A Certain Girl Read online

  “Rus, it’s nothing you need to apologize for. I feel bad I’m not there to help you out.”

  “Maybe next trip.” He’d have to make another trip to Frankfurt in six months, but that one would only last four days, not a grind like this one.

  “Okay. I’ll stop bringing it up.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am.”

  “Rus.”

  He sighed. “Li, I’m okay. I’ll get through it.”

  She didn’t speak again for a moment, glancing at him occasionally as she drove. “Permissions still stand, though. All right?”

  “I know. If I decide to, I’ll tell you.”

  * * * *

  Truth be told, Eliza hadn’t felt like masturbating without Rusty, either. She knew she could talk him into trying if she couched it in terms of she was horny and wanted him to do it with her, but she wasn’t going to play that game.

  Manipulation like that had no place in their relationship. Not in their marriage, and not in their M/s dynamic.

  A mindfuck was totally different.

  Except she could hear it in his voice, how exhausted he was. Not just physically tired, but emotionally.

  Yeah, he’s not going to be happy when I tell him about Kailey.

  But that news would have to wait until he was back home. Kailey knew not to post anything to Facebook about it, either, because Rusty was friends with her on there. Last thing Eliza needed was Rus finding out about her move second-hand like that when he was already stressed to the max.

  “How was your flight over?”

  “Fortunately uneventful.” He’d pulled off his shirt as soon as she’d gotten him in the car, but she wasn’t sure if he was totally naked or not.

  She didn’t like the dark lines under his eyes. “Maybe I should let you get off here and get to sleep.”

  “I’d rather wait until you’re home, Ma’am.”

  She didn’t even bother trying to correct him. Defaulting to “Ma’am mode” was a comfort for him.

  If it made him feel better to stay on the line for a few more minutes…well, she’d do it.

  “Anything been going on?” he asked.

  She was glad for the car’s darkened interior. “Everything’s fine.” Technically not a fib. “Just the same ole same old. I told Cali I’d volunteer Friday night as a DM. She’s a little short-handed.”

  “Anything new about Mal?”

  “No, I haven’t talked to Kel or Chelbie.”

  “Make sure to send me a text when you get home.”

  “Rus, I’m not sending you a text in the middle of the night.”

  “It’ll be after seven in the morning, honey. I’ll be up. I have meetings Saturday morning.”

  “Oh, true. I hate the fucking time difference.”

  “At least it’s only five hours now.” She heard him make a pained grunt and glanced at the screen in time to see him shift position in the bed. In time to see he also still wore shorts.

  “You can get naked, honey.”

  “But what if we’re in an accident? I can’t be naked.” She glanced again and caught his weary smile.

  Her man. This was him, every exhausted ounce of him.

  His playful, gentle sense of humor, his concern, his need to protect his family even though he damn well knew she could protect herself.

  “Plus seeing your nekkidness might be considered distracted driving,” she teased.

  “Well, duh.” His screen shifted position, and she realized he was lying down now, because his face appeared sideways.

  He’d likely be asleep soon.

  “I’ll let the babies say good-night to you, then you go to sleep.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” He yawned, and she fought the urge to yawn in reply.

  After making it home uneventfully, and barely avoiding being slobbered on by the two girls while disarming the alarm, Eliza put her stuff down on the couch and then knelt so the dogs could see the tablet screen. “Say good-night to Daddy.”

  Both bulldogs sniffed and snorted at the screen, and his exhausted smile was worth it. “Hey, sweeties. Booger girl, Chica. Daddy loves you.”

  Okay, she was going to start crying if she didn’t get him off the call. “Love you, honey. Get some sleep, okay?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Love you, too.” He touched the screen and she reached out and touched it before ending the call.

  Boo managed to snort right in her face, getting bulldog slobber all over Eliza’s cheek.

  “Thanks, honey. I needed a bully bath tonight.”

  On her other side, Chica sneezed, adding more slobber.

  Eliza closed her eyes and started laughing, which soon devolved into tears. She’d never tell Rus about this, about plopping down right there while the two dogs swarmed her, sniffling and shnurffling and trying to figure out why Mommy’s face was leaking.

  Please don’t let him die before me. I can’t bear to lose him.

  Maybe that was a selfish request on her part, but there it was. Something she’d never admit to anyone else, not even him.

  The sooner he could retire, the happier she’d be.

  Finally, she untangled herself from the dogs and headed to the kitchen to wash bulldog slobber off her face before taking them outside for evening walkies.

  Chapter Five

  Late Monday afternoon, Rusty willed the plane to fly faster, carry him home sooner. He wanted to be on the ground in Tampa, so he could run for the plane’s exit as soon as they were allowed to deplane.

  All he wanted was to be in Eliza’s arms again.

  It would take every ounce of self-control that he had to keep from dropping to his knees in front of her right there in the main terminal, but totes worth the agony of waiting to do that until they returned home.

  Didn’t help that he was so fucking horny he could barely see straight now.

  I need to get laid.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  No, correction. I need a beating.

  A long, hard, ass-striping, blood-drawing, breath-stealing, tear-crying beating.

  None of his usual outlets had been available to him, between his schedule and the circumstances. No Eliza, no naked running.

  Running on a treadmill just wasn’t as satisfying, even though he’d tried it a few times in hotel exercise rooms during this trip.

  Not being home, he hadn’t been able to go to combat practice with their LARP group, either. While it wasn’t as satisfying an outlet, at least the energy expenditure, combined with the pain, helped center him.

  He hated having to wear all these fucking clothes all the goddamned time.

  He wanted his bed, his house, his shower.

  His wife.

  His whole damn life.

  When he had to take these trips, by the time he returned home it felt like he was no longer Rusty, but Dr. McElroy.

  Like the suit he had to put on every day to go to work had taken over his life instead of being only a part of his life.

  He hated that.

  He preferred being Eliza’s Barbarian, the husband, father, and friend.

  Dr. McElroy was a necessary evil to pay their bills and support their fun-time activities, of both the kinky and vanilla flavors.

  Dr. McElroy had successfully taken care of his family, including being able to allow Eliza to retire from teaching school.

  Dr. McElroy was well-respected in multiple countries, a renowned expert in his field, and better than well-compensated for his knowledge and talents.

  He was also boring as fuck, to an almost painful level.

  And not the happy-funtime kind of painful, either. The nauseatingly vanilla, respectable kind of painful.

  He settled back in his seat, restless, his seatbelt nearly chafing him, in addition to the rest of his clothes. Eliza had asked him to wear khakis and a button-up shirt home, along with a blazer and tie. So he’d donned the blazer and tie at his layover in Atlanta, grabbing them from his bag at the Customs check and putting them on before boarding the flight from Atlanta to Tampa.

  He didn’t know why she’d asked, but hoped it meant she had a reason. Usually, she didn’t specify how he was to dress when it came to a business trip, even the flying home part. Work was normally off-limits from their play.

  Although, technically, flying home wasn’t work.

  I just want to run around naked. Is that too much to ask?

  He couldn’t even take his shoes off on the flight, because, ew.

  At least he was flying first class—larger seats, and a little more legroom for his six-four frame.

  There were a few perks to his job.

  While it was tempting to order a couple of drinks to help him zone out, he knew that’d only make him feel worse later. A trip this long already took a lot out of him. At least this final leg was short, just Atlanta to Tampa, barely an hour long.

  Note to self—don’t bitch about Tampa-to-DC flights anymore.

  It was easy to forget how crappy this slog was when he didn’t have to do it every week.

  He signaled the flight attendant for another soda water. Even though he had in-flight Wi-Fi, he didn’t feel like watching anything, or reading anything, or…anything.

  He was too amped up to sleep.

  Home.

  The first time he had to take one of these long-ass trips, Kailey was still young, and he’d felt guilty as hell for leaving Eliza alone with their daughter, while Eliza was still working full-time, too. Li practically had to shove him onto the plane to get him to leave.

  Now, Li was retired, although she sometimes taught martial arts part-time for fun, and Kailey was on her own.

  Their house was paid off. Had been since he’d started college, when his mom had died and her life insurance paid it off.

  If it hadn’t been for Li, and her parents, his life would have been so different. So would his brother’s life. Rusty damn well knew it was his future in-laws who’d made all the difference, allowing Li to basically move in with them, helping with everything in the wake of their mother’s death. Allowing him to attend college and still take care of Corey, who was four years younger than him.

  He was the man he’d become, in no small part, due to Eliza’s love and her family’s love.

  We’re still young enough to have fun. Maybe I need to sit down with her and talk about this.

  He did enjoy his work. That wasn’t the problem. It was mentally challenging, it was emotionally and professionally gratifying to be looked at as a globally recognized expert, and it paid damn good.

  Eliza received a pension from her years spent teaching. Just that alone would take care of their monthly bills. That wasn’t counting their retirement accounts and savings.

  But…

  The old fear liked to gnaw at him. Remembering how hard his mom had to work to make ends meet and keep them together as a family after his father’s death. How there’d barely been enough money to make do with, and he’d had to learn to be thrifty and how to grind his way through earning money through jobs like mowing neighborhood lawns.

  Rational Rusty knew they could easily maintain their current lifestyle for decades, as long as they didn’t waste money.

  Rusty the teenager who was barely a man when thrust into the role remembered those bleak, early days of struggling to be both a brother and a parent and trying not to fuck either one up.

  Corey had nearly died from a heart attack. His wife, Marcy, was recovering from a fight with breast cancer.

  Life was fucking short.

  Too damned short, especially when he loved Eliza as deeply as he did.

  Too damned short to waste any more of it than he absolutely had to stuck in an office or on a fucking cigar-shaped petri dish twenty thousand feet in the air.

  * * * *

  Rusty was already looking for familiar landmarks as they made the final approach to Tampa International from the north. He felt like a kid awaiting Christmas morning, his hands clamped around the armrests, impatiently tapping his right foot, visualizing how best to jump out of his seat so he could snatch his carryons from their currently stowed places and burst out of the plane and pound down the jetway.

  He knew Eliza would be waiting for him to pick him up. She always picked him up. And she likely wouldn’t let him drive them home, even though he would offer to. She’d want him to rest.

  She’d have already stocked his favorite foods and snacks for him so they wouldn’t have to leave the house for a couple of days, if they didn’t want to.

  She’d probably already put Kailey on alert not to call or text unless it was an emergency, that they’d be in nesting mode.

  Gaming would be cancelled, since they’d both be out.

  He loved his friends, but unless they wanted to move the game to his house for that week, he wasn’t putting on pants and going anywhere he didn’t absolutely have to.

  He closed his eyes as the jet descended, the familiar sound of the engines changing tone and the landing gear going down lifting his heart. The feel of them touching down, brakes being applied.

  Without even realizing it, he’d already unfastened his seatbelt and grabbed the bag from under the seat in front of him. The one overhead was right by his seat, so he could easily grab it.

  Another perk of first class—it wasn’t as crowded.

  Barely remembering that trampling people was generally frowned upon, Rusty waited until they were almost at the terminal to stand and retrieve his overhead bag. He wasn’t the only one, so he didn’t have to worry about getting chastised by a flight attendant. He’d learned over the years how soon was too soon, and how soon wasn’t worth them arguing over.

  Moments later, he was queued nearly at the front of the line to exit the aircraft.

  He didn’t even bother powering on his phone until he’d made it into one of the monorail cars heading to the main terminal. Delaying reaching Eliza wasn’t worth it. And he shoved it into the pocket of his blazer as it started vibrating with alerts finally catching up with him.

  Bursting out of the monorail at the main terminal, he immediately spotted her standing near the end of the exit chute and watched her smile as she stepped back, away from the end of it because she knew he’d seen her. Because she also knew he wouldn’t be letting go of her for a few minutes and she didn’t want to block foot traffic.

  And he didn’t give a fuck who was watching when he dropped both his bags upon reaching her, grabbed her, and gave her a “please take me home and fuck me right now” kiss.

  Her arms draped around his neck, tightly holding him, one hand stroking the back of his head as he held her with his face pressed into the crook of her neck and inhaled. He wasn’t afraid of squeezing her too tightly because he knew how strong she truly was. She was more than strong enough to take anything he could dish out, which was one of the reasons he loved her so damn much.

  It finally felt like he could really breathe again.

  She didn’t talk, knowing him better than he knew himself, letting him have this moment, this grounding.

  Because that’s what it felt like, that his loose tether had finally been captured and once again securely wrapped around her steadfast strength and love.

  “I missed you so much, Ma’am,” he finally whispered.

  “I missed you, too, baby.”

  When he lifted his head, he finally processed she wore a long, flowing skirt and a tank top, one of his favorite outfits. Casual, but still pretty, almost dressy. She smiled up at him. “Let’s get your luggage and go home, barbarian. The girls are eager to see Daddy.”

  He didn’t release her and stared down into her brown eyes. “Daddy’s eager to spend some quality time with Mommy.”

  She smiled. “Oh, we’re going to do that,” she softly said. “I’ve got plans for you.”

  His cock, which had already been semi-hard, finished fully hardening against her in his slacks. It took every ounce of will he had not to start grinding against her right there. It’d been almost four weeks since he’d last come, the night before he flew out, when they’d made love.

  “I can’t wait, Ma’am,” he said.

  Her smile widened. “You won’t have to wait long, baby.”

  Chapter Six

  Eliza wondered how long it’d take her sweet barbarian to grok her plan. She held hands with him all the way downstairs to baggage claim, where he left her with his two carryon bags while he found himself a place close to the opening where the conveyor belt emerged from the bowels of the main terminal. Ten minutes later, they had his bags and were making their way to the elevator up to the parking garage.

  Fortunately, it was late in the afternoon, and she’d been able to get there early enough to grab exactly the parking spot she wanted—on the western side of the garage, along the outer wall, so she could back in. She popped the button on her key fob to unlock the doors as they walked up.

  “Babe, why did you back in?” he asked, carefully trying to maneuver his luggage between their SUV and the truck next to them without scratching either.

  “I had my reasons.” She lifted the rear hatch and set his carryon bags inside. Then she boosted herself up to sit there, facing him.

  And she lifted her skirt to reveal she was naked underneath.

  She giggled as Rusty’s eyes widened when he turned. “Goddamn, Li!”

  She reached for him, pulling him close so she could work on his belt. “Make it fast, barbarian.” She glanced around and wrapped her legs around his waist as he managed to fumble his slacks open.

  Then they were both sighing as his cock sank deep inside her pussy, bottoming out in that delicious way he always had.

  She draped her arms around his neck. “Better get to it, honey.”

  His lips closed over hers as he started fucking her, frantic and needy and sending her heart soaring the way it always did when she turned him loose like this. Her pet, off his chain and somewhat in control.

  Temporarily.

  No, she wouldn’t be able to come like this, it would be too fast and not nearly private enough for her to enjoy it. Except she loved every hard thrust, the way he ran his hands up her thighs to her ass and how his fingers dug in as he quickly fucked her, hard, every moan he made swallowed by her lips on his.

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