London (International Guy Book 7) Read online

  Rachel eases over the padding and pops onto the bull as though she’s been riding the things her entire life.

  Uh-oh.

  She curves her legs against the beast’s body and locks them in place while she rubs her hand along her pants leg, then wraps it around the strap. She closes her eyes, takes a calming breath, and then raises her hand. The bull shoots to life, moving left, right, up, down, gyrating. It starts to circle as the crowd reaches four seconds.

  It bucks up and back on five.

  Swings to the right on six.

  Back to the left on seven.

  On eight, Rachel’s body flows like water, her arm swaying in a circle as the plastic animal jolts around and up and down. Her long braided hair follows her movements like a lasso. She’s magical on the thing. Moving with the machine, not against it. I’ve never seen anything like it.

  The crowd reaches nine . . . she’s still going strong.

  The bull finally comes to a stop at ten seconds.

  Rachel flicks her braids over her shoulders as she glances at a stunned Bogart and winks. As though she does it every day, she raises her leg over the side and slides off.

  “Give me all your money, boys!” Sky claps, grabs the money, and waves it at Rachel.

  Bo walks back behind the blonde goddess. His face isn’t sour with the fact that he lost, it’s in awe of the incredible woman who just whupped his ass.

  Rachel dons her gear, then eases back into her chair calmly and sips on her water.

  Bo steps up to Nate and looks him right in the face. “You are one lucky man.”

  Nate smirks. “Just think what else she can ride like that.”

  “Fuck!” Bo runs a hand over the back of his neck.

  “Exactly.” Nate grins. “Nice ride, fireball.” He grins at his wife.

  “I’m thinking that’s not the only ride I’ll have tonight,” she quips.

  “No. No, it is not,” Nate announces with promise.

  Looks like someone’s getting lucky. I turn to Skyler and nuzzle her temple. Her hand comes down to my knee and runs up my leg, high up on my thigh, where she leaves it. Looks like I’ll be getting lucky tonight too.

  Skyler squeezes my thigh, and even though we got some horrible information and are brokenhearted for Wendy and Michael, we can find moments to enjoy the good in life. I think sometimes that’s what it’s all about. Living for the moment.

  3

  We’re back in Boston, and an entire week has passed since Wendy and I were shot. A full three days of fear that Wendy wouldn’t wake up, only to have her wake and find out that she miscarried a child none of us knew she was carrying. She didn’t even know. I thank the good Lord for that one tiny favor. It doesn’t mean they don’t miss what they lost, it just gives them more hope for the future. Something to look forward to.

  It’s funny how when we are faced with loss, we can take one of two paths. One path is to never find healing and understanding, or the courage and strength to move forward, accept the loss for what it is . . . loss. This can put a person in a never-ending circle of hell. Constantly reliving that loss every moment of every day, never giving it up or letting it go, which, to me, doesn’t serve the love one had for the thing they lost in the first place.

  Then there’s the second path. Acceptance. Accepting the pain and hurt from that loss and letting it guide you forward, making you stronger, pushing you to live for the moment and let the past stay in the past.

  Keeping the past in the past is easier said than done. It’s a challenge I believe every person has to live with each and every day. Everyone has something they lost, a tragedy they have survived. The key is picking up the pieces of your heart, of your might, and moving forward.

  One step at a time.

  One day at a time.

  Living in the moment.

  I worry every day that I’m going to get an email from the government or a military officer at my door or my parents’ door, stating that my brother Paul has died in battle. A shiver ripples down my spine, and my chest tightens. My brother is a hero of mine and of every American soul. He selflessly risks his life to protect our freedom and fight tyranny across the globe. Still, the not knowing is brutal.

  In this situation, my fondest hope is that Wendy and Michael lean on each other to get through their loss and come out the other side closer, more connected. A part of me is sure they will. Her being shot, losing a baby they didn’t know they had, will cement them to their future together. Life is short, and it was proven to all of us this past week. We have to live it like we will not get another day.

  Which is also why I haven’t told Skyler to go home.

  I walk over to the side of my bed, where she’s still sleeping, and set down the cup of coffee I made for her. God, she’s ethereal. Her natural skin tone glowing, her golden hair shining in the rays of sunshine streaming in through the blinds of my bedroom windows. The white comforter is pulled to her chin, and slowly I peel the fabric back, finding her bare chest and perfectly pink-tipped breasts. A purple hickey the size of a quarter mars the side of one breast where I got a little needy and territorial with her naked body. There isn’t an inch on her skin I haven’t licked, kissed, sucked, or bitten in the last forty-eight hours. I know every freckle, each tiny scar and birthmark, the entire patchwork that makes up my woman’s body.

  Easing over her, I straddle her hips, pull the blanket over the back of me, and cuddle over the top of her but don’t put down too much of my weight. My fingers are taped together, and my palm is nothing more than a glued-together red line that’s scabbed over. I’ll put the brace back on, since I’m going back to work today, but I needed that thing off while I spent the last two days loving my woman.

  Skyler sighs and wraps her arms around me. I nuzzle between her breasts, then flick each tip with my tongue, sucking hard on each nipple until they are glistening wet and erect. The pink color has now darkened to a plum-rose tone befitting her excitement. With my good hand, I skim my fingers down her belly and to the space between her thighs. When I encounter wet, hot flesh, I can’t help but groan and bite down on one of her nipples, piercing her core with two fingers nice and deep.

  “Oh God . . . I thought . . . mmm . . . I thought I was dreaming for a minute.”

  I leisurely finger-fuck her until her body is squirming under mine, her hips lifting to aid my fingers in a deeper plunge.

  She sighs and tips her head back. I know instantly when I find the spot inside her that makes her crazy, because her body goes perfectly still, every muscle strung tight.

  “You want to come right now, or you want me to fuck you?” I lick up the side of her neck and suck the flesh until she trembles.

  “I want to come now, and then I want you to fuck me.” She moans and digs her nails into my back.

  I shake my head and chuckle into her hair. “Greedy girl.”

  “For you . . . always.” She sighs as I redouble my efforts and play with her G-spot until she’s bouncing her body into my movements.

  Her body is glorious in the moments before she comes, and I can never get enough. She always keeps her eyes closed tight, her mouth open in a soundless cry, neck fully extended. Except that’s not what I love the most. I test it again, attempting to lift up and away from her, so that I’m only touching her center, but she won’t have it. No. My woman prefers to be touching me at all times, especially when she’s about to come.

  “Come here . . .” Her breath catches as I move my hand more forcefully, my fingers fluttering against her sweet spot in a cadence she can’t help but surrender to. “Parker . . . honey, come here.” Her hands reach around my back and tug me over her, chest to chest, heart to heart. I can feel the wild beating against my chest, my own heart synchronizing with hers, becoming one beat as she slips over the edge. Her arms and legs lock around me as her hips slam against mine, making “the beast” weep at the tip.

  I groan into her shoulder, remove my hand, and plunge inside her heated depths. She welcomes me on
a cry, the walls of her sex still squeezing in pleasure. I take her fast and hard, keeping her coming until I feel the tension down my spine, the tingle at the base of my dick, my balls drawing up tight, and then she locks me in place, from the inside with her sex and the outside with her arms and legs. Wrapping everything she is around all that I am until I’m not sure if we’re two separate bodies anymore. I come in a wave so intense I lose all train of thought and motion, rutting into my woman as though I’ll never have another chance. It’s always like this. A loss of time, space, everything around us. I see and feel nothing but her.

  Only Skyler.

  Sex with a woman has never been this good, this all-encompassing in my entire life. Maybe because, before, it was never lovemaking but the act of simply getting off. Two bodies rubbed together physically, and a biological response occurred. End of story. With Skyler, it’s an adventure. Every time is different. When our bodies come together it’s not only a meeting of our physical forms, it’s our minds and hearts melding, our souls recognizing one another.

  Some people believe that your soul knows when it’s met its mate. I can’t imagine any other experience could ever rival or be better than what I have with Skyler. She’s it for me.

  My only question now is, Am I enough for her?

  In the long run, will what we have be enough to sustain her? Keep her loyal to me? And then of course there’s her job. She’s the most sought-after woman in the entire world, on and off the silver screen. How could I ever compete?

  My thoughts scatter as the feeling of Skyler humming and running her fingernails down my scalp enters my mind. I smile against her neck where I’ve planted myself, then lift my head. “Good morning, Peaches. How are you this morning?”

  She smiles. “Mmm, I’m very good.” She stretches her legs, and my softening cock slips out of her, which causes a pout to cross her lips.

  I chuckle and push back. “Don’t worry, there’s more where that came from.” I kiss my way down her chest and belly before sitting up. “I’ve made you some coffee.” I gesture to the end table while my phone buzzes on the other side.

  “You’re too good to me,” she murmurs, lifting up to a seated position, wrapping an arm around my neck, and kissing me softly on the lips.

  If only that were true, I think to myself, still battling the very real fact that when everything went to shit with us, I didn’t trust her to be true to me, to us. Whereas the same situation was brought against her a couple of months before, and she didn’t hesitate to believe me and ask to hear my side before she went off half-cocked, unlike me. I know Kayla did a number on me, but looking back, and looking at what Sky and I have, the situations were nothing alike. Skyler is not Kayla. And what I had with that bitch is nowhere near as beautiful and strong as what I have with Sky.

  Sighing, I try to let it all go, because we’re starting over, Sky and me. We’re choosing to trust and believe in our love for one another and figure out the rest as we go. That’s all we can do for now.

  Twisting around, I let her go and roll until I can reach the phone and lift it to my ear.

  “Yo!” I say happily, nothing but sunshine and rainbows happening over here.

  “Brother,” comes Royce’s warm greeting. “I know this is going to put a damper on your time with Skyler, but the next client is coming in today.”

  “Yeah, I know, and you told me you were meeting with her.”

  He sighs. “She’s demanding you, or no deal. It’s another six figures, brother, and after all the hell we’ve been through in San Francisco and Montreal, I really want to put my attention on the business and the goal of securing my pretty silver baby.”

  The Porsche 911.

  Royce has coveted that car for years, but even with the kind of money he makes, he’s never taken the plunge. Part of me wonders if he’s trying to hit some ridiculous goal he’s set for himself that he’s not copping to. Another more mature part of me realizes it’s his own damn business and to just leave it be.

  “Dammit. All right, but I have Sky with me, and the paps know we’re here. We told Nate we wouldn’t leave the building for at least three full days. She has them working on something in between. I can’t leave her here unprotected. Did Andre send over a temp to fill Wendy’s position until she comes back?”

  “Yeah, yesterday. Seems sweet. Quiet. Too quiet. I want Wendy back.”

  A pang of guilt about Wendy’s current situation twists my heart, but I push that to the side along with my trust issues. “Yeah, me too, brother. Me too. In Wendy’s files there’s a contact for an alternate security firm that the Van Dykens vetted. Have one of them and a driver be here in an hour, and we’ll head in.”

  “On it. Thanks, man.” Royce’s tone is filled with gratitude.

  “Hey, we’re in this business together. You, me, Bo, and our girl, Wendy, yeah?”

  “Yeah, brother. Peace,” he grumbles, and hangs up before I can respond.

  “What’s up?” Sky walks out of the bathroom wearing nothing but her lacy white panties and my business shirt.

  I lick my lips and bite down on the bottom one. All thoughts of work are gone in a flash at the sight of her fuckhot body. “My dick if you don’t put some pants on.”

  She chuckles and bends over to pick up her coffee. Her heart-shaped ass appears as the hem of the shirt rides up.

  “Christ, woman, you’ll be the death of me. You’ve got to stop being so damn sexy or I’ll never make it to work.”

  She pouts. “You have to go to work? I thought we had another day.”

  I stand up and pad over to her naked, the beast half rising to the challenge of another round with the hottest woman alive.

  “I’m sorry, but the client refused to meet with just Royce.” I run my hands up and down her arms in a soothing gesture. “He didn’t say why, but he wouldn’t have called if he didn’t have to. He’s sending over the alternate security team. You cool with coming to work with me?”

  Skyler nods and presses her forehead to my chest. “I just want as much time with you as possible.” Her hands run up my rib cage and down to my hips and back up. “I missed you so much, and I know we’re okay, but . . .”

  “You’re not ready to be apart,” I answer for her.

  She shakes her head. “No, I’m not.”

  I grab her cup of coffee and place it back on the end table before cupping her cheeks. “I’m not ready either. So, it’s ‘take your girlfriend to work’ day. Sound like fun?”

  She grins and nods. “Except first . . .” Her hands skim down from my chest, over the bricks of my abdominal muscles, and down to the thatch of dark curls, where she finds the beast has fully woken once again. With the slyest glance and the cockiest smirk, she eases down my body, and she sits on the edge of my low bed. Her head is at the perfect height for my very eager friend.

  She licks the tip, and a pearl of my arousal comes to the surface. Skyler wraps her lips around the bulbous head of my cock and takes me down her throat.

  My hands fly into her hair as if they are on autopilot. I close my eyes. “Perfect. Fucking. Woman.”

  She sucks hard on my aching flesh and pulls her lips off with a plop. Her little hand wraps around the base and jacks me up and back while her mouth drives me insane. Ribbons of heat ripple from the center of my pleasure and out until my knees shake where I stand.

  “Don’t ever forget it.” She hums and takes me into the haven of her mouth once more.

  I swallow hard and tilt my face to the ceiling as her tongue swirls around the tip and flicks the sensitive bit under the crown. “Never,” I gasp, and thrust my hips deeper into her mouth as she groans, opening her throat to my slick invasion.

  “Not in a million years could I forget the woman I love making me see stars.”

  I grip her head, and she goes faster, a goddess at giving head if there ever was one. I grip her hair and cup her cheek, holding her where I want her as I thrust shallowly. She sucks me deep and hard, alternating her hand and mouth perfe
ctly.

  My vision darkens, and all I can see are stars flickering behind my eyelids as the tingles start, and I’m ready to blow. I tap her cheek to warn her what’s coming her way, but she doesn’t stop. My woman goes crazy for my cock when I’m about to come. I’m fully aware it’s because she likes the control she has over me in this vulnerable moment. What she doesn’t know is I like handing her the reins as often as she wants them. Before her, no way, never. I ran the show in the bedroom. With Sky . . . it’s all about the give and take.

  I come spectacularly down her throat, and she works me through it until I’m spent and there’s nothing left.

  Sky eases to a standing position and I take her mouth in a fierce, appreciative kiss. “You blow my mind, baby,” I whisper against her lips, tasting myself on her sweet tongue. The salt to her sweet.

  She hums. “And here I thought I was blowing your cock.”

  I wrap my arms around her and just hug her while I laugh. It feels so good to have her back in my arms. I never want her to leave, nor do I ever want to be without her again. The new goal: push anything and everything away that doesn’t help me move forward with this woman. I want a future with her, and I’ll stop at nothing to have it. Regardless of whether I’m worthy or not, if she continues to give me her all, I’m going to take it.

  We make it through the doors of the IG office holding hands and laughing like lovesick fools. When I see not one but two strange women in our office, I wrap my arm around Skyler’s waist and hold her close.

  The blonde one sitting behind Wendy’s desk stands up immediately. Her eyes go to mine and then widen when they land on Skyler. “Mr. Ellis. Um, Ms. Paige, I presume.”