“No one is faithful anymore. Pierce and I have agreed to have an open marriage. He can sleep with whoever he wants. And frankly, it’s really none of your business what Pierce and I do with our lives.”
“But he accosted me on the slopes and suggested a threesome. You, me and him. How can you marry someone like that?”
“Honey, he was just teasing you. Sure, he was probably serious about sleeping with you, but he knows I wouldn’t be interested in a threesome, especially with another woman. You need to get your head out of the clouds.” She rolled her eyes. “Happily-ever-after is an illusion. It’s time to start living like a grown-up.”
Lauren had no response. There really weren’t any words. She watched silently as her sister continued to primp and apply her makeup. Crystal was serious. She had no problems with Pierce’s actions.
Lauren tried to kick-start her brain. But the only thing she could think was that her sister was fine with her sleeping with Pierce. Why? How had it come to this? What had happened to her?
“Ah, perfect.” Crystal turned from the mirror and walked across the room to collect her purse. “Are you ready for a fun night out?”
The last thing she wanted to do tonight was spend more time with these people. She coughed at the cloud of perfume left in her sister’s wake. “Uh, I don’t think I’ll be coming tonight.”
Crystal rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You do know Prince Charming doesn’t exist, right? You should really get your head out of those books and start living life.”
Lauren pushed off the bed and stomped over to the door.
“And just for your information,” Crystal said as Lauren pulled open the door. “I don’t care if you blab to Mommy. Maybe this’ll finally make her back off.”
“I think you better ask one of your friends to play maid of honor at your wedding. I just…I can’t stand up for you two.”
“You’re just jealous, Lauren. Jealous and immature.”
“I’ve always lived by the different strokes for different folks adage. I don’t have to like whatever you’re into but I sure as hell don’t have to stand next to you while you marry the bastard. Call me old-fashioned but sleeping with my sister’s fiancé is wrong in my book. What happened to the loyally possessive Crystal? The girl who stole boyfriends and kept them until she was done with them? You should ask yourself why you’ve decided this is okay.”
“Like I said, grow up. I have.” Crystal smirked.
“Yeah, I guess I should,” Lauren said softly. “Take care of yourself, Crystal.” She pulled the door closed behind her as she left.
Walking down the hallway, Lauren’s eyes filled with tears. Even though they hadn’t gotten along most of their lives, she now felt like she had lost her sister forever. Her heart weighed heavier in her chest now than when she’d sat on her sister’s bed afraid to tell her the news. More than anything, she wished her sister had chosen a different path, a different man. And a large part of her felt guilty at her relief that she’d never dated Pierce.
She thought she knew Crystal. Knew who her baby sister was. Obviously, she didn’t. It wasn’t so much that Crystal and Pierce, the perfect golden couple, had turned out to be kinky. Lord knew she couldn’t be one to judge a person on that front. But how could Crystal settle for a relationship where her own fiancé hit on her sister? Behind her back. And who else would he try to hit on in the future? She shuddered. She didn’t even know who these people were. They lived behind a façade.
Unlike Jamie. A total stranger only twenty-four hours ago was the most open and honest person she had ever met. He didn’t hide his true self. He left it out there in the open for everyone to see. And the time she spent with him. She shivered at the memory. They had done things a lot of people would think depraved. And yet she had felt cleaner and freer with Jamie than after her conversations with Pierce and Crystal.
Suddenly Lauren knew exactly where she needed to be.
Chapter Six
For the second time that day, Lauren found herself standing in front of a closed door, giving herself a mental pep talk. Fingering the key card, she stared at the door in indecision. Jamie had thoughtfully left the card at the front desk for her so she could access his penthouse floor, but to use the key and just open his door felt wrong. Too presumptuous.
She had been full of steam until this point. Something about raising her hand to knock on Jamie’s door felt final. Like she stood on the precipice of a momentous decision. She shook her tense shoulders like a dog trying to dry itself. She was being silly. She liked what they’d done together last night. And she wanted more.
Before she could talk herself out of it, Lauren raised her hand and knocked. After waiting only a beat or two, the door opened and revealed Sawyer standing in the doorway.
“I, uh, thought…” Lauren looked up and down the hall. She might have been a little tipsy last night, but she couldn’t have gotten it that wrong. There were only two doors on this floor.
Sawyer leaned against the door with a wide grin, his black T-shirt pulled taut over his muscular chest. “Are you lost, sugar? Did you come to the lion’s den for directions?”
What the hell did he mean? Lion’s den? She took a steadying breath. As she opened her mouth, a familiar voice cut her off.
“Get out of the way, cock block.” Jamie elbowed his friend aside to stand in front of Lauren with a grin. “Hey, kitten. Want to come inside?”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Sawyer murmured. “Oomph.” He stepped back into the suite clutching his stomach.
Jamie held out his hand.
Lauren stared at it a moment before she placed her own on top of his. Looking into his smiling eyes, she knew she had made the right decision. This was where she belonged.
“Come on in. I have some…interesting things planned for us tonight.”
Her pulse pounded in her ears. Planned? “So you thought I was a sure thing?”
“Never. I hoped you enjoyed last night enough to come back for a second round.”
Lauren followed Jamie into the suite, her hand still clenched in his. He paused as Sawyer stepped around them.
“I can see you have your night all planned so I’ll just be going—”
“Wait a minute,” Jamie interjected. He walked with Sawyer over to the dining room and they stood, heads bent together for a moment whispering furiously. Lauren waited alone in the sitting room, wondering what was going on. She fought the urge to shift from foot to foot like a little child doing the potty dance. What was so important they had to discuss it now? Couldn’t it wait until later? She had started to work herself up, wondering what wicked plans Jamie had for her.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jamie turned and looked at her. “How about you go ahead and I’ll be there in a second?” His wicked grin had her toes curling.
She bit her lip to keep a silly grin off her face. It was a little early in their relationship to start acting like a goober. She tried for sophistication instead. “I’ll be waiting,” she murmured with a slight smile. Fighting the urge to skip to the bedroom, she forced herself to walk sedately across the room. She might have put a little extra roll into her hips. She just couldn’t resist the impulse.
* * *
Jamie watched the door close behind Lauren with a soft click. He sighed. God, she was hot. The kinky, twisted things he had planned tonight…
Sawyer cleared his throat.
Jamie jerked his head back to look at his friend with a chagrined smile. “Sorry, man. I was miles away.”
“No, I’d say about thirty feet.”
“Fuck you. So are we done here? I have better things to do.”
“She’s got to you, hasn’t she? I never thought I’d see the day big, bad Jamie Forman fell under a chick’s spell.” Sawyer chuckled. “Wait until the guys at the Cave hear about this.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Jamie turned and walked toward the bedroom. “You can see yourself out,” he threw over his shoulder in a blunt r
eminder that he, unlike Sawyer, didn’t share. Ever.
“Ah, come on. Don’t walk away angry. It was a joke.”
“Bye, Sawyer.”
Sawyer heaved a sigh. “See you at breakfast tomorrow?”
Jamie flashed a rude gesture as his reply. He heard Sawyer chuckle softly before the outer door clicked shut.
Fuck, what was it about best friends that made them think they could say shit like that? Like he would ever fall under a woman’s spell. Not gonna happen. After watching his father take his mother back no matter what she had done, waiting for her to come home from God knew where… Uh-uh. He might not be into sharing, but he also knew happily-ever-after was just a myth. The whole one man-one woman, soulmate thing wasn’t a part of his reality. Would never be part of his reality.
He shook his tense shoulders and rolled his head back and forth. Damn, he needed to relax and get those stupid thoughts out of his head. He couldn’t go in there with all this restless energy. Pacing back and forth for a few minutes, Jamie tried to clear his mind and not think about Sawyer’s immature digs. Or his earlier needling about bailing on the play party in Sawyer’s room later that night.
“Come on. Just bring her along,” Sawyer had whispered moments ago. “Who knows, you might enjoy a little public play in a private setting. It’s nothing like playing at the Cave. No rules, anything goes. Having sex in front of an audience is the biggest high. Just think how hot it’ll make Lauren.”
Jamie had wasted no time telling his friend where he could shove his little suggestion. Lauren’s curvy body was for him alone. He didn’t share. Would never share.
Christ. He couldn’t think about that. Especially now.
Jamie closed his eyes and took deep abdominal breaths, concentrating on his vision of Lauren spread out on the bed, her eyes drowsy with lust, her mouth swollen from his kisses, her breasts bare and her nipples taut and begging for his attention.
Ah, he might be calmer, but now he was horny as hell. Fortunately he had a cure for that particular ailment. Now he couldn’t wait to get started. Jamie opened the bedroom door and took in the scenery. Lauren sat fidgeting on the edge of the bed, still fully clothed but barefoot. She wasn’t draped across the bed quite as he had imagined, nor was she as swept away by passion. But it wouldn’t take long to fix that.
He walked over to her side of the bed. After brushing her hair from her eyes, he placed a finger under her jaw and tilted her head up to look into her eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip as she stared back at him. Seeing the indecision written across her face, he stepped back and asked her, “What is your safe word?”
Her shoulders lifted in a shuddering breath. “Lawsuit.”
That was his girl. Brave and sexy. Ready to take on whatever he threw at her.
His girl? Where did that come from? Jamie shook his head as if to clear the thought from his mind. No distractions. They were just here for a good time after all. Nothing more.
“Jamie?”
Lauren’s soft voice was like a gunshot in the room. He jerked back to the present to find her still sitting on the bed but looking up at him with a concerned expression. “Jamie, what’s wr—?”
“I’m fine. You ready?”
She nodded, concern still wrinkling her brow.
He took a few steadying breaths. There was no denying the tension in the room. He needed to get his funk under control. Especially if he wanted to do the scene he had planned tonight. He couldn’t let his emotions get so close to the surface.
“I’m okay. Really.” He bent down so that he was on eye level with her and cupped her jaw in his hand. “What’s your safe word again?”
Lauren’s gaze pierced him.
He worried for a moment that she could read him like a book. That his every thought was telegraphed across his face. Until her lips curved into that amazing smile of hers.
“Lawsuit.”
His own lips curled in response. Christ, she was cute. He stepped back and stood in front of her with his arms crossed over his chest. “Get naked.”
She stared at him and bit her lip in indecision.
“Now!” he barked.
Suddenly Lauren was a whirling dervish of motion. Her shirt and skirt sailed over his head before he could blink, and her bra was quick to follow. She paused for a minute and searched his eyes while her fingers rested, hooked in her underwear at her hips.
Jamie stared back at her with his sternest expression, a snarl not far from his lips.
Lauren stood and pushed her panties down her legs before kicking them away from her feet. Her black lace thong twirled to rest on his left boot. An enchanting shade of red swept across her face as she swiftly sprawled across the bed. A wide swath of wavy brown hair hid most of her face from his view, but he knew without looking that she was still blushing.
He stood silently next to the bed and soaked up the view. From the long, wavy mop of brown hair down to her painted-red toenails, Lauren was a study of female lushness. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on those abundant curves. But he did wait. Anticipation was half the fun of BDSM scenes. Drawing out the tension until his partner was a quivering mess of nerves made his dick harder than almost anything else. He knelt down to pick up her black panties. Holding them in his hand, he rubbed his thumb across the damp lace. Almost anything.
Jamie knelt next to the bed until his knees began to scream in protest of his cramped position. The entire time, Lauren lay still, if not calm, on top of the bed. Only once she began to tremble did he move. He walked across the room to retrieve his black bag of tricks and placed it on the bed next to her wiggling toes. After riffling through it for a bit, he found the items he was looking for. He shoved one in his jeans pocket while he clutched the other in his fist and then dropped the bag to the floor.
Crossing over to Lauren’s side, he took a steadying breath before brushing her hair off her face. Her gorgeous green eyes with their brown starbursts blinked up at him. He palmed her cheek in his right hand and leaned down for a quick, brusque kiss. Much more of her honeyed mouth and he’d shoot in his pants like an overeager teen.
Moving quickly, he shook out the silk blindfold he had wadded up in his left hand and covered her eyes.
“Hey!” Lauren reached up to her covered eyes. “What’s the—”
“Freeze.”
Her hand stopped in midair.
“What’s your safe word?”
Her hand fell back to the bed. “Lawsuit,” she mumbled.
“Good. Now that we all remember the game we’re playing, how about you reach up and grab those restraints over your head.”
She shot up from the bed so fast he could swear she was in midflight. “Restraints?” she shrieked.
“That’s what I said. Restraints,” he answered calmly. “Now lie back down.”
“I—I, uh, I don’t know about this.”
“Lie. Back. Down.”
She was flat on her back before he could blink.
“Good. Now reach up with your right hand…”
He waited patiently while she made her decision. He wasn’t a mind reader, but this wasn’t his first rodeo. He could tell by the way she bit her lip and the tenseness of her shoulders that she debated whether or not to comply. Because she was a newbie, he wasn’t keen to push her hard just yet. Of course after a few more scenes—when he had a better sense of her absolute limits—it would be a whole different ballgame.
After a few more scenes? Where the hell did that thought come from? Christ on a crutch, he couldn’t be thinking that way. Not now. Not ever.
While he’d been busy chastising himself, her right arm had slid up the headboard and was grasping, looking for the restraint. With a proud smile, he guided her hand to the loop of leather hanging down from the bedpost. Knowing that, for now, being tied was on her hard list, he wanted to give her the fun of restraints yet the security that she could free herself. As a shuddering sigh left her chest, she reached up her left arm and with a little guidance looped in throu
gh the other ring.
He couldn’t resist letting loose a maniacal chuckle from deep within his chest. “I’ve got you where I want you. Now I’m going to eat you.”
Surveying her body, he climbed on the bed and sat next to her hips. He brushed a hand across her ribcage and came to a rest underneath her breast. Cupping her gorgeous breast in his hand, he ran a thumb across her hardening nipple.
She jerked in response. Her hands clenched around her restraints.
“Mmm. Good girl.” Bending down, he took the other nipple into his mouth and sucked.
A keening moan sprang from her chest.
He chuckled against her breast in response. God, she was expressive. The things he wanted to do to her. If only he had more time to play. Sometimes a weekend wasn’t long enough. Maybe, since they were both locals…
Fuck, he needed to stop thinking like that. He pulled away from her nipple with a pop. Damn it, he needed some distance. Something to stop him from getting in too deep. The conversation with Sawyer popped into his head.
“Jay?” Lauren’s tremulous voice brought him back to the present and the very gorgeous naked woman in front of him. Her hand hovered in the air as if she was going to run her fingers through his hair. Only she couldn’t tell where his head was.
“Nuh-uh. You let go of the restraint, and I stop touching you.” Jamie made up the rule on the spot. He couldn’t let the hesitation be his fault, couldn’t focus on why he had stopped.
“But you stopped before I—”
“I’m waiting.” A little of his impatience leaked into his voice. Damn it, he had to get that under control. He watched her reaction carefully. Her forehead crinkled in careful thought, but after a moment her hand returned to the loop of leather.
“There’s my kitten.” Breathing more calmly now, he decided to put his devious plan into action. “Come on in, Sawyer.”
“What?” she shrieked. Her hands dropped from the loops and raced to cover her body.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her they didn’t cover so much as support and display her very abundant breasts. Or that Sawyer wasn’t actually inside the suite.
Wicked Weekend Page 5
