The Bet

"Uh. Hardly."

"Yep." Mimi sipped at her drink. "Every damn day. I hid this for so long and now I have it it's better than I ever thought it could be."

He smiled. "It's so good to hear you say that."

Mimi nodded, squeezed his hand in hers. "So what else have you done today?"

* * * *

It was just after seven in the evening when Mimi pulled herself out of the pool and headed towards the gym's changing rooms. She stepped into one of the small shower cubicles that ran down one side of the ladies' changing rooms and turned on the hot water, crackling with the shock of endorphins from her swim and the surprising side effects of denial. Initially, she had expected it to be some fun game to make Sven needy. Mimi had wondered if it was something she could exploit for a couple of days and then forget about. Though she'd heard about it and seen countless porny set ups on the internet, it really hadn't been something that appealed. She flipped open her shampoo bottle and began soaping her hair. Not for a second had she expected the other effects of denial, the things no one seemed to mention; she liked the power that came with telling him what and when and how, she liked knowing in a tangible, definite way that she owned him and he would obey her.

She rinsed off then dried herself, dressed and fixed her makeup. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and watched her reflection, not for a moment had she ever imagined this life for herself; For a moment she worried that it would fail, as everything seemed to do. Mimi batted the thought away and headed towards the machines.

"Still going at it, I see." She leant against a frame holding yoga mats and looked down at Sven.

"Yeah." He sighed heavily and set down the weights he was using. "Two minutes and I'll be done. Go and have a coffee, I'll meet you out there." He nodded towards the foyer. Mimi set her bag on the floor and smiled.

"It's okay. I'll wait. How many more reps do you have to do?"

"One more set of ten and then I'll shower."

"How about more?" Mimi suggested. "For every extra lift you do, I'll give you one minute."

Sven laughed. "Really?"

"You're blushing."

"I know. Hah, I can do that no problem." Sven lay back on the bench and picket up the weights again.

"Stop. Sit up." Mimi said. "There's a catch."

"There always is." Sven shook his head, acutely aware of the reignited tension that fizzed between them. He was filled with that old yearning to please, to make Mimi happy at any cost.

"Switch those weights for ones that are a couple of kilos heavier. For every rep you do, you get -- or I get -- one minute."

"You get one minute?" Sven cocked his head.

"You still can't touch yourself but I can. After all, it is mine." She smiled.

"Be quiet!" Sven's voice hushed low. "We're in public."

Mimi shrugged, "One minute of touching per rep. You can start when you're ready and there are up to twenty minutes on offer. You can have that time when we get home."

Sven wailed, the noise twisting into a knotted laugh as he lay back. "Damn you. You have no idea how glad I am to be wearing these shorts right now."

"I should say the whole room is glad." Mimi smiled. "Apart from me. If we were alone and this place was empty you wouldn't even be wearing them." Her voice was a low purr.

"You can't..." the weights went down for the first time and Sven looked up at her awkwardly. "talk like that kitten. Not in public."

"Don't pretend you don't like it." She teased.

"Exactly." The second repetition finished and Sven fixed his eyes on the movement of his arms and beyond them, a patch of damp on the ceiling. "Number three."

"I bet that's all you'd need." Mimi smirked. "You might as well stop now and we can all go home."

Sven said nothing, narrowed his eyes at her and pushed into the fourth and then the fifth rep. They racked up fast, the sixth, seventh and eighth coming quickly, Sven settling and trying to focus on nothing but the task in front of him. By the tenth rep, the new, heavier weights were beginning to make their presence known as a dull throb between his shoulder blades. Far from being unpleasant, the ache became a comfort as he moved.

"Liking this, aren't you?" Mimi said.

"Maybe." Sven smiled, couldn't help himself. It was true; this was a game that he'd happily lose, whatever that meant, if only to have Mimi chiding him for his failure. "How do I fail, really?" he said. "If I don't do the reps, I don't...you know...and if I do." His arms went down with the thirteenth move and he looked up. "I still win because I have you."

Mimi laughed. "I suppose. Either way you're enjoying it. I am too. I don't quite know how this is supposed to go yet."

"Do you care?"

"I like both sides. Both possibilities." She said. "I like that you don't get to choose and I do."

"That's hot."

"I know." Mimi agreed. After all this time he still looked good in a sweaty t-shirt. "You know what I like the most?"

"What?" Sven asked, welcomed the sixteenth repetition with a groan.

"I like that you like it."

Sven focused on the last few moves, trying to remain attentive to his form and breathing and not on Mimi or the way her hip jutted to the side as she watched him and her hair fell over one eye. If it had been his call, he would have kissed her then and there to at least alleviate a little of the tension but as the weights hit the floor with a resonant thud, Mimi pushed her hand between them, stopped him.

"No touching until I say so." She said. "Good work, babe. Do you want to eat?"

"Not really." He answered. "I just want to go home. Claim my prize."

He pulled her close, his hands twisting around her waist. "Please."

Mimi ran her hands up his arms, tiptoed upwards. "You disobeyed me."

"Sorry." He laughed.

"I love it when you get greedy." She whispered. Her voice raised as she spoke again. "Now, go and get a shower and I'll meet you in the car."

"How on earth do people do this for a long time?" Sven asked the question aloud as Mimi stood in the hallway fiddling with the door keys.

"You're awful" she laughed. "It's been barely a week and you're whining."

The door groaned and Mimi stumbled forward. "Bloody lock." She beckoned Sven toward her, threw the keys on the table by the door. "Get in here, baby."

"Damn." He spoke the word as he ruched towards her, nuzzled against her neck. Sven kicked the door shut and returned his focus to Mimi who had kicked away their bags and coats and was focused on pulling him toward the bedroom.

"Everything is amplified." Sven said. "They way you touch me, the way you talk and you've not even removed a shred of clothing from either of us."

"In time." Mimi said. "You can remove your own clothing. Do it while I'm in the bathroom." She nodded towards the bed and slammed the door behind her. She stripped to her underwear, grabbed a small bottle of oil, headed to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Sven balled up his clothes and threw them into the corner. He watched her walk through to the kitchen. "What is that?"

Mimi shook a small hourglass at him as she came back. "This."

"Oh." Sven said, annoyed and surprised by his reaction, by the intensity such a seemingly innocuous object could lend to the occasion. "You weren't joking, were you?"

Mimi shook her head. "I never joke when it comes to you, sweetie. Lie out and we'll begin."

Sven obeyed and looked up at her, his hands pulling her nearer, his body humming with anticipation still full of endorphins from the gym. It seemed to have made it worse not better. "Is that oil?"

Mimi nodded, pulled back, and he watched her pour a little into her palm then hover tortuously close to his hardening cock. Pausing, she shifted and rubbed it gently between her palms.

"I'm going to go really slow." She said, her voice soft. "Plenty of time, don't want you finishing too quickly, do I?"

"No." Sven shook his head. "No, Ma'am."

"Good boy."

Mimi's hands hovered so close to his member that Sven could feel the heat emanating off them.

Mimi grinned, "This is too easy." She teased. "Who knew you had this soft spot, huh? If I'd known you'd be so compliant I would have done this years ago."

"I didn't know." Sven shook his head, half wished he had never found out.

"Pity." Mimi planted her hands flat against his hipbones, watched him jerk upward in surprise at the sensation. "Fuck."

"What?"

"That's hot." She said, her fingers moving softly across his belly then, lower. "Let's start with everything but." She breathed, "Your thighs first. Deep breaths."

Sven did as he was asked the breath curling from him in a low quiver of anticipation. He shifted his leg and Mimi caught him by the ankle, pulled it back into position so that he was spread out on the bed.

"Don't fidget." She smiled. "You're always moving around, just be still."

"That's easy for you to say." He laughed despite the ache between his thighs.

"Are you complaining?"

"Oh, no." he shook his head. "I don't want to come, I like this. I'm just saying."

"Right." Mimi nodded slowly, her hands working across his thighs again, falling lower, her thumbs pressed gently against his perineum. "Of course you are." She bent and kissed his thigh.

"Christ, I thought you were going to-" Sven tailed off, stared at his cock.

"You should be so lucky!" Mimi tossed her head to the side, a single fingernail tracing over the engorged flesh. "You're going to be in for a bit of a wait. I'm not though, I've decided you can get me off tonight."

"Really?" Sven said, sitting up slightly. "I can?"

"Of course."

Mimi nodded wordlessly, fixed on her lover's tender erection and the low mewls that accompanied it. At first she faltered but soon found a rhythm that had him on the edge, her own sex throbbing with a stronger desire than she had felt for a long time; the paradox of denial. For a while they were both happy to luxuriate in the sensations, the contented comfortable silence that grew up between them. Eventually, Mimi spoke. "I've been thinking."

"That's dangerous."

Mimi grinned to herself, wiped a glinting bead of precum from her boyfriend. "I think you should get a sheath dildo."

"What?" he looked up.

"One of those ones that goes over your cock so that when you fuck me, you don't."

Sven shook his head, winced as Mimi hit a nerve with her nail. "Oh," he sighed heavily. "I knew this would be a fucking can of worms."

"Heh." Mimi moved forward and curled up next to him. "Maybe. I was just thinking aloud."

"Were you?" Sven rolled over, rested his hand on her hip.

"Yep." Mimi bit her lip. "I may have fingered myself to that thought earlier, too."

"What?" he sat up. "When?"

"This morning. In the shower. Which is weird because usually, I never do it in the shower." She shrugged.

"So I have spent the past five days sitting down to pee and wearing roomy trousers and you have been knocking one out behind my back?"

"Several times." Mimi said. "In bed, too. Before you came home last night. I'm not the one being denied."

"Hmm." He pressed himself against her, Mimi's scent all soap and the citrus tang of her perfume and her soft warmth against his hardness. It was all that much more acute now, Sven thought. "What did you think about?"

"You want to know?" she turned in his grip, let him slide his hand between her slickening thighs, push her panties to the side. He mumbled his concurrence into her hair and, in response, she let out a low sigh, priming herself. "I thought about you tied to that chair." She said, nodded to the low seat in the corner of the room. "I thought about fucking someone else while you burned with envy. I thought about fucking you with a dildo bigger than your cock, which wouldn't be difficult, I know." She kissed his neck, pushed her hips upward to meet his quickening fingers. "I thought about making you measure yourself against it, to show me."

"Fuck." He gripped her thigh, pushed his erection against the warm softness of her bottom. "You can't talk like that."

"Of course I can, silly." Mimi turned, kissed him again, her hand weaving into his hair. "And I thought about finally letting you fuck me with that pretty cock of yours -- mine." She smiled as she said the word, her hand curling around it. "Maybe by that point-" she groaned, her hands moving upward, gripping at the pillow. "Maybe by that point I wouldn't have been fucked by anyone or anything for a while so I'd be wet and tight and I'd let you take me."

"Please..." the word seemed a reflex, Sven wasn't quite sure what he wanted; he wanted everything she'd suggested right then and there. "Oh, babe, that's hot."

"I know." Mimi's mouth met his as she rode his palm, his dedicated fingers urging orgasm from her. "I had this thought about making you wait, too." She explained.

"Like now?"

Mimi shook her head. "No, making you wait until we're married. Maybe the next time you come should be our wedding night. Wouldn't that be perfect? A true sign of dedication."

"We haven't even set a date."

"I know." Mimi's hand twisted into the pillow, harder this time. She threw her head back. "I'll just make you wait." She sighed. "Make you attentive; utterly dedicated to me."

Before Sven could answer, Mimi was shuddering and undulating her hips harder against his fingers, orgasm wracking through her in a hard and heavy wave that moved every fibre of her body so that when she finally stilled herself and lay against him she was silent and utterly satiated. For a few moments they lay still, Sven's mind rushing to assimilate Mimi's fantasies and the real world implications of what she had suggested.

" Do you really mean it about the long term denial thing?" he asked.

"I'm toying with it." Mimi said. "It's true. I rather like that idea. You might not, though. I don't know. If it's too much too soon I'll understand."

"No." Sven's hand flew up then quickly sank down again. He shocked himself with the gesture, by just how much he was terrified and turned on by it. "I mean," he shrugged, nonchalant. "Shall we see how this week goes?"

"It's nearly the weekend anyway." Mimi said. She sat up and siled down at him, kissed him again. "You're doing the leg shake again. Stop it. Nervous energy isn't good for you."

"Can you blame me?" he raised an eyebrow. "Baby steps."

Mimi nodded, "Baby steps. Now come and make me food. Preferably something carb heavy, it's cold outside."

"Okay." Sven nodded. "Can you pass me a t-shirt?"

Mimi threw one from the wardrobe and nodded towards the bathroom. "Just think on it."

Sven was wordless, nodded. State the damn obvious, he thought. Though, knowing her, Mimi had probably thought that, too. "I think this has escalated past a bet now." He said, pulled on some sweatpants.

Mimi stuck her head around the bathroom doorway, dried her hands on a towel. "Probably. We should call it off."

"So no one wins." Sven smiled. "How convenient."

"Is that sarcasm I hear, Aachen?" Mimi strode towards the kitchen.

"No, Ma'am." He followed her and pulled open the fridge. "What do you fancy?"

"Pasta if it's going. Doesn't have to be fancy."

"Okay then." Sven pulled a pan from a cupboard, added water and salt. "Is it wrong I'm turned on by having to do simple things for you now? Like, I just noticed this. Making you dinner," he shrugged, shook his head at her. "This is going to drive me crazy for you in a way that it never used to."

Mimi hugged him. "I know." She pulled open the fridge. "I really like that. Have a beer." She passed a bottle to him, watched him twist off the lid. "Now tell me about your day."