She bit her lips to keep from laughing as she turned away. “Whatever you want, boss. Just let me know.”
I picked up the puppy and looked into her adoring eyes. “See how she says the word boss so sarcastically? Yeah, you picked up on that too, didn’t you? She’s so sassy she doesn’t even know how to put it away, and that’s why I’m your favorite.”
I didn’t altogether appreciate the loud laughter that Ro left behind as she walked away.
The week went by in a blink. I couldn’t remember ever having a quicker passage of days, in fact.
I knew the second Ro realized that I was keeping the Muppet. I was working at my desk and she walked in, looking around.
“Have you seen Mac?” she asked.
I met her eyes, no expression in mine. “No,” I lied.
Just then a little bark erupted from my lap.
Ro raised a judgmental brow. “You know, I talked to the person that sold her to me. It will be no trouble to bring her back. There’s already another home lined up if you don’t want her. Just say the word. I concede. You can win our bet right now.”
I was rubbing an ecstatic Mac’s belly as I told her, “You are so evil, but I think you know that. You don’t have to gloat, you know.”
“Me? Gloat?”
“Yes. You’re laying it on a bit thick. You are not convincingly guileless, so that’s a dead giveaway.”
“Oh no, you misunderstood. I’m full of guile. Is that better?”
“You’re too much. I should take you over my knee.”
“Then you’d have to move your precious baby.”
I tried to glare at her, but it was hard to be convincing when she delighted me so. “Stop that,” I tried. “There has to be a limit to your sass.”
“You think so? By the way, I know someone with a cat that just had a new litter of kittens.”
“Don’t you dare.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I started to fantasize constantly about being inside of her, even of taking her virginity. The way it would feel to be buried deep, skin on skin, the drugging tightness of her walling me in, taking me inch by inch, the delicious difficulty of it. The struggle of stretching something that had never before been breached.
How much I’d have to prime, work, and tenderize her to get my whole big self in.
The way it would feel when I broke the barrier inside of her. The finality of it. I decided that was just deliciously perverse enough to do it for me.
It was the strangest thing, nothing I’d ever even been interested in before, but now I was consumed by the idea.
I’d always liked experienced girls with little to no inhibitions. What had changed? Why were all of my instincts so off when it came to this little termagant?
“How fun is it even to be a thirty-year-old virgin?” I asked her out of the blue as she brought me an afternoon espresso.
“I’m twenty-three, you ass!”
I bit back a smile. I was well aware of how too young she was. “Whatever. Thirty will be here before you know it. What are you even holding onto? How innocent can you possibly remain when you’ve learned to suck my cock like a fucking artist?”
“Your point?”
That made me smile outright as I continued, “Nothing’s more real than that. And let’s be honest here, I’ve probably gotten you off more in the last two weeks than you have your whole life.”
She made a face.
“Tell me I’m wrong. You with your brutal honesty. Tell me.”
She sighed, looking sour. “You’re not wrong.”
“I’ll tell you what. I want you to talk to all of your girlfriends, ask them if they were in love their first time, see if it was a pleasant experience for any of them. You do that and come back to me. I’m not one to make promises, but I promise you that if you let me be your first, I’ll make it incredible for you.”
She was wearing her stoic face, the one that drove me crazy, because I still couldn’t read it.
“Come here,” I told her.
She came, albeit unhappily.
I pulled her onto my lap, straddling me. ‘You realize that it’s just the barest excuse of a technicality at this point, right?” I was rubbing her butt and starting to get carried away with it. I wanted her. I always wanted her. “For the love of God, I’ve fucked you in the ass.”
I closed my eyes, letting my own words distract me into delicious sensory memories for a moment.
“I know that,” she said quietly. “I’m not an idiot. Listen, you can stop making your arguments about it. I already made up my mind a while ago.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Oh?” I asked casually.
“I went on birth control,” she told me quietly. “An IUD.”
I felt my eyelids grow heavy, my breath pant out. I felt a surge of lust so great in that moment it made me rock back in my chair as though I had to give it room to breathe.
Which was perhaps apt as my hard-on right then tried to spring her to the ceiling. “For me?” I asked like it was a long wished for birthday gift.
She sighed. “For you, you shameless, irresistible hussy.”
“Can I fuck you now? Let’s take the day off and do it right.”
“Let’s not get into any bad habits. You’d try to take every day off to stay in bed if I let you. Tonight. We’ll call it quits early. Don’t get all weird about it. I can tell by the gleeful look on your face you’re going to overreact to this. We are not throwing a party for you taking my V-card. Don’t overhype it.”
“Can I wear my Birthday Bitch sash?”
“Stop it right now.”
“Can we at least wear party hats?”
“Don’t make me change my mind.”
I was full of nervous energy for the rest of the day. That and piercing lust, and an all-consuming, undiluted craving.
She was putting the puppy to bed in his kennel for the night, and when she took longer than I thought she should I went looking for her.
She was coming down the hallway. She was wearing the French maid teddy. “That’s overkill,” I told her, but my tone said something else.
She arched a brow. “You picked it out, but if you don’t like it you can take it off yourself.”
As soon as she was in arm’s reach, I snatched her off her feet and kissed her. I cupped her butt, lifting her to me. I deepened the kiss, rubbing my dick into her warmth.
She moaned softly into my mouth, and it was too much.
Anticipation raced through me. Exhilaration.
I had her on her back on the bed without even meaning to, when the last thing I wanted to do was rush this. But I didn’t stop, didn’t know if I could.
I covered her, bringing our bodies flush, punch drunk with the idea that there were no breaks tonight, nothing to hold me back. I kept kissing her and it was wonderful, and the way she responded under me, the way her arms wrapped around me, her body humming with a tension that answered my own, let me know she felt wonder as well.
Eventually I stood up beside the bed so I could just look at her. I was shaking a bit, the tips of my fingers trembling. Nerves. I was having nerves about sex, jittery like it was my first time instead of hers. It wasn’t normal.