by Penny Wylder
“Oh really,” he says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to my feet. “Well if you’re going to work with this, I don’t think the couch is the place to do it.”
He sweeps me off my feet, and laughter bubbles out of my chest as he carries me toward the bedroom.
10
I come awake slowly, to brightness. The walls in Andrew’s bedroom are entirely glass, electric privacy shades half drawn to allow the morning sun in. I stretch slowly, languorously, feeling the tension in my body after last night. Even the thought of that makes me smile. I’m not sure what time it is, but I’m definitely not running on much sleep. There was too much to do, too much pent up sexual tension that we worked out. Over and over. And then once more for good measure.
Rolling over in the bed, I find nothing but a mess of tangled sheets. I sit up slowly, my body still feeling heavy. I didn’t sleep much but I slept deeply. Probably the best sleep I’ve had since I started working for Andrew.
Footsteps echo in the hallway and I blink as Andrew walks in—still naked—with two steaming mugs. “Coffee?” He hands me one of the cups. I take a sip without looking and freeze. This coffee is perfect, with the exact amount of cream and sugar that I like. I glance up at him, and he smiles. “You thought I didn’t notice how you take your coffee?”
I swallow. “It’s not exactly something everyone notes.”
He puts his mug down and sits on the bed next to me. “I’ve noticed everything about you,” he says softly. “I notice the way you twist your fingers together when you’re nervous, and the fact that you like to doodle hearts and cubes on papers when you’re bored and distracted. It’s every little thing that made me realize that I couldn’t just be professional. I had to be with you.”
There’s a fuzzy feeling in my chest as he leans in to kiss me, and I don’t miss the way he makes sure to set my coffee aside before laying me back on the bed. The man can kiss. My body lights up with the way his lips press into mine. Our tongues are dancing and it reminds me of how talented he is with his tongue in other places, and suddenly I’m wet and ready again, even after last night.
“I thought we might test your shyness this morning,” he says against my lips.
“See,” I say, laughing. “You just said something so amazing and now you want to embarrass me.”
Andrew’s eyes go dark and serious. “I don’t want to embarrass you. I never want to embarrass you. But every new thing you try opens your possibilities. I don’t just think it’s me. Deep down, I think you like being watched. I think you like the idea of being caught doing something you would never normally do.”
I feel a rush of wetness in my pussy and I realize that he’s right. I do want that. My cheeks go pink and I fight the feeling of embarrassment. “Maybe it means I’m a deviant. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“Why not?” Andrew’s lips brush my neck. “Maybe it means you want people to see who really are. Maybe once you accept that you love it, you’ll realize how incredibly powerful you are. You don’t just love to be watched, but because of that, you have the ability to make people watch you.” His mouth is trailing down towards my breasts, and I’m having a hard time forming coherent thoughts. “I know the moment you walked into that room I couldn’t look away.”
I groan as his mouth closes over my nipple. Maybe he’s right, maybe I’ve always known and have fought it. Maybe I’ve always been embarrassed by the idea. Maybe I should own it. His teeth graze my skin making me gasp, and I arch into him. “What kind of test did you have in mind?”
“Mmm,” he says, raising his face to look into my eyes, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” The answer is instantaneous.
He grins. “Then close your eyes.”
I do, and he takes my hand. He leads me off the bed and through the apartment. I’m not familiar enough with it to know exactly where he guides me, and even though I could cheat, I don’t. I do trust him. He stops me, hands taking my hips and guiding me where he wants me to stand. He’s standing behind me, and I love the heat of his skin on mine. Fingers dip into my pussy, and I lean back against him just like at the club.
“So wet already,” he says. “We haven’t even gotten to the best part.”
“If it’s anything like last night, I’m looking forward to the best part,” I say breathlessly.
Andrew chuckles, and I hear the rip of a condom wrapper and moments later the head of his cock presses against me, easing in until I’m full of him. I moan because I’m still sensitive from all the attention he’s paid me in the last twelve hours and because it feels so damn good. He takes my hands in his and presses them against glass. His breath tickles my ear as he whispers, “Open your eyes.”
Downtown Manhattan is laid out in front of me, with a spectacular view of the High Line. People are walking, jogging, even a group of people doing Tai Chi on one of the lawns. Around us, there are other high rises, close enough to see in the windows. I am utterly exposed, and my whole body has a rush of adrenaline and heat. God, he was right.
Andrew pulls out and thrusts in again. “Look at our reflection,” he says, his voice deep with lust. “Look at the way my cock is filling you up.” I can see the ghostly image reflected in the glass as he pushes into me, and I grow even wetter. “Any second,” he says, “those people can look up and see me fucking you. They can see the way I’m stretching your pretty pussy and making you scream.”
I try to laugh, planning on making a joke about the screaming, but I can’t. It’s too good. Andrew pushes me forward until I’m pinned between the glass and him, the coolness giving my skin goosebumps. “Any second, someone could see,” he says. “Do you like that?”
“God, yes.”
He chuckles. “I knew it.”
I don’t know what it is. Whether it’s the idea of someone seeing me so vulnerable or the thought that they might get turned on by watching me, imagining one of those people on the High Line looking up and seeing me fucked sends a piercing wave of arousal through me, straight to my clit, and I’m already on the edge of coming.
Andrew fucks me deeper, and I cry out. It’s like he knows exactly where to touch me because sex has never felt like this. Pleasure blooms inside my core and I go limp with it, held up by nothing but the window and Andrew’s cock. It’s a sweeping wave spiraling outward, washing over everything and making the world seem brighter. So. Good.
Andrew presses a kiss to my neck. “There wasn’t nearly enough screaming.”
“I’m not a screamer.”
“You will be,” he says, spinning me so my back is to the window.
I feel dizzy with my back to the world, like I could fall at any moment. Andrew doesn’t waste any time, instead of pushing back in, he drops to his knees, devouring me with his mouth. A second orgasm explodes through me, and my knees are on the verge of buckling. My breath is coming in huge, heaving gasps, but I don’t scream.
He smiles up at me with a wicked smile on his face. “Scream for me.”
“No,” I say, but I’m smiling back. I’m going to do my best, and so is he.
His mouth covers me again, lips closing over my clit and sucking deep. I swear I almost come again, those lips are magic. He teases me with his tongue, drawing circles and patterns, focused entirely on that little bundle of nerves. I’m so wet that he slides against me, but he drinks me in like he’s dying of thirst. I hold on until I can’t anymore, and I come, the pleasure pouring over me like a waterfall.
Andrew stands and spins me back to the window. “Let’s see if there’s anyone watching now.” He slams in to the hilt, and I bite my lip to hold back the scream I swore I wouldn’t give. His hands slide up my body as he fucks me, and every touch feels like it has echoes.
I look down towards the High Line, and there is someone watching. The Tai Chi class is breaking up, and a man is standing, watching. Arousal washes through me like wildfire and I shudder. Andrew sees the man at the same time and laughs, knowing this is just turning me on even more. �
�Now you have your audience,” he whispers.
He thrusts in again, and I realize that this whole time he’s been holding back. This is so much more than what I’ve felt before, even just with him. I can’t think, can’t breathe. My fingers grab at the glass of the window in attempt to hold on to something, to anchor myself, but I can’t.
Every stroke brings me closer to my next orgasm, and it’s big. I can feel it building like I can see it from far away, and it grows. The man down below has pointed us out to some of his classmates and now several people are looking up, watching.
Andrew wraps his arm around me, fingers finding my clit effortlessly, and I’m so damn close. I’m moaning now, begging him to finish me, let me come again. I’m shaking with it, right on the edge, and he doesn’t stop. Andrew pounds into me, and then his thumb comes down on my clit and I’m screaming. I’m coming, and it tears through me like a storm. I sag against the window as he continues to move, and I feel his cock jerk as he comes too.
This pleasure feels like it’s never going to end, and I would be perfectly happy if it didn’t. I sag against the window as he slows, glancing down at our audience. Everyone has moved on except for the first man, who has a smile the size of Texas on his face.
My body is shivering with aftershocks, and as Andrew pulls out of me, I suddenly feel like something’s missing. He scoops me up and carries me back to his bed, where the coffee he made us—still warm—is waiting. “Well, I guess you are a screamer,” he says when we’ve settled back into the bed.
I snort. “Maybe I’m only a screamer with you.”
“I’m just fine with that.”
I finish my coffee and am dozing when I hear Andrew pick up his cellphone and make a call. “Hi, May, I’m going to be working from home today. Just let me know if there’s anything urgent.”
“You don’t have to stay home because of me,” I say through a fog of incoming sleep after he hangs up.
Andrew pulls me closer, fitting me against his chest. “I’d much rather stay here in bed with you. And tonight, we’re going to dinner.”
11
I shouldn’t have expected anything less, but going to dinner with Andrew is way more than I imagined. He fits me in a dress that he hasn’t debuted and calls easily the fanciest car I’ve ever seen to take us to the restaurant. I raise an eyebrow when it pulls up to the curb. “Business is really that good, huh?”
He winks. “It’s been all right.”
The young man driving the car hops out, and Andrew opens the door for me, and surprises me when he actually gets into the driver’s seat. He sees my look. “I’m not really the chauffeur type.”
“There are certain advantages to having a driver you know.”
“Oh?”
I reach over and touch his arm, “You are free to do whatever you like while you’re being driven around.”
Even though his eyes are still on the street in front of us, I see the color in them deepen. “That’s an excellent point. Maybe I’ll think about that for next time.”
Andrew drives us to a restaurant in midtown called Serenity. It’s gorgeous Asian fusion, with dark and rich decor and a vibe of relaxed elegance. We’re seated immediately, and I wonder if Andrew comes here regularly, though I’m too busy taking in the little details of the restaurant to ask. Sculptures of glass flowers erupt at different points in the room, fabric twists in elegant drapes from the ceiling, and colored lights in the floor slowly rotate through the spectrum, giving the room a shifting rainbow glow.
“So,” Andrew says when we’ve settled and ordered, “you told me at the party that I’d hear the story of what you wanted to be.”
I shake my head. “You don’t want to hear that.”
He catches my hand across the table. “I do, actually.”
I huff a sigh. It’s not a story that I particularly enjoy telling, but I don’t think he’s going to let it go. “I wanted to be an interior designer. I went to school for it, and I even got a job right out of college. Heidi Carson’s company.”
Andrew raises an eyebrow, and I can tell he’s impressed. Heidi runs one of the best design outfits in town.
“I was assisting her with the intent to move up to be an independent designer. I was working with her on a job, and offhand I made a suggestion, a small edit to one of her designs. The client loved it and wanted it implemented in more of the house.”
I swallow, pushing down the familiar ache in my chest. “The next day Heidi called me into her office and fired me. She said that I wasn’t ever supposed to make suggestions like that in front of a client, and that since I wasn’t a full designer yet my opinion didn’t count. That I made her look like a fool because she wasn’t the one that suggested what the client really loved. I tried to find another job after that, but no one would take me. I didn’t have a choice but to find another job. So three years and countless retail jobs later, here we are.”
I look down at the table, taking a breath. There are more details to that story, the countless interviews that I got based on my portfolio and credentials, and the pained look on the interviewers faces when they got a well-timed phone call. No one wants to cross someone that big in the business, and they had no loyalty to a twenty-something nobody. But I don’t want to relive all of that by dragging out the story longer than it needs to be. I told him the high points.
Andrew folds his hands together on the table, and he looks troubled. “So that’s why you said your opinion didn’t matter yesterday.”
Lifting my shoulders in a shrug, I carefully avoid his gaze.
“Delia, look at me.”
It takes me a second, but I do.
“Your opinion one-hundred-percent matters. Heidi was clearly threatened by what you did, and reacted very badly. But that has no bearing on whether what you say has value. It does.”
“Thanks,” I mumble. Rationally, I know what he says is true, but it’s hard to erase that ringing voice in my head that’s saying that I don’t matter.
“I’ve used Heidi and her company before. That won’t happen again.”
Our food arrives, and it’s the perfect distraction. There’s a little glowing spark in my stomach from his words and his promise not to engage Heidi again, but I don’t want to talk about Heidi or my issues, not when we’ve been having such a good time. I see my opening. “Do you have an idea for your next show?”
Andrew’s eyes light up, and he starts to speak. I don’t wonder why everyone loves him and wants to be involved with him and work with him. The passionate way he speaks about everything—especially his work—is contagious. “I have a few ideas for that fall collection. But I was thinking about doing a special show before that to advertise some of the stuff we already have, and of course, for the publicity.”
“What are you thinking?”
He tilts his head. “I want to use the gallery again, I think. It’s a great space and really flexible. As for theme, I’m thinking something royal and exotic. A good transition between summer and fall because of jewel tones.”
“That could be fun,” I say.
“Or maybe I just want to put diamonds all over your body and make you sparkle.”
Arousal sparks low in my belly, and my mouth goes dry. “How would that fit the theme of royalty?”
“You’d be the queen, of course.” The smirk on his face does things to me, and I’m suddenly squirming in my seat, ready to drag him back to his apartment and fuck him again. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.
The rest of our meal is light and easy, trading silly ideas for the art show and flirting, each of us getting a little more turned on. No more talk of past disappointments.
It’s a perfect summer evening, and I’m enjoying the breeze as Andrew goes to get the car. The sky is a beautiful plum purple, and I can’t keep the smile off my face. I’m not sure how I got so lucky.
“You were with Andrew Xellum in there.”
I look away from the sky, blinking as a tall brunette saunters towards me
. “Yes, I was.”
Her expression turns to one of disgust. “Looks like he finally found model that he thought was good enough to fuck him. Don’t worry though, you’re not special. He’ll drop you as soon as he’s bored and move onto his next ‘muse.’”
I take a step back, her words hitting like knives. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am. But you should know that you’ve made a huge mistake.”
“I don’t think I have.”
A tiny smile appears on her mouth, and it makes my stomach crawl. “You’ll see if you feel the same way tomorrow.”
And then she turns and walks away, disappearing around the corner just as Andrew pulls around with the car. I realize that my mouth is open in shock, and I feel a little numb as I get in the car. “Are you all right?” he asks.
“I don’t think so.” I tell him what just happened as he drives, and I watch his expression harden. “Do you know who it was?”
He shakes his head. “No. Like you said before—and it’s an accurate criticism—I don’t hire many blondes. As much as I try to treat all my employees well, there are always some conflicts. I’ve been doing this long enough that I have a few people who are less than friendly towards me.”
The rest of the drive is silent. I’m not sure what to say and I can see from the look on Andrew’s face that he doesn’t want to talk about it. I’d be upset to if the reverse had happened. We’re still silent as he passes the car off to the same young man, but he takes my hand as we walk into his apartment building, and once we’re inside he pulls me closer, and he makes me forget her entirely.
12
This morning it’s not the sunlight that wakes me, it’s my phone. I didn’t set an alarm, so it’s a text. I click the button to acknowledge it without opening my eyes. Then there’s another sound. And another. And another. I groan, and I feel Andrew shift behind me. He rolls over and tucks his arm around my waist, and I can feel the hard length of his cock against my ass. “Good morning,” he whispers.
