The Right Man

by Mankin, Michelle

  “Climb off me, darlin’,” he said, his voice low.

  “Yes, of course.” I dismounted his thigh and righted my clothing, glaring at the tissues as if they were responsible for me breaking the rules.

  How long had it been since I’d found enjoyment with a man? Since the early days with Landon. And I’d never come with such abandon.

  My cheeks warmed as I dabbed at the evidence of Rush’s desire. The tissues didn’t improve the situation; they only made a stickier mess of things. What I needed was a sanitizing wipe. I had a package of them in my bag. It was part of being prepared, like noting the exits, having a cell phone, and maintaining a safe professional distance between me and my clients.

  I peered at Rush through my lashes as he stood and refastened his jeans, realizing that I didn’t want to be prepared or anything at all that went along with my professional persona. Not with him. Instead, I wanted to let go, to be the me I’d been before my life had taken a turn where I had to worry about practicality, escape routes, and maintaining control.

  “I’m gonna get cleaned up.” Rush’s hair hung down, shading his metallic gaze, but it didn’t reduce the intensity as he stared down at me. “You’re coming with me.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he reached out and plucked me right off the couch. With my upper arms locked in his firm grip, my feet hit the carpet, and I rocked on the heels of my stilettos. My uneven momentum carried me forward into him, and my palms landed on his rock-hard chest.

  Heat blazed beneath my fingertips as I stared up into his eyes and registered the smoothness of his tanned skin and the tensed strength beneath it. One time with him hadn’t been nearly enough. I wanted to do it again, and longed to take my time exploring and acquainting myself with every smooth, sculpted contour of his body. But before I could even think about acting upon that desire, he grabbed my hand.

  “Where are we going?” I asked as he tugged me along with him.

  “To the shower,” he said on the steps. “Like I told you.”

  “But . . .”

  “You wanna know if I’m fucking you in the shower?”

  “Yes, because my bag’s by the couch,” I said at the entrance to the hall. “It has the condoms.”

  “I have one in my pocket.”

  “Okay,” I managed to say before he shuffled me inside the bathroom. Caging me in from behind at the counter, he kicked the door shut behind him.

  “What are you doing?” In the mirror, my eyes widened as he bracketed me in from behind with his much larger body.

  “Getting the sticky off,” he said, his gaze on the sink. Not noticing my fear, he turned on the water and took both my hands, plunging them underneath the room-temperature flow.

  Breathless, I stuttered, “B-b-but can you please open the door?”

  My fingers clasped in his, I bucked like a skittish colt inside the pen of his unyielding arms. His reflected gaze lifted, meeting mine.

  “Oh shit. Hey.” He stroked my wet skin with his thumbs. “Shhh, baby. Settle down. I’m not gonna hurt you. Didn’t I stop earlier when you asked?”

  “Yes.” I cobbled together a placating smile. “Only . . .” I licked my lips. A memory of myself being backed into a corner by three large men blanked the reasonable part of my mind.

  “What’s wrong? Did someone force themselves on you?” His brows drew together.

  “Almost.” I swallowed to moisten my dry throat. “But my friend Cam stopped them.”

  “Them?” His expression hardened, and he tightened his fingers on mine. “Not cool.”

  “No. It wasn’t.”

  “This happen while you were working?”

  “No, before. When I was at the shelter.” But that didn’t stop me from being anxious every single time I got in a car with a stranger.

  “You homeless, Harley?” The crease between his brows deepened.

  “I was. I’m not anymore.” Not yet, at least. Not once I gave Wanda the money Rush had given me tonight.

  “Glad to hear that.” He pulled in a breath and let it out. “And good to know you have a friend looking out for you. But even though she’s not here with you, you don’t have to worry. You’re in control. Yeah?” His reflected eyes darkened in the mirror, and his expression seemed sincere. “Like before. You say stop, I stop. Okay?”

  I nodded and released a relieved breath.

  “I’ll just finish washing our hands, and then I’ll open the door. All right?”

  “Okay. So you still want to fuck me?” I asked, pretending I didn’t hear the plaintiveness in my tone.

  Our time was nearly up, and I needed to check in with Cam. But with Rush’s eyes on mine and his warm, solid presence behind me, I wasn’t overly motivated to leave.

  “Oh, hell yeah, I do.” His sexy lips curved. “Right here in front of this mirror. I wanna watch you take my cock and come again like you did before. That was a hell of a show.”

  “You liked that?” I asked, tilting my head. Most guys were happy with the one-sided deal with them getting all the attention.

  “You bet I did.” His gaze darkened, now a slate gray. “I want that every time I fuck you.”

  “But . . .”

  “But what?” His eyes narrowed as he opened the door and the alarm on my cell sounded in the other room. “What the fuck is that noise?”

  “The timer on my phone. Your hour’s up.” I swallowed. “I have to go.”

  “I didn’t get a whole hour.” He frowned. “We were talking. Not fucking.”

  “You agreed to the hour. You wanted to go slow. I started the timer when we sat down. I always do. It’s business. My friend will be expecting me to call her.” I tried to shrug as if I didn’t like being right where I was, and that it didn’t matter to me one way or the other that I had to go.

  “How much for the whole night?”

  My eyes widened. No one had ever asked for more than an hour. “I don’t know.”

  “Give me a number, Harley. What will it take to keep the timer off, and you focused on me and what we do together for the rest of the night?”

  “Forty-eight hundred,” I said after doing a quick calculation, starting with the eight hundred an hour and figuring there were roughly six hours left until morning. But basically, I just pulled the number straight out of the air, knowing he would never go for it. “Cash.”

  “Of course, cash. Done.” He didn’t even hesitate. “Now, how do we get this thing off?”

  Bracketing me in again, he reached around me. As his long, slim fingers unbuttoned the first button on my blouse, his silver ring reflected the vanity lights. My breath caught as he undid the few buttons that were left without stopping. When he finally slipped his hands inside the widening gap, his skin a warm glide against mine, my heart hammered.

  He watched me in the mirror, his breath coming faster. “I want to see those tits of yours again, baby, but I want you with me all the way again too, yeah?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Turned on, revved up like the Porsche when I give it gas.”

  “I was. I mean, I am.” I licked my dry lips.

  “You like me touching you?”

  He sucked in a breath as he framed and lifted my breasts in his hands, then skimmed his thumbs over the undersides. My breasts swelled within the cups of my bra and my nipples drew tight, the puckered tips pushing against the satin.

  “Yes, I like what you’re doing right now.” My lips parted as his thumbs swept higher.

  “What else do you like?”

  The hard edges of his thumbs brushed my aching nipples. Fiery pleasure shot through me, a bolt that zinged straight to my core and weakened my knees. Drawing in a sharp, needy breath, I leaned heavily into him.

  “I liked that,” I said, my voice coming out husky.

  “I could tell.” His lips curved with satisfaction.

  “I like your eyes. I like your mischievous smile too. It’s cute.”

  He scoffed at me. “I’m not cute.”

/>   “You are when you grin and your hair falls forward. You remind me of a bad little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.”

  “You have a strange fascination with cookies. We might need to analyze that later.” His tone was teasing. “But nothing about me is little, and I have something much better to feast on.” As he squeezed my breasts, his grin deepened. “You have experience with bad boys?”

  “Some.” They were part of my rebellious youth, like shooting my mouth off.

  “I like touching you and looking at you.” His gaze rose to meet mine in the mirror as he lifted my breasts.

  “I like . . .” I didn’t finish. It was too telling to reveal how much of a turn-on it was to be praised.

  “This needs to come off.” He withdrew his hands. “I need to see all of you.”

  He moved his hands, skimming my blouse over my shoulders. Down my arms it glided, his hands urging its quick removal.

  I lost his eyes for a moment, watching the white fabric flutter to the tile floor, but I quickly regained them—the silvery reflection of them, anyway. His actual focus was elsewhere. His fingers hot on the skin over my spine, I felt a release of tension beneath my breasts as he deftly unclasped my bra.

  “Gorgeous,” he said, staring at my breasts as he slid the bra straps down my arms, leaving me naked from the waist up.

  I didn’t watch the satin fall to the floor. My rapt attention was on his expression in the mirror, and the impact deep inside me of the approval I saw there.

  “Rush.” My voice was throaty, almost strangled, and he lifted his gaze to find me looking at him. “I need . . .” His hands. His touch. Us joined.

  “What do you need, baby?” The handsome planes of his face were drawn, but his eyes were smoldering. “This?”

  He framed my breasts in his large hands, awaiting my response. I shifted, arching to press them deeper into his hold while also backing my ass into his erection.

  “Yes, and I need us . . . I mean you.” I hastily corrected myself because there was no us. Only in the mirror, it seemed as though we were a couple.

  I liked the way we looked together. He was so handsome, golden-skinned where I was fair. Chiseled where I was curved. Hard where I was soft, and strong, and yet he was so careful in the way he touched me. He was as solicitous as a lover when he had been opening doors, honoring my requests, and a myriad of other things.

  “I need you too, darlin’.”

  I gasped as he flicked my taut nipples with his thumbs.

  “That feel good?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. But I don’t feel like being good right now.” Watching me closely, no hint of a smile, he drew his fingers in a slow, deliberate path around my nipples. The areolas pebbled. “I feel like being very bad with you, Harley.”

  I moaned softly when he swiped the aching points.

  “You wet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I’m hard.”

  “I know.” I rocked over him. His cock seemed to strain for me. “I can feel you.”

  “You like what you feel?”

  “Yes.” Earlier, his cock had felt like a hot velvet rod in my hand.

  “I like it too.” He lifted my breasts and flicked the nipples. “Prettiest tits I’ve ever seen.”

  I would have argued, but the way his gaze was fixed on them supported his statement. He pressed closer, his thighs unyielding. His steely cock prodded the cleft of my ass. More wet heat dampened my core as I imagined how good it would feel to have him inside me.

  “I want to touch you. Watch you while I fuck you. Would you like that?”

  “Yes.” That meant I got to watch him, see his eyes darken and his muscles tighten, see his expression as he slid his cock inside me.

  “Are you ready for me?” he asked.

  Keeping one breast to play with, he dove his other hand down the center of my body. I drew in a sharp breath as he skimmed my abdomen and then flipped up my skirt. A moan escaped that became a needy whimper as cupped my pussy in his capable hand.

  “Mmm.” My lips parted with pleasure as his skillful fingers glided over the silk of my panties, right to where I ached for them to be.

  “You’re soaked,” he said.

  “Yes, I’m ready. Please.”

  “You don’t have to beg, Harley.” Finding my clit, he lifted his gaze while pressing his thumb to the swollen nub.

  “That feels so good.” My lids fluttered as he strummed it, making me nearly incoherent with pleasure.

  “Just tell me what you want. I’ll give it to you.”

  “You.” I licked my lips, experiencing a full-body shudder from his touch. “Your cock inside me.”

  “I want that too, pretty girl. Badly.”

  He suddenly released my breast, using both his hands to yank my panties down my legs. My breath sputtering, I stepped out of them while he unbuttoned his jeans and lowered his boxer briefs. His engorged member sprang free. My eyes grew wide as I watched him roll on a condom.

  He caught my stare. “You’ve seen it before, babe.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t consider the size then . . .” I lost my train of thought as he traced his palm down my spine, gently but firmly encouraging me to bend.

  “Grab the counter, babe,” he said as he aligned himself. “Trust me. It’ll fit.”

  “If you say so.” I let out a broken moan as he glided his cock inside me.

  “Fuck.” He groaned when he was all the way in. His gaze in the mirror was as possessive as his grip on my hips as he withdrew slowly until only the blunt end remained, then plunged back inside.

  “That feel good?” His voice was gravelly and deep. His cock was deep too, filling me perfectly.

  “Yes.”

  “Feels so fucking good.”

  He pumped in and out, his strokes perfectly angled to increase my pleasure, and his grip on my hips tightened when he was completely inside me. Surrendering to him and the delectable sensations he evoked in me, I allowed my eyes to drift closed.

  “Keep them open,” he murmured.

  “All right.”

  Pulses of ecstasy shredded my thoughts as he stared at me in the mirror while thrusting in deep and pulling out in shallow glides.

  “You’re so hot, baby.” He thrust in. “So tight.” He withdrew. “So perfect.”

  As he praised me, my clit began to throb in time to his thrusts.

  “Harder, Rush. I need it. I need you, harder.” I gripped the counter.

  His next plunge was so hard, he lifted me off the heels of my stilettos onto the tips of my toes.

  “Yes, that’s it, darlin’.” He grunted his approval.

  His hips slapped my ass as his controlled thrusts became wildly erratic. I was filled with his thick length, filled so full. Pleasure, so much pleasure, rose within me. My scalp started to tingle, and I panted out each breath. His ragged breathing bathed the back of my neck with humidity. Mine fogged the mirror.

  “Name, babe. Give me your name.” His darkened gaze narrowed.

  “Jewel.”

  I never gave clients my name, but I was unprepared for him and this undeniable pleasure. It spiraled higher and hotter as he pumped into me.

  “Don’t stop!” I begged, then screamed as he drove in deep. “Yes, Rush!”

  It hit me then, bursting over me like a frenzied dance in a fiery rain.

  “Yes! Oh yes!” I unraveled without caution, my shield obliterated, my eyes wide open, and his there to see all of me.

  “Jewel . . .” He groaned. Stiffening, he buried his cock deep one last time and spilled himself inside me.

  Chapter 10

  * * *

  Rush

  I pretended I was shaving, but I was really watching her in the mirror while she had her turn in the shower. I’d tried to get her to shower with me, but when she made an excuse about not wanting to get her hair wet, I let it go. I found myself letting go of a lot of things when it came to her.

  Jewel . . . Even her na
me was amazing, and she’d knocked me completely on my ass.

  My jaw dropped as she shimmied and stepped out of her sequined skirt. It was the last item to go. The removal of the stilettos and fishnet stockings before that had been better than any strip show I’d ever seen.

  Fucking hell. I’d thought she was sexy in her clothes. Then I thought she was sexy half out of them. Then I decided I preferred her bent over the sink, climaxing around my cock.

  But now I had a new favorite.

  Totally naked.

  She closed the glass shower door and caught me staring. I grinned at her within my shaving-cream beard.

  “Fuck getting the hair wet.” My arrogance resurfaced. I had paid, after all. Why shouldn’t I get exactly what I wanted?

  And what I wanted was more of her.

  “I’m coming in with you.” I tossed the complimentary razor on the counter, swiped the hand towel across my jaw to remove the shaving cream, and spun around.

  “But my hair,” she said. “And we need condoms.”

  Yeah, she read my intent correctly. I wasn’t coming in to help her get clean. I was coming in to get dirty.

  “Rush.” She held up her hand, but that sparkly nail polish of hers wasn’t a mystical deterrent. “Wait.” Her eyes wide, she backed up as I stalked toward her.

  I had my hand on the twist of the towel around my waist when I heard a shrill bell ring.

  “What’s that?” she asked, her gaze sliding over my shoulder.

  “The doorbell,” I grumbled.

  “For a hotel room?” She frowned and took her bottom lip between her teeth.

  “Yeah.” The Chamberlain had them, one of the reasons the rooms here worked for me. “It’s Doyle.”

  I’d arranged for him to stop by. A built-in interruption at about the hour mark, just like her timer. I didn’t like my hotel hookups lingering too long.

  “Who?” She cocked her head.

  “The valet. I’ll get rid of him and be right back.”

  I kept a tight grip on the twist in the towel, a towel I was glad was thick cotton. It hid the boner I was sporting thanks to Jewel with those tempting eyes of hers, her blinding smile, and a strength to shield her vulnerability. Everything about her, including her name, threw me for a loop.