by Golden Angel
"I definitely don't want to just be friends," she said shyly, squeezing his hand. "I had a shitty day yesterday too but the night before was... I don't even have words."
Rick's eyes sparkled at her as he gave her hand another squeeze before pushing it back towards her. "I know what you mean. Now eat your breakfast. You need something in your stomach."
"Bossy," she murmured, but there was no heat in her voice. Truthfully, she kind of liked how bossy he was, because right now it was making her feel cared about. Taken care of.
In the past when she'd gotten drunk, she'd pretty much always had to take care of herself. Unless she was going through a break-up or some kind of personal trauma, and then of course her sisters were there for her, but in the mornings she had always been the one fighting through her hangover to make sure everyone else was fed, hydrated and recovering. That had always been her job as eldest. Having someone else taking care of her felt weird but also really nice.
She told Rick some of what she and the other girls had talked about, nothing private of course, and then he told her more about all of his friends, in between making sure that she was eating and - finally! - supplying her with coffee. Afterwards, he let her go upstairs to change while he did the dishes, although he made her promise to come right back downstairs once she was done so that they could talk some more.
They'd gotten the whole misunderstanding and apologies out of the way quickly enough, but apparently Rick wanted to talk about the scene and what she'd liked, didn't like. He'd tried to start the conversation with her right then, but she'd asked for time to take a shower and change so that she could feel more like herself before having to face that kind of conversation, and he'd relented.
"Oh noooo..." She groaned when she went to her bathroom and got a good look at herself. Going to bed in her make-up, even though she didn't wear that much to work, had given her raccoon eyes. And her hair looked freaking awful, even if the bun was supposed to look messy. It was like a bush on top of her head, one that was in desperate need of a bird to nest in it.
First things first. Her bladder was uncomfortably full and she needed to brush her teeth so that she could return to some sense of normalcy. Then came the hot shower, which helped to wake her up even more, even soothing some of the aches in her body.
By the time she was back at Rick's door, in fresh clothing (although still work clothes since she only had about an hour before she had to head over to the restaurant), with her curls tamed and her face scrubbed, she felt like a new person. Still an achy, slightly nauseous person, but a new person.
"Hey beautiful," Rick said, drawing her in through the door and brushing a swift kiss over her lips. "Welcome back." Even though she wanted to just press herself against him and get to the fun stuff, Maria made herself move past him into the apartment.
Standing awkwardly, not sure of where to go, she smiled as Rick took her by the arm and led her over to the couch. When he sat down, he pulled her down with him, practically on his lap. Maria tried to squirm away. "I thought we were going to talk."
"No reason why we can't cuddle while we talk."
Sure there was; because she couldn't think straight when she was pressed up against him and thinking about all the amazing things he’d done to her body and how hot and sexy he was. And she did need to think straight, because this was a relationship unlike any she'd ever been in - or ever known anyone else to be in - and she wanted to be able to use her head. Because right now, she wasn't entirely sure that either her heart or her head were in charge; she had a feeling that her libido was running the show with her heart sitting in as V.P. It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by hot sex and Rick's caring, dominant nature. Maria was a little worried it would be too easy, and she didn't want to lose herself.
Still, she could compromise. She slid her legs over his lap while she turned to face him, pulling her upper body away. At first he looked surprised, but then he grinned and rested his hands on her legs, rubbing her thigh through the thin material of her summer pants.
"So.... how do we talk about this?" Her voice came across almost business-like, which made Rick grin even wider.
"Well, first you tell me how you think the scene went, what you liked, what you didn't like."
Maria made a face. "Why does it seem like I'm always the one who has to tell you what's going on in my head first before you tell me anything?"
"Because I'm in charge," Rick said, giving her a meaningful look. "At least when it comes to the bedroom stuff. But I don't mind at all telling you that I loved every second of the scene yesterday, it was the hottest scene I've ever had in my life, I think that's because of the connection that we have, and I want more." The calm tone he used was completely at odds with the hot, hungry look in his eyes. Maria felt her stomach flip over as he squeezed her thigh, just above her knee.
With other guys, she'd occasionally worried about casual touching on her more fleshy parts, even though she would have dumped any of their asses if they'd said anything derogatory about her body. With Rick she didn't even feel a flash of worry, because of the way he was looking at her. It was crystal clear Rick liked touching all her parts, and not just during sexy time.
"Okay..." Maria took a deep breath, a little bit shocked by how much he'd just revealed. "Then um... yeah. I really liked the scene. Everything about it." Even using words like "the scene" to distance herself a bit from it, she could feel a blush coming on.
Rick raised his eyebrows at her. "Everything?"
"Well, there were a couple of times when I kind of wanted to smack you and tell you to get on with it," Maria said, poking him in the arm and making him laugh. He squeezed her thigh again, his thumb stroking slightly, and she could feel her body hum with pleasure.
"That's what I like," he said, his smile fading just a bit as he became more serious, his gaze becoming more intent. "I like to draw everything out. In fact, I went easy on you the other night because you're so new to all of this and I was pretty sure you aren't used to being denied orgasm, but that's exactly what I want. I want to control your orgasms, so that you only have them when I say you can, and that will mostly be when I give them to you. I might tie you up and tease you for hours before letting you come... or I might tie you up and make you come over and over again until you're begging me to stop. That's the kind of control that turns me on."
It was so, so wrong, but her pussy was clenching at both of those images. Had she already forgotten her railing frustration the night before when he'd been taking his sweet time? And yet... the idea of being at his mercy again was... wow. Plus, come on, like she'd ever begged a guy to let her stop coming. That was something she'd like to experience.
"Okay... that's a lot. But um... I'm getting hot and bothered just hearing you talk about it and I don't know if it's just that it's you or if I'll actually like it, but I like you and I want to try..."
"Even though you wanted to smack me the other night?"
"Yeah, but even so it was still the most... well it was the best orgasm I've ever had." Maria rubbed her cheek, which felt like it was on fire from blushing. Even though she was looking at Rick, she couldn't quite look him in the eye while she said this, but he didn't call her on it, obviously realizing that it was hard for her. "The best sexual experience I've had all around, really. Sometimes I think the only reason I'm not immediately down with all this is because there's a little voice in the back of my head that says I'm an independent woman and I shouldn't want to give up control over my body."
"Which is why it's such a gift when you do," Rick said softly. Reaching out, he pulled her a little bit closer, so that she was practically on his lap again. This time Maria didn't resist, warming to the tenderness in his voice. "It's not something I, or any good Dom, takes for granted. I absolutely see you as an independent woman, who can take care of herself and doesn't need me - especially not to give you an orgasm. So when you give up that control, when you trust me to tie you up and have my wicked way with you," he winked," when you submit
to my desires and my control and wait for my say so to find pleasure... it means a great deal more to me than if you were completely dependent on me for everything or didn't know how to give yourself an orgasm." Maria giggled.
"Yeah, okay, I can see that," she said, feeling reassured. He'd said similar things to her already, but now that she'd gone through a scene with him, she had a much better understanding of exactly how much trust, how much submission it would require of her. "So, what about outside of that? Like, dating-wise. How does that work?"
"Just the way it's been working, except we start spending time together outside of just the mornings," Rick said, grinning. Reaching up, he brushed some strands of hair out of her face, cupping her cheek with his hand. Maria leaned into the caress, feeling even more of her nervousness trickle away. "I can't promise I won't be at least a little bit pushy outside of the bedroom, but I have no doubt that you can hold your own. Just look at Adam and Angel for an example. In day to day life, he's a much bigger control freak than I am, he'd run someone like Hilary or Jessica right over, but Angel stands up to him no problem."
"And gets spanked for it."
"Only when she does it in the club. And you liked your spanking, sweetheart." He drawled the last part, making her body heat at the salacious way he said it and the memory of how much she'd liked being spanked. "So does she. That's not a real punishment for her."
Maria giggled. "Yeah, I did kinda get that impression."
"So what do you think?" Rick stroked his finger down her cheek. "Wanna have dinner with me tonight?"
That didn't even taken a moment of thought.
"Yes, please."
Chapter 18
Rick was on cloud nine, if cloud nine also happened to include blue ball hell.
Having decided that it was best if he and Maria took a step back after the Introductory Scene, he'd ensured that they didn't do more than kiss while they were together. Saturday morning he’d taken her to pick up her car so she could go to work. That afternoon he'd finally gone to her restaurant to visit her and then they'd ended up having dinner there. Which meant that he didn't pay, but that was alright. He wasn't that much of a control freak. Afterwards he'd brought her back to his place and sat her down to watch A New Hope, because he still considered it a crime that she hadn't seen any of the Star Wars movies.
She giggled through the light saber battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader at the end. Even Rick had to admit it didn't hold up compared to some of the later battles, much less modern technology, but otherwise she enjoyed the movie. Afterwards they'd cuddled on the couch talking some more, until they'd started kissing.
It took all of his self-control to walk her back up to her apartment that night, rather than dragging her down the hall to his bedroom like the horny animal he was. After that came the very long shower and right arm workout while he remembered her softness, her wet heat, and the way she writhed and begged while he tasted her. Unfortunately, jerking off one night didn't do anything to cool his libido the next day at the pool.
They had to keep it PG for the kids there, but they still flirted and splashed and kissed.
But most of all, they learned about each other. Rick told her about the camps his parents would send him to as a kid and how he'd come to his love of nature from that. Maria had never been camping, except for when she was in the Girl Scouts, which was definitely something he wanted to remedy. He told her about his brother Kenneth, whom he rarely talked about because they weren't exactly close anymore. Kenneth lived in Philly; three years Rick's senior, he'd been shocked and appalled when he'd walked in on Rick with a gagged woman tied to his bed. They'd explained things to Kenneth, after everyone was decently dressed, and his brother said he understood, but he'd never been comfortable with Rick after that. Which was why Rick only visited Kenneth and his wife Clara about once a year, usually on a holiday when he couldn't get down to his parents. And they never came to his place.
Maria had already told him a lot about herself, especially her family and her place in it. Always the older sister, always the caretaker. Always the good example. When she admitted to him that Jackie's pregnancy made her both excited and jealous, he hugged her close and told her that was only natural. After all, he'd felt the same way about his friends settling down into real relationships. It wasn't quite the same, but he knew the guilt that cluttered around feeling envious over someone else's happiness.
On Tuesday she texted him several times from work, which wasn't unusual. What was unusual was the depressing tone of her texts. She was having a rough day. Their food shipment had been late, which meant that the kitchen had started off the day behind on their prep-work and weren’t quite ready when the restaurant opened, which messed things up for the servers. Then, during the shift, they'd had several problem customers. On top of that, one of her long-term servers had been caught basically stealing, under-reporting his cash tips so that he didn't have to give as much in tip-out to the busboys and food runners, and he was late without calling in for the third shift in a row, so she'd had to fire him.
By the time he got the text about the server she'd had to fire, he was already elbow deep in making dinner for her, hoping to give her an end-of-the-day pick-up. He'd even had Justin give him some ideas.
Filets wrapped in bacon with oven roasted asparagus and tomatoes and homemade macaroni and cheese with crumbled bacon on top. Rick had noticed how much she liked bacon when he'd made her breakfast Saturday morning; she'd eaten nearly as much as he had. The mac'n'cheese recipe was one of Justin's specialties, definitely not Kraft. Made out of gruyere and cheddar cheeses, cream, a bit of mustard for extra flavoring, put it all in a little individual baking dish and sprinkle panko bread crumbs and bacon on top. Healthy it was not, but it was mouthwateringly good, with the added benefit of being comfort food.
Come to my place when you get off work... I've got a surprise for you.
After a few minutes, his phone buzzed.
I should be out of here in twenty... I hope the surprise is a hug. =(
Aw. Cute. He'd hug her. Then he'd feed her and take care of her. And then he'd crawl on top of her and see if he couldn't find another way to ease her tension.
Sure, he'd wanted to take a step back after their scene and the misunderstandings, especially because she still seemed like she was finding her footing with the whole submission thing. He hadn't wanted her to think that everything was about sex, but he could tell that she was getting just as sexually frustrated as he was. So tonight was about TLC and then, if the mood was right, taking a small step forward.
The mac'n'cheese and tomatoes were in the oven and the steaks and asparagus were sitting on the counter, waiting for their turn, when Maria knocked on his door. Rick bounded over, swung the door open, and pulled her into his arms for a hug before she could even say hello.
******
Ooohhh... I needed this.
It was the perfect way to be greeted at the end of a long, hard day of work. Maria melted into Rick's body, clutching at him like he was a life raft, and he secured her in the circle of his arms and filled her back up with warmth. Today had sucked beyond all measure, but all of that seemed to float away while he was holding her.
"Hey sweetheart," he said, kissing the top of her head. He did that a lot, she noticed, kissing her forehead or cheek or the top of her head. At first she’d thought it was a little weird, like something a father or brother would do, but it also made her feel cared about. She was quickly learning to like those tender little kisses. "I made you dinner."
As if in response, Maria's stomach growled. She smiled a real smile for the first time in what felt like hours as she lifted her head and sniffed the air. "Oh my god, it smells amazing."
"Good, come on in and I can finish up."
Rick swept her into his apartment, dropping her purse on the table by the door and getting her seated in the breakfast nook with a glass of wine, while he finished up making her dinner. The filets with bacon sizzled while he talked, telling her
about his own day and slowly lightening her mood as he described the custom-furniture pieces he'd helped Andrew with that morning and how he’d been fascinated by watching Andrew actually burn patterns into the pieces.
Even though it wasn't exactly fascinating conversational material, it helped her to relax as his easy tone soothed her. She sipped at the wine, because she didn't want more than one glass for the evening and she definitely wanted some of it with dinner. The conglomeration of amazing smells had her mouth watering.
"Oh... heaven..." Maria said after she'd swallowed her first mouthful of macaroni and cheese. It was creamy, tangy, and just a bit smoky, plus the little crunchy bits, all contributed to making it the best mac'n'cheese she'd ever had.
"Unfortunately not something I can take the real credit for," Rick said, smiling as he watched her eat. The pale blue t-shirt he was wearing matched his glowing eyes exactly, giving him kind of a surfer-boy look. Scruffy surfer boy, since he hadn't shaved today. Being blond, he didn't really need to, but sitting across the table from him she could see the scruff on his chin and cheeks. It was pretty hot. "I got the recipe from Justin."
"Mmmm... I should get the recipe from Justin and take it to Murphy's. We'd make a killing." Maria licked her spoon without thinking about it. Then she caught Rick's eye, saw the heat that had suddenly kindled in there, and felt her insides clench.
He'd been making her crazy for the past few days, kissing and caressing her but never going beyond that. At first it had been reassuring that he wasn't just going to jump on her, that he obviously wanted to build a real relationship and not just one that was based on their compatibility in bed, but she was also starting to go a little stir crazy. Since they hadn't really talked about it, even though she knew he wanted to control her orgasms, she'd gone ahead and taken care of her own needs when the itch became too much, but she would really, really like for it to be him.