Page 13 of Wicked Games
“Wave your hand or slap my thigh if you want me to stop at any time, okay?” Lucien nodded. “Get on your knees and get your ass up in the air.” I didn’t trust myself to touch him more than was required, so I fished a condom and a packet of lube out of my wallet rather than allow my eyes to linger too long on his body. As for Lucien, I felt his intense gaze on me, beseeching me to look in his eyes instead of watching my hand roll on the condom.
“Ass in the air,” I reminded Lucien when I saw from my periphery he hadn’t moved. I heard his frustrated groan but didn’t face him again until I heard him reposition himself on the sofa. It was my turn to groan at the beauty spread before me.
Lucien had chosen to kneel on the center sofa cushion and grip the back of the couch, so his beautiful ass was on full display and at the perfect height for me to fuck. Lucien arched his back and spread his knees wider, presenting his perfect pucker to me. I saw goose bumps pebble his flesh as I approached and felt a tremor of anticipation ripple through him when I placed my right hand on his hip.
“This is new,” I said, looking at the bold, black strokes of the Chinese symbol for regret tattooed between his shoulder blades. I swallowed hard. For the first time since I got in the car, I second-guessed my intentions. What would I gain from having sex with him one last time? What kind of closure could it possibly be? It was misery, wrapped up in regret, and stuffed inside heartache. Did the Chinese have a symbol for dumbass?
I almost changed my mind, and had even taken a step backward, until Lucien reached behind him and started circling the rim of his ass with his middle finger. I stepped forward and knocked his hand away before I ripped the lube packet open and squeezed half of it on my middle finger. My goal was to prepare Lucien’s tight ass for my cock as efficiently as possible while trying to avoid intimacy. Lucien’s moans of pleasure killed the idea, and I fingered his ass longer than I needed to because I liked watching Lucien fuck himself on my three fingers. I waited until he almost came then pulled my fingers out, leaving his pucker to twitch with desperate need while I smeared the rest of the lube on my cock.
I slammed balls-deep inside him on the first thrust. The tie muffled Lucien’s shout, but it was still loud enough to get my attention and that of anyone in the rooms on either side of us. I fisted his hair and pulled his head back while I lowered my mouth to his hear.
“Do you need me to stop?”
Lucien shook his head vigorously, so I pulled all the way out and slammed back in. I kept his neck arched as I continued to fuck him at a punishing pace. We’d fucked hard before, and I remembered how much he’d liked it. I wouldn’t last long, but I didn’t need long to get my point across.
“I hate what you’ve done to my life, and I hate you. I’m going to treat you like you treated me, then I’m going to walk away.” Lucien released a broken moan, but it was impossible to know if it was from anguish or pleasure. He did not attempt to stop me, so I gripped his hip and his hair harder. “I’m going to fuck you, use you, and humiliate you, Lucien. See how much you like it. I’m going to be kinder than you were to me.” I felt the telltale signs in both our bodies that we were approaching climax, but I didn’t stop fucking him. “I won’t tell you I’m in love with you then disappear. I won’t reappear in your life and whisper words of regret in your ear and say how much I missed you or try to convince you I never wanted to be apart from you. After today, I will never see you again.”
Under me, Lucien stiffened, and his ass strangled my cock. He grunted and groaned, and I knew he was splattering his load all over the fancy hotel sofa. I released his hair to slide my hand under his jaw and lift his chin. In the past, I would’ve kissed him hungrily as I filled his ass, so the gesture was familiar and automatic. Instead of kissing him, I said, “Never again.”
Then I released his face and gripped his hips with both hands, fucking him hard and deep. Fireworks exploded behind my closed eyelids as pleasure flooded my system and his ass milked every last drop from me. There were no post-coital cuddles. I pulled out of Lucien without a word and disposed of the condom in the small trash can that looked like it was made from melted plastic products. Lucien said nothing as I got dressed and slid my jacket on.
I didn’t even look in his direction, but I heard him reposition himself on the couch as I walked toward the door. “Wait,” he exclaimed when I’d almost reached freedom.
I knew I should keep going, but he sounded broken. The orgasm hadn’t wiped away my fury, but it weakened my resolve. “What?” I asked without turning around.
“You forgot your cuff links.” Lucien rose from the couch and walked toward me. “I would’ve found a way to return them to you.”
I slowly turned around and looked at him. Tears swam in his dark eyes, and I could feel my fury rising again. What right did he have to be hurt? Who did this fucker think he was? I held out my hand, and Lucien dropped the cuff links in my palm then wrapped my fingers over them. My skin burned where he touched me.
“I don’t have the right to ask you for anything, Ryder, but I will never forgive myself if I don’t ask.”
“What?”
“One last kiss. Please.”
I wanted to say no out of spite, but I couldn’t. I wanted it too. I wrapped my hand around Lucien’s neck and leaned toward him. He met me halfway, and our mouths crashed together in a gnashing of teeth, tongues, and lips. I tasted rage, anguish, longing, and so many other things I was afraid to name. We gasped and cried into one another’s mouths, and I might’ve kissed him for hours if not for tasting the salty tears both of us cried. I wrenched my mouth away and left before I could make a bigger fool of myself.
“Not another damn tear over him,” I vowed.
AFTERRYDER LEFT,ISTAYEDin my hotel room and moped for the rest of the night and far into the next morning. It wasn’t the outcome I had wanted when I pulled up alongside him on the street, but it was what I deserved. A busted lip, sore abdomen, tender ass, and a bruising bite mark in my flesh was getting off easy for my crimes against Ryder. I was already dreading when the aches and marks faded because they were the last things I would ever receive from him. Did that make me a twisted, sick son of a bitch or what? No matter how much I regretted the way things ended with Ryder, I had to admit we were finally through, and I still had a job to do.
Around eleven o’clock, I roused myself from my pity party for one and drove to the Millennium Hotel where Deverish would continue to stay until he could fly back to London. As far as I knew, Dev didn’t know the fanyi was stolen out from under me or that I had remained in town. I wanted to keep it that way so I could gauge his reaction. I knocked firmly on his door, expecting to wait several minutes while he hobbled to the door on his crutches, but instead, it flew open after only a few seconds.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Percy said, leaning indulgently against the doorframe wearing a loosely belted hotel robe. He was disheveled, reeked of sex, and looked as surprised to find me outside the door as I was to see him inside Dev’s room.
“Is Deverish here?” I asked.
“Of course, he’s here. Why else would I be here?” Percy asked, rolling his eyes. Then he turned around and sauntered back into the room. “What areyoustill doing in town?”
“Get Dev, and I’ll tell you.”
“Be right there, dear,” Dev said from somewhere inside the bedroom. It was the first time I smiled in days. Old World Antiquities didn’t host annual picnics or Christmas parties, so it was rare I got to spend much time with the other crew members. There were a few recovery jobs where Dev and I masqueraded as a married couple, and I had enjoyed his wit immensely.
“All is forgiven, huh?” I asked Percy, who’d sat on a gold velvet Queen Anne settee that looked too dainty to support my weight. Dev’s lover was shorter and much thinner than either of us and looked like he belonged in the elegant setting.
Percy gracefully crossed his right leg over his left, causing the robe to ride up in places and exposing the length of his toned thigh. “I didn’t pull a Sharon Stone just now did I?” he asked, repositioning the robe to cover himself more discreetly. His attempt at modesty didn’t fool me, and the wicked grin on his face said he knew I’d read him correctly. “All isn’t forgiven, but we’re working on it.”
I opened my mouth to inform him that trust wasn’t earned on his back, but who the hell was I to judge or lecture him? “I hope it works out,” I finally said. “At least the two of you have a chance at happiness.”