I tightened my grip on her and swung her away from the wall. She gasped and tried to grab onto my shoulders, but I tossed her down on the bed before she could get a grip. Standing over her, I stripped off my shirt and tie. “Let me show you what happens when you let the waiter think he has a chance with you,” I said quietly. “Take off your dress.”

Keeping her eyes on mine, Cat pushed the straps the rest of the way down, revealing her full, perfect breasts, barely contained by a corset-style strapless bra. It was white, but far from virginal. As she wiggled out of the dress, I saw it matched her silky white panties. My cock went from rigid to painfully hard. The white glowed against her tan skin. With her faultless blue eyes, golden-brown hair, and faint smirk, she looked like some sort of depraved angel.

I wanted to rip the thin fabric away and plunge into her, but we had a whole hour. I was going to take advantage of it. I gestured for her to come closer.

Cat crawled across the bed to where I was waiting, the golden globes of her breasts barely contained by the white contraption she was wearing. She glowed in the afternoon light that was streaming through the open slats. She bit her lip as she reached for the button of my pants, but I couldn’t tell if she really felt suddenly shy, or if it was an act. I didn’t care either way. All I could think about was getting my cock between those full lips, feeling the gentle scrape of her small white teeth as I pushed the head past them.

She knew what I wanted, but she went teasingly slowly. She pushed my pants and briefs down, then looked up at me with liquid blue eyes before lowering her mouth to my painfully protruding erection. Sliding into her mouth felt like heaven, and I had to tense every muscle in my body in order to keep from pushing forward. It was hell to let her set the pace, and I began to wonder who was teaching who a lesson.

While Cat worked up and down my cock, I gripped her head with one hand and found her breasts with the other. She moaned as I pinched her nipples, rolling them between my thumb and forefinger. Then I pushed my hand further down and found the sensitive nub between her legs. As I worked it, she took me further into her mouth until the head of my cock was against the back of her throat. When she moaned, the vibration went all the way through me. I shuddered and pulled back, fighting the urge to come right then and there.

“You can,” Cat whispered, her eyes heavy-lidded. As usual, she’d known what I was thinking.

“Another time,” I said, the words coming with difficulty. “I have other plans for you right now. Turn around.”

Cat turned around on her knees slowly, looking at me over her shoulder. I put my hand in the small of her back and pushed until she was on her hands and knees before me. Wrapping her hair around my fist like a rope, I got up on the bed behind her and lined up the head of my cock with her warm, wet entrance.

“What was his name again?” I asked silkily, pausing.

“What?” The word came out as a gasp.

“The waiter you were on and off with.” I nudged closer, pressing against her but not filling her. Not yet.

“It doesn’t matter.”

I considered torturing her further, but I liked her answer. “You’re right.” I shoved in hard, and she gasped as the full length of my cock filled her. “It doesn’t matter. The only name that matters is mine.”

Cat nodded emphatically, unable to form words as I thrust into her deeply.

“Say it,” I gritted, tightening my grip on her hair. “Say my name.”

“David, David.” She gasped my name over and over, until it sounded like a plea. I slowed my pace, but she pushed back harder, and her gasps became moans. I could tell she was getting close, but I wasn’t ready to come. Not yet. Even after Cat’s body shook with her first orgasm, I kept thrusting.

“Say you’ll never see him again,” I ordered.

“Never!” The vow was shaky but emphatic. I released my hold on her hair and wrapped my hands around her hips. She was slamming back on my cock, working herself up to her second orgasm, and mine was building, too. I could feel the tension in every part of my body.

“No one but me,” I demanded, losing control. I had to hear her say it, no matter the consequences.

“No one but you,” Cat gasped obediently.

I gripped her waist hard to keep her steady and began to jackhammer up into her. Cat’s gasps rose higher and higher. The sound nearly drove me over the edge. But she wasn’t there yet, so I reached between our bodies and flicked her clit while I impaled her.

Cat jolted as though an electrical current went through her body. She was so close, and I wasn’t going to last much longer.

“David,” she gasped. “I can’t…”

And then her body convulsed around mine, and I knew she was there. With relief, I let go of his tenuous grip on control and slammed into her once, twice, and then I was gone too.

CHAPTER 23

CAT

For the first two weeks of Lily’s summer, the days unfurled exactly as I imagined they would. Lily slept in until 8 or 8:30, which meant David could stay with me in the pool house until 7:30, sneaking out just before Francesca rose at 7:45 sharp for her daily ritual of coffee by the pool.

More often than not, I joined her there. In the weeks she’d been here, I’d come to see her as more than David’s mother or Lily’s grandmother. In a strange way, she was kind of a mentor. She tolerantly listened to me debate the pros and cons of the MFA program before she finally said in her no-nonsense way that I needed to just do it and stop twiddling my thumbs. I wished I could confide in her about my situation with David, but it was impossible. I was already worried that she suspected. Even if I changed his name, if I told her I was falling in love with a man I could never have for reasons I couldn’t tell her, it would be too easy for her to put the pieces together,

That morning, as though she were reading my mind, she poured me a cup of coffee and said, “Enough about this MFA program—tell me about your love life.”