by Alex Lucian
“Maybe,” she whispered, tilting her chin up so she could meet my eyes. “Do we get to leave soon?”
I laughed, smoothing a hand up the curve of her spine. “God, I hope so. You in that dress is the worst form of torture.”
“Wait until you see what’s under it,” she said against my ear, her lips brushing my skin with each word.
“And with that, we say our goodbyes” I announced, grabbing her hand and walking us off the dance floor.
Chapter Eleven
The car ride over to the bar had been intense, intoxicatingly full of desire emanating from both of us. Elias was fucking hot. As he sat beside me in his hired car, his hair slightly mussed and his eyes intense, all I could think about was curling my fingers into the front of his shirt and ripping it open. I wanted to see that expanse of tanned skin, decorated with black ink that I’d only had a glimpse of before, not enough time to give it a leisurely perusal.
His eyes were dark in the car, but I knew the whole time he was blatantly staring at me. He didn’t make me feel like his property, not like I was something he owned—even for the night. Which made sense, because he didn’t make me feel like he was my client. It was surprising how easily I forgot the rules of our relationship.
The bar was in the lobby of the hotel Elias had booked a room at for the night. It sat tucked to the side of the reception, all dark golds and blacks. It made it intimate, and I would have bypassed it completely for the hotel room if it wasn’t for the fact that I wanted to heighten the anticipation by just a few more notches.
Elias and I sat at the bar, which I was grateful for so that I could straighten my legs a little more in the dress.
“Martini?” Elias asked me and I nodded, shooting a quick text to Lenore. Even though I was under an agreement with Elias, Lenore still needed to make sure all was well.
Elias turned to the bartender who was drying off the stem of a wine glass. “Martini, three-to-one ratio of vermouth. Not dirty. And a bourbon. Neat.”
I smiled a little, pleased that he’d remembered how I took my martinis. “You remembered.”
“Hard to forget that you said you liked your martinis wet, Ruby.” His eyes were dark, and had a direct line to my core.
“You have a good memory.” I plucked a piece of popcorn from the bowl the bartender placed in front of us and popped it in my mouth. I hadn’t eaten a lot at the event, and if I was going to drink a martini, I’d need to fill my stomach with something a bit more substantial. Flavor burst on my tongue and I looked at the popcorn as I savored it. “What is this?”
“Rosemary and butter,” he said, which told me he’d been here before. With another escort? I looked at him, but he was plucking a piece of popcorn himself. “An upgrade from the typical peanuts and pretzels, right?”
I nodded and chewed another piece of popcorn. “Did you know where Rosemary gets its name?”
“The Virgin Mary?” he asked, sliding his card across the bar top to the bartender when he returned with our drinks.
“Well, there is the legend that Mary spread her blue cloak over a rosemary bush, turning the white blossoms blue in the process. But it has origins from earlier than that.” I glanced at him, to gauge his interest. But his eyes were open and his face looked as if he actually wanted to hear, so I continued. “The name Rosemarinus means ‘dew of the sea.’ Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, stepped forth from the ocean draped in rosemary, born from the waves of Uranus’ sperm after his son had castrated him.”
Elias laughed. “His son cut off his dick? That puts most father-son discords to shame.”
“Uranus was kind of a dick himself,” I said with a smile. “And Cronus tossed his genitals into the ocean, thus resulting in Aphrodite’s birth.” I popped another piece in my mouth, chewing as Elias drank his bourbon. “And, of course, rosemary is an aphrodisiac.”
Elias’ eyes traveled down my body for a moment as he held the drink between us. “I don’t need an aphrodisiac tonight.”
An eruption of butterflies in my belly caused me to forget that this wasn’t a date. The chemistry I felt with Elias was new and strange, but not unwelcome. However, as I watched him toss the rest of his bourbon back and I ached to lean forward and lick the droplet that clung to his bottom lip, I reminded myself that he was a client. And he’d paid for my company.
When the bartender came back over, Elias glanced at my still-full drink and ordered another bourbon, which prompted me to pick up my glass and catch up.
“So, why theological studies?”
I blotted my lips gently with my cocktail napkin, not wanting to smear red all over my face à la the Joker. “Well, initially I just focused on religious studies. I wanted to learn about all religions; their stories, their practices and their deities. After I got my bachelor’s, I wanted to learn more about mankind, how we socialize and how our behavior is affected by social change.” I sipped more of my martini as I carefully crafted my response. It wasn’t necessarily that I was lying to Elias. But telling him why an orphan would want to study sociology wasn’t something I wanted to delve into. “And now that I’m working toward my master’s in theology, it’s more of a way to understand what Christians believe.” I laughed at the look on his face, which defined perplexed. “I know what you’re thinking. Why is an escort studying a God that would frown upon how she earns a living?”
“That’s not what I’m thinking,” Elias said, his voice low but warm. “I’m just absorbing what you’re saying. I think it’s fascinating, actually. That you have such a well-rounded and informed way of looking at religions and societies, and can appreciate them for what they are. You’ve talked about Buddhism, Greek mythology, and Christianity with me. They’re things to ponder.”
I’d been pleased when Elias had remembered how I drank my martinis, but the pleasure I felt from hearing that he was actually interested in what I had to say made me even more ready to ditch the bar for the hotel room. So I picked up my martini and tossed it back in one gulp, giving Elias a meaningful look as I stood from my stool.
And that’s when I heard my name, that one word uttered by a voice that I’d know in my sleep.
“Ruby?”
I froze for only a moment, making sure my expression was mild when I turned. “Nicholas,” I said, looking at my ex-boyfriend with absolutely no feeling reflecting in my face. What is he doing here? I asked myself, hoping this would be brief.
He pushed a hand over his forehead, brushing back his blond hair that was too long and slightly greasy-looking under the lights of the bar. His eyelashes were practically transparent against his pale skin, and his pale blue eyes looked like he had a plea in their depths. “I’ve been messaging you.”
I thought of Elias at my side, who, out of my periphery, was sizing Nicholas up. Elias easily had seventy pounds of muscle on Nicholas, but Nicholas had the benefit of knowing me better than Elias did.
“I thought my lack of reply would have given you enough of a hint not to continue,” I said blandly. I kept my voice steady, not betraying a single ounce of my anxiety at seeing him again. “I’m not interested in speaking with you.”
He stepped forward and instinctively I grabbed the crook of Elias’ arm as if I was protecting myself with his presence. That seemed to be Nicholas’ first hint that I wasn’t alone, because he looked up at Elias and swallowed before turning back to me. “I just need a few minutes.”
“No,” I said and turned to leave before Nicholas stepped back in front of me, blocking our way out of the bar. My grip on Elias tightened and I closed my eyes, wanting him to just go away.
“Hey,” Elias said, his voice low and threatening. “She’s clearly not interested. Leave her alone.”
Nicholas stared at Elias for one long, tense moment. A vein rippled up Elias’ neck and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the way he stared Nicholas down.
“You have my number, Ruby,” Nicholas said, not taking his eyes off of Elias. “Call me.”
“I won’t,” I told him and Elia
s tugged me away, not giving me a chance to stay. Not that I would have.
I knew Nicholas watched us walk out of the bar, but I didn’t turn my face to look at him. That would only give Nicholas satisfaction, seeing me turn my attention away from the man who could’ve kicked his ass with the slightest push of his hand.
Elias led me to the bank of elevators and punched at the up button on the wall. An elevator opened immediately and Elias pulled me on and pushed the button for the twenty-first floor. As soon as the doors closed, he turned to me.
“Who was that?” His mouth was in a line, and I detected a trace of the tension still remaining from when he’d stared Nicholas down.
“A former client,” I lied immediately. Elias and I may have had a month-long arrangement, but I didn’t owe him anything of my past during that time.
“A former client?” he asked with a raise of his eyebrow. He didn’t believe me.
I swallowed back the nerves I felt under his gaze and nodded. “Yes.”
Elias laughed under his breath before he stepped forward and punched the emergency stop button on the elevator.
Chapter Twelve
“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes wide in her face. Her pale face. Ever since that douche stepped into her space, all the color had been sucked from her skin.
Which is how I knew she was fucking lying to me.
No former client would have given her that kind of reaction. That guy knew her. And not just biblically, but definitely that too, given the crazy-ass gleam in his eyes when he looked at her.
When I didn’t answer right away, she fidgeted, crossing her arms over her stomach and then letting them drop again. Then she swept a hand through her hair, making sure the curls were still laying over one shoulder.
“Beck and call, right?” I rasped out, leaning my shoulder against the wall of the elevator.
“What?”
“You. You’re at my beck and call for these thirty days, right? This being day one.”
She mimicked me, leaning her shoulder against the opposite wall, essentially facing off with me in the small space. “That’s right. Do we need to discuss this now?”
There was a slight edge to her voice that I’d never heard before, and I wasn’t ashamed in the slightest to say that it hardened me even further. “Why not?”
“Because I prefer not to have business discussions when I’m in a box that’s suspended sixteen floors above the ground.”
“We’re not going to have a discussion.” I straightened, undoing my belt. Her eyes tracked the slow movements of my hands.
“I’m not having sex in this elevator.”
“No, you’re not.” I raised one eyebrow, and lifted my chin at her. “You’re going to get on your knees for me. I want to know what your lipstick looks like on my dick.”
Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, and she never dropped my gaze. She wanted to say no, wanted to push me on it, but she couldn’t. She’d agreed to this when she got out of that car earlier and showed up where I wanted her to. And maybe she wouldn’t believe me, but if we’d never run into that douche, I wouldn’t be doing this right now.
But Ruby needed to get out of her head. And the strange feeling of ownership that I’d felt when I saw the possession in his eyes had manifested itself in a churning, dark swell of emotion inside of my body. When I knew she was lying to me, I snapped.
He didn’t have her anymore. And I wasn’t stupid enough to think she was mine. But for tonight, for the next thirty days, I could fucking pretend.
Ruby opened her mouth, and I expected her to tell me to fuck off, but she merely swiped her tongue over her bottom lip, then held out her hand so I could help her down to the floor.
“Good girl,” I said, gripping her fingers in my own and holding her eyes while she lifted her dress enough so she could lower to her knees.
“I’m not a girl,” she told me, eyes flashing as she ran her hands up the front of my thighs.
“No,” I agreed with a smile. “You’re not.”
My smile dropped when she lowered my zipper and pushed my pants open enough to pull my aching cock out. I hissed in a breath through clenched teeth when she dragged her thumb down the vein that ran along the underside.
“There better not be cameras in this thing,” she whispered, looking up me with innocently widened eyes as she moved her mouth closer and closer to where I needed it. “Because if there are,” she placed a kiss on the side, leaving scarlet-red lip marks, “someone is about to get one hell of a show.”
“It’s only me. I don’t want anyone’s eyes on you when you’re with me. Only mine.” I worked my fingers through her silky hair and gripped. “Now show me what you can do.”
Ruby wrapped a fist around the base of my dick and lowered her mouth slowly, working the flat of her tongue against me in slow waves. I cursed at the hot, wet feeling of suction. She pulled back, using the edge of her teeth on my sensitive skin just hard enough that I knew she wasn’t happy with me.
“God,” I groaned, tightening my fingers in her hair. “You’re a firecracker, aren’t you? Trying to top me from the bottom.”
As I expected, Ruby didn’t answer, just bobbed her head, pulling me in and out of her lips while she twisted her fist at my base. Pleasure flooded me, and my hips started making tiny thrusts into her mouth. I went a little too far on one thrust and she made a gagging sound when I hit the back of her throat.
“Fuck, why is that so hot? Seeing you take so much of me?”
Her eyes held mine and they glowed in her face, like the darkest parts of a fire that you can barely stare at because it’s so mesmerizing, so hypnotic. She went back at it, moaning around me when I gripped her hair in a fist and tugged. The vibration of the sound made me gasp her name. So I did it again, and was instantly rewarded by her guttural noise of pleasure.
“Yeah, baby, you like that. I’ll do it again later. I’ll make it feel so good, it almost hurts.”
Then a voice came over a speaker in the panel of the elevator, making us both freeze.
“This is hotel security. Is everyone okay in there? Do you need emergency help?”
I cursed, pulling myself from Ruby’s mouth, only smiling when she wiped along the bottom of her mouth with a feisty as fuck expression in her eyes.
Punching the button much harder than necessary, I told him we were fine. I helped Ruby back up and pulled the emergency stop back out so we could resume our smooth ascent up to the twenty-first floor.
Ruby was grinning at me from the other side of the elevator when I finished zipping my pants back up.
“Something funny?”
“I’ve just never done that before.” She lifted her eyebrows when I must have looked like I wanted more clarification. Which I needed because there was no fucking way that girl had never given head before. I’d remember the feeling of her mouth around me while I was on my death bed. “Blow job in an elevator.”
My frustration at being stopped before I could come in her mouth was momentarily abated at the thought that I’d done something with her that was new. The craving to repeat it was sudden and fierce. I had twenty-nine more nights after this one, and I was going to make them fucking count.
The elevator stopped on our floor before I could say something cheesy, and I gestured for her to exit first. Ruby waited for me, wrapping her hand around my arm so I could direct us to the room. Feeling the weight of her fingers on my suit jacket after the last few hours, after the strange roller coaster we’d been on since I saw her standing on the sidewalk, made something snap in me.
I stopped walking, even though we weren’t at the door for our room and looked down at her.
“What is it?” she asked with a concerned look.
Instead of answering her, I withdrew her hand from my arm and walked her backward until her back hit the wall.
“I am not giving you a blowjob in the hallway,” she said, narrowing her eyes. I only grinned, which made her squint her eyes at me even
further. Ruby’s hands were braced on my chest, her fingers edged underneath my jacket and curving into my chest.
I wondered if she could feel the thundering of my heart, a product of the unreleased tension coursing through my body. Or, that was part of it, at least. The other part was her. She did weird fucking things to me, in my head and in my heart.
She was about to speak again when I cupped the back of her neck, halting her immediately. Her mouth hung open while she stared up at me, confusion clear in her eyes.
There was a beat where we were frozen like that before I kissed her. She let out a soft puff of air into my mouth when I slanted my lips over hers and pressed against her with my entire body. Our tongues tangled and her arms wrapped around my neck, holding me tightly against her.
Her taste was sweet and warm, her tongue slick against my own. Everything was wet and hot, and I wanted to know if she felt the same underneath her dress. If only I could slide my hand up and find out. If only I’d waited to do this when we were behind the privacy of a door.
More, more, more, a voice chanted in my head and I deepened the kiss. We were wrapped so tightly around each other—or as much as we could be with her in that fucking dress—when someone walked past us and cleared their throat.
Ruby pulled back with a gasp, and the flush on her cheeks was so fucking satisfying that I couldn’t help but smirk. I wanted to make her come so hard that it would cover her entire body.
“Where’s our room?” she asked, staring at my mouth.
I backed away, yanking my wallet out to find the key. As soon as it was free, she snatched it from my hand and gave me a smile so devilish that I couldn’t believe I didn’t come right there. Her hand gripped the lapel of my jacket and she walked backwards, holding my eyes until we came to the right room.
She only turned long enough to slide the key into the slot, and I wrapped my hands around her tiny waist, dipping my head so I could suck on the curve of her neck. The door opened and we went in. There was a frantic energy in her hands when she turned and shoved at my jacket, and there was a brief moment where I worried that she wasn’t feeling the same mind-numbing desire that I was.
