Leaving you
Needing you
Baby I’ve got it bad for you
Touching you
Wanting you
Baby I’ve gotta have you
What if just tonight
Our stars align
We take aflight
Into the mornin’ light
We let it all go
And throw our caution aside
join wind and chance—
My recording was interrupted. Incoming call from Granddaddy, my phone read.
“Ugh!” It was about to get all hot and heavy, these lyrics were. I just knew it.
I quickly saved the memo before taking his call.
“Atticus?” His voice sounded weak and frail.
“Yes, Granddaddy?” I felt panic spread over me like a light blanket. He didn’t sound good.
“Are you comin’ back to the country home tonight?”
“Certainly.”
“Well, I need to speak with you. I’ll be waiting up. I…just wanted you to know I have a very important matter to discuss with you. The sooner you come home, the better.”
“I’m on my way.” There was no way to stop the worry from filling my mind and heart about Granddaddy now. Only little naughty, lust-filled thoughts of her would do the trick for that.
Chapter Seven
Kate
I stood there at the bottom of the stairs, watching him leave. I wanted him to stay. I wanted to see what would happen if we had a minute longer together. He was this close. This close! To kissing me. And that hard on underneath his tux. Damn.
My pussy clenched in hot need as I saw his cock knowing that it wanted me. I hadn’t been that turned on in, well, who knows how long.
I needed a cool shower to shake me of this crazy lust.
I strolled across my new master bedroom and straight to the bathroom to inspect the scene. But laid out so beautifully was an oversized, jetted tub that was so large it looked like a party could be popping in there. There was a basket filled with bath gel, oils, and bubble bath, and it was calling my name instead.
I slung my heels off like they were fire ants—rich, pretty fire ants! And I shimmied to get out of this absurdly expensive dress. Thank goodness the stylist had good grace to have a few arrays of body shapers and spanx for me to choose from. But damn, it was tight! Spanx were no joke!
Ten minutes later, my body felt light and free as bird floating without constraints, With a glass of rosé I found in the richly well stocked wine bar in my hand, I let myself slip into the steamy waters deliciously. It was the fanciest tub I’d ever experienced in my life. And I still couldn’t stop thinking about him and how riled up he made me feel. The jets felt good along the soles of my feet, and I sighed, reveling in the much-needed pampering moment.
The feelings he invoked in me felt like a dangerous wildfire. With him leaving and now out of my sight, I still ached with a lust that could not be quenched.
It had been so long since I had been kissed.
So long since I’d been touched.
So long since someone had leaned in towards me like that, rock-hard.
For me.
And he wasn’t just any man.
He was Atticus Branch III, freaking billionaire and demigod, and he was hard. For me.
A giggle escaped my lips, and I slid further into the bubbles. The jets now massaged my calves, and a few flurries floated up my inner thigh.
Would we ever kiss?
Would we ever do more than kiss?
What would it be like to have a guy like that between my legs?
What would it be like to have his hands along my inner thighs with the request, “Tell me what you like, baby.”
Heavy throbs stung at my nipples and shot down to my core, into deeply longing places within. I bit my lip, smiling deliciously at what it would feel like, just once.
Mmmm…I lowered my head fully in the water now, as my body indulged itself more deeply into my personal fantasies of luxury.
I smiled again, thinking of our flirtatious moment in the kitchen. Feeling like a schoolgirl, I replayed the scene over and over in my head. It felt good to flirt, to feel wanted and to reciprocate playfully. Yet I really wasn’t trying to flirt, was I? I really wanted to know if he was looking for sex, which made him take a step towards me and ask of me if that is what I wanted. Um, hello? Flirting!
When he didn’t say yes, a small part of me wanted to say yes. Okay, it was a lot more than just a small part of me.
I hadn’t felt passion like that for a man in a long time. Since my ex, I dove myself into work and strategies to pull myself out of the mess I was in. And even while I dated my ex for a short while, we hardly even had sex, if you could call it that. Chris was a man who couldn’t help but be quick. I never climaxed. Never came. And he didn’t give a fuck about it.
I forgot what it was like to feel such intense rushes of heat in multiple places at the same time, all over my body and what felt like beyond. But Atticus reminded me of it real quick.
I forgot what it felt like to have the hair on the back of my neck stand up and domino down my spine. I forgot what it was like to have my nipples erect so hard and tight, it convinced their sister down below to join the party of desire, both sensual centers singing a pretty clear tune: let’s get it on! Now!
Touch me!
Fuck me!
Kiss me!
God, I was so turned on.
I took a sip of my rosé, still thinking about it all. Thinking of my luck. Thinking of that hard-on. Would he get rid of it by thinking of me? And what would he think of doing to me?
My phone rested on the side of the bathtub, practically winking at me, tempting me to be naughty. I was so tempted to text him to come back here because he forgot something. If he asked what it was, I would say it’s in the bathtub.
Then he would find me in here, naked.
I took another sip of rosé, feeling a nice buzz. I closed my eyes and felt relaxation on another level. My heartbeat quickened as my hands slid over my breasts, thinking of his lips on my nipples. It had been ages since a man had sucked on them with ferocity, sending ripples of pleasures all over my body. And I really loved it when a man sucked me hard.
When a man touched me down there, God, it had been so long!
The jets felt so good against my skin; it was as if a little erotic thought floated about in the bubbles to draw a little closer to the jets. No one was around to judge me. No one was in the house. I deserved pleasure. I deserved release.
I couldn’t get his smile out of my head. Now his kisses are trailing down my stomach. Then to the bottom of my core. His mouth feels oh-so right, fuck. It’s trailing down my stomach, teasing me as it gets closer and closer, and then his tongue strokes my throbbing, sensitive center—oh god!
The bubbling pressure within me roiled over, my fantasy overwhelming my body as I cried out. “Yes, Atticus!”
I spread my legs wider, feeling every bit of sensation surround me as the jets explored me, and I pretended every single sensation was him.
My hands slid under my bottom, lifting up my pelvis, and the jets hit a spot along my clit just right. It was the release I so passionately and desperately sought. And thank fuck, it was coming fast and hard.
When it was over, my whole body tingled as the thought involuntarily floated to the front of my mind: I was already falling in lust for a man I barely knew.
My phone rang, waking me up out of dreamland. A dreamland so sweet, I could have sworn I found my release with Atticus.
“Uhm, Kate? What the fuck, Coz? You leading some kind of double life?”
“What are you talking about?” I murmured, still half-asleep in dream world.
“Um, the society pages?”
“Society pages…” I yawned dramatically as I lay there, cozy as a kitten on a soft, fuzzy pillow in the luxurious bed belonging to my billionaire owner.
I blinked back my heavy eye lids. It had been a long day and night
yesterday.
“What on God’s green earth are you doing on the arm of Atticus Branch III, which first of all, is one hell of a name. Let me just put that out for the record right now. Secondly, how the hell do you look like you’re as smoking hot as an A-list leading actress headed to the Oscars? Dressed to the nines in an, and I quote from this write-up, ‘a black Oscar de la Renta gown fit like a glove on this newcomer’s curves. But look out, something tells me we haven’t seen the last of this feisty private chef who not only splashed waters and turned heads last night, but she also ruffled royal feathers of reality TV star Brittany Branch.’ Like, is this you? Where’s the Kate I know, and what have you done with her?”
“Oh, God. The society pages.”
“Yes. Society pages.” The words made a more firm connection in my brain. “Oh shit.” Oh, I remembered the gossip queen now, and me telling Brittany to kiss my ass. It had made the gossip. Was there anything more? Anything linking me to my incarcerated father?
My heartbeat caught in my throat.
Oh no.
Anxiety spread like wildfire to every nerve of my body. Why did I give out my last name like that? I wasn’t thinking straight.
“Claire, is there anything about my father? I can’t let people find out about my past. I stupidly talked to a woman who I just thought was being nice to me. Turns out, she was tag-teaming with the other reporter. Which, I mean, never in a million years did I ever think I had to watch what I said at an event because of some gossip writer.”
“Sweetie. A, that is what happens when you run in these circles. You have to watch everything you do, say, and how you dress very carefully. B, it’s not your responsibility, nor is it your past. None of that was your fault. You need to let that go here in your new life.”
“Yeah, well. This may be turning into a circus, and I don’t know if I can handle this drama.”
“Well, as someone who is currently living in the middle of this circus, I can give you a few pointers. But I still don’t understand what’s going on. I never got your message last night about the Air B&B bill. So have you just not sent it yet…or were you at Atticus Branch III’s home?”
Warm, gooey feelings covered my body as I just lay there for one moment in my life and felt pampered, felt looked-after, felt like I had hardly any cares at all. And it felt pretty damn nice. I had cares, sure. But those were laced with ambition with building blocks and steps to take next.
Getting a taste of what it’s like as a one percenter’s lifestyle. Sleeping on a mattress that probably cost more than my yearly salary, yeah these small tidbits can elicit such tantalizingly exciting feelings.
“Hello? Are you?”
“I’m…at corporate housing for Branch enterprises.” I said feeling strange saying it like that. It sounded so formal.
“You’re what? What the hell is going on? Are you some secret escort and never told me? How the hell did you meet him? Dish now. No, wait.”
The phone cut her off, and I sighed nostalgically again at that moment of my life. The high pitched ringtone alerted me that Claire was Facetiming me. The infamous sound connected us.
“I’ve got to see this for myself. Let me see.”
I smiled at her perplexed face
“I don’t see you wearing any lingerie. Show me the floor.” I shot the phone’s screen to the floor to reveal only my slippers I brought from her apartment.
“So what is this? What are you doing? What exactly is your job there?”
“I’m…his assistant?” I said, baffled, running my fingers through my hair.
“His assistant?”
“He has these fancy functions he has to attend at night, and he needs a woman on his arm all the time. We met during the meltdown behind stage.”
“That must have been one heck of a meeting. What did you do, suck his dick behind the curtain?
“No!”
“Well, have you sucked his dick?”
“No!”
“Oh my god, you should. You may get some extras out of it.”
“You are so dirty.”
“Just sayin.’ ”
“I’m not in this for ‘benefits.’ Not those kinds, anyway.”
“You could be a rich sugar baby if you played it right.”
“Yeah, well—” The doorbell rang causing me to stop talking mid-sentence. “Um, let me get that. Hold on?”
“I’m not going anywhere. Flip the phone around and let me get a look at this place.”
I couldn’t hide the smile on my face as I flipped it around, letting her take in the white wooden floors, the wooden beams in the ceiling, the all-white pillars. It was a beautiful home.
“And that’s just the kitchen! I’m breaking that in today.” My voice echoed off the high walls. I finally made it to the Mediterranean door. A man in a business suit stood there with an envelope.
“Kate Longhouse?”
“Yes?”
“This is for you.”
God, please don’t tell me I’m being served. I waited for it…waited for it.
“Have a good day, mam.”
Phew. I exhaled and looked back down at the envelope, forgetting Claire was watching my every move on the phone.
“Well? Open it!” Her voice squealed.
I laughed as I shut the door, shaking my head. As much as Claire gave me a headache and made poor boyfriend choices, she was the closest thing I had to a sister, and I loved her anxious, neurotic ways. She was like a quirky kitten: so cute, you just had to watch, but no doubt she would be soon jumping from corner to chair to curtains. It’s what made her a fascinating performer and artist to watch.
I tore the side of the envelope open to see the fanciest check ever made out to me, with my name professionally typed in fancy font.
Pay the order of Kate Longhouse in the amount of $1,000.
“Holy shit, Kate! That’s how much you go paid?”
All I could do was nod and feel a thrill of shock and a wave of wonder. I mean, I knew he had set the amount. It just didn’t register then like it did now. I’d never earned that much money in a single day in my life.
“And you swear to me you didn’t fuck him?”
“I didn’t!”
“Look at me, Kate Laura Longhouse!” She demanded through the mobile device.
Her face looked at me closely, inspecting me through the screen, zooming in dramatically to her left brown eye. She eyed me so close I could see the dark green that lined her iris, which made me to laugh even more.
“You’re telling the truth, I can tell. Okay, if you want my honest opinion, girl, get freaky with him, and fast. You've read Fifty Shades of Gray. You know how horny and freaky billionaires are. Just give him the best blow job of his life, let him put things up your ass and slap you with whips. Hell, get the candle wax out, and I promise you, you'll have your new business up and running and your debt cleared in no time. You’ll see that $1,000 go up in numbers real quick.”
I sat in a nearby chair, and for the first time in the sitting room, I failed to notice when I had one thing on my mind last night: the kitchen.
My debt cleared in no time. How nice would that be.
All that debt.
That was the looming pile of bricks that seemed to follow me like a dark rain cloud. It was an unfortunate result of a combination of a bad father and bad boyfriends. One factor I had a choice over, the other I did not. But both had one thing in common: they used me, and they took advantage of me for their own personal gain. I was tired of being used for someone else’s life plan. I promised myself that would never happen again, which was the reason why I hadn’t dated at all in three years since I moved to Charleston to work for Claire’s band. And to be honest, all of the traveling really kept me busy. So did the work and the hustle of being their manager and booking agent. But deep inside my heart at night, I’d dream of the kitchen and concocting my newest creation. And over the years, I came up with a plan to fit not only my new life, but also my newfound lifestyle o
f healthy living. After ditching locale, I felt so heavy from debt and shame from my family’s past, I lost nearly thirty pounds from a combination of clean eating and regularly working out. I loved the way I felt. I loved the way I looked at food. And I was determined to bring my story to others to not only inspire them to change, but also to bring joy into the healthy living sector.
The only thing standing in my way of bringing the dream to fruition, from more action to my plan, was nearly $100,000 in credit card fraud debt, as well as money stolen from me by my ex.
But I hadn’t thought about it. I hadn’t thought about it in a very long time like that until Claire brought it up. Thanks, Claire.
I shook my head. I couldn't keep obsessing over it. I just had to plan and work hard. Worrying wasn't going to change any of it. But this new job might provide just the right amount of capital to start something small. My wheels were turning.
"Okay you little whore, I'm not a tramp like you! I would never do that! But to be honest with you, I don’t know if I can handle this whole ‘high society’ thing with all these rules. It’s hard, Claire. I mean, it took hours to look like I did last night, and the spanx that I wore underneath was just unbearable! And you should have met Atticus’s sister. Brittany’s a bitch. And I swear her friends were like, just as bitchy, between the scathing looks and condescending laughs they gave me. Like, they had no heart. No compassion.”
“So? It’s not like he’s your boyfriend or anything. You don’t have to live with these people for ever.”
Boyfriend.
He surely wasn’t. I wouldn’t even know how to be involved with a guy like that. It seemed complicated. Very complicated. And I wasn’t about complicating my life any further. Besides, maybe Brittany was right—guys like that are paired with women born into that fancy rich scene, groomed for that life since infancy. If I ever, and I mean ever in a blue moon dated a guy like that, I’m convinced there wouldn’t be enough etiquette lessons to attend every day for a year to prepare me for that scene.
Southern Charmed Billionaire Page 6
