Styled (Travesty Book 4) Read online

  It was the wariness in her expression that had me hesitating. “What’s wrong?”

  “I need to know something. The other day. In your garage. That wasn’t…because you just found out your ex got engaged?”

  I blinked, the last of any jealousy falling away. “What? No.” I forced myself to take a step back. “You thought that was why I was attracted to you.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Believe me. That’s not it. Not even a little.”

  Jordan’s eyes were uncertain, like she couldn’t decide on a response. “Well…then why?”

  I stepped into her. “Because you’re always two steps ahead of me. Because you’re sarcastic without being mean. Because you’re sexy as fuck.”

  I needed her to know it was true.

  So I showed her.

  Her lips were cool from the water when I pressed my mouth to hers. Forced her to open under me. She moaned and my brain lit up like a winning slot machine.

  I jerked Jordan’s tank over her head, ignoring the water running off it and dropping it in the pool with a slap. Fuck, the suit looked just as good as before. And now we weren’t in public.

  “Shit, Jordan. I want you so bad.”

  My hand traced a line down her neck. Over the slow cleavage before dipping under the triangle top. Her breast just filled my hand, and I squeezed it. Jordan’s eyes drifted shut as she swayed against me.

  There were so many things I wanted to do to her, with her.

  “Tell me you want me,” I murmured in her ear.

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me why.” I pretended it didn’t matter.

  When I rubbed her tight nipple with my thumb, she jerked under my hands.

  She met my eyes, blinking against the light. Her hands reached for my biceps. Tightened on them. “Because I’ve never felt they way I feel when you’re touching me.”

  My lips found hers, desperate and needy. My shirt came away first, lost in the depths of the pool. Then her shorts. My pants. Somehow my shoes had already come off, their dark shadows lurking on the bottom of the pool like black fish.

  “We’re going to do this here?” she breathed as I pulled her almost-naked body against me.

  “Another lesson, Jersey. Pools in New York might be for swimming. Here they’re for fucking.”

  I jerked at the knot at the back of her neck, pulling the top down and letting her breasts free. Both filled my hands and I squeezed, my fingers playing with her nipples as she braced against the edge of the pool.

  Her head fell back, wet hair dripping on the tiles lining the deck. I was harder than I could remember, just from touching her, from watching her eyes darken when I did.

  Maybe this was just sex for her. But if this was the only opportunity she’d give me to rock her world?

  I wanted to tear us both apart with it.

  “You know the second you took that shirt off this morning, all I could thing about was doing this?” I was greedy for the gasp she gave me when I pinched one tight peak. On a dare, I did it again to the other, harder. This time her moan went straight to my cock, beyond ready and pressed against her stomach. “And wondering if under here—” one hand stroked down her side to the tie on her bikini bottoms, tugging at it until it all but gave way “—you were as wet for me as I was hard for you.”

  I needed to be closer to her. To be inside her already. But I forced myself to go slow.

  Not because I was patient.

  Because I wanted her to beg me for it.

  My fingers slid beneath the edges of her suit. I filled my greedy hands with her ass, and Jordan groaned. Her legs wrapped around me, squeezing like I wasn’t close enough.

  Processing feelings might not have been easy, but this I could do. Weightless, everything was easy. I could touch her everywhere, have her everywhere.

  My cock pressed against her stomach. She rubbed against me, tentative at first, then harder.

  “Tell me you want me inside you,” I muttered against her ear.

  Jordan nodded and I rubbed harder against her, pressing against her clit with my cock while my fingers squeezed her ass. “Yes.”

  Impatient, I pressed two fingers against her pussy while one brushed further back. Her eyes went wide but her back arched.

  “You like that, don’t you?”

  I kept rubbing against her with that third finger while her body clenched around the first two. I expected her to stop me. But I wanted to push her, wanted to take her past her comfort zone the way she’d unknowingly done to me. Made me feel things I hadn’t wanted to feel, and sure as hell hadn’t asked for.

  Her fingers tightened around my neck, and her eyes glazed. The wheels turned in that mind of hers, while water dripped off the edges of her hair. Her chin, just inches above the water line.

  She was needy and turned on. I shifted to pin her up against the edge of the pool with my body and my fingers started to move.

  Her low sigh ended on a moan that twisted the need in my gut even tighter.

  Fuck, this girl took me apart. It might’ve looked like I was the one in control, but it was all her. I was a slave to every shiver of her skin, every moan from her lips.

  I worked into her, finding a rhythm. When my thumb settled on her clit and her breathy moans doubled in volume.

  The pace was slow at first, then built. I was mindless, focused only on her pleasure. Soon she was breathing in time to my strokes. It was the best fucking high.

  I knew she was close from the way she was chanting my name.

  “Ethan…” she moaned in that low voice, her hands gripping my arms. “Oh my God…”

  Jordan cried out, her body clenching around my fingers. I didn’t move, just watched her. Imprinted every feeling, every sight on the back of my brain so I could watch it again. It was fucking beautiful to see the feelings wash over her.

  She fell back against the edge of the deck, panting.

  She looked spent but this wasn’t over. Not even close.

  “Turn around,” I murmured. “Spread your legs.”

  I expected her to resist, but she didn’t. Not even as I pulled down her bikini bottoms, the only thing between us.

  My gaze ran over her pale skin. The curve of her shoulders, her waist. Her ass and those perfect legs.

  My hand slid back between her thighs, stroking her. Finding her again. Pretending I wasn’t mindless with the need to feel her squeeze my cock.

  She gripped the side of the pool, and I lifted her wet hair and laid it over one shoulder, dropping a kiss on her exposed skin.

  My cock was already painfully hard when I pressed inside her. Claiming her.

  Pure satisfaction filled me even before she moaned.

  Jordan felt like she was built for me. I hadn’t even considered a condom, because I was a selfish ass and couldn’t imagine being with her again and not feeling her with nothing between us.

  I should’ve waited for her to adjust to me. For the moment her breath stopped coming in shallow little pants.

  But I didn’t.

  I needed to make her feel. Feel me. Feel us.

  My fingers reached around to find her clit as I drove into her from behind. She cried out, her knuckles going white on the side of the pool.

  Again.

  My breath hissed out of me at the sensations of her surrounding me. This girl was so fucking tight and I was already wrestling with my control again.

  Every stroke she squeezed me, like she wasn’t ready to let go. Every stroke my mind went blank, all I could think about was how good she felt.

  “You’re feeling every damn inch of me right now, aren’t you?” I murmured in her ear.

  Water splashed up against the pool liner in time with our strokes, spilling onto the tile.

  Last time we’d been fast and furious, chasing our release. This time…

  This time I wanted to make her beg. Make her scream. Make her know without a doubt that only I could give her this.

  My gaze dropped to where we were join
ed and new chemicals coursed through my veins. It was fuck-hot watching her take me. The water made it harder, just enough drag to drive us both crazy. Holding me against her, then away.

  When she turned to look over her shoulder, it wasn’t coy. It was as if she needed to see me. Needed my reassurance, or just needed me. The look in her eyes said she was close, and that shoved me closer to the edge.

  I buried my lips in her neck, losing myself in her citrus scent. I changed the angle, one hand digging into her hip and the other squeezing her breast. She was everywhere. Everything. And even though I was the one calling the shots, it was all for her.

  The tension in my body was unmanageable. I held on, desperately gripping to my control. “Jordan. This time, you’re going to come on my cock. And when you do, you’re going to say my name. Understand?”

  I twisted her nipple lightly and she trembled, gasping.

  “Yeah,” she panted.

  “Good.”

  I kept her there, not letting her go over or come down. Forced her out on that ledge that had her body squeezing me like she wanted to wring my orgasm from me first.

  Not fucking likely.

  A sick satisfaction worked through me. We walked that tightrope of need, her begging to fall off the edge, me holding her on it. I’m not into mind games but I wanted her to feel, wanted her to know I could do this to her. For her.

  And maybe I wanted to know it myself.

  Her body fluttered with every flick of my fingers, every stroke of my cock. Her hands shook on the edge of the pool and her muscles had gone tight everywhere.

  Just.

  A little.

  Longer…

  “Come.” I muttered, catching her ear between my teeth.

  Jordan detonated around me, my name on her lips and her sweet body clenching mine until I felt my balls tighten past the point of pain.

  I groaned as my arms banded around her. Every muscle in me tightened, and I lost the last thread of my control. My own release ripped through me, and I spilled myself deep inside her. Needing her to take every last drop of me in.

  My body collapsed over hers, my fingers stroking hers as the tremors worked through us. I felt like I could drown in that moment, my legs giving way until I sank to the bottom of the pool with the clothes I’d long forgotten.

  It was a minute or more before I pulled out and shifted back against the side of the pool. My elbows braced on the warm tile as I sucked in ragged breaths. Jordan was next to me, her head braced on her arms, her face tipped toward me.

  “You OK?” I murmured.

  Her eyes stayed closed, and a seed of regret took hold in my gut. “Jordan.” I brushed the wet hair out of her face. “Are you all right?”

  Maybe I’d taken things too far. Been too hard on her. Shit—

  She groaned and the tension in my body loosened. “Just give me an hour. Or maybe a year.”

  I stroked her cheek absently, taking in the way the sun played over her skin. Her hair, soaked to the color of caramel.

  Barking startled me from my haze and I turned toward the dog run. Axe’s dog was eyeing us with menace from thirty feet away. “Do you think he watched all that?”

  Jordan lifted her head like it was made of stone, following my gaze. “Probably,” she agreed in that low voice I loved. “Perv.”

  Maybe I’d been trying to fuck my way into her heart. Or to fuck her out of my head.

  I wasn’t sure if the first had worked.

  The second, I realized uneasily, had been an absolute failure.

  My eyes shut as I basked in the cool water, the warm sun, and her.

  25

  Jordan

  “Sure. Yeah, I understand that’s a problem. Let me call you back.” I hit “end” on the phone. It slipped from between my shoulder and ear, and I caught it between the two wrapped burritos in my hands.

  My to-do list was ten miles long. But for once, I didn’t care.

  This should’ve felt like any other normal day.

  I’d gotten up. Gone for a run. Worked online.

  Or at least tried to. I’d mixed up two suppliers because I was distracted. Then started on the paperwork for our new manager and couldn’t find the files I’d started.

  None of that had anything to do with the fact that Ethan and I had hooked up in his client’s pool yesterday.

  “Hooked up” suddenly felt like the wrong words to describe it. From the second he’d backed me against the side of the pool, his eyes darkening with heat, he’d taken me over.

  Ethan acted like my body was his, and I was just borrowing it.

  The craziest part was that I’d gone along with it. I’d given myself up to him, let him touch me and kiss me and hold me in ways I’d never envisioned. I needed to see what he could make me feel, and knowing that I could feel that alive…that was the best gift I’d ever been given.

  I’d never been wanted like that. Guys had always ignored me. When they showed an interest, it was because they needed me for something.

  Dave, my first “boyfriend,” had been a compassionate arrangement. The son of a Senator, he hadn’t been out, and our school was full of assholes.

  In some ways he’d been the perfect boyfriend for me too: no expectations, plus the fact that we were dating kept everyone off both our backs.

  With Colton, we might’ve been friends once, but in the end he’d used me.

  Ethan, though…Ethan didn’t need me. Not for anything.

  But damn if I didn’t love how he wanted me.

  After getting out of the pool yesterday, we’d borrowed towels and wrapped them around ourselves while we dried our clothes in the laundry room. We’d joked and talked until Ethan tugged at my towel, lifted me onto the clothes dryer, and made good on that physical promise one more time.

  Then I’d been starving, so he swung by a smoothie place and picked up a berry shake for me and a green monster for him before dropping me off.

  Once I’d staggered into my apartment and shut the door, I’d done something I never did.

  I’d looked at myself in the mirror.

  My face. My hair. My boobs. My hips. My legs. My toes.

  I didn’t look different, minus the haircut.

  But I felt different.

  I don’t like admitting I’m wrong. Still, I was ready to confess that my idea of sex had been completely off-base. Any of my past experiences with Colt, or getting myself off—because let’s be honest, I’m not experienced but I’m not a nun—had been utilitarian at best.

  There was nothing utilitarian about sex with Ethan. It was raw and luxurious at once. Like walking through a blizzard, wrapped only in silk. The edge just made the sweetness even more exquisite.

  Though deferring to someone else had never been a strong point, there was something hot as hell about complying when Ethan told me to come. Especially when he was buried inside me so deep I couldn’t tell where I stopped and he started.

  It wasn’t about following a command. It was about fulfilling a need, a need that had arisen from nowhere inside both of us. A challenge only I could meet for him, and he could meet for me.

  Anyone who says sex is just physical has to understand that the brain is a physical organ too.

  And mine had been filled with thoughts of Ethan.

  When I’d fallen into bed last night.

  In the shower this morning.

  While I’d stood in line at the café getting coffee.

  Which was why I’d given up on work and texted to see if Ethan was in the office for lunch.

  I rode Ethan’s bike to the address he’d sent me. I was getting addicted to the feel of the Ducati under me.

  That’s the only thing you’re getting addicted to.

  Hence the anticipation as I brushed through the front doors of the office. “Can I help you?” the woman at the front asked.

  “I’m looking for—”

  “There you are,” Ethan said smoothly, rounding a corner. “I’m stealing this girl. And whatever is in h
er hands.”

  The woman behind the desk chuckled.

  His hand found mine and he tugged me down the hall and into a glassed-in office. Shut the door.

  Before turning, taking in my jeans and jacket. “God, I like a girl in leather.”

  “It’s your leather,” I pointed out.

  “Even better. And you brought me lunch? Damn, I think I’m in love.”

  My gaze flicked to his. The casual words had my heart tripping. “I had no idea you were so easy, Cameron.”

  “I am absolutely that easy.” He took the burrito I handed him.

  I glanced down at his desk, the plans spread out on it. “Is this it? Your development?

  “Yup.”

  I took a seat in the chair facing his desk, lifting a brochure in my hands. “It looks amazing.”

  “Only the best for the future residents of Aqua at Pacific Palisades.”

  “It’s quite the lifestyle.”

  He unwrapped his burrito. “I have a question for you. Do you think you need to buy into the lifestyle you’re selling in order to sell it?”

  “My dad thinks you could be vegan and still sell the world’s best hamburgers. But I’m not so sure.” I took a bite of my lunch, chewed and swallowed. “I think there’s a difference between believing in what you sell and being what you sell. I believe in Travesty. I believe people deserve to express themselves through fashion. I love that Ava designs clothes that let them do it, that Lex helps make it happen. We give people creative options that are responsibly produced. I want to be able to stand for something, stand behind something.”

  Ethan watched me a moment before responding. “I believe in this project. The condos. Sure, the money doesn’t suck. But the environmental upgrades mean they have a quarter of the footprint of most detached homes on the Westside.”

  “I hadn’t pegged you for an environmentalist.”

  “I’m not. But I see how much waste there is. Temperance isn’t exactly commonplace in LA.” He took in my expression, reaching for his drink. “What, you’re disappointed I’m not more shallow?”

  “Not at all.”

  I wasn’t disappointed. There was way more to Ethan than he let on. When you looked past the exterior—which was hard to do, given the fact that his exterior was enough to fuel some serious fantasizing—he was hardworking. Smart. And, when he wanted to be, he could be sweet.