Yours for the Night

by Samantha Hunter

  I run my fingers through your hair. ”No, I am sorely tempted, but this is probably a better idea. And remember, it is just dinner—we can opt out at any time.”

  Jack knew it was the right thing, though he was so hot for her he could barely imagine not touching her, or making some of what they had shared a reality. But she was providing an out for him, too. Just in case. And when he got there, if things were good, who knew what could happen? He had a feeling about this; he was willing to just go with it.

  “Agreed. Just dinner—unless you beg me to go back to your place and engage in illicit activities.”

  “You never know. Maybe it will be you doing the begging.”

  Jack smiled. Desire raced through his blood and flowed through his fingers out into the words.

  “I’d beg for you, Nilla, you can count on it. I’d like to drop to my knees in front of you, kiss your feet, taste the skin on the back of your knee, and then work my way up, slowly, taste you, run my tongue over you until you come with my mouth on you, until we are both begging. And that’s only the beginning.”

  “Um, I am not sure this is a good idea....”

  Raine swallowed, and tried to focus as her breath became shallow. The hunger she had been feeling for weeks was suddenly a little frightening. This wasn’t a game anymore; it was real. He was real. They were going to sit across a table from one another and have dinner and talk, and all that while they would both be remembering the secrets that had passed between them. She closed her eyes and tried to settle herself.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t think we should really discuss this, considering…”

  “Nilla, tell me how you feel, how your body feels right now....”

  Raine tried to think, and quell the heat pounding through her bloodstream. She wanted to back off, and knew she should, but sheer desire weakened her. She knew what she wanted, and reached down for the courage to ask him for it.

  “Rider, your number. Give me your number.”

  “What?”

  “Your phone number, Rider, tell me. I’ll call you. I need to…hear you.”

  Jack was shocked speechless as he contemplated her request. No, not a request, a demand. The idea of actually talking to her stole his breath, and he didn’t bother thinking about it, but just responded.

  “Oh, yeah, sweetheart, yes. Here.”

  Jack typed in his cell phone number.

  “I’ll call you in a little while. I just want to shower and change out of my work clothes.”

  Work clothes? He smiled knowingly, pure masculine satisfaction pooling in his heart. She had come directly to find him. He acknowledged her message, and signed off.

  His house was suddenly incredibly still and quiet, and he could hear his own heart pounding. The wind howled outside the windows, and minutes slowed down as if he was drugged, the feeling of waiting for the phone to ring weighing down on him. God, she had taken him by surprise.

  She was changing. She was taking a shower. He closed his eyes and imagined the hot water running over her naked, soft skin. Then she would put on…what? His imagination nearly drove him mad. By the time the phone rang, he had imagined her in everything from black dominatrix leather to pink lace—and then in nothing at all. His mind went still. He pressed the talk button, and was relieved to discover his voice actually worked.

  “Nilla.”

  Raine thought for sure she would pass out just hearing him say her name—well, her screen name, but the same difference. Low and smooth, it slid over her like hot lava, and she tried to sound calm in response.

  “Hey, Rider.”

  Her voice was like whiskey, hot and golden. He closed his eyes and let it ease over him for a moment before speaking again.

  “It’s much like I imagined it would be.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your voice.” He settled more comfortably into the chair, and smiled into the phone. “When we talked online, sometimes I imagined I could hear you, but the real thing is a million times better.”

  Raine smiled. “It is. I love hearing you, too.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. “This is pretty intense.”

  “Something tells me it’s about to get even more intense, Nilla.”

  Raine felt weird being called by her pseudonym, and almost caved to the temptation to tell him her real name, but held back. That could wait. For now, this was good. She laughed, and almost didn’t recognize the husky, sexy sound of her own voice.

  “Could be.”

  “Um, Nilla, not to be too cliché, but exactly what did you change into?”

  She laughed. “Rider, are you actually asking me what I am wearing?”

  He laughed, too, a warm, husky, sexy laugh.

  “You bet I am. You can’t leave a guy hanging like that and not expect him to go half-mad with wondering. Tell me, Nilla.”

  Raine looked down, and nervously smoothed her hand up and down over her thigh.

  “It’s no big deal.... Usually when I get home from work I shower and change into my comfortable clothes.”

  “Tell me about them.”

  Raine smiled, and shook her head. This was crazy. She had thought calling him might add the edge of reality and stem the passion that was quickly getting out of control online.

  She couldn’t have been more wrong. Voice to voice, they were spontaneously combusting. She took a breath, and spoke, feeling a little silly, but pressed on anyway, remembering that Nilla would have no problem responding to this request.

  “Flannel pajama shorts and a top. Cushy socks. Not exactly Victoria’s Secret, but soft, warm and comfortable.”

  Jack chuckled, intrigued by the thought of her cuddled in flannel, the cotton sliding against warm, soft skin, clean and smelling of soap and powder. The slight edge of shyness that came through her voice made him want to break through, to make her lose control and tell him what he wanted to hear.

  “I wish I could smell you. I want to slide my hands along your skin, touching you. I want to know what secrets you are keeping under that flannel.”

  Raine felt rather than saw the flush work its way over her body, his voice setting off pins and needles of passion on her skin. She tried to speak normally, but her breath caught, betraying her response.

  “Rider, I think we should just talk, we probably shouldn’t…”

  She could almost see his naughty grin as he spoke. “That’s what makes it so much fun, Nilla. Forget the shoulds and shouldn’ts for a minute. Just relax. It’s just me—Rider. Do something for me?”

  “What?”

  “Touch yourself—and tell me what you feel.”

  Okay, stop the bus!

  She was not prepared for this! Nothing in thirty-two years prepared her for this onslaught of what she wanted to do, which was completely in conflict with what she didn’t know if she even could do.

  He was asking her to share something wildly new, and for her, something incredibly daring. It had been easy online. This was different. Way different. She closed her eyes, and couldn’t think of a single way to respond. He spoke again.

  “It’s all right—we’ll go at whatever pace you want. It’s just that you are driving me crazy. The sound of your voice.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “Nilla, don’t you know? You turn me inside out.” The words ground out of him and shocked her—frustration, desire and control that came across clearly in his voice made Raine feel a bit faint. “Just hearing your voice has me close to coming, all I would have to do is touch myself. God, Nilla, tell me you want me to.”

  Raine squeezed her eyes shut and almost dropped the phone, fumbling to catch it, and wished she had bought the speakerphone she had seen on sale a few weeks earlier. She was in a sexual twilight zone, nothing was real, and everything seemed to be magnified, every touch, every sound, every thought.

  She pictured him as he existed in her imagination, sitting on the other end of the phone, needing her, wanting her. Fear and feminine power war
red in her mind, and in her heart. She took a deep breath, and she let herself slide out of reality.

  “Yes. Yes, Rider, I want you to touch yourself, to make yourself come. I want to help you, to be part of it.”

  Jack slid one hand under the thick cotton of his robe, and let his head fall back on the chair as he slid his fingers over his swollen penis, rubbing his thumb over the dew that had accumulated at the head. He squeezed, sucking in a sharp breath, slowing himself down before it was all over too fast.

  “Tell me, Nilla, talk to me… I’m aching for you....”

  Raine turned off her light and quickly slid out of her clothes. She didn’t—wouldn’t—think about this. She just wanted to experience this moment of absolute letting go. She slipped back on her bed, not needing the covers. Her body was white-hot and ready to go. She felt awkward as she spoke, but just said what she felt.

  “I’m naked, Rider, I took my clothes off, and I’m on top of my covers, thinking of you and what you are doing. I wish I was touching you. I wish I could wrap my hands around you. Slide my mouth over you. I want to taste you.”

  She heard no words in response, just a masculine groan of appreciation. Still a little unsure, but encouraged, she continued.

  “I’m touching my knee, running my fingers over the hollows in the back. The skin there is smooth, and so amazingly sensitive.... Up the inside of my thigh… I’m so hot, Rider, I’m wet already…just thinking about you, what you are doing....”

  “Jesus, Nilla, I want you, baby, please, I need this, don’t stop....”

  “Tell me what you want, Rider, tell me where you want me to touch, where you would touch me.”

  “Lick your fingers, make them wet, then run them over your stomach. Think of me kissing you there.”

  She did as he said, and arched up toward the little paths of fire that danced along her skin, imagining his touch.

  The small, kittenish sigh that traveled across the line made him smile, and he refocused, running his hand over himself slowly, imagining her hands, and what they were doing, what he could make them do.

  “Nilla, cup your breasts, your beautiful breasts. Are they aroused?”

  “Oh yes, Rider.... Oh, that feels so good. I want to come....

  Come with me....”

  “Hey, not so fast,” he purred into the phone, gaining control from her loss of it. “We have time.... Roll over on your stomach, Nilla.”

  Almost drowning in swells of excitement, she mindlessly rolled over, and set the phone on the bed. She rested her head on the receiver, freeing her hands.

  “There, Nilla?”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Good.... The blankets are so soft, so warm from the heat of your body. Imagine me, Nilla, behind you—I want to rub myself on you, slide my cock along where you’re melting for me. Do that, Nilla, touch yourself there, and think of me pushing inside, sliding into your heat. I’m so hard, so damned hard for you. I wish I could be inside you, Nilla.”

  He was quickly losing the ability to talk at all, spurred on by her increasingly passionate sighs and moans. He heard her chanting his name into the phone, and pumped himself harder, faster, feeling the blood pool in his lower stomach, his body going taut as he neared the edge.

  “Nilla, now… Stay with me.... I’m almost there, Nilla!”

  She had never been so gloriously lost in her life, consumed by the voice on the phone, the hands on her body that barely seemed to be her own. She could only think of him, his voice, his hands, somehow at once bringing himself, and her, to pleasure, and she slid her fingers inside herself, finding the sensitive spot she knew would send her over, her cries filling the room and traveling over the line to touch him on the other side.

  “Rider, yes… Oooooh! Oh, God…”

  Jack nearly dropped the phone as he listened to her give in to the throes, his taut body bowing as he fell sharply into his own release.

  Raine smiled, listening to his guttural, animal sounds, wishing she could see his face right at the most intimate moment. She basked in hearing him lost in his own orgasm as the pulsing warmth of hers receded. Lying in the darkness, spent, her heart pounding against the softness of the cover, she murmured gentle encouragements, just sounds. His breath was still labored, then slowed; he was saying her name into the phone over and over again. Her body cooled, and she pulled the covers up over her, turning onto her back. She couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Rider?”

  “Mmm. Nilla. Not quite back yet, sweetheart.”

  She smiled, and kicked her feet on the bed a little, feeling amazing and powerful and feminine. Her body felt wired and relaxed simultaneously, and she couldn’t believe she had just had phone sex—really, really amazing phone sex. She laughed delightedly, making him smile.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing.... I just feel so incredible. That was so much fun—I have never done that before.”

  “Me, neither. You inspire me.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t meet, maybe we should just do this.”

  “No way, Nilla—no way are you getting out of this. Not now.”

  Jack lay back, eyes closed. His body was a mass of conflict, at once sated and yet begging for more—for her, for real. Three more days.

  “Yeah. And if this thing works out, Nilla, as they say, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  4

  RAINE WATCHED GWEN crease her forehead as she studied the tarot cards she’d laid out in front of her on the table. Gwen had arrived at the door to drag her out for lunch. Gwen’s hair was freshly colored with purple highlights and glitter eye shadow to match. Raine was just happy the Goth days were over; she preferred Gwen colorful and upbeat.

  They sat in high-backed booth seats at a favorite diner overlooking Salem’s pedestrian mall, soup bowls and coffee cups pushed to the side while Gwen turned out cards. Raine looked out the partially fogged window, watching people scurrying in and out of shops, rushing to get their Christmas shopping done.

  Everything was decorated and cheerful. The sun shone brightly off the snow, almost blinding her with the glare. She was meeting Rider tonight, and the brightness of the day seemed like a good omen.

  Gwen insisted on doing tarot readings for her once a month. Raine never so much as read the astrology forecasts in the newspaper, but today she was grateful for the distraction. It was a day for new adventures, and Gwen had shown up with her cards, so now the two sat eating lunch and peering into Raine’s immediate future. Raine munched her tuna sandwich absently and looked on.

  “So, what’s the verdict?”

  “First, the Chariot—that figures—he is traveling to see you, that’s kind of obvious. But the card is about being balanced, in control. It suggests a sense of purpose and direction. It’s a strong card. Maybe a very confident man who knows what he wants, or could be you trying to control the situation, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to think about. And—” she pointed to the next card “—then you have the Ace of Wands—kind of a sexy card, eh?”

  Raine peered at the card that showed a club, or tree branch—a very erotic-looking tree branch—standing straight up against a sky, surrounded by ivy and flowers, and nodded. Really, it did look like an erection. Or maybe she just had penises on the brain. She shook her head.

  “That one’s usually about new beginnings, creativity and sexuality. Good sign for getting laid.” Gwen grinned and pointed to the next card, which depicted a castle-type building with flames flying out of it, and people being tossed out of the windows into the crashing seas below.

  “Hmm, this one might be a problem.”

  “Looks ominous.” Raine wiggled her eyebrows dramatically.

  “Can be, but it’s more about life shaking us up, throwing us on our asses when we need it. There could be something really unexpected that will happen tonight. Could be good, or not so good. You had better just keep your radar sharp.”

  “For what? A sexy guy with a big stick and a nice car who is goin
g to surprise me somehow?” Raine smiled naughtily, and Gwen gave a hearty laugh.

  “Good one. Let’s hope so. Now it gets interesting. This chick here—” she pointed to a picture of a woman standing blindfolded in the middle of a circle of swords “—the Eight of Swords, she is imprisoned by something—see how the swords do not circle her tightly? There are ways she could free herself if she wanted to. The blindfold suggests she may not be seeing things clearly.”

  “Or maybe it means he is going to blindfold me.”

  “I never looked at it that way. Hmm…and tie you up…”

  “I was kidding, Gwen.”

  “Hey, I’m not judging—everyone is into their own thing.” She ducked as Raine took a playful swat at her, and went on.

  “But seriously, the cards can mean different things to different people—it’s obvious what’s on your mind.” She grinned cheekily. “Okay, then you have these last three. The Devil is what challenges you—not the devil like hellfire and brimstone, but this card can be a lot of things—obsession, darkness, or being hounded or harassed in some way. The Two of Cups follows, a card signifying what you should strive for, a meeting of the minds, coming together, emotional healing. Finally, the Four of Wands is your destination card—where you could end up—a very nice, happy, successful card, celebrations and accomplishments. Maybe marriage. Kids, you know, the whole ten yards.”

  “Bite me, Gwen.”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” She grinned, summing up. “So, the Tower and the Devil are still giving it all a pretty interesting slant, kind of intense—will be interesting to see what that is about, though sometimes it is nothing. I draw the Tower every month when I am PMSing.” She pursed her lips and looked up at Raine.