Chapter 18 #2
“Oh no,” Isla gasps and jumps on the bed, reaching for her bag, digging frantically before pulling out a mailer package. Which…apparently is the source of the buzzing.
“God dammit.” She gives it a shake, willing it to stop. But it only vibrates faster and louder.
“What is that?”
I have a funny suspicion I know what it is but I won’t believe it until I see it.
She glances up at me, her face pale, before she opens it and pulls out the clear plastic with a long, teal—just as I suspected—dildo.
I fold my arms over my chest, fully intending to savor this moment.
Tearing it out of the plastic, she grabs it by the tip and yanks it out, twisting it every which way and it makes me wince. “Where the hell?”
“Need some help?”
Her shoulders drop. “Please.”
Reaching over, I pluck it from her fingers, holding her horrified gaze as I shut it off.
She whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut. “Oh god. I—know how this looks, but I swear, I didn’t bring that here to—play with it.
I wouldn’t even know what to do with it.
I mean yes, it’s technically mine. But my roommate, she just shoved it in my hands and I couldn’t just throw it out—do you know how expensive these things are? And—”
“Isla, Isla.”
She pauses and stares at me.
“It’s gone, alright? It’s off and I put it back in your bag.”
“You did? When? I mean, why?”
I smile. “Because like you said, it’s yours. And…you weren’t planning on using it…tonight anyway, so I put it away. But of course, if you change your mind…”
She buries her head in her hands with a groan.
I sit on the edge of my bed and pull them down. “Get some sleep, Sunshine.”
“Yeah, that’s likely to happen now.”
“Or…we can continue our conversation.”
She looks up at me. “You still want to?”
“Isla. I want to do more than talk right now.” I glance at her full lips. “But yeah, I still want to.”
And after what I just saw, I fucking need to. It’s an obligation, a responsibility. Fuck, a life goal to pleasure this girl every which way I can so she knows exactly what she likes and will never be afraid to ask for it again.
The flush in her cheeks starts to fade. “My friend…my therapist, Bree, she told me I should get out there. Make friends. Join a social circle of sorts.” She glances at her bag. “But I also had other things I wanted to do.” She clears her throat. “To try.”
“By yourself?” I nearly chuckle. “Think that’s out of the question now.”
“I would’ve figured it out eventually,” she grumbles.
Boy, would I have liked a front row seat to that.
“Anyway, she sent me a link to try things for me to use on my own—”
“Isla,” I stop her, sensing she’s about to spiral into a monologue again that’ll only give me visuals neither of us need. “Tell me about Shadow’s message, the first one.”
“Oh,” she sighs, eyes dipping as she thinks back. “You said you saw me. With that guy. The Titans fan. Well, I saw you too. Or rather, saw something in you that…I liked.”
I frown. “You liked?”
“Understood, maybe?”
“How’s that possible?” I hadn’t meant to ask it out loud, but here we are.
She shakes her head. “It’s not, I guess. But I made believe I did. And when someone told me about the app, I figured what could it harm? Nothing. No one. You wouldn’t even see it. And I could say all kinds of things.”
My eyes sweep over her unintentionally. “Things you wanted?”
“Things I think I needed.”
Fuck.
I stand and run my hand down my face. Then look her in the eye. “Do you take any of it back?”
It’s a beat before she responds with a shake of her head.
“Good. Because there isn’t one thing on that list I don’t plan on crossing off with you.”
Isla looks around nervously. “Not tonight.”
I’d laugh if I wasn’t coming out of my skin with the need to touch her. I lift her bag and dig out the dildo, then shove it in my dresser. Deep. “That doesn’t move until I show you how to use it.”
“Okay.”
She complies so fucking fast, I get hard from it. “Fuck, Isla.”
Her eyes widen. “Did I—”
I hold up my hand. “No. You didn’t say anything wrong.” I take her hand and lift her off my bed.
Her nipples harden under my T-shirt, stretching the fabric even more.
I take a breath to clear my brain fog. The one clouding with her breasts, her wide eyes, her silky hair. Those fucking hips. I lift my shirt off the bed and put it on, because being half-naked isn’t helping anybody right now.
“We’ll need rules,” I say, and it’s a reminder for myself, my eyes still glued to her chest.
“Right. I don’t have any.”
I lift my gaze to hers. An immediate response like that would usually do well with me. I don’t take advantage of women and know when they’re not into something. But I’m not a fan of what I just heard. She needs to set rules. If only to establish control.
“You think you don’t have any. But you do. And I’ll help you set them.”
Her chest lifts with a breath. “Okay.”
“You asked me how this is going to work. Trust and honesty.”
She nods. “Agree.”
“On game nights. You tell me what you want.”
“On the app,” she confirms, barely posing it as a question. “And then…we do it.”
I shake my head. “We try it. You decide if you like it. If you want more of it. How fast, how much...and how hard.”
Her breath hitches. “How will I know?”
God, she’s beautiful like this. Curious. Brave. Turned on. “Just tell me how it makes you feel. You’ll know.” I roam my eyes over her, having the sense that I’ll understand her just fine.
“Are your teammates, the ones downstairs, the only two who know?”
I nod. “Just Hunter and Grey. And you can trust them. If he’d give us the time of day, I’d likely tell Cole too, but that guy’s grumpier than Coach and doesn’t care about anything other than hockey and his perfect GPA.”
“Cole Leman,” she says, like it’s something she memorized. “The team’s enforcer.”
“He’s the fighter but would never hurt a fly outside the ice. Him, you can trust. But only because he doesn’t care enough to talk about other people—or himself. He also knows our stats and shooting percentage better than the team does. Guy’s a human calculator.”
“He and I would get along great.”
“Yeah well, don’t get any ideas.” I wink. But there’s nothing playful about my statement.
With a breath, she nods. “Okay.”
“We don’t have another game for a few days.” I glance at her phone. “But we have content.”
She frowns. “The one from tonight?”
“No. We’re starting from the beginning.”
She looks up at me and I close the distance, moving her against a wall.
“First, I’m going to unravel you. Then, I’m going to play with you…peel those layers. Every last one. Then…the one from tonight.”
She bites back a grin.
“Because I do plan on cashing in, Sunshine.”