A Week in New York (The Empire State Series Book 1) (10 page)

He hung up and threw his phone on to one of the loungers and slid into
the pool. It was as if the water heated ten degrees. He lifted his sunglasses
onto his head and reached over to take mine from my eyes. “I haven’t seen your
eyes all day,” he said.

“You don’t want to see them; they’re red and small and tired.”

He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me toward him. I wrapped
my legs around his waist. “You’d better kiss me, then, so I’ll be too
distracted to notice.”

I took his bottom lip between my teeth. I felt him harden beneath me, and
I sighed contentedly, knowing how things were going to play out. My nipples
puckered and I tightened my legs around him. The water sloshed between us and
made his skin silky to the touch as I brought my hands up his chest and his
tongue delved between my lips. I moaned and he pulled my hips closer to him. My
body had been starved of him for too long.

“Ethan,” I said. “I need to feel you.”

He growled, turned us around in the water, and then lifted me to onto the
edge of the pool, leaping out beside me. He held out my hand and helped me up.
“Come on. We’re going inside to finish this. I don’t want the neighbors to hear
you scream.”

***

“Can I use another guest room to get showered and changed?” I asked. It
was nearly 6 and we were still lying in bed, my back to his front, after
spending the afternoon having amazingly hot sex. I barely had the energy to
speak. How I was going to make it through an evening of polite chat with
strangers, I had no idea.

“I guess. Why don’t you want to use this bathroom? I’ve seen you naked before,
you know.”

“Yes, and that’s the problem. I’d like to make myself presentable. And if
I stay within five yards of you, I’ll be introduced to your friends looking
like I’ve just been fucked and smelling of sex.”

“Sounds perfect. I love it when you smell like me. When I know your skin
has my sweat and come all over it.” He ground his hips into my ass and I felt
the stirring of his cock. Holy hell. Again?

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point.”

“So you don’t trust me to control myself around you?”

“Nope.”

“Makes sense,” he said as I felt his teeth on my neck.

The entire day could have been measured by how far away either of us was
from our last or next orgasm. Activity other than sex had been attempted—lunch,
swimming, reading—we’d tried all three with varying amounts of success. But at
some point Ethan would look at me or touch me in a certain way, and something
would switch in us both and he would be inside me in seconds—his fingers, his tongue,
his cock. It was like an unquenchable thirst that we shared.

I slapped at his hands around my waist and tried to break free.

“I need to get in the shower.”

“Sounds good. I haven’t fucked you in the shower yet.”

“Yet again, you’ve just very elegantly proven my point, Mr. Scott. I need
to have a shower, alone. You can control yourself for a few hours.”

“How many hours exactly?” he asked, propping his head on his hand as I
slid out of bed.

“Until we get back from your friends’ house.”

“Really? I think we should cancel.” I could hear the grin in his voice.

I flicked my head around to look at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not
animals. We can keep our hands off each other for a few hours.”

“I’m not so sure.”

***

My leg started jumping as the car pulled out. Ethan slid his hand to my
knee. “Hey, don’t be nervous.”

“I’m not,” I lied. And I stilled my leg.

He took my hand in his and squeezed.

“I should be the one who’s nervous,” he said.

“Do you think I’m going to embarrass you?”

“Well, obviously that’s a concern.” He grinned at me. “Andrew’s going to
have fun with this. He won’t be able to resist.”

“With what? Us?”

He nodded. Fear washed over me. What did he mean? Before I got a chance
to ask we’d arrived.

Ethan took my hand as we walked up to the house. Just as he reached for
the knocker, the door flew open.

“Hey, guys,” Andrew welcomed us. Mandy stood beside him. She had red
curly hair and a big smile. Her hands were clasped together as if she was about
to applaud and her eyes sparkled with what looked like excitement.

“I’m so happy you’re here.” She grabbed me and hugged me. “And you’re so
pretty. I just knew you would be,” she said as she ushered me down their
hallway. I turned to try and catch Ethan’s eye, but he wasn’t looking at me. “What
do you want to drink? Tell me you drink and you’re not one of those health
nuts? Andrew, can you get us some drinks? Cocktails?” Ethan was looking back at
me and he grinned.

“Maybe not cocktails. Anna had a little cocktail incident last night,”
Ethan said.

“Oh, how sweet. He’s protecting you. You drink, thank god. Wine?”

I’d barely had an opportunity to say anything, so I just nodded.

“And you’re from England? You know that Ethan’s sister is in England.
I’ve always wanted to go. Andrew keeps saying he’ll take me but, hey, sometime
never.”

“Jesus, woman, take a breath already,” Andrew interrupted.

Mandy laughed. “Sorry, I’m over-excited. I usually have to put up with
these two talking about sports and business when Ethan comes over, so it’s so
nice to have a girl to play with!”

“She’s not for you to play with, Mandy,” Ethan said and put his arm
around my shoulders. “That’s my job.” And he kissed me on my head.

“Oh, my god. You’re so cute together! I wondered if this would ever
happen and now it has and I’m so excited.”

“Excuse my wife, Anna,” said Andrew. “She’s not used to company.” Mandy
slapped Andrew on the arm and tutted. It was cute.

“I’m just not used to Ethan introducing me to a girl,” she said to him as
if I wasn’t there.

“Woman,” Ethan said.

Mandy squealed.
What the hell was going on?

“Let’s get you a drink so you’re forced not to speak while you sip,” Andrew
said.

When the drinks were poured, we made our way onto the patio, where the
table was set for dinner.

“This is a beautiful house, Mandy,” I said. Ethan and Andrew were
chatting about some game, leaving Mandy and I to talk. I wasn’t sure which
sport; I switched off as soon as I heard the words
league
and
ball
.

“Thank you. It was my parent’s house. I inherited it. I’ve always loved
it. I love the city but this feels like home.” Mandy had calmed down. Maybe it
was the wine. “Do you live in the city?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yes, and I love it.”

“You’d never want to come to New York to live?”

“Oh,” I was shocked by her question. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“Would you consider it?” She nodded sideways to Ethan.

“I’m just here for a week. We’re just having some fun. It’s nothing
serious.”

She pursed her lips. “I’ve never met one of his women.” I felt a churning
in my stomach. “I know he has his share. But he doesn’t spend time with them.
He just sleeps with them. Like a sport or something. You seem to be something different
for him.”

I shook my head. “I’m here for a week, and then he knows I’m 3,000 miles
away. And I just broke up with someone. It’s just circumstances that are
different.”

“I’m not so sure,” she said.

Ethan reached behind him to grab my hand, but continued his conversation
with Andrew. I met Mandy’s eyes as they lifted from our joint hands and she
raised her eyebrows.

Ethan

Back at the house, we moved around each other in the bathroom, getting
ready for bed. It felt domestic, like we were a couple. Anna had been quiet in
the car, and I was lost in my own head. But it was an easy silence that
descended between us. I realized I really enjoyed the evening. I enjoyed
sleeping with Anna, but I enjoyed hanging out with her, too. She was funny and
confident and busted my balls.

I got into bed and watched her as she brushed her hair and found my eyes before
joining me in bed. I pulled her perfect ass toward me and wrapped my arms around
her waist.

“Hi,” she said as she tipped her head back to my chest.

“Hi,” I replied. “How was your evening?”

“Good. I like your friends. How about you?”

“Good. I like my friends, too. And I like that they like you.”

“Yeah, that was a bit weird at the beginning with Mandy.”

“It was? Which bit?” Was tonight too complicated for her?

“Just her making such a fuss over meeting me.”

“Oh, I didn’t catch that. But I told you they’d have some fun with it. I
thought I would get more of a hard time from Andrew, to be honest.”

“A hard time for bringing me? Because we’re so casual?”

I sucked in some air. Was I going to say this? I didn’t do bullshit. “Because
I’ve never introduced them to a woman before.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“Because you normally keep your girlfriends chained up in your basement?”
She was funny.

“I live in an apartment.” She kicked me. “Because I don’t have
girlfriends. There are women I have sex with, but I don’t hang out with them. I
told you, I don’t date.” God, she was going to run screaming for the fucking
hills, and I wouldn’t blame her. I’d never questioned my relationships with
women before, but I didn’t want her thinking I was a complete dick.

“Oh,” she replied. I needed to distract her.

“Are you sleepy?” I asked.

“Not so sleepy that I don’t want you.”

That was the right fucking answer.

Anna

The next day we barely made it out of bed. Ethan kept suggesting we go
down to the beach, which was only at the end of the gardens, just beyond the
pool, and on several occasions I’d agreed, but we never made it. We were in our
own private world in the house and somehow it kept pulling us back, like if we
stepped outside it something would be lost.

We were sitting on one of the loungers, me between his legs, leaning back
against him. We were talking about his sister when his phone rattled against
the side table. He picked it up and checked his message.

“Urgh.” I felt his discomfort vibrate in his chest.

“What’s up?”

“It’s from Mandy. She wants us to go to a party tonight.”

“That’s nice of her to invite us. You don’t want to go?”

“I think she just wants to hang out with you again. I hate parties in the
Hamptons.”

“So we won’t go. But I think we should go out somewhere. To dinner or
something. We’ve been in this house all day.”

His phone buzzed again and he handed it to me. My heart skipped. It
seemed a strangely intimate thing to do.

“What?”

“Read it.”

I clicked on the phone so the message came into view.

Andrew: Dude. Get your ass to this party or Mandy’s going to have my
balls.

I giggled. “Those guys are really cute together.”

Ethan’s arms tightened around me. “They really are, but don’t tell them I
said so. They’ll think I’m going soft.”

“Mr. Scott, in my humble opinion, being soft is not something you need to
worry about.”

“Never around you, baby.” He buried his head in my neck.

“We should go, though,” I said. “I’d hate for Andrew to lose his balls. And
I like Mandy and Andrew. It’ll be nice.”

“Really? Fuck. You won’t like those parties.”

I felt myself stiffen. What did he mean by that?

“You don’t think the British fit into Hamptons society?”

“You’ll see.”

***

“I’m not going to be able to concentrate with you in that dress. All I
can think about is that I could have it off in about two seconds.”

I was wearing a red jersey sleeveless dress. Ethan’s eyes had barely left
me since we’d got into the car. It was a good thing Rory was driving or we
would have been in an accident already. “Well, then, you’re not going to like
it when I tell you that I’m not wearing underwear underneath, are you?”

His eyes flashed with lust and then anger and he shook his head. “One
hour is all we’re spending at this god-awful party.”

“Ethan. How do you know that it’s going to be awful? We’re not even there
yet.”

“I’ve been to this party a thousand times.”

“You’re so dramatic. If you’ve been to parties like this a lot, then you
must like them.”

He just growled at me and I reached across and stroked his chin. He
caught my wrist in his hand and brought my hand to his lips. “An hour, beautiful.”