The Bet

"How about you entertain me tonight?"

"What?" Sven looked up from the book he was reading. "Now?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, now. What did you think I meant?" Mimi kissed him, pulled the book from his hands and set it on the table. "Do you think you could?" her hand curled into the space between his neck and the collar of his shirt, persuasive.

"Are you doubting me?" he raised an eyebrow..

"No, not at all." Mimi shook her head. "I'm tense. I need a little..." she paused, her head rolling in a wide, languid circle. "something."

"Such as?"

"A shower, maybe. A glass of wine and if you're lucky, maybe more."

"Okay then." Sven slid off the sofa and headed towards the kitchen. The possibility that he might actually get laid tonight thrilled him in its intensity. Since they had made their little bet he'd found himself desperate for Mimi's warm softness, her scent, her smile and realised that more than ever, he was utterly focused on making her happy. He surmised it must really be a way of living vicariously through her with her pleasure taking the place of his own. He rather liked it, liked the man it made him and, most of all, liked the woman it made her. He had always loved her but now she glittered to him, existed as the apex of everything he wanted. And yet, when he told her this she would smirk at him and tell him not to be such a silly boy, that she was just a woman, just like any other then pat him gently on the cheek.

Sven opened the fridge, glass bottles tinkling in the door and plucked out the wine he'd picked up on the way home, opened it, poured it into the waiting glass. Behind him, she stretched, watched him move from foot to foot like a restless horse, like he did when he was tied up and standing or waiting for something. Mimi had vague thoughts about invisible ropes and then remembered the real ones would need replacing soon enough. It had been years now and they were still using the cheap, soft ones they had bought together all those years ago. For a moment she wondered if she really needed them anymore, if he would stay in place without them.

"What are you grinning at?" he placed the glass in front of her.

"Nothing." She shrugged, still smiling. "Just about how pretty you look in rope.

"Is that what you're planning?" he sat down next to her, slid his feet onto the coffee table. Mimi batted them away, gave him a sideways glance. "Feet off. You know that."

"Sorry."

"You will be." She grinned, kissing him on the mouth, tasting like summer and sunlight. "If you like you can run me that bath."

"I thought you wanted a shower."

"Changed my mind." She kissed him on the mouth again. "And before you ask, no; you can't come."

Mimi finished the second glass of wine while she towelled off. She dried her hair and pulled on an old, thin sundress she often wore around the house. She had refreshed her eye makeup and happy from the wine and the tension dissolving properties of the bath headed out into the bedroom to finish what she had started. Mimi laughed to herself as the thought crossed her mind; two weeks without and orgasm and she was sure that he'd finish pretty quickly. Still, she mused, it would be fun anyway. Closing the bathroom door behind her, Mimi noticed that he was looking up at her as though it was the first time again and they were not yet used to one another's habits.

"Why are you pulling that face?" she asked, sitting next to him, kissing him on the mouth. He held her hand and smiled.

"Just watching you." He said, his fingers catching her clothes. "I've always liked you in that dress."

"You do?" she raised an eyebrow. "You want a better look at it? How about I take it off?"

"Please." He laughed. "It's been a long, long day, baby." He pawed at her thighs from his place on the edge of the bed, rested his head against her belly. Gently, she ruffled his hair, her chest fizzing as he nuzzled into the movement.

"You are so cute when you're needy, sugar." She duly dispensed with the dress, left it lying over the chair in the corner of the room. "Washday, I'm afraid, I had to recycle the shitty underwear." She gestured to the greyed underwear she was wearing and laughed.

"Well." He shrugged, pulled his own shirt off. "You'd better get them off, too."

He lay back on the bed with her, pushed her down so that she curled her arms around him, felt his hard on press against her thigh.

"I have been thinking about this all day." He confessed.

"You have?" she answered, "Really? Or is that just a sweet line to make me feel better?"

Sven frowned at her, said nothing for a moment. "You're the most cynical person I have ever known. Do you know that?"

"Do now." She grinned. "But really, is that a line or what?"

He nodded again, nuzzled her neck, sent a line of kisses skating across her clavicle. "I missed the exit on the way home thinking about it."

"So that's why you were late tonight?" she laughed. "Pull the other one."

"No, really. I swear. I was just..." he edged the greying bra strap off her shoulder, kissed the space it left behind. "Thinking of you."

"Shut up." Mimi said, her hands flat against his chest, pushing him upward so that once more they sat opposite each other. "You're a liar." Her fingers found his face and cupped his jaw. She kissed him hard as she spoke, the words leaking between the moments when their mouths met. "You're a big, fat liar...and...I think...there's only...one thing that should be done with liars."

"What's that?" he grinned.

"They should be punished." She said, forcing him onto the sheets again, pinning him down. "Jeans off."

"Yeah." His hands pushed forward to help with the belt but she simply batted his hands away so they fluttered like useless moths above his hips. He settled them across his chest and watched reverently as she parted him from his denim and, soon enough, his boxers, too, so that he lay out naked on the sheets, his erection skewed between them. She kissed him hard, pushing his lips apart with such ardour that his eyes flew open with surprise, then closed again as she touched him. Mimi's fingers sank lower until they brushed his cock, jerking it to life. He moaned against her, his back arching a little, betraying him.

"What was that you said?"

Sven opened his eyes and found her face was inches from his. "I, uh.."

"What did you say?" Mimi repeated.

"I..." he could feel his cheeks reddening, the tension rising in the back of his throat. "I said no." He admitted. "Sorry, I didn't...I..." In the face of her mild amusement words failed him. Again. Ugh.

"You are so cute." She leant forward and kissed him, laughing at the way he still got coy. "I want you to come for me, okay?"

He nodded, sucked his lip. "Can we do this some more? I like it. I like to be denied."

"I know you do." Mimi said. "But I also like to see you come and I want you to fuck me because you're good at that." Her hand sank flat against his belly, pushed downward until it met his straining cock. "Can you do that for me, baby?"

"Yes." He smiled, kissed her back his hand flying upward. "Oh fuck. Fuck, Mimi, this is going to be fast."

Mimi laughed again and pulled her hand away, watched him exhale and his dick twitch. Sven tried to centre himself, taking deep breaths, looking up at her. "It's been two weeks." He moaned.

"What a noise!" she said, the phrase escaping her lips as a high, musical laugh. She leant back and he mewled again as her long shock of hair trailed across his thighs, bright blonde this week, like the rays of some strange sun. "You know it drives me crazy when you moan like that."

He smiled, blushing into the pillow. "Well maybe if you weren't so..."

"So what?" she asked, sucking his neck. "Hm?"

"I don't know." He lied, answered the question with a kiss. "Please just let's do this."

"Someone's eager today?" she teased. "I see not touching yourself is proving quite the experiment. I knew I'd win."

"Ah, fuck," he groaned. "It is so distracting, you have no idea. Now, please, just-"

"But I do." Her voice was a sing-song, mocking, beautiful in its derision. "I know exactly what it's doing to you." She smirked. "You're so helpful now, so utterly, utterly eager to please me. I like it."

"So do I." he breathed.

From her curling toes to the ache in her throat, Mimi wanted him more then than she had in a long time. It was an overwhelming rush that meant her hands gripped at him like he was the shore and she clung on, pulled backward by a great tide of emotion. He met her action, luxuriated in her need as she let herself sink against him. Their legs tangled together and she kissed him, pulled him onto her as she settled herself in the warm sheets. Mimi found herself burning for him, not for his mouth or a vibrator or his skilled pianist's fingers but his dick inside of her, his mouth against her neck. Her fingers curled against his shoulder and with unexpected force she pushed him back and climbed onto him. "You have no idea how much I want you now."

He grunted, cursed in the dark, his fingers pulling her nearer, digging into her hips, trying to temper the movement. "Slow, slow, slow..." he breathed, her enveloping wetness near unbearable. He swore into her hair and held her tight, laughed when she kissed him for it.

"You can do this?" she stopped, pulled her muscles in and relaxed them around his length. "I bet I wouldn't have to move all that much. I could be a really lazy fuck, couldn't I?" she teased.

"Damn you." He laughed, his hands tangling into her hair, pushing it from her shoulders. "Oh, shit, babe, it's not going to take much."

"So you keep telling me." Mimi raised her eyebrows and shifted her weight, her hands falling against the wooden slats of the headboard. "I've only got to move just a little bit and-" she tailed into more delighted laughter again, watching him grit his teeth. "Look at that face." Mimi landed the lightest of kisses against the corner of his mouth, nuzzled her cheek against his. "You smell so good, you know that?" she stroked his neck, moved on her knees again, upping the pace, her body pressed against him. "Can you hold it 'til I come?" she asked, watching him suck at her nipple. "Can you?"

"Yeah." He said, his fingers still pressing into her thigh, his hips pushing upward to meet her movements. "Oh, God. It's so good." He sighed, lay back against the headboard and the awkward fan of pillows beneath him, luxuriated in the feel of her slick warmth enveloping him. Sven inhaled the scent of her soap scented skin and the first bloom of sweat on her neck. It was too hot in the room but he was past caring, mesmerised by her and how much better it was once it arrived. She leant back so that his length pushed further into her, began angling herself in such a way that every every ridge and vein, each millimetre of flesh tingled with building desire. He cursed himself for each orgasm he'd had without her, every wasted opportunity hidden behind the bathroom door.

"Baby-" the word came twisting into the dark, made her eyes flash open as she watched him come, shaking beneath her, cursing himself and then, stilling, breathing hard and hyper aware, watching her move above him. Thrilled by his reaction, she moved faster, delighted in the way he mewled and winced and waited for her. Sven exhaled hard and was rewarded for his trouble with a kiss that barely slaked his need, evaporating in the face of the need that tore through him like a single droplet of water in the midst of an unforgiving drought. Inevitably, Mimi thrilled in his need, drank it up as she fucked him, bending to kiss him and whisper glittering insults into his ear. Soon enough, the tension in her gut became too great and she sank her nails into his shoulder.

"Oh," her hips moved in slower circles, smaller and tighter, building toward the inevitable. "Oh, you're such a good boy." She purred. "My sweet boy."

Her hand pressed awkwardly into the cleft of his neck and Sven winced, urged her on despite the difficult angle; he was too full of love and endorphins to care, too desperate to watch her orgasm in his lap to think of much else.

"Do it, baby. Do it." He breathed. "Come for me, baby. Come on."

Mimi's grip on his neck hardened and she moved harder despite her cramping leg and the heat in her thighs. The shiver between them was too good to stop, the feel of him inside of her, his scent and sweet words made her own mouth ache until she realised she could hardly wait for the second time before the first had even finished. She wanted to gorge on him, to use him until every desire of hers had been slaked and he was broken by it. It was that thought, flickering up in the dark behind her eyes that did it; the thought of him exhausted and begging her to stop that brought on the unstoppable wave of orgasm. She pushed her palms into the headboard, his face buried in the smoothness of her torso as she spasmed, hard and slick against him. For a moment she stilled, breathing hard, then moved sideways, pulling away and lay sprawled across the bed, their legs still knotted awkwardly together.

"You okay?" he grinned.

Mimi nodded, laughing, breathing hard. "Yeah. Fuck."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Mimi laughed again, still humming with post orgasmic heat. "Please do."

"Good."

"You?"

Sven bit his lip, blushed a little. "Sorry it was so quick."

Mimi shrugged. "I know. Don't worry. Maybe next time you'll be better."

"When's next time?" he asked.

"Ah," Mimi jabbed him in the arm. "Like the denial, do we?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, it sure does make you attentive, that's clear." Mimi mused. "Imagine if we do it properly and I get you a chastity device."

"Oh." Sven sat up, propped his head in his palm. "Really?"

"I'm toying with the idea." Mimi said. "The only thing is, I quite like having him out all the time." Her hand brushed her boyfriend's cock.

"It's your call." Sven said.

"And yours, sweetie." Mimi brushed a strand of hair away and kissed him again. "Maybe I'll just keep the no touching rule for now."

"Okay." Sven smiled. "I'd like that."

"So would I." Mimi sat up and walked over to the wardrobe. She pulled the toy bag from the bottom of the wardrobe. "I'd like to tie you up now. Do something else. I've barely even begun." She said, her voice taking on that familiar musicality again, full of plans and promises.

"what?" Sven watched her eyes flicker from the bag to his face and then back to the bag again.

"Just thinking." She said. "Also, I'd like you to sit down to pee from now on. So you're not tempted to touch."

"Oh." Sven blushed, found himself full of the delicious heat of subspace. "You would?"

"Yes." Mimi said, the delight clear in her voice.

"All the time?"

"You shouldn't even have to ask." She said. "Of course I mean all the time."

"Yes, Ma'am." He said, giggling like a schoolboy.

"Oh, so you think it's funny, do you?" she bounded over and straddled him again, their mouths meeting. "Every time you take a piss you'll think of me and of not touching, sugar, and I promise you, you won't be laughing, not for a moment." She kissed him on the forehead. "Now, how about a little tying up? Wouldn't that be fun?"

He nodded, grabbing her harder now. "You are the very devil herself." He laughed. "And an angel, a gift from the Gods and I don't ever know what I'd do without you." He kissed her hand, the hard edge of her engagement ring catching his lip. "You are more brilliant and more tortuously delicious the longer I love you." He grinned.

Mimi laughed, pulled him close. "Listen to you." She sighed, "All that sweet talk is going to get you in trouble one day." She pecked him on the cheek.

Sven grinned. "Good." He said. "Can't wait for that."

It was perhaps the most ironic part of denial, he realised, that the less he was allowed to touch the more he thought about it or, more accurately, thought about her touching him.

"Stop that."

"What?" Sven looked up from the storyboard he was reading and eyed Jim.

"Stop clicking that fucking pen. You've been doing it for ten minutes. I'm trying to work."

"Sorry." He kept his face deadpan, went back to looking at smiling families eating Sunbake bread.

"Everything okay today, you seem distracted?"

"Yeah." Sven said. "Fine."

He thought about the conversation again when he sat waiting for the devil herself in a café across the street.

"Hey you." Mimi grinned and dumped her bag on the table, kissed him on the cheek. "Did you order yet?"

"Nope." He smiled. "I was waiting for you. Have a good day?"

Mimi nodded, pulled her hair into a ponytail, moved the bag to the floor. "Did you?"

He laughed, raised an eyebrow. "Apparently, this level of distraction goes away. I just have to persevere."

"It's only the fifth day. You will." She said, gestured to a passing waiter. They both ordered coffee, decided to eat later. "Anyway, you'll be fine. Ready for le gym?"

He nodded. "Of course. Thanks for the helpful suggestion."

"Thanks." Mimi chose to ignore his sarcasm. "How's the bread thing you're doing?"

"Bready." Sven said. "I never want to look at it again and their people are so indecisive. I've never seen anything like it. We've come up with three good ideas and they hate them all."

"Can't you decide for them?" Mimi asked. "Give them a nudge."

"We're working on it. Phil and I are seeing them tomorrow."

"You? Sold the Marie Celeste yet?"

"Don't call it that." Mimi groaned. "No one wants that damn painting. The people who buy this stuff want well-known artists. Harry's prediction that Daniel Hirschmann would be the next big thing is clearly misguided. That said, the commission on it would be very welcome."

"Good otherwise?"

"Yup. Anyway, gym." Mimi leant back as the waitress returned, planted two steaming mugs onto the table. "It'll do you good. Help with things." She raised an eyebrow and looked down at her cup, hid her smile behind it.

"Theoretically."

"If it makes you feel any better, I've been thinking about this most of the day, today too."

"You have?" Sven said. "Really?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Mimi answered. "It's hot."

"I didn't think you liked it. I thought you said you liked it when I was available."

"You are." Mimi spooned sugar into her cup. "For me."

He bit his lip, and she laughed, looked nonchalantly out of the window. Mimi hadn't expected to find it appealing, it seemed to go against everything that made any kind of sense at all but, there it was flickering inside her. "You know I'm really surprised, actually." She explained. " I had no idea how appealing I'd find this. It really feels like it's truly, definitely mine now."

"You have got to stop talking like that." Sven shook his head, the spoon poised over the cup. "Honestly, not in public."

"Why? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"You have no idea." He shifted in his seat, crossed and uncrossed his leg from his lap for the nth time that day. "How was Sophie? Didn't you meet her for lunch today?"

"When have you cared about that?" Mimi laughed, surprised to hear him ask. "I like this new you. Interested in my plans with the girls all of a sudden."

"It's not new."

"I know." She agreed. "I think I'm more open than I used to be and you're making more of an effort. It's good."

"Definitely. I like it."

"So do I." Mimi smiled. "I feel like I have the dynamic I always wanted. It's the old tension back. Like we used to have back in the beginning when you were so desperate to please me."

"I always have been." He said, feeling like he could split with love. "Not for a minute have I stopped wanting to make you happy."

"Aww." She laughed again. "Making me feel like the girl who won first prize all the time."