Blame It on the Moon

by Shara Lanel

  As soon as she was free, she rushed to Richard’s table, her panties ridiculously damp.

  “Hi.” She pasted on a smile and resisted the urge to bite her nails.

  “I’m impressed,” Richard said, gesturing for her to sit down. She pulled out the second chair, but glanced over her shoulder, so he added, “Do you have time?”

  “A few minutes.” It wasn’t about the time; it was about losing her tenuous hold on her employees’ respect. “The crowd’s growing again.”

  “Perfect.”

  The silence stretched as Richard examined the menu, and Angelica grew more nervous, even though she was still turned on. Usually she enjoyed any time spent in Richard’s company, examining the artistic line of his lips, the high ridge of his cheekbones. He’d shown her a couple of his paintings, so she loved to stare at his fingers and imagine him painting delicate strokes on canvas. But this time she tapped her foot in impatience that she couldn’t let him see, or he’d want to punish her immediately.

  “I see a bottle of 2004 Rosso di Montalcino listed. May I have that, please? I’d like you to join me for a glass.”

  “Sure.” She rose, but Richard put his hand on her arm, his eyes fierce.

  “Call the waiter over. You’re not a servant here.”

  Angelica caught Chris’s eye, and he came over so she could order the wine. He gave her a look that said he thought the situation odd, but she kept smiling. Chris opened the wine and served, then returned to his tables. Richard swirled the dark purple liquid and sniffed the bouquet. Then he sipped and gestured for Angelica to do the same. She skipped the swirling and sniffing and swallowed more than a sip. Richard scowled, but that was too bad. She wasn’t going to pretend to understand the fine art of wine tasting, but she understood the richness and complexity of the flavor on her tongue.

  “I should get back to work, Richard.” Would he pay for the wine, or was she expected to dock it from her pay?

  “Finish your glass first.”

  She tried not to gulp it as she grew more self-conscious under her lover’s scrutiny. She also sensed Emilio and Chris watching her and wondered what they were thinking.

  Richard placed his hand on hers. “Relax.” She met his eyes and her body softened. “And I have something I need you to keep for me.”

  “Okay.” But why did he have to give it to her now?

  He slid a paper bag across the table. She looked at it curiously and started to unroll the lip.

  He stalled her with his hand. “No peeking. I just want you to put this in your desk or locker and forget about it for now. Don’t take it home. Don’t look in it. Can you do that for me?”

  “Of course, but I don’t understand.”

  “Think of it as a game, like our other games. But it’s very important that you keep it hidden here and don’t look in the bag. Do you agree?”

  Thinking of their previous “games,” her face grew hot again. She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Splendid.” Finally he stood, releasing her from suspended animation.

  Angelica avoided Emilio’s eyes as she rushed into the back clutching the bag. Look busy, look important. Richard hadn’t done or said anything sexual, hadn’t treated her as his servant, yet she felt like everyone knew, knew that just this morning she’d been tied to a post with clit and nipple clamps dangling and a butt plug that looked like a series of little balls shoved up her ass as Richard forced her to suck the lifelike black dildo. Her entire body had been twined with rope, reminding her of a macramé plant holder. He’d taken pictures of her and called her a work of art, but he’d refused to lick her or fuck her. When he’d finally set her free so she could go to work, he’d merely pecked her cheek. She’d been tempted to stop somewhere and get herself off, just to release the tension, but she imagined he’d know somehow and disapprove.

  Maybe if she kept the bag for him ‑‑ what it was, she couldn’t imagine ‑‑ maybe then he’d make love to her again. In the normal way.

  Blame It on the Moon

  Chapter Nine

  Haden parked the Jag behind the pub and breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was still standing. Pent-up energy rolled through his body as he left the car and entered the kitchen. Three nights away and he’d missed the place. Three nights cooped up when his beast wanted to roam free, and he was ready to crawl out of his skin. He’d hefted weights for an hour this morning, but that had barely calmed him down. Everything smelled so strong, like the blooming azaleas and the rotting trash in the Dumpsters, the recent rain on the asphalt, and the perfume a customer had worn the night before. The sun nearly blinded him, and he could see every shadowed corner in the restaurant without turning on a light.

  And he was so hungry. He reached into the fridge and grabbed a leg of lamb, throwing it on the stove for a sear. He wanted to eat it before any of his employees arrived. While he was licking the last bit of grease from his fingers, he heard Kit enter next door and the familiar sound of the return box being dragged across the room. Suddenly he knew something else he wanted to do before any employees arrived. Needed to do.

  A different kind of hunger.

  He sauntered down the sidewalk and knocked on the glass, startling her since it was still an hour before her store opened.

  “Can I help you?” Kit asked formally, drawing close to the door, but making no move to open it.

  Haden smelled her uncertainty, even through the glass, and tried to think of a way to circumvent it. “I missed you.” And it was true, truer than he wanted it to be.

  She put her hands on her hips. “You left right when I was opening up to you.”

  He caught another familiar scent a few feet away. “Can I come inside, please? Don at the comic store is listening in.”

  She glanced at the sidewalk beyond, but wouldn’t be able to see Don. Then she sighed, unlocked the door, and relocked it once he was inside. Ah, she smelled like vanilla again and she’d washed her hair with a jasmine shampoo. He didn’t realize he was stalking her until she scooted back, but then he could smell her sex inviting him to lose control.

  “I want to talk to you somewhere private.” He took a long step closer, barely controlling the urge to scoop her up and fling her over his shoulder.

  She backed up, sliding along the counter. “This is private. No one’s here yet.”

  The last step brought him well inside her personal space, mere inches from touching. “More private.”

  She squeaked, turned, and pointed to the door to the left of the office. “In there?”

  “That’ll do.”

  “There” turned out to be the adult room with the X-rated video and DVD boxes. The space was about seven by seven feet with wall-to-wall shelves, each brimming with erotic poses and titles. The titles were often one word different than the titles of Hollywood blockbusters, but their covers made it clear which audience they were gunning for. Kit closed the door carefully once they were both inside the room.

  “Okay, what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked, twisting her hands in front of her. She was in her usual uniform of khaki pants and polo shirt. Her hair was pulled back by combs, and her makeup consisted of only a bit of mascara and lip-gloss. She looked absolutely delectable. Haden had spent some of his saner moments at home pondering his extreme attraction to this girl-next-door, but he’d gotten no closer to an answer. He simply wanted her with every cell of his being.

  Kit tried not to freak at the look on Haden’s face, and the fact that he’d basically stalked her like prey until she was cornered in the adult room. He looked…hungry, demanding, like he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and so damn hot! She tried to stare at anything but him, but then she found herself eyeing the covers on the shelves. The first one her eyes settled on had a big-boobed blonde bent over a naked man’s knees getting spanked. Spanking equaled pain, so Kit never understood why some people found it erotic, like Angelica, but then, maybe she’d need to try it to understand. She imagined Haden yanking her pants to her knees, patting h
is palm on her pale ass in preparation, then giving her a good, hard swat. Eek. That was not helping the state of her body.

  The row of boxes drew Haden’s attention as well, and Kitty couldn’t help but pick up on his imaginings. He took a scene from one of the covers and inserted Kit as one of the two women sucking a man’s cock. Of course, he was the man. The other woman’s face remained hidden, anonymous. That was good. No one that Kitty needed to be jealous of. Could she do it, though? Could she share his cock with another woman like it was a tasty lollipop? Since many of the covers had the theme of woman on woman, it was easy for Kitty to take the scenario to even more forbidden places. What would it be like to stroke a woman’s breast, to taste, to go down on her?

  Geez, how could she think that? She needed to get out of here.

  “Stop backing away from me,” Haden growled.

  “I’m not,” she lied. “I should probably go back to getting the store ready, though, so what was it that you wanted to talk about?”

  “Nothing. Come here so I can kiss you.”

  “Haden, you’ve been gone for three days without a word, and then you just come in here and order me around.” She put her hand on the door handle behind her back. “I’m not that kind of woman.” Was she?

  “I’m not discussing it. I’ve got to kiss you.” He wrapped his big hands around her shoulders and pulled her against him. His lips were a force of nature, firm and spicy, enticing her to take a risk, to go a little further.

  Hell, to go a lot further.

  “How do you do this to me?” she asked when he finally set her lips free to taste her neck. The erotic movie in his head, his always-in-motion hands, and his masculine scent shut down her brain and turned on her hormones. Her blood roared in her ears. She tingled everywhere. She was in a frenzy of arousal with absolutely no control. She wanted him to take her fast and hard on the floor, and she didn’t care if any of her employees came in early and heard them through the walls.

  She’d tried so hard to forget the other night, how he’d slowly built her pleasure, how he’d driven into her from behind while she’d gripped the bed to meet his thrusts. But something that good would live in her memory forever ‑‑ and she wanted more of it.

  “God, Kit, you make me so hard.” He slid his hands down her thighs, then lifted her legs around his hips so she could feel exactly what he was talking about. “You make me crazy.”

  “It’s mutual. And you are so damn strong.” How could he lift her up and down, rubbing her crotch along his shaft, without even breathing hard? But the rubbing, though pleasurable, was not enough. It just made her hotter, wetter, and more insane. “I need you inside me,” she said, shocked at her own statement.

  He set her down on unsteady legs and gripped her shoulders. “Undo your pants.”

  “Back to ordering me around?” She smiled and reached for her snap.

  “It’s not about ordering you around. It’s about saving time and energy. Fewer words, quicker actions.” His stony face broke into a quick grin, but then the only thing on his face was hunger as she lowered her jeans and panties to her ankles, the denim and Lycra whispering against her skin. Cool air currents circled her legs.

  She stepped free of the discarded clothing, closer to Haden. He wrapped one arm around her back, steely and steady. His other hand slid over her hip and down her thigh slowly, then up again even more slowly. She clutched his shirt, smelling detergent and a faint whiff of cologne as his fingers wandered closer and closer to her wet center. They combed through the wispy triangle of hair and crept toward her clit. Then the magic began, dipping and swirling and tapping.

  His waist proved a better stabilizer than his shirt, so she gripped him with both hands and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Sharp exhales through her nose followed. When he pinched her clit just enough to create the most intense pleasure, she opened her mouth and moaned, unable to stifle her response for a second more.

  She looked up into his face, into his sexy eyes. “Please fuck me, Haden, but you have to finish this before it’s time to open the store.”

  He chuckled. “You’re sounding a bit desperate.”

  “We have twenty minutes, and if you leave me this way, I’ll kill you.”

  “Now that’s what I like to hear. Reach into my back pocket.” She did so, praising the Lord for Haden’s forethought when she found a condom packet there. Had he planned this when he woke up this morning? She moaned again when he took his fingers away from her to undo his pants.

  “Wait, sticky.” Kit lifted Haden’s hand to her face and sucked his fingers into her mouth one at a time, tasting her own juices. She saw her actions reflected in Haden’s mind and knew he was blown away by them. So was she actually. When she gave him back his hand, it was shaky. It took him more than one attempt to undo his zipper.

  “On the floor?” she asked.

  “No, I’ll hold you.”

  “Can you do that?” She was not a featherweight.

  That brief grin appeared again. He pushed his pants to his knees, and she admired his rock-solid length, but he wasn’t about show. Action was the name of the game. Kit removed her shoes and kicked her pants from her ankles just before he hefted her to waist-level as if she weighed nothing. His hands cupped her ass, spreading it, creating an odd feeling of exposure as he aligned her pussy with his cock. She couldn’t look away as Haden eased into her, inch by agonizingly slow inch, stretching her, filling her. It was almost like she was watching a close-up in a porno movie, but this was her body taking in his unbelievably hard cock all the way to the hilt.

  Then he drew himself back out again. In and out, slow and steady.

  When Kit finally glanced at Haden’s face, she saw heat and wonder and even admiration. She’d expected to see exertion, but the pleasure had changed into something deeper. She didn’t know what.

  She wrapped her legs tighter around Haden’s hips and wriggled a bit, testing out different rotations for the sensation they made. His hands were gentle cups on her ass, allowing for movement, but guiding her in and out at the pace he set. She felt vulnerable, suspended in the air at the mercy of Haden’s strong arms.

  “Do that again,” he said after one successful motion.

  Kitty lifted her pelvis up and squeezed and lowered it back down, just a small movement, but it garnered another moan of approval from her lover. Ah, she had some power here. Then Haden took control, sliding her away from him, then back again at a faster pace.

  “I cannot believe you’re this strong,” Kit gasped. She closed her eyes and savored, but then Haden pictured lifting a car with his bare hands. Okay, she hoped that was a Superman fantasy and not something he’d really tried to do. But he had to be the strongest man she’d ever met. She gripped his biceps and felt along to his triceps and up to his shoulders. Nothing but wiry muscle, tensing and releasing with each movement. And the long muscle inside her knew when to thrust up on the way in to hit her G-spot, and drag down on the way out to slide along her canal, creating just the right sort of tension.

  “Are you ready for a fast ride?” he asked. She nodded. “Put your hands behind my neck. Hold on.” She did, with her eyes closed and every molecule of her being focused on the friction of their two bodies. He was as stable as a mountain, never wobbling, never loosening his grip, just moving her hips for the steady in and out motion they both needed.

  Sensing her coming orgasm, Kit contracted her muscles tightly around Haden’s cock. His rough breaths, her own gasps and sighs, and the slap of their skin echoed in the small room. She was in the moment, all else had fallen away, except for that delectable friction and the sweet anticipation of release. And when she came, Haden came with her, violently, nearly losing his grip on her. She clung to his neck more tightly as he leaned his palm against the pole running from floor to ceiling in the center of the room.

  For several moments, the only sound in the room was their harsh breathing. Kit didn’t know how she could recover from this. First of all, her thighs ha
dn’t worked this hard even when she’d been gung ho about the ThighMaster. They were going to hurt. She was too wet to put her pants back on, but what else could she do? And what on Earth was Haden going to do with the condom?

  She leaned her forehead against his chest. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty close to the top of my list, too.” He eased her away from him, giving her time to find her feet. He pulled off the condom, then held it out in confusion.

  Kit laughed at his expression. “Here, let me help you with your pants while you’re figuring out where to put that.” Luckily they were still around his ankles. She pulled them up, zipped, and snapped them, then found her own. “I’d recommend the bathroom back there.” She pointed in the direction of her office.

  He nodded. “For the record, I feel much better now.”

  Kit rolled her eyes and chuckled. “I’m here to serve.”

  The thing was, she felt much better too, though her legs felt like jelly. She had less than fifteen minutes to get the store ready to open, but she’d be humming a tune while she did it. Um, after she visited the bathroom and washed up a bit.

  * * * * *

  The moon made me do it.

  If only he could use that excuse for every morning he’d snuck over to the rental store and coaxed Kit into a little sex play. As if by unspoken agreement, they’d not spent the night together again, but getting it on in the pantry, on an office desk, in the adult room, even in the back seat of his Jag ‑‑ those places were safe. No sleeping involved, and Haden consciously kept Leslie and his past out of his mind.