45. Faith
CHAPTER 45
Faith
“You guys are like a couple,” Jess said, swinging her backpack onto her shoulder as she stood up from a table at the student center.
“No, we’re not,” I said. I finally felt well enough to get back to my teaching schedule. That cold had knocked me out for a week, and I still wasn’t operating at one-hundred percent. Jess and I had met for lunch during a break in classes. She couldn’t seem to understand the relationship, or lack of one, that Dante and I shared. “We’re not in a relationship. It’s just sex.”
Jess raised an eyebrow. “Just sex? He’s over at your place all the time.”
“Yeah, just for sex.”
“You mean to tell me that you guys are doing it every night of the week?”
I crumpled up my sandwich wrapper and moved toward the trash can. “He only comes over twice a week. Wednesdays and Saturdays.”
“Really? You told me you couldn’t meet up on Friday because Dante was coming over after work.”
Damn, she’d been paying attention. “Okay, you’re right. He came last Friday, too.”
“Yeah, if you ask me, he’s coming a lot more than he should be if you’re not technically seeing each other.”
“Very funny. By the way, I’m coming a lot now, too. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
I smiled and hugged a textbook against my chest. Dante and I had reached a very comfortable point in our arrangement. The only wrinkle in my life was that the damn pages of my manuscript kept showing up. I’d found one slipped under my office door and another one on the windshield of my car. I’d been working on a plan to come clean about my secret, but every time I tried to bring it up to Dante, I froze. Besides, I only had a couple thousand words more to go. If I ended things with him before my manuscript was complete, I feared the writer’s block would set in again.
“Whatever floats your boat. But I’m warning you, I don’t think you can keep this up forever.”
“As long as he can keep it up for now.”
Jess rolled her eyes.
I laughed. “Forever is the last thing on my mind. Now stop worrying about me and tell me what you and Jake are doing tomorrow night for Valentine’s Day.”
Dante
I knocked lightly on Faith’s door. Stopping by her place after closing the bar on Saturday nights had become a habit—one I had no intention of breaking. I turned the doorknob. It was unlocked.
“Honey, I’m home,” I called out.
“Not funny.” She sat in bed, her back resting against a stack of pillows and her nose buried in a thick book.
I draped my coat over the back of a kitchen chair. A vase of long-stem red roses occupied the center of the table. Who the hell sent her flowers? I wanted to slide the card out of the envelope and take a peek. As far as I knew, I was the only one enjoying her nighttime company. Could she be seeing someone else? What the hell?
Playing it cool, I set my bag down on the floor and covered the distance to the bedroom in a few long strides. I placed a kiss on the top of her head and sat down next to her. “What’cha reading?”
She marked her spot and put the book on the nightstand. “Doesn’t matter.”
“I brought you something.”
She cocked her head. “What, like a present? What’s the occasion?”
I pulled the wrapped package out from behind my back and handed it to her. “You must be the most unromantic woman on the face of this earth. It’s Valentine’s Day.”
She reached for the package. “We don’t do commercialized made-up holidays. Not part of the deal.”
I made a move to take it back. “I guess I’ll return it then.”
“Not so fast. I mean, you already bought it and all.” Her fingers fumbled with the red satin ribbon. She ripped the paper and lifted the top off the small box. “What did you do?”
“Remember that day we met on the sidewalk?”
“Yeah. Outside the library. You told me about your favorite sex position.” She lifted the delicate silver chain out of the box. A small silver charm dangled from the end. “What’s this?”
“I know how much you like flowers.” Why was I suddenly so embarrassed? It was cheesy. Dammit, she’d probably bolt again. “Never mind, it’s stupid.” I tried to grab it out of her hand, but she yanked it away.
“Not so fast. It’s a lotus blossom, isn’t it?” She twisted the silver charm back and forth in her fingertips.
I shrugged. “Seemed fitting. You know, your love of flowers, my love of sex.”
“Get over here, cheeseball.” Her arms snaked around my neck, and she pulled me down to her, finding my lips with her own.
My body responded like a well-trained machine. I nudged closer to her on the bed as she parted her lips, and my tongue tasted the minty flavor of her toothpaste.
It was two-thirty in the morning. I loved that she always waited up for me. Wyatt used to mention how nice it was to have someone waiting for him when he closed down the bar. I had given him crap about that, but now I was starting to appreciate the feeling of knowing someone would be there when I finally locked up and called it a night.
“Do you like it?” I asked, moving my lips to her earlobe.
“Of course I do. Put it on me?” She held it out to me, and I secured the necklace around her neck.
“It’s not too much?”
“Shhh.” She reached out a hand and turned off the lamp. Straddling my thighs, she whipped her pink flannel pajama top over her head and tossed it on the floor.
I peered up at her. A sliver of moonlight came through the blinds, covering half of her body in a ghostly shadow. She put a hand on either side of my head and hovered over me. “Get naked.”
I wanted to resist, force her into talking about the growing connection between us and find out who sent her those fucking flowers, but my body betrayed me, and my desire won. I wriggled out of my jeans as she unbuttoned my shirt. She stood up from the bed long enough to step out of her pajama bottoms, then reached for something in her nightstand drawer.
“I’ve got a little something for you, too,” she said.
“Oh yeah?” I slid a sheet over my naked body and watched her move around the bed in the dim light.
“How do you feel about being tied up?”
Holy shit. She always seemed to surprise me. I got hard at the mere suggestion. “Yeah, I could go for that.”
“Good, give me your wrist.” Faith placed my hand up against the bedpost and secured it with some kind of fabric. She crawled over me to the other side, making sure to brush her naked chest against mine on the way, and did the same to my other hand.
“Now what?” I licked my lips in anticipation of what she had in mind.
“Feet, too.”
She reached under the covers and dragged one foot over to the bedpost and tied it up, then did the same on the other side. The sheet tented at my crotch. Obviously, I was more than ready for whatever she had planned.
Faith pulled the sheet back and trailed kisses from my cheek to my ankle, then back up the other side, intentionally ignoring my obvious need.
This chick, fuck, what she did to me. Blood raced to my crotch, and I throbbed with desire.
Faith crouched between my legs. She licked my cock from my balls to my tip, then blew out a soft exhale. I shivered as her breath hit me. Smiling, she leaned down and took the tip of my cock into her mouth, running her tongue around the rim of my head and sending waves of pleasure radiating out to the rest of my body.
I wanted to twist my fingers into her hair. A tug against the restraints sent the headboard clattering into the wall.
Faith made eye contact. “Careful. You’ll wake up my neighbors.” She bent her head and took me into her mouth again, this time easing further down. I bucked my hips up to meet her mouth, and she drew back.
Once my body stilled, she went to work again, drawing my full length inside her mouth. Her wet heat enveloped me while she ran her nails up and down my inner thigh. She cupped my balls, and her fingers danced under, over, and around them.
Every time I moved my hips, she paused until I became still. I strained against the ties on my hands and feet, and she stopped. She drove me fucking crazy. I wanted to yank her up and crush my mouth down on hers, roll her over and slam inside her, go down on her, and make her scream my name.
The intensity of my need built upon itself until it had nowhere else to go. She slid me in and out of her mouth, humming when I hit the back of her throat, brushing her breasts up against my inner thighs and wrapping her hand around the base of my cock. I’d be a total douche if I didn’t warn her I was about to explode into her mouth.
“I’m going to...it’s coming...”
She looked up at me and smiled… so fucking hot with her lips wrapped around my cock and her eyes daring me to hold back. Relentless, she drew me deeper into her mouth and increased the pressure of her hand around the base of my dick.
Holy fuck. I tried to resist, but it was no use. My legs shook, my butt cheeks squeezed together, and I came like I’d never come before. She sucked me off until the last bit of my orgasm left me drained. Only then did she sit up and wipe the back of her hand across her mouth.
“How was that?” Faith asked.
“Get these fucking ties off my hands and feet, and I’ll show you.” My voice came out more like a snarl. If that’s how she wanted to play tonight, I was all over it.
Faith released one foot, then the other, rubbing my ankles as she slid the restraints off. “I don’t know. I kind of like you like this.”
I twisted on the bed. “Now!” She looked pretty damn pleased with herself.
“Okay, just a sec.”
She barely had time to untie me. Released from my restraints, I flipped her over onto her back. “Your turn.”