Wrapped Around My Finger (12 page)

I slipped my fingers inside her, thrusting hard. Her muscles fluttered around me, and I slid out before she came.

“Oh, come on,” she groaned when I unhooked her leg from my shoulders. Her body trembled, and her eyes burned with need.

I reached forward, hooking my fingers in the slack I’d left between her wrists and the belt, and yanked her body off the bed. I held my arm over my head, and she dangled like a marionette. Her breath came quick, eyes wide, but Leah was going to get what she wanted. She straddled my lap, rolling her hips, doing her best to hit my cock. All it took was a slight adjustment to put it out of reach. She slumped with frustration.

“How are you doing?” I asked, my smile too big for my face when she narrowed her eyes at me, thrusting her hips forward one more time to no avail.

“I’m going to explode if you don’t let me have your cock right about now.” I let her get a little closer. “But other than that, I’m great. How are you, Jagger?”

If I laughed I’d drop her. “Never been better.” I grabbed my shaft so I could drive it up inside her. She let out a satisfied sigh when I moved her closer, but let her head fall back in frustration when I pulled her up.

“How can you even do that? You move me like I weigh nothing,” she groaned. I lowered her slowly. She leaned forward, kissing wherever she could connect with, my forehead, cheek, and nose. She gasped against my cheek when I slipped inside her. Our gazes locked, and I pulled her up and lowered her.

Leah circled her hips, taking any control that she could. It felt so fucking good I stopped fighting her and let her do all the work. Her nipples grazed my chest with every rotation. She panted, and her inner walls pulsed against my shaft. I pulled her up again and let her drop. Leah wouldn’t be denied another orgasm. She rose to her knees and impaled herself on my cock, hard and fast. Her eyes sparkled with determination, and a slow, seductive smile spread across her face.

Her eyes widened when I grasped her throat. I pistoned up, and we rode the waves of her orgasm. This woman was a goddess, the way she’d made her own rules to my game. She screamed when I came inside her. Leah shuddered and collapsed against me when she finished, resting her damp forehead on my shoulder as I lowered her. We were both a trembling mess by the time I loosened the belt and rubbed feeling back into her arms. I kissed her, words still jumbled in my brain and anything I tried to say would be complete nonsense.

“That was insane,” Leah finally said, still breathing hard. “The whole thing. You had me hanging like a rag doll, and...” She shook her head. “You scared the hell out of me when you put your hand on my neck, but I’ve never come so hard before.”

“It was fucking incredible.” I tipped her chin to meet my gaze. She nodded under my touch. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “I had no idea what I was going to do when I put the belt on you. I always think I’ve got a plan for you, and it goes to shit every time. You make me lose control.”

Her gaze fell to her wrists, still red from the belt. She ran her finger along her tattoo, then looked back up at me. “I don’t think I was truly alive until I met you.”

L
eah

As soon as I saw Zach, I knew exactly why I didn’t pick him from the escort website. He was just like every other guy on there not named Jagger. Clean cut, guy next door handsome. Boring. The kind of guy that would blend into the furniture beautifully. I knew what I doing when I chose Jagger. I wanted a man who stood out in the crowd. It wasn’t only that he was drop-dead gorgeous, but even from that first picture I knew he had a passion that couldn’t be denied.

“So you’re the one who took this guy off the market,” Zach said when he sat down. “Never thought that was gonna happen. Thought the two of us would be rolling in our wheelchairs, terrorizing the nurses at the old folks’ home.”

Charming. “Guess you need to find a new wingman.” I plastered a smile on my face and shifted my gaze between the bartender, who was taking his sweet-ass time making our drinks, and Jagger, who looked like he’d rather be having a root canal.

There was a weird, underlying tension between the two of them. Now I understood why he hadn’t wanted to call Zach. Jagger never talked about anyone besides his clients. Never anyone that I thought he cared about. I’d wanted Zach to reassure me I was leaving Jagger in good hands when my plane taxied down the runway in four hours. That there was actually something here for him besides his heart-breaking passion for things that had been abandoned. Something told me I wouldn’t get my wish.

“We’ll see about that.” Zach scoffed, leaning forward and grinning at me before he took a sip of his beer. If I’d hired this guy as an escort, I would’ve wanted a refund. “What do you think of Miami?”

But I’d play nice. “Love it. Wish I didn’t have to go home.”

Jagger squeezed my leg under the table. Interesting. He was usually pretty open with his affection.

“This guy needs his freedom. Jag, did you take her to all your favorite places? Tryst? The Integrity Bar? Starlight?”

Jagger shook his head, squeezing my thigh harder. “Those are
your
favorite places.”

Zach shrugged. “You always have a good time when we go. Kaylee would’ve been disappointed to see you two walk in together.”

“Shut up, Zach.” Jagger raked his hand through his hair and leaned back in his seat.

“He has plenty of freedom,” I said through gritted teeth. We were doing the thing I hated, talking about Jagger like he wasn’t in the room. The wine went down too easy.

“You’re awfully confident.” Zach cocked his head toward me. “I’ve seen you on TV, you didn’t exactly strike me as a party all night type of lady, but I’ve been out with a lot of women like you. You all have a hidden wild side.”

I shifted away from Jagger’s grip, and leaned forward, mirroring Zach’s expression. The bartender pointed to my empty glass and I nodded.
Keep it coming.
“Tell me about it.”

Zach wrinkled his nose, “Tell you about what?”

“My hidden wild side. Since you know so much about women like me.”

He finished his drink and licked his lips, like he’d sink his teeth into me next. “Women like you have to repress everything feminine to climb the corporate ladder. You forget how to make a man happy because you’re so busy trying to compete with them. That’s why your relationships don’t work. You have to hire guys like me and Jag and order us around because that’s the only way you know how to get what you want. You’re so repressed that once you start, you can’t stop.”

The parts of his accusation that hit close to home stung, but the rest of it—that was complete stereotypical bullshit—ignited my rage. “So which one of us isn’t fit for a relationship—me or Jagger?”

“Neither of you.” He sat back and smiled, like he expected someone to wheel out a trophy.

The sangria was going straight to my head, along with the dust Zach had kicked up deep in a place I’d wanted to ignore. “My seventeen-year-old daughter tried this. Her attack was more sophisticated than yours.”

Zach whistled low. “Seventeen, huh? I bet she’s smoking hot, too. Does it bother you that your daughter’s best days are ahead of her and yours have already passed?”

“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter like that,” I said way too loudly as I clutched the table. I grabbed it too hard, and Zach’s full drink toppled over. Everyone within earshot turned to our table. My
Great Start Today
commercial ran silently on the block of screens above us. Usually, that prefaced people coming over and asking me if I was
the lady in the commercial
. Worst possible time to lose my cool. And already I’d had the run-in with the lady at the nude beach that day.

So I had to settle for fantasizing about strangling Zach. But watching him dab vodka from his soaked crotch did hold a certain appeal.

“Everything okay over here?” The bartender asked. We nodded, but he clearly thought it was bullshit. His gaze stayed on me a little too long. Whether or not he was familiar with my companions, he certainly recognized me.

“Cut the shit, Zach,” Jagger growled.

I winked at Jagger. “I’ve got this. Since I plan on sticking around, it’s best that we get to know each other.” I turned back to Zach. “How’d you get so smart?”

“I told you, years of escorting.” He grinned, still patting his junk. “Just like Jagger.”

“Good thing you’re still at it. Because you know nothing. About me, and especially about Jagger.” I didn’t mention Raven. I wanted him to forget about her as soon as possible. “And because of it, you’ll continue to live a sad and lonely life.”

He crossed his arms, looking away from me with a low chuckle. “You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, lady.”

“Look at me,” I said. I wasn’t surprised he didn’t. “Look at me, Zach. If Jagger’s as important to you as you claim, you’d want him to be happy. Stop trying to hold him back to wallow in your misery.”

“I’m not miserable,” he insisted.

––––––––

“O
kay, you’re not miserable.” I took a healthy sip of sangria and leaned forward with a smile. I glanced at Jagger, who looked amused. This meeting had been my idea, and Jagger saw something in this guy, so I owed it to him to play nice. “So what do you do when you’re not escorting, Zach?”

Some of the color drained from his face. Interesting. “Sometimes I DJ. Otherwise, I go to the gym with this guy, and I party. Hard.”

“Good for you.” Now that things calmed down a bit, I felt like I was dealing with one of my interns. One of the ones who’d decided they hated interior design or television production but hadn’t figured out what else to do with their lives. It was a mercy killing when I fired them. “How long have you and Jagger known each other?”

They looked at each other in the way old friends did. “Zach was the first guy I met at the agency,” Jagger said. “I needed someone to show me the ropes.”

Ah, it was loyalty that kept them together. Knowing Jagger, the relationship made more sense.

“Yeah, Barry sent us out together.” Zach laughed. “Some of the clients request more than one escort at a time, if you know what I mean.”

I knew exactly what he meant, and I chose to ignore it. He should know by now that the shock factor was wasted on me. I’d hired Jagger, too. “So you’ve been doing this longer than Jagger?” I couldn’t tell how old he was. He looked like he’d lived a harder life than Jagger, but he lacked Jagger’s sophistication.

“Yeah. Not much longer. Some guys can’t handle it, and others are made for the lifestyle. Like me and Jagger.” Zach studied me. “What made you want to
date
an escort?”

“Zach—“ Jagger interrupted.

“I’ll answer his question.” I felt bad for Zach. He’d been doing this too long, and it freaked him out to see his partner in crime defect to the other team. Maybe he thought Jagger was a fool, or maybe he was jealous. Not of me, I wasn’t his type, whatever that was. The guys were supposed to keep a layer between themselves and the women who hired them, and I’d shattered that. If I knew how I did it, I’d tell him. Zach needed someone to love him, badly. “I didn’t want to date anybody. That’s why I hired Jagger. But we were honest with each other, neither of us put on any bullshit airs, and we clicked. Can’t plan for this type of stuff.”

“It doesn’t bother you people hired him to do some freaky shit?”

This was getting so tiresome. My wrists were still sore from the freaky shit we’d just done. “Maybe that’s why I hired him.”

“Oh.” That shut him up.

I pressed the button on my phone, ignoring the page full of messages waiting for me. None of that until the plane. “We should probably head to the airport.”

Jagger jumped up, reaching for his wallet immediately. Zach’s jaw dropped when he dropped money on the table. Guess Zach was used to having women pay his way. “Yeah, we should.” Jagger stood up and clapped Zach on the back. “Catch you at the gym tomorrow.”

Fresh air never felt so good. “That went pretty much how I expected it to.” Jagger sighed, before closing my door.

I waited for him to come around to the driver’s side. “Sorry I attacked your friend. You tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen.”

“You were amazing. Don’t apologize, he deserved every bit of it. This isn’t anything new. He’s still partying, and I got tired of it.” Jagger pulled out of the parking lot. “And if you’re wondering, Kaylee’s someone I used to screw around with before we got together. It didn’t mean anything.”

“If he’d handled that with any finesse, I might have been concerned. But it was pretty obvious he was going for the jugular.” We actually had plenty of time before we had to go the airport. “There’s one place you didn’t bring me.”

We were stopped at a red light. Jagger looked over at me. “The nude beach?”

My cheeks reddened. No more of that for me. Sometimes I forgot that people knew who I was everywhere, even on the topless beach. “No. Your gallery.”

He turned back to the road, but not before his expression fell. “It’s gone.”

“What?” I kept waiting for him to bring me to it all weekend. We’d been to Wynwood, and I’d been having such a good time I forgot to ask. “I don’t understand.”

“Someone rented the space.” His voice was flat, like he didn’t care, but I knew better. “I’ll find another place.”

“I’m sorry.” I wanted this for him so bad. It was the perfect part of town, vibrant and creative just like Jagger. At the beginning of the trip, I’d thought Jagger was a part of Miami. He loved the place, but I wasn’t sure the feeling was mutual. “There’s some great places in Georgetown.”

“Leah.” It was almost the same tone he’d used to get Zach to shut up. “This is the part of the trip when we say things we might not mean—“

“I meant it.”
What the hell?
“I want you with me. All the time. I loved Miami, but I love you more. If there’s nothing keeping you here, it’s time for whatever’s next. Pull over. I don’t want to stare at the side of your face when we talk about this.”

Jagger grinned and pulled into a restaurant parking lot. He cut the engine, took off his seat belt, and turned to me. “Is that better?”