“Yes,” she admitted without hesitation. Now she had the urge to spread for him. “Always.”
“And do you think that’s going to change now that I’m out? Don’t you think things might swing over into something a little more…intense, now that we’re going here? Even though I’m doing this ass fuckin’ backward and getting ahead of myself, you do realize where ‘here’ is, don’t you?”
“Probably, and, um, not really.”
“You will soon enough. Do you care for me, honey?” Again he looked right into her eyes, keeping that contact and mesmerizing her with that golden stare.
Tish found herself being more honest with him at that moment than she’d ever been with another human being. “I don’t just care for you, I love you, Josh. I’ve loved you since the moment I first saw you. You sauntered into our apartment, implied I was too young to be reading Wuthering Heights—which I was—then you sat with me so patiently while I did my homework. You didn’t even show how bored you must have been helping me do word-find after word-find.” She smiled, remembering. “I went to bed that night and asked God to make me grow up faster. I begged him to save you for me because I knew if only I had the chance, I could make you so happy.”
“Now
that’s
insane,” he murmured as he leaned in and touched his lips between her breasts. He lifted his mouth and added, “And never once was I bored.” before pressing back and performing a light suction. He held the position for a long time until his hands came up to cup the firm mounds on either side of his cheeks. “So fuckin’ beautiful. Look at these nipples.” He made her moan quietly when he brushed his thumbs over them. “Like little berries.” He took one into his mouth and, giving one deep pull, raised his eyes before taking the peak between his front teeth and flicking his tongue back and forth. He covered half her breast and sucked hard before popping his lips off. “I want to memorize your every reaction to the things I’m doing to you. Sorry, but it does make my cock like steel knowing I’m the first to get at you.”
He lifted her breasts as though weighing them. And speaking of his steely cock… She leaned to the side and looked down to see it was still on full display, as hard as ever. It stood straight up from his hips, pointing at her.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off you the day you opened that door for me,” he said, continuing with their conversation. “I watched you go about your business. And I don’t mean that in some fuckin’ pervy way. It’s just that I’d avoided being around kids since I was one, and you impressed the fuck out of me because you were ten years old, yet you were more mature than your fuckin’ mother. I kept expecting you to drop the act and get silly or some shit but you never did. And you were right, you’ve never been a little kid, and that pisses me off.” He smoothed his hands down her ribs and came back up to fully cover her breasts again. “Until now, anyway. But from day one, you were my own little blond angel with the eyes of an adult. Man, I wanted to lock you away so bad. I was so afraid something was gonna happen to you too.”
She frowned and paused her tracing of the ace of spades on his throat. “To me too? What does that mean?”
All expression fell from his face. “Nothing. Just that bad shit happens to people and I didn’t want you to be one of those people.” He got her nipples between his thumbs and fingers and rolled them, pulling hard enough to send a powerful longing shooting through her. “We’re gonna do some stupid shit, you and me. Shit you should have done when you were a kid and never got the chance.”
“You’ve already done that for me, Josh,” she said breathlessly. She curved her back and pushed her breasts into his hands. “For my fifteenth birthday, you hired a petting zoo and a clown to come to the clubhouse. I still laugh when I remember Nick and Chase riding up and seeing all the straw and turds littered around the parking lot. That was more suited to a five-year-old’s party, yet you gave it to me then because you knew I’d never had it before.”
She glanced at the door, wondering if the reason she’d never had a birthday party before her eleventh had left, or if she’d gone to the bedroom in the basement where Tish had grudgingly given her permission to sleep if she ever needed a place. And the only reason Tish had done that was because she’d never forgotten all those little things their old landlady had done for her for seemingly no reason. As she’d gotten older, she’d realized the lady with the bright pink lipstick had simply been a good person. To honor that, Tish tried to emulate it whenever she could. As role models went, she considered Mrs. Reed a good one.
She passed her pinkie over Josh’s brows and traced the permanent furrow between them before traveling down the bridge of his nose to test the bump she’d always wanted to feel but never could.
“Every time you did something like that for me, I fell more and more in love with you.” All the years they’d known each other, and all the thoughtful things he’d done sifted through her mind. “No wonder it grew into what it is today,” she murmured. And to have been repaid for his generous spirit in the way he had. “When they took you away, and when I found out what Rachel did—” Her bottom lip trembled. “I’m so sorry you gave up your freedom so my ungrateful mother could stay out here and dishonor that sacrifice.”
“Hey. That’s not on you.” His hands began roaming. “Rachel’s shit is Rachel’s shit, not yours. I learned to separate you two long ago, so don’t ever think I’ll get pissed at you for something she pulls. It won’t happen.”
He touched her everywhere, possessively, greedily, as if she’d always been his. And the whole time, his tongue lazed from nipple to nipple. He pinched one between his fingers without taking it out of his mouth, and she felt that deep pull he’d mentioned earlier. When he came off, he glanced up.
“You’re looking at me with hearts and flowers all the fuck over you, Tish,” he said with a warning in his voice. “I don’t know how to respond to that shit. It makes me edgy. Like you’re expecting me to say something, and I’m gonna fuck it up and disappoint you.”
She hooked her feet around his back so she could squeeze him between her knees. “I don’t know if it’s possible for you to disappoint me. And, I’m sorry, but I am a girl. I’m supposed to make you uncomfortable by smothering you with my syrupy feelings. But, it’s okay if you don’t return, well, whatever, I just wanted you—”
He interrupted her. “Did you hear me say I don’t return, ‘well, whatever’? I’m just not gonna tell you about it. I’m more likely to show you by eating your pretty pussy until you come a few times rather than throw that fuckin’ word around you females like so much.”
She laughed around the bubbles of sheer joy that popped and fizzed inside her chest. Content with that for now, and almost afraid to jinx it by asking him to tell her more, she tucked the knowledge away and set aside the hearts and flowers.
Taking a quiet breath to still the butterflies that suddenly filled her stomach, she released him from her clasp and opened her legs in a blatant invitation. “Maybe it’s time to quit all this yakking and get started. Otherwise, I’m going to be as old as you by the time I get around to having sex.”
He shoved her knees closed and to the side and dipped his head down. Without warning, he sunk his teeth into the flesh at her hip. She squealed because it was no mild love bite.
“Ouch! Josh! That hurt.”
He licked the boo-boo. “It was supposed to. Lippy little bitches shouldn’t expect anything less. You’re lucky you’re up there. Otherwise, I’d spank that tight ass of yours.”
“For what, grumpy? A joke?” She rubbed at the sting.
“Say you’re sorry.”
Her jaw fell. “Seriously?” she said after an extended pause.
His brow quirked, and she couldn’t tell if he was playing her or not.
Wow. Had she really thought she liked this heavy-handed side of him? “Sorry.”
He rolled his eyes. “Try again. And say it like you mean it. Here, I’ll help.” He made a come-on motion with his inked fingers. “‘I’m sorry I lipped off, Master. It won’t happen again unless we’re fighting about something stupid’. Come on. You can do it.”
Were they back to that? “I’m sorry I lipped off. It won’t happen again unless we’re fighting about something stupid.” She was smiling by the time she was through. He wasn’t, which made hers slip. She kicked her feet in frustration, and that bumped her ass up and down. “You’re not my master, Josh.”
He grinned at the embarrassingly immature display. “I’m
so
you’re fuckin’ master, baby. Now I want to hear you admit it.”
Wishing she could straighten her back and cross her legs, she settled for raising her chin in defiance. She’d have put more confidence in the regal attempt if a weird thrill wasn’t sneaking through her. Why was he pursuing this? Did he have some sort of fetish?
“Do you want me to be your slave?” She genuinely wanted to figure him out. “Or is this about our age difference? Do you think because you’re older you’re better than me somehow?”
He pulled a face. “Fuck, no. I know, and so does everyone else, that you’re so far above me you’re barely visible anymore.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said dismissively, not even giving it airtime. “And the slave thing?”
He tipped his lips down and gave a casual shrug. “Once you get my cock, you’ll be a slave to that, so…”
She slapped his shoulder, and he grinned.
“Seriously. Why are you insisting on this?”
“Because my title reflects your happiness,” he surprised her by saying. “In my world, you allowing me ownership of you means I’m taking care of you well enough, and you’re secure enough, and feel treasured enough to surrender yourself to me completely. It isn’t about an abuse of power or anything so disrespectful—despite what you’re thinking right now. It’s about you yielding to me. It’s about you opening yourself to me body and heart; nothing held back.” His forehead was creased in concentration as if he were trying to find the right words. “When the boys hear you’re mine, they’re not going to hear you’re my girlfriend, and we’re fucking. They’ll know I earned you. They’ll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re content to stand behind the man who’s publically vowed to protect you, the man who respects you, and the man who wants you to be nothing but happy. You being mine will let every last fucking one of them know I’m doing my job, and doing it well. I don’t expect you to understand the pride we feel—like any guy, I guess, but more somehow—when our old lady steps back and lets us rule. I know you have what it takes to do it yourself. I mean, look at you, at this place, at where you are today despite what you’ve had to work with.” He looked around, then brought his focus back to her. “But for you to place yourself and your happiness in my hands, especially you, you’d be honoring me, giving me one fuck of a goal. If I give you a good life and make it so you want for nothing, I’d be proud of that. And I need to be proud of something good, Tish. You’re wet.”
As he’d wound down the most words she’d ever heard him say at one time, he’d slowly spread her knees apart, and was now running the pad of his thumb down the damp panel of her thong.
“You’ve just made it very difficult for me to argue my point,” she said, emotion clogging her voice. He hadn’t made it difficult; he’d made it impossible. And she was at a loss.
“That’s because deep down you want to please me, and giving me this will easily do the trick. Gotta get a look at my prize.” Standing straight and tall, he stroked her hip before hooking his thumb under the edge of her panties. He slowly slid it down, lifting them away from her body as he did. But it wasn’t until he reached that wet spot he’d mentioned that he pulled aside the material concealing her from his view.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he greeted as Tish held her breath. The charming, wolfish tone he’d used effectively ended the conversation.
For now.
The air escaped Tish’s lungs in a hot rush. She hadn’t had her body bared to another person’s eyes since she was a baby. Her boobs were one thing; her pussy was another. She watched from her perch as Josh swallowed, and then swallowed again as if his mouth was watering. After a couple of seconds, she noticed she was once more nodding. He glanced up and smiled a little because he noticed, too.
“Want me to describe what I see?”
She knew what he was seeing. Her freshly waxed pussy. She kept it like that because it made her feel sexy even though she wasn’t. “Not really…”
The corner of his eyes wrinkled as his smile grew. “Do you masturbate, Tish?”
“Yes.”
He groaned. “Gotta see me some of that one day soon.” He looked over his shoulder at her bed. “Right over there?”
She nodded.
“Do you use any toys on this little beauty?”
She nodded again, feeling her cheeks flame, but she kept her head up.
“What?”
“I have a wand behind those books.” She pointed to her nightstand.
“That’s my girl. If I fucked you with it pressed to your clit, you’d blow up for me over and over again.”
“I know I would.” A ripple of awareness zipped through her at the thought of his thick cock entering her. She should have been using something other than the wand. Maybe she could have saved herself some discomfort.
“Would you be self-conscious going through your routine if I was watching? Bring your ass a little closer to the edge.”
Her routine? she thought as he gripped her hips and jerked her forward a few inches before she could move herself. Did she have a routine? “Tonight I would be.”
“Because this is all new to you. I would have wondered about it if you’d had no trouble flashing me without those cheeks of yours pinking up. I swear you haven’t stopped blushing for the last hour. Though, once I have you worked up that’ll all fade, and you’ll be begging me to sink my cock into this gorgeous little slit. Christ, it’s fuckin’ perfect.” He was looking between her face and her pussy now, and seemed to have forgotten he’d said he wouldn’t actually fuck her. “But I meant once you’re used to this. Used to us. Will you perform for me then?”
The idea of getting herself off while he watched had her blush spreading to the rest of her body. “I could probably have some fun teasing you.”