Mad About You: A Box Set

by Pamela Ann

  “Oh, Serena, you’re back,” Margery greeted me with a beaming smile before directing her gaze towards the woman next to her. “Ivy’s here to check on me. Isn’t that sweet of her?”

  “It is,” I commented politely. “Hello, Ivy.”

  “Serena,” she quipped back with a strained smile, teary-eyed. “It’s lovely to see you again. I’m sure you’ve heard about Cruz and the broken engagement. I’m trying to get used to my new life, but it’s been such a hardship.”

  “I—I’m really sorry to hear that.” I was stammering like the guilty idiot I was. If she only knew the reason Cruz had left her, she wouldn’t even dare talk to me, let alone look at me without disdain.

  She tried to compose herself with another shaky smile. “I ought to go. It was pleasant to see you again, Margery,” she said before nodding towards me. “You, too, Serena.” She bid us both good-byes as we watched her leave.

  Once she was gone, Margery touched her chest and released a sigh. “I sure do hope my son stops carousing or whatever it is that he’s up to and marries that poor woman. She’s beside herself. I never imagined Cruz would do such a thing. He has always been so gallant, a man who was true to his word. Let’s pray that this could quite possibly be just an awful case of cold feet.”

  Guilt ate at me, and I couldn’t stand it, so I excused myself to go to my room and unwind before dinner.

  My mood took a nosedive from then on. I was battling between desire and doing the right thing. Even if I stopped this liaison with Cruz, it didn’t guarantee he would mend his relationship with Ivy. Cruz was unpredictable. He and God were the only ones who truly knew what went on in that beautiful head of his. Besides, since I was already addicted to Cruz and his sexual prowess, it would be tough to separate from him right after it had begun. It was shameless, and yet there was no turning back from what had transpired between us. I was stuck with it until we decide to go our separate ways.

  At dinner, it was a pleasant surprise to finally see Archer’s presence. He seemed a bit more off than usual, but it was palpable to anyone with eyes that he was still somewhat hungover and maybe a little drunk. Although I was concerned for him, this was his normal, hard-partying ways, and I doubted anyone could stop him except himself.

  Margery, of course, fawned over her youngest and made sure he got everything he wanted, which wasn’t much. Apart from iced water and cappuccino, Archer didn’t have any desire to eat.

  I could easily see the difference between how Margery treated Archer compared to Cruz. With the oldest, she was straightforward and didn’t fawn over him like she was with Archer. She still treated him like he was a baby in dire need of cooing and wooing. While Archer played and partied the night and day away, Cruz was busy running their business, making sure everything was going smoothly. It was crazy, but I suddenly realized I felt protective of Cruz. It must have been hard to see your own mother show more love towards your other sibling. My parents had never displayed favoritism between Grace and me, and I would forever be grateful for that. I could only imagine the insecurity and whatever else that could root from that.

  After dinner, Archer tried to cajole me into go swimming with him. Seeing the state that he was in, though, I declined. It would have been fun, but after how Saturday had unfolded, I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where Archer would perceive my acceptance to something more than what it was. Besides, I wanted to indulge myself in a long, hot bath after today. I was sore in places I hadn’t even known existed.

  Sex with Aaron was vanilla compared to the kind I was getting from Cruz. I got what everyone was saying now, so thank goodness for Cruz.

  The next day at work, I waited for Cruz’s return from an emergency meeting out of town, but it took longer than expected, so it was a letdown that I didn’t get to see him. I was so looking forward to seeing how he was after yesterday, even though the parting was a little strained for my liking.

  The same thing happened the next day. He got caught up with contracts in Scotland and would be staying overnight. To say I was having major Cruz withdrawals was an understatement.

  When Friday rolled in, I was in high spirits, knowing full well he was going to be in the office. I had made sure to check his calendar. Given that he would be spending a lot of time in calls and meetings, he would be on the same floor as me, and that pleased me to no end.

  Though guilt still weighed heavily on me, I had learned to cope by telling myself there were certain things in life that were out of my control. Cruz had pushed me and only came to me after he had broken things off with her. I just needed to learn how to deal with it.

  While my conscience suffered, it didn’t negate the fact that I still managed to dress as he had requested. It was a cream-colored, A-line dress that went just above the knee, formal and demure enough to be worn in the office.

  My upbeat mood lasted until right before everyone took their lunch when I witnessed a stunning redhead enter his office. She wore all white, impeccably dressed and alluringly sexy. My bitch radar was on high alert. From then on, my eyes were practically glued to the clock on my desktop, counting down the time. The unnamed woman was there for over an hour.

  What did they have to talk about? I worried as I watched the time tick away. Each passing second was like a nail into my coffin. The comparison might be on the extreme, but it was how I felt, and damn him for making me go through such crushing jealousy.

  It seemed like I had waited forever for her to emerge from Cruz’s office. When she came out, there was a victorious smile pasted on her face as she strutted down the hallway, readying to leave through the elevators. I couldn’t stop staring at her while feeling my heart slam hard against my chest, clearly troubled.

  If I didn’t see him right at that moment, I would very well lose it. If he was busy doing something, he had better spare me a minute or two, or I would do something I might end up regretting.

  My mind was dead set on interrogating him, never mind the fact that I didn’t have the authority or the right to do such a thing. I couldn’t care less. Jealousy was a rotten thing, and it was eating me stupid. There was no better explanation than that.

  Swiping my sweaty palms on the sides of my dress, I briskly strode towards his office. What I planned to do the moment I saw Cruz … Well, that was yet to be determined.

  It was rude not to knock, but I couldn’t control myself from exploding, so I just barged in there like a damn lieutenant, meaning to bark for some immediate answers. When I got in there, however, I was greeted with the sight of him in the bathroom with the door barely cracked open while he thoroughly washed his hands.

  For what insane reason did he have to do that? He didn’t have sex, did he? He might have felt the need to simply clean them like normal people would, but if he did have sex… Then there was that fucking stupid smile that woman had on her face that insinuated she’d had the yummiest cake for dessert… Fuck! Cruz wouldn’t, or would he?

  On the verge of serious outburst, I marched across the room and into the bathroom, unceremoniously pushing the door open, surprising the bejesus out of him.

  “Please don’t tell me you fucked that woman here, in this office, while I was working nearby!” My eyes wildly flashed at him, sending daggers, hell, and all of its deadly accouterments as I held nothing back in my tone.

  After biding his time by washing his hands, he took another lengthy moment to dry them off while he avoided my furious glare.

  “You sound as if you’re jealous, Serena. Try to be careful, my sweet, or I might take it as if you want to be my girlfriend.”

  “Did you or didn’t you?” I was a loose cannon, and there was no stopping me. “Because, if you did …” My heart began to ache so badly I had to pause for a second. “Because, if you had sex with her, then I don’t want anyone’s sloppy seconds. I’d rather fuck someone else.”

  Swiftly, in a whirlwind of motions, I found myself staring into the mirror with my navel against the sink while Cruz was behind me with both of
his hands planted on each of my sides, grabbing the edge of the sink.

  “Do you remember what you said to me, Serena?”

  I could not.

  “Let me remind you …” he supplied with blatant disappointment. “You told me that you wanted sex and nothing else, so why in the bloody Hell are you acting like a shrieking banshee?”

  Red hair. The strut. And the shit-eating-grin. Yes, I was definitely seeing red. Every. Fucking. Where.

  “Do you want someone else, Cruz?” I asked, past caring about anything else but this damn question and his answer.

  He bristled after realizing I wasn’t going to drop the subject until I got what I had come for. “Why are you so bent on getting an answer?”

  He was answering my question with a question, a total douchebag move.

  “I’m not going to ask you again, and if you choose not to answer me, then I’ll just walk away from you and all this bullshit.”

  I gave him a few minutes to break the deafening sound of silence before I carefully exhaled then yanked the door open so I could exit the bathroom. Then I felt his hands pull me towards him, which made me lose grip of the handle and inadvertently slam the door shut.

  Much to my chagrin, he situated me just like before—with us both facing the mirror while he was right behind me, looming like a dark cloud about to pour a mighty storm.

  “Did you really come here to interrogate me … or for this?” he grunted in my ear as his hand cupped my breast before squeezing it hard.

  My body immediately shivered from the pain and pleasure it brought me. Regardless, my anger hadn’t subsided. I wasn’t willing to give this up without a fight.

  “Stop touching me!” I protested with conviction. “I don’t want your filthy hands on me after you’ve had that bitch all over you!” I was trying to use my body weight to push against him so he would free me, but he was so strong my effort was to no avail.

  All my protest and whimpering didn’t waver his determination. My body weakened against his as I felt him place his hand on my ass before it snaked past my thigh and between my legs, slightly parting them then hastily pushing my thong aside and unsuspectingly sticking his finger in my pussy, which made me moan and groan at the same time.

  “Do you want another man in here, Serena?” he growled low and hungrily before he brushed his teeth against the side of my ear. “Do you yearn for another man’s cock in this tight fucking cunt?”

  Sweet as sin …

  I should be mad as hell, and I was, but I was also turned on beyond measure. For some sick, twisted reason, this display of possession made me ache deeply for him.

  “Look at me, damn you! Bloody look at me!” he hissed, and I lifted my eyes to the mirror and met his steely gaze. “Tell me what you want.”

  I shook my head, unwilling to bend to his will. Maybe it was more about me being too ashamed to admit his power over my mind and body.

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” he asserted before he daringly stuck his tongue out and ran the tip of it along my shoulder blade, running it up my neck before it reached my earlobe where he playfully sucked. “Since you’re depriving me of the answer, my sweet Serena, I’ll simply give you the courtesy of showing you.”

  His relentless finger was joined by another, mercilessly fucking me, which made me buck forward as the intensity built inside of me.

  I gripped the sink handles, holding on for my dear life, heavily panting and out of my mind from the pleasure of my rapidly building orgasm. I almost screamed when I unexpectedly felt his rigid cock plunge into me when I least expected it.

  “This is what you came in here for. This is what got you so hellishly bent,” he bellowed, and I was beyond saving myself.

  Chapter 85

  Cruz

  I

  don’t want you like this, not after her … not like this,” she moaned. However, her luscious bottom protruding hungrily, begging for my cock to keep plunging into her, blatantly stated otherwise.

  I was consumed by this endless need to possess her, and the more she objected, the worse it got. It wasn’t technically about pride or ego, but something much more severe. What that was exactly, I couldn’t be sure.

  All I could comprehend as of that moment was I needed to have her, or I would go mental. I had vowed to wait until Sunday and had tried to make excuses to go out of my way to avoid seeing her, but when she had marched in here, dressed to sexually stimulate me and looking as if she was ready to be at my beck and call, I couldn’t bloody resist.

  “Feel me inside of you.”

  Her drenched cunt felt sublime. It gripped my cock like a vice every time I slid out. As much as I loved the feeling of her, I knew the sex wouldn’t have this effect on me if it weren’t for the woman herself. There was just something about Serena: the way she walked, how her smile could mesmerize any hot-blooded man, how she laughed at her own expense, the beautiful way she looked at me when thoughtful. It was like I was the most enthralling thing she had set her eyes upon. She simply made me feel things, things that felt so foreign to my well-organized life.

  Her threatening to walk away after she shook my world upside down was a despicable thing to even consider.

  “You’re mine, Serena. I won’t allow another man to have you,” I breathed out with fervent conviction. “You’re mine and that’s that.”

  The statement held true to my heart. There was no way I was going to lose her. I would fight her tooth and nail if she threatened to walk away again.

  It wasn’t long until she and I reached our release, and just like the first time, it shook me to the core. The rational side of me ought to ponder what could result from such affairs, but I was too shaken, maybe even a little disturbed, to take a moment to reflect on it.

  Watching her carefully in the mirror, my eyes grazed her tinted cheeks and how her green eyes seemed at bliss.

  “Why …?” she trailed off, hesitating. “I mean, why don’t you ever come inside me anymore? That’s the second time that’s happened, and I’ve begged you not to pull out.”

  Had I granted her request twice, I wouldn’t be able to control myself. It felt too overpowering, as if it meant to unman me, and I wasn’t prepared for that. No man would unless, of course, she was willing to be mine and not just for sexual purposes, but to be exclusively with me and not because I could arouse her sexually.

  Don’t get me wrong; our sexual compatibility was off the charts unbelievable, but I needed more than that. I wanted to possess the woman beneath the beauty and striking body. Her soul, her mind … I saw the woman underneath it all, and clearly, she wasn’t ready for that. Until then, we could simply dance around this madness. Though I wasn’t too pleased about it, I had no choice other than to work around it, or I would lose her altogether to my lothario of a brother or to some hopeless chap.

  “In due time, but not today,” I said nonchalantly, walking away to clean up.

  “It’s because you already fucked someone else today, so our sex wasn’t all that special; is that it?” She folded her arms, clearly infuriated.

  There was no doubt in my mind that she was ticked off. Instead of focusing on what she was saying, I was more engrossed in watching her face come alive with emotions. She was furious, and she had no idea how endearingly bewitching she looked.

  Drawing my mind back to her accusation, I wasn’t sure if she was jealous or simply angrily repulsed that she had come after someone else. She was giving me mixed signals, and I loathed not knowing what she was thinking.

  Emotions were such fickle subjects to observe, and the last thing I deserved was to have my good intentions being mocked. As a result, it was best to appear indifferent. That way, I could secure my sanity whilst protecting my pride at the same time.

  “Why ask such questions that would surely complicate things between us, Serena?”

  She growled before reaching for a hand towel and irately throwing it at me. “I complicate things by asking important questions? Go fuck off, Cruz
!” she lashed out before harrumphing out of the bathroom then outwards, possibly back to her desk to curse the living daylights of me.

  I was maddeningly, hopelessly crazy for her, yet she didn’t seem to believe me. She had reservations; I was well aware of it, but would it be difficult to give me a chance instead of blocking this phenomenon that was developing between us?

  I had fought her in the beginning and irrevocably lost. She must know where I stood. I had risked everything. I was all hers. All she simply had to do was claim me.

  There was no way I was able to privately speak to her the next day because she was adamant not to be around the areas in the building where she knew I was. Even my refreshments were delivered by a newly minted intern. I could have stretched my power just to see how far she would bend to please me, but I wasn’t that much of a bastard. I knew she was still reeling from yesterday’s nonsensical upheaval.

  I could have sat her down after we shagged and asked her to voice out what her concerns were, and I could have easily provided all of the answers she was looking for. However, she and I were at odds, and this constant, greedy need not to lose this bloody war she had silently waged against me was wreaking havoc with my very existence. Therefore, I decided to keep still, steadying myself even though I was in turmoil each time I saw her.

  One of us needed to give in, but until then, we would keep on with this madness. Simply put, I was waiting for her to come to me, no holds barred, unbidden, and with no artifice or hidden agenda.

  Just her…

  Just Serena.

  Chapter 86

  C

  ould you possibly dare look at how gorgeously sexy I am in this blasted outfit? The price is outrageous, but I’m rather inclined!” Nessa twirled before me in delight.

  The strappy lace number screamed her, so I was wondering why she bothered even asking me. The woman had impeccable style in a badass, rock chic way. I admired her edginess and unapologetic attitude.