An older woman next to me at the sideboard shot me a smile. “Aren’t they adorable together? Ellison and Cate have been thick as thieves for years. They make such a lovely couple. I keep asking Binnie when that young man is going to get to the point, but she tells me he’s not quite ready yet.” Her gold bracelets, similar to the ones Binnie wore, clacked as she reached for some eggs with the long serving spoon. “You two seem like good friends. Maybe you can put a little bug in his ear, hm? They would make lovely children. Just imagine, the heir of York Capital and the future general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s a match made in heaven. Maybe when Marianne gets here, she’ll talk some sense into him. Just look at them. So beautiful and kind. And both charity-minded.” She sighed and returned to her food selection.
I glowered at her before turning to look at the “happy couple.” Sure enough, their heads were bent together, and they were whispering furtively. Both of them had big grins on their faces. It was one thing for this old lady to misunderstand the situation, but yet another for those two to act like the couple everyone thought they were.
I turned back to the chafing dishes and piled a giant blob of stewed prunes on Ellison’s plate next to a pot of sugar-free, fat-free yogurt and a single walnut from the waffle toppings caddy. After returning to the table, I plonked the plate in front of him and set my own down before going to refill my coffee. When I finally sat down to eat, I noticed my plate was the one with the prunes and walnut while Ellison munched happily on my bacon and eggs.
Asshole.
I stood back up and made another plate. My body needed plenty of fuel if I was going to beat Jake’s ass on the tennis court and win a popularity contest against the brilliant legal mind of Cate fucking McArthur.
14
Ellison
“Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy.”
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Grey had been acting weird since breakfast.
“Are you sure you slept okay?” I asked him for the second time. We were in our room changing for the upcoming tennis round-robin, and I was desperate to distract myself from the sight of his bare, muscular legs.
“Yes. Why do you ask?” He grabbed something from the chest of drawers that looked like a bright orange elastic waistband with nothing attached.
“Are you… are you putting on a jock?” I squeaked.
Grey looked up at me slowly and held out the item in his hands. “It’s the strap that goes around my suitcase. Whoever unpacked my suitcase must have stashed it here by mistake. No, I’m not wearing a jock to play tennis. Why? Did you have plans to aim the ball at my junk?”
“Pfft. Me? Pfft.” Oh god, not this again. I bit my tongue and clamped my lips together tightly. Someone needed to change the subject. “So, that guy Jake wanted to sleep with you. With me. I mean, with us?”
Excellent choice.
Grey’s eyes looked thunderous. “Stay away from him.”
“You jealous?” I was teasing out of nervousness, but he didn’t seem to pick up on it.
“No. But that man will chew you up and spit you out, Ellison. Stay away from him.”
“You don’t think I can hold my own with a guy like that?”
His eyes were so intense, my stomach tightened in response. “Can you hold your own with a guy, period?”
“Pfft. Me? Pfft.”
Mother of Christ.
Grey snorted out a soft laugh. “Get your clothes on, Stonewall. I don’t want to be late.”
As I changed my clothes, I muttered under my breath about how I could handle sex, I wasn’t a virgin, and just because sex with a man was a little different than sex with a woman, I was smart enough to figure it out even if I didn’t have experience with it yet. He seemed to be ignoring me, which was fine, but when I was finally ready to leave the room, Grey stopped me before I could open the door.
He grabbed my arm and stepped closer until he’d backed me up against the door of our room. My heart pounded at his nearness, his scent, the inexplicably thunderous look on his face. I wanted him to kiss me again. For… practice. “W-what’re you doing?” I asked.
His chest bumped mine, and one of his legs nudged mine apart until his hip was against my dick. “You can hold your own with a man?”
Grey brought a hand up to clasp the front of my throat, gently at first and then firmly enough for me to feel all five fingers pressing into my neck. His grip pinned me in place, and his strong body was immovable against mine.
With a man? Sure. With this man? I was probably going to have a heart attack.
I stared at him. He moved closer until we were almost nose-to-nose. His voice was low and fierce. “Being with a man is not the same as being with a woman.” He moved quickly to grab my wrists and pin them above my head. I struggled against him out of habit of not wanting any man to get one over on me, but it was clear he was stronger than I was. We grappled for a moment until he had me pinned again. “Don’t fuck around with men like that guy downstairs. You want to experiment with a man? Find someone else.”
I hadn’t really thought he was jealous, but now I wasn’t so sure. I decided to test him.
“Maybe I like being dominated by a stronger man,” I suggested as calmly as I could. The slight tremor in my voice betrayed me, but it wasn’t fear. It was excitement. Hopefully Grey couldn’t tell the difference. “Maybe I like a little fight in bed.”
Grey struck quickly, flipping me around until my front was mashed against the door and his body was pressed hard along the length of my back. His stiff cock jabbed one of my ass cheeks, and I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes.
“Fuck,” I breathed, noticing my own dick was hard against the unforgiving surface of the door.
Grey’s lips brushed my ear. “If you won’t listen to my warning about that guy, then listen to this one: you are mine this week. Got me? You don’t fuck around with anyone else while these people think you belong to me. I don’t fucking share.”
The blood in my body danced a staccato beat in my brain. I want you. I want you. I want you.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, sounding a little squeaky. “Only sex with you this week. Got it.”
I felt the moment he processed my words. His entire body tensed. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been out of my mind with lust.
He stepped away from me with a grunt. “Stop fucking around, and let’s go.”
I stayed against the door for a long minute to suck in a fresh breath of oxygen that wasn’t overloaded with pheromones. When I finally had as much brainpower as I was going to find in this small shared room, I opened the door and stepped out.
Cate was coming out of her room at the same time. “Oh good. Can I walk with you guys to the courts?”
I opened my mouth to say yes when Grey’s soft rumble came from behind me. “Her either.”
For some reason, this made me want to laugh and dance, skip around the upstairs hallway like a fool. But I kept my composure. “Of course,” I said to Cate. “Who can resist the company of a lovely lady on such a beautiful day? Not me, that’s for sure.”
She was wearing a short, ruffly tennis skirt with a matching tank top. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and a tennis bag hung from her shoulder. Cate took her game seriously. She’d been competing in club tournaments back in Connecticut since she was about as tall as her current racquet.