Page 64 of The Suit

The steady pounding of my heart was so loud it was making my bones rattle and the bed shake as it reverberated off the walls, thechudder-chudder-chudderrhythm almost deafening as he stroked me to the point of no return.

“Fuck.” Rafe shot up and jumped out of bed, taking his magic fingers with him as he ran to the window overlooking the far east lawn. “Little shits! There’s no way Pennington is awake this early.”

I was too far gone into my impending orgasm and the shock of it being taken away to realize what was happening, until he sat back on the bed and began stroking my hair.

“Beulah, the boys have arrived.”

My eyes burst wide open and I tried to sit up, but his hand were quicker pinning my thighs in place, as he grinned down at me.

“Rafe?”

“Go shower. Take as long as you need, then get dressed and come down.”

His fingers slipped inside me again, giving me a stroke that had me falling back, and moaning so loudly it drowned out the helicopter.

“We’ll finish this later. Do not get yourself off. This is my orgasm as payment for being woken up.” He pulled his fingers free, then sucked on them. “Fuck, you’d make the best breakfast.”

And then he ran off again, giving me no time to appreciate his fantastic naked ass or the most beautiful dick I’d ever seen, as he grabbed his shorts from the floor on the way. I was left trying to make sense of the last three minutes, which was harder than it sounds, seeing as my thoughts were competing with the deafening noise outside.

Rafe’s friends were here. His best friends in the world, he’d said. The ones he’d spent every Memorial Weekend with, just boys. And now here I was, intruding.

More than that though was the acknowledgement that something was happening between us, something that would now have witnesses. Up to this point it could have died as a secret only we’d known about, but now the people who knew him best in the world would be observers to how we behaved. How we interacted. How we were.

Before they had the chance to properly settle in, I pushed the nerves away. I wasn’t even sure why Iwasso nervous; they were just people.

Then I remembered that dartboard.

I doubted it was the first or the last that had been made with my face on it, but seeing that had hurt more than I cared to admit. It never occurred to me to care what anyone thought, whether anyone liked me, yet for whatever reason, I realized I wanted them to like me.

Him to like me.

I got up and walked to the window, not expecting quite such an enormous helicopter to be outside. The sun was already bouncing off its sleek black frame, its vast spinning blades slowing on the rotor as the door opened and the steps were lowered.

Rafe was already waiting at the bottom, still only in shorts, though he’d grabbed a ball cap on the way out, but I barely glanced at him as a black lab launched himself off the top step and started jumping around, his tail moving as fast as the helicopter blades while Rafe stroked and patted him until he pulled a ball from his pocket and threw it.

Following the dog was a lady, who even from this distance looked like one of those effortlessly beautiful, boho chic New Yorkers, who floated around at charity events or sat on boards of identikit causes for the plight of one thing or another. What I hadn’t expected however, was the baby she was carrying, or the way Rafe immediately took it and smothered it with kisses. I’d seen some picture of him with a baby when I was looking through the photos in his apartment, but I’d assumed it was a niece or nephew; it hadn’t ever occurred to me that a baby belonged in this group of friends.

Then the remaining members appeared, standing side by side at the top of the steps, and hitting me with memories so hard my temples throbbed from the sudden onslaught.

The only time Rafe had ever been without them in school was when he was in the library or in class; they’d come as a package deal then, and they clearly still did now. Even if I hadn’t known they were a unit it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the three of them were together, forged by a friendship running as thick as blood. A brotherhood totally separate from anyone else that everyone wanted to be a part of; yet only a lucky few were ever invited into their circle, and never permanently.

I remembered several Monday mornings in class when all anyone would talk about was the party they’d thrown at their house on Beacon Hill, or who’d been the lucky one to hook up with one of the three. Unsurprisingly, they were never parties I’d been invited to given our feud was well known among our classmates, but I also never cared because I naively thought my pursuit of excellence needed no distractions… though that never stopped me watching them play ball from behind the tree on the way to the library, just like I was doing now from the window.

They moved in sync down the steps - like they’d clearly done a thousand times to the point where it was second nature - and embraced Rafe each with one arm around him, laughing at something he’d said. Their heads were thrown back in amusement before Rafe pushed the one with sunglasses away, making them all laugh harder. Even the girl joined in. A pang of jealously hit me so hard I didn’t manage to duck out of sight in time before Rafe turned around; as always sensing when I nearby.

The swirling nerves in my belly kicked up again.

Better get this over with.

Twenty minutes later, after showering and reluctantly picking out one of the dresses he’d left me - though it was one I did like a lot and probably would have bought if I didn’t exclusively shop for shoes, office attire or workout pants - I followed the laughter and found them in the kitchen, along with the dog asleep on the floor.

In my career I was surrounded by men who thought they had power because they had money, because they used their money to buy whatever they wanted. But these three? They had power despite their wealth; power in beauty, in the seduction, they oozed it. Power in their charms. Even power in the way they were all casually leaning against the kitchen island, sipping coffee like they had all the time in the world. Rafe was still holding the baby, and if I’d had a camera, I could have made millions off selling that one image alone.

It was intoxicating, and addictive, and the nerves I was carrying had started to manifest into a sense of foreboding I was trying my hardest to avoid. I’d never felt so out of my depth or comfort zone.

I’d been hovering by the door for less than five seconds when they spotted me, the laughter ceasing immediately into an uncomfortable silence. The blonde one reacted first, an eyebrow arching over his otherwise perfect face. The one in sunglasses was next. I almost stopped breathing as he turned then prowled over, a slow smile spreading across an undeniably sexy pair of lips, and even if I hadn’t heard the rumors at school, Iknewit was a smile that got him laid without him needing to make any further effort.

“Beulah Holmes, finally we meet.” He pulled me into a hug that lifted me off my feet before I could stop him and I was enveloped in the most incredible scent of man and sunshine. “I have to thank you, I’m a hundred grand richer this week because of you.”

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