Cai
I wonder if Tansy has any idea how crazy she is. I mean, in a cute way for sure, but she has definitely rounded the bend. “A vacation together?”
“Yeah. Well, sort of. I’ve got the time off and I want to go home. You mentioned you wanted to try shooting. We can even go hunting if you want. Plus Justin has a couple four-wheelers.”
Three weeks ago, I left this woman’s apartment in the middle of the night and wasn’t sure if I was ever going to hear from her again. I looked up at the glow from her window and honestly expected the light to snap off and that to be the end of it. I was surprised enough when she texted me the next day. Even a little more surprised when we made it to a few dates.
Now I’m sitting at her counter, watching her buzz around her kitchen as she cooks dinner and invites me to visit her family.
This . . . is strange. “Are you sure about this?”
“I mean, it’s up to you if you want to come along or meet me there or anything, but I’m definitely going. I haven’t been home in years, and now I can’t wait.”
“That’s really good. You should do what makes you happy.” I’m just not convinced that I should be going along. I really do want the chance to try shooting. And I’ve never been hunting in my life. I’m not sure I could really pull the trigger on an innocent deer, especially for sport, but I’ve always been an advocate of trying things once. I wouldn’t have swum with sharks otherwise.
She has a cutting board and a pile of shallots that she’s whipping through with a big knife. She tosses them into a skillet liberally covered with olive oil. “Justin’s been staying at home for the past few months, so Mom’s kind of going nuts.”
“How old is he?”
“Twenty-one. He was working at the plastics factory in the next town, but apparently they’ve shut down one of their products—you’d have to ask him which one—so there were some layoffs. And he got caught up in them.”
“That sucks.”
“Definitely.” She stops slicing pancetta and pops a cube in her mouth. “Do you think you’d want to come?”
“I’d have to check my schedule,” I hedge.
“Sure, of course.”
“Thanks for making brunch,” I say. I hold my hand out to her. She puts her fingers in mine, and I kiss her knuckles. I’ve learned my lesson about trying to pull her closer to me though. She has to come on her own.
“Anytime.” Her smile is cute.
Hell, all of her is cute. She’s wearing capri-length jeans rolled at the bottom and a T-shirt big enough to drape off one shoulder. Her curls have been semicorralled into a high ponytail. She’s perky today in a way that I haven’t seen before. Her plans to go home are lighting her up from the inside. That alone is the most compelling reason I can think of for going, to be able to see how happy she’ll be.
“I wish I could have done dinner, but I have to put some hours in at the shop.”
“I get it.” She finally drifts closer to me. Her chin lifts. Her lips part the slightest bit. I wonder if she realizes she’s offering me her mouth. “I guess I’ll have to think of some way to amuse myself tonight.”
“Think of me?”
“I do that a lot already.”
I stroke the shoulder bared by her shirt. “That’s good. I think of you too.”
“You do?”
“Mm-hmm.” Instead of kissing her mouth, I lower my head and brush a kiss over a constellation of freckles right beneath her collarbone. “I was thinking of these freckles when I was trying to work last night. Do you know how bad it is to be distracted while trying to ink someone?”
“Bad?”
“The worst.”
I wonder how long it’ll take until she kisses me, if she’ll ever be that bold. I don’t know that she will. There’s a part of her that likes submitting, and more than that, I think she likes being chased. Not chased. Seduced. I’ve been deliberate and patient over the last few times we’ve seen each other, but I don’t think I can wait any longer.
I take her wrist and raise it to my mouth. Her pulse throbs when I open my mouth over her skin. She’s racing like a rabbit. I feel like a wolf as I lick and kiss her tender flesh. “Little one?”
“Yes?” Her eyes have gone hazy. Her bottom lip is plump and damp.
“I think the onions are burning.”
“Oh!” She dashes away and scrambles to the stove. The wooden spoon scrapes across the bottom of the pan. “Oh no, they are. Darn.”
It’s the charred smell that gave it away. Kind of appealing on one level, but probably not what Tansy was shooting for. Her expression is pinched and displeased. I put an elbow on the counter and hide my smile behind a cupped hand. She’s captivating, especially when she stamps one bare foot.
“Ugh. I’m so annoyed.”
“Call them caramelized?” I slide up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and propping my chin on her shoulder. The onions are definitely black at the edges, but they’re probably salvageable. “I like being able to distract you that much.”
She covers my hands with one of her own even as she keeps tending the dish. “You’ve got a little bit of an ego, don’t you?”
“Sometimes.” I nip her earlobe. She shivers, which in turn bounces a sudden rush of wanting through me too. “Mostly I like you.”
I want a chance to order her around again. Perhaps that’s terrible, but I don’t really care either. If dominance is a spectrum, I’ve always been more on the bossy end, but I haven’t gone so far as BDSM. With Tansy, I can easily make an exception. There’s something about the way she looks at me that I need more of. I want that laser focus and the way it’s combined with a need to take care of her.
“I like you too,” she says as she tilts her head so I can have easier access. Her ponytail spills over our arms.
I lay a line of kisses up and down her neck. Gentle. Soft. The flutter of my lips over her flawless, pale skin. Her pulse throbs under my mouth. I apply a tiny lick. Skin doesn’t taste like that much on its own, not usually. On Tansy, I taste the promise of things to come. It’s the heady flavor of possibility.
“Why don’t you turn that off?” I suggest gently.
Her hand immediately goes to the stove’s control, but then she hovers over it. “Are you sure? You’re not hungry?”
“We can order delivery later if you need it.”
Her skin is warm and edging toward hot as I kiss and lick her. My hands roam over her curves and valleys wherever I like. Holding her hips, I push her to the side, away from the stove. One by one I take her hands and lay them flat on the edge of the travertine counter.
“Don’t move,” I order her.
“Okay.” Her throat constricts on a compulsive swallow. She dips her head enough that her ponytail falls between her face and me and hides her. I push it away. I want to see everything I do reflected in her expressions. With Tansy, there’s no second that’s wasted.
I stand behind her, my front plastered against her back. My nipples are hard with desire and my pussy is starting to feel needy. Even the abrasion of my shirt against my tits helps me along. “What would you do if I walked away right now?”
“Cry?” she offers helplessly. It’s a joke, but I think it’s not at the same time. She leans back on her heels, obeying my order but seeking more attention from me. “I don’t think I’d like to be left alone. I know I wouldn’t.”
“But you do like it when I order you around.”
“I do.”
“And if I make you into my personal play toy?”
“I’d be the best toy I could be.” She slides me a sideways glance out of the corner of her eyes. “Can I volunteer for sex toy duty in particular? I liked making you feel good.”
I groan, low and absolutely unintentionally. “You’re wicked.”
“I am, aren’t I?” Her grin sparks. “You make me wicked, I think.”
I’m petting her all over. My hands on her stomach, on her hips, riding between her legs. Ribs and back and pushing under the hem of her shirt. I pop open the button of her jeans and immediately shove between panties and rough pants to get a handful of the sweet curve of her ass. “Sweet, sweet girl.”
“Take care of me? You’ll treat me right. Please?”
I haven’t tasted her yet. I don’t think I can go a moment longer without knowing what she’ll feel like coming on my face. “Go to the couch.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she says, and I shudder with both the words and the way she looks saying them. She knows it’s a moment, a big deal, a thing that there’s no stepping back from. She looks up at me from under her lashes.
She sashays toward her sectional with her ass swaying. The jeans are loose around her hips but still holding on. Her feet are bare and pale in contrast to the maple floors. When she gets to the dark-blue couch, she immediately strikes the same pose that she’d been in against the counter—hands spread on the back of the couch and leaning over.
“Jesus Christ, little one.”
“Is this bad?” She looks back at me over her shoulder, eyes wide. I can’t tell if she’s worried or if she’s teasing me.
“Only in the way that it’s so good, it’s bad.” I stay far enough away that I can’t touch yet. I want to take in the whole picture. “You should see how goddamned good your ass looks. You’re so sexy.”
She hides her face against her shoulder. “I’ve never really thought of myself as sexy. I’m a girl-next-door type.”
“You are incredibly sexy. Fucking hell, you so are.”
She’s bent over, her ass cocked out enough that her shirt pools in the small of her back. The silky material slides over her skin when I push it up. Her bra is pale peach this time. When I tug her jeans down, I discover gauzy panties to match. She’s patient. Incredibly so. She doesn’t even step out of her jeans until I nudge her one foot at a time and pull them away.
I set her feet shoulder-width apart. Her turn on has a wild, musky scent. The center of her panties has a wet circle. I press a single fingertip to the exact middle of it. She lets out a quiet “Oh!”
“Do you want my mouth?”
“Yes, please.”
“Do you think you deserve it?”
She freezes, the little motions of her hands and feet and the way her hips were moving with need all stopping. “I—I don’t know?”
“Have you been a good girl lately?”
“Yes.” She flashes me a naughty smile, and her hips start shifting again. It’s like she’s turned on a switch and gotten into the sense of the game. “I’ve done all my chores, and I’m completely up-to-date on my homework.”
We’re on the same wavelength. A dirty, filthy game that I never would have thought to ask for, but now that we’ve fallen into it, I feel the pull deep in my psyche. “What about your essay?”
“Oh, no,” she says in a faux-dismayed voice. “I didn’t know I had an essay.”
I’m torn between wanting to laugh my ass off and wanting to fuck this girl silly. It takes me a moment to be able to give her a tsk-tsk. “What are we going to do about you?”
“Punish me?” she asks, wholly eager and excited. She bounces on her toes, which makes her calves flex. I did a damn good job on that tattoo of hers. I could kiss it for bringing this minx into my life. “Punishment with oral sex, yup. I think that’s where we need to go with that.”
I lose the battle and laugh. “That doesn’t sound like it’s going to inspire discipline in you.”
“Maybe it depends how good you are?” She giggles. “I only learn lessons if the oral sex is really, really good.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
She wags her butt. “We can try it and see?”
When I started this game, I had some half-formed idea of spanking her, but I don’t think that’s going to serve. Not this time. I sit myself down on the couch and lean against the cushions. “Go stand in the corner.”
“What?” She gawps at me, her jaw so wide that I see teeth and tongue.
I cross my arms over my chest and fold an ankle over my knee. Very much the displeased-professor sort of pose. “You heard me, little one. You’re being cheeky. You need a time out.”
“You can’t be serious.” Her eyes are so wide, it’s almost comical. The pretty hazel is completely ringed by white. I can’t help but notice that her breathing is getting even faster and she hasn’t moved from her subservient position bent over the couch. With me sitting next to her, there’s absolutely nothing keeping her in place but her own desire.
This whim is rapidly turning into a hard-core fetish. I am so fucking turned on. Everything inside me has hit a level of intense calm that I haven’t felt before. I lift a single eyebrow. “Go. Stand in the corner.”