Holding My Breath Read online

  ‘As I’ve said, I think it’s time we discuss the matter at hand,’ she said, though she barely heard her own words through the thump of her heart beating.

  ‘I’d rather do it in a more comfortable setting, if you don’t mind.’

  He didn’t need to say what he meant, and it took everything she had not to slide her gaze towards the bedroom.

  Molly cocked her head to one side and smirked. ‘I can’t afford you.’

  ‘Well, here’s the thing, Sonia, the longer I sit here across from you and the more you fidget, the more inclined I am to waive my fee.’

  ‘Oh, I do have money for you.’

  She got to her feet and tried to ignore the ticklish urge to shiver that ran across her shoulders as she moved to the table at the end of the sofa. The interest with which he watched her was so unnerving. Her back to him, she lifted her purse and took the few seconds she had with her face out of reach of his gaze to suck in a deep breath through puckered lips.

  ‘I booked your time and I’ll pay for it – or, rather, the company will – and we’ll hash this out.’

  ‘It’s a complicated matter. Are you sure you don’t want to at least take your shoes off?’

  She glanced over her shoulder, enough to be sure he was still in his seat, enough to be sure he saw the lack of amusement on her face.

  ‘Last year, Barry REIT purchased our hotel from Taureau-Werner. Their brand is much different. Their focus is less on corporate clients and more on families. Maybe you’ve noticed that the pool has been closed for the past few weeks. When it reopens, the athletic pool will be gone and in its place will be an egg-shaped abomination with a water-slide. The lounge is next. Forget about spiced olives and venison carpaccio; it’ll be chicken fingers and personal pizzas.’

  ‘You don’t sound happy about the changes.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she admitted, shaking her purse and drawing its maw wide open. ‘I’ve been working here since I was sixteen years old. I stayed here because I liked the atmosphere. So, here’s my suggestion for you. You take your business elsewhere, to the Radisson or the Marriott or wherever. For the time being, anyway, Nick will continue his referrals, but you won’t return to the property.’

  She caught movement from the corner of her eye, and jumped as he settled his hands on her hips. He had moved so quietly. She hadn’t even heard the sofa creak as he rose.

  ‘I have a counter offer.’

  ‘Take your hands off of me,’ she said in a shaky breath.

  ‘Just a moment. Just … settle.’

  ‘Don’t tell me to settle. If you don’t take your hands off of me, I’ll start screaming.’

  He gave a low, rumbling laugh that danced over her shoulders. ‘Just hear me out. Give me until New Year’s Eve. Just another month and change, and that’s all.’

  His breath beat against her cheek. She could feel it penetrate the skin and soak into her. It wasn’t as though he had any sort of grip on her; she could have moved aside and just evaded him, but it was as though that hand on her hip was an anchor he used to keep her against him.

  She tried not to think of what he said about ‘unlocking’ a woman. She pushed it out of her head and pulled in a deep breath.

  ‘Why New Year’s Eve? Is that your busiest night?’

  ‘I’m not a pizza delivery man,’ he replied with laughter that skimmed over her ear. ‘New Year’s Eve is my last night. As in, I’m retiring after that.’

  She turned her head just slightly. ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Completely. I turn thirty-six on New Year’s Eve. I’ve been planning this night for a long time, and I would consider it a personal favour if you would let me have it unscathed.’

  Molly opened her mouth to say something, but quickly discovered that she couldn’t come up with anything. She overflowed with questions that had only been slinking around her consciousness since she first noticed him all those months ago.

  Only one poured out: ‘How long have you been doing this?’

  ‘Half my life. I started when I was eighteen.’ He squeezed his fingers into the swell of her hip. ‘Please, look the other way for six weeks, and then you’ll never see me again.’

  ‘Why should I?’

  Molly went still as he dropped his chin on her shoulder.

  ‘We could come to some sort of arrangement,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Are you trying to bribe me?’ she scoffed. ‘Offering to cut me in or something?’

  ‘Or something. I like that.’ he murmured, wrapping his words around her as he said it again.

  Or something.

  The significance of ‘or something’ stole her objection. Delivered in such a soft, coaxing voice and mingling with the heat bleeding through her clothes, ‘or something’ swept her as far away as possible from what she knew she should do this moment.

  He slid one hand forward until it lay flat on her stomach, and what little space left between them was closed.

  ‘You can tell me what you want, or you can show me.’

  She turned her head and felt the heat from his mouth at the corner of hers. ‘I want you to take the money.’

  He made a fist, bunching the front of her dress and tugging it up just a little, until the hem rubbed mid-thigh. Holding her at the nape of her neck, he nuzzled the sensitive slope. Only the faintest burn of bristle scraped against the skin, enough to raise goosebumps on her arms and legs.

  ‘And?’

  She touched her tongue to her teeth. She hadn’t brought him here for this, but that ‘or something’ had made all the difference.

  ‘Or something’ had roused the wicked part of herself she hadn’t forgotten about and missed dreadfully. It whispered to her that no one would ever find out, and even if they did wouldn’t it be worth it? When would she have an opportunity like this again?

  He propped his chin on her shoulder again. ‘What do you really want from me?’

  She sucked in a breath in an attempt to claw back the words creeping over her tongue, but it was no use. ‘I want you to take my money and fuck me.’

  ‘That’s better,’ he said, and pressed his knee between her legs.

  Molly was rendered breathless. Just a nudge, and she felt as though he had completely exposed her.

  ‘I’ll take your money,’ he went on. ‘Show it to me. Count it out.’

  ‘Don’t you trust me?’

  ‘I do. You’ve got a face I can trust, but I like experiencing a woman laying her money out. You can practically feel the temperature rising with each bill laid on top of another. Go on. Count it out for me.’

  The tips of her fingers grew hot as she reached into her purse and drew out the fat envelope tucked between her wallet and cosmetics bag. As she scratched free the strip of tape that held the envelope closed, her skirt inched a little further up, nearly to her hipbones.

  He pushed against her, the tip of his cock poking just above her ass. ‘Count.’

  ‘One hundred,’ she began, pulling out one bill and letting it flutter to the surface of the end table. ‘Two hundred …’

  On and on she counted, one bill after another. Her hands began to tremble and her voice grew thick as she pushed it from the back of her throat. She glanced longingly aside to the water they had both been sipping, then lost the thought as he dug his fingertips into her.

  ‘You’re almost there.’ His words urged her on, but his actions only made it harder to speak.

  The last bill fell, making a total of three thousand dollars, and with it she shuddered. His grip on the back of her neck eased but he didn’t withdraw.

  ‘There we go,’ he said, lips moving just below her ear. ‘It takes a certain kind of woman to pay for a hard cock. The best kind, in my opinion. Then again, I am a tad biased.’

  The sting of his teeth pinched her skin, just long enough to give his words a punch. Molly was completely defenceless as he slipped the other hand down and grasped her skirt. She couldn’t conjure a single objection as he dragged the thick woollen d
ress over her head. She raised her arms and expelled a sigh as the room went dark.

  His words continued as he let the dress drop to her feet in front of her. ‘The thought of using me usually gets a woman wet. I’m just a hard dick to ride, but that’s not what’s pushing your buttons, is it? It’s that you’re just a pussy to me. You’re just something to fuck, just like me.’

  She gave her head a shake as he turned her around, but what was there to object to? Her entire body rebelled against her, silencing her sensible side. She reached between them and yanked the buttons of his jacket, then pushed it over his shoulders. As the garment bunched at his elbows, it struck Molly that in spite of his submissive expression his look was feral.

  She took a long look down his body. As she met his gaze, her mouth split into a grin, and she reached between his thighs.

  So it wasn’t just the swagger, after all.

  ‘“Just a hard dick”? It doesn’t feel like “just a hard dick” to me.’

  Molly closed her hand around the hard column and watched his face as she kneaded its length. He gave no reaction, until she reached the tip that tented against his fly, and pressed her thumb to it. A puff of air and a slight crease on his brow let her know he was enjoying this as much as she was.

  She plucked at his buttons until the shirt fell open. The expanse of his chest appeared to her a little at a time until the shirt was free. For a moment she was astounded at how glorious he looked. She grasped the bunched fabric and hung on, anchored with him in the chaos of her beating heart.

  When he opened his mouth to speak again, Molly reached up behind his head and pulled him down. She needed a reprieve from those delectable words that ignited her like a tongue teasing between her legs. He bowed towards her, and Molly bent forward, mouth watering with the need to taste him.

  At first there was only his $300 cologne surrounding her, reminding her how he made his money.

  You’re just something to fuck, just like me.

  There it was, that salt and heat she’d craved. She swiped her tongue over his pectoral, then crooked her head to close her lips around his nipple.

  He pushed forward and went taut. She was tempted to push back at him and thrust him down on the sofa he’d vacated. She wanted to eat him alive. She gave it back to him, biting down and crooking her fingers to dig her nails into his hard forearms.

  With a throaty sound he shrugged off her hands and wormed out of his jacket and shirt. She gave him another nip and curled her tongue upward, then reached for his belt.

  No longer passive, he slipped his fingers into her hair and squeezed down, drawing her face upward.

  He took her wrists and shoved them to her sides. ‘My turn.’

  He loosened her bra-straps until the cups buckled, then reached around her. The bra dropped. He splayed his hand across her back and, forehead pressed to hers, shoved his fingers past her waistband.

  Molly rose on her toes as he scissored two fingers through the sticky lips around her clit. She sucked in a quick breath and held it, and held his gaze as he tugged up and down, up and down, not in tune with the rhythm of her pulse but making that perfect beat that grew louder and louder.

  ‘I want –’ she said, quietly enough that she could take it back if she changed her mind, and change her mind she did.

  He delved lower and wriggled the tip of his middle finger into her crack. ‘You want … more?’

  She turned her head to nod, but he raised his other hand and cupped her cheek.

  ‘Tell me,’ he said, and nearly toppled her when he pushed a second finger inside. ‘Tell me what you want.’

  The shock of having this stranger, this prostitute invading her pussy paralysed her. Inch after inch slid into her juicy passage, joints bumping until his knuckles brushed against her.

  He pressed his mouth to her temple and whispered, ‘Tell me …’

  She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She was merely forming words without meaning anything. Words were something he conjured as he flexed his fingers inside her.

  ‘Let me hear it, Sonia.’

  He went deep once more, then flicked his thumb across her clit.

  She couldn’t keep silent any longer, nor could she keep her hands to herself. She pressed them to his chest and squeezed her legs around his hand.

  ‘I want you to call me Molly,’ she said, and ran her hands down the hair-wisped surface of his chest. ‘That’s my name.’

  ‘Did you bring anything for me to play with? A little pocket vibrator you keep in your purse, maybe?’

  She looked up at him. Could he really not have heard her the one time she needed to be heard, after she had made her only demand?

  He raised his brows. ‘I didn’t think so. So you’ve brought no toys, save for the one you just gave me: your real name. Another woman might have built a fantasy around it and become someone else and I would have played along even though I’ve known your real name all along, Molly Archer, but you want this for yourself. You want this for Molly.’

  She pressed her fingers into his chest and nicked him with her nails. A rush of excitement passed through her when he flinched, and again as he stroked into her wet passage. Her next words trickled out with laughter. ‘Stop talking and show me what you can do.’

  ‘That’s a good girl, Molly.’ His mouth split into a grin, showing off perfect teeth she didn’t doubt he had paid handsomely for, and he returned his hand to her back. He held her as he pumped his fingers in and out, and Molly laughed again. He was wrong about her name. She didn’t want him to use it as a sex toy. She wanted him to use her as a sex toy.

  ‘I think we’ve both had enough of these.’ He withdrew his hand and before she had a chance to draw a breath, he shoved her panties down to her ankles.

  As soon as she shuffled out of them, he pressed her down into the chair and stood over her. The light from the window was behind him. It turned him to shadow but left the definition of his round shoulders and narrow hips as he worked his belt free.

  She’d always imagined that he folded his fine clothes and placed them in a neat pile before taking his women to bed, but he showed no care with them now. He lifted one foot and then the other to loosen his laces, and shucked off shoes and socks. With just the slightest movement of his narrow hips, his trousers joined the rest of his clothes in a heap that he nudged aside.

  With his thumbs hitched in the waistband of his jockeys, he stared down at her with that smirk still on his face. It was as though he was reading her thoughts, as though he knew she wanted to reach out and touch him like he had touched her, to slide her hand between cotton and hard flesh and feel that magnificently thick cock throb against her palm. Her cheeks were so hot that she was sure her need showed on her face.

  Yet she saw no reason to hide from him any longer, and so she parted her legs just enough to let him see the glisten of her juices.

  A long, low, breathy sound came from him. He moved aside, just enough to come into the light, and he kept his eyes on her as he shoved down his shorts. Molly couldn’t maintain the same focus. She dropped her gaze and bit down on her bottom lip.

  She wasn’t surprised to find him as presentable without his clothes as with. He was groomed and trimmed, fully erect and achingly sexy, and she longed to lean forward and run her tongue through the shine of precome.

  The sorcerer that he was, he took just what she wanted and turned it against her. He grasped his cock with one hand and reached out to run his thumb across her bottom lip.

  With a moan, Molly snaked her tongue out and flicked it over his thumb.

  ‘There we go,’ he said softly, and swept his thumb back and forth with the same rhythm as he was using to stroke his cock. ‘I like a woman who runs her mouth while I’m fucking her, and I love one who likes to use her mouth.’

  He paused and tipped his thumb onto her tongue. Molly felt out of her own body as she puckered her lips and sucked him. He’d transformed her into this voracious thing that couldn’t get enough.


  When he leaned down, she greeted his mouth with the same hunger. He returned it, hands in her hair, licking and sucking to match her and ultimately overtake her. Her lips were sore and swollen by the time he withdrew, but her heart raced and her blood simmered with the need for more as he dropped onto his knees. He merely placed his hands on her knees and smirked as he pushed them apart.

  ‘Well, Molly, here we are.’

  ‘Yes, here we are,’ she repeated in a whisper. She tucked her feet, still in her pumps, on the edge of the sofa. She was sure her need was written all over her body in dark splotches, staining her cheeks, rising on her breasts and splashing the whites of her inner thighs. She could feel every pinprick of heat with the slow stroke of his fingers, and eased back against the cushions with a sigh.

  He snaked his tongue across his upper lip and settled it against his front teeth. A crease formed between his brows as he rubbed his fingers through her slick pussy.

  ‘I’m a bit of a traditionalist,’ he said. ‘I like to make an impression. I can’t think of a better way, can you?’

  He placed his other hand on her mound, and as he parted her slick lips with two fingers he snapped his gaze to hers. He lowered his head, only to stop when his mouth was just above her exposed clit and his hot breath streamed against her. A smile quirked on his mouth.

  ‘How rude. You’ve given me two first names, and I haven’t even given you one. Allow me to introduce myself.’ Once more he flicked his tongue against his lips, and Molly curled her toes against the soles of her shoes. ‘My name is Quinn Pattengale, and that’s the only one I need.’

  Chapter Two

  Quinn.

  She mouthed his name. She hadn’t asked before, not when Nick had given her the number, not when she’d sent those texts to arrange this meeting, and not earlier when he’d entered the room.