Floored

by Melanie Harlow

  “Watch me?”

  “Yes.” He moved his chair back even further, leaving me standing two feet in front of him.

  “Watch me do what?”

  “Touch yourself.”

  My back stiffened. I’d never done this before and hadn’t anticipated it. I swallowed. “What?”

  “You heard me. Touch yourself. You can leave the panties on.”

  I’d been in my underwear all night, but I suddenly felt much more exposed than I had before. Tentatively, I brought three fingertips to my pussy.

  “That’s it,” he said, his voice like the rustle of silk. “Your nipples, too.”

  With one hand massaging my clit, I brought the other to my breast, teasing the stiff peak through the lace. The entire time, I kept my eyes on him, drank in all the little details that had blood rushing to my core—the tie pulled slightly askew, the white cuffs resting over his thighs, the flicker of the candlelight in his eyes, the firm set of his jaw as he fought the urge to touch me.

  “Good girl.” His fingers flexed. “I love watching you. You’re so beautiful.”

  “Tell me.” I pushed down one side of my bra, exposing one breast. “Tell me what you want. I’ll do anything.”

  “Make yourself come.”

  Oh God. Could I? With him watching? In the dining room?

  Oh, just do it. For fuck’s sake, you do it all the time. Share it with him. Then he’ll owe you a show of his own…

  At the thought of watching him come, my breath came in quick, shallow bursts. I began to move my fingers in just the right way, with just the right pressure. Damp heat seeped through the lace and mesh. A sound of pleasure escaped my throat.

  “Look at me.”

  I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes.

  “Are you wet?” Barely-suppressed desire oozed through his whispered words.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you close?”

  “Y-yes.” In fact, my legs were about to buckle. I leaned back against the dining table.

  As soon as I did, Charlie jumped up from the chair and grabbed the burning pillar candle I’d nearly toppled. He blew it out and set it off to one side before pushing me back all the way. Opening my thighs, he lowered his mouth to my pussy, ravaging me with his lips and tongue through the soaked lingerie. Crying out, I came immediately, my body convulsing on the table, my fingers buried in his hair.

  When the shock waves subsided, I raked my nails across his scalp. “That felt so good,” I whispered. “But I thought you wanted to watch me do it.”

  “I overestimated my patience.” His voice was rough, gravelly. “It’s been too long.” He kissed his way up my belly to my breasts, circling each nipple with his tongue, making me arch up beneath him. Finally he sealed his mouth to mine, kissing me with the flavor of peach and vanilla and sex on his lips.

  “Charlie Dwyer,” I whispered, placing my hands on the sides of his face, lifting his head. “I’m so in love with you.”

  He smiled. “Is that your orgasm talking?”

  I laughed, running my hands through his short, thick hair. “No. It’s the truth. I’m in love with you. You make me so happy.”

  “I want to.” He kissed me again. “I want to make you happy more than anything. Forever.”

  “Well, forever is nice, but you know what would make me happy right now?”

  He put his lips at my ear. “You want to get fucked on the dining room table.”

  My nipples tingled. “Yeah. Hard.”

  He straightened up and reached into his back pocket. A moment later, I felt him tugging down the drenched panties, then he curled his hands around the outsides of my thighs, hitching them up to his hips. Hooking my fingers over the edge of the table, I dug my heels into his ass, pulling him closer. “Jesus, your legs are incredible,” he rasped as he slid inside me. “I want them wrapped around me twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Oh God,” I breathed as he pulled out and slid deep, over and over. The way my hips were tilted up afforded him an angle that had the tip of his cock hitting that spot deep inside me, the one that tightened my core muscles involuntarily, as if to grab on and keep him there.

  He brought his thumb to my sensitive little button and rubbed slow, wet circles on it, making me shiver and pant. The nerve endings were so stimulated I felt electrical pulses shooting from my center through my limbs, every vein a live wire, a lit fuse.

  “Charlie,” I whimpered. “I’m on fire. Do it.”

  But he kept the same torturously slow pace with his cock, easy and steady and sweet, while his thumb drove me mad with the need to be fucked hard and fast. Did he want me to beg?

  “Charlie.” I squeezed him with my legs, fisted my hands in the tablecloth. “Please. Harder.”

  He laughed before plunging into me so hard and deep I bit my tongue. Then he did it again. And again. And again.

  “Like that?” he snarled, his fingers digging into my thighs. “Is that how she wants to be fucked on her dining room table?” He punctuated words with sharp jabs of his cock I swear I could feel between my ribs. And I loved it when he talked that way, like it was a fantasy I was directing and starring in.

  “Yes, yes…” I dropped my head to the side as he changed the rhythm to quick, rocking thrusts, his thumb working faster. “Just like that. Oh fuck…” My lower body tightened up again, my muscles contracting with exquisite torture. Oh God, so close, so close, the most beautiful kind of madness… “Don’t stop. Don’t stop.” I snaked my fingers in my hair, yanking it from the neat twist into a wild mess. “Never stop. Promise me you won’t ever stop.”

  “Never,” he growled, and this time the word never had me smiling deliriously as he took us both beyond the brink. Over and over again our bodies throbbed together, releasing the pent-up tension of too much time apart and sharing the thrill of a new beginning.

  #

  Later, we sat on the couch by a crackling fire with our Christmas presents on the table in front of us. Charlie had removed his coat and tie and rolled the cuffs of his shirt, and I’d put on dry panties and a t-shirt, although Charlie had voted for topless.

  He’d brought one gift for me, a medium-sized box wrapped in holiday paper and topped with a shiny red bow.

  “I have two presents for you.” I smiled ruefully, glancing at the two boxes for him on the table. “I got you a bottle of whiskey too, but I opened it already.”

  He laughed. “Did you finish it?”

  “No.”

  “Then pour some.”

  “I will, but open this present first.” I handed him the smaller of the two gifts.

  He unwrapped the old-fashioned glasses and took them out, a smile on his face. They were etched—one said Yours; the other, Mine. “Adorable.”

  “Too girly?” I wrinkled my nose.

  “Not at all. I love them. They are now the nicest glasses I own, as you will realize once you brave seeing my kitchen, which is a hodgepodge of junk I’ve collected over the years.”

  I shuddered. “Fear not. I will help you organize. It will be my project for this year.”

  He leaned over and kissed my head. “Thanks.”

  I rinsed the new glasses and poured us each a small amount of the Christmas whiskey. “Now this one.” I handed him the big box. He opened it up and laughed when he saw the stack of towels.

  “Perfect. Now I don’t have to steal them from your house one at a time, like I planned. Although.” He looked at me sideways. “Does this mean I can’t shower here anymore?”

  “Not at all. You can get naked and wet here any time you want, Officer Dwyer.”

  “Mmm.” He slipped one hand to the back of my neck and kissed my lips, soft and sweet. “I’m about to take you up on that, but first it’s your turn.” Setting the towels aside, he picked up the gift for me and placed it on my lap.

  I unwrapped it carefully, smiling when I saw the SJ Lingerie on the box. Inside was a beautiful ivory lace corset slip and pearl thong. I held up the thong and smiled slyly
at Charlie. “Is this a hint that my white cotton underwear is not sexy?”

  He nodded but said, “No, of course not.”

  Laughing, I punched his shoulder, then kissed his cheek. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. Want me to put it on?”

  “Yes. But I have another gift for you.”

  “Another gift! But you already gave me the skates, too. This is too much—you’re spoiling me.”

  He kissed the tip of my nose. “I like spoiling you. But I’m not sure if you’ll like this gift.”

  I dismissed that with a wave of my hand. “If you picked it out for me, I’m positive I’ll adore it.”

  “Don’t speak to soon. This one might be a little shocking.” He reached over and took his coat from the back of the couch, pulling something out of the inside pocket.

  Something that looked like…a ring box.

  My stomach whooshed. Oh dear. Oh dear. What was he thinking? We weren’t ready for that! I picked up my whiskey and took a sip. Oh my God, what would I do if it was a ring? What would I say? How dare he do this to me!

  Looking slightly sheepish, he handed me the little box. “I hope I didn’t jump to any conclusions here.”

  My heart was pounding. I couldn’t think of anything to say so I just unwrapped it. It was a plain white, hinged box, and when I opened it, a huge jewel winked at me from a black velvet cushion. I gasped, barely looking at it, and slammed it shut. “Charlie, are you nuts? It’s way too soon to—”

  “Take it out, Erin.”

  I pulled it out, discovering that the other end was a small, silver, torpedo-shaped ball.

  It wasn’t a ring. It was a butt plug.

  “Oh my God.” I looked at Charlie and we both burst out laughing. “Oh my God, you asshole!” I hit him with it. “Do you know what I thought this was?” He was laughing too hard to answer. He had tears. “Jesus, Charlie, I thought I was going to have to reject your proposal right here at our non-Christmas!”

  “I know,” he managed, wiping his eyes. “It was hilarious.”

  “No, it wasn’t. Oh my God.” My heart refused to calm down. “I want to kill you right now.”

  “Ah God, I’m sorry.” He set his whiskey on the table and pushed me onto my back, stretching his long, hard body over mine. “Are you mad?”

  His weight felt delicious and warm over me, and I wrapped my legs around him. “No.” I kissed him, feeling a tingle right down to my bare toes. “And I’ll even try it.”

  At that, Charlie’s face lit up. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. You make me want to do all sorts of things I’ve never done before.” I narrowed my eyes. “But someday, I will get you back for this. Mark my words.”

  He lowered his lips to mine, a soft moan rumbling in his chest. “As long as we have a someday, sweet thing. That’s all that matters.”

  “Come on, Erin. We’re going to miss our chance to go up there if you take any more pictures down here.”

  “Just one more!” I’d probably taken twenty already, but it was the Eiffel Tower, for heaven’s sake. And the one time I’d been here before, it had been a hazy, rainy summer day. Pretty and all, but today, with snow dusting every surface, darkness falling, lights coming on across the city…the entire scene was a fantasy in black, white, silver, gold, and evergreen.

  If only it weren’t so damn cold.

  “No. Enough.” Charlie took the camera from me and shoved it into my bag. “Let’s go. We have to do this now if we’re going to make our reservation.” His words puffed out in white wisps as he took my arm and dragged me over toward the entrance at the base of the tower.

  “I don’t see why we had to make reservations, anyway. We could have just played it by ear.”

  “Hush. Lucas said reservations are necessary at this restaurant.”

  “Where is it again?”

  “In the Latin Quarter. Apparently it’s where he took Mia on their first date.”

  “Really?” That made me happy. When we’d originally planned this trip, we’d been hoping my friends and their husbands could join us, but the timing hadn’t worked out. Mia had said the dates weren’t good for her dad and stepmom to watch the baby, and Coco said Devine Events had a huge wedding this weekend. “I didn’t realize that. OK, then. Let’s do this. I promised Maddie a picture from the top.”

  On our way up, I leaned back against him in the elevator. “I kind of wish she could have come with us, don’t you?”

  “What? No,” he said firmly. “An eight-year-old does not belong in Paris.”

  “But she’d love the sweet shops and the toy stores and the carousels. I saw a flyer for a kids cooking class, too. She’d have been in heaven. Oh!” I looked at him over my shoulder. “Remind me to pick up that little shirt with the frog on it that says la grenouille. It’s at that children’s store on the way back to the hotel.”

  Charlie grimaced. “The one for forty euros?”

  “Yes. That one.”

  When the door opened, we stepped out and even Charlie braced himself in the blustery cold. But the view from the top made me shiver for its sheer beauty. All of Paris, lit up and twinkling. “Oh, it’s so beautiful,” I breathed.

  “It is. I like how happy it makes you.”

  I looked up and him and smiled. “Let’s take a picture for Maddie!” Opening my bag, I dug around for my camera.

  “Why don’t we ask someone else to take it?” Charlie suggested.

  “OK.” Scanning the crowd, I looked for someone who might be a good candidate for photographer, but a second later Charlie took the camera out of my hand.

  “Here, I found someone. Miss? Would you take our picture?”

  I turned around to see who he’d chosen—and spoken English to—just in time to see Mia take the camera and say, “I sure would.”

  My mouth fell open, and I gasped. “Oh my God! What are you doing here?” I’d have tackled her except that she backed away, and Charlie was holding on to my wrist. I looked at him. “Hey! She said they couldn’t come on this trip! What is this?”

  He dropped to one knee in front of me.

  I sucked in more icy air as the world around me blurred. “Charlie?”

  He smiled up at me and pulled something from the inside of his coat. Frantic, I looked over at Mia and noticed Lucas, Coco, and Nick standing by her. All four of them were huddled together with grins on their faces that put the City of Light to shame. I covered my mouth with my gloved hands. Other people had stopped to watch and smile too.

  “Erin.”

  I looked down at Charlie again, my heart hammering. I couldn’t even speak.

  “I once described the perfect proposal to you—Paris, top of the Eiffel Tower, a diamond ring, the perfect man down on one knee.”

  My eyes filled, and I nodded happily.

  “Well. You’ve got Paris. You’ve got the tower. You’ve got the diamond ring.” He opened up a ring box, displaying a gorgeous round diamond that winked at me. “I added your friends to the mix, hope you don’t mind.”

  I shook my head, the tears spilling over.

  “And though I am far from the perfect man, I love you in the most perfect way I know how—unquestionably, unconditionally, unreservedly. I know our beginning was no fairy tale, but if you let me, I’ll give you a very happy ending.”

  I nodded, my voice finally bursting forth. “Yes!” As the crowd whistled and applauded, I pulled off my glove, held out my hand, and he slipped the ring onto my finger. I admired it for just a second before throwing my arms around him and letting him lift me right off my feet.

  A moment later, our friends and even some complete strangers swarmed us to say congratulations, and I lost track of how many hugs and kisses I gave and received. Mia took photographs, and Lucas took video—turns out this week was just fine for her dad and stepmom to keep the baby. Coco had lied about the wedding, too.

  “Are you kidding?” she’d said, sniffing as she held me close. “When Charlie told us what he was planning, we jumped at the chance to b
e here.”

  “I can’t believe you kept it a secret!”

  “Neither could anyone else,” she confessed. “I was under strict orders.”

  Mia came over to us, and we opened our arms to let her into the hug. “Thank you for being here,” I said, my throat constricting. “It means so much to me.”

  #

  I watched the proposal video an endless and probably annoying amount of times at dinner that night. But I couldn’t help it—the proposal was perfect, from start to finish.

  Confession: Speaking of the finish, I totally had a dirty thought when he said he’d give me a happy ending.

  Didn’t you?

  You didn’t really think I’d let her end the story there, did you? That ending doesn’t wrap up anything! I can’t have details hanging in the balance, so allow me.

  5 Things That Erin Didn’t Tell You But I Will

  1) Lucas and I had a little boy, whom we named Henri, after the Count, who was so special to Lucas and me. The count passed away about a year after I had Henri, but thankfully, we were able to travel to Provence shortly after he was born so that he could meet his namesake. The villa and vineyard were left to Lucas and his brothers, but since his brothers lived in France, Lucas and I sold our share to them and purchased land in northern Michigan to begin our own winemaking adventure. We moved up there permanently shortly before the birth or our second child, a girl we named Heloise. Ellie for short. Two children and a vineyard gave us plenty to do with our time, but of course, life continues to throw me unexpected gifts, so I’m due with our third child this fall. (I don’t know what it is yet—I’m getting better with surprises.)

  2) Coco runs Devine Events on her own now, and the business has grown so much she hired two more employees to work for her. This was especially useful when she was on maternity leave with the twins, Joey and Paul, who are going on one now. She and Nick still live in the Indian Village house, and Nick owns and runs several restaurants and bars in Detroit, including The Green Hour, although Lucas is still part owner. Coco says they’re done having kids and Nick claims they’re not, but Coco’s grandmother told him not to worry because she saw the future in a dream and Coco will be pregnant with a third son by next summer. (Coco is still not speaking to her.)