I moaned as his hands covered me, squeezed me. His fingers played with my nipples, tugging on them until they were tight little points. His body curled over mine and I felt his cock, hard against my ass.
“Now for your punishment.” He scraped his teeth across the shell of my ear and my fingers flexed against the table.
He straightened and I missed the weight of him immediately. It was odd, I thought, how someone who'd spent her whole life hating people being close, who had panic attacks when an individual crowded her, could actually want to feel the press of another's body.
His hands returned to the front of my dress pants, fingers deftly working open the button and zipper. Cool air caressed my skin as he pulled my pants down to mid-calf. I shivered as his hands slid back up my legs, over my ass and to my hips where his fingers hooked into the elastic waistband. I felt him press a kiss against one cheek and then the other before pulling my panties down to where my pants were. I was a bit surprised he didn't take them off completely, but I wasn't about to argue.
“Such beautiful skin.” His hands moved over my ass and up to my back, fingers not shying away when they skimmed the scar on my side. “Let's see what shades of pink we can get it to turn.”
He started off with a light smack, barely enough to feel, and I relaxed. Already, I could feel the difference. In the past, it had just been a spanking. A real one, meant to hurt and humiliate. There was no warming up. A second light smack on the other cheek and I felt myself starting to get wet.
The next one was a bit harder, a slight sting before my skin heated up. The fourth made me gasp and I felt him hesitate.
“Don't stop.”
Pinpricks of pain shot through my scalp as he grabbed my hair and used it to turn my head towards him. His eyes were burning as he claimed my mouth in a rough, bruising kiss. He was still dressed but, as he pulled away, I could see the clear outline of his erection straining against his slacks. I didn't need to ask if he was enjoying himself.
I cried out as his hand came down again. The pain was more intense, but still well behind the point where it was unwelcome. My ass burned as he spanked me again and again, but there was no denying the slick wet between my thighs. I let out a shuddering breath as he stopped. I heard a zipper and then the ripping of a condom wrapper.
“I'm going to fuck you now,” he said. “Hard and fast.”
I nodded. My brain swam in the mess of chemicals flooding my body. I could barely think of anything beyond relieving the ache between my legs. I hissed when his hands slid across my ass to get to my hips. I didn't have the time to process much of the sensation; it was immediately overshadowed by Rylan pushing his cock into me.
“Ahh!” I moaned as he worked his impressive length inside, a relentless forward movement that forced my body to stretch to accept him without pause. And it wasn't just how deep he was going. His girth was such that, in this particular position with my pants keeping my legs from spreading, I was almost too tight.
“Damn,” he groaned as his hips came to rest on my ass. “Like a fucking vice.”
I flexed my muscles and he cursed again, the word half-strangled. His fingers dug into my hips and he pulled back until just the tip was inside, then surged forward. I was immediately glad that the offices were empty because I let out a wail that at least the floor below us would've heard.
As he established a rhythm, his hands moved from my hips to under my shirt. Every thrust was hard and fast, driving into me even as his fingers manipulated my nipples. The angle caused him to rub against my sensitive ass, sending painful pleasure coursing through me. As he began to twist and tug on my nipples, ripples became waves and then a flood.
I cried out as I came, my eyes squeezing closed as every nerve in my body began to sing. I gave myself over to the sensations, letting Rylan coax every last drop of pleasure as he drove into me in search of his own release. His hands tightened painfully on my breasts as he said my name and I felt his cock pulse inside me.
“I love you,” he whispered, pressing his lips against the side of my neck.
“I love you, too.” I turned my head so that my mouth could find his. I took his bottom lip between my teeth, then pulled it into my mouth, sucking on it even as his tongue traced my top lip.
After a moment, he broke the kiss and straightened, sliding out of me with a moan. My knees shook at the sudden emptiness and my arms were weak as I pushed myself into a standing position. I started to bend down to pull up my pants, but Rylan put his hand on my wrist.
“Allow me.” He pulled up my panties first, letting his hands linger for a moment before reaching for my pants.
I sucked in a breath as the cloth slid over my ass. Rylan paused with his hands at the small of my back.
“Was it too much?” He shifted out of the authoritative mode that he used when he dominated me and into the concerned tone he took on afterwards.
I shook my head, reaching down between us to do up my pants. I smiled at him. “Sitting's not going to be fun.” I reached up to run my fingers along his jawline. “But every time I do, it'll remind me of what came next.” I pushed myself up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “And I enjoyed the entire thing.”
“Including...?” he started to ask.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Yes. All of it.” I tilted my head. “I might have to think of more things I can do so you can punish me again.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist, careful not to touch my ass. “All you ever need to do is ask.”
“I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about...you know.” I flushed with embarrassment. “I should have. I'm just new to this whole relationship thing. And I didn't exactly have a lot of good examples to follow either.”
“It's okay,” he said. “I'm not an expert on how this all works either. Like I said, Lara was the only other real relationship I've had and I didn't figure out she was a lesbian until I saw Cassandra going down on her.” He gave me a wry smile that said he was well past the hurt. Then his expression sobered. “We'll figure it out together, but we have to be honest with each other.”
“I'll try,” I said.
He pulled me closer, but not so close that I couldn't look at him. “So, now for the other reason I asked you to come up here?”
I raised an eyebrow. “It wasn't just because you wanted a piece of my ass?”
He laughed and ran one hand down to cup my sore ass. “That was definitely the main reason, but it wasn't the only one.” He returned his hand to my waist. “What are your plans for the holidays?”
Okay, a turn in conversation I wasn't expecting. “Same as always,” I said. “Pizza or take out, some junk food and movie marathons.”
“I know you're not comfortable enough to meet my family and Suzette is, well...”
He hesitated and I wasn't about to fill in the blank. The choice words I had for his half-sister were far from polite.
He sighed. “She's not exactly fond of you.”
That was an understatement.
“None of that changes the fact that I want to spend Christmas with you.”
My eyes widened and panic fluttered in my stomach.
“But I'm not going to ask you to come to my parents' place. I want our first Christmas together to be special, not uncomfortable.”
First Christmas. My heart did a funny flip. That implied that there would be a second, maybe a third or more.
“I would love for you to come to the house on Christmas Eve and spend the night. I'll have to see my parents for a couple hours on Christmas Day, but I want to come home to you and finish out the holiday, the two of us.” He sounded confident enough about what he wanted, but I could see a hint of something in his eyes. It wasn't doubt about me or wanting to be with me. Instead, it was doubt about my answer.
“You want to spend Christmas with me?” I heard what he said but I wasn't quite sure I could believe it. “Won't your family be upset?”
“I don't spend Christmas Eve with them anyway,” he said. ?
??And if they have a problem with me only staying a couple hours, oh well.” He shrugged. “I'm an adult.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to say that to them when they ask why you're leaving early?”
“No,” he said. He pulled me closer. “I'm going to tell them the truth. That I have an amazing, beautiful woman waiting for me at home and I want to be with her.”
I flushed at the compliment. I'd heard men spout all sorts of shit over the years, but it was nothing compared to hearing Rylan say it. He meant it, and that's what mattered.
“I'd love to spend Christmas with you.” I pulled his head down and brushed my lips against his. I couldn't believe I was going to have a real Christmas. “Do you have a tree?” The question came out almost shy.
“Of course.” He looked amused, and then gave me a puzzled look. “Don't you?”
I shook my head. “Never really saw the point of it. Pay for a tree and buy a bunch of ornaments that don't mean anything so I can stare at it for a month, then take it down? It's not like I have presents to put under it.”
He leaned back against the table and pulled me between his legs. We were eye-to-eye now. He put his hand on the side of my neck, his thumb moving back and forth across my pulse point. “Do you do anything special for Christmas? I mean, you were in a couple group homes, right? Didn't they do something for the kids?”
“Some of them tried,” I said. “But it usually consisted of charity gifts around a plastic tree that we decorated with cheap dollar store ornaments. It wasn't like I was with a real family or anything.”
“So you don't have any special Christmas memories?”
I looked down as his words brought with them an unintentional flood of memories. Memories of various men dressed like Santa Claus, ready to give me whatever Santa gave a good girl, or a naughty girl, depending on what they'd arranged with my mom. When I was a teenager, more than once I'd had a panic attack while Christmas shopping simply because a Santa greeted me or got too close.
“Hey, I don't know what you're thinking, but forget it.” He pulled me forward so that our foreheads rested against each other. “Forget all that. Everything that happened before is done and over with. It's you and me now.” His gently pressed his lips against mine. “We'll make our own Christmas memories. Good memories.”
I leaned into him, my mouth a hair's breadth from his. “Naked memories?” I teased.
“Damn straight.” He grinned at me a moment before closing that last little bit between us.
His lips were firm as they parted mine, his tongue flicking against mine. Before the kiss could get too involved, he pulled back.
“As much as I'd like to get in a second round in, we really should get back to work if we're going to take the rest of the week off.”
“Christmas Eve isn't until Friday,” I protested.
“We're both taking tomorrow off,” Rylan said. He smiled at me. “I have some planning to do if I'm going to make this Christmas one to remember.”
“As long as you're with me, it'll be amazing,” I said. “But taking tomorrow off is a good idea.” A thought had just occurred to me. “I have something I need to do too.”
He quirked an eyebrow in question, but I mimed locking my lips and throwing away the key. I reluctantly stepped back and out of his arms. I couldn't, in all good conscience, leave for a long weekend without getting that issue fixed in my program.
“I do have work to do,” I said and took another step. I grimaced as the material of my pants rubbed against my ass. “But I can guarantee I'll be thinking about this the whole time.”
He grinned at me and held up his hand. “If it makes you feel any better, my hand's a bit sore.”
I glared at him and he laughed.
“Maybe next time, you should use something other than your hand.”
His jaw dropped, laughter cutting off abruptly.
Satisfied that I'd gotten the last word in, I turned and headed for the elevator. It would be difficult to actually work, between the memory of what we'd done and the anticipation of what was going to happen, to focus. At least it was a good reason to be distracted. For once, I looked forward to Christmas. I just had to do something I'd never done before.
Chapter 6
I usually tried to avoid shopping. Especially shopping in the real world. The best thing about computers, in my opinion, was the ability to shop without having to actually be out in public. With Christmas Eve being two days away, however, I figured it was worth the hassle of going out rather than paying for overnight shipping and maybe not getting it in time anyway.
Not that I had any clue what to get him. He was, after all, a multi-millionaire. What could I offer him? I'd never had to buy a Christmas present before, much less a Christmas present for a boyfriend. What did people buy for boyfriends anyway? Even ones that weren't rich.
I spent the entire night running through ideas, but none of them struck me as being worth anything. Gift cards. Something to do with sports. Except I didn't know what stores or restaurants he liked. What sports he followed, much less what teams. It hadn't really hit me before how little I actually knew about the man I loved. We weren't all about sex. We did talk. We just didn't seem to talk about those kinds of things, our favorite colors or songs, the kind of things that people were supposed to talk about on first dates. We had talked about work and school, but neither of those things really helped me figure out a gift. I wanted something personal, but not like a stalker-ish, moving too fast kind of gift. I didn't want him to think I was trying to get a ring or commitment or something like that.
When I stepped into the Fort Collins mall, I wondered if I'd made a mistake. After those couple instances of freaking out at Santa Claus, I'd avoided any public place from about a week before Thanksgiving until after New Year's. Now, I stood in the middle of a place that basically looked like Christmas threw up. There were garlands hanging everywhere, festive music playing and at least half a dozen huge trees decorated with giant red and gold bulbs.
And everywhere I looked, people. Lots of people. All jostling each other as they hurried from store to store, their arms full of bags even as they talked and texted.
I definitely didn't want to linger.
Fortunately for me, there was a mall map just a couple feet away. I didn't know what I wanted, but at least that would help me narrow things down. It wasn't like I was going to buy him body wash or lingerie.
I laughed to myself as I walked over to the map. The lingerie was actually not a bad idea. I could only imagine the look on his face if I bought something slinky and sexy. I wouldn't feel right about making that his present though, even though I knew he'd disagree. It was too bad I didn't know where any stores were that sold sex toys. I probably could've found one, but as much as I'd had sex before Rylan and how much I enjoyed being kinky with him, I'd never gone into a sex shop – again, the joys of online shopping – and this didn't really seem like the best time to see if I could handle it.
Still, I liked the idea of buying something for myself for Christmas. Just because Rylan would enjoy it too didn't mean it wasn't a present for me. I was thinking something with lace and silk, maybe in blue.
For him, however, the map showed a couple electronics stores nearby, so I figured that would be the best place to start. He was, after all, a techie like me.
I headed down into the right corridor with no idea what I was looking for. The first store sold mostly the big electronics – televisions, gaming systems, sound systems – and I knew he didn't need any of those. From what I'd seen, he already had the newest and the best. The next store was tiny and packed so tightly that I couldn't even get inside. It looked like it was all phones and iPods, so I knew there wouldn't be anything in there I'd want either.
I was on my way to the third store when I saw a place that sold suits and ties. Rylan didn't need any suits and I didn't have his measurements even if I had wanted to buy him one. A tie, however, was a possibility.
I was standing next t
o a particularly expensive-looking silver one when one of the sales people approached. One look at him and I knew I wouldn’t be buying anything here, no matter how nice the merchandise. The man was only a couple inches taller than me, thin, and wearing an expertly-cut black suit. His mouth was twisted as if he smelled something foul.
“May I help you?” His question implied anything but a helpful attitude.
“I was thinking of buying this for my boyfriend.” I was pretty sure I said it as much to see his reaction as anything else. I had no doubt what he pictured as the only kind of guy who'd be interested in me.
“That particular tie is quite expensive, Miss. I'm sure your boyfriend would be more interested in something,” he sneered, “faux leather.”
My mouth flattened into a thin line. If he'd stuck with a fake smile, I probably would've just laughed, but I'd had enough of people acting like I was beneath them. I looked around the store. “I don't know about that,” I said in a sickly sweet voice. “I'm pretty sure Rylan Archer was named one of the best-dressed CEOs in the country.”
Eyebrows went up. “Rylan Archer? The multi-millionaire CEO of Archer Enterprises?”
I nodded. “I was looking for a present for him, but I won't be getting it here.” I turned to go, but then stopped and looked at the man again. “And in case you don't believe me, check out the society page. I'm sure there are pictures of us at Lara Roache's Christmas party.”
“You know Lara Roache.” The color drained from his face.
I smiled at him. “Bet you're wishing you would've just tried to sell me that tie right about now, huh?”
I didn't give him the opportunity to say anything as I walked back out into the crowd. I wasn't going to try another clothing store. I doubted I'd get a warmer reception at any store that sold anything worth buying for someone like Rylan. It wasn't like I could just walk into any old place and buy a sweatshirt or something like that.
I sighed as I walked into the last electronics store. It was pretty busy, so I was saved from having to deal with anyone asking if I needed help. Either that or they assumed I could take care of myself and they should focus on the eighty year-old man who kept asking where he could buy the internet for his grandson.