I ride home in a daze.
Justine keeps chattering in the driver’s seat about shopping and designer clothes and luxury vacations on a tropical beach somewhere, but I can’t hear a word. All I can focus on is the uneasy feeling in my chest, like something is seriously wrong.
When she pulls up outside my apartment, I don’t get out. I sit there, staring at the printed copy of the will that’s heavy in my hands.
“I can’t take it,” I say quietly. “The money. His kids are right. It doesn’t belong to me.”
“Hello?” Justine stares at me like I’m crazy. “We just sat through an hour of boring legal shit that proves you do.”
I shake my head. “Something doesn’t add up. It wouldn’t be right. Besides, what am I going to do with it all? I can’t run a company, or a multi-million dollar foundation!”
“That’s why you hire people to do it for you!” Justine sees the panic on my face and stops. “Look, it’s a shock, I get it. But this is a good thing. Don’t you realize? That kind of money, you can have anything you want. Anything!”
But as I say goodbye and get out of the car, a little voice whispers.
Not anything. Not Vaughn.
I trudge up the stairs to my apartment, still thinking of his piercing blue eyes and that delicious filthy mouth. I can’t get him out of my head, no matter how hard I try.
I’ve never felt like this about anyone. Never had someone crash through my defenses. Ever since my parents died, killed in a car accident when I was eighteen, I’ve felt shut off from the world. Sure, I date, and hang out with friends, and act like everything’s fine, but a part of me has always felt closed off. Numb. Unable to make a connection with someone and be real, right there in the moment with them.
Until him.
“I’ve been looking for you, babe.”
Vaughn’s voice filters through my thoughts, and for a moment, I think I’m imagining him. But no, there he is, leaning against my door with his arms crossed, looking good enough to eat in a white button-down and dark denim jeans; stubble across his jaw.
And you’d know how he tastes.
Delicious.
“I don’t like it when you ignore my calls.” Vaughn’s mouth twists in a wicked smile. “I’ll have to spank you for that.”
I feel a bolt of lust shatter through me, but I fight to keep control.
“I thought you’d get the hint,” I tell him, gritting my teeth. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”
I try and push past him to open the door, but Vaughn is six foot two of taut muscle, and he doesn’t move an inch.
“What the hell happened, Keely?” The laughter drops from his tone. “One minute, you were begging me to fuck you, and the next, I couldn’t see you for dust.”
My cheeks burn. I look away. “I realized I shouldn’t be there.” I lie, “I changed my mind.”
But Vaughn won’t accept it. His hand flies out, taking hold of my arm. “Look at me,” he orders.
The commanding note in his voice makes my knees weak.
I look.
Damn, he’s gorgeous. Shadowed here in the dark of my front porch, his face is all chiseled lines and intense gaze. And that mouth... My stomach twist in knots, remembering the pleasure he’s given me with those lips, that hot tongue...
“Tell me the truth,” he demands. “Why did you run?”
I gulp, the humiliation crashing back. “Why do you even care?” I wrench free, fumbling with my keys to open my door. “Don’t try and pretend it meant anything to you.”
“Dammit, Keely,” Vaughn curses. “Stop playing games. Just tell me what the hell I did wrong.”
I step over the threshold and whirl around. “I heard you, on the phone.” My voice rises, twisting with pain. “Talking to your friend. I know everything, so don’t even try and pretend you care.”
Shock flashes on Vaughn’s face, then his expression smoothes over. Cautious.
“What did you hear?” he asks.
“You boasting about getting me into bed.” I feel a pang in my chest just thinking about it. “You said I was a done deal, that I was begging for you. You made me sound like some kind of cheap slut.”
Vaughn exhales. He almost looks relieved. “That’s it?”
I gape at him. “That’s plenty. Now leave me alone.” I try to slam the door in his face, but Vaughn shoves it back, stepping inside.
“Listen to me, you’ve got it all wrong.”
“No--” I try to argue, but Vaughn talks over me.
“What you heard, it’s bullshit. I was messing around with a buddy. I just wanted to get him off the phone and get back to you,” Vaughn explains, taking another step towards me. “I’m sorry.”
I falter. Up close, his presence is overwhelming. “You can’t talk about someone like that,” I protest, backing away.
“I know,” he says calmly, moving closer. “I never thought you’d hear. He’s been giving me grief for weeks, about how I’m chasing after you. I guess I was trying to make him jealous. Haven’t you ever bragged about something to your friends?”
“No.” My voice trembles. I take another step back, but then I feel the wall behind me. There’s nowhere left to go.
“You didn’t tell anyone about me?” Vaughn quirks an eyebrow. He stops just inches away from me, so close I can feel the heat from his body.
Oh God, he smells so good.
I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak.
“That’s right.” Vaughn’s voice turns amused. “I’m your dirty little secret.”
He leans in, pressing his hands against the wall on either side of my face; his body not touching mine, but still, pinning me in place.
“You don’t want anyone to know, do you?” he whispers, raw. “How you’re wet, just thinking about me. How you sit at your desk all day, fantasizing about my tongue sliding up your cunt.”
He strokes his thumb across my lips. I let out a whimper.
I should push him away. He could still be lying. My mind is telling me not to trust him, to turn him away. To tell him no. But this is my undoing: his wicked, wicked words.
“Or maybe you don’t want to come over my mouth,” he muses, trailing lower. “Not when there are so many ways I can fuck this gorgeous body. Ways you can’t even dream of yet.”
My head spins as he takes my breasts in both hands, squeezing in a firm, delicious grip. His thumbs pinch hard around my nipples, and I mewl with pleasure.
“Here would be fun,” Vaughn pauses, his eyes glittering and dark. He pushes my breasts high together, making a valley between the flesh. “I’ll shove my cock right there,” he says, squeezing with every word. “So you can lick the head while I fuck your tits. Yeah, you’d look damn good with my cum dripping off your sweet nipples. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?
I gasp for air, sensation flooding through me. A deep pressure is building between my thighs, aching for him, the way I ache late at night, with nothing to comfort me but memories, and my own reaching fingers.
But now, with Vaughn so close, murmuring such dirty things in my ear, the ache is unbearable. Hungry for him.
“No, I think you want me here.” Vaughn pulls away, and suddenly reaches between my thighs, pressing hard against me with a deadly accuracy that sends a moan crying from my lips. “Right. Here.”
His fingers drum a torturous rhythm, hard on my swollen clit. Even through the fabric of my skirt and panties, it’s enough to send pleasure ricocheting out across my body.
My legs give way. I sink back against the wall.
“You want my cock driving deep inside you,” Vaughn growls, circling swiftly, driving me higher. “You want every fucking inch of it, all the way to the hilt. I’ll bend you over, and fuck you right here against the wall until you’re screaming out of your goddamn mind. “The neighbors will call the cops, you’re so loud,” he continues, holding my gaze, rubbing me faster. “But you won’t care, will you? Because it feels so good. They’ll find you on your knees, with my cock buried down your throat, but you won’t stop sucking me, you won’t break position, until I say because I’m. Not. Done. With. You. Yet.”
His fingers pulse harder with every word until suddenly he pulls away and I cry out in frustration. I’m close to the edge, my body shaking, needing his touch.
“Vaughn,” I pant, grasping hold of the wall for support.
“What?” he demands, his face dark.
“Please,” I beg, not caring that a moment ago, I swore never to forgive him. All I can think about is the ache in my body, the hungry need possessing me.
“Please what?” he murmurs softly.
“Touch me. Anything!”
Vaughn yanks my skirt up and shoves my panties aside, burying his finger deep inside of me.
I cry out in pleasure, bucking towards his hand. His finger curls deeper, his thumb rubs hard against my clit.
Oh God.
I thrust my hips, desperate to find a rhythm, and I’m rewarded with another finger sliding into me, pulsing up against my walls, driving me headlong towards the edge.
“Remember what I told you,” Vaughn growls, using his other hand to grip my jaw tight, forcing me to look at him. “This pussy belongs to me now, and don’t you ever forget it.”
His lips crash down in a brutal kiss as -- fuck -- he thrusts a third finger inside me, stretching me tight with a brutal pleasure as his palm grinds my clit and his fingers surge higher and I explode in his arms with a scream.
“You’re mine.”