Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (16 page)

Sidonie sighed. “I know that already. But I have no idea why. I got dressed so I could get out of your hair. What more do you want from me?”

“You have no idea.” He grunted.

She smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “So guess that means voyeurism is a no-go, huh?”

“You hated it and I couldn’t even finish.” He sighed and released her onto her wobbly legs.

“How did you know that?” she asked as she thought she had put up a decent enough pretense.

“You told me.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Didn’t have to.”

Sidonie touched his face, where the rough hair had sprouted over his cheeks. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think about what this would be like. Logically speaking that is.”

“I know, but it was my half-assed idea to challenge you to begin with.”

“But I agreed.”

“Stop taking my side. An argument has two sides, pick the other one,” he grumbled, but she knew he was joking.

She rubbed her fingers over his and released the hand when his eyes snapped to hers. “A conversation doesn’t have to.”

“True. Still want something to eat?”

“You cooking?”

He shrugged. “If you call frozen waffles cooking, then yeah.”

“I think you can do a little better than that.”

“Maybe I could be persuaded to add in a couple of sausage links.”

“What would I have to do for those links?”

“We can work payment out later.” He winked.

And just like that, they had started and finished their first fight.

But a few minutes later, after they ate a silly breakfast that was an amalgam of things that only hormone-fueled kids liked, Den rubbed his taut belly and dusted the toaster pastry crumbs from his chest.

Sidonie refused to touch them with a stick and she said as much.

“Gross.”

“I bet I could change your mind about that.”

“Probably so.”

When they sat back on his sofa, she assumed they would lounge a bit before he took her home.

She was wrong.

“You owe me for the way you treated me before. Don’t think I forgot about that.”

“You started it!”

“Nope, that was all you.”

She wanted to fight about it, to delay the inevitable. Even as she knew that she would love it.

And she did.

He had her sit on top, facing away from him, and then he pushed her back until she draped over his lap toward the floor. When she was positioned to his liking, he slapped her ass.

“You will ask me before you make assumptions. Right?” he asked her before he swatted the left cheek.

Slap!

Sidonie lurched from shock as he popped the right cheek.
Smack!

“Sidonie, you didn’t answer me.”

“Yes!” she cried out.

“You can do better than that.”

He moved back to the left side.
Slap
.

It stung, but she took it. “I won’t assume anything. I–I’ll ask you first.”

“That’s better. But you called yourself a sex toy earlier.” Then he lashed out on the right side.
Smack
. She gritted her teeth and tried to not cry out. “You might be my fuck toy, but that goes both ways. Doesn’t it?”

He slapped her twice in quick succession this time, back and forth as if her ass were a set of bongos that he got points for banging.

“Yes!”

“Yes, what?”

“It goes both ways. I love being your fuck toy!”

“That’s right.
Mine
. And I don’t share my toys.”

He plunged inside of her and this time when he thrust inside her, she was not only ready, but on a hair trigger.

“Yess-sss!” Sidonie hissed.

His hands left her sore ass, one fisted in her hair and the other gripped her shoulder as a tether that served to drag her back for more.

This time when she looked out of the window and saw the freaky couple from next door fucking doggy style in the side yard, it didn’t bother her a bit. But maybe that was due to two things. One, they were much farther away than before and two, they were engaged in the act themselves.

At least she didn’t feel as if her performance was being dissected by scientists this way.

In fact, she laughed.

“What is it?”

“Your neighbors are freaks.”

“Well, they probably think we are, too.”

Sidonie rocked back into him. “Well, then teach them a thing or two.”

And did he ever.

By the time they finished, he was behind her. Their position mirrored the couple in the grass outside. Den forced her to watch the couple with a fist in her hair and a command.

“Watch them, like they are watching you.”

Sex with another couple. That almost constituted an orgy. Didn’t it?

Either way,
check
.

And that wasn’t even on her list.

When the time came, Den parked in front of her home and Sidonie dragged her keys out.

“Text me later.” She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Fuck that.” He grabbed her chin and sucked her lower lip into his mouth.

Their parting was hungry, despite the fact that she had enough sex to last her the week.

Or at least she tried to stockpile the orgasms while she could.

“Bye.”

“See you later.”

When she started up her SUV, the phone rang and Sidonie used the hands free to answer.

“Hey, girl!”

“Mimi? Hey!”

“Don’t hey me. I haven’t heard from you in two weeks! Where have you been? The only reason I know you’re alive is your wall posts.”

“Sorry.”

“Uh-huh. So gimme the tea.”

Sidonie had no way to even make the story short and she just blurted it out. “I’vebeenhavingsexwithimsincethebar.”

“I didn’t catch that?” But she knew her friend had. “So you mean to tell me that you have been sleeping with the cop for two weeks?”

“Something like that.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“So is he any good?” Sidonie laughed, Mimi had no idea.

And she wasn’t going to give her one, either. “Better than that.”

“Lucky bitch.”

“Yeah. That I am.” He’d turned her life upside down in the best way.

“So jealous.”

“Your time will come, girl.”

“Promises, promises.”

“Shoot, lemme call you back. I’m about to pick up the kids.”

“All right.”

Unlike the prior weeks, this one flew by.

But that was really due to the fact that Den texted her every day.

She would wake up to a good morning. Then she would get a message in the middle of the day. Before she went to bed, he would send her another.

He didn’t even mention their schedules that week at first, and Sidonie wondered if they weren’t going to scratch their mutual fantasy lists anymore.

But on Thursday:

Are you free for lunch today?

Of course. How long?

No need to take extra time. Just lunch

And it was just lunch. She wondered what was next on the bucket list, but when she arrived, he sat at the table and they ate their food and conversed about topics that they hadn’t before. He was in his full uniform, and he looked good enough to spread on the table and eat instead of whatever they offered in the tiny out of the way patisserie.

But he didn’t even approach her with lust. Didn’t kiss her.

Just talked to her.

With her.

It was odd.

But she liked it.

During their conversation, she found out he was Independent for his political affiliation.

He chuckled when she asked, out of sheer curiosity. “I like having all possible choices, not what a party offers me.” Sidonie was a Democrat, but that was more so because her parents were.

He learned her favorite color was green and he told her his was purple. That was because he had a grape colored stuffed octopus as a kid he wouldn’t let go of.

When they finished eating and he walked her to her car she wondered if he was going to even touch her.

But when he didn’t, she asked him. “Hug me?”

His eyes softened and he opened his arms to her. The embrace was stiff from Kevlar and thick man, but she never felt more protected. Cherished, even.

Sidonie got in her car, buckled the belt, and blew him the kiss he didn’t give her.

He grinned crookedly and caught it before he tucked it in the same breast pocket that held the twenty dollars from weeks before.

God, life felt so good.

That night, Den called her, which was odd. They rarely talked on the phone. Mainly they sent messages when either of them had the time.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.”

Sidonie found herself in an almost giddy state, one where she had to suppress childish giggles and urge to doodle their names. That was a weird place to be for someone of her age. It wasn’t like this was her first time in the rodeo, but somehow it was.

Everything about their relationship,
could she even call it that
?
Lord, help her, yes, she wanted to
… Was different.

“Why are you so quiet?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” Sidonie sighed.

He chuckled. “Miss me already?”

“Yeah, I kinda do.”

“How long can you get away tomorrow?”
Yes! Yesyesyes!

She thought about it.

“Well, the kids have a half day and get off at noon. Their dad is coming to get them and will bring them back Monday since that’s a teacher’s workday.”

“So, you have all weekend until Monday morning?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Spend it with me.”

“O–okay.” Sidonie had to admit, she couldn’t wait.

“I have to work on Sunday morning, but I’m off on Friday night until then.”

“So I would go home on Sunday?”

“No, Monday, you can go to work from my place. Just drive on over when you get off tomorrow.”

“All right.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

That conversation did nothing for the butterflies in her belly and the imaginary doodles in her brain.

Nothing what so ever.

Noise Complaint

Den felt his excitement grow as Friday morning turned into the afternoon. He’d swapped schedules with another officer so he could have the night off, and he was exhausted from his shifts being so close together.

But he had too much to do to take a nap and Sidonie would be at his place soon enough. He was in unfamiliar territory, as he hadn’t planned out their entire weekend together, but he would find something for them to occupy the time.

On his break, he’d purchased a large box of condoms, and wondered if there would be enough. He had another errand to run, but he would wait until he was off duty as he didn’t want to walk into a sex shop with his uniform on. He didn’t even get to have lunch, as he was called to the scene of a car accident when he placed his order.

When he got off work at four, he changed in the locker room. There was a change of clothes he kept in case of emergency, but they were pitifully wrinkled. As he had no other choice if he wanted to be home when Sidonie arrived, he drove to a local adult store and browsed for a minute.

The young girl there didn’t even appear to be eighteen, but he knew she had to be at least that old. She liked him, he could tell based on her body language although he had no interest in the waiflike girl.

He wanted someone darker, more lushly built.

Den went home and set up the kit the girl had showed him.

The box contained a number of things, from tasty chocolate sauce to feathers, but the main part he had to set up in advance.

Once he was finished, it was nearly five fifteen. Sidonie would be at his place in just a little while. As he hadn’t gone grocery shopping, it was one of the items on his agenda for that afternoon.

The doorbell rang and he smoothed the blankets one last time before he shoved the couple’s treasure chest under his bed.

“Honey, I’m home!”

Den popped his head around the corner and whistled. Sidonie wore a scrap of dress that was modest, but oddly seductive.

“Does that make me Lucy?” He fanned his face with one hand and Sidonie giggled.

“If you want to be,” she quipped back.

“Let me take your bag.” He grabbed her small overnight bag, though it weighed barely nothing.