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in white had been a gift from her mentor, an elderly psychologist who had been selling off her things as she downsized for retirement. Dr.

Gambino’s unflagging support had been the only reason Alaina made it through the PhD program at the University of Michigan. The table worked well enough for her and Zach in the kitchen.

Her parents had certainly not encouraged her to pursue higher education. Her father was of the opinion that education ruined a woman. He was fond of saying if he wanted her opinion, he’d give it to her. Her mother, who had wed Alaina’s father as soon as it was legal, adopted whatever opinion her father held. She avoided contact with them as much as possible, but Zach’s birth had changed all of that. Alaina had never planned to have children of her own. It had taken that little guy all of ten seconds to wrap her around his tiny, clenched fingers.

Drawing his fingertip over a curl, Daniel noted the peeling paint on the leg of the table, but he wisely didn’t offer to refinish it. She might have kicked him out if he tried. He returned to swirling noodles and sauce around his fork. “So, how are you planning to divert my attention?”

Alaina finished chewing before addressing that opening. “You said something about a next round?”

“That’s how I’m going to divert your attention, Alaina. What are you gonna do?”

He was teasing her. The analytical side of her brain noted that he was attempting intimacy, flirting with her.

She let her eyelids fall to half-mast. “I thought I’d play along until it’s not fun anymore.”

“Until it’s not fun?” He shook his head. “Why do I get the feeling you’re just waiting for me to fuck up?” He reached out to smooth a stray curl away from her face.

She was definitely waiting for him to do or say something to sour the mood. People didn’t change, especially not when an attitude is so deeply rooted in their psyche. It wasn’t his fault. He had been raised
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this way. He probably thought he was setting himself up as a hero by performing caretaker tasks.

She deflected. “Interesting choice of words.”

“Interesting way of not answering,” he shot back. “Come on, Lainie. Tell me the truth. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” He wasn’t angry. She was amazed that he seemed more amused than anything else. It was likely he was just looking forward to more sex. What they had done so far had been incredible. She could definitely see where he would have a problem ending his dalliances.

Though she had just had him, Alaina wanted to strip those jeans from his delectable body and have him again, right there in the kitchen. She imagined he regularly experienced women begging and pleading for another chance.

With no great leap, she could see her head bent over him, sucking his cock. She could see herself straddling him and riding until they were both covered with sweat and screaming meaningless and incoherent things.

“Alaina?” He waved a hand in front of her face.

She smiled sheepishly. To her credit, she didn’t blush. “Sorry. I was picturing you naked. Since you’re only wearing jeans, it didn’t take long to get you that way.”

He set his fork on his empty plate and pushed it away, never taking his warm brown eyes from her face. “Ask, honey. That’s all it would take. Anything you want, Alaina. Just ask, and I’ll make it happen.”

She licked her lips and ignored anything he implied that wasn’t sexual. “Will you strip for me, Daniel?” He stood, sliding his chair away from the table with the back of his calves. One flick and the button on his fly opened. She gripped the edge of her chair, determined to stay put and watch.

The zipper was next. The jeans fell from his hips to pool around his ankles. A push, and his boxers joined them. He kicked the clothing
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aside and presented himself to her. As she watched, mesmerized, his cock lengthened, hardening.

She swallowed.

“What now, Lainie? I stripped for you. Will you strip for me?” Her heart beat hard, thudding against her sternum. She didn’t want to undress, not yet. Shaking her head, she stood and pushed lightly against his chest. “Sit back down, Daniel. I want—” The kiss cut off whatever she had planned to say. His hands were adept at finding their way under her clothes. One hand cupped her ass, and the other crept up her shirt to knead a breast. The sucking circles his tongue made in her mouth were echoed in the way he kneaded her flesh. Sensations combined. Her pussy swelled and throbbed.

Alaina broke the kiss. She was going to get her way in this. She pushed against his chest, her palm flat against his well-defined pectoral muscle. “Sit.”

He sat, but he stared up at her with a wary expression.

“Relax,” she said, unable to stop the devious smile from lighting her eyes. “You’ll like this. I promise.” She pushed his knees apart and knelt in front of him.

“Lainie, you don’t have to…” Alaina raked her nails along his inner thigh, cutting short his protest.

“Hush,” she said. “You can take my name in vain, but that’s about all the talking I want to hear out of you.” Using a light touch, she caressed his sac. It twitched and tightened beneath her fingers. She inhaled his scent before adding her tongue.

She swirled it around his base and worked her way up his shaft.

Moisture leaked from the tip. Between that and the sounds of uneven breathing Daniel was making, she knew he enjoyed her technique.

She licked the tip, lapping up his saltiness. This time, when she closed her mouth around the crown, he didn’t pull her away. She worked her way down, taking as much of him as she could, and she wrapped one hand around the base.

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Her other hand fondled his sac with a light touch. She sucked him hard, moving her tongue to wrap around and caress his cock. His hands tangled in her hair, and he moaned, saying her name over and over. She lost herself in the act, and the moment boiled down to just Daniel, his flavor, and the sounds he made.

Then his hands tightened in hair. He tugged in warning, but she didn’t want to release him. She gripped him harder, and he came in her mouth. Her throat contracted, and she swallowed everything.

Lifting her head slowly, she licked her lips as she looked up at him to gauge his reaction. His half-closed eyes and dreamy expression made her smile. He wrapped his hands around her upper arms and yanked her onto his lap.

The kiss was different from before. It was just as full as passion, but now it was also tender. “You were right,” he said. “I liked that.” He lifted her shirt and removed her sweats with a tug and a yank.

She felt tiny in his arms. Her rational self reasoned that it was natural since Daniel had nearly a foot on her in height. Her irrational self reasoned that it was because she was just another notch on his bedpost. Well, at least it would be a memorable notch.

Daniel set Alaina on her feet and reoriented the chair. When he pulled her back, he situated her so that her back was to his chest.

Looking straight forward, she saw what he had done and why.

They faced her curio cabinet. There was almost nothing in the cabinet. It had been an item she found at a resale shop for only a few hundred dollars. There was something wrong with the wiring, so it didn’t light up, making it an undesirable item. She had meant to collect something to put in it or to have the wiring fixed, but she never got around to it.

However, enough sun and artificial light streamed into her kitchen so that extra lighting wasn’t needed. In the back of the cabinet, she could see the reflection of her naked body seated on Daniel’s lap.

“What are you doing?”

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His chin brushed against her temple and the charming smile that starred in her fantasies appeared. “You’ll like this. I promise.” He brought his knees together, hooked hers on either side, and parted her legs with his. She watched the reflection in the tall cabinet, unable to tear her eyes away from the erotic tableau there. In the bedroom, he’d asked her to keep her eyes open so he could watch her face when she came. That meant she watched his face, too. The intimacy had been unexpectedly hot.

But she hadn’t watched herself, and Daniel hadn’t narrated anything.

“Look at yourself, Lainie. Look at these luscious breasts.” He palmed them both, plumping them and pinching the nipples between his fingertips. Alaina jumped at the unexpected sharpness.

A moan sounded in the back of her throat, but it was the expression on her face that held her interest. Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. Her breasts swelled, seeking more of his touch. All of this had happened without her being aware of it. If she hadn’t been watching in the mirror, she would never have seen just how responsive her body was to Daniel.

His hands traveled lower, stroking his rough palms against the sensitive skin below her navel and her inner thighs. He parted her even more. “Look at this glistening little nub, swelling and throbbing, begging to be touched.”

Christ, he was good. Who talked like that when they didn’t need to?

“Do you want me to touch it, Lainie? Do you want me to rub your clit?”

Breathlessly, she nodded, a quick, jerky movement. Her hands gripped his thighs, anchoring her body as she watched and waited.

Slowly, his fingers moved, gliding through her wetness. He circled her clit, pressing hard. He hadn’t lied when he said he wasn’t a gentle lover. His touch was precise and confident. Alaina arched,
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pressing against his fingers. She wasn’t about to complain about his technique, not when it wrought such wonderful sensations.

She watched his fingers playing over her folds, teasing moans and gasps from her throat. The visual both distracted her from coming and heightened the tension coiling down low, just behind where he touched.

His fingers lifted away, taking the sweet bliss with him. She whimpered in protest.

Those wet fingers, dripping with evidence of her arousal, slid into his mouth. He licked away the juices, savoring her taste much more than he had savored the spaghetti. He watched her watching him.

“Have you ever tasted yourself, Lainie?” She shook her head.

“Oh, honey, you’re missing out.” The fingertips returned, but his touch was agonizingly light. He gathered her cream and lifted his finger to her lips.

She hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath. She breathed in now, inhaling the sweetly musky scent he held to her lips. He pressed the finger to her lips, and the image in the mirror opened her mouth. Her tongue wrapped around it, scraping and sucking.

In the mirror, she watched Daniel’s eyes, heavy-lidded with desire, flare hotter. She was floored by the emotion. She thought his enthusiasm for their sex play would wane much, much faster.

As if he knew it would be her undoing, he used that finger to turn her head, to make her face him, and he kissed her. It was tender and passionate, and she surrendered to him. He could have asked her anything right then, and she would have given it to him.

While she drowned in the sensations his kiss aroused, his finger returned to her pussy, plunging deep inside. Her body jumped under the impact. She wanted to squeeze her legs together to concentrate the sensations, but he wouldn’t let her move.

Though he broke the kiss, he stayed close, his mouth inches from hers. Her breathing had been ragged before, but now she panted,
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thrusting against uncooperative fingers. He moved them inside her, feeling his way around her vagina.

“You have a rough patch right here,” he said, turning his fingers slightly to the side. “It moves, Lainie. Did you know that?” She shifted on him, wanting him to fuck her with his fingers.

“Daniel.” It was a breathless plea. Yes, she would beg. He had reduced her to begging. He hadn’t meant to bring humiliation into this, but she was dangerously close.

“Earlier,” he said, sliding his fingers halfway out and pressing up,

“it was here.” He thrust lazily, giving her a little of what she wanted.

“I wonder how many different places I’ll find it tonight.”

“Jesus, Dan, does it matter?”

“I’m going to make you scream.” He smiled smugly and thrust his fingers faster.

Her eyes rolled skyward. “You’ve already made me scream. Now you’re just playing with me.”

“I like playing with you like this. I like this look on your face.” Lost in the heat blazing beneath his fingers, Alaina had closed her eyes. “Open your eyes, Lainie. See what I see.” She did as he asked, and she saw a woman lost in the sweetest bliss. His fingers moved faster and faster. She alternated between watching what he was doing to her pussy and watching their faces.

Her face interested her, but it scared her, too. It revealed too much. It showed a woman who wanted a man she shouldn’t want much more than was emotionally safe.

She came, contorting her body and screaming her climax, just like he promised. Before she came down, before she could fully process the movement, the top of the table was pressed to her stomach and breasts.

The orgasm still pulsed inside her channel. The muscles of her inner thighs still throbbed. He turned her head so she could see her body in the curio’s mirror. The flush of color on her skin brought out the red in the wild jumble of hair cascading around her shoulders.

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Daniel reached into the pocket of the pants he’d left pooled on the floor and pulled out another condom. Closing her eyes, she tried to push away the numb feeling that came from being with a man who carried multiple condoms in the pocket of his jeans. Had he meant them for another woman? Had she sidetracked him by kissing him like she had on her back steps? He didn’t look like he regretted the turn the evening had taken.

She heard the foil rip. He lifted her hips. “Open your eyes, Lainie.

I want you to watch. I want you to see how much I want you, how long I’ve waited for this.”