Temptations - The Complete Series Read online

  “Why?” he asked me. “Serena, you have to concentrate. It’s important.”

  “Malcolm, I’m not a goddamned trained monkey. I think that I told you this. You’re putting an awful lot of pressure on me here, and I don’t appreciate that one bit. I tried to warn you that it probably wasn’t going to work out.” I was, all at once, extremely angry with Malcolm. There was a part of me, though, that started to think that my anger at Malcolm was misplaced. Seeing Slade with the bimbo Charlotte had me seeing red. “I warned you, and you forced me into it, and then, what? If I give you wrong information, I’m going to be the one you’re going to shove under the bus when it turns out that Slade is as guilty as sin.”

  Malcolm didn’t speak for awhile. Then, after a long pause, he simply said “I’m sorry, Serena, but you have to try. I won’t blame you if you’re wrong, I promise.”

  I didn’t have words for the real reason why I was so upset. I felt trapped into this situation, and, as attracted as I was to this guy, I could think of nothing worse than having to stay there with him for another six days. To see him drape himself all over any whorish female who came his way was not my idea of a good time.

  I was tempted just to tell Malcolm to shove it. I was going to go home, whether he liked it or not, and, if he didn’t like it, I’d just quit. There were other jobs. Jobs where my boss wouldn’t push me into a situation that made me feel as uncomfortable as this one did.

  But I closed my eyes, and tried to find my peaceful center. It was there that I usually made my decisions. They hadn’t always been the right ones, but I had found that, ever since I went through intense counseling and hypnosis, that my calm center was right more often than not.

  I finally was able to reach a place in my conscience that made me realize that I did have to see this whole charade through. It was my inner voice that was telling me that I did need to stay there, for whatever reason. “Okay,” I told Malcolm. “But I want your word that I won’t be blamed if this whole thing goes south.”

  “Good,” he said, sounding relieved. “I’m really happy that you made that decision, Serena, because, really, we do need you. I do realize that your insight isn’t always going to be 100%. I’ve seen enough shows featuring psychics to know that. But, imperfect or not, I believe in you. I think that you can get at the truth. So, I’m happy that you’re staying on.”

  I didn’t want to tell him that my scorching attraction to Slade was going to cloud my judgment. That Slade was indiscernible, for the most part, anyhow. That there were a number of factors that made the entire mission that much more complicated.

  We got off the phone and I went into my room, and lay down on the bed and just stared at the ceiling. I imagined Slade and the slutty Charlotte going at it in his bedroom, and I simply cringed.

  This was going to be a long, long, long week.

  I woke up with a start to find that Slade was lying next to me in my bed. I was fully clothed, I guess because I conked out. He looked at me with his boyishly handsome face and smiled. “Sorry to startle you,” he said.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him. “Did Charlotte kick you out of bed?”

  He looked perplexed. “Charlotte. No, she didn’t kick me out of bed. I didn’t give her a chance to. I asked her to leave yesterday afternoon.”

  “Oh. Well, it looked like you and she were very much into one another.” I glared at him. He wasn’t invited to join me in my room, let alone in my bed, and I had already told him that I couldn’t be intimate with him because I was a professional. So why was he there?

  He smoothed my hair out of my eyes. “You must have been tired. I didn’t see you after our kiss, so I came to look for you, and you were already out at 3 in the afternoon. I’ve checked on you every hour, on the hour, since then, and you’ve been out the entire time.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s 8 AM.”

  I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs out of my brain. “8 AM. I never sleep this much at one time.”

  “Well, you probably needed it.” At that, he reached over next to him and brought me over a tray of pancakes and orange juice. “Here. This is for you. The pancakes are probably cold, though, because I brought these up over an hour ago.”

  I looked at him suspiciously but, nonetheless, dug into the pancakes. They were delicious, as they were whole grain and topped with sweet strawberries and a dusting of powdered sugar. I poured some maple syrup on them, and sipped the orange juice. “You certainly do seem to be in a good mood today,” I said. “Or maybe you always entertain women by bringing them breakfast in bed.”

  He looked at me with longing in his eyes. “I don’t know why you seem to think that I’m some kind of manwhore,” he said. “But, if that’s what you think, it’s inaccurate.”

  “Slade,” I said. “I admit that I don’t know that much about you. That’s by design. Malcolm asked me not to read up on you too much because it would possibly prejudice me either for or against you. But I do know a few things, mainly because it has always been like ambient noise to me – much like I know more about Kim Kardashian than I ever wanted to know, because there’s just so much written about her that you can’t avoid it. I don’t try to follow her, but she’s everywhere. You’ve been the same way. I’ve seen your face on so many supermarket tabloids that it’s been impossible to completely avoid you. And the only reason why you’re on these tabloids is because you’ve just about dated every A-list star there is. I’m surprised that Taylor Swift hasn’t written a song about you by now. You’re the John Mayer of billionaires.”

  He smiled impishly. “The John Mayer of billionaires. I kinda like that. He does get some gorgeous girlfriends, you got to hand it to him.” Then, in a flash, he seemed to get serious. “Listen, I know that my life might look a certain way to you, and that’s understandable. I’d think the same damned thing if I were on the outside looking in. But I haven’t loved any of those women. They’re not what I want.”

  I shook my head. “What you want, or don’t want, from a woman is none of my concern. My only concern is whether or not you bludgeoned your business partner to death in your lab. That piece of information is what I came for, and that’s the only reason why I’m here. So, you can date your supermodels, your pop singers and your A-list actresses all you want. I really don’t care.”

  He put his hand on my thigh, which was uncovered by the sheet that was covering the rest of my torso. “Oh, but you do care.”

  I removed his hand from my leg. I had to resist his charms, or I would never get at the truth about Jordan’s murder. “Slade, I told you...”

  At that, he leaned into me and kissed me full on the lips. I involuntarily lay back down on the bed, my head hitting the pillow as his hand was once again on my thigh, stroking it gently. My mind was still yelling at me to resist, but my body was overruling my head. My body was craving this, and my body was telling me just to stop resisting and give in. I could feel myself shaking from the tip of my toes to the top of my head.

  Slade was wearing a button down shirt and a pair of shorts, and I couldn’t help but unbutton the top of his shirt. I ran my hand on his chest, which was rock-hard. I opened my mouth further to receive his kisses, and his hands were exploring underneath my blouse. I realized, perhaps for the first time, that I wasn’t wearing a bra, so he was easily able to gently and smoothly cup my breasts, one and then the other. I moaned and tried mightily to not get lost in him. Not to lose myself in his touch.

  Stop Serena, you have to stop. You can’t go down this road. My head was feeling so many things – guilt, confusion, fear – all of which were overruled by my body, which was feeling pure, unadulterated lust.

  I reared back my head, and he covered my neck and upper chest with kisses. His hands were expertly unbuttoning my shirt, and he finally exposed my breasts. He hungrily sucked one of my nipples, and then the other, and this was a feeling unlike any other I had ever experienced.

  He lay on top of me, his mouth coveri
ng me with kisses everywhere. I found myself spreading my legs, and he took the bait, pulling down my skirt after unzipping it in the back, while removing my thong underwear, and he put his head between my legs.

  I stretched out and reared up as his tongue and lips were gracing my nether parts slowly, then quicker and quicker. He put his fingers inside of me, and I burst into an orgasm almost immediately. He was amazing with his fingers and tongue, more deft than anybody I had ever known. By far. He then started to lick my inner thigh, putting my leg high up in the air.

  I let him guide me, control me. I was a mound of clay that he was molding exactly how he wished. I let the feeling of helplessness, coupled with white-hot longing, wash over me. I knew that he had noticed the faint scarring. He had to have. It was obvious for anyone to see. In fact, he graced his fingers lightly over the scars on my wrists, and his tongue longingly grazed over one of the scars on my legs. He said nothing about these marks, though, but I knew that he had noticed them, and he seemed to attend to each one.

  I didn’t want to answer questions about these scars, though, and I prayed that he never asked me about them. I couldn’t let him know about my dark desires. Not that I was entirely ashamed of them, but they weren’t necessarily things that I discussed with just anyone. Or, really, anyone at all. I wondered if he would even understand, although, when I looked into his eyes, I knew that he did.

  Your pain is my pain, his eyes told me. And you will be healed.

  I sighed as I realized that he not only understood my pain, but that he was interested in alleviating it somehow. As his beautiful eyes gazed into my own, and then ran the length of my body, it was like an absolution. When he put his arms behind my back and lifted me up to meet him, so that we were sitting on the bed, staring at one another, I felt, for just a brief moment, healed. I closed my eyes, and felt the warmth of his skin, and, with our chests touching each other, I felt his heart pounding against my flesh. His skin was burning my own, searing me, yet molding me into him.

  From this sitting position, with both of us naked, he put his hand in back of my head, and ran his fingers through my hair. And then his mouth devoured mine, our tongues interlocking in a frenzy, his lips biting and sucking my own. He put his fingers into my wetness, and he lifted me up off the bed with his strong arms. Without a word, he stretched his legs underneath me, and gently lowered me onto his enormous manhood. I closed my eyes, feeling him rooted inside of me. He filled me up, and he gripped tightly, his hands clasped around my back. He moved inside me gently, slowly and deliberately, as my lower region tightened around his cock, gripping it greedily.

  It was as if my vagina suddenly had a mind of its own. I breathed heavily as he continued to slowly move inside of me. He was kissing me again, his lips warm, moist and gentle. While our kissing earlier was hungry, passionate and consuming, it was now slower, more deliberate, more feathery light. His lips sought my breasts again, and grazed over my nipples slowly. His thrusting slowed down as well, and I sighed.

  I excommunicated the voice in my head that said that there was going to be hell to pay for my transgression, because, at that moment, I only felt ecstasy. Pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

  He laid me down on the bed and flipped me over on my front. His fingers caressed the light marks that were on my back and buttocks, and I felt his tongue brushing them lightly. It was almost as if he were trying to heal me with the wetness of his passionate tongue. I closed my eyes, reveling in the feeling that I was getting from him doing this to me. His cock was no longer inside of me, but was just on the outside of my opening. He was teasing me as he lay down on top of me, his lips and fingers grazing my neck. I spread my legs open, desperate to receive him again. But still, he made me wait.

  I bit my lower lip, not knowing what to expect from him, and the anticipation was making me literally ache. My nether area was tightening in anticipation of his enormous cock plunging itself into me again. I needed to feel him inside me again. It was like when I was addicted to pain – I had to have it. I needed it to heal my traumas. When pain was an addiction, it was worse than any drug. Not that I had tried a lot of drugs, but I had known drug addicts in my life, and my addiction was just like theirs.

  I gradually had learned to live my life without requiring pain, but now, feeling Slade teasing me in this way, I felt the familiar feeling of aching, desiring and requiring something. I needed to have him inside me again, and his teasing me was almost as piquant as the pain I used to be addicted to. I closed my eyes, willing him to plunge himself deeply inside of me and just root there for the rest of time. My fear in needing him in this way, when I barely knew him, was just below the surface, threatening to consume me. To drown me. I couldn’t let it. I had to hold on, and not let my severe misgivings ruin me again.

  I groaned as he continued to tease me, his cock now rubbing on the small of my back while he massaged my neck and shoulders. His tongue found my spine and slowly, in a circular fashion, traced the length of it.

  I tried to control my breathing and my patience, but I could feel the anxiety welling up inside of me. I had to have him inside of me, and I hated that it had become a need. I hated that I was losing control, but, at the same time, giving him control sent me into paroxysms of ecstasy. It was the delicate push-pull that was so familiar to me. It was like a dance, my willing to give up all control, which was always fighting with my intense desire to not allow someone to totally dominate me. It was fear that prevented me from completely ceding control to somebody else, yet it was my inner desire, that I kept hidden from everyone, especially myself, that demanded that I become subservient to passion and lust. It was a voice that commanded me to let myself go and become the servant of another. That I become completely submissive.

  His fingers were still lightly brushing my shoulders and neck, and his hands were on my ass and parting the flesh. His fingers were in my ass, first one, and then two more, and his other hand was lubricating the opening with something sticky and wet. He lay down on top of me, his breathing coming faster and faster, and then he pulled my hair. The violence with which he snapped my head back with his hands, which were clenched in my hair, brought back the familiar rush. I orgasmed mightily as his cock plunged itself into my ass.

  I groaned, as the pain from where he was holding my head in place, his hand still firmly gripping my hair, pulling it so roughly I feared that he would end up with a clump in his hand, fought with the pain of his enormous manhood plunging deeper and deeper into my ass. I shook violently, the extreme pleasure heightened and magnified, completely overcoming the severe pain of what he was doing. I closed my eyes as he broke through to where there was no more pain, only extreme pleasure, and I cried out in ecstasy.

  I stretched out my arms and gripped the brass rails of the headboard. His hands covered my wrists and held them tightly as he continued to thrust in and out. I could barely contain my orgasm that started in my vagina and moved, in violent waves, all over my body. Every pleasure sensor was on high alert. Every hair on my body felt like it was standing on end.

  Finally, he shuddered as I felt him come inside of my ass. I closed my eyes, feeling my legs shaking beneath him. He pulled out, and lay down next to me, bringing me close. Our bodies were melded to one another, and he tightly gripped his arms around me. I could feel the absolute heat of his skin as it touched my own, his heart pounding into my back.

  It was crazy how we were able to just lay there together, without saying a word, yet, in the quiet, I could hear his thoughts. I smiled as I realized that he was vulnerable, his walls having come down completely as he spooned me. He put one long leg over my body, as if he wanted to possess me. Indeed, that’s what he was doing – possessing me. Claiming me as his own. Branding me with the heat of his skin, because his touch was burning me the same way a brand would burn a calf.

  I could hear him thinking, because his emotions, right then, were so strong. You’re mine, Serena. There’s no going back. You want to give in to me, and I want the same from yo
u. Then, as he started to kiss the back of my neck, while his erection was growing once more, he thought some more words. I closed my eyes as I listened to them. You’re hurt, and so am I. I can heal you. And you can heal me too.

  I closed my eyes, feeling the aching again as his cock was teasing me from behind. I opened up my legs just a little, but it was enough. He sheathed his manhood, which he didn’t before, and then he slowly thrust inside of me. He slowly, deliberately, and longingly moved inside my vagina. I closed my eyes, reveling in the feeling.

  He rocked inside me slowly, his hands running from my stomach to my breasts. It didn’t take him long this time, as I felt him groan. He slipped out of me, his hands still wrapped tightly around my waist.

  Then, with a kiss, he said “thank you, Serena. You’re beautiful.”

  I fought back tears as I nodded my head. Inside, the voice was rearing its head. It was saying that this encounter with him was an aberration, one that couldn’t be repeated if I wanted to do my job properly. I had to let him go in the morning. I had to get back to the professional that I was, and try to put this whole incident behind me. As difficult as it was going to be, I had to do the job that I was hired to do.

  But, for that moment, I had him. I had him in my bed, and I had his flesh melded to my own. That was all that mattered. I was going to live in the moment, without feeling the fear and anxiety of what was going to happen with us when he left the room.

  The sun was streaming through the windows and I looked anxiously at the clock. It was noon, meaning that our love-making had been going on for several magical hours. I gripped his hand tightly around me, and squeezed. I felt like I had passed the point of no return, and that terrified me.

  “Slade,” I said. “I know that it’s early in the day. But I’d like to feel you close to me for a little while longer.”

  At that, he flipped a switch, and the room darkened as heavy black drapes descended from the ceiling. It was as if it were night. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. Then he kissed me again, his cock, once again, standing to attention. “Not anytime soon.”