Strung Out by Kaitlin Maitland Read Free Book Online

shouldn’t have mattered. He was nothing more than casual sex. Of course, the sex had been anything but casual. Talia should’ve been satisfied. But she wasn’t. Instead of satisfaction she’d been left with a restless sense of incompletion. Something was missing. Something had changed. Her life wasn’t enough anymore. But Leslie was wrong. It wasn’t the money, wasn’t the lifestyle. It was just Erik.
    As if thinking his name was enough to unleash some cosmic force, Erik himself stepped into view across the room. Talia’s fingers turned to ice while her face flushed hot. She had worried she might never see him again. And she’d taken this job with the hope of getting a second chance. But nothing had prepared her for the possibility.

     “Did you see her legs? There’s enough there to wrap all the way around my waist.”
    “Bet her pussy’s hot and tight. You know what they say about quiet types.”
    Erik frowned as he approached. He’d known Joshua and Seth since boarding school. Long enough to know how their minds worked.
    “Who’s the score, gentlemen?”
    Joshua rolled his thick neck from side to side, cracking his joints. His curly gold hair barely brushed the collar of his suit, and his blue eyes sparked with interest. Seth was the polar opposite, with straight dark hair he kept tucked behind his ears and brown eyes. Erik could see half a dozen society girls salivating over Seth’s and Joshua’s brawny physiques from across the room. He wondered which one had caught the former college lacrosse players’ attention.
    “The piano player,” Seth answered without looking away.
    A heavy feeling settled in the pit of Erik’s stomach as he followed their gaze. He’d spotted Talia almost immediately after entering the Colton ballroom. Since then he’d been trying to figure out a way to talk to her alone.
    “God, look at that smooth back. All that skin just waiting for my tongue,” Seth murmured. “I’d spank her ass just to watch her arch that pretty spine.”
    “Fine with me,” Joshua said with a broad smile. “You fuck her from behind while I stab my fingers into all that hair and put my cock in her mouth.”
    “What makes you think she’d give either of you the time of day?” Erik snapped.
    Seth and Joshua exchanged amused glances. How was it possible for them to assume she’d be willing to be their plaything just because they had plenty of cash in the bank?
    “Toss a couple of pretty baubles in her direction, and she’d beg us for a night of pleasure,” Seth predicted.
    Erik ground his teeth in agitation. A part of him knew instinctively that Talia was beyond that kind of enticement. But a niggling doubt in his mind reminded him that he hadn’t been entirely truthful with her. And she’d made mention of a rebound quota, but nothing about their night together was a rebound.
    “There you are, Erik. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
    Courteney snatched his arm. Slipping her slender hand possessively into the crook of his elbow, she flashed a cool smile at Joshua and Seth. Erik’s jaw nearly creaked in protest as his teeth ground forcefully together. She was wearing some kind of perfume that made his eyes water and his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. If that wasn’t bad enough, she was all but crawling up his side.
    “Did you need something?” He forced his tone to remain polite.
    “It’s time to begin the toasts.”
    “Of course.”
    Seth chuckled, his brown eyes filling with mirth as he and Joshua watched Courteney strangle him with her diamond-studded leash. At least that’s what it felt like to Erik. She didn’t come right out and say it, but they both knew he was going to participate in the party festivities just to keep her and her father happy enough to sign the merger documents. If only he could find a way to get the documents signed without selling his soul to the devil in the process.
    Insanity. That’s what it was. No matter what the gossiping