Thirteen

by Scarlett Finn

  “Do you want me to talk to Noel? About us?”

  The offer seemed to startle her. “You would do that?”

  Should he be afraid? “Sure,” Oak said, but peered closer. “He’s not going to bust my balls, is he?”

  Still stunned, she blinked a bunch of times. “I have no idea.”

  To him, the offer wasn’t all the way out there, and he had to explain his reasoning. “If the guy’s important to you and you need him to help you with what you’re going through then he’s going to be a big part of my life too. I should have a relationship with the man, at least so he can be reassured that I’m not some sexual predator forcing you to go further than you’re happy to.”

  “I don’t think he’s pissed at you,” she said, moving in a step to touch his arm. “He’s pissed at me.”

  “Are therapists supposed to get pissed at their patients?”

  “We’ve known each other a long time,” she said, intriguing him with the new slant of her mouth. “Haven’t you learned that I’m not the easiest woman to get along with?”

  The tilt of her chin and the thrust of her breasts distracted him from the point. Bending, he let his face hover above hers. “I’m learning that there are strategies to dealing with you.”

  “Hmm,” she purred, angling her body so that her breasts pushed into him. She trailed a fingertip up his bicep. “I guess that’s where you have an advantage over Noel.”

  “What’s that?”

  Blinking sultry eyes up at him, she caught her lower lip in her teeth. “There are strategies open to you that aren’t open to any other man on the planet.”

  Damn. That was hot and… yep… he was hard. That was the first admission she’d made that was even close to acknowledging a relationship between them and he’d take it.

  “You think our six minutes are up?” he asked.

  She needed this. Needed him to tease her, to play with the confident sassy woman who got her through the tough times. Oak didn’t know how he knew it, but he did read an appreciation behind the heat in her gaze, one that approved of him taking her lead.

  “I haven’t heard a bell, have you?”

  “Thought Pavlov needed a bell before he started to drool,” he said, tilting his head to bring his mouth closer to hers.

  This was his woman, standing there with her head loose as she gazed up at him with those keen, tapered eyes.

  “Want me to ring mine for you?” she murmured.

  Dipping lower, he pulled up the front of her dress and pushed her panties aside to rub slow circles around her clit. “This one?”

  “Mmm,” she managed to say while gripping his upper arm tight. “Do you like my bell?”

  Easing in, he kissed her slow. “I love your bell, Thirteen… She’s the only one Pavlov hears.”

  “Will he drool for me, Oh?”

  Brushing his lips up and down on hers, he nodded and asked, “Oh?”

  “When I come,” she panted as he let his fingertips quicken. “I… go from Oakley Orion to… to Oakley…” Curling her fist against his shoulder she brought it back to punch him lightly. “Damn.” Her eyes closed. She whimpered, moving her hips against the press of his fingers on her clit. “That feels good, Oak.”

  “When you come…” he prompted, kissing her again.

  “From Oakley, to Oak, to just… Oh!” Calling out the last word, he smiled and understood. “Thought I’d cut right to the finale.”

  Grabbing his shoulders, she bounced up into his arms and drove her tongue into his mouth. Oak lowered her to the bed, guiding her legs around him and loosening his own pants.

  “Now, Sweet, you did say you weren’t ready for this,” he teased as he plunged his fingers into her pussy.

  “Oh, fuck you,” she said and thrust her hands to his shoulders to push him over.

  Before Oak had even settled onto his back, she was climbing on top of him and sliding herself onto his dick. This was better than the last time she’d been on top. He wished that she was naked, but when he curled up and breathed against her throat, she moaned, and didn’t push him away.

  Kissing his way to the straps of her dress, he pulled them down and she didn’t object when he took both breasts in his hands and squeezed them together to sink his mouth into her cleavage.

  Although her eyes were closed, and her head was back, Evie reached behind him and slapped his left thigh. “Bend this knee, Oh,” she panted, and he did as she said.

  She lay down, managing to direct her own left leg under his so she was scissored against him. Her mouth opened way before she let out the long, groan of pleasure that came from grinding herself down on him at this new angle. Hugging one arm around his crooked knee, she dug her teeth into it, then let her head bow to press her forehead against his kneecap.

  Oak didn’t know what to do with himself, he’d never seen a woman in such rapture. She rubbed back and forth, then rose and got into a fast rhythm before slowing to grind and ride, keeping him right on the cusp of orgasm once, twice.

  “Fuck, Evie,” he said, clenching his teeth to hiss when she pulled back again right before he went off.

  She came though, more than once. He kept feeling the crush of her pussy around him, making him curse and crave his own release.

  “Your cock is amazing,” she said, hugging herself around his knee again, this time, she let her cheek rest on it as she blinked those blissed-out eyes at him through her amazing hair. Her hips were still moving, and her hand slid up under his shirt over his abs. “Let my pussy play with it.”

  Oak didn’t remember saying anything in response, but she grinned and unhooked her bra to toss it away across the room. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him forward and he had to crunch up, but he only got a few inches when she yelped and slapped a hand onto his chest, grabbing his shirt in one sure fist.

  “Oh,” she screamed out and he felt that squeeze around him again as her face fell to his knee.

  Her hand opened and she began to bounce again, this time it was too much for him to hold back. She squeezed him on her last decent, and he grabbed her waist, thrusting up into her hard, filling her up with the seed she’d wrung from him.

  But she wasn’t disappointed by his orgasm, she grinned and let herself flop over him. “You know what I just realized?” she asked, but didn’t move, she just kept her head there against his torso even as he drew her hair back from her damp forehead.

  “What, Sweet?”

  “This is your time too,” she said with mischief in her tone. Turning her head, she rested her chin on him. “You’re paying me to fuck you.”

  She didn’t look offended, in fact, she looked… happy. He shrugged. “You’re earning it. It’s worth it.”

  Climbing up him, she tucked her forearms between their chests and rested her legs between his. “I might get used to being your whore, Mr. Orion.”

  “As long as you only ring your bell for me, I might be ok with that.” He didn’t think she was a whore, but there would be a lot of games between them, especially in the bedroom. He’d adapt to whatever she needed. Pushing up, she climbed off him and he was immediately disappointed. “We could spend the day right here.”

  But she was already seeking out her bra. “Change your pants, I just came over them about ten times,” she said like it was no big deal. “You definitely need a shower.”

  Scooping up her bra, she put it on in record time, and then pulled up the straps of her dress, covering the fun times.

  “I want to spend more time with Thelma and Louise,” he said and loved that he made her grin, even if she did try to hide it from him.

  “Well I can’t leave them here for you,” she said, “and I have a job to do.”

  “You’re just going to leave me here? Spent and alone? I need my girls.”

  Pulling on her shoes, she did flash him a smile, then came over to drop one knee to the bed so she could lean over and kiss him quickly. “I’ll bring them to dinner with me,” she said, pushing his hair back from his forehead
to press her lips against it.

  The kiss was unexpected, quick, but… tender.

  He just managed to graze his fingertips on the outside of her knee before she took it from the bed. She was so soft; her skin was like velvet. Closing his eyes, he tried not to get himself turned on again.

  One thing was sure to kill that urge in him… he’d have to make a confession. “Thirteen, about dinner…”

  “Uh huh?” she asked, stopping in the doorway. “You don’t want me to come?”

  Now he got the chance to play on her words and he flashed a smile. “I love it when you come.”

  “Oak,” she said, angling her head left then right. “Tick, tock, what is it?”

  Taylor had said something about organizing the surprise that made him wonder, “Did you know they invited Lana here?”

  Evie gasped in a grin and rushed back to the bed. “She’s here? Did you meet her? Is she wonderful?”

  “Not as wonderful as you,” he said, hoping to ensure that she knew where his priorities were.

  “Oh, I know that,” she said and threw herself down on the bed on her chest. He stretched his arm toward her and she turned her cheek against the inside of his forearm. “You want to invite her to join us?”

  There were some games he wouldn’t play. Rolling toward her, Oak stroked her cheek. “No, I don’t. I’m yours. Only yours… I tried to tell her that we didn’t need her. Taylor got annoyed, said we’d talk about it at dinner. We’ll send her home and—”

  “No,” she said, rising to move closer and rest a hand on his chest. “You need to do this. It’s what’s right for MatchMate.”

  Catching the fall of her hair on his wrist, he held it up, admiring the way it shone in the sunlight. “Yeah, but we—”

  “You never intended to have sex with her,” she said. “So I’m not getting in the way of anything. If you end up thinking she’s your great love, I’ll back off, but—”

  “Evie,” he snapped, pissed that she would think he’d toss her aside.

  Making wide eye contact, she bowed lower, almost touching her nose to his. “Did you hear me say ‘but’? Will you let me finish, please?” He conceded with a single nod. “But,” she said, drawing out the word. “If we’re going to be an us, then us needs to belong to us. I can’t be the public face of anything, Oak. And if that’s what you need—”

  “I need you.”

  Snagging his lower lip in her teeth, she purred and rubbed her breasts on him. “Then you’re going to make me happy by doing what’s best for the company. You stick to the original plan and make your sister happy.”

  “My sister wants me to fall in love.”

  “Does she?” Evie murmured and dropped onto her side. Pinning his arm in place when she lay on him, she nestled against him, breathing in his ear before letting the tip of her tongue trace the outer shell. “Did she say with who?”

  He shivered. Evie was the most naturally gifted sexual person he’d ever met. She was practiced in the art of feigning attraction and confidence and had studied psychology. His woman knew how to reach inside him to grab his balls and his heart in the same fucking handful.

  Such a simple touch of that amazing tongue and his body reacted, then with those words that gave him permission to fall in love with her, she seduced his mind.

  “Evie—”

  Lunging over, he intended to scoop her body beneath his, but she laughed and dodged, rolling away to the edge of the bed in the same move, meaning all he grabbed was an armful of empty air.

  “Don’t lead Lana on,” she said, wriggling that body as she ran her hands down her dress to straighten it out. “You make sure she knows this is a business arrangement. Be polite, be a gentleman. I don’t doubt what you said about making a commitment to me. Protecting her heart, that’s your priority… I don’t want to get into a cat fight, I always win, and it makes me look like a bitch when they start bleeding and blubbing… and it plays havoc with my cuticles.”

  Propping his temple on his fist, he smiled. “You’d fight for me?”

  Narrowing her eyes, she got suspicious. “Are you thinking about jello and bikinis?”

  Scanning her figure, he made a show of adjusting his slacks. “Bikinis optional.”

  Cupping her breasts, she bowed toward him to give him a cleavage view. “I’ll make you a deal. You don’t play us off each other and I’ll let you put jello anywhere you want.”

  Tempting as her cleavage was, he needed her to know he was serious. “I won’t play anyone. I’ve never strung two women along at the same time. That’s why I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

  “You’re not stringing two women along. She’s business and I’m…”

  When she didn’t finish, he leaned back to show her his raised brows. “What are you?”

  But Evie was too good at saying only as much as she wanted to because she winked. “Not business.” No, she was not. Heat began to build in the air again and he knew she felt it because she began to walk backward to the door. “I have work to do.”

  Scoffing, he teased by deriding himself, “Just tell that boss of yours where to get off.”

  Widening her curled lips, she tipped forward again and raised her chin to draw a line from her throat down into her cleavage. “How about right here, sir?”

  “Come back to bed and we’ll negotiate. I think I’ll be able to raise you a few inches. That smart mouth looks like a good spot.”

  “Later, lover.”

  After drawing the tip of her tongue the width of her upper lip, she puckered her lips, and blew him a kiss. But as soon as she spun around, she stopped, just in the doorway. Taking his head from his fist, Oak worried something was wrong and when she turned back to look at him, there was a serious expression on her face, a hurt one… a fearful one.

  “Evie?”

  Her lips moved in silent words as she drew in a breath. “Taylor… I—”

  He smiled. “It would be my honor to share my sister with you.” When he thought about this statement, he squinted. She laughed. “Let’s pretend I said that in a nicer way.”

  “Yeah, ‘cause if you won’t share Lana with me, we probably shouldn’t jump straight into the sibling thing.”

  He shuddered. “Evie,” he said, his grossed-out tone giving her the signal that he couldn’t even joke about that.

  With a quick salute, she took a step back. “You are a kind, sweet man, Oakley Orion. But don’t you worry, I’ll fuck that out of you fast.”

  And then she was gone. He heard her in the living room probably gathering her things and then the suite door opened and closed.

  Falling onto his back, he covered his face with both hands.

  Damn.

  He had a girl.

  He was committed.

  When his arms spread wide on the bed, he was grinning. Thank fuck Evie Dewar had come into his life.

  eleven

  Dinner was delicious.

  Now they were enjoying the after-dinner entertainment.

  The light and airy dining room they’d eaten in on the first night was upstairs in the lobby; it was a happy, open place. This dining room was in the basement, it was dark, and reserved for those in the hotel who had booths at the convention, so it was cramped. But there was space for a dancefloor and they were being looked after, so Evie couldn’t complain.

  The tables were long and narrow, only about two feet wide, enough for two plates and two glasses to face each other, but there was a set menu, so serving was quick and easy. They’d be in this room every night, at the same table, so Evie was confident she’d get used to it.

  Everyone was facing the stage in front of the dancefloor where there was a guy doing a stand-up routine. He was good. Not hilarious, but earning a few laughs. He’d just moved onto doing magic tricks. Hmm, an interesting combination. Maybe it was his plan to screw them up on purpose, was he a comedian or a magician?

  Evie was content. She was seated beside Taylor and opposite Oak who had Lana beside him. He
hadn’t been all that happy about his position, but he’d have to interact with his patsy eventually.

  Evie and Oak were at the end of the table, which meant they could steal the occasional glance at each other whenever Taylor and Lana were occupied. It was weird to share such an intimate secret, but thrilling too.

  Distracted by the sheen on Taylor’s hair, Evie combed her fingers through it. Taylor didn’t even glance all the way around, just turned her head enough to confirm that Evie was the one touching her before she went back to watching the comic.

  Evie ran her fingers through the ends of Taylor’s hair until the motion of Oak picking up his beer bottle made her glance in his direction, that was when she found him watching her. Why was he watching her and not the guy on stage who was being paid to entertain the room?

  But when Evie recognized the source of that darkness formed by his hooded brow, she smiled.

  Ah, so that’s what he was thinking.

  He wanted her.

  Sliding her shoe off, Evie extended her leg to let her toe skim up the inside of his calf. One of the good things about such a narrow table was that with a slight slouch, she could stretch her toes out and press them to his cock in his slacks.

  Oak’s attention dropped, and he pulled his chair further in until his torso was against the edge of the table, covering what she was doing from anyone who walked by or looked, and giving her greater access to him.

  The hand that wasn’t clasping his beer bottle went under the table and he took hold of her foot, pushing her into him; his thickness grew and hardened. Oh, wow, he wasn’t shy about rubbing her foot up and down against him.

  Her own heart responded by speeding up. Evie licked her lips, keeping her eyes on his as she twisted away from Taylor’s hair and laid all her attention on him, joining the first foot with the second.

  “Unzip,” she mouthed. The corner of his mouth tilted as he took another drink of his beer, using it as cover to shake his head. Pouting, she folded her arms, emphasizing her disappointment. “Please.”