After we’ve fixed our clothes, we go up to the apartment he keeps above the office. Nothing has changed since the last time I was here, the first time we made love in his office. It’s still as stark as I remember, an enormous difference from the larger and better decorated Swanson Court Hotel apartment.
Landon shows me to the master bedroom. It’s a large room, spotlessly clean, but as Spartan as the rest of the apartment. I can totally see him, tired from work, coming up here just to crash and get ready for another workday.
“What do you do here when you’re not asleep?” I ask, looking at the bare walls.
He spares a glance around the room and shrugs. “Sometimes I continue working. It’s just an office with a bed, mostly.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
Landon points me in the direction of the bathroom, and while I freshen up, he selects a change of clothes from the sparsely populated closet.
Later, while I’m sitting on a corner of the soft bed waiting for him to change, a part of my mind starts to wonder if he has brought any other women here. In my mind’s eye, I see Ava Sinclair’s face from that night in San Francisco at the opening of the Gold Dust, her beautiful lips curved in a smirk, and I wonder if she was ever here, or at the Swanson Court apartment. It doesn’t matter, I tell myself, pushing the jealous thoughts from my head. I’m the one Landon is in love with.
“What are you thinking?” He’s standing at the door to the walk-in closet, wearing a beige V-neck sweater over a white shirt with dark pants that display the slim length of his legs. He looks casual and sexy, and I want to put my arms around him and somehow—I don’t know how—join myself to him in a way that no one would ever be able to pull us apart.
“Nothing,” I reply.
He raises an eyebrow, and I sigh. “I was just…I was being silly, imagining you here with other women.”
When Landon doesn’t reply, I look up to meet his gaze, a shamefaced expression on mine, but he is smiling, and he comes to join me on the bed. “I don’t think that’s silly. I’d like for you to forget every single person who came before me as well.”
I snort. Already forgotten, I say silently, and as if he knows what I’m thinking, he laughs. “For your information, no women here, ever. After my father died, I went through this period when I didn’t want anything to do with the Swanson Court. I left home, got my own apartment… Somehow it’s always made more sense to entertain my women friends there.”
I understood why. He’d grown up at the Swanson Court apartment. It still held memories for him, and it might not have seemed right to share those memories with the many women he’d dated casually through the years.
But he’d shared them with me.
“Do you still have it?” I ask softly. “The apartment.”
He shakes his head. “I sold it a few months ago. I knew I wouldn’t need it anymore.”
A few months ago—long before I told him how I felt. His hand is on my lap, and I cover it with mine, sure, at that moment, that there is no reason to fear that anything will ever go wrong between us.
“In any case,” Landon continues. “I’m planning to sell this place soon. I don’t intend to spend as much time in the office as before, and it can serve a better purpose as part of the residential complex.”
The SCT building is a mix of commercial office space and residential apartments, so this apartment could easily be added to the residential side. I study Landon’s face, wondering what he means. Is he planning to spend more time with me, or is he going to be traveling more? I hope fervently that it’s the former.
My stomach growls unexpectedly, reminding me that I’m hungry. Landon gives me a teasing grin. “I’ve already ordered dinner,” he says, getting up and pulling me to my feet. The bell from the service elevator rings just as we enter the living room and Landon lets the person from the gourmet food-delivery service into the apartment.
The man makes a big deal out of laying out the food in the small dining room, and I’m relieved when he finally leaves. Dinner is playful and sensual. Landon feeds me, and I love the way his eyes glaze over when I lick my lips slowly, my eyes on his.
“You’re such a tease,” he tells me.
“You love it,” I reply.
He laughs. “I love you.”
I melt right there. I can’t help it. “I love you too.”
He’s grinning. “I know.”
Afterward, we put away the dishes and go back to the living room. There isn’t much in the way of entertainment, just a TV and a game console with access to a few subscription channels. I’m not really in the mood to do anything other than snuggle beside Landon on the couch, my body as close to him as possible, my head on his chest.
I start to drift off, and I’m already almost asleep when I hear him say my name, a soft whisper in my ear.
“Hmm,” I reply.
“I should get you home.”
“I don’t want to go,” I murmur, but I know I have to. I’d have preferred to go with him to his apartment at the hotel, but Laurie is spending the night at our place and I already agreed to meet her there.
I hear Landon chuckle softly. “We’ll go out to dinner tomorrow. How about that?”
I burrow deeper into his arms. “Okay.”
Joe is waiting to drive us to my apartment, and once there, Landon walks upstairs with me and gives me a deep, sensual kiss at the door, leaving me weak and wanting after he says goodbye.
Inside the apartment, Laurie is still awake. She’s in her room, packing up some of her clothes. She grins when she sees me.
“You look happy.”
“I am happy,” I reply, flopping on the bed. “Happy like a lovesick halfwit.”
She snorts with laughter then wiggles her eyebrows at me. “I can imagine. You guys have probably exhausted all the Cosmo sex positions by now.”
“Ugh.” I shake my head. “You have such a dirty mind.”
“Oh, I do?” She laughs. “So…you guys spend all your time together talking about books and TV shows?”
I stick out my tongue at her then, looking at the piles of folded clothes beside me on the bed, I frown in concern. “You think you’ll be all ready by the weekend?”
She nods. “Yeah. It’s mostly just clothes and books, plus a few knickknacks. I’ll spend a few hours every day after work putting them together. I’ll be done before Saturday.”
I nod. “Where’s Brett?”
“He left about an hour ago.” She casts a wistful glance toward the bed and I wrinkle my nose and make a big show of shifting to the very edge.
“You’re such a nympho!” I exclaim.
She grins and tosses a t-shirt at me.
“Are you apprehensive?” I ask softly. “About the wedding?”
She frowns. “About the wedding itself, or getting married to Brett?”
“I don’t know…both?”
She shrugs. “About Brett, no. I just feel at peace, you know? Happy. Like I know this was always meant to happen, like I was always meant for him, for this. I’m a hundred percent sure about him.”
“But?”
She pauses and frowns. “Sometimes, I fret about all the arrangements, the dress, how the pictures will turn out, the guest list, and all that…but you know, all that matters is that at the end of the day, Brett and I say our vows and officially become the most important people in each other’s lives.”
“Plus your mom and mine are taking over the arrangements anyway, so no need to fret.”
“Exactly.” She looks at me, one eyebrow raised. “Why all the questions? Are you thinking of dragging poor Landon to the altar?”
“He wouldn’t be poor Landon if I did,” I say indignantly. “He’d be lucky.”
“That is the spirit.” Laurie grins.
“I wasn’t really thinking about marriage. I was just…I don’t know, wondering how you know for sure, without any doubts.”
“Do you have doubts? About Landon?”
I shake my head. “I know he’s the one.” I pause. “I don’t even know what he thinks about marriage as an institution, you know?” Especially with how his parents’ marriage turned out.
“Well, considering what you’ve told me about his relationship with his brother, he’d probably be a great dad.”
“We haven’t cleared marriage and you’re talking kids.” I shake my head, although my mind dwells on the pleasant thought for a forbidden moment. Landon’s kids, my kids. The idea is so tempting, too tempting. “I don’t even know what I think about kids, except I’m sure I’ll have at least one set of twins who’ll be worse than our moms.”
“That would be awful,” Laurie replies, laughing. It’s a joke between us that our moms act as if they’re the twins in the family.
“I’ll miss this place,” Laurie says wistfully, her eyes going around the room. “Remember when we first moved in?”
“Yeah.” We were so proud, and we attached so much importance to simple things like buying furniture. Now Laurie isn’t even taking many of the things we purchased, just her lamps and a few picture frames.
“I’ll miss you,” I tell her. “You and your damn reality shows.”
“You know you love them,” she teases.
I grin. “No, it’s you I love.”
“Awww.” She makes a sad face. “I love you too.”
We stay grinning at each other until I throw her t-shirt back at her and it lands on her face, and then I help her pack until it’s time to go to bed.
THE next day I leave work and go directly to the Swanson Court Hotel. I’m having dinner with Landon, but we’re leaving from his apartment. At the ground floor lobby, I make my way over to the elevators, remembering my impressions from the first time I ever came here. The beauty and tastefulness of the interior impressed me then, and months later, my admiration for the place hasn’t changed.
The elevator deposits me in the foyer of Landon’s apartment and when I get to the living room, I’m surprised to see him seated on one of the armchairs. He has glasses on and he’s reading from a tablet. Wow! I think, staring—even the nerdy look is sexy on him.
“Hi!” I exclaim, delighted. “I didn’t know you were home.”
“I left early.” He puts the tablet aside and pulls off the glasses before rising languidly to his feet. He comes toward me and slides his hands around my waist, holding me close while his lips find mine, overwhelming me with a sweet, welcoming kiss. “How was your day?”
“So-so.” I grin, breathing in the scent of his skin mixed with that subtle and irresistible hint of cologne while thinking expectantly of the few hours we have before we have to go out to dinner. “How was yours?”
Landon shrugs and kisses me again, tasting my lips and teasing my tongue for a long sweet moment. When he pulls back, I moan softly, wanting more. He takes my bag off my shoulder, dropping it on one of the chairs. “What’s that you’re holding?”
“Oh.” I look down at the small gift bag in my hand, suddenly nervous. Chadwick expedited my order and had it delivered to the office earlier in the day. “Ummm…” I raise the bag, handing it to him. “It’s for you.”
His eyebrow quirks. “Really?” He takes it from me and with his arm still around me, leads me to the sofa. He watches my face, a quizzical expression on his as he pulls the packages out and carefully unwraps them. He studies the first one, then the second, and I wait for him to say something.
“I…” He shakes his head, and when he meets my gaze, his eyes are molten and wondrous. “These are incredibly beautiful.”
I breathe, looking from his face to the picture frames. They’re both small desk-size frames, and the photos they contain are black and white. The first one is a very sensual shot of me lying on a chaise lounge, a sheet arranged over my body in such a way that it’s clear that I’m wearing nothing underneath. The other one is more conservative. I’m fully dressed, but it’s still a sexy pose.
“When you said you spent all that time looking at my pictures from the beach, I just thought… I wanted to…”
He stops me. “They’re perfect. I could look at them all day.”
I grin. “Which one in particular?”
“Both of them.” He gives me a teasing smile. “Though…” His eyes go back to the first picture. “You have a dirty mind, don’t you?”
I chuckle, watching as he reluctantly tears his eyes from the frames and sets them down beside him. He pulls me into his arms. “I love your dirty mind,” he says.
“And I love your dirty mouth, your dirty hands…” I dig my fingers into his silky hair, loving the feel of the lush strands.
He suddenly pulls back to look in my face. “Who took these?”
I raise a brow. “Does it matter?”
He chuckles. “My jealousy is so obvious, is it?”
“It’s a little charming actually,” I say with a shrug. “It was Chadwick Black. He’s a photographer we work with at Gilt, and before you ask, both his photographer’s assistant and his personal assistant were there throughout the shoot. Okay?”
“Okay.” Landon laughs then rises suddenly with me still in his arms. I place my arms around his neck for leverage while he carries me up the stairs to his bedroom. He sets me down on the bed and leans over me, reaching for the buttons on my top. “I’ve been thinking about undressing you all day.”
I giggle. “I hope you managed to get some work done. Those hotels won’t run themselves.”
He smiles, pulling the top apart to expose my bra. “I tried.”
I help him shrug it off my shoulders before reaching for his shirt and getting rid of that too. I run my fingers over his chest, trailing over the hard muscles. “How did you get to be so perfect?”
He smirks. “I was born this way?”
“You need to learn some humility,” I say, pushing him back on the bed. He lies there, his head resting on his hands while I undo his fly. “Do you remember that first night?” I’m smiling. “Take off your clothes,” I murmur, mimicking his voice, “all your clothes.”
“Is that supposed to be me?” Landon laughs. “I don’t sound like that.” He raises his hips to help me pull down his pants. “I was trying my best to keep it cool that night. I wanted to devour you.”
“You were hot,” I confess.
He winks. “I know.”
I toss his pants aside then stretch out on top of him, my face level with his. “I’m not going to make love to you if you keep talking like you’re so smooth and perfect.”
His hand caresses my back. “What if I beg?”
“I might reconsider.”
He lifts his head and covers my mouth with his, slowly licking at the seam of my lips. I kiss him back, enjoying the feel of his lips, the taste of his mouth, his tongue mating with mine. He rolls, still holding me, so that I’m beneath him. Releasing my lips, he undoes my skirt and pulls it down, tossing it in the direction I threw his discarded pants. He trails his hand up my thigh, playing with the lace edge of my panties before moving up to draw a line up the strap of my bra.
I raise my upper body off the bed to allow him to undo the undergarment then lift my arms so he can pull it off me. He tosses it, and his eyes settle on my breasts. I love the way he looks at me, as if I’m the most beautiful person he has ever seen. It makes me feel more beautiful and loved than I ever thought it was possible to feel. He palms one of my breasts, his thumb flicking over the nipple, his eyes fixed on the pink bud as it hardens and peaks, the look of rapt attention on his face feeding every feeling of vanity inside me.
I raise myself from the bed, pushing him gently so he falls on his back. “I want you like this,” I whisper, reaching for his briefs and pulling them down his legs. I reach for him, feeling the warm, velvety hardness of his cock in my hands. He moans when I stroke him, a low sound from deep in his throat. Giving him a small smile, I lower my head to lick the head of his cock, swirling my tongue around it and luxuriating in his guttural moans of pleasure.
I pull him deep into my mouth and his eyes close, his fingers flexing on the bed. I suck him hard, loving the effect I have on him, the reactions my touch evokes. His hips flex and one hand reaches for my hair, his fingers smoothing the strands as he whispers encouragements.
“Just like that, baby,”
“Right there, Rachel.”
“Oh, Fuck!”
I love the sound of his voice, the edge of arousal and helpless desire. Sucking hard on the head of his cock, I stroke my hand up and down his length, watching as his eyes close and his lips part. His feet press into the mattress and his hips start to move, encouraging me to take him deeper into my mouth. There’s nothing as arousing as watching him come to pieces because of my touch.
“You’re killing me,” he groans harshly.
In response, I make my movements faster. I hear him curse, and in the next moment, he rears off the bed, pulling me off him and coming up behind me on his knees. He grabs hold of the waistband of my panties and pulls, getting them down to mid-thigh before leaving them hanging there. Aroused and ready, I lift my hips to meet him, my arms braced on the bed. His fingers stroke my buttocks then move between my legs to feel how wet and slick I am for him.
I wait as he positions himself, my body trembling and expectant. He presses his cock into the entrance to my body, rubbing it, stretching it gently before pushing in, so slowly and sweetly that I let out a long moan, almost like a purr. He’s so big, so hard, so sweet, and so perfect.
He doesn’t move at first. His hands grip my hips, his fingers gentle but firm on my skin, his cock hot and throbbing inside me. Then he pulls out slowly, almost to the tip, before thrusting in again.
My fingers dig into the sheets, and I press my face onto the soft, fragrant cotton, my moans flowing into the fabric as he fucks me. He takes his time, each thrust angled just right and delivered with the perfect force to make me feel the utmost pleasure. He rolls his hips, aiming for the most sensitive spots, taking my moans as encouragement, his hands palming the soft flesh of my buttocks as every stroke drives me closer to an explosive climax.
My body starts to tighten, surrendering to the pleasure. I hear myself moaning incoherently, all my senses enslaved to the ecstasy, the uncontrollable sweetness spreading from between my legs. I hear Landon groan, his control starting to unravel as his movements quicken.
“I’m going to come,” I hear him say. His voice is rough, ragged. “Oh fuck, Rachel.”
I cry out as my body seizes, leaving me momentarily breathless. The pulses of my climax milk him until his own orgasm is over, and afterward, he stretches out on top of me, both of us breathing deeply, our skin misted with sweat.
“I fucking love you,” he whispers into my ear.
I breathe into the sheets. “I fucking love you too.”
WE both doze off for a while before getting up to prepare for our dinner date. I wear one of the many outfits he got for me, an off-the-shoulder black dress with green accents that match my eyes, and heels in the same color.
I’m standing at the dressing room mirror looking at my reflection when Landon comes behind me to drop a kiss on my neck. I lean my head to the side to give him more space as my eyes meet his in the mirror. Even though I know he’s mine, just looking at him still takes my breath away.
He lets his lips trail down to my shoulder, causing a small shiver to pass through me, then he takes my hand and gently fastens a bracelet around my wrist.
I raise my hand to look at the light gold chain with glittering green stones linked into the metal. “It’s beautiful, Landon.”
“It reminded me of your eyes,” he says.
I turn to face him, my eyes searching his. “You’re spoiling me.”
He takes the hand wearing the bracelet in his. “Do you like it?”
I nod.
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Our reservation is at an intimate restaurant with lovely service and even lovelier food. Landon is smiling and charming, his attention all on me. We talk about everything, and in every second, with every question he asks, every response he gives, with the way his eyes linger on my face and the way he takes every opportunity to touch me, he makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.