by Grace Risata
Emma patted me on the back and offered, “Good luck. Even half of that would be way too much for me.” Emma was extremely timid around men and I think she’s only had four or five dates in her entire life. Winter tried to get her a boyfriend more times than I can count, but Emma rejected them all. She was almost the opposite of Winter. Emma played down her looks instead of making the most of them to get what she wanted. Emma had long, dark hair neatly pulled up into a ponytail. Her face was completely free of make-up and she dressed very modestly. Today’s outfit was a black ankle length skirt with a green belted sweater. It was very difficult to get her to even make eye contact with anyone of the opposite sex, so it should be interesting to see how she handled dinner with Dane. Winter never could figure out why Emma was so introverted. I guessed that it was because their dad took off when Emma was only two and she’s never had a good male role model. Dane and I weren’t the only ones with issues.
“Should I ask Dane if he has any friends to fix you up with?” I teased.
“Oh no! No way. Don’t you be turning into Winter. I’d rather be alone than be stuck with the losers she hooks up with. I’ll find a nice guy one day. Don’t worry about me.”
I laughed and we joined the rest of the group in the kitchen. Dane was leaning over a bowl of something and acting as the taste-tester, Winter was setting the table, and Rita looked pleased to have this much commotion going on in her house. She lived by herself now since Emma moved in with Winter.
I went up to greet Rita with a kiss on the cheek. “Are you putting Dane to work already?” I asked her.
“Yes. If he doesn’t like my cooking, he’s getting booted out of the house.”
“You don’t have to worry about that at all! This is great. I want more of everything you’re willing to give me.” Dane had a fork in each fist and he looked ready to dig in.
“We’re willing to give you Izzy, does that count?” Winter asked brazenly.
“Winter! Can you behave yourself for ONE night?” Rita admonished. She shook her head at her wayward daughter. I had a feeling that half of the wrinkles on her face had come from worrying about Winter. Rita would never admit that though. She loved all her daughters equally. They were her pride and joy. She worked herself ragged to make sure she graduated law school to be a good provider and role model for her girls. During the rough times, she took two jobs to put food on the table. By the time I’d met Winter, they were doing a lot better but I still heard stories of their early struggles. You would never know of Rita’s hardships by looking at her. She had short brown hair, tastefully cut into layers to frame her face. She wore a minimum of makeup just to even out her skin tone. The only wild thing about her was her signature red lipstick. Today she wore a mint green pantsuit with matching heels. Rita told me that she was born in Mexico to dirt poor parents and lived her early years in a shack with no plumbing. She took pride in how she worked her way up from nothing to become the woman she is today. I was honored to have her for a second mom.
“Don’t worry, Rita, she’s never going to change,” I sighed. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“Who are you calling a dog, bitch?” Winter joked.
“You want a piece of me? I’ll kick your ass the way I almost gave Red a beat down from last night!” I threatened.
“HA. You looked like you were going to piss yourself!” she replied.
Emma and Rita looked extremely confused, so Winter and I filled them in on our wild night. Emma took it upon herself to tell Dane some quality stories of our reckless youth while we all sat down to eat. There was a lot of laughter and reminiscing and Dane eagerly soaked it all up.
“So drunk Izzy refused to pee by the side of the road unless she had a napkin to wipe with?” Dane asked in disbelief before turning to me and adding, “I knew you were a brat from day one, your highness.”
“Hey, you men have it easy! You stand up and go! Let’s see you try to squat when you’re drunk and you don’t want to pull your pants down all the way but you don’t want the pee to run down your legs either. I think I was squatting in poison ivy! And I’m not a barbarian. I needed to wipe. There was no time to drip-dry!” I said, defending myself and my outdoor pee requirements.
This elicited another round of laughter.
“So maybe you guys can tell me this because she won’t answer my question,” Dane asked, pointing to me, “What is ‘Izzy’ short for?”
This request was met with silence from all around the table. Emma immediately looked down and began pushing her food around with her fork. Winter got up to get another bottle of water. Rita simply looked at me with wide eyes. I was pissed, but I didn’t want to make a scene and ruin the nice meal.
“That’s not something we’re going to get into right now,” I icily responded, leaving no doubt that was the end of that conversation. “What’s for dessert, Rita? You know that’s the real reason I came over.”
Rita asked Winter to get the double crust apple pie out of the fridge and we all dug into it like we hadn’t eaten in weeks. Rita’s cooking was THAT good. Emma, Winter, and I all did the dishes and cleaned up while Rita took Dane into the living room for some one-on-one conversation. Since she was the closest thing I had to a parent now, I assumed she wanted to interview him to see if he was a suitable candidate to court me. Or maybe she just wanted to get the heck out of the kitchen and leave the dirty work to us. Either way, it was fine by me. I needed a chance to talk to Winter anyway.
“So what’s the deal with Monica? She was completely out of character at the bar last night. She never drinks hard stuff and she definitely never drinks til she’s sloppy. Why would she confide her problems to a stranger she just met instead of talking to us?” I asked Winter.
“I was telling Emma the story and she can’t figure it out either. Usually Monica doesn’t talk to anyone else but us, and now she’s freezing us out? I don’t get it,” she said.
“It’s got to be something with Trent. She was fine until she took his call. I saw her waving her arms around while she was on the phone with him and then she came back to the table with a new goal of getting totally plastered. Do you think they’re having real problems? I know they have the whole baby thing going on, but do you think there’s something else? Do you think he’s cheating on her?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t put anything past that douchebag. It still pisses me off that she wouldn’t listen to me when I begged her not to marry him. I told her that I didn’t like the way he looked at other girls and that he only cared about money. She brushed me off. I’d like to go back in time and kidnap her and not let her go through with it,” Winter admitted.
“You know how stubborn she is. Once she gets an idea in her head, no one can talk her out of it. She refuses to admit it when she makes mistakes. What do you think, Emma? How can we make her talk?”
“If it took a whole mess of alcohol to get her to talk to a stranger, just get her drunk again and see if she’ll talk to you guys instead,” Emma advised. It was worth a try.
We finished the dishes and went to join the conversation in the living room. Kitty was sitting on Dane’s lap and getting attention from both him and Rita. Emma brought out a board game and explained that we usually played charades or something similar whenever we had family dinners. Winter was not excited about this, primarily because she was always on the losing team.
“Emma, put your damn games away. Dane doesn’t want to see you try to draw a picture of a car that really looks like a penis. Don’t burden him with your perverted sketches,” Winter moaned.
“You’re just a poor sport,” I told her. “We have time for one game before we have to go. Are you in?” I asked Dane.
He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m horrible at drawing, but I’ll give it a try.”
The man was NOT kidding. He drew a house that looked like a spaceship and a dog that looked like a cow. Winter was extremely satisfied to be the one without the lowest score.
It was nearing eight o’clock and we started to say our goodbyes.
“Dane, it was a pleasure to meet you. Could you take Kitty to the car and give me a chance to talk to my Izzy in private for a second?” Rita asked.
“No problem. Thank you very much for inviting me and welcoming me into your home. Your food was amazing and I appreciate everything. G’night ladies!”
Dane walked out to the car with Kitty, and Winter stared at her mom.
“Way to be subtle, Mom. What’s on your mind? Did you give him the third degree? Did he pass the test? Is he secretly an ax-murderer?”
Rita ignored her daughter and her interrogation. She turned to me instead.
“I like him, Izzy. He looks at you in a way that my ex-husband never looked at me. I was a paycheck to him. And a warm body to come home to at night.” Winter began to stutter and protest, not wanting to hear these things about her father, but Rita held up a warning hand, implying she was not to be interrupted.
“Dane looks at you with nothing but respect,” Rita continued. “When he asked about your name and you stopped him cold, I could see the hurt in his eyes. Don’t shut him out. You don’t have to explain everything to him at once, but don’t put up a wall either. When Emma was telling him stories about you girls and your crazy antics, he was paying full attention and he kept looking over at you to see how you’d react. He wasn’t bored and tolerating the conversation. He was intrigued by it. I think he genuinely cares for you. I don’t know his past or how he came to be in the position he’s in, but I’d say he’s a keeper. I like him, Izzy. I think you can trust him. God forbid this one over here should bring home something decent.” She pointed to Winter and said, “That will be the day after Hell freezes over!”
“I’m too young to settle down, Mom! Get off my back!” Winter hastily replied. “It’s time to go anyway, so we’ll have to end this lovely lecture. Dane good, Winter bad. The end.”
“You’re not bad, you’re just too picky,” Rita insisted.
“If you ask me, she’s not picky enough!” Emma said, throwing her opinion into the mix.
I grabbed Winter into a big group hug before this spiraled completely out of control and they made her feel worse than she already did. I knew she wanted to find a guy she could commit to, she just hadn’t met the right one yet. After knowing Dane for a whole six days, I wasn’t ready to walk down the aisle yet either. Everyone needed to slow down and relax.
On the way home, Dane thanked me for bringing him to dinner.
“I had a great time tonight, Izzy. That whole family is incredible. The second I walked in the door, I could feel all the love in the house. From the way that Rita cooks, to the way that Emma talks about crazy shit you guys did, to the sarcastic remarks pouring out of Winter. You guys are a real family. That’s what I always wanted growing up, but never had.”
I waited for him to elaborate on that and maybe share something about his childhood, but he didn’t.
“I’m sorry for asking about your name,” he continued. “I thought you were just being stubborn and not telling me to be a pain in the ass. I had no idea it was such a sore subject. I could tell as soon as the words left my mouth that it was the wrong thing to say.”
“I’m not trying to be all mysterious about it. The person that I’m named after…hasn’t done a damn thing my entire life but cause me problems. Let’s just leave it at that, ok?”
“Sure. I won’t ask again.” He patted me on the knee and then left his hand there. The friendly pat turned into a squeeze. He started to inch it up higher, thumb making slow circles on the outside of my thigh.
“You didn’t buy condoms,” I whispered.
“Don’t worry. I have special plans that don’t require a condom,” he answered.
I would soon find out what he meant by that. Let’s just say that tonight’s special make out session would end up blowing my mind!
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We pulled into the garage and I let Kitty into the house after I unlocked the door. I made it as far as the kitchen, when Dane came up behind me and started kissing my neck. I turned around to face him and he pressed me into the wall, our whole bodies lined up, with not an inch separating us.
He took my hands and placed them above my head. He held them tight to the wall so I couldn’t move.
“What do you want me to do to you?” he whispered. “I’ll kiss you anywhere you want. Lick you everywhere until you beg for me to let you come. Tell me. I’m yours to command. Say the words and I’ll do it.”
What words was I supposed to say? I was at a loss here. My mind was a total blank.
“Um...please and thank you?” I squeaked.
“What?” he asked as he backed up.
“I don’t know what words I’m supposed to say!”
He put his head against mine and sighed. “I’m trying to be sexy here. Can you work with me a little? I can’t seduce you if you’re actually paying attention to what I’m saying. You’re supposed to listen to the tone of my deep, manly voice and get hypnotized.”
I snorted. Deep, manly voice? I had no idea where he was going with this, but I liked it.
“I’m getting sleepy…your sultry words are having a crazy effect on me. Take me to the bedroom,” I demanded.
“Not yet. You’re not ready for that. You have to beg me.”
Dane continued to hold my hands above my head. That left him one hand to tease me with. He slid it down my neck, softly stroking my throat. He slowly unbuttoned the top of my shirt. One button. Another button. A third button. His eyes were locked on mine the entire time. I felt my breathing speed up. He leaned his head down and planted a soft kiss on my lips.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“You.”
He smiled devilishly and ripped open the rest of my shirt. I gasped in surprise as buttons went flying. His mouth clamped down on mine and the soft kiss from a second ago turned into a frantic, demanding, all-or-nothing exploration. I struggled to break free of his hold on my hands, but that only made him tighten his grip. I wanted to touch him and I wanted it NOW. So I bit his lip. Hard.
“What the hell? I didn’t picture you as someone who liked it rough,” he said.
“I don’t! I wanted you to let me go and you wouldn’t, so I bit you. Mission accomplished.”
“Why did you want me to let go? Was I hurting you?” Dane asked, looking upset at the possibility that he might have caused me pain.
“No. I want to touch you but I can’t because you’re holding me down,” I complained.
“Ah. Too fucking bad. It’s not your turn to touch. It’s mine. You’re not ready to touch me yet.”
“How will I know when I’m ready to touch you?” I asked, breathlessly. This was turning me on. I liked it when he gave me rules. I wanted to break them.
“When you’re writhing around in agony because you’re so hot and so wet that your panties are soaked, and the only thought in your head is that you want to touch me more than you want your next breath…then and only then, I might let you THINK about touching me,” he whispered in my ear while his hand went up my shirt. Two seconds later my bra was unhooked and he was frowning.
“What’s wrong? They’re real. They can’t be that much of a disappointment,” I offered.
“Um…I can’t get your shirt and your bra off without letting go of your hands and that’s going to ruin the game,” he whispered. “Never mind.” He picked me up and hauled me off to the bedroom, throwing me over his shoulder like he was a caveman. I took the opportunity to remove my bra and shirt and fling them on the floor.
He laid me down on the bed and straddled me, much like when we were outside and he tackled me after the snowball fight.
“Déjà vu,”
I said. “This reminds me of something.”
“Yeah. Only this time you’re not wearing that hideous snowsuit, I don’t have any snow to shove in your face, and I’m not stopping this time.”
“Good. Show me what you’ve got,” I said as I bucked my hips underneath him. That was all the challenge he needed. Before I could react, my hands were again pinned above my head while Dane breathed in my ear, “You asked for it.”
He took his hand and cupped my left breast while his tongue slid its way along my neck, inching lower and lower until it reached its goal. “I don’t know which one tastes better. I’ll have to try them both and see which one is my favorite.”
“It’s not like one is vanilla and one is chocolate!” I responded.
“Breasts are like snowflakes. Each one is different,” he informed me. His tongue flicked the right nipple and I arched my back in response. He glided his tongue around the outside of the breast in slow circles, getting closer to the center with each rotation. Once he got to the middle, he took the whole breast in his mouth and sucked. His mouth was so wet and so warm and I could feel myself losing any control I might have possessed. I began to wriggle underneath him and move my hips back and forth.
“Easy. Settle down. We’re just getting started. I can’t have you so excited already. Maybe I’ll just have to stop,” he said, tormenting me.
“No, please,” I begged, “Don’t stop.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because it feels good,” I said, shyly.
He leaned down and lightly bit my right breast, teeth grazing over the nipple. “This one likes me. I don’t know if the other one does. I have to find out.”
He positioned his thumb over my left nipple and gently started moving it in a massaging motion. He began on the outside and slowly worked his way to the middle, just as he did with his tongue on the other breast. I honestly didn’t know what felt better. Both methods had me panting in response.
“I won’t know which I prefer until I taste them both,” he said. He moved his mouth to the left breast and his tongue darted out like he was a snake. The snake tongue slithered a slow path back and forth across my breast, moving towards the nipple. Once he finally got to the nipple, he leaned back and blew a soft breath right across the top. My nipples were completely standing at attention. I was surprised to hear a squealing noise and realize that it was coming from me.