The Private Serials Box Set (37 page)

   When the girls dispersed, Lena made her way back to me, her eyes a little sadder than before.  The three of them were quiet until we’d made it back to the apartments, then they made plans to lie on the beach the next afternoon, all three agreeing that a morning run wasn’t on their to-do list.

   We walked into our apartment and I flipped on the lights, heading directly to the kitchen to bring Lena a tall glass of water and some pain pills.  She quietly sank into one of the chairs around the table.

   “Wanna talk about it?” I asked as I grabbed a glass from the cupboard.

   She looked back at me and gave me another sad smile.  “I’m just going to really miss the girls.  I’ve never been far from Sam, besides the first two months here.  And I love Piper, but I’ll be honest, it makes me a little jealous that the two of them will be living together while I’m all the way across the ocean.”  She dropped her face into her hands and groaned.  “Ugh.  I sound like an annoying child.”  She took another deep breath and her eyes met mine once more.  “I’m mostly just sad.”  She paused again.  “Sam’s always been around, and when she wasn’t I had Piper.”  Her face turned into an adorable pout and her eyebrows scrunched up in the middle.  “Now I won’t have either of them.”

   “Babe, come here,” I said, trying not to laugh at how adorably drunk she was.  She stood and wasted no time ambling into my open arms.  I ran my hand down the back of her head, loving the feel of her silken hair against my skin.  “Everything’s going to be all right.”  I let her lean in to me for a while before prodding further.  “You know I’ll support you in whatever decision you make, sweetheart.  And if you want to stay in Hawaii I will, gladly.  But I’ll follow you anywhere.”  I felt her tense a little in my arms and I knew what was going through her mind.  “Do you have any friends or relatives anywhere else?  Do you have any place else you can go where there would be people you could rely on?”  She shook her head against my chest.

   “The only family I have left is in Russia and I haven’t seen them since I was a small child.  Any other friends I had were friends of Derrek’s.”  She slumped further against me and I hugged her closer.  “You’re all I have.”

   Her words, although they meant the world to me, left her feeling less, left her lacking.  She needed her friends just as much as she needed me, but wasn’t allowing herself to be close to them.  I wanted so badly to just shake her and tell her to go back to Portland, that I would keep her safe and far away from the memories of Derrek, that she didn’t have to punish herself this way.  But I knew she needed to come to that conclusion on her own.  I knew Lena, and I knew the decision to be in Portland needed to be hers alone, so I didn’t push.  I couldn’t help but wonder when Lena would take something for herself.  She’d spent years in a marriage of giving and giving up, and did nothing but sacrifice for others  I resolved in that moment that I would try to help her realize that she deserved to take what she wanted, that she deserved the same happiness anyone else did.

   “Everything is going to be all right.  I swear.  If I’m all you have then I’ll be all you need.”  I leaned back and pressed a kiss against her forehead.  “Will you drink this water for me and take these pills?  I need you to sober up a little so we can have a conversation.”

   “Is everything all right?” she asked anxiously.

   “Yeah.  Just do this for me and then get ready for bed and I’ll meet you there after I shower.”

   She nodded then tipped up on her toes, trying to reach my lips with hers—always failing since I was so much taller than her.  So I smiled and leaned down to meet her, accepting the way her lush lips pressed into mine, the way her meek and shy tongue asked gently for permission to enter, then took more from her than I had anticipated when my tongue took a few wide sweeps through her mouth.

   I pulled away, not wanting to take the kiss further, needing, instead, to clear the air between us.

   “Go, babe.  I’ll meet you in the bedroom in a bit.”

   She smiled, turned away from me, and made her way down the hall.  I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to build up some nerve to have a discussion with Lena that could really go one of two ways.  I made my way to the bathroom and showered, distracted, trying to piece together what I would say to her, how I would tell the woman I loved I was being forced to kill her husband.

   I stepped out of the shower, confidence at an all-time high, convinced I was going to march into the bedroom and tell her the truth, tell her about Edgar and Derrek, and everything would work out for the best.  I wrapped a towel around my waist and marched into the room, only to be stopped in my tracks by the sight of Lena kneeling on the bed.

   Her black, luscious hair was falling down her back, her knees were spread, and her hands rested on her thighs.  She was wearing what looked like a short lace dress.  It obviously wasn’t made to wear in public and was more of the bedroom variety of dress, but it was absolutely sexy.  The lace did nothing to hide the brownish-pink color of her nipples, nor the fact that they were hard and straining through the lace itself.

   “Fuck me,” I mumbled, still standing in the doorway.

   “That’s the idea,” she responded, her voice deep and sultry.  She lifted one hand and crooked a finger at me, and I’ll be damned if my feet didn’t move of their own accord.  I couldn’t have stopped myself if I’d tried—which I didn’t.  When I made it to the foot of the bed, she lifted to her knees and her hands slid up my body, starting at my waist and trailing all the way up to my shoulders.  Once she had a firm grasp on me there, she pulled me in closer to her.  I watched as her mouth came to press a kiss right in the center of my chest, moving to one side, licking my nipple, then moved to the other side and repeated the attention on the other.  Her lips moved up my chest and headed for my neck, leaving a trail of kisses.  When she met the skin just below my neck she sucked and my knees nearly gave out.

   “Lena, please, we need to talk.” I groaned at my own words.  Her hands moved down my sides then gripped the towel, pulling it from me, leaving me bare.

   “We can talk, but we can only say dirty words.”

   I tried to keep my laugh in, but she was too goddamned cute.  Lena was sexy all of the time, so watching her
trying
to be sexy was hilarious.  “You don’t know any good dirty words,” I teased.  If she was offended, I couldn’t tell.  She continued her assault against the skin on my neck, her words coming out between kisses, licks, and bites.

   “Dick,” she whispered.

   “Sweetheart, dick is a nicer way of saying cock.  Cock is the dirty word you’re looking for.”  My hands came to her waist.  I loved the way the lace looked on her, but I didn’t like the way it felt on my hands.  I wanted her skin.

   “Fuck,” she whispered again, sounding more determined.  I could admit, hearing the word come from her, raspy and vibrating against my skin, was definitely sexy.

   “Closer.”  I surprised her by climbing onto the bed.  It made me taller than her again so her lips were forced from my neck. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her to me, I wound the other hand in her hair and pulled back so her eyes found mine.  “Try again.”

   “I want to feel your cock in my pussy.”  Her eyes never left mine as she bravely said words I’d never heard her utter before, but her breath faltered; she was obviously affected on a base level.

   “Oh yeah?  What else?”  My pulse raced, wanting to do everything she suggested and more.  I pulled her hair a little harder, but then moved forward, forcing her to lie on the bed.  I grabbed both of her hands and pinned them above her head.

   “I want to feel your hard cock pound into me from behind, and I want to feel your hand pulling my hair, all while you tell me what it feels like to be inside me.”

   Well, holy fuck.

   “Is that so?”  Apparently, if Lena got a little drunk, her inner minx came out.

   She nodded, her eyes glassy, a sexy grin gracing her lips.

   “I’m pretty sure I can manage all that.”  My cock was begging to give her exactly what she wanted and I’d given up trying to deny her when she started whispering dirty words in my ear.  I reached down and grabbed the bottom of her lacy dress, pulling it up and over her body while she wiggled, giggling.  As the black lace passed her magnificent breasts I stopped to take one into my mouth, never willing to pass up an opportunity to admire their perfection.  She had the kind of breasts my dick wanted to live between. 

   She groaned quietly as I took one of her nipples into my mouth and sucked hungrily, her lip trapped between her teeth.  I moved away and continued to pull off the lacy garment, then took a moment to let my eyes take in all her beauty as she lay naked in my bed, her black hair fanned out around her, creamy skin just barely pink with arousal. When she reached between us, grasping my cock and stroking me up and down, I knew she was done waiting.

   Her hand moved over me like silk and every muscle in my body tensed at the sensation.  Nothing felt as fantastic as having Lena’s hands on me.  I placed my fingers just at the edge of her entrance, and all my breath left me at the wetness there.

   “Jesus, Lena.  You’re soaked.”  She groaned, more loudly this time, as I slid two fingers into her, loving the way her body accepted me, the way it seemed to be waiting for me.  I moved my fingers in and out of her at a bruising pace, neither one of us looking for slow or smooth.  She wanted it rough and I intended to give her everything she wanted.  Always.  Her hips bucked up into my hand as she cried out.  Apparently, slightly drunk Lena was also louder.  Hearing her cries only made my cock jump and throb harder.  I leaned down and grabbed her breast with my free hand, squeezing roughly, and then my mouth covered her hard, tight peak.

   With every thrust of my fingers, I not only heard her arousal climbing, but I could feel her warm slickness.  She was nearly to her peak.  Still with two fingers plunging in and out, I used my thumb to circle her clit and watched as she exploded like a firecracker.  Hips bucked, mouth opened, eyes closed, and I watched as she lost herself in the sexual euphoria I got so much pleasure out of giving her.  Watching her fall apart at my hand was one of the most singularly arousing things to witness.

   I didn’t wait for her to come all the way down before I grabbed her hips, flipped her over, pulled her ass up, and plunged into her.

   “Fucking Christ, you’re so tight.  I love slamming into you while you’re still clenching.  It feels fucking amazing.”  I reached forward and wrapped my hand in her hair, just as she’d asked, pulled back gently and watched as her back arched and ass tipped up, fitting me perfectly.  I continued to pound into her, loving the sound of her cries with every thrust.  A ball of heat erupted in my spine, shooting forward, and I knew I wasn’t going to last much longer.  I gripped her hair more tightly, pulled her back harder, impaling her with significant force and speed, listening to her guttural moans and incoherent words.  When she collapsed onto her forearms, her pussy gripping me with more force than ever before, I knew she’d come again, and I followed right behind her.

   We both collapsed, panting, trying to catch our breath, each on our respective sides of the bed.  When I finally felt as though my heart wasn’t going to gallop away, I turned, wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her toward me.  When she was secure against me, her back to my front, I brushed her hair aside and kissed her temple.  I heard her exhale a shallow breath, then she settled into her spot, snuggling down. 

   “Love you,” she murmured, which I understood as her telling me goodnight. 

   I smiled, as if I could help it, and whispered into her ear, “I love you too, sweetheart.”

   I sighed as she drifted off to sleep, resigned to having our much-needed conversation the next day.  I smiled to myself as I vowed not to let her distract me with hot, drunken sex again.

Chapter Five

   The next morning, I didn’t waste any time getting Lena to listen to everything I had to say.  I woke up early, brewed coffee, cut up some fruit, and set it all out on the balcony.  Then I gently woke Lena, asking her to meet me for breakfast overlooking the ocean.  A few minutes later, when she joined me, I let myself drink her in.  Her face was soft from sleep, her hair pulled up high and piled atop her head, and she’d put on one of my button-up shirts.  She looked delectable, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted. 

   She came up beside my chair and leaned down, pressing a kiss against my lips, then sat down next to me, taking a sip of her coffee.

   “It’s gorgeous out this morning,” she said, her voice still raspy and fucking beautiful.

   I smiled in response because I knew if I opened my mouth some cheesy bullshit about nothing comparing to her beauty would fall out of it, and I would mean every word.

   “Do you remember how every night, back in Portland, I would sleep in my Lotus outside your house to make sure you were safe?”

   She looked confused by my question; I had obviously started a conversation she wasn’t prepared for.  “Um, yeah.”

   “I need you to remember that.  I need you to remember that, since the day I met you, I’ve done everything I could to keep you safe.  Remember that, and trust me.  Can you do that?”

   “You’re scaring me, Preston.”

   “I’m not trying to scare you, sweetheart, but I do have something to tell you and it will go more smoothly if you just keep that in mind—that I’ve always been focused on you and your safety and your happiness.”

   She nodded, her expression a little hesitant.

   “Yesterday, at the luau, I took a phone call.”

   “Right, from Parker.”  Her face paled and I watched as she became instantly panicked.  “Oh my God, is he okay?”

   “Parker is fine, but it wasn’t him on the phone.  It was Edgar.”  I waited as my words sunk in and watched as realization came over her face.

   “The man who tailed us the night of the gala?”