by Lauren Dane
It was the collar.
Braided leather, plain, it could be nothing else. It fit tight to the man's throat. As Brandon watched, the woman reached to adjust it against the man's skin.
'Fuck,' he muttered, and looked away. 'What?' Dix looked over. 'Oh. Well.'
Brandon ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed his eyes. 'It's not like that, either.' 'Hey. I already told you ..."
'I know. But it's like . . . shit.' Brandon looked around, noticing other couples in various levels of costume. 'Everyone thinks a guy who likes to let the woman lead is a pussy. I'm not a pussy.'
He said it a little too loud. Turned heads. Dix looked uncomfortable for a moment. 'Nobody said you were.'
Brandon pointed at the couple next to them. Shit, that last drink had been a little too much. 'Leah doesn't like any of that stuff. Those games, she calls 'em. The pomp and circumstance, is what she says. She'd never put a collar on me, because I'm not a dog.' Dix looked amused. 'No more shots for you.'
Brandon lifted a finger, tiying veiy hard to make his point and knowing he was probably failing. 'Even if sometimes they call me Bingo, which is NOT my name-o.'
Dix laughed and Brandon joined him. Dix shook his head. 'Listen, kid, I can't pretend I get it, but if it makes you happy and makes her happy, who the hell cares about anyone else?'
'I guess it doesn't make her happy, or she'd have said yes. Man,' Brandon said, aware he was not too drunk to want to explain but a little too sloshed to make sense. 'Shit. Well. Whatever. I told her what I had to say, and if she doesn't want it I guess that's it. Nothing else to do about it.'
Dix still looked amused, but before he could say anything else, Brandon's phone rang. The ringtone, a clip from Portishead's 'Glory Box', didn't sound too loud compared to the bar's raucous atmosphere, but the photo of Leah told him it was her. He thumbed the touch screen immediately, listening. He didn't haye to say anything. Leah said it all.
'Get over here, Brandon, and fuck me until we both can't stand.'
He ended the call and sat back against the seat. 'She says she wants me to get over there right now.' Dix raised a brow and set his glass down. 'And?'
The Penny Pincher had looked a hundred times worse after seeing Leah's suite. Not only that, but after a few hours of fake tits in tiny bras and tight, tanned asses jiggling in glittery thongs, Leah looked a thousand, no, a million times better. 'Fuck taking a stand,' Brandon said.
Dix clapped him on the shoulder. 'Well, kid, there's not a damn thing wrong with being a booty call. Let's get out of here.'
Chapter 12
Kate must've answered the door, because when Leah came out of the bathroom after brushing her teeth and washing her hands — she didn't want to greet Brandon with nacho breath or stripper oil on her fingers — he was standing in the doorway. 'Well, hello.'
Part of her had known without question he would come at her command. Part had wondered if she'd pushed him too far, finally, and if he'd rebel by not showing up. The uncertain part had been bigger than she wanted to admit, because at the sight of him, Leah let out a low, slow breath of relief.
'Did you have a good time with Dix?'
Brandon smiled. Fuck, she was such a sucker for that grin. He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it to the floor. Her gaze followed it, then looked back to his face. Oh, she was in over her head this time. And she totally didn't care.
Off came his buttoned shirt to follow the jacket into a heap on the floor. Brandon tilted his head to look at her. 'Should I be doing this to music?'
Oh how much she loved him, for something as simple as a tossaway line of self-deprecating humour. Leah laughed, more relief sweeping through her. Things were going to be OK. 'No. I've had enough of that tonight.'
'You sure?' He swivelled his hips, i could put on some Lil Wayne. Rock your world.' 'Come here, Brandon.'
He did at once, stepping up against her, his hands on her ass and rubbing through the denim of her jeans. 'Yes.'
She'd taken off her shoes and had to stand on her tiptoes to find his mouth. He tasted of beer and smoke and whiskey and Leah retreated a little even as his lips followed hers. 'What did you and Dix get up to?'
Brandon nuzzled her neck as his hands caressed her rear. 'Decadence. Naked women, booze. Cigars. Oh, and before that, we had . . . steak.'
His tongue slid along her throat and Leah let her head fall back to give him free access. 'My God. No. Not steak. How can you come here and face me after that?'
'I feel so dirty,' Brandon said against her skin as his hands roved higher and pulled her closer. His teeth pressed her skin and Leah held her breath, her nipples tight and her cunt throbbing.
Leah wasn't much into punishment, even for play, and truthfully, there'd been few enough times Brandon had failed her in any way major enough to warrant something like that. She laughed, though, low and throaty, and pushed back from him even though denying him access to her body was just as bad for her.
Naughty,' she told him just to watch his eyes flash, if you're so dirty, maybe you should clean up.'
Her gaze flicked to the open bathroom door. It wasn't a bad idea. The smell of the club still clung to her clothes and she was pretty sure the seat of her jeans had oil stains on them. Besides, the bathroom in this suite was orgasmic. 'Huh,' Brandon said with a quirk of his mouth. 'Maybe you're right.'
Leah took a couple steps back, watching him, but his long arm snaked out to grab her wrist and draw her back to him. He kissed her, not hard, but thoroughly. His tongue stroked hers, and she stifled a moan, her eyes fluttering closed.
He started walking her towards the bathroom, step by step, breaking the kiss just long enough to reach upwards over his shoulder and pull off his T-shirt. Leah's feet hit cool tile as her hands found Brandon's warm, bare chest and tight nipples.
She tweaked one and it hardened further under her fingers. She had to taste him, her desire sudden. Urgent. She kissed his chest and licked his nipple, then skidded her teeth over his flesh. His hand cradled the back of her head as she looked up at him.
I I want to suck you,' she breathed against his belly, where the muscles jumped at her touch. 'But first. Shower.'
He looked that way and let out a long, low groan of pleasure that made her laugh and straighten.
'Brandon!'
'Look at it,' he said, awed at the glass brick and waterfall showerhead. 'Steam jets, Leah. And it's so big.'
'Big enough for you, baby, I know,' she teased. 'You won't have to crouch down. But I might expect you on your knees.'
He kissed her again, i think I could live in a shower like that.'
'Take off the rest of your clothes,' Leah told him. Her heart skipped as her voice lowered and he responded by sliding his tongue over his bottom lip. 'Turn on the water first so it gets hot. And let me see you get naked for me.'
He nodded and turned on the faucet, then stepped out of the spray to face her. Leah, still fully dressed, leant her ass against the marble countertop. Her jeans, which should've felt way too tight anyway, considering the buffet meals she and Kate had consumed, rubbed insistently between her legs as she crossed them at the ankle. Watching him. Knowing he got off on this as much as she would.
As steam started swirling from behind the glass brick, Brandon reached over his shoulder to pull his T-shirt over his head. He threw it to the floor without looking at it. He wore leather work boots without laces or a zipper, shoes she'd have had to sit to pull off, but Brandon didn't falter, just stood on one foot at a time to yank them off.
“I am so impressed,' she murmured. 'You didn't even lose your balance.'
“I'm tricky that way.'
'Uh huh.' Heat bloomed in her belly and lower down. Leah shifted and the seam of her jeans pressed her clit. She wore cotton boy brief panties, nothing especially sexy, but the soft fabric felt damp on her pussy, and no wonder. Watching him strip for her, at her command, had her hot and wet.
Brandon put his hand on the button of his jeans and paused, gaze l
ocked on hers, before he tugged it open. He notched his zipper down. Click, click, click. Then he hooked his fingers into the denim and shoved the jeans down to step out of them. His black cotton boxer-briefs hugged his package. He looked like an underwear model.
'God, your legs are seven miles long,' Leah said, admiring his tight calves and thighs, covered with crisp dark hair. 'Did you get taller in the past few days?'
He laughed. 'Why don't you come over here and measure me, find out?'
'Take off the briefs, Brandon.'
He did, slowly, and stood before her totally naked and sporting an erection that made her crave the taste of him again. He didn't stroke it, perhaps waiting for her to order him to do it. That thought sent another bolt of desire through her. 'Did you do what I told you to do? While I was gone?'
His smile faded a little and she wanted to take it back so neither of them were reminded of the reasons she'd left in the first place. But then he nodded. 'Yes. You know I did.'
'Let me see you,' Leah breathed. 'Show me how it was.'
He hesitated for only a bare second before stepping into the water. The glass bricks distorted his figure, but didn't block his groan of sheer pleasure as the hot water surrounded him. Leah slid open the buttons of her blouse as she moved forwards to stand in the shower's walk-in doorway. Brandon, facing the water, had put his face directly under the spray to let the water sluice over his body.
'We need a shower like this,' he said.
'Show me,' she repeated.
And he did. First a slow, downwards stroke, almost thoughtful. Like he wasn't sure what he meant to do. Then another. Then he widened his stance and jutted his hips forwards, just a little, to let the water hit that beautiful cock as he started to stroke it in earnest.
Leah took off her shirt and draped it over the edge of the sunken whirlpool tub, big enough for two, just past the shower. Her jeans came next, less gracefully but faster than Brandon had doffed his, but then she didn't have an audience, either. His eyes were closed, lost in the sensations of his hand on his cock.
Leah stripped out of her bra and panties as she watched him shift the pattern of his strokes. She loved to watch him jerk himself off — it was intimate and sexy and she always learnt something new about him — but she also loved to be the one to get him off. Whether it was with her hand, her mouth, inside her body, or if it was just from the power of her words as she talked him through it, Leah liked that power over him. Craved it, as a matter of fact.
She was so lucky, she thought, as Brandon opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder to watch her watching him. That she'd found a man who could give her what she wanted and be so comfortable with it. More than comfortable, as turned on by it as she was. She was so fucking lucky, and what had she done but almost squander it? And why? Because she was worried about. . . what?
Nothing.
She had everything right before her that she'd ever wanted and everything she'd ever need. Leah stepped into the shower and reached around him to twist the faucet for the aromatherapy jets, and soft steam scented with lavender hissed out. Another fiddle with the faucet and the second showerhead began to spray, along with the row of pulsing massage jets jutting from the wall.
'Wow.' Brandon's voice had gone hoarse with pleasure. Just. . . wow.'
Leah laughed and pressed herself against him, her cheek on his back. She reached around to cup his balls. 'Don't stop.'
He'd paused at her touch but now his hand took up the stroking again. But Leah was no longer satisfied with watching Brandon make himself come; she had to help him along. 'Turn around.'
He did. His cock rubbed her belly as they kissed, tongues tangling around the rush of hot water pouring over their faces. Lavender swirled around them as he ground against her wet slick skin. Leah found his cock with her fist and pumped it gently before reaching to the towel rack along the back of the shower wall and throwing down a thick soft washcloth.
'Ah . . . God.' Brandon sounded strangled as she got to her knees in front of him and engulfed him with her mouth. His hand found her hair and stroked it back from her face.
His body shielded her from most of the spray and the cloth buffeted her knees from the shower's rough tile floor. She could spend an hour here, sucking and licking and tasting and stroking . . . but she didn't think she could last that long. He probably couldn't, either, not based on the familiar noises leaking from his throat or the way he was pushing into her mouth.
God, she loved sucking him. For all the times Brandon spent on his knees, worshipping her, there were just as many moments Leah found herself at his feet. She licked his shaft now, then sucked gently at the head while she cupped his balls. Her thumb stroked backwards, along the seam of his sac, and he widened his stance automatically to give her free rein to anyplace she wanted to touch him. Fuck, she loved that, too, that he was so open to anything she ever wanted . . .
Wider,' she said from around his cock.
He obeyed, putting one hand to the wall to steady himself. His other hand rested lightly on her head. Water spattered on the back of her neck as she took him down her throat, working his cock with her lips and tongue and just barely scraping her teeth along the shaft as she moved. Her fingers played along his balls and perineum, toying with his ass.
He grunted. His cock throbbed. He was close, maybe a minute or two away from coming, if she kept this up.
'Towels,' she told him.
He knew just what she meant. The towels, decadently thick, fell as Brandon jerked them off the rack. Leah spread them quickly, making sure not to block the drain. She turned onto her hands and knees and looked over her shoulder at him. 'Now.'
He got behind her, his hands on her hips. Sometimes fucking in the shower could be a problem, but not tonight. Leah was so slick, so ready, he slid inside her smoothly. She cried out as he filled her all the way to her core. In this position the water rained on them both but didn't threaten to drown them. Leah put her head down to the cushion of soft terrycloth and pressed her ass higher, harder against him.
'Fuck me,' she said, her voice shaking.
He moved inside her, slowly at first though she knew he had to be craving speed. Delicious friction built as she matched his rhythm. His cock skidded across her G-spot, and when he reached around to press his fingers to her clit, Leah's body jerked.
It was all perfect, the timing right. He knew how to move, how to touch her, and all she had to do was let go and let him. He thrust deeper as his fingers circled. And he spoke to her, a long, low stream of words designed to push every single one of her hot-buttons.
Leah had had countless orgasms in her life, each different and miraculous, and every time her body filled with that ecstasy, she wondered how she might stand it. If it would not, indeed, splinter her to pieces. But now, this time, with Brandon urging her towards climax, all she could do was revel in being torn apart.
She came saying his name. His hoarse, low shout told her he'd joined her. Brandon stroked deep inside her a few more times, then slowed, then stopped. The water beat down around them, sounding much louder now that she wasn't blinded and deafened by desire.
Leah stretched as he withdrew, her body tingling in all the right places. Brandon helped her to her feet and kissed her under the spray. Leah laughed, light-hearted and loving it.
'Someday we'll take a shower together and Behave sex,' she said.
'I hope not,' Brandon replied seriously.
Actually, she hoped not, too. She told him so as he soaped her back, and she told him about the older woman at the Thunder From Down Under show. He told her about the strippers who could hang upside down by their thigh muscles as she washed him in return. And then as the water rinsed them free of suds, he kissed her again.
He led her from the shower and dried her with a fresh soft towel. Pampering her. He took her to the bedroom and bundled them both between the sheets, where Leah settled back between his legs, against his chest, while they watched very bad late-night television and Brandon co
mbed her hair carefully free of every tangle.
They talked, too, about everything. And nothing. And Leah once again thought how simple it was to talk to him, how he understood her even when she didn't make sense, and how she didn't need to ask him to know what he felt.
When they made love again, slower this time, the pinkish light of morning had begun seeping in around the blinds. After, he pulled her against him, spooning, and, though Leah knew there was more to say, there would always be more to say to him. And also, if she were the smart woman she pretended to be to the rest of the world, she'd give Brandon the time to say it.
Brandon knew the sound of Leah sleeping as well as he knew everything else about her. So when her breathing slowed and her body went limp in his arms, he stopped talking. He pressed his face into the softness of her hair. He nuzzled her neck. He smiled to himself when she murmured and shifted, pressing herself against him even in her sleep. They hadn't talked about marriage, but that was OK. Tomorrow. Or the next day. Hell.
He was willing to wait.
Chapter 13
'Well, hello there, stranger.' Kate smirked at the handsome, sexy and tipsy man standing in the doorway after she'd let Brandon pass. 'God, you look good.
After all those enhanced, gravity-free breasts and flat bellies? Do tell.'
'Meh. They were all right. But you, now, you're something to write home about.'
She laughed, sliding into his arms. 'That so?'
'So.'
His hands roamed over her body as he brought his mouth to hers for a kiss. He tasted of whiskey and cigars, of sex and utter decadence. Everything in her tightened for a moment as she moaned softly.
'You wore this to the strip club?' he asked as the palms of his hands stroked over her ass as he delved under her skirt.
'I had "winter at the lake house" clothes when we arrived. I went shopping. This stuff was expensive. I'm wearing it to get my mail.'
He laughed, his mouth finding the hollow of her throat, i'm not complaining. In fact, I just had a flash of you in that club we were in, giving me a private dance.' A shiver wracked her at the thought.