by Lulu Pratt
But then she invited me to her hotel room. That isn’t unusual. The fact I can’t scrape her from my brain is. Probably because her ex is a giant douche who makes me look like the damn pope and everyone, everyone, knows she’s too good for him. Probably.
“I knew it was you, but that still doesn’t make this any less surprising.”
I turn to find Kate staring with a slight smirk, dimples already bright. She’s wearing leggings and an airy tunic with gold sandals and a floppy hat. Standard Los Angeles fare. It looks better on her than most of the plebes I’ve seen trotting through the streets.
“What gave me away?” I drop my sunglasses a touch to gaze at her sans filter. She’s flushed and beautiful in a way that pains me, but also lets me know this entire venture is going to be highly enjoyable.
“Just a hunch.” Her smile sparkles in the early-evening sun. “Are those for me?”
“A bit presumptuous, wouldn’t you say?” I hide a bouquet of flowers, identical to the ones I sent her, behind my back. “They are for a very beautiful, very deserving woman.”
“I’ll let you know if I see one around, then.”
I pantomime searching through the grounds and walk in a small circle. When I stop in front of her, I give her a lengthy once-over and present the bouquet.
“I’ve searched far and wide for a beautiful, deserving woman. These are for you.”
Kate laughs quietly and accepts the flowers with a curtsy. I extend my arm and she takes it, like two lovers going on a stroll. It is exactly the look I’m going for, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I am.
“Where are we going?”
“Not far.” I say vaguely and glance at her again from the corner of my eye. She’s wearing oversized sunglasses and a floppy hat, presumably as some sort of cover. I feel like I should be carrying a cane. It would certainly come in handy in the bedroom later.
We stop at my favorite secluded area of Descanso. A full picnic spread is laid out with a chilled bottle of wine, a cheese platter and strawberries. I didn’t know what was in it until I set it up because I made Geoff put it together.
I told him I had a hot date and he was on it like fish on a hot dog. Little Geoff is very easy to manipulate. Kate doesn’t feel the same way. There is an iron gate up between us. Which is to say, she’s very different from the other exes I’ve banged.
I shake it off and offer her a place to sit.
“Fancy.” She sits down delicately. Everything about her looks so purposeful, important. She’s more than gorgeous with a sharp tongue, she’s intentional. I don’t like it.
“I thought it was fitting.” I sit next to her and pour two glasses of Pinot Grigio. “I understand this is your favorite? I noticed a few bottles at the hotel room.”
“Oh my God.” Kate’s hands fly to her face and she looks mortified. “I was hoping you wouldn’t remember any of that.”
“Quite the contrary.” I lean in and clink our glasses together. My gaze remains trained on her, hot and pressing. I want her to really feel it. “I dream often about how stunning you were on that chaise. My only regret is how badly I botched it.”
“I guess you didn’t understand.” Kate clears her throat and takes a big gulp of wine. “I’m sorry about that. The whole situation shouldn’t have happened. Like right now.”
“Why?” I lean in a little more, telling myself it’s just for the pictures. “What’s wrong with right now?”
“You’re David’s lawyer.” Kate deadpans. “You’re the enemy.”
“You’re just looking at it wrong.” I brush a thick strand of hair from her shoulder and her cheeks redden. “In a courtroom? Maybe. I’m only doing what I’m paid to do, just like your lawyer. Vivian and I are friends outside of the office. You and I can certainly be the same.”
“Is that what all this? Being friendly?”
I offer a deep, quiet laugh and run my thumb across her cheek. She sits frozen but I can hear her heartbeat racing. My pants tighten as I breathe her in. She smells like sex and promises. She smells like I want to taste.
The things I want to do to her under these trees. Forget the crowds. I would gladly splay her before God and country to run my tongue across her lips.
“I think we both know there is a lot of tension between us.” I whisper in her ear and she shivers. “And I think you deserve to have a real man work your body. My pathetic excuse for a client wouldn’t know where the clitoris is if he had a map.”
“True.” Kate whispers.
“I’ve felt the way you stare at me in the office, Kate. I don’t give a shit about clients or money or cases. Right now, I want to give you what you’ve always been lacking.”
She’s silent for a very long moment, eyes closed and breath still. She finally licks her red lips and turns to look at me, bright blue eyes shining, but untrusting.
“I know your reputation.”
Internally, I groan. Sometimes that reputation comes in handy, like random girls at the bar knowing how big my dick is. This was less than desirable.
“My reputation means nothing. You want a clean slate. I want to be the eraser.”
“Why.” It’s a demand, not a question. I like that.
“Because you’re too good for that sack of shit. Because I’ve been dreaming about making this body shiver under mine for a month, Kate.”
She leans in, our noses practically touching, our breaths shared. Her eyes go hooded and soft, like I’ve finally punched the winning combination to unlock her Pandora’s box.
“I have a room around the corner.”
I grin. “I’ll drive.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KATE
We are on each other before the elevator doors close. Doubts flooded my mind the whole way here, but every hesitation melted the moment he pressed my shoulders against the elevator walls.
“I’m going to destroy you,” he warns. His eyes are dark, a growing storm looming within him. “I’m not gentle. Not in the courtroom, not in real life, not in the bedroom.”
“You don’t scare me.” I whisper back.
“I should.”
“Déjà vu.” I offer a small smile, but the rest of me is wound up tight, waiting for his next move. “Maybe I need danger.”
He stares at me, intense and full of meaning I don’t yet know. His jaw works for a second, mulling over the things he wants to say to me, but nothing crosses his lips. Instead, his mouth claims mine.
And
I
Dissipate.
There is no other word, no other sensation. Everything in my brain, for the first time in months, becomes silent and dark. In this tiny elevator car, my world hits the reset button. He is rough, just like promised, but there’s an undercurrent of sweetness there.
He fists my hair and we kiss like we need oxygen. We kiss like it’s the only way to keep the Earth spinning. We kiss like it is the single thing we’ve been lacking in our lives for entirely too long.
It’s terrifying. It’s perfect. I need more.
We tumble out into the hallway. I grab his hand with a grin and pull him to the left, past the gilded picture frames and the art pieces the hotel swears were contracted by local artists but were really bought en masse from China. It is the perfect metaphor. We pass the fake shit dressed in gold to indulge in something real.
If he fucks with the same fervor he kisses, anyway.
Eric stops me from using the card key, his hand engulfing mine, pressing me to the door. His other hand slides around and grabs my ass. His body presses against mine, the hard length in his jeans making a sizable impression. Slowly, he lowers our hands until the card key opens the door. He walks us back into the wall and hurls the key across the room.
My tunic dangles from the chair no less than ten seconds after we cross the threshold and his hands grasp my breasts. He squeezes and hefts them like fruit he’s considering for purchase.
“I pictured you as more of a leather girl.” He murmurs in my ear. “All thi
s lace doesn’t feel like you.”
“Everyone knows I’m a lace girl.”
“The real you.” He growls and my bra follows my tunic.
“You don’t know the real me.” My lip quivers but my voice is steady. It betrays every cell in my body, the ones yearning to be lost in the sea that is his.
“I can see the you you think you hide.” He bites my lower lip. “You are translucent before me, Kate.”
“And what do you see?”
He holds my gaze again and runs a finger down my cheek. Instead of answering my question, he picks me up and lays me on the bed. Eric kisses my collar bone, the valley between my breasts, my stomach. His mouth hovers over my center just long enough to make me crazy. He slowly exhales over me, warmth covering my most sensitive spaces, and kisses my stomach once again.
Eric goes back to my breasts, rolling each nipple between his fingers. He plays my body like a piano, fingers gently tapping out a beautiful melody across multiple keys at once. It’s a moment longer before his mouth takes my nipple.
It’s instant euphoria. I can’t hear anything, see anything, feel anything other than his tongue and teeth flicking across each nipple in rapid succession. One of his arms slides under my torso and the other works my leggings until they are off my body, leaving me completely exposed.
“It’s not fair that you’re still clothed.” I breathe as his fingers dance down my skin until they brush my pussy lips. “We both need to be naked. I want to see you.”
“You only see what I want you to see.”
He leaves my breasts and finally touches where I want, need, him to touch. His tongue parts my lips and his teeth claim my clit. Tears well up in my eyes from the pain, but it’s intoxicating. Every lick sends my body into a frenzy. Every suck and nibble pushes me closer to the edge building within, a winding series of knots and ecstasy threatening to undo me in a moment.
Then his mouth is gone. I pry open my eyes, breathless and desperate to find where he went. Eric straddles me, naked. The man undresses faster than any human I’ve ever met. He also is every bit as muscled and structured as I pictured in our sterile afternoons together, carved into a level of perfection unlike anything I’d seen.
Pristine abs and those delicious lines lead me like bread crumbs to his cock. It demands all my attention. Large, thick, with veins in all the best places. The head stands above the rest, a large candy waiting to be sucked.
Before I can reach for it, he slides a condom over the top and rolls it on with one hand. His hands run over his length twice, showing off. Never once does his gaze break from mine. A show just for me.
Eric grabs my legs and flips me onto my stomach. A heavy hand trails down my spine and I lift my ass in the air. He knocks my legs wider and teases my opening with his head. This simple gesture confirms he’s bigger than anyone I’ve slept with.
There’s no time to worry, because he slides himself into me with a force that bumps my head into the cushioned headboard. He works us into a rhythm, in and out, back and forth. His fingers find my clit and he rubs me slowly.
With every other partner, clitoral stimulation has been the only way for me to get off, but the mere presence of Eric’s cock in my body has me on edge. His fingers only made it better, icing on the cake.
Eric pulls me upright by my hair, just enough to keep him deep inside. His hand grips my breast and he uses me as a handle to thrust harder than ever. It only takes a few thrusts in this position to send me flying.
The orgasm almost pops up out of nowhere, surprising me with the sharp intensity and heat. It is easily my best orgasm ever. Waves rush over me, lasting almost a full thirty seconds before I can again feel my face. Eric thrusts harder, faster, until he’s grunting through his own orgasm. It’s so sexy hearing this big man who lives on intimidating the world come completely undone.
I collapse on the bed when he pulls out, trying to steady my heart. According to the clock, it had only been fifteen minutes, but it felt like a lifetime of bliss. An eternity of ecstasy. Nothing could top it.
“Don’t get too comfortable.” Eric gives my ass a slap. “That was only the appetizer.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
ERIC
Sweat drips into my eyes and down my nose as I throw a few more jabs. The harder I can punch, the better. When I don’t know how to deal with the shit in my head, I just beat the fuck out of something until it all makes sense again.
It’s also very handy when I feel the urge to strangle a client. Half my boxing gym is lawyers. Most stressful job in the country, you know.
Geoff winces behind the bag he’s holding. Good. I throw a few more solid hits and watch him jiggle and huff on the other side. He’s trying to be a good sport, pretend he can hang with the big boys when he definitely can’t.
This is the best possible scenario for today. Beat the fuck out of the bag to try to figure out why I can’t get Kate out of my head.
Nothing went to plan. As soon as I saw her, some alien took over my body and all sense of reason fled through the fucking window. I just needed compromising pictures. I didn’t need to follow her up to the room.
I wanted to, no doubt. Instead of keeping a cool head, remaining as distant from that shit as the moon is from the sun, I was buried in her. I lost myself in her body.
It was goddamn unacceptable. No one woman should get to me like this, ever.
“There he is.” Paxton tightens his gloves and throws a light punch at my shoulder. “There’s Casanova.”
“Fuck off.” I throw the hardest punch yet and Geoff stumbles back. “Don’t you have some skirts in County to chase?”
“Oh-ho!” Paxton plasters a shit-eating grin on his face. “Did I hit a nerve?”
“You can’t hit shit.”
“He’s a little on edge.” Geoff chimes in. I glare at him and he holds the bag. “Probably because he found a girl he likes.”
“Jesus Christ, Dr. Phil.” I throw my arms back to keep from punching him in the face. “Your job is to hold the goddamn bag, not attempt to discern my mood. In case we all fucking forgot, I’m currently at the beck and call of some goddamn asshole with too much money who makes my life a living hell on the daily. I’d like to burn some steam.”
“No, you’re right.” Paxton nods, sounding every bit like the dick he is. “You’re definitely beating the shit out of that bag because McArthur sucks balls. Or, clit, really. But you forgot who was your trusty cameraman out there, bro.”
I glare at him and go back to the bag.
“I’m just saying. We’ve done a half-dozen of those stings over the past few years and never before have I seen you so heart-eyed.”
“Did you just say heart-eyed?” Geoff scoffs. I pause to stare at him, to make sure it was really him who said it. “What? It’s stupid.”
“We’ll make a man of you yet.” I nudge his shoulder with my glove. “Kate is a difficult nut to crack, hombre. I did what I had to do.”
“I’m sure you did.” Paxton humps the bag next to me. “Was it good? Tell me it was good. Tell me she has a golden pussy. In my dreams, it sparkles like that strapless dress she wore to the Oscars last year.”
“Wouldn’t know. I have some decency, Jesus.”
“Bullshit. Bullshit! I bet you did her good and can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve known you for a decade, fucker. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes.”
I wipe the sweat from my forehead on my arm and shove my glove into his chest. “Got something to say, Pax?”
“Oh, shit. You’re hooked on this broad.”
“I will annihilate you in the ring. Don’t think I won’t.”
“Is that what you really want?” Paxton still has the stupid grin on his face. He rolls his shoulders and hops from foot to foot. “Come on, pretty boy. Think you can hit me while you’re all up McArthur’s slut’s vag?”
Anger surges through me, hot and raw. Anger at Paxton. Anger at David. Anger at myself. I turn on a heel and go for the ring without anoth
er word. Two scrawny guys are dancing around, but I throw an elbow at one and they clear out quick. I’m not sure what exactly is steering this fury, but I know I’m going to kick Paxton’s ass for it.
“Talk it out, bro.” Paxton taunts me and throws a punch I easily duck. “Do you need a manicure while we are at it?”
“Only if your sister sucks my dick afterwards.” I throw an uppercut and he blocks it.
“That was real creative. High-class insult, Stevens. I’m embarrassed for you.” Another punch thrown. This time he hits my jaw, but not hard enough to send me back. “She must really have you twisted.”
We dance around the ring, throwing punches and shit talking. The most unnerving part is somewhere in there, Paxton is speaking a truth I don’t want to hear. That night in Kate’s hotel room was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It wasn’t just fucking a client’s woman. I collect weeping wives like timepieces. I’ve just never felt something during it.
When she was under me, arms clasped around my neck, staring at me like I was the answer to some need she’d never had fulfilled, I got hit in the chest with an emotion I hadn’t felt in years. This is the kind of shit I swore off my first year in the courtroom because I saw how relationships ended.
I saw how people dissolved and fell apart and hated each other. I saw massive fortunes dumped into the accounts of adulterers and cheaters. I saw careers end. That shit’s not for me.
But all I wanted to do, tangled up with her, was stay there. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want her to go. I wanted that night to stretch on. I wanted to watch her walk out to the balcony, wrapped in white linens, over and over. I wanted to feed her grapes for breakfast and fuck her some more.
It is goddamn unacceptable. I need to sweat out whatever the hell is brewing in my veins because I’ve got a job to do. She can’t be the end of everything.
“Come on, Eric.” Paxton taunts again. He nails me in the jaw, hard. “Why are you so off your game? What happened with that girl?”
