Puzzle it out, continued

The margarita tastes cheap, but goes down easy. I realize belatedly that I’ve almost finished it. I loudly slurp the last of my pouch and look at Mindy. “So... Are you getting the next margaritas, or should I check your freezer for more secrets?”

She scowls at me, not wanting to admit anything. “I’ll get them.” She gets up, tosses away the spent pouches, then sits back down with fresh ones.

Surveying the table, Mindy grumbles again. “Are we missing some pieces?” She looks around and under the table, but isn’t finding what she needs.

“This box was never opened before, right? What pieces are you looking for?”

“No, it’s brand new! The golden cage in the corner,” she says, pointing at the image on the box next to me. Looking down at it, I notice two puzzle pieces under the edge of the box that have prominent gold bars on them. She can’t see them from her angle. I make a show of verifying that the box is indeed empty as I deftly palm the hidden pieces, then lift the box to show that there is nothing underneath.

“Well, move on to the wooden cage. It will show up.” I grab the last few chips, then get up to refill the bowl.

We get back to work on our respective sides of the table, building it out steadily. She grumbles to herself again or shakes her head once in a while at not finding the pieces she needs. She resists answering most of my questions, and doing a good job of matching my progress. I hope the second margarita will lower her guard, but I need to hit her with an unexpected topic.

“So you really haven’t had sex since the divorce?” She eyes me for a moment. I have an opening.

“I never said that,” she corrects, taking my bait.

“Lewis would have told me if you were dating someone.”

“Would he now?”

“Yeah, I ask him about you all the time.”

“Uh-huh...” Mindy leans forward and shifts her shoulders a little. She is watching me, probably to see if I am placing puzzle pieces, or actually interested in the conversation. I keep my hands off the table and wait for more.

“So you did have sex after the divorce?”

She stares a little longer, then sighs. “Once...shortly after. I went on two dates with someone, but it was all wrong. I wasn’t really ready, and he wasn’t into me the way I thought he was... It put me off the whole subject.”

“That’s too bad. Sex with no connection is pretty disappointing.”

“It is...but I didn’t expect to hear that from you with all these ‘dates’ you are having. How much connection can you have on the first date?”

I think about how to answer for a while, while looking at the puzzle pieces. “For a one-night-stand the connection is usually more of an illusion of connection...or maybe a temporary one...but in the moment, that can be enough. After the fact, I have to be realistic about what transpired.” Snap. “You know, embrace the fact that the moment is ephemeral, but try to create a story can last.”

“Maybe I got both parts of that wrong...illusion was falling apart before we even got to the bedroom, and my expectations were way off. I think he was as disappointed as I was. I felt anxious through everything, of course I was just discovering the depth of how freaked out I get when I’m alone, too.”

“That sounds like no fun. If he was paying attention, he should have noticed and taken things a lot slower.” Mindy smiles to herself. “What’s the smile about?”

“I was just remembering how ridiculously freaked out I was this morning, and how much better I feel now. He definitely didn’t spend all day doing a puzzle with me.”

I chuckle. “Yes, this is my slow game. Is it working?” Snap.

“It was...until I realized that you are still trying to distract me!” She throws a chip at me.

Fifteen minutes later she picks up the nearly empty chip bowl and rakes the bottom of it to get the last few chips. Her hand freezes. “How in the...” She pulls a puzzle piece out of the bowl and holds it up. It matches the golden cage, her slack jaw and wide eyes speaking volumes. I squint like I can’t quite see what she is holding. Her jaw suddenly snaps closed. “YOU!” Her face snarls in disbelief. “You were hiding my pieces! I’ve been missing two! Where is the other one!” She demands, her eyes scanning me afresh.

“Hmm?” I play dumb, raising my Margarita and giving it a long slurp. She sees something suspicious sticking out between my fingers against the pouch. Her eyes narrow sharply. She lunges forward with a grasping hand, trying to catch the piece before I can pull away, but I am ready for it, sliding my whole chair away from the table so I don’t have to interrupt enjoying my beverage as obnoxiously as possible.

Mindy hops out of her chair and rushes around the table. I hold the chair seat with my left hand, then use my feet to swivel the chair to face her and slide backward farther. She catches up to me too quickly, forcing me to stop slurping and thrust my hand up and away from her as I slide the chair back again.. She hops onto my lap to negate my maneuvering and wrestles my raised arm with both of hers, forcing it against herself, trapping it between her breasts. She leans forward, smashing her orbs into my face as she closes her left hand around my wrist and her right hand prying at my fingers. “No! You’re going to make it squirt!” I protest, trying to twist my hand away as she wrests the puzzle piece from me, crushing the pouch in the process, shooting an icy stream into the air, splattering down our interlocked hands and some landing in my hair.

Mindy straddles me looking at her prize, flipping it over to find the last golden cage piece, narrowly saved from the slushy mess in her other hand. “Finally! I can finish that stinking cage!”

She leans into me with a scowl, making a fist around the piece, then pounding it into my pecs. “You...stinking...puzzle...CHEATER!” She pounds my chest again. “I can’t believe you accused me of having secrets!” Her ferocity is playful, but the intensity of her dark eyes gives me a flashbulb image of Victoria berating me with a pointed finger, awakening a sudden heat in my gut that spreads through me like lighting. My groin suddenly gets charged with needs of its own. When Mindy’s fist hits my chest again, I catch it with my left hand, fingers clamping around her wrist. The sudden forcefulness of it catching her by surprise. “How long ago did you hide them?” She demands, still holding on to my other wrist. The crushed pouch leaking a sticky dribble that is running down our arms. She isn’t letting go, if anything her grip tightens, her nails making themselves known. We struggle against each other for a moment, neither with a strong advantage.

“As soon as I saw what cage you were starting on,” I taunt with a lie. I try to lean forward to make her slide off of me, but she hops herself up to my hips and wraps her ankles under the oak chair’s leg supports to hold me down. We continue to wrestle with eyes locked on each other. I buck my hips to throw her off and she counters by drawing herself down harder.

“You are going to pay for this, jerk,” she hisses as I struggle under her. I buck again with a grunt. She keeps me pinned, maintaining a determined stare, one that subtly changes as it dawns on her that the hard lump she is grinding against is my fully engorged meat. She breaks the stare to look down and I follow her gaze. My loose shorts are bunched up high on my legs, high enough that my cock would be fully exposed if it wasn’t pinned down by her clothed crotch. Victoria—I mean Mindy lets out a hot breath and clamps herself down again, grinding herself forward. I hadn’t even bucked that time. I buck belatedly, eliciting a short groan from her. She grinds forward and back again, still looking at the exposed cockflesh under her. My next buck is more of a thrust. I use the moment to drop the margarita pouch to the floor and twist my wrist free and grab hers, all wet and sticky. Now I have both of her wrists.

“Make me,” I challenge. She looks at me again and tries to yank her hands back to her shoulders, but I hold tight and **** them down to her sides, countering the upward **** of my pelvis. She moans, still fighting, still grinding back, still giving me an intense Victorian glare. More misdirected fury builds in my chest. I breath through clenched teeth as I thrust against her faster, matching her rhythm, taking angry satisfaction in her escaping moans. I am going to fuck this bitch so hard she is going to be a whimpering mess.

After a few minutes straight of the intense grinding, I feel an uncomfortable heat on my shaft. I belatedly realize that our rough friction is causing me painful chaffing against her jeans. The pain breaks my focus enough that I finally catch myself. This...is Mindy... I shouldn’t be treating her like this... A wave of cold guilt washes over me, dowsing my anger. She is still grinding, exacerbating the stinging burn on my shaft.