by Tara Sue Me
She blinked and looked away, but only for a second. Though he’d prepared himself for tears, her eyes were dry when she turned back. “Me, too,” she said. “Once you left to go to work that day, it felt like it’d be forever until you got back. I remembered it was Alex’s first day, so I thought I’d make you both muffins.” She frowned. “I thought Alex was a guy.”
He didn’t add he once thought the same thing. It felt unimportant. But he told her what she needed to know. “I fired her.”
She lifted her chin, allowing him to see the hurt that still lingered. “Did she tell you what she said?”
“No.” He could no longer keep himself from touching her. Not when she looked at him like he was the only one able to protect her. He cupped her cheek. “But I wish you had.”
“Me, too,” she confessed.
“I’m not sure where we go from here,” he said. “I want to be with you, but I can’t have you running away again. That night I came home and couldn't find you?” He shook his head. “I never want to experience that feeling again.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I did and what I should have done.” She winced as if reliving an unpleasant memory. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“That doesn’t erase the fact that you did. Not just that once, but every time you ignored my calls or didn’t reply to a text.”
“I haven’t seen them.” She shrugged.
“What do you mean you haven’t seen them?”
“I haven’t turned my phone on since I boarded the first flight. I don’t have an international plan, so I’m not even sure it’d work here.”
He tried not to sound horrified. “Have you spoken to your family? Do they know you’re here?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “Mr. Danielson told me I could call from the land line at the first hotel we stayed. It’s the busy season for my parents. They were disappointed I wouldn’t be able to work this summer like they thought since my class was cancelled.”
Lance thought that was the most preposterous thing he’d ever heard. They weren’t happy that their daughter had been selected to play in a well-known international touring orchestra? Seriously?
But there would be time to discuss her family later. At the moment, there were other things that needed discussing.
“Tell me what Alex told you that day,” he said.
She didn’t want to, that much was obvious by the determined set of her jaw. He pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I need to know, Celeste. We can’t move on until we work through what made you leave.”
“She was hateful and cruel, and told me you’d hired her to take care of any and all needs you had during the workday.” She leveled her gaze at him. “When I questioned her, she made me feel stupid and ignorant, she said I didn’t know how offices like yours worked. She told me why Ty and Lillian got a divorce.” She took a deep breath. “And she called me ‘little girl’ but she said it like an insult, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she somehow knew, or if you told her, or maybe it was something you did with all the female scholarship winners. I remembered Barbara said something about a Sabrina.”
There was so much to discuss just with those few sentences, but there was one issue that stood above all others as to what he needed to address first. “If you remember nothing else we talk about tonight, I want you to know one truth. Look at me.” He sure he had her complete attention before continuing. “I will never discuss anything that happens between us with anyone. No one and nothing. And when I call you ‘little girl’ it’s because you are smart and sexy and you turn me on so damn much. I’ve never used that term with anyone else. Only you.”
She relaxed a bit, and he watched the tension leave her shoulders. “What about what she said concerning how your office works?” she asked.
“I have to be honest with you.” He hated to admit what he was getting ready to, but he would never lie to her. “I don't understand what she meant by that.”
“Was Sabrina one of the scholarship winners?”
“Did Alex mention her?” he asked.
“No, Barbara did. I overheard her the day you took me to the hospital to meet her.”
He nodded. “Yes, Sabrina is a past recipient, but what Barbara referenced didn’t involve me. There was bad blood and fallout between her, Ty, and Lillian. It’s not my story to share, so you’ll have to get it from one of them.” He ran his hand up her arm to her shoulder. “Feeling better?”
“I was so mad and upset. She said you knew I was there, and it hurt so much knowing that after our amazing weekend you could be so cold.” Tears filled her eyes, but he knew she’d do whatever it took to keep them from falling.
Knowing what he did now, he couldn’t blame her for not returning his texts or calls . If she truly believed he’d ignored her when she came by his office, why would she bother telling him her plans?
“I don’t plan on ever having another personal assistant,” he told her. “But if anyone ever says something about me that doesn’t ring true or sound right, I want you to come to me immediately.”
She still looked vulnerable sitting on the couch with her legs tucked under her. He opened his arms. “I would feel so much better if you would give me a hug.”
Her eyes grew wide, and the smile he feared never to see again broke out of the memories of the past she’d been revisiting. Without warning, she practically launched herself into his arms and a peace unlike anything he’d ever experienced settled over him.
She pulled back much too soon. “Are you going to spank me?”
He sighed and played with that same stray piece of hair, wrapping it around his finger. “No. I suppose I could, but I don’t see the benefit. And while I believe I’ve been very clear on my wants and desires for us, it hasn’t escaped my attention you haven’t voiced your thoughts on a relationship with me.” He held her gaze, even as he braced himself for her reply. “Is that something you want?”
“Yes, Lance.” Her gaze was just as steady as his, and he noticed there were no more tears filling her eyes. All he saw was hope and joy, and possibly something else. Maybe something a little kinky. “Although I believe it’d be more accurate to call it a need.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her reference to the time he told her there was a difference between a want and a need. “I stand corrected. You’re right. What I feel for you is definitely a need.”
She stayed in his arms long enough for him to see mischief dance in her eyes. Before he could comprehend what that meant, she’d hopped down, out of his arms and off the couch.
“Speaking of needs,” she said. “I have another one that could use your attention.”
He didn’t have to ask what it was, she was already stripping her clothes off. Within seconds, she stood nude before him and he drank in the sight of her.
“How very perceptive, little girl,” he said. “And as luck would have it, I can help you with that.”
Victory surged in her eyes.
“Go bend over your bed, just like you are, with your ass facing the door.” He stood and gave her ass a sharp slap, just because he wanted to. “Then show me how patiently you can wait for your Sir to join you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lance slumped into the couch, watching her ass disappear into the bedroom. He forced himself not to do what he wanted, which would involve chasing her down the hallway and fucking her against the nearest wall.
He took several deep breaths to settle himself, knowing she did the same in the next room. In a few short minutes he would walk in and see her waiting patiently for him. It was for that reason only he had the strength to stay where he was for longer than ten seconds. He pictured her in his head.
Her body would appear calm, but there would be something, a clenched fist, a ragged breath, something that would give her away. He didn’t doubt her ability to fool most people, but not him. When they were together, no matter how hard she might try to keep him from knowing, her cloak of calm slipped. In the few
past encounters they’d had, he’d allowed her the comfort of that cloak, but not today. Today, he wanted nothing between them, so the cloak had to go.
Ready to make it happen, he stood up from the couch and headed to where she waited. He paused in the hallway just a step outside the bedroom. He’d been right. She waited for him the way he’d instructed her to wait: naked and bent over the bed, her ass welcoming him. With her legs parted the way he liked, the evidence of her arousal greeted him.
“You look like you’re in need of a nice long fuck, little girl. Am I right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I can see your greedy little pussy from here. Do you know what it’s saying?”
“No, Sir,” she said, her voice heavy with lust.
“It’s telling me it wants to be taken by a thick cock. A thick cock so long and hard, it has to work to bury itself in you.” He smiled at the way her fists tightened their grip on the sheets. “But being balls deep inside you isn’t enough for either of us, is it?”
“No, Sir.” This time her voice was a half moan and half sigh.
“Sit up on the bed and face me.” It wasn’t the command she expected or wanted and she hesitated just long enough for him to know she gave thought to talking back. She flipped over with a sigh and her expectant gaze followed him.
He walked to the bed, no longer able to be in the same room with her and not taste her, and captured her face between his hands. The kiss they’d shared earlier had been too quick and rushed. He needed to savor her. To spend time relearning her taste.
He lowered his lips and kissed her. Soft at first. Slight nibbles along her bottom lip before drawing it into his mouth and making her moan yet again. He moved up the bed, coming over her and deepening the kiss. For just a moment, he allowed his need to control him and dug his fingers into her hair. Her body relaxed and opened for him as she sank into his embrace.
He remained where he was for as long as he could, pleasuring her with his touch. Under his control, she gave herself over to him, and he took full advantage, exploring the slopes and curves of her body as he never had before.
When he could no longer deny either of them, he crawled up higher on the bed, coming alongside her and stopping at her side to stretch out. He circled first one nipple and then the other, waiting until her breathing came quicker, then he placed a soft kiss on her shoulder. “I need to feel you under me. Need to have you welcome me inside you.”
“Yes, Sir.” Her voice was a whisper. “Please.”
“I told you before but I don’t think you understood, so I need to make sure you do this time. I only want you. You’re the only woman I want on my arms or in my bed or kneeling for me. If anyone tells you differently, they are lying and you are to come find me and tell me at once. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir.” Her eyes still held a hint of regret over what they’d almost lost.
“I don’t want you thinking about the past,” he told her. “That’s why we say it’s behind us. It’s only there if you go looking for it and I don’t want you to do that. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Very good,” he said, because even though she wasn’t as sure as he wanted her to be, she was willing to trust him. “Now be a really good girl and spread your legs so I can give us what we both want so badly.”
That command she was more than willing to obey and within a matter of seconds, he’d rolled on a condom, and was over her with his cock positioned at her entrance.
“Tell me I’m the only man you want.” He wanted nothing more than to push his way inside her and ride them both to a satisfying end. Yet he held back because more than that he wanted everything to be clear about the two of them.
Only when she agreed did he allow himself the exquisite pleasure of pressing into her. He made himself slow down even though he was already moving at a snail’s pace. Slower. Inch by agonizing inch, until with one final thrust he could go no deeper.
“Fuck, you feel so good. Your wet heat, so tight around my dick.” He pulled out and thrust back in, harder. “I could stay inside you forever.”
He took one of her legs and bent it, pressing it to her chest. “Hold it there.”
“Oh, God,” she panted. “I’m not sure…” She stopped talking when he repeated the action with her other leg.
“Shh,” he hushed her. “You don’t have to be sure. That’s my job.”
His words must have been the assurance she needed, because she hooked an arm under each knee and held in place the way he asked. He pressed into her slowly, knowing she would feel him more intensely in her current position. Watching her expression, he took his time easing in and out, testing his own self-control.
“Please,” she asked.
“Not yet.”
He wouldn’t be able to last much longer. “When I’m above you like this, I can feel you under me. Trembling and needy.” Her knees trembled as he spoke. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She gave a sigh of relief and lifted her legs high, hooking them around his waist.
“Yes,” he said, thrusting harder than before. “Take me. Take me all. Take me deep inside.”
“Always,” she panted.
Her body strained with the effort it took to withhold her release. She trembled all around him, wanting her release so badly, but not allowing herself to give in without his permission.
“Please?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
“Oh, God,” she gasped as he fucked her harder and faster.
“Do it for me.” He spoke the words as a statement, allowing no room for disagreement or discussion.
She squeezed her eyes as he pounded her over and over into the mattress, his cock relentless in its goal. Her legs tightened around his waist and when he could no longer hold out, he gave her what she needed.
“Now, little girl.”
She cried out in what sounded like a combination of bliss and relief. He followed seconds later, holding his body above her, not wanting to crush her into the mattress.
After, he rolled them both to their sides, wrapping his body around hers while their pounding hearts returned to normal. Even then, he held her, not wanting to let go. He ran a hand over her body. His fingers traced the muscles in her arms and the delicate bones of her wrists.
“You have no idea what a beautiful submissive you are, do you?” he asked.
“Sir?”
“When I see you’re hanging on by a thread. Trying so hard to obey me and your body rebels, but you try to overcome it and you succeed. That moment when I tell you to let go and you finally allow pleasure to overtake you?” He propped up on an elbow. “Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Lance woke sometime in the middle the night, unable to determine at first what caused him to wake up. Then he heard it, faintly, almost too quiet to hear. A violin.
He got out of bed and saw Celeste had closed the door behind her when she got up. Making no noise, he opened the bedroom door and slipped into the living area. He froze when he saw her.
She was naked and had pulled the blackout shades back, so only the thin gauzy inner curtain remained over the window. What little light managed to come through, cast her into the shadows so that as she played, he wasn’t sure if she was real or only a figment of a dream he lingered in.
He didn’t recognize the song she played. It was slow and sensual, and with her eyes closed, somehow it seemed that with each note she grew closer and closer to that place she once mentioned her grandmother went to as she played. Celeste enchanted every part of him.
Little-by-little, he was accepting that watching her play would always have that effect on him. He was no less captivated tonight than he was the day of her audition. Though since her eyes were closed, he had no way of knowing if she knew he’d entered the room or not. Did she know how her playing moved just about everyone fortunate enough to hear her?
He’d been in the audience earlier tonight, and he knew without asking that all she would remem
ber of playing would be a few pizzicatos that gave her trouble. However, having been in the audience, he knew one thing she didn’t know.
No one cared about the damn pizzicatos.
What he needed to do was to somehow find a way to film an audience as she played because she had no idea how talented she was. It’d confused him when he found out that the Murphy Scholarship had been the only one she’d been offered. He’d done a bit of snooping around to find out why.
Only one person involved in any of the numerous scholarships she’d applied for had been willing to talk with him. The guy told Lance that Celeste didn’t get their scholarship, even though she’d been the best player, because they didn’t think she’d finish all four years at Juilliard.
Perplexed, he’d asked his grandmother, who had not been pleased to admit that if she had been the one running the auditions, more than likely Celeste would not have received the scholarship.
That thought drove him crazy as he realized how close she’d been to being forced back to Virginia. And if she’d gone back, they would have never met.
“Lance?” Celeste’s soft voice pulled him from his thoughts. “Did I wake you? I’m sorry if I did. I tried to be quiet.”
“If waking up means being able to watch and hear you play, I never want to go to sleep again.”
She dipped her head the way she did when she felt embarrassed. It was something they needed to work on, but he was up to the task and now that they understood each other, he believed they had plenty of time.
He held out his hand. “Put the violin away and come back to bed with me.”
Her head jerked up. “Yeah?”
She was twenty-five, and he was forty-two. He’d told himself if he managed to get her back, he wouldn’t let age be an issue in their relationship. It was a promise he intended keep. “Yeah,” he said. “As it turns out, I’m not that sleepy anymore.”
She hurriedly put away her instrument and took his hand. Though he felt as if he could throw her over his shoulder and jog to the bed, he didn’t. The few times he’d had her, even before she left for London, had been filled with urgency. They had time tonight, and he intended to use it.