The Lovely Garden (3 page)

It earned me a chuckle. “This date,” he came toward me, I didn’t move away this time, “was not exactly a blind one.”

“What do you mean?” I asked frozen in place. His fingertips found my arm once again. They trailed all the way up my neck. A sigh of content escaping me.

“I asked Jennifer to set us up.” That was the last thing I expected to hear. Why the hell would he want to go on a date with me? And how the hell did he know me before this? I mean, he looked familiar, but I still couldn’t place where I had seen him before. If the confusion showed on my face, he said nothing. Just lifted my chin with his thumb, his hand on the back of my neck, and leaned forward. My breath caught as his lips met mine.

As far as kisses go, it was one of the best I’d had. It was rough and gentle at the same time. His fingers stayed firmly on the back of my neck, but his thumb traced the line of my jaw. My mouth parted before he could ask permission, desperate to get a taste of him. Our tongues met and a whimper escaped me. Charles smiled and he brushed his tongue against mine again, hoping to get the same reaction. And he did, along with my fingers digging into his suit jacket.

When we parted, I gasped for breath, and burrowed my face into his chest. Now, that I knew where our relationship stood, I was going to allow myself to take in as much of his scent as possible. If I could, I would bathe in it, but then I would end up hating it. So, I would settle with just wrapping myself into him.

I wanted a moment to recoup my thought, but Charles wouldn’t allow it. He leaned my head to the side, kissed the crook of my neck, and nipped at the soft flesh. My fingers dug into his jacket even more, if possible. If he bit any harder, which I was sure he would, my knees would buckle. Anything to do with my neck left me weak in the knees and wet between the legs.

He bit me harder, and I knew it was time to take this somewhere else. If my knees were going to give out, it was going to be somewhere soft. “We should go to your bedroom.”

Charles wasted no time. He led me back into the main hall and up the stairs. We reached his room, two rooms from the stairs on the right. I was amazed at how plain it was. There was a four-poster bed with a thick blue comforter on it. It sat on a white throw rug similar to the one in the room we were just in. A nightstand sat on either side of the bed both with lamps sitting on top. A long dresser sat opposite of the bed with an oval mirror sitting on it. Overall, the room was not that big, considering the rest of the house.

As soon as Charles shut the door, he had me against it, his mouth on mine once again. His tongue fought with mine and his hands roamed. Fingers danced across my skin, never once touching the things I wanted him to touch. A reminder that he was still a gentleman. That even though we were making out, he would not go further until I said so. And I said so, when I broke the kiss. “Touch me, please.”

Charles obliged, his touch became firmer. One hand raked across my ribcage as the other gripped my ass firmly, pulling me closer to him. I hummed my pleasure, hoping to encourage him further. It worked. The hand playing with my ribcage moved up and gripped my breast tightly and Charles’ mouth was on mine in a heated kiss.

My fingers found their way to the back of his head, entangled in his hair, and pushed him toward me to deepen the kiss. He broke the kiss and moved to my neck. A trail of bites and kisses were left as he moved to my shoulder. He played with my thin dress strap before moving it out of his way, and bit the flesh where it used to rest. My grip on his hair tightened and I pushed him down into my shoulder, making the bite harder, my knees finally giving out.

The grip he had on my ass tightened. The next thing I knew, I was being lifted up by him. My legs wrapped around Charles’ waist instinctively. “I think the bed is a better place,” said Charles after he released my shoulder from his teeth. I just nodded my head in agreement, unable to say anything.

I took this opportunity to do some exploring of my own. My mouth moved to his throat, kissing and licking all of the spots that I could. When I got nothing but a shiver, I moved up to his ears. I took the lobe between my teeth, rolling it. The grip on my ass tightened. “Keep that up and we won’t make it to the bed.” My response was to bite him harder, and his knees gave.

It was pure luck that we had already made it to the bed. If not, we would have been on the floor instead of Charles on top of me and my back pressed against a soft mattress. My legs were still wrapped around his waist, but his hands were on either side of my head, so he didn’t crush me when we fell. His eyes were roaming my body, as if trying to see what I looked like underneath my clothes.

“You know,” I start, putting a hand on his face and coaxing him down for a kiss, “if you take off my clothes, you don’t have to imagine anything.” Before he could reply, my lips were on his in a brief kiss.

He pulled away from the kiss and stared down at me. The desire in his eyes was enough to send a shiver up my spine. “I want you to take them off for me.”

I sat up, a smirk on my face. “Awfully demanding, aren’t you?” He hummed his agreement and stood straight so that I could have room to get out of my clothes. The dress I wore was just a slip on so it wasn’t hard to just pull it over my head, and my strapless bra was just some hooks in the back, my breasts springing free. My panties, on the other hand, were going to be a little more difficult to remove while sitting. I had to wiggling my hips before they finally got off and I tossed them on the floor with the growing pile.

Charles’ lips met mine as he directed me to scoot back on the bed. “Lay down,” he said, kissing the line of my jaw to my ear. I obliged and he came down with me, lips moving down my neck. “So beautiful,” he muttered against my skin before capturing a nipple between his lips. He sucked hard and my back arched, groaning and digging my nails into his shoulder blades. One of his hands went to my free breast, twisting the nipple and making me groan more, while the other gripped a hip tightly to keep me somewhat in place.

My back arched to spine-cracking levels when Charles bit down and swirled his tongue across my nipple. A sad whimper left me when he released it. “You seemed to like that,” he said as he rubbed his face against my chest, my nipples hardening with his breath against my skin. “Do you want me to do it again?”

“Yes,” I croaked. There was no sucking this time, he went straight to biting. My fingers made their way into his hair, gripping as tight as I could without ripping out any strands.

While I was thoroughly distracted, Charles removed his hand from my hip and slipped it between my thighs. His fingers barely brushed my entrance, and I gasped in surprise and pleasure. “You’re so wet already.”

“It might have been a while,” I admit. Not that what he was doing wasn’t turning me on, because it was. It just normally took a little more effort than that to get me
that
wet.

“Let’s not keep you waiting then.” With that, he pulled away and started to unbutton his shirt. His eyes were on me the entire time, as if wanting to see how I would react. I just wanted him to hurry up. I needed him inside of me. Needed to be filled with him.

To speed things along, I started to touch myself. My fingers rubbing against my clit, my free hand groping a breast. “Please, hurry,” I begged.

Charles groaned, but didn’t increase his speed. “Keep doing that,” he said, removing his shirt and then moved to his belt. His eyes were on me as he unbuckled his belt and removed his pants and underwear. Before I could get a good look at him, he leaned forward, covering my mouth with his. The kiss was brief, intense, and left me wanting more. “Hold that thought,” he said, placing his forefinger on my lips.

He left me then, and I gave the most unlady-like growl a woman had ever uttered. “If you don’t hurry up, I’m going to start without you,” I threatened. He threw me a wolfish grin over his shoulder as he headed toward his dresser. He opened the top drawer and started to rifle through it. I huffed and sat up. “What’s so important that you had to stop and kill the mood?” That wasn’t exactly true. I was still ready to go as long as he got back quickly.

When Charles turned back around, there was a foil packet between his fingers. He shook it in my direction. Yeah, that was a
little
important. I was on birth-control, but I would rather not take a risk, especially since I really didn’t know that guy. “Well, get back here,” I commanded, lying flat on the bed.

That was the only prompting he needed. He was on top of me in a second, capturing my lips in his. His tongue brushed my lower lip and I allowed it in to explore. My hands moved of their own accord, running down his back, feeling the muscles as they went along. And let me say, they were some nice ones.

I hadn’t realized that he had gotten the condom on until he was poised at my entrance. I lifted my hips to give him a better angle and to let him know I was ready. He was inside of me then, sinking in inch by inch until our hips touched and I could feel his entire length. My nails dug into his shoulder blades and he groaned into my mouth.

“More,” I demanded when he removed his mouth from mine to bury his face in my neck. He was quick to obey my command. My nails started to dig in deeper with each thrust. His fingers, in turn, entangled in my hair, pulling my head to the side to give him more access to my neck, where he bit and sucked until his heart’s content. His free hand gripping my hip tightly, helping me meet his thrusts.

When his rhythm started to become quicker, more erratic, he moved his hand from my hip and started to thumb my clit in rough circles. With his hand no longer on my hip, it gave me free reign to meet his thrusts as hard as I wanted to. Charles growled and his grip became tighter on my hair, making me cry out my pleasure. He was close, and I wasn’t too far behind.

With one last thrust, Charles came and I right after him. He rubbed my clit still, milking my orgasm for a long as he could. For several seconds, we sat wrapped in each other and our sweat mingling, breathing heavy. When we both had finally recovered, Charles unwound himself from me, taking the condom off and throwing in the trash next to the bed. He wrapped his arms around my stomach and pulled me toward him with my back against chest. I relaxed into him.

We lay in silence for several minutes. Then, I had to ask, “Why did you ask Jenny to set us up?”

It took Charles so long to answer I had believed he fell asleep. “We met each other before,” he told me. “It was at one of William and Jennifer’s parties.” So, when I was drunk. Jenny always fed me booze when I was with her. It was a game she liked to play. How drunk can Amy get? Fun for her, but not for me. Especially the next morning. Hangovers were a bitch, and they only get worse the older you get.

I turned in his arms so I could look at him. “I really don’t remember. Sorry.” It was a terrible feeling not being able to remember him. I’m sure it was no picnic for him either. Next time, I was going to have to put my foot down on how much alcohol I allowed Jenny to feed me.

He smiled and kissed me, a quick peck on the lips. "It's fine. You were pretty drunk, and we only spoke for a moment. You informed me that I have a nice ass." That sounded like something I would say while I was drunk. I was pretty forward after I had a few in me. At least, I now knew why I had the vague feeling I had met him before.

I stared at him, studying his face to see if I could even remember a piece of that night. The night I had complimented this man, which had led him to asking for Jenny to set us up. Then it hit me, and the color drained from my face. “You’re Billy’s boss!” Boss and CEO of the company Billy worked for.

The night I had met him had been a party Jenny threw for Billy, who had just gotten a semi-promotion. Jenny had introduced us after she convinced me to do not one, but two shots of tequila after already having two glasses of wine. That night was a blur, but now I could remember meeting Charles. He was playing it lightly when he said I told him he had a nice ass. I had slapped it as well. Yay for sexual harassment.

The horror of my situation washed over me like a tsunami. I had just slept with my best friend’s husband’s boss. And she was the one who set it up! Maybe not the sex part, but the date. What in the actual fuck had she been thinking? None of my relationships went well. There was always a bad breakup, and she thought it would be smart to hook me up with the man that writes her husband’s paychecks. My friend might have last her goddamn mind.

“You don’t look too happy about that.” His tone was guarded. Of course, I wasn’t happy about it. What was there to be happy about, aside from the amazing sex we just had? Didn’t he understand there was a huge possibility of a catastrophe happening? Then again, Jenny probably hadn’t mentioned that I had mastered the ability to completely decimate a relationship.

“I-I just can’t believe Jenny would set me up with you.” I sat up, putting my face in my hands. This date had started to take a wrong turn. So much for my after sex glow.

He sat up with me. “I didn’t give her much of a choice.” My confusion showed on my face when I turned to him. “I kept pestering her until she said she would do it. There was even mention of you being a relationship disaster?” Okay. It seemed she attempted to steer him clear of me. It just hadn’t worked like she had expected. “I would have to say, I believe this date is going well for one of us being a disaster.”

It wasn’t all that funny, but it made me laugh. Relaxed the tension I had just built up. “The disaster doesn’t come until later,” I admitted. “Give me a few months and I’ll show you my magic.” I shook my head in wonder. “Why would you still want to date me after hearing that?”