Chapter 30
Caroline
I tried to make my feet move, but I was frozen in place with embarrassment.
“I…” I said. “I was just…”
“This deck is closed to the guests,” he said, continuing to button up his shirt while walking toward me.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize that. I had to use the bathroom.”
“And invade my privacy?” Despite the accusation, his tone was playful.
“I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I’ll leave you alone.”
“Why did you try to kiss me?” he demanded.
The question caught me completely off guard. “Huh?”
“You tried to kiss me last night,” he said, stopping when he was a foot away from me. “Why?”
“I… I don’t know,” I said.
“It is because I am wealthy,” he said bluntly.
I gawked at him. I didn’t know what to say.
“I am used to this,” he said, sounding strangely glum.
The tone didn’t match with his beautiful, hawkish face.
“My wealth is attractive. I used to think it was a blessing, but now I know it is a curse. I will never know if someone is attracted to Lucien the man, or Lucien the bank account.” He muttered something in French.
“That’s not true,” I said. I had the overwhelming urge to comfort him. “You’re a very handsome man. And charming, too.”
“Is that why you kissed me, then?” he demanded.
“I told you. I don’t know why.”
He slowly shook his head. “As I said. I can never know the truth of how anyone feels about me.” His laugh was bitter. “I must apologize. I am certain I sound like a petulant child, complaining about being wealthy. You must think terribly of me.”
“I don’t,” I said.
“I have read the articles you have written,” he said, walking back into his bedroom. “You detest men of my wealth.”
I followed him and said, “That’s not true!”
“It is not true that you have written such articles?” he demanded.
“Yes! I mean, no. I have written articles with that… tone. But my opinion has changed. Believe it or not, working with Harrison has opened my eyes. Given me a more complete view.”
He stared into my eyes. “I do not believe you. But this is fine. Such is the way of the world.”
Lucien turned away.
“I tried kissing you because I was swept up in the moment!” I blurted out. “The private sushi dinner. The warm weather. The stars shining above us, and the island glowing in the distance. It was all so romantic last night. I got swept up in it. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry it happened.”
I stared at his back, waiting for him to say something. Anything. For some reason, I didn’t want to go back upstairs until he knew I was telling the truth.
“I am not sorry it happened,” he said softly.
I stepped closer to hear him better. “Really? Because I’ve been dying of embarrassment since it happened.”
He spoke to the wall. “You have nothing for which to be embarrassed.”
I snorted. “Right. Like it’s totally normal for a journalist to impulsively kiss someone she should be writing about.”
Lucien turned around slowly. His gray eyes were wide and full of emotion. “You should not be embarrassed, because I have spent the past day wishing I had kissed you back.”
I blinked in surprise. “Then why did you push me away?”
“Because,” he said, “I want this very badly. And it terrifies me.”
I felt a lump in my throat. “It… it scares me too.”
His hand came up and cupped my cheek. “Do you know what I have learned, Caroline? In all my years of investments and business deals?”
My voice was barely a whisper. “What?”
“The best things in life should scare you.”
Lucien crushed his lips against mine in a deep kiss, and whatever resistance either of us had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Our hands were on each other instantly, his in my hair and on my back, and mine along his neck and cheek.
His skin was smooth, like he’d just shaved before I found him down here.
His mouth tasted like cool white wine as we kissed, his tongue pushing into my mouth in a kiss that bore the name of his home country.
The light was soft in here, but I could see every hard line in Lucien’s beautiful face as he kissed me passionately.
I realized I had wanted him desperately since last night. To go further than just smiling and sharing sushi. I needed him in a way that terrified me with its urgency.
There was an armchair in the corner next to a mirror, and I squeaked as Lucien picked me up and set me down on the edge.
“What if someone comes looking for you?” I asked. The door was open. Anyone could wander down here the way I had.
Lucien’s smile was sly. “That is what makes it exciting, yes?”
His hands deftly ran up my legs and swiftly removed my bikini bottoms. Then he knelt, kissing my inner thigh, before burying his face between my legs.
I gasped as his tongue ran up my pussy lips, tasting me.
There on his chair, several decks below all the dancing guests, the French billionaire devoured me like it was all he had ever wanted to do.
He used his fingers to pull apart my pussy and then jammed his rigid tongue deep inside, then moved his head back and forth, tongue-fucking me while his thumb pressed on my clit.
I craned my head back and savored how it felt, being eaten out here on a yacht.
With Harrison Blackstone’s chaotic business partner.
There was something so deliciously naughty about it all.
It made me feel powerful and exotic in a way that I never had before while sitting at my desk at The Journal, typing on a keyboard.
I grabbed a handful of his hair and guided him back and forth while he tongued me. Muting my moans was difficult because the pleasure was intense, and I found myself holding my breath as his fingers and tongue skillfully worked on me.
Suddenly there were voices out in the hallway. Both of us froze.
The sounds were muted, up on the deck above, drifting down the stairs to us. A man and a woman, laughing about something.
Lucien’s tongue resumed its task, and I hissed at him to stop. That we might get caught. But I felt his lips curl in a smile against my pussy, and he redoubled his efforts. Fortunately, the voices faded away from us.
A few seconds later, when I was certain we were alone again, I was unable to contain the pressure building between my legs.
I gripped Lucien’s hair tightly and let out a soft moan as waves of pleasure crashed over me.
He kept his face pressed hard against my pussy, tongue rolling like the waves against this very boat, until I finally came down from my high.
Lucien was grinning when he stood up between my legs. “I love how you taste, Caroline. As sweet as I imagined. No, sweeter.”
I pulled him toward me and kissed him, tasting the combination of my juices and the wine on his lips. “I want you.”
He stepped back, gazing at me lustily while untying the strings on his swim trunks. Then the suave Frenchman made a noise deep within his throat as he stepped closer. “This is all I have been able to think about since last night.”
“You don’t have to think about it anymore,” I said, spreading my legs a fraction of a degree wider. Inviting him in.
Lucien’s cock was as hard as steel as he stepped forward, bent down, and buried it in my pussy. We moaned together at the moment of joining, and then he gripped my thighs, spreading them wide while fucking me in long, smooth strokes.
“Your cock feels so good,” I moaned softly.
He said something in French. I didn’t understand the words, but it sounded delicious with his accent.
He gripped my shoulder for leverage, his thumb pressing into my neck with just the right amount of pressure.
A possessive gesture, letting me know that for now, for a few precious moments, I belonged to him.
I’m having sex with a billionaire. The thought would have sounded insane to me a few months ago, but now it excited me more than I could understand.
“Fuck me,” I begged. “Fuck me harder, please, harder…”
He gasped something in French again while driving into me. I closed my eyes and savored the way he filled all of me, every single nerve ending on fire with ecstasy.
“Yes,” I sighed, spreading my legs wider so he could drive deeper into me. “Oh yes, fuck me like that, right there please fuck me Lucien…”
He drilled me harder and harder, and I forgot all about the open door and the chance that someone might see or hear us.
All of it together—finally giving in to Lucien, having sex on his yacht, the oblivious guests dancing right above our heads—mixed together into a naughty experience that filled me with ecstasy in a way that normal sex never had.
While the party raged above, we fucked and moaned and came together there in his bedroom, eyes locked together at that moment of ecstasy, and nobody knew except us.