by Katie Dowe
“Go to hell!” she said succinctly and hung up the phone.
Ethan leaned back in his seat and laughed softly. His hands were clenched on the steering wheel and he was very aroused. Even talking about making love to her had the effect of his body clenching in desire. He took a deep breath and tried to will the strong desire away before he could be able to move away from the curb.
*****
“You have to go!” Faye Simmons urged the man as she got out of bed and reached for her robe.
“Why the hurry? You said your husband will not be home for several hours.” The man put his hands behind his head and made himself more comfortable. “I don’t want to leave yet my dear.”
Faye stared at him in frustration and felt the attraction creeping up on her again. They had met at the masquerade party and had exchanged numbers after she had danced with him several times. She had been fascinated when she had discovered that he owned fleets of cruise ships all over the world. He had told her that he was married but his marriage was shaky. She had told him that her marriage was heading into slumber. He was in town for a week and had called her. She had invited him over for tea and they had ended up in bed, the bed that she shared with her husband. She had not meant for anything to happen but it was the housekeeper’s day off and they were all alone. When she had gotten up to take the things to the kitchen he had taken her into his arms and it had started there. Francis would not be home until late but she could not risk him coming home to discover that she had taken a lover and in their bed. She had done it twice before but the men had broken it off with her and her husband had been none the wiser. She had not been affected by their leaving because they had meant nothing to her but Joshua Stillwell was having a vast effect on her and not just because he had brought her a stunning diamond and ruby necklace that she had no idea how she was going to explain it to her husband.
“You really have to go,” she said as she sat back on the bed. Joshua caught her by the arm and pulled her back onto the bed. “I like you Faye,” he said softly. “I like what we have together and I want to continue this relationship.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she told him, her heart beating fast. “I don’t want to hurt you Francis.”
“You like expensive gifts, that I know and I have the means to give you the most expensive ones.”
*****
“Will you stop calling me?”
“Not until you decide to go out with me.”
“You mean come to your apartment so that we could have sex.” She said sarcastically as she fished her keys out of her pocketbook.
“After a very delicious dinner where I will make sure to feed you before I take off your clothes and satisfy both of us.” He said softly.
Harper felt her pulse jumping as she placed her keys onto the hook. “Don’t you have anything else on your mind?’
“Of course I do. I like the way your hair curl against your shoulders and the way your parted lips feel against mine. I also like the shape of your body curved against mine.” His voice was sober and soft as he told her.
Harper felt the breath backing up inside her throat at his words and for a moment she could not respond. “I have work to do,” she said huskily.
“Come to my apartment, Harper. I could come and get you in a matter of minutes.”
She sagged against the counter and closed her eyes, feeling the blood rushing into her ears. “No,” she sounded strangled and her hands trembled as she took her seat.
“Please,” he whispered. “Put us out of our misery Harper. I am as aroused as hell and no one can do anything about it except you.”
That brought her back to reality. “I am sure there are any numbers of women you can call to do something about it,” she told him coldly.
“I am afraid not,” he was not fazed by her rejection. He saw it for what it was, a ploy to show him that she was immune to what he was saying. “I broke it off with Samantha after I kissed you at the club. I could not bear to be with anyone but you. I am waiting for you to acknowledge that you feel the same way. I know you are inexperienced and there are so many things I want to teach you.”
“Because you are so experienced.” She said sarcastically willing herself not to be affected but how could she not be?
“Yes,” he answered truthfully. “I want to show you what I have learnt and bring you so much pleasure Harper. Unbelievable pleasure. I am aching for you, if you only could see it for yourself. I am hard,” his voice had dropped and deepened with intensity.
“Stop!” she said raggedly, her heart slamming inside her breast and her skin getting hotter by the minute. “Stop.”
“Should I come and get you?”
“Yes,” she moaned. “Please.”
“I will be there shortly.” He hung up from her and she stood there not believing that she had told Ethan Shaw to come and get her so that they could go to his place and have sex! She had never been with a man before and she was going to give up her virginity to a slut! She laughed shakily as she leaned against the counter. She could not help herself. She wanted what had been dangling in front of her for weeks. Her ideals of staying a virgin for the man she fell in love with and married had disappeared as soon as he had taken her into his arms and she knew it. She had tried to tell herself otherwise but she could not fight it anymore. It had to be him and it had to be tonight! Hurrying to her bedroom, she started taking off her clothes so she could take a bath before he got there. Ready or not she was giving up her virginity tonight!
Chapter 9
The apartment was secluded as she suspected it would and was in the urban area of uptown several miles away from where she lived. An eager guard opened the doors for them as soon as he saw them and doffed his hat to Ethan. “No calls please Carson,” he told him.
“Right sir.” He nodded.
“This way,” he held out a hand for her to precede him to the private elevator. They had not spoken much on the ride here because she had turned her head to look at the passing scenery, doing her best to ignore the sensation of being in an enclosed space with him. He was wearing a thick black Angora sweater and faded black denims and boots. She had donned her usual faded denims and a powder blue sweater. She had run the comb through her hair and left it loose around her shoulders. She had talked to herself several times about what she was about to do. She was willingly going to have sex for the first time with a man who had an issue with commitments. Not only that he was the ‘enemy’ so to speak and a billionaire who was recognized wherever he went. But that was fine! She was not looking for anything long term. He was right. There was something between them and it was no big deal if they explored it. She was going into this with her eyes wide open and she knew who he was.
He opened the door and let her in. Harper took off her coat and looked around the sumptuous foyer and then wandered down the steps into the living room area. The thick tan carpet muffled their steps as they made their way in. “Very nice for a love nest.” She murmured as she noticed a Rembrandt to the left of the large fireplace.
“I would more likely refer to it as a bachelor’s pad,” he said softly as he took her coat and hung it up. “Would you like some wine?”
“Why not,” she said airily. “In a few minutes, I will be taking off my clothes and appear vulnerable to a man I barely know, so liquid courage is totally in order.”
He went towards a corner of the room and pressed a button. A cupboard automatically slid out revealing rows of bottles on shelves complete with an oval shaped counter stacked with glasses in some kind of groove. He plucked two out and popped open a bottle of wine. “Costa Delight,” he held the bottle to his nose and sniffed the content. “A combination of pressed grapes and cinnamon mixed with a little alcohol. It should be able to soothe your nerves for what we are about to do next,” his blue eyes crinkled with amusement as he brought it over to her. “Tell me what you think.”
He waited until she had taken a sip and smiled as her eyes widened. “It’s very goo
d isn’t it?’
She nodded. He gestured her to a long curved sofa in front of the fire. “It’s a new product of Costa Land and Shaw’s Holdings have a share in it. Alexander came up with the idea and discussed it with the winery they have in his country and needed funding. We decided that it was a very good business venture.”
“Prince Alexander?”
He nodded as he leaned back and sipped the wine. “We are members of the same club and business associates but we are also friends.”
“Princess Debbie does a lot of charity work. I have seen her pictures in the paper. She is not only a very well dressed woman but actually has some function as well.”
Ethan smiled at that. “They all do. The wives of the members of the club I am a part of.” His dark blue eyes wandered over her face. “Tell me about you. What are your interests aside from raining down hell on the negative effects of war?”
Harper looked at him and saw another side of him, a side that was making her like him, a side that was starting to make her feel something else other than awareness and attraction.
“Why?’
He shrugged. “I would like to get to know you.”
“We are going to have sex, Ethan. You don’t need to get to know me.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Believe what?”
“That what is between us is just sex.”
She leaned back and tucked on leg beneath her as she looked at him. “I am a twenty-six year old African American woman who was born into a middle income family, whatever that means. I have never been with a man before because I had this ideal that I would wait for the right man and someday settle down with a family and mostly because I was involved in one good deed after another. I have no aspirations of us becoming ‘a couple’ Ethan and it’s not because I think you are better than I am. I know better than that. It’s because I don’t like the person you represent. You are very wealthy and that amount of wealth tends to give people a superiority complex. I know it is just sex between us because there can be nothing else.”
He did not say anything for a while as he sipped his wine. “When did you turn twenty-six?’
“What?’ she looked at him with a frown.
“When was your birthday?”
“In May.”
“Mine was in June, on the tenth. When in May for yours?”
“What does this has to do--”
“Humor me please.”
She looked at him in exasperation. “May twenty-first.”
“We are connected by our signs.”
“You honestly do not believe that do you?” she asked him.
He shrugged elegantly. “Maybe I do or maybe I am trying to show you that if you think that there is just sex between us then you are greatly mistaken.”
“Is that what you tell all the women in your life?’ she asked him sarcastically.
“No,” he told her honestly. He put away his empty glass and leaned towards her. “I never usually have to tell them anything. Women are usually eager to be with me.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth to say something. “I am not saying that to boast. I am just stating a fact. I know the way I look and I know aside from that my wealth has a certain appeal. You challenge me Harper. Here I am burning up with desire for you and I am contented to just sit here and talk first. Usually, I do not do that. I get on with it and be done.”
His words had the effect of sending warmth into her system but she ignored it. “Am I supposed to feel flattered?” she asked him sarcastically.
“It depends on you what you want to feel,” he said with a smile. “I am just stating a fact. I admire you. I might not agree with you some of the times but I admire your forthrightness and the things you do to help people. I am attracted to you and to me it is not just sex, it is something much more.”
“The woman I saw you with at the party that night. Where is she?”
He got to his feet and poured himself some more wine. “We are no longer together. I told you that.”
“You kissed me while you were with her. What does that make you, Ethan?”
He tossed back the wine and his eyes met hers. “It makes me a man. I had every intention of breaking it off with her before I saw you that night but did not get around to it.”
“How long were you together?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked her impatiently.
“Please answer the question.”
“A little more than six months.”
“And you decided that she was not for you. What was it? Did the sex life go stale because I am assuming that you had sex; right?”
He strode over and before she knew what he was doing he hauled her up of the sofa and against him. “I don’t want to talk about the women I have been with before,” his tone was soft and hypnotic. “What I am feeling now and what I felt when I kissed you that night is burned onto my brain. I have never felt fire like that before and I will not have you comparing that with you now. “
Harper felt her heart hammering inside her breast and felt the heat on her skin. His nearness had the effect of making her feel totally dizzy and short of breath. “I don’t want more,” she whispered.
“Liar,” he whispered back. His head bent to hers and she welcomed the kiss as she felt his breath stirring against her skin. He was not touching her yet and still she felt the shivers running up and down her spine. He ran his tongue over her full bottom lip causing her to moan softly before he entered her mouth. Harper opened her mouth to the kiss, her hands moving over his sweater clad chest restlessly as he deepened the kiss. His mouth moved over hers with the expertise he had acquired over the years but it was something more than that. He had told her the truth when he said that he had never felt anything quite like this, with her, the fire spreading through his body and the flames being fanned as his tongue met hers as his mouth threatened to devour hers. His erection pressed through the thick material of his denims and pressed against her, aching for release, aching to enter her but he had to wait and he had to be patient. He broke off the kiss and stared down at her, his eyes raking her face and lingering on her lips. He lifted her into his arms and she was so grateful for his arms around her body. She could not have made the steps to wherever he was taking her by himself. Her body felt weak and she could feel the tremors going through her. He kicked open the door of a bedroom larger than her entire apartment! The furnishing was sparse with the king sized bed dominating the space. She caught a glimpse of a large walkthrough closet with a scattering of clothing there. He put her onto the bed and sat at the edge. He lifted one foot first and took off her knee length boot and then the other before going on his knees in front of her. “I am going to take it slow no matter how torturous it is going to be for both of us.” He whispered. His fingers dug through the thick dark hair spread out onto the snowy white pillows and wondered at the startling contrast. If they had children- the thought startled him so much that his heart hammered at it. “You are beautiful,” he breathed. “Your skin, your hair, those lips.” He groaned as his fingers touched the softness of her full bottom lip. “You were made to love.” He eased her up and pulled off her sweater, his eyes narrowing at the black lace of her bra and the nipples he could see through the material. He unhooked the front clasp and took it off her. His hands weighed the small breasts with their puckered nipples just waiting for the touch of his lips. Harper could not stay still. She had never been this naked in front of anyone, never had the touch of a man’s hand on her body before. Never felt so much fire unfurling in the pit of her stomach!
“Please,” she whispered.
“Soon darling,” the endearment was careless but with a lot of meaning as he bent his head and took a nipple inside his mouth. A serrated sigh left her lips and whispered along the room. His tongue curled over the hardened nipple, lingering as the bud tightened even more with his touch. Her fingers curled into the sheets as the pleasure of his touch was almost her undoing! He feasted for a little b
it before moving to the other nipple, his mouth avaricious and greedy, his touch demanding and seeking. He lifted his head finally, his body on fire, his penis bursting with need. His fingers trembled as he unhooked her button and her zipper and peeled it down. He eased the material away from her, his touch wandering over her pubic area through the black lace of her panties before he took everything off. She was naked and he was fully dressed but she did not feel any shame or shyness as his eyes wandered over her exquisite body. He opened her legs slightly more, his hands passing over her long legs and inching towards her pubic. He cupped her sex and watched as her body arched towards his hand. He pressed hard and felt the tremors of her skin. He slid his palm over her mound and felt the flesh tightened. He had to release his erection, it was aching and the pressure was rubbing against the material of his denims but he did not want to stop touching her. “I have to undress,” he whispered hoarsely. “I don’t want to stop but I have to take these clothes off.”
He moved away from her and fought to take his clothes off. Her eyes went to the bulge in his underwear and gasped as he took it off, allowing his penis to spring free. He climbed back in next to her, sitting on the side of the bed. Harper’s eyes wandered over the smooth chest with the ripples of muscles going down to where his penis stood proudly out, the red tip glistening with moisture. “I want to prepare you,” he whispered. “I want to take my time but I don’t know--” he broke off and came over her, his hands braced at her head. Harper’s hands came up and clasped around his neck.
“I am prepared,” she whispered. “I don’t care about the pain; I just want you right now.”
He bent and touched his lips to hers. His body settled over hers, his hands digging into her thick strands as he kept her head still while his mouth devoured hers. Harper lifted her legs instinctively as she felt the heaviness of his penis between them.
She tore her mouth from his, her dark brown eyes pleading. “Now,” she whispered.
He reached between them and eased into her slowly, pushing a little at a time. He encountered the barrier and stopped his breathing shallow as he stared down at her. He waited a little bit and then pushed at her, breaking the barrier a little at a time, not wanting to cause her pain. Her cries were swallowed by his mouth as his lips covered hers. Her tightness covered him and enclosed him pulling him further into her. The pain of the tear disappeared rapidly and was replaced with the pleasure as he moved inside her. It was erotic and sensual, this mating, the movements of their bodies together. She learned fast, had to as he met her movements with his own, his body vibrating against hers. The room had its own natural heat but even if it had not the heat generating from their bodies was enough to warm them along with the fire unfurling inside them. Ethan felt the pressure of his lower body as he moved into her. He felt the burning of desire wrapping over them both. She had told him that this was just sex but he knew different! He had been having sex too long now to not know the difference. The way her body felt beneath his, the incredible pressure of her wrapped around him, the frantic beating of his heart was enough to warn him that this was so much more than just sex between two people! His mouth left hers and traveled along her cheek and down her neck, easing back to the hollow of her throat. He pulled her up, his fingers buried in her thick hair as his mouth once again found her nipple, lazily sucking on the pebble like flesh. Harper felt the pull of something powerful deep inside her and her head drifted back, her mouth opened and the moans coming from deep inside her throat. His hand reached around to wrap her legs around his waist as he increased the pace. It was coming to the end and he wanted it to continue but their bodies were getting ready for the powerful orgasm that threatened to unseat them, threatened to overpower them! Harper felt her breath quickening and even though she had never experienced this before she knew what it was! Her fingers dug into his solid muscles feeling him flex beneath her touch. He did not lift his head; his mouth was too busy feasting on her nipple. He knew it was coming because he felt it and also felt the change in her body, the quivering of the flesh and the thudding of his heart. He had not used anything to protect them, had not thought about it, so much had been his desire for her. He braced for it, for the sensation and the tightening of his testicles. He lifted his head finally, his hands cupping the back of her neck and holding her still. “I can’t hold back anymore,” he told her hoarsely.
