Big Spankable Asses (8 page)

“Yes. He was verbally abusive before he started to hit you.”

“Well, that’s not all,” she admitted.

When she moved slightly and made a distressful sound he realized that his hands on the underside of her breasts had tightened in his anger. He instantly loosened his hold and murmured an apology.

“When we made love, he was…too rough. I told you that. Toward the end, right before I left him, he started restraining me when we made love.”

“Had sex. When you had sex,” he interrupted. The thought of her making love with that asshole was unbearable to him.

“Sex—yeah, you’re right. It was just sex,” she said with a humorless laugh.

“What did he do, Lilly?”

“He was a very big man. He tied me to the bed and after he forced himself on me, if I complained too much he’d leave me like that. Sometimes for hours.”

“I’m sorry. God, I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay. It happened a couple of times, and I left soon after that. I can only imagine what would have happened had I stayed.”

“You don’t ever have to worry about that again, Lilliana,” he promised her, as her story came to an end.

Josh gathered her close and held her tight until they both fell asleep.

“Wow, that was delicious, Lilliana,” Josh complimented her.

He walked over to where she stood at her kitchen sink, washing the afternoon dishes. He’d made her breakfast earlier and after that, they’d decided to take a nice stroll around Hyde Park and had just returned after a few enjoyable hours.

When Lilliana had woken up that morning, she’d been stiff, knowing she’d used muscles she didn’t even know she had as Josh made love to her, long into the early hours of the morning.

At first she’d been awkward with the whole morning-after thing, but he’d put her at ease when he’d kissed her good morning, asked her how she’d slept before, and proceeded to walk bare-assed to her bathroom asking if she liked blueberry pancakes.

How lucky could a woman get, to have a man fine as Josh, give her a night of off-the-chain sex
and
make a mean stack of blueberry pancakes? Yeah, life could be good sometimes, she thought with a giggle.

During their time at the park, she’d shared things about herself with him, such as why she left Chicago and how she felt coming back home. She admitted it wasn’t easy, but she’d been taking it one day at a time.

“I met Marcus soon after I left home, I was only eighteen when we hooked up,” she told him as they strolled and he captured her small hand within his much larger one.

“That was pretty young. How old were you when you left home?” he asked.

Lilliana normally didn’t like to revisit that time in her life, but it felt right to share it with Josh, so she opened up.

“I was seventeen. I’d just graduated from high school and decided to move to sunny California,” she laughed.

“Why did you pick California?”

“It was warm there. In my high school geography class, I would always fantasize about what it would be like to live somewhere warm. Nothing like the cold winters here in Chicago, when half the time my family didn’t know if we’d have electricity, and there were days here and there when there’d be no heat in the house.”

“Damn. That must have been rough,” he murmured as they continued to walk.

“It was, at times. I think I needed to get away from all the craziness of growing up in my household, get as far away as I could from my mother and the responsibilities I’d shouldered for as long as I could remember. I helped raise my brothers, I cooked, cleaned, patched up scraped knees, walked them to school, made dinner, tucked them into bed…I felt like
I
was their mother, and I hated it,” she admitted. Although she had nothing to be ashamed of, she’d always felt as though she had abandoned her mother when she’d left.

“That would be hard for anyone that age to have to deal with,” he said, as though sensing the direction of her thoughts.

“I guess. It sure made me not want children. That was one thing Marcus and I had in common,” she told him and allowed him to steer them toward one of the benches that lined the walkway in the park.

“Marcus didn’t want kids? Somehow, from what you’ve told me about him, that doesn’t surprise me.”

“No, he definitely didn’t want kids with me! In fact, he once told me if I ‘fucked up and got pregnant,’ I’d have to take care of
it.”
Although Lilliana hadn’t wanted children either, when Marcus had spit the ugly words at her, she remembered how badly it had hurt to hear him put it the way that he had.

“What a jackass…to say something like that is really fucked up—excuse my language, Lilly. That had to hurt.”

Lilliana looked into his eyes to try and discern any double meaning, but found them open and honest. “It did,” she admitted. “For one, as though I would try and trap him into a legal commitment. And secondly, that he would want to end the potential life of his own flesh and blood, out of convenience.”

“That says a lot about his character. I could never imagine saying that to you, much less feeling that way about a life we’d created together,” Josh said. The shield around Lilliana’s heart opened up even more with his heartfelt words.

“Come on, let’s walk.” He smiled gently at her and tugged her to her feet. They continued their stroll and some of the burden of her past seemed to lift then and there.

During the remainder of the walk, Lilliana also found out that Josh was the youngest of three boys and that he hadn’t seen his father since he was small. She’d learned that he wasn’t just in management at Longmire, Lieberman and Strauss. He
was
management. His uncle was the CEO as well as one of the partners.

“Your uncle is Allen Longmire?” she repeated, halting their stroll to stare at him.

“Yes,” he said, and took her hand back after she’d dropped his, and made her keep on walking.

“Is he your mom’s brother? I mean, your last name is Ellis…right?” the sudden doubt in her voice made him pause.

“Actually, he is—was—my father’s twin brother. My last name is hyphenated. It’s Ellis-Longmire. I use Ellis at the job, to avoid certain problems,” he said. Lilliana caught the way he hesitated over explaining the connection with his father.

“Is your father still alive?”

He sighed and didn’t answer for long moments. Finally he spoke. “I haven’t seen my father since I was a kid. He left us when I was around six years old, and none of us have seen him since.” This time, Lilliana heard the sadness in his voice, a sadness he tried to cover up.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Sometimes it’s tough. My brothers all remember him a lot better than I do. The twins, Hank and Rowan, were twelve when he left, and my older brother Landon was in high school. He was the closest to dad. He never has gotten over it.”

“And you have?” she asked.

“Yes. No…hell, to be honest I don’t know. Like I said I was so young when he left, I don’t remember much about him. My uncle has always been a father figure for me.”

“It’s good that you and your brothers have
him,
at least.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Although my brother Landon…”

“What?” she glanced up and caught the frown on his handsome face. Her first reaction was to smooth the frown away with her fingers and she knew she had it bad for this guy. She brushed the thought away, not wanting to examine the effect he had on her after such a short time.

“Landon never has trusted Uncle Allen.”

“Why not? How do you know?”

“It’s not anything he’s actually said, rather what he doesn’t say. He’s in the military and the few times he comes home, he always seems to avoid actually being in Uncle Allen’s presence. And when he is, he finds some excuse to leave. Or maybe it just seems that way to me.” Josh shook his head. “Anyway, I’ve worked with the company since I graduated from college. I love doing what I do, and I’m good at it. Making money can be better than sex,” he laughed.

“Oh really?” Lilliana placed her hand on her hip and gave him a
look.
The universal look women gave men that screamed
oh no the hell you didn’t just say that!

“Baby, that was before I made love to you. Now, I’d rather make love to you than roll around buck naked in a bed full of Imhan shares. That was, before my experience with you, the closest I ever came to heaven in my imagination.”

“Rolling around butt naked on a bed of Imhan shares?” she laughed. With the sudden explosion of trading for this up-and-coming new software company, shares were skyrocketing. “Oooh, baby you sure do know how to make a brown chick blush,” she laughed. “It doesn’t get much better than that!”

The remainder of their walk had been filled with them sharing memories, laughing and walking in the park, as though they’d been lovers for years.

“I’d better head home. I have a ton of work to do, and if I stay much longer, I won’t leave.”

As she stood at the kitchen sink, finishing up cleaning, Lilliana felt a moment of hesitation. What should she do now? After the weekend she’d spent with him, she was honest enough to admit she didn’t want it to end. But did he feel the same way?

Some of her doubts eased when she felt him wrap his arms around her waist, and give her a warm kiss on the neck. She glanced down at his forearms and loved the way his tanned, muscular arms looked wrapped around her body. She wiped the back of her hands on her shirt and turned to face him.

“I wouldn’t kick you out.” She smiled and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He grabbed her and held her tight as he returned her kiss, kicking it up a notch. When he released her and took her face between his hands she saw the honest regret reflected in his eyes and was relieved.

“I’d better go. I was just assigned a new client and I have to go over his portfolio before I meet with him tomorrow, or you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me. Walk me to the door?” he asked.

She allowed him to take her by the hand and lead her through her small cottage. When they reached the door he kissed her again. “I don’t want this to end. I’m assuming you feel the same way,” he said. When he kissed the palm of her hand, his tongue giving it a sensual lick, she clenched her legs together when she felt the instant wetness between her thighs that his caress invoked. Her treacherous kitty cat was acting a
fool
. Give her a sample of dick and she didn’t know how to act! Although it hadn’t been an ordinary sample, Lilliana thought with a silent laugh.

“Yes, you assume right. I don’t want this to end,” she admitted.

“Would you like to go out to dinner this week? How does Tuesday sound?” he asked and she agreed. After they secured the time and date, Josh kissed her, lingeringly, and left.

After the door closed behind him, Lilliana leaned against the heavy oak, a deep, satisfied smile of contentment crossing her face before she let out a laugh. Wait till she told her girls.

“O
oh, mami! Somebody is
way
too happy for a Monday morning!” Lee grumbled as he plopped down in his cubicle, next to Lilliana.

“What are you talking about?” She accepted the coffee he held out for her.

“Please lower your voice! Do you have to yell like that, chica?”

“Okay, first off, I’m not yelling. Secondly, it’s Wednesday and not Monday. You’ve lost a few days, I think…still sick?” she asked and turned back toward her work when she saw the way Ms. Hillman was eyeballing her as she stood at the front of their section, speaking to one of the other assistants.

“Something like that. Who in the hell gets the flu in the middle of a heat wave?” Lee blew out a frustrated breath when he couldn’t open the bottle of pills in his hand.

Lilliana took pity on him and removed the bottle from his struggling fingers, shook out two of the tablets and handed them to him. With a thankful murmur he swallowed the pills and took a careful drink of his coffee. “Oh, God. The next time I decide to hook up with a blind date, who I was
warned
was sick…shoot me, okay? Just shoot me. The things we do for love, or the potential for love,” he groaned.

“That bad?” Lilliana laughed.

“That bad.” He focused his scrutinizing dark gaze on her. “Now you, on the other hand…you’re positively glowing. Care to share why? Spill. Wait a minute…ooooh. You got some! That’s what’s going on with you! I knew it. When you came sashaying in here late last Monday I
knew
something was going on!”

“Just now noticing that? Had you decided to come into work last week, you probably would have noticed the glow then,” she told him and rolled her eyes.

“I already told you that wasn’t my fault!”

“As far as that goes, had you shown up for work yesterday or stayed the entire time Monday, you’d know the scoop,” she continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “Now you have to wait ’til lunch. That is, if you decide to stay that long. Get back to work, we’ll talk later.” She laughed at the moue he made but turned away anyway to start working.

Lee had been ill all of last week and the beginning of this one, and Lilliana found that she really wanted to talk to someone about her burgeoning relationship with Joshua. She’d found herself avoiding Simone and Melinda’s phone calls for almost a week, until she’d finally decided to check her answering machine and wasn’t surprised that they’d both left several messages.

Actually, between the two of them, they’d left over a dozen. Lilliana had listened but had not called her friends back until her lunch break. Melinda begged for details, but Lilliana hadn’t been ready to disclose what happened between she and Josh until just yesterday when they’d met up at Simone’s club, and she’d finally told them about her developing relationship.

“The club is hopping for a Wednesday night! What’s going on tonight?” Lilliana asked as she and Melinda threaded their way through the early evening crowd toward the reserved table that Simone had set aside for them.

“This is the second week of speed dating. Remember Simone started it last week? She told us about it last weekend. You should have come, it was fun!” Melinda spoke loudly above the music, loud hum of conversation, and ringing bells notifying the couples when it was time to move on to the next table and the next date.

“Did you go? I didn’t know that! Did you actually participate?” Lilliana asked as they finally made it to their booth and she scooted toward the middle of the leather booth and made room for Melinda to sit.

“Yes, I did. It was fun…wasn’t like I was doing anything else,” she muttered with a disgusted look plastered on her face.

Lilliana didn’t have time to ask further in-depth questions as Simone came up to their booth, looking flushed and excited.

“Wow, Simone! This is awesome. Was it busy like this last week, too?” Lilliana asked after they’d exchanged hugs and Simone sat on the edge of the booth seat.

“Girl, yes! I think it is the best promotional idea yet! Business on Wednesday night has picked up significantly in just the two weeks we’ve been doing date night,” she said with satisfaction, as she waved her hand to get the waiter’s attention, and ordered drinks for them.

“Well, it’s hopping, that’s for sure,” Lilliana agreed and the women caught up with the gossip of what had been happening in their lives.

After they finished playing catch-up, Lilliana was sipping her virgin daiquiri when she felt the burning gaze of her friends. “What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

You know why we’re looking at you…give up the goodies,” Simone spoke around her straw. “We want all the details about this hot young thing you’ve been hanging around, and you’d better not leave out any details. We want to know the
who
,
what, when,
and
how. When
you let him rock you,
what
it was like…and girl…just
how
good was it, and from that grin on your face, my guess is that it was, is,
damn
good!”

With that pronouncement, Simone sat back in the booth, crossed her arms over her chest, eyebrows raised, waiting to hear the juicy details of her friend’s newfound love interest.

“Not only was it
damn
good,” Lilliana said and paused for effect, “ladies, I had no idea
how
good it could be when the right man spanks that ass…just right.” She didn’t try and stop the blissful smile from crossing her face before she happily gave up the goodies on her relationship with Josh.