Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
They walked through the store, picking out items for dinner. She registered Jake’s furtive glances, the way his eyebrows pulled in as if he were questioning her. The frustration emanating from him was not lost on her as they wound through the aisles.
“Hey, do you want any bread with this? We could get some fresh sourdough,” he asked in a tone he’d use with an emotional three-year-old.
“No, I don’t eat bread, you know that,” she snapped, turning her head from him.
“Um, sometimes you eat sourdough, so I was just…”
“Most of the time, I don’t,” she said. In the weeks after learning she hadn’t gotten the part in Na?ve to Death , she tried to meticulously control everything she put in her mouth, the word matronly flashing in her head when she looked at food.
“Okay, let’s just get this and get back to your place,” he said, sounding unsure.
She knew she’d been tense and short with him since he’d picked her up at the airport.
She was silent on the drive from HEB to her house. Jake grabbed the bags and followed her into the lobby, then the elevator. She saw his sideways glance, and the way his lips were moving.
“Okay, Sweets, what’s up?” he muttered.
“Nothing, why?” she said shrilly, darting her eyes away. It wasn’t fair. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks; she needed to put on a smile, but it was more than she could muster at that moment.
The elevator door opened, and she marched out toward her apartment. He followed her, not saying a word, but when they entered her apartment, he set the bags on the counter and turned toward her. “Sweets, come here,” he said cautiously.
“What? I’m fine. What?” she snapped, catching the concerned look scrunching his features.
He tilted his head, his mouth pensive, like he was studying her. “Okay you’re fine, so you’re being…” She saw how his mouth pursed, the letter B bouncing on his lips.
“Bitchy? Was that what you were going to say?”
“Snappy, just to see how patient I really am before you decide to commit?” He needled, one corner of his mouth turning up.
She shot him a stern look. “Already committed, and I’m not being fucking snappy!”
His chin went up, his mouth stretching into a wide grin. “Sure, okay, not snappy,” he said, amusement lacing his tone.
Quickly, she shut her eyes as she tried to figure out how to tell him something personal. Finally, she smiled and spoke. “Okay, a little snappy.”
“Just a little bit, Sweets, soo?”
“Nothing, just not feeling…” She didn’t know how to tell him she’d started her period; escorts didn’t share personal information with men and were not allowed on sexual assignments during that time.
He moved across the kitchen to where she stood. “Come here.” He wrapped his arms around her, leaned down, and kissed her forehead before moving his mouth to hers, kissing her firmly.
She collapsed into him. The weeks apart had felt like months, and the different time zones had made communication intermittent.
Then she pulled back. “Jake, I know it’s been a while, but tonight’s not the night for sure,” she blurted out. Even to her own ears she sounded like a middle school girl. Just talk to him, let him know you’ve missed him but it’s that time of month.
His arms were still around her waist. “Um, I wasn’t getting that vibe. I know I am slow, but really?” He smiled. “What’s wrong?” he asked, pushing like he already knew the answer.
“Nothing I’m, well, I’m…” she grimaced, her words seeming unsure. “I’m just tired, and I’ve spent the past few weeks grinning like a Disney character whose job is to make ornery kids laugh. It’s like that with marketing executives, too. Oh yes, I love your product ,” imitating the internal dialogue she forced herself to perform every time she went into a meeting.
She arched away from him, but he yanked her waist firmly, looking down at her. “Sweets, are you on your period?”
Her jaw went lax; he had just thrown it out there as a matter of course, no biggie. “What? Yes,” she said softly, averting her eyes. One minute, she felt bold with him; the next, insecure and unsure.
“So why didn’t you just tell me?” He loosened his grip on her waist, his eyes perplexed, examining her.
“Well, what am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I’m on my period, and I don’t feel well?’” Her eyes slid to the side, absorbing his dismay as if she were a little girl incapable of communicating.
Gently, he guided her chin so she was looking at him. “Um, Sweets, yes, that’s exactly what you say. That information could be critical for my survival.” She let out a peal of soft laughter as she hit his arm.
“And for the record, you being on your period doesn’t matter to me as far as sex is concerned,” he explained.
Heat ran up her neck as she felt her cheeks flush; besides Matt, she’d never talked to a guy about her period. Escorts didn’t work at all when they were menstruating; one of the reasons most were on the pill was to decrease the number of days it would last. “I can’t imagine having sex on my period,” she said reluctantly, her teeth raking over her bottom lip.
His hand held the side of her chin as his thumb feathered over her cheek. “Sweets, um, you will with me. I mean, I’m not going to not touch you for a week every month.”
Her eyes dropped. She couldn’t imagine it, a man wanting to be with her while she was bleeding. “I don’t feel comfortable, but I don’t mind sucking you off during that time,” she stated as if she were negotiating a deal.
He shook his head. “No, not how this works.” He pulled her in, kissing the top of her head. “Let’s get dinner going, then I want to show you something amazing.” He spoke tenderly as she leaned into him, Jake gently rubbing her back. “Are you having cramps?”
“Yes,” she whispered into his chest.
He pulled her shoulders back and said, “I’ll start dinner. You should take something. Do you have Motrin?”
“Yes, okay.”
Looking at her, he said, “Change into something super comfortable.”
“I wanna take a quick shower,” she said, turning. “Just think I’d feel better.”
“Sure, whatever you need to do.”
She walked out after a long, hot shower, wearing a thick silk nightshirt, a feminine version of a man’s button-down business shirt, which fell to mid-thigh. Her hair was still wrapped in a towel, her feet snuggled in a pair of brown Uggs.
“Smells good,” she said, walking into the kitchen and peering around Jake, who was tending to a beef stir fry.
He smiled, then asked, “Feel better?”
She nodded, smiling. “Sorry, I was acting like a bitch earlier.”
“You said it, not me.” He scooped stir fry onto the plates on the counter. “I might have been thinking that, but I said ‘snappy’ instead.” His eyes darted toward her; a big grin spread across his face.
“And that is why you are still alive,” she replied, lifting up on her toes, pecking his cheek.
“And that’s why I need warnings so that I can survive,” he said, setting the plates on the table.
As they ate, she could feel herself relaxing. The cramping in her lower belly lessened.
As she finished loading the dishwasher, Jake opened a bottle of white wine, spread a blanket on the floor in front of the modern gas fireplace, then placed pillows at one end. “What are you doing?” she asked, walking from the open kitchen to the living room.
“Snuggling with you,” a small smile tipped his lips as he continued, “and showing you something amazing. Come over here.” He took off his shoes, flipped the switch to the fireplace, and sat on the blanket. “Lie down right here,” he drawled out deliberately. “Please,” he added, tenderness dominating his tone. He patted the blanket beside him, then laid a towel over it.
The tone in his voice made her nipples pinch up against the silky fabric. “Jake, I know it’s been…but I, I just don’t think I’m…” Her words tumbled out, as her hand went to her lower stomach.
“Just lie down. I’m not going to push for sex,” he stated as she sat next to him. “I just want to play. Lie down,” he urged his hand, pointing to the pillow.
Kicking her Uggs off, she took a small sip of her wine before setting it on the ledge by the fireplace. He rubbed her back languidly. “I love period bodies. What happens to your tits and clit during this time is the best. I’m going to take care of you,” he said, his tone direct. Something about the slow, careful way he moved his large fingers over the silky fabric mixed with the caring yet almost lewd way he was speaking made her flinch between her legs, her clit responding to his touch and the suggestion in his words.
Slowly, she laid her head on the pillow and looked up at him. He leaned down toward her face, gently removing the scrunchie that had been holding her damp hair up, using his fingers to spread her long locks around her head on the pillow. His lips brushed up against her cheek on their way to her ear. “Do you masturbate on your period?” he asked in a hushed, conspiratorial tone, his voice traveling down her torso, making her nipples tighten, her lower belly clench, and her sex swell.
“Oh, God, Jake,” came out of her mouth before she had time to stop it. “I, um, no, not really.”
Jake was still seated beside her, his cheek against hers, his mouth still at her ear as his hands found hers, lifting them, swiftly raising them above her head, then one hand capturing her wrists on the pillow above her head. “You’re in for a treat, Sweets. You’re gonna start looking forward to this time of the month.” His hot breath burned her skin, her throat constricting.
“Jake,” she squeaked out.
Using his free hand, he put a finger softly to her lips. “Shh, for once, no talking, unless I ask you a question. That’s how you can make up for your bitchiness.” His eyes seemed so serious, but she could see his mouth was turned up, fighting a grin.
Despite her body revealing the truth, her breath quickening, her chest rising and lowering hungrily, she rolled her eyes. “Jeepers, I come home to this bossiness.”
“And you’re going to fucking love it,” he snarled, his fingers slowly unbuttoning her silk sleep shirt. She could feel his cock against her hip, alerting the mounds of flesh just below the cream silk.
“Oh, God,” jumped out of her mouth again.
“Oh, God is right.” He pulled open the silk, exposing her heaving breasts. Her skin shivered from his gaze. As her nightshirt fell to the side, she saw the constraint in his face. “Keep your arms above your head, okay, and no talking,” he said bluntly. “I’m going to show you how fucking wonderful your body is right now.”
“Okay, okay,” she whispered. His husky voice made her want to spread herself open and rub her clit, have him watch her, relish the voracious look in his eyes.
He laid himself beside her with his elbow bent, propping his head up against his own hand, the fingers of his other hand gently rubbing her lower belly.
The muscles in her abdomen flexed. She tried to suck in the bloat she knew he had to be feeling. “I know, I’m well…” Her neck craned upward, her eyes rolling back self-consciously.
His fingers continued to graze the sensitive flesh just below her belly button. “What? I love this.”
“Bloat, really, you love bloat,” she jutted out. He made her feel off-balance. The way he approached her body, juxtaposing the auditions and the photo shoots, which made her acutely aware of her every feature that could be just a little better. Yet, he seemed to relish what she knew were flaws.
He laid his whole hand on her lower abdomen, spreading his fingers across her swollen flesh, owning her body, looking at her exasperated expression. “This is why you are not allowed to talk, got it?”
A small nod, in conjunction with her whispered, “Okay.”
“Yes, I love the feel of your body, swollen, the change.” His fingers lightly moved around her belly, dipping below the band of her lace panties. Her pelvis quickened from his touch. He eased his fingers from the waistband of her panties, tracing them over her belly button, up her torso, to her breasts, circling them like he was studying them, trying to learn their exact dimensions, she thought. “Didn’t think these tits could get any more beautiful, but I was wrong,” he whispered, his index fingers circling her right breast, then her left, her arousal obvious, her nipples rising up to his fingers, seemingly begging to be touched. “Jesus, your nipples are rock hard. They’re probably so tender, so sensitive…so when I suck on them, I’ll go easy, okay, Sweets?”
She shook her head, then gasped as his mouth opened, taking in her left nipple, bathing it in his open mouth as his hand slowly, lightly, massaged the other breast. His mouth moved to the other nipple, laving it gently, purposefully tender.
“Oh, God, please,” she cried out in a hushed voice, her sex pushing upward, seeking relief. Her nerve endings felt like they were engaged in a fencing tournament below her skin. She moved her hand between her legs, desperately wanting to put pressure on herself to get release.
Swiftly, he grabbed her wrist, pulling it back above her head. “No, ma’am,” he drawled with a growl. “Tell me what you want.” Lifting his head, his lids heavy from lapping her up with his intense gaze, he clasped both of her hands in his, then held them above her head firmly.
Turning her head away from him, she hissed, “Fuck,” her chest heaving up and down, squeezing her legs together. “Oh, my, Jake…plea....”
Leaning down, he pecked her cheek, his face close to hers. “Sweets, you’re getting a little worked up.” She simultaneously wanted to smack the devilish grin emerging on his face and beg for him to make her come, make him promise he’d always be here, be the one, her refuge from the constant feeling of falling short under the scrutiny of Hollywood. “You know this time is amazing because there is increased blood flow to that whole area, your pelvis, your vagina. Orgasms can actually help with cramps and…”
“Fuck, are you teaching me sixth-grade biology?”
A quick snort of laughter burst from him. “No, Sweets, just trying to show you that your body doesn’t have to be off limits when you’re bleeding.”
Turning her face back to him, clamping her eyes shut, submitting to her own need at last, she said, “Then, touch me, please.”
His hand caressed her belly, before gliding under her panties. “Do you have a tampon in?”
“Mmm…God, could this get any more personal?” she whispered, casting her gaze up to the ceiling.
“Yes, it can.” His fingers touched the folds of flesh before targeting her engorged clit, massaging it with his index finger and thumb.
“Ahhh, I…” she moaned, her head extending back.
“Period clit, the best,” he whispered, still rubbing, bending to kiss her swollen lower belly, his mouth traveling toward her taut upper torso. With the flat of his tongue, he licked her nipples, slowly bathing them, one by one. Her pelvis tilted up, seeking more pressure. “So fucking hot,” he growled into her chest, as his hand worked her clit more feverishly.
Her hips started to buck against his hand as her whimpering grew louder. “Oh, please, yes, I’m….” Her words were replaced with a moaning howl.
“Yes, let it go, Sweets, let it all go,” he ordered, sitting up, continuing to work her clit while securing her hands above her head. She jerked against him, but she could tell he wanted to yank out another climax. Damn, he was right. Her sensitive flesh seemed amplified during this time.
He leaned down, his mouth capturing hers, molding her lips to his in a tender but possessive kiss. His hand released her wrists, his fingers snaking out of her folds, skimming over her belly.
She could feel his arousal pushing against the side of her leg as he kissed her as if swallowing her moan, stilling her convulsing body. His hardness, cranking up the heat from her orgasmic state, made her want it again, more. She twisted her lips from his. “I want to feel you in me right now,” she hushed into his mouth. She wasn’t really thinking about the logistics of it or that she was bleeding. She was only focused on what she was experiencing, electricity shooting through her, keenly aware she still felt needy between her legs.
“You sure? You don’t have to. Just wanted you to know how sexy this time is,” he said carefully as if to make sure she knew he was not putting pressure on her, despite his cock pushing against her, hardening even as he uttered reassuring words.
“Yes, yes,” she said, her fingers scratching at the crotch of his jeans, desperately trying to get to his zipper before he stopped her.
Quickly, he shed his Levi’s along with his boxers. She saw him trembling as he stared down at her naked, swollen body lying before him. Lying next to her, kissing her, he again asked, “You sure? It will feel great, but there’s no pressure.”
Her wide green eyes were growing impatient. “Please…”
His breathing was erratic as he pulled her white panties from her legs, pushing her knees up, then reaching between them. “Taking this out,” he informed her as he gently tugged on the string, pulling the tampon from her.
“Oh, my God,” she said, her voice strained. She leaned up on her forearms, watching as he wrapped a cocktail napkin around the tampon before setting it on the coffee table. She shut her eyes. “Jesus, Jake,” she huffed.
“What? Did I hurt you?”
One hand was over her eyes; she was mortified. “No, but you just pulled a tampon out of me.” Her voice sounded weak, letting her hand drift from her face.
Stroking his cock as he knelt between her legs, he said, “And I will again and again, not a big deal.” He bent down and kissed her belly, as he continued to stroke his hard shaft, his balls engorged.
She watched him grasping his stiff cock in his hand, then wrapped her legs around his torso, pulling him in. He inched closer to her opening, his cock lurching forward in his hand, his eyes locked on hers as he pushed his cockhead into her slit and watched her face. She entreated him with her eyes, purposefully letting him see the evidence of her heat absorbing his. He fixed himself a few inches inside her. Internally, she smiled, watching as he paced himself, the engorged wet flesh of her vagina enflamed around his cock, egging him in, sucking at his piston-hard shaft.
Seeing the hard work of control on his face, she knew from the way his body strained that he wanted to pound her. Reaching up, she circled both hands behind his back, flexed her thighs and calves around his pelvis, and whispered, “Fuck me love, fuck me.”
“God, are you sure?” he hissed, his ass flexing, pressing himself into her, his balls cramming up against the wet flesh surrounding her pussy. He pushed in until he had nothing left, then pulled out just to the edge, pushing back in with one solid, fast thrust.
Her wailing pleas to fuck her harder filled the room around them. She loved that he obliged, driving his cock in and out, his strokes quick. Her mouth was open, screaming, her nails digging into his shoulder, her pelvis pushing up against him, her legs squeezing his body like a boa constrictor. She felt the swollen flesh of her vagina clamp around his cock, as she yelled that she was coming; all control was lost.
He pounded back and forth a couple more times before his cock erupted deep inside her hot hole. He groaned, tilting his head back; she saw the release soften his face.
Smoothly, he dropped down onto her, absorbing most of the weight in his arms, kissing her shoulder. “You undid me again,” he whispered beside her, licking the sweat from the base of her neck, clearly trying to catch up to his rapid breathing.
She could barely speak. “Really, look what you've done to me, mate,” she said, a sleepy smile on her lips, her eyes closed.
“So, period sex, huh?” Humor laced his question.
“Well, I’m a little more open to it.”
“Mmm…big of you,” he teased.
“Okay, you were right.”
“Yep, that’s what I needed to hear,” he said, shifting off her. After a few minutes, he said, “Let’s get a shower, Sweets.” He stood up, grabbing the napkin as he stood. “Tossing this,” he said under his breath.
She watched him, stopping herself from saying anything, wondering if she would ever adapt to this level of intimacy.