Stiff Competition

by Micah Persell

  He released an audible breath. “More, the longer you stare at it.”

  She waved a hand. “Yeah, I’m not looking away anytime soon, man. Sorry.” Her celibate year suddenly felt like a celibate decade. She pressed her knees together, visions of him shoving that massive erection into her making her swollen and sensitive between her legs.

  He made a soft, odd noise. She dragged her gaze away from his dick to find the look in his eyes had shifted. They were so dark now they looked black. And as he stared at her, she couldn’t help feeling like he was . . . hungry.

  No, not hungry. Gage was horny. For her, it seemed.

  Well, that’s new. She didn’t exactly have people lined up to sleep with her. She looked down at her ripped jeans, Converse, and T-shirt. She didn’t wear makeup; her hair was always styled however it’d dried after her shower. She had freckles everywhere. And on the rare occasion she did sleep with someone, it was always a friend, and then the friendship got awkward because the expectation when a friend slept with a friend was a relationship. Apparently.

  Nothing in Gage’s eyes right now said friend, however.

  He made the same noise again—a soft groan, she realized—and she looked at his cock once more.

  “Cassidy, I should go.”

  She shook her head. “I really think you shouldn’t go.”

  He shifted in his seat, and her gaze followed the movement raptly. “If I don’t leave right now, I’m going to fuck you.”

  Without skipping a beat, she said, “Okay.”

  Wait, what?

  “Wait, what?” he asked.

  She looked at his face again. That hunger had tripled. God only knew what her face looked like. She’d gone a year without, and he was someone who regularly had sex, yet he was looking at her like this. Why would he be that hard up? Wait a second. She straightened. “When’s the last time you had sex for fun, Gage?”

  The question seemed to stump him. Or horrify him. His wide eyes and parted lips could mean either. He was quiet for several seconds before he said, “I can’t remember.”

  Well, that wasn’t a good sign. “A year?”

  He swallowed hard enough for her to see his throat bob. “Longer.”

  Oh, God. Why did that turn her on more? “I think that’s a crying shame.”

  He licked his lips, and it was her turn to make a soft, odd noise. “I think your year of no sex is a crying shame.”

  “Hmmm.” Methinks I’m getting an idea. She leaned toward him. Most important question first. “Do you want a relationship? Anything longer than a one-night stand?”

  Gage hesitated.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Tell me honestly.”

  He shook his head. “Not even a little.”

  Her chest lightened. She leaned back, the beginnings of a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “God, me neither.” She tilted her head. “You safe in your . . . job?”

  Now, he narrowed his eyes, as though he were trying to figure out if she were really going where she seemed to be going with this line of questions. “Yes.” He drew the word out for several extra syllables. “And screenings every month. Latest one this week. I’m clean.” He tilted his head in a playful approximation of her move. “You safe in your . . . one-night stands?”

  “Of course.” Her heartbeat was starting to pick up. “I have condoms.”

  He licked his lips. “I have something to put in them.”

  Oh, she definitely knew. This was just perfect! She only hoped her condoms were big enough, because—

  “Gage, I think we should fuck.”

  Chapter Four

  Gage’s heartbeat was thundering in his ears, but he knew he hadn’t missed Cassidy’s last statement.

  Oh, this could be a very, very bad idea.

  Her nipples were hard and pushing against her shirt in a way that meant she couldn’t be wearing a bra. He could see the dusky color of her pebbled skin through the thin white cotton. Her breasts were small and so incredibly perky. They’d make the perfect little mouthful—

  “Okay.”

  When had he decided to say that?

  Cassidy looked surprised, too. “Okay?”

  Can’t remember the last time I had sex just for fun. Where I called the shots. She’s up for it. I’m attracted as fuck to her. He jerked a nod. Hell, in for a penny . . . “Yeah. Let’s fuck.”

  She clapped her hands together and rubbed them back and forth like a kid in a candy store, and he felt a similar urge, though he tamped it down.

  True, he was no stranger to sex, but the thrill in his chest—he couldn’t remember another time he’d felt it. Maybe this was the gigolo version of a vacation? If so, he needed to take them more often.

  Cassidy pushed abruptly to her feet, jerking him from his thoughts. He gazed up at her from his sprawled position in the gaming chair. “Do you want to go to the bedr—?”

  With no preamble, she clutched the hem of her T-shirt with both hands and pulled it up and over her head.

  Holy shit.

  And what do you know. She did have another piercing: in her belly button. He glanced at the glittering jewel nestled in the dip of her navel for only a moment, though, because—

  There were her breasts. Her fucking perfect breasts. So small and high and tipped with tight nipples the color of her freckles. He wanted them in his mouth. Now.

  “Wow, you’re my favorite neighbor.”

  He was just bracing his feet to push up from the chair when she unbuttoned her jeans with the flick of her thumb, unzipped them, and shucked them—all in the span of about three seconds.

  You’re a gigolo, remember? Don’t stare at her like you’ve never seen a woman before. Stop it!

  Gage cleared his throat and forced himself to lean back in the chair and appear nonchalant, though he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her naked pussy in the full light he’d missed from across the alley. And it was completely naked. No panties or way to verify if she was a true redhead in sight. “You do own underwear, right?”

  She planted her hands on her slim hips and glared at him. “Someone caught me with them off, and I had to improvise.”

  His lips twisted, and he had some smartass comment perched on the tip of his tongue, but then he noticed the freckles. God, they truly were everywhere. Scattered across her narrow shoulders and arms, thighs and calves. But even in sparser amounts across her flat belly and dipping down over the bare mound of her sex.

  He wanted to connect them with traces of his tongue. He propped his elbow on his knee and extended his hand toward her. “Come here.” His voice was rougher than he’d expected.

  She shook her head, and for a moment, he panicked. Please, don’t let her be changing her mind.

  “You’ve got to pull your weight, Mr. One Night Stand.” She jerked her chin at his still-clothed body. “Show me.”

  Ah, thank God.

  Gage reached for his fly but then paused. He was rock-hard in his jeans right now. As in, seconds from orgasm hard. Not, oh-cool-we’re-getting-started hard. Not even close. He was going to spring out of his pants like a missile launch, and she was going to get an eye full of how much he was into this.

  As he pushed to his feet, he started reciting the digits of Pi he’d had to memorize all those years ago back in high school. It didn’t help. When he was upright, however, Cassidy herself—even in her naked glory—managed to distract him.

  Her head tipped back as she looked up at his face, and her eyes widened. “I forgot how big you were for a second.”

  He paused. His height was always an issue. Clients either got off on it or were scared by it—which then turned some of the scared ones on in a whole new way he admitted he found disturbing. Honestly, the titillated or scared issue was a toss-up. Before, however, it’d never bothered him one way or the other which side of the opinion line his clients ended up on. Cassidy, though?

  Please don’t be scared of me. That was not what he wanted her feeling when she looked at him. At all.

/>   She nibbled her bottom lip—right on a freckle, damn it—as she looked him over from shoulders to boots and back up again. His dick kicked in his pants. Down, boy. The jury’s still out.

  And then—hallelujah—her pupils expanded and her breathing hitched. He picked up on subtle clues to arousal more than the typical man would. Occupational hazard/blessing. Cassidy had taken in his size, and it had worked for her.

  But just to make sure: “We still a go?”

  “Oh, hell yes.”

  “Good,” he said on the outside. On the inside, his response went something like Oh-sweet-baby-Jesus-thank-you-God. He shrugged out of his leather jacket, taking the time to hang it over the back of the gaming chair. Then he bent over and lowered the zipper on the inside of each motorcycle boot. Rising again, he toed his Harley Davidsons off one by one, kicking them aside. By the time he was done, Cassidy’s breasts were rising and falling rapidly, and her breaths were audible. He fought back a grin. “So, shirt or pants fir—”

  “Shirt,” she blurted.

  He pressed his lips together and bit them. Yes, ma’am. Following her lead, he simply grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up and off. He did, however, flex his pecs as he lowered his arms. He might have tightened his abs, too.

  She gasped. He couldn’t have asked for a better reaction. Before his eyes, her already puckered nipples tightened.

  “You”—she gestured at his chest with a flutter of her fingers—“you have piercings.”

  He glanced at her navel again. “I’m not the only one.”

  “I . . . really like them.”

  Involuntarily, his pecs flexed again, making the objects of her focus jump.

  “I really like them.” Her voice was husky, and she swayed.

  Another sign of her arousal. She’d shift her weight if her sex was swelling. And wet.

  Well, if she likes those . . . He got to work on his belt. As the metal of the buckle clicked and clacked, Cassidy’s gaze roamed from his nipple piercings to his busy fingers. She shifted her weight again and licked her lips.

  His fingers stuttered in the middle of completing the very mundane task of removing his belt. But he rallied quickly, pulling the leather through his belt loops and dropping it to the floor on top of his T-shirt. As he undid his button and fly, he thought for sure that she had stopped breathing. Those delicious little breasts of hers hadn’t risen at all in several seconds, and he had definitely been looking.

  He hooked his thumbs over the waistband of his pants and boxers and shoved them down his thighs, pulling them off his legs along with his socks and then leaving all the items in a puddle on the floor.

  When he straightened, her wide-eyed gaze was rapt on his erection, which had only stiffened further in the last several seconds, eliminating any progress he’d made toward calming down after she had mentioned his size.

  “Oh, dear God,” she murmured. She took a stumbling step his direction. “Is that a—” She stilled and her knees pressed together.

  He focused on that small move, automatically analyzing it. She’s very swollen. Fuck, he wanted to feel all that swollen heat around his dick. Right now. Taking himself in hand, he squeezed—a little too hard—in an attempt to get himself back in the right head space and flicked a thumb over his piercing.

  She made a noise halfway between a moan and a squeak. “God damn it, it’s been a long year.” She closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath. “Don’t spontaneously orgasm. Don’t spontaneously orgasm.”

  He couldn’t help it: he laughed. Can’t remember the last time I laughed during sex. And they hadn’t even gotten to the sex part yet.

  We’re naked, and she made me laugh. God, he already loved this. He squeezed himself again—more a warning to his dick to behave than anything—and held his other hand out. “Come here,” he said, repeating his earlier request. The one she’d declined.

  This time, however—thank fuck—when she opened her eyes and saw his extended palm, she moved his way.

  His fingers tingled in anticipation of finally touching her. Before he got the pleasure, however, she diverted, veering sharply to the right. “Hey,” he protested before he could stop himself.

  She was several steps toward the hallway already. “Condoms!” she called over her shoulder.

  “Oh, yeah,” he muttered, distracted yet again. “You have a damn fine ass, woman.” Dotted with freckles, of course. Her freckles were going to be the death of him. The freckles he’d noticed before had never appealed to him one way or the other. Cassidy’s freckles, however? He wanted to bite them. Her ass shimmied with just the slightest shake as she walked away from him, the toned muscles flexing with each step she took. “Damn fine ass.”

  She stopped walking and turned to look at him over her shoulder. Something sparkled in her green eyes. “Oh, yeah?” Without any warning, she twitched her hips. Her ass globes shook.

  He cursed beneath his breath. He jerked a step forward, his erection bobbing violently and nearly slapping him in the gut then balls.

  She giggled, and before he could move any closer, she walked down the hall, disappearing into what was probably her bedroom.

  He wanted to chase after her. Down, boy. She’ll be back. Shame she couldn’t walk back to him backward. That ass of hers was earth-shattering.

  Gage had considered but eventually decided against a Prince Albert piercing, because his clients overwhelmingly wanted to have sex with him face to face. Made it more intimate. So, he’d gotten a barbell on top of his dick a little way away from the head so it hit a woman right where she needed it while he fucked her. Cassidy’s ass, though? He wanted to flip her over the kitchen counter, boost that ass in the air, and fuck her as hard as she’d let him, watching that toned bottom of hers tremble with his every thrust. For the first time, Gage found himself wishing he’d gone with the more traditional piercing. She would love that. I’d make sure she would.

  He was staring at her open door, probably with his damn tongue hanging out, when she made her reappearance. In her right hand, she clutched a small box. The pleasure of watching her breasts bob and her thighs flex with her smooth steps took the sting out of not being able to see her from the back again.

  Cassidy was just a pleasure to look at from any angle. What the hell was wrong with the men in the world that she’d spent an entire year celibate?

  When she stutter-stepped to a stop and raised her eyebrows, he realized he was scowling. He quickly smoothed out his expression and cast her a lopsided grin. “If I ask you to come here again, do you think it might finally happen?”

  She bit her bottom lip and wrinkled her nose, nearly sending him to his knees without her even realizing it. “I’d certainly think about it. I don’t know, though. You look pretty good from all the way over here.” Her cool, green eyes were hot as they poured over his naked body.

  He was tempted to squeeze himself roughly again but couldn’t do so without drawing her attention to the fact that he was about to explode. “And I could look at you all night myself.” He cleared his throat. “Kind of hard to have sex from across the room, though.”

  She gave him a small smile. “Valid point.”

  Gage held his breath as he waited to see if, this time, she would walk all the way to him. Give him the chance to touch her.

  When she stopped toe to toe with him, he barely kept himself from blowing out an obvious sigh of relief.

  She stared at the barbells through his nipples for a second before looking up at his face. Her smile this time was anything but small. “Hi,” she said simply.

  A weird, warm feeling perked up in his chest. Just as quickly, it was gone. “Hi.”

  She canted her head to the side, and something flashed in her green eyes. “Is this weird? What we’re doing?”

  He frowned. “Does it feel weird?”

  After a slight pause, she said, “Not at all.”

  Muscles he hadn’t realized he’d clenched relaxed all at once. “For me either.”

&
nbsp; “I suppose that’s all that matters.”

  He nodded. “I think so.”

  They were both quiet for a moment, and then, by silent, mutual agreement, they both started looking at each other’s bodies once more, this time from close up.

  Cassidy’s understated beauty hit him all over again. Those freckles. “Can I kiss you?” he blurted. Cassidy’s gaze jerked to his face. “I’d really like to kiss you,” he said in a more normal tone of voice.

  Instead of a verbal answer, she dropped the box of condoms into the nest of Gage’s pants, stepped into his personal space so that his erection brushed against her belly—they both hissed in a breath—then placed both palms over his pierced nipples. Rising on her tiptoes, she brushed her lips along his jaw. “Yes,” she whispered into his ear.

  Lowering his head, Gage met the next brush of her lips with his own. She sighed into his mouth, and he could taste strong mint—almost as though she had taken a moment to rinse with mouthwash when she retrieved the condoms from her bedroom.

  He found himself charmed.

  Which was completely inappropriate in a one-night stand. Right? He didn’t really know, this being his first one. All things considered, charmed was probably not safe territory.

  He nipped her bottom lip, then sucked it into his mouth. At the same time, he skated a palm over the curve of her hip until he had a handful of the ass that had rocked him. He squeezed and pulled her into his body with the same, smooth move, trapping his erection snugly between their bellies.

  Problem solved. Now all he was thinking about was the fuck. Way to get yourself in the game.

  As he rolled her bottom lip between his teeth, she moaned and scraped her nails lightly down his ribs and back up again. Her fingers played with each of his piercings. A sharp, unexpected tug made him suck in a breath, then release it on a groan. Unable to help himself, he ground his dick into her belly. “You can do that as many times as you’d like,” he whispered, nipping her lip again.

  “Good.” She gave his piercings another flick, and Gage’s fingers flexed against her ass. “How rough can I be with these?” she asked, staring up at him with glittering eyes.