Chapter 16
Yasmine
“So… how do you want to do this?” Yasmine asked as she spread out the array of girlie spa night options she’d brought.
She and Zeus had paused the show after the second episode to walk the dogs, and when they’d returned, she figured it was the perfect time to start the skincare portion of the evening.
Especially since Zeus seemed committed to seeing the whole thing through.
She was enjoying herself. He hadn’t even been judgmental when she’d wanted to change into jeans to walk the dogs, and then back into her sweatpants when they’d returned.
He, of course, had remained in his slutty grey sweatpants.
Which she tried not to look at too much.
“You tell me,” Zeus answered, leaning back on the couch.
Now that the food had been cleaned up, and they’d been walked, both of the dogs seemed content to lie on the floor, snuggled up against each other in such a picture of cuteness that Yasmine had immediately snapped a photo to send to Sarah.
“You’re the expert. I’ve never done this before. ”
“Well…” She glanced over everything. She’d brought her whole kit, so she had multiples of everything. Although she doubted his feet were going to fit into the foot masks. His hands were probably going to be a tight fit. Looking at his face again, and his head, her lips twitched.
One of the prepared face masks wouldn’t work because of his beard, but they could do some under-eye masks, and she did have her green tea spreadable mask…
“Let’s start with these.” She grabbed the packets with the under-eye masks, one for him and one for her, and handed one to him. “It opens here.” She demonstrated with her packet and pulled out the little tray with the flimsy, gold bean-shaped masks. “And then you just put these under your eyes.”
Despite his big hands and fingers, he was surprisingly dexterous as he got the packet opened, and the thin masks peeled off the tray. Yasmine thought she remembered him saying something about being tech-oriented. Maybe all that time on a keyboard helped.
“Like this?” he asked, gently patting the first eye mask with his fingertips on his cheekbone.
“A little higher,” Yasmine said, leaning over to pluck the second one from his fingers and apply it.
It shouldn’t have been sexy, but just leaning over him, touching him, even if it was through the mask, made her tingle with awareness.
She did her best to keep her breathing even and normal, despite the way her pulse picked up as she smoothed her fingertips over the eye mask.
Maybe it was the way he was staring up at her intently as she did so, his gaze never leaving her face. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been so closely studied before.
Definitely not without her usual amount of makeup on.
It was unnerving, to say the least.
“There you go.” She straightened back up and glanced down at the rest of the options. Her gaze caught on the green tea spreadable mask.
How far did she dare push this?
Normally, she would never sleep with a guy on the first date. But this wasn’t a date. And she wasn’t trying to start a relationship with Zeus. She was throwing the old rules out the window and mostly trying to do the complete opposite. Which meant that she should sleep with him tonight.
Made sense to her.
That might just be her hormones talking, but at a certain point, a girl wanted what she wanted.
“Now what?” Zeus looked up at her expectantly, hands resting on his lap where his thighs were slightly spread apart. The little gold masks under his eyes didn’t make him look any less masculine, just like the pink drink hadn’t. If anything, the incongruity emphasized it.
“Forehead mask,” she said with a nod. Scooping up the little circular container, Yasmine made an inward prayer that she wasn’t about to make a total fool out of herself, and instead of bending down again, she straddled Zeus’ lap.
His eyes widened, and his hands shifted from his thighs to her thighs as she settled onto his lap, facing him. The intensity in his gaze seemed to amp up several notches as he studied her expression.
“Forehead mask?” The question was a mere murmur, his strong fingers curving around her thighs without gripping.
“Mmm-hmm.” Yasmine could feel heat rising to her cheeks, though she did her best to pretend that straddling a man’s lap to smear green goop across his forehead was totally normal.
There was a tiny curve to his lips as he looked up at her.
Yasmine used the little spatula that came with the kit to take the goop and carefully apply it to Zeus’ forehead.
In her defense, since he was sitting on the couch and they were facing each other, it really was easier to do it this way.
Not that she would recommend it to most people, unless they were trying to get laid.
“Brrr, that’s cold.” He said the words but didn’t actually shiver, his dark eyes tracking her face as she examined her work.
“Helps with inflammation,” she explained.
“Mmm-hmmm.” His hands flexed on her thighs, sending tingles of awareness up her legs and directly to her pussy.
Yasmine kept her focus, despite how difficult it was, shifting forward as she moved up his forehead. Despite how aroused she was becoming—even though this was not what she would normally consider foreplay—she couldn’t help but feel the urge to giggle as the mask went higher and higher.
“I thought you said face mask, not head mask,” Zeus commented, also picking up on the fact that she was no longer applying it to his face. He didn’t sound upset, at least.
“Oh, so it’s my fault your forehead never ends?” she teased.
His hands flexed on her thighs, sending more tingles through her body.
Zeus
Oh, he wanted to spank her sassy ass so badly.
The bald jokes didn’t bother him—he was used to those, and he liked the way he looked—but he could see the mischief glinting in her eye. She was a sassy little brat when she allowed that side of her to shine through. He liked it. It also made his palm itch.
But he wasn’t sure that was on the table.
At some point, they were going to need to discuss exactly what was on the table, but right now, he was going to let her have her fun. He got the feeling that, like the sweatpants, this wasn’t a side of her that many people got to see, and he was enjoying that.
Plus, it felt good. The mask, not her on his lap, although that felt good, too.
Zeus ran his hands up and down her thighs.
The fabric of the sweatpants moved with his hands, but not enough to hinder him.
He felt her little shiver as he caressed her legs, teasing her in a very different way than she was teasing him.
The little pink tip of her tongue stuck out between her lips, touching the top one, as she made a circular motion on the top of his head, spreading the clay evenly across his skin.
It did feel surprisingly good. And he liked watching her doing it.
“This better not turn my head green or something,” he warned.
“Would I do that to you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve already seen you steal a dog. Who knows what else you might get up to.” He slid his hands up to her hips, pushing the hem of her t-shirt up. Brushing bare skin with his fingers, he immediately stopped.
Teasing was one thing, but he waited to see how she would react before he kept going.
Her cheeks turned even pinker, and she steadily did not look him in the eye.
“All done,” she said. “And I promise it won’t turn your head green. If you can trust the word of a dognapper.”
Zeus chuckled.
“Since you brought her back, I suppose I can.” His thumbs caressed her sides.
The front of his pants was already uncomfortably tight and became even more so as she squirmed on top of him. He was tempted to try to kiss her now, face mask or no face mask, but she wasn’t done with her evening yet.
“Is it your turn now?” he asked.
“Yes, but I’ll do my own,” she said, shaking her head as she got up from his lap.
Since he didn’t have an objection, he followed her to the bathroom to see how she did her own. When he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the mirror, he barked out a surprised laugh. He looked ridiculous.
Yas grinned at him in the mirror, her eyes looking over her shoulder at his reflection.
“You look very… spa-like,” she said somberly.
“Should I go cut up some cucumber slices to complete the look?”
A furry body pressed against the back of his legs, and he reached down to give Tiger a pat. The nosy dog was trying to see what was going on in the bathroom and why the humans were both in the tiny room.
“Not necessary, unless you want to try to reduce puffiness around your eyes. I didn’t notice any, though.” She winked at him before she started to put the goop on her own skin.
It was rather fascinating watching her. She was clearly very practiced at it, the little plastic scoop moving in smooth, rapid strokes that quickly covered her entire face, leaving the area around her eyes clear. It was almost hypnotic to watch.
Zeus wondered if people had skin care kinks the same way they had foot fetishes.
Not that it turned him on to watch her do this exactly…
but he liked watching her more than he would have thought.
Maybe it was Yas-specific interest. He’d always liked watching a woman get dressed or undressed, but this wasn’t quite like that, either.
“There,” she said, giving herself a little nod as she turned her face back and forth to make sure she had full coverage.
Then she seemed to steel herself, putting her shoulders back, before meeting his gaze in the mirror again, as if she was worried he would suddenly be looking at her differently. “All done.”
Zeus met her gaze evenly.
“Now what?” he asked
“Now we let it sit for about fifteen minutes before we wash it off.” She turned to face him directly, which seemed to be another act of bravery.
There was less worry in her eyes now, though.
Since he hadn’t run screaming into the night, she seemed to feel as if she could trust him not to now.
“Which is not enough time to watch another episode, though we could start one…”
“Or we could go eat dessert.”
“Dessert?” Her eyes lit up, then she frowned. “I didn’t order any.”
“You didn’t, I did.” Reaching out, he took her hand, threading his fingers through hers and pulling her out of the bathroom while Tiger pranced around their legs, doing his best to get in their way. “Come on.”
“I was going to be good since I already ate a whole bunch of junk,” she said, sounding somewhat exasperated but also excited.
“And I felt like if we were going to do this, we might as well go all the way,” Zeus countered. “You have a choice between chocolate cake or cannoli.”
“I have to choose?” She sounded almost mournful.
Zeus chuckled again as he led her back down the stairs. Thankfully, Tiger ran down ahead of them so they didn’t trip over him. Hope was lying on the couch, and her tail started up as soon as she saw them.
“No, we can share. I wouldn’t mind having some of both.”
“Then let’s share.”
While they ate their dessert, they talked about the show, and Zeus admitted he was enjoying it so far. Even if they didn’t finish it tonight, he would probably watch it at some point to find out how everything ended up.
At which point, Yas said she wanted to finish watching it with him.
“Sounds like a date,” he teased. “But I thought you don’t do that.”
“I don’t, which is why it’s not a date.” She jabbed her empty fork in his direction before stabbing another bite of cake.
“Ah, yes, the curse. Tell me about it.” He was curious about exactly what he was dealing with here.
Yas shrugged, her gaze dropping back down to the cake, lips curving into a frown.
“Not much to tell. I date a guy or get into a relationship with a guy. It doesn’t work out. And then the next girl he dates, he ends up marrying and living happily-ever-after with.” She shoved the forkful of cake into her mouth, making a face.
After a long moment, because this seemed like something she was sensitive about and Zeus didn’t want to be unsympathetic, he cleared his throat.
“Isn’t that what happens to everyone’s relationship that doesn’t work out?” When she stared at him like he’d grown a second head, he shrugged. “If the relationship doesn’t work out, you both move on to the next one.”
“Okay, but how do you explain the whole ‘they find their perfect partner next’ thing?” There was a little bit of pout to her lip now, which was both cute and silly looking with her face mask. He liked that she was loosening up to be more comfortable with looking less than perfect in front of him.
“What makes the perfect partner? Just because they got married?”
“Well…” She hesitated. Suspicion rose in her eyes, as if she couldn’t see where he was going with this line of thinking, but she knew she wasn’t going to like it. “Yes.”
“Would you have wanted to marry any of them? Your exes, I mean?”
Another moment of hesitation, like she could feel the trap closing around her.
“Well, no.” She frowned, her gaze averting to the side. “I was prepared to marry one of them. But he met a woman he fell hard for, and I let him go.”
“So, you weren’t willing to settle for someone that you didn’t want.” Zeus shrugged. “Or that didn’t sufficiently want you. Sounds more like a blessing than a curse to me.”
“I…” She frowned. Little lines cracked in the dried mask on her face. She gave him another suspicious look. “It’s different. They still all found the person they did want to marry afterward, and I haven’t yet.”
“How do you know they’re all happily-ever-after? Are you saying there have been no divorces?” That was a sincere question.
Yas scowled at him, so he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
“Shut up and eat your cake,” she said, holding a forkful up in front of his mouth. Obediently, he opened his lips so she could feed him the bite. He bit down hard on the plastic fork, holding it in place for a long moment as their gazes met, and her eyes widened before she let it go.
The face masks didn’t matter.
The chemistry between them wasn’t going anywhere.
“We’re still definitely not dating,” she said haughtily, as though she was trying to brush aside the tension sizzling between them. “I don’t want to date right now.”
“Fine by me.”
Zeus didn’t believe in her curse, but he also didn’t care if right now she just wanted to use him for his dick. He’d get her to come around to seeing things his way eventually, one way or another.