Elyse sighs. “Yay,” she says, in an absolutely unenthused voice. “Just what I always wanted. I’ll be sure to wear one to President Reagan’s inauguration, though they might take away attention from my formal parachute pants.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re hilarious. Keep it up and I won’t buy you pizza later.”
“You’d better, and God help you if it doesn’t have pineapple on it.”
I wrinkle my nose in disgust, but don’t say anything. I don’t want to get into that argument, and since I don’t really eat much food anymore, Elyse claims my opinion doesn’t count. “Fine. Eat your gross pizza. As long as you help me finish.”
Elyse smirks. “I don’t think I’ll be the one helping you finish…”
I should be annoyed, but the stupid joke sends a lance of heat through my belly. I look at the box sitting beside Elyse’s knee. I still don’t know how I’m going to bring this up to Riley, but I definitely have the motivation.
***
I hold a scented candle in each hand, leaning in to sniff them one by one. The first is soothing lavender and sandalwood; the other is creamy vanilla with hints of orange. I almost always have some kind of candle burning in my apartment when I’m home, but today, the choice feels extra important. Riley is coming over to spend the night, and I want to set the right mood.
Eventually, I go with the second candle. I put the first candle away and carry the vanilla and orange one into the kitchen to find the lighter. Hopefully, the smell won’t be strong enough to bother Riley’s sensitive nose.
I’ve just put the lit candle in the bedroom when my phone buzzes. It’s a text from Riley:
I’m waiting outside ❤
I take a deep breath and adjust the front of my dress. It’s a pink wrap that flows off my right hip under the waist tie, but most important of all, it has a slit up one leg. If Riley’s eyes don’t go there in the first five seconds, she sees me, I’ll pull a unicorn’s tail. My phone buzzes again:
Am I early?
I hurry over to the door, only slowing down the last couple of steps. I’m more nervous now than I was during our first few dates. Strangely, it feels like there’s much more at stake, or maybe my fears are totally logical and I’m being too hard on myself. My previous relationship track record hasn’t been great, after all.
There’s a soft knock on the other side of the door just before I open it. I turn the knob to see Riley standing in the hallway, holding some steaming cardboard boxes in her hands.
“Heya,” she drawls, grinning with one side of her mouth quirked up higher than the other.
My heart melts and I completely forget my nervousness. Soft butches have always been my biggest weakness, and Riley is almost cute enough to make me squeal. She’s even got a dapper blue bowtie on, which makes her doubly adorable.
“Hey yourself.” I step back, remaining close enough to lean in and give her a peck on the cheek.
She flushes slightly, shifting the weight of the boxes. “I stopped by the Chinese place near my house to bring y’all some food…then I remembered you don’t eat much food, so I just bought myself some.” She dips her head a bit in embarrassment.
“Don’t worry. It was still a sweet thought.” I take the boxes, enjoying the warmth that seeps from the cardboard bottoms into my cold hands as I carry them to the kitchen. “Besides, you did bring me a meal.”
Riley blinks in confusion as she follows me. “Huh? Oh! Oh…” She clears her throat, rubbing the back of her neck. “I didn’t wanna assume.”
I set the takeout boxes on the counter. “Baby, you can always say no, but let’s just roll with the assumption that I’m pretty much constantly hungry.”
Riley’s smile spreads wider. “Yeah?”
“Mmhmm.”
“For, uh, the sex part? Or for my blood?”
I take another two steps toward her, draping my arms over her shoulders. It’s hard not to chuckle at her awkward phrasing. “Both.”
If Riley had been in possession of her tail at that moment, I’m sure she would have wagged it. “Good! I mean…great. Great and good. Oh, hell with it.” She leans in, pressing her lips to mine. It’s soft and gentle at first, but the heat of her mouth sends a jolt through me. I groan and open my lips, and Riley wastes no time teasing them with her tongue. By the time we pull back, we’re both breathless.
“What was that for?” I ask her.
“Figured it was about time I stopped babbling and did something smarter with my mouth.”
I run my thumb over her lips. They’re slightly chapped from the November cold and she’s got a smudge of pink lip gloss on them from me. Somehow, this seems like the perfect time to tell her, while we’re still tingling from our first kiss of the evening. “By the way, I’ve got something to show you.”
Riley’s thick blonde eyebrows arch in surprise. She sniffs and lowers them again. “You smell nervous. Should I be nervous?”
There’s no real use hiding it from her. “I’m nervous, but you don’t need to be.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s easier to just show you.” I take Riley’s hand, but before I can lead her down the hall, she pulls me back into her arms and kisses the top of my forehead.
“You don’t need to be nervous. Not around me. Okay?”
I sigh deliberately. Since I don’t technically need to breathe, sometimes I forget. “Thanks. It’s not a big deal, really. You’ll see.”
This time, Riley lets me lead her to the bedroom. When we arrive, the cardboard box is sitting on top of my mattress. “That it?” she asks, letting go of my hand and wandering toward the mattress. She pauses and sniffs again. “Nice candle, by the way. Thought I smelled vanilla out front.”
“Thanks. You can open the box. I found it while I was throwing some things out earlier today.”
“Wait, you threw stuff out?” Riley looks around the bedroom, which is, I admit, still a bit of a chaotic mess. It’s not dirty, because I do take care to dust, but it is pleasantly cluttered. There are knickknacks pretty much everywhere, even without all the stuff Elyse and I got rid of.
“Just a few things. Elyse had to pry them away from me and dump them in the garbage, if I’m being honest.”
Riley chuckles. “I still need to meet Elyse. She seems great.”
“You will,” I promise. “Assuming you don’t run for the hills in the next couple of minutes,” I add under my breath.
It’s a mistake. Riley’s ears perk up again. Sometimes I forget how good her hearing is. “I’m not runnin’ anywhere,” she assures me, looking at me with such sincerity in her big blue eyes that I can’t help but believe her.
“Okay.”
She pats the edge of the mattress. “You wanna scooch a bit closer?”
I don’t, but I’m not sure how to tell her that. Treating the box like it’s garlic might make Riley think I’m avoiding her instead. I sit at the foot of the bed, as far from the box as possible. She looks at me, forehead furrowed in confusion, and I scoot a few inches closer.
“Open it,” I say, half pleading. “I’m dying here.”
“I thought you were already dead.” Riley pulls open the box, which Elyse had closed back up by tucking one corner under another. She peers inside, her eyes going comically wide. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I mean…um…” She reaches in, producing a long coil of red rope.
“It’s not that much stuff,” I say, although the lie is mainly meant for me. “Just some odds and ends from my last relationship.”
“Odds and ends. Right.” Riley sets the coil of rope aside and dives into the box again. This time, her hand emerges with the padded black restraints. The silver chains on them jingle almost cheerfully. “No real silver in here, right? Gives me a nasty rash.”
“Stainless steel, I think. Although that reminds me, I should probably check my jewelry and put all the silver away just in case.”
Riley laughs, which I take as a good sign. “I don’t think the jewelry you’ve got on is
gonna hurt me.”
I notice where she’s looking and remember the rainbow slap bracelet. “Elyse and I found those while we were going through my stuff earlier. Living longer means you go through more regrettable fashion trends.”
“I thought it was retro,” Riley says.
“Right? That’s what I told Elyse. I feel so vindicated right now.”
“Oh, sweet lord.” Riley has reached into the box again, and now she’s brandishing a pink jelly dildo with floating beads inside it. She sniffs it, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “This thing can’t be safe. Gotta be full of phthalates.”
“Full of what?”
“Cheap chemicals. Remember that rash I mentioned? It can give you one in a very…uh, sensitive place.”
“It’s going in the garbage.” I snatch the wobbly dildo from her, trying to remember when I even used it. I can’t recall a single instance, but that’s probably a good thing. I chuck it in the trash can, running my palms over my dress. “How do you know so much about dildos, anyway? Are you a fan?”
“Well…” It’s Riley’s turn to look embarrassed. “I’ve shopped around.”
I sit back down, closer to her this time. Since she hasn’t freaked out yet, I’m not quite so scared of the box anymore. “Do tell.”
“Don’t have one of my own yet.”
That surprises me. Not to stereotype, but Riley strikes me as the kind of lesbian who would be into strap-ons. “Any reason why not?”
Riley’s shoulders slump a little. For a moment, her demeanor changes, and she seems almost sad. “Guess I’m worried it won’t…do it for me. You know, like having a real one would. I worry I’d just be disappointed.”
I run my hand up her back. “Riley…”
“Hey,” she says forced a smile, “it’s fine. I’ve thought a lot about this over the past few years, more since I met Colin. I thought I might be trans for a while, but that didn’t feel right either. I’m kinda in between, you know?”
I nod with what I hope is understanding. “Do you still want me to use ‘she/her’ pronouns, or something else?”
Once more, Riley hesitates. “I…don’t know? I’ll think about it. You can keep going with ‘she’ for now.”
“If that changes,” I say, clasping her hand, “you can let me know.”
“I know. I just don’t want to be a bother. Because all this doesn’t mean I don’t like the way things already are, what we already do,” she adds hurriedly. “I love it. I don’t have any complaints—”
I press the finger of my free hand over Riley’s lips. In her face, I can see my own fear from earlier: that asking for something more would make me seem weird, or even inadequate, for not enjoying sex the ‘normal’ lesbian way—whatever normal even means.
“Hey. I’m into you, Riley. And if that means trying some new things with you, I’m up for it. I mean…” I look toward the box and laugh. “I just shoved a whole box of bondage stuff at you. I’m not exactly closed-minded.”
“Yeah.” Riley glances at the box too, which is about half-empty without the ropes, scarves, and restraints on top. “So, what about you? Do you have any…complaints?”
“No,” I blurt out. “Oh God, no. Things have been great.”
“But? I can hear a ‘but’ in there.”
I give her a shy smile. As usual, she’s right. “Well…sometimes, I like it a little rough. Especially when I’m tied up and helpless.” I can barely get the words out without blushing.
Something dark flickers across Riley’s face, and I almost regret what I’ve said. Then she brightens again. “Yeah?”
“Okay, what was that about?” I’m no wolf, but I’m pretty observant too.
“Oh, just human nonsense.”
I can’t help snorting at that. Some of the tension is broken. “Tell me about it?”
“The girls I messed around with in high school wanted the rough, tough werewolf, you know? And, yeah, sometimes I wanna be that fantasy. I’m into it. But I want them to like me as a person too, you know? I don’t wanna be their fetish…or at least not only their fetish.”
“I understand completely.” And I do. I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands that wanted the mysterious, aloof vampire dominatrix and were disappointed when I didn’t deliver what they expected.
“You would. You probably get it worse than me.”
“It’s not a competition, Riley. If it bothers you, it’s important to me.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Riley says, a little too quickly. “Gotta be honest with you, Izzy. I’m interested for my own sake, but I’ve never done the bondage thing before. Going through all this stuff, I feel confused as a chameleon in a bag of skittles.”
I snort with laughter. “You made that one up. That can’t be a real Southernism.”
“Is so,” Riley protests. “My brother told me that one.”
“Then he made it up.”
Riley shrugs. “Maybe. But I’m telling the truth. I’ve never done this before, so I’ll probably mess up. A lot. I don’t wanna disappoint you.”
Once more, she’s so sincere that my heart throbs hard enough to stick to my ribs. “Riley,” I murmur, cupping her warm cheek and stroking it with my thumb, “you could never disappoint me.”
She laughs. “I ain’t tried yet.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I lean in to kiss her, running my fingers through her hair. She wraps an arm around my waist, shifting so the two of us are cuddled close. Her tongue strokes against mine, but only for a moment, because I pull back before the kiss can get too deep. “I was scared to show you this stuff, but I shouldn’t have been. Even if you weren’t into it, you would have been sweet about letting me down. You wouldn’t have judged me.”
“Nope,” Riley says, grinning from ear to ear. “Never. So…” Her warm palm runs up along my thigh, following the slit in my dress. “Any chance I can sweet talk you into taking this off for me?”
“What about your food?”
Riley’s tongue peeks out to run over her lips. “It’ll reheat.”
She kisses me again, tipping me back onto the bed, and I lose myself in her lips. It’s so easy to kiss her, to relax with her, to welcome her on top of me. Even though we’ve only known each other a couple of months, she has this way of making me feel comfortable. The taste of her mouth is like coming home even as the brush of her tongue against mine lights a fire in my belly.
I’m so distracted I barely notice her working to remove my dress. It’s only when she lets out a soft growl of frustration that I realize she’s trying to unfasten the wrap the wrong way. “It’s decorative,” I chuckle, pulling just far enough away from her to strip the dress off myself. It’s not easy to do it gracefully while I’m half lying down, but I don’t care. I want it off, so I can feel Riley’s hands against my bare skin.
Her blue eyes widen, drinking me in, and my cold skin gets a bit of a flush as my heart twitches into beating. Seeing myself through Riley’s eyes, knowing she finds me beautiful, does more for me than any mirror ever could.
“Sweet Jesus, you’re gorgeous,” Riley mumbles, with an expression that can only be described as awe.
I take her hands in mine, guiding them around my torso so she can unfasten my bra. “And you’re a sweet talker.”
Riley doesn’t have nearly as much trouble with my bra as she did with my dress. After only a little fumbling with the hooks, she manages to pull it open. The first thing she does after throwing it aside is fill her hands with my breasts, and both of us groan at the same time.
Soon, the peaks of my nipples are pressing insistently into Riley’s palms. She takes them between her fingertips, giving them a gentle twist, and I almost cut my bottom lip on one of my fangs. They’ve fully extended, and I can hear and smell the rapid beating of Riley’s heart, the rush of her blood beneath her skin.
“So…” Riley gives my nipples another pinch, pulling a whimper out of me. “Wanna show me how to use all this stuff?” She nods at the half-empty box o
f supplies, and my stomach flips over itself. Kissing her had been so distracting that I’d almost forgotten about everything else.
“Sure.” I grab the nearest item, which happens to be a set of black wrist restraints. It’s a good choice, because they aren’t hard to use, just a little Velcro and a short stainless-steel chain. “How about these for my arms? No knots to worry about.”
Riley grins. “I like it.” She takes the cuffs from me, unfastening the Velcro on one side. “You want your arms in front or behind?”
I think about it. In front will be more comfortable, but I’m not sure I want to be comfortable. Part of the reason I like bondage is the mild, aching pain that comes when my muscles are trapped in one position. It’s a constant reminder of the fact that I can’t move. “Behind me.”
“Then turn around.”
I turn away from her, swinging my feet over the side of the bed and sitting on the edge of the mattress. I can feel Riley moving behind me, but I still shudder when she places a warm kiss on my shoulder. Slowly, she draws my hands behind my back, bringing my forearms together and slipping the cuffs on.
Riley’s a quick learner, because it doesn’t take her long to fasten the restraints. “This okay?” she asks, her breath hot against the crook of my throat. “Not too tight?”
The tender concern in her voice reassures me that she’s exactly the right person to break out this box with. “Just right. Can you slip a finger underneath? If you can’t fit it, they need to be looser.”
Riley squeezes one of her fingers beneath the cuffs, and I shudder as it grazes my inner wrist. “Feels good to me. What now?”
I look back over my shoulder at her and lick my lips. “Whatever you want to do to me.”
It’s the right thing to say. Riley lets out a low growl, flipping me onto my back with a surprising amount of force. I squeak in surprise, but she muffles the sound with a kiss, pressing her tongue into my mouth. There’s a faint hint of sweetness from my own smeared lip gloss, but most of what I can taste is her—warm and wet and hungry.
We only break apart when Riley decides it’s time to strip off her sweater vest. She tears it up and over her head, almost forgetting the bowtie in her haste, and my eyes widen as her stomach and binder come into view. Riley has a thin layer of fat over her abdomen, but her muscles still show through, firm and inviting. She unzips her binder, and her breasts spill free. They’re not very large, but they’re perky and sit high on her chest.
Fur and Fangs Box Set Page 10