He raises an eyebrow.
“You don’t know her name, do you?!” I’m appalled.
“Asia. Her name’s Asia.”
“That’s not her name! You made that up! You’re such a player, Connor!”
“Would it make you feel any better if I told you I never kissed her?”
“No! You fucked her, Connor! I’m sure you and her swapped spit and every other possible bodily fluid.”
“I’m like a hooker. No kissing. Only fucking. And I used a condom. No spit or bodily fluids were exchanged at any time.”
“Bullshit,” I chuckle. “You expect me to believe that?”
He shrugs. “All I know is you called dare and now you have to kiss me. Those are the rules. And I brushed my teeth before we left my room. And I have mints, in case you have bad breath.”
“Me?” I huff.
He pulls a pack of mints from his pocket and tosses it on the table top. It slides toward me across the polished wood, the mints inside the pack rattling a challenge.
I stare at the pack.
Why am I even considering this? I don’t have to play along. Then again, I need this interview. Connor is too clever to just give up information for free. I shift in my seat. I wish my hair wasn’t in a bun right now. I’d like to hide behind it because Connor is drilling me with those stupid blue eyes of his. Why does he have to be so damn handsome? And why do his lips have to be so full and luscious?
Damn him!
“Fine,” I groan. I get up and trudge to his end of the table.
He sits up, an expectant look on his face. His blue eyes flash. Up this close, they glow. Or maybe that’s just the sky light pouring in through the wall of windows reflecting off his azure irises.
I lean forward, grimacing, and… kiss his forehead.
I skip back to my seat, giggling. I stop on the way and grab a water bottle and the mints.
“Hey! What the fuck kind of kiss was that?”
“You never specified!” I drop into my seat, unscrewing the water bottle. I drink a swig and swish it around like I’m rinsing. Then I pop a mint in my mouth and make a sour face. “Nasty,” I hiss.
“Your lips weren’t even on my forehead long enough to taste anything,” he chuckles.
“Says you. Next question.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fuckin Power Pole.”
“Hey!” I snap. “Don’t call me that.”
‘You’re right. You do have nice breasts.”
“Next question! Ahem. Stay on point, Connor.”
“I’m on point right now.” He stands up and walks toward me.
The first place I look is his crotch, which isn’t pitching a pointy tent like I’d expected. “What are you doing?”
“I’m coming to get my kiss.”
“No you’re not!”
He swaggers toward me. “Yes I am.”
“Sit down, Connor! I’m warning you!” I shake my open water bottle like I’m going to splash water in his face. “You already got your kiss.”
“No I didn’t.” He takes my water bottle and sets it on the table. Then he leans toward me, resting his big hands on the armrests of my chair.
We are nose to nose.
I can smell his skin. It’s magnificent. I mean awful. I wince. “Get away, you smell.”
He smirks. “That’s pheromones.”
“Smells like farts to me,” I giggle.
“You wish.”
He’s right. He smells like a cowboy or something. He leans forward so far that I have to lean all the way back in my chair until my bun hits the back of it. I’m trapped. No place to go. “Go away, Connor.”
“Not till I get a real kiss.”
“Stop being such a rapist.”
“I’m not raping.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” His lips are a quarter inch from mine. I stare at them. They need to be nibbled or licked, but not by me.
“I can wait all day. War Mouth. You know you want it.”
“No I don’t.”
He smiles. Masculine energy pours off of him.
It’s intoxicating. I haven’t had a man this close to me in forever. In the past two years, I’ve been on a date or three, and there has been some limited kissing, but nothing worth mentioning. At the moment, I could write a book about what Connor’s proximity is doing to me. My bra feels two sizes too small and my nipples are hard. My panties are too tight and straining deliciously against my clit. A flush rushes up my neck and heat flows down my chest beneath my blouse, pooling between my legs. And he hasn’t even kissed me.
I look into his eyes. My voice is choked when I say, “Okay, maybe just a quick peck.”
Connor reaches up and removes my glasses.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“I don’t want them getting broken.” He sets them on the table.
“It’s just a quick peck—”
His mouth crashes into mine.
Our tongues fight like cobras, twisting together in a swollen embrace. Pleasure sprays up from my core like a hot fountain of desire.
I grab Connor’s T-shirt in my fists and pull him toward me. The office chair suddenly rolls back, slamming into the wall. Our lips never separate.
I am kissing Connor Hughes and it is the hottest thing ever.
Why did I wait so long?
Without warning, his huge hands scoop underneath my ass and he lifts me into the air. He stands up and I try to wrap my legs around his waist, but I can’t. My fitted skirt is too restrictive. I end up bending at the waist and wrapping my knees around his ribs as he folds me against him, positioning me so that my wetness presses against his crotch. His hardness strains against me through his jeans. It’s clumsy and it leaves me feeling wide open. It’s like we’re dry fucking with my knees around my ears but we’re standing up and fully clothed.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
He breaks the kiss.
I don’t want him to. My mouth is empty without his tongue in it. I want his lips back!
He hisses, “Fuck, Lex. I need to be inside you right fuckin now…”
If he had called me War Mouth or Power Pole or anything else, it would’ve ruined the moment. But this Lex thing keeps catching me off guard. “I—”
“Give me the word and I’ll rip your clothes off and fuck you on this table. I want to feel your wet pussy all over my cock. Damn it, Lex, I need to fuck you…”
“I—”
Click!
Romeo leans his head through the door of the meeting room. “I may be gayer than a Pride Parade, but even I’m a little bit turned on right now…”
“Oh, shit!” I scream. If Connor didn’t have such a good grip on my ass, I would’ve landed flat on the floor and broken my tail bone. Ouch!
Connor chuckles, still holding me up in the air.
Romeo grins at both of us.
Wow, this is awkward. Socially and physically. I try to lower my legs but I’m trapped by my skirt. “Put me down!” I bark.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Romeo giggles while withdrawing his head from the room and closing the door.
“I’m gonna need more than a minute,” Connor growls into my ear. “It’s gonna take at least an hour to fuck you right…”
The sound of his deep voice melts my brain and any remaining good sense I have dribbles out my ears.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
CONNOR
I breathe into Electra’s ear, skimming the curve of it with my tongue.
“Ohhhhhh,” she shivers, squeezing her quivering thighs around my ribs. She drops her weight down so her pussy pushes against my dick through my jeans.
I grind up against it. “I need to fuck you, Lex. I know you’re fuckin wet right now. I can smell it. I know you want this as bad as I do.”
For a moment, she’s seriously considering it. She’s breathing hard, her face buried in my shoulder.
“Say the word, Lex, and I’ll make you come harder than you’v
e ever fuckin come…”
She whimpers, “Romeo is right outside. Don’t you have a reveal for your fans? Your first public appearance?”
She isn’t letting go.
“Fuck all that noise,” I growl. “All I can think about right now is you. Until I come inside you, I can’t think about anything else.”
I can feel her heart pounding in her chest.
Then her arms and legs go slack. “We need to stop, Connor. Please put me down.”
I set her ass gently on the table top.
Her arms still hang loose around my neck. She hangs her head. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
Why am I not surprised she said that? “Yeah. This was a bad idea.” My monster hard on says otherwise.
Her head tilts up and her eyes search mine.
There’s a second where I think maybe she’s hurt. But that can’t be right. Warmoth has skin thicker than a mule.
“This was your idea, Connor,” she scowls.
Same old Warmoth. Always fuckin angry at me. As always, it drives me up the fuckin wall. “What the fuck, Warmoth? You were all over me.”
“After you forced me!”
“I didn’t force anything.”
“Bullshit, Connor! The kiss was your idea. Truth or Dare was your idea. Trading questions was your idea. How was any of this my idea? If you’d’ve done this interview like I’d asked, like you and your people wanted, none of this would’ve happened!”
“Was it that bad, Warmoth?”
“What?”
“The fuckin kiss!”
“Yes! No! I don’t know!” She glares at me, her eyes on fire.
“Fuck, Warmoth! Maybe if you’d relax and let that fuckin uptight hair bun of yours down for five seconds, you might actually enjoy yourself for once! Do you even know how to have fun? Or is everything for you WORK FUCKIN WORK?!”
“NO!!”
I shake my head. “There’s a reason I started calling you High Tension in high school, and this is it.”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Why not? It fits, doesn’t it?”
“Fuck you, Connor Screws! Do you ever think about anything other than sex sex sex?”
I snort, “What else is there in life?”
“Lots! If you stopped thinking with your dick for more than five seconds, you might find out! Did you actually graduate from high school, or did they just kick you out?”
“Fuck you, War Mouth. I graduated.” Barely. But I walked and got my diploma, just like she did.
“Fat lot of good it did you,” she grumbles. She grabs her purse off the table and jams her notepad and digital recorder inside. “Find someone else to write your stupid fluff piece, because that’s all you want. Better yet, have your PR person just send a press release to The National Enquirer. I’m sure they’ll be happy to print whatever the hell you tell them!” She sweeps the pack of mints off the table then realizes they’re not hers. She throws them back on the table and the case pops open, spilling a bouncing spray of mints that tick tick ticks all over the wood. She scowls, “There’s your… mints.”
She yanks the door open and storms out of the meeting room.
Romeo stands in the hallway, staring at me with wide eyes.
I shout out the door, “Fuck you too, War Mouth!”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
ELECTRA
Damn him!
I march down the hallway, ready to explode.
What was I thinking letting Connor Douche kiss me? I never should’ve played stupid Truth Or Dare with him. How professional was that? I have no one to blame but myself for this disaster of an assignment. I didn’t have to come back here. I should’ve told Vince Pitts and Trending Magazine to go fuck themselves. There’s other magazines in the world. This whole day was one huge cluster fuck from the begin—
“Lex!”
Connor’s voice squeezes my heart.
I stumble to a stop in the hallway.
“Lex, wait…”
I don’t turn around. I’m afraid to turn around.
There’s a softness to his voice that I’m not used to. He sounds almost… apologetic. I barely recognize the tone. Considering he’s never been anything but a first class ass since the day we met in high school, I don’t know what to do.
My entire body has gone from quivering rage to… quivering something. I’m shaking with… what, I don’t know.
My chest flutters as I slowly turn around.
Connor stands in the hallway next to Romeo. They’re both staring at me. Romeo looks shocked. Connor looks… incredibly handsome. His face is friendly, which I barely believe. I’m not used to seeing him this way.
A powerful sense of hope warms my entire body from head to toe.
Connor holds something up. I can’t quite make out what it is without my—
“You forgot your glasses,” he mutters.
My body wilts with disappointment. Disgust quickly replaces it. I stride grimly toward Connor, my eyes glued to his hand. The second I get my glasses, I am outta here.
Two steps away, I reach out for them…
“Lex, I’m—”
Our eyes meet.
Hope floods my veins.
“There he is!” A woman’s voice rings out from behind Connor. It’s Margaret Lang, the media relations contact for Rom Com Con. She’s flanked by four other people, two in red Rom Com Con STAFF polo shirts and the other two in business casual. All of them wear STAFF badges on lanyards. “The man of the hour,” Margaret beams as she shakes hands vigorously with Connor.
While the four women surround him, he hands me my eyeglasses as an afterthought. The women fawn over him like he’s, well, like he’s as handsome and manly as he actually is.
I’m sure he’s loving every minute of it.
His head turns back and forth between me and them. “Lex, I’m—”
Margaret cuts him off, “It’s almost time for your highly anticipated reveal, Connor. Are you as excited as we are?”
Connor gives me a final look.
“Oh, hello, ah…” Margaret notices me at last. “Electra, right?”
“Yeah.” Gritting my teeth, I smile at her, “Good to see you, Margaret.”
Margaret then proceeds to introduce everybody to everybody. I can barely keep track of the names.
“How did your interview go?” Margaret asks me.
I give Connor a horrified glance. I try to smile through it, but my face is strained. “Great,” I lie.
“Excellent,” Margaret beams. “Just in time, too. We need to get Connor down to the convention hall to the main stage. As you can see, every seat is filled.” Margaret glances out the wall of windows in the hallway. They reveal the interior of the convention hall below.
The huge room is at least the size of two football fields, if not larger. It’s packed with booths and people from end to end. Countless colorful banners on standees and banners hanging from the rafters combine with an ocean of thousands upon thousands of circulating people to create a vivid confetti of visual overload. Although the windows mute the sound, the white noise of people is a low level hum of excitement seeping through the glass.
At the near end of the hall, there is a large pink stage. Hundreds of people are already seated in front of it, obviously waiting for Connor to unveil himself.
Margaret smiles at Connor, “They’re all waiting for you, Connor. I don’t know if you realize how excited the fans are to finally meet you.” Her eyes are glued to Connor’s handsome features. “I don’t think anyone was expecting you to be so… gorgeous.” Her face glows with obvious desire.
Connor chuckles casually, “Thanks.”
I cringe. I want to say, You can’t judge a romance novel by it’s cover, Margaret.
One of the young women in a red STAFF polo shirt wears a headset. She mumbles something to whoever is on the other end of the mic. To Margaret, she says, “Five minutes until show time.”
Margaret smiles. “Why don’t we take you downs
tairs, Connor. Electra, would you like to watch from backstage so you can get an inside look? Or would you like to watch from the audience?”
“Oh, I was just—” I stop myself. I can’t tell Margaret that I was just leaving.
She waits for me to finish my sentence.
If I walk out of here, I’ll be acting like a spoiled child. I can only imagine how Vince will chew me a new asshole when I tell him I can’t hack it. I would hardly blame him. It’s not like I’m in an actual warzone risking my life while getting shot at. This is a romance convention, for god’s sake. But we’re talking about Connor Hughes. I really don’t want to be in his presence for one more second.
Indecision grips me. If I bail, I can count on Vince to stop giving me any new assignments. If that happens, I won’t be able to pay rent this month. If I get evicted, I’ll have to start couch surfing. When I wear out my welcome with the few friends I have, I’ll have to move back in with my parents until I can build up some savings.
My parents.
Ugh.
They would love to have me come home. I can imagine what they’d say if I told them about my current Connor dilemma. If it doesn’t make you happy, don’t do it, Electra. Life is too short to waste it working for a bunch of corporate criminals. Why buy into their reality when you can create your own?
My parents’ casual attitude is exactly why I have to tough this out. I don’t want to go back to living with them. Ever since I graduated from high school and they bought that failing walnut farm on the outskirts of Oxnard, there’s no way I’d ever move back in with them. Some people might enjoy living in an orchard in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t. I like civilization. Nothing like hot running water and a toilet that isn’t an outhouse. Every time I visit their farm, the seclusion drives me bonkers. So does the outhouse. It really stinks. I don’t know how they stand it. To this day, the thought of it gives me shivers.
I groan inwardly. Time to suck it up.
But I don’t have to like it.
In fact, I hate it.
But I’m a professional and an adult.
Time to be a big girl and pay the bills.
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