Page 21 of You, Me, & Après-Ski
Kissing Val had been brash, and it couldn’t happen again.
Butfuck, I wanted it to.
Fulfilling the bare minimum of my grandfather’s request was the only way I was going to make it through this winter without tearing Val’s clothes off. If she kept prancing around with Snowboarder Dude in front of me, though, it was going to make things alotmore difficult. I couldn’t even stand watching Vipul’s hands on her, and his touch hadn’t been sexual.
Clenching my teeth, I dialed in for my next call. I had to refocus on what was important: get the board to approve the sale and show my father that I was the better businessman—and the better man.
A few hours later, I returned home, done with work for the day. I hung up my jacket and went into the kitchen for a glass of scotch. Hugh had sent over a bottle for me—he was quickly winnowing his way into my good graces.
I had two hours before I needed to meet Val for our cooking lesson. Apparently it was a highly coveted class with Chef Rocco Gaccione, a Michelin-starred celebrity chef and, somehow, a personal friend of Val’s. Hale’s Peak didn’t have the budget to keep a chef like that on staff, but he owed her a favor. My main concern, though, was figuring out how to get through the evening without cornering Val in the pantry and finishing what we started in my office.
I slung the scotch down my throat, then slammed the glass on the counter just as Cressida padded barefoot into the kitchen, clad in a fluffy white robe. “Bad day at the office?” she asked, sliding into one of the barstools tucked under the center island.
“I’m meeting Val soon.” I pressed my palms atop the counter as if I could stop the world from turning by sheer force of will.
“Ah. I thought that might be the problem,” she said, leaning forward to pour herself a tot of scotch into my cup. As she did, her robe drifted away from her body and I caught a peek of what she wore underneath. Lust flooded through me, but not lust for Cressida. No, I wanted to seeValin that strappy black thing, wanted to hear the sounds she’d make as I tasted her skin and played with her.
I reached out, running a finger along Cressida’s collarbone—then stopped.
I couldn’t.
Sure, drowning our sorrows in sex was kind of our thing, but something about doing it this time felt…different. Wrong.
Sensing my hesitation, Cressida’s eyes met mine, sure and steady. But her normally perfect eye makeup was smeared as if she’d been crying, and a fierce protective streak raced through me.
“Raife?” I asked. Maybe after a decade of silence, he’d slithered out of the woodwork to cause her more pain. My fists tightened at the thought.
After a shaky inhale, she said, “I need this too, Nolan. So shut up and fuck me.”
Ever since letting loose on Val, my inhibitions were fried, so I released my careful control and allowed my hunger to take over, aiming it in the only direction that was safe. The only direction Icouldaim it.
In two steps, I was in front of Cressida, pulling her into me and yanking off her robe. A bodysuit hugged every curve of her body, the thinblack straps cupping her supple breasts, her nipples peaked and ready for my mouth. The strings looped around her hips ending in a tiny thong, baring her whole ass to me.What I wouldn’t give to see Val like this.
A growl rumbled low in my throat as I asked, “What isthis?” I slid a hand under the waistband and snapped it against her skin.
“I thought you could use a distraction,” she said, breaths away from my lips. “And I wanted to feel sexy instead of twelve kinds of fucked up.”
“You’re always sexy, Cress. Even when my asshole of a brother makes you cry.”
“Don’t want to talk about him,” she said as her deft hands slid into my pants.
I couldn’t have Val, but I couldhave Cressida. We would have to be enough for each other.
As I backed her against the counter, Cressida made fast work of my belt, taking my cock in her hand and stroking me how I liked, while I freed one of her breasts from the confounded contraption. I pulled and pinched at her nipple until I had her gasping in my ear. She tore off my shirt and buttons pinged on the floor as she scraped her nails over my torso.
“What do you want?” I asked inches from her face as I continued my assault. Fast and rough was how we always did it, but I wanted to make sure she got what she needed.
She threw back her head and gave my cock a good pump with her hand, and I sighed against her neck. “More,” she whispered.
I didn’t kiss her. We never kissed.
Instead, I took her nipple in my mouth, licking and sucking until she made those satisfying little sounds. It was clockwork at this point; she knew how to please me, and I knew what she liked. We were all each other could afford to have, the risk of other dalliances too high.
I normally didn’t draw out our encounters, but her outfit had turned me on more than I wanted to admit. And, it didn’t help that my cock hadn’t left me alone since I’d kissed Val.
With a hum of satisfaction, I grabbed Cressida’s ass in both hands and lifted her onto the counter. Dutifully, she spread her legs and I knelt before her. She deserved more than being used for my fantasy of fucking Val, but that didn’t stop me from pushing her thong aside and stroking her wetness with a fingertip before repeating the motion with my tongue. But I took solace in knowing that when Cressida fucked me, she was thinking about fucking someone else too. Hate fucking, from what it seemed like, as her fingernails gouged into my scalp.
Arching into me, her tits bounced as she rode my face and I reached up to grab one, pulling at her hard nipple until she whimpered. I sucked her clit as I thrust two fingers inside her, mimicking the motions of my hand on her breast.
