“No.” He’d been very supportive and ithadn’t felt like he was frustrated at all. “But maybe next week if we wanted abit more time together, I could do some of my classwork here?”
I wasn’t sure if he would think it was an oddgesture considering this was technically our first date, but it felt right…andhis smile said he agreed with me.
“I have a guest room that you could use ifyou wanted some privacy while you work.” Porter’s grin was teasing as hecontinued. “And if you happened to be here too late to go home, then you couldsleep there too.”
“I don’t know exactly what I want yet, butI’ll remember that offer.” If I could really get work done when I came over, itwouldn’t be hard to fit into my schedule. Taking classes online gave me moreflexibility than a traditional college would, but I still had to put in a lotof hours.
“Don’t worry, I’ll remind you later.”Instead of pushing at the idea of more time together, Porter dug his thumbsinto the middle of my foot, making me moan, and I found myself arching off thecouch.
He made a low, excited noise and did it again,making me writhe. “It seems I found a hot spot. I’ll remember that too.”
Something about the casual tone and erotictouch combined perfectly, leaving me needy as everything else fell away. WhenPorter moved one hand to give each foot the same treatment, I had to fight tostay still.
“You don’t have any idea how sexy youlook.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t have a good response. That didn’t seemto frustrate him, though. “But now you have me curious about what other placesI can touch that will make you feel even better.”
I knew we were leading to this discussion,especially after all the talk at dinner about spankings and what we couldexplore. I’d been thinking about this since I’d left the club last Friday nightand even though I’d questioned my logic more than a few times over the past severaldays, I knew what I wanted.
Pulling my feet away, I straightened andlooked him in the eyes. Porter waited, looking curious but not frustrated.Getting off the couch, I moved in front of him and as he turned, I slowly sankdown onto my knees.
The pleased grin on his face made me feelless stupid about all the practice I’d done.
When I was kneeling between his legs, hereached out and stroked over my head and down my neck. Tracing around mycollarbone almost like he was caressing a real collar, his expression turnedserious but not in a bad way.
It was the same look that he’d gottenseveral times at the club, commanding and sexy, and it made me feel safe torelax. There was nothing I had to do when I saw that expression take over him.
“What are you thinking?” It wasn’t asurprising question, so it made me smile, but I answered.
I knew he’d understand.
“That look on your face, when your innerDom really rises to the surface, makes me feel safe.” The tender expression hewas wearing pushed me to continue. “There haven’t been too many times in mylife where I could let everything go and not worry. This is nice.”
“Because of your family?” His question mademe realize I’d glossed over the details of my past.
It might have been a weird time to tell himthis when I was kneeling for him, but maybe not for us. “My father walked outwhen I was in middle school. He’d been an absentee father for as long as Icould remember. My mother refused to leave him because I think she thought itwould be a failure and at least what he brought home helped.”
There was a flash of something in Porter’seyes before it vanished and he nodded. “That must have been hard.”
I shrugged. “For a while it seemed likeeverything was normal, and most of the time, he was paying child support, butby the time I got to high school I realized how bad everything was. I came homefrom school one day and there was an eviction notice on the door.”
That was the day my entire life hadchanged.
“It turns out we were months behind on therent. He’d stopped paying, and because they’d cut my mother’s hours at work,she couldn’t catch up no matter what she did.” I could feel my stress rising,but Porter’s hand moved around to cup the back of my neck and he tightened hisgrip.
It was a gentle show of ownership that mademe remember I was kneeling and he was in control. Closing my eyes, I leanedagainst his hold and kept talking. “Mom was a wreck, so I went and talked tothe landlord. I promised we’d catch up, and I think he felt sorry for me, so hegave us more time.”
Porter kissed my head. “I think he wasimpressed by your drive.”
Smiling, I shrugged. “I had that in spades.I got a job after school and one on the weekends under the table. My momswitched jobs and got more hours, but the pay wasn’t any better so we werealways right on the edge of being tossed out again.”
High school had felt like it was a thousandyears long.
“But I managed to graduate and picked up afull-time job after that.” That’d made a world of difference. Between my threejobs, we were finally making enough to put away some money. “We got caught upand saved enough to pay for some business course for my mom.”
It’d taken a while to get to this point andsometimes I felt like a hundred years old, but we’d kept a roof over our headsand Laura was in her first year of college and Mary was finishing high school.
“I’m thinking you did more than just helpget your mother caught up. Didn’t you say you had sisters?” When I noddedagainst his hand, Porter continued. “I bet you did a lot for them too.”
I shrugged but didn’t hide the truth. “Ihelped make sure they each had the first year of college paid for. That’ll givethem time to get more scholarships and things like that.”
