Chapter Fifteen
After carrying Topher into the house and up the two flights of stairs to their room so, as Jamie put it, she didn’t leave a trail of mud like a “rampaging swamp creature,” Jamie left her to shower and took her clothes away to be washed. Although she was a little disappointed to be left alone while wet and naked, the hot water felt too good to sulk for long. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until the warm shower made her skin prickle and sting as it came back to life. After washing all her parts at least twice, she stood under the spray for a while. It was a treat to have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hot water. At her shared apartment in LA, she was lucky to get a five-minute lukewarm shower before it turned to ice.
When she finally dragged herself out of her steamy bliss, Jamie still hadn’t returned. She wrapped one of his gigantic towels around her body and wandered into the bedroom. It was cooler in there, and she shivered, pulling the towel more tightly around her. Sometime the previous day, all her clothes had been taken out of her suitcase and put away neatly next to Jamie’s, so she moved toward the enormous walk-in closet, intending to get dressed.
Topher paused, her hand on the closet door. She told herself that she was hesitating because Jamie would be back any second, and it would save time getting to the fun stuff if she was mostly naked. In her heart, though, she knew perfectly well why she didn’t want to get dressed. She and Jamie had fallen into a habit already. He liked to pick her clothes and dress her, and she...well, she loved it. She wallowed in the comfort and stimulation of having his hands on her body, of him taking care of her, and it was unlike any feeling she’d ever experienced before. She didn’t want to dress herself now, because she’d miss having Jamie do it—and she was pretty sure he’d miss doing it, as well.
A niggling thought at the back of her mind reminded her that she shouldn’t get used to it. After all, she’d be back to dressing herself in her packed shoebox of an apartment soon.
Topher shoved away the thought. I’ll enjoy it while I can.
Even as her hand fell away from the door, she knew it wasn’t a rational decision. Jamie had said he was coming right back when he’d left with her muddy clothes. Why hadn’t he returned yet? Topher wondered if the shoppers had returned. If so, Jamie was probably trapped somewhere with Tiny—or, worse, Peyton—yapping his ear off. She needed to search for him, to save him from a boring conversation, but she couldn’t do that in a towel.
Topher decided to just peek into the hallway to see if she could see or hear him. If all was quiet and he wasn’t in the immediate area, she’d get dressed and hunt him down. She opened the main bedroom door just wide enough to stick her head out. No one was in the hall, and she frowned. It looked like she was getting dressed.
She started to pull the door closed again when a noise made her pause. She listened, leaning farther and farther into the hallway until she had to take a step forward to catch her balance. The sound of an angry male voice was clearer there, although it was still muted.
Tiptoeing toward the stairs, Topher stopped when the yelling got quieter, rather than more distinct. Turning around, she headed past the door to Jamie’s room and toward the last door in this hallway—the ivory suite. The Golfinis were staying in there. Her heart pounding with anticipation and excitement, she moved closer to the door. She was only a few steps away when Tiny yelled again, making her jump. Although she could hear him more clearly at that spot in the hall, she could only make out an occasional word. She hesitated for a moment, but then curiosity got the better of her. Hurrying the last few steps, she pressed her ear to the ivory suite door.
“...going to try harder, Barbara,” Tiny said in a loud voice just short of a bellow. “We all have to make sacrifices for the good of this family. You should’ve gotten him to propose by now.”
A quieter female voice said something that Topher couldn’t make out, and she scrunched her face in annoyance. Why couldn’t they yell everything? It would make it much easier for her to eavesdrop.
“Competition? What competition?” Tiny’s voice rose to a shout but then quieted slightly, as if attempting to sound reasonable. “She’s an idiot. How hard can it be to steal Hawkins away from her?”
Topher’s eyes widened. Tiny wanted Barb to steal Jamie? Topher had assumed that Tiny had been talking about getting Danny to propose, not Jamie. Her lip curled up in a snarl. Just let that disgruntled carrot try to take my Jamie-Bear.
Barb’s response was more of a whine, and all Topher could understand were the last two words “...hasn’t worked!”
“It will!” Tiny thundered. “You’re much more beautiful than that silly little actress he’s screwing, and you’re twenty times as smart.” Topher flipped off the door. “He’ll get tired of her quickly. Those Hollywood sluts are a dime a dozen.”
Topher added a second hand to double her middle fingers.
Barb said something so quietly that Topher couldn’t make out any of the words.
“You’ll think...something.” Tiny sounded more satisfied than rage-filled now, and his voice grew softer. Topher pressed her ear harder against the wood panel of the door, trying to make out his words. “...tough time...know you’ll... Hawkins...make it right.”
With a silent growl of frustration, Topher cupped her hands against the wood next to her ear. Why couldn’t Tiny hold on to that anger just long enough for Topher to listen in to the rest of their conversation?
Someone grabbed her around the waist, and she sucked back a scream as her entire body went rigid. “What are you doing, baby girl?” Jamie growled in her ear as he turned her toward their bedroom door. “Because it looks like you’re sticking your nose into other people’s business.”
As soon as she heard his voice, Topher relaxed and allowed herself to be ushered into their room. “Well, yes.”
“Yes?” He closed the door behind them with a solid thump.
“Yes, I was sticking my nose into other people’s business,” she clarified, turning around to face him. “I went to look for you—”
“In a towel?” he interrupted, eyeing her draped form.
“Well, I started by only sticking my head into the hall to see if I could see you, and then I heard Tiny yelling, but I couldn’t understand the words, so I had to go over and put my ear to the door.”
He raised his eyebrow in that way that made her oddly hot. “You had to put your ear to their door.”
“Yes. I had to.” Topher nodded several times in emphasis, and her still damp hair fell over her shoulder. She flicked it back impatiently. “Barb was in there, and I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but from what Tiny said, they’re planning for her to dump Danny—which is what Danny’s hoping for anyway—and somehow lure you into her clutches. It sounds like they need money, so they want access to yours. There was something about making a sacrifice for the family.”
“Sacrifice?” He looked as if he couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused or just plain bewildered.
“Ignore him,” Topher said, starting to pace. The adrenaline from eavesdropping and then getting grabbed was still sparkling in her blood, making her antsy. “Tiny’s a bigger bitch than either his wife or his daughter, and that’s saying something. He said that you’re going to dump me because I’m a dime a dozen, and I’m totally worth at least a quarter for just one of me, and there can’t be a dozen people like me, or else the world would totally explode.”
Topher flung out her arms in a dramatic representation of the world blowing up, and her towel slipped. She grabbed it right before it revealed everything. Even though Jamie had already seen all there was to be seen, she would feel a little too vulnerable being naked during a discussion about Tiny Golfini while Jamie was fully dressed.
“Why are you only wearing a towel?” he asked, throwing her off guard. That wasn’t the question she’d expected after her reveal of what she’d just overheard.
“I told you,” she answered. Although she tried to bluster through her answer, she knew her uncertainty was obvious. “I was only peeking into the hallway when I heard Tiny yelling. It wasn’t like I’d planned to do a full search of your ginormous house.”
“Uh-huh.” Just in that one word... No, it wasn’t even a full word. Just in that one sound, Jamie showed his skepticism and stripped her completely bare—towel or no towel. “What’s the real reason?”
Topher studied her toes. They were painted pink and cuter than her usual neat-but-boring style. “I didn’t have time?”
“Tophie...” The warning in his voice brought her gaze to meet his.
“I like it when you dress me, Daddy.” She felt the warmth of a flush spread over her cheeks, and she willed away her blush, putting on a sultry smile, instead. “Besides, I thought clothes would just get in the way of our pre-dinner plans.”
“Drop the towel.”
She obeyed even before she realized what she was doing. The terrycloth fell to the floor, and she stood naked under his hard gaze. She turned one foot so it overlapped the other until she realized what she was doing and planted both on the ground. Jamie was quiet for what felt like forever, and it was almost impossibly hard to stay still under his stern perusal.
Finally, finally, he strode toward her, and the breath she’d been holding escaped in a rush. Catching her hand, he led her over to the bed. As he sat on the edge of the mattress, she hesitated, unsure about what was going to happen. He tugged her closer and then bent her facedown across his lap.
She had a half-excited and half-apprehensive feeling that she knew exactly what was coming. “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh is right,” he said in a low tone that was almost a purr. Something about his voice made her squirm with delight. The feel of his pants under her completely bare skin heated her body even more, until she felt as if she were made of lava.
When he didn’t touch her, Topher twisted her head so she could see him and then swallowed hard. Jamie was unbuttoning the cuffs of his button-up shirt. One at a time, he rolled up his sleeves with brisk, decisive movements that made her stop breathing again. Why did watching him do something so simple as roll up his sleeves make her want to rip the rest of his clothes off? Her reaction to Jamie couldn’t be normal. It just couldn’t. He made everything too intense.
Her neck was starting to ache, so she untwisted her body and allowed her head to hang toward the floor. He rubbed his hand over her bottom cheeks, stroking and squeezing in a gentle, deliberate way that made heat bubble through her even as she braced herself for what she knew was coming next.
“I’ve been promising you a spanking for several days now,” he said, squeezing one cheek hard enough to make her gasp before he released it. His large hand covered her, his fingers dipping into the crease. Tilting her hips, Topher tried to maneuver so she could rub her needy clit against his hand, but he easily held her in position. “Pouting, whining, now eavesdropping...” He squeezed her again, and Topher couldn’t hold back a moan of delight. It almost hurt, and yet it didn’t. “I think you’ve earned this. Don’t you agree?”
“Um...” Her mind wasn’t working right. Every cell in her body, every thought in her head, was focused on the hand squeezing her bottom, the hand that was about to either bring bliss or pain or a little of both. “Possibly? Probably not, but maybe.”
“Probably not?” His tone was silkily amused, but his fingers working into her bum cheek felt like steel.
“Maybe?” The word came out more like a gasp. “Or yes?”
“Let’s go with ‘yes.’”
At that second, Topher was ready to agree to anything that he suggested. She wasn’t sure if she wanted this spanking or if she wanted him to forget that such a thing as spanking existed. His hand left her bottom for a brief second and then came back down.
She heard the sound before she felt the sting, and her entire mind went blank. Before she could recover or figure out how it felt or what she thought about it, he spanked her again. It hurt. It did. It stung and burned and heated her ass cheeks until it felt like they were on fire, but her body didn’t mind the pain. It was more concerned with the heat inside, the flame that surged with every slap, with every grind of her clit against his hard thigh.
The spanks blurred together with her need, melding into a fire that had her twisting and turning in his hold. “Daddy!” She groaned, and he paused.
“Is that enough?” Jamie asked, his voice a growl of sound that scraped against her already exposed nerve endings, bringing her to an even more intense state of raw need.
“No!” It wasn’t even close to enough. She was close, so close, and everything inside her was tense with desperation. “More. Please, Daddy.”
With a bitten-off groan, Jamie started spanking her again, the slaps coming faster until the heat and ache was just a constant throb that spread through her entire body. He stopped suddenly, but before she could complain or beg him to start again, he moved his hand between her legs and slid two fingers inside her soaking-wet pussy.
With a moan, she was flung off the edge into her orgasm, her body bowing, arching in his lap, her muscles pulling to their tightest point as pleasure swamped her. His fingers plunged in and out, drawing out her climax until she shuddered and went limp across his lap. Her mind floated, sleepy and content, barely aware that he was lifting her, laying her on her side in the bed, pulling the covers over her lax body.
It was only when he started to move away that she murmured a protest, reaching out a lazy hand to grab his rumpled shirt.
Jamie gave a low laugh. “Go to sleep. I’m going to take a shower.”
“Why?” She latched on to his shirt with her other hand, her bliss-induced lethargy starting to wane at the thought of him leaving her alone. “I’m just going to get you messy again. I promised you a blow job, remember?”
“Tophie,” he chided, although he didn’t move away. “You’re exhausted. We can finish this later.”
“Nope.” She gave his shirt a two-handed yank. Even though he could’ve easily resisted her tug, he allowed her to pull him down on top of her. Her backside burned as it came into contact with the sheet. Ignoring the sting of her spanked bottom, she wrapped her legs around him. “I’ve got you in my clutches now. There’ll be no wiggling out of this. I’m going to keep you captive until you come.”
He laughed again as he pushed up to his elbows. “Fine. I give in. You’re not giving me my blow job now, though.”
“I’m not?”
“Not right now.” He unhooked her legs from around his waist, and she let him. From the gleam in his eye, he had something even more fun in mind, and she was perfectly willing to play along.
“So...” She trailed off as he flipped her over onto her stomach. The way he manhandled her so easily, lifting and turning her as if she weighed nothing, rekindled the heat inside of her. As he levered himself off of her, standing next to the bed so he could strip off his clothes with more speed than finesse, she tried to keep her thoughts from scattering. It was a battle. “Is this like a blow-job rain check? A BJ deferment? Back-burner oral? A held-off hummer?”
He grinned at her, the pure-happy smile he seemed to be giving her more and more often. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to it. “Yes. All of those,” he said. Grabbing a condom from the nightstand, he quickly donned it and then joined her on the bed again. He lifted her hips until she was on her knees with her face still on the pillow. His breath hissed out as he brushed a hand over her ass, and she made a similar sound as his rough fingers came into contact with her sore, sensitive skin.
It wasn’t a bad feeling, though. Every touch sent a bolt of heat through her, liquefying her insides. “Is it weird?” she asked, her voice husky with want.
“Is what weird?” He sounded just as aroused as Topher did as he massaged her burning cheeks.
She hissed at the discomfort while, at the same time, pushing into his hold. “That I liked it so much?”
“Does it matter?” he asked, running one hand along her spine and then back to her hip. “You liked it. I more-than-liked it. It works for us, so why don’t we just enjoy it?” Nudging her knees farther apart, he ran a fingertip over her pussy and flicked lightly at her clit. With that small caress, Topher tensed, and she was almost ready to come again.
She fought to focus on the conversation as Jamie played with her, soft touches that soon had her entire body tense with need. Her pussy was throbbing as much as her spanked bottom. “Okay.” Her voice wasn’t much more than a gasp as he slid a thick finger inside her.
“Okay?” he repeated. Sliding that intruding finger in and out as her body clutched at it, Jamie added a second digit. Topher moaned.
“I can...enjoy it.” Her words were interrupted by a rough inhale of breath as he withdrew his wet fingers and moved them back to her other, tighter hole.
“Good.” He played with her, circling the sensitive, puckered opening before moving his hands to her hips. The tip of his cock brushed her clit, and every muscle in her body clenched for a moment. “I know I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this.”
This time, her groan was a protest of his teasing. She’d never considered doing anal before, but Topher was starting to love the way Jamie played with her ass. He squeezed her still-aching cheeks and then yanked her hips higher, burying his cock in her pussy. She yelped at the suddenness of his entry into her still-sore body, but she quickly adjusted, clenching around the huge intrusion as if she was trying to draw him deeper.
Jamie withdrew, sliding out until just the head stayed buried, before plunging back inside her. As he thrust again and again, another orgasm began building in Topher, this one deeper, more intense, than her last. Every time his cock burrowed into her as deep as it would go, his pelvis slapped against her still-sore ass cheeks. The heat and ache transferred directly to her pussy, transforming to pleasure and growing until she felt like she was about to burst out of her skin.
Her fingers clawed at the sheet beneath her, grasping two handfuls of the fabric in a desperate need to hang on to something. She missed being face-to-face with Jamie for a brief moment, missed being able to wrap her arms and legs around him, to hold on tightly, anchoring herself to him. She quickly dismissed that desire, however. The slap of his body against her ass brought a pleasurable soreness to every thrust, her desire building with each plunge, climbing to a pinnacle she’d never even imagined she could reach.
His thrusts increased in speed, driving into her in a quick, hard rhythm. Topher realized that she was making a needy sound every time he plunged back into her, but she didn’t care. Even if everyone in the house knew that Jamie was getting her off, she was okay with that.
Jamie slid his hand from her hip and across her lower belly. Tensing as his fingers drew closer and closer to her clit, she turned her head and bit the pillow. He barely touched her before she climaxed, her scream muffled by the fabric clenched between her teeth. Her body clenched around him, and she was vaguely aware of Jamie’s groan, of him drilling his cock even deeper into her body as he came.
Boneless, her legs wouldn’t support her any longer, and her hips lowered to the mattress. Jamie’s body shifted to her side, although he was large enough that he still covered most of her. It was nice beneath him, pinned under his weight and heat, like her own Jamie-Bear cave. She giggled.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
He tickled her in the ribs, and she jerked, trying to curl up into a defensive ball.
“Really!” Now she was really giggling as she tried to bat away his hands. “I thought of a joke, but if I try to say it out loud, then it won’t be funny at all.”
“I like those kinds of jokes from you,” Jamie said, although he stopped the tickle torture. “You say something that’s not funny at all, but you laugh like a loon, and that makes everyone else laugh.”
“What?” She wasn’t sure what part of that statement to be offended at first, but then she just blew it off. She was too blissful to be offended.
As if he could read her mind, Jamie didn’t try to defend what he’d just said. Instead, he just kissed her cheek and nuzzled her neck, making her scrunch her shoulders and giggle again.
“What time is it?” she asked, her words muffled by the pillow she’d burrowed into, trying to escape Jamie’s scratchy jaw. His five o’clock shadow was heavier than most men after a week of not shaving. Turning over onto her back, she ran her fingers over his cheek, marveling for the hundredth time that she was able to caress him so casually.
“Six.” He pulled her tight against his chest so that he was spooning her. “If you promise to hurry getting ready, we can take a nap before dinner.”
“I’m always quick getting ready,” she objected, yawning. Grabbing his hand, she linked her fingers with his and tucked it under her chin. “Especially when you do everything for me.”
Instead of laughing like she’d expected, Jamie just made a humming sound.
“What?” she asked, turning her head so she could see his face.
He studied her intently, and she started to get nervous. All her insecurities darted around inside her like a swarm of bees, buzzing and stinging. If he told her that what they were doing was too freaky after all, that she was too freaky, Topher wasn’t sure if she could handle it. She’d told herself that they’d have fun for two weeks and then she could let Jamie go, but her growing anxiety proved that she’d lied to herself. If this was the end, then it was going to hurt. A lot. Sitting up, she twisted around so she faced him.
“What is it? You’re giving me a very serious look, but I’m not sure if that’s an ‘I want you to be quiet and take a nap’ look or an ‘I want to fake break up with you’ look or maybe you just ate something that’s giving you gas, and you’re not sure if we’re at the stage in our relationship where you’re allowed to fart in bed.”
His somber look had given way to one of amused bafflement. “None of the above.”
“Okay.” She didn’t lie down, though, worried that, even though it wasn’t any of her guesses, there was still something that Jamie wanted to say, and it didn’t look like it was a positive thing. The words bubbled up in her throat, but she bit her lip before she started another monologue.
“Are we to the point where we can fart in bed?”
“I guess?” Her nose wrinkled. “If you have to. I mean, if the choice is between literal explosion and letting one rip, then I wouldn’t want you to damage your insides just to be polite.”
“That’s...good of you.” His expression grew serious again. “I need to ask you something.”
“Nooo!” She tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “I knew there was something serious you needed to talk about, and those things are never good. Never, ever, ever. Okay, just tell me. Rip the Band-Aid off in one painful tear. Ready? Go!” When he didn’t say anything, she opened one eye to see him staring at her, bemused. “Well? Tell me your terrible secret. Do you have a crazy wife in the attic? Because you should know that I don’t find that romantic at all. Mr. Rochester was a total dick, in my opinion.”
“You are making no sense at all right now.”
Figuring that he wasn’t going to get the painful part over with and just rip off the proverbial Band-Aid as she’d requested, Topher opened both eyes and braced herself. “Okay, I’m ready. What is it?”
“Do you have any auditions scheduled after New Year’s?”
She blinked at him. It was her turn to be confused. “Yes? I mean, yes. I do.”
Jamie frowned and rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Important ones?”
“Well, sure.” Topher was doing her best to read him, to figure out where the conversation was going, but he had his stoic expression in place. “There’s one part for a small role on a new sitcom. That would be nice, because of the steady money and exposure. Why?”
“Okay.” He nodded like he’d just made a decision. “I’ll buy a place, then.”
She stared at him. “Um...that’s nice, but what does buying a place have to do with my audition schedule?”
“I’ll buy a house in LA,” he explained, settling back against the pillows.
“That’s...nice.” Topher marveled that he could talk about buying property in Los Angeles as casually as he’d mention picking up a gallon of milk. Even though she’d grown up with money, Ben was always a firm believer in kids earning their own way. She’d paid for college with multiple jobs and work study and as few student loans as she could manage. In the six months since she’d graduated, she’d worked two jobs, took all the acting work she could find, and she still struggled to pay her share of the rent each month. “Do you want me to show you around?”
He frowned at her. “I know my way around LA. We have a satellite office there. I just haven’t had the need to buy a house there until now.”
As the idea settled into her brain a little, she bounced on the mattress in excitement. This thing with Jamie was amazing and wonderful and all sorts of other superlatives, but she hadn’t allowed herself to think of the future. She’d been pretending they were in a Christmas time warp, and she could continue to ride Popcorn, and sleep all she wanted to, and not make coffee or clean offices, and eat a ton of Leigh’s food, and play muddy football, and have mind-blowing, kinky sex with Jamie forever. Now that he was planning to have a place in LA, though, she could let herself think of the future without getting enormously depressed. “Really? So you’ll be around sometimes?”
Even though he frowned, his eye was amused. “Tophie. What did I say about jumping on the bed?”
Her stomach thrilled with excited flutters even as she made a face at him. “I’m not jumping, Daddy. I’m just...knee-bouncing.”
“Knee-bouncing.” His voice was flat, and she squirmed in a mixture of excitement and nervous anticipation.
“Yes?” Her bottom was still a little sore where it pressed into her heels, so she quickly changed the subject. “You’re really going to get a place in LA? Can I see you while you’re there?”
“Of course you’ll see me,” he said in a matter-of-fact way, and excitement grabbed Topher’s stomach again. It had just been a few days, but the thought of not seeing Jamie-Bear after the two weeks were up was too depressing to think about. “You’ll be living there, too.”
“Wait, what?”
“You’ll be staying with me,” he explained, as if it were obvious. “At the house I’m getting for us.”
“Uh...nope.” To soften her answer, she patted his cheek. “I have an apartment.”
“With roommates. We’ll be alone at my place.” Catching her hand, he brought it to his mouth and kissed her palm.
“Exactly.” She hid the shiver of pleasure that ran through her at his touch. It wouldn’t be helpful to show him how easily he affected her, how little effort he would have to put into swaying her. “Roommates. We have another ten months on our lease, and they’re depending on me to pay my portion of the rent for those ten months. I can’t just leave them in the lurch and live with you.”
“I’ll pay off your portion of the lease,” His mouth turning up in a satisfied smile.
“No,” she said, and his grin disappeared. “Jamie-Bear, I’ve known you for just a few days. I’m not going to give up my apartment or my independence or any of my jobs until we’ve been together for much, much longer...and maybe not even then. I really, really like you, and you get me off like no one’s business, but we’re just starting to get to know each other.”
He looked so adorably sulky that she couldn’t help herself. Topher reached out and booped his nose.
“Don’t look so grumpy, Mr. Bear,” she teased. “We’ll still go out and have fun and lots of amazing kinky sex, but I’m not moving in with you. Yet.”
His eye narrowed, and she could tell that he was plotting, especially when his smile returned. It was a little too shark-like for her peace of mind. “Yet?”
“That could mean months or even years,” she warned, but his predatory grin didn’t change.
“Fine. It’s settled. I’ll get a place in LA, and you’ll keep your apartment...for now.” He tugged her down so she was lying in his arms again.
She didn’t trust his smug expression, although there was nothing in his last statement that she could argue with. Snuggling against him, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him in an impromptu hug. “I’m so glad I get you and LA!”
With a low, warm laugh, he hugged her back. “I’m just glad I get you.”