Billionaire With a Twist 3 (9 page)

I risked a glance over at Hunter. His
face looked like it was only a matter of time before either his brain
or the vein in his temple exploded.
Don’t take the bait,
don’t take the bait, don’t take the bait,
I prayed
silently.

“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t
need to take your girl too,” Chuck said with a grin, careful to
emphasize that last word. “I’m just surveying the goods.
One of the perks of the business, I’m sure you remember.”

Oh sweet baby Jesus, let Hunter not
kill him
, I prayed.

Fortunately, we were interrupted by the
waiter, wanting our drink orders. Chuck ordered a martini, and Hunter
and I both said we preferred to just keep drinking water. It fit the
bill of the desperate, soon-to-be-impoverished losers much, much
better. Also it kept the mind strong and clear much better than
alcohol could, which I just possibly may have known from my own
personal experience.

“Good idea,” Chuck said.
Under the table, his foot began to trace figure eights along my bare
calf. It made my skin crawl, but I couldn’t retreat. “After
all, we both know what Ally is like with a little liquor in her.”

Hunter ground his teeth so hard I was
pretty sure he would be financing his dentist’s next vacation
single-handedly. “Let’s stick to the business at hand,
Chuck. Please,” he added with just the right mix of shame and
desperation.

Chuck took the bait. “Well,”
he said. “When you put it like that.”

His foot traced a little higher up my
leg.

We had him right where we wanted him.

Now we just had to get through another
hour of this.

#

“Are you two sure you won’t
have any more of this caviar? I don’t expect there’ll be
very much of it in your future, you might as well take advantage of
it while you can.”

“No thank you,” Hunter said
with a tight smile that made him look like the victim of an unskilled
plastic surgeon. “You go right on ahead.”

“Don’t mind if I do!”
Chuck said, and proceeded to down the rest with a disgusting slurp.

Hunter’s and my plates were both
nearly untouched. We had lost our appetites nearly forty minutes ago.
Not even fine caviar, a French cheeseboard sampler adorned with a
selection of organic stone fruits, steak seared to just the point of
tenderness, and tiramisu light and fluffy as a cloud off St. Peter’s
gates could undo the damage of having to spend time in Chuck’s
hideous company.

He’d spent those last forty
minutes not only displaying appalling table manners, but leering at
me, putting down Hunter with not at all subtle barbs, and being so
rude to the wait staff I was honestly surprised none of them had
thrown a drink in his face.

At least he had stopped that thing with
his foot after Hunter ‘accidentally’ stepped on his toes.
He’d had to follow that up with abject apologies, and I was
still worried that it might swing Chuck to deny our plea just to
spite us, but I was still glad that Hunter had done it. I couldn’t
have stood another second of that creep touching me without bursting
into tears.

“I’m considering this plan
of yours,” Chuck went on. There was a particularly large piece
of steak stuck between his front teeth. I tried to ignore it. “It
does have certain merits, but honestly, I’d be doing you a huge
favor. I’m not sure I can stretch my charity so far.”

He was lying out his ass, of course,
but we couldn’t let him know we knew that. I glanced over at
Hunter when he didn’t respond immediately. His shoulders and
jaw were both clenched tight; putting up with Chuck’s shit was
taking a definite toll. I snuck a touch to the small of his back, and
he jolted back into the moment, sparing half a second to shoot me a
secret smile before his game face slid back into place.

“Of course,” he said to
Chuck. “We understand completely. Take all the time you need to
make your decision. Only…not too much time?”

I thought that bit of groveling at the
end was a nice touch, and by the cat that ate the cream grin on
Chuck’s face, he thought so too.

He opened his mouth to reply, and we
waited with bated breath to see whether it would be more insults or
finally, finally,
finally
a firm answer—

And then his phone rang.

“You don’t mind if I take
this, do you?” Chuck didn’t bother to wait for our answer
before picking up the phone. “Oh, hello, Senator.” He
raised his voice slightly on the title, making sure everyone in the
restaurant could hear exactly how important he was. “I’m
so pleased to hear from you, you know you can always count on our
support for your campaign. No, now’s not an inconvenient time
at all.” He stood, flapped his hand at us in a little ‘wait
for me’ gesture, and sauntered off to take his
oh-so-terribly-critical call in private.

“I’m going to kill that
fucking asshole,” Hunter said the minute he was out of hearing
range.

“As long as you wait till we’ve
got his money,” I joked.

“I’ll do my best.”
His voice was strained.

I took a good look at him. He was wound
tighter than a pocket watch, every muscle clenched like he was only
barely restraining himself from launching into an attack. I could see
his pulse in the vein at the side of his neck. That couldn’t be
healthy.

“Okay, pep talk time,” I
said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet.

“Uh, okay,” he said,
following my lead even as confusion wound its way through his voice.
“And the pep talk can’t happen at the table because…”

“Because that table is dead to
me,” I said. “Too many bad things have happened to me at
that table for me to ever look at it the same way again, and I don’t
want to risk this pep talk being ruined by all the terrible
memories.”

“Okay…”

“Also, if we were at the table, I
wouldn’t be able to do this.” With a smirk, I yanked
Hunter’s arm, pulling him into the bathroom behind me. With my
free hand I locked the door, while my other pulled him close enough
that I could stand on my tiptoes and kiss him hard, his back pushed
up against the door.

“Is this a good time for us to
discuss those details you mentioned?” he asked, touching my
knee as if to remind me of the heat that had passed between us
earlier.

“Why, yes,” I purred,
flashing a smirk. “I believe it is an excellent time for that.”

He growled, his hands coming up around
me and pressing me further into him. The bathroom was small, private,
barely enough room for one person, and his tight embrace made it feel
even smaller, made my heart beat so fast I thought I might forget to
breathe. Oh, his lips were soft, and warm, and starving for me. Oh,
to sink into his embrace, to sink into him, to never let go. I opened
my mouth beneath his, and let his tongue entwine with mine, let him
say without words everything he had been keeping pent up for so long.
I grabbed his ass shamelessly and pressed my hips into his, grinding
against him and desperately wishing our clothes would spontaneously
combust.

He drew back, panting. “I’ve
needed this. It’s been too long.”

I pulled him back toward me and
whispered softly into his mouth, “I’ve had to use every
ounce of self-control I have not to jump you tonight.” He
groaned and hungrily claimed my lips again.

We finally had to break apart for air,
though our hands didn’t let go of each other even as we gulped
in oxygen, dizzy with the lack of it and the surplus of each other.

“I like your pep talk style,”
Hunter gasped.

“I’m only just getting
started,” I promised.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh,
really?”

“Seriously,” I said. “There
is an actual verbal component to this conversation I had planned.”
I reached up and ran my hand through his hair, straightening the mess
I’d made of it. “I know this is hard on you. But you’re
doing great out there.”

“Are you sure?” he asked,
his eyes worried. “I feel like I’m about to burst at the
seams.”

The close quarters meant I could
definitely feel him bursting at one particular seam—no, no, no,
I had to ignore that right now! No point in starting something I
couldn’t finish. No matter how nice he smelled. No matter how
long Chuck’s conversation with the senator was likely to be.

No matter how much we both wanted this,
needed this, after all this time…

“The anger shows, but that’s
good,” I said. “It just makes it look like the truth.
After all, you’d be this angry if you were forced to do this
for real, right?”

“Damn right,” he growled,
glowering.

Even that hint of anger, the way his
hands tightened on my hips, sent a shot of arousal through me. My
nipples hardened against the silk of my bra, my thighs grew slick. It
was hot inside the bathroom suddenly, so very hot. My lips were dry.

I licked them.

Hunter’s eyes were drawn to my
mouth like magnets. He cleared his throat, his Adam’s apple
bobbing up and down.

God, I wanted to lick his Adam’s
apple.

“I couldn’t do this without
you,” he said. “I’d have punched him in the first
thirty seconds if I didn’t have you by my side. You remind
me…you remind me of what I’m doing this for. You’re
so strong, and I look at you—” his fingers found their
way beneath my chin, tilted my head up. “I look at you…and
you inspire me.”

“Hunter, I—”

Tears gathered in my eyes, my heart
swelling till I thought it would burst, and I blinked them back
fiercely. I knew that no matter my eloquence when I was trying to
sell a product, I could never put the feeling I was having that
moment into words.

So I kissed him again instead.

He kissed me back, hungry and
demanding, his hands sliding under my blouse and roaming over my
skin. My hands had found their way to his lapels, gripping them
tight, and from there it was only a short journey to the buttons, my
fingers flying in their desperation to feel his smooth skin, to taste
it—

He groaned, pressing his hips into me,
letting me feel his cock swelling against my stomach. He grabbed my
waist and lifted me onto him, my skirt riding up until his hard dick
was straining through his pants against my panties, the satin sliding
against cotton. I wrapped my legs around him, my muscles protesting,
but I wouldn’t let go, I couldn’t, I couldn’t ever
let him go. I pressed myself against the bulge in his pants, mentally
calculating how many minutes we had left before Chuck would likely
return to the table and wonder where we were. Was there time?

Hunter’s head dipped and his
mouth found my skin, his breath fast and hot against my neck like a
wolf with its prey, and then his wet mouth sucked the sensitive skin
hard until I cried out. He bit down, and I moaned, arching against
him, my hands exploring his chest, tangling in his hair, holding onto
his strong, broad shoulders for all they were worth.

“I need you,” he murmured,
low and dirty in my ear. “I need you right now, right here in
this bathroom, I’m gonna make you see stars—” one
hand slid from my waist, dipped below my panties, and he thrust two
fingers inside my wet pussy and I clenched around him, whimpering in
need and delight—“Need to show you how much I need you,
God, you’re already so wet for me, God, you’re so fucking
hot—”

“Please, Hunter,” I
whimpered. “I need you, I need you too, I’ll make you
feel so good, I swear—”

I was babbling, my brain overloaded
with hormones, but my hands knew what they were doing, sliding down
that strong chest towards his belt, unbuckling it and unbuttoning his
pants. His cock was so big in my hands, so hard, and he groaned as I
knelt on the floor and began to stroke him up and down, slow at first
until he began to thrust into my grip, and then harder, Hunter
grunting as he rubbed the tip of his cock against my parted lips, my
waiting tongue. Our eyes locked as I slid my tongue up and down his
length, and he moaned when I finally took his head deep into the back
of my throat, sucking softly and then harder and then soft again,
stroking his shaft where my mouth couldn’t reach and massaging
the base of his dick with the pad of my thumb.

“Fuck, Ally,” he groaned,
the rhythm of his thrusts growing more and more frantic.

I couldn’t hold back any longer.
I tore my hands and mouth away from him to pull my panties off and
straddle his waist again, and then he pushed himself into me, his
breath catching with every inch he slid further inside, my head
snapping back at the overload of sensation, oh God, he was so deep, I
had never been so filled—

“You feel so good,” he
whispered, his voice hoarse. His head fell against my neck, his
breath caressing my skin in lustful pants as he thrust into me,
harder and faster and so right, so steady. I arched against him,
mewling, grabbing at his ass, needing him deeper and deeper inside.
“So good, Ally, never been so good before—”

His words and his touch lit me on fire,
and I came in his arms, stifling my cries against his open mouth as
he slammed into me over and over, letting me ride my orgasm until
there was nothing left for us to hold onto but each other.

#

After straightening our clothes up as
best we could—and doing our best not to get distracted by all
those tantalizing glimpses of bare skin—we headed back to the
table, trying to look downtrodden and not at all pleased with
ourselves.

(We were a little giggly, and extremely
pleased with ourselves.)

We had just gotten our game faces back
on, and were poking at our now extremely cold meals, when Chuck came
back.

“Gotta wrap this up, kids,”
he said briskly. “I’m needed over at the Senate for some
very important hearings on the future of grain taxes, complicated
stuff, you wouldn’t understand.” He whipped out his
checkbook. “It’s really not worth this much, you
understand, but as a favor to you…”