by Miranda King
Something was spiraling in me everywhere he touched, and even in places that he didn’t touch. The sensation caused the muscles in my stomach to pull like I was reaching for something off a high shelf, but I had my arms only around him.
Added to this, he was giving me the lightest, sweetest kisses along the curve of my neck and shoulders that sent paralyzing tickles throughout my body—I was captive to this man.
I heard myself whimper. “More.”
He unbuttoned my blouse with ease using one hand and slid it across my chest like a curtain being drawn back. He exposed the unfiltered view of my red lacy bra… that I’d worn only for him.
He moaned and trailed kisses along my chest. “Oh, my little Margarita Girl.” Kisses. “Wait until.” Kisses. “I get you upstairs.” Even more kisses.
Each word, each kiss had me panting for more. I quivered someplace low and deep within my body. I trembled in his arms.
“Let’s go upstairs.” He groaned. “Now.”
He moved that devilish card into teasing twirls of figure eights against my chest. He then raised the red lace at the top of my bra with his fingers. He tucked the card between my naked skin and the lace. My skin burned underneath him. He lingered his fingers and groaned again.
“Meet me in my room.” He eased his fingers away with what seemed like reluctance.
My skin grew cold, missing his touch. But then he curled a finger down the curve of my cheek, and I burned once again.
“Hope you like satin sheets, my little Margarita Girl.” He flashed me that devilishly wicked grin of his, and he was gone.
I had never been in any man’s bed, and my whole body screamed that I wanted to be in this man’s bed. But was I ready for this? I still had time to back out and simply return to my own room.
I smooth my fingers over my breast where Christian had tucked the card. I slipped the card out, buttoning myself back up.
I stared down at it and knew exactly where I was headed—Christian’s bed.
“Will Sass Be a Saint or Sinner at the Masquerade?”
-Gossip Weekly
“Margarita Girls Hired to ‘Entertain’ Guests at Masquerade”
-Royal Rumor Report
On the way to another man’s room was not the time I wanted to discuss the mock trial team with Fallon on the elevator. I provided a few expected nods to his comments and prayed he didn’t get off on Christian’s floor.
It was only the two of us, and he stood closer to me than necessary. I’d swear his finger scraped against my bare thigh—but when I glanced over, he’d crossed his arms.
If I had a hot pink stickie note, I would’ve written a note to myself not to be in another confined space with this man.
Ding-ding.
He stopped the elevator between floors.
My heart plummeted as if he’d cut the cables to the elevator instead of merely stopping it. Did he know about my talk in that coffee shop with Michael over him?
Math wasn’t my major, but it didn’t take a Harvard degree to figure out that something didn’t add up right with this man.
“You’re disappointing me, Sass.” His eyes, bulging like two cigar butts, leered at my body from head to toe.
Ewww!
My stomach wrenched. I attempted not to gag.
“You would’ve made an excellent queen.” He shook his head. “But now, I just don’t know.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not marrying Michael.”
“You don’t have to marry Michael to be a queen.”
He was speaking like the riddles on the LSAT exam. Right now, who cared what the answer was? Christian was waiting on me.
Ding-ding.
I pushed the button for the elevator to move again.
“Just remember, Sass,” he hissed. “If a woman acts like a whore, a man will treat her like a whore.”
He’d probably told Abigail that, too. I did not know what she saw in him.
The doors opened. I exited without looking back. He didn’t follow me, but his words did.
Each time he’d said “whore” was a slap. Not to my hand, not to my arm, not to my face—just to my heart.
Something stung in my chest. I hesitated before I opened Christian’s door.
Click-click.
I swallowed hard. Christian’s body filled my vision. The moonlight bathed his masculine form. He’d stripped off his black jacket and exposed his white dress shirt. The wide expanse of his back was to me, and he braced one of his muscled arms against the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony.
I caught a glimpse of something sparkly in his hand, or maybe it was the water shimmering under the moon in the distance.
He swung around to me. “You’re here.” His voice sounded almost as if he’d believed I wouldn’t come.
If I’d taken too long going back to my room to primp, I wouldn’t admit to it.
He set something on a nearby bureau. The room was dressed in mahogany, warm colors, and red accents.
And I didn’t miss the bed’s location. Posed to view the ocean. Ornate wooden bedframe. The bedspread folded down. Lustrous sheets.
Red. Satin.
He strode towards me.
“Wait.” I held up my hand to stop him. The sting in my heart propelled my words. “You take me as I am. Got it?” I swung my other hand to my hip. “If you want a tall brunette, go find one downstairs.”
He shook his head and continued his trek towards me.
“Wait,” I said. “If you want a real Margarita Girl, go find one downstairs.” I untied my mask. “Got it?” I tossed it to the nearby dresser. “Because I’m just Sass… your Sass, if you want me.”
I was fully clothed, yet naked, standing in the shadows of his room. He’d lit candles everywhere, and they flickered, like my heartbeat.
“Right now, right here, you think I want a Margarita Girl.” That was a statement, but was it a fact?
“That’s what you called me downstairs. But as you can see”—I spread my arms out beside me—“I’m just Sass. And I’m not sure if, after everything yesterday, you still wanted—”
“Just Sass?” He finished my words in sync with how I would’ve said them. For some reason I was reminded of Smart Sally and her mom, as I’d seen them on our garbage truck adventure, so perfectly in tune with each other.
I craved an even closer connection with him.
He moved into the shadows with me. He brushed his lips across the side of my cheek and whispered into my ear, “But I wonder, just Sass, why you’d think I’d want to do this to another woman”—he continued to feather kisses across my cheek—“and not you.”
His lips moved down to nuzzle my neck. I tilted my neck back to him in a silent plea for more.
“My Sass,” he said between the onslaughts of kisses. “I want you.” More kisses. “And only you.” He cupped both his hands around my cheeks. “You can’t deny what is between us.” He brushed a gentle kiss across my forehead.
“Oh, Christian,” I breathed. I ran my fingers up his strong arms and laid my hands on his hard chest.
“Touch me.” He ripped his shirt to the floor and exposed six-pack abs. “For you only.” He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.
I gaped at him and sucked in a breath. I explored my hands across the smooth ridges of his bare arms and naked torso that I’d only been able to imagine, until now.
All those curves, valleys, and ripples of his muscled chest caused a deep ache inside me, as if those butterflies in my stomach also wanted to roam across his body.
His breathing came in hard pants. He grasped my hips and massaged his hands up and down the sides of my body. I wanted more. I placed my hands on top of his and guided them to my breasts.
“Touch me,” I invited him.
He tore through the buttons of my black shirt and dropped it to the floor. He inhaled a long breath and touched his hands boldly across my red lacy bra. He trailed kisses along the edges of the lace, and I sensed he’d go no f
urther unless I allowed him.
But I burned for his hands on my bare skin. “For you only.” I unsnapped my bra’s front clasp, spilling free for him.
He fixed his eyes on me. “Beautiful.” His voice was hoarse. He slid the lace away from my body, and instead his hands, lips, and tongue covered every inch of my breasts.
He laved my nipples in what anyone would’ve considered a thorough nipple check.
He suckled. I panted. “I want.” Jolts of pleasure rocked my body. “Those red satin sheets.” Electricity shot through me. “Now.”
I shimmied down to only my red lacy panties, and he let me undress him and touch every naked part of him. We tumbled towards his bed.
He enfolded me into his secure arms and settled my back against those soft, soft sheets. He lay down, angled beside me. He curled his finger down my cheek.
“Do you want this, Sass?”
“More than anything,” I said. “I want you to be my first.”
“I’ll be your only,” he growled.
“We’ll see how you do,” I teased him.
“My SLT,” he murmured against my cheek. “The things you do to me that no one ever has.”
I touched my hand to his cheek. “Oh, how I needed to hear you say that, Christian.”
He reached his hand up to mine, and he moved my hand to his lips, kissing each finger.
Then he laid my hand down on my stomach and let his fingers skim down to the lacy edge of my panties. “Say my name again.”
I quivered. “Christian.”
His fingers traced along the curves and valleys covered by lace. Around and around and around. “Say you’ll be mine, Sass.” He urged me with kisses along my cheek and the ridge of my chin. “And I will be only yours,” he swore.
No shadows lingered between us.
“Yes-s-s.”
He dove his fingers under the lacy fabric at my hips, staking a possessive claim.
Gasp.
Oh, his fingers. One by one. Two at a time. Sparks of desire raced through my blood. My whole body aflame for him.
“Take them off.” I tugged at my panties.
Rip.
That was one way of doing it.
He hovered over me, and his heat enveloped and protected me.
He braced his arms on both sides of me and caged me in with his powerful body. The hard curves of his chest grazed my nipples. I arched my back and rubbed my aching breasts fully against him.
He groaned, and then whispered against the side of my cheek, “I love you, Sass.” He gazed at me and his eyes reflected his words.
I reached my arms around him to bring my hands to his cheeks. “I love you.” That was a statement of fact… I surrendered my words, my love to him.
He nuzzled the side of his face against mine, and I trembled. I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged his chest tighter against my throbbing breasts. I entwined my legs around his and allowed his hard length to probe close to me.
He gazed into my eyes. “Sure?”
I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded.
“I’ll be as gentle as I can, but we can’t go back after we do this.”
I nodded again.
“I need to hear you say it.”
“Yes-s-s.”
“God, yes.” His voice was thick with need.
Gasp.
I surrendered something else to him: My most prized possession that I’d guarded for twenty-one years… myself. All barriers gone.
“Okay?” He searched the depths of my eyes.
I bit down on my bottom lip and adjusted my body to him. I gasped again. “Oh, yes-s-s.” I drew him in closer to me.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
That was my heart, or was it his?
We beat in unison, in a rhythm he controlled. The headboard knocked along with us.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
He grasped my hands and rubbed against them in long, sensuous strokes. Electricity fired straight up into my belly causing those butterflies to stir again.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
His hands, now hot, massaged mine against his satin sheets over and over and over. Pulsing sensations rippled across my skin that I couldn’t control. My body begged for more.
I arched my back and clenched him tight around me.
He groaned.
I clenched him again. “I want.” Tight. “All.” Tighter. “I can get.”
“My Sass wants more?” he taunted in a raw voice.
I whimpered back, and his body pressed me further into the silky folds of the sheets.
“All.” His voice was heady. “I have.” Thick. “Is yours.” Firm.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
He kissed me fast, hard, deep. Coming up for air, only to whisper, “I love you.” Faster. Yes. “I.” Harder. Yes. “Love.” Deeper. Yes. “You.”
“Oh, Christian.” I closed my eyes. I was free-falling to an unknown destination. I reached behind me to clutch the headboard.
His words and his body filled me over and over and over again. I gripped that headboard for dear life, trying to rein in a million butterflies fluttering against my insides.
He panted. “Let go with me, Sass.” Thump, thump. “Let go.” Thump, thump.
I uncoiled my fingers from the headboard, and I stretched my hands out to my sides like I was flying up to Heaven on satin sheets. I was spiraling up and up and up.
I writhed. I moaned. I let go.
I wasn’t afraid. I knew I had his arms to fall back into.
Spasms surged within me, as if my belly had released billions and billions of butterflies and they’d carried me away with them.
He chanted my name in a frenzy, riding along with me.
A warm explosion flooded me, and he floated me to the highest reaches of Heaven in his arms.
When we were back down, he rested his forehead against mine. He was still breathing hard. He closed his eyes and whispered, “Dear God, thank you for her.”
He opened his eyes and drew his head back to gaze upon me. “I belong to you now,” he said. “And you belong only to me.”
“Yes,” I promised, knowing how much he needed me to confirm it. I brushed the hair across his forehead, wishing I could brush away the hurt from his past.
“I will protect you with my life.” He swore a warrior’s pledge.
I quizzed my brows at him. This was Maravista, playground for the rich, not a war-torn country.
He captured my lips and invaded me with his tongue. Gentle. Warm. Hot. Hard. He pulsed to life again and rolled me on top of him.
He guided my hips. Gentle.
Then he let me control the rhythm and massaged my breasts with his hands. Warm.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
Those butterflies were fluttering low in my belly, begging for me to unleash them. I quickened against him. He matched me thrust for thrust. “Oh, Christian, you feel so good.”
I arched my back and leaned behind me to support myself on my hands. I wanted to go even faster. He did exactly that.
“Oh, yes-s-s.” I dropped my head back and my hair brushed against his legs.
He drove into me. Fast. “Sass, you’re too far away.” Faster. “From me.” Yet he was deep inside me.
He raised his upper body from the bed and supported his thrusts with one arm stretched behind him. He circled his other arm around my back, pulling me close to him. He curved his back only enough to suckle my breasts with his lips. Hot.
Each suckle was a lightning strike down into my belly.
When my whole body sizzled, he flipped me on my back. “That’s better. I can see you now.”
Gasp. It was better. I could feel him again now. With my whole body revved up, every stroke intensified. “Oh, Christian.”
He controlled our rhythm and I panted against him. Hard.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
“I don’t like you that far away from me.” He suckled on one breast. Yes. “I need to se
e you.” He suckled on the other breast. Yes.
All the while, he plunged into me fast, hard, deep.
I dug my nails into his back. “I love you, Christian.” I clenched around him. Faster. “I.” Tight. Harder. “Love.” Tighter. Deeper. “You.”
He chanted my name over and over and over, and I knew he was on the verge of letting go again—I didn’t want to be left behind.
“Wait for me.” I clung to him. “Wait for me.”
“Always.”
And then he kissed with a passion that released billions and billions and billions of butterflies between us.
When the last of the butterflies had flown away, he caressed the backs of his fingers along my cheek. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone.”
“Oh, Christian,” I breathed out. “I love you more than I ever thought possible.”
He tucked me against him, and I rested my head on his shoulder. We watched the last of the candles flicker out, and my heart beat stronger than it ever had in my entire life.
He stroked my hair, my arm, and my hip with languorous fingers. The candles had now long burned out, but the moonlight shimmered across the ocean.
I curled my toes against his legs, checking to make sure that he was real and none of this had been a dream. So much had happened in the last day.
“You were so cold to me yesterday in the staff room. What changed?” I asked a bit drowsily.
“Divina and Abigail both made me realize that if I didn’t stop making you pay for my past”—he kissed my cheek—“I’d lose you.”
“Yep, sometimes you’d put up this wall between us, and I didn’t know if it would ever come down.” I owed Divina and Abigail for whatever it was they’d said to him. “When that wall was up, it felt so cold between us.” I reached behind me to tap his bare butt. “That was from Granny. Seemed like the appropriate time.”
“Granny wanted to slap my butt for what I’ve put you through? Can’t blame her.”
“Actually… well, let’s just leave it at that.” I smiled and wiggled closer to him—and then I wiggled again just because I could. I loved the feel of his skin against mine.
He groaned. “Does my Sass want more?” His fingers kneaded my hip in invitation. “Let me make up for the past by showing you just how hot I am for you.”
