Vic cursed for the second time tonight when he saw the back of Niall’s shiny hair and the flash of a fast-moving, leather-covered calf before she disappeared behind yet another door . . . this time the elevator’s.
Dammit, why did it always seem like Niall was just slipping through his grasping fingertips?
He paused outside the lobby doors a minute later after waiting for another elevator, searching in both directions for Niall. She was nowhere in sight. His mouth pulled into a grim line as he started west at a jog, figuring she’d instinctively head toward home.
Niall didn’t even register that she was shivering like mad until she finally hailed a cab on Rush Street and came to a halt in her frantic escape. Damn. She’d left her coat behind. The temperature hovered right at the freezing mark, and all she wore was a silk blouse and a skirt.
Going back into Mina’s at that moment—returning to that corridor where she’d seen Vic kissing Jennifer—was not even a remote option, however. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about seeing Ellen and Meg to their hotel, Niall thought with a twinge of guilt. Vic’s mother and sister were literally staying across the street from the building where Mina’s was located.
“
Niall
.”
She looked around, astounded to see Vic jogging down the street toward her. She opened the door of the cab that had just neatly pulled up to the curb, and clambered inside. Vic’s hand caught the door when she tried to slam it shut forcefully. From the sound of his terse curse, her action had hurt him.
Good. It couldn’t come anywhere near the pain that had sliced through Niall when she saw his dark head bent over Jennifer Atwood’s face as he kissed her.
“Scoot over, Niall.”
“
No!
This is my cab,” she countered, realizing that she sounded like a petulant child.
“
Move . . . over,
” Vic demanded through a clenched jaw.
Niall just stared up at him for a few seconds. How dare he act like
he
was mad at her? For some reason all those nasty verbal duals that Sissy and David engaged in during
Alias X
rose to her mind. Niall abruptly slid across the seat and stared forward, unseeing.
She was no Sissy
or
Jennifer. She would
not
sit here and bicker with and bait Vic like a trashy slut. If that was the kind of thing he got off on, he was going to be sorely disappointed, Niall promised herself.
She was the one who was mistaken, however, if she thought Vic was going to try and start a fight with her. He remained as icily silent during the cab ride to Riverview Towers as she did. He didn’t, in fact, speak until the elevator doors closed behind them and he’d pushed the button for the seventeenth floor.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Niall met his gaze for the first time since he’d glared down at her before she’d slammed the door on his hand. She couldn’t read his rigid expression as he stood several feet away from her and pinned her with his stare.
“I’m sorry I saw it, too. But maybe it’s for the best,” she replied as evenly as possible. She exhaled abruptly and stared up at the ceiling, shaking her head. “You don’t have to apologize, Vic. It’s not as if you owe me anything.”
“No?” he drawled.
She shook her head again, still avoiding his gaze.
“Just like you don’t owe me anything—right, Niall? A satisfying fuck if the convenient opportunity should arise. That’s what we owe each other, right?”
Fury rose in her, despite the fact that she’d vowed to herself that she wouldn’t let him push her buttons. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded as the elevator door opened with a ding.
His hand went up to hold it in place automatically, but he didn’t really seem aware of his actions as he leaned forward and answered her. “It means that you’ve got a lot of nerve accusing me of not being interested in having a relationship with you when you’re just as elusive and secretive about your past—even more so—than I am about mine. You just saw my ugly little secrets paraded in front of your eyes on a stage tonight. I didn’t have to invite you to see that, but I did. How much more honest do you think I can be with you?”
“So I’m just supposed to shrug my shoulders at the fact that I just saw you kissing another woman, a woman everybody—including your mother and sister—believes you’re crazy in love with?”
“A woman that I
was
crazy in love with!” Vic countered, his eyes flashing fiercely.
Both of them jumped when an alarm suddenly started blaring because Vic had held the elevator door open for too long. Vic blinked as if the sound had roused him out of a dream. Niall found herself meeting his eyes again, curious as to what he would say next . . . hungry for it.
“We’d better get off,” he said quietly, disappointing her. Their gazes remained locked for the next few seconds as she moved toward him cautiously, as if afraid on some primitive level that she would glom on to him like he was a powerful magnet and she was a flimsy filament of iron that was helpless to take voluntary action in his vicinity.
She made it down the hallway without submitting to as much as a glance. She paused when she reached their front doors and looked back at him, feeling shaken and unsure.
“I kissed her because I wanted to, Niall. I kissed her because I had to
know.
Do you understand?”
Niall’s lips fell open. It wasn’t the explanation that she’d expected. But it was the one she needed.
“And?” she asked, her voice wavering with anxiety.
Vic shrugged, his singular eyes never leaving her face. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
ELEVEN
For a few tense seconds, Vic didn’t know what Niall was going to do. He was surprised when she suddenly launched herself at him.
Nice
. . . having her small, compact little body collide with his, having her hands reach up hungrily to hold his head and pull him down to her. He groaned in pleasure at the impact of her feverish kiss and her taste pervading his senses.
Better
than nice.
He’d always liked the fit of a tall woman against his body. But he had to admit that Niall’s taut curves filled his palm just right. So what if he had to bend his knees and lift her against him so that he could feel the soft heat between her thighs pressed against his cock? Her entire weight in his arms only made him exponentially more aroused. He spread both hands across her ass and she automatically encircled him with her legs. God, he needed to get inside of her. Anywhere . . . anyhow.
Just as long as it was
soon
.
He grunted as he tried to move toward his apartment, but misjudged and backed into his door with a bang. Niall didn’t even seem to notice the jarring sensation, continuing to rub and suck at his tongue, turning kissing into what felt like the main event of making love instead of the first step. He dimly realized that he should set her down and at least get her into his apartment, but her sweet mouth blinded him with lust.
Moans vibrated both of their throats when he tightened his hold on her ass and began to move her in a tight, circular motion against his straining erection. After thirty seconds of that torture, Vic couldn’t take any more. He sealed their kiss, gasping desperately when she continued to tempt him by plucking at his lips, cheeks, and neck with her red, swollen lips.
“Dammit, Niall,” he muttered almost angrily before he set her down, hissing as her pussy dragged against his aching cock.
“I want you so much, Vic,” she whispered, staring up at him with a wide-eyed expression that conveyed both innocent awe and pure carnal lust.
He’d never forget the way Niall looked at that moment.
“Good, because you’re going to get me, baby,” he assured her grimly while he fumbled in his pocket for his keys. His erection made his pants way too constraining for comfortable movement.
He pulled her hastily through the opened door, only to push her against the other side of it once it was closed. He spread his thighs and bent his knees, his mouth fastening on her neck and feasting on her fragrant skin before she’d even fully regained her balance. She moaned, the sound vibrating into his pressing lips and somehow even sending a buzz to his throbbing cock. He tasted her skin with the tip of his tongue, dancing it across the dewy surface thirstily. When he encountered her pearls, he rolled them between his lips, liking the feeling of their smooth, hard surface.
“Vic, what are you doing?” she murmured a few seconds later.
“Taking off your pearls.”
“I can see that. Why?”
“I warned you that you drive me nuts when you wear these things,” he said as he held the now unclasped necklace in his hand. “Now you’re going to have to pay the price.”
He watched as her eyes darkened with excitement. The tip of her tongue darted out over her lush lower lip, making Vic even more determined. He began to rapidly unbutton her blouse.
“Take off your skirt,” he demanded once he’d tossed aside her blouse.
He just stared at her for several long, cock-throbbing moments after she’d dropped her skirt on top of her blouse. The peach colored silk panties covered about as much of her trim little bush as the triangles of silk that covered her small, thrusting breasts. She wore a matching garter belt that highlighted the shape of her thighs as well as the healthy glow of her honey-colored skin. Her stomach was smooth and flat. He knew from experience that he could span her waist with his hands. He loved the way her hips swelled into a taut, feminine curve, promising a welcome harbor for his cock despite her petite proportions.
“You make my mouth water, baby.” His jaw clenched when he glanced up and saw that witch’s smile on her lips.
“Push your bra down beneath your nipples.”
He watched as she did what he asked. Her little breasts thrust proudly from the plane of her chest, easily keeping the cups below the tender flesh. The sight of her fat, dark pink nipples poking out of the silk made his cock surge like a snake at the strike. He instinctively reached up to stroke himself as he stepped toward Niall, desperate to sooth the beast within. He spread his thighs, bringing himself down closer to Niall’s level, and leaned down.
“Hmmmm,” he groaned in primitive satisfaction after slipping a plump nipple into his mouth and beginning to suck greedily. Niall writhed against him, trying to increase the pressure of his body against her. In order to fix her into place while he feasted on her breasts, he grabbed her wrists and pushed them against the door above her head. The sounds of her moans and whimpers spiced the boiling brew of his arousal.
He suckled on her until his cock felt like it was going to burst. When he leaned back, keeping Niall’s wrists pinned over her head, and inspected the results of his endeavors, he couldn’t unfasten his pants quickly enough. He shoved them down around his thighs along with his boxer briefs. His cock felt tight and ponderous when he fisted it. It surged in his hand when he noticed Niall’s large hazel eyes fixed on it.
He released her wrists. When she met his gaze he merely glanced downward . . . that was all. And sweet, sexy Niall sank to her knees for him.
“Wait,” he rasped when her hand encircled his shaft. “I want you to use only your mouth. Put both of your hands behind your head.”
His nostrils flared in feral arousal when she followed his instructions and her erect, swollen nipples poked out from her bra even more prominently in her new position. The silence had weight as they both watched while he wrapped her pearl necklace around his cock just below mid-staff, pulling it tight at the side. A desperate little moan leaked past Niall’s lips when he moved his hand, rolling the hard, cool globes back and forth on his erection.
His hand rose, cradling Niall’s head at the back, below where her fingers laced together. “Suck down to the pearls, baby. Wherever I put them, I want your lips kissing them. Do you understand?”
The combination of the stimulation from the rolling pearls and her huge, sexy eyes looking up at him almost made the instructions unnecessary. He was going to have to start blindfolding her when she gave him head.
“Niall?” he prompted when she didn’t answer immediately.
She nodded quickly.
He rolled her pearls down to the ridge beneath the head of his cock.
“Open,” he ordered tensely. He gripped her hair in his hands, holding her steady, wanting to penetrate her instead of having her enfold him. Her lips immediately closed around him in a tight hold. He grunted in primal pleasure at the sensation of the tip of his cock sliding along her warm tongue. She began to flutter her tongue everywhere on the head while he stroked himself with the pearls.
Shit. He wasn’t going to be able to take much of this. But while he could, he was going to squeeze out every last bit of the pleasure.
He pulled the pearls back several inches on his cock. Without waiting for her to come to him he flexed his ass, sliding his cock into Niall’s warm mouth until her widely spread lips bumped against the pearls. He’d let her take the initiative once the pearls were rolling on the back half of his cock. But right now she could easily manage a face fuck.
“That’s a good girl,” he muttered thickly. “Hold still while I fuck your pretty mouth.” She stared up at him while he pumped between her lips. As usual the sight drove him a little crazy. His grip on her pearls tightened slightly and the pace of his moving hand increased. After a moment of plunging between her lips he stilled inside her mouth and beat at his cock with the gems. Niall moaned shakily as the pearls gently slapped against her lips. He could tell by the expression in her eyes that she liked it almost as much as he did.
He rolled the pearls back to mid-staff and waited. She dipped her head forward, pushing him to the back of her mouth. Her lips tapped against the pearls after she’d pulsed him in and out between her lips three times. Vic kept still and watched her for a minute while she slid back and forth on his cock. She looked so beautiful with her cheeks hollowed out as she applied a healthy suck. Her eyes shone with lust as she gazed up at him.