by M. S. Parker
“Like little sparks of electricity dancing across your skin?” I asked softly.
She turned back towards me, her eyes meeting mine. “Exactly.”
We were both silent for a minute and I supposed she was thinking the same thing I was, how this had suddenly become something more than a random hook up. I didn't know what it was, but it was something.
She leaned back, breaking eye contact. “So, Mr. Philadelphia, what brought you to Paris?”
I sat back as well. I didn't mind that she was deliberately moving the subject away from our connection. Whatever it was, it was intense, and I didn't blame her for wanting to dial it back a bit.
“I'm taking a vacation,” I said. “A bit of a European tour.”
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Really? You don't have a job to go home to? A...family?”
The way she said it made it pretty clear she wasn't asking about my parents and siblings. I smiled and mimicked her posture. “I worked for my family business since I got out of college and I recently realized that I didn't want to do it anymore. Decided to take a bit of a break.” I felt myself relaxing, enjoying the interaction. “As for my family, my parents aren't exactly pleased with me at the moment and my spoiled little sister is trying to prove that she has what it takes to fill my shoes.” I tried to keep my tone light, but a slight narrowing of Nami's eyes told me that I hadn't succeeded as well as I would've liked.
“Parents can be funny,” she said. The tone of her voice made me think that she wasn't talking about just mine. Her eyes flicked away and back again. “I have a younger sister too.” She smiled. “But she's not spoiled.”
I chuckled. “That's good. How old is she?” I was actually fishing for a hint about her own age, but didn't want to come out and ask it. Sometimes she looked like she was barely out of high school, other times she appeared years older.
“Sixteen.” Her lips twitched in humor. “Six years younger than me. That's what you wanted to know, isn't it?”
I shrugged, grinning at her. “Aren't you going to ask me how old I am?”
She shook her head.
“So you're not worried you slept with an old man?”
She laughed. “You're not even thirty yet.”
“Good guess,” I said. “Twenty-seven.” Something clicked for me as I did the math. “Is this a graduation trip?”
“Good guess,” she echoed me with a smile. “Princeton.”
“Nice,” I said. “Columbia.”
“Political science with a minor in classical literature.”
“MBA.”
“Let me guess,” she said. “Parents?”
I nodded. “And yours?”
“Not the minor,” she said. “That's all me.”
“Well, you did better than me,” I admitted. “I didn't manage to get a minor I liked.”
“Maybe that's what I liked about you,” she said. “It seems we're kindred spirits.”
My stomach clenched at her words. It wasn't like she was saying we were soulmates or destined to be together forever, anything like that, which was good, but she was saying there was a deeper connection here.
“Well, there's one way to find out.” This time it was me who guided the conversation away from the serious. “Favorite color?”
“Scarlet.” She grinned.
“Cyan.” The word popped out and I flushed as I glanced at her eyes. I'd always liked blue and green, but if I'd been asked before what my favorite color was, I would've said silver. I hurried to ask another question. “Favorite food?”
“Apple pie.”
“Pizza. With extra cheese and pepperoni.”
“My turn for a question.” Nami's eyes were glittering with something I couldn't quite place. “Girlfriend?”
“No. You?”
“No girlfriend. Or boyfriend.” Her tongue teased her bottom lip and my blood began to run south.
I tried to get my mind back to something more innocent and the back and forth conversation continued. Favorite song. Favorite movie. Childhood pets. School subject. It kept going until Nami stood up suddenly and walked over to the door. I thought she was going to look out and see if her bodyguards were back, but she didn't. Instead, she turned the lock.
When she turned back to me, her eyes were dark. “One more question. And please answer honestly.”
I nodded.
“Do you want me?”
Chapter 10
Reed
Was she kidding?
Did I want her? There was no way in this life I didn't want her. All confusing connection shit aside, she was gorgeous and a great lay. I would've had to be dead not to want her.
I stood up as she walked back over to her seat. I reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her from sitting down. “I want you.” I traced along her jaw with my finger. “Do you really need to ask?”
A shadow crossed her face and I saw a hint of vulnerability in her eyes.
“You do, don't you?” I said softly. I brushed her hair back from her face and then ran my thumb along her bottom lip. She shivered and her response made my chest tighten. “How could I not want you? You're the singularly most exquisite thing I've ever seen. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you.”
“I've been thinking about you, too,” she admitted, her voice quiet, eyes down.
“Look at me.” My tone was neither harsh nor loud, but she immediately obeyed, her eyes rising to meet mine. “Do you want me?”
She pushed herself up on her toes so that she could touch her lips to mine. It was barely even a kiss, but it sent a bolt of electricity straight through me. She put her hands on my chest and leaned her body into mine, the motion of the train causing us to sway together. “I want you,” she whispered.
My hands went to her waist, holding her as I bent my head to give her a proper kiss. Her arms slid up around my neck as I parted her lips with my tongue, thoroughly exploring her mouth. I slipped my hands under her shirt, keeping one at the small of her back while the other moved up her spine. I paused at her bra strap but didn't undo it. I knew where I wanted things to end up, but I also didn't want to presume. Her fingers twisted in my hair and she pressed her belly more firmly against my hips until I moaned. I was already half-hard and the memory of what it had been like inside her was quickly changing half to full.
She stepped back, breaking the kiss, and I let her go. I'd be disappointed if that's all there was, but it had been a hell of a kiss. She grabbed the bottom of her short-sleeved shirt and pulled it over her head. While I was getting rid of my own clothes, she stripped off her jeans and undergarments so that by the time I was completely naked, she was too.
“Sit.”
I did as she asked. No way was I going to argue with a beautiful naked woman.
“I wanted to do this last night,” she said as she walked over to me.
I swallowed hard as she went to her knees, pushing my knees apart to make room for her. Her breasts brushed against my thighs and her nipples hardened at the contact. A surge of desire went through me. She was so beautiful.
When her hand wrapped around my cock, I groaned. Her tongue flicked against the tip, then circled it, making every nerve in my sensitive skin light up. As her lips closed over it and she took me into the moist heat of her mouth, I swore. She'd said she hadn't had much experience, but she definitely had some great instincts. Her tongue was moving around and across the part of me that was in her mouth while her hand stroked the several inches she couldn't take. I gripped the edge of the seat as she dropped further down, her lips stretching wide around me. When her free hand reached underneath me to cup my balls, my entire body jerked, pushing my cock even deeper into her mouth. She drew back as her fingers began to toy with me, rolling and massaging my balls even as she ran her tongue up and down my length.
Finally, I had to call her off. “No more.” My voice was rough.
She glanced towards the door. “It's too bad we don't have hours more because I would very much
like to taste you.”
Fuck. I took her chin in my hand and pulled her up to me, sitting up to capture her mouth. I could taste the salt from my skin and it only fueled my desire. She climbed up onto my lap, her knees resting on either side of my waist. I grabbed her hips, wanting nothing more than to sink inside her, feel her gripping me tight, but safety always came first.
“Condom,” I managed to say.
She caught my bottom lip between her teeth, nibbling at it before sucking it into her mouth.
Inexperienced my ass. This girl knew what she was doing. Either that or she had some amazing instincts.
“Got it,” she said.
I gave her a questioning look as she tore open the packet.
“I took a couple from the hotel before I went to the club the other night,” she explained as she rolled the latex over my throbbing cock. “I hadn't planned anything, but I figured it was better to be prepared.”
“You would've made quite the Boy Scout,” I muttered. I circled one of her nipples with my finger. “Except the whole being a girl thing.”
“Reed.”
I looked up as she said my name.
“I want to see you.”
I didn't have to ask what she meant because she started to lower herself onto me. Myriad emotions played across her face as she took me inch by agonizing inch until she was on my lap, every bit of me buried inside her. She rocked back and forth, her eyes closing, head falling forward. My fingers tightened on her hips until I was sure I would leave marks.
“Does it always feel like this?”
Her question surprised me, distracting me from the urgent need to move. “Like what?”
Her eyes locked with mine as she slowly began to rise. “I cannot put it into words.” Her accent had thickened. “Do you not know what I mean?”
I did. I hadn't at first because her question had caught me off guard, but then I'd gotten it. Sex with her wasn't like sex with any of the other women I'd hooked up with during my trip. Our bodies moved together like we'd done this a thousand times before, but not in the way that it was old or something like that. More like a dance that we both knew the steps to and we moved at the same rhythm.
“No,” I admitted. “It's not always like this.”
I leaned forward, moving one hand to capture her breast. I squeezed the firm flesh as she picked up the pace. When I latched onto her nipple with my mouth, she cried out something in another language. Judging by the way her body tightened, I assumed it was positive. My tongue circled her nipple, teased the hard point of it. When I began to suck on it, her body jerked against mine, driving me deeper than I would've thought possible.
“Reed,” she gasped my name. “Reed, please.”
Her nails dug into my shoulders and I knew without her saying what she needed. I pulled her down on me hard, making her whimper, and then bit the delicate flesh in my mouth. I felt her mouth on my neck, her teeth in my skin even as she cried out, using my body to muffle the sound. I held her, thrusting up into her twice, pushing her through her orgasm as my own exploded through me. She wrapped her legs around me, our bodies still intimately joined as we rode out our pleasure.
I kissed the side of her neck as my hand ran up and down her spine. I'd answered honestly when I'd told her that it wasn't always like this, but I hadn't told her that I didn't know why, or that it scared me half to death. I could feel whatever this was between us growing. It didn't matter that we barely knew each other. This thing was completely out of our control, and I knew that if we didn't walk away soon, we'd have started something that neither of us had intended.
A knock at the door made both of us jump, ending the moment.
“What is it?” Nami called out, not trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.
“We are almost in Venice.”
She looked at me and sighed. “Very well, Tomas.” She climbed off of my lap, grimacing as I slid out of her. She spoke to me, her voice low, “You need to go.”
I looked at the door and then back at her. “And how do you suggest I do that? I seriously doubt your buddies out there will let me walk out. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure what we were doing in here.”
She frowned as she reached for her clothes. “You're right.”
She opened a door, revealing a tiny private bathroom. She wet a washcloth and handed it to me before taking one for herself. We cleaned ourselves up in silence and dressed. We hadn't had the chance for this sort of awkward moment last night, but it wasn't as strained as I'd thought it would've been. I could tell she was thinking and I left her alone, my own thoughts preoccupied with what I was going to do now.
“Hide in the bathroom,” she said suddenly.
“What?” I asked, surprised and wondering how that was a solution.
“Hide in the bathroom,” she repeated. “I'll ask Tomas and Kai to come in and get my luggage, then take it to the last car and wait for me. I'll make up something about wanting to avoid the press.”
“Press?”
The tips of her ears turned pink and I knew she wasn't just flushed from sex. She kept her back to me as she answered, “My father is making me come home early because the media took a picture of me at the club yesterday.”
“You weren't allowed to be at a club? You're over twenty-one.” I found myself wondering again who she was.
She took a deep breath and turned around to face me. “My parents have a very strict code of behavior that I am supposed to follow.” She gestured towards the door. “They're supposed to keep me in line.”
I grinned. “I don't think they've been doing a very good job.”
“You have no idea.” She didn't seem amused. “This trip was a graduation present from my parents. I was allowed to have fun, but only the sort of fun of which they would approve. Dancing at a club was not on the list.”
“What do they have against dancing?” I asked. Was she from some sort of strict religious family?
“Nothing,” she said. “But it is what might come after the dancing that is the problem.” One side of her mouth tipped upwards in a half-smile. “What did happen after we danced?”
My eyes widened. “Sex?” Shit. What had I gotten myself into?
“Sex.” She nodded. “Tomas and Kai's main job watching me through college and on this trip was to keep me from having sex.” Now she grinned at me. “As you can see, that didn't work very well.”
“Will you be in trouble?” I asked, concern for her superseding anything else.
She shrugged. “Not if they keep their mouths shut, and since it would mean admitting they didn't do their job, I don't think they'll say anything. And it's not like I'll be in danger if my parents find out.”
“Nami,” I began.
She put her hand on my arm. “Don't worry about me, Reed. The worst that will happen is that I'll receive a lecture on proper behavior for...the way a lady should act.”
I was pretty sure she'd been planning on saying something else, but I didn't push.
Her smile was sad now. “I just wanted a few days to do what I wanted, not what was expected of me.”
I could definitely sympathize with that.
“I wanted to have fun without constantly having to wonder about what everyone else would think.” She scowled at the door. “Without those two hovering over me every minute of every day.”
An idea popped into my head. It was a bad one, possibly the worst one I'd ever had, and I knew I should just keep my mouth shut. But Nami looked so miserable and I couldn't help but compare her to me. She was where I'd been back in Philadelphia, bound by her parents' expectations without a hope of breaking free. I couldn't do anything about that, but I could offer her what she'd just said she wanted.
“Are you serious about wanting to have some fun?” I asked.
She looked up at me, a puzzled expression on her face. “Yes.”
“And you want to get away from the linebackers out there?”
She nodded.
“You pro
mise you won't be in any danger if you do something reckless?” I didn't want to risk this if it meant she would be hurt.
“I won't,” she said. “My family has expectations, but they aren't violent if those aren't met.”
“Then call them in here. I'll hide while you have them carry the luggage to the last car like you'd said. Except, instead of me sneaking out and away, we're going to go together.”
Chapter 11
Nami
I stared at him, unsure if I was hearing him correctly. Surely he couldn't be suggesting that the two of us run away together. That was ludicrous. And yet a part of me was thrilled at the idea.
I immediately pushed the thought aside. He didn't mean for us to run away together. Not like that. Besides, I couldn't do it, couldn't leave my family. But...I realized what he meant. A little detour before going home. A chance to have what I'd wanted, at least a single day of freedom. A day to have fun without Tomas and Kai breathing down my neck, watching my every move.
“What do you say?” He held out a hand. “Want to have some fun before you head home?”
I couldn't begin to say all the ways this was a bad idea. The risk to my reputation, being out and about with a virtual stranger. The chance that my parents would find out. The ruining of the engagement.
Still, I couldn't help but think about what it would be like, to walk around Venice with Reed, like we were some couple on a romantic getaway. No eyes on me, no worrying about every little thing.
Before I could second-guess myself, I slid my hand into his. “Yes,” I said. “I'd like that very much.”
He raised my hand and kissed the back of it. “Then let's get started. We should be arriving in Venice soon.” He released my hand and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
I took a moment to collect myself and check to make sure my clothes were all on properly. I didn't want to risk them thinking there was anything strange going on. I needed them to think that I was still going along with my father's wishes. They wouldn't force me to do anything. It wasn't like that. But they would stay by my side the whole time, make sure I was never alone. Use their presence to intimidate crowds to move around us so that I could only go where they wanted me to go. They could call my father, tell him that I'd tried to slip away...again. He wouldn't hurt me or anything like that. What he wouldn't do was trust me again.