Cityscape Affair Series: The Complete Box Set

by Hawkins, Jessica

  With my face locked on his, I said, “You can’t. You can’t fix it. This can never be anything but broken.”

  “To hear you say that . . . it kills me.”

  “But it’s true. We’re headed for disaster. Even if I walk away right now, too much has happened already.”

  His brows dipped. “Are you going to walk away?”

  My chin quivered again, and he rubbed it with his thumb. “How can I?” I whispered. “How can I not?”

  “These have been the longest months of my life,” he said.

  “For me, too,” I said in a breath.

  “I don’t think I could give you up again.”

  “But you have to. We’re all going to get hurt.”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes so that you don’t.”

  His hand slid away, but I held his gaze. “Even if it means letting me go?” I asked.

  He cleared his throat and looked up at the headboard. His answer sounded far off, as if from a distance. “Would that make it better?”

  “It’s just too late,” I said, unwelcome tears spilling from the corners of my eyes. “I did this to myself. But I don’t know how to make it stop. It—it hurts to be away from you.”

  His face folded, and he cupped my cheek. “So don’t be away from me.”

  I curled under the shelter of his broad shoulders, hiding my face from him. “You don’t know what you’re saying,” I said, holding in the tears with everything I had.

  “I know exactly what I’m saying.”

  “No,” I said resolutely, clutching the pillow.

  But it hurts so much.

  He enclosed around my quaking shoulders, littering my hair with kisses until I fell asleep.

  15

  I woke abruptly and shot upright in a very big bed in the middle of the night. The breathtaking city sprawled around me, but I didn’t care because I was alone. I eased out from between the hotel’s silky sheets and stood slowly. Through the sliding glass door, the pool glowed turquoise as David did laps, his lithe body slicing through the water.

  I slipped into an oversized terrycloth robe and stepped out into the night.

  Hanging my toes over the edge of the pool, I watched David complete a lap. At the edge, he whipped his hair off his face to look up at me. “Did I wake you?” he asked from below. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “No.” I shook my head dreamily. Steam spiraled upward from the water. I dizzied just from the way the glowing pool backlit his wet, glistening body.

  “Why are you smiling at me like that?” he asked.

  Had I been smiling? If not for my surroundings, I would’ve sworn tonight had all been a vivid, wonderful dream.

  I sat and dipped my feet into the warm water. I reached out to push wet hair from his forehead. He moved between my knees and skimmed his hands down my calves to shackle my ankles. Leaning back on my palms, I closed my eyes at the feeling of his skin against mine.

  Our rooftop was completely silent; only water splashed as his hands glided back up, over my thighs and underneath the robe. My breath quickened as he pulled the tie open, grasped my waist, and slid me to the edge. His head buried in my lap while I fingered his dripping, inky hair. He eased my thighs apart to nuzzle me. My moan was barely an exhale.

  With his first firm lick, my arms buckled. He tasted me slowly, stopping now and then to suck and kiss. With an ankle in each hand, he guided my heels to the edge so my knees bent, and I was bared to him. His arms wrapped around my hips, securing me to him. When his nose nudged into my clit, I jerked against his firm hold. He inserted and spread two fingers to open me wider. His tongue probed inside of me quicker, with more pressure, and my legs began to shake.

  I fell back onto the concrete, my thighs shaking. With his mouth working its magic and his thumb on my clit, he coaxed me into a rippling, full-body orgasm that had my back bowing off the ground and my throat surrendering to soft moans.

  As I lay limp, he pulled my arms from the robe and lifted me. He slid me down his body and into the pool. I kept going until I was completely submerged. When I resurfaced, David touched my face for a deep, penetrating kiss that tasted like me and like him. Despite the cool night, the heated pool made my head spin.

  “Look down,” David said.

  I gasped. He’d swum us to the overhang, and I instinctively clung to him. “Wow.”

  “It’s safe,” he reassured me, but he held me close. A thrill spiraled through me as I peered down at the city. His feet planted firmly on the glass bottom, but I knew I would be treading water if I let go.

  He looked at me strangely. Something fiery, but deep and sensual. “You’re so beautiful,” he told me softly. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” I wanted to look away; it was too much—but his burning brown eyes, his dripping wet lashes, his razorblade jawline . . .

  He was so arrestingly beautiful in that moment.

  He licked his lips, curled a hand into my wet hair and pulled. “Christ,” he murmured. “I need you now.” Hearing him voice his desire turned my insides to liquid. He devoured my neck with hard, unforgiving kisses that strayed over my shoulders and up to my earlobe.

  He cut us through the water and carried me out of the pool, to a lounge chair. With an outstretched hand, he lowered me onto the cushion.

  “Cold?” he asked, breathing heavily over me.

  “No,” I replied, because when I was underneath him, I could never be anything but warm. I wrapped my legs around him, and he dropped his hips. I cried out as he drove into me with a grunt.

  His face fell into the curve of my neck, and he stilled. “You feel amazing wrapped around my cock,” he panted. “You’re so warm.”

  When a breeze blew over us, I locked my ankles at his lower back, pulling him closer. “Christ, Olivia.” He rolled his hips into me and pulled back to the tip. His eyes locked on me, and his next stroke was firm but slow. My face flamed feeling his every inch move into me and then out again. His hand moved to my hips, steadying me for his next powerful plunge. He rooted himself there, gritted his teeth and squeezed me against him. “Deep enough?”

  “It’s d-deep,” I stammered, because I was so full with him I thought I might split apart. “Don’t stop.”

  His thrusts continued steady and firm, the perfect complement to his soft and buttery voice. “I’m so hard for you,” he muttered, nibbling my ear. “So hard, and you’re so hot.”

  I was still thrumming from my first orgasm, and my climax built quickly. I almost came when he began to swivel his pelvis, feeling all of me with each rotation.

  “You’re close,” he said as he switched from swiveling to short, fast drives. “Kiss me.”

  Our lips clashed hungrily, and I could taste his desire. “Show me how it feels,” he ordered into my mouth. “Come, Olivia.” My name rolled off his tongue with command, turning my world on its side. I clenched around him as he pounded me through a pulsing orgasm. I fell back against the cushion warm and flushed.

  “You feel too goddamn good,” he said through a set jaw while grinding faster into me.

  I dove my hands in his hair and pulled. “I want you to come, David, come inside me, make me yours.”

  “Not without,” he paused as his face contorted with pleasure, “a condom.”

  “Then come in my mouth.”

  He groaned loudly and jumped up before I’d finished the sentence. I went to touch him, but he stopped me with a hand around my wrist. “I want you on your knees,” he growled. I climbed down onto the hard concrete, and he took my chin in his hand. “Open.”

  I obeyed, and he slid into me. He threw his head back when I closed my lips around him. I circled my tongue around the tip before taking him as deeply as I could.

  “That’s it, baby,” he praised. His fingers threaded in my hair and pulled. “How do you taste on my cock? Hmm? Look at me.”

  I blinked my eyes up to his.

  He hissed and jerked slightly but held my stare. My tongue ran over every glorious inch I co
uld reach. I pushed him to the back of my throat and stroked with my hand whatever I couldn’t taste. “Hands behind your back,” he admonished.

  Oh, God, I love the way you rumble when you tell me what to do. Take me, use me, have me, David, I’m yours . . .

  He fisted my hair tighter, and with one thrust, he took over. I sheathed my teeth with my lips, and he pushed himself to the back of my throat until I gagged. He pulled back but continued fucking my mouth, his moans low and throaty.

  “Fuck. I’m going to come so fucking hard,” he warned. My tongue flattened under his crown, and his body shook as he began to ejaculate. I lapped up the first few drops before he yanked my hair and erupted into my eager mouth. I swallowed him as I could get him, letting the saltiness fill my mouth and run down my throat.

  “Holy shit.” He loosened his grip. I waited on my knees while he caught his breath. He hauled me up and kissed me hard. “That was so good,” he started, “it should be illegal.”

  “I’d be willing to go to jail for that,” I responded seriously.

  He laughed and kissed me again, his hands falling down my arms. He interlocked his fingers with mine and ran his other hand over my hair, tugging softly on the ends. “Are you cold?”

  I nodded. He led me back into the suite and gestured once at the toilet. Remembering his rule about peeing after sex, I rolled my eyes but sat down anyway.

  “How about a nice hot shower?” he asked.

  “Yes, please,” I rasped, not yet recovered.

  He started up the water, and I found him moments later cloaked in billowing steam. “Come on, pretty girl,” he said, opening his arms. The heat of both the water and his hard body was heavenly after the cold. He planted a sweet kiss on my lips when I looked up at him. “You drive me mad,” he whispered.

  I smiled into his mouth and just said, “Likewise.”

  His hands moved over my face, and my eyelids drooped shut. He smoothed my hairline repeatedly and kissed me carefully. “I never want to let you go,” he murmured.

  Though his words were warm, a chill wound through me. Our bond was strengthening alarmingly fast. He ran his thumbs over my eyebrows. I opened my eyes cautiously, because I knew what I would see on his face: something stronger and more intense than I was prepared to accept. As water dripped from his long lashes, I remembered when our eyes had met for the first time and the jolt of electricity I’d felt.

  What does he see when he looks at me that way?

  I rested my cheek against his solid pecs and clung to him as he massaged shampoo into my hair. I was content to just listen to his heartbeat while he cleansed me.

  “I need conditioner,” I said against his chest when he’d finished.

  “You need conditioner?” he teased, but he ran it through my strands, lovingly working out the tangles. I still didn’t move when he washed his own hair. My eyes squeezed shut as the suds slithered down his skin and onto my face.

  When he shut off the water, I let him go reluctantly. He wrapped a large white towel around his waist and held another open for me.

  I prefer his skin, I thought, but let him envelop me in it.

  He ran his hands over my covered shoulders to warm me and moved my hair from my face. “We should get your hair dry.”

  “It’s all right,” I said and yawned. “I’m tired.”

  “You can’t sleep with wet hair.”

  “It’ll dry before I get home,” I reassured him.

  His face fell, and he stepped back with my shoulders still firmly in his hands. “You’re going home?”

  “Well, yes, I have to. I can get a cab.”

  “Isn’t Bill . . .?” His mouth distorted as though he’d bitten into a lemon. “Isn’t he out of town?”

  I glanced away. “He’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”

  “Well,” David said and exhaled an irritated laugh, “if you think I’m letting you go home alone at this time of night, then you’d better think again.”

  I furrowed my brows and turned back to him. “I’m not a child. I can get myself back in one piece.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “If you must go, I’ll drive you.”

  I shifted on my feet, weighing my options. I was so sleepy, and David was so warm and comfortable . . .

  Guilt and desire constantly battled inside me, overcoming one another, tormenting me in the process.

  “Come on,” he said with a sigh. “One step at a time.” He pulled a hair dryer from a drawer and motioned me over. I stood in front of him, tilting my head upward as he raked a hand through my hair. “Just tell me if I hurt you.”

  His eyebrows dipped as he concentrated, careful not to pull while he detangled my hair. It made me smile to think that he’d just been pulling it much harder without a second thought. And I’d loved the uninhibited rawness of it.

  “Keep smiling like that, and I might have to bend you over this sink.” He gave my hair a playful tug when I widened my eyes. I rewrapped the towel under my arms and took the rare moment to appreciate the man in front of me. The shampoo made him smell fresh like early morning. His pecs flexed in unison with his biceps as his arms moved over me. I admired the lines of the square jaw just inches above my head that gave way to a long neck and sprawling, muscled shoulders . . .

  I quivered and ducked backward, hoisting myself onto the counter. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him to the sink. “Your turn,” I said, taking the hairdryer.

  He inhaled appreciatively when I stuck my fingers in his hair, which was really only damp. He kissed my nose.

  “Now, now,” I scolded. “Don’t distract me. I take blow jobs very seriously. No one goes to bed with wet hair tonight.”

  He laughed with his whole body, and I secured him closer, locking my feet against his lower back. We were level now, and his eyes watched me closely; I could feel them even though I kept my focus on his silken hair. Once I’d finished, I set the blow dryer on the sink and styled his hair away from his eyes. My own hair was messy, but it didn’t matter. How could it be bad when he’d fixed it himself?

  He pulled on my towel so it fell open. His eyes closed, and he leaned in to inhale deeply, as if committing my smell to memory. He placed a kiss on the underside of my jaw. Curious hands explored me, touching wherever he could reach. I flinched when he passed over my scar.

  His eyes dropped to my lap, and he gripped my thighs. “You taste so good,” he uttered, licking his lips. He pulled me in for a hug, and his finger trailed goose bumps down my spine. “Did you eat tonight?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Did you eat? Aren’t you hungry?”

  “I’m fine.” I sighed into his neck. “And I should go. It’s late.”

  He stepped away, and I shivered instantly. My face distorted as I looked at him. “I’m so cold without you.”

  “I’m sorry, baby,” he said. “It is cold tonight.”

  I shook my head. “All the time. I’ve been cold since that night. I can’t get warm.”

  “It’s probably all the goddamn weight you lost,” he said. “This is unhealthy. What happened to the girl I took for burgers a few months ago?”

  “She was lost,” I said, my voice hitching as I looked at him.

  He embraced me again. “If it were up to me, you’d never be cold.”

  “I know,” I said, because I thought I did. I thought I believed that he really did want more from me, but it terrified me when he said it. Giving more meant I had more at stake. More to lose.

  “I’ll take you home,” he said, pulling back. “But for the love of God, Olivia, please let me make you something to eat.”

  “How?”

  “We had an event up here last night, separate from the opening. There are some leftovers.”

  “Will you be naked?” I asked, knocking my heels against the cupboard underneath me. My mouth formed into a circle. “You’re blushing.”

  “No, I’m not. If those are your conditions, then fine. I accept.”

  I blinked at him and ho
pped off the counter. “All right,” I said, shrugging my robe back on.

  “But can I put on underwear?” he asked.

  “Hmm . . .” I closed one eye as I thought, and he laughed.

  I went to leave, but he pulled me backward and into his arms. With my back to his front, he leaned into my hair and murmured, “How’s that for a reflection?”

  I looked up at the mirror. He made me beautiful. Together, we were beautiful—a puzzle with only two pieces. I shifted my eyes to his and nodded. He held my stare a moment and let me go with a kiss on the cheek.

  I snuggled into the warmth of my robe as I wandered to the kitchen while he changed. “Are there plates?” I called.

  He appeared, tutting at me. “I’ll prepare it.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  “Go on, and let me make you something to eat.” He furrowed his brow at the contents of the refrigerator. “There isn’t much, but I’ll come up with something.”

  I propped my chin in my hand and watched him navigate the kitchen. “Do you like to cook?”

  “No. I usually eat out or my housekeeper makes something a couple times a week.”

  It was my turn to tsk. “You do need a woman in your life.”

  He answered with a grunt, but I was comforted that there was at least one thing he wasn’t proficient in. I smiled like a schoolgirl as I watched, enjoying the view of his spectacular, ridged torso and taut ass. His muscles were hard but not bulky, and they became more defined as he moved. I was tempted to show my appreciation by exploring them with my tongue. Once, after he stuck something in the microwave, he stole away for a chaste kiss on the lips.

  He set down two plates of day-old hors d'oeuvres and pulled his chair to the corner of the table so we were close. “Next time you’ll be topless, right?” he teased.

  I forced a laugh, but I had caught his slip. Next time. “However you’ll have me,” I responded, deliberately gulping down my nagging guilt.

  His eyes darkened with the dilation of his pupils. He reached out and slipped his hand in my robe, tugging it open slightly to reveal my breast. “I’ll have you any way I can, until it’s too much, and you beg me to stop.”