Chase laughed against her mouth and sank down onto a bright blue tarp that had probably been laid out on the floor of the shed for just this purpose. Her eyes were drawn to his cock, swollen and dark against his chiseled stomach.
She straddled him, teasing her cunt back and forth down the length of shaft. When he moved his hands up to guide her hips, Anne grabbed his wrists and pushed them above his head.
“Don’t touch. It’s my turn.”
With his great strength, he could have easily broken her hold and freed her hands. He could have grabbed her hips and she’d have followed his lead and probably come again. Chase played her body so well.
But he didn’t do any of those things. He surrendered to her, put himself into her keeping.
Anne worked her way down his body, trailing her lips over rippling muscle and smooth, hot skin. When her breath fanned over the crown of his cock, his hips bucked, bringing his shaft to her mouth.
Her tongue darted out across the velvety tip, tasting where she’d rubbed herself on him and the pearly fluid of his pre-cum. When she closed her mouth over him and took his cock deep into her mouth, his whole body tensed and strained to push farther.
She loved that she had this power over him too, that for all the control she felt she’d surrendered to him, he’d done the same for her. Anne wrapped her hand around his shaft and continued to lick and suck at his engorged flesh, her cunt aching as she did, readying her to be fucked yet again.
Anne performed every swipe of her tongue with relish, every motion of her hand up and down his thick shaft a gift.
“Let me touch you,” he rasped.
“No. I can’t think when you do. This is about what I can do to you now, Chase.” Anne had to get some control back. She already felt like a puppet, with him jerking the strings.
“It’s always about what you do to me. Watching you come, tasting it, feeling your cunt clenching around my cock while you scream my name…there’s nothing better.”
She shivered as his words washed over her. “Be quiet or I’ll gag you. I’m in control here,” Anne said, more to reassure herself than actually instruct him.
“Do you want to tie me up?”
“I said, be quiet.” Anne knew the only way to make him stop talking and to finish what she’d started was to put something in his mouth. So she crawled off his body and then moved to straddle him so that her knees were braced outside his shoulders, and she could continue teasing his cock while he licked her to another orgasm.
Anne took her time, licking him, tasting him. She sucked his cock deep into her mouth and worked up and down his shaft, bringing him ever closer to completion. When his cock surged against her tongue, she withdrew before he came and began teasing him all over again.
He returned the caresses, the teasing licks, his tongue alternately thrusting into her cunt and whipping over her clit. She didn’t want to finish this way. She wanted his cock inside her.
Anne drew her long leg from across his shoulders and then straddled his hips. She eased down onto his cock, her channel slick and ready for him. She loved this position, how full she felt, how deep he was inside her.
A low sound tore from him and his hands wouldn’t be denied any longer. His fingers dug into her hips as she rocked against him. It felt damn good, but for the concrete beneath her knees.
Chase seemed to know. He pushed up until he was sitting upright and wound his arms around her, putting his thighs between her and the concrete. He bucked his hips, pushing into her, matching her rhythm.
She took his mouth with the same possession and intensity as he’d done to her and when she broke the kiss, hips still grinding down to meet his thrusts, he murmured, “I love your kiss.”
And I love you, Chase Donovan.
God, why had she done this to herself? Things were better when that damn declaration wasn’t on the tip of her tongue. It made everything so bittersweet.
She clenched around his cock, squeezing and releasing, drawing them both closer to orgasm, and this time she was ready for him to come. Otherwise her mouth was going to betray her, and she knew Chase. After she’d uttered those words, things would never be right between them again.
“And the way you feel,” he murmured against her mouth as he slipped a hand between them to work her clit with his thumb, “when you’re about to come and your pussy is so tight and hot.”
“Stop trying to make me come first,” she growled in frustration, even though she felt as though she was going shatter around him.
He nipped at her bottom lip, still thrusting up, hard and sure. “I’m not competing with you, Annie. I just want it to be as good as your fantasy.”
She kissed him again, something to keep her traitorous mouth busy so she didn’t tell him everything she was feeling. Anne concentrated on the physicality of their intimacy. The friction of his cock in her cunt, the rhythm of their bodies moving together, the taste of his mouth, the strength of his body moving beneath hers.
He increased the speed and pressure of his thumb while his cock surged and he came in a hot jet. Even as he orgasmed, he didn’t stop manipulating her swollen bud. Anne tensed and shuddered when she finally came for his expert fingers then collapsed, boneless and weak against him.
Chase held her for a long while and she buried her face in his neck.
“I need to tell you something,” Chase began slowly, but then was silent for what seemed like forever.
“Only if you want to.” Anne decided if it had taken him that long to say whatever it was, it must be something horrible. Fear knotted her gut.
“Nothing happened with Gin.”
She reared back. “I call bullshit. She’s been after you forever and—”
“She said you were in love with me.”
Anne might as well have been hit with a stun gun for all the good her mouth did her. She couldn’t form words for a reply. All she could do was fall into his eyes and pray something would catch her before she crashed and burned.
Until she blurted, “I kissed Seth.”
“I know.” Chase pushed a lock of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “You told me.”
“I thought you and Gin…”
“I know that too.”
“You don’t seem to care that I kissed him.”
“I’d rather you didn’t kiss him, but I know he’s not me. He can’t do for you what I can.”
“And what’s that?” Anne asked, hating the breathy sound to her voice. Her words sounded like some desperate plea for a declaration.
“Didn’t I just demonstrate?” He kissed her forehead.
“Yeah, you did,” she said quietly. “I’m really tired. I’m ready to go home.”
She was ready to be home only so she could escape to her room and figure out just how to extract herself from the pile of shit she’d stepped in by falling in love with a man who wasn’t in love with her.
Chapter Ten
On the way home, Anne had been quiet and Chase hadn’t pushed her. She’d gone straight to her room and slipped beneath her blankets. Her body thrummed with a contented soreness but her mind was another matter entirely.
Anne knew things couldn’t continue this way, and she resolved to tell Chase the next day that no matter how good the sex was, it had to stop. For the sake of their friendship.
And her sanity.
She’d finally fallen asleep in self-defense to get her brain to shut up and was surprised when she’d awakened with the urge to paint, but she knew better than to ignore her muse. She dragged herself and materials out into the living room as quietly as she could.
Anne had always loved this house because of the way it catered to her artist’s eye, the way the morning light shone through the window in the living room. It was like shards of diamonds, frosting everything it touched with glitter. As the light danced across her, she almost imagined it was fairies kissing her fingers and blessing her work. It stirred her muse and made her tingle with expectation.
&nb
sp; It had been a long time since she’d painted. She’d been using her Mac to channel her creativity instead of a brush. But she missed the smells of the paint, feeling the wood of the brush between her fingers and the stark, bright beauty of an untouched canvas. She’d been finalizing her portfolio to submit to Hallmark. Technically it was a day job, but it could launch her career the same as it had done for Thomas Kinkade. They weren’t exactly hiring, although they were always looking for new talent.
Her professor had told her it was a waste of her time, that paper cards were going the way of the dodo the same as paper books. Anne thought he was full of shit. Sure, the market was changing and she designed covers for e-books, but it was simply another form of art.
Anne had been beyond thrilled when Marco Delonzi had visited her design class. He’d been doing book covers since the eighties and he had the original paintings of some of the covers from her favorite books. Marco had encouraged her and even helped her get her portfolio together. She just had a few tweaks left before submission.
While she was excited for that, those paintings and designs were already done. There was newness crackling around her hands like lightning and she had to get it on canvas. Chase had put her easel in the corner and there were canvasses of varying sizes stacked against it. The easel had been the first thing she’d brought over when they’d decided she was going to move in. Though she hadn’t used it in a while, it seemed important for it to be here. Chase had thought so too.
Ugh! Anne wished he wasn’t her last thought for the night and first thought of the morning. She had to stop thinking about him.
She spread the drop cloth and set up the easel and chose a canvas. Anne let her hands travel over each one with her eyes closed before she decided. She’d paused over the largest one and laughed at herself. Anne was the kind of girl to jump in with both feet first. There was nothing like diving back into the deep sea with her muse and all that virgin white space to fill.
Anne had no idea what it was going to be, but there would be lots of bright color. She’d minored in Art History and had read accounts of sculptors who oftentimes said they were simply releasing the images already trapped in the stone when they were sculpting. They didn’t choose the shapes the stones would take beneath their chisels, they were already there, waiting to be set free. Maybe that’s what she was doing with the canvas. Anne wasn’t choosing the image, only setting it free.
Then it came to her, the image fully formed like Athena from Zeus’ skull.
The dawn. An homage to the beginning of all things.
Sharp images flashed through her brain like photographs, blendings of colors and contrasts like The Great Nebula in Orion. But she couldn’t begin with all that white. Births and beginnings often came from the dark. The endless pitch of space, the cruel veil of the night or the silent darkness of the womb. She needed black. A black matte for the backdrop of the birth of a new dawn, a new world and new universe.
A loud knock sounded on the door but Anne didn’t stop to see who it was. If it was someone she knew, they’d come in anyway. She was working. Even though she was just blackening the canvas and she’d have to stop to allow it to cure for several hours, Anne didn’t want to interrupt the flow.
“Hey, girly. You’re working!” Gin said as she galloped into the living room.
“Yep,” Anne replied as she made another bold stroke of black.
“Um, are you depressed?” Gin cocked her head to the side.
“Why?”
“It’s just so…black. You must be really pissed at me for the closet thing.” Gin never had been one to tiptoe around something she wanted to say.
“No. You asked me if it was okay.” Anne stroked the brush down the canvas.
“Yeah, I did. But if I’d been a good friend, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“You’re only apologizing because you didn’t like that I went into the closet with Seth and you don’t want me to do it again.”
“Will you get off that?” Gin scowled. Then her face softened. “Fine. You got me. I didn’t like it at all.”
Anne smiled. “I’m sorry too.” Then she scowled as well. “Heartily.”
“Why? Was it like some religious experience or something?”
“Yeah. Kind of,” Anne admitted.
“Shut the fuck up.” She laughed. “Wait, really?”
“But I’m not ready to talk about it.” At the look on Gin’s face, she rushed on. “It doesn’t have to do with Seth. It’s Chase.”
Gin hugged her. “Okay. Then I won’t tell you what kissing him was like.”
“You slut,” Anne teased. “I already know what it’s like.”
“But you don’t. Not from my standpoint. I thought it would be panty-drenching.”
“Wasn’t it?” Anne paused in her strokes and thought about how very drenched she was every time he got near her.
“I have a confession. Nothing happened with Chase. I just wanted to make you admit your feelings for him. I know you’re head over ass for him. You need to acknowledge that, even if it’s just to yourself. You’re so damn stubborn! I thought for sure you’d tell me no. I couldn’t believe it when I was actually in the stupid closet with him. And worse? I was wishing I was in there with Seth.”
“You could have just said that rather than—”
“Look, you know yourself. Are you telling me anything short of drastic would have worked?”
“Gin, I already know I’m in love with him. But it’s pointless. He doesn’t love me. Not like that.”
“Yes. He does.”
“So, you wanted to be in the closet with Seth? You’ve finally admitted it?” Anne deflected.
“You’re lucky I want to talk about this, otherwise this whole let’s-switch-subjects-because-I’m-uncomfortable thing wouldn’t be working for you. You know that site you showed me?” Gin began softly.
“Yes?” Anne grinned in spite of herself. It occurred to her that she shouldn’t be so amused. Gin was probably jilling off to Chase just as Anne herself had been, but she knew she couldn’t let that bother her. There were probably tons of girls doing that to Chase. Whether she wanted to or not, she found the idea hot, all those women rubbing off to the guy she was fucking.
“Did you know it has a chat feature?” Gin asked, her tone sounding as if she’d just discovered gold.
“I did,” Anne acknowledged and smoothed the brush over the canvas again.
“Have you used it?”
“No, I was too busy thinking about Chase.”
“I don’t feel like I can eye-hump him now. I wanted to. But it seemed wrong somehow, since I know you’re all…together.”
“Gin, I don’t care. Honestly.” Making out with him was in the hell-no category. But jilling off to him? Anne truly didn’t care if Gin rubbed her bean raw watching Chase. A thousand other women were doing it, so what was one more?
“He doesn’t do the chat, does he?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Was he working last night?”
“No.”
“Thank God.”
“What happened? Are you going to tell me or make me play twenty questions?” Anne demanded with a grin.
“The things this guy said to me, Anne. Oh. My. God.”
Anne was suddenly reminded of something she’d said to Chase about the way he spoke. But no, it couldn’t have been Chase…could it?
“Do you know who else works on the site? I have to… I don’t know.”
“The man is oftentimes different than the fantasy. You have to know that.”
“I do.”
“I know Seth and Justin both work for the site. I don’t know if there’s anyone else or not.” Anne shrugged.
“Seth?” she squeaked.
“Uh-huh,” Anne confirmed, a bit distracted as she covered the last bit of white on the canvas.
“No, he could never say those things. Never think them. Of course, I’d never have expected him to be on the site either
. No, it couldn’t be Seth. Could it? No. No way,” Gin rambled to herself.
“What happened that night last week when you crashed at his place?” Anne asked after she stepped back to survey her work.
“Absolutely nothing. I got hammered off my ass.” She paused. “We may have made out a little bit. We didn’t, like, sleep all snuggled up in each other’s arms or anything relationshippy like that.” Gin snorted.
“I thought you didn’t like him that way?” Anne teased.
“I don’t. I didn’t. I mean…I don’t know. It was just a kiss. Or four.”
“A hot-and-heavy make-out session, huh?”
“It might have been more, but he said he didn’t want to take advantage of me. Can you believe there are men still like that?”
“I can.” Anne nodded seriously.
“I haven’t really talked to him about it since. I crept out early. I didn’t want there to be any early-morning weirdness.”
“What would you do if it was him? On the site, I mean. Or worse, what if it’s not? What if it’s Justin?”
Gin’s blue eyes went round. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just leave it alone.”
“Maybe,” Anne agreed with a nod.
“Maybe not?” Gin asked with a sly grin.
“I would go with ‘not’. I’ve always thought you and Seth would be good together.” At Gin’s sardonic look, she continued. “No, not just because you were pining after Chase. I didn’t know I wanted him then. I genuinely want you to be happy, Gin. Even after last night’s fuckery.”
“I know that.” She sighed. “But Seth? Come on. He’s so,” she paused fumbling for the right word, “proper. He’s not the kind of guy who would be into a woman like me. I’m loud, obnoxious and I say ‘fuck’ a lot.”
“I don’t understand your recalcitrance.”
“It is too early in the morning to be using words like that.” Gin screwed her face into a scowl. “And…like I said earlier. Some good sex doesn’t mean there has to be a relationship.”
Anne was coming to hate that idea. If Gin said “fuck buddy” she was going to slap her. “But there could be. He’s a good guy, Gin. He’d treat you well, take you home to meet his grandmother.”
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