“Well then I’d better be entertaining,” she replied, her eyes sparkling.
“You could never be anything but.”
She laughed. “You are crazy. Crazy handsome, yes, but crazy nonetheless.”
Violet
“Shall I order another bottle of wine?” Alexander asked as I set my glass back down. He was looking at me as if he wanted to uncover my deepest secrets, but he’d already managed to do that tonight. I hadn’t talked about MIT or David for a long time. I’d locked away the whole experience in a waterproof chest and dropped it into my memory’s ocean. But recently it had bobbed to the surface, and tonight Alexander had retrieved it and smashed it open. For a few months now, maybe even longer, there’d been a gnawing in my gut that had told me things weren’t right, that I needed a change. Maybe it had been the news about the IPO or losing my job, or maybe it had started before that. Whatever the reason, it had brought me to England. It wasn’t that I wanted to do clerical work forever, but my job in chambers was giving me confidence to think about what I really wanted in my career, in my life. I just hadn’t quite figured that out yet.
“Before we decide, I need to tell you that I’m going to say yes to the extension of my contract.”
He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his legs. “Does that mean you want another bottle to celebrate?”
“Are you okay with me saying yes?” I didn’t expect him to say no. But I wanted to know what he thought.
He looked at me the way he always did when he was trying to elicit more information from me than I was giving him. “Of course, you’re doing an excellent job.”
“So it’s no big deal that we’re sitting here, but will be working together?” He was clearly a private man. I wasn’t sure he’d want anything personal with someone he worked with, but I kinda did. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted a man as much as I wanted Alexander Knightley.
“Not unless we make it a big deal.”
“In that case, can we get the wine to take back to the room?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, of course. I should get going anyway. I’ll order a cab.” He glanced around as if trying to find a waiter.
My heart sank. He was leaving? “You’re going back to London?”
“You’re ready to go, right?”
“Back to my room—with you, I’d hoped.”
His eyes widened and the corner of his mouth twitched. “I was trying to be a gentleman.”
I tilted my head and smiled. “I don’t want you to be too gentle.”
Alexander groaned. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “Let’s stay up all night and talk and drink wine, get naked, fuck, and talk some more. We can spend the whole night enjoying the moment.”
“Another bottle of wine to go,” Alexander told a passing waiter, “and the bill, please.”
As we walked up the wide staircase, I slipped my hand into Alexander’s. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d shared so much of myself with a man. I got physically naked with men all too often but rarely did I allow them to see as much of me as I’d revealed to Knightley. I didn’t even talk to Scarlett about David anymore. She often scolded me for being flighty and unfocused, but the truth was she’d never understood why. In one conversation Alexander knew more about me than people who’d been in my life for decades.
Alexander took my key and slid it into the lock, then held the door open as I stepped inside.
I set down the wine glasses I’d carried up and Alexander poured our drinks.
“I like your suit,” I said. “It’s better than a gown.”
He handed me a glass. “It’s Prada. Because, you know, that’s what all barristers should be wearing.”
“I approve,” I said, smoothing my hand up his lapel and cupping the back of his neck.
“Thank goodness.”
I grinned at his sarcasm. Somehow he managed to be charming without being too much. He got the balance just right.
He dipped his head and pressed his lips to mine and that light, heady feeling I got when he kissed me in his office enveloped me. Too soon, he pulled back. I was impatient. I wanted more. I had to get to the part where his hands were on me, his tongue was over me and his cock was in me. I needed to understand whether it was as good as I remembered it was.
“Hang on,” he said, taking my wine and placing it on the nightstand alongside his. Then he shrugged off his jacket, arranged it on the back of the chair, and kicked off his shoes.
“Come here,” he said, circling his hands around my waist before lifting me up onto the mattress. “A bed’s a novelty for us.”
I laughed. “I guess.”
Fully clothed, he lay down next to me, his head propped up on one hand while he trailed his free fingers over my ass. He was in no rush and although I was, I knew he was setting the pace and he wouldn’t give in to me.
“Do you make time for fucking?” I asked. He was so focused on work, I wondered if he had many women, girlfriends.
“Fucking you? Yes.” He pulled me closer, the length of our bodies touching.
I traced the contours of his face with my fingers. He was all angles and his beard was rough. I hoped I’d find out how it felt between my thighs before long. “Who was before me?”
He exhaled and turned on his back. “Some girl I met in a bar.”
“You go to bars?”
He chuckled. “From time to time I do things that normal people do. I stopped in for a whiskey one night. It was late. She approached me. I went back to her place. I didn’t stay the night.”
It was the kind of sex that made sense for Knightley—convenient, fleeting, and something he didn’t spend time focusing on. He wasn’t like that with me. Not here tonight but not even in his office. It was as if I were the only thing in his mind when he fucked me and for a man who thought about so much, it was the ultimate compliment. To have that attention and intensity targeted on me made me heady, filled me right up to the top.
I undid the buttons on his shirt, and he reached beneath my dress, cupping my ass.
“I’ve wondered what you’d look like completely naked,” he said, dipping his head to my neck and pressing his lips to my skin. “Fantasized about it.”
I pushed my hand down to his pants and found him straining against the material—a perfect fit for my palm. He pushed against me and groaned. “What did you imagine?”
“Smooth skin.” He swept his hand up and down the back of my thigh. “Breasts that make me salivate.” He slid his hand between my breasts, reaching into the lace of my bra. “Just like this.” He groaned and pushed me to my back. “I’m going to have to change the order of things tonight,” he said.
“You are?”