Hardcore Vanilla

by Golden Angel

  Which was why he'd made himself get up.

  That was not the kind of relationship they had. Plus, denying her the pleasure of kicking him out was a small triumph in and of itself. Although, after the many orgasms he'd given her last night, he wasn't entirely sure she would have kicked him out... But he wouldn't put it past her. If only because she'd said she would and had seemed like she was looking forward to it.

  Walking through her apartment and picking up his clothes had made him feel strangely insecure. Yeah, he knew that she was independently wealthy, but knowing it and seeing where she actually lived were two different things. The view from her windows in the morning light was just as spectacular than it had been the night before, if not more so. The kitchen was a chef's dream, the living areas elegant but homey, and everything looked like it was state-of-the-art.

  Put all together, it was more than a little intimidating. He glanced at the coffee maker, but it looked like he'd need a manual to figure out how to work it, so he just passed it by.

  He could get coffee at his apartment... which was half the size of her place. Maybe less than half the size.

  Cut it out, don't be an ass.

  Intellectually he knew there was nothing wrong with a woman having more money than a man. Heck, his mom had made more than his dad before she’d retired. It still felt odd to realize exactly how much wealthier Sharon was than him.

  At least he knew she was using him for his body and not for anything else he could give her. His mouth twitched. If anything, she was probably the one on that side of the equation most of the time. A second later, he frowned, not liking the idea of a guy using Sharon for her money. There was a lot more to her than that.

  Like how cute she was when she was sassy, the way she made him laugh, the adorably teasing expression she got on her face when she wanted to be naughty, the surprising sweetness that she tried to keep hidden...

  Running his hand over his face, he groaned as he went down the elevator and headed out to his car.

  He didn't need to dwell on what Sharon had to offer in a relationship.

  It was already hard enough keeping his emotions separate.

  ******

  "Come on in, it's safe," Leigh said, opening the door wide and speaking in a normal voice. "Melody is awake and feeding right now."

  "Oh good," Sharon said with relief as she stepped into Adam and Angel's house. She'd texted Leigh and gone through the garage rather than ringing the doorbell. Waking up a sleeping newborn was a big no-no. Holding a whole chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and pie that she'd picked up on her way over, she headed into the kitchen. "I've got dinner and dessert for them here, and there should be plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow too. What else do we have going on today?"

  Everyone was chipping in to help Angel and Adam with their new delivery. This week Leigh and Angel's mom were taking turns staying overnight to help the couple with day-to-day things - Adam's mom and stepfather would be in town next week for the same reason and his father and stepmom the week after that - but the rest of the Stronghold gang had signed up to stop by and help as well. That way Angel and Adam had constant food coming in as well as extra hands on deck for whatever they needed.

  This was Sharon's first time over since they'd brought Melody home and she was eager to do whatever she could to help out. Plus, it was a good distraction from how deliciously sore she was, and it would keep her from giving in to her impulse to text Jake. Waking up without him this morning had been a bit disappointing - which was not good as far as keeping things casual was concerned.

  "Not much other than sleep," Leigh said, laughing softly as she followed Sharon into the kitchen. "The house is clean, I've got a load of laundry in the machine, and Adam is currently napping so that he can take over baby care for a few hours when Melody is done feeding."

  "Do they need anything from the store?" Sharon asked in a low voice. "The bassinet is working out okay? Do they need more diapers? Nipple balm?"

  She was pretty sure Angel was well equipped after the shower, but she wanted to make sure. One of the nice things about having money was being able to make sure that the people she cared about were well provided for. Sharon liked to spoil her friends. Especially because these friends didn't expect to be spoiled and frequently tried to dissuade her from doing so. It was kind of fun to be sneaky about it.

  "They've got everything," Leigh said, looking amused as she opened the fridge door so Sharon could put the food she'd brought in there. Not that there was a ton of room. Leigh smirked. "We could use some help eating some of the food."

  "Apparently. I already ate today, but maybe later." That was, if she stayed long enough to get hungry. If they didn't need her, she didn't want to intrude.

  "Come on." Leigh headed toward the hallway, waving her hand over her shoulder. "What Angel says she really wants is social interaction."

  "Yes please!" Angel called from the front room, responding to Leigh's statement. As Sharon got closer, she could hear the sound of the television as well. "I demand adult conversation so I don't feel so much like my only purpose in life is as a milk machine."

  "But you're so good at it," Leigh said teasingly.

  "See why I need someone else to talk to?" Angel joked as Sharon stepped into the room. "She's so mean to me."

  Sitting in the cushy armchair by the unlit fireplace, Angel looked both tired and content with Melody in her arms. The tiny baby was completely oblivious to everything going on around her as she fed. Looking down at her, Angel smiled, and then yawned. Both she and Leigh were still dressed in pajamas - Sharon was assuming pajama pants for Angel. A throw blanket covered her lower half, but since Leigh was wearing pajama pants, it only made sense that Angel was too.

  "What do you want to talk about?" Sharon asked, grinning as she sat down.

  "What's going on with you? I feel like when I'm awake I've been stuck either in this chair or on the couch ever since we brought Melody home. There must be something good going on. I need to live vicariously, woman." Even as she spoke, she yawned again.

  "Uh... not much really." Sharon shrugged. "Same old, same old. Work, Stronghold, trying to figure out who I'm going to bring as a date to my cousin's wedding."

  "I heard you were at Stronghold last night and Jake was a dick but ran out after you to apologize... and then never came back," Leigh said, her tone innocent.

  Sharon narrowed her eyes at her as Angel sat up a little bit straighter, hazel eyes alight with interest.

  "Oh yeah? What's going on with you and Jake?"

  "The usual," Sharon insisted, sticking her tongue out at Leigh. "He was a dick and took it too far, so he came out to apologize. I went home. I don't know why he didn't go back inside; you'd have to ask him."

  "Uh huh." Angel gave her a look. "You know he's totally got a thing for you, right?"

  This was not a conversation she should be having.

  Rolling her eyes, Sharon shrugged. "Then he's got a shitty way of showing it."

  Total lie. She got why he'd been a dick last night. If she'd thought he was fooling around with another woman before going home with her... Yeah, she wouldn't have reacted well either. But it wasn't like either of these two knew anything about that.

  They were just fishing for information.

  "The Stronghold gossip train is already up and running this morning, huh?" she asked, making a face. The whole group could be worse than a bunch of old ladies sometimes, men included. Heck, sometimes the men were worse gossips than the women. Before she’d become a part of this group, Sharon hadn't realized exactly how gossip-y men could be. The Stronghold Doms were tightly knit and it showed in how fast news spread among them.

  "Just people making sure I'm in the know," Angel said, blinking sleepily as she grinned at Sharon.

  Uh huh. Sharon saw a lot of future competition for being the first to update Angel and Adam on any juicy gossip. She and Jake were going to have to conduct themselves more carefully if they didn't want their friends but
ting in.

  ******

  Planning Lexie and Patrick's engagement party wasn't really something Jake was interested in, but he found himself sitting through a planning session anyway - mostly because once the topic started over dinner, his mom wasn't about to let it go. He was absolutely willing to help out, but he'd rather just be told what to do, rather than involved in figuring out what they were going to do. His dad was the same way, and tended to grunt when asked for an opinion.

  Not surprisingly, Patrick - control freak that he was - jumped right into being involved. Lexie was interested but not particularly picky about any of it. Watching their dynamic always made his lips twitch, especially because right now Patrick was trying very hard to make sure Lexie had everything the way she liked it, while Lexie didn't care as much as Patrick did about the gritty details.

  "I don't really care if we have it here or if we go out somewhere," she told him, obviously exasperated. She looked at her mom. "Although I'm a little worried about clean up and imposing on you and dad if we did it here."

  "Oh, don't worry about that." Mom waved her hands, as if she were shooing Lexie's concerns away. "We'll get it catered and they'll do all the work."

  Lexie and Jake exchanged a glance. Their mom might say that, but they knew she'd be right in the thick of things. On the other hand, that would be true regardless. She loved events, and the fact that this one was for her daughter's upcoming wedding...

  The nice thing about Lexie getting married before him was that, hopefully, his mom would have most of this out of her system by the time Jake was ready to settle down. He wasn’t ready to settle down yet.

  Sharon's face flitted through his mind, and he dropped his head down to focus on his food so that no one could see his smile. They weren't seeing each other again tonight, but he'd texted her earlier to say that he'd enjoyed last night... And she'd texted back saying that he better have, because it was going to take a few days before her love tunnel was open for business again. Since she hadn't been there to hear him, he'd laughed his ass off.

  He was pretty sure she'd been trying to annoy him with the unsexy euphemism, but he'd just found it very entertaining, and very Sharon.

  "What about you, Jake?" His mom asked, dragging his attention back to the conversation. "Will you be bringing a date?"

  "Ah, no," he said, immediately pushing aside any thoughts of Sharon.

  For one, she would be at the party anyway, as one of Lexie's friends - hell, possibly as a bridesmaid for all he knew – second of all, he was not going to be introducing her to his parents as a date. Just trying to imagine her being her usual blunt, occasionally foul-mouthed self in front of his mom made him feel twitchy. It was going to be a big party though, so hopefully his parents wouldn't spend much time with her, although if she were there as his date his mom would have laser-like focus on her.

  Big nope there.

  Plus, it seemed like bad form to introduce his fuck buddy to his parents as a date. This was also why having a fuck buddy within his circle of friends wasn't the best idea, although he still didn't regret it.

  Jake averted his eyes away from Patrick, who was suddenly looking at him a little too closely. His best friend was uncomfortably observant and knew Jake far too well. Trying to hide anything from him was always a crap shoot, but Jake was going to try.

  Their friendship really hadn't changed that much... Except that Jake wasn't sure Patrick would be able to keep something like him hooking up with Sharon from Lexie. And if Patrick told Lexie, she would probably tell Angel or Leigh, whom she was especially close with, and then things would just snowball from there. That was how it worked in their group of friends. Everyone had just that one person they would tell, and within a day they all knew.

  Fortunately, Patrick couldn't exactly question him at the dinner table, and he was quickly distracted by talking about themes, food, and decoration possibilities.

  It looked like Jake was going to make a clean getaway after dinner, until Patrick followed him outside to his car. Bracing himself for the inquisition, Jake's put on his poker face.

  "Hey, so ah... I've been wanting to ask you..." Patrick looked a little uncomfortable which was surprising. Normally he didn't hesitate with questions, even if they were invasive. "Will you be my best man?"

  Jake blinked.

  His thoughts took a hard turn away from where he'd thought the conversation was going to go and he floundered for a second.

  "What? I mean yes! Yes, of course, man!" His face split open in a grin, followed a second later by Patrick's broad smile. Patrick opened his arms and Jake stepped in, hugging the shit out of the man who had been his best friend since childhood and was soon going to be his brother.

  Granted, in the back of his head, considering his relationship to Patrick and Lexie, he'd pretty much been expecting that that would be his position, but hearing Patrick actually ask him... Well, it had a surprising emotional impact. He blinked back a few tears as they hugged each other hard, patting each other's backs before pulling apart again.

  "I was going to ask you last night, but you disappeared on me," Patrick said, raising one dark eyebrow at Jake. His deep voice sounded a little funny, like he was holding back some of his emotions too, hiding them behind his teasing.

  "Ah... yeah, well." Jake coughed. He shrugged. "I didn't really feel like going back in after apologizing to Sharon."

  "Uh huh." Patrick sounded more amused than disbelieving. He knew Jake was lying and Jake knew he knew. But he wasn't going to come right out and confirm. "Well, this should be interesting."

  Jake scowled at him. "It's nothing."

  "Uh huh," Patrick said again, smirking at him before turning around and heading back to the house. "If it was nothing, you wouldn't care about telling me."

  Damn him for being right.

  ******

  Last week Sharon had managed to keep away from Jake until the weekend... this week, not so much. Now her hungry beaver was now more like an exhausted beaver from wood overload. Sex with him was like a drug.

  Worse, she was enjoying just spending some time with him in between the sex.

  That wasn't supposed to be happening.

  Sitting on her couch, she glared down at her yoga-pants-covered crotch. "You insatiable bitch. You're getting me into trouble."

  Maybe it wasn't entirely her poor puff pillow's fault. Jake was the one who'd started sending the sexy text messages to tempt her into coming over on Sunday afternoon. She had managed not to spend the night at least, but they'd ended up ordering pizza and watching a movie together afterwards, because he'd heard her stomach grumbling and had felt it was only polite to feed her after fucking her brains out.

  They'd ended up getting together Monday too after she'd sent him a pic of the sexy shoes she'd worn to work that day.

  Then it had just kind of become a pattern.

  One of them would text, the texts would turn sexy, then he'd come over to her place or she'd go to his and suddenly she’d realized that they'd spent every night together. Heck, on Thursday morning she'd even tried to gross him out, asking him if he wanted to try the Breakfast of Champions... and instead of being turned off by her crudeness, he'd made them both late to work by diving into her muff tongue first.

  Which still hadn't stopped them from getting together Thursday night where they'd ended up having a quickie in a restroom at a bar, which really shouldn't have been as hot as it was. In fact, they'd gone to the bar just because Sharon had gone there for happy hour with some people from work and then Jake had texted her. She'd told him where she was, and then the next thing she knew she was skirt up, panties down, and getting pounded from behind while they could hear all the noise from the bar.

  Jake was a dirty fucker, he just hid it better than the rest of their friends. And she was loving it.

  They didn’t have epic fuck fests every time though. That she really wouldn't have been able to handle. There was only so much chasm spasming a woman's body could physically tolerate. />
  Tonight, though, she was going to Stronghold and she figured he would be there. Hopefully he would be less of a dick than last weekend. There had to be less sexual tension between them at this point, right? Although, being somewhere that they could watch everyone else have sex but couldn't even touch each other wasn't going to help.

  Maybe the real thrill was the taboo of the forbidden... and the occasional public places... and the fact that Jake liked to do her in front of windows and mirrors... and the multiple orgasms...

  Sharon's phone started to buzz as the Imperial March from Star Wars began to play. She groaned. Well, that was one way to kill her libido fast.

  Reluctantly, she picked up the phone and answered.

  "Hello."

  "Sharon, why haven't you given Melinda a name for your date yet? Are you not bringing one?" Her mother's sharp tone sliced at her and Sharon leaned back against the sofa, dropping her head back and closing her eyes as she prepared to deal with her parental unit. Hello to you too, mom, I'm doing well, how are you?

  "I'm going to bring someone."

  "Well she needs to be able to make out the name cards for the seating arrangements. Lorraine says you still haven't given them a name for your plus one."

  Of course Aunt Lorraine would insist on having a name. Leaving it blank or having to write it in last minute would horrify her. Melinda wouldn't give a crap, but she was probably letting her mom handle most of the wedding details. It was just easier to let Aunt Lorraine have her way. Sharon could sympathize. If she ever got married, she would probably elope just so she wouldn't have to deal with her parents.

  "I'll call her this weekend," Sharon said, neatly sidestepping the need to give her mom a name now. The last thing she wanted was for her mom to call up Aunt Lorraine with Brian's name and then have him not be able to go. For her mother and aunt, trying to switch names on them last minute would be even worse than being late with one.