Chapter Two
Regrets are For Fools. I Must Be the Biggest Idiot Alive.
Marks
I can’t quite tell you how I feel right now as I walk behind Percy Leighton and watch the fabric of her tiny baby-pink cocktail dress cling to the supple cheeks of her still cute ass.
I know I’m happy for the first time in years. I know I’m terrified because I’m just human and there’s a definite chance that I’m walking into a pit of feral lions right now with her anger.
I’m also very relieved that I sucked it up and came down here instead of buckling under the onslaught of my burden as it were and ignoring this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To be honest, I never once considered that I would have another chance with Percy. I fucked up big time in college and did something that no decent man would do and I know it.
I’ve never stopped missing her, though. Not once in all these years, not even with every success and win in the battle I fought did I ever stop thinking about her.
What was she doing? Was she okay? Did she still twitch her nose in that adorable way when she got allergies? Has she moved on and fallen in love with another man, someone worthy of her? Someone who would stay with her and give her everything I couldn’t?
Those last questions tormented me even as I tried to forget the year we were together and move on with someone else. I never could, though. I’d look at my partner and see that her hair wasn’t that sexy shade of deep brown that shone with life. Her eyes would never be that deep blue that reminded me of a lagoon at sunrise.
Her laugh would never be the same, making me smile and heating my blood all at once. More importantly, whoever looked at me, whether across the dinner table in some swanky eatery or up at me in bed, would never hold the part of me that I left behind with Percy.
“What do you want, Marks?” she asks as soon as we enter a room that looks to be an office and I close the door behind us.
“I wanted to see you, that’s all.”
“Well here I am, Little Boy Good, you looking?”
She’s so…
“I wanted to finally explain what my note didn’t and maybe ask you to dinner now that I’m moving back to the city for a few months.”
I’ve done the whole business thing and regained what my uncle and his sons stole from us, but in the last year I’ve finally done what I wanted to do. I have the house out in the country, a good business that’s growing, slowly but steadily, and a few guys to keep things going while I go back home and get Mom settled in her new house and transfer the rest of it to the half-brother I picked up when I skipped out on college and the football career I thought I wanted.
“Oh? A few months, huh?” she asks conversationally, setting my nerves on high alert.
Percy has two speeds. Sweet and sarcastic, and somehow I don’t think this speed is leaning anywhere near sweet. Sweet would really make things so much easier on me.
No worries, I’ve fought harder for longer. I’m sure I can handle one little woman who still looks at me like I’m a Sunday meal and she’s starving.
“A few months before I go back home to the farm. I’m settling Mama there with my brother Finn and his mom, so I’ll be around for six months getting him into place as CEO before I leave.”
Not alone, though? Surely you’re not going to go home to a house you built for her and just leave half of the dream behind?
Percy snorts at that and seems to relax the tiniest bit before shaking her head.
“That’s great, Marks. I’m happy for you, really, but I can’t for the life of me understand what you want with me now. Let’s face it, you’re not exactly my favorite person after the disappearing act you pulled on me, and anyway we’re different people now.”
“No we aren’t. I still remember what we had, so don’t stand there and pretend—”
“I am not pretending a goddamn thing! I just don’t particularly give a rattling fuck. I’m thirty years old, soon to be thirty-one, and I have everything in this life that I need. The business I started with the girls is just taking off, I have a great apartment, and I have the weekdays to keep me company. I don’t want or need dinner with some ape who couldn’t so much as call to say adios.”
“I explained that in the letter.”
“Letter? Where is this mysterious letter then? I sure don’t remember getting it. Maybe the mailman needed toilet paper? Maybe—”
“Jock was supposed to give it to you. You saying he didn’t?” I ask, watching her face for any telltale signs of dishonesty, though why I would bother is beyond me.
Percy is no liar, and not because she has any claim to wanting to be decent, rather that she enjoys whatever conflict could come of stirring the pot.
That’s my girl, straight and hard to the end.
“Well Jock, whoever the hell that is, did not give me a thing. Not that it would have made one iota of a difference. You left. End of. And I’m okay with that because, and listen now please because I won’t say it again. I moved on.”
Moved on? When I’ve spent almost a decade thinking of her, planning ridiculous scenario after ridiculous scenario in my head.
“Dammit, Percy, at least just let me explain before you kick me to the curb completely. I had to—”
“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That’s just about all I hear so save your breath. Like Indie said, what happened between us wrecked me for a while but I picked up and moved on and so should you. Get over that shit already. We were kids, stupid kids, spinning some silly fucking dreams to keep it from feeling like all we had was sex. I’m older, wiser, and I don’t fool myself anymore just to screw. Now, are we done? Cause I left a perfectly good wedge of cake out there and Indie’s lining up the booze. Good to see ya.”
She bends down, grabs her heels and wields them like weapons as she stalks to the door with her head held high. I could stop her. Hell, from experience I know I could take her down to the sofa in this office, kiss the hell out of her, and have her purring and scratching at me in a matter of minutes.
“Percy.”
“What!” she yells, swinging around, her hand pulling at the door just as I come up behind her and shove it closed, caging her in between my outstretched arms.
Being this close to her, smelling her lilac scent and that vanilla shampoo she uses on her hair is like breathing in the smell of home, and I relish it even as I smile and bring us nose to nose, wanting her breath too.
“Don’t run,” I whisper, so close I go hard at the feel of her breath washing over my lips.
“Marks—”
I don’t let her say another word as I swoop down and take her mouth, inhaling her gasp of protest, pushing my tongue into her and groaning at the taste I’ve craved for years.
Chocolate, beer and that elusive flavor that is Percy.
Wet heat, warm breath, and a moan fill me. I take advantage of her momentary shock to deepen the contact. Percy seems frozen for all of a second before I feel her tense.
I can’t allow that, not yet. Not when the feel of her mouth and the taste of her is so delicious.
She’s about to pull away, I feel it when I thread a hand through her hair, the other around her hips and go for broke. I want to devour her, consume her, take her so far into me she’ll never be free, and that’s just how I kiss her as I pull her hips into mine and grind my shaft against her.
It feels so good, so right that I can’t help my growl when I feel her soften by degrees and start kissing me back, her hips pushing close and grinding into me.
Jesus, her tongue is like a living thing as she thrusts it into my mouth and moans her delight against me.
I’m not one of those romantic guys who’d use flowery words to describe a kiss or a dry hump against a door. This, though, is not dirty or bad in any way, just right. So right that when she hooks a leg around my ass and I feel wet heat, I’m so close to coming it’s shameful.
“Uhn, oh, that’s…”
I agree as I capture her lips again and
hoist her up and into me, our mouths and bodies rubbing and melding as I add more pressure. I need to come. I’m going to. I feel it in the tingle of my spine and the tightening of my balls when she bites into my lip and centers herself just so that I feel her little clit kiss the head of my dick.
Yes, God, I can feel the pleasure rising with every press of our hips and every little grind she does against me. It builds and I’m forced to let go of her hair and grab her full ass to keep her still against me when she starts going wild on me.
Building, building…
***
Percy
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing but I do know that I’ve never felt this before. Okay, so I have but it’s been so long that the intensity of the pleasure building deep inside my core is almost frightening.
Marks has my mouth pinned as he keeps kissing me, owning every inch of my lips, sucking on my tongue so hard it’s almost painful, but in the best way.
And oh God, the throbbing pressure on my clit is building so fast I feel my muscles contract in constant, blissful ripples. I should pull away and slap his smug face, but even as the thought forms I feel him lick into me and change the angle of his grind, the very base of his shaft pressing into my opening as he keeps pressure just where I need it.
So good, so…
I won’t let myself even think the word right, but it feels better than any sex I’ve had in the last years.
When I can’t possibly keep the kiss without breathing I pull my mouth away, shove my face into his neck, and let it take me. The heat, the wet pressure, and the overwhelming pleasure hit me so hard on that last push that I can’t keep myself together anymore and explode in jerky, liquid pulls that hit my clit and sheath and detonate inside where I feel so empty.
I lose what little sense I have and revel in his groan as he pushes closer, goes rigid, and curses as he reaches his own climax.
Good God, what have I done? I moan in bliss as his erection jerks and wets us both through his pants, making the dirty, wet pleasure more intense, more intimate.
“So fucking good,” he breathes against my neck as we slow and stop moving altogether, our breaths a loud gasp of satiation in the stillness of the room.
My senses return swiftly, I feel like someone threw an iceberg at me. This is so wrong, so stupid. I can’t even find my usual sarcastic justifications for my behavior as I pull my head back so fast it hits the door with a thunk.
“No. I—”
My shove at his chest catches him unaware and he stumbles back a step, releasing me, his face clouded with confused pleasure. My own body is an inelegant mess of limbs as I fall back against the door and clench my hands into fists, fighting my own stupid tears of regret and the anger now swiftly overtaking me.
Stupid! So stupid, Percy.
You can say that again.
Straightening, when all my body really wants is to curl into his strength and cuddle, is not easy, but I do it, I stand on shaky legs and manage to straighten myself up, ignoring the wet warmth plastering my panties to my sex.
Later. Think about it later.
“Percy—”
“Thanks much for the door hump. Now I remember why I have the weekdays to keep me company,” I mutter, firming myself against the hurt that flashes across his face for the briefest minute.
“Don’t do that. Don’t trivialize—”
“A quickie that technically wasn’t even really sex at all?” I laugh derisively.
Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night, girl.
Marks’s face goes stony and I see that familiar glint in his eye, the one he’d get whenever someone would tell him he couldn’t achieve something. Shit, you couldn’t remember this stubborn streak of his, woman!
“Not sex? I distinctly remember you calling it sex for the four weeks we groped and humped each other before we actually got our clothes off. You saying all that wasn’t sex?” he purrs, taking a step closer before I have the sense to move and pull the door open.
“Shut up. And stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking, Marks, because it won’t work with me. We’re freaking done. Over. No repeats.”
“That’s good, Percy. I’m a man now, I don’t want to repeat the things I did when I was too green and stupid to do them properly. When we get together again you’d best remember to ignore what and who the boy was because it’s the man you’ll be getting.”
You know what sucks about running away because you have nothing intelligible to say? Nothing. I’m not a coward and I did not hear the little chuckle he let out when I grab my scattered wits and bolt for Indie and the safety of a lot of liquor.
“Gross, you smell like sex.”
“You shut up,” I hiss, grabbing her drink and shooting it as I fall into a seat beside her and grab the cake I abandoned earlier. “I thought you liked the smell of debauchery.”
“Yeah! But on me. I haven’t smelled a dick in so long I don’t think I can remember what one looks like anymore,” she laments as my eyes dart around, searching out the animal now on my trail.
“So go have some, loser.”
“Like you?” Indie giggles, taking in what I know is sex hair since Marks held me still for his mouth by messing with my do. “No thanks. Your dress is messed up and you have bunch creases at your waist, though I do not see panty marks anywhere near your legs. Please tell me that fine specimen actually did you and didn’t just get by with a thumper.”
“Shut up.”
Her eyes roll again and I curl my lip at her amusement when she leans in and gives me advice I neither want nor need.
“From that glazed, totally nasty sex-blissed expression you can’t hide I’m gonna assume you just had the thump humped out of your ass and that it was better than you imagined it would be. Hell, I haven’t eavesdropped on a dirtier, quiet, totally hot sexcapade in so long I almost didn’t believe what I was hearing and not hearing, Percy. That shit was good, better than I’ve heard coming from your room in the last—”
“Stop. I don’t want to—Indie! Did you listen at the door?” I gasp.
She doesn’t even blush and just shrugs nonchalantly.
“Eh, I so did. Don’t get all red and mad on me, Hell Girl. I was just trying to ensure you were okay. Then I started hearing all those moans and what I assumed was your ass cheeks hitting the wood door when he started drilling you against it, and well, it sounded so good I just couldn’t bring myself to interrupt and remind you your brain belongs in your skull and not in your panties.”
She finds everything, even my own misery, totally amusing. In fact, over the years she’s not only listened in on my sex but once or twice walked in and told me what I was doing wrong. Pervert.
“Thanks. I so totally owe you for letting me make such a monumental mistake.”
“You’re welcome. Soooo, it was good? Was it all tingling and sweet like you remembered?” she drawls, shoving a beer my way.
I could so totally be glib and flippant and answer her in my usual sarcastic, uninformative way, it would probably be much easier in the long run, but I feel raw right now and vulnerable in the worst way as the cold reality of what I just let happen cools between my legs, reminding me that a piece of him is still with me.
“Don’t, Indie. Please, I just, I’m not up for pretending right now. What happened in college was enough for me and this…was a mistake I never should have let happen. Marks is no good for me.”
“Isn’t he? We’ll see, little Percy, we’ll see. For now I think you should be happy that you’re still here instead of under him and just enjoy what you did get out of it.”
“You don’t understand,” I hiss, leaning in and lowering my voice to avoid a scene.
I usually like them but I gotta say, being the asshole in the middle of things is so not me. I prefer others’ humiliation, not my own.
“Tell me then.”
“He’s not going to stop. I did the one thing I shouldn’t have. I presented a challenge to the asshole and I know him, Indie
. He won’t leave me be until he wins.”
She shakes her head at me and pats my back in one of her custom-made hugs that doesn’t do shit but make me want to break her arm.
“You know, Perc, I haven’t seen you care about anything this intensely in a long time.”
“So?”
“So, I kind of like it on you, to be honest. It means you’re still alive, something I really wasn’t sure about. There was a stage I thought all that makeup you wore was hiding the face of one of the undead. Stop glaring, I’m partly kidding! What I mean is that if it takes him to shake you up a little, then so be it. What’s the worst that can happen? Some hot sex while he’s in town? I say go for it.”
Go for it? The last time I went for it I ended up with my heart in pieces. No thanks.
Chapter Three
Iceberg Up Ahead
Percy
The sound of my mother puttering about in the kitchen while I’m forced to make small talk with my father is not the way I would ever choose to spend my Saturdays, but it beats the hell out of sitting at home by myself while my phone beeps with text after text.
It’s been one week of nonstop torture since the wedding and a send-off for Dot and Paul on the honeymoon that will beat all honeymoons. Not just because he’s taking her to Hawaii—dammit, I wanna go to freaking Hawaii and live out my cocktail fantasies!—but because we put a little something in her luggage that is sure to get her stopped at security.
Let’s just say that she’s going to have to explain a certain purple pleasure toy to not only security but her husband. Indie’s got a pal working that section of the airport and he swore to take video for us to enjoy, though I have yet to see that video.
Boy I hope he did see the debacle, because Dot hasn’t called threatening to kill us all and it would seriously hurt me if she didn’t get the strip search we set her up for…
“So, your mother tells me you’ve been doing well with your little hobby.”
Dad’s no-nonsense comment wrenches me back to the present and I find myself gritting my teeth and swallowing my instant retort to this newest tool to insult me.
THE NAUGHTY ONES: The Complete 5-Books Series Page 37