The Harder They Fall (6 page)

“Good
girl. That’s better. I’m only letting you top from the bottom so much because
you’re new at this.”

“If
that means what I think it does, it’s in my nature to control things.”

“I
know it is. But in this instance it’s fine because I want to make sure you’re
enjoying this.”

“Thank
you, Blaine. Really.”

Colleen
held her breath as she heard the flogger, then yelled in surprise and pain as
it came down across her ass, three times in a row. They were quick hits but he
wasn’t holding back, and it felt like he’d dumped a bucket load of fire ants on
her skin. At the same time, her clit contracted in tiny spasms, and every
muscle in her body quivered as hot desire raced through her. “Holy shit.”

“Are
you all right?”

“Yes.”

He
caressed the wounds he’d just made, which only sent her arousal further into
overdrive. “You should see your ass right now. It’s so fucking beautiful.”

“That
was … incredible.”

“Shall
I try three more?”

“No.
I mean, not tonight. It was very intense.”

He
placed the flogger on the table. She heard it scrape the wood, and then she
heard the sound of a condom. “I need to fuck you, Colleen. In that tight, hot
pussy this time.”

“Yes.
Please.” Colleen wiggled on the bench, her anticipation reaching a fevered
pitch. She felt him move behind her, and then his fingers were inside her
again, gently stretching the walls.

“Baby,
you’re so fucking wet for me.”

“I
can’t help it. You did this to me.”

He
withdrew his fingers and teased the opening to her pussy with his sheathed
dick. “This may take a while.”

Even better!
“Fuck me, Blaine. Fuck me hard.”

He
groaned loudly and shoved his cock into her. Colleen cried out at the sheer
dominance of the gesture, and when he grasped a hip on each side and thrust
hard and deep, the orgasm washed over her. His cries joined hers as he fucked
her like a runaway train. He slammed into her with more force and speed than
she would have imagined any man could do after getting a blowjob, then flogging
her for over half an hour.

He
reached underneath with one hand and teased her nipples until another climax
began to build, and then he moved to her clit, massaging it with two fingers at
precisely the right speed and rhythm. How did he know?

“You
can come for me one more time, can’t you, baby?”

“Oh
shit.” No doubt about it. She would. Any second now…

When
the second orgasm came, he cried out loudly and his thrusting became rough and
jerky. She knew he’d come, too, but he still fucked her for long, luscious
moments while her contractions slowly died out.

He
withdrew, she heard him take off the condom, and then he was helping her stand.
He pulled her into his arms, and she wasn’t surprised at all to find him as
sweaty as she was. He held her tightly, stroking her hair.

“Colleen
… that was fucking amazing.”

“I
thought so, too.”

“Will
you sleep with me for a while?”

She
laughed softly. “What do you mean for a while? How are you not sleepy?”

“I
am, but I’ll be ready to fuck you again in a couple of hours.”

She
sighed against his neck. It was official. He wasn’t human. “I would love to.”

This
was the most erotic, exciting night of her life, and it wasn’t over yet. She
was suddenly glad she had pulled the short straw because if she hadn’t, she
might never have met Blaine Parker.

Chapter
Eight

Monday
morning, Blaine’s groin was still sore. Each time the memories of the past
weekend filtered into his consciousness, he couldn’t stop the smile, and he
lost his concentration at work. The first thing he’d done yesterday morning,
while Colleen was still sleeping, was to apply for the permits online.

The
process had taken much longer than he’d anticipated, and he wasn’t quite
finished when she came downstairs, poured herself a cup of coffee, and glanced
over his shoulder. As soon as she realized what he was up to, she got down on
her knees in the middle of the kitchen and gave him another mind-numbing
blowjob.

He
had a small live-in staff like most of his friends, but it was a good thing
there weren’t more people living in the apartment because the woman had no
inhibitions and she was insatiable. Not that Blaine was complaining. He’d never
had a weekend like this past one. He hadn’t expected her to stay beyond
Saturday morning, and had wanted her to stay all week, but she had gone back to
her apartment this morning before he left for work.

That
didn’t bother him. It usually took him a couple of weeks before he started
asking a woman to stay over all the time, and not all of them were comfortable
doing so. Colleen was the first woman in a long time he hadn’t been wishing
would leave after a couple of days. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy having them
around while they were dating, but he liked his personal space and his free
time.

Now,
he missed her. If she worked here, he could have lunch with her, but her office
was across town, and he wouldn’t dare show his face in the building. He could
only imagine what people would say, and he didn’t want to jeopardize her job.

Blaine
rose and stood in front of the wall of windows facing the fake outdoors. Soon,
he could once again gaze out at the plains in North Dakota every day. It didn’t
matter to him if it was no longer called that. It would always be North Dakota
to him. The day he’d met Colleen he’d been on the surface, glancing out over
what was left of the place he’d grown up.

Guilt
gnawed at him as he remembered discovering that Charlene O’Leary was Colleen’s
aunt. He had meant to find a way to bring up the subject all weekend, but the
timing never seemed right.

That’s because you were either
fucking her or sleeping!

All
true, but it would have to be addressed. If she found out about his past with
her aunt before he told her, she’d assume he’d kept it from her on purpose.
While that was true, it wasn’t right for him not to divulge this now that they
were an item. It would come back to haunt him, and might jeopardize his
project.

He
returned to his desk and clicked around, checking out the background on Colleen
Newton, which he should have done before Friday. He could have saved himself a
lot of angst. Information on her wasn’t difficult to find. Her mother’s family
was well-connected and insanely wealthy. He simply hadn’t known her mother’s
maiden name or he would have made the connection before.

She
was the youngest of three daughters. Her older sisters were both married with
kids, and were heavily entrenched in the charity ball circuit, just like her
mother. Her father had worked in real estate development before everyone moved
underground. Once they did, he had still worked in real estate, but six months
ago he’d changed careers.

Now,
he had a middle management position in a satellite office here in North
Central, at what used to be the US Post Office. The post office still
functioned like it used to, but it had recently been combined with several
other government offices into a centralized communications department.
Colleen’s father worked in a department that exercised control over media,
among other things. That included Blaine’s business, Clear Channel Communication.

Blaine
had never had any trouble from the government because he stayed under the radar
and had contacts in key places. But what if that had all changed now? Not only
due to the merging of government departments, but because of his relationship with
Colleen? Both Douglas Newton and his daughter now worked in government jobs
that could block his permits. And if Colleen’s aunt decided to leverage her
power, he was toast.

He
knew the President personally. All the Weathermen did. Would Blaine have to ask
him to intervene if his VP blocked the permits? Would he have to tell the man
why
the VP would try to block Blaine’s
permits? That would be embarrassing.

What
the hell had he done? He’d never been this careless. Never. Well, not since
grade school, at any rate. It wasn’t like him to fuck up in such a colossal
way. Hell, it wasn’t like him to fuck up at all. He needed advice and quickly.

Colleen
was a wonderful woman and he’d had a fantastic time with her, but he risked a
lot to keep seeing her. He risked even more to break it off now. She’d be hurt,
and would be convinced he’d only used her to get help with the permits.

They haven’t gone through yet.

Fuck.
That was true. Blaine ran a hand through his hair. He was so screwed here. He
made a call to Ace even though his status showed he was in a meeting. Harper
answered the call, telling him Ace had asked not to be disturbed unless it was
an emergency. Knowing his friend would be very pissed off if Blaine asked
Harper to pull him out of a meeting for this, he instead asked Harper to have
Ace call him back when it was convenient for him.

What
the hell was he going to do?

****

Colleen
made Blaine’s permits her top priority Monday morning. She approved them, but
the process didn’t end there. Her supervisor had to approve them as well, and
any number of glitches along the way could delay or stop them. There was
nothing she could do to push them through any faster other than give them a
priority rating, which she gladly did.

Every
time she thought about something she and Blaine had done this weekend, her
pussy grew wet and she had to push away from her desk to take a break. Several
people with whom she worked had already asked her why she seemed so happy this
morning. On Mondays, no one was happy, least of all Colleen. They all walked
into a holy mess these days, with work piling up so fast it would be months
before they made a dent in most of it.

But
none of that bothered her today. In fact, nothing had chased away her euphoria.
Not the whiny chatter of her coworker, Kim, or the screaming matches that Pete
and Lani, two supervisors in her department, got into twenty times a day. All
the work piled up didn’t bother her. It’s not as if anyone expected her to
finish it today, or even this week. No one she worked with was caught up by any
stretch of the imagination.

Her
ass cheeks were still sore and red, so she’d worn her most comfortable jeans
today. She was thinking of raising her desk to work standing up for a while,
but since she never did that, it would require an explanation. Colleen had
never been one to brag about her sexual exploits, and she certainly wasn’t
going to start with Blaine. She had to keep this relationship as secret as
possible, especially since she’d given his permits priority.

He’d
asked her to stay at his place all week, but that was a bit too much closeness
for her taste. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy his company. Far from it. To her
amazement, she hadn’t wanted to bolt after sex like she usually did. But
Colleen liked her freedom. It was too awkward staying at someone else’s place
for more than a night or two. She always became claustrophobic and
uncomfortable.

She
smiled as she realized how silly it was to imagine being claustrophobic inside
Blaine’s apartment. It was big enough to fit three or four of her apartments
inside it. She almost got lost in it early Saturday morning, while he’d been
sleeping. She’d gone exploring and had found herself in a back hallway with no
clue how to find the stairs again.

But
still, wasn’t that a perfect example of why it was best not to overstay her
welcome? She was sure he didn’t want women snooping around his place while he
slept. The fact that he’d given her a tour Saturday afternoon was of no
consequence. He’d only been showing how polite he actually was. Thoughts of the
tour brought back memories of where they’d ended up having sex at the
conclusion of it, on one of the plush seats in his media room.

He
had a condom in his jeans pocket, which had made her laugh, but then her
giggles soon turned to moans as Blaine had placed her on his lap. After some
hot and heavy kissing, they’d hurried to shed their clothes from the waist
down. Once they both had done so, he lifted her back onto his lap and lowered
her pussy over his cock.

Blaine
had held onto her, moving her up and down, until she came twice and he finally
let go. It had been the most erotic, spontaneous fucking she’d ever
experienced, and the memory still left her shaky and tingling all over.

“Colleen!
Did you hear me?”

What?
Shit
. She whirled around, pulled out of her decadent memories by
the annoyed voice of a coworker. “I’m sorry. What?”

“I
said, you have a phone call from your aunt’s office.”

“Oh.
Thanks.”

She
punched a few buttons to take her phone off forward. She usually left the voice
mail on all day because otherwise she’d never get any work done. “Hi, Aunt
Charlene.”

“You
really shouldn’t make me call the main number just to reach you. It’s
embarrassing.”

“Sorry.
It’s really busy right now.”

“Did
you see
The Whole Truth
this
morning?”

“No.”
The Whole Truth
was a rag mag that
printed so little of the actual truth, it was a wonder they still had a
readership. Colleen ignored everything in it.

“I
think you’d better take a look at it.”

Colleen
refreshed her browser and typed in the address. It wasn’t like her aunt to get
all worked up over a rag mag. When she saw the pictures and the cover story,
she wished she were home. How long before everyone in this office saw it? For
fuck’s sake. All she’d done was have dinner with the man.

“Is
that really you with Blaine Parker at Tiffani’s?”

“Yes.”

“You
look very cozy.”

Colleen
frowned. Maybe she should call her aunt back on her Internet phone, in a more
private location. “We had dinner.”

“Looks
like more than dinner to me.”

Okay.
There was one pic where she was leaning close and laughing, but honestly. The
inferences in the article were silly.
But
all of them are true.
Yes, but no one at
The Whole Truth
could possibly know that.

“I
didn’t realize you knew Blaine.”

“I
drew the short straw. I had to track him down and remind him about the need for
permits.”

“And
that led to dinner?”

Colleen
glanced around. Everyone appeared to be busy with their own work, but she
wasn’t fooled. “Can we talk about this another time?”

“No.
My schedule is full.”

She
would
play the VP card. “Why are you
upset about this? It was only dinner.”

“You
don’t know him.”

I do now
. Colleen bit back a laugh. She
knew him better than her aunt needed to hear about, especially right now. “I
know his reputation, but he’s nothing like that. He—”

“He’s
exactly
like that.”

Why
was she reacting this way? It wasn’t like her to interfere in Colleen’s dating
life. “Aunt Charlene, I do appreciate you looking out for me, but I’m perfectly
able to—”

“Don’t
get involved with him. I’m serious. He will hurt you.”

A
nasty shiver ran down Colleen’s back. “You’re kind of scaring me.”

“I’m
trying to. I don’t want you to end up like…” She sighed into the phone. “I
don’t want your name to end up linked with gossip about him. He goes through
women like water.”

“I
know that. It was only dinner.”
Liar!

“All
right. Just be careful. All those Weathermen are exactly alike. They’re heart-breakers
and users.”

Blaine
was the only one not permanently attached to someone. Three of them were
married and eight were engaged, but Colleen decided not to quote statistics to
her aunt. This wasn’t like her at all. What was really going on here?

She
heard voices on the other end of the phone. “I have to get to a meeting.” Her
aunt sounded all businesslike once again, and the tone made Colleen feel
secure. “I’ll try to call you later so we can talk privately.”

“All
right.” The call disconnected before Colleen could say another word. She stared
at the phone, frowning, then shook her head and returned to her work. Her aunt
was probably having a bad day, that’s all. Or maybe someone on her staff had
shown her the tabloid, and she was worried Colleen would become another of
Blaine’s conquests that he left in the dust.

Well,
that would likely happen anyway, but she already knew that. It wasn’t like she’d
gone into this with stars in her eyes or dreams of an engagement ring on her
finger. Those kinds of things were fine for some women, but not Colleen. She
had work to do and plans for her life.