ROUGH RIDER (46 page)

“
A
ctually
, there’s something I need to say first,” Riley told Gloria Van Lark as I walked up.

At least, I
assumed
that was actually her… I’d never seen the woman myself, but she did look like a rather self-assured, self-absorbed old woman.

Gloria checked her watch quickly, looking rather irritated. “You’d better make it quick. We’re pressed for time. What is it, Riley?”

Riley paused, lost in thought for a moment. I had considered hanging back for a few minutes and watching how this played out, but the
aeroplane
delays had already made me late enough as it was…

I walked up to her side, and her friends – the skittish thin one, and her Japanese friend, Reiko – glanced over at me with hushed tones. I smiled with a finger to my lips, preparing to surprise her.

Sure, this was an interesting moment to choose, but I’d gotten there as quickly as I could, and I intended on supporting her when she–

“Fuck you.”

My hand clasped onto her shoulder right then, and I froze out of complete confusion.
What the
hell
did she just say?

Riley glanced up at me in equal surprise, and a large smile spread across her lips. “Lex,” she murmured. “You came after all. I was so afraid you wouldn’t make it.”

Gloria Van Lark looked impassive at best, but the stoic woman at her side bristled in anger.

“Excuse me… what the
hell
did you just say to Madame Van Lark?” The woman indignantly requested, her eyes becoming two blackened pits of coal beneath her spectacles. “How
dare
you speak to her this way, you ungrateful,
impetulant
disgrace of a–”

“You ruined my childhood, you miserable old bitch,” Riley turned to Gloria. “You offered this same fucking deal to my mother, and she took it… She walked straight out of my life forever.”

“I helped your mother blossom,” Gloria replied calmly. “She deserved to have her gifts recognized by the world. She needed someone to guide her. She was weak and impressionable…”

Gloria tilted her head thoughtfully.

“I had no earthly idea that my pupil’s progeny would grow to be such a talented and… dare I say it,
fierce
young woman,” Gloria commented. “I would have approached you
years ago
if I’d had the faintest clue… We can certainly make up for lost time.”

“You don’t seem to get it,” Riley told her. “I’m not going with you.”

“Nonsense,” Gloria rebutted. “You couldn’t possibly throw away this opportunity. Without my representation, you’ll be dust in the wind, child. I’ll find and train another to fill the hole you would have occupied. You’ll be cast aside to rot while a worthy inheritor to the art rises in your stead. You don’t
truly
want that, do you?”

Riley crossed her arms. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

“She’s a damned good painter,” I chimed in. “With the right people behind her, she’ll rise with or without you. If I can get
your
attention, then I think I can certainly draw the right sets of eyes across the art community, wouldn’t you say?”

Riley smiled my way. “There are other curators at other world-renowned museums. I can certainly knock on other doors.”

“Not if those doors remain closed to you,” Gloria Van Lark replied. “I can personally see to it that you are locked out of every reputable museum in the world. You’ll struggle to have your art displayed in anything more elegant than a cheap motel lobby.”

“Is that a threat?” Reiko chimed in.

“Absolutely,” the old hag replied. “I suggest that you take the opportunity while it remains available… or else I will
end
your career, right here and now.”

“You miserable old fuck,” her other friend responded – what was his name,
Connor?
“You would go out of your way to destroy an artist just because she turned down the chance to be
forced
into abandoning her life to come live under your thumb? You’re not asking her to sell you some art – you want her to give up
everything
and come stay with you for, what, how long?”

“A decade, bare minimum,” Gloria replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Perhaps even two, given her age. It really depends on her stamina. You’ll be able to paint round the clock with zero distractions…”

“I will absolutely
not
join you,” Riley told her in the darkest tone of voice I’d ever heard out of her. “You are a wicked,
evil
woman, preying on young artists dreams and locking them away from the world… but
how? How
has nobody come out against you yet?”

“Nobody who has ever been offered my representation has turned me down. I’m offering you something beyond simple measure. A future you can only begin to imagine.”

“Then call me the first,” Riley replied. “The first to turn you down.”

Gloria Van Lark and her proxy exchanged a meaningful glance, and then turned back to regard us coolly.

“Very well then, Riley,” the elderly woman responded. “You are lucky that I’m booked throughout the rest of the year… but I
highly
suggest that you make the wisest use of your time for the next five months. Find a new field. I’m afraid painting isn’t in your future…”

“Get out of my fucking sight, you miserable old fuck,” Riley smirked.

“Charming,” Gloria answered, descending down the steps between us. She paused to look Riley hard in the eyes.

“You have searched for me for so long, haven’t you? Many artists have, and many will continue to do so for years to come. I am afraid, my dear Riley, that you will come to regret this day.”

Riley didn’t say a word, and so the two of them stepped into a taxi and left the scene.

“Well…
that
was tense,” Connor replied with a half-hearted chuckle. “Jesus. What a complete cunt…” he turned to Riley. “What are you going to do now?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” she muttered. “I’ll figure something out.”

“So, what’s that?” I asked Riley, indicating the covered canvas that she was holding close to her chest. “I haven’t seen that since I walked up…”

Riley looked embarrassed for a moment, but revealed the painting to me.

I was completely taken aback.

“It’s… it’s…”

“It’s you,” she quietly told me.

The painting was unmistakably me. It was a portrait of me striking a football with my ankle, volleying around a player who dared to try to stop me. I was dressed in my Manchester United attire, from several years back…

It was the proudest game of my life.

“I looked you up, finally,” Riley offered. “I searched for the highlights of your career. This game looked like the one that the British public loved the most, and one particular moment near the end…”

“I remember it fondly,” I told her, feeling my chest swell with pride. “This moment happened in the last fifteen seconds of the game. It’s right when I scored the winning point and led us to a close but decisive victory… and it’s the game that finally put me on the road to the National team.”

She smiled softly. “It’s for you.”

“I love it, Riley,” I whispered, pulling her up into my arms and planting a firm kiss on her lips. When we pulled away, my eyes were full of love, and my heart was burning with passion for this wonderful, amazing woman. “And I love
you.
”

“I love you too, Lex.”

The other two shared a meaningful glance. Reiko stood a little closer to Connor as they turned away to allow us the moment.

I pressed my lips to her crown as I remembered one important detail…

I reached into my pocket and removed my phone, holding it up to the light. With a flick of my thumb against the screen, the microphone app stopped, and I saved the recording as
Gloria Van Lark, Evidence.

“I need to make a quick phone call,” I told her, kissing Riley on the cheek. “Can you wait here for a moment?”

“Absolutely,” she groaned, sitting down on the stairs. “I don’t think I have the energy to do much of anything else right now…”

“I’ll be right back,” I smiled reassuringly.

Wandering away from the group, I stepped over to a nearby column and pulled up my contacts. Within a few moments, I had Jess on the line.

“Lex! How did it go?”

“It was… not quite what I expected,” I commented dryly. “Listen, I have something fascinating to share with you.”

“Oh yeah? Whatcha got?”

“An opportunity,” I smiled. “It would appear that Gloria Van Lark has a thing for scooping up promising young artists and giving them a classic case of Stockholm syndrome…”

“What?” She exclaimed. “No kidding!”

“Yes… I was intending to record Riley’s big moment in accepting Gloria’s deal, but what I wound up with is…” I paused, choosing my words carefully, “far more interesting.

“Jess, you’re one of the most talented publicists I’ve ever heard of, and you’ve sharpened your teeth on keeping my nose clean in the eyes of the British public. You’re skilled at representing me… and I don’t know a soul who could do a better job than you.”

“You flatter me,” she replied warmly.

I could practically hear her smirk across the phone line as she anticipated my next words:

“I’m offering you a chance to do the complete opposite… how would you like to help me take down the most legendary art curator in the world?”

W
hen Lex told
me what he had in mind, the only thing I wanted to do was drag him to my bed, rip all of his clothes off, and make love to him.

So that’s exactly what I did.

His strong, powerful hands slid along my thighs as he left a trail of kisses along them, working his way towards my sex. Instead of stopping there, he lifted his lips to press against my stomach, tenderly caressing the area.

I slipped my fingers into his hair as he continued to worship my skin, licking a curving trail up towards my chest. My nipples, so recently pleased by his lips, stood just as erect as ever as he took one into his mouth with a satisfying smack of his lips.

“Oh god, Lex,” I murmured with satisfaction as he boldly maintained eye contact with my half-lidded gaze.

I squirmed beneath his touch as he continued to ply my body with pleasure. His tongue deftly stroked my puckered nub, the teeth grazing lightly and tugging at the tiny, pink peak. I held his head close as he pleased me, every last lap of his tongue against my nipple causing a new shudder in my mind…

His palm squeezed against my other breast, the fingers outstretching across the supple flesh. He pinched the other nipple between his digits, rolling it slowly, tugging upward, and I exhaled a surprising little moan.

“You like that, hmm?” He asked confidently, already knowing the answer as he released my peak from his teeth.

“Mm-hmm,” I nodded quietly.

“Not very convincing,” he grinned wickedly, before diving back down to slip his mouth over my breast, sucking in my nipple once again. I felt his tongue gliding across the peak and moaned with delight, my arms squeezing his face down against my flesh even tighter.

He pulled back afterwards, running his fingernails down my sides as his face disappeared between my knees.

“Much better,” I heard him chuckle, before he shouldered my thighs and lunged down towards my sex.

“Lex…
fuck
…”

His soft, cocky chuckle rolled over my exposed, wet pussy as his tongue married itself into my folds. I valiantly tried to keep my hips down against the sheets, but his deft maneuvers were too
tastefully
sinful for me to maintain my composure for long.

With my fingers wrapped in his hair, my palms pressing down against his head, I coerced him to burrow down deeper. Lex’s fingertips dug into the flesh of my thighs as he held them braced around his head, pinching into my skin and eliciting only more rapturous moans from my lips.

“You are
way
too good at this,” I sighed contently between mindless moans.

He only chuckled again, lifting his face just enough to slip his tongue against my aching clit.

I felt my body quiver with delight. The pressure was so good, and he was
so
great at what he was doing…

Mindlessly, I released my grip on his hair, clutching at my breasts, or the bedding, or whatever I could get my hands on. I alternated, clenching onto anything that would help me writhe in pleasure beneath the expert flicking of his wet, stiffened tongue.

Lex varied the movements and pressures against the bead of my passion, finally slipping away to kiss along the insides of my thighs again. I yearned for more,
needed
more, but he knew just how much teasing I really needed…

And that’s when he grabbed my legs and effortlessly pulled me down the bed towards him, his eyes wild with lust.

“I need you, Riley,” he murmured huskily as he planted the head of his cock against the lips of my wet, hungry pussy. “I need you so badly…”

“I need you too, Lex,” I nodded with primal, lustful intent. “Please, just fuck me…”

He rolled the crimson head along the lips, exciting my nerve endings but unwilling to push in where I needed him. All the while, he kept his sexy half-smirk across his lips, one eyebrow rising to mock me.

“Dammit, you’re such a tease…” I groaned.

“Only because I know you love it.” He winked, holding his massive scepter still against my sex, daring me with his eyes to argue.

“Oh god, do I…”

Before I could register the movement, he was pushing deep into my chasm now, his huge cock eagerly taking ground deep within me. I was already starting to adjust to his mammoth size from our weeks of sexual encounters, and I was able to take more of him in on the first go…

“Oh
fuck
, Lex… god, I can’t believe you haven’t already torn me apart…”

“Honestly, I can’t either,” he grinned mischievously, but his own lustful gaze told me that his mind was already starting to melt with feral, animalistic need.

He wouldn’t be coherent for long.

Then again… neither would I.

His hands clenched down onto my shoulders, pinning me beneath him as he slowly rocked his hips against mine. I knew how to relax myself against him now, letting in another inch with each wet, tender thrust, until he was finally hilting himself against my pelvis.

“Like a glove,” I murmured softly.

“Like an
oven
,” he groaned in correction.

His clear, wanton satisfaction only spurred me on, and I felt my arousal reach new, incredible peaks. I was now meeting his rolling hips with gusto, craving his flesh against mine and his body within my own more and more…

Lex growled with electric, crushing bliss as he rocked against me, his body dropping to steady itself against my own, but not heavy enough to crush it. He supported himself on one elbow as he pressed a palm against the headboard, keeping me trapped beneath his mighty, rippling muscles.

I loved the weight and the pressure. Just enough to let me easily breathe, but not enough to crush or discomfort me.

My hands rolled down his back, fingernails scratching down into the flesh. His lustful groan of approval only spurred me on, and I slipped my ankles over his calves and clutched onto this magnificent, sexy man with every drop of strength in my body.

…Well, until his penetrating thrusts drove me wild a little too long, and I felt the building pressure of an incredible orgasm. My moans evolved into something greater, something feral, as I clenched against his body and felt every inch of me seize up in anticipation.

“Oh god, just like that,” I begged. “Harder. Faster. Please, Lex, don’t stop… don’t…
don’t
…”

As the blinding climax struck my mind and released every ounce of tension within my body, I came with enough force to knock the wind out of my body.

Lex slowed for a moment, taking the instance to regain his breath as I sank down into the bedding in complete elation. Before I could get too comfortable, though, he was swinging me around onto my knees, facing away from him.

“Ooh... a bit rough, are we?”

He growled in my ear, nipping the lobe and earning a shudder down my spine. As he prepared to mount me from behind, I placed my palms against the headboard, throwing him a sexy little lip-bite over my shoulder.

“Take me, Lex,” I murmured. “Take me now.”

That’s all the guidance he needed.

I felt his cock thrust deep into my soaked, ready pussy, and I bit down to keep from howling with pleasure. He was like someone possessed – powerfully dominating my hips, one hand clasped around my waist, the fingers biting into the skin as the other clasped down onto my shoulder the same way.

With every intention to meet the force of his need, I tried to rock my hips against his. Honestly, though… he was so incredibly fierce, controlling such a fast tempo, that I could barely keep up.

Instead, I allowed him to dominate me, continuously crashing against my hips with jaw-dropping intensity.

“Goddammit, Lex, that’s so…”

“Am I hurting you?” He asked, pausing in mid-stroke. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”

The tenderness made my heart sing just a little, but I instead flashed him another sexy little look. “No, not at all… it feels so good, beneath your touch…”

“Good,” he murmured hungrily, his eyes closing as he leaned his face back again. He gave me another powerful thrust, then continued: “That’s what I like to hear.”

He slipped back into powerfully fucking me, and I groaned with unending fulfillment.

“Oh Lex, you’re so hot when you fuck me like that… I love feeling your hot, throbbing cock inside my wet pussy…”

He growled with contentment, picking up the speed just a touch. Obviously, he really did like what he was hearing…

“Please come for me, Lex. Come inside me. You know how badly I want it…”

His rippling arms tightened, and his fingers pressed ever harder into my skin. I almost yelped with pain, but soothed it to an excited, passionate squeal. The last thing I wanted to do was make him stop, and knowing how carefully he monitored my pleasure, willing to stop fucking me on a dime…

“Please give it all to me, Lex… every last drop inside you. I need it… I crave it…”

That seemed to do the trick.

His movements grew erratic, uncontrollable. Lex lost his grip on himself, rocking his hips against mine over and over, his heavy balls slapping against my skin as he visibly prepared for his own, stunning climax…

But his cock was pressing against my center so perfectly, and I
loved
being fucked in this position…

It was inevitable that I was about to come, myself. I steeled myself, shifting my weight against the headboard as I clenched up. Finally, the building tension shoved me off the precipice, leaving my gasping body moaning with complete orgasmic pleasure as I came hard against his hips, over and over.

As I burst through the multiple climaxes, Lex finally seized up, his limbs locking as he buried his rock-hard erection as hard into my slickened chasm as it would go. He let loose a roar, and I felt rope after rope of his thick, hot seed spurt into my body, surging deep inside.

After we came together, we collapsed down to the bedding and sheets, fulfilled and brought to the brink of satisfaction.

I nestled up against him as he rolled onto his back, completely spent from the consummation of our love. I felt his heart beating powerfully beneath his ribcage as my head slipped into place, and his arm wrapped around me.

“You mean the world to me,” I heard him whisper as the throes of sleep came for me. All I could do was nod, quietly murmuring my agreement.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you too, Riley.”

I felt safe.

I felt secure.

And I felt like the world was truly ours.