by JA Huss
“Like a new start?”
“Brand-new city, brand-new partner, brand-new start.”
Do I believe him? I guess I don’t have much choice. I either believe him and stay here, or take my chances and leave.
“So… should I go on?” he asks. And he’s not talking about his story. The story is over. He’s asking about the costume.
I should get the fuck out of here. I should put my clothes back on, walk out that door, and never look back. Just leave.
But I nod yes, anyway. I give him permission to dress me up and keep the game going. Because this is a game. None of this can be coincidence. But if I’m gonna buy in, I need to go all in.
He chuckles under his breath as he hold the negligee up to study how it works, and mumbles, “OK, don’t make a fool of yourself, Murphy.”
In his defense, it does look a little weird, since, you know, there’s no cups. It’s just round open holes where tits go.
“Need help?” I say, trying to forget everything he just told me.
“Nope. Figuring this out is like the highlight of my life so far.”
“You must have a very boring life.”
He stops his lingerie analysis to look at me. “Hey, there ain’t nothing wrong with boring, babe. Not a damn thing wrong with boring.”
“So you don’t miss DC?”
He places the nightie over my head, pulls it down, totally messing up my hair, and then picks up one arm and fits it into the straps.
I almost die. This is fuckin’ hilarious.
“No,” he says, taking his attention to the other arm now. “It doesn’t matter where you are. People are the same.”
“So they’re corrupt here too? That’s what you’re saying?”
He pulls the nightie down, but it gets caught on my breasts, so he reaches underneath it, lifts my tits, fits them into the little cut-out holes until they spill out, and then straightens out the front so the lace ruffle on the edge is neat.
I absolutely die this time and there’s no way in hell I don’t laugh.
“What?” he says. “Did I do it wrong?”
I shake my head, still smiling. “No, it’s right.”
“Then why are you laughing at me?”
“It’s… it’s pretty adorable, actually.”
“That I dressed you up as a kinky slut?” He waggles his eyebrows at me, just to make it clear he’s joking.
“That you took it so seriously. I mean, your boot lacing is top-notch. Not too loose, not too tight—which is pretty hard to accomplish when you’re dealing with forty-seven eyes.”
He sucks in a huge breath of air, leans back on his heels, and raises his chin, proud as punch. “Thank you. And the answer to your last question—and I do mean that literally, since we’re gonna be too busy to talk in like, oh, ten seconds—is yes. Denver is as corrupt as hell. Everyone knows it, nobody cares to fix it, and I’m no better or worse than the rest of them, I guess. So I choose… indifferent witch. Because after wrestling with this shit for almost a decade, I’ve decided if you choose a side and stand for something, those people will disappoint you eventually and you’ll have to renounce them and choose another. So why bother?”
“Hmm,” I say.
“You don’t agree.”
“No, that’s the funny part. I absolutely agree. I’ve been indifferent witch for a pretty long time now.”
“But… your job?”
I shrug. “My job is to give people hope. To help them realize their mistakes, make the right changes, and then move on. So that’s what I do.”
“It’s all bullshit?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. And just a smidge, just a teeny-tiny dash of disappointment leaks out of him.
“No, it’s not bullshit. I believe in self-defense, so I show them how to take a man down who’s twice their size. And I believe in self-preservation, so I tell them to think of themselves first because you can’t take care of anyone else unless you’re taking care of you. And I tell them they’re worthy of that, because the world has taught them they’re not. But I don’t teach them anything more than self-reliance and confidence. I don’t sugarcoat anything. I ask them to be true to themselves—whatever that may look like—and that’s it.”
The eyebrow drops back into place. The dash of disappointment morphs into more than a little bit of respect. And the Q&A time is over, because he reaches into his pocket, where he must’ve stuffed them earlier, and holds the nipple clamps in the palm of his hand. “How sure are you of these?”
I inhale. Exhale. And say, “I don’t even know how to put them on.”
We both laugh at that. Like… silly, this-is-great-fun kind of laughing.
“I’ve never done this before either,” he says. “Let me make that disclaimer before we start.”
“Should we Google it?” I ask, still giggling.
“Nah,” he says, pinching one open and bringing it towards my nipple. “How hard could it be. Just—”
I jump back, grabbing at my nipple. “Holy shit! Ow, ow, ow, ow!”
He winces. “OK, let’s Google it.”
Twenty minutes later we’re sitting on his couch, engrossed in a sexpert’s video series on YouTube. In fact, we’re watching Butt Plugs 101 right now because the autoplay is on and this chick has like, every topic imaginable.
Finn looks over at me, hesitant to take his eyes off the demo on his laptop screen. “Did you—”
“No,” I say quickly. “I didn’t bring a butt plug.”
“Just checking,” he says. “Trying to make your fantasy night everything you thought it would be.”
“Honestly, I’ve never even thought about butt sex.”
“No?” He laughs. Loud. “Surely you’ve—”
“Nope.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Jesus.”
“Is that weird?”
“I dunno.” He shrugs.
“So you… have? Done that? With other people?” He pretends not to hear my question. “Finn?”
“Come on,” he says. “Don’t make me answer that.”
“Why, you’re embarrassed?”
“No, I’m not embarrassed. I just want to concentrate on you, that’s all.”
“Awww… you’re trying be a good witch.”
He laughs, slaps the laptop closed, and says, “I’m ready. You ready?”
I nod. “Just remember, she said—”
“I heard her. I was sitting right here.” He reaches for the clamps, stands up, pulls me to my feet, and comes at me again.
I put my hand up to stop him. “Whoa, there, buddy. Didn’t you pay attention? You gotta get my girls ready for this. She said you gotta talk dirty to them first.”
“To you, dingbat. Not them.” He laughs.
“OK, so talk.”
He shrugs. “What kinda dirty talk do you like?”
“You know,” I say, unable to look him in the eye. “The usual.”
“Oh, my God. You’ve never done that either? Jesus Christ, Issy! You’re practically a virgin.”
“I have,” I say. “Just… it didn’t go very well.”
His eyebrows slide up his forehead in… what? Surprise? Curiosity? “Explain.”
Curiosity, I guess.
“I mean… it was all kinda weird.”
“Like he wanted you to call him daddy kind of weird?”
“Daddy? What? No! Is that a thing? Gross!”
“Nope,” Finn says, shaking his head. “No one does that. What’d he say?”
“Oh, man. Don’t make me repeat it.”
“Come on, I gotta know where your boundaries are. You heard the sexpert. Gotta be safe and shit.”
“OK,” I say, taking a deep breath. “He wanted me to like… tell him what to do.” Finn blinks. “Like, explicitly.” Finn blinks again. “Or he wouldn’t do anything.” Three more blinks. “What?”
“That’s it?”
“He wanted me to say things like, ‘Put it in my pussy.’ But th
en he’d be like, ‘You didn’t say, ‘Put your cock in my pussy.’’”
“OK.”
“What? That’s weird, right?”
He crosses his arms, places a hand over his mouth like he doesn’t want me to see him smile, and then says, “Totally weird.”
I slap his arm. “That’s normal?”
He shakes his head no, but it turns into a nod pretty quick. “Totally vanilla ice cream, babe. Sorry. Pretty much standard dirty talk right there.”
“OK, so what do guys say?”
He opens his mouth. Closes it. Tries again. Fails. Says, “Maybe we should skip the dirty talk.”
“No, I wanna hear it. Tell me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mmmhmm. Yup. Hit me with it.”
He thinks about this for a few seconds, then says, “OK, but I’m only doing this because you’re making me.”
I laugh. “Got it. Go for it.”
“You can’t call me a pervert when you do the whole sex fantasy debrief with your friend, Bella.”
“Chella. And I won’t, I promise.”
“OK, but just remember—”
“I won’t tell her anything, promise.”
He closes his eyes, steps towards me, threads his hand into my hair as he leans into my ear and whispers, “I’m gonna put my fingers inside you now, Issy. Right up in your pussy. And you’re gonna be wet for me, understand?”
I turn my head to look at him, but he holds me in place by gripping my hair.
“Just agree,” he coos.
“Yes,” I say.
“Yes, you’ll what?”
“I’ll…” I swallow hard. “I’ll be wet for you.”
I can feel his smile as he kisses my neck. “Good. Then I’m gonna finger you and play with your clit, just to get you ready for my nipple clamps, got it?”
I’m too busy picturing that in my head to respond, but he nips the tender skin under my ear and says, “Got it?”
“Yes,” I say. “Got it.”
“Shit like that,” he says, pulling back and releasing my hair.
“That’s it?” I ask.
“It’s not good enough?”
“No, it’s pretty good. But… do you have more?”
He tilts his head like a confused puppy. “Are you fucking with me?”
“What do you mean?”
He tilts his head some more. “You’ve done this before.”
I press my bare breasts against his chest, lean up on my tippy toes so I can kiss his chin, and whisper, “Mr. Murphy,” as I take those kisses to his neck. Then I slide my lips down his bare chest, dragging my fingernails down his abs as I lower myself to my knees, and look up at him as I take his hard cock out of his sweats and begin pumping him in my hand. “This is my first time,” I coo. “Don’t be mad if I can’t please you.”
And then I place the tip of his cock against my lips and kiss it as I look up at him with innocent, wide eyes, and say, “Be gentle with me. My pussy is tiny and your cock is so, so big.”
He’s transfixed. And I almost laugh. Almost.
And then he grins. “You’re a dirty, bad, little slut. And I’m gonna spank you hard for lying.”
He pulls me to my feet as I continue laughing. Then one at a time, the clamps go on. And not the gentle way we just learned about on YouTube, either. The hard, tight way that pinches and makes me gasp. Then he’s got the riding crop in his hand and he’s bending me over the arm of his couch.
“Count,” he says, as he holds me there with a hand planted firmly in the center of my back. “And don’t fuck it up or you’ll get extra.”
He whacks me hard, but not too hard. And I count each one, but I do mess it up.
Because this… this is what I signed up for.
This is the game I wanted to play.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - FINN
“You’re very, very bad,” I say, swatting her ass.
“Nine,” she cries out.
But I roll my eyes because that’s the third time she got the count wrong and I had to start over. So I stop. I wait.
She lifts her head, looks over her shoulder at me, and says, “What?”
“You’re faking it.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You’re faking it!”
“I didn’t even come yet, how do you—”
“I mean the spankings, Issy. You lured me into this and now you’re—”
She gets up off my knee. “Lured you? Ha! You were the one who was all excited about dressing me!”
“You pretended that you’ve never had butt sex!”
“I haven’t!” she says, putting her hands on her hips and tapping the toe of her boot on the floor.
Which I admit makes her tits bounce a little and distracts me for a moment. But I rally. “And then you’re all, Daddy-talk isn’t a thing, is it?” I use a fake girl voice for that part.
She shrugs, smiles, then shrugs again. “It’s still gross.”
Which I agree with so I got nothing for that. But I’m definitely not done. “What the fuck are you doing tonight?”
“I’m trying to have my sex fantasy, which, by the way, isn’t going very well.”
“I’m not in the game!”
“Well, you were playing along.”
“Because you were practically throwing yourself at me.”
“Oh!” she exclaims.
“And I’m a fucking guy!”
“No,” she says, crossing her arms over her breasts. “Nope. You’re not getting out of this that easy. I mean, it’s like you’re not even trying.”
“Trying what? I just wanted to fuck you!”
“And yet here we are, arguing!”
“Yeah, because you’re faking it.”
“Well, you didn’t even remember the crotchless panties!”
“What?” I’m confused, confounded and—“What crotchless panties?”—curious.
“In the bag,” she says, pointing to it. “You didn’t even see them. And I wasn’t gonna point it out because we’d finally come to some kind of game-play consensus and—”
“Issy,” I say, taking her arm and pulling her close to me. I stare into her eyes. Dead. Serious. “I’m not playing the game with you. I’m not a part of this. I’m not your fantasy guy!”
“Then how the fuck do you explain this night? Huh? There’s no way this is all just a coincidence. So I’m not falling for it.”
More toe-tapping from her.
I grab my hair and try to figure out just how I got mixed up with this girl.
I woke up this afternoon, drank a little bit—which I’m not proud of, but whatever—ended up at the diner. Declan came in, we got the call about Go F*ck Yourself, we went over there, everything seemed normal until… then Issy turned into a Tasmanian Devil, we took her back to headquarters, the terror threat came in, I was assigned to take her to the safe house…
“I think you’re playing.”
“Well, I—” I don’t know what to think. I mean, it sorta makes sense when I run it through my head like that, but this right now—her missing crotchless panties, her titless negligee, her fuck-me-hard lace-up boots, and the fact that I was spanking her with a riding crop twenty seconds ago…
That is decidedly not normal.
“I think you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right.”
I look at her. “Someone set me up.”
“Of course they did.”
“We need to talk to Jordan.”
“Yes.” She nods. “I agree. He’s target number one on the agenda tomorrow.”
Which makes me glance up at the clock over the fireplace. “You mean today.”
“Jesus, how the fuck did it get to be five AM?”
“Well, honestly, I’m surprised it’s not later. We packed a lot of shit into the last eight hours.”
Which is exactly how long I’ve known her.
And that is ridiculous.
“What time do you have to go into the o
ffice?” she asks.
“I don’t. I’m on Issy Grey bodyguard duty, remember? I’m assuming Declan will get in touch. Until then, I’m sure he assumes we’re up at the house in Silver Springs. Why?”
“Well, I have to be down in the Tech Center by noon. I’ve got the seminar, remember?”
“I thought you had those at your office?”
“No. Well, I do. But this is like… the call for students. The free seminar, right? To get them signed up. So I got that at noon.”
“Should I take you home?” I ask her.
She bites her lip, and for a second I think she’s gonna ask me to fuck her first. Which makes me roll my eyes internally and say, Jesus Christ, Finn, get a grip.
She doesn’t. Ask me to fuck her, that is. She says, “Do you think it’s safe there?”
“Well, do you really think this is a game?”
She shrugs.
“Then no, I’d have to say no. It’s not safe and you should stay here, and I’ll take the couch, and—”
“Don’t be dumb,” she says, waving a hand at me. “We’ve already had sex. And I’m not kicking you out of your own bed.”
“Do you want like… a t-shirt and shorts to wear?”
She looks down at her outfit and sighs. “Sure.” Like she’s disappointed she has to take it off. Or that this fantasy of hers is all fucked up.
“Can I ask you something?”
“I guess,” she says, propping a foot up on the coffee table so she can start unlacing the back of her boots.
I swat her hand away and take that duty on myself. You know, because I’m a gentleman and shit. “What was the fantasy? I mean, specifically?”
She smiles, then giggles, then shakes her head. “Never mind. It’s just something I saw in a movie once and it kinda made me hot, so I figured it might be nice to try it in real life. Like… expose myself in a new way. Feel something different. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a bit of a control freak.”
“Nah,” I say, laughing to myself as I concentrate on pulling the laces apart.
“For real, I am,” she says. “And sometimes it exhausts me. To, like, be in charge of everything.”
“So you wanted to be dominated?”
“No.” She laughs. “No, that wasn’t it.”
“But the boots? The crop?”
