Page 61 of Purchase Power
Chapter 17
Whenever Noah wasn’t in the room, presenting Lucy with his body fit for consumption, she sat in her guest suite, struggling to remember the real reason she had come to Gabriel Manor.
A scoop. An article. The start of my great writing career.Day after day, for the whole first half of February, Lucy stared at a blank Google Doc and forgot what she was doing. Her thoughts always wandered back to Noah and the treats he gave her whenever he was in the room. On nights they fell onto their backs, sweaty and breathless, Lucy checked her own pulse and wondered how many calories they continued to burn. On the rare night they got by with oral and a finger to her core, Lucy swore she would die if she didn’t get more.He’s teasing me. Keeping me coming back for more.At least now she knew he could still fuck her even if she took his first orgasm in her mouth – which she did more than once, every time as exciting as the last. She was becoming intimate with his unique physiology. The way he made love. The way he climaxed. The sounds. The smells. The sweet escape that came whenever Noah bent her over the end of the bed and panted into the top of her head. The amazing embrace of being under his weight. The thrill of climbing on top of him for a change and completely directing her own pleasure.
Lucy was enthralled. No, she was more than that. She was infatuated.
There was that Mr. Rochester charm to the man, after all. That brooding, masculine charm that made Lucy weak in her knees and the ice thaw around his heart.I can do it. I can already tell it’s happening. Soon, I’ll have completely changed him.
Those were the thoughts she had when they were in bed (or on the couch… or in the shower…) Not so much in between or after a fresh night’s sleep, when reason returned and she could more critically look at her life. Noah had been adamant that she wasn’t a “real” girlfriend. He wasn’t her boyfriend. This wasn’t about love. It was about sex and companionship. He had bought her time, yes, but most of all, Noah had purchased access to her body for a full month.
Soon, it was halfway over. Outside of that night spent in the city, Lucy had existed nowhere else but in that set of rooms. Occasionally, she ventured out onto her balcony to get fresh air. At one point, she was asked if she would like to go on a walk with Candace, but Lucy declined, because she had finally made some headway into her article…
…Which she promptly deleted the next day, because it was utter shit.
I could write a whole article about the way he pinches and sucks my nipples…Lucy had spent her second Wednesday in Gabriel Manor leaning back over the edge of the couch, her crop top pushed up and Noah’s mouth all over her breasts. The finger working her pussy had brought her to countless orgasms. All the blood had rushed to her head by the time it was over, and she was so woozy with satisfied lust that she didn’t think twice about rolling over and closing her eyes against the couch while he entered her from behind.
So instead of focusing on an exposé about the life of a live-in sugar baby won at auction, Lucy focused on a sex diary of sorts.
“I’ve never met a man who knew how to grab hold of my ass while he fucked me, until I met my Mr. Rochester. Granted, I had only carnally known two men before him, but none of them could have ever learned how to fuck me like that. Do they teach this stuff in boarding school? I should find out if Mr. Rochester went to the boarding school.”
Occasionally, she rejoined the real world to call or video chat with her sister. Lacey had stopped asking so many questions about what Lucy was doing… until Lucy got online a mere half hour after Noah had stopped by to have his way with her.
“…Damn, sis, you look like you embarrassed yourself at the gym. What’s up?” Lacey asked.
Lucy had to think fast. Was it her fault she was still thinking about the taste of Noah’s cock?I know every inch of that beast now.She was damn proud of it, too. “I just got out of the shower,” she lied. “What about you? What the hell happened to your face?”
“Pardonmoi?”
“Oh, sorry. Thought I saw a rash on your face or something.”
If there was one thing Lucy was good at, it was deflecting. Especially with her little sister, who was the first to defer to whatever subject Lucy wanted to talk about. Sure, it had become harder as Lacey grew up and acquired a life of her own, but was itthatcrazy to assume Lucy had pull over the girl she had to explain the birds and the bees to when they were still in middle school?Fun with having a single parent…Sometimes, Mom was out of town on business, and the only person to watch them was the elderly neighbor who popped in twice a day to make sure they went off to school… and came back home. Perfect time for Lacey to start her period, and for Lucy to really earn her Big Sister badge.
The call with Lacey gave Lucy an idea, however. Late Thursday afternoon, when Noah came by to taunt her with promises of more for later, he asked her what she wanted most.
“I’d love to have a visitor,” she said. “Lacey would go nuts for the city.”
She assumed Noah would say something akin to “no fucking way.” Instead, he gave her a thoughtful look and said, “I’ll think about it. There are security matters, of course.”
“Of course.” For the first time in nearly a week and a half, Lucy watched after him with a roll of her eye instead of insatiable lust.
She had almost forgotten the strange goings-on of Gabriel Manor, which she still referred to as Thornfield Hall in her notes. Candace had warmed up to her, or so Lucy swore. Maybe they were simply used to each other by now. At least Lucy wasn’t convinced that Candace was a soulless Alice going about her business.
Then something strange would definitely happen, and Lucy was back to realizing that this was a potentially dangerous situation.
It began Wednesday night, as soon as Lucy took off her clothes to hop in the shower before bed. She was down to her underwear when a fervent knock appeared at her door.
Didn’t sound like Noah at all. Definitely not Candace. Lucy flung a robe over her body, cinched it around her waist, and slowly approached the door with so much trepidation that she almost forgot how to walk. Did she know that something wasn’t right? Did she know that this might change the course of her relationship with Noah?
Yes. Unfortunately.
“Uh…” She cracked open the door and saw a girlish face on the other side. “Hi. Who are you?”
“Hey!” A hand shook her in face, followed by perfectly white teeth that smiled in generous friendliness. “You’re the lady living in Noah’s old room!”
Lucy took a step back, but did not open the door any farther. To do that was to invite this nosy stranger into her suite. “I beg your pardon?Whoare you?”
“Oh, my goodness!” Candace ran up behind the young woman and took her by the hand. “I am so sorry, Ms. Craig. Please, do not mention this to Mr. Gabriel. Please.” The girl was yanked away, her protests as childlike as the Disneyland print on her T-shirt.
