SWNOVELS Chapter 31
Because you’ll destroy me.
That’s Vanessa’s explanation for why she won’t fuck me.
Hours after our shower when she literally came on my cock without me penetrating her, I’m still fuming.
It doesn’t help that I didn’t get off that last time. How could I when Vanessa was being so damn confusing? Her body telling me one thing while her mouth said another. She wants me. I’m not imagining that. The woman is just determined to drive me fucking insane.
“Uh-oh,” Cass says when we all sit down for dinner. “Trouble in paradise between you two love birds?”
If she thinks what I have with Vanessa is love, then my daughters are even more sheltered than they know.
“No trouble in paradise,” I tell them as I slice my knife through my steak. “We’re just fuck buddies who don’t actually fuck.”
“Dante!” Vanessa exclaims, her fork and knife clattering onto the plate.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Sophie remarks. “Does it?” she asks her sisters.
“You are all too young to even think about sex,” I tell them before shoving a bite of steak into my mouth, giving me something to chew on so I’ll shut my mouth.
Madison clears her throat and says, “I baked the potatoes.”
“Congratu-fucking-lations,” Cass replies. “You learned how to operate a microwave.”
“Baked means they were cooked in an oven, dumbass. At least I know the difference.”
“Who cares? Do you think you can open your own restaurant now because you throw veggies in a bowl and stick a potato in the oven?”
“I just want to do shit for myself, okay?” Madison grumbles. “I offered to help with cleanup, so can I go?”
“Cleanup?” I ask after swallowing my food.
“In the kitchen downstairs where the chef and his staff cook all our meals?”
“Fine. Just take the guards with you,” I grumble.
Once Madison leaves the dining room, Vanessa says, “You three are sisters. You should be supportive of each other’s endeavors, not be…hostile.”
“Bitches,” I finish her sentence for her. “She meant don’t be little bitches to each other. You’re not kids anymore. Grow up. It wouldn’t kill you to try to be nice once in a while either.”
“We’ll grow up when you start treating us like adults and not children,” Cass says. Tossing her silverware down, she slides her chair back then gets up and leaves.
“I know I’m the youngest, but I’m almost legally an adult. It would be nice if you acknowledged that,” Sophie says before she takes off too.
“Way to clear a room, Salvato,” Vanessa remarks, as if all the women in the house made a pact to be pains in my ass today. And she doesn’t even use my first name, as if we’re back to where we started weeks ago.
“This is your fault,” I tell her, gesturing with my fork to the empty table.
“My fault?”
“You are fucking infuriating!”
“So are you! Should I go too?”
At first, I think she’s referring to leaving the dining room before it occurs to me that she means the penthouse. She wants to know if I want her to leave me.
“Stay. Please,” I add softly, reaching for her wrist to hold it, as if I can physically restrain her from going anywhere. “I’m not sorry about earlier,” I tell her honestly. She knows how badly I want her, yet she continues to send me conflicting signals. I was so close…we were so close to finally fucking before she pulled the goddamn emergency brake.
“I’m not either,” she replies, which is a fucking relief.
“Good. Now I hope we can try to move past it.” I shouldn’t have rubbed my dick against her like that, confusing us both. When we finally fuck, it’ll be because Vanessa is begging me for it with actual words, not merely trying to appease her needy clit.
“Okay, we can move past it, on one condition.”
Great, there are conditions. Just one, but I’m sure it’s a motherfucker. “What’s that?” I ask, dreading her answer, how she intends for us to not accidentally reach the point of no return while naked.
“No more orgasms. For either of us.”
“Wow.” I let her wrist go to slide my arm back across the table. “That’s even worse than I thought it would be. Why the fuck would you refuse orgasms?”
“Because it’s making things messy. I shouldn’t be surprised by how you acted in the shower, not after all the mixed messages I’ve been sending you.”
“There’s a way to unmix shit.”
“I can’t,” she says, her eyes lowered to her uneaten food.
“If you think I’m an asshole now, wait until you see me after being celibate for weeks yet again. I’ll murder anyone who looks at me wrong.” Then I can’t help but add, “Are you sure you want to give up your morning wake-up calls with my tongue?”
Vanessa sighs like it’s a tough decision, even as her cheeks flush. “Fine. One a day. No more.”
One orgasm a day after I had four today? It won’t be easy, but it’s better than nothing.
“Fine.”
“So, we have a deal?” She holds out her palm for me to shake it, as if we’re finalizing a business deal. I take her hand in mine, then lift it to my mouth to sink my teeth around her knuckles. Frustrated beyond sanity, I bite down hard enough to leave teeth marks but not break the skin.
“Did you forget that I can keep you on the edge for hours, you stubborn fucking woman?” I remind her.
“And I can’t do the same to you?” she challenges with a half-smile that makes me feel like we’ve weathered the worst of the storm. Well, the winds have calmed, but there’s still a downpour because shit still feels off between us.
“I would rather have you torture me by keeping me on the edge for hours than you not touch me at all,” I admit to her.
“Same,” Vanessa agrees. “And you’re going to pay for biting me like a rabid dog.”
“Oh, am I?”
“For now, let’s eat. It’s been a long day without any sustenance other than bodily fluids.”
“Yes, it has,” I agree.