Adrenaline poured through him as he pushed open the door to her store and found her standing behind the counter, her head down, red curls hiding her face. Her gaze lifted to the doorway, her expression filled with surprise and trepidation, her ivory skin, pure perfection.
“Blake. Uh…hi,” she said finally, shoving a lock of hair behind her ear, something he’d noticed she did when she was nervous, a tiny act she somehow made incredibly sexy. There was a glimmer of pleasure in her eyes, of happiness to see him, and he realized a part of him had feared she wouldn’t want to see him, that she’d be too hurt, too scared…too something that he couldn’t fix.
He surveyed the store, seeing no one in sight. “Are we alone?” he asked, to be certain.
She nodded. “Yes.”
He locked the door, and pulled the shade, before facing her again. “I shouldn’t have let you go the other night.” He could smell her perfume, her delicate scent. He inhaled it, expanding his chest in his dark blue T-shirt, feeling his cock thicken against the zipper of his jeans.
“I shouldn’t have rushed away like I did, but…I just don’t know how to be in that world.”
He rounded the counter, and she turned to face him.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “I was in way over my head, Blake, and we both knew it then, and now.”
“I rushed you. That was my fault. I won’t make that mistake again. But Kim—you weren’t in over your head. What you were was incredibly sexy.” Like now. She was wearing faded jeans and an emerald-green T-shirt that read “book lover” and made her green eyes sparkle like the stones themselves. He reached for her and she didn’t resist. She was petite and perfect in his arms, too perfect for him to have waited a week to see her again.
“No,” she said. “I was—”
He slid his hand into her hair. “Incredibly sexy,” he repeated. “And apparently I didn’t do a good enough job of showing you that, either, or you wouldn’t doubt it. I intend to remedy that, as well. I’m going to kiss you now, Kim.”
Her hand flattened on his chest, but she didn’t push him away. “That’s not a good idea. Blake, I—”
“No more Society play,” he assured her, the words, though unplanned, coming easily to his lips. He didn’t want to share Kim. He’d hated her exchange with Marcus, and he’d never felt such a thing before her. “Just you and me, Kim.” He leaned in to claim her mouth, his body throbbing with her nearness, with how much this woman drove him crazy by doing nothing but being herself. “You have my word.”
“No,” she said. “I can’t ask that. I’ll feel like you want more—”
“Of you,” he assured her, and slid his hand over her backside and molded her hips to his, then slid his hand up her back.
“Blake,” she whispered softly, her arms timidly wrapping around his neck, bringing her closer, her breasts pressed to his chest.
“I want you, Kim. All of you. You gave me a glimmer of what that means, and I won’t be satisfied until I’ve found every hot spot on your beautiful body, and shown you more ways to come than you ever knew possible.” He brushed his lips over hers. “But you have to say yes, and mean it. No running. No letting inhibitions and insecurity get in the way.” He kissed her, a deep, sensual slide of his tongue against hers, controlled, without the savage need inside him unleashed for fear he’d scare her. “Say yes.” He nipped her lip, then licked it. “Say yes and let me take you, right here and now.”
“No Society,” she whispered. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely,” he assured her, meaning it. This high she gave him, this hot, burning need, was what he’d searched for inside the Society, what he thought he could only achieve there. But he’d been wrong. “Say yes, Kim.”
“Yes.”
His mouth closed down over hers before the word was fully formed, sealing their agreement with a long stroke of his tongue, even as he brushed his hand over her breast and then began undressing her. There were no Master and Submissive rules. All he wanted right now was her to feel free, for her to know how much he wanted her. A frenzied rush of clothes flying everywhere consumed them—his hands and hers roaming, touching, tugging away material. He had her on the counter, legs spread as he stepped between them—in a whirlwind of a minute max.
Then he kissed her all over again, drinking her in, and still wanted more. He barely managed to tear his mouth from hers to rip the condom he’d removed from his pants open with his teeth and then slide it over his thick, jutted erection.
The instant he reached for her again, wrapping his arm around her waist, she scooted closer, widened her legs in an invitation he accepted by sliding inside her and thrusting deep. She sucked in a breath, her fingers digging into his shoulders. The sensation of her wet, tight body clenching him rocketed through him from his cock to every inch of his body.
“I’ve wanted you since the day I met you,” he told her, lifting her off the counter, so that he held her fully. “This time is going to be fast and hard, to take the edge off. Then I’m going to kiss you from head to toe, and find all your little sweet spots.” He kissed her, and began to pump into her. She pressed herself against him, her breasts to his chest in what started as a slow, seductive rhythm, and quickly turned as wild as their ravenous kisses.
Soon he had her back against the wall, thrusting into her—harder, deeper, faster. “You’re so hot and tight,” he said, leaning back to rake his gaze over her breasts, her tight, little, pink nipples. “So hot, baby. So hot.” His eyes lifted to her face, her lips parted, her eyes half-veiled. “Touch them like you did at the gallery. Touch them the way I’m going to, over and over again.”
She moaned with a hard stroke of his cock, and filled her hands with her breasts, caressing them, tugging at her nipples. “You…” pump “…are so damn…” pump “…sexy.”
She stiffened, and he felt her body close on his cock, spasming as she shook, dragging him with her and damn near ripping his orgasm from his body. Long seconds later, he set her on the counter, still inside her, his forehead resting against hers, his hand sliding down her hair.
“Round one,” he said softly. “How about your place for round two? That way you can’t run from me.” And then she would be in her own environment, where she’d feel more comfortable, where he could push her harder without pushing her too far.
“I have a roommate,” she said, her gaze touching his, her lips swollen from his kisses, her cheeks flushed from what had been damn hot sex. “I’m not running. Not this time.”
“My place it is, then. And you’re right—” his lips brushed over hers “—you aren’t running. I won’t let you.” He glanced upward and smiled at what he saw hanging on the wall. “Do you have a camera in the store, Kim?”
She leaned back to look at him. “Yes. I’m here alone a lot so… Why do you ask?”
“Is it filming us right now?”
Understanding flooded her features. “Yes. It’s filming right now.”
He smiled, already getting hard again. “I have a feeling we’re going to enjoy watching that film.” He moved inside her, a slow slide from side to side. “After we add a little additional footage.”
He lifted her and walked to one of the two overstuffed chairs sitting in the front of the store for customer use. Blake claimed one of them, sitting down with Kim straddling him.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this in one of the chairs in my store,” she murmured, but her hips moved against his.
His hands settled on her waist, and he pulled her down against him as he arched his hips, and pressed deep inside her. Round two was officially underway.
Chapter Six
“Delivery,” Jessica called, rushing into Kim’s office where Kim sat behind her old wooden desk, pretending to do the store’s accounting, when she was really replaying the night before with Blake.
Kim’s eyes went wide at the pink box Jessica held with a pink ribbon tied around it.
“No card,” Jessica said. “What don’t I know
that I should know?” She set it down in front of Kim.
Kim inhaled and studied the box, knowing it was from Blake, who had not only lived up to his word and kissed her from head to toe and then done it all over again, several times; he’d taught her positions she’d never known possible. Then he’d insisted she stay the night so he could start her day with an orgasm. And he had. As in plural—orgasms. She’d had more sex in one evening than she’d had in five years.
“Kim?”
Kim’s gaze jerked to Jessica. “Yes?”
Jessica sat down in the chair in front of the desk. “It’s from Blake, isn’t it?”
She’d shared a censored version of her night with Blake. Kim nodded. “I think so.”
Her eyes lit. “I knew when you told me you walked out on Blake, you’d become a challenge. I didn’t say anything in case I was wrong, which clearly I wasn’t. So tell me everything. When? Where? How?”
A challenge. Why did that idea bother Kim? This was a sex thing with Blake, nothing more. She knew that. A man like Blake didn’t do relationships.
A chime on the front door sounded, and Jessica pursed her lips. “Damn and double damn. I really wanted to hear the details.”
Kim wasn’t sorry. She wasn’t keen on opening the box with company, even Jessica. “Pull the door shut behind you.”
“Fine,” Jessica said. “But I’m coming back for the details.”
Kim stared at the box for a long moment before opening it to reveal a tiny pair of red silk panties. She bit her lip and opened the small note card on top. “Because red is sexy.” She smiled at the obvious reference to her hair.
The man made her feel wonderful in all kinds of ways, and she knew she had to be careful—she had to remember Blake was a Master in some sex Society. Sex was his game, seduction his craft. She could enjoy him, and oh, man, she did enjoy him. But at no time could she allow herself to get emotionally attached or she’d get hurt. Right. Don’t get emotionally attached. Resolutely, she set the note back in the box and placed the lid back on top, sealing away her present, and with it, the flutter in her chest that said it was too late—she’d started getting attached before they’d ever had sex. Sex being the operative word. This was about sex. They’d have sex. Lots and lots of sex. She’d have orgasms. She’d be daring enough to give him a few orgasms he didn’t see coming. And she’d leave this experience more confident, more in touch with herself and her desires.
Kim didn’t hear from Blake the rest of the day, but somehow she knew he’d walk through the store’s door just before closing. Exactly why she’d made darn sure she’d sidelined Jessica’s questions and sent her packing early—a task made easier because of Jessica’s “hot” date. And it was a good thing because, sure enough, Kim was at the entrance to the store, about to lock up, when Blake walked in, still in his scrubs.
But even before he spoke, she knew something was wrong. Without even saying hello, he pulled her to him and gave her a short, passionate kiss, filled with something raw, edgy, that told her whatever was bothering him had nothing to do with her. She touched his face, studied him. “Something happen at the hospital?”
He closed his eyes and stared at the ceiling, as if he didn’t want her to see what was in his expression. Kim locked the door and turned to him. He reached for her, pulling her close and kissing her again. She could feel the passion in him, the hunger. He wanted to forget whatever was bothering him, he wanted her to make him forget. Before she knew it, she was naked, bent over her chair, his fingers sliding along her sensitive flesh as he rolled a condom onto his erection.
And then he entered her from behind, thrusting into her with hard, fierce pumps. She barely remembered the condom he’d put on. She was certain he’d turned her around to hide whatever it was he was feeling. But he wasn’t hiding it. She felt it in the air, in his touch, tasted it in his kisses. The wildness in him, the anger at whatever had him so upset, fed into her like energy, like fire. She wanted to give him that release, the escape that he wanted. “Harder,” she cried out. “Harder, Blake. More.”
He growled low in his throat, his hand on her hips as he gave her what she wanted. More. Deeper. Faster. She was panting. “More.”
He reached around her and stroked her clit, his cock stroking her again and again, until she was shattering into a million, rainbow-colored pieces of white-hot pleasure. A sound of pure male demand ripped from his throat as he buried himself to the hilt and spilled himself inside her.
When the world stopped spinning, he pulled away, and helped her up. Then he turned away. She watched him walk toward the restroom by her office, unabashed about his nakedness, but she knew he was still not right, knew he’d walked away to hide. She’d spent a lifetime hiding from her sexuality, and, maybe, he’d done the same with his emotions.
Decision made, she went after him, ignoring her own lack of clothes, when she’d have never done so in the past. She found him standing at the restroom sink, head forward. She went to him and wrapped her arms around him, sliding between him and the sink. “Talk to me,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
“The mother of one of my interns was in a car accident today,” he said. “And he’d wanted me to operate, but I told him no. It was too personal, too close to me. He’d blame me if she died, and I’d be thinking about that when I was in surgery. There was another surgeon on staff that I trusted, a damn good surgeon.”
Her stomach knotted. “She died.”
He shook his head. “Yeah. She died.” He swallowed hard. “And he blamed me anyway.”
She touched his face, and he reached up and pulled her hand into his. “You need to understand who I am, Kim. I don’t do relationships for a reason. They’re a distraction I can’t afford with lives on the line.”
“I’m not asking for anything from you, Blake,” she said softly. “I know this is about sex, and I know you need to forget tonight. I…” Realization washed over her. He was here, with her, when he could have gone to one of his Society functions and found plenty of ways to forget what bothered him. Her chest tightened with emotion. He’d chosen her. And she was choosing him.
She kissed his chest and then slowly slid down his body, until her back was against the sink cabinet. Her hand wrapped around his cock, which, she was pleased to find, was thick with arousal.
“I should demonstrate what I learned at the gallery.” Her tongue touched the tip of him, the salty proof of his arousal sliding against it. His cock jerked slightly, and she tightened her grip around him, smiling to herself, as she drew him into her mouth. She sucked and licked and teased and reveled at his urgency—his hand on her head, his shallow breathing.
He’d taken her on a wild journey the night before, forced her to overcome her insecurities, forced her to just be with him, to just focus on the pleasure. And tonight, she was going to do the same for him.
Chapter Seven
The sun was quickly disappearing behind Houston’s vast downtown skyline, when, for the first time in the month since Blake had been involved with Kim, he walked into the Alexander Wine Cellar, located a few blocks from the hospital and Kim’s store. Owned by Marcus Alexander, the Master of all Masters in the Society, the Cellar served the public, but it also hosted special members-only privileges that he intended to take advantage of tonight.
A month of fucking her every possible way he could think of, and he still hadn’t worked her out of his system. No…fucking was no longer the right word. Three nights before, they’d made love. Hell. He was pretty sure they’d been doing that from the beginning. But that night—that night, he’d been ten-feet-under in making love. And he’d done exactly what he’d done the last time she’d spooked him. He’d stayed away from her, thinking that would get her out of his mind. Then today, he’d actually caught himself thinking about her while reviewing a patient’s file. This had to end. They had to end. Which meant he needed a good fuck to pull him back into reality, back into the Society.
Appropriately dressed in black slacks and a gra
y button-down shirt, Blake entered the main lounge area of the Cellar, where fine wine and rich mahogany furnishings gave off the Old World feel of money and luxury and made it popular with the upper echelons of the downtown crowd. One glance at the bar, and he found a target who he knew, even with her back to him—a blonde beauty named Cara, who flipped from Sub to Dominant, depending on her bedmates. She’d also been the woman on the red sheets at the gallery, which came with unfortunate memories of Kim, but he’d deal with it. He’d deal with about anything to try to get rid of the edge biting at his nerves.
Cara turned as he approached, gave him a lusty look and stood up. She didn’t speak, her silence telling him she knew what role she would play with him, her expression telling him she was ready to do whatever he wished, however he wished. And, fuck him, she was wearing a short, tight red dress.
Blake curled his fingers into his palms, unable to think of anything but Kim. He could take Cara up the long winding stairs to his left, to one of the private members-only rooms, tie her up and fuck her any which way he wanted, and yet somehow, he knew it wouldn’t be satisfying. It was then that he recognized what he’d been missing. He’d never been satisfied fully, never found what he’d needed, no matter how erotic the adventure. Until Kim. His distraction wasn’t about Kim—not directly. It was about him—trying to get where he was right now, right this moment. To the point of knowing that what he needed was her.