Innocence Defied (New York) (8 page)

He murmured praises to her as he slowly slid free. Then he told her, “Close your eyes.”

Once she did he gently cupped the sides of her face, taking time to make sure his fingers shielded her ears to keep water out, he then tilted her head back under one of the overhead spigots.

As his seed was washed from her, he said, “I’m going to bathe you and when we’re finished, we need to talk.”

Her hands gripped each other in her lap and the muscles around her eyes tightened, showing him she was more than a little nervous. She nodded after a moment though, and when he brought her out from under the spray, he saw nothing but trust and devotion in her expression.

Dear God,
he silently prayed,
help me live up to what I see in those eyes.

Chapter Thirteen

Gage was more nervous than he could ever remember being in his life. It was Sunday. Brice and Terryn were coming over for lunch, followed by an early movie since the two of them had the day off. Gage had never kept a secret from Brice before. The two had been friends since their teens, and he couldn’t imagine what would happen to that friendship when Brice discovered what Gage was doing with his beloved baby sister.

She and Gage had argued about whether to tell him now and get it over with for over an hour. Unbelievably, Gage had lost. He still was having trouble accepting that. His little Oops, who never so much as said one word of backtalk to him her whole life, and now in two days she’d defied him more times than he could count. It made his head spin.

“You do realize your brother is a Dom, right?” he asked, starting the discussion again. “He’s also a cop. Not to mention the man is no idiot to begin with. He’s goin’ to walk in that door and he’s goin’ to know.” He was sitting at the kitchen island, watching her cook while he talked. She just shrugged her shoulders up to her ears and turned a brilliant shade of red.

“Ewww!” Her revulsion would have been comical in any other circumstances. “Do not. I repeat, do not tell me about my brother’s sex life.” She shuddered from head to toe. “Gross.”

“Infant.” He picked up a dish towel and threw it at her with an exasperated chuckle. “You started this whole ‘I’m a grownup—fuck me now’ thing, so talking about sex is part of it.”

She chucked the towel right back at him. “Yes. Talk about it when it comes to you and me. All day, every day. Just please don’t bring my brother into it unless you want me to barf.”

“Infant.” He repeated with a rueful shake of his head. “You are still missing the point. He’s going to catch on. He’s too smart not to. I don’t think you realize just how closely he watches you. He’ll know.”

To her credit, she stopped what she was doing and thought about his words before replying. “I don’t think so. Under normal circumstances, yeah, I could never get anything this big by him. But this isn’t normal and right now neither is he.” She leaned over the island and rested on her elbows. She was being serious, so Gage tried to listen despite the fact that her position shoved her lovely breasts up and together, making a mouthwatering valley he wanted to fill with a river of his come.

“He’s a newlywed, for one. For two: he still thinks I’m twelve. And three: he’d never think that you would look twice at me, so even if he suspected something was up he’d never think it was that.”

“I’ll give you one and two, Oops. But on three, I have to say somethin’.” He looked at her and felt every crazy mixed-up emotion he could name and a few he couldn’t. “I’m feeling guilty as hell over number three, darlin’. Guilty as hell. Your brother trusts me and as much as I’m strugglin’ with not feeling this way, I can’t help but feel like I’ve betrayed that trust.”

“I know.” Her eyes welled as she looked at him, and he knew that she understood the impossible position she’d put him in. “I value your friendship with my brother—heck with my whole family—as much as you do. It’s made me feel guilty for years whenever I thought about what this could do to them.” She came around to his side, wrapped her arms around his middle so she could squeeze herself tight to his back. “If I could have fallen in love with someone else, it would have been so much easier. But never. Not once. It’s always been you. This is right and we are right and because we are, we have to believe that Brice and my family will accept us. Eventually.”

Gage wasn’t so sure and for the hundredth time that day he asked himself why he was risking it. And for the hundredth time he didn’t have an answer—he only knew that she had become as irresistible as a siren’s call to him and there was no going back. So he’d ride it out and do his best by Brice and especially Zoe. He just hoped to God his best was good enough.

The ringing of the doorbell had them both jumping. Gage shook his head and whispered, “In fer a penny, in fer a pound.”

When she looked at him like he’d lost his mind, he smiled then went to open the door. She never got the joke when he threw out some of the odd ancient sayings his granddad used to quote, and her bafflement always cracked him up.

“Oh my heavens.” Terryn was the first through the door and even as she hugged him, she was looking toward the kitchen. “Please tell me that wonderful aroma I smell is Oops cooking for us.” She didn’t linger in his embrace long enough for him to answer—she was halfway to see for herself before he’d even gotten a chance to hug back.

Brice stepped in close behind her and was shaking his head as he closed the door. “You know, I’ve heard about people who have this magic metabolism and can eat thousands of calories a day and never gain an ounce. I never believed it. Not until that little redheaded beanpole came along.”

Gage saw the bemused adoration on his friend’s face and thumped him between the shoulders.

“Well,” he said, leading the way to the women, “I’ve seen your beanpole eat, too, so let’s get in there and make sure she saves some for us.”

“Oops,” Terryn was saying when they reached the kitchen, “this looks so amazing. You didn’t have to cook for us, though. This is your vacation—we should’ve gone out to eat.”

“Don’t listen to her, brat,” Brice told her as he wrapped her in a hug that lifted her off her feet. “I was dying for your spaghetti and I woulda cried like a baby if you hadn’t cooked.” With a loud smacking kiss on her cheek, he set her back on the floor.

“You know,” Zoe teased while Terryn helped bring the food to the table. “I’m almost sorry I ever cooked it for you in the first place.” She shook her head in mock despair. “The first thing I learned how to cook in home ec and now I’ll forever be chained to the stove and reeking of garlic.”

Gage stole a steaming slice of perfectly toasted garlic bread from the basket she was carrying, and a full half of it disappeared in one bite. “Mmm, it’ll be worth it.”

The four sat down and happily devoured the spread before them. Zoe had made a Caesar salad using her own recipe for the dressing, garlic toast, and her family-famous spaghetti. Gage slowly lost his anxiety about Brice catching on. Zoe had been right—the man was so taken with his new wife that the house could’ve fallen down around them and he wasn’t sure Brice would even notice.

Something else occurred to him as well. Zoe wasn’t acting any different than she always had toward him. She looked at him with stars in her eyes. She practically hung on his every word, and she found a million reasons to touch him. She’d been this way with him her whole life—only he now understood the emotion behind it all had grown from childhood hero worship to a woman’s desire. It was disconcerting that she’d harbored this depth of feeling for him since her teens. He was pulled in opposite directions about it. On one hand, he felt like she was too young, and she needed to separate herself from him and give herself the chance to make sure what she was truly feeling.

On the other hand… He looked at her across from him in her pretty blue tank top, with her hair piled on her head, as she laughed with Terryn. On the other hand, he felt like he’d rip the head off of any man who dared to lay a hand on her, so there was that. There was also the fact that he hadn’t seen her in three years. Three years was a long time to go without seeing someone. If she was only infatuated with him and this was just a passing crush, he reasoned, wouldn’t some young kid from her school have caught her eye? Wouldn’t she have grown out of it?

He felt her toes stroking along his calf below the table, and when he looked up at her, she sent him a playful wink. Yup, there was no downplaying or ignoring that what she felt for him was real, and as he allowed himself to accept that, the tension and guilt that had been simmering in his gut melted away.

He reached a hand down and brought that foot into his lap so he could stroke and tickle along it with one hand while he finished off the rest of his lunch. When she tried to remove it he held tight. He was committed to seeing where this would lead, and she was going to learn, starting right now, what it meant to be in a relationship with a Dom.

He was too much the realist to believe that an innocent like Oops could really love him. He wasn’t looking for love anyway—he was looking for a slave. But he loved her in his own way, enough to guide her and watch over her so that when it ended, God willing, he would be able to guide her through the heartache of a breakup as well.

Chapter Fourteen

Later at the theater, Zoe was so engrossed in the movie she startled and almost dropped the popcorn when Gage touched the inside of her knee. She took a gulp of her soda and tried to refocus on the movie. So what if he was touching her for the first time without her initiating it? He was just touching her knee. Big deal.

Just when her muscles relaxed and again forgot everything but the movie, that hand on her knee pulled. He pulled until her leg was pressed up against him. She flicked him a sidelong glance, but he was watching the movie and seemed oblivious to the fact he even had a hold of her leg. She was all for smashing herself against him, but when she tried to scooch the rest of her body closer, he stopped her by pushing her other knee. He kept pushing until she was completely wide open. She took another gulp of soda.

Gage’s large calloused hand was back where it started, but Zoe lost all hope of keeping track of the movie. She was wearing a cute outfit today. It was one he’d picked out after their shower. She had on a navy-blue tank top over her best push-up bra and her denim miniskirt with her favorite pair of black flats. And that was it. No panties, and he’d just spread her legs wide open.

Her brother was two rows away. Brice had given them an exaggerated wink when Gage had picked their seats then made a joke about wanting a little privacy to neck with his wife before leading her to seat a couple rows ahead.
 
All he had to do was turn around and they would be caught. Panic had her trying to close her legs again, but Gage’s hand became like a vise. Then he leaned over, presumably to steal a drink of her soda, but whispered in her ear instead. “If you try to close your legs one more time, sub, you’ll regret it.”

Zoe gulped as passion bloomed to full and vibrant life inside her. For what seemed like hours, that big strong hand just stayed there, hot as a branding iron, focusing her universe down to that one spot. Then, just when she’d relaxed and decided nothing else would happen, he moved. His palm slid rough and hot up the inside that thigh, leaving a throbbing trail of heat in its wake. She expected him to tease her more—maybe get close enough to almost touch and then back away—but he didn’t. He glided straight up until his fingers cupped right over her core, and Zoe couldn’t stop the helpless sound she made so she settled for muffling it in Gage’s shoulder.

His fingers felt even better now than they had last night and this morning. Maybe it was the added danger of getting caught, but whatever the reason, Zoe thought it was the most delicious sensation in the world as he curled his fingers into a claw and slowly dragged them over her lips. He played with her for a time, tugging on the labia and combing through the springy hair until she felt moisture trickle from her center down to the crease of her cheeks.

He must have felt that and took it as a signal, because his middle finger insinuated itself between the soft folds and he opened her. She couldn’t be positive, but she could’ve sworn he hummed in pleasure at finding her so wet for him. His thumb zeroed in on her clit and started making lazy circles there while the other digits went back down. Zoe about came out of her chair when he slid not one, but two of them in her. Now she was positive about that humming, because he did it again when he leaned close to whisper once more. “I can’t wait to fuck this tight little pussy. You are going to feel fantastic.”

Zoe couldn’t answer. She could barely remember to breathe as those two thick fingers pumped slowly in and out of her. As she desperately tried to keep still and at least look like she was watching the movie, Gage curled those fingers up and started tapping on that inner spot again. Zoe whimpered and felt her hips curl up off the seat, Gage used the heel of his hand to press her back down, only it made things even more critical because he was pressing right on her clit—the villain.

“Oops, darlin.” Gage’s voice was the gravely whisper of a million fantasies. “Tug your top and bra down so I can see your breast.” As shock reverberated throughout her system, Gage chuckled. “That made your pussy grip my fingers like a vise, sugar. Do it.”

Zoe didn’t want to think what would happen if Brice or Terryn got up to go to the bathroom, or one of the attendants came by with flashlights to check the theater. There were no people close by, and no one in seats where Zoe and Gage could be seen, but still. With a deep breath, she slid one hand up her torso until she gripped the edge of her neckline and bra, then pulled. With a small wobble, one breast popped free and Zoe felt her core clench again on the fingers lodged inside her. Gage was still facing the screen but she knew he was focused entirely on her. His hand clenched tight, curling up against her G-spot again and the heel grinding on her clit, and he shook his grip on her there. It was incredible and intense—that vibrating against her core—and caused that exposed breast to jiggle freely.