Pulse - Part Three (The Pulse Series) (6 page)

He smirks. "You're just like all the rest of them."

"The rest of who?" My eyes briefly land on the peeler in my hand. If I don’t start getting along with him, I'm never going to move up the internal ladder in the kitchen of Axel NY.

He reaches forward to run his hand down the front of my chef's jacket. I don't miss how his hand lingers a touch longer than it should near my breasts. "Jess. I'm saying this strictly as your friend."

I nod. "What is it?" The carrots unfortunately aren't going to peel themselves and I'd like to take a break sometime this year so I need him to spit out whatever vile thing is sitting impatiently on the edge of his tongue.

"You're like really," his nostrils flare slightly as he leans in very close to me. "You're really ripe. You have this aura that screams, I want you to fuck me."

I push back away from him so harshly that I almost tumble backwards into the large sink I'm assigned to work at. "You can't say those things to me."

"He fucked you because your body was asking for it." His tongue glides slowly over his bottom lip. "It was screaming the same thing to me when we danced that night and when we had a drink after I got you this job."

There it was. The icing on the Drew cake. He thinks I owe him because he set me up for an interview.

"You know this is completely inappropriate, right?" I glance behind him to where the kitchen manager is standing, staring at us.

"I know that once he's done with you and he's moved on to someone new, you're going to come crawling back to me."

"Don't bet on it," I mutter under my breath as I turn back around.

***

"Who knew Drew had it in him?" Rebecca turns the corner and almost walks face first into a man walking briskly down Broadway.

"He's a creep." I pull my hair into my hand. The wind today isn't making it easy to get around Manhattan on foot. I shrug. "It's weird. I swear he has this inner issue with Nathan. Like he's completely pissed off with him over something else and he's projecting that onto me."

She stops dead in her tracks. "When did you become Dr. Phil?"

I laugh at loud at the comparison. "I don't have a moustache." I push my lips out.

"You should find a new job." She weaves her way through a throng of school kids walking towards us.

"No way," I raise my voice so it carries over the traffic noise. "I need that job and he can go fuck himself."

"I'll volunteer. He can fuck me. I'm totally into hard-ass, arrogant, douche bag chefs."

"Christ. Jessica. Jesus." The words tumble from his mouth and into mine. "I swear to God I could come right now."

I lean back and ram my hips down onto his cock.  A small moan ripples through my body. "Only this one time, Nathan."

"Sure, whatever the fuck you say." He raises his arms above his head to grip the back of the couch. The sight of his biceps flexing only pushes me closer to the edge.

"You work out." I don't mean to say it out loud. Why would I say that?

"I do." His eyelids flutter open briefly to soak in the sight of my naked body. "Fuck me harder."

I don't need the coaxing. I push my body forward and grab the couch too. I slide my hips back and forth along him, gliding his cock into me. "I can't believe it feels this good."

"Believe it." His hands jump from the couch to my thighs. "You're so wet. Christ, so wet."

"You know I came here just to fuck." The words are raw and unapologetic. They're true. After listening to him tell me on the phone how he was going to fuck me if he ever got the chance, I got in a taxi and knocked on the door of his apartment. Now, twenty minutes later, I was on the brink of my third orgasm.

"I don't give a shit why you came here." He smiles through clenched teeth.

I groan as he pushes my body back so he can run the pad of his thumb over my clit. "It's only this one time."

"It's not." He pushes his hips up from the couch in a lazy circle. "I'm so fucking deep right now."

"So deep," I repeat back. "I can't fuck you again."

"Shut up, Jessica." His hand bolts to my head and he pulls my lips into his. "Shut up and fuck me."

I raise my hips at the sound of the challenge. I push back down, hard and fast and he moans so loudly, it reverberates through me. I push back and then forth again clenching my sex around him.

"Christ, this is my heaven." He throws his head back onto the couch again, his eyelids closing.

I lean back, resting my hands on his powerful thighs as I glide my body back over his. I pull myself up and then drive myself back down over and over again.

"I'm going to come." His breath is barely more than a whisper. "I'm going to fucking come so hard."

I still as he pulls tightly on my hips, pushing his body deeper into mine. A deep, guttural groan flows out of him as he clings tightly to me.

"Please, Nathan."  I grasp onto his shoulders. "It was one time."

"Like hell." He pulls me quickly from him, pulling the condom off with deft ease. "You're going to come until you see that you can't live without this."

I pull away. "I came. Twice, please."

He picks my body up so effortlessly, twisting it around so I'm kneeling on the couch. I feel him slide to the floor on his knees behind me. "I'm going to eat you until you come over and over again."

"Nathan." Why am I pretending to resist him? I'm the one who came here for this? I'm the one who couldn’t stop thinking about that night at the club.

"I love this body. I love you." He plunges his tongue into me just as the last word leaves his lips. He didn't say that. No. He couldn't have said that.

"You're sure he said it?"

"I heard it. I'm sure." I toss some mixed greens into a bowl. ""He said he loves me."

She points towards a package of cherry tomatoes. "Use them all. I love those little things."

"See that's my point." I wave the large knife in the air.

She ducks in mock fear. "Hey, watch it. That point might kill me."

"Sorry." I laugh. "See how you love the little tomatoes." I toss a bunch in a bowl and rinse them under cool water. "He loves me like that."

"He loves you like a tomato?" Her face twists into confusion. "That's strange, even for Fingers."

"No," I snicker. "He just said it in the moment. It wasn't based in reality. I mean you're not in love with the tomatoes."

"Why are you trying to convince yourself that he doesn't love you?"

I feel the weight of the question bore into me. "Men like that don't fall in love. They just don't."

***

"This isn't a date." I feel the need to qualify it.

He stares at me over his wine glass. "Christ, you're full of bullshit lately."

"Shut up." I take a big swallow from my own glass before I realize I better slow down. "I can't drink too much."

"Because you'll end up sitting on my face in the cab on the way back to my place?" He raises his glass before he takes a sip.

I pull my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. He was likely right though. "No. I just want to stay clear minded. We have to talk about a few things."

"Do I still have to pay for this even though it's not a date?" He raises a brow playfully.

"I can't afford to eat here."

"You work here."

"I can barely afford to eat sandwiches on what they pay me." I glance back towards the kitchen. I didn't bother to check the schedule to see if Drew was working tonight. I'm hopeful he's got the night off too. I don't want to have to listen to him tell me why I shouldn't be seeing Nathan.

"What is it, if it's not a date?" He takes a bite of the overpriced salad the waiter just placed in front of him.

"Two people, who are kind of friends, talking." That seems about right to me.

"So talk, friend." He motions towards me with his fork.

"Why did you take your sister to the hotel suite that night?" I want to start at the beginning, or at the very least, the beginning of when things fell apart.

"Why do we need to talk about that?" He takes another hearty bite of the salad. "Do you make this when you're working?"

I shake my head. "I prep the carrots that are in the salad."

"They're the best part."

"You left for Boston and then you're suddenly back with your sister." It's not even a question. It's a lame statement.

"Why do you think I brought her here?"

"Stop being a lawyer."

"I can’t." He pushes the plate away. "This tastes like dirt. Not the carrots though."

"Why, Nathan?" I need to know. Other than that brief exchange in the hotel room when I thought she was his next conquest, I've heard nothing about her since.

He reaches for my wine glass after downing what's left in his. "I can't believe I have to say this."

"It's the truth, right?" I feel the need to stress that.

"Christ, Jessica." He leans across the table to put his hand over mine. "I don't lie to you. Get that, okay?"

I don't respond. I just want the answer. I raise my brow in expectation.

"I brought them here to meet you." His voice is soft and sullen. It's hard to distinguish each word within the hum of the busy restaurant.

"No, don't say that." I push back from the table. Please don't say that. It means I fucked things up worse than I imagined that night.

He leans back in his chair and pulls his hands over his face before he lets out a deep sigh. "I couldn't shut up about you. I just wanted them to see you in the flesh."

"So you brought them back to New York?"

"I did," he says it with finality as if that's supposed to be the end of the conversation.

I push the plate of salad that's in front of me away. I have absolutely no appetite. I study his face, trying to read him. There are so many things beneath the surface and I can't place any of them.

"Jessica." He taps his finger on the table. "Listen to me."

That's all I've been doing all night. It's all I want to do. I want to listen until I hear him say he loves me again.

"I took them to the hotel so they could stay there." He reaches across the table to cradle my hand in his. "I was going to come to your place to take you home with me for the night. But then you did that whole breaking and entering felony thing and everything went to shit."

"You wanted me to meet your family?" I whisper the question.

"I needed you to meet my family." He motions to the waiter to refill both of our now empty wine glasses.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" I sit expectantly waiting for an answer while the waiter slowly pours the wine.

The dim hum of a cell phone breaks the silence between us. Nathan reaches inside his suit pocket to retrieve his phone. He doesn't even glance at the screen before he quiets it.  "I'm crazy about you." He pushes the phone aside before he takes my hand again. "I don't know how to do this the right way." His free hand waves in the air over both of our heads. "I wanted my sister and Travis to see what I see in you. Simple."

It wasn't simple. None of it was.

"You told me you only let three men fuck you." His voice is low and raspy.

I nod.

"How many cocks have you sucked?" He pulls lightly on the roots of my hair. "Christ, slow down, Jessica. Slow. It. Down."
I lean back on my heels and pull my tongue over the wide crest of the head of his cock. I lap at it, listening to him spurring me on.

"Who could ever give this up?" He leans back into the mattress with both hands still nestled in my hair. "I'll never let this go."

I move my head down swiftly, pulling the length of him into me. I'm rewarded with a deep growl.

"You know exactly what I need," he pants. "Stroke it."

I wrap my left hand around the thick root, stroking it slowly and methodically as I suck just on the head. "It's so beautiful."

"You're so beautiful." His hips snap back as a single drop of pre cum seeps out. I twirl it over my tongue and run it along my bottom lip.

"Jesus." He stares at me. "I could come just from watching that."
I moan as he pushes my head down again and I glide my lips over him. I snake my hands up and down slowly, milking him as I pull him in and out of my mouth.

"I can't stand it," he growls. "It's so fucking good."

I pump harder, wanting him to find his release. My tongue soaks in the taste of him, my eyes glued to his face.

"I'm going to come." His body stiffens and I brace myself for it. I love the taste of him. I love how it makes me feel when I feel it inside of me.

I moan as he yanks me up with both of his arms. "Nathan, please." I want to finish. I need to.