Alex didn’t move. He stayed in place and tried to think of something, anything that would dampen his obvious desire.
He glanced down at the empty water glass. His mouth was so dry—
“Your hard limits?” She flipped open the folder, seemingly oblivious to his physical state. “Let’s go through this list one by one. Answer yes or no.”
He swallowed as she ran through the list, mentally pulling up the questionnaire the company had sent.
“Yes.” He’d heard of that and was definitely interested.
“No,” Alex answered, and suppressed a shiver, afraid to even ask for a definition.
Kate finished reading.
“Pretty light stuff,” she said in a nonjudgmental voice. “You understand you can adjust your limits as we go along. If you want to go any further, you need to clear it with the office first so we’re both prepared for it. No surprises for either of us.”
“Yes.”
“You understand you won’t—” She gestured at his cock, which leaped to attention under her scrutiny. “You won’t finish while I’m visiting.”
He nodded, unsure what to say.
“I need to make this crystal clear. The rules dictate I can’t have intercourse with you, because that would leave us open to legal problems. That would make us an escort service, open to arrest and conviction for providing sexual relations for a price.”
She touched his cheek with a single finger and turned him to face her. “Look at me.”
He did so.
“I am not a prostitute. I deliver what’s promised and agreed to, no more, no less. The rules are very clear on this point.” Kate curled up the file folder and rapped his nose as if he were a misbehaving puppy. “It means you don’t come during our appointments. I will not go to jail because you can’t control yourself. We are not animals giving in to our baser needs whenever we want to.”
Her eyes—
She tilted her head, and he realized she was waiting for a response.
“I understand.”
She turned away. “But I know there are times when it’s unavoidable. Accidents do happen, especially when you’re new to these experiences. Your self-control may falter during our first few meetings, and I expect there to be occasions where you’re unable to help yourself.”
Kate spun to face him, the sudden movement startling him. “Still, there have to be consequences to your actions. If you do come while I’m visiting, I will not only stop our session, I’ll make you scrub the floor with a toothbrush. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes.”
Kate continued her orbit around the boardroom. “If I agree to this contract, we will meet once a week for a two-hour session. You have the right to cancel at any time after the first month or first two appointments, cut our time together or request another Domme.”
He smirked.
As if.
She glared at him, and he dropped the grin.
“I will not take this as a personal affront. You are the client, and we are here to serve your needs. If I’m not doing my job, you need to tell me, and I’ll adjust.” She stopped in front of him again. “You understand the terms, safe, sane and consensual.”
He nodded.
She kept circling the table, vanishing behind him. “I won’t attempt anything you didn’t agree to. Again, if you want to try something different or new, please send a message to the office, and they’ll let me know, let us both prepare for it. If you feel uncomfortable at any time during my presence, speak up, and we’ll stop and talk about it, no matter what point we’re at in the visit. That’s what your safe-word is for. Which is—”
“Kill switch.”
“Good. Don’t forget it. I won’t.” She snapped her fingers. “Now listen carefully. I won’t stop if you cry, whine or whimper. I won’t stop if you moan, groan or swear up a storm, although I will punish you for speaking out of turn if I haven’t given permission for you to do so. Only your safe-word will stop me.”
He winced inwardly, thinking of every pimple, every ingrown hair and skin blemish he now had on display.
“I will tend to you at the end of every session, help you recover. This is part of my job, so don’t be surprised. Stock up on energy bars and drinks. You’ll need them.” Her eyes narrowed. “Payment is made to me at the end of the session. No cash trades hands, electronic only. If you wish to tip me, you can do so at the time or call Hooded Pleasures afterwards. It will not affect my performance in any way if you do or don’t tip me.” She stopped in front of him. “Do you have any sex toys?”
He hesitated, mind suddenly blank.
She arched an eyebrow. “I asked you a question.”
The words dug into his skin as if she’d pinched him.
“I’ve bought a few things.” Suddenly he felt shy; a child called in front of the teacher to be reprimanded.
“I see. We’ll deal with that later.” She flicked her finger. “Get dressed.”
It was an effort to pull up his underwear and pants, his hands trembling with a mixture of fear and desire. He grunted as he tucked himself in, fighting the urge to stroke himself and finish the job.
She watched him with the eyes of a predator, a slight smile on her lips.
“You’ll do.” Kate took a pen out of her jacket and scribbled something in the file folder. “Someone will call to make the first appointment. Make sure you leave plenty of time before and after—I don’t like being rushed or left waiting.”
I bet you don’t.
He pulled the shirt on over his head, grateful he’d been putting in extra time in his basement at his makeshift gym. Working at a desk all day almost demanded some sort of physical countermeasure to avoid the tiny roll of fat around his waist expanding to a dangerous size.
“What are you thinking?” Suddenly she was nose to nose with him, her perfume washing over him like a cool lake breeze.
“I’m glad I work out. Don’t want to disappoint you.” He responded without thinking.
Kate smiled. “We’ll see. What would you say if I told you not to jerk off until my first visit?”
He shuddered, thinking of not touching himself for another week.
Impossible. As soon as I get to some place private—
He swallowed hard. “If that’s what you want—”
She laughed and headed for the door, file folder in hand. “I’m not a nasty person, Alex. But don’t wear yourself out before my first visit.” Kate turned toward him and pouted, blasting his self-control into shreds. “It’d be such a waste if you had nothing left for me.”
And she was gone.
Alex sat in the chair. He clasped his hands together, aware he was sweaty and shaking. His shirt was haphazardly hanging off his shoulders, his suit jacket crushed under his ass with the damned visitor’s pass jabbing him something awful, and he couldn’t move for fear of going off in his briefs like a horny teenager finding his cock for the first time.
What the hell just happened?
Kate strode into the break room a few doors down from where she’d left Alex, clutching the file folder. There was fresh coffee, and she helped herself to a cup. Despite all the water she’d drunk during the interview, her throat was dry, and she needed the caffeine.
Her hand trembled as she dumped in sugar and creamer. She gritted her teeth and sat at a nearby table.
Interesting man.
Computer geek. Gamer.
She didn’t bother worrying if she’d come across him in one of her many online game personas. The odds were against it, and she’d be a fool to reveal herself to him in an alternate world.
She’d also pushed his limits far beyond the norm.
Nudity wasn’t part of the interviewing process. It wasn’t banned, but it was highly discouraged. It was a shock to the system, bashing down the emotional walls between
a sub and Domme. Depending on the man, it could break him, send him screaming from the room.
But not Alex.
He’d complied quickly and perfectly as if he was born to it.
An automatic sub.
She sipped the lukewarm coffee.
She’d called him out, and Alex had responded as if he’d been hers for years.
Hers.
Kate drank more coffee, the sickly sweet drink soothing her nerves.
She’d screwed up. She’d let her emotions take control of her, allowed them to push Alex further than she should have for the first time they met.
She’d lost control, and that was unforgivable.
Alex had complied, but if he’d refused, there wasn’t much she could have done. Kate would have stopped the interview once he’d turned her down, the connection broken between them. She would have had to call Wendy and explain she’d pushed him too far, invalidated any chance at becoming his Domme.
At that point, Wendy would assign Alex to another Domme if he agreed to it and likely warned her.
And she didn’t want a warning.
There weren’t too many of those when you worked for Hooded Pleasures. A little indiscretion here and there might be forgiven, but continued complaints would get you fired. They didn’t have room for employees who wouldn’t or couldn’t keep their emotions under control.
And then where do you go, Kate Dubois?
Where do you go?
It wasn’t like she needed the money.
But she needed the companionship. The only club she’d gone to was now a no-go zone. She wasn’t going to go there and risk tripping across Carl and his new woman.
The urge to rip both their throats out was too strong. And it would definitely be crossing the club’s boundaries.
Or sit there alone at the bar listening to the whispers.
There she is.
The Domme who lost her sub.
It’d be the same at any other club, because people talked and loved to gossip. Bad news spread fast, and even though it was almost a year later, her reappearance would start tongues wagging and the curious looking her over, wondering what she was all about.
She didn’t need some man taking pity on her, asking her to play because he felt sorry for her. A pity fuck at the end of the night before he dashed back to his buddies and bragged about giving a sympathy screw to a Domme.
She shook her head as she finished her drink.
Not now. Not ever.
The irony was it’d been at the club she’d crossed paths with Wendy while drowning her sorrows the very night she’d seen Carl and Lily together. A short conversation had led to a longer interview at the office and a job offer not soon after.
It was a relationship that suited her at the moment.
Hooded Pleasures offered her the best of both worlds.
All she had to do was stay on this side of the line.
And give Alex what he wanted. What he needed.
What she needed.
She washed out the mug and headed for the front desk.
Candy smiled as Kate handed her the folder. “A good one?”
“Definitely.” Kate tried not to sound too pleased with herself. “Handsome too.”
Candy opened the folder and looked at the color photo clipped to the top. “Aww, such a sweetie. Just makes me want to pinch those cheeks.” She gave her a wink. “All of them.”
Kate smiled. “Please pass it back to Tracy for her appointment book. Usual rules, usual sessions. Nothing special about this one. Sundays work well for me if she can slot him in.”
Candy eyed her for a second. “You taking this one?”
“That’s what Wendy wants.” Suddenly Kate felt self-conscious. “Have you heard anything different?”
“Nope. I heard you gave up Dan, so there’s a space in your schedule. You needed a change anyway, right?”
Kate gave a halfhearted shrug. “Wendy thinks it’s a good idea. I like the young ones anyway. Fun breaking them in.”
She mentally flashed back to the naked Alex standing there, shivering as she strolled around him.
This one is going to be interesting.
Chapter Four
The next few days passed in a blur as Alex fumbled through coding assignments, his attention elsewhere. One or two of his online friends noticed his distracted state, but he shrugged them off with vague excuses, claiming he was working on other games and the multitasking made it hard for him to concentrate.
Hard being the operative word.
He’d sat there for ten minutes in the boardroom after Kate’s departure, trying to get control over himself.
It’d taken another five for him to straighten his shirt and not look like a drunken bum staggering home after a night out.
Candy had smiled and informed him that there was a taxi waiting for him downstairs to take him wherever he liked. The smirk on her face told him he wasn’t the first to stumble out of an interview at HP, hard and aching for release.
He’d made it all the way home without touching himself, intently concentrating on the cabbie babbling about the local sports teams.
Unlocking his front door was followed by a mad dash to the guest bathroom on the bottom floor.
He wouldn’t have made it upstairs.
As it was, he almost came as he yanked his jeans down again, cursing as he pulled at his underwear to free himself.
One, two strokes with his hand, and he’d emptied himself into the toilet, propping himself up with his left hand flush against the wall to keep from falling. He shuddered again from the memory of her inspecting him, studying him from top to bottom.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
What the hell are you getting yourself into?
Alex grinned at the reflection, a sudden euphoria racing through his veins.
Exactly what I want.
The phone call came a few hours later with a polite female voice asking when the best time to schedule would be. She made the appointment with as much emotion as if Alex were going to the doctor, her cheerful tone reminding him again to leave some extra time before and after the appointment.
The following Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
It wasn’t until Saturday night that he wondered what he was going to wear for their first time together.
If anything.
What did someone wear for their first BDSM session?
The books were no help, either the fiction or nonfiction. The majority of them were set in a club with leather thongs and naked oiled bodies; the few that dealt with a home environment were couples expanding their horizons, so to speak, and lingerie mixed with leather in a comfortable setting.
He had no idea what he was getting—hopefully something between the two.
All he got out of his reading research was even more excited, his arousal tempting him to take things in hand. Literally.
He’d lain awake more than a few nights, his fingers itching to slide down his torso and stroke himself, the image of Kate fresh in his mind.
It’d taken a concentrated effort, but Alex denied himself the simple pleasure. It wasn’t that he worried about performance issues, if he couldn’t or wouldn’t get hard when she visited—that was a given. Even thinking about her had his cock twitching for attention.
But he had control.
And he would wait. The real thing wasn’t going to compare with the written word, and he wasn’t going to spoil himself with imaginary scenarios when the legit event was so close to happening.
He did pick up a spare toothbrush to stash in the bathroom, just in case.
A few hours before the appointment, Alex surveyed his wardrobe, trying to decide what to wear.
Suit? Shorts? Socks?
He settled on a simple dress shirt and jeans.
/> Minus the shoes and socks.
He didn’t want to spend time pulling at anything that wasn’t important.
Alex sat in his living room with the television set on and stared at the clock, willing the hour hand to move faster.
1:30 p.m.
1:31 p.m.
1:32 p.m.
1:53 p.m.
“Oh frak.” Kate thumped the car’s dashboard. “You have got to be kidding me.”
The traffic jam enveloped her in a steel cocoon, giving her no way out. The radio babbled something about an overturned tractor-trailer, and the nearest exit was at least three miles away.
This was not how she expected to be spending her Sunday afternoon.
She extracted her cell phone and typed in Alex’s number.
“Hello?”
“Alex. It’s Kate.” She flipped the bird at a motorcyclist who whizzed by her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I’m caught in a traffic jam. I might be a bit late.”
“It’s all over the news. A big one. No injuries, but they’re having trouble getting the trailer upright and off the road. Not to mention the spilled syrup,” he said. “You could be there for hours.”
“Syrup?”
“Yeah.” She imagined him smiling as he spoke. “All we need now is a truck filled with pancakes or waffles to tip over nearby, and we’ll be all set.”
“Don’t curse me.” She paused. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t start on time.”
He chuckled. “Do you have an ejector seat in your car? Otherwise—”
“Alex.” Kate lowered her voice to a heated whisper. “Are you listening to me?”
He swallowed loudly. “Yes, Mistress.”
He’s a quick one.
Good to know.
“Where are you?”
“In my living room.”
“Good. I assume you have a couch, a coffee table in your living room.”
“Yes, Mistress.” The confusion in his voice warmed her heart.
Don’t guess at what I’m going to ask you to do, Alex.
Just do it.
“What are you wearing?”
“Jeans. Shirt. Briefs.”
Strictly Business: Hooded Pleasures, Book 1 Page 5