Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Dimos
The moment Ez opens the front door, he shoves a highball glass filled with three fingers of whiskey into my hand.
“Come on in, man.”
Ez shuts the door behind me as I walk into their home. Taking a large swig, I make my way into the living room. Eliana is already sitting on the sofa, glass of red wine in hand.
“What happened?” she asks, not wanting to waste time with small talk.
“She showed up at Carley’s apartment as we were loading some of her things into my car. Literally seconds after Carley walked inside. Purposefully, of course. If she wanted Carley to know she was there, she wouldn’t have waited.”
I take another large sip of whiskey, and the fire that remains within me grows hotter.
“She told me she wants to get back together.”
“Ew.” Both Ez and Eliana scoff at the same time.
I place my glass down on the coffee table and lean forward with my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.
“I’ve really made a mess of things. One that keeps growing the longer I go without telling Carley about Emma.”
“Wait, Carley doesn’t know about Emma yet?”
Picking up my head, I look Eliana in the eyes and let my reaction answer her question. Standing, I pace the living room.
“Carley’s mother cheated on her father with her best friend.
She didn’t even know her biological father—who happens to be George Manford, by the way,” I look over at Ez and catch his shock at this revelation, “until she was sixteen years old. Her mother had moved on with the best friend, until he died in a car accident. It turned out he was cheating, too. Get this … with his assistant.”
I watch as both Ez and Eliana try to put together everything I just told them.
“She hates liars and cheaters. She made that very clear to me, and I don’t blame her one bit.
But I’m both. I should have told her when I first got into town, before things started heating up between us again.
But I honestly didn’t think it was relevant to anything.
Then when I finally decided I was going to tell her, this shit with that motherfucking psycho stalker started.
It didn’t feel right to lay this on her, too. ”
“D, this bomb is going to blow up in your face if you don’t diffuse it ASAP.”
“You don’t think I know that? I wanted to tell her tonight after she got settled in, but that was when I thought Emma was still in California with Gary. And now I find out Carley’s falling in love with me—”
“She told you that?” Eliana interrupts. The smile on her face is priceless.
“No. I overheard her telling her friend Saylor. And I feel the same way about her, but I’m terrified I’ve waited too long to tell her about Emma, and my love won’t matter to her enough to be able to forgive my omission.”
“Listen,” Ez speaks up. “I believe you and Carley have what it takes to get through whatever pain this omission could cause her. But if you don’t tell her and she finds out on her own—which she will—I don’t know if you can come back from that.”
“I know,” I agree.
Still, the thought of telling her makes me want to throw up.
“So what else did that bitch Emma have to say?”
I scoff, thinking back to our conversation.
“She’s a fucking piece of work. She told me I have one week to call her with a date and time we can meet for dinner so we can talk.
If not, she said she’s going to go to the board of trustees and tell them about my pattern of destructive behavior in reference to sleeping with my assistants.
And also, she will write to whatever fucking news outlets to tell them about the sexual corruption taking place within Okeanós. ”
I take my seat once more and rub my hand down my face, still in disbelief of my earlier run-in. Grabbing my glass from the table, I down the rest of my whiskey.
“Another?”
“No, no,” I decline. “I told Carley I was going to the office for something. Another fucking lie. I can’t come home smelling like a bar.”
“D, I honestly think everything will be okay. Carley is a smart girl, and she doesn’t seem like the type to react without getting all of the facts. But you need to let her know.”
“I know. I’ll tell her.”
After I deal with Emma.
* * *
My penthouse already smells like Carley when I walk through the door, and it makes my knees weak. I nearly toss the food back out in the hallway because I know it’s only a matter of time before it overpowers her floral scent.
“Carley, I’m home,” I give a shout as I lock the door behind me.
Fuck, both my heart and my dick love hearing those words. When she doesn’t answer, I figure she’s in the shower and can’t hear me. Passing my bedroom, I decide to get dinner out on the table and then see what she’s up to. Maybe join her for a shower before we eat.
When I get to the end of the hallway and make a left into the dining room, my dick nearly leaps out of my pants. There at the end of the table is Carley, scantily clad in the sexiest fucking lacy black lingerie I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
With her feet flat on the table and her legs relaxed to the sides, her pussy is wide open and completely on display. She looks at me as I drop the food on the floor and stalk toward her.
“I thought you might like your dessert before dinner tonight.”
That’s what I said to her at dinner in Greece. But the way she says it, so sweet and innocent, it’s as though she’s served me a piece of cake instead of an entire mouthwatering pie.
“Théa…”
I don’t think I can form a coherent thought at the moment, but this doesn’t require thinking anyway. I drop into the chair at the head of the table and curl my arms around her slender thighs, pulling her closer to the edge.
My tongue dives between her thighs, and she wraps her legs around my neck, pulling me in close. Using my thumb and index finger, I hold her open, exposing her clit so I can tease it while my other hand breaches her opening and burrows in, knuckle deep.
Carley’s sharp intake of breath tells me I’ve hit her spot. Both my fingers and the tip of my tongue work feverishly to bring her the pleasure she deserves. The pleasure I never want to stop bringing her for as long as I live.
Soon, she begins to arch her back off of the table, and I know it won’t be long until I get to drink her all up.
“Oh, shit,” she releases in a breathy whisper. “Right there! Don’t stop, D.”
And I have no intention of stopping. I moan as I suck on her clit, letting the vibration of my voice aid in her pleasure. My fingers move within her, faster than I think they’ve ever moved before.
That’s when I feel it. The hot rush of her arousal, beginning to pour out of her. As my fingers still dance inside of her, she writhes on the table in front of me. Needing to taste even more of her, I dip my head and open my mouth wide, catching as much of her sweetness as I can.
Once I’ve gotten all that she’s given me, I remove my belt and unfasten my pants quickly.
Pulling her into a sitting position, my lips seek hers out as my cock finds her entrance, and I push inside of her.
She cries out when I’m seated all the way in.
Curling her legs around my waist, like she did to my neck a moment ago, she holds on as I lunge forward.
Moving swiftly, I grip her tightly. I fist her hair at the nape of her neck with my other arm curled around her lower back for more support. For more leverage. Because I need more. I’m as far inside of her as I can get, but it’s still not enough.
With Carley, it will never be enough.