Explore Her, More of Her (3 page)

Dr. Calvet faxes over release forms. The massive system of machines prints them. Belmont winks at me before he signs. I know that look—he’s up to something. I sign my form, and Belmont faxes them back. I hate that we’re being forced to keep our distance. I avert my eyes from his figure. He’s wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of green hospital scrubs. I can tell that being near me has already gotten to him because his bulge is firm. He’s not alone in the
aroused
department. I want him too.
 

“Daisy?” Dr. Calvet says.
 

I bring myself out of my fantasy of being under Belmont and back into the moment. “Yes?”
 

“Tell me how you met.”

I nod as I think back. “We met on Martha’s Vineyard. I was an emotional wreck.”
 

“And why is that?”

I feel Belmont’s stare picking me apart. “My then-boyfriend and best friend had decided to get married without telling me they were even in a relationship.”

“You felt betrayed?”

“I did at first.”

“What do you mean?”

I glance at Belmont. He’s watching me with that skin between his eyes puckered. “Well, I think the moment I got over what they had done to me was in the Stop & Shop, when Belmont asked if he could share my basket. I mean, that was the first time I really took a good look at him and saw…” My heart swells. “It was as if I had known him my whole life.”

“I felt the same way but way before then,” Belmont says. “It happened for me when I saw you walking off the docks.”

“And so you fell in love?” Dr. Calvet asks.

Belmont and I say “yes” at the same time.
 

“That is good. Then there is no doubt that you were in love.”

“Not for me,” Belmont says.

Dr. Calvet looks at Belmont askew. “I see…”

I roll my eyes a little. “Belmont doesn’t think I’m capable of love.”

“That isn’t true,” he says.

“He thinks I’m in love with my brother, who is dead.”

“I don’t think you’re in love with him. I think you haven’t gotten over whatever the hell the two of you had.”

I shake my head. That doesn’t make sense. “I’ve done everything you wanted me to do. What else do you want from me? My soul?”

Belmont shakes his head out of frustration. This is the point where we always reach an impasse.
 

“What is your answer?” Dr. Calvet asks Belmont.

“You mean what do I want from her?”

“Yes.”

Belmont stares at me intensely. “Every fucking thing she has to give, I’ll take.”

“Then you do want her soul?” Dr. Calvet says.

“Every inch of it.”

The way Belmont looks at me when he says that makes my nipples stand at attention, and Belmont notices. I know for a fact that he doesn’t mean my soul more than my body, which is the one thing I love giving to him without impunity.

“But that is not possible,” Dr. Calvet says, seemingly unaware of the sexual energy between us. “Only the maker of her soul can claim her soul. Daisy, what do you want from Belmont?”

The way Belmont is still looking has me discombobulated. I’m drawing a blank. “I don’t know.”
 

 
“I see…” Dr. Calvet checks his watch. “This is a very good start. Tomorrow we can resume. I have an assignment for you. Tonight, tell each other what you would be doing this instant if you had never married.”

“Tell each other?” I ask.

“Who else is there to tell?” Dr. Calvet replies.

I shrug.

“Daisy, I would like for you to share first.”

My eyes meet Belmont’s. I have actually thought about what my life would be like without him in it, but I could never decide whether it would be better or worse. However, we say goodnight to Dr. Calvet, and Belmont turns off the system.
 

The equipment stops humming, and now there’s nothing louder than the silence between us. This is when we would typically hug and kiss and touch and rub against each other until we’re hot and bothered and ready to make love. We would do it over and over until we forgot about Dr. Calvet’s assignment. But neither of us wants to feel the electrical shock that occurs if we get within five feet of each other, so we maintain our distance.

“How have you been?” Belmont asks.
 

Before today, we hadn’t seen each other since the night I kissed Dexter. “I’ve been fine.”

“I was on my way over to your place before I was abducted.” He snickers.
 

I touch the side of my eye. “So Charlie hit you in the eye?”

“Yeah, he did.”

I want to make a joke about how Charlie has been waiting a long time to cold-cock him, but instead I bend over to scratch my ankle. “I can’t believe Charlie and Angelina went through all this just to get us to see a psychiatrist. This is really drastic.” Belmont doesn’t respond, so I look up.

“Why does that bother you?” he asks, referring to the ankle monitor.

“Why doesn’t it bother you?”

“It bothers me.”

I sit up. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. I just have to deal.”

Belmont is watching me in a strange way. He’s obviously thinking something.
 

“What?” I ask.

“What, what?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

He cracks a tiny smile. “I’m conflicted.”

“Conflicted about what?”

“At least I’m stuck with you.”
 

“I doubt that’s what you were thinking, but I’ll take it.”

Belmont’s sexy grin fades into a vulnerable expression. “What you said about that thing feeling like a noose around your neck…” He looks at the shock collar around my ankle. “Do you feel the same way about me, about us?”
 

“No, you’re not a noose,” I say earnestly and hopefully convincingly. It’s not happening at the moment, but sometimes, too many times, I do feel as if Belmont is smothering me. But that makes him less like a noose and more like a pillow.

“All right,” he barely says. He still has his doubts. I hear it in his tone.

“Well…” I stand. My head is groggy, perhaps from the anesthesia. “I’m going to take a bath and then cook something.”

Our stares linger on each other. This is new—being so close and being unable to make physical contact.

“It’s been a couple of days since I bathed, so I feel grimy,” I add.

Belmont gets that naughty look in his eyes.

I point behind him. “Okay, well, could you move five feet that way so I can pass without getting shock treatment?”

“You do know that I want you?”

I smirk flirtatiously. “Of course you do.”

“I’m going to have you.”
 

“Five feet, Jack Lord.”

He raises his eyebrows. “You called me Jack?”

“You sound as if you like it.”

“Let me try it on when I’m making love to you.”

I roll my eyes again. “Stop it.”
 

“You stop it.”

I raise a hand. “Five feet, Jack.”

Wearing a lopsided grin, Belmont takes two large steps backward. I chuckle and start toward the doorway.
 

“Daisy?”

I stop to look back at him. Gosh, he’s good looking. It should be a crime to be so sexy.
 

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks.

“Back to the room I was put in.”

“Sleep with me in the master suite,” Belmont says.

I shake my foot. “Jack, we’re wearing these. What if we roll within five feet of each other in the middle of the night? Think about how shocking that will be—pun intended.”

Belmont snickers as his eyes lasciviously fall over my body. He and I are alone on what I suspect is a deserted island. Under these circumstances, all the stuff that pulled us apart gets stored at the back of the closet. I ignore those haunting photos of him and Stacy Pruitt. He tries to forget about my sensual kiss with Dexter. I forget that I have been keeping score, and on a scale from one to ten, his indiscretion was a ten and mine was a one.
 

“Right,” Belmont says. He seems absorbed by his thoughts again.
 

“Okay.”

“But use the tub in the master suite. It’s bigger. You’ll like it. If you don’t want me to show you where it is, then I can tell you how to get there.”

“What’s wrong with the tub in the smaller room?” I ask.

“Nothing. It’s nice, just not as big.”

I cut a tiny smile. “You do like everything bigger.”

“Not everything…”

I stifle a laugh. He just doesn’t stop. He’s referring to my pussy, which he constantly reminds me is tighter than average. But he knows I can’t resist a luxurious bath. “Okay, I’ll use the bigger tub.”

“Out this door, make a right. Down the hallway, make a left, go up the stairs, make a right, and the master is on the right. It faces the ocean. It has the best view in the house, next to your tits and hips.”

I roll my eyes. “Jack Lord, you’re just working yourself up for something that can’t happen.”

“Right,” he says, still grinning naughtily.

“Right.”

“See you soon.”
 

I grunt and shake my head, but I can’t wipe the smile off my lips as I walk down the long hallway and follow Belmont’s instructions to a T. Now that a lot of the stress I felt earlier has dwindled, I can get a better feel of this mini-mansion. The décor is so contemporary chic and in line with Belmont’s pristine bachelor-pad tastes, even though he isn’t a bachelor. I walk up the floating stairs made of heavy-duty glass then take the first right down a hallway with textile art on the walls. The sun is setting, and the lights turn on automatically as I go.
 

I make it to the master bedroom, and it’s just as grand as I knew it would be. The wooden headboard of the king-sized bed sits against a textured ceramic wall. Serious special effect lighting surrounds the headboard—it would make anyone sleeping in the bed appear to be the sun king or queen. Pendulum lights shaped like teardrops hang on both sides of the bed, and a white fur rug lies at the foot of the bed.
 

I walk over to the large windows and look out over the island. Belmont could never fully articulate this view. Tropical trees coat the hillside. Soft orange and yellow lights have been placed pleasingly throughout the brush. At the moment, I’m transcending our entire situation. I feel as if I’m on vacation or on assignment on a tropical island I’ve never explored.
 

I pull off my dress and figure out how to open the large windows. The island breeze consumes me. A full moon is rising, so the ocean is active. I would love to swim in those waters, but I would never do it without a guide. Tiger sharks are thick in these parts. I take a deep breath and one last survey of the land before I trot off to the bathroom to run a bath.
 

Of course the tub is to die for. It’s oval shaped, sunken into the floor, and outlined by a smooth, rectangular-shaped layer of gray slate rock, which is surrounded by warm gray stones. I easily figure out how to draw the perfect bath. Belmont has the same programing mechanism for the bathtubs in his homes in Malibu, Manhattan, and Martha’s Vineyard. I order a sweet peach, creamy bubble bath, sit on the edge of the tub, and put in my freed foot as water fills it. I close my eyes to breathe in the delicious scent.

“Don’t move. Stay just like that,” Belmont says.

I open my eyes. There’s something different about him. He’s wearing shorts as he strolls confidently in my direction. What the hell is he doing!
 

I freeze, bracing myself for the shock of my life, but nothing happens. I look at his ankle, and my mouth falls open. “Where’s your shock collar?”

Belmont smirks. “I threw it away.” He stands over me. “I’ve been waiting to…”
 

I gaze up at him breathing heavily, wondering what he will do first. His hand travels down my neck. I gasp as his fingers caress my breasts. I brush my cheek against his bare leg. “How did you get it off?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Belmont lifts me, and I clamp my legs around him. Now I’ve gotten him all wet.

My head feels as if it’s floating as we kiss. Belmont’s lips release mine, and I sigh when he nibbles his way down my neck. His erection is as hard as steel and pressed against my slipperiness. Belmont moans, frustrated, as he sucks on the hills and slopes of my breasts. His tongue and lips are soft and warm, but his grasp is tight.

“Damn it,” he whispers. “I don’t know what to do to you first.” Our skin is so slippery. He bites my nipple, and I flinch. “What do you want, baby?”

I thrust my damp hips against his rigidness. “This.”
 

He sighs. “Me too.”
 

Belmont lays me on the bed. We don’t relinquish eye contact as he steps out of his shorts. I can’t speak, but the cells of my body beg him to hurry up and screw me. Finally, Belmont slides up between my legs. We both gasp as he breaks through my depths.
 

“Damn, you’re so fucking tight,” he mutters.

Belmont shifts his hips. His strokes are fervent. He’s already shivering as he shifts slowly. Our eyes are locked. He seizes my hips and sinks his throbbing penis so deep, I feel him in my belly. Our lips are close to touching, and our breaths crash against each other. No words are needed. This is how we want to stay forever. This is bliss.
 

I forget how easy it is to stimulate him to the point of non-restraint, and I slide the tip of my tongue across his top lip. That’s all it takes. Belmont pounds me as we smash our mouths against each other. I love Belmont’s unbridled passion. I feel my insides pulse around his thickness, and I whimper as he makes me feel streaks of pleasure.
 

“Holy shit.” Belmont crushes the pillow on both sides of my head and grunts as he blasts his nectar inside me.
 

I relish the taste of our kiss. Our lips smash and grab at each other. Our tongues slip against each other. I could do this all night, but at the moment, I can only think of one thing.
 

“How did you get that thing off your ankle?” I ask before his tongue rounds mine.