Playing It Safe

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

As soon as we walk in the door, I ask him to get us a couple of glasses of wine while I freshen up. Once he’s out of sight, I dart into my bedroom and head straight for the lingerie drawer. I have stuff in here I’ve never worn that has been dying to see the light of day. Mind you, I also have stuff in here I’ve worn before that I’m not about to put on ever again. I don’t even know why I keep it, to be honest. It’s pretty much soiled once you break up with someone, and it reminds you of that time you ate bad clams, and you say to yourself, Never again, when you look at it.

I’m rifling through until I hit pay dirt. A matching fire-engine red lace push-up bra and barely there panties. Immediately, I unzip my dress and take everything off. I’m pulling up the barely there panties when Alex calls out to me from the kitchen.

“Julia, where are the wineglasses?”

I yell back, “The cabinet closest to the refrigerator.”

I hear him close a cabinet door a second later and then call out, “Red or white?”

“Doesn’t matter. Surprise me.”

I’m adjusting “the boys” in the push-up bra when he shouts back, “I thought you hate surprises?”

F*cker has the memory of an elephant.

“Smart-ass.”

I hear him laughing in the background while I stand before my closet mirror doing a final inspection. Hmm, I’m missing something. I mean, I look good as is, but it’s lacking something, and I can’t quite put my finger on …

Aha!

I run back to my lingerie drawer and pull out a pair of thigh-high black sheer stockings and then run right back to my closet for a pair of the best f*ck-me pumps I can find. Plopping my ass on the edge of the bed, I carefully, but lightning fast, roll up the stockings and then slip on the shoes. I walk over to the mirror again and …

Oh, hell yes! Amy Winehouse knew what she was talking about when she sang about those “F*ck Me Pumps,” because that’s exactly what was missing.

“I can do this, I can do this. I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me,” I chant out loud to myself in the mirror, and then I hear the pop of the cork from the wine bottle that he’s opening.

Perfect timing.

I open the door to my bedroom, but not before lifting my arms to smell myself because with all the running around and my previously mentioned issue with sweating, you never know. Peering my head around the door, I look down the hallway to see his back is to me. So I walk fast on my tippy toes until I reach the end of the hallway and position myself while his back is still turned. I’m leaning against the wall with one hand on my hip, my feet crossed at the ankles and patting myself on the back because I seriously could not have timed this better if I tried.

“Did you pick red or white finally?”

Alex turns around while pouring what I can now tell is a glass of red wine and says with a grin, “You said to surprise you.”

He looks up at that point to find me standing there in my sex-kitten outfit, and his grin vanishes. It’s replaced with his jaw clenching and a hiss of breath from his nose that I can hear from over here.

“Surprise,” I singsong.

The wine overflows in the glass and spills onto the kitchen floor, causing him to break out of his spell and curse out loud. I’m rather enjoying watching him fumble around looking for a towel to wipe up the mess when I calmly say, “Leave it.”

I don’t have to tell him twice.

Alex drops everything and elegantly strides toward me as his eyes canvass every piece of my body. When he’s about a foot away, I shove off the wall and start walking backward toward my bedroom, matching him step for step. It’s really a f*cking miracle I don’t fall and bust my ass in these heels, but I finally make it inside the confines of my room with him still following me.

“Stand right here and don’t move,” I say, pointing to a spot right in front of the foot of my bed.

One corner of his mouth twists up in a sinful grin as he follows my directions. I walk behind him and press my breasts to his back as I reach around him to grab the lapels of his blazer and slowly ease it off. I toss it on the floor and walk back around to face him. He reaches for me, but I take a step back out of his grasp.

“Uh-uh. No touching,” I say, shaking my head.

Alex reluctantly drops his arms and tilts his head to the side, his eyes in silent protest at my instructions. I’m having entirely too much fun as I start to unbutton his shirt. Once it’s off, I run my hands up from his defined abdominal muscles to his upper chest before fanning out to his shoulders and down his arms. His skin is hot to the touch, and he’s taking shallow breaths. I look up at him at the same time my lips press against his chest to leave a lingering kiss there.

“Payback is a bitch,” he whispers playfully.

I giggle because little does he know this little game is driving me crazy too. It’s taking every ounce of willpower I have not to scrap the seduction act and jump his bones.

“Promises, promises,” I say coolly while running a finger down to his belt buckle. “Take off your shoes.”

He kicks them off, and I go right into unbuckling his belt while keeping my eyes on his baby blues, which are tracking my every move. Next, I trace my hand lightly over his rigid length, and he sucks in a breath.

My voice is quiet and steady while I stroke him over his pants and ask, “Do you like that?”

He licks his lips and just as quietly answers me. “Baby, it feels amazing, but please let me touch you. I’m dying here.”

“Soon enough. Don’t you know that good things come to those who wait, Alex?”

“And better things come to those who make it happen, Julia.”

“Oh,” I say in appreciation. “I like that one even better.”

I stop stroking him only to unbutton his pants and push them down his hips until they fall with a soft whoosh to the ground. Alex steps out of them and is now standing before me in black boxer briefs that hug every inch of his male perfection to the nth degree. I feel like grabbing my phone so I can take some pictures to capture the moment for future reference, but I figure he’ll probably think I’m nuts.


My eyes fixed on his, I remove the boxer briefs and then duck my head to look down. God, I’ve become fairly acquainted with his dick already, but dammit if I still stare at it like it was a mirage in the desert.

“I’m so glad that you enjoy staring at my cock, but if you don’t do something about it sooner rather than later, I’ll be forced to take over,” he warns in a gravelly voice.

I push him backward until the backs of his knees hit the bed. “Sit down, and remember … no touching.”

I drop to my knees in front of him, and he opens his legs to make room for me. Without wasting any more time, I cup one hand around the base of his dick and give a light squeeze. I steal a furtive glance upward and keep my eyes on his as my tongue darts out and starts to lick from the base all the way up to the tip-top of the head like an ice cream cone. “Fuuuuck,” Alex groans.

His dick gets even harder when both my hands grip the shaft, and I leave my mouth on the head, moving up and down while massaging it with my tongue. Alex’s head falls back on his shoulders, and the sight of him getting off on me sucking on his cock gets me in a frenzy of my own. I need some sort of relief, so I keep the pace as is and then let him take over and do the thrusting for a minute or so. He’s watching me with the most lustful look in his eyes as he f*cks my mouth while my hands start to roam down my body.

First, I pinch my nipples through the lace fabric, the sensation like a bullet straight to the junction at my thighs, and I moan with my mouth still around him.

“Jesus Christ, Julia,” he hisses under his breath.

It’s not enough. I trail one hand down the front of my body and rub my hand over the already swollen nub. That’s soooo much better.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex says in disbelief. He looks on for a moment while I keep rubbing myself until he reaches his breaking point and mutters, “To hell with this.”

His hands are under my arms and scooping me up from the floor so fast that I don’t even have time to blink. The next thing I know, I’m tossed onto the bed like a feather, landing on my back. He’s hovering over me in a split second, pulling down the cups of my bra and sucking on one nipple, his hand massaging the other.

I moan out loud, and he chuckles against my breast. He lifts his head at the same time one hand skims down to the edge of my panties, and he says, “It’s not so fun to be tortured and played with, is it?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

With that, he sits up on his haunches between my legs. His hands grip one side of my panties, and with brute strength, he tears it apart.

“Alex!”

He’s in the process of snaking them down the one leg they are still together on and doesn’t answer me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hot as hell, but damn these things were stupid expensive.

“Do you have any idea how much those cost me?”

“Do you really think I give a shit right now? I’ll buy you a hundred more pairs, and I’ll tear every goddamn one of them off of you if you ever pull that shit again, do you understand?”

I don’t answer because his hands are spreading my thighs apart. His fingers start to slide inside of me slowly, and my eyes close as my back arches off the bed.

“Do you understand me, Julia?” His voice is thick with desire.

“I understand, Alex. Now please, f*ck me.”

He blankets my body with his, bracing his weight on one forearm and lifting one of my knees to his shoulder before ramming into me with no hesitation.

Perfect. Brilliant. Sensory overload.

“Don’t stop,” I plead in between moans.

Alex keeps pumping in and out of me, my body meeting his every thrust, and on the verge of bursting from the inside out.

He drops my knee from his shoulder and burrows his hands behind my back. Sitting back on his haunches, he takes me with him so that I can be in complete control. I find the perfect rhythm, and at this angle, the friction against my * quickly becomes too much for me. Alex roughly grips my waist and takes back control of my movements as my head falls backward.

“Look at me, Julia,” he says between clenched teeth. “I want to see your eyes when you come.”

My head lolls forward, and I pull his lips to mine. His tongue grazes my bottom lip, but he doesn’t kiss me yet. He pumps me hard up and down on his cock a few times and then hits the sweet spot, and I splinter in two, my inner walls gripping him tighter and pulling his orgasm out of him while I’m still riding mine out.

We slow down our movements until I’m fully seated on his semi-hard length, both of us slick with sweat and gasping for breath. I run my hands through his hair and gently pull back so that his lips are level with mine and I can finally kiss him. Our mouths open, and the feel of our tongues gliding against each other’s melts me. It’s slow, deliberate, and exquisite—the perfect description for Alex.

Then like a bullet to the brain, a fleeting thought runs through my head: if I’m not careful with him, there will be no if I fall in love with him, it will be more like when I fall in love with him. I try to shoo it away, but that’s hard to do with the way his fingers are soothingly running up and down my spine. Mix that with him still being inside me and his searing kiss, and I know I’m in big trouble. And this is technically our first date.

Who am I kidding?

I’m already falling for him.