Thirteen Hours (7 page)

“Yes.” It was an embarrassing admission, one she’d never made to anyone out loud.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Dana said, and the truth was that in a way, she didn’t. She assumed that no one would be interested. And given that her only experience had been an unsatisfying one, why put herself out there? Why open her heart for rejection?

After these last few hours with Laurel, that seemed a weak rationale for having shut herself off from the pleasure of connecting with another human being. She wanted to kick herself for wasting so much time being afraid. When had she last felt as happy as she did right now? To hell with it. Starting right now, she was determined to let go and enjoy this.

“I think it’s high time we injected a little levity into this game,” Laurel said. “Give me a dare.”

Levity, right.
Dana considered that for a moment, then broke into an evil grin. “Okay, then. I dare you to show me, over your clothes, how you masturbate.” Her stomach turned over in pleasurable anticipation at the thought. “And…fake an orgasm at the end.”

Laurel’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see how it is. Getting down and dirty, are we? I’ll remember that when it’s my turn to dole out the dares.”

Dana felt strangely excited by the promise. Sick to her stomach, but excited. “Less complaining, more complying.”

Laurel unzipped her backpack, smiling as she withdrew her blanket in a bag. “Oh, a woman who knows how to give orders,” she purred with a suggestive wink. “Yet another quality I look for.”

Dana grinned like a fool. A blushing, sweating, so-wet-it-wasscary fool. “You need the blanket for this?”

“Well, I’ve got to lie down. And if I’m going to lie down in here, I’m using the blanket.”

Dana licked her lips. “Gotcha.”

Laurel spread the blanket out across most of the elevator car, leaving Dana sitting on one exposed strip of carpet.

Laurel crawled across the blanket on her hands and knees, smoothing each corner. Then she stretched out onto her back with feline grace.

Dana had a perfect view of the lean perfection of Laurel’s form.

How a woman who looked like that could ever give her the time of day, she would never know.

With a shy giggle, Laurel spread her legs, planting one foot on the blanket and tipping her upraised knee to the side. “Well, I usually lie like this. And mostly, I use my hands. Sometimes if I’m really horny, I’ll maybe use a…dildo, too.”

Dana schooled her breathing, desperate not to pass out and miss what Laurel would do next.

Laurel started to giggle again, making her words harder to understand. “God, this is weird. You’d better hope I don’t dare you to do something like this. I feel really… I don’t know. You’d think I’d be used to performing for an audience by now, right?”

“This is more personal,” Dana acknowledged. “Do you want to stop?” Inside, she chanted,
Please don’t stop, please don’t stop.

Laurel shook her head. “I don’t want it said that I’m the sort of woman who refuses a dare.” She moved a hand down to rest on the crotch of her blue jeans. “I, uh. I like to use two fingers and, um…just rub my clit like this.”

Amazed, Dana watched as Laurel began simulating the stroking of a lazy circle directly over the seam of her jeans. Unbelievable. She was actually pretending to masturbate. It took everything Dana had not to rub her hands together with glee.

“And I also like…” Rather than finish her sentence, Laurel let her free hand rest on her left breast. With Dana watching in fascination, she lifted her hand inches into the air, and then reached down to grasp her erect nipple between her fingertips.

This touch wasn’t simulated, and it wrenched a groan from both women.

“Yeah,” Dana croaked. “I get it.” She shifted, more aware than ever of her own wetness. “So, uh, the orgasm.”

“Ah, yes. The orgasm.” Laurel continued to circle her fingers in the air over the seam of her jeans. Releasing her nipple, she laid her palm flat over the erect nub, cupping her breast through her T-shirt. She began to thrust her hips upward in sensual rhythm, as if meeting the stroking of her busy hand. She started a low moaning that sent shivers through Dana’s body.

Mouth hanging open, Dana watched as Laurel put on the sexiest, most intense show she had ever seen.
This,
she managed to think, eyes glued to Laurel’s flushed face and full, parted lips,
is worth the price of admission.

“Oh, God, Dana,” Laurel gasped, thrusting her hips again, this time actually causing her fingers to make contact with the seam of her jeans. She moaned, a genuine noise of surprised pleasure, and turned her head toward Dana. “I’m going to come, Dana. I’m going to make myself come.”

How Dana wished that were true.

Laurel’s hips and hand were in constant motion, and she kept her eyes locked on Dana’s face as she played out her most private routine.

Her moaning was loud and throaty, making Dana wonder if Laurel’s lovers had realized how lucky they were to cause a sound like that.

Back arched, her hand pressed hard between her legs, Laurel cried out in ecstatic, simulated release. Her words were nonsensical, broken by gasps and whimpers, and they trailed off as she relaxed her body and came back to rest on the blanket. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, as though she were really struggling to recover from a shattering orgasm.

Exhaling, she turned her head and grinned at Dana. “How was that?”

“Thorough.” Dana managed a nervous cough. “Good.”

Laurel sat up and brought the hand she used for her little demonstration to her mouth. Winking, she parted her lips and pressed two fingers into her mouth, sucking on them as if licking them clean of juices.

Dana’s pussy clenched at the sight, sending a jolt of pleasure skittering up her spine. She made a strangled noise at her surprise release, shocked to have experienced it without being touched.

Laurel’s eyes flashed, like she knew what she had just caused.

“Truth or dare?”

H
OUR
E
IGHT
—2:00 A.M.

D
id that turn you on?” Laurel asked with an innocent air that made Dana forget about pretending otherwise.

“Yeah, how could it not?” she answered candidly. It felt risky but exciting to be the ‘real’ Dana for a change.

“Your turn,” Laurel said.

Dana thought for a moment. Ah, hell, what did she really want to know? With a tremor of anticipation, she asked, “What do you like? Sexually, I mean.”

Laurel broke into a goofy grin. “It might be easier for me to tell you what I
don’t
like.”

Could she possibly be sexier? “We’ve got time on our hands,” Dana said, surprised by the throaty invitation in her voice. “What do you
really
like? Your favorite things.”

“I love going down on a woman.
Love
it.”

Dana struggled to breathe, imagining an enthusiastic Laurel engaged in that particular act.
Between my legs.
She let herself enjoy the fantasy. “What do you like being done to you?” This could not be her, asking a stranger such intimate, explicit questions. She was almost too afraid to ask herself what she liked. Or needed.

Dana wasn’t sure when exactly she’d decided to back away from the inevitability of being alone forever. After spending so long ignoring her own desires, settling for an active fantasy life instead of anything real, she was suddenly ready to take a chance on whatever might happen tonight. It was her birthday, and letting go was a gift to herself. She was trapped in an elevator with a gorgeous, free-spirited, brilliant woman, and she was happy, comfortable, and painfully turned on. All bets were off, and more than anything, she wanted to see where this would go.

“I like being licked, too,” Laurel said. “Or are you looking for something kinkier?”

There’s something kinkier?
Never one to let an opportunity go to waste, Dana gave a vigorous nod. “Kinkier is good.”

“I like”—Laurel stared at her with faint challenge—”being spanked.”

Dana fought not to pass out right then and there. “Spanked?”

Laurel’s slim, long-fingered hand skimmed over the top of the gray fleece blanket. She picked at one corner, fighting what looked to be an uncontrollable grin. “When I’m being fucked. Or just as foreplay, you know?”

Dana’s nostrils flared in arousal. Something about that idea made it hard to breathe. “Spanked on your butt, you mean?”

“Not just my butt. I like…” She covered her face with one hand, giggling a little. “Why am I feeling so embarrassed to talk about this stuff right now?”

Screw embarrassed,
Dana thought.
I need to hear this.
“Where else do you like being spanked?” She wished she had her Franklin planner, so she could take notes.

“My breasts.” Laurel crossed her arms upward, holding herself.

The gesture made her seem achingly vulnerable. “And my pussy,” she murmured so quietly, Dana found herself leaning in closer to hear her.

Thank God she was sitting down. She felt light-headed. “So is that the extent of your kinky desires? Getting slapped around a little?”

Laurel uncrossed her arms, giving Dana a nice view of her hard, cotton-covered nipples. She ran a hand through her hair, a sheepish grin plastered across her face. “Well, I also like when a woman talks dirty to me while she’s…you know.”

“Spanking you.” Dana released a low whistle. “You’re a freak.”

Laurel laughed. “I guess I am.” She raised an eyebrow at Dana in challenge. “Does
that
turn you on?”

Dana coughed again. Damn, was she coming down with a cold or something? “I’m not answering that question.”

“So you want a dare instead of truth?”

I walked right into that one.
“Sure.” She was letting go, after all.

Laurel leaned over and pulled her paperback erotica book from her backpack, holding it up with a smile. “I dare you to read two pages of my choosing. Out loud.” Her smile grew. “To me.”

“No problem.” Dana wondered where her cool confidence was coming from. Now that she had given herself permission to play this out, the words just flowed from some unknown wellspring inside her.

With a mischievous smile, Laurel flipped through the pages of the book, skimming the text. “Start here,” she said. “Page eighty-three.”

Dana took the book and quickly scanned a few lines. Hot and heavy foreplay. Wonderful. “Got me right to the good part, didn’t you?”

Laurel planted her hands behind her hips and leaned back, nipples still rock-hard against her pale yellow T-shirt. “You bet.”

Slightly nervous, Dana began to read aloud.

She paused deliberately. She wasn’t sure how she would keep her voice steady through both pages, or how much longer she would be able to keep her intense need to kiss Laurel to herself.

“Keep reading,” Laurel said.

Dana paused, wiping her fingers across her forehead.

Across from her, Laurel said, “Go on.”

The way her mouth moved made the words blur as Dana’s tongue got in the way.

Dana was aware of the way Laurel shifted slightly and of a change in the cadence of her breathing. Idly, she wondered if she had a spare pair of panties in her office. She would need them when she got out of here
.
She kept reading, making her voice low and soft in an effort to disguise her own growing arousal.

Dana stopped reading and eyed the half-page left to go. “This is just cruel,” she complained.

Laurel dismissed her with a complacent wave. “Keep going. It’s just getting good.”

Dana exhaled shakily. The rest of the second page looked every bit as bothersome as the first. And this time she couldn’t hide her arousal.

Her voice shook as she read.

Dana blinked, staring at the end of the page. That was it?
Way to leave me hanging.