I leaned my head out the office door and looked toward the street. There he was, coffee in each hand, his phone tucked between his shoulder and his ear.
‘Is the door locked?’ I asked. I knew it wasn’t – we didn’t close for another ten minutes – but I wanted to look at him a moment longer. He looked so perfect standing there, a dark-blue scarf wrapped around his neck. I didn’t mind him in clothes. Not at all. In fact, he looked even better in them now that I knew what was underneath.
‘I haven’t tried it,’ he said. ‘My hands are a little full.’
‘How did you dial my number, then?’ I asked, unable to resist teasing him.
‘I had some little old lady on the street do it for me. Now can you please let me in?’
‘You did not,’ I said.
He spied me through the window, narrowing his eyes. ‘Clearly, you do not want coffee,’ he said. ‘Therefore I shall take it to someone more deserving –’
‘There is no one more deserving of coffee than me,’ I said. ‘Do. Not. Move.’
When I let him in, he brought the scent of fall fires and mochas with him.
‘You smell yummy,’ I said.
He kissed me before he even put the coffees down, a fierce hard kiss that bruised my lips all over again. He’d already dipped into the coffee; he tasted like caramel and cream. I licked his lips, nibbling at the sweet meat of them. The heat of my body was cooled by the press of his chilly frame. I could already feel his hips push to meet mine, and my own hips answering with a hard, fast pulse of their own.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, pulling away suddenly. ‘I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I came here to give you the information about tonight –’
‘And bring me coffee,’ I said.
‘And bring you coffee,’ he said. ‘And then I saw you watching me through the window with your hair up and your glasses on, like some prim little librarian, and I thought about you naked and I just had to kiss you.’
‘I’m complaining, clearly,’ I said, as I ground my hips lightly against his. He still had a coffee in each hand, his arms open wide. Grinning wickedly, I backed him against the counter, forcing myself to not care, just for three seconds, who might see.
‘Besides,’ I said. ‘You could have called. You could have just called me with the information. But you came instead. I wonder why.’
I didn’t actually need to ask. The heat in his eyes told me everything. He’d come because he wanted to see me, because he’d been thinking about me, even as I’d been thinking about him.
Rising on tiptoe, I leaned hard on his body, letting my hips meet his right at the point where I could feel his cock hardening beneath his jeans. I circled against him while I brought my mouth to his, tasting him anew. Each time it was the same and yet slightly different. He uttered a low groan against my mouth, raising his hips hard against mine. I could practically feel his cock lengthening with every stroke of our hips and the movement left me struggling for breath.
‘You have too many clothes on,’ I said. ‘Take them off.’
‘It’s cold out,’ he said, then laughed low against my neck. ‘And my, aren’t you the demanding little hussy today.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘You do remember –’ he drew his mouth up the curve of my neck, the heat of his breath rising up my pulseline ‘– that you’re at work, right?’
‘Work, schmerk,’ I said, incoherently. I’d kind of forgotten. ‘Wait one moment, please.’
I practically ran to the front door to lock it and flip the sign. It was a few minutes early, but I couldn’t be bothered to look. My heartbeat had slipped down between my thighs and it was demanding every bit of my attention.
I kissed Davian again. This time I was the urgent one, dipping one hand into his dark curls to bring him hard against me.
‘My office,’ I said.
‘Yes, Miss Librarian,’ he countered, his gaze running lazily and greedily up my body to rest on my glasses.
I took his hand and led him back to my office, watching him duck his head to fit under the doorway. He kissed me again, this time taking my ass in his hands and pulling me up against him.
‘What were you saying about too many clothes?’ I asked.
‘That was you,’ he said.
‘Oh, right. You have too many clothes on.’
‘What are you going to do about it?’ he asked.
One naked man, no waiting. The coat and scarf were first to go, then I started on his jeans. His zipper hated me, and he rescued me, opening his fly with an adept move.
I reached for his cock out of some kind of instinct and wrapped my palm around his length.
‘I’ve missed this,’ I said.
‘It’s only been a few –’ When he started, his voice was teasing, but then I tugged my fist along his length and he hissed a sigh. ‘I’ve missed this too,’ he said.
He undressed me as best he could around my movements, never forcing me to let go of his cock, which I was exploring with both hands. I ran a couple of fingers testingly over the curved hang of his balls and he inhaled with a sharp shudder.
When I was down to my bra and underwear, he caught my wrist hard and fast. ‘My turn,’ he said.
Then he backed me against my desk until I was forced to sit.
I’d never fucked here, nor in any part of Leather Bound, but it had always been a fantasy. Hot man running his hands through my hair, the smell of old books in my nose. Even my desk, which I knew I’d chosen not just for its gorgeous wood but for the hope that somebody would do just what Davian was doing, laying me down on its big top. He stood over me, grinning down at me, wicked and wanting.
He tucked two fingers into one side of my panties and tugged them down to my knees. Cold air licked my flesh and a moment later the heat of his tongue did the same. If I lifted my head, I could see his expression, his gaze wolfish as he caught me watching.
Slowly, so slowly, he ran the flat of his tongue up my cleft, opening me, and then he clamped his mouth down on my clit.
The suckle was fierce and yet soft, a fiery velvet tug and release that made me groan. He explored me with his fingers, dipping them into me so deeply I heard the wet sounds of my body sucking him in.
He ran his mouth up the front of my thigh, biting lightly at my hipbone. Kisses crossed my stomach, worked their way up to my breasts. He pushed my bra down over my breasts with his free hand and coiled his tongue around first one nipple and then the other. All the while, he worked his fingers inside me, turning them just so, gauging my reactions. I wasn’t sure I’d ever slept with anyone who paid such attention to my responses, who fine-tuned his every action to get a louder groan, a bigger shudder. He found my g-spot, and when I staggered a breath, he laughed, low and dark.
‘I’m going to make you come for me,’ he said.
He tightened his mouth around one of my nipples at the same time as he slammed into me. I felt his teeth scrape across my sensitive flesh, a sensation of pleasure and pain that flashed red across my vision.
The suck of his mouth and the pound of his fingers were the perfect combination. My rational mind shut down, leaving only my little lizard brain clamouring for more pleasure. I planted my feet on the desk, giving myself leverage, pushing my hips up so that I met the thrusts of his hand. He twisted his fingers inside me, moving his hand so that my clit bumped against some part of it every time I rose.
My orgasm danced around my pleasure centres, and I willed it to stay away just a little longer, to let me revel in the almost there, in the impending arrival that it promised.
But Davian caught my gaze, my nipple still in the pull and suck of his mouth, his fingers twisting inside me, and the heat I caught there, the unleashed want in his eyes, sent me tumbling, falling, moaning down into my orgasm.
* * *
‘You’re going to be late,’ Davian said.
‘Mmm,’ was as articulate as my brain could go. ‘Don’t care. Lizard brain happy.’
‘No, thank you.’ Now that my body was coming back to make a connection with my brain, I realised that I was still stretched out on my desk, still mostly naked, with Davian sitting, still mostly dressed, beside me.
‘Besides, I didn’t even get to touch you hardly,’ I said. My tongue felt too big for my mouth, my words slurred with post-pleasure goodness.
He laughed, then leaned down to kiss me. He tasted like me and like coffee. ‘Something tells me you will get another chance.’
I dressed while he watched, his gaze a combination of approval and desire. When I stood before him fully clothed, he shook his head.
‘Jesus, Janine,’ he said. ‘The things you do to me. This isn’t supposed to be happening.’
‘Why?’ I said, my teeth nipping at his jawline. ‘Because we’re working together? I think we bypassed that when you fucked me in a dressing room.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not that.’
I stepped back, giving him a little space. He had that same look he’d had the first day I’d met him. A fierce sadness that rested in his gaze.
‘I know you do this for a living,’ I said. ‘I’m not expecting anything of you.’ I was surprised to feel a little ping of ‘ouch’ in the centre of my chest when I said it.
His eyes had narrowed at me. ‘I don’t do this for a living. I don’t do you for a living. Dominance. Submission. Never sex.’
‘And I’m expecting things of me. Things I just don’t know if I can deliver.’
Wow, did I know that feeling. I wasn’t sure if it made me feel better or worse to know that we were in the same predicament.
I ran my hand over his chest, loving the heat of it beneath his shirt.
‘I went to the Blind Café,’ I said. ‘But I didn’t find anything out. I’m sorry.’
‘You got into the Blind Café without being part of the club? How did you manage that?’ he asked.
‘I’m not entirely sure. But some guy there said he was on my side. What does that mean, exactly?’
Davian shrugged, but it wasn’t the movement of a man who didn’t know the answer. It was the movement of a man who didn’t want to talk about something. I let it go. I trusted him. Which was bizarre, considering that not that long ago I would have bet money that he was crazy.
Grinning, he changed the subject, and I let him. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Get your ass dressed. You’re going to be late.’
* * *
‘Where am I going?’ I asked. Davian had offered to walk me to the address and introduce me to his friend. We were both hunched in our coats against the cold, our now lukewarm coffees tucked in our palms.
‘Do you really want to know?’ he asked. ‘You seem like the kind of person who, if given too much information, starts panicking about it.’
‘That might be true,’ I said. ‘But I still like to have a heads-up. For example, if we’re going to L&L again –’
‘Nope,’ he said. ‘This is entirely different. I mean, entirely. I think it’s best if you wait and see.’
‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’ I asked. ‘All this mystery and intrigue.’
He stopped and put one cold hand on the side of my face. I leaned into the strength of it, surprising even myself. ‘Only because I know you can handle it.’
We’d walked to the very far end of the Sweet Spot, where the apartments and tiny houses gave way to half-mansions. The place he stopped in front of was one of those.
‘We’ll go in the back way,’ he said.
The back way was nicer than most people’s front ways. Stone walkway, perfect late-fall foliage, a dark-red door with a brass doorknocker.
Inside was even nicer. The door opened into a room that was small and intimate, but was really gorgeous and plush. I wanted to sink into the couch, which looked like red velvet and for some reason seemed to smell like strawberries and cream.
A short woman with a great big smile crossed the room in just a few steps. Her dark hair was pulled back in a long, low ponytail. She’d clearly embraced the steampunk look, wearing a button-up white shirt under a grey top and dark pants. Black leather gloves rested loosely in the hand she wasn’t shaking with. Oddly, the look suited her.
‘You’re here,’ she said. She wasn’t talking to me, but to Davian. While she made sure to include me in her smile, most of it was reserved for the man at my side.
They hugged tight, and she pecked his cheek. ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said.
‘And you. This is Janine. Janine, this is Estrata.’
‘Janine.’ Her gaze flowed over me. ‘Yes, you’re going to be perfect, I think. You chose well, Davian.’
‘Perfect for what?’ I asked, to whoever would answer me.
Clearly that was no one.
Estrata was already busying herself with taking off my coat and laying it across the back of the couch. Davian, who had occupied the corner of the red velvet couch with a grin, was clearly going to be no help.
‘Now, stand quietly please,’ she said.
I stood, suddenly focusing on my breath, on every little waver of my body. She began to walk around me in slow circles. I could feel her gaze on me, appraising. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, suddenly making me wish I’d worn something more form-fitting instead, a dress that showed off my figure. I didn’t know this woman, but already I didn’t want to be found wanting by her. Or by Davian, who was watching her assess me.
She kept circling, tapping her gloves against her fingers.
‘I believe we’ll have to make adjustments on the ropes,’ she said. Her voice should have seemed affected somehow, with its soft lilt and an accent that I couldn’t place, but it seemed to fit her. ‘But she’ll do.’
Now I wanted to kick her. And Davian too. I’d do? I raised a brow at Davian, an absolute look of what-the-fuck?
Davian gave me a wicked grin, but didn’t answer my unasked question. Typical. I tried to breathe through my nose. I was nervous suddenly, being the only one in the room who clearly didn’t know what was going on.
‘You’ll need to strip, please,’ Estrata said.
I glanced at Davian, who was reclining on the couch, one arm across its back. He was clearly enjoying this. His gaze – full of heat and expectation and something else I couldn’t name – gave me the strength I needed to start taking my clothes off in front of yet another perfect stranger.
Estrata watched me without comment, then pulled two lengths of rope out of a basket near the couch. One was a shadowy red that seemed like it shimmered when it moved. The other was black as night, thicker around. She focused on uncurling the ropes, running them through her hands with a soft whispering sound.
I unbuttoned the front of my dress, waiting to see if she would look up. She didn’t, but Davian was watching every gesture with a quiet smile.
He held out his arm when I pulled the dress away from my body and I dropped it in his hand.
‘All the way,’ Estrata said, still not looking at me.
I unhooked my bra and let that loop over Davian’s arm as well. Slipping out of my panties, I cast a final look at him. I stuffed the black lace thong into his hand and he fisted his fingers around it without missing a beat. His grin went from slightly wolfish to complete and utter predator.
I grinned back. I could get used to this. I liked it when he looked at me like that. I liked it a lot.
‘And now I just need you to stand there and be very still,’ Estrata said.
With those words, she began.
Being tied up the ways she was tying me up was not like anything I’d experienced before. I’d played around with bondage in the past. Leather cuffs around my ankles, silk around my wrists, trussed to a bed in a variety of ways. I liked it, having something else anchor me to something.
But this was entirely different. Her ropes weren’t holding me to anything. They were … well, hol
ding me together was the best way I could put it. Even that didn’t quite make sense.
This tying up was about being free. I could feel it as soon as the first loop of rope slipped around my waist. Soft as silk, the red rope curling about my stomach on the first loop. She wrapped and knotted, humming as she worked, back and forth, in and out of my vision, occasionally saying something like ‘Breathe out. Good.’ And ‘How does that feel? Not too tight?’
I stood for a long time, but it didn’t feel overly long. I focused on her soft breathing as she wrapped me, on the contrast between the velvety rope and the rough rasp of her fingers. She hadn’t touched my hands or my feet; most of her work was focused on my waist and chest, some on my shoulders, across my back. I was facing away from Davian, so I couldn’t see him, but I could feel his gaze on me, watching as she worked.
It was as close to a standing massage as I’d ever had and, when she said she was done, I felt a twinge of sadness.
‘How do you feel?’ she asked.
‘Great,’ I said. It was true. The ropes corseted my waist, making my posture high and tight. My breasts tingled slightly, the nipples hard and aching from not being touched, the rest slightly constricted from the circled ropes.
‘Turn,’ she said.
I did so, expecting Davian to be still stretched out on the couch. But he was standing almost in touching distance, the firmness of his gaze drawing over me as truly as any hand.
‘You look –’ he started, and then shook his head. ‘Fuck. I wish I could go in with you.’
‘Me too,’ I said. It wasn’t just the heat I saw in his eyes. It was his presence beside me, the way he made me feel like I could do anything, as long as he was there.
Of course, his presence wasn’t coming with me. I had to do this alone.
‘I –’ I started, and then closed my mouth hard. I’d been about to say I wasn’t sure I could do this, but I was tired of listening to myself say that.
‘I’ll be there in spirit,’ he said. He leaned in and kissed the very corner of my mouth, one hand snaking over the ropes that wrapped my waist.
‘It’s time to go,’ Estrata said.
I took a deep breath – well, as deep as the ropes around my waist would let me, which was more than I expected, but not as much as I needed – and then I stepped through the door, into the cool expanse of the empty hall.
Leather Bound Page 19