by Ella Brooke
Heat flared in my belly, but it had nothing to do with my attraction to Brandon. No. It was pride, working its way through me. Everything I did, I did in order to take care of myself, to ensure I never went crawling back to my mother. If Brandon had seen other interns and new employees succeed who showed the same fire, then I felt better.
Like I might just make it.
He nodded toward me and set his napkin on the table. “I have another surprise tonight, Tiger. Finish up. You’re going to want to see this.”
Chapter Eight
Selena
My eyes went wide the minute the limo pulled up to the famous building on Fifth Avenue. My jaw had probably dropped down to my chest too; I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that the store before us had been burned into my brain. My mom had always been an Audrey Hepburn fan, so I’d grown up on My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I blinked and tried to remind myself that I was still awake; that I hadn’t slipped into some dream. Since he wasn’t in shock, Brandon slid out of the limo first and, like the gentleman he was, yanked open the door on my side for me. He stood there with his elbow crooked and a broad smile on his face.
“Don’t be so shocked. It’s just a present, I swear, nothing like rushing the gun to an altar. I like you a lot, but I’m not expecting… Whatever we are, we’re having a good time, and we respect each other. I just wanted to show you that I don’t think of you like I do the other women I’ve been with.”
I nodded and tried to keep myself from feeling upset. What he could have added about the other women was that they’d been disposable, the women who hadn’t lasted at all.
Of course, they’d never been led to Tiffany’s for a shopping spree, so this had to mean something; a show of good faith.
Gathering my wits, I took his arm and let him lead me to the shop. It had been closed down by now to others, but the guard opened the door and followed us in. There was one man, an older gentleman with steel gray hair, standing behind the counter. He grinned at Brandon as we entered.
“Mr. Duncan, can I just say again how thrilled we are that we could serve your needs today.”
I had to stifle a giggle at that. It was another thing I was learning to get used to; the way people revered him. I understood that everyone wanted one of New York’s favored sons and scions to be a repeat customer, but it was still such a contrast for me. I was an often broke Bohemian student who was sometimes glared at as I made my way through stores. Now, I felt like Julia Roberts on the arm of Richard Gere, like I was a princess.
How could I even argue with that feeling when he’d brought me to such a beautiful place to be showered with a gift. Maybe I should have said no, to let the relationship take a slower course, but I also didn’t want to insult him. Brandon was trying to show me he really, truly cared, and I craved that. After Kevin, after so much rejection in my life, I wanted to believe that everything was going to be alright.
Corinthian columns, engraved into the tan marble, rose above my head. The whole store was a Neo-Gothic dream, like something out of a movie of the 1940s. The glass containers were stacked on each other at least seven feet high and rimmed the edges of the main counter. Diamonds glimmered before us, of course, but so did gold, silver, and the occasional sapphire or emerald. It was everything any girl could have wished for, and a place I hadn’t even known I wanted to visit.
Brandon led me to the counter and nodded toward the efficient little man behind it. “Is it ready?”
“It was a quick bit of engraving, but of course we could do it.”
“Good,” Brandon said, nodding toward the attendant. “Could you please hand it to me?”
The little man nodded and presented Brandon with a large, flat box in the traditional Tiffany’s turquoise. I frowned, still not sure exactly what type of jewelry he was presenting me with. There was no way it was a ring—and no way I wanted it to be, not right now—but it was a huge box, and I was betting that meant it was bigger than a bracelet too. Brandon turned and opened the top of the box, and I gasped at the beautiful gift inside.
It was a gold necklace with a charm fashioned into the shape of an antique, Victorian-era key. In the center of the flat “head” of the key sat a bright star composed of real, glittering diamonds. I traced my fingers over the diamonds and could scarcely believe it was mine.
“I can’t even… I don’t think I deserve this.”
“Tiger, it’s not about ‘deserving.’ It’s about how much I think you need to have this. I know you can’t wear it often, but you can around me. It helps let you know that I consider you mine, that I value you. In fact,” he said, slipping the chain out of the box and unfastening the clasp. “I’m going to die if I don’t see you wearing it.”
I grinned and pulled up my hair, giving him access to the arc of my neck. He set the thin, filigree chain around my neck and then clasped the necklace behind my neck. My hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they reached up and strayed over the gold and diamonds.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
He flipped the key over, and I squinted down at the words engraved there:
Tiger, you have the key to my heart. Don’t forget it.
My throat grew dry as if it had been stuffed with cotton. I didn’t know how to react to that; how to process it. What we had was the ultimate doomed relationship. There was no way we could ever be public, even after the merger finished. It would gut Tammy. Fuck, I was a terrible friend just for getting this far, for not saying no to the job offer.
For dreaming of him, craving him.
I wiped at my eyes, hoping he didn’t notice that I’d been close to crying. I had everything I wanted right here at this moment, but I couldn’t keep it. It would die out eventually, and that was the last thing I wanted. To lose him… To lose us.
“It’s amazing,” I echoed.
He stepped around me and planted his lips on mine. We stayed like that for what felt like hours, exploring each other, feeling every inch of each other’s mouths. Finally, he pulled back so he could speak.
“You’re incredible, and you know it, Tiger. Anything that makes you happy, makes you look this gorgeous, is totally fucking worth it.”
“I…”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. “Don’t worry, there will be time to talk later.”
Chapter Nine
Brandon
She looked so fucking good sprawled out on the bed before me. She’d done the usual “oohs” and “ahs” of seeing my sprawling penthouse. The large panel of glass looked out on Central Park, and the high ceilings made the entire place feel more cavernous than it already was. But none of that mattered, not when she looked like a goddess before me. Her olive skin seemed to glow under the low light of the candles I’d lit. As she took in deep breaths, her gorgeous, full tits moved up and down. My cock was hard just staring at her.
She had that effect on me. I’d never needed Viagra, but I figured if one needed to get hard, staring at a naked and ready Selena would do the trick better and faster than any little blue pill ever would.
But the crowning glory of her nakedness was the key around her neck. It looked amazing there, seemed to glow brightly between the mounds of her breasts, and it was what made the blood pound fast to my dick. She was everything I’d ever wanted in a woman, and she was mine. For now, and for as long as she’d have me, I was interested. I knew it was complicated, and I knew that we’d have to hide.
I didn’t give a flying fuck.
She was my tiger, and I was going to fuck her rotten every night, all night. I’d take her wherever she wanted and buy her whatever she needed. She was both my princess to spoil and my sex kitten to pound into.
She was everything.
I licked my lips and started crawling across the bed. The moonlight streamed in from the window and made her bright hazel eyes glitter almost gold. Once I was hovering over her, I leaned low and kissed her mouth, probing her deeply with my tongue. Before, I’d be
en dying to take Selena in her office. I’d needed to have her then and there. But she deserved more for her second time; deserved to be worshipped like the deity she was.
That’s what I intended to do.
Closing my eyes, I took in everything about her—the softness of her skin against my cheek, almost like silk, the sweet strawberry scent of the shampoo, the panting of her breath against my ear. She was so ready for me, just as I was for her. I kissed her chin and then adjusted the angle so I could gently scrape my teeth against her jawline. Just enough to let her know I had so much in store for her. My mouth arrived at her right earlobe. I traced that with my tongue and then pulled her earlobe into my mouth, teasing it between my blunt teeth.
She moaned and bucked her hips in the air.
But I wasn’t ready yet, not by a long shot.
Moving back toward her body, I nibbled my way down her throat, then licked at her collarbone. She tasted both salty and sweet. My hands found the soft mounds of her breasts, and I kneaded them, even as I lapped at her skin. Arousal surged through me, making my cock strained to attention. As I dipped lower, my cock ground against her soft, warm belly, hints of precum dripping onto her skin there.
I removed my hand from over her left tit. Then wrapped my mouth around it, teasing and tempting her nipple with fast flicks of my tongue as I ground into her hips. I wasn’t ready to enter her quite yet; I wanted her to beg for it. Still, I wanted her to anticipate everything, be so wet she was like a goddamn slip and slide again when I entered her.
She moaned and pushed my head. “Please, more. I need more!”
I went lower. My tongue trailed over the gold chain of her necklace. Mine damn it. She was mine. For an instant that pained even me.
I lifted up my head and grinned at her. “Do you need it? How much do you need it?”
“Don’t play with me.” Her hazel eyes glittered dangerously.
“What happens if I do play with you?” I asked, trying to school my tone to be neutral, feigning the innocence we both knew I hadn’t had in decades.
“I’ll never let you come when it’s your turn,” she said.
I swallowed. “That’s quite the threat.”
She bucked her hips again, and I rolled my eyes and groaned when her slickness slid against my cock. “I mean it, Mr. Duncan. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”
“This could be a dangerous liaison.”
“It definitely is,” she said, her smirk beautiful and probing.
I pushed my body up higher on my palms and elbows. Then, angling my hips, I lined up my dick with her pussy’s slick heat. “God, Tiger, do you know how good you feel? How fucking goddamn amazing?”
She nodded. “I think I have an idea ‘cause when you’re here, I feel like a superhero or something.”
I kissed her lips before I started to move my hips again. “Don’t you mean goddess?”
She blushed; the first bit of insecurity coming out tonight. “I don’t think I count for that.”
I slid deeper inside of her, feeling my balls tighten up with anticipation of coming. Then I thrust again, slowly, undulating my hips with deliberate motion. I plunged deep into her wet, hot pussy, reveling in how amazingly ready she was for me. How we always seemed to fit with each other.
Selena arched her back and thrust her hips up to meet me. She was as eager to fuck me as I was to shove deep into her. But not this time. I wanted to make her feel as good as she’d made me feel so far; wanted her to know how much I valued her. I slowed my pace, even if I didn’t want to. It was more important that I take the time and make her feel exactly as special as she was.
“I can make this last all night, Tiger. Would you like that?” I asked, leaning close to her ear and whispering low. “I can fuck you till dawn, leave you on the threshold of orgasm, stretch it all out until you beg for more.”
“I don’t need to beg.” She rolled her hips again, and I’d never had a tighter fit with a partner, never felt so fully enveloped and caressed by a woman’s inner muscles. “I can make you come all on my own.”
“So confident for the new kid on the block. I love it,” I said before I kissed her mouth.
As my hips rolled against hers, my cock plunged deep inside of her again, just as my tongue plumbed the hidden depths of her mouth, dancing for dominance with her own tongue, tasting the faint hint of chicken and spinach still in her mouth. I was feasting on her, and I fucking loved it.
Then that little tiger dug her fingernails into my back, and I couldn’t resist any longer, couldn’t hold back. I fisted the silk sheets between my fists and pumped into her, my hips rising fast and furious like a piston. In turn, she arched her back and raised her hips to meet my intense motions. She and I rocked together, bodies crashing into each other, even as pleasure crested over me like a wave. It hit me soon after trying so long to hold out for her. My balls tightened, and I grunted as my cum shot out, filling her in the way that only I could. Her pussy spasmed around me, tightening and massaging my dick with such intensity that I thought I might blackout.
Oh yes, my tiger was quite the natural.
When I was spent, I slipped out of her and slid onto my side of the bed. Opening up my arms, I held them out wide so that she would crawl into them. Selena complied. I kissed her temple and then stroked her back, noting the drops of sweat on her skin. She was gasping for breath; her heart hammering as hard as mine.
That was what happened between us when we were together, this combustion. Like two flammable liquids crashing into each other and then being subjected to an open flame.
“You’ll stay the whole weekend?”
She sighed. “I have a story I’m working on for my boss.”
“I think I can get you an extension,” I joked.
She glared at me, the playfulness drained from her expression. “Don’t even hint at that.”
“What? I was serious. I can say something if you need more time.”
“I can go back to my place tomorrow, grab my laptop and spend the rest of the weekend with you. I am not going to start taking favors now. I can’t let anyone think that I got my start by sleeping with my boss. We both know that’s not how this happened, but no one else knows that. If people figured it out, I’d be ruined, and I don’t want that to happen to me.”
“But once you get it done tomorrow, you’ll be mine?”
She chuckled. “You’re like a tornado, you know?”
“I don’t follow.”
“You’re someone I can’t help but be swept up in. I bet so many felt like that, even Mrs. Stewart.”
I blanched. “I don’t want to bring her up here.”
She chuckled. “Me neither, believe me. I’m just saying it’s impossible not to be caught up in you. That’s what’s nuts about everything. It’s impossible to resist you; impossible not to want to do everything you ask. I just hope… I dunno. It feels like we might regret this someday.”
I picked up the thin thread of the gold chain and then palmed the key for a moment, letting the now-warm metal rest against my skin. “Trust me, Tiger. I will never regret this, not if I lived a million years, and you shouldn’t either.”
She swallowed and looked up at me with wide, earnest eyes. “I’ll try.”
Chapter Ten
Selena
Two months later…
I was vomiting again. It was only a few hours before I had to be out at Mrs. Stewart’s estate and go with Tammy to the huge party set up to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. For the last week, I’d been feeling pretty sick. Considering I hadn’t had my period in a while either, well, I was beginning to entertain the idea that something else was going on, something far more permanent and earth-shattering than the flu. I mean, I had been taking my birth control religiously, and it was supposed to be close to ninety-seven percent effective. Leave it to me to be that rare case where it didn’t work.
Then yesterday I’d had cramps and vomiting so bad before work that I’d started Googling like crazy.
It was then I came across something that made my blood turn to ice in my veins. I did take an anticonvulsant for my migraines; headaches that really hadn’t bothered me in months due to my Tegretol. Great. Except not so great because those types of drugs could completely make birth control null and void.
God, Brandon and I don’t ever use condoms.
And we’d had sex. A lot of sex.
I’d slipped into the bathroom first, under the pretense of wanting to shower quickly so that Tammy could spend the bulk of the time getting ready herself. I’d dragged my hidden package in, shoved under my mound of a beach towel. Sitting down on the toilet, I slid the pregnancy test kit from the terry cloth. It felt heavy in my hands.
Too heavy.
Skimming the back of the box, I figured it wasn’t too complicated. I mean, come on, there were only a few steps: pee on stick, let it rest, check for blue plus sign in five minutes. I could do that. In fact, I would do that, and it wouldn’t take forever, so that was a relief.
It would just feel like forever because I was freaking out.
I was at the point of hoping I’d somehow contracted some bizarre parasite to explain the early morning sickness. Of course, I’d also gained about ten pounds. I’d blamed it on eating great food while out with Brandon and living on Frappuccinos to stay awake on the job, but in context, it could definitely be another sign I was with child.
Like my mom had been too once.
And with no one to help me.
No, I could worry about if I’d fucked up once I knew for sure I was knocked up. I started to tear into the box when a loud knock sounded on the door. I had about five seconds to shove the box back under my towel as Tammy pounded harder.
“Hey, can you open up?”
Frowning, I did as she asked. “Yeah. Is something wrong?”
“I heard you ralphing again.” Her brows furrowed in concern, and she put the back of her hand against my head. “I don’t feel a fever. We can always postpone the party until you feel better? I don’t want to go without my bestie.”
