Sin for Love (20 page)

“Tessa, don’t run from me. Never run from me,”  Reese said.

“Reese, don’t. Just let me go.”

“I can’t.  Even if I wanted to, I’d never be able to let you go.  Now that I’ve found you, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

I was shaking my head and my chest felt tight. “I can’t do this.  I can’t.  I can’t breathe.”

“Loving you is like air to me. I won’t survive without you.  I need to breathe you in, to feel you move beneath me. I need you to love me.”

His words made my heart beat faster than it ever had before.  A million thoughts were buzzing around in my head like a swarm of bees. Can I trust him? Can I trust what my heart is telling me? Is it worth the risk?  And the loudest thought of all, the queen bee—Can I live with myself if I don’t take the chance to find out?

Just like always, Reese could see the war waging behind my eyes.  He placed his hands on my bare shoulders, the heat from his skin a sharp contrast to the cold air, and he said, “Tessa, all I’m asking is that you give me a second chance.  Let me love you and show you that we are meant to be together.”

Looking up, I saw a painful fear in his eyes that sent a shock through me.  I knew in that moment that he felt the same way I did. Living without him wouldn’t be living at all.  I was at a crossroads. I could turn and walk away to a safe, lonely existence or I could stay and take a chance with my heart.  His gaze was hot on mine, and the seconds ticked by like hours as he waited for my answer.

I heard him suck in a breath before I said, “Everyone deserves a second chance.”  Reese pulled me in and kissed me with a passion so heated that the frozen world around us disappeared.

We walked back into the ballroom and my parents came over hand in hand. It brought a smile to my face to see them together.  They had been married for thirty-four years now and were still very happy.  Looking at their hands entwined together, I started to think that maybe fairytales really could come true.  My mom gave me a hug while Reese shook my dad’s hand and then pulled him in for a hug.

We spent the next hour and a half mingling with our friends and family, Reese never leaving my side.  Dad popped a bottle of champagne, sending the cork flying through the air, and then the staff handed out flutes of the bubbly to everyone.  A few minutes later, Dad clinked his wedding ring against the side of his flute, signaling that everyone needed to be quiet.

Raising his glass to the air, he said, “A toast to the happy couple.  May they live a long, happy life full of sin!” Everyone cheered and sipped their champagne.

As the guests began to say their goodbyes, I spotted Alayna standing in a corner, talking quietly to Marcus.  I told Reese that I needed to talk to her alone.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, Alayna. Can I talk to you for just a minute?” I asked.

She exchanged a look with Marcus that I didn’t understand, and after he stepped away, I pulled her close. “Did you know that Reese was going to be here?”

“Well, not at first,” she laughed. “At first, when I met him and got the invitation, he said his name was George.  It wasn’t until we had been here for a while and I was in the bathroom that Mom found me and told me what was going on.  I’m so calling him George instead of Reese,” she said.

I let her go back to her conversation.  She had received the invitation weeks ago.  Reese had been planning this for that long?

I was still lost in my head, processing the events of the night when Reese was suddenly at my side.  “Beautiful, everyone has gone home.  Are you ready to go to our room?”

“Our room?” I asked, puzzled.

“Yes.  I booked the mansion for the night.  We have a room waiting for us upstairs.” He leaned in and pulled me to him, his eyes locking mine in a possessive gaze. “I need to watch you come,” he said in a growl that sounded pained.

We rode the elevator up to the second story, and Reese led me down the hall to our room.  Stepping inside, I saw the biggest four-poster bed I could have imagined. This thing was bigger than a California king.  “Whoa! That’s a big bed!” I blurted out.

“I remember you liking big things.  I’m going to make love to you all over it,” Reese replied after he closed and locked the door.  He walked over to me. “I knew that this dress was going to look amazing on you, but right now, I want to see it on the floor.”

“You even picked out the dress?”

“Yes. I even picked out the dress,” he said and turned me around so that my back was to him. He started unlacing the ties in the corset top.  “I need to see you,” he whispered behind my ear.

After loosening the top enough, he let the material fall to my feet, leaving me in only my lacy purple thong.

“Purple, huh?” he asked.

I shrugged and simply said, “It matches the dress.”

Reese pulled my thong down my legs to the floor, where I was still standing in the middle of my dress. “Now it matches the dress,” he said as he moved close enough to me that I could feel his erection pressing into me just above my ass.

He reached around my waist and dipped his fingers into the wetness that was between my legs and started rubbing slow circles on my clit while pulling me back against his hardness.  Then he turned me around and stepped back a half step to look at me.

“So fucking perfect,” he said and he captured my lips in a passionate kiss.  He pulled back to help me step out of the material of the dress, and I lifted my foot behind me to slip off my high heel when Reese stopped me and said, “No, I want you to keep those on, and I want to taste you.”

Reese picked me up, sat me on the high bed, and lifted my legs to rest the back of my calves on his shoulders.  Using both thumbs, he spread my lips apart. “So beautiful.” I felt him breathe the words against my sensitive folds just before his tongue darted out to taste me. “So delicious.”  Again his hot breath reached my skin. “And all mine.” Then he swirled his tongue around my clit, sending me over the edge.

Standing up and leaning over me, Reese kissed my lips, his tongue only darting in long enough for me to taste myself on him.  He pushed me farther up onto the bed, quickly tore his tuxedo off, and climbed on top of me.  Reaching down between my legs, he pushed a finger into my pussy, curving the tip to play with my sensitive cluster just inside.  He moved his other hand to my breast, cupping it while he sucked my nipple into his mouth.  I felt sparks of anticipation rushing to where I was riding his hand as his body covered mine.  I let go and the waves washed over me, sending liquid to coat his hand.

“I will never get enough of watching you come,” he said.

“Reese, I need you.”

“I’m here.”

“No, Reese. I need you inside me.  I need you to fuck me, Reese.”

“I’ve got you,” he said and pushed his thick, hard cock deep into my pussy.

He didn’t take his usual time torturing me with slow strokes. Instead, he was like a man who had been walking the desert for days without water as he pumped his cock into me hard and fast.  I was losing myself in him and there was nowhere I would rather be.  I was taken under by another orgasm crashing into me just as I felt Reese’s body tighten in his own release, the pumping of his cock slowing down as he enjoyed prolonging our pleasure.

I looked up into his eyes and he said, “Tessa Rain Donahue, I love you.”

“Tessa”

The last few months had been a whirlwind of craziness.  Reese had convinced me that Mission Beach was in desperate need of its own burlesque club.  I think he’d just used it as an excuse to get me to move out there, but he’d convinced me nonetheless.  So with a bittersweet heart, I’d left The Happy Valley and moved into Reese’s house on the beach to open my own club, appropriately named Seven Sins.

I had never imagined the amount of work that was needed to open a club.  First we’d had to find the right location, which happened to be an abandoned warehouse about three blocks from Reese’s shop.  Then we’d had to have it completely remodeled. It had been a no-brainer on who to turn to as we pulled Alayna in to help with that.  She had gone to school to become a designer after all and had been happy to walk away from working in a men’s clothing store to help us.  She’d made the suggestion to section the club off into seven stages, and each stage would use a different sin for the theme.  It was going to be amazing.

When Jessica heard about the club, she’d asked if she could come work for me.  We’d made her the headliner for the Envy room.  We still enjoyed a round of Tequila-O’s every now and then.  Reese kept begging to join us, and maybe someday we’d let him, but for now it was just girl time and we were having fun coming up with new rules.  Just last weekend Jessica and I had gotten together to work on her dance choreography and I’d thought up a new rule. She could take a shot but she had to do it while sucking on my pussy, and if she spilled any, she had to take another.  She had been such a messy girl, but I’d started to think she had been spilling on purpose.

So after signing Jessica to headline for Envy, we’d still needed to find other talent. Luckily for me, Raegan and Myles had agreed to come into town and help with the auditions.  Four weeks later, we’d had our full cast and had even hired our own version of The Kittens that they had at The Happy Valley—we named them The Saints.  I loved how Alayna had designed their outfits. They were a good contrast to the deep colors in each room as they were dressed in white lingerie with white stockings and white heels.  We’d just needed some good bartenders and the muscle, and we’d found both easily.  Bruno even came to work for us a couple nights a week, I always looked forward to his hugs.

It was opening night at Seven Sins and my nerves were shot. I just knew something was going to go wrong.  I had it all worked up in my head. I even had a scenario that the building was going to be struck by lightning and it didn’t matter that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Raegan was a master at advertising and had blanketed the city with fliers.  By nine o’clock, the line to get in was wrapped around the block.  At fifty bucks a pop to get in, we were going to make a killing that night.

Reese had been working on a surprise for me during our construction phase, so I hadn’t been allowed up in the manager’s box before the show started.  I knew that the box was up on the second floor in a room the foreman had used when this building was occupied before. The only way up were stairs running along the wall.  Reese had hung curtains on the outside that made it so I couldn’t see inside, but I could tell they had pulls on them so I was sure they’d open up pretty easily.  I trusted him with what would be my office, but I couldn’t wait to see what was inside.

I looked over to see Reese climbing down the stairs and walked over to him. “It’s killing me not knowing what you’re doing up there.  When do I get to see it?” I asked.

“We’ll go up right before the show starts,” he said and kissed my temple. “Are you ready to open the doors?”

“I might piss myself when we do, but yes. Let’s go let the sinners in,” I said. Reese laughed, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and led me to the front doors.

I stood in front of the long line of people. Alayna had put up a big red ribbon and somehow she’d found a pair of gold scissors.  Placing them in my hands, Reese whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

I walked up to the ribbon and placed it between the gleaming blades of the scissors.  Looking out at the crowd, I paused, took a deep breath, and yelled “Who’s ready for some sin?” The crowd went wild, and I heard the cheering grow and extend as it was moving through the line.

I relished in the sound for just a few seconds before slicing the ribbon and letting the ends fall to the ground.  Reese grabbed me and rushed me into the club before Bruno let the people start coming in.

When we walked back inside, Alayna, Raegan, Myles, Marcus, Jake, and Jessica were all waiting for me by the bar, holding up shots of Tequila.  They all slammed their empty hands down on the bar at the same time, yelled, “Tequila-O!” and then raised their shots to me.

Myles took it a step further by closing his eyes and tipping his head back.  After a moment, he started shuddering, his whole body shaking violently.  “Oh yeah, that was a good one,” he said, and everyone began laughing.

We did another couple of rounds of shots to celebrate, and after pulling me in for a tight hug, Jessica excused herself to get ready for her dance.

I looked up at Reese and said, “Is it time yet?”

“It is time,” he said and took my hand, leading me through the crowd that had gathered around us at the bar toward the surprise he had been working so hard on.  We got to the top of the stairs when he said, “Close your eyes. I want you to be surprised.”  Reese opened the door, led me into the room, and closed the door behind him. Then I heard him moving around the room before he came back to stand next to me.  “Okay, it is ready.  You can open your eyes now.”

I opened my eyes and my heart filled with love when I looked around the room.  He had taken this dirty foreman room and turned it into a gorgeous office.  The floor was covered with soft gray carpet, there were black leather couches lining the walls, and pushed up against the windows that I knew looked out over the club was a dark desk that stretched the entire length of the room.  It was perfect.

“Reese, it is absolutely perfect!” I whispered and kissed him for all I was worth.

“You haven’t even seen the best part, Tessa,” he said while pulling on a rope that raised the curtains on the outside. They pulled up like the ones at the theater.  “You remember that I had this glass replaced, right?”

“Right. It was cracked in the corner.”

“Yes, it was. But I didn’t put just regular glass in here.  This glass is special. You can see out, but nobody can see in.”  People in the crowd below must have seen the curtains lifting because their heads turned up to look up into my room.  I walked over to the window and raised my hand to waive at them, but nobody waived back, and Reese laughed.  Walking up behind me, he said, “So you see, up here we’re out of sight.  Up here, we can see them but they can’t see us.  Up here, we can do whatever we want to.”