“What business do you have with an investment specialist?” Mom asked curiously. “You don’t have any money.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Jenna is helping me redecorate my daughter’s room,” Noah said. “And it’s going really well. We’re very happy with her work.”
I seized the opportunity to shift the subject away from me. “Noah’s daughter is applying to your school, Mom. Tess Clark is her name. Have you seen her application?”
“Oh, honey, you know we get so many—”
“You should keep an eye out for this one,” I said, cutting her off and flashing her a meaningful look. “She’s really bright and would be a great addition to your school.”
My mother regarded me for a moment. “All right,” she conceded. “Tess Clark.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you,” Noah said earnestly.
“I’ll keep an eye out. We may be able to fast track the application.”
“I’d sure appreciate that,” he said with a nod.
My mother gave me a long look, as if there was something more she wanted to say, but someone behind her laid a hand on her arm and she turned to look.
I grabbed Noah’s hand. “Come on.”
He didn’t resist as I pulled him out of the hotel ballroom and into the hallway. “That was ridiculous,” I fumed as soon as we’d escaped the noise. “I’m so sorry.”
“Are you okay?” he countered. “She really let you have it, didn’t she?”
“Oh, that was normal,” I scoffed, waving a hand dismissively.
“Seriously?”
“She’s never thought much of my work,” I revealed with a glance around us. “She wanted me to marry a wealthy man, like Jess did, or get a high-ranking corporate job. Or both, I guess. She says design is a hobby, not a way to actually make a living.”
Noah looked slightly outraged. “Doesn’t she know how good you are at it?”
“No,” I said. “I’ve offered to show her my portfolio, but she always blows me off. Says she’ll look at it later but never does.”
“I can’t imagine the strength it takes to continue reaching for your dreams without any support,” he said, his voice admiring.
“Of course you can,” I told him. “You’re raising Tess on your own, aren’t you?”
He sighed. “I never would have chosen that, though.”
I rested a hand on his arm. “I know. But when that was your only option, you stepped up. And you’re a great father to her.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I appreciate you saying so.”
“Do you feel like going back to the party?”
“Do you? It’s your family.”
“I’ve had about enough,” I said with a laugh. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’m ready to head up to bed.”
He nodded. “I’m glad we decided to book rooms. I’m in no state to drive home.”
“Too much champagne?”
“Maybe just a little.”
I felt pleasantly buzzed myself. In fact, when we boarded the elevator and the doors had shut, it took me a minute to realize the little car wouldn’t move until one of us pressed the button. I leaned in at the same time as Noah did and our hands touched.
Heat shot straight up the nerves in my hand along my arm and to my center. Oh, hell.
Our adjoining rooms were on the fourth floor. Noah had been holding the keys—my stupid dress had no pockets, of course—and now he fished mine out and handed it to me.
Our fingertips touched as I reached out to take it.
This time he didn’t let go
And suddenly we moved, lunging for each other, reaching for lips.
“My room?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
A dozen answers played through my head. We can’t. We promised to keep this professional. This was supposed to be a business arrangement. I should really just go to bed.
But I didn’t say any of those things.
I nodded. “God, yeah.”
Chapter 13
Noah
“Get this thing off,” I ordered, pulling at the end of the bow on Jenna’s dress.
“It doesn’t come off that way,” she giggled. “There’s a zipper.”
“Where?” I ran my hands up and down the back of the dress. It was perfectly smooth, seamless.
“It’s on the side,” she said. “Hang on.”
But I couldn’t hang on. I’d had enough. I scooped her up, dress and all, and tossed her onto the bed. She let out a little squeal as she landed, and I looked up at her to make sure she was all right. Her eyes shone with excitement and lust.
Perfect.
I shoved the skirt up, revealing miles of long, lean leg underneath. God, I could spend days right here, exploring her legs. They were runner’s legs, well-muscled, perfectly tan. I lifted one and kissed around the perimeter of her ankle and felt her shiver.
I couldn’t keep a smile off my face. This was going to be fun.
I slid my hands past her knees and up her thighs, under the line of her panties, and slowly eased them down. God, she was already wet, and we hadn’t done anything yet. Part of me—a big part of me—wanted to cut to the chase, climb up onto the bed, and take her.
But we had all night. There was no need to rush.
Jenna was fumbling with the zipper at the side of her dress, clearly anxious to shed the thing. I reached up and caught both her wrists in one hand. “Hold still.”
She gasped, tugging at my grip a little. “Noah—”
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked.
She hesitated, her eyes fixed on me. Then, slowly, she shook her head.
“That’s what I thought,” I said. With firmness, I added, “Keep your hands up over your head. Don’t touch your dress. If you do, I’ll stop what I’m doing. Do you understand?”
She nodded vigorously, her breath still coming in gasps. I held her gaze for a long moment, drinking in that look of excitement and apprehension.
I felt a moment of hesitation. Should I really be doing this? Had Jenna been the smart one when she’d resisted my advances, when she’d tried to remind me downstairs that we needed to keep our relationship professional? After all, I had a preteen daughter to think of, and she was going through troubled times. The last thing she needed was her father adding more complications to her already complicated life. She wasn’t yet over the loss of her mother. Neither of us were. It probably wouldn’t be easy for her to understand how I could still love and cherish her mother even though I was ready to move on.
But Tess didn’t really need to know about this. She knew I was at a wedding with Jenna. She knew we were friends who were beginning to see more of each other. That was as far as it needed to go, right?
I returned to her ankle, raising it to my lips, kissing my way around, and when I reached the inside of the ankle, I began to work my way up her lower leg. I felt her toes flex against my shoulder and knew she was enjoying herself. I forgot my worries as I reached her knee and flicked out my tongue to lick behind it, making her moan.
“God, I fucking love it when you do that,” I murmured, kissing my way up her thigh.
“Do—do what?”
“Moan like that. It’s so hot.” I placed my hands inside her knees and spread them apart, hiking her skirt up over her hips. “Fuck, Jenna.”
“Fuck me, Noah. Please,” she moaned, and I thought I might die.
It took everything in me to resist. But I’d be damned if we were going to skip to the main attraction this early. “No,” I said, looking up at her. “Not yet.” And I bent to taste her.
She arched her back, lifting her hips so her pussy was at my mouth, crying out as I suckled at her. I wrapped my arms around her thighs and lifted her hips, giving both of us a more satisfying angle. I lost myself in the taste of her and the sound of her moans, the sound of my name on her lips. I slid my hands up her thighs to push her legs further apart so I could lick inside her. One of her legs wrapped around the back of my shoulders and pull
ed me closer. I’d wondered whether she might be shy in bed, but now that we were going at it, she seemed to have abandoned any pretext of self-consciousness. She bucked against me, her moans quickly rising to the point of howls.
“Noah, please!” she cried, twisting beneath me, her hips working like a piston.
I pulled away. “Please what?”
She was a mess. Her face was red and her carefully pinned updo was falling. But her eyes captivated me. She looked wild, as if she might jump up, roll me over, and take her pleasure. For a moment I thought she was going to do it. But her hands were still above her head, right where I’d told her to keep them. I was amazed at her discipline.
“Please let me cum,” she whispered. “I need it. Please. You’re killing me.”
She was killing me. I’d never been so turned on in my life. I smiled at her. “You’ve earned it. But keep those hands where they are.”
She nodded. “I won’t move. I swear.”
I kept my eyes locked on hers as I lowered my mouth to her again. Her breathing accelerated before I even touched her. The anticipation was driving her crazy. It was driving me crazy too. God, I wanted to feel her cum. I wanted to know I had been responsible for it.
I slipped a finger inside her and set my tongue to work on her clit. A moment later she was grinding into my face, her hips moving in little circles, clenching around my finger. She let out a cry and bucked up hard. “Fuck, Noah, fuck, yes.”
I felt the ripple of her muscles, felt her whole body tremble as she came, and it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life. I very nearly came myself just watching her. As she recovered from her orgasm, I stayed between her legs, kissing her upper thighs gently and rubbing the trembling muscles there.
Gradually, her breathing evened out. She reached down and threaded a hand into my hair, petting gently.
I crawled up next to her and laid down beside her. “Do you know you’re insanely hot when you cum?”
She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her face, obviously embarrassed.
“Don’t.” I took her wrist in my hand and pulled it away. “Don’t hide. It’s just the truth. You’re gorgeous.”
She twisted her hand out of my grip and slid it slowly down my chest. “Seems like we ought to take care of you now.”
“You’re ready to keep going?”
“I’m very ready.”
“Good,” I said devilishly.
Her eyes widened. “What have you got planned?”
“You’ll see,” I said, grinning in a way I hoped seemed wickedly enticing. The truth was, I felt in over my head with Jenna. I’d had no problem getting Jenna off, but now I found myself hoping I didn’t disappoint her. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to.
Jenna sat up on the bed and began to wrestle with the zipper on the dress again. “I think it’s stuck.”
“Sit still.” I gripped the zipper tab between my fingers. I raised it slightly, unsticking it from the teeth, then lowered it carefully and smoothly down the side of her body to her hip. I ran my thumb along the patch of exposed skin. Then I took her by the hands and pulled her to her feet. The dress slipped off and pooled around her ankles.
She stood before me, unembarrassed. I thought she might be awkward now that I had her naked, but she didn’t seem to mind. She stood with her hands by her sides, regarding me, waiting to see what I would do next.
I couldn’t seem to do anything. All I could do was stare at her, taking in her remarkable beauty. The way her hair spilled around her shoulders messily and grazed the swell of her breasts. The way her lean torso curved out into perfectly proportioned hips. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her again.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” she said.
At least my pants weren’t constricting. I dropped them to my ankles and stepped out of them, peeled off my shirt without undoing any of the buttons, and took Jenna in my arms again.
“You have to fuck me now,” she whispered. “I’m going to lose my mind, Noah.”
“Me too.”
But I wasn’t ready yet. I captured her lips with mine, kissing her firmly, running my fingers through her hair and knocking free a few bobby pins that hadn’t quite worked their way out yet. I slid my hands along her sides and felt the smooth heat of her skin. She squirmed against me with every touch, and I knew I was driving her just as wild as I felt myself.
I turned her around and bent her over the little table in the corner, leaning over her so I could catch the weight of her breasts in my hands. I circled her nipples gently with my thumbs, trying to take it slow, but I was so fucking hard I could feel myself thrusting against her unconsciously. I closed my eyes briefly and rested my forehead against her shoulder blade.
And, finally, I entered her.
I felt her give way around me, pushing back onto me so she could take me deeper. I wrapped one arm around her torso to her shoulder and pulled her close. My other hand found its way between her legs as I began to thrust.
I meant to take it slow. I really did.
I meant to make it last.
But she rode me, meeting my rhythm with her own, her ass bouncing against my hips, her hands scrabbling for purchase on the smooth surface of the table so she could propel herself forward and back. My hand worked her faster, and she angled her hips in response, bringing me deeper, grinding harder against my fingers.
“God, Noah, just like that,” she moaned. “Don’t fucking stop. That’s perfect. Right there. Fuck.”
I couldn’t control myself any longer. I fucked her like a jackhammer, my careful rhythm gone, my hips bouncing against her as heat pooled in my groin. “Shit, Jenna—I’m gonna—”
But she got there before me. With a primal yell of release, she slammed herself into me and then collapsed forward onto the table. Three thrusts later, my own orgasm was upon me, and I groaned in exquisite pleasure and relief as I came, spilling myself deep inside her.
We recovered slowly. I took her hand without a word and led her to the shower, and we stood under the hot spray and soaped ourselves off. It was almost chaste. When we were finished, I lifted her in my arms and carried her back to bed. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and I followed soon after.
Chapter 14
Jenna
The sun shining through the window woke me up. The first thought I had was that the sun coming in didn’t make sense because I had definitely closed the curtain yesterday. That’s always the first thing I do when I check into a hotel room, for exactly this reason. I hate to be woken up by the early morning sun.
Then I heard a soft grumble. I looked down and saw a hand resting on my arm. I followed the hand up its own arm and back to its owner.
Noah.
Last night came rushing back to me all at once. God, that was the best sex I’d ever had...but it had been a mistake. I should never have allowed myself to get carried away like that.
Yet, how could I resist? Even in sleep, Noah was the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on. I was tempted to shake him awake and ask for a repeat of last night.
No. I needed to get out of here quickly, before I did something else I’d regret.
I slipped out from under his arm and started looking around the room for my clothes. My monster of a bridesmaid dress was practically standing up by itself on the floor. I didn’t see my underwear anywhere. Fuck it. I really didn’t have time to conduct an exhaustive search. I wanted to get out of there before Noah woke up. If he even looked at me, I’d lose my resolve and fuck him again.
And that made me hesitate. Was my gut telling me something my head should be listening to?
No, that was crazy. He was a client. I didn’t sleep with clients! If anyone ever heard I’d compromised myself like that, I’d never get a job again. And my claim against Josh would certainly lose some of its validity. Besides, I was focused on my career right now, on getting settled into Grandma Susie’s studio and building my business, not getting laid.
I�
��d brought a date to Jessica’s wedding. I’d held up my end of the agreement with my mother. Now she would have to give me the studio Grandma Susie had left me. The next stage in my career as a designer was about to begin.
I wasn’t going to lose sight of that over some guy. Even if he was the best lay of my life.
I grabbed a notepad from the desk beside the TV. Was this why hotels put these notepads here? Was it specifically geared toward women like me, sneaking out after one-night stands?
I bit down on the thought. That wasn’t the kind of person I was. This was an irregularity. A mistake. Nothing more.
Dear Noah
Thank you for being my date to my sister’s wedding. I know we made her happy, and what’s more, now my mother will release my inheritance to me. I’ll finally be able to have my own design studio. I hope you know how much your help means to me. I’ll make sure to circle back with her about Tess’s school.
Thanks again,
Jenna
I read over my note. It was trite and unconvincing, but it was the best I could do. I tore it from the pad, placed it on the table beside him, and let myself slowly out of the room.
“Jenna?”
Shit.
My mother was coming up the hall in a pink tracksuit, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “Where have you been?” she demanded. “Everyone’s having breakfast in the hotel restaurant before Jessica and Travis leave on their honeymoon. You should come join in.”
“I really just want to get home, Mom,” I said. “I have a meeting later with a client.” This was a complete fabrication, but the idea of sitting with my sister and her new husband right now was horrifying. Besides, I was still in last night’s bridesmaid dress.
A fact my mother seemed to have just noticed. “Where’s your tracksuit?” she asked. “All the other bridesmaids are wearing theirs.”
Just the fact that my sister had insisted that all her bridesmaids purchase purple morning-after tracksuits pretty much summed her up. “I forgot to pack it.” More lies. It was in my hotel room, the one Noah still had the key for. At this point I was ready to abandon all my overnight belongings in order to get out of here with minimal drama.
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