by Riley Murphy
A thousand things ran through her mind at once and not one of them were good. Play dumb. That always works. She tried not to look too distressed with that thought as she shot a glance to the porch. Empty, thank god.
“Hi.”
He was so self-possessed. It was that, more than anything else, that made her heart race and butterflies take flight in her stomach. His sense of calm gave her the hope that by some miracle he hadn’t run into Joe. “Hi.” She felt like a silly school-girl ready to melt all over her crush as she repeated, “What are you doing here?”
“I brought you something.”
His tone was deep and even, but there was darkness in his eyes that made her shiver. She didn’t know why. “You did? For my trip?”
“Come here.”
He held out his hand and she got instantly nervous. Forcing a smile she didn’t feel, she wondered if he had seen Joe. Be cute. That worked too. Tossing her head in a shake, she casually draped the towel over her shoulders and stepped forward. “I really wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know.” He pulled her in between his legs and returned her smile.
“You’re acting strange. Is everything all right?”
“I want you to close your eyes.”
When he grabbed the lapels of her robe and slowly pulled them apart, a surge of shyness skated through her. Which was really stupid considering what they’d done via texting and on a few of those dates, but that wasn’t the same as being naked in front of him, was it? Hadn’t she decided getting naked with him in person would wreck everything like it usually did? “David.”
“Come on, close your eyes and keep them closed for me.”
This is what attracted her to him. Right from the first night she’d met him he seemed quiet and in total control. When he spoke it was as if his words were more important than anyone else’s. Not that he was arrogant, it was just…yeah, she still couldn’t put a finger on it. Looking at him now, she had no idea why she had this intense need to be connected with him. Whether by phone or touch, she did and that worried her. A want was one thing and a need another. But that was her problem, not his.
With a sigh, she brushed the hair off her cheek and made her decision. She’d finally give in and physically sleep with him even though she knew that doing so was the first step to the end of whatever it was they had going on. Too bad. She had hoped to take her fantasies about him away with her. To savor and embellish until she returned in a couple of weeks and faced harsh reality. “Okay.”
She took a steadying breath and closed her eyes.
“Very good. Now”—he used a knee and forced her thighs apart—“spread your legs. Yes, like that. Keep your eyes closed and count from fifty to one.”
She silently got to forty-six and he interrupted her.
“Out loud. From fifty.”
“Fifty. Forty-nine.” Her robe slid off her and she hesitated.
“Forty-eight,” he spoke the hoarse reminder in her ear.
“Forty-eight,” she repeated and felt something cool and smooth slip between her legs. “Forty-seven. Forty-six.” Was it lingerie of some kind? No, it was hard as it pressed against her. She frowned. “Forty-five. Forty-four.” Was that a belt he was cinching to her waist? “Forty-three…” By the time she got to thirty she was convinced it was a leather thong-harness for a swing maybe? When she hit twenty and heard a couple of click-like snaps she felt the weight of whatever it was settle on her. She was thinking this was a bit of overkill for their first time together. But then David wasn’t a normal guy. He liked specific things. Different things that normally got her hot, wet and bothered so why was she worrying?
“Three. Two.”
“Wait. Don’t open your eyes just yet.”
“But that’s not fair.” She gave him her best pout even though she wasn’t sure he’d see it. “I counted down.”
“You did and when you do what I want you to do you’ll always be rewarded.” He punctuated that promise with a caress that made her toes curl. Stroking the heat and hardness of his warm palms from her hips, over her stomach and rib cage until he cupped each one over her breasts in a gentle squeeze. She could barely breathe. “David…”
“Ask permission.”
He shifted so her nipples were caught between his knuckles as he pulled on them and applied pressure. The action worked like a conduit between her breasts and core. Heat, god, the heated tingles spread from there outward. “Can I open—?”
“May. May I. Say it.”
Slightly bizarre and sort of OCDish, but whatever floated his boat. The sooner she took this party to her bedroom, the better. “May I open my eyes?”
He tugged on her almost irreverently before he let her go. “You may.”
Boy, that was easy. She could get used to—she looked down and panicked. “What the fuck—?”
“Language.”
That one word stopped her cold. He meant it. This wasn’t him being playful. And the contraption he’d locked on her wasn’t a prop. Why would he…? Her eyes widened and were drawn like steel to magnet toward the porch. He knew. She didn’t know how but she was sure he knew about Joe.
Her first thought was to do what she always did. Divert attention. Her second? If she did the first successfully, all was not lost.
She dropped down so fast she almost fell into the side of his thigh. Grabbing up her robe she fought to get it on as she stood and took two tripping steps backwards. “What is this?”
She knew exactly what it was when her hand felt through the terry cloth—a chastity belt—she was stalling for time.
“An intervention.”
The way he said this was so blasé maybe she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. Maybe Joe had left before—
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I need my keys.” Think of the devil and there he was. All red faced and hesitant as he came in through the sliders and went to the table where he’d left his wallet and stuff. Why hadn’t she noticed his things there before? Wait.
Joe was here.
Now.
Holy. Moly.
She shot a look at David and knew the word guilty was stamped all over her face. “David.”
His eyes never wavered. “Apologize.”
“Of course. I’m sorry. I—”
“Not to me. To Joe.”
She frowned and clutched at the lapels of her robe. “Wh-why?”
“You’re the reason I had to ask him to leave.”
“But I—”
“Now.”
She jumped even though he whispered that word. Maybe because he whispered it, she couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that she had to say something, so she gave Joe the apology she should have given David with a few much needed changes. After all, David was the one she’d wronged to some extent. Joe was only right now caught up in it. “I’m sorry, Joe. I should have told you about David. We had a—”
“Have,” David corrected.
She did a double take. Was he mad? He didn’t appear to be and that kind of nonchalance scared the crap out of her, because she knew he had every reason to be. She was completely baffled by his demeanor as well. So much so, that all she wanted at the moment was for Joe to leave so she could explain things to David. You should have done that from the start. Taking a deep breath she let it out in a rush and turned back to Joe. “We kind of have a-a thing.”
Joe ignored her, which was very irritating, but not unexpected. Hadn’t he been ignoring everything she wanted in favor of his desires until she finally got wise to this and used his desires to her consumer advantage?
“Mr. Hollan, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
Lacy’s jaw dropped and before she could stop herself she let go of the robe and twisted right and then left so fast as she dipped back in a you got to be kidding me fashion, that her robe gaped open. Before she caught the sides up, she did manage to mentally fume, Not another one! Kiss ass.
David continued to stare at her while he spoke to Joe, “I’m sure you didn’t. I’m a
lso sure I’ll be in touch with you at a later date regarding things around here you do have an idea about and will apologize for, correct?”
“Yes sir.”
The second Joe left she spun around ready to force an apology if need be. “David, I—”
His scathing look caught her off guard and after a moment of deafening silence, that felt more like an hour under hot interrogation lights, he prompted, “I’d what?”
“I’d—I’m sorry.”
He casually shifted back, hooking a knee over the curved bolster on the couch, as if he were making himself more comfortable. “For?”
He may have been comfortable but she had to fight the urge to shuffle her weight from one foot to the other. “The Joe thing.”
“What is it with you and the word thing? What does thing actually mean?”
She gave in and transferred her weight from one leg to the other, hating that it made her look even more guilty. But seeing as how it was obvious he was going to make this as excruciating for her as possible, she wanted to be comfortable. “It’s an event.”
He smiled and the gesture didn’t reach his eyes. The longer he stared at her the more she felt compelled to act. Do. Say.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you.” She looked away as she hated being drilled by those eyes.
“Why?”
That was certainly obtuse. She toyed with the idea of telling him so, but decided to stick to staring at the ugly apricot wall paint instead. “Because it was the right thing to do.”
“There’s that word again.” His low tone of voice got to her almost as badly as his next words. “And why is it that you recognize it as the right thing to do only after you got caught doing the wrong thing?”
She winced both times he said thing, as now she knew with absolute certainty that he wasn’t mad. He was furious. People, or more precisely, men in general never got mad at her. She learned the hard way how to get around them, but she didn’t want to examine that too closely. Instead she prided herself on how she’d adjusted by walking through intimate relationships on an even keel. When the ship rocked she disembarked. Plain and simple. Right now, however, the vessel was capsizing and there were no life boats, preservers or rafts. Sink or swim was a phrase that came to her and she decided to do the latter. Only to do that she needed to defuse this rapidly deteriorating situation and there was only one way she knew how.
Straightening her spine, she mustered as much bravado as she could when she turned to him. Without pausing, she launched her “when all else has failed” strategy and moved to take off her robe. She hadn’t even shrugged a shoulder forward and he stood.
“Stop.”
She had no choice. Every muscle in her body froze with that deep command. Every one, but her tongue. “I thought—”
His eyes glittered. The hazel-blue shine assured her he knew exactly what she’d had in mind.
She didn’t know what to do. She barely breathed, waiting. When a full thirty seconds tick by, she couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“I…” His stare deepened and she gulped. These systematic steps always worked for her. “I…” She licked her lips and swiped her dampened palms down the front of her robe. The look he gave her. The fire in his eyes. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Why didn’t he move? Speak? React?
She wanted so badly to look away. No, to slink away. He made her feel like that. Someone else had made you feel that way too. Cheap. No, accountable—her heart pounded with the shame of it until she forced herself to focus on this situation, and when she did she remembered the chastity belt. That reminder gave her the courage to tackle him over it. He had no business covertly putting that on her. She narrowed her eyes and pointed directly at him. Ready to throw him on the defensive and demand he unlock it, when her newfound courage faltered. His quiet calm unnerved her so badly her whole arm trembled. With just one continuous look he was shattering her confidence. Annihilating her plan until she lowered her arm and that’s when she panicked.
An unreasonable panic that went into overdrive. Bad thoughts of a bad time. Why now? Because you let him get close and you were careless...again. She refused to believe that, but the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach was telling her otherwise. No, things like this never happened to her. To her friends? Sure. To her? Never. But it was happening. Maybe that’s why she lost it. Even when she lunged, snatching her purse off the coffee table and turned to run to her bedroom, she had no idea why she was doing it. You didn’t run last time and look how that turned out. She knew this was all wrong and so not her style and yet there she was. Locking herself in by jamming a chair up under the door handle before she rummaged through her bag to find her phone.
She needed help. Jo and Ted. They’d help her, but when she got Jo’s voicemail she wanted to scream. She did scream, right into the phone. The words tumbled out so fast she wasn’t even sure what she was saying or asking. She kept right on going until she heard—Jesus Christ—the buzz of a saw. Until she—oh my God—spotted—what the hell was that? Not a saw—she squinted until her eyes focused on the outline being made on the backside of door. A circle. That’s what it was as the disc burrowed its way through the wood.
She was stunned. He wasn’t really doing this, was he? Her quiet and charming David that wined and dined her once a week?
The wood piece fell and when it hit against the slats of the chair, she was pulled out of her daze. Either that or it was the sound of buzzing getting louder that got her attention. She wasn’t positive. All she did was stare in horrified disbelief as David’s hand fit through the newly made hole. He didn’t feel around and there was literally no hesitation as his fingers instantly closed over the chair back before he pushed it aside. After it toppled he simply fit his hand over the knob, turned it and opened the door.
And there he was…
Without a thought she threw the phone at him and wanted to cry when he ducked to the left and it sailed right over him. It hit the hardwood beyond with a spectacular crash. Half the phone jumped right, a quarter went left and the remainder landed in a scattered mess under the coffee table.
She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t sure she was breathing, even, when he shut off the machine and slowly lifted it so he could blow the sawdust off the back of his hand. When he was finished he tilted his head and calmly asked, “Are you done?”
She had no answer for him as the disc’s slowing rotation had her mesmerized. Enthralled and captivated, but then she looked up and really wished she’d stuck to getting dizzy watching the spinning metal because now she had another reason to be dizzy.
The ire she spotted shining in his penetrating eyes...
Chapter Three
“You—you tunneled through the door.”
David shrugged off Lacy’s accusation. He didn’t need to read her tea leaves to know she wasn’t happy about it.
“You—you could have injured me. How did you know I wasn’t leaning against it?”
Simple. He’d looked through the lock, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.
His silence caused her to warm up to the subject as she repeated, “You wrecked my door.”
Sure and he wasn’t about to explain either that he’d seen the raised panel replacement leaning up against a wall on the porch earlier, and if that weren’t proof enough that it was expendable, there’d been a big red ‘x’ on this one, right in the center where he’d tunneled. He knew what that meant. It indicated Joe was going to demolish it eventually, so he didn’t get why she was bitching about it. It wasn’t like he ruined a perfectly good door. “I did.”
“You…? I want the key.”
He bent and put the small hand tool down. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed how she nervously edged closer to the bed. Not a very wise move for a woman in possible peril.
“Are you going to give it to me?”
He straightened. “What? The key to the belt?”
Her chin lifted a notch. “Yes.”
“No.”<
br />
“No?”
“How is it you sound surprised by my answer?” He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting. Fuming because she looked damn good. All clean and shiny. Even at this distance he was nearly drowning in her scent. She smelled like fresh strawberries. She probably tasted like them too. And her hair. He loved her hair. It was thick. She normally wore it straight so when she turned, it swung over her shoulders like watery silk. But right now, after being left to dry on its own for a bit, it had worked into a series of soft coils that begged for him to spear through the sausage-like twists and separate the strands with his fingers.
“You’re a reasonable man.”
If she knew what he was envisioning doing to her right at the moment she’d take that back. “I can be.” He came away from the doorframe and sighed. “Unfortunately I’m not feeling very reasonable right at the moment.” He uncrossed his arms and made a big show of picking a few stray bits of sawdust off his Armani suit as he added, “In fact, until I get some answers and you and I figure out how we’re going to move forward from here, I think it’s best you don’t make any demands.”
“I’m not wearing this and you can’t make me.”
He stopped picking and cocked his head to study her. Waiting until a bright blush colored her cheeks. “I wouldn’t be so hasty with that declaration. After all,” he pulled the key out of his pocket and held it up, “I have the decision maker right here.”
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but her shrugging offhandedly before she mimicked him by folding her arms over her chest was definitely not it.
“Gee, I’d sit down for what I’m guessing is going to be a fascinating lecture on proper female comportment, but the leather’s hard. There’s no give as”—she leaned forward and loudly whispered—“it hasn’t been worn in yet and trust me on this, it won’t be.”
This was the first time he actually got—as in literally—the term ‘hot under the collar’. He had visions of tugging on his tie until it was loose. Unbuttoning his shirt. Taking off his coat. Rolling up his sleeves and dragging her over his knees for a spanking she wouldn’t soon forget.
