Leather Bound

by Shanna Germain

  ‘Janine,’ he said, a near growl, his fingers digging into my hair to tilt my neck farther. His free hand reached back under my skirt and through my sliced panties to find the swollen and exposed pulse of my clit. His touch was light but perfect, a half-circle that dragged over the pleasure point in just the right rhythm. ‘I want you,’ he said.

  I had words, but I couldn’t find them in my brain, and my mouth was busy looking for new places to touch, to kiss, to nibble. My hands, however, did the work for me. I curved my fingers around the length of his cock, stroked him firmly through the fabric until I heard his low groan.

  ‘Please,’ I said. ‘Please let me have this.’

  He leaned his hips away from me, granting me access. I made fast work of his belt and jeans, pulling everything down just enough so that I could see the head of his cock. The sight of it made my clit pulse harder against his touch. The beautiful pale curve, the tiny slit that was already wet with arousal. I wanted him on my tongue. My body and brain were insistent that we do it nownownow.

  I obliged my own desires, sliding the fabric down to release him entirely. A beautiful cock, long and lean, with a slight upward curve that made my g-spot give a silent cry of joy. Released, it bounced lightly, until I captured it with the curve of my hand and stroked its underside.

  Davian groaned a couple of syllables that might have been my name, his kisses replaced by a ragged breath as I began a long slow stroke from his base to his tip, stopping just long enough to gather his moisture with my thumb.

  ‘Mmm …’ The noises he was making were almost enough to throw me over the edge by themselves. Never mind that he was arching into my touch, leaning his hips in so his erection glided over the curve of my palm.

  ‘God, Janine.’ Every time he spoke, his voice seemed to be driven lower by his lust, and the sound of it made me want him all over again. ‘If you keep doing that … I can’t … I won’t … mmm…’

  ‘Won’t what?’ I teased, feathering my touch down along the hang of his balls so that he groaned again. I liked having him in my hand, at my mercy, for once.

  ‘I forget,’ he said.

  ‘If I do this –’ I went down on my knees in front of him, looking up at him with his cock held snugly in one hand ‘– will you also forget your name?’

  ‘I might,’ he said.

  I drew my tongue along the underside of his cock, long and slow, tasting as much of him as I could. He tasted clean and sweet, and I coiled my tongue around his head, suckling the moisture from his tip.

  ‘Wait, I need to touch you,’ he said. He stretched his hands out to me, but I was beyond his reach, already working to take the full length of him into my mouth. I liked having him this way, having him stuttering over his words, unable to help himself. It was a pleasure unlike any I’d known or expected. I toyed with him, licking and sucking, tugging softly at the soft skin of his balls, feeling every nuanced response, listening to every sound that come from him.

  ‘Janine,’ he groaned, his hands loose and soft in my hair. I released my grip on his hips, letting him set the pace, driving his hips forward. I loved the feel of him on my tongue, the way his body started to shake as he got close.

  I pulled away, pumping the length of him slowly with my fist.

  ‘I’m going to make you come for me,’ I said. ‘And there’s nothing you can do about it.’

  I took him fully into my mouth, savouring the taste and feel of him, letting him fill me. And then I grabbed his hips with both hands, pulling him tight to me, until my face was buried in the feel and scent of his arousal.

  ‘Not like that,’ he said.

  He pulled away, a long slow tug that I resisted as much as I could. I didn’t want him to leave me, I wanted to feel him come like that, to know his pleasure.

  ‘Not like that.’ He kept saying it even as he pulled me up from my knees, cupped my face in the curve of his palm.

  ‘I want you,’ he said. ‘I want to be inside you.’

  He nipped lightly at my lips, all of his questions for me tied up in his gaze.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, please.’

  Dragging his fingers lightly between my labia, he sucked in his breath.

  ‘You’re so wet,’ he said.

  I returned the favour, closing my fist around his cock.

  ‘And you’re so hard,’ I said. ‘Please, please, fuck me. Please.’

  My ‘please’s’ were running together, my need for him moving beyond language into something far more feral. He reached for a condom out of the bowl on the table, and the sound of the wrapper opening was almost more than I could handle. As well trained as Pavlov’s dogs, my body knew what that sound meant. A promise of reward.

  He rolled the condom over his cock, gifting me with another glimpse of his beautiful curved erection, and then he lifted me up onto the table. My legs opened and went around him, pulling him towards me.

  ‘Yes?’ he asked. His question was growl and desire, and the sound was enough to send a slippery shudder up my spine.

  By way of answer, I lined my body up with his, using my hand to draw the head of his cock along my folds. When his tip touched me, my clit gave a pulse of near-orgasmic pleasure.

  Davian gripped my hips, holding me still, and then he shifted against me. My body was so slick with want that he slid into me faster than either of us expected and suddenly he was buried all the way in, filling me. It was like he pushed the air from me, taking my breath away, until all I could do was say ‘oh’ in a pleasured sigh.

  His first thrust drove into my clit at just the right angle, and I felt the pre-orgasm pressure sweep through me. I’d just brought myself to two orgasms, and yet my body responded as if it had been days, weeks, since I’d come.

  ‘I’m … oh, God,’ I said. I was trying to warn him, but the words were all tangled. ‘So fast,’ I added, already feeling a little sad at how good it felt and how fast I was going to tumble right over the edge.

  Somehow Davian understood my nonsensical sex talk. He shifted, moving the pressure away from my clit, letting me feel the strokes of his cock inside my body, the long, leisurely in and out that both slowed down and heightened my pleasure. Moving forward against me, he captured my wrists in his hands, held me tight against the table.

  None of me could move, not even my hips. I was caught in his grip, forced to take only what he would give me.

  And oh, gods, he was teasing me. Pulling back as far as he could without actually leaving my body. Sliding in and up so that his tip bumped my g-spot with every stroke. I was begging, barely hearing myself uttering wild pleas of want.

  ‘Faster, please,’ I urged, trying to lift my hips and curl my legs, trying to force him to give me what I needed.

  ‘If I go any faster, I’m going to come,’ he said.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Comecomecome.’ My words smashing together like my own needs.

  Davian slammed into me, his movements hard and fast, bringing a gasp from us both. My lust, finally getting what it wanted, zoomed into overdrive, sending out an orgasm so fast and sharp that it nearly clanked my teeth together. I felt my head going back and I was powerless to stop it, my pleasure pulling a near-howl of joy from me.

  ‘Beautiful,’ Davian said, and then I felt his body tighten in response. He came inside me with a broken groan, the end of it a whisper of my name.

  Panting, we rested together for a moment, kissing, our bodies connected at hip and at mouth, his hands still tight around my wrists.

  Then I started giggling. I couldn’t help it; all that pent-up want and stress and panic and lust came tumbling through me, mixed up with the pleasure of having him inside me.

  He didn’t join me in laughter, but he grinned at me, his gaze full of pleasure. We slid apart, and I found my footing on the floor, still leaning against the table for support.

  ‘You did good,’ he said. ‘Out there I mean.’

  He paused. ‘Well, in here too.’

  I felt myself blushing at the j
umbled compliment, my face, already warm from the sex, growing impossibly hot. My instinct was to say ‘thank you’, but that felt weird, so I just stumbled around, fussing with my clothes, trying to turn my stockings into thigh-highs, trying to put on something that was presentable to the outside world.

  He dressed too, a movement that was both beautiful and sad. I watched his body disappear from my sight to be covered in cloth.

  ‘Why does that woman know you?’ I asked. ‘The one who works here.’ The sexiest man in the world had just fucked me, and now I was asking about his personal history? I swear, sometimes I’m the human version of the cat that curiosity killed.

  The look he gave me was of such intensity, such wickedness, that my mouth went dry even as the rest of me went wet. Again. I had to resist the urge to gloss my tongue over my lips.

  ‘I work here,’ he said.

  Nice time for my mouth to stop working.

  ‘I. You. What?’ I said.

  ‘Well, here and other places,’ he said. His hands were on my shoulders. It felt like being attached to a jumper cable, the sparks that tumbled from him to me and then down through the rest of me. ‘I’m a professional dom. No sex, just services.’

  ‘I saw you,’ I breathed.

  He lifted that single brow in his customary quirk. Embarrassed, afraid he was going to ask for details, I shook my head.

  ‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘I need to get back to the store.’ And I needed to sit down and think about this. A professional dom. That explained so much. The mischievous smile when Lily had mentioned the sex toy store. Why I’d seen him there. Why he was helping me get over my fears of sex in public. It wasn’t about me or even us. It wasn’t about some super connection between us. It’s just what he did for a living.

  ‘I’ll walk you,’ he said.

  We slipped out a side door of L&L that I’d never noticed before. Our walk back to the store was quiet, for the most part. It was chilly out, but I barely paid attention; my insides were all warm and fluttery. Not just from the great sex. And not just from the way Davian being a professional dom turned me on in weird, unexplored ways. But also because I’d bested my demon. When Davian and I went to the next event, I would be all over this. I had this under control. Fuck literary heroines. I was the hero of my own story now.

  I said as much when we turned the corner towards Leather Bound.

  ‘I’ve got this,’ I said.

  ‘You do,’ he agreed. He kissed me again, a softer, sweeter kiss, seeming to seek something different now that our needs were temporarily sated. When he pulled away he said, ‘I’ll call my friend and see if she’ll take you as her guest.’

  ‘Wait,’ I said. A coldness worked its way through me that had nothing to do with the wind that was picking up. ‘You’re not coming with me?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, of course not. I thought you understood. You have to do this all on your own.’

  On my own. Not with Davian.

  ‘You can do this, Janine.’

  He kissed me again, so hard and perfect that my nipples went all tingly.

  I kissed him back, meeting his ferocity with my own sudden, insatiable need.

  ‘Yes,’ I said, when he pulled back. ‘I can do this.’

  That was starting to be the story of my life, at least around Davian. Promising things without an inkling of whether I could actually deliver.

  CHAPTER 11

  My lips were sore for days after. Every time I touched them, and I am not ashamed to admit that I touched them a lot in the days that followed, they bloomed with tiny sensations of bruised pain. I liked it. My body liked it too. The pain was a reminder of Davian, of the things I’d wanted him to do to me, of the way he’d looked when he’d finally pulled away. A ferocity in his eyes as he struggled to get a hold of himself. A look of want that nearly seemed to burn my skin everywhere it landed. The way his voice was husked with desire, even deeper and dark than usual. All of that came back to me every time I touched my lips to anything. A glass. My pillow. My own fingers.

  I’d be walking down the street, accidentally bump my hand against my mouth, and it would all come flooding back, making me shudder. I was supposed to be thinking about Leather Bound and money and the book and Kyle, but all I could think about was fucking Davian. How his mouth had felt on my body. How his body had felt on my body. The heft of his cock in my fist, how it had fit so perfectly into my mouth. He’d tasted sweet and spicy all at the same time. I’d wanted to eat him up for ever. And then when he’d slid inside me, the perfect fit of a lock to a key.

  I tried not to think about the upcoming event, or my fear of it.

  Everything else was underwater, washed out and hard to hear. Customers had to ask for help twice. Even Lily struggled to get my attention.

  ‘You,’ she said finally. I looked up from the book I’d been shelving. The same book I’d been shelving for who knew how long, even though it was still in my hand. ‘Into your office,’ she said.

  I put the book in its spot and followed her.

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’ she said.

  ‘Wrong?’ I said. My hand, as it often did lately, reached up to my mouth, my fingers playing over my lips.

  ‘You’re barely here,’ she said. ‘Is this about Kyle?’

  ‘Kyle? No.’ The underwater sensation was leaving, slipping away as Lily held me by the shoulders. I realised I hadn’t thought about Kyle in days.

  ‘We have a lot of shit going on here, in case you haven’t noticed,’ she said. ‘In fact, I’m pretty sure you haven’t noticed, but I could really use some help.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I just …’ I just what? What was wrong with me? I’d never felt like this in lust before. Lust was good and awesome and hot, but it never made me feel like this, as though nothing else really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

  ‘You’re falling for Davian, aren’t you?’ Lily asked.

  ‘No. I’ve hardly spent any – I mean, we’ve only – No,’ I said finally, but it wasn’t with very much conviction. Love wasn’t something I had a lot of experience with, but I knew you couldn’t fall in love with someone when you’d just met them. Or just had sex with them. Whatever it was that Davian and I were doing.

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Lily said.

  I shook myself back into focusing. Lily stood in front of me in a green sweater dress that made her skin turn peaches and cream and brought out the notes of emerald in her blue eyes. While I was pretty much a shambles, she was back to her usual put-together self. Clearly, whatever girl trouble had plagued her was in the past.

  ‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I’ve had a lot on my mind. Let’s powwow while it’s slow. Tell me all your news. Life first, then work.’

  She hesitated a moment, which was unlike her, and reached down to stroke Webster as he went by. The front window was growing colder as fall moved on, and more and more I found him curled up in the chair behind the velvet curtain or snuggled up in my office chair.

  ‘I met someone new,’ she said.

  ‘Really?’ My heart did a little leap for her, even though it never ended well when she said things like that. ‘Tell me all.’

  She grinned at me. Her lipstick was the colour of rich wine and it showed off her eyes. ‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to jinx it. And this one is … different.’

  ‘Mmm, I’m intrigued.’ I really was. Maybe this one was different, if she wasn’t telling me all about it. I really hoped so.

  ‘What about you and Kyle?’ she asked. ‘And Davian? I know I was teasing you, but I’m genuinely curious.’

  ‘I have no idea about either,’ I said. ‘Kyle’s fine. Moving on, I get the impression. Or trying to. Which is, you know, exactly what I want for him.’

  So why then was I tearing up a little just saying that? I did want the best for him, and clearly the best for him wasn’t me. Still, it stung a little. I liked his company. I liked him. But like wasn’t enough. He knew that. And now I did too.

&
nbsp; ‘And Mister Caramel Eyes?’

  ‘He does have those eyes, doesn’t he? Really, like melty caramel. I could just –’ I shut myself up when I realised I was gushing. ‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’

  ‘Who, me? Use super secret and totally obvious tactics to get you to open up to me and spill your guts? Of course not.’ She blew on her apricot nails, rolling her eyes in self-congratulation.

  ‘Hmph,’ I said. ‘Jerk.’

  ‘Well, you obviously like him,’ she said. ‘So please please tell me you fucked h– Oh, my God, you totally did!’

  ‘How do you always fucking know?’ I groused. My stupid cheeks did their heat thing and I put a hand on one to try and cool it down.

  ‘I don’t, until you give it away,’ she said. ‘Well, usually I don’t, but this time your eyes did this funny thing. They got lighter or something as soon as I asked you if you were fucking him. See? There, they did it again!’

  ‘That’s not true,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t make me get out my mirror so you can witness the transformation,’ she teased.

  ‘No, not the mirror!’ I shook my head, still laughing. ‘OK, onto business. Thanks to, as you call him, Mister Caramel Eyes –,’ I couldn’t stop grinning as I said that, even though I tried to keep it in check ‘– we have enough money to pay all of Leather Bound’s bills this month. If I succeed in finding this book, we’ll have enough to keep us afloat for some of next month as well. Which brings me to our lovely landlord and his attempt to drive us out of here. Did you get a chance to –’

  The front door chimed, and Lily grinned at me.

  ‘Let’s hope that’s some money,’ she said.

  ‘Or some good news,’ I said.

  * * *

  It was neither. As if summoned by our conversation, our newest walk-in was our landlord.

  I’d only ever seen him once or twice before, and only to deal with Conrad’s passing and our lease changing hands. He’d introduced himself to me as Mister Montgomery, which was probably why it took me a while to remember his first name, Wes.