Leather

The intensity of his kiss was overpowering and Mina lost herself to it, pulling at his shoulders, his chest, trying to get him closer. A tilt of his hips and he was there, his cockhead nestled between her pussy lips. "Tommy!" she gasped, objecting, but also not.

His blue eyes were darker somehow, the center of a flame -- they consumed her, burned away whatever hesitancy she might have had. Her heart sped, her breath caught. "Please, Mina," she said for him, wrapping her legs around his hips. "Fuck me."

A moment of indecision passed quickly across his face and he he pushed forward slowly, eyes still intense even as the first tear welled up. Bottoming out, he paused, then slowly dragged himself out, never breaking eye contact. Again he pushed, now at a different angle, rubbing his dick against the roof of her cunt. One more and he found the spot he'd known was there from previous explorations, the one that stole Mina's breath and made sparks dance behind her eyes. "Tommy," she whispered.

Leaning down once more while keeping his rhythm slow, abused lips came together and Mina lost herself again, letting the pleasure overrule her conscious mind. Her core, now full, became the center of her entire existence. The deep intermittent pressure from inside and the sharp back and forth motion radiated waves of sensation outward. Now hands on her ass, squeezing, kneading, lifting -- "Ughh!" she groaned as he found a deeper spot.

A little faster and Mina found it hard to catch her breath. The sparks from her clit were more frequent now, and also less predictable. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog from her mind, but he increased his speed again and she lost her tenuous hold on the world around her.

His thighs were hitting her ass cheeks in a regular rhythm, and the deep bump inside let her know he was too big for her, which was absolutely perfect. Her hands grasped for purchase, something to hold as she was manhandled, but slid off his slippery skin. They finally grasped his short hair as her orgasm edged forward. "Oh!" she managed, and he started harder in response, now pulling her hips to him as he rocked forward, rag dolling her in a way she hadn't known was possible. "Oh!" she gasped again as her vision started to tunnel, black creeping into the edges. Above her, his face was masked in a grimace of pain as he worked his body to its extreme, slamming himself into her rapidly. Their eyes locked and in that moment she saw his face come to life. The possessiveness in his features shoved her over the edge into an extended, silent orgasm, its strength stealing her breath while her entire body spasmed, locked, and shook in a rapid, uncontrolled sequence that left her on the edge of consciousness.

"Breathe," he urged gently, and it was only at his word that Mina became aware again, sucking in a deep, reflexive lung full of ignored air. Stars danced across her sight and she realized she couldn't have sat up if she tried.

"What happened?"

Rather than respond, he gave her a half shrug and paired it with a smug smirk.

"Bastard," she complained as she closed her eyes.

- - -

"Where did you learn to fuck like that?" Hair still damp from a long, luxurious, curated shower and wrapped in terrycloth by the pool, Mina's question was more curious than anything.

It was obvious that Thomas was considering some sort of evasive answer as he moved the salad around with his fork. "I'm competitive," he finally answered.

Mina's brow arched and she pursed her lips, but held silent; Thomas sighed.

"I grew up about an hour from here, roughly that direction," he said, gesturing out across the back yard. "Mom and me in a single wide." As Thomas spoke, his words stretched and Mina heard a hint of the local drawl for the first time. "The trailer was parked in the back of the lot, which butted up to a farm. The farmer -- we called him Mr. Sam -- let the kids from the park swim in his stock pond, so from the time I was little, I swam every day Summer, Spring, and Fall. When I got to high school, I joined the team."

"You don't look like a swimmer," Mina challenged, her voice rising with her brow, even though the Sheriff had told her as much the night before.

"I didn't have to be tall to swim breast stroke," he answered easily. "I got my A-cut Junior year, which landed me a quarter scholarship at one of the state universities." He pointed off to the left. "Good grades paid for the rest and I earned a degree in materials science."

"Materials... like making fancy metals?"

"More or less," he answered, nodding. "My specialty is ceramics. I didn't find a job my Senior year in college, so I stayed an extra one and earned a Masters. My adviser was doing some pretty revolutionary things with glass. I learned a lot from him and ended up having a brainstorm." He shrugged. "I took the idea with me, tinkered for a year and a half, and came up with a commercial application."

"And your adviser?"

"We don't talk anymore. He thought my idea was derivative of the research he was doing and therefore his. I disagreed, he sued, I won."

"Why Thomas, is that a hint of smugness I detect?"

"I told you I'm competitive."

"Speaking of... when do we get to the part about learning how to screw me unconscious earlier?"

Another shrug. "I raised capital, built the first plant, and inside of three years had sales in excess of twenty million. It's quite a bit more now. The technology is very niche, but nobody else can make it because of our IP protection.

"Anyhow, Mom died about that time, which left me as a lonely twenty-five year old millionaire living off a single good idea, which wasn't very fulfilling. I figured it was time to find a nice girl, but hadn't spent much time in relationships, so when I tried to start dating..." He shook his head and smiled self-consciously. "I was pretty hopeless. It took several months until a girl finally thought enough of me to come home, and the sex wasn't good at all. She apologized, I apologized, and we went separate ways. I saw her in town a couple weeks later and she wouldn't even meet my eyes."

Mina's forehead was furrowed as she chewed her lip.

"Almost to the point," he said with a small smile, acknowledging her pained expression. "The next day I took a month off work and flew to Vegas, then drove to Elko."

"You went to a brothel?" Mina's wide eyes danced with amusement and disbelief.

"All day every day for a month. Every brothel in town. Every woman in each one."

"That is unbelievable." She crossed her arms and fixed a smirk firmly on her lips. "How much did you spend?" Thomas shook his head and waved away the question, but Mina persisted. "This is my field, remember? Call it professional curiosity."

Thomas' eyes looked skyward for a moment before he acquiesced. "A little over a million and a half."

"Holy shit," Mina gasped.

"It's only money."

"Says the rich bastard that spent a month fucking his way through an entire red light district." She leaned back on her chair, eyes unfocused. "So me spending two weeks at your house isn't that big a deal at all."

"I haven't done anything like that since I met Annabelle. You being here means a great deal to me."

"Maybe we should renegotiate my rates," she said, trying for a teasing tone, but it came out nervous and hesitant.

"Whatever you want -- I have more money than I'll spend in my life."

"You're that rich?" Now her voice was a whisper. A nod answered her question and for some reason it made her feel worse, until he took her hand, squeezing it firmly. Seeing his smile, a warmth bubbled up from her stomach. She looked into his eyes, knowing it should feel awkward to hold his gaze so long, but Mina didn't care. She decided to take a chance. "When this is all over, you can pay me what you think I'm worth."

His expression faltered and he shook his head subtly. "I can't -- that's more money than I'll ever earn."

"Bullshit," Mina retorted, rolling her eyes and leaning back. When she looked back to him, his eyes were as serious as she'd seen them. "Nobody's worth that much."

"You're not nobody."

"..." She didn't manage words, but did look away, put off but his apparent earnestness. Mind racing, she tried to sort her suddenly swirling emotions, then gave up and changed tact. "Go swim, Tommy. Show me what you can do."

He watched her avoid his eyes for a long moment before rising and walking to the pool. Thomas took a deep breath and slipped into the water, holding still for a dozen seconds before sinking completely beneath the surface. He popped up again a dozen yards down the lane, his motion remarkably smooth. Inside of half a dozen heartbeats Mina knew he'd told the truth about his swimming prowess, and probably everything else. Upon reaching the end, he turned and sped back toward her, then pushed himself back of the water.

"Done already?"

"Water's a bit cold," he answered with a hitch, pulling a towel around himself; Mina remembered he'd just refilled the pool the day she arrived, so the water was probably no more than sixty-five degrees. She thought to apologize, then changed her mind -- there was an opportunity to regain the upper hand in their business transaction.

"You're no longer naked, Thomas -- fix that." He was still drying off, but rather than argue, he unbent himself, folded the towel, and placed it on the table next to her. "I think you need to --"

Her reprimand was cut off as he straddled her legs with his knees, opened the robe she was wearing, and laid his bare chest against hers. Mina sucked in a breath as his cold skin hit her nipples and pelvis; she was still recovering when he laid his forearms against her ribs. "Holy shit!" Mina pushed at his shoulders, but he seemed to burrow in deeper, actively stealing the warmth of her body. "Get off me, you bastard," she near-shouted as her ire peaked.

In an instant he had pushed himself up and away, and when her eyes raised she found him staring somewhere above her head, his expression entirely neutral. With a huff she pulled the robe closed again and glared at him, not so much for surprising her, but for refusing to be controlled. "You asshole!" she yelled, feeling bad as the words sped forth. She rose, spun, and stormed into the house, slamming the sliding glass door behind.

Past the kitchen and entryway, up the stairs and into the bedroom, where she threw the robe across the room. She wanted to tear something, hit something. Instead she screamed into the empty space, an unbalanced cry that sounded foreign to her own ears. Then she was on her knees, crying -- sobbing, really -- feeling out of control.

What the fuck was happening?

Soft, plush cloth settled gently on her naked shoulders and they jerked up reflexively, then settled. "No!" she shouted a moment later, pushing off the previously discarded robe and standing, retreating to the side of the room, away from Thomas and his comfort and his sad-kind eyes. "Stop fucking with my head," she demanded angrily. "I'm the one in charge here, not you."

He lowered his eyes demurely, and when she didn't say or do anything, he knelt, then placed his forehead on the floor in a pose of supplication.

The urge to stomp over and smack the hell out of him rose up in her chest and she screamed, her voice painful in the suddenly close room. She made it a single step before her legs gave out and she crumpled, sobbing again, a dozen feet from where Thomas remained motionless.

- - -

Mina woke with bleary eyes and pushed herself upright. In bed? As the covers fell away from her chest, her eyes widened at finding herself encased in the silky white camisole she'd bought the day before. Pushing back the sheet further revealed the matching pair of boyshort panties. Confused and still feeling very out of sorts, she levered herself out of the bed, only to find Thomas in the same position on the floor she'd last seen him. Her stomach dropped, then turned, pushing bile into her throat. "Oh my God," she gasped, then hurried to him, placing a hand tentatively on his naked back. "I am so sorry for freaking out," she said urgently, already feeling her eyes well up again. "I don't know what happened."

When he didn't respond, panic replaced the nauseous feeling. "Tommy, say something."

"It's not your fault." His voice was soft, but clearly audible -- the sense of relief that washed through Mina made her lightheaded and she leaned back, settling on her rear. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. When she looked again, he was sitting in front of her. "I shouldn't have made this personal. I understand if you want to go."

"We both made it personal," she responded, still feeling slightly dizzy. "I think that maybe, if things were different..." He nodded. "It's gotta go back to how it was when I got here -- all business. No more deep conversations. No more trying to fix each other." She paused and when she spoke again her voice was softer. "No more loving looks, or longing eyes, or heart melting words. Can you do that?"

Thomas was quiet for more than a minute. "I don't know."

"You have to try, or I have to go. I can't..." Mina sighed aggressively and tried again. "I can't date clients, Thomas. I have my own life. I'm Mina, but Mina isn't me -- she's just a character I play." He didn't respond and she let out a frustrated huff. "Give me some time to process this."

With a nod he was gone, no argument or even a backward glance.

She sighed heavily and picked herself off the floor, then stepped to the dresser holding her clothes.

Sixty minutes later she was climbing into the black and white taxi she'd called -- the one belonging to Sheriff Mike. "Everything okay?" he'd asked her on the phone.

"Just wondering if you could give me a ride so I can pick up Thomas' car from the dealer."

"Why can't he do it -- wait, never mind -- I don't want to know. Give me an hour."

She smiled as Mike pulled away from the house, wondering what approach the man would try this time. "Beautiful weather today." Avoidance was apparently the game for the day.

The ride passed without incident, as did picking up the car -- having the Sheriff there made the trivialities of normal procedure much less important, as did Mina's tight fitting top.

As she settled into the driver's seat, Mike leaned on the door. "I'll make a call or three, but keep it under a hundred on the highway or it'll be my ass." With two taps on the roof, he walked away, whistling tunelessly. Mina watched him go, liking him a little more with each interaction, then reprimanded herself. She wasn't in town to make friends or play games or map out some fantasy life for herself.

Mina started the car, feeling a tingle race down her back at the high performance machine's hum. She revved the engine, just a little, and the tingle returned.

After driving almost too carefully through town, Mina felt anticipation build as she pulled onto the entrance ramp for the interstate. "Fuck it," she said aloud as she punched the accelerator, launching the car onto the highway like an F-16 leaving a carrier.

She passed a dozen cars in the first minute and only then looked down, seeing she was well over one-thirty. "Oh, shit," she gasped, hitting the brakes entirely too hard and only just avoiding a skid that would have sent her down an embankment. Heart hammering, she set the cruise at a sedate ninety-five and leaned back into the luxurious seat.

As she exited the freeway, she was thinking about how smooth the ride was instead of how fast she was going and had to slam the brakes again to stop for the off-ramp's red light. "Whoa." A few deep breaths and her smile returned. Green light and she was off again, following the highlighted route on her phone.

"The Ruby Ring," she read aloud as she pulled into the parking lot of the club. It wasn't as swanky as the website had made it appear, but the lot was over half full despite the relatively early hour and most of the cars were on the expensive end, if not actually luxury vehicles. Realistically, she was dressed a bit too nicely for the place, but a leather half jacket helped bring her look more in-line with the atmosphere, as did her natural cleavage.

There wasn't much of a line, but she skipped it anyway, walking directly to the bouncer, who gave her a brief once over before opening the door for her to enter. She gave him a grin -- not a 'thank you,' but the kind of 'atta boy' you'd lay on a well trained dog. Attitude -- presence -- control. She was, after all, at the club to start rebuilding her self image.

The dark entrance vestibule opened into a dimly lit space with a few dozen tables and two stages. She made her way to the closest open seat, wanting to remain near the door. Within a minute drinks were ordered and her plan set in motion.

"I'm looking for a date," she'd said to the hostess, an obvious ex-dancer in her mid-thirties. "Someone clean -- no drugs, no STDs. She needs to be sweet, smart, and as willing to eat pussy as she is to suck a cock." The demand was taken in stride and the woman disappeared, returning shortly after with Mina's vodka tonic.

"Only a couple ladies in tonight that might be what you're looking for," the hostess said, sliding into the seat on Mina's right. She tipped her head toward the far stage, where a girl in her teens was twerking to a heavy bass beat, still wearing a skimpy bikini. "Shelley's working her way through college. No really," she said defensively, seeing Mina's 'oh come on' look. "Majoring in finance. Can't say that I know how she is at sucking cock, but I can tell you her pussy tastes like candy."

"And the second?"

The hostess grinned and held her hands out.

"Last checkup?"

"Yesterday, as a matter of fact," the woman replied, folding her arms over her chest at the question and offering a glare. Mina pursed her lips and looked back and forth between the two women. Where Shelley was light, tight, toned, and topped with a beautiful fake pair, the woman next to her was a little darker, a little worn, a bit curvy, and a lot hot. "Alright, I'll take you both. How soon can you scoot?"

"Depends on if the house gets a cut."

"Of course," Mina replied, pulling four hundred dollar bills out of her purse and laying them on the table.

"I'm Jewels," the woman said as she scooped up the cash. "Give us half an hour and we'll be ready to go."

Transaction completed, Mina picked up her drink and watched a slim redhead strut onto the nearer stage in impossibly tall heels.

- - -

"So you're a whore, too?"

"I prefer escort," replied Mina to the young woman in the back as they sped back along the interstate.

"Whatever," Jewels said from the passenger seat. "Tomato-Tomatoe. The important thing is that we get paid."

"Like I told you -- it won't be an issue."

"Your John that loaded?"

"My client is very well off and very considerate."

Further conversation was limited, but Shelley did keep up a fairly constant stream of personal musings for most of the hour it took to get back to Thomas' house. Like Mina had been, the girls were underwhelmed as she pulled into the garage.

"So he's, like, an insurance salesman?" Shelley asked.

"Not quite," Mina replied with a smirk as she stepped out of the car. "Ready?" she asked rhetorically as she opened the door to the main house.

Casual luxury. Effortless expense. Superb quality. The women drank in their new surroundings with wide eyes and surprised expressions.

Across the room, Thomas' expression was equally comic as he stood naked in the kitchen, making something at the stove. "Hi, Tommy -- I brought you a couple gifts." Mina pointed to Jewels and then Shelley, introducing them. "I'm going to go get them warmed up -- we'll be down in an hour for a lite dinner -- salads and wine.

With that, she led the two still gawking women through the house and up to the master bathroom where she briefly explained the shower controls and pointed out the various hygiene products. "Clean, shave, lotion, and whatever else you need to do. Anything goes, including your asses, so be ready."