When I'm With You: The Complete Novel

by BETH KERY

  “You may come, ma chère.”

  A few seconds later, she shook in orgasm. She kept her labia spread wide with one hand and squeezed a breast with the other, her hips bucking in short jabs against Lucien’s finger.

  It felt so right, letting go in front of Lucien . . . giving herself to him.

  “Very good,” she heard him say a moment later as her shudders waned. She opened her eyelids sluggishly and watched in a daze as he removed the bullet vibrator, which looked glossy from her juices. He hastily grabbed for a different-sized elastic red band, and replaced it with the one that had been around his finger.

  “Come up on your knees and kneel with your face over my lap,” he demanded. She loved the sound of his lust-roughened voice.

  “Like this?” she asked, breathless with arousal and confusion as she bent, and her lips were just inches above the fullness behind the zipper of his pants. Her mouth watered as she stared at the column of his erection pressed against his left thigh. His fingers moved fleetly, unfastening his pants. He stood momentarily and unceremoniously jerked his clothing down to his lower thighs. She only had a covetous glimpse at his muscular ass and thighs before he sat again, and she was staring down at him.

  It was the first time she’d really been this close to his cock with the light on. He wouldn’t let her touch him while he masturbated and pleasured her at night, and the restraints ensured she couldn’t get closer to all that glory. His cock was long, thick, and straight, the color a rich caramel cast with a blood-flushed, rosy hue. There was some dark hair clipped very close at the base of his cock, but his balls were shaved. Her clit pinched tight at the image of the full, round testicles. When they’d hung free that night in Ian’s penthouse when she’d sucked him, they’d been a delicious weight in her palm. He looked awesomely lush and virile and masculine, teeming with life and raw power. She licked her sensitive lips, longing for the hard pressure of his cock.

  “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my life,” she told him sincerely, glancing up at him. He looked extremely sober and formidable as he stared down at her. “May I suck you? Please?”

  A muscle jumped in his rigid cheek.

  “How do you do it?”

  She blinked, unsure what he meant. “Do what?”

  “Play the submissive so perfectly at times that even I believe you.”

  “Because I’m not acting, Lucien. I do want to please you. So much,” she whispered, wonder lacing her tone as she realized what she said was one hundred percent true.

  His nostrils flared slightly as he looked down at her. He placed his hand on the back of her skull, his fingers delving into her hair. Then he was reaching for something. Confusion swept through her when she saw he’d grabbed the vibrator again. She gave him a questioning look.

  “Open your mouth.”

  She parted her lips wide without hesitation, even though her bewilderment amplified. She tried to say something but couldn’t, because Lucien had gently grabbed the end of her tongue and was sliding the band of the vibrator over it. A moment later, the little bullet vibrator rested in the middle of her tongue, her own taste soaking into her awareness. He turned it on again, sending a pleasant pulsation through her flesh. When he removed his fingers, she closed her mouth to contain her saliva and swallowed while the vibrator buzzed away happily on her tongue.

  Her eyes sprang wide in understanding when he fisted the base of his cock and held it at a upright angle from his lap. He noticed her amazed expression and smiled.

  “I’ve learned firsthand just how talented you are with that mouth of yours. I can’t stop thinking about it, to be honest. It haunts me. You hardly need any assistance in giving me pleasure, but since we are tight on time . . .”

  He faded off and gently pushed her toward his cock with the hand at the back of her head, but Elise was already on her way. Once she understood the rules of the new game, she was eager to play. She could tell by the pressure of his hand on the back of her head that he wasn’t in the mood for a tease or a trial, so she went straight for the kill, taking his cockhead into her mouth. He stretched her lips wide as she slid down over his staff, pressing the vibrator against first the fleshy crown and then the stalk experimentally, gently buzzing him, before applying a firm pressure that made him growl, deep and guttural, and tighten his fingers in her hair.

  It felt so strange, having the vibrator tingle against her flesh, knowing he was feeling that same energy pulse into his sensitive skin. She bathed and massaged the first half of his penis with her mouth and tongue before pumping him between her tightly clamped lips and pulsing him with the vibrator.

  “So eager, so lovely,” she heard him murmur from above her, his tone gruff and strained. It excited her to think of him watching her as she swallowed his cock. Yes, she was eager all right. She was also curious about the benefits of the little bullet. She slid her mouth off the tip of his tapered cockhead, feeling his fingers tighten in protest. Before he could say anything, however, she twisted her head, fitting him between her lips in the opposite direction. He seemed to understand her intent, because he altered the angle of his cock with his fist. She took the first few inches of his flesh into her mouth and used the vibrator against his supersensitive slit.

  He gasped. “You clever little minx,” he groaned. “God, that’s good. You really are going to make short work of me.”

  A flash of sadness went through her at the reminder he would soon be leaving her. Still, she wanted to give him his due. She lifted her mouth and turned again, sliding him deep at the more hospitable angle.

  “No. I will hold it,” he said roughly when she tried to replace her hand with his in order to pump his cock while she sucked. He groaned when she sunk him deep and bumped her lips against his forefinger. “I should turn your bottom red for being so blessed good at this.”

  She glanced up at him in a startled query, her mouth full of his throbbing flesh, her cheeks hollowed out from sucking so hard.

  “Fuck,” he said savagely, urging her with his clutching hand until she bobbed up and down on his cock at a rapid pace, her jaw and lips aching from the sustained pressure. “I can take almost anything, but not your eyes,” she heard him mutter darkly.

  She felt him swell impossibly large a few moments later. He began to come, ejaculating on her tongue. It was difficult to keep up. The vibrator made controlling even her own salivation a challenge, and now she added Lucien’s copious emissions. Still, she loved it: the feeling of his cock throbbing against her tongue as he came, his singular taste filling her mouth, his grunts of sharp pleasure, the sound poignant to her somehow. Beautiful. He was the definition of power to her. She loved that moment when his strength swelled and broke, and she held him close while he shook in bliss.

  “No, ma chère. No,” he mumbled in a tight voice a moment later as she licked and sucked him clean. “It’s like stimulating a raw nerve doing that.”

  She blinked, coming back to herself. Reluctantly, she began to slide him out of her mouth. His penis was already overly sensitive in a post-climactic state. The vibrator combined with the enthusiastic cleaning with her lips and tongue was too much for the nerves in his satiated flesh. Much to her surprise, he halted her, however, holding her down with the hand on the back of her head. His expression was amused and self-deprecating when she met his stare.

  “It feels like too much, but it feels good, too,” he said. “You could probably have me coming again in the underside of five minutes. A man doesn't stand a chance with that mouth of yours, Elise.” His cock twitched between her smile. She tickled him lightly with the vibrator and his eyes flashed.

  She was more than game, if he was.

  His phone rang again in the distance. Lucien closed his eyes briefly in regret and released his hold on her head.

  “I should go, as much as I might wish otherwise.”

  Elise slowly, reluctantly slid her mouth off him. She bent her head to remove the buzzing vibrator and set it aside. He put his hand
s on her shoulders and pulled her to him. Elise’s throat tightened as she breathed his scent and luxuriated in his embrace.

  “It meant more to me than you know, the way you expressed your desire,” he said near her skin as he kissed her temple. “You are always difficult to resist, but when you’re open and honest? Impossible.”

  A strange mixture of feeling rushed through her: embarrassment that she’d made herself so vulnerable, but also gratefulness that he’d recognized how difficult it’d been for her . . . and pleasure that she’d pleased him.

  Out of sheer habit, she opened her mouth to say something like, It was my pleasure, or worse yet, It wasn’t a big deal. But no, she wouldn’t diminish either the challenge she’d faced or the gift she’d given Lucien.

  She just looked up at him, her heart in her eyes. He blinked. The next thing she knew, he was kissing the daylights out of her and all rational thought vacated her brain.

  “Why do you always have to make things so hard, Elise?” he said next to her lips a moment later.

  “Because you always make things such a challenge for me?”

  His mouth curved into a smile.

  “I never knew walking out a door could be so difficult until this moment,” he said soberly. He dropped his hands, frowning. “You will do what I said? Every night at eleven thirty?”

  Her cheeks heated. “Yes.”

  “Good. I will enjoy picturing you, knowing you are testing yourself with only my voice in your head to instruct you. I hope in addition to what I said, you’ll also hear me saying how lovely you are,” he murmured, stroking her cheek. “How irresistible. It’ll make me feel as if we’re together, knowing you’re hearing me in your mind, even if we are an ocean apart,” he said before he stood and pulled up his clothing.

  She pulled her dress up over her breasts, all the while thinking to herself that she heard his patient, guiding voice in her head with increasing frequency even without his instructions tonight. She’d begun to internalize his steadfast reassurance. He was cultivating the courage and confidence in herself that she so craved.

  Elise was beginning to suspect that was what Lucien had intended all along.

  * * *

  The next night she returned to the penthouse late. Thursday nights were often packed with late-nighters at Fusion. Although the kitchen closed before the bar, they still prepared dishes later on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights than they did earlier in the week. Denise had needed to leave early, and Elise had volunteered to stay. She didn’t mind. She enjoyed her work, and it kept her distracted from Lucien’s absence.

  The penthouse felt depressingly empty when she entered a little after eleven. She’d already eaten her dinner at Fusion, so she headed straight back to the bedroom. On the way to the bathroom to change, her gaze lingered on the large, three-drawer nightstand next to Lucien’s bed. He’d put the vibrator she was supposed to use at eleven thirty in the top drawer, she recalled, her cheeks flushing with heat at the memory of his instructions. She edged toward the polished mahogany cabinet.

  What other instruments of torture and pleasure did he keep in there?

  The top drawer slid open. Her gaze ran over several boxes and implements, some of which made her heat with excitement, some of which puzzled her. There was an unopened box that appeared to hold several rubber plugs, the larger sizes making her eyes go wide. There was a long, slender, mechanized dildo that made her frown. It hardly compared to Lucien’s gorgeous cock. She picked up a short-handled, highly polished wooden paddle and felt heat rush through her sex. Why did she get so excited over the idea of Lucien using it on her bottom? She opened a lovely velvet box and stared at an assortment of chains with clips and tweezers at the ends. Her nipples tightened. Without thinking, her hand flew upward and she pinched lightly at a crest to staunch the sharp ache.

  She’d never used nipple clamps, but she knew what they were. Something about the delicate beauty of the jewelry-like ones in Lucien’s possession aroused her. They were nothing like the heavy, brutish, sadistic things she’d imagined when she’d heard about them. She flicked one of the gold ones experimentally, wondering what they would look like on her nipples, aroused as she considered Lucien’s expression at seeing them on her, fascinated by whether or not she could endure the tiny clamps. . . .

  She pinched harder at her nipple, the mixture of pain and pleasure bringing her out of her fantasy. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table and replaced the box before she rushed into the bathroom to prepare for bed.

  Lucien had told her eleven thirty, and she wanted to follow his instructions precisely. She thought of the thrill of the little vibrator and hurried through her bedtime routine hastily.

  She wanted to follow his instructions very much.

  At precisely eleven thirty, Elise was naked and lying on top of the comforter, her thighs spread and the vibrator strapped to her finger. She pressed the little bullet between her labia and sunk into the pillows, sighing with pleasure. Why had she never bought one of these little gems before? She rotated her hips, getting better pressure on her clit. Oh, it was divine.

  She recalled how Lucien had taken her so completely that night in the stables, riding her so masterfully, his big, pulsing cock pounding into her flesh, his hands holding her immobile while he took his pleasure in her flesh, his bold possession making her scream.

  Oh yes. It’d been so hot, so glorious to hold him inside her, to hear his grunts of primal satisfaction, to feel his balls slapping against her with each thrust . . . so delicious, to know she was pleasing him so well.

  She gritted her teeth and writhed against the precise pulsations of the vibrator. Oh how she missed him. She couldn’t wait to have him fuck her that way again, to have him take her any way he pleased, to submit to him while he abandoned himself to erupting lust. . . .

  Discipline, ma chère.

  She gasped raggedly. Her hand thumped on the mattress, the vibrator continuing to buzz on her finger, teasing her . . . taunting her. She panted, trying her best to ignore the acute ache at her pussy. Gritting her jaw together tight, she ran her open hand over her heaving belly and cupped a breast. Her hips twisted on the mattress as she pinched a nipple. It felt good, but it wasn’t enough.

  Her clit simmered, begging to be touched.

  She wanted the vibrator. She needed Lucien.

  “You devil,” she muttered, perfectly seeing the glint in Lucien’s gray eyes, his small, sexy smile in her imagination. She writhed in discomfort and arousal . . . burning . . . straining to ignite. Slowly, some of the unbearable tension started to dissipate from her muscles.

  Now, again.

  The warm, hard vibrator was back, pulsing her clit at Lucien’s imagined permission. She whimpered with pleasure. This little thing could get a girl into real trouble, Elise thought dazedly as ecstasy swamped her and she burned in bliss. She was going to come.

  No, ma fifille. You don’t have my permission yet.

  She growled in acute frustration and slammed her hand onto the mattress. For a few seconds, she just lay there panting shallowly, her body coiled tight, every muscle straining, her nerves shouting in protest. She waited for her flesh to cool. She prayed for it.

  Breathe through it, Elise. You are so lovely when you show control. You may come very soon, I promise. Endure just a moment more. Don’t give up. I’m with you.

  “No, you’re not,” she grated out in supreme frustration. She was alone. And she was missing him. And he was thousands of miles away.

  He would never know.

  Within seconds she was shaking in climax, moaning, drowning in forbidden pleasure, her hips gyrating against her hand and the vibrator.

  She sunk into the mattress moments later, her flesh deliciously limp and satiated following her explosive orgasm. It’d felt so good. So decadent.

  You’ve been the very embodiment of self-indulgence.

  Her eyelids flew open. This time, Lucien’s voice hadn’t been a product of her imagination, but a memor
y of something he’d once told her. Guilt and regret slinked into her awareness. She should have done better. She could have, but she’d chosen not to, feeling sorry for herself because Lucien was gone and not with her.

  Her phone began to ring. She sat up, startled. She stared at the device on the bedside table, seeing the number on the screen. Panic flickered through her.

  No. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t possibly know that she’d failed.

  “Hello?” she asked shakily.

  “Are you all tucked into bed?”

  She shivered at the sound of his low voice tickling in her ear.

  “Yes,” she said too matter-of-factly. “And what of you? How did things go with the police?”

  “As good as can be expected,” he said with a sigh. “We presented the evidence. Leboeuf and the accountant have been arrested.”

  Concern overrode her earlier panic when she heard the weariness in his voice. “Have you slept?” she asked, knowing that it was early morning in Paris.

  “No, I just arrived at my apartment. I thought I would sleep on the plane, but I ended up working with my banker to ensure the transfer of funds from my private accounts to the Three Kings. Everyone received their paychecks, right on time. I also had to work on hiring a private investigator to see if he can trace the embezzled funds. Perhaps a good portion of it can be recovered. I’ve just come from an all-night meeting with Monsieur Atale. I was a fool not to hire him as the executive director of the Three Kings right off the bat. He’s a good man. But I was wary of people that had worked for my father previously. I thought it was best to bring in an outsider.”

  “That’s hindsight, Lucien. I know that you wouldn’t hire someone who didn’t have excellent qualifications. You can’t see the inner workings of a criminal’s mind and heart.”

  Her breath hitched when he didn’t respond.

  “You should rest,” she said, sensing his tension at the topic of his father and trying to turn the subject. “You sound absolutely exhausted.”

  “I’m in bed right now.”

  Her thighs clamped tight. She realized her instinctive reaction had come from the quiet, seductive quality of his voice.