by Anna Durand
I didn't see Heidi for the rest of the afternoon or in the evening. She must've been hiding in her room. Ruth Norris told me Heidi had "skulked" into the dining hall to grab some dinner, then took her meal somewhere else to eat it. Her room, I was sure. This was my fault, though I couldn't quite figure out why. I hadn't done anything more salacious than massaging her hand and talking about the mounts, those fleshy little mounds on her palm. Maybe the word mount had freaked her out. Could she have thought I meant I wanted to "mount" her right there in my gypsy wagon?
No, she was too smart not to realize "mount" had other meanings unrelated to sex. I did want to use that word in its dirty meaning, but not until Heidi got comfortable with the idea of sleeping with me. Maybe she'd panicked because I talked about the Mount of Venus and how it represented passion and sexuality. I hadn't invented that stuff to get her horny. It was a genuine part of palmistry.
I could drive myself crazy trying to figure out why Heidi ran away, so I stopped trying.
Eve and Val were hosting a staff dinner at their place tonight, and I never missed those, even though I kind of felt like a fifth wheel. Eve and Val, Mara and Ollie, they'd coupled up big time. Me? I couldn't convince Heidi not to freak out when I massaged her palm. So yeah, I attended the staff dinner as the obligatory fifth wheel stuck at the end of the table. Both couples sat side by side, exchanging loving glances and affectionate smiles while I pushed food around on my plate and tried to talk my stomach into wanting noodle omelet and spinach.
Vegetarian wasn't my thing. But mostly, I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for food because I kept thinking about Heidi.
"What's wrong with you tonight?" Ollie asked. He was sitting beside me, though he faced across the table instead of facing me.
"Nothing's wrong."
"You've been frowning at your food and moving it around like you think an alien creature will burst out of your noodle omelet any second to strangle you."
"Shouldn't you be making goo-goo eyes at your fiancée? She's probably feeling neglected since you haven't looked at her in at least ten seconds."
Ollie's brows hiked up. "Since when do you get grumpy? Something's definitely up with you tonight."
"I am fine," I said, emphasizing each word so maybe he'd believe me. Yeah, sounding grumpy might not have been the best tactic to refute his claim.
"Did you and Heidi have a fight?"
"We're not dating, so we can't have a fight. Not the kind you mean."
I suddenly realized everyone was looking at me. Looking and listening. Damn.
Eve, who sat opposite Ollie, touched my hand. "We all saw Heidi fleeing from your gypsy wagon this afternoon. Seemed like you must've had a fight."
"Why can't any of you grasp the concept that Heidi and I are not a couple?"
"But you like her a lot. Don't you?"
I did like Heidi, but this wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to talk about at the dinner table with Eve, Val, and Mara. Ollie was my best friend, so I would've talked about it with him. It shouldn't have been a group discussion, though.
"Can we talk about something else?" I asked.
Eve patted my hand. "Go talk to her. You two can work things out, I know."
My first impulse was to remind Eve, and everyone else, that I was not dating Heidi Mackenzie. But more grumpiness would only convince them I had a thing going on with Heidi. Maybe I did, sort of. I couldn't force her to want to have a thing with me.
She kissed me. Didn't that mean she wanted to be with me?
Forget about Heidi, you idiot.
Everyone was still staring at me.
"I'll talk to Heidi," I said.
That seemed to satisfy my friends, and they went back to exchanging lovey-dovey gazes and enjoying their meal. I managed to eat my food, though I didn't enjoy it. I might as well have scarfed down a plateful of Styrofoam peanuts since I didn't taste the food at all.
Maybe I ought to go see Heidi.
No, that would be stupid. Only if we were dating would I feel the need to "work things out," as Eve put it. Since I wasn't involved with Heidi, I did not need to see her.
When I tried to volunteer for clearing the table and loading the dishwasher, four people told me emphatically "no" and all but shoved me out the door. "Talk to Heidi," they said, almost at the same time, like a chorus of meddling friends.
I should've gone to my room and forgotten about Heidi. I intended to do that. Honestly, I did.
But my feet had plans of their own.
That was how I wound up standing in front of the door to Heidi's room with my fist raised to knock. I froze then, staring at the metal numbers attached to the door. Heidi must've been inside. If I came here to see her, I ought to knock. Why was I hesitating?
Because I had become a brainless idiot.
I rapped on the door.
When it opened a few seconds later, Heidi gaped at me. "Damian?"
"Yeah, that's still my name. Glad you remember it." If I'd tried really hard maybe I could've come up with something even dumber to say. "How are you? Ruth said you grabbed some food and took off without talking to anyone."
"I wanted to eat alone. Is that a crime?"
"No, but—"
"Good night, Damian." She slammed the door in my face.
What the hell?
I banged on the door until she opened it again. "What is wrong with you? I came here to make sure you're okay, but you're acting like I'm a criminal trying to break into your room."
"Go away, please. I don't want to sleep with you."
"What part of anything I just said implied I want to sleep with you?"
She flattened her lips, one hand on the door, one foot tapping furiously. "Just leave, okay? I don't have to explain myself to you."
"No, but—"
Heidi slammed the door. Again.
To hell with this. She had clearly gone insane since the last time I saw her, and I didn't feel like trying to talk her down. If she wanted to behave like a lunatic, she could go for it.
But not with me. I was done. No more fantasizing about Heidi or trying to make Heidi feel better or massaging Heidi's palm. It was over.
Not that we'd ever had a thing in the first place.
I stalked out of the guest house, veering toward my wagon. Whenever I needed a little peace and quiet, I retreated into my little gypsy home. I got about halfway there when someone ran up behind me and seized my arm, forcing me to stop. I half-turned to face that person.
Heidi was breathing hard, her tits heaving. "I'm sorry, Damian."
"For which part? Slamming the door in my face twice, or announcing out of frigging nowhere that you don't want to sleep with me?"
"All of it." She still had her hand on my arm, but now she slid it down to my hand, slipping her fingers between mine. "I panicked when I saw you, which has kind of become my signature move lately."
"What did I do? A palm reading was supposed to be fun, but I must've screwed it up somehow."
"No, it's not you. I've made a lot of mistakes with men, and I'm terrified I'll screw up this time too."
This time? That almost sounded like she was saying… No, she couldn't have meant that.
"I like you, Damian," she said, "and it scares me. So I panicked."
"Because I knocked on your door."
She moved closer, clasping my hand more firmly. "Because I'd been thinking about you ever since the palm-reading thing. I've been, um…fantasizing about you."
"I fantasize about you too."
"When I opened the door, and you were there, I wanted you. I still want you." She inched even closer, her breasts grazing my chest. "I want you all the time. Maybe I should stop fighting it."
"Maybe we both should." I wrapped my free arm around her waist, tugging her closer. "Come with me to the wagon."
"Thought you never seduced anyone in there."
"I haven't, not until now." I touched my lips to hers, a soft, gentle
kiss. "Assuming you come with me. I'd love to spend the night with you in my gypsy sanctuary."
She laid a hand on my cheek. "Yes, Damian, I will."
"We can just talk if that's what you want. Talk and sleep together, and I mean 'sleep' as in catching some Z's."
"I want more than that."
"Me too." I led her toward the wagon, holding her hand the whole time, letting go only so I could open the door. As she climbed up the steps, her ass was inches away from my face. "Already loving the view."
She smiled at me over her shoulder. "You'll get a much better view in a few minutes."
Naked Heidi. Sure, I'd seen her naked before, but this time would be different. No comparison, actually. I would have her nude body underneath mine.
I climbed into the wagon and shut the door, stopping just past the threshold.
Heidi stood by the table, gazing down at it. She traced her fingertips over the surface, then laid her palm on it. "Later, I'd love for you to finish that palm reading." She looked at me. "If you don't mind."
"Love to—later." I strode up to her, laying my palm over her hand on the table. "This is your night, Heidi. You set the pace, you decide what you want to do, and you tell me what you want me to do."
"That's sweet, but it's unnecessary. I trust you, Damian."
"You trust me so much that you ran away from a palm reading. I'm not being sarcastic or grumpy. I'm stating a fact."
"I know. But I didn't run away because of you. I did it because you make me feel so good that I want more than friendship with you." She fingered the lapel of my shirt. "I want you, period. And that scares me, but I refuse to keep being a coward who's too afraid to admit what I want. So if you still want me—"
"Hell yes, I want you."
"Good." She pointed at the bench. "Sit down, please."
"The bed is a lot more comfortable for having sex."
"You said you'd do what I want."
I had said that, and I never reneged on a promise. So I dropped onto the bench and spread my arms across its back. "I'm all yours."
"Got any music? The steamy kind, preferably."
"Absolutely." I dug my phone out of my pocket and found a good playlist, one of my favorites, then I started the music. It played through a Bluetooth speaker embedded in the wall, thanks to an app I'd installed on my phone. "Steamy enough for you?"
"Mm, I like this. Belly dancing music."
While the Middle Eastern style music played, Heidi began to sway her hips. She got her whole body into it, like a real belly dancer, moving her sexy body in ways that made the blood in my brain pour down into my dick. She pulled her shirt off over her head, then unzipped her pants and got rid of them too.
I stroked my hardening cock through my jeans, imagining all the things I wanted to do with her tonight.
Heidi undid her bra and let it fall away from her body. She kept shimmying and gyrating while she removed her panties, and I couldn't tear my gaze away from her, couldn't stop myself from following every movement. Her tits swayed, her eyes fluttered shut, and she skimmed her hands up and down her body the way I wanted to do to her.
She knelt in front of me, pushed my knees apart, and positioned herself between them. "I've wanted to do this for so long, maybe since the first time I saw you. Can't wait anymore."
I reached for my shirt, about to unbutton it, but she stopped me with her hand on mine.
"Let me do that," she purred, her voice so sultry the sound of it made my balls tighten.
"Well, it is your night." I lowered my hand.
She unhooked the buttons on my shirt one by one while seductive music played, her movements synced with the rhythm of the song. Her hips kept swaying, despite being wedged between my legs. Her fingers grazed my skin as she made her way down my chest until she'd undone every button and my shirt hung open. Humming with pleasure, she glided her palms up my chest and then dragged her nails back down it. When her fingers found the fly on my jeans, she undid that too and pulled the zipper down, down, down until she'd exposed my cock.
"I love that you don't wear anything under your pants," she said in that hot-as-hell purr. With one hand, she pulled my dick out and cupped it in her palm. "This is what I've wanted to do so badly I had to make myself come every time I fantasized about it. Like this morning. You heard me, didn't you?"
"Yeah. That's why I ran to the restroom. I needed to make myself come too."
She slid her hand up and down my length. "Yeah, I figured out what you were doing even before I heard you come."
"You heard me?" I sucked in a breath when she flicked her thumb over the head of my erection. "Fuck, Heidi, that's hot."
"Things are about to get even hotter."
She grasped the base of my erection and bent to take me into her mouth.
I set a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Are you sure about this? Ten minutes ago, you told me to go away and you don't want to sleep with me."
"Yeah, I know. But I only said that because I do want you, so damn much, and that scares me. My history with men isn't the greatest." She peeled my hand away from her shoulder and massaged my palm with her thumb. "You're not like anyone else, though, and I suddenly realized I don't want to fight this anymore. Can't promise I'll want a candlelight dinner with you, but for tonight, all I know is that I need to be with you. Okay?"
"Sure. I want that too." I glanced down at my hard-on. "I'd love to have your mouth on me, but you shouldn't make me come. Takes me a while to get up and running again."
"That's okay. We have all night."
"Do you mean you're staying until morning?"
"Yes. Now shut up and let me taste you."
I relaxed against the bench.
Heidi lowered her mouth and licked my crown, then blew air across it. She'd hardly done anything to me, but already I had trouble catching my breath. When she swept her tongue up my cock and back down to the crown, I gripped the bench's edge hard enough to crush the cushioning. She did that again, slowly raking her tongue up my entire length and then down the other side, her damp tongue leaving a cool trail in its wake.
"Fuck, Heidi, that feels—"
My voice died when she took me into her mouth, one hand grasping the base of my erection while she massaged my inner thigh with her other hand. She pumped me while her tongue darted out to tease my skin, and she gently sucked, moving her mouth up and down, over and over, spurring me to clench the cushions harder and gasp for breath. Her mouth felt hot and wet, her tongue velvety soft, and God, the way she rubbed my thigh, inching her fingers closer and closer to my balls…
She skimmed her fingers past my balls and massaged the skin behind them.
I'd never experienced anything like this before. No one had ever touched me in that spot, but it felt incredible.
Heidi sped up her movements, pumping me faster, sucking me harder. I threw my head back and groaned, and I swore my eyes rolled back in my head for a second. Pressure built inside me as an electric current rushed down my spine, making every hair on my body stiffen, and I knew I'd lose it soon. I couldn't manage to groan, let alone speak, but I couldn't stop myself from grasping the back of her head and fisting one hand in her hair. She grunted out ravenous little noises like she loved having me in her mouth.
I came like a bomb going off. My back bowed, and the only sound I could make was a strangled gasp. She kept sucking, taking everything I had without flinching or even letting up, not until I'd spent everything inside her mouth.
She sat back on her heels and wiped her lips with one hand. "I loved doing that for you."
"Yeah," I said, still breathing hard, "I loved you doing that for me too."
Laughing, she leaned in to wrap her arms around my neck. "Mind if kiss you? Most guys don't want to kiss me when I've just given them head."
"I don't mind."
"Maybe I should drink something first."
"Don't worry about it."
I took hold of h
er face and tugged her closer, mashing my mouth to hers and plunging my tongue between her lips to get a deeper taste of her. Maybe I did taste myself a little, but it was only a hint of a salty tang, and I didn't care. I'd kiss her if she'd just eaten a big plateful of raw garlic and onions, or even sauerkraut. I hated that stuff.
When I finally relinquished her lips, I smiled and rubbed the corner of her mouth with my thumb. "About time I got to taste you."
Chapter Eleven
Heidi
Damian was nothing like any man I'd ever known before. Ollie was a great guy, but we just weren't right for each other, a fact I realized way too late to avoid humiliating myself. But here in this lushly decorated wagon, I knew I wouldn't make a mistake—not with Damian. Not tonight, anyway. If this didn't last beyond one night, I knew at least I'd walk away with an amazing memory.
I couldn't decide if I wanted it to last longer.
He needed a few minutes after the blow job to recover, but he let me undress him while he lay there watching me do that. I swore he enjoyed seeing me take his clothes off more than he enjoyed my little striptease. Maybe he loved it because I let my fingers graze his skin as often as possible, and I showered kisses over his chest and biceps before I moved on to getting rid of his pants. I kissed his thighs too, and his hips, and I tickled his belly button with my tongue.
"You're getting me going again in record time," he said. "Damn, Heidi, you are the sexiest, most passionate woman on earth."
"We haven't had sex yet. How do you know I'm passionate?"
"By the way you gave me head. No woman has ever done it like that."
I'd loved feasting on him, more than I'd ever loved giving a man oral sex before tonight. What was it about Damian that made me crave him with a hunger so deep and all-consuming that I couldn't stand the thought of not being with him? Maybe tomorrow I'd worry about that. Tonight, I wanted to be with him.