Thirteen Hours (20 page)

Laurel leaned against Dana’s side, cuddling up close. “Damn, you are
so
good.”

“Thanks.” Dana planted a kiss on the top of Laurel’s head. “Your place or mine tonight, honey?”

Laurel sighed. “Mine, I think. Isis gets grumpy when I stay away too long.”

“We don’t want Isis to get grumpy,” Dana said.

Laurel pressed her face into Dana’s neck and inhaled. “She’s used to having me around the apartment all day. If I don’t spend time with her this weekend, she’ll probably pack her bags and move out.”

“Poor baby,” Dana murmured. “I can’t blame her, though. I know I miss you a whole lot if we don’t see each other.”

Laurel said, “We’ve managed to see each other every night this week.”

“Yeah, but…” Dana hesitated. “I miss you whenever you’re not with me. During the day, you know. And night. All the time, actually.”

She couldn’t be any sweeter if she tried. Laurel kissed her cheek.

The pale skin felt warm beneath her lips, betraying Dana’s bashfulness.

“What do you want to do tonight?”

“We could rent a movie.” Dana touched her inner thigh, setting off a ripple of arousal in Laurel’s body. “Is there anything you want to see?”

Laurel experienced a moment of pure inspiration. “Actually, I was thinking we could do something else tonight.” She moved her hand to Dana’s thigh, then slid over warm denim to trace her fingertips along the seam that ran between her legs. “What do you think?”

She could hear the catch in Dana’s breathing. “I think we’ll do whatever you want. Anything you want.”

Exactly what I was thinking.
Laurel palmed Dana’s steamy center, pressing into her as she whispered hotly into a delicate ear. “I have three fantasies. Want me to tell you about one of them?”

“Three fantasies?” Dana shivered and exhaled, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. She shifted a little, easing her thighs apart to make room for Laurel’s busy hand.

“Yes.”

“Have you been thinking about it or are these spontaneous fantasies?”

“I’ve been thinking about it a little,” Laurel lied.
Only all the time.

She tried to decide which of her many ideas to broach first. And how exactly to do it.

Dana turned to look at Laurel, all at once serious. “Do you know how much I love that we can talk about sex like this?”

Laurel grinned. “Me, too.” She hesitated a moment, making a decision, then said, “This one is really dirty.”

“Ooh.” Dana shifted, and Laurel continued to rub her gently. “A dirty fantasy, even?”

Laurel took in the delighted look on Dana’s face. “You sound excited about the seedy side of my imagination.” She squeezed Dana through her jeans.

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No, there’s not,” Laurel agreed. She bit her lip, turned on beyond measure at the thought of sharing this particular fantasy with her lover.

Especially knowing that she’ll try to fulfill it.
“You have no idea how much I enjoy knowing that you want to do this with me.”

“Laurel, there’s nothing particularly sweet or noble about my wanting to have hot sex with a beautiful woman. Especially when I happen to find her completely adorable.”

Over a month in, and Laurel wasn’t close to tired of hearing the increasingly mushy declarations from Dana. She suspected that she never would be. “I want you to…be rough with me.”

For a long while, Dana said nothing. She flipped on her turn signal and exited the highway near Laurel’s apartment, sticking to the speed limit as she navigated them through the neighborhood. When she spoke, her voice was husky. “Be rough with you how, baby?”

A L
ITTLE
R
OUGH

L
aurel unlocked the door to her apartment and gestured Dana inside. She took deep, steadying breaths as she entered, trying to calm her nerves.

“Do you remember the night we met?” She followed Dana into the tiny kitchen, cradling a purring Isis in her arms.

Dana smiled at the silly question. “Of course.”

“I told you then about…some things I like.” Laurel shifted Isis to one side and opened the refrigerator. “Rough things.”

“Spanking?” Dana’s voice came out in a breathless murmur that sent a jolt of longing to Laurel’s core.

Laurel nodded. “That’s part of it.” Handing Dana a bottle of beer, she said, “I want you to spank me, talk dirty to me. I want you to take control. Hold me down on the bed.”

“Baby…” Dana released a shaky breath and fumbled as she twisted the cap off her beer. She wasn’t averse to delivering a sharp smack to Laurel’s bottom when she took her from behind, but that had been the extent of their play over the past month.

Laurel studied her closely. “I know we’ve…flirted with that, in bed, a few times. Sometimes I get the feeling that you’d really enjoy dominating me. Is there any particular reason you’ve never gone further with it than you have?”

Dana shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “I mean, the thought turns me on. Very much. But I guess—”

“What?” Laurel pressed a kiss into the black fur between Isis’s shoulder blades and set her down.

“I can hear her motor from over here,” Dana said, knowing she was creating a distraction. She wasn’t quite ready to explain herself.

“What can I say?” Laurel said softly. “She’s happy to see me.”

Dana took a much-needed swallow of beer. “I think I make the same noise when I see you, sometimes.”

“I think you do, too.” Laurel took a step toward her and scratched one fingernail over the crotch of Dana’s jeans. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Dana’s throat rasped when she spoke. “I was sort of waiting for you to ask for it. I didn’t know how to initiate that. And—”

“And what, honey?”

“I guess I’m afraid of hurting you.” Dana’s voice was quiet, almost worried. “I fantasize things, but—”

“You won’t hurt me,” Laurel said. It was a statement of fact, something she knew deep in her heart.

“You want me to slap you,” Dana murmured. “You want me to hold you down, be rough with you. How can you be sure I won’t hurt you?”

Laurel pulled her hand from between Dana’s thighs, resting it on her knee. “You’re so gentle, instinctively, I just don’t think you would ever hurt me past the point of it being pleasurable.”

Dana blinked and darted her eyes in a sidelong glance. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that the point of the whole thing is to experience a little pain. Not
real
pain, but…the kind that hovers right on the edge of pleasure. A good pain. When I say I want you to spank me, I mean I want you to really
spank
me.” Even though she was more confident talking about these things than her lover, Laurel felt her cheeks flush a little with the admission. “And I want you to fuck me hard. I want you to…say nasty things to me.”

“I’ve never actually touched anyone roughly before. What if I do it wrong?”

“That’s why we’ll have a safe word, darling.” Between Dana’s inexperience and their newness as a couple, Laurel knew a safe word was essential. They were still learning each other’s limits.

“A safe word? Like ‘stop, you dumb bitch’?”

Laurel let out a burst of laughter. She stroked Dana’s face. “No, our safe word will be something we would absolutely never say during sex. It shouldn’t have anything to do with ‘stop’ or ‘no.’” She moved her head so that Dana could see her playful smile. “When we play like that, we may get confused by those words.”

Dana’s pale throat worked as she swallowed. “How about ‘quicksilver’?”

“‘Quicksilver’? Where the hell did that come from?”

Dana struggled to answer the question. It was, quite simply, the first thing that popped into her head. She didn’t know what that said about her. “I’d never say it during sex. Would you?”

“‘Quicksilver’ it is.”

Dana’s body relaxed slightly, as if she were relieved that at least one detail had been ironed out. Laurel could practically feel Dana’s mind churning, however, and so she waited for her to speak again.

“So could you give me an idea?” Dana asked after a brief hesitation. “I mean, of what sort of thing you fantasize about?”

Laurel cocked her head, curious. “Have you ever fantasized like that? I mean, about taking control with me?”

“Yes,” Dana whispered. “Ever since the elevator, actually. And, you know, I always loved stories and movies…like that. I’ve always imagined…”

I knew it.
Laurel grinned.
My baby is a freak just like me.
She took Dana’s hand between her own. “So you want to know my fantasy?”

With an anticipatory grin, Dana replied, “Please.”

“Okay, I guess it starts with…well, you’re upset with me about something.”

Immediately, Dana looked perplexed. “Why would I be upset with you?”

Struggling with the details, Laurel shrugged. “I’m not sure, honey. That’s not really the important part of this fantasy.”

“But I can’t even imagine being mad at you about something.”

“Pretend I interrupted you when you were trying to write a proposal by giving you a lap dance,” Laurel suggested. “It worked once.”

“I don’t really think it’s sexy for me to be a jerk. And I don’t know if I can be mean to you like that anymore.”

Laurel stifled a sigh, giving her hand a soothing squeeze. “Dana, baby…it’s not so much that you’re
mad
at me in the fantasy. More like…you’re disappointed. Or disapproving. I don’t know why, exactly. The important part is that you want to punish me for something.”

“Oh.” Dana managed a resolute nod. Fantasy was just that, she reminded herself. When she imagined fucking Laurel in a prison cell, she didn’t try to figure out why they had been incarcerated. “Okay, so you need to be punished.”

The words sent a riot of goose bumps erupting across Laurel’s flesh.
Oh, yeah, baby. Punish me.
She regained her composure, trying to sound matter-of-fact so Dana could process the information without feeling cornered. Laurel only wanted this if Dana was completely on board. “So you take me over your knee—”

Dana let out a high-pitched whimper. “Oh my God.”

“Too kinky?”
Please don’t say that’s too kinky.

“Too perfect,” Dana said in a throaty voice. “I think you’re just too perfect for me.” She stared into Laurel’s eyes. “And I think I can definitely get into kinky.”

Laurel touched Dana’s breast through her T-shirt. Her nipples were already hard, pebbled beneath the soft fabric. “So you want to take me over your knee?”

“If the fact that I’m soaking wet is any indication, yes.”

Gaining confidence, Laurel said, “You spank me, really hard, until I’m squirming in your lap.”

“With my hand or something else?” Dana leaned into Laurel’s fingers, which toyed with her nipple. She couldn’t believe she was talking about dominating someone out loud. The Internet had prepared her for the idea that she would love to take command of a woman, but her visits to those light BDSM Web sites were her dirty little secret.

That she was exploring the idea of doing this for real was almost too much.

Laurel lifted her other hand to Dana’s hair, running her fingers through auburn strands as she stared into slightly dilated pupils. She could see Dana’s naked desire. “With your hand would be hot. Or with a paddle, if I decided to buy one at some point—”

“I’ve got the URL of a great online sex toy store,” Dana breathed.

She’d been exploring these over the past few weeks, imagining all the things she and Laurel could try together.

“Computer geek.” Laurel gave her an impulsive kiss on the nose.

“For tonight, your hand will be fantastic.”

Dana shivered. “What happens after I spank you? When do I stop?”

“You spank me until my ass is red, until I’m a little sore.” Laurel spoke quietly, aware of the power her words were having over Dana.

“And then you slip your hand between my legs and realize how wet I am.”

“How wet being spanked makes you?”

From Dana’s tone, Laurel knew she’d caught on to the fantasy.

“Yes. And you decide that this makes me a very
bad
girl.” She lowered her hand once more, to cradle Dana’s breast. She could feel Dana’s heart, and the nipple beneath her palm was rock hard. “So you proceed to tell me, then
show
me, just how bad I am.”

For a moment Dana sat in total silence, mouth agape. She cleared her throat, licked her lips, and shook her head a little as if to clear it.

“You look nervous, honey.”

Dana shook her head. “No, just so horny it hurts.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah.” Dana placed her hand over Laurel’s, squeezing until she felt added pressure to her breast. “I don’t want you to think that I’m going to be fulfilling a one-sided fantasy here.”

“Still worried you’re going to hurt me?” Laurel asked.

“I’ve got more than one worry going on, as usual.”

“What else?”

“I hope I can play the part,” Dana said. “I hope I can keep a straight face. I’m afraid I’ll feel goofy.”

“If we giggle once or twice, it’s not gonna be the end of the world.”

Laurel looped her arms around Dana’s waist. “Sex is supposed to be fun. This isn’t summer stock theater, it’s making love.”

Dana’s shoulders relaxed, and she set her bottle of beer down on the counter. “Okay. Cool.”

“Let’s just see what happens, all right?” Laurel asked. “No pressure.”

“No pressure,” Dana repeated. “All right.”

Laurel sensed that her lover needed the reassurance of receiving direction. That should make it easier. Pressing her body close to Dana’s, she leaned up and put her lips next to her ear. “I’m feeling so slutty tonight. I’m not going to think anything you do to me is goofy.”

“Slutty, huh?” Dana moved her hands to Laurel’s bottom, gripping her hard.

Laurel’s blood surged at the rough handling. She pressed her face into Dana’s neck. “And I trust you enough to show you what a slut I can be with you.”

Warm hands slipped inside Laurel’s T-shirt, up over her back, under her bra straps. “I’m so lucky to have a girlfriend who loves sex as much as you do,” Dana mumbled.

“And who’s so good at it, too,” Laurel reminded her.

“Of course.” Dana gave her a deep, wet kiss and released her with a gentle pat on the behind. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed? I’ll turn off the lights and lock the door. You know, and make sure Isis is all settled for the night.”