“So how’s everything been going? I feel like I’ve been talking too much about me,” I said, my face going red.
“Things are going as usual. My life is somewhat boring. Work, classes, Drake. Oh, and you.”
“I’m glad I made the list.”
“You definitely make the list.”
We sipped our drinks and tried to guess what the server was going to bring us. I was sure whatever it was, it would be fabulous.
“Here we are,” the server said, setting our plates down. It was some kind of meat substance.
“It’s not on the menu, but keep that a secret,” the server said. “It’s something the chef whipped up with duck and mushroom risotto.”
“We won’t tell,” I said in a low voice.
“The secret is safe with us,” Declan added.
“Enjoy your meal.” We thanked her and looked down at our plates.
“Well. I don’t know if I’ve ever had duck before,” I said, picking up my fork. This could be interesting.
“Tastes like chicken,” Declan said.
“It does?” I cut a piece and speared it with my fork. It was dark brown and crispy. It smelled amazing, and looked even better.
“Not really. That’s what I tell Drake when I want him to try something new.” I stuck my tongue out at him and put the piece of duck in my mouth. It was more like dark meat turkey than anything else. Wow, it was really good.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“It’s freaking awesome. Who knew?” I tried some of the risotto and it was fantastic as well. I had to fight the urge to shovel everything in my mouth all at once.
“They did a really good job with the duck. Sometimes it can be greasy, but this is perfect,” Declan said.
“How is it?” the server asked when she came to check on us. Both of our plates were empty. I almost wanted to ask for seconds.
“Guess it was good then,” she said, laughing. “How about some dessert?” Yes. Yes was the only answer to that question.
Declan ordered bananas foster and I ordered tiramisu so we could swap bites, and we both got second rounds of the aviator drink.
“I think you’re going to have to roll me out of here,” I said, scraping up the last bit of dessert from my plate.
“That was brilliant,” he said, setting his fork down and draining the last of the drink from his glass. “I’ve never had food here, just drinks. It’s one of my father’s favorite places to take potential clients.”
“Yeah, I definitely want to come back here.” Declan paid the bill and then escorted me back inside the hotel, picking up our room key at the front desk.
“I thought about the penthouse, but I got a suite instead. Hope that’s all right with you.” Yeah, it was more than all right.
“Depends on the size of the room,” I said with a serious face. “Kidding. You could take me to a Motel Six and I’d be happy. As long as I get to spend the night with you, I don’t care where we are.”
We headed up to our room and it was definitely okay. More than okay.
“Declan!” I called when I checked out the huge bathroom. He rushed in.
“What?”
“Look at the size of the tub!” One of the things I hated about my apartment was that there was no tub. Just a standing shower. I used to love soaking in the bath when I was younger. It was one of my few refuges from my critical mother.
He put his hand on his chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought something was wrong.”
“Sorry. Just got excited about the tub.”
His mood shifted and he walked toward me.
“Are you planning on using it?”
“Hell yes.”
“Do you think that perhaps I might join you? It looks big enough for two people.” It was definitely made for two people. Hell, you could fit at least four people in there. It was like a small swimming pool.
“I think that might be a possibility.” He put his hands around my waist and played with the hem of my shirt, starting to lift it.
“Well, I think I should get you a little dirty first before you get clean.”
Fuck. Yes.
Declan and I made our way back into the main bedroom, shedding clothes as we went. I hadn’t been naked with him in what felt like forever.
“God, I forgot how sexy your body is,” I said, running my hands up and down his pale chest.
“I didn’t forget about you. You’re always on my mind,” he said as he unsnapped my bra and threw it on the floor. “And I totally guessed you’d be wearing blue.” My bra and panties were nearly the exact color of his eyes. I’d gone shopping and picked them out specifically for that reason.
He stopped talking, his mouth busy kissing down my neck and making its way across my breasts. I hooked my fingers in his belt loops and pulled him closer, grinding my hips against the growing bulge in his pants.
I wanted all of him everywhere. Frantically, I tore at his pants.
“Eager, are we?”
“Shut up and take off your pants,” I said, backing up until my back hit the wall next to the bed. I wasn’t sure if I could even make it there. I wanted to take him like this. Right. NOW.
Declan shed his pants, but not before he fished a condom out of his back pocket. I loved the fact that he came prepared.
“Don’t you want me to satisfy you first?”
“Get. Inside. Me. Now,” I demanded, taking the condom from him and ripping it open.
“As my lady commands,” he said, rolling it on and then trying to take me to the bed. I pulled back against him and he understood what I wanted. Putting his hands under my thighs, he lifted me as I pressed my back against the wall to help him before he set me down, sliding into me in one smooth stroke.
“Oh, God,” I moaned as he filled me up.
“Not quite. Just me,” he said as he shifted his hips, and I shifted mine.
It wasn’t an easy position to hold, but Declan was strong and we used the wall to help us. He thrust inside me and I rolled my hips, stroking him as we both shuddered. My first orgasm was on me before I could even register it was happening.
Declan’s arms shook. I could tell if he came, he was probably going to drop me. So I undid my legs from around him and stood on my tiptoes. He thrust into me a few more times and came.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hold you up anymore,” he said, pulling out, but resting his head on my shoulder.
“It’s okay. I’m kind of a handful.” More than that. Two handfuls.
“And I love that about you.” I moved away from the wall and lay back on the bed as Declan went to clean himself up in the bathroom. That was probably the quickest sex I’d ever had.
“Done in already?” he asked when he came back to lie next to me.
“Not even close.” I straddled him and leaned down to kiss him. “How soon do you think you’ll be ready again?” We both looked down at his dick, which was no longer hard.
“Wake up,” he said to it and I moved my hips against him. “Yes, that’s definitely working. But in the meantime . . .” He rolled me to the side and then he was on top of me sliding down my body before grabbing my legs and pulling me to the edge of the bed.
I grabbed a pillow and propped my head up so I could watch him. Almost nothing turned me on as much as watching him go down on me, his stunning blond head between my legs.
Still rocked from my first climax, the second came as he worked my body with lips and tongue. The idea of him touching me so intimately was enough to set me off.
By the time he was ready again, he’d wrung another out of me, and I knew we were just getting started.
“I hope you brought a lot of condoms,” I said. “Because we’re going to need them.”
“Don’t worry, love. I’ve got us covered.” He whipped another out from his pants and slid it on. “We’re just. Getting. Started.”
I could only answer him with a moan as he entered me.
“Well. That was definitely dirty,?
?? I said a while later as Declan collapsed on my back, sweat sticking our skin together.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be up for it.”
“Oh, I’m up. Way up.”
He patted my back and then slid to the side and I rolled over to face him.
“Stay here. I’ll draw the bath.” He got up and took care of himself and then I heard water running. I shut my eyes and was nearly asleep when he came back and beckoned me to join him in the spacious bathroom.
“Coming.” It took a moment to get myself up and across the floor. “Oh, Declan.” The bathroom was awash with candles and he had a glass of pink champagne waiting for me beside the bath.
“You like?”
“Who wouldn’t?” I swished my hand in the hot water, swirling the bubbles around. The water was the perfect temperature.
“Is it too hot?” he said, pouring a glass of champagne for himself. They must have put in the bathroom before we came up here. I wondered if he’d requested it. He must have.
“No, it’s perfect,” I said, sinking my foot into the water and then the rest of my body. “Get over here. This bath is too big for just me.” He grinned and I moved over to let him in. There was enough room for us to face each other with our legs stretched out. He used my legs to pull me toward him until I was sitting in his lap.
“This is nice. Really nice. Thank you.” I leaned forward and gave him a kiss.
“I thought you would need something relaxing since you’ve had such a hard week. Are you sure you’re doing all right?” His hands drifted up and down my arms in a lazy motion.
“I don’t know. I feel like I should have, like, moved through the grief stages. But I’m stuck in the same place I was before she died. Shock, maybe. I don’t know.” I scooped some of the bubbles into my hand and spread them across his chest.
“Maybe it only feels like you’re standing still and you’re moving. Like being on an airplane.” I didn’t want to talk about that, so I just kept covering him in bubbles.
“Drake always gives me a soap beard,” he said, scooping up some bubbles and dipping his chin in them. “How do I look?”
“Very sexy.”
He proceeded to give me a bubble beard, and then to pile them on my head. That led to a bubble fight as water sloshed over the edge of the tub.
“I feel sorry for housekeeping,” I said as I wiped some bubbles from the edge of the tub and blinked them out of my eyes.
“I’ll tip them well.” He reached for his champagne and I reached for mine. We clinked them together and sipped.
“You’re lovely, Blair.”
“Even with the bubbles?” I wiped some off my cheek.
“Especially with the bubbles.” We finished off our glasses of champagne and Declan poured more. I was going to sleep so well tonight.
I turned around and rested on his chest, leaning back and closing my eyes.
“I love being with you,” I said, the words sliding out of my mouth. The sex and the alcohol had loosened my tongue. The bubbles had started to dissolve, but the water stayed the same temperature. The tub must have a heater. Such luxury.
“I love your hair. And your skin,” he said.
“I love your eyes.” I didn’t know how far we were going to take this. He shifted under me.
“I love your tits. And your arse.” He pinched the latter and I yelped.
“I love that you love my tits and ass.” I flipped around and put some more champagne in my glass. “You know, I grew them myself. They’re all organic.”
He chuckled and held out his glass. I poured the last of the champagne in. We needed another bottle.
“My compliments.” He tipped the glass toward me and then drank.
I must have fallen asleep in the tub because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a huge bed and wrapped in a soft and fluffy robe. Declan was next to me, completely naked and his hair falling all over his forehead. I wanted to move it, but I didn’t want to wake him. I got up slowly, sliding out of bed, my feet hitting a warm plush rug on the floor. I hadn’t really looked at the room when we’d come back last night. Damn, this place was swanky with a side of elegance.
I peered out the window and looked down into a courtyard complete with a fountain.
“Good morning,” a voice said and I turned around to find Declan blinking at me.
“Hey. Sorry, did I wake you? I tried to be stealthy.” He rubbed his eyes and got up, not even bothering to put anything on. His comfort in his nakedness was just one of the many sexy qualities he had in spades.
“No, I woke up when you weren’t beside me.” He kissed my cheek and put his arms around me. “Ah, I could hold you like this forever.”
I’d probably let him.
“This was like heaven. I didn’t know how stressed out I was until I was with you. This feels like freedom.” I could be exactly who I was with Declan. And he liked me all the more for it.
“I know how you feel.” He planted a kiss on my forehead and then tried to run his hand through my hair. Tried, being the key word.
“You fell asleep and I didn’t want to wake you up, so I just put you in bed, and well . . .” He shrugged one shoulder. I put my hand up to feel my hair.
“Oh God.” I dashed to the bathroom and looked at my hair in the mirror. It was an unequivocal disaster. Half if it was matted to the side of my head and the other half was frizzed out. Two words could describe this look and they were hot and mess.
“You couldn’t have brushed it a little?” I said as I tried to fix what the night had done.
“I think it looks nice. I’ve seen models in magazines selling perfume with exactly that look.” I gave him a glare. There was nothing for my hair but to dip my head in the sink, wet it and blow-dry it.
“Shall I order us some breakfast to make up for it?” He raised one eyebrow, knowing what my response would be.
“Nice save. Yes, I’d love breakfast,” I said. He winked and left me on my own to deal with my hair.
We both put on robes when the room service arrived, but whipped them off as soon as the waiter left. There was nothing like eating breakfast naked in bed after a night of intense sex and a perfect bubble bath.
Declan was always staring at my tattoos. He never seemed to get tired of looking at them.
“Thinking about getting some ink?” I asked. Just picturing his light skin with some tats on it, especially in black ink made me want to take him immediately to Serenity and then back to the hotel so I could stare at him naked and then fuck his brains out.
“Perhaps. What should I get?”
I shook my head and speared a piece of mango on my fork.
“No way. Tattoos are a completely personal thing. No one should ever tell you what you should get. It has to come from you.”
He thought about that for a moment.
“I’ve considered getting Drake’s name. But then I wondered if I had other children, I’d have to add their names and I wouldn’t want them to feel left out.” He did have a good point.
“True. I knew a girl who would get the name of any guy she dated, then when they’d break up and she’d get the name crossed out and get the next guy’s name. It got so crazy, but she told me that at least she had a reminder of her bad decisions and a reminder not to look back.”
“A little black book inked on your body. Interesting. I’m not sure that’s for me.” He sipped the last of his orange juice. “Do you have to be anywhere?”
I should probably return the albums to Gran’s and check in on my parents. But I wanted to stay in this bubble of perfection a little longer.
“Not right now. Why, do you?” He shook his head slowly.
“Not particularly.”
“Then we can stay like this for a little while?” I asked.
“If that’s what you want.” I leaned forward and pulled his face to mine.
“Yes. It’s what I want.”
He was what I wanted.
We stayed naked for a while, and we
took our time, kissing slowly before he entered me, thrusting long and deep as we lay sideways. I was a little sore from the night before, but I ignored it because he felt so damn good.
“I love the way you feel,” he said in my ear as he pushed into me.
I moaned as he hit the right spot and then again as he reached his hand around me and started playing with my nipples. It didn’t seem possible that I had another orgasm in me, but I did. It took him a long time to join me, but he did, gripping my shoulder and groaning in my ear.
“If we keep this up, I’ll never have to go to the gym. Being with you is a workout.” My hips were also a little sore from some of the positions we’d tried. We’d gotten comfortable enough with each other to experiment and both of us had been pleasantly surprised at how accommodating the other had been. He and I both had a wild sex side, and I was more than happy to explore with him.
“It’s been a while for me. I apologize, I shouldn’t have said that. You don’t need to hear about my sad sexual history,” he said. Actually, I was kind of curious. Who wouldn’t be?
“No, it’s fine. Mine is nothing to write home about. How about this? How old were you when you lost your virginity? You don’t have to give me names.”
“You first,” he said, pulling out and then discarding the condom.
“I asked you first and the question was my idea. So you have to answer first. Those are the rules.” He got back into bed with me.
“And who made those rules?”
“Me. So tell me.”
He sighed.
“Sixteen.” That was almost exactly what I’d guessed. “And you?”
“Fifteen. It was during my emo phase. I think the only reason I did it was so my parents would catch me. Thinking back, I could have just made them think I was having sex without actually doing it. But I was fifteen and stupid. I wonder what ever happened to him.” He was probably completely different now from the skinny musician he’d been when I’d dated him. I should look him up online just to find out.