by Vivian Wood
I lean in, then I stop for a second. “Fuck, I have to grab a condom.”
“No, no you don’t,” she says, a little bit breathless. “I mean, assuming you’re clean. I have an IUD.”
I answer her by leaning over to kiss her on the back, right on her spine. She shivers, and I grasp my cock again. I press my cock to her entrance.
“Touch yourself,” I order. She reaches under her body, and starts to play with her clit.
I plunge inside her, and hear her gasp. It feels so hot and so tight that I have to go slow, otherwise I’ll come right away.
“Oh my god,” she gasps. “Luca, your cock feels so good.”
I grab her hips and use them as leverage while I fuck her, working my cock in and out of her pussy. She begins to tighten her inner muscles even more as she plays with her clit. I focus, closing my eyes, and try to hit her g-spot every time I thrust.
Finally she bursts, coming with a shout. I speed up as soon as I feel her begin to spasm, letting myself pound into her like a jackhammer. She cries out my name, which has never sounded better.
“Luca! Oh, Luca…”
Damn. Watching her come, hearing her cry out my name as she does… it is really ridiculously hot.
I feel my cock start to twitch and pulse as I drive home again and again. I feel like I’m coming like a fucking fountain, her pussy milking my cock for everything it’s worth.
“Fuck!” I shout. “God damn, Cate.”
I catch myself before I slump face first into her back, diverting my weight to fall beside her instead. She doesn’t move, she lies on her stomach, facing away from me, her breathing ragged.
I struggle for breath too, but I also feel an overwhelming need to kiss her. I turn Cate over to face me with one hand, cupping her cheek as I press my lips to hers.
She smiles at me a little sadly. “We have to go back to real life soon.”
I tuck a strand of her dark hair back. “I mean, unless we don’t. We could be like my parents, living on the coast of Greece and yachting full-time.”
Cate laughs softly. “I don’t think that is an option, even if you have the resources. I’d miss Luna and my grandma too much. You would miss your bar and your friends.”
I pull a face. “After a while, sure. But for those first few months…”
She gives me a skeptical look. “Months? You think we would last a week without ripping each other to pieces?”
I shrug. “We made it for two days. Why not two months?”
Cate props herself up on her elbow. “All we did was have sex the entire time.”
I act hurt. “You clearly forgot that I made you fruit salad, salmon, and potatoes.”
Her lips lift at the corners. “I haven’t forgotten. But other than that, we haven’t done anything else but nap and have sex. People can’t live like that.”
“They can and they do.”
“Fine, I couldn’t do it. I would get bored being your little… kept pet.”
“You were doing just fine being a kept woman back on land,” I tease. “It’s not like you don’t live in my big house and eat what I put in the refrigerator.”
I mean it jokingly, but I can see that it lands wrong. Her jaw tenses and she sits up, tucking the blanket around her torso.
“It’s only temporary. And I only do those things because you asked me to.”
I roll my eyes. “I was only kidding. I like having you live at my house.”
Reaching for her, I grab her face and kiss her lips. But just like that, the spell is broken. She doesn’t smile or kiss me back. She pushes me away.
“Yeah, well.” She scoots to the edge of the bed. “You were worried about your ex coming to visit, but I don’t think she’s going to. I think you might have misled me.”
I pull a face at her. “It’s not my fault that Madisyn is a flake.”
“Well, my time with you is almost up anyway. I should probably start planning for when I’ll move back into Grandma’s house.” She finds her rumpled dress and pulls it on over her head.
I glare at her. “You have big plans for that day, huh?”
Cate just shrugs. She doesn’t look at me at all. “Maybe.”
“Great,” I say, getting up. My pants are nearby in a wrinkled pile and I pull them on, my mood gone sour. “Can’t wait. I guess I’ll go back upstairs. We should be at the marina soon anyway.”
“Fine,” Cate snaps. “We’ll be out of each other’s hair soon. Madisyn’s wedding can’t come fast enough, personally.”
I grab my shirt from the bed. “Fine.”
I stomp upstairs, not entirely sure what we are fighting about. All I know is that Cate is right about one thing.
Soon enough we’ll be out of each other’s hair — and lives — for good.
24
Cate
I’m spoiled. Living with Luca has ruined me.
I realize this when I stomp downstairs the next morning, bemoaning the fact that I’m still in Luca’s house, only to find that we are out of coffee.
“No. Way!” I hiss, rattling the empty bag. I’m sure I look like a monster, thrashing around the kitchen in my kitty cat pajamas. But I don’t care.
I want coffee. This house is so fancy, but it has zero coffee. How is that even possible?
The fact that it isn’t here and already made peeves me. I throw the bag in the trash and miss the can, meaning that my little tirade ends with excess coffee grounds all over the floor.
And the kicker is that for a second, I think about leaving the kitchen like that. Coffee grounds on the floor, trash can in the middle of it all.
After all, some invisible person will just come along and clean it up. I don’t have to be the one that does it, right?
That is the moment, holding the trash can in one hand and staring fiercely at it, that I realize.
What am I thinking?
I don’t really believe that just because I happen to live somewhere with a maid, she should be responsible for the mess I just made… right?
Disgusted with myself, I take two minutes to clean up the coffee grounds. The whole time, I’m just thinking about Luca and how I’ve let his lifestyle bleed into mine.
This is not my best self. This is some stranger that is impolite verging on boorish.
Honestly, my Grandma would be ashamed of me.
I storm back upstairs, looking at my calendar on my phone. It’s a Wednesday, not a day I work. I’m supposed to be shopping with Luna today.
But I can’t do that. I can’t go and spend money on myself, not when I’ve been acting like this.
My phone rings, making me jump. I pick up my phone, not recognizing the number.
“Hello?”
I hear crinkling on the other end. “Cate?”
My brow hunches. “Rachel?”
Rachel Black sometimes volunteers at the women’s shelter with me.
“When are you getting here?” she asks. “We have almost everything set up already, so I assume you are going to be working one of the booths.”
My mouth opens. The carnival. The one I helped to organize, to raise money for the shelter. I can feel my face start to heat. “That’s today?”
More crinkling. “Sorry, I’m sewing these fracking taffeta table decorations and they are so loud. What did you say?”
“Nothing!” I say. “I’m sorry, I overslept. I’ll be right there.”
“Yeah, okay…” Rachel says. “Before you go though, do you know anybody willing to have pies flung at them? William went missing and we already have like a hundred whipped cream pies already made up. I’d hate for them to go to waste…”
“Uhh…” I scrunch my face up, hunting for some fresh clothes in my dresser drawers. “I’ll put some feelers out, okay?”
She sighs. “Sure. I’ll talk to you when you get here.”
After we get off the phone, I scrounge around for clean clothes. But of course, there are no modest clothes that are clean. Just my work clothes.
Fu
ming, I put them on. If I wasn’t about to be late, I would actually do some laundry. But I am, so I just put my black knee socks on with my short black dress and my long grey coat over it.
Hoping I look cute rather than like a stripper, I slip on my shoes and grab my purse. Dashing downstairs, I run into Luca. He’s perfectly dressed as usual, wearing black jeans and a Sigur Rox t-shirt. He arches a dark brow at me as I rush past him.
“Where are you running to?”
“I’m late. The women’s shelter is having a carnival,” I call over my shoulder. “I totally blanked on it.”
He sets down the glass of water he’s sipping. “You want a ride?”
“No!” I yell. That is literally the last thing I want, but I don’t have time to get into a fight with him over it. “Later!”
The entire time I am waiting for the bus and riding into the city, I’m just sort of glum. The thought of moving out of Luca’s house as soon as we attend his ex’s wedding… in what, a week and a half? Yeah, that stresses me out.
Why exactly I can’t say. But the future really doesn’t hold anything worth looking forward to. Especially not moving back into my grandmother’s house.
Don’t get me wrong, she is lovely. But after being at Luca’s, it will be a tough transition. Being in a place with so many other bodies… and so much competition for the bathroom at all hours of the day… that isn’t the greatest draw. Maybe I should use a little bit of the money I’ve made to find myself my own place.
Or at least some place with less than six people living there. And a private bedroom.
That’s fair, right?
When I get to the women’s shelter, it’s a zoo. The big gymnasium is divided into twenty little booths, each set up for a game or an experience. I walk by people putting the finishing touches on a ring toss game, pass two older ladies dressed as fortune tellers. It’s actually all come together pretty well, no thanks to me.
I spot Rachel, holding a plastic baggie full of water and frowning. She’s petite but elegant, always impeccably dressed. Even now in the middle of the fair, she wears a black pantsuit with a pearly necklace that just screams I have expensive tastes.
“Are you sure that it’s alive?”
I start toward her just as she gives the bag a jiggle. There is a little blue flutter in the corner of the baggie. The man Rachel is talking to points to the blue flutter. “I swear, the betta fish are all alive. Most of them are just asleep. Dead fish float.”
“Okay,” Rachel says, a skeptical expression on her face. “If you say so…”
She sees me and the relief on her face is nearly comical. “Oh, Cate! There you are!”
Rachel comes over to me, giving me a tiny hug. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t help put all this together,” I say, looking around. “It looks amazing.”
“Hah!” she says. Brushing a lock of blonde hair out of her face, she smiles. “Don’t worry about it. Most of the work was done by my fiancé Grayson anyway. He’s…” She looks around, then points out a tall, lumberjack-looking guy with a well-groomed beard. “There he is, moving that stack of boxes.”
My eyebrows rise. “Wow. He is very handsome.” I grin at Rachel. “Well done, you!”
Rachel blushes. “Thanks. I put up with him.” She puts her arm around me, turning me toward an empty booth. “We are still missing William. Like I told you before, the pies are all made up and the booth is covered in plastic so that the pies won’t get everywhere… but we don’t have anybody to throw the pies at.”
“Oh, no problem! I can do it. I feel like I deserve it anyway.” I slip my shoulder bag off with a grimace.
Rachel purses her lips, looking me over. “Yeah… don’t take it personally, but I really want a guy. Women should take out their feminist rage on him. I would volunteer Grayson, but he’s helping to run Pin The Tail On The President.” She pulls a face.
“Ah. Totally.” I look around, trying to think of who I should call. Gosh, who do I even know well enough to ask them to do this?
In the back of my head, I’m still kicking myself for not being here yesterday. Maybe if I had, I could’ve planned something out…
“Hey.”
I whirl. Luca is right behind me, all leather jacket and dark, tousled hair. Seeing him makes my heart beat double time.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, frowning.
“My sister said you were going to be here for a fair. I figured I should come down and see what the fuss is all about while the shelter is open to the public.” He looks around the gym, assessing. “Somehow, it’s exactly how I thought it would be.”
I shoot him a little glare. “We aren’t even in the building that I usually go to.”
Rachel speaks up from right behind me. “Do you know this guy? Because when I think about someone I would throw a pie at, that guy is definitely close to what I imagine.”
I sigh. “Yes, I know him. But there’s no way he’ll let us fling desserts at his head.”
Luca approaches, looking around. “Are you running one of these booths, Cate?”
Rachel smiles, interrupting. “Why yes, she is! Say, what are you doing for the next few hours?”
Luca glances at me, then shrugs. “I don’t know. What do you need?”
Rachel looks at me with a grin. “See? Problem solved! Now you can work the booth and your boyfriend can let people lob pies at him.” She pats me on the shoulder. “I should go check on Grayson.”
“Wait…” I try to call after her, but she’s already on her way across the gym. Glancing at Luca, I shake my head.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Luna said you would be here. I figured I would come down and see what the fuss is about.”
I scowl. “Normally you shouldn’t hang out at a women’s shelter. In case you haven’t noticed, you are a guy.”
He looks around, shrugging. “I see guys here today.”
Rolling my eyes, I head over toward the empty booth. “That’s not really the point, is it?”
Luca stops me by touching my elbow. I look up at him, feeling conflicted. On the one hand, I’m glad that someone is here to help…
On the other hand, why does it have to be him?
“Do you want me to leave?” he asks earnestly. “I came here to try to apologize.”
He looks down at me, all traces of his usual smugness have vanished.
It’s not fair, the way he’s looking at me. My heart falters. My mouth goes dry. I don’t trust myself to speak.
So I just shake my head. He gives me a tiny smile, his lips lifting up at the corners of his mouth.
“Okay then. What is it that you’ve got me doing again, exactly?”
I can’t help but grin at that. “Oh, you’re going to hate it.”
Grabbing his hand, I lead him over to the pie booth.
He eyes the booth with a skeptical look. He looks at the sign hanging on the front of the booth that just says, “PIES 2 TICKETS EACH”.
“What is this? Why is most of this area all lined in blue plastic?”
“Oh, you’ll see.” Behind the counter set up there are several metal trays covered with a blue plastic sheet. I lift one corner of the cover, pulling it back to show him the contents.
Luca’s bros furrows. “Is that a pie?”
“Yep.” I grin.
He gives me a suspicious look. “What, are we selling pies?”
“In a manner of speaking. I’m selling these whipped cream pies. And you… you’re getting them thrown at your face.”
His look of surprise is practically perfect. “What?”
I laugh. “You should see your face. Does it really surprise you that women would want to throw pies at your face?”
His mouth turns down. “No, I guess not.”
I give him a measuring look. “I think you’ll want to take that leather jacket off, at least. I don’t know how leather responds to whipped cream, but I imagine that
you’ll want to put it somewhere safe.”
He gives me a look as he unzips it and takes it off, but he doesn’t say anything. He just stows his jacket under the front counter and finds a comfortable position on a stool placed in the middle of the plastic sheet.
As people begin filing in the gymnasium, I keep an eye on him. The first customers I see rush to the tarot reading booth or the miniature cat paintings both. I bite my lip, looking at Luca.
“What are the chances of getting a coffee brought to me?” He looks vaguely grumpy.
I smile a little at that. “At the women’s shelter when you, a white man, are supposed to be raising money for battered women? Yeah, roughly the same odds as a whale falling out of the sky right now.” I cock a brow. “You can hire someone on an app though, I’m sure.”
He pulls out his phone, ignoring me in favor of scrolling through it. I turn back to the crowd, trying to induce some customers.
“Throw a pie at this guy! Just two tickets…” I call out. I glance back at him. “You know you want to… I mean, pies are the only thing that stops him from mansplaining and man spreading! Two tickets!”
Several women stroll by, looking interested. But no one seems to want to throw the first pie.
“Your plan doesn’t seem to be working,” he observes dryly.
I shoot him a look. “You know what? I will personally pay four tickets to shove a pie in your face.”
Luca smirks at that. “Oh yeah? Bring it, princess.”
I pull a crumpled wad of bills out of my pocket, slapping them down on the table. Then I grab one of the whipped cream pies, grinning at him as I approach.
“You ready for this?” I taunt him. I sidle up to him, stopping right in front of his face and adjusting the pie in my hand.
His eyes shine. “I can take anything you throw at—”
He gets a big old face full of whipped cream. I make sure to rub it in, too. When I pull the pie tin away, he wipes whipped cream out of his eyes and away from his lips.
I beam at him. “That was amazing.”
He grabs my waist and bends me back, kissing me. His lips feel hot and hard under the frothy cream. He gets whipped cream all over my face and in my hair before he lets me go.
