Act Your Age

by Eve Dangerfield

  Naked except for her underwear, Kate had sidled into the lounge room nervous as the schoolgirl she was pretending to be. Ty had been reclining in one of her leather armchairs, his thick cock jutting from his jeans like a rudder. He’d helped her slick his shaft with the jelly, then closed his palm around hers, ‘showing her’ how to give him a hand job. It had been obscene the way her breasts jiggled as she worked, the feel of him thick and slippery in her hand, his look of sneering contempt as he told her to hurry up because her mother would be home soon.

  “Are you almost done?” she begged.

  “Shut up, or you’ll suck the lube off, and I promise you won’t like the taste.”

  When he was close he didn’t make her suck or sit on him, instead he ordered her to arch her back and came all over her breasts. Kate had never eroticized that act before, she’d always thought of it as a gross by-product of porn. The reality, at least with Ty, was different. When he coated her skin it felt like she’d been marked in a tangible and incredibly erotic way and when he pulled a hand-towel from his backpack to wipe her up she almost told him no, she wanted it to last. But that would have been truly gross and not because of porn. She let him clean her, and once it was done, he shoved his hands in her underwear.

  “You better come fast, little girl,” he crooned as he rubbed her clit. “If you don’t come, Daddy’s going to climb into your bed tonight and fuck you ‘till you do.”

  She got off in about thirty seconds.

  Kate’s fantasies of playing daddy-daughter had always tended toward the intimate. Her imaginary lovers were stern but affectionate, framing their sexual requests as attempts to correct her behaviour or as ‘normal’ things that weren’t sexual at all. Ty’s interpretation of a daddy figure as a scumbag willing to blackmail his way into sexual favours wasn’t her wheelhouse, but as soon as he introduced the idea it became all she could think about. She could barely keep her hands off herself. At work, she avoided him just so she didn’t get distracted and do something mortifying and/or sack-worthy.

  A week ago she’d been forced to endure a two-hour staff meeting with Ty. She spent the whole time doing pelvic floor exercises and a fterward, she’d had to lock herself in a cubicle and touch herself just so she could concentrate. To be fair to her that had been the day after her third hookup when the purple and red bruises were just starting to blossom on her ass.

  Every time Kate thought about that night, her body temperature skyrocketed. Ty had texted her a few hours before he was due to arrive at her place.

  You’re getting spanked tonight. How hard do you want it?

  She hadn’t even needed to think about it.

  Hard enough that it leaves bruises.

  She’d been making ginger biscuits when Ty burst into her kitchen, six plus feet of hard angry male. He’d picked her up, pushed her against her pantry door and accused her of taking money out of his wallet. Kate had denied it, but her voice quivered so much it sounded as though she was guilty.

  “You’re a liar,” Ty snarled, carrying her to the marble counter and yanking up her skirt. “You know what happens to little girls who lie to their Daddies?”

  “No, please, stop.”

  Ty picked up the wooden spoon she’d been using and held the handle in front of her. “Bite down,” he said and when she did he honest-to-god tore off her underwear. Just tore it off like it was wrapping paper.

  “Are you going to tell the truth or am I going to have to punish you?” he snarled.

  It was difficult to insist you were telling the truth through a wooden spoon but Kate tried. When she did, Ty proceeded to lay sheer raging hell on her ass. This wasn’t playful ‘you’ve been a naughty girl’ swats, this was his huge hand cracking down on her flesh with enough force to split wood. It was like lightning in reverse, first the noise and then the electric zap of pain. Kate had wanted it to stop, but every strike brought her closer to some undefinable edge she wanted to cross, couldn’t cross, needed to cross.

  She had frightened herself with the pleas that had come out of her mouth, guttural appeals for mercy throttled by the wooden spoon, but Ty hadn’t hesitated. Somehow he’d known exactly where she wanted to go and when she burst into tears the sensation was every bit as euphoric as it had been when they first had sex. He’d given her three more slaps that barely even registered then took the spoon from between her teeth. “Did you take money from my wallet, Katie?”

  “Yes,” she sobbed, tears rolling down her chin. “Yes.”

  “What did you spend it on?”

  “Lip gloss.”

  He smoothed a hand over her smarting behind. “Will you do it again?”

  A tear rolled down her face and plopped onto the counter. “No, Daddy.”

  “Good. Now you’ll go put on that lip gloss and you’ll pay me back with your mouth. You’ll do it a dollar at a time until you don’t owe me anything, understood?”

  Kate nodded, so light and floaty it was like she was on drugs. She’d always thought subspace was a thing kinksters invented to make their sex sound better than other people’s, but this was different. She hadn’t orgasmed, but she’d gone somewhere she’d needed to go deep inside. A peaceful, perfect place.

  Thankfully, Ty hadn’t made her blow him right away, a task that would have been near impossible in her limp state. He’d carried her to her couch and spread her pliant legs wide. The orgasm she’d had as he thrust inside her was as bright as a summer cloud. Now that she knew she could do it, now that she didn’t have to be afraid, it was easy. It was like magic.

  Afterward, they ate ginger biscuits and watched another documentary she’d recorded on polar bears. She’d wanted to hug him when the announcer talked about their dwindling numbers and maybe Ty had sensed it because he’d wrapped her very tightly in her peach blanket and given her a gruff kiss on the forehead.

  She’d thought, Tell me this is as amazing for you as it is for me. Tell me you think I’m beautiful.

  He’d said, “That was great, Middleton. I’ll see you soon. Stay warm.”

  The next day, true to all clichés, Kate could barely sit down. She could see why this had been a punishment back when people genuinely thought pain taught kids not to steal and lie. When she checked her ass in the bathroom mirror at work, she was amazed to find it covered in indigo bruises. She’d snapped a picture for her own benefit and decided it was too beautiful not to share. Ty’s response came an hour later.

  Purple suits you, Middleton. You should wear it more often.

  It was the middle of a particularly bitter Melbourne winter, but Kate felt like she’d stumbled into spring. Every morning she woke up with excitement bubbling in her middle and remembered she was sleeping with Tyler Henderson. She laughed at stupid jokes, stopped to smell flowers and ordered things she’d never heard of for dinner. Everything felt new and exciting and silly again. Electric Love was in the air and even as she skated around the Northcote multi-purpose stadium at derby practice, she couldn’t stop herself from singing the words. At least, she couldn’t until Casey Hindley threw an elbow into her side. “Are you singing while you skate?”

  “Erm…no?”

  “I shouldn’t have framed that as a question. I heard you singing while you skate; why are you so weirdly happy?”

  Kate smiled weakly. Casey was one of the most popular girls on the team. As a practicing Wiccan, she was perpetually adorned in flowing skirts, flower crowns and protective crystals. She held big parties on the solstice that, through a combination of shyness and Catholic guilt, Kate had never attended. It was a well-known Barbie Troll fact that if you had a secret Casey wanted to know, she hounded you like a bulldog until she had every detail. “I’m not happy. I mean, I am but not for any reason. And no more than usual.”

  Casey narrowed her large indigo-blue eyes. “Are you on drugs?”

  Kind of. “No, why?”

  “Because it’s fucking freezing in here. My feet and tits and hands are numb, and
you’re grinning like we’re on holiday in the Bahamas.”

  “I’m not!”

  “You really are, the question is why?”

  Tambara Oluo pulled up alongside them, her dark skin gleaming with sweat. “She’s getting dicked, obviously. What kind of witch are you, Case?”

  “Wicca has nothing to do with mind reading!” Casey snapped. She turned to Kate. “Are you getting dicked?”

  “No! Things are just going well at work, and I like the cold weather—”

  “And you’re getting reamed in the pussy,” Tam agreed. “Who’s the guy? Or are you finally letting Rapunzel have her way with you?”

  Rapunzel, whose metal studded corset made her look even more like a Viking berserker than usual, skidded up to join them. The waist-length braid for which she’d gotten her name wrapped itself around Casey’s neck like a gold rope.

  “Fucking hell!”

  “Soz about that Case,” Rapunzel said, untangling her hair from her teammate’s oesophagus. “What are you lot talking about?”

  “Macca’s getting laid,” Tam said, before Kate could respond. “We were wondering if you were doing the honours.”

  “I wish.” Rapunzel winked at Kate. “Fight him for you?”

  “I’m not seeing anyone!”

  “You’re clearly lying.” Rapunzel slung an arm over Kate’s shoulders. “My advice? Tell Casey about it now. Remember when Hellsy wouldn’t show us her new tattoo?”

  “I remember Casey skating around behind her, threatening to pull up her skirt?”

  Rapunzel laughed. “Exactly. Just confess, mate. Tell her who the guy is.”

  “But there is no guy.”

  “Oh, so it’s a girl? Even better. You, me, and her, this Friday? I give great third.”

  Kate usually shied away from Rapunzel’s indiscriminate guerilla style-flirting, scared she was being mocked. Today, her good mood was a buffer, reminding her that Rapunzel meant well and said stuff like this to everyone. She ducked out from under her arm. “Thanks, but I’m happy doing things in pairs right now.”

  “Illuminati confirmed!” Casey poked a quartz-adorned finger into Kate’s side. “Speak up, Mac. Who is this guy? You’ve been single for longer than I have, I demand to know who you’re fucking!”

  “No one, I swear.”

  Tam slid her arm through Kate’s and rolled her away from the group like a gentleman suitor taking a maiden for a walk. “Come on Mac, you can tell me. Is it someone naughty?”

  Kate thought about Ty pressing her face into her couch as he hammered into her from behind, snarling about what a dirty little girl she was. “I…”

  “It is!” Tam announced.

  “Knew it,” Rapunzel said, adjusted her corset. “She’s got that look lesbos get when they’re banging a man. I’d say you’re fucking a married guy but something tells me you’re too pure to fuck a married guy.”

  “I am. At least, I hope so.” She’d wasted a lot of time wondering how she’d behave toward Ty if his fiancée hadn’t left him, and had mentally declared the topic off-limits.

  Tam squeezed her shoulders. “I’ve never known you to do anything naughty before, Macca. I thought you were a virgin.”

  “No, I just kind of look like one.”

  Her teammates laughed and Kate felt a pleasurable squirm of happiness. Tam, Casey and Rapunzel were the ringleaders of the Barbie Trolls, and it was kind of flattering they’d taken an interest in her, even if it was because she was screwing someone.

  Rapunzel framed Kate’s face in her hands. “I don’t think you look like a virgin. I think you look like a nun.”

  “Rapunzel!” Tam scolded.

  “A cute nun!”

  “Can we please stop off-roading here?” Casey demanded. “Mac, where’d you meet this male? Tinder? Bumble? OkCupid? Christian Mingle?”

  “IRL?” Rapunzel suggested. “She looks like the kind of girl who’d get approached IRL in like a park or something.”

  Tam shook out her ombre hair. “No, not a park, the State Library. They were both reaching for the same copy of The Life of Pi, and they did the adorable ‘you have it, no you have it’ thing.”

  Kate couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re all wrong.”

  “So tell us who he is and we’ll be right.”

  At this point, Kate did want to tell them about Ty, if only to stop the guessing, but she couldn’t. He was her boss, and she didn’t think it was smart to tell her derby term she was sexing her boss.

  “Did you hear they’re remaking Tomb Raider?” she said. “Thoughts? Comments?”

  Her teammates soundly ignored her and continued to list situations where Kate could have met her lover—café, hostage situation, when she applied to be a nun, and he’s a hot priest, and that’s why it’s a secret.

  Shrilly Temple—real name Gilly—came rolling up to join them. “What’s happening here?”

  “Macca’s shagging someone she shouldn’t be,” Rapunzel said.

  Gilly raised a pierced brow at Kate. “I thought you were asexual?”

  “Or a nun,” Rapunzel agreed. “Turns out, she’s not. Although, now I’m starting to get really turned on about the idea of fucking a nun.”

  Everyone laughed. As the gossip session continued and the guesses grew more bizarre, she decided, in a warm rush of happiness, to just go ahead and tell them. None of them knew Ty, and if she was honest, she was dying to brag just a little. “It’s a guy I work with. It’s not a big deal, but you guys can’t say anything, okay?”

  There was a moment of silence. After all the elaborate speculations, Kate guessed ‘a guy I work with’ was pretty dull.

  “I called it,” Rapunzel said and cutting through any and all protests to the contrary she added; “How is that naughty? I fuck people I work with all the time.”

  Tam wrinkled her brow. “You drive for Uber Eats?”

  “And?”

  “And fucking people in your car is not the same thing.”

  “It is, but shut up. Macca, what’s this guy like?”

  Kate licked her lip, determined not to rant on about Ty’s beauty and infinite impressive qualities the way she had with Maria. “He’s handsome and blond and a little older than me.”

  That got her a chorus of intrigued oohs.

  “How old?” Casey demanded.

  “Erm, in his forties.”

  More intrigued oohs.

  Gilly gripped her arm. “Does he have dad-bod?”

  “That depends on…what that is?”

  “When an older hot guy puffs out a bit because he’s really into Big Macs. Kind of like Chris Pratt in Parks and Rec.”

  Kate did a visual comparison of Andy Dwyer and Ty. “Oh. No, he’s a Guardians of The Galaxy Chris Pratt. He used to be a metro firefighter and he has abs.”

  The loudest chorus of intrigued oohs yet.

  Tam clapped her hands. “Naww, that’s amazing Mac. I was hoping you’d meet someone. I was thinking about trying to set you up with my brother.”

  Kate stared at her. “Seriously? That’s so sweet.”

  Rapunzel elbowed Tam out of the way. “You’re only saying that because you haven’t met her brother; he’s an accountant for Westpac and he’s boring as shit. If you were going to suck the dick of someone it should be my brother. He paints street murals.”

  “Oh, wow—”

  “With spray paint,” Tam said. “It’s basically just organised vandalism. Meanwhile, my brother just bought a house in Thornbury and—”

  “I want to hear more about this firefighter,” Casey interrupted. “Mac, if you want me to do a romance star chart for you both, I will. All I need is the year, month, day and minute you were both born.”

  Kate blinked. “Wow, um, thank you. But there is no way I can find out the exact minute Ty was born without him thinking I’m a freak.”

  “Fair enough, when are you seeing him again?”

  “Tonight.”
Kate’s insides squirmed pleasurably at the thought of what she and Ty had planned for the evening.

  “Ooh, la, la. Where are you guys going?” Tam asked. “Movies? Dinner? Or are you still in the ‘stay home and fuck each other constantly’ stage of the relationship?”

  “Girls!” Maria’s voice was sharp as she strode toward them. “You’re supposed to be warming down, not standing around gossiping!”

  “But mama bear, we need to gossip,” Casey said tugging her arm. “Macca’s got a hot firefighter boyfriend.”

  Maria turned to look at Kate. “Does she now?”

  Kate felt all her excitement drain out of her feet into the cold floorboards. “He’s not, erm, we’re not actually together.”

  “I see.” Maria’s eyes were cold.

  Aside from a couple of texts, she and Maria hadn’t discussed the Ty situation since that day in the coffee shop. Maria had invited her over for dinner a couple of times, but Kate had declined. She had been busy with work, Ty, and training but she was also enjoying keeping her sex life to herself. Maria, she knew, would want to analyse everything down to the bones and remind her Ty didn’t really care about her. Kate didn’t want that. She understood heartbreak was probably waiting down the line, but what she and Ty were exploring right now was so incredible, so electric, she wanted time to enjoy it on her own. That appeared to be backfiring.

  Maria opened her mouth and Kate braced herself for her disapproval, when a shrill blast cut through the air. They all turned to see Rapunzel swinging a silver sports whistle through the air. “That was quite loud wasn’t it?”

  “Yes! Where’d you get that fucking whistle from?” Gilly shrieked

  “Found it. Want me to run a warm- down drill, Maria?”

  As everyone started swearing at Rapunzel for scaring them, Kate breathed a sigh of relief. She would warm down, then slip away while Maria was busy with the other girls. She had another date with Ty tonight and she didn’t want—