Dumb as it was, I had to admit that the male actor’s stern lecture before he walked up behind his secretary and swatted her ass upped the warmth spreading around the back of my neck.
“Oh, yes. Punish me!” she squealed.
I huffed out a snort, but between the moans spilling from her throat, the man’s firm voice and the steadily reddening skin of her ass, the whole thing was...
Well, it was nice to watch. Particularly when the boss character shoved his fingers under the secretary’s thong and she let out a loud cry of pleasure.
Hot.
Adjusting myself on my pillows to get more comfortable, I clutched my phone in one hand, letting the other drift down the naked skin of my belly and between my thighs. I grazed my trimmed curls, then slipped a finger between my folds. Wet heat had started pooling in my pussy. That could as easily be due to the sounds of the video, the fingers he kept thrusting inside her or even the outfit the secretary wore, but I kept watching, gliding my fingers back and forth along my pussy lips, then massaging my clit with a steady touch. The warmth in my neck spread into my pelvis and plumped my folds as I rubbed. In the distance, I felt a trickle of pleasure that urged me faster. The camera zoomed in on the boss’s fingers while he pulled them out for a few seconds, and under the fluorescent office lights, he showed off that the glisten of her cunt had coated them from fingertips to knuckles. He muttered something about how dirty she’d taste before shoving his three middle fingers into his mouth.
I sucked in a breath at that. Whenever Dean did it to me, the view revved me up. I got off on how greedy he looked when he stuck his fingers between his lips and lapped them up, and how he made a point to tell me he forever craved the taste of my juices. The thought spurred me on. In the video, the actor thrust his fingers back inside the secretary and smacked her other ass cheek, and hand prints started to form over her skin as he kept lecturing her. I pressed harder on my clit, sensation spreading inside, spiraling into my hips. Once the boss character moved to fuck her, muttering on and on about her being “so bad,” I propped my phone on the pillow beside me and slipped my other hand beneath the sheets. The movements of my body on my bed were sure to knock it down into the sheets with me, but I didn’t care.
I thrust the fingers of my other hand inside my hole, working them in deep thrusts and using my thumb to lift the hood of my clit to rub myself harder. At my side, the secretary cooed over being spanked. I closed my eyes, arching up my hips and slamming my fingers all the way in, ecstasy starting to rip through me at the loud cry she uttered. I jerked my fingers as fast as I could through the spasms of my cunt, curving one up to rub my sweet spot and never letting up on my clit with the other hand.
“Yes,” I murmured.
My orgasm whipped through my body at the same time it sounded like the actress’s did, her whimpers jerking my shoulders up to my ears. My climax seared through my core. It came hard and fast, then swept away to leave me spent, and I stopped the dip of my fingers and closed my thighs over my hands. I caught my breath while I listened to her beg for more spankings, trembling before getting up to wash off my sticky fingers. When I crawled back into bed, she hadn’t stopped moaning.
I picked up the phone and watched them go at it for another minute. I’d enjoyed the scene, for sure. I knew I’d enjoy Dean’s palm on my skin like that, but I still felt like the pointed, planned “you’ve been bad” approach was silly.
I closed down the browser and checked the time. I only had about five minutes until I needed to jump in the shower, so I shot Dean a text.
Good morning. You awake?
I am. Still in bed. How are you, lovely?
Fine. About to get ready to go dress shopping, but I’m in bed, too.
He responded, Wish I was there with you. Thinking of you.
I was thinking of you.
Were you? Anything in particular?
I sent a wink emoji, then typed, Well, I just came.
Mmm... I love it when you tell me that. Love knowing about you touching yourself. I wish it were me.
Me too.
What were you thinking about when you came?
Um... I sent that in its own message, then followed it with, I decided to do some research...and I got wrapped up in a video.
Of?
I blew out a breath, then typed, Of what I said I’d consider...
Dean’s text back took a while. I stared at the screen, watching the bubbles appear to indicate he was writing before they disappeared for a few more seconds. When the text did come through, it read, Did you like watching it?
Yes. This vid was cheesy, but it looked good on screen.
More bubbles, more wait. He finally typed, So...what do you think of trying it?
I snuggled lower in my sheets, bringing the phone close to my face. To be clear, you’re after me, what, in your lap?
Yes. Sexy.
Well, it’s intriguing. Not saying no, just feels...trite?
I think you’re being stubborn.
My fingers hovered over the phone and I pinched my lips tight. No. That’s not it.
Perhaps you’re resisting because you know you need it.
My hackles went up.
Way up.
Was he about to turn this into a discipline thing again?
I typed, Why?
Because...you know why.
I set down the phone and threw my covers off, trying to calm the irritation that so easily launched itself in my head. I wasn’t doing this with him. Not again. Standing in the middle of my room, I texted, Enough. I’ve got to go.
My phone rang a second later, and I lifted it to my ear on my walk to my vanity.
“Are you okay?” Dean said, his voice rich with morning hoarseness.
“I don’t have time to talk. I’ve got to go. But I already told you, I’m not playing this game.”
“But you—”
“I’m frustrated. I don’t want to do this right now, okay? I have to get ready.” I flicked on the light, looking over my reflection while I held the phone to my ear. I loved everything I did with Dean—the way he took control, letting me feel the surrender I craved with him, how he worked my body into such eager submission.
But this wasn’t cool.
“I think we should drop the spanking topic,” I said. “For a while.”
He was quiet. Then he said, “Okay.”
That was all he offered up. One word. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but I needed to get off the phone before I got even more pissed off.
“I love you. I hope you get a bunch tackled today,” I said.
“You too. Have fun, okay?”
“We will.”
The call ended, and I pulled my toothbrush out of the medicine cabinet. After I loaded it up with paste and started brushing, I climbed into the shower, closing my eyes to the warm water streaming over me. We’d tried so many things and I loved them all, but the way he’d brought this act up kept rubbing me wrong. I didn’t need to be spanked because I’d done something wrong. Why couldn’t it happen for the sake of happening?
I stuck my face under the water with a sigh.
Breakfast and coffee was a must, but for now, a full clean to wash off whatever had gone down felt like the better option.
Chapter Four
“Selby?” I called after tapping on her front door and stepping inside.
“Yeah! Back in the room!”
I headed for their bedroom and found Selby in front of her mirror, touching up the waves of her hair with a curling iron. I gave her a loose hug from behind and hopped up on the vanity counter beside her. “You know it’ll get all messed up trying on dresses.”
“It at least has to start nice!” she said. Selby was such a girlie girl sometimes. “I’m almost done. Did
you see Alex?”
“Nope. Is he here?”
Selby unplugged the iron to give the ends of her hair a fluff. “Probably in the garage. He’s working on something.”
“As usual. Does he ever stop?”
“Not really.” There was a trace of annoyance in her voice. When she pursed her lips at her reflection, I eyed her closely.
“You okay?”
“Yep. Not a big deal. Let’s go.” In the living room, she looked around for Alex, and when she aimed for the door out to the garage, I waited while she peeked inside. “Honey? We’re heading out.”
“Okay.” Alex poked his torso through the door. He’d propped goggles on his head, and his T-shirt was speckled with sawdust, reminding me again how grateful I was to have a landlord. “Hey, Maya. You ready for dress mayhem?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“It’ll be fun!” Selby said.
“I know. And I’m looking forward to the day I get to see what you pick.” Despite the strain I’d seen in her eyes a moment before, Selby’s face softened when he leaned in for a kiss. “You girls have a good time.”
“We will. Love you.”
“You too, sweetheart. See you, girls!” With that, he disappeared back into the garage.
Selby gestured toward the entry of their house. “Front door. Way too messy to go through there.”
“Okay.”
She’d pulled her car out to the driveway earlier, and though the air outside was crisp, the sun shone overhead in typical Bay Area winter form. I put my sunglasses on and got in the passenger seat, then adjusted the stereo knob to a station we both liked. In a few minutes, we were on the freeway for our trip to San Francisco’s Union Square.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked after listening to Selby hum along with one more song.
“What?” She waved at another driver, letting them into our lane while we waited to cross through the toll plaza for the Bay Bridge. This much traffic on a Saturday to get on the damn bridge never ceased to astound me.
I pivoted to face her better. “Whatever was going on when I got there. You okay?”
Selby puffed out her cheeks. “Sure. We just had a little spat last night.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Not uh-oh.” With the tone of her voice, it occurred to me that my uh-oh was only half for her. My whole text session with Dean hadn’t worn off yet, clearly, so I tuned into Selby’s words as she shot me a serious look. “Alex is working a ton. All for good things, and his business is kicking butt, but the distance is hard sometimes. When he’s not at work, he’s at it around the house. I love how much he does. But with the school year as much of a whirlwind as it is, I wish we had more time together.”
“He has to put that kind of time into Fields. He’s way up on the totem pole.”
“I know, I know. Call it my Christmas-vacation-and-him-at-work blues. I’m really trying not to be the bitch fiancée who drives her man up the wall whining about him at work too much, now or all the time. I’m sure it’ll sort itself out eventually. Like, say, when we have kids.”
I smiled. She’d had dreams of children and a happy marriage since we were young, and the return of her wholesome, innocent grin wasn’t lost on me. Selby’s interests were a million miles from mine, and the dynamic I’d formed with Dean would probably never stop being hard for her to understand. “He’ll sort it out. Alex will.”
“Yeah. Not a big deal, honest. We talked it out. It wasn’t even a real fight. They’re normal! Surely, you and Dean have had them. They’re par for the course.”
What was this current thing between us? I wouldn’t call it a spat, exactly, but it wasn’t all perfect and sunshiny rainbows, either. Dean swelled my heart more than anyone ever had before, which made this weird tension twice as frustrating.
I picked at the fabric lining the base of the passenger window. My silence must have stretched out longer than I thought, because Selby said, “No comment? Maybe I should turn the question on you. Are you two okay?” I shrugged. “Are you fighting?”
“No. We’re disagreeing. Something’s off with him. I can’t figure it out.”
“Huh.”
I glanced at her while she signaled to merge toward the off ramp. “What?”
“You don’t think he’s freaking out or anything, do you? I mean, he hasn’t had a girlfriend since, what, the dawn of time?”
Dean had told me about many of his flings and player adventures, but he’d never mentioned a serious girlfriend, so Selby wasn’t too out there with this idea—but I hoped not.
I snickered and said, “I don’t think so. He’s being...overprotective still. Overbearing.”
“Over what?” Once I gave her a look, she said, “Oh boy. I don’t want to know, do I?”
I hesitated. “It’s not that. I don’t know what to say about it. Maybe I’m reading him wrong.” Though that didn’t sit right. He was definitely off his stride.
I think you’re resisting because you know you need it.
Bullshit.
“Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll get through it. Now that you’re not just messing around, disagreements and all that? They’re part of the deal. They’re normal when two people are trying to mash their lives together.” I couldn’t dispute Selby’s dating logic. “Then again...you haven’t really been in anything this serious since Charlie, have you?”
“Nope.” And fights with Charlie weren’t at all in the range of normal.
“You’ll be okay.” She slowed for the end of the off ramp and splayed a hand. “Fights hurt. But, love hurts sometimes, doesn’t it?”
“Yippee,” I said, my voice flat.
Selby chuckled and waved a fist in the air. “Don’t worry. The magic of Christmas is bound to heal all!”
Now it was my turn to chuckle, since Selby was a Christmas junkie, and currently it felt like too many events were about to start rolling in like a tornado. We had the WOFC charity dinner on the twenty-third, then dinner at Dean’s for Christmas Eve, another at Selby’s for the actual holiday, and Niko and Cassandra’s arrival not that long after. Dean’s suggestion that I come over to his big family Christmas Eve bash had warmed my heart and amused Selby to no end. When he’d happily agreed to come to our traditional Christmas dinner at her place, Selby had given a whistle and pointed out how serious we seemed to be getting. I’d waved her off, but I’d felt it too, an elated gush that somewhat started to ease my tension as I thought on it now.
“We’ll see.” I peered at her while she checked in each direction, what with an insane number of cars lined up in the intersection we were about to drive through. “I’m looking forward to meeting his brothers, though. And Niko and Cassandra.”
“That’s going to be fun. I love that this is Dean’s first big holiday season with a girlfriend—it’s relationshipy. I like you two like that. Did you and Scott even make it to Christmas?” I shook my head, and Selby’s satisfied grin converted with a scrunch of her nose at her reference to the one guy I’d dated for a longer time years before. We’d all thought he and I might be going somewhere, until I’d shared more of my history and he’d damn near vanished off the earth’s surface. “So you haven’t done holidays with a boyfriend in how long?”
“A crazy long time.” Ten years, to be exact. The last one I’d spent with Charlie, complete with horrible words, screaming matches and eyes full of tears. “Should be interesting.”
“Totally.”
It took about ten more minutes for us to get to Union Square, where we drove up into the parking garage and nabbed a spot in a narrow stall on the fourth floor, thanks to Selby’s dinky Prius. For the next couple of hours, we cruised through two of the designer stores she’d had on her list. When she’d worked with Stephanie earlier in the week, Selby had apparently discovered a picture board online with unusua
l wedding color combos, and she’d fallen in love with cinnamon, yellow and beige. The trio was regal, festive and fun for the vineyard setting they’d booked down in the Santa Clara Valley. Selby carried her color swatches in hand as we admired rack upon rack of dresses, telling me more about what she and Stephanie had plotted thus far over our walk. It wasn’t until our third destination—the store Selby had sworn she was avoiding since the costs were significantly higher—that her pace slowed. Here, she wasn’t merely browsing. I could see her heart melting in her eyes as she touched the delicate lace and trims of the gowns we passed.
“Guess we found the store, huh?” I said.
“They’re all beautiful!”
“Oh, dear.” I hoped Selby’s attention to finances would supersede the lust in her gaze, because going over budget would stress her out, but I understood why she was excited. The designs there were incredible.
The sales assistants were on us in seconds. Selby explained what she had in mind and they suggested several options to suit both her shape and preferences, and I found myself giddy while she tried on dress after dress. She looked stunning in many of them, but eventually she stepped out of the dressing room wearing a sweetheart of a gown that flattered her busty figure. The V-neck bodice narrowed down to a beige waistband above a flared, gathered skirt, with lace details forming the cap sleeves and running down over the hips of the dress. The princess look had me swooning after she finished twirling about and skimmed her hands along her sides.
“Oh my God!” I jumped up from the chaise lounge I’d taken over with bridal magazines and circled her as the sales woman stepped back, pleased. “Sweetie, you look gorgeous. Wow!”
“Maya, I love this one!” she squealed. “And it’s in the range... I can’t believe it.”
“Selby, oh!” I clasped my hands together while she pressed her palms to her cheeks and stared at her reflection in the mirror. “That has my vote, hands down. What a stunner.” We oohed and aahed for a while, discussing hair options and fawning over the color of the waistband that fit the neutral shade of her color scheme well. Selby beamed wearing the dress, but I knew that on her wedding day, her cheeks would shine even brighter.
The Discipline Page 4
