by Lindsey Hart
They were still pretty much clothed from the waist up. Trey’s shirt gaped open though, and she ran her hands under the fabric, digging her fingers into the warm, veiny muscle of his shoulders. He was scalding beneath her fingertips. His hands shifted on her waist, moving lower to support her. Her back rammed up hard against the steel door again and this time, he was right. It wasn’t so cold. She curled her legs, shamelessly locking them around Trey’s hips and digging her heels into his ass.
He had a really nice ass. So ridiculously tight that her heels, which she was using as a weapon to keep herself in place against the door, probably didn’t even leave a mark.
Trey tore his mouth away, and trailed hot kisses over her cheek, all the way to her ear. She shivered when his warm breath burst over her tender skin.
“Then I’m sure.”
He used one hand to guide his cock lower, right to her entrance. He paused, waiting for her to back down even at the last second. Ambi threw her head back against the door and slammed her eyes shut. He’d warmed her up yesterday. Got the foreplay out of the way and turned her into a red-hot inferno of lust and need that was going to erupt if he didn’t just get the hell inside of her.
She ground her hips into Trey’s and dug her heels harder into his ass, urging him forward. Still, he held back. He was right there, burning and throbbing and in that moment, she lost her mind.
“Please, Trey- please. I want you. I need this.” She’d never said those words before. Not to anyone. She’d once told him that she thought begging was in bad taste. She didn’t actually know why she’d never said it, because whispering that plea against his ear was one of the most honest things she’d done in a very long time.
There wasn’t any holding back or hesitation after that. Trey plunged inside of her, filling her and stretching her painfully. He was huge, but she took all of him. Trey dropped his head and ate her moan of pleasure before it could escape. He swallowed it and kissed her furiously as he began to move inside of her. It was heaven. She was dead and in heaven. She’d forgotten or she’d forced herself to forget, how amazing it felt. How they fit so perfectly.
Trey was careful at first, letting her get used to his thickness and length before he really thrust. The first one hurt, but the pain was agonizingly sweet. The second was utter bliss. The third, it was transcendent.
All she could do was clutch Trey’s shoulders and dig her heels in and hang on. She knew she was spiraling down and out of control. But it felt like she was floating away too.
His thrusts picked up in intensity and she rocked with him. Grinding ferociously. She wanted all of him. More. Harder. Faster. Slower. It didn’t matter. She just never wanted it to end.
Her spine and head banged against the door as Trey’s thrusts grew harder. Wilder. More out of control and frenzied. He plunged in and out of her, filling her full every single time he left her maddeningly empty. It was insanity. Pure pleasure and radiant bliss. Every hard stroke brought her closer to unraveling that knot of heat deep in her stomach.
Trey kept going, kept her deliciously full, hitting all the spots, even a few that she wasn’t aware existed. She writhed against him, taking even as he gave. Finally, after a few more incredible moments of chasing her pleasure, she came undone. She shattered and unraveled, throwing her head back against the door and crying out as the pleasure claimed every single muscle and bone. She writhed and groaned and rocked shamelessly as the waves crashed over her.
Trey’s thrusts became more erratic. She could literally feel her muscles clenching and working with the aftershocks of her climax. She knew he was close by the way his breaths rasped in and out of his lungs, by the shudders wracking his body and the erratic thrusts. He’d said he was going to pull out. She didn’t want him to. She knew that it was pretty damn intimate to take him like she was, bareback, no condom. She trusted the pill implicitly. She’d been on it for so long and never had a scare. That wasn’t why he’d said he’d pull out. It was that… coming inside of her was crazy intimate. It was way too intimate, way too fast, but suddenly she didn’t want him to leave.
“Come, Trey,” she groaned against his ear. “Don’t pull out. I want to feel you. All of you.”
“Fuck, Ambi….” Trey’s hips went wild, pinning her to the door as he churned inside of her. He came violently, his thrusts rocking them so hard that she was sure her spine was going to be bruised from the hard steel at her back or that they might actually break the door down. His groan filled up the tiny room, echoing between them. He seated himself deep and she felt the heat flood her from inside.
She clung to him, to his sweat-soaked skin, her face next to his, nestled against his granite jawline. They came down together, shuddering and breaking until the pleasure had subsided and they were left with the afterglow. And the aftermath.
Trey slowly let her back down to the floor and reality came crashing back. He passed her the discarded panties and the rest of her clothes, which she hastily pulled on while he did the same. When they were fully dressed, sans winter outerwear, they finally had to face each other.
“Trey,” she breathed. “What did we just do? We- we shouldn’t have- it was- too fast.”
“I promise I’ll last longer next time.” Trey flashed her a wicked grin and Ambi groaned in frustration. Of course, he’d purposely misunderstand her.
“You know what I mean. God. This is a huge mess. I- we…” She glanced around. She was in a janitor’s closet, for goodness sakes. With Trey. She still hadn’t sorted out her feelings for him. She didn’t even know if she wanted to admit that she did have feelings. Everything was a huge mess. It was time to put on her big girl panties and act with an ounce of professionalism again. “We can’t do this until after the Christmas party.” She waved her hand, indicating the space between them. “I mean, whatever this is. Seriously. I have a job to do. I want to do it. We need to just- uh- take a step back until I can figure out how to do that properly.”
Trey’s jaw ticked, but he eventually nodded. “Alright. Agreed. I’ll leave you alone until after the party, but after that, Ambi, I make no promises.”
The rush of heat that swept through her shouldn’t have been half as thrilling as it was. She had a serious problem. A big, six-foot something problem with dazzling eyes and a charming smile. An entire package of mayhem that had once again managed to uproot her entire life and turn her world on its end.
“We are not having the party here. Ever. I’m picking the last venue. I’ll send menus over this afternoon.”
“Ambi-”
She put up her hand, cutting him off. “I’ll have all the other details taken care of. Please, Trey, you have to give me a break here. Until after the party.”
“Fine. It’s only in a few weeks. I guess I can cool off and let you do your job. You’re coming, by the way.”
“C-coming?” It sounded like too much of an innuendo not to be, and she felt stupid when he clarified.
“Yeah. To the party.”
“What? N-no. I- I don’t do that. I just plan it. I’ll have everything running smoothly and by that time, I’ll hand it over to you.”
“No way.” Trey shook his head. “That’s a new stipulation. You have to be there.”
“I don’t have anything to wear.” Right. As if that was going to deter him, but it was the best she could come up with at the moment, short of using the old hat, she had to stay home and wash her hair excuse. Did anyone still use that? With hair like hers, it could seriously pass for truth. It did usually take her the better part of an hour to deal with it.
Trey just smiled and winked at her and she knew she lost. She hadn’t just lost the argument. She’d lost the battle, lost the war, lost herself.
I’ll buy you one. See you there, Ambi.”
CHAPTER 16
Trey
The Christmas party was everything Ambi promised and more. Not that she’d given him a said list of promises, but he knew her, and he knew her work ethic and he knew that any party she planned
would be nothing short of amazing.
It went off without a hitch. The venue was gorgeous, the dinner amazing, the entertainment top-notch.
The only thing missing was Ambi herself. Which was par for the course, given that she’d managed to evade him since that day in the janitor’s closet.
She’d promised him that she’d come. Trey spent most of the night looking for her, trying to catch a glimpse of her sparkling eyes or her raven black hair. As he said he would, he’d bought her a golden-hued dress that was probably too fancy for an office Christmas party and had it delivered to her place. She’d signed for it, so he knew she’d received it.
Finally, as the band was starting up and people began to mingle, get even drunker, and do stupid things like attempt to bust a move on the large dance floor, Trey caught a flash of gold. Intrigued, he wandered up the set of stairs to the second floor of the ballroom that overlooked everything going on below. Most people didn’t actually know they were allowed up there, so the place was pretty quiet.
There were only two people up there that he could see.
Ambi, dressed in the dazzling gold gown. She was a vision in the tight-fitting dress. It was cut daringly low in the front and the back and hugged her curves like it was made for her. Her raven hair was piled into a thick mass of curls at the base of her neck. Her makeup was sparse, but as usual, it only illuminated her natural beauty.
The second person, he realized, hovering near Ambi like a shadow, was his father.
A jolt of panic curdled his stomach and Trey burst off the stairs and stalked towards Ambi. His father reached out and shook her hand, all business as usual, but dropped it a few seconds later, like she had a contagious disease.
He glanced up when he saw Trey coming, but Dale spoke to Ambi, not him. “Amberina, what a surprise. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” His tone indicated that by pleasure, he meant the exact opposite.
Trey hurried to interject. He sensed the imminent disaster looming in the air. This was not how he imagined the party going. He imagined finding Ambi the minute he walked in, romancing her with a few drinks, sitting down to dinner with her, then slow dancing her right into his bed by the end of the evening.
Not only had she managed to evade him for the entire evening, now his father showed up to ruin everything.
“I should have known that Trey would hire you, given your current profession. You’ve done an excellent job, I must say.” Dale glanced his way. “If you have any designs on a future though, I would leave it at the party, my dear.”
Ambi’s face turned a brilliant shade of scarlet. Trey gulped hard. How could his father stand there and say something like that? Outright threaten her. What did that even mean, anyway? How far was he willing to take it to keep them apart?
“Uh- Dale- you should probably head down. You have to give a speech in ten minutes.” Trey’s eyes flicked to his father. He never called him dad when anyone else was within hearing distance. He barely called him dad at all. It felt like a long time since Dale had actually acted like a father.
Of course, his father wanted to save face. He was too diplomatic to admit that there was no speech planned. Instead, he turned to Trey and decided to completely reduce him to ash on the spot.
“If you’re going to throw away everything, we’ve worked so hard for, do it for the right reasons. Do it because you’re thinking straight and not because you’re being duped by a pretty face. Beauty doesn’t last. A name and a legacy, that lasts forever. Don’t taint yours by being stupid.”
“Um… I’m kind of right here,” Ambi mumbled. If it was possible, the red tinting her cheeks deepened to an even darker shade of scarlet. She was wearing an expression somewhere between hurt and disbelief that Dale would again, so casually and blatantly assume that she was only there for the money.
He realized his own face was probably also a brilliant shade of red. “I am thinking clearly.”
“She won’t take you without the money. She’s only here because of what you can give her,” Dale spluttered.
“That true?” Trey’s brow shot up. “Ambi? Did you know my family had money when you started dating me back in college?”
“N-no,” she stammered. She clearly didn’t want to be involved in the discussion. She’d somehow found herself trapped between father and son, dragged into a conversation that should never be taking place. It was happening, even if she didn’t want to participate.
“There’s always the possibility that it’s not the entire truth,” Dale pressed.
“It doesn’t matter!” Trey stepped up to shield Ambi from his father’s harsh gaze. “We are not having this discussion right now.”
“You do that then son. You make whatever decision you want. Just make sure it’s the right one.” Dale didn’t wait around. He let those ominous words swirling in the air as he turned and stalked off, descending the stairs quickly to once again become king of the empire he’d created. He might as well have told Trey that if he picked Ambi, he’d be dead to him. Cut off. Finished. That was the impression he left, lingering between them like a terrible stench.
Ambi turned and walked to the railing. She stood there, her shoulders straight, her bearing regal, but her knuckles stark white. Trey stepped up beside her. He leaned into her periphery. He watched her blink rapidly. She was so perfect, so gentle, so everything. He wanted to put the pad of his thumb underneath her eyelashes to wipe away the tears before they spilled, but he didn’t dare touch her.
“I can’t do this,” she breathed. She turned to him slowly, her eyes pools of misty anguish. “You’re perfect, Trey. Really. All that you ever were, are, will be… it doesn’t belong to me. Six months in college and a few stolen moments over the past few weeks isn’t enough for me to demand all of you. If you’re not happy at your job and you don’t give a shit about the money, that’s one thing. Breaking with all that’s left of your family is another. That would be a mistake and I can’t let you make it. I don’t want you to regret me. Ever.”
No. No, no, no, no! He couldn’t let her do it. He couldn’t let her walk away from him again. “What do you mean you can’t do this? You can do this. You can do anything, Ambi. He’ll come around. He was just being ridiculous. My father flies off the handle all the time.”
“No. No, not about this. I don’t think he will, Trey.”
“Don’t say that! You don’t know. With time…”
She finally turned to look at him, even though it had to hurt. It hurt him. It hurt everywhere. His chest. His stomach. His legs, his feet, his hands, his head. Most of all, it hurt his heart.
“We’re different people.” Ambi started in on the usual break up shit, but one look at his face and her voice thinned out. “It never would work. Ever. It’s not you. It’s not even me. It’s just this. All of it. Our lives. Our worlds. They don’t belong together. We’re like two opposing forces. Like hot and cold air and when we mix, all we create is this massive tornado of destruction. I can’t let you throw away your relationship with your dad. He’s the only parent you have left. I know you’d regret it. If you lost what little family you have, just to be with me. It isn’t right, Trey. It’s never going to be right. Hurting people to be with me is never going to make you happy and it’s not going to make me happy either. We’ll just end up a sullen mess.”
Trey’s felt his face harden. He was fighting it, doing battle against the destruction he was bringing down on both of them. He was shattering. So was she. They were watching each other do it, doing it to themselves, trading stab wounds with their words, and neither of them could stop the bleed out.
Wounds could be stitched, but it was true. Throwing away his family would be like nicking an artery and bleeding out. Ambi was too good to let him do that. Fast or slow, it would be agonizing and painful and she just couldn’t do that to him.
“I love my mom,” Ambi breathed. “She’s all I have left. It’s always been just us. I could never give her up. I know it’s just you and your dad. I know you don’
t have the best relationship. I know that he works too much and you feel like he hasn’t been there for you and that he feels like he lost all the good things in life when your mom died, but you still have each other. You just need to figure out a way to get through to him. Repairing that is far more important than us being together. We don’t even know that it would work. Given that half of marriages fail and that’s just stats- god knows about the rest of the mess for everyone else, the odds aren’t good. I wouldn’t hedge your bets on us.”
“That’s not what I’d be doing.” Trey’s jaw ticked. Ambi noticed, but he couldn’t make it stop. “Life isn’t about bets. It’s not about rolling the dice. It’s about making a decision and sticking with it. Growing and changing with someone else. Putting in the time and the effort.”
She swallowed thickly. She obviously didn’t expect him to be so persistent and that cut. He hadn’t fought for her before. He needed to now. She obviously wanted to save him from himself.
“Trey, real life relationships are messy. They’re not about quoting self-help books and thinking that’s going to work. It’s not. We are not meant to be together. We never were. We wouldn’t work out. Our emotions are all over the place. We don’t fit together.”
“I can think of more than a few ways that we fit together,” Trey edged.
“That’s not funny.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be. I didn’t just mean physically. We work. We’ve always worked.”
She raised her head. She looked him in the eye as she dug her knife in deep. Her words were the only weapon she had left.
“Trey, you’re the sun. You’re also the shadow. It feels like when you look at me that you bathe my heart in this golden light. You taught me what it was to feel. To really fall. You were the first guy I ever loved. Hanging on to some romantic, nostalgic memory though- that isn’t love. It isn’t anything but a fantasy and that’s all we’re ever going to be. Just because our bodies fit together and we might fit in- in other ways, doesn’t mean it’s enough.”