Fake Maid by Cassie Mint

Five

Eli

This can’t be happening.

I can’t have found the one woman for me, the one who lights up my soul, and watched her walk out the door on the same day. My heart thumps sickly inside my rib cage, and I stand frozen in the center of my office.

Lost. Confused. Still so turned on from her touch that my teeth ache.

I rub a hand over my jaw. Did I… hurt her? She seemed into it too, moaning and squirming, her cheeks flushed with arousal, but maybe I misread the signs.

God. If I hurt her…

I’ll never forgive myself.

I was rough. I thrust deep into her mouth, until I hit the back of her throat. I acted by instinct the whole time, the two of us slipping into our roles like we were made for them, and I spoke crassly to her. Ground out sweet, filthy words that made her gasp.

But what if that was all in my head? My gut sinks as I replay what we just did—what I did to my maid.

What if she didn’t want any of it? I lurch to the side, sickness roiling in my stomach. I need to find her—need to make sure she’s okay. Need to apologize and do whatever it takes to make this right.

The office door bounces against the wall as I charge out into the corridor. The mansion is quiet, the silence echoing through the halls, slanted rectangles of sunshine spilling over the floorboards. I whip my head back and forth so fast my neck aches, but Coral is gone.

She’s gone.

A man walks past the nearest doorway, dressed in the black tunic of the staff uniform. I charge forward, clenching the door frame in my uninjured hand until the wood creaks. He glances over, then jerks as he recognizes me, straightening and clasping his hands behind his back. He’s young, can’t be more than thirty, with dark hair and a sculpted face, and the thought of this man working near Coral…

Jealousy tears through my chest.

I force it down. Ignore it. I’m a man, not an animal, and I won’t mistreat another member of my staff. But still, I have to spit my question between gritted teeth.

“Coral Walsh. Have you seen her?”

The man blinks at me, eyes darting away and back.

“Um. I’m sorry. Who?”

Forget it. I wrench myself off the door frame, charging down the corridor like a mad man. A roaring sound fills my ears, my eyes fuzzy with fear, and I let instinct guide me through the winding halls of my home. Every step, every aching beat of my heart, is another time I think her name.

Coral. Coral.

Where is she?

My feet lead me down a sunlit corridor, and the scent of chlorine lingers in the air. My footsteps quicken, suddenly sure, and when I push through the entrance into the pool house, there she is.

My mermaid.

Sitting on a lounger, her hands upturned in her lap, staring at the turquoise pool in a daze. She glances up when I burst in, and a frown creases her forehead, but she doesn’t move or say anything. Like she’s in a dream.

“Miss Walsh,” I grit out, and she jerks, eyes widening. Like she’s finally realized I’m real. She looks around desperately for an exit, but I’m already striding across to her. More than anything, I want to scoop her up in my arms, to crush her against my chest and tell her she’s mine.

I won’t overstep again. I stop in front of her lounger, sinking to my knees on the warm tiles.

“I’m sorry,” I rasp. “I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

She blinks at me, confused.

“Eli? What—”

“In… In my office. I was rough with you.” I suck in a deep breath, holding her emerald gaze. God, she’s beautiful. “Please forgive me. It will never happen again. Whatever you need to feel safe and comfortable at work here, tell me. I’ll put it in place.”

Her cheeks pink from the memory of what we just did, but she shakes her head hard, her red hair drifting over her shoulders.

“It wasn’t—you didn’t hurt me.” She bites her plump lip. “I liked it.”

Relief surges through me, sweet and cool. I sit back on my heels, almost lightheaded with it.

“Then why did you leave?”

She shrugs, and she looks so damn miserable, I can’t resist. I reach out and smooth my cast over her hair. Stray locks wind around my bruised fingertips, silky and soft, and it’s the best sensation I’ve ever felt. Better than any painkiller.

I wait, but she doesn’t offer anything more. Just leans her head into my palm.

“If I’d known it was a one time thing…” I swallow hard at the thought. “That’s not how I’d have wanted it to go.”

“What would you change?” she whispers, eyes fixed on the hollow of my throat. I tip her chin up.

“I would have kissed you first.”

There’s plenty of time for her to move away. I make sure of it, still raw from the fears which consumed me in my office. The thought of touching this woman in any way she dislikes—every molecule of my body revolts.

So I lean in, achingly slow, the pool house silent except for the rasp of our shared breaths. And I stop when my mouth is a hair’s breadth from hers.

“I won’t kiss you unless you ask me to.”

She huffs out a breath, lips parting, but she doesn’t ask like I expect. Doesn’t push me away either. No—she surges forward, her mouth sealing against mine. With her hand fisted in my shirt and her tongue licking into my mouth, Coral Walsh kisses the last sane thoughts out of my brain.

I groan, hands sliding into her hair, crowding closer until I kneel between her legs. She parts her thighs easily, shuffling to the edge of the lounger until we’re sealed together tight. She’s so warm, burning bright against every inch of my front, and I’m hard again, pressed against her core. We cling and kiss and sway together, like addicts jonesing for each other’s touch after just a few minutes apart.

“Baby.” I tear my mouth away, kissing along her jaw. When I suck a bruise onto that pretty throat, she sighs into my ear. “Baby, I need you.”

She’s nodding, scrabbling at the button on my jeans, but that’s not what I mean.

What I mean is that if I’d known she’d only want me once, I’d have been the one on my knees. The one tasting and teasing; the one made vulnerable.

If this is my last chance, I’m taking it.

And I’m putting my mouth on this woman.

She sucks in a surprised breath when I hook my fingers in her leggings, but she lifts her hips and helps me shuffle them down. She watches my hands smooth over her thighs with glassy eyes, and her breaths already come fast as I push her legs further apart.

“Are you…” She wets her lip, still half dazed. “Are you sure?”

My rough laugh echoes through the pool house.

“I’m sure.”

I sit back on my heels, soaking in the full view of her. The wild tangle of her hair; her rumpled tunic hiked up around her waist; the lilac triangle of her panties.

The damp spot on the front of the fabric.

Fuck. That damp spot.

I lunge forward and she squeaks in surprise, the sound melting into a moan as I rub my face over the lace. I mouth at the fabric, licking her through her panties, and Coral curses softly and winds her fingers through my hair.

“Now who’s a tease?” she murmurs, and I smile against her covered pussy. Turning my head, I press kisses to the sensitive insides of her thighs, licking and nibbling around the edges of her panties but never dipping inside. “Eli.” she tugs my hair and I laugh, the sound vibrating over her skin.

Without warning, I slide her panties to the side and lathe my tongue up her pussy. She’s hot and slick and perfect, swollen with want, her salty, tangy taste the best thing I’ve ever had on my tongue. I bury my face between her thighs like a starving man at his last meal, licking deep into her center and drawing up to suckle on her clit.

“Eli!” Her thighs snap closed around my head, clamping me in place—as if I’d ever try to escape. As if there is any goddamn place on the planet I’d rather be.

“So fucking good,” I tell her, the words vibrating through her slick folds. “So fucking delicious, baby.”

She moans, her hips rocking against my tongue, and I growl in approval as she pushes me harder against her core. This is us—what I sensed instinctively in my office. We’re both rough with each other, desperate and wild in our need to get closer, closer, closer.

I love it as much as she did.

I want to fucking drown in this girl.

When I slide my middle finger inside her, she clamps down, her muscles rippling against me. The thought of that on my cock makes me groan, and I pump deeper, crooking my finger and rubbing against that secret spot.

Her thighs lock beside my ears, muscles shuddering, and the sound she makes.

It’s part groan. Part sigh. And she says my name like a prayer.

I keep licking her through her orgasm, keep pumping my finger into the tight clasp of her pussy. I don’t stop until she slumps on the pool lounger, her thighs falling away from my ears. And when I sit back on my heels, chest heaving and chin slick and shining with the evidence, I don’t wipe it off. I’m not ready to have her gone from my skin.

“Come here,” she murmurs, tugging me forward by my shirt. She wipes my face with the hem of her tunic, her hands gentle against my jaw. The rough scrape of her cast on one side, and her warm skin on the other—I close my eyes and draw in a shuddering breath.

“It’s my turn to apologize.”

I blink my eyes open. Coral’s smile is rueful.

“What for?”

She shrugs, feigning casualness. “For grabbing you like that. Rubbing—rubbing myself on you.” Her cheeks flush darker. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” I grit out. “Don’t say that. I fucking loved it, baby. I want you to use me like that every day for the rest of our lives.”

A light dies behind her eyes at my words. And I know it’s intense, wanting her so badly after just one day, but surely I can’t be alone in this? At every moment, we’ve been matched in passion. Equally desperate for each other, orbiting each other like planets, and fuck, how have I misread this again?

“Coral…” She slumps further, and dread slides through my stomach. “Tell me you feel the same way.”

“I’m sorry.”

My breath saws in and out of my lungs. Her hands drop away from my shirt.

“It was…” She pauses. Steels herself. Then caves in my chest with only a few words. “It was just a bit of fun.”

My ears ring as I sit back. As I push to my feet, staring down at her on the lounger like I’ve never seen her before.

A bit of fun.

“Fine,” I rasp. Harsh words line up on my tongue, but I choke them back. “Alright.” My sneakers echo on the tile as I move back a few steps. “I’ll… Goodbye, Coral.”

I stride out of the pool house before I can say anything else. Before I say something I regret, or push her too hard. It’s her decision, and I’ll respect it, but fuck—my heart throbs so hard I miss a breath.

I misread the situation. We want different things.

That’s fine.

That’s normal.

I’ve never even cared before.

So why do I feel like a part of me just died?