Rush: A Second Chance Romance

by Ellen Lane

  “Just let me finish this.” He leaned over to press his mouth to the line of my throat in a flagrant, lingering kiss that had me all but squirming in my seat. “Ten minutes.”

  I didn’t even bother to fight it. Why should I? I’d been fighting it for weeks...for years, if I was honest with myself. Ever since our little jaunt in the cabin, Rhett had been incredibly sweet. If he’d wanted to, he could have taken me to bed countless times by now. God knows I would have let him. Instead, he’d catered to my needs - behaved himself (mostly) during our interview sessions, catered to every whim I had while in the penthouse and bought me the most gorgeous flowers I’d ever laid eyes on. Maybe I was falling into the trope of most women he spent his time with, but I wanted him. Certainly, it had to do, in part, with how his way of life impressed me, but I was drawn more to the tenderness beneath all that raw allure. All he had to do was smile at me and I knew I was in trouble.

  “...Alright.” I finally acquiesced quietly. This one, I swore, wouldn’t go in the article. This one was for me. I had to indulge while I could.

  The longest ten minutes in my existence followed. I did my best not to glance suspiciously at the attendant - a female, this time, and a markedly pretty one. Funnily enough, I hadn’t even noticed her when I boarded. I had been entirely otherwise occupied. When she came to refill my champagne, she might have even snuck me a look that all but screamed envy.

  But none of that mattered. Even if it was only temporarily, Rhett was mine now - and I relished the fact.

  When he finally did set his laptop aside, I tried to act casual.

  “Elena, we’ll be in the back.” I might have imagined that Rhett would toss that attempt out the window. “Give us a few hours.”

  Hours?

  I was probably the color of a ripe strawberry as Rhett took my hand, tugging me towards the rear of the plane. He had not just announced his intentions with me to the stewardess...I could only imagine what she must think.

  “Stop that.” Once the door to the small bedroom that took up most of the plane was closed, Rhett pressed me up against it, his gaze hungry in the low light. Immediately, my heart leapt into my throat and heat sizzled through my nerve endings.

  “Stop what?” Somehow, I managed to eke the words out against his mouth before it brushed over my jaw to linger at the point of my pulse.

  “Getting caught up in things that don’t matter.” He growled, before biting my neck sharply so I yelped. When the gesture lengthened into a drawn out, lingering suck of the sensitive skin, I nearly lost my footing. “I’m right here. Concentrate on me.”

  It wasn’t particularly hard - especially when his tongue was doing something that should have been illegal to my earlobe. I don’t think I’d ever gotten so hot so fast - not even back in the cabin. Then, I hadn’t known what he was going to do to me. I wanted him, but I was nervous, embarrassed and hopeful all at the same time. This time, I knew what I was getting into - and it was an effort for me to keep from throwing myself at him. My arms rose to slip around his neck as he reached down to scoop me up from underneath my thighs and lift me into the air. When he pressed me firmly back against the door, his mouth covered mine - and I did what he bid.

  I stopped thinking.

  The first time Rhett and I were together, I was so overwhelmed I could do little more than simply let him have his way with me. This time, I vowed to be more proactive. Every time I’d seen the man lounging around the penthouse I longed to climb on top of him. To have his luscious body laid out beneath me for the sampling.

  Now was my chance.

  I dropped my hands to the hem of his shirt, untucking it eagerly as I arched against him in a bid for dominance. With a low groan, Rhett merely hefted me from the door and around to the bed before toppling me onto the surprisingly soft mattress.

  “This thing feels like it’s stuffed with actual clouds. How ever did you make that happen?”

  Rhett laughed as I tugged his shirt free, nearly popping the buttons in an effort to get it off him. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk about my money.”

  “You’re not. I was just testing you.” He shut me up efficiently by planting another kiss on my hungry mouth. After some quick maneuvering, I finally managed to expose that glorious chest of his and indulged in running my fingers over its breadth. I tore my mouth from his to lay kisses across the smooth, firm flesh and his hands tangled in my hair as I fumbled with his belt.

  “Fuck, Cece...slow down…” That was the last thing I wanted. I needed him to feel the same kind of abandon that he made me feel. Wanted him to lose his mind, just like I had. When I reached into his pants to find the straining, heated column of his erection, a low curse spilled from his mouth. He was, without a doubt, the biggest man I’d ever been with - so big that my first sight of him had given me pause. But now I knew better. I remembered just how deliciously Rhett filled me - until I was sure I couldn’t take anymore.

  And I craved it.

  “Come here.” Rhett stopped my ministrations as he tightened his hold on my hair. It wasn’t enough to hurt - but it was definitely enough to make me pause and take notice. He bore me back onto the mattress, tugging me up for a kiss as he spread my legs with his powerful thighs.

  “I want to touch you,” I insisted against his mouth, struggling against the haze of lust that threatened to envelop me. It would be so easy to just let him have me. So fucking easy.

  “You touch me anymore and I’ll lose my mind, Cece.” The front of the dress I wore was held shut with a series of snaps that he popped open in a single gesture. “Besides, I have a better idea.”

  “And what’s that - mmmm…. Rhett…” He tugged down the cup of my bra to take a pebbled nipple into his mouth and pleasure slid over me on a warm, silken wave. For a moment, he didn’t answer me. He was far too preoccupied with paying homage to my chest, sucking and nipping at the peak of one until I was gasping beneath him before switching to the other to treat it to the same ministrations. I was so wrapped up in sensation that by the time he did actually speak, I almost missed it.

  “I wanna see you come for me.” I moaned at the prospect, a shiver traversing the length of my body.

  “But...you already…” It was hard for me to form a proper sentence when the man was tugging at my nipple with his teeth, sending delicious little bolts right to the ache between my legs.

  “What did I say, Cece?” Rhett murmured against my skin, his fingers sliding down over my stomach to trail along the waistband of my panties. “Stop.”

  When he touched me, I almost flew off the bed. I had probably been slick since the moment he told me what he had planned for me - by now, I was probably leaving a puddle on the mattress. Within minutes, however, any concern I might have had about cleanup was gone. Two of Rhett’s thick, nimble fingers slid into me as he rubbed a spot high up inside me that had me biting back a cry. The muscles in my stomach went tight as my eyes slid closed and the sharp, overwhelming sensation threatened to steal my sanity.

  “Rhett…” I moaned deliriously, grasping at his hand as I begged for mercy. I wasn’t sure whether to urge him on or to stop him. The tide of my pleasure threatened to sweep me away completely, and it was both scary and exhilarating all at once. “Rhett, please - I can’t…”

  “You can, honey.” He murmured lowly against my neck in encouragement, his fingers stroking deftly over my quivering inner muscles. “Let go for me. Just let go.”

  As if I could refuse him. His whispering against my damp skin, the way he touched me and the feel of his body against mine - it was enough to send me careening over the precipice of an orgasm so powerful my vision went white.

  I was clutching Rhett tightly enough to hurt him - feeling his mouth against my neck as my body trembled. It felt so damned good I could hardly breathe, and I wondered how I’d lived my entire without this.

  I realized, in short order, that Rhett was kissing gently along the line of my neck and shoulder as I eased down, rubbing small, comforting circl
es against the line of my hip bone. When his thumb brushed over my over-sensitized clit, I gasped, jerking away from him. “Christ, Rhett.”

  He chuckled, nipping at my ear. “One day, I think it will be fun to see how long you can keep going.”

  My eyes widened. “Keep going?”

  He smirked, devilishly handsome, above me. “All I’d have to do,” he lifted his fingers to wiggle them obscenely in the gesture I presumed had just rocked my plane of existence. “Until you beg me to stop.”

  The very notion was enough to make me shudder. I wondered if it was possible to expire from too many orgasms - ironic, considering I hadn’t even known I could have one until a few short weeks ago. “Don’t do that.” I flushed, pushing his hand away as I tried to slow my breathing. Rhett, however, only sucked his fingers into his mouth, relishing my flavor.

  My womb clenched in almost painful want. “Soon,” he promised, his voice husky with devilish intent, “You’ll be telling me exactly what you want - how to touch you. How badly you need to come.” That mouth of his was going to be the death of me, and I stayed the licentious words spilling from it with my own, even as I yanked his pants down his thighs.

  Rhett skimmed the silky fabric of my dress up and over my hips so he could pull my panties down and off my legs. “Turn over, darlin’.” Before I could comply, Rhett was flipping me onto my stomach, exposing my bare behind and the backs of my thighs to him. He didn’t give me an instant to be self-conscious, peppering hungry kisses and bites over my lower back, the curve of my ass and the downy skin just where my thighs met the muscle there.

  When his tongue dipped between, I shrieked, sensation bolting through me, and immediately tugged myself away. Rhett’s immediate reaction was to yank me back into place. “Just a taste.” He growled, licking a hot stripe over my aching pussy. The man dropped onto his stomach, burying his head between my thighs shamelessly as he ate me from behind. His ardor alone would probably have been enough to bring me to the edge again, but Rhett was also wickedly talented with his tongue. It flickered along the seam of my lower lips before dipping inside, working all kinds of carnal magic until I was all but sobbing against the coverlet.

  My second orgasm was no less powerful than the first - helped along by the fact that Rhett lifted his mouth from my lower lips halfway through it to slide into me in a swift, precise stroke. His name spilled from my lips on a tortured moan as I gripped the silk coverlet tightly. Dear God, he felt good - hot, hard and huge, filling me in a way I used to think was impossible.

  As I clenched around him, still, impossibly coming on his cock, he groaned, loud and low against my shoulder. “That’s my girl…” He bit at the back of my neck, waiting the precious few seconds I needed to recover from my orgasm before beginning to move.

  I had never liked this position. At least, that’s what I told myself every time a guy asked me to get on my hands and knees like it was the sexiest thing in the goddamned cosmos. But this, this was perfection. Rhett straddled my thighs, each slide of his hips pressing me against the mattress and thrusting so deep I could feel the tip of his erection touching the spot he’d so mindlessly exploited earlier. I grasped at the pillows, the sheets, anything I could to ground myself. But it was all for naught. Soon, I was moaning uncontrollably, begging Rhett for more, faster, deeper...A wanton side of me I had never known took over, triggered by Rhett’s soft, encouraging growl against my ear.

  He told me how good I felt, how perfectly I gripped his cock and how gorgeous I was wrapped around him. I felt his speed increase to mindlessness until he was slamming his hips against mine with abandon, the musky, heavy scent of sex filling the air. When he reached beneath me to start stroking my clit in time with his thrusts, urging me to come for him again, I barely held out for a minute.

  Then I was arching against him, calling his name as I clung to him and every muscle in my body went taut with glorious, mind-numbing completion that seemed to last a lifetime.

  Eventually, however, the real world intervened once more. The first thing I was conscious of was the hum of the plane's engine below us. Then the warm weight of Rhett’s sculpted body pressing me into the mattress. He was still inside me, and I found, much like the first time we were together, that I was reluctant to part from him.

  A good two or three minutes passed before he shifted his weight onto his arms, lowering his head to kiss my neck leisurely. “You’re now an honorary member of the Mile High Club, honey.”

  It was a comment that would have pissed the old Cece off - off the cuff, confident and comfortable. But now, I found myself laughing softly, shifting so I could look over my shoulder at him. “Any other clubs you want to introduce me to, Mr. Adrenaline Junkie?”

  As it turned out, there were - even if their activities were best attended to outside of the bedroom.

  As much as I ragged on Rhett for his money and what he did with it, there were definitely perks to having the financial freedom that he did. There was an organization of thrill-seekers in Nepal that was limited to the uber-rich, and thanks to his connections, I got the shit scared out of me in a way I would never have been able to imagine.

  But that was, of course, after I acclimated to Nepal itself.

  “What do you think?”

  The ride from Tribhuvan International airport to the downtown area took about half an hour - and in those thirty minutes, I found myself marveling at my surroundings. Unfortunately, I’d never been one for travel. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to go, but rather because I was so obsessed with getting a better job - as well as despising the one I was currently slave to. I wasn’t paid the kind of money that allowed one to fly off to far-flung locations at your every whim, and the one time that I had gone abroad had required an entire year of savings.

  But Asia was nothing like Europe.

  Rhett was happy to fill in the blanks for me. Nepal was a third world country. Places like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo weren’t nearly as rural. All the lush rolling green hills I saw - the veritable thousands of sheep and horses grazing in pens and roaming free - it was a fixture of rural places.

  But that didn’t mean I was any less enchanted. Slowly, those rolling hills gave way to the colorful, intricate urban sprawl that was Katmandu. I’d never seen another city like it. High rises juxtaposed with temples and prayer wheels. There were a few modern shopping malls filled with brands I had never heard off, and bordered by alleys filled with decadent smells and bustling citizens.

  Of course, I didn’t get to see all this the first day. We drove through the city and straight to a hotel that seemed completely at odds with its surroundings. It wasn’t that I hadn’t expected to see a luxury hotel in Katmandu, I just hadn’t expected it to be quite as luxurious as it was.

  “What are you doing?”

  I was like a kid in a candy shop, and Rhett’s critical eye made me unbelievably self-conscious. I leaned over the edge of the immense tub in our suite to run my fingers along the marble bottom just as he waltzed into the bathroom to arch a brow at my actions.

  I straightened almost immediately, my face hot. “It’s just...I was just seeing if it was real marble.”

  He smirked, bending slightly to run his fingertips across the edge of the tub. “Not quite. Does this mean I have to get a new suite that fits your expensive tastes?”

  I resisted the urge to clock him over the head and instead settled for rolling my eyes as I made my way back to the bedroom to begin unpacking. “How long are we going to be here again?”

  “A little over a week. I have some things to see to downtown, and in the meantime, I’m going to show you some of my favorite sites.”

  Something told me that anything Rhett liked was going to make my heart pound and possibly include a life-threatening experience. The prospect both excited and intimidated the hell out of me. “Hey.” When his arms slipped around me from behind, drawing me against his tall, strong form, my breath caught in my throat. “You know I’d never let anything happen to you, right?
I’ll be with you the whole time.” He brushed a surprisingly tender kiss over my neck and my heart hammered against my ribs.

  For a moment, I could almost forget why I was here. I was supposed to be doing a series of interviews - or, at any rate, writing some kind of story, and that story was about Rhett. We weren’t here as newlyweds, or even, really, as lovers. It was, for all intents and purposes, a working trip.

  Wasn’t it?

  I mean, we had spent a good portion of the flight in the private jet’s bedroom, and I had stopped being so preoccupied with what the other occupants of the plane must think of us. Eventually, all that mattered was Rhett’s hands, his mouth and the awful, wonderful things he whispered when he was inside me.

  But that didn’t mean anything. We were two consenting adults, and we’d already agreed that our sleeping together didn’t have to mean anything beyond physical pleasure.

  So why the hell was he all over me? Touching me, kissing me...melting me.

  “Cece?” I was snapped from my reverie when he said my name.

  “Hm?” I found myself reluctant to leave his embrace. Whenever I dated men, I found clinginess absolutely abhorrent. Not that there had been many of them, but there were a few boyfriends who wanted to be all over me far more than I could tolerate. It occurred to me that, had Rhett and I actually been dating, he would have fallen into that category.

  At least, theoretically.

  “Did you hear me? I said you should relax for a while. I have to head downtown.” Immediately, I whirled to face him.

  “You’re leaving me alone?” Immediately, I was embarrassed at the slight edge of panic in my tone. Of course, I hadn’t imagined that Rhett would be by my side twenty-four seven, especially if he had business to tend to. But the idea of being in a country where I didn’t speak the language and I didn’t have a cell phone signal was slightly intimidating.

  “Only for a little while.” His smile was both amused and fond at the same time, and I swallowed the urge to flee. What right did he have to look at me like that? “You’ll be perfectly fine at the hotel. Or, if you want to go out, I could hire a guide-”