by Quinn, Cari
She giggled.
He wiggled his fingers and she lay her hand in his palm. He met her gaze and motioned across.
She nodded. “Yes, so people can read it.”
He gave his signature a little extra flourish and added his demon horns over the S. She grinned and kissed his cheek.
Simon patted her hand and kissed the middle of it. He looked up to see Margo. Her eyes were soft again.
He stood up straight and held his hand out for Margo. She came to his side and slipped her hand in his.
He mouthed, “Ready?”
She nodded.
He took his duffel from her, waved to the girl and Lucy and walked out of the quiet space into the bustle of the boardwalk.
“So, you haven’t asked about my trip to Boston.”
He shot a look at her and she laughed.
“Even on the marker board.”
He really hadn’t wanted to know. He figured if the news was good, she would have started with that. They’d find something to do and some way to hide him.
“How would you feel about spending a few weeks in St. John?”
He stopped in the middle of the rapid current of pedestrians. A few people swore and went around him, but he didn’t give two shits about them. The only traveling he’d really done was with a bus or the occasional plane ride, and none of those travels had a white sandy beach destination.
And maybe he had a secret folder on his phone labeled porn that made Nick laugh, but he never went in there. It wasn’t dirty pictures, it was his favorite kind of porn. Naked chicks and sex were available when he wanted them. This was not. Beaches and water were as important to him as air.
The Virgin Islands were definitely in his purview. As were the shores of Greece and Hawaii, as well as any other beach or waterway he could find mention of.
She smiled. “I’d say that was a good feeling.”
He scooped her up and swung her around.
She laughed and clutched at his shoulders. “Simon!”
He grinned up at her and was rewarded with a kiss. When he put her down, she wound her arms around his neck and he smiled into the kiss.
Hell yes, the idea of weeks on white sandy beaches worked for him. Even better, that meant time away from everyone and everything but Margo. That was even more priceless.
Nine
Simon’s feathery dark hair slid through her fingers. She was getting used to touching him for no other reason than the pleasure of it. And not with the specific end goal of sex.
He winced and angled her away from his fresh tattoo.
She sucked in a breath between her teeth. “Sorry.”
He mouthed, “worth it.”
She shook her head, trying to tamp down the goofy smile that had to be on her face. She pulled him off the path of people and down on a bench near the skate park.
He pulled out his phone.
Her pocket buzzed. She pulled it out, hoping it was Lila.
You could have led with that story, VG.
“VG?” She glanced up from her phone then rolled her eyes. “Violin Girl. Got it. Well, it was supposed to be a surprise.” She held up her phone. “And I was waiting on Lila.”
Her phone buzzed in her hand and she looked down.
DL has something to do with this? I thought it was your family deal.
DL? She was living in a land of short speak with this man. Did he mean Lila? “Yes, but I needed a little help with transportation. Lila can get a flight in ten minutes. I don’t know how she does it.” Her phone buzzed again and she huffed. Damn his fingers were fast.
And how.
No room for that thought right now. This time it wasn’t a text from Simon, it actually was Lila.
Tarmac 1, Van Nuys Airport.
1 hr. Thank Donovan.
Get the PITA better.
-L
Margo slumped back on the bench. She’d asked for a little help from Lila, not for Donovan’s jet. Because there was no way a commercial flight was going out of Van Nuys.
Simon frowned.
“Donovan is letting us use the jet.”
Simon did a fist pump and got up, hauling her to her feet. He turned around and mimicked driving a car.
“I had a cab drop me.”
He gave her a thumbs up and dug out his phone. Expecting a text, she frowned when one didn’t come. She peeked over his shoulder and saw he was on a car service app. She saw the PayPal logo flash by and he dragged her down the block.
“It’s scary how automated our life is.”
He grinned back at her and waggled his eyebrows. He led her through a maze of people and out to a flagged barrier that matched his app. Considering the traffic of Los Angeles, she figured they’d end up on the bus again, but getting dropped off at an elite airport by bus didn’t exactly work.
A discreet black Mercedes pulled up ten minutes later. She felt a little weird climbing in with sand caking her shoes. Simon tumbled her against him in the backseat.
“Doesn’t he need to know where we’re going?”
“All taken care of, Miss.” The driver fixed his rearview mirror. She wasn’t sure if it was to look away from them or to focus on them when Simon’s arm slid around her shoulders.
She settled against his non-tattooed side and looked up at him. “Don’t get too excited. My parents’ house is pretty unconventional.”
He dipped his mouth toward her and mouthed, “I don’t care.”
She giggled and wanted to take it right back. She didn’t giggle. But he was right. At the moment, she would have been happy in a shack. Just as long as she got him away from the lights and push of fans and thoughts of his surgery.
She’d keep him focused on resting and as providing as much sex as they could handle. When his fingers grazed her breast, she tapped his hand. He immediately put on a pouty face and went for her neck.
“I am not having sex with you here,” she whispered.
He gave her that eyebrow that made her panties melt off. No. No, she was not going to give the glorified cab driver a show.
Absolutely not.
His lips coasted over her neck and behind her ear. He tugged on her lobe and nipped at the skin of her neck.
God.
Those little nips and the tiny bruises he left behind made her nuts and he knew it. She couldn’t even call them hickies. They were far more subtle and half the time she was the only one that noticed them. And one of the reasons why she’d started leaving half of her hair down.
No part of him marking her should make her blood heat, but it did. And when he grazed his teeth over her pulse, she swallowed hard. And please God, she hoped that groan she felt building hadn’t come out.
But when she felt the smile against her neck, she knew she’d made some sort of noise. Personally, she couldn’t hear above the pounding in her ears. She’d just had reckless sex against a pier support a few hours ago. That should have fed this penchant for outdoor sex she seemed to have.
Simon pretty much wanted to have sex everywhere—and unfortunately, she was on board most of the time. Actually, all of the time. God, how had her life come to this? Simon was supposed to be a fling she got out of her system. The ultimate fling, to be honest. Now that they were more, she wondered if that was ever going to wear off.
He dragged the duffel bag onto their lap and unzipped her pants.
“Simon,” she hissed.
Not to be deterred, he ignored her.
Completely.
This was not the place for this. It was full night and the neverending roadways and congestion of Los Angeles had headlights shining into their space constantly. She looked around. Sure, the windows were tinted, but not from the driver ten feet away. For God’s sake, they were practically a neon lit show for the guy.
It wasn’t like the duffel bag hid anything besides the obvious groping she was getting. She curled onto her hip and a slow breath escaped her. The position gave him more access. He rubbed his chest against hers and his nipple rin
g dug into her, making her nipples tighten. And those aforementioned quick fingers were already slipping inside her bikini bottoms.
She was not going to have an orgasm in this backseat.
Determined not to lift her hips into his touch, she dug her nails into his wrist as he slipped around her clit again and again until her body gave him exactly what he wanted. Her slick pussy allowed him to slip deeper, but their position didn’t allow for much more than a light pulse from his fingers.
Margo missed the low growls he made when he liked her reactions. The way his chest would rumble and the moan would tumble out and echo inside of her. The silence was new and left her floundering until she cued in on his breathing and the glitter of his eyes in the dark. He was watching her. When she bit her lip, he bit his own, when she licked hers, he followed the path with his own.
As she looked for clues, the endless thrust of his fingers made her crazy.
When the edges of her vision started to haze, the car came to a stop. The roar of the engines and machinery dented her consciousness. They’d made out the entire ride while Simon teased her to within an inch of her life.
And a tease that wasn’t going to be fulfilled.
The driver cleared his throat and Simon reluctantly pulled away. He slipped a bill out of his wallet and discreetly tucked it into the driver’s hand. The guy didn’t say a damn word, but her own frustration and embarrassment made it even worse.
She just hoped there wasn’t a camera in the car because her brain had ceased working about five minutes after they left. She slid out and waved weakly to the driver. Donovan’s blue and white jet was waiting for them. She quickly crossed to the stairs and climbed inside.
Her freaking pants were rubbing in all the wrong spots. Enough that her hands were shaking when she met the pilot inside.
“Nice to see you again, Ms. Reece.”
“Hello, Michael.”
Simon climbed on behind her. When he tried to curl his arm around her, she skipped away.
She’d almost come her brains out in the car and now the pilot had a similar knowing look on his face. Did she have sex addict stamped on her forehead?
They had enough sex for three couples and still, just a look from him—the look in his eyes right now—and she was done for. Was this normal? Did normal couples have this going on all the time?
He stalked her through the main cabin of the plane to the cubby section outside the bathroom.
Again, she felt the heat and want between them as hot and heavy as it had been all those months ago here in the same spot. Heck, it was worse now than when they’d first met in the studio. It never stopped. Even when the love word threatened to strangle her with the weight of it.
He turned her into the wall and crowded her. His head was tipped expectantly to the side. His eyes were still fired up, but the desire was banked under questions. She didn’t need his whiteboard or a notebook. What the fuck was evident in every line of his face.
Instinctively, she slipped her arm around his back, unsure how to explain the tumult of emotions. How did you tell the man you’d been in lust with that the love part was the far scarier prospect?
He cupped her face and mouthed, “tell me.”
The urge to simply let it go and distract him with the physicality of them was strong. She leaned into him and brushed her lips with his. Instead of closing his eyes and falling into the kiss, he kept them open and a sadness lingered.
He’d allow her to push the words aside. She knew it with a certainty that she couldn’t explain. Both of them had taken the easy route for too long.
Easy just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
“You make me feel so much. Too much.”
He tucked her hair around her ear, his eyes searching and his attention laser-focused. This was a different side of him too. Simon lived most of his days with an air of distance in his gaze and an alcohol-colored outlook on the world.
That Simon was enough to scare her into jumping on a plane home. This Simon—the one who caught nuances and cues, who loved her as if there was nothing on his mind but her pleasure? This Simon wasn’t just looking for sex and a good time.
This one could destroy her.
Handing him that kind of power was terrifying.
“In the car, now on the plane…” Her words drifted off as she dropped her gaze to his mouth, then his neck and wrinkled collar. “I don’t like losing control. And that word doesn’t seem to have any meaning in my life with you in it.”
He cupped her face and drew her gaze back to his. She saw frustration and a vulnerability that he rarely let her see. Just that one night. When he’d told her that he was hers. She gripped his hip and he winced, causing her to let go. She’d forgotten about his tattoo. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his ass with a half grin.
She blew out a breath, ending with a strangled laugh. “It’s big for both of us. I get that.”
He nodded. He took her other hand and placed it on his chest, then placed his own on hers. His silvery-blue eyes were fierce and she blinked back a mist of tears.
She drew him closer with the hand on his spectacular ass and gasped when he caught her mouth in a rough, intense kiss. Open-mouthed and full-on aggressive, she took his cues and drew him into her against the cabin wall.
The torrent of emotions exploded into passion. The captain called over the speaker for a five-minute warning on takeoff.
“Hurry,” she said against his mouth. “Can you do this in three minutes?”
His lips slid into a smirk and he spun her around, dragging her pants down over her hips in less than a breath. She slapped her hands against the textured wall and groaned as his tongue swiped over her center. He cupped her and she felt the rumble of his groan through her back.
Somewhere in the distance she knew she should have shushed him, but when he slipped inside of her with one hard thrust, she lost the ability to think. All she could do was stand on tip-toe and take each hammering blow of his cock inside her. She’d been more than primed in the car and the dominant way he held onto her soaked her all the more.
He worked her body to perfection. He knew the angles she liked, knew what she needed to go over fast. The friction would have been enough if they had more time. With Simon, she could have a blistering orgasm just from this. Other men in her past had barely gotten her off, but Simon literally had the key to her orgasm lock every single time they had sex.
He wouldn’t disappoint.
When the fingers of his hand slid around her neck and tightened, she groaned. This was the darker side of them. He was sweet and funny, inappropriate ninety percent of the time, but this side of him…The one that knew she needed a little force sometimes. This was the part that scared her as much as it thrilled her.
He read her body like he sang a song.
Instinctively.
She didn’t understand it, but she loved it. She swallowed hard as he tipped her back so he could get his mouth on hers. She arched as her head pounded and he swallowed her breath. The onslaught of adrenaline was exactly what she needed. He was relentless and she took it all and squeezed around him until her muscles quivered.
He slapped the wall beside her head as he released her neck and pinned her with his hips. The heat of his release burned her from the inside out. She moved her hand on top of his and she laced their fingers as the last shudders rushed through her. He turned her face to his and the kiss was tender where his body was still on the edge of dangerous.
He turned them into the bathroom and shuffled her inside. Donovan’s bathroom was no plastic and tin water closet like a commercial plane. It had a real faucet and sink and even had soft cloths to keep everyone tidy. She’d never been happier to see them in her life.
She grabbed a handful, but Simon pushed her hand away. His eyes were hot and possessive as he cupped her sensitive sex and used their combined wetness to slip inside her again. A million words passed between them with just that look. She’d never let a man come inside her be
fore Simon. And now he’d done it twice and still felt huge.
She was protected—in fact she’d taken great pains to make sure a baby wasn’t ever something she had to worry about. Nothing was foolproof, of course, even with the safety of birth control, but the timing was wrong as well.
The part that caught her and wouldn’t let go was this whole new level of intimacy and trust. He circled her clit slowly as he used his other hand to lightly trace her mouth with the pad of his thumb. Two thumbs in unison, her body the instrument. She didn’t think she was close enough for another orgasm, but it rolled through her like a gentle rain—soft and lovely.
Then he kissed her sweetly and crouched in front of her with one of the towels. She skimmed the back of her hand along his cheek as he cleaned her up. Embarrassment didn’t strangle her this time. His lips coasted over her belly and along her ribs as he stood.
The captain’s voice crackled through the speakers just as he tugged her off the counter. He popped her on the ass when she hiked up her pants and pushed her out of the stall so he could finish his own clean-up.
She dropped into one of the captain chairs at the back of the plane and pulled out her phone. A message from Lila informing her that a vehicle would be waiting for them in St. Thomas dissolved the last of her worries. She had nothing more to do than sit back and enjoy the ride.
The rumble of the jet made her groan as Simon came out and settled beside her.
He mouthed, “how long?”
Just as she was about to say something, the captain’s voice crackled over the speakers. “We’ll be on our way in a moment. It’s about a nine-hour flight, depending on jet streams.”
Well, that answered that. “Too bad there isn’t a bed on here.”
