She blushed, but a smile lit up her eyes.
Ah, those were the right words. Trey smiled back.
"This time, angel, you kiss me."
"I wasn't kissing you before?"
"Mind, or I'll have to spank you." That was the first test. Would she do as he asked? It was a simple thing.
She bit her lower lip and Trey's cock reacted with a strong twitch. That habit of hers was going to make his balls explode.
Her breath was warm on his throat as she glided her hands up his arms and shoulders to his face. Trembling at her fingertips, she balanced up on tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. Her kiss was shy, but not discouraging. It was, in fact, perfect. She was not an aggressor by any means, but she was cooperative even with things that so obviously took her out of her comfort zone.
Trey slid his hands to her breasts and cupped them. She drew a sharp breath against his lips. He persisted, adding a little pressure to the way he held her plump breasts, and then using his thumbs to tease her nipples. It was gratifying when they hardened into stiff points. He took those hard nubs between thumbs and forefingers and gave them a pinch, and she moaned softly against his mouth, then arched back, pressing her breasts into his hands.
All very good.
He alternated pinches and caresses and she panted and squirmed against him. He left off kissing her, and gritted his teeth together as the urge to take her grew. Self-control always came before controlling another, however, and he prided himself on that control.
"Take your blouse and bra off, darlin'."
She seemed to regain some focus as he moved his hands away. "Out here?" She looked around at the blind trees filled with chirping birds. "In the open?"
"Do you think someone is goin' to come along?"
"I—I don't know."
"No one will come, Liv. Trust me."
She stared at him, undecided, for several long seconds, and then her hands went to her blouse and she started unbuttoning. Slowly, she peeled off the cotton blouse and white eyelet bra and dropped them on a tuft of grass. Her breasts were bared for him.
He took the time to look at her, at the full, round breasts she was sharing. Barely touched by gravity, they were tipped with dark pink nipples, large and hard and eager for his hands to return. And return he did.
Trey pressed them together, rubbing his thumbs over her peaks. He created maximum cleavage, then bent and pressed his face against the dividing track, loving the pillow softness, the warmth of her, and the scent of her orange-blossom perfume. She arched and held his shoulders for balance.
Placing little kisses and a few tiny bites across her pale globes, he headed toward a pointed nipple and took it in his mouth. As he pressed his teeth into it, she gasped and shuddered.
"Trey."
His answer was to bite gently again and then more firmly. She squirmed and moaned. He bit a little harder and her moan got louder. She didn't push him away or protest. It appeared that Liv liked a little twinge of pain.
Trey moved to her other nipple, sprinkling kisses and bites along the way, and worried that anxious peak as he had the first. He could smell her arousal, even through her jeans. The urge was strong to strip her and take her, lift her up, wrap her legs around him and press her back against a tree, but he resisted.
"Oh God, Trey."
Slowly, he kissed his way back up to her mouth where he took it with ravening force. She responded hungrily, pressing her now dark red nipples against his shirted chest. He thought he could make her come with a judicious application of teeth and tongue to her nipples, but she would have to wait as he was waiting. Timing was important, and it was not yet time.
She panted as he ended their kiss, and he could feel her fingernail marks in his biceps.
"I think that's enough for the day," he told her. "Put on your blouse, angel, and let's get y'all back to your people."
"But…"
He smiled at her. "We'll get where we're goin’ eventually," he told her. "Be patient and trust me."
A fleeting frown marred her even features, but it quickly disappeared. "I guess I'd better mind. I don't want that spanking you threatened me with."
He laughed as he watched her shake out her blouse and put it on. "Have you ever been spanked, Liv?"
"No. Of course not."
"'Of course not'? You mean you've never been naughty?"
That brief frown again. Trey figured she was resentful of the way he'd stopped their encounter. That was an interesting tidbit to think about. "I'm not the naughty type."
"I guess we'll see about that."
"Yeah, well…whatever."
"You're pissed off."
She looked at him, mouth tight. "Maybe. What are you—Iron Man? Able to put your cock in a box and ignore it?"
Trey laughed. "Far from it."
"It doesn't show." She rotated her shoulders and her posture relaxed a bit. "Good thing I brought my vibrator, I guess."
He touched her face, then slid his thumb over her lower lip. Her eyes closed tightly, then opened slowly, her gaze almost pleading with him.
"Don't use it."
"Don't…" She looked confused for a moment. "The vibrator?"
"Right. Don't use it."
"Why not?"
"Because I said so."
This time, her frown stuck in place. "I don't have to do what you tell me to do. You're not the boss of me."
“Well, not yet, at any rate,” he replied.
She muttered, "Yet. Hmph."
Trey chuckled and reached for her hips, pulling her up against him. "You really do have a hankerin' for a red bottom, li'l girl."
She pushed against his chest, her mouth turned down at the corners. Trey noted that her show of strength was half-hearted. Her hard nipples and warm belly told him that she wasn't really interested in shoving him away.
He cupped Liv's round bottom, finding that her thin jeans weren't much of an impediment. Excellent. Watching her face to gauge her reaction, he raised his hand and swatted her behind firmly.
She squealed and smacked his shoulder. "Hey!"
He did it again and she glowered at him. Liv squirmed in the arch of his arms, but didn't try to escape. In fact, she pushed her bottom back toward his hand, encouraging him more.
A few more spanks and she got wide-eyed and red-cheeked. He bent his head and found her lips. They were sweet and warm. Her response was eager. His erection throbbed against her lightly-cushioned belly.
"There now, darlin'," he soothed as he raised his head. Her eyes were unfocused. "Liv."
"Mmm."
He swatted her again several times and she moaned, blue eyes shut tight. "How close are you, angel?"
"Close, Trey."
He cupped her bottom again, pleased to feel the extra heat emanating from those perfect globes. "Don't use the vibrator and there will be a reward in it for you."
"Vibrator?"
"Liv. Don't use it." He gave her another hard smack.
"Oh God, Trey. Don't stop."
He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and then took her lips again, nibbling for a moment before finding her tongue with his own. Her response was to welcome him deep into her mouth. When he broke their kiss, she was rubbing her belly against the solid bulge in his jeans and punctuating his spanks with soft sounds of pleasure.
"No vibrator, Liv. Don't forget."
"Okay. Let me come now."
He pulled away from her and she almost stumbled. As he held her firmly, he smiled at her frown. "Reward later, darlin'. You mind first."
"Trey… You want me to beg? Is that it?"
Her face was so smooth under his fingers. "Hell no. I want you to earn your reward, that's all."
"Later?"
He nodded. "Yup."
Her sigh was deep as she took a step back. "How will you know I ob- did what you asked?"
"I'll know."
"Hmph. Well, I won't test you." She looked at her shoes, a blush rising to her cheeks. "I want more."
A little chuckle burbled up in his throat. "Yeah, you do."
She frowned. "Don't be so smug."
"Me? Smug?"
"You are not my boss, Trey. If I do what you want, it's because I want to do it."
He shrugged. "No, I'm not your boss. Does that bother you?"
* * *
Liv considered that question carefully, because in some ways, yes, it did bother her. She hadn't had a boyfriend in two years—ever since she, well, since she changed. She'd been chalking it up to career pressure, but that wasn't the truth.
Because Liv was successful in her career, most men assumed that she was a take-charge kind of woman in all aspects of her life. But oh how she'd love to give up some of that control and float on a sea of trust and duty. Trust in someone to care about her, and duty to one to whom she felt loyal. There was no one like that in her life.
To top it off, her body just wasn't something she could share easily anymore. She was self-conscious out of her clothes, which was a sharp difference between her Paris days and current times. She didn't like her new body, even though it was easier to maintain.
If she had a "boss" who cared about how she felt, he would want her the way she was, chubby and not particularly in vogue. He would give her support with her career.
It did bother her that no one was her boss. Surprisingly, it bothered her enough that she got defensive about it.
"In case you hadn't noticed it, Trey, I'm doing okay on my own."
He grinned, unharmed by her barb. "Oh yeah, I noticed.”
"Are you nominating yourself as Boss of Liv?"
Laughing, he took her hand and started down the trail heading toward the photo shoot. "I might be. Not sure I know enough to hire you yet, though."
She pulled back her hand and stopped. "Not sure? What do you mean by that?"
"I'm not sure you're ready to follow orders from an officer."
"Don't go all soldierly on me, Trey. I'm not a recruit."
He took her hand again and they traveled a few more steps. "I'll bet you'd be shocked and resentful about the kind of orders I might give you." He looked at her and she frowned at his grin. "Especially in the bedroom."
The idea of being in a bedroom being ordered by Trey set Liv's blood on fire, and she hadn't recovered from their earlier encounter yet! Her clit was still pulsing and anxious.
"What makes you think I'd be so easily shocked. I might be a total slut, for all you know."
He laughed hard at that, and she pulled her hand away and walked a little faster. "If you're a slut, Liv, then I'm the King of England."
She wasn't a blushing wallflower—sex was a way of life in the fashion business—but she'd never been promiscuous, opting for relationship-building over variety. "Okay, so I'm not a slut, but neither am I a virgin."
He was still smiling, the annoying man. "I didn't think you were."
"So we agree that I wouldn't be shocked."
He shook his head. "I don't say that, darlin’."
"Look, Trey, I’m a model. I've heard about everything by now. You can't shock me."
He looked at her with a tease in his eyes. Trey was playing with her, she realized. "Hearin' about kink and doin’ it yourself are different things."
"You think you're too kinky for me." Liv admitted to herself that she wasn't particularly kinky, having unsuccessfully tried a thing or two.
"I know I'm too kinky for you…right now."
Liv thought about that as they hiked down the path. "What's your kink?"
"BDSM," he said simply.
That was rather surprising. Trey didn't seem like the whips and chains type. "You mean with floggers and handcuffs and stuff like that?"
"Somethin’ like that. I'm more into hands than tack, but you get the idea. I like to spank, in particular, and I like to be in charge, in general." He took her hand again and she didn't shake herself loose. "Does submission interest you?"
"You mean to you? Me submit to you?"
He murmured agreement.
Control. She'd be out of control if she let him take it from her. She'd be trusting him to use the relationship to their mutual satisfaction, and not abuse it. Liv thought about his rough fingers on her nipples and shuddered with remembered pleasure. The swats on her bottom had revved her up and nearly sent her over the edge. It surprised her; she would never have pictured herself as someone who wanted to be spanked. However, a little pain was stimulating. Would she want more? How revealing should she be? And could she really submit, looking as she did? So far, she hadn't even had missionary sex with a man since she'd changed.
"Maybe."
He cleared his throat.
"Well, a little. I guess it would depend."
"Oh? On what?"
"How far it was supposed to go. I wouldn't want to be anyone's slave or anything like that."
"Good bosses don’t micro-manage, darlin’, it’s too much like work. I do set some general boundaries on behavior, but I'm more dominant in the bedroom than anywhere else. And in clubs, of course."
She'd heard of BDSM clubs though she'd never gone to one. At one time, she might have been convinced to wear latex and no bra, but she never had, and it was too late for that now. She didn't have the body for it anymore.
"There are some things I couldn't get into, Trey."
"Glad to hear that. Anyone with self-respect has limits. No sub worth havin' has no limits. I don't want a doormat."
What did he want? He'd already said she wasn't ready for him. Already said he didn't know if he wanted to be her boss. The whole argument was moot.
"Why are we talking about this?"
"To get to know each other better. To see if we're movin' toward somethin' instead of wanderin' around blindly."
The photo shoot was in sight. "I do feel a little out of my depth."
He squeezed her hand and stopped them at the edge of the tree line. His eyes were so brown, like a warm cup of coffee. He put his arms around her, and she turned her face up for a kiss, but he pressed his lips on her forehead and let go of her. Liv realized she'd been leaning in toward him when she stumbled back a pace.
"Trust me, darlin'."
Liv nodded, but she wasn't sure she meant it. Could she trust him?
Could she trust herself to let go?
* * *
Chapter 3
Trey went back to whatever he did during the day, and Liv finished up her photo session. He hadn't asked her to look at the stars with him again, and she thought maybe her lukewarm response to his BDSM admission had put him off. But, as she began moving toward a trailer, he showed up again.
She stood there and admired him as he got out of his truck and put a cowboy hat on his head. It was black and curved perfectly to fit the shape of his rugged face, and he looked so damn sexy in it. She wanted to mark him as her territory when the other girls stopped and looked at him, too.
Gabriella, in fact, watched him intensely. Younger Gabriella. Pretty Gabriella, whose career was just beginning to take off. Ambitious Gabriella. Liv thought about the possibility of competition. It made her fingers tighten into a ball. She hadn't competed for a man in several years. She had confidence in her ability—confidence left over from before—but she was, at the same time, concerned about what Trey was looking for. It was always possible that, faced with a choice of a younger woman, he'd choose youth over maturity. Lots of men did.
She didn't know why it mattered so much to her anyway. But it did.
He walked right up to her and yanked on a lock of her hair. "Hey there."
Liv pulled her hair out of his hand. "Hey, yourself. What are you doing back here?"
"I came to pick you up."
Excitement bubbled up in her belly, but she tried to remain nonchalant on the outside. "We didn't have anything planned."
"I want you to meet some people. Come have dinner with us."
"Dinner?" Food. Why was there always food? She was hungry, but she didn't want him to see her eat like a pig. She
knew she ate too much. She used to eat too little, and the pendulum had swung.
"Yes, ma'am. There's a wonderful cantina in Sonora and I'm meetin' a few friends there for dinner. It seemed like somethin' we'd have fun doin' together."
"I'm not hungry," she lied.
"Then just have a margarita. Come on, Liv. It'll be fun. These are good people."
She bit her lower lip and thought about it. Gabriella took that moment to walk up and greet Trey.
"Hi, cowboy. Where's your horse?"
He laughed and gave her a warm smile. Liv's face stiffened.
Pointing toward his truck, he said, "That’s my horse over there; he’s a were-truck. Come the full moon, he transforms into an appaloosa. He gets twenty miles to the hay bale.”
The younger woman laughed. Dimples showed in her cheeks. Liv could have gleefully throttled her.
"Going for an evening ride…in your were-truck?"
She was flirting! Gabriella was flirting with Trey. Liv fixed on her best ice queen smile and addressed the girl. "We were about to leave, Gabby."
Trey shot her a neutral look, but his eyes spoke volumes. They said he was wondering what had gotten into her, and Liv wondered the same thing. Nonetheless, she sailed on as if she hadn't a care in the world. Inside her heart was pounding.
Gabriella's smile wilted. "Oh. Well, I'll have to hope for a ride—in your truck—another time." She patted his bicep. "Good to see you again, Trey. Have fun, Liv."
Liv nodded and smiled, genuinely pleased that she'd won that round. It wasn't nice of her, and she knew it. Some part of her was even contrite over shooting Gabriella down as she'd done. And for something she wasn't even sure she should want. Well, Liv wasn't trying for the Miss Congeniality award.
Trey wished Gabriella a good evening, and when he and Liv were alone again, he stuck his thumbs in his belt and smiled at Liv as though he knew exactly why she'd done what she'd done. She squared her shoulders and tried to look unaffected.
Liv's Journey Page 3