Free Riptide by Margaret Carroll

sucking and seeking until their skin was hot and swollen.
    “I’m gonna give you what you like,” he said in that low voice he used in bed. “But you have to ask for it.”
    She did, spreading her legs where she was wet while he whispered things about her that she knew were true.
    What she craved was the act of surrender, giving herself up to something or someone.
    And that someone was Daniel Cunningham, and had been since the day he turned up to paint and replaster their pool house three months ago.
    “That’s right, baby, ask for it now,” Dan ordered.
    Christina surrendered to it, to him, in a swoon, and it felt so good after all those days in rehab, dreary and gray…
    Dan pressed himself onto her, into her, and she closed her legs around him as their bodies pulsed together,faster and faster, harder and harder, and she felt she needed this more than anything in her life.
    Crying out, she raked her fingernails across Dan’s shirt, which they hadn’t bothered to remove, and pounded her fists on his back.
    Dan called her names that turned her on, pausing now and again to push his tongue to the back of her throat so that Christina was filled completely with Dan the way she wanted to be filled.
    She begged for more the way he had coached her, and finally, when she was at the edge of where she needed to be, Christina let go…
    She waited for the tidal wave that was Dan to crash over her.
    What she got, in the end, was a tiny ripple.
    Like a long-distance orgasm.
    Dan didn’t notice. He was heaving between her legs with sweat pouring off him so it soaked his T-shirt. Christina felt the wetness of his face, tasted salt on his lips.
    The sex act was not so exciting now.
    Keeping her legs in place, she rubbed his back and made sounds to encourage him. Her vagina was chafed and starting to sting.
    He came at last, in a single great thrust, clenching his jaw and making that animal sound.
    Normally, Christina found this sexy.
    Tonight, she was aware only that her skin itched, and her neck was pressed against the couch at an odd angle.
    Christina had been unable to come lots of times. She’d been drunk so much, she often fell asleep along the way, sometimes waking up when Jason or Dan was finishingthe job, sometimes not. Other times, she woke up with no idea which one of them was on top of her.
    But this was different. She wasn’t drunk. Her body had gone through the motions, then seemed to just go on strike, like watching actors having sex in an X-rated movie, which she had done plenty of times.
    But this was different. This was life on Planet Weird.
    Dan planted one last kiss on her lips and slapped her bare thigh, hard enough to sting, before rolling off.
    Christina rearranged her clothes, trying to cover her bare spots, hoping Dan couldn’t see her frown in the dark.
    He was too busy fumbling for his cigarettes and lighter to notice. “You mind?”
    “No, go ahead.” They had made love in the house and out by the pool any number of times when Jason wasn’t around, but this was the first time Dan had lit up after. Christina didn’t smoke, and Jason did so rarely, only very late at a party. Nobody smoked in their house.
    There was a brief flare of orange when Dan lit up.
    The room was so quiet she could make out individual sizzling sounds as each tiny shred of tobacco curled up and burned when he inhaled.
    He blew smoke into the darkness. “Tough times.”
    Christina was silent. What was there to say?
    “You okay?” He pulled on his cigarette again. The tip pulsed bright in the dark.
    “I guess,” she replied, then realized it would leave Dan no choice but to probe deeper. “I’m fine,” she added quickly.
    Taking her at her word, he continued to smoke.
    There were no ashtrays around. Just when Christinawondered what Dan would do with the ash, he tapped it onto the leg of his jeans and rubbed it into the denim.
    The move, self-contained and resourceful, was pure Daniel Cunningham.
    “Good.” He sat up and