Safeword: Arabesque (Safewords Book 9) (12 page)

Cassie breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Good,” and Frisco responded, “You really do care for him.”

“I said I did.” Had he not heard
anything
she’d said?

“Yes, you did, but…” He sighed and exited the car.

Cassie opened her door, but he came around and helped her out before closing it for her.

His fingers were a soft caress on her cheek as he said, “I’ll find a Master for Cam a month or two before our contract is up. When he either moves out or our contract expires, our training agreement ends.” He sighed. “I don’t know what’s happening between you and me, but I want you to understand Cam isn’t a permanent fixture.”

Shaking her head, she pulled out of his embrace and took a few steps towards the restaurant’s doors. “We don’t have to decide the future tonight, Frisco. Nothing is set in stone.” She turned and looked at him. “C’mon already. I’m hungry.”

Chapter Twelve

Cassie and Frisco agreed to keep acting as if nothing were different during class, and after the first few weeks Cassie was more comfortable around him without feeling as if everyone could tell she was falling in love with him just by watching her talk to him or spar with him.

She usually followed Frisco home one night a week, and often spent Saturday afternoon and evening with him and Cam, leaving around noon Sunday to go home. Jake took to pulling her clothes out of her duffel bag while she packed; he wasn’t a fan of her staying away from home so often but she gave him extra cuddles and took him for a long run Sunday when she came home.

She also bought him a new doghouse, since he had to spend two nights a week outside.

Lunch with Cam became an every-Tuesday thing, though Frisco only seemed to ask her out to dinner once every two or three weeks.

She needed her lunches with Cam, as well as the hours they spent on the phone the evenings Frisco worked late. She experienced so much with Frisco, and while he was the Master and made sure she was okay, it was Cam who helped her make sense of all of her new feelings and curiosities.

She’d begged Frisco to spank her and give her more, but he insisted women were for soft caresses and loving while men were for beating on. Not in those exact words, but it was the sentiment, and it bothered her more each week.

However, even this was a part of their power exchange, because he was dictating what would and would not happen to her, so while it sometimes ticked her off it was also at times a huge turn on. Submitting to anything she wouldn’t have chosen to do became the best aphrodisiac, even this.

As she packed for a longer out of town trip she let Jake see her packing his things too, as he’d be spending the weekend with Cassie’s father and his partner.

Cassie was beginning to think she and Frisco should’ve come clean to their friends from the beginning, as she had no idea how this weekend would work. The owner of their dojo would be fighting for a national title, and they were all going to Atlanta to cheer him on and support him. Frisco would be backstage and ringside acting as a coach, so she wouldn’t have to deal with him during the fights, but the rest of the weekend was probably destined to be awkward.

She had a feeling Tom already suspected something was up, though he also probably thought she was a cradle robber and had something going on with Cam after she’d brought him by for their dance date.

Ugh, why did everything have to be so complicated?

Luckily, she rode down with other friends, and once they arrived the group’s conversation mostly kept her attention away from Frisco. However, watching Sam and Ethan made her want to hug Frisco, or at least hold his hand.

Should she and Frisco talk about letting their friends know they were together? She’d managed to avoid the question enough with Sam, and she was pretty sure her friend thought they’d just kind of started and stopped, with nothing coming of it.

And, in truth, nothing was coming of it. Not really. Frisco was attentive and caring, but she could tell he had this internal wall up and she’d never get any closer to him than Cam. In fact, he seemed to let the wall down occasionally for Cam, especially during and after a rough scene. Cassie thought the handy-dandy expiration date on the relationship allowed him to get closer, knowing there was no risk of Cam wanting to stick around longer term.

It was more arrangement than relationship, and yet she had the most incredible, beautiful, stupendous orgasms when she was with them.

And relaxing in their arms afterward? Pure heaven.

As she sat for Tom’s final bout, she noted Sam and Ethan were running point while Frisco was in the background. Ethan and Frisco had been primary for the other fights and she was glad to see Sam close enough she could easily give advice.

Cassie yelled and screamed and cheered for Tom, and had to close her eyes a few times because she just couldn’t take the suspense.

When Tom found his second wind and won by knockout just before the end of the match, she sprang to her feet and screamed until she was hoarse.

She had a chance to go back to the hotel and rest a little while the media interviewed Tom, but eventually the group met for dinner.

Somehow, she ended up across the table from Frisco and had to work hard not to stare. At a table full of alpha males, she only had eyes for Frisco and it was starting to be a huge pain in the ass.

Not that Frisco ever wanted to play with her ass.

When they finished dinner she returned to her room, stripped, and crawled between the sheets.

Her phone awakened her and she realized she’d only been asleep about ten minutes.

“What do you want, Frisco?”

“I don’t want to risk anyone seeing me knock on your door. Can you unlock it and let me in? I’m in the stairwell now.”

She sighed and walked across the room without bothering to put clothes on, let him in, and fumbled her way back to bed.

“I’m sleeping,” she said as she crawled back under the covers. “You’re more than welcome to cuddle, but I’m tired. What do you want?”

“Oh, Sweetness. I’m pretty sure I can entice you to want more than cuddling.”

She was tired, and grumpy, and disenchanted from her day of watching Sam and Ethan touch and be familiar with each other when she had to keep her hands off Frisco.

“What if I’ve decided maybe I want to cuddle with you around our friends? Sit with you at dinner and lean on you when I’m tired? Hold hands, and maybe even a quick peck on the lips every once in a while?”

He took his clothes off and slid into bed beside her. She had her back to him, but he spooned behind her without comment.

His hand stroked her leg and hipbone, up to her shoulder, and slid down to her hand.

Soft, demanding lips kissed the side of her neck as he pulled her towards him until she was on her back. His mouth trailed a line of kisses from her ear to her mouth until his lips captured hers and stole her breath.

Her hips moved of their own accord and she realized he’d just convinced her to do more than cuddle.

She needed to decide whether to just let him have his way and make her very happy before she fell asleep, or insist he respond to her statement.

His fingers trailed from her stomach to her mound, and then inched farther along, teasing, tempting…

A moan escaped her lips and she decided they could talk about it tomorrow.

“Keep your hips still, and find a spot for your hands and don’t move them, either.” She loved it when he made demands, and the second she complied he stopped tormenting her and gave her what she wanted.

Frisco’s fingers were magic, as always, and he played her body like an expert musician making his instrument sing. She felt like a violin, the strings tighter and tighter, the sounds higher and higher until she thought she’d come apart.

But he didn’t take her over the top.

“Please, Frisco!”

“Sshhh. We aren’t at my house and the walls are kind of thin. Tell me what you want.”

“You. I want you. Inside. I want to come. And I want to be yours.”

God, she hadn’t meant to say that last part. She’d thought it a thousand times though; it was only a matter of time until she said it.

“Patience, Sweetness.”

Was that for being his, or for the orgasm? She didn’t know, but she heard herself begging and pleading.

It was damned hard to keep her hands and hips still when he tortured her like this.

But, if she moved he’d stop, and then she’d really go crazy.

“Fuck!” she said with emphasis while not being too loud. “Please, Frisco! Put your cock inside of me!”

His hand went away. “Do good little submissives cuss when they’re being played with?”

Shit.
“No, Frisco. I’m sorry. You’re killing me! Please make me come? Please?”

He kissed her cheek, her nose, her mouth. “You beg so pretty, Sweetness.”

He’d taken her to get tested a few weeks back, so he no longer used a condom. She felt special, a little more like Cam, when he moved between her legs and pressed into her.

He pulled most of the way out and froze. “Okay, you can move your hands to a different place and hold them in the new spot if you need, because I want you to move your hips. I’m going to stay still while you get yourself off.”

It took Cassie a minute to process his demand, and she pulled her feet closer to her bottom, moved her hands to the side and down to get better leverage, and experimented with pushing her hips up.

He was at the correct angle for her to slide herself up him, and she moaned at the sensation.

Such an odd feeling — on the bottom, but responsible for the action, the sensations, the
friction
.

But she couldn’t work herself up to an orgasm. She needed Frisco to do it.

She moved until she was practically in tears, but she was mostly holding her breath as she fought her body and fruitlessly chased the climax, only to have to move higher and farther away just as she thought she neared it. Over, and over.

Her breath hitched as a sob threatened to come out, and Frisco must have realized exactly how frustrated she was, because he finally started moving.

His hips pumped slow a few times, as if testing the choreography, and then sped up.

“Keep your hands and feet where they are. Are you ready to come?”

“Yes! Please!”

He smiled and said, “Well then, what are you waiting for?”

His hips slammed into her and she met him stroke for stroke. He ordered her to come and the tension finally found a way to release.

Cassie thought she might come undone, as if all of the atoms of her body flew apart so she’d need to find a way to take physical form again.

His mouth covered hers when she screamed her orgasm, muting the sound as he invaded her mouth as well as her body.

She soared through oblivion forever, and when she landed in her body again, Frisco didn’t slow or relent.

“It’s too much now, please, give me a minute!”

He only chuckled and kissed her again. “Just move your hands or your feet and I’ll stop. You know how it works, Sweetness.”

“I don’t want you to stop, just slow down a few minutes. Please!”

“Mmmm, I don’t think so. But I
would
like to see your hands over your head. Once you have them up there you can move them a little as long as they stay on the bed and over your head.”

She moved her arms, and her breasts shifted with the change, making her aware of her nipples — sensitive and craving touch. She longed for the feel of the clamps Frisco used on Cam, but the obdurate Dom refused to hurt her.

Frisco adjusted his arms and leaned forward to pound her with even more strength and speed. His chest touched her breasts, and with the extra sensations she suddenly didn’t want him to stop.

“Can I wrap my legs around you? Please?”

“I love to hear your sweet voice asking permission. Yes, Cassie, wrap them around me. Are you going to come again for me?”

He made her orgasm twice more before he finally came. Cassie meant to talk to him about holding hands and being a couple around their friends but she was so comfortably snuggled into him, she just relaxed and enjoyed until she drifted to sleep.

* * * *

Frisco was up and getting dressed when she awoke.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to be in my room when Tom wakes.”

“Why don’t you just stay in here? We’re both adults, we can sleep together if we want.”

He shook his head as he pulled his shirt over it. “I’m not ready to take that step. As it is, if this doesn’t work we’re okay with each other at the dojo now, so we’ll be okay then. If we start acting different, though?” He shrugged his shoulders.

Cassie sat up, crossed her legs, and put a pillow in her lap. “Where do you see us going? Are you just playing around with me for fun, or are you developing feelings for me?”