“Joyce, I don’t want to hear this. I don’t care, and I don’t think it’s any of my business. Whatever the three of you,” she waved her hands, lost for words. “Whatever your issues are, it’s between you guys. Or it is until Mace decides it’s something I should know. But it’s his decision.”
“Okay,” Joyce said and gave her a wobbly and disappointed smile. “I’m sorry I disturbed you.”
“You didn’t.”
“I just… Like I said, he was my friend, so I want him to be happy.”
That might be what Joyce had told herself before coming to see her, but it wasn’t the truth. She wanted to know if Kathleen thought badly of her for whatever had happened between her and the brothers. It was all about appearance, and apparently she seriously cared what Kathleen thought of her. Or she, for some insane reason, thought it was something Kathleen might have a professional interest in—which might’ve been laughable if it wasn’t so sad.
“Okay,” she answered and stood up. “Thank you for the coffee.”
She didn’t want to hear any more, and she didn’t like how Joyce had come to see her for a reason that mainly felt gossipy, or like she was trying to find out what Mace had or hadn’t told her.
No matter what the reason was, Kathleen needed to tell Mace. Simply because she didn’t want him to hear about the coffee with Joyce from someone else, but also because whatever the problem was, it was his business to sort out. She was sure it had nothing to do with her, and it had most likely happened before they even met.
So, she told him later that day.
“Your brother’s wife came to see me today,” she said while he was looking through the menus she kept on the counter.
Mace had made it very clear that there was no fucking way in hell he’d have another TV dinner ever again, so she’d left a pile of menus from local takeout places on her kitchen island and introduced him to it. If he wanted something to eat other than what she brought home, he could cook it or pay for it himself. Since she worked late most nights and they didn’t exactly sit down for a big meal, they usually did the talking while her dinner was in the microwave, she flipped though the papers, and he looked through menus. That was when they discussed what had happened during the day, what she was reading in the paper, or just generally whatever was on their mind. More than once those discussions had led to arguments, but they’d led to fucking, too.
When she mentioned Joyce, Mace dropped the menus on the counter and stared at her.
“What?” he asked. “Joyce? What did she want?”
“Think she wanted to know how much you’ve told me.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.” She looked at Mace with a smile. “About whatever she wants kept a secret, so I’m sure you know that better than me.”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “It’s a long story, and—”
“I don’t care, and I don’t know what it was about. I didn’t let her get to the point. I just thought you should know.” She noticed the menu for ‘Mother India,’ the Indian restaurant down the street. “What are you having today?”
“You don’t care why she came to see you?”
“No. Unless it’s about me, which I doubt, I don’t care.” She grabbed the menu from Mother India. “Are you having Indian?”
Mace stared at her. “Are you sure?”
She raised her head and looked at him. He seemed very uneasy, so she smiled.
“Do you want to know about the professor I fucked when I was twenty-one, or the married politician I had a relationship with for two years, or any of the other men I’ve fucked in a way that has been less than kosher?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “Don’t really care.”
“That would be why,” she said. “If you’re having Indian, I think I’ll order, too.”
“Why do you think it has something to do with fucking?”
“You saying it doesn’t?”
“No, but what made you think it did?”
“Every family scandal worth its name has to do with sex, alcohol, or drugs—or a combination of those three. None of you are alcoholics—I’m good at spotting those—I don’t think it’s drugs, and your brother looked like he wanted to lick my hand when he shook it, and he also blatantly checked out the waitress, so I’m guessing it has to do with sex.”
“Indian sounds good.” Mace put his arm around her waist and gave her a kiss. “I was in love with her, if that makes a difference.”
“Probably does,” Kathleen shrugged. “I still don’t care.”
“She fucked me to get back at Victor, so he’d leave her.”
“I thought they were still married.”
“They changed their mind.”
Kathleen laughed. “People are strange. You didn’t have to tell me about it.”
“I know. I wanted to tell you. So he was hitting on you?”
“No. He’s just one of those guys who evaluates every woman based their fuckability. They’re pretty common. Plain Naan?”
“I can’t fucking believe we’re talking about this while at the same time talking about what food to order.” Mace took the menu from her. “Will you kiss me if I order garlic Naan?”
“Doubtful.”
“Plain Naan it is.” He handed back the menu. “Are we in a sharing mood today?”
“We could be. Unless it’s about who I’ve had sex with before.”
“No,” he laughed. “I really don’t give a shit about that. What happened in D.C.? I mean, I know the basics, but what really happened?”
Kathleen leaned her elbows on the counter with a sigh.
“You were set up?” he asked to get her started.
“Yes, but it’s more complicated. I was sold out. I had a contact in the White House. We’d been working together for years, because that’s how it works. He fed me information—good stuff, and most of it helped him in his career, too—or he confirmed other stories I had. Politicians don’t have opinions anymore, they’re playing a game. The point of the game is to stay in power, and anything and anyone is a bargaining chip. Having a reporter to contact off the record is important. I had a few politicians like that, and I’d picked them carefully.”
“So he sold you out?”
“Sort of. I was his bargaining chip in some other deal. Someone made him an offer, but the price was that he’d help get rid of me. The same day as I was transferred, he got a nomination. A very good one.”
“He sold you out for that?”
“A very good one,” she emphasized. “I don’t know how they figured out he was working with me, or if he simply told them to get the deal, but the scale tipped over in favor of him getting rid of me to get something he wanted. That simple. But it was my fault, too. I should’ve checked the story better, but I got cocky. That’s what happens when you drop your guard for even a second in Washington, D.C.”
“A game?” he asked. “You’re telling me politics is just a game?”
“Are you really surprised? Yes, they make plans and deals. They make deals with big corporations to keep getting money, and they hide those facts from the voters with the help of that money. It’s a perfect circle.”
“Had enough of it?”
She stood up. “Yes. I think I have. Not sure what I want to do, though. Staying at The Greenville Observer isn’t really an option.”
“I guess not,” Mace said and picked up his phone. “I’ll order. The usual?”
“Yeah.”
No. Staying at the Greenville Observer wasn’t an option, but she didn’t want to leave it all behind. And she didn’t think she’d have to give up all her plans to keep Mace, either. That wasn’t what he was asking of her, either. There could be a way for them to make it work, and from what she could tell, they were both willing to try. It was about finding some middle ground where they could make it work in a way they were both comfortable with, and she didn’t think it had to be hard.
She’d never before been with a man who was so okay with the boundaries she’d set up. It wasn’t disinterest, he wanted to know more about her, but he was willing to wait until she was ready to talk. That alone made her want to talk about it, because she knew she could stop talking whenever she needed to, and he’d accept that. He had his boundaries, too, most of them had to do with the club, and she never pushed him about those things in return. They’d found a balance.
They were two people who were way too fucking old to change their ways much, and they were comfortable enough in their own skin to not fret about the other one not talking about every fucking detail of their previous life. They didn’t suspect it had to do with secrets, because they knew it did. Everyone had secrets, it was a part of living, and those secrets could either come out or be dead and buried without it in any way affecting a relationship. If it didn’t have anything to do with her, Kathleen wasn’t going to let it bother her. They’d come clean about the things that mattered, and they were currently trying to figure out how to let each other into their two separate lives without messing them up too much. It was working, she liked it, and she wasn’t going to look for things that made it harder than it already was. Those things could slap her in the face later, but she’d cross that bridge when she got there instead of worrying about it beforehand.
“Twenty minutes,” he said when he hung up. “Wanna see if I can make you come before we get the food?”
o0o
He flipped her over on all fours, and thrust inside her again. He’d managed to make her come in less than fifteen minutes, and then they’d eaten, still naked. She’d tried to get some work done, which she had until Mace had come looking for her. She had started to think that she might have to get a TV because every time Mace got bored, he went to find her, and they usually ended up having sex. The downside with getting a TV would be that Mace might not get bored as often, and she liked him bored. That was what had happened about two hours after they’d eaten, and it was why she was on all fours on her bed.
“Harder,” she panted.
“Easy,” he mumbled and started playing with his thumb around her anus. She looked over her shoulder with a smile, and she could feel his dick twitching inside of her. “This okay?”
“Yes. I like it.”
“Damn, you could’ve told me,” he said and leaned over her to kiss her shoulder while still circling and carefully pushing his thumb against her. “You up for this?”
“Yeah, just use a lot of lube and warm me up properly. You’re a big guy.”
“That’s nice to hear,” he mumbled.
She reached for the lube in the nightstand and handed it to him. She’d bought it to massage his prostate, and even if he didn’t like to get fingers up his own ass, she’d used the lube to massage him behind his balls while she sucked his dick—something he’d seemed more than okay with.
She felt the cold lube drizzle over her ass and between her butt cheeks, and she could hardly wait. It had been a long time since she’d had anal sex, but she liked it as long as she was properly prepared. When his thumb came back, she pressed against it, also resulting in his dick getting deeper inside her, and the throaty moan she let out when his thumb slipped in was almost embarrassing.
“Wow,” he chuckled. “You really should’ve told me you like this.”
“Honestly, I didn’t think about it.” Her mind when blank when he pulled back both his thumb and dick, just to immediately push them both back inside. “Fuck.”
She felt his lips between her shoulder blades. “Okay?”
“Yes. Do not stop.”
Instead of listening to her, he pulled out of her. “I’m going to do this right,” he said when she whined in protest. “Turn around.”
When she did, she noticed he’d pulled off the condom.
“What are you doing?”
They hadn’t had the ‘when are we going to drop the condom’ talk, but she had a feeling it was coming. She just hoped it wasn’t right now because she was way too horny to have it. Luckily, so was Mace.
“I need a better angle. I’m gonna give you head while warming up your ass for me.”
“Oh, fuck. I love that.”
He laughed and gave her a kiss. “You’re my kind of woman.”
She spread her legs for him, and sighed when he got down between them with a firm hold of her hips. There were a lot of things Mace was good at when it came to sex, but giving head was definitely one of the things he was best at. Part of giving good head was liking it, and Mace fucking loved it as much as she loved doing it to him. He gently spread her open and gave her a slow lick that ended with a circle around her clit.
“Fuck, you always taste so good,” he groaned. “Can’t get enough of you.”
“More,” she mumbled.
Mace dipped his head down, and with his lips firmly against her, he circled her clit with his tongue. Slow, gentle motions, and she tried to press against him for more. His only reaction was to hold her down with a hand on her lower belly.
“Please.”
“Patience, just this time, babe. You won’t regret it.”
He dipped his fingers inside of her before continuing further down. Kathleen tried to take deep breaths to relax, which went well until his finger slipped inside her ass. She made a sound that was something between a curse word and a groan, but it died completely when Mace sucked on her clit while pumping one finger into her ass.
“More,” she said, and she wasn’t even ashamed that she was begging. He was still pinning her down, but he carefully add a second finger.
“Breathe, Hotshot,” he hummed against her clit.
She tried, but couldn’t, and without removing the fingers from her ass, Mace moved up to lean over her.
“Open your eyes,” he said, and when she did, he started to slowly pump his fingers into her again. “You need to relax.”
“Kiss me.”
He smiled and did, while still moving his fingers, and then his thumb hit her clit. She was so focused on his thumb, she almost missed when he added a third finger, and by then his breathing was getting pretty damn ragged, too.
“Fuck, babe, you are so tight. I can’t fucking wait.”
He sat back and looked at his fingers going into her with a big smile. She couldn’t help noticing how hard he was, and she loved his dick.
“Now. I want you now,” she said. “Please.”
“Like this or from behind?” he asked and reached for a new condom. He opened the package, and she looked as he rolled it on. With a smile, he started lubing himself up, and she kept staring. He grabbed the back of her knee and leaned on his other hand next to her head. “I take it this works for you. When you find your tongue, you’re free to tell me if you want to change position, but you need to nod so I know you’re still okay with this.”
Kathleen nodded, and he gave her a long, deep kiss to let her taste herself and him. He let go of her leg, and she moved it to rest her knee on his upper arm. She’d just found her voice again when his dick was at her back entrance.
“Ready?” Mace asked and she nodded. “Relax.”
She closed her eyes and did as he’d asked. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t her first time, she knew what to fucking do, but at the same time it had never been someone so big, and she’d actually never had anal sex in the missionary position before. Most guys wanted to see their dick go into the girl’s ass.
He took his time while still keeping a steady pressure as he pushed inside her. Kathleen focused on relaxing and breathing. She moved her hand down to circle her clit, and Mace rose up slightly to give her room.
“Fuck, that’s tight,” Mace sighed. “So fucking good. Shit, I can’t look.”
“What?” she asked on an exhale.
“If I look at you touching yourself, I’ll come faster than I did the first time I fucked,” he answered between clenched teeth. She laughed, and that’s when he pushed the last inch and relaxed on top of her, leaning on his elbows. “Holy
fucking hell, you feel so good. So tight.”
“Give me a sec,” she whispered.
“As many as you want, baby,” he said and started kissing her.
They lay still with only their mouths moving until her insides had adjusted to him. She ran her hand through his hair and pulled him off her mouth.
“Slowly.”
He nodded and withdrew from her carefully. With a groan, he closed his eyes and smiled. “That’s so good.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
His thrusts were slow and measured. As soon as his pace picked up, he opened his eyes and kept looking at her, like he was making sure she was okay, and she kept her hand in his hair to hold him close to her. When she lifted up her other leg to hook it around his hips, his movements faltered for a second, but he didn’t take his eyes off her.
“More,” she whispered.
He was still leaning one hand on the mattress next to her head, and to get harder and deeper thrusts, he got up on his knees, but still kept watching her, and she’d never felt so… safe. On more than one occasion, guys had gotten a bit too eager too fast during anal sex, but it was clear that Mace had the situation under complete control, so she closed her eyes to just feel.
She felt his hands on her, first just one, but then the other, too, how they stroked her, and wherever he held them, a fire started under her skin. Now and then she felt his lips on her; either light kisses or brief licks as if he tasted her. And she felt his dick moving inside of her, at first carefully, but as his hands and mouth got more eager, his pace increased, and soon she felt his hips hitting her ass cheeks every time he bottomed out in her. It was good, but it wasn’t enough.
“More.”
“Oh, shit,” he groaned. “Okay.”
Mace sat up between her legs and took a hold of her waist to keep her in a fixed position as he started moving again.
“Touch yourself,” he said without taking his eyes from her crotch, because now he was watching to see himself fuck her. “I’m so fucking close, and I want you with me.”
She was close, too, and she did as he’d asked. With her fingers on her clit, she waited until Mace met her eyes.
Speed of Light (Marauders #3.5) Page 14