The pale peach of her delectable ass was presented to him and he knelt behind her. He reached over to the couch and snagged a throw pillow, situating it under her head. Placing a hand on her upper back, between her shoulder blades he pushed her head and shoulders toward the floor. Ah, the perfect submissive position! He ran his fingers through her cleft, from clit to rectum, testing her readiness, and she let loose a primal groan followed by a breathy, “Please! I need you inside me!”
Christ, she was dripping honey onto her thighs, so ready and responsive to him. He could feel her clit pulse under his forefinger as he rubbed tiny circles on her button. A gasp followed with a quiet mewling sound from deep in her throat.
“When I’m ready, girl. Not before, you know this.” Hell, he probably wouldn’t last much longer but she loved this game. Loved when he brought her to the brink and held her there. Loved when he held all the control.
He worked a long finger into her tight sheath and her vaginal walls rippled around it. “Hold it, Amanda. You aren’t allowed to come until I say.”
Another frustrated groan made him smile evilly as he continued to stroke in and out her, adding another finger and then another before searching out the spongy place on her front wall that would make her scream. More ripples and a tightening of core muscles and Amanda released a sob.
“Don’t do it. Hold it, babe. You know how good it’ll feel if you let it build.” She began to pant as she fought to hold off her orgasm.
“Good girl.” He eased his fingers from vagina and sucked her juice off of them with a hum. “Delicious! Sweet as honey, salty as the sea shore.” She bucked back against him, trying to get him to enter her. He issued a swat to her peach-like derriere. “Who’s in charge, girl?” He swatted her again, and then again. She liked this, too. A spanking always made her come harder. Peppering her ass with little stinging spanks had Amanda tensing and he knew it wasn’t in pain.
“Hold it, Amanda. That’s a girl. That’s my girl. I’ll give you what you need.”
He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to be inside her. Gripping her hips he entered her in one hard thrust. Amanda cried out in pleasure and a bit of relief. He held still there for a few moments, letting her grow accustomed to his intrusion. His eyes closed tight and he breathed in and out a couple of times, so afraid he’d come before she did. Her clenching, quivering channel was fast making him lose his mind.
“Move!” Amanda ordered him this time, making him chuckle.
“Now you’ve done it, my love.” He slid from her depths and left her hanging, with his hands still holding her in place as another sob tore from her.
“Ah, ah, ah. When I say. Only when I say.” He landed five harder swats to her ass to drive home his point.
She was shaking, panting, and sweating when she ground out between her teeth, “Only when you say, Zack.” It was a parody of an agreement, but hell…he really couldn’t stand it anymore. He drove back into her, nearly pushing her across the floor.
He pounded into her, faster, harder, just the way she liked it. Her internal muscles continued to ripple around him and he gritted his teeth to hold on. Just for one more minute. Just one more heavenly minute held tightly within the clasp of her willing body.
“Zack!” She turned her head to look back at him, a tear trailing from the corner of one eye. He knew she was at her limit. So was he.
“Come for me, Mandy girl. Come now!” Clenching his jaw he rode her through the near muscle-wrenching spasms of her climax as she issued a long low groan of completion muffled by the pillow she’d buried her face in. Once he was sure she’d had her satisfaction he finally allowed himself release. Leaning over her back he clamped his teeth down on her shoulder as he swore his body was turned inside out. Hot streams of cum bathed her womb and he hung on for the ride.
Zack jerked awake and lay blinking into the early morning light just beginning to filter in through his window.
Holy shit!
He scrubbed his hands over his beard-roughened face as he panted. Another damn dream. Just like the past four nights. He really needed to straighten things out with Amanda. He didn’t know how much more of these wet dreams he could take. Lifting the sheet, he grimaced at the sticky mess on his abdomen. Another load of laundry. Fuck!
Screw it. He had to get ready for work. Too bad his heart was set on only one thing, loving Amanda.
* * * *
It bothered him more than he wanted to admit that he hadn’t heard from Amanda in several days. She’d forwarded business-related matters, via email, but hadn’t returned his calls requesting they talk about their personal problems.
The only subject she’d been insisting on an answer to was about the Tabott project. Those requests he had ignored. He did not want her involved in it and would not encourage her and his sister’s lunacy. Later, he would realize his folly and that he should have heeded David’s warning that Amanda would go underground if he didn’t support her decision. At the time all he thought was that he was protecting her from herself.
She’d shown up on the morning of July Fourth to introduce them to Paul Shearer, her portfolio manager. She’d stayed for about a half hour as they’d gotten to know him and he went over their options, repeating nearly word for word what Amanda had already said. Once they were comfortable with him she’d taken her leave in a rental car that she’d picked up early that morning, as hers was still out at the job site. Zack felt like she’d sucker punched him. He’d banked on having the opportunity, and time, during the drive back to the Laurel Highlands to speak with her, to apologize and talk her into another beginning. Apparently she wasn’t having that.
Zack had brought in the belongings she’d left in his truck the previous day as well as the ones she’d left at his home, and had apologized sincerely and profusely for his behavior. Amanda had quietly accepted his apology, maintaining a calm mask with a visible effort, and then had steered clear of him, putting the width of the room between them and chatting with Becca and Cara.
When she’d thought he wasn’t listening he’d heard her very quietly tell his mother she’d come back the following weekend to see what more she could do about Joshua and his ghostly retinue.
His mother gave her a hug and thanked her, telling her to, “Only do that if you feel you won’t be in any danger. We don’t want anything more to happen to you, sweetie.”
His entire family had turned against him because of his actions the evening before. Each and every one of them gave him the cold shoulder, effectively ostracizing him. He knew he’d overreacted, and after spending a sleepless night replaying the events of the past four days had to admit that Amanda was right. However, she didn’t understand that while it had been a four day relationship for her, Zack’s heart had been in it for months, and to be honest, maybe even years.
He’d also battled his jealousy of David’s continued involvement in her life. Sometime during that long night he’d come to understand that the longer his attitude continued to cause problems between Amanda and himself, the longer David would probably hang around. For the first time he wished he didn’t require Amanda as a link to see and talk to David, he wanted to be able call for him himself to get his advice.
The horrendous ache he’d felt, when Amanda had walked out with his father, told him more than anything else could have how vital she had become to him and that he didn’t want to lose her. He desperately needed to fix this, but how? It seemed he’d spent a great deal of time lately pondering ways to correct his own fuck-ups with Amanda. Was he bound and determined to sabotage this relationship, or was she? They were both at fault, but his temper was what drove them to critical mass time and again.
His schedule for the week had been so jam-packed there was no way he was able to get out to see Amanda at her site and for the first time he cursed himself for sending her out there. He knew she’d be home for the weekend, because his mother had told him Amanda would be visiting them on Saturday, but he needed to get her alone to discuss their problems
.
He’d been in a black mood all week and he swore as his phone rang for what seemed like the millionth time already that day. For a Friday it had been chaotic, and it was only nine in the morning! The only bright spot in his day was that he would be meeting Rachel for a one o’clock lunch at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. She’d broken down and agreed to meet with him to discuss Amanda’s adoption, only after he’d harassed her several times via long phone messages and several emails.
* * * *
As far as Amanda was concerned this had been one of the longest weeks of her life. She’d dragged herself through each day, making herself go through the motions. But, she was unable to focus on much beside the fact that she missed Zack. She missed his company, his comfort, and yes, to her own bitter amusement, she’d found she even missed his managing of her life, a little.
David had shown up several times each day and attempted to talk to her, but she closed him out, too. She was aware she was being cruel, after all, he was still hanging out in this dimension in an effort to help her, but her feelings were so torn up over Zack that she couldn’t find it in her to talk to David about him. She was also, unfairly or not, blaming David for causing a lot of the grief she and Zack were experiencing. Between a rock and hard place, she didn’t know what to do or how to handle her emotional turmoil.
She’d decided, kind of, that a clean break from Zack might be best. That her gifts were going to be too much for him to deal with on a daily basis. She didn’t hold that against him. No, that was a lie. Maybe she did, just a wee little bit. She just didn’t want to keep getting hurt when Zack went off the deep end and overreacted, again and again. She knew it was his nature to lash out when he was worried, but she didn’t think she could take the nearly daily battles that would ensue while being in a relationship with him. It was, quite simply, too wearing. And, Zack’s jealousy over David was insane. David wouldn’t be here much longer. Amanda felt his upcoming absence like a bittersweet ache. When she thought of either man she felt the same way. To lose them both was going to hurt, badly, but she’d be better with no one than how she felt right now.
At dawn, on Friday morning, David stood over her shoulder admonishing her as she’d typed up her letter of resignation. She’d told him to mind his own damn business and stay out of hers. She wasn’t sending it just yet, she was only preparing it. As soon as she had some firm answers for Becca about the Tabotts, she would turn in the resignation and get the hell away from Zachary. And, as soon as she straightened out the Grayson family ghost brouhaha she would be out of their lives, too. Was she running away? Indeed she was, and wasn’t too proud to admit it.
She didn’t know what she was going to do, or where she was going, but had decided she would sell her home. Just two short weeks ago that thought would have had her crippled with pain, now there was just a melancholy feeling of loss to the decision. She’d met with a realtor on Wednesday evening at her home and signed the papers for the listing and had then driven back in the dark. The realtor had assured her the for-sale sign would be put up the next day. He’d taken pictures of her home, which he’d promptly posted on the realty’s website. He’d called the previous evening telling her there was already a couple who wanted to look at it, and that they would be at her home Friday afternoon. There was a lock box on the door so Amanda wasn’t required to be there.
She was considering the idea of moving to Florida, to be near her grandparents, but would see how the employment front played out. She was by no means desperate financially, but she did need a career to keep her busy and to lend some meaning to her life. But, even if she didn’t move out of state, she acknowledged she needed a change, and that letting go of her and David’s home was a positive step. Letting go of Zack…well, the jury was still out on that decision.
Zack still hadn’t responded to her repeated emails regarding the Tabott project so she’d found herself contacting Tabott on her own, telling him she was feeling better and just wanted to meet with him to check on the renovations to the property. She asked him not to tell Jerry, who had taken over for her, because she didn’t want him to think he wasn’t a trusted associate. Jonathan Tabott had been more than happy to oblige, so proud was he of the property that he wanted to show it off.
She’d told Tom and the rest of the crew a half-truth that she was heading into town to meet with Jared McGinty, and drove into Pittsburgh on Friday morning, without telling Zack. She would be meeting with Jared for a late lunch at one of downtown’s premier steakhouses to discuss the progress of his project, but would be meeting with Tabott first, at nine o’clock. On her way she considered calling Becca to let her know where she’d be, but then nixed the idea when she realized she’d probably inform Zack.
At least the drive into town would be easy. Her leg was completely healed up and now sported just an ugly scar from her tumble of the previous week. She had forgone the wrist brace this morning as well. There was just a tiny bit of an ache to it, but nothing that would slow her down. Not wanting to think about her upcoming meeting with Mr. Tabott she allowed her mind to wander through the events of the past week as she wound through the mountain passes.
After leaving the Graysons’ the previous Monday, Amanda had confronted Diane and showed her how quickly she’d healed, demanding an explanation of why Di hadn’t told her she could do that. Diane, at first, had thought Amanda was putting her on and made fun of her. Amanda, in an effort to prove it to her, had run a sharp knife across the tip of her pointer finger and placed the injured digit in Diane’s hand to prove it. Initially Diane had screamed at her, telling her she was insane for hurting herself, then the two women watched in wonder and amazement as the tiny cut healed before their eyes.
Diane, in shock, had sat herself down at the kitchen table. Slack-jawed, she’d stared at Amanda in total astonishment. As the day wore on the two women swapped stories, talked about Amanda’s accident and Zack’s theory about Diane’s stay with her in the ICU, and Di began to come to grips with her own abilities. Slowly Diane came to realize that Eric had not once been sick since they’d been married, and that her parents had only come down with ailments since she’d married and moved out.
“Diane, it looks like, up until now, it’s been a very subtle kind of gift. Your healing has worked behind the scenes, basically. Now it’s center stage. I wonder if it’s because of your pregnancy or if it’s grown stronger as you’ve gotten older?” Amanda mused, noting that her own skills had grown most recently as well. She’d been blaming it on the accident but now she wasn’t so sure.
Eventually Diane had voiced the same question that Amanda had often wondered. “Where did I get this ability from? Who gave it to me? Amanda, don’t you ever wonder? How can you not want to find your biological parents? I have to find out, especially after this!”
Amanda smiled and answered. “I have wondered about that, but I’m not concerned enough about it to look for them.” For the first time she gave Diane an honest reply. “I guess I feel abandoned. They left me without any help dealing with my gifts. For all these years I’ve had no one to teach me how to use them. And now they’re evolving and it’s even more difficult. Di, it’s so bad it has ruined any chance of a relationship with Zack.”
“What happened?” Diane came over to give her a hug. “Tell me. What’s going on? Yesterday we spent the entire day talking about adoption stuff. I thought you guys were okay. How could it have gone south already?”
Amanda explained what had happened at the Graysons’ and Di commiserated over Zack and David’s intervention and how much more wrong it could have gone.
“So you saw Joshua and his band of merry men, too? Jeez, Amanda, when you told me you were seeing David’s ghost I chalked it up to a psychological thing. I guess I never took it seriously, but now. Wow! I’ll take healing over clairvoyance, telepathy, and medium stuff any day. No wonder you blacked out.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought of dealing with spirits. “Having to communicate with the living is hard enough, don’t you th
ink?” Di asked.
“I’m not sure what to do about Zack. He’s so jealous of David it’s driving me crazy. He’s always trying to control me, telling me what to do and how to do it. I’m trying to help his sister Becca with an embezzlement case and Zack doesn’t want me touching it. I’m trying to help his family with Joshua and he doesn’t want me to do that either! There is no making that man happy. I’m afraid to get in too deep with him if he’s going to constantly be acting out.”
“He’s only doing that because he’s desperately in love with you. You know that right? Zack has been in love with you for the past four years.”
Amanda’s mouth fell open as she took in her friend’s words. “Four years?” she croaked. “How do you know that? Did he tell you?”
“I’ve been watching him, watching you, ever since we introduced you and David to him at one of our parties years ago. He’s been waiting in the wings ever since. He would never have done anything to ruin your marriage to David, he never would have even thought about it. But he’s always asked after you. Even when he was seeing someone else he’d ask after you. Keeping tabs, I guess. Since David passed away he’s been biding his time, waiting for you to recover from your grief, so he could have his chance. And now, well…it’s no wonder he’s so frustrated. David’s gone, but he isn’t ‘gone-gone,’ is he? Poor Zack is probably wondering if he’ll ever truly get you to himself, it’s no surprise he’s acting out, Amanda.”
Diane had given her quite a lot of food for thought during the past week. Since then Diane had been running on a high, so proud of herself Amanda almost couldn’t stand being near her, not because of her newly acknowledged abilities but because her friend’s life was turning out so well. Her best friend had it all and Amanda had her own jealousy issues to deal with. She was ashamed of herself for feeling so petty.
* * * *
She pulled up at the Tabott manse just before nine, and to her relief saw Jerry nowhere in sight. No one would tattle on her, unless Tabott himself called Zack. She’d have to think of a way to avoid that. As she strolled around the property, stretching her legs and waiting for Tabott to arrive, she noticed that a lot of the exterior work had been accomplished already. She took pleasure in how well it was turning out. After all, they were her renovation plans and she’d spent months on them. It had been painful in the extreme to hand her baby over to Jerry and take on the damned Laurel Highland project.
Amanda's Touch [D.A.R.E.ing Women] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 40