A thought strikes me, as he’s rambling through his dissection of the dinner plans and side dishes we can prepare to go with the main course of ribs and steak. “Hang on. Who all is coming?” My heart leaps into my throat.
“I assume the usual crowd. Drew and Dorine, the Crowells, Russ of course…”
My breath comes short. I go tense, and I have to actually turn away from Dad to face the window, so he won’t see the visceral reaction on my face. Russ. I haven’t seen him since earlier, in the hallway at work. But I can’t stop thinking about the last thing he said to me. I’ll find a way to convince you, Maggie Owens. Mark my words.
Knowing Russ, I don’t doubt that he will. And that’s what scares me. Because I know how easy it would be, honestly, if he really set his mind to it. As it is, I can barely keep myself away from him. All day at work, he was on my mind. When I took my afternoon break, I locked myself in the break room and just pictured him in there with me. I imagined the way he’d pin me against the door and touch me, bold and demanding. He knows exactly what he wants, and he’s the kind of man who will stop at nothing to get it.
It sent a thrill through me then, as it does again now. It made me check the lock on the door, and then slip a hand down the front of my scrubs, unable to stand it, needing a release. I pictured his face in my mind, pictured him kissing his way down my body. I imagined the way that sexy, sculpted jaw of his would look between my thighs. I could imagine the scrape of his stubble against the soft, sensitive skin of my inner thighs as he dipped between them, pressing his face up against my pussy. I imagined the way his lips would feel against my pussy lips, as he kissed me slowly, carefully. His tongue would slowly part my slit, patient and teasing, the same way he touched me that first time, teasing me as he held me against the wall with my hands pinned over my head.
I pictured how it would feel to look down at him, to have him grin up at me, his dark salt-and-pepper hair falling across his even darker eyes as his tongue dragged along my slit, all the way up to graze my clit, and then back again. He would draw it out. He’d tease and lick and suck at me until I was almost screaming with desire, ready to lose my mind. Only then would he finally bear down and lap me with long, hard strokes, to make me come with a scream under his tongue.
I came on my own hand in the break room earlier today, just imagining that. My orgasm was so strong, I had to tug my panties back up, or I was going to get too wet for my own good. I’d gone about my rounds that afternoon afterward, shifting uncomfortably on my feet, knowing I was still wet because I kept picturing him and getting turned on all over again.
Now he’s coming to my parents’ house. Tonight. For an impromptu dinner that my mom decided to plan at the last minute. Something that, I have to admit, is pretty out of character for her. It makes me frown, wondering what’s really going on. Did she have a plan for this all along, or did Russ—who’s a close friend of my father, yes, but who’s also just as close with my mother, too—text her to suggest it?
Is this part of his plan to seduce me? I’ll find a way to convince you, he said, and I don’t doubt that he’ll stop at nothing. I’ve seen Russ work before. I know how he rose through the ranks at this hospital, as almost meteoric a rise as my father’s. They were two of a kind, at least when it came to their ambition and to chasing after what they knew they wanted.
Now I’m what Russ wants, and I can’t help but wonder… what lengths will he go to to win me? And will I really be able to hold out the way I’ve promised to? Or will I cave in, unable to fight the desire I’ve had building inside me for years?
I bunch my fists in my lap as Dad pulls in front the butcher’s shop, and promise myself that whatever happens tonight, I will stay strong.
By the time we get home, Mom’s already in full planning swing. There are cute fairy lights strung up throughout the pool area, to add ambiance to the little greenhouse area Mom and Dad splurged on so that we could have pool parties all year round, even in the winter.