Page 14

Swapping Roles

I t was only about ten minutes later that Liam sat down to eat. Herbaceous scents wafted off the steaming hot paella sitting in a skillet, which in turn sat on a wooden cutting board at the center of the kitchen table. He inhaled them readily, stomach growling audibly as he held back from beginning to make his plate. He didn’t want to disrupt Anna’s energy and focus—two things that currently seemed honed razor-sharp.

He'd gotten his first look at the paella when Anna had placed it on the kitchen table after finishing putting it together in the kitchen. Removing the oven mitts she’d used to quickly transport it from stovetop to cutting board, she’d held him at bay for another five minutes—a cooling off period for the food —before finally letting him take his seat. Now, however, it was finally time to dig in.

Wielding a large wooden spoon, Anna began lifting the myriad ingredients from the center of the skillet. Vibrant, juicy-looking tomatoes joined verdant leaves of spinach and zucchini slices, all of which swam in a sea of golden-brown rice. Steam poured off the first scoop that Anna deposited onto his plate. Seven or eight more heaps laid themselves across his plate before she returned it to him.

Those scents of garlic and saffron, the ones he’d smelled when he’d first arrived over an hour ago, transformed a rumble in his stomach into a full-blown earthquake. He knew he was in for a treat if the taste matched the aroma. Before proving that, he forced himself to wait for Anna to fill her plate and sit down. In the meantime, he also remembered his manners.

“It smells fantastic,” he said, beaming at Anna, who, in turn, finally loosened the intense focus on her face. It came out like steam escaping through the cracks of a pot’s lid, and she sighed relievedly. Afterward, the warmth in her smile sent his heart sprinting, but it only lasted until she finally sat down. Then, realizing that the next step was to taste her meal, anxiety creased her expression into a great many lines.

“It’ll taste delicious too, I’m sure,” he said, though he didn’t expect to see any relief appear on her lovely face until he’d proven that by taking the first bite… and then a few more.

Indeed, Anna didn’t even lift her utensils until he’d lifted his notably flat, wide spoon and weighed it down with a healthy first bite. Blowing softly on it, he took his first bite.

The potent flavors immediately thrilled his tongue, and he savored the way the taste spread over his tongue. His tastebuds decided then and there that he’d be a fool if he ever refused an offer to stay over and eat Anan’s cooking.

“It’s great,” Liam confirmed after swallowing the first bite. Already, his spoon was in the process of collecting a second. “Where’d you learn to cook so well?”

Anna blushed and shrugged uncharacteristically. “My mother. She loves paella and taught me how to cook it when I was younger. I’m sure mine’s not as good as hers.”

Liam grinned and took a second bite, savoring it as gleefully as the last. “I’ve no point of comparison, so until proven otherwise, yours is the best. It’s delicious.”

“Thank you,” Anna said, directing her pleased smile toward her own plate. After taking her first bite, she remained in a good mood, so she must have been satisfied with how it’d come out.

“Would you be up for giving me some cooking advice from time to time?” he asked before his third bite. “You have so many skills you’re good at, and I’m starting to feel like I’m not bringing enough to the table.”

“That’s not true,” Anna responded quickly, too quickly for her to realize he’d been joking. When she did, her face flushed with heat.

“It’s kind of true,” Liam said, beckoning toward the paella. “I literally failed to bring anything to the table, in fact. You did all the work. Maybe let me be your assistant next time?”

“Okay. I’m sorry for not thinking about that this time. I’m used to Avril’s style of cooking. Which isn’t bad,” she hastily added, “but… she’s a little too chaotic in the kitchen for me.”

“I’m imagining flour and spices forming a cloud around her.”

“You’re imagining correctly.” Anna sighed sufferingly. “It’s like seeing the Tasmanian Devil host a cooking show. The music is blaring; she’s dancing, and there’s a mess all over the counter and floors.”

“I commiserate for you, as always,” Liam said, withholding his amusement at the description Anna had provided.

While they ate, Liam never stopped enjoying the meal. Sometimes, a first bite would put its best foot forward, only for the next few to begin to drain away the enjoyment. When a person was hungry enough, they’d eat anything. But as they filled up, they might realize that the aftertaste wasn’t all that good.

That wasn’t the case here, and Liam continued complimenting Anna, wanting her to be sure he loved what she’d cooked. Because he did, and she ought to take pride in her talents, of which she had so many.

Throughout their lunch, his eyes drifted toward a single object in the kitchen. It had taken up space there for quite some time and would stay there for at least another two weeks. Anna, noticing his attention’s shift, followed his gaze.

“Only two weeks left,” Anna said. “Avril’s decided she won’t cut things off right on March 1 st but after the following Sunday.”

Liam nodded, staring at the whiteboard mounted on a tripod in the corner of the room. Five named locations presented themselves upon it, each with a number next to it. With thirty-five points to its name, Fiji remained in the lead, but Bora, Bora and Maldives weren’t far behind. In the corner, it also stated how many points each of them had left. Liam stood at the peak with a hundred and thirty points left. Anna was next in line, having sixty-five.

“I’m going to start putting my points up soon,” Liam said. “Before I do that, now that you’ve given me such a delicious lunch, are you sure you don’t want to nudge me in any particular direction?”

He knew what her response would be, and in fact, he needed her to stay in character. After all, he had a plan to enact later today.

As expected, Anna shook her head. “Wherever you want to put your points, I’ll be happy. Any of the places on this list are fine by me.”

“Okay, then I will. I’m going to add some tonight, then again next week, and then some right before everything’s settled. I know Avril will appreciate me keeping things close for the entire time.”

“I’m sure she will,” Anna agreed.

After finishing his plate, Liam opted for a second, smaller helping. For once, that meant he finished after Anna, who usually ate at a refined, controlled pace. However, he thought she was eating a little quicker than usual today. Out of anticipation for what came after lunch, perhaps?

He didn’t keep her waiting for too long, finishing his second helping a few minutes after she finished her one and only. And then they took on the task of cleaning up together and storing leftovers. Once inside its Tupperware, Anna directed him to put the paella beside the one with Avril’s leftovers. It’d be paella for the two women for a couple of days at least, so it was a good thing it’d turned out so well.

After storing things and adequately cleaning the skillet and their plates, he and Anna reconvened in her living room. Back to the couch, where a noisy blare had interrupted things last time.

Sitting straight-backed, yet with hands fidgeting as they rested on her knees, Anna watched him. In his estimation, she didn’t look nearly as nervous as the last time it had just been the two of them. Rather, eagerness, quiet but simmering behind her beautiful eyes and in the subtle shifts of her luscious mouth, was what he saw.

Naturally, that created a buffet of positive emotions within him. After some slight consideration, resolve was the first one he picked out for his plate. Like last time, he would ensure that Anna’s wishful hopes weren’t misplaced. Again, her satisfaction would be his top priority. And so—

“I want to give you your reward,” Anna said, firing a shot across his bow mere moments before he would have tried to lean her back on the couch and resume what had started earlier. It caused him to pull back, blinking like he’d stared for too long at the sun.

“My reward?” he asked.

Anna folded her arms. Clearly, she was a little bothered that he didn’t understand. Momentarily confused, Liam finally rewound time enough to recall the deal they’d made in his dorm room.

“Right, my reward,” he said. “I remember now. You think I’ve done enough to earn one? I’d figured I’d need to do a little more after you tilted the scales with that delicious lunch.”

For reasons unknown, Anna didn’t seem amused by his joke. Instead, she drew her lips to a flat line—well, as flat as their alluring shape could flatten.

“Do you think I’ll do a bad job?”

“N-No,” he stammered, undergoing emotional whiplash due to how rapidly he’d been forced onto the defensive. He’d been seconds away from suggesting she let him reintroduce his lips to her breasts. “I was just on the same train of thought, but for you. So, I’d forgotten our deal.” He knew that wasn’t enough, so he added, “I’m more than happy to, um, accept whatever reward you have in mind.”

Smooth, his inner voice admonished.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, he fired back. It wasn’t as though he’d metamorphized from caterpillar to butterfly, all at once an entirely new creature. There was still plenty of awkwardness and hesitance for him to contend with internally.

Tess wasn’t here to smile at his fumbled words, then kiss him. Avril wasn’t here to mercilessly tease him, then kiss him.

Anna was here, and although she neither smiled nor teased him, she did lean forward and kiss him.

Liam’s eyes widened, but then he got his head in the game and simply accepted the wonderful set of lips so eager to bring him some satisfaction. As their kiss evolved into something more passionate, Liam began to push against Anna, trying to lay her back on the couch. Yet, he received a firm denial. Keeping herself upright, Anna shook her head while their lips were still linked. And then she began to push him back.

Okay, Liam thought, allowing his girlfriend to press him back.

Their kiss ended once the back of his head met the arm of her couch. Staring silently at him for a moment, Anna inhaled deeply, then moved her gaze down his body. It stopped halfway through its journey, focusing on his groin, not his legs, which he’d angled off the couch to give Anna some room to work with.

He witnessed her hesitance, her anxiety, both spooling up like cotton candy gathering around a stick at a county fair. If she ended up backing down, overwhelmed and unable to continue, he wouldn’t have held it against her. A little disappointed, maybe, but that would be all. Nothing worth crying over, just a blip in a weekend that had otherwise been phenomenal.

Collecting her cotton candy, Anna stared at it, considered what she wanted to do with it, and then threw it into the nearest trashcan. No more did she hesitate. Liam’s heart skipped a beat.

Leaning forward, Anna’s fingertips gathered around the fast-growing pronouncement under his pants. First went his belt. Her fingers opened the buckle, and Liam shifted with excitement. While he wasn’t dressed to the nines, he hadn’t been certain where today would lead, so he’d met in the middle regarding fashion and comfort.

Anna undid his pants’ button next. She paused, face flush with heat, staring at the shape of his cock beneath. Only for a moment.

The zipper came down, voicing its metallic pleasure in a clean staccato, Liam shifted, and together they worked his cock out into the open.

Anna’s eyes widened as—he assumed—she looked at the first real cock that she’d ever seen. Images in a health book didn’t count, and he somehow couldn’t imagine Anna watching porn. It was strangely intriguing, not quite arousing, not quite discomforting. He almost tripped over himself and asked her for her “thoughts” on his manhood. Fortunately, he had the necessary self-discipline to remain quiet. At least for a little longer. Just enough to let Anna shake out of her stupor.

“Are you ready?” Anna whispered, ripping her eyes away from his cock long enough to meet his gaze.

Are you? Liam thought. He almost voiced it aloud, but he impeded that urge. It’d feel too much like circling aimlessly. His cock was out, and his girlfriend was asking if he was ready. Worrying about her reservations too much would just get in the way. Anna was in control, and Anna was an adult. She could make her own decisions.

Still, he said, “I am if you are.”

Anna nodded. That was enough.

Compared to Tess or Avril, who usually had their hands in his pants even before he could get his cock out, Anna’s approached his stiff manhood slowly. Not quite warily, but certainly hesitantly. Uncertainty scrunched up Anna’s features as her hand carefully grasped his cock. Her first sight, now her first touch.

“Let me know if I should change anything,” Anna said, biting her lower lip. “I want to do a good job. I’m… I’m not going to get upset if there’s some criticism.”

Finally, even though the previous sequence of events had practically bludgeoned him over the head with it, Liam realized that he should be voicing his thoughts, sharing his experience, not lying here like a corpse on the morgue’s slab.

In this scenario, he wasn’t him. He was Avril. And Anna was him, as he’d been on this same couch on the day he’d met the vivacious redhead. The responsibility of ensuring that they both had a good time fell on his shoulders. Finally understanding, Liam shouldered the weight.

“Generally, the rule of thumb is ‘wetter is better.’ Lubricant goes a long way. Think back to what I was doing in my dorm to your nipples.”

Anna blushed but didn’t blanch. Nodding, she nevertheless frowned. “I… don’t have any lubricant on me.” Her gaze directed itself toward the hallway. “Maybe…”

Even though she trailed off, Liam knew what she was thinking. “Maybe Avril has some in her room.”

“You don’t actually need that kind of lubricant,” Liam said. “Salvia can, um, do the job just as well.”

Wading through the part of him that felt this was all terribly awkward with some difficulty, Liam quietly shoved it down. Was this how Avril had felt about him on that first day? He didn’t let himself think about it, lest he end up as the embarrassed one in the room.

“Oh. Y-Yes, of course.”

Anna’s gaze fell onto his cock, but then she stilled. A moment later, her gaze flicked back up to him. “How… how should I apply it?”

Thank God Avril isn’t here to see this, Liam thought. A thousand years of hellish torture wouldn’t compare to the humiliation of seeing her cackle at them both for how awkward they were being. How dawdling and uncertain things were. Anna had been holding onto his cock for almost thirty seconds, so they were still in the troubleshooting phase.

“Well, I guess there are three usual ways. Spitting onto your hand, then smearing it on. Or cutting out the middleman and doing it directly onto my cock. Or…” Liam forced himself to clear his throat and continue with the third option, which was by far the most attractive of the three—but also the one he didn’t expect to happen here today. “The final way involves putting your mouth around my cock and adding on the saliva that way.”

Anna bit her lip again, mint-colored eyes shifting back to his cock. A minute, now. The warmth of his cock had spread into her soft hand, yet his balls ached for more—for actual pleasure, not just the dream of it.

We’re getting there, he growled inwardly.

“Now that you’ve explained it, it seems obvious,” Anna said.

“Well, I’ve found that logic isn’t allowed too much time to breathe in situations like these. Something else usually takes over, and it doesn’t like to share.”

Anna nodded as if his advice was sagely, then licked her lips. Taking a deep breath, she widened his eyes when she began lowering her luscious mouth toward the tip of his cock.

No way, he thought.

He thought correctly. On this day, Annabelle Royce didn’t take his cock between those gorgeous lips of hers. That event was still a bit out, parked behind numerous other building blocks necessary for their relationship to progress to that salacious point.

But she did bring them close. Within five or six inches, in fact. Brushing back her delicate, fine black hair with her available hand, her eyes glimmered with curiosity and hopefulness as she set her mouth in place. Her lips gathered, and then, just a moment later, a long line of saliva bridged the gap between his cock and her lips. It would have to do. At the very least, Anna’s aim was true, so her saliva went precisely where it needed to go.

Liam breathed in as Anna’s saliva cooled the tip of his cock. Once it had all gathered there, spreading out and beginning a slow descent down his glans, Anna’s hand finally displaced itself from the root of his cock. Climbing up his sensitive yet unmoistened skin, she began to resolve the latter.

Drawing in an excited breath, he watched Anna gather her fingers around her saliva, then begin drawing it down his shaft, spreading it as best she could. Yet, she frowned a moment later.

“That’s not enough, is it?” she asked.

“The more the merrier, honestly,” he replied. “Even if it makes things a little messier.”

Nodding, Anna returned her lips to the same point. This time, Liam felt the heat of her nostrils’ exhalations against his cock, and it twitched. Rapidly, the awkwardness in the room had been supplanted by lecherous anticipation.

There was something incontrovertibly arousing about watching Annabelle Royce slather his cock in her saliva. She took his advice seriously. Mouth hovering over his cock, she delivered batch after batch to his cock, then spread it around. Now, the pleasure started up, spreading through his cock like wildfire.

The squelching sounds started, too. With Anna taking his words very seriously, she worked to drench his cock long before she started actively focusing on jerking him off. Nevertheless, with how much lubricant covered it, it was impossible for the lewd noise not to fill the living room.

Anna blushed, but she didn’t stop. The loud sounds seemed more galvanizing to her efforts than anything. He hoped she was finding them erotic and pleasant.

“I think that’s enough,” he whispered, cock twitching for more effort to be given toward its ultimate release. It was soaked, as was Anna’s hand. No half-measures here.

“Okay,” Anna whispered, still blushing furiously.

A novel idea. One he hoped would keep things from returning to awkwardness sprouted within Liam’s mind. One he quite liked the more he examined it.

“Will you lay down with me?” he asked.

Anna frowned uncertainly.

“Just stretch out with me—kind of on me, I guess. You can keep stroking me off, but I’ll get to start kissing you again. A win-win for us both.”

After looking up and down across his body, possibly doing some measuring, as she wasn’t quite as tall as Tess or Avril, much less Victoria, Anna nodded. She didn’t let go of his cock, almost as if she worried he’d take it away if she did so, as she stretched out on the couch, in between him and the back of the sofa. Lying on his left arm, she made herself comfortable, and then he hooked his arm around to her back, nestling her in a little closer.

“You look beautiful,” Liam whispered, staring into Anna’s eyes, which were close enough now that he could fully marvel at their bright hue. “Thank you,” Anna replied, craning her lips toward his.

He met her halfway. As their lips tangled, warmth and desire collided in a mesmerizing kiss that would last for minutes before either of them came up for air. Long before that, Anna began stroking his cock.

Liam felt it in his gut. He felt his desire, physical and emotional, coiled deep within his core, receive stockpiles of the former, like an army on the battlefront receiving new armaments, with each slow but steady pump of Annabelle’s hand. He shut his eyes, absorbing each wonderful dose of pleasure that she provided him with. It was addicting. Not quite in the same way as it usually was with Tess or Avril, but he still couldn’t get enough of it.

He and Anna were so alike, at least in this. There was something comforting—maybe familiar, perhaps—about the hesitance, the uncertainty, the unfamiliarity. These things she now felt were what he’d felt with Tess and Avril. With them, he was playing catchup, undergoing the rapid transformation necessary to play at their level.

With Anna, it was almost like he could relax a little. He could simply allow things to progress at a natural pace. He could let some of his old self rise to the top. Not too much, as he genuinely did like how he’d changed over these past few incredible months, but there was a comfort to it. Like rediscovering a type of candy you’d loved as a kid but forgotten about because of the years it’d been since you’d last seen or tasted it. And discovering that it still tasted just as good as it once had.

They breathed heavily when their lips finally disentangled, though they didn’t separate very far, just far enough back for both contestants to catch a breather before the next round. Anna’s eyes gleamed passionately, and she directed them toward his cock.

“It feels good?”

“It feels amazing,” he promised. “If you want to go a little faster, you can. It just depends on how quickly you want me to cum.”

Anna bit her lip, seemingly weighing the pros and cons of achieving that goal. After a few moments, her hand sped up. The pleasure within his cock ramped up, as did the noisiness of her hand gliding along his slick shaft.

Liam inhaled deeply, like a freediver preparing for the next plunge under the waves, then thrust his mouth back to hers. Turning slightly, he managed to get his other arm around her. Embracing her deeply, they experienced the shared heat of their bodies. It only grew closer to scalding temperatures as Anna edged him toward his zenith.

“Ah, just like that,” he whispered, feeling his cock throb urgently. He shut his eyes, mouth wavering as he fought the urge to explode quicker than he intended.

He heard Anna’s breathing grow louder. When he opened his eyes, he saw the hopefulness in them. The excitement. That was when the last shreds of worry in the back of her mind went up in flames, tossed into the incinerator.

There was no faking his euphoria, not that he would have tried. Anna could tell that he was close, that she’d done a good job.

“Cum for me, Liam,” Anna whispered. Hearing her say such words almost shocked him, but it wasn’t as if she was that sheltered. She knew what was coming. This had been her goal from the beginning.

“Let me, ah, roll back onto my back so I don’t make a mess of your clothes and the couch,” he grunted, fighting for every second. Pleasure coiled around his thighs like a pair of boa constrictors. He could barely hear anything over the sound of his roaring heart thundering in his ears.

Anna nodded, realizing she needed to move a little, allowing him to shift onto his back. From there, her hand pumped him to blissful oblivion. Shutting his eyes tight, Liam shoved his mouth into the bend of Anna’s neck and began kissing it. He let her know he was cumming with a whisper into her skin.

“I’m cumming, Anna, fuck, fuck!”

She tilted her gaze with him at the exact right moment, a split-second before he climaxed. She saw every sight worth seeing.

At the end of her hand’s next climb, when it was still around his glans, just beginning to pump downward again, Liam erupted.

The pleasure punched through him like a thunderbolt, and he arched his hips up as his climax overwhelmed him. The first geyser of cum launched itself up almost two feet into the air, stopped only by gravity. Yet, before it could come down and splatter itself upon his stomach—thank God he’d moved his shirt, he didn’t have a replacement—another was following in its wake. It was nearly as forceful, though the third and fourth were calmer, though hardly any neater.

The deep ache in his balls stowed itself away with the copious amount of cum spurting out of his cock. A mess, indeed. A blissful, life-altering mess.

Tess. Avril. Anna. He’d made all three of them climax. Now, they’d all done the same to him.