Page 36 of Hard Ride
“Say what?” I have an idea, but I’d like to hear it from her.
“What I felt for you.” Her wide blue gaze meets mine. “I was the problem. I was the one who couldn’t deal with wanting you and wanting Lucas, too. I was afraid of my own desires. I thought…it would be better for you if I just left. But it was never about you. It was about me.”
I push a curl behind her ear. “Hate to break it to you, sweet girl, but it wasn’t all you. I have to take the blame too, because you weren’t the only one who couldn’t deal with their desires. I thought I’d frightened you away.”
“No,” she says, then pulls a face. “I mean, yes, okay, you did frighten me. But not in the way you think.” She swallows and looks away, and I allow her that because confessing can be hard when someone’s watching, and we’re not in a scene now. “You know, there’s something else I haven’t told you. Mom spent a lot of time drinking and picking up men. I’d wake up in the morning to find strange guys in the kitchen, which wasn’t great.” Her cheeks have gotten pinker and she’s biting her lip. This is hard for her, I can see that.
Lucas pushes himself out of the armchair and goes to the drinks cabinet, calmly pouring out some drinks while Katherine talks.
“When I was sixteen,” she goes on. “I came out of my bedroom one morning to find one of her hookups from the night before in the kitchen. He was younger than her usual, and hot, and he flirted with me a bit as I was getting my breakfast. I mean, at the time I thought he was just making conversation, but it was only later that I realized he was flirting. Anyway, Iwas getting some milk for my cereal, and when I turned around to put the bottle back in the fridge, he was right in front of me. He pinned me against the wall, took my chin in his hand, and kissed me. I was shocked at first, since I’d only kissed a couple of boys before then, and they didn’t do it like that. But then….” She takes a breath. “I knew it was wrong, and I didn’t want him to do any of that. But…there was a moment when it was…hot. I liked him holding me, and I liked him pressing me against the table and just…taking what he wanted. Something else might have happened, but Mom came in, and when she saw us, she was furious. He got kicked out, but she was so mad at me. She called me a dirty little slut and told me not to flaunt myself in front of men.”
Anger coils like a snake in my gut, at the man who took what he shouldn’t have from my Katherine, and at her mother for slut shaming a sixteen-year-old. Fuck, if that man were here, he wouldn’t be safe from Lucas and me, and as for her mother… Well, a good job that hard-faced, bitter woman isn’t here either. She blamed Katherine for something that wasn’t her fault, and I won’t fucking have it.
“She’s wrong,” I growl. “It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her, and that fucking prick who assaulted you. Because itwas anassault, you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Katherine looks at me, clear-eyed. “Intellectually. Yeah, Mom blamed me, and she shouldn’t have, but there’s always been this doubt in me. That because I liked it, there was something…I don’t know. Wrong with me.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I say. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, sweet girl. Nothing at all.”
“But I didn’t know that at the time,” Katherine says. “And because she made me feel so ashamed of my sexuality, I kind of hated being turned on. Especially when you were being bossy.”
And now I’m furious with myself. For knowing something was wrong at the time, because I certainly fucking knew, yet not being patient enough with her to get an answer. To give her space and time to tell me.
“Katherine,” I say roughly. “I’m the one who owes you an apology. I should have been more careful. I should have?—”
She reaches up and lays a finger across my lips, and I’m so surprised I actually shut up. “You didn’t know, so how could you have been careful? I didn’t tell you.”
Lucas comes over with a tumbler of vodka for me and puts it on the side table next to the armchair. Then he strokes his fingers through Katherine’s hair. “Oh, Katie,” he says. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.” His voice is gentle, but I see the fury flickering in his eyes.
Katherine takes her finger from my mouth and leans into Lucas’s stroking hand. “I am, too. I thought it had warped my sexuality forever. And when I started having feelings for Luc, I thought I must be the slut my mother called me.”
This time, I take her chin in my hand and tilt her head back, so her blue gaze is on mine. “Firstly, I don’t care if you’re a slut or not,” I say flatly and emphatically. “Secondly, your mother was a bitch to say what she did, and she’s wrong. There’s nothing wrong with your sexuality, and there is nothing wrong with you.”
She looks fiercely up at me. “You really think so?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Katherine. I’m kinky as fuck and many people would call that wrong, but I don’t give a shit. We are what we are, and what you are is brave and strong as hell. Submission is a strength because you hold all the cards. You’re the one who can make us or break us, and my sweet Katherine, you made Lucas and me feel like gods tonight.”
“It’s true.” Luc crouches down beside the armchair. “You’re something special, Katie. And you should know that.”
She glances at him, then up at me, and she smiles. “I mean, I do feel special when I’m with you two. I don’t think I ever have before.”
I know what she needs now, and when I give Lucas a quick look, I see agreement in his eyes. If no one has ever made her feel special before, then it’s up to us to make her feel as if she’s the most precious thing in the entire universe.
He lifts his glass and takes a sip. Then he leans forward and takes Katherine’s mouth in another of his long, slow kisses. He really loves a kiss, and this one is extra special, because it’s got alcohol in it.
Katherine gives a little gasp, then a moan as she drinks from Lucas’s mouth. And when he lifts his head, her cheeks are pink, and her eyes are glittering like stars.
Pretty, pretty little sub.
“Go and lie on the floor, sub,” I say softly, pointing to the soft rug between the armchairs.
She moves quickly, sliding out of my lap and going over to the spot I indicated, lying down on her back. Then Lucas and I move over there, too. He kneels above her head, taking it between his hands and tilting it up and back. Then he covers her mouth again in another kiss, while I start at the other end, spreading her thighs so I can kneel between them. I slide my hands beneath her ass and lift her, so her pussy is right there, glistening and soft and luscious, and I lick straight up the middle of her. She jerks, gasping into Lucas’s mouth, giving me the sweetest reaction. So, then I settle in. Because I’ve been waiting ten years for a taste of this pussy, and I’m going to take my time.
She’s delicious, all sweet and salty, and she gasps and jerks beneath my tongue as I slide it all the way into her wet heat.
Lucas lifts his mouth from hers and then kneels behind her, lifting her head and shoulders in his lap. “Look,” he murmurs,cupping the back of her head in his palms and raising it so she can see me between her thighs. “He loves the way you taste.”
Her cheeks are flushed red, and her eyes are dark with pleasure as they meet mine. I hold her gaze as I continue to lick her fucking delicious little cunt, letting her know exactly how much I’m loving eating her.
