Vain - Part Two (The Vain Series Book 2) (3 page)

I feel like a caged animal
that is about to get pushed to its limits by an aggressive, skillful handler. "It's in my past." I run my hand along my hip, pressing it into the soft denim of my jeans.

"It didn't look like it was your past when I saw you two together in New York."

Another woman might have given in to the overwhelming desire to snap back at him. He's trying to pull me into a web. A web where I'll confess to him that I love Brighton and that seeing him in New York has unhinged the deepest parts of my heart. "Noah." My foot taps hard against the wood floor. "What I had with Brighton ended when I left Paris. It was before I met you."

"He's one of my oldest friends." His mouth tightens. "He's also an asshole."

I watch as he pulls his tall lean body from the couch. He takes a step towards me. I want to agree with his declaration. Brighton is an asshole but looking at Noah's beautiful face, and seeing the pain within his eyes, makes me wish that Brighton Beck would just drop off the face of the earth.

"You don't have anything to add, Alexa?" He moves closer. "Tell me if you still want him."

I shake my head slightly from side-to-side as he narrows the gap between us. "I don't want him."

"He wants you."

"I don't want him," I repeat as he steps even closer. "I don't."

"You loved him." It's a declaration, not a question. "He told me you loved him."

"It feels like a lifetime ago." I take a step back, needing to separate my insatiable desire for his body from my need to stay level headed. "I fell in love with who I thought he was."

"Who do you think he is now?"

I take a shaky breath. "Someone who is bad for me. Someone who lied to me."

"What about me?" He crosses his arms across his broad chest. "Am I bad for you?"

I nod slowly. "You left me there alone. You abandoned me in New York City."

He rubs wearily at his forehead. "I had to calm down. The thought of his body inside of you," he hisses the words out through clenched teeth. "If I would have come to that hotel room, Alexa, I would have said things that hurt you. I would have lashed out at you."

"You didn't call or text to tell me what was going on." I pat my hand over my chest trying to slow my racing heartbeat. "I stayed awake all night waiting for you."

"He touched all of that." His chin bows as his eyes rake over my body. "He's tasted it. He's come inside of you." A thick vein pulses in his neck. "He owned that heart."

I push my hand against my chest wishing I could stall my heart for a beat. "Not any more. It was so long ago."

"I had to decompress." His hand jumps into the air before he pulls it into a tight fist. "I had to get away from Brighton and from you. I had to process it all."

"You made me feel like shit," I spit out. "You just took off."

"I had to." His gaze hardens. "I knew if I didn't, I'd fuck it up with you. I'd say things… things you'd never forgive me for."

"Things about how stupid I was in Paris?" I'm not looking for a verbal confirmation; I can see the agreement in his eyes.

He steps forward again, his muscular chest and arms on full display. "You and I are more alike than you realize, Alexa."

I feel the hard wooden door against my back and I realize I'm trapped in that web he's been weaving for me. "How so?" I pull my tongue across my bottom lip.

His left hand jumps to cup my cheek as his right hand falls to my hip. He's towering over me, his eyes so dark and haunting. "We both fell in love with the wrong person."

I nod replaying in my mind the tender confession he made about loving a woman who was devoted to someone else. "We did," I whisper back, my eyes fixated on his mouth.

He sucks in a heavy breath before his mouth brushes over mine. My hands jump to his shoulders to gain balance. I reach out to deepen the kiss and he pulls me into his body. A deep, low growl pours from within him and into me. I feel my breasts swell beneath my heady desire. I didn't come here for this, but I can't stop it. I won't. I've never been so physically attracted to any man before. My sex clenches when he purrs my name into our kiss.

"Alexa," he whispers my name again, this time against my lips. "Let me help you forget him."

I wrap my fingers through his dark hair as I pull his mouth back onto mine.

***

"Ride my dick, Alexa. Ride it hard."

I push back against his legs as I drag my wetness over his lap, pulling his thick, swollen cock deeper within me. "Noah, yes," I whimper, my body clenching around him.

"You were made for fucking." His voice is thick and heavy with desire. "You're so wet. Your pussy is so tight."

The brash words only spur me on more. I drag my tits across his lips as I lean forward, pounding my body down onto his. I grab his strong shoulders using them to steady my balance as I fuck him hard. My body bobbing above him while his cock strains within me.

"I'm going to fucking blow my load." He pulls my nipple into his mouth, the searing pain of his teeth bearing down on it coursing a hot path directly to my sex.

"Noah, that's so much," I cry out.

He licks the swollen, red bud and traces it with long, leisurely licks of his tongue. "Your tits are amazing."

"I'm so close." I squeeze my eyes shut. My body is already a quivering mess from when he lapped at my folds until I came all over his face on the floor by the door. Now that I'm sitting on his lap on the couch, I can't control my body. I want to fall over the edge again.

"Come for me." He bites out between clenched teeth. "Show me how good it feels."

I throw my head back and let the orgasm wash through me. I feel his hands circle my waist, pushing my hips down hard into him as he grinds his cock into the deepest parts of me. The bite of pain only adds to the rush and I cry out, screaming his name.

"Fuck, Alexa." His voice is dark and seductive. "Take everything I give you."

I still as he pumps his hips into me, filling the condom with his own sweet desire. My name sliding slowly between his lips as his eyes roll back in his head.

"Do you want to go out for something to eat?" I zip up my sweater before pulling my boots back onto my feet.

He stares at me from where he's still seated on the couch, his long legs falling open, his cock still semi-erect. "No, I can order us something in."

"Not sandwiches," I tease.

"I hate sandwiches," he chuckles as he pulls himself up. "We could get a pizza?"

"Noah." I steel a breath before I continue, "I'd like to go out to eat."

The glint in his eye dims at the words. "I can't, Alexa."

I think for a brief moment about how to respond. "Why did you go to New York? There were a lot of people there."

He walks towards me, stopping briefly to pick up a wayward magazine that had fallen off the coffee table when he pushed against it, moving it out of our way as he carried me to the couch. "I know all those people."

"All of them?"

"They don't care about it." He doesn't expand on his response but I know the true meaning within the words.

"They don't care about your scar," I whisper back. "People won't care about it if we go out."

"I'll care about it," he snaps back as he brushes past me. "I'll get the take out menus. You can choose what we eat."

***

"I'm going to tell you something, Sadie, and you're not going to freak out." I glare at her across the table in Axel Boston. "Promise me you're going to hold it together."

She's on her feet in a flash, bouncing up and down as she jumps in joyful glee. "You're pregnant, aren't you? I can't wait to tell Hunter."

I roll my eyes and pat the edge of the table. "Sit back down. I'm not knocked up."

"What?" She slowly lowers herself back into the chair, the glint that was in her eyes just a moment before, now replaced with unmistakable disappointment. "I thought we were going to have a baby."

"That's a subject you need to bring up with Hunter's cock." I tip my chin towards her. "You two should get on top of that tonight. Or you could get on top. Or whatever the hell boring, old, married couples do when they get it on."

"I like it from behind."

"Gross, Sadie." I pull my hands to cover my ears. "Never tell me again what you and Hunter do in bed. TMI."
She pulls her hand to cover her mouth as she lets out a series of high pitched giggles. "If you're not pregnant, what then?"

"Promise first." I stick out my pinky finger, reverting back to when we were eight-years-old and would pinky swear. "Promise you're not going to go crazy when I tell you this."

She loops her small finger through mine and nods her chin. "I promise."

"I'm sleeping with Noah Foster." I blurt the words out in a frenzied rush.

"Oh that?" She leans back in her chair, placing her hands on her lap. "I thought you were."

"What?" I shake my head wondering if I'm hearing her right. "You knew?"

"He kept calling here asking for you to bring him a sandwich." She raises one brow, "Bernie told me Noah hates sandwiches and only orders them so he can chat with Bernie."

I sit in stunned silence. When did she figure it out and why the hell didn't she tell me she had? "Why didn't you say something?"

"Like what?" She shrugs. "He's a recluse. He probably made you sign something that says you can't talk about him. I read online that he does that."

"You read online that he makes his lovers sign things?" I parrot back, hoping that she doesn't see the truth within the words when I say them.

"Or his models." She sighs." Something like that. I'm just glad you're not one of them."

"One of who?" I ask, already knowing what her answer will be.

"At least you never modeled for him." She pushes her chair back from the table. "The last thing a teacher needs is naked pictures of herself floating around."

"Why were those women's faces showing in the gallery photographs?" I take a sip of the coffee I brought with me to Noah's apartment. "You told me that you never take pictures of faces."

He pulls the plastic lid off his cup and blows on it. "I told you that I don't photograph faces. I don't." He takes a small taste from the cup. "I photograph women's bodies and sometimes a part of their face becomes vital to the story the image is telling."

"Your contract says you can't publically show any part of the woman's face," I push. That point has eaten at me since I saw the photographs on display in the gallery. I was horrified when I thought he broke our contract to show my face. He must have to deal with the legal and emotional ramifications of showing all those women's faces.

"No." The word is steady and clipped.

"No?" I repeat back. "I can show you my contract. It clearly says that." I know that fact without any reservation since I've read my contract repeatedly. Sadie's words about Noah photographing me have been haunting me. When we stop sleeping together he'll still own the rights to the pictures he took of me. I have to be certain that he can't ever show my face to anyone.

"Your contract says that," he corrects me. "The women in the gallery had a much different contract than you."

My chin lifts at the confession. "What? Why?"

He moves to place the paper cup onto the coffee table. "Do you remember the night we met?"

I nod my head while I examine his face waiting for him to continue.

"When you first got here I thought you were an escort." He rubs the back of his neck with his right hand, causing his bicep to flex. He's stunning. I have to put in effort to pull my gaze from his body back to his face.

"I remember," I chuckle. "You wanted to know how much."

"I had a contract ready that night. I always do when I call for a girl…" he stops himself, pulling his tongue across his bottom lip before he continues. "I always did when I called for a girl. I haven't called for one in weeks."

I take comfort in the tender confession. We've never spoken of the litany of call girls who have graced this apartment. I'm not naïve enough to believe that the one I crossed paths with during my first visit here, was the only one he called for. It was the way he satisfied his cravings. Up to this point, I hadn't wondered if it still was. I'd only assumed he'd given it up.

"I'd call for one and then wait for her to arrive." He pulls his palm across his bare leg. "If I thought she'd be perfect for one of my showings, I'd give her the contract and ask her to come back with it signed and notarized."

I take a sip of my coffee to try and mask my expression. He can see the question that's lingering behind my eyes. I know that he can.

"If I didn't think she'd work within my show, I'd fuck her." There's no hesitation in the words. They're clipped, direct and hurried.

"When I got here that night…" the question is there, waiting on my tongue but to form the words takes more courage than I have at this point.

"I wanted both so desperately." His fingers touch the tip of his growing erection.

I stare down at myself. My body still fully dressed in a pair of jeans and a black sweater. "You said we were going to fuck." The words sound needy and harsh. My sex clenches at the reminder of his declaration that night.

"When I opened the door and saw you, I knew I had to fuck you."

"What about those women in the gallery show?" I level my gaze at his face, trying not to look down at his crotch. "What about Amy?"

"What about them?" He leans back, his hand dropping to his cock, his fingers grazing over the tip.

"They all agreed to let you show their faces?" I press on, knowing if I don’t ask the question right now, it's going to free fall between the cracks and I'll never get the answer I want. "Did you fuck any of them?"

He cocks a brow and bites his bottom lip. "Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

"They all agreed to let me show their faces." He leans forward so his lips are hovering over mine. "No, I didn't fuck any of them."

I pull back, examining his expression. "They all look like they just fucked you in those pictures."

He tips his head forward a touch, a wide grin blazes across his lips and he whispers softly, "I didn't fuck any of them. I watched them touch themselves until they came. That's the moment I captured each and every time."