44 - Orange You Glad?

I'm baaaack!!  Thank y'all soooo much for your patience.  You were so patient, I think you didn't even miss me!  :D  Back on schedule now with Sunday/Wednesday posts and hoping to stay ahead of concert season! ~xoxo ♥blush

“I’m gonna hop in the shower real quick,” Tony murmured against her lips, lithely spinning her into the wall when the hotel room door closed behind them.  “While I’m in there, you can change into that belly dancer’s thing.”

Lilah went from wishing for a longer, deeper kiss to a state of minor meltdown in the time it took to say “wiggle it”.  She couldn’t begin to fathom putting that getup on her body.  It would be something like gluing sequins and chiffon to a month-old, shriveling pear.

“I’m not wearin’ that thing,” she told him, forcing lightness into her tone as she traced the line of hair protruding from his shirt’s neckline.  It blatantly defied logic how she’d rather that he see her naked than in a garment that was designed to be enticingly sexy.

He reared his head back, looking down his nose at her, as though trying to decide the most effective way to get what he wanted.  It didn’t take him long to select a plan of attack.

“Please?”

The simplicity of his request battered down any opposing argument she may have been forming.  Because, truth be told, Lilah was a pushover, and a quietly uttered plea was her Achilles’ heel.  Had he been demanding or dictatorial, she would’ve had far less trouble holding her ground.

“I think you’re gonna regret this,” she muttered with a piqued frown.  “And I know I am.”

His deliberate snicker and soft nuzzle of her ear sent an erotic chill through Lilah.  “Wanna bet?”

The soft sigh that sneaked through her parted lips was made of nothing but pure desire.  She could have gladly pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him silly for the rest of the night.

But she had a damn costume to put on. 

So she gave a half-hearted shove to his chest.  “Well, go on if you’re goin’.  I need the time to get up my nerve.  And perform in-room liposuction.”

“Lilah…”  He hooked her chin with his index finger, swiping his thumb along the edge of her jaw.  “Stop giving me lip and just put the damn thing on.  It’s not like you’re going to wear it for more than five minutes, anyway.”

What had she just been thinking about demanding and dictatorial giving her a leg to stand on?  From him, it was even more effective than the original quiet plea.  She wanted to do any and everything to please him.  And she would.

“Okay.”

He swept in for a quick brush of lips before meandering toward the bathroom without another word.

Pushing the bathroom door partway closed, Tony stuck his arm inside the shower to spin the dial all the way around, inviting scalding hot water into the tub.  While the temperature gradually worked its way up to boil, he stripped out of his clothes with a disgruntled scowl.

He hated her insecurity.  She was a sweet, sexy woman who was all the more attractive with a little swagger and a spark of confidence in those Caribbean eyes.  There was nothing for her to be insecure about, and he rudely cussed whatever made her believe otherwise.

Dropping his glasses on the vanity top, he swept the shower curtain back with an exasperated snap of his wrist.  Tony stepped under the scalding spray to cleanse away the remnants of his day and ready for the night. 

Tonight he’d seen her sacrifice her own wants for his with very little effort on his part.  His lover desperately wanted to please.  That was something he’d quickly learned in their short time together and, while it had the potential to flip his switch in a major way, he wouldn’t be another dickhead loser in her bed.  Lilah needed to learn that it was as pleasing when she took as when she gave.

And Tony was going to teach her.  Tonight. 

Lilah put down the eyeliner, batting her eyes at her reflection in the mirror.  She wasn’t all that proficient with makeup, but she had done the best she could to make herself more…exotic.  Someone who looked like she was worthy of the frothy tangerine skirt that flowed from the sequined and jeweled waistband settled low around her hips.  Someone who didn’t feel as awkward as a deer on ice skates by wearing the equally ornamental bra, which coaxed her breasts going incognito as two bedazzled navel oranges. 

She sucked in a breath and withdrew the mascara wand, giving her head an experimental shake to see if the loosely swept updo was going to come tumbling unexpectedly.  Pleased when it held, she hurriedly swiped the ebony brush over both her upper and lower lashes as the shower stopped. 

What am I supposed to do?  Pose?  Lie on the bed?  Stand here like a doofus?

She was still trying to figure it out when the partially open door swung wide and a prominently damp Tony materialized, clad in only his glasses and cargo shorts.  He drew to a hasty halt when he caught sight of her indecisive stutter-stepping.

“Hi,” she greeted weakly and then waved an uncertain hand over her front.  “It fits.  Kinda.”

The way he stared at her, his eyes crawling over her from the loose tendrils at the top of her head to the hot pink toenails that were in desperate need of a touchup, made her squirm.  Both in a good way and a bad way.

Get it together, Lilah Jane.  Don’t be a special ed concubine. 

Concubine.  That was it.  She was wearing a costume.  That meant she was playing a role.  A role with predetermined behavior and expectations attached to it. 

She infused a sultry sway in her hips and slowly ate up the handful of feet that separated them.  Tips of their bare toes almost touching, Lilah hooked her thumbs through his belt loops and smiled ingenuously.  She had every intention of sinking to her knees and unzipping those shorts to do what concubines did – please their masters.

Tony, however, had different plans.  Before her knees ever got close to the carpet, he had his hands around her waist, wordlessly forbidding her to move any further. 

“What?”

“Two things,” he rumbled gruffly, and she was bathed in the fresh mintiness of his breath.  “Don’t give that thing to anybody.  It’s fucking perfect on you.  And…”  Commandeering hands went from waist to wrists and he locked her up in the circle of his fingers.  “Do you remember me saying you wanted to be dominated?”

Yes.  She remembered vividly.  The very mention of it had her core heating like that of a thermonuclear reactor, but Lilah didn’t share that.  She merely nodded, searching his face for some indication of what he wanted from her. 

“It’s time.” 

Those two words, and nipples poked uncomfortably into the bejeweled bra despite the satiny lining.  Heat prickled her skin and her breathing became shallow, feeling very much like an asthma attack.

“It… is?”

“It is,” he affirmed with quiet authority, commanding her gaze with a seeking dip of his chin.  “Tonight I won’t do a thing that you don’t specifically direct me to do.  You’re in charge of your own destiny.”

Panic rushed in with the force of a hurricane, making the faux asthma attack far less appealing than it had been only seconds ago.  Arousal dissipated mercilessly in the wake of anxiety. 

She couldn’t do this.  The orgasms had been a pleasant surprise – a bonus she hadn’t anticipated or counted on.  It wasn’t why she was here.  This wasn’t about her, she was here for him.  To make him understand he was more. 

Tony was more than Jon’s brother, or Matt’s brother.  He was more than a man who was carelessly treated by his ex-wife.  He was more and he deserved more.  In all honesty, he deserved more than she was able give him, but Lilah would die trying.

She had to make him see that he was the one… 

“Well,” she corralled her senses enough to say as she leaned in and pressed her lips to the side of his neck. “I don’t need you to do anything except feel good.”

He pulled away from her kiss with a slowly shaking head.  “That’s not the way this plays, Bluegrass.  You’re gonna tell me exactly – step by step –“ His eyes riveted to hers meaningfully.  “What will have you climbing the walls, screaming for mercy.”

“Ho… lee … cow,” artlessly seeped from her mouth along with the abruptly expelled breath that collapsed her lungs.  “I… think that was a perfect first step.  You don’t need my help.”

“No, I don’t,” was his soft assent.  “But you do.  Tell me what you want, Lilah.”

He was serious.  The understated blue eyes staring a hole in her were dead serious.  Serious as a heart attack, and all those other redneck metaphors she couldn’t string together at the moment.  The man she’d been increasingly infatuated with, and insanely aroused by, was offering himself as…  Well, a personal pleasure device.

And could Lilah just pounce on that and enjoy the fleshly pleasures it promised? 

Of course not.

Feeling unbound and completely exposed by his scrutiny, she timidly acknowledged what she knew Tony must surely be seeing.

“I want to be wanted.”

“Jesus, Bluegrass…”  He released her wrists so that he could haul her against him with two firm hands on her bottom.  A hardness protruded into her bare tummy.  “Of course I want you.  That orange…  sex suit has me fantasizing about you spread across the hood of my sixty-nine Camaro, begging to be fucked.”

She knew exactly the one he was talking about.  It had been featured in a magazine article a few years back, and Lilah had fallen in love with it on first sight. “The white one?  With the orange stripes and interior?”

“Yeah.”  He pushed into her softness again, uninterested in discussing his car.  “Now, what else?”

His readiness to accommodate eased her reticence, and she seriously considered her next statement from a purely selfish perspective. 

“Kiss me,” she requested on a whisper, twining her arms around his neck and toying with the damp hair at his nape.  “I love the way you kiss.”

He obligingly inclined his head with a single murmured word.  “How?”

“Uh…  Soft at first.  Until it’s time to not be.”

“Show me.”

Show him, Lilah Jane.  Show him what you’re afraid to let yourself think, much less say.

That thought tingling her toes, Lilah grazed his mouth with hers… teasing, tickling, tasting… until she slid her tongue between his lips.  At that first sensual thrust and parry, she freely abandoned any nagging inhibitions and poured her heart and soul into the intimate joining.

The groan smothered deep in the back of his throat only made her search more deeply, single-mindedly consuming every toothpaste-laced nook and crevice of his mouth.  When Tony’s hands came up to cradle the back of her skull, it was Lilah’s turn to groan.  And whimper. 

“Jersey…” she begged, not really knowing what she was begging for, other than more.

“Tell me, baby.  You have to tell me what you want.”

Frustration had her huffing out an exasperated, “You.  I want you.”

“Gonna have to do better than that.” 

The damn man wouldn’t even keep kissing her, or move his hands from where they still cupped her head.  He stood deliberately still, intensity etched into his features and awaiting her direction. 

She leaned into him, the hair on his belly suggestively tickling hers.  In response, her nipples drew into fierce points again as she insisted, “You know.  I know you do.”

“No.”  He brushed her forehead with a kiss, whiskers tickling as they skimmed over her brow.  “I’m not a mind reader.  I only know what you tell me, Lilah.  So tell me.”

She didn’t believe him.  He knew.  He’d known from the first time what she wanted.  Craved.  He was just being obstinate, and it frustrated her to the verge of tears. 

Lilah Jane…  All you have to do is ask.  You know he’ll give it to you.  You know he will.

That flash of insight brilliantly illuminated what she’d missed from the beginning of this exchange.  His wording had summoned visions of petulant demands being submissively fulfilled by a resentful partner, and she wasn’t that girl.  She couldn’t do it knowing he was only ‘serving’ her. 

Now, though…  Lilah understood what she should have gotten from the beginning.  That wasn’t what he meant at all. 

She didn’t have to demand.  A softly uttered request or a gently steered hand would be taken as welcome guidance, not a court-ordered community service.  He sought only to make her pleasure a part of his pleasure. 

So she gently directed his hands to her face to kiss each palm before placing them around her ribcage.  “Touch me?  I just want to feel your skin against mine.”

His eyes heated behind the corrective lenses  and his hands slowly skimmed along her sides, down to the indentation of her waist and back up to her newly exposed breasts.

And so it went… 

Lilah moved under his touch, whispered passion-heated direction, and lost herself in him until he lost himself in her.  Because ultimately, as it should be between lovers, the pleasure stopped being ‘his’ and ‘hers’. 

It became theirs. 

And Lilah became Tony’s. 

Her legs tangled between his and the sheets, she craned her neck to press a kiss into midst of the stubble coating his jaw.  Emotion which had lain dormant inside her for so long that she wasn’t sure she’d ever really felt it, bubbled effervescently to the surface, demanding to break free.  “Tony?” she whispered, fingers tenderly smoothing his goatee.  “I – “

“Don’t,” he interjected softly, intercepting her hand and kissing the very tips of her fingers before pressing them to his sternum.  “Don’t say anything.  Just… be with me.”

Lilah reluctantly tucked her face into the crook of his shoulder.  Nodding her consent, she wished that the consuming emotion that had become a living, breathing thing inside of her was inclined to be so obedient.  She could stop her lips from forming the words, but her heart refused to be silenced.

I love you.