Chapter 28
ZACH
It’s my birthday tomorrow, then the party a few days after.
I’ve been working out of the Knight Enterprises offices for a few days, deliberately keeping away from the Stella offices. Keeping away from Maya.
I’m not sulking. We’ve not split up. I’m just choosing to put some space between us. Also, having focused purely on Stella for the past few weeks, I’ve let the ball fall on all my other business ventures, so I’m trying to catch up with those.
Dad’s in South Africa and he’s going to miss my party. Not that it matters anymore, because the one person I wanted to be there, who I needed to be there, won’t be.
Before he left, I passed by his penthouse, to check in on him.
I needed to know that he was completely well to take this trip.
He says it was for some a multi-million-dollar mining deal.
He looked tired, dark circles staining the skin under his eyes.
I had a premonition that this was a bad idea, that maybe one of us should accompany him.
Given that the only one who’d volunteer to do such a thing would be me, I put the idea to him, but he wouldn’t have it.
He said it was my birthday and surely I had better things to do than to go with him on a business trip.
Secretly, I’d rather have done that than be at my own birthday party. It’s taking place this weekend. Saturday night. A yacht in the Hudson, anchored off Manhattan. I can see it now. All glass decks and champagne bars and the skyline blazing behind it like a light show.
I hate that Maya won’t be there. Dex and Rio continue to regale me with the party plans, but it’s lost its luster.
I no longer care about it much. I agree to still go ahead with it because it’s what Mom would have wanted, and I find myself going through the motions, going along with it, but in the back of my mind, I’m having a hard time understanding Maya’s reasons for not wanting to come.
My cell phone rings, and I don’t rush to answer it, but get back to reading a financial report. When it doesn’t stop ringing, I snatch it, and see that it’s Maya.
Should I answer it?
We’ve not spoken for a few days, ever since I went to her apartment asking her to come to my party. I set the phone back down and ignore it. My pride prevents me, stupidly perhaps, but when it stops ringing, I breathe a sigh of relief.
Until it starts ringing again.
It could be important, so I answer it. “Maya.”
“Hey.” Her voice is soft, and warm. I missed it. I missed her. “You seem busy, but do you have a few minutes?” She sounds guarded, like she’s weighing up her words carefully.
“I was in the middle of something.”
“Oh.” She coughs lightly, like she doesn’t know whether to continue or not. “I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
She noticed, huh?
“I’ve been busy,” I reply, with a touch of gravity. Like I’ve been busy doing big billionaire deals, and she was too insignificant for me to even think about. I’m behaving like a douchebag, and she deserves better.
“I-uh, I didn’t want to leave things the way I did, about your birthday, and you inviting me, and me turning you down. I’m sorry.”
“It feels like you’re pushing me away.”
“I’m not,” she says quickly. Too quickly. “It’s not about you. I swear.”
I wait for her to elaborate, but she doesn’t. Not fully. She gives me half answers and we go back and forth like that for a few minutes. I can feel her holding something back, something heavy, but she sidesteps every question I have.
“Can we talk in person?” she asks, finally.
I shoot forward in my chair. “You want to meet?” This is new. She sounds serious. “Where?”
“At the diner maybe?”
What’s wrong with meeting at the apartment? But I understand. It’s too personal. Too intimate. Too tempting.
“Only if you’re free,” she adds.
I stare out of my window at the bejeweled city lights twinkling in the night sky and I’m curious to know what prompted this from her. “You having second thoughts?” I ask, feeling hopeful that she might come to the party after all.
“Not exactly.” She takes a loud breath. “But I have an idea.”
That’s something. “I’ll meet you there.”
A short while later I’m outside the diner. I see her through the window, sitting alone at a small table, waiting for me. The fact that she called me, that she wants to meet, sends a quiet jolt through me. This is important. I just hope it isn’t bad news.
We greet one another like work colleagues.
Wooden, and civil, yet despite the restraint, and no hugs or kisses, I can’t help but soften at the sight of her.
Her eyes twinkle, and looking at her fills me with a sense of joy that’s been missing from my life.
On closer examination, she looks nervous, apologetic even, like she’s about to spill a big secret.
Maybe now I’ll finally get to the bottom of it.
“I don’t want to let you down , or hurt you,” she says, wringing her hands as she leans across the table. “Especially not over something that matters to you, and something as important as your big birthday.”
I shrug. “I don’t understand why it’s such a hard no.”
She wraps her arms around herself. “Some doors are just … hard to walk back through.”
“What door did you close?”
She fidgets in her seat. “What if I don’t … fit?”
That again? I sense she’s choosing her words carefully. “You fit with me, Maya.”
She manages a smile. I can tell it’s forced, because it doesn’t light up her eyes.
Is this really all that keeping her from coming to my party?
I reach across the table and take her hands in mine.
Soft and warm, the touch of her skin comforts me in a way that is familiar, in a way I crave and need.
I don’t want to let her out of my sight again. “You fit, okay?”
“But I am and always will be the housekeeper’s daughter.”
“Says who?”
“Says me, says your father …”
“He’s not even going to be there. He’s abroad, on business, doing what’s important to him.”
She stills for a moment, like she misheard. “He’s not going to be there?”
“He never is. He didn’t even come to Brooke’s fifth birthday. Jett’s daughter,” I explain.
“That’s not good.”
“He only cares about business. Mom would have been there.” I stop, catching myself with memories about how Mom would bake cakes herself on our birthdays, not allowing the chef to do it, and how she would make a day of it.
No nannies, no staff, just Mom and us, spending the day doing something together, because Dad was always away on business.
Thinking about it now, maybe it wasn’t always business.
It was probably him spending time with his other family.
“I’m only going ahead with it because it was what mom would have wanted.”
She slides her thumbs over the back of my hands, reassuring and comforting.
“It’ll just be my brothers, friends, and close business associates.” I watch her carefully, because her expression shifts and she seems to relax. I can almost see the tension melting away from her face and shoulders.
“I feel bad for letting you down,” she says slowly, dark eyes meeting mine like she’s asking for forgiveness.
“Then don’t.”
She takes a slow inhale, thinking about it. “I’ll come.”
Hope flares so fast in my chest it almost hurts. “You’ll come? To my party?”
She nods. “If it means that much to you.”
I squeeze her hands in mine gently. She’s changed in one instant. It’s like she was wrestling with herself, and now, she’s made the choice. “You being there means the world to me.”
“I’m sorry for messing you about.” Her voice is soft, her guard lowered. I note the fullness of her lips, the shine in her eyes, and all I want is to possess her again. Have her in my bed. I’d kiss her now, if I could reach across the table and fully claim her mouth.
She gives me a devilish, hungry smile that tells me it’s not food that’s on her mind right now.
A waitress comes over. I glance up, distracted, then turn to Maya.
“It’s you again,” the waitress says, cheerfully. Maya and I do a double take. It’s the same one we had the last time, when we had to leave without placing an order. We’re going to do the same thing again.
“I’m sorry,” I say, getting ready to leave. “But … something’s just come up.”
“Again?” She looks at me, then at Maya, in disbelief.
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry. It’s urgent.”
Maya stands, looking ready to flee. I grab my briefcase and hold it over my pants, hiding my erection.
***
We go back to the Tribeca apartment. Her Tribeca apartment, that’s how I like to think of it. I’ve taken it off the market, kept it from being rented out, left it untouched, like a place that’s waiting for her, for whenever she wants it.
As soon as we’re inside, and we close the door on the outside world, my hands find her waist. She doesn’t pull away. She splays her hands across my chest and our kiss starts slow and tentative, like we’re both unsure, waiting to see who loses restraint first.
“Wait,” she cries, her voice breathless, cheeks flushed. “I ... I have something for you.”
“What?”
“Just ... sit back and ... wait.”
She goes all mysterious on me, giving nothing away as she disappears into the bedroom. Curious, I do as she says. I sit back on the couch, waiting.
A few seconds later she reappears, but I'm not prepared for what I see.
“Fuck,” I murmur, heat rushing through me so fast, I'm in danger of combusting on the spot.
Maya has stripped down to just her lingerie. A sexy black silk bra and the tiniest of panties.
“Fuck,” I murmur. She gets down on all fours and sashays towards me. My pants suddenly feel too tight as my cock strains against the fabric. “W-what are you ...”
“I'm looking for something,” she says, grinning, then stops and straightens, kneeling slowly in front of me, letting me get a good look at her.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My cock hardens even more. My mouth hangs open. “Maya...” I growl, needing to take her right now. I want to lunge towards her and fix my mouth on hers, before sucking her breasts and eating her out. I want to do all these things. “W...what are you d-doing?”
“Looking for something.” She gets on all fours again, like a stealthy, sexy kitten, she crawls, slowly and deliberately, around the floor, letting me get a good look at her.
Letting my cock stiffen and throb. She does another lap, while I gawk at her beautiful breasts hanging low, and her smooth and silky buttocks separated by the tiniest little strip.
I huff out a constricted breath. At this rate she'll have me exploding all over myself. She pauses, then crawls over to me, parting my legs before positioning herself between them. She looks so delectable, so fuckable, so perfectly mine, that I’m in danger of coming right now.
Dark, glistening eyes stare at me, before her hands move towards my zipper. I lose the ability to speak as she undoes my pants, and her fingers reach into my boxers.
“Found it,” she says in a cheerful voice, pulling out my engorged cock.
My gaze goes from her eyes to her breasts to her hands. She strokes my length, sliding her hand up and down it. It drips, leaking pre-cum, the throbbing so painful, I'm going to need to release soon.
But she slides her thumb over my pre-cum, smearing it all over the head, making me suffer as she tortures me.
I leak some more. My gaze drops to her outline of her raised nipples straining against her bra.
I reach forward and pull, freeing her breast and tweaking her pebbled nipple.
I moan, desperate to taste her, to feast on every part of her.
“Fuck, Maya.”
“No. None of that. I want to savor your beautiful cock first.” A mischievous glint shines in her eyes. She's enjoying this torture.
Jesus.
She bends down and licks my tip, plopping just the head into her mouth and sucking. I'm going to lose it. I'm going to come into her mouth if she keeps this up, and I'm not sure she's ready. I reach over and push her hair back so I can get a good look at her mouth on me.
This is so hot. I’m having difficulty breathing, trying to keep it together, trying to hold it in, but her magic mouth undoes me in a way I’m completely unprepared for.
“Maya.”
She ignores me, wrapping her fingers around me, and taking me slowly into her mouth, sucking hard, and long, as she swallows me inch by inch.
“Fuck! Not so fast ...”
She pauses, sensing that I'm on the edge, and starts to slowly drag her tongue along my length. I fist my hands in her hair, and watch her savoring me so perfectly, as she licks from the tip to my balls and back again.
She’s wrecking me completely. I growl again, and she changes tactic; sliding her mouth over me and taking me in deeper, until I feel the back of her throat.
I fall back against the couch, eyes rolling back. She speeds up, pleasuring me faster, and harder. Lapping me up as I rest my hands on her head, which now bobs along to a set rhythm. I can't hold back any longer and I come in her mouth.
I'm floating, in another dimension. It takes a while for the pleasure to abate, for my body to come back to itself, for me to focus on the world around me.
Maya still kneels between my legs, having savored my cock in a way I will never forget.
She looks up at me, lips moist, eyes soft, and I pull her gently to her feet.
She climbs onto my lap, sitting astride me, my head resting against her chest as her arms wrap around me and mine circle her waist. We stay like that, breathing each other in, my heart racing, pulse pounding.
“I didn't know what birthday gift to get for the man who has everything,” she whispers.
I lift my head and look at her, gratitude tightening my throat because she's given me a gift I'll never forget.
“And so I gave you ... this.”
“Thank you,” I murmur as she lowers her mouth to mine. I kiss her, long and deep, and hold her in my arms like she’s the most precious person in the world to me.