It Stings So Sweet (16 page)

Then I feel the splash of semen on my tongue in more quantity than
I expect. I start to pull back, but Leo forces my head back down. “Swallow, Clara . . . be polite.”

There’s more than just one swallow involved. Four, five, maybe six thick gushes of salty fluid
rush to the back of my throat in quick succession. I lose count because I’m suddenly so thirsty for
the stranger it that I don’t want it to stop. I milk him, swallowing it all down like precious cream.

Then, haughty as a queen, I wilt in a wicked posture of repose.

Leo says, “Oh, Clara, you
can be such a good girl when you want to be.”

Licking my lips with satisfaction, I say, “But
when I’m bad, I’m better.”

Both men chuckle, but the stranger’s voice is shaky and breathless.
“Thank you, Miss Cartwright. That was most enjoyable.”

His good manners, at a moment like this,
make me laugh with just a touch of hysteria. You see, I’m wrong about there being no pleasure in
it for myself. My own body gets the better of me. I’m so needy that every brush of my gown against
my skin pains me. I’ll go right over the edge with just a little stimulation. I’ll explode. Which makes
it all the more frustrating when Leo gently pulls me up into his arms, giving the stranger a moment
to fasten his pants.

Clearing his throat, the stranger says, “Once I can walk again, I’ll go
up and order ahead for us.”

“Thank you,” Leo says, his voice utterly calm, even though I can
hear his racing pulse.

After a few moments, the stranger stumbles out of our box, disappearing
behind the curtains beyond.

Then we’re alone.

“Are you alright, Clara?”

“No,” I whisper,
dizzy with sexual need. “If you don’t fuck me, I’m going to cry.”

“I’m going to,” Leo promises.
“But first, I need to know . . . do you need that man to stay a stranger?”

What a question!
As if there were some set of social niceties for this kind of thing. “I don’t know. I can’t think.
You’re the one who chose him, so what do you suppose I need?”

Leo falls silent a moment, clasping
me tight against him. “I suspect you need to know that when you put yourself into my hands, that
I took the responsibility to heart. You gave me a very special gift, Clara. It might be nice for
us both to know whether or not I chose wisely.”

“That all sounds very sweet, but I can’t make
sense of any of it in my condition.”

“That was Robert Aster,” Leo tells me. “He’s a good friend
of mine.”

That sobers me. “The son of the ambassador?”

Even in the dark, I can see that
Leo is watching me closely. “Yes.”

“You’re telling me the man I just
serviced
is one of the
Aster brothers. Heir to the Aster fortune.
That
Robert Aster?”

“You know of him.”

“Of
course I do. He got into a fistfight with some poor woman’s husband at my party!”

“Oh yes.
I’d forgotten. I was distracted that night by the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

For
once, his flattery doesn’t pierce the tension. I’ve no idea what to think. How to feel. But I think
I’m angry. No, I’m
sure
I’m angry and I start to yank my dress back down. “Goddamn it, Leo! You
could have chosen anyone. You could have chosen the damned usher. Someone without any power or influence.
Someone nobody would ever believe if he decided to spill the beans. But you decided on one of
the richest men in the country. Where did you even meet him? At some billionaire bad boy’s club?”

Leo grimaces. “I met him at war.”

“Oh.” I put my face in my hands. “I should have realized.”

“I trust Robert Aster with my life . . . I thought . . . well, maybe I was wrong. Since you’re
considerably more valuable to me than my life, I may have made a mistake.”

That place where
I feel him inside me when I breathe seems to swell. “No, you didn’t make a mistake, Leo. Of course
you didn’t. And don’t say a thing like that to me unless you really do want to make me cry.”

“Are you alright, Clara? That’s what I need to know.”

I know what he’s really asking. He wants
to know if I can live with the idea of what I just did with Robert Aster. I’m the one who was just
stripped down to my rawest sensuality, but somehow, while he waits for me to answer, Leo’s the vulnerable
one. I build him up a little. “You must be the most self-assured man alive, Leo Vanderberg.
You know I’m a gold digger, yet you just introduced me to the most eligible bachelor in the country.
Aren’t you worried I’ll want to see him again?”

In the dark, I see a hint of that reassuring
smirk return to his face. “I’m rather counting on it, since I told him we’d meet him in the billiard
room during intermission.”

“Is that such a good idea? I’m a very alluring woman. What if he
falls in love with me?”

Leo lights up a cigarette, casual as you please. “I’d feel very sorry
for him, because you’d break his heart. You belong to me and I’m about to prove it.”

CHAPTER

Nine

The billiard room is normally crowded during intermission.
The harem-style decor, complete with silk pillows and plush couches, makes it a
popular gathe
ring
place. But when the usher leads us through the giant carved-wood doors into the sandalwood-scented
hall, it’s eerily quiet.

“I’ll see to it that you’re not disturbed,” the usher says, just before
pulling the doors closed behind us.

“You rented out the billiard room, too?” I ask Leo.

“
He
didn’t.” Robert Aster answers from the far end of the room. “I did. I ordered us a meal, as well.”

I look over to see the man who is no longer a stranger, sitting at a table set with fine china
and crisp white linen. In the light, he cuts a dashing figure. The scion of a big, wealthy family
has fair hair slicked back, and a boyish, dimpled smile. He’s almost as attractive as Leo, but only
almost, and his good looks are marred by a fading bruise. When he sees my eyes fall on it, he says,
“Courtesy of a jealous husband.”

“Ah. The fistfight,” I murmur. “Yes, I remember.”

Leo
remarks, “He has a taste for women who belong to other men, so I knew he’d enjoy you.”

Leo’s
becoming entirely too possessive; normally, this would be the time in a relationship that I’d say
or do something to discourage it. But I can’t and I won’t. If anything, Leo’s sense of mastery over
me seems to be the only thing keeping me from coming unhinged.

“You can’t get anything stronger
than lemonade here,” Robert says apologetically, snapping his napkin with an aristocratic air.
“But may I offer you a cup of tea, Miss Cartwright?”

He’s offering me tea. I’ve swallowed his
seed and he’s offering me tea! I giggle before I can help it, slightly hysterical at the sexual need
still coursing through my body. I don’t even know how my legs carried me here because all I can
think about is touching these men and being touched.

At my odd behavior, the ambassador’s son
raises a brow in concern.

Leo guides me into a red velvet chair. “She’s just a little drunk
on sex, I think.”

“I must confess, I’m a bit light-headed myself,” Robert says, sliding a cup
of hot tea over to me. “Miss Cartwright . . . I am
definitely
a fan.”

Leo keeps his hand on
the back of my chair, staking his claim. “I warned you about her.”

I probably shouldn’t enjoy
the way they’re talking about me, but I do. It brings out my sass. “Such flattery, Mr. Aster. Next
you’ll be telling me that you’ve seen all my movies.”

Robert exchanges a quick glance with
Leo. When Leo nods, his friend says, “Now that you mention it, I saw a most compelling film of yours
just the other night, but I confess, the camera doesn’t do you justice.”

I swallow with the
certainty that he’s seen the stag film and find that it only makes me hotter. There’s food on the table.
Beneath silver domes arranged over the plates, steam rises. But both men stare at me as if I were
the main course, and I’m hungrier for sex than anything else. Glancing around the empty hall, every
flat surface looks like someplace I want to sprawl naked. The linen-covered tables. The gilded couches.
Even the plush red-carpeted floor. And the realization of what I’d be willing to do, right here,
right now, staggers me.

I’ve let Leo drive me completely mad. Something has to give and it
can’t be my sanity.

Gulping down the tea in a few swallows, I set the cup back down on the
saucer and stand up.

Robert stands, too, as if it were only the polite thing to do.

“Listen,
fellas,” I say. “This has been swell. Knowing Leo, I’m sure you’ve made some elaborate plan for
the rest of the night. But I’m afraid I’ve had enough.”

Leo’s brow furrows. “Clara—”

“I like you, Ace,” I say, my voice filled with regret as I back away from the table. “But if this is
the way you’re going to treat me, I don’t think we can see each other anymore.”

Stricken, Leo
rises to his feet. “Clara, wait.”

“I’m done waiting,” I say, sliding the strap of my dress
over one shoulder, then shimmying out of the other one until the bodice falls down to my waist. At the
sight of my rounded breasts gleaming under the sparkles of the chandelier, both men go slack-jawed.
“You’ve made me wait, and wait, and wait, Leo Vanderberg, and I’m not going to wait anymore.”

He should be chagrined, but that infernal smirk creeps onto Leo’s face again.

So I get naked.
The caress of my dress as it slips over my hips and pools at my feet makes me shiver. Both of
them stare at me where I stand in nothing but my shoes, stockings and garters. Their heated reactions
thrill me to the tips of my toes. Robert Aster grips the back of the chair while Leo crosses his arms
and gives a low, appreciative whistle.

“Flattery isn’t going to work this time, Leo. Do you
know what I’m starting to think about you? That you’re an amateur. You’re like one of those men who
want to pose in front of a genuine airplane but don’t have the courage to climb into the cockpit.”

Leo is entirely indignant. “
Amateur
?”

Leaning against the billiard table, I hoist myself
up so that I can sit on the edge. Then I cross my long legs to show off my garters. “Mr. Aster, do
you know how many times this man has promised to fuck me?”

Robert actually blushes. “I—I can’t
say as I . . .”

“Clara, lay off him,” Leo says. “He’s already had more excitement than he can
handle.”

“I dispute
that
,” Robert hastens to protest.

“Mr. Aster, what would you call
it if someone promised you something over and over again, and never came through? Wouldn’t that be a
double-crosser? I think Leo is a dirty double-crosser.”

Robert shrugs. “She makes a valid point,
Leo.”

Leo glares at us both. “Clara, be reasonable. I’ve planned it all out. We’ll have dinner—”

“No more dinners. No more picnics. No more flowers and gallantry in the rain . . .” Both men
watch my hand’s journey as I run it over the pale flesh of my breast, then down my tight belly to the
cleft between my thighs. “There are a hundred men in this building who would be happy to give me
what I want, Leo. They’d line up—”

“You’d probably like that,” Leo says.

“I probably would.
So, if you don’t go all the way with me,
this minute
, I’m going to walk out those doors, naked as
the day God made me, and find a man who will.”

“Trust me, Miss Cartwright,” Robert says, dimpling
a boyish smile. “You won’t have to walk out the doors to find such a man.”

At that, Leo stubs
out his cigarette. Then he snaps off his jacket and thrusts it against Robert’s chest with a thump.
“Hold this, will you? I have something to attend to that apparently can’t wait.”

Then Leo starts
towards me, working at his silver cuff links, yanking at his tie.

I’m the one who waved my
red cape at the bull, but as he advances on me my bravado falters. Perhaps taunting him wasn’t such
a bright idea. He’s got his shirt open by the time he reaches the billiard table, and I shrink back
in fear. Leo ignores my squeak of apprehension as he unfastens his belt. Under any other circumstances,
I’d be eager to help him with the task, but the menace in his eyes pins me in place. Then he produces,
from his pocket, a sheath to prevent pregnancy.

At my obvious surprise, he lifts a smug eyebrow.
“
Amateur
?”

I inhale sharply, overwhelmed by the nearness of him as he opens his trousers and
pulls out his cock. Oh god, it’s more beautiful in the light, and already hard as a rock, pulsing
and sticky with dew. He’s as ready for me as I am for him, and I want him inside me so badly that I
whimper like a puppy.

That’s when Robert Aster clears his throat. “Would you two like some
privacy?”

“No need,” Leo says, grabbing my legs, throwing them open and stepping between them.
“Clara loves an audience.”

I’m so eager for him that I fall back against the table in utter
invitation. It’s not good enough for Leo; he grabs my hips and yanks me into position. I love how that
feels. The lewd angle that exposes my throbbing sex to him. The smooth felt of the billiard table
under my shoulder blades as he puts me where he wants me. The look of fierce lust in Leo’s eyes as
he rolls the sheath onto himself.

Yanking me by the hips, he buries himself to the hilt. The
sudden intrusion makes me cry out. He doesn’t move for a moment, staring into my eyes. He forces my
body to make room for him. I spasm around him. And I
adore
the feel of him. The weight of him. The
scent of him. The strength of him. There’s something intensely pleasurable about the way we fit together.
The sense of relief I feel at being filled, that empty ache finally soothed has me arching
my back, trying to get more.

“You’re always so wet for me,” he says, shuddering with pleasure.
He lowers his face to my neck and his chest hair rubs deliciously against my hardened nipples. The
tension in my body eases as he slides deeper. Then Leo narrows his eyes and asks, “All warmed up?”

“I’m on fire, Ace,” I breathe.

“Then you’d better brace yourself.”

I start to laugh,
but when he slams back into me, my laughter dies away. That’s the opening salvo—to show me just
how much force he can bring to bear. He does it again. His hips move faster, his pelvis banging against
mine, his testicles thudding with each thrust. I cry out, first with shock, then with fear.

Then with dark, libidinous satisfaction.

He doesn’t show the slightest mercy. I’m forced to
grip the wooden lip of the billiard table in white-knuckled desperation because it’s the only way to
keep him from driving me right off the edge. He fucks me so hard that I don’t dare let go—not even
to hold my breasts, which bounce as he pumps harder, faster.

Leo’s body becomes an unrelenting
fucking machine that I can’t escape.

Oh god. He’s every bit as good as I hoped he’d be. Better,
even. He’s better at this than I imagined any man could be. He has me panting, both with pain and
pleasure. Each thrust makes me moan like an animal. The heels of my shoes dig into the table as my
body goes rigid. I knew I was wound tight, but I didn’t know how close I was.

Leo tosses a
lock of sweaty hair out of his face and asks, “Did you think I didn’t know how to fuck you, baby? Did
you think I wouldn’t be able to figure out how you like it? You’re already coming on my cock aren’t
you?”

I don’t answer. I can’t answer. I’m coming too hard. It hits me like an avalanche, tumbling
over me until I’m buried beneath a wall of pleasure. I’m gasping and clawing for air and can’t
help but be swept away. And when it’s over, I can only cling to him as little tremors and aftershocks
rock my oversexed body.

I’ve never come so fast in my life, and given the way Leo is staring
down at me, I’m afraid that he knows it. Worse, he’s managed to ride out the storm without reaching
satisfaction himself.

So this is what it’s like to be taken by a man who has studied you, learned
you, conquered you . . .

“Well, that was splendid,” Robert says from the chair where he’s watching
us.

In my heated state, I’d almost forgotten the other man was in the room, and I cover my
face with my hands in sharp embarrassment. It’s not the first time Robert Aster has seen me have sex,
of course, but the unmistakable leer in his eyes makes me feel small and fragile, like a butterfly
pinned to a felt mat by the force of Leo’s still-hard erection.

Drawing my attention back to
him with a bite on the shoulder, Leo says, “That makes two, Clara.”

“Oh, no.” I put my palms
flat to his chest to fend him off.

But there’s no fending off Leo Vanderberg.

“I’ve been
waiting for this a long time, Clara, and I’m going to have things my way.” Leo calls to his friend.
“Do you have a watch?”

I turn my head to see Robert pull out a golden pocket watch and flip
it open. “Of course.”

“I like to know what record I have to beat,” Leo says, still buried deep
inside my body.

“My guess is no more than two minutes,” Robert replies. “She was quick out
of the gate.”

“No, no, no.” I pant, squirming under Leo to get away. “I can’t take it . . .”

“No?” Leo asks, cruelly pressing all his weight down on me. “Don’t you want me to break you,
Clara?”

I catch the meaning of his words and moan with helpless desire. All my life I’ve been
a wild creature but now I want someone to tame me . . . at least for one night. And Leo means to
do it. He means to break me like a mount, and the idea of it makes me thrash my head with denial even
as my body reacts to him.

“Don’t you want to please me?” he asks.

“Yes,” I breathe in
utter surrender. My god, yes. I want that desperately.

“Good.” Bending my knees up and back,
he rests my legs over his shoulders. “Because every machine in existence has a purpose, and yours
is to
perform
.”

Leo Vanderberg then sets about the business of giving me the hardest ride of
my life. He batters his body against me with the stamina of a soldier. Whatever fitness regimen Leo
subscribes to lends him a superhuman strength that nearly destroys me and the billiard table beneath
us, which creaks as if the legs might give way.

Each stroke makes me gasp until I’m hyperventilating.
And when I turn my head to the side, I see that our voyeur is excited, too. Robert holds
a watch in one hand and his cock in the other, slowly stroking. His eyes trail hotly over my body, his
gaze filled with lustful admiration.

Seeing the effect I’m having on the other man is so electric
that I throw my arms tight around Leo’s neck, cries rising in pitch. I clutch at Leo as if he
were the only sure thing in the world. Leo called
me
a force of nature, but I’m caught up in the
storm of his making and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to stop it. I’m going to come again. I want it.
I need it. I want to be under him, just like this, forever. Even if it leaves me raw and weeping.