On Fire: A Steamy Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  “Not always. Let's just say I never sent another woman a note like that.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  “Yes, because it's true. Did you?” I don't expect her to have complied for one moment. I'll almost be disappointed if she has. I just wanted to see if me telling her what to do sent her running for the hills.

  “Did I what?”

  “Leave your underwear at home.”

  She gives me an arch look. “Funnily enough, no, I didn't. For the record, I've never received a note like that either. Did you really think I would do that? I hardly know you.”

  So, she didn't obey me. Good. Besides, what fun is there if she just gives in and does whatever I want the moment I demand it? She has a mind of her own. Bending her to my will in bed will be all the more satisfying. Fuck! An image flashes across my mind of her bending over my bed naked and makes me lose my train of thought for a moment.

  “You don’t know me but you can get to know me now,” I say, getting back into the conversation before I go completely off track. “Ask me any questions you like on the way to the restaurant. Then when you know enough, just say the word, and you can remove your panties.” I look over at her. Her face is a picture.

  I have to stop rubbing her up the wrong way. “Just kidding. Ask me anyway.”

  I expect her to ask the usual crap women always ask, wanting to know about my past, my family, my job, the likelihood of a relationship. The drive to Sandy Cove is only twenty minutes or so. I can put up with the third degree for a while, but Anna doesn't ask anything like that. I should have known.

  I get the idea her questions will be unpredictable right from the first one she asks. “If the only way to save the world is to make out with a male movie star, who would it be?”

  “Easy,” I say. “I always thought the earth was overrated. Nice while it lasted.”

  She laughs at that and pauses while she thinks of another question. “What skill or talent do you have you never told anyone about?”

  “I'll show you later.”

  “Really!” she says. “I should have known you'd say that. What other skill?”

  “That would have to be dog whispering.”

  “Do you have a dog?”

  “No, but if I had one I would definitely whisper to it.”

  “Oh you, you're not taking this seriously,” she says but she's laughing anyway. “Here's another one. Think about it. What's your favorite thing to do when you're alone?” And then she realizes what she asked and we both burst out laughing.

  “I'm not getting anywhere with this,” she says. “You totally failed at letting me get to know you.”

  “I think you know a lot about me already.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like what I do, where I live, that I suck at gardening and interior design...”

  “Your bossy ways...”

  “My bossy ways. I'd seriously love to show you those. You ain't seen nothing yet.”

  I sense rather than see her eyes widen at that and she's quiet for a moment taking that in. I can just about hear the wheels turning in her head.

  But she doesn't hold back. She says what she's thinking. I like that about her. “If telling me to go naked under my dress is nothing, what more is there?”

  “That would be telling. There’s no surprise if you know everything. Let's just say I like obedience.”

  She scoffs. “Like a dog! And what if I don't want to be bossed about and told what to do? And for the record, I don't.”

  “That's your call. We have dinner and I deliver you home like a perfect gentleman.”

  “And if I do go along with whatever it is you want? Which for the record I won't, but if I did?”

  I have to grin at the idea of that. My heart leaps at the thought of her obeying me, especially as she is fighting any instinct she has to try it. “We play. Just so you know, there are consequences for disobedience, but only when we play.”

  She gulps. I catch sight of her nipples through her clothes, hard and inviting. So, she's not totally against it! This conversation is turning her on. But then, she's not the only one hardening here.

  “So, it's not a whole lifestyle thing?” she asks.

  “It's not. That's another scenario entirely. Telling you what to do twenty-four seven would get old fast, but playtime, that's different. I tell you to go naked under your dress and you do it, just to please me. And you'd be amazed how much pleasure will come your way when you please me.”

  She seems to take that in. And then she does something I wasn't expecting at all.

  CHAPTER 15

  Anna

  I strike while the iron is hot and before I have time to think about it, I reach into my dress and unclip my strapless bra at the front. The wires were digging into me anyway and it will be a relief to take the thing off. A relief in one way but a crazy mad thing to do in another. I'm about to pull it out but Rory brakes and stops the car at the side of the road, holding out his hand as if to stop me.

  What? It’s not as if he hasn’t had his mouth and hands on me already. Eek! Have I made a terrible mistake? I can't look at him.

  But he gives me virtually no time to doubt myself. “I like,” he says. “I like a lot.” He runs his thumbs over the soft jersey material of my dress teasing my nipples. I really have gone off the rails but the way his eyes are fixed on the front of my dress has all kinds of feelings bubbling inside. A truck goes past filling the car with light, but it has gone so fast I don't care. I feel high without a thing to drink and no need for a drug test.

  He unclips his seat belt and mine and holds me in his arms kissing my hair. “You're fucking perfect,” he says. “underwear or no underwear. Though I had better just check you told me the truth.”

  I gulp as he smooths his fingers under my skirt and reaches the top of my thigh running his index finger under the elasticated lace of my stocking top. “I approve,” he says, but his fingers continue to the black lace of my panties. “But these will have to come off, sooner or later. When will that be, I wonder?”

  “Later,” I squeak.

  He traces his fingertips over my lace-covered mound while I squirm in my seat. I want him to do more, to pull my panties off. I want to feel his fingers on me pleasuring me but he continues to do no more than tease me with soft touches from his fingertips until I am panting.

  “If you get your panties all wet, I'll have to punish you.”

  Damn him! He knows they are already wet. It what he's doing that is making them that way.

  “So, so beautiful,” he says, removing his hand from my panties and bending his head, pushing the neckline of my dress down to take my nipple in his mouth. I wanted to protest that he took his hand away but now I'm all taken up with what he's doing with his lips, his tongue, his hot mouth on my breast and I let every sensation of that wash over me. I couldn't protest about anything right now if I tried.

  He groans, letting my nipple go so that it comes out of his hot mouth with a pop. “How is it that we always run out of time to play? I think we had better get going or we'll miss our reservation. I promised you dinner, but after that, there will be all the time we need.”

  I'm not sure there will. A lifetime with his hands and mouth on me might not be enough the way I'm feeling right now but, hey, my stomach is rumbling. I'm hungry. I hardly managed to eat a thing all day. It’s just now there's a herd of butterflies running amok through my insides.

  I could persuade Rory to finish what he started but I haven't been out for ages. My going-out budget is so bleak, any meal I haven't made myself is a treat. And I can't help being curious about Berry's now that Jenny has filled me in on it so I want to go. Besides, my friend will kill me if I don't report back on the great chef himself. I can wait to take things further. Maybe.

  Rory takes the two sides of my bra and fastens it up at the front, adjusting my dress so I'm back to looking respectable though I'm feeling more wanton than I ever have in my life.

  “We
can't have those smarmy waiters getting an eyeful,” he says, his eyes twinkling. “I didn't think this nothing-under-the-dress thing through.”

  I swear that the bra is not helping hide much in that blue dress but whatever. I like knowing he cares enough to be jealous of stares from strangers.

  He squeezes my hand, smiles at me and starts the car. I don't know what it is about him that brings out the playful side of me, throwing caution to the wind. I feel euphoric and wild. It’s as if a part of me that has been wound up tight for a long time has been let loose.

  I have the feeling I can be myself with Rory and say anything to him and he's mature enough to deal with it without getting stupid about it like a silly boy.

  “So, ask me another question,” he says, “because your questions are priceless.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Rory

  I just about run the car off the road when Anna asks the next question. “If I was an ice cream, how would you eat me?”

  I glance over at her. She's looking at me with perfectly innocent eyes like she just asked what my favorite flavor was or something. She makes me laugh. This girl is something else. All I know is my cock is threatening to burst out of my pants now at her teasing. I have to tease her right back.

  “Slowly. Thoroughly. With pleasure. A lot of pleasure.” I start to imagine that ice cream on her, where it would go. “There'd be nothing left of you when I finished. Not after my mouth, my tongue my lips had all been busy licking and sucking up every drop.”

  She shifts uneasily in her seat. Fuck dinner! I'd like to take her to the room right now and eat ice cream off her naked body.

  “My turn to ask a question,” I say. “If you had your own country, what would be some of the rules?”

  “That's easy,” she says. “No violence, no stealing, no lying, no cheating. Free chocolate for everyone on the National Health Service.”

  “Because...?”

  “Everyone knows chocolate is the cure for all woes.”

  “I can think of a few things that would cheer me up right now that don't involve chocolate.”

  “Oh,” she says. “Do you need cheering up?”

  “Only one part of me is suffering.”

  She looks at me and grins. “Which part would that be then? Would it be this part?” She reaches out and touches my cock and I just about come in my pants.

  “Better try a different line of questioning if you want to get there in one piece,” I tell her.

  “Okay, what question would you be afraid to answer truthfully? Then I'll ask that one.”

  “Let's listen to some music instead.”

  “No, you promised to answer my questions.”

  When I don't say anything, she tries another tack. “Tell me about your family then. You told me about your sister. What about your parents?”

  “We should definitely listen to music.”

  “In that case, I really want to know.”

  “There's not much to tell. My father was basically a deadbeat who came and went in and out of my mother's life whenever he felt like it. Sadie and I had our hopes raised we’d be a real family whenever he turned up and dashed whenever he left again. After my mother got cancer and things became grim, we never saw him again. Not even after they contacted him when our mother died. We ended up in foster care. What kind of guy does that to his wife and kids? Sam's dad is just as bad if not worse.”

  “Oh, what a childhood! For you and Sadie, I mean. What did Sam’s dad do?”

  “Sadie told him she was pregnant. He took off and she never saw him again. It makes my blood boil. But that's relationships. I just think it's better not to start what you can't finish. What about your family? Tell me you have something better than that going on.”

  A cloud comes over her face. I don't know if it's because she understood that she shouldn’t pin her hopes on a relationship with me or if it's thinking about my family or hers. “My parents are great compared to your dad,” she says, “though I'm an only child and I'd have liked to have a sister. They're kind of hippyish. I think one child was enough for them.”

  “Hippyish? Tree hugging and things?”

  “Not that bad. They waited for me to grow up and as soon as I did they started traveling and never stopped. I get a lot of postcards from far-flung places where they're living or working. I never see them much these days. That's why I came to Cornwall because at least I have Gran here.” She frowns.

  I need to get the conversation onto lighter things. “Ask me another question. Something other than families.”

  “Okay then. What's your biggest nightmare?”

  “That we'll get to the end of this evening and you send me away with a flea in my ear, that this meal will go on so long and we'll eat so much food, we won't be able to move after it. That or any kind of horror movie.”

  “You don't like horror movies?”

  “I don't. Zombies. Vampires. Axe murderers. You know they're out to get you. Why wait for them on a cold, dark night so they can pounce? I don’t get it.”

  She laughs. I didn't expect the journey to be the fun part of the evening but if the rest is as enjoyable, I can't wait.

  *

  I've heard Berry's is good and I like food as much as the next guy but this is so much more than food. It's a whole experience. From the moment we arrive at the hotel, an old Victorian house, and the doorman ushers us inside, it feels like we won the lottery.

  “You'd think we were royalty or something,” Anna whispers.

  She's not wrong but they seem to treat every customer with a kind of reverence. I order a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet for Anna and ask for just an inch in my glass, then I order water “because I'll be driving home.”

  “I thought we had a room. I think we should use it. You'll be awfully tired driving back.” Anna grins. Little minx. “You may as well enjoy the wine too.”

  “If you're sure,” I say and ask the waiter to fill my glass when he returns with my water.

  I lean closer to her across the table. “Staying here overnight counts as playtime. In fact, playtime starts right now.”

  Anna blushes. Her pale skin shows whenever she's even slightly embarrassed. “So, do I have to call you Sir and lick your boots, because, no way am I doing that.”

  I put on a stern expression. “I don't think you have the right attitude for this at all. I'm supposed to be the one making demands, not you. But no, there's no boot licking involved. Licking other things, maybe, but not my boots.” I grin at her.

  The waiter has brought a basket of hot bread to the table. She breaks off a piece and adds a thick smudge of butter. “I'm not sure about any of this. What makes you want to order me around? And what do I get out of it? I need to know what you're going to tell me to do?”

  “Wait and see. Are you always so impatient? I might have to correct that before the night is out.”

  She takes a sip of her wine and looks up at me. “I can't wait. Oh, I guess that's a little impatient, isn't it? Whatever you say, Sir” and she gives me a saucy look.

  I have an urgent need to tame her, to take her there and then, to make her mine, to have her begging for my touch and calling out my name. She has a wildness that's a challenge. But is she even tamable?

  The food is amazing. We opt for fillet of grass-fed beef with potato and celeriac purée and baby carrots for our main course. Anna wants seafood truffle pasta to start and I have a terrine that comes in three brightly-colored layers.

  Every dish is like a work of art on the plate and we eat slowly, savoring every morsel. Delicious! I guess, it would be too much to eat like this every night but it would be a long time before I got tired of it.

  Anna blushes when I order ice-cream for dessert. She doesn't want anything, but I offer to share my dessert with her. And of course, at Berry's it's not just ice-cream but smoked hazelnut praline and salted caramel ice cream with poached pineapple and passion fruit compote so she wants to taste it, at least.

  I love the way she tak
es the food from my spoon, her eyes not leaving mine as if she was eating me and not a piece of pineapple or a spoonful of ice cream. The whole dessert eating thing goes straight to my cock.

  When the waiter offers coffee, Anna turns that down too and excuses herself.

  “You can always tell the quality of a restaurant by the state of the toilets,” she says when she returns.

  “And were you disappointed?”

  “So clean I was almost frightened to pee.” She laughs

  “You went before I could say anything. I wanted to tell you to take off your panties because playtime already started.”

  “I knew you would say that,” she says. “That's why I did this,” and she opens her bag and shows me the wisp of lace inside.

  “We're going upstairs,” I growl, and I signal the waiter to come over so we can get out of there before my cock explodes.

  CHAPTER 17

  Anna

  We giggle all the way upstairs like school kids. The wine has gone to my head for sure but I'm giddy with Rory's company more than anything.

  I have to make the most of this night. I know it's likely to be the only one with him. He's not into relationships. He's made that clear. Even if I didn't know already from the way he asked me out. He has to be a player. And even if he wasn’t and wanted something longer term, I'm not the submissive type he wants. I can't imagine being told what to do all the time. It might be hot in the moment, but forever? No way!

  The couple of times I took the initiative tonight didn't seem to have put him off, but who knows how long that would last if he gets off on obedience?

  Rory gets out his key card and we make it through the door. It closes with a soft thud behind us.

  The hotel room is bathed in soft lighting. Wow! It's twice the size of my bedroom at home with not just space for the big bed and the usual wardrobe, desk and chair but also a separate area with a couch, armchair and coffee table. The upholstery is turquoise, matching the patterned bed throw and curtains, everything very stylish yet in keeping with the period features of the room.