Page 78 of CHOICE Lover
“What about Chryl?” Electra asks, but her concern doesn’t stop her from leaning into his touch.
“Ignore her,” he says, taking her mouth again, kissing her thoroughly. It’s been so long since he’s been with a woman, well, amanupartner, it doesn’t take much for him to get hard again.
He palms her breasts, and she grinds against him once, moaning. When she doesn’t continue, he grips her hips, moving them so her center is sliding along his length. “That’s perfect,” he praises. “Use me to make yourself feel good.”
She moves, and he matches her tentative rhythm.Too many fucking clothes.“I want you naked.”
“And I don’t want to think about why you’re so good at this,” she says on aheavy breath.
He groans, and for a split second, he curses himself for inventing manupartners. But if he hadn’t, Electra wouldn’t be here with him now. The more intoxicated he becomes with her, the more he’s convinced that he could never feel this way about any other woman. “It’s you. I promise it’s you, Electra.”
“Really?” She pulls back, meeting his eyes.
For a split second, guilt nips at him, but he’s been thinking about it and it isn’t hard to convince himself that his untruths are for her benefit.Their benefit. His overly moral body double failed to mention that the Respectful and Considerate Conduct Course online manual also states that “lying may be acceptable when sparing the feelings of another.”
He leans his head back. Her fingertips trace his lips, and down over his chin. Down his neck. “Yes,” he says, swallowing thickly. “Really.”
It’s laughable that he ever planned to give Electra to Jerme, because she’s clearly meant for him. Once he tipped over some invisible edge, he felt no resistance admitting how badly he wanted her.A real woman.
She leans down, pressing light kisses on his jaw, then lower. “You’re beautiful too, you know.” The whispered words against his neck unravel something inside him, and he isn’t sure the word want is enough anymore.
The air between them hums as her fingers undo his buttons, pressing the jacket and shirt off his shoulders, grazing his overheated skin with such gentleness, reverence even. She watches his reaction as she pulls his shirt from his trousers, then reaches for his belt.
“Yes?” she asks.
He nods, admiring how powerful she looks perched on his lap with him at her utter mercy. “Please.”
As she undoes his buckle, he slips her straps down so the bodice of her dress pools at her waist. “I’ve never seen anything like you before.”He touches her with worshipping fingertips as she did to him moments earlier. Her breathing hitches like she’s feeling the same charge he is. Like he isn’t the only one falling into this inferno building between them.
He wants nothing more than to feel her sliding onto him and rocking, drawing out both of their pleasure. His desire is so strong that he meets her gaze and says, “I need to be inside you.”
The locked door rattles, and Electra stiffens.
He leans up, pulling her close, desperate to hold on to the energy humming between them before the manupartner in the other room drains it away.
Her forehead presses into his shoulder, and she groans in frustration. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this with Chryl in the other room.”
“She’s only a manupartner,” he pleads, though he isn’t entirely sure if that’s true anymore. “Let’s go to your room.” Zorg, the thought of getting tangled in his sheets with her sounds like perfection. Maybe she’ll even let him sleep there, curled around her warm body.
The door rattles again, a pounding fist joining the ruckus.
Electra holds a hand up, stopping him. “I want this, I do. But we need to deal with her, or I can’t.”
He rakes a hand over his face. “I can’t recycle her. She’s not like you, but I think she’s worth studying. She’s learning, mimicking behaviors. The potential implications for my company—”
She leans back as if he’s slapped her. “Your company. Right. I wasn’t suggesting you recycle her.” She pushes herself off him, tugging her straps back up. “I was going to suggest you see if she could stay with someone else, like Tommy. But of course, everything is about your company. Silly me.”
“But, Electra,” he chokes out, his flagging erection the least of his concerns.
She glances at his tented pants. “I’m sure Chryl will be happy to take care of that for you.”
“But I don’t want her!” he shouts at her retreating back. “I want—”
Her stare is so sharp it cuts him off. The question of what he was about to say hangs in the air between them. Then his mouth closes. Somehow he knows anything he says that isn’tChryl goesisn’t enough. As she closes the door behind her, she mutters to herself, “How could I be so fucking stupid?”
The twinkling particle panes are his only audience when he finally finishes his admission, “—I wantyou.”
25 – Contradictions and the Spice
