Lucy continued to torture him with wicked strokes, watching his face intently for any weakness. There was an impish that grin that stole over her face as she rose, hands still on him, and stood in front of him.
Releasing her hold on him, she huskily said, “Undress me now… Start with my shoes.”
He knelt down before her, eyes not leaving her face until his knees the carpet. Even then, he had a hard time tearing his gaze away to start on his task. He lifted one delicate foot out of the slipper, then the next one. Oh so slowly, savoring the feel of her delicate bones in his hands.
“Faster,” she panted above him. One of her hands fisted his hair. The gentle bite of pain on his scalp as she tugged his hair made his cock jump again. He wanted to take his time exploring her. It was on his mind to talk her into taking things slow... But he stopped himself. He longed to appease Lucy more than to satisfy his own needs.
He stripped her in record time, saving the shirt for last, after the sweater. As he helped her whip it off, he realized that she had been braless this entire time. The creamy swell of her breasts bounced free; the rosy tips puckered. A soft, feminine scent wafted from her heated skin, every inch of her looking delectable. His mouth watered in eagerness.
“Can I please touch you?” He knew he begged and didn't care. This self-restraint was new to him, but he found that he was starting to delight in denying his own selfish impulses.
“Cup them,” came her breathy reply. “Taste them.”
Jayce was eager to comply. He threw himself into adoring her breasts, lavishing them with all the attention such perfection demanded.
“Sit on the couch.”
“Yes mam.” The address came naturally from him. Unbidden.
Once seated, she swung a thigh over his lap and sat astride him. She was perched with her round, tight bottom over his knees. From the way she was seated, a part of her core was revealed for him to behold. The glistening, pink folds of her lips opened, partially shrouded by her dark curls, tempting him beyond his comprehension. His own dick was ramrod straight and eager to be enveloped and squeezed by her tight heat.
He rubbed his palms over her thighs, stroking the tension from the tights muscles, waiting for what she would decide would happen next.
“Sit on your hands,” she commanded.
“What?”
“I said sit on your hands,” she repeated, cocking a brow at him. “It’s the only way I know that you won’t don’t something I have explicitly instructed you to do… If you don’t want to, we can stop right here.”
He shoved his hands, a bit wary, underneath his thighs. It was the first time since this has started since he’d felt a bit of hesitation.
Lucy leaned over and peppered his neck and chest with small nips. She would follow each one with a brush of her lips or a heated lick of her tongue. His hesitation quickly vanished and he was soon heaving and bucking with desire.
She soon took mercy on him and mounted his hardness in one smooth motion. As she sunk deep, she tossed her head back, gathering her hair up at the base of her neck with both hands. The position thrust her breasts upwards and they quivered maddeningly before his eyes.
"Yes!” He moaned, enraptured by the wantonness she displayed at her own sexuality. It was a privilege to behold such a sight. “Thank you.”
She smiled at him, beautifully wicked, and did a maneuver with her hips that had him gasping. Without meaning to, his hands had shot up to her waist and he held on for dear life.
“I’m sorry,” he uttered. Really, not feeling much sorry at all. He was floundering in the all the sensations this evening was causing him to feel.
“It’s all right.” She captured his mouth in a kiss, spearing her fingers through his hair. Breaking the kiss to come up for air, she uttered, “Enough for now. Join me.”
And he did.
Chapter 7
Lucinda
Jayce slept peacefully next to her. In contrast Lucy was wide-eyed and fretting.
What the hell was she doing? Having sex with your kidnapper, not only once but twice, had to be Stockholm syndrome to the extreme. Was he that good of a conman? ... Or was Lucy just that desperate to connect with someone?
She needed to get some air. Put some distance between them. Anything to just get out of this apartment and away from this man who shouldn’t be making her feel as much as she was right now.
Slipping into the discarded clothes from the floor, she slunk out of the bedroom and out of the apartment. Not stopping until she was outside, Lucy paused beneath a street lamp and just let the cold air soothe her heated face. It did nothing to temper the heat of her emotions.
She really didn’t know what the hell she was doing out here. Her purse and other belongings were back in the apartment and she just wasn’t ready to back there yet. She should really run now and get help.
I need to turn him in to the authorities. The thought came to her, cold and stark as the winter night. Really, it was the lawful thing to do. The sensible thing to do.
Where was the police station? She hadn't a clue. The only place she knew the direction to was the dinner they had eaten at earlier. She would use the phone there.
Making her way down the lonely streets Lucy was much more uneasy. Before, with Jayce, the walk had seemed magical and, dare she say it, romantic. Now, she struggled not to jump at every shadow and the noises of cars driving by.
She sped walked and reached the dinner quickly. Too quickly. About to enter, she stopped her hand from reaching for the door handle. Instead of barging in and demanding a phone, she stared at the entrance dumbly.
She was lost.
What the hell are you doing Lucinda? She began to pace furiously in front of the dinner. Indecision eating her up. If anyone had seen her, she would have looked like a crazy person to them. The man robbed a bank – a bank you work for – and then he kidnapped you, held you hostage, and made veiled threats of bodily harm if you didn’t cooperate.
Lucy marched to the entrance and made for the door again.
But he also took me out in a public place and explained why did what he had.
Jayce had known full well that she would have been able to call out for help at any second. He had trusted her not to. He had also trusted her tonight with his body and the awakening of his sexual exploration. He had given her the power to show him other ways to express care and pleasure.
This man that she really didn’t know, had trembled in her arms with ecstasy and vulnerability (TK). A man that, in her exhausted and delirious mind, Lucy could imagine herself possibly falling in love with.
Turning from the dinner, Lucy headed back in the direction of the apartment. Once the sun broke, she was sure that she would be again questioning her sanity. Or the lack of it. This was clearly crazy, but... she wanted to see where this could lead.
Together, they could try to sort the jumbled feelings she knew they both would have. See if they could find a new beginning for them both. Because, God help her, Lucy wanted a new beginning. The leave a job she did not enjoy and was slowly killing her on the inside.
She had no idea what Jayce’s plans were, but she thought of returning to southern California. Maybe, just maybe, he would be open to being long-distance... friends? lovers? She didn’t know exactly what they were to each other just yet.
Pink began to edge the horizon as Lucy walked back to the apartment. She glanced at her watch. Almost six in the morning.
She had spotted a cute looking café on her walk but she didn’t have any money. Maybe when it opened, she and Jayce could come back to it and chat some more. She never would have admitted it, but she felt a blush and a thrill run through her at the thought of doing something so innocent. With him.
Lucy hadn't locked the door behind her and she let herself back into the apartment. She didn’t want to wake him if he was still asleep. Lucy, on other hand, was too charged to crawl back to bed just yet. Maybe she would try and tidy the mess in the living room... And then they could return to the bed af
ter getting some hot coffee and a bite to eat.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” she whispered happily to herself as she bent to retrieve the strand of Christmas lights from the floor.
The pit of her stomach dropped as she noticed something different in the room. The black duffle bag, the one containing the drives Jayce had broken into the bank to steal, was gone from its place on the coffee table.
Chapter 8
Lucinda- Christmas Eve
“You can place that box over the kitchen, please,” Lucy said, directing the movers she had hired. Never having been one afraid of physical labor herself, she had rolled up her sleeves and had pitched in with moving her few belongings into her new apartment.
She set her own box down in her living room. Popping her hands onto her waist, she surveyed the progress of her new apartment. It was spacious and modern. The fruits of her meticulous saving habits. Everything she had ever wanted. And, most importantly, it was not a hotel.
She had moved into a gated apartment community in a peaceful suburb of LA. There had been protests from family and friends, but Lucy had needed the fresh start.
Two weeks ago, she had walked back into Jayce’s abandoned apartment. The hollowness she had felt inside was instant... The sadness had come later.
Lucky for her, all her possessions had been left behind. She had gathered her things – and her pride – and had gone back to her hotel. All morning she had waited for a call from bank, from the police, from her supervisor… from anyone.
She felt like the biggest fool for having daydreamed about her and Jayce. Her fantasies of sharing, finally, her life with someone had gone up in smoke.
Her phone rang in her pocket. She glanced at the screen.
“Hi mom.”
“Hi sweetheart,” her mother crooned. “How's it going? Settled in yet?”
“Nearly.” Lucy could not help the smile that overcame her at hearing her mother’s voice. The woman doted on her grown daughter. “The last of the boxes are being brought in. Just in time for Christmas. Maybe I'll dig out some tinsel and decorate my lamp for some festive flare.”
They continued to talk. Her mother tried to convince her into making the three-hour drive to see and her father. Lucy turned her down, again, very gently. She reminded her mother that she had training at her new job the very next week, right after the long holiday weekend, and now would be the only time to get the apartment somewhat settled.
Lucy was going to be a sexual empowerment and life coach at a counseling center. The managers that had reviewed her application had been very interested in her history as professional dominatrix and had offered her the job within hours of the phone interview.
She couldn't have been more thrilled. Expressing her sexuality had always been a very important aspect of Lucy’s adult life. And now she would be teaching her fellow sisters the tools and knowledge needed to explore that as well.
Lucy was interrupted from putting us stuff by a knock at the door.
The movers had left hours ago. Lucy hadn’t run into any potential neighbors while bringing in boxes, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t noticed her.
The knock came again. A little louder this time.
She looked through her peephole. In the next moment she was stumbling back in shock.
“Lucinda? Please let me in. We need to talk.”
She felt her hackles rise. He dared to tell her what she needed to do? She should leave him out there to rot. Instead, she flung open the door and dragged a very surprised Jayce in by the front of his shirt.
“How in the hell did you find me? My family doesn’t even have this address yet,” she hissed at him.
“What can I say?” he grinned at her ruefully. “You’re not the only one good with computers. Granted, I'm probably not as good as you.”
At the look on her face, his grin slipped. It was replaced with a more somber expression of... contrition?
“Where do you get the nerve to show up at my door?”
“Please. Lucy,” he held up his hands in supplication. “Just hear me out.”
She released him and took a step back. She had forgotten how much taller than her he was and his sudden physical presence was now flooding her senses. Feelings and desires she thought she had shoved down weeks ago were rushing back.
“Go ahead,” she flung up her hands in frustration. “I don’t know what it is you could possibly have to say to me, but go ahead.”
There was an earnest look on his handsome face and his eyes had an unreadable expression in them.
“You never turned me in.” It was a statement, not a question. “When I woke that morning in the apartment and found you gone, I thought for sure you had changed your mind and had run to call for the cops. I was in a panic and I bolted. Not because I didn’t want to get caught – though, don’t get me wrong, that was a big part of it too – but because I couldn’t let me getting arrested get in the way of me helping those kids. Not this time. For the first time in my life, I had to do something for someone else. I've had a lifetime of being a selfish bastard.”
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and dropped his gaze to the floor.
“I flew to Chicago TK. Did what I needed to do there with the drives... All the while I checked the news out of Alta Vista. I looked out for articles about a robbery at Granite Forge Bank. I looked at the local PD’s most wanted list for my name or my alias. But I never saw anything. No indication that you had turned in any of the information you knew about me into the cops.”
Jayce stepped closer to her. She had uncrossed her arms at one point, softening her angry stance, and they were relaxed at her sides. He, tentatively at first, reached for her hands. His much larger ones clasped hers and his look bore into to her.
Lucy felt vulnerable. But the look Jayce gave her made her aware that he was also baring a part of his soul to her right now. There was a prickling sensation she felt behind her eyes.
“Then I heard that you weren't working for Granite Forge Bank anymore. I didn’t know the reason why, only that you had suddenly resigned without giving a full two-week notice. And I couldn’t live with myself if... Couldn’t live with the thought that maybe you had taken the blame for the security breach at the bank that night and had sacrificed your job to cover for me... Or if I had hurt you in some way...”
“How noble.”
She had tried to say it scathingly. Put some distance between them. She wasn’t sure she succeeded. “I thought you wouldn’t have a care in the world, most certainly not a care about me, after the way you left.” She dashed a stray tear away from her cheek. “I was sure you would be on some beach off in Europe somewhere, enjoying your ‘retirement’.”
“Before I met you, that would have been my plan exactly. After covering up my tracks and tying up loose ends, nothing would have stopped me from leaving... But when we met, I was already on the verge of wanting to become a different kind of man Lucy. And you opened something in me that night and I haven’t been able to forget it. God, Lucy the memory of that night has altered me forever.” His eyes blazed, hot and intense. She felt her body flush in response. “Now I don’t just want to try. I am going to do it. I will be a better person and I have you to thank for driving me to want to be one.”
He still had possession of her hands and brought them now to his lips. He kissed the tips of her fingers. Much like he had before during their wild night of passion.
“I had to find you and let you know that I will set things right.” His warm breath caressed over one of her palms. He pressed a kiss into it. Hot and warm, just like before. “I just had to see you, one more time, before turning myself in.”
Alarm coursed through Lucy. “W-wait,” she pulled her hands away. His touch was distracting her to madness. “What are you talking about?”
“When I leave here, I’m contacting Granite Forge Bank and letting them know that the break-in wasn’t your fault.” He gave her a heartbreaking, and if somewhat strained, b
eautiful smile. “I'll tell them that you were my victim. A victim I had threatened to harm if you said anything and that was the reason why you didn’t step forward about the break-in.
Then I’ll go to Alta Vista and turn myself in for the robbery... I won’t ask you to wait for me. But when I get out, I hope that it will be ok that I reach out to you. If you'll let me. And... I want to thank you for not saying anything up until now. It gave me the time I needed to get the evidence to TK.”
“But... Y-you can’t do that. You can’t turn yourself in!” Grabbing him, she shook him slightly tightened her hold onto his jacket. “Look, I’m not saying that some of what you did – what you’ve done in the past – is ok in the eyes of the law or even morally. I realize that what is legal and not legal is not always a good guide to do what is morally right in a situation.
I just... I just can’t lose you so soon after you’ve come to find me!” She paused to take a breath, hesitant to admit this. She went on, “I did leave the apartment that morning to call the cops. I nearly did. But at the last minute, I decided to trust my gut instincts that I felt about you and to give you, maybe give us, a chance. Finding that empty apartment was... devastating. I picked myself back up and moved forward. But ever since I left, I felt like I left my heart back in Alta Vista that night.”
“Lucy, what about your job? If I straighten things out then they’ll have no choice but to offer you your position again.” He looked agonized, but determined. “It’s the only way.”
“Look, forget about my job. I resigned. I never turned the incident in and Granite Forge Bank knows nothing about it. No one that works at that branch is even aware that anything out of the ordinary happened that weekend. No one... I already have a new job. Something that I know I'll be happier at. I start right after the holidays.”
“What?”
“That morning, I went back to the bank to get my phone. I reset any of the codes that could have been activated during an unauthorized entrance. Both the bank door scanners and in the vault where you were. If anyone ever decides to review the records for that night, for whatever reason, there will be nothing there for them to find.”
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