by Amy Brent
Kathryn and I chuckling, she closed the door behind us.
“That’s basically the biggest compliment Sadie gives out,” Kathryn revealed to me as we walked back to my car. “To her, people are either not bad or complete bastards.”
A stupid smile spread across my face.
“Glad to not be a complete bastard then.”
It didn’t take us long to get to my parents’ place. As soon as I rang the doorbell, jubilant barking started up.
“Oh, she must be better,” I said half to myself.
“Who must be better?” Kathryn asked just as the door opened and Sally came bounding out.
Her poofy gray and white fur flowed backward as she hurtled toward me. Jumping up on her hind legs and pawing eagerly at my belly, she barked her joyous greeting. I scratched her ears behind her head affectionately.
“So all was good at the vet?”
My mom, appearing at the door, nodded.
“The vet just had us leave her there for the day to do some routine tests, all of which she passed with flying colors. Apparently, Sally is as healthy as a horse.”
“Although not as big as one, thankfully,” my dad said, although he was looking at Kathryn. “You brought Kathryn again.”
Clasping Kathryn’s hand, my mom pulled her into the house.
“It’s so nice to see you again. I just finished the soup too.”
Out on the backyard porch, we all happily sipped away at my mom’s notorious chicken noodle soup. My dad always liked to claim that her soup was so good that at one point, Campbell’s had somehow sought her out at a pot luck and tried to buy out her recipes, but she’d refused.
“I didn’t know you had a dog,” Kathryn said, running her fingers over Sally’s head. Sally responded with a happy hand lick.
“Yeah. I don’t mention her much,” I said. “This is going to sound ridiculous, but I saw this one documentary where some rich guy’s beloved dog was kidnapped and ransomed for thousands of dollars, then killed anyway. Now I’m paranoid about people knowing I have a dog—even parents if I’m going to be perfectly honest.”
“Although you did let us go to that Cannes Film Festival with you,” Mom reminded me, squeezing my hand.
“But yeah,” I continued, sneaking Sally a little piece of chicken under the table, “that was partly how Mark and I bonded in college actually. We used to take our dogs to this dog park a few roads down. Mark doesn’t talk about his dog either, but for different reasons. Rory died a few years back, and it really cut Mark. He hasn’t mentioned even thinking about getting a new dog since. I don’t think he ever will.”
“Your friend Mark seems like a character. That’s for sure,” Kathryn said with a little smile.
“Character is one way of putting it,” my mom said, her lips curling in disapproval.
Although she and my dad liked Mark, they also knew the type of lifestyle he led. It wasn’t like they didn’t see the tabloids when they went to the grocery store, so they’d seen enough stories about me and Mark partying into the wee hours with a different girl every other month to know that he wasn’t exactly the greatest influence.
As my dad made to sneak Sally another piece of chicken under the table, he turned his gaze to Kathryn. “So how did you two meet again?”
In about four seconds, my throat dried up completely.
“Online,” Kathryn said easily, and I choked out a sigh of relief.
Why hadn’t I thought of that? It wasn’t even a lie either.
I could see the answer wasn’t really pleasing to my dad, who was an old-fashioned, meet-them-at-the-dance-hall kind of guy, but he nodded grudgingly.
“Seems like that’s how most people meet these days.”
“Well, it certainly worked out well for us,” Kathryn said, her lids lowering slightly in a blissful expression as she took my hand and squeezed it.
Suspicion popped the bubble of happiness in me. Was she just playing it up or was she really happy about us?
The rest of the lunch passed easily. Kathryn seemed a natural with parents, as if she had taken a course specifically on how to deal with them and how to answer their, at times, prying questions. She made it look so easy. It made me wonder if maybe I’d been worrying needlessly about this. Clearly, Kathryn and I didn’t have to fake anything. We did get along great—that was true.
Afterward, as we were driving back to my place, I kept glancing over at Kathryn. Once again, she had surprised me with the new side she’d shown me. Another Kathryn. This one was carefree and well spoken, almost demure.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” I said abruptly.
Chapter 19
Kathryn
I eyed him uncertainly. A hundred different possibilities whirred in my mind. Was Eric going to tell me he knew about what I’d been doing, that he’d found out I’d been investigating him? Was he going to ask to take things to the next level, to actually be together? More than that, what did I want the answer to be?
“I’d like you to stay over tonight,” he said.
What first flashed through me was disappointment, then a consoling blanket of relief.
“What did you think I was going to say?” he said, probably glimpsing the leftover anxiousness on my face.
Despite my best efforts and police training, Sadie had always joked about my face being an open book, at least when it came to emotions. Every time I’d been even a little bit pissed at her, she’d known it within minutes.
“I don’t know,” I said easily. “Maybe that you were replacing me with a Spanish beauty named Esmerelda who is waiting for you at your house.”
Eric chuckled at that one.
“You never answered me about whether you’d stay over,” he reminded me.
As his gaze pried at mine, I turned away. I hadn’t even had time to process what we’d just done: the nice, laid-back time we’d had with his parents and the strange cocktail of guilt and exhilaration that was still bubbling in me.
The last few times I’d seen Eric, I hadn’t even made any notes for my case afterward. The only thing I seemed to be finding out was that I enjoyed spending time with him more and more. And what about tonight? I should say no.
I turned to him with “no” on my lips and “yes” in my heart.
“I can order in those red gummy bears you love,” Eric pressed.
“You’d actually Uber Eats those?” I asked with a skeptical yet impressed smile.
Smiling to himself, Eric shook his head.
“Nope. I might’ve already bought a whole bag for a certain girl I like. I got them for you the other night, remember?”
“Yeah, I do. Sounds like quite the girl,” I said, smirking. “Maybe if you kissed her, she would agree to go to your place.”
Luckily, we were stopped at a red light. Without a moment’s hesitation, Eric leaned over and kissed me straight on the lips.
Sensation clawed all reason from me. The way his kiss seemed to sort of exorcise all the “should” and “supposed to” standards was unnerving. Those insistent, yet giving lips and the sweeping request of his tongue.
A blaring horn separated us.
“Whoops,” Eric said. “Although it was totally worth it to convince the girl I like to come to my place.”
He shot a questioning look my way, and I nodded with a sigh.
“Okay, okay. You got me.”
Back at Eric’s place, we lounged on the couch, cuddling, until Eric managed to peel himself away. He returned with an extended hand and a bottle of wine.
“Come to the kitchen.”
Reluctantly, I allowed myself to be pulled up.
“Don’t make me pick you up again,” Eric said with a warning growl.
As I moved even more slowly, he gave me a slap on the ass.
“Come on, woman. I even bought you wine and gummy bears.”
Turning to him, I saw that tucked under his arm was, sure enough, a full-size bag of gummy bears.
Seated in the kitchen, we s
ipped our wine and munched on our gummies. My sticky fingers dunked my gummy bears in the wine whenever I didn’t just plop them in the deep red liquid entirely.
Stirring around a floating gummy bear in his wine with his finger, Eric said thoughtfully, “When you were a kid, did it ever make you sad to eat the gummy bears? Like they were real little creatures who were screaming and writhing in pain as your teeth mashed them apart?”
My hand—currently sweeping a gummy bear to my lips—froze.
“Whoa,” I said. “Way to get dark.”
Eric shrugged, snatching the gummy bear from my hand and tossing it in his mouth.
“But yes,” I said, reaching in the bag to grab another gummy. “My sister and I used to feel really guilty about it. There was one gummy bear I even saved. There was something about his face that made him cuter than all the others, and more accusing too. Some factory defect I’m sure. I probably still have his petrified body wrapped up in newspapers in my apartment somewhere.”
After I told the story, Eric’s eyes seemed to rest more gently on me. Already, we’d drained four glasses of wine together.
Eric moved his chair right beside mine so that our legs were pressing into each other.
I could feel the wine flowing through me, getting me hot and horny from just being so close to Eric.
“Here,” Eric said, lifting his finger to my lips. “You missed some.”
His finger brushed against the bulge of my lower lip. Our eyes locked. The next second, his lips were mashing down on mine. By this point, our saliva was like wine while our tongues were like engorged grapes. Every movement seemed painstakingly, perfectly slow, just bodies figuring each other out. By the time our fingers joined the dance, I was wet already.
When he eased his fingers under my shirt, my whole body gave a gratified tremble.
“I just want to see what you’re made of,” Eric purred in my ear. “Today I met nice Kathryn. Nice Kathryn wouldn’t do the things we’re about to do.”
As his teeth nibbled on my aching abdomen, my own teasing voice purred back. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
The unintended revelation tensed my whole body.
Eric’s gaze flicked to mine questioningly, then angrily. His lips contorting into a snarl, he ripped off my shirt and then my bra. Tossing them aside, he got to work pulling down my pants and my panties.
Staring down at me, he picked me up and shoved me onto the kitchen counter. Bashing his lips into mine, he feasted on me mercilessly. His fingers probed my pussy.
Shoving a finger in, he growled in my ear, “Maybe not, but I know how to make you scream.”
Then, as his fingers unleashed a stroking onslaught within me, his mouth dipped between my legs.
My body twisted with warring sensations. The cool marble counter under my ass. The humming strokes of Eric’s fingers in me. The wet slurp of his lips and tongue on my upper thighs, drawing closer, and closer.
When his lips finally closed over my throbbing clit, a cry sputtered out of my mouth.
“That’s it,” Eric said cockily before returning his mouth to my supersensitive nub.
Everything blurred into liquid pleasure. Eric’s movements were as seamless as though he were another part of my body, a forgotten one. The trembling climax he was stirring within me seemed like it came from another part of me, some part I had stowed away and not looked at until recently. It was some deep subterranean underground of ultimate abandon and, most of all, harrowing pleasure.
As his tongue swirled around my clit, his fingers swirled inside me. My eyes were squeezed shut, my vision already rimmed with red and yellow. My orgasm beckoned cruelly, just out of reach.
Every one of my limbs was tensed with what was about to come. When Eric reached out with his other hand and gave my tit a big smack, he slurped and fingered me so fast that my orgasm slipped out in surprise.
“Oh fuck, fuck. Fuck!!!” I shrilled as I lost control completely, practically tumbling off the counter.
Eric held me in place. With one hand in between my breasts, his face peering into mine, he took in my release greedily.
“I told you.”
A few minutes after, he lifted me up and flipped me around.
“It’s only fair,” he said conversationally. “Seeing you let loose like that gave me a big hard boner.”
He had positioned me so that my legs were hanging off the counter while my ass and pussy were easily accessible.
Toying a finger inside my pussy, Eric declared, “You want more. I can tell.”
Without further ado, he shoved himself inside.
A spasm of aching pleasure shuddered through me. Eric was right. Oh, fuck was he right.
Eric started his thrusts fast and shallow. Each slam seemed to shake me closer to a painfully worthwhile finish. But once my body began shaking at its own harried tempo, Eric slowed down. His hands ran all around my ass, squeezing it deeply. His dick still inside me, he angled it around while he massaged my ass so hard that it felt like a deep tissue massage.
“Kathryn doesn’t get to come just yet,” he said tauntingly.
Angrily, I clasped my pussy down on his dick and tried fucking myself with it. Eric gave me a rough spank on the ass that set off my whole body in trembles. Grabbing my hair and yanking my head back, he said, “What did I say?”
Groaning, my body slumped back onto the counter.
Eric stroked his head over my hair in a sort of pat.
“Maybe if you asked nicely,” he said in an annoyingly calm voice.
“Please, Eric,” I burst out.
His finger traced the crack of my ass while he slipped his dick out partway.
“Please what?”
“Fuck me, please!” I groaned out of gritted teeth.
At this, Eric slipped himself out partway, then in all the way. Another groan tumbled out of my lips.
“Are you begging me?” Eric asked, a dark pleasure audible in his voice.
My whole body trembled with furious pent-up need. I moaned. “Yes. Fuck me, Eric. Please. I’m begging you.”
One moment of terrible silence.
“Good girl,” Eric said, patting my ass now.
And then, he freed me.
Ramming me with his dick, he fucked me as fast and as hard as he could. Each thrust threw my body closer to the edge. In and out, hard and harder. The way Eric was gripping my ass as he plowed me made it feel like my orgasm was a flower that was blooming inevitably from bottom to top.
When he started nuzzling my other hole with his thumb, more groans spilled out of my lips. All resistance left my body. My orgasm wasn’t coming. It was here. As he plunged a finger inside my ass, he twirled his dick in me so skillfully that my orgasm throttled me. Wave after wave of pleasure slapped through my shaking body until I was empty but filled with pleasure.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Eric produced the trademark silk cleanup towel of his.
“Don’t say it,” Eric said with a little smile as he saw the words forming on my lips.
I smiled blearily at him. Once we were cleaned up, he carried me up into his bed and tucked me in under the soft covers.
The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was Eric’s adoring face as he dipped down to give me a kiss on the forehead.
Chapter 20
Eric
“Rise and shine, Princess,” I said as soon as her eyes fluttered open.
For a few seconds, the look in her dark irises floored me. There was such adoration and longing there, I was sure she must have been thinking of something else. Someone else. But when she reached over with a kiss to my lips, I knew she had only one thing on her mind: me.
I rolled over to the side of my bed, although I let her wrap her arms around me. What the hell was this? Again, I’d let Kathryn sleep over, and I couldn’t deny how I was feeling. Good, carefree. Maybe this was what being with a mistress—or anyone for longer than a couple of nights—was like.
Hearing Kathryn shift
under the satin sheets beside me, I sat up myself. I slung an arm around her shoulder and tipped my head to hers.
“Want me to make us breakfast?”
Kathryn withdrew, neatly hopping off the bed without looking at me.
“No,” she said in a cool tone.
Correcting herself as she glanced my way, she explained. “I wouldn’t want Sadie to put out an amber alert because I was missing.”
She turned away as soon as she’d finished her excuse so I couldn’t read on her face whether it was as illegitimate as I suspected. Why had Kathryn been fine staying the last morning then?
The petulant disappointment in me angered me further. Let the goddamn woman go if she wanted to. I’d had my fun with her. That was all that should have mattered.
Kathryn swept over and gave me a deep kiss on the lips.
“I had a wonderful time yesterday, though. Your parents are really great. They didn’t do a bad job with you, either.”
She gave my nose a playful tap as she drew away. Despite my current dark mood, a smile fought its way onto my face.
“Wish I could say the same about you. I’ve never met your parents, remember?”
My bitter statement filled the room, and Kathryn turned to me, a bit startled.
“Eric,” she said, “I thought we said—”
Leaping off the bed with a dismissive wave of my hand, I tried to pass it off.
“Of course we did. I was just joking.”
I tossed a smile her way to prove it. She didn’t look like she totally bought it, but she was clearly in an off mood today anyway.
After she got dressed in the outfit she’d worn last night, I walked her to the door. There, I swallowed back a final request for her to at least try one of my trademark pancakes. Maybe it was just the businessman in me, the one who had a hunger for closing deals and going against the odds. Whatever the reason, when my hardwood door finally closed behind her, the feeling in my stomach could only be described as sinking.
Halfway to the kitchen, I realized I couldn’t face today alone. It was Saturday after all, the weekend. What had I used to do on Saturdays?
The answer revealed itself as I scrolled through my phone. Golfing with Mark of course.