He smiled widely at her, his blue eyes openly scanning her figure. Lucy was wearing a long elegant black gown with an open back. He pretty much devoured her with his eyes ever since he saw her in the dress. She loved the way he looked at her like that.
But when he walked up to her, she noticed he wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by a woman, who was tall and toned for her age with flowing salt and pepper grey hair and familiar piercing blue eyes.
“Lucy, I’d like you to meet my mother.”
Lucy’s stomach fell to the floor. At this point in her life and career, Lucy had gotten pretty good at juggling whatever curve ball might be tossed her way, but this was totally unexpected.
She flashed a polite smile at the woman and held out her hand. “Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Redford,” she said.
The woman shook her hand with a surprisingly vigorous shake. “Please,” she said, smiling. The dimples on her cheeks were nearly identical to her son’s. “Call me Dorothy.”
“Dorothy,” Lucy said. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“You too, Lucy. I’m so excited to finally get to meet you. Elijah has told me so much about you. He just can’t stop talking about you.”
Lucy’s eyebrows shot up. She was surprised both by knowing that Elijah was gushing about her to his family and by Dorothy Redford’s candor.
“All good things, I hope,” she said.
Dorothy smiled. “The best. I hope you don’t mind that I crashed the party, but since I was apparently the inspiration for all of this, I thought I might come check it out.”
“Oh, not at all,” Lucy hurried to reassure. “It’s lovely to see you, really. Besides, it’s not my party,” she added with a wink.
“You’re not crashing it, Mom.” Elijah rolled his eyes at his mother. “I invited you.”
“Yes. Well, still,” Dorothy said as if making a point. She tossed her long lustrous mane of hair over her shoulder. “This is not my usual scene.” She looked around as if she still couldn’t believe where she was. Lucy could relate. “Anyway, I’d better walk around for a bit. Your father is going to call me tonight at the hotel begging me for details, so I’d best take in all that I can to give him a decent story. He wanted to be here,” she added for Lucy’s benefit, “but he was swamped with work at the hospital.”
“He’s a neurosurgeon,” Elijah offered. “He operates in Frankfurt.”
“Wow,” Lucy said, impressed. She had learned a lot about Elijah’s family, but for some reason his father’s occupation had never come up.
Dorothy said her goodbyes and disappeared into the crowd. For a woman whose lifestyle didn’t exactly include galas on a regular basis, she seemed incredibly confident and capable at mingling and working the crowd. Lucy envied her grace. Despite the fact that it was her job to interview people and get them to open up to her, she was never really comfortable talking with complete strangers.
As soon as Dorothy had walked away, Lucy turned around and shot Elijah a pointed glance.
“Your mother?” she all but cried, incredulously.
“What?” he said with mock innocence. “She’s cool. You seemed to like her.”
“Of course I like her,” Lucy said, “but that’s not the point. You could’ve warned me!”
He cringed. “Yeah, I know…I suppose I shouldn’t have sprung her on you like that. But I didn’t want you to get worked up over it ahead of time.”
She watched him closely and then found herself relenting. He looked very much like a kid, pretending to appear contrite after being caught doing something he shouldn’t have. She could never stay mad at him he had that look on his face, but then again, she could never stay mad at him, period.
“Well, for future reference, please keep in mind that I’d like some advance notice before meeting any other members of your family. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes, my dear.” he apologized. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “So, what do you think of the product launch party? Was it a success?”
“I think it’s great,” Lucy said. She was elated that he looked for her professional opinion. “You’ve done an excellent job with both the program and with the launch itself,”
“I think it went well,” he said. He smirked widely and he ran his lips surreptitiously along her neck and whispered in her ear, “Do you think I deserve a reward for all of my hard work?”
Lucy felt a shiver run up her spine. She murmured, “What kind of reward did you have in mind?”
“I want it now and here.” His voice was husky and low as it always got whenever he was aroused.
Lucy turned around and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “Elijah,” she said in a deep whisper. “Surely you’re not thinking…?” she let the rest of the question hang in the air between them.
His smirk widened. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
* * *
“We really shouldn’t be here,” Lucy giggled. There was a time not so long ago that giggling girls really grated on her nerves. But now she was one of them. It wasn’t until thing really started to work out with Elijah that Lucy found herself giggling, not just a little, but a lot.
“Says who?” Elijah swooped in to suck a love-bite onto the side of her neck.
Lucy gasped. “How am I going to cover that up?”
Elijah chuckled against her throat, the vibration of his lips against her skin sending shivers down the whole length of her spine. “So don’t cover it. Let everyone know you’re mine,” he growled.
Lucy shivered again. Throwing caution and professionalism to the wind, she grabbed him by the front of his jacket and pulled him into an empty stall in the pristine, fancy bathroom. They slammed the door shut but they were too focused on each other than to worry about privacy. Elijah was already pulling up her skirt so that he could get his fingers hooked under the elastic of her panties. He tugged them down impatiently and let them fall to her ankles. Lucy stepped out of them expertly.
Elijah grinned and leaned in to kiss her, his hands splayed on the cool metal of the wall with Lucy underneath him. She met him halfway and she took his mouth in a deep, heated kiss, wrapping one arm around his waist and tugging him close while her other hand fisted the short locks of his hair. The all-consuming craving they felt for each other ignited in an instant.
Lucy’s legs were bare underneath the long skirt of her gown, and Elijah reached down to run a hand along the smooth skin. Lucy balanced herself so that she could lift one leg up and wrap it around his waist.
“So bendy,” Elijah said, marveling at her dexterity, while leaving a trail of kisses against the side of her neck. His teeth nipped at the sensitive skin. “And wet!” he exclaimed with delight when his fingers found their way between her legs.
Lucy laughed and hit his chest with her fist. “Shut up, you beast and fuck me now!”
He looked deep into her eyes as he licked her juices from his fingers. He fumbled with the zipper of his trousers until he freed his cock. Lucy used the wall behind her to push herself further up and guided him inside of her.
Elijah slammed into her with abandon and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to keep from crying out in ecstasy. He thrust inside of her over and over and over again—raw and fast and passionate. Lucy leaned her head back against the wall and she closed her eyes, and she let him take her away to a place where nothing mattered and only the two of them existed. It was as if their bodies were made for each other. He knew exactly how to send her spiraling into a world of consecutive orgasms.
Despite their ever-present hunger for each other, they rarely got so rough and intense. But when they did, it was Lucy’s favorite thing on the whole planet. Elijah leaned in to kiss her neck even as he thrust in and out of her. Lucy’s hips moved in unison with his pelvis, and soon they were finding that familiar, intimate rhythm that only the two of them knew.
It was rough and quick, and she didn’t mind that it was over all too soon. They weren’t doing it to make it last. They
were doing it to kill an urge, to tame the hunger. They climaxed in unison, as they so often did. When the explosion of ecstasy began to subside, Lucy wrapped her arms around Elijah and held him through the aftershocks of pleasure. It was oddly intimate considering they were in the stall of a public bathroom—a very fancy public bathroom, admittedly, but still a public bathroom.
“Oh God,” Lucy breathed as her bearings slowly returned—and coherent thought returned with them. “What if your mother walked in here now?”
Elijah made a sound that was halfway between a groan and a laugh. “Way to kill the mood, Lucy.”
She laughed too. “Sorry,” she said, although she really wasn’t.
She carefully unwrapped her leg from his waist and brought her high-heeled foot back to the ground. Just as carefully, he helped her find her balance and then carefully slid out of her. He zipped himself up and then retrieved her panties from the floor, holding them out to her with one forefinger.
“I believe these are yours.”
Lucy couldn’t help but smirk back. “Why thank you, sir”
She said as she leaned in to press a quick but heartfelt kiss to his lips. She slipped her panties back on, adjusted her bra, smoothed her skirt and hair, and prepared herself to walk out of the bathroom stall and back into the elegant hall that was still waiting for them.
“Wait,” Elijah said. He reached for her wrist.
Lucy froze and looked at him with a quizzical expression on her face. She lifted a blonde eyebrow. “Really, Elijah? Again? They’re going to send a search party.”
Elijah laughed. “No,” he said. “I’m not talking about that.”
“Then what? Why are we waiting?”
There was that serious look on his face again. She had an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach when he didn’t say anything for quite some time. Lucy huffed in exasperation.
“Elijah, say something. You’re freaking me out.”
“Give me a moment, okay?” he snapped at her. “I’ve never said this to anyone.”
“Said what?” Lucy was really beginning to worry now. “What is it, Elijah?”
Elijah took a very deep breath—so deep, instead, that it was a wonder he didn’t send himself into full hyperventilation. “Lucy, I love you.”
Lucy blinked and blinked again as she tried to make sense of what she had just heard. “What?”
“I love you,” Elijah said again. “I’m in love with you, Lucy Smith.”
He did that sometimes—call her by her first and last names, whenever he had something important to say to her. It was an odd habit, but Lucy had come to find it endearing.
“Well, that’s very good,” she said, staring deep into his blue eyes. “Because I love you too and I’ve been deeply in love with you for a while now.”
“Lucy Smith, you are my soul mate and I want to marry you.”
Lucy beamed at him. Her heart leapt in her chest. “Oh my God, Elijah!” She cried out. And that’s when the tears started rolling down her cheeks.
“Is that a yes? So you’ll marry me?”
“Yes, yes, yes… of course it is yes, Elijah! How could it be anything else?” Lucy was elated. She smiled so hard that her cheeks hurt, but in was the best possible way ever.
Relief swept over Elijah’s face. He wrapped his arms around Lucy’s waist and pulled her to him, and kissed her until they were both breathless.
* * *
The next night they flew back to Los Angeles. It was a short fight, but they were exhausted from all of the late-night after parties. Lucy looked over at Elijah. His eyes were closed and he slumped awkwardly in his seat against the window. Lucy reached over and gently pulled him to her. Without waking, he willingly let Lucy readjust his position. He settled in against her with his head resting in the crook of her neck. His breath tickled the exposed skin of her throat, but she didn’t mind. Lucy turned her head and looked over his shoulder outside the window. It was dark outside, she couldn’t see anything but the purple-black hue of the sky they were flying through. And yet the world had never seemed brighter to her.
She took her phone out of her pocket—it was set on airplane mode of course—and scrolled through the pictures Michael had sent her of Toby. He and Jeff were looking after the dog while Lucy was away. She couldn’t wait to see Toby, and Michael and Jeff. She couldn’t wait to tell them all about San Francisco. She also couldn’t wait to be back at work on Monday and she couldn’t wait to go back home.
She smiled as the thought entered her mind. It had almost been a year since she had left her hometown in Colorado for Los Angeles. She thought it would take a while for the big city to feel like home, but it didn’t. She had been surprised by life in the best possible way.
Her serenity didn’t come from the places she found herself in, whether by choice or circumstance. It came from the people around her. Her best friend was waiting for her in Los Angeles, the city they both called home now with his boyfriend, with whom he was madly in love with. Toby, her loving, wonderful dog was also waiting for her, probably more impatiently than anyone. And perhaps more importantly, the love of her life, her fiancé, was asleep next to her on the plane. She realized that it wasn’t about Los Angeles either, just like it wasn’t about San Francisco or Ojai. Home really is where the heart is.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STARLA HARRIS loves all things romance. She especially loves reading and writing about bad boys, billionaires and playboys.
Feel free to write to Starla with any questions, comments, suggestions and requests for stories, or just say “hi” to her at
[email protected].
Starla absolutely loves hearing from her readers!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
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ALTER EGO (PREVIEW)
Book Description
HAVE YOU EVER WANTED to just throw away the old you and start fresh? Iris Thompson did.
When her best friend, Olivia, invites her to an art gala to have some fun, she steps out─not as Iris but as Natasha, the carefree, charismatic, and charming young woman who sets out to steal the heart of the handsome billionaire playboy Damien Flaherty.
When he discovers her alter ego, will her heart break yet again? Could Damien ever learn to love Iris or will the truth tear them apart?
HOT and SEXY! A fast-paced billionaire love story filled with sensuous heat!
Warning: This book contains some hot and steamy sex scenes. Intended for 18+ readers only.
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CHAPTER ONE
IRIS THOMPSON GROANED as she felt the couch springs dig into her back. She tried to reposition herself, but just couldn’t get comfortable. Her body ached and her legs were cramped from spending yet another night on her best friend’s sofa .
When she opened her eyes, the living room was dark. The only light she could see was from the flashing bright neon lights of the wall clock hanging in the nearby hall. It was 3:47 A.M. Iris groaned again, this time louder and more annoyed. She buried her face in the thin pillow, determined to fall back asleep again. She tossed and turned, but it was to no avail. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling with her hands clasped over her stomach as she contemplated the odds of spending yet another sleepless night, mis
erable and alone. Life wasn’t supposed to be like this. At least, not hers.
Seconds later, a small black creature jumped onto the couch and joined her. Her friend’s cat, Misty, rubbed against her, begging for attention. “Are Olivia and George at it again?” Iris whispered to the cat, “Did they kick you out?” Iris gently scratched Misty behind the ears. The cat arched her back appreciatively and let out a melodic purr. Shortly after, the sound of George’s groans reverberated through the small apartment. The walls were paper thin and Iris could hear the bed in the next room rocking.
She sighed, resigning herself to the idea that any hope of restful and blissful sleep was probably permanently lost now. She sat up on the sofa and decided that if she couldn’t sleep, she might as well eat to fill the void even though it wasn’t food that she necessarily craved. As she tip-toed toward the kitchen, she strained her eyes to form shapes in the dark. She used her hands clumsily to help feel her way through the living room, but not before she stubbed her big left toe on the coffee table. “Ah, Fuck me!” She yelled out, hopping on one foot as the sharp pain radiated through her leg.
The moans from the next room stopped abruptly. “Is everything alright out there?” Olivia called out, her voice ragged.
“Yeah. Just great.” Iris muttered loudly enough so her friend could hear. Moments later, the lovers were back at it again. This time, it was Olivia’s distinct, high-pitched moans that Iris heard. Cats in heat, Iris thought to herself. The bed, however, had stopped rocking. Iris stood silently at the entrance to the hall and listened. She felt guilty and slightly embarrassed for eavesdropping, but above all else she was annoyed that she had to listen to their love making. In such a small apartment, there was really no way to avoid it.
Sweat It Out: A Billionaire Love Story Page 10