Sage: Take the Risk (F&L Story #3)

Sage: Parts 31 & 32

Part Thirty-one

Saturday, August 21, 2010.

While Carey rubbed his hands over her skin, massaging every inch of exposed body, Sage closed her eyes and imagined that they were back at home, in his bed, and he was running those fingers up and down her while he kissed her, loved on her, murmuring that he was in love her as he slowly slid into her.  The fantasy became so real that her feminine core grew hot and tingly and so very wet. 

As he labored the backs of her thighs, she silently urged, just a little higher, but he only moved lower, and she breathed out with frustration.  She could smell herself getting excited, and for the life of her, couldn’t figure out how he didn’t notice the steam rolling out from under the towel.  She had to gain control of her emotions and yearnings.

This whole plan had been about making him pay, but the torture was all hers.  When he finally slapped her bottom and told her he was done with the massage, she winced, feeling the sharp sting of his palm through the towel, and wished for more.

Talk about kinky.

Maybe after twenty-two years, the sexual embargo had built up so much her body was reacting to any kind of intimate contact.  Hence the thrill from his brief spanking.

Now as he hunkered down on the stool, her body was milliseconds from taking over and jumping him.  Too much unreleased energy.  That’s it. 

Nah, it’s Carey, and you know it.

Shut up, she told her body.  She couldn’t get involved with him unless he loved her.  He was a charmer and a womanizer and a sexist dumbass…and deliciously sexy with that good old boy grin and blond curls brushing the collar of his shirt.

Her muscles bunched, so close to leaping on him, but her fingers curled a restraint over the armrests.  Just by him cradling her foot delicately, she was a heartbeat from a mind-curdling orgasm.  Especially after that innocently erotic massage he gave her.

He glanced up and she banked the desire from her eyes, but the look on his face said he saw it anyway.  Can’t have that.  Can’t have him thinking he had the upper hand.  Can’t have him seducing her when he didn’t love her.

Tonight – as soon as she got home, she’d lock herself in her room and take care of this strangling tension that coiled around her every cell.

“Sage…” he murmured silkily, inching his palms up her foot to her ankle and calf.

Keep going…you’re half way there.

SHUT UP!

She worked some moisture in her mouth and arched a sassy eyebrow.  “Yes?”

He stared at her for the longest time.  Then he shook his head and grunted out a rigid smile.  “I’m gonna need directions.”

Two feet to the north, turn left at the fork in the road, and look for the welcome sign.  “Start with the sloughing cream in the green jar.  Then we’ll go from there,” she said and leaned back, closing her eyes to enjoy more of his magical hands.

He caressed the skin of her leg for an eternity before obeying her, and when she dared to peek under her lashes at him, he’d schooled his face with boredom, and Sage frowned as the disappointment overcame her.

*****

Part Thirty-two

Monday, August 23, 2010.

On Monday morning, Carey strolled into his principal’s office and sat down in one of the chairs.  Dr. Terry Stacks looked up from his computer.  “Carey, what brings you in here?”

“You know how you’ve been toying with that after school tutoring program?  But you can’t get any of the PTO members to oversee it?”

“Yeah,” Terry said slowly, swiveling in his chair to face his baseball coach.

“I know someone who might do it,” Carey said.  “But I’ve got a stipulation.”

Terry folded his hands together on the massive desk and eyed him with that piercing intelligence that Carey had always admired.  “I’m listening.”

“I have a friend that’s a whiz with numbers, and she wants to teach but doesn’t have the means to get her degree as of yet.  How difficult will it be to get a grant for her education if she takes on the tutoring position?”

“Does she have any college experience?”

Carey sighed, knowing that this would be an issue.  “She was privately tutored.  I’m not sure how far her education went.”

Terry reclined back and held Carey’s gaze.  “What is her name?”

“Sage Honeycutt.”

His principal leaned up suddenly.  “William Honeycutt’s daughter?”

“Um, yeah…do you know her?”

Terry smiled.  “Yeah, I know her.  My brother is the one that tutored her.  'A whiz with numbers',” his principal almost snorted, which startled Carey.  The man never lost his cool.  Terry sat back again, considering Carey’s proposal.  “Miss Honeycutt has an intellect that amazed Anthony, and if you knew my brother, then you would know that's not an easy feat.  She will be an asset, that’s for sure, but the school board will want her to have some college credits.”  He thought for a moment longer.  “There is a way she can test out of many of the basic courses, but she’ll have to be enrolled in a university first.”

Damn, Carey thought.  The universities in the area had already closed enrollment for the semester.  “Isn’t there another way?”

Terry glanced up.  “Yeah, an online college program might take her.  Give me a few days to look into it.  I’ll let you know what I find.  I’d hate for Miss Honeycutt to miss out on this opportunity.  If she really does want to teach, that is.”

“She does,” Carey affirmed and shook the man’s hand.  He hoped that Terry came through for him.  Sage needed this boost of confidence, and after the torture he endured on Saturday morning, he needed her to be secure in her independence so he could turn this whole playacting farce into something real.

After all, the unmistakable buzz coming from her closed bedroom during the previous two nights told him all he needed to know.  She’d been forced to pleasure herself because he didn’t have the heart to do it for her.  Once she felt that she didn’t have to depend on him anymore, he’d be free to make his move.  Somehow he had to make her believe that he never wanted sex in return for supporting her all these weeks.

He only wanted her.  Her laugh, her frowns, her freakishly numerical mind, her presence in his life.  Her love.  Because if she could ever love him, then he just might know what that emotion felt like, and he could put a name to his own feelings.

****

(I know this is a short upload, but the next one is what you've been waiting for.  However, prepare yourself.  I've been told -- by a reliable source -- than I redefined the word "tease."  :)