Holding My Breath

by A. M. Hartnett

  ‘Not yet,’ he said.

  His voice was as rich as his gaze, his smirk subtle as she leaned over him and popped the glasses on his face. He made no move to touch her, but his fingers curled and betrayed the itch to do so.

  Molly straddled his thighs and pressed her hands to his warm chest as she regarded the transformation the rectangular frames gave his face.

  ‘You look like a naughty professor,’ she told him as she perched her ass on his knees.

  ‘Are we going to role-play?’

  Thighs sprawled against his, she felt wide open and ticklish for some attention between her legs, but resisted the urge to drag his hand from the edge of the sofa and tuck his fingers into the wetness.

  Molly chuckled. ‘Are you asked to do that a lot?’

  ‘Sometimes, but it’s not as fun as you might think. The scenarios are always very porny. I’ve been the younger lover of a married woman whose husband catches her and gets a demonstration of what to do to keep his wife from straying. I’ve been a cop handcuffing and having his way with a terrible driver. I’ve even put on a kilt and chased a lady of the manor around her bedroom.’

  ‘That’s pretty bad,’ Molly said with a laugh, and drew his hands to her waist. ‘I don’t think the chambermaid and the gigolo need to role-play. We seem to be doing just fine, though I do find this look incredibly attractive.’

  He skimmed his palms across the curve of her ass, then pushed up onto her knees as he followed the planes of her back. A giggle escaped as he unhooked her bra. ‘Oh, Mr Pattengale, what big eyes –’

  ‘Don’t,’ he said through a bark of laughter, and tipped his head back and let it pour out. ‘Just don’t, I won’t be able to stop laughing.’

  ‘It’s too late, I’ve already started.’ She shimmied until the bra straps slipped down to her elbows and the garment buckled between them. She tittered and ground down, finding the hard length poking her through the towel. ‘Oh, Mr Pattengale, what big eyes you have.’

  He shook, that smirk turning into a full blazing smile that weakened as she rocked back and forth on his lap.

  ‘Say it,’ she urged giddily.

  Behind the glasses, his eyes shone with laughter as he tugged the bra away completely. ‘All the better to see that sinful body with.’

  Molly leaned back and gripped his knees, confident in her balance. ‘Oh, Mr Pattengale, what big hands you have.’

  His second reply had none of the absurdity of the first. He began with his hands on her hips and pushed up to meet her slow cadence, then slipped his hands up to cup her breasts. ‘All the better to get you all worked up with.’

  Lips pressed together, she hummed through her nose as he lifted and stroked, tugged and tweaked, delivering sharp nips of pain that turned to pleasure in those taut peaks. He made a trail over her ribs, her excitement bubbling just beneath the skin and leaving her breathless as he rested one hand at the small of her back and slipped the other between her legs.

  ‘All the better to play with you,’ he went on with a hitch in his voice, evading her panties and worming his fingers beneath them, ‘to give your clit some attention while my big eyes watch you get more and more eager to come.’

  She moved with the rhythm of his fingers squeezing and stroking around slick folds. As her heartbeat quickened, her head grew lighter and lighter and she gave his hand more confidence to keep from falling. She didn’t know whether it was merely his knowledge of her body or whether her excitement had made her sensitive, but fingers stroking crescents back and forth over her clit evoked pleasure so intense it was as though her pussy hadn’t received any attention in weeks.

  Her climax announced itself in the hot, intense flutter of her inner walls. Her breathy, mewling sounds must have alerted him to what she longed for but couldn’t form words to ask for. The elastic cut into her as he delved his entire hand into her panties, but became only a vague nuisance as he probed her with two fingers. She hung her head back and surrendered to him.

  Quinn said nothing as he worked her body against itself, but his excitement was betrayed in the hot stream of his breath down her body and the pressure of his hand on her back. This wasn’t all for her, she realised, as the heat spurted up in her abdomen. He used her hard and fast as his libido became savage. He was ready for his, but she would have hers again first.

  Her grip on his knees did nothing to keep her balance: it was Quinn who kept her from toppling as she came. As she gasped to catch her breath and the pounding in her head abated, the wet sounds of his hand still toying with her grew louder. She had drenched herself, and him, and if she hadn’t shunted away from him he could have easily brought her to another shattering climax.

  She hung her head forward and met his gaze. He looked the part she had given him: the feral wolf hungrily grinning back at her. She ran her hands across his shoulders and looked between them. His towel had come loose and split open, and his shaft strained away from his balls.

  ‘Mr Pattengale,’ she whispered, ‘what a very big cock you have.’

  He groaned, and the sound morphed into a moan on her tongue as she kissed him.

  ‘Say it,’ she murmured, her tone more pleading than demanding. ‘You know I want to hear it. Tell me what you called me over here for.’

  ‘All the better …’ he began, and pressed the point of his tongue to his upper lip. She could practically see the possibilities sparking off the end. She held her breath, curling fingers and toes in anticipation. ‘All the better to spread you open and make you scream.’

  ‘God, you are such a big –’

  ‘All right, here is where I draw the line.’

  ‘– Bastard,’ she finished with a hiss in his face, and bit her lip to keep from giggling. ‘You are a total bastard. You say that like you’re going to scoop me up, take me to bed and fuck me, but I know better than that now. You’ll get there, but you’ll take the long way and torture me as you do.’

  Quinn narrowed his eyes. ‘In spite of that pleading whine in your voice, I suspect you’re trying a little reverse psychology on me. I think you want to be teased some more, even if I did just make you come twice.’

  ‘Why would I do that?’

  ‘Because you’re selfish.’ He reached around and grasped two handfuls of her ass and dragged her as close as possible, until his hot length rested between her slick and sensitive lips. ‘I showed my weakness by calling you this morning. You think you’ve got me where you want me. You know how badly I want to just close my eyes and lose myself between your hot thighs, so now you have your chance.’

  Molly tried to look innocent. When she’d called him a bastard she hadn’t been goading him, but his mocking, admonishing tone was nothing less than delicious. She rode along the length of his dick, watching his expression for any flicker. He showed nothing, and she choked back the moan that leaped to her lips as the tip nudged her sensitive clit.

  ‘What am I going to do with you?’ The corner of his mouth crooked up, and the heaviness her orgasm left in her limbs lifted as she watched his wicked plan take shape behind those glasses. ‘It’s so obvious, isn’t it?’

  His gaze slipped over her shoulder, and she followed it. There was nothing behind them but a few pieces of furniture and the cityscape.

  Molly turned back to him with a question on her lips, but instead he jostled her out of that sinful pose. Leaving the towel behind, he took her hand and led her to the window. Even though she was ten storeys up, she resisted as they neared the window. Save for his glasses, he was completely naked and she was in her sexy little nearly-nothing, and her modesty kicked in.

  He gave her a gentle but insistent tug and drew her in front of him. Hands on her shoulders, he took the same position as when she first stood before the window, only now the moment was accompanied by the insistent length of his cock resting at the small of her back.

  ‘I have to say that you’re a lovely hostess,’ he said softly. ‘So accommodating to my every whim whenever I visit, and I always leave f
eeling satisfied. As a houseguest, on the other hand, you’re terribly shameless.’

  He drew out ‘shameless’ and let it slither into her ear and down her body to warm like a kiss between her legs. She tilted her head slightly, but his fingertips pressed into flesh, leaving their impression like she was made of clay.

  ‘You’re a selfish, spoiled girl,’ he went on in that wonderful drawl. ‘And after I was so good to you. Wasn’t I good to you?’

  ‘You were,’ she crooned back at him. ‘You’re always so good to me.’

  He released her. Free from his clutches, Molly turned around and watched, expectant, as he collected one of the chairs around that monstrosity of a table and brought it towards her.

  ‘I am, aren’t I?’ He dropped the chair in front of her, back to the window, and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘See the upholstery? That’s hand made with real leather. It’s easy on the ass, but, for you, easy on the knees. Kneel.’

  She flicked her hair over her shoulder and gave him a haughty look, but nonetheless did as he asked and perched on the edge of the chair.

  ‘There’s something wrong here,’ she said, staring out at the city below. ‘I’m too low for you.’

  ‘No, you’re not. Stay here, enjoy the view and I’ll be right back.’

  As he headed up the stairs to the loft above, Molly certainly enjoyed the view of that naked backside. Once it was out of her sight, she folded her arms in front of her and rested her chin on her forearm. She wished she had had a chance to peek around upstairs and take inventory of the sinful things he kept there.

  What he came down with was something much simpler: a hairbrush.

  He twirled it in both hands in front of him, his smile as wide as his panoramic view.

  ‘This really isn’t what I had in mind, but you just had to be Miss Priss and turn your nose up at the home I worked so hard for. I think that deserves a good spanking.’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ she said, and meant it.

  It was one thing to have the beautiful pain delivered by his strong hands. The tear-shaped hairbrush was a much more unpleasant prospect. It looked like it would pack one hell of a wallop.

  ‘You sure?’ He came around the chair to stand before her and tapped the hard surface on the meat of his palm. Three taps, three merry sounds that nonetheless came off like warning shots.

  She went straight up on her knees and closed her hand around his. ‘I really don’t know about this.’

  ‘Do you want to do me first?’

  The question knocked the wind out of her. Not once had it ever occurred to her to give him a red ass. ‘No. God, no.’

  ‘You don’t have to sound so horrified,’ he said, and cupped her face as he leaned down to eye level. ‘I thought you were fearless.’

  ‘I am,’ she insisted, and plucked the brush from his hand. She did just what he had done and tapped it against her hand.

  Oh, I’m definitely going to feel this one.

  ‘Good?’ he asked, and without waiting for her answer he reclaimed the brush. ‘Good, now get that ass up.’

  He bolted behind her and before she had a chance to process that she had just half-agreed to get paddled, he clamped his hand on her shoulder and gave her a smack. He didn’t hit her as hard with the brush as he usually did with his hand, but the impact was twice as powerful.

  He followed the first with eight more in rapid succession, until the sting turned to discomfort and then outright pain and Molly couldn’t take any more. She pushed him away with a violent shove. He was in front of her in an instant, concern written all over him.

  She ran her hand across her throbbing ass. ‘You still want me to do that to you?’

  ‘I’ve taken worse. Are you sorry yet?’

  He dropped down and rested his hand, the one holding the cause of her throbbing ass, across the back of the chair. There was still concern on his face, but he masked it almost perfectly with his smirk.

  Molly raised a brow. ‘You’re taking this very seriously.’

  ‘I’ll take that as a no.’

  He raised the brush and moved to the side. Molly jumped off the chair and scooted around to put it between them.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, but was struck with a giddy thrill and began to laugh as she went on. ‘I’m really sorry. Your apartment is gorgeous, like something out of a magazine.’

  ‘Nice try.’ He dragged the chair around until it faced her, then dropped into the seat. ‘I might have accepted your apology if it wasn’t for the complete lack of remorse on your face.’

  Molly leaned against the table. She tried, she really tried to wipe the smile off her face, but it seemed stuck in place, and there was Quinn grinning back at her, still the naughty professor with the glasses and the hard-on.

  ‘Now what?’

  ‘What do you think?’ He tapped the brush against his thigh. ‘You’ve been here before. You know what to do.’

  Molly’s smile vanished and she tried not to whimper. The burn had set into both cheeks, and the thought of taking more smacks seemed to turn up the temperature a few more notches.

  ‘Is there nothing else I can do to make amends? Maybe on my knees?’

  ‘Put that bottom lip back in and stop trying to be cute.’

  He let his arms hang at his side and just stared back at her. Molly knew she could outright refuse and he’d let it go. Or maybe he wouldn’t and she’d have to threaten to leave.

  But she wouldn’t.

  And she didn’t.

  She extended her hand, and when he took it she let him drag her down. With a resigned sigh she hung her head, but he reached down and lifted her chin.

  ‘We’ll do this until you appreciate the view.’

  ‘You and this view,’ she murmured, then yelped as he gave her a whack. ‘Jesus!’

  ‘That’s not admiring.’ It sounded like the muttering was more for himself than for her. He gently patted the spot he had just struck, then gave her another.

  Molly gritted her teeth and took another three before she wriggled enough that he pushed down in the small of her back.

  ‘Do you enjoy this?’ she asked through little puffs.

  ‘That’s a question, and I want to hear real adoration. Oh, Quinn, look at how blue the lake is. Oh, Quinn, those countertops must have cost you an arm and a leg. Oh, Quinn, that gorgeous table makes me wet.’

  Even as he brought that hard, flat surface down on her ass again and again, Molly couldn’t keep fresh laughter from frothing out. She never thought she could have so much fun while on the receiving end of a hard, scolding spanking. She never thought she could have as much fun with anyone as she did with Quinn.

  ‘All right, I give up,’ he said with a sigh and rested the brush on her scalding ass. ‘Nothing short of caning you is going to make you a little more appreciative.’

  ‘Oh, thank God.’ Molly dropped her head and took long, deep breaths as the throb spread from her ass to the rest of her body.

  She doubted that his surrender had anything to do with her attitude. His hard-on was as insistent as ever, throbbing against her ribs. All that squirming she’d done had gotten him more excited than he had let on.

  ‘If it makes any difference, I think your countertops are just lovely,’ she said, and leaped as he gave her one last crack.

  ‘Your sarcasm has been duly noted and filed away for future use.’ He dipped his fingers between her slippery pussy lips, and Molly quaked through his gentle exploration of her clit. ‘Can you get up?’

  ‘No. Yes.’ She slid away from him, dropped to the floor like a beanbag and rested her head on his knee. ‘Satisfied with yourself?’

  ‘With myself, yes. Otherwise …’ Like he was performing a magic trick, Quinn circled his hand around in front of her and gathered the shining precome on his palm, then tugged the skin around the shaft.

  He was beckoning her to act. Molly wanted a moment, not only to give herself a chance to grow accustomed to the fire in her backside, but
because she loved watching him touch himself.

  Of course, it wasn’t the first time he’d masturbated in her presence, but usually it was while she couldn’t see him working the hard length, while she was astride his face with his tongue squirming against her clit.

  ‘Has anyone ever paid to you to do this?’

  He laughed and opened his hand to show off the glossy column, a sight that made Molly’s mouth dry with desire.

  ‘No one has paid me just to watch me jerk off, but they’ve paid me to jerk off while I watch.’

  ‘A couple?’

  ‘Many couples. Back in my twenties I would work morning, noon and night when I could book an appointment. For this couple I would drive out to the suburbs every Friday afternoon to jerk off while a radio producer and his wife had a quickie. I’d kneel on the edge of the bed and stroke it right next to their heads while they did it missionary – only ever missionary.’

  Molly stared up at him. ‘That’s too weird to be hot for me.’

  Jostling her with his laughter, Quinn pumped the length again and stretched his legs around her. ‘It did something for them.’

  ‘I bet.’

  She pushed up onto her knees and tilted her head back, closing her hand over Quinn’s as he leaned forward. A soft kiss deepened and she welcomed the heat of his mouth, then he quickly reversed the clutch and guided her hand to his engorged cock.

  Molly reached up with her free hand and cupped the back of his head. She coaxed his tongue past her lips and created a frenzy, sucking and licking while Quinn kept her pumping grip steady on his cock.

  ‘Suck me, honey,’ he whispered against her mouth, and quickly darted his tongue against hers before speaking again. ‘Suck me just like you did the first day we met.’

  Pushing her fingers through his hair, she opened her mouth for the insistent thrust of his tongue. His cock jumped, and with a gasp he drew back.