“She won’t tell them anything. In fact, she’ll probably deny that we had this conversation. She didn’t want to be involved any further; so all we have is what sounds like a warning for me to watch out for conspiracy theorists who don’t want our families to get together. Take it for what it’s worth.”

“Well, I certainly hope that you’re enjoying your courtship so far, Gabrielle,” Adam said with a smile. “Now you can add breakdancing with Cousin Derek and having private meetings with creepy Goth chicks to your list of romantic memories.”

“So have we done the Club 51 experience?” Cam asked.

“Yes,” Braden answered. “Let’s get out of here.” We headed out and called cabs to come and pick us up, making plans to meet up the next day in Bryn Mawr.

CHAPTER NINE

We went to my apartment to get Bruno and then started off on the two block trip back to Braden’s place. I noticed Braden looking around a lot as we walked and I had to wonder if maybe he had the same weird feeling that I had often gotten lately. Finally, something seemed to catch his eye and I saw him squint like he was trying to make something out in the distance.

“Something wrong?” I asked hesitantly.

“I think all the talk about being followed and conspiracy theorists and all that has made me paranoid. Now I have that weird feeling like somebody’s watching us but I think it’s just my imagination. I don’t see anybody.”

“I didn’t notice it before but now that you’ve mentioned it I do. That’s probably just the power of suggestion though. I’m sorry if I got us both feeling paranoid.” I glanced around us nervously. There were still plenty of people out and about even though it was late, but again, nobody seemed particularly interested in us.

“Don’t be sorry, baby. I’m glad that you’re not keeping anything from me anymore. I would rather you told me everything, no matter how strange it sounds. If something’s bothering you, I want to know about it.”

Less than two minutes later we were greeting his doorman and hopping on the elevator. Braden looked deep in thought as we headed for his apartment and he dug out his keys and unlocked the door. When Bruno scampered off to check everything out as usual, he came over and pulled me into his arms.

“So Gabrielle, time to unwind. Did we forget to wear our panties tonight?”

“No, we didn’t forget. We didn’t wear them on purpose,” I said with a naughty smile.

He gave me a cocky grin, nudged my legs apart and sank to his knees in front of me. He looked up at me as he slid his hands up my bare thighs and slid the skirt of my dress up over my hips. Then he looked down again, groaned softly, and began trailing light little kisses across my lower tummy. I felt intense heat between my legs at the same time as I felt chills that hardened my nipples, and I started reeling with all of the sensations bombarding me at once. He moved his mouth over and nipped gently at my hip, and I began urging his head lower with my h*ps and hands. I really was a demanding little hussy, wasn’t I?

“I thought that patience was a virtue,” he mumbled against my hyper-sensitized skin. He sounded very amused.

“Well, I’m not very virtuous either,” I replied throatily, swallowing hard.

I felt his warm breath on me right where I wanted it, and I tensed, because I anticipated the feeling of his tongue against my clit, but then he pulled back and moved down to lick my inner thigh instead. I almost beat him. He was never ever going to forget those f**king dishes!

“Gabrielle, you’re even wet down here,” he murmured as he continued licking my slick thighs. He was driving me wild. I was a bundle of shivering heat and tingling ache, reacting in a dozen different ways to what he was doing to me with that sinful tongue of his.

“Braden,” I whimpered and tried again to urge him with my hands and my h*ps to go where I wanted to feel that tongue the most.

“Do you want my mouth somewhere else, baby?” he purred against me.

“Yes!” I bit out. My legs were starting to feel weak.

“Tell me what you want me to do.” Oh Jesus. He was going to make me say it! Okay, was it really such a big deal? I had asked him to f**k me. I had even ordered him to f**k me. Was this really so different? No! It wasn’t!

“I want you to eat my pussy, Braden!” I demanded impatiently. There, I said it! Don’t judge me. You would have said it too.

He groaned and moved up, breathing in deeply and releasing it slowly. I felt his warm breath on me again just before I felt his hot tongue drag across my clit. I gasped and grabbed onto his head as much for support as anything else. He held my h*ps still as he licked me slowly up and down along my wet swollen lady bits and made appreciative “mmm” noises, like he was tasting something wonderful. I started panting as I watched him tongue me and I knew that I would never be able to watch him eat anything ever again without getting turned on. When he actually started sucking on my cl*tmy legs began to shake and I didn’t think I could remain on my feet much longer.

“Please,” I gasped.

“Please what, baby?” he mumbled and his breath blowing against me made me even more desperate. I couldn’t think straight and I searched for something, anything …

“Please, I need some lovin’ and I need it bad.” It was all I could think of! He stopped in mid-lick.

“Okay, baby, how about if we don’t say anything that would bring any of your clients to mind during our intimate moments?” he suggested, pausing and looking up at me.

“Okay.” I panted. “Uh. Please … f**k me?” After all, it worked that time in the kitchen. And it was still a winner! He stood up quickly, fixed my skirt, grabbed my hand and pulled me with him to the bedroom where he untied my dress, slipped it off and threw it on a chair. I stood there na**d except for my high heels and he took a step back to take in the sight, letting his eyes travel up and down my body slowly.

“I really like that look on you,” he said thickly. “Lie down on the bed but leave the shoes on.” I was good with that plan. I hit the bed so fast I almost bounced back off. He went over to his closet and came back with a couple of silk scarves. “Purchased just for you, Gabrielle,” he said with a smile that liquefied me. And with that Braden tied my hands to his bedposts and I swear the only thing keeping me conscious at that point was the ache between my legs. Then he left the room. Where in the hell was he going?

“While you’re out there, give Bruno a bunch of treats to keep him busy! He might find this confusing!” I called out. Silence. “Braden? Honey? You’re not leaving, are you?” He came back in with a bottle of white wine and a sexy smile.

“What do you think?” he asked with laughter in his voice. He stopped just to look at me, laying there na**d and panting in nine hundred dollar shoes and tied to a bed with Hermes scarves. We were kinky but we were stylish.

“I think that it’s an odd moment for a toast.” He opened the bottle, knelt down beside me, and gently dripped a little wine onto one of my nipples, which got even harder when I discovered the wine was properly chilled. Then he leaned down and began licking and sucking it off. The combination of the cold wine and his hot mouth launched me into orbit and I moaned and bucked my h*ps like I was doing a horizontal Twerk. My nerves were lit up. My body was on fire and I knew that I was soaking wet and ready to rumble. He did the same thing on the other side and I went half out of my mind. Okay, all the way out of my mind. I was already half out of my mind.

“Oh ga!” I panted. He dripped wine into my bellybutton and began to suck it out as my volume continued to rise and my coherence continued to dissolve. I sounded like I was speaking in Klingon at that point. Make that screaming in Klingon.

“You know I think this is a good year,” he said, checking out the label while I tried to collect my scrambled thoughts. I needed him to understand me. And so. I forced. Myself. To enunciate. Clearly.

“Please! Fuck! Me!” I shouted with perfect elocution in the way that a lot of people speak to foreigners and half-deaf octogenarians. He gave me a naughty smile and looked into my eyes as he peeled off his clothes.

“Since you asked so nicely,” he said seductively. When he finally pulled off his boxers I made a very happy sound. He knelt on the bed between my legs, positioned his c**k at my entrance and hooked my knees over his arms.

“Wait,” I gasped. He looked up at me expectantly. “When it’s time, pull out.” I looked down at my boobs and then back up at him. Understanding dawned and his breath hitched a little. We had found another winner for the boob man! He nodded, pushed his h*ps forward and sank into me slowly and deeply, expelling a ragged breath.

“Ah!” He groaned. “There’s my happy place.”

Feeling him take me almost gave me an instantaneous orgasm and I felt my muscles clenching involuntarily.

“Oh yeah!” he bit out. “I love it when you grab me like that!” He pulled back and thrust into me deeply again and again, picking up his pace as I made happy sex noises to express my joy at having him inside me. “Oh, Gabrielle! You look so sexy!” Soon we were going hard with him pounding into me and me bucking my h*ps back against him, my hands still secured to the bedpost. I could hear our bodies slapping together and feel the slickness of our sweat. I watched as he slid into me over and over and I even smelled sex, so this was truly an extravaganza for the senses. There was something else that I wanted too, though.

“Tell me how good it feels,” I cried out. I loved it when he talked dirty to me.

“So good,” he groaned. “So hot. So tight,” he ground out and I realized that he was having difficulty speaking at the moment too. That just turned me on more and I bucked my h*ps even harder. We were both completely covered in sweat now, and sliding against each other. I felt my orgasm beginning to build and I wanted it so badly.

“Braden!” I whimpered. He was breathing hard and groaning loudly, flushed, gleaming and beautiful with his wet hair plastered to his forehead, his eyes glazed over with ecstasy. “Don’t stop! So close!” I pleaded. I could see that he was barely holding on, but I knew that I was almost ready too.

“Let go, baby.” He gasped and adjusted his angle so he was rubbing against my cl*tmore directly. Okay, that was the spot!

“Braden!” I screamed as I rapidly scaled Mt. Orgasm. I was fairly sure the folks in the lobby knew his name by now. I moaned loudly and went writhing and flailing over the edge, my inner muscles clenching and unclenching around him, grabbing his c**k tightly in waves. My body shuddered hard and relief flooded over me like a warm bath. My muscles finally stopped pulsing and I lay there dazed as Braden kept thrusting into me.

“Going to come,” he said hoarsely and pulled out. Kneeling over me, he stroked himself rapidly for a few seconds, his eyes fixed on my rising and falling br**sts and then with a rapturous look he came hard. He just stared for a couple of minutes. I honestly think he was speechless. Finally, he said something.

“I’ve never seen anything so hot in my entire life.” With that he collapsed next to me for a minute before he pulled himself up and untied my hands. He went into the bathroom and came back with a warm damp towel and then tenderly washed me off. He returned to bed and cuddled me into his arms, stroking my hair for a while. Eventually, we sat up and drank some more of the wine straight from the bottle and shared some very loving but sort of sloppy wine kisses. I was about to take off my shoes when he stopped me.

“Leave them on,” he said, giving me that blue flame look I recognized. I looked down at his lap and found a happy surprise. My Energizer Bunny was still going.

I left the shoes on. I had them on when he had me bent over with my hands flat against the wall as he held onto my h*ps and pounded into me fast and hard from behind. I still had them on later when he had me laying on my back on the dining room table, with my ankles on his shoulders, slowly rolling his h*ps while he groaned and told me how he wanted to bury himself inside me forever. In fact, it wasn’t until after he had me against the wall with my leg wrapped tightly around him, thrusting into me until we both came one last time that I finally took them off. I have to say, I definitely got a lot of wear out of those shoes.

CHAPTER TEN

The next morning after showering and getting ready for our trip to his parents’ house I quickly called my parents to check in and say “hi”. My father grilled me for a while to make sure that I was remembering to triple lock my doors and carry a rape whistle, and that I knew what to do in case of a terrorist attack. And then my mother got on the phone and talked about how twenty-six was a great age to get married and reminded me that she and my dad loved Braden and would be thrilled to have grandchildren someday. I was going to need to tell them about our plans soon so that my father could stop worrying and my mother could stop hinting.

Finally, I got them off of the phone and we left. Mark and Adam were driving together and Jess and Lily were getting a ride with Cam so we just packed our bags and our Chihuahua, (and his bag), and headed for Bryn Mawr on the Philadelphia main line where the Pierces had a gorgeous Georgian home with a large in ground swimming pool and a Jacuzzi that I was looking forward to visiting with Braden alone later.

We got there at about eleven, greeted Drew and unpacked our stuff into Braden’s room while Drew took Bruno on a tour of the house, showed him where his food and water were, and introduced him to Theresa, the live-in housekeeper and cook, who he reportedly took to immediately. The Pierce’s property was enclosed with a large fence which meant that Bruno could run free outside. He was in doggy heaven.

Adam and Mark arrived half an hour later and Cam, Jess, and Lily pulled in at noon. Drew showed everyone to guest rooms and while they got settled in Braden went down to ask Theresa about lunch. She put a deli buffet spread out on the patio overlooking the pool and Jacuzzi and we all met outside to eat and relax. It was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky. After spending a week under florescent lights and in subarctic air conditioning, the warm sun felt wonderful on my skin. We all got our food and made ourselves comfortable around the tables we had pushed together. Now that our trip to Club 51 was history we were able to laugh about it.