by Sierra Rose
“I was supporting you.”
Shit. Well played. But I had some dirt on Nick as well...
I jutted up my chin, sniffing self-righteously as I tossed back my hair. “I’m not going to debate the issue of ‘clumsiness’ with a man who crashed a hot air balloon into the Hudson.”
“ONE time, Abby! That was ONE time!”
“It was a fucking hot air balloon, Nick!” I countered, jabbing an accusatory finger at his chest. “You don’t get to dismissive it away with a one time.”
He caught my wrist with a grin, curling my finger back to point at me.
“Is that my publicist talking? Or my girlfriend?”
“Fake girlfriend,” I answered coyly. “And careful—you probably don’t want to be messing with me tonight. I may have picked up one or two things from the fight.”
I tugged my wrist free and pushed to my feet with a grin. He followed me in an instant, pacing playfully forward as I backed slowly toward the ring.
“Is that right?” His eyes were alight with mischief. “You think you could take me?”
“Please.” I scoffed. “I grew up with nine older brothers—eight of them went pro.”
“Mohammad Ali once gave me private lessons.
Only one of those was a true statement. And I didn’t have any brothers.
I came to a sudden stop, glancing back nervously as my shoulder blades pressed up against the ropes. But the alcohol had removed any and all inhibitions, and that damn twinkle was still teasing me in Nick’s eyes.
“Alright then, Hunter.” I ducked under the ropes with a little grin, inviting him forward with two fingers. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Chapter 10
NICK PACED TOWARD ME, his eyes dilated with intensity like some kind of jungle cat. Each muscle contracted with fluid grace. Each movement was lethal and precise.
“You really think this is a good idea?” he taunted, loosening his tie as he stepped into the ring. “I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself...”
His jacket was already lying in a pile on the floor. Along with my heels.
“Oh, I’m not worried about me,” I answered flippantly, sweeping my hair up off my shoulders as his eyes followed every move. “I grew up across the bridge, son.”
There was a pause in his step, as his eyes closed with a smile.
“Please,” he savored the moment, “please tell me you didn’t just call me ‘son.’”
I flushed.
“I’ve had a lot of champagne...”
“Sure—blame it on the champagne.”
The tie joined the jacket in the corner. My purse was placed safely on top.
“So how does this work?” Nick asked, working his way down the buttons on his collared shirt. A second later, it was on the floor as well, leaving nothing but a thin tank below. “I just beat you into submission? Don’t stop until you beg for mercy?”
Again, I flushed. But this time, a shiver of excitement ran up my spine.
“Oh Mr. Hunter, I’m afraid you’ve got that the wrong way around.” I twirled my finger teasingly in the air. “You see, not only do I have no intention whatsoever of backing down, but I fully expect that before we’re through—you’ll be the one on your knees, not me.”
Nick’s eyes glittered as he flashed a smile worthy of the devil himself.
“Abby—I never beg.”
I wet my lips, and braced for what was coming.
“We’ll see.”
If only I had known what I was getting into...
There was a swish of air. A vibration through the floor. A lock of hair blew into my eyes.
...and then I was on my back.
“What the fuck?!”
I gasped aloud, staring around in complete disorientation. I hadn’t landed hard, but I’d landed suddenly. He had done it in a gentle way, catching me as he laid me down. Coming down with a little shriek, as the floor flew out from under my feet.
Before I could begin to recover myself, a grinning silhouette floated into my line of vision, and I blinked up in wonder.
“How did...?” I caught my breath, and tried again. “How did you do that?”
I hadn’t heard him move. I hadn’t even seen him move. Honestly—I had no earthly idea how anyone could possibly move so fast! What did they teach those boys out at Oxford?!
Or maybe it wasn’t Oxford after all...
My head started spinning with thoughts of the supernatural, but Nick merely gazed down at me with a fond smile. His hand had shot out from nowhere, catching my head just inches from the ground, and while I was dazed to the point of dreaming, he was hardly out of breath.
He ignored my question, and countered it with another.
“You had enough yet?”
A preemptive smirk had settled on the corners of his mouth—just waiting for the victory he was sure would come. The fingers cradling my head tightened, and from the rigid set to his chest, I could have sworn the man was holding in laughter.
But that victory dance might have to wait.
Had I had enough...?
My shock slowly faded as the sensation returned to my hands and feet. I pulled in a quick breath, tasting the sweet scent of his cologne, and gazed up at that sparkling smile. Our eyes locked, but while he might think the fight was over, I was suddenly sure of exactly one thing.
No. I hadn’t nearly had enough.
I took a page from his book. I let my actions do the talking for me.
In a move almost as fast as his, I wrapped my legs around his waist—flipping him over before he had a chance to realize what was happening. It was a trick I’d learned sometime early on in college. It was a trick a lot of us girls had learned, actually. There was a soft ripping of fabric, as my beautiful dress split up the thigh, but at the moment I didn’t care.
The tables had turned. Now I was the one on top.
The look on Nick’s face was priceless. Absolutely priceless. It wasn’t often that a guy like him was caught off-guard, and I relished the moment—staring down with a triumphant grin.
“Is that ready enough for you?”
He let out a breathless gasp of laughter, still trying to get his bearings. His hands came up tentatively to rest on my thighs, before lowering quickly back down to the mat.
It was then that I noticed we were frozen in a rather famous sex position.
It was then that he noticed the giant tear in my dress.
“That doesn’t look good...” he murmured, running his fingers teasingly up the frayed seam. They got higher and higher. “That doesn’t look good at all.”
I shivered with every inch.
How was it, that even on his back, this man still had total control over me? I was using my entire body to keep him down, but he held me breathless with just the tips of his fingers.
“These things have to be symmetrical, you know.”
Wait...what?
There was a sudden rip, followed by a rush of cold air.
“Nick!” I screamed.
But it was too late. He had already torn my dress up the other side.
“You bastard!” The thing was hanging in tattered, silvery ribbons—sporting a slit that went all the way up to my hips. And while it technically might cover everything it needed to, it was only a matter of time before the entire thing gave way. “I can’t believe you just did that!”
Nick simply folded his hands behind his head, and leaned back with a satisfied smile.
“There—symmetrical.”
I let out a gasp of incredulous laughter, and smacked him in the chest. My legs were still straddling his waist, and I felt him stiffen as he gazed up at me with a grin.
“Do you really have to destroy every priceless dress I have?” I teased, leaning down so that the tips of my hair brushed against his cheek. “First the fountain, now this?”
The man always had an uncanny knack for destruction, but my wardrobe had never borne the brunt of it until now.
His eyes danced as he stare
d up at me, and without thinking, he reached up and caught a dangling curl between his fingers—running it absentmindedly along his lips.
“I guess I’ll just have to take you out to get another one.”
I pursed my lips.
“Until you destroy that one as well?”
He laughed, dropping his head so his own hair spilled out over the mat. “Yeah—until I destroy that one as well. I’m glad to see you’re catching on.”
I bit my lip, trying my best to fight back a smile as I leaned dangerously over him.
“I really liked this dress, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” His eyes sparkled with a challenge. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Me?” I pretended to look confused. “Oh—I don’t have to do anything. I don’t know if you understand how fighting works, Nicholas, but you’re the one on your back.”
He didn’t miss a beat.
“And you’d rather I was on top?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it right back up again. Truth be told, it seemed rather counter-intuitive to reply. His eyes flashed and he took my silence as an invitation.
“Understood.”
There was another swish of air, and the next thing I knew—we were flying back around again. As I clung to him for balance, all the muscles in his body tightened of one accord, turning into some kind of super-human wall of strength. He pressed me down with a taunting slowness, completely immune to the fact that I was pushing back up against him with all my might.
It was like fighting against a statue.
“For fuck’s sake!” I anchored my entire body against him, giggling breathlessly all the while. After only a few seconds, my arms had already begun shaking. “What the hell have you been doing all these years—prowling the rooftops at night, solving crime?”
He laughed loudly, thoroughly amused with my pathetic struggles.
“As my publicist, I couldn’t possibly admit such a thing. I’m sure you’d hardly approve.”
I bet I wouldn’t. But before I could say as much, he beat me to the punch.
In one graceful motion, he took my hands off his chest and pinned them up above my head. I gasped softly, as he lowered his lips playfully to my ears. “But between you and me, I can think of a lot more interesting things to do with my nights.”
At this point...I think the fight was officially over.
My body was pressed flat against the mat, my hands were pinned inescapably above my head, and Nick was hovering just an inch above me, staring down into my eyes.
He didn’t move. I didn’t move. The hands on the clock froze in place.
Until...
With a breathless crash, the two of us came together. Pulling, grasping, clutching...doing anything and everything we could just to hold on.
That inch of space between us vanished as Nick pressed his body onto mine. His mouth forced mine open in the deepest kiss I’d ever had. His legs hooked around mine—spreading them slightly as he pinned me to the mat. And while one hand continued to imprison my wrists, the other slipped through the ripped fabric stretched across my hips.
It was here that he paused. He pulled back for a second, glancing down, before his lips pulled up in a sudden grin. “That lingerie I got you from Dior...you’re wearing it.”
I blushed slightly, taking a second to catch up.
“You wanted to see it, didn’t you?”
In a surge of reckless abandon, he bowed his head back to my neck, attacking every inch of skin he could find with a force and passion that took my breath away.
“For a long time, Abby. I’ve wanted to see it for a long fucking time.”
Apparently, the man was unaccustomed to waiting.
Not content to just feel the pricy little number, Nick ripped apart the rest of my dress with a single swipe of his hand. I lay there, flushed and exposed, while he feasted his eyes—taking his time before lowering himself back down on top of me.
Things got rougher after that. As long as we’d both been waiting, as long as that damn frustration had been building, we suddenly couldn’t wait for even a second more.
My fingers clawed desperately against the buckle of his belt, ripping it off with a leather hiss and tossing it toward the rest of our clothes. His pants were soon to follow—as was the shirt he’d been wearing beneath the suit.
It was here that I paused, glancing anxiously around the abandoned room.
“Nick,” I whispered, extracting my face from his just long enough to gaze nervously into his eyes, “are you sure we should be doing this here? Maybe we should—”
“Yes,” he interrupted, running his hands along my lacy bra, “we should absolutely be doing this here.” He unhooked the clasp with a single finger, and the thing slid right off.
“I’m serious,” I giggled, wriggling around as his lips came down to investigate, “we’re in the middle of a fucking exhibition ring. That irony doesn’t bother you?”
“Nothing,” he kissed, “can bother me,” another kiss, “right now.”
My back arched up in pleasure, and he ran two fingers from my chin all the way down my stomach. Then a little lower. Then he started getting creative.
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed, biting my lip with a moan as his fingers flicked and teased me.
In hindsight, I didn’t know why I was surprised. The guy had always been good with his hands. But this was another fucking level entirely. At one point, his started trailing little kisses down my stomach, stopping only when my chain of diamonds got caught in his hair.
We battled with them for a moment, kissing and laughing, until he pulled himself free and brought his lips back to meet mine. All the while, his fingers never missed a beat.
There was a pressure building. One I didn’t have a hope to control.
“Nick,” I whispered, if only to say his name. My body arched and writhed against his hand as my lips came up to kiss his throat. “Nick.”
“That’s it—enough.” He yanked down the elastic band around his waist—just as wanting and impatient as I was. “I can’t take anymore.”
He threw apart my knees and positioned himself in between, but before we could come together, I backed suddenly away.
“Wait,” I gasped, propping myself up on my elbows, “not yet.”
He stared at me incredulously, trying to catch his breath.
“What the fuck do you mean, not yet?” He shook his head and reached for me again. “I said enough, Abby. No more waiting.”
It seemed as though Mr. Hunter was used to getting his way both in and out of the bedroom. My lips twisted up in a little smirk. He would have to be taught some manners.
“And I said to wait.” I shimmied backwards, out of his grasp—and shoved him hard in the chest, pushing him to his feet in the process. “There’s something we need to sort out first. A score we need to settle.”
Keeping direct eye contact all the time, I stretched up onto my knees.
He was standing before me, naked and ready, a look of breathless confusion on his face.
This time, it was me who took a second to feast my eyes—letting them enjoy all those parts I’d never seen before. All those parts that had already gone into New York legend. An impish grin spread up my face, and he actually bowed his head with a little blush.
Then, for the second time that night, I beckoned him invitingly forward.
You won the fight, you get the reward...
For a second, he just stood there—staring. Then, tentatively, he took a step closer. His body stiffened as I wrapped my hands around his legs. It stiffened even more when I kissed him first on one hip, and then on the other. He sucked in a quick breath when I took him in my hand, and trailed a gentle finger down the side of my face.
“You said you’d never end up on your knees,” he breathed, flashing me a little smile.
I glanced up with a roguish grin.
“And you said you’d never beg.”
His face froze.
“Beg?
Who says I’m going to—FUCKING HELL!”
His head fell back in complete abandon as I took him into my mouth.
Truth be told, I’d always rather prided myself on this particular skillset. It was the kind of thing you honed over time, but thanks to my relentless employer, I hadn’t had the opportunity to use it in quite some time.
No matter. Judging by Nick’s reaction, I was still at the top of my game.
The faster I moved, the louder the moans. When I started teasing him with little flicks of my tongue, his fingers wound into my hair. And when I raked my teeth playfully down his skin, I thought he was going to fall apart right there.
“Shit, Abby,” he moaned, bringing his hands up over his face.
And that...is when I suddenly pulled away.
His eyes shot open, and he gazed down at me in breathless disorientation.
“What’s wrong?” he panted, trying to catch his breath.
I didn’t answer. I just shrugged a coy shoulder.
My hand was still wrapped around him, and his breath caught in his chest as I gave him a sudden squeeze. He reached for me, but I leaned back another inch, hovering just out of reach.
“Abby...what are you...?”
I shrugged again. This time with a sly smile.
He stared at my naked body for another agonizing second. Then his eyes widened in sudden understanding. His shoulders shook with breathless laughter, as he bowed his head with a grin.
“Abby...please?”
My eyes widened innocently, and I shook my head like I didn’t understand.
“Seriously?” He chuckled again, and shook his head. “This is a cruel little game.”
I shrugged—content to wait. But Nick had clearly had enough of waiting. And he clearly had not had enough of me.
“Please,” he said again, softer this time.
His eyes locked onto mine, burning with intensity. An intensity that simmered over as I stroked my hands lightly down my naked skin.
“This?” I asked innocently. “This is what you want?”
His teeth sank into his lip again. I was surprised they didn’t bite through.
“Yes...that’s what I want.”
My eyes glowed with triumph, but I kept it off my face. Instead, I held my hand to my ear with a frown, and he finally threw back his head with a burst of sparkling laughter.