by Nikki Sloane
The card was snatched out of my hand, a final glare cast her direction, and Mr. Red stormed to the door, slamming it behind him like a spoiled child.
“Marquis,” Payton said into her headset. “Can you take Mr. Red to his car?” She straightened and her attention went to me. “He looked for me when I was in Japan? You didn’t tell me that.”
“Honey, he went fucking nuts. When you quit, it put me in one fucked-up situation.”
She raised an eyebrow, as if annoyed. “Pretty sure you fired me, or don’t you remember, suck my cock right now?”
My jaw tightened. We hadn’t discussed that night in much detail. I didn’t like thinking about it, or how I’d lost control. “Yeah, I remember. I also remember that I apologized for it, and it all worked out in the end. I’m sure your Dom would agree.”
Her eyes narrowed at the subtext. Dominic wasn’t her Dom. Deep down, Payton and I would never work. I was as dominant as they came, and she was a switch. Sex worked for us when she wanted to be the submissive, but she’d never truly submit. There’d always be that independent part of her who couldn’t give in completely.
“What about you?” she said. “You think Mr. Red will be back?”
“I fucking hope so.” Without him, the club wouldn’t last long without fresh blood. “If he shows and you’re here, you keep your ass in the office where it belongs, or get it back on the table.”
She smirked. “There’s only one man I’ll get on the table for. And if I do? You’re welcome to watch. Maybe we can show you how it’s done.”
I laughed, and it felt good to ease the tension. “I think I know how it’s done. You get off on being an exhibitionist.”
Her eyes gleamed with knowing. “Takes one to know one, Joseph.”
chapter
SIX
NOEMI
I’d wanted to be bad and failed. Twice.
Failure wasn’t allowed in my vocabulary. I scoured the Internet for any detail about Joseph, but there was nothing. It took two days before I gave in to the dark thoughts whispering to find him. I returned to Dune, stalking a man I’d turned down. I would not do it a third time.
The man I found fascinating hadn’t been at Dune all week. I’d struck up a conversation with the bartender and learned the owner didn’t visit much. I’d need to look for him elsewhere.
The crazy ideas kept coming, like a train I couldn’t stop, and I no longer cared. My regret over backing out the second time was so enormous I had a hard time focusing during class. I fantasized about lying on his desk in his darkened office while he commanded me to touch him. To tell him how good it felt. I wanted him to have total control over me. What would we have done if sensible Noemi hadn’t been there? That shuddering, scared little girl was messing up my life, and I wanted her gone.
I’d destroy her, and use Joseph Monsato to do it. He was perfect, and I wanted him. I longed to know what he’d do to me, and what he’d get me to do to him.
Google said he owned two more establishments in the downtown area. One was a comedy club over on Wells, and the other was a restaurant that wasn’t too far from my apartment.
I’d waited tables a few summers at a country club, so getting the waitress job there was easy. I didn’t learn much from the staff about him. Mr. Monsato was as much of a mystery to them as he was to me, but I’d heard he liked to come in some mornings for an early lunch before the restaurant was open.
So I took every lunch shift I could get with my class schedule. Nine long days passed before the hostess flitted through the prep station and asked the chef if the owner’s lunch was ready.
“Where is he seated?” I tried to sound casual.
She studied me for a moment. “Table twenty-six. You want to take it?”
Yes. Hell yes. “Sure, it’s no problem.”
She shrugged and gestured to the plate the chef set on the pass. “Have at it.”
The ceramic was warm in my clammy hands and I gripped it tightly. Every day that passed without seeing him made the legend grow larger in my mind. He couldn’t be as stunning and magnetic as I remembered, I warned myself while I made my way out of the kitchen.
Table twenty-six was a four-top tucked away at the back corner of the empty dining room. There he sat, his back to the wall and his attention buried on his cell phone screen. The legend I remembered didn’t do him justice when he was wearing a three-piece black suit. A silver tie was knotted at his neck. The dangerous, sexual man I’d fantasized about paled in comparison to this one.
My chest tightened and it became hard to breathe as I planted one foot in front of the other, willing myself across the carpet toward him. My heart slammed against my ribs as I set the plate on the table with a quiet thud.
Joseph didn’t look up at the sound, and I froze. What now? This was the moment I’d been waiting for, and he was oblivious.
“Can I get you anything else, sir?”
“No,” he said, glancing at the plate. “Thank—”
Our gazes locked and time slowed painfully.
He blinked. His expression was a total mystery. “Noemi?” He scanned the room once, then focused back on me. “What are you doing here?”
I’d rehearsed all of this in my head countless times, but now my mind was blank. “I work here.”
Skepticism passed through his eyes. “You do? Are you aware I’m the owner?”
“Yes.”
His phone was abandoned on the table top and he scrutinized me, considering my answer. “And is that why you work here?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Joseph leaned back in his chair and his gaze drifted down slowly, taking in the uniform. The red button-down shirt and black necktie, which was tucked into the black waist apron, tied over my fitted black pants. Oh, no. Was I wearing something wrong? The gaze drifted back up to meet mine, and it was heated. No, better. It had a look I’d seen from him before, the look that made my knees go soft.
Lust. But it faded as quickly as it had appeared.
“As much fun as it is to see you,” he said casually, “I’m not up for another round of your wait game right now.”
I steeled my voice to sound strong. “I’m not here to play that. If wait comes from me, you should ignore it. I know what I want.”
“Oh, of course.” His patronizing tone was sharp, but it helped solidify my desire. “You think you’re really ready this time?”
“Yes.”
The conviction in my word gave him pause. “I’m sure you think so.”
This was the moment I’d been desperate for. I’d be damned if I was going to back down. “Tell me what you want me to do. I’ll do it.”
A small smile grew on his lips. How did he make something so innocent look sinful and dirty? “All right, little girl. Take off your apron.”
Easy. I fumbled with the strings in the small of my back and tugged the knot free, then tossed the black fabric onto a nearby table.
“Undo your belt.”
This command was slightly harder to follow. Sensible Noemi raised a warning, but I ignored her. This was a test. I slipped the end of the belt loose from the buckle, feeling Joseph’s dark eyes watching my every move.
“Good,” he said, when it was done. “Unzip.”
“Here?” I whispered. He nodded.
Maybe it wasn’t a test. I tried not to falter or think. Just follow his command. I unbuttoned and unzipped my pants, but my hands trembled.
Pleased surprise streaked his face. I was sure I’d already made it farther than he thought I would. Joseph relaxed in his seat, throwing an arm on the back of the empty chair beside him, as if watching a show.
“Okay so far?” There was an edge of teasing, which I probably deserved.
“Yeah,” I said between deep breaths.
“Pants down to your knees. Your shirt comes up, so when you lean over and put yourself face-down on this table, you’ll show me your perfect ass.”
My need to stay decent was swept away in a tidal wav
e of desire. You’re going to do it, Noemi. I glanced around the empty dining room. The rest of the staff would be in the kitchen for another twenty minutes. I shimmied the waist of my pants over my hips and down my thighs until they were bunched at my knees. Cold air wafted over my newly exposed legs. My lavender lace panties barely covered my backside and I couldn’t contain the shudder. I was nervous to be doing this where anyone could catch us, but the dark, bad part of me was excited. I was doing it.
I pushed the placemats and silverware out of my way, yanked up my shirttails, and did as ordered, lowering my upper body to rest on the veneer. I was bent over the end of the table, and Joseph shifted his seat to an angle to see me better.
The only sound was his clipped breathing.
“Goddamn. Pull those sexy panties down,” he said, his voice hushed but no less sexy. “I want to see your pussy.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. His filthy commands set me on fire, and created a line that sensible Noemi couldn’t get across. My fingers clawed at the waistband and pushed my underwear down until it was around my thighs, leaving me naked and vulnerable. Showing Joseph a part of me that few men had ever seen. And I loved it.
“Look at you.” It rang out like he couldn’t believe it. “What would you do if someone walked in right now and saw this? With your ass bare, and your pussy waiting to be fucked?”
I had no thought in my mind, so I picked the only answer I could. “I’d . . . do whatever you told me to.”
He snatched up his phone abruptly, typed out a message, and then dropped the phone back on the table. “I’ve told my manager not to let anyone disturb us. Here’s hoping he can follow orders as well as you can.”
I expected him to touch me, but he sat in the chair, watching. Silent, and unmoving. His dark eyes had me locked in place. I wanted his skin on mine, his lips on mine.
“Are you going to touch me?” I whispered.
His smile was triumphant. “When I’m ready, I will. I think you’ll have to wait.”
Oh, God. It was awkward lying bent over on the table while my legs shook, but it . . . did something. My craving for his touch grew enormous in a blink of an eye. He seemed unaffected. First, he took off his suit jacket, folded it, and set it on the seat of the chair beside him. Second, he unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled his sleeves back. Anticipation was heavy and suffocating. Then, Joseph shifted his chair back to the table, picked up his silverware, and set about cutting into his chicken marsala. He was . . . holy hell, eating? While I was letting it all hang out?
He was smart and calculating. While he ate, his attention was only on me. This was a test, to see if I would break.
I wouldn’t. I’d spent my whole life being tested.
But the hunger for his dirty words and his touch built until it was almost unbearable. How long did I remain like this? What if this wasn’t a test, but a form of humiliation? I was a heartbeat away from covering myself when he stood, picked up his chair, and disappeared from view.
“Hands behind your back.” There was hardly a thump, but it sounded as if he’d placed the chair directly behind me, and sat down on it.
I clasped one hand around the other in the small of my back, which made the shiver in my shoulders more pronounced. I startled when his thumbs slipped under the sides of my underwear and tugged the fabric further down my thighs.
“Fuck, Noemi. You look good enough to eat.”
I stopped breathing when something wet touched me. He licked. Again and again. His tongue teased between my legs where I was aching.
“Holy shit,” I moaned.
“Oh, so the good girl can swear? Or is that only when I’m fucking her with my mouth?”
I clenched my hand tighter on my other, trying to ground the moment and not lose myself in the sensation. What he was doing felt amazing, and my already weak knees softened with every pass of his skilled tongue over my flesh.
Joseph was going down on me in the restaurant he owned, right out in the open. It was wrong, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Warm hands closed on my ass cheeks and massaged while his mouth continued its assault.
“You taste so good.” His tongue pressed deep inside, then slipped down, and his lips closed on the center point of my desire, sucking, causing me to moan quietly. “Do you like that?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“What do you like,” I could feel his lips moving against my sensitive skin, “specifically?”
The muscle low in my belly clenched. In my fantasies he demanded I talk dirty to him, but the reality was both better and worse. I was excited to speak up, but nervous I’d say something unsexy and he’d laugh.
“I like what you were just doing.”
The mouth was gone, but he lingered close. I could feel warm, hurried breath rolling over the backs of my legs. “You liked it when I sucked on your clit? Or when I put my tongue inside your pussy?”
I closed my eyes. “The first one.”
“Say it, and I’ll do it again.”
I pulled air into my body, which felt like an enormous task. “I liked it . . . when you sucked on my clit.”
I cried out as he rewarded me. Oh my God, it felt so good. His hands tightened on my ass, like an involuntary reaction to my sound of pleasure. But one of them released its grip and slid towards my center, down through the valley of—
I jolted as he brushed past the place that had always been off limits. My hands flew to the tabletop to push myself up.
“No,” he commanded in a firm tone. There was a sharp sting of pain in my thigh, as if . . . did he just pinch me? His other hand flattened on my back and pushed me down, urging me to stay in position on the table. “I’m not going to remind you again. Hands behind your back.”
I did as told, struggling to catch my breath but it was hopeless. He sank a finger deep inside my pussy, all the way until his knuckles pressed against me.
“Oh my God.” The indecent movement of his finger was intense. His slow thrusts made me shake uncontrollably and I spun out of control. My fingernails dug into my wrist as I clenched it tightly.
“I’m guessing from your reaction,” he said, his voice confident and hypnotic, “no one’s touched you there before?”
“No.” I tried not to pant. Pleasure crept along my body, flooding from his finger.
“Let’s find out how bad you’re willing to be.” Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could hear the grin in his words. His hand withdrew, leaving me feeling empty. “Put your hands on that perfect ass.”
I hesitated. What did he mean? Where was this going?
“Now.” His dark tone forced me into action. I reached down and put one palm flat on each cheek. “Good. Like this.” His hands wrapped around my wrists and pushed them away. Opening me to him.
“Oh my God.”
He chuckled. “Stay like that.”
It was an impossible request. I was going to shake apart. His thumb pushed inside my pussy and retreated, and began to move up. Before I could form words, two fingers drove into my pussy, and the thumb traced a wet path to my other entrance. Dirty. So fucking dirty. The thumb swirled, spreading my arousal around. I had no idea it would feel like that. That there’d be pleasure from this shocking touch.
“You’re not going to tell me to wait?”
“No.” I struggled to keep guilt from my voice.
“You like it like this, don’t you, filthy girl? Riding my fingers and letting me touch you where no one else has?”
I bit my bottom lip, but released it a second later. I should lie and say it was too filthy, but I couldn’t. “Yes. I like it.”
He pumped his fingers faster, and heat spilled over, burning everything away except for the two hands working my body like a master. The chair creaked, just audible over my gasps, as he shifted.
“Oh my God!” I cried when his face was between my hands, his tongue swirling where it made the good girl in me scream.
“We’ve got to expand your vocabulary. We haven’t even gott
en to the fucking yet and you’re already stuck on repeat.”
He stopped talking and the sensations he gave me flipped the entire world upside down. His tongue traveled over my skin, licking where I shouldn’t allow. It was terrifying, wrong, and so amazing. I clenched my hands, pulling them further apart to give him better access, no longer caring whether or not what we were doing was bad. Every cell in my body was tingling.
“Oh, fuck,” I moaned.
“Better.” He picked up the pace. The rhythm of his fingers was perfect. Not too fast to lose sensation, but not too slow that I needed more. They drove hard, tapping a spot inside with a steady beat. Every second felt better than the last. And his tongue fluttered, making me lose my mind.
I was about to orgasm for the first time ever with a man. I knew what the beginnings felt like. I could get myself there on my own, but no one else had been able to. There was something wrong with me, Ross had figured out. But here it was, the warm numbness working up my legs, threatening to erupt.
Had Ross been wrong? What if there wasn’t something wrong with me, but with him?
“Are you about to come?” Joseph asked.
“Yes.” Yes, yes . . .
I yelped in pain as his fingers yanked out of me and he pinched my clit.
“Not yet.” There was a crash which sounded like he stood so fast it knocked the chair over. Joseph’s tone mocked. “Wait.”
“No,” I cried as the orgasm faded with the sting of his pinch. No! I’d been so close.
There was a jingle as his belt was undone. Fumbling, followed by a crinkle. A torn condom wrapper fell onto the table.
“You’ll wait until you can come all over my cock. Up on your elbows.”
Maybe he didn’t know just how cruel he’d been. He’d only meant to tease, but coming from sex wasn’t possible. What had just happened was a fluke; the perfect combination of sensation and timing. It’d never happen again.
But I walked my hands across the table and lifted up onto my elbows as the head of his dick nudged me. Even without the orgasms, I still enjoyed sex. The feel, the emotion, and the connection. I took a deep breath when his hand settled on my hip, and he began to press inside.
