by Lena Austin
“I see.” Calder paced up and stroked her cheek. “We do have a lot to talk about.”
Kelly was more puzzled than she’d ever been before about a man. “You have more twists in your brain than a pretzel factory, Calder. Everyone else comments on Mighty Mouse, or my alarm clock.” She pointed to her Scooby Doo alarm clock.
“Baby, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about you, it’s to expect the unexpected. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that your private sanctum would be cartoons and laughter.” He looked around the room. “I see heroes. The quirky ones. Your room says, to me, ‘I need a fun hero.’” He pointed to a stuffed Hong Kong Phooey sitting in state in her chair. “You don’t get any more fun than him.”
“You don’t mind?” she asked, flabbergasted that he’d read her so well.
“Mind? Why should I mind?” He snatched her up in his arms and tossed her on the blue and gold stars of her bedspread.
She managed one good bounce before he was on top and pressing her down into the mattress. “Oh! Well, then!” Kelly wrapped her arms around his neck and let him unbutton her blouse. “Want to prove how heroic you are?”
Calder laughed and buried his face in her chest. “Yep! Let’s see if I can match Hong Kong Phooey’s energy before Sadie calls us for dinner.”
There was a laughing tangle as clothes were mutually ripped off bodies and tossed haphazardly on the floor. Kelly noted that one of her pink socks covered her father’s picture before she managed to get Calder’s briefs off him.
At the end of it all, she wound up on top and took advantage to tickle Calder’s exposed ribs. And there, she found a weakness. He was ticklish and dissolved into helpless laughter, crying “Mercy! I give! Help!”
“No quarter!” she yelled, and dragged her nails over his ribs.
“Wicked! Evil!” He laughed, and threw her down among her pillows. “I’m the hero! I must vanquish the evil villainess!” Grabbing her hands, his knee went between her legs. “And since you’ve discovered my secret weakness, I must protect myself by holding your hands.” His other knee pressed her legs further apart.
Kelly, loving the game, pretended to fight and kick while helpfully spreading her legs and raising her hips for impalement. “Oh! Oh! I must find a way to get to my secret weapon!”
Calder buried himself in her and murmured in her ear, “You’re a secret weapon. And I just found your trigger.”
Kelly couldn’t think of a suitable rejoinder while being so thoroughly fucked. “I guess you did,” was all she could gasp out.
It was wonderful to have a secret fantasy fulfilled. Calder’s playful style had her undone completely. The mattress bounced them both like it was a trampoline, adding to the sense of fun while ensuring Calder buried himself deeply inside her with every impact.
She was building up to a screaming, tear-up-the-sheets orgasm when Calder suddenly withdrew. Kelly looked up and growled, “I’m gonna kill you!”
“No, you’re not.” He snatched her off the bed and into a fireman’s carry.
“This is not dignified or romantic, Calder!” she muttered while her face banged into his strong, muscular back.
“Dignified? Nope, pretty dolls like you don’t have dignity.” She heard scraping sounds, as if something was being moved. Orienting herself upside down was difficult, and before she could figure it out, Calder dumped her on top of her highboy dresser, sitting on her naked butt like a doll on display.
“What the…” she started to exclaim, but Calder spread her knees apart and attacked her pussy, since it was right in front of his face. Her exclamation ended with a moan of pure pleasure.
Calder’s agile tongue was nearly as inventive as his mind, she decided. She fisted a hand in his hair and leaned back to enjoy the interrupted orgasm building again inside her. When it was finally ripped from her, she let it fly like Mighty Mouse, who grinned across the room at her.
While she still panted and shuddered, Calder stepped away and wiped his chin with a smug smile. “I think I’ve vanquished you, lovely villainess. But, just to make sure…” He grabbed her hips and tossed her over his shoulder again.
This time, she hit the bed face-first, right into a star-shaped gold pillow. Calder was on top and inside her before she could do more than squeal with delight at being so… so… Mastered.
Calder lifted her hips from the mattress and began to pound furiously. All Kelly could do was continue to orgasm and squeal into her star pillow. “I give! I give! You win!”
“Good!” He thrust harder and deeper with every word. “Because… I’m… not… sure… who… vanquished whom!” He let go his own orgasm, and conquered her completely.
They both waited, breathing hard, regaining enough energy to think about moving. Kelly moaned as he softened and slipped out, giving her one last intimate caress. Calder fell off to lie beside her, still panting and grinning.
Kelly rolled away. “I’ll get you a washcloth. Stay there.” She wobbled in the direction of her bathroom, and tripped on his pants.
“I’ll just throw these on the chair,” she began, but a small white card fluttered out of one of the pockets. “Whoops.” She bent down to get it. When Kelly straightened, her eyes were blazing. “Press Club?” she growled.
Chapter Eight
Calder sat up in bed, knowing it was too late, but hoping to forestall the inevitable. “Now, Kelly,” he began.
“Don’t you ‘now Kelly’ me!” she shouted. “I trusted you! All I wanted was a happy little roll with a handsome guy with no strings, no need to be ‘The Infamous Black Widow’ one more time.” One fat tear rolled down her cheek, unheeded.
She still was magnificent, even when naked and pissed off. But Calder knew that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “Please, Kelly, let me explain.”
“Sure, why the fuck not?” Kelly tossed her head and stalked to the armoire, getting out a thin black robe of some silky material. “It’s the least I can do before I toss your ass out on the street to ruin me.”
“I won’t ruin you!” he shot back, stung that she’d think so little of him.
“No? Why do you think we Dommes avoid publicity? Because the press is constantly painting us as whores, that’s why! I never, ever sleep with my clients. Why do you think I have special release forms I make every client, no matter who they are or how well I know them, fill out every time they visit? To avoid lawsuits, and so I have a leg to stand on in court!”
“And very fine legs they are, too,” Calder muttered, getting up to put on his clothes. The screech that resulted from his compliment should have shattered glass. He pulled on his pants faster. Unless he talked his way out of this one, he might be out on his ear minus the rest, and consider himself lucky if he got them tossed out after he landed. “Do you want to hear what I’ve been writing before you toss me out, or not?”
The glare she gave him would have etched steel. “Not really, but I will anyway. And it’s not because you’re a hottie in bed.”
He couldn’t find his shirt. He gave up and grabbed his jacket, and slid into his loafers. “You’re pretty damn hot yourself, beautiful. Let’s go into your throne room.” Calder gestured to the door.
A snort accompanied another toss of the head, and Kelly regally sailed out the door. “It’s not a throne.” She sniffed haughtily.
Calder followed her out and down the stairs to the basement. He threw his jacket on a chair, just in case he still had to leave. He could feel the little burgundy box in the pocket. “It damn sure looks like one. And I’ll tell you right off that I’m doing this so you have the upper hand, Kelly. I want you sitting on your throne, knowing this is your home. Knowing you can turn on the ice princess BW in her proper setting. I want you that way.”
“I know the psychological game. Don’t tell me how to play it,” she replied with a growl.
“I know you do, and that’s one reason why I’m here.” Instead of taking one of the chairs, Calder deliberately took one of the pillows on the floor. Kelly
’s eyes narrowed as he sat in a tailor’s seat. “Yeah, so I’m graceless at this. Gimme a break, willya?” he muttered.
“Not on your life.” Kelly altered her tone and spoke in an affected accent, “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do.” Her eyes were hot and full of restrained violence.
“God, I love your sense of humor.” Calder waved to her position in her chair. “You look like a queen, and I am the supplicant. We’ve set the psychological scenario now, right?”
“So we have,” she said, not at all mollified.
“But that’s what my article was all about, Kelly. Psychology. Not an exposé into the sinful nature of our local population.” He snorted. “I couldn’t care less about what the morality of this whole business of BDSM is. Last time I looked, this was a free country. There’s nothing illegal here.”
“Except what some might term criminal assault,” she snarled. Her fingers started drumming on the chair in a rapid tattoo.
“That’s why you have the release forms, right? So you can prove they came willingly to you for a service?”
“Get to the point, Calder. You aren’t making a case here. All you’re doing is interviewing me again.”
“Sorry, bad habit. Okay, from the beginning, then.” He sighed. “Yes, I’m a writer. A free-lancer. I don’t work for the newspaper, TV, or radio. Let’s get that clear up front.”
Kelly cautiously nodded, her fingers still drumming, but more slowly. “So, that proves what? You could be working for any gossip rag in the nation. I can see that headline now: ‘Infamous Dominatrix Exposed!’”
“Psychology Today.”
“What?”
“Psychology Today. That’s the magazine that hired me.” Calder ran his fingers through his hair. “Look, I know it sounds weird. Hear me out, okay?”
Kelly stood up, and Calder’s blood ran cold. Was she going to toss him out now? “All right, Calder. I’ll hear you out. But first, I want a brandy.”
He sighed with relief and cautiously begged, “May I have one, too?”
“You’d better stick with coffee, Calder. I’m still not convinced I shouldn’t throw you out of here with a flea in your ear.”
Kelly walked to the basement’s kitchen, her long legs flashing in the low lighting. Calder struggled to keep from running to her and begging for mercy. His only hope lay in logic and compromise now. He heard mutters and bangs as cabinet doors slammed.
“What? You think I’m serving you?” she called out. “Get your gravity-defying, journalistic ass in here and get your own!”
“Now who’s good with words?” Calder asked. “That didn’t sound like you wanted to compliment me, but I’m taking it that way anyway.” But he moved to go get his coffee before she threw it at him.
Kelly gave him another one of those fulminating looks, and handed his coffee over. Calder considered himself fortunate that only a tiny portion splashed on his hand.
“Okay, back to explaining,” he stated, getting serious. “Psych Today has been trying to get information on the BDSM thing for some time. The shrinks have all had their say, but they needed the other side. But contacting people and getting them to talk hasn’t been easy.”
Kelly swirled her brandy for a moment, inhaling the intoxicating scent, and walked back to her chair before drawling, “I wonder why?”
“Sarcasm is appropriate, yeah.” Calder had the sense to put his coffee down on a nearby table before folding his legs up to get back on the pillow. “Someday, I hope you’ll explain how this is supposed to be comfortable,” he muttered.
“Your comfort is not my concern right now, Calder. So you decided to -- infiltrate -- the BDSM world on assignment?” The ice princess BW was back.
“Not exactly. I asked my college buddy Brad to help me. I knew he’d been into it back when we shared a dorm room. Brad said the best way to learn was to observe.” Calder looked up regretfully at Kelly. “That’s all I was supposed to do. Observe. I…”
“Didn’t expect to get invited to my home and get the rare opportunity to see how I played?” she supplied in a dangerously low voice.
“No. I didn’t expect to find myself lusting after or falling in love with the beautiful Kelly, who just happens to be The Infamous Black Widow.”
“You can’t be in love with me. You don’t know me.” Her voice rose to close to a squeak.
“Besides in the biblical sense?” Calder joked feebly. “No, I don’t know you well. But I can tell you this, Black Widow. You weave one helluva web around a man’s heart.”
Kelly got up and began to pace, sipping her brandy. “I’ll let that go for now. I still don’t believe you. But what about your article?”
Calder smiled wryly. “I need to do a lot of research before I can present a fair and unbiased article to the bosses. And I can’t write the article, or the book, until I understand every aspect of your art.”
One winged eyebrow arched at him from over the rim of her snifter. “Oh, really?” she said to her brandy.
Calder concentrated on his coffee cup for a few moments. “Yes, there is a lot of research left to do. I’m not without some knowledge, Kelly. I majored in psychology in college. Master’s program. You’ve only shown me the tip of the iceberg, and I’ve been on fire since I first met you.” He put his coffee cup down on the table and got up to pace.
Kelly sat down on her chair arm to watch him walk back and forth. “Fire and ice are my specialties,” she commented, putting her brandy down beside her.
Calder shot her a look that was a combination of lust and pleading. “That’s obvious. But I want more than that, Kelly. Much more. I want your mind, too. I’m becoming -- pardon the pun -- painfully aware that I can’t write the article, or the book my agent wants on BDSM without you. And I don’t want to learn from anyone else. I don’t want to work with anyone else.” He gestured, pointing at her legs displayed from the front of her robe. “Look at you. You’re so incredibly beautiful, so skilled, and dammit, so intelligent!”
He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m fixated, that’s what I am. And I’m so tangled up in my own emotions I couldn’t write that book if I tried.” He grabbed up his jacket from where he’d thrown it.
Kelly uncrossed her legs and stood. “Let me make this clear to you, Calder. You lied.” She poked a finger into his bare chest, her nail cutting his skin. “Most was a lie of omission, but a lie nonetheless. I don’t take well to deception in any form.”
“Not even when you neglect to tell me you’ve been training me to be a Dom, even to the point of hoping I go through the submission process?” Calder asked shrewdly.
Kelly’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “That’s not the same thing. You have to want it. You have to ask.”
“A deception is a deception, beautiful. You didn’t put qualifiers on your statement of hatred of them. Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? My logic and knowledge of human nature goes beyond being able to put two and two together. I’ll go, for now. But you need to decide if I have a place in your life that goes beyond Dominance and submission.”
He turned to leave, then abruptly turned back around. Striding purposefully to Kelly, he grabbed her by the arms and kissed her thoroughly. “I couldn’t leave without at least thanking you for the best times of my life,” he murmured, rubbing his lips against hers.
Calder released Kelly, and gave her cheek one last stroke with a knuckle. “And I’ll never forget you, no matter what you decide.” He turned to go, and strode up the stairs.
* * *
The soft bang as the front door closed echoed even down in the basement. Kelly snatched up her brandy and gulped it down, hoping the fiery liquid would drown out the tinkle of her heart breaking.
“Mistress?” the tentative voice of Sadie called down. “Are you down there?”
“I’m coming up,” Kelly called. She carried the snifter up, deciding she would be courteous when she wanted desperately to shatter it up against the fireplace like some dra
matic movie queen.
Sadie stood in the foyer near the dining room doors, waiting. Her watchful gaze told Kelly Sadie knew what had taken place downstairs. Sadie shrugged. “You were kind of noisy coming down the stairs and shouting. I came out to see what the ruckus was.”
Kelly gave a shuddering sigh and forced herself not to burst into tears. “It’s not eavesdropping when the whole world can hear, I know.”
“Come on.” Sadie put out a hand. “Screw dinner. You don’t need food. You need a hot cup and an ear to bend. Let’s go into the kitchen.”
A hot cup of coffee, liberally laced with the thick chocolate creamer she saved for special occasions, did help Kelly’s hands to stop shaking.
Sadie stirred her own steaming black brew, enhanced only with a dollop of molasses in what she called Creole style. Her big brown eyes were sympathetic. “You gonna tell me what happened or am I gonna get out the thumbscrews?”
It was a feeble joke in this household, but Kelly’s lips twitched. “Calder is a journalist,” she blurted. It still hurt.
Sadie jumped up, her eyes wide. “No shit? A reporter?” Her stream of invective would have amused Kelly any other time.
“In all fairness, no, not a reporter; a freelance writer. Believe it or not, his assignment this time was from Psychology Today.” She sipped her coffee and tried not to sniffle. “Why am I defending him? He still deceived us.”
Sadie slapped a handy box of tissues down in front of Kelly. “Besides the obvious reason that he would have never known who you were without the deception, I’d say he had a good reason to hide his profession once he got involved with you.” She sat back down and stirred her coffee needlessly while Kelly blew her nose. “And we haven’t got any room to talk, truthfully. Much as I hate to admit it, we weren’t exactly honest with him either, giving him Dom training. We knew, and he didn’t, how that might affect him.”
Kelly looked up in surprise. “That’s what he said.”
“Damn! That man is way too intelligent. I suppose he figured it out from his books?” When Kelly nodded, Sadie asked, “What else did he say?”
