by Stella Rhys
So I stayed another hour watching her do things I didn’t really understand. Something about tempering chocolate. Some other thing about cooling it. I didn’t care what the terminology was – I just enjoyed watching Lia drift away to a happy place I wish I had. It was like I wasn’t even there as she leaned over to carefully paint each round mold with a small brush and what looked like paint. Occasionally, as she drew small, identical strokes over the rows upon rows of tiny canvases, I heard her give a little hum of contentment.
And though her top was starting to slip irresistibly off her shoulder, I closed my eyes for a second. I wanted to feel what she was feeling. Even if it was a borrowed feeling, I wouldn’t mind at least a taste of it.
“What are you doing?” Lia giggled. “Meditating?”
I opened my eyes. “No.”
“You should try it. You look stressed out.”
“There’s no way I could look stressed out right now. I’m watching your clothes fall off your body while you make chocolate. This might actually be the best thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
She giggled as she poured an abundance of chocolate over her mold. Flipping it over, she held it in the air, letting the excess drip down like threads onto a pan. “I have no doubt you’re pretty pleased in this particular moment,” she smirked, “especially since I don’t have the hands to fix my top.”
“Just the way I like it.”
“Mm-hmm.” Her voice was rich, velvety. It put me in a trance. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something bothering you right now. Underneath everything.” She peered up to catch the furrow in my brow. “Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to tell me. I’m just giving a light suggestion that you meditate before work.”
“You’re kidding. Do you actually do that shit?”
“Not the way you’re imagining it,” she said, sliding the painted shell of the truffles into her freezer. “My form of meditation is something I do every night. Not the past few nights but I usually do when I don’t have guests, which of course is most of the time,” she laughed softly to herself.
“Alright, enough mystery. What is this secret practice of yours that you want me to do?”
“Take a bath.”
I paused. “You’re serious?”
Her eyes were bright as she nodded. “And you have to do it right. With salts and oils and all that good stuff. Otherwise you’re just sitting in water.”
I smiled. “Is that what you were doing the night I met you?”
“Yes.”
“Goddammit.” I groaned when I thought again about that night. As if feeling summoned, my dick hardened. I had to be grinning from ear to ear as Lia came right to me, straddling me and grinding so gently on my cock that if someone looked through the window they wouldn’t think she was moving. But she was because I could feel it – every pump of her thighs, every throb of her pussy through the cotton of her panties. Grabbing two handfuls of her ass, I kissed down her shoulder till her top fell off one breast. My laugh was low and languid as she let out a sound that was part-moan, part-whimper.
“Don’t turn me on right now, Lukas, I’m trying to help you.”
“You can help me by pulling your panties aside so I can touch that pussy.”
“You’re the worst,” she breathed out with a giggle. “Lukas,” she protested as I slipped my hand under her, drawing my fingers over her saturated panties.
“What do you know.”
“Don’t act so surprised, Lukas. You can always assume that I’m dripping wet around you.”
“Keep talking like that, you’re going to get fucked.”
“Shut up.” She giggled, tipping her head back to let me kiss her neck. I smirked as she tried to get away from me, stretching her arm across the counter, reaching for something. I peered over just in time to see her drag her fingertips across the pan of excess chocolate. The sexiest little grin touched her lips as she brought her hand back, letting it drip across the counter along the way.
Before I could ask what she was doing, she surprised the pleasant hell out of me by cupping her tit with her hand and squeezing hard, smearing chocolate all across her skin.
Fuck. Me.
That little sound of content hummed from her lips as I grabbed her and held her breast to my mouth, swiping my tongue across her nipple then dragging it all over her, painfully hard as I sucked the sweetness off her skin. Her fists pulsed around her handfuls of my hair, her pussy so hot and wet on top of my throbbing dick as I licked her clean.
Damn it, I need a picture of this, I thought as I drew back to admire my handiwork.
She still straddled me in her panties and her worn-out top sliding halfway off her body. She still had just one tit exposed for me but now it was gleaming from the wetness of my tongue and her lips were pinker and plumper than I’d ever seen them. Her mouth stayed parted as she gazed back at me, her eyes pinned on me as her hand clawed her shirt till her other breast popped out. I let out a hard breath.
“I could look at you all day,” I muttered as I rolled her nipple between my fingers. “I know you’re ready to be fucked right now, Lia. But I want you to show me where and how you want it.”
She smiled. Wordlessly, she got up off my lap, glancing only once over her shoulder as she walked across the living room, shimmying out of her panties along the way. Good fucking God. I whipped my dick out of my sweats, stroking slowly as I watched her push her top off her body, ass naked as she bent over the dining table pushed up against the edge of her window.
Without looking back at me, she bent over, arching her body as she gripped the edge of the table and presented me a view of her smooth back, her pinched waist flaring out into that perfect, round ass. I watched the muscles in her calves twitch as she went up on her toes, finally turning to look at me with a wicked little smile.
“I want you to fuck me here. Without a condom.”
My abs clenched.
Fuck, I could’ve come just from hearing that – even when I’d half-expected it. We had quietly taken care of those measures all week but hearing the words out of Lia’s mouth was miles hotter than just knowing something. Then again she could get naked and read me the fucking dictionary and I’d probably come by the third page.
Walking toward her, I shook my head. “Had I met you for the first time on the street, I would’ve never guessed you liked it hard.”
“I didn’t know what I liked till I met you.”
Well, damn. Not your typical compliment but easily the best I’d ever gotten.
Positioning myself behind Lia, I ran my palm from the small of her back to the dip of her spine, every muscle on my body tightening as I rubbed the naked head of my dick against the length of her hot pussy. The shudder of anticipation that ripped through me was almost painful. I couldn’t wait a second longer.
“Lukas!” Her knees buckled the second I drove my cock inside her.
“Baby,” I groaned, my eyes rolling back as I felt the pure heaven of her pussy wrapped around me, squeezing my thick shaft, challenging me to push through her tightness and fuck her as hard as she wanted. A low growl rose from my chest as I pushed myself as far as I could go, my balls pressed against her ass and her nails clawing the table as she gave me a ragged moan.
My name on her lips.
It had to be my favorite sound on Earth these days.
“That feels so good, don’t stop,” Lia whispered fast, her words shaking with my every thrust inside her. I buried my dick deep with every stroke, pulling out only to push back in harder, faster, encouraged by her little whispers of “yes” getting progressively louder. She wasn’t shy anymore – not by a long shot, and I fucking loved it. When I filled my hands with her tits, she clamped her hands over mine and had me squeeze harder. When I talked dirty to her, she talked right back.
“Don’t you dare slow down, Lukas. I want to feel every inch of your cock inside me. I need it,” she whispered as I took a moment to tease her.
When I picked my pace back up, she
rewarded me with the sexiest mmm. Her ass bounced with every backward slam against me and when I muttered what a beautiful sight it was, she turned to watch, grinning to herself at the sight of her own gorgeous body. Just watching her had my balls tightening.
“Don’t fucking do that, you’re going to make me come,” I growled, giving her a spank that made her fucking giggle. The sound spiked my arousal and with a grin, I yanked her up to me. “Get over here.”
She moaned as I withdrew from her pussy, turning her around and lifting her onto the table. She leaned back on her hands as I sat her ass on the edge, lifting her legs and wasting no time before I sunk back inside her.
“Yes, baby. Perfect… that’s fucking perfect.” I was in sensory overload as she faced me now, those brown eyes bright under those heavy lids and her mouth hanging open, hot breaths coating my lips.
I didn’t want this moment to end.
I kept my eyes pinned to Lia’s as I pumped inside her, my forearms under her legs and my fingers digging into her thighs. The features of her face were so perfect, so delicate. They shamelessly twitched and twisted as I fucked her deeper, showing me every emotion, every hint of pleasure I brought out of her. There was no little movement that didn’t fascinate me. She fucking was beautiful. I’d thought it a thousand times already but in this moment, I’d never felt it more.
“Lukas,” she exhaled between the soft kisses I pressed to her lips. My forehead against hers, I drank her in. I saw the tiny flecks of gold in her eyes for the first time. I felt her squeezing tight around me and I heard the change in her breath as she drew closer. I could feel, see and hear everything about her and I didn’t want it to stop. So I slowed my stroke and absorbed her blows when she begged for me to go faster. I felt the workout in my abs, my pelvis as I gave short, measured strokes inside her. I wanted to ride this out for as long as I could.
But when she came, I couldn’t hold out any longer.
Our frenzied hands reached for each other as brutal climax shook us both at once, our bodies slippery, sticky, my breath on her breath and her nails on my skin. With a joint urgency, we cupped each other’s cheeks, foreheads leaning against each other as we milked every last second out of the unbelievable pleasure. Our lids were heavy but our eyes were bright, on fire as we gazed at each other, in awe of each other.
Her tongue danced against mine as I lifted and carried her to bed, laying her down. We floated in a blissful haze for the next ten, twenty minutes. It felt like I was in paradise. My own happy place. And just when I thought it couldn’t get better, Lia put her hand on my chest and said three words to melt me to nothing.
“Please don’t leave.”
I turned to her with a smile. “Don’t you have work to do? I thought no mixing business with pleasure was your one big rule.”
“It is and it will always be. Which is why I’m taking the day off today, as long as you take it off with me.”
“Oh, I’ll take it all off with you.”
“I set you up for that one,” she smirked. “So what’s the verdict? Do you want to play hooky with me today?”
Obviously I did but I took my time to answer because she looked so cute laying next to me, her wild hair spilling over her pillow and her eyes sparkling as she waited for my response. I wasn’t sure if she realized her fingers were idly tracing pictures on my chest, the same shape over and over.
Just as her hopeful expression faltered, I gave my answer.
“I’ll play hooky with you,” I grinned, laughing as she gave a little cheer and pulled me on top of her, wrapping her legs around my waist as she kissed me. Kissing her back, I cursed myself.
I was doing it again. Diving in headfirst. I didn’t know what we were or what we were doing, and I was sure it was a bad idea.
But I didn’t know when I was going to meet another Lia.
And everything felt too damned good to stop.
19
LIA
I spent the next morning in Lukas’s apartment while he got ready for work. On his couch, I sipped the cappuccino he made me, content to just watch him knot his tie. I liked the rare moments that his eyes weren’t on me. It gave me the freedom to just look at him, to study him in his suit. Naked, the man looked like a damned Viking but in a shirt and tie, he looked like a gentleman. I couldn’t understand how any straight woman or gay man at his office got anything done when he walked around looking like that. Everything about him screamed sex and authority, down to the frown in his brow. I kept catching them – faint pinches between his eyebrows every couple of minutes, as he thought about work or the day ahead.
Or something else, but I wouldn’t know.
Unless he was thinking about me, I never came close to knowing what was going on in Lukas’s mind. And while it drove me kind of crazy, I convinced myself to let it go. In the back of my head, beyond the fun we were having, I knew we had an expiration date. It wasn’t a fact that overjoyed me or made me in any way happy, actually, but I reminded myself it was for the best. With Lukas, the universe was giving me balance for once. I had both work and play now. With our little whirlwind romance, I was getting a taste of dating again, my bar was being set nice and high, but I wasn’t getting locked into another relationship. I still had time for me.
Fun and temporary.
That had been the goal for this from the start, so getting invested in whatever was troubling Lukas was probably not in my best interest. I wanted desperately to know more, but I imagined that he didn’t tell just anyone about himself. He reserved those details for people he trusted and cared about.
And as real as things felt between us sometimes, I clearly wasn’t one of those people.
“So what’s your day look like?” Lukas asked as he made himself an Americano.
“It’s a big one,” I smiled, repositioning myself on the couch. Thanks to Elaine, I had a meeting with my first potential distributor at noon. Just thinking about it got me excited.
“You gonna tell me or is it against the rules to even brief me on what’s going on with your business?”
I narrowed my eyes at the teasing grin Lukas shot over his shoulder. “It’s not against the rules to talk about it, I just get superstitious when nothing’s official yet. I have bad memories of promising Ritchie’s mom a whole lot of stuff and never following through.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Well, failure doesn’t care about whose fault it was. It’s still going to happen.”
Lukas wore a deep frown as he brought his mug to his lips, shooting a playfully disturbed look in my direction. “You’re fucking intense sometimes.”
I grinned. “What? Everyone’s got their sore spots,” I said just as my phone buzzed beside me. “Huh. Speak of the devil,” I murmured without thinking as I read Ritchie’s name off my phone.
I’d sent one reply to his message, saying that I would think about visiting. And since, it had opened up a floodgate. He hadn’t stopped texting – random memories, thoughts, old pictures. Even an apology. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve dissected his every text with Sara but in the past week with Lukas, I didn’t care to.
Flicking my screen on, I glanced at the text before looking up to find Lukas cocking his head at me. “What?”
“Sorry. I caught the name on your phone.”
“Oh. Yeah. Ritchie?”
“Yeah.” Lukas adjusted his cufflinks as he frowned at me. “I thought you said you two hadn’t spoken since the breakup.”
“We hadn’t. But he texted me the day after I got my investment deal. To congratulate me.”
“Really? That’s a lot more restraint than I’d give him credit for,” Lukas snorted to himself.
I paused, wondering if I should tell him the truth – about Ritchie selling the house and wanting me to visit before it was gone. I was tempted to since I was curious as to what he’d even say. But I decided against it. “Yep, that’s all. Just a ‘congrats, proud of you’ type text.”
The crease remained i
n Lukas’s brow. “How did he even find out about it?”
“Well, we’re not close but I did have to tell my dad I got an investor,” I said.
“Right.” Lukas looked down for a second. “Forgot he’s still up there. Remarried?”
“No. He’s… alone,” I said.
“You don’t ever miss him?”
I frowned. “Of course I do. It’s just complicated to see him. It involves seeing everyone else. We still text on holidays, birthdays, but the fact of the matter is there’s just… way too much unsaid between us. We’d have years’ worth of explaining ourselves to each other before we could even begin to have a real relationship.” I groaned into my hands. “I hate thinking about this,” I whispered to myself.
“Why? You feel guilty?”
“Of course I do,” I admitted softly. “I mean neither of us were really wrong. He was too heartbroken to care for me so I forced myself to love a surrogate parent. I wish it didn’t turn out that way, but it did.” I chewed my lip, annoyed with myself for revealing so much about myself when I got so little back from Lukas. “Anyway, I’m going to shut up now. I’m just thankful he lives with my uncle and their family.”
“His brother?”
“Yeah. They’ve always been really close.”
Lukas stared and nodded. “Nice,” he said, though he didn’t mean it. His voice was suddenly far away, his green eyes looking vacant.
“Hey.” My brows pulled tight as I studied him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said far too quickly for me to believe. I pursed my lips, watching him look into his coffee for a silent moment before caving.
“You’ve never told me about your parents,” I said softly.
