“Ah, you ladies are naughty,” he laughed, his eyes linking mine and demanding a smile. “I had no idea that was there, but now that I do I'll try to put on a show for you gals. However, I do have a stalker I'm hiding out from.”
The laugh that made his dark green eyes do a conga dance. It was him, it was Cole I was sure of it now. But he seemed not to recognize me. Had I changed that much in six years? I'd been eighteen last time I saw him, before he disappeared from my life.
He'd been the age I was now and had only matured into a more masculine hunk with time. I scanned his body, comparing then and now. His muscles had thickened and curved stronger than before. His chest had expanded and looked more solid. He was still the sexiest guy I'd ever seen and my dream had only notched up a level to fantasy.
“Wouldn't she be more likely to find you in here?” I said, distracted by how my heart was pounding so hard it was making my chest ache. He wasn't married, or in love with someone? The thought of someone else having him, touching him as their own...
“Yeah, this is going to sound really lame, but I'm hiding from a guy.”
“I get that. I do it all the time.” Relief. It was almost like happiness.
“I'm sure you do,” he said. His eyes delved into mine with the sexy frown I knew so well.
Oh Cole, how can you not know me? Was I nothing but a meaningless screw for you? Just another girl you took what you wanted from and split?
But I knew it wasn't like that and what had happened between us had been so much more. His eyes traveled down to my mouth and unconsciously, I pressed my lips lightly together and ran the tip of my tongue along the top one. A nervous distraction rather than a intentional sensual enticement. Cole frowned harder and his gaze moved down my neck to my breasts, round and firm in the tight tee shirt.
“It's my old man I'm trying to avoid,” he murmured, completely distracted by his examination of my body. His stare made my heart press its way into the back of my mouth so I could hardly speak. Tiny tingles ran from my core, down the insides of my legs all the way out to my toes.
“I get that too,” I forced the words out otherwise we'd be standing in the john, two strangers staring mesmerized at each other like idiots at a trick show. “I hide from my father all the time.”
“Oh.” Cole came back into the now as though snapping out of hypnosis. “You know for a moment there you reminded me of someone from my past but you can't be her because she had no- her father was gone. And crap, I am coming out with some brutal cornball lines here.”
“No, you aren't,” I whispered. “Do you still have the Mayan tattoo?”
Cole's gorgeous face went through ten shades of confused. “Harlow?”
For an instant he was thunderstruck, then we were on each other as though magnetized by polarity. His fingers tugged through my long dark hair and cupped the back of my head to pull my mouth onto his.
Oh yes, I had never forgotten the luscious kisses Cole gave me. Even better now, the thicker stubble grinding across my chin, his solid arms holding me so firm.
He held me close in his mouth as his tongue swirled deeply around mine, delving into me then drawing away for the pleasure of surging back again. Cole made love with his mouth like no other man ever had.
His fingers grasped the back of my neck, his thumb grazing across my ear while his other hand whispered up over my rib cage to grasp my full breast. He squeezed it firmly, cupping the underside hard in his palm while his fingers teased and twisted the hard nipple.
His face scratched softly across my cheek, and he inhaled the perfume of the soft skin, then kissed a trail down my neck, across my clavicle. The woody musk smell of his hair mixed with a light expensive cologne.
He almost blew my mind as with one expert move, he flipped my engorged mound out of the lace cup and pushed it up to suckle it into his delicious mouth. Tingling sparks fired between my legs and I stretched my head back against the wall he'd pressed me up against. I opened my mouth in the effort to pull some air into my breathless lungs.
With his hard mound pushing against my hipbone, my heart leapt with the realization that I was going to feel Cole inside me again after so long, right here in a public washroom. We were as greedy for each other as though the last time had been yesterday and our six years apart had been six minutes.
For a second the thought flew through my mind to stop him, to say we should wait for the right place. I wanted some answers abut why he had disappeared so suddenly except there was only one thought crashing through my head like a crescendo and this was the only place, right now.
I wanted him with an avid need I'd never felt for a man. Overwhelmed with desire to feel him push inside, that brief first moment of penetration opening my channel and he wasn't waiting one second longer either.
His hand was already pulling at my jeans, working the zipper down. Fuck, I could feel how damp they were between my legs, I was so eager for him to be joined with me. I spiked my fingers through his beautiful floppy hair and tugged, to raise his head back up, bringing his lips to mine again.
He entered my mouth so sensually, with a foreshadowing of the more intimate kiss, as both hands tore into my skin tight jeans.
“Harley, is it really you?” He pressed his face into my hair, once more inhaling my aroma.
“Don't you know me?” I whispered, still barely able to speak, my breath jaggering. My breasts blossomed hot against his hard curved chest. All I could think of was the delicious feel of being wrapped tightly around him, having his shaft deeply filling my cavern. As though reading my mind, he again attacked my jeans and yanked them down around my hips.
“You look so different,” he murmured, trailing a barrage of kisses all the way down the side of my neck.
“All grown up,” I whispered and to prove it, I reached my hands down and felt how raging hard he was for me.
His cock as big and demanding as I remembered from my first time. I was no untouched virgin now though. He was going to find I'd changed in more ways than one, ready to give him as much passion as he gave me.
“And even more beautiful,” he moaned. I gasped hard as his fingers worked smoothly into the side of my underwear and found the nub pressing from between my full exploding lips. “But you feel the same,” he said. “You smell the same. If I was blinded I'd still know you anywhere.”
My legs half buckled under me when his fingers seared along the length of my slit, but his strong flexing arm held me up, pulling me into his embrace. He stretched my lips apart and pushed two fingers inside me so that huge quakes of pleasure ran through my core. It was everything I remembered, made even sweeter by the long wait.
“I want you, Cole,” I moaned, my eyelids fluttering under his expert circling inside the cavern, stroking that spot repeatedly until my shudders were agonizing torment.
“Please, I want you now.” His fingers swirled, taking a moment for caressing and exploring as we pressed our heads into each other, gasping hard at our jagged breath.
When he pressed his bulging groin harder into my thigh, our desire fired strong and my fingers dug into his resistant shoulder muscles. Supporting my trembling body as I struggled to pull his pants undone against the pressure of his cock, his fingers dove in and out of my slickness and I was already peaking, ready to explode the desire I'd held for him all this time.
He knew exactly the yearning I was feeling and ripped his jeans open to free his gorgeous huge cock. I ran it through my circled palm in wonder at its smooth fiery aggression. I could feel how much he wanted me pulsating through his shaft and tugged his raging head to my entrance. As the door to the washroom fell back on its soft hinges.
“Oops, sorry guys,” the skinny blond grinned as though catching a couple in full throes of sex in a public bathroom happened to her at least twice a day. “But there's a guy outside asked me to check if you were in here.”
Cole re-zipped his pants and turned to face her in one smooth move, standing in front of me while I covered myself up.
>
“Older guy? Light jacket?” he asked. Over his shoulder, I saw the blond girl color slightly, responding to his gorgeousness, sure she'd have loved to change places with lucky me.
“No actually, young, black turtleneck, kind of a hunk. Is he single?” she stammered, then laughed awkwardly, thrown off her game by the plundering grin Cole reserved for the ladies.
“Shit, I was in a meeting with Damon. I got completely side-tracked.” Cole turned back to me with a special smile.
He checked I was back together, all covered up and reached for his wallet. For a horrific moment I thought he was going to give me money, instead he handed me a mat black business card, slightly rough to the touch as though printed on light sandpaper.
“I'm sorry but I have to attend to a couple of things right now. But this card will get you into my club, come by later, if you're free. Or anytime.” He grinned like the demon he was and dashed from the washroom.
“Hmm, any chance I could tag along to that night club?” the girl asked, watching him go with a hungry stare.
Chapter TWO
I floated back to the bar on hollow legs and found Lily in the crush, neither focused on nor caring about the suits leering as I passed. Only one man filled my head with images of lust. My inner cavern still radiated throbs of longing for Cole but he was nowhere to be seen. He had obviously left to take care of his business.
Lily was chatting to a tall, good-looking Indian, wearing the usual black suit. A little suaver than her usual type, but she was laughing flirtatiously up at him and I was loathe to interrupt in case she was on a roll. On the other hand, I could hardly bail on my friend who'd been waiting for me to return from the washroom all that time.
“You've been gone forever,” she said when I caught her eye. “I thought you really had gone to the other side of the planet.”
“Yeah sorry, I, er-” How to explain what just happened?
“This is, um-?”
“Ram,” her beau said in a cultured British accent, extending a smooth hand to me. Definitely not Lily's type at all but what the hell, life was a buffet of choices, best to taste them all before making the final selection.
“Ram thought I'd invented an imaginary friend in order to get rid of him,” Lily said, giggling in a provocative way.
“Sorry,” I repeated. I couldn't give her the details until we were alone.
“It's getting late, have you ladies eaten?” Ram said. Maybe it was that sexy accent that was enthralling my friend. “I'd be delighted to squire you both to dinner.”
I could tell Lil was up for it with the Ram so I made my excuses, saying I was tired and had a headache coming on. All I could think of was finding Cole again. My entire body was aching with need to be close to him and feel that spark of crackling energy.
I left the bar and considered going home to change into something more appropriate for a late night club. The card Cole had given me reeked of sophistication and more than a little mystery. It was still clutched in my hand, the grainy mat texture enticing my fingertips.
I'd been stroking back and forth unconsciously enjoying the coarse friction. When I pulled it out and looked down at the silver gray lettering across the front, I made up my mind immediately.
Illicit.
Midnight to Dawn.
777 Jameson Street. East Village.
Plenty of time to go back to Lil's where I'd planned to spend the weekend while her roomie was out of town. I'd slip into something more suitable for a small hours assignation with my long lost love.
Cole
Fuck, I'm an idiot. That much I know- as proven by the pain. Like nails in my gut, at pulling away from Harlow like that. What the crap is wrong with me that I couldn't take the time to get her number? As if Damon couldn't have waited another two minutes.
I was completely thrown off, first by seeing the old man for the second time in as many days. He'd been tailing me for almost a week.
What the fuck did the bastard want and why was he following me around like some dirty private dick, ducking into shadows whenever I turned? He must take me for a newb if he thinks I'm not totally aware of the loser, or just assumes he's smarter than me, like I never grew out of that.
And then, another blast from the past when I ran into little Harlow in the bathroom for crissake. I ducked in there to watch the old man follow me to the men's, maybe jump him on the way back and find out what the hell he wants- and there she was. My Harley all grown up and filled out in all the right places.
Fuck, she is even more beautiful than her living image in my memories. And with a body now built for all the sin I wanted to commit with her back then, but held back when I realized I'd taken my first virgin. I took her so hard and fast, ripping through that tender spot without a care, too young and dumb to even notice.
How could I continue pursuing her after that, how could I have introduced her to the world I inhabited when she'd only just discovered the vanilla one?
Fate gave me another chance and what did I do but freaking blow it all over again? Running out with no idea where she lives or what she does in the city. Yeah I gave her a Diamond entry pass to Illicit but if she doesn't show up at the club for some reason- mostly that I'm an ass- how in hell will I ever find her again?
“Evening sir, busy night already. We're almost full.”
My strongest and oldest doorman calls himself Strike, real name Ronald Swiggins. I used to tease him on that, but we never mentioned it again after our first night raid together in the military. After we got out, Strike needed a job that allowed him to vent his deep-rooted emotions and I had the perfect one to give him.
Without his help I doubt I'd have been able to build Illicit into the exclusive, high-end private club that's made me millions. The mob would surely have taken me down in my first week. Strike handled all that and continues to do so.
My clients, most of them celebrities or titans of industry, know they can trust Strike with their most intimate secrets. I trust Strike with everything, especially my life.
“Strike, there's a girl, if she shows I want you to let her in and let me know immediately,” I told him. “And stop with the cheesecake grin, it doesn't suit your tough guy stance.”
“Just thinking it's about time you got back in the saddle,” he said. “Been a while, no?”
“Maybe. I guess I got a little jaded with seeing the same woman every night in a different designer dress.” Strike was right. After so many women with muffin-top personalities, I'd lost the will to keep going through the motions.
“Yeah, wealth and Hollywood looks must be tough. I wish I had your problems,” Strike said.
“Shut it, Striker, you do okay by my count.”
“No complaints, thanks to you. I'll keep my eyes on alert. What's the young lady's name?”
“Harlow, Harley.”
“Yep, Ready to ride.” I heard Strike mutter as the massive mat black door swung softly shut behind me. He never quite got beyond the coarse, army guy talk, but it didn't seem to bother the women who went wild for his massive strength and all over ink from wrist to abs. Strike, for all the buried aggression, wouldn't have stepped on an ant if he could help it.
Without me saying anything, he knew I'd burned up on the women front. Sure, I could have any woman I wanted. Even before I opened Illicit there had never been any shortage of sexual adventuresses willing to share themselves with me.
Now they were all around me every night and seemed to be of the impression that I was the high priest of bondage just because I'd opened the most exclusive, highly vetted, secure retreat for all things liberated.
I fucked those women most nights of the week at first. Their need to submit to me was stronger than mine to dominate. In some way I felt I was giving to them by servicing that desire, or at least that was what I told myself.
Other times I saw it as yet another game of pretense where the women gave me their bodies in silent expectation that I would give them security in return. It was a transaction I w
as not prepared to enter into under any circumstance. Until a woman came to me on equal terms- not financially, I had more than enough of that to give them and spent it freely without purchasing another soul.
No, I wanted a woman who related to me genuinely. A woman who could get to the real me, beneath the physique and the cash. A woman who understood that life can sometimes deal a load of shit. A woman like Harlow.
There was a palpable air of sensual tension as I came up the stairs, although that could have been my projection, still hot from my brief encounter with the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.
Fuck, every time her face came into my mind, my cock got ready for action again. All the women I've had, why does this one have to be such a thorn constantly pricking at me? What is it about one woman that prevents you ever forgetting her, while hundreds of others pass by anonymous?
In an alcove at the top of the stairs, one of the Illicit regulars, a Fortune 500 CEO and billionaire was standing behind a blindfold naked woman. This guy could only get it up in public and with a woman who would neither look at him nor touch him which left him little option but to come to the club regularly.
He bid high for the best girls, eager to be bound, gagged and caned while others watched and there was never a shortage of women eager to put themselves up for the auction.
Tonight's winner was a honey blonde, natural, with beautiful big breasts on a curvaceous frame. She looked amazing up on the stage beneath a single downlighter, trussed up with her arms cuffed high above her head, pressing her tits tight together.
Her pelvis was strapped into a chastity girdle, open at the clit so that the skinny landing strip of her pubic hair was visible, with her bulging lips and engorged nub pushing through. As usual, the chief of industry had attached his favorite clamp to her clit nib and was paddling her big round ass cheeks slowly.
With every slap, the woman clearly forced herself to repress a moan of heavy desire through the black silk gag tied tight around her mouth. This scene did nothing for me at all whereas the briefest glimpse in my mind of beautiful dark haired Harlow made my cock stir wild with craving.
CRUZ: Billionaire Bonded Romance Suspense (Illicit Book 4) Page 9
