Perfect Ten

by Nikki Worrell

  My relief was short lived. She looked at me with a face that would haunt my nightmares. There was pure determination etched there, and using a low-pitched tone, she said, “Oh, you’ll be seeing me again, Joe Starling.” I couldn’t quite contain my feeling of dread as I made a swift escape—or my feeling of disgust as I heard the swing of the cat-o’-nine-tails again, followed by her muffled groan.

  Chapter 25

  Faith

  Three and a half days have gone by since Joe rocked my world and then stomped on it. Not that I’m actually counting the days or anything, mind you. I have been counting the pounds, though. Regrettably, my self-destructive behavior didn’t stop with the Hershey Kisses.

  Confession time. I had the Kisses Saturday night; Sunday I had my official pity party and stayed holed up in my house all day watching movies sure to make me cry, only venturing to the door to accept the pizza and wings I’d ordered. By Tuesday, the pizza was gone, as were the wings. And just today—I can’t believe I’m admitting this—I had brownie mix for breakfast! Oh, all right—one more admission. Even though I ate at least half the brownie mix, I had a big ole Italian hoagie for lunch. Complete with oil and mayo. It’s really no wonder I don’t feel well.

  To top it all off, I gained two pounds. Think about that. Two pounds in three and a half days. Wow. I’m disgusting. I blame Joe. Yeah, let’s go with that. So now, I’m waiting for my hoagie to settle enough to get my fat ass to the gym. Who’s with me?

  Bright side? For the first time since I can’t remember when, probably ever, I don’t hate myself for gaining a couple of pounds. I think that maybe Joe helped me accept what I view as my faults. It was blatantly obvious he enjoyed my body, so it can’t be that bad.

  That’s how I’m going to look at the whole Joe experience. It was a positive experience that brought some enjoyment to my life for a while. At least I sort of got to live out one of my fantasies. God, what I could have done with him if I’d had him longer.

  I’ve always wanted to tie a guy up. Can’t you just picture it? Joe with a black mask over his eyes to take his sight away, his ankles and wrists tied to my bedposts to hold his magnificent body captive before me. If I closed my eyes, I could see each ripple of muscle. I could even count his eight-pack. I never saw a guy with an eight-pack before, and I wanted to trace each line with my tongue, but we never got around to that.

  As I continued daydreaming, my boss rounded the corner and stepped into my office, scaring the bejesus out of me.

  “Whoa. Okay there, Ms. Graham?” He always addressed everyone as Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. We addressed him as Asshat. Behind his back, of course. It was Mr. Welling to his face.

  His concern was a surprise. Mr. Welling didn’t earn the name Asshat for being nice, but before I had a chance to answer, he showed his true colors.

  “Weren’t able to get your figures done, were you? I knew I should have just done it myself.” See? Asshat.

  “They’re right here. I always get my work done, Mr. Welling.”

  “Yes, well. I’ll take these to my office and just give them a look through before I pass them on to the partners, shall I?”

  His question didn’t require an answer. We did that dance all the time. If he truly felt I was as inadequate as he made me sound, why the heck did he keep me? I’d been working for Shelley and Associates for almost six years. He was the one who promoted me to Senior Accountant, for Pete’s sake. Grace has been telling me for years that I need a new job. She says I’m killing myself for no reason, but I genuinely like working with numbers. Tax season sucks, but the rest of the year is okay.

  Susie’s asked me several times if I want to run her bakery, but I’ve told her that I don’t know if it’s enough work to keep me busy, but just last week, she told me she’s opening up another location in Long Beach. She even offered me a percentage in the business if I would take over all the administrative aspects.

  I already do her quarterly and year-end taxes, but the day-to-day bookkeeping is done by a part-time worker, and it’s getting to be too much for her. If she’s not willing to commit to full-time hours, Susie is going to have to hire someone else. I think the opportunity could be great for both of us, but it’s a little scary leaving a sure thing with health benefits and paid time off to work for yourself, you know? On the other hand, it would be nice to be working for a company I had a vested interest in.

  There’s one more benefit of working at Susie’s bakery, but it’s also the bad part. All those pastries and donuts and her homemade cheese spreads. Oh my God. I’d have to go to the gym every night! Of course, I should be doing that now anyway.

  Speaking of the gym, I couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time to go. I pulled my purse out of my desk and felt my phone vibrate. Mr. Welling flipped his lid if he ever heard a cell phone ring in the office, so we all put them on vibrate as soon as we walked in the door.

  I pulled it out and saw that I’d gotten a few texts hours ago. They were from Joe.

  Joe: Please talk to me. I didn’t sleep with Sophia. I swear. Give me another chance.

  A couple minutes after that, I got:

  Joe: Come on, Faith. Let me win you back. Just give me a chance.

  About an hour after that:

  Joe: Goddammit, Faith! I didn’t do anything wrong. Answer my fucking text.

  That was his way of trying to get me to see him again? His last text:

  Joe: That last text was from my evil twin. He said he’s sorry he got nasty. He’s had a bad day. So…can I come over? I’ll bring chocolate…

  Why couldn’t I contain my grin? There’s something about him that breaks down all my walls. That’s a scary thing. I wanted to believe he hadn’t slept with Sophia, but I just wasn’t sure if I could. Trust was a hard thing to come by and even harder to give. Although, if I did give in, I could tie him up and live out that fantasy to my heart’s content. If I looked at this whole relationship as just casual fling, I could live out a lot of my fantasies. I’ll bet Joe would go for just about anything.

  While I sat there debating, my phone went off again.

  Joe: Hi, Faith…again. I’m not asking for me this time. Heidi wants to meet you and wondered if you’d let her come visit. I could bring her over. It wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

  Well, that did it. Using the dog to gain my favor? It would work every time.

  Faith: Okay, Joe. You win, but you had better have your furry friend with you when I answer the door.

  I didn’t even put my phone back before I got an incoming text.

  Joe: She’s so excited. We’ll see you in a few.

  Faith: Wait! I have to go to the gym. Give me a couple of hours.

  Joe: You don’t need the gym. You’re perfect, but okay. Two hours.

  Joe was knocking on my door exactly two hours later. Even though things went sour last Saturday, I couldn’t help being excited to see him. He told me he didn’t sleep with Sophia, and I believe him, so I dressed in a short white dress, feeling frisky. I even left my panties in the drawer.

  The door opened to reveal the cutest picture ever. Joe stood there holding a basket of strawberries and chocolate whipped cream, and Heidi held a bouquet of daisies in her mouth. She even had a big pink bow wrapped around her neck.

  I moved forward close enough to nudge his toe with my bare foot. “You both look very cute. You may come in.” My nose crinkled all by itself at the adorable pairing they made.

  “Now that’s a statement. I fucking love it.” I turned around to see Joe standing just inside the door, staring directly at the juncture of my thighs.

  “What?”

  “Sweet Faith. You don’t know?”

  I looked down and immediately saw what he saw. It was the first time I’d worn the dress, and it was pretty much see-through, leaving nothing to the imagination. Awesome time to go commando. “Holy cow! I’ll be right back.”

  He chuckled and immediately kicked the front door shut. Before I got as far as the hallway, Joe had me pushed
up against the back of the door, kissing me mindless. He tore his lips away long enough to tell me what he thought of my dress.

  “You look good enough to eat. As a matter of fact…” He dropped to his knees, pushed up my skirt, and pressed his mouth to me, drawing a surprised and very pleased squeal from my lips. No! Wait. I didn’t want this, did I? Hell, of course I did, but no. We needed to talk. Was this all there was between us? Just an intense sexual attraction?

  Using my ever-waning willpower, I pushed him back. “Joe, stop.”

  Not expecting it, he fell back on his butt and sat there looking up at me, his breath coming out like he’d just run a marathon. “Jesus. I’m sorry. It’s just you don’t have any panties on and I…” He waved his hand in the general area of my nether region as he pushed himself back up on his knees. When his hands snaked out to grab my hips again, I moved away from the door and ran into my room, grabbing the first pair of light-colored panties I found.

  Joe groaned and covered his eyes when I walked back into the room. “Are you trying to kill me, Faith?”

  “What now?” I looked down again to see that I’d grabbed a pair of lacey, pink panties that you could still see pretty clearly through the dress. I guess what I really needed was one of those long camisoles.

  Collecting underthings was kind of my hobby. I had more panty and bra sets than I did pants and tops. They weren’t all sexy either. I like fun sets too, like my Eeyores. Apparently, Joe appreciated my collection.

  Instead of running back into my room, I grabbed the blanket off the sofa and wrapped it around my waist like a sarong. “Now can I properly meet your girl, please?” I didn’t wait for him to say anything else. Since I was wrapped up, I walked into the living room and sat on the floor, calling Heidi over.

  She came over to me at a run and jumped into my lap, knocking me over backward. There I was, lying on the floor with an eighty-pound dog on me licking my face.

  “Oh my God! Aren’t you a sweetie! Who’s a sweet puppy?” I let her give me one last lick before I pushed her off and sat up. Instead of jumping back on top of me, she sat down nicely and let me get up. “What a good girl you are. Would you like a carrot?” I looked at Joe, who was still looking off-kilter—go, me!—to see if that was okay. “Is that okay?”

  “Huh?”

  “A carrot. Can Heidi have a carrot?”

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Heidi and I headed into the kitchen, Joe on our tails. When I bent down to get the carrot out of the crisper, he moaned anew.

  With Heidi happily munching away, I turned to Joe. “I’m not putting any more clothes on. What’s the problem now?”

  “You bent over.”

  “And?”

  “That’s it. That’s all it takes. I always want you, Faith.” He cupped himself, trying to shift his erection to a more comfortable spot, but all he wound up doing was drawing my attention to the ever-present bulge. It was getting nearly impossible to ignore the sexual tension between us, but I wanted to talk to him. Of course, we could always talk afterward…

  Joe

  “Christ, Faith.” I loved being buried balls-deep inside my girl. The slap of my balls against her as I fucked her harder and harder revved us both up to a fever pitch. I was about to explode, but she wasn’t quite there yet, and I was doing my damnedest not to come, but Christ, it was taxing. She was so fucking hot! The sounds that came out of her as I hit all the right spots were enough to put me over the edge.

  “Tell me what you want, baby. Tell me what to do for you.” I reached between us and ran my fingers over her clit.

  “God. That’s good. I want your lips on me.” She arched her back as I hit a particularly good spot with my thumb, giving me perfect access to her sensitive neck. I sucked on a patch of skin just below her ear, and then lightly bit her earlobe.

  “Yes! Oh God. That’s it. I’m so close.”

  I held in a strangled moan. In a rough voice that I hardly recognized as my own, I said, “Fuck! Me too.” Getting a little carried away in my fucking frenzy, I bit down on her neck harder than I’d meant to. And she loved it. That bite sent her over the fucking edge! She screamed out my name and gripped my ass, pulling me into her hard with each thrust. Her pussy squeezed me so tight, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I couldn’t take one more second of such sweet torture. My back arched, the muscles in my neck strained, and I came with hard jerks until my body calmed itself.

  Instead of rolling off to the side, I raised myself up on my forearms, relieving some of my weight from her. “Jesus. We are definitely good at this part.”

  Faith was still panting when she smiled up at me. She was an entirely different person in bed. Once she got over her fear of me seeing her naked—well, mostly over it—she was all in. It wasn’t what I would have expected from her, but I fucking loved it. I’ll bet she would be open to all kinds of fun things in the bedroom.

  She reached up and pulled me down for a long, wet kiss, and my cock started to harden again. When neither one of us could breath, she gently pushed me back as I rolled off her onto the rumpled comforter beside her. We never did get down to the sheets.

  Faith turned toward me and flung a leg over mine while she drew patterns on my chest. “You don’t have any chest hair. It’s different, but I like it.”

  I laughed. That was the first time anyone had mentioned my lack of chest hair. “I’m glad you like it, because I can’t do anything about it. A lot of the guys get their chests waxed, but I just never had any.” She continued to run her finger over me, tracing the lines of my abs.

  “Looks like you like this.”

  Since my dick was jumping to attention with each pass of her finger, it wasn’t something I could deny. “I like anything you do to me, Faith.” And it was the truth. I loved it when she touched me. In any capacity.

  “Really? Because I was wondering…”

  “Yes?” I tried to tip her head up to look into her eyes as we spoke, but she buried her face in my neck. “What were you wondering?” My fingers ran rhythmically through her hair as I waited for her answer.

  “I’ve always thought it might be fun to tie a man up.”

  My hand immediately stilled. Holy shit! She was holding her breath waiting for me to answer her, but was she kidding me? “Are you fucking serious? Jesus. I would love that.”

  “I’m sure you’ve done that a lot, but—”

  My smile was huge and genuine. It was great to be able to tell her that I had not. “Believe it or not, I’ve never been tied up. Never. Those women were money to me. I know how bad that sounds, and it probably is, but that’s how it was. I would never have trusted them to do that to me. Plus, being tied up is too intimate. I didn’t kiss those women either.” She probably wouldn’t believe me, but I needed to say it anyway.

  The bed dipped a bit as she raised herself up with an arm on either side of my head, her tits just brushing my chest. I’m not sure exactly what she said, as all my blood ran south at the feel of her nipples rubbing up against me.

  “Joe?”

  I peeled my eyes back up to her beautiful face. “Huh?”

  “You’re not listening to me at all, are you?” She pushed off the bed and flopped down on her back next to me again, not even covering herself. Yay for me!

  “I’m trying, but you swung those gorgeous breasts my way, and my brain shut down.” I leaned up on my side and gently traced patterns on her belly like she did to me. It had a different effect on her, though. Belly quivering, she wiggled out of my reach, laughing. “Ticklish, are you?”

  “Don’t you dare! Keep back.”

  “Fine.” I’d file that information away for another time. “Let’s get back to the interesting stuff. You want to tie me up?”

  Down went her eyes and up came the blush. “Well, no. I mean yes. Maybe. If you wanted to do that, sure.” She shrugged and tried to cover herself up with the blanket at the end of the bed.

  “Hey.” My arm snaked around her waist and pulled her back to
me before she got a chance to cover up all that glorious skin. “Don’t be embarrassed. I want to hear all your fantasies. Every last one.” I rubbed my dick up against her. “Got any rope lying around?”

  She spun around to face me. “No. If you really want to do it, I want to do it right, and I don’t have what I need yet.”

  “Okay. For now, though…” I flipped her back over onto her stomach, and with one smooth thrust of my hips, I was back in paradise. The covers bunched as I slipped my arm under her hips to lift her up a bit, getting a better angle for deeper penetration.

  Through a soft moan, Faith said, “Again?”

  “Oh yeah. Again.” We spent the next several hours in bed, pleasuring each other until Faith fell asleep in the cradle of my arms. It was most definitely the best night of my life.

  When I woke up the next morning, the bed was empty. It took me a minute to realize it was a weekday, and most people worked during the daylight hours. I couldn’t wait to be one of those people.

  We never did talk the night before, as I knew Faith wanted to. I couldn’t help but feel, I don’t know, good. Yeah. Just plain good as I looked at the space around me. The covers on the bed were comfortably messed up; Heidi had a water bowl next to her at the foot of the bed and some bits of something orange, which I assumed were from carrots. Last but not least, there was a note on Faith’s pillow.

  Joe,

  Didn’t want to wake you. Went to work. You’re going to have to do this in the daylight too, someday. :)

  XO,

  Faith

  I took it as a good sign that she could joke about my old job. Yup. Old job. I had only one date left, and it was with Mrs. Covington. It should have been two dates, but Stan finally agreed to let Vaughn take my other one.

  That sly gal must have pulled some strings to make sure she was my last date before I gave up my status as escort—and I couldn’t be happier. I called her right then, knowing she was an early riser, to see if she wouldn’t mind an adjustment to our date.