by K. A. Linde
“Good morning.” I couldn’t keep the smile from my face.
“Morning.” He leaned across the bed and pressed his lips against mine. My heart fluttered.
“Well, hello to you too.”
He grinned and kissed me again. “Up for round…what number were we on?”
I swatted at him. “I think I should check on Mel and Amy. And you should make some coffee.”
“Coffee I can do.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist and slid me across the bed. Totle grumbled and shifted to the end of the bed. I just laughed as Penn pinned me beneath him, dropping his face into my shoulder. His five o’clock shadow scratched against my skin, and his lips kissed the sensitive skin that he knew I was a sucker for.
“Penn, oh my god, if you keep doing that…”
“We’ll stay in bed all day?” he asked hopefully.
“Possibly,” I said on a laugh.
He slipped under the covers as he kissed and scratched his way down my stomach. I squirmed under his touch, enjoying every second.
He grabbed my panties in both hands. “How much do you like these?”
“I don’t have any more with me!” I cried.
He grinned devilishly and then shredded the underwear between his hands. I gasped in shock as my thong disappeared over the side of the bed.
“I cannot believe you just did that!”
“I’ll buy you more,” he said as he dragged his lips down my inner thigh. “And now, you have to go commando.”
“You’re the devil. Pure evil, Penn Kensington.”
He winked at me. “Now you’re getting it.”
He dropped his head between my thighs and squashed any further protest from my lips. His tongue swept across my clit, relentlessly teasing me. One finger and then another. In and out. My whimpers and pleading were just as passionate. The man was good with his hands.
Dear fucking god. How did he do that thing?
Fuck.
“Close?” he asked even though I was sure he knew.
“Yes,” I practically screamed at him.
“Good.”
He kissed my pussy one more time and lightly smacked my clit with the flat of his hand. I yelped at the shocking touch.
“That hurt!”
“Did it?” He arched an eyebrow. He slapped me one more time, and my whole body shuddered in pleasure. “That’s what I thought.”
He slid back up my body and kissed me. “Now you’ll be feeling me all day.” He hopped off the bed, leaving me completely exposed and a millimeter from orgasm.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked as he pulled boxers and jeans on over his erection.
“Making coffee,” he said innocently.
“If you do not finish the job, I’m going to.”
He left the jeans hanging on his hips and then moved back over to me. He slipped two fingers back inside me, and I moaned.
“Finish the job then.”
“What?” I gasped.
But his eyes were clear and intense. “You know how you like to get off. Show me how.”
Was he serious? I’d never masturbated for anyone before. I’d never even considered doing something like that.
He pumped in and out of me once. I was so dangerously close and teetering precariously, but he never let me fall off the edge.
“I want to watch, Natalie.”
I released the embarrassment I was sure I would have felt with anyone else. This was Penn. He was asking for this. It turned him on too. And god, did I want to get off right now. I liked everything else he’d done to me. Why shouldn’t I do this?
With a deep breath, I trailed my hand down my front until I reached my core. I wet my own finger, pressing against his still buried inside me. The touch alone made me shiver with need. Then I brought my wet finger to my clit and swirled it around and around. My breath came out in hot pants as everything in my body tightened. Then Penn began to move his fingers again.
“Oh, yes,” I groaned.
“That’s right. Get yourself off.”
And then my entire body contracted. My pussy pulsed greedily around his fingers, and a throb shuddered through me before I lay still, breathless.
“Sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he told me as he kissed me one more time. “I’ll get you that coffee now.”
With an uncontrollable smile, I watched him and Totle leave. I’d never met anyone like Penn. I’d never felt like this with anyone else. Not that I’d had bad sex with other partners, but nothing compared to this. I hadn’t been entirely adventurous in my past. Who knew what a big difference it was to have a guy who didn’t just accept the bare minimum?
With a sigh of contentment, I rolled off the bed, took a quick shower, and then headed out to the kitchen. I knotted my long silvery hair onto the top of my head and followed the scent of coffee brewing.
“Well,” Amy said from her seat at the breakfast bar. Her eyes were wide, and she rested her chin on the top of her hands. “How was your night?”
“Oh, shut up,” I said, pouring myself a cup of coffee.
“Or morning, for that matter,” she added with a chuckle.
I glanced around to look for Penn but didn’t see him anywhere.
“He’s walking Totle,” Amy told me.
“It was great. I took your advice.”
“Aha! So, the casual-sex line worked?”
“Wait, what? It wasn’t a line!”
Amy’s eyes rounded, and she nodded in mock understanding. “Yeah, sure.”
“I am going to just have casual sex with him. You’re the one who said to do this.”
“I know, but it’s totally a line.”
“Wait,” Melanie said, walking into the kitchen. “You and Penn?”
“Oh, yeah. I convinced her to use the casual-sex line.”
Melanie blinked. “That’s a line?”
Amy laughed and patted her head. “Have you been with anyone other than Michael?”
Melanie shifted. “Well, no.”
“Yeah, it’s a line. And it worked.” She turned back to look at me and winked. “You had some amazing sex.”
“But Penn is a great guy,” Melanie said. “He’s hot and charming with a great place and job. He knows all the good places to go in the city. And he even has a puppy. I mean, why would you want something casual with him? He’s, like, marriage material.”
My jaw dropped at Melanie’s profound statement. Of course, she didn’t have all the facts. She didn’t know about our history. Or how difficult this all would be if I caught feelings.
Amy snorted. “You are so cute and innocent, Mel.”
“We’re just casual. No strings. All that,” I insisted. “I didn’t use it as a line, and I’m certainly not marrying him. Why don’t we change the subject? How are you feeling, Mel?”
Melanie shrugged and stole my coffee. “Well, I woke up to Michael and Kennedy’s pictures from homecoming last night. And about a dozen texts from him about how much of a mistake it was. That it should have been us there, like it always was. He’s sorry and all that.”
“What a douche!” Amy cried.
“For real,” I seconded.
“But…what if he’s telling the truth?”
“He left you for your best friend. There’s no reason to believe a word he says. A dozen texts doesn’t make up for what he did.”
“Yeah,” Melanie said unconvincingly, “you’re right.”
The elevator dinged, and Totle rushed out of it. Penn appeared a minute later, and my stomach flipped.
“You ladies want some brunch? I can get us into Norma’s on short notice,” he offered.
“Norma’s,” Melanie cried. “Oh my god, hell yes!”
“I guess that’s a yes,” Amy said. “What’s Norma’s?”
“Only the best brunch in the city,” Melanie informed her. Her worries about Michael were gone as she dashed down the hallway to change.
I laughed and followed her. Thankfully, I could f
it into Mel’s and Amy’s clothes. Even if they weren’t my normal tastes. But it was good enough for New York in October.
Brunch was divine. As was the rest of the weekend as Penn and I entertained them back at the beach house. It was so nice, having them there that I almost forgot that I was there to work. But it was worth taking the weekend off to be with them. And I wasn’t ready for them to go when it was time.
Amy kept giving me looks, as if she knew me better than I knew myself. She tried to give me advice on how to keep things casual. Apparently, even though she was the one to suggest it, she had never thought it was possible. Typical Amy.
I tasked her with looking out for Melanie. Because the way she had been talking and moping, I was worried she and Michael were going to get back together. High school drama and all that. Even though Melanie had insisted that wasn’t going to happen. She was going to be strong. Blah, blah, blah. I had a feeling she’d be back with him by the end of the week after he continued spewing whatever bullshit he had been saying to her all weekend.
“She’s going to be okay,” Penn told me later. “She’s stronger than you think.”
“I know she is. I just still see her as my baby sister. Hard to get over that.”
“I don’t have a younger sibling, but it’s how I feel about Lewis’s sisters. They’re like family to me. More so than my own family most of the time.”
I was surprised he was even talking about his family. I knew that they weren’t on good terms. That he didn’t talk to his mother and hated his train-wreck brother. I didn’t know anything about his father. He’d said in Paris that he wanted a different family, a different life. Clearly, he’d worked toward that the last six years, getting away with at least a bit by being a professor. But the Upper East Side almost seemed like a gang. Once you were in, you were in, and they never let you out.
“Do you talk to them much?”
His face went from open to utterly blank in a second. “My family? No.”
“I see.” I knew when to push and when to retreat. “Me either. Though I think I had Melanie wrong before. Maybe I just pushed my own frustrations about not being perfect on her.”
“She seems great. You’re lucky to have a sister like that. Someone who loves you.”
“She is great,” I admitted. I’d never thought that Melanie and I would be close. I was kind of glad to be proven wrong. “And I do feel lucky.”
“I have so much work to catch up on,” he said, reaching for his beaten-up leather notebook. He sank into a chair at the breakfast nook.
“Me too. My agent asked for the first fifty pages of my new book. I feel like throwing up, sending it to her.”
“I could read it for you, if you want.”
My stomach knotted. “Oh god, no. I think I’d actually vomit if you read it.”
He laughed as he flipped open his notebook to a blank page. “I know the feeling.”
“Though…I do think we should talk about us.”
The laughter died on his lips. “No take-backs, Natalie.”
“Take-backs?” I asked with my own smile. “What makes you think I want to take back what happened?”
“I heard you talking to Amy earlier. It sounded like you didn’t want to do this,” he admitted.
“That was…not the conversation we were having,” I said, biting my lip.
It had been more about how to keep things casual. How to keep him at a distance. How not to get my feelings involved. How to let the sex lead and the rest just rest. Because I only had a month, and I didn’t need the complication of a relationship that would go nowhere. Not with a guy like Penn. He didn’t exactly seem like Mr. Relationship even if Melanie did think he was marriage material.
“I see. Is this about your rules again? Because I’m pretty sure sex is self-explanatory.”
“No. I think I get it. Sounds like you’re the one worrying about it.”
“Not worry exactly, but I do want to make sure that you’re comfortable. For some reason, this doesn’t seem like something you would normally do. I want us to be open with each other.”
“Okay,” I said easily.
“Okay?” he asked with a smirk. “That easy?”
I stepped up to where he was sitting and straddled his lap. “What I was going to say was that I think, next time…I should be on top.”
His eyes turned devilish. “That can be arranged.”
“Like…right now?” I asked.
“Right fucking now.”
Natalie
21
“Natalie, can I speak to you?” Kristen, the interior designer, called from the living room.
I stared at the email I’d drafted to my agent on my phone. It had the first fifty pages of my new book, which was currently untitled, and an outline of the rest of the book as I had it set up now. I wasn’t ready to go out with this one yet. Not while Told You So was still out on its miserable run. But Caroline wanted to read it. Before I could think better of it, I clicked Send and rushed out into the living room.
“How can I help you, Kristen?” I asked.
The main room was still a work in progress from the renovations, but it was starting to look fully put together again.
“I wanted to let you know that we’re moving on to that side of the house,” she said, pointing at the rooms that I’d just vacated.
“Oh. I didn’t know that you were doing the bedrooms.”
“It’s on the list. I have a plan for it. Shouldn’t take as long as the living room.”
“Okay. I’m just sleeping in there. All my stuff is in there,” I told her.
Also, I liked that room. It was cozy and warm. The bay window was gorgeous, and I loved being able to see out to the ocean in the mornings.
“Just move to the master,” Kristen said with a shrug.
Penn was in the master bedroom though. We’d had two days of great sex, but we still kept separate bedrooms. It was kind of nice to come back to my own space when I needed it. Now, I wouldn’t have that.
There was another bedroom upstairs, but I hadn’t really ventured up there since the first day I arrived. I’d have to see what Penn wanted to do.
“All right. I’ll move my stuff out,” I told her and then went in search of Penn.
I found him in front of a MacBook in the library. It was one of the first times I’d seen him at a computer. He did most of his best thinking in his notebook.
“This is new,” I observed from the doorway.
“Ah, yes. Have to get it in a digital format at some point,” he said. “Plus, I think I wrangled the main theory out of the notebook this morning. We’ll see if it strings together on a computer.”
“So…Kristen told me that they’re renovating my wing of the house.”
His head popped up. “Just move in with me.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I swallowed back the bright smile that threatened to cross my face. There was nothing casual about my reaction to those words.
“Unless that’s too much?” he ventured. “I can grab one of the upstairs rooms.”
“No…it’s not too much,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual. That damn word. “Just wanted to make sure you were cool with it.”
“You in my bed every night?” he asked. “Why wouldn’t I want that, Nat?”
My breath hitched at that. My friends called me Nat. My family called me Nat. Penn had only ever called me Natalie. I loved the intimacy of it.
“Well, issue resolved then,” I said, walking further inside and sitting on the desk. “I’ll move everything over later.”
“Need help?”
“Nah, military brat, remember? Expert packer.”
“Right,” he said with a smile before turning back to his computer. Then he looked back up. “Oh yeah, did Katherine email you about the concert next week?”
“I didn’t have anything. What concert?”
I pulled my email back up, and lo and behold, there was an email from Katherine. She said she missed me and
wanted to make up for the last time we’d hung out. Apparently, making up meant first row tickets to Chloe Avana, the biggest pop star in the country, with backstage passes and a meet-and-greet.
“Holy shit! Is she serious?”
Penn groaned. “So, you want to go?”
“Are you kidding? I grew up on Chloe Avana! Her on-again/off-again thing with Gates Hartman is the stuff of legends, and I’m not even as obsessed as my sister, who follows that stuff.”
“She’s so…mainstream.”
“You sound so hipster for someone born on the Upper East Side,” I said on a laugh. “And come on, you have to like that song that she does with Damon Stone. That’s pure gold.”
He grumbled under his breath.
“What? Didn’t hear you.”
“I said…that one is pretty good.”
I laughed. “Great. Then…I guess we’re going.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re going.”
I stretched across the desk and kissed him hard on the mouth. “I’m so excited.”
“I have other plans for us for this afternoon though.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked huskily.
“After I finish this theory section.”
“You’re going to make me wait?” I pouted.
His eyes glinted with desire. “It’ll be worth it. Wear white.”
“White?” I asked with my head tilted.
He nodded. “Give me a couple of hours, and then we’ll go.”
“All right,” I said, hopping off of the desk. “If you want to turn this down.”
He slapped my ass at full force, and I shrieked.
“That ass tempts me all damn day. Maybe that’ll be my surprise later.”
My eyes widened, and he just grinned. He wasn’t kidding. A thrill ran through me.
“We’ll see,” I teased back.
“Yes, we will.”
* * *
I’d guessed wrong when he suggested white and worn a dress. Penn made me change into something warmer and tennis shoes before ushering me out of the house.
“I must say…this isn’t what I was expecting,” I told him.
