Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Jasmine
I looked out the car’s side window, content to say nothing more to Eric since clearly everything about me was wrong tonight, from my clothing and defiance (which admittedly was intentional) to my associations with James (not intentional at all).
But Eric couldn’t leave well enough alone. “Is this because I haven’t spoken to you since our last meeting?” he asked.
Meeting? Is that what he was calling that wholly intimate weekend together? I turned my head toward him and hid my hurt with a scoff. “You can’t even say what it was outright, but you expect me to answer you?”
He sighed, the sound rife with exasperation. “You’re being immature.”
That lit me up. “You fucking ghosted me!”
“I don’t think that’s what I would call it,” he said, too calmly, too rationally.
“Oh? You wouldn’t?” I refused to let him off easy, when I’d suffered for the past month. “So, after dragging me across the country, having me tell you shit about myself no one else knows in response to trying to help you with shit no one else knows, you don’t speak to me and you cancel all our arrangements, that’s not ghosting?”
“I kept paying you.”
“Because that makes it so much better and eases your conscience, doesn’t it? And then this—” I indicated my outfit, my agitation building even more. “Fine, I broke guidelines by dressing like this, but I don’t need you having a conniption fit about me knowing someone that runs in your circles because of work. I’m an escort, Eric. The likelihood that I’ve fucked all of your colleagues is a lot higher than you having fucked all of mine.”
“I—”
“And you know what,” I went on, refusing to let him get a word in edgewise. “It’s really fucking shitty that after all this time of you not talking to me, the most emotion that you show me is because on e, I’m dressing like the thing you pay me to do, and two , because of a confirmed association with someone else. You don’t own me because I work for you. You can’t just do whatever you want to do and put me through an emotional wringer just because you pay me. That’s fucked up.”
“Jasmine—”
“What!?” I nearly screeched, the hurt inside of me burbling to the surface.
Eric sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if my tirade had given him a headache. “I swear, this is ridiculous.”
God, he was such a fucking man . “Yeah, imagine being me.”
From the front of the car, Jeff cleared his throat. “Uhm…we’re at Miss Greene’s. Shall I…”
“I’ll let myself up,” I said abruptly, done with everything and everyone for the evening. “Good night.”
I let myself out of the car, not waiting for Eric or Jeff to get out and come around, but doing so myself. Coming out tonight had obviously been a huge mistake and to be perfectly honest, I questioned whether or not my little act of defiance was worth it. I’d let myself slip past the emotional barrier that I had always kept up for myself, and what it was getting me was nothing but bullshit and heartache.
I was content to storm up to my apartment and spend the rest of the evening on my own, but Jeff had other ideas and decided to escort me, anyway. I heard the car door close behind me as I trekked to my building, along with the sound of shoes padding a few feet behind me.
But it was Eric’s voice that called out to me. “Jasmine, wait.”
“Leave me alone, Eric,” I said, ignoring his request. “You’re very clearly good at leaving people alone. For weeks. With no word. So do me a favor and go back to doing that because right now I have no time or patience for you.”
“Jasmine, if you would just calm down and let me explain—”
We started up the stairs leading to my apartment, but I didn’t let up. “You could have explained things weeks ago. You talk about mature, that would have been the mature thing to do. But you expect me to act like nothing happened? What kind of horse shit is that, Eric?”
“I’m not saying ignoring you was the right thing to do,” he said, sounding almost apologetic as I unlocked my apartment door and stepped inside. “I’m just saying I’ve had a lot going on in my mind and it’s a lot of shit I have no idea how to compartmentalize or process or even talk about—”
“Talk about it?” I finally whirled around, unleashing another bout of my wrath on him. “ You couldn’t talk about it? What do you think anything that I said that weekend was easy to talk about? But I did, because you needed it, because I thought that us together like that and opening up like that was the thing to do because…fuck, I don’t know, we’re friends, or something? I talked about things that are still too painful to even talk about with Dominique, so don’t give me that too hard shit, Eric.”
Eric simply stared at me. Had the nerve to say not a damn word while he looked me in my face. It took a special kind of audacity, to be a man like that. To look a scorned woman in her eyes when she was fuming, when she… fuck, when she was hurt to the core, even if she wouldn’t dare say those specific words to him.
But what was I supposed to do? Act like I wasn’t utterly disappointed, devastated even? Like there wasn’t some part of me that desperately needed him to say something? Like maybe an apology to start?
My nostrils flared, eyes narrowed on him, and he kept that calm, cool gaze that burned and spurned me all at once and just made me even more irate, even if it also made the pit of my stomach warm with an unexpected flutter.
He stepped in, and I stood my ground, even as his advance put him in my personal space, nearly chest to chest if I’d actually had the height for my own chest to touch his.
Wordlessly, he reached behind him, pushing the door of my apartment closed. His eyes never left mine. “Where is your bedroom, Jasmine?”
Admittedly, his unexpected request startled me, but I didn’t budge. “Why do you need to know where my bedroom is? We can talk right here. In fact, open that door. Let the neighbors hear the conversation for all I care, Eric.”
He scoffed, just faintly, though there was an inkling of a smirk that tugged at the corners of his mouth, arrogant fucking man . “Where is your bedroom, Jasmine?”
This time, his voice was silken smooth. Deep. So damn seductive and I hated that my traitorous body was already starting to respond to that alluring tone.
I wanted to tell him to go fuck off somewhere, but just as much as I wanted to do that, I craved what that tone would lead to. What delicious, beautiful dangers that would bring me. Funny, any other man I would caution what he would do to me, like this. Yet with all the darkness in Eric’s tone, in his eyes even, I trusted where this might lead, because I trusted him .
Not with my heart—no, not that—but with my body.
And right now, my traitorous body craved his, despite the wringer he’d put me through tonight. Hell, the past month. I wanted the release of all the tension bottled up inside me that I knew he could give me. I wanted the kind of rough, unrefined angry-fuck that was filled with aggression and hostility.
None of that slow and gentle and intimate shit. Right now, I knew that wasn’t what he was offering.
I didn’t answer him. I merely scoffed and turned my back to him. I led him through my apartment, a shorter distance from the front door to my room than the expanse of his penthouse, for sure, but it made it so I didn’t have to wait long—and neither did he.
As soon as we were inside, his hand was on the back of my neck. A sure grip, one that sent a shiver down the length of my spine as he turned me. He didn’t even have to use force. Just the presence of his fingers at my nape, the underlying strength that I felt there, in that grip. It was a silent command to my body to comply, and I did.
Facing him, his expression was composed. Almost like we hadn’t been arguing so heatedly. A man with so much control over himself…why was it so tempting right now? Why did it make me vibrate with need even though I was still so goddamn furious with him?
“Take off your clothes, Jasmine.”
I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue as I lifted my chin. “And if I don’t?”
He didn’t reply to my defiant challenge, not verbally anyway. Eric tilted his head, brow raised, as though contemplating himself what he would do if I didn’t obey. His hand left my nape and slid around to my throat. I was only allowed a soft gasp at the firm pressure against my pulse.
He leaned closer to me. “I said…take off your clothes, Jasmine.”
His hand remained there at my throat, a warm, steady presence. Entranced, more than I had initially expected to be, I didn’t hesitate to comply. I kept my eyes on his as I reached around and undid my zipper, then slid my arms out of my dress sleeves. There was so little fabric, the slinky material fell so easily off my frame. Pooled at my feet, it stayed there; his intensely sexual gaze kept me rooted to the spot. I didn’t even step out of it.
“ All of it, Jasmine.” His voice was calm, the demand in those words not so much.
With him, my obedience in the bedroom came as naturally as breathing. No bra, I was already bare chested. So it was me leaning down, straining against the pressure created by Eric’s hand on my throat. He didn’t move. Face placid as though he were waiting around for a gallery to open. As if, almost, he were merely looking at an incredibly boring piece of art.
My fingers brushed just inside my thighs—damp with my arousal—as I pushed my panties down, let them fall into the pile between my legs. When had I gotten so wet? When he took my throat in his hand? Or before that, even, when we were arguing?
It started there, I concluded. That damned argument damning me to this place, right here. Ire and arousal were so easily made friends, even in the tamest situations. This, what Eric and I were doing? Was hardly tame. It was the farthest thing from tame, and that’s how I wanted it.
When I was completely bare, only then did Eric’s fingers slide away from my neck. Oh, so slow. A lingering phantom caress. He’d ceased touching me, but I knew I was to stay where I was.
His eyes flared with a scorching heat as he took in my naked body. “You’re so beautiful, Jasmine. So goddamn headstrong. I like that about you, but you know what your problem is?” He leaned in, nuzzling his nose against my neck, inhaling deeply of my scent. “You clearly haven’t learned my expectations. It’s alright. We’ll figure it out together. As long as it takes.”
Before I could say anything, even think to say anything to defy him, he had his hand on my throat again, pushing me back onto my bed. My upper half fell against the plush comforter, my legs hanging off the edge. Eric shoved my feet apart with his shoes, then moved between my spread thighs, keeping them wide open to his avid, hungry gaze.
I wasn’t a shy person, but being exposed before him like this sent an electric heat through me, made the tips of my breasts furl into tight, hard points. I wore nothing, and he had yet to touch his clothes. To even give a hint that he was going to remove them at all.
Grabbing my thighs, he yanked my ass to the edge of the mattress, forcing my legs wider apart against his hips, until my pussy pressed against the fly of his slacks, forcing me to feel the hardness of his cock beneath layers of clothing. My insides clenched with the thought of him thrusting into me like this, with his hand on my throat, the force of it weighing me down as he ravaged my pussy.
Instead, he stared down at me. His head, tilted in contemplation. Was he as affected as I was? Did his body burn like mine did? I desperately wanted to know. Wanted to see a crack in that cool, composed facade of his.
“Eric…” I breathed.
Aching, pulsing, needing to be filled, I reached toward the thin leather belt around his waist. I barely touched the buckle before Eric snatched my hand. He gathered both of my wrists, yanked my arms above my head, and pinned them to the bed with one of his hands while he loomed over me.
“You touch when I tell you, you can.”
Before I could say anything—protest, beg him to let me touch him because I desperately needed to feel him under me too—he sank the two fingers of his free hand inside of me. I gasped, writhing against Eric’s hand as he stroked the pads of his fingers against a swollen, sensitive mass of nerves just inside me.
He held me pinned there. One hand gathered my wrists above my head, and the other wreaking havoc inside me. Strumming that bundle of nerves. Driving me wild. I couldn’t think straight, only beg in my mind and with the babble that spilled from my lips that he wouldn’t stop. That he would do more. That he would let me do more—
“That’s it,” he cooed at me, a rich satisfaction in his tone. “It’s intense, isn’t it? I can see it on your face. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you, Jasmine—at my pace. When I’m ready, not when you demand it. I think it’s a lesson you’ll learn and learn well by the time I’m done with you.”
Nothing could prepare me for how Eric went at me and it was just his goddamn fingers. They reached deep where no one, not even my own self who knew my body in every way, had ever done. The sensation he created was a deep, constant onslaught of pleasure that made my legs quiver. He had me laid out, thighs spread wide, back bowed as I panted and writhed, while he found new ways to drive me wild.
I was a mess. Slick between the thighs and sweaty. It was filthy in the best of ways, and he kept driving me closer to orgasm, so goddamn close. The precipice was right there —
And then he fucking stopped and pulled his fingers out of me. I made a soft, mewling sound of protest, anguished that he’d leave me hanging like that.
“Do you want to come, Jasmine?” His voice was smooth like silk, and edged with too much satisfaction.
My answer was a soft whine, and I didn’t even care.
He chuckled, the sound more than a little wicked, as if my desperate need was amusing to him. “Use your words, Jasmine. You were so good at saying what you wanted earlier.”
He still held my wrists to the bed, still had my thighs spread with him standing in between, and I gasped when I felt the head of his cock brush along my slick, sensitive flesh. He was still completely clothed, but had unfastened his pants and now he teased at my entrance, fooling me into thinking he’d push inside me if I raised my hips up against him.
He laughed darkly, forcing my hips back down with the insistent grip of his free hand. Back and forth, he slid his cock between my swollen pussy lips, a deliberate torture when I wanted that hard, thick shaft filling me up.
“I said, use your words, Jasmine,” he said, more firmly this time. “Don’t make me say it a third time.”
How the fuck was I supposed to use my words? I could barely use my thoughts to string words together internally, now he wanted me to make my throat and mouth work in unison? Couldn’t he see what I wanted, plain as day? That what I needed was release?
Of course he could. Just looking at his face, that controlled, yet lustful look in his eyes, told me all I needed to know about what was going on in Eric’s mind. He was fine with me like this, laid out beneath him as his plaything. Completely content to wait as long as it took for me to do what he demanded, keeping me in a state of overwhelming need until I complied.
My entire body trembled. “P-Please, Eric. Please. I want to come for you.”
“Good girl.” A devious smile tipped the corners of his mouth as he slowly drew the head of his cock along my clit once more. “You’ll get it—but only when I’m ready for you to have it.”
Only when he was ready—even when I was ready now. Even though I whimpered and begged for it. But that didn’t matter when he finally released my wrists then gripped my hips in his hands, holding them steady as he thrust between my legs, anointing the length of his shaft along my drenched slit but not pushing inside.
“You feel so good, Jasmine,” he rasped as he stared down at where he was sliding through the mess between my legs. “So fucking hot and wet for me. You’re soaking your own sheets, all because you want me to let you come. All that hellcat and fire from earlier, and it’s all out the window. Do I need to put my foot down with you more often, Jasmine? Do I need to teach you, hands on, my expectations? Answer me.”
“I…I—” I cried out as the unexpected slap of his cockhead against my clit sent a jolt of pleasure through me—but not enough to ease the ache there.
“I wanted to talk,” I managed to choke out.
He raised a brow. “Hmm, I’m sure you did, arriving at my venue the way you did.”
Still dressed, he lowered his upper body over mine. He ground his hips against mine, a deep, guttural groan rumbling in his chest as he buried his face in my neck. “You’ll learn your lesson though, won’t you?” he asked, with another harder grind of his cock along my pussy that left me in despair when I didn’t answer him immediately.
“Fuck! Yes. Yes, ” I yelled. “I promise I’ll be good next time.” Anything just to have him drive inside me and give me the release I craved so badly.
“Good girl,” he murmured, and sank his teeth into my neck as I clawed at the back of his jacket, wishing it was bare skin instead.
He continued rutting against me, and I writhed beneath him, thrusting up against his cock, too, the friction finally giving me what I needed to scale my way right back up to the precipice of my orgasm.
“That’s it, baby. Come for me,” he ordered, lifting his head to stare down at me. “However many times you want. Just know I’m not stopping until I get my fill of you.”
Permission finally granted, the flood gates opened. My back arched and sparks ignited as I came apart, the drag of his cock all along every inch of my sex, against my clit, ignited deep waves of pleasure that made my entire body shudder beneath his.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, brushing the hair away from my flushed face with his fingers as he watched me fly apart, even as he continued thrusting faster, driving his dick back and forth through my now soaked pussy. “Absolutely fucking beautiful.”
Even as I came down from the high, he increased the rocking motion of his hips. His breathing grew harsh, his jaw clenching as he growled deep in his throat.
“Fuck,” he snarled, bracing himself on his forearms beside me as he lifted up, his hips jerking more erratically, then spurts of thick fluid streaking across my stomach as he came with a low, guttural groan.
His eyes closed, just for a moment as his orgasm ebbed and he caught his breath before they opened again, capturing mine. He kept me in that hold, smirking now as he moved his hips again, sliding his cock through the cum stained mess on my stomach, then shifting lower, positioning his shaft right back between my legs again. Still shockingly hard, he slammed into me, stretching me in the most delicious, decadent way.
God, despite everything, I’d missed this. I’d missed him .
We groaned in unison at the sweet, sweet sensation of being together again like this. I grabbed onto his dress shirt, fisting the fabric in my hands as I locked my legs around his waist and rolled my lower body against his, still needing more.
“Harder,” I begged shamelessly. “Deeper.”
Heat and hunger and lust blazed in his eyes as he gave me what I wanted, fucking into me like a jackhammer. Relentlessly. Mercilessly. Nearly splitting me in two with the force of his driving, punishing thrusts that doled out equal pain, along with exquisite pleasure. Nothing else existed but Eric’s body, his cock, his whole presence, burrowing deep inside of me, possessing and claiming all of me like I was his and his alone.
My head fell back as another round of bliss ignited deep inside of me and I spasmed around his cock, milking him, giving him every reason to follow me right over the edge. He wasn’t far behind, cursing and groaning, his body shuddering through his own intense release, until he was finally spent and collapsed on top of me.
We lay in silence as our breathing returned to normal, and I closed my eyes and threaded my fingers through his hair, relishing this moment between us. After a while, he moved off me and went into the adjoining bathroom, returning with a warm washcloth. I let him tend to my sore flesh and clean me up, allowed him to pick up my boneless body, then set me back down at the top of the mattress so that my head was on the pillows.
I honestly expected him to leave after that, and wouldn’t have been surprised if he had since nothing was really resolved between us. But instead, he quietly stripped off all his clothes, pulled back the covers so I could get beneath them, then joined me.
Without a word, he pulled me against his chest, and because I was so damn weak when it came to Eric, I nestled right in, like we hadn’t spent a month apart. As if he hadn’t shaken up my emotions in ways I wasn’t sure how to put them back together again when it came to him.
I knew we’d have to have a proper conversation instead of the bickering arguments we’d engaged in this evening, but I felt too sated and relaxed and didn’t have the energy to have that kind of serious discussion right then.
For now, I was happy having Eric beside me, and as he gently stroked my back and my eyes fluttered shut, it didn’t take me long to drift away into unconsciousness.