ON AIR

by Hadley Quinn

  “Nope, doesn’t matter one bit,” I answered as I slid a hand around her waist and down to her ass. I squeezed the mound of flesh under my fingers, which automatically caused me to imagine myself gripping both cheeks as I thrust into her.

  And it automatically completed the hard-on that had started the second I saw her.

  Her hand slipped between us and pressed against the crotch of my jeans. “Mmm, I like it. Already saluting me and ready for drill.”

  God, she could always make me laugh. And drilling into her, repeatedly, was definitely my objective.

  I pushed her back against the closest counter, grinding my dick against her. It was straining to get out of my pants; thankfully she made the move to do so. I had her up on the counter, my fingers stroking her wet pussy within seconds. Thank God for crotchless panties because her legs were spread around me and I was buried deep inside her within seconds.

  “God…Dane…yes…”

  “Baby, tell me what you want.”

  She replied with a series of moans and groans, which was fine with me. It was sexy and a total turn on no matter what she did or said.

  “I love that cock deep inside me,” she whispered against my neck, her tongue tickling my skin. “My pussy just wants to swallow you up, deeper and deeper…”

  There’s something about the way a woman dirty talks to you. It’s seriously like super charging a guy, I’m not joking. We get this rush of adrenaline, a zap of extra manliness and arousal. I don’t fucking care if that sounds stupid. It’s the truth. Dirty talk to a guy and watch him react. You’ll both thank me later.

  I leaned her back, bracing my arm behind her, and hooked my other arm under a leg for a deeper angle. She groaned louder, her nails biting into my back as she clenched tighter around my cock. Hell, I had to think about other things just to keep my dick in check. Rainbows. Puppies. The new baby tiger at the zoo. Cats. Kittens. Pussies…

  Fuck.

  I pulled myself out, yanked Natalie off the counter, flipped her around, pushed her chest down to the granite, and re-entered her from behind. She let out another loud moan as I reached around with my free hand to work her clit with my fingers. Within seconds she came, and if she hadn’t, I might have had to chalk up a loss on the board with that session.

  When I was sure she’d completely felt her release, I pulled out and came against her ass, enjoying the view of her beautiful back, the lace and fabric that pressed against it, the bareness of it in other places, and most of all, the fact that my dick had just been pounding into her over and over.

  I reached for the kitchen towel hanging on the stove next to us, quickly wiped up my mess, smacked Natalie’s ass with my hand and said, “Bedroom. Now.”

  I watched her try to walk gracefully across the kitchen to the hallway, secretly smirking to myself because I knew the next round was not going to leave her so composed.

  I planned on breaking a bed.

  ***

  I’ll admit it was odd to have somewhat of a domesticated life with Natalie, even if we hadn’t been dabbling it in for very long. I nailed that woman two more times in the next two hours. I’d always been grateful for my ability to have a quick turnabout for multiple rounds. Still needed a bit of time in between, but not so long I couldn’t take care of her needs in between.

  Yes, my oral skills were definitely on point.

  She’d made a pot roast for dinner. Brought over her own slow cooker and everything, having started it at her house and then plugged it in at mine when she arrived. I can’t remember the last time I had such a perfect meal. I didn’t think Natalie had ever cooked for me before, either.

  Maybe I could get used to it.

  “Hey, let me do that for you,” I said when I stopped her from rinsing dishes. “Got it handled, babe. Go relax on the couch and I’ll join you in a bit.”

  She cocked her head and gave me a dubious smile. “Hmm. Well…okay.”

  She slowly turned to leave so I gently kicked her ass with my foot and said, “Don’t you question my motives, beautiful. You know you’ll be the one climbing me like a tree in another hour.”

  I heard her laugh out loud as she entered the living room.

  Yeah, this was okay. I could see myself enjoying days like this. Coming home from a day at work to good food, great sex, and most importantly…my best friend. I could honestly admit that she held a special place in my heart that way. They say that’s one of the best things in a relationship, right? Second to great sex, I’m guessing.

  When I finished placing the last few dishes in the dishwasher, I joined her in the living room. I had some work I needed to look at, so I grabbed my laptop and sat down with it on the same couch. To be honest, I was kind of testing her. I’m not sure why I was thinking about it that way, but I really wanted to see if she was going to give me crap about doing work at home. Maybe I was looking for that “ah-ha I told you so” moment that I could throw in her face when it was convenient. While I was enjoying this whole couple thing, I really wanted to be prepared for the potential collapse of it at the same time.

  I emailed a couple of clients, looked at some notes from my boss on a current project I was taking over, and eventually pulled up a design I needed to estimate hours on for the next week. During this time, Natalie was still watching television. But she was also on her phone either texting someone, emailing, or on social media… I didn’t know which one but she was thumbing away. It took me a minute to realize that I was so curious as to what she was doing I’d completely stopped doing my own work.

  She caught me staring, paused, and gave me a quick smile with a wink, and then went back to texting.

  Why the fuck did that bother me?

  I refocused on the design on my screen and jotted down a couple of notes on my legal pad. I glanced at Nat again. Her attention was on the TV for a few seconds, but then I saw her phone screen change colors with an incoming text. She glanced down and read it, her face breaking into a huge grin, and then thumbed away to respond.

  “Who ya chatting with?” I asked, trying for that casual I’m-going-to-pretend-it-doesn’t-matter voice.

  “Oh, just someone from work.” She looked at me. “I guess there was drama I missed when I left a bit early. Can’t say I’m upset, but sounds like it would have been funny to see.”

  I nodded indifferently. “Hmm.” As I looked at my computer again, I realized how much of an asshole I sounded like. Did she care to talk about it? Was I supposed to ask more about it? Was it something she just wanted to chat about with her coworker?

  Fuck. Sometimes I hated this relationship stuff. I was twenty-nine, so it wasn’t like I was some dumbass teenager who didn’t know his ass from his elbow. Nah, I’d been around the block a few times. However, I guess I’d never really had a serious relationship with anyone in my adult life. I did my best to avoid them. I’d had one girlfriend—the one who dumped me when Natalie had flirted with me in that coffee shop five years ago—and because of it, I’d never spent the time to keep anyone else.

  Shit. Keep anyone else. Did I really mean that? Was that what this was about? I’d known Natalie longer than any female that wasn’t related to me. I think I was seriously concerned that I would fuck things up and never have that again.

  I groaned to myself. This caring crap was pissing me off. I shut my laptop and practically tossed it on the coffee table. Natalie couldn’t help but notice with that type of dramatic display, and she put her phone down on the arm of the couch.

  “You stressed, honey?” she asked, sliding closer to me. She rose to her knees so she could reach the backs of my shoulders and began massaging them. It felt amazing, and even though I hadn’t originally thought I was stressed out, maybe I was carrying a bit of tension in my body. “Wow, you are tight, Dane. Is everything okay?”

  Babe, baby, honey… God, when did all of this change?

  “You know, you sit at your drafting table or computer a lot,” she added. “Do you get up and stretch enough?”

 
I barely shrugged. “Probably not. I go to the gym with Madden a few times a week, though.”

  “I know, and that’s good, but at work you should probably take care of yourself too. You’ll end up with a hunchback,” she giggled, digging her fists gently between my shoulder blades.

  “Gahh, that feels so good.” I pulled my shoulders back so she could continue. I think she used a mixture of her fists and thumbs to work from the middle of my back to the underside of my shoulder blades. I guess that seriously was a place on my body that was aggravated because of the position I worked in.

  After a few minutes, Natalie stopped and cuddled up to me instead. I’d forgotten all about my work and frankly didn’t care, and we watched a rerun of The Big Bang Theory. When she got up and collected her things to leave, I hugged and kissed her goodbye, walked her to her car, and then went to bed.

  I’d say it had been an interesting day in its entirety, but I was especially pleased with how it ended. If Natalie had tried to stay the night, I don’t think I would have dealt with it well at this point.

  We might need to work into that discussion on respecting my space sooner or later, but I was glad it wasn’t sooner this time.

  14

  Dane,

  Hope it’s okay to email you back again. Thank you for the recommendations. I had a great time visiting the spots you suggested. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to my segment from Monday. Let me know what you think. =)

  Sinclair

  Hmm. That was the email I got while I was at work on Friday. I’d at least remembered to give Darius a heads up on Monday night before I went to sleep, but beyond that, I’d been so buried in work that I hardly had time for anything else.

  Even Natalie, but that seemed to be her choice. She didn’t drop by my house again to make me dinner, or show up unexpectedly all week. We texted—she was busy and I was busy—but we’d decided to meet up tonight since it was the weekend. Darius had texted me a few times throughout the week to let me know business had increased tremendously, but he was worried how the weekend would fare. I promised I’d be in no matter what.

  In the midst of my random thoughts, Clive entered my office and shut the door behind me. I instantly knew something was up because he rarely ever shut the door to speak with me.

  “So you hired someone to work here?” he asked. He didn’t seem mad, just confused. I had no idea what he meant either until he added, “A kid named David?”

  “Oh. Yeah. About that…”

  I gave Clive a summary of Davey’s situation, and since I knew he would understand, I really didn’t worry about him objecting. I apologized for forgetting to tell him, though. That was a mistake on my part.

  “Don’t worry about,” he waved it off. “But get him set up with Penny before anything, okay?”

  “I wasn’t expecting you to give him a job, Clive. I just thought he could work for me for a bit. I’ll take care of paying him.”

  “I understand your intentions, but let’s get him official, okay? Let’s at least give him the opportunity to build his résumé. Open the door for him. What he does with that is up to him.”

  I nodded my gratitude. “Thank you so much. I appreciate it.”

  “You know I’ve been there,” he smiled at me. “It’s my job to pay it back.”

  He opened the door and I followed him out. Clive hung a left for his corner office but I continued on until I hit the reception desk and waiting area. Davey was seated in a chair, elbows on knees, seeming restless. He stood suddenly and turned for the exit, but that’s when he saw me and paused.

  “Nah, don’t run off yet,” I said, motioning for him to follow me.

  He was reluctant at first but eventually followed me down the hall. I passed my office and entered Penny’s office instead. We sat down and spent almost an hour on getting him set up with part time pay, and when we were done, I took him to my office.

  “So I’m like an office boy?” Davey asked after I filled him in on a few things he’d be helping out with.

  “Yep, gotta start somewhere.”

  He thought that over for a moment. “Hmm. So I don’t get to draw up some buildings and shit just yet? You know, I’ve got some pretty good Lego experience under my belt.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was sharing his dry humor or mocking me, but I nodded my head and answered, “Same here, man. Ultimately what got me interested in this kind of thing.”

  I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do with Davey. Yes I truly did want him there to work, but I guess in offering, I hadn’t exactly thought it out well enough. But we were a firm of seven architects, two engineers, a couple of secretaries, an accountant, and a few assistants. I introduced him to as many as were there that day and then set him up with Julie, who was a college intern and Clive’s assistant. I kind of felt like I was pawning him off on her, but she seemed to want to help and claimed she knew just where he was needed.

  I returned to my office to continue my work, and by that I mean I pulled up Sinclair’s email again. I read it twice before finding the segment online to listen to, but before I could press play, my desk phone rang and I spent a half an hour with one of my long-winded clients.

  The only thing that kept me awake was a series of texts from Natalie.

  Nat: I know you’re probably busy, but just letting you know I’m thinking about you naked

  I smiled as I read that while listening to Lowell Roberts explain the tile design in his bathroom.

  Nat: If you were here with me we’d be doing…things

  I pictured having Natalie pressed up against the shower Lowell was describing, her naked body writhing against mine. He could talk to me all he wanted about his travertine compass inlay while I fucked her senseless.

  Nat: Your desk is quite large…

  Oh shit, not shower sex. I eyed my desk while Lowell went on about the ash color compared to the oatmeal color his wife liked instead. I had no idea if he was still talking about his shower or not because I pictured Natalie spread on my desk in front of me—

  Nat: I’d love to be under it, have my mouth around your cock right now, sucking you so hard people will hear you... And if Clive walks in I’m gonna keep going until I suck you dry. He can fucking watch when you come down my throat

  Well, I might have come in my pants with that thought but the phone was distracting me.

  “Dane? Dane, you there? Hello? … Must’ve lost the connection,” he said to someone else in the room.

  “No, Mr. Roberts, I’m here.” My dick is hard as a fucking rod, but I’m here. Listening to you rambling on and on about shit I don’t care about.

  “Oh, well, okay. So thanks again for the recommendation. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I’m glad it all worked out for you.” Whatever the fuck it is.

  When we hung up, I was in serious need of alone time before I could text Natalie back.

  15

  Friday night at Baseline was pretty packed. I was happy they were getting a lot of business—and Darius was rolling in the tips like mad—but a part of me was disappointed that one of my favorite bars didn’t seem so exclusive to me anymore.

  “Man, maybe we should head over to Jessop’s,” Madden said after an hour.

  Eight of us were sharing a four-person table, half of us standing. I couldn’t even move without bumping into someone, and I’d lost count how many times I’d been bumped into or spilled on.

  “Have you noticed what the majority of the people are in here?” Chris asked, glancing around. He was keeping Chloe close to him, just like I was doing with Natalie.

  “Assholes?” Madden replied with a scowl, right after a couple squeezed between tables and almost took his elbow off.

  “Nah, it’s like a college frat party in here,” Natalie answered. “It’s like they migrated north for some reason.”

  “Yeah, I see what you mean.” I studied the crowd a bit closer and sure enough, “college” screamed from ninety percent of them. “Totally n
ot what I wanted my bar to turn into.”

  “No shit,” Madden growled as he stood. “Let’s get over to Jessop’s.”

  The trek to the bar to say goodbye to Darius was nearly impossible, so I just shouted his name and motioned my departure when he looked up. He acknowledged me with a wave as we left.

  By the time I made it across town in my truck with Natalie, I really didn’t feel like being out anymore. She easily agreed and we ended up at my place by eleven o’clock. Call me boring, but just the idea of baking a frozen pizza and putting on a movie was exciting to me. I’d spent plenty of nights out over the years so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Sometimes I wondered if Natalie did since she was three years younger than me. I didn’t want to take away her social opportunities, and I ended up telling her so.

  “Pssh,” she smiled at me. “It’s not like I’m in college. And I deal with people enough when I’m at work. You know me. I could sit in silence for a couple hours and be fine with it. I like getting together with everyone, but the only person I really need to be around is you. That’s a fix I can’t get enough of.”

  Two weeks ago, that might have made me panic. Label me an asshole if you’d like, but I really had a difficult time with clingy women. Normally I can tell during the first date, but there have been a few who saved the psycho for a bit later. I’m not saying Natalie was clingy, but any type of allusion to it would have had me putting up a wall.

  Sometimes I was waiting for Natalie to slip me those subtle hints. I pictured it like a slow takeover—or maybe quicker like a carbon monoxide leak and you’re dead before you know it. I didn’t consider Nat herself to be poisonous, but that subtle loss of man space is inevitable over time and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the fight it might produce.