by Lily Harlem
I looked around, too.
Everyone was staring at us. Mouths were gaping and eyes were wide. A champagne bottle was leaking its contents onto Ramrod’s hand but he hadn’t appeared to notice.
Oh shit, now Dustin had really done it.
But I didn’t care. My heart was bursting for the man holding me as though he was never going to let me go. My breath was still coming hard and fast from a kiss so passion infused I was surprised I hadn’t orgasmed in the middle of it. But what did this mean? He didn’t want secrets? He didn’t care who knew about our affair?
I could only hope that it paved the way for us being together properly, not just on a paradise island, not just in my dreams, not as a dirty liaison every now and then, but in real life as a couple. Unconventional couple maybe, but still, just us, Dustin and Gina.
“Fuck yeah, go for it, Speed,” Brick said, breaking the stunned silence. “You lucky bastard.”
Dustin suddenly jolted sideways. Ramrod had whacked him on the shoulder. “Great catch,” he said, throwing a wink my way.
“Didn’t see that coming, but happy for you,” Price said, shaking his head and smiling at us both.
Mike raised his glass at me and smiled. “I should have guessed,” he said. “Can’t get him out of here when you’re around.”
“Dustin,” I said, returning my attention to him and seeing the heat and desire in his eyes. “I, what does this mean?”
“I can’t walk away from you again without knowing if this could be something more than just annoying the hell out of each other,” he said.
“You do annoy the hell out of me,” I said, sliding my hands up to his shoulders. “But you have other skills that more than make up for that.”
He grinned, cupped the nape of my neck and pulled me closer still. My body pressed up against the solid padding on his legs and the heat of his bare chest seeped through my clothes to my breasts. “But,” he said quietly, “I’m not falling in love with you, sweet cheeks, or anything crazy like that.”
“I’m not falling in love with you, either.” My eyes filled with tears because I knew I was, one hundred percent.
“Liar,” he said onto my lips. “You love me every bit as much as I love you.”
I nodded and he kissed me again.
“That’s it, show her who’s boss,” Brick shouted, his voice high and excited. Several cheers went up and another cork popped.
Dustin paused and pressed his lips to my ear, sending one hand down to squeeze my ass in a highly inappropriate way for an employee. “Actually,” he whispered dragging me against his groin. “I kind of like it when you show me who’s boss.”
Epilogue
“So what’s this important thing you want to say to me?” I smiled at Dustin across the table at our favorite Italian restaurant, Ciao, and set my cutlery down.
He cleared his throat and the relaxed expression of moments ago slipped. He’d been telling me about some crackpot dream he’d had the night before about playing hockey in space. The puck had kept floating around and his stick drifting into the abyss.
“Well,” he said, also setting his knife and fork on his plate. “It’s just that…” He chewed on his bottom lip and rubbed at his smooth-shaven chin.
I laughed, unused to seeing him at a loss for words. “What? Have you robbed a bank or something and don’t know how to tell me?”
“Nah, it’s more complicated than that.”
I frowned and my smile fell, too. It was even more rare for Dustin to look uncertain or anxious. It just wasn’t part of his makeup. He knew what he wanted and went for it. Things didn’t faze him or worry him the way they did me. He was much more black and white and his mantra of worrying about things he could fix and not the rest of the shit life threw his way saw him through and kept him balanced.
“It’s just…” he said, chewing on the inside of his cheek.
“Oh, for God’s sake, let it out,” I said with a nervous smile, taking a sip of wine but not really tasting it.
He reached over and took my free hand. “I can’t go on like this. Us.”
A weight flooded my abdomen, my legs turned leaden and I had an urge to shake my head and rid the sound of his words. Bat away their meaning.
He couldn’t go on? We couldn’t go on?
An image of myself desolate and alone flickered in front of me. I couldn’t be happy without Dustin in my life now. He’d become too important to me. Too weaved into the structure of my days and my nights, my hopes and my dreams of the future. It was Gina and Dustin, that was simply how it was and everyone accepted it. What would it be like if we were no more? It didn’t bear thinking about.
“Shit, sweet cheeks, don’t go all pale on me,” he said, squeezing my hand.
“You want to break up?” I asked quietly, trying to tug my hand away.
“Fuck, no.” He frowned and kept his grip firm. “Shit, why do I always mess this kind of thing up?”
I tipped my head. “What do you mean then, you can’t go on?”
“Like this. Not being together all the time. I mean, it’s been six months now, and you’re hanging out like a gooseberry at your dad’s house with him and Giselle and I’m on my own at my place, wishing you were there 24/7. I can’t go on like that. I want us to be together properly, not just boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever this is, but a couple, committed, living together.”
“You want me to move in with you?” I’d spoken slowly even as a rapid stream of thoughts rushed through my head.
“It makes sense. I’m in love with you, desperately so, you’ve made me happier than I ever thought I would be again and I want, no make that need, to wake up every morning with you in my arms and go to sleep with you every night.” He took my other hand so that he held them both within his big palms. “Come to my house, bring your stuff. I’ve had a key cut. You can have half the wardrobe and a shelf in the bathroom. I need you there on a permanent basis, not just when we’re hanging out.”
I stared at him as his gush of words sank into my mind. He really did want to move this up a level. Not that I was complaining. A day without him or a night apart was like a wasted block of time as far as I was concerned. I simply counted the hours until we could be together again.
“Say something,” he said after a few moments.
“Half the wardrobe?” I frowned.
“The whole damn wardrobe. Shit, no, you can have a dressing room, whatever you want for all your pretty stuff. It’ll be your house too, our house, please, sweet cheeks…”
I licked my lips and stared into his eyes. They were earnest and hopeful but also hesitant. Yet he needn’t worry. I knew I’d say yes, it was the only answer that made sense. And not just because it had been uncomfortable with Dad and Giselle spending more time at home the last month or so, but because I was in love with Dustin. A soul-aching, heart-stopping love that had consumed me more and more as our time together had gone by.
“Our house,” I said. “I like that. The idea of it, I mean.”
“You do?” His expression lightened.
“Yes. It sounds right.” I smiled. “And let’s face it, you’ve got the room for a permanent lodger.”
“Not lodger, lover.” He squeezed my hands. “You’re mine and I’m yours. Living together is the way forward for us, and then…”
“And then?”
“And then we’ll see what happens next.” He pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. Some might think he looked intimidating or frightening when he did that, but I knew he was speaking from the heart when he gave that look, he was thinking deeply and seriously.
I nodded to acknowledge his statement. Because I also knew what he’d want if it worked out with us living together. Marriage, children, a big family. He’d always been open and honest about having that in his future. And I wasn’t complaining. It was a dream of mine, too, and I couldn’t think of anyone’s children I’d rather have— eventually.
“You’re sure you want me there on a perm
anent basis. In your house?” I asked.
“Hell yeah.”
“Well, I think that can be arranged.” I grinned and was rewarded with his big smile. “It’ll make the commute to the arena easier. We can carpool.”
He laughed. A short, deep burst of relief, I guessed. “Ever practical.” He drew my hands up to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “So that’s a yes?”
“Yes, that’s a yes. I want to start and end my days with you, too.”
He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then when he opened them he stared straight at me. “I’ll make you the happiest woman on the planet, sweet cheeks, I swear.”
I trembled slightly, the determination and passion in his eyes searing through me. “I know.”
He tore his gaze from me and looked at my empty plate. “You finished?”
“Yes.”
“Come on.” He stood and tugged his wallet from his back pocket. “We need to go.”
“Where?”
“Home.” He dropped a pile of bills on the table and grabbed my hand. “Thank you, Benita,” he called to the owner of the restaurant. “See you next week.”
The drive home was tense. Dustin gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles whitened and his jaw was set so hard I feared for his teeth. We seemed to get caught at every set of lights and he cursed under his breath at each one.
“What’s up?” I asked eventually.
“Can’t you guess?”
“No.”
He glanced at his groin and I followed his line of sight. He was sporting an impressive package that was hard and solid and straining against the fly of his jeans.
“Oh,” I said. “I see.”
“This is why I need you with me.” He shook his head and pulled off the main highway toward his gated community. “I just can’t get enough of you. I knew from the very first time we fucked, on that outside bed at the villa, that I was going to need more, but damn.” He paused. “It’s like feeding an addiction. The more I have you the more I want.”
I rested my hand on his thigh and rubbed up to the angle of his pelvis. “Good, because you’ve got me.”
He glanced my way then flicked the signal and turned right. “Not quite where I want you though, not yet.”
“And where is that exactly?” I was enjoying myself. Seeing him turned-on and hard gave me a thrilling sense of power. I was small and female and he was big and tough yet still, it was me who had the control, the power to send him mindless with want. Sometimes when I wasn’t even trying.
“I want you naked, in our bed, no holding back, just us, stripped and raw, satisfying desires. And I want that to go on all day and all night, pausing only to eat and sleep when we’re exhausted or need refueling.”
I swallowed. Dustin often came out with detailed dirty talk and it always sent a delicious quiver right through me. The best bit of it being, I knew he could deliver the goods. If raw was what he wanted, then I knew that’s what I’d get and I wasn’t complaining.
We pulled into his driveway and he leaned over and popped the glove compartment. “Here, before I forget.” He handed me a key on a Vipers key ring. “I had this made for you.”
I took it. “Thanks, I—”
He was out of the car, striding around it at a rapid pace. He tugged open my door and practically lifted me out. Suddenly I was pressed up against him, his mouth hovering over mine.
“Welcome home,” he said.
I smiled and touched my lips to his. “I like being home.”
“I like you being here and I want you to stay forever.”
“I will.”
He kissed me as I kissed him and we shared a deep and profound meeting of mouths that spoke a hundred words of love and commitment. The infuriating player who insisted on calling me sweet cheeks had become my world, my reason for being.
“Come on,” he said eventually, “before I fuck you up against the car and give the neighbors a performance they’ll never forget.”
“Yes, I definitely think indoors would be best.”
We stomped across the gravel and up the steps to his front door. I slipped my new key into the lock and turned it. The door swung open and I pulled in a deep breath. Everything felt so right, meant to be. It was hardly even a big deal to have my own key, to think this was where I’d be heading at the end of each day. It was just the natural path for us to take, to be together.
We bypassed the kitchen and headed straight up the stairs. I’d been here many times, slept over countless nights, I didn’t need to stop and admire the opulence or Dustin’s great taste in modern art.
As we stepped into the bedroom, a huge, walnut-paneled room with a black leather sleigh bed and heavy furniture, Dustin stripped off his t-shirt. He flung it to one side and then kicked off his shoes.
I stood and watched, in awe as his muscles rippled beneath the surface of his torso. He was breathtakingly beautiful and all mine. I didn’t think I would ever get used to that.
He was naked within seconds, his cock thick and rigid and bobbing toward me.
“Why are you still dressed?” he asked, reaching for my top and undoing the buttons.
“I like watching you strip.”
He smirked and cocked his eyebrows. “I like watching you strip, too, especially that little dance you did for my birthday the other week.”
I giggled. “I’m not much of a dancer.”
He blew out a breath. “It worked pretty fucking well for me.”
I touched his cheek and remembered how he’d masturbated as I’d slowly removed my clothes and done a few shimmies and pirouettes, nothing fancy, but yes, judging by the way he’d ravished me afterward it had worked pretty well for him.
When my top was removed, he set to work on my pencil skirt, unzipping it and sending it on a drift to my feet. I kicked it away and was glad that I’d worn a new expensive bra and panties set in a pretty pale peach.
“Fuck, you know how to get me going,” he said, kissing down my neck and onto my chest. “Just when I think I might have some control you wear this beneath your work clothes. I spend half my time fantasizing about what’s beneath your prim little suits as it is.”
“These old things?”
“Yeah, these old things.” He flicked the clip on my bra and it pinged open. He made the most of the access, stooped and suckled my left nipple into his mouth as he cupped my right breast.
I rubbed my hands over his hair. He’d just had it cut so it was shorter and sharper than usual. I loved it like that, it left a pink blush on the delicate flesh between my legs if he got busy down below and I clamped my legs around his head.
“I got you a moving-in present,” he said suddenly, backing away.
“You did? Before you knew I’d say yes?”
“Can’t blame a guy for being prepared.” He pulled open a bedside drawer. “Besides, it’s for me, too.”
Feeling overdressed in my panties when he was gloriously naked, I slipped them off. When I glanced up at Dustin my breath caught.
He was holding up a strappy leather contraption, like the one in the villa. A big, dark dildo hung off the front. Facing the ground, it was clearly weighty and solid.
“You bought me a strap-on as a moving-in present?” I was surprised but still compelled to walk over and take the shaft in my hands.
He shrugged. “It was fun last time you wore one.” He held the fake dick out toward me and I let it rest in my palms, then stroked it admiringly. “And I’ll be honest, I’ve thought about it again and again.”
I’d also thought of it often and wondered if he had the same heated memories of that wild time as me. “Why? Why do you think of it?”
He shook his head and blew out his cheeks. His cock was tapping up against his abdomen, the slit wide and a deep pink. He was being more patient than I thought he’d be when we’d been traveling back in his car.
“Because,” he said, “it was mind-blowingly sexy to let you inside me rather than the other way ’round. Giving it
up for you, a beautiful, in-control woman was like letting a piece of myself go and allowing you to hold me together when I came back to earth. It was so…freeing if that makes sense.”
God, he really had thought about it. “I loved that you trusted me so much.”
“I do trust you, with my life.” He touched his nose to mine. “And I can’t deny I like a little ass play. It hits the spot and makes me come so hard. Especially when performed so expertly, the way you do it.”
Damn, I was glad he thought so. That had been my first and only attempt at fucking a guy with a strap-on. But it seemed I was about to get another chance, so I took the panty-shaped contraption from his hands and stepped into it.
It took a minute to adjust the straps to my size, but when I was satisfied with the fit I gripped my cock and looked at the man I was about to service.
“You want my dick?” I asked, rubbing it up and down, root to tip, and grinning devilishly.
“I want everything about you.” His cheeks were flushed, his shoulder muscles tense. He was staring at the strap-on.
“Good. You’ve got me.” I smiled. “But do you also have lube?”
“Sure.” He walked to the drawer and pulled out a blue-and-white tube. I couldn’t resist staring at his tight butt.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks, oh...oh...” I caught my breath. There was a deliciously firm pressure on my clit.
“Feel that?” he asked, pressing the panties against my mound.
“Damn it, yes.” I struggled not to let my eyes roll back in their sockets and held on to him for support. What Dustin was doing was generating pressure on the perfect point.
“This strap-on is designed for her pleasure, too. There’s a clit stimulator just here. When you get going it’ll make you come.” He lifted his hand and the sensation eased.
“Mmm, I’m liking that plan.” The weight of the cock and the sexy strapping combined with the wickedly positioned stimulator would have me flying, not to mention the thought of what I was about to do to Dustin again.
