Chapter Twenty-One #2
I blew out a breath. Lacey was safer territory, at least. “Complicated,” I answered honestly.
“I love Lacey. We were super close when we were younger, always sharing each other’s clothes, playing in the yard, curling up in bed to read together at night.
” I smiled, the memory so far in my past it made my chest ache now.
“She was always our parents’ favorite. I know they’re not supposed to have a favorite, but they did.
We both knew it. Lacey was just more of what they wanted in a daughter.
She was effortlessly poised, smart, beautiful. ”
“You are every single one of those things,” Carter argued.
I pinned him with a look. “She’s also docile, and agreeable, and happy to follow whatever path my parents lay out for her.”
“Ah,” Carter said in way of understanding. “I see the difference now.”
I nodded. “It wasn’t so bad when we were younger, because we had each other, so I didn’t much care if Mom and Dad had a favorite.
I was Lacey’s favorite.” I smiled. “She used to always want me to do her hair just like mine, used to ask me about boys and fashion.” I paused.
“But things changed in high school, right before I was set to graduate.”
“How so?” Carter asked when I didn’t automatically elaborate.
I shook my head. “I just went through something she couldn’t understand, and it changed me in a way that complicated everything in my life — including my relationship with her.”
To his credit, Carter didn’t press on what the thing was that had happened to me. Maybe he already knew it was an off-limits topic.
“Anyway, we kind of grew apart when I graduated. I went one way; she went the other. We talk sometimes on the phone, text each other, send silly memes on Instagram, but…” I shrugged. “There’s not much there anymore.”
Carter nodded his understanding, and a comfortable quiet fell over us as we flowed into a narrower strip of the river. We both picked up our paddles to steer again.
“So, you don’t want to go?” he asked after a moment.
“I want to support Lacey and be there for her. I want to celebrate her. But I don’t want to be around my parents, or around their friends.”
“Would you feel better if you had someone with you?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Doubtful.”
“Take me.”
I blinked, and then barked out a laugh. “To my sister’s wedding?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“Because then everyone would think we’re dating?”
“And that would be the worst thing in the world,” he shot back with sarcasm.
A strange noise came from my throat, something between a laugh and an incredulous scoff. I looked at him like he was crazy, but when he didn’t back down, something inside me flared to life.
Panic.
I felt it in the shortness of my breath, in the way my hands suddenly went clammy, sweat gathering at the back of my neck.
What the fuck was I doing?
I’d let him in. I’d gone far past the outlines of our agreement and into a territory neither of us knew how to navigate. And this was exactly why it was a mistake to do so.
Because I told him a little about my past, and now he was trying to fix it all, to save me.
To be a part of my future.
I needed to take the reins. Immediately.
“Excuse me?” I asked, Domme voice taking over, all business. “I’ll have to punish you for that.”
Carter’s grin was infectious. “Mm, is that so? What are you going to do to me, Mistress?”
“Drop the smile,” I snapped, and then nodded toward an alcove in the river up ahead. “Paddle there. Fast. Find us somewhere no one can see.”
He laughed a little, but when I only arched a brow in response, his smile fell. “You’re serious?”
“Do I look unserious?”
He shook his head, tongue in cheek with a grin playing at the corners of his lips before he did as I said, paddling off in quick strokes. I followed, slower, taking my time until I paddled into the shady cove I’d directed him to.
It was a little pull off, no houses on the shore and thick trees creating a sort of grove. Carter waved me over to where he’d paddled under the protection of the trees, and once I was with him, somewhat blocked from the world…
I slipped off my board and mounted his.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a hushed whisper, but he was still smiling as he helped me climb into his lap, his hands playful on my waist. My ankle strap was still hooked to my board, keeping it from floating away.
“No talking,” I clipped. “Take your cock out.”
“Here?”
“Do not make me ask again.”
“I don’t think you asked me anything,” he teased, but he was already moving for the strings on his swim shorts, and I felt control slowly slipping back into my bloodstream.
“I’m going to ride you until I come. You are not allowed to come with me. Do you understand?”
He let out a groan, like it both turned him on and tortured him to hear that. “Yes, ma’am.”
The second the words were out of his mouth, I spit on my hand, coated him, slid my swimsuit bottoms to the side and sat all the way down on his beautiful cock.
We both shuddered when I was fully seated, Carter dropping his forehead to my chest and gripping my hips hard. “Christ, Liv. You feel so fucking good.”
“Hush,” I snapped, and then I started to ride him, my veins humming as control and power rushed through me.
Home.
This is home.
“Watch. Make sure no one sees us,” I commanded.
And then I gave in.
It may not have felt like it to Carter, but even telling him as much as I had made me feel off-kilter, like I was hovering on the edge of a cliff with one foot in the air, losing strength and balance.
I’d given him all I could, and now I needed to take.
I closed my eyes and surrendered to the feel of him, to the knowledge that anyone could see us at any moment. Someone might be watching right now.
That thought turned me on even more, and I rode faster, rolling my hips to find the friction I needed against my clit.
I rocked and rode, holding fast to his shoulders, savoring all the groans of restraint that slipped from his perfect lips.
I came quickly, muffling my moans with my mouth around his trap, teeth sinking into the flesh just enough to satiate me and make him hiss with delight.
And because I was a gracious Domme, I let him come when I was finished, let him pump himself inside me until he trembled and cursed and clutched me to him.
We didn’t talk about my family after that.
And I found my balance again, the scales tipped neatly back in my favor.
But with Carter, balance never stayed put for long. He had a way of slipping past my defenses without even meaning to, loosening bricks I’d mortared in years ago.
I wondered if it would be his persistence that toppled the wall…
Or if I’d be the one handing him the sledgehammer.