Sweet Seduction Sabotage

by Nicola Claire

  My eyelids flicked up and a glass floor beneath my hands greeted me. I whimpered, he fucked me harder. Sweat poured down my neck, into the collar of my blouse. His fingers were leaving bruises on my skin, his thighs slapping the back of my legs, his cock stretching me, filling me, making the world below us, behind the wall, around us, disappear.

  I loved him for it.

  I hated him for the addiction he fuelled in me.

  I closed my eyes and in the next instant felt Drew's hand wrap around my throat, under my chin, bringing my face over my shoulder where his lips crushed into mine. He didn't alter his pace or the determined force with which he was taking me, but he drank my sounds of pleasure down, moaning into my mouth as though drinking a fine wine.

  The change in angle made my body tighten, my legs tremble, and with a slow grind of his hips, such a sudden departure from the almost harsh-like rhythm of before, I shattered. Falling apart in his arms, making sounds he continued to stifle with his lips and tongue. When all that was left was a weak limbed body beneath him, he released my throat, shifted back to his knees, gripped my hips and let go.

  I think Drew loses himself in me as much as I lose myself in him.

  His pace picked up, his muted sounds of effort and pleasure increased, and his fingers flexed on my hips as his cock swelled, and with one final thrust deep inside, I felt him lose a part of himself as his release filled the condom up.

  For a brief moment it made me wish he was filling me, that there were no more barriers between us. That it was just skin on skin. Drew and me. Like he made me feel, but we could never truly be.

  Panting for breath he lay his head down on my back. My arms shook, my body shivered, and without warning I collapsed against the glass beneath us, making the air whoosh out of my lungs in a sudden and unexpected burst.

  "Shit!" he exclaimed, louder than I was sure he intended. "Are you OK?" He pulled his body away from my back, giving me breathing space, but seemed unable to move further than that, and then toppled over to his side, down the length of my spent frame.

  He started chuckling, which soon brought the giggles out in me.

  Finally he whispered, hand stroking the damp curls off my face, "Thank fuck there's still some red in there."

  Silence met that unguarded statement. I wasn't sure what to say. I stared into stunned and very sated grey, and watched as he held his breath waiting for me to reply.

  "Yeah, well. You bring out the adventurer in me," was all I could lamely manage.

  A slow breath of air was released through his lips. He blinked, and then moved to stand. I wasn't sure what had just happened, but something had. As if we'd crossed an unseen line, neither of us willing to admit it. I shook my head and slowly got to my feet, straightening my skirt while I was at it.

  Drew was positioning himself behind his trousers, zipping them up and readjusting his shirt and tie. He didn't make eye contact, his jaw was locked hard.

  This was good. It made it easier to do what I needed to do. I almost opened my mouth, then and there, to tell him it was over. I even licked my lips and sucked in a breath of air. And then he raised his head and soft, gentle grey stared back at me.

  My mouth closed, the breath was released, and the words on the tip of my tongue were forgotten.

  There'd be another time to break it off. I still had three other of my guys to cut loose. Matt was gone. Already it was easier to accept that. I was making progress, I was sure. Tomorrow was a right-off, the day planned to the nth degree. But maybe Monday I'd catch up with Dan. Leaving Spike and Kane, and then Drew.

  My eyes flicked to his again, he was staring at me. Then he glanced down at his watch and took a deep breath.

  "We better get a move on, security will be along soon."

  "Won't they have gotten an eyeful through the cameras and already know we're here?"

  I knew the answer before he gave it. I think I'd always known. Drew entertained my need for a potential audience, but I don't think he'd ever let it get so far that we were truly seen.

  "What cameras?"

  I dipped my head down to hide my smile as I followed him to the lift. For some reason that amused me.

  From out of nowhere his fingers appeared beneath my chin and he raised my face so I could see him. His eyes scanned mine, my cheeks, my mouth, my neck, even dipping down as far as my breasts. But they returned to my eyes fairly quickly. There was something going on behind that grey. Some form of calculation or an effort to gain courage to say what was on his mind.

  We stood like that for so long that the lift arrived, the soft chime of the doors opening breaking the stalemate. My head jerked back, I gazed into the elevator expecting to see lift-guy, but the box was bare. And when I looked back at Drew the moment - whatever it had been before - was gone.

  He walked into the lift and waited for me to follow, then he pressed the button for the atrium floor. Neither of us spoke on the way down. It would have been easy to assume it was because we didn't usually hang around when the deed was done. This was new territory, post-coital talk not something we had ever engaged in before.

  But I knew otherwise. The silence in the elevator had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with what he had wanted to say before.

  Part of me, a part I have never allowed have free reign, desperately wanted to push him. To find out what was on his mind, what caused that turmoil behind his grey eyes. But if there was ever a time where that unrealistic romantic inside me should shut the fuck up, it was now. When I was trying to find myself. Trying to sort out the mess my life had become. Cutting my stable of men loose.

  The door pinged and swished open and the busy, noisy atrium of Sky Tower emerged. We walked off the lift without a backwards glance and stopped, by some unknown agreement, next to the waterfall feature.

  "Did you bring your car?" he asked, hands in his pockets, jacket spread wide. A usual Drew Kline stance.

  "No, taxi."

  "Would you like a lift?" This was strange and new, and a little uncomfortable. Drew and I had never spent long hours in each other's presence. We'd attended the same events, but the only interaction we'd ever had were heated looks, and then the illicit entanglement that inevitably followed.

  I stood there, in that lively, colourful, noisy space, and realised another epiphany. I have never had a normal relationship with a man. Never.

  I was so screwed up. This was my life; sex on the run, or on repeat but without any depth. The closest I came to normal was Abi's partner, Ben. He and I joked, but it was never sexual. He was, perhaps, my only male platonic friend. And only then because of Abi. There were other men in our circle, but I wasn't really close to them. Hell, even Gen's brother Jason, I'd tried at one stage to get into bed.

  This was my life.

  And - God help me - I didn't like it.

  "I gotta go," I said, brushing sweaty palms over the tops of my thighs.

  "Kelly," Drew called, breaking into my near panic.

  I'd taken several steps away already, so had to turn back to face him. He was still standing beside the fountain, hands in pockets, grey staring me down.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for his next words. He stalled, stood there looking delectable, but unable to say whatever he'd planned to say before.

  Finally, and I'll admit disappointingly, he murmured, "Take care." Then turned and walked towards the casino.

  For a second I was furious. He'd stolen my moment of being the one to walk away. That emotion, though, was quickly followed by relief. What had he wanted to say? Would it have made everything so much harder than it already was?

  This was for the best. It was already way too difficult.

  I spent the entire taxi ride home trying not to dwell on the ever increasing fucked-up-ness that is my life. Which was made more difficult because of the lack of suitable underwear in a public transport vehicle. I shifted on the plastic covered seats, chewed on my bottom lip - something I do not do normally - and then substituted that with a f
ingernail.

  I was so messed up inside. Part of me reliving the glass floor sex-capades with Drew at over two hundred metres high and feeling decidedly turned on by them. Another part, the new part, reminding me of last night. The lost hours. The semi-stranger video-store-guy.

  I walked into my quiet and deserted flat, switched on my bedroom light and stared at my unmade bed. I surround myself with people. I have a fantastic group of friends. Hell, I have five - no four - men in my stable of bed partners.

  Then why do I feel so alone?

  I crawled beneath the covers, having simply shed my blouse, bra and skirt, and cuddled my spare pillow. It took a long time to drift off to sleep, and when I did my cheeks were wet with tears.

  The alarm woke me. Sent me bolt upright in bed, heart in throat, chest heaving. I'd been having a dream. An old familiar dream. One I hadn't had in over fifteen years. It left me breathless. It left me shaking. It left a hole inside my body that I knew would be damn near impossible to fill.

  Why was this all coming back now?

  Shaking my head I threw the covers back and headed into the shower. Today was meant to be a happy day, I needed steaming hot water, a steaming hot coffee, and no more thoughts of steamy hot sex. How hard could it be?

  Im-fucking-possible. That's how hard.

  I turned up at Gen and Dom's just after ten. Early for me on a Sunday. Dominic answered the door, dressed in casual trousers, a polo shirt and his signature suck-all-available-air-out-of-the-room look. Gen was one lucky lady. But then, Dominic was pretty fortunate, too.

  "I hope you haven't got anything too rigorous planned, Kelly," he said, stepping aside and allowing me to pass. I shuffled in, my arms laden with containers and bags.

  In the next instant he'd taken them all and was leading the way down the hall.

  "Who me?" I quipped, searching for old Kelly. Red Kelly in amongst the increasing black.

  "She's tired today. Didn't sleep well," Dom pointed out.

  "Then you shouldn't keep her up all night, Dom."

  He glanced at me over his shoulder as he entered the lounge, giving me that look. The one I seem to always get when Dominic indulges me.

  "Relax, lawyer-man. I've got sedate down to an art form."

  He made his cough-like laugh and placed all the bags and boxes on the dining table attached to the kitchen itself.

  "Where is our girl?" I asked, moving to start unpacking items.

  "Finishing up in the shower. She's only just woken up. I'm about to make breakfast, care for some?"

  "Why the hell not." Then added, "Is it pancakes?" I loved pancakes.

  "It can be if you tell me what you have planned for today."

  "It's a surprise," I announced.

  "I won't tell," he retorted.

  We stared at each other, neither willing to back down. But Dom has that whole lawyer patience thing going on, he could stand there all day, arms crossed over chest, glaring until I cracked. I was too damn disillusioned for this right now.

  "OK. Some games, all sitting down and harmless, humorous ones. Lots of food and then non-alcoholic cocktails to finish it off. It's just a bridal shower Dom, nothing to get your boxers in a knot over."

  "My boxers are not in a knot."

  I snorted. "Dude, your boxers are bunched up and cutting off air as we speak."

  He blinked, shook his head, and muttered, "How do they put up with you?"

  I was so surprised, I said, before thinking, "Who?"

  "Your posse of men."

  Oh, crap. Dom never mentioned my stable. What had brought this on?

  "They don't have to spend that long with me," I offered, trying for carefree and nonchalant, and failing miserably.

  He didn't say anything, just started mixing up pancake batter, his back to me. I'd never felt uncomfortable talking about my lifestyle before. I am what I am, that was my motto.

  I really wasn't so sure anymore.

  Thankfully, all further uncomfortable conversation was avoided with the arrival of my best bud.

  "Hey, Kels," Gen exclaimed, coming straight over and wrapping me up in a huge hug.

  It took everything in me not to crack. Not to break down right then and there and tell her my problems. But today was not my day. It was Gen's. Her bridal shower, her moment to shine and be happy and look forward to only the good things that were about to happen in her life.

  "Hey you!" I pulled back and checked her out.

  She was dressed in the most gorgeous summery frock, her rounded belly protruding slightly, under quaint flowers and the odd butterfly in pinks and blues and reds. Her growing boobs were cupped in a fitted, ribbed bodice, the dress falling away just beneath, with just enough fabric to hide her belly, but not make her look like a tent. I reached out and fingered the material, it was light and soft, exquisite.

  "This is stunning," I remarked.

  "Katie bought it for me. It's awesome, isn't it? From this preggie designer in Grey Lynn. I haven't had a chance to wear it, but I thought today would be perfect. I'm not sure how much longer it's gonna fit, though. I've put on another kilo in just under four days." She cringed, flushed pink, and ducked her head.

  "You're beautiful," Dominic murmured, appearing out of nowhere, and kissing the top of her head. His hand wrapped around her baby belly, giving a reassuring and affectionate rub.

  I stepped back, allowing them some privacy, and returned to the items on the table. Strangely not seeing a single one.

  It was several minutes later that Gen sidled up beside me and said, "What's up?"

  I flicked a glance at her, a carefree smile already on my lips. Her face was shadowed in concern, her look pointed.

  "What's going on?" she said softly, her hand resting on my arm.

  I froze. I fucking stood there and stared at her, the smile falling off my lips.

  "Nothing," I finally managed to say.

  "Not nothing," she countered. "You didn't tease Dominic or me. In fact you turned away and have stood here unmoving for over five minutes."

  Five minutes? And, OK, I tease them when they get all lovey-dovey, but just because I choose to be mature and give them some space, she thinks something's wrong?

  "Kelly," Gen whispered. "I've known you since we started high school. What's wrong?"

  She had. Gen had known me since eighth grade. She came into my life spreading sunshine and daffodils, just when darkness and shadows had started to encroach. She made me forget everything that was happening at home, she gave me a world outside of my problems to live within. She lifted me up, when I was falling down, and gave me the courage to find a way through the black.

  With Gen at my side I was able to reinvent myself. When my perfect world shattered, I became someone else. It started then; this road I've been walking on. But without Genevieve Cain it may not have even led here. I was at crossroads when she came into my life, one road leading me down into black, the other leading me to red.

  She accepted who I became, because she didn't know me beforehand. She just welcomed me with open arms. And let me choose red.

  I looked into her familiar blue eyes, saw the friendship and love we shared, and decided I'd spare her my troubles today of all days. I'd talk to her, when things settled down. But right now it was my turn to protect her. To let her live in yellow, and not join me in black.

  Dom had said she was tired, the pregnancy and wedding taking their toll. Now was not the time to burden her with my issues. Now was the time to pretend everything was fine.

  "Sweet-pea," I said, smile back in full force. "Too much tequila and not enough sleep, that's all. Now," I said with purpose, "Do we do the games first or get pretend drunk on the cocktails, singing at the top of our lungs to the soppiest love songs we can find? I know!" I added, really starting to embrace a Genevieve run-away mouth moment, "We'll work up to the singing with a dress-up first. I've got tiaras and feather boas, and some flashing badges that say 'Kiss The Bride' somewhere here. I'm sure Wayne and Edward will be honorary b
ride kissers. Unless, of course, Dominic puts a kibosh on that."

  I'd been pulling things at random from the boxes on the table as I'd talk, or more appropriately haemorrhaged words. I glanced up now and saw Gen flicking a worried look at Dominic, over by the stove. His face was perfectly blank, but I knew that look. I'd seen him use it before.

  It was the one he adopted whenever he was most concerned, and was trying to hide it from Genevieve. She knew it too and I watched her shoulders slump, a weight settling there that did not belong.

  I needed to get a hold of myself, act like I usually did. Upbeat. Carefree. Full of life.

  But it's hard to do that, when you're nothing like alive inside.

  I was in trouble and I knew it. I needed to sort my fucking life out now, or others would get hurt. Tomorrow I'd phone Dan and end things with him.

  And then there'd be only three.

  Chapter 5

  Right Now, It Looked Like It Wasn't Going To Be Me

  Genevieve

  I watched Kelly like a hawk. But she wasn't giving anything away. As soon as the guests started arriving she pasted on that Kelly Quayle smile, put a swing in her hips and started to entertain.

  If I hadn't have been so worried about her, it would have been a blast.

  But the old Kelly was back, not the new, distant, shadow shrouded one of earlier today.

  Something niggled at me though, in the back of my mind. I tried to cling to it, draw it out, make sense of the memory that hung just outside of my grasp. But there were presents to open, and tiaras to wear, and kisses and hugs, and guessing games that made everyone almost fall off their chairs laughing, clutching their stomachs with tears down their cheeks.

  I couldn't help it, I had to laugh too. I had to make shocked faces and squeal and flush pink at some of the things Kelly had set up. Just what did one do with a condom covered cucumber anyway? And hello! The condom's a little late.