29. Hannah Jane
29
HANNAH JANE
M y back slammed into the mattress. Breathless, I looked up at Isaac as he stared at me with lust clouding his eyes.
“Knees up,” he demanded curtly before sinking deep into my pussy again. My back arched involuntarily as he impaled me with his cock.
“God, yes,” I moaned, jerking him down for a kiss. I wrapped my legs around his hips as he drove in hard. Isaac fisted my hair, tangling the threads between his fingers, anchoring me to the bed. The bite of pain was welcomed.
“Fucking love your body,” he grunted, snapping his hips.
I keened and clamped my eyes shut.
He growled. “Right here. Eyes on me, Princess. Don’t you dare shut your eyes when I’m inside of you.”
Reluctantly, I peeled my eyes open. Sweat dotted my skin. My hair was a wreck. Strands stuck to my cheeks, but I couldn’t be bothered to peel them off. He slowed his thrusts and rocked his hips into mine, grinding into my clit at a painfully slow pace .
“I-Isaac,” I whimpered, desperately chasing a release.
His hands found my breasts and worked my nipples, rolling them between his thumbs and index fingers. His cock sank deep inside my pussy. His hands teased my tits. The circles he was rocking against my clit made me desperate. The demands coming out of his mouth sent me over the edge.
“Good girl.”
I lived for his praise. I lived for the smirk that crossed his lips every single time he made me come. I lived for the sweet things he murmured against my skin as he kissed the glittery high away.
Isaac buried his head between my breasts. I savored the scrape of his jaw against my smooth skin. “You make me feel so good, baby.”
I smiled as I eased up onto my elbows. There was nothing better than waking up with Isaac beside me. There was also nothing better than waking up with his insatiable erection pressed up against my ass, and his mouth on my neck.
I trailed my finger along the long, languid lines of his torso. I didn’t know when he had the time to work out. Isaac was constantly on the go. Maybe being rich as hell meant you could just buy abs or pay someone to work out for you.
I didn’t care.
I grabbed his ass and tugged him up higher so that I could kiss each and every ab. He groaned, so I urged him higher up and opened my mouth to taste the salty sweetness lingering on his hardened cock.
“Take it deep,” he demanded, surging farther into my mouth. I loved that he didn’t treat me like something breakable. I wasn’t a fragile porcelain doll to him. He took what he wanted and gave me twice as much.
I closed my lips around his shaft and sucked, hollowing my cheeks and swirling my tongue around the head. He grunted and gripped my hair at the roots. I breathed through the urge to gag when he thrust against the back of my throat.
The remnants of last night’s mascara began to streak down my cheeks. It didn’t matter how much you invested in quality cosmetics. If you gave good head, you were going to look like a hot mess.
And I was going at it like I was licking a melting popsicle on the Fourth of July.
“Fu—” Isaac nearly choked when I grazed the tip with my teeth and then took him deep. “I’m gonna come?—”
He tried to pull back, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness, but Mama didn’t raise a quitter. I grabbed his ass cheeks and held him in my mouth until he came with body-wracking tremors. I swallowed and licked my lips like it was the best damn thing I’d ever tasted.
Isaac kissed me on the mouth. “You know what they say about breakfast.”
“Most important meal of the day.” I winked.
He laughed hard and kissed me again. “Shower?”
“Good idea.”
We hopped in the water together and scrubbed the salt and sweat off our sticky skin. Sex was meant to be messy. If you were looking nice and neat by the end of it, you did it wrong.
Isaac wrapped a towel low around his hips and then draped one around my shoulders. “What time do you have to be at the inn?”
I hopped up on the edge of the sink and wrapped my arms around his neck. “What if I told you I’m letting one of my associate planners take the reins on her first event, and I’m only on call if needed?”
“Reaaaally,” he said, drawing it out. “That doesn’t sound like the Hell Yes Ma’am I know and love… And fear.”
I smiled against his lips. “Say it again. ”
“I’m fucking terrified of you.”
I swatted at his chest. “Not that. The other thing.”
Isaac chuckled. “I love you, Hannah Jane.”
“I never get tired of hearing you say that.”
He pecked my lips and helped me down. We retreated to our separate corners of my bedroom to get dressed. Me, from my walk-in closet, and him from his trusty suitcase. “You know,” he said as he used my steamer on a button-up shirt. “The, uh, whole leaving stuff at your place could go both ways. Next time you come up to Manhattan, bring some stuff along to keep at my apartment.”
I laughed as I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my lace bra and panties and set my hair in hot rollers. “You say apartment as if it isn’t bigger than my house.”
He smirked. “Semantics. Life in the city.”
“You mean it, though?” I asked with hairpins trapped between my lips. “About me leaving stuff at your place?”
“Of course,” he said as he buttoned up his dress shirt. “I want you to be comfortable there. I’m trying to spend more time in this time zone, which unfortunately still puts me six hundred miles away from you. But uh, I don’t know. Maybe we could split time between New York and here. Maddie and Luca make it work.”
I flipped his collar down and brushed away some nonexistent lint. It’s not that I was avoiding going to stay with him in Manhattan. I was just holding on to the dream that maybe I could get him to fall in love with Beaufort.
I was high maintenance, but a city girl, I was not. I enjoyed the occasional visit, but I liked knowing everyone in town. I loved the gossip. The community.
I couldn’t imagine not having Chase as my neighbor, or not working across the street from Maddie. I couldn’t imagine going to a bar and Bridget not being there to mix my drink. I couldn’t imagine life without Steve, Erica, Kristin, and Mel. They were my found family .
“Let me,” I said gently as he began to tie his necktie. I nimbly folded and tugged it into a perfect Windsor knot.
“You’re good,” he said, half-amused.
I smiled. “I’ve taught a lot of rookie catering waiters how to tie a necktie. I could do it in my sleep.”
“When do you think you’ll be able to come up north next?” he asked as he threaded his belt through the loops.
I slipped into one of my favorite dresses. It was a light rosy taupe fabric. Or, as I liked to call the color, bridal concrete. It fit my body like a second skin. I slipped into a pair of Jimmy Choos and began to hurry through the process of my makeup routine.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly as I massaged moisturizer into my skin. “It’s easier to stay under the radar here in Beaufort, don’t you think?”
Isaac appeared behind me in the bathroom mirror. His blonde hair was already styled to messy perfection. His square jaw was set, and his blue eyes locked on mine in our reflection. “Is that what you want? To fly under the radar?”
I dusted my face with layers of powder and blush. “I assumed that’s what you would want. I understand that you have a reputation to maintain.” It came out a little harsher than I intended.
“You’re not my dirty little secret, Han,” he clipped, resting his hands on my hips. “Am I concerned for your privacy and safety? Of course.” He bent down and kissed the spot behind my ear that he knew drove me crazy.
Shivers raced down my spine with the touch, and I closed my eyes.
“I’m not hiding you. If you want the world to know about us, I’ll make the call.”
I carefully filled in my lips with a deep red lipstick. Twisting the tube and snapping the cap on, I said. “Would it change us? If you and me dating got out to the public?”
“We would have to answer a lot of questions, yes. ”
Questions like where we met. Our first date. Our first kiss.
I laughed ironically. I had been half-drunk for our first kiss. I barely remembered it. There was a sharp pang in my heart.
I always thought that my first kiss with the man I fell in love with would be a magical moment. As someone who grew up wanting to be the Princess of Genovia, I wanted my damn foot to pop.
I never thought it would happen in a hotel hallway.
I never thought it would be with Isaac Lawson.
I never thought it would last. It was only supposed to be one night.
Would I have to leave my job? Maddie dealt with being in the public eye effortlessly. Then again, Luca laid low most of the time. He was practically a local by now.
I couldn’t imagine leaving my life for a man. I worked hard to get where I was in my career. Leaving everything for him would mean becoming the exact thing my mother had always groomed me to be.
If Isaac hadn’t pissed her off at Christmas, she would have already been addressing our wedding invitations.
I began to take down my hair rollers. Running my fingers through the glossy waves, I sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”
Isaac chuckled and took my hand, leading me back to the bedroom. He sat down on the edge of my bed and patted his thigh. I perched precariously in his lap and draped my arms around his neck.
“You want to know something, Princess?”
“Hm?”
“I like when you don’t know what to do,” he said as he tucked my hair behind my ear and tipped my chin up as if to hold my attention. “You always have all the answers. You’re always in control. It’s okay that you don’t know. That just means we get to figure it out together. That’s what this is, right? A partnership. That’s what you do in relationships.”
I rested my forehead on his. “When did you get to be such a relationship expert?”
He chuckled. “I’m a fast learner.”
The moment was broken as soon as my phone rang. I slid off Isaac’s lap and picked it up. “Hannah Jane Hayes.”
Even with the summer heat right around the corner, Isaac was in a three-piece suit. He was fastening his wristwatch when I finally finished the call. I liked that he was old school and wore a watch, even if it was as expensive as my car.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah—just a minor crisis at the inn,” I said through gritted teeth. Couldn’t they handle things for one damn day?
Isaac chuckled. “Go save the day, Wonder Woman.”
“Wanna tag along?” I asked hesitantly. “It shouldn’t take long.”
“With you? To, uh, to a wedding?” He grinned devilishly.
I felt the panties vanish from underneath my dress. Damn him.
Isaac raised an eyebrow. “The last wedding we went to ended with you bent over a desk in my hotel room.”
I smirked and grabbed my handbag. “If you behave yourself, I’ll take you to lunch. My treat.”
He laughed as we hurried down the stairs and out to my car. “I’ve always wanted a sugar mama.”
“Then it’s your lucky day, because I’m feeling boujee and Maddie sent me a sneak peek of the summer dessert menu at the restaurant.”
As I pulled out of the drive and headed toward the inn, I spotted two cars parked in Chase’s driveway. He and Layla were canoodling on his porch.
“What’s that about?” Isaac asked.
I hadn’t quite figured out if Chase was actually interested in the beautiful Iranian nurse he had met at the bar, or if she was just a rebound while he nursed his wounds from fifteen years of crushing on Bridget.
“Who the hell knows?” I asked rhetorically.
I pulled into my designated parking space at the inn. Isaac followed me through the lobby.
Everyone in town knew we were together, and nobody said a damn thing about it. Well, apart from the poker club getting in their required jabs. That was to be expected. Part of me wondered what the court of public opinion would have to say about our relationship.
The other part of me wanted to find some remote corner of the world and go off the grid so I would never have to find out. I could learn to live off the land, right?
The lies you tell yourself, Hannah Jane.
“So, what is this crisis?” Isaac asked as we neared the courtyard.
I eyed the tables waiting to be covered with linens, floral arrangements, and place settings. “The bride and groom had a bunch of guests unable to attend at the last minute, and they’re worried that having empty tables will look bad. The planner coordinating the event today redid the floor plan so that dinner is in the courtyard. It’s smaller than the ballroom, so it will look full with the reduced guest count. She just wanted me to look over the changes and make sure that everything flows.”
Everything looked good. I had faith in my staff, but I still appreciated being needed.
I grabbed a cream-colored linen from a hanger, found the hem, and snapped it in the air to open it up before letting the fabric land perfectly in the center of the table. My heels clicked against the cobblestones as I walked over to the waiting crates of dish-ware. I loaded my arms up with plates, silverware, and glasses.
Carefully, I set a single place setting.
The charger went down first. The dinner plate was next, followed with the salad plate on top. I placed a salad fork and dinner fork to the left and a knife and spoon to the right. A water glass, then red and white wine glasses were set to the top right of the plate. Lastly, I placed a bread saucer above the fork, along with a butter knife. Above the plate went the dessert fork—prongs facing the right, of course.
Isaac stood to my left while I arranged the first place setting. I loved a good tablescape. When I was satisfied that everything was perfectly placed, I pulled a single cloth napkin out of one of the crates and folded it into a perfect French pleat.
There was something calming about the rhythms of setting a table. It was all muscle memory at this point. I had done this exact place setting thousands of times. My mind always cleared when I arranged the stemware—red wine glass at the top of the table, white wine closest to the silverware.
It was the same way Maddie cleared her head by making pastries—bless her. Or why Steve worked out so damn much. My methods of relaxation also just so happened to be the same things that kept my stress level at critical.
“Finished?” Isaac asked when I stepped back to take in the table. There were still a hundred more seats that needed to be set the same way, but the catering staff would take care of it. This was my seal of approval that the room was ready.
“Finished.” I smiled, taking his hand and leading him out of the inn.
The weather was a perfect sunny and seventy-five. These were the days I lived for. I could see the crystal blue water pulling in a fast current. The nautical flags dotting the boardwalk blew in the breeze.
The view from the rooftop tables at Revanche couldn’t be beaten. On a clear day, you could see all the way across the barrier islands to the ocean. The wild horses were grazing on the shoal closest to us. Boats dotted the sound as they trolled along slowly in the no-wake zone. Warm salt air and seagull calls had every bit of stress melting away.
So did the sugary concoction Maddie sent up to our table for dessert.
I loved when she let me be a guinea pig. The woman was a kitchen witch. There had to be some serious sorcery happening behind the scenes to make food taste that good.
I waited until Isaac popped the last bite of milk chocolate mousse, passionfruit coulis, and pink peppercorn ganache in his mouth to present my case.
“So, I kind of have a favor to ask,” I began.
He raised his eyebrows expectantly. He probably thought I was going to ask to borrow his plane. Or yacht. Or his Amex Centurion Card. Yeah, those actually existed.
No—it was worse. Much, much, much worse.
“I need a date for my brother’s engagement party.” I cringed.
His expression was unbothered. “Okay.”
“Okay? Just like that?” He was actually cool with meeting the bane of my existence—my mother—and seeing the rest of my dysfunctional family?
Isaac shrugged and settled back in his seat. “Yeah. I mean, I’d be pretty pissed if you went with someone else, considering we’re a thing. Just tell me when and where.”
I liked that he told me to give him the details. Whenever we were together, and he took a business call, he always told the person on the other end to relay the details to Spenser. But for me, he played an active role in integrating our lives. Never once had he told me to call his people.
“You sure you’re up for it? The meeting of the family, the dealing with Satan in a satin dress?” I questioned. “I can always say you’re in Bali. Or Mali. Or Dubai. Or Australia. Or Siberia. Wherever in the world is farthest away from North Carolina. ”
Isaac placed his hand over mine and stroked my balled-up fist with his thumb. “Hannah.”
“Yeah?”
“I would like to meet your family. I will be a perfect gentleman, and I will tell your mother off any chance I get.”
A laugh ripped out of my throat and broke free. “Alright then. Deal. It’s a date.”