Laid Out

by Sidney Halston

  “Cain! What have you done?” She took his hand in hers, looking over his raw knuckles. He wasn’t bleeding, but they were inflamed, and she was sure they must hurt.

  “As you’ve figured out, I work out when I have shit on my mind,” he said as he tried to pull his hands free. “It’s fine. Don’t worry.”

  “It’s not fine.” She pulled him inside and into the kitchen, where she put his hands in the sink and cleaned them. “What’s on your mind?” He took a breath and closed his eyes but didn’t answer. “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” she said.

  Violet ran to her room and rummaged through her bag for some antibiotic ointment. When she came back, he was sitting on a chair, his head bowed, looking defeated. She knelt down, took his hands in hers again, and silently rubbed ointment on him.

  “What are we doing, Violet?”

  She looked up to see his eyes full of pain. “I’m trying to figure out why you’re hurting yourself. Why you got so mad today. I’m also trying to fix your hands.”

  “And you’re trying to seduce me?”

  “Oh, well, yeah…that too. Or at least I was. Before I got pissed off.”

  “That was you pissed off? We’ll add that to the list of things we have to work on.”

  “Very funny. But then I saw you were hurt and I forgot I was pissed off.” When she was finished, she let go of his hands. “Try not to rub them against anything so that the ointment stays on.”

  He nodded and then looked back at her. “Can I see you? Can you stand up and show me what I would’ve seen had I not been an idiot holed up in the garage?”

  “I think the moment’s passed.”

  He pulled her up to standing. “No. Do it. Show me. I got a glimpse and I want more.”

  “Nothing to see, really. It was just me, wearing this,” she said, smoothing the shirt and brushing back her hair. “Waiting for you on your bed.”

  “Waiting on what?”

  “Another lesson,” she said, this time coyly. “But now you can’t touch me and the moment’s passed.”

  Cain held his hands up. “Why? I didn’t break my mouth—or my cock.” He winked and leaned toward her, careful not to use his hands as he swiped his tongue softly against her mouth, eliciting a tiny whimper.

  “You sure you want me to show you a few more things? Are you sure you want this?”

  “You keep asking that. Isn’t it obvious?” She stormed to the window and opened the shade, then went and turned on all the lights in the kitchen. He followed her to his room.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

  She climbed on the bed and opened the curtain on the window over the bed.

  “Vi?”

  Still standing on the bed, she reached for the shirt she was wearing and in one fluid motion slipped it off her shoulders. It pooled onto the bed.

  “Vi…” He was either warning her to stop or begging her to keep going. He wasn’t really sure at the moment because his brain short-circuited as she stood there in only white lace panties.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the window. “It would’ve been much more dramatic if it was daytime.” She hooked her fingers in the sides of her panties, slowly pushed them down her legs, and stepped out of them. When she was completely bare, she stood in front of him with her hands on her hips and every light in the house turned on. Testing him. Daring him.

  “There you go. I’m naked. In the light. In front of you. We can move on, don’t you think? If there is any apprehension now, it certainly isn’t coming from me.”

  “The only reason I keep asking, Vi, is because I keep thinking you’re just going to run away one of these times. It’s too good to be true, and it scares me,” he admitted. Finally, some real progress, she thought.

  “You’re the one who keeps running away. I’m here. I’ve been here. I don’t know why you’re so hesitant. I may be squeamish, but it’s only because of my own issues—it doesn’t have anything to do with you. You, I want. It’s like…now you’ve shown me something I’ve never had before, and I can’t seem to get enough of it. Even if it ends tomorrow, my eyes are now wide open to these pleasures I didn’t know existed, and I want more. So here I am. The ball’s in your court, Cain.”

  Cain wanted to bash his head in with a hammer. On one hand, how the fuck could he deny her more pleasure? How could he deny himself? And on the other hand, he was setting her up to screw some imaginary man in the goddamn future. But there she stood, completely naked and waiting…on him. He wasn’t a complete idiot. He was done thinking and talking about what would happen in a few days. Fuck it. He was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

  He unfastened his jeans and slid them down his legs. “You’re playing with fire, little girl,” he said as he placed one knee and then the other on the bed, forcing her to move back against the headboard. He flipped over to his back, rested his head against a pillow, his hands clasped behind his neck, and looked up. “Since I can’t use my hands, we’ll have to get creative,” he said.

  She visibly swallowed. “Uh…”

  All of a sudden he rose up on one elbow. “What the fuck is that?” He pointed at something by her pelvic bone.

  She looked down. “A tattoo.”

  He groaned and lay back down.

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  “I don’t want to think about the fact that some man’s face was that close to your pussy.”

  “Can we please discuss this later?”

  His muscles tightened as he looked up between her legs. “Bring your pussy down here.” He pointed to his face; her feet were on either side of him, her hands resting behind her on the headboard. “We’ll talk about that later.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Lesson sixty-nine. Right now.”

  Chapter 14

  The sun was barely out when Cain woke up the next morning. Since she’d left all the curtains open during her point-proving rant, the sun was shining right on his face, plus he had soft curly blond hair tickling his nose. He was living his fantasy.

  There was more of her body on him than on the bed. She was soft, warm, and smelled delicious. He was exhausted after the in-depth lesson the previous night, which mostly included her sitting on his face while he enjoyed pleasuring her repeatedly. Every time she tried to return the favor, his tongue seemed to distract her and she’d bite or squeeze his dick too hard. Eventually he’d had to physically remove his cock from her hand and flip her over so she couldn’t try to suck him off. It was either that or he’d have a broken dick. Finally, once she was so sated she could barely keep her eyes open, he’d tucked her close to him, where they’d fallen asleep together. He’d still had a huge hard-on and it took a lot of self-control not to push balls deep into her, but it had been about her. She’d proved she wasn’t self-conscious. She’d proved she could seduce any man and with absolutely no awkwardness. He had never slept better in his whole life. With the woman he loved in his arms.

  He carefully unwrapped her from his body, kissed her forehead, closed the curtains, and dressed quietly for a run.

  An hour later he was back, showered, and naked. She was still sound asleep in his bed. He gently removed the covers, slid between her legs, and parted her thighs. The sight of her slick and bare still short-circuited his brain.

  “Cain?” she said sleepily.

  He wanted to take a closer look at her tattoo. How had conservative, shy, conformist Violet ended up with a tattoo? “Can’t believe you have a tattoo.”

  She got up on her elbows. “Yes.”

  “You have a tattoo,” he repeated.

  “A tiny little one. How didn’t you notice before?”

  “The first time it was very dark in the room, and the second time you still had on your panties.”

  “Oh, well, it’s not a big deal. People get tattoos all the time. It’s not like I have it on my forehead. But even if I did, people do those sorts of things—”

  “It’s a sun,” he said, cutting h
er off. It was small, maybe a little bigger than a quarter, with yellow rays that looked like they were being blown away by the wind. The face in the center of the sun had its eyes closed and looked sad. It was a somber tattoo. Violet was sweet and chirpy, and this didn’t look right on her body. He instantly hated it.

  “Why a sun?” She was his sunshine. Always had been.

  “It’s pretty.”

  “Not this one. This one’s sad.”

  “I got it about a year after Jer died.”

  He sat back on his haunches. He didn’t want to talk about Jeremy when his lips were inches from his dead friend’s fiancée’s pussy. Certainly not when his girl had come on his face three times last night. He didn’t want to think about what the tattoo meant, either. Last night he’d made a decision to put the past behind him and live in the present. Whatever happened upon their return to Tarpon Springs he couldn’t control. He didn’t want to regret not spending this time with Violet. He’d take her any way he could get her.

  “Cain?” she asked, alarmed. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, it just…caught me off guard. Didn’t think you had it in you to get inked, is all.”

  She shrugged and fell back on her bed. “You hate it.”

  “I just don’t think it suits you. Looks sad.”

  “I was sad when I got it. It was my one moment of rebellion in my entire life. Jer was dead, you were gone, Dad was being a jerk about something or other, JL wasn’t around, and it was my birthday and I was all alone and feeling sad for myself. I thought this would be my big eff-you to the world. The next day, I decided to enroll in nursing school. It was the first thing I had ever done for myself.”

  “Passive-aggressive, don’t you think?”

  “Completely.” She laughed.

  After that, they spent the rest of the day mostly in bed. At some point in the early evening, they made their way out of bed and had dinner, and then she convinced Cain to go to the movies. It was the first time he’d been to a movie in ages. She picked a horror movie, and they sat all the way in the back. He had completely forgotten her fascination with horror movies, which was odd because of how petrified she got while watching them. She spent most of the movie with her eyes covered and her nails digging into his arm. At one point she was huddled so close to him, he was able to slip his hand under her dress and into her panties.

  “I’m starting to think you’re into having sex in public,” she whispered breathlessly as his lips moved to her neck.

  “No. I just can’t seem to keep my hands away from you,” he said into her ear as he nibbled her neck and continued to play with her in the darkened theater. “Plus, I’m trying to keep you from being scared.”

  “Aren’t you a regular Prince Charming?”

  He continued to pet her, making her achingly needy with desire. “I do try.”

  Her hand moved over his jeans and she rubbed his hard erection through the fabric as he circled her clit with his thumb. Then, just as she was about to come, someone in the theater screamed, startling both of them out of their lustful haze. “Jesus,” he hissed.

  Violet fell into a fit of laughter so uncontrollable that they ended up leaving before the movie finished. They ended the day with a swim in the pool before he carried off to her bed for another round of lovemaking. It was the most perfect day he’d ever had. All thoughts of anything else had disappeared. His sunshine was back, and she was shining right at him.

  —

  It was the next morning and Cain was in bed, the sheets wrapped around one leg and halfway on the floor. His fingers were clasped behind his neck as he watched Violet running around frantically. “I can’t believe we overslept.”

  “I didn’t oversleep. I already went for a run this morning, took a shower, had breakfast…”

  She was bent over trying to find her other shoe under the bed. She straightened, grabbed a pillow, and threw it at him. “I know! And you didn’t wake me.”

  He laughed—something he’d done more of in the last twenty-four hours than he had in the last ten years combined, she thought. “You looked so peaceful with that drool running down your cheek.”

  She stood upright again and blew a stray curl off her face. “Cain! I can’t believe you just said that. I don’t drool.” She got back on all fours in search of the evasive shoe. She popped her head up and looked at him. “Do I?”

  He laughed again but didn’t respond.

  “Aha!” She slipped the shoe on and stood, smoothing her shirt and trying to control her hair somewhat. “I’m going to be so late. And I still have to pack up my stuff for our trip back home tonight.”

  “Pack when you get back.”

  He sat up and crawled to where she stood by the foot of the bed. He pulled her toward him by the loops of her belt. “We don’t have time….”

  “I don’t like those pants.”

  She looked down at her adorable navy blue pants before giving him a quizzical glance. “Why?”

  “ ’Cause they’re in the way.”

  “In the way of what?”

  “Of my dick. Take ’em off.”

  “Oh.” She quickly unbuttoned, unzipped, took them off, and threw them aside. She didn’t need to be asked twice. “We really don’t have time.”

  “Shirt,” he added, ignoring her concern, and she complied—also ignoring her own concern.

  She had been so comfortable being naked with Jeremy, and she’d never thought she’d feel that sense of comfort again. Thus her apprehension at dating. Now she was standing in front of her Viking, bare, her pudgy tummy seeming so insignificant. The man seemed to love her body. During the last few days he’d spent hours worshiping every inch of her, and she’d never felt more beautiful. She wanted to be confident for him.

  As if he could read her mind, he looked at her, taking one nipple into his mouth and cupping the other breast with his free hand. “I love every inch of your body. Always have.”

  She moaned something incoherently as he flicked his tongue.

  Then his hands snaked around her and he squeezed her ass roughly. “This is my favorite part, though. I love your fucking ass.” He groaned.

  “It’s so big!” she yelled playfully, startled by the force of his grip.

  “I know!” he yelled back. “I love it.” He jumped off the bed and walked behind her. “I want to bite it. Grab it. Squeeze it. Lick it. Bend over.” He gently pushed her body down on the bed, gripped her waist and pulled her ass up in the air. She could feel his hard erection pressed against her ass cheeks as he gripped it and moved it up and down her fold. “There’s just the right amount of ass to grab and hold on to. Oh God, and your thighs…let’s not even talk about those.”

  “That’s the most I’ve ever heard you talk.”

  “When it comes to your body, I have a lot to say.”

  He continued to use his dick to tease her wet slit. She was about ready to protest when he pushed inside her in one fast move that left her breathless. He stilled for a moment before he began to move in and out of her, hard and unrelenting. “Hold on, baby,” he demanded, and she fisted the sheets as hard as she could as she felt the tension begin to build. When he moved his hand to her front and down around her clit she erupted. Her thighs shook and her body gave way. Pressed against the bed, he continued to push into her a few more times until he stiffened and fell on top of her.

  “Jesus,” he said before rolling onto his back.

  “I think I died. Seriously, I’m dead.”

  “Fuck, sunshine, you may have broken my dick. I can’t imagine it ever being the same again.” He pulled her over to him.

  “I really have to go now. I was late a few minutes ago. Now I’m really really late.”

  He stood up and tugged her up. He turned her around and playfully slapped her ass before shuffling her into the bathroom. “If you don’t move your ass, I may be tempted to fuck it. So, I suggest you get dressed and leave soon.”

  “Cain!” she said, stunned, making him chuckle before c
losing the door.

  —

  “Mrs. Edwards, it’s so good to see you.” Violet walked into Jeremy’s parents’ home and straight into a tight hug from Jeremy’s mother.

  “Oh, sweetie, look at you.” She stepped away, still holding Violet’s hands, and looked Violet up and down. “You look wonderful. So beautiful! Marshall, come here. Violet’s here,” she yelled into the house.

  “Mrs. Edwards, look who I brought with me.” Violet turned around and gestured to Cain, who was standing awkwardly to the side. He’d agreed to drop her off; once they parked, she’d all but begged him to come in and say hello. She was shocked he’d agreed. But he’d been so complacent and jovial these last few days that it wasn’t a complete surprise.

  “Cain? Is that you?” Mrs. Edwards asked, and Cain hesitantly took a step forward.

  “Mrs. Edwards…”

  Mrs. Edwards’s eyes watered, and she took a step forward to pull Cain into a hug. “Honey, where have you been? We’ve missed you.” She held on tightly, and Cain took all the hugs she had to give. Finally she stepped back and cupped his face in her hands. “My lovely boy, we’ve missed you!” She kissed his cheek and pulled him inside. “Marshall!” she yelled again as she led them to the living room.

  “Is that my sweet Violet?” Marshall asked as he rounded the corner.

  “Mr. Edwards, it’s so nice to see you,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her cheek against his chest.

  “Not as nice as seeing your sweet face.” He’d always been the nicest man she’d ever known. He was just like Jeremy.

  “Look who I brought with me.” She took a step back and urged a hesitant Cain forward.

  “What a surprise!” the older man said with a hearty laugh that seemed to reassure Cain, because he extended his hand to Mr. Edwards, who swiped it away and brought the younger man into a big strong hug. Not an awkward man-hug, but a full-on, arms-wrapped-around-each-other hug. When he released Cain, Violet noticed that Cain’s eyes were as shiny with tears as Mr. and Mrs. Edwards’s were. “My boy, we’ve missed you. Where the hell have you been?”

  “Uh…”

  “I don’t mean literally. I know where you live—Violet keeps us up to date. I mean, why haven’t you visited or called?”