by Lisa G Riley
Nicholas couldn’t stay angry. She just looked so miserable and alone. He moved closer to her and brushed his hand over her hair several times, letting his fingers massage her scalp. She didn’t respond. He continued to stroke her for several more minutes. “I thought you said you were going to trust me,” he reminded her softly.
She sighed but still didn’t lift her head. “You don’t understand,” she said plaintively.
“You’re right. I don’t understand,” he agreed before sliding his hand between her knees to grab her chin and lift her face. “Make me,” he said softly as he looked into her eyes. He saw that although her lashes were wet, her face was still dry, and used his thumbs to brush the tears away.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Try. Let’s start with what happened a few minutes ago. What the hell, Melinda? You laid there like a corpse.”
She saw the hurt and the confusion and grimaced. “I’m sorry about that, Nicholas, I really am. It was just habit.”
“Habit?”
She nodded. “Edmund and I didn’t have sex until we were married. I’d wanted it that way because of past experience. As you already know, I’ve never had an orgasm until tonight. I figured that it hadn’t happened with my college boyfriend because I didn’t love him. With Edmund, I did love him, or at least I’d convinced myself that I did, and at least I felt those first feelings of heat in my belly with him. It just never got beyond that. Anyway, I thought waiting until after we were married would make the act even sweeter.”
“And he went along with this?” Nicholas asked in disbelief.
“Yes. He didn’t want to, but he did. Besides, we’d only known each other for six months before we got married, so he didn’t have long to wait.”
“Sweetheart, when sex is done right, six months can feel like a lifetime.”
She smirked but continued. “Anyway, the first time we had sex, I didn’t…couldn’t feel anything, and I just laid there until he finished. He didn’t touch me like you did tonight, he just pulled my clothes off and had at it and I hate to say this, but it felt more like an invasion than anything else.”
“The stupid fuck didn’t prepare you?”
She shook her head. “No, but I didn’t demand it, either. I just assumed that he would. I thought it would be like they described it in romance novels and movies; when it wasn’t, I became disillusioned and thought that there was something wrong with me, so I just laid there. He became angry, of course, and told me that…” She stopped there, feeling ridiculous at the thought of telling him exactly what Edmund had said. “Well, uh…let’s just say he said he would keep at it until he made me come. He couldn’t do it, and I got tired of him trying so hard, so I started faking it, which is what you saw tonight.”
“Unbelievable,” Nicholas said.
“I guess,” she said with a shrug.
“But I still don’t understand how that happened tonight. I need you to give me details.”
“I really don’t know how it did. I was really enjoying feeling you inside of me. There were all these sensations that I’d never felt before with anyone else. You were so big, and it felt so tight; then it felt more like you were looming over me and taking over, and I just went on automatic Melinda pilot. I felt like I had lost control, and I wanted it back, so I took it the only way I knew how.”
“Looming over you? That’s when you felt like you were losing control?”
“Yes, and I’m sure I was just going back to old habits. I’d never liked to feel Edmund’s—”
“Don’t even think like that,” he interrupted her. “When I get my dick inside of you again, which will be very soon, it’s going to feel so good, you won’t want me to pull out,” he said as he nibbled at her mouth.
“Really?” she asked between nibbles.
“Really,” he confirmed, and unbent her knees, stretching her legs out. Taking her by the waist, he scooted her down on the bed until she cleared the headboard, then he laid her back against the pillows. “You see, what that idiot Edmund failed to understand is that a woman’s body is like a delicate instrument.” He kissed her forehead and then her eyelids, followed by her nose, her cheekbones, and finally her lips, where he sipped gently at them until she was trying to kiss him back.
He ignored her efforts and continued to move his lips over her, tasting and savoring as he went along. Her chin received stinging little nips, and her neck was treated to a thorough licking and sucking until her legs were moving restlessly against the bedspread. “It’s a delicate instrument that needs to be wooed and worshipped until it willingly, happily, gives up its beautiful music,” he finished, right before he bit down briefly on a turgid nipple, causing Melinda to let out a keening wail and arch her back clear off the bed.
“Like I said,” he stated between the kisses he was trailing across her chest to her other breast, “music.” As he gave her second breast the same treatment as the first, his fingers found their way between her opened thighs. “And if a man is skillful and…” he began as he took his mouth down her torso and back up again.
Melinda didn’t think she could take much more of his torture. His hands and mouth were everywhere, leaving burning heat in their wake. She moaned when he let his finger just barely trace her opening. She wanted to beg when he scraped his nail on her clit and then teasingly took it away. “If a man is skillful and,” she reminded him desperately as she pushed her pussy toward his hand. She knew he wouldn’t let her come until he finished his explanation.
He tongued her navel several times, further stirring the heat that was just below the surface. “If a man is skillful and very, very lucky,” he said as if she hadn’t said anything at all, “he’ll get—” he pushed a finger inside her opening and pressed his thumb hard against her clit, “several encores before the night is over.” He finished just when she started to scream his name over and over again as she began to shatter inside.
Moving quickly, Nicholas removed his finger from her vagina, kneed her legs even farther apart, and slid his dick into her until he filled her to the hilt, taking her legs and wrapping them high around his waist. He watched as her eyes popped open in surprise and felt her begin to stiffen. Eyes narrowed, he took the flat of his hand and gave her a slap to one raised buttock.
Melinda let out a sharp little cry and her eyes, widened by shock and pain, looked into his. She didn’t acknowledge the little shot of pleasure she felt and she slapped at his shoulder. “Stop it!”
“Don’t you dare stop, Lindy.”
When she tried to push away from him, he smacked her ass two more times, right on the exact spot of the first slap. Each smack brought a rush of white-hot pleasure to the forefront and made her squeeze his dick a little more.
Melinda tried to ignore the frisson of pain-induced pleasure the stinging smacks sent through her system. She tried, but her body didn’t, and it was bucking wildly beneath him, leaking out its joy and appreciation all over his plunging dick. Traitor, she thought even as a long moan of yearning escaped her throat. She closed her eyes to enjoy the dual shots of pleasure and pain.
Nicholas could tell that the light spanks had added an element she hadn’t expected and that she liked it. He leaned down to whisper against her lips, “You like that, don’t you, sweetheart? Want me to do it again?” She opened her eyes, and he saw the lust that filled them at the thought. He knew she wanted him to, but he wanted her to tell him that.
Melinda licked her lips in indecision. The slight pain really had felt good, but that she could find pleasure in the pain scared her a little bit. She licked her lips again.
Completely turned on by the sight, Nicholas bent down and kissed her, biting that tongue gently between his teeth. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I won’t do it again.”
For once grateful to have a decision taken out of her hands, Mel kissed him, her nails digging into his back as he continued to thrust forcefully into her.
She was so tight, Nicholas thought, as she squeezed around him
like a hot, sweaty fist. This alone more than made up for all the months he’d waited for her, and it was much better than any fantasy he could have dreamed up. He felt his orgasm begin to build at the base of his spine, the force of it so explosive he knew instinctively that he’d have to rest for quite a while when they were finished. He looked down at Melinda. She seemed close, but he couldn’t wait much longer and decided to speed things along for her.
He reared back, simultaneously lifting her torso so that her nipples were level with his mouth. Sucking one nipple into his mouth, he bit down on it just as she bore down on his penis, unknowingly manipulating it into contact with her G-spot.
The resultant full-body pleasure stunned her into a speechless void and she couldn’t move for a moment. But as the storm raged through her, instinct took over, and she blindly followed it, riding him hard and hungrily until she thought the absolute bliss would make her lose her mind. As it pounded through her body and left her weak and gasping, the only thing she could do was sob out his name.
Nicholas wrapped his hands around her waist and forced her down on his cock as he lifted his hips to thrust into her one last time. His orgasm crashed through him, taking him cleanly and completely over the edge.
10
Melinda awoke to feathery caresses trailing down her spine. She turned her head to look at Nicholas and smiled when she was greeted by a wicked grin. “Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey, yourself,” he said, dipping his head for a morning kiss.
She turned her head at the last minute so his lips landed on her cheek. “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet,” she reminded him softly.
Nicholas chuckled and leaned back into his pillows. “Okay, stinky,” he teased.
Smiling, Mel rolled over into his arms and rested her head on his chest. She let her toes tangle with his under the covers. “You’re on the schedule today, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” Nicholas said, and pressed a kiss in her hair, which now smelled like his shampoo. They’d showered together the night before, and he’d had her a third time against the tiled walls as steamy water flowed around them.
“How much time do we have?” She didn’t see a clock anywhere.
“Just enough time to talk about you. Are you all right this morning?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “Just a little sore.” Her voice softened and trailed off as she remembered him taking her against the wall on their way to the bathroom for a shower. He’d been carrying her with her legs wrapped around his waist, she’d rubbed herself against his swollen dick, and he’d backed her against the wall and had been balls deep in her within seconds. The memory of it made a tremor pass through her body. Sighing, she rubbed her breasts against his chest.
“Uh-uh, none of that now,” Nicholas chastised her. “As much as I’d love to accommodate you, you’re much too tender for what you have in mind.”
Mel thought about it. She only felt a little sore. “Maybe you could just use the tip of it,” she whispered, suddenly feeling horny.
Nicholas looked down at her with a teasing smile, thinking that she was joking, but the lust that shone clearly in her eyes told him otherwise. Quickly, he let his finger find her clit, and when she winced, he said, “Just as I thought. Lindy, you’re too tender for me to do anything down there—even touch you.”
She pouted for a moment, knowing he was right. Saying nothing, she put her head back down on his chest. “Okay, Doctor, I’ll accept that,” she grumbled. “For now.”
Nicholas laughed and got out of bed. “You stay there. I’ll be right back.”
He was naked and Mel thoroughly appreciated the glorious view from the back—and the one from the front when he returned from the connecting bath.
“Lay back.” He threw the covers off her body. “Now open your legs,” he commanded. “Oh, baby, you’re so red.” He pressed a cold compress against her flesh.
Mel sighed in relief when it made contact, closing her legs around it. “Thank you,” she said when he got back into bed.
“Now,” Nicholas said as he settled in next to her, “Tell me why you have such a strong need to be in control.”
“I’ve been talking to Cally about it, and she thinks it could have something to do with the way I was raised. And thinking about it, I can see her point.”
“I thought you said you had a good childhood,” Nicholas reminded her.
“I did. My parents were and still are wonderful. It’s just that they didn’t have me until they were forty. They had been trying for years, and when I finally came along, they felt so happy and lucky that they were overprotective. They felt like I was the only one they’d ever have, and they needed to be extra careful with me, which they were. At the same time, they were really involved in my life, almost too much so. I was never allowed to go outside alone until I was twelve, not even to just go next door to my best friend’s house. Let’s see, what else? They put me in Catholic schools because they knew that I’d be watched over carefully and that the nuns would not let me leave the building unless my mother or father was there to pick me up.
“There was just a lot of stuff they did that made me feel powerless, so as a consequence, Cally said, I became a control freak. She says that control became a valuable commodity to me the way that money and power are to other people.” She shrugged. “Like I said, I can see her point. I remember that during the college application process, I only picked the ones that were out of state so I could get away from everything. I loved my parents but they drove me crazy. I was pampered and spoiled and quite possibly could have been a useless adult if it hadn’t been for Lilly and Simone. They, especially Simone, kept me grounded. They let me know in little ways that the way my parents treated me wasn’t normal.”
“That’s interesting,” Nicholas said. “So Cally thinks that you just transferred your need to control to the bedroom?”
“Yes, the most intimate of places, when you’re at your most vulnerable.”
“Well, I’ll say one thing for Cally, she’s still as smart as she was when she was a kid.”
“You guys knew each other when you were kids?” Surprised, Melinda lifted her head to look at him.
“Yeah. She didn’t tell you?”
“No. I mean, she said that you guys had known each other before Living Well and she’s the one who recommended you, but I just assumed that it had been from working at the same hospital.”
“Oh, no, I’ve known Cally since she was a little bitty ten-year-old Southern belle, when her family moved to our block from Atlanta. She was so funny, and my sisters loved her. She was at our house all the time. I even thought that there might have been something going on between her and my cousin Griff when they were teenagers, but then when she was seventeen, she just disappeared.”
“Disappeared? Her family moved?”
“No, her family didn’t move, but one day she just wasn’t there anymore. Her family wouldn’t talk about it. I always suspected that Griff knew something, but he would just clam up when I asked him about her, so I stopped asking. It became the big mystery of Taylor Street.”
“Interesting. And you never asked her as an adult?”
“Nope. When I ran into her at the hospital about five years ago, I was so pleased to see her that I didn’t think to ask her. I told Griff about her return later that day, and he asked me to promise not to ask her anything about her sudden disappearance. I could see it was important to him, so I promised.”
“Whatever it is, it must be pretty painful or bad, because she never told me she knew you from when you were kids, and she knew that I assumed otherwise.” She shrugged. “I guess if she had wanted me to know, she would have told me, so I won’t ask either.”
“Good.”
They lay like that for a while, and Mel was falling asleep again when he said, “Well, it’s time for me to get up and start the grind. Feel free to spend your day off here, sweetheart. I’ll take you out to dinner when I get home tonight.”
Mel lo
oked up at him with a smile. “Oh, good, I’d like that—oh, but I can’t. I don’t have any clothes here, and I don’t want to even consider wearing the dress I had on last night. It’s clearly for after five P.M.”
“And?”
“And if I put it on now, anyone who saw me would know that I’d had it on last night and had spent the night having sex.”
“What does it matter?”
“It just matters, okay? I guess I’ll have to sneak out to my car,” she said, and moved to get out of bed. Pain from another area made her wince. “Ow.”
“What’s the matter?” Nicholas asked. “Is the compress not working anymore?”
Mel’s frown showed her embarrassment. “Oh, it’s working fine. It’s not that, it’s my—” She cut herself off and turned over on her stomach, deciding it was best just to show him. She waited for his laughter.
And was not disappointed. Nicholas laughed so hard, tears rolled down his face. She frowned up at him. “It’s not funny, Nicholas! Just tell me how red it is!”
Nicholas stopped laughing long enough to say, “Yes, it is funny. I told you to take it easy last night, but you just kept begging for more.” He made his voice a falsetto. “Harder, Nicky, please. Just a little harder,” he mimicked her before he started laughing again.
Mel grimaced. During the last time they’d made love, she’d thought about the light slaps he’d given her earlier in the night and wanting to experience the sensations again, she’d asked him to spank her. He’d agreed and had put her across his knee like she’d asked, but he’d refused to hit her any harder than the light stings she’d already experienced. When he wouldn’t make the slight slaps any harder, she’d begged him to keep spanking her instead. He’d cautioned her that it was too much, but she’d obviously gotten carried away, as had he.
She blushed.
“Oh, look, now your face is the same color as your ass,” he teased, and started laughing again.
Mel’s lips twitched, but she clamped them together so she wouldn’t laugh. “Nicholas!” she said sulkily. “Stop laughing at me. How red is it?”
