The Arrangement Anthology (66 page)

Sean takes my new helmet and puts it on the desk. We’re in his tiny hotel room, which is nothing like the nice suite we had back in New York. I’m exhausted and flop down on the only bed. It looks like a double, which totally sucks. I guess I’m sleeping on the floor.

Sean sits on the edge of the
mattress, by my feet. “You can shower first. I’ll—” he stops talking and pulls his phone from his pocket. It buzzes again. Someone is texting him. Sean looks down at his phone and grimaces. “Okay, scratch that.” He smashes his lips together hard and glances over at me with a completely conflicted look.

He curses and sends a text back before saying, “I need to go take care of something. If I leave you here to take a shower, will you actually take a shower? Or will you leave the room as soon as I walk away?”

My mouth opens and my cheek twitches. An offended sound that has a lot of hard k’s scrapes the back of my throat before I manage to spit out, “I’m not an idiot.” My hands do this little loop-d-loop thing when I say it, which looks very idiotic but I’m too tired to care.

Sean pinches the bridge of his nose, saying,
“You sexted with someone and didn’t bother to confirm their identity.”

Wow. Thanks.
“Harsh much?” I glare at him, giving him my best evil eye, but Sean doesn’t look at me. “By the way, I did confirm the guy’s identity. How was I supposed to know that he lied?”

Sean doesn’t state the obvious. Yeah, I skipped that part
of the whole sexting experience. Fine, I’m an idiot and he’s too nice to say it to my face. Running his hands through his hair, Sean sighs and looks down at me. I’m still lying on the bed with my hands behind my head. “Avery, someone is gunning for you. This is serious, so please stay in the room. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t call anyone, and don’t do anything until I get back. Promise me?”

“How long will you be gone?” I sit up and
try to hide the worry I’m feeling. I didn’t expect Sean to leave me alone. Picking at my nail polish, I add, “I’m a little nervous.” I hated admitting that part, especially because it makes the turmoil Sean is feeling about leaving me ten times worse.

“I can’t bring you with me
or I would. I swear, I would.” He’s glancing down at me, but I don’t look at him. Sean leans over, taking my face in his hands. My pulse skyrockets as my skin burns under his hands. A current of sparks shoots through my stomach and into my chest, stealing my breath. It’s not fair that his touch conjures so much. I want to make Sean so lust ridden that he can’t think. I want him to growl, whoop, or do whatever he does when he’s lost in the moment. It’s a luxury that he has denied himself, and I wish so badly that I could give it to him.

Sean’s
voice is tight when he speaks again. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can. It should be before morning.” He releases my cheeks and gives me a lopsided smirk. “You can sleep on the bed.”

“Were you going to make me sleep on the floor?”
I sit up and watch him pull his jacket on and pick up his helmet.

“Of course. What guy wouldn’t want a beautiful woman at his feet?” He laughs and the sound makes me smile.

I smack his thigh, as if he offended me, but he didn’t. Instead my mind derailed into Dirtyville again and I start thinking about what kind of things I could do to him if I were at his feet.

“Stop it, Avery.”
Sean laughs and shoves me. I fall sideways onto the bed.

“I wasn’t thinking about you!”

“Yeah, right. I know you weren’t thinking about Marty. Or Mel.”

Raising my arm, I hold up a finger, like I’m making an important point while my face is still half buried in a pillow.
“I’m not batting for that team.”

“Which makes me really happy.” Sean is at the door and turns back to me. “I’ll bring dinner when I come back. No sexting. No clients. No Miss Black, and no anything.”

I nearly choke. Pushing up on an elbow, I scoff, “No clients? You seriously think I’d take a client while you were gone? Sean!”

Straight-faced, he says, “I was talking about me.” He winks and disappears through the door before I have a chance to hit him with my shoe.

He’s teasing me. I know what he’s doing, and it won’t work because I refuse to have sex with him again. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t screw with him a little bit. There’s a new flat screen TV across from the bed. I glance at my phone and back at the TV as an idea forms.

The bed is hard and the room is dark, except for the flickering light of the TV. I’ve listened to my sexting videos too many times to count. I put them on an endless loop to mess with Sean when he comes back, but he hasn’t showed yet and the damn videos are just making me horny. Plastering a pillow over my head, I roll over and try to muffle the sounds of video-me coming again.

I don’t know how much time
has passed, but I must have dozed off because I never heard the door open. A hand lands on my bare shoulder and before I can see anything, I throw a punch and yelp.

My wrist is caught in a vicelike grip before it collides with Sean’s face. He watches me as I try to cut through the
sleep induced haze. Words tumble out of my mouth before my brain checks them, “There are no hams!” Yeah. I don’t think that made sense. What the hell was I dreaming about? I blink again and try to yank my wrist away, but Sean doesn’t let go.

“Hams?” He laughs
, and then sits on the side of the bed. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to take your hams, Miss Smith. However, after viewing this little treat you left for me on the TV, I might be interested in sampling some of your other goods.”

“
Psh!” I throw a punch with my other hand and he grabs that one too. Sleepily, I blink at him and yawn, “I shoulda thought this through.” Sean has both my wrists and looks like he plans on devouring me. We never ate dinner. I’m allowed to dream of pork and bacon. Bacon would be good. “I don’t think you want to mess with a sleepy girl and her hams.”

“What the hell were you dreaming about?”

“Like it matters? I’m never going to hear the end of this, and every time I eat ham, I’m going to be aroused because of that stupid video.”

Sean l
aughs so hard that I feel like the funniest person alive. Score. I’m amusing. It isn’t until he tugs my wrists to his chest and leans in close to my ear that I notice a spattering of something on his shirt. Since this is Sean, I doubt that it’s ketchup. Why does he have blood on his shirt?  Did he get into a fight? What the hell was he doing?

Sean’s voice has that husky tone that makes me crazy.
“I loved that video. I wish you made it for me.”

“I did.
Sorta.”

Sean lingers close to my
lips and releases a slow breath. It makes me close my eyes. Every ounce of me wants to lean into him and let Sean do anything he wants, but this has to stop. When his lips touch the side of my face I nearly jump out of my skin. Sucking in a sharp breath, I try to pull away, but he doesn’t let me. Sean’s mouth drifts to my neck, one hot kiss at a time, and my resolve starts to soften. When did I become so easy?

“Sean…” I manage to say his name, but it sounds too breathy, like I want him to keep going. So I try again. “Wait.”

His grip on my wrists loosens as his face tips up from my neck. “Using the TV like that was cheating. I can hardly control myself around you, Avery. Do you know how hard it is to look at you and not touch you? When you laid on the grass today, it took every ounce of restraint to keep from taking you right there.” My face burns at the thought. I can’t help it. Sex in public places makes me bashful. Sean smashes his eyes closed before looking at me again. “Oh God, don’t do that. You’re killing me. How am I supposed to be around you and not have you? I’m so hard it hurts, Avery. I need you.”

He presses me back into the bed and I feel how badly he wants me th
rough his jeans. Sean presses his hands between my thighs, pushing my legs apart, and lays in between, rocking his hard body against mine. Since Mel drove off with all my clothes, I’m only wearing panties and a tee shirt, so there’s very little keeping us apart. Deep inside, my body reacts to him and pulsates. The heat between my legs demands his presence. I want him on me, in me, and the slow grinding is making me lose my mind. The video was such a mistake. I would have been able to tell him no easily before, but now I’m half asleep and very aroused. Plus, it’s Sean. His scent fills my head as he rocks against me and holds my wrists to the bed. How’d I end up on the bottom?

Sean leans in for a kiss, and it kills me, but I manage to turn my face to the side.
He lingers, allowing his hot breath to move across my skin before backing up. “Tell me.”

It’s such a simple request, two words and no more, but I can’t do it. Besides, what am I supposed to say?
‘I’m over you, Sean Ferro. Go away.’ Like that’ll ever happen. I’m not over him at all and I’m rather thrilled to be under him at the moment. Fuck. I’m so mental. “I want you, but…”

Sean
grins and backs off, sitting down beside me. Rubbing his hands over his face, he sighs. “Now you have morals?”

Darting upright in the bed, I’m wide awake and ready to chew him out. “Excuse me? I’ve always had morals!”

Sean glances over at me, like he’s trying not to laugh. “Are you serious? You signed up to be a call girl. If you didn’t walk into Black’s and sign on the line—”

“I’d already met you by the time I did that. I saw your picture, and then I signed.” Oh shit. That didn’t sound right. My face scrunches as I turn away from him and try to hide under the sheet.

Sean swats the thin fabric away. The lights aren’t on and the TV is still playing that video. I can see my splayed legs behind his head, glowing like a pair of sexy antlers. “Come again?” he says, leaning closer to me. “Did you just say that the only reason you became a call girl was to get dates?”

“No!”

“Then what was it?”

“To sleep with you, loser. Weren’t you listening?” I shove his arm, hard, but Sean barely moves. “I have morals.
I do. I’m a very moralistic person.” Sean’s smiling at me and has a funny look on his face. It makes me squirm. I can’t tell what he’s thinking at all and that concerns me. I push his shoulder again, and say, “Stop it.”

“I’m sorry. I stand corrected. You have morals. They’re a very strange set of
idealistic codes, but you have them. Apparently I’m the only one in this relationship who is devoid of scruples.”

“You’re not de
void of anything. You just put them away for a while.” I look down at my hand when I notice the reddish sticky substance on my palm. It wasn’t there before I shoved him. There’s more blood on his sleeve. My eyes flick up and lock with his blue gaze. Holding up my hand, I ask, “Is this blood? Tell me that you didn’t kill someone tonight. Because I’m pretty sure this isn’t yours.”

Sean
takes my bloody palm and pulls me off the bed. “I didn’t kill anyone. Someone was… You know what, forget it. It’s taken care of and I’d like to help you clean this off, if you’ll let me.” There’s a question in his tone.

I don’t like this. I don’t know where he went or what he did. There are a few spatters of something dark on his shirt
, at least it only seems like a few, but I can’t see very much with the lights out. Maybe I don’t want to know, and at the same time I do, because if Sean kicked someone’s ass it assures me that he can take care of me no matter what happens.

I nod. It’s all the approval Sean needs.

He nods curtly and heads to the bathroom to turn on the shower. When he returns, he walks toward me like he knows
exactly what he plans to do. Sean’s hands reach for the hem of my shirt, where they pause as he looks up into my eyes. My breath catches in my throat as my heart explodes, racing even faster than before. Not knowing what he’s doing, combined with that look, knocks the breath out of me. I can barely stand as he strips me.

First
, the shirt comes over my head and I fold my arms over my chest. I don’t mean to do it, but I can’t help myself. Sean is intimidating when he has this look in his eyes. It’s like he’s found a mouse to bat around and plans to keep the poor creature in play long enough to take what he wants. There’s a carnal side to him that scares me, because I know what he wants—what he needs. Sean’s taken it from me before and doing that again terrifies me. I wonder exactly what I just gave him permission to do.

Sean’s thumbs
hook into the sides of my panties, as his eyes rake over the swells of my breasts, half hidden by my arms. He slips the fabric over my hips, making me suck in a sharp breath as he tugs them.

Why can’t I tell him no? I can tell Marty no. No. Say it, Avery! Tell him that he can’t have you! But I want him.
And that’s the truth. I want this to be real so badly that I’m willing to pretend, even if it’s for a little while. Maybe I’m not totally mental, I mean stripping isn’t the same as sex and he’s already seen me naked. This body should be old news to him, right?

Based on the look on Sean’s face, this body will never be old news. I like how he makes me feel. Goddess
es would blush if he looked at them like that. Those blue eyes, that wicked smirk, and the way he’s so close but not close enough—Sean Ferro makes me totally crazy.

Sean kneels in front of me as he slowly slips my bottoms down over my thighs. He’s right in front of me, close enough to do all sorts of naughty things with hi
s face right there. I’m utterly still as I shift my weight, foot to foot, and he pulls my panties off. Sean wads them in his hand and lifts them to his face before breathing in deeply. This time when his eyes flash upward, I can’t breathe at all. His look shoots through my body and into my core in a single, hot streak. Dirty thoughts fly through my mind without caution. I hope he grabs my ass hard and pulls the V at the top of my legs to his face, so he can lick me generously, from ass to clit. While he’s still on his knees, I picture him burying his face in my lower lips, licking and sucking my sensitive skin, driving his tongue deeper and deeper inside me, while he pulls my hips down hard, as if he can’t get enough. My entire body is trembling, watching Sean, waiting to see what he’ll do.

But the sexy man
doesn’t do those things. Instead, he rises from the floor and reaches for me, taking my hands from my breasts. His eyes don’t lift from my chest, where my nipples are tightening into hard little nubs. Heart racing, I manage to stand there and let him stare, but the aching in my breasts—the desire to touch and be touched—worsens.

T
he way he’s breathing makes me yearn for his hands on my flesh. My skin is so sensitive, so ready to be felt, but Sean remains still, standing there looking at me like he’s never going to see my body like this again.

His eyes slip over every curve, memorizing all of me
, until his chin tips up. “I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, and it amazes me that you still try to cover yourself, like you don’t know how desirable and perfect your body truly is. Don’t hide from me, Avery. Not tonight. I won’t touch you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

I can’t find my voice, so I nod, and get treated to a light smile. His eyes travel up and down my body again, and I wish they were
his hands. Or his lips and that sinful tongue. Long, wet licks sound about right. I’m too tired to think and too lusty to stand there like I’m not. His eyes fixate on my right breast and I wonder if that’s his favorite. The question floating through my mind falls out of my mouth without much thought. “If you could lower your lips to any place on my body, but you only had one kiss, where would you choose?”

Sean looks at me through those dark lashes and
smiles. “May I show you?”

The giddy part of me that’s turned into a
lust ridden siren replies, “Yes.”

I wonder what he’s going to do, because Sean hesitates. His eyes drop to my nipples, one at a time, and then he steps back
, looking me over. Sean circles me once, slowly, making my heart slam into my ribs even harder. The place between my legs is so hot, and throbbing hard. I want him so badly and I’m hoping he picks some place really racy to kiss me. His lips pressed between my thighs would be heaven. That mouth on my breast, sucking and teasing me into oblivion sounds delicious, too.

Sean stops in front of me a
nd looks down into my face. Lowering his head slowly he presses his mouth to mine. The heat from his lips bursts into flames when the kiss connects. I want to grab his head with my hands and pull his hair, but I keep my hands plastered to my sides. This is his kiss and I want to see what he does, so I don’t move.

S
ean kisses me again, gently pressing against me. Sean’s bottom lip catches mine and he nips me lightly before sliding his tongue over the seam of my mouth. I part my lips for him, but Sean doesn’t kiss me that way. It’s the most innocent, chaste kiss he’s ever given me. When Sean pulls away I nearly fall over. I rasp, like someone sucker-punched me, and stare at him.

He doesn’t explain what he did or why. Sean simply extends his hand and says, “Come on
, Miss Smith. I need to clean you up and get you to bed.”

I slip my palm into his and follow him into the bathroom. He helps me into the shower, but doesn’t give me a washcloth or soap. “Rinse off and call me when you’re ready.”

“Ready for what?” My voice barely comes out.

S
ean makes an amused sound as he tugs the curtain closed. Uh, I didn’t think I was funny just then, but okay.

I let the water pound my face and my back, but I’m strung so tight that I’ll never sleep, not now. Not with Sean here. After a few moments, I decide against giving myself
a good time. With my luck, he’ll walk in on me and that would be completely mortifying. Doing it in front of someone is different than doing it on camera. There’s separation, and it didn’t feel as dirty. Maybe I should just go to sleep. I do want soap though, and a soft pillow sounds nice, especially if my loins simmer down, so I call him.

Sean returns without his shirt, but he’s still dressed. I can’t hide
my disappointment, but I try. Apparently, I do a shitty job. Sean smiles at me. “Hoping for something else?” I shrug. “I hate it when you do that. Say something. Own it. Tell me what you’re thinking, what you’re hoping for. I want to hear.”

“You don’t like it when I shrug? That’s an old man thing to say. You can’t say stuff like that,” I tease. I figure that I look like a drown
ed rat, but Sean’s gaze says something else. Drowned rats aren’t fuckable and his eyes say that I am. If he gave me a bar of soap I would have dropped it and bent over just to see what he’d do. No wonder he took the soap away.

R
eaching forward, he wets a washcloth before putting soap on it. “Hands,” he says, and I give them to him, holding them out like he’s going to handcuff me. Sean flips them over and washes each one carefully, while he speaks. “I am old. Besides, you know your mind. I wish you weren’t so afraid to speak it.”

I nearly double over with laughter. “You think that’s the problem? That I don’t want to tell you what I think? I can tell you. Believe me, that’s not it.”

“Okay,” he says, as he abandons the washcloth and dumps more shower gel into his hands, “tell me where you wanted me to kiss you before.” His palms land on my upper arms and work the gel into a lather. Oh my God, it feels good.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t decided. Either right breast or, uh—”

“Say it.” His voice is commanding, like he’ll whip me if I don’t confess this second.

“Between my legs?” Why did that sound like a question?

Sean smirks as his hands rub soap over my stomach and up to my ribs. “I can get you to say exactly what you’re thinking without any hesitation at all. I just—”

That makes me laugh. “No you can’t. That’s a bunch of
bullsheeee.” My voice jumps an octave when his fingers wrap around my nipples and squeeze. My chin drops and I squeal as my back arches toward his hands. The touch is pure agony because he keeps his distance on the other side of the tub. I can’t rock my hips against his and there’s no outlet for the torture between my legs.

“What were you saying?
” Sean smiles devilishly as water splashes up onto his bare chest. The only thing I can think about is licking each drop off with my tongue. I have no idea what he was talking about. “Oh, yes, tell me where you wanted my mouth during that kiss.” He rubs his fingers, pressing gently, watching my eyes as he does.

My mouth open
s into a wide O and I squeak. “Between my legs.”

He shakes his head. “Not good enough.” His fingers clamp down like vices on my tender flesh.

Gasping, I try to pull away from him, but it just makes it worse. Pleasure and pain responses are firing through my brain like a lightning storm. He needs to let go or do more to sate my lust. Sean catches my eye and is watching me closely. I know he likes to see the pain dancing across my face, but he doesn’t take things too far. Not this time.

I’m making noises that will haunt me in daylight, and am close to hopping—what’s that about?—but I don’t answer him the way he wants, so he starts to twist. Oh. My. God.
Suddenly the shower feels like fingers all over my skin and I gasp again and again as he tightens his grip. Coils of heat shoot through my core and my knees buckle, but Sean doesn’t allow me to dip. He holds me in place by my breasts, with his dark eyes on my face, fixated, and expressionless.

“Tell me
,” he commands, as his hands twist both nipples in the same direction while increasing the pressure. I want to say it. I do, but I can’t talk like that when I’m not in the heat of the moment. It’s wrong or something. But my poor tatas are going to be stuck in a corkscrew shape if I don’t talk soon. “Say it.” He commands me again and twists the other way, increasing pressure as he does so.

“Pussy!” I
blurt out. “I wanted you to kiss my pussy and lick me--hard.” The last word catches in my throat. I don’t look up at him. Saying stuff like that, out loud, to Sean, is unthinkable. I’m caught between pleasure and pain, somewhere between heaven and hell, with this beautifully twisted man watching streams of water flow over my body.

Sean doesn’t show any emotion, instead he slowly unt
wists my nipples and eases up on the pressure, but he doesn’t let go. I glance up at him. As if he can read my mind, he explains, “It’ll hurt more if I just let go.”

“More than before?”

He nods and then asks, “Why can’t you just take what you want?”

I can’t shrug because his hands are still on my breasts, holding me.
“Why do you have to manipulate me? Why can’t you just say you want to fuck me?”

“Because I don’t want to fuck you.” He releases more pressure and then let’s go.
Those blue eyes burn like twin flames.

My breast
s ache because of what he did and because he’s gone. “Yeah, you want to own me. I got it and I’m not for sale. Well, I am, but that’s more like renting than buying me.” I have no idea what I’m saying. I’m mad he did that and angry that he got a confession that was so deep, so fast, and then he says he’s not interested.

I lift my hand to slap him in the face. Every single time the man grabs my
wrist and stops me, but not this time. There’s a loud crack when my wet palm lands on his cheek. His sapphire eyes stare at me without remorse as I slip my hand away. “I don’t want to buy you. I don’t want to fuck you. Ask me why, Avery.”

I’m trembling, wondering what came over him. The water is hot,
but I shiver anyway and look away. “No.” I can’t fathom why or what he wants. Not after everything we’ve been through. I want to cry. He doesn’t want me at all anymore? He just wants to cause me pain? I can’t deal with this.

“No?
” He sounds shocked. “You can’t say no.”

“Yes,
I can and I just did.” He’s looking at me like he wants to throw me through the wall. I plaster my arms across my nipples so he can’t make me say anything else I’ll regret.

Sean’s gaze drops for a moment. When he looks back up, his eyes flash. “If that’s the way you want it.”

I’ve won. He’s backing down. Sean turns around and opens the bathroom door. He’s leaving, but then he turns back and grins wolfishly before stepping into the shower with me. I screech as the water sprays everywhere. It streams down his cheeks and plasters his hair to his face, as Sean presses my back into the cold tile wall.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I try to move, but he pins me. “Ask me why.” His eyes search mine and I’m no longer sure what he’s going to say. “Ask me why I don’t want a fuck
, or why I don’t want to buy you. Ask me why I don’t want to share you with Black or anyone else. Ask me why my dick is hard and I’m still wearing pants, pressing my body against the most beautiful woman in existence. Ask me why she’s naked and I’m not. Ask me, Avery. Ask me anything. I’m begging you.” There’s a soft plea in his voice that nearly breaks me, but I can’t bear to hear his answer.