6
MACY STRETCHED OUT beside Griffin after they finished making love. She wanted more than anything to let them have another go at it, but if they did, she doubted she could hold back. Well, maybe she could, but she’d need some time to give herself another pep talk first.
She had to keep in mind that this was all about dumbing down Griffin, and not at all about her own sexual pleasure.
But damn it, he’d tried so hard. And he’d gotten so close to making her come.
She traced her fingers along his ribcage, and he jerked, swatting her hand away. “That tickles,” he said.
“Poor baby.”
He rolled over onto her, pinning her to the bed. “Let’s see how you like it then,” he said as he began poking her ribs.
She laughed and squirmed, fighting to get his hands away but failing.
The phone rang, and Macy realized just how late it was. Late enough for Lauren to have arrived.
“Hello,” she answered, breathless from their wrestling.
“Um, did I interrupt something?” Lauren asked, sounding more than a little suspicious.
“No, I was just…running from the bathroom.”
“Was it chasing you?”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Lauren said. “I’m here. I’m tired. I want a bed to sleep in.”
“My room is 2218. Come on up,” she said, flashing a warning look at Griffin.
He snapped to attention, sitting up and looking at her in alarm. When Macy hung up the phone, she hopped off the bed and went to look for her clothes.
“Lauren’s here. You’ve got to vacate the premises pronto.”
“Just me? Aren’t you going to come over and keep me company tonight?”
He managed to look so puppy-dog pitiful, even with his bare, bulging pecs and his rippling abs on display, that Macy couldn’t have imagined turning him down even if she hadn’t had an ulterior motive.
“I’ve got to stay here to open the door for Lauren and give her a key, and then I’ll come over. Happy?”
“I will be when I’ve got you in my bed,” he said, tugging on his pants. “And don’t spend too long chitchatting. I want you over there before I fall asleep waiting for you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Macy watched as he did a half-assed dressing job, grabbed his shoes and socks, and left her room to go next door. When he was gone, she heaved a gigantic sigh of relief.
Or was it relief? Maybe it was more like a release of tension—all the tension that was building up inside her as she tried not to be on the receiving end of Griffin’s considerable pleasure-giving abilities.
She finished getting herself dressed, debating how much she wanted to tell Lauren about what had already gone down tonight. She normally wasn’t a kiss-and-tell kind of girl, but these were special circumstances. And Lauren was a scientist. Maybe she would have some kind of medically sound tips on how to have sex without enjoying it too much.
She straightened up the covers on the bed so that it didn’t appear as though anyone had been on it, and she went to the bathroom and grabbed a bottle of hairspray to spray in the air to cover up any lingering sex odors.
Not that she could smell anything. But Lauren had a bizarrely acute sense of smell. She was like a dog the way she went around noticing scents that no ordinary human could detect.
Macy had just finished spraying when there was a knock at the door. She opened the door to her friend and smiled.
“I owe you big-time.”
“Yes, you do,” Lauren said as she breezed past pulling a small rolling suitcase, with a leopard-print carry-on bag slung over one arm. “I had to sit next to a guy on the plane who spent an hour telling me about how he engineers plastic tubes for a living.”
“On the bright side, now you’re in Vegas. In a kick-ass hotel suite.”
Lauren put down her bags on a bench and looked around. “This place rocks.”
“Told you.”
“Give me the scoop on this Carson guy I’m supposed to be entertaining,” Lauren said as she took off her shoes.
“He’s hot—about six feet tall, green eyes, medium-brown hair, great body. He’s kind of a…” What was the best spin to put on the fact that Carson probably loved sex more than anything else in life?
“A what?”
“A ladies’ man.”
“So what you’re saying is he’s a total pussy hound.”
Macy winced. Lauren never fell for her advertising slants. She had an uncanny ability to see through bullshit.
“I wouldn’t use those words specifically, but he does love the ladies.”
“Like to the point of male slutdom, or what?”
“I only know what I hear through the grapevine at work, but…”
“It’s okay. I can hang with that. Have condoms, will travel, right?”
“I think you’ll like him.”
“I just need a willing body this weekend, and it sounds like he’ll be that, correct?”
“Most definitely.”
Lauren was unpacking her suitcase now, removing outfits she only wore when she was in a serious party mood and hanging them in the closet.
“Okay, so here’s my story. I’m a flight attendant based in San Francisco. I work for United, and I’m not into commitment.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I just want a weekend fling, okay? And guys usually don’t want to fling with brainiac medical researchers who’ve just discovered that sex is the root of all idiocy. So let’s keep those little details under wraps. Got it?”
“Um, sure, I guess. But I’m really not buying that whole guys-don’t-go-for-smart-women thing.”
“Is my love life not a cautionary tale about that very issue?”
Macy eyed the impressive array of lingerie Lauren had packed. Carson was going to be one happy boy.
“You know how I feel about that. Your love life is much more likely a cautionary tale about the dangers of being a commitment-phobic man-eater.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you take what you want from guys, then toss them aside and move on to your next victim.”
Lauren shot her a familiar glare. “You make me sound like such a wicked bitch.”
“You are wicked.”
A mysterious smile crossed her friend’s lips. “You don’t know the half of it.”
The phone rang again, and Macy jumped at the sound, then grabbed the receiver.
“Where the hell are you?” Griffin asked when she answered.
“I’ll be there in just a few. I promise.”
“I’m getting tired. I need stimulation.”
“Then turn on some pay-per-view porn or something,” Macy said and hung up.
“Porn? Is there something I should know?” Lauren said as she flopped down on the bed still in her street clothes.
“That was Griffin. He’s waiting for me in the next room.”
“Very interesting.” Lauren sat up on one elbow, her perfectly sculpted black eyebrows arching.
“We’ve already, um, been kind of busy tonight.”
“And?”
“And it’s freaking torture! I mean, I just want to let go and enjoy it, but you of all people know what happens then.”
Lauren smiled. “You start liking Britney Spears and thinking Married with Children reruns are high-brow entertainment.”
“Exactly.”
“Just enjoy yourself until you’re about to come. Don’t try to ruin the whole experience. You’re there—you might as well savor it.”
“But if I let myself get all worked up, won’t that make it harder not to come?”
“Not at all. Women are hardwired through aeons of lousy lovers to enjoy delayed gratification. We’re so used to almost coming, but not having the guy push the right buttons to get the job done, that our bodies have actually adapted to the whole frustrated-sex process and release endorphins that help us enjoy ourselves quite nicely whether or not we actually have an orgasm.”
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“It’s all true.”
“So I’ve actually wasted a potentially enjoyable sexual experience by spending most of the time trying to think about scrubbing my toilet.”
“Ew.”
“Exactly.” Macy grabbed her overnight bag out of the closet, went into the bathroom and tossed a few essentials inside. She grabbed some clean underwear and a change of clothes from the closet and put those in, too.
“Then you’d better go get yourself some endorphins before you explode.”
“I’ll call you in the morning and let you know where we’ll hook up with Carson, okay?”
Lauren lay down flat on the bed again and closed her eyes. “Okay, and remember, I’m a flight attendant!”
MACY TAPPED SOFTLY on Griffin’s door and waited. A few moments later, he was there in front of her, undressed again except for a pair of black Calvin Klein boxers that fit him extraordinarily well.
“Got the porn on yet?” she asked as she brushed past him into the room.
“Are you serious?”
“Only when I’m doing my taxes.”
He closed the door, then followed her and captured her in his arms from behind. She felt his erection pressing into her backside, and instantly, that familiar burning started inside her again.
“I was kind of serious about the porn, though.”
“Whatever you want, babe,” he whispered against her neck, then kissed her there.
She melted against him as his teeth nipped at the flesh of her neck, her shoulder.
“I’ve got this thing for cheesy soft-core skin flicks. Is that something I shouldn’t ever admit to anyone?”
“Maybe not, but it’s kind of hot, too.”
“And you can use it against me later if you ever need to blackmail me,” she said, her eyes closed, her body all too willing to enjoy the pleasures he offered.
His hands explored up and down, one massaging her breast as the other dipped between her legs.
In truth, she had high hopes that the porn would be a complete turn-off. That way she wouldn’t get so damn aroused. It was a shaky plan at best, but she was willing to try anything at this point. She wasn’t totally ready to buy into Lauren’s endorphins-are-enough theory.
She struggled out of his grasp and went to the armoire that held the entertainment system, grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
“Hey, come back here,” he said, but she evaded his grasp again, giggling as she scrambled across the bed.
A minute later, they were staring at a menu of payper-view erotic movies. More Bounce to the Ounce, Selena’s Secrets, Blame It on Vegas and High Ballers were their choices.
“Hmm,” Macy said. “What do you think? Anything sound intriguing?”
“Could we pass up the chance to watch a movie called High Ballers?”
“I was just thinking the exact same thing.”
“Should we bother to read the plot description?”
Macy scrolled to the title and selected it. She read the description aloud. “A horny group of strip-poker players take the game to new levels of erotic pleasure.”
“Hmm.”
“Sounds straightforward to me.”
She used the remote to navigate her way through the warning that Griffin’s hotel bill would reflect a charge of $9.95 for the movie.
Griffin crawled across the bed and pulled her down onto him as the movie’s opening credits rolled. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for a girl who’s into porn.”
“I’m full of surprises,” she whispered right before kissing him.
Why did he have to feel so damn good?
“I noticed,” he said when they broke the kiss.
Macy wriggled around until she was resting in the crook of his arm and could see the TV screen, where a guy was playing poker with a table full of chesty babes in skimpy clothes. Within about two minutes, one of them was under the table giving him a blow job, and another was taking off her top because it was, of course, conveniently a strip-poker game.
When the game quickly wrapped up and everyone was on the table having an orgy, Macy bit her lip and tried not to laugh. Laughing might spoil the mood…which probably wasn’t such a bad thing on her end. But for Griffin, well, guys apparently weren’t so crazy about laughing in bed.
“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Griffin asked.
Macy twisted her head to the side, trying to view the scene at a better angle. “Yep.”
“Wow.”
Macy bit her lip with more force.
“I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“Want to try it?” she asked, inching her hand along his thigh, fully aware that his erection was about to pop out the barn door of his boxers.
“Um, I think a special surgical procedure is required before a guy can comfortably get into that position.”
“Oh.”
She stared at the screen, mesmerized by all the moving body parts. And in spite of herself, she was getting aroused. Really aroused. So maybe she was a little freakier than she’d given herself credit for.
And this whole not-coming thing was a little more complicated than Macy had anticipated. She could get through it, though. She just needed to stay focused, but the movie wasn’t helping.
Maybe if she just got things moving along here in the real world, she’d be able to tune it out. She slid down, trailing kisses over the rugged terrain of Griffin’s chest and abdomen, stopping when she reached his boxers. She tugged them off him, and he watched her, his eyes glazed with arousal.
She undressed, doing her best to make a show of it. Judging by Griffin’s expression, she did a decent job. She settled between his legs and slowly licked his erection, loving the hot, firm feel of him.
When she took him into her mouth, he gasped, and his fingers dug into the blankets on the bed. She tasted, licked and coaxed him toward another release.
And with the sounds of the movie in the background—even a flick as cheesy as High Ballers—Macy felt herself growing more and more excited. She loved the sound of his heavy breathing mingled with the sex sounds coming from the TV, loved the feeling of power that came with bringing him such an intimate kind of pleasure, loved having such a powerful effect on his body.
With her hands and mouth, she brought him closer and closer to the edge, and then they were there. He cried out and strained toward her as he spilled into her mouth. Macy felt herself nearly vibrating with her own arousal as she drank him in until the waves of pleasure had passed.
She crawled on top of him and lay there, listening to his heartbeat and his breathing.
One more orgasm down, countless more to go.