioned, stroking his thumbs on my hands.
“She told me she was interested over there. Even gave me her contact information.”
His hands tightened on mine ever so slightly, just enough to let me know he was affected even though his face held the same amusement. “You going to take her up on the offer?”
“She’s kind of missing some parts of you that I’m really fond of.”
“Oh?” He questioned, placing a hand firmly on the back of my neck. I knew what that meant and my body tensed, already anticipating his kiss. We were in our own little world.
I didn’t respond to his question, just closed the space between us and kissed him slowly, savoring the taste of him. We hadn’t genuinely kissed since that morning, when I’d been looking for breakfast food at his New York place and couldn’t find any. He’d come up behind me and tipped my head back, kissing me hard before just leaving without a word and going to take a shower.
I’d stared after him for a full minute before I’d gotten back to my senses and called Amina about having some groceries delivered. I had zero idea where the heck to shop for food in New York or what was near. I thought we’d be staying at a hotel, but apparently, Luc had property in several places as investments.
“It should’ve been you up there with him, these are some amazing shots.” Teresa’s voice sounded behind me and I jumped back, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks at the various people that saw the PDA.
“Uh,” I stammered, at a loss for words as Luc winked at me.
“Come look at these, I can send them to you if you’d like.” I obeyed Teresa, going to her side and peering over at the screen where her last pictures were displayed. Luc came over and I shifted away a little, needing a little distance for a clear head. He didn’t like that and pulled me more fully to him, so his front was to my back and he crossed his arms around my front and rested his chin on my shoulder.
“Don’t run from this, cariño,” he murmured.
“I’m not running.” I responded quietly. “Just don’t like too many people watching.”
“Well that’s going to be a little necessary.”
“So it was for show?” I held my breath, not feeling as secure as I had been.
“You kissed me. I’m just reminding you that people can watch and see how much I want you and care about you. Doesn’t change anything, bien?”
“Okay,” I relented, covering his hands on my abdomen with mine. “Wow, these pictures…”
“You can tell how much you love each other,” Teresa interjected, clicking over to the next ones. She’d captured him holding my hands against him and looking at me with a fond look on his face. I was looking up at him like some lovesick teenager. She’d started taking pictures the second I stepped on set, and the way he watched me as I walking towards him…wow.
This was so much more than I was ready for.
Right?
20
Luciano
“Oh my god, I feel like I’ve
been walking on needles all day,” Thea groaned, plopping down hard on the oversized charcoal grey sectional. “I didn’t pick out this couch, but whoa thank you to whatever designer did. Who did?”
“No idea.” I unbuttoned my shirtsleeves and rolled them up my arms, toeing off my shoes.
It’d been a day.
After the shoot wrapped up just after lunch time, we’d gone to a popular lunch spot that Amina leaked for some press coverage. It was a little hard to ignore cameras snapping, but we’d tried to give off some semblance of normalcy. Then I’d met with the marketing heads for a multinational clothing-retail company with Amina, while Thea took Rose up on her offer to watch her stage another magazine spread photoshoot. Then more meetings and time away from each other, but we’d made it back to the penthouse around the same time.
It almost felt like some sort of routine.
I dived onto the couch, smiling at her shrieks and wrapping my arms around her middle while I rested my head on her stomach. She pulled herself up some so she was supported by the back of the sectional and raked her fingers along my scalp.
I closed my eyes.
Damn, that was amazing. Just like she used to do after a long practice or game day.
“How was the rest of your day?” she asked sweetly.
I kept my eyes closed, just breathing her in and pressing the memory into my mind for later. Just in case things went badly and my memories would be all I had left again.
“Fine. I won’t be poor anytime soon.” I tightened my grip on her like she was my personal body pillow.
Wait, she could be.
Pulling her down further under me with a grunt, I rested my cheek on her soft breasts while she laughed.