Kiss Me Now

by Wylder, Penny

  “No, it certainly isn’t,” I murmur. I slide my fingers out of her with a slick sound. Then I raise them to my lips, and suck them clean, one finger at a time, my gaze on hers the whole time. The taste of her nearly sends me wild. As heady and almost as sweet as I remember.

  I position myself between her thighs again, and grip the base of my cock. “Let’s see how you deal with my cock instead,” I tell her, and her eyes flash with desire.

  She spreads her legs, the pink folds of her pussy so damn inviting. “Fuck me, Lark,” she breathes.

  I don’t need any more invitation than that. I press the tip of my cock against her entrance, and slowly, slow enough to drive us both wild, I push myself inside her. One inch at a time, maddeningly slow.

  Another moan escapes her throat, longer and lower this time.

  Finally, I push fully inside her. I wrap my hands around her hipbones for purchase, and she keeps those soft, lush thighs of hers wrapped around my waist, her ankles hooked behind me.

  I pull out and thrust into her again, as her head falls back, her hair cascading over her bare shoulder. “Fuck,” she whispers.

  “God, you have the most perfect fucking pussy,” I murmur, thrusting into her again. Again. Her muscles tighten around my shaft, the hot, wet heat enveloping me, going straight to my head.

  “It’s yours,” Cassidy whispers, which sends a pulse of white hot heat straight to my cock. “I’m yours.”

  I slide my arms up to cradle her waist, slowing to a gentle thrust now. Drawing out and pushing back inside her over and over. “And I’m yours, Cassidy Marks. For good.”

  I can feel her body relax in my arms, even as she angles her hips up toward me. Surrendering. Letting me take her the way I want to.

  I keep the motion slow for as long as I can stand. But there’s only so long I can resist this woman. In the end, I tighten my grip on her and fuck her faster, harder, savoring every breathy gasp until the pressure builds up in her, too much for her to contain.

  She lets out a sharp cry as she comes, and I keep my gaze focused on her, drinking in her wild abandon.

  I finish moments later, crushing her body tight against mine as I do. We’re both breathing hard, slicked with sweat by the time we part, and when our lips collide, I want to keep her right here forever. With me, in our little bubble away from the world.

  By the time we slip back out onto the pool deck, there’s a line for the bathroom. A middle-aged woman glares at us, and a younger guy whoops when we exit. Cassidy’s face heats up bright red. I ignore them all, though. Because I have eyes only for her.

  We cross back over the pool deck to our chairs. But the moment we sit down, Cassidy checks her phone, and her face pales.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  She hesitates, worrying her lower lip in a way I’m coming to be familiar with. Her nervous expression.

  “You can tell me,” I reassure her.

  She lets out a soft sigh, and slumps back against her chair. “I… It’s kind of awkward. It’s about business.”

  “All the more reason to talk to me,” I say, imitating her to lounge on my own seat. “We’re business partners, after all. You’re one of our biggest investments. Your problems are mine, too.”

  She glances at her phone again for a long, quiet moment. Then she squares her shoulders, as if deciding. “Speaking of investments. I need another one.”

  I blink at her for a long moment, not following. “But, I’ve been watching the budgets. You haven’t spent nearly what we gave you yet.”

  “I know, it’s… It’s some old stuff. Debts that I didn’t realize I’d need to pay off already. I’m sorry, I know it’s last minute and weird of me to ask right now—”

  I sit upright. “Wait a minute. How much more money are we talking?”

  “I-I don’t know. A few thousand? Maybe more?”

  “What are these debts? Why didn’t I hear anything about this in our initial pitch meeting?” I stare at her.

  She turns her face away, unable to meet my gaze. “I was embarrassed. I thought I could get out of this hole on my own; but the money that’s come in so far hasn’t been able to cover it.”

  “Hang on.” I glance from her to the bathroom and back. “Did you… wait until we’d just had sex to ask me for money?” I can’t help it. Memories claw at me.

  That was always Sheryl’s favorite tactic. Any time I didn’t agree with a financial decision she made, she’d ply me with sex. Wait until I was half-asleep afterward and then ambush me with the least sexy pillow talk imaginable.

  I don’t want to believe Cassidy would do the same, but…

  Beside me, she sits bolt upright in her chair and whips around to face me, her jaw dropping. “Is that what you think of me?”

  “Well, did you?” I raise an eyebrow. “We’ve been in contact about finances for weeks. Why not ask me about this sooner?”

  “I can’t believe you think I’d try to get money from you in exchange for sex.” Cassidy shoves to her feet now. “Do you think I’m some kind of gold-digger?”

  “I didn’t…” I grit my teeth and shut my eyes. “Cassidy, wait. I’m sorry I leapt to a conclusion. But this is all really strange, you have to admit that.”

  But she’s already shaking her head. “I thought I could trust you. I thought we could be honest with each other. But I guess we can’t.” With that, she grabs her purse and storms toward the exit from the rooftop.

  I leap up to follow her, but she’s moving too fast. Already halfway across the roof before I even find my shoes. Watching her walk into the women’s changing room, without a backward glance, I give up. I sink back onto the edge of my chair and rest my forehead in my hands.

  Is she just using me? Or did I just shatter the tentative peace between us for nothing?

  28

  Cassidy

  This is just like Norman. How could I have thought things would be any different? I stare at my reflection in the mirror of the changing room. Tears streak down my cheeks, and my eyes are red and puffy from crying. I don’t know how long I’ve been standing in here, afraid that if I go back out, Lark will have followed me, or be looking for me by the elevators.

  I wrap my arms around my waist, shivering. How could he think I’m a gold digger?

  But then… I did ask him for money. Out of the blue. Without explaining myself. Fuck. I lean my forehead against the mirror for support, shivering.

  On my phone are a string of texts from my mother. Need to go to the hospital, read the first one. A long series below it. I don’t have health insurance. I don’t know what I’ll do if this operation costs more than I can afford. Did you know hospital overnight stays alone can costs tens of thousands of dollars??

  I exhale and watch my breath fog the mirror. I don’t want to doubt my mother’s words. This would be an insane thing to make up, even for her. But I can’t shake my own doubts. I can’t stop remembering all the other times she’s lied to me to get money for other stuff. Frivolous spending, or gambling in Vegas, or weekends away with boy toys drinking herself blind.

  If she’s in the hospital, I want to be there for her. Help her. I don’t want her to worry about money. But what if she’s lying again? And what if I just ruined everything I could have had with Lark by believing her?

  He still shouldn’t have accused me like that.

  I shouldn’t be allocating company funds to a private issue, either. I chew on my lower lip. Shit. Am I the one in the wrong here?

  And then I ran away from him when he asked me to talk about it. Again. No wonder he thinks I’m just using him. If I can’t even open up enough to have a real conversation about something serious…

  I think about Norman again. I tried to open up to him in the beginning, but he just always shut me down. I learned to keep my feelings to myself. I learned that anything upsetting, anything he might not like, should be hidden, not discussed.

  Am I going to let Norman steal Lark from me to? Am I going to let the past defin
e my future?

  I wipe at my cheeks, then bend to splash some water on my face. He’s probably long gone already. But on the off chance that he’s not…

  I grab a towel from the hooks near the lockers and sprint outside, not even caring that I’m barefoot. I race to the pool deck first, but the chairs where I left Lark have been taken over by a couple skinny brunettes, sunbathing. And Lark’s shoes and towel are gone.

  I scan the bar. No sign of him. I hurry to the men’s bathroom, tap on the door. Open it a crack. “Lark?” I call.

  A pause. “No Lark here,” some guy calls back. “But I can entertain you if you’re looking.”

  “Gross,” I mutter and let the door slam again.

  Downstairs. He could still be in the lobby. I press the elevator button so many times I’m surprised it doesn’t break. Then I wait for the elevator to ding open and sprint into it, leaving puddles on the clean floor. I hit the ground floor, hold my breath the whole way down. The elevator stops twice to let other people on, all of whom eye me sideways, but I ignore them, and just pull my towel tighter.

  At the ground floor, I sprint out of the doors before anyone else can move.

  “Hey!” someone shouts. A hotel bellman, maybe. “You need to wear shoes down here!”

  I ignore him and sprint toward the exit. Lark used the valet parking. Maybe it will take them a while to fetch his car. Maybe…

  Outside, a wave of heat hits me. My feet sting on the pavement, both hot and filled with pebbles. I scan the row of people waiting for their valet cars. No Lark. But then…

  There. His car, just about to turn out of the driveway into the hotel. He’s waiting for a row of cars in the street to move first.

  I run as fast as I can, not caring about how much my feet hurt. I reach the back window first and pound on it, hard enough to make Lark startle in the driver’s seat and turn around. When he spots me his eyes go wide.

  I hold my breath, shivering despite the heat, the towel clutched tight around me. If he drives away now, I don’t know how I’ll ever explain this. How I can possibly apologize.

  But after a long, agonizing pause, he puts the car in park, and opens his door.

  29

  Lark

  “What the hell are you doing?” I ask as I climb out of the car. Somewhere behind me, I hear wolf whistles, and some guy shouting something obscene and honking as he passes.

  In her towel, Cassidy does look nearly naked. Still, I flip the traffic off in general, and take a step toward her.

  “Are you insane?” I murmur. “Did you run through the hotel like this?”

  Her cheeks flush red. “I needed to catch you before you left.” She ducks her head. “I wanted to apologize.”

  I watch her closely now. “For what, exactly?”

  She raises her chin to meet my gaze once more. There’s such deep, pained sorrow in her gaze, it tugs at my chest in spite of myself. “You were right,” she says, and the words hit me like a punch to the gut. “I was trying to use you.”

  Whatever I expected her to say, it wasn’t that. I take a step back toward my open driver’s side door, but she stops me, reaching out to grab my arm.

  “I just…” Tears start to slide down her cheeks. “It’s my mom. She’s in the hospital; I need money to pay her bills. But it’s so complicated, she’s lied to me before, and I don’t know if she’s doing it again now, and I should never have asked you for money like that, but I didn’t know where else I could get it or who else to turn to and—” She breaks off, hiccupping, and before I can think better of it, I step forward and wrap both arms around her tightly.

  “Hey, hey.” I squeeze, hard. “Cassidy.” Warmth floods through me. Not just at having her in my arms again. But at finally understanding where all of this is coming from. “Look at me, Cass.”

  She sniffles, but she tilts her chin back to obey, meeting my eyes again.

  “I just wanted to help her,” Cassidy whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

  The pain in her voice breaks my heart. Even worse is the realization of how I reacted when Cassidy asked me for help. I assumed she’d be just like Sheryl. That she’d want to wring as much money from me as she could for no other reason than to have it herself.

  “I’m sorry too,” I murmur. “I should never have jumped to conclusions. My ex…” I grit my teeth. “She left me more fucked up than I realized, I think. I shouldn’t have judged you by her actions.”

  A car honk sounds, longer than the rest. I raise my middle finger again, but it’s coming from behind us this time. I turn to realize there are a line of cars waiting to get out of the hotel parking lot. All while I’m parked at the exit, holding a nearly naked woman in my arms.

  “Come on,” I tell her, taking her hand and tugging her toward the car. “Get in. Let’s go back home and we can talk about this.”

  “Really?” Cassidy gazes up at me, wiping at a fresh tear. “You mean, you don’t hate me?”

  I laugh. “Cassidy. I could never hate you.”

  Her lower lip quivers. But then, slowly, she nods. “Okay,” she murmurs. “Let’s go home.”

  30

  Lark

  Somehow, Cassidy looks even more attractive when she’s dressed in my clothes. She’s curled up at the far end of my couch in a pair of my sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. It should not make me want her, and yet, every time she glances in my direction, catching my gaze over the rim of the mug of steaming tea I made her, all I want to do is pull her off this couch and strip her back down.

  But that’s not what we’re doing here. Yet.

  “So,” I say, my voice quiet and yet still somehow startling in the silence.

  “So,” she agrees. Her hands tighten around her tea mug. “Um. Thanks for the clothes.” She gestures at herself with a shrug. “And… the… tea.”

  I stare.

  She swallows hard. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”

  “We said we were going to talk, Cassidy,” I point out. “I think it’s well past time that we do.”

  She nods, her gaze dropping back to the tea cradled in her lap once more. She takes a few breaths, and I think she’s going to go quiet on me again, but after a moment, she clears her throat. “My mom has spent her whole life living off of other people. At first it was the guys she dated. And I never wanted—I swore to myself, I would never be like that. I wanted to make my own way in life. But after I graduated, in between breakups, she started coming to me for money too. And… I mean, it’s my mom. What can you do? She’s family. So I supported her when she needed it. I pretended to believe all the lies she told me, about various debts that weren’t her fault, or overdue loans that didn’t exist… I guess I humored her.” Cassidy worries at her lower lip.

  It makes me want to lean over and kiss her until she stops biting her own skin. But I resist. Because I need to hear this.

  “And, look, I know I should be talking to my therapist about all this—and don’t worry, I have been. But you deserve to hear it too. My mom just… she made me never want to rely on anyone else. Or even ask anyone else for help. Because I look at her, and I just… never want to be that desperate. And then, when I was dating my ex…”

  Heat flares in my gut. I restrain myself, because this is Cassidy’s past. It shouldn’t affect our present. It doesn’t.

  “He was so controlling.” Cassidy’s voice drops lower. “He made more money than I did, so he wanted control over my whole bank account, everything I did… He said it was to help me, to ensure I didn’t wind up like my mother. But for him, it was just another way to control me, to ensure I could never leave him, even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t for way too long, because I had no idea how to recognize emotional abuse. I didn’t understand what a healthy relationship should look like.” Cassidy squeezes her eyes shut. “Until you.”

  I breathe out slowly. “Cassidy…”

  “No, I know. That’s pathetic. And I know it wasn’t healthy how I asked you for money earlier, but my mom really sca
red me this time. I don’t know if she’s lying again, if this whole hospital thing is another scam, but on the off chance that it’s not—”

  I reach over to catch her hand, which silences her almost immediately. “If your mother needs help, then we’ll help her,” I say. And it makes my chest ache, the way relief and shock flare in her eyes at the same time.

  It makes me realize that Cassidy has never been treated like this before. With simple, basic respect. I want to go back in time and throttle her ex. Fight everyone who ever made her believe that she’s less than worthy of all the love in the world.

  “I don’t want to make you feel like I’m using you, or—”

  “Cassidy.” I squeeze her hand. “You don’t. Look, I was projecting some of my shit with Sheryl onto you. And I get that you have a complicated past. I understand—so do I, obviously. But it’s understandable to want to help your mother through a difficult time. And it’s equally understandable to be cautious about that, if you’re not sure about your mother’s motivations yet. That’s all normal.”

  Her breath hitches. “It’s definitely not normal,” she starts.

  She breaks off when I lean in to kiss her, hard. “Fuck normal, then,” I whisper. “I don’t care about normal. I care about you. About what’s best for you, Cassidy Marks.”

  Her pupils dilate as her gaze meets mine. “I care about you, too, Lark. So much.” Another bite at her lower lip, again. “Which is why, I can’t ask you to give up your business for me. You love this. You started this company; you’re the reason it’s gotten to where it is today. I can’t imagine you would have the customers you do without your support. Sheryl’s just grasping at straws trying to hang on to her share. It’s obvious to anyone on my end of the investments that she doesn’t really care. Not the way you do.”