Preview: Hooky

A preview of Hooky, my first work, is available below! 

Hooky was released on May 6, 2020 and is available on Amazon here in both e-book and print formats. The print version is also available on Barnes & Noble here.

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Chapter 1

On the morning of June 10, Abbie opened her eyes and immediately sensed that the day had finally come for her to be a little naughty. As she lay in bed, the ringing of the alarm clock she had just turned off continued to echo in her ears. Still, her thoughts couldn’t have been clearer. She knew that it was time for her to finally check that one item off her bucket list. Really let loose with something she had wanted to do for months. Possibly years, but never had the courage. She wasn’t sure why that day in particular was the day, but there was something about the already-warm morning sun breaking through the windows of her condo that just seemed to speak to her. It was as if the light had wrapped itself around her, warming her entire body with some much-needed confidence while whispering into her ear, “Go ahead, Abbie. Be bad.”

With a deep breath, she reached for her phone on the nightstand and braced herself to go through with what she had talked herself out of doing so many times in the past. As soon as she started dialing the numbers, doubt crept in and she cringed. She knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn’t be able to pull it off and get the words out of her mouth.

For years, she had found it difficult to the point of impossible to do something she wasn’t supposed to do. Or even really ask for what she wanted. What had started out as being so shy that it was a little quirky had devolved into being a nearly crippling problem for her. She couldn’t afford to do that today. She needed him to agree.

Picturing how the conversation would go – her voice cracking in awkward nervousness, his incredulous tone as he asked her about what she had just said, followed by her agreeing to make this day be just like any other – she quickly changed her mind and decided to send a text. “I can be confident in a text,” she thought. With a rush of excitement, her pulse raced as she quickly typed out what she wanted to say and hit “send” before she could worry her way back to doing the so-called “right” thing.

“Hi Mr. Miller – I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this is going to cause, but I woke up feeling really ill and will not be able to make it into the office today. I’ll be sure to log this as sick time as soon as I recover enough to come back into the office. Again, I’m so sorry to do this.”

Her heart raced as she looked down at her phone. She wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting to happen in the seconds after she sent that text. Did she think the phone would explode, unable to handle transmitting this one little lie? Or did she think her boss was going to immediately call and start yelling because she had the audacity to get sick? For that matter, was he even awake yet? She couldn’t remember the last time he made it into the office before her.

After several minutes of sitting there with no response, she began to worry that her boss was actually going to fire her. She stood up and started to pace around her bedroom, anxiously fidgeting with her hands. Why hadn’t she acted sick yesterday? Wouldn’t that make saying you’re sick the next day seem that much more believable? Or, maybe it was even worse. What if he believed that she was sick, she took the day off, and everyone at her office realized that they functioned just fine without her? After all, when she had been sick in the past or dipped into any of her vacation time, she still spent a significant part of her day working from home.

The bigger question running through her mind, though, was why couldn’t she keep herself from worrying so damned much about little things? “Unbelievable,” she thought. “Just be normal.”

Reminding herself that she had already committed, she stopped pacing and forced herself to sit back down on her bed. Struggling to think of ways keep herself from worrying about every little thing, she laid her head back down on her pillow and did her best to convince herself that everything would be fine. If he was mad, she could go in a little late and pretend some extra sleep did her some good. And if she got fired for using a sick day, maybe the time was right for a career change.

Doing her best to distract herself from her compulsive fears, she let her mind wander to how nice the early morning summer sun felt as it filled her room. And she thought about how wrong it was that she was feeling guilty. How wrong it was for her to be twenty-nine years old and too scared to fake a sick day, something she had never even tried until now. How wrong it was for her to be as focused on her career as she was. How wrong it was that she had wasted her entire twenties doing little more than work. She was almost thirty and was happy with her career, sure, so maybe it wasn’t a complete waste. But she always found herself thinking more about all the opportunities she felt she had missed instead of how satisfied she was with her job.

Even when she was younger and still in school, she never made time or took the opportunity to do much of anything crazy. She went to a few parties and dated a few guys, but looking back, she could think of very few events in her life that made for an interesting story. If she were to meet someone new and was asked about the most exciting or scandalous thing she had ever done, she’s not even sure what she would say. If she responded at all, she would likely pretend that a fantasy of hers actually happened just to have something to say. Maybe Fantasy World Abbie lived in another country for a year. Or had sex with a guy without ever talking to him. Or paid for college by working as a skydiving instructor instead of as a math tutor. Or had dated four guys at once. Or maybe all of the above?

Then again, she wasn’t positive she could risk being on the receiving end of judgment about any of those. She had spent practically her entire adult life concerned over appearing acceptable to everyone she ever encountered that she often lost sight of what she really wanted or felt too paralyzed to get it. Every day for Abbie included an ongoing effort to push these worries from her mind with some days being more successful than others.

Her best efforts were allowing her to begin relaxing while she lay there. As she started to lose herself in thought about all the things she wished she had tried, she felt her phone vibrate on the bed next to her. A jolt of panic shot through her body, effectively destroying any level of relaxation she had achieved. Before she could bring herself to reach for her phone, she pictured her boss calling out her lie and letting her know she would both be fired and blacklisted. She quickly stood up from her bed and began to pace and fidget once more, unwilling to face what she knew was the effective end of her career. Taking a slow, deep breath, she opened the text and breathed a sigh of relief while laughing to herself a little bit.

“Sorry you don’t feel well, take care of yourself and we’ll see you when you’re better. JRM.”

Chapter 2

              Zipping down the highway in her very sensible car, Abbie really appreciated for the first time in a long time the value of a day away from her career. It felt amazing to not be stuck inside her office or answering to people she didn’t feel like answering to. She was finally enjoying the fresh air and sunshine on a beautiful day that had hardly a cloud in the sky. With her window down and hair blowing in the wind behind her, she realized how exhausting it was to live life the way she did.

              It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her job. She did. And she had worked very hard to get where she was. From her early days in school, she had always been very focused, a trait that had only intensified the farther she got in school. Plus, she had been a perfectionist for as long as she could remember. Even if the smaller details of a project didn’t matter to her boss or to a professor, they mattered to her. Long ago, she accepted that she couldn’t always be the smartest or most talented person in a room, but she also knew that she could work the hardest and the longest.

              It was no secret to her that this mindset is what helped her buckle down and eventually graduate from college near the very top of her class. And it was this mindset that helped her get into a prominent grad school, land a highly desirable internship, turn that internship into a full-time job, and feel financially secure at twenty-nine years old. “But it could certainly be worse,” Abbie thought to herself. “Some people work seventy hours a week to live paycheck to paycheck.”

              Still, she couldn’t shake the thought that it was also this same mindset that played a big part in keeping her single, chained to her work with no crazy stories to tell, a growing bucket list of things she feared she would never accomplish, and years of avoiding risk at all costs and to always be a good girl. The last thing she seemed to want was to ruffle anyone’s feathers. If she were being honest with herself, this day was more than just a long time coming; rather, it was an exodus of sorts, the buildup for which had lasted for years. It certainly wasn’t just the few months during which she tried to work up the courage to ditch work for a day.

              As she drove, she thought about how nice it had been to take her time getting ready that morning. At first, it felt very unnatural. After so many years of forcing herself out the door as quickly as she could, intent on being the first to get into the office, it was as if the very walls of her condo were judging her for moving at a casual pace. She actually took the time to make herself a nice breakfast – something she enjoyed, but rarely took the time for anymore. Before she started cooking, her eyes quickly darted around her room, seemingly waiting to find someone who would judge her for what she was thinking of doing. Feeling slightly angry at herself for allowing her irrational worry to bubble up to the surface, she completely disrobed in the middle of her kitchen.

Stepping out of her clothes, she moved to the fridge, pushing out her bare chest out as she walked as if to convince herself of her confidence. She had barely started getting the ingredients out before the unfamiliar feeling of being nude for no reason other than to be nude swept over her. The feeling was enough to make her feel self-conscious and uncomfortable in her own skin, even by herself and in the privacy of her own home. Already struggling with doubts over completing such a harmless task, she looked down at the pile of clothes on the floor in front of her and considered putting them back on.

              Before she had time to talk herself back into being dressed, she swiftly stepped back to the spot where she had stripped, bent down to swipe her clothes from the floor and carried them to her bedroom on the opposite end of the condo. Moving quickly back to the kitchen and along the windows of her apartment, Abbie slowed down as she felt the sun shine on parts of herself that hadn’t seen the sun in quite some time. “If I can fake being sick, I can walk around naked in my own home,” Abbie thought to herself. Speaking for the first time that day, she looked at her cat and asked, “Who’s going to judge me? A little pervert that spends half his day licking himself?” She laughed to herself, wondering how different the world would be if humans were flexible enough to lick themselves like her cat licked himself. She’s not sure anyone would ever leave their bedrooms if they had that trick up their sleeves.

 It had felt very freeing to cook naked that day, released of all the restraints that clothing brought. As she cooked that day, being nude seemed to make Abbie intimately aware of her entire body. She had rarely been so conscious of the way she moved her legs or turned her hips when she walked. Or the way the air felt as it ran across her bare chest or traveled between her legs. Or the way the back of her legs and her butt tightened as she stretched while reaching for items in the upper shelves of her cupboards. She certainly was aware of how completely exposed she felt as she bent over to get the frying pan.

As she stood there feeling exposed and vulnerable, yet to no one but herself, she couldn’t help but dwell on a time from ten years in her past. Without question, this was one of her favorite memories and came from a time when she was still open with men about what she wanted, sexually. At least she was open by her current standards.

She was in the first semester of her freshman year of college and had just slept with a senior named Tyson the night before. She had been flirting with him at every chance she had for a couple of weeks, hoping he would welcome what she now knew were obvious advances on her part. Through her twenties, she learned that she had not mastered the art of subtle flirtation while in high school.

Regardless, Abbie was happy to find that her efforts weren’t wasted. She had slept with several other guys before Tyson, but in her mind, none compared to him. For one thing, she thought he was extremely attractive. All her previous partners were about her age and still looked like boys, but Tyson looked like a man. Although he was only slightly taller than her, he had a rough, three-day stubble, something that played very well on the dark, sharp features of his face. He had a lean build, but with enough muscle to ensure he maintained the appearance of a well-rounded athlete who could carry a woman to the bedroom and toss her around once there.  

He was also older, which was both new and exciting for her. Maybe it was because she knew he was older, but he struck her as being more mature than the other guys she had dated or slept with before. He was certainly more experienced with women than the other guys she had slept with, but she was most taken by the air of confidence in the way he talked to her. Without fail, it left her thinking about him long after their conversations had ended. She would leave him and wonder what it was about her that could catch the attention of such a sexy, charming guy. An inordinate amount of her time thinking about him, though, was about whether he was as confident and experienced in the bedroom as he appeared out of it… Or whether his dick was as impressive as his toned arm.

When she woke up in his bed late the next morning after finally seducing him, she decided she would make breakfast for the two of them. She was still feeling quite pleased with herself, like screwing him was an accomplishment of sorts. She knew that wasn’t the healthiest way to look at it, but she couldn’t help it.  Part of this feeling was because he hadn’t called her over as a booty call, something that would have still felt satisfying but would have been much less flattering. No, he asked her out on an actual date and seemed genuinely interested in her. When she spoke, his eye contact was piercing and he seemed to hang on every word. When he asked if she wanted to come up to his apartment for a drink, she knew there would be no drinks and quickly agreed. When they found that Dan, Tyson’s roommate, was apparently gone for the night, Abbie didn’t feel compelled to keep her volume down, either.

When Tyson walked into the kitchen the next morning after Abbie had gone in to cook, he was greeted with the surprise of seeing Abbie’s bare back as she stood in front of his open fridge. The counter wrapped around three quarters of the kitchen, effectively preventing him from seeing any part of Abbie that was below the small of her back. Her back muscles were slightly tightened as she stretched for the eggs that were stored on the top shelf, just beyond her reach in the very back of the fridge. The sight was so unexpected that it stopped him dead in his tracks. He quickly recovered and gave a small laugh as he asked her what she was doing. He didn’t see any need to wait for a response before coming out of the hallway and all the way into the kitchen.

Abbie fondly recalled the excited nervousness she felt as she waited for Tyson to come out and discover her like this. Even though she had always struggled to see herself as attractive, she also knew that, objectively, she looked good. Without being a fitness fanatic, she was reasonably athletic and her body showed it. She had always felt that her legs and ass were her best features, a belief that had been reinforced by every guy she had dated or slept with.

When she heard Tyson’s voice from the hallway, Abbie smiled but remained facing the fridge. In her mind, she was sure she was going to respond to him right away with something that was both witty and sexy, but she found that her heart was beating so fast that she wasn’t sure she could get any words out just then. Instead, she lifted herself onto her toes and reached to the back of the fridge for the eggs. Hearing Tyson walk around the counter and into the kitchen, Abbie decided to take her time. She was too nervous to turn and see his face yet, but she pictured that he was standing back, admiring the view. She hoped his eyes were lingering on her legs, calves flexed as she pushed herself upwards, before moving up the back of her legs to her butt. Keeping her legs straight, she unnecessarily pushed her right leg back, causing her butt cheek to flex in a way that she knew was sure to receive attention.

When the eggs were resting safely on the counter, Abbie couldn’t tell which feeling was stronger – her nerves or her excitement. She had never done anything wilder or sexier than this before and was glad she had undressed in the bathroom on the other side of Tyson’s bedroom, leaving her clothes there and far out of reach from the kitchen. Had they been close, she’s sure she would have raced for them as soon as she heard Tyson start making his way to the kitchen.

As it was, she felt even more daring since she still didn’t know where Tyson’s roommate was. Dan didn’t sleep there last night, but for all she knew, he could be ready to walk back into the apartment at any time and see her standing there.

She wasn’t entirely sure she would mind if that happened. Dan didn’t talk to her the way that Tyson did and she didn’t feel butterflies in her stomach when she thought about him. But she couldn’t deny he was hot. So hot that she couldn’t help but think of him as being out of her league. He was several inches taller than her with an easy smile and the well-built physique of a dedicated gym rat. She didn’t think of him as boyfriend material, but if she hadn’t met Tyson, she would have loved to have spent a few sweaty nights in his room. Even while flirting with Tyson, she had pictured how nice it would be to run her hands over his well-muscled back before letting him do anything he wanted with her. With two hot guys sharing one apartment, she readily fantasized about sneaking into Dan’s bedroom to ride on top of him immediately after finishing with Tyson.

Pushing Dan from her mind, Abbie turned and faced Tyson, her heart beating as fast as ever and her face tinged red. She could tell that she was already wet and seeing him made her think about how nice his hands felt on her body the previous night. She looked at Tyson and simply took him in for a moment. His eyes were wide open and his jaw was hanging slightly as his eyes lingered in appreciation. The look on his face instantly caused her nervousness to begin fading, though her pulse continued to race. Even though they already had sex, the lights stayed off and he hadn’t really seen her naked until this moment.

By the time Abbie’s heart had finished skipping a beat, Tyson’s eyes had already dropped down towards her feet and he was nervously biting his upper lip. She kept watching him as his eyes moved upwards, taking in her tan, toned legs before pausing at her midsection. She had been maintaining a landing strip since that summer and had slept with other guys since then, but this was the first time she was witnessing someone silently appreciating that effort. His eyes lingered again on her shiny naval piercing in the middle of her gently visible abs before sliding up past her boobs, nipples still cold and hard from the chill of the fridge. When he reached her face, he hastily returned her smile.

“Wow, I, uh. Um, I… this is, uh. This is great!” Abbie’s heart continued to race as she thought about how hot he was, even with his easy-going confidence replaced by awkwardness and stammering. Actually, she had never seen him so flustered and found it somewhat charming.

Abbie focused on making her voice sound calmer than she felt. “Hey. Did you want something to eat?” She pictured pulling his hair and holding his face in-between her legs after she said this.

Without waiting for a response, she turned back to the eggs and began cracking them into a bowl. As she half-focused on cooking that day, she could still remember how Tyson had quickly regained his confidence and started telling her how beautiful he thought she was. He sat down and watched her, playfully telling her that almost all the ingredients were on the bottom shelf and in the very back of the cupboard or the fridge. Twenty-nine-year-old Abbie would have felt too self-conscious to take directions like that, but nineteen-year-old Abbie dutifully bent over and put on a show.

The attention was satisfying in many ways and left her torn between wanting to take her time teasing him in the nude and wanting to strip his clothes off and ride him just as hard as she did the night before. But the tease was too fun to stop so quickly, and she happily followed his directions on where to find things in the kitchen. Of course she knew the cheese was in the fridge and not the bottom cupboard, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t drop to her hands and knees, arching her back and spreading her legs to check. She also had her doubts that asking him to look closely was going to make her search any more successful. She also very well knew that the salt wasn’t behind him, but she gladly leaned over him to check, repeatedly rubbing her breasts over his face. She wanted to feel more of him, but settled for his hot breath on her stomach. That rush from feeling completely exposed as Tyson took all of her in was exhilarating. Even ten years later, she could still vividly recall how erotic her vulnerability felt as she served a fully clothed man while her clothes were nowhere in sight. She wasn’t sure she could relate to that feeling anymore, but she could at least remember that version of herself.

With the food finally nearly ready to cook, Abbie turned back to the eggs. She felt no shame in being sexual with Tyson that morning and felt no embarrassment from having him see every inch of her body. She didn’t need to wiggle her butt the way she did as she scrambled the eggs, but she was hoping it would make the breakfast treat that much better.

The slow ass shaking seemed to do the trick as she finally felt his hands on her hips seconds after the eggs hit the frying pan. She had wanted his hands on her body for so long that morning already that she was thankful she didn’t have to wait long to feel his hands slide down and squeeze her ass. When he bent his head down to kiss her neck, she closed her eyes and knew that cooking was going to wait. She braced herself with her hands placed firmly on the countertop and leaned slightly forward, keeping her back to Tyson. He kept kissing her neck while massaging her lower back and her butt, squeezing and spreading her cheeks as he rubbed. With his hands on her again, she felt she could stay there all day.

When he squeezed and spread her cheeks again, Abbie pushed herself back into him and felt his hard dick pushing through his shorts. She liked that she could get him hard without even having to touch him. While he slid his hands up to her breasts, she reached back between her legs and grabbed the bulge in Tyson’s shorts, pressing his cock into her. She could tell that he liked the tease – still wearing his shorts and not yet able to penetrate her, but still having his dick rubbed by both her hand and her ass. She was so wet that when she pressed the end of his cock up, she could feel it start to enter her pussy, even with his shorts still on.

Needless to say, the breakfast itself was unspectacular that day. The smell of burning breakfast pulled Abbie from Tyson just long enough for her to reach over and turn the stove off. Turning back, she faced Tyson this time, reaching her hand inside his pants as he put his hands on the sides of her neck to deeply kiss her. She always wondered if he had been close to finishing in his shorts while her hand was wrapped around his dick; he abruptly pushed back, taking her hand out of his shorts before picking her up with ease and placing her on the countertop. Abbie immediately wondered if it was bad that she just left a wet spot on the countertop but was quickly reassured that there were other things on Tyson’s mind as he dropped to his knees and started going down on her. Every movement of his tongue pushed her concern for Tyson’s countertop farther and farther from her mind.

The movement of Tyson’s tongue didn’t push the thought of Dan walking in on them far from her mind, though. That risk lingered in the forefront of her mind. Picturing his surprise as he opened the front door, Abbie wondered if she wanted Dan to strip nude and watch, patiently waiting for his turn. Or would it be better if he wasted no time in working in tandem with Tyson, placing his hands on her body and kissing her as his chiseled torso moved inches above hers? Picturing herself kissing Dan and stroking his dick while Tyson went down on her played a big role in making Abbie cum very quickly. She tightly gripped his hair as her moans echoed through his kitchen, the heat still radiating to their bodies from the stove.

Still holding her legs spread after Abbie’s orgasm had subsided, Tyson stood and finally took his shorts off. With Abbie still reeling from her first orgasm, she leaned back as far as she could until her upper back was leaning against the wall and Tyson was penetrating her in a standing missionary position. The deep penetration was very welcome and something she had been craving since she first stepped out of her clothes in the bathroom that morning. She wrapped her arms around his back and pulled herself forward, pressing her head into his chest. Closing her eyes as he thrusted, she pictured that Dan had returned, opening the door quietly enough to not be noticed and was simply standing in the hallway, watching her near her second orgasm. Lost in that moment and welcoming the risk, she quickly came again.

Abbie never asked Tyson if he found the possibility of Dan catching them as arousing as she did, but she suspected that the answer was “yes.” Her second orgasm of the morning had barely finished before Tyson moaned and quickly pulled out, cumming on her stomach. Tyson’s quick finish was no problem for Abbie at all, but she was surprised since he lasted quite a bit longer the night before.

Indeed, the sex on the night before had been more of a marathon affair. Abbie was surprised to not be sore when she woke up that morning. Still, even though the previous night had involved a lot more sex, at least one extra orgasm, and many more positions, the naked cooking is what she would always think back on. As far as the sex itself? She had had better before and she would have better after, but recalling the situation… Being completely naked with no clothes in sight, cooking for a guy she didn’t know that well, playfully flirting as seduction hung in the air, all with the possibility of getting caught at any moment? That situation happily played itself out in Abbie’s even ten years later.