Chapter 19
Hollis
I grunt through my orgasm, my fist brutal as I draw all the cum from my balls. Painting the shower floor isn’t exactly how I wanted to do this every fucking day, but the woman is driving me fucking insane.
I swear my cock threatens to refill with blood at the memory of her legs spread on the couch. I tilt my head to the ceiling, staring at the stains there, trying to forget the way her pussy glistened with her own arousal.
For days I’ve convinced myself that she hates me, that there’s no way she’s turned on while she’s naked.
There’s no chance she’s asking for more stuff just so I can require more “debt” to be paid.
Maybe she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.
Maybe reality and my fantasies are starting to mix together.
I usually like to stay busy to keep my mind from wandering, but we’ve been here for days.
My only escape is when I leave to get us something to eat, and for some reason, I rush back each and every time, thinking today will be the day she runs while I’m gone, only to be greeted by her when I open the front door.
It tells me just how terrified she is of the Severino family and what they’re capable of.
I jump when I pull the shower curtain back and see her standing in the bathroom door. The fact that she was able to surprise me should be concerning, but I have more pressing matters to deal with—namely trying not to get hard again with her standing so close while I’m completely naked.
I haven’t been naked in front of her since that first time when I got out of the shower, only to discover she went to bed wrapped in the only towel I had. I grabbed extras on my first trip out of the house, wondering if I was wasting money because I was certain she’d be gone before I came back.
“Can I eat with my clothes on today since you jacked off in the shower?”
“Guess again,” I tell her, another sinister thought coming to mind as I step over the lip of the tub and reach for the towel.
The bathroom is so small the spread of my arms would have my fingertips reaching from side to side in any direction.
It puts her dangerously close to me as I begin to run the terrycloth over my skin.
She doesn’t back away, but her eyes don’t drop from mine either.
She seems much more skilled at refusing to satisfy her urges than I am.
I can’t help but look down when she’s naked.
I always stare at her nipples, let my eyes roam like a physical touch down her body until I see her glistening slit.
Fuck, even her thighs and goddamned calves turn me on.
She takes a step back and I realize that she’s at the right height that she can still see my erection growing even while looking at my face.
“How about a deal?” I ask, wrapping the towel around my waist in hopes it makes her a little more comfortable. “Let me watch you get off in the shower and I’ll let you stay dressed today and tomorrow.”
“Fuck off,” she snaps quickly, her eyes widening the second she realizes what she just said.
She jerks her hands up to her mouth, a terrified look on her face.
I want to laugh. It would be the exact opposite of what she expects because no doubt her reaction makes her think she’s earned some type of punishment.
It makes me want to know who she really is. Does she think that way all the time but answers how she thinks people expect her to?
Instead of reacting in any way, I ignore her cute little outburst, grinning when she backs away when I step closer.
“I understand,” I tell her as I step out of the bathroom and reach toward clean clothes in the closet. “You like stripping for me.”
She scoffs, her cheeks red when I pull on my t-shirt before turning back around to face her.
I know she’s grown more comfortable around me this last handful of days.
She doesn’t curl into herself the way she did the first time I sat beside her on the couch.
She doesn’t exactly get comfortable with me near, but she’s less likely to flinch every time I go to stand without voicing my intention.
I want to taunt her further, but I don’t know where it will get me.
It says a lot that she’s willing to stay here and do what I say in an effort to avoid being sent back to the Severino family.
She could walk out of this house at any fucking point.
I leave twice a day to go grab food, sometimes three times if she’s getting under my skin too much to stick around.
I have no doubt she was telling me the truth now about how violent they are, about how her father is dedicated to them despite what it means for her.
I lock eyes with her as I pull the towel from my waist, letting it drop to the floor at my feet. Her eyes follow it down, and it eats at me that she actually watches the thing land at my feet rather than her gaze getting stuck in the middle like I do her.
Yep, she’s going to drive me insane.
I pull on a pair of lounge pants before leaving the room, knowing this is part of the routine. I don’t know when we decided on taking turns getting the first shower because the hot water heater can’t keep up with two people, but she showered first yesterday.
“You’re going to let me shower without seeing me get naked?” she calls from the bedroom as I reach out to pull the door of the fridge open.
I won’t make the mistake of thinking she wants me in there. I know she’s asking because she thinks I’ll expect something different if she does it while I’m not witnessing it.
I don’t respond to her, but I know she’s proceeding because the shower turns on. I wait a minute or two, ensuring she’s wet, before walking back that way.
The shower curtain is closed, and I hate that we aren’t at my actual house because that place has glass doors. If we were there, I’d be able to see every fucking inch of her wet body.
“You’re sure about declining my offer?” I ask, hating that she doesn’t react to my words.
I know she knew I was approaching. It’s impossible to move around in this house without the other person knowing.
It’s why it startled me so much to find her standing in the doorway when I pulled the curtain open earlier.
I was distracted by thoughts of her enough for her to be able to approach me without knowing. I doubt she tried to sneak up on me.
“I’m not going to masturbate in front of you,” she says, but there’s a smile in her voice.
“Last offer,” I say, biting my lip to stop from smiling myself.
“I don’t play with myself in front of men when I don’t even know their name.”
My brows draw together. I didn’t realize until now that I hadn’t told her my name. I demanded it from her that first day, but we weren’t really in a place to exchange courtesies.
“Hollis Ford,” I say immediately, but not in an effort to tip the barter in my direction.
The edge of the curtain is pulled back, and she must’ve become accustomed to being naked in front of me because half her body is showing, not just her face, which is what I would expect.
“Hollis?”
I shrug.
“Your real name?”
“That’s it.”
She narrows her eyes, telling me she doesn’t believe me.
“Still a no?”
She shakes her head in a way that says she thinks I’m crazy rather than rejecting my offer. I leave the room anyway.
It’s been days of this. Days of her getting naked to eat.
Nights of her sleeping naked beside me because a bed is a privilege she must earn.
I get the feeling she stays in there instead of the living room because she’s honestly afraid of being alone, and that says a lot, considering where she came from.
I can’t even look at the bed as I leave the room. God, I live for the nights that I can’t sleep. She tosses and turns, as restless a sleeper as I’ve ever seen, but it leaves the sheets around her waist. I watch her, fighting the temptation to run my finger over her skin.
It makes me only a fraction better than the men I’ve spent my entire adulthood punishing for the same things. I haven’t stuck my dick in her yet. It’s the only exception I think at this point.
The day drags on like every other day has since arriving. She doesn’t argue when I bring home lunch. She undresses like normal. She does exactly the same thing at dinner time, spreading her legs once again because she asked for an extra side of ranch when I told her I was getting wings for dinner.
I swear I could feel her breath on my balls when she was sucking meat from the damn things, her legs wide open so I could see her secret.
There was no denying her slickness, but I can’t contribute it to anything I did or even something she wanted me to do. She didn’t look tempted to touch herself or needy in the way I’ve seen women act before.
I’ve never been more ready for a day to end than when I climb into the bed.
She heads into the bathroom, not a word spoken between the two of us since I returned home with dinner. It doesn’t take long for her to finish in the bathroom, entering the bedroom in the darkness.
The sheet on her side pulls back.
“Are you—”
“I know the rules, Hollis.”
I swear to God, her saying my name drops to my nuts, setting them to tingle. Had I known I’d enjoy the sound of it from her lips so much, I might’ve told her sooner.
The rule is that she’s naked when she gets under the covers. I’ve been sleeping naked too just to keep her on edge. It’s the only upper hand I’ve been able to manage.
She’s quiet and still, telling me she has yet to fall asleep.
Once she is, she’s incredibly restless. It’s made me wonder more than once if I wrapped my arms around her if she’d calm down, but crossing that line seems like a violation, more so than all the other transgressions I’ve made against her so far.
I doze, my body needing the rest from being on edge all damn day, but my repose doesn’t last long.
I open my eyes to darkness, knowing something woke me.
A whimper hits my ears, and I settle some.
She’s had one other nightmare since I brought her here, but she pulled herself out of it the last time.
I wait, my breathing slow and steady as I wait for her to get deep enough into her terror to wake herself up.
The next time she makes a sound, it doesn’t resemble a nightmare at all.
It’s a whimper of need and I barely stifle the groan of frustration that threatens to slip out of me.
I register the movement on the bed, rhythmic.
I swear my balls double in weight at the realization that she isn’t dreaming because she isn’t asleep.
She freezes the second I turn over. By the time I turn on the light, she’s blinking over at me, her cheeks flushed as she tries to act all fucking innocent.
“Don’t stop,” I tell her, hating that she’s already pulled her hand from between her legs.
“What?”
“Keep going,” I urge, trying to sound encouraging rather than issuing a command.
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
“The cost of sleeping in the bed has gone up,” I say, my voice only loud enough for her to hear.
I swear she looks fucking relieved at my words. She wants me to make her do this.
I tug the sheet as her hand disappears under it, loving the sight of her dark pink nipples. The yellow light coming from the lamp cast shadows all over the room, giving what she’s doing a dreamlike feel to it.
“I can’t,” she says again, her hand hovering just below her belly button. “I’ve never been able to do it unless I have a toy or a well-aimed showerhead.”
“I can do it for you,” I offer, praying she doesn’t take it as a threat. I don’t mean it that way at all.
Her head shakes, shutting that down immediately. It leaves me bereft, aching in all the wrong spots.
“How about this?” I ask, reaching down and picking up her hand. “You can do what I tell you to.”
I pull her fingers into my mouth, groaning at the tanginess clinging to her fingers from what she was doing that woke me up.
She gasps when I nip the tips of her fingers before pulling them from my mouth.
“Start slow,” I encourage. “Tease the outside.”
I hate when her eyes flutter closed. I swear I’d come without touching my cock if she kept her eyes on me while teasing her pussy lips.
“That’s it. When you’re ready, dip one finger in the crease. Jesus, you’re so fucking wet.”
Her lips part, her breathing growing slightly more erratic.
“Circle it, but don’t press too hard.” She moans, and as the sound drifts away, it takes my restraint with it.
I shove the sheet entirely out of the way, the movement drawing her eyes open. Instead of reaching for her like my body is demanding, I slide my hand down my abs and grip my cock, my mouth hanging open when she looks down at my hand.
Her fingers move faster.
“Don’t resist that tingle you feel,” I pant. “Let it swim inside of you.”
My hand works my length slowly. It’s very clear with how tight my nuts are that I’m dangerously close to coming already.
“You dirty bitch,” I whisper as she locks eyes on my working hand, her own fingers taking on the same tempo.
I keep slow for my sake, but she seems irritated by it, needing more to take her to the fucking edge.
“You were thinking of me while you were working that pussy in the dark, wanting me to say your name so you can come.”
She whimpers again, and I have to speed up my hand. The urgency to nut turns into my only goal in life.
Her hips jolt, and I growl out a warning when she pulls her hand away.
“Break contact with that pussy again…” I start, refusing to fill in the blank because I know she’s doing it in her mind.
Whatever she wants from me is what she anticipates me saying, and for fuck-all reasons, I don’t want to ruin that for her.
Her arousal grows, her fingers slicker as she now uses two to roll circles around her clit. The sounds she’s making are sloppy and so fucking enticing.
“Want to lick your cum from your fingers, suck that little pink clit into my mouth. Fuck, Mads.”
Her mouth hangs open on a soundless moan, her back arching as she comes. The sight of it is so fucking divine, my balls tense, pulsating the first pulse of my orgasm.
I’m out of breath, my chest heaving like I’ve had to run ten miles to save my own life, and she can’t seem to be capable of looking at me.
Instead of offering me her fingers like I prayed she would, she climbs out of the bed and locks herself in the bathroom.
I wipe myself clean with my t-shirt and roll back over. It only takes seconds before I’m back to sleep.