Quiver (Revenge Book 1) (14 page)

“Hey, hey, hey… Whoa….” His breath warmed her hair as he pulled her into a gentle hug, shushing her rapidly, his arms tightening.

Veda circled her arms around his waist, pressing her forehead to his chest as she exhaled heavily. “This is embarrassing.”

Gage kept one arm around her shoulder and brought the other to the back of her head, holding her close, not allowing her to retreat, using his strength until she turned her cheek into his chest and allowed him to cradle her against his beating heart.

Veda let her eyes flutter shut, falling into the warmth of his big heavy arms, knowing nothing could penetrate them if he didn’t want it to. She breathed in his spicy scent and let it roll into a warm ball in her belly. She locked her own arms around him, squeezing as tight as she could, wanting to make him feel as safe as he was making her feel.

Something screamed for her to pull back. To rebuild the wall they’d done a brilliant job of erecting over the weeks. Because this…

This felt way, way too good. It felt so good Veda knew it could only end badly.

Things that felt that good always did.

She tried to step back, but again, he wouldn’t let her. He tightened his hold until she stopped trying to move away.

His breathing came slower, heavier, still warming her hair as he buried his nose in it, breathing her in.

His heartbeat slammed into her cheek, faster every second, and when he grew hard against her stomach, she felt her own heart speeding up to match his.

The chart fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

Before she could think to stop them, her hands slipped under the jacket of his business suit and she sank into him. Her greedy arms disappeared beneath the jacket, stretching the fabric thin as her fingers trickled over the strong dips and curves of his back, clawing at the fabric of the white button-down he wore underneath, desperate to feel his skin. She turned her face into his chest and moaned softly.

His nose left her hair and relocated to her neck, tickling the corner of her collarbone. As her nails scraped at the shirt under his jacket, his lips brushed the delicate skin at the crook of her neck, sending fireworks flashing through her so strongly she came up to her toes.

He kissed that crook, softly at first, then lit it aflame with his tongue, sucking a heated path up her neck, groaning louder with each new area of skin he tasted until he was so ravenous he took a patch between his teeth.

And something split open in Veda. She removed her hands from under his jacket and slid them over his shoulders, gasping as she tried to push the jacket off him.

He released her just long enough to rip it down his arms, his gasping lips never more than an inch from her skin, the tips of their noses brushing and their foreheads sealed together.

Veda’s trembling fingers had already popped open the top buttons of his shirt as he finished removing his jacket. By the time he threw it to the floor, she had it halfway undone.

He finished the job, seizing the open collar with shaky fingers and tearing it open. Buttons flew as he snatched it off, bouncing off the steel doors.

Veda savored the sight of him, running her splayed fingers over every new inch he exposed, like an unwrapped present on Christmas morning. His heaving eight-pack, his rock-hard pecs, those broad shoulders, and his firm biceps, each flexing under her touch as he yanked the sleeves down his arms.

When the shirt got caught on his wrists where the cuffs were still buttoned together, he breathed out a laugh, his eyes shining down at her as he attempted to undo them. He couldn’t, his hands shaking too badly.

Licking her parched lips, Veda grabbed the cuff and began unbuttoning it for him. Her hands were just as unsteady as his, but since she had two to work with she was able to get it undone faster, ripping the sleeve off his arm once she’d succeeded. Her fingers stole another stroke of his flexing muscles before she moved to the cuff at his opposite hand.

Gage buried his face in her neck once more as she went to work on the other button, unable to wait as he lined her shoulder with ardent kisses, locking his free arm around her waist and allowing her to feel his arousal pushing into her stomach again.

Veda gasped as her pussy pulsed to get up close and personal with the bulge searing her stomach, making his second cuff link much more difficult to undo as the trembling in her fingers went into overdrive.

Gage snatched at her waist, his strength bringing her to her toes, voice heating her ear. “Fuck it, Veda. Leave it.”

Just as Veda was about to heed his plea, she got the button undone, and Gage wasted no time tearing the shirt off and throwing it to the floor.

He seized her waist once more, bent down and then stood tall again, forcing her legs off the floor.

Veda wrapped her thighs around his waist, crying out at the sudden loss of gravity, locking her ankles at the small of his back. He moved in a flash and her back hit the wall, his heat planted firmly against her drenched center. Her hips ground easily against his, and she felt how wet she was.

Gage’s hands ran across her scrubs, sneaking under her top to brush his fingers over her skin while he leaned in to her, his lips spreading for hers.

Veda lifted her head to dodge his kiss so he kissed the tip of her chin instead, yanking at the hem of her shirt.

She lifted the shirt over her head, smiling when the sight of her red bra seemed to freeze him in the midst of his passion. Everything slowed to a crawl as he took note of her heaving chest. An ecstasy-fueled frown darkened his face as he cupped her bra in a fierce hold, his eyes stormy as he pulled it down, revealing a hint of her nipple. The nub was engulfed in his warm mouth in seconds, rolling around his soft, wet tongue.

Veda buried her hands in his hair and screamed at the amazing sensation, butterflies
assaulting
her stomach rather than fluttering in it. A moan tore through her throat as moisture surged to her pussy, her body begging for more, her center aching for the tongue he was dragging mercilessly over her nipple. He took his time savoring it before releasing it from his puckered lips with a smack. He ripped down the other cup and gave the opposite side the same love and attention.

Veda undid her bra clasp and tore the bra away. Who was she to make this so hard on him? Fully exposed, she buried her fingers in his hair once again and tugged his face deeper, silently begging for more of the torturous pleasure—the warm, slippery feel of his tongue on her nipples, and the amazing, gentle nips of his teeth.

He didn’t deny her.

“How do you feel this good?” she begged, drowning in the sound of his fervent sucking, bouncing off the quiet walls and making every inch of her body hum for more. “Oh God, why do you feel so
good
?”

Gage answered with his fingers, dipping them into the waistband of her scrubs, past her drenched underwear and into her center.

Veda muffled her scream in his hair when his fingers pressed between her slippery walls, sparking fire to every slick, velvety part of her he touched. He slid two fingers inside her with ease, and stars exploded behind her eyes at the pleasure that rocketed through her. Her legs lost all control and fell from around his waist. If she hadn’t had her arms wrapped around his neck, holding tight, she would’ve collapsed to a heap on the floor.

But he kept her upright. She wasn’t sure if it was the strength of his arm around her waist or the fingers submerged inside her that kept her on her toes, but she knew it was down to him.

“Gage, yes….”

His thumb found her clit, and he circled it in time with the nipple still encased in the warm cavern of his mouth. The pleasure was too intense for Veda to even scream as her body convulsed with each flex of his fingers, grinding against them. He curled them inside her, stroking her G-spot, setting off an orgasm that seized every bone in her body and made them feel like they were coming unhinged. She felt her wetness dripping down his palm as she came ferociously, still unable to make a sound. His deep laugh warmed her nipple when a stunned moan finally tore from her throat, quickly followed by a deep groan and an amazed yelp.

By the time the last tremor had been expelled from Veda’s body, she could only gasp, “Oh wow.”

He released her nipple, glistening from his tongue’s endearments, and placed heated kisses slowly up her chest and neck, pausing at her cheek. She turned her face into Gage’s stubbly jaw as he removed his hand from her scrubs.

Still riding the high, she pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. She took his hand and brought his fingers, still gleaming with her peak, to her lips, taking the pointer inside her mouth.

Gage’s expression darkened, becoming animalistic as he watched her lick herself away from his fingers, each one that had been inside her, until all of them were washed clean. He yanked her waist in a ferocious grip, unable to even smile back at her when she giggled at him in delight. He put her on her back in seconds, tearing off her bottoms and panties before sitting up on his knees, straddling her as he tore at his belt, his chest heaving out of control.

Veda sat up, still licking the flavor of herself from her lips as she helped him undo his pants. She pulled them down along with his boxers, just enough to get her lips around the head of his dick when it popped out.

That time, it was Gage’s cry that caught in the air.

Watching him as his dick sank to the back of her throat, smiling around the base, Veda let herself fall into the serene expression on his face. The aroused weight of his hooded lashes, those full, parted lips, and the strangled sound that tried to leave them but couldn’t. She let his pleasure drive her, cheeks suctioned as she bobbed her head back and forth, letting her hand join in and spread her love all over his shaft, getting him good and slippery.

Gage tangled his fingers in her hair and held her eyes, quickly going to a place where he had no control as he thrust softly into her mouth.

Veda took every unconscious thrust, every twitch of his hips, lashing her tongue around his hardness until he finally gave her the moan she’d been waiting for. It blazed out of his throat, so hoarse one would guess he’d been screaming all morning. The moment that sound left his lips, he pulled out of her mouth.

Palming her cheeks, he shook his head in amazement. He leaned down to claim her lips, but Veda pulled back.

A feeling of both terror and wonder zipped through her because that one had been harder to deny. That kiss he’d almost placed on her lips.

She’d almost let him.

“Do you have a condom?” she whispered.

His eyes disappeared to a faraway place, tracing her lips in a way that told her he was determined.

He would never stop trying.

“Back pocket,” he rasped.

Veda bit her bottom lip and leaned over, sweeping up his pants and removing the condom from his back pocket. She ripped it open and rolled it on him in seconds, reveling in the disbelief on his face as he watched her do it, as if that act alone was about to make him blow.

He grabbed the backs of her knees and yanked, making her fall on her back when a yelp. She burst into laughter.

It wasn’t until he’d moved between her splayed legs, the tip of his dick brushing her entry, his eyes searching hers, deep with passion and sensuality, that the smile wavered on Veda’s face.

She pushed at his shoulders until he sat up and allowed her to get out from under him. She searched his confused eyes, stroking his jaw, and then turned her back to him, going up on all fours while smiling at him from over her shoulder.

Gage let her change position, taking her waist in his firm grip as he came up to his knees, yanking her back and drawing her in close before going to all fours as well, his heaving chest cradled on her back.

Lifting one hand from the floor, he clutched his length and entered her from behind, his hand traveling her curves the moment the head was inside, digging into her skin as he went deep. The pleasure seemed to make him dizzy, sending his free hand falling back to the floor until he was on all fours again, needing the leverage for the fervent thrusting he immediately took up. He covered her hands with his, entwining their fingers, pressing his lips to her ear as he took her. “When can I have you again?”

Veda looked over her shoulder and met his eyes just as he hit a spot in her flaming pussy that not only stole her words, but the smile on her face. She lifted one hand from the floor and wrapped her arm around his, letting his strength steady her, even as he picked up the pace of his slamming hips and nearly knocked her off-kilter. A moment later, she gasped, “Are you not inside me right now?”

Gage lifted his face, moaning against her ear as he began to thrust blindly. “When?”

“You, oh….” Her eyes squeezed shut as his length inspired her body to pulse tight around him once more. She answered as she came, her body jolting against his dick. “You have me now.”

Their hoarse moans filled the elevator for the rest of the evening, until neither of them had a single one left to give.

8

Moans and heavy breathing had been replaced by soft laughter and whispered voices hours later. Gage lay under Veda with her head cradled on his chest and one of her thighs slung across his pelvis. His jacket served as a blanket, draped over their naked hips.

“Stop laughing at me.” He pulled her in closer, eyes growing sleepy as she dragged her nails through his hair. The nails on her other hand trailed over the dusting of hair on his chest, around his pink nipples, and over the freckles on his shoulders. He became entranced by the flags still painted on her nails. “I feel like you never take me seriously. I’m a serious person.”

Veda chortled. “I just don’t get it. What do you mean they favored him?”

“I mean they favored him. Am I speaking Japanese?”

Veda sat up and stacked her hands on his chest, pressing her chin on top of it. “But you’re their
son
.”

He shrugged, tracing the designs in her eyes. “That doesn’t mean they have to look at me and see a worthy businessman. That doesn’t mean they won’t look at him and wonder why I couldn’t be more like him.”

“Um… That’s exactly what it means, actually. A parent is supposed to be blinded by love and utterly delusional when it comes to their kids. They’re
supposed
to think the sun shines out of your ass, even when you’re fucking up royally. The worst part is that you’re not even fucking up. Your parents created a polite, handsome, well-dressed, well-adjusted, and did I mention hot-as-all-hell hospital CEO, and they’re favoring that asshole, Todd Lockwood?” Her voice rose. “Over
you
? Are they blind, or just stupid?”

He chuckled, his knuckles brushing her cheek.

“It blows my mind that they could favor anyone over their only son. Even worse is that they’ve made it so obvious that you’re actually aware of it.” Veda had riled herself up, her voice hitching. “And you’re a
fantastic
businessman. The chief of staff gets fired, out of the blue, for popping pills? This whole place could’ve fallen apart so easily. But you came in, and your leadership and your aura just calmed everything down before it had a chance to explode. Not everyone can do that. Some CEOs would’ve spiraled into a panic and took every last one of his employees down with him. But you… You have a really… tranquil way about you. You’re special, Gage.”

His chest rose as he took a heaving breath. “Not special enough for my father to make me vice president of his cruise line.”

“Wouldn’t vice president be a huge step down anyway?” She shook her head. “You don’t like being CEO here?”

He smiled at her, running his knuckle down the bridge of her nose, her cheeks, still rosy from their lovemaking, her eyebrows, and the tiny curls at her hairline. “I like it better now.”

“But you’d rather be at Blackwater Cruises, with a lesser title?”

“A lesser title, sure, but triple the money. The cruise line is our family’s real bread and butter. It’s what made us prosperous. The hospital? It’s collateral. A fallback plan if my father’s real dream doesn’t come to fruition. His passion is with the cruise line. His heart is with the cruise line.”

“Is
your
heart with the cruise line?”

“It doesn’t matter where my heart is. I’m their only child. There’s a lot of pressure on me to be… perfect. To become fully vested in the principal business. To marry Scarlett. Be the dutiful son.”

Veda shifted. “You talk about Scarlett like
she’s
a branch in your father’s business.”

Gage licked his lips, his eyes darkening.

Veda went to respond to what she saw on his face, but thought the better of it. “I saw you and her together. At the club last night. You guys make a nice couple. She’s really beautiful.”

“She’s a woman I’m being forced to marry to ensure my father secures a lucrative, once-in-a-lifetime business investment. A woman I’m being forced to marry if I ever expect to hold a prominent position in my family’s most important company.” He sucked in a breath at her widening eyes. “And
you…
are really beautiful, Veda.”

“Wow. An arranged marriage. That’s so… 20
th
century. People still do that?”

“Wealthy people, absolutely. The Blackwater line, as far back as my great-great-grandparents, were all in arranged marriages. And I’m pretty sure
my
parents’ marriage was planned, even though they won’t admit it. It was only a matter of time before the buck came around to me. It’s what my family wants.”

“God, Gage, what do
you
want?”

His eyebrows rose. He didn’t answer, but he could see in her eyes that she didn’t need him to. She turned her head away, laying it back down on his chest so he couldn’t see her eyes. He buried his hands in her soft curls and allowed her to hide from him.

“At least now I know I can violate your body in peace, without feeling like some home-wrecking
monster
,” she said. They laughed softly together. “You have no idea how hard it was to stay away from you. If I’d known, all this time, that your marriage was arranged….” She lifted her head and looked back up at him. “Does your fiancée know we had sex?”

“She’s madly in love with a Puerto Rican pool boy named
Juan
. Last night, she encouraged me to go for it with you. She couldn’t care less who I’m in bed with.”

Veda lay her head back on his chest, a scoff of disbelief leaving her lips. “Unreal.”

“Sometimes I think my parents would’ve been better off if they hadn’t forced each other to remain monogamous. They despise each other.” Gage trailed his fingers along her back, his eyes jumping back and forth between the lights on the ceiling of the elevator. “I don’t love her.”

A long silence fell in.

“I’m sorry I ditched you that morning,” she whispered, ignoring what he’d just said. “That was childish and extreme. I guess I just saw you cooking for me and got nervous. What a waste. We could’ve been having savage sex all this time.”

“Why would me cooking you breakfast make you nervous?”

Another long silence. “I don’t know.”

Gage swallowed. “I felt something. The first time we slept together—”

Veda sat up and covered his mouth with her finger, stopping him. “Friends with benefits don’t say things like that.
Ever.
”

He waited for her to pull her finger from his smiling lips. “When I woke up in the middle of the night and saw you sleeping next to me….” He ran his hand down his face, blushing. “You have no idea how hard it was not to undo your dress. I wanted to see your breasts, lift the split so I could see your pussy. Maybe even steal a kiss from those gorgeous lips….” His voice trailed off as he brushed the tip of his thumb over her lips, sucking in a breath. “God, your lips. The temptation nearly ate me alive.”

“You have no idea how shocked I was to wake up and realize all my clothes were still on. Your self-control is remarkable.”

“I wanted you…” He felt his cheeks heat up. “I wanted you to want it too. I wanted you to want it as badly as I did. I figured, ‘If I make her breakfast, maybe she’ll think I’m a good guy.’ That maybe, just maybe….” He heard the words he wanted to say in his head, but it was as if his entire body had become vacuum sealed, closing him up too tightly to finish.

“You are a good guy,” she said. “A good guy who’s still teetering alarmingly close to the friends-with-benefits danger zone.”

“You’re really okay with keeping everything casual?”

“Okay with it? It’s
all
I’m capable of. I can’t focus on anything outside of finishing this residency. The thought of a serious relationship with anyone makes me break out in violent hives. But, at the same time, I love sex. I need the release. It clears the fog from my brain and helps keep me focused. As it turns out, you and I are acutely compatible, sexually speaking. My body loves being touched by you. I need that, but without all the messiness of a boyfriend.”

He smiled at her, pushing her runaway curls back from her face, enjoying the way they popped right back up. “Have you ever been in a long-term relationship?”

“Once. It was a disaster.”

He laughed whole-heartedly.

“It felt like I was doing a Paint-by-Numbers, Boyfriend Edition. Just going through the motions.”

He nodded.

She breathed deeply, as if somewhere during her rant she’d been expecting him to judge her. When he didn’t, she smiled at him, and it tied his stomach in knots. She patted his chest, and he covered that hand with his. “So this… this is perfect. Now that the arranged marriage cat is out of the bag, you and I, we’re free to keep scratching this
itchy thing
….”

Another laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it.

She matched his laugh with one of her own, circling his nipples with her nail. “Until it doesn’t itch anymore.”

Gage waited until she turned her head away and cuddled her cheek back into his chest before he allowed his eyes to slam closed.

—

Hearing keys jingling on the other side of her apartment door, Veda tried to bite away the smile on her face, but it was no use. She stared at the door playfully, her body humming with excitement at the jagged sound of his key entering the lock.

The handle shook and the door disagreed with the frame as he tried to push it open. It didn’t budge. She heard his frustrated scoff from the other side.

God.
How many times had she told him that he had to jiggle, pull, and
then
turn?

Any other day, she’d put him out of his rich-boy misery and open the door for him, but that night, she couldn’t.

It would ruin the moment.

She nearly squealed when she finally saw the lock
jiggle
, overwhelmed with pride that her spit-shined boy toy had figured it out.

The door handle rotated.

Veda leaned back on her dining table, shooting a quick look over her shoulder to make sure her hair wasn’t too close to the candle that burned in the middle of it.

Her eyes flew back to the door as it squeaked open. She sucked in her belly button, squared her shoulders, and shook her curls out of her face while nibbling her bottom lip.

Gage stepped into the apartment with his eyes lowered, easing the door shut. His hair was disheveled, but the heather-gray suit remained as flawless as it had been when he’d left for work that morning. He dropped his keys onto her foyer table while looking absently toward the dining room. When he caught sight of her, his entire face transformed, dropped. The briefcase in his hand dropped with it, thumping dully against her wood floor as his eyes traveled her body.

Yep. Intended effect, achieved. She giggled as he appeared both desperate to move forward and completely immobilized.

She decided, then and there, that it had all been worth it.

It had been worth standing in front of her floor mirror for half an hour, fisting a can of whipped cream while encircling her breasts and nipples with the rich white substance, taking great care to ensure it was perfectly symmetrical on both sides. It had been worth it to Google ‘does whipped cream cause yeast infections?’ before she’d raced back to the mirror and painted a whipped cream triangle between her legs. It had been worth it to seriously wonder, as she waited for him to arrive, if her body would ever not feel sticky again.

It had all been worth it, just to see that look on his face. The heat in his dark brown eyes broadcasting the filthy images that were surely flying through his mind. The way they became hooded as they ran her naked body and remained heavy once they’d made it back up to her eyes. Those lips—the ones she couldn’t wait to take the first taste of her—that he couldn’t keep closed. He wet them with his tongue before letting them pop back open.

She raised her eyebrows at his stupefied expression, looked down at her whipped cream-covered breasts, the cherries she’d used for nipples, and then back up at him. Her eyes widened and she feigned innocence, as if she couldn’t imagine what had caused him to fall into the hazy-eyed world he had right then.

“How was work, handsome?” she whispered, swaying back and forth in her sky-high red patent leather heels. She moved her body to the beat of the R&B song she had wafting from the stereo, careful to keep it slow and sultry.

His eyes traveled her again. He couldn’t even smile.

Veda stopped swaying, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “Well… say something.”

Admiring her for another moment before lifting his eyes back to hers, he tried to speak but nothing came. He tried again, and managed a croak. Then, a sheepish smile crossing his lips, eyes lighting up, he said it. “You make me happy.”

Veda clutched the table behind her, not having expected that. She’d been prepared for something much dirtier. Raunchier. Something more along the lines of ‘Turn around and bend over, now’, or ‘You’ve been a very bad anesthesiologist. Get over here so I can punish you.’

Even ‘You’re a dirty, filthy, cock-sucking whore’, however unimaginative, would’ve been better.