Chapter 32
Penelope
Aspiring to touch the heavens, Xander’s penthouse was perched on the top four floors of the Manhattan Tower. The crown jewel
of Billionaires’ Row, the tower overlooked Central Park on its north face and lower Manhattan from the south. His penthouse
unfolded between 360-degree views of the city, the floor-to-ceiling windows in every room dissolving the boundary between
the clean, sleek interior and the kaleidoscope of Manhattan outside. It would’ve been a little unsettling if I didn’t know
they were all one-way views.
I turned the shower faucet off, and the waterfall nozzle dripped to a stop. The warm steam enveloped the Makrana marble bathroom.
We arrived back in Manhattan a couple days ago after our week in Singapore. Since summer was winding down, we came straight
into the city. And all my things arrived earlier in the morning, so I spent my Saturday helping the staff find a place for
the many boxes that littered the well-organized home.
It was a fairly peaceful morning. That was, until a courier arrived with another folder of documents. I suspected it would
have come from my family, but I wasn’t expecting a court summons.
I tore through the documents. The summons was from the State Department—calling my work visa into question—filling my head with a thousand different concerns on how or why this was happening.
So I decided to retreat to the tranquil allure of the guest bathroom’s steam shower to relax. I wrapped a towel around my
torso and stepped in front of the vanity. I took a smaller towel and patted my hair dry as I looked out the large windows.
“Poppy?” Xander’s voice echoed through the halls.
My bones jumped at that shot through the quiet space.
“I’m in here,” I squeaked, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward even though the man had seen me bare naked in a variety of
different positions over the last week.
I’d spent the last couple nights in Xander’s bed, but I figured I should probably pick a guest room to stay in for the near
term. I was enjoying the freedom of the arrangement; it was the thrill of exploring parts of myself I kept hidden with the
safety I felt with Xander. But we hadn’t talked living arrangements and, since I had time today and an excessive amount of
anxiety from the summons, I figured I could channel that into organizing.
“What are you doing in here?” Xander walked in and looked over the boxes neatly stacked against the wall. He looked around
the room until his eyes fell to the opened summons on the chaise at the foot of the bed.
Before I had a chance to answer, he picked it up and his eyes ran over the words.
“What’s this?” He turned it to the back and read the rest.
“A summons.” I explained it was one of the reasons I’d started unpacking and making myself busy that morning. “Apparently,
my work visa is suddenly being called into question.”
Xander ran a hand down the slope of his jaw as he read through the papers. Including having the Chen family lawyer evict me from the house in Manhattan. This would be the second thing to hap pen that felt targeted . “And without that as your reason to live in the States, this is forcing you to go to the State Department and clear it up
or provide another.”
“I’m guessing Silas is attempting to call the marriage into question. Legally,” I explained, feeling my words sort of smash
together as they rushed out of my mouth.
“Don’t worry.” Xander’s seriousness melted off him, leaving behind a playful arch to his lips. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Oh.” My shoulders relaxed. It was sweet, but I could take care of it myself. I didn’t need him to fix it. I felt a little
more comfortable with taking on potentially inflammatory tasks with my family every day; it was a little empowering. “No need,
I already called the State Department and let Tristan know, see if he can’t expedite something. I may need to go to the courthouse,
but hopefully it will be settled soon.”
Xander nodded again.
“So, what are you doing in here?” he repeated, putting the summons back down on the chaise at the foot of the bed. Then, slowly,
his eyes moved up my body.
I became very aware that I was still in my towel.
“Getting dressed.” I held the towel tight against my chest.
“Yeah, I can see that,” he noted casually, looking over a few of the open boxes. He’d left earlier in the morning to go to
the Augustus to meet his brother and Henry. “I mean what are you doing in here ?”
“You never actually told me which guest room to take, so I simply chose the first one I saw,” I explained.
“You have a room,” he reminded me softly; his attention went to the box on my bed. “The one you’ve been sleeping and screaming
in for the last few days.”
My cheeks heated.
“Well, I thought maybe you’d want some space,” I reasoned.
“Do you want space?” he asked simply, still not looking up at me, spending more time examining the box. Now all the blood had rushed
to my face.
He was looking at the box labeled Nightstand .
“That’s...” I began, but sputtered out.
I swallowed hard, a little mortified, when he pulled out my hot-pink vibrator. The only thing that was ever successful at
consistently getting me off. With the notable exception of my new husband.
He paused and turned it in his hand.
“Still haven’t answered my question.” A smirk tugged at the slope of his jaw. His eyes shot up to me, pinning me in a heavy
stare. “Do you want space?”
A familiar electricity sparked between us. He had that look in his eye. The one that always preceded an orgasm.
“Well...” I rolled my teeth over my lip. It was the start of a carnal game and, God, I was enjoying the play. The embarrassment
melted away as quickly as it came, because with Xander, I wasn’t afraid to ask for what I wanted. “Maybe I do.”
He prowled slowly over to me; I backed up until the bathroom doorframe stopped me. His tone adopted that flirtatious hitch.
“Is that so?” He pushed me gently against the doorframe that led into the still steamy bathroom. Cool drops of water fell
off my hair and skimmed along my skin.
My blood heated with expectation, knowing all that came next.
I swallowed against a dry throat. “Maybe.”
He chuckled lightly and leaned his head against mine. My legs nearly buckled under the weight of his gaze.
“Shower, bed, window,” he whispered. “Where are we going, Poppy?”
My stomach flipped. Moisture began to gather between my thighs.
“Why don’t you...” The steam that was so soothing just a few minutes ago felt suffocating now. I rested my hand on his chest. “Why don’t you pick?”
“That’s not what I asked.” His tone took on the teasing volley. He clicked the button, and the familiar buzz filled the room.
“What do you think about when you use this?”
Moving the towel aside, he pressed the vibrator right at the bottom of my navel.
The controlled tremors ricocheted down my legs and through my core. My hips bucked.
“Who do you think about?” He continued his line of questioning with a possessive undercurrent.
Goose bumps pebbled all along my skin.
“Lower,” I whispered.
“You need to start answering my questions, Poppy,” he groaned against my ear, moving the vibrator to just above my clit, teasing
me. “Who do you think about?”
I swallowed hard. Nothing lit a controlled burn in my body quite like when Xander asked how I wanted to be taken. To make
me say the words. To demand what I wanted. But he wasn’t the only one who could play. “Theo James.”
It was the first name I could think of, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d often been the man
I imagined.
A look he tried to hide behind a lazy, self-assured smirk didn’t fool me this time.
“Oh yeah?” he taunted and pressed me harder against the doorframe, clicking the button again; the smooth silicone vibrated
faster. “Anyone else?”
I gasped and rolled my hips against it. The rough pulses sent ripples through my lower half. “No...”
“You sure?” Envy sparked and chipped at the emerald in his eyes.
He began to rock it back and forth along my clit, teasing me by pushing it lower only to pull it back.
My hands curled around his shirt; I pulled him closer. “Xander...”
He rocked it faster, giving me the brief flashes of ecstasy when he’d allow it to rub against me and fill me only to take
it away seconds later.
“Are you sure, Poppy? You’re not thinking of anyone else?” He pushed the vibrator inside of me. I was so wet it slid in with
ease. He held it steady with his fingers while his thumb pressed slow circles on my clit. “Because either you’re really fucking
wet for a man that isn’t here. Or you’re lying.”
His thumb stroked me more firmly. My head tipped back against the solid doorframe. I was close.
My nails dug into his back. The heat concentrated in my core, ready to burst at any second. My breath shallowed, my vision
began to blur.
Then, it stopped. The room came back into perfect view.
Paradise stolen with one click.
My hand grabbed his wrist and held it like a vise as he pulled away.
“If you don’t play along,” he teased, “nobody wins.”
I whimpered and tugged on his shirt. “Don’t stop.”
“Do you know what I get if I win?” He clicked it back on and ran it over my clit.
I nearly screamed.
“Xander,” I begged in a broken sob.
“I get to fuck every one of those lies right out of you.” His teeth dragged along my neck. “Now, where are we going, Poppy?”
“Shower.”
Before I knew it, my towel was discarded on the floor along with his clothes and the warm water was pouring over me. Xander’s
muscular chest pressed against my back and his erection was hard against my skin.
“Do you want to come?” he said between light kisses on the nape of my neck. He massaged my breast with one hand—passing a taut nipple between his fingers—while the other turned the vibrator carelessly in his hand.
“Yes,” I grated out, leaning my head back against his shoulder.
His hand smoothed down my stomach and his fingers stopped just above my clit. A jittery fog filled my mind as the steam filled
the shower.
“Should I use this?” He passed the vibrator between his fingers while the other hand teased my entrance. “Or do you want my
cock?”
The water gently lapping down my body, mixed with the static building in my core, made me impatient. I was so aroused I felt
slickness between my thighs despite the water falling over me.
I wanted all of it, to be completely overwhelmed. “Both.”
He maneuvered me away from the waterfall faucet and bent me over, my arms braced against the cool marble ledge on the built-in
bench.
“Did you ever wonder.” He pushed into me slowly. Bubbles of pleasure popped along my spine as he moved, inch by inch. “About
how I’d feel fucking you when you used this?”
Yes. Too many times.
“Xander.” The pleasure climbed along every nerve ending.
Tempting. Teasing. Pushing me closer.
Holding the vibrator lightly against my clit with one hand, he thrust into me slow at first. The familiar anticipation climbed
higher. The buzz echoed in the steam. Electric waves moved down my legs; they began to wobble.
“Or maybe. How it would feel when I took you to the edge and stopped.” He clicked it off.
“Xander!” I cried out. Feeling like all the air in my lungs was pulled out of me, I bucked back, begging for friction when
he refused to move.
“Poppy...” he drawled.
“ Please .” My heart felt like it might stop with all the ways he stole my release. At that point, I’d beg to get any of it back.
But he gave it all. A click paired with a hard thrust and all that restraint seemed to dissipate into the steam. He pushed
into me rough and quick, diving deeper.
The water trickling to the floor. The indecent echo of our bodies slamming together. The wicked buzz from the vibrator. All
crashed together with the impossibly pleasurable sensation at the base of my spine.
It burst in concert with a string of moans and broken sobs. The climax crashing so hard over me that nothing else registered.
It wasn’t until moments later after a harsh grunt that Xander’s movements slowed. I blinked again, and as though I was moving
frame by frame, the sound of the water shutting off came next. Then a towel wrapped around my body and his arms holding it
and me close.
“I thought unpacking would be boring,” I murmured, my heavy eyes closing. I leaned back into him, feeling the rise and fall
of his chest.
He smiled against my neck. “While we’re on the subject, your things are in the wrong room.”
I could barely think let alone understand what he was saying. “Hmmm?”
“I’m not coming over here if I want to make you scream in the middle of the night,” he told me. “I’ll have your things moved
to our room.”
“Oh.” My heart fluttered. I guess he didn’t need space. “Okay.”
He lifted his hand and passed the vibrator between his fingers again. “And bring this with you.”