Forever Comes in Threes, page 14
“Another cousin?” Perry asked.
“Actually, my youngest brother. He’s one of those college-educated farmers. He worked on this farm with Papa as a kid and gradually took over managing it when Papa got sick shortly after Collin finished his master’s degree. He also manages two other small farms and leases some acreage that he uses for crop testing for the state agriculture department. So, he’ll be okay if you two don’t hit it off or you want to manage things here yourself.”
“I’m sure I’ll need his help, at least initially, and maybe permanently. I need to talk with him to see if he’s interested in staying on board, given the changes I want to make, starting with putting up a series of greenhouses next to the old barn.”
Ben laughed. “I mentioned that to him, and he’s already got sketches and ideas he wants to share with you. Here’s his business card with his cell number. He said to call him when you’re ready to talk.”
This was music to Ming’s soul. “Fantastic. I look forward to speaking with him.”
“Well, I’ll let you ladies get on with your tour.” He held out the keys to the house. “The key to the Gator, that’s the utility four-wheeler in the barn, is hanging just inside the back door of the house. It’ll be better for driving Perry around the farm than that fancy car of yours. You’re welcome to stay the night if you want. Just leave the keys under the frog by the back door. Electricity comes primarily from the solar panels on top of the barn, and since nobody has been living out here for a month, the batteries should be fully charged.” He tipped his hat, and Ming snagged the collars of JT and Molly to keep them from following as he turned his truck around and drove away.
“He seems nice,” Perry said, releasing Tucker from his harness after Ming let go of the other two dogs.
“He really is. It seems a little sinister that most of the people in the town are related, but they are the nicest people I’ve met, and very diverse. They are accepting of same-sex couples and mixed-race couples. Many of the adults and almost all the children are bilingual. The town actually has a civil- and social-rights board, where people can bring complaints if they feel they’ve been subjected to racism or any type of discrimination.”
“Wow. I can’t believe some New York Times reporter hasn’t found this town and written a story on it.”
Ming could feel Perry close behind as they walked across the terrace to the back door. “The people in this community wouldn’t talk to a reporter. They’re very private.” She’d barely put the key in the lock when she was spun around and pressed against the door. Perry’s tall body was hot against hers, her breath a caress against her cheek.
“That’s good, because I’ve been craving some private time with you, Dr. Davis.”
Her new name sounded strange, yet comfortable spoken by Perry, and Ming wondered briefly if Perry was mocking…no, teasing her. She had to have figured out that Ming was Dr. Lee. But she couldn’t dwell on that subject now, not with Perry’s lips brushing, tasting, then capturing hers. Not with Perry’s tongue, thick and hot, pushing into her mouth and sending tingling jolts of arousal to every sensitive part of her. Perry disengaged, and they gazed at each other with hooded eyes and heaving chests.
“That should hold me until after our tour and dinner,” Perry said.
Ming closed her eyes and groaned, barely resisting the urge to grab her own crotch to calm the throb of her sex. Actually, she’d rather grab Perry’s and drag her inside. Hopefully there was still a bed there. The anticipation, however, was delicious, so she would hold out a few hours longer to savor it. “You’ll definitely pay for that later,” she said, touching her lips one last time to Perry’s.
* * *
Only sex could be better than this. Sitting in the Gator, Perry closed her eyes and imagined the sun-warmed breeze caressing her face was, instead, the soft fingertips of a lover trailing along her cheeks and lips. Without opening her eyes, she could feel the breeze cool slightly as they crept closer to the small lake. The scent of honeysuckle was heavy in the air, and she sucked in a lazy breath, envisioning how it might feel to stroke her hand down the satin skin of Ming’s bare back—until the cannonball named Molly stepped firmly on her aching crotch and she nearly fell out of the vehicle.
“Ow, ow, ow.”
Their transport was like a gasoline-powered golf cart with a small truck bed where the back seat should be. The two boys rode in the bed of the vehicle, with the picnic basket and a thick quilt. After a few false starts where Tucker, then JT was intent on leaping out once the vehicle began moving, harnesses were again deployed and leashes anchored short to a tie-off in the center so they couldn’t jump out or into the front seat, where Molly sat in Perry’s lap. The boys finally relaxed on the blanket and turned their noses to the breeze to sniff the tantalizing scents of forest and wildlife as Ming drove very slowly, which was a good thing because Perry’s near-tumble could have ended her hopes for tonight—a fate more painful than any injury.
She was injured enough without falling out because Ming was laughing as Perry clutched her throbbing—but not in a good way now—lady parts while holding Molly partially aloft so she wouldn’t step down again. Molly licked her face, but her gaze held no apology.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh.” Ming half covered her mouth with her hand. “It’s just your expression was so serene one minute, and so horrified the next.”
“I might be really injured. I think she put all of her thirty pounds on that one foot.” Perry preferred to think her voice was tight with pain, not just whiny.
Ming parked in a clearing next to the small lake. “You’re in luck, because I’m a doctor.” She trailed the fingertips Perry had been daydreaming of earlier along her cheek. They were as soft as she’d imagined. “I promise to give you a full exam later and kiss it better if needed.”
Perry groaned. “We could spread the blanket out on the ground over there, and you could check now. It feels all wet down there. I could be bleeding.” All is fair in war and flirtation.
“Nice try. You can spread the blanket over there, but you’ll have to wait to spread yourself or me,” Ming said. “I slaved over multiple online menus to put this lunch together, and I’m starved. It’s almost two o’clock.” Her finger burned a hot trail along Perry’s cheek, down her neck, and into the deep V-collar of her T-shirt.
Perry swallowed hard. She was normally a top, but this woman was dominating her at every turn. And it felt fantastic. Ming was freeing the boys from their harnesses, so Perry took a deep breath, squeezed her thighs together to calm her libido, then set Molly on the ground and grabbed the blanket. The quicker they ate lunch, the sooner they’d get to tour the house where they would hopefully find a bed, or a table, or…hell, even a floor would do. She just needed to be skin to skin with Ming, to inhale her, absorb her. She made Perry ravenous in a way she’d never hungered before.
She bent to put her mouth next to Ming’s ear. “Then let’s eat. I’m anxious to sink my teeth into dessert.” She nipped Ming’s earlobe, then her neck, before bathing her tongue over the pink mark she’d made. She was rewarded with a discernable shiver and a slight hitch in Ming’s breath.
Ming closed her eyes for only a second but pushed Perry back. “The blanket?”
Perry inclined her head, along with a very slight bow. “Your wish is my command.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ming said.
* * *
Ming shoved their entire picnic basket into the farmhouse’s empty, but running, refrigerator, then pinned Perry against the kitchen cabinet. She’d been patient throughout the hour-long lunch, where they fed each other sushi and cubes of juicy melon, talked about how Ming had turned her co-op partners’ mutiny around to her benefit, and, much to Tucker’s dismay, had a splashing contest in the spring-fed lake with water so clear you could see the sandy bottom. But she could wait no longer.
She captured Perry in a hot melding of lips and tongues, then kissed her way along Perry’s angular jaw and down her tasty neck until interfering cloth thwarted her. She peeled the still half-soaked T-shirt from Perry’s lean, sculpted body and accepted Perry’s hummed moans as permission to peel off the underlying sports bra. Her breasts were small and high, with dark-pink nipples and no tan lines. Mental note: Perry sunbathes topless.
“You, too.” Perry’s words were hoarse, her tone urgent. “I want your skin against mine.”
As Ming yanked her own damp T-shirt over her head, her skin pebbled at the touch of Perry’s cold hands searching for, then finding, the clasp on her lace bra. When the bra joined the other clothing on the floor, she pressed her chilled skin against Perry’s warm body. Because of their difference in height, her nipples rubbed against Perry’s ribs, so she curled her shoulders forward to tease Perry’s breasts while she drew her into another deep kiss. Perry tasted of sweet ginger, salty soy, and hot wasabi. Pleased that Perry sounded as breathless as she felt when she withdrew from their kiss, Ming clamped her teeth gently onto her earlobe for a few seconds before releasing it.
“Bedroom,” she whispered as she took Perry’s hand and tugged her through the living room.
* * *
Perry was stunned, uncertain, delighted, and powerfully aroused by Ming’s commanding advance. The bedroom appeared recently cleaned, with a colorful quilt covering the four-poster bed. In a martial-arts-style move, Ming tugged Perry’s hand to spin her around and trip her with a well-placed leg behind Perry’s knee so that she flopped faceup onto the bed. Perry did not resist when Ming yanked her shorts and briefs down her legs and dropped them on the floor, then stepped back and dropped her own shorts to step out of them. She stood there for a minute, allowing Perry a good, long look.
Ming’s skin was flawless—smooth and unblemished by scars or birthmarks. Perry widened her legs as Ming crawled onto the bed between them and drew her knees up as she settled her sex against Perry’s. They were both wet when Ming rubbed against her, then captured her breast in her mouth. Perry arched upward when Ming’s tongue flicked against her hardening left nipple, then bit hard before abandoning it to the cold air. But only a second passed before her right nipple received the same treatment, accompanied by another hard rub.
“God, Ming. Please.”
Ming abandoned Perry’s breasts to hook her arms behind Perry’s knees to curl her long torso up. Perry started to protest, but the only sounds out of her open mouth were moans as Ming’s hot tongue teased her sex, lingering to massage her clit, then backtracking to plunge into her. Stars! How could that small mouth contain such a tongue? Perry squirmed as a tingling sensation traveled from her breasts to her toes. Ming rose again to spread their folds and rub their slick, hot sexes together. She held Perry in a curled position and pumped against her as she kissed her neck, then captured her mouth in an aggressive kiss. Perry moaned at the taste of herself on Ming’s tongue, then moved with her, grinding against Ming as her climax began to coalesce low in her belly.
“Let it go,” Ming demanded. “Let it go now.”
And she did. She gasped as she bowed taut when the orgasm gripped her and every muscle in her twanged with sharp pleasure. She let out a long exhale as her orgasm began to recede, but Ming, eyes closed in concentration as she ground against Perry’s sensitive clit, was yet to reach her own pinnacle. Perry tightened her legs around Ming’s hips and rolled both of them.
Frustration, surprise, then hot, melting desire flashed in Ming’s eyes when Perry reversed their roles, showering kisses, teasing nipples, and tonguing deep into her sensitive navel before shouldering Ming’s legs. She sucked her clit, scraping the bundle of nerves with her teeth as it swelled to rock-hardness under her tongue. So deliciously salty-sweet. She plunged two fingers inside her wet, slick warmth just as the spasms began, thrusting hard and sucking forcefully. Thrusting and sucking. Thrusting and sucking. Ming rose off the bed, a primal scream bursting from her throat and blasting toward the ceiling. Perry consumed all she gave her, then crawled up to guide Ming’s hand inside herself and pumped her way to a second orgasm against Ming’s thigh.
Sweat-soaked and sated, Perry flopped onto her back and felt for Ming’s hand. They entwined fingers while they waited for their pounding hearts to calm so they could draw more than a pant of air.
At last, Ming let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Wow,” Perry echoed.
Ming disengaged her hand and rolled away from Perry to the edge of the king-size bed as something scratched the floor nearby. She looked back over her shoulder when Perry gasped. “What is it?”
“My God, Ming.” Perry had caught a glimpse before, but this was her first real look at the tattoo covering nearly every inch of Ming’s back. She’d never seen anything so beautiful. She traced her finger up the trunk of the cherry tree that appeared to grow along Ming’s spine, then outlined the branches laden with pink blossoms that spread outward across her slender shoulders. Some of the blossoms drifted down onto a strange dragon with huge butterfly wings and gold scales that nearly glittered. Tail curled protectively around the tree’s trunk, the dragon clutched a yin-yang globe in its claws. Only a master artist could have created this work of genius, and only someone with immense patience could have borne such long hours under the tattoo needle. Perry was torn between reverence for the artistry of the work and wanting to cry for the harm done to the satin-smooth skin of this woman to whom she’d just made love. “This is…it’s incredible…amazing. How long did it take to finish?”
“Two years. My grandfather was the designer and tattoo artist. I could explain the images to you if you don’t care about sleeping any tonight, but honestly—” Ming yawned. She squirmed around until she was nestled in the soft bedding. “You’ve exhausted me, and Molly is trying to make a nest out of our clothes we dropped on the floor. You need to bring their beds in.”
Perry was exhausted, too, so she grabbed a furry throw from a wingback chair in the corner and spread it across the other side of the bed, then lifted Molly onto it. The boys hopped onto the bed, and Tucker promptly claimed a spot next to the pillow, while JT took several minutes to arrange his portion of the throw to his satisfaction before flopping down to sleep. Perry slid under the covers on the opposite side, planting a few kisses on the cherry blossoms inked across Ming’s sexy shoulders and then settling on her side as a barrier to keep the dogs from disturbing Ming.
Chapter Eleven
Ming was not Dr. Lee. She was Dr. Ming Davis. So why did every mention of Dr. Lee send Perry’s thoughts directly to Ming?
Perry had awoken earlier to Ming spooned in her arms, a contented cuddle that stirred a longing she’d buried deep many years ago. Then shower sex that was a hot, panting flurry of mouths, hands, fingers, and teeth fed rather than quenched that yearning, and the memory was making it difficult to concentrate on her podcast.
Julie: You need to cut that guy off, or he’s going to rattle on all day. You’ve got a new caller on line two.
Perry: Okay. Sorry. Having trouble focusing today.
Julie: You need to shake off that sex-on-the-brain fog. Five minutes to go, and then you can lose yourself in wet dreams until eleven, when you have an international call with the Baldoura Corporation.
She ignored Julie’s snipe and waited for her current caller to take a breath. “I hear you, Ray. To get a better-paying job, you might need some specific training. Contact your local community college. They should be able to tell you what jobs are in demand in your area and what training you need to qualify. Industries will often work with the local colleges to set up abbreviated programs to train workers for their specific needs.
“Now let’s hear from the caller on line two.” She cut off the first caller and clicked on the virtual button for line two. “Hi. You’re live on Timed for Success. What do you have to add to our discussion?”
“Hi, Dr. Chandler. This is Rayna Shine from the vlog Podcast Prattle. How the recent pandemic has changed the workforce’s priorities is a hot topic across a wide spectrum of media, but topping the chatter stream is the podcast battle between Finding Natural Balance and Timed for Success. I’d like to invite you and Dr. Lee to debate the subject face-to-face on my vlog. My legal people would get with your attorneys and Dr. Lee’s to work out the details.”
As she’d told Julie before, she was already on board but wanted to drag this conversation out a bit to tease her listeners. “Well, Rayna, that’s an interesting proposal. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Dr. Lee until that podcast’s followers infiltrated my podcast and have been trying to dominate my subscribers’ conversation on how to use our time more efficiently. Dr. Lee’s podcast website is pretty skimpy on information. It lists a lot of degrees and accomplishments but doesn’t even give the host’s full name so you can cross-check whether that information is accurate.”
“So, you think Dr. Lee is an impostor? A poser selling snake oil to the public?” Rayna asked.
“I’m simply reminding everyone that because of all the bad information and conspiracy theories out there, you should be suspicious if you can’t confirm the source is qualified to be commenting on the subject.” Perry hadn’t intended the conversation to veer in this direction, but she couldn’t resist airing this pet peeve. It constantly amazed her how gullible the public could be, especially how often people even refused to accept the truth when presented it.
“That’s an excellent point,” Rayna said. “I’d love for you to repeat that concern on my vlog.”
Julie was signaling that time was up, so Perry let her know to start the closing music.
“That’s all the time we have today, folks. Rayna, please stay on the line so my assistant can trade information with you. This is Dr. Perry Chandler of Timed for Success, looking forward to this time on Friday, when we’ll chat more about being efficient in your personal life.”
