by Holley Trent
His mother always said that people changed their plans for each other if they wanted each other badly enough, but that hadn’t turned out to be the case with him and Heidi. He’d be remiss in believing it would be true for Valerie, too.
Don’t you think it would be a good idea to be honest upfront? Tim queried Heidi. I mean about Kevin.
The phone’s 4G indicator flashed off and Tim powered down his phone. Fuck.
Heidi’s response probably didn’t matter, anyway. Tim was going to do what he thought was best, and for the moment, that was treading carefully.
He checked radar, made a few course adjustments, and returned to the galley to find Valerie pouring herself yet another bowl of cereal.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like something a little more substantial?” he asked.
“I’m certain my belly will relay that all this fiber and sugar is sufficient after a slight delay. One more bowl ought to do it.”
“I’ll probably take one, too.”
“That’s right. Hedge your bets,” she said with a wink.
She was so pretty.
I deserve pretty, he thought in a rare moment of vanity, but he wasn’t going to stifle the thought and shame himself for it. The past few years had been rife with stress and low on pleasure. Didn’t he deserve something extraordinary?
“So. What would you be doing right now if not sharing this grocery store delicacy with me?” she asked.
He snorted and poured a little more milk into his bowl. “There’s a small chance I’d still be at work catching up on paperwork.”
“Do you do much building yourself nowadays?”
“On very select projects. Most of what I do now is administrative. I spend more time pushing paper around and negotiating advertising and labor concerns than I do putting boats together.”
“Mmm. That’s why I’d never hang out my own shingle. I don’t need a manager or VP title if it means I can’t do the job I got into the business to do.”
“When did you decide you wanted to become an architect?”
“I was pretty young. I probably picked up on the word watching The Brady Bunch or something and later took a closer look at what the profession actually was. The job made a lot of sense for someone with my particular combination of personality traits. I even like the troubleshooting bits—the jobs that don’t go perfectly according to plan. Those always end up being the most fulfilling.”
“What was your fallback career?”
“Probably engineering. What was yours?”
“The same, actually.”
Her eyes went round. “Really?”
“Yeah, I’m a tinkerer at heart. Drove my mother nuts as a kid. Can’t be much of an engineer if you don’t go to college, though.”
“True.” She tapped her spoon pensively against the inside of her bowl and peered through the window behind her for a moment. “I considered engineering briefly when I was in college. There were a lot of job opportunities for people wanting to go into product development and computer engineering, but I really wanted to work outside in the fresh air sometimes. That’s why the project manager part of my job suits me. I actually get away from my desk.”
“And you get to put on a hardhat and get your shoes dirty, huh?”
She shrugged. “Or at the least, to be by a window so I could get some natural light. Even early humans came out of their caves sometimes.” She laughed, and he couldn’t help but laugh along with her. It was so infectious when she laughed like she meant it, and she didn’t try to stifle it. Her joy was refreshing, and he felt like a plant leaning toward her as if she were a bright light and he was starved for energy.
Maybe he was.
“I think we’re evolutionarily coded to seek the sun,” Valerie said.
Tim bobbed his eyebrows at that and spooned up some cereal. “Speaking of sun, do you think my house seems dark?”
She cringed and leaned against the bench’s padded back. “It is, but you’ve got to blame the trees for that.”
“I never cut them back because I wanted privacy from the neighbors. I guess a fence could do the same job.”
“Well, I don’t know. Fences are great if that’s your style, but trees are natural and they’re less obtrusive. You could try pruning back the trees a bit and installing skylights in strategic locations. You might also benefit from raising the pitch of the roof.”
“I’d probably feel a little less claustrophobic if I did.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to just scrap the house and start from scratch?”
“I thought you said you liked troubleshooting. Did you change your mind just that fast?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. There’s troubleshooting, and then there’s reinventing the wheel. I’ve got ideas for your house. You owe me big time for them. I think you know that. That’s why you brought me out on your boat, I bet. So you could feed me sugary cereal and make me forget how much work you’re making me do.”
He wasn’t going to bother correcting her on that. It served his purposes well for her to think that. “I’m also giving you sunshine. All that delicious Vitamin D has got to be worth something to you.”
“Mmm. Maybe…if that Vitamin D is the kind administered below the waist.” Grinning, she tipped her bowl a bit to the side and scooped up a golden marshmallow bit—the pot of gold.
Cheeky wench.
He’d always thought Heidi had a hell of a unique knack for unsubtle innuendo, but apparently, she wasn’t so singular.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky,” he said, suppressing a chuckle.
“Mmm.” Her tongue flashed out to clean up a bit of milk at the corner of her mouth, and naturally, from there, his mind went to licking it off her from wherever he wanted to pour it.
Maybe take her out on the deck and lay her out… He could already picture the rich white liquid pooling between her breasts and dripping down from her nipples.
He reached out and palmed her breast, catching her nipple between his finger and thumb.
At her little moan, he drew away, but not before appreciating the stiff peak thrusting against the fabric of her dress.
He needed to pace himself or he was going to be balls-deep in her before he’d even learned her exact age, alma mater, and coffee preferences.
He forced out a breath and crossed his arms over his chest. “So, tell me about your sister. What’s really with the running act? Convince me she’s as wild as you make out.”
Valerie forced out a breath of her own and slowly dragged her tongue across her lips. “Well, if you met her, you’d understand. She’s like a little kid you don’t want knowing your business because she’d tell it to some stranger at the first opportunity. I think she gets off on taking me down a peg whenever she can, so I try to keep my movements hidden from her.”
“So you were the good girl, huh?”
Valerie shrugged. “My grandmother still thinks I am, at least. I’d like to not disabuse her of that notion. She expects me to be a good influence for Leah because Leah is so susceptible to peer pressure.”
“What kind of trouble do you think she’ll get herself into?”
“If it exists, she’ll flirt with it. She’ll probably see Clay’s place as some kind of playland.”
“Has she ever been to a club or done fetish play?”
“I don’t think so, but honestly, that’s not really something I can bring up during the course of a normal sisterly conversation without her wondering why I want to know or asking how I know so much about it myself.”
“Hmm.” He slipped out from behind the table and opened the cabinets in search of coffee. He was going to be up and down until he could drop anchor, and already sleep tugged at him and dulled his senses. His ideal next move would be to curl up next to Valerie and explore her naked body until she nodded off, but he was a realist. If he snuggled up next to her warmth, he was going to be out like a light. Dom or not, middle age was a bitch.
“How did you and Clay discover you wo
uld both be failures in your sainted mother’s eyes if she were to learn about your hobbies?”
Tim chuckled and brought down a tin of half-caff and a box of filters. “That was an accident. Clay and I happened to bump into each other at a club in Houston. We couldn’t really pretend we didn’t know what was going on.”
She winced. “Awkward.”
“Very,” Tim said. Even more awkward was the fact Heidi had been there, too. They’d traveled down to Galveston for a boat show, and they’d all converged on the club as though it were their mothership.
“We sort of side-stepped each other and didn’t say anything about it for a few days.”
“So, he knows your kinks and you know his?”
“In general terms, I guess. We try not to get into specifics and more than I would about any normal aspect of sexuality. He knows that I’m straight, and I know he’s not, and beyond that, we know enough about each other to just scratch the surface.”
“You’d never let him make a match for you, huh?”
“Hell no, and I know that if he offers to, he’s just fucking with me. I don’t know if I’d trust the sort of woman he’d think was good for me.”
“Yeah?” Her smile waned but she fixed it quickly.
He probably wouldn’t have seen the change if he hadn’t had his gaze locked on her phenomenal lips.
What’s that about?
“Carine said she might let him make her a match, though,” Valerie said before he could ask her what had bothered her.
Still pondering her reaction, Tim chose not to respond for the moment. He got the coffeemaker going and returned to the table to fetch his empty bowl. Valerie’s, too. He rinsed them and left them in the sink to deal with later.
“I’m not exactly sure what she’s looking for,” she said, “but I guess it’s like with you and Clay. I’m curious, but I’m not sure I want to know that much about her.”
“How much does she know about you?”
Valerie raised one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “I’d guess at this juncture, she’d know quite a bit about what I like and what I don’t.”
“Care to share?”
“Why bother? You’ll figure it out, I’m sure.” She slipped out from behind the table and handily found herself a mug. She set it on the counter beside the brewing coffee pot and pointed to it. “Fill that, will you? I’m going to go outside and soak up a few more ultraviolet rays before the sun totally disappears.”
She headed toward the front of the galley, and he said quietly, “If you’re done with your meal, pretty girl, you could lose the dress. No need to be so formal when we’re not dining.”
It took her a moment, but she got moving again, saying nothing.
He’d made an order, not a request, even if he hadn’t raised his voice or put any heat behind the words. He preferred guiding his submissives that way, and a few of them were able to pick up the nuances. Obviously, he didn’t keep the ones who couldn’t, and of the few who did, he hadn’t wanted to keep long-term.
He was about to find out how good an architect—someone who was good with solid lines and things that were clearly black-and-white—was with nuances.
And Lord help me. If she’s too perfect, I don’t know what I’ll do with her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Valerie had really just wanted a cup of coffee and to relax on one of those comfortable deck chairs for a while before bed, but Tim had made a request of her, and indulging him wouldn’t be so unreasonable. Try as she might to not give him too much control, at the same time, she knew that he hadn’t abused what she’d given him yet. He left her feeling a lot strung out, sure, but he hadn’t caused her any pain, hadn’t humiliated her, and had only intrigued her more about him.
So she stepped out of her sundress, draped it over the low wooden cabinet that contained life vests, and stepped out of her shoes. He hadn’t explicitly said for her to lose everything, so she left on her panties and stockings, and perched on the edge of one of the loungers. If she had a big floppy hat and a pair of sunglasses, she’d feel like some brazen Type A celebrity sailing on a friend’s boat on the Riviera.
“And maybe a glass of champagne to complete the picture,” she said to no one.
“You want some?” The door creaked closed behind Tim as he stepped onto the deck with two big blue mugs of coffee. He set them on the little table between the loungers and pulled Valerie by the hand up to standing. “Do you?”
He pressed her body against his front and cupped her ass through her panties.
Her stocking-covered toes curled against the slick deck and her pussy clenched. “N-no, thank you.”
“You mentioned it.”
“I was talking to myself about silly things.”
“If you want it, I have some.”
“No. Save it for some celebration.”
She could celebrate how hard his cock was against her belly or how good his rough hands felt against her skin as he kneaded and rubbed, but she didn’t want to give him any ideas. He seemed to come up with enough on his own.
“Fine.” He leaned in and took her earlobe between his teeth, giving it a slight pull. “It pleases me that you follow instructions so prettily when you want to.”
She clamped her lips tightly and just nodded. What she’d had on the tip of her tongue was, “I want to please you,” but again, she didn’t want the man getting any ideas. She didn’t belong to him, and he wasn’t her dom. He was just a dom whom she happened to trust at the moment.
“Are you cold? It’s breezy out here.”
“A little.”
“Pity. I like the way you look in panties and tights, but I’d rather you go without them.”
She pressed her hands to her hipbones and worked her thumbs beneath the garter belt.
He didn’t let her go, he just moved his hands up her back, each tender tickle along her spine sending a tug down to her sex and making her breath hitch.
She got the stockings unfastened and pushed down the garter belt and her panties.
He knelt and helped them down the rest of the way. He had her step out of them, and then he slid his hands up her leg and rolled down her first stocking.
She couldn’t help but to look down and watch him so dexterously and confidently undress her. He knew what he wanted, and she wanted to give it to him. Giving it to him satisfied her, and his satisfaction warmed her body and primed her sex.
As he hooked his thumbs beneath the lace of her second stocking, he rolled that pale gaze up to her, saying nothing.
Again, she held her tongue, and not because she was afraid that she’d say too much, but because he hadn’t asked her to speak.
He knelt up a bit and hooked her clit with his tongue. He gave it a short, gentle, suck, then resumed his work of rolling down the stocking.
Oh God.
She prayed he wasn’t going to leave her unfulfilled all night.
Once she was fully nude, he stood and admired his work, canting his head and staring at her from head to toe.
In “real” life she would have made some comments about how demeaning his assessment was and would have demanded some respect, but with Tim, there was nothing demoralizing about the act. Judging by his smug expression, he seemed to be appreciating what he was looking at as much as he was assessing it.
“I’ll get you a soft blanket,” he said. “I’ll be right back. Enjoy your coffee.”
She didn’t move until he walked away, and she could feel the heat of his gaze on her backside as he looked back.
When she thought he was out of earshot, she let out a long, ragged breath and risked a glance down at the apex of her thighs.
Her clit was puffy and upper thighs wet with arousal, and he’d barely touched her. She groaned.
He’s going to kill me with withholding.
She snuggled up on one of the two loungers and grabbed the mug closest to her. The coffee had a white, foamy top and a small sip informed her it was carefully sweetened.
“Ugh, he’s even good with coffee.”
It didn’t seem fair that he had such adroitness with so many things.
He returned a moment later with a fuzzy, blue blanket draped over one forearm, a tablet computer in that hand, and in the other was a vibrator he didn’t even try to hide.
What the hell?
Tim covered Valerie with the blanket that smelled like cedar and lavender, set the vibrator on the little table atop a hand towel, and took the seat beside her. He grabbed the second coffee cup and pulled back the lid on the tablet.
“Reading some of this contract verbiage is as fun as watching paint dry, but I told my office manager I’d peruse them and send back my notes.” He sipped. Read.
She watched, switching her gaze between him and the plastic device on the table. He’d just left it there so casually as if it were just some mail he’d brought up to read later or a bottle of sunscreen he needed to reapply.
Huh.
She sat back with her coffee and tried to relax in spite of the anticipation. The waves were calm, and the sky was a pretty pastel rainbow as the nighttime sky chased down the remnants of the day. It was an Instagram sky, but her phone was in the pocket of her dress and turned off. She’d powered down right after reading Carine’s promise that she wouldn’t let Leah get herself into trouble and that she’d try to ensure that the woman was on her way home by Sunday.
Valerie’s eyelids had started to droop by the time Tim set down his tablet. She straightened up and took another sip of the coffee she obviously hadn’t drunk enough of.
Tim leaned a bit to the side and dug into the pocket of his khaki shorts, extracting a length of shiny black fabric which he shook out.
He got up, took the mug from her, and set it on the table.
He pressed the silk over her eyes and instinctively, she leaned forward for him to tie it behind her head.
“Good girl,” he whispered. “All dark?”
“Yes.”
He pressed warm hands up her thighs and parted them. Just the touch had her sex clenching and teeth gritting. He pushed them even farther apart, opening her and exposing her completely.