Authors: Ella Celestine
Chapter Six
Courtney pushed herself onto the counter in the bathroom and looked at Andrew, expecting some type of emotion. “So are you okay with all this Drew?” Now that she knew she’d never really gotten rid of her feelings for him, she understood the pangs of sympathy that were making her heart race.
He shrugged, leaning back against the wall looking like he’d come off the pages of a magazine. “I’m not surprised with the nature of our arrangement. But she’s been cheating the entire time, or
not
cheating really since she was with him prior to this thing.”
Courtney listened, disgusted because he hadn’t changed one bit in the years they’d been apart. “So what was the threat this time? Nick will cut you out of the will if you don’t marry her and Charlotte will have to live on the millions she makes?”
Andrew frowned as though he didn’t understand and Courtney got a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Nothing so dramatic. They asked and explained their reasoning and we both agreed.”
She felt herself nodding but everything suddenly felt blurry or maybe it was foggy. His words barely registered beyond the sound and Courtney slid off the counter, feeling for the doorknob through what she now knew were her own tears. “Got it. See you later, Drew.” His hands spanned her waist and pulled her against his broad chest.
“Stop, Court. Please.”
“Let me go or I’ll scream.”
“Only if you promise to listen to me.”
She couldn’t promise that. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say so just let me go and we can continue to avoid one another.”
He chuckled and the sound vibrated along her spine and straight down to her core. “But I don’t want to avoid you,” he whispered, making sure his lips brushed along the shell of her ear. “I want to do the opposite of avoid you.”
She scoffed and tried to squirm away from his magic mouth. “No you don’t. You want to fuck me, Drew but I’m not interested.” Finally he freed her and she whirled on him. “You’re a goddamn coward, that’s what you are! You tossed me aside for the top spot at your daddy’s company but you didn’t need so much as a pretty fucking please to marry the ice queen! I wish I’d never met you.” She pushed at his chest and pushed again until he grabbed her wrists and pressed her between his body and the hard wall.
“That’s too bad because you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” He ground himself against her backside until she gasped and pressed back. “I hate that I didn’t stand up for us back then.”
“You’re still doing it,” she accused, leaning her head back to give him better access. “You chose pleasing your father over being happy. He’ll die happy and you’ll die miserable.” How appropriate because right now she felt both happy and miserable. Happy that his touch felt so good and miserable that she would never experience his touch again.
“You were the only man who ever made me happy, Courtney. You were the one bright spot in my life.”
She turned in his arms and pressed her fingers to his mouth. “Don’t say it because we both know it’s not true. You never loved me. Despite that, I’ve still missed you.
He smiled, breathless, with his hands on her ass. “I missed you too.” And then he pressed his body against hers and pressed his mouth to hers.
The moment his mouth touched hers, that old familiar fire went straight to her blood, heating her body until it was hot to the touch. That spark that had always existed between them was still there and if she wasn’t mistaken, it was stronger than ever. When his tongue touched hers all thoughts fled her mind and she could only focus on the drag of his tongue against hers, the feel of his hands kneading her ass and the press of his erection into her.
“Courtney,” he groaned, grabbing her by the ass and sitting her on the counter. She hissed out a breath when her bare flesh landed on the cold hard surface. He’d lifted her skirt and stepped between her legs. “You taste just how I remember.”
Her head fell back when his mouth left a moist trail down her neck and shoulder. Soft moans fell from her mouth as he touched and tasted her. Andrew smoothly untied the ribbon at her neck to reveal her breasts to him. Her moans grew louder as his mouth lowered and his tongue curled around her nipple, pulling it into his mouth and at the same time, two fingers plunged her depths. “God,” she moaned again, pressing herself into his hands.
“You’re so wet. So sweet,” he whispered on his way to her other breast. “Courtney,” he said again, this time it was a question.
Instead of answering him, she unbuckled his belt and shoved his pants and boxers as far as she could reach. Fisting him in her hand she rubbed his head through her folds. “Yes,” she exhaled when he flexed his hips and pushed into her body, slowly. So achingly slowly. It felt so good to be here, like this with him again. It couldn’t last and she would pay for it. Later. Now she wrapped her legs around his waist and dug her heels into his well muscled ass and hung on for dear life as he drove in and out of her with the wild abandon of a man on a mission. He was hungry for her, couldn’t keep his mouth and hands off of her while he slowly brought them both to the precipice and guided them over. She clung to his shoulders as she rode out her orgasm, squeezing and convulsing all around him.
“Courtney,” he whispered in her ear over and over again. His hips had slowed but they hadn’t stopped and her body continued to milk his, crawling back up to the summit and tipping her over again. “I love the way you come all over me,” and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth as he emptied himself into her beautiful body.
She loved it too. In fact she loved
him
too and that made the two beautiful orgasms she just had, so bittersweet.
Chapter Seven
When Monday morning rolled around Courtney woke up early and headed for the gym inside her building for an hour long workout before heading to the office hours before anyone else. She’d spent the weekend alone, only answering necessary work related phone calls. She needed the time to herself to reflect on what she’d done. The stupid, stupid sin she’d committed in the bathroom of one of the most luxurious hotels in the city. “Dammit,” she slammed her purse and jacket into a closet and stomped angrily to her desk.
An hour later and her inbox was finally clear but she knew it wouldn’t be for long. In another hour it would be full again, but today she welcomed it because she needed every form of distraction the universe could provide. The problem,
her
biggest problem was that any single moment of silence brought flashes of the engagement party to her mind in vivid color. Too damn vivid, if you asked her.
Even now, days later, Courtney couldn’t believe she’d slept with Andrew Stanton. The man who had callously broken her heart and tossed her aside at his daddy’s say so. The man who was engaged to another woman, again at his daddy’s say so. The man who was a client of her company! “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she repeated, hitting her head on the desk in front of her.
“That doesn’t sound good. What did you do, or should I say who?”
Her brown eyes glared at David. “Who? Who do you think?” It didn’t take long for those hazel eyes to grow round like saucers.
“The delicious ex! Oh girl, you didn’t!” Closing the door behind him, David perched on the edge of a chair, his chin propping his head up and waited, rapt, for all the dirty details. “Tell me everything.”
Because he was her best, really her
only
, friend she had no choice but to spill every dirty rotten detail. Courtney started at the beginning, hoping that her fiftieth rehashing of the night would provide some clarity about why she’d done something so monumentally stupid. “Then I ran out of there just like Charlotte had, like the hounds of hell were on my ass.” Burying her head in her hands in embarrassment, she waited for her best friend’s judgment.
“Obviously you both still have feelings for each other so what are you going to do?”
She shrugged. “The only thing I can do and the only smart thing to do. Nothing.” Closing her eyes, Courtney thought about how great it had been. In the moment. Because after the moment was over, guilt rushed over her with the force of a typhoon. “I don’t want to get sued and that’s exactly what will happen if I’m the reason this doesn’t happen.”
Again, David’s dazzling hazel eyes were filled with shock. “You think that’s a possibility?”
She scoffed bitterly. “Absolutely not. He didn’t choose me the first time and there’s no chance in hell he would do it now.”
“You never know. Things could be different this time around.”
Her smile was placating because David was a romantic. He’d never met a guy he didn’t fall in love with in the first fifteen minutes or a potential romance he thought would be the next great love story. Courtney however, didn’t have that same problem. “It won’t be different, trust me. The only way this wedding isn’t happening is if Charlotte calls it off. Andrew doesn’t have the balls to do it and I’m not holding my breath.” She released a long frustrated breath. “Just tell me I was stupid and not to do it again. Please.”
David walked around the desk and pulled her up into a hug. “You’re the smartest girl I know, babe. But for the sake of your heart, your sanity and your business, don’t do it again.” He squeezed her tight, his heart lurching at the pain swimming in her brown eyes. “I’m sorry sweetie. It’s my fault all this crazy came into your life. I thought you’d realize he was a mistake from your past, girl. I never thought you still loved him.”
She sighed and pulled back to look up into his eyes. “Yeah, well now that I know that little fact, I will make sure to be out of the building for future visits.”
David nodded and promised to keep her in the loop on all Stanton and Temple visits to the Mirror Image offices. “Now I need to get to work because we have a weekend getaway to shoot and I’ve got shit to publicize, or whatever.”
Courtney laughed and pushed him away. “Stop it, you know you love this. Don’t let me or any of my baggage ruin it for you. Okay?”
He nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead before walking out of her office, leaving her alone with pesky thoughts that were better off dead and buried.
Courtney stared at the door for a long moment, wondering what she’d done in her life to deserve this fate. Wasn’t it bad enough that she didn’t get to actually be with the man she loved? Did the universe also have to rub it in by shoving his engagement and wedding in her face? Sagging down into her chair she blew out a long breath. She needed to get over this infatuation or whatever it was and soon. She couldn’t afford to let Andrew or Nicholas Stanton ruin her.
Not again.
~
“Alright Rudy, we’ll do a few blasts and reach out to local outlets and let them know about the added dates. Tell Marcus I said congratulations.” Courtney hung up the phone and stood to stretch when her office door was slammed open and Charlotte Temple came storming in. Courtney took in her near perfect appearance with a keen eye. A blush red suit fit tight over her lithe frame, four inch nude stilettos made her look even taller. And leaner. Her dark brown hair was pinned back with diamond encrusted clips and her all natural makeup gave her an ethereal look that was only obliterated by the hot pink lips that didn’t look at all trashy on her. She was beautiful. “What can I do for you, Charlotte?”
Arms crossed over her chest, her pretty face was distorted into an ugly scowl. “What you can do for me is tell me exactly what you plan to do with that footage of me and Rodrigo?”
Interesting. Boy toy has a name.
“What do you mean? That footage doesn’t belong to us.”
With her blue eyes narrowed at her, Charlotte’s anger was so obvious that Courtney half expected to see steam coming from her ears and nose. “You’re damn right it doesn’t! What I want to know is how you plan on using it for this little publicity tour?”
She shrugged. “Does it matter? Andrew saw everything anyway.” She knew it was an arranged marriage but found it difficult to comprehend that they had no kind feelings toward each other.
Charlotte made a noise that was half squeal and half grunt to show her frustration. “I don’t care that Andrew saw anything. He knows what this is as well as I do. What I care about is my reputation, Rodrigo’s privacy and reputation. So what do you plan to do?”
It was still weird but since Courtney had recently decided it was none of her damn business, she’d said nothing about it. “Perhaps you should have read that contract a little more carefully because Mirror Image doesn’t handle any of the footage. That privilege goes to AGP. They will do all the editing and they own all of the footage shot on your tour.” Charlotte stared at her in silence as though she had the magic answer. “I am curious though. If you both knew you had a boyfriend, why would you agree to let the Stantons have all the footage?”
“Obviously I didn’t think we’d get caught. Andrew knew so who else mattered? Our parents want this and they’re getting it, but they don’t get to make any other decisions about how we live.” Rolling her eyes, she took a seat and sent a longing look Courtney’s way. “Shit, what am I going to do?”
“Tell Andrew to grab the footage before it goes to editing. Or don’t.” Courtney could have kissed her assistant who stepped in her office to give her a warning about her next call. “We only do publicity for the couple stuff between you and Andrew right now. Our publicity later will only reflect whatever is shown on each episode as it airs.”
“Fine.” She glared, standing and smoothing down her suit. “Thanks for nothing,” Charlotte said and stomped away as angrily as she’d stomped in.
“Good riddance,” she mumbled, glad to see the back of the cold but beautiful woman.
Screw you, universe!
Her plans to stay far from the Stanton-Temple contract had been obstructed by the universe at every single turn. But no more. She would be as good as a ghost until this circus was over.