JC

"You don't have to stop talking, you know. I'm listening. My ears are very pretty."

Tori didn't want to smile but she did, even if it was a half smile that she wouldn't let fully form. She made a big show of trying to go back to being strong and stoic. Wonder Woman. The person that held everything and everyone together. But we all had our moments, even me. And I hoped that she wouldn't run away from her moment.

"I'd love to keep talking. But I really, really am not going to dump on you."

"Okay. I can deal with that." I mimicked her pose, turning so I was facing her with a leg tucked under me. I groaned, feeling my healing road rash and my nicked rib protesting my movements.

"You should be careful. Your ribs and tender skin aren't so pretty."

"I'm okay. I feel fine and then I move and I'm reminded that I'm not fine. I'm over forty and I crashed my bike in this little..." I stopped myself, thankfully, before I insulted Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

Tori's laugh came out in a bubble from her chest. "You won't hurt my feelings if you have negative things to say about this place. Not even if you talk about Eloise."

"I definitely don't want to say anything bad about Eloise. She seems like she'd lock me up in a minute." I sipped my drink and watched the Hulu screensaver scroll across the TV. "So she's kind of filling in for your dad."

"Kind of, yeah. They really are good friends. Pretty sure he gets a report on us on a regular basis."

"I bet I won't show up in that report."

"You actually might," she said, laughing. "They've been working the Tori needs to get over Sean and get out there angle for some time now."

"Well... what about that? It's been a lot of years since him, right?"

"Ugh," she grunted, her eyes rolling back in her head. "I've known everyone that lives here since I was in middle school at least. There is no one in this town I would be interested in dating."

"It doesn't have to be dating. Just something to knock the dust off."

Her mouth dropped open in fake shock, but her eyes were glowing. "J- what's your name, again?"

"You're great for my ego, honey. It's Joshua. Joshua Scott, since you're about to yell at me..."

"Joshua Scott, get your mind off of my dust, thank you very much. Mind your own dust."

"But see... I don't have any dust, Katori- what's your middle name?"

"None of your damn business."

"That means it's embarrassing. What is it?"

She sucked her teeth and lowered her chin a little, then muttered, "Simone."

"You don't like it? That's pretty."

"Thanks. I guess it's okay. I considered going by that name for a while but I decided to be proud of my name, of my culture."

"I like both your names. All of your names."

"So what do you mean, you don't have any dust?"

"What I said. I don't have to be dating a person to enjoy my time with them. I just have to find them attractive."

"That's probably easy in LA, where everyone's pretty."

"Harder than you think. Super easy here though."

It was impossible to get a reaction out of Tori, and I was trying hard. She played cool and talked tough and she was taking all of my hints and comments in stride, but I felt like there was something going on. Something on the surface. And something deeper.

"So there's someone here in this town that you'd take to bed, if you could? That's what you're saying?"

"Basically. Casually. Just having fun, letting go. If that person was open to it, that is. I wouldn't force myself on anyone."

She took a long pull off of her glass, then swallowed and set it, empty, on the table. "It's Kaya, isn't it?" She blurted.  "You complain, but you dig that Nurse Ratchet shit, huh?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "And it's not Eloise. Let's not even go there."

"Okay, well. You haven't met anyone else but Amos and he has no ass."

Her fingers, thin and delicate, reached for her hair, pulling through it. That was a tell. I had my reaction.

"So...that leaves... me."

"Yeah." I took a breath, just to let things sink in. I had no problem pulling back if I needed to. I just hoped I didn't need to.

After a few beats of silence, I asked, "Does that make you uncomfortable?"

She actually stopped to think about it, pulling her fingers through her hair, biting her  plump bottom lip. I'd started thinking about doing that myself... biting her lip. Biting her... other places.

"Honestly? It doesn't. It should. You're a stranger, blowing through town, leaving as soon as I fix your bike. I should be highly cautious right now but I'm not."

"Normal, average guy from LA," I said, repeating the phrase from the night before. "Either that, or you've got a freak flag you need to fly."

"I was thinking pretty hard about those pants..."

"See?"

"But you're not a normal, average guy from LA, though. You're well known. And well off, to put it politely."

"I'm filthy rich. Does it bother you that you want me now that you know that?"

"Okay, pretty boy. Let's not take it that far... there was plenty of flirting before I knew about the red leather pants."

"Okay. True. So... there's two ways we can handle this. At least how I see it. We could ignore all of this sexual tension building up- because even without the alcohol, there's plenty of attraction happening here."

I motioned between the two of us. With glassy eyes, she followed my fingers, then her eyes drifted up to mine. "Or?"

"Or...we could take advantage of being two consenting adults in an empty house. You're a consenting adult, right?"

It took a second, but she nodded.

"Tori... I need to hear you say it. And it's okay if you need to say no."

She sat up, leaning a knee on the cushion and drew close to me, her face hovering over mine. I met her halfway, our lips crushing together in a hasty, hurried kiss.

"I'm a consenting adult with a handsome stranger in my house and about forty five minutes before my son and my sister come home."  

"Then we should get busy," I said, a hand already at her waist and slipping under her sweater. Her skin was warm and soft under my fingertips as I dragged them up her torso and over the cups of her bra. The pad of my thumb scraped across a pert nipple poking through the fabric.  

Tori sucked in a sharp breath, then exhaled a moment later, grabbing the hem of her sweater and pulling it over her head, leaving her in a wispy, lacy, black bra. I reached for her, gently kneading the soft mounds.

Our lips met again in a chorus of moans and a flurry of hands pulling at fabric- I unzipped her jeans so she could kick out of them; she pulled my shirt over my head, then reached for the fly of my jeans but I waved her fingers away, choosing to push them down myself.  

"I'm still sore," I explained, inching the jeans down my hips, past the point of road rash. "I didn't want you to feel bad about hurting me."

"Oh, I wouldn't have," she said with a sexy little laugh. She leaned back onto the couch, laying her head on the arm rest and reached for me. I moved toward her, gently sinking until my body weight rested on hers, then adjusting as she made room for me.

I was... ready. Erect, hot and throbbing between us. We were both panting, breathing hard with tongues intertwined and our bodies arching into each other. I alternated between her lips and her neck, then to her breasts, teasing taut nipples and drawing little whimpers from the back of her throat. she pulled through my hair with one hand and dug into my back, digging marks into my skin with the other.

I began to move south, planting a line of kisses down her belly to the band of her panties. I'd planned on teasing her a little and then taking them off, but Tori wasn't in the mood to play. Her back arched and her hips lifted, then she rolled them down her hips and legs and kicked them onto the floor.

"I guess you're ready to kick off some of that dust."

"I am," she answered, her breasts rolling with her heavy breaths. "I haven't been this excited for sex in... ever."

Music to my ears. I settled between her thighs and found suckable lips, fattened by her arousal and a stiff clit. My tongue grazed up and down, in and out, side to side. Faster, slower, faster.

Her legs opened wider, her sounds growing louder with every stroke of my tongue. Every yelp, groan, grunt, whimper made me harder.  She squirmed and arched, so much that I had to grip her hips to hold her where I needed her.

She was trembling, right on the edge, but I felt her palm against my forehead, pushing me back. "I don't want to come yet. Please... please, I'll come if you don't stop."

I chuckled, moving up again, kissing the same path over her mound, up her belly. I nibbled at each of her nipples before I made it back to her mouth.  

"I have never had a woman beg me to stop."

"First time for everything, I guess."

I felt her fingers playing around the band of my boxers, so I pulled them down, then kicked them off. I moved to the side so I was lying next to her, giving her full advantage. She took her time, giving me light strokes with her fingertips down one side and up another, around the head, which was slick with evidence of how ready I was to be inside her. But it would be no good if I rushed the scene, so I waited.

"You nervous?" I whispered. I could just barely see her. The lights in the room were low and the fire was basically out, just a creepy red glow under a slab of wood.

She nodded, turning toward me and resting her cheek on my shoulder.

"Just... because it's been awhile, or... because it's me?"

"Both," came the muffled answer. "I'm a young woman, you know? I should...know what I'm doing. This shouldn't be an... experience for me. But I'm scared I'm gonna suck. And that some pretty rich boy from LA will brag about this chick he fucked in New Mexico."

"Wait, wait..." I laughed, reaching out to brush my fingers through her hair, smoothing out tangles. "First of all, you will never be this chick I fucked in New Mexico. Alright? None of that. And... look at me."  

She tipped her head up so I could see one eye. She didn't look terrified. More... frozen in anticipation.  "Tonight is about you. You can't suck if it's about you."

"Is that a rule? Something I should know?"

"Honestly, honey, I just made it up. I want you to feel good about this."

She laughed. "You have... such a way about you. No wonder you don't have any dust."

"It's all a part of my charm. So you ready for me?"

She answered by rolling onto her back again, then wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my thighs as I moved with her. "Ready when you are."