“Answer the question, Gwyneth. Didn’t you say that?”“Yeah.”“You also said it’s in the moment and you can’t describe it.”“I did.”“Then open your legs and show me.”My elbows can barely hold me up anymore from how much they’re shaking, how much my pussy is tingling from his words and the command in them.But I’m helpless in front of that dominance, so while I remain on one elbow, I reach the other hand to the zipper of my skirt and pull it down as I tremble uncontrollably. Then I fumble to kick it down my legs that are so hot and sensitive that I can feel the sheet scraping against them.I let my thighs fall open, exposing my vanilla-colored panties. They’re lace and see-through and so soaked that another wave of heat covers my body when I realize he can see it.He can see the arousal and the stickiness.This is different from anything I’ve experienced before. Because he’s looking at me.He’s looking at my wet panties and my shaking legs and my fingers that are sneaking beneath the
NathanielA mistake.That’s what it should be.Every second from the moment she walked inside and I lost my fucking cool to when she detonated in my hold as if she’s waited her entire life for me to come along.As if she’s been saving up for me, for the moment she’d explode all around me, strangle my fingers, and refuse to let them go.And it all started with when I saw her hopping off the kid’s motorcycle. Her lips were red and her hair was blown by the wind and she was smiling. Wide.I should’ve looked the other way and kept my distance, as usual—that’s what I’ve done ever since I moved in. I make sure she has everything she needs from afar. Like her stock of vanilla ice cream, her milkshakes—vanilla again—and her favorite fruit, bananas, just because there isn’t a version of vanilla fruit.Martha has specific orders to let me know when those things run out so one of us can take care of getting more.It’s all because of Kingsley, I told myself. If it were him, he would’ve made sure
Something alarming, as in, someone probably asked her if I’m gay. That’s what her socialite friends spout off about me when I refuse to meet their prim and proper daughters. That I’m gay.I ignore Mom and her shallow entourage. The thought of her and Dad brings forward nausea I’ve been trying to get rid of for fucking decades.But Gwyneth and the not-some-normal bike kid are still talking and laughing. They’re still trapped in their own world as if the rest of their surroundings don’t exist.So I pick up my phone and call her.Her smile drops when she sees my name on the screen, and she swallows a few times before she picks up.“Hello?”“Have you finished the report I sent you this morning?”“I’m getting there.”“Getting there doesn’t mean it’s done, Gwyneth.”“I’ll be finished in a few.”“My office. Now.” I hang up and take the elevator to the highest floor, then head to my office and sit behind my desk.Soon after, there’s a knock on the door before Gwyneth comes inside.There’s a s
“I wasn’t flirting.”I stand up and stride toward her. She visibly shudders, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red.“What did I say yesterday?”“W-what?”“After you came all over my fingers, what did I say?” I extend a hand and she closes her eyes, her lips shaking before they press together, but I reach around her and click the door shut.At that, she startles, her eyes opening and moving up to look at me. There’s an expectation etched on her delicate features mixed with polar opposite uncertainty. She’s always been a spectrum of wild, uncontained emotions.“What did I say, Gwyneth?”“That you will…take care of my sexual urges.”“And do you know what that means?”She shakes her head slowly.“It means you’ll break up with that boyfriend, effective immediately. You’ll stop flirting with him or getting on his bike.”Her lips tremble, but there’s a fire in her eyes, the blue trying to overthrow the green and smother the gray. “No.”I grab her by the chin and use it to lift her head. “Wh
GwynethHe’ll teach me how to behave.That’s what he said. That’s what I heard, and yet I still can’t believe it.I can’t believe a lot of things since last night.When I woke up this morning, I thought maybe, just maybe, it was all a dream and I was still stuck in it, but then I smelled him. Those notes of spice and woods lingered on my sheets and on me long after he left my bedroom.So it couldn’t have been a dream, because Nate never goes into my room.Never.Oh, and my panties were missing. Yup. I slept all night without underwear and kept rubbing my thighs together in a desperate attempt to recreate the friction but failed miserably.So I left early this morning because I didn’t know what would happen if I saw him hovering over me at breakfast. That’s what he does sometimes since he moved in. He hovers, leaning against the counter with his legs crossed at the ankles and drinking from his coffee until he makes sure I’ve eaten something. Because apparently, drinking my milkshake doe
“You’d have to want me to want to play with me, Nate.”He narrows his eyes on me. “You’re supposed to say you’re not a toy and I shouldn’t want to play with you.”I lift a shoulder. “I don’t care.”“You don’t?”“A normal person probably would, but I’m a little weird and a very bad girl, so you can play with me all you want. I’ll be your toy.” At least that way he’s not putting a thousand walls up between us.That way, I can get close, even if only by sex. I’m fine with sex. I like the feelings it brings and the surrender of it all. And if what happened last night is any indication, sex with Nate will probably bulldoze through all my thoughts and expectations.As if to prove that it’ll go way different than I’ve fantasized, Nate reaches a hand to the waistband of my skirt and toys with the zipper, his thumb grazing my hipbone beneath my shirt. “You’ll be my toy, huh?”“Yeah.”“I can play with you?”“You can.”“Do you let boys play with you often, Gwyneth?”“Sometimes…”He doesn’t like
“Language.”“Mmm.”“Answer me, Gwyneth. Whose pussy is this?”“Yours.”“That’s right. Mine. So why did you give it to someone else? Why did another fucker look at my pussy, let alone touch it?”God. If he keeps talking this dirty, I might come here and now.“Because you weren’t there…you weren’t touching me, so I had to let the boys do it, but you know what?”“What?” He’s pulling my panties down my legs, and I don’t focus on the trail of wetness that’s coating my thighs. I don’t focus on how shamelessly I’m drenching his fingers, because I’m preoccupied with something else.His face holds me hostage. His beautiful, ethereal face that’s been stealing my dreams since I started seeing him as a man.I drop my voice, staring at him from beneath my lashes. “I was thinking about you the whole time they were touching me. I imagined your fingers inside me and your tongue licking me. Your hands were on me too, and they were so powerful and masculine that I can’t stop thinking about them.”He pa
NathanielI’ve never been one to play games.They’re a waste of time and lack purpose—something that fools do to feel cunning or important. That type of affirmation means absolutely nothing to me.If anything, I’m the one who makes the games and sets the rules that everyone needs to follow.So imagine my fucking surprise when I find myself dragged into a game I didn’t sign up for. A game that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.I’m in the middle of it now. Right there where the game—Gwyneth—is.You can play with me all you want. I’ll be your toy.Those mere words turned me into a fucking insatiable beast. I didn’t only win her in the middle of the game, but I also had every right to play with her, torture her, torment her.A week now. It’s been a week since the day I broke my own protocol and brought sex to my workplace. When I ate her out and tasted her sweet cunt.I don’t mix business with pleasure.Ever.It’s unprofessional, bothersome, and fucking distracting.Or that’s what
* * *On Wednesday evening, I left the office before Aiden and drove straight to his place. I was relieved that I’d gotten my daily run in with nausea done around lunchtime. In his apartment, I made sure I’d thrown in the last few things I needed for the trip and then made myself a cup of coffee. I didn’t usually drink it past two or three in the afternoon, but lately, I could sleep at the drop of a hat. I’d been miserably tired in our last brand development meeting, and I was worried that Blake had taken my half-closed eyes as some sort of come on.He wasn’t happy about Aiden coming to the charity ball, either. He tried to play it off, but we could tell that his joke about how surely Aiden had more important things to do wasn’t a joke at all. I’d never tell Aiden, but more and more, Blake was starting to give me the creeps. Even though I’d made it perfectly clear my only interest in him was professional, he still let his gaze linger too long on mine. I’d taken to wearing oversized c
LAYLAI didn’t know what was up with me, but I was determined not to let it ruin my first trip with Aiden. Maybe it was just an extended work trip where we would be up to our old tricks in a new city, but it was still ourfirst vacation. Besides, whatever was going on with me wasn’t like any cold or flu or food poisoning or allergic reaction I’d ever had. It was waves of nausea that struck at strange times, peaked violently after about half an hour, and left me tired but functional for the rest of the day. For the most part, I could hide it from Aiden. He was busy doing a week’s worth of work in two and a half so we could leave for New York after work on Wednesday.Because he was so busy, I was home more, and it was Liv who caught me dry heaving in the bathroom one afternoon.“Whoa,” she said, gingerly placing her hand on my back as if she were considering rubbing it. She changed her mind at a particularly violent retching sound that, as usual, produced nothing. Backing into the doorwa
AIDENI had to tell Jack. I could tell the secrecy was beginning to gnaw at Layla. She was right–there was a point when it had been fun. Clandestine. Now I just wanted to be able to take her out to dinner on our side of town without fear of who we might run into. I wanted to think about our future together without the threat of Jack’s reaction overshadowing it.The problem was, I didn’t know how. The other problem was, the person I normally would have asked for advice was Jack himself. Maureen was my back up, but I couldn’t go to her either. So that was why I found myself telling Carl, my mentee, about it.I don’t know how it came up. It sure as hell wasn’t like he asked,hey man, how’s your love life?Strangely, Carl listened. When I was done, he said, “That’s a real fucking pickle, rich man. What are you going to do about it?” His voice was its usual mixture of disdain and sarcasm, but I sensed that he was genuinely interested.“Hell if I know,” I muttered. I was already regretting t
“I bet she would have planned great vacations for you,” I said quietly. I set down my glass of wine and reached over to squeeze his hand. He didn’t let mine go though, when I went to pull back. Instead, he rose in his seat and tugged me up, too. We kissed across the small bistro table. A warm, heady kiss that was sweeter than the dessert.After we sat back down, I rearranged my napkin in my lap and said in my own carefully casual way, “Maybe one day I can plan a vacation for all three of us.”Aiden shot me a grin. He looked almost normal again, though the fire was still simmering in his eyes. “Maybe,” he agreed. “I guess you two should meet before we fly off to the Bahamas together.”“It’s only fair,” I agreed. “I mean, you do knowmyparents.” I held my breath until Aiden laughed. We were getting better, but the subject of my parentage was still loaded. “I do want you to meet my mom,” he said, sliding his credit card into the bill holder and pushing the last of the dessert closer to me
LAYLAAiden and I were still careful at work, but we let our guard down outside of it. We went to dinner together on the other side of town, and once in a while, he even spent the night at my place now that he knew that Liv and Bran were in on the secret.Liv and Bran had their own secret they thought they were keeping, but Aiden and I were experts at this by now. We knew my brother didn’t really crash on the couch at the end of a long night, and we heard him on those nights he pretended to leave and then doubled back.It was nice to see my brother and my best friend falling for each other, even if it was kind of strange. I hoped that when he eventually found out about me andhisbest friend, my dad would feel similarly.“Don’t count on it,” Aiden said when I mentioned it one night. We’d driven across town to eat at a restaurant we figured was far away enough that no one we knew would be there. We were doing that more and more. It was starting to feel normal to be out with him in public
“Layla went home sick. I’m just checking up on her.”Our footsteps echoed loudly on the uncarpeted steps. By mutual agreement, we’d both turned toward the stairwell rather than waiting for the dodgy looking elevator. Bran was ahead of me, and I thought I saw a ghost of a smirk on his face as he turned to go up the next flight. But all he said was, “Cool,” in a voice so indifferent I wondered if I’d imagined the smirk.Thanks to Bran, I didn’t have to knock. The door was propped open on its deadbolt because they were clearly expecting him. He walked in and gestured for me to follow.I’d never been inside Layla’s apartment. I’d only waited out front while she ran in to grab something. It was… fine. Not the kind of place I thought she should be leaving the door propped open, but it could be worse. It had style, even if I wasn’t impressed by the elevator or the security.“Layla,” Bran called. “Your boss is here.”Two voices came at once. An unfamiliar one that said, “I’m on a call!” and t
AIDENWhen I heard that Layla had gone home sick, I texted her.Are you going to my place? I’ll try to leave, too.She didn’t answer. I figured she’d take a nap, but hour by hour crawled by without a response. At lunch, I stepped outside and called her. It went straight to voicemail. I texted again, but I was starting to get the bad feeling that this silence had nothing to do with a cold or a nap.At four, I told Maureen I was leaving early.“You’d better not be sick, too,” she warned.“I’m not. I’ll be online.” I was too distracted to worry about whether she thought it was suspicious that I was leaving early.“What about the happy hour?”I’d already been walking toward the door, but now I pulled up short. I’d forgotten all about the damn happy hour. It wasn’t for anything in particular, just a monthly get together where I got face time with anyone who wanted it, and we patronized our favorite local bar. It wasn’t the most important thing in the world, but I tried to never miss it.“S
Joe glanced at me, sensing for the first time that this news might not be as benign as he thought. “Um, yesterday?” He scratched his nose and eyed me, checking to see how that information went over. When my face darkened, he added, “Maybe. I don’t remember.”“Well I just talked to Maureen about it yesterday morning, so either it was yesterday or it was really early this morning,” I said evenly.“Yeah, it was probably yesterday.” Joe pulled an apologetic face. As if he were the one with something to apologize for. Then he wrapped up his uneaten egg sandwich and made a quick exit.I stayed in the break room for another few minutes, trying to get a handle on my anger. My tendency was to go with the emotion–let it swell and break and deal with the cause of it. I didn’t like to let things fester. This time, though, I really did try to tame it. I asked myself if I was being unreasonable–maybe this wasn’t actually Aiden treating me like a child. Maybe there was some way in which he could ask
LAYLAI sensed Aiden’s mood even before I saw his face. It was the way he moved when he came out onto the balcony. A stiffness in the set of his shoulders that was echoed in his face when he turned around. He lowered himself into the chair beside mine without kissing me first.I closed my book, keeping my finger between the pages to save my spot. I had a pretty good idea what this was about.Aiden didn’t waste time getting to the point. “You went around me.”“I went up the chain of command,” I countered. “I report to Maureen.”“I don’t give a damn who you report to at work. You went aroundme.” He bit off the words. “Not as your boss, but as your–whatever the fuck we’re doing is called.”“I think that about describes it,” I drawled, hoping to tempt him out of this fight. I dogeared the corner of my page and set it down beside my chair.Aiden wasn’t tempted though. Or amused. If anything, his face grew stormier. “If that’s all it was, I wouldn’t bother.”I stood up and slid into his lap