Authors: Ellen Dominick

Tags: #nterracial, #New Adult, #college, #billionaire, #rich, #millionaire, #Wealthy, #office, #workplace, #comedy, #Humor, #Library, #bwwm, #black, #woman, #white, #man, #Romance, #Multicultural, #kindle, #African, #American, #Women, #Men, #books, #French, #Series, #serial, #BBW, #curvy

Locked with Him (3 page)

Matt jerked out of his daydream. He turned to me, smoothing over his expression as if he hadn't been thinking of anything at all.

"Of course."

That was the great thing about the Internet. Netflix would never fail me. Even in the middle of a blizzard, I had a whole movie theater at my fingertips.

We walked out of the breakroom and headed towards the staff computers again. That's when everything went dark.

At first, I didn't even understand what had happened. I stopped in my tracks, blinking in the darkness.

"Did you flip a switch?" I asked.

"No," Matt said, "I think the electricity just went out."

A cold sweat came over my body. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse. Now there was no
electricity
? Shit, and no electricity meant no Netflix! We were stuck in the dark, and didn't even have Internet.

Matt took my hand in his. His fingers were rough and the size of his palm engulfed mine. For a second, I couldn't breathe.

He came near me. "We should stick close together."

All I could do was nod my head. Yeah. Of course. Why
else
would we be holding hands?

It was hard to see in the darkness. At least he couldn't see the embarrassment on my face. All there was were rows and rows of shelves that disappeared off into blackness. What were we going to do if we couldn't even move around?

Then I remembered.

"I have a flash light," I said. "I keep it in an emergency kit. It's at my desk, down in the stacks."

Yes! Linda always made fun of me for having Band-Aids, antibacterials, and anything else you could need for an emergency. But finally, it was paying off.

"Do you think it's safe to go down there in the dark?" Matt asked. "We can barely see up here. Down there it'll be pitch black."

Already, I started to walk towards the stairs. I tried to have sure footsteps. I didn't want him to know I was scared.

"It'll be fine," I said. "I know
everything
about this library."

"You didn't know about
Tamerlane
," Matt said.

"I know the important stuff. I've been using this library since I was an undergrad. I even have the rumors and myths down," I said.

It was easier to pretend in the dark. Even thought Matt's skin rubbed against mine, I didn't have to keep a straight face. I could just keep talking. All I had to do was control my voice.
That
was easy enough to do. Right?

"What rumors?" Matt asked.

"Like the rumor that undergrads sneak into the stacks to have sex right under the librarian's noses."

"Is it true?"

As I was about to answer, my foot stepped into nothingness. Instead of landing on hard stone, it fell through the air. My arms flailed. I couldn't even see the railing to grab onto it.

It was a long way down these stairs. I wondered if I would be tumbling all the way to the bottom. How long would it take for an ambulance to find me?

Then my body jerked backwards. Arms circled my waist and pulled me close. They held me so tight that it was difficult to breathe. For a while, we just stood there. My body was too shaken from the possibility of what could've happened to do anything else.

When Matt's arms relaxed their hold on me, I started to walk down the stairs again.

"Thanks for-"

Before I could finish, his lips were on mine. They pressed against my mouth insistently, flooding me with their warmth. Matt's hands buried into my hair and pulled my head towards him.

I could feel the tension in his muscles. Pressed against him in the dark, all I could focus on were these sensations. The wet, warmness of Matt's mouth. The hardness of his body. The smell of his cologne lingering on his skin.

It wasn't until Matt's hand creeped under my sweater and over my breasts that the spell was broken. I pushed away from him.

My legs started moving before I even knew where I was going. Even in the dark, they seemed to have a mind of their own. Where was I headed? I didn't know. Away from him.

I wasn't that kind of girl. Not the kind of girl to let a guy grope her in the middle of the library. Not the kind of girl to do that with a complete
stranger
. Even if he
was
handsome, and nice, and liked books.

What did I know? Maybe Matt thought black girls were easy. Maybe he thought I was an easy score. And who would know? He would disappear after the blizzard and I'd never see him again. He'd tell his friends about the librarian he banged during the storm.

Tears poured down my face in hot streams. They filled my eyes and obscured my vision, not that I could see much anyway.

Finally, I made it. My legs gave out and I slumped to the floor. Even without looking, I could tell where I was. Rare Books: Mythology. My favorite section.

I wrapped my arms around myself. It was stupid. Everything that had happened was
his
fault.
He
made us stay late.
He
trapped us here.

But still, even though I didn't want to admit it, I was falling for him. I shivered in the darkness. Somehow it felt even colder than it had before. Had we lost heating too? Just how long would I last stuck in here with no electricity, no food, and no heat? I would be a popsicle before I got out.

Oh well. At least I was surrounded by books.

Something rustled in the darkness.

"Penelope?"

A bright light cut through the shadows. It searched left and right, and then trained on me.

"There you are," Matt said. "I was afraid something had happened to you."

Quickly, I wiped the tears off of my face. "Go away."

"Penelope, I –"

"Go away!" I yelled. "I'm not going to fuck you so that you can brag to your friends after this is all over!"

The next thing I heard was the flashlight clattering on the ground. I was surrounded by Matt's warmth again. He pulled me into a deep hug and pressed a kiss against my forehead.

"Is
that
what you thought it was about?" Matt asked. The deepness of his voice seemed to rumble though my body.

"
Of course
I want to brag about you to my friends," he said.

I moved to punch him, but his arms kept me still.

"But that's not why I kissed you," he said. "I kissed you because I knew that I wanted to from the moment you peeked over my shoulder."

Matt's hand came to me cheek and he wiped away a stray tear.

"Now, since we're all alone here, and the heat is out, why don't we keep each other warm?"

"That's a terrible line," I said.

"I know, but you like it."

Matt's lips caught mine again, but this time it felt different. My lips parted for him, letting his hot tongue explore my mouth. This time I wasn't shocked. I wasn't scared. I just wanted him. All of him.

I pulled Matt close, tugging at his shirt. His skin felt like it was burning, even though the air around us was feeling cold. I let my hands roam under his sweater and feel his body.

Matt pulled my head back, grabbing my hair so that I couldn't resist him. His kisses trailed up and down my neck, leaving behind tracks that felt like fire. His other hand slipped under my shirt again. Matt pushed my bra up, exposing my hard nipples to his rough fingers.He squeezed them, playing with them until I moaned into the quiet air of the library.

I felt Matts hardness pressing against me. It seemed to grow harder and harder by the minute. When his hand left my breast, I expected him to unbutton his own pants, but he didn't.

Matt reached down to my jeans and unzipped them.With a swift tug, he pulled them off of me. Suddenly, my legs were exposed to the chilly air with no protection.

His hand creeped between my legs, pressing at the moist fabric of my panties. I squirmed under his touch. I didn't want him there. I wanted him
inside
me.

I blushed at my own eagerness. Not that long ago, I ran away from Matt. And now I was on the library floor with my pants off? In the back of my mind, a voice protested. This wasn't what a good girl would do. What would grandmama say?

But I didn't care about being a good girl. All I cared about in that moment was the feel of Matt's touch on my body. I only cared about the way it burned me to my core.

Matt pushed my legs wide and pulled my panties aside. I didn't even have time to brace myself before his large fingers slipped inside me. I let out a moan, and Matt stifled it with his lips.

As he slipped in and out of me, I felt my thoughts disappear. There were no worries. I wasn't scared. It was just me and Matt.

It didn't make sense. I had
just
met him. But still it felt perfect.

My whole body started to tingle. Electricity raced through my nerves, reaching every part of me. I looked Matt straight in the eye and saw him looking back at me. That gaze scorched right through my heart. All I could see in it was desire.

I threw my head back and curled my toes. All at once, every part of my body stiffened and I started to shiver. Then, with a loud moan, pleasure wracked my body.

Matt held me close, never letting go until the shaking stopped and my breath calmed down. When I looked at him again, he was smiling.

"Now
that's
something to brag about," he said.

I punched him in the arm and he laughed again.

"Okay, okay! Just kidding!"

I wanted to lay there in his arms, but as the heat left me, I started to shiver. That's right, I had almost forgotten. We still had no electricity or heat. Wonderful.

As I pulled back on my pants, Matt picked up the flashlight that he had dropped.

"Is that-"

"Yeah," Matt said. "It's your flashlight."

"Did you dig through my purse to get that?"

"How else was I supposed to get it?" he said. "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about your Juicy Fruit obsession."

"Ha ha, very funny," I said. "Come on, let's go back upstairs. At least we can see if the snow lets up from there."

Matt grabbed my arm and stopped me from walking.

"Before we go, remember what I said," he said. "I meant it. I'm not going to disappear when we're free."

"Yeah well, let's focus on getting out of here first." My voice was quiet. I tried to stop from showing just how happy that made me feel. But we didn't have time for a happIly ever after while we were stuck with no food.

Matt led the way up the stairs. He held my hand and lighted our path with the flashlight. We finally got to the top of the stairs, he pushed the door open for me.

As soon as we got out onto the main floor, we could hear it. The noise. Something sounded like grinding. It echoed throughout the library.

"What's that?" I asked.

A screeching, scraping sound came from outside. Was that the building? With the snow so heavy that the roof was giving way? I couldn't imagine anything else.

"Hello!"

A voice boomed over what sounded like a speaker or megaphone.

"Hello, is there anyone in there?"

No way. Matt and I looked at one another and then ran in the direction of the noise. It was coming from behind the entrance doors. We pounded on the wood doors and yelled.

"Yes, we are here!" Matt said.

"Please, help us!" I yelled.

We weren't sure if they heard us, but the scraping continued. Were they trying to dig us out? We kept pounding at the door, hoping they would hear us and get us out. Finally, the scraping stopped.

"Stand back!" The voice yelled.

Then the door opened. I was blinded. It had been so long in the darkness, that the bright floodlights filled my vision.

Slowly, I started to see things besides whiteness. There were people.
Tons
of them.

The brightness of the floodlights was soon replaced by cameras flashing.

"Mr. Dufour!" someone yelled.

Who was that? I looked around. The people seemed to have their cameras trained on me and Matt. A microphone was shoved in his face.

"Who is this woman, Mr. Dufour?"

"Did she save you?"

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Girlfriend? Wait, why were all of these people so interested in Matt? Why did they know who he was?

A woman stood in front of us, facing a large camera that recorded the scene. She talked into her microphone.

"Tonight, billionaire mogul Matthieu Eamon Dufour has been rescued from a library. He was trapped in the middle of Snowmageddon, and rescue teams have been searching for him for hours.

"He appears to be accompanied by an as of yet unidentified young woman. Could she be another one of his flings?"

My jaw dropped. Matt? Matthieu? A
billionaire
?

I stared at Matt. My look must have said it all, because he turned to me with a pained expression.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't want to tell you like this."

This really was turning out to be one
hell
of a day.

"Miss!" someone said. "Miss! Smile!"

A flash blinded me. Before I could see again, Matt's hand grabbed mine and we ran.

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