Hannah & the Dom Next Door (11 page)

“You look like you could use a drink,” Colin greeted Mitch when he entered Casey’s Sunday night for their weekly poker game. “Bad week, weekend or both?” Colin knew Mitch as well as he did his brothers, in some ways better. They had explored their mutual interest in bondage and domination together while college roommates and forged a bond that was as tight as the one he shared with Brett and Donovan. They knew the mistakes each of them had made in those early years as well as the successes. Mitch stood by him, along with his brothers, a few months ago when he had come clean about the circumstances surrounding his partner’s death and their unconditional support eased Colin’s misplaced guilt and enabled him to finally claim Olivia openly. From the look on Mitch’s face it looked like he was the one who could use a sounding board this time around.

“Neither really,” Mitch sighed as he took the whiskey Colin handed him and they moved to sit at their usual table to wait for the others to arrive. “Yesterday I had to spend the day dealing with pain in the ass paperwork, but that’s par for the course and nothing new. Today I did some work around mom’s then stayed for dinner when the gang showed up.” And spent the whole afternoon thinking about how much his mother and sisters would like Hannah, Mitch thought.

“So what happened to put that look of doom on your face?”

Mitch didn’t realize his mood was so transparent, then again he never could hide anything from Colin. He didn’t want to discuss his relationship with Hannah simply because he had no idea what their relationship was. Were they back to being friendly neighbors now or was she going to ask him for another night of sex? And since when was he so fucking wishy-washy over where he stood with a woman? That was easy enough to answer. He felt like he was drowning ever since she lifted her head from her car’s engine to look up at him with guileless pale blue eyes without an ounce of discomfort over her disheveled appearance. Two nights of relatively vanilla sex hadn’t been enough of a deterrent to save him. On the contrary, despite knowing the danger of going under, he kept fantasizing about going back for more.

“Nothing,” he finally answered Colin without elaborating.

“Does this nothing have to do with you not joining us upstairs last night?”

Astute bastard. “Yes, and we’ll leave it at that,” Mitch replied as Brett, Donovan and Ethan came in.

Colin nodded. Having experience wrestling with personal issues, he knew there was a time and place to confide in friends. “Pepsi, Ethan,” he called out as his youngest brother, who was only nineteen, started to grab a beer.

“Sheesh, you’re such a hard ass, Colin. I’m riding with Donovan. One isn’t going to land me in jail,” Ethan complained thinking that having an older brother who used to be a cop was a pain in the ass.

Brett slapped Ethan on the back of the head, saying, “I took care of that speeding ticket, pup, but that’s where I draw the line.”

“I’ll bet you guys did your share of drinking before you were twenty-one,” he grumbled but traded the beer for a Pepsi then handed one to Donovan who rarely drank.

“Duh,” Donovan said without remorse. “Suck it up, kid.”

Thankfully, Ethan was either too intent on kicking their asses in cards and crowing about taking their money or was showing signs of maturity by not grilling him about Hannah. When he winked at him from across the table, Mitch fought to stifle a grin. He had his back, reiterating he was a McGilley through and through.

Mitch finally relaxed, especially after winning the last hand and largest pot, but as he drove home, his thoughts once again strayed to his neighbor and where this thing between them was going. By the time he pulled into his drive thirty minutes later, he still had no answers except one. He hoped she asked him over for dinner and sex again next weekend.

Chapter Six

“Turn this way, Melanie,” Hannah instructed the seventeen year old girl. “Now, tilt your head a little, that’s it. Smile!” She snapped several shots, all of them sure to be winners as Melanie was very photogenic. Her shoulder length blonde hair framed an attractive face dominated by large brown eyes. Her infectious smile came naturally and Hannah was sure she was going to have a difficult time selecting which pictures she wanted for her senior portfolio.

The Lexington Arboretum had been an excellent choice to take these pictures and she scheduled this photo shoot just in time. The Arboretum was going to close for a week starting this evening to repair the sprinkler system and Hannah knew the teenager didn’t want to wait that long. The copse of American Persimmon and native Pawpaw trees in the Home Fruit and Nut Garden just beyond the wooden walkway made an excellent background for these shots. She would have loved to take some pictures in that garden, but it was already barricaded against visitors.

The late morning sun was warm but not as heat inducing as her thoughts have been the past four days. The distraction of her first photo shoot hadn’t lasted long, and for the past thirty minutes, Hannah found her mind wandering from her job of posing Melanie among the floral bouquets of the various gardens to thinking of Mitch and the wonderful sensations he so easily evoked in her.

She hasn’t seen him since he returned home last Saturday even though she had surreptitiously tried to catch a glimpse of him all day Sunday. He didn’t park his truck in the garage and it was gone when she went out the next morning to pick up the paper and she didn’t see it all day. Her behavior made her feel like she was Melanie’s age, an adolescent teen with a crush on the hot boy next door. But what she was feeling, and craving now was completely different from what she had felt during her first rumspringa and her young heart had flipped head over heels for Caleb. With Caleb, she knew right away she wanted to spend her life with him. There were no doubts or plaguing questions, just a strong desire to be with him always. She was honest enough to admit to herself now that desire had begun to wan the last year or so before his death, but it was due more to the chafing of their restrictive lifestyle than a lessoning of her feelings for her husband. With Mitch, the only thing she knew for certain was she wanted more sexual encounters with him like the last two. She was happy with the new life she was slowly forging for herself, loved being outside with irrepressible clients like Melanie, matching her physical and inner appeal with nature’s natural beauty.

On top of being pleased with her work, she now had a friend in Anna, whom she was supposed to meet for lunch as soon as she finished with Melanie. Knowing there was no way she could broach the subject of oral sex with Anna without feeling like a complete idiot, Hannah stopped in at a bookstore on Monday and picked up a copy of Sex for Dummies and had been totally immersed in it for three days. While it was a wonderful source of information, she still couldn’t imagine herself taking Mitch’s penis in her mouth the way it described. Just the thought would have appalled her a year ago, but now, even though she was intrigued, her fear of coming across as totally naïve and incompetent, of failing to pleasure Mitch as much as he had her, was what was holding her back. A book simply couldn’t give her the experience most women her age already had.

A sudden flash from the trees startled her, pulling her attention back to the task at hand. Gone as fast as it appeared, she hoped it didn’t ruin that shot. “Hop up on the rail, Melanie, and lean on your right hand. Good. Now hold that a minute.” She took a few steps closer as a couple emerged from the tree garden, stepping under the barricade then hesitating before walking behind her across the walkway. There was no rail on the other side and she didn’t want to crowd them. She only caught a brief glimpse of the pair as they approached but it was enough to see the woman was upset over something and the man obviously had no sympathy for whatever it was. His dark face looked menacing which gave her the creeps and she assumed the couple was having a quarrel. They didn’t say anything, unlike the few other visitors in the park they had crossed paths with. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man glare daggers at her before the woman tugged on his arm, hurrying him along. She assumed it was because she and Melanie were the only ones around to witness his trespass into the closed garden.

“That was rude,” she muttered before taking an impromptu shot of Melanie hopping down from the rail. It wasn’t as if she was going to report him to the park security.

Maybe it was her dress that made him act so obnoxiously. She knew the way she dressed drew people’s attention, less so now that she had discarded her wimple and wasn’t wearing her hair in a bun under that cap. She should probably either keep it loose or cut it, but she was still getting used to having the braid hang down her back. Aunt Mary advised her to take it slow while adapting to life outside of her community, and that advice has been invaluable. When it came to her relationship with Mitch, she could only hope he didn’t get bored with her baby steps because, right now, she couldn’t imagine getting naked or fantasizing about oral sex with anyone but him.

“When will they be done?” Melanie asked with all the exuberance and impatience of youth.

Grabbing her bag, Hannah put away her camera and headed toward the exit of the park with Melanie. “Give me a few days. I promise I’ll start working on editing them later today and have them up on my website as soon as possible. I really appreciate you taking a chance on me, Melanie. I promise I won’t let you down.”

“Mom said you would be as honest as the day is long, one of her favorite quotes, and wouldn’t pressure us into buying anything we don’t want or need. This was fun. I can’t wait to compare my pictures with the ones my friends had taken out here. I bet mine are going to be much better and cheaper!” She sent Hannah a cheeky grin as they reached the parking lot.

“I appreciate the confidence and I’ll do my best not to let you down.” Hannah nervously noted the same couple that had been so rude on the walkway standing by a white SUV arguing. If she didn’t know better, she would swear the man had gestured toward her and Melanie when they saw them. Unable to figure out what his problem was, she waited until Melanie got behind her wheel and pulled out before she quickly followed her.

Hannah felt as if eyes were boring into the back of her head as she drove past them, careful to avoid eye contact. Just because she came from a peaceful community with virtually no crime didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of what went on in big cities such as Lexington. Hopefully, it was just her imagination that was making her uneasy about the other couple.

Thanks to GPS, Hannah found the First Watch Café where she was meeting Anna with no problem. Stepping inside, the cool interior felt wonderful after spending the warm morning outdoors and the mouth-watering aromas of freshly made to order dishes made her realize how hungry she was. She was fifteen minutes early so, picking a small table for two in the back corner, she pulled her book out of her bag, thankful that she thought to buy a book cover for it. She was totally immersed in the chapter on oral sex and didn’t see Anna arrive until she was taking a seat across from her and pulling the book down to read it upside down.

“You mean there’s a Dummies book for sex? Are you kidding me?” Anna asked laughing. Poor Hannah must be more inexperienced than she had imagined.

“Thankfully, I haven’t come across anything there isn’t a Dummies book for.” She quickly closed the book and tucked it away before saying, “Thank you for the lunch invitation. I like this place.”

“Wait until you taste their food. I recommend anything on the menu.” Even though Anna found Hannah’s reading material humorous, she also felt bad for her if she felt so far out of her element with Mitch that she thought she was dumb. And from the look on her face when she caught her reading, that was exactly how she felt. They placed their orders for salads before Anna said, “You know, Hannah, just because there are things you haven’t experienced sexually, doesn’t mean you’re dumb.”

“Just as naïve as a teenage virgin?” she returned dryly. “Would you think me horribly rude if I asked how much experience you had before you married?” Anna made it easy for her to relax and get personal, thank goodness.

“Not at all. What’re friends for if you can’t ask them personal questions and use them as sounding boards. My best friend has been my rock ever since our college days. You have to remember, Hannah, I was almost twenty-six when I married and I had relationships in college.”

“Yeah, dumb question. I don’t regret marrying young or marrying Caleb. At the time it was right and what we both wanted, but in the two, almost three years since he’s been gone, there hasn’t been any inclination on my part to enter into another relationship. Not until Mitch. And I don’t think two evenings of dinner and sex make a relationship, especially since both times were at my request.”

Anna knew what Hannah meant. It wasn’t until she met Donovan that she became determined to explore the alternative sexual lifestyle that had intrigued her for so long. “You just asked him?” She would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall watching Mitch’s reaction to being bluntly propositioned by an Amish widow. It had to have been priceless. Then again, if he had agreed not once, but twice, he must have found something he liked about her because she knew for certain it wasn’t the vanilla sex that drew him back.

Hannah waited until the waitress set their salads down and left before answering. “I couldn’t think of any other way. It’s not as if I know how to flirt or seduce a man. If I hadn’t, I would still believe the little….tremors I achieved with Caleb was all there was.” Gosh darn it, she moaned silently as she felt her face redden at her admission, why did she admit
that
?

Anna was surprised that Hannah hadn’t experienced an orgasm until two weeks ago, but knowing Mitch, she had no doubt her first big O was awesome. Seeing her discomfort, she sensed there was more to it than her admission. “It’s a fine line, isn’t it, between what you were taught was morally right and wrong and experiencing sensations, as well as emotions, that feel so right despite achieving them doing things you thought went against those teachings?”