by Linda Barlow
She looked confused. “Drugs, you mean?”
“No, not drugs, although I wouldn't be surprised. Risky sexual stuff. Not just breath play but all sorts of other edge play.”
She frowned.
“C'mon, you're tight with sex workers. You've never heard of edge play?”
“Enlighten me.”
“The chick was a leather dominatrix who liked cutting, heavy whipping that leaves nasty bruises, suspension, electric shock, water-boarding, and other sorts of intense sadomasochism. Torture scenarios. One of her things was to make Hadley bleed from a lot of small, shallow cuts while she strangled her slowly with a rope. Assuming you don't kill your partner in the process, this supposedly induces a wicked orgasm.”
Rory actually whitened, which had never happened before as far as I could remember. Usually she blushed. “That does sound pretty far out on the edge.”
“Hadley was fearless. She wanted to try everything, no matter how dangerous. A real adrenaline junky.”
“What about the guy? You said there was another dude, too?”
“Yeah some local Dom. I’m not sure who he was…she didn't share his name. Just that he was very experienced with the rougher stuff. The stuff I was reluctant to try.”
“So she wanted to be abused?”
I shrugged. I had never fully understood, but Hadley had needed to punish herself. Or rather, she needed someone to punish her. She'd never spelled it out for me, but I was pretty sure something bad had happened to her. Or maybe to someone she knew? She’d hinted a couple of times that she felt guilty over something she'd done. That she submitted to what amounted to consensual torture because she believed she deserved it.
I’d thought sometimes that whatever had happened to her last year might have been inevitable. It wasn’t that I believed she wanted to die. But I did believe she wanted to suffer.
“Is that where she was going on the night she disappeared?” Rory asked. “To see these edge play people? What if she died accidentally and they got rid of her body?”
“They had already done the scene earlier in the week. I'd seen cuts and bruises on her.”
“Maybe she went back for more.”
“She claimed she wasn't going to that person again. But, as I said, there were others. Most are safe and trustworthy, but you get some weirdoes hanging on the outskirts of any non-traditional lifestyle. Hadley thought nothing could hurt her, and that she would live forever. She didn't see the world as a dangerous place.”
“I see from the reports that the cops interviewed some sadomasochist types. I was wondering about that.”
“Yup. They took every opportunity to throw their knowledge of her preferences in my face. I kept explaining that we weren't exclusive. They didn't like that. And of course they accused me of being a sadomasochist, too.”
“Are you?”
I shrugged. “I guess, but not to the same extent. Vanilla gets boring, but I like being able to breathe during sex.”
“Me too,” she said with a shudder. “I totally understand bondage. That could be hot. But cutting and strangling, no way.”
There was an odd little silence after this. She didn't act as if she was holding my earlier heavy-handedness against me, but as usual, I was having trouble reading her signals. “What do you want from me, Rory?”
She twisted in the doorway, one arm pulling at the sweatshirt so it stretched down one leg and rode up the other. I don't think she knew she was doing it. She was so awkward. But I thought it was adorable.
She moved several more steps into the bedroom. The girl might have a genius IQ, but there were some things she's not so smart about. Damned if she didn't come right up to the bed and put her arms around me.
I turned stiff as a slab of sheetrock and tried to shove her away. She bounced right back, doing her puppy dog routine. I half expected her to give me her paw. “It's just a hug, Griff. No need to get weird.”
“I don't hug,” I told her, grabbing her by the upper arms and jerking her down beside me. She sprawled on the mattress and started to laugh. “I've told you before—I'm not a nice guy.”
“Agreed. You're an asshole.”
Dammit, I wanted to wipe that smirk off her face. “Don't touch me unless you wanna fuck me.”
Her smirk died, but a spark of mischief gleamed in her eyes. She laid a hand on my chest and pressed hard, moving her fingers to explore my pecs. My breath caught in my throat and my dick jerked.
“Who says I don't?”
Well, damn, that was all it took.
“Prove it,” I said.
Chapter 14
Griff
I thought she looked uncertain for a moment. But her hand continued its exploration of my chest. She was so close now, I could practically hear her heartbeat. She was warm and sultry with that pliant expression girls get when they're slipping into hormone overload.
I put my hands on her, gripping her head between my two palms. Her hair was so soft and fragrant. She must have showered recently because it was still damp. I think she flinched when my hands first closed on her, but when I didn't slide them down to her throat, she relaxed.
“Are you sure, Rory? 'Cause I’m never winning any awards for being gentle in bed.”
She tilted her head back so she could look up at me. “I don't crave gentle,” she said, making me wonder what she did crave. “Just...you have condoms, right? Because I'm not on the pill and I sure as hell don't wanna have your dumbass kid.”
This made me laugh. Have a kid with Rory? I wondered if it would be super-smart and funny like she was.
I ripped open the drawer in my bedside table and scattered a few condom packages on the bed. Then I picked her up and laid her down in the middle of the mattress. I let her watch me as I stripped. T-shirt up and over my head. I had put my pants back on after I'd left her in the living room. I pulled my leather belt out of its loops and laid it over the headboard. Let her think about that a bit.
She looked apprehensive. Good. I loved getting a reaction out of her. She tried to be so cool, so unflappable. But her blushes revealed her true state of mind.
She didn't hesitate, though. She helped me slide the pants off, pulling impatiently as I struggled to free myself. Once I was naked, she dove between my legs, found my straining cock and took it gently between her hands. She explored, first with her fingers, and then with her lips.
Her mouth opened and she took me in, slowly, tentatively. Her tongue flicked along my shaft. It felt fantastic. She sucked as I withdrew, and I think she flinched as I slammed back into her, hard. I'd probably made her gag, but she covered it well. I got the sense that she wasn't very experienced with this. I'm not sure why, but I liked that idea.
As we continued, she seemed to get the hang of it. She lowered one hand to my balls and started to stroke. My cock throbbed, jerked forward and started twitching. I caught my breath, thinking, shit, I'm gonna come, but the situation wasn't quite that desperate. The pleasure felt extreme, much more than usual, like a hit of cocaine.
Shit. I could get addicted to this.
“Does that feel okay?” she asked, the next time I withdrew.
“It feels great. Don't stop.”
“'Cause, I'm not, like, an expert or anything.”
“Whoa...there's something you're not good at? I'm shocked. Shocked.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Shocked, shocked? That line’s from Casablanca. And you pretended you didn't like the movie.”
I pulled her hair to make her slide up on me. “God, you’re such a brat.”
She giggled and cuddled into my side, laying her head on my shoulder. “I know. I'm insufferable. You should get a humanitarian award for putting up with me.”
I'd had a scary thought. “This isn't gonna be your first time, is it?”
“I auctioned off my virginity, remember?”
“You don't seriously think I believed that?”
She laughed. “I thought it was a pretty good story.”
I snorted. “It's about
time I spanked you for your lies.” I heaved her over my thighs, pushed the sweatshirt up over her ass, and gave her the swat I'd been wanting to give her all evening. She wriggled a little and moaned. I gave her a couple more. Harder. Her ass bounced nicely under my palm.
“Tell me the truth. You're not a virgin, right?”
She rolled over so she could see my face and squinted up at me. “The truth is, no. Not a virgin. But I've only had sex a few times, most of which sucked.”
Great. Did that mean I had to be considerate and sensitive? Really not my style.
“First time was in high school, just to get rid of the virginity stigma. The boy wasn't experienced, either. We both fumbled around. It was embarrassing. I didn't even want to see him again afterwards.”
“The first time for guys isn't too great, either. We don't know what we're doing, but we try to pretend we do.”
“Yeah. It's fucked up. People shouldn't have sex until they're older or they've watched a lot of porn.”
Again she had made me laugh. But it was sad if most of her knowledge of sex had come from watching porn. “And the other times?”
“Better, but still not very good. College boy sex. A step up from high school boy sex, but nowhere near as good as vibrator sex.”
“So I have to compete with vibrators and porn flicks?” Inexplicably I found myself laughing, too. Damn, I hadn't laughed so much in months.
But I was also stroking her, and I could feel her desire rising. I moved my hand between her legs. She was already sopping wet down there.
“I want to have Griff sex,” she said. “However you like it. Well. Except for the strangling thing.”
“No strangling thing, I promise.” I gently lifted the sweatshirt over her head and helped her slide her arms out of the sleeves. She had nothing on underneath. It was the first time I'd seen her breasts, which were more generous than I had expected. She had a nice body, and her skin was silky smooth. I liked the way she felt, and when I kissed her lips, I liked the way she tasted.
She caressed me with more confidence, then she moved down and carefully drew me into her mouth again. Fuck, it felt good. I could feel my loins tighten, and I wanted to ram it right down her throat, if she could handle me. But I doubted her prostitute friends had taught her the fine points of deep throating.
The sensations kept building, punching me in the vitals and sending waves of pleasure radiating along my nerves. Her mouth was warm and soft and her tongue hard and clever. She found the rim and the crazy sensitive spot just under it. I groaned. I'd be howling soon at this rate.
I grabbed her hair and lifted her away from my cock, not as gently as I ought to have done. She let out a yelp of pain from having her hair pulled, and I murmured a gruff apology. I didn't let her go, though.
“Slide up,” I ordered, pulling her over onto her back. “Get those legs apart, babe. I want you open for me.”
She gave a little moan at my words. I kissed her, then slid down to nuzzle her breasts. I savored her taste, her scent. I nipped the peaks of her breasts and soothed them with my tongue while she bucked beneath me. My balls were aching with the need to release, but I wanted to stretch this out for as long as I could.
She kept trying to grab my penis and guide me to her, but no fucking missionary position for me. I flipped her over.
“Kneel,” I ordered. “Head down on the pillow.”
She scrambled to obey. Her ass was sticking up, and a luscious ass it was. “Legs apart,” I said, giving her a slap on her butt cheeks for forgetting. “Wide apart and keep 'em that way.”
She obeyed. It was a tricky position to maintain, but she did her best. She was breathing frantically and churning her hips, so I knew she was into it. I reached between her legs and felt her wetness all over my fingers, hot and slippery.
I explored her outer and inner lips, touching her lightly, moving ever so slowly forward toward her clit. I brushed it softly, elusively. She gasped. Her hips thrust back toward my fingers as I skated them away. Oh yes. I intended to tease her thoroughly.
She kept trying to angle her clit under my fingers, and I kept approaching and backing off. Without warning, I thrust two fingers inside her, and she cried out and writhed against me. Fuck. She was slick and smooth inside. Hot.
I knew she was ready, but I loved keeping her right on the edge. I love seeing my lovers open and hungry for my dick. I love it when they want it so badly that they can't bear it if I stop.
So I did stop. It was only to grab a condom package and rip it open, rolling it onto my throbbing dick, feeling it stretch to take me. Rory moaned and whispered, “Please, Griff. I'm almost there.”
I slapped her ass again, harder than before. “You'll go there when I say so, and not before.”
“Oh my God,” she moaned.
“Come too soon and I'll have to discipline you.”
The soft excited cry she gave when I said that pushed me over the edge. I couldn't wait any longer. I went up on my knees and covered her, spreading her even wider, guiding myself to her slick opening from behind. She pressed back against me, her hips weaving and churning, just as desperate to be filled as I was to pierce her.
I drove in hard. God, she was so tight. Her pussy gripped me as her muscles clenched around my shaft. I wanted to fill her completely, ravage her, own her. I wanted to make her mine. Hear her scream my name.
I tried to keep it slow and smooth, but I was so needy that I was soon slamming into her, barely in control of my body. I grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back, then I nipped on the back of her shoulder.
I tugged on one of her nipples, pinching harder and harder as we both rode the thrusts. She cried out with pain or pleasure or both and I tried to be gentler. This wasn’t super-masochist Hadley. This was a much sweeter, gentler girl.
I found her bud again and brushed my thumb against it. It was hard now, erect and flaring. I kept the stimulation rhythmic and steady as I drove in even more deeply. Her hips slammed back against me with equal pressure as if she were going a little wild.
“Now,” I breathed in her ear while rapidly fingering her clit. “Come now, Rory.”
It took her a few more seconds to obey, but she did. She keened and went rigid, and then I could feel her pussy muscles go into spasm. My dick loved the way the walls of her vagina clamped down even harder on me. I felt hyper-aware of every feeling, every motion, every sharp burst of pleasure as my own climax took me.
She snuggled up to me afterwards. Hadley never used to do that. Usually, she would just get up and leave. But Rory fell asleep with her head on my shoulder, and I let her stay like that, even after my arm started to go numb.
Chapter 15
Griff
The next morning was Saturday, so I didn't have to go to work. I awakened to the delicious smell of coffee. I must have been having some sort of erotic dream because my cock was so hard it actually hurt. I could smell Rory's scent on the sheets and the pillows.
I staggered naked into the bathroom to piss, then into the kitchen for coffee. Rory was at the computer, of course. She lived there.
“Good morning,” she said, sounding all chirpy.
“Is there something you don't understand about the words 'get the fuck out of my place'?”
Her face fell about ten stories. I gave her a good hard glare, then allowed my mouth to relax into a grin. “Gotcha.”
She leapt up from the comfy chair and rushed over to pummel me with her fists, laughing. She grabbed me, flung her arms around me and nestled close. “I thought you didn't want me,” she whispered into the hollow of my throat. I put her hand on my cock so she could see how inaccurate that supposition was.
I detached her with warnings of hot coffee spills, and ordered her back to bed. She raised no objections.
We stayed there most of the day. At one point she slowly traced my entire body with her hands and eyes, seeming so concentrated on what she was doing that I finally asked her about it.
“I'm
memorizing you.”
“Why? I'm right here.”
“I know, but I want to keep you in my mind. You know, for later.”
For later when she was no longer with me. “I wish we could actually do that,” I said, thinking of Hadley. And Sean. “Memorize someone and keep them with us that way.”
She smiled. “I sorta can. I don't know if it'll last forever, though.” She looked sad.
I wasn't sure what she meant, so I asked, “Do you really have a photographic memory?”
She nodded. “It's a freakish thing. People think it would be cool to remember everything, but believe me, it's not.”
I wasn't sure if she meant she could literally remember everything.
“They still don't understand it, you know. Neurologists, psychologists. Some of them say it doesn't exist. But I did real well in most subjects because all I had to do was read a book and I could see the whole thing in my mind. The words, the pictures, everything. I can even flip the pages. It's like my brain indexes everything and I can pull up any page whenever I want. Sometimes it's creepy. I mean, there's stuff you read that you might not want to remember.”
I tried to get my head around this. “You mean that anything you see, any experience you have is held permanently in your memory?”
“Not exactly. I have to concentrate. Totally focus. But once it's in there, I can almost always recall it. If I don't concentrate, it's more like regular memory, I guess. Although I do remember a lot of shit. It's called eidetic memory. I'm not really all that brilliant, you see. I just have a remarkable memory.”
“You said you had an IQ of 204.”
“That was true, but who knows how accurate those tests are. I test well. My brain works fast and I can analyze stuff. See patterns. But it might be because I'm young. I don't know how long it'll last. In fact, I think I'm not as good at remembering things now as I was a few years ago.” In one of her abrupt mood changes, she smiled at me, the teasing light coming into her eyes. “When I'm as ancient as you, I probably won't remember shit.”
