“What did you say?” Kyle suddenly looked stricken. Something had upset him but all Jillian could think of was the fact that her mother’s diabetic cat could be slipping into a coma right this minute because of her neglect. She actually loved Buster and felt terrible at the thought, not to mention that it was exactly the kind of irresponsible, self-centered thing she was always getting onto Sabrina about. What was wrong with her? Was her assuming her little sister’s personality characteristics along with her name?
“I said ‘Buster’,” she babbled, getting out of bed and searching around for her clothes. “I have to get out of here right now. What time is it?”
“Ten o’clock,” he said after glancing at his watch. By now he was up and getting into his clothes too, and from the look on his face he was not happy. Well, that was just too bad, Jillian thought as she struggled into her discarded skirt and blouse. Any more sex would just have to wait until she made sure her night of unrestrained erotic play hadn’t cost Buster his life. After all, how could she ever explain to her mother that the beloved family pet had died because she was too busy screwing her brains out to go give him his insulin?
“God, I can’t believe this,” she muttered as she hastily buttoned her blouse. “I have to get back to him right now. What if it’s too late and he’s already…” But she couldn’t make herself finish the thought, it was too awful.
“So there is another man and you can’t wait to get back to him.” Kyle’s face looked like a thundercloud.
Jillian shook her head in exasperation. “What? What are you talking about? I told you why I have to go.”
“Right—to see him,” Kyle muttered. “So that’s it, huh? You’ve had your fun and now you want to go.” He was dressed now and still looking very upset.
“I have to—please try to understand!” Jillian couldn’t believe how insensitive he was being. Hadn’t she just finished telling him how Buster had been in the family for years? What was his problem? Finally she was dressed, minus her panties and hose, which she couldn’t find anywhere. She supposed she was lucky to still have her bra.
“Oh, I understand all right,” he said cryptically. Silently, he led her out to the waiting van and opened the passenger side door for her. Jillian was upset about this new, not-so-nice side of Kyle but most of her mind was fixated on the horrible image of Buster lying on his side, slowly dying for lack of his medication. She had been to the vet with her mom the last time she’d brought Buster in and remembered distinctly how important it was for him to eat and have his meds at the right time. Oh God, what if she was already too late? Should she call her father and ask him to go over to Sabrina’s place? But then what explanation would she give for not being there herself? And how would she explain her admittedly disheveled, morning-after hot sex look when she saw him? No, better to just deal with the situation herself. But what if she wasn’t on time? She was supposed to have fed and medicated Buster hours ago…
“Look, can you step on it?” she asked testily as the van crawled through the unusually heavy South Tampa traffic. What the hell was going on that everyone was on the road this time of day on a Saturday? Vaguely she remembered that there was supposed to be a holiday air show down at MacDill Air Force Base—maybe that was it. “I think if you’d take a left onto Howard we could get there faster,” she said, still eyeing the line of cars clogging Dale Mabry Street anxiously.
“Just can’t wait to get away, can you?” he growled, swinging into the turn lane at her insistence.
“What?” Jillian had had it. “Look,” she said icily. “I’m sorry you’re upset we didn’t get to finish having sex this morning. But this is very important to me. I’m sorry you can’t seem to understand that.”
“It’s not the sex and you know it,” Kyle growled, driving faster.
For a moment Jillian registered the fact that he was extremely upset about something. But damn it, she was upset too! She wanted to explain what was going on but it all seemed so complicated now. He still thought she was Sabrina and it seemed like the wrong time to tell him about her deception. As soon as she was sure that Buster was all right they could sit down and have a nice long talk but for now, she was so upset she could barely think straight, much less explain why she’d been masquerading as her own sister for the past twenty-four hours.
“Well, I don’t know what—” she began.
“Here we are.” Kyle cut her off as they pulled up in front of Sabrina’s apartment building with a lurch that made Jillian glad she’d taken the time to buckle her seat belt.
“I’m sorry things had to go this way,” she said stiffly as she unhooked herself from the belt hurriedly and slid out of the van. “I’d like to explain what I wanted to tell you but I just don’t have time right now. I—”
“No explanation needed, sweetheart. I’m pretty sure I got it.” Kyle was looking straight ahead as he talked, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him. “It was just a one-time thing anyway,” he said. “Because according to the We Kidnap U rules, I’m never supposed to see you again. So that must be a relief, huh?”
“What?” Jillian looked at him. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? That he didn’t want to see her again? And after all that sweet talk about breaking his own rules and wanting to get to know her? For a moment even the urgency about Buster was pushed out of her mind and she was more than angry—she was furious. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind but he beat her to it.
“Have a nice life,” he said coolly before putting the van in gear and drowning her words in the roar of its engine. And before Jillian could say anything else he was gone.
* * * * *
Kyle couldn’t believe how much it hurt. He’d only known her for twenty-four hours and her sudden decision to use her safe word and get away from him should have been no big deal. But in the short time they had been together, he’d really felt a connection to her. For a while it had even seemed possible that they might form a long-term relationship, founded on that one night of passion that had brought them together.
Connection? Relationship? Listen to yourself, man. You sound like a high school girl who just got dumped, he told himself angrily. But he couldn’t help it—as much as he wished he could bury his feelings, there was no getting away from them.
What had set her off though? he mused as he drove back to his workshop in NoHo. She’d seemed to be every bit as into it as he was and then suddenly she’d demanded to know what time it was and yelled her safe word. Had her file been wrong? Was she involved with another man, maybe someone who she was supposed to be at home to meet at a certain time? Had she been lying all along? Kyle shook his head. He just didn’t know and now it looked like he never would. She was out of his life, just like that and he wasn’t inclined to break any more rules, personal or professional, by pursuing her. If she wanted to get away from him and what they had done that badly, he didn’t see that he had any option than to let her go. Even through the thought of never seeing her again made him feel as if he’d swallowed a bucketful of splinters.
Probably went back to her fiancé. Had a walk on the wild side and decided Mr. Safe and Boring was the one for her after all. What was his name again? Kyle wasn’t sure if she had told him but it seemed like maybe it started with a B. Was that who Buster was? If so, she wouldn’t be the first woman to use an old lover’s name as a safe word. But regardless of whether Buster was her fiancé or just a randomly chosen safe word, Kyle knew she had left for another man—why else would she keep muttering about getting back to “him” on time? He’d seen it happen in the clubs often enough—girls who came to play while their husbands or boyfriends were away and ran back home to their vanilla relationships once their kinky urges had been satisfied.
“It doesn’t matter why she left,” he told himself out loud. “She’s gone. And you have to get over it.”
He pulled up to one of the three parking spaces in front of his workshop and sat still for a long moment, letting the van’s motor idle. T
he only thing he had left was his work. Inside the shop was the huge, hard oak dining table he had been working on. The customer who had ordered it was hoping to have it in time to make it a Christmas present to his wife. Kyle had told him not to hold his breath but that he would try. After all, short of living in his workshop 24/7, there was only so much he could do. But now he suddenly made up his mind to finish. He would work day and night—hell, he would bring a sleeping bag and sleep under the damn table if he had to, but one way or another he would get it done.
Maybe if he buried himself in his work for the next three weeks he would be able to forget her.
Maybe, but he doubted it.
Chapter Eight
“I cannot believe this!” Sabrina stabbed savagely at the end button on her cell phone.
Jillian, who was watching from the relative comfort of her sister’s sagging couch, thought idly that it was times like this when you really missed having an old-fashioned phone with a handset you could slam down. She was sure her sister would have been banging the phone around like crazy if it hadn’t been a cell. As it was, all Sabrina could do was sit there and fume. She’d been home from her romantic cruise to Key West for all of three days after spending almost three weeks having fun in the sun, but she had already found something to bitch about. Jillian wished she wasn’t there to hear it but she had come over to her sister’s apartment to help plan the family’s annual Christmas Eve get-together since their mother was still visiting their grandma. The big event was tomorrow and they hadn’t decided much more than who would make the cheese ball and who would bring the nuts.
“Breeny, we really need to get planning,” she said, reaching down to give the purring Buster a pat on his fuzzy orange head. She’d had a bad moment when she first ran in the door the day after the ‘nap and found him lying stretched out on the floor looking as if he had kicked the kitty bucket. But he had come around when she waved the medicated tuna in front of his face and a few minutes after eating had been his normal self again. So maybe she had run out on Kyle a little too hastily. But he had been acting like a jerk, she reminded herself. Saying it was a one-time thing after he had made such a big deal out of breaking the rules and wanting to get to know her. And telling her to have a nice life…the bastard.
Every time she thought about him, which was about once every minute, Jillian got hot and cold at the same time. She had so many emotions churning inside her she didn’t know which to feel first—anger, betrayal, loss—she ran the gamut when she thought about Kyle. So she tried not to think about him—not that it did any good. Her brain was stuck in a rut and kept showing her his chiseled features and muscular body constantly.
Several times she’d even considered trying to get in touch with him. If he was telling the truth, she thought she knew where his workshop was. There was a little sign to one side of the door that said Wood if You Could and beneath it, in elegant script, custom hardwood furniture made to order. Jillian had driven by it several times and had even stopped in the tiny three-space parking lot once, but each time she had broken out in a cold sweat and begun to feel sick to her stomach. After all, what was she supposed to do—go in and demand an apology for his rude behavior? Sure, and after she did that she would have to admit how she had lied to him and before she knew it he would be throwing her out. No, better to stay away from the enigmatic man she had somehow come to care for so much during their single night together. Her heart was already broken—she didn’t need him to grind it into dust under his heel as well.
“I can’t believe this!” Sabrina yelled again, derailing Jillian’s morose train of thought. “Those jerks! I’m going to call Channel Nine News on Your Side and do one of those exposé thingies on them.”
“Who or what are you raving about?” Jillian rubbed Buster behind the ears again, just to hear his rusty purr. It was hard to get excited about anything since she’d found and lost the love of her life all in the space of twenty-four hours. It was only one day and it was three weeks ago, she reminded herself. Yeah, three weeks that felt like three years.
“The damn We Kidnap U people. I called to get a refund for the first half of the money I put up and they refused because they said I had the ‘nap—when I so didn’t! And now they’re insisting that I pay for the other half of it!” Sabrina fumed. “I swear to God, I told them, I said, ‘I don’t know who you kidnapped and tortured, buddy, but it sure as hell wasn’t me.’”
“Uh…” Jillian felt as if she had a bone stuck in her throat. In her preoccupation with Kyle, she had completely forgotten about payment for the ‘nap that she had experienced. Now she distinctly remembered her sister saying that you paid half before and half after. So of course, Sabrina was in arrears—thanks to Jillian.
“What? Please don’t tell me you’re gonna say I told you so,” Sabrina groaned theatrically. “I know, I know, it was a stupid idea. But still, it was my stupid idea and I shouldn’t have to pay for it if I didn’t get it.”
“Did they say…” Jillian cleared her throat. “Uh, what did they say?”
“That I was there and that ‘every aspect of my fantasy was amply fulfilled’.” Sabrina began clicking her cell phone open and closed angrily. “Like it was my fantasy to be cheated out of a thousand dollars?”
“It was that much?” Jillian squeaked.
Her sister held up a hand. “Again, please, no I-told-you-so speech, Jilly. Please.” She sighed. “Damn, if I could just find out who the nasty bitch was who enjoyed my ‘nap I would put my foot so far up her butt…”
“Uh…” Jillian coughed. It was time to come clean. “Look, I didn’t mean for you to find out like this, Breeny, but that nasty bitch, well, it was me.”
“What?” Sabrina shrieked so loudly that even the mostly deaf Buster nearly jumped out of his fur.
“You heard me.” Jillian glared at her little sister. “They grabbed me instead of you. You know how people are always thinking we look alike even though you got all the skinny genes in the family—he made the same mistake. And he gagged me so I couldn’t tell him otherwise until…well, until it was too late.”
“Too late? Too late for what?” Sabrina leaned forward eagerly. “You mean you got to live my entire fantasy?”
Jillian gave her a level look. “As a matter of fact, yes, I was subjected to your fantasy. Did you write that stuff when you were high or were you just disconnected from reality?” There was no way she was going to admit to actually having enjoyed the bondage and domination games she’d played with Kyle, not in front of her little sister, anyway.
“Oh, I don’t know…” Sabrina waved one hand airily. “I guess I just thought up the wildest things I could imagine and put them down. They don’t really do all that stuff, you know.”
Jillian was beginning to get mad. “They most certainly do do that stuff, Breeny.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her little sister. “I should know because Kyle did all of it to me.”
“Kyle? Who’s Kyle? The owner of the We Kidnap U in Tampa is Adam. That’s who I’ve been fighting with on the phone, anyway.” Sabrina looked at her suspiciously.
“Kyle is Adam’s older brother. He was, uh, helping Adam out by working your ‘nap. Which turned into my ‘nap by mistake.” Jillian was back to feeling uncomfortable.
“And?” Sabrina was giving her that same sharp look she’d given Jillian after Jillian had downed an entire pitcher of strawberry margaritas and spilled the beans about Barry. It was the look that said there was more to the situation than Jillian was telling and she wouldn’t stop asking until her big sister ‘fessed up.
“And…” And he was amazing, Jillian thought sadly but she kept it to herself. Sabrina didn’t need any more ammo to hold over her head. “And I couldn’t stop him because I didn’t know your safe word,” she said instead, giving her little sister another look of righteous indignation.
“Buster,” Sabrina said.
“He’s fine.” Jillian looked down at the fluffy orange cat that was now s
leeping soundly on her lap. “I was a little worried about him for a while after the ‘nap because Kyle kept me overnight—well, I guess I decided to stay the night—but when I got back to him the next morning he was just—”
“No—Buster,” Sabrina interrupted her. “Buster was my safe word.” She shook her head. “It’s dumb, I know, but he was sitting right here with me while I was filling out the form and I figured it wasn’t something I’d normally shout out in the heat of passion.”
“No…no you wouldn’t,” Jillian said distractedly. Inside her head, Kyle’s words to her when he took off her gag were echoing. If things get to be too much for you, just say your safe word and I’ll stop and take you home right away, no questions asked. That was exactly what he’d said. And what had she yelled when she realized she’d forgotten about coming home and taking care of her mother’s pet? “Buster,” she mumbled to herself. “I said his name—I was so worried about him I practically shouted it. Oh my God! He must have thought I was saying the safe word. He must have thought I wanted to get away from him, that I was asking him to take me home right away!”
“What?” Sabrina was looking at her like she was crazy but Jillian was still connecting the dots.
“I mean, I was trying to tell him he had the wrong sister but I started out telling him why I was at your place. I was talking about how I had to give this damn cat his meds on time, but I never really told him that Buster was the cat’s name. I just assumed he knew what I was talking about when I shouted Buster’s name.” Suddenly Kyle’s frosty behavior when he’d dropped her off at Sabrina’s apartment began to make sense. “He didn’t know,” Jillian continued, half to herself and half to her sister. “All he knew was that I was shouting out the safe word and he took it as a sign I wanted to end our time together. He must have thought I was crazy.”
“Or that you had another man you suddenly realized you had to get home to,” Sabrina said.
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