Harvard Hottie (11 page)

“Right,” Luke says. “I know. I’m really sorry, Officer.”

“You think just because you have a Mercedes, you can get away with anything?” the officer says. Shit, he’s really angry at us. Damn, Luke, why do you have to have such an expensive car?

“I’m terribly sorry,” Luke says again. He looks completely unconcerned. I’m amazed.

“All right, get out of the car,” the cop says.

Luke obligingly opens the door to the car. He grabs his wheelchair out of the back seat and the officer watches in shock as he pops the wheels into place. When he transfers into the seat, the cop is white as a sheet. I would have laughed if I wasn’t still shaking. Luke pushes his palms into his thighs to straighten out his posture and he looks at the officer questioningly.

“Oh, um…” the cop says. His jaw is hanging open. He peeks into the car at me, probably wondering if I need a wheelchair too. “Well, um, I guess… I can let you off with a warning.”

“I really appreciate that,” Luke says politely.

The officer still looks a little stunned as he goes back to his own car. Luke looks at me in the car and winks, “I never get tickets.”

“Jesus,” I say. I wipe my sweaty palms on my dress. “I think I better go.”

His face falls. “Oh.”

“It’s getting late,” I say, “and… well, like I said, I’ve got stairs.”

Luke nods. “All right,” he says. “Will you come to my office for lunch tomorrow?”

“Lunch, huh?” I smile.

“Totally innocent,” he assures me with a grin.

That would actually be a pretty big disappointment.

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, when I’m supposed to be working, I instead find an article online about the Top 25 most influential people in Boston. Luke is number 19.

I’m pretty excited that the nineteenth most influential person is my… well, I’m not entirely sure what we are, but we’re definitely something. Even if we were just friends, it would be pretty exciting.

As I read the blurb on Luke, I notice that there’s absolutely no mention of his disability. The photo of him is from the shoulders up and he looks fantastic, of course, with his broad shoulders, perfect hair, and straight white teeth. I wonder if he intentionally keeps any information about his disability out of the media, so as to project a particular image of himself. I am guessing the image he wants to project is not that of a quadriplegic.

I show up at Luke’s office at a quarter to noon, but he’s caught up in some meeting. His assistant Michelle’s eyes light up when she sees me. “Ellie,” she says. “Luke’s just about done. Just wait here.” She gestures at a chair by her desk.

“Um, all right,” I say, settling into the chair. I cross my legs somewhat awkwardly as Michelle stares at me. I hate how bony my knees are in a skirt.

“I just want you to know,” she says in a low, confidential tone. “Luke is a really great guy.”

Oh God, does she know about us? “Hmm,” I say. “Is he?”

“Oh, yes.” Michelle nods eagerly. “I’ve worked for him three years and he’s a great boss. And really just… great. And I can assure you that none of the rumors are true.”

“Rumors?” Huh?

Michelle’s eyes widen like a deer in headlights. “Oh, well… you know. Just in case there were any rumors, I just wanted you to know that they’re not true. But I don’t, like,
know
about any rumors.” She’s babbling now. “I mean, if there were any rumors, I’m sure you would have heard them, so obviously there aren’t any. Rumors, that is.”

My head is spinning a bit. Obviously, I’m a little curious. What kind of rumors could she be talking about?  The only rumors I ever hear about celebrities or what not involve them being gay. Luke is definitely not gay… there’s no debating that. And it’s not like he’s some kind of womanizer either. So what the hell could the rumors be about?

A minute later, the door to Luke’s office opens and two older, stern-looking men in business suits exit the room. Luke has a mildly bored look on his face, but his eyes light up when he sees me standing there. “Ellie!” He grins. “Come in. We need to discuss, you know, business.”

As if anyone here really thinks we’re discussing business.

Once I’m inside the office, he shuts the door behind me. He grabs me by the waist, pulls me onto his lap, and starts kissing me on my neck. It feels so good that I almost lose my train of thought. “Luke,” I say.

He keeps kissing me.

“Luke,” I say, more firmly this time.

He pulls away from me, a wounded look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Michelle said something kind of weird outside,” I tell him. “She said, ‘None of the rumors are true.’ Don’t you think that’s weird?”

Luke just looks at me.

“What rumors was she talking about?” I ask.

“Beats me.” He gives me this blank expression that actually disturbs me a bit. Because whether or not these alleged rumors are true, I don’t believe for a second that Luke doesn’t know what Michelle was talking about. But from the expression on his face, I’d never guess he was lying. He’s that good at deceiving people.

“You really don’t know?” I say skeptically. I add, “Keep in mind that if you say you don’t, I won’t believe you.”

Luke studies my face and decides that I’m serious. “Look, Ellie,” he says finally. “Anyone who has any kind of power, there are tons of rumors flying around. There are lots of people who would love to hurt me so they make up shit about me. I don’t know what rumors Michelle was referring to, but I’ve heard some crazy ones that had absolutely no basis in reality.”

I suddenly remember what Lewis said about Luke sleeping with prostitutes. That’s one I definitely do not believe. I can see some bitter individual making that one up, for sure.

Luke raises his eyebrows at me. “So do you believe me?”

“Well,” I say, “are
any
of the rumors true?”

A slow smile spreads across Luke’s face. “Well, there was this one story about my fooling around with one of my very sexy employees…”

With those words, he goes back to kissing me. He’s clean-shaven and his cheeks are smooth and smell like his expensive aftershave. His lips hit the top button of my blouse and he gazes up at my face with his nice brown eyes. “Little help?” he asks.

I smile and obligingly undo the tiny buttons on my shirt. He fumbles for a while with my bra hook until I finally take pity and do it for him. His lips lower onto my nipple, and all I can think as he kisses me is how amazing this is and why didn’t I let him do this sixteen years ago?

I start to wonder how far we’re going to go, considering we’re in his office, and I quickly get my answer when he wheels us over to the small conference table by his desk. “Hop up,” he instructs me.

I get up out of his lap and sit on the edge of the table. He runs his hands up the insides of my thighs and I practically die. He puts one hand against my stomach and I take the cue and lie down on the table, and spread my legs, hiking my skirt up. I feel his thumbs hook into my panties and tug them off. He tosses them somewhere I can’t even see, but the last thing I’m worried about right now is the location of my panties. I’m sure they haven’t gone far.

He toys with me, gently kissing the insides of my thighs. I feel his hot breath over my pussy and I gasp, “Luke!  Oh, God…”

“You missed out in college, Ellie,” he whispers back, then his mouth descends on my clit.

He is good at this, really good. There’s no way he was this good at oral sex back in college. Men like Luke Thayer don’t need to get good at oral sex. At least, not unless they end up paralyzed.

A girlfriend once told me that you can tell how skilled a guy is at oral sex by how much he moves his tongue. Guys who don’t know what they’re doing move their tongue everywhere because it’s the only thing they can think to do. Luke, on the other hand, is barely moving his tongue at all. Maybe just a millimeter or two. But he’s applying a warm, gentle pressure, and each tiny move sets off firecrackers. After only a few minutes, my abdomen is drenched in sweat, and as much as I want to hold off, as much as I want to make this last forever, I explode in orgasm, squeezing his shoulder with my right hand and his hair with my left, biting my lip to keep from screaming.

I’ve climaxed three times before Luke lifts his head to look at my face. His lips are glistening and I think I’m in love.

“Good?” he asks.

“Oh God,” I breathe. “I almost blacked out.”

Luke smiles, obviously pleased with himself. You should know that I don’t climax that easily. I’m not frigid or anything, but I very rarely have orgasms during sex. And masturbating… well, that just seems weird to me. I mean, I don’t find myself sexy, so why would I masturbate?  So anyway, it’s kind of amazing to me that Luke got
me
to climax three times. It’s hard to believe that a man capable of that is still single.

I prop myself up on my elbows, unable to quite sit up all the way yet. “So,” I say, “something for you now…”

Luke tugs on his tie to tighten it. “That’s all right,” he says. “Maybe another time. I really need to get back to work.”

“Oh,” I say, wondering if I did something wrong.

“Sorry, Ellie,” he says. “I’m really just swamped here. It’s incredibly thoughtful of you to offer, though.”

He’s acting like I offered to go buy him a cup of coffee. “No problem,” I say.

I struggle to my feet and button up my blouse with slightly shaking fingers. Luke is back at his desk and working on his computer. It occurs to me that I came here for “lunch,” yet neither of us has actually eaten anything. Well, I guess Luke sort of ate something.

“Are you hungry?” I ask him.

He gives me a surprised look. “Hungry?”

“Well, it’s lunchtime.”

“Oh.” Luke smiles apologetically. “I’ll be honest with you, Ellie. I usually just have Michelle order something for me to eat while I work.”

“But for the last few weeks, we’ve been getting lunch…”

“True,” he admits. “But that’s only because I wanted an excuse to spend time with you. To be honest, I really didn’t need to be in this office at all.” He winks at me then wheels over closer to me. He picks up my hand and holds it in his. Best he can, at least, with his weakened grip. “Look, I’m really busy right now, but why don’t we have dinner tonight?  I can pick you up.”

“Um, okay,” I agree.

“Oh, crap,” Luke says. “I just remembered, I’ve got a meeting tonight. Tomorrow?”

“You’re a busy guy, huh?” I say.

Luke laughs and runs his hands over my ass. “You knew that about me, didn’t you?”

“So what if I said that I desperately wanted to see you tonight?”

“Well,” he says thoughtfully. “I guess I’d blow off my multi-million-dollar deal and hang out with you.”

“Liar.”

He kisses my belly and smiles up at me. “Tomorrow night?”

I nod.

***

When I get out of the elevator at my floor, Lewis is standing there, waiting for the elevator. I step outside, my shoulders thrown back, trying not to think about the fact that my boss just ate me out in his office. But I’m kind of disturbed by the fact that Lewis doesn’t get in the elevator. He’s just staring at me.

“Ellie,” he says. He didn’t call me Harvard, which I take as a bad sign this time.

“Uh-huh,” I say, avoiding his eyes.

“You missed a button,” he says.

My hands instantly fly to my blouse. Shit! He’s absolutely right. I somehow skipped a button. I remember that I saw Lewis earlier this morning, so I can’t pass this off as something I did in the morning and have been just walking around like this all day.

“I’m surprised at you, Ellie,” he says. “I wouldn’t think you’d stoop that low.”

“It’s not like that,” I mumble.

“Oh, really?” Lewis says. “So I guess you’re fucking your quadriplegic boss because you’re
in love
with him?” He snorts. “Very believable.”

I guess when he puts it that way, it doesn’t sound terribly believable.

“Besides,” he says, “I know who you’re really interested in.”

“You do?” I ask, perplexed. “Who?”

“Me,” Lewis says, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Oh God. He isn’t serious, is he? How could he possibly really think that I like him?  I would have to be blind or something. And it’s not all superficial. Lewis is just a jerk. I don’t even want to be his friend, much less his girlfriend. Is it possible he’s really so deluded that he actually thinks I like him?

“Um,” I finally say. “Look, Lewis, I’m not really—”

“Forget it,” Lewis says. “It’s too late. I’ve lost all respect for you now. You blew it.”

Lewis walks off in a huff and to be honest, it’s all I can do to keep from laughing out loud.

Chapter Thirteen

The next evening, I drive out to Luke’s house in Newton. He offered to come get me, but I didn’t like the idea of being stranded out there without my car (although technically, the Green line on the T does go all the way out to Newton).

When I arrive at Luke’s house, I’m shocked to see that for the first time since we reconnected, he’s dressed casually in blue jeans and a nondescript navy blue T-shirt. The sleeves on the T-shirt are short enough that I can see his well-defined muscles in his upper arms and forearms, contrasting distinctly with his hands. I’m not sure if Luke notices me staring a bit, but he doesn’t comment.

“You look great, Ellie,” he says.

I want to tell him he looks great too, but somehow the words catch in my throat. I’m not used to paying men compliments, even men that I like. So instead, I say, “The food smells great.”

“I would tell you that I made it,” he says, “but I know you’d catch me in that lie. My housekeeper whipped it up. Chicken something. I don’t know. She’s a great cook.”

The food does smell great, but somehow my desire for Luke trumps my desire to eat. And when I look into his eyes, I can tell he feels the same way. “Come here,” he breathes and I fall into his lap.

He kisses me, first on my lips, then on my neck, and I can feel his hand sliding up my skirt. I want to let him do whatever he wants to me, but then I remember last time, how it was all about me, and I start to unbutton his pants. He takes my hand and pushes it away, but I do it again as soon as his hand goes back to my inner thigh.

“Ellie,” he says, lifting his lips from mine, “I’d prefer if… we didn’t…”

My face burns. He doesn’t want to have sex with me. “Why not?”

Luke studies my face for a minute, then sighs deeply. “Look, Ellie… there are things about me, things about my disability that… I just…”

I remember what Luke told me, about how his last girlfriend dumped him after seeing him naked. Yet I can’t imagine anything Luke could show me that would make me stop feeling attracted to him. I’m not as shallow as his last girlfriend. But it’s clear that he’s uncomfortable and I don’t want to push him. It’s not like I’m some kind of sex fiend or anything. I’m not sure why Luke brings out this side of me.

“Okay,” I say gently.

His shoulders sag in relief. “Great,” he says, which doesn’t make me feel any better. “Can I eat you out again?”

I have to admit, the way he asks is so adorable and hopeful, I fall a little bit more in love with him at that moment. “Yes,” I say. “Definitely.”

He wheels me into the bedroom, which I didn’t get to visit last time I was here. Much like the rest of the house, the furniture in the bedroom seems incredibly stylish and expensive. He deposits me in his queen-sized bed and I fall into his expensive silk sheets. His bed is made, which I suspect is courtesy of his housekeeper, because I suspect Luke is the kind of person who’s never made a bed in his life. God, this is a nice bed. It’s so comfortable that despite not being tired and despite Luke being about to eat me out, I’m slightly tempted to take a nap right now.

But as Luke spreads my legs I forget about all that.

He really takes his time this time, unlike when we were rushing in his office. He rubs the back of his hand against my inner thigh, kisses my knees. With each kiss and stroke of his hand, he moves
every so slightly closer to my pussy. By the time his lips are centimeters away from my clit, I am already drenched. By the time I feel his tongue on my pussy, it takes me all of sixty seconds to climax. I come six times in a row and nearly pass out the last time. And alone in this large house in Newton, I can really let loose with the screams.

“Wow,” Luke says as he transfers into the bed next to me. “You’ve got quite a set of pipes.”

“That was fantastic,” I murmur. I roll my head to look at him. “Let me do something for you now.”

“Just watching you scream like that is enough,” he says.

I frown. It’s hard for me to believe that’s true, as much as I’d like to. “Luke…”

“It’s okay, Ellie,” he says. “I promise. I can’t feel anything anyway.”

“You can feel some things…”

“Well, nothing from the chest down.”

“So what if we keep it above the chest?”

Luke tenses up as I undo the first button on his shirt. I undo the second button and I realize I’m just torturing him. I try to remind myself that his last sexual experience ended in the woman walking out on him. “That’s all, okay?  Just two buttons.”

“Okay,” he says.

I keep my promise, kissing him and licking him only from his collarbone upward. Despite his initial reluctance, he seems to enjoy the experience quite a bit. I even get him to relax enough that I pull his shirt out from his pants and get my hand up onto his chest. His abdomen is soft from lack of muscles, but I love the masculine feel of the golden hairs on his chest. I know that Luke has nothing to be ashamed of, but I just need to convince him of that fact.