Célian plucked a red marker from the book sitting in my lap, uncapped it, and wrote A+ on the back of my hand. Then he kissed the inside of it, like Phoenix had done to me, and like I’d done to him. I swooned inside.
“Here’s to many more revelations, and to saving the world, one item at a time.” He took my glass from my side table, tipped it back, and then smashed his lips into mine again, this time letting me taste the alcohol in his mouth.
The plane had begun to take off when he looked more closely at the book in my lap. He grabbed it, examining it from all angles.
“Is it good?” he asked.
“The best,” I said, resting my hand on the cover.
He put his hand on mine.
My heart smiled at that.
And all I could think was, please don’t hurt us.
Shortly after takeoff, I sent Maman a heads-up of what was to come. Diplomatic it was not, but if she was looking for direct and honest, she certainly received it, and in spades.
Célian: Hopping on a plane to discuss Mathias with you, who, by the way, fucked my fiancée over a year ago. Consequently, I no longer have a fiancée. But I am bringing over a woman, so keep your claws tucked in.
P.S.
Brianna booked a conference call with the entire board later this afternoon, and that includes your philandering ex-husband. I sent you some recordings you need to listen to, so please do that in between auditioning new boy toys.
P.P.S.
I meant it about the claws. I am planning on keeping this one for a while.
After we landed, if Judith was surprised to find we were sharing a Mandarin Hotel suite, she didn’t let it show. She dove headfirst onto the huge bed, making a snow angel on the sheets. I didn’t know why that made me want to fuck her so hard I’d nail her to the mattress. I only knew that scraping her off of it was going to be a bitch, so I opted for jumping in the shower, seeing as I’d been working for thirty-six hours straight so we could take this trip and probably smelled like something had died inside of me, which wasn’t far off.
We still hadn’t discussed my engagement breakdown properly. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. We were both available now. I could fuck Judith raw against James Townley’s green screen with zero consequences, other than having to replace the screen, which was something we were already planning on.
Everyone at work was already privy to the fact that Lily had gotten the boot after her little performance. Including, by definition, Ava and Gary-Graham-Grant. Whatever his name was.
When I left the bathroom, Jude was out on the balcony, her elbows on the white bannister overlooking the ocean. Her ass, clad in those ripped black jeans, swayed from side to side as she stood on one foot. I was still wrapped in a towel when I approached her, clasping her midriff from behind and grinding my erection into her ass.
“Spent some overtime to cover for your ass.” I bit her earlobe, feeling her body break into chills beneath my touch.
“Looks like you’re still covering my ass,” she sassed, wiggling her round butt so my cock was now between her cheeks through her jeans and my towel. My hands slid down, undoing the button of her jeans and sliding the zipper down.
“Bend over and hold on to the bannister, Chucks. Gonna get a little rocky.” I licked my lips, sliding down her jeans and underwear in one go and dropping the towel.
I wasn’t much of an exhibitionist, which was why I’d also rented the rooms on either side of us. But of course I wasn’t going to let her be privy to my level of crazy. What can I say? Having the option to fuck Judith Humphry everywhere in the room and outside of it took first priority, and I wasn’t much of a hedonist, but booking an entire floor was a luxury I’d chosen to take this weekend.
I spread her ass cheeks and slapped her outer thigh lazily as I guided my cock into her already-dripping pussy. I wanted to go slow and steady this time. The last thing I needed was her tipping over the edge. Literally, not figuratively.
“Oh, Célian…” My name on her lips was a prayer.
“Yes?” I asked, thrusting a little harder, bending her down so her upper body was level with my cock and placing a hand over her lower back.
“I missed this,” she whimpered.
I missed you. But of course, she couldn’t milk those words out of me if my life depended on it. I slapped her ass instead.
“Didn’t peg you for a filthy girl, Chucks. Yet here you are, fucking in front of him.”
“In front of who?” A trace of panic touched her voice, and I laughed, gripping her head and fucking her a little harder.
“Kipling,” I hissed, glancing at her notebook lying on the bed behind us, next to her book.
Yesterday, after Lily had unleashed her crazy in my newsroom, I’d caught Jude writing around the deep hole my ex had created in her notebook, and I’d suppressed the urge to rush out and bite down on her lower lip in front of everyone. Jude’s loyalty, even to objects, mesmerized me.
“Jesus,” she moaned as I thrust deeper into her. “You’re such a jerk.”
“So I’ve been told a million times. Half of them by you.”
I dipped my hand between her legs and rubbed her slit, licking her neck and jaw and the inside of her ear. I didn’t want to admit that fucking Judith felt different, that I was doing things with her I didn’t usually do with my one-night stands. I wasn’t a thoughtful lover. I wasn’t necessarily against eating pussy if it looked delicious, but putting my mouth on a crack meant I was really crazy for a girl. And licking and sucking her every body part while fucking her? That was a first. I didn’t even remember prepping Lily like that.
I felt Judith tighten and spasm around me, and then she came all over my cock, her ass shuddering against my groin. I wanted to come as hard as she had, so I grabbed her by the hair and turned her around, plastering her against the glass of the balcony door.
“Safety first,” I groaned as I drove mercilessly into her. My balls tightened and I pulled out, milking my cum all over her lower back. That was more like it—a fuck, not lovemaking. I gave her ass one last slap and walked into the room, leaving the towel on the floor.
“I’m ordering room service. Clean up and let me know what you want, because your pussy is about to be my starter.”
We never ate the lobster I ordered.
Jude said eating a room-serviced lunch was clinical and sad, that vacation meals equaled dodgy street food from questionable trucks and 7-11 candy bars you didn’t know existed.
She was begging for food poisoning, but I couldn’t deny her. And that was a problem I was beginning to recognize. There was something free and unhinged in the way she viewed life. Her lack of materialistic greed both stunned and ate at me.
So we went for a walk on the beach and ate Cuban sandwiches and drank iced tea on the promenade. The food was greasier than Elijah’s hair, yet oddly satisfying.
Judith then asked if I knew how to skip stones across the water. I told her there were not many things I couldn’t do, and meant it. I didn’t mention that our servant had taught me how to do that during summer vacations at our chateau in St-Jean-Cap-De-Ferrat. I wasn’t normally ashamed of my elite upbringing, but for reasons unknown, decided to keep this to myself.
She asked me to teach her. I did.
“Flat, round stones are best. And you want to go fast.” I wrapped her fingers around a little stone I’d found.
She held it in her hand with a smile similar to the one Lily had flashed me when I gave her the engagement ring. Both were stones. Only one was worth more than a fleet of Bentleys. Yet Jude only cared about the important stuff, which reminded me to look down at her feet.
“Yellow?” I asked.
She grinned impishly. “Figure it out.”
We took a walk, and I didn’t hold her hand, and I didn’t kiss her, and I didn’t fucking breathe, because I didn’t trust myself not to do any of those things if I looked her way. I was torn between liking how it felt to spend time with her and hating how she made me want things I’d never cared about.
“How’s your relationship with your mom?” she asked.
We’re officially in family territory. Fun-fucking-tastic.
“It’s okay. Why?”