Love Far Away (A Spicy Contemporary Romance)

by Cooper, Leslie

  Chapter Ten

  His voice had changed. It wasn’t giddy from the excitement of stealing the wine anymore, or wistful like when he’d talked about his favorite places in Paris. It was low, expectant. I didn’t move my glass of wine. I looked at him.

  He took a step towards me, sipped from his glass, and then set it on a side table. Gently, he took my glass out of my hands and set it next to his. He took my hand and lifted it up to touch his cheek. “Julia,” he said softly.

  I ran my hand up through his thick hair, then caressed his neck. “Matthew,” I whispered. I was standing closer to him than I had ever stood next to any man before, save my husband….my ex, soon to be ex-husband.

  “I think you’re going to need some wine,” he said, and bent to kiss me.

  Every objection I could think of ran through my head- I’m still married! I just met you! My friends are all out there! But as soon as his lips touched mine, I forgot them all. It had been a long time since Bradley and I had been intimate, too long, and as I tasted the wine on Matthew’s lips I realized how much I had ached for someone to touch me the past few weeks.

  His tongue lightly stroked mine as he ran his hands over my body. “You’re so sexy,” he whispered in my ear. “The second I saw you I knew I wanted you.”

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I whispered back. “This isn’t me at all!”

  “That’s what is so great about it,” he murmured. “You can be whoever you want to be tonight.”

  He was right. I would never see him again after tonight, and I’d had just enough to drink that I knew what I wanted. I reached out to caress the bulge in his pants, and grew bold enough to undo the button. His cock was right there, thick and throbbing and ready to burst out if I hadn’t undone the button myself. “It’s too bad you didn’t enter that contest out there,” I told him. “I know you would’ve won.”

  He moaned gently and reached out against the wall to steady himself as I continued to stroke his shaft. “Oh, god, Julia...your hands are magical.”

  It gave me such a feeling of power to see a strong man like him succumb to me so quickly. I could feel myself getting wet between the legs, and I wanted him inside me. I glanced over my shoulder at the huge, pristine bed he’d been sitting on when I first saw him.

  “Bed?” he gasped. “I need you.”

  “What if someone comes in?” I whispered.

  “Too late for that.”

  I had an idea. “Come with me,” I said, and, cock still in hand, led him towards the bathroom. I shut and locked the door behind us. There was a thick pile rug on the floor that I’d been thinking of, but Matthew had different plans. He reached out and pulled down the zipper on my dress. “Your turn,” he told me.

  I hesitated only a second before stepping out of my dress before I fell back in to him. He flicked my nipples with his tongue until they were erect, and I cried out. His mouth on mine was forceful and we staggered backwards until we fell into the armchair I had sat in earlier. I ground my hips in a hard circle against him as he slid one hand in my panties and gently entered me with his fingers. I made a sound I’d never heard before- Matthew was getting something out of me I didn’t know I had. With one finger he pounded at the soft flesh while the other massaged my clit with such a gentle touch it was like two different hands.

  “Ahhhh,” I groaned, as I bucked and ground my hips against him as hard as I could.

  Abruptly, he stopped.

  “Keep going,” I begged him. “Oh, God, what are you doing to me?”

  “Get in the shower,” he told me. “Come on!”

  I didn’t ask questions, just followed him. With one quick motion he turned the shower on, then grabbed me by the hand and pulled me in after him and pushed me up against the wall. The spray from the water hit my breasts and rolled down my stomach, where he gently kissed and licked them up.

  “Careful,” he warned, as he knelt and lifted one of my legs. He hooked it over his shoulder and gestured towards a shelf within arm’s reach. “Better hold on.”

  I grabbed the shelf for balance and leaned my head back against the wall as Matthew’s tongue darted in and out of my folds. The sensation of the cool tile pressing on my back mingled with the warm wetness coming from inside me and the spray from the water almost pushed me over the brink. The leg I was standing on buckled and I reached out to grab the first thing I touched- his hair.

  “Please!” I cried out. “I’m going to fall down!”

  He stopped then just long enough to lay me down on the floor of the shower before going back down. His tongue flicked and stroked in ways I had never felt before, and now here was a finger again rubbing hard against my clit. With one final stroke I felt a wave come over my body and, against my will, my back arched against the hard floor and I let out a howl of pleasure as I came hard and fast.

  “That’s it, baby,” said Matthew, and he slid out of the spray long enough to grab a foil packet from his trousers and slipped it on. Then he entered me. With a few strong thrusts, I wrapped my legs around him and let him take me. Gliding and rocking with a frantic passion for what seemed like hours, he finally erupted.

  Satisfied and panting, we laid on the floor and stared at each other. “That was amazing,” said Matthew.

  “It was incredible,” I said. I’d never had sex like that before with Bradley. I didn’t even know noises like that could come from me. I stared up at the ceiling.

  Bradley.

  ***

  Matthew had stepped in to the shower and was cleaning himself off. I wasn’t sure how this worked now- did I join him? Showering together seemed such an intimate thing to do. I had to laugh a bit at myself for the thought.

  “Here’s a towel,” said Matthew, getting out of the shower and handing me a thick, fluffy white towel. “Let’s dry off and get dressed. We don’t want the others to have to go looking for us.”

  “Sure,” I said slowly. “Thanks.”

  We dried off and got dressed, and I got a look at myself in the mirror. I had eye makeup dripping down my face, so I tried my best to clean it up a bit. I didn’t have any more to reapply and I looked oddly naked without any eyeliner.

  Back out in the bedroom, Matthew picked up his glass of wine with a casual nonchalance, like nothing had happened between us. “Sounds like it’s winding down out there,” he said, nodding towards the door. “Should we take a look and see what’s going on?”

  “Okay,” I said. I stopped with my hand on the doorknob and turned to face him. “Before we go out- I’ve never done this before. I don’t know how it works, afterwards-“

  “Don’t worry about it,” he interrupted, and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “You’re one hell of a beautiful woman, Julia. I don’t expect anything if you don’t want it. It was a hell of a lot more fun than what I thought I’d be doing in this bedroom all night long. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Paris.”

  “Thank you,” I said automatically. “You, too.”

  Matthew didn’t mean anything malicious in what he’d said, but it left me with an uneasy feeling. I’d had sex with another man who wasn’t my husband. It was true that my husband had told me he wanted a divorce, but we were still married and he was still my husband. We had a comfortable home, two beautiful children, and a happy life that we had both enjoyed up until the past few months. With a bit of hard work, we could get back to that place, couldn’t we? Could that still happen?

  I opened the door and walked out to join the rest of the party. The contests were over and the lights had been turned down and everyone was dancing and mingling again, although this time much more closely. I scanned the group for my friends, desperately wanting to go back to the hotel and sleep in my soft bed.

  To my great relief, I spotted Megan dancing in a small group with one of the men and a couple other women. I didn’t care if I was interrupting anything. I walked right up to her, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her off to the side.

  “Jules! There you are,
” she said, giving me a small hug. “We were looking for you. Figured you’d taken a cab back to the hotel. Where were you? Your hair’s all wet.”

  I shook my head and could barely manage to get the words out. When I did, my voice wavered. “I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”

  To be continued...

  Thank you for reading!

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  (Excerpt) Love Far Away II

  by

  Leslie Cooper

  Chapter One

  I felt like I was going to die.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a hangover this bad. The morning after prom? Maybe after that one crazy night in college with all the tequila shots? I’d still had my youthful vitality to help bounce back after a night of drinking. A hangover the other side of thirty was a different thing completely. My mouth felt stuffed full of cotton, my legs shook when I swung them over the side of the bed, my stomach was churning, and the drums inside my head were so loud I couldn’t think.

  Sitting up was too much effort. I collapsed back down on to my pillow and felt around on the floor for the bottle of water I was sure was down there. With shaking hands, I unscrewed the lid to the water bottle and chugged half the liquid down. Then I pulled the covers over my head. The curtains were drawn, but sunlight peeked around the edges. It was too early for that.

  At least the bed I was lying in was soft and comfortable. I slid my hand under my pillow and found my phone. I checked the time- it was a quarter after twelve.

  How much had I drank last night? There had been a couple bottles of wine at dinner. Then we’d gone dancing and I’d had a couple fruity drinks. And shots. I remembered at least one or two rounds of shots. Then- oh, god, it started coming back to me. We’d met some girls at the club and they had invited us to a party in their suite. More drinks had flowed there, naturally. And I’d snuck away and had stolen a few bottles of wine from the bar.

  And- Matthew.

  It hit me like a ton of bricks. What had I done? I was married. Maybe our wedding vows hadn’t met anything to Bradley, my husband back home in Ohio, but they meant something to me. We had a home together. We had a family together. We had two beautiful children, seven year old Henry and four year old Olivia. We had a life. And a few short weeks ago, my husband of eight years had thrown it all away when he told me he was in love with someone else and wanted a divorce.

  Bradley Sutton was the only man I’d ever known, up until last night. His were the only arms that had ever held me and his were the only lips that had ever kissed mine. Not just eight years of marriage, but fourteen years together. We’d been in love with each other since high school. And he’d told me he wanted someone else now. So after much crying and soul searching and realizing that maybe the man I’d married wasn’t as amazing as I’d thought he was, I’d finally agreed to a girls’ trip with my three best friends. Megan, Ashley, and Becca had convinced me that two weeks away would be good for my soul...and the fact that I’d taken Bradley’s backup credit card to finance the whole thing wasn’t going to hurt either. We’d arrived just a couple of days ago, and spent yesterday adjusting to the new time zone and doing some shopping before we’d gone out for a fancy dinner and checked out the clubs. Then we’d been invited up to that party, and then...

  I didn’t want to remember what came next. I rolled over and pulled the pillow over my head and thought that maybe, if I squeezed my eyes shut hard enough, I could erase the last twelve hours.

  “Julia? You awake?”

  My best friend, Megan, in the bed next to me sounded similarly afflicted. Her voice sounded raspy and cracked. I pulled my head out from under my pillow. “I want to go back to sleep,” I said.

  “Ugh, I know. What time did we even get home last night? I mean, this morning. Five, six AM? I can’t believe how much I drank. I’m not twenty one anymore. Ugh, I feel terrible.”

  I snuck a look at her so I could get an idea of how I looked. Slept-in eyeliner isn’t an attractive look on anybody, and Megan was no exception. “I don’t even want to look in the mirror,” I said. “Do you want to shower first, or should I?”

  “You shower first,” she said. “Then we’ll talk about last night.”

  “What- what do you mean?” I stuttered.

  “You know. Last night.” She looked at me meaningfully.

  I mumbled something in reply and stumbled towards the bathroom as fast as I could. Had I told her? Did she know? I’d been hoping I could live with the secret shame of a one night stand as long as possible, but if I’d told Megan- had I? I couldn’t recall specifics, but I remembered him.

  It came back to me in the shower.

  We’d ended up in the shower- I couldn’t quite remember how, but I remembered ended up hanging out alone in the bedroom with Matthew, then stealing a bottle of wine from the bar and then some kind of truth or dare game, maybe, and we’d ended up kissing. And we’d made our way to the shower. As I stood under the hot spray, bits and pieces of it came back to me- the cold tile against my back, the water hitting my breasts, grabbing on to a shelf for balance while I hooked one leg over his shoulder. The release I’d felt as he’d done things Bradley didn’t know how to do- oh! Yes. I definitely remembered that much.

  Once I was out of the shower, I braved a peek in the mirror. My eyes looked dull, but at least any caked on makeup had been washed off. I put on one of the complimentary robes that came with our hotel room and blow dried my hair before giving Megan a turn in the bathroom and calling room service to bring me a strong cup of coffee. When it arrived, I took it out to the small balcony that connected our room to the one Ashley and Becca shared and sat down to look out over the rooftops of Paris, and think about what I’d done.

  Was it cheating? We were still married, weren’t we? Nothing had been filed. Bradley was still my husband and I was still his wife. And yet-

  The other balcony door opened and Ashley stuck her head out, looking just slightly worse for the wear. “Hey,” she said. “What a night! How are you doing this morning?”

  Had I told her what I’d done? I couldn’t remember. Panicked, I looked at her face and tried to read her expression. Did she know? “Um,” I said. “I- I don’t know.”

  Ashley gave me a funny look and collapsed in to the other chair with her own cup of coffee. “What do you mean, you don’t know? I feel like shit and I’m used to going out and staying out late once or twice a week. But ugh, I don’t even know how much I drank last night. And getting home after the sun comes up is crazy even for me. You must feel even worse than I do.”

  “Oh, that,” I said. “Yeah, I feel terrible. I just want to curl up and go back to bed.”

  Ashley looked at me closely. “Are you okay, Jules? You don’t look very good.”

  “Thanks, Ash,” I said. “I don’t think I’ve drank that much since Spring Break sophomore year of college, which was over ten years ago, and I apparently have the body of an old lady now. Thanks.”

  “No, I don’t mean that, although you do look terrible. But I’m sure I do too,” she added hastily. “No, I mean you look- like you’re going to cry or something. Did something happen?”

  I shook my head.

  “No? Where’d you go last night, by the way? That party was crazy, wasn’t it? I didn’t know what I’d think but I had a great time. Something different, right? Where’d you slip off to?”

  “Just the other room,” I mumbled. “Took a bottle of wine with me and hung out there for a bit.”

  “You didn’t get bored?”

  “No.” I couldn’t even bring myself to look at her.

  “Huh. Okay.” Ashley leaned back in her chair and pulled out a cigarette from her pocket. She’d adopted a new smoking habit just because she thought it was something she should do in Paris. She offered me one, but I shook my head. I pulled my knees up to my chest, si
pped my coffee, and stared straight ahead.

  Becca wandered out on to the balcony a few minutes later, dragging a chair over to sit with her own cup of coffee, and Megan came out fresh from the shower shortly after. We ordered up breakfast from room service and sat out on the balcony, enjoying the midday sun while we rehashed the night and complained about our hangovers. I almost forgot about my secret tryst, until Megan turned to me.

  “So, Jules, are you going to tell the girls what you got up to last night?”

  I felt myself blush hotly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

  “Come on! Before we left you came up to me and your hair was all wet. You said you’d done something stupid, that you’d made a huge mistake. You wouldn’t tell me. What happened?”

  Ashley, who had been leaning back in her chair, sat up straight and pointed her cigarette at me. “I knew it! I knew you did something naughty. Tell me. Which one?”

  I coughed and waved the smoke away. “Get that out of my face, Ash.”

  “Oh, sorry.” She stubbed her cigarette out. “Which one? Hottie with the blue eyes?”

  “What? No!” The party we’d been invited to had turned out, to our surprise, to be a party where naked men danced, served us drinks, took part in anatomy-related contests, and generally did anything the clothed women asked them to. I was beyond embarrassed that Ashley was assuming I’d disappeared to hook up with one of those men. “No way. Did you notice any of the guys go missing for a long time?”

  “She’s right,” said Becca. “Nobody else left- at least, none of the guys did. Where’d you go?”

  “I was in the other room,” I said. “That suite was amazing, by the way. I thought this place was fancy but the bathroom was practically the size of my living room at home.”

  “Nobody cares,” said Ashley impatiently. “Tell us. Who. Was. He?”

  I sighed and looked down at my hands. “He was just a guy. He was out with some friends- all women- and they were invited to this party, and he showed up with them because he didn’t know that all of the men were supposed to be naked if they wanted to attend. He didn’t want to strip, so he was just hanging out in the bedroom waiting until they were done. I just started talking to him when I went to the bathroom. I snuck out and stole us some wine from the bar. We started drinking, and...”