24

Millie


“You didn’t have to get us business class tickets.” I held up my flute of champagne and took a sip then let out a contented sigh. “But thank you anyways, that was really nice of you.”

“I wanted to spoil you,” he replied with a grin as he sat back and drank from his water bottle. “This is an adventure for you. I wanted it to start out right.”

“Thank you.” I squeezed his knee. “That was really sweet of you.”

“No worries.” He laughed. “I don’t suppose you want to join the mile-high club, do you?”

“No, Marco.”

He grinned at me and shifted in his seat. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to join the mile-high club with him. He was hot and I was horny as hell. He hadn’t laid a finger on me the night before, but I’d woken up in his arms, with him spooning me, a very erect cock next to my ass. We’d both pretended he wasn’t hard as hell as we’d woken up and I’d packed.

I really appreciated the fact that he hadn’t made a move. It made me feel like he cared about me for more than sex, though I knew I was being stupid to even entertain that thought. He didn’t like me like that. He was most probably only trying to make it up to me because Jane was my friend and coworker and he didn’t want his poor behavior to affect their relationship, especially seeing as she’d told him not to mess around with any of her friends. I needed to remind myself that while he was a handsome and charming guy, he wasn’t a nice guy. Just because he was good in bed didn’t mean he could satisfy all of my needs.

“So what do you want to do when we land?” He reached over and took my hand. “We can go directly to my house, drop off the bags, and relax for a bit, or we can go to the hot spots and be tourists.”

“I really don’t mind. Whatever you think is best. Isn’t the traffic going to be crazy busy at LAX, though?”

“We’ll be fine. We’re flying into Burbank.” He grinned. “We’ll be on our way within fifteen minutes, maybe even less, if we’re lucky.”

“I didn’t even know there was another airport in LA.” I shook my head. “But then I guess I’ve never looked into it too hard.”

“I’m glad your first time is with me.”

“I’m sure you are.” I smiled at him and then turned away as he continued staring at me.

I looked out of the window and into the clouds and thought back to when I was a little girl. I remembered lying in my backyard, staring up at the clouds and thinking that God was looking down at me. And when a bird would fly by and sing, I’d think they were sending me a message. How many days I’d spent lying looking up at the clouds and now here I was, flying through them. I thought about my childhood and all my dreams, my desire for adventure, and here Marco was making one of my dreams happen. Granted, I wasn’t flying to Paris or Rome, but I was going to Los Angeles, and I was going to be a real tourist and explore.

I turned to Marco and grabbed his hand, ignoring how warm and solid it felt. “Thank you for this. I know I said it before and I’ll most probably say it a million times on this trip, but thank you. This is really wonderful.”

“I just didn’t want you to think I was a jerk.”

“Well, I still think you’re a little bit of a jerk, but this makes up for a lot of that.”

“You’ve got the most adorable freckles, did you know that?” He withdrew his hand from mine and lightly touched each freckle on my cheek.

“My freckles aren’t cute.” I made a face. “They make me look like a little kid.”

“There’s nothing about you that looks like a little kid.” His eyes were warm as he traced a line across my cheekbones and down my jaw. “What’s this scar from?” He rubbed a spot just under my chin that I always tried to keep hidden with makeup.

“I’ll tell you if you share something with me as well.” I batted my eyelashes at him flirtatiously.

“Hmm, that could be dangerous.” He grinned. “How do I know you’re not going to ask me how many women I’ve slept with?”

“I don’t think I want to know.” My words were honest, but I realized that I didn’t feel that pang of jealousy that I normally felt when I imagined him with other women. And it wasn’t because I didn’t care; it was because instinctively I felt like he and I were on a level he didn’t reach with many women. I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew that it was special. Even if we never got to a point where he actually told me I meant more to him than the other girls, I had a feeling that I did.

I didn’t know if that made me an optimist … or just a loser.

“I don’t think you want to know, either. How many lovers have you had?”

“You’re not meant to ask a girl that question.” I laughed and shook my head. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you that that was rude?”

“My parents and I never really spoke about sex, so no.” He grinned. “Are you not going to tell me?”

“Well, you’ve asked me two questions now. How I got my scar and how many partners I’ve had. If I tell you those answers, you have to share something really big with me.”

“Well, I’ll share anything that I can.” He nodded. “So tell me, how’d you get the scar?”

“It’s nothing exciting.” I took another sip of my champagne. “It happened when I was twelve. I used to be a bit of a tomboy and I used to climb trees.”

“Okay, and?”

“My next-door neighbors had two kids, twins, Eric and Elaine, they were originally from Ireland.” I smiled at the memory. “I thought they were so cool. They had these cool accents and stories about what it was like living in Dublin.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” I laughed. “Now I realize that the stories were lies, but growing up, I lived to hear about their trips to the queen’s castle and public hangings. I was a bit naive.” Marco’s lips twitched, and I made a face at him. “You can’t make fun of me, that’s not nice.”

“I would never make fun of you, Millie.”

“Hmmm, I don’t know if I believe that. Anyway, I had a major crush on Eric, and one day, he and I decided to build a treehouse in an old oak tree at the back of my house. It must have been at least a hundred feet tall.”

“A hundred feet?” Marco grinned. “That seems unbelievably tall.”

“Okay, maybe not a hundred feet, but it was really tall.” I laughed. “Anyway, we both climbed up really high, and I wanted to show off and go even higher than he had.” I made a face. “Which wasn’t smart because the branches got thinner the higher we went and I’m scared of heights.”

“What happened?”

“I fell.” Marco’s eyes widened and he gripped my hand. “Obviously, I was okay as I’m here now, but I landed on a blackberry bush that was to the side of the tree and hit my chin on some rocks on the ground.”

“Did you have to go to the hospital?”

“Yep.” I sighed. “I had a fractured ankle and a busted-up chin.” I shook my head. “I never climbed another tree again.”

“But did you win Eric’s heart?”

“Nope.” I laughed. “He had a thing for a girl down the street who had been adopted from South Korea. One week after I fell, they were dating, and he stopped hanging out with me. So I scarred myself for nothing.”

“Aww, my poor little Millie.” Marco leaned forward to kiss my chin. “If I’d been there, I would have made sure to take you on a date afterward.”

“Really, Mr. I Don’t Date Women?” I laughed, but I felt the smile drifting from my face as his expression changed.

“Maybe I’m slowly changing …” His eyes were intent on mine, but then he looked away. “Okay, now tell me, how many men have you slept with?”

“No, no, I get to ask you a question first. It’s only fair.”

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

“I want to know …” I chewed on my lower lip as I stared at him.

I wanted to know if he’d ever been in love. If he wanted to get married. If he ever thought he could commit to one woman, but I was scared to ask him those questions. And it wasn’t even that I was scared that he would judge me for asking, but more that I was more scared as to what his answers would be—and how I would react to those answers.

“Let me think about it some more,” I said with a smile. “I want to make sure I ask you something I really want to know the answer to.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “That’s fair, and to be even nicer to you, you can ask me five questions and I’ll answer all of them.”

“Really?” I grinned at him. “Promise?”

“Promise.” He nodded.

“Okay, I have one for you.” I laughed a little as a question came to mind. “You texted me and said you had a fantasy of having sex in an office.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “What about it?”

“What’s the naughtiest thing you’ve done sexually?”

A huge grin spread across his face. My heart thudded. Knowing him, it would be something really crazy.

“You sure you want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me the craziest thing you’ve done?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But I’ll warn you in advance that I’m quite boring, I’ve never done anything super crazy.”

“Really?” He leaned in closer to me. “I don’t know if I believe that.”

“Well, you should. My craziest sexual act was having sex in a public pool while a girl was sunbathing right next to it.” I laughed. “And it wasn’t even good sex. I guess it was more for the thrill of it.”

“Ooh, sex in a public pool.” He grinned. “Kinky.”

“So now you tell me.”

“Okay, but if I tell you, you have to promise not to judge me.”

“Oh, boy.” I raised an eyebrow. “I promise I won’t judge you.”

“Good.” He leaned back and stroked his chin. “About five years ago, some teammates and I got invited to this exclusive club.”

“Club? Like a night club?”

“Yeah, it was like a night club. It was this three-story building, and each floor had a different theme. There were DJs on each floor playing different types of music and in each room people were dancing and having fun.”

“Okay, doesn’t sound particularly crazy to me as yet.”

“On each floor, there was a secret door which you could only go through if you knew the code word for the night.” He grinned as I fake-yawned. “So my buddy, he says to me, choose a mask. I’m like why? He says, you’ll see. So I choose a gold mask. He says, go up to the third floor, go past the DJ and through a purple curtain. There will be a man at the door. Say to him, ‘Organic is the fruit of choice,’ and he’ll let you into this room.”

“And don’t tell me, it was a farmer’s market full of organic fruit?”

“No, it was something much better than that.” He grinned. “I walk through this room, and I see a sea of beautiful women. Naked women.” He winked at me. “And I walk past two men who are being sucked off by twins.”

“Okay.” I rolled my eyes. “And then what happened?”

“A lady with a little bag comes up to me and asks me to take my clothes off. I say sure. I ask if she wants my mask, she says that’s up to me. So I keep it on. She then tells me to go to a room all the way at the end of the corridor, says I’m one of the better-looking guys, and well, you know …” He shrugs.

“So then what happens?”

“I enter this room, and three women come up to me, one was from Sweden, one was from Ethiopia, and one was from Japan. Literally a smorgasbord of women. All beautiful. All with hot bodies. They say they want to play. I say I want to play as well.” He paused then. “Are you sure you want to hear the rest?”

“Of course.”

No, no, no. I could feel myself cringing inside. I really didn’t want to hear more, but I was determined not to look like I cared.

“Okay.” He nodded. “So we go to this velvet bed, and one chick she pushes me back and she starts giving me head.” He grinned. “And then the other two girls start kissing each other.” He licked his lips. “Before I knew what was going on, this famous actor comes up to us and he just grabs one of the girls and pulls her onto his dick.” He shrugged. “I don’t know if that was his woman or what. Anyway, they start fucking right there in front of me. I get up because, while it’s hot, I’m not there to see anyone else having fun, you know?”

“Okay.”

“So I walk over to the other side and I see these two very famous supermodels.” He grinned as he ran his hand through his hair. “And one of them comes over to me and she says, we got a problem, and I say what’s the problem? And she says, well, we can’t figure out who’s tighter.”

“Who’s tighter? What does that mean?”

“Whose pussy is tighter,” he whispered, and I blushed. “So I said, how can I help?”

“And let me guess, you fucked both of them to see who the winner was.”

“Well, that was the end result, a whole lot more happened before then, if you want to know more.”

“I’m good.” I shook my head. “I think I get it. You hooked up with two supermodels and had a threesome.”

“Well, it was a lot more than that. There was this room and—”

“It’s okay.” I held my hand up. “I get it. Sounds amazing.” I said sarcastically. He looked at me thoughtfully and he smiled.

“I can take you if you want a real adventure.”

“What?” My jaw dropped.

“We don’t have to do anything with anyone,” he said, his eyes observing my face carefully. “You can just see what it’s like.”

“Do you want me to do something with someone else?”

“I don’t own you.” He shook his head. “I can’t tell you what to do, just as you can’t tell me.”

“Yeah, I mean, I know that. It’s not like we’re in a relationship or anything.” I smiled to hide my hurt and pain. Maybe I’d been wrong all along, maybe he didn’t have any feelings for me at all.

“Exactly. Maybe this can be something we share together. A new first for you.” He stroked my cheek. “I like that you’re having so many firsts with me.”

“Fine, let’s do it,” I said flippantly. I didn’t even really know what I was thinking or saying. I was nervous to go to a sex club, and I really didn’t want to see him doing anything with another woman. It really didn’t sound like a good idea, but I was already in too deep. I didn’t want him to think I cared what he did.

“Fine, tonight we shall have some fun.” He grabbed my hand. “And don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. We will leave whenever you want to.”

“Okay.” I downed the rest of my champagne.

I was nervous and scared, but part of me was also excited. Going to a sex club felt taboo and crazy and so unlike anything else I’d ever done in my life. I wasn’t sure what I’d agreed to do, but I made a promise to myself to just go with the flow and see where the night took me.