Down With Cupid Shorts Bundle (5 page)

“Wait,” he ordered and moved his hand.

He scrounged around for the pants sprawled across the small coffee table beside the chair. She resented the interruption but so far he’d yet to leave her disappointed for long. He sheathed himself and within the next breath he plunged into her aching, wet sex. Ah, none of the worries she had earlier mattered anymore. Sebastian was right where he should be, inside her, deep and filling her to the core. He wasn’t looking at her with hesitation, as though he should censor his words. He wasn’t even a stranger who knew too much about the woman beneath the business clothes.

No. He was her lover.

She sighed and whispered his name into the mussed strands of his hair. He rose up, surging forward into her and again, slowly. He wasn’t racing to some finish line or to win some competition. This felt like prolonging what should have ended Friday night and she took it. All of it.

She found his rhythm and met his quickened thrust, tightening around his slick and hard cock. The climax stole through her, and Nicole knew that it wouldn’t be the end. He’d wait until she was fully sated, limp against the crook of his neck. There was nothing to fight hard against, so she let each orgasm roll over her and continued to meet his slow thrusts. His fingers tightened at the nape of her neck, but he tipped her head down and met her lips. Her moan shuddered out, and he captured the sound with his tongue.

This experience was too slow and too soft for what was coming next. It wasn’t another late night rendezvous. It wasn’t meeting unexpectedly at the elevator doors or sneaking up to this room. They were catching planes to go to different cities only knowing each other’s first name. It was an experience she couldn’t tell someone else and they’d believe how the story unfolded.

She couldn’t stop and change the rules they’d set out the moment he grinned at her in the bar. Nicole hated this, but did the only thing she could, and deepened the kiss.

*****

Sebastian had long since crossed a personal boundary. What was one more? So, he kept right on kissing Nicole like it was the last time he’d get to taste her. It likely would be. They had set up boundaries that neither could cross without losing something in the end. This weekend had been perfect. There was bound to be a minefield he hadn’t foreseen if they tried to prolong it. She couldn’t be this woman who made him forget the bitterness of the past, a woman who made him consider the things he’d long since given up.

Yet, he could believe it possible while buried so deeply inside her, swallowing her moans as she rocked against his sex. And this slow slide into oblivion and insanity was enough to make him come. The next time she quickened, he’d be done and so would this…whatever it was.

“Don’t move,” he heard himself say.

God, it was embarrassing, but he had to get his fill of her now, because there was no rewind button and no moving forward. He cupped the back of her head and kissed her, like a simpering idiot who would miss a woman he met only a few days ago. He kissed her like an unhinged man who’d miss a woman who needed to relax and did whenever he touched her. He kissed her like it was goodbye.

Her pussy tightened around him and that was all it took to drag them both over the edge. He rose up into her, once, twice and they both shuddered with the force of their climax. His soft groan tangled with her breathless moan. Sebastian sighed and rested his head against hers. He didn’t want to open his eyes to see the truth of their situation reflected back in her amber irises.

But he wasn’t a soft man. She wasn’t the woman who changed anything within him. She was his weekend lover. So, Sebastian opened his eyes and saw the truth in her gaze.

“I’ve got to go,” she murmured.

Hours hadn’t passed and her flight was eons away, but she still spoke the truth. It was better this way. “I’ll let you get the shower first.”

Her lips curved in one corner. “Always the gentleman.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. I’m all class.”

She hesitated, but placed a light kiss on his lips. She lingered longer than what was allowed for in their situation, but he let her because it’s what he secretly wanted.

Much too soon, she broke the kiss and rose from his lap. He listened to the shower run and sat on the love seat, soaked in his sweat and regret that this weekend couldn’t be more.

Just sit. Leave it alone. Let the weekend end like this. Maybe kiss her at the door and wish her a good flight and that would be that.

Yeah… No. Fucking .Way. He smiled a conman smile and rose from the chair and headed to the bathroom. Sebastian opened the door and steam from the shower rolled out. It wouldn’t change a thing to watch her lather soap over the skin he’d gotten to know so very well. Not a thing would be different if he surprised her and watched the warring emotions cloud her gaze.

Just this one last time with her and then he’d let her go. She’d be out of his system. He pulled open the shower door. She turned to him, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. Her gaze roved down, and then up, as she considered him.

“Sebastian,” she spoke softly.

“Yes, Nicole.”

“There’s this spot, on my back, I can never get.”

The tightness in his chest loosened. “I bet there is.” Oh, he fucking loved it.

He stepped into the shower, closing the door behind him. She handed over the soap. Sebastian let out a long sigh. All he had was her first name. Sooner or later, he’d learn to live with the ache she’d leave behind. Until then, she was his lover and he was hers.

End of Weekend Lover

Down With Cupid

Down With Cupid Published by Melissa Blue

Copyright 2012

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [email protected]

Cover Art by Melissa Blue

Self-Published Edition 2012

Chapter One

Nicole Harrison’s heels clacked over the granite floor of the office building in a rapid staccato. The sound bounced off high vaulted ceilings lit with art deco chandeliers.

The loud echo, unfortunately, didn’t drown out Anna’s voice coming from the earbud. “Please don’t tell me you’re late.” The usually husky timbre grew sharp. Anna was about to start ranting.

So, Nicole wouldn’t say she was late. In this case, late was a technical term. She’d taken a break to get a much-needed-afternoon-iced coffee. Keeping calm, she tapped a thumb against the phone’s screen. Ten minutes to make it to the top floor. She downed more iced coffee—the reason she was ten minutes from getting an ass chewing.

Stark quiet filled the earbud. Silence was deadly, because that meant Anna was gearing up for a condescending rant. It would involve telling Nicole all the things she was doing wrong and implying that’s why she hadn’t made it to the next level of managing director. Reins Anna held like a woman in the 1950’s clutched her pearls when bad words flew out of a pretty girl’s mouths. Since Anna was also the founder of Limelight, an esteemed PR boutique, her word was law.

Nicole’s grasp tightened on the phone. “Am I late?” She pffted.

“Then you’re there with him now? Because he’s already here.”

Nicole choked. Tapped her phone again. Nine minutes. Stay calm. Don’t panic. The computer mogul paid the company a king’s ransom to make him look good on paper and TV, and despite this, the client never show up for scheduled meetings. She usually had to hunt him down like a repo agent. If he didn’t fork over a buttload of money, Anna would have dropped him long ago for tying up Nicole’s schedule. Reticent to do any kind of public events, she still manged to talk him into a bachelor auction, on Valentine’s Day. In a month. Handsome and charming, he’d be the perfect bachelor. Unfortunately, he hadn’t finalized any of the details, and it was nerve racking to say the least to build a buzz when the man hadn’t even confirmed he’d actually show up.

Knots in her stomach had become a constant companion, and they twisted in her gut now. After a quick, mournful glance at her feet, Nicole broke into a run. At the first sign of a trash can, she tossed the coffee.

“Oh, that’s wonderful he’s actually here. I’m right down the hall.” She rounded the corner to the bay of elevators and skidded to a halt. Taped to one of the closed doors was a "Down for Maintenance" sign. One elevator for eight busy floors. Crap on a cracker. She tapped her phone again. Seven minutes.

“You sound winded. Where are you really?”

She headed to the stair case, glanced up. If she made it in time, the moment she got home, Nicole would kiss her treadmill. “I really should go now.”

“You really should let me tell you about your new co-publicist. The reason I called in the first place, but I got distracted by your lack of being where you’re supposed to be.”

“Not that I’m on one, but I’m allowed breaks.”

“Not when you have a client coming in.”

True, but Nicole needed breaks and moments of solitude, with her phone off, for the past two months. Sacrilegious behavior and so unlike her. Something had changed within her and she didn’t like it one bit. She had this feeling before and had killed, burned and buried it. The troublesome emotion had Nicole off her game and not her usual go-getter-work-at-all-hours-of-the-day self. She’d been taking time to relax. A publicity manager one step away from being a managing director, at the top of her game, didn’t relax until she quit or died.

“Do tell.” She cleared the first flight with no problem. “Who is it this time?”

“I didn’t hire him as a true co-publicist.”

“Good, because you know I don’t need help.”

“Of course you don’t,” Anna said as though talking to a simpleton. “You vet newbies for me.”

Third floor and her calves started to scream. Tap. Five minutes. She grabbed the rail, hand slicked with sweat, and took a breath. “Giving them clients, I don’t mind. Training them, I do. Why me? It’s a a pain in the ass. Other publicist on your payroll have patience.
Anyone else
has more patience.”

“If they can survive your schedule, they can work on their own at a slower pace.”

Fifth floor. Four minutes. She grunted in answer. There would be no kissing the treadmill any time soon.

“But this new guy might give you a run for the money. I stole him from a competitive firm.”

“How? Giving me a run for the money, not stealing. Buying loyalty isn’t the shocking part of this conversation.” She puffed and then sucked in a longer breath.

Sixth floor. Nicole would probably pass out the moment she made it. Two minutes. She moved faster.

“I hired him on as a publicity manager. So, he’s a co-publicity manager.” Anna let that hang in the air before she added, “And, when I called him fifteen minutes ago he was already sitting down with the client.”

The damn knots turned into lead weights, and it had nothing to do with the marathon. “No. ” The word came out like an epithet.

“Yup.”

Probably explained why Anna wasn’t chewing her a new one. This was chastisement enough. Nicole growled and pushed through the eighth floor’s door. Her anger spiked, killing any unease. Her and her addiction to iced coffee. Really, her need to take a break. She had a little anger, too, for the client actually showing up this time. And the rest for the interloper ruining the initial interview for a new campaign.

Oh, yes. He would have ruined it. Most people Anna threw in Nicole’s path didn’t know their asshole from a hole in the wall. Anna threw the newbies at Nicole to train, toughen up and make competent. Anna didn’t hire new publicity managers. That was Nicole’s job because she was fantastic at what she did.

Her clients loved her and so did her stuffed-to-the max contacts list. A list filled with reporters, radio execs, TV and radio personalities, DJs… anyone who would speak her clients’ name with wonderful press coverage. Pretty much everyone but God and the Pope. Not having the latter had everything to do with a lack of trying on Nicole’s part.

And some usurper felt it was ok to go ahead with the interview without her?

“Anna, I’ve got to go.”

The plush carpet quieted the sound of her heels, and the only click was Anna, finally, hanging up. Passing the receptionist—blonde, young and pretty—she grabbed some Kleenex and dabbed her damp face. Very little makeup came off. Still she dug into her purse for lipstick and reapplied the siren-red shade. Not missing a step, she followed the curve of the hallway and dropped the Kleenex, lipstick, phone and earbud into her purse.

Nicole gave herself a moment to breathe deep and dispel any irritation. Calm. Efficient. Capable. Since she’d practiced how that looked in the mirror, Nicole knew she looked every inch of those words.

She turned the doorknob to her office and stepped inside. Her gaze barely glossed over the back of the client’s head. Her gaze was too busy drinking in, and disbelieving, who sat at her desk. The man’s angular cheek bones gave his bronzed skin a striking balance. The peak of his nose was thick but sharp. Yet the steel-blue glint of his eyes held a depth that left her breathless. She knew what it felt like to be under that intense gaze.

The last time she’d seen him, his hair had been mussed and tousled by continually running her fingers through the ebony strands. He’d looked rakish and exactly like the type of man you took to bed, but she got to know he was the type of man you wanted around long after the sex glow dimmed. He was a man who had started the small shift within her to relax and have a little fun.

Now, not a strand of hair dared to stick out from the slicked-back style. He looked like a shark. A shark perched behind her desk as though it was his.

Damn him.

“Sebastian?” The name spilled from her lips.

Chapter Two

Sebastian Clark stiffened when Nicole smoothly entered her office. Annoyance shot through him at the response. He’d prepared himself for seeing her again, or thought he had. Two months ago they’d spent a weekend together and that should have been it. But it wasn’t. When she’d left the hotel room, without a backward glance, he’d ignored the pang and slight hope to see her again. He told himself a great weekend was one thing, wanting more could easily turn into the worst kind of mistake.