by J. D. Fox
My body shivered; I needed him more than I needed air. I would burn to a cinder in this bed if I couldn’t have him and I could not, not now or ever. Damn him for his stolen kisses which taught me the meaning of soul-shattering.
I let my hand stray to the tender flesh between my legs once again and remembered each second that man had held me in his arms and let my fingers stroke my fraught and heated flesh. I was shattered and stripped bare to my core, and the fire at my center wass a pounding pulse I couldn’t deny. I came again, electricity ripping through me relentlessly, leaving me sweating in the sheets.
My wild emotions shocked me, and I could get no comfort from the warmth engulfing my heart when I think of Sam Palmer. Because eventually, I would have to chase these feelings away for my own sanity, and I would have a great passion to haunt me for the rest of my life.
Chapter Fourteen
Sam
As I lay tossing in my bed. I couldn’t get the taste of Talia’s mouth or the feel of her body against mine out of my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about her sexy scent, or the seductive voice that sings like music in my ears. Oh, I’ve had my interests and my crushes, but this all consuming interest in a woman is not me. It takes all my willpower not to go to Talia’s room and throw myself and my heart upon her mercy. I have it bad for Talia Winton, and it is glorious and terrifying at the same time.
I heard Lucius enter the suite. It had to be him because my father was in his room drinking my bourbon and no one else had a key to the suite. The loud clink of his keys and plop of his wallet on the tablet by the door made me suspect that he wanted me to know he’d arrived. But my brother was the last person I wanted to speak to.
I hadn’t expected Lucius tonight, and I was not ready to face him. That he’d arrived early shouldn’t have surprised me, because he’d spent three days away from Talia and I didn’t know how he could stand it. If Talia were mine, I wouldn’t stay away from her for a single day. And this thought alone is enough drive me over the deep end. I’ve lusted for women before, but this is beyond an over-the-top, take-no-prisoners passion that consumes me.
When Talia had stood close to me in this suite, I’d lost it. If she hadn’t had enough sense for the both of us I would have taken her into my bedroom regardless of the circumstances. In the haze my ache for Talia, I hadn’t cared a damn bit about my brother, my position in the company, or how I would soon blow apart the reputation I’d worked so very hard to build.
I’m a smart man, but all these things churning in my gut are beyond parsing. It’s not easy to grow up in the shadow of an irresponsible scoundrel like my brother. He was such an obvious disappointment to my father that I never dared do a single to mirror Lucius’s behavior. Plus, the family watched me like a hawk to make sure I didn’t take after him. If I strayed a single millimeter from the straight and narrow, I would catch the brunt of unfavorable opinions.
Because Lucius did not care what other people thought, no one bothered to tell him where he went wrong. They did, however, give me stern lectures if I so much as mislaid my homework. These people were mostly my ever-loving aunts, who’d felt duty bound to help raise me since my mother’s death. They considered Lucius spoiled since his mother had never been able to say “no” to him, making him a lost cause. And though I reaped the benefits of the favored son status, which was entirely unfair to Lucius, I didn’t get the benefit of committing my own sins.
That was unfair, too.
A little sin might be good for my soul, though in the back of my mind I recognized this as a clear indication that I’m at a breaking point. Either I leave the hotel and go back to Boston, or find alone time with Talia. And thinking of kissing Talia was hot enough to scorch my soul, being alone with her was an invitation to irredeemable damnation.
Since I’m ready to RSVP “yes” to the invitation of sin with my brother’s fiancé, I definitely did not want to talk to him tonight. I was tired and it was too late to examine my perfidy in the over-bright lighting of a hotel room two thousand miles from home.
I heard cupboards open and close.
“Did Dad come in? And where’s the whiskey?” Lucius called from the next room.
Bastard. Leave me alone.
He had the nerve to push open my carelessly half-shut bedroom door.
“Sam?”
“Fuck off. I’m sleeping.”
Liar, liar, what’s that fire in my gut?
“At ten at night? What crawled up your butt to make you so cranky? When did you become Dudley Do-Right?”
When you turned into Snidely Whiplash.
I sat up and turned the nightstand lamp on, wincing when the sudden bright light exposed the man who would betray his brother. Lucius stood in the doorway and gazed at me, perfectly innocent of the idea that I would steal what was his, if only she would let me.
“I’m still on Boston time, so it feels like midnight to me. And yes, Dad came in tonight. He’s in his suite. Why don’t you go say hello to him?”
Lucius scoffed and his expression turned sour. “Why should I?”
I clung to the one hope that would save me from conversation with my brother. God, what was wrong with me that I was so ready to send my brother chasing after what I knew was his vice to hide my own?
“Because he has my whiskey.”
“Oh, that’s why it’s MIA.”
Dad has a good reason to drink. I bit back my sarcastic response because it was not a helpful, even if accurate, comment.
“It’s not MIA. It just moved to a different beachhead. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my Z’s.”
“Sure, sure. How was the ride with Talia?”
Well, Lucius, I drove the entire way with a raging hard-on while I thought about the different ways I wanted to fuck your fiancé. But hey, don’t worry. Though I’d jump her in a hot second she has the good sense to put me in my place.
“Fine,” I said. Why won’t he leave me alone? My patience swirled a circle around the figurative drain. “Why don’t you check in on her?” Let his fiancé put up with his late night ramblings.
“I already did. The poor woman was exhausted. And she wasn’t clear about how she hurt her toe, but I got her some ice for it. And she told me about breakfast in the morning.”
See how classy she was? Talia could have ratted on me with good reason, but she hadn’t. Who couldn’t appreciate a woman like that? She would take care of own business and didn’t need Lucius to fight her battles for her.
“Great. See you then.”
“Just what is your problem? We’ve barely seen each other since you arrived.”
“Okay then. If you want to hang out, you can tell how your business meeting went.”
He gave a long sigh. “Is that all you can talk about? The business?”
Well, asshole, considering that I’ve come across the country to investigate the mess you’ve created— yes, that’s what I want to talk about.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk,” I said.
Lucius scoffed again. “Fine. I can tell when I’m not wanted.”
Oh, for heaven’s sake. “That’s not what I meant.”
But Lucius left before I could finish the sentence and the door to my roomclicked shut. Great. Fine. Let the asshole stew.
He was going to Talia’s room right now to slide into bed with her. Lucius would hold her tight and tell her how beautiful she is, just like I wanted to with all my heart.
And I want to kill him for it.
In my twenty-eight years, I’ve never experienced the all-consuming jealousy that now ripped at my heart. I’m angry at Lucius for having what I want, and appalled, ashamed of myself for wanting what my brother has. It’s a sick, violent emotion, and maybe that’s why clerics of various faiths exhort us not to “covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Oh, but I do covet, as my hardened dick between my legs can attest. It throbs with wild need, urgent and demanding, and I take it in hand to satisfy the feral thing. But every salacious fantasy which ha
s fueled previous jack-off sessions fizzles and dies unholy deaths at the frantic slide of my hand on my weeping cock.
Oh, holy fuck. It’s not like I haven’t had my share of beautiful, willing women or sexual adventures, any of which could fuel any man’s fantasies. Ultimately, it was only Talia’s face and body that takes me from a frustrating plateau to release, coating my hands and chest with my spend. But, frustratingly, it is not enough; I want her hot body against mine. With a resigned sigh, I head to the shower and shiver under freezing water to calm the fire that ravages my body.
This is insanity.
After the shower, I get between my sheets and will myself to sleep before the cold shriveled beast between my legs could awake and drive me to madness again.
I should not have given Dad my whiskey.
The sharp mountain sun poked through the glass and pierced my eyelids. But I didn’t turn over or cover my head with a pillow because my dick was hard again, and I’d had enough. It was still early, so I decided to work off my excess energy at the gym instead of using my hand again. After dressing in sweats and a tee, I walked along the carpeted corridor to the elevator. I couldn’t help myself— shamefully, I passed by Talia’s door and glanced at it, thinking about those two tangled in the sheets. My stomach burned as the images of Lucius holding Talia blink in my mind like a tawdry neon sign in the dangerous part of town. The sooner I get to the gym, the better.
I bounced my fist on my thigh on the way down to the first floor and found no one else in the hallways. I walked past the gift shop, spotted some casual clothes and thought it wouldn’t hurt to get comfortable. It was turning out to be a long weekend and I’d only brought one pair of black jeans. I put that in my mental to-do list and slid making love to Talia out of it. Stubbornly, however, it moved back in like a word that you change but autocorrect stubbornly changes back to its electronically preconceived form.
The sooner I got back to Boston, the better.
I began my workout on the treadmill and my feet pounded the moving belt at an ever-increasing pace as I notched the speed higher. Adrenaline coursed through me; not from the physical activity, but rather from the obsessive thoughts about Talia that refused to vacate my mind. My heart thudded in time with the relentless rhythm of my steps, and sweat beaded my brow and other, less convenient parts of my body. Normally I would feel good in pushing myself, but now it just felt like a futile attempt to derail what I really wanted.
With a frustrated huff, I pushed back and jumped off the treadmill, turning toward the shower area to find a towel. Water beating the floor from another guest taking a shower told me I wasn’t not alone. But hey, it’s just a shower.
But then I heard it.
A female voice uttering low moans.
“Oh yeah, baby. Do you like that?”
I swallowed hard. I did not need to hear a couple making it in the shower, so I turned to leave without finding a towel.
“Oh, Lucius,” moaned a woman.
My head swiveled immediately toward the voices. Lucius and Talia here? Banging it out in the shower?
I couldn’t see anything, because an enameled tiled wall separated the entrance to the bathroom from the showers. And beyond that, the showers all sat enclosed in stalls. But the acoustics of the room left no room for speculation.
“I’m going to fuck you hard. So hard you’ll scream and everyone will hear.”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly.
Lucius grunted, and I imagined those grunts accompanied by a hard thrust, paired with her rising crescendo of wanton moans. My dick hardens immediately and I should go. This was none of my business, except that the bastard had made fucking Talia everyone’s business by doing it here. I’m impossibly angry and aroused, and I couldn’t move as the lovers panted and groaned with the water sliding down their bodies. And the visual in my head was so intense, with Lucius holding her against the wall, her sharply legs wrapped around his waist, that my cock beads precum without me touching it.
This is wrong. I need to leave. Now.
But I was a deer in the headlights. I stayed and listened, torturing myself with the siren’s song of Talia’s passion and I couldn’t breathe.
“Lucius,” she groaned in a guttural voice. I could not imagine Talia making such a sound but it was damned sexy.
Lucius gave one long grunt and then gasped.
They were done. And so was I.
I was finished with this fantasy that Talia wanted me. No woman made love with that much gusto if she didn’t love a man, and Talia obviously loved Lucius.
After breakfast with my father, Lucius, and Talia, I’d take my leave. I was sure that I could come up with some company emergency that would take me back to Boston. But one thing I could not do was stand there at Lucius’s side as his best man and watch him marry Talia.
Though a gift shop employee had since turned the key to the glass door of the shop, I do not stop and make the purchases I planned. I wasn’t staying, and therefor didn’t need new clothes. Plenty of designer rags hung in my walk-in closet at home.
I stalked through the halls of this hotel that I’d spent nearly every winter vacation and some summer ones in, and the once welcoming walls felt violated. I wasn’t sure I could ever return.
With a true streak of masochism I stepped out onto the tiered courtyard that faced Aspen mountain and thought about the skiing trips, and other good times I spent at this home away from home.
“Goodbye,” I said to the mountain.
But in the manner of mountains everywhere, it had nothing to say to me. This peak was over three hundred million years old. Why would it pay attention to a singular man who’d only existed for less than a second of its life?
Having hardened my heart, I headed back to my room to get ready for breakfast. I dressed in an unseasonal charcoal grey suit, cream-colored shirt and a cranberry paisley tie. I also forewent my usual silk boxers in favor of regular tighty-whities. There is no sense in adding to my torture with the slide of silk against my sensitive parts.
I will act calm, polite and happy for my brother and his fiancé. They will never know how I feel, from now until the end of my life. I smiled at myself grimly in the mirror as I tied my tie. This was who I was; Sam Palmer, corporate executive. I had no time for mad passions or blowing up my life because I foolishly thought I was in love with Talia Winton.
But anger niggled at heart, and I was so ticked off that I tied my tie in a double Windsor and pulled it as tight as a hangman’s noose. I didn’t know what was worse—wanting Talia or keeping my distance from her. Either way was torture.
So when I stepped out of the hallway and saw Talia leaving her room, I steeled my heart and tried to ignore her. I wouldn’t look at her enticing rear, or the curves of her hips and waist making a perfect hourglass figure, or her long hair laying glossy and shiny on her shoulders. She’s calm and collected as she strolls toward the elevators, and definitely doesn’t look like she just had hot monkey sex in the public showers.
And I wondered how she could get her hair so perfectly dry after getting thoroughly drenched.
But then, women had their wicked ways, didn’t they?
Chapter Fifteen
Talia
Saturday, 7:45 AM MST
My heart took off like a race car and my mouth ran desert dry when I heard a door clicking shut behind me. Contrary to Lucius’s word last night, he hadn’t shown up this morning to escort me to breakfast. And it was not Lucius’s cologne behind me. When his distinctive scent wafted down the hallway to me, I knew it was Sam. How was I going to get through this day? How could I sit in a day full of meetings without melting like hot sugar in front of him? Last night was hell. I couldn’t sleep at all as thoughts of his hot kisses ran through my head like a Greek orgy, and I was sure it showed on my face. Now I had a full day of who-knows-what with Sam Palmer, front and center, ahead of me.
But I made a decision. This was a work weekend, and I would handle my duties here just as I would
in Denver. I would act the professional I am, and not give any of my coworkers reason to think I was here for any reason other than to work. The whole fake fiancé thing was unfortunate, but I’d get past that. I couldn’t and wouldn’t destroy two years of hard work just because I’d developed a little crush on one of my bosses.
I couldn’t avoid it. Sam entered the elevator behind me and his eyes swept over me. But curiously, he just turned to face the elevator door and his face became an unreadable mask.
“Good morning, Mr. Palmer,” I said. Mom had always said that it doesn’t hurt to go formal when you speak to someone whose position you’re unsure of.
“Good morning, Miss Winton. How’s your toe?”
He might have said, “looks like rain today,” as casually as he spoke.
“It’s just a smidgeon sore, but I can wear my heels.”
“Yes, I see,” Sam said dryly, in his weather-discussing tone; it annoyed me. Last night he was all over me, behaving as if he had to have me. Today, he was acting like he barely knew me. So Lucius was right. The guy was a player, and when I hadn’t given him what he wanted, I no longer interested him.
Men.
That didn’t stop me from having a fantasy here and now of Sam Palmer pressing me against the elevator walls and having his way with me. His proximity made it all too easy to think of his strong hands caressing my breasts and ass. Or thinking of his hot mouth on my nipples, sucking them to the point of pain before releasing them with a pop. No, I could definitely see myself releasing his black leather belt and unzipping his slacks to find the prize within. I’d stroke his big, hard member and watch his face as he closed his eyes and murmured my name over and over. The man got me so hot that I’d already creamed my panties, and I was sure that the scent of my desire now filled this small space. My heart thundered in my chest and I was sure he must hear it. But he didn’t. He was looking at his phone, totally unconcerned that his very presence threatened to give me the most prodigious case of lady blue balls ever.
