Pretend For Me

by Laurent, River

  I loved this. I couldn’t get enough. She’d just come here, dumping whatever else she’d had planned for the day, to run down to my office and offer herself up to me like this… if that didn’t make her the perfect wife, then I had no idea what did.

  I fucked her frantically, feeling my body begin to arch towards the release I had been craving so intently since I woke up this morning. It was strange. In the past when I was in this kind of mood, I would call up a willing woman from my little black book, hook up with her, and get it out of my system. But I knew, clear as anything, that it wouldn’t work like that as long as I was with Willow.

  I was addicted to her. Only she would do for me. That itch wouldn’t have been scratched until I had her just like this, until I’d filled her and watched her face contort as she—

  "I’m coming,” she cried out.

  Her pussy clenched hard around my cock. The sudden sensation of her body giving in to mine was all I needed to push me over the edge. In time with her, I found my own release, my body exploding with pleasure as I held myself deep inside her.

  Trembling, she practically crashed forward on to the desk, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words to speak in the face of what we had just done.

  I ran my fingers over her neck, her shoulders, her back, watching as she shivered beneath my touch. Would I ever grow tired of this?

  I couldn’t see a way I ever could...

  I withdrew from her slowly, reluctantly, not wanting to have to send her away and get back to work, but knowing I had no choice.

  "I can’t... I’ve never done something like that before..." she whispered when she regained the power of her voice

  I pulled my finger out of her ass, cleaned it, and sliding around to my seat, I pulled her onto my lap, letting her plant herself there, so she could catch her breath. Leaning in, I nuzzled my nose into her neck and inhaled the intoxicatingly sweet scent of her arousal.

  “Do you have to get back to work now?” she purred in my ear, as she ground her pussy on my slowly hardening dick.

  "Jesus, I can’t get enough of you," I growled.

  She giggled. “And you haven’t punished me yet.”

  “No, I haven’t, have I?” I said wryly.

  She turned her head so she could kiss me and I got the feeling that it would indeed, be awhile before I got back to work.

  Chapter 18

  Willow

  I’d just climbed out of the bathtub when I heard the doorbell ring. The housekeeper and cleaner had just left and I had been looking forward to a relaxing day by myself. With a sigh, I headed over to check who it was. I felt my stomach drop when I saw it was Austin, Gabe’s cousin on the screen.

  He stared straight into the camera.

  I drew back. I knew that he knew I was in and I didn’t want to give him the impression I was afraid of him.

  Thank God for these video screens.

  I headed over to the intercom, glad I would have an excuse to simply brush him off. Gabe wasn’t around this afternoon, and I felt sure Austin just wanted to bust in and spend another few minutes trying to guilt him about some contract or other. Pressing the button, I spoke into the speaker. "Hi, Austin. Gabe’s not here at the moment, but he’s probably going to be back in a couple of hours if you want to—"

  "Willow?”

  "Yeah," I replied, a little thrown by the confidence and certainty in his voice.

  "It’s actually you that I want to talk to," he said looking up into the camera above the door. His eyes seemed to cut straight through mine and I felt a shiver run down my spine. I didn’t like where this was going, but it wasn’t like I could pretend I wasn’t in now since I had answered the phone. I just had to suck it up and deal with it. "I’m just out of the shower, I need to get dressed," I explained, trying to keep my voice firm.

  "No worries I’ll come up and wait for you by the front door," he replied quickly and more firmly than I had sounded.

  “Right. Give me a minute.” I let go of the intercom button.

  Cursing and swearing, I buzzed him in. I should have been able to find a way out of it. I should have – hell, I should have been able to brush him off or something, but I just didn’t know how I was meant to get him out of here. He was supposed to be family now, at least in theory...

  I got dressed quickly, throwing on some jeans and an old comfortable shirt then pulling my hair up in a style that kept it out of my face. Taking a deep breath, I gathered myself as best I could before I opened the door to him. I’d felt a hell of a lot safer confronting him when Gabe had been there by my side to support me. In fact, I always felt safer when he was around.

  "Come in," I invited, hoping he couldn’t read the panic in my voice.

  He narrowed his eyes at me and brushed past me over the threshold, into the apartment.

  I followed him into the sitting room. He seemed very confident. He behaved as if he owned the place. I watched him walk up to the black sofa where Gabe and I had sex last night and sit down.

  "Willow. That’s a really unique name, you know that? Not many people in this city are called Willow."

  "Yeah?" I murmured, shifting from foot to foot nervously as I waited for him to get to his point. It was obvious he had one and he was taking his time to get to it.

  "So it made it pretty easy to do some research on you," he continued in a totally friendly voice.

  I frowned.

  "See, I thought you must have been another one of the bimbos in his little black book.”

  Something in my expression made him grin. “Didn’t know about that did you? Well, Gabe has this little address book. He’s too lazy to date so when he gets horny, he calls one of them and they come over and fuck.”

  “I hope you have a point.”

  “Yeah, I have a point. Anyway, I thought the slippery bastard had conned one of them into marrying him to steal the business from under me, but one look at you and I knew a girl like you would never be in his book.” He made a vague movement with his hand. “Wrong shape, not enough hair bleach, and too many brain cells. The two of you don’t really move in the same circles, now, do you?"

  "I don’t know what you’re talking about," I replied, pulling myself up to my full height and sliding my eyes away from his. "We met, we fell in love. Sure, it was quick, but when you know, you know.”

  "I wouldn’t know," he replied, coolly. "All I know is that the two of you lived pretty different lives until he goes to see my grandfather’s solicitor and hears about the marriage stipulation... you do know about that, don’t you?" He looked me up and down.

  I felt a heat begin to run up my cheeks. I didn’t want him to think he was unsettling me, that he was right about this, but he was onto me. “Look, I don’t know what you are getting at, but I suggest you stop right now. If you think Gabe has done something wrong, take it up with him. Now get out of my apartment.”

  "You worked as a waitress before this, I believe?" he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. "Not making a lot of money, from what I could see. Lived in a bad end of town with a roommate..."

  "How dare you invade my privacy!”

  "You’d be amazed at all the information that’s out there on public record," he replied coolly. "It’s not hard to find out a whole lot about anyone these days. A whole lot that says to me you had pretty good motivation for wanting to accept an offer of marriage from someone in Gabe’s position..."

  "If you’re calling me a gold-digger—"

  "Hey, I didn’t say that, you did," he replied, smirking infuriatingly.

  I clenched my fists at my sides.

  He gestured up and down the outfit I was wearing. "I’m just saying, take a look at you," he remarked. "I don’t know if you’ve ever met any of the women Gabe has been with before, but you’re not exactly... you’re pretty far out of his mold, let’s put it like that."

  "There’s a lot more to Gabe than you know," I countered, furious now.

  "Willow, I’ve known him my whole life," he repl
ied condescendingly. "I know him better than almost anyone, certainly better than some chick who spread her legs for a payout. There’s a name for women who engage in that activity..."

  "I’m going to ask you one last time to leave," I replied, biting back my fury. I wanted to punch him in the face, and kick him out the door. He was far too close to the truth for my liking and I didn’t want to have to defend myself any further than I already had.

  "I’m just trying to give you some fair warning," he explained, as though he was doing me a huge favor. "Gabe’s... well, I don’t want to say slumming it, but..." He gestured at my outfit again.

  I had just quickly thrown on what was comfortable and now, I felt distinctly uncomfortable knowing he was looking at me and seeing some half-assed wreck of a woman. These were just the clothes I had worn almost every day when I’d been living back in my real life, but they weren’t anything close to what was expected now that I was married to a man of Gabe’s stature. "If you really think he’s slumming it with me," I replied, trying to keep my head. "Then you should go speak to him about that. It’s not my concern."

  "So you’re really saying that the two of you are just crazy in love?” he sneered.

  I clenched my fists tighter, my nails digging into the palms of my hands. If I could have gotten away with slapping him right then, I would have, but I knew he would have just taken that as his point proven or worse, he might hit me back. Besides the last thing I wanted, was to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten under my skin.

  The contract I’d signed with Gabe meant I only had to stick by him as his wife for as long as it took to get the business signed over to him. It didn’t mention anything about launching myself at his asshole of a cousin over some shitty implications he was making. No, he wasn’t going to get me to lose my cool. All he had were suspicions and allegations. If he’d hoped to get me to confirm them, he had gone about it the wrong way.

  "Yes, I am," I replied and gestured to the door. "I think you should leave. Gabe will be back later, and I’m sure he’ll be very interested to hear everything you’ve had to say to me..."

  Austin’s face dropped and I knew I had made my point. He might have felt bold enough to come here, stand in front of me and say all this to my face, but there was no way in hell, he would do it all in front of Gabe. Gabe wouldn’t stand for it. I had to, because I was the woman and I had no choice but to play the demure wife who didn’t want to cause trouble.

  "Fine," he snapped. Turning on his heel, he marched out of the room. "I’ll see you later. But just know... I’m watching you. Closely. I have a feeling this charade won’t last too long. Gabe never was one to stick to one woman, especially not a low class slut like you."

  "I think you should focus on your own life for a change," I suggested curtly, not caring how rude I came off now. He deserved it. This guy had walked into my house and basically told me that my marriage was a sham. Sure, he was right, but that didn’t mean what he was doing wasn’t way out of line.

  "And I think you should keep an eye on that husband of yours," he replied as he headed for the door. "Because he is one slippery customer. Past history is a good indicator of future behavior. He’ll do to you what he did to me. Cheat you out of whatever he promised you.”

  "Goodbye, Austin," I replied tiredly. I opened the door for him and hustled him out of the apartment. As soon as I was alone again, I felt my body sag. Yes, I had pretended to be very strong in front of Austin, but his words were swirling around in my brain. Round and round. Confusing me and making me feel insecure and afraid.

  Was he right?

  Was Gabe really slumming it with me?

  Did he tire of women easily?

  Would he start sleeping around while I waited for him here alone?

  The world I’d lived in before I met Gabe was so far removed from this one that it almost felt as though the two of them couldn’t exist in the same city, at the same time. Yet, they did and they do now. My reality and his reality, all wrapped up together.

  But for how long?

  It was at that moment when I had to accept a simple fact— I was beginning to really fall for this guy. I knew the last thing I needed was to let my heart get broken by a dude who couldn’t have been more upfront about what he wanted from me, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. There wasn’t a thing I could do to change the way I felt about him. How foolish would I feel if I took the money and spent the rest of my life mooning pathetically over this man?

  Having said this, neither of us could deny the fact that there was chemistry there, serious chemistry. We had something that burned bright, strong and intense, more intense than anything I’d shared with anyone else before.

  When we came together, it felt like the ground was moving beneath us, tectonic plates sliding out of place, earthquakes rocking the two worlds we both inhabited. Something existed there, no matter if it was a contract that brought us together, no matter if Austin had begun to figure out our dirty little secret. I knew I would be with him with or without a contact. Even if there were no money involved.

  The problem was… would he choose to be with me if he didn’t have to fulfill the terms of his grandfather’s will?

  Chapter 19

  Gabe

  "Are you sure about this?” Willow asked again nervously, as she leaned against the limo waiting to take us to the airport.

  "For the last time, I’m certain.” I took her hand and squeezed it. "I want you there. Besides, you’re my wife. It would be pretty weird if you just skipped out on this, huh?”

  "I guess so," she agreed and managed a smile.

  She’d been a little off the last few days, as though something was bothering her, but I hadn’t for the life of me been able to get it out of her. I figured she would tell me in her own time, and in the meantime, the best I could do was make sure she had a great time on this trip we were taking together.

  It was a business trip out of the state, heading out to a conference on the other side of the country, normally the kind of thing I would have been bored out of my mind by. But the thought of taking her on our very first trip was incredibly exciting, and I was already running through all the ways we could have a very different kind of fun.

  The sex had been incredible from the start, maybe because we knew how taboo it was to go down that path, but it had only gotten better and better with every passing day. We learned to explore one another’s bodies, learned the intricacies of what turned us on, and what made it impossible to resist one another.

  Hell, I could hardly keep my hands off her whenever we were at home alone together. Then every time we went out, I was bursting in my pants on the ride home. I felt pretty sure some of the staff were beginning to catch on to what was happening, but it was hard to give a damn when I was having such a good time playing with my dear wife in such thrilling ways.

  In fact, sometimes I thought being married switched up the intensity between us. It was one thing to have dirty, desperate sex with Willow. It was quite another to know I was doing it with my wife. My wife. The man who’d never given getting married a moment’s thought. When she tipped her head back on top of me as she came, her hands planted on my chest, her ring would glint in the light, and I would smile to myself knowing that was my brand.

  She was mine.

  I’d made sure Tina had called ahead to make sure the room we were getting in the hotel was up to my standards. I wanted Willow to have the best of everything. I found myself thrilled at the thought of being able to share my world with her. Most of the women I’d been with moved in this kind of lifestyle and acted in a blasé way to show their sophistication, but it seemed like every corner I turned with Willow was a revelation to her.

  Most of the time she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

  "So, how long is the flight?" Willow asked as the car pulled away.

  "No more than few hours, but it really won’t feel like that at all, I promise."

  "I’ve never flown anywhere before,"
she blurted out suddenly.

  I raised my eyebrows at her. "Really?”

  "Really," she admitted. "I’m a bit nervous about it, actually. I know you must fly everywhere all the time, but the thought of being that far up in the sky..."

  "Don’t worry," I murmured wickedly. "I’ll make sure to find a way to distract you."

  She grinned and snuggled into me gratefully.

  I wondered if I should break the news to her now. No, I would wait until we were there, until I could show her what I was talking about in person. She would love it I was sure.

  I almost couldn’t wait to see her expression.

  We arrived at the airport and the car cut straight through the parking lot then headed around the back, onto the private airstrip.

  She glanced over at me, clearly more than a little confused. "What’s going on? Aren’t we going to the airport?”

  I pointed across the tarmac to a small, compact private jet. "That’s for us.”

  "You have a private plane?” she gasped, stunned.

  I nodded. "I don’t use it as much as I should, but, yeah, I do.”

  "Wow!" she said slowly, then clapped her hand over her mouth and shook her head.

  "What is it?”

  Her beautiful eyes turned misty. "Nothing. It’s just…I never could have imagined this kind of life for me. Not in a million years. I was born addicted to heroin. My mother didn’t want me, and for all of my childhood, I was shunted from foster home to foster home. Nothing bad happened to me. Nobody abused me or acted inappropriately, but I was ignored. I was an ugly little thing, you see. Nobody loved me. All I was given were my basic needs, then I was left to my own devices. The only thing that made my life worth living was my books. And the fact that you can just...that you can just sweep me out here and take me on an adventure like this...I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell you how much it means to me."