Chapter 5
5
C ole handed Vera his credit card, but he didn’t even listen to her telling him how much she would charge him for spending time with the most enchanting creature he’d ever laid eyes on. The moment he’d heard footsteps behind him when he’d been talking to Vera at the reception desk, he’d sensed something surging through him, something he’d never felt before. He’d been compelled to turn around, and he felt instantly drawn to the beautiful long-legged brunette who approached. The second he’d looked into her green eyes, he’d realized that she was a dream come true. Her graceful movements made him imagine how she’d writhe against him when they made love, her long legs wrapped around his hips as he thrust into her again and again.
He’d turned rock-hard in a millisecond, and every sane thought had deserted him just by gazing at her. He was surprised that he’d been able to utter a phrase at all, because the woman Vera had called Vanessa made urgent desire surge inside him, reducing him to nothing more than a beast wanting to mate. It was an odd thought, primal and raw. As if he wasn’t a sophisticated, educated man, but merely an animal dressed in fine clothes, unable to hide his base needs.
Cole waited impatiently as Vera processed the credit card transaction and explained the house rules to him, though he didn’t absorb a single word as if she spoke a foreign tongue. His brain couldn’t process the words. They didn’t matter anyway. He was familiar with house rules in establishments like this. Besides, he played by his own rules.
“You may enter now,” Vera instructed from behind him.
Cole blinked and realized that he was standing in front of room twenty-three. He had no recollection of walking up the stairs, too absorbed in the anticipation of touching a woman so beautiful, so perfect that she could only be a figment of his imagination. Fuck! He hoped this wasn’t an elaborate dream he’d concocted.
He heard Vera’s footsteps retreating, and took a deep breath. Cole felt his heart thunder in his chest so loud he was certain everybody in the building could hear it.
His hand trembling, he knocked at the door.
“Come in.”
Cole opened the door and entered the room, then pulled the door shut behind him and locked it. The only lights illuminating the comfortably furnished room with the king-size bed were small lamps on the nightstands. They threw a warm glow over the room and the woman who lay on top of the sheets, propped up with pillows against the headboard.
Vanessa had changed out of her skirt and blouse, and now wore a revealing red negligee with tiny black ribbons tied into bows to hold the garment together in the front. Her olive skin glistened, and her chest rose and fell with every breath, the almost transparent garment revealing firm breasts topped with hard nipples.
“Hi, Cole,” she murmured in a husky voice, while her eyes roamed his body.
Her sensual voice sank deep into him, stoking the flame inside him to a roaring wildfire that—if not contained—would incinerate the entire city.
“Vanessa.” He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on a chair, then approached the bed, stopping at its edge.
“What would you like tonight, Cole?”
He swallowed hard, wondering if she would agree to his wish. “There’s something I’d like that I know isn’t customary in establishments like this.”
She raised an inquiring eyebrow. “And what is that?”
“I want to kiss you on the lips, and I’m willing to pay ex—”
Vanessa shook her head, interrupting him, and shifted, until she kneeled on the bed, only inches from him. “No need to pay extra. I was hoping you would want to kiss me.”
The disappointment that had tried to rise when she’d shaken her head was instantly squashed by her words. Relief and delight spread in his chest. “I would have paid anything for a kiss from you.”
She lifted her hand to his face, sliding her index finger over his bottom lip. “And I would have never accepted it. I should be paying you.”
A surprised chuckle tore from his throat. “Then how about we call it even, and do what we both want to do?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“I have another good idea,” he added. “How about you pretend you’re my girlfriend, and you’re madly in love with me?”
Something golden flickered in her irises. “Yes, madly in love. I can do that as long as you can pretend that you’re madly in love with me. Can you do that, Cole?”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem.” No problem at all. Because already now, he could imagine how easy it would be to fall in love with a woman like Vanessa.
Cole put one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. With his other hand, he brushed her hair back behind her shoulder, revealing her graceful neck.
“Kiss me,” she whispered. “Kiss me as if I were yours.”
Cole slanted his lips over hers and kissed her, while he slid his hand to the back of her head. Her lips yielded to his demand, and she parted them and welcomed him. He tasted her fresh breath, which reminded him of a meadow of wild flowers, the sun shining brightly. In his mind, a picture of innocence bloomed, even though he knew that the woman in his arms was anything but innocent. She was an experienced seductress, but the way she welcomed him, the way she kissed him back, didn’t conjure up the image of a woman who was being paid for physical pleasure, but that of a lover who truly saw him and accepted him. It was more than he’d expected.
Without haste, Cole explored her mouth, dueled with her responsive tongue, and pulled her body closer to his, so her breasts were crushed against his chest. She felt hot in his arms, or maybe it was he who was hot, because Vanessa’s response to his kiss was more passionate than he’d hoped. He didn’t care that she did this for money, and because he’d asked her to pretend she loved him, because all he wanted right now was to feel, not to think; to enjoy, not to question his fate. To lose himself in the arms of this beautiful woman and bathe in her tenderness and passion.
Vanessa’s hands were on him, eagerly opening the buttons of his shirt, while he touched her through the thin fabric of her gown. He wanted to take his time, but already now, he could barely control himself. All he wanted was to find out what her naked skin would feel like pressed to his. He didn’t protest when she rid him of his shirt, but when she put her hands on the waistband of his pants, he grabbed her wrists and stopped her.
She ripped her lips from his. “Let me touch you.”
As much as he wanted just that, he couldn’t allow it, or their passionate encounter would come to an abrupt end. “I wanna caress you first.”
He let go of her hands.
“Then touch me,” she whispered.
Still standing at the edge of the bed, he lifted her into his arms, allowing her to unfurl her legs, before he placed her down on the sheets. With her legs spread, she pulled him to her, and he braced himself over her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured and reached for the top bow of her negligee. He undid the tie and brushed the fabric to the sides, revealing the top of her breasts, leaving her nipples covered by the thin fabric but not hidden from his view.
He brushed his fingertips along her cleavage, caressing her heated skin along the natural curve of her breasts, before he slid his fingers beneath the fabric to touch her nipples.
A sharp inhale pushed Vanessa’s chest toward him, and a soft moan rolled over her lips. He glanced at her face, and noticed that she’d pulled her lower lip between her teeth as if trying to stop herself from crying out. Pleased with her reaction, Cole dipped his head to one breast, and licked over the hard nipple, leaving the fabric damp and fully transparent, before doing the same to the other nipple.
Vanessa gripped his hips, trying to pull him closer, her pelvis tilting up, looking for friction. If he rubbed his rock-hard erection against her now, he’d come in no time, even with two layers of clothing between them. He had no choice but to resist.
“Patience.”
Cole untied the second bow, then the third, and pulled the negligee open. Again, he dipped his head to her breasts, and this time he licked over the smooth skin, while he captured her other breast in his palm, kneading it gently. He sucked her hard nipple into his mouth, loving the responsiveness of her firm flesh and the softness of her skin.
Her hands were on him now, stroking his shoulders, caressing the sensitive spot on his nape, while she thrust her breasts deeper into his mouth.
“Please, yes!” Her words were barely audible, her speech almost slurred as if she was drunk on the passion they shared.
He sucked her nipple harder, and she suddenly grabbed his hair and pulled his head up. Her eyes pinned him. “Bite me, Cole, please!”
“Bite you?”
“My breasts. Please…” she begged and dropped her hold on his hair.
Surprised by her demand, he lowered his lips back to her breast, and sucked the nipple into his mouth.
“Please…”
Gently, he brushed his teeth against her skin, pressing softly.
A gasp issued from her throat, then a moan. He felt her pelvis tilt up toward him, and let one hand slide down to her hip.
“Let me feel you, Cole,” she murmured. “Your cock. I want you inside me.”
“Not yet.”
Cole brought his hand to the apex of her thighs and dipped between them. She was hot and wet, and he bathed his fingers in the dew that was seeping from her. While he lifted his head from her breast and shifted to the other one to suck it into his mouth, he stroked along her pussy and explored her. He moved his dew-covered fingers farther up again, until he could rub them over her clit. She moaned and writhed beneath him, and he gently bit into her other breast. As she moaned with pleasure, he thrust one finger into her tight channel, while he rubbed his thumb over her clit.
Cole lifted his head from Vanessa’s breasts and looked at her face. She met his gaze, her eyes shimmering golden in the low light of the bedside lamps, her face flushed, and a sheen of perspiration on her skin.
“Kiss me, baby,” he demanded. “And I’ll make you come as often as you want to.”
There was no hesitation when she put her hand on his nape and drew his head to her so she could press her lips to his. She kissed him with such fervor that it felt as if she was imprisoning him. It was a prison he had no intention of escaping from. While he kissed her back and allowed himself to be carried away in this beautiful fantasy where he was a normal man with a loving girlfriend and a normal life, he caressed her pussy until he felt her climax with his finger inside her, her interior muscles clenching around him.
When Vanessa relaxed in his arms, and suddenly put her hands on his waistband, clearly with the intent to undress him, he knew he had to stop her before it was too late, before this wonderful experience would end on a sour note.
He peeled himself out of her arms and got out of bed.
“Cole?”
“Excuse me for a moment.” Quickly, he snatched his shirt, and charged into the ensuite bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.