The Apartment: The Complete Affair (An Apartment Novel Book 3) Read online

  “Look at me,” he said softly. He traced the features of her face with his fingertips, rubbing his thumb slowly across her full, pouty lips. He leaned down and kissed her softly before pulling back to look deep into her eyes; warm hazel met smoldering jade. “I had a spare key made today. You’re fucking keeping it,” he growled. “And we’re going to meet here, whenever you want. If I’m not here, let yourself in. I should hopefully be along shortly.”

  Lily blinked a few times as what he was saying to her sank in. “But when would—how would I know?”

  “I’ll be here working most days for a while. Take a chance.”

  “But… don’t you even want to know my name?” Lily asked, a slightly bewildered tone in her voice.

  “No!” he snapped. “And I’m sure as hell not going to tell you mine.” After a moment his tone softened and he continued. “That’s for everyone else. There’s no place for that here. We’re going to meet here and it’s going to be real—no pretenses. We’re going to say what we want and do as we like.” He leaned down to kiss her lips again before pulling away and smiling. “Putting a name on things only gives it limitations and expectations. I just want your body… and your soul. Your true soul that you hide away from the rest of the world, buried behind your name.”

  Lily stared back at him, dumbfounded by his theories. How nice would it be to get away from the rest of the world for a while? Not to worry about dinner or laundry or waiting on her dad and Scott hand and foot. To only worry about pleasing herself for once. The suggestion was extremely tempting.

  When she was finally able to speak, she was surprised that it had nothing to do with what she’d just been imagining. “Um… that’s twice now that we didn’t use anything.”

  “I realize it’s a bit late, but are you taking anything?”

  “Yes, I get the shot. But should I be worried?”

  “Well, I can get condoms if you’d like, but as for worrying, there’s no need.” He looked away for a moment and Lily saw a dark cloud pass over his features. “I haven’t been with anyone in over a year, and I’ve been tested in that time.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, pulling him down to meet her lips again, wanting nothing more than to make that dark cloud disappear from his face. When they came back up for air, they were both panting harshly and the dark cloud was nowhere in sight.

  He moved between her legs again and began to enter her slowly, his earlier madness replaced by a lazy, languorous pace. She welcomed him eagerly, already feeling as if he were right where he should be.

  Two hours and countless orgasms later, Lily lay sprawled across his toned chest, drifting off to sleep. She was weak and sated beyond belief.

  One last conscious thought went through her mind before she surrendered to the heavy pull of slumber.

  This had definitely been worth it.

  Chapter 6

  Ethan woke slowly, feeling rested for the first time in days. His first thought was gratitude for whatever deity had allowed him to nap without nasty memories swimming through his head, but when he felt the warm body that was draped over him, he remembered exactly which goddess was responsible for his relaxed state.

  He looked down at her sleeping face, beautiful in its slumber. Her long lashes rested against rosy cheeks that were amazingly still flushed, and her full lips parted for the most adorable little breathy snores he had ever heard. At that moment she could have started drooling on him and he would have found it cute.

  He still couldn’t believe she had actually come back.

  He wasn’t a fool; he knew that she had been attempting to retrieve her jacket. He’d hoped when he found it on the floor that morning that it might mean he would see her again—he’d bought the bed and had the key made with that thought running through his head. He also knew that she could have simply called the landlady downstairs and asked her to get the jacket. She didn’t have to return to this place, no matter what she had told herself. She had been fishing for a reason to come back. He knew it deep in his bones.

  She hadn’t been ready to admit what she wanted, even to herself—Ethan could sense that. But he also knew that they would work on it. She seemed to like having her decisions made for her by the way she was happy to let him control everything and take the lead, and he could play that game for a while. Why not? It was a major turn-on for him as well. By the time he was done with her, however, he intended to have her demanding pleasure from him without one shred of modesty or shame.

  Having a beautiful woman who was willing to let you control her body completely was hot—to a point. Ethan knew that after a while, it could begin to feel a bit one-sided. His needs would be met, but how would he ever truly know if he was meeting hers? Now, having a woman who could go from submissive to snapping her fingers and barking orders in the bedroom—that was a thing of beauty.

  She had certainly tasted like a thing of beauty. Going down on her had been almost perfect. The only thing that would have made it better would be if she had told him to do it. He loved oral sex above almost any other act, but so many women were embarrassed to ask for it. At least, that’s what he’d heard. He didn’t exactly have a wide range of experience to go by, only Rachel and the fucked up threesomes she would sometimes throw together.

  Rachel.

  Ethan glanced down at the expensive watch on his wrist—a pretentious birthday gift from Rachel, purchased with his own money and intended to showcase his wealth—and saw that it was getting late. He would need to get moving if he was going to keep his family from being royally pissed at him.

  Hating himself for needing to disturb her, Ethan placed his hand on his mystery girl’s smooth shoulder, gently shaking her awake. “Hey, beautiful,” he whispered against her cheek. Her gorgeous eyes flickered open after a moment and looked up at him, taking a moment to focus. “I really hate to cut this short, believe me, but I have somewhere I need to be soon.”

  She blinked a few more times, processing his words, before looking around the room as if she was only starting to remember where she was. The dark-haired beauty then sat straight up, covering her breasts with her hands when she realized that she was still nude. It was a gesture that Ethan found both adorable and completely pointless, seeing as he had already memorized every inch of her bare skin.

  “Uh… no, that’s fine,” she said quietly. “I actually should have left a while ago. Is it after five?”

  “Not yet, but soon.”

  “In that case, I really need to go.”

  Ethan enjoyed one last view of her heavenly backside as she jumped up and hurried into the other room, following the trail of clothing. He could tell from her frantic movements that she was about to start panicking again. He reached down to where his jeans lay discarded on the floor and fished the spare key out of the back pocket. Walking up behind her, completely unfazed by his own nudity, he grabbed her arms and turned her around to face him once she had pulled her shirt over her head.

  “Listen,” he said as soon as she managed to pull her gaze away from his groin and settle it on his face, another telltale blush coloring her cheeks. “I meant what I said earlier. You’re taking this fucking key.” He reached for her hand pressed it into her palm, pausing for a moment, to make sure that she was paying attention. “And you’re coming back.”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’ll be back. I’m not sure when… or how often. Weekends will be something of a problem.”

  “I don’t care how, when, or why you come. Only that you do.” He looked deep into her beautiful eyes, knowing that the moment she left again he would miss them terribly. Slowly leaning down and bringing his mouth to hers, he kissed her softly. “Goodbye for now.”

  “Goodbye, stranger.” A small smile played on her lips.

  As she backed away from him toward the door, he couldn’t help but see that she spared one final glance down at his dick. A deep crimson spread across her features when she saw he’d noticed, which caused it to stiffen slightly under her regard. With one las
t, barely audible squeak under her breath, she shut the door behind her and ran down the stairs.

  Glancing down at the offending member in question, Ethan chuckled to himself. He clearly had no control over what that girl did to his body. Walking into the small bathroom and turning on the shower, he eyed the dark garment bag that hung on the back of the door as he stepped under the stream of water. Rinsing off his sweaty frame quickly, he thought to himself that there was no better sweat than post-sex sweat.

  When he was finished, he stepped out onto the cold tile floor and cursed himself for forgetting to buy some towels. Praying that he’d air-dry quickly, Ethan brushed out his hair with his fingertips, finally giving it up for a lost cause when it began sticking up at odd angles.

  Fuck it.

  He turned around to the garment bag, unzipping it slowly to reveal a designer suit that had been tailored to fit. This one was a dark charcoal gray color and one of his favorites. As he tightened his silk tie in the mirror, he acknowledged that the suit he was wearing probably cost more than the average person earned in a month.

  We must always keep up appearances, isn’t that right, dear?

  He threw on his dress coat and made his way down to the Audi, reminding himself as he got inside that he needed to contact the rental company soon about setting up an open-ended contract. He’d originally taken it out for a week, but now he had absolutely no idea how long he might stay. Living the life of a wealthy, eccentric nomad had left him with very few ties to any one place, so the duration of his visit was completely up to him.

  As he pulled out of the lot, he turned on the satellite radio, already set to one of his favorite hard rock stations. Whenever he was in the mood to start painting again, his musical preferences tended to lean more toward the aggressive side of the spectrum. Except for earlier that day; for some reason, something had made him get up and switch his iPod over from his Painting Music playlist to a new one he’d just made that morning, simply titled Fuck Songs. And as if the reason for his playlist inspiration had been summoned by the music alone, she had shown up at his door.

  Shaking his head to clear it from the images of luscious pink lips and soft brown hair, he directed his attention to the song currently playing on the radio. Startled to find that it was actually a slow song, Ethan paid closer attention. It was by the band Slipknot, which was normally much heavier-sounding. He started to recognize the tune, but as it played he realized that he’d never listened to the lyrics. They were full of pain and hurt, loss and regret.

  OK, that’s enough of that. Ethan turned off the radio, instantly uncomfortable with how closely the song mirrored his own emotions at the moment. He didn’t need to sit in silence for long, though, since he had already arrived at the madhouse formerly known as his parents’ home.

  There were cars lining both sides of the street. Emma had been right; their mother should have booked a hall. At this rate they were going to be lucky if they the cops weren’t called for a violation of some sort of city ordinance.

  After finally parking and heading inside, Ethan looked around until he saw some familiar faces milling about the foyer. One of them was a lithe beauty with a dark-blonde pixie cut, and when she saw him approaching she smiled widely, excusing herself from the group of people she was talking with. A tall, dark-haired man followed closely behind her, unwilling to release her hand as she walked away.

  “I knew you’d make it,” she said, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

  “Did you really ever doubt me, Emma?”

  “Of course not, but Brandon owes me five bucks.” She nudged the man at her side, causing him to laugh nervously.

  “Hey, I only said that I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t make it, not that he wouldn’t. This is a whole lot of people to take in at once.”

  “Oh whatever, you still owe me five bucks.” She turned her teasing smile from her husband to Ethan, her face growing more serious in the process. “I’m not going to ask you how you’re doing again. But please keep in mind that we’re all here for you. Always. You don’t even have to talk about it—we can just hang out if you want.” Dropping her voice to a whisper, Emma added, “I miss you.”

  “Come here,” Ethan said, holding his arms out. Wrapping her in a tight hug, he leaned over and spoke in her ear. “Listen to me. I may not have been around much over the last few years, but don’t ever think I don’t remember that you were always the other half of me when we were little.”

  Emma and Ethan were fraternal twins, but as Ethan loved to remind Emma, he was older by twenty-two minutes. They had been extremely close growing up, going so far as to have their own secret language that pissed off everyone around them, especially Eric. Ethan couldn’t help wondering what his life might have been like if they had remained close, rather than growing apart in their teens.

  “Thank you,” she replied, hugging him even tighter. “But now I’ve got my own other half, and he makes me happier than I ever could have imagined. It makes me so sad to know that you haven’t found yours yet. I’d hoped you had, but…” she trailed off awkwardly.

  He bit his tongue and nodded gruffly. “Yes, well… these things happen.”

  Ethan patted her on the back and shared a few pleasantries with her husband Brandon, who he hadn’t gotten to know as well as he felt he should have for someone who was married to his twin. He vaguely remembered seeing Brandon on occasion, when Emma first started bringing him home with her on her breaks from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but Ethan had already been too deep into his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago—and well on his way to becoming a first-class pompous asshole—to give a shit about him.

  After a few more minutes of idle chitchat, they made their way into the main room that had been decorated elaborately for the occasion. Nearly all the furniture had been removed until it was a wide-open room, perfect for large masses of people to stand around like cattle and exchange stories about his father.

  Making his way across the room, he was stopped numerous times by distant relatives and business associates of his father. The gamut ran from cousins he hadn’t seen since his teens who had come all the way from Boston to an over-enthusiastic, ass-kissing OBGYN who Ethan could have sworn was flirting with him. Over and over again he would pause, shake their hands, listen to the same boring stories and offers to get together sometime, all the while remembering to smile and nod at just the right times. He didn’t know any of these people anymore and he had a hard time hiding the fact that he truly didn’t care to.

  Eventually, he was able to free himself long enough to grab a cup of coffee in the small breakfast nook attached to the kitchen. It was the one area that wasn’t swarming with people. He had just sat down and taken a large drink when he heard footsteps entering the room. Glancing up at the door, he was relieved to see a tall, distinguished looking man approaching him. He was still very fit and attractive for his age, the only telltale signs that he was now sixty were the slight graying at his temples and the laugh lines around his eyes.

  Setting down his cup, Ethan stood to greet him. They hugged warmly, and as they pulled away, neither one completely let go of the other. “I thought I might find you in here,” the older man said with a smile. But it didn’t reach his eyes, which remained sad and full of concern.

  “Sorry, I was trying to get over to you, but I just needed a minute. It was getting to be a little too much in there.”

  “I think that’s more than understandable right now.” He reached up and stroked his hand over the back of Ethan’s head, clearly mastering the urge to ruffle his hair. “Besides, don’t worry about us. We’ll be here after all of this craziness is over.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Where were you this morning? I was hoping to see you at breakfast, but you had already taken off.”

  “I was getting my studio set up. I wanted to get away for a while—this place is turning into Grand Central Station.”

  “Yes, I don’t think I’ve ev
er seen quite so many presents before in my life,” Richard Foster said with a light chuckle. He was a highly respected physician in the small town of Aledo; it seemed as if almost every hospital employee had stopped by the house for a chance to rub noses with the good doctor and bring him a gift. “Your mother meant well by all of this, but I think this party got away from her.” He was quiet for a moment before adding, “Speaking of your mother, she mentioned that you were thinking of staying on for a while to work. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”

  “Well, I’m not sure how long it will be, I just don’t feel the need to run off quite yet. And I haven’t had this strong of an urge to start painting again in a long time, so I want to take advantage of it while I can.”

  “That’s wonderful. Maybe it’s what you need right now to get your head straight.”

  “What do you mean?” Ethan didn’t miss the knowing look that his father gave him.

  “Son, we know you’re not sleeping well. Your mother and I can hear you screaming at night. You have just been through something that’s obviously upsetting you, and you won’t talk to anyone about it. Perhaps this urge to work again is a way for your body to release some of the emotions you are bottling up.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know much about that stuff,” Ethan shrugged.

  “Well, whatever the reason, I’m just thrilled that you’ll be in town longer. We’ve all missed you. I know that you like your privacy and I don’t expect to see you at the dinner table every day, but it makes me feel better just knowing that you are close by.”

  Ethan sighed. An uncomfortable look came over his face. “Dad, I know I’ve been… distant. I’m sorry I haven’t really been around for such a long time.”

  Richard smiled, patting him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t be silly. I know how it is to be young and in love. Sometimes it can feel like nothing else in the world exists. You and Rachel were quite the glamorous jet-setters, with art shows around the world. Who could blame you for getting wrapped up in that?”