The Apartment: The Complete Affair (An Apartment Novel Book 3)

by Amanda Black

  “Then come over here,” she purred seductively.

  “Not yet,” he scolded. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

  And on it went for almost an hour, Ethan smearing and streaking her from head to toe in a wild array of colors and Lily hinting at and pouting for more contact from him. Every brush stroke was like a lover’s kiss against her heated flesh, and it drove her crazy that he was so focused on his art.

  “There,” he said at last, placing his brush down emphatically. “Now turn over slowly.” He helped her move the way he wanted, pushing down on her body in some places and adjusting her on each side until she began to feel like a giant paint roller. Just as she was about to call an end to the entire thing, he stopped and helped her sit up to look at the results.

  “Oh, Ethan…it’s beautiful.” She was surprised to find that it truly was: brilliant shots of color spread across the canvas in different directions, creating a vibrant, captivating effect.

  When she looked up at him she was surprised to find him frowning. “No. Something’s missing.”

  “What could possibly be missing?” Lily asked. “I thought you were crazy when you first started, but this is lovely.”

  “I don’t know how to explain it,” he grumbled, tugging his hands through his hair in frustration. He kneeled down next to her again, sighing loudly. “It’s pretty. I don’t want pretty. I want primal. I see whimsy and joy and love here, but I want passion.” His shoulders slumped in defeat before he finally met her questioning gaze. “I wanted so badly to recreate the passion that you bring to my life.”

  “Baby, don’t you see?” Lily reached up and held his face, ignoring the bright smear of green she left on his chin. “You were never going to find that this way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re just rolling me around in paint here. It’s much too one-sided. I meant it earlier when I told you to join me. This passion between us is something that we generate together; it’s nothing either of us can create on our own. Ethan, you’re my passion. Without you it just doesn’t work. I mean, look at me.” She waved her hand across her body. “It’s all so deliberate and staged. Passion isn’t like that.”

  He blinked a few times as he let her words sink in. “Passion is messy,” he finally whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “And out of control.”

  “Exactly.”

  Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

  “You might have mentioned it a time or two,” she smiled, pulling him closer so that their lips could meet in a searing kiss. But when her hands went to lift his shirt up over his head he stopped her.

  “Wait a second.” He stood up quickly and went to his iPod, changing the playlist from the current, tamer songs to his tried and true “Fuck Songs” list. As soon as a sexy blues riff started to fill the room he turned back around and yanked his shirt off over his head, throwing such a heated look at his wife as he stalked back towards her that she feared she might melt right there on the spot.

  “Oh God,” Lily moaned. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  Ethan stood in front of her, slowly unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them down over his hips. Once he had kicked them off he joined her again, kneeling in front of her like an offering. Without saying a word, he reached over and picked up the palette, setting it gently in her hands.

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked in confusion when he looked at her expectantly.

  “It’s your turn.”

  “Oh!” She slowly ran her eyes down his sculpted torso, lingering on all the places that she loved to touch. Picking up the brush that laid between the different selections of paint, she barely glanced at it before tossing it across the room. Licking her lips excitedly, Lily dipped her finger into the blue paint and began to make bright streaks across his solid chest.

  When she stopped for a moment and smiled at what she had done, Ethan looked down and found that she had spelled out the word MINE on his skin. Unable to keep his hands off her after that, he reached out and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her into him tightly. As their mouths collided frantically, their bodies began to slip and slide against each other, smearing all of Ethan’s hard work from earlier into brand new colors that covered them both.

  Lily pulled back long enough to find the palette that she had dropped, quickly slapping both of her hands down into different colors before returning to her husband with fire in her eyes. She reached for him, dragging him closer as she ran her hands over him possessively, leaving bright streaks down his arms and around to his back. Two definite handprints appeared on his ass when she pulled his hips to hers, moaning loudly into his mouth when she felt his erection prodding between her legs.

  “So beautiful,” he muttered between kisses, nipping at her lips with his teeth. “My beautiful girl.”

  “I want you so badly,” Lily gasped. “You’ve been driving me crazy since we got here.” She couldn’t stop touching him, her hands leaving bright streaks and fingerprints all over his skin.

  “Me? You don’t know how hard it was to keep my hands off of you earlier, just lying there like an offering for me.”

  “Then why the hell didn’t you take me?” she asked, biting his earlobe lightly at the feel of his hands squeezing her breasts, swirling the paint on her nipples even more with his fingers. “God knows I wanted you to.”

  “I was trying to stay in control,” he panted, reaching around her quickly and grabbing her ass, grinding himself harder between her legs.

  “Fuck control!”

  “Damn straight,” he groaned, pulling her down to the paint-splattered canvas. They kissed and groped like desperate teenagers, unable to get enough of each other. “I need to taste you. Fuck, it’s been too long!”

  “It’s only been a week,” Lily giggled as he kneeled between her legs.

  “Feels like a year! That damn kid needs to sleep in his own room from now on.” Their young son, Mason, who was quickly turning into a little replica of his father, was still having trouble committing to his new toddler bed down the hall.

  “Oh, look who’s talking, Mr. Softie.”

  “I don’t think that name is very appropriate for me right now, baby,” he chuckled, nodding down towards the rather prominent erection that bobbed between them.

  “You know what I mean. You’re the biggest pushover whenever he starts begging. You have only yourself to blame for the shortage of bedroom sports lately.”

  “I’ll take that into consideration, but I’ve got more pressing matters at the moment.” He shot her a wink before placing his hands on her inner thighs and spreading them wide, leaving rainbow fingerprints on her pale skin as he exposed her wet flesh to his hungry eyes. “God damn, that’s fucking gorgeous. I wish I could use my fingers, too, but somehow I’ve kept you paint free here and it should probably stay that way. Oh well,” he sighed.

  Without another word he buried his face between her legs, lapping at her silken folds until she was writhing beneath him. Lily shoved her fingers in his hair, grabbing huge handfuls, making it stick up in multi-colored spikes as she pushed and pulled him where she needed him most. After four years of marriage, they had absolutely no qualms about letting each other know exactly what they needed, although they each knew the other’s body so well by now that it was rarely necessary.

  “Oh God, right there!” she cried, clamping her thighs against his head when he started sucking on her clitoris. With a loud shriek and a spasm that ran the entire length of her body, Lily shattered into what felt like a million tiny pieces. But when Ethan tried to keep going in order to coax another orgasm out of her, she yanked on his hair hard enough to make him stop.

  “What, no encore?” he asked, licking and sucking on his swollen lips. He had paint streaks all over his face from her death-grip leg lock and his hair was sticking straight up, but he had never looked sexier to her.

  This was primal.
/>   This was passion.

  “No,” she nearly growled. “You. I need you. Now!”

  Ethan took one look into her eyes and felt his control snap. There was no time for thought or planning; they were both driven by a pure need for each other that caused a lust-induced haze to fog their brains. When looking back on the evening, both of them would only recall small snippets here and there: streaks of color, slippery paint, and a feeling of absolute bliss.

  In reality, Ethan had fallen on her hungrily, lining himself up at her entrance with practiced ease before sinking inside her to the hilt. They both cried out at their joining, thrusting and slamming their bodies together frantically, as if they feared that they would never be able to get close enough. At one point Lily growled and shoved him over, rolling on top of him and pinning him down with her hands on his shoulders. He groaned at the feeling of her riding him roughly, unable to tell her in words just how much he craved her physical possession of his body. All he could do was grab onto her hips and guide her to another explosive release as he thrust up into her repeatedly.

  At some point after that, Ethan regained control of her shaking body, kneeling between her legs again as he threw her feet over his shoulders, lifting her hips off the floor high enough to balance on his thighs. He leaned forward so that he could kiss her lips as he moved, bending her body backwards—which caused such an amazing friction when he ground himself inside her that Lily could only feel the insane pleasure of him filling her over and over again until they finally collapsed together in a heap of paint-smeared limbs on the floor.

  They lay there together for so long that they lost track of time, kissing and cuddling and simply existing in their own little private world for as long as they could. But eventually they began sticking to each other uncomfortably as the paint dried and became tacky, so they slowly made their way to the little bathroom to shower, leaving multi-colored footprints behind them.

  “You still have blue and purple streaks in your hair,” Lily laughed as she applied more shampoo to Ethan’s head.

  “And you have a lovely red-yellow combination going on,” he chuckled. “It might stain for a while, baby. At least a few shampoos.”

  “That’s alright; I’ll just wash it a few more times before I go back to work on Monday.” She looked at him thoughtfully in the steam-filled shower. “I kind of like it on you, though. It’s like a punk-rock reminder of our wonderful afternoon.”

  “Yeah, but if Mason sees it he’s going to want blue hair, too.”

  “God, you’re right,” she sighed. “I hadn’t thought of that. Bummer,” she pouted, imagining the epic tantrum that their toddler would throw.

  “No worries. I’ll just wear my baseball hat around him until it’s gone. But at night,” he wagged his eyebrows suggestively, “I can punk rock your world.”

  “Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Lily laughed. “But as you mentioned earlier, we’re rarely alone at night anymore.”

  “I know, I know,” he sighed. “I need to put my foot down and make him sleep in his own room. I just… sometimes it just amazes me that all of this is really mine, you know? When you both pile in around me in the bed like that, I feel surrounded by everything that matters, and I just… I just feel so fucking lucky, baby.” He fought through a sudden lump in his throat to continue. “Having you and him has completely changed my life. I have no idea where I would be if I didn’t have you. Sometimes it scares me shitless when I think about it.”

  “Hey, look at me.” Lily reached out and held his face in her hands. “I understand how you feel. I think about it sometimes, too. I try to picture how my life would have turned out and I just can’t do it. You and Mason are the only future I can ever see. You’re stuck with us and we’re not going anywhere, so we might as well find a way to sleep more comfortably at night.” She smiled and stretched on her toes, angling up to kiss him sweetly as the water rained down over their heads.

  “Have I ever told you how much I love you?” he asked when she pulled away.

  “You might have mentioned it a time or two.”

  When they were finally as clean as they could manage, they dried off and got dressed again, returning to the front room to survey the damage.

  “Holy shit,” Ethan said with a laugh, noting all the smears and streaks of paint that covered the floorboards and even parts of the wall. “I don’t think we stayed in the lines.”

  “Your poor studio!” Lily cried. “Should we try to clean it up now before it gets any worse and dries?”

  “Hell no,” he answered without blinking. “I love it. I’ll always have a reminder of today whenever I’m here working.” They walked over and looked down at the large sheet of canvas on the floor. “Well, what do you know?”

  “Oh my God!” she gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

  “I think I’d call this a success,” he said with a chuckle, taking in all the handprints and different shapes and streaks created by their flailing limbs. “That’s definitely passionate. I suppose this should go in my private collection, huh?”

  “Ethan Foster, don’t you dare!”

  “What?”

  “I forbid you to hide this away like those naughty little distractions you paint. You don’t have to sell it, but you really should show it.”

  “You don’t think it’s too personal?”

  “Of course it’s personal, but it’s abstract enough to be comfortable with. That is one of the most beautiful things that you’ve ever made. I thought it was going to end up a big muddy mess, but all of those amazing colors! Can you believe we did that?”

  “Of course I can,” he whispered as he smiled down at her. “Our love makes amazing things happen.”

  * * *

  Two months later, they stood together in front of the same canvas, now stretched carefully around a frame and mounted on the wall of the art gallery showcasing Ethan’s latest collection. It was large, at least eight feet wide and just as tall, and it was definitely the showstopper of the evening.

  Critics and fans alike had swarmed around it, unable to tear their eyes away from the primal electricity the piece conveyed. It was evocative; whether they loved it or hated it, nobody could deny that it made them feel. The crowd around it had been so huge that Ethan and Lily hadn’t even bothered going near it until the party was over and they could grab a few moments in front of it alone.

  Once the coast was clear, Lily leaned into Ethan’s side and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing fondly as they took in the canvas again. She read the title card next to it on the wall and smiled to herself.

  Spread Your Love

  A Study in Passion

  “Wasn’t that the song that was playing that night?” she asked.

  “Good memory,” he said with a nod, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. “I’m sure other songs played later, but that was the only one I could remember for certain. It seems to fit, don’t you think?”

  “Perfectly.”

  “It still blows my mind when I look at it. I mean, that night couldn’t have been more perfect, and now there’s this amazing reminder of it that we’ll always have.”

  Lily smiled more broadly, deciding that there would never be a better time to tell him. “You know…that’s not the only thing we made that night.”

  “What do you mean, the mess in the apartment? I told you not to worry about that. I love it! It’s actually rather inspirational,” he added with a wink.

  “No, sweetheart.” She grabbed his hand and placed it over her still-flat belly. “I’m telling you that we made something else. Another amazing reminder.”

  Ethan cocked his head to one side before his eyes went wide with disbelief. “Bullshit!”

  Lily threw her head back and laughed, loving that he’d had the exact same reaction the last time she told him they were expecting.

  “You’re serious?!” he cried.

  She only had time to nod before he whooped loudly and picked her up, twirling her around in circle
s.

  “You aren’t upset, are you?” she asked when he finally set her down.

  “Woman, are you crazy? Was that the reaction of someone who is upset?”

  “Well, no, but I know you’ve mentioned to your family that Mason is such a handful, and we’re barely managing with one. I wasn’t trying, I swear. I was still getting my shot. I don’t know how, but it just…happened.”

  “Hey, what did I say to you that night?” he asked, grabbing her chin in his hand and tilting her face up to meet his eyes.

  “‘Our love makes amazing things happen,’” she answered softly as she swallowed past a lump in her throat.

  “It sure as hell does.” Ethan leaned down and kissed her gently before pulling her into another fierce hug.

  They decided later that night as they whispered together in bed that they would never sell that painting, regardless of all the offers Ethan had received that evening. But they did agree that one day they might leave it to their unborn child as a keepsake of the night he was made. Whether they would actually tell him about it was another story.

  Six Months After That…

  “Mason!”

  A loud yowling could be heard down the hall, followed by the clumsy thuds of a toddler running across the floorboards.

  “Mason George Foster! Get back here!”

  Lily couldn’t help smiling to herself in her bedroom mirror as she applied a light coating of lipstick and listened to Ethan’s voice bellowing from the front room. Two minutes later she was nearly knocked over by a fuzzy orange streak as Wembley shot under the bed—his new favorite hiding place—followed closely by her two-year-old son.

  Her two-year-old son who was currently wearing nothing more than a Yo Gabba Gabba! T-shirt and one sock.

  “Wembee!” he yelled, getting down on his hands and knees to peek under the bed. “Wembee, come outta there!”

  “What seems to be the problem there, bud?” Lily asked, trying very hard not to laugh as she turned to face his bare bottom sticking up in the air.