by Alexis Anne
“My turn, babe.” He lay down beside me and guided my mouth over his straining erection. Considering I was half blind, half sexed out, I was pretty high on doing anything and everything to make Colt lose it. So I hesitated long enough to lick my lips, my breath whispering over what I knew was a rock-hard and straining cock, then gave him my very best “come fuck me” eyes, before I took him in my mouth.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he swore, his hips surging up.
I slid back up, my lips breaking free of his dick with a pop. “You torture me, I torture you. That’s what we decided, yes?”
“Yes. Fuck, yes.”
“Good. Don’t touch me.” I took him slow, sucked hard, wrapped my hands around his hips so I could control everything.
He didn’t touch me. And I knew how bad he wanted to make a fist in my hair by the way it was clenched beside me, his knuckles white.
Hell yeah. Turnabout was fair play and all that.
I was so focused on Colt’s pleasure that mine had a chance to fade back into the background, the pounding fog of orgasm no longer raging through my veins.
Until Colt flipped me on my back as if I weighed nothing, looming over me like a lion about to devour his prey.
Oh god, yes. Devour me. Take me. Leave nothing behind.
“You want me babe?” He nudged his cock against me.
“You know I do.”
“Or do you want me here?” He nibbled the spot behind my earlobe that drove me insane.
“No.”
“Or here?” He nuzzled between my breasts before selecting my left nipple to torture. His tongue went around and around. He pulled away and did the same to the right nipple. He moved back and forth, upping the lazy torture with each return. Sucking light then hard. Nibbling then biting. He pressed my breasts together and sucked both my nipples, swirled figure eights between them.
“Colt!” I clutched the sheets out of desperation. I was shaking again.
“Do you want me here?” he repeated and I realized I never answered.
“No.” There was only once place I wanted him.
He moved between my legs, spreading me open to him. He licked and sucked. “Do you want me here?”
If he so much as breathed on me I’d come apart. “Not like that.”
“No? How do you want me?”
He so got off on hearing it.
Oh, who was I kidding? I got off on saying it. “I want you on top of me. I want your giant cock inside me. I want to come as you fuck me so hard I have to hold onto your strong shoulders or I’ll go over the side of the bed. That’s how I want you, Colt.”
He was over me in a flash, pressing into me from above. “Tell me when.” He sank slowly, deeper, hotter. I was so amazingly wet from all the pleasure he’d already given me that it required nothing at all for his dick to slide inside me.
And I could feel every glorious inch of him. I was so swollen. So sensitive. So ready. He watched with fascination as our bodies became one, my body expanding to take him, his cock disappearing from view.
That’s when I felt it. The flutters started, his invasion deep and large enough to trigger it all. “Now.”
He reared back and slammed all the way home. I came immediately and he paused, moaning right along with me as my core clenched him hard and fast. “Fuck, Lily. You feel so good.”
If I hadn’t been so damn lost I would have noticed he said my real name, but as it was I was more focused on not dying. That’s how powerful my orgasm was. I came forever, at least that was how it felt. Even after Colt started pounding me the way he liked, I still came. Whether it was one long, beautiful orgasm or several strung together, I didn’t know or care. All I knew was that with that much lead up I was owed one spectacular release.
This more than lived up to the hype.
“Sweet Jesus,” he muttered as he came, frozen in release, his muscles straining. He collapsed on top of me, beginning his ritual of kissing me everywhere and asking if I was okay. That’s when I wrapped my body around his and let it sink in.
Colt called me Lily.
CHAPTER 15
We got off to a crazy start. A desperate start, if I’m being honest. We were so hungry that once, twice, half a dozen times barely felt like enough to get me through the next day. Our nights were intense. Instinctual. Free. However our days remained strained. Colt was clearly still confused by his feelings and I couldn’t ignore the hurt I saw in his eyes no matter how hard I tried, but I was slowly coming to realize that the hurt I saw was less about me and more about whoever had betrayed his trust before.
So I let him have his days to work through his feelings, while the nights belonged to me.
But nothing that intense can be sustained, and as we entered week two Colt went out of town for business while I went into shooting at night. It was grueling, long hours of work. Colt would send me an email when he got into his hotel for the night, but I wouldn’t see it until I was collapsing into bed at dawn. Because our schedules were so off our messages were reserved to one or two a day at most.
But they got longer, more introspective.
And really, I quite liked it.
Annie,
At dinner tonight I was stuck talking to a fan of yours. She’d heard you were shooting a movie at my ranch and wanted to know everything. Then she droned on and on for the rest of dinner about every one of your movies she’d seen.
Babe. I don’t know how you do it.
And it got me thinking. I want to know more about your life. Are your days always like the ones I see from my office window at home? Or is this different? Do you have fans constantly trying to get something out of you? Do you like it? I don’t know any of this.
Then I realized I’m probably just as much of a mystery to you. My days are long. They usually start before dawn because it’s the only time I can have to myself. I walk the grounds with my coffee. I watch the sun rise over the fields. I don’t take my phone with me.
Because when I get back it doesn’t stop. Not from the minute the suit goes on until I collapse at the end of the day. I feel like I’ve spent my entire adulthood at this pace and I can’t remember what it’s like to have fun.
At least I didn’t before you.
I know you’re shooting the river sequence tonight and you’ll be too tired when you read this for it to make much sense. Go to sleep. Get some rest. And think of this poem as you fall asleep.
The golden light bathes the land
And for the first time I see
I see that in the darkness the flowers survived
I see that the grass still grows
And I see the path that leads me back to you.
Now I can finally move.
x
Colt
He sent me more poems over that week apart.
A light flashes harshest from the dark.
but beauty hides in the shroud of shadows
* * *
Step into the light, beauty
for the light means you no harm
He never included the author so I didn’t know who he was quoting from, but I started to collect them. I loved fiddling with graphic design on the side so I started making each poem into a tiny work of art. What I was going to do with them, I wasn’t entirely sure. I just knew each one made a picture in my mind that I wanted to save.
We grew so much closer during those nightly exchanges I started to believe we might turn a corner.
I was wrong. When Colt returned I stupidly rushed out of my O’Hara bedroom in hopes of saying hello, but instead I got the side-eye as he spoke with Grayson in hushed and angry tones.
Grayson was the mysterious man I always saw shadowing Colt. No one could specifically give me his job description. He wasn’t an assistant or a partner, but he did both of those things and more.
He was just Grayson.
“Just forget about the Northern Organics distribution entirely, it’s not happening.” Colt said as he handed Grayson a briefcase. “I’ll have
to make Triple C want us.” He raked a hand through his hair and tugged when he reached the ends.
I leaned back against my door and waited while Grayson argued. “We can’t rely on a single vendor, Colt. That’s what got us here in the first place.”
Colt’s eyes snapped to me and back to Grayson. “I know. But we have to get someone on board. We’ll start with them. But not tonight. I’m done.”
“Colt,” I called when it looked like he was actually going to storm past me without a word.
He paused and held up a hand. “You don’t want to be around me right now. I’m in a piss poor mood and I’ve had enough backstabbing for one lifetime.”
Yeah. That hurt. And I’m glad I let it show because Colt stopped dead in his tracks, his entire face going white. “That wasn’t about you. The people I was meeting with this week? We had a distribution deal with their former parent company several years ago. They led me to believe we were much closer to a deal than we apparently were.” He cleared his throat and looked away, uncomfortable. “And that was way more information than you needed.”
Except that I loved it. I knew so little about his troubles and this was a breadcrumb of information to hold on to. “I don’t mind.”
“Yeah. Well, like I said. I won’t make good company right now.” By the look in his eyes I had to agree, even though I hated it. I wanted to run my hand through his hair, take him upstairs and put him in a shower, but he was a bundle of emotions right now. His eyes kept darting around as if he expected his enemies to burst through the door, guns drawn.
And like anyone on the defensive, his guard was up, he was questioning everything, and he was ready to lash out at a moments notice. I didn’t want him confusing our delicate situation with whatever had him so mixed up.
“Then I won’t keep you,” I said quietly, forcing a smile I did not feel onto my lips.
He gave me a quick nod and looked away. “Good night, Lily.”
“Good night, Colt.”
I opened my door and slipped back inside, but just before it shut I heard Christina stop Colt on the stairs. “You look like shit.”
I paused, my ear to the door.
“Good to see you too,” Colt grumbled.
“No really, you look like hell, Colt. You can’t keep living like this.”
“Someone’s got to keep the lights on.” I heard his heavy footsteps start back up the stairs again.
“Work, work, work. You know why you’re so grumpy all the time?”
“Enlighten me.”
“Because you want that lovely young woman downstairs but your ego is too big to admit it.”
“Stop!” he yelled. “Just stop. You’re talking about things you don’t understand.”
“I understand that she’s as lovesick as you are. I understand that you came home from vacation ready to conquer the world and now you’re back to being angry all the time. And I understand that you’re working so hard to hang on to all of this because it keeps dad alive for you, but Colt, you can’t let it kill you.”
I swallowed, my heart thudding in my chest so loud I thought for sure Colt must be able to hear it from all the way up the stairs. For several seconds there was nothing from either sibling.
“You seem to have everything figured out, don’t you big sister?”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong,” he bit out. “The company is fine. Landry Ranch isn’t going anywhere. But that doesn’t mean I have to be fine with mediocrity. I’m working my ass off because I want to.” I knew that was only partially true. “And as for my disposition as it comes to Miss Lawrence, it’s none of your damn business.”
I heard Christina let out a frustrated growl as she stomped her foot. “You are as stubborn as a mule. Or would you feel less threatened by her if you drew up one of your stupid arrangements, huh?”
Arrangements? I didn’t have time to process that however, because Colt lost it. “You know, I put up with your comments and meddling over the years because you’re my sister. I knew you cared. But how I choose to live my life is my business and my business alone. You gave up the right to dictate anything in this house when you chose to move out of it and leave me here all alone.”
“And yet here I am, meddling anyway. You like her. You might even love her.”
Oh god.
“Who am I in love with? Annie? Or Lily? The artist I fell for on vacation or the actress I’ve been fucking in my bed? See, that’s why you need to keep your nose where it belongs. Yes, I’m sleeping with her and yes, I’m confused about what that means because yes I’m still a selfish dick.”
“You are a selfish dick,” she bit out, clearly upset. “You should go to bed and stay far away from the rest of us for the night.”
* * *
“JOIN US FOR DINNER,” Christina begged. “You’ve been busy for weeks.”
It hadn’t been weeks, per se. Just two. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Even with Colt holed up in his room for the night, I didn’t want to take a chance we might see each other. Not after that conversation I overheard.
It was clearer to me than ever that Colt needed time to sort through his feelings before he saw me again, otherwise there was a very good chance one of us would say something terrible.
“He won’t be there.” She arched an eyebrow. “He’s exhausted.”
I noticed that she left off cranky, crabby, and in denial. “I kind of want to do the same thing. Shower, food, bed.” And maybe squeeze in some of the edits Ted sent back on my screenplay.
Which, I might add, he loved. After I made some changes, he wanted to present it to the company.
Heck. Yeah.
So maybe I was a little on Cloud Nine with that news when I did the phenomenally stupid thing of agreeing to dinner.
It was an hour later that I found myself full, a glass of wine in my belly, and a really cute Jonas demonstrating his vast knowledge of lizards at my feet.
“I had no idea there were so many different kinds.” I stared at the glass box with a collection of dead lizards inside.
Lizards that he’d collected over the last two months. Himself.
Boys were gross.
“Oh, just you wait, Miss Lily. My spiders will blow your mind!”
“Jonas,” his mother shushed him. “You need to learn to pay attention. You’re scaring her.”
He looked back at me, confusion written all over his young face, then shrugged. “They’re all dead.”
I shuddered at the thought. “Dessert?” I felt a change in topic was necessary if I ever wanted Jonas to stop.
“Dessert!” he yelled as he peeled out of the small dining room and into the kitchen.
Christina laughed. “You certainly know how to play to your audience.”
I’d finally learned what she did for a living. Christina was a state senator in the middle of an intense campaign for the open seat in congress. She was projected to win, but it wasn’t pretty.
Her husband David helped manage the Landry museums. Talk about night and day.
“Can I ask how a nice woman like you wound up in the most ruthless business in all the land?” She was a really nice person. I genuinely enjoyed every meal we’d shared and, if I was being honest, was starting to think of her as a friend.
That didn’t scream politician. I knew a few, my sister married into one of the biggest political families in the country. Christina didn’t fit their mold at all.
“Family business.” She shrugged. “When dad died Colt took on the ranch. It was always going to be him. He loved the ranch and working for dad. He just,” she shook her head, “didn’t expect it to be so soon, or in such disarray. And me? I took on the political dynasty. Colt thinks it was unnecessary and that I should be here, but I don’t agree. Our family has served in some capacity since 1922.”
“Really?” I guess this is where my lack of interest in politics got me. I had no idea the Landry’s were also politicians.
“It comes from mo
m’s side of the family,” she explained. “The Hunter’s.”
That explained why she went by Christina Hunter Landry and didn’t use her husband’s last name at all.
It also explained why Colt disagreed with her. Saving the Landry legacy seemed to be all he cared about.
“Who ordered dessert?” Colt’s voice boomed through the doorway.
I froze. Shit.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!
Jonas bounced in ahead of his uncle carrying whipped cream. When Colt finally appeared he was wearing my favorite pajama bottoms, a white t-shirt, and carrying a tray of what appeared to be chocolate pudding.
His grin lit up his whole face as he watched Jonas. “I’ve brought an apology in the form of chocolate. Forgive me, Christina?” He dramatically fell to his knees in front of her, hands clasped. He was in a much better mood than before, and much closer to the lighthearted Colt I saw on vacation.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Get up. You’re embarrassing yourself in front of our guest.”
Colt’s head snapped up and around, looking for the guest.
When his eyes landed on me, they narrowed, his whole body going stiff. “Lily?” He climbed back up. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.”
“We have dinner sometimes,” Christina said. “Since you were going up to bed I thought she might enjoy the company.”
His head swung back. “Christina . . . I thought we discussed this.”
“We did. We discussed you going up to bed. Alone.”
He turned back to me. He was trying to figure something out, but I wasn’t sure what. “A word, Lily? Outside?”
