Shaun sat back in his chair, balanced the pen he was holding between his hands, and lifted one eyebrow. Ray was talking about Tina. Was his boss aware of their more intimate involvement? He was pretty sure everyone had sensed the tension between himself and Tina, right from the beginning. God knows there were enough sniggers and comments about it during the gaming sessions, but he thought they'd been discreet about acting on their attraction. He figured Ray wasn't quite sure how far it had gone, and he was a gambler, a wily one at that.
Shaun turned the pen over in his hands before answering. "Stop fishing, Ray."
Ray gave a shallow laugh. "I've got to stay one step ahead of my wife on this one. You know what women are like. Kate is going to tell me what she thinks about you two soon. She's been dropping enough vague hints about it for me to know she's expecting a reaction and a valid response. I need to form my own opinion. It's required. It's all part of the battle of the sexes."
Shaun couldn't help smiling. "Is that what it is?"
He admired Kate and Ray's relationship. It was based on a healthy respect for inventiveness and challenge. If he wanted a relationship—and he didn't—that's the kind of relationship he would want.
Ray took a swig from his cup. "So, are you going to spill some details to help this old man out, or do I have to invent an uninformed opinion?"
"I can't imagine you having an uninformed opinion about anything, boss."
Shaun teased him in an effort to gain more time before answering properly. He hadn't considered discussing his involvement with Tina with anyone, let alone someone who was going to be there at weekends and presumably observing them with even more interest, next time around. He liked the set up he had with Tina and the last thing he wanted was for something to rock the boat.
Ray nodded. "True, but I'd rather have some facts first."
Shaun considered the question for a moment longer. "Does Tina spill to Kate about her liaison is? No, wait." He flipped the pen he'd been holding onto his desk. "Let me answer that one. I bet she doesn't."
Something that felt oddly like pride swelled in his chest. Why was that? He wanted Tina to play their little game as well, yes, but he had no intention of becoming a team with her. Therefore, he shouldn't feel pride in her actions, but for some reason he did. It was natural at some primitive level, he supposed, because they were so well matched in the bedroom.
Ray's expression was guarded. "A bet, hmm? Okay, a bottle of the best malt whisky you can find, if I can extract an answer to your question from my good lady wife."
Shaun couldn't hold back his grin. This situation was much more to his liking. "You're on."
He didn't even know if he wanted that kind of information about Tina and what she shared about their liaisons, but what the hell? He couldn't resist. Besides, he was pretty sure Tina wasn't a gabber.
When Ray later returned to his own office, Shaun swiveled in his seat, staring at his computer screen with unseeing eyes. He wasn't thinking about work. He was thinking about Tina—her body, her smile, the flash in her eyes. She was extraordinarily feminine, and yet somehow understated. He'd never been attracted to showy women and she had a subtle quality about her that he admired. Her power seemed to be something that came from within, a sense of being sure about her womanliness, even when she wasn't sure about its effect on him. And, oh boy, did she have an effect on him.
He got hard just thinking about her. Right from the first moment he'd seen her, her vitality had harnessed his interest. She was strong and didn't make a move without thinking it through. She'd battled with him at every turn, but that made it even better. In between the gaming weekends he thought about her a lot, remembering how it had been, anticipating how it might be again. He looked forward to each encounter, planned for it, and anticipated it to the extent that he got hard at the most inappropriate of times.
When he was alone in his bed at night and his body wanted sex it was Tina who came to mind. He'd stopped pursuing other women. It wasn't something he'd consciously decided, but when the opportunity had come along to see someone else he simply hadn't gone with it. It was an automatic response. He just didn't want that option. There was no point. No other woman matched up to Tina. She was all fire and vitality, and he wanted her. More than he'd ever wanted any other prize.
* * * *
Once they started to sleep together something clicked inside Tina. It was as if she started living life in a different way—as if on a higher level. She was more aware of herself than she ever had been, both sexually and intellectually. All her senses had become totally engaged. It made her confident in her work and her everyday life. She enjoyed the newfound sense of expectation that rumbled round her veins as she looked ahead to the next gaming weekend. Both mind and body were always willing and waiting for the challenge that he represented—the battle, and the reward. And Shaun was some reward. Right down to the feeling of his body against hers, every detail stayed with her. It meant he was never far from her mind, and that alone made her body buzz with anticipation. She'd catch herself smiling, remembering something he'd said, or how crazy he'd made her behave, and how bloody liberating that actually was.
Neither of them made a move to meet at any other time, other than at the games weekends. They didn't even exchange phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Did that bother her? Not at first. It was a kind of un-stated rule. Shaun wasn't the sort of man who dated. She knew that. He was a loner—the predator, the mercenary.
At first she didn't even allow herself to imagine that it would ever be anything else. It was enough that she relished the intense anticipation that built inside her as their next meeting got closer. She sensed that he anticipated it that way as well. She saw it when they met again. She recognized that recognition flare in his eyes—pride, desire, and acknowledgement that he'd been looking forward to it as much as she had. That was good. That made her thrive in this curious relationship.
Sometimes, when she was browsing the Internet, at work—where she researched stats cached there—she would pause at a website when she saw Ray's company name, wondering if Shaun had perhaps designed it. He hadn't even told her his last name. But what if he had? She knew the unspoken rules. Their communication was limited. It was all part of the game, even if it meant the days dragged when she longed to hear the sound of his voice and the nights were restless with longing for his body next to hers.
She thought about him at night alone in her bed. Rolling restlessly, she touched herself, bringing herself to climax while she imagined that it was him, remembering the way his body pressed down on hers. When his cock was inside her, he locked eyes with her, not allowing her to look away from him as he pushed her inexorably towards climax. He squeezed her nipples until the pain grew bound up with the pleasure, heightening every sensation. He rode her with infinitely precise movements, as if he understood her body more than she did. Then, with his arm around her as they fell asleep, the silent emotion she felt blossomed and grew. She never reached out for him emotionally or commented on their more intimate moments, because she knew he would back off if she did.
At first she tried to deny it, then she attempted to fight it.
Affection was bound to grow for the man who she had such a rapport and such an intense physical relationship with. Ultimately, it wasn't something she could stop herself feeling, she knew that. So she let it simmer and grow. Bask in the moment, she told herself. It would be over soon enough. He'd move on, that was the type of man he was. She'd have to lick her wounds then, of course, but for the time being it was damned good and there was no way she was going to give up the opportunity to enjoy every moment of it.
When they got to Kate and Ray's house anticipation flared between them as soon as they caught sight of one another. They pursued and attacked each other in the games arena, knowing their nights would be spent locked in battle of a different kind. In time, they began to talk. Little things that slowly built into a picture. Shaun lived alone apart from the stray cat that he claimed had adopted him
, not the other way around. That told her a lot. It would take some miracle for this man to admit he needed anyone. He'd grown up an army child, and his parents had moved from place to place. She wondered if that accounted for his loner qualities. He certainly didn't want to rely on anyone else. Perhaps he hadn't had anyone he could rely on. That wasn't something she could ask him, but maybe he would reveal it in time.
For her part, she described her housemates to him, her upbringing in the West Country and her love of research. As the months passed and they shared a little more each time they met, she began to feel she knew him more. And he knew her—boy did he know her.
"Show me," he said the following weekend. He stood at the foot of the exotic bed in her room, and his head jerked back as he stared down at her fingers. Tina realized they were lying in the crook of her naked hipbone, softly drawing circles across the sensitive skin there. She was lying on the bed, naked, waiting for him to approach. She let his command draw them down, into the close heat of her sex folds. Her thighs opened.
"Gorgeous." A smile crossed his face. "Show me some more, make yourself come." His hand began to ride up and down the length of his cock.
That pushed her level of arousal through the roof. Her entire groin was suffused with heat, her core clenching in anticipation. She wanted to grab at him and force that hardness inside her, she wanted to push his arrogant smile into her sex and make him eat the result of his words. But, at the same time, she relished the feeling of his gaze as her fingers stroked her clit. And the sight of his beautiful body jutting forwards at the hip to greet the pressure of his own hand was too, too divine.
What was it to be, this time? Last time he had taken her like a cat, thrusting at her from behind, slapping her hard on the rump and biting the back of her neck as she came, ramming hard up against her palpating cervix. Hard, dirty sex.
The memory of it pushed her ever closer. She stroked her clit back and forth, ever faster, until she came in a dazzling rush. For a moment she had to shut her eyes in order not to collapse back onto the bed. It was important that she kept her equilibrium, because she knew he had not even started yet.
"You better hurry up and get over here, or I might not need you at all," she challenged.
"You're bluffing." Shaun grinned. He reached for his jeans.
Tina watched as he pulled the belt from them, slowly releasing the long key chain from its enclosure.
The key chain.
She hadn't been able to keep her eyes off it when she'd first met him.
He unhooked the keys and snapped it free from the belt. She burnt up inside as she remembered how she'd immediately noticed the slinky chain and associated it with his sexuality. That very morning she'd reached out and held onto it while they spoke in the kitchen, tugging on it to let him know how much she wanted him. Something about the key chain had always turned her on. Did he know that? Could he read her mind?
The snake-like coil, topped with its gnarled fob, hung in his hand. His eyes were filled with dark energy. He touched one end of the chain against her naked belly. She looked at his cock. Always in her mind she saw it with that chain on the hip, that sexy chain.
He leaned over her and kissed her, gently. With one hand on her breastbone he pressed her to the bed, indicating that she should lie flat. Her eyes closed. She felt the roll of the chain over her breasts—wincing slightly when it passed over her nipples, but longing for the return of its pressure on them when it moved on—and brushed gently over her chin. She felt the chain slide between her lips, across her tongue. Then he kissed her, capturing the chain between the open mouths. The act made something knot inside her. His tongue pursued and arrested hers, the cold locks of chain moving between their tongues. He shifted it from side to side, and then drew it free.
She gasped when she felt his finger steal lower, the ridged knot of one knuckle nudging up against her clitoris. Then he moved a finger inside her, stealing into the humid wetness that awaited his cock. She felt the damp brush of the chain against her thigh. Her breath was caught on the thrust of his finger while she wondered what he was going to do next. She didn't have to wonder for long.
He withdrew his finger then inserted it again with the head of the key fob inside the crook of his finger. Propelling the hard nubs of the chain deep inside her, he stared down at her for her reaction, as if fascinated.
The cold hardness of the fob leading the coiled sliver of the chain, alongside his hot agile finger, drew a lingering moan from her. She was so aroused that she was slick with her own juices and growing wetter by the moment. Then he withdrew his finger slowly, so slowly, leaving the chain inside her. She could no longer breathe normally, her breath seeped in and out, carried on her moans of desire. She was his willing supplicant at that moment. Truly, she was.
He was watching her, and she could see that he was just as turned on by the strange significance of the interaction as she was. The chain began to move. She saw it first in the flex of his biceps and then the result of his movement inside her, so intense, so specific. Each nub and dip of the chain ran along the sensitive ring of muscle that lined the entrance to her sex, when he drew it out. Oh yes, each smooth hard nub and dip sent ripples of pleasure through her every nerve ending.
Oh, how she moaned.
He drew the chain out then paused, and pushed the bulk of it back inside, pulled gently against it again, until finally he withdrew it. He ran its coils across his tongue, sucking her juices from it, before dropping it on to the bed. She rolled onto her side, an anguished moan of need escaping her. It wasn't long before his hard shaft slid inside to replace the more malleable shape of the metal.
The he drew the chain across her hips above the place where they were joined, trapping it between them and rolling it over the soft, sensitive skin there as he made love to her. Exquisite sensation upon exquisite sensation.
"I'm not hurting you, am I, sweetheart?" he whispered to her, in between slow, deep thrusts and luxuriant kisses. "Don't let me hurt you, Tina, don't let me ever hurt you."
Her core clamped on his cock.
His comment was so intimate, but so serious. He wasn't talking about sex. He was warning her about something else, about the depth of this thing between them. He was stating that he would hurt her if he ended it, which meant that he knew that about her.
Emotion welled inside her, but it only made her orgasm more delicious.
She knew then that she loved him, and when she came it was with her hands wrapped around his head, her gaze locked with his.
Chapter Four
"Looks like I lost the bet." Ray stood by Shaun's desk and shook his head in a faux sad gesture. "Not a word has passed Tina's lips about what's going on between you two, despite my wife's best efforts to pump her for information."
Shaun nodded. "Thought as much. She's strong. She doesn't need anyone and she's not a blabber."
Why did he feel disappointed by that? Her independence was what attracted him to her. He wanted her to be all fire and ice. Perhaps he needed to hear it wasn't just about sex, or that she had secretly told Kate she cared for him and wanted more. Like he did. And he did. He just couldn't deal with that right now. Maybe if she said something it would make it easier for him.
Or I could just blow it all by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
What if she was just about to end it and walk away? He'd be the mug then. The self-reliance he prided himself on didn't make this situation easy.
Just ask her, fool.
He shrugged off the devil that prodded his conscience. Something had to give, that was for sure, but could he take the risk and lose all?
"You've fallen, Shaun." Ray grinned at him.
Shaun shook his head. "I refuse to answer that on the grounds of incriminating myself, not to mention the fact that I'd be providing you with ammunition for that battle of the sexes thing you have going on."
He shoved his hand in his pockets and smiled, although it was forced and tight.
"Enough s
aid." Ray winked. "If it counts for anything, I think she's smitten too, so does Kate. Odds are good." He was about to leave, then paused. "You've got to make a move soon." Ray gave him a meaningful glance.
"Yes." That was a truth he could not ignore. He did have to do it soon because he wouldn't be at the games weekends any more, not for a while anyway. That fact was forcing his hand, and the feeling of time running out annoyed him. He wanted to rush through the days, get to the next weekend and see her, be with her, hold her. He also didn't want that, because soon he wouldn't be around to meet her there anymore, and that made him feel agitated and unhappy.
Ray slapped Shaun on the back as he left. "Go for it, before you head off to Switzerland."
Shaun stared at his retreating figure with a frown. Go for it? Apart from anything else, how in hell could he overcome the barrier he'd made by setting the game in action? Neither of them were sure of each other, because he'd made it part of the weekends, part of the gaming. Now, if he wanted her, really wanted her— and he did—he'd have to tell her. Straight. He couldn't risk leaving it until he returned from Switzerland. She might meet someone else by then. The very idea of it made him feel frustrated and territorial, his blood fast reaching boiling point. Shaking his head at his own reactions, he wondered how he could be jealous of a possibility, but he was. For the first time in his life he felt unprepared, disarmed. Raw. And all this was down to a woman. Tina.
Fuck it.
He was in love.
* * * *
The following weekend Tina glanced across the games workshop, wondering if Shaun was engrossed in the game, or if his mind was elsewhere. He looked concerned, his brows drawn down, his forehead furrowed. She didn't like to see that look on his face. It made her want to change his expression, to turn it into something else, something more fiery, positive and…sure.
Running Wild - 3 tales of erotic exploration Page 6
