Work For It

by Ashley Bostock

  And no female or male ever wanted that.

  Her mouth parted on a moan as he pressed his fingers deep inside of her, already knowing her body and what she liked best. Curving his fingers up so he hit the right spot, he enjoyed watching the many shades of pleasure cross her face. Like she wanted it but wanted to give it to him, but it felt too good she couldn’t say no.

  “Dylan,” she half moaned, half whined. “Let me make you come. I want my mouth all over you.”

  “Most of my pleasure is from pleasing you, sweetheart.” Which it was. He was a tried and true pleaser. He got off on giving pleasure to his bedmate. More so than himself. But that dirty talk? His girl was getting the hang of it, wasn’t she? Her body arched against his hand as he continued his assault. He didn’t care how long it would take her, as long as he got to watch her this way. Feel her this way. And enjoy the heady feeling all of her was giving him. “Where do you want your mouth, sweetheart? Tell me exactly,” he demanded.

  He kept his fingers deep in her as she ground into him, still straddling his thighs. He could see her torment to try to speak as she clenched his fingers and dug her nails into his shoulder blade. Her eyes closed as she strung along with the pleasure he was giving her.

  She opened her cobalt eyes and looked into his soul. “Your cock. That is where I want my mouth. On your cock.” She tightened, almost losing her voice on her last word as an orgasm ripped through her. The power of words. Damn. Her back arched, her head fell back as Dylan held her in place just as her last strains left her body.

  Hell, he’d asked for it. Lina was a definite match for him. She gave as good as she got, throwing him for a loop. He didn’t think she’d voice it like she had, but now he was done for. His hands fell to his sides as Lina scrambled off his body and made quick work of pulling off his shirt. Her hand delved into the waistband of his sweatpants as she found what she was so dying to have.

  “It’s all yours,” he said when she hesitated. Because yes it was, and yes, he did want her to do what she was ready to do.

  She licked her lips as she pulled his length out. She only pulled his sweats down to his thighs before she grabbed onto him again. Her eyes had a mischievous spark in them as she leaned forward. Slowly, she opened her mouth and took him inside.

  He willed his hands to stay alongside his frame as Lina bobbed up and down along his shaft. He learned her magical ways as she took him all the way into her mouth. Then she’d withdraw, her tongue at his crown where she swirled it around only to start all over again. Her pace was perfect and her mouth even more so. He could feel the telltale signs that started in his balls and slowly crept up his shaft.

  “Lina, I’m going to come,” he warned as his hand came to rest against the middle of her back. Did she want to taste him? Without more thought than that, it was enough to send him spiraling over the edge as he unloaded inside her sweet mouth. His throat tickled with the feral groan that came out. His toes curled. His legs stiffened. Lina didn’t let up. She kept sucking through his convulsions, over and over, until he was dry.

  His head pressed into the frame of her bed as she worked him twice over. Dear God, how am I going to walk away from this woman?

  His second thought was how he could he even ask that? They were literally just coming to their first full week together. She didn’t know what she wanted to do beyond these two weeks. He had a life of fitness that she wasn’t real interested in. Not to mention, he wasn’t looking for—he almost choked—a girlfriend.

  Lina’s voice brought him back to reality. “Dylan? That good, huh?” He slowly opened one eye. She sat next to him. Her feet tucked beneath her. Her blue eyes shining too bright, making it look like her freckles were also brighter. Her blonde hair was pulled up high on her head and a few loose pieces hung against her forehead. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap. She looked like she knew she was a star student. His pleaser.

  He felt a heavy pressure constrict in his chest and for a second, he thought he might be having a heart attack. Deep breath. No. No, it wasn’t that.

  Shit. The sugar cookies.

  There was no way they’d been Regina’s. Was that what was making his chest tight? Feelings?

  “Are you okay?” Lina said. “You’re looking a little pale.”

  Dylan shook his head. “I’m fine. I just had this weird feeling in my chest.”

  “I was almost flattered there for a second. I thought it was the outstanding blowjob,” she said.

  “You get an A Plus Plus for that, my star student.”

  She beamed and straddled him again. She hadn’t noticed yet, but he had. His bare cock was inches away from her womanly goods. All he would need to do was slide her baggy shorts to the side and he’d have direct access.

  His cock stirred, starting to harden again.

  “So I did good?” She beamed.

  He laughed. “Wonderful.”

  Dylan brought his hand up, cupping her jaw and placing a tender kiss against her mouth. He slipped his tongue inside, and it quickly turned messy and demanding. Passionate and breathtaking like it always was when they kissed. As if they knew what the other needed without asking.

  He couldn’t get enough of her. His hands were everywhere. Her breasts. Her hard nipples. Along the sweet curve of her tummy to where her hips flared. His fingers grazed her supple skin along her abdomen, and she giggled against his mouth.

  “Ticklish,” he said.

  “Apparently.”

  It didn’t take long before Lina was grinding against his bare cock again. She got on to her knees, elevating herself so she was no longer in his lap.

  “I just want to feel you against me.”

  Dylan cocked his head not fully understanding what she meant. Until her hand went around his shaft and she pulled her shorts over exposing her bare heat. Before he could deny her, the head of his dick was coated in her wetness as she flicked him up and down against her.

  Fuck.

  That felt too good. Way too good. He’d almost forgotten what a woman’s slickness had felt like. The thought of her sliding over his erection and settling herself into his lap was thick with desire. He wanted that so bad.

  “I knew it would be this good.” Lina smiled as she continued the foreplay. Was she seriously trying to get him to break his bet? Fifty grand wasn’t really that much money. He could pay it.

  But it wasn’t about that.

  He gripped Lina’s hips and tossed her onto the other side of the bed. He rose and pulled up his sweatpants.

  “I can’t do that. Do you want me to lose my bet?” he asked incredulously. Louder than he should have.

  Lina frowned. “Not at all. Don’t you know me better than that? I don’t want that any more than you do.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked point blank.

  She went toe to toe with him. Her finger hit his chest.

  “Yes, I’m sure. It was just for fun. We’ve been fucking around for days now, both just dying to feel each other. I’ve been imagining nothing else, but you against me. I wasn’t going to do anything more. Don’t you trust me?”

  Dylan turned away unable to look her in the eyes. Most women who’d had the privilege of his company weren’t to be trusted. Like, all of them.

  “You’re serious right now?” she asked. She shook her head. “Whatever.”

  She walked out of her room and left him standing there alone, feeling like the biggest dick on the planet.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The good part about the weather was that it was no longer blizzarding out. The bad part was that Dylan had to follow through on his agreement with Martha and have lunch. After Lina had left him in her room earlier, he hadn’t spoken to her. She hadn’t said much to him either. She’d been too busy typing away at her computer, and he didn’t want to interrupt.

  No. He was just chicken shit.

  She’d rightfully called him out on his trust issues, and the truth was he had no reason not to trust her. Not to trust that she wasn’t on his
team, championing him to win his silly bet. It was all on him that split second that he mistakenly thought back to the women he’d been with before. Women who loved what his money could buy them. They loved the idea of being seen with him.

  And wasn’t he the biggest hypocrite of them all? He was lying to her about who he was. Dirty Gains was a household name. His company was his life. She was getting to know him from an entirely different perspective than what he was. Who he was.

  That made him an even bigger jackass.

  He took a deep breath and opened the front door. Cold air blasted him in the face like baptismal water. Before going to Martha’s, he took out his phone and dialed Michael.

  “What can I do for you? Need some dating advice?” Michael chuckled at his joke. Dylan wasn’t laughing.

  “Cole told you,” he said.

  “Yeah, dude. This is some good shit to write home about. I can see the headlines now. Fitness celeb holed up with ball buster.”

  “Whatever. She doesn’t even do that anymore. She quit.”

  “But you’re still on your bet?” Michael asked.

  Dylan sighed. “Yes. And it’s really not a piece of cake let me tell you. She’s sassy and extremely hot. Horny as fuck. She’s real smart too.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  Dylan hesitated, knowing this was going to get back to Justin, Cole and Zander the second he said something. The need to know outweighed the inevitable rash of shit they were going to give him. “I need you to ask Regina if she was in charge of making the sugar cookies for my gym opening on a hundred and forty-forth?”

  “What?” Michael sounded confused. Then, “Oh shit. Are you in that deep with her?”

  Yes. No. Maybe. Dylan didn’t fucking know. Theoretically he shouldn’t be. It’d been like a week. But he guessed being around someone for twenty-four hours a day seven days a week straight counted more than just any given week.

  “I don’t know what I am with her.” Dylan gritted his teeth in frustration. “All I know is this is the last thing I’m wanting or expecting. But I’m not kidding when I say that she’s different. It’s different. Then it occurred to me that I had a sugar cookie. There is no way Regina could have been in charge of those. Is there?”

  “I’ll ask. She’s been doing a lot of baking lately. Something about men fighting over her at an Elton John concert, I don’t know. I’ll hit you up when I learn something.”

  Dylan breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man.”

  “No problem. You know Cole is going to fuck with you big about this.”

  Dylan nodded even though Michael couldn’t see him. “Yeah, I know. When’s the big day going to be?”

  Michael had proposed to his girlfriend at The Hollingsworth Hotel’s Snow Ball over the holidays, and according to Michael, they were planning a quick wedding. Not like waiting around for a year or so before they tied the knot.

  “Sophia and I thought it was fitting to be married on Valentine’s Day since that was the day we had our first date.”

  “You’ve turned into a hopeless romantic,” Dylan said.

  “I know. It’s great. You should try it. You don’t know it yet, but it’s the best thing to ever happen to you.”

  Dylan shook his head. “Yeah. I gotta go. I’m getting blackmailed by the neighbor up here. To keep her from telling Lina exactly who I am, I agreed to have a lunch date with her.”

  “That’s hilarious. Cole mentioned trying to hire Lina for The Francesca Project. Said something about emailing her.”

  “She’d be a great asset. Not sure in what capacity but hiring someone like her would do us well.”

  “It’s coming along rather smoothly. It’ll be up and running in no time.”

  “Then Cole better move quickly. She’s been applying at different places as we speak. All he has to do is call her. Well, maybe not as I don’t think she’s turned on her phone a whole hell of a lot since she’s been up here. Anything else new except for the wedding?”

  “Not much. We introduced video onto the site. Now you can record a video and send a message, or you can basically Skype. Both parties have the option of turning the camera and sound on. So while one party may want to be seen, the option doesn’t have to extend both ways for that to happen.”

  “Damn you must be getting a lot of naughty shit on there.”

  Michael chuckled. “Eddie says it’s minimal right now. There’s already the standard disclaimers warning people of the risks of online content via video yada yada. I’m not too worried. Look, about our wedding, it’s a little unconventional and between the four of you guys, I couldn’t decide who would be best man. I’d like all of you to do it.”

  “All of us? You know I’ll do it.”

  “Thanks. Sophia will be thrilled to hear I’m getting it all sorted out. I got to go. Julia just walked in my office, and she has that look.”

  Dylan grimaced. “It’d hate to be on the receiving end of that look. How are she and Eddie holding up?”

  “Like they were never not together. Babies are due in May. Twins.”

  “Oh, damn. Give my congrats. See ya.” He ended the call, hoping like hell Michael would be able to find out rather quickly if Regina had made the cookies.

  He marched over to Martha’s condo and knocked. He wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. The upside to Lina being mad at him was that he didn’t have to fake some story about the imaginary stationary bike he was putting together for Martha.

  Martha’s bright smile greeted him when she opened the door. “A man who is on time. That’s a great quality to possess.”

  “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Lina refused to ask Dylan about his afternoon with Martha. Refused. She was still blatantly pissed about his lack of trust toward her. Where the hell had that come from? Seriously, one minute they’re doing the hot and heavy and then the next he’s worried she’d sabotage him like that?

  What in the actual hell? What kind of woman would do that? What kind of women had he been with in the past that had broken his trust? Most importantly, had he not gotten to know her at least a little bit this past week? Enough to understand that she was trustworthy. That she would never do something like that.

  Hmph.

  Screw him.

  Oh, but she’d like to. She hated the way his body filled out his clothes so nicely. The way he was so sure of himself as he just breathed in and out every day. So annoying. He was confident to no ends and what had first been unappealing to her now had her full attention.

  Take now for example. He was sprawled out on his recliner, hands behind his head as he watched some rerun of baseball. Yankees were up against the Cubs, bottom of the sixth. His eyes were half shut like he could be dozing, but she knew he wasn’t because every time the Yankees took the plate, this little vein in his neck throbbed incessantly.

  Not that she was watching him or the game that closely.

  She cast her eyes away from him and the game, opening up her email. She knew there would be one from her mother. The subject line read: in need of an apology. Of course her mother would insist that Lina owed her an apology. Lina relented. She did probably owe her mother that much. She had been unprofessional not showing up at work the next day and not giving any notice.

  Phoenix Lina scoffed at the Colorado Lina. How could you have done that? Gosh, she wasn’t sure how she managed that looking back. She clearly had a nervous breakdown or something in those hours that made her throw every one of her personal items into a crate and walk the hell out of there. She ran. She hadn’t walked.

  She opened up her mother’s email already steeling herself for the onslaught of negativity. Only it wasn’t that. Not by a long shot. It was—Lina grabbed her throat—her mother apologizing. Holy cow. Your father and I had a very long talk…you are my daughter first and foremost. I’m partial, if not the most, to blame. I’m sorry, Angelina…you must live your life…I’m so ashamed for the way I treated you. At work and now. Please ca
ll.

  A tear drop rolled off Lina’s face and landed on her keyboard. She sniffled. Wow. She hadn’t been expecting that from her mother at all. Lina wasn’t completely accepting of her mother’s forgiveness. Not yet. They had a ways to go in that department. What mattered to Lina was that her mother took the first step in admitting her wrongs and that she apologized. Those were firsts for Mrs. Armstrong.

  Just as Lina hit the reply button, another incoming email pinged. Cole Carrington. What did he want? She opened his email and browsed, skipping over the lines to get to the end. He was offering her a job. She squinted her eyes at the computer screen. How in the world did he know she needed one? His email didn’t say he knew she was unemployed or anything but what were the odds of that happening? She reread his email.

  Nope. He had no idea. The Francesca Project was willing to fly her to Denver and provide hotel accommodations for an interview as well as a Q & A on what she required from them, her salary requirements and benefits. They were willing to meet and prepared to exceed her current package.

  Talk about flattery. This was amazing. The fact that he sent an invitation to employ her made her feel…a little crummy actually. What would he think if he knew she had skipped out on her former job? Not only that, but how could she go back into that particular line of work again when she was so burnt out on it? Yeah, it made her feel pretty crummy. Had he emailed eight weeks ago it would have been a lot different. Actually, it wouldn’t. She’d been burnt out for a long time.

  Somehow being at Pine Lake though, she’d changed. Her entire attitude was different. Mostly. She no longer had the drive to fight battles anymore. Only it wouldn’t be the exact same. The Francesca Project was a place for after domestic abuse. She had been dealing with it on the current end. She was trying to get women to break free from the chains as well as dealing with children who were put in those situations. The Francesca Project was all about providing housing for women and their kids after they had gotten away from their abuser.