Decidedly Off Limits

by Stina Lindenblatt

  I rolled up the third tie and stroked it against Kelsey’s cheek. Her beautiful lush lips curved into an equally beautiful smile. “That’s so soft,” she whispered.

  “It is, but not as soft as you.” I gave her one more tender kiss, before sliding the tie down to a perfect rose-tinted nipple.

  I caressed it with the tie until Kelsey was moaning and writhing on the bed. If anyone was to walk past the room, there’d be no question what she was up to.

  Once I’d finished having fun with that nipple, I switched to the other one, and was rewarded with the same moaning and writhing. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of this—knowing what I could do to her, knowing she loved it as much as I did.

  “Now open your legs wide so I can see your gorgeous pussy,” I murmured against her ear.

  She whimpered but did as I requested. Got to love a woman who does what you ask of her with a smile filled with longing and amusement.

  With the tie, I stroked around her clit, touching her in the way I knew from experience drove her insane with need.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned and writhed again, her bound hands pulling at the bed frame.

  “Do you want me to keep going?” My voice remained low so no one could overhear me and realize I was in the “wrong” room.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  I slid my fingers between the lips of her pussy and brought them to my mouth. “Christ, you taste amazing, Kels.”

  Another whimper. She wouldn’t last much longer.

  And neither would I.

  I lavished her clit with my tongue, pushing her further and further to the edge…until she came hard against my face, in all her fucking glory.

  Pride sat up inside me. I had done this to her. I had made her fall apart like this. Yes, I had fucked other women before, but never had it felt like this.

  Never had they felt like Kelsey.

  Once she returned from whatever stratosphere I’d sent her to, I untied her, removed the blindfold and my boxers, and grabbed a condom from the nightstand.

  “I want to feel you without anything between us,” she said softly. “I’m on the pill. And I’m clean.” The longing in her eyes was accompanied by a question: What about you?

  The last time a woman had told me she was on the pill…well, you know what happened. And yes, the angel on my shoulder that night had given the devil a helluva hard time. He never lived that one down.

  But the idea of entering Kelsey with nothing between us sent more blood to my cock. I needed relief from the building ache and I needed it now.

  At my hesitation, she stroked her fingers against my jaw. “I would never do anything to hurt you, Trent. And if you’re not ready for that, I understand.”

  “I want you so bad, Kelsey. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone before.” My voice was rough with emotion and a level of vulnerability I’d never felt before. I peered into the depths of her beautiful blue eyes. Nothing but pure, hot honesty shone back at me.

  “I’m clean too,” I whispered. I lifted her legs onto my shoulders, and pressed the head of my cock against her hot entrance. Then I slowly eased my way in, allowing her tight heat to adjust to my width.

  It was like coming home after being away for so long.

  I woke up the next morning to find the room aglow with sunlight and a naked Kelsey snuggled up to me, her back against my chest, my arm around her waist. Her breathing was deep and even, not too surprising after last night—and the three times we’d made love. She had fallen asleep in my arms shortly after the final time.

  I gently kissed her shoulder, skin warm, soft, and sweet-smelling.

  She stirred, her hot ass brushing against my morning wood, releasing a moan from my lips. “Careful, sweetheart. Unless you’re recovered from last night and ready for another round.”

  She turned around with a grin on her face. “I think I could handle it.” Her hand moved under the covers and she stroked my length. Her grin grew—as did my cock.

  I crawled over her and my mouth headed south for my morning feast. My tongue lashed against her nipple.

  “Oh, Trent,” she half moaned, half whispered.

  A knock at the door intruded on us and I muttered a curse.

  “Kelsey,” Holly said. “Can I come in for a second?”

  “I’m kind of busy right now,” Kelsey began to say but the sound turned into another moan as I continued enjoying my feast.

  “It’s important.”

  I reluctantly removed myself from her tit and murmured in Kelsey’s ear, “She’s not going to leave until she’s talked to you.”

  “But she can’t see you,” she whispered back, pitch raised in panic.

  “She won’t. I’ll stay under the blanket until she goes.” Maybe have some fun while I was at it. No, not that kind of fun…although it would be amusing. “She’ll think I’m Matt and she won’t stay long.”

  Kelsey nodded and I pulled the cover over my head and her naked body.

  “Okay, come in,” she said, reminding me that I’d forgotten to check that the door was locked last night. I had been too eager to be with her.

  The door clicked open and shut.

  I reached out in the darkness, found the soft skin on Kelsey’s thigh, and traced it with my fingertips.

  “What’s up?” Kelsey asked. I snickered quietly at her unintentional pun and let my fingers explore farther north…aiming for one of my favorite parts.

  “How was your night?” Holly asked.

  “Good,” Kelsey squeaked as my fingers slipped between her wet folds.

  “Sounded like you were having a great time. So did Trent.”

  Warning bells rang in my head and my fingers froze.

  “Oops,” Kelsey said, with an awkward giggle. “Sorry Matt and I were a little loud.”

  “Oh, you two weren’t loud at all.”

  Shit.

  “You can come out now, Trent.” Holly didn’t sound pissed, but the blanket over my head could’ve been deceiving.

  “Trent’s not here,” Kelsey said, doing a good job sounding confused. Matt and Jillian weren’t the only good actors it turned out.

  “Ahh, so you’re telling me Jillian is one very lucky woman, and was having sex with both Matt and Trent last night?”

  “Why would you think she was having sex with Matt?”

  “Because I saw him leave her room this morning to use the bathroom.” The last word had barely left her mouth when the bedding was tugged away from my head, exposing Kelsey’s and my lie…as well as a good proportion of my ass.

  Groaning, I shifted around so that all my valuables were covered.

  Then groaned again at her do-you-really-think-I’m-that-stupid expression, eyebrow raised.

  I had an economics degree from Columbia and my professional CFA designation, both of which said I was an intelligent man. Yet at that moment, not one intelligent thought traipsed around in my brain. The best I could come up with was “Hi?”

  Holly didn’t say anything at first. She just sat on the wingback chair, where I had at one point made Kelsey come last night. But now wasn’t a good time to point that out to Holly.

  Kelsey and I sat up, her arms crossed in front of her to keep the covers against her breasts.

  “So, how long has this been going on between you two?” Holly waved her index finger at us to indicate who she was referring to, as if there was any doubt.

  “A couple of weeks,” Kelsey said, her voice soft. Soft with the promise of a lifetime of groveling to make up for what we had done. To make up for the betrayal that Holly was no doubt feeling, because we hadn’t been honest with her to begin with. “I’m so sorry, Holly, that I didn’t tell you sooner. We didn’t plan for this to happen…it just did.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”

  “Because Erin and my brother can’t find out.”

  Holly looked genuinely surprised. “Why not?”

  “Because I’m screwing my best friend’s little sister,” I
reminded her. “Liam would be pissed if he knew the truth.”

  “And Erin would be devastated if she found out,” Kelsey added.

  “How come?” Holly asked.

  “Well, to start with, the last thing she wants is for me to date Trent. She loves her brother, but he’s not her first choice for me.”

  “But it’s not her choice to make,” Holly so wisely pointed out.

  “I know, and under different circumstances I would tell her that. But it goes deeper than that. And if she knew I’d been lying to her the whole time, she’d never forgive me.”

  “So you’re going to keep lying to her about this?”

  “It’s not like this is going to last forever.” Kelsey’s words were a swift kick to the nuts. She had already written off what we had between us. I was a temporary fling—nothing more.

  Ready to stamp “hypocrite” on my forehead? The irony hadn’t skipped me. She viewed me as not much different than I had viewed the women I’d been involved with. But the difference was I had done it out of self-preservation.

  A voice in my head muttered maybe that was what Kelsey was doing too. She had already gone down the workaholic route with her ex. She had no intention of repeating that mistake.

  Wasn’t that why we had hooked up to begin with?

  “Please don’t tell Erin,” Kelsey said to Holly. “We don’t want to hurt her.”

  Holly nodded and pushed herself from the chair. “I won’t. But I really believe you two owe it to her to be honest with her…as well as with yourselves.”

  She strode to the door, turning back to us once she got there. “I’ll let you get back to what you were doing. But you might want to think about getting up soon. I’m sure the four of you”—she pointed at the wall separating us from Jillian’s room—“are hungry after all that sex last night.” Laughing, she left the room.

  Kelsey’s phone beeped from the bedside table. She picked it up while I checked the text from Matt, warning me that Holly had seen him come from Jillian’s room.

  Sure, now I saw it.

  “Weird. It’s from Luke,” Kelsey said. “Our photography instructor needs to talk to us.”

  “About what?”

  “No idea. All he knows is that it’s about our assignment and it’s important.”

  For some reason, she seemed more nervous about that than what had just happened with Holly.

  After her comment to Holly about what we had between us not lasting forever, I should’ve gotten up and hit the shower. But knowing that this thing between us had an expiry date—as vague as it was—I decided to make the most of the time we did have together.

  I took her phone from her and placed it on the nightstand…then slowly, tenderly made love to her one more time.

  34

  Kelsey

  Luke’s car was already parked on the street when I arrived at Danielle’s house. I pulled up in the space ahead of him and turned off the engine.

  My cell phone pinged.

  Owen: How about that coffee? Say in two hours? There’s something I need to ask you.

  Me: What’s that?

  Owen: I’d rather ask you in person.

  Me: Okay.

  We finalized the details, then I released a long, slow breath, and walked up the path to the house. There was no reason for me to be nervous about meeting with my photography instructor, yet I was more nervous about that than I was at seeing my ex-fiancé afterward.

  I rang the doorbell of the large house and a few seconds later the front door opened.

  “Come on in,” Danielle said, stepping aside to let me in.

  The inside of the house was nothing like I had expected. Her studio was organized and tidy. Her house was chaotic in the way that made you feel at home. It was splashes of different colors, with no particular theme in mind. If an editor for a home-decorating magazine came in, she’d be hard-pressed to identify a particular style Danielle had adhered to. It was as if she couldn’t decide which she’d liked best and had adopted them all.

  Luke was on the floral couch, reading a piece of paper when I entered the living room. His expression was serious, the complete opposite of Danielle. She was smiling like she’d found buried treasure in her backyard.

  He peered up at me, stunned—and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with me showing up.

  “Luke was a few minutes early,” she explained as she and I sat down, me next to Luke on the couch, Danielle on the armchair opposite us, “so I’ve already filled him in on what I wanted to discuss with you both. First, I want to tell you how proud I am of the work you’ve accomplished in the class so far. The work you’ve presented for your assignments has been breathtaking.”

  “Thank you,” Luke and I said at the same time.

  She gathered a small stack of eight-by-ten photos from the coffee table and laid them out, side-by-side in front of Luke and me. The first two were the ones I’d taken of Trent during our semi-nude assignment. In one, he was standing to the side of the window, wearing his jeans and white dress shirt. The shirt was open and untucked, revealing his taut abs. He was smiling in the way that had caused my panties to grow damp when I had taken the photo. Even now, the smile still had the same effect on me.

  The other photo showed him without the shirt. The side lighting emphasized each muscle in his arms, chest, and abs. These photos were two of my favorites that I had taken of him that day.

  In the other two photos, I was straddling Trent’s hips while he sat on the bed. One was with me wearing his shirt. The other was when I had removed it. Trent and I had both asked Luke for copies of the pictures.

  “I showed these photos to an editor friend of mine,” Danielle explained. “She’s involved in a fundraiser for the restoration of an old historic library. They’ve chosen to target females twenty-four to fifty years old for the fundraiser, and your photos are perfect for it.”

  “Perfect for what exactly?” I asked.

  “A calendar. They’re also hoping to include some of the bachelors in an auction.”

  I blinked. “You want to auction off guys? To do what?”

  “To take the highest bidder on a date. You know, dinner and a show. Anyway, my friend recognized Trent Salway. He’s touted as one of San Francisco’s hot-up-and-coming-under-thirty bachelors.”

  “And she wants our pictures for the calendar?” I asked slowly, uncertain if I had heard her correctly.

  “She wants two of them, and she’s hoping he’ll agree to participate in the auction. She’s positive with his good looks and reputation of being quite the bachelor, the fundraiser will be a great success.”

  I glanced at the photos then at Luke, before looking back at Danielle. “But what does this have to do with Luke?”

  “They want to include one of his as well as one of yours.” Seeing my puzzled frown, she explained. “Females love romance. They love the idea of meeting that perfect guy who knows how to make a woman swoon. And there’s definitely swooning going on in this photo.”

  Had to agree with her there, even if it was me in the picture.

  “Luke told me that he never got a model-release form from the two of you”—she casted him a shame-on-you look—“and we need it before they can proceed. Also, she was wondering if you could bring up the auction with Trent. Or she can do it if you’d prefer.”

  Several thoughts zinged through my head. “What if he’s dating someone? Doesn’t that make him ineligible for the auction?”

  Or did friends with benefits not count?

  “Unless you know something my friend doesn’t, he’s very much single. And it’s for a great cause. The women’s group wants to convert the building into a spa for women dealing with cancer.”

  “But what if he is dating someone?” Luke asked, echoing my earlier question, casting me a sidelong glance. A quiet kind of excitement rolled off him. He wanted this opportunity, but he also knew that Trent and I were involved. For the most part. He didn’t know Trent and I were just friends with added perks.<
br />
  “In that case he wouldn’t be eligible to participate,” Danielle explained, “which would be a great shame. I can guarantee his participation will help raise the money required to finish the project, and to prevent a valuable landmark from being destroyed.” She smiled at me. “And they wouldn’t be the only ones to benefit. You would both get full credit on the calendar. That will be a huge advantage if you’re planning to do any freelance photography.”

  “All right, I’ll ask him,” I said, and Luke released a relieved breath. Given that Trent’s aunt had died of cancer, I couldn’t see Trent turning down the opportunity to help women going through what she had endured.

  And like Danielle had said, Trent was a bachelor. Our relationship didn’t change that. I was just the woman he was having sex with—nothing more. Thanks to those bitches of girlfriends past, Trent was unable to trust another woman, and without that trust he’d never be able to love me like I loved him.

  We never had a chance for a happily-ever-after. Together.

  As I walked from my car to the coffee shop, my cell phone pinged.

  Holly: Have you told Erin yet about you and Trent?

  No, I mentally texted back. It wasn’t like I even knew how to bring it up with Erin. “Hey, I just thought you’d like to know that I’m screwing around with your brother.” Or, “Guess who I’m in love with? That’s right, your brother Trent.” There wasn’t an easy way to tell her. Stress when you were pregnant was never a good thing.

  I know, that was a coward’s excuse—but it worked for me.

  I entered the coffee shop and scanned the tables. Owen was already sitting at one by the window, with a cup of coffee waiting for me. He was dressed in a grey suit, looking great as he always did. But those fluttery feelings I got whenever I saw Trent in a suit? Zilch, nada, zip when it came to Owen. And now that I thought about it, they never really had existed.

  As I approached, he glanced up from his phone and smiled.

  Smiling back, I sat down. “Thanks for the coffee.”

  “You’re welcome. And thanks for meeting up with me. I’ve missed you, Kelsey.”

  Okay. Not quite what I was expecting.