“It is so good to see you again.” Annelise wraps me in a warm hug. “How are you?”
“All right.”
“Uh-oh.” Annelise’s smile falters as she breaks our hug and stares at me. “You don’t sound all right.”
“I’m fine.”
“Then why do you look so glum? You should be invigorated,” she adds with a wink. “All that time you spent with that hot stud.”
“Yeah, well.” I don’t say anything else. I’m not sure what to say. I
know
it wouldn’t have worked with Miguel, but I still feel like crap.
“Oh my God.” My sister’s eyes light up. “You fell in love with him, didn’t you?”
I don’t answer as I watch my luggage go by me. I push past two fortysomething women standing together, excusing myself as I do, to grab the suitcase before it gets too far.
The moment I turn around, I notice that my sister’s eyes are narrowed. There’s genuine concern on her face.
“Did he hurt you?” she asks when I return to her side. “He was seeing someone else? Oh, no. Don’t tell me he was married!”
“He wasn’t married. He didn’t hurt me.” I extract the suitcase’s handle. “Can we go now?”
“You don’t want to talk about it.” Annelise states the obvious.
“Which way?” I ask.
“This way.” Annelise starts for the doors off to the left, but slows so I can catch up to her. “Hey, I know what it’s like to not want to talk about something. When it hurts too much to even think about it. But just know that whenever you
do
want to talk, I’m here.” She rubs my back. “Okay?”
I can’t believe myself. Just the act of Annelise giving me support has me almost ready to burst into tears. I hold them in check—barely.
Which is why I know I’m nowhere near ready to tell her about Reed, how he showed up in Costa Rica and told me he still loved me, and how I stupidly fell for the line like a moron. If I get into the story here, I think I’ll have a meltdown.
So I change the subject, asking, “How’s Dominic?”
“Amazing,” Annelise responds right away, her face lighting up like a neon sign.
“In other words, the sex is good.” I manage an actual smile.
“Good?” Annelise pauses before she heads out the automatic doors and whispers, “Sam, the sex is…out of this world!” “Wow.”
“Total romance cliché, I know. But, Sam, it’s the absolute truth. I had no clue sex could be this amazing.”
“So I take it you’re not missing Charles,” I joke as we start out the door toward the parking lot.
“Charles. Ugh.” Annelise makes a face of pure disgust. “I hope he rots in jail for embezzling money from the Wishes Come True Foundation. Never in a million years would I think the man I married could be such a heartless son of a bitch. To steal money that goes toward helping terminally ill children…”
“What’s happening with that?” I ask. I’ve only been away for two weeks, but it seems like much longer. A lifetime, in many ways.
“I heard Charles was begging for a plea bargain. Claimed the embezzlement wasn’t his idea.”
I snort at that.
“Exactly. He can keep dreaming, because with the evidence they have against him, he’ll be lucky if the sentence is lenient.”
“The evidence
you
found in Costa Rica,” I say proudly. It was Annelise’s bright idea to search her husband’s tropical condo when she learned it existed. Honestly, I never thought my sister had it in her to become a modern Agatha Christie. With Charles, she accepted substandard treatment. She became a wimp under him, if you ask me. Always wondering what she could do to please him, how she could spice up their love life to keep him happy when he suddenly didn’t want sex from her. It was no surprise to me that he’d been screwing someone else for quite some time.
“And it was so much fun,” Annelise admits.
“Wasn’t it, though? And when Charles showed up at the condo…”
“I know! I thought it was over, right then and there.” Annelise pauses as she chuckles. “I can’t believe that was my life, not some HBO movie.”
“Did you talk to a lawyer yet, see if you can get any money from the house?” I ask. “After how you helped break the case, the last thing you deserve is to get screwed over in this.”
Annelise nods as we approach her Volvo. “I have. Claudia set me up with one of her uncles, and he’s really great. He seems optimistic, but I don’t want to hold my breath.”
“Claudia’s the spoiled rich one, right?”
Annelise frowns as she meets my gaze. “Spoiled?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t work, her parents pay for everything.”
“So?”
“So I’d say that’s pretty spoiled.”
“Well she’s not,” Annelise says in defense of her friend. “Claudia does a lot of charitable work, as many rich people do. That was what she was going to do when she married Adam—devote her life to charitable causes. But then he screwed her over and the wedding was off.”
Annelise opens the trunk for me, and I hoist my suitcase into it. Suddenly I smile. The two of us here like this, doing things that sisters normally do on a day-to-day basis—it’s nice.
Even having a bit of a disagreement, as sisters often do, is welcome. Because it means we’re communicating.
I should point out that my sister and I haven’t been exactly close. She’s older than I am, and for most of our adult lives she’s looked down on the choices I’ve made. Like the decision to be an exotic dancer. But in the last couple months, our relationship has gone through a marked change. We’re talking. Communicating again without judging each other.
In short, we’ve become friends.
We probably have a long way to go, but I’m hopeful about the future. At least when it comes to my sister, that’s one relationship that’s working out.
Annelise
T
he moment my eyes open, I do what has become part of my morning routine over the past couple of weeks. I glance to my right, see my lover’s naked body and smile.
My how times can change.
If you’d told me six months ago that today I’d be getting sex regularly and that my best friends and sister would be the ones now going without, I would have laughed in your face. No, I would have cried. That’s how pathetically miserable my sex life was with my husband.
I had a husband who, after we’d been together for ten years, stopped touching me. Completely. Didn’t want to make out, much less have sex. He started treating me like I was his grandmother in terms of the sexual contact between us, and I, like a fool, began blaming myself for his lack of sexual interest in me.
They say hindsight’s twenty-twenty, and it’s so easy for me now to see exactly how much of a lying ass Charles was. To think I bought his I’m-so-stressed-I’m-impotent line. At the heart of the matter, really, was my religious convictions and deeply held belief in till death do us part. Being raised by a religious fanatic mother, I’ve lived much of my life being concerned that if I do the wrong thing, I’ll burn in hell for eternity.
To my credit I can say I remained committed to Charles until I learned he was cheating on me
and
cheating the kids of the Wishes Come True Foundation, where he was a member of the board. I took my vows seriously when I married him, even though he didn’t deserve my love. And I feel no guilt about moving on with someone else while I wait for my divorce, enjoying sex for the first time in nearly a year and a half.
Life is good now.
No,
I think, glancing at Dominic again.
It’s great.
In many ways it seems like much more than two weeks have gone by since I dove headfirst into a relationship with him. Call me a romantic fool, but everything feels right between the two of us. We gel in every way.
Dominic is renting the top floor of a town house in Buckhead, which is where I’ve been living since my relationship with Charles ended. It’s a nice place, but small, and we’re already talking about finding a place of our own and officially moving in together. Things are moving fast, but it doesn’t feel that way. It’s not like I wouldn’t have stayed in my matrimonial home a while longer, especially since Charles was arrested and carted off to jail so I wouldn’t have had to share the home with him. But I had to leave the house, as it was seized by the authorities. They’re investigating it as a possible proceed of crime. Scary, I know. Because if they deem it
is
a proceed of Charles’s criminal behavior, I will likely lose everything I should have gained from the house. Considering Charles and I bought the house five years ago, I know it isn’t. At least, I think it isn’t. But I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really know Charles at all, which means I can’t be certain about what my future holds financially.
And this is where the situation gets worse. My lawyer has told me that, proceed of crime or not, my house might have to be sold in order to repay the victim—the Wishes Come True Foundation. My lawyer and I are awaiting word on this very matter, but the bottom line is that despite being entitled to half of my house, I might get nada. Zilch. Not one red cent. Sometimes I feel so much anger that I want five minutes alone with Charles in a room—me, Charles and the meat cleaver I’ll use to disfigure him.
Then I think about the fact that were it not for Charles being the con artist he is, I wouldn’t have met Dominic, the auditor investigating the embezzlement. And meeting Dominic has been the best thing for me.
If not for Dominic, I’d be homeless right now. Not that I couldn’t stay with Claudia or Lishelle, but what can I say? I can’t resist the lure of a hard cock every night and every morning. Until Dominic decides to kick me out—which I hope he doesn’t!—I’m going to be staying with him.
Tilting my head to the right, I peer at Dominic’s face. I love all those angles and grooves. The man is too darned sexy. His eyes are still closed, and the steady sound of his breathing tells me he’s still asleep. My eyes venture lower, to his naked body uncovered by our sheets. Like every morning, Dominic’s penis is erect.
I reach for it. Touch the tip ever so lightly. When Dominic doesn’t stir, I take his cock into my palm and stroke it. Now he moans softly, but still doesn’t wake up.
All I have to do is touch him and I’m turned on. I want more of him.
Unable to resist myself, I ease my body down the bed and position my head over his cock. A quick glance upward tells me Dominic is still asleep.
He won’t be for long.
I hold his cock steady and slip it into my mouth. Dominic’s body jerks slightly, an involuntary reaction. I move my tongue slowly around and around the tip of his shaft before I draw it deeper into my mouth.
Hearing a deep moan now, I look toward Dominic’s face. His eyes are still closed, and I don’t know if he’s in dreamland or realizes that this wet dream is reality.
I run my tongue up and down the length of his shaft, then lower, to his testicles.
“Baby…” Dominic’s voice is groggy.
As I look up at him, I grin. “Morning.”
“I thought I was dreaming. Shit, what a nice way to wake up.”
I don’t answer, instead using my mouth to skillfully torture him. I suck on the tip of his penis like it’s a big, juicy lollipop, and soon, Dominic is groaning loudly.
He reaches for my shoulders and urges me forward. “Climb on top of me.”
I do so, straddling my legs over Dominic’s hips.
“I meant my face,” he tells me. “Climb on my face.”
Just the thought of it elicits a moan from my throat. I’m not sure anything gets me off more than sitting on his face and looking down at him as he’s got my clit in his mouth.
As I move my hips upward, to Dominic’s face, he grips my ass with one hand while the other goes to my pussy. He runs a finger along my folds, then grins at me.
“So wet, baby. Before I even touched you.”
His mouth is close to my vagina as he speaks, and his hot breath makes me quiver.
“I could probably come before you even lick my pussy. Just looking down at you like this, knowing how close you are…”
“Really? So you don’t want me to do this?” Dominic’s hot tongue flicks over my nub.
“Mmmm…”
“Or this?” Now he covers me with his mouth and suckles—hard and strong.
My hips buck and my right leg shakes. “It’s too much…it’s too intense…”
He pulls his mouth away but massages my nub. “You’re so wet,” he murmurs before laving me with his tongue. “I love how you taste…Can’t get enough…Say this pussy is mine…”
The delicious friction of his tongue has me panting. “My pussy…is yours. Only yours.”
Dominic slips a finger inside me before suckling my clit again, and this is when I start to unravel. I look into his eyes, and our gazes lock as he sucks on my pussy gently this time, making these soft, slurping sounds.
Sweet heaven, I come. Come hard. Arching my back, I cry out from the pleasure of my orgasm. My hips writhe against his mouth, as if desperate to be free of the exquisite torture, but he holds me in place. Still he tortures me with his teeth and tongue, still pleasures me with his fingers, making the orgasm as sweet as any I’ve ever experienced.
My body drained, all I can do is whimper. Dominic whips me over onto my back, finds my center with his cock, and enters me with one blinding thrust. My whimper turns into a loud moan. Already I’m at the edge of another orgasm.
Dominic rams me hard, giving me no mercy. And I don’t want mercy. I want exactly this—passionate and crazed fucking.
Knowing I’m about to lose control, I grip the bedsheets and lock my feet around his waist as I go over the edge. This time, Dominic swallows my moans with a kiss. My entire body shudders as my orgasm passes through me like a giant wave.
And then Dominic rolls over onto his back, taking me with him. His cock, still burrowed inside of me, reaches me at an even deeper place. He holds my hips firmly and guides me back and forth, back and forth, over his crotch. My clit, already sensitive, responds to the friction of skin against skin.
“Dominic, baby…I’m gonna…” He takes one of my nipples into his mouth and hungrily sucks it. I’m lost in an ocean of overpowering sensations. “Oh, baby. I’m gonna come…
again!
”
I barely get the words out before my body explodes. This orgasm is the absolute sweetest, the most intense. I throw my whole body backward, squeeze Dominic’s legs for support, and ride this wave of pleasure while I ride his strong, hard cock. His hands cover my breasts and I hear his deep groans. I know he’s close.
“Look at me,” he rasps.
With effort, I throw my body forward and gaze down at the man I love.
“Yes, that’s it. Fuck, you’re hot. So beautiful.”
Dominic’s hips buck slightly, and he grips me harder. I can see in his eyes the moment his orgasm takes control of him.
Now I kiss him, swallow his moans of passion as his seed spills inside me.
“I love you,” he murmurs.
His words express everything I feel.
I stroke his face and say, “I know, sweetheart. And I love you, too.”
After we make love, Dominic and I take a quick shower together. He has to head off to his office, and I…well, I don’t know what I’ll do. Ever since the news broke about Charles, my business has dropped to practically nil. Even some people who’d already booked photography sessions with me canceled. I was ready to refund all of their initial deposits, but Dominic told me that wasn’t a smart business practice, and if people were going to fire me because of my husband’s actions, they were far too judgmental and didn’t deserve their money back. I followed Dominic’s advice, even if I have mixed emotions about it. It’s not in my nature to be so hard-nosed when it comes to business—which is likely why I haven’t been more successful.
At least Dominic’s brother, Sebastian, has hired me for his September wedding, and he and his fiancée have booked a great package. But I need more business than that.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m not nearly as stressed about the demise of my business as I should be. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that crying about something will get you nowhere. I’ve decided to take a moment in my life to pause and reflect before moving on. Oh, I have every intention of making my business the success I’ve always wanted it to be. But I need money to do that—to advertise, especially—and right now I can barely afford to pay the property’s rent.
It could be because of my religious upbringing, but I’m going to have faith that everything will work out.
As Dominic dresses, I slip into a silk robe. I lie on the bed and watch him. I like to watch him. And not just because he’s got the body of a god, but because I take immense pleasure in watching him do the simple things he does every morning when he gets ready for work.
It gives me a sense of security, I suppose. And the sense of intimacy I so craved with my ex.
“Whoo, you are looking hot!” I exclaim. He’s dressed in a neatly pressed white shirt, open at the collar, and a pair of black slacks. He looks as amazing with his clothes on as he does with them off.
He smiles softly at me, meets me at the bed, then lowers his head to mine and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. When he pulls away, I moan.
“You know I have to get going,” he says.
“I know. That doesn’t mean I
want
you to.”
Normally Dominic and I would engage in a bit more sexual flirtation, but today, he eases himself off the bed, gives my hand a kiss, then heads out of the bedroom.
Hmm. Odd.
I scramble off the bed and follow Dominic to the front door. I give him a big, openmouthed kiss that promises there’s plenty more where that came from. But Dominic doesn’t respond the way I expected, with the usual growl from his throat, the one that tells me he hates having to leave me when what he wants most to do is get me flat on my back.
Now I really have to wonder what’s going on.
“Dom?” I step back to fully look at him. “Honey, is something wrong?”
He shakes his head.
“Are you sure? You don’t seem…yourself.”
“I’m just wondering about the future.”
Panic stirs inside me. “Meaning?”
“If you’ll still love me as much in a couple months as you do right now.”
Now I laugh. Is he actually insecure about my feelings for him? I move toward him, take one of his hands in mine, and slip it beneath my robe. Then I force his fingers to touch my naked pussy. “Ask me again if you think I won’t love you as much in a couple months.”
“Seriously, Annelise. Things will be coming to a head soon. With me testifying against Charles.”
“Oh. That.” I wave a hand, as if to dismiss his concern. “I couldn’t care less what you do to Charles in the courtroom. The son of a bitch deserves it.”
“You say that now, but when you see me on the stand—”
“I wasn’t planning to be in the courtroom, if that makes you feel any better.”