by Odell, Roxie
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
He gripped the bedding, pulling back the comforter and sheet so they could crawl beneath them. He drew his long, powerful thigh up around hers, letting their body heat warm them. His fingers found her nipples, erect from both the chill and the excitement. He pinched, applying just enough pressure to send a wire of pleasured pain through her, causing her to tremble.
“Is that a good shiver or a bad shiver?” he whispered.
“Very good,” she answered.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I can see that,” he said. He took her hand and placed it on his rigid erection. “So am I.”
Obviously, the cooler temperature had no adverse effect on his manhood, and Corrine moaned into the sheets, impatient for him to be inside her. She let her fingers glide up and down his shaft as she adjusted herself to receive him.
He entered her with a single thrust. They both had to still themselves for a moment, allowing their bodies to absorb the wondrous feeling of their connection. He took hold of her hips and pumped back and forth in steady movement.
Tingles electrified her body from head to toe, and her nipples were erect against the bed, so sensitive that the fabric agitated them. Corrine pressed against her moist flesh, moving her fingers back and forth, albeit not too quickly since she wanted to savor and prolong the pleasure.
Again, Derrick enveloped her, drew her knee up, and pushed them both up onto the bed squarely with ease. Soon, he was lying behind her, and he drew her back against him with his powerful arms. The soft skin of her back grazed his chest, which was dusted with light-colored, coarse hair. He felt so incredibly masculine. Though he was a lean man, his body was immense, solid, and powerful. He drew his long, muscled thigh over her hip and possessed her fully, and they rocked steadily that way for a while, until she made a move.
Corrine pressed her palms against the mattress, forcing him to follow suit if he wanted to stay connected. She moved her torso downward and her buttocks upward. On all fours, she offered herself to him. Derrick, now on his knees, drove into her. Her breasts jiggled with their rhythm, and he very sweetly teased the sensitive length of her spine, causing her to draw up tightly in overwhelming reaction. A few more of those, and I’ll be jerking helplessly around him.
He rolled her over, gently maneuvering her without leaving her body. Corrine’s legs were bent back and drawn upward over his shoulders until she was on her back, looking up at him. He adoringly smiled down at her. She gazed at his handsome face, his perfect hair tousled with their activity, his stubbly chin that looked even darker in her shadowy room. A wave of love for him consumed her, and she was warmed to her core.
She drew her leg upward and rested it on his shoulder, a position that allowed him to press into her more deeply. It was almost too cloyingly sweet for her to handle, but she managed to raise her other leg as well. Derrick sank backward on his heels, took her ankles into his powerful hands, and formed a giant V with her legs. The weight of her limbs added to the sugared tightness as he pumped into her again and again.
This time, Corrine touched herself with purpose. She splayed her legs just wide enough for her fingers to find her magic place, and she made little circles as he filled her. Derrick just watched, mesmerized as she pleasured herself while her body enveloped him. Her passion escalated, climbing to that sweet, desired culmination, and her bliss triggered his. His eyelids fluttered, softly batting as he struggled to maintain control.
Corrine pushed on his shoulder, nudging him backward. She lowered her legs off his shoulders and onto the bed. The movement nearly drove her insane, but she held off from letting go, for she was eager to tend to him. She wrangled her body around till she was sitting atop him, taking him as deeply into her as she could possibly bear. A pleading cry escaped his lips as Corrine rocked her hips back and forth on his belly. She pressed her eyelids tight, trying to maintain control of the imminent pleasure that was about to burst within her. Sweetness coiled within her, ever mounting as she rode him. It overtook her mind, till she could hardly think to move.
Derrick took hold of her and helped her along. He lifted his hips off the bed and, while still on his back, rapidly hammered into her. There was no corralling the rapture now. The tension wound tightly at her core, released, and spilled throughout her. In sweet waves, tremors rolled through her belly, sending blissful electricity that filled her chest and rocketed out through the top of her head, making her cry out. Derrick dissolved into a moaning mass, and their impassioned voices swam around the room as they both fiercely came together.
Corrine’s body positively hummed as it was bathed in the glow of her orgasm. She toppled over to lie on the bed beside him. He’s so warm, so solid, so mine. She groggily spied on him as she loved to do. He was like a god sprawled in the tangle of her bedding. Recovering from pure ecstasy, she turned on her mattress like she was swimming. She felt absolutely amazing, albeit famished. She drew in a deep breath and felt a smile curl her lips.
Dopey from their especially intense fireworks, Corrine put on a robe, lazily tied it at the waist, and padded through her house, paying no mind to her love-mussed hair. She wandered into the kitchen. On her way, she adjusted the A/C, smiling as she recalled the funny moment when the chill struck them before the sex warmed them.
The kitchen cupboards were empty, and she didn’t fare any better in the refrigerator. She smiled again at the notion that she’d invited him over on the premise of dinner, yet she had no food to offer him, not even the salad she’d promised. How could I forget something like that? She felt like a terrible hostess. They had just burned off the calories of the appetizer she’d eaten at the Tresor, and she was sure Derrick was even hungrier than she was.
Corrine shuffled back to her bedroom to let him know she might have to run to the store, but he was not in the middle of the bed, where she expected to find him. “Derrick?” she asked.
“Yeah, in here,” he shouted from the bathroom.
She snuggled in the warm, comfortable bed and waited for him to return from what she was sure would be a short answer to nature’s call. When she heard the shower, Corrine mischievously tiptoed to the bathroom door to join him, only to find it locked. It was odd because he had never locked it before, so she lightly knocked on the door to make sure he was all right. “Hey!” she called, trying to speak over the roar of the shower.
“I’ll be right out!” he yelled back.
“You’re not gonna let me in?” she asked with a smile in her voice, laughing a bit nervously at his unusual behavior.
“I’ll be right out,” he repeated, as if he didn’t even really hear her question.
Corrine’s heart sank. She was only gone a minute, and he had made a run for it during her short absence. She had no problem with him taking a shower, of course, but they’d always been so enmeshed in one another that it was tough to figure out where one ended and the other began, so it seemed almost insulting that he’d locked her out. She tried to tell herself it didn’t mean anything, but she couldn’t help feeling that there was something weird going on. Not sure what else to do, she sat on the edge of her bed, wrapped herself in a sheet, and waited.
Derrick’s shower was quick, and he emerged from the bathroom dressed from the waist down, quickly toweling his hair as if he was in a hurry to go somewhere.
“Hey,” she remarked in a tone that requested explanation. “You’re dressed?”
“Almost,” he said.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asked.
“Huh?” he asked.
“I know,” she said, totally fishing, as she was fully aware that his short answer was a deflection, an indication that he was up to something. “You intuitively know I’ve got no food in the house, so you’re planning to take me to dinner, right?”
“So you invited me over for dinner, salad at least, when you don’t have any food here?” he asked, walking over to tickle her again. “Of cours
e, I wouldn’t have known that, silly.”
“Then what are you doing?” she asked.
“You were right the first time,” he teased. “I’m getting dressed.”
“I can see that,” she said. “Are we going somewhere?”
He laughed. “Not unless you wanna take a ride back to the Tresor.”
“Huh? I—I don’t get it.” She blinked in bewilderment.
“What’s not to get, Corrine?” he asked sharply, just on the cusp of losing his temper.
Corrine’s stomach sank, and once again, it felt as if she’d taken a steep plummet on a rollercoaster. “So you were just giving me a ride?” she asked. “No pun intended.”
“Well, you needed one, honey,” he answered, sounding a bit sarcastic, as if he was in no mood to have to state the obvious. “Pun intended,” he finished, as if to take some of the sting out of his tone.
“Oh? I’m sorry. Am I sounding like a girlfriend again?”
He playfully pushed her back on the bed and kissed her like he had in her driveway, like a precursor to making love again, a changing-the-subject kind of kiss.
It wasn’t lost on Corrine that he was, in essence, her ride home since her car was not at the Tresor, and without him, she would have been left to take a cab. That was yet another reason she found it silly when he’d asked which one of them were driving. Nevertheless, she felt an urge to demand that he stick around long enough to explain himself. She worried for a moment that she was being too needy, but he certainly wasn’t acting like himself.
“So you’re not hungry?” she tried. “You said you haven’t eaten. Plus, the whole point in coming here was so we could have a little normal, a home-cooked meal, square suburbia, non-casino evening and all that.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “You just said your cupboards are bare,” he reminded her, with his lips pressed into her hair. He then pulled some cash out of his wallet and set it on her nightstand. “Order some delivery. I’m sure you worked up an appetite again.”
Corrine’s face spread with amazement. “Are you really leaving money for me after we just had sex?” she asked with a gasp.
“Yes,” he said with a grin. “Don’t worry about me, though. I’ll grab something at the hotel. I’ll just take a rain check on that salad.”
“I see,” she said, utterly confused and hurt. She felt like a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am barfly, used and tossed aside. Worst of all, she was sure he knew from the moment they climbed into his Porsche that he was going to do precisely what he did, just spend a little time at her place, get his fill, then hurry back to the Tresor. “Seriously, Derrick, where are you going, and what’s your hurry?”
“I told you, I’m going home,” he replied, looking at her in frustration as if she was being unreasonable and he was tired of the interrogation.
Corrine’s jaw tightened in the way it did when her old boyfriend used to mock her when they got into an argument.
“Baby, what’s going on?” Derrick asked impatiently.
“You never leave like this,” she said. “I mean, you always stay. You’re asking me, but it feels like you’re the one who’s got something going on.”
“Yeah, well, there’s a first time for everything, babe,” he said, trying to soften his tone.
Corrine realized at that point that it was no use, that she simply wasn’t going to get a straight answer from the guy, even though their relationship had always been founded on honesty and transparency. She tried to remind herself of that. What’s making me doubt him now besides a little random, strange behavior? Am I being too hard on him? Too paranoid? Don’t go blowing this with your insecurities, Corrine. She relaxed her hold a little and backed off. She knew if something had changed for him, pushing wouldn’t make a difference, and she didn’t want to make things worse.
“Are we good?” Derrick asked, looking at her suspiciously, the same way the cop had looked at the two of them when he pulled them over.
Something about his voice was suddenly cold, not the warm, velvety, seductive voice she knew. Something had changed, and it seemed the party was over, all the fun and passion sucked out of the atmosphere. Corrine felt tense again, and while she could have very easily fallen asleep after their sex before, basking in the contentment of their love, now she was too on edge to even think about it.
When she said nothing, Derrick finished getting dressed, grabbed his keys, bid her a flat goodbye, and headed out the door.
She checked the fridge one more time, just to confirm that it was empty. On the other hand, her liquor cabinet was still well stocked, since she’d been avoiding alcohol for quite some time. Without so much as a pang of guilt, Corrine plunked a couple ice cubes into a clean glass and poured herself a double. The she climbed into her bed that had his scent all over it and nursed her drink until she was sleepy enough to doze off into a fitful attempt at rest.
Chapter 25
It wasn’t the first time in their relationship that Corrine woke up without Derrick by her side. She eyeballed her empty bourbon glass, not even recalling when she’d fallen asleep. Even though she woke up without the aid of her alarm clock, between the drama of the night and day before and the four ounces of liquor, she felt like she had a nasty hangover. She’d had a rough time falling asleep or blacking out, whichever came first, and she was overcome with insecurity about her boyfriend.
Corrine moved around in bed and let out a groan. Too much sun yesterday, she decided. She was so distracted after her time by the pool that she hadn’t really noticed before, but she could feel it now because even the sheets agitated her sensitive pink skin. “I wonder why Derrick didn’t say anything about my sunburn,” she muttered. “Then again, it wasn’t as if he took a long time to look at me naked.”
Derrick was just a short drive away. It wasn’t as if the two of them were on the opposite ends of the Earth. Still, she felt a great distance between them and knew that something was different. It would have to be a day of recovery from all the emotional events of the day before, and Corrine didn’t expect to get much work done. Fortunately, since she worked from home as her own boss, she could determine her own schedule, though there were some projects that required her attention. She had deadlines to meet, but she could still afford to procrastinate a little.
On mornings like that one, she usually took a bit of a nap around ten in the morning, but she did her best not to let her personal life or even her former alcohol problem get in the way of her business and her productivity. She rarely had issues with self-discipline and motivation, but on this particular morning, she struggled to even move in slow motion.
After her first nap, she usually felt good enough to work out. That was especially important, something she rarely avoided, especially back when she and Derrick were partying a little too much. Even when she didn’t feel like physical activity, she made herself do it because she was certain that exercise had curative powers. Short of drinking, it was really the only way to exorcise her nagging feelings.
She made herself a smoothie of frozen berries and water, all she could find in the fridge. It was just enough sugar to make her sleepy, but as soon as her catnap was over, she hopped on her treadmill. She’d turned one room of her house into a personal gym, and she used it faithfully. When she first met Derrick, she slacked off a bit, and her workouts were spotty at best because it felt like their active lifestyle and bedroom acrobatics were a great substitute.
She tried to be excited about stepping onto her treadmill again, but she really wasn’t into it. “I’ll feel better once I get going,” she assured herself. She didn’t even bother to dress in a full outfit; she just wore her sports bra and some tight-fitting boy shorts. She also didn’t bother with much of a warm-up. After a few strides at a slower pace, she hit the controls and cranked the speed up to six miles per hour.
Her intuition proved right because once her heart was pumping at a nice pace, the exercise felt amazing, even exhilarating. She sweated out the stress and the bourbon and fel
t renewed. Just as she thought, Corrine was hooked again and craved more. She increased the incline and pushed herself. With her music blaring and the thunderous noise of the treadmill beneath her feet, she did not even hear Derrick knock or let himself in.
Corrine finished an entire run to the end of cooldown before she spotted him spying on her. She let out a squawk and spazzed a bit, losing her balance but quickly catching herself on the treadmill arm.
“Whoa!” Derrick rushed over to catch her. Once she was firmly tucked into his arms, he said, “You’re the clumsiest woman I know, but that’s not a bad thing.”
Indeed, that was how they met in the first place, when Corrine tumbled into his arms during a Tresor elevator malfunction. Things had been hot and heavy between them ever since, but now she was just hot and sweaty and quite self-conscious about it. Derrick was nicely dressed in his crisp work attire, while she was mostly bare, perspiring all over.
“You’ll have to change if you keep holding me like that,” she said, pushing away from him. “I’m all sticky.”
He drew her back toward him, unwilling to let her go. “I don’t mind you sticky,” he said with a grin. “Plus, I kinda like that getup you’re wearin’. I’ve never seen anyone wear that in a gym before, and it’s a damn shame they don’t.”
As usual, Derrick made her feel all warm and cuddly, and just like that, things between them felt normal, just the way Corrine liked it. They were back to their old selves.
“Gave up the Miami Vice look, eh?” she remarked as she tilted her face against his and noticed that he’d finally shaved.
“Yeah,” he said with a self-conscious laugh, reaching up to run his hand over his smooth chin. “Apparently, I was frightening people with it.”
Corrine didn’t want to admit it to him, but that rugged, unattended look had frightened her, too. In a town where people took nosedives into one-armed bandits, a disheveled look often signaled the beginning of personal trouble. She’d lived near Vegas long enough to know that no one was immune to getting sucked into a gambling addiction, and that was exactly where her mind went when she found him at a table, where she didn’t expect him to be.
