Addicted (Tempting Book 4)

by Alex Lucian

  At my look, Elias continued. “Yeah, that’s right. I love you.” He cupped the other side of my face with his hand. “I fucking love you, Ruby. And I’m willing to do anything for you right now, including buying you a plane ticket so you can visit one of the places I know you’re desperate to visit. Even though that means sending you thousands of miles away from me.”

  I glanced at the folded paper in my hands and saw that it said just one passenger. “You bought me my own ticket?”

  “I didn’t want to buy one for myself, just in case you wanted to go alone. This trip isn’t about me, it’s about you.”

  Nodding, my hand slid from his and I stood to look at the paper, turning my body at an angle away from him as I stared at it. I wasn’t reading as much as gathering my thoughts, and I didn’t think I could do that with him touching me.

  I was hopelessly, desperately, in love with Elias. I wasn’t an escort anymore, merely a professional student with a mountain of student debt to my name.

  And he loved me.

  Without turning to him, I said, “I’m not an escort anymore.”

  “I know.”

  I looked at him over my shoulder. “How do you know?”

  “Stella told me.”

  “When did she tell you?” For some reason, the answer was incredibly important to me.

  “Right after she’d given me your address.”

  I didn’t realize until that moment that I’d had a noose around my heart. Hearing him say that had caused it to loosen considerably. “So you were going to come to me anyway?”

  “Of course I was.” He ran a hand over his hair, leaving it a mess. “Do you think I give a fuck that you were an escort?”

  “It would bother some men.”

  “It would be pretty callous of me to limit my feelings for you simply because you’re an escort—especially because that’s the only way I had the fortune of meeting you.” He seemed helpless as he stood and tucked his hands into his pockets again, like he was restless with me on the other side of the room. “I would have tried to get you to leave, of course, because there’s no fucking way I’d be cool with any other man touching you if you were mine.”

  “I had a date, a week ago.”

  I watched a vein in his neck jump. “Oh yeah?”

  Nodding, I walked past him and placed the paper on my bar top, smoothed it flat. “He was very handsome, well-traveled, educated.”

  The burn of Elias’ gaze was like a brand upon my skin, an insignia that told the world in bold, capital letters, that I was his.

  “And?” he asked, impatiently.

  A small smile curved my mouth as I turned to face him fully. “And I realized in less than five minutes that I couldn’t let another man near me without feeling like I was betraying you. Which is why I quit.”

  We were three steps away from one another, a distance that felt like it was shrinking by the second. So I had to get everything off my chest, before either of us closed the gap and made any type of commitment to one another. “Look,” I began, swallowing. “At the moment I’m, by New York standards, poor. I’m a career student, with a mountain of student loans that won’t be getting a substantial monthly payment towards the principal now that I’m unemployed.” I waved a hand at the classifieds I’d been studying when he showed up. “I’m grossly under qualified for any type of career at the moment, and though I’m not too good to sling burgers, it won’t do a thing to help support my living expenses and also pay toward my student loans.” I folded my hands together in front of myself. “Being an escort was the only reason I could afford to live alone.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you have your shit together. You have a career, your own place. And no matter how I feel about you, the fact remains that I come with baggage and complications. It’s not fair of me to saddle you with those.”

  “Before we get into that, how about you tell me just how you feel about me?”

  I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with all the courage I could muster. “I’m in love with you, Elias.”

  He closed the gap in two steps and hauled me into his arms before I could take my next breath. “Then the rest doesn’t matter.” He pulled back and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me hard enough to rob me of any objections to what he’d said. He pulled away and pushed the hair from my face as he stared into my eyes. “I don’t fucking care, Ruby. I don’t care if you’re poor in money, because you’re rich in everything that matters to me.”

  “My lease is up in two months, and I won’t be able to renew it,” I told him, holding onto him to give me strength. “I’ll have to find a roommate wherever that’s convenient, which will make things inconvenient for us.”

  “Then you’ll move in with me.”

  I shook my head in protest. “I can’t move in with you.”

  “Technically, you can. But you don’t have to move in with me right away. We can wait until your lease is up, and then, if you’re ready, we can resume our arrangement from before.”

  I furrowed my brow in question. “Our arrangement?”

  “Right. You’ll be at my beck and call, only this time we won’t call ourselves ‘escort’ or ‘client’ unless you feel like role-playing. I’m not opposed to role-playing.” He waggled an eyebrow at me and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “I don’t know, Elias. It’s too soon.”

  “It won’t be in two months. Besides, who says it’s too soon? Let’s be real clear here—we began our relationship in a very untraditional way. So, fuck the rules. Let’s just do what feels right.”

  I nibbled on my lip as I thought, until his thumb pressed down on the skin under my bottom lip, loosening it from my teeth.

  “Hear me out. You can live with me and finish your master’s. I’ll get you in touch with my professor—the one I told you could help you plan what to do when you finish. And we’ll go from there.”

  “You’ll hate having me around all the time,” I said, trying to come up with any excuse not to move in with him. If I were being honest with myself, all of my excuses sounded pathetic even to me.

  “The fuck I will,” he barked, and slid his hands down to cup my ass and lifted me onto the counter. “Besides, I’ll be traveling a lot this fall—so I won’t be around to distract you as much from your studies. It’ll be like you’re on your own a lot of the time, with the added benefit of reunion sex every time I come home.” He stepped right between my legs, pressing his erection against me. “I meant what I said, Ruby. I don’t give a fuck about anything as long as it means you’re mine.”

  He pressed his forehead against mine and squeezed my waist with his hands. “You’ve made me a different man, Ruby. A man less angry. I still haven’t fully accepted my sister’s death, but you’ve given me so much to think about. Perspective.” He kissed my forehead and let out a sigh. “You’ve given me tremendous perspective. You’re one hell of a package.”

  I speared my hands through his hair, curling my fingers so that my nails bit gently into his skull. “Then there’s only one thing left to discuss.”

  “What’s that?”

  I let go of him to grab the folded paper and opened it up again. “This says one passenger. But I don’t want to go without you.”

  “I’ll book my ticket right now,” he said, but then paused and narrowed his dark eyes on me. The look was so intense, I nearly shivered. “Fuck it, I’ll book it as soon as I’ve worn you out. The last three weeks have been fucking brutal and all I want is to be inside of you right now.”

  I squirmed at that and pressed an enthusiastic kiss against his lips.

  “Lay back, Ruby.”

  I did as he asked, and twitched a little when my skin met the cool counter. His hands came to my waist and a second later, my pants and panties were in a pile on the floor beside me. The cool air caressed my pussy right before Elias pressed his large, warm palm to it and put pressure on me. I arched from the contact and my body responded immediately to his to
uch.

  He wrapped his hands under my thighs and yanked me down the counter toward him before he shoved my shirt up over my breasts and yanked down the cup of my bra. His hand covered my breast and squeezed and I closed my eyes. Impatience surged through me and I gripped his arm before opening my eyes.

  “I don’t want to go slow,” I told him, desperate to feel him inside of me again, desperate for my first release in weeks. Weeks sounded like an eternity since I’d first found myself under Elias.

  “We can go slow later,” he agreed, and I heard the satisfying sound of his zipper yanking down. When I saw the glint of his foil packet, I shook my head.

  “I don’t want a condom this time. I’m on birth control, and I know you’re clean.”

  The heat in his eyes was as seductive as a touch. I watched as he flicked the condom over his shoulder, where it plopped on the floor with hardly a noise.

  He put two fingers in his mouth and sucked on them. I watched him curiously as he pulled them from his mouth and pressed them just at the tight circle of my cunt, just circling. He dipped them just inside and spread them apart before sliding them all the way in. The deep stretching was hot, and started the build of an orgasm already. When he curled his fingers and pressed against the front wall of my pussy, I let out a moan. “Keep that up and I’ll be done quickly,” I said when I could breathe again.

  “You’re not even close to done,” he promised as he pressed the head of his cock at my entrance. Knowing I was seconds away from having him inside me caused my hold on his shoulders to soften. But he didn’t move for a long moment, waiting until I was looking him in the eyes. “After this, I’m taking you to my place,” he pressed himself an inch inside of me, causing me to wiggle to get him deeper, “because when you move in with me, you’ll be at my beck and call, permanently. And we might as well practice now.”

  “I’m game to practice.” He slid an inch deeper and I groaned, trying to slide further down the counter. “Fuck me, Elias, please,” I begged, lifting my hips to encourage him to slide all the way in.

  “I’m going to,” he assured me, right before he thrusted all the way and spots dotted my vision.

  Over and over, he pounded into me, and I met him thrust for thrust until my orgasm blindsided me, sending me careening over the edge. He followed me, letting out a low moan as he bit down on my shoulder.

  My hands rubbed soothingly down his spine as he breathed against my neck. “I missed this,” I told him while he was still inside of me.

  He turned his head and kissed my neck. “I missed it too. And as soon as I can feel my legs, I’m going to bring you to my home to do it all over again.”

  “And then buy your ticket to join me in France.”

  “Yes.” He lifted his head and dropped his chin to my chest, looking up at me through weary, but sated eyes. “And whatever comes after, we’ll figure it out together.”

  I smiled, and brushed my hand over his hair. “Because I’ll be at your beck and call?”

  “Exactly.” He kissed my chest, and sighed along my skin.

  For the first time in a long time, I saw a future outlined for me—a future that wasn’t abstract. I didn’t know what I’d be doing five years from now; whether or not I’d have a career. I might still be a student, still ticking away at my student loans. I didn’t know if I’d find and subscribe to any one faith; if my studies would lead me to any God in particular.

  Those things were still unknown, but the one thing I was absolutely sure of was that somehow, someway, I’d have Elias by my side through it all.

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  “You ready yet? Plane won’t wait for us,” I called down the hallway to our bedroom, but settled onto the couch because I damn well knew she wasn’t ready yet.

  “Almost! I can’t find my passport.”

  I smiled, looking over at the coffee table, where it had been sitting for the last three days. Ruby and I had been to fourteen countries in the last year. Half for my job, and half for hers. When it came time to work on her thesis, Ruby (with the help of her advisor) decided on Religion and Sex: A Study on Sexual Frequency, Religious Affiliation and Moral Relativism. It was a hit with the panel. So much so that one of them suggested she write a book on it. Which she did. With the help of the professor that I’d suggested Ruby talk with so long ago, she now did guest teaching at universities all over the world.

  Last month we’d been in Ireland, so she could do a class at Trinity College Dublin. So far, it had been one of her favorite places to visit. Of course, she said that with every new country we went to. And every time we came back home, to the apartment that she’d moved into with me not long after our trip to the south of France, she said that home was her favorite place.

  I tended to agree. We’d probably always want to travel. It wasn’t in my nature to stay sedentary, and Ruby had officially been bitten by the travel bug, so we’d committed to at least two trips a year that weren’t work related. She didn’t know it yet, but I’d booked our tickets to go to New Zealand a month after we returned from Hong Kong, which was where we were headed now for one of my assignments.

  My parents thought we were insane for how much we were overseas, but they said it with smiles on their faces, since bringing Ruby home with me three weeks after we officially became a couple seemed to rank as one of the best days of their lives.

  “Marry that girl before she comes to her senses,” my mom whispered to me the last time we were there for dinner, which was now a biweekly thing, thanks to Ruby. “She’s too good for you, sweetheart.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I’d said back. But I couldn’t disagree.

  Ruby’s heeled boots clicked down the wooden floor and I grinned when she came around the corner, fidgeting with one of her big hoop earrings. Definitely too good for me. These were the days where it was almost impossible for us to leave the house, because I still had a hard time keeping my hands off of her.

  The black boots came up over her knees, and she had light colored jeans plastered over her slim, long legs. Her black sweater wrapped tightly over her luscious tits, showing off enough of the curves that my mouth watered.

  “Come here,” I said quietly, spreading my arms over the back of the couch. She did, taking slow, measured steps that made her hips sway. When she was standing in between my open legs, she smiled down at me.

  “Don’t we have to leave?”

  I shook my head. “Flight doesn’t leave for another three hours.”

  Ruby scoffed, but her eyes were bright. “You lied to me?”

  “Not lied,” I said, sitting up to slide my hands around her ass. “Made a strategic decision. Because I knew you’d lose your passport and I knew I’d want to put my hands on you.”

  She hummed and straddled my lap, wrapped her arms around my neck and smiled into my kiss. My hands slid through the slippery strands of her hair and I gripped it so I could angle her head to the side. While I kissed down her neck and leaned to bite the swells of her breasts, Ruby gasped out my name.

  “Do you think this will ever fade for us?”

  I lifted my head. “Will what fade?”

  “This.” She traced the edge of my nose, followed the line of my lips. “How much we want each other.”

  I smiled at her, and she smiled back.

  “Baby, the only thing that will change for us is that someday, you’ll have my last name.”

  “Oh yeah?” She lifted an eyebrow and rocked herself over my erection. “You going to make that happen any time soon?”

  “Patience,” I whispered and brought her mouth back to mine so I could sip at her lips.

  “Fuck patience,” she whispered back.

  I laughed into her mouth, still hardly recognizing the lightness that she’d brought into my soul. Diana would have loved her. We talked about that every once in a while, and that was the other thing Ruby had brought me, the belief that everything happened for a reason.

  “I love you.”

&nbs
p; She pulled her face back and smiled at my softly spoken words. I said it to her all the time, as if the more times I said it, the more power the words held. “I love you, too.”

  When I wrapped her in my arms and I felt her sigh contentedly in my ear, I couldn’t help but marvel at the last thing she’d given me. The biggest thing, besides her love.

  She’d given me peace.

  And a hope for the future.

  “The other thing that will change,” I said, leaning back so I could spread my hand over her flat belly, “is that someday, I’m gonna knock you the fuck up. Watch you get big with my baby.”

  She laughed and cupped the side of my face.

  “Such a man thing to say,” she teased.

  “Your man.”

  Ruby nodded and kissed me again. “My man,” she whispered against my lips.

  Acknowledgments

  To my parents, may you continue to believe that I’m paying off my student loans the old-fashioned way.

  Thank you to my beta readers: Christina, for your honesty and enthusiasm; Leigh, for your attention to detail; Anna, for reading even when you didn’t have the time.

  To Najla, for having an eye for design and color, and knowing how font, color, tone, and texture all work together in a way so brilliant, it shines.

  To Jade, with The Write Assistants. I couldn’t do this without your assistance. This book would look like a kindergartener stapled some pages together without your exceptional talent. Thank you for your patience.

  To Jena, with Indie Girl Promotions. You are thorough and competent and professional. You put Tempting on the map. You’re phenomenal. Thank you.

  To the number of bloggers who have gone above and beyond:

  Paula, Candi, and Ang of The Dirty Laundry Review. For having me takeover and for supporting every book. Thank you.

  Angie with Angie and Jessica’s Dreamy Reads. Your enthusiasm for my books is unbelievable. May you never lose your gift for evoking emotion with your words. I appreciate every second of time you spend on my books, and I hope you know how valued you are.