Heh heh. That got a reaction out of him. His eyes sparked with interest, then narrowed slightly. “I don’t take well to little girls who like to tease when they’ve got a little champagne-fueled courage.”
“It’s not the champagne.” That might be the excuse I'd use tomorrow morning, but right now, I was drunk on something else. “And I may not be as experienced as you, but I’m not teasing.” I swallowed, steeling myself, then confessed, “I can’t stop thinking about it. Hell, I even dream about it.”
He studied me with a sharp eye as we edged away from the main crowd of dancers. “You better be sure that you want this, because you just might get more than you bargained for.”
This was it. The point of no return. Not because I was scared of Ford—if I changed my mind at the last minute, I knew he'd let me go. But right now, I still had plausible deniability. I could walk away clean, blame everything that had happened between us on bad luck, hormones, whatever … and spend the rest of the summer being tortured by his panty-creaming presence. If I said yes, I wouldn't be able to lie to myself anymore.
But that was exactly what I'd been living, wasn't it? A lie.
Again, I felt that sense of lightheartedness from earlier, and with sudden clarity, I realized life was short. Why the hell should I lie to myself? Why shouldn't I give in? Just take what I wanted, without caring what some hypothetical third party would think?
My heart raced with anticipation. Long before I'd known it myself, something deep in my gut had decided for me.
Finally I said, “I want this.”
Ford wasted no time. With a growl, he tugged me away from the dance floor, and I hurried half a step behind him.
* * *
Ford led me around the private lake to the gazebo where our parents had gotten married just a few hours before. A waxing moon reflected across the water, broken up into wobbling shards of white light. The reception was still in full swing on the other side, but if someone felt like an evening stroll, nothing would stop them from seeing us.
He crushed our mouths together in a bruising kiss, then pulled away just as suddenly, leaving me gasping. “You know, I'm officially your stepbrother now. There's still a chance to back out.”
“I know that.” If he didn't get inside me in the next five minutes, I was going to combust. Even the thought of being discovered didn't cool me down—it just added to the forbidden allure of what we were about to do. “Don't ask me to make this decision all over again.”
With a low, dark chuckle, he started to undo his black silk tie. “As long as you're sure.”
Now that he's about to get laid, he's positively playful.
He moved forward, crowding me against one of the gazebo's columns. “I'm going to tie your hands,” he said, stroking my cheek. “If you don't want that, speak up now.”
“I told you I wanted this, and I meant it.” Without being prompted, I held up my crossed wrists. What I'd seen in the tack room was still burned into my mind; I had dreamed about every detail. With this part, at least, I knew what to do.
With a low, pleased noise, he went to work. The silk slipped cool and smooth over my wrists. When he stepped back again, I pulled on the knot experimentally. It was tight, but not painful. I guess I already knew he's had a lot of practice at this. I lowered my hands, suddenly aware of how my breasts thrust out, pushed together by my upper arms.
Ford watched closely as I tested my bonds. With more bravado than I really felt, I stared back and said, “Well? What're you waiting for?”
“Don't be so impatient, pet.” One hand gripped my hip. The other slipped up my back to cradle my head, holding it still so he could taste me at his leisure. He bit at my exposed collarbone—gentle for now, but with the promise of more later—and trailed lingering kisses up my neck. Every touch zinged straight between my legs. “You have to pick a safe word first,” he murmured into my ear.
Right now, I could barely remember what a regular word even was. My thoughts kept scattering and swimming, like the moonlight on the lake. I could still hear the jazz music from the reception floating over the water. The possibility of getting caught raced through my mind again, and I squirmed with arousal.
He reached around me to unzip my dress. His erection rubbed against my soaked pussy, separated by just a few layers of cloth, and my stomach tied itself in knots. I was in a frenzy, desperate to touch him, be touched by him, lose myself in the pleasure I'd been denying for way too long. I knew I should stop him until we had figured everything out, but I couldn't hear myself think over my instincts howling: just let him do whatever he wants to you. His steady heartbeat thudded through our clothes; maybe he acted cooler about it, but he was being driven just as wild as I was.