by Aubrey Dark
All for nothing, Clarence had said, and that was the right way to put it. All of the contests. All of the scheming. All of the effort and time I’d put in—and now I wasn’t even going to have a single sentence published. No bonus money for another article.
Nothing.
“You have one second to drop the phone.”
My head snapped up, my brain still whirling from the news.
Piers snatched the phone from my hand and tossed it away onto a poolside chair.
“Piers, what are you—ahh!”
Piers picked me up in his arms and leapt into the pool. I shrieked as we splashed into the warm water. He came up a foot away from me, his dark hair streaming wet over his ears. His eyes reflected the lights off of the green-blue water. His white button down shirt was plastered to his chest, and I could see his muscles through the damp fabric.
“Piers!” I sputtered, floundering in the water. “What the hell!”
“I admit it. I was jealous that Dylan got to toss you into the pool. I had to wait until everyone was gone, but it was worth it.”
“Piers—” I sputtered, miserably.
“Tell me my cannonball was better, though?” He grinned widely at me.
“Piers…wait… I…I…”
I burst out into tears, unable to control the emotions that were flooding through me.
Immediately his face fell. He reached out to me and drew me closer through the water, but I couldn’t stop the sobs from wracking my chest.
“Lisa, I’m sorry. Lisa, I didn’t mean—what’s the matter? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I shook my head, my throat closed off with sadness. I buried my head against his shoulder, sobbing into the wet fabric. His hands cradled me close in the heated water, and for a moment I felt utterly vulnerable. I was crying in his arms, letting all of the tension and worry of the past few weeks burst out of me in one sitting.
He waited until my cries had died down into soft whimpers. Then he drew me back. His eyes shone like water, his dark hair plastered damply against his forehead. He looked completely lovely, perfectly handsome, and his face was filled with earnest worry.
“Was it the snake? There aren’t any more snakes in the pool. Unless you count my water anaconda.” He winked and gave a bit of a smile.
A half-sob, half-laugh escaped me. He pushed my hair back with his fingers and drew me into another hug. Oh, God, those fingers. The same fingers that had tortured and teased me, the same fingers that had sent me into ecstasy. Now they were comforting, firm and warm on my wet skin.
“What is it, love?”
“They pulled my article.” I finally spat out. “My stupid boss said that they couldn’t run it and they’re pulling the stupid article. And I’ve been here for weeks now, and for what? For nothing!”
Tears streamed down my cheeks. The injustice of what Clarence had done wasn’t even the worst of it—the worst was that he acted like it was no big deal for me to come back to the office and keep doing menial work.
“I had a chance to write a major article, and now it’s shot,” I moaned. “I’ll be doing graphic design pictures on lipstick and blush forever. I have to be back at the office tomorrow.”
“So that means—”
“I’m out of the competition.”
“You can’t stay? There are only two more contests left.”
“I can’t lose my job, Piers.”
He pressed his lips together and frowned.
“I’m sorry,” I said, hiccupping back a sob. “I’m a complete failure. Everything I start ends up as a big mess. I shouldn’t even try anymore. I should just give up—”
He cupped my chin and tilted it up into a kiss, stopping my words. His mouth was hot and wanting, and when he cradled me up into his arms I yielded completely. I wanted to forget everything. I wanted to drift away in this water and let all of my responsibilities melt away. But after a moment, he pulled away and forced me to look at him.
“Lisa, listen to me,” he said, his hand still cupping my cheek. “You’re not a failure.”
I smiled a weak smile, tears still streaking down the sides of my face. I could feel them hot and damp, hotter than even the water in the pool.
“You’re really good at lying, Piers.”
“I’m not lying. I’m telling the truth. You manage to surprise me in every possible way.”
“Right. Surprise! I’m a hot mess!” I forced a laugh through my tears.
“The producers thought for sure you’d get booted after one or two episodes. I mean, Lisa—you were up against a dozen young girls who made it their job to win this show. Half of them were models already. You’re nearly a decade older than any of them.”
“Um. This isn’t exactly making me feel good about myself, Piers—”
“But you managed to do it anyway! With all the odds against you, you charmed the billionaire into falling for you and now you’re in the final round.”
“I was in the final round. I can’t stay, Piers.”
I bit my lip and looked up at him. I had messed up. I had let him down. And yet, he smiled.
“Well, you said something about waiting until after you were off the show…”
“I—oh!”
His mouth was on mine again and his hand slid around under my dress. I gasped as he squeezed my ass, sending thrills of sensation through my body. I moaned as his lips moved down to my neck, kissing and sucking.
“Piers, wait…what if someone sees—”
“I locked the door to the roof,” he whispered, his hands tearing off my panties under my dress. “Don’t worry. You’re all mine now, love.”
The way he said those words made me shiver with something more than desire. His voice was confident, possessive. And I knew at that moment that I had been pulling away from the exact thing that I needed. I had wanted so badly to be independent, but now I was giving that up to be his, if only for tonight.
“Piers—”
“God, I want you so badly, Lisa.” His whispers in my ear alternated with hard kisses to my skin. We were moving slowly to the edge of the infinity pool, moving as in slow motion. “I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you. Your gorgeous ass. Those beautiful eyes. Every part of you is perfect. And perfectly mine.”
We reached the edge of the pool. My hands pressed against Piers’ chest through the wet fabric. I looked up into his eyes, hungry with desire. And suddenly I was shy again. Uncertain.
Was this really what I wanted? This was a man who could have any girl he wanted, and he said he wanted me. Did he only want me because he couldn’t have me? His hands pushed the skirt of my dress up over my hips, and I felt the twin pulls of desire and resistance. My body was urging me forward, but my mind was telling me that this might be a bad idea.
Once he had me, would this all be over? Did I want this kind of one-night stand? Any other girl would have fallen over herself to make love to a famous celebrity in a luxury pool. But was I that kind of girl?
“Piers—wait.”
He stopped, his breath coming fast and shallow. I felt his fingers tense on the curve of my hip, pausing.
“Lisa, there are only so many times you can tell me to wait before I spontaneously combust.”
“I’m not…I don’t know what you think I am. I don’t know what you want…. this to be. Is this a one-time thing for us?”
Under my hand, I could feel his heart pounding.
“Is that what you want?” His face was serious, and I could feel the tears springing up again at the backs of my eyes. He hadn’t meant what he said in the pantry. It had all been fake.
“No,” I said. It was hard to force the word out. My body ached for him, and I wanted this so badly. At the same time, though, I knew that it would hurt me even more if I had to walk away when it was over and never see him again. It was a risk I had to take—the risk of losing him now.
He paused, as though thinking about it.
“Well?” I asked.
“It’s a good t
hing you said no,” he said, his voice not giving away any sign of emotion. My muscles tensed under his grasp. “Because if you had wanted a one-night stand, do you know what would have happened?”
I shook my head, not trusting my voice. A small still hope quivered in my chest.
“I would have had to track you down every day.” He kissed my forehead lightly, his expression as gravely serious as ever. “… and jump on top of you in every elevator, pantry, or pool I found you in.”
He moved down, kissing my cheek, where tears still lingered.
“I would seduce you over and over again, in office break rooms and in massage parlors. You would never be able to escape my seductions.”
The hope shivering inside of me burst forth into tears of joy. I flung my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, nearly submerging him under the water. He laughed.
“Lisa, for such a smart woman you can be a damn fool at times.”
“Piers—”
“Don’t tell me to wait.”
I shook my head happily.
“Take me,” I said, and wrapped my legs around his waist to pull him close under the water. “Take me now.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Piers’ lips crushed mine. He pressed me back against the edge of the infinity pool, sending rivulets of water splashing back into the darkness. City lights twinkled like stars in the night around us. My legs gripped the sides of his waist, urging him forward.
“God, Lisa,” he moaned, as my hips grazed his stiff cock.
“Please—” I whispered.
It was all I needed to say. There was no need for hesitation anymore. My entire body wanted this, needed this. The coil inside me tightened as his hands moved down and then he was there, exposed, his cock pressing hard against my entrance under the warm water.
I moaned, sliding up to position his tip in the right place. His breath caught in his throat and under my hand I felt his heart pounding. The fabric of his shirt was wet and see through, and his muscles bulged as he pulled himself close. I closed my eyes, ready for the first thrust, my legs wrapped around his hips. His hands gripped the curve of my ass.
“Wait,” he said.
There was a pause. My whole body cried out to be filled, and I clenched involuntarily. A whimper rose in my chest as the pause lengthened. I opened one eye.
Piers was floating, a sly grin on his face.
“What are we waiting for?” I rasped into the cool air.
“Nothing. I just wanted to get you back for all those times you did it to me.”
“Oh, you—!”
Then he thrust forward and up, and my gasp turned into a moan of pleasure. His cock slid into me, filling me completely. God, he was so huge, so hard. My hands gripped his shoulders as he leaned in. Dizziness spun my head, and if he had let go of me at that moment I was sure I would drown, just sinking into the water without another thought.
“You were saying?”
I clenched around his cock and his grin turned soft as desire filled his eyes.
“Oh, you’re wicked,” he said, a hint of hoarseness in his voice. He eased back and then rolled his hips into me.
I screamed.
It was the fastest orgasm I’d ever had, and the most intense. There was no time to get ready for it, no time to think. It was not there, and then it was, and I wasn’t prepared at all for the force of the wave that hit me, shivering my nerves in an electric spasm of pleasure.
Clenching and unclenching, I shook as his hard cock stiffened inside of me, rock hard and unyielding. My legs pulled him in even deeper as the climax broke through my body, making all my muscles tense.
“Ohhhhhh!” My scream turned into a moan. “Ohhhhh.”
My core squeezed hard, spasming again and again. My head lolled back into Piers’ steady hand. When I finally opened my eyes, he was looking at me with a kind of awe.
“Bloody hell,” Piers whispered. “That felt incredible.”
“Sorry—sorry I came so fast,” I gasped. My pulse was still pounding from the sudden orgasm. “I—I—”
I burst into unstoppable giggles. All of the tension inside of me was gone, replaced by a soft pleasure.
“Oh, God, Piers, I needed that so badly!”
He grinned at me. Water lapped at his chest.
“Glad I could help. Now, before we go setting any more records…”
He shifted inside of me.
“Ohh!” I gasped. I’d thought that he was all the way inside of me, but now he pushed in even further, stretching me. My lips parted as I felt him move into me, lifting me a few inches out of the water. My weight settled back onto him and his hands gripped my thighs, pulling me tight onto his hard cock.
He bit his lip, and I could see the pleasure flash across his eyes, loosening his expression. There was no pretense here, nothing fake or forced. It was just him and me in a pure expression of desire.
“Lisa?”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
It was like the first time he had kissed me outside of the coffeeshop. His lips, hot and hard, seizing mine in a probing intimacy that made me melt. It was different, though, in one way—I knew him now, or at least I thought I did. And I knew what he had been missing from his life. Why he had sung about his empty heart. He was as lost as I was, lost in a sea of people all searching for love and not being able to find it.
Only he had found me.
I had spent so much time searching for my own idea of what Mr. Right was—making my list of wants and needs—that I had forgotten what mattered the most. And here was this man, so funny and smart and handsome, driving me to the edge of insanity with desire. He had seemed so wrong for me from the start. But we had come full circle, and I realized now that I was the one who was wrong. I’d pushed away all of my needs while pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Was it so terrible for me to want to feel secure, protected? Was it so terrible that I went senseless with pleasure when he seared my lips with a kiss?
He was nothing I wanted and everything I needed. And it had taken me this long to realize how much of a fool I’d been to push him away.
Piers eased out and then in, working at a slow rhythm, setting fire to my nerves. I reached out and ran my fingers through his wet hair, pulling him closer into a greedy kiss. My hands molded to his taut arms, his broad shoulders, and his mouth covered mine, taking me into a slow rise of ecstasy with every thrust of his cock into my aching body.
“Yes,” I whispered, as his mouth moved to my neck.
“God, Lisa, you’re so damn perfect.”
He sucked hard at my skin, and I moaned, pushing down and impaling myself onto him. I wanted him inside me, needed to be filled with something only he had. Water splashed between us with each thrust as he began to move faster, his rhythm finding mine as our breaths drew close and quick.
I needed this. Needed him. As I clutched him tight, I lost all of my restraint. I moved like an animal, giving in to my wilder impulses. My fingers dug into his muscles, urging him on. It was a wild need, a primal need, and I groaned hoarsely as his tongue licked me from collarbone to chin.
His cock, impossibly hard, went iron stiff. He braced himself against the edge of the pool, shoving me against the wall with each roll of his hips. I let out cries of pleasure with each roll, giving myself permission to need him. And the wave of fire inside me grew and grew, threatening to spill over and crash me down with a severity that I couldn’t anticipate.
“Yes,” I moaned into his neck, my voice disappearing into the dark night around us. This was what I needed, and I wouldn’t push it away. “Ohhhh. Yes! Yes! OHHHH!”
He drove himself into me, hard rolls over and over again. He slammed the breath from my lips with his thrusts. The fiery wave grew and grew inside me, and even being submerged in water couldn’t quench the flames. I could feel its power menacing, threatening to tear me apart.
I leaned into his arms and closed my eyes. I was on the crest, ready to plunge
headlong into the wave of dark ecstasy.
“Lisa.” His voice was a throaty rasp, low and growling. “I’m—I’m coming—”
Yes.
I don’t know if my voice was working or if my lips said it silently. I was already on my way, in freefall into the rolling wave, and as I pulled Piers close, the ecstasy crashed through me with a deep, resounding shudder.
“Ohhhhhhhhh,” I moaned. His cock stiffened and hitched. His hips rolled hard against mine, pressing perfectly into that spot where I needed it most. My scream went soundless as bliss stole my breath.
He jerked once, twice into me. There was no space between our bodies, and when he spasmed, I spasmed with him, our moans intertwining.
My body clenched, milking his hard thick cock. I couldn’t stop the hard shudders that ripped through me again and again, the fire that burned through my body. I felt as though I was being engulfed in flame, and there would be nothing left but ash when I opened my eyes. How could I survive such an intense sensation? I couldn’t. I couldn’t.
I was moaning, shivering. The sounds coming from my throat were choked with pleasure. But as the wave died down, the last flames licking through my nerves, I felt his arms around me. His hands, strong and warm and possessive. His chest, pressed to mine, forcing me to breathe as he drew breath.
“Lisa,” he was whispering. “Oh, Lisa, Lisa.”
He held me tight in his arms, his heart beating against mine. And I knew that I was losing myself in more ways than one.
“I’m going to miss you on the show,” Piers said, after he helped me out of the pool.
“You mean you’re going to miss mauling me off camera every chance you get.”
“Really though. I’ve never had so much fun taping a show before. You made it fun.”
“Even though I was competing to get a date with someone else?” I raised an eyebrow.
Piers scoffed.
“Oh, come on. You don’t want to date a billionaire. You never did.”
“Mmm,” I said, letting him press another kiss onto my lips. “I’ll just have to settle for a poor multimillionaire instead.”
“Woe is me. Was that your plan all along?”