14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
My thumb tapped a hard beat against the padded steering wheel as I took a side street to avoid a traffic jam.
Wheeling into the driveway, I opened the garage door and pulled in before closing it behind me. As soon as I entered the house, I heard music, something entirely different from the Judas Priest I’d just been jamming to in the truck.
I followed the sound to my home gym and stalled in the doorway. Mallori was dancing, and that made me happier than it should have.
My eyes tracked her around the room as my ears filled with the sultry sounds of Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”.
She performed a series of spins—blonde hair flying around her—before leaping impossibly high and landing without any perceptible sound. Damn, she was so fucking graceful.
The music ramped up as it approached the chorus, and I found myself mesmerized. Mallori’s body moved like it was part of the music. Even if the song had cut off just then, I could have still imagined every note with each twist and turn of her slight frame .
As Aretha’s voice intensified, Mal turned into a goddamn seductress, hips grinding as she felt the beat in her soul. With closed eyes, she tilted her face to the ceiling, the tips of her hair sweeping the curve of her back.
Slender legs spread wide when she dropped low, and she dragged her hands up her body as she slithered back to a standing position. The eroticism of the move took absolutely nothing away from the beauty of her dancing.
The pure joy on her face was contagious, and I felt my lips curling up into a smile as she kicked her right leg so high it gave the impression she could kick the ceiling. How the hell did tiny little Mallori look larger than life when she moved?
I was absolutely sucked in by her. Little Bee was fucking stunning, and I found myself unable to look away
She somehow ended up on her stomach, her back arching as she tapped the top of her head with a pointed toe. So fucking flexible.
Mal noticed me then and stilled before rising gracefully to her feet and turning off the music with a tap of her finger against her phone.
“Hey,” she said, practically floating across the floor toward me. “I was just… you know… dancing.” Her hand waved vaguely through the air as she gave a halfhearted shrug.
“Yes, you were.” I paused, tapping my lips with my index finger. “You’re good, Little Bee. Like, really good.”
The shells of her ears pinkened, and her teeth bit into her bottom lip, barely masking the smile that looked like it wanted to break across her face .
“Thanks. I was just messing around.” She glanced thoughtfully toward the chair where her phone was resting. “I like that song though. I think I’ll actually choreograph something to it.”
“That was freestyle?” I asked, unable to hide the surprise in my voice. “It was so clean.”
“Look at you with the terminology,” she teased, poking me in the chest.
“It was impossible not to pick up some stuff from my sister growing up.”
She looked like she was about to bust, and then her smile finally showed up, lighting up the room. “I danced, Hawk!” Doing a little happy dance, she wiggled before throwing her arms around my waist. “I danced.”
The scent of sweat and sugar infiltrated my nose, and I placed my hands on her back. Her upper back. Nowhere near those itty bitty shorts she was wearing.
“I’m proud of you, Bee.”
She stepped away suddenly with a wrinkled nose. “Ewww, I’m sorry. I’m all sweaty.” Thin straps crisscrossed her chest, revealing her damp skin. I had the urge to dip my tongue into each opening and…
No. Fuck, man. Shut that shit down.
“So, uh, what do you want for dinner?” I asked, awkwardly changing the subject.
“Whatever,” she said, twisting her hair up into a rather wild bun on top of her head before securing it with a hair band from her wrist. “I can cook. Just let me take a shower really quick.”
“Why don’t we order something? ”
She nodded at my suggestion before skipping across the room to retrieve her phone. My eyes dropped without my permission to that little round ass, displayed so perfectly in her skin-tight shorts.
When she turned back around, I snapped my gaze away, trying not to look as guilty as I felt.
I really needed to get some action to calm my big ass down.
Before I do something royally stupid.
“I forgot how hungry dancing makes me,” Mallori said, biting the tip off her third piece of pizza.
“How long were you in there?”
“Mmm, about two and a half hours. Probably overdid it for my first time in almost a year, but I was having fun.”
“That’s what counts.” I watched in amusement as she ravenously chomped down the rest of her slice. “You looked like you were having fun.”
“I was going to try some ballet tomorrow and see if I actually like that too. That’ll be the real test.”
“You’ll probably be sore if you were in there for that long.”
My prediction came true a couple hours later when we were sitting on the couch watching Rambo . Mal was apparently a fan of all the old action flicks.
“Hurting?” I asked when she rounded her shoulders and then pulled them back for the tenth time.
“Yeah, I’ve got a knot right… here.” She stretched her arm back and rubbed at a spot near her shoulder blade. “I can’t quite reach it. ”
“I’ve got one of those percussion massage guns I use on my legs to loosen my muscles before I run,” I said. “Want me to pound you?”
Oh, Jesus. That came out wrong.
“Do you mind?” she asked, turning those big, innocent eyes on me.
“No prob.” I stood and retrieved the device, attaching the ball head before directing her to sit on the floor between my spread legs.
“Mmm, that’s the spot,” she moaned when I placed the gun to the right of her spine. “So good.”
I’m ashamed to admit how quickly that hardened my dick.
After a few minutes of me concentrating on her shoulder area, she curled forward. “Do you mind hitting the lower back too?”
I tried to wedge the hefty device into the small space between her back and the couch, but it didn’t fit. “Not enough room,” I informed her.
Mal promptly lifted and sat on the edge of the couch, directly between my thighs. “Is that better?”
You have no idea, baby.
“Much,” I muttered, focusing my attention on tending to the strong muscles of her back.
She let out another soft groan as I hit a spot a few inches above her butt. Christ. Give me strength.
“That thing is amazing,” she purred in contentment. “I need to invest in one of those.”
“You’re welcome to use this one while you’re here,” I told her, my voice strained due to the pain throbbing in my groin. “You feel better?”
I set the gun down on the couch as she stretched, testing her muscles. “A lot. I still feel a knot under my shoulder right blade though. It’s deep. I might have to see a massage therapist to get rid of it. You know of any around here that don’t charge an arm and a leg?”
I knew a good massage therapist could be expensive, and Mal seemed to be worried about the money, so I did the only thing I could think of. I pressed my thumb below the bone and located the bunched up muscle.
“There?”
“Oh my… yes! Right there.”
She leaned forward a bit as I worked out the kinks, finding another smaller knot on the left side as well. And she kept on with those sexy little sounds of pleasure.
My traitorous cock liked those noises very much. He was trapped down my right pant leg, straining to be set free, and I wondered if it would be too obvious if I attempted to adjust him to a less constrictive position.
Then Mal scooted back an inch, the firm roundness of her perfect ass pressing directly against my erection. I was aware the second she noticed because she bolted upright and tensed.
“Oh. Sorry,” she peeped, inching her hips forward again. I could see the flush creeping up the back of her neck and chuckled.
“Don’t take it personally,” I assured her, digging my thumb in and massaging tiny circles against the receding knot. “It’s a natural response to hearing all that fucking moaning you’ve been doing.”
“I—me? What?” She was flustered, embarrassed that she’d given me a boner.
“It’s all right, Little Bee, but maybe you could tone it down a bit. ”
She glanced over her shoulder, a sly smile curling up toward her reddened cheeks. “Oh, so I probably shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, Hawk. Right there.’” She drew out each teasing word, and I laughed.
“Yeah, you should probably lay off that kind of talk.”
“But your thumbs are soooo big and harrrrd.”
“Cut it out, you little shit,” I said, swatting her lightly on the back of the head before lifting her by the waist and setting her on the couch beside me. “I think that’s enough excitement for one night.”
Dipping her head tritely, she looked up at me through her lashes. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
“Not at all,” I promised her. “Rogue dicks are something all guys have to deal with.”
Her eyes widened in shock for a second before she grinned. “Thank god I don’t have one. I’d never be able to control it.”
What the fuck did that mean?
August seriously couldn’t get here soon enough.