After Hours (InterMix)(48)
One word from me, and Kelly would be officially in charge.
Was the promise of wild, animalistic mating keeping him docile, or riling him up? I guessed I’d find out, whenever I found the sac to cut his tether and sic him snarling on my body. Then those few minutes in my bed flashed across my mind, and I could just about hear his panting in my ear, hot and hungry. Not snarling. Moaning. And not attacking—consuming.
“You eat lunch?” he asked, cold eyes on the sky.
“Yup.”
He met my gaze. “Let’s go inside, then. See if I can’t meet some of your other basic human needs.”
I mustered a skeptical expression to cover up my real reaction—a rush of excitement and nerves like you feel with each ratcheting ka-chunk, ka-chunk up the roller coaster’s highest ramp. I drained my bottle.
“Whatever you say.”
Chapter Eight
Kelly deposited Sadie back on his neighbor’s side of the fence, and tossed our empties in a recycling bin next to the house. “So. How you feeling?”
I turned the question over in my head, waiting until we were inside to reply. “Pretty relaxed.”
“Good.” He slid the door closed. “I got you something.”
I watched him stroll to the fridge then set a bottle of champagne on the breakfast bar.
“Oh, fancy.”
“Seemed like an auspicious occasion.”
“What? My finally giving in?”
He answered with an affirmative smirk, then ripped away the foil and twisted the wire guard loose. From a cupboard he procured a pair of wine glasses, and eased the cork free with a pop. Bubbles surged and dissolved as he poured, and we clinked glasses.
“To what?” I asked.
“To us, f*cking all weekend.”
“Okay.”
We sipped, and since I knew nothing about champagne, I was free to tell myself that this was good stuff. Kelly put the bottle in a big mixing bowl and cracked two ice trays’ contents around it. He held out his hand to usher me toward the lounging area.
“Feel like a movie?” he asked.
“Like a porn movie?”
A fresh smirk. “Like a movie. Whatever kind you want. Just something to watch while we mess around.”
“How very high school,” I teased, but in truth the idea excited me. I’d come here expecting some crazy role-playing weekend, and I’d been horny enough to be down for that. But I liked this more. It’d make the transition to the harsher stuff easier, surely.
“What are my choices?” While I still get any.
A nice TV was mounted above the fireplace, across from the couch, and Kelly pointed to the DVDs that lined the mantel.
I set my glass on the coffee table and went to inspect the spines. He must have bought most of them in a video store closeout, judging from the rental stickers and price tags slapped all over their scraped-up cases.
“You don’t want to choose?” I asked him, still perusing. “Thought it was all about your way, this visit.”
“It will be. When you give me the word you’re ready.”
“Fine, then.” For no reason whatsoever aside from wanting to be decisive, I picked The Rock, featuring Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage running around Alcatraz; an action flick I could vaguely remember seeing in the dollar theater, ages ago. I handed it to Kelly and he cued it up while I made a pit stop.
By the time I got back, he’d shut the front door and the blinds, and drawn a curtain across the patio doors, closing us in a facsimile of a Saturday night, despite it being three thirty on a Thursday afternoon.
We sat close on the couch, Kelly lounging at an angle at one end, half facing me with his arm draped along the back. I was suddenly sixteen, in the den with my first boyfriend, scared and hopeful that second base might be reached before the credits rolled.
This was Kelly Robak, though. A mere look from him felt more obscene than second. What exactly does sixth base involve? I wondered. How sore would I be after all the extra innings he surely had planned?
I felt high, just sitting near him. I scooted a little closer so our thighs touched, his huge and warm and hard against my slender one. He adjusted, too, edging nearer so his arm was resting just behind my shoulders, my body pleasantly cocooned against his side. He’d intimidated me so much that first week. The memory had become theoretical, he felt so reassuring now. I’d found his body ridiculous before, but goddamn, it was wonderful when it was on your side. Thick arm, broad chest, strong thigh, all mine until Saturday dawned.