by Franca Storm
But maybe happily-ever-after just isn’t for me.
I’m sure as hell no Prince Charming. But is Emma my Snow White? Or will she turn out to be just another goddamn Evil Queen?
I have no fucking idea.
“Shit,” I breathe as I look down at my shaking hands.
I can feel my heart pounding violently, threatening to rip through my fucking chest. I try to calm down, to slow my rapid breathing, but after several unsuccessful minutes, I know it’s not going to work. I know what I need to do.
I glance at Emma, sleeping against me, her legs tangled with mine. I gently ease her off me. She grumbles in her sleep.
I climb out of bed and stagger to the bathroom.
I open the cabinet above the double-sink and catch my reflection in the mirror. God, even my pupils are dilated. I’m that amped up by that nightmare and these recent developments with Emma. I grab the vial of pills and pop off the lid. I curse under my breath as I struggle to scrape one out of the stupid vial, because my hands are shaking so much. I finally manage it and pop it in my mouth. I turn on the tap as quietly as possible to little more than a trickle and catch some of the water in my mouth to wash the capsule down.
Phew. It will be okay now. That sedative will kick in quickly and all will be right with the world again.
I shut off the water, put the vial back and make my way back into the bedroom. I climb in as slowly as possible, so as not to wake Emma.
My head has just hit the pillow when she rouses awake. She lifts her head, her half-closed eyes searching out mine as she says drowsily, “Did you leave?”
I pull her into me. “Just for a second. I’m here now. Go back to sleep.”
She murmurs something and drops her head back to her pillow. God, those words of hers and that vulnerability in her eyes, her voice. It was like a kick in the gut.
I’m falling.
I’m falling hard.
The worst part is, I don’t know if I can stop.
Chapter 11
~Emma~
“Why the robe, babe?” Dan complains, as I approach the sunken pool on the balcony. He swims to the edge and crosses his arms, resting his chin on them as he watches me walk over. “I want to see it,” he presses.
I stop at the edge of the pool and grip the belt of the robe. “First, I want to know one thing.”
“Sure. Anything.”
“How did you know my size?”
“I took a peek at your bra and panties when you were in the shower earlier.”
I laugh. “So, that’s why you didn’t join me? You were ordering this?”
“You got me. Along with some underwear and stuff.”
I shake my head with disapproval. “I could have just gone home and brought back my own. You didn’t need to do this.”
He waves his hand dismissively. “A drop in the ocean, babe.”
“I saw the price tags.”
“I knew I forgot to do something before I gave the bags to you.”
“Not used to buying women presents?”
He shrugs. “I don’t like to flash my money around. But I didn’t want you to leave and you’d already put your foot down about my suggestion.”
To swim in there naked. “I don’t know how many other women you’ve had in there before me.”
He lets go of the side and floats back, grinning at me. “First off, this pool is self-cleaning. Secondly, you’re the first.”
“What?”
“You’re the first woman I’ve had in my apartment.”
“Really? What about—?”
“The one-nighters I’ve hooked up with? I never bring them here. This is my home. Off limits.”
“But, I—”
“Guess you’re special,” he says, winking at me. “Now, lose the robe and get in here. You’re making my cock hard from the anticipation alone. I know you’re drawing this out.”
I wrap my arms around myself self-consciously. I thought I could do this now that I’ve become comfortable showing him my body after our extraordinarily long fuck session last night. But now that I’m here, standing before him, it feels different, like I’m exposed. Like being in public.
His eyes meet mine and I see nothing but understanding there.
“Fine. No problem. We’ll work around it, angel,” he says, gesturing for me to come closer. He holds out his hand and I crouch down at the edge of the pool to clasp it. Suddenly, his arm snakes around my waist. He moves so quickly that I don’t have a chance in hell of stopping him and, before I know it, he’s pulled me into the pool, robe and all.
I squeal from the heavy splash, the water dousing me. He doesn’t let me go. He holds me steady, his arm holding me firmly around the waist. He floats me backwards to the shallow end of the pool and pushes me up against the tiled wall.
“Now, let’s see, shall we?” he says coyly, untying the belt of the robe.
He pushes it off my shoulders, balls it up and throws it out of the pool. And then his eyes are on me, raking slowly up and down my body as he takes in the sight of the black string bikini I’m wearing. He growls appreciatively and palms my breasts. “Damn, these look amazing in this thing.”
I press my hands to his chest, pushing him away and he floats backwards, laughing.
I follow him to the other end of the pool where I see an opened bottle of champagne buried in an ice bucket with two full glasses beside it. He hands me one.
“A couple more of these and you’ll be so relaxed, you’ll be stripping for me, babe.”
“Shut up,” I say, before taking a sip. “Wow, I’ve never tasted champagne this—”
“Expensive?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” I laugh. “No more expensive things, okay?”
“Why not?”
I shrug my shoulders. “It makes me a little uncomfortable.”
“Money?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “I’m not used to it.”
He nods and a contented smile spreads across his face.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He points to what looks like a speaker phone lying on the tiled floor beside the pool. “I apologize, but I have to keep a phone close in case any emergencies crop up while I’m vacationing from the office.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“After we’ve had our fill of the pool, I was thinking we could watch a couple of movies?”
“Sounds perfect.”
I take another sip of my champagne and then he holds out a lit cigarette to me. I take a couple of drags, before passing it back to him. “I would give you your own, but I don’t trust you not to get ash in the pool. Not after what I saw at breakfast this morning.”
“Hey,” I protest. “That chair was in the way.”
“Babe, it was under the table. Yet, somehow you managed to crash into it, drop the eggs you were carrying and then slip on one of them. If I hadn’t caught you, we’d be in the ER dealing with a broken leg right about now,” he says, struggling to get out the words, because he’s laughing so much.
“I’m not usually that clumsy.”
“Sure,” he says, not believing a word.
He’s still laughing at me. I launch myself at him, driving him into the wall of the pool, almost causing him to drop his cigarette. He recovers quickly and takes another drag. I grab the waistband of his navy-blue board shorts and dip my hand inside. I look up at him to gauge his reaction. I want to see the look on his face. He’s stunned and he almost loses his grip on the smoke in his mouth.
“Not laughing now, are you?”
His entire body jerks as I close my fist tightly around his already hard length.
The phone chooses that moment to start ringing. My hand stills around him.
“Fuck. Ignore it, babe. Scratch what I said earlier. This is way more important than anything that might be going down at the office.”
I start to move my hand, to really move it, jerking him off furiously under the water.
He throws his hea
d back and moans loudly. “Jesus Christ, woman. Yes! Fuck, yes! Fuck me with your hand, baby!”
“Daniel? Hello? Is that you?” a shrill, uppity voice comes from the speaker phone suddenly.
Dan freezes for a moment. He eases my hand out of his board shorts. I’m about to say something when he clamps his hand over my mouth and pulls me to him. He whispers in my ear, “It’s my mom.”
I pull his hand from my mouth. “What?” I hiss, shocked. “How did it answer like that?”
“It’s voice-command activated. I don’t use it that much. I forgot it’s set to answer to yes. Shit.”
I can’t help it. I’m finding the entire thing hilarious, especially given what he was screaming out. He sees I’m about to lose it and he clamps his hand back over my mouth.
“Shh. Just wait for her to hang up. That way she’ll think she dialed a wrong number and I won’t have to face trying to live this shit down.”
The woman is persistent, I’ll give her that. She continues calling his name for several minutes, before finally hanging up.
“Sorry.” He hoists himself halfway out of the pool and rips the cord out of the speaker phone. He sinks back into the water and tells me, “I’ll leave it unplugged for a half hour. She’ll just keep calling back otherwise.”
“You don’t want to talk to her?”
“Nope and not just because a gorgeous woman had her talented hand wrapped around my cock.”
I stop myself from asking anything further. It’s none of my business.
It causes an awkward silence between us for a few moments.
He breaks it suddenly with a heavy sigh. “She calls me once a month to keep the lines of communication open. We had a rift a while back and we barely speak now. She can’t deal with it, hence the random call at some point once a month.”
“I’m sorry. I know mothers can be trying.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” he says, looking intrigued.
“I don’t talk to my parents. I shoot them an email around Christmas time and their birthdays, but that’s about it.”
He frowns and floats towards me. His hands grip my hips gently. “That’s awful. How come?”
I shrug to show him that I’m not affected by it. “I got sick of being a disappointment.”
“A disappointment? You’re a successful author.”
“How do you—?”
“You’re not the only one who can Google,” he says, winking at me.
I smile and then tell him, “It’s not that. It’s my lifestyle. My…issues.” I look away, incredibly uncomfortable talking about this and wishing I’d never brought it up. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“All right,” he says, releasing me. “I don’t know about you, but having my mom call in the middle of you giving me a hand job in the pool has kinda put a damper on the whole pool mood. You wanna get out of here and skip to the movie?”
I reach between his legs, palming his cock. It’s no longer hard. “Oh, you’re right,” I tease.
“Nothing your dirty little mouth can’t resuscitate.”
“I have the dirty mouth?”
He chuckles. “I am clearly the master, but you’re not too bad yourself. And when you come…” he licks his lips, “…hell, the things that come screaming out of your mouth are dirty as fuck.”
We both fall into another laughing fit. I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed as much as I have in the short time that I’ve spent here with Dan. It’s becoming clear that we’re quite a pair.
***
The same thing I’ve been seeing for the last hour flashes on the screen again.
Winner! Player 2!
“Fuck,” I growl, tossing my controller across the floor.
Em and I are playing on my Xbox and she’s kicking my ass all over the damned place. She’s won every fucking martial arts duel. Seriously? How is that possible?
“Aww,” she says, ruffling my hair. “I’m beginning to see what a sore loser you are.”
“I play to win, babe. Plain and simple.”
A cocky grin plays on her lips and she tells me, “But you’re not, are you? In fact, this is probably one of the worst losing streaks I’ve ever seen. Do you ever play, or is it just for show?”
My God, she has a mouth on her. Well, I know exactly how to deal with that.
“Right, that’s it.” I lunge at her and she shrieks as I drive her to the floor, wrestling her beneath me.
I slide my hands up my t-shirt that she’s wearing and start tickling her ribs. She thrashes about, her hands pawing at me, trying to push me away as she giggles uncontrollably.
“Good girls take their punishment.”
I capture her wrists above her head and hold them there with one hand as I continue to tickle her mercilessly with my right hand.
“Stop! Stop!” she squeals.
“I’m not sure you’ve learned your lesson.”
“I have! I swear!”
“I’m not convinced.”
“I have! Please! Please, Dan!”
“That’s better,” I tease, releasing her and sitting back on my haunches.
She sits up and the sight of her has my dick waking up. Her sexy, disheveled hair. My t-shirt ridden up past her stomach, exposing her bare pussy. Her nipples hard and straining against the fabric.
I can’t help it. I need her right now.
I gather her in my arms and carry her down the hall, ignoring her playful protests.
I kick open the door to my bedroom and cross to the bed.
I lay her down, rip the t-shirt over her head and shake off my robe.
She yelps as I pounce on the bed.
I don’t give her a chance to catch her breath as I cover her body with mine and capture her in a hard kiss.
I roll us over so that she’s on top. I’m curious to try something with her.
Drawing in a calming breath, I clasp my hands behind my head and tell her, “Have at it. Ride me, babe.”
I can see the surprise on her face. She’s been on top before, but I’ve always maintained some semblance of control, guiding her movements, lifting her up and down my cock. But I don’t want to interfere this time. I want to know if I can deal with giving up total control for once. And something about Em makes me feel comfortable enough to risk it.
“I’m serious,” I tell her. “I know you want to. You’re as much of a control freak as me, despite your attempts to try to hide it.” That’s right. I can read you like a book. The way you tense ever so slightly when I start to take control, the slight hitches in your breath. Yeah, I see you, babe.
I reach out for the condom box on my bedside table and snatch one up. I rip open the wrapper with my teeth and hand it over to her. I put my hands back behind my head again and watch as her face lights up with excitement. Hmm, my girl really does like being in control. My girl? What the fuck?
All thoughts leave my head as her fingers brush my cock. It jerks to attention just at her slightest touch. I watch, riveted, as she starts to roll the condom on. She uses both hands, smoothing it down at an excruciating slow pace. God, those hands of hers feel like they’re branding my fucking cock. Shit, even putting a condom on is erotic as hell with her doing it. Note to self: she’s doing it more often. I’m not passing up this pleasurable torture in the future.
I groan as she shifts her weight on top of me, rubbing her hands all over my chest as she positions herself over my cock. She lowers herself barely an inch, holding the tip at her entrance. I can feel her heat, how wet she is as she circles her hips, teasing me.
“Jesus Christ. You’re gonna kill me, babe.”
She flashes me that devilish smirk of hers and then, with no warning, she impales herself on my cock, right to the hilt, taking every fucking inch of me.
“Fuck,” I snarl. Amazing, babe. Amazing.
“Like that, baby?” she teases.
Little minx.
She stills. “Well? I asked you a question.”
>
Shit, I can’t stop myself. I need her to move now. Normally, I’d thrust my hips and force the issue, but I’ve given her control. “Yes!” I hiss. “Ride me, babe. Hard. Real fucking hard.”
That seems to satisfy her and she gives me what I just fucking begged her for. She slides up and down on my cock, riding me hard and wild like the hellcat she is.
She stops to grind against me, rubbing her wet pussy all over me. A series of soft sighs escape her lips as she pleasures herself.
And then she lifts almost all the way off me, before slamming back down hard. Fucking hell! She does it again and again, driving me to the brink of insanity. She’s building me up quickly and I’m right on the edge. A couple more times and I know I’m gonna blow my load.
She explodes as she drives me so fucking deep that a blissful cry rips from my throat. Her primal screams push me over the edge and I lose control as I come hard, pumping my release into her for so long that I think I’m gonna pass out.
She collapses on top of me, still impaled by my cock.
“Sensational,” I manage to choke out after several moments of nothing but heavy breathing passing between us. “You want to take control in the future, you just let me know. Anytime, babe.”
Chapter 12
~Emma~
Can’t concentrate. Picturing you bent over my desk.
I roll my eyes as I read Dan’s latest text. I laugh to myself as I text back: Maybe you should take matters into your own hands.
Much rather fill your tight pussy, babe. Mmm…or that sweet mouth of yours.
My God. Just a few words from him and I’m shifting in my seat as my entire body tingles with anticipation and fierce need. He doesn’t even actually have to touch me to make me wet. Damn him, he’s good.
Stop distracting me. Have a deadline to meet here. Ignoring you now.
He texts back a second later: Aww…spoil my fun, angel.
I laugh and push my phone over to the edge of the desk and return my concentration to my laptop and the manuscript I’m supposed to be working on.
Spending two days at Dan’s set me back quite a bit. Fortunately, I’ve managed to get some good writing done in the last few days that has more than made up for it.