“So you’re seeing her again tomorrow?” he muttered against my hair, and I stirred in my half-state.
“Maria?” I asked with a yawn. “Yeah, I guess so. Why?”
He toyed with my hair, and I stared at the lavender strands in his strong, long fingers.
“It doesn’t bother you?” he asked me, his voice careful. “Our history.”
I got up and glared at him.
“Not unless you talk about it,” I said grumpily, and he laughed, tickling my feet. I giggled when he pulled my ass onto his lap. “Stop it, you big oaf.”
“Never,” he promised, and nuzzled my neck. “You know, I do think it’s kind of hot seeing the two of you together.”
I fought the urge to smack him and gave him an incredulous look instead.
“You’re weird,” I told him. I looked away so he wouldn’t see how much I was blushing, and he made me turn back around.
“I knew it,” he said with a shit-eating grin. “You like her. Little slut.”
“I don’t!” I cried out. “She’s a girl.”
“So?” King laughed in my face. “This may be a playground, but we’re not five years old, Pet.”
I looked at my palms while he pulled me in close, made me straddle his lap.
“Have you thought about her?” he whispered in my ear. “Thought about kissing her?”
“No,” I said weakly, and he tugged on my shirt.
“I think you’re lying,” he told me. “I think you’ve thought about it a lot…”
“I haven’t…” But now I was.
Thinking about her dark curly hair. Remembering her naked body, so much different than mine. I wondered what she tasted like. I wondered what her skin felt like, at the spot where she had her small tattoo. I may not have thought about it much before, but now King had filled my head with the idea of her.
“Why don’t I make it easy for you, little Pet?” he asked me, biting down on my shoulder and making me moan out loud. “I’m gonna give you a task. You’ll like it, I promise.”
“I’m not sure,” I muttered. “What if she doesn’t like it? What if she doesn’t want to do it?”
I couldn’t imagine anything more humiliating.
“She will,” he grinned at me, barely holding back a laugh, and I wondered briefly if he knew something I didn’t.
“So, my sweet little Pet, here’s what I want you to do…”The next day, before Maria came over, I was nervous as hell.
King hadn’t told me if he’d let her in on what we were supposed to do. Probably not.
He chose my outfit. Nothing too out there, but definitely provocative. I pulled on the mini dress that barely covered my ass.
No panties, no bra. King had banned underwear.
I felt silly with no shoes on, but I painted my toes a color that matched my hair.
I felt pretty. I felt stupid. I felt excited.
She arrived ten minutes early, and when I opened the front door, I knew he hadn’t told her, just to make this more excruciatingly embarrassing.
“Hey,” she said, eyeing me up and down and whistling. “Wow, we going somewhere?”
“Um,” I said awkwardly. “Not exactly. Come in.”
I took her jacket and hung it up, and we went into the living room.
“Do you want something to drink?” I asked her, and she gave me another weird look.
“Trying to get me drunk?” she asked, and I laughed in such a high-pitched tone it only made things weirder. “Sure, what you having?”
“I’m eighteen, remember?” I giggled, and she rolled her eyes.
“God, that man of yours is old-fashioned as hell,” she told me. “He’ll fuck you sideways but won’t let you have a damn drink with me. Fine, bring me some wine.”
I brought out a bottle. Maria declined a glass and drank from the bottle in a way that made me squirm on the couch as I drank my water with lemon. I felt like a kid, a stupid, silly little girl.
“I know you’re up to something.”
I looked up at Maria with my eyes wide, and she grinned at me. She really was beautiful. So different than I was.
“I…” I started, swallowing uncomfortably. “Maybe.”
“He put you up to something?” she asked.
“He always does,” I muttered, and she laughed, sitting closer to me. She pulled her legs up, her dress riding up.
I stared at her like that, her panties clearly visible between her legs. They were black, lacy.
“So what is it then?” she asked me. “Spit it out, I want to know.”
“He wants…” I swallowed again. God, why had I agreed to do this? It was awkward as hell. “He wants pictures.”
“Of us?” Maria asked, and I nodded. My throat and mouth felt like sandpaper. “Doing what, exactly?”
“Looking at the camera,” I replied in my smallest voice. She gave me a meaningful look and I cleared my throat. “Kissing. Touching. You know.”
“I don’t, actually.”
She was taunting me and I stared at my own knees, feeling her eyes on mine.