How to Tell a Lie

by Delphine Dryden

  He was doing it again. The low, sexy voice. Looking at her over his glasses. How did that not make him look like a grandfather? But it didn’t. It made him look as though he were reducing his world to include only the two of them—as though he wanted to see her without even so much as a thin glass lens in the way.

  “Can I get back to you over dessert?”

  “But if you wait that long, you could miss out. Dessert could be me feeding you chocolates in front of the fire.”

  “Oh, you’re good. Very sneaky. You set that up beautifully.” She wasn’t kidding. His words had conjured the exact imagery he had intended, because he had implanted it earlier.

  “Thank you.”

  She was relieved that he dropped it, at least for the moment, not pressing her for an answer until the middle of the main course.

  “Wow. You really do like your steak rare, don’t you?”

  Allison was carving off another rosy piece of the filet mignon she had ordered. It was cool, almost purple toward the center and seared to perfection. She was already almost halfway through and she thought she could easily eat the whole thing.

  “Yes. How’s the lamb?”

  “Great. So, are you coming home with me tonight?”

  “Oof. Blindsided. You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.”

  “I’d like you to give me a lot more than that.”

  “They have this fantastic chocolate mousse here, is the thing. I always get it.”

  “Chocolate mousse? Interesting. I’m sure they would give it to us to go though.”

  She took the bite of steak into her mouth, savoring the flavor. She had been genuinely undecided about his offer at the start of the meal. Now she was feeling mellow and benevolent, soothed by the food and especially by the wine, and was mainly avoiding an answer because she wanted to see what he would do next to try to convince her. She thought of what he had whispered in her ear earlier, in his kitchen, and closed her eyes to recapture the sensation of his hand and voice working together to arouse her. Her thighs started to warm and she squirmed a little in her seat, feeling moisture begin to gather between her legs.

  “I would kill to be that piece of steak right now.”

  Allison’s eyes flew open to see Seth staring at her with slightly glassy eyes. She realized that, between the meat and the memory, she had inadvertently given off a vibe that was no doubt pre-orgasmic. In her defense, she thought, it was really good steak.

  Curious to see his reaction, she lifted a foot to Seth’s lap under the screen of the long tablecloth and slid her toes forward until they nudged the bulge that had started to stiffen there. Satisfied for the moment, she kept her foot where it was and calmly cut another bite of steak. This time, she used her teeth and tongue to remove it from the fork very delicately, keenly aware of Seth’s intense gaze. Just as the meat touched her lips, she shifted her foot, pressing down lightly on his erection. She couldn’t resist a smirk when he bit his lip and his eyes fluttered closed for a moment while he took and released a deep breath.

  He kept his cool admirably, though she could see the effort it cost him to keep his expression bland as he gestured to the waiter again.

  “Can we get some chocolate mousse for two, to go? And the check, please.”

  Chapter Eight

  What Seth hadn’t mentioned was that he had a fireplace in his bedroom, and this hearth was the spot of his intended chocolate-flavored seduction.

  Allison barely cleared the front door before Seth was busy removing her clothes, peeling away the layers. They worked their way toward the stairs and left a trail of Allison’s clothing in their wake. The next morning she would notice a scrape on her back from rubbing up against the stucco of the wall at the turn in the stairway. Seth had stopped there to help her pull her socks off and then stood up and backed her naked body into the wall. He kissed her until both of them were short of breath, panting with exertion as well as anticipation. Allison tried to get closer, to wrap herself around him, but their bodies stubbornly refused to melt into one another. She would have to settle for the conventional method.

  At the top of the stairs, they turned straight toward the master bedroom instead of the closet and bath. In the light from the hallway Allison could see his bedspread and noticed that it was indeed brown plaid. So he had been telling the truth about that, obviously.

  “Let me get the fire started,” he said, reaching for a blanket that was spread at the foot of his bed. “I didn’t really think about it being this cold in here, sorry.”

  He led her to the large rectangle of cream-colored shag that served as a hearthrug, urged her to sit and draped the blanket over her shoulders. The throw was also cream-colored, a fuzzy chenille that had been in the wash a few too many times. It was a little pilled but soft as an old sweater, and Allison bundled it around herself gratefully as she watched Seth start the fire.

  He had to pull the logs from an iron cradle in the corner of the room that held a short stack of them. With a hint of guilt, she noticed the ashes in the fireplace and remembered what he’d said about starting a fire the previous night.

  After he placed the logs, working quickly and with obvious expertise, Seth took a piece of fatwood from a basket on the shallow, rough wood mantel and tucked it strategically between two logs before lighting it with a long butane match. There were no ornaments on the mantel, just the basket and the lighter. Allison found the lack of decoration kind of endearing. She longed to see some artwork leaning there, maybe an interesting photograph. Something very modern to contrast with the rustic wood. And maybe a candleholder to balance out the fatwood basket. A simple, organic shape, maybe something in sandstone…

  She laughed at herself, realizing she was mentally decorating the space. The woman’s touch indeed, she thought.

  “There, that should start drawing well in a bit. And hopefully no smoke tonight. I really should get a chimney sweep out here, I guess.” He was distracted by the work, craning his neck a little to watch the draft and make sure the smoke was being pulled up quickly enough.

  Allison cleared her throat and Seth looked around. His eyes widened as if he’d forgotten for a moment that he had a naked girl wrapped in a blanket sitting on his hearthrug.

  “We left the mousse downstairs,” Allison reminded him.

  “Back in a sec,” he said and sauntered out of the room, snapping the overhead light off on the way to leave her in firelight. She grinned when she heard his casual footsteps break into a run as soon as he was out of sight of the door; she feared for him taking the stairs at that pace. He took a little longer than she’d expected, but when he returned he had the mousse in hand. He had transferred it from the takeout container to a white ceramic bowl—and he was also holding what looked like a large paintbrush.

  “It’s a basting brush,” he explained, setting the bowl down carefully near the fire and resting the brush on top. “I haven’t used it yet. I thought this would be a good way to break it in.”

  Allison smiled up at him and then looked skeptically at the brush.

  “I’ll take your word for it and just go with the flow for a while.”

  “Oh, trust me. It’ll be good. You won’t be disappointed.”

  He started to unbutton his shirt but Allison stood up, letting the blanket fall to the floor, and took over the job. Seth took advantage of the chance to fondle his favorite parts of her, spending the time between parts tracing his fingers along the outlines of her face and body as if learning her shape by touch. By the time Allison had his jeans unzipped and was working them down his hips, he was already half-erect, making her task more difficult. She took just enough time to note that he was wearing navy blue boxer briefs with a gray waistband before she shoved those off him as well.

  Allison was in what she thought was fast becoming a familiar state, that of glorious distraction. Or rather, that of an inability to attend to anything other than Seth, the parts and the whole of him. She felt drunk on him already and could feel her body start
ing to respond—the warm tingling and telltale trickle of cream from her pussy, the electric sensation in her clit and nipples every time he touched a zone that was even remotely erogenous.

  When she had gotten him out of his pants, he kicked them impatiently to one side and pulled her closer for a moment, grabbing her ass with both hands and squeezing. Shifting his fingers, he pulled her cheeks wide and stroked his fingertips as far as he could reach, just to the edges of her pussy. She tried to cant her hips forward to press against his hardening cock, but he pulled harder and took her lips in a harsh kiss as if chastising her for the attempt. He reached farther, tracing a path through the moisture that had already gathered along her slit.

  “So wet already,” he purred with approval, releasing her lips but hovering close as if poised to take them again if the necessity arose. “I’m almost tempted to just forget the chocolate and do you right now on the floor.”

  “You’re not going to though, are you?” Allison asked, a little regretfully.

  “You kind of want me to, don’t you?” When she nodded, he grinned wickedly. “That’s why I’m not going to. Now lie down and just relax. I’ll take care of everything. Where did I put that brush?”

  She giggled and slid down his body until she was on her knees on the hearthrug, and paused there to rub her cheek against his cock. It twitched and hardened and Allison giggled again, wondering why she felt so giddy. When she licked her way from the base of Seth’s erection to the tip and sucked gently on the head, he took a deep, hissing breath in and clenched his hands into fists.

  “Okay, you should probably stop right now or I’m not going to be in any shape to tell you to stop.”

  She hummed around him thoughtfully, as if musing on whether or not to stop. Then she caught sight of the little bowl of mousse and the brush, and she hummed again and slid her mouth and hands free to reach for it. Dragging the mousse closer, she looked up at Seth impishly and settled more comfortably on her knees. The fire was just starting to heat up well, and the flickering light glistened on his cock everywhere her mouth had moistened it. She licked her lips in anticipation and dipped the brush into the mousse, swirling it around to gather a generous dollop of the creamy chocolate on the soft bristles.

  Seth figured out her plan just before she implemented it, and his mouth fell open in happy astonishment.

  “You usurped my nefarious plan,” he intoned heavily, trying and utterly failing to sound as though he were scolding her. “You wicked, wicked girl. Oh, dear God.” This last as she had brought the brush to his balls and painted a wide swath of cool mousse down the crease delineating the division between them. She cocked her head to one side, scrutinizing her handiwork for a moment. Then, satisfied, she bent and carefully, delicately, licked every bit of the dessert off his sac with the tip of her tongue like a kitten lapping at a bowl of cream.

  Since Seth’s reaction indicated he obviously approved of this activity, she went about treating the rest of the area in just the same way, first painting a section and then meticulously licking it clean. On his left testicle, she worked in a spiral. On the right, she decided to go for something more whimsical and decorated the bulge with a happy face. She was glad he wasn’t too hairy there, as it might have spoiled the effect.

  Seth seemed particularly delighted by the way she licked the smile off with one slow, wide sweep of her tongue. He grunted and pressed a hand to his shaft, bearing down at the base, breathing heavily.

  “You’re killing me,” he said with evident admiration when he’d regained a little control. “You are so fucking sexy, have I mentioned that?”

  “Thank you,” she said perkily. “Now I’m going to need you to move your hand.”

  He obliged immediately, placing both his hands on top of his head like a prisoner, giving himself over entirely to whatever she had in mind.

  “Don’t use all the chocolate up,” was his only lucid comment before he was reduced to a serious of piteous moans. Allison had started painting the head of his cock, swirling the brush gently around until the whole tip was coated except for the tiny slit that was already shining with precum. She licked that bit off first, suckling to make sure she’d gotten it, and then popped the whole head in her mouth and swirled her tongue around it, until all the chocolate was swallowed and Seth’s legs were starting to shake.

  Only one thing was left, and Allison was looking forward to it a great deal. With extra care, she began to paint the narrowest possible stripes from the base of his shaft to the ridge behind the head, working in a methodical way until she had gone all the way around.

  Only then did she put the brush down and place her hands on his thighs, contemplating her masterpiece and deciding how best to go about consuming it. She feinted her head toward one side as if about to lick there, but pulled her tongue back at the last minute. Then the other side, where she placed a tiny lick just at the root, and then shook her head again and pulled back. He gave a chuckling groan and made a whispered plea, which she ignored.

  Finally, nodding with certainty, she opened her mouth and slid her lips over the whole thing, the warmed mousse allowing her to take him in with one fluid motion. It smeared over her lips as she started to work his cock in and out of her mouth. She could taste the sweet chocolate, Seth’s slightly musky flavor and the competing salty tang of the fluid that signaled he wouldn’t last much longer. Allison grinned around him as she felt his hands cup her head, and let him guide her to a stop so he could move into her instead, fucking her mouth harder than she was expecting. Harder than she thought she would like. Curiously, she enjoyed it, liking the idea that she had driven him to that, liking the way he held her head very gently despite his obvious urgency.

  Just before he came he whispered, “Amazing.”

  Then, with a groan, he thrust one last time and her throat was filled with him and then his essence, hot and salty, too far back to be sweetened any further by the mousse she had licked from his cock. She swallowed reflexively, then again because he shivered when her throat moved and she wanted to make him do it again. But at last, needing air, she pulled away and sank to her heels, resting her head against his leg until he knelt shakily to join her on the rug.

  For a few minutes he just held her, arms lightly encircling her shoulders, while he kissed the last of the mousse from her lips and face.

  “Hoist by my own petard,” he said when he caught his breath again, and he pointed to the mousse. “What was I thinking?”

  “Probably not quite that,” Allison said with a smirk.

  “No, no, something more like…” He scooped her legs out from under her, catching her off guard, and lowered her to the rug, laughing like a melodrama villain. He straddled her hips and pinned her there, reaching for the bowl and brush with one hand and twirling an imaginary villain moustache with the other. “Now, my innocent victim, you shall succumb to my evil designs!”

  “Eek,” cried Allison, unable to keep from grinning like an idiot. Her grin turned to a gasp of pleasure as Seth brought the brush, thick with mousse, down the side of her neck to her breastbone, then back up in a vee shape. He tickled the sensitive skin behind her ear with the tip of the brush and laughed again victoriously when she squirmed. He started licking the chocolate off at the point of the vee, working his way halfway up one side and then, just when he had gotten to the part of her neck that Allison most liked to have kissed, he switched to the other side. Back and forth, with broader, more lingering strokes of his tongue than she had used, driving her already overworked libido into a frenzy in a very short time.

  He was patient because his own tension was largely relieved for the moment, and Allison started to realize he was fully intending to make her crazy with need before she came. She dug her hands into the thick pile of the rug and clung to the strands, resolved to take whatever he dished out. It was a delicious resolution to keep.

  Seth’s plans took him next to her rib cage, where he painted a slightly macabre tracery of her ribs and then a swipe down th
e center of her stomach, ending just above her bellybutton. He took a long time cleaning it all off, and his face was liberally dressed with smears of chocolate before he got to the middle part. Allison looked at him and marveled at his expression of concentration. He looked intent, determined and sexy beyond belief. She wondered if he looked like that when he was working on papers or, worse yet, when he was lecturing. How did the girls in his classes not simply swoon when he walked past their desks?

  Then he was focusing on her bellybutton, dabbing a little series of dots around it then a larger dollop in the middle, and Allison lost her train of thought completely as he started to suck each dot off with a lavish kiss. He laved and sucked at her bellybutton, a zone she had never before considered particularly erotic, and she was startled to find she was intensely aroused by his attentions there. She very nearly forgot that he had skipped her breasts, something that had been concerning her a bit earlier.

  It was not an accidental omission, and after he had cleaned her belly free of any trace of mousse, Seth worked his way back up her body by painting a dashed line back up her abdomen, ending at the little hollow between her breasts. He licked each dash in one swipe, each movement of his tongue sending a sympathetic vibration down to Allison’s cunt, which was already throbbing and wet with anticipation of what he might do there. But he settled in at her breasts as though he planned to stay awhile, and she couldn’t fault him for that plan.

  He started by placing a dab of chocolate at the tip of each nipple. They were already hard, and Allison had to bite her lip to stop herself from begging him to suck them when it became clear he wasn’t going to do so right away. Instead he left the mousse there and went to work with the brush elsewhere, starting with wavy lines and long licks at the crests of her breasts, drifting to the lush undersides to paint what felt to Allison like a pair of flowers. He cleaned them off with the tip of his tongue, tracing the patterns slowly and watching her face each time he neared her nipples.

  Once she was writhing gently, arching her back, making greedy little noises in the back of her throat, he took the brush and painted her right breast with a set of stripes, radiating outward from the still-untouched nipple. These he sucked off in a leisurely manner, one at a time, stopping always just shy of where she now craved to have him. Her nipples were hard to the point of pain, her clit was throbbing with the need to come and she was so wet she felt a stab of cold each time her legs shifted open and the cooler room of the air hit the slick heat of her cunt.