Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

“Oh yeah? Not too different for Mr. Upper East Side?”

“It’s you. It’s perfect.”

I stilled under those words, but he was already getting up and heading to the bathroom to clean up. Hardly casual sex words. But he’d done this before. He was the man who was writing a book on how sex in noncommitted relationships could be part of ethical living. I was probably just overthinking it.

Anyway, I liked that he liked my hair. I liked every single thing about what had happened. I just needed to figure out how to keep this all casual.

Because, when he walked back into the room, fully nude with a smile only for me, I knew it would be too damn easy to fall for him.

Natalie

20

The sun streaming in through the window woke me the next morning. I blinked open my eyes, and the previous night rushed back to me. Penn. His bedroom. Sex. Lots of sex. So much sex that my body hurt when I shifted. And not just between my legs.

But the strange part was…the heater seemingly attached to my leg.

I lifted the covers and found Totle passed out between me and Penn. His unusually long legs were stretched out until he had shifted us about as far apart as we could be and still both be on the bed. It didn’t even make sense that a ten-pound dog could take up so much space. But then he nuzzled against my leg and sighed happily, and I forgot any frustration. He was seriously the cutest puppy in the world.

“You’re too cute. You know that?” I said as I scratched Totle’s head.

“Why thank you,” Penn murmured from the other side of the bed.

He rolled over, and those blue eyes cracked open. And for a second, I froze in place. He was still there. Still right where I’d left him. I knew it was irrational to think that he might have left, even while I was in his place with his dog, but he’d done it once before, and I couldn’t stop the fear from seizing me. But it had been unwarranted. He was here. And he was looking at me as if I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Good morning.” I couldn’t keep the smile from my face.

“Morning.” He leaned across the bed and pressed his lips against mine. My heart fluttered.

“Well, hello to you too.”

He grinned and kissed me again. “Up for round…what number were we on?”

I swatted at him. “I think I should check on Mel and Amy. And you should make some coffee.”

“Coffee I can do.”

He wrapped an arm around my waist and slid me across the bed. Totle grumbled and shifted to the end of the bed. I just laughed as Penn pinned me beneath him, dropping his face into my shoulder. His five o’clock shadow scratched against my skin, and his lips kissed the sensitive skin that he knew I was a sucker for.

“Penn, oh my god, if you keep doing that…”

“We’ll stay in bed all day?” he asked hopefully.

“Possibly,” I said on a laugh.

He slipped under the covers as he kissed and scratched his way down my stomach. I squirmed under his touch, enjoying every second.

He grabbed my panties in both hands. “How much do you like these?”

“I don’t have any more with me!” I cried.

He grinned devilishly and then shredded the underwear between his hands. I gasped in shock as my thong disappeared over the side of the bed.

“I cannot believe you just did that!”

“I’ll buy you more,” he said as he dragged his lips down my inner thigh. “And now, you have to go commando.”

“You’re the devil. Pure evil, Penn Kensington.”

He winked at me. “Now you’re getting it.”

He dropped his head between my thighs and squashed any further protest from my lips. His tongue swept across my clit, relentlessly teasing me. One finger and then another. In and out. My whimpers and pleading were just as passionate. The man was good with his hands.

Dear fucking god. How did he do that thing?

Fuck.

“Close?” he asked even though I was sure he knew.

“Yes,” I practically screamed at him.

“Good.”

He kissed my pussy one more time and lightly smacked my clit with the flat of his hand. I yelped at the shocking touch.

“That hurt!”

“Did it?” He arched an eyebrow. He slapped me one more time, and my whole body shuddered in pleasure. “That’s what I thought.”

He slid back up my body and kissed me. “Now you’ll be feeling me all day.” He hopped off the bed, leaving me completely exposed and a millimeter from orgasm.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked as he pulled boxers and jeans on over his erection.

“Making coffee,” he said innocently.

“If you do not finish the job, I’m going to.”

He left the jeans hanging on his hips and then moved back over to me. He slipped two fingers back inside me, and I moaned.