~Cassidy~

Trey eyed the package clutched in my arms like a football. “Ma’am, is that your gift?”

I blushed. His eyebrows rose a little. “It was an accident,” I blurted.

“You didn’t mean to give them a present?”

“Not this one.”

“Well now,” he said in that slow drawl, sending heat curling down the rest of my body, especially my pussy, which was not where you wanted to be feeling heat with Trey Dante. Not if you wanted to leave with your heart intact. He’d ruined girls with a look. “That sounds exciting.”

Trey saying ‘exciting’ was even worse.

“If you saw what was in here, you would not call it exciting,” I told him grimly.

He leaned a shoulder against the wall, which looked like a relaxed stance, but he was a pretty big guy, and he was definitely blocking my path to the doorway, which didn’t seem like a positive development.

A smile touched his mouth. “Well, I was totally joking, Cass, but now I have to know what’s in there.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh, it’s something.”

“Nothing!” I said, too loudly. His eyebrows went up a little more, then his gaze skipped across my face.

“Hm. You’re flushed.”

“No I’m not. That’s a blush.”

“Interesting. Why are you blushing?”

Seriously, like I said, trouble. With eyes that could make your knees melt or drill in like a power tool, leaving you breathless for a totally different reason. He had multi-talented eyes.

“You look pretty flustered there, Cass.”

“No, really…” I started to slip past him, then stopped. He hadn’t made a move, but I felt like he touched me as my body passed by his, and I simply…stopped moving. “It’s nothing. I wrapped the wrong present, and…”

“And?”

“And Amber would have a heart attack on the spot if I gave her this.” I held the box up.

“Uh oh. Sounds dangerous.” His dark eyes fell to it. “Is it a gun?”

“God no.”

“A knife set?"

I laughed. "It's not a dangerous gift."

"Ah. Is it illegal?”

I clutched the box to my chest. "My God, I hope not. Why would you say that?"

"Because you're all flushed."

"Blushed," I corrected irritably. "I'm blushed."

"Why?"

"My present is not dangerous or illegal." I tipped my head and gave him a cocky little smile, trying to imitate him. "And you'll never guess."

That sort of confidence was a mistake. Like wrapping the wrong present. Like not marching out with my dildo the moment Trey appeared in the doorway.

He nodded, his gaze skimming over my blushing, flushing face face, then dropped to the box. "Is it a dildo?”

The air burst from my lungs in an outraged gasp. “No!” I said in a loud voice, hugging it tighter. “That’s r-ridiculous. I mean, who would…” I was having a hard time forming the words. “Who would give a dildo as a wedding present?”

A smile crooked up a corner of his mouth. “I think you did.”

“What are you, some kind of detective?” I snapped.

“Yep. Was it expensive?”

I dropped my head and stared at the floor, then muttered, “Two hundred dollars.”

He laughed again, softer this time. “Let me see.”

I dragged my gaze up. “You want to see my dildo?” I almost choked. “I mean the dildo.”

He was grinning now. “Yeah. Let me see The Dildo.”

“Well, it’s all wrapped up and all…”

“Hm, delaying tactics. Not an accomplished liar, are you?”

“I am an excellent liar,” I lied. “And I’m not lying. It is wrapped up.”

He grinned. “You’re not giving it to them, so what’s it matter?”

I scowled. “Maybe I’m giving it to someone else.”

Our eyes met. “Let me see it, Cass.”

Oh boy, now the heat was everywhere. Hot, shivery cords of it. I felt confused and overcome. My head wasn’t working right.

Watching me, Trey reached out and hooked a thick finger into the taped end and gave a little tug.

He may as well have unhooked my bra strap. My head tipped back and a tiny but uncontrollable gasp came from somewhere inside me. Also, my nipples got hard.

I was pretty sure he knew it, too. Knew what he was doing to my breath and my nipples. He never looked away from me as he gave another hard tug.

My body jerked.

Well this couldn’t keep up.

In a bit of a fury, I ripped the paper off and flung it aside, tore out a box which was not taped up anymore because I’d sort of looked at it—you have to at least look at a two hundred dollar dildo, don’t you?— then I clutched it in my hand and raised it like a Stanley Cup trophy.

“See?”

It gleamed, a heavy, glass-slippery, pale sea blue dildo, curving proudly in the air, a smaller sea blue appendage curving up the back like a little tail. For your ass, I presumed, having never used one, but anatomically, that’s where I figured it would go.

He stared at it, and oh boy did his smile get big.

I was panting. Why was I panting?

“Let me see that thing,” he said, pushing off the wall.

I backed up a step. “No. It’s not for viewing purposes.”

He laughed again and reached for it.

I was helpless to stop him. For a second, his fingers skimmed the edge of mine and I released it abruptly.

He looked it over in silence, his hard, calloused hand gripping the curving glass, tanned against the sea blue.

Well darn, that looked good.

I shook myself.

His gaze slid to mine. “You were giving this to Amber?”

“No! Like I said, it was an accident. I meant it for—” I shut my mouth. I didn’t want to out a Secret Santa, after all.

“For who?”

“Me,” I squeaked.

He came a step closer. “You wrapped it up for yourself?”

“I like presents.” I felt him coming nearer like sunshine, hot and liable to burn. “I meant to give them toasting flutes.”

He laughed again, a low rumble, and took the final step to arrive in front of my body.

“So, Cass, you got this for yourself?”

I decided a worldly approach was in order. “My bedroom practices are not open for discussion. But for your information, many smart people use them.”

“What’s smart about a dildo?”

I sniffed. “A woman doesn’t need a man when she has one of these.”

His gaze slid off the device under discussion and met mine. “If you think that, you’ve gone too long.”

I gasped. “I haven’t gone long. I’ve gone…seconds.”

“Seconds?”

“Yes. I had an orgasm just before coming here,” I announced.

Oh, that smile, the lazy-lidded, slow smile. Inside my body, ribbons of heat were unfurling from I don’t know where, places that hadn’t been tapped in a long, long time. Muscles were tightening, readying. All because of a smile.

And a sea blue dildo.

“Did you have your orgasm with this?” He held it up like exhibit A.

“Of course not,” I said sharply. “That one is a gift. And it’s a very nice gift. Two hundred dollars worth of nice.”

“Thought you said it was for you.”

I scowled.

“Two hundred? What the fuck?” he murmured, hefting it in his hand. In the backlight, it seemed to glow, a throbbing, rigid glass penis with appendage. “Do you think it’s worth two hundred bucks?”

I turned and eyed it with him. We were like two doctors, staring at an x-ray.

“You don’t know what that thing can do,” I said wistfully. I didn’t either, but I was seriously considering getting myself one, now that I saw it in its full glory. With Trey’s hand wrapped around it.

That alone could provide years of daydreams.

He arched a dark brow at me. “I know what it can do. It’s a dildo. But…it’s a dildo.”

“Right,” I said, a little confused. Maybe we were talking about different purposes for a dildo. “Dildos do good things.”

He grinned that dangerous little grin. “How good?”

“Well I—”

“On a scale of one to ten, how good was it with this?”

“I never used that!”

“Cass, I can give you a better orgasm than this thing and it wouldn’t cost you a dime.”

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