Tell Me No Lies (14 page)

“The pain part. The mind-fuck part. All of it. Even that
thing you did last night, you bastard. I mean seriously, what the hell?”

He moved his fingers, describing tiny circles on the soft
skin of her inner thigh. “You think too much.”

“I only want to figure out—”

“No, that’s my answer. You think too much. This is… This is
rock skipping, it’s a Zen thing. You can’t do it yourself anymore; you said so.
This is a way to get somebody else to do it for you. Or
to
you. Now stop
asking questions so I can give you a rule.”

She giggled and shot him a thumb’s-up.

“You should be naked a lot. There’s a rule. Be naked
whenever possible. If I’m in the room, your clothes should fall right off.
Except you can wear my shirt in the morning, that’s kind of hot.

“And if you
don’t
get naked, I spank you. But before
you get excited,” he warned when she perked up, “there’s a catch. Yesterday I
warmed you up slowly. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a hard
spanking with no foreplay, which hurts like fuck.”

He demonstrated, a series of searing, sharp thwacks across
the meat of her butt on one side, pulling a startled yell from Tess’ lips.

“Ow! Hey!” She tried to crawl away but he was holding on too
tightly.

“Told you.”

Each slap sounded like a shot, loud but with all the reverb
muffled by the blanket around them. Tess wanted to do what she’d done the day
before, converting the pain into something else, but Jake gave her no time to
adjust. As he’d said, without warm-up or foreplay to ease the transition, it
hurt like one expected a spanking to hurt.

He kept going until she stopped struggling, her indignant
cries subsiding into whimpers, then put his hand back on her butt to cover the
sorest part with gentle, warm pressure. They were both breathing hard, their
bodies taut with anticipation.

“This wasn’t as hard or long as it would have been if you
weren’t already marked up from yesterday. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You couldn’t hurt me,” she whispered. She had never felt
safer than she did at this moment, in fact. Or more at home.

Jake shifted under her, and she felt his growing hardness
under her hip. This might not have been meant as foreplay for her, but it
obviously was for him. Her body responded in kind, loosening, opening,
yearning.

“I could though. This isn’t fantasyland. We need to learn
your limits.” Stroking, soothing. His fingers dipped closer to her pussy but
never quite connected. Maddening. “This isn’t therapy. It isn’t confession. I’m
definitely not your parent or your naughty headmaster.”

“I understand, Lord Jake. It’s nothing but good clean fun
between consenting adults. No issues, nothing to see here, move along.”

“On the other hand, would it freak you out if I said I’d
thought about doing this sometimes after you’d shot your mouth off to someone
in an especially obnoxious way?”

“Spanking me?”

“Yeah. Hard. Until you said you’re sorry and meant it. And
then shutting you up with my cock in your mouth.”

Freaked out? No. Not her immediate reaction. “I’m torn.
Because on the one hand,
so
hot, even if I’m still not sure why. On the
other hand, as you said, it hurts like fuck. If I said I was cool with it,
would you agree to always make it worth my while after?”

He laughed out loud and swatted her. “Not with
that
attitude.”

“You love that attitude, admit it.”

“I—oh no, brace yourself, kitten—I love
you
. The
attitude is part of the package. Brat.”

She let it soak in for a minute. The truth of it. Jake
loving her. Part of the truth was that it didn’t surprise her, because she’d
always known. Just as everyone had always told both of them. Everyone turned
out to be right. Fate. It didn’t terrify her the way she thought it might. “You
know I’d have to say stuff sometimes just to get a reaction from you.”

“I’d probably be counting on that.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah, a bit. But imagine it,” he suggested, slipping his
fingers between her legs again, more purposefully this time. “You’re talking to
someone, you get a little lippy, then you look up and realize I’ve overheard
you. And we both know what’s coming later. For the rest of the day or the party
or however long, we’re both thinking about it.”

Oh
. She braced against the floor, searching for
leverage to push against his fingers, rub her clit against his thigh, anything
for more stimulation. Arousal pulled her walls down, made her braver than she
might have been otherwise. “I have a book I want you to read.”

Jake’s hand slowed, stopped. “I beg your pardon?”

“Not right this second,” she explained. “Carry on with what
you were doing. But remind me later.”

“I see. Don’t forget who’s giving the orders around here,
kitten. Maybe I don’t want to carry on.” He nudged her off his lap, and Tess
scrambled to a sitting position to see him taking his shirt off, arms brushing
the blanket canopy and threatening to pull it down. Then his shoes, sock and
pants, until he was as naked as she was except for the condom he procured from
his pocket and rolled on in one hasty sweep.

Sitting back in his spot, he pulled her over. Tess straddled
him and let her weight carry her down, carry her onto his cock, relishing the
friction and Jake’s groan when she settled in his lap.

“That’s better. So much better. I was dying,” he admitted.
“You were saying something about a book?”

Tess shifted, experimenting until she found the perfect
angle, the one that brought her clitoris into contact with the teasing brush of
coarse hair and tender skin at the base of Jake’s cock. “Later.”

“Is it the one you’re working on right now?” He pinned her
hips, his broad hands permitting no movement.

She tried staring him down but it was a hopeless effort.
She’d never gotten anywhere with Jake Hogan that way. Deciding on a different
tactic, one newly available, she squeezed hard against his rigid length inside
her, and was rewarded with a sharp breath and some rapid blinking from the man
in supposed control.

“No. It was the first one I wrote. But I’ll tell you about
it later.”

“Later,” he agreed, his eyelids fluttering shut. His upper
lip tightened as she flexed again, and his hands finally relinquished their
grip so she could move.

He was allowing it, she thought. Indulging her and letting
himself go. They moved together, slowly at first and then more desperately,
rolling onto the floor at one point and taking the blanket with them. Jake
shoved it aside to uncover them and the stack of boxes toppled with a crashing
series of thuds.

Lifting her head to peer over the coffee table, Tess
blearily scanned the boxes. “I think it was all books.”

“It was,” he reassured her, pulling her back down for a
heated kiss.

She’d been close before the crash, was close still, the
pressure inside her a persistent aching presence. The change in angle sent her
over and she cried out against Jake’s lips as she came in a wave of sheer,
glorious relief. Seconds later he arched, bucked into her and broke the kiss to
call her name.

Gasping, shaking, they fell back to earth between the couch
and the table. They were too sated to laugh, so they grinned at each other like
dopy, lovesick fools instead.

The car horn sounded like it was in the cottage with them.

Tess yelped, Jake yelled, and there was a sudden flurry of
jeans and blanket and pillows held protectively in front of bare body parts.
Jake, in pants and nothing else, peered through the window then cursed softly.
Tess, finally locating her sweater, yanked it over her head and pulled on jeans
before joining him by the door.

“It’s your sister,” he whispered. “What’s she doing here?”

“I have no idea. I thought she was getting into town
tomorrow.”

“Well, what do you want to do? If we pretend we’re not here,
will she go away?”

Tess leaned into his chest for a second, fortifying herself,
then surveyed the disaster that was the living room. Shoes and socks flung
wide, her bra on the couch, Jake’s belt slung over the coffee table and the
ruin of the blanket fort all indicated that boisterous hanky-panky had clearly
been going down. Tess realized her underwear was lumped up inside one leg of
her jeans, working their way down slowly toward her knee. She briefly pondered
where the condom had gone then decided she’d just assume Jake had already dealt
with it. Better not to think about the alternative.

“We could just let her in,” he suggested.

Her sister Lindy was knocking now, polite but firm. It
didn’t sound like the knock of somebody who thought there was no one home. And
Tess’ car was probably still warm and ticking in the driveway, a dead giveaway.

“Tess? I can hear you guys in there, you know.”

“Fuck.” She sighed and shrugged, gesturing at the room then
back at Jake. “If we let her in, it’s like this is…official.”

He nodded gravely. “Official.”

Then he grinned and opened the door.

Chapter Thirteen

The leaves were everywhere, so thick on the ground that Tess
couldn’t see how there could still be any left on the trees. They gathered
along the edges of the sidewalk and clung to the lace and beading on the bottom
hem of Allison’s wedding gown, even with the train bustled up. By the time the
bridal party made it from the parking lot to the lobby of the big Victorian
B&B where the wedding and reception would be held, the gown looked like an
autumn-themed tablecloth.

“We need to get one of the little girls in here to be the
designated leaf-picker,” Lindy suggested, fretting around her cousin’s
satin-clad feet. “It looks like people are starting to show up, so there should
be somebody around. But I can’t believe they’re here already. It’s only ten.”

“I should’ve gotten dressed here.” Allison kicked carefully
at the layers of her skirt, knocking off some of the debris. “I didn’t feel
like carrying all the stuff though.”

Her cell phone trilled and she yanked it out of the tote bag
she carried. Grinning and bouncing on her toes, she read the screen then tapped
out a quick text before stowing the phone.

“Again?” Tess sighed. “He’s texted you like twenty times
already this morning.”

“Yeah. Twenty-two, actually.”

The proprietress greeted them, scurrying to escort them to a
lavish bedroom furnished in the same Victorian style as the rest of the inn.
Marielle, the maid of honor, helped Allison seat herself at the opulent marble
vanity table, while Tess pulled out her makeup bag and surveyed her tools.
She’d forgotten how much stuff she had.

Her nails were done again now, every part of her body buffed
and polished, waxed or sloughed. She and Lindy had traveled back to Dinsdale
for the spa day, in the end. Tess had endured the spa owner’s cries of distress
at the state of her grooming, but it had been worth it for Jake’s appreciative
reaction when she got back home that night.

Home
. Jake’s house, definitely. The cottage was her
office for several hours a day, and she’d been going practically nonstop with
wedding preparations the rest of the time this past week or so, but she spent
her evenings and nights at Jake’s, doing domesticity. Naked domesticity. He’d
talked her through another freak-out or three, and Tess was growing more
comfortable with the idea that he wasn’t going anywhere, that she could depend
on him. That it didn’t make her weak or stupid to do so, that she didn’t have
to have all the answers.

Last night he’d given her a collar to wear during their
scene, a narrow strip of soft white leather with a ring for a leash. For
practice, he’d said. It had made her feel, if possible, even more naked. But
stronger, better defined. She liked it.

She’d had her first appointment with Dr. Wallace the day before.
Jake had driven her, for moral support. She liked that too, as well as the fact
that Dr. Wallace knew too much about her to let her get away with anything. The
good doctor had offered to refer her elsewhere for that very reason, but Tess
had declined.

“Tess, you want a chair?” Marielle offered.

“No,” she said quickly. “I’ll stand.”

Jake had been
very
appreciative indeed about the
grooming.

She leaned against the vanity and started making up
Allison’s face, which was eerily like making up her own face. They were
cousins, but resembled each other more than Tess resembled her sister. Both of
them took after their fathers, the same bone structure and dramatic coloring,
lips that could too easily look thin, eyebrows that could too easily look
angry. But plucked and moisturized and made up, they cleaned up nicely, Tess
thought.

Lindy rose to answer a soft knock at the door, cracking it
open to speak to the visitor, and Tess recognized the deep murmur of his voice
as Ally’s cell bleeped again. Tess reached for the tote and yanked out the
phone, inadvertently catching sight of the new text as she passed it to her
cousin.

“Holy— Allison! Shame on you! And on Seth!”

“Give me that!”

The bride snatched the phone away, looking not at all
guilty, and started replying to the text almost immediately.

“Stop sexting right now, you cyber-slut!”

A gentle throat clearing drew their attention to the door,
where Jake stood with a bottle of champagne and a tray of glasses.

“I heard that.” He lifted one eyebrow at Tess then smiled at
the room in general. “Champagne, ladies?”

Her eyes had locked onto him and now she couldn’t look away.
He was unspeakably handsome in his dark gray suit, and Tess was sick with lust
at the thought of later, when he would leave the suit on and she’d take
everything off and be in trouble for calling Allison a cyber-slut on her
wedding day. They might not have time for it that very night, of course. But
the anticipation was what mattered anyway.

Jake scanned her up and down, looking like he didn’t mind the
wine-red velvet halter dress she wore, even if he did prefer her in nothing but
a collar and a smile.

“Will you open this, please?” Lindy handed Jake back the
champagne bottle and, as he obliged, Tess forced her attention back to Allison
and the selection of eye shadow. She could feel him there though, a tangible
comforting presence.

Lindy filled the champagne flutes carefully, and Jake
brought one for Allison and one for Tess. He lingered long enough to slip a
hand behind her neck, brush a kiss against her temple, let his fingers sweep
across her bare back on his way out. Such small things. She was flushing, her
fingers trembling around the delicate crystal stem as he walked out of the
room.

“A toast!” proposed Marielle. They drank to Allison and
Seth, to the occasion, to one another. To love, at Lindy’s suggestion, and Tess
didn’t miss the coy look she and Allison shot one another before looking her
way.

“Lind, weren’t you going to find us a leaf-picker?” She
pointed at the fall color still garnishing the bride’s hem and a suddenly
contrite Lindy ran out the door in search of a small girl. Marielle, knowing
nothing of the subtext, continued blithely fiddling with Allison’s hair while
describing an elaborate computer game strategy that made no sense to Tess but
distracted Allison quite well.

Except that even as she studied her face in the mirror and
chattered to Marielle about hit points and critical strikes, Allison reached
over to clasp Tess’ hand and give it a firm squeeze.

She returned it with a happy sigh. “You look beautiful,
Ally,” she whispered as she stroked on the final swipe of shadow and handed
over the mascara, turning to look at her cousin’s reflection.

Allison met Tess’ gaze in the mirror, her smile serene but
her gray eyes sparkling. “And when it’s your turn, so will you.”

* * * * *

The pile of leaves in the side yard was already hip high by
the time Tess’ car swung into the driveway and crunched to a gravelly halt. She
climbed out before he could abandon the rake, and Jake was treated to the sight
of her long legs stretching, the claret-colored dress riding up a length of
luxuriously smooth thigh to show a hint of lace at her stocking top as she
exited the low-slung car. He frowned when her wool coat fell into place, hiding
everything to the knee. But he knew he’d get to see all that and more later on.
He could wait. He’d waited for years, after all.

“You changed already!” she called, reaching back into the
car for a gym bag and her purse. “I tried to leave right after you did, but
people kept stopping me to talk. I just need fifteen minutes then we can head
out, okay?”

“No rush. Benny’s isn’t going anywhere.”

No major event in Cranston would be complete without a
debriefing afterward at the local watering hole. But nobody in their right mind
would go to Benny’s in a suit or a velvet dress, even ironically.

Seth’s brother Drew and his girlfriend Eva had gone to
Stuart Moore’s house with Lindy and Richard to change after the reception. Tess
had originally planned to go with them, but instead opted for the slightly
longer drive to Jake’s, even with the implications of arriving at Benny’s with
him afterward. And leaving with him at the end of the night. Separate cars
wouldn’t have fooled anybody at this point, anyway, even the out-of-town
friends and relatives. Anyone who hadn’t heard the gossip before the wedding
would have left the reception in no doubt as to how close Jake and Tess were.
The dancing had made it crystal clear. Jake had been less than absolutely
subtle.

“You’ve been hard at work.” She scanned the yard, which was
miraculously clear of leaves given that he’d only beaten her home by half an
hour or so. Jake gave it about five minutes before the lawn was littered with
them again, but at least he’d gathered a substantial sampling in the pile he’d
raked while waiting for Tess to arrive. It was perfect.

“I figured since they were nice and dry, and I had a little
time to kill.” He took Tess’ bags and deposited them on the deck, then grabbed
her by the waist to swing her around, to make her laugh.

“I’ll fall off my shoes,” she complained, but giggled anyway
as he coasted them to a dizzy halt. “You’ll have to carry me into the house.”

“Nah. I’ll hold you up until you regain your equilibrium.
We’ll wait it out.” She was flushed and breathless and almost painfully pretty,
with her hair in a sleek, bouncy wave and her face still made up more than
usual. He couldn’t help but kiss her, every time he realized he finally had no
reason not to. She was his for the kissing. Tess seemed to know it too.

Soft lips, a hint of spicy perfume and the melting-sugar
sensation of her tongue giving way to his as he deepened the kiss. All of it,
all of her, was close to too much. Close to unbelievable. Except it was Tess,
like always. The realest thing he knew. She tasted like forever. He couldn’t
drag her off to his cave, but he could have a lot of fun coming up with
alternatives over the course of a lifetime.

“Mmm. That autumn smell. I love that smell.” She leaned back
to look up into the sky, which was beginning to shed the last colors of sunset.
“And the sounds. The crunchy leaves. I could so jump in that leaf pile right
now.”

“Okay.” He’d do just about anything she wanted, anyway, but
in this case he’d raked up the leaves for that very purpose. Tess always wanted
to jump in the leaves.

“After I change,” she said, starting to pull away.

Jake caught her hands and held on. “No, right now. While
there’s still light to see.”

“In this?” She spread her hands wide, letting her coat fall
open, indicating her bridesmaid dress, the heels, the sheer silk stockings.

“Yep. One thing though.” He turned her by the shoulders and
slipped off her coat, pulling his own jacket off in solidarity and tossing them
both over the deck rail. “If we’re gonna do it, we have to do it right.”

“You’re insane.”

The temperature was dropping and their breath had started to
fog. But Tess wasn’t complaining, or even hugging herself against the cold. She
was grinning, eyes gleaming, and she held his gaze as she kicked off her shoes
and lost the extra three inches.

“Probably,” he admitted. “But at least I know there are no
snakes or anything under there. And the leaves are dry. Extra crunch. It’s
gonna be good, I promise.”

She took in the pile and hauled her skirt up on one side,
bunching it in her hand. With the other she reached for him, not even looking,
knowing he’d take it. His hand was already there, meeting hers.

They grinned at each other then eyed the leaves. Golden and
red and brown, all the colors of flame and earth.

Tess nodded. “Let’s do this.”

They ran full tilt for the leaf pile. And then, together,
they jumped.