Different Roads (13 page)

            We
sat in silence while he smoked, and I tried not to think about how much I had
enjoyed playing tongue tag with him earlier. I turned to glance over my
shoulder through the sliding glass doors to determine just how visible we were
from the cluster of people gathered inside. When I turned back around, Damon's
face was so close I could smell the mingling of cigarette smoke and beer on his
breath.

            His
eyes twinkled in the firelight and a smirk tipped up the edges of his mouth as
he asked, "Is the coast clear?"

            Mesmerized,
my eyes watched his mouth as he took a long draw off the cigarette before
flinging it into the fire and I nodded in response. "Should I be
afraid?"

            He
tipped his head back and laughed, "I guess that depends."

            I
gently shoved him out of my personal space to try and clear the lust from my
sex-starved brain and downed the last swallow of my beer. I swatted his feet
off the cooler so I could grab another. "Oh yeah? Depends on what?" I
asked as I dug through the ice.

            "Does
the idea of over the edge, rough, borderline kinky sex scare you?"

            My
fingers wrapped around a small, but effective, chunk of ice. I stood and
playfully straddled his lap, facing him. His eyes flashed as I ran my tongue
across his lower lip seductively while at the same time maneuvering the ice in
my hand down the front of his shirt. I swear I heard a sizzle as the cold, liquid
met the smokin' hot surface of his smooth chest. "Kinky you say?" I
snickered as the shock registered across his face.

            "Fuck
me!" Damon growled. His arms locked around me as I tried to squirm free.
"You are so going to pay for that."

            "What?
It slipped." I said and wriggled around on his lap until I felt him grow hard
against my inner thigh.

            He
wrapped one large hand around both of my wrists, effectively pinning me in
place while his other hand tugged on my pony tail. When he leaned in to claim
my mouth, my baseball cap bumped against his forehead. He swore, yanked Seth's
hat off my head, and tossed it into the flames with one swift motion.  

His kisses were hard and relentless, and
there was no doubt in my mind that we were about to go down a road that there
would be no turning back from. I knew I needed him inside of me, I just didn't
know if doing it on the deck was a stellar idea. I pulled away for a minute to catch
my breath, trying to slow the erratic pounding of my heart. He ran his thumb
inside the waistband of my pants, teasing my skin with his searing touch.  Our
eyes locked, and when I didn't stop his hand from exploring further, he took
that as my consent to unfasten the button of my jeans. I pressed my hips
against his exploring hand, knowing damn well that I wanted more than just his
fingers inside of me. A soft whimper escaped as he went to work slowly easing
in and out of me while his thumb pressed against my swollen clit.

Abruptly, he yanked his hands from my
wet panties and stood. With one hand, he cradled me to him and my legs instinctively
wrapped around his hips as he used his free hand to undo his pants. In one swift
motion he dropped onto the chair and turned me in his lap so I my back was pressed
against his firm chest.

I heard the sound of foil as he tore
open the condom package before unrolling it down over his very ready body. I tucked
the edges of the blanket around us in case anyone -- Shelley -- happened to
wander outside. He eased my jeans and panties down just far enough on my hips
to allow more room for him to slide unencumbered inside of me.

His hand roamed up inside the front of my
shirt, playfully pinching my nipples while his mouth trailed down the back of
my neck, nibbling as he went. I sucked in a breath as he slipped one, then two,
fingers into me, "Jesus Jaq, you're so wet," he groaned.

I bit my lip and squirmed as his fingers
brought me close to the edge. My inner slut was crazy with desire, and I was
pretty sure she's the one who finally begged him to
just fuck me already
.
Did I say that out loud? From the flash of his eyes and the shit-eating grin on
his cocky face, I was sure he'd heard me loud and clear. He entered me with one
quick thrust.  I came almost immediately and it didn't take him much longer.

Afterward, we sat wrapped in silence
until I felt him slip out of me. I stood and fastened my jeans before making my
way across the patio. I shot him a disbelieving look as he dropped the spent
condom over the edge of the deck onto the hood of a truck parked below.
"There's a little souvenir for somebody." I grinned and shook my
head. He turned back to me, "You're mine now, you know that, right?"

"I hardly call one quick fuck on
the balcony ownership rights," I narrowed my eyes at him. "Maybe
after a few more times, we can discuss it again." I didn't give him time
to respond before quickly disappearing inside the house with a smug, just-had-sex
grin on my face.

Between
the stress-erasing orgasm and the few beers from last night, I probably slept
better than I had since forever ago, but that didn't mean I wanted to wake up
to Shelley's grinning face looming over me. I blinked a few times to make sure
I wasn't seeing things, "Why are you looking at me like that?" I
groaned and propped myself up on my elbows.

            "Oh
come on. Don't you dare play innocent with me," Shelley bounced off the
chair over to the bed beside me. "Spill."

            I
shook my head and collapsed against the pillow, "Wait. How did you get up
here anyway? Aren't you afraid of heights?"

            "Don't
remind me. If I wasn't dying to hear about you and Damon, I wouldn't be up here
right now," she swallowed and peered over the edge of the loft. "Of
course, getting down might be a different story."

            "What
makes you so sure anything happened with Damon?" I asked through narrowed
eyes.

            "Oh
I don't know. Maybe it was the used condom on the hood of the truck parked
directly beneath the balcony where you and Damon were alone together. Alone
long enough for him to use said condom. Not to mention the fact that when you
walked through the kitchen you had that whole hair of shame thing going
on," she said matter-of-factly.

            My
cheeks warmed as I remembered what I did with Damon, "I guess the evidence
is stacked against me. I plead the fifth."

            Shelley
stared off in space with a faint smile parting her lips, "Not gonna lie.
Damon Blackwell is fucking hot. You tell anyone I said that and I'll deny
it," she gave an exaggerated allover body shiver before adding, "I'll
just bet he likes it rough too," she growled.

            I
shrugged and threw back the covers, "I never kiss and tell."

            "Whatever
Jaq," she rolled her eyes.

            I
shrugged into my robe and started down the ladder, "Is that bacon I
smell?" Shelley nodded and I noticed the pinched look on her face.
"What's wrong with you?"

            "I
just remembered. I'm afraid of heights."

            I
laughed at her, having little sympathy for how she was going to find her way
back down out of the loft since she should have thought about that in the first
place, "Really? I didn't know that."

            "Shut
up!" she snapped at me seconds before a pillow sailed over the top of my
retreating head.

            I
wandered into the kitchen to find Damon wearing an apron and flipping pancakes
while Tim sat at the table with his hands wrapped around a coffee mug. He nodded
his head toward Damon and raised his eyebrows a few times suggestively at me as
I opened the fridge.

"Tim, can you come here
please?" Shelley yelled from the loft. He shook his head and pushed back
from the table to go retrieve our height-challenged friend.

I purposely brushed up against Damon
when I reached for a glass for my orange juice. "Mmm, something smells
good enough to eat," I said with a deep breath.

"Well, since I washed my hands
after last night, it must be breakfast," he flashed me a crooked grin.

"Oh my God! You are so
disgusting," I said and swatted him playfully on the back of the head.

"Didn't seem to bother you at the
time, if I remember correctly," he muttered. I didn't even try to deny it
as Tim walked in carrying a protesting Shelley over his shoulder.

"Put me down, you
Neanderthal," she complained.

Our plans were to leave in the early
afternoon to head back home, but since the rain started coming down in buckets
sometime during breakfast, we decided there wasn't much use in us hanging
around Paradise Chateaus any longer.

I showered and stacked my things by the
door of the cabin. I did a quick walkthrough to make sure I hadn't left
anything behind. By the time I got back to the door to retrieve my things,
Damon was carrying them to the bus already. Shelley nudged me with her elbow,
"Who says chivalry's dead."

"You've lost your mind," I
sighed and followed them to the bus.

I took the front seat behind Tim and
propped my knee up on the seat beside me to deter anyone from sitting with me.
Damon climbed the steps, and a mischievous glint sparkled in his wolfish eyes.
He reached for my hand and pulled me along with him to the back of the bus. I
shoved my pillow between myself and the bus window. I tried to ignore the
warmth spreading up through my body as Damon threw a blanket onto my lap.
"Never know when a blanket might come in handy," he said with a wink.

I snorted and whispered, "Behave
would you?"

He laughed and slid in closer than
necessary. I was extremely aware of the fact that our thighs were touching. I
knew if I was going to survive the long ride home with my clothes intact I needed
to focus on something other than the lust he instilled inside my inner slut. I
faked a yawn, and moved as far away from him as the small seat allowed.

He threaded his arm between my back and
the seat and put his head on my shoulder, "Damn you smell good enough to
eat, Jaq," he said and snuggled against me.

I groaned and thought to myself,
so
do you
.

The
week after our fishing trip was fairly uneventful as I fell back into some
semblance of normalcy. I tried to erase the smokin' hot sex I'd had with Damon
Blackwell from my thoughts. I wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone but I
figured Damon was a safe bet since we both seemed to be in it just for the
physical aspect. No more, no less. I was as okay with using him as he was with
letting me.

            Not
gonna lie, it was a pleasant surprise to see his leather clad body as he leaned
casually against the brick of the school when I came out after my last class
Friday afternoon. In spite of trying to maintain a nonchalant attitude, my
inner sex goddess nudged a sweet smile across my face as I strolled toward him.

            "What's
up?" Damon asked.

            I
sucked my lower lip between my teeth and resisted the urge to say something
dirty, "Not much, what's up with you?"

            He
pushed away from the building and closed the distance between us in three easy
strides, "Nothing yet, but I bet we could change that."

            I
smiled and shook my head, "So much for having a
clean
conversation
with Mr. Perverted."

            "Oh
come on Jaq, you can't tell me your mind wasn't already headed toward the
gutter as soon as you spotted me standing here." His voice was low and
sent a shudder of want coursing through my veins. He hooked his fingers through
the front belt loops of my jeans and crushed me against his chest.

            I
gave him a quick kiss and pulled away before issuing him a challenge, "I
tell you what. If you can sit through a whole night in front of the TV without
so much as thinking, breathing, or talking about sex, you win."

He quirked an eyebrow at me and asked, "Wait. 
What exactly do I win?"

I wrapped my arms around his neck and
rubbed my body against him, "Whatever you want." I dropped my arms to
my side and stepped back to watch his reaction as I spoke. "But it doesn't
matter since you won't be able to last five minutes, let alone an entire
evening."

"Whatever. I'm in if the stakes are
worth it. But what happens if I lose?"

I licked my lips and tilted my head to
the side, "Hmm. If you lose, you have to be my slave for one whole week
and do whatever I say."

His eyes went wide and he said,
"You're on. But first, there needs to be some ground rules."

"Ground rules?" I asked,
intrigued by his willingness to play along.

"You're not allowed to bite, chew,
lick, or otherwise play with that lower lip of yours. You can't put your hands,
mouth, feet, or any other part of your anatomy on or against any part of
mine," he smirked. "Two can play this game. You are so going to
lose."

I held my hand toward him, "Shake
on it?"