Foreign Exchange

by Rachel Cade

“Don’t you dare! We are having a non x-rated evening tonight, mister.”

  “What?” He tilted his head to the side and crossed his eyes. “A non x-rated evening? What does that even mean? I’m confused.”

  “What you are,” Lorna moved to rest on her side, “is not answering my question.”

  “Eleven.”

  “Eleven?”

  “Is that a lot?” he questioned.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Too little?”

  She smirked. She wasn’t quite sure herself. Was it? Or maybe he was lying.

  “All right then, I will do the asking and you can do the answering.”

  “Oh, boy. What’s the question?”

  He tapped his fork against the plate, playing a ‘shave and a hair cut’. “What is under our table?”

  The question caught her off guard and she froze. “Uh, I don’t know.” She began to take wary glances at the table.

  “Well, then look.”

  Lorna moved so that her body stretched sideways across the pillows. Underneath the table was a wrapped box. The gold ribbon that formed the perfect bow at the top glittered in the darkness. Her voice was breathless. “What…what is that?”

  “I won’t even dignify that with an answer.”

  Exhaling her pent up breath, Lorna reached for the box and pulled it from under the table. Sitting with her legs crossed, she refused to look up at him as she opened it.

  Folding back the colored paper, she gasped. It was the red negligee Tianna had been looking at earlier. She hooked the thin straps onto her fingers as she stared at it. It looked like her size. “Oh, this—” She continued to stare at it. The bodice shimmered in the light like stars.

  “Would look perfect on you,” he finished.

  Lorna lowered the gown and let him come into view. “Do you know how much this cost? You--you really were watching me, weren’t you?”

  He nodded. “Of course. What reason would I have to lie? You seemed to like it, and I realized I would like you in it. Try it on?”

  “What? No!” She dropped it back into the box.

  Simon’s brows lowered. “Are you about to do that whole ‘I can’t accept this’ thing?

  “Oh, I can accept it. I am just not trying it on in this store.”

  “And why not? There is a perfectly suitable dressing room up here.”

  She squinted her eyes at him. “That would just be weird, Simon”

  He frowned, and she instantly wanted to laugh because he looked like a little boy.

  “No, it’s not.”

  Lorna shook her head and the site of a sleek auburn men’s robe with gold embroidery that rested on a mannequin caught her eye. “Okay, I will make a deal with you. You change for me first.” She got up and went over to the dummy. She got the robe off easily but had a hassle with the shorts. In the end, she had to lay it down to get them off.

  “You’re molesting the fake person,” Simon called out.

  She tossed the robe and shorts at him, purposely covering his face. “Oh, so this is the treatment I get for my kindness,” Simon said from beneath the robe. He pulled it away from his face, and she was laughing. “Fine I will put it on.”

  Lorna sat against the pillows away from the table. She was about to tell him he could use the dressing room first when he began to unbutton his shirt.

  “You can use the dressing room.” Whose voice was that? Was that her voice?

  “No. I can undress right here.” He pulled the shirt off his shoulders. “I’m not ashamed of my body.”

  She wasn’t either. He let the shirt drop to the pillows by his feet. She watched with quiet awe as he began to unbuckle his belt. She knew he must have been well built from the way his clothes molded to his body, but this was just—he dropped his pants. How did he get them off so quick?

  Now he stood before her, platinum blond hair resting over his shoulders, slightly tousled from the quick movements he made to get off his clothes. His underwear, Calvin Klein of course, black shorts that just covered the rim of his ass. They were low-cut just below a cut abdomen, and those yummy iliac crests that were made by God for women to hold onto; even his belly button looked cute and perfect. The legs, she sighed, perfectly cut and defined, not a speck of discoloration anywhere, not even a birthmark. And his phone comment stuck in her mind. He wasn’t lying.

  Nine inches.

  Lorna reminded herself to close her mouth and breathe.

  He put his hands at his hips hooking the waistband under his thumbs. He lowered it about an inch revealing even more skin, before asking, “Do you want the skivvies on or off?”

  She looked up at his face then—so much for a non x-rated evening.

  “On.” Damn, she frowned at herself for saying that. But she knew she couldn’t let him drop his underwear in front of her. Especially after seeing the vivid outline of what loomed inside his Calvin’s. Was it even hard looking like that? It had to be. She shook her head and saw the amusement on his face. He leaned to the side with his thumbs still hooked in his underwear.

  “You are sure?”

  No. “Yes. Of course.” She stood up and snapped her lips closed to stop the drool that threatened to drain from the side of her mouth. “I’m going to go change.”

  She walked away from him. Her feet felt numb with each step she took. When she reached the dressing room she almost collapsed against the wall as she closed the door behind her. While she looked at the three-way mirror, she stared at everything. Her butt, her arms, her stomach, parts of her anatomy she had grown to hate when she reached her teens and discovered that skinny girls got dates, and chunky girls didn’t. She always told herself then that she didn’t care. But in truth she did. She always cared.

  Staring down at the shimmering negligee she had clutched in her hand she wondered if Simon actually knew her size. She placed the negligee in front of her and stared at her reflection in the mirror. It looked like it would fit. But how could she undress in here then go out there and let him see her? She bit her bottom lip. If she did would he expect sex from her? Her head lolled back and her eyes closed. Sex with Simon Dalton, the very idea was enough to give her a simultaneous orgasm/coronary heart attack.

  Lorna blew out a deep breath and began to take off her clothes. She folded them neatly in a pile and ignored her naked figure in the three-way mirror as she pulled on the red nightgown. When she got the cups in place over her breasts she saw they all but spilled out. The rest of the negligee fit perfectly, it brushed her toes and the floor. When she dared to look up at her reflection, a tiny gasp left her throat.

  She had never worn anything like this in her life, and it looked good. Taking several step closer to the mirror, she felt the silk slide against her skin.

  She put her hands up under the bodice to push her breasts up. Not that she need to, but it was a habit she had gotten from wearing so many underwire bras.

  Her hair, she noticed, was still pulled back in a tight bun. She couldn’t necessarily pull out a pair of curlers. She winced as her hair band got knotted in several hairs before she pulled it completely out of her hair. She ruffled both hands through it and it was flat as a pancake, hardly and body at all as it rested against her shoulders.

  “Well, look at you.”

  Lorna’s expression fell as she whirled to find Simon standing in the doorway. He had changed into the shorts, sans robe, and had his arms out as his hands wrapped around the doorframe.

  “What are you doing in here?” Reflexively, she covered her almost exposed chest.

  “I came to see what was taking so long, to make sure you hadn’t flown the coop.”

  “I didn’t fly any coop,” she spat, thrusting her pointed finger to the door. “So you can just get out until I’m finished.”

  “What else could you possibly have to do? You look perfect.”

  She felt herself blush down to her chest as his bright eyes slid down her profile. “Would you deny me the right to see what I bought?”

  �
��You didn’t buy anything.” She wanted to sound upset but her voice came out with a breathless hiss.

  “But I did.” He let go of the frame and came into the room. She wanted to back up but there was nowhere to go save to run into the mirror. Simon approached her with that sinfully slow, seductive walk, his hair moving slightly with every step. She could only stare as his thigh muscles flexed with each movement. Her back hit the cold mirror as he reached within a foot of her.

  “I bought this.” His hand reached out and pinched softly at the fabric, grazing her tummy in the process. She had to grit her teeth against laughing or gasping, and moved around him. He turned, following her as she held her hands over the spot where he’d touched her.

  Simon raised a brow. “Hands off?”

  She could only nod.

  He shook his head slowly, making a tsking noise. “That wouldn’t be very fruitful would it?”

  “You keep your fruit to yourself.”

  His mouth opened. “Lorna! What the devil are you implying?”

  She’d only turned away to leave the dressing room when she heard him follow behind her. “I swear young lady, the places your mind roams—quite dirty if I do say so myself.”

  As she stepped back over the soft pillows to her seat, she felt a slight tug on the back of her hands and saw his grinning figure move up past her. She could have sworn that as he did, a hand passed over her ass. He plopped down in his seat before she did and looked up at her with eyes full of innocence.

  She muttered something inaudible as she sat down.

  “So, I hope we got that whole ‘why am I interested in you’ thing out of the way now.”

  “We haven’t, why would you even think that? I still don’t know.”

  “Then that would make you a bit daft now wouldn’t it?”

  She straightened in her seat frowning at him.

  “You saw yourself back there, and you still don’t know?”

  She swallowed and looked away from him, blatant heat reflected in his eyes.

  “Well, if you don’t believe what you see, perhaps you’ll believe what you feel.”

  On all fours he began to crawl around the table toward her. She scooted back, feeling her heartbeat escalate and little tremors set off between her legs.

  His eyes were unmoving from her face as he came closer. “Let us play a little game. During this game, if I am able to arouse you, and vice versa, we will have to admit we are attracted to each other, yes?”

  No. “No,” she continued to scoot back as he loomed closer, “there’s no point to that.”

  “Oh, there’s a point.” A long pink tongue slid over his lower lip. “A big point.”

  Her scrambling backward became more frantic as he got closer. He reached for the hem of her negligee and fisted it in his hand. Sitting back on his knees, he smiled as she futilely continued to scoot back, the thin straps of the gown pulling into her shoulders. “Ah, Lorna, you and this incessant teasing. You must know how much I love it.”

  Moving with a swiftness that shocked her, he straddled her abdomen with his thighs.

  He didn’t push any weight down on her but still, she felt like she was going to suffocate.

  Her vision engulfed by his cut abs and the bulge tenting the front of his shorts. She reached her hand up to try to push him off, but he grabbed both her wrists into his and pushed them down on either side of her head. He leaned over as he pinned her arms down until his face was only inches from hers, blond hair veiling the sides of their faces. “Phone sex and fingering aside, though they were both quite lovely, we really need to explore new things in this relationship.”

  If possible her eyes grew wider than they already were. “Relationship? I’ve only known you a couple of days! I think we have done more than enough exploring allowed in a three-day period.”

  “Five days,” he corrected.

  “What?”

  “You’ve known me for exactly five days.”

  “I know—” Her breath caught as he pushed her thighs apart with his knee. “I know that for a couple of days we didn’t see each other.”

  “You’ve known of my existence for five days.”

  “So what? What’s difference do two days make? It doesn’t even matter. The fact is we are strangers and this whole situation is just weird.” She was rambling and she knew it but he was lowering himself on top of her all the while she tried to speak. Starting from his knees, then his thighs then his cock grazed between her legs.

  He smiled down at her and his blue-green gaze slid over her face. His hair tickled the side of her ear where it rested. “Stranger things have happened.”

  All she knew next was that he was leaning down to her, his face was getting closer, and it was very possible that her heart was going to pound out of her chest. When his mouth touched hers she felt a wave of heat cascade over her. She whimpered and opened her mouth wider to feel his tongue roll past her teeth. He turned his face and she heard him exhale, his soft breath blowing over her face. She shuddered beneath him as his chest pressed down on hers, her nipples thrust up against the fabric of her gown. Lorna tried to push down on the pillows in shock from the bruising pleasure she felt as her breasts rubbed against the fabric and his wide pecs. But the pillows only allowed so much movement.

  Simon added more pressure to the kiss, curling his tongue inside her mouth just as he began to roll his pelvis between her legs. The fabric of her gown might as well have been non-existent because Lorna could feel every inch of Simon’s body. The indenture of his ab muscles against her soft stomach, and his hips as her thighs were slowly creeping up to encase them. She opened her mouth against his, gasping for air and pulling her arms free of his grasp. Once they were free, she grabbed his face with both her hands and wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer. His jaw worked as he started to suck on her tongue. Combing her fingers back through the whisper of his soft hair, she held it at the back at his nape with both hands. He moaned deep in his throat and continued pulling her tongue into his mouth.

  The silk nightgown grew damp where he rode her, she could feel the damp material against her skin as his hardness moved up and down repeatedly in measured strokes. She pulled him tighter to her, lifting her pelvis slightly from the pillows. Her eyes flew open as she felt the first tingles of a climax growing. His eyes were open staring right into hers. The kiss broke slightly. Their mouths still a fraction apart. He licked his lips and the underline of his tongue touched her lips. Simon panted hard against her face and kept gyrating his hips, pumping into her.

  Lorna fell back against the pillows crying out, squeezing her legs tighter around him. Her eyes were closed and she felt him pull away for what seemed like only a second. When she felt him again, she stifled a scream as she felt the tip of his shaft press against her clit. It was almost enough to break her and she thought she was going to come as her toes curled down. She was still covered by the silk. Her head shot up and she saw that he was still wearing his shorts. His hard-on was jutting out tenting it. He made a garbled noise and pulled away.

  Sweat glistened on his shoulders as he ran a hand over his face. “Okay,” Simon’s mouth gaped as he panted, “Okay.”

  Lorna stared up at him as he stood on his knees in between her legs. She swallowed hard. She wanted him so much it was unbelievable. And her core was throbbing with need, an aching void that only he could fill.

  Simon fell back on the pillows across from her. His toes curled over the pillows as he lifted his knees, his legs wide to accommodate the erection that dominated his middle.

  She sat up while he put his hands up to his face. “Ah, Lorna, you’re driving me crazy!”

  “Why?” she asked quietly, secretly delighted.

  His voice was muffled since his hands were still over his face. “You and your little non x-rated evening.” He began, his hand muffling his voice. “Why would you say something like that when it is so obvious you want exactly the opposite?”

  She crawled over the pillows t
o him. Touching her finger to his exposed chin, she let it slowly trail down his throat over his Adam’s apple and down his abdomen. Marveling at the texture of the soft skin that covered iron muscle, before reaching the waistband of his shorts. Simon pulled his hand from his face, watching her with amused curiosity.

  Lorna circled her finger around his belly button. “Stranger things have happened.”

  Chapter Seven

  Simon watched her, and to her pleasure, his eyes sparkled.

  “Such as?” he asked.

  “I still don’t know why you want me,” she whispered, looking down at him. He began to grimace, and she covered his mouth with her fingers to suppress whatever he intended to say. Of their own accord, her fingertips began tracing over the soft outline of his lips. “We don’t make sense together,” she whispered. “You at least have to admit that.”

  “Don’t make sense to whom? To you?” His breath filtered through her fingers as he spoke, and she couldn’t bring herself to pull them away. His skin felt so warm next to hers and his eyes drew her in like a vortex.

  “I don’t scare you or anything, do I?” he asked, peering at her. Before she could answer, in fact before she could decide if she would answer, he did for her. “No. Of course not, you wouldn’t be here if you were. Perhaps you would like me to be more docile. Would that work for you? What if I did exactly what you told me to do, would you enjoy that? Would it make you more comfortable?”

  There was genuine curiosity in his voice and no animosity from what she could tell.

  “And in what order am I supposed to answer those questions?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure you out.”

  “Figure me out?”

  “Yes. Absolutely. You’re a crazy, beautiful, voluptuous American girl that pulls from me one instant and begs for me in another. I just want to make sure whatever happens next is right in your eyes.”

  “What does happen next?” she asked quietly, forcing herself to look away from him in that instant. Afraid of how her heart would lurch and her skin would tingle from what reflected back at her in his expression.