Slowly, in bits and pieces, the world came back to me, and Laird crawled up my body, smirking at me right before he kissed me. “How are you feeling?”
Despite my orgasm, I wasn’t quite finished with him. I wanted him inside of me. “Good,” I said, my voice a little slurred. “I want you to fuck me. Please.”
Laird chuckled. “I think that was the politest anyone’s ever been about sex.”
I would’ve been embarrassed, but Laird said it so warmly, like he was delighted by it, so instead I found myself relaxing, feeling… adored, almost.
Laird kissed me again, relaxing me, and for a moment that was all we did, our hands roaming over each other, making out like we were teenagers. I hadn’t done that in ages, just enjoyed someone’s body and being with someone, and I found that I liked it more than I would’ve thought.
At last, I wrapped my leg around Laird and spread myself, guiding him into me, and the both of us gasped. Oh, God, it felt so good. I had forgotten that it could feel good to feel stretched and full like this. My body wasn’t used to it after all this time and I clung to him, panting, trying to adjust, ignoring the instinctive feeling of too much too much it can’t fit.
It took a couple minutes, but when I was ready, I nodded, kissing Laird on the corner of his mouth. “I’m good,” I murmured.
Laird started to move, and I gasped again, the feeling of him moving inside of me more than I could’ve ever anticipated.
He moved quickly, like his self-control was fleeing, and I didn’t want him to hold back. He was pushing me towards the brink again, the feeling of him inside of me and on top of me turning me on more than I could’ve anticipated, even with only the passing glide against my clit. I locked my ankles together around his back and cried out his name as Laird thrust into me with abandon, shoving himself into me, coming hard inside of me and I felt the hot rush of his come and lost it, shuddering apart once again.
I lay there, gasping, feeling like I’d been hit by a train. It was probably silly and ridiculous of me to be reacting this way. Laird was probably wondering what was wrong with me.
But when I looked over at him, Laird was simply smiling breathlessly down at me, his chest and face flushed from exertion, his hair sticking up everywhere. He looked so handsome it was almost unbearable.
“You look gorgeous,” he murmured. His hand slid up my stomach to my breast, kneading softly. I whimpered. My body was still coming down from the high of my orgasm.
Pete had never cared about my pleasure. Well, he had at first. Back when he was luring me in and putting on that whole mask, pretending to be the perfect boyfriend. But I hadn’t had good sex in nearly three years thanks to that asshole. He hadn’t cared about me.
Laird had. I hadn’t come so hard in my entire damn life.
“You ready for round two?” Laird whispered. His hand kept touching my breast, then slowly moved back downwards, between my legs. I gasped as he stroked my clit, making my toes curl.
“Oh… ye—es,” I whispered, the word broken in half as I gasped in pleasure.
Laird’s grin was positively wicked. “Then let’s see if I can make you scream, hmm?”
Oh, he most certainly did.
14
Laird
I woke up feeling oddly hot all over. It wasn’t because of the blankets—I didn’t have any on me. I hadn’t left the heat on overnight, I never did that since it wasted so much power and electricity. Then why…?
Rolling over, I realized what it was: Trudie.
She had plastered herself to me in the middle of the night and was now clinging to me like an octopus. I grinned down at her, reaching up to stroke her hair. I never would’ve pegged her as someone who liked to cuddle. Trudie was so independent, so self-contained. But here she was, curled up against me, her head on my shoulder and her arms around me, our legs tangled together.
I fucking loved it.
As much as I loved it, though, I did need to pee, and I was starving. We’d had quite a lot of athletic sex the night before and I needed refueling before I had her again—and I intended to fuck her quite a few more times before the weekend was over.
The clock on the wall said that it was only six in the morning. Damn. I knew that Trudie had work on Saturdays but not until later, so we still had time. I started to ease out from her embrace, and Trudie grumbled.
“Wha’ time izzit?” she mumbled. Then, without even looking at the clock to answer her question, she added. “Iz too early. Stay here.”
“I have to get up,” I told her. “I’ll make you coffee. And it’ll be worth your while, it’s the best coffee you’ll ever have. You’ll never drink that sludge you sell at Buzz ever again.”
Trudie mumbled something that I couldn’t quite make out, and I finished getting out of bed. Once I had taken care of everything in the bathroom, I went into the kitchen to start up the coffee maker.
Yeah, I probably should’ve put on clothes, but I wasn’t really going to bother with that when I was only going to be taking them off again in a hot minute. Besides, I was used to walking around my place naked. Why shouldn’t I? Nobody could see me like this, I had the place to myself. Now that Trudie was here, I was sure she wouldn’t object to seeing the goods, given how last night had gone.
The memory of being inside her soft, hot cunt, the noises she’d made, the way her face had looked as she’d come, washed over me like a wave. I wanted to fuck her again, and again, and again. She was addicting in every way, more so even than my precious coffee.
After I got the coffee started, I set about making a basic breakfast: just some toast and eggs and sausage. I was sure the smell of the coffee and the food would perk her right up.
Sure enough, right as I opened the fridge to see what I had for fruit, I heard shuffling feet behind me. I grinned and turned around, only to have Trudie wrap her arms around me, nuzzling against my chest. She was dressed only in one of my shirts, which she must’ve grabbed up off the floor.
I never would’ve guessed that she would be like this. It felt like my heart was leading an entire brass band inside of my chest. “Somebody’s a snuggle monster,” I teased.
Trudie just groaned. I chuckled and picked out a couple of oranges, setting them down on the counter, then closed the fridge door. “You hungry?”
“Mmhmm,” Trudie hummed. “C’mon, boss, it’s way too early.”
Boss? I wasn’t her boss, although I technically owned the building she worked in. It was a cute and unexpected nickname. “It’s not that early, we were just up late last night. You’ll thank me later when you’re on time for work.”
“Ugh. Don’ wanna go work.”
“Yeah, I know, but your wallet will thank you.” I lightly petted her hair and Trudie pushed up into the motion.
It occurred to me, all of a sudden, that Trudie was probably touch-starved. All humans needed touch. It was just how we were. There were studies that showed that the more a baby was held, the better-adjusted that baby was as a child. We craved touch. We were social animals for a reason, after all.
Well, if touch was what she needed and wanted, then I would be there to provide it for her. I loved that she was so cuddly and clingy. It was a soft side to her that I hadn’t expected. Hopefully that meant that there was even more to her that I had yet to uncover. More to her that I would soon get to see. I wanted to learn everything about her, to come to know her as well as I knew myself.
I kissed the top of her head. Trudie grumbled. “Boss. Food and coffee. I’m gonna keel over.”
I laughed. “Well at least you’re talking more coherently now. How do you want your eggs?”
Once we had the food settled, Trudie perked right up. I watched her while we ate, seeing how she devoured the meal like it was the best thing she’d ever had. Maybe I was crazy—maybe she was just extra hungry after the sex last night—but, no. I had seen her that way with the pizza, too. With every meal that we’d had together, except for last night. She had been so beautiful last night
. Every time I thought about her, how she’d looked, my goddamn cock twitched, wanting to get hard for her all over again.
But last night had also been the only time she had eaten normally, and not wolfing her food down like she hadn’t eaten in a week. Probably because as my wife she would be used to eating, and eating in fancy places at that, so she needed to not scarf her food down. But what did that say about her life?
Clearly she needed this money, badly. Maybe that was why she was calling me boss? Because I was paying her for this?
God, what a bloody fool I was. Here I was falling for her, halfway in love with her already, and to her I was probably just her ticket to financial freedom and stability. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but it was different from what I wanted with her. She just saw me as a paycheck. Her ‘boss’. Sex was fun, you could be attracted to someone without wanting to actually date them or actually being in love with them.
Well, it wasn’t her fault that I had these feelings. She hadn’t asked for them. I knew then and there that the sensible thing to do would be to stop sleeping with her, to try and keep it as platonic as possible up until we went to the wedding, but I couldn’t find it in myself. I wanted her too badly. I’d never thought of myself as a bloody masochist before but, here we were.
I would hold in my feelings, I resolved, and simply spoil her with my affection as much as I could. She clearly needed a friend and a safe place. If that was all I could be to her, then that was that. I would do what was best of her.
“Ugh, okay, you’re right,” Trudie said, downing the coffee I gave her. “This coffee is the best.”
“See, sometimes I do in fact know what I’m talking about.”
“You’re a god among men, boss,” Trudie said, winking at me.
All I could do was smile in response, wishing that she returned my affection.
15
Trudie
I just barely made it to church on time on Sunday.
Not that I was surprised. I had work yesterday, of course, but other than that? I’d been spending the last two days getting fucked within an inch of my life.
After breakfast yesterday, Laird and I fucked again in the kitchen, then in the shower, and then I went to work. After work, he picked me up and brought me back to his condo, where we had more sex in the living room and then in the bedroom, again and again, until we passed out. Then I woke up this morning to him kissing slowly up my neck, his hand sliding between my legs, and he entered me gently, carefully, from behind. We fucked slow and deep, until I was gasping out my orgasm. I barely had time to scarf down some food before I was rushing out the door to make it to mass.
All this time, I’d been pretty much convinced that my sex drive was dormant. Oh, sure, sex was fine, but I hadn’t really craved it since I was a teenager and caught tight in the grip of hormones. I was sure that Pete had something to do with that. How could I crave sex when the only times I had it were when my asshole boyfriend wanted it, and he cared fuck-all about how I felt during it?
Now, with Laird… God, it was driving me insane. I wanted him so badly, all the time. I had thought that it was bad before, but now that I’d gotten a taste of what Laird was actually like in bed—gentle and soft when he needed to be but in charge, confident, and one hundred percent focused on making me orgasm until I was screaming—it was even worse. I felt like I was drowning, but in the need for sex. It was like I’m sixteen all over again.
The crazy thing was, I never would’ve guessed that Laird would be like this when I’d first met him. Blushing, soft, sweet Laird, turning out to be an actual sex god? Who would’ve thought it? It was amazing and I craved more of it. Even the good sex that I’d had before Pete was nothing compared to this.
But for now, Laird was out getting brunch with Jack. Apparently, Jack had met someone and he wanted to introduce them to Laird to see if Laird liked them. “I could never date someone that Jack didn’t like,” Laird explained. “And he couldn’t date someone that I didn’t like. We’re each other’s best friends and we’re going to be in each other’s lives like family. You wouldn’t be with someone that your family didn’t like, either.”
I was lucky, in a weird way, that I had no family to worry about. Liam liked me, but what about Laird’s parents? His cousins? Would they like me?
Jack, at least, liked me.
I shut those thoughts down. It didn’t really matter if they liked me or not. This wasn’t real. None of this was real. We were all faking it, and the sex was just an added bonus. Who was going to say no to glorious sex? That didn’t actually mean anything. Laird wasn’t the type to just run around and sleep with whoever he wanted. I knew that. But that didn’t mean that he actually… was falling for me in return.
A guy treated me with respect for the first time in years and I immediately assumed he was ready to date me for real. Yeah, right. Get those daydreams out of your head, honey.
That was why I was here in church. I still felt some guilt about lying, and about accepting the money even though I needed it, and now I had guilt because I was falling for this man when I knew that he couldn’t feel the same way in return. It would be selfish, stupid, even cruel of me to take advantage of his kind heart and assume that I was more to him than I was.
Today after lunch with Jack, he was going to pick out rings. We couldn’t slip up like that again, and I inwardly cursed myself for already having been such an idiot that I’d forgotten something as obvious as wedding rings. The idea of wearing Laird’s ring on my finger, even though it wasn’t real… it was making me feel like I might burst into tears with all that I was feeling, this huge well of emotion that was filling me up.
I had told him not to get me anything… real. “I don’t deserve a diamond, or anything like that, not when it’s only for show.”
Laird had looked a bit hurt. He always looked hurt when I said things that were self-deprecating. I was still getting used to that—both to not saying things that were self-deprecating and to the idea that the people around me didn’t like it when I was hard on myself. I had gotten into the habit with Pete, since he had always been telling me all the ways I was doing things wrong. I had started to… believe the things he said. I had started to think that I really didn’t deserve much.
Laird obviously disagreed.
Well, I wasn’t going to let him spend thousands of dollars on a ring for me when I was only going to pretend to be his wife for a few more weeks and then we were going to have to return the ring. It just didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t about whether or not I deserved such a ring for my real wedding, it was about how this wasn’t real and so he shouldn’t go to such lengths for me.
As the mass started, I focused on my guilt. I couldn’t use Laird like this, I resolved. Sex was all well and good but I felt something more for him than he felt for me and it would be taking advantage of him, in a way, to have sex with him in this situation.
Think of him as your boss, I told myself. I had made that nickname up jokingly yesterday, not even thinking about it in relation to myself. But it was true, wasn’t it? He was paying me to do this so in a way that made him my boss. Plus he owned the building that I worked in. That made him my boss. I was just… going to have to remember that. Laird being my boss meant that any sexual relationship between us would be wrong. Unprofessional. It would complicate everything.
Just think of him as my boss. Yes. That was how it would be. Listening to the choir with their beautiful voices, seeing the cool winter sunlight coming in through the stained-glass windows, all of it strengthened my resolve. I was going to stay strong.
Until I walked out of the church and saw Laird standing there.
He grinned at me the moment that I walked out. He’d obviously been waiting for me. “Hey, you,” I said, and then I wanted to smack myself in the face. Hey, you? What kind of ridiculous greeting was that? Had I completely lost all of my brains?
“Hey yourself.” Laird looked so damn pleased with himself, like a kid in a candy shop.
How could he be so excited over something as ridiculous as a fake wedding ring?
Of course, it would help to sell the story, that was all. I had to stop getting my hopes up over ridiculous things.
I started to finish walking down the steps, but Laird stopped me. “Wait. We’ve got to do this properly.”
“Do what properly?”
He drew a small black velvet box out of his pocket and I felt my knees wobble a little. “Oh, you don’t have to…”
“Of course I do.” He took my hand and opened the box. “Should I get down on one knee?”
“O-only if you want to,” I said, my voice coming out a bit more strangled than I’d intended.
Laird gave me an odd look and didn’t go down on one knee. Instead he just slid the ring onto my finger. It was lovely, honestly, it took my breath away. There wasn’t a large stone on top. Instead there were a few very, very small stones, like stars, on it, with carvings on it, making the diamonds look like fruit on a vine. It was beautiful but not pretentious, elegant without making me uncomfortable.
It was exactly the kind of ring that I would’ve wanted for myself if I really was getting engaged and getting married. How he had come to know me so well in such a short amount of time, I didn’t know. Laird was just that observant and thoughtful, I guess. That was the kind of guy that he was.
“It fits,” I said, stupidly, because I had definitely measured my finger and given him my ring size earlier. “How did you get it done so quickly?”
“Jack knew a guy.” Laird smiled and didn’t let go of my hand as he slid the ring box back into his pocket. “Jack knows all the guys, honestly. If you ever need anything, Jack’s your man.”
“Thank you. You didn’t have to go out of your way to pick something so lovely.” I wasn’t sure if these were real diamonds in the ring but they sure looked real, and that was what mattered. It had to fool Laird’s family.
Fake Bride: A Fake Marriage Billionaire Romance (Forbidden First Times Book 2) Page 10