Fixation (Magnetic Desires Book 3) Read online

  "Fuck, Lola, you always were good with your mouth." I hissed the words through clenched teeth.

  She ran her palms up the inside of my thigh and cupped my balls, stroking the sensitive spot behind them. Any control I’d had disintegrated as my balls tightened, my cock pulsing and jerking in her mouth, until my cum coated her throat in quick bursts. I slipped out of her and watched her throat work as she swallowed, a small smile lingering at the corners of her lips. She stood up slowly and started to adjust her clothing.

  "Not so quick." I growled and gathered the straps in a fist behind her back. "We’re not finished."

  Her breath hitched as I spun her around and bent her over the desk. With her arms pinned to her body, her bare breasts pressed onto the wood, I ran my fingers from her clit to the top of her ass. Pushing up on tiptoes, she arched her back to push her hips more firmly into my hands, and I tapped a finger on her clit, making her cry out a sexy moan that had me ready to go again. I shouldn’t have been hard so soon, but seeing her bent over my desk was too hot to ignore and my cock twitched and stiffened. A quick rifle through the top drawer of my desk produced a condom, and I ripped it open, sliding it over my cock as it pulsated with its need to be inside her hot tight pussy.

  Gripping her hip with one hand, I guided it into her, sliding in inch by inch as she pushed back onto me. I could never get enough of her. Shoving the thought back, I reminded myself this was supposed to be a onetime thing, a fuck to remember, the moment I let her go. I pulled all the way back and she moaned at the loss, before I thrust into her hard. Her knees buckled and I gripped her hips, pounding into her again and again until she cried out my name and begged me to fuck her past all reason. My balls slapped against her clit, sending her over the edge, and she collapsed. Gritting my teeth, I hoisted her ass up higher until she shuddered and jerked in my hands and my balls tightened, my release exploding through me in a hot rush. I pulled back, almost out of her, and then I lifted one hand and slapped her ass as I slammed into her one last time. Her yelp turned into the sexiest moan my ears had ever heard as her pussy clenched around me and her whole body trembled with the last wave of her orgasm. The mottled flush to her ass, my handprint in stark contrast, made me grin as I pulled out of her. Tearing the condom off, I tied a knot in the end and tossed it in the trash before doing up my pants, while she smoothed out her skirt and found her shirt.

  I was kidding myself if I thought I could be done with her just like that, not that I'd give her the satisfaction of telling her we would be doing this again soon.

  "Ready to leave?" I asked.

  "I—"

  Taking her elbow, I led her out onto the landing. "This doesn’t change anything, Lola. I still don’t want to hear your lies." I let go of her as she hit the first step, and brushed a tendril behind her ear. "One look at that hair of yours and everyone will know what you’ve been doing." Smirking, I leaned on the railing as I watched her descend and traverse the gallery floor. Hopefully she’d gotten the hint not to come back, because if she put that fine pussy in front of me again, I’d be damn well unstoppable. It should have been easy to be done with her, after all she'd left me, but I struggled to remember that when she was so close. Smacking her ass, the anger, the roughness, I needed it all to get her to run from me again because goddamn it, I couldn't turn away from her when she begged for me.

  Chapter Ten

  Lola

  I rubbed the sore spot on my butt for the millionth time. It still stung from when he’d slapped me as I'd cum. I’d had to go back to work and continue on as though I hadn’t had dirty, head-banging desk sex. Classes had finished and then I’d tried to concentrate on paperwork but my mind kept wandering back to his office and then the way his gaze had been glued to my ass when I’d glanced over my shoulder while I crossed the gallery floor. Things definitely had not gone to plan. When he’d grabbed my hair and locked his gaze with mine, all the things I’d needed to say had deserted me. My resolution to tell him about Tia and why I'd finally found him after the six years we'd been apart had wavered under the desire permeating the air between us. I could tell myself it hadn’t been the right moment, or that I’d lost my nerve, or that I was scared he would try to take our daughter away from me, but it was more than that. Not telling him had given me a reason to go to him again, and maybe he’d take me like he had today. It had been a long time and I missed his touch. Turning out the lights and setting the security system, I locked the front door of Poleverize as Mike drove the truck up to the door.

  "How was work?" He asked when I jumped in beside him.

  "It’s been a long day." I stared out the window, watching the buildings turn into empty tracts of land as we headed toward home. "Is Tia home?"

  "Yeah. She’s helping Mellie make cupcakes." He grinned as he propped an elbow on the door and steered with one hand. "They had a great day."

  "I bet." I pulled the tie from my hair before shoving my hand through to loosen it. The first time Mellie had taken Tia shopping, I’d stumbled into a room full of bags filled with toys, clothes, books, and linen fit for a princess. Tia had been wide-eyed and bouncing off the walls with excitement. It had been as if every Christmas and every birthday I hadn’t been able to spoil her had been rolled into one glorious day of shopping. "I don’t think they’ll ever top the first time."

  Mike chuckled. "I wouldn’t count on it. I counted twenty bags before I came to pick you up."

  "Holy hell." I appreciated that my sister spoiled her niece. She was determined to make up for the precious years she'd missed, but surely there was a point where it was too much.

  "You’ll have to get used to it. Mellie’s got a big heart and a penchant for spending."

  I went back to staring at the scenery. She’d always been that way, but it was better than the alternative. As close as we’d been before I took off, both Mellie and I had a crazy streak. While I’d mainlined boys one after the other, she’d been in control, studying to keep her grades perfect. She was the good twin, the one who our parents adored and who hadn't been able to put a foot wrong.

  I recalled the time when I'd put the blame on her for one of my stupid decisions. Afterwards, I'd found her in my room, holding my favorite jeans and a pair of scissors, which she had been using to cut them into strips. Most of my clothes had gone the same way, a shredded pile of rags at her feet. Shaking off the memory, I rubbed at my ass again.

  I’d been subsisting on fantasies of Leo for so long that to have a reminder of him on my skin brought a smile to my face. I sank into the seat and put my feet on the dash while I tried to pull up an old memory of him and the way we used to be, but that was pushed away by images of him bending me over the desk, and how my body had thrilled at his touch.

  I let my mind wander to the middle of the ocean, where he had stalked toward me, his gaze locked on mine. My heart had done a funny little flip while he gazed at me, and the thought that this man could be the one had flashed through my mind. I hadn’t known what it meant, at the time. Only that he was going to be my ticket to freedom. Then in slow motion, he'd crashed into a young man and stumbled as he tried to right his balance. Instead, he'd landed on his knees in front of me and those pale blue eyes had held me like he was the earth and I was the moon. When he'd taken my hand in his, I'd been powerless.

  "Hello," he’d said and his voice had been a caress to my skin.

  "Hi." I had parted my lips, suddenly more nervous than I’d ever been. The urge to dart my tongue out over my lip had been intense.

  Our gazes had locked, his groping me in the most intimate of manners.

  "Marry me, gorgeous?"

  It had taken so much to remember why I was there and to pull away from him. It had taken two weeks to realize he was my one and that I would indeed marry him. He was the only one I’d ever want. So now, I had to work out what I was going to do about it.

  He wasn't the same man I'd fallen for, there was barely a hint of the old Leo under his hate and anger. Still when he took me in his arms
, I wanted him as much as I had back then. Already I couldn't stop thinking about him and how he made me feel. That had to mean there was something of the Leo I'd loved buried deep inside him, and I wouldn't let go of that. I just needed to figure out how to convince him to trust me and remind him why he'd fallen for me in the first place.

  "What’s going on in that head of yours?" Mike asked as he pulled into the driveway.

  "Nothing," I said and jumped out of the truck. "I’m just tired."

  We crossed the yard and entered the house to find Tia and Mellie playing Go Fish on the living room floor. Tia scrambled up and I gave her a hug before she promptly abandoned me to return to her game.

  "Dinner’s in the oven," Mellie said over the top of her cards. "You look exhausted."

  "I am." Fatigue washed over me and a yawn made my eyes water. Leaving them in the living room, I went to eat.

  "So, what’s going on, Lolly?" Mellie followed me into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine out of the fridge.

  "Huh?" Shutting the door on my fantasies, I focused on what she said. "Things are good."

  "Really?" She cocked a brow and her hip at the same time. A position she'd taken often when we were kids.

  I smirked. "You perfected that move over the last decade."

  "Yeah," she said. "It comes in handy. Now what’s going on? I thought you planned on leaving trouble in the past."

  My lip trembled, while I tried to school my features. I rinsed my dish in the sink. With my back to her, I hoped she wouldn’t see right through me. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

  "There’s teeth marks on your neck. I thought you’d be avoiding men like that now." She didn’t need to add, you have Tia to take care of now.

  I spun around. "It’s not like that, Mellie."

  "I was there, remember? Before you took off. That’s what you used to say then, too." She crossed her arms and pain lanced over her features.

  "I’m not running anywhere, Mel. Please trust me on that."

  "How can I?"

  I took a deep breath, and exhaled. If I wanted her to trust me, I needed to tell her about Leo. "It’s Tia’s father."

  Her mouth fell open. "He’s here, in Reverence?"

  "No. In Carlton."

  "I thought… I assumed she was Brady’s."

  I hissed through my teeth. "That man was a snake, and I never—"

  "So her father, he’s not a nice guy? Does he know about her?"

  "Pour that wine, Mellie. Let’s go out on the deck. I don’t want her to know yet."

  She filled the glasses and we carried them out to the deck, taking seats on the wicker couch. I drank half my wine and pulled my legs up under my chin. "You know her father, Mellie. It’s Leo, Drake’s brother."

  "You’re fucking kidding me?" She gaped.

  "I haven’t told him about her yet. He’s a good guy, but he doesn’t trust me, because he thinks I took his money and ran. I haven't had a chance to tell him about Brady finding me and..." I fluttered my hand over my throat, "...everything else. Until I can I’m not sure I want to tell him about Tia. He probably wouldn’t believe me anyway."

  "Are you going to tell him about what Brady did to you?"

  I cringed, wrapping my arms tighter around me. "It's hard to even think about it."

  Mellie tucked my hand into hers. "He locked you up. He tortured you. I'm glad he's dead."

  I fought back the urge to vomit, my gut squeezing. A strangled sob tore from my parted lips as I stared at her. "How do you know that?"

  "I might not live here with you, but I've been here when you're sleeping. I've heard you screaming. I'm so sorry that happened to you."

  "He was sick. He thought I'd give in to him." I shook my head. "I could never."

  She squeezed my hand. "So tell me how you met Leo. That's a crazy coincidence."

  The chill inside me dissipated on hearing his name. "We met on a cruise. I was trying my hand at conning men for money to get away from Brady and there was Leo. Actually, he asked me to marry him the first time we met."

  She gaped. "You're kidding me?"

  I relaxed into her, resting my head on her shoulder. "I said no, of course. But he was so damn insistent I bet him he couldn't win me over."

  "For the money you owed Brady?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well, I guess we all know how that worked out. The man got under your skin in more ways than one." She chuckled. "So what are you going to do?"

  "I’m going to make him realize we’re meant to be together, that I didn’t leave him of my own free will. But, I need you to do me a favor."

  "Anything."

  "I need you to get one of your friends to go to his gallery. I need them to buy a painting for me."

  Mike came to the back door with Tia, already in her pajamas, and she raced out to say goodnight. "Do you want me to tuck you in, princess?"

  "Uncle Mike said he was going to read me a story."

  I glanced at him, and smiled. "Are you sure?"

  He scooped Tia up into his arms. "You two relax. Tia and I have some serious fairytale retelling to do."

  They wandered back inside, and we drank our wine while silvery stars lit up the night sky. No matter what happened with Leo, I would never leave this place. Tia deserved to grow up surrounded with family. I had to figure out how to work things out with him, because she deserved to have her father, and if the man I'd fallen in love was still inside him, he needed her, too.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leo

  "Good morning, Leo." Alex glanced up from her laptop as I crossed the gallery floor. "We have a buyer for the streetscape. I’ve set up a meeting for two."

  "Sounds good." I dropped the mail on her desk. "I’ll be out on shoot this morning, but I’ll make sure I’m back."

  She went back to her filing as I made my way to the stairs.

  "Oh, there’s a woman waiting in your office." Her voice rose in amusement. "A Mrs. Barclay?"

  I froze on the steps. Either my mother had decided to pay a visit for the first time since the gallery opening or Lola was sitting in my office waiting for me.

  Alex chewed on her manicured thumbnail. "Any relation?"

  Blood pounded through my cock at the thought of Lola coming back for more, and my reply came out gruffer than I wanted it to. "That’s none of your business."

  Taking the stairs two at a time, I threw open the door to find her sitting on my desk. "Didn’t get enough the first time, sweetheart?"

  She crossed and uncrossed her legs, dragging my gaze to the gap that showed her panties. "We still need to talk."

  "Sure." I dumped my bag on the desk beside her before running my hands up over her knees.

  "I’m serious, Leo," she murmured, though she gripped the front of my shirt.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what she had to say. Her convoluted story, the note she'd left, and what the private investigator I'd hired told me had left me convinced she'd conned me. She'd concocted a story that dragged innocent people into a web of lies. Had she even known Brady O'Brien? The man was shady, but that didn’t mean there had been any ties between them. He'd been a convenient boogeyman to garner sympathy. "There isn't anything you can tell me that will change the past."

  "But I want to tell you about Brady, the six years he kept me from you—"

  Sliding my hands under her skirt, I squeezed her thighs and nipped her bottom lip. "Right now, I'm only interested in one thing you have to offer, and it ain’t whatever you're about to tell me. You've interrupted my ability to enjoy other women, so I plan on taking my pleasure in you."

  "They're not lies. I want to tell you what happened."

  "And I want to fuck you before you make me so angry that I'm not in control of my actions." I dragged my teeth over the bruise on her neck she’d hid so well behind a veil of makeup.

  Her breath hitched. "Do you remember, Leo, that second day on the cruise when you told me I’d marry you?"

  "Yeah." I growled, pickin
g her up and stalking around the desk to sit in my chair with her straddling my lap. "You played a vicious game, Lola."

  Cupping the back of her head, I pulled her in for a kiss, but she pushed at my chest with the flat of her palms and glared at me. "I know you don’t trust me, but I didn’t mean to hurt you."

  "It’s done. Now are you going to let me get inside that skirt, or are you going to be a cocktease?"

  She ground herself against my cock, which hardened with the movement. "Please let me explain."

  "Your words mean nothing to me, sweetheart." My gaze narrowed on her, I clasped the arms of the chair. I wanted to wrap them around her neck for asking me to let her lie to me again. I tapped a digit on the black leather as I weighed my words. "They’re full of empty promises."

  She schooled her features, but in the second before her mask slid into place, her gaze clouded with pain and the small lines at the corner of her eyes and over the bridge of her nose deepened. "I will make you trust me again. Underneath all this bullshit you still want me as much as you did six years ago."

  I cupped her cheek roughly with my callused fingers and brought my face to hers. My chest ached at hurting her, though I needed it to be clear there was no love between us. Once before she’d ripped my heart out, but I wouldn’t let her get her claws into me again. "It isn’t going to happen. I’m using you the way you used me. Understand that."

  "You can’t fool me, Leo Barclay. There’s a difference between what you feel and not wanting to feel it. I know you love me."

  Lifting her from my lap, I took my time responding to her. "I’ll make you a little wager."

  "A wager?"

  I stood up and strode to the window, clasping my hands behind my back. "I probably need to join Gambling Anonymous for considering this."

  "What?"