Vain - Part Two (The Vain Series Book 2) Read online

  "I hate sandwiches," he chuckles as he pulls himself up. "We could get a pizza?"

  "Noah." I steel a breath before I continue, "I'd like to go out to eat."

  The glint in his eye dims at the words. "I can't, Alexa."

  I think for a brief moment about how to respond. "Why did you go to New York? There were a lot of people there."

  He walks towards me, stopping briefly to pick up a wayward magazine that had fallen off the coffee table when he pushed against it, moving it out of our way as he carried me to the couch. "I know all those people."

  "All of them?"

  "They don't care about it." He doesn't expand on his response but I know the true meaning within the words.

  "They don't care about your scar," I whisper back. "People won't care about it if we go out."

  "I'll care about it," he snaps back as he brushes past me. "I'll get the take out menus. You can choose what we eat."

  ***

  "I'm going to tell you something, Sadie, and you're not going to freak out." I glare at her across the table in Axel Boston. "Promise me you're going to hold it together."

  She's on her feet in a flash, bouncing up and down as she jumps in joyful glee. "You're pregnant, aren't you? I can't wait to tell Hunter."

  I roll my eyes and pat the edge of the table. "Sit back down. I'm not knocked up."

  "What?" She slowly lowers herself back into the chair, the glint that was in her eyes just a moment before, now replaced with unmistakable disappointment. "I thought we were going to have a baby."

  "That's a subject you need to bring up with Hunter's cock." I tip my chin towards her. "You two should get on top of that tonight. Or you could get on top. Or whatever the hell boring, old, married couples do when they get it on."

  "I like it from behind."

  "Gross, Sadie." I pull my hands to cover my ears. "Never tell me again what you and Hunter do in bed. TMI."

  She pulls her hand to cover her mouth as she lets out a series of high pitched giggles. "If you're not pregnant, what then?"

  "Promise first." I stick out my pinky finger, reverting back to when we were eight-years-old and would pinky swear. "Promise you're not going to go crazy when I tell you this."

  She loops her small finger through mine and nods her chin. "I promise."

  "I'm sleeping with Noah Foster." I blurt the words out in a frenzied rush.

  "Oh that?" She leans back in her chair, placing her hands on her lap. "I thought you were."

  "What?" I shake my head wondering if I'm hearing her right. "You knew?"

  "He kept calling here asking for you to bring him a sandwich." She raises one brow, "Bernie told me Noah hates sandwiches and only orders them so he can chat with Bernie."

  I sit in stunned silence. When did she figure it out and why the hell didn't she tell me she had? "Why didn't you say something?"

  "Like what?" She shrugs. "He's a recluse. He probably made you sign something that says you can't talk about him. I read online that he does that."

  "You read online that he makes his lovers sign things?" I parrot back, hoping that she doesn't see the truth within the words when I say them.

  "Or his models." She sighs." Something like that. I'm just glad you're not one of them."

  "One of who?" I ask, already knowing what her answer will be.

  "At least you never modeled for him." She pushes her chair back from the table. "The last thing a teacher needs is naked pictures of herself floating around."

  Chapter 7

  "Why were those women's faces showing in the gallery photographs?" I take a sip of the coffee I brought with me to Noah's apartment. "You told me that you never take pictures of faces."

  He pulls the plastic lid off his cup and blows on it. "I told you that I don't photograph faces. I don't." He takes a small taste from the cup. "I photograph women's bodies and sometimes a part of their face becomes vital to the story the image is telling."

  "Your contract says you can't publically show any part of the woman's face," I push. That point has eaten at me since I saw the photographs on display in the gallery. I was horrified when I thought he broke our contract to show my face. He must have to deal with the legal and emotional ramifications of showing all those women's faces.

  "No." The word is steady and clipped.

  "No?" I repeat back. "I can show you my contract. It clearly says that." I know that fact without any reservation since I've read my contract repeatedly. Sadie's words about Noah photographing me have been haunting me. When we stop sleeping together he'll still own the rights to the pictures he took of me. I have to be certain that he can't ever show my face to anyone.

  "Your contract says that," he corrects me. "The women in the gallery had a much different contract than you."

  My chin lifts at the confession. "What? Why?"

  He moves to place the paper cup onto the coffee table. "Do you remember the night we met?"

  I nod my head while I examine his face waiting for him to continue.

  "When you first got here I thought you were an escort." He rubs the back of his neck with his right hand, causing his bicep to flex. He's stunning. I have to put in effort to pull my gaze from his body back to his face.

  "I remember," I chuckle. "You wanted to know how much."

  "I had a contract ready that night. I always do when I call for a girl…" he stops himself, pulling his tongue across his bottom lip before he continues. "I always did when I called for a girl. I haven't called for one in weeks."

  I take comfort in the tender confession. We've never spoken of the litany of call girls who have graced this apartment. I'm not naïve enough to believe that the one I crossed paths with during my first visit here, was the only one he called for. It was the way he satisfied his cravings. Up to this point, I hadn't wondered if it still was. I'd only assumed he'd given it up.

  "I'd call for one and then wait for her to arrive." He pulls his palm across his bare leg. "If I thought she'd be perfect for one of my showings, I'd give her the contract and ask her to come back with it signed and notarized."

  I take a sip of my coffee to try and mask my expression. He can see the question that's lingering behind my eyes. I know that he can.

  "If I didn't think she'd work within my show, I'd fuck her." There's no hesitation in the words. They're clipped, direct and hurried.

  "When I got here that night…" the question is there, waiting on my tongue but to form the words takes more courage than I have at this point.

  "I wanted both so desperately." His fingers touch the tip of his growing erection.

  I stare down at myself. My body still fully dressed in a pair of jeans and a black sweater. "You said we were going to fuck." The words sound needy and harsh. My sex clenches at the reminder of his declaration that night.

  "When I opened the door and saw you, I knew I had to fuck you."

  "What about those women in the gallery show?" I level my gaze at his face, trying not to look down at his crotch. "What about Amy?"

  "What about them?" He leans back, his hand dropping to his cock, his fingers grazing over the tip.

  "They all agreed to let you show their faces?" I press on, knowing if I don’t ask the question right now, it's going to free fall between the cracks and I'll never get the answer I want. "Did you fuck any of them?"

  He cocks a brow and bites his bottom lip. "Yes and no."

  "Yes and no?"

  "They all agreed to let me show their faces." He leans forward so his lips are hovering over mine. "No, I didn't fuck any of them."

  I pull back, examining his expression. "They all look like they just fucked you in those pictures."

  He tips his head forward a touch, a wide grin blazes across his lips and he whispers softly, "I didn't fuck any of them. I watched them touch themselves until they came. That's the moment I captured each and every time."

  Chapter 8

  "I need to get out more, Lex." Kayla rubs her hand across her forehead. "So you're screwing a photo
grapher and he tells you that he watches hookers get off and then he takes their picture?"

  "Technically, yes." I feel the need to qualify it." I mean he didn't tell me that when we were in the middle of having sex."

  "How do you feel about it?" She moves the martini glass she's been drinking from for the past hour away from her on the bar. "I mean, how do you feel knowing he's watching hookers get off in his bed?"

  It's eating me alive from the inside out. "I don't know," I say in a half lie. I know it was before Noah and I met. Wait. I assume it was. Maybe some of those photographs were taken after I showed up at his apartment. Maybe he'd been taking those pictures until the day before his New York show. I have no idea and the fact that I don't, that's what's ripping me apart. After he'd brazenly told me that the other night, I made an excuse about needing to grade papers and I took off. I didn't want to jump all over him about it knowing he'd likely tell me it was part of his process.

  "What's the status with the two of you now?"

  "We don't have a status." We don't. The only definition of our relationship that I can come up with is casual lovers.

  "Are you going to tell him that it's bugging you out?" She runs her finger along the edge of the glass.

  "I don't know." I shrug my shoulders. "He's kind of eccentric."

  "How so?" The corner of her mouth pops up in a slight grin. "Does he wear socks to bed?"

  "I've never seen him wear socks." I laugh. "He's almost always nude."

  "Shut the fuck up." She bounces on the edge of her bar stool. "Is he hot?"

  I have to close my eyes to temper my response. I pull in a breath to steady the sudden ache in my body. "He's the hottest guy I've ever met. Seriously hot, Kayla. Big, built and tattoos everywhere."

  "Fuck me," she purrs. "It sounds like Beck has some serious competition."

  "Beck?" I tap my finger across the bar. "Brighton Beck is no match for Noah Foster. No match in any way."

  "Noah?" She leans forward, her eyes bright. "Noah Foster? Are you fucking the Noah Foster, the photographer who takes all those naked pictures?"

  That non-disclosure agreement I signed just went to hell in a hand basket. "That's the one. I'm fucking the one and only Noah Foster."

  ***

  "Now that you came down my throat I need to tell you something." I run my tongue over my lips, capturing the lingering taste of Noah's release.

  "You sucked me off so you could confess some sin?" He leans back on his bed, his arms folded behind his head. "I seriously don't give a shit what it is. That was amazing."

  I slide on top of him, rubbing my wetness against his stomach. "You're so handsome. I wish you could see what I see."

  He smiles slightly at my words before he dips his cheek into the crumpled sheets, hiding his scar. "You're the only person…no one has said that to me since it happened."

  I lean forward, tilting his chin with my hand so he's facing me directly. "I've never seen anyone as gorgeous as you." I run my lips across his cheek, coursing them over his scar. "Every time I'm near you my heart beats a little faster."

  He takes a heavy swallow as his lips touch mine softly and gently. "I've never met anyone like you, Alexa. You're beautiful. Inside, outside, all of it."

  I pull my body back up, rubbing my breasts along his chest as I do. "I wish I could stay in this room with you always."

  "You can." He nods. "I never leave here."

  "I know." I want to press him on that. I want him to come to my place so he can see my world the same way I see his. I want him to meet Kayla and Sadie. I want him to walk down the street holding my hand. I want our lives to exist beyond his apartment.

  "What do you need to tell me?" His hand lazily runs across my right nipple. It instantly swells as an ache races through it.

  "I told two people about us." I trace my fingers over his knuckles, silently encouraging him to twist my nipple again.

  "Who?" His brows shoot up as his mouth curves into a subtle grin.

  "Two of my friends." I close my eyes briefly. "Kayla and Sadie."

  "Kayla and Sadie," he repeats back. "What did you tell Kayla and Sadie?"

  "I told them that the Noah Foster was fucking me." I lean back and slowly pull my aching sex across his cock. The thick root presses against my clit, causing me to involuntarily moan.

  He reaches to the edge of the bed where he threw several condom packages when I was undressing. "Did you tell them how good it was?" he growls before ripping one foil package open with his teeth.

  I shift back giving him the access he needs to sheath his cock. He pulls quickly on my hips, directing me over him, grazing my folds across the hardness.

  "Only Kayla," I murmur. "I told her."

  "Goddamn you're so fucking wet." He glides my hips back until the tip of his cock is pressing against my entrance. "Tell me what you told, Kayla."

  I groan as he pushes his thickness into me. It's so much. There's still a delicious pain whenever he enters me. His cock stretches my body. "That it was the best sex…" I moan loudly when he adjusts his hips and he hits my most sensitive spot. "The best sex I've ever had."

  "I'm your best." He closes his eyes as his hands dart to my thighs. "You're my best."

  I lean forward, my hands resting on either side of his head as I glide my hips over him, pulling his cock slowly deeper and then almost completely out. The sensation of the friction of the wide crown pulling against my moist tissues is sheer torture and heaven all rolled into one.

  "I can't take it," he hisses between clenched teeth as he effortlessly rolls us over in one silky movement, our bodies still connected.

  I groan at the sensation of his cock stretching me. I wrap my legs around his torso, giving him more depth of pleasure. I'm rewarded with a grunt as he finds his rhythm. Tonight it's slow, leisurely, graceful strokes.

  "You're so perfect, Alexa." His hands grab mine and pull them over my head. "Your pussy is mine."

  "Fuck me, Noah," I whisper into his mouth. "Take it. It's yours."

  His eyes bore into mine as he thrusts deeper with each stroke. "You love when I fuck you."

  "I love it," I parrot back, twisting my hips to meet his. I feel the edge of an orgasm tempting me already. My sex clenches around his cock, my body readying for its climax.

  "Come beautiful Alexa," he growls against my lips. "Show me what I do to you."

  I cry his name loudly as the tension breaks through me. My body trembles. I can't stop it. I won't. I let the orgasm wash over me as he thrusts even harder.

  He pulls harder on my hands, stretching me further, driving his cock into me with a deep grunt with each surge of his hips. He pulls back as he calls my name before his teeth grab the flesh above my nipple and he pumps out his own heated desire.

  Chapter 9

  "You haven't told me much about your new job." His breath runs a path across my forehead as I lean on his chest.

  I trace a finger along the intricate lines of the tattoo on his shoulder. "I love it," I whisper. I do love it. Teaching science to seven-year-olds was fast becoming my favorite part of each day. I knew that I'd enjoy teaching but now that I was getting to experience the hands-on time that I'd been craving, I had no question within my mind that I'd made the right career choice.

  "Do they call you Miss Jackson?" I can feel his lips curve into a wide smile against my forehead.

  "Yes." I flatten my hand against the muscles of his abdomen. "I love working with them."

  His chest lifts, then falls. "I used to take pictures of children. That was a lifetime ago."

  My head darts up so I can look in his eyes. "You used to take pictures of children?"

  "In college." He nods his chin. "At one of those department store photo departments."

  "The ones with the gaudy cartoon backgrounds that children are terrified of?" I cross my arms across his chest as I watch his expression.

  "Exactly like that."

  "Was it fun?" I bite back a smile at the idea of Noah with children.
He's so imposing and intimidating with his tattoos. He likely didn't have them back then. He didn't have the scar either.

  He nods his head slowly up and down. "It was a blast."

  "Maybe you could come visit my class one day." I brace for his anticipated reaction. "I could ask the principal. She might be okay with it." I doubt that she would. The moment I mention that I want to bring world renowned photographer Noah Foster to class she'll probably lock all the doors. A man who takes nude pictures for a living likely isn't welcome in her grade school. She's the definition of prim and proper. I still want him to know it's my wish.

  His body tenses as he pulls back slightly. "I'll think about it."

  "I'd love for you to see where I work," I add, pressing my luck. Pushing him to leave the apartment is treading on dangerous emotional ground. "If you don't want to come when the kids are there, maybe after school one day when the classroom is empty."

  "Maybe." He brushes his lips over my forehead. "I'm going to get a beer. Do you want one?"

  I shake my head as he slides his body from under mine. "No. I'm good." I was far from good. Watching him retreat back into the sheltered cocoon he'd built around himself was breaking my heart a little more each day.

  ***

  "What do you want me to get you for your birthday?" Sadie clears the dinner plate from in front of me. "We could go somewhere for a weekend or maybe a spa day?"

  "Sure, either of those would be great," I say with whatever genuine excitement I can muster. "It's still a couple of weeks away. We don't have to make plans yet, do we?"

  "I talked to Kayla about your birthday dinner." She slides a bowl of gelato across the table towards me. "We're going to do it at Axel. You're good with that, right?"

  I nod my head not certain that I heard everything she just said. "Whatever works for you is good."

  "Is there anyone from the school you want to invite?"

  I stare at her, watching her savor the taste of the cold treat. "From the school?"

  "The people you work with there?" She cocks a sculpted brow. "Do you have friends there?"