3. Kaitlyn
3
KAITLYN
W hy hadn’t I done this before? I thought as James pressed me into his mattress and kissed his way down my body. I’d sent a hasty text to Cassie letting her know I was fine, but I was leaving for the night to try for that one night stand she’d told me to have. I’d been trying to decipher the string of emojis she’d sent back, when James had tossed my phone aside and stripped my dress off right before he tossed me onto his bed, leaving me in just my glasses and my thong.
It turned out, the door he’d opened on the balcony had led inside and to a private elevator, which in turn led down up to James’ apartment, right above the club. It must have been insanely expensive to rent, but maybe it was worth it to be on hand whenever Club Bloom needed him. Maybe he shared it with other club employees.
He hadn’t even bothered to turn on the lights as we moved through the huge space toward his bedroom. Like the club above, his apartment had massive windows, but these weren’t covered with heavy drapes. Instead, moonlight spilled through the glass.
Now I watched his gorgeous profile in the moonlight, wishing could see him better. Then again, if I could see him better, he could have seen me better, and I couldn’t actually remember if I shaved my legs in the shower this morning…
“Stop thinking,” James ordered, his voice rumbling against my skin.
I rose up on my elbows and frowned down at him. “How can you tell I’m thinking?”
“Because you’re not feeling,” he said, running his finger under the thin strip of fabric stretched across my hip. I sucked in a breath.
“There,” James said, his voice darkly satisfied. “That’s better.”
And then he lowered his head and kissed me through the flimsy piece of cotton covering my mound, until he drew a broken moan from me. He was still in his clothes, while I was almost completely bare for him, and there was something unexpectedly hot about that contrast. I’d never felt so desired by a man.
Without thinking I ran my hand through his hair, gripping when his mouth found an especially good spot and lingered. James must have liked that, because he rewarded me by tugging my underwear aside and adding his fingers to the mix. Soon he was coaxing sounds from me I didn’t even recognize. Breathy moans, desperate words, jagged cries.
I would have been embarrassed, except that it felt So. Freaking. Good. Plus this was a one night stand. I didn’t have to worry about what he’d think the next time I saw him, or if I should be doing more for him.
I could just sink into selfish, hedonistic pleasure.
“You taste so good, Katie,” he growled, and I nearly came then and there.
As if sensing I was on the verge, his touch became even more passionate, demanding. “Come on,” he coaxed. Ordered. Commanded. “Let go. I’ve got you.”
I twisted in the sheets, desperately searching for a pleasure that was just out of reach—and then he did something with his tongue, and suddenly I was there, crying out as I tumbled over the edge.
As I lay there panting, and dazed in the moonlight, James got rid of my thong and stood to ditch his own boxer briefs and grab a condom.
I stretched contentedly, appreciating his magnificent ass. Then he turned around, and I appreciated the rest of him to.
The girls were right. James definitely had big dick energy.
I stifled a giggle. I barely knew James, and yet he’d managed to give me the best orgasm a man had ever given me. I could still feel the tingly aftershocks. If all one-night stands were like this, then I really had been missing out.
A Cheshire Cat smile crept onto my face. I debated whether or not I’d tell Cassie and Nia about this the next time I saw them, or keeping this night with James to myself, a sexy, delicious secret I’d revisit any time my own fingertips needed an assist.
Then James was crawling over me, dropping the condom near my pillow, a promise that we weren’t done yet.
A few hours ago I hadn’t known this man. And now I was going to let him fuck me.
“You’re thinking again,” he murmured, dragging his lips along my neck. I liked the way he caged me in.
“I, um, haven’t done this before,” I confessed. “One night stands I mean.”
“I know,” he said.
“You know? ” I rolled out from under him, dragging the sheets up to cover myself. “Am I that bad?”
“You’re heaven,” James said, tugging the sheet down, and then tugging me back over him. “I just meant Fernando told me.”
“Fernando?” I blinked, confused.
“Your waiter. Now stop talking about other men, Katie.” His lips closed around the tip of my breast and it felt so good that for a while I stopped thinking.
Then I realized what he’d just said.
“Wait,” I said, straightening so that I was sitting up, one hand on his chest. His strong, delicious chest.
No, Kaitlyn , I scolded myself. Focus .
“Are you saying my waiter told you what the other women said about me and you, what, decided to fuck me out of pity?” I demanded.
“God, you’re a lot of work,” James groaned.
“That is so rude–”
He rolled, effortlessly moving me beneath him and pinning my wrists to the bed by my head. “I asked my employee how your group was doing, because I care that people have a good time at my club. Your waiter said everything was fine, but your friends had been teasing you about me. He thought you might be heading toward the balcony. You’re blind as a bat without your glasses, so I got there first.”
James shifted, and I briefly lost concentration, feeling every inch of where he was hard for me.
“You were there for the rest of it,” James reminded me. “Now can I please make you come again?”
I thought about it. “Well, when you put it like that…”
He cut me off with a kiss. A hungry, demanding kiss that reminded me only one of us had come so far. I relaxed back into the bed, giving into the sensation of exploring each other. He was powerful and gentle in a way I’d never experienced. One second I was pinned beneath him, helpless as he devoured me, and the next I was riding on top of him, seeing how far I could tease him before his control snapped.
With a groan, he reached for the condom. I felt a feminine thrill of anticipation as I eased back to give him more room to put it on.
He finished, and reached for me again, and my mouth had almost met his, when a thought crossed my mind. “Wait a second. When you say your club and your employee, do you mean…?”
“I own Bloom, sweetheart,” he said. “Now shut up and ride me.”
I opened my mouth to argue on instinct, but then his mouth was on mine, and his hands were on my body, until I decided there were other things I’d rather do than argue.
When I lowered myself over him, he swore.
I knew what he meant. There was sex, and then there was this. Whatever our bodies were doing. Whatever one-time only magic we were making together.
“Hey there,” he whispered, a playful smile teasing the corner of his mouth.
“Hey,” I answered.
For a moonlit heartbeat we stared into each other’s eyes. And then he was moving in me, and I was matching his rhythm, as heat spread throughout my body and pooled between my legs. The pleasure rose, faster, and faster, until I came apart in his arms for the second time.
I couldn’t believe he owned Bloom. No wonder he could snap his fingers and make things happen. No wonder his penthouse was practically on the premises and looked like it belonged in a magazine spread. James was in a totally different league.
In a single, effortless motion James rolled me beneath him, and thrust, this time finding the angle that was best for him, using me for my pleasure, and hell, that was hot too.
He rocked against me as the sensations of my climax first faded and then immediately started building again. I could hear his breath going shallow against my ear, and I knew he was close.
Until the loudest ring I’d ever heard sounded off on the nightstand beside us.
“Shit,” he exclaimed. He paused, seeming to weigh the nearness of his orgasm with the potential importance of the call, then pulled away from me with a frustrated sigh.
He answered the phone at the edge of the bed with his sweat-glistened back toward me.
“Is she okay?” he demanded into the phone.
Wait. She?
Had I ever actually asked if James was single?
I could hear indistinct chatter in the background as James stood up abruptly. “Okay. Fine. Yes.”
With those three words, the temperature in the room shifted to ice cold. I pulled the sheet over me as James sprinted out of the room.
It was two thirty in the morning. What the hell was going on?
I debated getting dressed, but I opted to wait until James came back to explain what had happened.
Maybe he hadn’t been talking about a girlfriend. Maybe there’d been a minor accident at the club that could be fixed quickly, and he’d come back to bed to finish what we’d started.
A few minutes later he strode into the room, fully dressed in clean clothes and looking harried.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, clutching the sheet against my naked body.
He swiveled to me abruptly, like he’d forgotten I was there—an impression that was only reinforced by his next words.
“You need to leave.”
A wave of shock and humiliation flooded through me.
Oh God. It really was another woman.
He’d said he could only do one night. I’d thought it was because he was a hot playboy. It had never occurred to me it might be because he was cheating on someone.
Was this some sick rich boy game? Fuck the clueless girl and then drop-kick her out the door before whoever he actually cared about came home?
This doesn’t make sense , some stubborn part of me insisted. If anything, he’s too blunt and honest. He doesn’t seem like the type to cheat.
But the truth was, I barely knew him.
At the same time, what had happened between us felt…real. Or was I just fooling myself, believing that? Would someone else, someone more experienced, have known better?
“James, what’s going on?”
He didn’t even look at me. “Grab your stuff and go.” He strode away, typing on his phone in the dim light from the hallway, giving me privacy to pull myself together.
Or, more likely, already dismissing me.
Where was my damn dress? I scrounged for it on the floor, along with my panties.
I wished he hadn’t tossed my bra over the balcony. I wanted every inch of armor I could get.
I gathered them and shut the bathroom door behind me.
I glanced in the mirror. Any of the post-sex glow I might’ve had was lost to shock over what had just happened. I looked pale, disheveled. Embarrassed . I dressed hastily and washed up a little.
You need to leave.
His words echoed in my head as I stepped out of the bathroom and crept through his massive penthouse. There was no telling where he might be, but all I knew was that I was happy he was making himself scarce. I already felt hurt and humiliated. I tiptoed down the hallway toward the main room.
Where the hell were my shoes?
I was too mortified to take in the opulence around me, too pissed at myself for falling for a hot billionaire’s lines. This was exactly why I didn’t have one-night stands.
I replayed the first few harried moments as we crashed through the door to try to remember exactly where I’d shed my shoes. James had been kissing me, and then he’d surprised me by effortlessly lifting me, so that I’d wrapped my legs around his waist... I involuntarily shuddered as a sense memory of his touch rolled through me.
No! I wasn’t going to let the animal instinct short circuit my brain.
Focus.
There, in a puddle of black next to the grand piano, were my shoes. They’d fallen off my feet when he’d picked me up. Now all I needed was my purse.
I spied it upside down next to the door.
I had a sudden memory of him fishing my glasses out of my purse, making sure I could see the beauty around me, even if it made me look less like someone who belonged at his club.
Something around my heart flinched.
God, he was such an asshole.
I shoved my shoes on and grabbed my purse. My hand was on the door to leave when I heard his voice echoing down the hallway. For a moment I almost turned back to demand an explanation.
Did you use me to cheat on someone?
Do you use women all the time, or did you just think I’d be easy prey?
But then I decided I didn’t want to know.
This wasn’t a relationship, it was a one-night stand that had started amazing and ended in total wreckage. We’d made no promises to each other.
Hell, he thought I went by Katie. And I’d thought he was a simple club manager.
At least I’d gotten off twice, while he’d been left hanging. I hoped his blue balls were throbbing. Especially if he was cheating on some poor woman.
It was a tiny victory, but it was what I carried with me as I slammed the door. I wasn’t going to let a billionaire playboy get the best of me. I held my head high as I strode down the long hallway… until I realized that I had no clue where the elevator was. We’d never stopped kissing from the second the elevator doors closed until we crossed the threshold into his apartment.
I hoped he wasn’t laughing at me from a surveillance room in his penthouse.
When I finally found my way out, I realized that I was absolutely exhausted.
I realized I could go back to the club and find Cassie and the girls. Then I thought of explaining my failure of a one night stand to the women—or worse, running into Mr. Tall, Dark and Grumpy himself at the club—and my soul briefly left my body.
I dashed off a quick text to Cassie and added Nia to it, knowing that she was probably the most sober in the group at the moment, letting them know that I was fine but I was going home, and I’d catch up with them tomorrow. A few seconds later a string of nonsensical emojis showed up from Cassie followed by a thumbs up from Nia.
The elevator doors opened to the ground floor. My heels clicked as I crossed the marble lobby and. When I finally made it outside, I took a gulp of air and leaned against the side of the building.
I could tell myself I didn’t know James, or what a one night stand was supposed to feel like.
But I knew this feeling. I knew the feeling of being tossed out like I didn’t matter.
Never again , I decided. Better to be safe and boring, then risk trying to be someone I’m not.
A taxi appeared and I flagged it down, grateful that I’d soon be home in bed. There was at least a little bit of comfort in leaving this night in the rearview mirror.
It was over now.
I’d never see James ever again.