Cuddle bear, p.13
Cuddle Bear, page 13
“Why? What did you do to her?”
Celestine groaned and cupped his hands behind his neck, staring at the floor. “She wanted me to adopt a dog we found while we were out hiking. I said I’m not in a good spot with my life for a pet. She already has—”
“Four dogs she treats like princes?” Maurice slid his chair back and stood, crossing his arms. “She refers to them as her babies.”
He flinched as if Maurice had punched him in the eye. “Yeah, but I really wasn’t comfortable taking a dog right now. How do I get her to forgive me?”
“She’s a sucker for rubies,” Maurice said, without missing a beat. “But only natural ones. Don’t buy anything synthetic because she’ll be able to tell the difference.”
Celestine’s entire face lit up with his grateful smile. “Thank you, Maurice. You’re a good guy.” He turned and bolted out the door.
“So, Miss Lacey likes jewelry,” I said, filing that away for the holidays.
Maurice looked at me from the corner of his eye, and a sly smile took over his face that had me hungry to touch him all over. “No, but rubies are more expensive than diamonds, and he deserves this for tricking us.”
I chuckled and went back to my office to finish the few tasks that absolutely had to be done before we left for the day.
Later in the evening it was a very good feeling to walk into the Sloppy Frog with Maurice at my side and know he was my boyfriend, even though we didn’t make any large displays of affection. My fingers touched the back of his hand, and he smiled at me as we made our way out to the patio to find Lacey.
“There she is,” Maurice said, pointing at a table with a strand of lights dangling above her head.
She waved at us, the gold of her silky top glinting, then stood up and ran around the table to hug Maurice. She’d paired the shirt with a short black skirt and tall boots that gave her an extra inch. She embraced me next and smacked a kiss on my cheek.
“Thank God you two are here!” She dragged us over to the table as if we’d been about to run away and shoved us one by one in seats, then hustled around to her side and scooped up her drink again. She sipped, and it seemed to be more out of nervousness than enjoyment.
“What’s wrong, Miss Lacey?”
She waved a hand at me and her lip ring glinted as she frowned. “I ordered you two Mai Tais because they’re on special tonight. This is what’s wrong.” She flipped her hand to face me, and I nearly choked at the size of the ruby on her ring finger—Celestine hadn’t wasted any time. I couldn’t imagine how much he’d paid for the rock. Maurice let out a tiny noise as if he was feeling faint, and I rubbed his back.
“Edgar gave me a promise ring! We’ve barely started dating!”
“Why isn’t he here, with such a generous contribution to your jewelry collection sitting on your finger?” I asked.
She flopped down into her chair like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “I told him I was having a girls’ night to buy time to think.” She stuck out her tongue at Maurice. He rolled his eyes and flipped her off.
What was a good excuse to put a man off on something so serious? Hm. “Has he met your parents? You could tell him that he can’t give you such a fine ring without an introduction to the family and perhaps buy more time.”
She smirked and leaned forward, lacing her fingers together in a way that let her flash around that ring, which I thought she was more than halfway inclined to accept. “Have you met Maurice’s parents?”
“No.” My stomach dropped toward my toes at her gleeful giggle.
Maurice groaned. “You don’t want to, either.”
“Why?”
Lacey outright cackled. “Our whole family is a treat. Me and Maurice are the good relatives.”
“I do like you two,” I said.
A server came over and set pretty drinks in front of Maurice and me. The tumblers contained a white liquid on the bottom, and on top was a layer of brown with a mint sprig, and a lime was hooked over the rim. I took a sip and was hit with the taste of rum and oranges. “Nice.”
Maurice hummed in approval, but I thought it was for the drinks, not me meeting his family. He glanced at me, then gave me a pained smile. “We’re the most tolerable. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to meet my parents.” He frowned.
“Oh.” I couldn’t help it. I’d seen their reactions to the discussion and heard every single word they’d said, but my feelings were hurt. I cleared my throat. “Let me see that ring, Lacey.” She turned her hand toward me and waved it around until I snatched it to hold her still. “The marquis cut reminds me of something from a pirate cove.”
She beamed. “Right? Oh, let me tell you about the new dog I adopted! Edgar wouldn’t take her and she’s an angel, so I had to keep her.”
Maurice groaned.
Several drinks and conversations later, Lacey pointed at both of us while she swayed a little in her seat. “I’m going to tell Edgar I accept his promise. His intentions are good.” She nodded and laid her head down on the table for a second. “For the record, you two suck at being the girls in a girls’ night.”
“We’re not girls,” I said, patting her head.
“You should definitely tell Edgar you accept.” Maurice smirked. “We will make sure you get home.”
She sat up and shook her head. “I’m okay enough to take a cab. Don’t let me ruin your night.” She grabbed her purse, downed the rest of her drink, and then proceeded to totter her way toward the front of the bar.
“She won’t drive, will she? Should we take her home?”
“Nah, she’ll be fine.” Maurice’s smile wilted as he watched her go. “She would make a fuss if we tried to get her to do something different from what she already decided.”
“You were bad just now.”
He shrugged and grinned. “That’s what she gets.”
Resting my hand on his thigh under the table, I leaned closer to murmur, “Let’s go back to my place.”
“O-okay.” He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, cheeks flushing pink.
I gave his thigh a squeeze and enjoyed how solid he felt under my hand. “Shall we?” I stood, and he nodded, following me.
We didn’t say much on the ride home. Maurice slid his palm across the console to take my hand, and I brought his wrist up and kissed it. After a while I sucked and nipped his pulse point, and we were both hard by the time I pulled the Maserati to a stop in front of the house. I tugged him into a kiss and accidentally revved the engine. Laughing, I turned off the car, and he opened the door and got out, so I rushed after him.
Maurice headed toward the front door at top speed, but I grabbed his hand and dragged him up the left side of the exterior split staircase to the second-floor balcony. When we were upstairs together, he looked around like he was confused, and I shoved him against the wall. I wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but we began to kiss as if the world was ending.
Maurice wrapped a leg around my calf, and I reached down to grab him and heft him up, but it didn’t really work. We both ended up laughing. I tugged him away from the wall and turned him to my left.
“Are we able to get to your bedroom from here?”
“Yes.” I gave him a small push, and together we stumbled forward. At the glass-and-steel door to my room, I turned the knob, cursed, and then had to get the key out to unlock it. While I was messing around, he kissed along my neck, and I moaned as he sank his teeth in lightly.
“Were you serious about switching sometimes?”
I captured his mouth and sucked on his tongue until he ground his firm cock against my hip. “Hell yes.”
The damned lock finally yielded despite my lack of expertise, and I let out a shout of triumph as the door opened. Maurice urged me inside and tugged my shirt out of my pants. Excitement coiled in my gut and my cock plumped at the anticipation gleaming in his eyes. You couldn’t fake that sort of enthusiasm, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anyone that happy to get in my bed. We worked on the buttons of my shirt together, then shoved it and my suit jacket away. I didn’t know why I’d done it, but this morning I’d put on an undershirt, and he huffed and tugged it up, scraping his fingernails over my nipples.
“Yes,” I moaned against his mouth. We had to break apart to get my top half naked. He was quick to shove down my pants, but they got caught on my shoes. While I was fighting my footwear, he stripped in record time, so that as I was straightening again I came face-to-face with his cockhead, which I was happy to kiss and give a lick.
“The bed,” he said, and I’d never heard him sound that certain of anything. I shivered as he turned me around and shoved me farther into the room. As I got to the mattress I bent forward, but he pushed me until I landed on my stomach with my feet still hanging off the edge. I grinned as he tugged off my socks and tossed them down. “You won’t need those.”
“What if my feet get cold?” I glanced over my shoulder at him.
He only smirked and shook his head in answer. I relaxed as he trailed his lips up my spine, then took his time and nibbled on the nape of my neck before licking a path back toward my ass.
“Maurice? What are you—oh.” I balled the blanket up in both fists as he swiped his tongue downward and yanked my hips back. I put my feet on the floor and braced myself while he spread my cheeks. The puff of his breath on my hole had me going out of my mind, and I could barely stand it as he licked all around the spot he wanted to fuck without actually touching it.
“Of course you taste good. Wick, I need more of you.”
“Do whatever you want,” I said, but I wasn’t sure he heard me with my face pressed into the bedding.
His tongue teased over my hole, and I shoved back, attempting to make him understand I was up for anything he could dish out. But holy mother of God, I didn’t expect it when he spread me open with his tongue and fucked into my body. It felt good and wet and wonderful. The sensation of being licked was like a sensual tickle inside my ass, and my cock felt as if it was the size of a redwood. I fucked back against his face. Every brush of my shaft against the bed sent pleasure burning hotter through my body until I was thrusting onto his tongue, then rutting along the blanket. He grabbed my hips and pressed his tongue farther inside me, and I froze as my balls tightened and pleasure tensed my muscles. My shaft pulsed, and then I blew my load all over the blanket.
He lapped at my hole while I shuddered and whimpered through the pleasure.
“I’m sorry. Shit.” I turned my head and rested my cheek against the sweat-soaked fabric.
“You like this?” Maurice rolled me over until I was in an awkward position on my back. I scooted toward the middle of the bed, and he watched me go with heat in his eyes.
“Apparently.” I grinned. “Lube and condoms are on the dresser in the small wooden treasure box.”
He gave me a bright smile as he hustled to retrieve the goods, and my heart warmed at his low laughter. He came back with the supplies and waved them around. “Were these waiting for me?”
I nodded, feeling weirdly shy.
Maurice’s cock was so hard it bounced in front of him, almost as if it wasn’t part of his body, and it had flushed a bright pink. I wanted to get him off in the worst way possible, and it was torture for both of us as he carefully slicked my hole. His fingers felt rough after the silky pleasure of his tongue, but I didn’t want him to stop.
“Can I put the condom on you?” I asked.
He nodded, and I snagged the gray square from him and ripped it open. The smell of latex hit my nose, but I didn’t mind because it meant we were that much closer to him being inside me. He concentrated on what I was doing so intently that he didn’t blink as I unrolled the condom onto his length, and all the while he fucked his fingers in and out of my body at an agonizing pace. He added a generous dollop of lube onto his cock, and I stared him in the eye as I spread it around, and then he chased my hands away and crawled between my legs with determination furrowing his brow.
“Will you be uncomfortable if I lie on you?”
“No.” I opened my arms to him, and he settled on top of me. I was in heaven as his mouth landed on mine. His weight was a lot, but I’d been right—it wasn’t too much. No, he felt just right on top of me. I spread my legs, and with a little maneuvering between us I wrapped them around his middle. It took a couple of tries for him to find the right spot without moving, but eventually his cockhead was pressed right at my hole, and his worshiping gaze set me on fire inside.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
I leaned up and kissed him. “Perfect. Fuck me.”
He moaned and filled my ass with his cock. After the way he’d eaten me out there was no pain or burn, just that good feeling of having him inside me. The bump against my prostate had my eyelashes fluttering and I hugged him close.
“I’ve only done this a couple of times. Let me know if I’m doing anything wrong.”
“So far it’s all really right.”
He smiled and kissed me, and we fogged up his glasses, but he didn’t stop to remove them as he began to thrust at a steady, perfect pace. He didn’t rush or lose control but shifted around until he was hammering my prostate and I was gasping and clutching his arms. He went onto his knees, and I ended up with one leg over his shoulder, and the adjustment changed the angle of entry enough that on each plunge into my hole he caused my lower stomach to tingle and my cockhead to throb. He fucked with the measured determination of a soldier marching until sweat stung my eyes and I was so close to exploding it hurt.
“Almost there,” I said.
He bent forward and drilled me faster, and I pulled him down into a kiss. The sweetness of the drinks we’d had earlier lingered on his tongue and mixed with salt—it was perfection. His belly pressed against my cock as he was fucking into me, and the extra stimulation fired pleasure through all my limbs. My balls emptied; it was too much. I could barely catch my breath as waves of heat smashed through my groin to swirl out into the rest of me. His hips moved faster, then his steady pace faltered.
“Yes, yes, fill me up, Maurice. Fuck, I wish you weren’t wearing the condom. I wish you were just in me.”
He bit the side of my neck and a new wave of pleasure washed over me as he buried his cock deep in my ass and moaned in my ear. “Coming in you is the best thing ever.”
Happy tingles—which had nothing to do with an orgasm and everything to do with how much I liked Maurice—danced across my skin, and we kissed until he sat back, holding the condom in place so his cum didn’t spill. He was very serious as he pulled out of me, and I lay there in a daze as he tied off the latex. I knew how good fucking him felt, how much I liked it, and I hoped we were on the same page.
Maurice grabbed a tissue from my nightstand and wrapped the condom, tossing it down on the floor. There was a garbage can somewhere, but I couldn’t get my mind to work. He lay down at my side and cuddled me in his arms, and I stared at his sweaty face and wanted to kiss him all over. The only thing I could reach was his nose, so I smooched the tip. He gave me the most beautiful smile for my effort.
“I want to tell everyone about our relationship. I’m happy. Aren’t you?”
He hugged me. “Yes, but with work—”
“Please. I think it will be fine. It’s my business. It’s not as if we’ll be fired.”
He kissed my cheek and stayed there for a long time with his lips resting against my skin, brow furrowed. Finally he leaned back. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” I knocked my forehead against his. “I was going to be serious about someone someday. Homophobes aren’t your fault. We deserve to be happy.”
He smoothed my hair off my forehead. “Okay.”
“Okay?” A thrill of excitement had me sitting up, but he pushed me down onto my back.
“Yes, we can do it. I don’t want some big announcement, but we can live our life.”
I wrapped my arms around him and basked in the afterglow. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you.”
12
MAURICE
The next work week rolled by as things slowly started to get back to normal after the storm, and it was a good thing, too, because everyone in the office was starting to look ragged around the edges. It took some badgering, but I forced the final invitation list for the summer bash out of Wick, which was much easier than usual to accomplish now that we were dating. Maybe there were some perks to being with him I hadn’t fully considered. All I had to do was go into his office, kiss his neck, and whisper that I would do something fun for him if I had the completed list on my desk by the end of the day.
He had it done in less than an hour.
The electricity eventually came back on at my house, and I was relieved I didn’t have to replace any big-ticket items and the walls didn’t mold. That was about the best I could hope for under the circumstances. My boat had somehow broken away from its moorings, though, and I hadn’t noticed with everything else going on, so I’d had to walk a few miles around the lake until I found where it had drifted, then beg a neighbor to hook it up to their boat so I could tow it home. It was a pain in the ass to say the least, but again, things could’ve been worse.
At least I got my boat back.
Wick and I kept up the same routine we’d been following; although, now I showed up at his house in the mornings fully dressed and ready to go. Eating breakfast together gave us time to talk before we started our day, and it was nice. He even convinced me to stay over three different nights, and I loved how excited he was each time I agreed. Wick managed to make me feel special, and if I wasn’t careful, I would end up living with him. While the thought of that much time with him was fantastic, it also worried me. Would he get tired of having me around? I still felt like we barely knew each other, or maybe I was afraid of repeating old mistakes. I wasn’t sure.
I tried not to worry about everything and simply enjoy what was happening. Every now and then Wick would come out of his office into mine to wrap his arms around me and lay his cheek on top of my head. Sometimes he would offer to go out and get me coffee. Perhaps he was trying to show me that he was just as happy to make a fuss over me as I was doing things for him—even though he literally paid me to follow his orders and take care of whatever he needed.
