Cathy’s nerves had been jangling from the moment she’d gotten off the plane, and it seemed like every step made it worse. By the time she’d checked into the hotel, she felt as if her heart was going to burst from her chest, and her fingers and toes actually tingled in anticipation.
She dropped her suitcase onto the hotel-room desk and went straight for the bed. She lay down and closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she tried to calm her racing heart and stop the mild trembling in her limbs. Her entire body seemed to pulse with the force of her anticipation, and she heard the blood pounding in her ears like a chant, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.
With a frustrated cry, she finally gave up on the bed and walked into the bathroom. Crowded and small, it would at least be supplied with the endless hot water that made hotel showers so appealing. She stepped into the hot spray, letting the water sting her skin as she scrubbed sensuously.
Her fingers ran through her wet hair, pulling it gently, and she tipped her head back as she caressed her neck and breasts, letting the simple act of washing become a slow, erotic tease. Her body, already sensitive and flushed with blood, reacted strongly, turning her gentle shaking into a quiver that threatened to rock her off her feet. Her face and breasts became suffused with blood, and her head felt light and dizzy.
She had to sit by the time she got to her pussy, which was drenched and ready. She gasped and threw her head back as her fingers found her hard clit among her folds, and she spread her legs and let the spray of water across her sensitive skin make her whimper and writhe. Images flashed through her mind – his head between her legs, his cock pulsing with eagerness, his eyes fever-bright as he plunged into her – and she felt the orgasm burst over her like a balloon filled with confetti.
She laughed at the image and at the sparkles dancing behind her dizzy eyes, and let herself go limp beneath the hot water, panting and pleasured and yet so far from sated. Her body continued to pulse: Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
It took a sleeping pill to get her to sleep that night, and she woke the next morning feeling tired and uncomfortable from the unnatural rest. She glanced around the room at the unfamiliar surroundings, and it took her a moment to remember where she was and why her heart was beating in a desperate, thready rhythm. Oh, God, today!
She considered another shower, but it was getting late, so she reached into her panties and rolled over onto her belly, grinding against her hand to work out some of the morning’s nervous energy. Her breath came in short pants and gasps, and she whimpered as she felt the pleasure build inside her. Yes! God! ‘Erik! Fuck!’ It was less dramatic this time, simply flowing through her like a wave, taking away some of the nerves and bringing a sense of calm and wellbeing. For the moment.
Cathy dressed smartly and took the time to style her hair and apply her make-up with care. She cursed when she saw the time, and hurried downstairs. She registered at the desk that had been set up in front of the ballrooms, giving her name to the unsmiling woman – who had probably only volunteered to get a discount on her admission – then took her nametag and her programme and wandered into the conference.
She grabbed a bagel from one of the tables placed within the conference perimeter, glad that the organisers had planned for feeding the hordes of attendees who were too rushed or excited or scattered to have planned their meals better. Another glance at the time sent her scrambling through her programme. There! Her first opportunity would be in one hour.
With her fingers shaking slightly less, and her body settling from over-stimulation to a mere buzz of impatience, she scanned the programme again, selected a workshop that she was only slightly late for and found the hall quickly.
The class was interesting, and she sat near the back, taking notes in the notebook she always kept in her purse, but otherwise remaining quiet and unobtrusive. She was one of the first out the door when the workshop concluded, and made her way straight to the room where Erik would be presenting. Though it was a large hall, she felt drawn to the correct room, as if her body was responding to Erik’s very presence.
She found a seat near the middle, pulled out her Kindle and scanned the words of a story without absorbing them, trying to keep her mind busy. Her heart stuttered when he walked into the room, and she followed his progress without lifting her head. First, he set up his notes, then he got a bottle of water from a table in the corner. He paced the front of the room, and she blushed every time his eyes flitted to her. Yes, I’m here. I’m ready. Oh, God!
The seats around her slowly filled, and she finally put the Kindle away, giving up on the pretence of reading. She glanced at the programme again, to plan. He was doing a presentation on how to increase your productivity without sacrificing quality, and giving examples of the kinds of mistakes editors often catch when writers are hurrying. Well, that would make it easy, then!
She fidgeted and squirmed until the presentation began, and then watched avidly, taking in every nuance of Erik’s voice without actively hearing much of what he was saying; she’d heard it all before from him, anyway, and the presentation wasn’t why she was here.
When he finally opened up the floor for questions, she had to exercise strict control to keep her hand from shooting straight up. He called on two people before her, and she sat patiently, knowing it would only be a matter of time.
‘Thank you,’ she said when he gestured to her. ‘I keep track of my writing time, and I average a pretty clean manuscript at 1322 words per hour. Do you have any particular tricks for picking up my speed?’
Erik smiled. ‘That’s a good question. When you’ve already got a very good pace, sometimes it comes down to planning. For example, knowing what you’re going to write, at least in a general sense, before you sit down to write it. You can also definitely try tracking what time you write best. For example, if you get the most efficient work done at 3 p.m., then definitely try to schedule your work around that time.’
She murmured a quiet thanks. Three o’clock.
He dismissed the workshop at noon exactly, and she made her way to the luncheon, where a keynote speaker was giving a droning talk that was probably meant to be inspirational. She picked at a soggy fruit salad and an onion roll sandwich as she browsed the programme. Might as well choose a couple more workshops and make the best of her time.
But, halfway through the next workshop, she was too impatient to sit still a moment longer. She waited for a lull in the speaker’s presentation, then edged out with an apologetic smile to the woman at the front of the room, and made her way up to her room – room 1322.
There wasn’t much she could do to prepare, but she did what she could think of, putting her clothes away and stashing her suitcase in the closet, then changing out of the flattering suit and into an even more flattering set of purple and black lingerie. She twirled in front of the full-length mirror on the closet door, struck a pose and examined herself from every angle. She restyled her hair, frowned, brushed it out and then spritzed it with water and let her natural curls take over. She washed her face, studied every line and pore and, with a sigh, reapplied the make-up.
She was lying on the bed, considering pleasuring herself again, when she heard a quiet tap at the door, and her heart pounded as if it wanted to escape her chest. A glance at the clock on the bed table showed that it was 3.05, and, for the first time that day, she thanked God that time was finally on her side.
Erik stood on the other side of the door, looking dark and roguish. He dressed like a professor, but his tie was already loosened and his hair was mussed as if he had been running his hands through it. She almost expected to see ink stains on his palms, but with modern technology such things were nonsense. It was too bad; he would have looked sexy with inky fingers.
Of course, he already looked sexy. She grabbed him by the loosened tie and pulled him into the room, and he came into her arms in a heartbeat, his tongue already sliding into her mouth before she even heard the door click shut. They stumbled towards the bed, neither willing to let the other go long enough to undress properly, and a scattering of shoes and pieces of his clothing trailed them all the way to the bed.
Beside the mattress, she pulled his cock free, and their kiss broke as she dropped to her knees in front of him. She took a moment to appreciate the sight of his cock and breathe in the deep, musky smell of him before she sucked the tip into her mouth and swirled her tongue all around his crown, making him moan.
His fingers burrowed into her hair and tangled, pulling as he encouraged her to feast. ‘Cathy, you gorgeous, sexy bitch. Oh, shit, you were always so fucking good at that. Oh, God …’ He trailed off into a moan as she sucked him deep into her throat, burrowing her nose into his dark curls for a moment, holding it as long as she could, and swallowing around him until her throat ached.
When her lungs burned for air, she eased back and started to feast in earnest. ‘Oh, baby, I can’t believe I wait months for this. You’re killing me! I had to jerk off twice yesterday just to contain myself. Wow, just like that. Oh, yeah, baby.’ She purred at his words. It had been a long few months, and it got harder and harder to wait, the longer this little affair went on. Not that either of them was in a relationship, but that didn’t make their meetings any less forbidden.
But God, wasn’t it the naughtiness of it all that made it so hot? Attending the same conferences, finding ways to pass their room numbers and meeting times, and holy shit was her pussy wet from the anticipation. She reached into her lace panties and moaned as she found the moisture pooled there, soaking through the scrap of fabric that covered her and dampening patches of her thighs.
Erik’s voice broke as he continued to praise her skills, and he moaned, his ass twitching in what she had come to recognise as the telltale sign that he was about to come. She sucked his cock deep into her throat and felt it pulse and throb as he groaned and shot his load, and she paused there, milking him dry with her swallows as he pulled at her hair and ground into her.
When he was reduced to ragged breathing, she eased back and smiled up at him from her place on the floor, knowing how it must look to see her down there beside his spent cock like a little vixen.
He groaned and pulled her to her feet, and they came together again in a kiss that made her toes curl and her entire body tingle with wave after wave of goosebumps. Erik pushed her onto the bed and stood for a moment admiring her before he took hold of the tiny scrap of lace posing as panties and drew it down her legs. He took a deep breath and grinned, and she knew that it must be suffused with her scent, wet as it was.
‘I want your tongue in my hole,’ she said. He moaned and moved for her, his face going immediately for her pussy as she spread her legs wide for him. She cried out when his tongue teased over her slit, and then nearly growled with frustration as he took the time to suck her labia teasingly into his mouth, first one, then the other.
She reached between her legs to tug on a lock of his hair, and he chuckled into her pussy and delved deeply into her molten centre, fucking her hard with his tongue and pausing from time to time to lap at the rest of her pussy, vocalising his enjoyment of her taste in moans and hums and growls of pleasure.
Cathy made plenty of noise of her own, gasping and moaning approval of his technique. ‘I can’t believe it’s been three months. Fuck, I’ve missed this. Oh, holy shit, Erik, that’s so good, fuck me deep.’ She bucked her hips towards his face, savouring the sensation, and cried out when he reached up from between her legs to clamp his fingers around one of her nipples, to tug and tease it as he fucked her with his tongue.
His breath was hot and heavy between her legs, making Cathy whimper with anticipation. Every nerve in her body was lit up like Christmas, sending her into a warm, glowing space that got hotter every second. ‘I love this so much. Suck my clit. Make me come!’ Her vision seemed to crack and shatter when he obeyed, and as his mouth clamped around her clit, her legs followed suit, squeezing his head as her whole body rocked with pleasure.
Her vision went white and a rushing sound filled her ears, then slowly filtered back to reveal that she was issuing a high-pitched whine of ecstasy. She stopped when she realised, and unclamped her knees from around Erik’s head. He sat up grinning, and she propped herself up on her elbows, legs splayed, to eye him back.
‘Hey,’ she said, still a little breathless.
‘Hey, yourself.’ He didn’t sound so steady, either, and it made her grin.
‘How have you been?’
‘Oh, the usual. Can’t tell you how much I missed this, though. I think you look even hotter than last time.’ His cock stirred as if to underline the words, and he grinned roguishly.
‘I’ve been working out,’ she said. Her words and tone remained casual, but her body was still heavy with desire, and sitting with her pussy on display to him was keeping her flushed with arousal.
‘How much time do you have?’ he asked, moving up the bed towards her. His cock stirred again, and she reached out to stroke a single finger down its length, making it jump.
‘I’m on that stupid author panel at 7,’ she said, shrugging. ‘It will take me less than ten minutes to get dressed and get down there if I’m motivated.’
He grinned and kissed her, his tongue teasing over her lips before slipping into her mouth, then back to brush lightly over her lips again, soft then deep, making her tremble. He pulled back a moment later, or an hour, she had no idea. ‘I’ll have to see to it that you’re motivated, then.’
His inkless fingers wrapped around his cock, and he stroked slowly, letting her watch. Her eyes followed the movements as it grew thicker and longer beneath his hand, and each time it pulsed and swelled, her breath grew faster and harder until she was staring at his cock like a starving woman at a feast, panting with desire.
‘Turn over,’ he said, and she hastened to obey. He grabbed her hips and pulled her towards him, positioning her with her ass in the air, on display. ‘Gorgeous,’ he breathed, and the tip of his cock butted up against her wet hole. She whimpered, and he laughed and teased her, sliding his cock across her wetness without delving within.
‘Damn it, Erik, fuck me,’ she moaned, and with another laugh he complied. His cock slid into her like it belonged, and she pushed back, driving him deep as her pussy stretched to accommodate him. It had been too long. Too fucking long!
‘Do you want it rough?’ he asked. His voice was ragged as he controlled his slow strokes.
‘Yes. Fuck me hard. Oh!’ He slammed into her, making her gasp, and his hand immediately tangled in her hair, pulling it and forcing her to arch back and press even harder into him. ‘Yes! Oh, shit, yes! Fuck me. Fuck me!’ No one else had ever inspired her to talk like this, but with him it had always been natural. Everything about their covert relationship screamed of naughtiness and smut, and nothing in her life had ever been so titillating or felt so right.
His cock rammed into her again and again, and he grunted with each thrust, burying himself deep inside her. And with each thrust, each grunt, her responding moan rose higher and higher in pitch until she was singing breathily, her entire body strung as tight as a wire as she cried out.
She reached between her legs and found her clit, engorged and desperate for touch. Each brush of her fingers became an exquisite torture, sometimes soft, sometimes harder as he slammed into her and threatened her control. Her neck ached from being pulled back, and somehow the discomfort only channelled further into her pleasure as he took her, rough and wild like they were a pair of animals.
‘OhGodohGodyesyes!’ She shook so hard that she lost contact with her clit, but it didn’t matter – nothing could stop the tidal force of her orgasm once it had started, and the incredible sensation of him pounding into her only heightened her pleasure. She felt herself contract hard around him, and Erik started to lose his rhythm as his body took control, finding his own release.
She let her upper body collapse onto the bed as his grip on her hair loosened and he roared with pleasure and drove himself into her a couple more times. Then he let himself collapse beside her, and they both lay panting for several long moments.
‘You’re going to wear me out,’ he teased.
‘We’ll go slower next time.’ She shifted until she lay within the circle of his arms, and their legs tangled together as they kissed, slow and sensual. He was her editor at Riverstone Press, and forbidden by company policy to have an outside relationship with any of his authors, but the first time they’d met at a conference, sparks had flown before they’d exchanged names and made the unfortunate connection. The man who polished her books to perfection was also the forbidden man who made her heart stutter and her knees weak. And, as they’d discovered later, could drive her to some of the most powerful orgasms of her life.
Or make her melt into a puddle of warm pleasure, as he was doing now. Between the soft sweetness of his kisses and the way his hands brushed gently over every inch of skin he could reach, her body was humming with sensual energy – something more toned down than the erotic explosions before, but just as powerful. She sighed into his mouth, and felt him swallow up her pleasure and feed it back to her through his fingertips.
His touches went from featherlight to something more teasing, and he used his nails, scraping them across her skin in swirls and patterns that made her gasp and shiver and moan helplessly beneath his touch. His cock stirred against her belly, but neither of them made any move towards it this time, merely adjusting to accommodate the increasing presence as she continued to lie passively aroused by his manipulations.
When his hands both rose to splay over her breasts, Cathy tossed her head back and broke the kiss, a soft mew escaping her as he cupped and weighed them in his strong hands. His fingers teased around her nipples until she pressed forwards, using her body to beg for more. He gave it, pinching and twisting her nipples gently until she was nearly crying with the pressure of desire.
Then he swept her close with one arm and let the other drift even farther down her body until he cupped her pussy with his hand. ‘Do you want to come?’ he whispered into her ear.
She shivered. ‘Please …’
His fingers slid inside her and he pressed the heel of his hand against her clit, rocking his palm in the perfect pattern to set her on fire. He had lost nothing of his technique in the months since they’d last lain this way.
She kissed him again, and tried to focus on the soft texture of his mouth against hers, delaying the orgasm that rose inevitably before her, feeling the magnitude of it increase with every second she put it off. Finally, it overwhelmed her ability to distract herself, and she cried out into their kiss as her body shook with the force of it. He held his fingers still within her until she’d calmed, then slid them free and licked her juices from them.
She moaned as she watched him, and he grinned. He pressed on her shoulder, rolled her flat on her back and slid into her with one quick motion. Her pussy, still tingling in the after-effects of the last orgasm, seemed to burst to life, and she cried out again and clung to him as he rocked softly against her.
‘That’s my beautiful girl,’ he whispered. ‘God, you feel so amazing. It’s been for ever. Oh, God, this is perfect.’
He took his time, teasing her with long, slow strokes, bringing her to the brink of orgasm again and again before pulling back or changing rhythm or simply freezing within her until Cathy was incoherent with pleasure and desire and the desperate, animal urge to come. And when he finally couldn’t take any more, he thrust into her at just the right angle, stroking her clit with his pubic bone as he fucked her, until they came together, both trembling and exhausted.
It was long moments before Cathy felt capable of speaking. ‘Do I have time to shower?’
‘It’s almost six.’ She glanced at him, and he gave her a wicked grin. ‘I don’t think I could get it up again before your panel if my life depended on it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t torture you while you wash.’
She laughed and climbed shakily to her feet. ‘I have a second room key on top of the television. You can move your stuff in while I’m presenting. And order some food, will you? I’m going to be dying by the time we finish.’
‘I already miss you,’ he teased, though there were two more days of the conference. ‘When’s the next one?’
‘We’re already signed up for the big one in Denver in two months, but there’s a tiny conference in some little town in Michigan in three weeks. They emailed me about filling in for a presenter who cancelled.’
‘Bet I could get in on that. They always get excited when editors volunteer for the pitch sessions,’ he said, grinning.
She kissed him and preceded him to the shower, where he reminded her how much fun she could still have with a flaccid cock. Thank goodness for the unlimited hot water.
She was ten minutes late for her own panel, but, since she had developed a reputation at conferences for being a little scattered, no one gave it a second thought.