Chapter 14 Nova #2
A knock at the front door brought my heart leaping into my throat until I remembered there was a guy on guard duty in the courtyard.
It was either him or somebody he knew. Still, I looked out the front window to confirm the guard’s presence in his truck before opening the door to a tall, muscular man who brushed slightly-too-long brown hair away from equally dark eyes.
“Hi there,” he offered, his voice deep and rich.
“Hi.” I paused, lost. “Can I help you?”
“My name is Grayson Daniels.” He extended a hand, which I shook firmly, still a little apprehensive.
He could’ve been a model, but the scar running down the side of his face, almost tracing his jaw, was a little jarring like a flaw in an otherwise perfect piece of art.
“And you are the girl my guys have been watching over. Let me guess. Nova Mancini.”
Only slightly unnerving. “That’s right.”
A wry smile tipped the corners of his mouth. “I knew there was something fishy about all of this. Can I come in?”
Could he? He caught the glance I threw toward the guard on duty, chuckling. “I can wait out here if you want.”
“No, it’s okay. Sorry. I’m a little jumpy.” Stepping aside, I chided myself for being so easily freaked.
“Vaughn thinks he’s being slick, which is why he didn’t tell me the name of the person he’s been paying my guys extra money to look after.
” He walked straight to the bar cart on the far side of the airy living room and pulled the stopper from a whisky decanter before withdrawing a glass from the shelf underneath, clearly familiar with the place.
I followed him, puzzled. “Oh. They work for your security company?”
“Not quite. These guys are freelancers,” he explained.
“I vet them personally and take my cut off the top of their fee if arrangements are made through me, which they were not in this case. I started getting a little suspicious when more and more of them were available when I called to assign them to a job. I finally got it out of one of them, but they wouldn’t give me the name of their charge. ”
Chuckling, he added, “I had a feeling. I should congratulate you on your nuptials.” He lifted his glass in a salute, even winking at me before sampling the whisky. So much for thinking our wedding was a complete secret.
Now, I remembered him, at least vaguely. Vaughn had chatted with him a few times during the reception in between drinks. “You two are friends,” I said, earning a nod in response. “Have you known each other for long?”
He tipped his head back in a reflective gesture. “How long has it been? I think we were both around twenty, maybe? That was after Vaughn’s second stint at college ended.”
Pump the brakes. “His second stint at college?” I asked, even more interested than before.
The guy was pretty much a closed book, only giving me tiny bits of information at a time.
I knew his mother was out of the picture and his father was dead.
He hated meetings, didn’t get along with the Board because they were his father’s cronies, and he had a real hard-on for protecting me.
Oh, and he was incredible in bed.
This was an opportunity to learn more. Grayson lifted a shoulder covered in a dark gray T-shirt stretched over his thick muscles.
“That’s twice more than I bothered trying.
It didn’t suit him. The schedule, the rules.
He’s grown up a lot since then. Honestly…
” he concluded while lifting his glass to his lips, “… when you think about it, it’s kind of bullshit that teenagers are forced to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives when they barely have the first clue how to function.
Just my opinion. Although that was only part of the problem. ”
A ripple of curiosity ran through me, lifting the hair on my arms. “What was the other part?” And where was Vaughn? He was bound to get out of the shower soon.
“The second time around…” Grayson murmured. “He was kicked out after beating the shit out of some frat boy douchebag. They were at a party, and Vaughn walked in on this asshole raping an unconscious girl.”
My breath caught as revulsion stirred in my gut.
“Dude ended up in the hospital for a month,” he concluded.
“It was all a matter of Vaughn’s word against his.
The parents pressed charges, Vaughn ended up in jail that night.
It’s where we met. I, uh, had a little trouble of my own, but I was no hero,” he assured me.
“It so happens that after that night, I cleaned up my act. And Vaughn’s dad cleared things up with the other guy’s parents.
” He rubbed his thumb against two fingers, meaning money had changed hands.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. Vaughn did that? A month in the hospital?
His phone buzzed, and he scowled when he checked the message. “Shit. I have to go. It was nice meeting you,” he said with a smile. “Let him know I stopped in, will you? Tell him I don’t appreciate him poaching my guys behind my back.” But he was chuckling like it was all in fun.
I liked him.
“Listen,” I blurted out, trotting behind him as he went to the door. “You won’t tell anybody I’m here, will you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. In fact, I’m talking to myself right now.” With another charming wink, he turned away.
Gripping the door, I called out, “One more thing. Why did you tell me that story?”
Turning his head, he said, “So you know what kind of man you’re currently married to. See ya.” His soft whistling floated through the air on his way down to a black Bugatti.
The more I learned about the man I had drunkenly married, the more I wanted to know. I almost wished I didn’t like him so much.
But I did like him a lot, especially now that I understood this entire situation with me wasn’t a one-off. It didn’t have as much to do with us being accidentally married as it did with who he was as a person.
I almost didn’t realize what I was doing as I walked through the house, heading straight for his bedroom.
The door was ajar, the sound of the shower floating out from the en suite.
I slipped inside, then crossed silently to the door.
It stood open, revealing the steam billowing in the stall.
Vaughn stood with his back to me, one hand against the tile, the other obviously being used to stroke himself.
His head hung low while water rained down on him from an overhead fixture.
His body was exquisite, his muscles perfectly defined, his back and shoulders heaving with every ragged breath.
When I knocked, he turned abruptly, eyes widened. “What is it?” he asked, breathless, still holding himself.
The sight made me salivate. “Nothing. I was only wondering if you would like some help with that,” I replied, nodding toward his rigid dick.
His throat worked, his hand still moving slowly over his length.
Rather than answer, he watched me pull my T-shirt over my head, then release my bra hooks. He watched, transfixed on me, while I kicked off my flats and removed my jeans and panties. The clip holding my hair back landed on the vanity when I tossed it aside and shook my locks loose.
“What about boundaries?” he asked in a knowing, intimate tone while backing against the wall, giving me room to open the glass door and step inside. The water was warm, pouring over my hair and running down my body. It was the warmth of his stare I liked more.
Reaching out, I ran my hands down his chest, over his rippling abs. “Fuck boundaries,” I decided, noting the way his eyes flashed before I lowered myself to my knees in front of him. He was still as intimidating as ever, even though this time, I would take him inside my mouth.
With his hand on his shaft, he directed his head to my lips, running it across them.
I watched him, my pussy going hot and wet at the sight of him giving himself over to me.
I had what he needed and could do a better job than he ever could with his fist, even if it would take a little work to get all of him into my mouth.
My tongue brushed the underside of his head, and he groaned long and low, letting go of himself so I could take over. Rather than tease him when he was already so close, I took a few experimental swirls with my tongue before letting him move past my lips.
“Oh, fuck,” he groaned out, his eyes sliding shut as his body leaned against the tile. The sound of his happy sigh urged me on. I needed to make him feel good for both of us.
It took a little determination, but I moved lower, relaxing my throat as I took more and more of him inside my mouth. The salty tang of his precum danced across my tongue—the taste of him, a taste of his longing for me.
“That’s good… you’re good at this… good to my cock…
” I lifted my head until his ridge touched the inside of my lips before plunging down again, pressing my tongue to the underside of his shaft, letting his guttural moans guide me even as they sent blood rushing to my pussy.
I was aching for him, but I wanted this more.
I wanted to make him feel as helpless as he made me.
I want him to lose himself in me, under my control.
I wasn’t sure how long it would last, though, since he was already feeding himself to me, gently fucking my face while I did my best to hold on. There was so much of him. His hands moved in my hair, holding my head still, and I moaned my approval while his moans got louder.
“Fuck, yes,” he grunted out, breathing faster, his abs clenching with each stroke into my waiting mouth. “Yes, Nova. Suck my cock, baby. Make me come for you.”
He was going to. I could feel and sense it in his growing desperation. His control ebbed away one stroke at a time with each ragged breath. Faster, faster, my cheeks hollowing as I increased the pressure. He liked that. “So good… Jesus… fuck…”
His ear-splitting roar signaled the rush of warmth that flooded my mouth a heartbeat later. I swallowed once, twice, before he relaxed with a deep sigh. The hands holding my head still now slid over my hair. “Jesus, talk about unexpected. What brought that on?”
Rather than tell him what I knew about his past and how it nudged me over the edge when I was already teetering in the first place, I chose a Mona Lisa smile after rising to my feet, tipping my head back, and letting the water rain down on me. “I decided boundaries are overrated.”