Mesmerized

by Ward, Alice

  “I knew you were a witch,” he growled against my lips.

  I gasped as he pulled himself back and separated us. My skin yearned for him. I wanted to reach out for him and pull him back, but he was already halfway across the shop. He reached the door, peeked out through the glass at the street for any potential customers coming in, and locked it. When he turned around, and I could see his eyes again, I saw the flames within them, the shadow of hungry darkness I was about to drown in.

  “Abby’s outside,” I said, scanning the windows myself.

  He was on me like a lightning bolt. “No, she’s not.” Our mouths crash together again, and his hands resumed where they’d left off. Up my sides, to my breasts, along my shoulders. Each millimeter he touched tingled, and I was panting. I couldn’t believe this was probably the last time I was going to feel him.

  I turned my head just enough to speak. “Where is she?”

  “I gave her a twenty and told her to go get a cup of coffee.”

  The tiny pearl buttons on the front of the dress came undone in record time, the fourth one falling off in his rush to expose my breasts. To my surprise and in spite of my objections, I didn’t much care if Abby or anyone was so inclined to stand right outside one of the windows, we were visible to the public. This was intimacy at its finest. Two people with a desperate need for one another. Reservations about propriety and reputation had no place here.

  “Good thinking,” I breathed as I hooked my fingers beneath the hem of his collared shirt, which had somehow become untucked in our fervor. As I lifted it, his sculpted abdomen and sunny southern skin revealed itself to me. I bit my lip at the sight, more turned on by the vision of the male form than I ever had been before.

  His lips found my collarbone, and they trailed a pattern of kisses along the ridge. I rolled my head back, euphoric. I could feel his fingers pushing up the layers of the taffeta and tulle dress, pulling at the silk of my panties, but I didn’t try to help him get them off. There was something sensual about being undressed by the hands of this man. I wanted to absorb as much as I could.

  His kisses dipped lower and started venturing into the dell between my breasts. My bra was still on, but he freed my chest with his teeth, securing them around the lip of one of the cups and yanking with the eagerness of a starving beast. The second my nipples sprang free, he was on them, his fingers circling one and his mouth the other. He suckled and twisted and nipped and flicked. My eyes closed of their own accord, and the pleasure was so intense I was unable to decipher what was mouth, tongue, or fingernail.

  “Up.” I almost didn’t hear the word because it was muffled by the sensitive flesh of my breast, but I understood his intention as he patted my hip with his free hand. I raised my pelvis and the skirts went up to my waist, and I was greeted with a cool waft of the shop’s air.

  I was both clothed but also bared before him. He stood back, and he looked me up and down, taking in the sight of my naked body spread for him to do with what he wished. I had never seen such reverence.

  “You’re beautiful, darlin’.”

  Shivers ran up and down my spine, and I clamped down on my lower lip to hold in the moan that threatened to burst forth. He kissed me once more, lightly, then dropped to his knees in front of the counter and buried himself between my bare thighs. Before he even did anything, I started trembling. And then I felt his tongue.

  “Oh my god, Cash. Jesus!” The gasp fell from me without warning, and it cracked with lustful desire. I started to clench my thighs closed against the powerful waves of pleasure he brought to me as he slid his tongue up and down the length of my slit, but he secured a hand on the inside of each thigh and shoved them apart, forcing me to accept the earth-quaking sensations.

  I scrambled to find something to cling to, my hands skittering recklessly across the counter, but I found nothing. All I could do was clench my fingers into fists and allow myself to moan my pleasure to the ceiling.

  He grinned against me, and he traced a teasing circle around my clit. My breath hitched. He repeated the motion, and I let out a guttural sound more animalistic than human. The third time, he made contact with the surface of the nerve-laden button. I was wrecked. My entire body tensed, and I felt myself preparing to dive headfirst into the pool of utopia.

  And then he was gone.

  I lashed out, my head snapping up and my body jerking involuntarily. He’d stepped back, and he was undoing his pants like his life depended on it. The next thing I knew, I was looking at his intimidating erection, and I was dripping for him as he sheathed himself. Such an erotic, and frankly pornographic, experience I had never had.

  He plunged into me, and I was ripped through the center. There wasn’t a speck of space on my body that evaded the wicked pleasure cascading over me. His cock filled me to bursting as he drilled himself into me over and over. We were rocking, the front of his legs smacking the display case and my behind sliding back and forth on the counter. Where our skin touched, beads of sweat slickened the surface, and I’d never felt more unstable. I’d also never felt more fulfilled.

  “Harder!” It was a request I didn’t often make as I tended to prefer sweet sex, but I was prepared to watch the world implode to ensure I never had any regrets about my last tryst with Cash.

  He obliged, and my head went light. All of my senses were frenzied and disorganized. I was pretty sure I was seeing sounds, hearing feelings, and tasting sights. We had become entities, no longer living and breathing people, and our souls were ravaging one another to the death. The pleasure I felt was so intense that I wouldn’t have been surprised if I died, but it would have been a happy death.

  Suddenly, I was stolen from myself. I had felt the build, but I hadn’t realized I was tipping. One second, I was relishing the perfection of the way Cash’s cock fit inside me, and the next I was torn straight out of my body and thrown to some godforsaken place in the universe.

  I was moaning, screaming, begging him to stop and for more and to stop and for more. Wind was whipping in my ears, oceans were crashing upon me, and I had an orgasm Aphrodite would have worshipped.

  I came back to my senses without realizing Cash had climaxed with me until I saw the spent look on his face and no longer felt him grinding inside me. We stared each other dead in the eyes for a long moment, and I tried to paste the vision into my memory. When we started redressing, our hands and arms drew farther and farther apart. What was I supposed to say now?

  “Well.” He gestured to the counter. “That was unexpected.”

  “But fitting, since you’re leaving.” Part of me hoped he’d say he changed his mind, that he wasn’t going to listen to the board.

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  An awkward silence filled the space between our words. I flicked my gaze to the window to ensure no passersby were staring in with horrified expressions. When I looked back at him, he seemed withdrawn once more.

  “So, this is goodbye.” Pressure fell on my chest. I wasn’t sure if it was disappointment or Gram.

  He nodded. “I guess it is.” He stepped forward, pressed his lips lightly to mine, then tilted his chin up to land a final kiss on my forehead. “Goodbye, darlin’.”

  As he turned to leave, I fought the desire to scream at him. That was it? After everything, it came down to this? What about what had just happened?

  He looked at me over his shoulder one last time, and I saw the characteristic smirk I had come to know so well. I lifted my hand in a motionless wave, and he unlocked the door and left.

  It wasn’t until the chimes had stopped clinking that I finally responded.

  “Goodbye.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Cash

  Having a father of the caliber I’d been born to, my experience with flying was hardly limited. Most of my childhood summer breaks from school were spent jet-setting from one side of America to another, and in some cases, internationally. I took an overnight flight to London at seven, learned the best terminals at LAX for
snacks by twelve, and discovered the bliss of a private plane upon turning fourteen when Dad decided I was no longer a messy child determined to leave peanut butter fingerprints on custom Italian leather seats. As I reclined in my oversized seat on the flight from Escanaba to Tulsa, however, I was as jittery as someone flying for the first time.

  The plane I was on was one of the Pennington’s jets, the same that I’d taken when I arrived in Michigan but with a different pilot this time. There were three planes for officer and board usage, plus my father’s individual plane he’d kept at a hangar on the opposite side of Tulsa. It was still sitting there now, but I hadn’t had the heart to break it out since his passing.

  The night he had his heart attack, he’d flown back from Albuquerque on that plane. He was pronounced dead less than four hours later. In a weird way, using that plane would have made his death seem even more real than it already was, and I hadn’t yet come to terms with that.

  I wasn’t sure why I was so anxiety-ridden. The logical part of my brain told me it was because I was about to get reamed out by the board. They couldn’t have been happy with the lack of success I’d had in getting Gretchen to sell Auras, as demonstrated by their making crucial decisions without me.

  The emotional part of my brain, though, could only focus on Gretchen. Every time I thought about our goodbye in her shop, from the argument to the sex to the farewell, I got a nasty sinking feeling in my gut that it was an actual goodbye, not just a see you later, unless I could pull something out of my metaphorical hat.

  Dad had definitely been right about one thing: don’t mix business and personal. I’d failed to comply with that rule, and now I was a mess.

  “Mr. Pennington?” My personal stewardess, Shirlene, crept up next to my reclined chair a little tentatively. “Please sit up and refasten your seatbelt, sir. We’re about to land.”

  I blinked at the jet ceiling a couple times, barely registering what she’d said, then slowly raised the seat back to regular position. I’d been so lost in thought and worry that the flight had gone by in a snap. As I clicked my belt across my lap, Shirlene smiled at me, but the most I could muster was a polite nod.

  The pressure started building in my ears as we began our descension, and for the first time since my phone call with Harlan, I felt utterly at ease. This was a feeling I could relate to, the dense weight in my ears and head and limbs. The sensation of careening toward Earth with only one little mistake separating me from a graceful landing and a freefall was the perfect analogy for my life, and rather than jamming a stick of gum in my mouth to prevent my ears from popping, I accepted the discomfort willingly.

  Morbid, but satisfying.

  The plane landed without issue, and I disembarked with a hundred-dollar tip placed neatly in Shirlene’s hand and a quick shot of whiskey. A Town Car was already there waiting on the tarmac. The driver loaded my bags into the trunk as I climbed into the back, and then we were off. A feeling of dread was already settling over me.

  We’d barely pulled into the parking structure beneath the Pennington’s building when I spotted Harlan waiting at the entrance nearest the executive elevator. He had his phone to his ear and was talking rapidly, and the moment he saw us pull in, he said something I couldn’t lip-read and pocketed the cell. My driver pulled right up to him, and I stepped out of the car.

  “Roadside service,” I commented. “Nice.”

  Harlan didn’t crack a smile. “Everyone is already upstairs waiting for you.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was chastising me for being late, which I didn’t think I was, or if he was just letting me know the current situation. Either way, my mood didn’t allow for further humor. “Well, let me grab my things, and I’ll be up in a minute.”

  “Raul can watch your bags. Let’s go.”

  I wanted to protest, but he had already turned away and punched the button on the elevator. Looking back at the driver, I raised an eyebrow to confirm that he would stay with my luggage. He nodded politely at me. I turned back to Harlan just as the elevator doors opened.

  “Can you tell me what this is about yet, or are you going to keep me in suspense?”

  He stepped into the elevator, and I followed suit. “You can wait another minute or two.”

  “If you ask me, I shouldn’t have had to wait at all. I am the CEO. I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be a big deal.”

  He didn’t respond, but he tightened his mouth into a thin line. If that wasn’t a telltale sign of what I was about to walk into, I didn’t know what was. This wasn’t looking good for me.

  When the doors opened, we wound our way through the halls until we found ourselves at the conference room I loathed. Inside, the entire board was waiting in their respective chairs, and everyone looked up when we entered. There were murmured greetings at my arrival, but that was it as far as niceties. I slid into my seat at the head of the table, and Harlan took his at my right.

  “Let’s get started, shall we?” His question was met with further murmuring of agreement. “As we are all aware, Ms. Gretchen Laughlin has failed to agree to sell despite Cash’s personal efforts these past three weeks.”

  I scowled at the table in front of me. It was offensive enough that they were talking about me as if I wasn’t even there, but I felt more like an onlooker than an active participant in this supposedly important meeting that they had pulled me all the way from Michigan for.

  “Though he has kept us up to date on his attempts to acquire Ms. Laughlin’s property, I think it would be prudent to revisit what he has and has not managed in his time away.”

  I closed my eyes and forced myself to keep my expression neutral when I opened them. Everyone was looking at me now, waiting for my testimony. I felt as if I was on trial.

  “There isn’t much to say that you don’t already know.” I spread my hands like an innocent man urging jurors to believe him. “I went to her with new offers, better offers, and even presented her with the opportunity to secure a new building for her store, as well as a new residence, on our dime. She wasn’t budging. I tried pressuring her, as well as befriending her. She’s too attached to that store. It holds deep sentimental value to her.”

  “That doesn’t help us much.” Emmanuel Cortez, a high-priced attorney, frowned at me. “We’re wasting time, and wasting time means wasting money.”

  “I assume that was the line of thinking when you decided to go ahead and file for the building permits without having Gretchen’s signature on any agreement?”

  My question came out as accusatory as I meant it, and it was met with surprise and disdain from my counterparts.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes.” This came from Harlan, and he was one of the few who didn’t bat an eye at my inquiry. “Emmanuel is exactly right. It was unconventional for us to have you remain in Michigan as long as you did without success, but we wanted you to test your wings. Unfortunately, it seems Ms. Laughlin cannot be bought.”

  I snorted against my will. “Damn right.”

  “To that end, we’ve decided to move ahead.” My stomach churned as I waited to hear what Harlan was about to tell me, what he refused to tell me on the phone. “We’re going to the city.”

  “You can’t do that!” The exclamation burst out of my mouth before I could stop it.

  Several people around the table chuckled. Silas elbowed Denise like they shared an entertaining private joke. She met his elbow with a frown, but the frown almost immediately turned into a sympathetic smile pointed in my direction.

  “We certainly can.” She spoke as if I was about to be proud of what she said. “Your father used to do it all the time. It’s just a roundabout form of eminent domain.”

  “I didn’t mean that it was impossible to do.” I was seething. I had heard of the archaic practice and had been appalled that the board was even talking about it now. “I meant that you shouldn’t do it.”

  There were more chuckles, and they only served to infuriate me further. Emmanuel was the one to address thi
s point. “Believe it or not, it’s perfectly legal. We go to the city, present our case as to why Pennington’s will benefit their residents, and they do the rest.”

  “Meaning they find some bullshit reason to seize the desired property from the owner, and then they sell it directly to us. Am I missing anything?”

  “Quite a bit, but you’ve summed it up in a nutshell.”

  I glared at Emmanuel, and then I turned and glared just as angrily at Harlan. “And you don’t see anything wrong with that? You’re taking away a person’s right to decide what happens to their future.”

  “This kind of thing happens all the time, Cash.” Harlan shook his head. “If it’s not us, it’ll be somebody else. Besides, we compensate them fairly. In true eminent domain, the property owner tends to get the short end of the financial stick. This is best for both parties.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. “No, it’s best for our party. And we have no right to decide what’s best for anyone else.”

  The laughter had stopped by the time I finished, and I could feel the weight of every eye on me. I didn’t care. The only thing I could think about was how Gretchen would feel to have her property ripped out from under her, and I was absolutely certain that, by going this route, she wouldn’t get everything I wanted to make sure she got. A new store, a new home. She was going to be screwed.

  “Give me a little more time.” It was the only thing I could think to say. “Let me go back to Michigan and see if I can make this happen without using the city. She actually considered my last offer. It was the first time she’s done that. I think I might have made some headway.”

  Silas grunted in his chair. “Time is money, boy.” He added another grunt. “And doing it your way is exponentially more expensive for us in the end.”

  “It will be exceedingly expensive to our reputation if we rip a childhood home from a young woman.” I waited a moment while they muttered to each other. “Also, we might be able to find a way to do this without her consent, but doing that will no doubt result in her fighting it tooth and nail. Can we afford the time it will take if it gets tied up in litigation?”