by Golden Angel
Taming the Tease
by G. Angel
Acknowledgments
Every single person who has ever written to me with supportive words or encouragement deserves an acknowledgement. Being a self-published writer isn’t easy, and making the step was both scary and thrilling; I would have never done it without the support of my fans. However, there are some particular special thanks that need to be said.
A huge thank you to Katherine, who has been a huge help to me since the beginning of my journey into the world of self-publishing. I’m not sure I could have done it without you, and I know for sure I wouldn’t have done it as well without you. You help keep me on track, motivated, and always thinking about the next step.
Another huge thank you to Nick, who provided me with a very detailed and constructive male point of view while I was writing this novel. This book would definitely be shaped slightly differently without you, and I can’t thank you enough for helping me to keep it well-rounded and appealing to both sexes. Plus, all the other little things you pointed out that helped make this a better story than it would have otherwise been.
Giant, worshipful thanks to Crystal, who did a bang-up job helping me through the editing process with this book and whose comments really helped the development and portrayal of both Rick and Maria. On top of that, she also created the most gorgeous cover art I’ve ever had for one of my books. The final steps for turning this story into an actual book are usual arduous for me, and you helped make them pleasurable.
And as always, thank you to my wonderful husband for his love and support of my dirty mind.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter 1
At exactly 11:01 pm, Maria made her escape. The engagement party had started at 8pm, which meant she'd suffered through three hours of ecstatic young ladies squealing, men making ball and chain jokes, and the inevitable flood of well-intentioned but ultimately insufferable remarks directed at her from friends and family members alike. Three hours was enough, even if the party was for her sister.
Making her way past the bright green lettered banner that read Congratulations Lara and Victor, Maria fervently sent up a prayer of thanks that it was summer instead of winter so she didn't have a coat to give her away. If anyone even noticed she was leaving the room they would probably assume that she was heading to the bathroom or maybe to smoke a cigarette or just to get a breath of fresh air. Even with the AC running full blast, the restaurant's private dining room was stifling due to the large crowd of people who were all drinking, eating, and expelling excess amounts of hot air.
That's if anyone even noticed she was leaving. Pretty much all of the attention was on Lara and Victor, which was as it should be, and Maria wasn't jealous. Envious yes...
Lucky Lara. The youngest of the Arias sisters and the third one to get engaged. Maria didn't begrudge her sisters any happiness, but - as the oldest sister and the only one with no husband and no husband in her near future - the situation wasn't exactly comfortable. With all of her sisters doing the whole marriage thing while Maria was the oldest and not even in a relationship, there were too many people at the party who thought she would needed comforting or encouragement, or (worst of all) advice on how to get a man. Most of them were related to her and had the best of intentions, so she couldn’t even be rude to get them to leave her alone.
Maria made a face. She didn't need advice on how to get a man, she just needed to find the right man for herself. And if she was single at her youngest sister's engagement party, well that didn't mean anything except that she hadn't found the right man yet. Anyone who thought differently could suck it.
The hot night air hit her like a blast, the humidity making it feel even worse than it was. Gotta love that Maryland weather. At least July usually wasn't quite as bad as August, but it made her curly hair even more unruly than ever. Which was why she had the mass of it done up in a pretty bun, but she knew the little bits of fluff and frizz would already be lifting. Hairspray? Ha, her hair laughed at hairspray.
"Running away so soon?"
Ugh, great. Just what she needed, another run in with Victor's best friend Jeremy. Pasting a smile on her face, she ignored the cloud of smoke around him and gave him a little wave, hoping that she could flee. Victor was a doll, but his best friend was a complete scrub. She didn't care that the slang term was over a decade old, it was the best way to describe him.
And she didn't want no scrub.
"Hi Jeremy, bye Jeremy."
"Hey, come on Maria, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot..." Jeremy jogged after her, giving her what he obviously thought was a charming smile. He was a decently attractive guy, although not nearly as attractive as he thought he was. "If I'd known you were Lara's sister, I would have never said what I did."
Maria walked a little faster, although in her heels it wasn't like she could truly outrun him. "So you don't mind telling complete strangers that you'd totally hit on them if they weighed less, but since I'm Lara's sister it's not okay? That's just charming."
"I think you're hot, just bigger than I like 'em. Doesn’t mean we can’t get along. Let me make it up to you, I’ll take you out to dinner tomorrow."
Oh hell no. The stupid overconfident smile on his face hadn’t even budged. Like he actually thought she would let him take her to dinner.
"Go away, Jeremy. I have no interest in you and I don't know why I bothered to try and be friendly and introduce myself in the first place. Oh wait... yes I do. Because I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt after Lara told me what a dog you were. Then it turned out she was right."
Since she had reached her car, she had the satisfaction of seeing Jeremy wince and look surprisingly sheepish. "I know... I know... but, you didn't tell her right? And you won't? I know she doesn't like me... but Victor and I have been best friends since we were five. I'm trying to do better around her."
"You know what might help? If you didn't completely suck as a person," Maria snapped, fed up with his selfishness and shallowness. "Don't try to do better 'around her,' try to do better period. If you're having problems with your friendship with Victor, maybe it's because he's finally seeing you for the self-involved jerk you actually are. Change that and maybe both he and Lara will think better of you."
For a long moment, Jeremy just stared at her and Maria pulled her car door open, figuring they were done. Unfortunately, it was just taking that long for his tiny brain to process what she'd said and come up with a response.
"You know, you wouldn't have such a stick up your ass if you could find someone to fuck you... if you looked like your sisters, that wouldn't be such a problem."
Gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white, Maria turned on the car and revved the engine. At least she had the satisfaction of watching Jeremy turn tail and run, realizing that she was sitting in a vehicle that could definitely be used as a weapon. Unfortunately, such a drastic act would only have more negative consequences for her... she'd probably have to apologize to him later, plus her sister would be upset, and she might end up in jail. Plus, everyone pr
obably would ascribe her single status as being somehow behind her motivation to run the scrawny bastard over.
The thing was, Maria did look like her three younger sisters. In the face. Jeremy was referring to the fact that when it came to body type, her sisters all took after their mother and Maria had the same body type as her dad's sister. Aunt Rhonda was a beautiful, curvy, voluptuous woman who had also been the only one in the family not to hassle Maria tonight about her lack of romantic success. She adored Aunt Rhonda.
It's not like she was out of shape. She loved her curves now, although when she was growing up she’d felt like a clumsy, overlarge duckling in a family of graceful, slim swans. Not that any of them made her feel like she was anything less because she was a bit bigger than them, no that was left to the douchebags of the world like Jeremy. If Maria was a meaner person, she would tell on him to Lara.
Her baby sister would have him sliced, diced, and served up with some cumin sprinkled on top.
Hell, if it wasn't for the fact that he was Victor's best friend and best man, Maria might have done the same thing. But she wanted to escape more than she wanted a scene in the parking lot, and she didn't want to cause any waves during Lara's wedding and especially not within the wedding party. That was the last thing she needed.
Ugh. She needed some serious stress relief. Even with the AC going full blast the humidity of the air still making her dress stick to her skin, making her long for the cool embrace of water all around her, drowning out the noise of the world.
The pool was her little bit of escapism. A place to just be.
******
She was out there again.
Rick did his best not to look. Even if he did have a perfect view of the pool from his window, that didn't give him the right to stand there and watch the swimmers. Especially ones that turned him on, since it made him feel like a creeper.
This particular swimmer was out there often, during both the day and the night. People really weren't supposed to be there at night, when there wasn't a lifeguard, but it seemed like she was the exception to the rule somehow. That or she just didn't care about the rules. He did check on her, every so often, to make sure that she was okay out there on her own, but just standing and watching somehow seemed an invasion of her privacy.
Even if she was in the apartment complex's public pool.
Besides, he should be sleeping instead of watching her. Rick tried to keep his schedule close to school hours even during the summer, so that it wouldn’t be too much of a shock to his system when fall came. Normally, he would be teaching summer school, so it was easy to keep his routine close to normal working hours. His recent move prevented him from teaching this summer, so he needed to find other ways to make money over the break before starting at the new school this fall. Other ways which translated into other schedules, which meant a bit more trouble sleeping, which meant he was watching her instead of getting some much needed rest.
So far this summer he’d mostly been helping out his friends at their companies, earning extra money from them.
Adam owned his own head hunters and temp agency, placing workers in full time or temporary positions at other companies, and that was where Rick was spending most of his time. After that, he was mostly helping out Patrick, the owner of the kink club they all spent their time at on the weekends. Patrick owned Stronghold and he hated doing paperwork, plus there was always a need for someone behind the bar or working security. Rick had become the on-call man at Stronghold for the summer, which wasn't a bad thing. It had given him an opportunity to meet more of the submissives than he had before, which was good.
Now that he was living closer to Stronghold, he was hoping to meet a submissive that he could have a real relationship outside the club with. Since last summer, four of his friends had found that - granted, two of them were in a relationship with one very special woman, but that counted - and he wanted that too.
Glancing out the window, he looked down at the woman in the pool, floating on her back. She was all curves, tucked into a barely-there bikini. He liked curvy women who were confident. Which was probably why he had such trouble keeping his eyes off of her whenever she was down there.
It was definitely time to go to bed, despite his urge to stay up and watch over the woman in the pool. Not his responsibility. But moving away from the window was almost physically painful, and as soon as he’d brushed his teeth and gotten ready for bed, he found himself right back in the same spot watching his midnight mystery woman.
******
Plowing through the water was almost like meditating for Rick. One of his favorite things about his early morning swims was the fact that there was no one at the pool. Although today he was a little bit more tired than usual, having stayed up long past the time he should have been in bed. When the woman in the pool had finally gotten out, wrapped her luscious curves in a towel, and headed back to the building - his building, he knew she lived one floor down although he didn't know which apartment - he'd finally managed to get his ass into bed.
Which was why he deserved the extra burn and strain this morning. He shouldn't have stayed up to watch over someone who didn't want or need it, or even know that he was doing it.
Creeper.
Spraying water as he exhaled and dunked his head back in, Rick had to remind himself to kick his legs. It was too easy to just pull himself through the water with his arms, but he needed the leg work out, too. Anything to drain himself of the excess energy he seemed to be carrying around.
Maybe he should reconsider Patrick's offer to put him into the Introduction Scene rotation. Although he went to the club every weekend now that he'd moved to the area, he still hadn't found a submissive that he really clicked with. He played of course, and had even had some mutually satisfying scenes, but either the woman wasn't interested in extending their interactions beyond the club or something just didn't gel completely. Doing Intro Scenes would force him to meet more subs. After all, it had been a month of going to the club on a regular basis and he was just as likely to sit at the bar chatting with his friends as he was to scene. So maybe he just needed to find a way to put himself out there more.
Heck, half the reason he’d moved up here was so that he could be closer to Stronghold. The other half of the reason had been that he hadn’t been thrilled with the way things had been going at the school he’d been teaching at. The principal had had the tendency to play favorites, with both the teachers and the students, and unfortunately seemed particularly favorable to those who cause drama. That was not a situation Rick was willing to put up with. He’d already been somewhat dissatisfied with the school, even though he loved his students, and he’d become so dissatisfied with his love life that moving away from it all just made sense.
Here he was closer to his friends, he was starting at a new school, and hopefully he’d be able to find a relationship that actually could go somewhere. When he’d been living almost two hours away from Stronghold, most of the submissives that he was meeting also lived two hours away from him – or more. Which was a hard sell for when it came to dating. Of course, now that he was living here, somehow it hadn’t been any easier to find a woman he actually wanted to have a relationship with.
Reaching the end of the lane, Rick grabbed onto the wall and pulled himself against it with his arms, spreading them along the upper edge which was starting to heat up in the sun. The pool was starting to get a little busier now, he wasn't the only one here anymore, although he was the only one swimming laps.
As he glanced over towards the entrance, his muscles tightened and he recognized the dark haired woman that he often watched from his window. They actually hadn't been at the pool at the same time before; she tended to go in the evening - or late at night - and Rick tended to swim in the morning. She was wearing a bright purple bikini with pink polka dots and a matching dark purple sarong that tied at her curvy hips and peeked open to show a generous amount of leg when she walked. This was closest he’d ever been to her and a
t this range he could see how very well she filled out her bikini top, the large globes of her breasts jiggling as she walked.
Most women her size wouldn't have the confidence to carry off a bikini, but she looked completely comfortable in her own skin, not to mention gorgeous. Her dark hair was piled up on top of her head, a mass of curls that looked precariously perched and far too heavy for her long neck. The college guys near the entrance were checking her out, never mind that she much more voluptuous than current beauty standards. She was hot, confident and luscious.
Rick didn't usually describe women as luscious, but that was the best word for her. In his head, it was always the word that came to mind when he saw her. As always, seeing her stirred a physical reaction, despite the cold water of the pool. He liked women of all shapes and sizes, but he did have a particular soft spot for the ladies with more curves. Maybe because he’d always been a bit of a cuddler. Mostly, though, he was drawn to confidence; he liked sassy women and always had. Something about the way she moved hinted that she was just his type.
Maybe he should just go over and introduce himself. Flirt. Ask for her number.
Yeah, and then when she turned out to be completely vanilla and possibly freaked out by his needs, then living here wouldn't be awkward at all. Rick liked his new apartment. He didn't like moving. Don't piss where you eat; in other words, don't get involved with your neighbors. It just never ended well and the only solution was to move away.
Not an option.
Time to go. He could go visit Liam at his dojo and join into one of the classes or help with paperwork or something. Or hit up Adam's office and visit with him and Justin. Or any other million things that didn't involve sitting here and checking out his hot neighbor who was now flirting with the college guys.
******
"Haven't seen you here before," the dark haired college hottie said to Maria, grinning at her as she laid out her towel.
After Asshole's remarks last night, it was nice to have some male attention that was unequivocally positive, even if the two guys were definitely too young for her.