Page 49 of For Her Own Good

“Ah, not yet, you greedy little thing. I want to see you.”

“Okay.”

Her voice isn’t exactly a mumble, but it’s not anywhere near the assertive Starla I’m used to. Really drives home precisely how delicate she is when in this state and how careful I’ll have to be to balance treating her as the capable and brilliant woman I know she is, but also the fragile and intensely vulnerable girl she also is.

I roll her onto her back and elect to start with her stockings, though someday I’d like to have her in those and nothing else because, Christ.

The pink ribbons must be satin, smooth and soft between my fingers as I fondle them.

“I like your stockings very much. So pretty and soft, just like you.”

To emphasize my point, I run my hands down to her ankles and then back up over the thin knitted material. Once back up over her knees, I tug at the ribbons to undo them and the ties fall apart in my fingers. Will she be as easily undone?

Loosened, it’s easy enough to push her stockings down her legs and peel them off her feet. Her toes are a shimmery pink today whereas the last time I saw them they were a thistle color, but if she’s anything like Maeve—both women who are rich and who grew up that way—she likely gets them done regularly.

Her black ruffled shorts are next, and I hook my index fingers into the waistband before kissing her stomach. It makes her giggle and reach for my hair. I like that, her fingers running over my scalp—I’ll bet it would be an absolute delight to have her tugging on it while I licked between her thighs. God, I can’t wait to taste her. But though sex can mean a lot of different things, I’m pretty sure of what Starla meant when she requested to fuck.

So, before I get too distracted, off they go and then she’s in a pair of these darling panties with Hello Kitty printed all over them. They match her goddamn sweatshirt and it’s not even fair.

I must make some sort of noise or be gawking because she brings her knees together as if to hide herself, shy away from me. Perhaps I ought to be more careful, but I grip her knees and pull them apart so I can look my fill.

“What are you hiding for, love? I wanted to admire your pretty panties, how well they match your sweatshirt.”

“You like them?”

Suspicious again.

“Oh yes, I like them very much indeed. Do you have many of these matching sets?”

She nods, her big eyes holding my gaze, still not sure I’m earnest in my appreciation.

“I’ll think about you wearing them every time I see you, then. Wonder precisely what print you’ve got on that day. Or all they all Hello Kitty but in different colors?”

“No. Hello Kitty, Wonder Woman, Star Wars, She-Ra, ladybugs, butterflies, unicorns, um…more than that.”

It’s possible my voice is hoarse when I say, “I’d like to see them all.”

“Now?”

“No, silly girl. I have things of greater import to see to at the moment. You said you wanted to fuck, and that’s what I intend to do. But I wanted to be clear that I adore your darling little outfits, and I’ll enjoy it very much when you wear them in front of me.”

“’Kay.”

I’ll give her time to get used to the idea that though the men who have come before me—no, sorry, she said before she has a partner who’s a woman—thepeoplewho have come before me might have been tolerant of her inclinations, but I will be downright enthusiastic. I don’t know as I’d go so far as to say Ineedit, but it’s so enticing I’m near drunk on it.

“Can you sit up a bit for me?”

She does and I take her sweatshirt off, revealing, Jesus… I thought I’d be seeing a bra or one of those camisoles or anything but the expanse of her skin that I’ve revealed. Her torso, her breasts. It makes sense given that her shirt was falling off one shoulder and I didn’t see any straps. She’s lovely. Maeve had been more angular, the sharper thinness she felt pressed into. Starla, on the other hand, is all lush curves and full breasts. They look like they’ll be weighty as they spill out of my palms; round and tipped with dusky pink nipples that have gathered into hard points.

I could spend all day marveling over her tits, and I will someday, but not today. Today, I’ll strip off the rest of her clothes so I can see all of her. Every last inch that I held myself away from for years upon years. There’s some irony, of course, in having seen into the depths of her psyche without having seen her body, and now learning I may have had no idea about what lay beneath. Perhaps these sensual, curious, needy parts of her didn’t exist then, but perhaps they did and I was simply locked out, which is only appropriate. If I wanted her as badly as I did and I didn’t know those things, I can’t imagine how I would have managed if Idid.

I’d like to think I wouldn’t have done anything because she wouldn’t have been a real adult. It would have been wrong, it would have been… A cold frisson runs down my spine like the breath of a ghost and I don’t want to think about it. So I press it back, push against it until it’s given up and retreated into the ether…for now.

Which allows me to pull Starla’s underwear over her hips and down her legs to be tossed onto the floor. I’d like to say I take my time, savor this as I’ve savored the rest of her, but I’ve used up all of my patience, all of my better instincts. No, instead of marveling at her and telling her how lovely she is and how much I’ve ached to see every inch of her skin, I simply prowl over her until I’ve notched my hips between her soft and willing thighs.

Chapter 17

Starla

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