Visions of Destiny (Complete Series) Read online

  She had finally parted her lips, her tongue coming out to greet his, when the elevator pinged again for her floor. Cathleen’s stomach lurched and she pulled away at once so that she and Alex were standing apart as the doors opened, with nothing but her blush giving her away—or so she hoped. It didn’t matter, though; no one was waiting for the elevator, and the hallways were deserted.

  Alex followed her for the first few steps and if they had met someone, they would have appeared to be two people simply walking in the same direction. It didn’t last, however. It never did. As Cathleen turned a corner into another long and deserted corridor, Alex caught up with her. His hand slid around her waist again, warm and possessive. While Cathleen was still afraid they would be seen, she couldn’t make herself pull out of his embrace.

  He leaned in to murmur into her ear, “I’ve wanted to do this all evening,” and when she looked up at him to ask what it was, he captured her mouth again, pressing in at once, his arms drawing her closer to him.

  Lightheaded, Cathleen closed her eyes and clung to his shoulders, letting herself be kissed, kissing back just as fiercely. She, too, had wanted this all evening and it took her a few seconds before she realized they were standing in the middle of a hallway where anyone might see them.

  Pulling away from him was more difficult to do every time.

  “Not here,” she murmured, her voice shaking a little.

  Alex’s eyes were blazing, dark brown gleaming with the same fire she had felt in his kiss, and tingles coursed down Cathleen’s spine.

  “Which one is your room?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

  Her mind blank, Cathleen had to check her magnetic key to remember. They were just four doors away. Alex’s hand remained on her hip the entire time, his thumb stroking gently over the fabric of her dress, and as benign as the touch was, goose bumps were erupting over her entire body.

  She struggled to open the door, first inserting the key card upside down, then leaving it too long in the slot when Alex nibbled on that sensitive spot beneath her ear and she froze in his arms. He pulled back when indistinct voices traveled down the hallway and Cathleen hurried, finally opening the door with visions of someone from the wedding party walking in on them like this.

  Thankfully it wasn’t anyone they knew but the couple still gave them fleeting looks as they passed by them, Cathleen barely inside and Alex still on the threshold. It was clear that they knew they had interrupted something. Cathleen thought she saw a glimmer of disapproval in the woman’s eyes.

  It struck her—it always did, sooner or later, but usually later—that she shouldn’t do this. It wasn’t even about what was proper anymore or so she tried to convince herself. They were there for Ethan and the last thing she wanted was to embarrass her son on his wedding day.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, holding the edge of the door in a tight hand and blocking the way so Alex couldn’t come in. “I should go to bed. We both should. It’s a big day tomorrow.”

  Alex’s crestfallen expression broke her heart and she tried hard not to let it sway her.

  “Cathleen—” he started, but she laid two trembling fingers over his lips to stop him.

  “No,” she whispered. “Whatever it is you’re going to say, don’t. I can’t. I shouldn’t. Ethan—”

  “Ethan is a grown up,” Alex interrupted her, his voice gentle but firm. He had pulled her hand away from his mouth and laced his fingers with hers. “He’d understand. If you just told him, I know he would. He’d be happy for you. For both of us.”

  The argument was seductive and Cathleen wished she could have allowed herself to be convinced. However she wasn’t so sure that Ethan would be as understanding as Alex believed. She could picture a look of betrayal on his features when he found out and she couldn’t bear that. He was the only person who counted in her life. Or at least he had been until she had met Alex. She couldn’t betray him like this.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again, her voice even quieter now. “I can’t. Please.”

  He nodded once, defeated. Dropping his gaze, he stepped back, far enough that she could shut the door. But as she started letting it close, he stopped it with his hand and looked at her again.

  “I love you,” he said quietly.

  Her heart jumped in her chest, suddenly beating more furiously than it had at his kisses or touching. It was hardly the first time she had heard him say the words. In the past few months he had said them dozens of times, maybe more, and she had never doubted their truth. She had never doubted her own feelings either. And every time she heard him say it, every ounce of strength she had gathered disappeared again, along with all the reasons why she had to end this relationship.

  Her resistance was broken. She took his hand in hers, squeezed it tightly and pulled him inside. The door closed behind him with a light snick.

  “I love you too,” she said, whispering even now that they were alone and safe from being overheard by passersby. “I really do.”

  Alex was smiling when he leaned in, his hand cupping her cheek and drawing her forward for a kiss that was as gentle and sweet as the kiss in the elevator had been fiery and passionate.

  As they continued kissing, Alex started swaying, his hands settling on Cathleen’s hips and leading her into a slow dance. He pulled away, his mouth millimeters from hers and asked, “Will you dance with me tomorrow?”

  Cathleen would have liked to say yes; she would have liked to be able to. She knew better than that, but she still couldn’t manage to say no out-right. “I’d rather dance with you now,” she murmured as she looped her arms around his neck.

  To stop him from trying to get a promise out of her she kissed him again, her lips and tongue moving slowly against his, as slowly as their dancing steps, back and forth through the bedroom, following a music that was nothing more than their joined heartbeats. She could have kept dancing all night long but she couldn’t ignore the hard cock pressing against her hip and her body responded to Alex’s desire until she had to feel more of him, skin on skin.

  Running her hands up to the collar of his jacket, she pushed at it until it slid down his arms and to the floor. His shirt was next, the small buttons yielding easily under her fingertips until she could push the fabric aside and finally reach his skin.

  “You’re burning,” she whispered. She pressed her chest to his while her hands worked between them, unbuttoning his pants until she could push them down, with a not so innocent slide of her hands over his ass.

  “For you, always,” he replied huskily. His fingertips were ghosting up and down her back along the zipper of her dress, but he wasn’t pulling it down yet, seemingly waiting for permission.

  She gave it with a throaty voice. “Go ahead.”

  He tugged the zipper down then slipped the wide straps off her shoulders. She moved back just enough so that her dress fell to the floor unhindered. His eyes lit up, the gleam of lust unmistakable as he traced a single fingertip along the edge of her bra and to the center clasp. Those were his favorites, she knew, and if she was totally honest with herself, she had worn it for him, anticipating that this very thing might happen, even if she had told herself—and him—that it wouldn’t.

  He undid the clasp but didn’t let the bra slide away. Instead, he lowered the cups, revealing her breasts slowly, as though savoring their rediscovery.

  “You’re beautiful,” he breathed when the bra finally came completely off. “So beautiful…”

  She always wanted to shush him when he said something like that, always wanted to call him a liar, or question his eyesight, because she knew much prettier women fluttered around him constantly, colorful butterflies attracted to the light that shone through him. She had seen it that very night; the three bridesmaids had argued over who would sit on either side of him at the rehearsal dinner.

  But she never did say anything, never did stop him, because eve
n if he was overgenerous in his praise, the way he looked at her made her feel beautiful, and in the end that was all that mattered.

  The same heat that flushed her cheeks extended down her chest. When Alex caressed her, his fingers felt cool on her skin while only a moment earlier he had seemed so warm.

  She laid her palm over his cock, feeling the growing dampness where the tip pressed against the fabric of his boxers. He drew her closer again, one hand at the center of her back, fingers spread out and so strong, and the other on her cheek. He cupped it and tilted her face to one side to kiss her, deep and slow. She touched him just as gently. Even if he was already aroused, she could feel his cock grow harder still in her hand.

  His boxers did nothing to disguise how hot he was but she wanted to touch him, feel the weight of him in her hand. It took her only a second to get rid of this last barrier and then he was standing naked in front of her.

  And laughing quietly.

  “And once again, I am naked before you are.”

  She fought back the urge to stick her tongue out at him. “It’s not my fault if you always get distracted by my breasts.”

  “Well, they are very distracting…”

  He started leaning in, bending so that his goal was obvious. His lips were already wet before he even touched her skin but she stepped back and out of his reach, clucking her tongue.

  “Why don’t you get on the bed?” she suggested, giving his cock a gentle squeeze, “and I’ll join you in just a second.”

  He didn’t ask where she was going. When she returned from the bathroom a moment later with the condom from her toiletries bag, he was lying down in the center of the bed, his back to the pillows, the duvet pulled down and folded at his feet. She watched him run his hand over his cock, his fingers curled in a loose circle, and felt her panties grow damper still. Even before she climbed onto the bed, she could smell the musky scent of his desire and she wondered if he could smell hers as well.

  “Still clothed,” he pointed out, grinning much too widely. “Are you going to stay covered all night?”

  She tossed the square packet and it landed on his chest. “Are you?” she asked back, tongue in cheek.

  He watched her shimmy out of her panties just as intently as she watched his fingers guide the condom over his cock. When she joined him on the bed and knee-walked toward him, he licked his lips and held his hands out to her. Lying hard and thick on his stomach, his cock twitched hopefully.

  “A present all wrapped up for me,” she said, taking his hands and letting him guide her until she was kneeling over his lap. “Do I get to give it a try too?”

  “As much as you want. You know it’s—” His voice broke on a groan when she took hold of his cock and gave it a few slow strokes. “Yours,” he finished, and his hands came to rest at her waist, as light as air.

  She pushed herself higher on her knees and guided his cock to her opening. Raising his head, he watched fixedly the place where their bodies would soon join. Cathleen’s eyes remained on his face. She ran the rip of his cock against the slick wetness of her nether lips and could see reflected on his features the same thing she felt: pleasure, the anticipation for more to come—and the need for more to come now.

  Now, Cathleen had often thought, was overrated, especially when she could extend a split second into a long, long moment of drawn out gratification.

  She lowered herself onto him, just an inch, just enough for the head of his cock to slip inside her, stretching her a little already. Alex’s eyes started closing in bliss but he should have known her better by now. As she expected his eyes flew open again when she raised herself once more and he slipped out of her.

  “Tease,” he groaned. “Do you have to… Oh yes, just…”

  She sank a little lower this time, but she pulled away again just as smoothly. Alex only groaned louder.

  She continued like this, taking one more inch at a time, drawing out for long minutes what would have been over much too fast if she had let Alex set their pace. The time when he first entered her body, when his cock first slid in, filled her, was always her favorite. Or at least it was until her next favorite part: having all of him inside her, and holding him there.

  When he was all the way in with his balls pressing against her flesh, she took a few seconds to enjoy the feeling of fullness—of completeness—she always felt at this moment. She knew the same moment of stillness was sheer torture for Alex, and when he tried to thrust his hips up, she stopped him with a hand on his chest, a shake of her head and an impish grin.

  “Always so impatient,” she said, a chuckle hiding beneath her words.

  Before he could pout and call her cruel as he sometimes did, or beg so prettily with that hitch she liked so much in his voice, she rotated her hips and drew a sighing groan from him. She had to bite down on her bottom lip not to let out the same sound.

  “Come on,” Alex whispered, his fingers stroking over her hips and ass as though to encourage her. “Cathleen…”

  Keeping a hand on his chest, so close to his heart that she could feel it drum beneath her fingertips, she started to move over him. Her gliding up and down his cock was slow at first as she sought the best angle, but when she found it she accelerated and was soon riding him at a gallop. Every time a harsher thrust almost caused him to slip out, he jerked up with a grunt, pushing his cock back inside her. Those sounds, almost animalistic, zinged straight to Cathleen’s core and urged her to go faster still.

  As often as they were together, she never tired of the sight of him. He wasn’t an athlete, but the body beneath her was tight and toned nonetheless, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. It always surprised her that he looked back as intently.

  His hands had let go of her hips and were running all over her, caressing her thighs, the apex of her legs, her breasts as they bounced above him. Her nipples were hard points pressing into his palms, and she gasped with both surprise and pleasure when he took them between his fingers, pinching ever so gently.

  Cathleen started to lose her rhythm, her heart beating too fast now for her to follow its pace. She thrust herself down hard, pushing Alex’s cock deeper inside her. Her vision was floating with white stars when she leaned down to kiss him. Her mouth found his forehead first, and she tasted the salt of perspiration before pressing kisses against his eyelid, his cheek, and finally his lips. They parted for her tongue, drawing her in as he closed his arms around her and held her tight against him. His hips kept pushing up, sharp jerks that caused both of them to moan into the kiss.

  “Let me,” Alex said against her lips and she knew what he meant. He pushed and rolled their bodies over until he was above her, resting on his forearms so he wouldn’t crush her.

  They were kissing again when he started thrusting, but after a few second their mouths fell apart. He started accelerating and Cathleen shimmied under him, guiding his cock where she wanted it most.

  “I’ve got you,” he breathed. “Let me…”

  His fingers slid along her thigh and pushed her right leg up. Cathleen cried out at the new angle and he seemed to hesitate before she urged him on.

  “Come on, don’t stop now.”

  Alex chuckled breathlessly. “Who’s impatient now?”

  He punctuated his words with a deep thrust and a twist of his hips, causing Cathleen’s eyes to flutter shut. She moaned loudly, then louder still when he did it again, his name blooming on her lips like gratitude and encouragement.

  Burying his face into her neck, he sneaked a hand between their bodies and found her clit. His touch was a little rough, uncoordinated, as rising pleasure made his movements jerky but it was enough to push Cathleen over the edge.

  Clutching at his shoulders until her nails dug into his skin, she arched into him one last time. Her wordless cry seemed to echo in the room, soon joined by Alex’s deeper groan. His hips jerked, quick and sharp, as h
e came. Each of these final thrusts was like lightning flashing through Cathleen, and thunder rumbled in her ears.

  Not thunder, she soon realized as Alex’s rhythm faltered, then finally came to a stop, but harsh breaths, warm and fast against her ear. She held on to him, as reluctant to let him go now as she had been to let him in earlier.

  “Shhh…” He caressed her shoulder with his lips. “I’ll be back, all right?”

  She relaxed her arms and let him pull away from her, and although the air was still warm from the sun-filled day, she suddenly shivered.

  Soon she was shivering again, but now from his touch rather than the absence of it as he brushed a warm, wet towel between her thighs. She hummed, opening her arms to him as he climbed back onto the bed. His gaze was soft and warm when he took her hand and linked their fingers together. She rolled closer to him and pressed tiny kisses against his chin and at the corners of his mouth, finishing with a long but chaste kiss against his lips that made him smile.

  Watching him next to her like this, his body still trembling from their shared pleasure, she couldn’t help but want to give him his own words back. He, too, was beautiful, his body as graceful as his personality was warm. She had never dared to tell him, afraid that he might think she was patronizing him. But this was now or never. She would never get another occasion. Because they would never sleep together again after that night.

  It wasn’t the first time she had decided this. The first time they had met and for the first few dates they’d had, she hadn’t realized how much younger he was; he wasn’t even half her age! As soon as she had figured it out, she had started to think—and to say—that they ought to stop seeing each other. Alex had never believed she truly meant it. He had been right so far. But this time it was different. This time she meant it. Her son was getting married the next day. Alex would want that too, eventually. And when he did, he deserved someone he could be proud to have on his arm. Someone who would not be mistaken for his mother.

  “You’re beautiful,” she murmured, touching his cheeks, his nose and mouth with a single fingertip.