Page 60 of Purchase Power
“You should. Because you’re a lot like Mr. Rochester. We’re like Pretty Woman meets ‘Jane Eyre.’ Which is not a story I ever thought I would describe.”
“Was the eponymous character in that novel also a sex worker?”
“What? No! She was a governess! Mr. Gabriel…” Lucy turned around so quickly that this time she was the one responsible for all the water splashing over the edge of the tub. “You really need to read that novel before you go around besmirching Jane’s good name. She’s one of the best literary heroines of all time.Of all time.”
“Now you’re making Kanye West jokes?”
“What?” Lucy cocked her head. “Oh… oh, my God. How much pop culture do you know? You remember ‘of all time’ but not ‘Jane Eyre?’”
“So sue me. I knew my priorities long ago.”
“Don’t tell me you listen to rap music. It would break my entire image of you.”
“I don’t listen to much of any music, honestly.”
Their conversation drifted away to absolute nothingness shortly after that. The water continued to deplete until the drain was filled with glittery, golden water. Lucy was the first to get up, droplets dripping from her beautiful body as she stepped out, grabbed a towel and dried herself off against the ledge leading into the shower. Noah had half a mind to take the towel and dry her off himself, but the moment he reached for the towel, he retracted his hand. It didn’t help that Lucy shoved a fresh towel at him, laughing when he dropped it on the wet tiles.
Watch it, Gabriel.The last thing he needed was to show too much intimacy beyond caressing her cheek and escorting her back to the bed.
They weren’t quick to have sex a final time that night. Not when a full erection eluded the poor man. Noah was too engrossed in the scent of her hair and the smoothness of her skin after that bath. The way she left her robe half undone, so he saw the sides of her breasts and the dip of her midriff, but nothing else. So much left to the imagination – and this was a man who had seen her naked almost every day that week.
When she suggested they get dessert for room service, he was thinking baked Alaska or strawberries and whipped cream. Instead, when he was in the bathroom brushing his teeth (preemptively,) she was in the other room ordering chocolate cake and ice cream. It had been literal years since Noah Gabriel last sat down to eat cake and ice cream… and a child’s birthday party wasn’t the excuse.
Or someone with a childlike mind…
This cake wasn’t anything like he had the cook make for Stacey, though. She loved her funfetti and orange sherbet. If the piping wasn’t colored in rainbows, then Noah had to send it back to the kitchen. For her last birthday, he asked the baker to add an edible unicorn with a rainbow mane and a horn made of gold.“Happy Birthday Stacey!”had been written in Candace’s careful hand as the final touch. When Stacey donned her party hat and blew out her candles, she announced that her wish was that everyone in attendance could be with her every day.
Then she cried. Hard.
“Hey!” Lucy waved a piece of chocolate cake in Noah’s face. “Did you miss this? I’m gonna drop it on the nice bathrobe you’ve got on. You want to pay for that to come out of the fabric? Didn’t think so. Open up, buddy.”
Noah indulged her. Not because the cake was delicious, but because he could.
“Hmph,” Lucy said with a triumphant snort. “You can be a fun guy, Noah Gabriel.”
“And you can be a serious woman, Lucy Craig.”
“Not tonight, though.”
“No,” he agreed. “Not tonight.”
They set aside their empty plates and wrapped their arms around one another while the news played on TV. Finally, Noah allowed Lucy to change the channel to something more mind-numbing.Who wants to see reports about viruses in Asia when we could watch her precious “Friends?”While Joey got into trouble yet again, Noah grazed his lips over the white of Lucy’s throat and slipped his hand into her robe.
It took a while for his final refractory period to finally finish, but when it did, they didn’t waste time. The TV played in the background as he threw Lucy over his shoulder and carried her off to bed, where he tossed his robe onto the ground and climbed into hers. The long, languid thrusts he gave her arched Lucy’s back and curled her toes.
Noah couldn’t remember the last time he fucked a woman three times in one night. When he was finished, every last bit of energy wiped from his system, he swore he wouldn’t be able to do it.
Although, that trill in Lucy’s voice as she chided him for making her “dirty” again almost made him want to get it up one last time. She had that crazy effect on him.
