Chapter Forty-Five
“You are diabolical,” he said as he wound his arm around my waist.
“I didn’t know you liked to dance so much.”
“I would rather eat glass, but I wasn’t about to let you scandalize that whole table with a dick cake.”
“It wasn’t just a dick,” I said innocently. “There were balls and pubes too. I really think it showed range.”
With a reluctant smile, he pulled me to the edge of the dance floor. A slow folkish song started up. The kind that was romantically sorrowful with just enough hope to hurt.
Eli heaved a sigh as he wrapped his arm around me and held my hand over his chest, his cheek resting atop my head. We swayed in silence for a moment before he said, “I’ve enjoyed tonight. Despite the character assassination.”
“That’s a touch dramatic, don’t you think?”
He pulled back so I could plainly see his outrage. “I gave you a great roller derby name and you gave me perv cakes.”
“Vera Vengeance does have a nice ring to it.” I shrugged and let myself nestle back into him. “It’s been nice,” I said, “to play a little bit of pretend.”
His chest hummed as the song changed to something a little more upbeat. His broad palm splayed across my back and drifted down, landing on the curve of my ass as he held me even closer.
“I like this dress on you,” he told me. “I think I would like to see what it looks like off you as well. For science.”
“For science,” I echoed. “Sure.”
Just then a rush of what seemed to be younger male cousins from Lilly’s side charged the dance floor. One jumped up to the DJ’s booth and yelled into the mic, “Lil, you know we couldn’t let you leave here a married woman without dancing the hora!”
Several of the men ran toward the brides with two chairs hoisted above their heads and within seconds they had Lilly and Tori riding over the crowd.
The opening notes to “Hava Nagila” began to play as Eli and I slowly backed away from the dance floor.
“Oh no you don’t,” said an older woman in a teasing voice as she took my hand and the man who I assumed to be her husband looped an arm through Eli’s.
A circle began to form and Eli and I were suddenly separated by a handful of people.
I don’t know if he registered my panic, but he shrugged and mouthed, Play the part.
The circle began to rotate from left to right in slow, steady movements as Lilly and Tori bounced overhead, joy vibrating from them as they held on to the edges of their chairs.
As the song sped up, so did the dance. I was tripping over my feet despite the wedding guests on either side doing their best to instruct me, but no one seemed bothered by my clumsiness.
The courtyard turned into a blur as we spun. I could only just make out Eli as he sang along with the older woman beside him.
My chest burned from laughing and I could hardly catch my breath. When the song finally ended, I stumbled off the dance floor, flushed and breathless, as the crowd cheered.
Everything was wobbly and loud and overstimulating and I needed a moment of quiet. So without looking back, I slipped away into a quiet hallway just inside the hotel. Down at the end, a young couple sat curled into each other, enjoying the quiet refuge.
I kicked off my heels and studied the arched brick ceiling above. A few feet beyond was a cozy library with vivid red shelves and plush armchairs that called to me.
As I circled the shelves, Eli walked into the library, nearly passing right by me before doubling back.
“There you are,” he said, stalking toward me.
I stepped farther back into the small alcove, and he sank against me, his lips grazing my neck and then his tongue washing over the path.
“We have company down at the end of the hallway,” I whispered.
Eli stepped back wordlessly and scooped up my shoes before leading me farther into the venue. He led me to a cracked-open door and we stumbled inside.
It was mostly dark except for some fairy lights and the early evening moonlight. A soft forest green velvet sofa sat in the middle of the room atop an elaborate oriental rug. Against the wall were multiple vanities covered in makeup, curling irons, hair products, and an open box of tampons.
“This must be the bridal suite,” I said, motioning to the duffel bags and suitcases left behind as well as several bottles of champagne now sitting in buckets of fully melted ice.
Eli flipped the lock on the door. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that the brides are currently indisposed.”
He dropped my shoes and loosened his tie before spinning me around and pressing me into the door, his fingers digging into my waist.
“Is it time for science?” I asked, referring to his need to see me out of my dress. “Maybe we should head back to the hotel. Someone might need to get in here or something.”
He shook his head as he bent down and began laying kisses atop my cheeks and forehead, like it was bad luck to leave a single surface of skin untouched.
“We’re going to need a robust sample size,” he said simply.
His lips swept across mine and he kissed me slowly. Torturously so.
I parted my lips to coax him in deeper, but he took his time, letting his tongue trace mine as his hand cradled my neck.
A frustrated groan pushed against my lips. There would be time later to explore and tease, but right now, I needed him in the most basic of ways.
“You were magnetic out there,” he whispered. “I almost trampled the woman beside me because I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
“I nearly brought the whole dance floor down with my inability to put one foot in front of the other.” I bowed my forehead into his chest. “I have an IUD. And I’m clean.”
“I am too.” Eli sat down, his arms spread over the back of the sofa.
Hiking my dress up, I straddled his lap. He was solid and warm beneath me, and we both let out choked noises as I settled against the erection pushing against the fly of his trousers.
He kissed and sucked along my neck while I reached between us and frantically unbuckled his belt before taking care of the zipper. “I can still wear a condom, Vera. Whatever you want.”
“I want to feel you.”
He hissed as I unzipped his pants and pulled him out of his boxer briefs, so that he was still fully clothed except for his weeping cock.
“Completely,” I added.
“Okay, okay,” he said. For a moment, he slowed down as he leaned back and pushed the skirt of my dress aside so that he could watch as he pulled my simple black panties to the side. With unadulterated wonder and adoration, he looked up at me and dragged a finger through my channel. “You’re so—”
I stole the words right out of his mouth as I covered it with mine, his breath filling me. My hand worked between us to position him at my entrance.
He took the base of his cock, stroking it twice before rubbing the head against my swollen clit.
My head dropped back, and a broken moan cracked my ribs in half.
Seconds slowed to milliseconds as he held my waist with one hand and began carefully guiding me down. “How long have you been this wet?” he asked.
“Since the ceremony,” I confessed. “When you put that ring on my finger.”
He grunted a little as he brought my left hand to his mouth and kissed each one of my fingerprints before sucking my ring finger into his mouth. Once it slid out with a pop, he looked up to me, eyes weighty with lust.
The only thing that could distract me from that heady gaze was the will to watch him disappear into me.
The stretch was a steady, welcome burn. Once I was fully seated, my head dropped down against his shoulder as I held him inside of me.
Thoughts of Eli had occupied every corner of my brain for the last few months, but to have him filling me now brought back so many memories of that night in Vegas.
Except this time, it wasn’t the shouting or the slamming doors I remembered.
It was the moments before as we panted into each other’s necks and chased that building pleasure.
He thrust up into me and in return, I moved my hips in tight circles. His head rolled back against the sofa, throat working in a swallow as he closed his eyes for a moment, feelings rapidly washing across his features.
I curled one arm around his neck as I raked my fingers through his hair until he opened his eyes to watch me, dark and hungry.
We kept a constant pace as he lifted his head again, his teeth dragging along the tops of my breasts, leaving what were certainly the beginnings of marks.
Just some sort of evidence to remember what we had here in this sultry, humid town.
Because tomorrow we would leave and all the promises in the world couldn’t guarantee what came next.
Behind the sofa, the doorknob rattled, and for a brief moment we both froze.
I moved to stand up even if my body begged me not to.
But Eli held me in place, fingertips digging into my waist. He shook his head as he began to slowly fuck me again. I made a sad attempt at pushing him away, but I was far too greedy to actually stop and he knew it.
“Someone must have accidentally locked the door,” a woman’s voice said.
“Let me see if I can find an employee,” another replied.
“We have to go,” I whispered, the last syllable turning into a quiet moan.
Eli’s lips curled into a devious smirk as he held his hand up over my mouth and all I could do was pant against his fingers.
With his free hand, he pulled me flush against him and began thrusting mercilessly from below. From this slight change in position, my anguished cry fell against his hand as his length slid against the most sensitive part of me.
The blacks of Eli’s eyes grew as his hand fell to the point where our bodies joined. His fingers worked unforgiving circles.
“That’s it, that’s it, that’s it,” he chanted in my ear as a warm tension began to build in my belly. “Good girl.”
The phrase didn’t feel like an insult in the same way it had when Brody had told his business adviser that I was a good girl and that I would understand why he had to fire me.
I wasn’t good in a self-sacrificing way or because I picked up the slack for everyone around me.
I was good because I was chasing my own pleasure. My own want. And Eli praised me for it.
Footsteps sounded down the hallway, but I couldn’t stop myself long enough to concentrate on them.
And then I fell apart, my teeth biting down on his palm as he continued to thrust, our bodies dovetailing together like the answer to a riddle or when the chorus meets the bridge.
“That’s it,” he whispered again. Then, with a grunt that broke into a silent moan, his throat a flash of red and veins pressing against skin, Eli rode out his release. Warmth filled me, leaking out and onto my inner thighs, coating the point at which we were joined.
Lazily, he thrust in once and then twice more before hugging my limp body to his.
The footsteps in the hallway continued in the opposite direction and I sighed into his neck.
We stayed like that for longer than we should have, his cock still inside of me as his taut muscles began to ease.
One wide, careful palm smoothed over my hair while the other held my left hand to his lips, kissing my palms and fingertips and the gold band on my ring finger before pressing both our hands over his heart.
My forehead rested against his, satisfaction thrumming through my veins. “We should go.”
“Only so I can get you back to that hotel room,” he said.
“I might need some room service fries first,” I said, my postcoital appetite growing.
“I will buy you every fry in this fucking city.”
After another moment, he let me stand up, and I made the game-time decision to remove my underwear.
They were soaked with both of our releases.
Tess had always said she liked going to important meetings commando in a skirt because it was an adrenaline rush.
I wasn’t sure I needed that sort of rush, but I was willing to chance the experience for the length of a cab ride.
After a quick visit to the attached bathroom, I found Eli stuffing my underwear into the pocket of his suit jacket draped over his arm.
“I hope you know you’re not getting these back,” he said with a devilish grin as he held his arm out for me to make our escape.
“You’re a sick fuck,” I told him.
“Yes, love, I know. Have you seen my anatomically correct cakes?”
INT. COMMUNITY THEATER—NIGHT
She watches him in a show his friend is directing. He forgets his line and looks to her. She mouths it.