Page 29 of Push & Pull
“Sorry. Overstepping my bounds.” Petra took a step back, shedding her jacket from her shoulders and tossing it onto the back of the other chair. “It’s, you know, we have to get up and leave early tomorrow if you’re gonna make it to your thing in DC. I figured you’d want to shower, too. Kill two birds with one stone.”
Simone reigned in her astonishment, shielding her parted mouth with her hand. “You aresoforward. You know that?”
“Yeah? And?”
What could Simone do but shrug in disbelief? “I thought you said you didn’t expect anything of me after last night. Something about respecting my boundaries?”
“Yeah, and look at me, backing away because you said no. I’m gonna go take a shower.”
Simone attempted to focus on her laptop screen, but Petra’s agonizingly slow backing toward the bathroom had her saying, “Shouldn’t one of us be out here in case that robber comes back?”
“I don’t think he’s coming back.”
“I don’t think you understand how scary that was.”
“Soooolet me help you take care of that.” Petra had made it to the bathroom door, her back up against it and her hands still in her front pockets. “It’s really easy. You come into the bathroom, I rock your world, and you feel better afterward.”
Simone slammed shut the laptop lid. “There’s being forward, then there’s being lewd.”
“I’m going out on a limb here,” Petra pushed open the door and flipped on the light, “but Ireallydon’t think I’m wrong when I think part of the reason you’re still on this trip with me is because we had fun last night and you’re up for doing it again. At some point. You know, if not tonight.”
Although Simone glared at the woman winking at her, the anger was more directed at herself than anyone else.I’m really easy to read.Shit, she was thateasy.Because wasn’t it true? Simone could have rented her own car when all was said and done. She could have been in DC by now, tired, but back on schedule. Instead, she had opted for another stopover with a woman she barely knew.What I do know about her, though, is that she rocks my damn world.
“I’ll leave the door unlocked.” Petra popped into the bathroom. The fan soon came to life while the door closed. True to her word, the lock did not fall into place.
Several seconds later, the shower was on.
“Oh, my God.” Simone’s elbows were on the table, her face hovering over the cheap laptop. “What the hell is wrong with me?”
She didn’t immediately get up. Nor did she open the curtains beside her to stare out at the rainy Raleigh night.Tomorrow, we’ll no longer be in the South.Had Simone ever hit this many Southern cities in so few days? She had heard of Southern hospitality, but the way Petra acted was a bit much.
Then again, Petra wasn’t Southern. The slight Midwestern accent gave her away.
It didn’t matter. Not when Simone closed her eyes and remembered everything about the night before.What would my therapist say?She couldn’t remember. Nor did Petra have any idea about Simone’s self-destructive spirit. Not when her potential partner knew all the right ways to stimulate Simone’s sense.
All it takes is completely owning me, body and soul.Simone had been rejecting reality for as long as she could. She wasn’t into BDSM. Not to the extent her stepmother and friends were, going to themed nights at the club and building entire relationships around it. What Simone liked was simpler, wasn’t it? She had a kink. A fetish. Just the one.
She liked being topped, but it didn’t have to be any deeper than that.
What Petra couldn’t have known – or maybe she did, and Simone really was that sad – was how much her travel buddy gravitated toward the confidently dominant types. Simone’s greatest love affairs happened with women who could make her scream into a pillow one minute and call herself a slut the next. She enjoyed a good verbal dressing down in the sack. Even better if she came at the same time.Nothing like associating the two in my brain.
She wished she could attribute it to everything else that had gone on in her life. As far as her therapists were concerned, her thirst for that fetish had started around the time her mother became sick.
In reality? The seeds were planted long before that. Maybe some triggers unlocked her inhibitions along the way, but at some point in her maladjusted life, Simone Evans would find herself in a BDSM club looking for a woman to tie her to a bedpost and have their way with her. Part of the problem was how other people viewed her. Girlfriends and those not in the kink scene always peggedheras the dominant one, whether due to her more masculine-of-center appearance, or how gruff she could be to those she liked. Women like Daria Marseille never lasted more than a fortnight because what they wanted from Simone went against what she was into in bed. She could only play the big, strong girlfriend for so long.
Deep down, Simone Evans was a pretty princess who wanted to be spoiled and spanked. Sometimes.Not every time!
She liked the comfort it gave her. She liked the sensations even more.
After a minute that felt like an eternity, Simone grabbed her prepaid phone while the shower continued to spray in the bathroom.
“Hi, this is Simone,”she texted one of her closest friends.“I’ve lost my real phone and am on a burner of sorts until I get it worked out. Could you call this number when you have a chance? It’s important.”
She always felt bad about bothering her older friends, particularly those who ran their own corporations and had committed relationships in their personal lives. In Elena Zelenko’s case, she was recently married and still over the moon in love. For her, anyway.
“Is everything all right?” Elena asked as soon as Simone picked up the ringing phone. “What happened to your phone? Do you need assistance?”
“Everything’s okay for now.” No sense bringing up unnecessary details, like what had led to the missing phone or why Simone was in Raleigh, North Carolina of all places. “My phone is being mailed to me, but that’s not what I’m calling about. I didn’t want you thinking I was spam.”
