Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
PRESENT DAY
I forgave you for that night,” Lily said as we stood in the maze, the crickets our only companions. We had stopped dancing, but I couldn’t let her go. Not now, after all this time. “Almost right away. By the time you came to tell me you were going to the Marines, I’d already forgiven you.”
I closed my eyes and pulled her close. I knew this.
Looking back, I could see it clearly, though at the time I was hurting, lost, and confused.
I kissed her forehead, needing to be closer to her.
I moved to her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose, and finally her lips, needing to taste her, to know she was mine, at least for now.
“Can we go home? I’m tired of the party and I have ideas I want to try.” I knew exactly what her ideas were, and I could never say no to her. I wouldn’t even dream of it.
“Your place or mine?” I let her go, but grabbed her hand and led us out of the maze. She hadn’t gone far, but had found one of the corners that could trap a person if they didn’t know any better.
“As long as it isn’t here, it doesn’t matter.” I knew ‘here’ meant this house and not the maze. On the way out, I picked up her shoes and cell phone.
“Oh, that’s where those went.” She laughed, easy and light, and took them from me. A weight I didn’t realize I carried lifted, just a little.
“You mean you didn’t leave your phone almost in the fountain on purpose?” I teased her, hoping to ease this tension between us a little more.
“Of course, I did. How else were you going to find me? I needed to leave breadcrumbs.” She sat on the edge of the fountain and let me help her put her shoes back on.
I kissed the inside of her ankles before helping her stand again.
I liked it better when she was barefoot, when she was just Lily, perfect and my best friend, but we had to walk over gravel, and I didn’t want her to hurt her feet.
I waved Jenkins down when we walked by the garage. As expected, he had stayed up, ready to take us away from here. I needed to give him another raise.
“You don’t have to say goodbye to anyone?” She asked with a look on her face I couldn’t quite figure out, somehow unsure and resigned.
“No. I told you earlier, I did everything I needed and the rest of the night I was yours.” I ducked in beside her. We were in the back of the big limo, the one we only used for nights like tonight.
She slid over to me as soon as I closed the door and rested her head on my shoulder.
“How private is this limo?” She looked at the privacy screen between the front and back. She played with the buttons on my suit, and my heart rate picked up as I followed the direction of her thoughts.
“Very.”
“Will you tie me up with my panties and fuck me in here?” I nearly choked on my spit. She always surprised me.
“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate to answer. Whatever Lily wanted, I would give it to her.
She moved away from me and reached under her skirt.
“You’re not even going to try to seduce me?” I asked, raising one eyebrow as I tried to hide my smile. “Just take your panties off and assume I’ll give you whatever you want?”
She stopped and cocked her head at me.
“Of course, you’re a man. You’re easy.” She reached under her skirts again and I grabbed her hand.
“I have conditions.” I used my other hand to loosen my silk tie. If she wanted to be tied up, we were going to do it right.
“What?” She didn’t pull away but sat there watching my every move as I undid my tie and pulled it free.
“I tie your hands with your panties and cover your eyes with this.” I held it up for her inspection. Her eyes widened, whether in fear or excitement, I didn’t know, as she eyed first the tie and then me.
I held still, my tie raised between us, while I waited for her answer. She didn’t answer right away, and I almost dropped the tie and accepted the silent no.
“Yes.” She licked her lips and eyed the tie again. “We can try that.”
“Get your dress off,” I ordered as I slipped out of my jacket and unbuttoned my shirt.
“No, not in here. What if something happens?” She tried to hike her skirts up around her, but there was so much fabric she became lost in it.
“Nothing will happen. Jenkins is an excellent driver.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. What if someone else is a bad driver? What if we are all wrapped up in what we are doing when he gets to your place, and he opens the door and sees all my bits? What if there’s some kind of medical emergency? What if—” She stopped when I held my hand up.
“Do I need to stuff your panties in your mouth and tie you up with something else?”
Her eyes widened at this.
“You would, wouldn’t you?”
I leaned over her and we were a hair’s breadth away from each other, occupying the same space, breathing the same air.
“You would like it.”
Her gaze dropped to my lips, but I held back, waiting for her answer. Part of me hoped she would say no. I needed to hear her scream my name. I needed to know that she was mine, even just for now. Pain lanced through me, and I shoved it aside. I could think about that later.
“Yeah, I would. But not tonight.” She ran her hand up my chest to cup my face. “Another time.”
I closed my eyes. We both knew there weren’t many more times left.
She kissed me softly. I followed her when she pulled back, unwilling to let her go just yet. I put everything I couldn’t say into this kiss, hoping that she felt it, that somehow, she knew I would follow her to the end of the world if she let me.
Her hand fisted my hair, and when we broke apart, her lips were shiny and pink. I ran my hand along her skirt, considering how to make her every dream come true within the boundaries she set when I came to a tear in the layers of fabric.
I grasped that bit of fabric and pulled, tearing through it easily.
“Duke!” she gasped. “Do you know how expensive this dress is? You can’t just rip it.” Her hands fluttered around the torn edge like it was a wound.
“I can.” I took hold of another piece and pulled, ripping away another layer. “It’s already torn. Should I stop, or would you like to keep going?”
My hand hovered over a piece that hadn’t been torn waiting for the go ahead. She smiled in a way that I knew well—whatever came out of her mouth next would be ridiculous.
“Yeah, I guess you can keep destroying my dress to get to my genitalia, if you’re so desperate for it.” She could barely make it to the end of her sentence before she collapsed into laughter. I couldn’t help but laugh along. God, this woman. She was… perfect.
“Thank God,” I said through our laughter, and tore at her dress until only one layer remained. “Now, where are my tools?”
Lily held up the tie and her panties. “Remember, my safe word is pineapple, and yours is?”
She waited for my answer, and I had a vision of her sitting at a desk in one of her work outfits, hair in a bun, glasses perched on her nose, as she tried to teach me a lesson.
Fuck.
I needed to see that some—don’t think about it.
“I’m not the one being tied up.” I grumbled, trying to hide my smile. No woman has ever been so… fun in bed. I don’t know why I expected she wouldn’t be, but I will fall to my feet and worship whatever god put her in my path just to see this.
“It’s proper etiquette to have and use safe words,” she recited like she taught a manners class. She would be a stern teacher. My dick jerked at the thought.
“Yes, Ms. Jameson.” I ran my hand along her leg, caressing her calf and thigh. “It’s eggs.”
She laughed and shut her thighs tight, trapping my hands.
“No, it’s not. Besides, eggs is a terrible safe word.” She snatched the tie and panties back when I reached for them.
“It’s an excellent safe word.” I tickled the inside of her thigh and reached for the panties again.
“Nope. It has to be one you would never say during sex. Anyway, you already picked one, and that’s not it.” She held her hands up but leaned forward and kissed me on the nose before giggling again and leaning back.
“When would I ever say eggs during sex?”
“Oh, Lily, let’s have sex. I can’t wait to spray my cum inside you so my sperm can meet your eggs, and we can make a baby!” She said in a sing-songy voice that didn’t sound like either of us. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“I would never say any of those words—at any point in my life, much less during sex. And I don’t even want kids!” I reached for the panties again and snagged them from her.
“Fantasy and reality aren’t the same thing. Say your real safe word and you can tie me up.” She held her hands in front of her.
“Pterodactyl.” I stuck my tongue out and examined her hands, apparently for too long.
“Do you need to say pterodactyl now?”
“I can still shove these panties in your mouth, vixen.” I grabbed her hands and loosely tied the panties around her, giving the illusion of tying her up while still giving her an easy out.
“Tighter.” She thrust her hands toward me and twisted out of them easily. “They are too loose.”
“That’s the point.” I tightened them anyway and stuck my finger under them on each wrist to make sure it wasn’t too tight.
“I don’t want to lose track of myself and break free that easily. That would defeat the purpose.” She tested the knot and nodded her head in approval.
Good god, this woman was going to give me a heart attack.
“You are way too trusting.” Panic seized me at the thought of someone else tying her up. She would walk right into a dangerous situation if she wasn’t careful.
“No. I just trust you. No one else.”
Possessive pride replaced the panic so fast it gave me whiplash.
Fuck .
How was I ever going to be with anyone else after this? I knew that answer. I wasn’t.
“Whoreship me, Duke?”
“What?” I drew up short at her command.