Hidden Nymph (2 page)

Josea Carmichael excelled at everything. Everything but sex. Such a personal failure didn’t sit well with her ego. She tapped her stiletto against the mahogany floor. God, why’d she have to be such a prude?

The man in the tuxedo turned away from the door. Pale light from the crystal chandelier sank into his thick dark hair. Her breath caught.

Ari Davenport. In the flesh. Flesh like no man’s she’d ever seen. The movement of his lips as he spoke to the formally dressed couple at his side sparked a fire between her legs. No man had ever done to her the things he’d done with those lips. Not the way he had. The flame fed on her long neglected body as she followed the path to even greater pleasure, the hard line of his jaw, down the taut tendon of his neck.

Oh, God. She needed to blink.

The buttons of his crisp white shirt were like stepping stones to …

ohhh. He moved, turning half a step. The slight angle of his body tugged his perfectly tailored pants across a mound of flesh not even the dark, meticulously cut fabric could hide.

“Miss? Two glasses of merlot, please.”

Josea shook the daze that had come over her, and stared into the slightly creased eyes of the man standing in front of her. A quick glance around the room revealed all the other fairies engaged in service. She nodded at the gentleman who’d requested the wine and hurried off to the bar with her hands shaking and her body on fire.

She could tell herself anything she wanted to, but every word of it would be a lie. One look at Ari and every sensible thought she’d ever had fled from her brain. She wanted him in the worst possible way.

She gripped the polished wood of the bar and waited while Adrianna filled the order ahead of hers. As soon as the fairy in front
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of her had stepped away, Josea leaned over the bar. “Two merlots.

Are you sure nobody will recognize me in this?”

Adrianna laughed. “Relax. You look identical to a third of the staff. You’d look like the other two-thirds if they weren’t wearing red and blonde wigs.”

Josea’s hands trembled as she set the stemware on a small tray and lifted it off the bar. There’d be no relaxing tonight. Not with Ari Davenport in the same room looking tastier than every hors d’oeuvre in the place. She had to get it together. Taking a deep breath, she turned around, met an unexpected wall of pale pink silk, and watched in horror as the glasses on her tray toppled. Deep merlot stains covered the woman’s breasts and matched the fury on her face.

Everything else happened so fast, the details blurred. Adrianna offered a bottle of club soda and white linen napkins while another fairy gathered broken glass from the puddle on the floor. The woman’s roars drowned out the soft pleas of Josea’s apology.

“Get out of here!” Adrianna hissed, giving Josea a firm shove.

The staff manager, her penciled in eyebrows arched and her lips in a firm line, made her way toward the disaster.

“Sorry,” Josea whispered again as she fled. A dim light shone in a corridor, and she hurried toward it.

The butler’s pantry had been turned into a staging area for the fairies assigned to food detail. Josea made her way past the silk and leather clad servers and turned through an arched entryway.

The mahogany floor gave way to uneven stones, the kind one might expect to find in a European courtyard, but not in a downtown Atlanta penthouse. Iron sconces lined the wide corridor’s walls and hung along either side of a massive arched door with narrow glass panes. Josea turned back, it might be better to blend into the masses than to get caught roaming someone’s home. Ari’s home. Oh, God.

She pressed her hand to the swell of nausea rising in her stomach and started back toward the butler’s pantry.

12

Carmie L’Rae

A raised voice halted her. “When I find her, she’s fired!” Every word brought the voice of the staff manager closer. Josea ducked back into the corridor. There was only one place to hide.

The massive door swung open with almost no effort and with barely a whisper. Cool air puckered her bare skin, and dim recessed lighting revealed an impressive wine cellar. Rack after rack of bottles lined both sides of the room and cases of champagne sat near the door. To be used for tonight’s affair, no doubt.

She rubbed the chill from her arms and edged closer to the door.

She stayed near the wall and angled her view so she could peer through one of the glass panels. Anyone outside would have a harder time seeing her. Her body trembled. She’d freeze to death if she had to stay in this room much longer.

Low tones of conversation buzzed outside, growing louder until a trio clad in formal wear stopped in front of the door. Josea hurried to the back of the room, turned the corner, and came to a dead stop.

Three walls lined with bottles of wine stared back at her. No exit in sight.

Blood pounded in her ears. Her cold nipples pressed into the silk bustier, and her stilettos wobbled on the uneven floor.

“It’s the best wine that year produced.” The distinctive drawl of Ari’s sultry voice stilled her.

“I can’t believe you got your hands on a case of it.” The second voice, just as southern and genteel, sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place where she’d heard it. “What’d you do, sign a deal with the devil?”

A woman’s laughter joined in. “A couple more clients like Ari’s and you can piss liquid gold, too.”

“Beauty of a siren, mouth of a sailor. I’m a lucky man,” the man with Ari said as Josea pressed herself into the nearest corner. Her pulse pounded in her ears, and her lips mouthed a silent prayer that she wouldn’t be discovered.

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“I forgot how cold you keep these things. I’ll wait outside,” the woman said.

“I’ll grab the wine and meet you both back at the table,” Ari said.

“Roy’s seen the cellar before.”

Josea trembled, hoping beyond hope Ari kept the wine he came after in the front room. Her hopes vanished the second he turned the corner and jerked slightly to find her there.

“I’m …” She didn’t have a clue what to say.

“Hiding? Or stealing my wine?” The hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

“I’m not a thief.” Her voice wavered. Could he recognize the sound of it? They had spoken on the phone only six months ago.

Surely that was long enough for him to forget. She bit the inside of her mouth. It had to be long enough. A humiliating trip down memory lane was the last thing she needed tonight.

His hands slipped into his pockets pulling the fabric across his crotch again. For a split second, Josea lost focus. Her heart pounded and desire curled in her stomach. Oh, what she would do to him if she had the nerve.

“Why hide?” he asked.

Lying didn’t seem like a good idea. He wouldn’t be cruel enough to toss her to the lions if he knew the truth. “I’m responsible for that mess at the bar.”

“Alecia Hempsley’s wine incident?”

She nodded and bit down on her bottom lip.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” he said. “Half the people out there would pay you to do it again.”

“I’m new at this fairy thing.” Her eyes wandered again. The fabric of his pants stretched a little more. She jerked herself to her senses and met his eyes straight on.

His lips twitched and he openly assessed her figure, pausing on her breasts and then lower on the garters peeking beneath her skirt.

“You could’ve fooled me.”

14

Carmie L’Rae

Josea’s breath burned her lungs. A spark ignited in his dark eyes and the musk of his cologne rose from the heat of his skin. Never one to hesitate or let something he wanted pass him by, he closed the distance between them.

The first stroke of his warm hands along her shoulders and down her arms sent prickles of heat spreading through her. The pleasure converged in her chest and pressed its way out through her nipples, turning them so hard they ached. The unmasked want in his eyes, and his unapologetic hunger shot lightning straight to her clit. His hands continued to stroke her, his thumbs caressing the outer curve of her breasts through the silk bustier. She ached for the feel of his touch against her naked skin. God, if only she could have been the lover he’d wanted, the kind of lover that could live up to his expectations.

No man had ever pushed her farther, had made her want so much.

But she couldn’t let go. She’d never been able to let go. That wasn’t the kind of woman she’d been raised to be. She was smart.

Successful. Church on Sunday. Law school, for God sakes!

The dark hair of her wig moved against her back, the feel of it so sensual she arched toward him, pushing her breasts toward his chest.

He groaned and filled his palms with silk covered flesh. Her nipples pressed into his hands, begging for attention.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “A fantasy come to life.”

“What does your fantasy do?” She kept her voice low, praying he wouldn’t recognize her. Would he tell her his secrets? Would he show her how to give him everything he hungered for? He would. He’d always been willing. She was the one who couldn’t look him in the eye and pretend to be a siren. She couldn’t tell him the wild thoughts that swirled in her mind, or how she craved the salty taste of his skin, the velvety softness of his cock against her tongue. Ari had been the only man to ever scratch the surface of her wild hidden desires, but her fantasies would never live beyond her mind.

Unless he truly didn’t know her.

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A rush of desire washed down her body at the thought of sex with Ari. Perhaps safely hidden under this sexy costume, she could pretend to be the siren he’d wanted long ago. She wanted him. Another streak of pleasure pulsed through her veins. Perhaps it was time to explore her long tamped down fantasies.

His grip on her shoulders tightened ever so slightly, and his gaze rose to meet hers. Familiar fear clamped her, but he couldn’t possibly see the woman beneath the disguise. Deep brown bedroom eyes stared back at him. Colored contacts hid her meek baby blues and her identity. She would be a fool to let this opportunity pass her by. She was free for the first time to explore that secret world other women lived in. The place of women who could satisfy men like Ari.

She reached for him, her hand sliding over the growing ridge inside his pants. His head fell back, revealing the strong tendons of his neck and skin so smooth she had to swallow the Pavlovian response that filled her mouth. She gave his cock a firmer stroke and cupped the mound of masculine flesh in her hand. A groan rumbled through his throat boosting her confidence another notch.

“Fairies are naughty, naughty girls,” she whispered. The desire in her voice was too powerful to disguise.

“I love naughty girls.” He peered at her through hooded eyes as his fingers tugged the bustier just low enough to free her nipples and prop the two rosy buds on folds of forest green silk.

“We taste like flowers,” she said as he rolled her pebbled peaks beneath his thumbs. “Delicious flowers.” The words caught on the breath in her throat. She’d never asked a man to taste her, but she wanted more than anything to feel the wet heat of his mouth, his body connecting with hers.

She squeezed his dick. He sucked in a quick breath, and lust flamed in his dark eyes. Her other hand slid up his muscled chest and curled around the back of his neck.

“Try me,” she said, pulling him closer.

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Carmie L’Rae

His mouth, hotter and wetter than she’d expected, clamped onto her nipple and the first touch of his warm tongue nearly shattered her.

Trembles raced through her limbs, heat swirled in her belly and hunger gnawed at her soul. She gasped for breath as his tongue swirled and lapped. Liquid fire raged through her, flowing through her chest, her stomach, down to the soles of her feet. She wobbled slightly on the spiked heels, but he steadied her, pulling her closer.

The air conditioner, accommodating for the rise in temperature, gusted a cold breeze into the tiny room. Goose bumps rose along her arms, but the chill fled again as his teeth grazed her tender flesh and he sucked her in, holding her nipple in a gentle bite while he flicked the tip of it with his tongue.

He lifted his head. The cold air, blowing into the room, hit her wet nipple, clenching it tight. He left the little nub red and unprotected while he moved to the other breast. Opposing sensations of fire from his tongue and the cold air heightened one another. The nerves in her pussy danced, her muscles clenched. She stepped back. Cool bottles pressed into her back. He followed her, but she put a firm hand against his chest.

“You’ve made me hungry,” she said, swallowing hard as she reached for the waistband of his pants. She braced herself, half expecting him to laugh, to tell her he’d seen through the charade. Her hands shook and fear threatened to override her desire.

Ari didn’t laugh. He pressed his cheek against her temple. “I’ve got to have you.” His words vibrated with restraint. He didn’t wait for her to fumble with the trappings. His hands took over. A second later, his dark tuxedo pants hung around his thighs, with gray boxer briefs pushed into the puddle of fabric clinging to each muscled leg.

His long thick, cock stood at attention, bobbing in anticipation, the tip already glistening and ready. She moaned at the beauty of it. Her tongue moved over her lips in anticipation. She cupped his balls and shivered as they tightened in her hand. Eager for the smooth feel of him on her lips, the taste of him on her tongue, she dipped close,
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quickly lapping the nectar that seeped from his broad pink head. God, she loved the taste of him, the size and shape and feel of his dick, every perfect inch of it.

He took her shoulders and lifted her to her feet, then walked her back against a section of rough plastered wall, little more than a foot wide, between two built-in shelves laden with bottles. His head bent to hers. His lips landed against her ear. A fresh shiver shot down her spine as his body pressed close to hers.