Taste of Lacey (18 page)

“If it doesn’t involve us being alone in your bed, the answer is no.”

A little while later, in her claw-foot tub, Rye eased her back against his chest as she squeezed a fragranced sponge to drip water over his bent knee.

“I love the candles,” Lacey commented. “Thank you for lighting them. Oh, and the music is nice too.”

“I hope you know this is all a setup to you giving me some later.”

“Trust me. I know,” Lacey replied and pinched his thigh.

“Ow. Those hairs are attached, you know. You had my parents wrapped around your finger today,” Rye drawled as he massaged her shoulders.

“I’ve always gotten on well with them.”

“Yes, but they got to know you as my girl, my sweetheart.”

“I enjoyed them too. And it was nice catching up with Jensen. She’s going to be an awesome surgeon.”

“She’s a brainiac for sure,” he murmured, somewhat distracted because he’d shifted his hands to cup her rigid-tipped breasts. “You are so damn sexy here.” He nibbled a path down her elegant neck. Then he flicked his tongue over the shell of her ear before closing his mouth over her lobe and sucking.

“Mmm,” she moaned.

After discovering how sensitive the spot was a while back, he’d taken full advantage ever since. He only had to place one kiss there, and she became as boneless and pliant as putty. She turned to face him and straddled her gazelle-like thighs around his waist.

“You know what you’re doing to me,” she told him, her tone accusatory. “You’re making me want you hard and deep.”

He narrowed his eyes at the sexy, exotic sight she made, his dick so hard he was about to explode. His woman was naked and sitting on his lap with her plump, delectable tits in his face, talking about how she wanted his cock.

He couldn’t disappoint her, could he?

Rye lifted her out of the tub, and then rose to his feet. He picked her up until her breasts were level with his mouth and latched on to one dark nipple. All the hunger riding him for the past few days resurfaced as he sucked her hard while he kneaded her firm behind.

Not giving a damn they were dripping wet, he walked to the bed, laid her on the crisp sheets, and covered her smooth, lithe body with his, still pulling on the tips of her trembling mounds.

“Suck harder.”

Obeying her demands, Rye plumped one lush globe in his hand as he lowered his other hand between her legs. He dipped one finger inside her and groaned when he felt how wet and slick she was.

“You’re soaking. Is all this for me?” he asked as he headed down, stopping when his mouth came even with her trimmed sex. When she nodded, he continued his one-sided conversation since she seemed unable to speak. “Are you as sweet as you smell?”

A breathless sigh.

“Let me taste you and see.” He arrowed his tongue and speared her hot little nubbin to life. Wildly, he laved her, turning her trembles into full-blown shakes. He then devoured her clit, intent on making her come harder than she ever had before. Even when her body bowed up into a sitting position and her thighs held his head captive, he didn’t stop. Instead he forced her legs apart and continued his assault with his greedy tongue until she cried out his name and announced she was coming.

He held her knees as wide as he could and thrust strong and deep into her convulsing pussy. No condom, no other barriers at all. Simply him and her, skin on skin. It was the most fulfilling, electric contact he’d ever experienced. He had no doubt it wasn’t only because he was fucking in the raw; it had all to do with Lacey. His woman.

“Ah,” he groaned with each stroke, trying to make it last, trying to keep from exploding before he’d fully enjoyed this newfound freedom. “It feels so damn good with nothing between us.”

“Yes. Please, Rye.”

Rye grunted as his pace increased. Soon he powered into her hot depths and chased the ultimate pleasure. It was incredible to feel every ripple and curve of her feminine channel, and she yielded to his hardness like she was created just for him. Her internal muscles contracted, and he knew the time was near. When she shook and screamed she was coming again, he lost control. He stilled as ecstasy claimed him, and he flooded her tight canal with his scalding cum.

“Lacey, Lacey, Lacey,” was the prayer tumbling from his trembling lips.

Rye was shaken to the core. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any better with her, he was proved wrong. Leaving his seed unfettered in her womb produced feelings he couldn’t explain. Somehow giving her such a vital part of himself made him whole. Knowing she trusted him enough to share her body humbled him.

Not another word was said as he gathered his entire world into his arms and wrapped his body around her.

Chapter Twenty-One

Rye cradled his phone between his ear and shoulder. He glanced over the stack of mail in his hands as he talked to Lacey.

“Have you made it through the door?” she asked.

“Just got in.”

“Are you naked yet?”

“As soon as I can get around to it,” he said, chuckling. Damn, she had him pegged about his penchant for ditching his clothes as quickly as possible. He liked when she did the same.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then. Don’t forget I have to work tonight.”

“What time will you be home?”

“Around ten or so.”

“I’ll see you then,” he said, his voice full of promise.

He’d been in grueling meetings all day with Hanover’s owner and directors, hammering out details of the new department. He couldn’t wait until it was finalized so he could have a life. With Lacey. Today, the board put their stamp on the proposal; now company owner, George Hanover, had to give the final approval.

“Wait, did I mention the company banquet is this Saturday?” he asked as he pulled open the fancy invitation.

“Yes, and the engineering conference starts Monday in New York,” Lacey said.

He laughed. “Welcome to my well-traveled life.”

“Are you going to invite my brother to the banquet?”

Rye stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t spoken to Kyle in weeks. The way his best friend had reacted to his and Lacey’s relationship still stung like hell. Sure, Rye had pushed some buttons by becoming involved with Lacey, but he’d talked to Kyle man-to-man. Tried to make him understand how important Lacey was to him. Kyle had basically told him to go fuck himself.

“I’m sure he has better things to do this year,” Rye ground out.

“Oh, Rye,” Lacey sighed. “Can you please give him a call?”

Silence again.

“Rye?”

“I’ll think about it. See you tonight.”

* * * *

“…we are proud to have one hundred percent employee attendance this year,” Hanover’s vice president of operations said before launching the slide show. It was the perfect time to escape to the restroom. Lacey’s facial muscles were frozen in a permanent smile from greeting so many of Rye’s coworkers. It seemed every Hanover employee made contact with her in some form or fashion, as if they couldn’t believe she was real. It couldn’t just be because Rye had a black woman by his side; the few black people present looked at her strangely too. It was possible the word “girlfriend” had never crossed the lips of the company rock star, especially while having a death grip on her hip.

She was said woman, and them being together blew her mind most days. His possessiveness was sexy as hell, and she found anyone’s interest in them amusing. Of course Kyle’s absence was a dark cloud floating over their heads. Neither he nor Rye was giving an inch in their stalemate. She was still wounded by her cross words with her brother; she could only imagine what the rift was doing to Rye.

Lacey headed to the long line of sinks. When she looked in the mirror, she was startled to find a pair of cold hazel eyes staring at her.

Natalie Hanover.

So this bitch wasn’t going to just fade into the woodwork.

Lacey paused before waving her hands in front of the pewter faucet to let the soap and water flow. Silently she reached for a paper towel. Word about Rye introducing Lacey as his girlfriend must not have sat well with the boss’s daughter. Spite and anger had turned the girl’s face into a caricature of the beauty from the boutique.

Natalie watched Lacey with a menacing smile, her slim arms folded across a stunning rose-colored dress. Lacey dropped her towel in the garbage and moved to exit the bathroom.

“I guess you had a good laugh. You let me go on about my plans for Rye, and it never crossed your lips about you being his chocolate flavor of the week,” Natalie said in the nastiest tone Lacey had ever heard.

“Because then, like now, it was none of your business,” Lacey stated before stepping around the girl.

“Oh, it’s my business, all right. I want him, and after our trip, he’ll damn sure want me,” Natalie said with a smug smile.

“I’m not discussing Rye with you.” Lacey took two more steps before the nastiness began again.

“Actually, I’m not surprised he’s experimenting with you. I guess the brown skin makes him feel like he’s taking a ride on the wild side. But when he makes his way back to the familiar, I’ll make sure he gets everything he needs,” Natalie said snidely as she ran a hand over her long blonde tresses. “In fact, while we’re away, I’ll make sure I’m with him every second of every day. He’ll know I’m willing to do anything and everything he wants.”

Potent fury overtook Lacey’s entire being. She wanted to wipe the girl’s gloating expression from her face, but she was above such classless behavior. She wasn’t getting into a physical altercation with this spoiled brat. “Rye is obviously where he wants to be.”

“Enjoy him while you can, because I’ll have the last laugh in this game. I guarantee it.”

“See, yet another difference between you and me. I don’t play games with children.”

Natalie gave an inelegant snort. “Oh, this isn’t child’s play. This is very serious. In fact, it’s as serious as Rye’s plan to open the new training department. The one pending approval from the company’s owner, my father? Well, about that. Daddy likes to see me happy, and if I’m not satisfied, neither is he, and I’d hate to tell him Rye is the cause of my discontent. It might make him a little reluctant to take on this new project. And I won’t be satisfied until Rye is fucking me senseless with his fabulous tool I’ve heard so much about.”

Lacey shook with anger. “You’d want a man who’d only be with you because you blackmailed him?”

“I want Rye. Period. And I will have him,” Natalie said, turning toward the exit.

She’d pulled the heavy wooden bathroom door open several inches before Lacey pushed it closed with a resounding
boom
. The triumphant smile on Natalie’s face transformed into one of stark fear, but she recovered immediately.

“Listen, you desperate, pathetic scab of a person. You may think the entire earth revolves around you, but my world doesn’t. You can’t have your way, and like any child, you want to act out. I suggest you move on before I take matters into my own hands.”

Natalie’s laugh was hollow and eerie. “What are you going to do? Tell Rye so he’ll be forced to choose between me, a woman who can take him places, and the help he’s sleeping with until someone better comes along? Hilarious. When he has to make a choice, he’ll choose me, and he’ll fuck me. He’ll fuck me like his career depends on it, which it does. Think about it for a while,” she said with a twisted, triumphant smile.

Lacey clenched her hands into fists as her blood went past boiling. “You think this is funny? While you’re plotting to get with a man who doesn’t want you, do you know where ‘the help’ will be? With Rye, in his bed.
Tonight
. But I won’t be thinking about you and your little games. See, I tend to lose focus when Rye is between my legs eating my chocolate pussy like he can’t get enough. Now there’s something for you to chew on.” Lacey walked out the door.

By the time she made it back to the table where Rye sat with Paula, several of his team members, and his parents, Lacey could barely contain her rage. Natalie was so selfish she would jeopardize Rye’s plans to develop a research and training department unless she got her way. Having Rye home on a regular basis was the only way Lacey would know if they could survive as a couple. She craved stability, which required him being around. All the time. Mostly, though, her anger was directed at herself for giving Natalie the power to reduce her to an insecure shrew who wasn’t convinced Rye wouldn’t give in to temptation.

Natalie hit Lacey spot-on, and just like the bitch had predicted, she couldn’t stop thinking about their conversation. Lacey imagined Natalie using every trick in the book to tempt Rye. Of course, Monica was right. Lacey had to make it so good he couldn’t even look at another woman, especially Natalie Hanover. For the rest of the night, though, she refused to give Natalie any more power. Damn it, she was in control. Rye wrapped his arm around her, and the tension started to ease from her body.

“You okay?”

“I am now,” she replied and squeezed his thigh.

Lacey beamed when Rye was commended for his fifteen years of service with the company; only five other employees were more tenured. His department was then recognized for being the most profitable division of the company—for the sixth year in a row. When he approached the podium, Rye refused to accept the engraved plaque until his entire team joined him onstage, including Paula and Natalie. George Hanover wouldn’t let Rye walk away until he spoke to the crowd.

“We’re a great team, but Paula deserves all credit for keeping us on track.” Rye gave a lopsided grin as he continued. “On a personal note, I’d like to acknowledge my parents, who are here. They supported my wild ideas and never called the cops even after I blew up a few things.” He paused when the audience laughed. “My beautiful girlfriend Lacey is also here. She puts up with my crazy travel schedule and makes things a lot nicer when I get home. Thanks, baby,” Rye said in a softer, more intimate tone.

Rye’s coworkers went crazy, laughing and applauding. Natalie was the exception. She stood on the stage with a tight-lipped expression, shooting daggers at Lacey.

Lacey stood and applauded along with everyone else. She kissed him full on the mouth when he approached their table. “Congratulations. I’m proud of you,” she whispered.