Maya And The Tough Guy (16 page)

She answered the door and felt her insides warm with sheer joy. Jayce had a small duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a rare, big smile on his face. It was cold out, but all he had on was jeans and a t-shirt.
 

Maya stepped back. “Come in.”

He did, kicking the door shut behind him and dropping the bag on the floor at his side. His eyes drifted down her body and back up again, but he didn’t smile or smirk or anything. He just stood there.
 

“Do you want some coffee or something?” she asked, as though he was a common houseguest.
 

“Sure,” he said with a half-shrug.
 

She turned and fled to the kitchen. “Make yourself comfortable,” she said over her shoulder. The coffee pot only needed switched on, as Maya’s habit was always to set it up before going to bed. Once she switched it on, she stood there and watched the black liquid drip into the pot. There was no way she could stand there for fifteen minutes while it brewed, but her nerves wouldn’t let her turn around.

“I haven’t showered yet.”

Maya jumped and turned to find Jayce standing three steps in front of her.
 

“I thought maybe I could grab a shower here,” he said. “Would that be okay?”

Maya nodded frantically. “Sure,” she said. “That’s fine.”

Still, he stood there. “You wanna shower with me, Maya?”

Maya’s mouth opened and closed like a fish struggling for breath.
 

Jayce’s lips turned up in a smile. “Maybe next time, huh?”

Suddenly the thought of not showering with him made her very disappointed. “No,” she said. “A shower sounds good. Just…don’t be…aggressive.”

His smile brightened as he leaned back on the counter behind him. “Maybe you should set some ground rules.”

Maya swallowed and then nodded. “Okay. Well, um, first of all, no means no.”

“That’s basic decency.”

“Not to everyone.”

“To me it is, Maya. I’ll show you. I’ll prove you don’t have to be afraid of me.”

After a moment to digest his words, Maya said, “Secondly, don’t touch me unless I ask you to.”

He nodded.

“And I guess, just, go at my pace. If I’m kissing you, just stick with kissing…don’t try to push for more.”

“No problem.” His smile had softened and in that moment, with his guard down, he suddenly didn’t look so tough after all. He looked kind and maybe even a little sweet.

“What about you?” she asked. “What are your rules?”

“Oh, I don’t have any rules, babe. Like I said, do whatever you want with me.”
 

“You don’t have any…limits?”

“No limits, Maya. Not with you.”

What was he doing? Why was he doing this? Maya wanted what he was offering, no doubt. She simply couldn’t understand why he would do this when he could easily have sex with a more experienced, less timid woman. But she’d already asked him once, and she was afraid if she asked again, he would come to his senses and she’d be left alone without a love slave.

So Maya led him to the bathroom. She got the water running and heating up, and then turned to face Jayce. He was already peeling out of his shirt, and Maya felt a dreamy wash of lust course through her veins. “You have a fantastic body,” Maya said, before slamming her mouth shut. She hadn’t intended to say that out loud.

“Thanks,” Jayce said as he unfastened his jeans. He didn’t seem at all surprised or flattered by the compliment. “I work really hard at it.”

“You do?”

“Of course,” he said with a laugh. “Like I’m sure you work hard to look like you do.”

Maya still hadn’t disrobed. “I think you’ll find I don’t work that hard.” A Zumba workout on DVD about three times a week was all she did.

Jayce was down to his boxers and then those were gone. He stood tall, grinned, and nodded toward her shirt. “You going in fully dressed?” He stepped in the shower without waiting for an answer.
 

Maya took a breath, stripped, and climbed in after him. The shower was small, so it was impossible not to bump into each other, but he kept his hands to himself.
 

“I haven’t showered with a woman in…years, I think,” Jayce said, tilting his head back into the spray and soaking his hair.
 

“You don’t shower with Janice?” Maya switched places with him and dipped her head back into the hot spray.

“No, Janice and I don’t actually spend a lot of time together.”

Maya grabbed the shampoo, poured some into her palm, and handed the bottle to him.

Jayce frowned at it. “This should have me smelling nice and non-threatening.”

Maya smiled as she lathered. “When was the first time you showered with a girl?”

“When I was sixteen. My first girlfriend. Her parents were out of town, so we decided to play house for the weekend. She tried to cook dinner. I built a fire in the fireplace. We watched R-rated movies. And we showered together. Tried to have sex in the shower, but it was too slippery and we ended up drying off and going to her bed. Still, it was fun trying.”

By now, his hair was foamed up with shampoo just like hers. He smiled down at her and started to reach for her hair, but stopped. “May I?” he asked.

“Sure,” Maya said, thinking he was going to help her rinse. But instead, he gathered all her hair on top of her head, twisted it up, and then laughed at her.

She grinned and reached for his hair, flattening it all into a mohawk, barely noticing the fact that her breasts were brushing against his chest. She used some of the foam from the shampoo to give him a goatee. “Does this look good?” he asked, turning his head side-to-side. “With the mohawk? I’ve been thinking about getting my hair cut like this.”

“Oh, God, don’t,” she said, still laughing. “I like your hair longer.”

“I think a mohawk would be badass.”

Maya reached up and slicked his hair back. “Maybe an undercut and then you can style the longer hair on top however you want. But not in a full, spiky mohawk. Definitely not.”

“I am a bartender, Maya. People expect me to be extreme.” He spoke while his hands went back to work on her hair. It felt good and soothing. Maya leaned into his hands as if to prolong the physical contact. He was pushing her hair up and over to one side. “This is what you need. Shave this side and then let all these loose curls cascade down the other.”

“Cascade?” she asked with a giggle.
 

“What?” he asked defensively.

“It’s just a surprising bit of vocabulary, that’s all.”

He grinned down at her. “I read books sometimes. I ain’t a complete meathead.”

“I never thought you were.” She tipped her head back and rinsed. While he took his turn rinsing, she washed the rest of her body. And then she stood still and watched the water running in rivulets down his chiseled abs. Mesmerized, almost in a trance, she lathered up her loofa and began washing him, scrubbing down his arms and abs. She pressed herself against him, reached around, and scrubbed his back.

He stood still for her, just as she’d asked. He kept his hands at his sides. She supposed the erection pressing into her belly wasn’t really his fault. Maya dropped her loofa, pressed her forehead to Jayce’s chest, and took his erection in her hands. “We just going to pretend this isn’t here?” she asked.

“Whatever you want,” he said, his voice mostly breath.
 

She stroked him, slowly at first, but with increasing speed. She kept her head to his chest and listened to his breathing, coming in short, sharp gasps. He was bracing himself against the wall on one side and the door on the other. Maya heard him suck in a breath, groan through clenched teeth, and then come in hot bursts over her hands.

She waited to feel something. Waited to find out how her body would react. She felt herself smiling and growing excited. There was an ache between her legs that was throbbing, now, aching with need.

Maya tipped her head back to smile up at him, but his head was back, his eyes closed. “Is that better?” Maya asked.

Jayce dropped his head forward and opened his eyes. “Yeah. Much better.”

“Good.” Maya rinsed her hands, gave Jayce a pat on the cheek, and climbed out of the shower, pleased with what had happened. It was obvious that Jayce was completely cool about sex. He hadn’t been emotional at all, nor had he broken his promise about not touching her. As she dried off and dressed, she found herself content and excited about the rest of the night.

#

Jayce stayed under the shower for a few more seconds, trying not to cry or scream or fall to his knees and beg her to let him rock her world. God, and how hard he’d wanted to touch her. How hard he’d wanted just to hold her and kiss her.
 

The worst part was knowing that for her, she was just fooling around, getting him off for the thrill of it, or maybe just to get it out of the way so she didn’t have that thing poking at her every time she turned around. But for him, it was the culmination of years of hoping and wanting. Maya’s sweet hands had been around him, giving him the greatest pleasure there is. Her body had pressed against his. She’d smiled at him. Laughed with him. Showered naked with him. It was simultaneously the happiest and most miserable he’d ever been in his life.

Jayce climbed out of the shower, dried, and was about to dig some boxers out of his overnight bag when Maya popped her head in. A grin on her face, she said, “Just stay in the towel.” With that, she was gone.

Jayce grinned. Then he sighed. He cinched the towel around his hips and then stepped into the hallway. The front of the house was dark. All he could see was a dim glow coming from the kitchen…probably the stove light. There was light coming from a bedroom, so Jayce followed it. Maya was lighting candles. There was a plate with a quarter of a chocolate cake on it, sitting in the middle of the bed.

“Tell me I get to eat that off of you,” he said.
 

She snorted. Her back was to him. As she reached to the top of the dresser to light more candles, the little night-shirt she’d put on rose up the backs of her thighs, exposing the lower curves of her cute little ass cheeks. “God,” he muttered.

“So now, love slave,” she said, either not hearing him or choosing to ignore him, “I’m going to eat cake and you’re going to read to me.”

She crawled up the bed, lay on her side, and slid the cake in front of her. Propped up on her elbow, she took a bite of cake. “Mmm,” she moaned with her eyes closed. “Read, Jayce.”

He blew out a breath and sat on the opposite side of the bed, adjusting his towel and lounging back against the pillows. “You just jerked me off in the shower,” he said, studying her face as she stuffed it with cake. “Did that do nothing for you?”

Her big doe eyes turned up to his. “What do you mean?”

This was getting humiliating. “I mean…if I’d gotten to make you come in my hand, I’d be horny as hell.”

She blushed, smiled, and looked away. “I am,” she said softly. “I’m just enjoying my evening the way I want. Like you said I could. Whatever I want, right?”

Now he felt like an ass. This wasn’t about his ego, it was about her issues and needs. “Yes,” he said. “Whatever you want. I just want to make sure that you understand that that includes hand jobs and oral sex.”

She blushed even harder and almost choked on her cake. After a few seconds, she managed to swallow what was in her mouth and look back up at him. “I’m aware of my options, thank you.”

He grinned and shifted to make himself more comfortable on the bed. Then he grabbed the romance novel off the nightstand and scrutinized the cover. There was a half naked man ripping the bodice off a woman in a really old dress. He opened to the marked page. “You want me to make funny voices, or—“

“No,” she laughed. “Just read it straight.”

“Okay, but what if I think it’s funny? Then can I make funny voices?”

“No. And you can’t laugh, either. This book is totally hot.”

He arched a brow at her, skeptical at the least.
 

“Trust me,” she said. “Books like this have gotten me through a lot of dark times. I want us to share it together, okay?”

Well, that put a different spin on it. In fact, it made his heart warm. It made him want to be the best romance novel narrator in the world. “Okay. Let’s see,” he said, as he found a starting spot. Then he began reading. “
His eyes locked on hers as he caressed the milky mounds spilling out of the top of her stays
…the fuck is a stay?”

“Shh. Read.”

“
She gasped in pleasure and felt a moistening between her legs.
” He paused and shot Maya a glance, but she just nodded to him to keep going, while her cheeks were puffed out with cake.
 

“Okay…
she reached for his heavy, throbbing member. ‘We only have a few moments Reginald,’ she said. ‘Take me, here, now, lest we never have another chance.’
” He coughed to cover up a laugh. “
‘But Cecilia,’ he said, with warmth in his eyes, ‘When you’re bedded by your husband on your wedding night, he’ll know that your virginity is no longer in tact.’ ‘I don’t care, my love. I want you to be the one to usher me into womanhood.’
” Jayce squeezed his eyes shut and fought back more laughter.

“all right, all right,” Maya said. “Let it out.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry babe. It’s just too funny.”

Maya sat the cake on her nightstand and sat up on her knees. She grabbed the book from him. “Listen, it gets good.
‘My darling, if he were to get angry and hurt you, I could never forgive myself,’ Reginald said. ‘Let me worry about that,’ she answered. ‘The memory of what we do together tonight will sustain me. Reginald, I’ve loved you for so long. I only wish you’d returned my love sooner, but you didn’t and now I must marry him. You have to give me this one night, Reginald. You owe it to me and I’ll have you right now or else I’ll throw myself off this balcony.’
”
 

Jayce wasn’t laughing, now, as he listened to Maya read, as he gave her an encouraging smile when she glanced up at him.

She scooted closer so that her leg was touching his leg. “
Reginald resisted no longer. He grabbed the neckline of her dress and ripped it downward, exposing more of her cleavage. He ravished her mouth with his tongue while he filled his hands with her milky breasts.