Catching the CEO (The CEO Duet, #2), page 3
“Wow, Anita! I didn’t know. Cowboy told me that I’m on the internal project team, but I didn’t know you were in it too. That is so great! We will be painting the States red together! Yes!”
I’m really thrilled that she’s coming with us. It means I won’t be alone. Well, I wouldn’t have been alone exactly, with a cowboy around.
“Watch out, world, ’cause here we come!”
“Talk to you later!”
I throw my cell onto the bed and walk over to the bathroom. After a couple of knocks on the door, I hear his deep voice, saying that next time, I can come in without knocking. Steam escapes the room and blurs my sight for a moment. Then he grabs me and pulls me into the shower. I jump and try to escape, but Cowboy makes sure I can’t.
“You’re so sexy when you’re wet,” I hear him growl against my skin. The naughty grin on his face has me realizing this is a very playful cowboy. With one hand, he grabs my wet hair to move it all to my back. His other hand trails along my trembling lower lip. He kisses my neck and takes the time to make sure I get completely wet by placing me under the shower properly. I didn’t have much clothing on yet anyway. I had only managed to pull on my jeans so far, which are now soaked through and through, and sticking to my upper legs.
“Cowboy, I don’t have time for this! I realized that the truck is stilled parked at my grandma’s, and I need to drive it to Ingolstadt as fast as I can!” I struggle to push his strong body away, looking into his eyes to see if he understands the urgency of what I just told him. Apparently not, since he ignores me and suddenly lifts me up under my butt, pushing me against the wall.
“No! Cowboy, stop!”
He looks up, alarmed. “Are you saying no to me?”
His eyes pierce mine. Is he mad now? His intimidating look makes me almost scared to answer him. I stick to nodding. He looks at me, his gaze questioning, while still holding me up under my butt, because that’s how strong he is. He imitates my nodding. Okay, he appears to understand me now, so I should probably use words too.
“Ehm ... Yes, I think so.”
“You think so?”
Uh-oh ... maybe I shouldn’t have used words after all ...
“You need to understand very well what you’re doing here, Nina. When you say no to me, you need to be very sure. Because, if you say no to me now, that gives me the right to say no to you sometime too. And that will be at a time when it will be most inconvenient for you. Do you understand me?”
His threatening words are actually really ridiculous. Who talks like that? And by the way, it makes no sense at all. Why wouldn’t I be allowed to say no? Isn’t that my right as a woman? Some women would even claim that this is our most important weapon in a relationship.
But if it’s really that ridiculous, then why does it arouse me this much? It’s because of the way he switches from playful to strict again all of a sudden. It’s weird and I cannot explain it, but every time this man acts angry with me, it makes me super horny.
Okay, Nina. Snap out of it! Don’t let the wet, angry Adonis get to you. The truck, remember?
Just when I decide to try and tear myself free from his iron grip, he whispers against my neck, “That truck has already been returned to Germany. I sent someone to pick up the keys at your grandma’s yesterday to drive the thing back to Ingolstadt.” Undisturbed, his lips continue caressing my neck, softly, but oh so hot.
“Oh,” is the only thing I manage to squeeze out.
With his strong arms, he’s still holding me up and he starts to grind his naked hips against me. But that’s not enough for him. Not by a long shot. While he’s still holding me up—and I am not the lightest girl—he manages to unzip my jeans, stick his hand inside, and reach me with his fingers. Startled, I let out a gasp and press my head back to control the sensation this triggers.
“Do you like that?”
What a stupid question, I want to reply, but the words have no chance to leave my mouth. In a hard, forceful way, he presses his mouth on mine and grants himself access. He’s still passionately exploring my mouth, when all of a sudden, he sets me on my feet and tugs my jeans down, which is no easy feat when they’re soaked. All the while, he continues to kiss me, as if our lives depend on it.
Before I realize what’s happening, he has lifted me up again, and I feel him enter me with that dick of his. That delicious, greedy thing. He fills me up, making me melt, and keeps my brain from functioning.
While he’s pumping hard in and out of me, I hear him say all sorts of things, and catch, “My plane is leaving in a couple of hours.” His lips devour my neck. Desperately, I cling to him and twist my pelvis to grant him better access.
“You will leave tomorrow,” he continues. I can hear his words in the background, but they won’t push through. What is pushing through is that wonderful thing of his. Oh, God.
“The Motley Crew will join you.” I can feel every inch of him in me and on me, and I drown in the sight of his wet, hard chest. His muscular arms move me up and down at the same pace as his dick. I decide to wonder later about how he could possibly know about the Motley Crew. That’s what we—Tiger, Booty Boy, Johnny Bravo, and me—call ourselves when we go out together.
“I’ll make sure you will be picked up from the airport and taken to your accommodations.” How can he possibly keep talking so rationally while he’s fucking me?
“Noa sent you an email with the schedule of the next two weeks. The appointments are already in your agenda.” Both of his hands grab my boobs, while he squirts his seed powerfully into me. At that exact moment, all my muscles tense up and my body starts shaking from the glorious orgasm he gives me.
A couple of seconds later, as soon as he’s put me back on my feet, my brain starts functioning again. “Cowboy, you do understand that I didn’t take in anything you were saying just now, don’t you?”
He kisses my nose while he laughs.
THE NEXT DAY, I PULL my trolley that is jammed with everything a girl like me might need for the next couple of weeks. In my other hand, I’m holding my plane ticket and my passport, while I walk up to the gate at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
I’m going to America! I didn’t expect to be this excited about it. I’m not excited about being in Sebastian’s internal project group, because I’m not actually interested in that. I’m excited because I get to spend two more weeks with my American Cowboy. Our adventure gets to continue, and I’m curious to know what other things I might discover because there is so much I don’t know about this mysterious man yet. I wouldn’t want to miss that for the world.
Part of me regrets he left already because I would have loved to fly with him. We could have joined the mile-high club. But he had business to attend to that couldn’t wait and had to leave immediately. Luckily, I get to travel together with my friends, “the Motley Crew,” and I won’t be alone.
My dear grandma gave me a lift to Schiphol and drove off right away. She wanted to walk me to the departure hall, but I wouldn’t let her. In the past two years I’ve lived in her home, we have become really close, and if she would have come with me, the entire goodbye would have turned into a very emotional happening. I’ll miss her so much. This way, we managed to keep things as light as possible.
I locate the gate on the signs and check whether I’m going the right way. I’m one of those dummies that always gets lost. That might make a person wonder how on earth I came to be a truck driver, but with my truck, I never get lost. Of course, I have a navigation system in it that points me in the right direction.
According to my watch, I still have over an hour before my plane leaves, so I decide to visit the shops. That gets boring very quickly, so I sit down somewhere to wait and have a cup of coffee. I expect the Motley Crew shortly, and then we can all walk up to the plane together.
While I’m enjoying my nice Italian cappuccino, I connect my headphones to my smartphone and listen to the wonderful sounds of dvsn. The song is called “Don’t Choose,” and it makes me realize how glad I am that I did make a choice. I have opened up my heart for the biggest adventure I have had the pleasure to experience so far—Cowboy and me. Who knows what the next two weeks will bring? The thought makes my heart beat faster. I am so looking forward to this!
It’s unbelievable that I’m sitting here right now. Who would have guessed I would be on my way to America? It’s actually bizarre that I’ve never been there before, because I travelled many miles together with my parents. Other children went camping in the summer, while we visited far-off destinations, like Thailand, Dubai, and Greece, but I have never been to America. I was supposed to go some time ago, when the newest branch of our fresh pasta franchise, Casa de la Pasta, opened in New York, but because of the passing of my parents, I didn’t feel much like being reminded of my father’s life’s work. The business was his whole life, and that is over now. Another thing I still cannot believe, two years later.
My phone rings. It’s Anita. Oh, great. I suspect she wants to know if I’m here already.
“Good morning to you!” I greet her cheerfully.
“Hi, my dear Trucker Girl. Where are you? We’re already at the gate, ready to board!”
“What? What do you mean, ready to board? The plane leaves in”—I check my watch— “half an hour or so.”
“It does, which is why we are boarding now!”
“Crap! Okay, no problem, on my way!”
“Hurry, Nina!”
“Don’t panic, I’ll be there soon.”
As quickly as I can, I toss some money onto the table, pull the headphones from my ears and grab my hand luggage, and start running toward the gate like a maniac, sweat beads already forming on my forehead. Stupid, idiotically big airport! There seems to be no end to all those corridors and escalators.
Ding ding. A message, in Dutch, is transmitted all over the airport. “Would Miss Nina Palermo please head to Gate D59 as soon as possible?” The same message is repeated in English. Oh, crackers! I pulled another typical Nina. I could hit myself with a stick!
Where the hell is gate D59? I can see the sign saying D1-D57, but I can’t find D59. I stand still for a moment and start looking around me to gain some perspective on where I am, but I haven’t got a clue. A female flight attendant passes by, and I grab her elbow, then ask her if she can tell me the right way. It made her laugh a little, probably because of my bewilderment. Fortunately, it appears I’m really close.
When I arrive at the gate, one floor up, I’m welcomed by angry faces. A flight attendant quickly checks my documents and lets me pass. Once I board, someone else points me to my seat. You can cut the tension with a knife. These people are not very happy with my late entrance. Great. Considering the fact that this is only an eight-hour flight, I will have to endure angry looks the entire time. I just hope they don’t spit into my food ...
Soon enough, I see familiar faces on board. John is sitting next to Billy the Booty Boy and Tiger Anita is sitting on the other side, with an empty seat next to her. As soon as they see me, they start applauding. When the rest of the passengers realize that I’m the reason for the delay, they start clapping and booing. That’s just great. Fantastic. What are friends for?
I pretend I don’t care at all and bow to the crowd a couple of times, just like artists do at the end of their performance. Anita points at the seat next to her and gestures for me to hurry up. Billy gets up to help me stow my little suitcase in the overhead compartment, after which I hug him tightly. When I release him, I notice that he is wearing a dark-gray shirt with the English text: “Interested in becoming a mile-high club member? Join here.” Jesus Christ. It’s a miracle they let him board ...
After I sit down and push my hair out of my face, I realize Anita and John are sitting quite far apart. That’s pretty weird, since those two are crazy about each other. Well, as long as they’re not fighting and haven’t split up again. Their relationship has been on and off lately.
“Let me guess. You couldn’t find the gate?” Anita’s jolly question irritates me. She knows it’s a stupid question, because she knows perfectly well that I get lost everywhere. So, frankly, she’s only asking to annoy me.
I ignore the question and counter, “Why aren’t you sitting next to John?”
“Screw that ass. It’s still over between us. I don’t have the patience for his after-sex whining.” She tells me this in a hushed voice, but it’s so quiet on board, it becomes very painfully clear John and the rest of the passengers heard.
“After-sex whining? It’s still about that?” In my opinion, it’s unbelievable that a relationship could end because he told her after sex that he regrets having had the sex, because he’s even more tired after it. However, it seems to be something John does every time and apparently, Anita is done with it.
“Yes. And by putting on that beautiful tailored suit, he thinks he can sex me up enough to make me change my mind, but that’s not gonna work. No matter how gorgeous and sexy he looks. It will not work this time.” I have heard that determination before.
“Do you dare to bet money on that this time?” I shoot her a challenging look. “I bet you fifty Euros that you and John will join the mile-high club before we land.”
“Well, hon, that’s not going to work, because I’m already a member of that club.” Her eyebrows bounce up and down, matched by a mischievous grin. I obviously want to know everything about that, but before I can ask, she grabs my left hand and sees the ring.
“Don’t tell me that’s an engagement ring, girl.”
“Nice, huh?” I laugh. I deliberately let her think that it is an engagement ring, just to annoy her a little.
“Say what?” Billy heard Anita and starts pulling at the same hand, trying to get a good look at the ring.
“Relax, will you!” I tear my hand away from them and keep it in front of me, so everyone can see it. I’m loving my friends’ panicky, investigative looks.
“It’s not an engagement ring. It’s kind of ...” Well, if it’s not an engagement ring, then what is it? “An adventure ring. Yes, that’s it. It’s a Cowboy-adventure ring.”
“Oh! Good for you, Nina! A steady relationship. No more random fuck buddies for you!” Billy points and sticks his tongue out at me. I’m surprised at his reaction. What does he mean?
“Huh?” I ask bluntly.
He explains, “All that fucking around with strange men. I must say I didn’t care for that much, Nina. You need to be a pro for that, like me!” He points at himself and thus, at the text on his shirt.
“What’s that now? Are you saying that just because you’re a man, you’re allowed to have meaningless sex, but I can’t because I’m a woman?”
“Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying,” he confirms without any remorse.
“You know, for a gay guy, you’re pretty old-fashioned.” Anita shoots him a reproachful look and I’m grateful for her support.
“Tell that to my mother,” he says skeptically.
“But it’s not a relationship. At least ... No, we never used that word.”
John wakes up as well. “Why do you call him Cowboy? And what is a Cowboy-adventure ring? I never heard of it.”
What? John doesn’t know what’s going on between me and Sebastian? I’m surprised, because I didn’t expect that Anita, the biggest gossip on this planet, would be able to keep that story to herself. She is my BFF and I love her to pieces, but she can’t keep her mouth shut.
I explain to John, “Cowboy is Sebastian. He’s the son of two Dutch farmers, who immigrated to America when they were kids. They have a farm in Fulton, about a two-hour drive from Chicago. Anyway ... he’s not just the CEO of Audi USA. He’s secretly also a farmer. But I didn’t think Farmer was such a good nickname for him, so I named him Cowboy.”
My explanation doesn’t seem to shed any light, because he’s looking at me as if he understands even less. I can’t stop myself from rolling my eyes at him. It’s not that hard, is it? With a sigh, I try again. “He gave me this ring to indicate we are going to have an adventure together. We are exclusive, we’re going to have fun together, get to know each other better, and have lots of sex. We’re are having a sexcapade two-point-oh.” I hate having to explain myself. The words fly out of my mouth at a ridiculous speed because I’m losing my patience.
“So, you are now in a serious relationship with this Cowboy dude?”
Billy and Anita are both nodding. Why are they nodding?
“No, it’s not a serious relationship. It’s a sexcapade two-point-oh!” I say uneasily, my voice raising a notch. They are looking at me as if I’ve just sprouted a second head.
“That Cowboy is one clever dude. You’re in a serious relationship with him and you don’t even know it,” Billy says.
This conclusion startles me a little. That can’t be right? Can it? Rabbit’s ears with mushroom tea ... I’m in a fucking relationship! I’m in a committed relationship and I didn’t even realize it!
My friends smile at me as Billy pats my shoulder reassuringly.
A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER, I wake abruptly when I feel someone rub my arm softly. It has grown dark in the plane. Some people are watching a movie on the small displays, while others are asleep. I glance over to see Anita is no longer next to me. When I put up my seat a little, I can see that John is gone too. In my lap, I find fifty Euros in notes. I knew it! And I never mind being right.
SOMETIME LATER, WE arrived in Washington, D.C. and are waiting for the luggage. My friends all checked in their suitcases, so we have to wait until they appear on the luggage belt. I hate waiting. That’s why I didn’t check in a suitcase and only brought a little one for hand luggage. Call me spoiled or stuck-up, but I prefer to travel light. I can purchase everything I need once we get settled in.
Unfortunately, I didn’t consider the possibility that my friends wouldn’t share my impatient attitude and therefore, I have to wait for them while they are waiting for their luggage. Crap!
