He looked at me, incredulous. “What are you doing?”
I yawned. “Taking a nap.”
“Now?” His arms flexed as he tested his bonds.
“Listen, I can’t personally torture you all night,” I said. “It’s physically and emotionally taxing. I’m tired, so yes, I’m taking a nap. Right now.” Probably going to sleep for the night, actually, so long as he didn’t cry uncle.
“You’re just gonna leave me—”
“Yup.” I closed my eyes. “Here’s the deal: I want information. If you want to give it to me, I’ll let you go. Talk now, and you can go back to your place and sleep in a nice, warm, dry bed. If you don’t, well… enjoy.”
I peered at him from between my lashes, and caught him casting a soft gaze my way.
I settled more deeply into my chair. “How’d you lose it?” I asked him.
“Lose what?”
“Your virginity, of course.”
Ed groaned.
“C’mon, it’s not your big secret. You can tell me…”
Ed hemmed and hawed a bit, and finally said, “Fine, but this one you keep to yourself.”
“Sure,” I agreed sleepily.
“There was this fishing guide. Her name was Hildy—”
I burst out laughing.
When I opened my eyes, Ed was glaring at me. “I see you knew Hildy.”
“I did.” She’d been a husky German woman, strapping, a good six feet tall, and with a face you could light a match on by five o’clock.
“So, Hildy—” Ed ignored my next bout of chuckles “—invited me to go out fishing one day. She’d brought a whole case of good German beer, and—”
“Yet another one of your never-get-drunk-again moments?” I teased.
Ed grimaced. “Actually, I only had one. She was a woman, she had these huge breasts—”
I huffed as huge breasts struck again.
“—and she was interested in me. And the way she held a pole… Well, let’s just say I had wood before we even had bait on the hooks. So we got the lines in the water, and she started in on me, kissing me, rubbing me through my pants… And, yeah, that’s how I lost my virginity.”
My eyes, which had drifted shut, sprang back open. “Wait, you can’t just leave it at that. Details,” I insisted.
“Shit. I thought you’d fallen asleep.” Ed sighed. “So, I might have cum a little prematurely… in my pants. She was very sympathetic, made all the right sounds, and I was hard again within a few minutes—”
“How old were you?”
“Just turned eighteen.”
“Ah.” I smiled.
“She pushed me back on a bench seat, and climbed on top. She had her shirt off, and those huge tits were bouncing, and past them the sky was so damn blue… It was downright idyllic, really.”
I grunted, and when I cracked my eyes open again, Ed was grinning at me as if to say ‘hey, you asked’.
“We were a few minutes into it, and I was starting to feel really good… Naturally, that’s when we got a fish on. She jumped off me so fast it made my head spin. She expertly fought the fish to the boat, hauled it over the side, and thumped it onto the deck next to me. It flopped around, and I got splashed with slime. And I was still hard.
“I asked her if we were done. She shrugged, but she wasn’t paying a lot of attention to me. She was holding the fish down with one hand and groping around for her bonker with the other. Her breasts were still out, and they, too, had been slimed, and I know it’s weird, but the way that they glistened…”
I shuddered.
“Anyway, I wasn’t nearly done, but she seemed really busy with the fish. I told her I hadn’t… ‘you know’. She clubbed the fish on the head, killing it in a single, masterful stroke. And then she sort of… grunted. ‘Well, I did,’ she said. Being the inexperienced teen that I was, I hadn’t even noticed. And that was it.”
“That was it? She didn’t even let you finish? Not even a handy?” I peeked at Ed to see him grinning. That warm look was back in his eyes.
He shook his head. “Nope, I didn’t even get a hand job. We caught a couple more fish, and she took me home.”
“What a witch,” I said.
“Hey. You’re one to talk,” Ed said. He was still achingly hard.
I waved his comment away, then yawned. “You really do have the best embarrassing stories,” I said, letting my eyes close again.
“And now I’ve got one where a woman who could double as Tinkerbell ties me up, spanks me, and then falls asleep,” Ed said.
“Mmmm.”
“What about you?” Ed asked. “How’d you lose yours?”
“Maybe later,” I murmured. Shortly thereafter, I drifted off, my mouth still curved in a little smile.
When I woke up, Ed was gone. The ropes we’d used to bind him lay on the bed, a bouquet of wildflowers propped in their coils.
When I stumbled downstairs, I saw that my dishes were clean.
And when I stepped outside, I saw that Ed had already loaded up the empty propane tanks. He was waiting for me, standing on my dock. Ready to haul freight.
Chapter Eighteen
Oh god. I’d tortured this man last night.
I hesitated even to walk down to the dock to meet him, because he wasn’t tied up now. No, now he was on his feet, with his hands free.
His eyes followed me as I approached. I steeled myself as I walked by…
But he didn’t do anything.
I went to the barge cabin, and looked at him through the window. He was making neat loops with my bow lines, but his eyes were still on me. They were dark. Enigmatic.
Oh my god. My whole body tingled, and my hair practically stood on end.
He started winching up the ramp, turning that handle over, and over, and over. But his eyes. Were still on me.
I fumbled a clipboard. Almost knocked over my captain’s chair. After he let himself in the cab, I tried to throttle forward before actually turning on the engines.
His presence was electric. He was a dark shadow in my periphery, a spicy scent dazzling my senses. A mystery occupying my mind.
I’d had him tied up last night. I’d ridden him to orgasm, but purposely denied him his own. I’d fallen asleep with him still unsatisfied, and had let him get dripped on.
I hadn’t expected his help this morning. But here he was.
And he hadn’t said a damn thing.
I wanted to whimper. My heart raced.
Just standing there, he was making my body buzz. I felt each brush of my clothing against my skin as I would have a lover’s hands. The way my overalls hugged my shoulders and hips. He was making my breasts tingle, and my panties wet, and he hadn’t done anything.
As we got started down the river, I was having very real trouble focusing.
Then, to make matters worse, he gave me another one of those fiery looks—and then reclined his chair and went to sleep. And it wasn’t a fake sleep. It was a real sleep, dammit.
Leaving me to drive, and cast frequent glances at him, and wonder when I’d get my comeuppance.
I was distracted the whole way in to the landing. In the small space of the cab, I could smell him, a woodsy male spice that made me want to pull us over, bury my nose in his neck, and stay there the rest of my life.
I couldn’t tell where my excitement ended, and the vibration of the engines began. They both thrummed in my very bones.
When we finally pulled in, we worked together in silence to load the boat. I occasionally met his gaze, and my cheeks wouldn’t stop burning. By the end of the morning, the boat was full, but it was the sloppiest loading job I’d ever done—probably would have given my dad apoplexy. If we’d gotten exactly what we were supposed to, or all of it, or paid the right amount, I couldn’t have said. Ed was filling my brain, and there wasn’t room for anything else.
When I got back in the cab, I opened a window, knowing I couldn’t tolerate another two hours of being shut in with his intoxicating scent. St
ill, it seemed way too warm in that small space, so I tossed my float coat in the corner.
When Ed got back to the cabin, he didn’t sit down. He stood next to the door. And instead of looking out the forward window, he was looking at me.
As I pulled us away from the landing, I didn’t dare look back at him. His regard felt like a physical touch, sparking across my nerve endings. He was just standing there, looking at me, and he was making me drip.
I bit my lip, and kept my eyes forward. I needed to drive. I needed to get us back up the river, and I needed to do it without hitting anything. And once there, I needed to go to the appropriate places, to offload the appropriate cargo, and… and…
What is he doing?
He was dropping to his knees, that’s what. To my utter surprise, he started untying my boots.
I didn’t speak—I couldn’t. He didn’t speak either, and so he just knelt and untied my boot laces, and in the silence afforded us by the roar of the engine, I let him. He grasped my lower leg, lifted slightly, and slipped off my boot.
Then he went to work on the other. I had no idea what he was doing, taking off my boots at ten in the morning, in the cabin of my barge.
But I had an inkling. I chewed my lip till it was tender, sucked it till it was pink, and pressed my thighs together, ridiculously turned on by Ed handling my feet.
He took off the other boot, and then made a spot for himself between me and my console. Still on his knees. He reached up past my chest, sliding his hands over my breasts—and the whole boat yawed as I jerked.
I got it straightened out as he fingered the shoulder straps of my overalls. “Ed, we can’t,” I said breathlessly, even as everything inside me said we damn sure could.
He twisted and slid one brass tab through, then the other. He wrapped his arms around me, hooked his fingers in the straps behind my back, and pulled them away. My overalls began slithering downward in a slow motion that only stiff canvas could manage. They caught on my hips.
I knew we shouldn’t be doing this. I was a professional, and we were out on the river, and it was dangerous, and I needed to concentrate…
He pulled the front flap down, and tugged my shirt up, and as he began unbuttoning either hip, he kissed the soft skin of my belly.
I just about jumped out of my skin. His warm hand slid to the small of my back as I jerked.
“Ed,” I moaned. I wanted to take a hand away from my controls, to hold him against me, but I also didn’t want to die. So I kept them in place, clutching the steering wheel.
He rubbed his lips back and forth, tickling me with his beard. I felt the cool air on either hip as the buttons on my pants came undone. He started pushing them downward.
“Ed, I have to drive.” I was panting, my vision growing hazy with lust.
He slid his hands into my panties, cupped my ass, and then tugged the lacy fabric down along with the overalls. The cool breeze increased as my pale butt was bared, as his big, warm hands slid down my thighs, pushing the material before it.
Oh, God… My whole body swayed. Toward him, then away. My legs were like Jello, and my heart thumped like mad.
“Someone will see.” My protest sounded weak even to my own ears. I was finding it harder and harder to keep my hands in the upright and locked position. Would it be so bad to take one hand off the wheel? I could do that, just for a little while. Just long enough to feel the heavy silk of his hair…
As I laboriously fought the devil on my shoulder, he did something that nearly made me explode. Something hot and wet—that had to be his tongue—traced along the upper edge of my pubic hair. It flicked against my skin, accompanied by the wash of his breath.
The feel of his beard tickling my upper thighs was driving me out of my mind.
I blinked, realizing I hadn’t seen a damn thing in the last couple seconds. I eased back on the throttle, slowing us down. If we came up on a log like a herd of buffalo, it could damage the boat. It could fry an engine. It could—
He had my pants down around my ankles. And my panties.
A cool breeze sifted through the cabin, through the tiny cracks around the door, the holes for the wiring, and that open window. I shivered, finding the contrast between the cool air and my overheated flesh to be delicious. Delightful.
I risked a glance downward at Ed’s dark head, bent by my thigh.
He was delightful. He was making my toes curl.
He helped my feet out of my pants, and then those worker’s hands slid back up my legs. The heat of them was like a brand, the feel lingering as they moved ever upward.
I shuddered, becoming aware again of his breath. He had me half-naked, in the cabin of my barge, as we roared up the river. I was so wet, my inner thighs were smeared with my juices. I was sure, at that range, he could smell my excitement.
He tugged me forward until I was standing between his bent knees. Then he gripped my hips, holding me still. His eyes flicked up to mine, catching me watching him. Those eyes smiled. Smoldered.
I knew I’d remember this, always. The man did something to me, something strange and deep and wondrous. I’d never felt this way about someone before, never had someone become so dear to me so quickly.
And I wanted, so very badly, to see what that someone could do with his tongue.
He started with little kisses, just the barest nuzzles. They moved slowly downward, making me desperate with excitement.
I knew I wasn’t paying attention. As he approached my most sensitive spot, I frantically tried to figure out what I should do. Pull us up along the shore? Cut the power?
He stole all my options as his tongue made its first foray.
“Ed!” I gasped, quivering in his hold.
He licked me again, and again, and again, delving farther and farther toward my center, sliding between my pussy lips, rubbing over the nubbin of my clit, tasting me. I knew the moment he found out just exactly how wet I was. He made this sound—this growly groan that had my hips slamming forward.
Then he hauled one of my legs up over his shoulder, and he ate me up.
Ed was the opposite of prissy and hesitant. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he was doing it as if he loved it. He made more appreciative sounds than he had with his dick in my mouth. He plunged his tongue into me over, and over, and frickin’ over again.
Pleasure pummeled me. I forgot to breathe, and my vision grew hazy. I was unbearably hot underneath my shirt, and had no idea where I was, or what I was doing.
He didn’t just plunge or lick. He fluttered and lapped, he sucked at my labia, at my clit. My hips rocked hard against his face when he did that, and I lost the battle with my hands.
I grabbed him by the hair, and ground against his face. This wasn’t nice Ed. This was wild, nasty, wonderful Ed, and I rode him accordingly.
I threw back my head with a cry as my whole body lit up like Christmas.
Ed gripped my butt even tighter, and licked me through the fastest, hardest orgasm I’d ever had. He practically lifted me off my feet with his passion. I writhed in his hold, alternately cussing and laughing, yanking at his hair. I couldn’t possibly, it was too much—
But he was doing it, pushing me straight through to another. He was holding me up, holding me in place, and giving me more pleasure than I’d ever imagined.
I closed my eyes, and let it take me.
That’s when the whole barge slogged down. It wasn’t a jarring slam-stop, but it was fast enough to throw us both forward against the console.
I cut the power to the engines almost instantly. “Oh shit,” I panted. “Shit, shit.” Looking out the front, all I could see was water. So we hadn’t hit the shore, or a log, or another boat. But—I peered closer—that water looked suspicious. The evenness of the ripples, the way they peaked instead of boiled.
I looked down at Ed. He still had his hands on me, steadying me. But I’d fallen against him, practically on top of him. “You okay?” I asked.
Rubbing the back of his head, he nod
ded.
I dragged my overalls back on, buttoned the sides, shoved my feet into my boots, and vaulted out of the cabin without bothering to fasten my shoulder straps. I picked up my long depth-finding pole and, crossing my fingers, I plunged it into the water.
Thump. It hit something firm just an inch or two below where I estimated the bottom of my boat to be.
Shit. I pushed it in again farther toward the bow, and got the same result. And, I realized, the barge wasn’t moving, not even to swing in the current.
It was starting to rain. The drops wetted my hair, the back of my neck, my shoulders.
“What’s going on?” Ed asked from behind me.
“We ran aground,” I said. “I managed to park us on a shallow sandbar.” Brushing past him, I swung up on the gunwale and edged along to the back of the boat. Next to where the props disappeared into the water, I pushed the pole in again. It hit bottom only an inch or two deeper. I grimaced.
The hydraulics whined as I nudged the props upward, until they wouldn’t be grinding in the sand. Then I came back around, set aside my pole, and ducked back into the cabin.
I put the boat in full reverse, and gunned it. The engines roared, and silty water boiled and frothed.
We didn’t move.
I steered back and forth, trying to wiggle us free. Without having to be asked, Ed grabbed my long pole, stuck it into the water up front, and put his back into shoving us backward.
Nothing worked. We were stuck. In the middle of the fricking river. In a barge. Loaded clear-full.
Because I’d driven distracted. Because Ed had been eating me out. Because I’d had an awesome fucking orgasm.
“Fuck,” I said quietly, and reduced the engines back down to idle.
Chapter Nineteen
It was starting to rain harder, so I threw on my raincoat as I stepped back out of the cabin. I checked the tarps, making sure everything was covered. The load hadn’t shifted much, as our grounding onto flat sand had been a relatively soft one.
“What’s the plan?” Ed asked.
I looked up at him, finding his eyes a bright spot in a gray world. The sky was gray, the tarps were gray, the river was gray, even the damn aluminum of my boat was gray. But his eyes were a swirl of rich color, the deep browns of which were making me crave dark chocolate. My stomach grumbled, suddenly hungry.
Two Captains, One Chair: An Alaskan Romantic Comedy Page 22
