THEN-2
2109 Words
“He has laughed twice now. I’m going to have to ask you to take him back down and return with the correct Atticus, but before that, why such a harsh comparison?” Rhys’s wounded pride was bleeding all over the place.
“It’s in your attitude. The vibe you give off.”
“And by that, you trust him more than me?” Rhys was both seriously affronted and entertained. Given that I was known as the wicked king, I found it interesting that she held even an inkling of trust for me.
“She has good intuition. Lethal lawyers are shady as fuck.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Might I remind you that it is a shadiness you have used to your advantage more than once.”
I tipped my glass to him. “True. However, we aren’t talking about a business venture, but the company of a woman.”
“What are you boys doing up here all alone?” she asked, putting an end to our spat.
Rhys leaned back. “Trying to let loose after a hard week.”
I scoffed. While Rhys was normally reserved and cutthroat, he also had a playful nature about him. He was more social than me, but I knew why he pounded back the drinks, and why he wore a façade. I saw the dark emptiness, if even just a flicker.
“What do you do, Ophelia?” I asked, curious about the little nymph beside me.
“Right now, I’m a waitress.”
I’d hoped she’d be something a little more interesting to help explain her appeal. Still, it failed to tamp down my curiosity.
“Right now?” Rhys asked with a quirk of his brow.
She nodded. “I have a degree in biology and was briefly in pharmaceutical sales, but that didn’t work out. I just haven’t found what I want to do yet.”
That was more interesting. At least she was intelligent.
“What do you do?” she asked as she looked at me. There seemed to be a current moving that I hadn’t noticed before, and I quite enjoyed the simmer of heat that pulsed between us.
I glanced to Rhys, then gave her a strained smile. I didn’t want to tell her. It would ruin the atmosphere. I was genuinely enjoying our time.
“I went into the family business. Boring stuff.”
“Didn’t have a choice?”
My jaw clenched. “Not really.”
“From the day he was born, his future was set,” Rhys said, covering the truth and redirecting her attention on the subject.
“And what about you? Lawyer, was it?”
Rhys grinned. “Corporate lawyer.”
Nothing about his answer was untrue, just the omission of it being the family company.
“Remind me, is that better or worse than an ambulance chaser?” she asked.
Another laugh burst from me. What had gotten into me? I wasn’t one to show enjoyment in anything. Something about my little nymph was drawing it out of me.
Despite what she said, she was mine, if even just for the night.
“You wound me, Ophelia.”
She smiled and shook her head. “I doubt there is little that would wound you. What did Atticus call you? The Lethal Lawyer?”
“I do like them feisty.”
She shrugged, then turned to me. “How about you?”
My heart thrummed roughly in my chest as her brown eyes bored into mine.
“Feisty or not, it makes no difference. I’m enjoying your company regardless.”
She settled back against the couch, her shoulders settling under my arm. The current intensified, firing off tingles across every inch of her that rested against me.
“He wins.”
Perhaps I would be taking someone home this evening.
The alcohol warmed me, but not as much as the man I’d inched my way closer to over the past hour. Despite the way the evening began, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with these two gorgeous strangers in a VIP booth at Angelino.
It was one of the hottest clubs in the city, and I only came out on the invitation from my friend Jennifer.
Who then cancelled on me last minute. Whatever. We’d barely talked over the last few years, but she saw a post on f*******: and invited me.
Still, I came, using her name, which was on the list—I guess dating a professional baseball player had its advantages—and cutting the line of people hoping to cross the threshold.
I had been two sips from walking out, ending the night early, when Atticus appeared beside me. His blue eyes held me in t****l, his voice on edge, and those were only the first two things I noticed about the man.
There was a dusting of stubble accentuating his strong jaw, and he had a straight nose, perfectly styled light brown—possibly dirty blond—hair, with similarly colored brows that shadowed his intense gaze.
His lips.
Immediately my body flamed red-hot just imagining his lips ghosting across my skin. I forced myself to look away and focus on the charcoal-colored suit that hugged his body in the most perfect way.
When I took his hand, I was pleasantly surprised by his height. At five-and-a-half feet tall, pretty close to six-feet in heels, he was still inches above me.
Two hours later, I was as entranced by his eyes, his lips, and his body as I had been when I first saw him. His voice left me wet and wanting from the beginning. I’d just returned to the VIP lounge from a trip to the bathroom, where I’d removed my thong and shoved it into the pocket of my dress, preferring the cool air to the damp sensation.
When I pushed through the heavy curtain, I was greeted by Atticus’s warm smile.
“You didn’t run off.”
I quirked a brow at him. “Is that code for I should have left?”
He stood and stepped toward me as I moved to the railing. Rhys had disappeared while I was away, leaving us alone with the heavy crackling of attraction that pulled us together.
I swallowed hard and looked out over the crowd, trying to tamp down the lustful thoughts I was having about the gorgeous man.
My hips swayed to the beat as I let my mind go and lost myself. A gasp left me as my skin electrified, and I slowed the roll of my hips.
Atticus’s strong chest was against my back, his arms on either side of me, caging me against the railing. The warmth of his body muddled my mind. The heat of his breath against my neck followed by the light brush of his lips and stubble had me pushing back into him.
“I don’t do this, ever, but I have a hotel room a few blocks away. I would hate for the evening to end,” he said against my ear, his voice a low, gravelly tone, deep and rich, that sent shivers down my spine.
Every word the man said held an air of power, and his voice projected confidence.
I’d never had a one-night stand, yet with the tangible chemistry between me and the man behind me, I had a feeling that was about to change.
“It would be a first for me,” I said as I arched my neck and leaned back against him.
He let out a low groan before lightly nipping my neck just below my ear, sending a jolt through my system.
“Is that a yes?” He rocked his hips against my ass, and my mouth popped open at the feel of his hard length pressing against me.
I moved my hips, grinding against him for a moment before twisting to look at him. His eyes were dark, lips only a few inches away. Craning my neck, I nipped at his bottom lip, then ran my tongue against it to soothe the sting, loving the way his gaze darkened.
“Yes.”
He reached up and gripped my jaw, holding me in place as his lips pressed fiercely against mine. “Let’s go.”
Rhys entered just as we were exiting, surprise on his face morphing into a knowing smirk.
“Have a good night,” he said with a wink.
“Good night. Thanks for the fun,” I said as Atticus pulled me out and down the hallway.
His demeanor was almost frenzied with the way he bulldozed through the crowd, but when we made it outside to the street, he relaxed.
“I didn’t want to lose you,” was all he said as he slowed to a more manageable pace.
My hand was warm in his as we walked a few blocks down to Le Magnifique, a five-star hotel that I could never afford to stay in.
His touch was forceful in a desperate sort of way, one that fueled the fire inside me with each bit of movement. He couldn’t seem to let go of my hand. And the farther we walked, the tighter he gripped me. Was he afraid I was going to change my mind? As if there was a choice in the matter.
I’d never been more drawn to a man. Nor had I ever been more desperate to feel one’s lips or body on mine.
Somehow, we managed not to maul each other in the elevator, but we were barely through the door when he pushed me against the wall, his lips crashing to mine. The fire that had started the moment I looked up into his sapphire eyes exploded into a raging inferno, burning every vein as my blood moved through my body.
He held my jaw tight, his thumb and fingers digging in as he devoured my mouth, his other hand fisting the back of my hair, threading through the shorter ends as he tried to possess me.
His tongue created a spiraling shock that moved through me, and I was trapped in the gravity of him too far to notice his fingers pulling at the tie on the back of my dress until the top slipped down and fabric pooled low on my hips.
A light pull at the zipper and my dress was a puddle of fabric at my feet.
“No panties?” he growled.
“I lost them.”
“Lost them?”
“Yes. They were wet from being so close to you.”
A groan left him and the intensity rolling off him increased. “Tell me why.”
My fingers flexed against his chest and I bit down on my bottom lip. “Because every word out of your mouth goes straight to my clit.”
His lips tugged up into a smug smile.
“You seem to have lost all of your clothing,” he said, his gaze traveling all the way down, sending a blaze of heat across my skin as he went.
“Your fault again. I think you wanted to see me naked.”
His hand slipped between my thighs, and I gasped as his fingers slid against my clit, then down until he had two fingers buried inside me. A high-pitched cry left me, my muscles tense from the sudden explosion of pleasure.
“I think you may be right. Do you want to know what I know?” he asked. My eyes glazed over, lips parting as his fingers moved in and out, sliding across my clit as he did.
“W-what’s that?”
He pried my mouth open and slipped his thumb in, which I instantly lapped at, earning a strained groan. “That you will look exquisite when you come on my cock.”
I reached forward and gripped his bulge, earning a low rumble from his chest and a harder drive of his fingers.
Fuck, he was thick.
He tilted my head back, his thumb slipping from my mouth just as his teeth scraped across the length of my neck.
Complete control was his, and it felt so good.
“You know what will look great as well?” I asked. Each breath reached higher in pitch as he drove me closer and closer to o****m.
He kissed and nipped his way up to my ear before biting lightly on my earlobe. “What’s that?”
I turned my head so that I could get closer to his ear, and his hand dropped down to rest lightly on my neck.
- Writer
