In Too Deep (6 page)
I froze, our eyes locking so instantly that I panicked, wondering if we knew each other somehow.
No
. I would’ve remembered meeting someone who looked like this. At six-foot-four, he towered over the woman with whom he emerged from the door marked “Employees Only.” Perhaps he was a manager? The owner? Whatever he was, I was thankful that he was polite enough to return his eyes to the woman as she spoke to him, because it gave me the opportunity to freely check him out.
He was a walking fantasy. Dark hair. Emerald eyes. Gorgeously tanned. In a white V-neck and jeans, he managed to look better dressed than even the chic and buttoned-up clientele. It probably helped that he was built and carved like a Greek god. The hard lines of his chest muscles were visible from under the cotton of his shirt. Sipping endlessly on my Manhattan, my eyes swept him from head to toe. I wasn’t usually a fan of beards but he sported one that was sexy, well trimmed – the definition of masculine. Heat bloomed in my cheeks as I wondered what his facial hair would feel like against my lips.
Between my thighs…
Whoa
.
I stopped myself and the bartender grinned at my flushed expression. “Yeah, he has that effect,” he said, shaking his head before suddenly standing at attention as he looked behind me. I held my breath, feeling the heat of a tall, broad body only inches from my back. Tucking a lock of hair behind my ear, I turned to see the devastatingly handsome Greek god pointing to my drink and then holding up two fingers.
“Two Manhattans, got it. Didn’t realize you knew each other,” the bartender said, blinking and disappearing to the end of the bar before I could correct him. Biting my lip, I watched the gorgeous stranger ask the man beside me if he minded moving down a seat. The man sputtered, seeming to realize that he’d officially run out of time to talk to me.
“Do you know her?” he asked, his last attempt to keep his seat. Green Eyes looked at me and grinned so irresistibly that my toes curled.
“Yeah, she and I go way back.”
Despite sensing our lie, the man beside me moved down one and my heartbeat rose as Green Eyes took the seat. “So you and I go way back?” I lifted an eyebrow at him.
“To about a minute ago when I came out of that employee door,” he replied with ease. I bit my lip as I watched the corners of his twist with mischief. “Not a fan of lying but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“Of course,” I humored him. “And what kind of desperate times were you facing just now?”
“Seeing the hottest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on at a bar and not being the guy sitting next to her.”
“Mm. Tough life.”
His eyes glinted with amusement. “It was a trying time but it’s over with,” he laughed as our drinks came up
“Cheers to that.”
“Cheers.” His eyes remained intent on me as our Manhattans clinked. “So, are you meeting someone here?”
I smiled. “Is this your subtle way of asking if I have a boyfriend?”
“Yes. Do you?”
I swallowed, realizing that it was my time to jump and truly commit to this night. “No,” I finally answered.
Just a fiancé.
“And yourself – a girlfriend?” When he shook his head, I raised my brows with surprise.
“What?”
“I guess that’s just… hard for me to believe.”
“Yeah? And why’s that?”
I laughed, half-sheepish. “You can’t guess? Haven’t you ever looked at yourself in the mirror?”
“Let’s pretend I haven’t so I can force you to spell out for me what it is you’re trying to say,” he smirked.
Cheeks burning, I bit back my giggle. “You want me to recite for you all the ways that I find you physically attractive?”
“Absolutely. I have a feeling that’d be a huge turn-on for me,” he grinned.
“I don’t even know your name yet.”
“Nor do I know yours. What is it?”
Umm.
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. “It’s… Tara.” A slight modification.
His laugh was skeptical. “Is it?”
“No.”
“Alright. In that case my name is Max.”
“Is it?”
“No.”
Works for me
, I giggled, watching Max’s eyes dip to my braless breasts as I shrugged, causing a slight jiggle underneath my gauzy sundress. Unconsciously, I’d done that on purpose. I loved giving Jackson leg massages after he came back from the gym, pretending not to notice as he watched my breasts shake while I vigorously rubbed his thighs. It was hot, letting him get torturously hard as a rock before I got on my knees and relieved him.
Except you shouldn’t be thinking about Jackson right now,
I told myself. Eyeing Max, I smirked, letting him know that I’d caught him looking.
“Sorry about that.”
“Mm-hm, you look very sorry.”
His laugh was something low and painfully sexy. “Fine, I’m not. That was… easily the hottest two seconds of my life.”
“And that was with my dress still on,” I smirked, surprising myself.
Oops.
Guess the Manhattans are kicking in.
Max lifted his eyebrows, his green eyes trying to read me. A slow smile curled his lips as he shook his head.
“Yeah. You’re good at torturing guys, aren’t you?”
“How am I torturing you?”
“Do you want the truth or the censored version?”
“I mean we already lied about our names, we might as well go with total honesty for the rest of the night.” I felt something naughty tug at the ends of my lips. “Go ahead. Tell me exactly how I’m torturing you.”
“Wait, I do believe it was
your
turn to say what you liked about me before we got distracted by each other giving fake names.”
“Fine.” I raked my lower lip between my teeth. “Well, I’m sure you’re aware, considering every pair of female eyes in this room has been glued to you since you walked through that door, but you’re… very attractive. And in case you didn’t realize, a plain white T-shirt on a tall, muscular man is pretty much every woman’s Kryptonite, so good job with that,” I giggled, plucking the skewer from my drink and sucking off the cherry. When I returned my eyes to Max, I caught him shifting in his seat, a hand cupped around his package as he arranged it. I arched an eyebrow.
“Sorry. Just fixing myself,” he laughed, sheepish.
“What, running out of room in there?”
Oops. Again, it just came out.
My pulse quickened as Max’s brows shot up. The tantalizing grin that spread his lips prompted a sudden throbbing between my legs.
“Honestly, yes. Space has been limited since you made yourself…” He eyed my chest. “Bounce around like that.”
“Since I what?” I played coy.
“Since you shook those perfect tits in my face.”
Shit.
I pressed my knees together, the pulsing in my thighs spreading through my body, unfurling hot in my stomach. Max watched me squirm in my seat, his unblinking gaze merciless.
“Why are you doing that?” he asked, his voice both smooth and wicked. Despite being hot already, I prolonged our game.
“I’ll tell you after you tell me why I’m torturing you.”
“Right,” Max laughed, his gaze on my legs as I continued to writhe. My body prickled with such heat that I could feel every shift in my dress, every stroke of the fabric against my tingling skin. “Well, for starters,” his stare trailed up my thighs, my stomach, between my breasts. It landed finally upon my swollen lips, willing them to softly part. “You’re gorgeous. Unbelievably. You’re the kind of beautiful that made me feel like I needed to act fast because I knew every other set of eyes in the room was already on you. On these lips. This little dress. Those legs. I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d taken one look at you and started fantasizing.”
“Fantasizing,” I repeated, swallowing. “About?”
“The uncensored version?”
“The exact words you were thinking.”
With a smirk, he leaned forward, his shoulders broadening. “Alright. I thought about what you’d look pressed up against this bar naked. How it’d feel to put my hands all over your body.”
“Those were the exact words you used in your head?” I asked dubiously.
Max’s green eyes hardened. “Fine.” A ravenous look glazed over them as his gaze traveled across my chest. “I thought about ripping your clothes off and squeezing those perfect tits. I thought about licking your skin. Sucking on those nipples that I can already see through your dress since you clearly aren’t wearing a bra.” Jaw clenched, I could see Max getting turned on. “And I thought about how fucking wet I knew I could get you.”
“Is that it?” I teased.
“No.”
“Then go on.”
Max’s eyes followed my movements as I gathered my hair off my hot neck. “I think we should stop it here.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s getting literally too hard for me to talk about this. And the way you keep squirming in your seat is only making it worse.”
Chewing on my lip, I dropped my gaze to Max’s zipper.
Holy. Shit.
My eyes traced the thick outline of his erection, which snaked down the left leg of his jeans. Fingers curling around the edge of my seat, I tried to resist the urge to wrap my hands around his girth – to stroke till I could feel just how many inches it took to reach his helmet.
“Really though. I think it’s time for you to tell me why you keep doing that,” Max said, that devious expression returning.
I looked back up. “Doing what?”
“Squirming.”
I could feel my blood rushing as I murmured so no one else could hear. Did I really want to say this in public? “I’m turned on,” I mumbled.
“What was that?”
“I’m turned. On,” I enunciated with attitude. “The same way you’re getting hard as a rock under your jeans." Sucking on my naked cherry skewer, I let my eyes linger on Max’s jeans. I could actually see the denim fighting against his pulsing arousal. It made every inch of me ache to feel it – in my hands, between my legs, anywhere. I drew in a deep breath.
I can’t be in public another second
, I realized.
To my incredible relief, Max read my mind. “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Yes,” I answered truthfully. “So fucking badly.”
I awoke in the morning to a stiff cock pressed against my back. A sleepy grin tugged at my lips as I reached behind me to fill my hands with its pulsing warmth.
It wasn’t till I opened my eyes that I remembered where I was.
“Baby,” Jackson murmured, his smile audible in his half-sleep. I froze. It was at that moment that I flashed back to last night – to Max. To being bent over a staircase because we couldn’t make it to his bedroom.
Oh God
.
I felt Jackson hardening in my grip as images of last night flashed through my mind. I couldn’t remember the car ride to Jake’s apartment but I did remember that it was short. He lived only blocks away, but walking would’ve been impossible for us.
I whipped my dress off the second I got into his duplex. I had been halfway up the staircase when he grabbed me from behind, his hands all over my body as he crushed a hot kiss against the back of my neck. I gasped for breath, buckling to my knees. My fingers gripped the ledge of the step above me and my heartbeat pulsed in my ears, joined by the sound of Jake’s clanking belt buckle. I stared at my scarlet manicure as I heard the crinkling of a condom behind me. From his pocket. It didn’t surprise me. I thanked God for it as he slid it on, his tongue drawing a wet, torrid line on my skin as his free hand reached around to cup my pussy.
“Good girl,” he panted in my ear as I grinded my hips against his palm, every nerve ending in my body on fire as I pleasured myself with his touch.
I’d already come by the time he yanked my panties down to my knees. The screaming pleasure was instant when he drove every inch of himself inside me, his thrusts immediately long, deep, so powerful that I felt myself unraveling. The pleasure that seared through me was unreal and somehow, it intensified by the second. I didn’t recognize the sounds that hurtled from my lips as he drilled into me. All I could do was hold on for dear life, my hands grasping for the stair up. I dug my nails into the wooden floor, my arms taut as Max plunged in and out of my soaking pussy, holding my body against his torso with two strong hands wrapped around my breasts.
The second orgasm ripped through my body so forcefully that I’d gone instantly limp. I moaned endlessly, delirious as Max came, his body jerking with every long, hot pump inside me.
It had been some of the best sex I’d ever had in my life. And I hated myself for dreaming about it all night while sleeping next to Jackson.
“Baby, you’re so wet,” Jackson murmured into my hair as he easily slid a finger inside me. A breathy whimper seeped from my lips. I held my breath when I felt his free hand form over mine. He slid my palm up and down, guiding it in slow strokes against his shaft until it felt like I was rubbing hot stone. “I need to put it in, Lara,” Jackson exhaled, wrapping an arm around my waist and bending me at the middle. But just as I felt the head of his cock at my opening, I tore away.
“Wait.” A pang of guilt flashed in my chest as I crawled hastily out of bed. Standing on my side of the mattress, I stared breathlessly at Jackson, who stared back with confusion until his morning grogginess faded. His blue eyes blinked twice before hardening into a glare. I assumed that he was recalling the fact that he’d gone to bed alone, that I hadn’t joined him until sometime past two in the morning.
“Right. Was it good?” he asked, stone-faced.
I was silent as I stood before him, trying to identify my feelings. Why did I feel such overwhelming shame? I had done exactly what Jackson had told me to do so we could resume some sort of functioning relationship. But a heavy guilt remained.
Because you enjoyed it way too much,
I told myself.
Because you haven’t stopped thinking about him since you left Brooklyn. Not even in your sleep.
Shit.
Jackson broke the silence. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“No.”
With steely eyes, he stared for another second before ripping the sheets off his body and getting out of bed. “I have an important meeting at noon.”
I was thankful for the topic change. “With the other Monarch investors?”
“Someone else,” Jackson answered, his voice hard. “You need to meet him so get showered and dressed. We’re running late.”