A Million Guilty Pleasures: Million Dollar Duet (14 page)

“Noah,” I whispered. “A guy just walked out of the neighbor’s house.”

“Then I guess you better be quiet, huh?” His grunts were quieter than normal, but he continued to fuck me without so much as a pause in his stroke. “You make a sound, you’ll draw his attention. Unless you
want
him to hear you.”

Noah found my clit and began to work the little oh-my-God-that-feels-so-fucking-good spot with an expert rhythm. He sucked the lobe of my ear into his mouth and bit down on it. I couldn’t stop the resulting moan and my head fell onto his shoulder.

“Shh, he’ll see you.” It helped matters not a bit that Noah’s voice was all sexified. “And once he sees how good you look being fucked from behind, he’s going to want you for himself. Remember what I said about not making me hurt someone, Lanie?”

Turning my head to the side, I bit into the flesh of Noah’s hand at my shoulder to stifle my sounds. He’d do it; I really believed that. Noah was possessive and ruthless, and judging from what he’d gone through in his past, there was no doubt
in my mind he’d do whatever he felt necessary to make sure he never had to endure that type of heartache again. And I wasn’t a bit spooked by it. In fact, I coveted his possessive nature because I wanted to be possessed. Screw anybody that said it wasn’t a healthy relationship. If it worked for us, what business was it of theirs anyway?

“Just a little bit more, kitten. Just a little … bit … more,” Noah whispered into my ear as his hips met my backside.

I could feel my walls tightening, squeezing his cock while that unbelievable pressure in the pit of my stomach continued to build and build, ready to snap. I knew I needed to get off quick because Noah would hold out on getting his until I came first, increasing the odds that we would get caught. He was such a selfless lover. And he didn’t mind if we got busted, but I did.

I held my body away from the unforgiving stone exterior of the house with one hand, and maneuvered my other down to join Noah’s. We worked together to bring me to my boiling point, and then the lid rattled on the pot.

I bit down harder on Noah’s hand with a moan that was nowhere near quiet, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. The neighbor apparently heard something, as he looked around, but never in our direction. I supposed the fact the house was empty played to our advantage, as he obviously hadn’t expected the noise to come from the cottage.

“Fuck, I love it when you get dental. Harder, kitten,” he urged me, and I complied with his request. I could hear his grunted breaths at my ear, the urgency of his thrusts matching the intensity of my bite. He was ready, his control slipping.

“Come on, kitten,” he growled into my ear. “Give it to me. Come on my cock.”

That was all it took. My walls clamped down around him and constricted rhythmically with my orgasm, and I couldn’t say for certain that I wasn’t drawing blood with the force of my bite. Noah came, hard but silent. His hips jerked to and fro and I could feel his cock pulse inside me with each wave of orgasmic release. And then the weight of his body fell against my back.

“Hey! What are you two doing over there?” I heard a male voice call out. Both Noah and I snapped our heads in the direction of the neighbor’s house to see the man starting in our direction with his hand poised over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

“Oh my God!” I shrieked.

“Guess it’s time to go.” Noah laughed as he quickly pulled his dick out of me and we both scrambled to pull our pants up.

Once I had my jeans over my butt, I took off toward the safety of the limousine, adjusting my clothes as I ran along and hoping I didn’t fall flat on my face. Noah was laughing his head off as he followed behind. If I hadn’t been terrified the neighbor would catch up to us and see who we were, I would’ve turned around and tackled him for almost getting us caught.

It was a good thing the other house was so far away. Hillsboro was a very small town, a town where everyone knew everyone else. That meant the neighbor guy very likely knew my father. I didn’t really think Mack would appreciate the fact that Noah was scrogging his daughter in broad daylight. And in public to boot. My mother would probably be all teen-girl squealy, but my dad? He had lots of guns in the house—guns that went boom and made your heart stop beating.

So there I was, running for my ever-loving life without the ability to clean up after our quickie, which probably meant my jeans would be stuck to me like glue and I’d have to peel them off later. Samuel was standing at the opened door to the limousine with an I-know-what-you-two-little-slut-puppies-were-just-doing look on his face. Noah was laughing behind me, and a man who was perfectly capable of ratting me out to my father and ending Noah’s life as we both knew it—or at the very least, causing the beheading of the Wonder Peen, which I was definitely not cool with (the Cooch seconded that)—was potentially chasing after us. My heart was beating a gazillion miles an hour, and I was pretty positive that wasn’t normal. As soon as I reached the car, I avoided Samuel’s knowing eyes and dove into the backseat. My hand flew to my chest in a vain attempt to calm my wildly beating heart.

I needed to exercise more, and a little bit of Jesus in my life probably wouldn’t have hurt either.

Noah plopped down in the seat next to me, unable to catch his breath because he was laughing like a stupid hyena. I smacked his shoulder, and he crossed his arms to shield his face like he knew that was target numero dos, all while still laughing.

“Stop it! It’s not funny, Noah!”

“I’m … sorry,” he managed to get out between deep breaths. “You were so scared … and running … and it was just so damn cute.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and turned away from him. Yes, I pouted, a fact I was not very proud of, but I did it nonetheless.

“Aww, come here, kitten,” Noah cooed as he wrapped his
arms around my unforgiving body and pulled me into him. “I love you.”

“My dad would cut your balls off and eat them for breakfast, and I’m a little partial to them,” I whined.

Yep, that’s right, whined. But it was Noah Crawford and his colossal cock. Do the math and tell me you wouldn’t have whined at the prospect of it going bye-bye.

“Yeah, I’m sort of attached to them, too.” He chuckled again, but cut it off abruptly when I gave him the evil eye.

“Hardy-har-har,” I deadpanned. “Maybe I should tell Mack what you just made his precious baby girl do. I bet you wouldn’t find it so funny then.”

“Hmm, I don’t recall forcing you to do anything you didn’t want to do,” Noah countered. “You wanted it, Lanie. You wanted my
cock
.” He emphasized the last word, which made my still-racing heart skip a beat. “Admit it.”

“No.”

“Admiiiiit it,” he drawled out playfully as his fingers found my rib cage and gave it a tickle.

I laughed involuntarily and tried to squirm away, but Noah pulled me into his lap and locked his arms around me so I couldn’t move.

“We’re two consenting adults, Lanie. And one day soon your daddy is going to have to let his baby girl go,” he said with a serious look on his face. His long finger caressed my cheek delicately and he sighed. “Because you’re
my
baby now.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Who wouldn’t be happy to have Noah Crawford murmur those heart-stopping words to them?

Pleased with my reaction, Noah tilted his head up and kissed me sweetly.

There was never a dull moment between the two of us, and I prayed there never would be. But even if we grew old and gray together, sitting on a little white wooden swing in a gazebo, feeding a family of ducks as the sun set before us, I’d still be happy.

Noah

It had been nearly two weeks since I’d seen her. Two very long, very unbearable weeks since I’d taken Lanie back to Hillsboro. I was irritable at best. The absence of the girl he loves will do that to a man.

I’d talked to her every day, though. Some normalcy had returned to their household. Her mother was up and about and seemed to be faring well, her father was back at the factory, and that was a good thing. Even I had to admit Mack deserved the break. And, according to Lanie, he wasn’t nearly as grumpy, but he still hated to leave his wife. Although it was for different reasons entirely, I understood how the man felt; I hated not being by Lanie’s side.

As if the first week without her hadn’t been bad enough, I had been called out of town on business and had to miss our weekend together. I would’ve just said fuck the whole son of a cock-blocking whore of a trip and gone to her anyway, but there was a board meeting coming up and I’d already missed so much work. And that didn’t look good for me at all, especially considering the intensity with which David Stone was breathing down my neck.

He had been acting even more arrogant than he normally did, if that was even possible, and I was beginning to get suspicious. It was like he knew something I didn’t. Something big. I chalked it up to his threat of tattling on me to the board about our little run-in the morning after the Scarlet Lotus Ball. I wasn’t concerned. The board members had a lot of respect for my parents, which trickled down to me by default. More than likely they’d say he deserved it.

I had half a mind to go ahead and sell my half of the company to the bastard so I could move closer to Lanie, but I couldn’t do that to my parents. Scarlet Lotus had been their dream, and although I knew my happiness would have meant more to them, I couldn’t be that selfish.

Yeah, I know; all of a sudden, I was a real saint. But since admitting my feelings to Lanie, I wanted to be the kind of man she deserved—a man who was just as self-sacrificing as she was.

Lanie was very understanding, insisting that I go on my trip and get my work done, but I knew it was all a façade, one that she put up because she knew it was something I had to do. Still, the way she covered the heartbreaking crack in her voice with a perkiness that sounded more like Polly was a dead giveaway, proof that the hardship of our separation was affecting her the same way it was affecting me. It was torture. Pure, unadulterated torture. But the anticipation of how great it was going to be when we finally did get to be together again was enough to keep us both going.

I’d tried to busy myself with work to take my mind off the fact that she wasn’t there, but that hadn’t been successful, either. Admittedly, I was a bit snippy with my employees, Mason, Polly, and Samuel included. Polly snapped right back at me, which really wasn’t a very good idea, but I respected her for it.
She wasn’t one to put up with my bullshit when she knew it was uncalled for. I granted her a reprieve because I knew she missed Lanie almost as much as I did. Her friend was gone, and she didn’t have many. Being an annoying pissant sort of limited the number of people who were willing to put up with her ass. Plus I’d sort of forced Mason to go along with me on my business trip. She really hated me for that, but she’d gotten over it. I think.

Two more days.

Two more excruciating, miserable days until the weekend, when I would get to see her again. Hold her in my arms, taste her luscious lips, feel her soft skin. It would be enough to get me through at least a few hours.

Yeah, I was an optimistic motherfucker.

I finished looking over the reports Mason had prepared regarding the new clients I’d managed to sign on despite my preoccupied mind, and packed up my things for the day.

Mason came into my office with the agenda for the meeting. “You out of here, boss?”

“Yeah, I’m calling it a day. Good work on the reports, by the way. They look great.”

Mason drew his head back, eyes wide with disbelief at my kind words. The poor man had really taken a beating from me over the previous days, and it wasn’t right. He didn’t deserve it. So channeling my newfound theory about being self-sacrificing, I offered up an apology.

“Hey, I’m sorry if I’ve been hard on you lately, it’s just that with Lanie gone and all—”

“No worries, man. Polly has been the same way,” he interrupted, letting me off the hook.

“So you’re getting it from both ends, huh?”

Mason nodded. “I guess I never realized the effect that little gal has had on so many lives.”

I hadn’t, either, but he was right. Even Lexi had been calling me a lot more lately, which wasn’t at all like her, and it was always to see how Lanie was doing. I’d told her to call her herself, that Lanie would love to hear from her, but Lexi didn’t want to be intrusive. Yeah right, like that held an ounce of truth.

“Well, you don’t deserve all the shit you’ve been getting.” I shrugged my coat on and clapped him on the shoulder on my way out the door. “Have a good night, man.”

The weather had turned chilly over the last couple of days, which was right on time with the season, but part of me wondered if it hadn’t been more obvious to me because Lanie wasn’t there to keep me warm. Seriously, it was like all the warmth had been sucked out of the space around me. My own personal sunshine was miles away, and I was left feeling desolate and cold.

“Hey, Crawford!” David called out as I made my way toward the elevator. Speaking of cold and desolate …