by Maren Smith
“Want me to check under the bed?” he asked, completely serious with his offer.
Aubrey shook her head. She felt stupid enough as it was, but that didn’t automatically kill her unease or stop her shivers.
“I’m okay,” she lied, a little of her Big already creeping back into her tone. “How long do you think the lights will be out for?”
“No idea, princess. Hopefully, not long enough for the heat to bleed out of this room.” When he started to get up, the panic rippled through her all over again.
“Where are you going?”
“It’s okay. I’m not leaving.” He stretched far enough to snag the shoulder strap of his duffel bag, hauling it up onto the bed. Digging through the side pocket, he withdrew a charging battery and cord. “Here we go.” Plugging his phone into the portable charger, he dropped the duffel back on the floor before settling himself once more on the bed. “Perpetual light. Sadly, what I don’t have is anything to keep us entertained. Not even a deck of cards.”
He still wasn’t laughing at her. Aubrey relaxed a little more.
“I have some coloring books,” she offered.
“No, princess.” Stretching his long legs out across the bed again, he crossed his ankles and folded his hands behind his head. “The light’s enough to keep monsters at bay, but not enough to see by. You’ll go blind.”
His tone was all cheerful nurturing and implied strictness. The combination leeched the lingering stiffness from her spine.
“I don’t think I’ll really go blind,” she hedged. “My books have really thick, black lines. It’s easy to stay inside them, even with markers.”
“I don’t make the rules, princess,” he tsked. “I just enforce them, and somehow, I don’t think you want me to have to do that.” Now his tone was all implied strictness, delivered with a side of cheerful nurturing. He looked at her, eyebrow cocked, as he waited to see if she would push any further.
“What are we going to do then?” The Little in her was too thrilled by that look to rebel.
“Wait a few minutes to see if the power comes back on. If not, I guess we’re going to bed a little early tonight.”
Aubrey eased back against the headboard. Side-by-side, they stared across the empty room, the only sounds were the enthusiastic moans from the room behind them.
“Give it about ten minutes.” Branch checked his wristwatch. “These things either come back on within ten minutes or they’re out for a long time.”
If it was out longer than ten minutes, the room was going to get cold. With outside temperatures in the teens, it might get colder than the bed’s single blanket and thin comforter could counter. Biting her bottom lip, Aubrey nestled down under the blanket and tried to plot out exactly what she would do if the power did stay out. There was one bed and one set of blankets that was it. Yes, there was a chair by the window, but she already knew she wasn’t going to make him sleep on it any more than she would volunteer to sleep there.
They were grownups. This wasn’t the fifteenth century. They didn’t need a chaperone or a line of swords to halve the mattress; the queen-sized bed wasn’t big enough for that, anyway. It wasn’t like they had to answer to anyone or convince people they had or hadn’t been good all night. They didn’t have to tell anyone at all. Nobody in the world had to know about this.
She would know though. Her skin was tingling everywhere because of what she knew.
The steady knocking on the wall at her back quickened its pace. She could feel the vibrations through the headboard. Branch could too, she could tell by the way he was smiling. It was more of a wince as though he wanted to apologize, even though it wasn’t his fault.
“Hey,” he said brightly. “How about a game?”
Anything beat sitting in the dark, being serenaded by the amorous couple next door.
“What kind of game?”
“How about ‘Truth or Dare’? Ever play that before?”
“Yeah,” she scoffed “At a slumber party once. I think I was twelve.”
“Then you know the rules. Ours will be a more adult version, just FYI.”
Her body tingled. Clearing her throat, she shifted where she sat. “Okay.”
“I’ll go first. Truth or Dare?”
Aubrey licked her lips. Just the mystery of what he might ask if she said ‘dare’ made her thighs clench under the covers. “Truth.”
“What made you bring the bear in?” he asked, leveling a crooked smile at her.
Of all the unlikely questions she expected him to ask, she’d never considered that one. She looked at Potentially Demonic Bear sitting on the tiny nightstand on her side of the bed. “Well… I figure I have a fifty-fifty chance of him coming to life in the middle of the night, wreaking havoc against anyone who gets in the way of him obtaining a new body.”
“A, that’s the plot of Chucky and B, if you seriously thought that, why would you bring him in with you?”
“If he’s going to come alive in the night, do you really want his most recent gripe to be against the two people who left his fuzzy butt in a freezing cold truck?”
He laughed. “No more scary movies for you.”
She loved that he was getting all Daddy-strict on her.
“Your turn,” he said.
“Truth,” she told him.
“No, see. That’s not how it works. You’re supposed to ask—”
“I know.” But if he said dare, who would she banish to the closet with him for five minutes of serious snogging time? She was the only one here! And there were monsters in the closet. She’d seen that Chiller Channel original. It didn’t end well.
“All right,” Branch said with a breathy chuckle. “I’ll take truth.”
Her heart fluttered, trying hard not to skip a beat. Aubrey scrubbed her suddenly damp palms against her blanket-covered legs. “Have you ever been a Daddy for real?”
“A Daddy-Dom? Yes. Twice before.”
Her heart skipped anyway. “Did you like it?”
His smile softened. So, did his eyes. “Very much.”
“What’s your favorite part?”
“Aren’t I only supposed to answer one question?” he countered pointedly. “I’ll answer this one, but then it’s my turn again.”
She really loved it when he gave her that semi-stern, mostly smiling, knowing look.
He rested his head against the wall, thinking quietly while the woman next door gasped out, “Yes! There! Right there! Oh, my God, oh!”
“Seriously, all the parts are good parts in my opinion.” He shot her a sideways look. “I like the nurturing parts, taking care of my babygirl, letting her know in those hundreds of tiny unspoken ways that I’ll always be there for her. I like the guidance, helping her make good decisions. Whether it’s how to avoid a potentially bad career move or a gentle reminder that she can’t sit down in the middle of the kitchen floor, eat half a bag of chocolate chips, and call that a nutritious breakfast.”
“I would never do that with chocolate chips.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I didn’t say you would.”
“Coffee-Nut M&Ms, on the other hand…”
Branch rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “And let’s not forget the discipline.”
“I don’t mind if we forget the discipline.” Aubrey was enjoying herself too much to be truly contrite, though she did attempt, at least, to look the part when he mock frowned at her.
“Uh huh.” He didn’t look convinced. “There are even parts of that that I enjoy. The scolding, the holding, taking a naughty girl’s pants and panties down to her knees before bending her over mine and painting her bottom such a brilliant shade of red that she can’t help but—”
“Uunnggghhh!” The scream from the other side of the wall was as mortifyingly well-timed as it was orgasmic, but instead of faltering to a stop, the pounding of the headboard quickened, yet again.
“Okay, that’s it.” Rolling out of bed, Branch clapped his hands and briskly rubbed. “How about we play
“Yes.” Her eyes got huge.
“How are your salad-eating skills?”
And just like that, all she could think about was having Branch Dalton’s orgasms. Her toes curled under the blanket.
“I love salads.” She could only hope that he didn’t hear the way her voice cracked and warbled in the middle.
His grin was pure evil as he rolled his shoulders, gave the legs of his jeans a tug, and hunkered down at the end of the bed to grab hold of the frame. “Get ready, baby, cause Daddy’s gonna make some music.”
When he shoved the entire bed, Aubrey’s startled squeak was far from an erotic moan. Even knowing what he intended, no one could have been prepared for how vigorously he slammed the frame against the wall. The headboard was mounted and didn’t move, but the frame hit with a solid thud that reverberated all the way through her. And Branch didn’t shove just once. Their neighbor’s bed was knocking strong and fast; Branch knocked back stronger and much faster. Her pussy tickled moisture, clenching in tight. Only belatedly did Aubrey remember she had a part in this. She moaned, panted, and fought back giggles enough for a wildly shouted, “Yes! Yes! God, yes!”
The sounds from the other room faltered and fell silent. With one final and mighty slam, Branch let go of the bed. He paused, eyebrow cocked while he waited to see if the neighbors rallied. The knocking started up again almost immediately, only now, it seemed more aggressive.
“You think so?” Branch growled at the wall.
His muscles flexed up his arms under his white t-shirt. Her yelp became a full-blown laugh of startled pleasure and surprise as he heaved the bed up off the floor. She provided the vocals in the wall-knocking music he played, the rhythm punctuated by his deep grunts and throaty moans.
God, he looked fantastic. His arms were ropes of corded muscle, bunching and rolling under his skin, while under hers, molten ribbons of desire were coiling and twisting, binding up all the key parts of her which suddenly ached and ached and ached to be touched. Laughing and gasping and crying out as if in the throes of the wildest pleasure, Aubrey flung out her arms, grabbing for stability and finding only pillows. Her back hit the wall. The extra knocking only added authenticity to the ludicrous Mattress Mamba going on in this room and probably the next one too. Afraid she might fall into the crack between the mattress and wall, she scrambled to climb up into the center of the rocking bed. It was only a short leap, both figuratively and literally, to go from bouncing on her knees to jumping on the bed.
“Give it to me, baby,” Daddy growled, all burning eyes and grinning, sexy beast as he dropped the bed to jump up on the mattress with her. How the bed didn’t break under their weight, she didn’t know, but it was the most fun she’d had in a long time. She grabbed his hands when he reached for her, and they leapt and bounced in circles, both of them fake moaning and groaning, and shouting in feigned orgasmic delight. It was a complete accident that they both accelerated their vocals, ‘cumming’ at the same time.
She stepped wrong in the bedding and might have fallen, but Branch caught her about the waist. They fell together instead, bumping into the wall with the edge of the protruding headboard biting into her buttocks and his hands clutching at her hips. His fingers squeezed. His nostrils flared. Breathing in hard and deep, his gaze was locked on hers, burrowing into her with the same hungry intensity, the already hard bulge of his cock swelling until it was pressing into her lower abdomen, right above her mons, as solid as a fist.
Her fingers scratched the plaster wall. It was everything she could do to keep from reaching for him, cupping and rubbing him through his jeans. Her mouth watered. Her pussy throbbed, and all she could think about was getting on her knees, opening her mouth and begging Daddy to let her worship him. Worship him up and down, and with sweet, suckling kisses, bringing him to the brink of what he could take until she had drained him right to the very last salty drop.
His hand left the side of her hip, only to sharply smack back down again. He swatted the side of her ass, just once, but it sparked and sharpened every waking nerve inside her. Her back arched instinctively. Her breasts found his chest all on their own, her nipples luxuriating in the sensation as they scraped against him when she drew her shaky breath.
“Take it for Daddy,” he said. Did he even know he’d said it much too softly for anyone in the other room to hear? Her nipples tightened all over again. Her knees tried to buckle. “You’ll take it for Daddy, won’t you? Some parts might hurt just a little, but you’ll take it anyway because you know Daddy will make it feel very, very good before the end. Won’t you?”
Her heart pounded. Her pussy pounded. Her belly twisted and knotted, with every writhing pull, tugging all the way up through her chest until she could feel the pressure in the budding tips of each breast. The need to get down on her knees grew impossible to resist, but when she let her knees sag a little, his hand laid another stinging smack on the side of her bottom. Her whole body exalted at the stinging smart, and slow growing heat rose to scald the flesh he’d spanked.
Bright yellow flickered once through the room before the lights winked on and in that moment, the spell was… not broken, per se, but shaken. She was shaken too. Every part of her which had touched, been touched, and even now, was still pressed up against both him and the wall, trembled.
Reluctantly, Branch slipped an inch or two of distance between their hips. Her nipples still brushed his chest when they breathed, and his hands were still on her hips, scalding her flesh with the wanting of his touch. All too soon he took his hands away. Another few inches of space snuck in between them as he edged back. He didn’t want to go. That much was as clear as regret slipped in to color his smile. Just before he’d moved too far away, he caressed a stray wisp of hair out of her face. Tucking it behind her ear, his fingertips combed along her scalp to the nape of her neck, before combing upwards. He made a slow fist, capturing her hair in a grip she had wanted all her life to feel. If only his arms were around her, she’d have melted against him, but they weren’t. If she melted now, she’d fall. So, she didn’t. She stood on her own shaky legs, watching as he leaned in toward her, with a chest so tight and tense, she could barely make herself breathe.
Pressing the burning heat of his lips to her forehead, he kissed her.
Aubrey melted anyway.
Chapter Four
It would be better in the morning; all he had to do was get to morning. That was when she would wake up, and they’d get distance back between them. And that, more than anything, would be the best possible thing for him. And her too, of course. But mostly him. If he was any harder, he would be an oak. Or a piece of one. A branch, exactly as he was named. Yeah, he’d be a branch, all right. Part of him was already, and it was sticking straight out.
Branch lay awake most of the night, now and then, catching himself dozing. He always woke up the same way; hard as a post, lying next to a soundly sleeping Aubrey and completely unable to do a damn thing about it. Because he was not a creep. He refused to be a creep.
About the time the sun came up, he rolled over onto his stomach, which meant he got even less sleep (because trying to prod his way to China through a two-star hotel’s ten-year-old mattress was not the most comfortable thing he’d ever done). At least he didn’t have to worry about her accidentally catching sight of him turning the blanket they were sharing into a teepee. Although judging by the way she’d reacted when he’d pinned her to the wall last night, she might not have minded. Only a dick would wake her up to find out, however, and he didn’t want to be a dick any more than he wanted to be a creep.
She needed her sleep.
Hell, he needed sleep too. The longer he lay here though, the more he realized he wasn’t going to get any lying next to her. Maybe in about forty years once the newness wore off. But until then, he was screwed.
Only, not literally. God, would that ever be a blessing right now.
Branch kept his pants zipped. By sheer force of will, he kept it zipped until that moment of release when Aubrey at last sighed and stirred. Branch slipped out of bed and made it unseen into the bathroom. He showered, among a few other things, none of which would be known by anyone without the aid of a black light. And since only someone who wanted to be grossed out would bring one of those into a hotel room, he didn’t feel too bad for what he tried to wash out of the bottom of the tub and down the drain. At least, he was comfortable with his jeans on and some room to spare in the front, too. Even so, his cock was so sensitive; it felt as if his shorts were lined with sandpaper. The slight brush of cloth scoured him, but in ways that turned him hard all over again.
“Coffee,” she moaned from under her mounds of blankets when he, at last, deemed himself safe to emerge again.
“Up,” he replied. They still had hours of travel left before he got her to her parents’ house in Lincoln. What he was going to do after that, he had no idea. At some point today, she was going to need to start arguing with her insurance company. He was pretty sure car buying might lurk somewhere in his very near future. He couldn’t exactly leave her without a car, so although he’d told his Gram he would attend the party and nothing more, he knew he was going to hang around to drive her back home again, too. As he peeled the blankets off her stubbornly prostrate form, revealing her half-naked body, all the way down to her pink-painted toes, driving her home struck him as anything but a chore.
“If you want coffee, you have to get up.”
Was there anything sexier than a babygirl dressed in a sweater and Rainbow Bright panties?
Exposed to the cold and refusing to open her eyes, she felt for the blankets. Pouting, unable to find them, she rolled onto her stomach and pulled her knees up under her. With cute, panty-clad bottom thrust straight up in the air, she covered her head with a pillow. “If you weren’t such a meanie, you’d bring me a cup.”
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