Off Limits(102)

I was in the Lloyd Center, one of the biggest malls in Portland, big enough that in the center of it there was an ice rink. I don’t know how expensive it was to run an ice rink in the middle of a shopping mall, but it certainly made for some interesting viewing.

“Have you ever gone skating?” the man behind me asked. I turned, and Kade Prescott, my stepbrother, Dom, lover, and love of my life looked back at me with a twinkle in his dark eyes. We were in public, so we couldn’t be as affectionate as I wanted, but still he did little things to show how he felt about me, like leaning in close or making sure our arms were touching when we leaned against the boards surrounding the rink.

“No, except for one or two skate parties when I was a girl,” I admitted. “You know, someone has their birthday party at the rink, and we all cling to the boards desperately while shuffling around the ice, except for the three people who actually can skate their butts off. What about you?”

“Me?” Kade said with a laugh. “No, never. Would you like to try?”

I shook my head. “Not today, Kade. We came for shopping, remember?”

Kade nodded and pointed across the rink. “Well, there’s our first stop. Macy’s, unless you’re interested in Marshall’s and Foot Locker.”

“I was thinking,” I said, before leaning in to whisper in his ear, “that we’d make sure to make a trip to Victoria’s Secret. Would you like that, Kade?”

I made sure when I said Kade’s name, I said it in that special way that I’d developed that said I was being his sub, and not just his stepsister. We’d just had sex for the first time the night before, but it didn’t matter. I was drunk off of Kade, and I wanted more.

Kade’s eyes lit up, and he let his lips twitch in the beginnings of a smile. “Careful, Alix. I think it would be best if we save that for the last store we go to.”

“Yes, Kade,” I replied, happy. It felt like I could go the rest of my life just with that. Yes, Kade. I didn’t think any other words would ever mean more, or make me happier to say over and over.

“And one other thing, Alix,” Kade said, leaning in. “You’ll wear some of that tonight when we get home.”

I nodded, grinning. “Yes, Kade.”

Shopping was actually easy. With my cover story being that I was taking an extended sabbatical from full-time modeling, I didn’t have to worry about dressing up in name brand things. Still, I did have an image to uphold, if only because I wanted to look good for Kade as well.

It was actually fun teasing him a bit as we shopped. Since in public he had to be my stepbrother, I could show him a little sass, all the while knowing what we were really doing. My favorite reaction of his was when I tried on a pair of Zella shorts, which were pretty short, and while not quite skin tight, they were very form fitting. They only had a three inch inseam, so coupled with my height, it meant I was showing off a lot of leg.

“So what do you think of these for exercise?” I asked him, pirouetting slowly. With my hip pointed to him, I ran my hands over my ass, supposedly looking at myself in the mirror but actually watching Kade over my shoulder. “I’m worried it might bunch in the back.”

Kade chewed his lip, barely reacting, but I could see in his eyes how I was affecting him. “I think they look fine,” he said after a second, gathering his control. It was a struggle for him, which I knew I would so wonderfully be punished for later. “Are you planning on wearing that for anything else?”

“No, but I do know I’m going to need to work out more often now, for stress and to make myself stronger. I’d like to have some good gym stuff.”

“Why do you want to get stronger?” Kade asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He was still in his clothes from work, a coordinating suit set by Hugo Boss that looked amazing on him, although he’d ditched the jacket and tie. Too muscular to wear a slim fit, he still filled out the classic cut pants and shirt in a way that had my blood pumping through my body. “You said on the drive up here you were worried about getting too big.”

“That was before,” I answered. “Now, I need to be stronger, in more control of myself. I know that going to college is going to mean testing my limits, and I’d like to see where those are.”

Kade’s smirk sent warm chills down my spine, as he knew exactly what I was saying. “I’m sure you’ll be pushed to your limits often, but you’ll do just fine,” he answered. “So are you going with the shorts or not?”

“Three pairs,” I answered, closing the curtain on the changing booth again and pulling back on the jeans I’d been wearing. “Then we look at skirts.”

The theatrical groan from Kade outside left me grinning from ear to ear. He played his role of tolerant older stepbrother so well. Or perhaps he was being a tolerant boyfriend, I wasn’t sure, but I knew that for the next two hours, I felt for the first time in a long time like a normal woman my age. We even stopped for a Cinnabon before heading upstairs to Victoria’s Secret as promised.

“Two questions,” Kade said as we looked at the window display, dominated by a large poster of Stella Maxwell in a sports bra and shorts. The company was doing a big push for their workout clothes, and I had to admit they were kind of cute. “First, why choose here? The other store had undergarments too.”