The Highest Bidder (Xcite Romance) Read online

  And to think I only have to see him and act sane in a few short hours …

  There was no way. Casey rolled on her belly. Remembering the feel of him the night before. Remembering his length and his heat and his rigidity. Remembering how he held her, understood her, and …

  She shook her head. ‘Pity fuck. Don’t get too attached. No matter how you feel. Remember, you haven’t felt anything in quite a while.’

  But her body was excited; a wet pleasure-seeking pulse had started in her centre. Casey fumbled for her middle nightstand drawer and tugged it open. She removed a purple vibrator with a bulbous head and the perfect number two setting – in Casey’s personal opinion – it was her go-to-orgasm tool. If she had an orgasm now, maybe she’d be able to focus later.

  Probably not. Not if Nick’s there …

  But she had to try.

  ‘Take one for the team,’ she snickered and worked the fat broad tip over her slit to get it moist. When she set the buzzing plastic to her clitoris a warm spasm worked through her. Her pussy flexed and her stomach went light and buzzy.

  It wasn’t hard at all to get herself there. This is what happened when a man was just too good-looking to handle. When the thought of his hands on you made your mind go white with lust. This is what happened, Casey thought, pushing the now-slick toy inside her body.

  Her channel spasmed greedily around the buzzing shaft as she called up her dream. His mouth on her mouth, her throat, her earlobes. How he’d teased each nipple into an erect peak of hard flesh.

  Casey pinched her nipple with her free hand. When an echo of pleasure coursed through her, she pinched again, harder. Almost clamping her fingernails tight to her pink flesh.

  She thumbed the vibrator from the tentative but nice setting of one, to the perfect pressure and vibration of level two.

  ‘He was licking you,’ she said to herself, pulling the toy free, running it over her engorged clit. Letting the vibration rumble through her entire pout. Outer lips and juicy folds and then her clit once more before driving it deep and tilting her hips to beat it against her G-spot.

  ‘He was licking you and when he got you off, licking you …’ Her voice had come down to smoke and wind and a dry sound that reminded her of leaves on asphalt. ‘When he got you off, he went for penetration. He slid into you. His big, hard cock forcing into your wet depths and …’

  She was talking dirty to herself. How insane was that? But it didn’t matter because her heartbeat had gone wild and her mind had narrowed down to nothing but the bright yellow intention of orgasm.

  The toy banged her G-spot gently and she applied a tiny bit more pressure. ‘He fucked you. Against the wall. He took you against the wall. He took you and he fucked you and …’

  The first lazy flex of orgasm worked through her and she bit her lip to keep her heart in her chest, because it felt as if it would leap free. ‘And when you came,’ she sighed, coming. Long, lazy, wet spasms deep in her cunt. They seemed to bleed warmly into her pelvis and her belly. Even her fingers felt heavy and lethargic. ‘When you came, he ate every bit of juice you made with little wet flicks of his tongue on your pussy.’

  And then she shut up, giving over to the forceful presence of her pleasure. She rode it to the peak and all the way back down. It left her feeling sleepy and relaxed and for a few minutes, Casey let herself lie there in bed, bathed in grey light. Listening to the gentle tap of water on the window. And for the last split second before climbing out of bed, she let herself imagine that if she turned to her side, she’d see him there. Nick, lying on his side watching her. Touching her hair. Kissing her lips. Smiling.

  ‘What happened last night?’ Annie was scurrying along the long hotel hallway to keep up with her.

  ‘What, you mean you don’t know? You mean he didn’t fill you in?’ She didn’t mean for her voice to sound so hard and upset.

  Annie stomped her foot and grabbed Casey’s arm, halting her. Casey had a good nine inches on Annie’s five feet, but Annie had a grip, especially when pissed.

  ‘What is wrong with you?’

  ‘You know I can totally get my own men. You know I can do it, don’t you? You don’t have to set me up with pity fu– dates.’ Casey swallowed and swallowed again, willing herself not to cry. What was wrong with her? She didn’t really mean what she was saying. Not really.

  Annie clamped her mouth down tight and yanked Casey to one of the small alcoves along the hall set up for phone conversations. She turned quickly and literally pushed Casey into an upholstered red chair. ‘What is going on with you? Have you gone mental?’

  ‘No, I–’ Casey shook her head.

  ‘He was not a pity fuck,’ her best friend hissed. ‘He wasn’t even supposed to be a fuck. He’s a nice guy, in my building, not too hard to look at, a good heart and he said yes. Did you or did you not employ me to find you a bachelor?’

  ‘I did,’ Casey said. Her face was colouring, she could feel it and knew that should she look in one of the hotel’s gilt-framed mirrors she’d see lobster red cheeks under her wind-wisped hair.

  ‘So that is what I did. And you felt something. And you made a pit stop on your way to my place. And you, my darling fucked him,’ Annie growled. But thank God she was keeping her voice low.

  Startling Casey, she dropped to her knees, her bright blue full skirt swirling around her dainty legs. ‘And good for you, honey! Good for you! But don’t twist it all up in your head. I didn’t set that man up to be anything other than a pretty face for charity. And you feel something for him. I can see it on your face.’

  Casey shook her head, blinked away some tears, but she couldn’t quite manage to refute what her friend was saying.

  ‘And as irrational and maybe even crazy as that is – go for it! Don’t run from it. Sweetie …’ Annie patted her knee and sighed. ‘You deserve it. Let yourself be happy for God’s sake. It might not go anywhere, but at least it’ll be a step in the right direction.’

  Saved by the hunks. She saw three of her men file past down the hall. Nick came along a few minutes later, a garment bag slung over his arm. She imagined him naked and smiling and feared she might pass out because she couldn’t get any air.

  He glanced their way and waved. It was a tentative shy wave but his smile warmed her.

  ‘Did you hear me?’ Annie demanded.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Will you stop this nonsense?’

  ‘I’ll try,’ she said.

  And she would. Casey promised herself that much.

  Chapter Six

  ‘OK, GENTLEMAN!’ SHE MANAGED. Her voice cracked just a wee bit and Casey tried not to let it rile her. Her gaze ricocheted around, making her feel damn near dizzy, as she tried to look at anyone, anything but Nick.

  But it was useless and when her gaze settled on his, he looked concerned and still sleepy and yes, sexy as hell. She sighed without meaning to and he cocked his head, giving her a little half smile that said they had a shared secret.

  A shared, sensual, naughty … naked secret.

  ‘Careful, your cheeks are so red I think I might need to go get a fire extinguisher,’ Annie said out the side of her mouth. Her lips barely moved and somehow she managed to laugh without her face moving.

  ‘We’re going to do a final run-through. We’ll go and then the other ladies’ teams will go and then when that’s happened we’ll do a walk-through extravaganza!’ She tried to smile and it felt like her face was going to split.

  His eyes were on her. She could feel his gaze and it was wonderful and terrible at the same time. Casey was afraid she wouldn’t be able to think at all with Nick in the room.

  Her eyes settled on him again and he grinned. That grin went straight through her from the top of her head, zinging a trail through her gut, her girly bits and down to her toes. She cleared her throat. ‘We’re only going to do the patter – which will be talking you up, your stats and all that jazz – for the final run-through. Those things are often abs–’ Her tongue stalled ou
t and Casey heard her best friend snicker as if from a long distance away.

  She clenched her ass to keep herself from passing out, a trick an ex boyfriend who flew fighter planes had taught her. Nick looked amused, too and Casey forced herself to rush on. Even with the flickering image of him thrusting up hard from beneath her. Even when she remembered that shared explosive moment of release.

  She shook her head. ‘Ad-libbed, is what I meant to say,’ she barrelled on. ‘We’ll just sort of wing it while making sure to give your appropriate info. Height, job, length–’

  Damn.

  Annie was damn near choking next to her, covering her mouth with her hand. But her shoulders were shaking and a few of the guys laughed too and Nick – well Nick blushed a lovely shade of tomato but smiled.

  ‘Weight!’ she barked.

  Fuck-fuck-fuck.

  ‘In this order please: Matthew; Sam; Robert; Bobby; Brian and Nick coming in the rear.’

  Annie squawked and this time a full-blown ripple of laughter worked its way down the line. Even the other group of men who were near the far end of the room working with another leader were listening and laughing.

  Casey, bit her tongue and tried to breathe. ‘Bringing up the rear, coming up in the rear, whatever!’ she said, and actually groaned. ‘He will be last is what I’m trying to say and if everyone is done being in Kindergarten we can–’

  ‘Easy,’ Annie warned. ‘They volunteered for this.’

  ‘Would everyone please line up?’ she chirped. ‘Thank you.’

  Annie started to say something and Casey shoved the clipboard at her. ‘Start.’

  Then she rushed into the coat room and put her forehead to the cool wall. Maybe she would save them all the embarrassment of the rest of the day and simply drop dead.

  ‘Hey.’

  Casey jumped but then his hands were on her and she settled, going from spooked to calm in such a short amount of time it startled her. Nick wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled the back of her neck, the side of her face.

  Casey shut her eyes, liking the feel of his embrace, the steady pound of his heart against her back, his breath in her hair. ‘You OK?’

  ‘You should be out there,’ she said. But even as she said it she arched her bottom back against him. She felt the first tentative stirring of his cock. Her mind’s eye showed her Nick flipping her skirt up, yanking her panties to the side and slamming his co–

  ‘I’m coming up in the rear,’ he chuckled and pressed himself against her.

  Casey’s breath died in her lungs even as she started to laugh with him. She really did want him. Desperately. And beyond wanting him, she needed him. A troubling and yet honest urge to be with him had taken root in her gut and wouldn’t release her.

  ‘Can you please …’ She shook her head.

  He bent his head a bit lower and said, ‘Pardon?’

  ‘Can you … can we … is the door locked?’

  He moaned softly in her ear and his fingers slid a bit lower on her waist, the tips of his fingers grazing the top of her mound through her skirt and panties.

  ‘It is locked. So we could talk without intrusion. Annie’s out there getting everyone in line and fixing some stuff and –’

  Casey cut him off by turning in the cage of his arms and grabbing his dark hair. She kissed him, her mouth open and needy, her fingers playing along his belt buckle trying to find the end of his belt so she could tug him free.

  Nick’s fingers warred with hers as she helped him and finally, lacking patience, Casey batted his hands away once he’d undone his button. She shoved her hand into his pants and found him long and hard and hot in her palm.

  ‘I dreamed about you,’ she frantically confessed.

  ‘Was it dirty?’ He kissed down her neck and nibbled the place where her pulse jumped beneath her skin.

  ‘Filthy.’

  ‘Did I–’

  ‘You did it all,’ she informed him and shoved, completely unladylike, she knew, his pants down around his knees.

  ‘And …’

  Casey pulled back and stared at him. His blue eyes were sweetly intrusive and he made her heart skip around erratically. She told him the truth while stroking his cock. ‘I woke up and got myself off.’

  ‘Turn around. Turn around,’ he ordered. His face unreadable and starkly handsome in the coatroom’s dim light.

  She obeyed, feeling a thrill tumble in her belly and a heat unfurl in her cunt. He was going to take her. Just like in the dream. The world seemed to spin and Nick reached around her, slamming one of her hands and then the other to the cool painted cinderblock wall.

  ‘Spread your legs,’ he demanded.

  She widened her stance even as he hiked her skirt up and groaned roughly when he saw her grey silk panties. His hands smoothed over the sinful fabric and Casey was aware of goose bumps blossoming along her thighs. He fingered the elastic leg bands and whispered, his lips pressed to her ear, ‘I’d rip these things but I like them, Casey. And I’d like to see you in them again. When we can take our time. So for now …’

  Nick shoved them down and she stayed there, panties keeping her lower legs about a hip width apart. It would work. It would work … she thought frantically. Casey titled her hips forward to present her ass and open herself to him. So he could slide into her.

  So he can penetrate you …

  She shivered joyfully at that dirty random thought.

  And then he was running the balmy tip of his cock to her opening. Her pussy flexed eagerly. Nick pressed his mouth to her ear again and said, ‘We have to hurry. But later, I won’t want to hurry.’

  She nodded, mindlessly, over and over again. His fingers dug into her waist and he thrust slowly, entering her inch by inch. Stretching her gorgeously so that she panted and chewed her bottom lip to keep herself quiet. She needed to be quiet. She needed to keep herself together.

  Casey scratched her nails along the wall, pushing herself back every single time Nick thrust. Driving him deeper with her motion, getting him exactly where she needed him to be. He rumbled and it was the most amazing sound she’d heard in a long time. There was such a raw and animal quality to it that she felt a quiver crawl up her back.

  His fingers pulled away from her only to be replaced by one big forearm looped around her waist. With his other hand he stroked her leg, her side, her ass almost restlessly before finally bringing it around to find her throbbing clit with his fingers.

  ‘Come for me, Casey. Come for me and know it’s OK, and Christ, don’t run from me this time. You damn near broke my heart. Crazy just 24 hours in … but true.’

  He grunted with raw need, his rhythm growing chaotic. His finger pinched and plucked and swirled until she had to bite her tongue so hard she saw stars because she was coming. Drawn-out damp contractions milking his cock so he slammed hard and high into her once more and came. Gripping her so tight around the middle she almost wheezed. Casey heard herself laughing softly as they peaked and her cunt continued to ripple around him until she felt like she was no more than warm blood and soft bone.

  If not for her arms steadying them by bracing against the wall, she was almost sure they’d have dropped to the floor right there.

  A tentative knock sounded and she had to steady her breath before calling out, ‘Yes?’

  And she still sounded flighty and twittery.

  ‘Um … we’re ready for him. And you. We have been. I hope you’re …’ the words trailed off and then Annie snorted and mumbled, ‘done’.

  ‘If I blush any harder, I’m going to burst into flames,’ she told Nick. And then she pulled her knickers up.

  He didn’t say anything, just tugged the ends of her hair so she was forced to take a step toward him, her skirt drifting back down around her hips and then her knees.

  ‘Don’t run,’ he whispered, kissing her. ‘Don’t run.’

  Nick watched her as he waited for his turn. Twin spots of colour still decorated her pale cheeks and made the caramel coloured
freckles on her nose stand out all the more. He had to shake off the thoughts now cavorting in his mind. How desperate she had sounded. Desperate for him, a realisation so startling it was like a punch in the face. How she’d bent to his will, presented herself, taken him with her willing backward thrusts. How she’d sounded as she tried to stifle her noises. Her fingernails whispering on the wall. The thick and prolonged spasms in that sweet pussy as she came.

  He’d loved the way she kissed him before and the way she kissed him back after.

  The smell of her still filled his nose and if he inhaled deeply, he could smell the mingled scent of them. He smelled like sex. Which meant she did too.

  He caught her looking, her intelligent brown eyes still sparkling with leftover arousal and the glow of release. My God, how gorgeous could one woman be? Her hair was a wild perfect mess and he remembered it tickling his chin as she moved under him, her orgasm driving her clit against his fingers.

  He lifted a finger to his face as she watched and smelled it. The scent of her was all over his skin. She blushed and smiled and looked away – but not for long. She looked back quickly, biting her lip as she called out the next bachelor’s name for him to walk.

  Her nipples were hard buttons pressing up from beneath the thin material of her blouse. He could see them spiking the fabric and even with a bra on, they were so hard that his mind was suddenly full of the image of rolling them over his tongue before biting the tips.

  You’re going to give yourself a hard-on, genius …

  She finally called his name and Nick moved forward on feet that felt numb and heavy. He could hear her, stumbling over her words, cut at first but then what she was saying leaked into his head.

  ‘Nick is an … um … he’s a refurbisher. He’s six foot three, one hundred and ninety-eight pounds with gorgeous blue eyes …’

  She blushed and he nearly stopped on the stupid runway. He felt like an idiot but he was doing it for a good cause as Annie had pounded into his head about a zillion times while trying to convince him to do it. How her friend was so awesome and really needed this and it would make her so happy and …