by Anne Mercier
"I do. Joan uses them. I wasn't sure what type you'd want—" I break off when I note her scowl. "What's wrong?"
"Who's Joan?" she asks me. I want to laugh with happiness at her jealousy but I don't. Knowing Serafina and her temper, she'd slap me.
"Joan's my mother. She adopted me when I was fourteen." I'm going to leave it at that for now. There'll come a time when the need to go into the whole detailed story is necessary, but for now that's enough.
Sera looks down into the swirling water. "Oh."
"Should we put your hair up?" I ask.
"I should wash it first if that's okay."
"Of course. I can get you some other—"
"No. I'll use yours. Your hair always smells nice," she admits and then blushes.
I smirk and she narrows her eyes. I grin and her eyes narrow even more. I can't help it. She's so stubborn. My grin widens and I flash some teeth. She keeps giving me the evil eye.
"You think you're so cute, don't you?" she asks.
I shrug. "I never really thought about it."
She rolls her eyes. "Sure."
She reaches out for the bottle of shampoo and that's when I see her bruised and scratched knuckles. I grasp her hand in mine.
"What did you do, Fee?" I ask.
"I hit something."
I lift my brows. "Person or inanimate object?"
Her lips twitch.
"Inanimate object."
I nod, not willing to probe further and push her.
I stand up and untie my pajama pants.
"What are you doing?" she asks, watching me with curiosity, excitement, and reluctance.
"With your hands injured, you won't be able to wash your hair without it hurting you even more, so I'm going to come wash it for you," I tell her, letting the pants drop to the floor.
She stares at me in my black boxers and I stare back, waiting to see what she's going to do.
She nods. "Okay."
I nod back. I step into the hot water. "Scoot forward. I'll sit behind you." She does as I ask. I take my seat and reach for the sprayer. I adjust the temperature and pull her to lean back. She's stiff and slow to abide, but she eventually does. Then I take the sprayer and carefully wet her hair so not to spray her in the face. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, and while I think I know what I'm doing well enough, I'm still nervous. I don't want to do anything to hurt her.
When her hair's wet, I let the sprayer sink to the bottom of the Jacuzzi and reach for the shampoo. I use a generous amount. Fee has a lot of hair. I begin lathering it up, massaging her scalp a little and she lets out a small moan of pleasure. My body responds, my cock getting hard at the thought of her making noises like that when I'm buried deep inside her. Shit. Now I'm completely hard.
I lean forward, reaching for the sprayer, then gently tip her head back to rinse the shampoo out. She lets out a sigh of contentment and I smile inwardly. I'm enjoying this—taking care of her. I always have, even when she didn't know I was doing it. But now, now I get to do it up close and personal and I know that tonight something has changed—something that neither of us is ready to discuss just yet.
I focus anywhere but on the bubbles running down in soapy tendrils over her perfect tits and into the water. I want her so badly right now, but instead of taking her, I reach for the conditioner.
I rub it into her hair, combing it through with my fingers. I rub my way down to her neck and knead out the tension there and in her shoulders. She leans back into me and I can't hide the fact that my cock is hard and ready, I won't. I think maybe it's time Fee knows how she affects me.
She leans back, relaxing into me, and she doesn't even flinch when she feels my hardness against her back. Interesting.
"I need to get the conditioner out, Fee," I tell her softly and she sits up again, tilting her head back. I rinse her hair until it's smooth and clean, then reach over to turn off the sprayer.
She reaches out and grabs my body wash and sponge. Then she does something I didn't anticipate—she hands them to me.
"Wash me?" she asks softly.
I nod. I start at her shoulders and down her arms, avoiding her hands until I can wash them properly. She turns to face me and it's all I can do not to look down at her tits. I meet her gaze and hers is full of desire, want, and need. I get it. I do. Her need to feel alive, I just don’t know if it's a good idea for us to fuck—no, I know it's a bad idea for us to fuck right now. She's not thinking straight and she's definitely not ready for what I want.
"Will you wash the front?" she asks.
I bite back a groan and lather the sponge. She stares into my eyes and I can't look away, though I have to when I reach out to touch her shoulders. I slide the sponge across her shoulder and watch as if in slow motion as it descends down her arm. I move it slowly back up her arm and across her collarbone to her other shoulder, then down her arm.
I look up to meet her heated gaze. That look in her eyes undoes me. I need to keep myself in check. It's going to be so damn difficult to touch her and not have her the way I want. One day soon. For now, this is enough.
I lather up my hands and put them on her sides before sliding them inward and over her firm tits. Her nipples are already puckered and I circle her areola with my fingers. Her breath catches and her eyes close.
"Sera."
Her eyes open.
"Are you sure?" I ask, giving her one last chance to change her mind.
She nods.
"I need to hear it, Fee." A nod just isn't good enough.
"Yes, I’m sure," she tells me softly.
I cup her tits in my hands and gently squeeze. I hold her gaze, needing to see her reactions. When I gently pinch her nipples, her eyelashes flutter, her head tips back, and a soft moan escapes her lips. Fuck, she's sexy.
I watch my hands caress her flesh, moving steadily lower down her body. When my hands rest on her hips, she moves forward, straddling my legs.
I wrap her long hair around one hand and pull her in for a kiss. Just a whisper of lips touching, then harder until I can't stand it anymore. Running my tongue along the seam of her lips, she opens for me and I slip inside. She tastes like mint, and when her tongue meets mine, stroking and retreating in a steady motion, I move my hand from her hip to between her legs.
When my fingertip touches her opening, she moans into my mouth. I can feel her creamy arousal and heat when I slip that tip inside her. I move my finger in and out of her, shallowly, slowly gaining depth, and when it's fully seated inside her, her nails dig into my shoulders.
"Is this what you want, Fee?" I ask against her lips.
"Yes, but more," she pleads.
"I'll give you more."
"Please," she begs.
"I've got you. Just let me give you everything you deserve. No rushing," I tell her. I work my middle finger in and out of her a few times before I add another.
"Oh yes," she moans, her fingernails digging deeper.
Fuck, that turns me on. I grunt and tell her, "That's it. Mark me. Show me how good it feels."
With that, she presses her breasts against my chest, her tongue diving into my mouth, her hips raising and lowering as she fucks my fingers. I keep my eyes open, watching the emotions play over her features, the pleasure intensifying, and I back off, letting her come down before giving her the release she's craving. She mewls in disappointment and I nip her lower lip.
"You'll come when I let you. Not before."
She reaches down to the waistband of my boxers and I know I should stop her, but I can't. I need her hands on me, on my cock. I'm so close to blowing my load it's ridiculous. Watching her lose herself in pleasure has me hard as a rock, precum, no doubt, leaking everywhere.
Then her tiny hand wraps around me and it's my turn to close my eyes and savor the feeling. I want her to pump my cock furiously within her hand until I come, and then start over again. The first time I won't last long, but the second…
I take my hand from her hair
and wrap it around her fingers around my cock, teaching her the rhythm and firmness I like. As I show her how to please me, I start to circle her clit with my thumb. Her hips begin to move in sync with our hands and it's not long before I feel her pussy tighten around my fingers.
"Come, Fee. Come for me," I demand.
She fights it, and when I curve my fingers inside her, hitting just the right spot while rubbing her clit, she can't stop the orgasm from overtaking her. She cries out and whispers my name. "Cage." Softly, reverently, and I come with her, pumping our hands faster around my cock as my semen releases in hot, thick streams onto our hands and into the water.
When I'm done, I slow the pace of our hands and I don't stop fingering her.
"Keep stroking my cock just like that," I tell her. I move my hand up to cup her breast, pinching her nipple, then harder when her breath catches. My Fee likes it a bit rough. That's so damn hot.
I remove my fingers and her hand, then pull her pussy against my cock. I can't hold back the groan that escapes. Christ she's hot and so wet—and not from the water.
"Are we going to… ?" she asks.
"No. Not this time. Just rub your hot pussy along my cock." She does and it feels so damn good. Too good. "Yeah, Fee. Just like that."
Her arms wrap around my neck. I wrap my hand back into her hair, giving a not-so-gentle tug, and bring her mouth back down to mine. When she leans into the kiss, her nipples rub against my chest. It's like heaven and hell at the same time. Feeling her pussy and her body against me is the heaven… not being inside of her—that's the hell.
It isn't long before her body starts to tremble and I grasp her hips, thrusting my tongue harder against hers, lifting my hips when she brings hers down, grinding hard against her clit. She needs more, I can see it with her furrowed brow.
I slip my hand between us and thrust two fingers hard inside her, curling them and holding them steady as she fucks them. Within seconds her tight walls squeeze my fingers and her cum rushes over my fingers as she shouts out her release.
"Come with me," she whispers, and I'm gone. One thrust upward and I release a steady stream of cum against her belly and I thrust again and again, wishing there wasn't any water so I could keep her marked with my seed. I'd rub it in and not let her wash it off.
Knowing I've brought her pleasure in this way has me wanting to take her and fuck her long and hard, making her mine in every way she should be. But it can't be. Not now. Not until she's ready, and she's not. Tonight is about her needing to feel alive and when I make her mine, it's going to be because she wants me and the pleasure I bring her—not an escape.
She wraps herself against me and I rub her back softly. I open the drain with my toe then stand up with her clinging to me. I slide off my soaked boxers and turn on the sprayer, adjusting the temperature before rinsing us off. I push her back by her shoulders and wash between us, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink.
No. She's not ready.
I turn the water off and wrap her in a towel, sitting her on the countertop. I quickly dry off, then wrap the towel around my waist. I lift her from the counter and carry her to my bed. It's not the first time, she's slept here before, but it's the first time we've given in to the sexual attraction. I really hope it doesn't fuck things up.
I walk to my dresser and put on a clean pair of boxers, then grab a pair for Fee as well as a t-shirt and a pair of thick athletic socks. My Fee gets cold feet because I like to keep the air conditioning set low and she likes to keep her feet outside of the covers.
I grab a brush, too, and dress her. Then I arrange the pillows and pull the covers back, climbing in and motioning her to sit between my legs. I brush out her long, shiny hair that smells like me, and damn it if I'm not getting hard again.
Her head droops with each stroke of the brush and before long, she's nearly asleep. I didn't get her hair dry, but it'll have to do. I slide down, resting my head on the pillow, then pull Fee up on top of me. I realized very early on that she prefers to sleep on top of me, so instead of starting out with her sleeping beside me, I just put her where she belongs.
She sighs in contentment against my chest as she rests her head on one hand and puts the other one on my shoulder. I wrap an arm around her, running my fingertips up and down her spine, the other reaching up to rest against her hip. I love wrapping myself around her while she's wrapped herself around me. One day, one day soon, I am going to make Serafina Rosalie Manzini mine—completely and without reservation. Until then, this will have to do.
"Thank you for taking care of me," she whispers sleepily.
"I will always take care of you, Fee. Always."
She kisses my chin. "I know."
"Good," I answer, and then lie in the dark, listening as her breathing evens out and my woman is sleeping. Then, and only then, do I let myself relax.
I fucking love this woman and I want her to be mine. Patience, I remind myself. One day she'll be mine—one day soon.
Chapter Nine
Jesse
A year and a half into the past…
"Holy shit, your girl just won a fucking Oscar," Ethan announces.
I can't stop the grin on my face. Fuck it. They know what she is to me—even if I don't.
"That movie was kick ass," Ben tells me.
"Hell yeah it was," Kennedy agrees. "I've never seen someone act so intensely as she did in Linked In. She seems a hell of a lot older than twenty-two."
"I know, right?" I just watch as Lucy gives her acceptance speech in her flowing black gown. She looks like a dream all made up. Like Cinderella. Maybe one day I'll get lucky enough to be able to put that glass slipper back on her foot. Hell, I'd be happy to just be anywhere she is. To be able to talk to her again… it's been long enough.
I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees, my eyes glued to the TV.
"What's going on, brother?" Ben asks.
"I've waited long enough," I tell him.
"You going after her?" Xander asks.
I nod. "Yeah. Yeah I am. I just have to make sure she's single and find a way to make things happen."
"Timing is everything," Kennedy tells me, and I look over to where he's watching me intently.
"That it is."
"You sure she's ready for you?" Kennedy asks.
I turn back to the TV, where my girl is smiling a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, and I get a feeling she's done a whole lot of living in the last five years—and not all of it easy.
I nod again. "She's lost."
Kennedy looks to the TV and studies Lucy as they talk to her backstage. "That light is dimming."
"Time to brighten her up, Jesse," Xander tells me seriously, somberly. "Whatever's been going on with that girl, she's not the same one that we watched when we were on tour a year ago."
"This life's a hard one and I can only imagine what hers has been like."
"Make it happen, man," Kennedy tells me. "We'll find a way."
I nod to him once and turn back to the TV. Lucy's off screen now and we're focused on the announcers.
She's so beautiful, my girl, but something's missing—whatever it is, I'm going to give it back to her.
Over the next ten months we're in the studio working on our next album. I see Lucy everywhere I go. Billboards, TV, movies—the only place I don't see her, is in person. It's frustrating, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself… until now.
We're at Nichols Records in the conference room and we're talking about the upcoming filming of our next video—the first off the new album.
"I'd like to get the video out before the album so we're going to have to get this thing going soon," Cage tells us.
"What do you have in mind?" Kennedy asks.
Cage goes over the storyboards and it looks pretty fucking kick ass.
"Who are the chicks going to be?" Xander says with a grin and a gleam in his eye.
"Xander, keep it in your pants, at least until the filming is over. I'd like to avoid wh
at happened with the Forever Blue video," Cage scolds.
"Dude, she knew the score and she totally came on to me. She had her hand on my dick for most of the day. If you think I'm not going to take what she's offering, you're nuts. Besides, she owed me for keeping me half-hard all fucking day," Xander defends.
I scoff. "If she only had you half-hard, she wasn't worth the hassle."
Ethan nods. "Waste of time, especially since you said she was a dead fuck."
"She just fucking laid there. You'd think she'd try to impress me and maybe get me to fuck her again, but not that one. She didn't do shit until I told her to move or I was going to be a selfish fuck and not let her come. I mean, if she's making me work for it, I'm not going to reward that shit," Xan tells us with a scowl.
Cage merely stares Xan down. "Whatever the reason, don't do it again. If you're going to fuck the actresses, make sure it's after we're done filming."
"No shit," Ben says to Xan and elbows him. Xan just smirks. The fucker.
"Here's a list of actresses and models we're going to choose from," Cage says, and his assistant passes out the list.
Numbers one and two: Serafina Manzini and Luciana Russo. I lift my eyebrows and my gaze goes to Cage's. He's watching my reaction but giving none of his own. Does he remember… he has to.
"Holy hell," Xander shouts, standing up.
"Dude, sit the hell down," Kennedy tells him.
"No way," he says, pointing to the sheet. "This is it. It's like fate. Destiny. Divine intervention. This is so it, Jesse."
I smirk and I swear I see a twitch of Cage's lips.
"What's going on?" Cage's assistant, Dave, asks.
"Lucy and Sera, dude. We want them. That's it. Them. No other options. Make it happen," Xan tells him.
"Uh," Dave stammers, and slides his gaze to Cage.
Cage nods once. "I'll do my best, but it's not guaranteed those two aren't booked during that time. They're my first choices as well."
"Jesse," Kennedy murmurs.
I nod in response.
"Make it happen, Cage. Do whatever it takes."
