Page 10 of QB Keeper
I push him back just enough to roll onto my side, snaking my hand up his shirt. The muscles of his abs flex under my touch, and I’m already so turned on again that I can barely think straight. I trace my fingertips through the dips above his sweats, and when I eagerly start to lower my shaky hand under the waistband, he grabs my wrist and stops me.
“I said we were taking things slow, Grace. As much as I want you to touch me everywhere, I think that’s enough for tonight,” he says softly.
Everything in my body deflates. “Oh. Okay,” I say, trying to conjure up as much confidence as I can. I don’t want to seem clingy, but I can’t say it doesn’t hurt that we just did that and now he wants to go. It’s a little embarrassing now that I have the wherewithal to think about it.
I push myself into a sitting position before swinging my legs off the bed. Just as I go to stand so I can gather my clothes and not be so exposed in front of him, a strong arm bands around my waist.
“Whoa, Bunny. Where are you running off to so fast?” he says. I turn to look over my shoulder at him, seeing his cockysmirk. “Not going to lie, I’m feeling pretty used right now. Didn’t take you for thelove ‘em and leave ‘emtype.”
I give him a weak smile. “You said—” I begin, “I thought you wanted to go.” The last thing I want is for him to think he has to stay if he doesn’t want to. I understand what we’re doing here. I know this isn’t a relationship and that he’s just helping me explore my sexuality. So, I don’t want him to feel like he’s on the hook for anything once we’re done.
“Of course I don’t want to go,” he says on a laugh. “Do you really think I would do what we just did and then not spend time with you afterward?”
I don’t know what I think. I only know what I want, and I definitely want him to stay here with me. Even though being fingered is probably not a big deal for most girls my age, that was my first time and I’m feeling all kinds of things. Mostly, I just feel happy and satisfied. And I’m glad it was with Tanner. I knew he would take care of me, but everything that just happened felt so right. I’m kind of relieved after all the times I tried doing things with other guys and just couldn’t go through with it. I guess all it took was finding someone I trusted.
I smile at him. “Are you telling me you want to cuddle, hot shot?”
He scoffs. “Duh, Gracie girl. It’s the least you can do after I just gave you a mind-blowing orgasm.”
I laugh, lying back down next to him and letting him wrap his arms around me. “It was okay,” I shrug. I’m obviously teasing him because he’s right. That absolutely blew my mind. But I’m not going to let his ego get any bigger by telling him that.
He rolls us over so he’s on top of me before digging his fingertips into my side to tickle me. “Just okay?” he says, continuing his assault. I let out a very unladylike snort as I laugh hysterically while he pins me down.
After proving his point, he stops tickling me and leansdown to press a chaste kiss to my lips. “Keep it up with that smart mouth and we’re going to fast-forward to the punishment part of this little experiment,” he says with a raised brow. I feel my insides clench, imagining what it’ll be like when he has me tied up and makes me pay for being a brat— which I inevitably will because it’s who I am as a person.
Tanner knows me so well, that I’m sure he can tell the dopey look on my face was brought on by those exact dirty thoughts.
He smirks again before reaching over me to grab the remote control off my nightstand. He pulls me into him as he turns on the TV and opens the streaming app. “You better pick something to watch this time, Bunny. You saw what happened when you let me choose,” he says with a wink.
I laugh quietly, knowing that letting him decide on that movie last night is going to make for the most epic summer ever.
SEVEN
TANNER
I wake slowly,immediately loving the way I’ve got Grace wrapped in my arms. Sometime in the middle of the night, I removed my shirt, so we’re skin-to-skin from the waist up. She’s curled into me, her slow, soft breaths puffing against my bare chest.
I keep trying to sort through the mess of emotions I’m feeling about what went down last night. We both know this can’t go further than just a physical thing for the summer, but I refuse to do this without also showing her that she deserves to be cared for and appreciated at the same time. The reason I insisted that she do this with me was because I wanted to protect her. That includes her heart. I have a chance to set the bar for what she accepts from any guy that comes after me, and I’m planning on setting that fucker to the goddamn moon. Making sure we don’t cross any lines is going to be hard, but that’s how it has to be. I just have to keep my eyes on the goal here, which is to give her a safe place to try everything she wants to try before she heads to California.
I look down, tightening my hold on her just a little bit. I can’t stop myself from carefully burying my nose in her hair and inhaling her soft, vanilla scent. And when I press my lipsto her head, she stirs, a small whine coming from her tired body. I laugh to myself because Grace is definitelynota morning person. She never has been. Even as a kid, she’d stomp into the kitchen like a pissed off gremlin, scowling and grunting at us while we laughed at her messy hair and half-closed eyes. She was still cute as hell, though. Just like she is now.
“Morning, Bunny,” I say quietly.
“No,” she rasps, making me laugh. She’s going to need a vat of coffee and a bag of Sour Patch Kids to fix her attitude. I can already tell. But first, I have an idea.
“Be right back,” I say, slipping out of the bed and walking over to her sewing table where I spotted a spool of pink ribbon yesterday. It immediately got my wheels spinning, but I wanted to start vanilla and work our way to the kinkier stuff. But this is technically still beginner level…kinda, so why not?
I look back to the bed where Grace is still facing my side, her hands extended onto the warm spot I was lying in just a minute ago. I take her fabric scissors and cut about three feet of ribbon before walking back over and kneeling on the mattress. As I begin tying it around her wrists, binding them together, her eyes flutter open.
“What are you doing?” she asks, not pulling away in protest. I take that as her consent to continue.
“Tying you up so I can have my way with you,” I say with a shit-eating grin.
It takes her a moment to process my words, but when she does, her eyes snap open wide. I can’t help but laugh quietly as she stares up at me like a deer in headlights while I continue winding the ribbon around her wrists tightly enough so she won’t be able to escape. I finish it off by pulling it into a pretty little pink bow, which makes me feel a fuck ton more deviant than I should right now.
I roll her to her back and pull the covers off her still nakedbody, taking a quick second to admire her soft skin and mouthwatering curves before I take her bound wrists and place them above her head “I want you to keep your arms there the whole time. No matter what I do to you or how good it feels, you’re not to move them. Do you understand?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says on an exhale.
