Fortune's Angel (Fates Aligned Book 2)

by Christi Whitson

  Her eyes widened and grew another shade darker. I ran my free hand down the length of one arm, over her shoulder and the tightened peak of her breast. I captured the other nipple in my mouth and suckled greedily, relishing the way her body writhed beneath me. My hand continued its journey down her firm stomach to the silky mound between her thighs. The softness of her skin there made me want to weep. I allowed only a single finger to slip between her folds, groaning at the wetness I discovered.

  More. I need more…

  I released her hands, intent on tasting her properly. Charlotte moved her arms down, and when her hands found my hair again, she didn’t try to stop me. I knelt between her legs and probed her gently with my tongue, exploring and savoring every drop of her. Her clit was swollen with need, drawing my lips like a magnet. When I sucked it into my mouth, her hips bucked forward against me, and her breathing grew even more labored. I pushed a finger into her tight sheath again, curling it slightly to brush a different bundle of nerves.

  “Fuck!” she shouted, gripping my hair with one hand and a fistful of blankets with the other. I lifted my mouth to watch her, meeting her dark, heavy-lidded gaze, and I knew I’d led her right to the edge.

  But not over it.

  “Stay with me,” I begged. A flicker of confusion crossed her features in spite of her heightened arousal.

  “What?”

  “Stay with me. For as long as you need a place to stay. Don’t go.”

  “You’re bringing this up now?”

  I could hear the disbelief and exasperation in her voice, and I knew I wasn’t exactly being fair. She was hardly in a state of mind to think clearly.

  “Do you want to come, Angel?”

  “Yessss,” she moaned. She moved her hips more urgently, trying to take what I was withholding.

  “Then give me an answer. Tell me you’ll stay.” There was a beat of silence, and for a moment I thought she might actually refuse.

  “I’ll stay.”

  A surge of happiness coursed through me as I dipped my head to pull her clit into my mouth again, sucking hard and thrusting my fingers deep until she shattered. Her essence flooded my mouth, and her walls tightened, spasming rhythmically. Faint whimpers were shaken loose from her throat as she continued to writhe and twitch beneath me.

  Fucking hell. She was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. As I licked her off my fingers, Charlotte caught my eye with an accusatory but playful glare.

  “That wasn’t fair.”

  “I never claimed to play fair,” I grinned.

  I reached into the top drawer of the bedside table to get a condom, taking a quick second to check the expiration date. They’d been in there so long I couldn’t even recall when I’d bought them. Satisfied that it was within date, I tossed the little package on the bed and started to remove my jeans. My cock was aching something fierce by that point.

  Charlotte surprised me by sitting up and going for my waistband, and I didn’t stop her this time. The widening of her eyes when she managed to release me was flattering. I’d been in enough locker rooms and watched enough porn to know I was a bit bigger than average. She’d been tight even around one of my fingers, so I wasn’t surprised to see a hint of trepidation in her eyes.

  I rolled the condom on quickly and kissed her, hoping to sooth her nerves as I lay her back against the bed. I paused to study her face for a moment.

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded, her eyes hungry and pleading. She craned her neck upward to kiss me again as she tightened her legs around my hips.

  The tight, searing heat of her slick flesh was more exquisite than I’d dared to imagine. And I’d been imagining it nearly every night since the first time I saw her. Charlotte’s nails clawed lightly at my back as I moved within her, thrusting hard and deep until I felt my tip hit her cervix. Her eyes rolled backward, and her mouth fell open.

  Holy fucking hell.

  Most of her hair had come loose from the bun, so I finished the job and tossed the elastic band away. I gripped the silky tresses with both hands, causing her back to arch slightly. She cried out in a mixture of pain and pleasure, her breath stuttering as she spasmed around me again, and my name burst from her lips as she came.

  “Eli!”

  “Yes… Come for me, Angel! Oh, fuck…”

  I’d wanted to prolong it. To spend days exploring this new addiction. But after craving Charlotte so much for so long, the feeling of her going to pieces around me was more than I could take. My climax ripped through me, and I came with a roar, buried deep within her.

  Thirteen

  Charlotte

  I stared at myself in the huge vanity mirror in Eli’s bathroom, feeling like I was looking at a stranger rather than my own reflection. The stranger’s dark hair was a tangled mess, her lips were swollen, and her skin was flushed. And though it didn’t show to anyone else, her center was aching deliciously.

  I just had sex with Eli Brighton.

  My brain was having a little trouble catching up with reality. Had it been an act of weakness and stupidity? Maybe. He would be my boss come Monday morning, but I just hadn’t had the will to push him away. His hands on my bare skin had robbed me of all reason, until I’d forgotten why on earth I would ever say no.

  I was in awe of how good it had been between us. No, ‘good’ wasn’t a strong enough word. Incredible? Earth-shattering? Life-altering? All of the above, really… Sex with Eli was the best I’d ever had, and that was a distinction I could make without much contemplation. No one else had ever come close, and considering how little we’d actually done, I couldn’t help but wonder how many ways he could blow my mind.

  I’d been with my share of men in college. Hell, even a couple of women. College was supposed to be a time of exploration, after all. But I hadn’t been with anyone since I’d left Gainesville. It’s hard to date when you’re homeless, and even if I’d wanted to try to work around it, I was always too exhausted to have enough energy for sex. Or so I’d thought…

  If sex with Eli was always going to be like that, I’d find the energy somehow. That was assuming he would want to do it again, of course. I knew he might very well end up deciding it would get too complicated once I started working for him, and I wouldn’t have blamed him for thinking that. It was certainly high on my own list of concerns. Not the least of which was the agreement he’d coaxed out of me as he’d held my orgasm hostage and begged me to stay with him.

  Totally unfair.

  If he’d had any clue how long it had been since I’d had a release, he wouldn’t have been that cruel. Or maybe he would have, I smiled inwardly. That gleam in his eyes had been playful, as though he’d known exactly how badly I’d needed to come. How much I’d craved it.

  I finished freshening up, using his hairbrush to straighten the rat’s nest on my head. My ponytail holder was in the bedroom somewhere, so I let the dark strands hang long and loose over my shoulders. I almost never left my hair down for any length of time. It was easier to work and keep it clean if I had it up or at least braided. Shorter hair would have been more convenient, but haircuts seemed like an unnecessary expense.

  My clothes were still in the bedroom too, so I slipped into the terry cloth robe I’d spotted hanging on the back of the door. When I emerged from the bathroom, I found Eli lounging on his bed in his boxers. And Christ Almighty, he was gorgeous.

  There hadn’t been enough time to admire his body before. Not when he’d been so intent on driving me to distraction. Now the lost opportunity seemed tragic, even criminal. I’d have gladly spent hours memorizing every inch of him. Perhaps days. A body like his deserved that kind of attention. Eli clearly used his gym membership properly, and I shook my head in amazement at what his well-tailored suits had been hiding.

  Being rather petite in stature, I’d long since gotten used to most men towering over me. But not many men were muscled like Eli. I’d felt them against my skin multiple times now, but to see them was really something else. My eyes
trailed hungrily down his body and back to his face, belatedly catching the smirk that played about his lips. I rolled my eyes playfully and crossed the room to sit on the bed next to him.

  “You can hardly blame me,” I said in my own defense. “Have you seen you?”

  Eli chuckled and adjusted his posture against the pillows, coaxing me into his arms with a gentle tug. I relaxed against him, and he hugged me to his chest.

  “Speak for yourself, Angel. I don’t know how I’m going to keep my head on straight now that I know what’s under those cute little outfits. It’s a good thing you’ll be working on a different floor.”

  That statement immediately brought me back to my previous worry. I’d just slept with the man who would soon be my boss. Hell, I’d agreed to stay in his apartment, to live with him, for the foreseeable future. And I had no idea how long it would take to be able to afford a place of my own. He interrupted my thoughts, apparently able to read my troubled expression.

  “You don’t need to worry. We can keep it professional at work”

  “Is that so?” I laughed, looking up at him dubiously. “I seem to recall being at work the first time you kissed me.”

  “But I wasn’t,” he grinned deviously. I landed a playful smack on his bicep.

  “Be serious.” Though I smiled a little when I said it, the truth was that I was beginning to question the wisdom of what we’d done. What we were still doing. “Having sex with one’s boss doesn’t usually bode well for one’s career or professional reputation.” Eli sighed and looked like he wanted to disagree, but he knew I was right. “Maybe this should just be a one-time th—”

  “No,” he interrupted firmly. “One time with you isn’t enough. It could never be enough.” His piercing blue eyes challenged mine, and I chewed my lower lip a little. “Can you honestly say it would be enough for you?”

  I didn’t have to think about my answer, even if the more logical part of me wished I could give a different one. To classify Eli as a ‘one and done’ would be the worst sort of tragedy. There was so much untapped potential between us that walking away from it might be physically painful. He watched my thoughts play out in my eyes and nodded knowingly.

  “So, what do we do, then?” I asked.

  “Well, before we do anything else, I need to call Donovan. That asshole from last night needs to be fired. I don’t want you having to work with him again tonight.” His arms tightened around me, and his hand slipped beneath the robe, caressing my skin like he owned every inch of it. “Then, we’ll talk more… have some lunch… maybe see if we can manage a few more orgasms between us… shower together before you have to go to work…”

  Eli’s hands left a trail of heat everywhere they touched, and I had goosebumps all over. His lips found the pulse point beneath my jaw and nibbled lightly, eliciting a groan from my chest.

  “How am I supposed to argue with you when you do that?”

  “You’re not,” he chuckled. But a moment later he lifted his mouth and stopped moving his hand, allowing me to think clearly again.

  “Okay, first thing’s first. What if Brent is scheduled tonight and no one else can cover his shift?” I watched a storm brewing in his eyes, and he opened his mouth to answer but seemed to edit his response at the last minute.

  “Donovan won’t want him there knowing what kind of guy he is. He’ll probably just cover the guy’s job himself if that’s an issue.”

  “But—”

  “If he doesn’t or can’t, then you should call off. I’m sure there are more people available to cover a server’s shift than a manager’s.”

  “The weekend shifts make the most money, though. I can make a few hundred in one night, especially with the larger tables. I can’t afford to turn that down.”

  “Then I’ll cover the lost wages if it comes to that.” Oh, hell no. Eli seemed to catch the alarm in my expression and backpedaled quickly. “It won’t come to that. Donovan is a good guy and a good boss. He won’t jeopardize his employees’ safety or risk a harassment suit over this jerk. Trust me.”

  “You can’t just throw money at my problems,” I declared, holding his gaze. I was pretty sure that was exactly what he wanted to do, and the unspoken disagreement I could see in his eyes confirmed it. But he wisely kept that argument to himself and gave me a nod of acceptance.

  “Moving on… I hope you meant it when you said you’d stay, because I’m not letting you take it back. I won’t be able to think straight unless I know you’ve got a bed to sleep in at night.”

  I sighed, having figured as much.

  “What if I promise to take one at the shelter each night?”

  “A safe bed,” he amended. “Mine, preferably. Though, if you’d rather stay in the guest room, that’s fine with me too. Whatever you want, as long as you’re here. Now that you mention it, though… Why haven’t you been sleeping at the shelter?”

  “I have a car, which is more than a lot of people can say. I don’t want to take a bed from someone who needs it more.” He stared at me in silence for a long moment, and I couldn’t quite read him. So, I shifted him back to the topic at hand. “I have no idea when I’ll be able to get my own place. Before I got this job, it was looking like it would be a few more months, maybe longer. Now I have to rework my budget and figure out a new timeline, but either way… Getting everything straightened out with a new income, new insurance, new payment amounts, and so on… All of it takes time.”

  “The offer doesn’t have an expiration date, Angel. You can stay as long as you need.”

  I searched his face for any hint of reluctance or hesitation, but I found only sincerity and concern. I was stunned by his generosity, and I’d been roughing it for long enough to know how rare it was. We still didn’t know much about each other, and regardless of our mutual attraction and budding relationship, not many would open their home to a stranger.

  Is that what this is? A relationship?

  “Would you still be offering that if we weren’t…”

  “Sleeping together? Of course. I wanted to bring it up last night, but you looked so exhausted and overwhelmed that it didn’t seem like the right time.”

  I had to agree with him there. I’d been a complete mess last night.

  “Okay, so… I’ll stay… Until I can find a room or something to rent. Maybe you could let me pay you a little someth—”

  “No, it’s really not necessary. I own the place, and my mortgage will be the same whether you’re living here or not.”

  “Food and utilities, then. Something.” I couldn’t just impose on his hospitality without giving something in exchange. He had to understand that. Eli gazed at me thoughtfully for a long moment.

  “You can cook for me once a week. But I won’t accept your money.”

  My gut reaction was to argue, but I couldn’t help getting a little excited at the prospect of cooking. It was something I’d always enjoyed, something my mom and I had done together for many years before her health had declined. I’d missed having a kitchen. A refrigerator to store food, a stove to cook it on… I was even excited at the prospect of going to the grocery store and shopping in the cold and frozen sections. So many people took those things for granted, and until recently, I had too. Now, I knew better. And I’d never fail to appreciate my small blessings again.

  “Okay, fine,” I relented, moving to the next issue. “What about work? I gave my notice to the cleaning agency last night, and my day shift tomorrow will be my last with them. Donovan should be okay with switching me to weekends only, but I might have to pick up a dinner shift or two this week.”

  “And you’re starting at RPC on Monday?”

  “Right.”

  “So, you might be working a few late nights this week on top of putting in a full day at a new job…”

  “Possibly.”

  “Which would have you working from eight to five, then at the restaurant until… What, midnight? Then weekend dinner shifts too?”

  “Right. But it�
��s not that different from what I’ve been doing for months.”

  Eli sighed, and I could tell he disapproved of my plans. Transitions were never simple when it came to jobs, and I was fully aware that this week would be a rough one as I got acclimated to new routines. But I was more than willing to do the work. Even before I’d agreed to stay with him, I’d been willing to do whatever it took to start my new job as soon as possible. They’d wanted me on Monday, so that was what they’d get.

  “Tomorrow, you work…?”

  “For the cleaners from five to two. And then four to close at Chance Encounters. I usually end up being there until around midnight. Maybe a little later if there are late arrivals or if I have to wait for the leftovers to be approved and boxed up.”

  “And then to the shelter.”

  “Yes, and then… Well, usually, I’d go to the gym for a shower, but—”

  “But you’ll be coming here,” Eli declared. I nodded.

  “I do need to go by the gym at some point in the next few days and let Glen know I’m okay. He’s a sweet old guy, and he’ll worry.”

  “Okay. And you’ll have an escort to the shelter again tomorrow night and any other time you venture into that neighborhood.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” I argued, rolling my eyes a little. “I’ve been taking care of myself just fine…” But my voice weakened toward the end of the sentence as the events from the previous evening flashed through my mind. Eli nodded solemnly, seeming to follow my thoughts as easily as if I’d said them out loud. “But he won’t be there.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I need to know you’re safe. Speaking of which…”

  He reached for his phone and unlocked it, quickly finding Donovan’s name in his contact list. He’s calling him right now? I thought, alarmed at being put on the spot. I hadn’t really thought of what I would say to my boss about Brent, but I knew it was bound to be an awkward conversation. But that awkwardness was nothing compared to revealing that I was with Eli at—I glanced at the clock—ten in the morning. Wow, is it already ten? Breakfast had been pretty quick, which meant we’d spent quite a while in bed.