While David had his hands full with Emmalina, I mingled with Gretchen’s family and even accepted a dance with Jonathan, Gretchen’s brother and one of my oldest friends.
“David’s glaring at me once again,” Jonathan said as we slow-danced.
I laughed. I didn’t need to look to know David was doing a poor job of hiding his jealousy. “I have no doubt.”
“Where’s Lucy this weekend?” Jonathan asked.
“Gretch didn’t tell you?” I asked. “Apparently, she’s, like, eight months pregnant.”
“Ah. Yeah. Good call to stay home,” he said. “This is her third, right?”
I nodded. “That’s what I’ve heard.”
“You two still don’t speak?”
It’d been ages since my last e-mail exchange with Lucy, my college best friend and roommate. Now and then, David and I saw her and her husband, Andrew, at events, especially considering she and Gretchen remained friends. But we’d never progressed beyond formalities. At this point, I doubted we ever would. “She has a different life now,” I said. Gretchen filled me in and had even told me—news she got from Lucy—that Bill had remarried. “We’ve all changed,” I said. “And that’s okay.”
Jonathan looked over my shoulder, and nodded. I turned my head to where David spun Emmalina on the dancefloor.
“Now it’s my turn to be jealous,” I joked. “You should go dance with your niece, Jon. Do that thing where she stands on your feet.”
He smiled. “Good call.”
After a quick hug, he crossed the space to tap David on the shoulder and cut in.
My husband stepped back, put his hands in his pockets, and settled his gaze on me. After a crackling moment, which often happened when our gazes met across crowded spaces, he prowled in my direction. “I was just about to head to the bar and order myself a whiskey,” he said, taking me in his arms. “Until a heavenly creature amongst the masses caught my eye.”
I let him spin and dip me. Bent backward over his arm, I licked my lips. “Heavenly creatures don’t kiss the way we do.”
He pressed his mouth to mine for a quick, charged, juicy kiss, then righted my body. “You’d think Gretchen’s brother would know by now to keep his paws to himself,” David grumbled as we danced.
I laughed lightly. “I honestly think he likes getting under your skin.”
Emmalina giggled uncontrollably as Jonathan exaggeratedly danced with her standing on his dress shoes.
“It’s funny how much she resembles Brian and Gretchen,” David said. “Not just physically, but personality-wise, too.”
“She’s definitely going to be a handful, just like Gretchen.” I wondered if David was considering his own lineage in that moment. He didn’t have a child to carry on his name, but at least Jessa’s son, Alex, had kept the Dylan name.
After a few moments of silence, I snuggled closer to him. “David?”
His chest vibrated with his response. “I know what you’re going to ask me.”
With my cheek on his chest, I looked up. “You do?”
“I know you, Olivia.” Keeping my hand interlocked with his, he brushed his thumb along my cheekbone. “I’ve never been happier, and I want for nothing.”
“I know.” I smiled a little. “But I have an appointment coming up to replace my IUD, and I just turned thirty-eight. I just like to make sure, you know . . . before it’s too late.”
“It’s never too late, is it?” he asked. “If we change our minds and pregnancy isn’t an option, we can always adopt or foster. But my mind hasn’t changed—I want to be with you above all else. And I know you’ve never second-guessed your decision.”
I shook my head. “I love our life the way it is. Prince and Poppy are my babies. Plus, I feel incredibly connected to the children in our lives.”
“I never thought I could feel so paternal toward someone else’s kid,” he said, squeezing my hand. “Alex is family, and since he doesn’t have a father figure, we fill those roles for each other. Being able to work on college apps with him this past year, and to send him to the school of his choice because of the college fund I set up when he was born . . . it feels really fucking good.”
“You’ve made a huge difference in his life,” I said. “And I know he thinks the world of you. As does Emmalina.”
David spun us around. “I don’t think I’d feel more like an uncle to Emma if we were related by blood.”
I knew what he meant because surprisingly—I shared that sentiment. Even though I’d never pictured myself as a mother, I got a great deal out of my relationships with both kids and saw myself as someone they could come to for anything. “Then I think you’ll be thrilled to hear that Gretchen and Brian and trying for a second.”
David’s eyes lit up. “No shit.”
“Yes shit.” I winked. “Honey, you’re going to be an uncle. Again.”
“Can’t wait. But you know what’s also nice about spending time with a kid who isn’t yours?” he asked and nodded across the room. Emmalina had enlisted one of her cousins, and now they were both stomping on Jonathan’s feet. “You can return them at the end of the night. And get some much-needed privacy.”
I laughed a little, but my insides coiled at the thought of finally being alone with David. I glanced around. Gretchen and Brian danced, looking at each other as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Emmalina didn’t need us. Nobody cared where we were in that moment.
“They’ll be cutting the cake in about a half hour,” I said. “Then, the party will really get going. I think this is our window.”
“Our window . . .?” David’s brows shot up as realization crossed his face. “Don’t tease me, Olivia.”
“I’m not.” I put my arms around his neck and pulled his lips to mine. “Just think. In less than five minutes, you could be inside me.”
He nearly growled into my mouth. “If you’re kidding, call me off now. Before it’s too late.”
“I’m not kidding.”
David pulled me off the dancefloor by my hand. We hurried through the tables before anyone noticed us and were across the lobby within seconds. He grabbed the room key out of his jacket pocket as I struggled to keep up with his long strides. After a moment, he turned back and lifted me into his arms.
I laughed as we boarded the elevator. “Are you going to carry me over the threshold like a new bride?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
We rode up to our floor, and David walked off the elevator with me in his arms. He set me on my feet to get the door open. As soon as we stepped inside, I dropped my clutch, and David backed me up against a wall. He took my chin, tilting my head back to keep my eyes on him.
“Don’t forget, we have to go back downstairs after this,” I told him. “Don’t rip any clothing, and don’t mess up my hair.”
“Ah.” He gathered up my dress to my waist and reached underneath. My lace thong shredded with a rip. “Tell me what to do again,” he dared me.
My gentleman, in his perfect tuxedo, had the eyes of an impatient, horny caveman. My breathing hitched knowing this time, nothing would stop him from getting what he wanted. “I’m serious about my hair.”
He chuckled deep and soft, but then his expression hardened. “Legs,” he said. “Spread them.”
With my back pinned against the wall, I widened my stance.
David took my wrists and pinned them over my head. He pecked my cheek, the corner of my mouth, then sucked a spot on my neck that sent ribbons of pleasure down my stomach. He had to stoop to keep going, and his roughened palms slid down the sensitive inner skin of my wrists, forearms, biceps. I quivered as his hands moved down my sides. Through the fabric of my dress, he took one of my nipples between his teeth, then kissed my stomach. Once on his knees, he dipped his head under my dress. Letting it fall around him, he sank his mouth onto my bare pussy.
“Oh, God.” I sucked in a breath as he flattened his tongue on my clit, then thrust two fingers inside me. My limbs tautened, tr
embling from months of waiting for this. “Keep doing that, and I’ll come already.”
“Good,” he said against me.
David sucked, thrust, and rubbed until the beginning waves of my orgasm roiled through me. With nothing to hold on to, my knees buckled. I yanked up my dress and grasped his hair, a familiar home for my hands. Touching my husband while he gorged on me, nearly suffocating himself, connected me to him.
When my climax was seconds away, I begged for more. “Fuck me, David,” I said.
“Not yet,” he said.
I writhed against the wall as he coaxed my orgasm to its crest. He moaned when I pulled his silky strands as I came, and my limbs went limp.
David unbuckled my strappy stilettos and slipped them off, then put me over his shoulder and carried me into the suite. “You want to know one of my favorite things in the world?” he asked and tossed me onto the mattress.
I splayed out for him, barely able to form a sentence in my post-orgasmic haze. “Having me for dessert?”
One corner of his mouth quirked. “Besides that.” He grabbed the undersides of my knees and slid me to the edge of the bed so my dress rode up around my waist. “I love when I’m eating you out, and you hold my head. Grab my hair. Dig your fingers into my scalp as if you can’t take it another moment.”
“I can’t take it,” I said.
“And yet you always do.” He slid two fingertips over my sensitive clit, and I jerked. My phone chimed from my purse in the entryway, and David groaned. “How much time do we have?”
“Minutes,” I said.
“Minutes,” he repeated and snorted. “And I’ve waited months. I want to savor you. Give it to you rough, then take my time putting my lips on every inch of your skin. I want to fuck your mouth and watch you swallow me.”
“I know, baby.” I dug my heels into the backs of his thighs and pulled him to me. “We can do all of that and more when we get back, but right now, I need you to give me what we’ve both been waiting for.”
He fell over me, propping himself up with outstretched arms on both sides of my head. “And what’s that?”
“Fuck me like you haven’t seen me in months and you only have a few minutes to get off.”
He set his jaw in sexy determination. Keeping himself over me with one arm, he used his other hand to open his fly. Without lowering his pants, he pulled out his remarkable cock. I lifted my hips and watched as he lined himself up against me. “Hey,” he said, calling my eyes to his. “Love you, Olivia.”
“Love you, David.”
With one hard thrust, he sank himself in to the hilt. I gasped, my eyes falling shut to savor the feeling of being filled by David. I would never not love that first, naked plunge, but tonight, it was especially good.
David drew back, drove into me again, and didn’t stop. I opened my eyes knowing he’d demand it of me if I didn’t. I grabbed the nape of his neck as he fucked me mercilessly. He urged my knees up around his neck, leaned on my thighs, and drove into me so fast that his balls slapped my ass.
“Since we’re in a hurry, and I’ve been on edge for longer than I care to admit, I’m not going to wait,” he said.
“Don’t wait,” I said on a breath. “I get so turned on when you fill me up.”
He leaned on me with more pressure, angling to hit a spot that always got me to a second orgasm. “That’s it, Olivia,” he said as I whimpered. “I want your legs shaking the rest of the night.”
“Come with me,” I begged.
He released my legs, leaned in, and caught my mouth for a punishing kiss. His thrusts somehow deepened, growing shorter and harder. “I’m there,” he said, pulling back. “God. Fuck.”
I held his gaze and let go as a shorter, more intense orgasm washed over me. David fisted the bedsheets and shuddered, watching my face as he erupted, filling me with his heat.
He collapsed onto me, sweat slickening his cheek against mine. I gave him a few moments to catch his breath, then pushed him onto his back. “All right, big guy,” I said as my phone dinged again. “Gretchen’s probably on to us.”
I stood from the bed and righted my dress. David sat up, grasped my waist, and pulled me back to him. He buried his head in my stomach. “Don’t put on new underwear,” he said. “I want to know I could bend you over anywhere, at any point tonight.”
“Those were the panties you just bought me,” I said. “You go through lingerie like it grows on trees.”
He grinned up at me. “Why do you think I work so hard for my money?”
I bent to kiss him on the lips. He tried to keep me there, but I said, “Come on. We better go.”
As David fixed his tuxedo, I put my shoes back on and checked my phone. As I’d suspected, Gretchen wanted to know where we were.
David and I returned downstairs just in time to watch Gretchen throw her bouquet into the crowd, then as she and Brian cut the cake. The lights dimmed, and the DJ amped up the group, calling everyone to the dancefloor. I eventually lost David to Brian’s dad and his friend, who wanted to learn more about David’s side business flipping houses.
I felt bad that I’d rushed David out of the suite when he’d just wanted more time alone. I snuck out to ask the concierge where I could get a bottle of wine, and he directed me to the sommelier at the hotel’s fine dining restaurant. After peppering the resident wine expert with a few questions—and with a huge tip—I managed to secure a bottle, wine opener, and two glasses. While walking through the hotel pool area, I grabbed a couple beach towels and made my way down to the dark beach.
I texted David to meet me, unfurled the beach towels, and sat. After removing my shoes, I uncorked the wine. Bass from the party thumped behind me, while waves crashed against the shore.
Eventually, David walked up. “It’s not every day I find a pretty girl alone on the beach with an extra glass of wine,” he said.
“Sit,” I said and poured us each a drink.
He removed his shoes, took the place beside me, and buried his bare feet in the sand. “What’s the occasion?”
I shook my head and handed him his wine. “Do I need one?”
We clinked glasses and each took a sip. “This is good,” he said, examining the tannins on the inside of the glass. “What is it?”
I gave David my drink, threw a knee over him, and settled onto his lap so we were face to face. “It’s opulent,” I said, taking back my wine. “Ripe dark plums and sweet spices.”
“That’s some sexy wine,” he said.
“You’re telling me.” With the sommelier’s help, I’d picked a wine that reminded me of David, the way he’d called me out for hiding behind chardonnay the night we’d met. “Black cherry, with hints of chocolate and earth notes.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Plus, it has a silky mouthfeel,” he added.
“The silkiest.” I smiled. “Complex, like us.”
He smoothed a few loose strands of my hair from my face. “If this kind of love was simple, everyone would have it, Olivia. But very few do.”
I kissed him softly, relishing the chance to just feel him without rushing or being pulled in another direction. When we separated, I sighed happily. “I thought of a reason to toast.”
“Tell me,” he said.
I sipped my wine and held up the glass. “I’m celebrating coming home.”
“You’ve been home,” he said. “I’m the one who was away.”
I shook my head. “No matter where we are in the world, we’re home when we’re together.”
“And we’re not when we’re apart, so let’s not do that again.” We made a cheers to that and drank more wine. “It’s a good time for us to plan a trip,” he said. “My project is finished. You have a break until you start the next book. We could ride a train through Europe. Island hop in Hawaii. Or, we haven’t been to Australia yet.” He shrugged. “But you know what I’d really like to do?”
I tilted my head. “What’s that, handsome?”
“I want to lie in my bed on a
Sunday morning with you while Prince and Poppy slobber all over us.”
I grinned. “I’d like that, too. With those dogs, the bed will never be empty,” I said and covered my heart. “But wherever you go, you take a little piece of me with you. So I’m happy just to feel complete again.”
“You took the words out of my mouth, baby,” David said.
Years since I’d met David, and our love grew stronger with each passing day. And we still had a lifetime ahead of us. A lifetime to grow our unconventional family, to explore the world beyond and the ones within ourselves, and to learn the other in new ways each day—me about my persistent gentleman, and he about his stubborn honeybee.
* * *
Recommended reading after Cityscape Affair: next, start chapter one of Something in the Way, a forbidden love saga from Jessica Hawkins with over 3,800 5-star ratings on Goodreads.
Also by Jessica Hawkins
Learn more at www.jessicahawkins.net
White Monarch Trilogy
“Exciting and suspenseful and sexy and breathtaking.” (USA Today Bestselling Author Lauren Rowe)
An enemies-to-arranged marriage series about a cartel princess caught between two feuding brothers who share only one thing—a desire for her.
Violent Delights
Violent Ends
Violent Triumphs
Right Where I Want You
"An intelligently written, sexy, feel-good romance that packs an emotional punch…” (USA Today's HEA) A witty workplace romance filled with sexual tension and smart, fun enemies-to-lovers banter.
Something in the Way Series
“A tale of forbidden love in epic proportion… Brilliant” (New York Times bestselling author Corinne Michaels) Lake Kaplan falls for a handsome older man — but then her sister sets her sights on him, too.
Cityscape Affair Series: The Complete Box Set Page 96
