The Claiming of Sadie Graves (23 page)

I look at my texts. There’s one from Emma, telling me:

U B CAREFUL! <3 U!

And only one more.
My heart almost stops. It’s from Lucas.

SADIE, I HOPE YOU’
RE SAFE WHEREVER YOU ARE TONIGHT. I MISS YOU EVERY DAY. HAPPY NEW YEAR. LUCAS

His text is only a few minutes old. I feel desperate, and I miss him so deeply right now
that I’m probably not thinking straight. I text him back.

LUCAS, I NEED HELP. CAN YOU PLEASE SEND EDGAR TO GET ME? I WENT OUT WITH PETER AND NOW I CAN’T FIND HIM. I’M TWO BLOCKS OVER FROM LATEX, BUT I’M GOING TO KEEP WALKING. PLEASE.  Sadie

My phone rings within one second. I don’t even get to say hello.

“Jesus Christ, Sadie! What in the hell? You’re in danger. Are there any restaurants nearby?’

I sigh, irritated. “Yes, I see a pizza place ahead.” I tell him the name and he tells me the car will come to get me within minutes. He hangs up without saying goodbye.
That’s a nasty habit, Lucas. Really.

I buy a coke from the 24-hour pizza shop and sit down at a table to wait for Edgar.
It’s sticky, I notice idly.
Imagine that.
I put my forehead into my hand, and mentally check out for a few seconds. One of the pizza guys asks if I’m okay, and I smile wanly at him and say yes, I’m fine.
I’m cold,
I think.
But fine
.

The door to the restaurant flies open and Lucas comes inside.
Oh. He’s still the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.
I think he’s gotten more beautiful, if that’s possible. Or maybe I’ve just missed seeing him so much that he’s gotten more attractive. Who knows? He’s wearing jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt. My sex clenches so hard that I have to take a deep breath.

He’s not dressed up.

I stand in my skirt and tall heels, and he looks me up and down, letting out a low whistle. “Hi, Sadie. You look delicious.” My panties are still wet, and just looking at him gives me the most intense feeling of sexual longing I’ve ever had. I have all these mental images of fucking and sucking in my mind, and it’s been weeks since we’ve been together. I can barely speak. 

I clear my throat and lick my lips.
“Um, hi, Lucas. I, ah…wasn’t expecting you to come here. I figured you’d be busy tonight.”

“No, I’ve been hanging out with Sadie Sutton.” He moves closer to me, and takes my hand in his. I feel like I’m vibrating when he touches me. He looks at me, and his eyes open wide.
“Mmm. I felt that.”

I try desperately not to make
an improper response. I’m going to do something dumb, I just feel it.

“Come on, I’m taking you home.” He turns around, my hand in his, and heads toward the car.

Inside, he doesn’t sit too close to me, which is a blessing.
Because I’m a sexual landmine right now. One false move and KABOOM.
I suppress a smile
. What in the hell is wrong with me?

I shake my head. Maybe that will clear out those thoughts.

We ride in silence and I realize soon enough that we’re headed to 66
th
street. “Lucas, I thought you were taking me home?”

He looks serious. “Sadie, it’s New Year’s Eve. There’s no way I’m risking getting into traffic with a bunch of drunks tonight, and it’s already ten o’clock.
You can stay with me, and I’ll take you back tomorrow. Do you need to let Jenny know where you are?”

“No, she’s with her parents on Long Island this weekend. She won’t be back for two more days.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

“Will Violet be upset that I called you? I’m not trying to create problems. And, I’m really grateful for you, Lucas. This is something a real friend would do. I won’t forget it.”

He looks over at me, an incredulous look on his face. “Sadie, baby. You just don’t get it. I haven’t seen Violet since the last day I saw
you
. I’m trying to prove a point.”

He slides close to me and pulls me to him.

“I need to kiss you, Sadie. Need it. Seriously.”

I smile a little at him, remembering his words to me in my bedroom, the morning we first were intimate.

“I don’t want to kiss you in the car, in front of your staff. Okay?”

“All right.” He backs away slightly.

We arrive at his building, take the elevator to the fourth floor and walk into the great room. “Go to my room. Don’t get ready for bed.” I nod, feeling that uncomfortable feeling of unsatisfied sexual need between my legs. I feel like those guys at
Latex
looked.

In need of a serious fucking
, my brain whispers.
No doubt.

I wander into Lucas’ room and sit in an upholstered chair by the bed. It feels good in here; warm and comfortable.
The door opens and a curious little canine face peeks in. Sadie. She pushes her way in and lopes over to a little dog bed in a corner.

Lucas
comes in the room with a glass of ice water for me, and two aspirin. “I just figured you got stressed out; thought these might help.” He hands them to me.  I take the water and swallow them down.

“Now, tell me what you were doing tonight.” He looks calm and interested, not nuclear, so I explain about the uniforms and my meeting with Jonathan. His eyes go dark, but when I tell him about going downstairs he becomes visibly upset. “Sadie, that’s a good place to get yourself raped. Every man there is on hard. Did Jonathan try to take advantage of you?
”

The last sentence is a whisper. “Were you turned on?” He looks stricken, but resigned to whatever I say. After all, there’s no reason why I can’t sleep with other people. He knows this. After all, he has.

“Actually, he stuck his hand in my shirt and squeezed my nipple. It was already
long, so I guess he thought that was what I wanted. We were watching a woman give her partner head, and she was really enjoying it. It was incredibly arousing. You’d have to be dead to not be turned on in that place.”

Lucas’ breath catches, and he licks his lips. “What did you do?”

“I closed my shirt and told him no, and he apologized.”

“You were aroused?”

“Yes, very.” I squeeze my thighs together, remembering it. I shut my eyes, for a second.

“Tell me what you saw.” He grabs my hands and pulls me from the chair to the mattress. I sink onto it, now sitting right next to him.

“Well, there was a man sitting on a loveseat, and the woman undid his pants and pulled out his penis and she started licking
the head, just softly at first. He immediately got excited. And then she started licking him all over, and sucking him, until she got most of him in her mouth. She gradually brought him closer to orgasm, and he was whispering to her how good it felt…and she was moaning; it was very, very sexy.”

Lucas
eases one hand under my skirt, and slips a finger inside my panties. He closes his eyes and groans when he feels how slippery I am, and then he’s kissing me, hands everywhere. It’s like he wants to devour me.

He breaks and pulls away. “You were this excited, and you said no? Why?” he looks
jealous, confused and incredibly full of need all at the same time.

“I don’t know, Lucas. I just…didn’t want him touching me. I only wanted
you
to touch me. It was simple, really.” 

And with that, he’s mine. His need is at least as powerful as what I’m feeling. He has all my clothes off in no time, but he leaves on my stockings, my shoes…and the ribbon.

He’s between my legs, excitedly licking me into orgasm, two fingers inside me, when he pauses to exclaim over the length of my clitoris. I prop myself up on one arm to look at it. It’s almost as long as the first knuckle on my little finger. I watch him tongue and suck it, and I blow apart when I pinch my own nipples at the same time. Oh my God. He knows exactly how to make me come.

I gratefully give him head, watching the end of his shaft swell and redden.
“Oh, Sadie. Shit. Baby, you’re incredible.” I love pleasing him, but soon he pauses me. “I have to be inside you now. Please?”

He pulls me to the edge of the bed and rocks his entire length into me on the first thrust. I
cry out in enjoyment, and he quickens, thrusting in me faster, groaning and panting as he speeds up. He watches our bodies join with a look of both desire and turmoil on his face. He wants to come, but he’s holding back. Between my trip to the dungeon and the orgasm he gave me, everything south of my navel is drenched in wetness. His cock is shiny with lubrication, grinding rhythmically into me. He stops, flips me over and enters me from behind; haltingly telling me between thrusts that he loves the feeling of being fully inside me, all the way. He grips my hips, and moves slower, almost at release.

I climax again, from the wetness and friction, and it just comes out.
I truly have no filter. Why can’t I just be quiet?

“Oh, Lucas. I love you.”  It’s a whisper, but he hears me.

His eye
s fly open wide and he grabs my hips with a possessive grip, leaning down to touch his chest to my back. He says my name with a sigh. “Sadie.” He gasps out “I. Love.” And the last word, “you”, is a cry of orgasm.

I don’t leave Lucas’ bed for two days.

And I only do
then
because we have a lingerie line to produce. I mean, c’mon. I have to make other people’s sexual dreams come true.

But only after I figure out what they are.
And that means research.

Lots of research.

“Take a Picture”

Filter,
Title of Record

Sometime between New Year’s Eve and January second, Dusty Kennon breaks into my apartment.

Ag
ain.

That night I came home from the
‘Secret Society of Sex’ party to an open door? He had been inside. I just didn't realize it at the time, and of course now I’m glad I didn’t because I might have had what my mom calls a ‘come-apart’.

I don’t know how he found me, but he
did.

This time,
in true form, he leaves me something to remember him by.

That’s
so
Dusty.

It is.

If you’re a woman of any years, you’ll know what th
at means. (smiles)

My most precious sensory ability is my hearing. Conversations, music,
my mother’s voice: these are all invaluable to me. So, I added a song to every chapter of this book, and I’ll do the same to the next. I hope you listen, only because I thought long and hard about the magical ability of music to expand on the story line. If you play each song along with the chapter, as you read, you’ll see where I’m headed. They’re meant to go together, these two things.

Honest confession:

The first time I fell in love, I wasn’t confident or articulate enough to tell that person that he was important to me; that, at that time, he meant everything. I lost spectacularly in that moment, only to be redeemed in a real love later. I didn’t want my heroine to be so standoffish. I wanted her to take risks, even in shyness.

I hope you’re taking calculated risks, too.

Because that’s there the reward is, you know.

Angela