Mine

I see her before she sees me.

We're all in this spacious room, that looks like a ballroom. Everyone is standing, making small talk, drinking. Paige is doing her rounds. Shaking hands, kissing cheeks, granting her smiles to those she particularly likes. I watch her from a safe distance and take another tall glass from a girl with a tray. She's wearing a shiny, copper brown dress that hugs her subtle curves. The dress is long but there is a long slit on the side that gives way to her ballerina legs. It is strapless. I start my admiration at the base of her neck, down her shoulder blades, across her arms to the tip of her fingers. Her hair is in a styled bun to the side of her head. Her makeup is flawless, not like she needs any. Of course, her eyes are as striking as the first time. They're even icier with the brown tones she's wearing today.

Everyone dotes on her. They want her attention. They want her smiles. I turn away, fighting the urge to get near the flame she carries.

"And you are?" I happened to turn into a group of older people chatting.

I ignore my blazing cheeks and shake everyone's hands. I introduce myself and wait for them to do the same. There are two gentlemen and two ladies, one of them is the same one that reminded me of my grandmother when we walked in. She is the one who asked for my name initially.

"What brings you here today? I've never seen you around these parts of the woods before." Her smile is warm and I feel a little more at ease.

"I'm writing an article on Mr. Lauren." The other people in the group start to talk about something else but she, Kathleen, looks engaged.

"Oh, a writer? That's splendid." She pats my arm. "How long have you been doing that?"

"A for a while now." I chuckle and avoid answering directly. I still have many more years to go before I am considered an established writer.

"Tell me, dear, have I read any of your work?"

"Kathleen!" I hear Paige behind me.

I step back to see her run into the older lady's arms. I try and look for the quickest way to escape but she turns to me next. She wraps her arms around my waist and rubs her cheek against mine. I can't help the color that runs to my cheeks.

"Taylor," She practically purrs into my ear.

I pull back and avoid looking into her eyes. My eyes trail down her cheek, suppressing the urge to touch her. "Paige." I am curt. Curt because I feel defenseless. How does she have this hold over me? Why is my body ready to heel on her command?

She turns to Kathleen, but holds one of my hands. "I'm sorry I have to steal her away, need to talk lady business in the girl's room."

I wave to the older lady who looks at Paige with adoration. I want to pull away but let myself be guided upstairs.

"Isn't there a restroom downstairs?"

She doesn't say anything and quickens her steps once we're on the second floor. She turns into the last door on the left.

The door closes behind me.

"Unzip me." She turns her back to me and puts her hands on her hips, waiting.

The temperature in the room rises and I rub by tongue against the roof of my mouth. The lights are still off but she has her balcony doors open and the moonlight shines through. A quick inspection of the room confirms that it is hers. I don't have time to look around as closely as I want because I have to make a choice. My heart is beating fast, there is a rushing sound assaulting my ears and I feel my cheeks burn.

"Hurry, we only have a few moments before they notice I'm missing."

I turn the lock on the door and walk over to her.

My head dips into her neck and I brush my nose against her soft skin. So delicious. She moans and I feel her turn her face towards mine, trying to kiss me. I grab her hair and force her to face forward, she hisses. I kiss her neck, a quick chaste kiss. My body is taking over, doing what it knows best: controlling. I run my fingers along her shoulders and I see the goosebumps I leave in their trace. My hand finally reaches her zipper. I don't waste time and reveal what I have already seen, touched and tasted but it means more this time.

Her dress falls to her feet, she's not wearing anything under. I grind my teeth and suppress a groan of approval. The hand that is still holding on to her hair tugs slightly.

"Get on the bed."

"No." She bites back.

I stop myself from tossing her there myself. I need her to do what I want. The best part about controlling someone is having them want to give you all of the control. I need this, she knows this. Why would she invite me here if she won't let me do what I want? I won't take anything that she doesn't want to give me. I don't want to play any guessing games.

"I need you to do as I say." Maybe I need to be as direct as I can be. Set expectations and all of that, which I have not had to do in years.

She turns around to face me, my hand falls off her hair down to my side. She's not afraid to look at me, she actually seems to like it.

"I need you to take me here, right now."

"I will, but on my terms. I want you on my terms."

"No."

I scoff and shake my head. This is as frustrating as it was the first time. She clearly has the wrong expectations. This isn't going to work. She can't give me what I want and I am not what she is looking for.

"Then I'm sorry, we are at an impasse."

For a second I see a worried look in her eyes. That split second of reaction from her is what keeps me from moving from this spot.

"Please," She licks her lips. Her legs rub up against each other, her nipples erect, her breathing is irregular. "Just give me this once. Just once."

She makes a move to get closer and I don't move. Her hands come up to each of my shoulders and she leans in to kiss me. I taste the champagne on her lips. My hands come up to each side of her face and my tongue touches every inch of her mouth. Her moans vibrate between us and I know for a fact that I will do whatever she wants at this point. The desperation on her lips drives me insane.

Her hands tug my shoulders down and I know what she wants.

I kneel, as quickly as I can in the dress. For a second I worry that it will rip but then the moment passes. My face is inches from her trimmed pussy lips and I look up at her. She bites her lip and waits in anticipation.

"Spread your legs," She easily slides them apart. Well, at least she knows how to listen when she wants. I rub my nose against her pubic bone and take in her scent. I close my eyes and treasure it. I feel drunk and it has nothing to do with the champagne. My tongue slides right in between her lips and she moans loudly. One of her hands comes up to her mouth to stifle the noise. We wouldn't have to worry about how loud she was being if we were at my place. Her other hand takes one of her breasts and squeezes.

I watch, in lust. My tongue licks away the cream coming from her warm pussy. My tongue goes up and down between her lips, trying to catch every drop. Eventually my mouth latches on to her tiny nub and I suck as my tongue flickers around it. Her legs start to shake and her hips move on their own accord. She rides my face so frantically and urgently I can't take my eyes away from her bouncing breasts. My own breasts tighten and I briefly wonder what it would feel like to have her breasts pressed up against mine. I groan into her pussy. Both of her hands cover her mouth and she cums all over my face. I keep licking until she lightly pushes my face away. I kiss the inside of her thigh. This was worth it.

I sit back against the white drawers next to her bed. She slides down and sits back against me, trying to control her breathing. My hands come up and wrap around her. She leans her head back against my shoulder and hums in appreciation when I kiss her temple.

"What is this?" Her thumbs run against the inside of my wrists.

"My parent's names." I don't offer any more information and hope she doesn't ask. "What's your favorite color?" I really want to know. I want to know as much as I can about her, she is a mystery to me. Someone that I feel like I have known all of my life and yet can't say a single fact about them.

She turns to look at my dress then smiles up at me. "Blue. Yours?"

"Blue." I stare into her eyes. Light blue when she's laughing. Ice blue when she's angry. Crystal blue on special occasions. "Tell me about a time when you were hurt."

Her smile fades and she looks uncomfortable. She shuts herself off and I can see it is a defensive reaction.

I allow one of my hands to come down to her breast and rub along the nipple until it hardens. I pull at it between my fingers. She pushes against my hand and closes her eyes. I stop what I'm doing when I feel her breathing increase.

Her eyes snap open and she glares at me. "Why did you stop?"

"Tell me about a time you were really angry." I try a different question.

I bring my hand back to her breast and use my other one to slide between her slick folds. Her legs open wide and she places her feet on each side of my legs. Her back arches against my touch. She turns her face away from me and I bury my face in her neck.

"In ninth grade I had a teacher who particularly disliked me." My fingers are drenched by her cum and she shivers when I stick two fingers in her pussy. I smile against her neck. If this is the only way I can get her to open herself up to me I am going to have fun. "She liked to call me out when I had low scores or said the wrong answer in class. I was constantly given in school suspension because I wouldn't let her make me feel small." Her breathing picks up when I pump my fingers in and out of her. I can't imagine Paige being a bad student, but I do know first-hand how stubborn she can be. "I decided enough was enough and one day I yelled at her in front of the class. When I got home my father made me write her a letter apologizing for my behavior." I can tell she's close. "I cried the whole time I wrote the letter because no matter what I said to him she took her side. She made me read the letter in front of the class." I turn her face towards mine and reward her with a kiss as she cums for a second time.

******

She leaves me alone in the room and heads downstairs once I help her get back into her dress. I look at myself in the mirror and clean up my makeup. I take the lipstick out of my small hand bag and apply it lightly. I still smell her on me, that is how I want it. If it were up to me, we would have left the party now and went back to my place. She said she still had to stick around to say hi to more guests. She actually looked somewhat shy after I helped her get into her dress. Getting her to disclose a personal memory must have been hard for her.

Coming down the steps I find her at the bottom, deep in conversation with a guy in a blue suit. Once they hear me approach, they stop talking. Paige looks away from me and he gives me a passing smile. She looks upset.

"Hey, are you okay?" I notice his arm wrap around her waist.

Now that I take a closer look at him, I realize he is the guy that walked in with Kathleen today. He looks like a preppy snob. My eyes are trained on his hand around her waist.

Paige shifts away but he pulls her close.

He looks at me down his aristocratic nose, "We were just having a private conversation." He's dismissing me.

"I asked if she was okay."

"Henry," James comes up to us from around the corner. "I see you have met Taylor, she's the one I was talking to you about."

I give him a controlled smile.

"Taylor, this is Henry. Paige's fiancé."

Everything stops at once, for just a millisecond. There is nothing. I can hear a pin drop in my head. If I had to describe the feeling as a color it would be white, if it was a sound it would be white noise, if it was a feeling it wouldn't be. I want to look at Paige. I want to see in her eyes what the fuck all of this is about. Instead I look at Henry who looks at me with the same amount of hostility.

I turn to James, "Yes, we just met. I was actually coming to look for you to let you know there is an emergency and I have to go."

He looks disappointed but offers to walk me to the door.

I nod in Henry's direction and ignore Paige.

******

The first thing I do when I get home is get on my computer. No, that's not true. I get the liquor out, pour myself three shots and take them. Then I start going through everything I can find on Paige. How could I have missed that she had a fiancé? Apparently, I was invited to their engagement announcement. As soon as I left the party, they made it official and every tabloid and social media platform had pictures of them. Every post I saw was another stab in the gut. There are pictures of them before the engagement but he looked more like a friend than a lover.

How could she? I guess this was really nothing to her. I mean she didn't really owe me anything. But why would she do something so reckless on her engagement night? Why would I even want to be involved with someone who has no morals and is willing to betray her fiancé? She has no loyalty.

At the end of the day nothing I said made me feel better. It was a week full of hurt, denial, and confusion. I've had more nightmares about my parents as well.

This is why I stay away from girls like her. Did Paige really want more? It seems more like she wanted something fun before she tied the big knot. And with the amount of money that asshole was born into it was a big fucking knot. She didn't want more, I did.

My anger is simmering as I stare at my laptop Thursday Morning. The intern walks in.

"Here is your coffee and this note is from Tommie." She scurries out without another word. I feel somewhat guilty for being so short with her but my mood hasn't been the best so maybe it is better for her to stay out of my way. If she caught me any other time where I wasn't dealing with this bullshit, I would be a mentor. But what the fuck do I know about anything? Apparently, I am great at getting myself involved with unavailable ballet snobs.

Is the unavailable part what is keeping her in my head? Or the ballet part? Maybe even getting her prissy bitch act come undone is what gets me turned on. Getting her to lose that perfect girl facade for just a second was worth it. My nostrils flare when I imagine my head between her legs. My fingers between her folds.

The black coffee burns down my throat.

Images of that night haunt me. On my knees, worshiping at her feet. Bending over backwards for her to do whatever I could to make her cum. Giving her what she wanted to get her to talk to me. It was worth it. My deepest thoughts interrupted my internal dialogue. I push them back in their box and shake my head. Seeing her cum undone like I wanted to the first time we met was a reward. No defiant eyes, no smirk, just her most natural emotion coursing through her.

I look down at the note and groan.

My phone vibrates, it's Tommie.

"You could have just called instead of sending a note with the intern like we're in high school."

"We gotta keep things fun." He's probably playing video games as we speak. "I already arranged it for tomorrow afternoon so make sure to be there. Renee only has a short window so we cannot let anything go wrong." 'We' as in me.

"I think I'm starting to feel under the weather." I croak.

"Ha-ha. Just get it done and then finish the interview and you'll never have to talk to him ever again." He hangs up.

To my luck, James has been slammed with work and we've had to reschedule his interview. But I guess this I cannot avoid. Technically I'm not even supposed to be there for the photo shoot but Tommie likes to put the people in front of the cameras at ease. Since I have built a foundation with James, he is more likely to play nice if I'm there, that is Tommie's logic. I don't think me being there really makes a difference to James.

I shoot Renee a text. She knows pretty much all of the important things of that awful night but has been too busy for us to really sit down and digest it all. She promised that we would get to sit down and talk about it. Not that I need any more of that.

She gives me a date and time and I put it in my calendar. Like I can forget.

******

"You're fidgeting." Renee says under her breath. She snaps another shot and I place my hands behind me.

I can't stop looking over my shoulders back to the house. I feel someone watching me, or maybe I'm just being paranoid. James decided his backyard would be the best place to get pictures of himself for the magazine. That makes me like him a little bit more. Most people want to show off their cars, yachts, or properties but he looks at ease next to his pool.

He puts his shades on and crosses his arms. He has style. His gray suit is impeccable, his watch is covered in diamonds, and his shoes looks fresh out of the box.

"How much longer?" I ask Renee.

She turns to me and looks down at her watch, "Fifteen minutes."

Has it really been almost two hours? It feels so long and yet not long enough. Deep down I am disappointed. I want to see her. Even if just to see her gloating smile in my direction. But I mostly feel relief. This is the best-case scenario. Getting to come to her house and not seeing her once. This is what I want.

Once Renee is done, James shakes her hand then walks in my direction.

"How have you been?" We walk back towards his house and catch up on what we have been to since our last meeting. I finally ask him about the union problem and if that was what was worrying him after our last interview. James might have been born with a gold spoon in his mouth but he is a successful businessman. He knows how to turn money into more money. He smiles like a proud father and gives me more insight on the story, off the record of course. I feel my heart feel heavy at the thought of my father and the similarities between the two.

Renee's crew, which only consists of two people, walk through the sliding door that leads up to his kitchen. The maid offers us some refreshments and James continues to talk to me. I don't have the stomach to eat anything. Being in the house has my nerves on edge. James notices and offers me a drink but I decline. Being drunk and in this house with the possibility of running into Paige is just tempting fate. Would I really be stupid enough to seek her out if the chance was given? Yes, without a doubt.

"Daddy?" My ears perk up and I shoot Renee a frantic look.

Paige walks into the kitchen wearing white shorts and a light, pink tank top. She looks so innocent. Her big blue eyes take in everyone in the room until they land on me. She's not surprised. She knew I would be here.

I walk over to Renee and watch as Paige walks up to James. Her hair is held back by some bobby pins but the rest tumbles down her back. She's wearing white sandals. Such a simple look, elevated by her elegance. Her skin is slightly darker than the last time I saw her. Her collar bones look more pronounced. I try not to stare at her body too long. My hand itches to wrap around her neck with just enough force to cause her breath to hitch and make her cum with my other hand. Renee watches my reaction to Paige and I finally look away when she elbows me.

"She's gorgeous." Renee whispers. Both of her eyebrows are near her hairline. She must have been expecting an overly sexual Instagram influencer not this deceivingly innocent creature. If only she knew.

I decline to comment and turn my back to Paige. If she can't see me she won't talk to me.

This feels like shit. I want to look at her. I want her to see me. See what she is missing out on. What she passed up on. But I mostly just want to take her far away from here. Turn back time to the first time we met. Before she was officially engaged and only tormented me with her stubbornness.

James picks up a call on his cell and excuses himself.