Following the Rules

Chapter 31

Kaylee came rushing into the room, eyes searching frantically. "What's wrong? What happened?"

I ignored her, trying to wipe the saliva out of my ear with my still--wet tshirt. Water was better than the feel of her tongue in my ear. What the fuck had she been thinking?

"I--I didn't--" Toni stuttered.

Kaylee grabbed her by the shoulders, staring deeply into her eyes. "What happened Toni?"

She turned beet red from her collarbone to her hairline. "I just did what Tanya told me to do."

Kaylee's brows furrowed. "Tanya? Who's Tanya?"

"A friend from college." Toni said quietly. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, shooting me an apologetic look. "I didn't know.. she told me it was something that guys like."

"Yeah, well it's not." I said darkly.

Kaylee grabbed the end of my shirt and stared dragging me towards the doorway. "Forget it, it was a simple mistake. Take a bath, use that bubble bath you like. When you're done, we'll start decorating for Halloween."

Toni hesitated, but nodded.

Kaylee didn't stop pulling on my shirt until we were in the guest bedroom. I frowned, watching her release me to close the door behind us. There was a serious look in her eyes when she faced me. "What'd she do?"

I cringed at the all--too--recent memory. "She called me daddy, said she'd been bad and something about punishment. Next thing I knew, her tongue was in my ear."

She looked like she was struggling to keep a straight face, then she cracked and started laughing.

"That's not funny!"

She continued like she hadn't heard me.

"It was fucking weird!"

"Punish me daddy, I've been so bad!" She said, blinking her long lashes slowly before erupting into another fit of laughter.

"I should punish you for this insolence." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. She was laughing at me.

"Don't be so fucking dramatic," she said rolling her eyes. "So a female put her tongue in your ear, so what?"

I looked at her with disbelief. "How would you like it if I put my tongue in your ear."

She chuckled, taking a step closer to shove her finger into my chest. "I'd take my big girl panties off rather than get them in a twist."

That's it.

My arm shot out, coiling around her waist. Her eyes widened, she tried to escape, but by then I had a good grip on her. I held her firmly as she squirmed, using my free hand to push aside her hair. Then I did what Toni did to me only minutes ago. I shoved my tongue into Kaylee's ear.

She squealed, pushing against my chest in protest. "Eww, eww!"

I pulled away laughing. "What was that about not letting your panties get in a twist?"

"Okay, so we've established that mouths do not belong anywhere near a person's fucking ear." She said firmly.

I paused, then shook my head. "That's not entirely true."

She gave me an odd look. "How so?"

I ducked my head, pressing a kiss just below her ear. She shivered but didn't protest or struggle against me, so I continued. I ran a trail up her neck to her ear with my tongue, then took her earlobe between my teeth.

She gasped.

That was enough to pull me out of the daze I was under. I released her and took a step back, swallowing around the lump that formed in my throat. She was breathing heavily and looking at me like she hadn't wanted me to stop. She was not helping with my self control.

I swallowed again. "Well.. there's that. Lips and teeth are nice.. the tongue just has to stay on the neck.."

"Uh hu."

I said the first thing that came to mind. I just needed an excuse to put some distance between us and erase that heated look in her eyes. "We should, um.. get started on those Halloween decorations."

"Yeah."

She shook her head suddenly, cleared her throat and started for the hallway. "The bins are in the garage, we can dig them out so it's ready when Toni's finished with her bath."

I followed behind her, hands in my pockets. Neither of us said anything the entire time. We retrieved the bins and brought them to the living room. By the time we'd finished, Toni emerged in a different sundress than she'd previously been wearing. She sent me a nervous smile.

"I--uhm--I'm so sorry Sawyer." She said. Wringing her hands, she took a step closer, big blue eyes pleading for me to forgive her.

After what had just happened with Kaylee, I'd nearly forgotten about what Toni had done. "No big deal. I'll get over it."

Which is exactly the opposite of what she would do if she knew that I'd been kissing her best friends neck.

"Thank you."

"If you two are done getting all wheepy, I say we get this shit done." Kaylee said gesturing to the now open bins. How did she do that? How did she act like absolutely nothing had happened between us? Like she wasn't still thinking about it?

"Yes!" Toni clapped her hands. "Let's get started."

She reached for an empty candy bowl with a zombie hand reaching out. I watched her place it on the kitchen counter and return to take something else from the bin.

Kaylee went straight for the fake spiderwebs. She looked the bundle over. "Sawyer, would you grab the latter from the garage?"

"Sure."

I waited for her to look at me, but she didn't. I searched through the garage until I found the latter, returning to help with the decorating. Toni was hanging a skeleton in the hallway and Kaylee was balancing her knees on the kitchen counter, her arms stretched above her head to place spider webs over the pantry.

My hands shot out when she started to sway. I grabbed ahold of her waist to steady her, instead, the opposite happened. She jumped, startled and ended up falling off of the counter. I caught her against my chest, releasing a sigh of relief.

She tore away from me like I was on fire, avoiding eye contact. "Did you get the latter?"

I stared at her, confused. "Yeah."

It didn't click until she turned her back to retrieve it from where I'd leant it against the wall.

Maybe it wasn't as easy as I'd thought, for her to forget about what had happened.