Chapter 41

“Is this what you want?”Natalia emerged from Sam’s bathroom with a borrowed strap. She preferred her own, with its plethora of adjustable features, but she had to admit that the black boxer-style harness was more appealing to look at. She’d also be much more comfortable in her own home, but she wanted to fulfill Sam’s fantasy. To give her want she wanted.

Hair slicked back, eyeshadow dark and eyeliner even darker, Natalia had gone as ultra-femme as she could given her limited tools. She’d pulled on the highest heels she’d packed in her suitcase, and painted her lips blood red for Sam’s delight.

Propped up on her elbows, Sam’s naked body on the bed was almost painful to look at. Long legs and soft lines and an expression that made Natalia feel like a goddess brought to Earth. “Fuck, yes,” she groaned more than she said.

Sauntering across the upstairs loft, Natalia fed on the hunger in Sam’s dark eyes. Feasted on the aching desire coming off Sam’s body like steam.

When she hit the foot of the bed, Sam reached out, but Natalia leaned away. “Hands to yourself, Samantha.”

Curling her fingers into fists like it was actively painful to resist touching her, Sam leaned back and placed her hands above her head. The display of obedience was a pang of desire warming Natalia’s skin.

Putting a knee on the bed for balance, Natalia slid her hands up Sam’s calves, her muscles tensing under her fingertips. Legs parting, Sam opened up for her like she’d been tailor-made for her.

Natalia wrapped her hands around Sam’s thighs before digging her blunt nails into the sensitive flesh at the back. Gripping her as hard as she dared, Natalia pulled her closer in a decisive motion.

“Fuck,” Sam moaned, skin flushing hard as she let herself be moved.

Moistening her lips to hide her satisfaction at Sam’s response, Natalia bit down and leaned forward. Shifting her weight to her bent knee, Natalia captured Sam in a kiss rougher and messier than she intended.

Sam met her energy with a whine. With fingers digging into Natalia’s back and urging her closer. Sam’s hands were everywhere. Her mouth was hot and urgent against hers.

Breaking Natalia’s rules should have resulted in Natalia pulling away. In her punishing her with withdrawal, but Natalia couldn’t find the will to leave Sam’s mouth. Couldn’t make herself stop wanting to be wanted. To be touched and pulled with addictive desperation.

“Touch me,” Sam begged.

Natalia nearly acquiesced, but she made a fist in the sheets instead. She couldn’t train Sam to get what she wanted. Instead, Natalia pulled away, breaking their kiss.

Arching off the bed, Sam exacted a punishment of her own. Chest flushed and nipples hard, Sam closed her eyes and started grinding against the underside of the sleek, dark blue strap.

Unable to stop herself from watching, Natalia’s lips parted. No one and nothing had ever looked better than Sam grinding against her, body trembling just a little from the effort.

Natalia imagined how Sam’s slick heat would feel against her own skin. How her arousal would mix with hers, adding to the pressure building at Natalia’s core. It was too much.

In a voice that was dripping with an embarrassing amount of desire, Natalia demanded, “Turn around.”

Sam opened her eyes, but only enough to see her. She groaned her displeasure, but dropped her hips back onto the mattress. Chest heaving, Sam ran her hands over her own trembling torso.

“You won’t like it if I have to repeat myself,” Natalia warned.

Biting her bottom lip again, Sam cursed. “You’re so fucking hot,” she whispered before sitting up at the edge of the bed.

Before Natalia could even think about stopping her, Sam reached up and tangled her fingers in the back of her hair. When she drew Natalia down to her mouth, it was a request, not a command. A request Natalia granted with her mouth on hers.

“You look incredible,” Sam whispered against her parched lips, palms hugging Natalia’s curves.

Fingers in Sam’s messy hair, Natalia pulled her close, allowing her to yank down one side of her bra and take her nipple in her mouth. With her teeth and tongue and lips, Sam worked until Natalia felt her touch in every inch of her body.

And then Sam’s fingers were creeping under her shorts. When she discovered just how wet Natalia already was, she cursed again.

Natalia closed her eyes and indulged. Sam’s tongue on her sensitive nipple and her fingers sliding over her clit were almost too much. Was almost enough to make her forget herself and let Sam continue until she’d come all over her fingers.

But Natalia yanked her away instead. It was bad enough that she could hardly catch her breath. That she wanted her as intensely as she did.

“It turns on,” Sam said breathlessly.

Natalia furrowed her brow, confused until Sam stood and went to her nightstand. She returned with a tiny remote control.

“The flat base vibrates,” Sam explained, showing her the control in her palm.

Shifting her attention from the remote to Sam’s flushed face, Natalia raised both brows. “I told you to turn around,” she growled. “There will be no more warnings,” she said, hoping that Sam wouldn’t call her bluff.

With a smirk, Sam tipped her head forward. Remote in hand, she turned around and kneeled on the edge of the bed.

“Get down,” Natalia instructed, heart racing at the sight of Sam bent over for her.

Finally behaving herself, Sam pressed her chest to the bed, leaving only her ass in the air. Natalia bit the inside of her cheek to keep from voicing her approval.

“Spread your legs,” Natalia demanded. “And don’t you dare come.”

Fucking with her expectations, Natalia flipped open the cap on the bottle of lube. She ran her fingers over Sam’s entrance, teasing her with her fingertips before dropping to her knees.

Sam was no doubt expecting her to push inside with the toy, but got Natalia’s tongue instead. With an exhilarating cry and a curse, Sam rocked backward, willing Natalia to make more contact with her mouth.

To torment her, Natalia obliged. Moaning into her, Natalia found Sam’s clit with her tongue. Unable to see Natalia, to touch her, Sam had no idea what she was going to do next. A fact that, in Natalia’s experience, skyrocketed desire from aching to lethal.

Drunk on the way Sam tasted on her tongue, Natalia gripped Sam’s ass, digging her nails into her to lace her pleasure with just a little pain. Sam’s body tensed, her thighs faltering.

“Please,” Sam begged, her voice husky and desperate and addictive. “I want you,” she cried.

Natalia ignored the plea. Instead, she pushed Sam’s hips higher, granting herself better access to her clit. Taking it between her lips, she sucked hard, rocking Sam backward into her mouth.

It was cruel, she knew, but she couldn’t help herself. The high of being wanted by Sam. To have her begging and quivering and crying for release was too good to pass up.

Arousal dripped into Natalia’s mouth, fueling her own painful ache. She wanted the moment to last forever. To hold Sam at the very edge for as long as possible.

“Please,” Sam begged again, and this time she pulled herself away from Natalia’s skilled tongue. “I can’t,” she said, voice cracking. “I can’t keep?—”

Natalia cut her off by slipping a finger inside of her and then another. She was so wet. So ready that she tightened around Natalia and sighed with relief.

“Since you asked nicely…” Natalia stood and squeezed the lube over the smooth silicone and pressed it to Sam’s entrance, where her fingers had been. “Take what you need.”

Instead of moving gently, Sam pushed backward into her, taking the entire length of the strap at once. With a curse, Natalia gripped her hips to keep her balance.

For a few jaw dropping seconds, Natalia watched helplessly while Sam rocked into her, movements so slow they must have been designed to torture. And then Natalia’s hands were holding her tighter, changing her pace and making her go faster.

“You feel so good,” Sam panted, meeting Natalia’s every thrust, pushing her to do it harder. Dropping her chest to the mattress again, Sam snaked her hand between her thighs.

Natalia couldn’t bring herself to tell Sam to stop. Her own desire was reaching a breaking point. She propped her foot up on the bed, opening herself up so the smooth, slightly curved base of the strap rubbed against her aching clit.

“Turn it on.” Natalia managed through her dry mouth and raw throat.

Without hesitation, Sam reached for the tiny remote near her hand. The vibration was much stronger and much more direct than Natalia anticipated. Her knee weakened, leg nearly buckling underneath her.

Cursing, Natalia adjusted the base, but there was no stopping it. Her orgasm was building too fast. Keeping the entire toy inside of her, Sam used both hands to grip the sheets and grind against Natalia. In that moment, she realized that Sam could feel the vibration, too. A destabilizing fact.

“Get on your back.” Her hammering heart made her voice too unsteady. Too loud.

Sam flipped around, her body slick with sweat and flush matching her lingering sunburned shoulders. Climbing on top of her, Natalia slid back inside of her, hands landing on either side of Sam’s head.

She wasn’t going to kiss her. She wasn’t going to let her come while she stared up at her. She wasn’t going to let herself come.

But then Sam’s legs were hooked around her thighs, and she was beautiful when she begged. “Kiss me, please, I’m so close.”

The moment Natalia captured Sam’s bottom lip between hers, her mistake was painfully evident. Sam’s tongue was in her mouth and her hips were rocking against her.

Restraint slipped through Natalia’s fingers with Sam writhing beneath her. It was too much, even for her. Wrestling the only shred of self-control she had left, Natalia breathed her husky demand, “Come.”

Sam threw her head back, signaling that she’d already begun complying. Between the orgasm etched on Sam’s face and the vibrator pressed to Natalia’s clit, she tipped over the edge right after her.

With Sam’s arms and legs locking her in place, Natalia found her mouth again and indulged in her kiss as her orgasm crested while she maintained her breakneck pace. Sam held her so close, they were gliding against each other — hot and hard and perfect.

Natalia lingered on top of her, drunk on her lips even after Sam had turned off the vibration and Natalia had pulled out of her carefully. The kiss was deep and terrifying and impossible to stop.

“Are you okay?” Sam asked, voice as soft as the hand gently rubbing her back.

Natalia opened her mouth to spit out a barb and show just how fine she was, but she couldn’t find the words. All she had was the overwhelming desire to get closer. To go deeper.

With the briefs and strap discarded on the floor, Natalia should have been ready to get the fuck out of there, but just like with Sam’s kiss, she found herself lingering in bed. Sweat-soaked sheets sticking to her damp skin.

“You should wear your necklace,” Natalia said abruptly while Sam was still recovering. “If you want to.”

“What?” Sam smoothed her hair back and tucked her hand under her head.

“With the rings,” Natalia explained, laying on her side instead of bolting for the shower.

Sam’s fingers went to an empty spot on her chest as if by reflex. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable or like I haven’t healed?—”

“I’m never going to be jealous of what you had.” She swallowed the irritating lump in her throat. “Though… I am sorry you lost it.”

Sam’s eyes were so dark, so brimming with affection and emotion and a thousand other things that should scream for Natalia to run.

“I’m sorry too,” Sam agreed quietly. “Weird as this might sound, I think you’d have really liked each other. She was such a badass in her own way.”

The crack in Natalia’s chest spread. “Yes, well, perhaps she would have been open to a throuple.”

“Oh, man. She was so jealous. I don’t think I could have gotten her to go for that.” Sam laughed with her whole being. “Have you ever done something like that?”

Natalia followed the outline of Sam’s tattoo with her fingertips. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I told you there’s never been anyone after Kate. Only sex. No commitments. No dating. Nothing with a drop of expectation.”

Sam turned, her face suddenly so close, but not in a disturbing way. It was almost… nice. “Don’t you ever get lonely?”

It was a handful of syllables, but each one landed like a hollow point bullet — striking her and leaving untold havoc behind.

“I don’t believe in loneliness,” she lied out of habit. She closed her eyes and almost corrected her statement to sometimes.

“Everyone gets lonely,” Sam continued. “Although there is nothing worse than feeling lonely when there’s someone lying in bed right beside you.”

The simple confession was another shot into Natalia’s ravaged body. “You’ve felt that before?”

Sam nodded. “The first woman I dated a few years after Sofia. She was nice. An objective match on paper, you know?” Natalia did not know, but she nodded. “Blanca joked that she was lovely, but she was a one-gallon person.”

“One gallon person?”

With a chuckle, Sam explained, “She has this theory about people’s emotional depth. There’s one-gallon people and ten-gallon people and it’s impossible to pour ten into one, so when there’s a mismatch, both parties will always be unsatisfied.”

The concept made sense. A disquieting amount of sense.

“And how can you know whether I’m ten gallons? I may have fewer than one.”

At the legitimate question, Sam snaked her arm around Natalia’s waist and held her a fraction too tight. Somehow, it wasn’t tight enough.

“Babe, you might be the entire ocean.” She smiled and leaned in to kiss her. “I think you feel so much,” she whispered, lips so close they brushed against Natalia when she spoke. “You wouldn’t have closed yourself off for so long if you didn’t feel so deeply that it was unbearable.”

Punched in the gut with the truth, Natalia nearly squirmed away. “And if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not,” she replied with enviable conviction.

Natalia closed her eyes, feeling more supported than trapped by Sam’s body around hers. “I’m going to disappoint you,” she repeated her earlier disclaimer.

“That’s my problem. So stop worrying about it.” Sam’s hand on her back was warm and steady. “Stay with me tonight?”

The question was a sudden pounding in Natalia’s chest. A twisting in her stomach. “I can’t,” she whispered, but only said the rest of the sentence in her head, but I want to.